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

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Watch Mark Hamill Geek Out About Collectibles in the First Trailer for Pop Culture Quest

Friends, it has been a tough day. A long day. But we can count on Luke Skywalker himself to be one of our only hopes in it, as he cackles with glee in pretty much every other moment of the first trailer for his new show, Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest.

The show, one of several being made for Comic-Con’s own official streaming service Comic-Con HQ, premieres next week, and seems like it’s basically going to just be Hamill going around touring mass collections of pop culture toys and props, while loving every minute of it. 

 

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The Latest Trailer For Underworld: Blood Wars

Things are going according to plan at the start of the new trailer for Underworld: Blood Wars. Dark setting, werewolves, slow motion gun fights... but then something happens. Kate Beckinsale's character goes North to the Wall.

Wait, wrong franchise. Though, things certainly take a Game of Thrones turn there for a second. Then they meet Elsa from Frozen and through her, Seline is "reborn" into some kind of non-stop killer ghost. 

I have no idea what's happening in this trailer but, I must say, Selene's rebirth into a mink-wearing mist definitely turns things up a notch. It gives an otherwise expected story (a new villain rising) a kick in the teeth. Which is probably a good thing for a fifth film in a franchise.

Underworld Blood Wars, directed by Anna Foerster, opens December 1.

 

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Luc Besson's Valerian Looks Like All Your Sci-Fi Dreams Come True

The first trailer for Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is finally here and it has everything you could want in a big science-fiction movie.
It has spaceships. It has spacesuits. It has cool-looking cities. There are monsters, aliens, weapons and portals. The trailer feels as if Besson took every sci-fi trope in the book and threw them all into a single movie. Which is to say, it looks pretty excellent.

And yes, that is the actual, honest-to-god Beatles song "Because" in the trailer. According to Besson, it's the first time the group has ever let one of their songs be used like that, and Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr had to sign off on it personally. The director decided to use it because he and his trailer editors were looking for a song that conveyed the mood they wanted in the first teaser. They stumbled on "Because" and built the trailer around the song instead of the other way around.

Also of note, Besson recently told us that when the next trailer comes out in January, and a final one after that, he won't use the same shot twice in any of them. He's sick of trailers that just re-edit the same footage over and over again, so he wants Valerian to be different.

Back at Comic-Con, Besson first debuted footage from the film and talked about the origins of the project. He's loved the source material, Valérian and Laureline, for as long as he can remember and collaborated with its creator Jean-Claude Mézières on The Fifth Element. At that time, Mézières begged Besson to adapt bring his vision to the big screen. At the time, 1999, it couldn't be done. But by 21 July 2017 in the US, it will be. An Australian release date has not yet been confirmed.

That's when Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne hits theatres.

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KANIN MOUNTAIN SHELTER

Like the Skuta Mountain Shelter before it, OFIS Architects has again chosen a treacherous perch for the Kanin Mountain Shelter. Built using donations and volunteer funds, it provides accommodation for up to nine people at a time, and is reachable only by climbing or by helicopter. The interior is lined with timber paneling and has three resting platforms on its outer edge, placed next to the large window offering outstanding views of the valley below and mountains beyond, views afforded by its cantilevered, anchored design.

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BUCK BUCK MOOSE

Whether you plan on needing to hunt for your food in the near future or just want to expand your culinary repertoire beyond the typical poultry, beef, pork, and fish, Buck, Buck, Moose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Deer, Elk, Moose, Antelope and Other Antlered Things has you covered. Penned by former cook and journalist Hank Shaw, this cleverly named cookbook covers how to butcher, age, and store your game and offers essays and stories on what makes these foods so important. Of course, it also includes over 100 recipes for cooking it yourself, accompanied by mouth-watering photography from Holly A. Heyser.

 

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Here's The First Trailer For Ghost In The Shell

 

After months of controversy surrounding the live-action Ghost in the Shell, we finally have something more fun to talk about. At a live event in Tokyo, the first trailer was unveiled to the world, and it's pretty fantastic.

