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

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APOLIS CYPRESS FIG COLOGNE

Created as a way to take the scent of the company's best-selling Cypress Fig candle anywhere you go, Apolis Cypress Fig Cologne is a unique scent suitable for any occasion. Beyond the obvious base of cypress wood and sweet fig, the fragrance also mixes in top notes sourced from around the globe, including Italian bergamot, Moroccan lemon verbena, and 20 other natural ingredients. It arrives in a simple, recyclable 100ml glass bottle with a sprayer hidden under the oversized black cap.

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Record-breaking Maryland fish weighs more than the girl who caught it

 

Never mind that the angler weighed only 65 pounds and was 9 years old. She reeled in a nearly 95-pound cobia fish and set a Maryland record for the largest fish of that type caught in the state.

Emma Zajdel of Ocean City might also have broken a record for young anglers who catch big fish, according to wildlife experts.

The tale of how Emma entered the record books began June 30.

Their boat was approaching Little Gull Shoals, about a mile and a half east of Assateague Island on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, when the two lines trolling in the water went tight. Clarke took the rod off the rail and passed it to Emma.

She placed the rod in her “fighting belt,” a device used for hauling in large fish. As soon as the rod was in place, the fish took off, and she set the hook.

“At first, we thought it was a shark, and the line was going out. I could hear the reel and the drag, and I thought I could go over the side,” she later told officials with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

She struggled with the fish for about 20 minutes as her father kept the boat in gear to keep the line tight. They got the fish into the boat, despite it going “ballistic” when they got it on board, and iced it down in a fish box.

The marina was closed when they got to the dock, so they kept the fish in Ed’s Chevrolet Silverado for the night. Word spread about the catch, and other anglers encouraged them to call state wildlife officials for a certified measurement.

“This is a big one,” said Joe Evans, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service. “They were very experienced and knew what they were doing.”

Emma, who is the youngest of three girls in her family, has been fishing since she was a toddler. Her first fishing rod had Mickey Mouse on it, her dad recalled.

Emma’s dad said he tries to raise his kids to be humble, but this fishing trip was different.

“You don’t want to think years down the road, ‘Gosh we should have weighed it,’ ” he said.

Officials with the state’s wildlife service weighed it the next day at Sunset Marina in Ocean City, and a state biologist inspected the fish, confirming its size.

It measured 66.5 inches and weighed 94.6 pounds. Compare that with Emma, who stands at 52 inches and weighs about 30 pounds less than the fish.

Emma’s reaction, according to Evans: “She was unfazed by the whole thing.”

Emma broke a record set two years ago when a Potomac, Md., man caught a 79-pound cobia in waters near Ocean City. Maryland wildlife officials said Emma also probably set a new bar for the International Game Fish Association’s Small Fry World Record for “a fish caught by an angler under the age of 10.”

The international game fishing group can take up to a year to determine whether a record has been set.

Emma’s dad said she goes fishing weekly. Even when catching more typical smaller fish, “it is the same fun experience,” he said.

Emma’s newfound stardom seemed to sink after state wildlife officials issued a news release Monday announcing her big catch and several media outlets contacted her to seek an interview.

What did she think? “It’s cool,” she said Monday evening from aboard the boat with her dad.

She said she was a “bit nervous, excited and mostly surprised” when she hauled in the big fish.

Wildlife officials in Maryland said there are no restrictions on catching and keeping cobia in the state’s waters. Cobia typically are found along the Atlantic coastline in the summer and average about 23 pounds.

The world record is 135 pounds, caught in 1985 in Australia. And in Virginia, a record cobia caught in 2006 weighed 109 pounds.

Emma kept her fish and ate it. Her dad helped to feed 40 friends and relatives for an annual Fourth of July party.

Emma told wildlife experts, “It tasted very good.”

The Washington Post

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Stephen King's 'IT' Remake: The First Look At Pennywise The Clown

Tim Curry played the iconic clown in the made-for-TV miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s IT, and fans have been curious to see how 25 year old Bill Skarsgård will look as Pennywise in the remake. The wait is now over.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Skarsgård describes Pennywise as an extreme, inhumane character, “beyond even a sociopath, because he’s not even human. He’s not even a clown. I’m playing just one of the beings It creates.”

In regards to the big shoes he has to fill, Skårsgard says “Tim Curry’s performance was truly great, but it’s important for me to do something different because of that. I’ll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry.”

Not only does he look super creepy, Skårsgard appears to have a firm grasp on who the character is (from a book lover’s perspective, at least).

IT, directed by Andrés Muschietti, will be released in the US on 8 September 2017. The first film will tell the story of The Losers Club as kids (set in the 80’s as opposed to the 50’s), with a sequel showing the final battle against the creature as adults.

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This New A Monster Calls Trailer Is Simply Stunning

Whether or not J.A. Bayona’s new film A Monster Calls ends up being any good, we can say one thing for sure: It’s going to be beautiful. And, let’s be honest, if this trailer is any indication, it will probably be exceedingly good, too.

Based on a fantasy novel by Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls is about a boy (Lewis MacDougall) who is not doing well. His mum (Felicity Jones) is incredibly sick, the kids at school are bullying him and his grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) is less than sympathetic. To escape these real world horrors, he invents a fantasy world lead by a monster (Liam Neeson) that helps him cope. The film opens October 21 and here’s the new trailer.

 

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Hyper Little Dog-Bot Might Be The World's First Robot Chihuahua

Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini is the first robo-dog small enough to be your family’s first artificial pet — but it’s still about the size of a German Shepherd. What if you want a robo-dog that’s small enough to carry in a shoulder bag as a yappy fashion accessory? Say hello to PneuHound, which could very well be the world’s first robotic chihuahua.

Instead of using electric motors and servos, PneuHound is powered by pneumatics — air-filled pistons — which is what allows the robot to frantically scamper across the ground like a hyper little dog.

Developed at the Hosoda Laboratory at Osaka University, there is still some work needed to be done when it comes to steering PneuHound, at the moment it just runs into walls and people. But if you recently had to deal with the trauma of saying goodbye to your Sony Aibo robo-dog, there is at least a glimmer of hope that you’ll be able to love again soon.

