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

[MIKA27]

Beautiful Video Shows Every Season Of A Year On One Running Route

When you run over 240km on the same route over the course of a year and take a total of 98,366 photos of that route while braving the snow, the rain, the cold, the heat and all the crazy things the elements can thrown at you, you get a pretty fantastic hyperlapse video that blends all the different seasons together. It’s really cool to see the environment and the city suddenly morph and change all around a single 8km loop in Montana.

Jeff Dougherty made this video in 2015 in preparation for the Madison Marathon in Montana, a very decent place to be outdoors.

[MIKA27]

These Goofy Dudes Just So Happen To Be Incredible Ping Pong Players

 

What have we learned from this compilation of Takkyuugeinin’s “table tennis entertainment” vines?

• A cast iron skillet is not the worst paddle.
• Ping pong balls do not make a very good shirt.
• Bathrooms, parks and robberies are all good times to practise sports.
• Making ping pong funny requires incredible ping pong skills.
• Screaming helps. Always.

Watch more of Takkyuugeinin’s vines here. They’re all very good.

[MIKA27]

Watch A Totally Crazy Low Pass Flyby And Aileron Roll From Inside A MiG-21 Cockpit

The Libyan Air Force sure loves pulling wild stunts from inside its MiG fighter jets. This time we get to see the perspective of an insane low pass — and the plane flies so low that you’d think it was trying to land and touch down on the ground — from inside the cockpit. It’s a crazy new angle to the madness of flybys like these.

The pilot even threw in an aileron roll — when a plane makes a full 360-degree revolution on its longitudinal axis — for good measure.

 

[MIKA27]

Australian Researchers Say Feral Cats Are An Ecological Disaster

If you’re like me, your brain is so riddled with cat virus that you never want to hear anything negative about our whiskered overlords. But sometimes, the truth is so dark it simply begs to be thrust into the light. This is one of those times.

Cats are an ecological disaster — they’re shaping up to be one of the biggest contributors to the sixth mass extinction. A global analysis published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences finds that feral cats have helped drive at least 63 species of birds, mammals and reptiles into the dirt over the past 500 years. The only group of invasive predators that’s done more harm is rodents, which are linked to 75 species extinctions.

Dog lovers have no right to be smug, either: Woof-woof is also making a killing out there, contributing to nearly a dozen extinctions as an invasive predator.

The fact that our furry lap companions are wreaking ecological havoc isn’t exactly news to biologists. For years, scientists have been methodically documenting the impact of introduced predators around the world, from rats killing rare native birds in New Zealand, to feral cats and introduced foxes decimating Australia’s digging mammals. But until now, no single study could tell us just how bad the problem was on a global scale.

“We identified a need for a worldwide assessment across all regions and predator species,” Tim Doherty of Deakin University in Australia told Gizmodo. “This information allows us to determine how invasive predator impacts vary across predators, prey species and geographic locations.”

Pulling data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List and other sources, Doherty and his colleagues have now confirmed that invasive predators — primarily rodents and cats, but also dogs, pigs, red foxes and the small Indian mongoose — are a leading cause of declining biodiversity worldwide. All told, invasive predators have contributed to at least 87 bird, 45 mammal and 10 reptile extinctions, which amounts to more than half of all known extinctions in these groups. Another 596 species are now threatened by introduced carnivores.

“The large number of extinctions invasive predators have contributed to was shocking,” Doherty said.

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of species that have fallen victim to invasive predators are what ecologists call “insular endemics”: Animals that are geographically isolated and in many cases occupy a narrow ecological niche. Countries like New Zealand and Madagascar, both renowned for their endemic biodiversity, are among the hardest-hit.

Clearly, these places ought to be taking the problem seriously. This winter, New Zealand announced its intention to eradicate all introduced predators by 2050, including rats, possums, stoats, ferrets and feral cats. But how exactly the island nation plans on achieving that remains to be seen.

In all likelihood, eradicating invasive predators is going to take a mix of tried-and-true methods like lethal trapping and predator fences, and newer, more speculative technologies like gene drive. By shedding light on just how many species are at stake, Doherty hopes his study will spur new investment in this area.

Of course, you also have an important part to play, by keeping your beloved critters indoors. If you must let them out, at least make sure they’re fixed.