Fans of the manga turned anime will notice plenty of throwbacks to those works, with lots of new stuff blended in. Plus star Scarlett Johansson really seems to nail the human inside, cyborg outside of her character Major. Check it out.

 

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A Pair Of Extremely Rare Leica 'Camera' Rifles Are Up For Auction

Making cameras look like guns appears to have been quite the fad in bygone days. The 1930s were no exception, with a number of rifle-shaped camera "guns" manufactured by E Leitz (now Leica). A couple of units have popped up for auction and as you might expect, they're not cheap.

Both rifles are being sold off by Live Auctioneers, with starting bids of €80,000 ($115,150) and €90,000 ($129,550) respectively.

Expensive, right? It gets worse. Live Auctioneers expects the cameras to fetch €150,000 ($215,900) or more, putting them well out of the realms of ownership except for the most cashed-up of collectors.

Why were the cameras made like this in the first place? Live Auctioneers has you covered:

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The “Rifle” was inspired by Commander Attilio Gatti, the well-known wildlife photographer in Africa and was developed between 1935 and 1937 by E. Leitz, Inc. New York, before being introduced to the public in July 1938. Various authors differ in their estimates about the actual numbers of “Rifles” produced: while P. H. Hasbroeck assumes that only six units were produced, J. L. Lager concludes that a dozen were made overall.

The company believes up to 14 of the cameras might exist, "spread out today over collections worldwide". I think that counts as "rare", don't you think? And all you need to do is sell your house to become part of the club!

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BOZAL ANCESTRAL MEZCAL

The masses are still slowly being exposed to Mezcal, and that exposure stands to grow with the release of Bozal Ancestral Mezcal. The Bozal line aims to uncover different agave varieties, such as the extremely limited maguey Papalote used in this special batch. Papalote is wild agave grown on the mountain slopes of the Río Mezcala basin in Chilapa, Guerrero, and is harvested by the mezcaleros using traditional techniques to create this artisan, handmade mezcal. Packaged in this handsome, dark bottle meant to pay homage to the terra cotta copitas used for drinking mezcal.

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Marvel's Inhumans Movie Is Now An Inhumans TV Show, Coming September 2017

It looks like the Inhumans movie is no more. Marvel has just announced that, seemingly instead of seeing the adventures of Black Bolt, Medusa and the Inhuman royal family as a movie, they will now appear in their own TV show on ABC.
The series will be co-produced between Marvel, ABC and IMAX — and in a strange move, will sort of still be a movie event for Marvel next year. The first two episodes of the show will premiere worldwide across IMAX-compatible theatres with a two week exclusivity window, before airing on America's ABC in the spring of 2017.

Although the Inhumans have slowly begun to be introduced on TV through Agents of SHIELD, that world will be blown right open in The Inhumans — which will indeed tell the story of Black Bolt and the Royal Family. No other character names were mentioned, but expect the likes of Medusa, Crystal and Gorgon to be joining the series.

We'll bring you more on the Inhumans TV show as and when we learn it.

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HBO Is Still Talking To George R.R. Martin About A Game Of Thrones Prequel Series

Pretty much since it was seemingly confirmed Game of Thrones would come to a close after it's eighth season, there's been talk of HBO considering a prequel series spin-off for the show. While the idea hasn't exactly taken a major step forward yet, it is at least still an ongoing concern for HBO — and it looks like it stands a good chance of happening.

HBO programming president Casey Bloys confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that talks are currently happening with A Song of Ice and Fire scribe Martin, and while a specific story or time period has yet to be hammered out, it would seem that at least both sides are building towards a spinoff actually happening:

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I would say it's still kind of preliminary ongoing talks. There are areas we are exploring, but I wouldn't point to any one and say, 'This is what we're going to do.'

It doesn't tell us much, but it's the closest we've got to an HBO executive confirming that talks about a prequel show are happening, rather than just being open to the idea. Martin has elucidated in the past that he'd love a miniseries based on the story of Dunk and Egg, characters from his Hedge Knight spinoff novellas, but there is a lot of Westerosi history a prequel could uncover.

Like, a lot.

Whatever it ends up being, it's cool that we could be seeing more of the world of Ice and Fire on TV beyond the end of Game of Thrones.