And Speaking of Robotics - This comes courtesy of OliverDST, Battlebots, if you're into that kind of thing.

Battlebots is very transparently all about watching lovingly-built machines getting smashed to pieces. There’s no X Factor-style character development, no American Ninja Warrior sob stories. It’s two metal robots fighting to death in a cage, and it doesn’t get better than this match between Minotaur and Blacksmith.

The series only recently returned to our screens after a multi-year hiatus, but it’s not been off to a slow start. The TV show is famous for having entries from Mythbusters hosts Adam Savage and Grant Imahara, so it’s no surprise that things get quite messy quite quickly. But I’m still a little surprised that this match ended in flames.

The battle pitches two very different robots against each other. Blacksmith is an all-over armoured bot that tries to push and pin other robots with its plough front, and then smash them into submission with a hammer. Minotaur takes a very different approach, preferring to be squat and low to the ground, and drive underneath opponents and hit them with a spinning drum.

The match starts well for Blacksmith, which pushes its opponent into a bunch of the cage’s obstacles. But it can’t damage Minotaur, and eventually, the spinning drum gets the better of the hammer of doom.

I don’t know why watching someone’s pride and joy bursting into flames is so pleasurable, but for some reason, competitive destruction on this scale makes for seriously good TV. Don’t question it — just sit back, watch the inferno, and enjoy.

 

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Not Even China Could Save The Warcraft Movie

The Warcraft movie may have tanked in the United States, but it did much better in China. Although it never even cracked $US50 million ($65.7 million) in the US, the film’s massive success in China accounted for more than half of Warcraft’s $US430 million ($565 million) total box office — and yet, Warcraft is still poised to lose money.

Even with a Chinese premiere that was the largest foreign debut in that county’s history and $US430 million ($565 million) made, Warcraft is still not going to make a profit. Last month, The Hollywood Reporter estimated that the movie would need $US450 million ($591.3 million) to break even. Its theatrical run has already begun slowing down, leaving it about $US20 million ($26.2 million) short or breaking even right now.

According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s sources close to the film, the final deficit will end up being about $US15 million ($19.7 million). (Others, not including the Chinese digital deal and merchandising, put the loss at between $US30 million [$39.4 million] and $US40 million [$52.5 million].) $US15 million is a low loss for a movie that cost $US160 million ($210.2 million) to make, but Hollywood maths is not like regular maths.

This puts a damper on the idea that success in China paved the way for a Warcraft sequel. Warcraft 2: The Search for More Money isn’t looking nearly as likely as did when the movie started taking China by storm. If there is one, it’s going to have be a whole lot cheaper than the first movie was.

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This Video Explains What Happens When Nice Countries Fight

While the rest of the world engages in hostile warfare over disputed territory, Canada and Greenland are using a rather more polite method of asserting their claims over a Hans Island, an island between Canada and Greenland (a Danish territory) that both want to claim.

 

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WELTEVREE DUTCHTUB ORIGINAL

There’s nothing quite like relaxing in a tub of hot water with friends on a cool evening. And while the hot tub is a great addition to any backyard setup, the permanent and expensive nature of these comfort pools prove unattractive to us wandering millennials. Thankfully, Weltevree Dutchtub is back with new designs for us to admire, and maybe invest.

The brilliant nature of these hot tubs stems from their simplicity in function. Its bowl design heats up from a connected fire basket, using natural circulation to heat up the contained water. Because there’s no electricity involved in the heating process they are highly portable and each Dutchtub can comfortably fit up to four people. It holds 171 gallons of water, weighs in at a 165 pounds, and available in five different colors. Reap all the rewards of a standard hot tub without the commitment, installation costs, and year-round maintenance. Embrace the all-natural means of keeping warm. The Dutchtub is available now for around $5,760. [Purchase]

 

 

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BASECAMP TINY HOUSE

The types of hobbies you usually expect couples to share range from reading to, if they’re a little wild, doing triathlons or skydiving together. Tina and Luke Orlando, however, were more interested in designing and building their own totally of-the-grid tiny house, the Basecamp, from scratch in Northern Oregon.

Using their backgrounds in civil and mechanical engineering the two designed a home that has all of the comforts of living in a larger space condensed into a small two story 204 square foot space, and then had it built by Day Star Homes. When you walk up and enter through the door, visitors will find themselves with a living room to their right that features a couch that can also serve as a guest bed, with convenient storage loft for all of the Orlando’s climbing and hiking gear sitting above it. From that couch in the living room, you can see right into a fully stocked kitchen with a gas stove, dishwasher and fridge. Because the Orlando’s are dog lovers, the space also includes a few hideaway dens for curling up and napping in, as well as a dog bowl that harvests rainwater. The main bedroom is located in a loft above the rest of the open air apartment and is accessed by an integrated ladder for optimal use of space. On top of this great living space is a rooftop deck and a solar array that helps power all of the appliances, keeping the place purring without the need for a traditional power source. Plans for this house are available for sale and can be customized your. Prices for the plans start at $255 and go as high as $340, but you’ll have to purchase the materials the separately. [Purchase]

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Rogue One Is Coming To Star Wars: Battlefront, The Force Awakens Still Isn't

Fans of EA’s cinematic Star Wars shooter Battlefront have been begging to see content added to the game that went beyond the first three films. While the publisher has ruled out that Force Awakens-era content, today they revealed that at least one of the new movies will make its presence felt in Battlefront this year: Rogue One.

At today’s EA Star Wars panel at Celebration Europe it was confirmed that the previously mysterious fourth (and currently final) downloadable content for Battlefront will be called Rogue One: Scarif. Named after the beach planet we’ve seen in the trailer, the expansion will not only let players fight across the beachfronts seen in the film, but play as its primary hero and villain: Rebel gamers will have their pool of heroes bolstered by the arrival of Jyn Erso, while the Imperial faction gets to play as Director Krennic.

No other details were announced, other than Battlefront fans can expect to play the content by the time Rogue One hits theatres in December. Meanwhile EA teased its third expansion for the game, Death Star (I’ll leave it to you to figure out where that one is set) with a new trailer.

