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

[MIKA27]

If You Haven't Seen The New John Wick Trailer, You're Not Living Your Best Life

John Wick is the best thing to happen to the action movie genre in recent years. Made on a tiny budget, Keanu Reeves totally nailed the title role in a tale of revenge, cars, shoot-outs and of course, dogs.

If you’ve been re-watching the original over and over and over, not only are you making excellent life choices, but you really need to see the new trailer for John Wick: Chapter 2.

The second chapter in this series is looking mighty promising — more of the same, but in the best possible way.

 

[MIKA27]

Have Fun Paddling To Work, Future New Yorkers

If you’re planning to live in the Big Apple for the foreseeable future, it’s time to invest in flood insurance and a gondola. A new study finds that 2.7m floods, like those produced by Hurricane Sandy, will be three to 17 times more frequent by the end of the century, thanks to sea level rise and shifting storm conditions.

Ever since Hurricane Sandy flooded the New York City subway, brought a record 3.35m storm surge to the Battery tide gauge and caused billions of dollars of property damage, scientists have been trying to understand just how extreme this disaster was in a historical context. Through detailed sea level reconstructions from 850 to 1850 AD, we’ve learned that Manhattan’s flood risk has indeed been going up steadily over the last millennia. The land is slowly sinking into the ocean, causing relative sea levels to rise at about 1.4mm each year.

But then came the 20th century, and a ramping up of sea level rise to around 3mm per year due to human-caused climate change. “We found that if you factor in this change in sea level that’s happened in New York [since the 19th century] that’s led to about a three fold increase in flood risk,” said Robert Kopp, an Earth scientist at Rutgers University and co-author on the new study.

Overall, Kopp says, a Sandy-like flood jumped from being a one-in-1200 year event at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, to a one-in-400 year event in the year 2000.

That’s bad news, but it gets much worse when you look at changing flood risks over the 21st century. Our best models estimate that New York City will see half a metre to a metre of sea level rise by the end of the 21st century, thanks to ongoing subsidence of the land, melting ice sheets and the expansion of seawater as it warms up. Meanwhile, climate change is likely to have complex effects on storm dynamics, with the expectation that a warmer future will promote the growth of more powerful storms that can hold more rain.

Combining models of future sea level rise, shifting storm patterns and carbon emissions — which are assumed to follow the UN’s middle-of-the-road, RCP 4.5 scenario — Kopp and his colleagues estimated that Sandy-like floods will become about four times as frequent by the late 21st century. In other words, a once every 400 year event will become a one-in-100 year event. But there’s still a lot of uncertainty, particularly depending on which storm model you look at. In a worst-case projection, 2.7m floods could make a dramatic, 17-fold jump in frequency, recurring every 23 years on average by the end of the century.

“The grand answer is that things are going to get worse by 2100,” study co-author Ben Horton said in a statement.

For Kopp, the point of studies like this is not to terrify the bejeezus out of people, but to highlight the fact that we live in a rapidly changing world when it comes to flood risk. In New York, the risk is almost certainly going up, and that’s a reality which needs to be factored into all future planning decisions.

The same could be said for Miami, New Orleans, or any other major population centre on the front lines of sea level rise. And by the way, the world’s coastal populations are growing fast.

“The punch line is that this basically needs to be a core part of how we make decisions about anything that will be around for years to come,” Kopp said.

 

[MIKA27]

Two Space Agencies Will Try To Make A Historic Landing On Mars Next Week

A joint mission led by the European Space Agency and Roscosmos arrives at Mars next week, and its first order of business will be to make history. If all goes well, NASA is about to lose its bragging rights as the only space agency to successfully land probes on the Red Planet.

ExoMars, an astrobiology mission designed to hunt for signs of geologic and biological activity on Mars, is on track to reach orbit on October 19. When it arrives, the mission’s two components — a Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a Schiaparelli lander — will part ways. The TGO will insert itself into a low-altitude orbit and begin scanning the Martian atmosphere for methane, water vapour and other trace gases. Schiaparelli, meanwhile, will attempt to reach the surface in one piece.