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The Mysterious World Of Number Stations

The early days of espionage were devoid of the high tech glamour that we're accustomed to seeing in spy thrillers. For decades, secret messages have been broadcast across the airwaves for anyone to listen to — and they have.

Enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists have been following these broadcasts for almost as long as they have existed. With very little information to go on, they have dubbed these broadcasts 'numbers stations'.

But what are they, exactly? Who is sending these mysterious — and often creepy — messages, and why can't anyone seem to crack them?

What Are They?

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when numbers stations first came into use, but some believe them to have started during World War I.

Utilising shortwave radio channels suited for long distance communication, the theory is that they can be easily broadcasted globally, which eliminates a great deal of location-based risk. Both the sender and the receiver could be anywhere. Shortwave is also free of commercial traffic, so the message is unlikely to be interrupted.

There's no exact rule of thumb when it comes to the broadcasts, but there are some commonalities between many of them. Some of the most well-known begun with a piece of music or looping noise that are then punctuated by a string of numbers.

Here's a recording of one of the most well-known stations — The Lincolnshire Poacher. Named for its use of the English folk song of the same name, it broadcast out of Cyprus from the mid-1970s to 2008.

You'll notice that the voice doesn't begin until almost a full minute into the recording.

How Do They Work?

Government and official agencies have rarely spoken on the record about numbers stations. However, it's generally accepted that someone is instructed to tune into a particular frequency at an appointed time so they can receive the message.

For normal listeners, all they'll hear is a random strings of numbers. But it's assumed that the intended receipient would use a one-time cryptographic pad to decrypt the message.

Are They Still Used?

Technology may have come a long way since the original inception of numbers stations, but this hasn't resulted in their irrelevance. In fact, it's their simplicity that has contributed to their longevity.

This is mostly because of the aforementioned one-time pad. Also known as the Perfect Cipher, it is a cryptoalgorithm where plain text is combined with a random key that can be used to crack it.

The beauty of this is that key is both random and used only once, which makes cryptoanalysis — cracking the code for later use — impossible. This is why hiding in plain sight doesn't seem to concern whoever utilises this method of message sending; there's no way for an ordinary listener to decipher the contents.

The setup also remains attractive — you can send a message from thousands of kilometres away from the attended target with little risk of being traced.

This is why they are still in use today.

In fact, South Korea reported in mid-2016 that their North Korean counterparts had started using this method again, under the guise of a distance learning broadcast on mathematics.

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"Now we'll begin a mathematics review assignment for members of the 27th expeditionary unit of the distance learning university... Turn to page 459, question 35; 913, question 55; 135, question 86."

Another famous example is Russia's UVB-76 station, which broadcasts on the high-frequency 4625 kHz band (Which I previously posted about, the page number escapes me ). Nicknamed The Buzzer for its distinctive, repetitive noise, it was first discovered in 1982. It has been known to be occasionally permeated by music or a Russian voice.

This station has drawn particular interest due to activity on the channel increasing long after the Cold War was over. In fact, it hit a peak in 2010 and followers of the channel who had triangulated the location noticed that the signal had moved.

The original site has even been discovered by enthusiasts, some of whom found log books.

Since this particular station resided in a bunker at one stage, it is generally accepted to involve the military, though no one knows to what end. One theory is that it acts as a failsafe for Russia's Dead Hand nuclear system — if it ever stops transmitting a nuke, or the country's entire arsenal of nuclear-tipped weapons, will automatically activate.

Can I Listen To Them?

Absolutely — anyone who owns a shortwave radio has the ability to tap into these fascinating broadcasts. There are a plethora of websites that have taken the guesswork out of finding the frequencies, such as Priyom and Global Frequency Database.

Don't have a shortwave? No problem — it's also possible to listen online in real-time, with a bit of trickery.

You can also find recordings all over the internet, if you're not particularly interested in hearing the broadcasts live.

You can even have a crack at working out what they mean, but you certainly wouldn't be the first. Considering the almost full-proof system they adhere to, the secrecy of numbers station broadcasts are likely to remain as mysterious as ever.