 

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Blade Runner 2 Reveals The Future Of Future Los Angeles Is Pretty Grim

The first Blade Runner movie takes place in the far-off, hard-to-imagine year 2019 and the upcoming sequel takes place several decades after that. As this first concept art reveals, the future of future Los Angeles isn’t bright at all.

“The climate has gone berserk — the ocean, the rain, the snow is all toxic,” [director Denis] Villeneuve says to Entertainment Weekly. Things seem to have generally gotten more horrible since the first movie, as humanity has continually trashed the planet and ignored the consequences. It might not be particularly subtle, but it does seem appropriately Blade Runner-y — after all most animals had been eradicated and replaced by synthetics by the time of the first movie. Nature is obviously next to go.

Here’s another:

EW says:

The vehicle pictured in this exclusive concept art from the sequel, Villeneuve says, is a kind of snow blower that hovers over the streets and destroys snow. He laughs. “It’s a Canadian wet dream!”

In the original movie, the studio infamously added a “happy” ending where Deckard and Rachael escaped the city, presumably to live in a cabin in the woods somewhere. Not that I think Blade Runner 2 will acknowledge that ending, but it’s clear that even if they did escape, their freedom from humanity was… limited.

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Roland And The Man In Black Look Mighty Sharp In New Images From The Dark Tower

Yesterday we got a look at Entertainment Weekly‘s cover heralding The Dark Tower, the Stephen King adaptation starring Idris Elba as Roland the Gunslinger and Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black, as well as the above peek at Elba. Now, a slew of new teaser images from Nikolaj Arcel’s film are up.

The middle images are of Elba with Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers, the boy who shares a special bond with Roland and who connects the fantasy story to our world. As you can see, Roland makes it all the way to New York City at one point in the story… and he takes public transportation, too.

For the complete set of Dark Tower images, check out Entertainment Weekly‘s full gallery.

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Groot Is Still Tiny In The First Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Image

There are some interesting details in the very first piece of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 concept art. For one thing, Groot hasn’t grown big yet. For another, there’s a brand new character standing there behind our team.

The image, tweeted by director James Gunn, shows not only Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Peter Quill and Drax, but also shows Nebula, Yondu and a new (to the MCU) character named “Mantis“.

Entertainment Weekly revealed that the movie version of Mantis is “an acquaintance of the Guardians” who has learned everything she knows about interacting with others from them. She’ll be played in the by Pom Klementieff (Oldboy).

As for baby Groot, executive producer Jonathan Schwartz says that there’s a question about whether this is the same Groot we all know and loved — just shrunk down a bit — or a brand new Groot. Regardless, he’ll have a different personality. “He doesn’t have the wisdom and experience of that Groot. He’s a younger Groot and a more rambunctious Groot,” Shwartz told Entertainment Weekly.

We’re going to be stuck pondering the nature of Groots until the movie comes out in 2017

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For Sale: 158kg Soviet Spy Satellite Camera Lens, A Bargain At $24,000

So, you thought Canon had some ridiculously large lenses. The truth is, it ain’t got nothing on the former Soviet Union, which came up with this fearsome beast — a 158kg, 1.3m lens for its spy satellites. Oh yeah, it’s also for sale.

Pictures, of course, don’t do this bad boy justice. As Michael Zhang over at PetaPixel points out, the 470mm-diameter lens is wide enough that you could “fit two basketballs side by side”.

The lens is for sale on SS.ua, a Russian classifieds website for the princely sum of 460,000 Ukrainian hryvnia, or about $24,229 Australian.

According to one Vladislav Kern on USSRPhoto, the lens is from the Amber-4K2 satellite, which is equipped with a Pearl-18 camera system.

I guess it’d look good on your mantelpiece, but it’d be hard convincing guests you’re not just compensating for your, uh, 18-55mm.

 

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This Is NASA's New Mars Rover

NASA is racing to finish a new Mars rover, and the mission just got a launch and land date. The new rover will leave Earth by August 2020, and in February of 2021, it will hit the surface of the Red Planet to search for signs of life.

If the unnamed rover — which NASA is temporarily calling Mars 2020 — looks familiar, there’s a good reason. It’s modelled on the very successful Curiosity rover, which landed in 2012 and, despite some glitches, has remained in good working order for years longer than expected. Although Mars 2020 looks a lot like Curiosity, there’s plenty under the hood that distinguishes it.

Mars 2020 will have better cameras and microphones as well as thicker wheels to keep it from breaking down like Curiosity’s did. There’s also a new coring drill and a ground-penetrating radar to look below the surface of Mars. Since Mars 2020’s primary objective is to look for signs of life, it will also have features to analyse organic chemicals, including a device that will test the ability to form oxygen on the planet for future colonisation efforts. Some rumoured features that the researchers considered, however, were ultimately rejected.

“We had been asked to study the possibility of bringing a helicopter with us,” Kenneth Farley, the project scientist for Mars 2020, said. “But Mars 2020 is certainly not going to be flying a drone.”

Although the design for the 1050kg rover is finalised, there’s still plenty to do before its ready for launch in four years. Not only do they have to finish construction, NASA also has to select a landing site that will put the rover within range of the most likely hotbeds of previous Martian life.

“There’s a very short [launch] window in 2020,” Farley noted. “If we don’t hit it, we have to wait two years. So we’re working very hard to hit it.”

When the rover finally does hit Mars, the landing is going to be a nail-biter. The rover will enter the planet’s atmosphere at 17,700km/h and will use a combination of a supersonic parachute and above-ground rocket thrusters to brake during its descent. If all goes well, one of the first things the rover will beam back to us is footage of its (hopefully very soft) crash. And then Mars 2020’s real work can begin.

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Next Star Trek Movie Will See Return Of Chris Hemsworth As Kirk's Father, According To J.J. Abrams

Star Trek Beyond isn’t in theatres yet, but it sounds like a fourth film is already taking shape, at least according to J.J. Abrams. The director of Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) says that Chris Hemsworth, who made a cameo in his pre-Thor days as Captain Kirk’s doomed father, will return.

