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

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Sony Glass Sound Speaker 

Sony Glass Sound Speaker aims to blend sound and light in a harmonious way and it does so by using state of the art tech on both features. Featuring Bluetooth technology that allows you to stream the music of your choice from any device, the glass offers the reverberating chamber that evenly distributes high quality sound evenly in its surroundings, using high end tech such as ClearAudio+, LDAC or the S-Master, it also gives a pleasant LED warm light that you can manage providing the intensity you need via an app. The battery will play music for up to four hours. Enrich your home or office environment with this beautiful and elegant piece that will entertain and enrich your ambience.    

 

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Yes, This Amazing Star Trek Delta Coin Is Real Currency in Canada

On paper the Canadian dollar is struggling to keep up with US currency and doesn’t seem like a wise investment. But when you discover that the Canadian Mint now makes an entire line of Star Trek-themed collectible currency, including this delta-shaped gold coin, how could you possibly resist buying them all up?

Made from 99.99 percent pure gold, this coin, shaped like the Starfleet insignia worn by everyone serving about the USS Enterprise, has a face value of $200, but it will actually cost you $1,300—in Canadian funds. It’s legal tender, though, which means you can spend it anywhere (in Canada) you like, but only as $200 in currency.

But if a $1,300 gold coin isn’t quite in your budget, the Canadian Mint actually has an entire line of Star Trek coinage for you to collect, starting at $20 for a $20 silver coin featuring the USS Enterprise firing its phasers. In recent years the Mint has also developed a way to print full-color imagery on its coins—including ones used in circulation—so if you’d rather have Spock or Uhura rattling around in your pocket, there are a couple of cheaper coin options featuring them as well.

 

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The Original Star Trek Is Getting an Incredible Blu-Ray Set for the 50th Anniversary

Star Trek’s 50th birthday is this year, and the celebration has begun—there’s the new TV show on the way, cool merchandise, and a new movie. But this downright gorgeous collection might be the greatest thing about the year so far.

Announced today for a release on September 6th, just two days ahead of the actual 50th anniversary of the show’s airing in 1966, the Star Trek 50th Anniversary TV and Movie Collection spreads all three seasons of the original series, the entirety of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and the first six Star Trek films featuring the original cast across 30 Blu-ray discs. Sandwiched between those is over 20 hours of behind-the-scenes content, including a new documentary specifically shot for the anniversary. To boot, you also get six mini-posters based on the movies, and a neat little Starfleet insignia badge. Here’s a full breakdown of the contents:

• Star Trek: The Original Series Blu-ray
• Star Trek: The Animated Series Blu-ray
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture Blu-ray
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Director’s Cut Blu-ray
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Blu-ray
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Blu-ray
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Blu-ray
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Blu-ray
• Star Trek: The Journey to the Silver Screen—New 50th Anniversary Multi-Part Documentary
• Collectible 50th Anniversary Starfleet Insignia Pin
• Collectible Mini-Posters for Movies 1-6
• Over 20 hours of bonus content

 

Paramount have yet to reveal a price for the bundle—but don’t expect this to come cheap. 

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Netflix Series Stranger Things Looks Like It Owes A Major Debt To Spielberg's 1980s Thrillers

 

Kids on BMX bikes cruising misty suburban streets at night, Hazmat suit-clad figures with flashlights, a pigtailed blonde moppet, a wide-eyed boy, a desperate mother… all that appears to be missing from Netflix’s new series Stranger Things is a loveable, candy-obsessed alien, otherwise it’d be E.T.

OK, there are a few distinctions. Winona Ryder plays the frantic-yet-taking-no-bullshit-from-the-cops mother, and there’s clearly going to be some kind of nefarious organisation that’s using children for some mysterious, possibly supernatural purpose. That character with the shaved head and the spooky tattoo that you see in the trailer below is a little girl with what seems to be some big secrets.

Here’s what Netflix says about the show:

Set in Hawkins Indiana in the 1980’s, Stranger Things chronicles the search for a young boy who vanishes into thin air under highly suspicious circumstances. His mother (Winona Ryder) opens an investigation into the boy’s disappearance with local authorities that unravels a series of mysteries involving top-secret government experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one very strange little girl. A love letter to the ubiquitous cult classics of the 80’s, Stranger Things is also a coming of age story for the boy’s three closest friends that draws them into a world where mysteries lurk beneath the surface.

