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

[gweilgi]

On 30 August 2016 at 2:05 AM, cosmoker said:

Is the a Fohiba

Can't be -- it's not a glass lid.

[MIKA27]

Brains Of Nazi Victims Uncovered In German Psychiatric Institute

Dozens of brains and brain parts belonging to victims of the Nazi eugenics campaign — and possibly the Holocaust — have been uncovered during renovations at the Max Planck Psychiatric Institute in Munich, Germany.

The grim discovery was made in the autumn of 2015, prompting the Max Planck Society to launch a thorough investigation of its specimens collection. Surprisingly, Israeli media have only recently picked up on the story.

According to the Max Planck Society, the rediscovered samples, which include 100 brain preparations from 35 cases, belonged to the estate of the doctor and brain researcher Julius Hallervorden (1882-1965). A member of the Nazi party, he became head of the Neuropathology Department of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in 1938 (today it’s known as the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research).

Before, during and after the Second World War, Hallervorden knowingly performed research on brain samples extracted from executed prisoners and those deemed mentally deficient. Given that the KWI regularly received samples from Josef Mengele — the notorious concentration camp doctor — it’s entirely plausible that Hallervorden also experimented upon the remains of Jewish Holocaust victims.

Julius Hallervorden in 1935.

 

For decades, the Max Planck Society had no qualms about using these unethically sourced samples for its research, but things changed in the late 1980s owing to political pressure. By 1990, most of its labs had disposed of samples collected between 1933 and 1945, but it now appears that this purging process is still incomplete, much to the MPS’s embarrassment.

The samples, which contain both microscopic brain slides and “wet” specimens, were discovered during renovations last year, much to the surprise of Germany’s leading psychiatric institute. An investigation is currently underway to review all samples at Max Planck facilities, and to identify the remains and manner of death where possible. Those who were victims of the so-called “euthanasia” campaign will be buried with names in a mass grave.

“We must acknowledge our responsibility,” explained Max Planck Society president Martin Stratmann in a statement, “It is our duty to give an identity to the dead,” adding that all specimens connected to criminal research in the Third Reich will be provided with a “dignified burial”.

It’s not known if the newly discovered samples were exclusively derived from the Nazi euthanasia campaign, that is, the deliberate murder of patients with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses and genetic disorders, or if they were collected from other sources, such as the death camps.

Speaking to an Israeli radio station earlier today, Dan Machman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum said, “It’s surprising, although not completely,” adding, “This [current finding] is something new that was previously unknown, and joins other events that are suddenly uncovered after 70 years. Whoever thought this chapter was completely finished is mistaken.”

[MIKA27]

Being Batman (In Virtual Reality)

 

Batman Arkham is Rocksteady’s first PlayStation Virtual Reality game, and it will be one of PlayStation VR’s launch titles, available in October. It’s probably the closest any of us will ever get to being Batman. We’ll get to pop on the cowl, play with gadgets, solve a crime and find a purpose for our dusty Move controllers.

Enjoy the latest behind-the-scenes look at Batman Arkham VR.

Rocksteady says the game will take around an hour to complete, and since it also consists of a lot of puzzles the replay value isn’t set to be great. That aside, we are so pumped to play this. What do you guys think?

 

[MIKA27]

Australian Scientists Just Found The World's Oldest Fossils

Australian and UK scientists have dug up the oldest fossils found on Earth to date — 3.7 billion-year-old sedimentary formations created by clumps of bacteria — which predate the current earliest fossils by a whopping 220 million years, and suggest life originated here more than four billion years ago.

And the researchers say they could help us learn about life on Mars.

Led by the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) Professor Allen Nutman, the team discovered the stromatolite fossils in the world’s oldest sedimentary rocks, in the Isua Greenstone Belt along the edge of Greenland’s icecap. The discovery of the Isua stromatolite fossils provides a greater understanding of early diversity of life on Earth and researchers said could have implications for our understanding of life on Mars.