Not only that, but the movie will somehow bring the elder Kirk together with his son, played by Chris Pine, according to Access Hollywood film critic Scott Mantz, who broke the news over on Twitter. Abrams hasn’t elaborated on what the story might be (time travel wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, and/or some kind of virtual reunion), and there’s obviously no time table for a fourth Star Trek yet, so all we can do is guess right now.

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This Massive Shipwreck Graveyard Is Way Bigger Than Scientists Thought

An underwater survey off the coast of Greece has uncovered a massive cache of wrecked ships, sunk over a span of more than 2000 years. And researchers just keep finding more and more to add to that tally.

In the nine months they have been swimming around Greece’s Fourni archipelago, the research team from The Fourni Underwater Survey has already found 45 individual shipwrecks in the 27km stretch. A whopping 23 of those shipwrecks were detailed in a new announcement from the team issued today. Strangest of all, there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to the age of the shipwrecks. The oldest dates back to around 500 BC, while the youngest is from around 1800.

To put the scale of the find in perspective, Peter Campbell of the University of Southampton and lead archaeologist on the project points out that similar coastlines in the area only have a couple shipwrecks — and other similarly-sized finds have been spread across areas about 20 times as big.

“For comparison, many larger islands around the Mediterranean have only three or four known shipwrecks. The United States recently created a national marine sanctuary in Lake Michigan to protect 39 known shipwrecks located in 875 square miles [2266 square km],” Campbell noted in a statement. “Fourni has 45 known shipwrecks around its 17 square mile [44 square km] territory.”

And the team isn’t done adding to the total yet. There are two more years left in the investigation — and still several areas that divers haven’t even begun to explore. So researchers expect to find even more shipwrecks, from across different eras, as they investigate through 2018.

The message is clear: Stay away from the Fourni islands, sailor. Here be monsters.

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Scientists Just Discovered Something Extraordinary About Iceland's Huge Volcano Eruption 

Two years ago, Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano erupted — and it kept erupting for the next 181 days, forming the largest volcanic depression ever seen. New research reveals the extraordinary processes that transpired beneath the surface, including the formation of a magma-filled canal that measured a whopping 45km long.

The Bardarbunga volcano began to erupt on 29 August 2014, ending finally on 27 February 2015. It was the strongest in Europe in more than 240 years, emitting large volumes of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere and causing poor air quality in Iceland.

The Bardarbunga eruption produced the biggest caldera formation ever observed.

It also produced the largest caldera ever observed — a rare and mysterious cauldron-like depression that forms atop volcanoes. Calderas are relatively rare geologic phenomena, occurring only a handful of times each century. Observations are thus exceptionally rare, and scientists are still trying to figure out what causes them and how they work. For example, geologists aren’t entirely sure if calderas are triggered by volcanic eruptions, or vice versa.

The Bardabunga caldera and its location in Iceland. 

The Bardarbunga eruption provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for scientists to observe the formation of a caldera while it was happening. In a new study published in Science, lead researcher Magnus T. Gudmundsson from the University of Iceland, with the help of geologists from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, describe the Bardarbunga eruption in unprecedented detail.

Their analysis revealed surprising insights into calderas and how they emerge. The caldera and subsequent caving-in of the land — a process known as subsidence — began when magma seeped up from a depth of 12km below the surface. This magma didn’t just shoot straight up — it flowed perpendicular to the surface along an underground canal for a distance of 45km, before erupting as a major lava flow northeast of the actual volcano at a site called Holuhraun.

A 45km-long dike formed beneath the surface, channelling hot magma to the eruption sites at Holuhraun

During the course of the eruption, the region experienced no less than 77 earthquakes. Data shows that this flow of magma along the subterranean dike preceded the formation of the caldera, which means it drove the formation of the caldera.

Over the course of six months, the ice-filled land mass above it sunk down even further, creating a massive bowl-like depression that is characteristic of calderas. During the initial stage, the ground decreased in elevation at a rate of about 1m a day. By the end, the caldera measured 8km by 7km wide, and up to 65m deep.

“With an area of 110 square kilometres, this is the largest caldera collapse ever monitored,” said geologist Eoghan Holohan, who works at the GFZ. “The results provide the clearest picture yet of the onset and evolution of this enigmatic geological process.” His team’s work showed that steeply-dipping ring faults controlled the collapse of the surface from intense depths.

Tremors and seismic shocks at the eruption site sent the magma rushing back and forth along the dike, which functioned much like a two-way water hose.

An aerial shot shows the forming caldera on October 21, 2014

The chamber is located beneath Europe’s largest glacier, Vatnajokull, which was (and still is) filled with ice. But the eruption didn’t happen directly beneath the ice. “In that case, we’d have had a water vapour explosion with a volcanic ash cloud even bigger and longer lasting than the one that followed the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in 2010,” said Thomas Walter from the GFZ.

For comparison, the Bardarbunga eruption spewed out two cubic km of volcanic material over the course of several months, nearly 10 times more than the Eyjafjallajokull.

Insights gleaned over the course of this research project will undoubtedly help scientists understand other calderas, including the ominous kettle located at Yellowstone in the United States, or those in the Andes region. Back in 1815, the Eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia led to a caldera and a devastating tsunami. Volcanic aerosols and ash in the stratosphere brought on the infamous “year without summer” in 1816.

 

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A New Tool On The ISS Could Help Us Find Alien Life

The ISS is getting an incredible new tool: A handheld DNA sequencer. The questions scientists hope it will answer include whether life exists beyond our planet and just what is that weird fungus growing on the wall of the space station?

The biomolecule sequencer, called a minION, will be part of the cargo that SpaceX will launch to the ISS on Monday. Once it arrives, the newly arrived ISS astronaut Kate Rubins will use it to attempt the first in-space DNA sequencing. We talked with the NASA scientists — Camille Alleyne, Aaron Burton and Sarah Wallace — behind the project to find out what else it could do, both right away and in the future.

As a self-contained unit with a rotating crew of astronauts, a constantly changing cargo hold, and all the microbes that have ever accompanied them, the ISS is a microbial stew. One task the researchers hope he sequencer can accomplish is investigating exactly what’s floating around the station. Right now, if there are questions, the only way to answer them is with an old-fashioned culture test in a petri dish. But the sequencer could answer questions, especially about the air and water, almost immediately.