We’ll be able to discern July 15 — when Stranger Things begins its eight-episode run — whether or not it has its own merits beyond worshipping at the altar of 1980s Steven Spielberg (and, looks like, 1980s Stephen King, too). As for relevant bona fides, creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer previously worked on episodes of Wayward Pines, while executive producer Shawn Levy (Reel Steel, Night at the Museum) is planning a remake of John Carpenter’s Starman.

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A Band Of Thieves Dressed Like Apple Workers Keeps Stealing iPhones From NYC Stores

Earlier this year, three individuals stole a total of 67 iPhones from an Upper West Side Apple store. Last week, 19 more iPhones were snatched from a SoHo store. How could these criminals possibly infiltrate the impenetrable security of a retail store run by certifiable geniuses? By dressing like Apple store employees, of course.

It’s clear that these thieves know their way around an Apple store. In all the robberies, the suspects “dressed similarly” to Apple employees, walking directly to the drawers where brand-new, unlocked iPhones were stored. And the Upper West Side location is a particularly smart target since it’s used to train employees — an unfamiliar face wearing the uniform wouldn’t stick out. In fact, that location was hit twice, according to the New York Post.

A new uniform concept for Apple employees introduced by Apple’s senior VP of retail might be to blame for the robberies. In 2015, Angela Ahrendts announced her vision for uniforms called “Back to Blue… But All New” which introduced several different styles of shirts for employees to wear.

Apple uniforms used to change seasonally, with all employees wearing the same t-shirts for weeks or months at a time, pegged to the next holiday or product launch. As 9 to 5 Mac reported, the switch to “permanent” uniforms is meant to make Apple stores feel more high-end, like the luxury outposts they are meant to be. But not only does the wide variety of shirts that are now allowed make it more difficult to quickly recognise who does and does not work for the store — pro tip: Don’t go to Target wearing red unless you want to be asked where the deodorant is — this also makes it much easier to get your hands on a regulation blue shirt since they’re not retired like the old t-shirts.

Police have only connected the two UWS robberies as related and it’s not clear from the reports if these thieves were wearing the official shirts or close approximations. But either way, Apple might want to revisit that strategy. It’s not the first time someone’s successfully posed as an Apple employee. It doesn’t look that hard, see below

 

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Vodafone Is Helping To Make Exoskeltons

Meet the world’s first and only exoskeleton approved for use with both stroke patients and spinal cord injuries — the Ekso GT from Ekso Bionics. Strapped over your clothing, the exoskeleton enables you to achieve mobility, strength, or endurance not otherwise possible.

Vodafone’s network and global Internet of Things (IoT) SIM will be responsible for communicating diagnostics and improved access to patient data in the ready to wear, battery-powered robots.

The Ekso GT is currently offered in more than 150 rehabilitation institutions around the world and has helped enable people to take more than 50 million steps. The suit can provide adaptive amounts of power to either side of your body, and allows physical therapists to mobilise patients earlier, more frequently and with a greater number of high intensity steps — all which will aid recovery.

“The Internet of Things is enabling all types of medical devices to be connected anywhere in the world,” said Vodafone Group’s Head of IoT for the Americas, Andrew Morawski. “The focus that Ekso Bionics has on helping stroke and spinal cord injury patients to increase mobility is making a significant impact on the quality of life for its users.”

Ekso Bionics has been able to simplify its manufacturing process by using the same Vodafone SIM for all of its suits, currently available in the United States, Mexico, Canada, South Africa, and in most European countries.

“With Vodafone IoT technology, we can monitor how our exoskeletons are performing in real time, providing therapists with data on how the patients’ rehabilitation is progressing.” said Thomas Looby, Ekso Bionics’ chief executive officer.

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VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS OF SLUM LIFE IN 19TH CENTURY NEW YORK CITY

When you think of New York or The Big Apple, you might envisage neons signs, crowded streets, celebrities fluttering around and yellow taxi's whizzing past you endlessly.

That's true these days, but 19th century New York City was a very very different place. Back then, it was only just beginning to define itself, although even in those formative years the disparity between rich and poor was as evident as it is today.

One thing that has stood the test of time is that New York City, is a place built on dreams, aspirations and genuine hard graft. Certain individuals crawl on the backs of others to get ahead, whilst some break their backs to help others - the rest of us are just innocent bystanders.