Professor Nutman, from UOW’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said the Isua stromatolite fossils predated the world’s previous oldest stromatolite fossils — which were found in Western Australia — by 220 million years. The discovery pushes back the fossil record to near the start of the Earth’s geological record and points to evidence of life on Earth very early in its history. The Isua stromatolites, which were exposed by the recent melting of a perennial snow patch, were laid down in shallow sea, providing the first evidence of an environment in which early life thrived.

For much of Earth’s history, life was just single cells, and stromatolite fossils are mounds of carbonate constructed by these communities of microbes.

“The significance of stromatolites is that not only do they provide obvious evidence of ancient life that is visible with the naked eye, but that they are complex ecosystems,” Professor Nutman said. “This indicates that as long as 3.7 billion years ago microbial life was already diverse. This diversity shows that life emerged within the first few hundred millions years of Earth’s existence, which is in keeping with biologists’ calculations showing the great antiquity of life’s genetic code.”

Co-lead investigator Associate Professor Vickie Bennett, from ANU, said this study provided a new perspective into the history of the Earth.

“This discovery turns the study of planetary habitability on its head,” Associate Professor Bennett said. “Rather than speculating about potential early environments, for the first time we have rocks that we know record the conditions and environments that sustained early life. Our research will provide new insights into chemical cycles and rock-water-microbe interactions on a young planet.”

Professor Martin Van Kranendonk, Director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at UNSW, of which Professor Nutman is also an Associate Member, said it was a groundbreaking find that could point to similar life structures on Mars, which 3.7 billion years ago was a damp environment.

“The structures and geochemistry from newly exposed outcrops in Greenland display all of the features used in younger rocks to argue for a biological origin,” Professor Van Kranendonk said. “This discovery represents a new benchmark for the oldest preserved evidence of life on Earth. It points to a rapid emergence of life on Earth and supports the search for life in similarly ancient rocks on Mars.”

The investigation, conducted by the Australian science team in collaboration with a UK partner, was funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council.

 

[MIKA27]

Just Look At This Freaking Giant Black Slug

Gulp. Just look at how ridiculous this thing looks. It’s a giant black sea slug known as a sea hare and it’s freaking monstrous. You don’t really hold it in your hand as much as the sea hare, which can grow up to over 0.91m long and weigh over 14kg, just swallows your entire arm. Brave Wilderness found the black sea hare in the tide pools off the coast of the Pacific Ocean in San Pedro, CA and described holding it as super slimy and unbelievably slippery.

The black sea hare gets its deep, dark colour from its diet of algae and seaweed and gets it name from the two tentacles sticking out of its head that look like rabbit ears. Where it gets it comical size is probably some prehistoric alien energy source.

 

[MIKA27]

ZWIFT INDOOR CYCLING

As much as we’d not like to admit it, fall and winter are on their way and they’re bringing bad weather with them. In the past this has meant boring workouts on rollers in your basement (or a big bag of Cheetos and an hour or so on the couch), but now thanks to Zwift, getting a good workout inside is both easy and fun.

The concept behind Zwift is relatively simple. It essentially measures the watts you produce on a stationary bike or smart trainer and projects that energy onto an animated character who rides through a virtual environment. It’s surprisingly true to a real ride given that your speed is adjusted for height weight, and road gradient. While you won’t exactly feel the relief you get from drafting off of a rider in your garage, you’ll be rewarded for it in the game. Zwift works for both Mac and PC, and it was just recently announced that the game can also function on iOS so you can train and play with an iPad or iPhone. Prices for access to Zwift are a monthly charge of $10. [Purchase]

 

[MIKA27]

Breitling Chronoliner Blacksteel

Designed with the international jet set in mind, and inspired by a watch from the 1950s-1960s, the Breitling Chronoliner Blacksteel timepiece packs a chronograph for measuring flight times and the functionality to simultaneously display three timezones in 24-hour formats into its sleek black steel and ceramic case. The 46mm self-winding mechanical chrono is powered by a Breitling 24 movement, is water-resistant to 100 m (330 ft) and its back bears a depiction of the stylized planes that were a longtime Breitling signature. Completing the sleek look of the watch is a rubber strap that mimics the texture of the brands steel mesh bracelets.     