Landing on Mars is hard, and neither the ESA nor the Russians have a great track record. In the 1960s and ’70s, the Soviet Union sent a slew of probes to the Red Planet, all of which crashed, died shortly after impact or missed their target entirely. In 2003, the ESA’s Beagle 2 lander made it to the surface, but its solar panels failed to deploy, and it lost contact with Earth. In 2011, the Russians launched a space probe intended for Mars’ moon Phobos. It never made it out of low Earth orbit, eventually falling back and burning up in our atmosphere.

In other words, ExoMars is arriving at its destination with some baggage and a lot to prove. On October 16, Schiaparelli and TGO will separate. Three days later, the lander will enter Mars’ atmosphere. The angle has to be absolutely perfect, otherwise the probe will come in too hot and burn up, or bounce back into space. If all goes well, Schiaparelli with then deploy a braking parachute, followed by three sets of hydrazine thrusters. All the while, it will be collecting data to characterise the structure of the Martian atmosphere and its intended landing site.

The entire sequence is pre-programmed, and Schiaparelli only has one shot. There are no do-overs should anything go wrong.

Lucky for the ESA and Roscosmos, Schiaparelli’s main goal is demonstrate landing technology. If there is a problem, engineers will study it carefully and incorporate whatever lessons they learn into the next phase of the ExoMars mission — a bigger and longer-lived science lander that ships off in 2020. So while everyone is hoping to stick the landing next week, failure to do so is not a catastrophe.

One way or another, this will be an exciting mission to watch.

 

[MIKA27]

Behold The Power Of Danny Rand's Glowing Hands In The Iron Fist Teaser Trailer

We finally got a better look at Marvel and Netfix’s Iron Fist, a look which gives you everything you expect from the character. The second this video showed his hands, the crowd who saw it premiere at New York Comic Con went wild.

The trailer is all about the fighting, and pay special attention to Colleen Wing, played by Game of Thrones‘ Jessica Henwick. She delivers a number of no-holds-barred beat downs in this. The only thing missing is a glimpse of Danny in anything resembling the classic Iron Fist costume.

Iron Fist hits Netflix March 17th, 2017.

 

[MIKA27]

WHISKEY WOOD BAR STOOLS BY HERITAGE HANDCRAFTED

When the whiskey’s drunk and the barrel is empty there’s only one thing to do: immortalize the barrel into a bar stool. Built-out by Heritage Handcrafted, these relics are available in either a round swivel stool or a fixed square stool. Whatever you choose though probably won’t prevent you from falling out of either of them after one too many pours.

The wood for each stool is provided by The Jack Daniel’s Distillery and finished to preserve that authentic aged whiskey appearance. And if you’re feeling extra possessive, they’re also available for personalization, carved directly into the whiskey barrel wood itself, efficiently keeping your seat preserved from unwelcome guests down in the man cave. What’s even better, 10 percent of the proceeds from each purchase is donated to support active military members through the Jack Daniel’s Distillery’s “Operation Ride Home” foundation. Nothing like partaking in the great American pastime of sipping whiskey while supporting the brave men and women who keep us safe from harm. Prices start at $195. [Purchase HERE]

[MIKA27]

‘Appetites’ by Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain can do almost no wrong in our eyes, and Appetites:

A Cookbook is just further proof of that. His first cookbook in more than a decade, Appetites boils down more than forty years of his acquired experiences into a collection of his favorite personal recipes. These are the dishes that everyone’s favorite culinary “bad boy” thinks you need to know how to prepare—regardless of whether you’re cooking for immediate family or entertaining guests. Everything he eats, cooks and writes about sounds and/or looks delicious, so we have a sneaking this book is going to be just as big a hit as all his other work. It even features artwork from the legendary Ralph Steadman.

[MIKA27]

Haiti Faces Nightmare Combination Of Disease And Starvation After Hurricane Matthew

As Haiti reels from the immediate devastation of Hurricane Matthew, which plowed through the impoverished nation at Category 4 intensity last week, aid groups fear that the worst is yet to come. According to experts on the ground, massive disease outbreaks and famine are in Haiti’s future.

The poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is predictably suffering the worst from the Hurricane Matthew, the record-breaking storm that brought fierce winds, torrential rainfall and floods to the Caribbean and southeastern United States last week. Aerial footage has revealed widespread, catastrophic destruction in western Haiti, with some towns and villages “almost wiped off the map” according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. More than a thousand Haitians are dead, and thousands more have lost their homes, livestock and crops. The UN estimates that 1.4 million people are in need of immediate assistance.