Journey with us as we take a trip down memory lane to see how the boroughs and bright lights of The Big Apple evolved from their humble beginnings.

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Hong Kong’s Last Neon Lights Still Look Totally Blade Runner

NEON IS TO Hong Kong as red phone booths are to London and fog is to San Francisco. When night falls, reds and blues and other hues cast a hazy glow over a city illuminated by tens of thousands of neon signs. But many of them are going dark, replaced by more practical, but less romantic, LEDs.

Changing building codes, evolving tastes, and the high cost of maintaining those wonderful old signs have businesses embracing LEDs. They’re cheaper, but still carry great cost. “To me, neon represents a sense of nostalgia, and my goal was to capture the atmosphere, the feeling of it,” says photographer Sharon Blance, whose series Hong Kong Neon celebrates the city’s iconic signage. “Looking at the signs now I get a feeling of reverence, tinged with sadness.”

Building a neon sign is an art, one practiced by craftsmen trained through apprenticeships to mold glass tubes into ornate shapes and letters. They fill these tubes with noble gasses that glow when electrified. Neon makes orange, helium yellow, mercury blue. It takes many hours to craft a single sign.

After its invention in 1910 by French chemist and engineer Georges Claude, neon advertising spread to the US and then to Asia, where a domestic neon industry flourished when Claude’s patent lapsed. Neon signs fell out of vogue in the US and elsewhere after World War II, and in time was associated with lurid places like casinos, liquor stores and strip clubs. Yet it thrived in Hong Kong. No one knows for sure just how many neon signs filled the city, but most figures suggest 100,000 or more. That started to change about a decade ago as city building inspectors cracked down on unauthorized signs—shutting down nearly 3,000 annually, by some estimates—and business owners swiched to LEDs.

Blance spent a week in Hong Kong in March and discovered Mobile M+:Neon Signs HK, a website celebrating the city’s signs. It features an interactive map and a wealth of information she found intriguing. Blance photographed more than 60 signs; 22 of them appear in the series. “I just went to some of the known neon-rich areas and wandered around at night, and reacted to it in the moment,” she says. “It’s kind of an intuitive reaction to the environment.”

Her spare, evocative photos capture the signs illuminating lonely streets—an approach that makes it easy to admire their colors and craftsmanship. “I love the handcrafted, old-fashioned quality of neon. It’s so beautiful,” says Blance. The signs do nothing more than identify a restaurant, theater, or other business, but do so in the most striking way possible. “You’re firing electricity through a weird gas to make it glow,” she says. “There’s an alchemy to it, a kind of magic.” A magic that LEDs can never match.

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VESSI BEER FERMENTER

Brewing beer is a craft that’s about as old as man himself. In fact, evidence suggests ancient civilizations began fermenting their own alcoholic spirits as far back as the Mesopotamian Era. And though we have experienced eons of technological advancement since those days, the personal brewing system seemed to have hit a ceiling within the past two decades. The Vessi Beer Fermenter, however, hopes to change all that.

With its pressurized fermenting system, home brewers can go from pitching the yeast to pouring their own beer in 7 days. And as any homebrewer knows, it’s the series of stages after the initial brew that are most cumbersome and risky for cross-contamination: the siphoning, transferring, sanitizing, bottling. Each stage presents a new opportunity for bacteria to infect your beer with off flavors. However with the Vessi, up to 6 gallons of home-brew is safe from the elements.

To use the system simply follow the normal brewing instructions that yield your wort. Then transfer the wort into the Vessi, then pitch the yeast and sit back while its pressured system ferments the beer. If it requires secondary fermentation, you can clear the sediment using their Sediment Clearing System and continue fermenting while adding any additions to the tank as needed. And once the beer is ready, it pours straight from the tap. Voila! Reservations for the Vessi start at $1,400 on Indiegogo. [Purchase]

 

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SUUNTO SPARTAN ULTRA GPS SPORTS WATCH

Breathe a sigh of relief. The newest edition of the Suunto multipart watches is here. Introducing the Suunto Spartan Collection, the premium multi-sport GPS watch for adventurers and athletes. Each watch is handmade in Finland and engineered to survive in any and all weather conditions, built tough for the rugged outdoorsman.