 

[MIKA27]

The Washington Post Throws Snowden Under The Bus

Although The Washington Post shared a Pulitzer prize with The Guardian for its reporting on the NSA leaks provided by Edward Snowden, yesterday its editorial board became the first to call for the prosecution of its own source.

Last night’s joint op-ed from the Post‘s editorial board comes at a moment when activists are in the midst of a concerted campaign to lobby President Obama to pardon Snowden. It makes sense that the Post would take this moment to give an official opinion about whether Snowden is a criminal. What’s baffling is that they seem to imply that no public interest was served by any of the leaks except for one — one they aren’t responsible for revealing.

Outlets like The Guardian, The New York Times and The Intercept have all weighed in and said that Snowden is a whistleblower who did a service for the public. But The Washington Post’s position is that only the leaks that related to the NSA’s collection of mobile phone metadata were justified.

Regarding that metadata case, the editors say:

The program was a stretch, if not an outright violation, of federal surveillance law, and posed risks to privacy. Congress and the president eventually responded with corrective legislation. It’s fair to say we owe these necessary reforms to Mr. Snowden.

Those specific revelations were revealed by The Guardian, the publication that shared the Pulitzer with The Post in 2014.

The rest of the op-ed outlines the ways in which Snowden’s actions were not justifiable and points to stories that were made public by the very paper that these critical words were printed in.

It was The Washington Post that chose to print the details of the secret PRISM program. This is what they have to say now:

The complication is that Mr. Snowden did more than that. He also pilfered, and leaked, information about a separate overseas NSA Internet-monitoring program, PRISM, that was both clearly legal and not clearly threatening to privacy. (It was also not permanent; the law authorizing it expires next year.)

If the legality was so clear and the lack of threat to privacy was also readily apparent, why did The Washington Post publish its report? And then why did it seek the Pulitzer prize? And why is this op-ed so lacking in self-criticism?

It probably won’t surprise you that Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists responsible for publishing the Snowden leaks, has a detailed takedown of The Post‘s odd position and reasoning. It’s well worth a read.

A question remains: Why did staff members of The Washington Post print the leaks that they don’t believe the public needed to know about?

[MIKA27]

Zack Snyder Gives First Look At Commissioner Gordon In Justice League

Zack Snyder has revealed the first image of J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon in the upcoming DC superhero saga, Justice League, and the guy looks pretty good in black and white.

Snyder shared the set photo on Twitter for Batman Day, which also gives us a glance at the new Batfleck signal. It definitely harkens back to the look and feel of the 1989 Batman film, with Gordon standing heroically against a backdrop of fog-lined rooftops.

Could this mean the film will be less city-wide explosion fests and more classic gothic Gotham? Only time (and Snyder) will tell.

Justice League looks to take place primarily in Gotham City, where Batman and Wonder Woman are putting together a team of heroes to fight the evil Steppenwolf. We’ll see the arrival of Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash, with Superman coming back from the non-dead to join the team.

Justice League is currently being filmed and is set to come out late-2017.

[MIKA27]

Lexus' Super-Comfy Kinetic Car Seat Is Made From Synthetic Spider Silk

Lexus, having run out of other car bits to revolutionise, has decided to tackle the venerable seat. As in, what you sit on. And we’re not talking extra cushioning or some sort of intricate, Bond-inspired ejection system. No, Lexus has decided to make its own spider silk for this baby, so you can enjoy your own, uh, web of comfort.

The automobile manufacturer took the wraps off its “Kinetic Seat Concept” a few days ago at the 2016 Paris Motor Show. The idea behind the souped-up chair is that it will better stabilise your body against driving forces, reducing “the burden”, Gamgee-style and inevitably increasing one’s comfort as you drive the ring into Mordor:

In humans, the spine acts to stabilize the head. It allows the pelvis and chest to rotate in opposite directions, stabilizing movement of the head even while walking or jogging. In order to recreate this movement in car seats, the seat cushion and back rest were designed to move kinetically with occupant weight and external forces. Thus, simply sitting in the seat helps stabilize head movement caused by vehicle motion, keeping the field of vision steady.

As for the spider silk, Lexus appears to have gone all out in the chemistry department. While the company’s press release doesn’t go into molecular detail, it certainly sounds like a lot of effort has been poured into its creation:

The threads at the back rest of the spider web-pattern construction are made from environmentally-conscious synthetic spider silk materials instead of petroleum-derived materials. The main component of this material is protein, which is created through microbial fermentation, then spun and processed into a new material offering superior shock absorbance properties.