 

[MIKA27]

RACING EMOTION ART BALL CHAIR

It isn’t everyday that you get to see something that intersects the worlds of Danish design, classic automobile racing, and mid-century furniture in one fowl swoop. These chairs from the French company Racing Emotion manage all of those things while still coming off looking smart and comfortable.

Each one of these balls are inspired by different classic cars – ranging from Herbie from the Walt Disney movie to the Lang Heck version Porsche 917 designed for the Hunaudieres straight. Made with care by two car designers from Le Mans, each one comes with a hand stitched leather interior and can be customized (stitching and leather color) depending on customer request. Whether you are looking to fully deck out your home with mid-century design or you are just a petrol head looking to get yourself a nice chair to kick back in after spending some time in the garage, this is a great pick up. Prices start at $5,000. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

Samsung Gear S3 

The new Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch embraces a traditional watch design, and also works with the iPhone! The S3 is available in two styles, the Frontier and the Classic, and features a more traditional look, compared to its Gear S2 predecessor. The Frontier is designed for exploration, with rugged, sportier looks and LTE connectivity that lets you leave your phone at home. The Classic takes on a more luxurious aesthetic. Both have a 46mm case made from 316L stainless steel which surround a 1.3-inch AMOLED display, and offer the normal range of features, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC for payments, water resistance, and a host of sensors.    

[MIKA27]

SEEDLIP NON-ALCOHOLIC SPIRITS

It turns out, you don't need alcohol to make a tasty mixed drink. Introducing Seedlip, the world's first non-alcoholic spirits. The company was founded in a kitchen in the woods thanks to a copy of The Art of Distillation which told of Apothecaries in the 1600's that used small copper stills to make non-alcoholic herbal remedies. Seedlip's two choices, Spice 94 and Garden 108 consist of distillates of six botanicals blended together minus sugar and alcohol. Mix with tonic or create your own cocktail to make your night as the designated driver a little more interesting.

[MIKA27]

Withings Hides Top Fitness Tracking Features In Attractive Watch

The Withings Activité and the far more affordable Withings Activité Pop showed the world that fitness trackers don’t necessarily have to look hideous. And while the new heart rate-tracking Steel HR makes some aesthetic compromises to gain smartwatch functionality, it’s still one of the most beautiful wearables you can buy.

Instead of using an LCD or OLED display to provide feedback on the wearer’s activities, the Activité and Activité Pop both featured a traditional analogue watch face with a smaller dial in one corner showing how close the user was to their pre-defined fitness goal — be it steps taken, calories burned or other metrics configured in the Withings app.

The new Withings Steel HR still has that secondary analogue dial, but it’s been moved to make room for an additional monochrome screen that can display information about incoming calls, emails, text messages and calendar reminders.

It turns the Steel HR into a bona-fide smartwatch instead of just a fitness tracker, but that latter functionality has also been improved with the addition of a optical hear rate monitor that uses green lights and a small camera to detect variations in the level of blood running through the wearer’s wrist.

The most surprising feature of Withings latest wearable, however, is the price. The Withings Activité arrived with a hefty $US450 ($595) price tag, while the Withings Activité Pop used cheaper materials to get that down to just $US150 ($198). The new Steel HR isn’t quite that cheap, but at $US180 ($238) for the 36mm version, and $US200 ($265) for the 40mm, it offers a decent amount of functionality in a form factor that most smartwatch haters might actually want to wear.

Australian pricing and availability has yet to be confirmed.

[MIKA27]

A 60-Year-Old Pattern In The Stratosphere Just Reversed

For six decades, scientists have watched a steadily circulating wind pattern in the tropical stratosphere, repeating like clockwork every two years. Now, for the first time, it’s changed direction.

The pattern is called the quasi-biennial oscillation and it’s a wind circulation that occurs every 28 months, miles above Earth’s surface in the stratosphere. West-moving winds from the top of the tropical stratosphere slowly move downwards and are replaced in that top position by the easterly winds that were below them. Then the whole switch occurs repeats itself again and again, for the last 60 years at least.