The Spartan is water resistant up to 100 meters, rocks a durable color touch screen with a wide viewing angle, and offers excellent visibility because of course you’ll be outside. Durable in nature, each watch is built from a glass fiber reinforced polyamide casing, sapphire crystal glass, and either a grade5 titanium or stainless steel bezel. In addition, the Spartan features route navigation, barometric altitude measurement, a digital compass, and lengthy battery life. Buyers also have four models to choose from: All Black Titanium, Stealth, Ultra White, and Ultra Black. The official release is set for July of 2016, later becoming available for purchase in August. Prices start around $740. [Purchase]

 

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ECCE OPUS BIKES

In partnership with Ripley Bikes, Belgian architect Pierre Lallemand is using his design talents to cross over into new territory with a line of bicycles. Ecce Opus Bikes are breaking the mold of traditional angular frames with a more sculpted form. The Cruise model pairs its futuristic frame with brown leather and chrome details to add a vintage aesthetic, while the Sport embraces its modern design with matte accessories. Both come in carbon fiber with a glossy black finish, Brooks saddle and grips, and 11-speed Shimano Alfine shifter. If a warmer palette of walnut, maple and pine sounds more up your alley, a hand-made wooden version is also in the works.

  

  

  

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The Battlestar Galactica Movie Just Took A Major Step Forward

Most of us know Battlestar Galactica as a TV show, whether that be from the 1970s or the 2000s. But Hollywood has continually tried to take the well-known franchise for themselves and now, the latest potential movie adaptation just got a screenwriter and maybe even a director.

Deadline reports the latest Battlestar Galactica movie, which was first announced in February, will be written by Lisa Joy, who is currently working on HBO’s Westworld. In addition, Francis Lawrence, the director of I Am Legend and the final final three Hunger Games movies, is potentially circling the project to direct.

To put this into context, it suggests producers have been taking pitches on the property from writers and finally heard one that not only do they want to see made into a screenplay, but that a director is interested in too.

When, or if that’ll happen, is another story. Francis Lawrence is currently prepping a movie with Jennifer Lawrence called Red Sparrow, so even if Joy’s script is approved, this wouldn’t come until after that. Even so, the worst case scenario is that someone out there is really trying to take the story of Battlestar Galactica and bring it to life once again.

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Britain's Royal Navy warships are breaking down because sea is too hot

Six British warships stationed in the Persian Gulf are breaking down because the water is too hot. This week, members of the British Navy testified to the UK’s Defence Committee that their Type 45 destroyers keep losing power because of high ocean temperatures. When the ships’ turbines get overheated, they can’t generate as much energy, resulting in electrical failures.

The makers of the billion-dollar warships, including Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems Maritime, claim that the ships were not designed to be used in that kind of environment for an extended amount of time, although they are supposedly engineered for a wide range of temperatures from sub-Arctic to tropic. The Persian Gulf is a very shallow body of water that absorbs more heat than the open ocean, and it’s situated in one of the hottest places on Earth. Water temperatures regularly range from 23C to 32C.

The British MoD says Type 45 destroyers are the most advanced warships ever built by Britain and are the backbone of the Royal Navy's air defense capability. They first went into service in 2006, and are due to last 30 years.

The committee also raised fears about the cost of repairing the ships and whether it would delay the release of Type 26 frigates which are to replace older vessels.
"If this were a major war, our 19 destroyers and frigates are effectively 13," Former First Sea Lord Alan West explained in the meeting.

"I think that our nation is making a terrible error in allowing this to happen ... I understand they have a program for resolving it, but it should be being done much more quickly."

West warned further delays would leave the UK "grossly inadequate" for required tasks.

"There is almost no extra money available this year, and we are really strapped next year. The Government aren't coming clean about that," West said.

"We have run out of money, effectively. Therefore, they [MoD] have pushed this program to the right and that is bloody dangerous."

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Sony's PlayStation VR Now Has A Release Date

At Sony’s E3 2016 press conference, the PS4-maker spilled the beans on when the PlayStation VR virtual reality headset will be out in retail stores for you to buy. We already knew it’d be October this year, but now we know which day.

On October 13th, Playstation VR will launch in the United States for $US399. We already know the Australian price — $549. Fingers crossed that we’ll get it on the same day or soon after in Australia, but we’re waiting for confirmation from Sony’s Australian Playstation arm on that one.