Now all Lexus needs to do is figure out a way to craft synthetic cheetahs to replace its engines. That technology is probably a fair way off, I imagine.

[MIKA27]

The Best Astronomy Images Of 2016 Are Truly Out Of This World

The winners of the annual Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year have been announced. From eerie eclipses through to battered lunar landscapes, these images are an absolute treat.

The Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Now in its eighth year, the competition received an unprecedented 4500 entries from over 80 countries. Here are the winning images, along with the runner’s up, for each category.

Overall Winner: Baily’s Beads, Yu Jun

China’s Yu Jun captured the “Baily’s Beads” effect during the total solar eclipse of 9 March 2016, as seen from Luwuk, Indonesia. As the Moon passes in front of the Sun, its surface allows beads of sunlight to escape in some places and not in others. Yun captured the different beads of sunlight that leak from behind the Moon throughout the eclipse and stacked them on top of one another to create this unusual picture.

Winner of Aurorae: Twilight Aurora, György Soponyai

A stunning Aurora Borealis as seen above the Adventtoppen Mountain in Norway.

Winner of Galaxies: M94: Deep Space Halo, Nicolas Outters

Messier 94, or M94, is a distant spiral galaxy lying approximately 16 million light-years away from our planet. The shimmering pinks of the inner ring show the hectic star forming activity leading to the term “starburst ring”. Photographer Nicolas Outters also captured the often unseen galactic halo of M94 made up of stars, hot gases and dark matter.

Winner of Our Moon: From Maurolycus to Moretus, Jordi Delpeix Borrell

An incredibly close-up view of the battered lunar landscape littered with craters forged by impacts from meteors and asteroids.

Winner of Planets, Comets & Asteroids: Serene Saturn, Damian Peach

This stunning photograph depicts Saturn’s famed rings in great detail with striking contrast between each of them. Storms are visible across the face of the planet, as well as the astronomical mystery that is the hexagon at Saturn’s north pole.

Winner of Skyscapes: Binary Haze, Ainsley Bennett

 A misty morning on the Isle of Wight is the setting for this image resembling an eerie scene from a science fiction film. The obscuring weather actually accentuated the brightness of Venus and the crescent Moon and transformed them to appear as glowing orbs floating over the countryside.

Winner of Young Photogapher (Under 15): Lunar Reversal, Brendan Devine

A truly innovative, high-contrast image of the Moon that’s been inverted to bring out the intricate details of the rugged, lunar landscape that we often miss in more traditional shots of our natural satellite. This one is my personal favourite

Winner of Best Newcomer: Large Magellanic Cloud, Carlos Fairbairn

A gorgeous images of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy and close neighbour, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Winner of Robotic Scope: Iridis, Robert Smith

This composite image compares the slitless spectroscopy of two planetary nebulae — the Cat’s Eye Nebula at the top, and the Ring Nebula below.

Runner Up, Our Sun: Sun Flower Corona, Catalin Beldea and Alson Wong

A composite of 12 images taken during the total solar eclipse on 9 March 2016 from Tidore Island in Eastern Indonesia.

Runner Up, Aurorae: Black and White Aurora, Kolbein Svensson

An unconventional view of the aurora, simply in black and white. The removal of the vivid colours so commonly associated with the Northern Lights brings out the fluidity of the aurora and the stark contrast it forms against the night sky.

Runner Up, Galaxies: Towards the Small Magellanic Cloud, Ignacio Diaz Bobillo

The Small Magellanic Cloud is seen on the left hand side of the image in a flurry of blues and pinks that illustrate the several hundred million stars contained within the dwarf galaxy. The globular cluster, 47 Tucanae, is seen glowing a vibrant orange, in the upper right corner of the photograph.

Runner Up, Stars & Nebulae: Perseus Molecular Cloud, Pavel Pech

The Perseus Molecular Cloud lies 600 light-years from our planet, and it’s home to a large number of deep sky objects, the most famous of which is NGC1333 in the top right part of the image, radiating a vivid blue.