But at the end of last year, right when the west-moving winds were supposed to be moving down to start the switching pattern, instead, they rose right back upwards. The new pattern held for a full six months before the east winds finally replaced them again at the top this July.

Researchers from NASA Goddard revealed the change in a paper in Geophysical Research Letters. The switch hasn’t yet had any visible impact on existing weather patterns — besides the shift in wind circulation — but the sudden change still has scientists surprised and searching for an explanation. “The quasi-biennial oscillation is the stratosphere’s Old Faithful,” Paul Newman, lead scientist on the paper from NASA Goddard said in a statement. “If Old Faithful stopped for a day, you’d begin to wonder about what was happening under the ground.”

Newman suggested two potential theories that could explain the switch. One is that it was yet another strange side-effect from the gigantic El Niño we just saw. But he also suspects that it could be an effect of our new, hot climate. The researchers are now trying to figure out just what the impact of the switch might be — and whether, as the world continues to warm, we’re going to see it happen again.

[MIKA27]

Scientists Think They Have Found A Giant Ice Volcano On Ceres

On a lonely, cratered plain near the equator of dwarf planet Ceres, a mountain half the height of Everest spirals into an airless abyss. A few hundred million years ago, briny ice lavas from deep beneath the surface pushed Ahuna Mons up, freezing again as they oozed across the mountain’s rugged peak.

That, at least, is a likely explanation for how the strange planetary pimple formed, according to research published this week in Science, which adds Ahuna Mons to the ranks of potential cryovolcanic mountains in our solar system. Ice volcanoes sound like something straight out a Narnia-inspired fantasy realm, but for years astronomers have suspected such wonders exist in the frigid reaches of the outer solar system. Pluto, its moon Charon and Saturn’s moon Titan have all been pegged as potential sites of cryovolcanic activity. Now, Ceres is joining their ranks.

“This is an amazing construct and a huge mountain,” Christopher Russell, principal investigator for NASA’s Dawn Mission told Gizmodo. “It’s nothing like a terrestrial ice mound we’ve ever seen.”

The largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres has been the subject of an intense scientific campaign ever since NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft arrived in orbit last autumn. We’ve marvelled over its mysterious bright spots, which turned out (not so mysteriously) to be giant piles of salt. We’ve mapped its surface, named its craters after mythological deities and speculated about the layers of ice, salt and rock hidden below.

Now, a lone icy mountain offers our best evidence yet that Ceres has been geologically active in the recent past. Analysing a wealth of images captured by the Dawn spacecraft’s framing camera, a team led by Ottaviano Ruesch of the Goddard Spaceflight Center pieced together an origin story for Ahuna Mons, which sits all by itself on a flat surface pockmarked by a smattering of craters.

“It is a really isolated feature,” Ruesch told Gizmodo. “On Earth, we have tectonic plates that can create mountains, and we have erosion that can create an isolated dome. The only process that made sense here on the basis of the geologic map was cryovolcanism.”

Volcanism, as we know it on Earth, involves silicate rocks melting under extreme temperatures and pressures, before being squeezed to the surface as lava. While this type of volcanic activity used to occur on Venus and Mars as well, the story gets more complicated when we start to look further afield. Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system, spews an exotic mixture of sulphur compounds into space. On Saturn’s Enceladus, geyser-like curtains of water ice and salt erupt through cracks in the moon’s thick, frozen shell, blasting alien seawater directly into the gas giant’s rings.

“In the outer solar system, we never see classic volcanoes because the temperatures are so low,” Ruesch explained. “Instead, we have salty water ice. At the right temperatures, that material can become molten and rise to the surface.”

That process, Ruesch and his colleagues say, is what formed Ahuna Mons, a 4km high, 15km wide mountain with steep flanks and a flat, pitted summit. “If you look at the mountain, it has dirt on top of it, as if it was just lifted out of the crust,” Russell said. “This is not made by something coming up in the centre and pouring over the edges. It just lifted the ground underneath it, like an elevator coming up out of the planet.”