MIKA: Don't have a shortwave? No problem — it's also possible to listen online in real-time, with a bit of trickery. 

This is the link for a web based shortwave radio, you can control the frequency and what bands to use.

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LUMOS ASTER CYCLING BACKPACK

If you are a bike commuter, chances are you’ve already had a couple of close calls in the past week. The sun is setting just a little before 5pm, making it that much harder to get home from work in one piece. There are some solutions out there though, and the Lumos Aster Cycling Backpack is one of the best among them.

This thing has so many features it almost seems like simply calling it a ‘backpack’ sells it short. The Aster comes with a 4,000 mAh battery that holds up to 15 hours of charge for powering front lights on the back-straps, side lights along the bag, and a brake light and turn signals on the back. The kicker? All of them operate automatically. The bag can tell when you are decelerating, making it so the back brake light glows brighter, and the left and right turn signals can be operated using a simple Bluetooth connected switch on your handlebars. Yet, while it is tempting to just focus on the visibility that this bag provides, it is worth mentioning a few other features. Not only is the Aster good for riding in the rain thanks to its tough PU outer material, but it can open fully for easy access and packing when you are off the bike. Prices set at $110. [Purchase]

 

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Upgrade Your Holiday Style With Original Grain Watches

The holiday season brings office parties, family gatherings, and plenty of shared cheer. When you step out to knock back some eggnog, make sure you look put together. Original Grain’s collection of watches can bring a bit of stylish intrigue to any outfit. Handcrafted with a combination of steel and sustainably sourced exotic hardwood, each timepiece feels original and classically cool at the same time. Best of all, for every watch sold, Original Grain will plant 10 trees, so buying one is kind of like giving a gift to Mother Nature. This season, we’d recommend hitting your festivities with one on.

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BUNKER HOUSE

Set inside an abandoned WWII shelter in a rural part of the Netherlands, the Bunker House transforms its austere setting into a functional, if cozy, holiday retreat. With an internal space of just nine square meters, space was at a premium, so all the wooden furnishings were custom built and can be folded up, slid away, or pushed up and down, an idea inspired by the work of Le Corbusier. The wall-mounted beds hold up to four people, and the same space serves as both a dining area and kitchen. An outdoor terrace more than doubles the usable living space, and occupies the same footprint as the bunker itself, providing guests some perspective on just how much concrete lies in the walls.

 

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NORLAN WHISKY GLASS

Your sense of smell is way more sensitive than your sense of taste. And that's a huge reason why the aromas you inhale from a dram of whisky greatly impact your tasting experience. The makers of the Norlan Whisky Glass know that, but also know that the aesthetic you get from a classic tumbler matters as well, and have combined the best of both worlds in this unique piece of glassware. Each glass is hand-blown from Borosilicate glass and available in sets of two.

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Chernobyl's Gigantic Radiation Shield Is Now Being Moved Into Place

A giant metal shield designed to contain radioactive waste at Chernobyl’s damaged nuclear reactor is being moved into place. 

Workers at the site of the world’s deadliest nuclear accident have started to move a shield, called the New Safe Confinement, that should prevent further radioactive material from leaking out of the damaged reactor over the next century. Ukraine’s environment minister, Ostap Semerak, described the start of the final construction phase as a historic step.

On April 26, 1986, the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl plant experienced a catastrophic meltdown, sending long plumes of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere. Over 30 workers were killed in the immediate aftermath, but an untold number of people suffered from various radiation-related health problems in the months and years that followed.

Soon after the accident, the damaged reactor building was enclosed in a large radiation shield made of concrete. Experts started to fear that the hastily built sarcophagus would eventually start to decay and collapse, possibly releasing more radioactive material. To address the problem, a new shield was designed to prevent further leakage, and to allow for the partial demolition of the old structure in the future.

The upgraded radiation shield is made of corrosion-resistant steel, and measures 843 feet (275 meters) wide and 354 feet (108) meters tall. The sarcophagus comes at a cost of $1.6 billion ($1.5 billion euros), which is being funded primarily by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD).