“All the [ISS’s] water is recycled and that’s from urine, condensate, sweat, everything,” Sarah Wallace, a microbiologist and the manager of the sequencing project told Gizmodo. “Is it being processed to where it’s microbially clean? We want to know in a more real-time way is that water processor working.”

Simply being able to monitor the air and water quality in the moment would be a big step. But there are also some unexpected questions that arise on the ISS that the sequencer can answer. For instance, the matter of a weird fungus that astronauts keep scrubbing off the wall — but no one has quite identified yet.

“In the past, we’ve had visible fungi growing on the ISS, and we want to know what that fungi is,” said Wallace. “Is it benign or something to be concerned about? Knowing what it is, the microbiologists can recommend what to do to deal with the issue.”

A strange fungus that has appeared on the ISS walls

The sequencer could also answer questions about the long-term impact of living in space on the human body, or even someday be used to diagnose astronaut illnesses, as they move towards longer stays.

But the real applications of the sequencer might only be seen once its off the ISS and going out further into space. The researchers hope to someday use it to identify life — in practically real-time — on other planets, including Mars.

“For all the reasons the sequencer is good for microbiology applications — it’s small, it’s lightweight, pretty robust — it’s a good piece of equipment to send to other locations in the solar system,” Aaron Burton astrobiologist and the lead of the sequencing project, told Gizmodo. “So if you wanted to go to Mars and see if there was life, if you had a small sequencer device, you could take it with you, and you could actually start looking for life.”

Of course, that life could take multiple forms. It would be very useful to see what kind of life we’re dragging along with us when we visit, whether ourselves or via our robot rovers. But another extremely exciting possibility would be finding life that’s native to other planets. The researchers are already looking at how the sequencer could be modified to deal with truly alien life — for instance, life that didn’t even have DNA.

“It doesn’t have to be DNA that you’re sequencing, it could be closely related molecules,” Burton noted. “RNA is one we have on earth, but you could also envision having different sugars with different nucleobases. You could look for a whole range of information from molecules and people are starting to look at protein sequencing with it, too.”

While some of these applications are in the distant future and far from our home planet, the basic research the astronauts hope to do could also easily come closer to home. The ISS (a remote, minimalist environment, by necessity) also functions as a good template for how to conduct operations on remote areas of Earth. But having a working sequencer in space also opens up new laboratory possibilities that could fundamentally add to the way that we understand genes and their workings — and that’s knowledge we can apply here at home.

“There’s also an Earth benefit,” Camille Alleyne, associate program scientist for the ISS said. “Understanding, for instance, how gene expression happens in salmonella bacteria could lead to vaccine development. So there’s the space application, but there’s also the benefit to our lives here, too.”

For now, though, the sequencer’s first project is simply to see if it can perform as well up in space as it does here on Earth. Once they have got a benchmark, then the real work can begin.

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Nintendo Has A New (Mini) NES With 30 Built-In Games

While many have been distracted by Pokemon GO, Nintendo has been working on a new surprise for lovers of nostalgia.

The Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition looks like a tiny version of the original, comes packed with 30 classic games, and will be hitting shelves in Australia on 10 November.

The $99.95 price tag will get you a classic styled controller, HDMI cable and USB cable along with the console. There’s no AC power adapter included, unlike the US model.

Here is a list of the included games, which will now come with suspend points so you don’t lose game progress (cheating, but whatever):

Balloon Fight
Bubble Bobble
Castlevania
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr.
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Dr. Mario
Excitebike
Final Fantasy
Galaga
Ghosts’N Goblins
Gradius
Ice Climber
Kid Icarus
Kirby’s Adventure
Mario Bros.
Mega Man 2
Metroid
Ninja Gaiden
Pac-Man
Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
StarTropics
Super C
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Tecmo Bowl
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
You’ll notice some of these are two player, so if you want to keep the classic styling going you’ll need to pick up an extra Nintendo Classic Mini: NES Controller for $19.95. A Classic Controller or Classic Controller Pro for the Wii console can also be used.

The controller can also be used to play Virtual Console NES games on a Wii U or Wii console by connecting to a Wii Remote controller.

What a time to be alive.

[MIKA27]

Shopping Centre Suspends Security Robot After It Clobbered A Toddler

The Stanford Shopping Centre has suspended its security robots following an incident last week in which a 16-month-old boy collided with one of its machines, resulting in a minor injury.

The toddler, Harwin Cheng, was walking in front of his parents outside an Armani Exchange store when his mother pointed out the robot coming their way. The child didn’t notice the machine, and he bumped into it, falling forward. According to the mother’s accounts, the security robot just kept on going, running over Harwin’s foot and resulting in a nasty bruise.

In response, the Stanford Shopping Centre in Palo Alto, California, is investigating the incident, and it has docked its robots until further notice. The company that developed the robot, Knightscope, called the incident a “freakish accident” and has issued a formal apology to the family.

“Our primary mission is to serve the public’s overall safety, and we take any circumstance that would compromise that mission very seriously,” said William Santana Li, Knightscope’s chief executive.

The company claims that the machine, a K5 unit equipped with nearly 30 sensors, should have registered a vibration if and when it ran over Harwin’s foot. The incident prompted Knightscope to file a field incident report — the first such report after 40,200km of total travel made by its robotic fleet. The company’s account of the incident varies a bit from that of the mother’s. Knightscope claims that Harwin ran backward “directly” into the machine, prompting the robot to stop, and that’s when the child fell.

Regardless of what happened, there’s no disputing that a child got hurt, even if it was a minor injury. Malls may find it cute and expedient to have robotic security guards roaming the corridors, but they clearly need to take account of these mechanical lumbering beasts which weigh 135kg and stand 1.5m tall.

[MIKA27]

Someone Bought Einstein's Smelly Leather Jacket For Nearly $190,000

Last week, Christie’s auctioned off the well-worn leather jacket of Albert Einstein. You may know him as the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician who figured out the essence of the universe almost a full century before science could prove him right. But he also had great fashion sense.