“Because Playstation 4 is a fixed platform”, Sony says, developers are able to optimise games for the same experience on every PS VR headset. More than 50 games will be available before the end of the year, from both big names and indie devs.

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The Slimmer, Cheaper Xbox One S Comes Out In August [Updated]

 

As had been heavily rumoured and then leaked yesterday, Microsoft confirmed that it will be releasing a hardware revision for the Xbox One.

Officially announced today at Microsoft’s E3 2016 press conference, the Xbox One S will cost $US300 ($407) and hits stores this August. The new model will be 40 percent smaller than the current Xbox One, support 4K video as well as HDR output and have a 2TB hard drive. It also features an integrated power supply.

If you were waiting to get an Microsoft gaming console, this revision — along with the company’s new Play Anywhere initiative which will let user buy Xbox games and play them on Windows 10 machines — might be what gets you to open your wallet.

Update: The official listing has pegged Australian pricing at $549.

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Explore The Paranormal History Of Ghostbusters' In This Gorgeous New Book

Ghostbusters’ gallery of ghouls has quite the history behind it, even if the films never really delved that deep into the origins of its most famous spooks and demons. A new book plans to do just that, and we’ve got a first look at some of the details held within.

Tobin’s Spirit Guide: Official Ghostbusters Edition, updated by Doctors Ray Stanz and Egon Spengler (not really), written by Erik Burnham and with art by Kyle Hotz (yes really), styles itself as the research book briefly mentioned in the original movie chronicling New York’s ghostly history. Covering ghosts featured in the films, comics, games and even the animated show, Tobin’s Spirit Guide gives you the lowdown on anything that may or may not be strange in your neighbourhood — although if you do happen upon something that looks like that in real life, it’s probably best to call someone about it.

Before I make any more terrible jokes, here’s a few pages from the book, making their debut here. Don’t forget to click to enlarge!

 

Tobin’s Spirit Guide: Official Ghostbusters Edition will hit stores on June 14.

 

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Explore The Paranormal History Of Ghostbusters' In This Gorgeous New Book

Ghostbusters’ gallery of ghouls has quite the history behind it, even if the films never really delved that deep into the origins of its most famous spooks and demons. A new book plans to do just that, and we’ve got a first look at some of the details held within.

Tobin’s Spirit Guide: Official Ghostbusters Edition, updated by Doctors Ray Stanz and Egon Spengler (not really), written by Erik Burnham and with art by Kyle Hotz (yes really), styles itself as the research book briefly mentioned in the original movie chronicling New York’s ghostly history. Covering ghosts featured in the films, comics, games and even the animated show, Tobin’s Spirit Guide gives you the lowdown on anything that may or may not be strange in your neighbourhood — although if you do happen upon something that looks like that in real life, it’s probably best to call someone about it.

Before I make any more terrible jokes, here’s a few pages from the book, making their debut here. Don’t forget to click to enlarge!

Tobin’s Spirit Guide: Official Ghostbusters Edition will hit stores on June 14.

 

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The Majority Of Americans Can't See The Milky Way Anymore, But Australians Can See It Fine

Our world is getting brighter, as we turn more and more lights on across the planet. But all that light shining from the ground makes it harder to see the lights shining from the sky. It’s now gotten so bad that the Milky Way is almost impossible to see in most of the United States – but Australia’s view remains pretty good.

A team of international researchers has created the most complete global atlas of light pollution ever created to show just what you can — and, increasingly, can’t — see in your own patch of night sky. They detailed their results yesterday in a paper in Science Advances. In addition to tracking global light pollution, their new atlas also focuses on the slow global fade of the world’s most iconic dark sky object: The Milky Way.

In the US, 80 per cent of people on the ground cannot see the Milky Way anymore because of light pollution. Worldwide, the number is less extreme, with 30 per cent of the population unable to see the Milky Way, but the percentages veer wildly up and down when you look at individual countries, with some having almost no night sky visibility. Australia is the least polluted amongst the G20 countries, though by no means the least polluted worldwide.

Global map of light pollution

Singapore was found to be the most light-polluted of all countries, with skies so bright over the whole country that no spot of the country was dark enough at night for human eyes to adapt to night vision. Though the atlas shows how bad the problem has gotten today, it’s actually been a long time coming.