A school in Port Salut, Haiti has become a temporary shelter for people who lost their homes to Hurricane Matthew last week.

One of the biggest threats facing Haiti right now is cholera, a waterborne illness that was, tragically, introduced to the country years ago by UN peacekeepers from Nepal. Since 2010, upwards of 10,000 Haitians including many young children have died from the disease, which causes uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhoea, resulting in severe dehydration.

Haiti, a tropical island nation with practically no sanitation and where the average person can’t even afford fuel to boil water, is the ideal place for an illness like cholera to thrive. “It’s everywhere, unfortunately,” said Bill Horan, president of the humanitarian aid group Operation Blessing, which is running a disaster relief effort out of Port Au Prince. “Most folks have outhouses or latrines out back, and when it rains a lot, these overflow, spreading potentially diseased human waste.”

Which is exactly what’s happening right now, following one of the most intense weeks of rainfall in Haiti’s history. There are no estimates yet of how many people have contracted cholera in the wake of Matthew, but between overflowing rivers and stagnant waters filled with animal and human corpses, the threat of disease grows with each passing day. To make matters worse, Horan says, much of the public health infrastructure in western Haiti was decimated by the storm.

A chair hangs in a tree amidst homes destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in Port Salut, Haiti.

Operation Blessing is right now focused on churning out and distributing as much chlorine as possible. “We have the capacity at our headquarters to produce 1200 gallons [4542L] of chlorine every 24 hours,” Horan said, adding that his group is also planning to fly community-scale chlorine makers to some of the hardest-hit areas. For anyone who lives in a region where there was flooding, the ability to disinfect water could be a life-saver.

According to Horan, pharmaceutical supplies are also trickling in to St Boniface, a large hospital in western Haiti that will likely become “the nexus of public health care for the entire region for the next year”. But much more aid is needed, both here and in outlying communities that are reported to have no clean drinking water or antibiotics whatsoever.

A woman and child sit amidst the rubble left in Jeremie, Haiti in wake of Hurricane Matthew

As if the cholera crisis weren’t enough, thousands of Haitians also face the looming threat of starvation.

“Most Haitians depend on the crops and foods they can grow,” Horan said. “Every piece of food on every food tree is gone. The crops are just laying flat in the fields. Boats are smashed in fishing villages. And this stuff doesn’t just come back in a couple of months — it will be next year.”

Yesterday, Ki-moon made an emergency appeal of $US120 million ($159 million) for food, shelter and medical supplies to help Haiti pull through the next three months. “Tensions are already mounting as people await help,” the UN Secretary General said. “A massive response is required.”

[MIKA27]

Fidel Castro Says He Saw a UFO During the Cuban Revolution

While we have to depend on Julian Assange and Wikileaks to tell us what Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager and chief ufologist John Podesta are learning in emails about UFOs and alien encounters, former Cuban president Fidel Castro has come out of the UFO closet and admitted in an interview reiterated in a new book that he saw a UFO during the Cuban revolution.

There we were, in the middle of the night, with our rifles on our knees. Then we suddenly saw a light darting among the stars. The light approached the group of commanders and poured over us like a bucket. It was round and enormous. The countryside and the mountains became illuminated as though it was daylight.

That firsthand account of Fidel’s UFO sighting comes from “Solo Para Tus Ojos (For Your Eyes Only)” by UFO researcher and writer Juan José (J.J.) Benítez. Benítez turned 70 this year and decided to publish a selection of some of the most interesting stories he’s encountered while researching UFOs. He’s heard quite a few, since this is just the first of what he says will be a three-book series.

My intention was to collect a thousand cases from all over the world which caught my attention for some reason at the time, and which are unpublished events.

Juan José (J.J.) Benítez

J.J. Benítez is well-known in the Spanish UFO world (and should be better known outside of it), having researched them since 1972, published over 50 books that have sold almost nine million copies worldwide and hosted the documentary series Planeta Encantado (Enchanted Planet).

Benítez’s account of Fidel’s sighting comes from an interview Castro gave to researcher Jose Luis Gil. Castro could not give an exact date – it occurred somewhere between 1953 and 1959 – or identify any other witnesses. Who’s going argue with Fidel?