The jacket, a rather tasteful Indiana Jones affair, went for a stunning $US144,424 ($189,728). Christie’s describes the jacket as “rather pungent” and an item Einstein picked up sometime during the mid-1930s, when he came to America to escape Nazism in Germany. He may have even received it in celebration of his permanent US residency. It’s made by Levi Strauss.

After Einstein got his hands on the jacket, the two were almost inseparable. As Christie mentions:

Over several years, the jacket aged visibly. ‘Einstein wore it all the time — a fact mentioned in the memoirs of fellow scientist Leopold Infeld, who worked with him at Princeton. Infeld explained that Einstein tried to keep material restrictions to a minimum. Long hair reduced the need for a barber and, he wrote, “one leather jacket solved the coat problem for years.”

It’s unclear what will happen to the jacket, whether it will one day find its way to a museum or become part of the most flawless Albert Einstein cosplay the world has ever seen. I hope for the former but pray for the latter.

[MIKA27]

The Unexplained Signals Of Russian Station UVB-76

There is a mysterious shortwave radio station that broadcasts on the high-frequency 4625 kHz band. Apparently originating from within Russia, it’s nicknamed “the Buzzer”, due to its distinctive short buzzing noise, which plays over and over again. Occasionally, the buzzing is interrupted by a voice reading out a short string of numbers and words. No one has figured it out — yet — but here’s what we know so far.

What Is UVB-76?

UVB-76 was the identification given by the station commonly known as “the Buzzer”, in the short voice messages that occasionally interrupted the buzzing. The Buzzer was first identified in 1982, and can still be heard today, though the sound of the buzzer has changed over the years. It was first identified as a two second repeating beep in the 80s, and changed to the familiar buzz sometime in the early 1990s. The tone changed once after that point, on January 16 2003, swapping to a higher tone with a longer duration, though it has since changed back to the original pattern.  You can listen to a snippet of its distinctive tone here:

 

For a while, the station just seemed to be the same monotonous buzzing again and again. But soon, something was identified that put UVB on everyone’s (or at least shortwave radio enthusiasts’) radars. The buzzing stopped, and a voice read out a short encoded message in Russian. Initially, these messages were exceedingly rare — either that, or there weren’t enough listeners to catch all of the messages that were transmitted. The following is an example of a message broadcast on December 24, 1997:

Ya UVB-76, Ya UVB-76. 180 08 BROMAL 74 27 99 14. Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhail, Anna, Larisa. 7 4 2 7 9 9 1 4.

While the signal was discovered during the epoch of the Soviet Union, the strange messages didn’t cease after the dissolution of the USSR. On the contrary, The Buzzer’s activity increased in the 1990s. While this might also be linked to an increase of listeners, we know for sure that the station didn’t fall into disuse when the USSR was no more.

After a while, listeners started to pick up sounds other than the messages and the buzzing. Muted conversations and noises were heard behind the buzzing, leading UVB-76’s researchers to conclude that the tone wasn’t a recording, it was a manually produced sound, made by a speaker placed near the radio’s microphone. In early November 2001, a conversation in Russian was heard:

“Я – 143. Не получаю генератор.” “Идёт такая работа от аппаратной.” (“I am 143. Not receiving the generator (oscillator).” “That stuff comes from hardware room.”)

Activity only increased in the new millennium. Not only were more mysterious coded messages heard, but also the strange interruptions and conversations grew only more frequent. The peak of activity occurred in 2010, with oddities occurring on almost a monthly basis. Compared to the station’s previous relative inactivity, this flurry of messages excited enthusiasts all over the world, who often listened in on the signal.

Nothing that was broadcast over the station was quite as exciting to theorists as the few times over the later months of 2010 when UVB-76 simply stopped transmitting. Despite fears (and probably just a small bit of excitement) that UVB-76 was a part of Russia’s Dead Hand system — designed to deploy nuclear weapons in an automated retaliative strike even if those in command were wiped out — UVB-76 always started transmitting again.

The interruptions were no less odd as they continued — one day in September 2010, the buzzing was even disrupted by a short instrumental from Swan Lake:

In October 2010, an odd peak in the number of messages, overheard conversations and even bursts of Morse code coincided with the location of the signal moving abruptly. Followers of the signal had previously triangulated the location of the signal to a remote Russian village called Povarovo — but UVB-76 was in Povarovo no more. In fact, UVB-76 itself no longer existed.

The Rise Of MDZhB

After the move, a male voice once again interrupted the buzzing noise, identifying the station with a new callsign:

Mikhail. Dmitri. Zhenya. Boris. MDZhB.

The new location of the signal was harder to triangulate — indeed, enthusiasts identified a number of different locations that the signal was coming from. The former location, however, was known. In 2011, a pair of urban explorers (or possibly more) went to the now abandoned base at Povarovo to sate a little of their curiosity about UVB-76.

There they had to dodge a guard dog, but the old buildings were otherwise unguarded. Local villagers still resided in the buildings that ringed the inner sanctum of the military base, and have described the night when the base was quickly and efficiently evacuated under cover of heavy fog.

The bunker has been described as “a typical Russian military base”. The same explorer, who answered questions about the bunker in a Reddit AMA described his experience:

We sort of went underground under one of the buildings. As we descended into the basement of one of the buildings and ventured to a door that lead outside of the area of the building, when we opened it we were hit with a very vile chemical smell… it smelled very… acidic… I guess. 
 
Not prepared to die of poisoning we turned back. In the room that was underground the building itself there was not much of interest. A few desks and filing cabinets filled with more useless papers. A few broken electronics and a bunch of other general crap.

While most of what was found was “useless”, “broken” and “crap” as described in the post above, one Russian explorer found a log book of the messages transmitted on UVB-76 between October 3, 2005 to December 7, 2005. The book was labelled “sample” on the front cover and was most likely used as a template for filling out later log books, but it was concrete evidence that Povarovo had indeed transmitted UVB-76, and that its origin was the Russian military.

For the explorers who had dodged the guard dog on the way in, there was also an entry on page 8 of the book, October 4 2005:

18:30 Guard dog has put on place on post 173.