“My sense is the the growth in artificial sky brightness began to accelerate after WWII, tracking fossil fuel consumption,” co-author of the study Chris Elvidge of NOAA told Gizmodo. “Fossil fuels provide the electricity for the lights and the mobility to facilitate urban sprawl.”

Elvidge recommended a number of counter measures to counteract the problem. Those included switching to motion-detector lights at night, turning off lighted-signs at night and replacing street lamp fixtures with lights that shine only down, not up. Especially important, however, could be changing from traditional lightbulbs to amber-coloured bulbs.

“The colour which is most highly scattered is blue. This is the blue sky effect you see during the day,” Elvidge explained. “By cutting down on emissions in the blue, light pollution can be reduced. There is already a large stock of amber lights installed worldwide — high pressure sodium lamps.”

Another possibility for people in light-polluted areas who are still hoping to catch a glimpse of the Milky Way is to use this interactive map that the researchers have released to find the remaining dark sky patches closest to them.

Interactive night sky atlas over America

Be forewarned, though: Those dark patches are not likely to be above you. Particularly in the US, dark skies can increasingly be found only on public lands or exceptionally remote areas. “Some of our national parks are just about the last refuge of darkness — places like Yellowstone and the desert southwest,” co-author of the paper Dan Duriscoe of the National Park Service service noted in a statement.

Still, don’t feel too bad for America. When you look at their skies in contrast with some of the areas even more hard hit by light pollution — like Berlin, which you can see inside of a “light dome” in this night photo of the city below — these islands of remaining darkness amidst the swelling light almost seem lucky. For now at least, some Americans can still see the Milky Way. It’s just a bit of a trek to get there first.

Berlin’s “light dome” 

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Los Angeles Has A Plan To Stop Importing Its Water

For over a century, Los Angeles has famously siphoned its water from mountain streams hundreds of kilometres away. Now LA believes that it can wean itself off its many aqueducts, and has approved a 25-year plan to do exactly that.

A new strategic plan from LA’s Department of Water and Power claims that by 2040 the city will get more than half of its water from local sources. That goal seems outrageous when you consider that in the early 1900s the relatively tiny city of LA decided the only way to solve its water problems was to ship it from 500km away. But with a looming drought, that melting snowpack is no longer reliable — it’s currently less than 10 per cent of normal for this time of year. It’s time to think local and long-term.

In fact, Southern California gets quite a bit of rain, even though it usually all falls around the same time of year. And the region also has plenty of natural aquifers that hold water underground. So the key is to capture and store rainwater, instead of letting it escape out into the ocean, something that recent infrastructure projects have been trying to fix. There’s a saying that rain falling in LA’s mountains will reach the ocean faster than a car can drive the same distance. The entire city is engineered to flood and flush, when it can be easily redesigned to filter and absorb.

A “green street” in LA with permeable footpath materials, rain gardens, and special gutters that keep water local

This doesn’t just mean capturing rainwater from rooftops to store in cisterns, but also changing LA’s surfaces so rainfall is able to recharge all its groundwater basins. In addition to more permeable streets and parking lots, the city will also add “spreading grounds”, basically giant fields of vegetation which act like giant sponges to trap and naturally clean runoff. The city also installed a large treatment plant at the mouth of the Los Angeles River to capture and clean water before it’s lost to the Pacific Ocean.

It sounds great in theory, but won’t LA grow over the next 40 years, making this plan impossible because the city will need much more water than it does today? The way LA’s relationship with water has already changed might surprise you.

LADWP’s chart only goes to 2010 but the city uses even less now

Actually, LA uses less water now than it has in almost any time in the last 40 years even though the city’s population has swelled. And with the right conservation measures in place, plus incentives for drought-tolerant landscaping and rain barrel installation, LA could probably be saving even more water.

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Go Cubes Chewable Coffee

If you’re completely non-functional without your morning coffee and need a couple cups of joe before youre really ready to face the day and get to work, you might like to hear about Go Cubes, a new chewable coffee in the form of mocha-colored gummies. Go Cubes are designed to deliver the desired caffeine kick, while reducing the jitters the drink can cause, for a well-rounded, focused feel. Each gummy equals half a cup of coffee, and each pack comes with an assortment of our three classic flavors.