Castro is not the only world leader to have witnessed a UFO. Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen one from a private plane in 1974.

After over 40 years of researching them, J.J. Benítez’s views on UFOs and aliens should come as no surprise.

First and foremost is that the UFO phenomenon is true, the phenomenon is real, there is no doubt at all by those who have certain information at their disposal or have seen them. Second, is that “they” are not human. They do not originate from the Earth. They hail from multiple points of origin, galaxies, unknown dimensions to which we still lack access. Third, they have been here always. When we research history, cave art, mythology, we realize that this is indeed the case. They were already here at the dawn of time, and before that as well.

Fidel Castro would probably agree.

 

[MIKA27]

CANADA GOOSE HYBRIDGE SUTTON PARKA

Winter is coming to many parts of the world, and with it the weather. If you are in a part of the world where it gets truly cold during this time of year, then you know that the gear you have can determine whether you get to enjoy the season, or just endure it. We’re pretty sure that if you have this Canada Goose Hybdridge Sutton Parka as your go-to outerwear jacket, you’ll be among the latter.

This thing is built to take on serious cold. With a laminated 3 layer shell that is both waterproof and breathable, you’ll be able to stay active without being either stifled or cold. It’s more than just breathable though. Thanks to the parka’s tensile knit technology, it’s as flexible as you want to be – which is always a plus when you consider the alternative. As far as how warm this thing is, the 800 fill power hutterite duck down will keep you warm in temperatures as cold as 20 degrees below. The jacket is available in your choice of either black or graphite, with a retail price of $950. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

Apple Watch Horween Leather Strap:

Nomad have introduced their gorgeous new leather strap for Apple Watch. The exceptional watch band is beautifully crafted from Horween leather, a material that soon develops a unique patina over time and gets even softer with regular wear. Available in two styles, Modern ($59.95) or Traditional ($149.95), the straps come along with a custom 316 stainless steel buckle for tightening down the watch, and lugs that can attach on to any sized Apple Watch.     

 

[MIKA27]

BRAXTON BREWING OKTOBER FUEL BEER

While Oktoberfest in Germany is already finished, the Oktoberfest beer season here in the U.S. is just getting underway. Braxton Brewing in Covington, KY just released their first dip into the Oktoberfest pool with Oktober Fuel Lager. It's brewed using top shelf German malts, decoction mashing, and noble hops. The result is an Oktoberfest that is balanced by malt sweetness and a crisp finish. And thanks to these clean, bright, well designed cans, it's bound to stand out amongst the dull packaging at your local bottle shop.

[MIKA27]

Tempt Adventurous Dinner Guests With This Recipe From The Hannibal Cookbook

Hannibal may be gone from the airwaves, but it’s forever in our hearts, our nightmares and on our dinner tables — thanks to Feeding Hannibal: A Connoisseur’s Cookbook, a recipe collection is curated by the show’s food stylist, Janice Poon. And you don’t even need an appetite for human flesh to enjoy it.

Feeding Hannibal, named for Poon’s popular behind-the-scenes blog, is aimed at chefs of all levels, from Lecter-level gourmets to beginners with strong stomachs. Below, you’ll find an exclusive recipe excerpt sharing how to make Foie Gras Timbits (you can sub in chicken livers if you don’t do foie gras). All you need is a keen way with a sharp knife, and a bevy of adventurous, possibly unsuspecting friends. Hannibal was filmed mostly in Canada, which explains the specific presence of Timbits — doughnut hole-shaped pastries from coffee chain Tim Horton’s.

Feeding Hannibal goes on sale October 18; beyond recipes, it also includes behind-the-scenes photos and anecdotes from the show.

[MIKA27]

Tile's Small Everything-Trackers Are Now On Sale In Australia

 

Tile is a great idea. It’s a tiny, Bluetooth-blasting white square that hooks up to an app on your phone and constantly pings it its location. When you leave the Tile — or whatever it’s attached to — somewhere, your phone realises, and when you go to look for it you’ll have the power of the internet and Google Maps to help you remember. If that sounds good, then great — you can now stock up on Tiles at JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman.

The circuitry that lives inside the Tile is pretty damn simple — a little Bluetooth-transmitting radio, a battery capable of lasting one year at a time, and a speaker that will sing out loudly (with a tone of your choosing) whenever you set your phone to look for it. You can also use the Tile to find your phone, if the two are close enough to each other.