Construction began over four years ago, but today marked the start of the final phase, as the massive structure is being moved into place by a system of hydraulic jacks. The ERBD describes the arch as the largest moveable land-based structure ever built, and one of the most ambitious projects in the history of engineering. Should all go as planned, the dome should be secure and in place by November 29.

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Houseboat Gifted To 'Homeless Youth' Washes Up Empty On Other Side Of Atlantic

This weekend, a mysterious, tar-covered houseboat apparently built by a Canadian adventurer was discovered unoccupied on Irish beach — some 4800km from where it was last seen.

According to an Irish official, coast guard personnel initially mistook the strange watercraft for a travel trailer due to its odd shape and size. Once they pulled it ashore, however, authorities found the boat had solar panels and an electric motor inside.

The only clue to the craft's origin was a cryptic note left scrawled on an inside wall. The note was apparently written by Rick Small, a Canadian man who made headlines last year after riding a solar-powered bike across the country.

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"I, Rick Small, donate this structure to a homeless youth," read the message. "To give them a better life that Newfoundlanders choose not to do! No rent, no mortgage, no hydro."

It's unclear if the boat was indeed claimed by anyone, but a Canadian woman says she believed the vessel to be abandoned when she saw it floating in Newfoundland in late July.

Other Newfoundland residents say Small initially planned to sail the boat across the Atlantic.

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"I saw him on the bay his first day out," wrote Ted Perrin on Facebook. "Flat calm no seas at all... the next day or so after we had north east winds which are bad here. Guess he found out quickly that the North Atlantic is no joke."

 

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OSAKA POUR-OVER COFFEE DRIPPER

When it comes to making coffee, performance is key, but a great looking brewer doesn't hurt either. The Osaka Pour-Over Coffee Dripper gives you both by combining aesthetics and performance. A laser-cut stainless steel filter has an additional mesh inner liner, keeping your coffee's essential oils intact for a richer taste, while the borosilicate glass carafe won't absorb odors, chemicals, or residue that can carry over from brew to brew. Available in a black, natural, or mahogany finish, the wood details make your morning routine look as good as it tastes.

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2018 AUDI S5 COUPE

With the performance and aggressive lines of a true sports car and a serviceable backseat, the 2018 Audi S5 Coupe strikes a delicate balance between fun and practical luxury. The racier version of the standard A5, it's powered by a 354 hp 3.0 TFSI V6 engine that, when paired with the eight-speed Tiptronic transmission and legendary quattro all-wheel drive, can propel the car from 0-60 in just 4.4 seconds. It's also loaded with tech, from the multiple driving modes and available full-color head-up display to the 3D LED headlights and advanced driver assistance systems. Arriving at dealerships next year.

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We Finally Know How London's Famous Killer Fog Formed

On December 5th, 1952, a veil of fog rolled over the city of London. It was the start of the deadliest air pollution disaster in British history, and more than sixty years later, an international team of chemists has figured out why.

Locals paid little heed to the fog at first—after all, foggy days have been a hallmark of life in Britain for thousands of years. But by late afternoon, the sky had taken on a yellowish hue and was beginning to smell like rotten eggs.

The next day, the air was the color of pea soup and reeked of foul garbage. As the hours wore on, visibility got poorer and poorer, and breathing outside became painful. This torture went on for five days. By the time the fog lifted on December 9th, 150,000 people had been hospitalized. Experts now estimate that over 12,000 men, women, and children died from exposure to the befouled air.

London’s Great Smog, as the disaster is now known, was immediately (and correctly) blamed on coal. But the details of what exactly happened remained elusive for decades. Now, through laboratory experiments and atmospheric measurements in two pollution-prone Chinese cities, Xi’an and Beijing, a team lead by Texas A&M’s Renyi Zhang has worked out a likely explanation for the Great Smog and other deadly air pollution events around the world. Their work is published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

One of the hallmarks of the Great Smog was sulfate, particles of sulfuric acid that not only contributed to its hue and odor, but its toxic effects on humans. In their study, Zhang and his team demonstrate that under naturally foggy conditions, sulfate will build up inside water droplets due to chemical interactions between sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide both come out of coal-fired chimneys, and to a lesser extent, out the tailpipes of automobiles.