But some researchers aren’t convinced. Jeffrey Moore, head of the Geology Geophysics Imaging Team for the New Horizons mission, has spent the last year grappling with features on Pluto that look an awful lot like ice volcanoes, too. In his mind, the evidence for cryovolcanism on Ceres isn’t definitive.

“It’s an intriguing hypothesis that it is a volcano, and it’s hard to explain without a volcano, but in my view it’s not conclusive,” Moore told Gizmodo. “If Ahuna Mons had more unambiguous flow features coming out of the volcano and down the slope, or a more conspicuous central depression, I think it’d be an easier sell.”

Ice volcano or not, whatever built the mountain occurred recently: Based on the nearby cratering record, Ahuna Mons is just a few hundred million years old. That’s a geologic blink compared with Ceres’ 4.5 billion year history, and it implies that the dwarf planet has been active for most of its lifespan. While any core heat from the planet’s formation has likely dissipated, Russell speculates that transient geologic activity can occur today when an asteroid slams into Ceres, releasing enough energy to partially melt some of the ices beneath the surface.

“The fact that we’ve got one pristine, new feature like this, suggests [mountain formation] is an ongoing phenomenon that has happened over the history of Ceres,” Russell said. “We could maybe expect a new one to appear some day.”

Although Dawn’s primary science mission has ended, the spacecraft still has fuel and is expected to continue observing Ceres for months to come. After hovering just 385km above the dwarf planet’s surface for the past eight months, tomorrow Dawn will begin to ascend to a higher orbit, which should allow the spacecraft to more precisely orient itself toward specific regions of interest.

And while there are still many riddles to solve, it’s clear from what we’ve learned so far that Ceres is much more than a simple asteroid.

“For you and me, what defines us is what’s inside us,” Russell said. “Ceres is doing things that are planetary. It has the processes that go on inside a planet and the processes that happen on the surface of a planet. It really is a member of the solar system with a life of its own. I think that’s a major discovery.”

 

[MIKA27]

Italian Scientists to Drill into Active Supervolcano

Volcanologists in Italy announced plans to drill 1.9 miles deep into the Campi Flegrei supervolcano under Naples – a supervolcano whose last two eruptions cause global catastrophes. What could possibly go wrong? Or, as the residents of Naples put it – “ARE YOU PEOPLE OUT OF YOUR MINDS????”

Are the residents of Naples overreacting? Hardly. Campi Flegrei (the name means “burning fields” – not a good sign) has had two known major eruptions big enough to have earned names. The Neapolitan Yellow Tuff occurred about 15,000 years ago while the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption took place 39,000 years ago. Both resulted in climate changes – the temperature drop caused by the Campanian Ignimbrite is partially blamed for the extinction of the Neanderthals. The last eruption in 1538 created the new mountain called Monte Nuovo.

Monte Nuovo and its nearby nervous population

Today, Monte Nuovo and the surrounding area is constantly monitored and experiences frequent tremors. In Pozzuoli, 15 km (9 miles) west of Naples, the ground has been shifting and uplifting for the past 50 years, including a damaging two meter (6.5 feet) rise that forced 36,000 residents to evacuate. It’s known to be bigger than Vesuvius and almost as big as Yellowstone and it’s a caldera – a massive collapsed volcano forming a huge magma chamber under nearly the entire Gulf of Naples and surrounding coastal area.

Clearly, Campi Flegrei is not a supervolcano to be messed with.

And yet … in 2008, a group of scientists proposed the Campi Flegrei Deep Drilling Project which would drill a 3.5-km (2.2 mile) diagonal borehole into it to bring up samples and install seismic equipment. They received approval and drilled a pilot borehole about 500 meters (1,640 feet or .3 miles). That drilling was suspended in 2010 due to safety issues.

We are sure that there is no risk for the population.

That’s Dr. Stefano Carlino, a volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, who has gotten the old gang back together for another try. They recently installed an array of optical fiber sensors off the coast of Naples to monitor the magma activity. Carlino says he isn’t worried because the hole he wants to drill is only 1.9 miles (3 km) down while the bubbling, volatile and unpredictable (that’s why they’re putting seismic equipment down there, right?) magma is 4.97 miles (8 km) deep.