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SWIFT & SONS

Chicago has some legendary steakhouses, Morton's and Gibsons chief among them. Swift & Sons makes a strong argument for inclusion on the list. Designed by AvroKO, who used the 10,000 square foot space's past as a cold storage locker in the old meatpacking district as inspiration, it has a past-meets-future, Tomorrowland-like aesthetic that's nearly as notable as the food. Speaking of which, the steaks are all sourced from small, bovine-friendly farms, while the sides are reinterpreted takes on the classics, and the desserts — should you have room — are decidedly modernist. There are also multiple bar areas, serving up an impressive cocktail menu and the requisite massive wine list boasting over 600 bottles and 30 wines by the glass. Become a regular, and you'll get to enjoy one more detail: a brass nameplate set at your table, just to make your meals that much more memorable.

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FOUR ROSES ELLIOTT'S SELECT BOURBON

It's never easy to take over for a bourbon legend. But when Jim Rutledge stepped down after 49 years at the helm as master distiller at Four Roses last year, someone had to step in and fill those big shoes. Four Roses Elliott's Select Bourbon is the first limited release from new master distiller Brent Elliott, and while it won't make Rutledge fans forget his legacy, it's a great start for Elliott. Bottled at barrel strength after aging for 14 years, Elliott's Select uses the OESK recipe — one of ten that Four Roses produces. A delicious progression for Four Roses, only 10,000 hand numbered bottles will be available.

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Xbox Live's New Cortana-Powered Clubs And Group Modes Explained

Microsoft’s latest overhaul of Xbox Live will give gamers more control over who they play with — as well as who they don’t. The Cortana-powered Find A Group and Club modes will make it easier to find people who are a good “cultural” match. Whether you hate homophobic and racist trash talk or would prefer to only play with your gender, Xbox Live has you covered. In short, you’ll soon be able to erase the gamers you don’t want to interact with forever.

In all the hoopla surrounding Xbox One S and Project Scorpio it was easy to overlook the drastic changes coming to Xbox Live. In a few months, three major new features will be incorporated into the existing service: Clubs, Looking for Group and Arena. The latter is an online tournaments platform geared towards competitive gamers but the first two have been designed to bring like-minded gamers together.

Clubs are user-run multiplayer hubs that allow any player to create private communities with people who have similar play styles, personal interests or values. In addition to being a lobby for specific games, each club also have a persistent real-time chat area that can be used with a range of tablets and mobile devices including Android and iOS.

Looking For Group, meanwhile, is the accompanying search tool that let’s you connect with players or “clubs” that meet your specific criteria. This is achieved using a filter system that locates the type of people and clubs you’re looking for via a process of elimination.

During E3, we were given a run-through of how these modes will work by Microsoft’s program manager Jeff Henshaw. All three Xbox Live features can be accessed and navigated through Microsoft’s voice-controlled digital assistant Cortana. Tellingly, you no longer need a Kinect to access voice commands; any good-quality Bluetooth headset will do. Cortana allows the user to speak naturally and will also understand gamer tags and/or names when you’re trying to connect with friends.

In the Looking For Group demonstration, Henshaw went into a game hub dedicated to Ton Clancy’s The Division and gradually whittled down the available online players by applying different filters. These included everything from the game mode you want to play to cultural preferences such as the aforementioned ‘No Trash-Talking’.

“We all know from personal experience that playing multiplayer is more fun when you actually enjoy the people you’re playing with,” Henshaw explained. “One really unique thing we’re doing is letting gamers specify how they want to play. If you’re not up for trash talking right now, you can join a group that’s on the same page as you.”

Once you’ve settled on a group, you simply request to join and the host pulls you straight into the game. In addition to ensuring you’re playing with gamers you gel with, this can also be used for stuff like geographical region. We imagine this could be a very popular way to ensure nobody has an unfair advantage due to server issues. Clubs can be public or private, so it’s easy to avoid requests from randoms if you’d prefer to make it invite only.

Once you’ve found a club you like, you can enable a Play Now feature which basically ensures your games can only be joined by members of your club. This essentially eliminates random match-making and ensures every player has the same interests and beliefs as you or plays the same way as you. It’s no longer down to chance.

One of the clubs we were shown for The Division was simply entitled “Female Only”. According to Henshaw, Clubs with very specific criteria such as this will largely rely on the information in gamer profiles to decide who is eligible. Plus, every club will have an owner or administrator so if an undesirable manages to bluff their way into a club, they can be immediately booted out.