They’re great little gadgets if you’re always losing things. The skinny Tile Slim is already out in JB and Harvey’s nationwide for $44.95 or $139.95 for a four-pack, while the Tile Mate (with a hole made for your keys or luggage) is $39.95 or $119.95 for a four-pack on sale from October 17. 

[MIKA27]

Microsoft Hololens Development Edition: Australian Price And Release Date

The Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition and Microsoft HoloLens Commercial Suite is now available for pre-order in Australia, exclusively from the Microsoft Store.

Here’s all the details.

Devices will start to ship in late November — with the Development Edition costing $4,369 and the Commercial Suite costing $7,269.

The Hololens is the world’s first self-contained holographic computer, and Microsoft is experiencing interest from developers and commercial customers and partners around the globe for collaboration with the device.

“Since the launch of Microsoft HoloLens, we have seen really passionate developers and world-class companies develop groundbreaking computing experiences — experiences only possible on HoloLens” said Alex Kipman, technical fellow, Microsoft Windows and Devices Group.

“When we set out to pioneer the mixed-reality category, we knew that many of the best innovations would be discovered when others got their hands on the technology. It has been quite inspiring to see what our partners have built and what individual developers have created. Together, we have only scratched the surface for what mixed reality can do. I can’t wait to see what happens next as we welcome these new countries to our holographic landscape.”

HoloLens customers are developing innovative solutions that are already having a positive impact on their business. These customers are the early adopters of what Microsoft calls its “mixed-reality solutions”, and is promising exponential growth in the years to come. According to IDC, worldwide revenues for the augmented reality and virtual reality market will grow from $5.2 billion in 2016 to more than $162 billion in 2020.

Windows 10 will be updated in 2017 to include Windows Holographic, the platform that powers the mixed-reality experiences enabling people to perceive the world differently, break down barriers, and bring the virtual and the physical worlds together.

In June at Computex, Microsoft announced that Windows Holographic is coming to Windows 10 PCs and head-mounted displays. The development opportunity is significant — as all holographic apps are Universal Windows apps, and all Universal Windows apps can be made to run on the Windows Holographic platform. “This means the investments that developers of all shapes and sizes make today will take advantage of the growing ecosystem of Windows Holographic devices,” Microsoft says.

Microsoft first announced HoloLens in January 2015 and shipped to developers and commercial partners in Canada and the United States on in late March this year. Since the launch of HoloLens, Microsoft has seen innovation across the board as a diverse set of companies and partners breaks new ground within their industries.

NASA is one of those partners. Together with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Microsoft have created groundbreaking mixed-reality applications.

The OnSight project enables scientists to use HoloLens to “work on Mars” together, directly from their offices, allowing them a means to plan and, along with the Curiosity Mars Rover, conduct science operations on the Red Planet. By extending the OnSight project, in September “Destination: Mars” at the Kennedy Space Center was opened to the public, allowing visitors the only opportunity possible today to walk around the Red Planet, just as NASA scientists do today.

The Sidekick project brought HoloLens to the International Space Station to enable station crews to get remote expert assistance when and where they need it, reducing crew training requirements and increasing the efficiency at which astronauts can work in space. The NASA team created the ProtoSpace HoloLens application to build the next generation of spacecraft and space rovers; the application brings 3-D spacecraft designs into the world to help improve the design process.

And now with today’s global expansion of HoloLens, more partners are set to deliver new experiences that will allow their employees and customers to discover new ways to work.

Inger Lawes, Saab Australia’s Mixed Reality Applications Program Head says “Microsoft HoloLens is the perfect platform for learning, collaborating or visualizing complex information. For example, in the training environment, it allows both trainers and trainees to share a visually rich interactive experience where the real world can be overlaid with fully interactive holograms.”

This technology is transformational, and Lawes said Saab has had significant interest from a diverse range of industries — like healthcare and mining — keen to understand how Microsoft HoloLens and tailored mixed-reality applications can add new value to their businesses.

Audi is also getting involved. “A technology like Microsoft HoloLens could open up new opportunities for our services in many ways-from engineering reviews and collaboration to after sales scenarios and new ways of customer experiences – there are many use cases to be realised,” said Jan Pflüger, Coordination Augmented- & Virtual Reality at Audi IT.