 

 

 

 

[MIKA27]

Yes, That Is A Man-Bear With A Gatling Gun In This Insane New Trailer For Russia's Guardians 

The last time we got a trailer for Guardians, it was bananas and weird and all in Russian. And there was a Bear-Man that came out of nowhere. Now we have some curious dubbing, a city-ruining battle and a Bear-Man tossing a man in the air and venting him with a gatling gun. Wait.

This movie doesn’t get less great the more absurdities it unleashes into the world. The plot — which really doesn’t matter — is about a group of people with powers culled from the Soviet Union to fight for whatever the Soviet version of “truth, justice and the American way” was.

Enjoy both the epic dubbing and the sad pop song.

[MIKA27]

Fly to the Stratosphere For Only $75,000

While Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and occasionally Richard Branson get all of the attention for their successes and failures in commercializing space travel and bringing it to the (rich) masses, a small Arizona firm is very close to implementing safe and affordable two-hour trips to the stratosphere for the unbelievably low price of $75,000 – no coupons needed. Why haven’t we heard about them? Could it be because we think rockets and planes are sexier than balloons?

At the 2016 Arizona SciTech Festival held last week in Scottsdale, World View Enterprises CEO and co-founder Jane Poynter brought everyone up-to-date on the project in her address. If her name sounds familiar, it could be because she was a designer and one of the original crew members who spent two years in the sealed, self-sustaining habitat known as Biosphere 2. She later founded Paragon Space Development Corporation, a developer of sustainable technologies for extreme conditions.

Poynter founded World View in 2014 with aerospace engineers from the StratEx Space Dive program which successfully sent Google Executive Alan Eustace to 136,000 feet and back in a high-altitude balloon. Since then, the company has tested a 1/10th-scale model of its Voyager space capsule and this month successfully carried a miniature solar observatory to 100,000 feet on a five-hour high-altitude balloon flight for NASA.

The Voyager is a big reason why $75,000 is a bargain. The pressurized capsule is big enough for six passengers plus two crew members, will provide a 360-degree view and have a bar, a restroom and Wifi. The Voyager voyage can last up to five hours with up to two hours at peak altitude of 20 miles. After the ascent and rest stop under the balloon, the capsule will return to the launch site via the Parawing parafoil.

With the SpaceX explosion still fresh in everyone’s minds, is space balloon travel really safer?

The technology behind World View has been used safely and successfully for decades. Complications are very rare [on the balloons]. That said, we won’t rest until every aspect of the flight system is meticulously designed, tested, and tested again. We’re building numerous safety redundancies into our flight system so that no matter what the scenario, we can safely return passengers gently and quickly back down to earth.

That’s a great applause line, Jane Poynter, but it leaves out a couple of critical points. One, the 20 mile altitude is far below the official 62-mile boundary of space and the Voyager passengers will not be weightless. Two, the full-sized Voyager and the ParaWing have not been tested together. That needs to be done pretty quickly to meet the company’s goal of holding its first manned flight in 2017.

Still, a two-hour vacation at 20 miles in space for the price of a luxury car sounds pretty attractive. And don’t forget the free Wifi!

[MIKA27]

REBEL YELL SINGLE BARREL BOURBON

Originally part of the Stitzel-Weller bourbon family — known for their groundbreaking line of wheated bourbons, the Rebel Yell brand knows a thing or two about a high-quality wheater. Rebel Yell Single Barrel Bourbon is the latest release from the brand name that started all the way back in 1849, and contains a wheated bourbon recipe, which uses the sweeter wheat grain instead of the more typically used rye. It's aged for a full 10 years in new, charred, American oak barrels and packaged with the trusted Rebel Yell name at 100 proof.

[gweilgi]

On 16 September 2016 at 4:30 PM, Fuzz said:

Ra's al Ghul is a far superior villain, and a true nemesis to Batsy.

Maybe so, but his name just sounds like a Middle Eastern spice mix to me.

A proper super-villain needs a proper super-villainy name.

 

[Fuzz]

3 hours ago, gweilgi said:

Maybe so, but his name just sounds like a Middle Eastern spice mix to me.

A proper super-villain needs a proper super-villainy name.

 

Yeah, like Crazy Quilt or Ten Eyed Man...

[MIKA27]

Yes, There'll Be A New Star Wars Story Film In 2020, But What Will It Be?

Back in 2012 when Disney bought Lucasfilm, the plan was simple. Starting in 2015, they’d release a new Star Wars movie every year — and that’s the plan up to 2019’s Episode IX. We all assumed a new Star Wars Story would follow in 2020 but publicly, very little had been said about the possibility. Until today.

Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Wednesday (via The Wrap) and said he recently spoke with Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy about the future of Star Wars.

“I had a meeting yesterday with Kathy Kennedy and we mapped out — well, we reviewed — the Star Wars plans that we have ’til 2020,” Iger said. “We have movies in development for Star Wars ’til then, and we started talking about what we’re going to do in 2021 and beyond.”

The 2020 movie, Iger then confirmed, is a third Star Wars Story which already has a writer attached. Who that writer is or what the Star Wars Story is about is, of course, a mystery. (As is what movie will premiere in 2021. Episode X, perhaps?)

When the standalone movies were first announced, two names were revealed: directors Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank. Edwards, of course, is making this year’s Rogue One. Trank eventually left his project, and the long accepted rumour is that his movie was put on pause for the 2018 Han Solo standalone, directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord.

While it’s unconfirmed, most people believe that the Trank movie was going to be a Boba Fett story written by Simon Kinberg. Years prior, Kinberg and Lawerence Kasdan were confirmed to be writing Star Wars spinoffs. Kasdan’s was later revealed to be the Han Solo film, while Kinberg’s remains a mystery. (Kinberg and Trank also worked together on Fantastic Four, for whatever that’s worth.)

So could the 2020 movie be the Simon Kinberg script? That would be the smart bet. Is it about Boba Fett, though? We honestly do not know. But it’s still great to hear the big cheese at Disney finally confirm the new era of Star Wars will not end with Episode IX.

[MIKA27]

This Bullet-Shaped Bike Just Set A Human-Powered Speed Record

There’s no room for your briefcase so it’s hard to use for your daily commute, but just think of how fast you’d ride to work on the Aerovelo Eta, which just set a new record for the World’s Fastest Human-Powered vehicle by reaching 145km/hour. That’s faster than you’re legally allowed to drive on most highways.

The record was broken at the World Human Powered Speed Challenge held in Battle Mountain, Nevada, but the Eta was in no way assisted by a downhill grade. Hitting 145km/hour was made possible by the skill and stamina of pilot Todd Reichert, who also happens to be one of Aerovolo’s co-founders, as well as the technological improvements made to the bike.

The Eta might possibly be the most uncomfortable-looking recumbent bike imaginable, but its low centre of gravity, razor-thin tires, lightweight frame and bullet-like outer housing help minimise rolling friction and wind resistance.

In fact, the amount of pedalling energy needed to reach that record-breaking speed was roughly equivalent to how much power you’d need to illuminate three light bulbs. Maybe we should just give up on the idea of electric cars altogether and start pedalling everywhere we need to go instead.

 

[MIKA27]

Nazi Time Capsule Opened In Poland, But It's Missing A Movie From 1934

Researchers in Poland have uncovered a time capsule, dating from 1934. But this isn’t some ordinary time capsule with the run of the mill items you might expect. Sure, it has newspapers, coins, and books — common items for any time capsule. But these items were buried by Nazis. The books inside? Two copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, in perfect condition.

The large copper cylinder was dug up by archaeologists in Zlocieniec, Poland underneath a building that was constructed in 1934 as a Nazi training center.

Archaeologists have known about the existence of the time capsule for years, but weren’t quite sure where it would show up. One thing that they were fairly confident they would find inside would be a documentary film of the town in 1933, when Zlocieniec was a part of Germany and called Falkenburg. In fact, that was the entire reason for starting their dig. But curiously the film wasn’t inside.

Mayor of Zlocieniec, Krzysztof Zacharzewski, right, is holding a sealed Nazi-era time capsule on September 6th that had just been found in the remains of the foundations of a Nazi training center that was built there in 1934

The items that were inside include some coins, a Nazi pin, documents about the founding of the Nazi building, and newspapers from April 21, 1934 and April 22, 1934. Perhaps noteworthy or not, Hitler’s birthday is April 20th.

The town of Zlocieniec has plans to open a small museum using the contents of the capsule to reflect on the horrors of that period. Sebastian Kuropatnicki, a spokesperson for the town told the Associated Press that they wished they could’ve seen the documentary film that was supposed to be inside. It’s still unclear what happened to the documentary movie, but one might guess that they just decided not to include it at the last minute, and bad information was passed down to future generations that it might be inside.