However, progress and drilling continue to be halted by pesky scientists and panicked Neapolitans who are afraid of Campi Flegrei erupting again but don’t want it to be human-induced. Dr. Luca De Siena, a volcanologist at the University of Aberdeen who has spent four years at the Vesuvius Observatory, which monitors Camp Flegrei, puts it best:

This is a perfect example of striking the balance between not doing enough to prevent a catastrophe, and doing too much.

Tough decision – one the people living around Yellowstone may someday have to make. Who will win?

[MIKA27]

MITCHTER'S BARREL STRENGTH RYE WHISKEY

It's not easy to get your hands on a bottle of Mitchter's Bourbon or Rye Whiskey, but this release of Mitchter's Barrel Strength Rye Whiskey is available — at least for the time being. While most whiskey enters the barrel around 125 proof, Mitchter's Rye goes in at 103 proof — which costs more and provides a richer tasting product at a younger age. The rye is also a single barrel release, and this particular batch weighs in at 114.2 proof. Available now and a perfect addition to your growing whiskey collection.

[MIKA27]

Downhill Urban Mountain Biking Is a Thing, and It's Equal Parts Fascinating and Batshit

This week in "Things That Will Increase Your Heartrate Tenfold," we've got urban downhill mountain biking, which is pretty much as batshit as it sounds.

Marcelo Gutiérrez attached a camera to himself and plummeted down a winding obstacle course smack in the middle of the narrow streets of Chile and Slovakia during an urban downhill mountain bike racing competition, because normal downhill mountain biking was just too darn inconvenient.

Why travel all the way to a mountainous area to thrown yourself down a bunch of steep rocks when you've got a lovely city with plenty of buildings, walls, cement poles, and powerlines to dodge around every corner?

[MIKA27]

Gene Wilder Said Tim Burton's Remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Is an "Insult"

In the week following the tragic passing of comedic genius Gene Wilder, an interview has resurfaced from June 2013, in which Wilder sat down with with Robert Osborne at 92Y. During the half-hour discussion, the two spoke about Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks, and Wilder's decision to stay off the big screen. However, the topic that's really getting fans going is less than a minute long, and it's something pretty much all of us can agree with—that the 2005 adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an actual piece of trash.

"I think it's an insult," Wilder told Osbourne when asked about Tim Burton's remake. "...To do that with Johnny Depp, who I think is a good actor and I like him, but I don't care for that director. He's a talented man, but I don't care for him for doing stuff like he did."

Wilder also discussed Willy Wonka's grand entrance into the film—and how it was all his idea:

"I said [to Mel Stuart], 'It's very good, but there's something missing. If I play that part, I want to come out with a cane…And then have the cane stick into one of the bricks that are down there and then get up, start to fall over, and then roll around, and they all laugh and applaud. From that time on, no one will know whether I'm lying or telling the truth."

May the true Willy Wonka rest in peace.

 

[MIKA27]

The Mythbusters Build Team Is Reuniting for a New Netflix Series

Mythbusters was officially busted last year after a 14-season run, but Netflix is giving fans hope after ordering a new series featuring the Discovery show's build team.

Deadline reports that White Rabbit Project, an unscripted original series from Beyond Productions, stars Mythbusters' Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara. Beyond Productions' John Luscombe, Ryan Senter, and Martyn Ives will serve as executive producers, so we can only hope they'll invite Adam and Jamie for golden cameos.

White Rabbit Project won't be busting any myths, but Byron, Belleci, and Imahara will investigate "weird and wonderful events from pop culture, science, and history" including "jailbreaks, superpower technology, heists, and crazy [WWII] weapons," according to Deadline. The show will be available on Netflix globally on December 9th.