“People have known that sulfate was a big contributor to the fog, and sulfuric acid particles were formed from sulfur dioxide released by coal burning,” Zhang said in a statement. “Our results showed that this process was facilitated by nitrogen dioxide, another co-product of coal burning, and occurred initially on natural fog.”

Sulfate, in turn, helps promote the formation of other particles, including nitrate and organic matter, exacerbating the development of severe haze. Eventually, as the water in fog dries up, the acid becomes concentrated, leaving corrosive, gross looking haze particles that coat every surface they come in contact with, from sidewalks to human lungs.

The study found that similar chemistry is responsible for smoggy skies in Beijing and X’ian, although in these cities, agricultural chemicals like ammonia can play a role, too. While it took a certain combination of chemicals and unfavorable weather for the Great Smog to develop, overall, the study suggests that the conditions behind this deadly event can, in theory, develop all over the world.

If there’s one silver lining to the Great Smog, it’s that it kickstarted an environmental movement that led to the passage of some of the first clean air laws. Now that we’ve worked out more of the finer details, the impetus for ridding the world of coal seems stronger than ever.

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For $30, You Can Run Around On Mars In VR

I've always wanted to go to Mars. I don't have the brains or the endless cash reserves of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, though. What I do have is PlayStation VR. That, or a HTC Vive, is all you need to play a 30-minute interactive cinematic vignette from Ridley Scott's The Martian on your PlayStation 4 or gaming PC.
The Martian VR Experience isn't just some tacked-on extra cash-in for the movie, though; it's executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by visual effects guru Robert Stromberg, who's previously worked on Game of Thrones, Life of Pi and Boardwalk Empire. It's also the first virtual reality creation from the Fox Innovation Lab, a standalone group within Fox that works with the movie production department to create new and slightly different entertainment.

Half-way between a game and a movie, The Martian VR is a pretty damn bold step forward for Fox — it costs roughly what a pair of movie tickets would, lasts around half an hour per play-through, and it'll be one of the watermarks that helps the entertainment industry decide whether cinematic virtual reality is something worth investing in, or whether the 50-foot silver screen is still the place to put its money.

You can get The Martian VR Experience on PlayStation VR and through SteamVR for the HTC Vive today, both priced at $29.95. It's also on the way to the Oculus Store in the near future.

MIKA: Bonus, searching on Youtube, I found another gameplay video on this and it looks amazing

 

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Watch Japan Fix A Massive Five-Lane-Wide Sink Hole In Less Than A Week

You'd assume that when the earth opens up to swallow a big chunk of a crowded city it would take months to fix the damage. But in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, it took repair crews just four days to fix a massive five-lane-wide sinkhole that suddenly appeared last week.

The sinkhole maxed out at around 30m wide and 15m deep, and was caused by construction workers who were boring a tunnel for a new train tunnel extension about 24m below the road's surface.

Given the size of the sinkhole, and the interruption of traffic on the busy street, city officials decided to fill and repair the massive hole and temporarily stop work on the new train line. It only took about four days before vehicles were allowed back on the street, and two more days to restore all of the utilities affected by the incident.

 

MIKA: Impressive! Something Melbourne City council here could watch and learn from. They take weeks if not months to "Repair" a simple pot hole.

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Norway's Experimental Police Uniform Is Silly And Sort Of Scary

A public backlash has emerged in Norway in response to a proposed police uniform that's been compared to outfits worn by science fiction villains and totalitarian dictators.

As reported in the BBC, the grey-green "urban camouflage" outfits are designed to replace the black jumpsuits worn by armed officers and those in special units. The new uniforms are designed to help officers "slip more into the crowds", and are currently being tested by around 100 to 200 officers — a fact that hasn't gone unnoticed by Norwegian citizens now concerned about the "new" look.

The daily newspaper Aftenposten collected and shared some of the negative reactions to the new uniform on its Facebook page, and the comments are as hilarious as they are perceptive.