Either that, or we’ve got an Indiana Jones situation on our hands.

[MIKA27]

Ancient Skeleton Uncovered At The Antikythera Shipwreck

Marine archaeologists have found the partial remains of a 2000-year-old skeleton while conducting an excavation at the Antikythera shipwreck, the famous site that yielded the freakishly-advanced Antikythera Mechanism. Incredibly, the ancient remains could still contain traces of DNA.

The remains, found just three weeks ago, were discovered by researchers from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Working at a depth of 50m, the archaeologists found the partial human skeleton buried under 0.5m of sand and busted bits of ancient pottery. The excavation yielded a human skull (including a jaw and teeth) legs, ribs and the long arm bones.

The researchers will now see if they can extract DNA from the 2000-year-old remains. Should they succeed, it will be the first time that scientists have pulled DNA from such an old underwater sample. The remains are surprisingly well preserved, and experts are encouraged that genetic material still exists within the bones.

The Antikythera shipwreck is a fascinating site, and archaeologists are eager to learn more about the ship, its cargo and ill-fated crew. Prior to sinking sometime around 65 BC, this impressive ship transported luxury items — including the oddly computer-like Antikythera Mechanism — from the eastern Mediterranean to other parts of Europe, likely Rome. The ship was large, consisting of multiple levels, and with many people on board. Evidence suggests that the ship broke apart after a storm sent it careening into rocks, causing it to sink quickly.

Preliminary analysis of the skeleton suggests that the individual was a young man. Should DNA analysis be successful, scientists could learn details such as his hair and eye colour, and even his ancestral and geographic origin. Other portions of the skeleton are still embedded in the seafloor, and the archaeologists plan a return visit to collect the rest.

“Archaeologists study the human past through the objects our ancestors created,” noted Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist with WHOI, in a statement. “With the Antikythera Shipwreck, we can now connect directly with this person who sailed and died aboard the Antikythera ship.”

It’s exceptionally rare to find such ancient physical remains underwater. The Antikythera wreck was discovered in 1900 by sponge divers, and all visible artefacts were soon collected. Archaeologists suspect that much of the ship’s cargo still remains buried under the sediment. Recent excavations at the site have produced various artefacts, including large anchors and a “war dolphin” — a teardrop-shaped lead weight that was used by the ancient Greeks as a defensive weapon to smash hostile ships.

 

[MIKA27]

SanDisk Just Revealed A Monstrous One Terabyte SD Memory Card

There’s no word on when you’ll be able to buy it, or to what extent you’ll need to mortgage your home to afford one, but today SanDisk revealed a prototype of a one-terabyte SDXC card that will help ensure your camera never runs out of space for photos or videos.

Western Digital, SanDisk’s parent company, dropped the one terabyte bomb at the Photokina 2016 photography show yesterday, and it comes just a couple of years after revealing a 512 GB SDXC card at the same event. For the time being the card is still in the prototype stage, which means you won’t be finding one under the tree this holiday season. But given the 512 GB version cost $US800 ($1060), when this 1 TB version is finally available you probably won’t find too many people willing to gift you one.

[MIKA27]

World’s Longest Lightning Bolt Stretched 200 Miles Over Oklahoma

Lightning bolts are generally considered to be a short, sudden phenomenon–hence the whole “flash” of lightning thing–but a new report by the World Meteorological Association has found that the longest lightning bolt ever reached a whopping 199.5 miles long. Not only that, but the longest duration of a “flash” of lightning lasted 7.74 seconds. And with this new data, the WMO is advising that the very definition of lightning be changed.

The single longest bolt of lightning sprawled out across a horizontal distance of 321 kilometers (199.5 miles) over Oklahoma in June 20, 2007–which for the sake of comparison is only slightly shorter than the distance from NYC to Washington, DC. The longest lasting bolt of lighting held for 7.74 seconds over the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of France in 2012–which is less than two seconds shorter than the time it takes Usain Bolt to run 100 meters.

And this second piece of data throws a slight spanner in the works of the WMO’s definition of a lightning discharge, specifically that it is a “series of electrical processes taking place within 1 second.” As a result, the WMO committee who prepared the report have, quite rationally, recommended that the Association remove the phrase, “within one second” and replace it with “continuously.”