[MIKA27]

Giant Pandas Are No Longer Endangered

By the mercy of some higher power, the giant panda — an oversized mashup between a raccoon and a sloth whose offspring can’t poop on their own — is no longer endangered. At a meeting of the World Conservation Congress in Hawaii this weekend, experts took giant pandas off the IUCN’s official Red List, citing a population rebound in China.

That’s right: Thanks to a concerted effort on the part of the Chinese government to prevent its national icon from dying, the population of giant pandas in the wild has increased some 17 per cent in recent years, reaching over 2000 individuals for the first time in decades. The rebound, which has now seen pandas officially reclassified as “vulnerable”, can be attributed to an increase in the amount of bamboo forest, and stricter anti-poaching measures.

“Just by restoring the panda’s habitat, that’s given them back their space and made food available to them,” Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List, told the BBC.

But the future for giant pandas is by no means secure. As the Washington Post noted last autumn, while the amount of panda-friendly bamboo forest has indeed increased, new habitats are patchy, isolated and can only support a few dozen individuals each. Of the 33 separate panda populations that existed in China as of 2015, 18 had fewer than 10 individuals and faced a “high risk of extinction”. China is attempting to solve this problem with new wildlife reserves, but its own panda experts aren’t sure that they have made enough progress yet to merit a reclassification.

What’s more, as climate change progresses, roughly a third of the potential bamboo habitat available for pandas is expected to disappear.

Still, any conservation success stories ought to be applauded this day and age, if only to remind us that human beings do have the capacity to effect positive change in the natural world. And while some have argued that we should just let pandas die already, I’d like to submit this video, of Chinese zookeepers donning dollar store panda onesies and spraying them with actual panda urine, as proof that love don’t come easy, and that anybody who wants to give up on the animal behind world’s most adorable sushi roll is a monster.

 

[MIKA27]

Physics-Defying “EmDrive” Warp Engine To Be Tested

One of the biggest hurdles to reaching deep space and colonizing other planets is the incredible distances between objects in space and the amount of fuel it would take to reach them. One new theoretical engine, the “EmDrive,” has the potential to change that and help humanity realize our future among the stars.

The EmDrive engine.

The controversial “EmDrive” engine has been making headlines since at least 2006. Recently, the engine made waves when a paper outlining its technology and test results was finally accepted by peer review into the prominent American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Journal of Propulsion and Power. Now, a designer of one such engine has brought the radical space tech one step closer to reality by claiming he will send it into space for the first real test of the EmDrive.

Roger Shawyer, original inventor of the propulsion technology used in the EmDrive.

If successful, the trials of the EmDrive have the potential to be the first step in enabling human exploration into the vast reaches of deep space. According to some claims, the engine could enable spacecraft to make the journey from Earth to Mars in just seventy days.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome to achieve deep space flight is finding sufficient fuel sources; the EmDrive could remedy that through eliminating the need for propellant altogether.

The EmDrive works through what is the scientific equivalent of magic, breaking one of the fundamental laws of physics in the process: the law of conservation of momentum. The EmDrive does not use a propellant or fuel, but instead contains an electric generator that sends electromagnetic waves towards the rear of the engine, where they collide with the engine itself, creating thrust. That should create heat and a slight amount of momentum in the opposite direction, according to the laws of physics, but due to the nature of the electromagnetic waves created by the EmDrive, the heat generated is so small as to be physically impossible. Thus, the engine can run “cool” and efficiently while creating massive amounts of thrust.

 

An American chemical engineer and inventor, Guido Fetta, plans to send his EmDrive into space aboard a tiny CubeSat satellite, where it is planned to orbit the Earth for over six months to demonstrate the feasibility of the drive technology. Keep your fingers crossed – this test could wind up being remembered much in the same way the Wright brother’s flights at Kitty Hawk or the trans-Atlantic voyages of Columbus are today.

[MIKA27]

This Australian Coffee Drink Is So Effective It Might Just Kill You

Does a cup of coffee just not provide the jolt you need in the morning? How about 80 cups instead? According to Mashable, a coffee shop in Australia has unveiled a drink called the The Adelaide Ass-Kicker, which could be one of the world's strongest cups of joe.