For the dog to still be there when the explorers returned, it means that someone still comes by Povarovo — if only to feed it.

So where is the station based now? The new signal has been harder to triangulate, though followers of the station now known as MDZhB found two locations that they believe that the new UVB-76 is transmitting from, with the following coordinates:

60°18’40.1″N30°16’40.5″E
55°25’35″N 36°42’33″E

The first site is much more well documented than the second. It’s in a place called Kerro Massiv, in Leningradkaya Oblast, and it’s part of Russia’s 60th communication hub, codenamed Vulcan. The site boasts 30 different antennas, but is largely just a transmission site — meaning the actual content is transmitted from a communication hub inside of St Petersburg itself. The secondary site belongs to the 69th communication hub, in a place called Naro Fominsk — but very little else is known about this location.

So What Does It All Mean?

No one has ever been able to crack the code of The Buzzer’s mysterious messages, though it is at least known that the signal is military in origin. While theories abound as to the purpose of this station, not many of them hold water. One of the most popular among those who love a good conspiracy is that it’s a part of Russia’s Dead Hand nuclear failsafe system. The theory there is that UVB-76 itself is like a dead man switch — where, if it ever stops transmitting that tone, it would activate an automatic nuclear retaliation from Russia’s nuclear missile silos. This theory, while sensational, is still highly unlikely.

Because of its similarities to numbers stations it’s also been suggested that UVB-76 fills the same purpose, transmitting a secret code to spies stationed overseas. While similar, however, UVB-76 has a number of major differences to traditional numbers stations, and most have theorised that it’s far more likely to be a coded communication for military forces within Russia, rather than outside.

While one official source from the Borok Geophysical Observatory refers to a signal transmitting on 4625kHz, the same as UVB-76, being used to measure changes in the ionosphere. Others have pointed out that a signal on this frequency would not be ideal for measuring the ionosphere without interference, however.

After a photo came to light of a sign in a Russian enlistment office referring to the 4625kHz frequency, it’s become more and more likely that the signal is used to broadcast military communications across Russia. This doesn’t stop a legion of enthusiasts still tuning in to this day. Despite how outdated short wave radio is in this age of high-speed internet and mobile phones, UVB-76 still seems to be buzzing along quite happily. In fact, some long-time followers have said that the station almost seems more active than ever, still transmitting its terse messages at unpredictable moments.

 

[MIKA27]

Menace and Mysteries at Hungary’s Mysterious Labyrinth

There are some places in this world that seem to perfectly encompass mysteries both ancient and modern. Here historical oddities reach up through time and meld with those of the present, generating a continuum of puzzling enigmas and high strangeness reaching back into the blurry recesses of time and out into the uncertain future. One such location can be found in the country of Hungary, situated within its largest city. It is an awe-inspiring, vast labyrinth of darkened, winding passages stretched out within the bowels of the earth under one of the nation’s most treasured historical spots, and through which have long echoed a brooding history punctuated by curious mysteries that have continued up to the modern day. Here is a place that offers up a strange brew mixing sinister history, general weirdness, supernatural menace, and ominous tales of government conspiracies and cover-ups. Let us journey down into the stygian black depths of this mysterious labyrinth.

Located in Budapest, Hungary, on the southern tip of Castle Hill, is an imposing castle and palace complex known as Buda Castle, or Budavári Palotain in Hungarian. First constructed in 1265 and registered as a World Heritage Site in 1987, the luxurious, majestic complex was originally meant as a palace for Hungarian kings through the ages, and it has a long and tumultuous history. However, one of the most interesting features of this impressive complex is not what lies above ground, but rather below; a mysterious labyrinth of caves whose murky corridors have long been steeped in dark history and strange phenomena.

Snaking out below the opulent palace grounds is an intricate, maze-like network of interconnected caves that branch off in all directions into the darkness.

What has come to be known as the Labyrinth of Buda Castle started out as individual natural caves under Castle Hill originally formed by the relentless flow of subterranean hot springs, which carved out a series of deep caves into the hillside. Ancient inhabitants of the region stretching back to the Homo erectus half a million years ago used the caves as a refuge from predators and enemies, and in later millennia the cool, dark caves would serve as a place to store food.

The caves in later years were seen as strategically important, and were artificially expanded until the smaller, separate caves were interconnected into the sprawling complex of passages and chambers that it is today, which stretches out for around 1200 meters (4000 feet) . This winding, labyrinthine cave system was used for military purposes as well as for a refuge in the event of fires or natural disasters, but its role would later expand to be used for wine cellars, a treasury, and even as a jail and torture chamber. The caves were also variously used as a secret place away from prying eyes to squirrel away stolen treasure or money to hide it from tax collectors, and as a military hospital from the 1930s through World War II, during which time the massive complex was said to be able to accommodate up to 10,000 people at a time. During the Cold War, the caves were reinforced with concrete and steel to serve as a military installation.

Buda Labyrinth

Of course, such a dark, dank, and spooky place is bound to have its share of sinister stories. One of the most well-known of these is that in the 15th century, the cave system served as a prison for none other than Vlad Tepes, or Vlad III of Wallachia, more notoriously known as Vlad the Impaler or Dracula. According to the tale, Vlad was betrayed by the Hungarian King Matthias and imprisoned within the dim dungeon of the caves of the hill’s underbelly to languish for an indeterminate amount of time, estimated to be up to 10 years, during which time it was said that he was mercilessly tortured regularly during his stay in these dim recesses. Indeed, legend has it that it was his traumatic and harrowing stay in this subterranean hell hole that turned Vlad into a madman known for brutal torture, murder and cruelty, as well as his signature habit of impaling enemies on giant stakes, leading to his notorious nickname “The Impaler.” Some versions of the story go even further, claiming that upon his death Vlad Tepes was entombed within the cave system. Eerily, it is said that he was first decapitated, with his body buried within the caves and his head somewhere else.

Other spooky stories are that many people were thrown into the caves and simply left to die and rot, and there have been numerous human skeletons found throughout the cave system attesting to this. Although it is mostly unknown where these skeletons came from, there have been a few that were thought to have been from a Turkish harem dating back to the Ottoman Empire. One sinister theory as to why these women died here is that their master, the Pasha of Buda, simply got bored with them and had them walled up alive within the caves.