But beyond providing some slightly mind-bending statistics as to just what nature is capable of, and updating an industry-specific glossary, the WMO does hope to make a couple of points.

As Randall Cerveny, chief Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for WMO, explained in a statement:

This investigation highlights the fact that, because of continued improvements in meteorology and climatology technology and analysis, climate experts can now monitor and detect weather events such as specific lightning flashes in much greater detail than ever before.

Which is pretty helpful if one is an engineer, but for the rest of us, the whole thing is mostly a decent reminder to seek shelter during thunderstorms.

[MIKA27]

8BITDO NES30 PRO GAMEPAD WIRELESS CONTROLLER

In yet another spirited move, 8Bitdo – a company with a history of creating contemporary gaming accessories inspired by classic styling – has vaulted another relic from video gaming history into the modern world. Their Crissaegrim NES30 Pro gamepad, whose styling looks like a hybrid of the original rectangular Nintendo Entertainment System controller and the more rounded Super NES controller, is a completely wireless full button (meaning it has all the same buttons as a next-gen console controller) multi-platform gaming remote.

This beautiful accessory is compatible with Android games, iOS iCade games, most gaming emulators, has the ability to act as a PC joystick, and functions as a Bluetooth keyboard. It also works in conjunction with the company’s app, making it compatible with touch screen games, as well. They’ve also built-in an ARM Cortex-M3 32 CPU, so the wireless tech suffers virtually zero lag and the onboard firmware is upgradable, so you can expand the capability of this remote in the future. And if you like playing with a friend, you can connect two of these devices to any iOS/OSX devices with dual keyboard codes.

[MIKA27]

The Potato Chips Prisoners Love are Now Available to the Public

In case you’re not familiar with The Whole Shabang snacks, they’re a line of super-seasoned chips, crunchies, popcorn and peanuts that, up until now, were only available through the prison commissary. Yes, you read that correctly. If you wanted the incredibly delicious, salty snacks that have been described “like an everything bagel but an everything chip with flavors of bbq, salt, vinegar and garlic,” you had to be serving time in prison. Now, The Whole Shebang snacks can finally be purchased online. Available in packs of Chips, EXTREME Crunchies or Rippled Chips (bonus heat!), Popcorn, or a Variety Pack that includes everything, this is a collection of snacks you’ll definitely want to get your hands on.

[MIKA27]

PAQUI CAROLINA REAPER TORTILLA CHIP

Normally, you worry about eating the whole thing when you open a bag of chips. That won't be a problem here. The Paqui Carolina Reaper Tortilla Chip is made using the Carolina Reaper Pepper, also known as the hottest chili pepper on Earth. Bred by "Smokin" Ed Currie — who also helped create the chip's seasoning — the reaper has a heat rating of 1.57 million Scovilles, or over 78,000 times hotter than the hottest jalapeño you'll find. Also joining the fray are ghost peppers and chipotle seasoning, making the chip so incredibly spicy that it's sold one-at-a-time in its own coffin-shaped box.

[MIKA27]

FLOATING FARMHOUSE

A labor of love from a self-taught architectural designer, this Floating Farmhouse is a far cry from the neon blue Catskill farmhouse it once was. The home integrates its addition into the existing structure with the same siding and roofing, yet allows it to stand apart with 22-foot-tall glass, reclaimed beams, and a poured concrete wood burning oven that's part of a weathered Cor-Ten fireplace stack. Reclaimed material is also found throughout the rest of the home, including in the bathrooms, master bedroom, and on the 12' by 50' covered side porch that cantilevers over the nearby stream, thus giving the home its name.

[MIKA27]

Dolph Lundgren Hunts Demons in the Bloody Trailer for Don't Kill It

Once you hear the words “Dolph Lundgren hunts demons” you’re either in or out. Because either you’re a person who thinks this idea sounds absurd and stupid, or you think it sounds like an over the top, completely fantastic B-movie idea. If you’re the latter, you’ve gotta check out this blood-soaked trailer for Don’t Kill It.

Don’t Kill It, directed by Mike Mendez (Big Ass Spider) is premiering this weekend at Fantastic Fest.

[Fuzz]

1 hour ago, MIKA27 said:

PAQUI CAROLINA REAPER TORTILLA CHIP

 

Sounds like a great party prank. Buy it and hide it amongst other corn chips.