The Adelaide Advertiser reports that the Ass-Kicker has four shots of espresso, four ice cubes madde from 48-hour brewed cold drip ice cubes, 120 milliliters of 10-day brewed cold drip coffee and then four more cold drip ice cubes. Each of these ice cubes has the caffeine equivalent of two shots of espresso. In total, the drink contains five grams of caffeine, about 80 times the amount of a single-shot drink, and half the amount of caffeine that is considered fatal.

Steve Bennington, owner of Viscous Coffee, told the newspaper that you should drink it gradually, over a period of several hours or even days. If you drink it properly, you should have a caffeine buzz going for a whopping 12 to 18 hours. He told the newspaper that the drink was designed for an ER nurse who had to be awake for an overnight shift; she drank it over two days and was up for three days straight. The version available in the shop, believe it or not, is "toned down" from the original. It comes in a small, medium, or large size, with a range of six to 18 hours of "up time" as a result.

Of course, this level of caffeine is risky, especially if you have any health conditions. The menu at the cafe warns customers who have high blood pressure or heart conditions to think twice before ordering the Ass-Kicker. According to the FDA, the average American adult consumes 200 mg of caffeine every day, a tiny fraction of that one drink.

[MIKA27]

JACK DANIEL’S 150TH ANNIVERSARY WHISKEY

It’s hard to believe the Jack Daniel Distillery turned 150 years old the year. Not only is this number a testament to Jack’s success over the years, but also living proof of America’s love for whiskey. And since sesquicentennial anniversaries are of course a big deal, it seemed quite appropriate that Jack Daniel Distillery celebrates the monumental year the only way they know how, with quality whiskey.

For a limited time, Jack Daniel’s will be offering this special ode to their accomplishment, their 150th Anniversary Tennessee Whiskey, which brings together nothing but the best of their coopers’ and distillers’ art. It’s barreled and bottled at 100 proof, yielding an ABV of 50% -quite intentional we may add- and boasts a delicious and complex flavor profile that’s unlike anything they’ve released in the past. We for one are quite excited to get out hands on a bottle, though there’s little word on pricing at the moment. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

R2-D2 LIFE SIZED FIGURE

Only a handful of movies ever have ever really accomplished the feat of making viewers want to live in the world that they created. Star Wars, unsurprisingly, is one of those few. While you may not be able to go live in a galaxy far far away, you can at least bring a little of that world into your old home with this Life Sized R2-D2.

Standing 4 feet tall, this model does just about everything you’d hope a life sized model would do. This thing features all of the lights, sounds, and holograms that R2 makes in the movies, and can even rotate it’s head left and right. You can control all of this via a remote stored secretly next to the speaker. To top it all off, the little droid who could comes on a piece of what looks like the Millennium Falcon so it all comes off as that much more authentic. Prices are set at $7,450. [Purchase]

MIKA: @Fuzz could actually fit into this

[MIKA27]

ALPA ANNIVERSARY EDITION CAMERA

Alpa stated making 35mm cameras in the early '40s, and got the brand registered in 1946. in 1996, it was purchased and resurrected as Alpa of Switzerland, maker of medium format cameras. The Alpa Anniversary Edition Camera celebrates both of these anniversaries with a limited release of its first medium format model, the Alpa 12 SWA. The rosewood-gripped camera arrives in a special edition case with a Rodenstock/Alpa HR Alpagon 5.6/70 mm lens, Alpa/Linhof 6x9 roll film back, Alpa viewfinder, and Fujilfilm Acros 100 film, among other accessories. It's limited to just 20 examples, and thanks to its modular system, it's easy to add a digital back and use it for decades to come.

[oliverdst]

Wilder also discussed Willy Wonka's grand entrance into the film—and how it was all his idea:

"I said [to Mel Stuart], 'It's very good, but there's something missing. If I play that part, I want to come out with a cane…And then have the cane stick into one of the bricks that are down there and then get up, start to fall over, and then roll around, and they all laugh and applaud. From that time on, no one will know whether I'm lying or telling the truth."

 

At 08'40''