“Ultimately, club membership is completely owner driven in terms of who is able to stay in the club and who’s not. The owners and moderators get to enforce the culture they want to create and that their front door is about them expressing “hey, this is the kind of place this is. You’re welcome to come in if you follow those rules.”

According to the official spiel from Microsoft, these new features are supposed to bring gamers together rather than tear them apart. But we can see it turning into a massive shitstorm if it isn’t executed properly. What happens when someone tries to make a “Gamergate” club or a “Whites Only” club? We asked Henshaw how Microsoft is planning to monitor and police this.

“I’m going to answer this very carefully because it’s important that everyone understand. Our goal is to make Xbox Live a fun, safe, reliable place for everyone to play. The community is going to the the first line of enforcement. But that’s not always enough. We understand and respect that. So when an issue needs to be escalated, Microsoft will continue to deploy Xbox Live’s security and enforcement team when the community can’t resolve something on its own. We have a standard of conduct for Xbox Live already and that standard of conduct will be applied to user-generated content as well. It has to be fun and safe for everyone.”

In other words, Clubs fronted by obvious hate groups will certainly get the ban hammer but stances that are “greyer” might cause some problems. It’s certainly an exciting addition to Xbox Live with loads and loads of potential. Hopefully the gaming community will be mature enough to use it in the way it was intended. 

[MIKA27]

The Conjuring 2's Demonic Nun Is Getting A Spin-Off Movie

The Conjuring was a huge hit, and it spawned spin-off Annabelle, which was also a huge hit. The Conjuring 2 has kept up the box-office streak, so naturally it’s getting a spin-off flick, too. But instead of being about a haunted object that was peripheral to the main plot, it will be about the film’s big antagonist: The Nun.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that the co-writer of Conjuring 2, David Leslie Johnson, has signed on to write the screenplay, with Conjuring series director and producer, James Wan and Peter Safran, serving as producers.

Weirdly, considering how important the wimple-wearing demon ends up being to the finished film, The Conjuring 2 wasn’t even supposed to have an evil nun among its antagonists. Originally, the character was “a demonic figure with horns”, but the nun was swapped in after Wan had “a revelation” and was allowed by the very trusting studio, New Line, to do some last-minute reshoots.

Obviously it paid off, and will probably pay off even more handsomely now that The Nun is underway. What’s more, The Conjuring franchise is poised to print even more money for all involved when the planned Annabelle 2 opens in 2017. And if they want to make yet another spin-off, that “Crooked Man” music box toy that makes so much sinister mischief in Conjuring 2 surely has some life left in it yet.

[MIKA27]

Some Guy Found A Huge Chunk Of 2000-Year-Old Butter In A Bog And It's Still Edible

A 2000-year-old orb of butter weighing 10kg was recently discovered in Co Meath, Ireland. Ancient butter experts believe that it was once offering to the gods. It’s also “theoretically… still edible” according to Andy Halpin, one of the Irish National Museums’ assistant keepers. Not a chance, Andy!

If the age of this dairy meteor or the potential to piss off some vengeful gods weren’t reason enough not to sample the stuff, consider that the butter was discovered at the bottom of a bog caked in some very old dirt. (Earthy! Organic!) Emlagh Bog, where the butter was found, was located at the crossroads of three separate kingdoms back when the butter was apparently buried, and basically no one went there. Halpin described it as an “inaccessible […] a no-man’s-land”. Presumably the butterball was tossed in, intended never to be touched, and that remained true until fools like us decided to dig it up.

Preserving things in bogs was surprisingly common back in those days. Without salt to cure things food would spoil quickly, and the cold, low-oxygen environment of a bog acted as an ersatz refrigerator. Ancient peoples even used bogs to preserve dead bodies.

The very old bog blob apparently still smells like a dairy product — a strong cheese, to be precise — and has a crumbly texture. It might even taste good, too. Celebrated chef Kevin Thornton tasted some 4000-year-old bog butter a couple years ago and then decided to make some aged bog butter of his own. In this case, you shouldn’t expect a taste of this filthy blog. The Emlagh bog butter will live out its days in a refrigerated case in the Cavan County Museum, forever yearning for a travelling toast exhibit.