In addition to skeletons, other strange and often somewhat unsettling things can be found throughout the cave network. Strewn about are various statues of unknown origins and in differing states of decay, often missing limbs or even their heads. One notable statue here is called the Shaman with Two Faces, and depicts a shaman with one face on each side of his body. The walls are adorned with strange and inscrutable ancient symbols carved directly into the stone, possibly for religious purposes but no one really knows for sure, as well as paintings upon the walls. Also found in numerous locations throughout the cave network are the vestiges of its days as a torture chamber, such as rusting metal bars and discarded torture equipment left to decay in the dark depths. There is also to be found in the caverns a mysterious fountain said to have been built by a King Mátyás and which constantly gurgles up wine for purposes unknown.

In addition to the bizarre relics and dark history of the Buda Labyrinth are stories of a decidedly supernatural nature. Visitors to the caves have long told of hearing mysterious far off shrieks or screams from an unknown source, as well as of being tapped or pushed by unseen hands or of seeing dancing lights in the dark. Since the 19th century a shadowy specter said to wear some sort of cape has often been sighted skulking about in the dim tunnels here. The phantom is called the “Black Count,” and is thought to be the ghost of a 19th century count who had lost all of his money and retreated into the depths of the caves to live with a group of bandits and steal from the rich. Another idea is that it is the spirit of Vlad the Impaler himself.

The intriguing history of the caves, their oddly haunting beauty, and their myriad oddities made them into a popular tourist attraction. Starting from the early 1980s, various tours opened, which fully played up the creepy atmosphere of the place and even managed to add to it. Creepy wax figurines wearing a variety of period clothing for different eras were put up in various locations around the caves and one program called the “Labyrinth of Lanterns” was carried out in near total darkness, with each visitor only allowed a single small lantern to push back the blackness as they felt their way along twisting passages with only a rope. A 2011 program called “Wanderings with The Great Ones of Europe” similarly used lanterns, with solitary visitors going off alone with just the lantern to hold back the encroaching darkness. Tours have also tended to play spooky music and use a variety of gimmicks and cheap scares to exploit the claustrophobic, eerie location with its dark tunnels and slimy, damp rock walls.

Despite these gaudy attempts to make the caves into something akin to a Halloween haunted house, the Buda Labyrinth still managed to draw in droves of visitors, and between 1996 and 1997, the cave network was extended to over 4,000 square meters and renovated to look more as it did before World War II. By 2000 was named one of the 50 most interesting places in the world, as wells as well as one of Hungary’s top 10 tourist destinations. Then, on July 29, 2011, a strange occurrence happened that would only cement the labyrinth’s reputation as a place of the bizarre.

On this day, the caves were suddenly and inexplicably raided by police and members of the Inspectorate for the Environment, who quickly and forcibly evacuated everyone from the labyrinth, both visitors and staff alike. Those who were there at the time recall that they had at first taken it to be a sign that there had been a terrorist attack or some other emergency and detailed how heavily armed police officers carefully monitored everyone as they were hurried along to the exits. However, when the people had been removed from the cave and the doors slammed closed, they soon realized that there was no such emergency and they were offered no explanation as to why police had stormed in like that or why they had been so suddenly and urgently kicked out of the caves.

Caretakers and other staff members of the Buda Labyrinth were just as confounded as visitors, as they had received no prior warning or word from authorities that such a raid was to take place. Efforts to follow up what happened in the following days led to silence from authorities, even as the doors to the caves remained closed. In some cases, some staff members were said to have been mysteriously replaced or fired, and all of this led to whispers of some form of government conspiracy or cover-up. In the meantime, the entrances to the cave were blocked off to cut the labyrinth off from the public.

To this day it is uncertain just what prompted the raid and closure of the Buda Labyrinth. Theories range from the government trying to hide something, to that they found something mysterious down there in the tunnel depths, or that they were simply enacting measures to control, nationalize, and preserve this important heritage site in the face of encroachment from private companies and individuals buying up rights in the area, the steady influx of rowdy visitors, and the increasingly garish tours of the tour companies. Authorities have never given a straight answer explanation on why the caves were raided, and it remains a mystery. The Buda Labyrinth supposedly still remains largely closed to visitors and staff members save for occasional individual thrill seekers sneaking in and a handful of tours apparently still offered that are possibly entering the shut-down caves illegally.

There can be no doubt that Hungary’s Buda Labyrinth holds its share of mysteries and oddities, and it is certainly a place that poses far more questions than answers. What secrets lie deep down in the dark spider web of tunnels and passages buried beneath the country’s most notable World Heritage Site?

What is the extent of its varied and turbulent history? What other historical oddities or strange phenomena lie hidden in the blackness here? Are there more skeletons that lie here forgotten? Why was this once bustling tourist attraction suddenly and inexplicably shut down? Although most, if not all of these questions may forever remain unanswered, one thing that seems clear is that these murky passages are one of the spookiest, weirdest, and intriguing places in the world.

MIKA: I can attest this place is pretty huge and scary. I was fortunate to visit this back in the 1980's when I was a kid with my parents as I have family in Hungary. So glad I went here considering it is now closed to the public.

[MIKA27]

2017 FORD GT ’66 HERITAGE EDITION

Ford came to this year’s Le Mans with some serious ammunition in the form of this tribute to a previous award-winning model. The 2017 GT ’66 Heritage Edition salutes the historic 1966 GT40 Mark II, driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. It was an historic time for Ford, whose other GT40s managed to follow suit in 2nd and 3rd place.

To celebrate, Ford made sure to give this ride the proper paint job. In this case, that happened to be their Shadow Black paint, available in a matte or glossy finish, complemented by silver stripes and exposed carbon fiber. It rides on 20-inch forged aluminum wheels featuring a gold satin finish and ebony leather covers the carbon fiber seats in the interior. Ford plans on releasing this model for 2017 only. And with a limited quantity set to roll out, you’d better be quick to reserve one of these beauties soon.