“We innovate to improve service quality, cut time and costs required for maintenance, as well as combining it with a new way of customer communication, a mixed reality solution like HoloLens seems very promising in achieving these goals. We see an exciting future in this technology and look forward to expanding its use at Audi.”

You can pre-order a dev edition of the Hololens for $4,369 now on the Microsoft website.

[MIKA27]

The New Rogue One Poster Is The Best One Yet

There’s a new poster for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It’s beautiful.

The Star Wars franchise has a long history of incredible posters, stretching back to the classic golden age posters of the original film and that iconic Return of the Jedi Style B playbill. Even though the first poster for Rogue One was gorgeous, and had that classic Star Wars poster art style, the new one is even better.

I think I like it even more than the two Japanese posters (See below). If those are Style A, romantic and classic and simple and powerful, the new poster is very Style B — action-filled and frenetic with clashing visual elements. It’s just stunning. It does exactly what a poster is meant to do, and gets you excited.

This morning, I broke my usual strict rule of not watching a movie trailer more than once — I try to keep away from trailers at all, really, and go into a movie completely blank if I can. I break that rule very rarely, but the last film I did it for was The Force Awakens.

But this morning I watched the Rogue One trailer again. Then I watched it again, and then I looked at all the posters and production stills and behind-the-scenes footage. And I am hyped for Rogue One. I will remain that way until the first midnight screening on December 15th.

[MIKA27]

That Moment When Australia's National Animal Tries To Brutally Murder You

Kangaroos are normally lovely. They bounce around, mind their own business.

Every now then they try to brutally murder you in your own car.

No big deal? You tell me...

[MIKA27]

Australian Diver Catches Once In A Lifetime Closeup Footage Of A Whale Breach

The ocean’s already fraught with danger, the last thing you need while swimming is a massive humpback whale deciding it wants to leap out of the water a few metres from where you’re treading water. But that’s exactly what happened to Australian photographer Beau Pilgrim, who fortunately got the whole thing on video.

To put things in perspective, a fully grown humpback whale can weigh as much as 36,300kg, which means that if it came crashing down right on Pilgrim, we wouldn’t have this remarkable footage to ooh and awe over.

[MIKA27]

Our First Look At Justice League's Mera, Queen Of Atlantis

We’ve seen Atlantis’ king — now it’s time we got our first good look at her queen.

IGN has unveiled Amber Heard in costume for her role as the Atlantean ruler, who will first appear in Justice League next year as a supporting character before having a more prominent role in the solo Aquaman movie. Check out the full still of Heard in costume, as well as concept art of her design by Ian Joyner.

Justice League hits US theatres 17 November 2017.

 

[MIKA27]

This Sign Spinning Competition Is Utterly Insane

There’s a whole taxonomy of people on any given street who want something from you: The clipboard activists, the donation fund folks who are too aggressive, the lady selling bad art, the creepy free massage guys. And then there’s the humble sign spinner, the platonic ideal of mild inconvenience.

It should come as no surprise then that, when converted into a competition, sign spinning is also near perfect — a raw display of dexterity and athleticism, devoid of the poor sportsmanship and traumatic brain injuries present in lesser feats. Ten minutes ago, I had no idea this existed. Now it might be my favourite weird sport of 2016.

[MIKA27]

THIS IS THE MOST REMARKABLE GLASS WINE DECANTER YOU'LL EVER SEE

First of you might be wondering what a decanter is and why you should decant wine at all.

Decanting involves pouring the wine from its tight and restrictive bottle, into a larger area which gives it the opportunity to "breath" a little more.

You can decant cheap or expensive red wines and its a good idea to do so regardless of the price.

You'll notice that cheap wines can emit a rather nasty egg smell on occasion - that's due to the sulphur dioxide they contain. Pouring wine with this type of character into a different container will help burn off that smell quickly. So now there's no need for that rotten smell to waft up your nose and ruin your tasting experience.

When it comes to decanting expensive wines like big cabernet sauvignons or Italian wines including Barolo and Chianti, the process will help smooth our the funky notes and make it a lot more palatable.

If you have time, pour the wine between one or two decanters to speed up the process for both. It's that simple.

Some of the tastiest red wines in the world are produced in France. It's where French artist Etienne Meneau found the inspiration behind his unique twist on the popular glass wine decanter.

He meticulously hand-crafted each piece, creating all manner of intricate veins, arteries and hearts from fragile borosilicate. Each was then filled with a single bottle of blood red wine. The ultimate tribute to a drink enjoyed and celebrated around the world of centuries.

He's called the series 'Strange Carafes' and whilst they appear functional, many of the designs have sections which are permanently sealed to help maintain the structure of the work. Disappointingly not all the designs can be use at your next dinner party.

That being said, they are truly magnificent works of hand-blown glassware and you'll be pleased to know that limited edition pieces are available through Meneau's website.

Be quick, such is their beauty and detail they won't be around for long.

[feral]

https://www.rt.com/viral/362555-plans-first-space-nation/

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

[MIKA27]

AMABILIS DAVE JR. DUFFEL BAG 2.0

With literal hundreds of options on the market for duffel bags, it can be hard to wade through and find the right one for the job. But if any part of the job requirements includes even a small need for resilience, your search might just stop right here. Amablis has introduced their Dave Jr. Duffel Bag 2.0 and they’re saying it’s the “world’s toughest EDC Duffel Bag.” And they’re so confident that they’re offering a lifetime warranty.

Featuring a body made from double-layer military-grade tarpaulin and a base constructed of patented SuperFabric – a ceramic armor plate overlaid fabric that is water, stain, abrasion, and slash resistant – their claim is surely difficult to dispute. And while this 40L carry-on-compliant bag may look like a standard issue military duffel, which is what it was modeled after, it actually features a handy compartmental system. The large main compartment features mil-spec hardware and has plenty of room for your gear. It also comes with a removable velcro Organizer that can stash your cards, cash, and other small items. And it has a zippered exterior accessory pocket for anything you want to keep handy but hidden. No retail price has been announced yet, but you can get your hands on one for $120 on their Kickstarter. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

Bultaco Brinco off-road electric bike

The Bultaco Brinco is a pure off-road electric bike that fuses the adrenaline provided by its electric power, and the physical experience of independent pedaling. The Brinco R Moto-Bike is powered by a 2000 watt, rear hub mounted motor, and features front and rear hydraulic disc brakes and nine derailleur style gears. The electric engine has three modes – Eco, Touring and Sport. Eco mode gives the rider up to 800 watts and up to around 50 miles of electric-assisted pedaling, the Touring mode will give you higher speeds in the region of 20 to 25 mph, and the Sport mode will offer a maximum speed up to 38 mph

 

[MIKA27]

Thug Kitchen 101:

The creators of the bestselling cookbook series Thug Kitchen are back and fresher than ever with their new cookbook Thug Kitchen 101: Fast as F*ck. The book is packed with 101 quick recipes that use simple ingredients and straightforward, entertainingly-written recipes geared toward healthy grown-up eats. It focuses on recipes that are both easy and, as the title suggests, "fast as f*ck”. A book with a penchant for four-letter words, with easy-to-follow directions and damn entertaining commentary. A perfect addition to your collection of cookbooks.

[MIKA27]

Star Wars Producers Fined $2 Million for Crushing Harrison Ford's Leg

As a film series, Star Wars will likely outlive of us all, but the saga of Han Solo’s broken leg finally concluded this week when the production company behind The Force Awakens was fined almost $2 million for violating workplace safety rules.

While filming the Star Wars sequel in Britain in 2014, Harrison Ford was badly injured when prosecutors say a hydraulic door on the Millennium Falcon set came down “millimeters from his face” and crushed his leg like a “blunt-edged guillotine.”

“In the original film, if there had been a door, it would have been closed with a pulley and a stage hand just closing it,” Ford recounted on a talk show last year. “But now we had lots of money and technology and so they built a fucking great hydraulic door which closed at light speed.”

The accident—which prosecutors compared to a car collision and said could have killed the then 71-year-old actor—broke Ford’s tibia and fibula and delayed filming by two weeks.

On Wednesday, a British court fined Foodles Productions (reportedly named to hide filming sites from fans) £1.6 million after the Disney subsidiary pleaded guilty to two criminal charges of failing to protect workers earlier this year. That might sound like a major penalty, compared to some, they got off pretty easy.

MIKA: Maybe this is why they killed off Han Solo...?