Some compared the new outfits to street cleaners' uniforms, outfits worn by the Gestapo, or something used by the military in North Korea. One Facebook user asked: "The Empire Strikes Back, have they paid royalties to [George] Lucas?"

In response, the Norwegian police is assuring people that

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It is not yet concluded neither shape or colour of the uniform. We are conducting a pilot project in order to gain valuable experience in our continuing efforts to develop uniform police. We will assess the project underway, and decide the way forward by project end.

Given the public's mocking tone, it's a good bet the final product will look decidedly different. And who knows, maybe Hollywood will take inspiration.

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The Nazis Kept A List Of Powerful American Friends In Los Angeles, Including The Co-Founder Of UCLA

Nazi rally of German-Americans held at Madison Square Garden on 20 February 1939, including a sign that reads "Stop Jewish Domination of Christian Americans"

In 1945, the FBI raided a warehouse in Los Angeles that was used for storage by the German Consulate. Among the files, they found a collection of 7x12cm cards kept by the Nazi regime containing contact information for important people in LA. The cards included the names, addresses and phone numbers of people in the entertainment industry, academia and industry. And it serves as a terrifying reminder that the normalisation of the Nazis in the 1930s provided cover for some very powerful people in the US to be friendly with genocidal maniacs.

I obtained a five-page document that contains the information from the cards as part of a Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI. I had previously requested all FBI documents on Norman Chandler, the former publisher of the LA Times who, it turns out, was hanging out with Nazis in the late 1930s. And now the National Archives has provided me with this document as part of that request.

The list doesn't explicitly say that everyone on the list was working closely with the Nazis. But judging by what we know about some of the associations of those on the list, these were at the very least people who might be invited to a Nazi cocktail party. And at worst, people who were actively working with the Nazis and keeping in regular contact.

Dr Erich Breitung, for example, is on the list and was head of the Los Angeles branch of the Nazi Party's American information services in 1933. The organisation was set up to distribute Nazi propaganda in the United States and had offices from Cincinnati to San Francisco. It's very easy for Americans today to forget just how divided the country was about whether to get involved in World War II. And as late as 1939 the Nazis were holding rallies at Madison Square Garden in New York. As you can see from the photo above, these rallies were well attended and had signs like "Stop Jewish Domination of Christian Americans".

Entertainment industry people on the index cards in 1945 included Jason Joy the head of public relations at Twentieth Century Fox; Hans Peters, an art director at Twentieth Century Fox who would move to MGM during World War II; and Henry Noerdlinger from the MGM research department.

Henry Noerdlinger in an undated photo from the book Hollywood's History Films by David Eldridge

The file notes that Noerdlinger will "gladly furnish info to [the German] Consulate". Noerdlinger was educated in Switzerland and came to the United States in 1929. He worked for the MGM research department for over a decade and after World War II, Noerdlinger became Cecil B. DeMille's personal research consultant, working on movies like The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and The Ten Commandments (1956).

The cards had plenty of members of academia as well, including Ernest C. Moore, the co-founder of UCLA who in the 1930s called his university, "one of the worst hotbeds of campus Communism in America".

The list of academic contacts also included Dr M. Delbruck from the California Technology Institute (now known as Caltech); and a number of professors from UCLA like Rolf Hoffmann, Paul Perigord, Frank H. Reinsch, Alexander Graf von Wuthenau-Hohenturm and Erik Wahlgren. Scientist and director of the Los Angeles Museum, W.A. Bryan, was also on the list.

Important members of American industry in Los Angeles, like the president of Lockheed, Robert Gross, were on the Nazi's contact list as well. Lockheed's planes would eventually become crucial to the American war effort, but Gross had no problem selling his Electra planes to Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and Japan from 1934 to 1938.

Newspaper industry people on the list include Mrs R. W. Trueblood and Edwin Schallert of the LA Times. Norman Chandler was also on the list, of course, and was "royally entertained" by the Nazi regime when the publisher visited Germany. Chandler chided American journalists who were critical of the Nazis in the 1930s, saying that they "peddled nothing but lies about National Socialist Germany". Chandler was quite literally partying with Nazis until it became dangerous to his paper to do so.

You can read the entire list of Nazi contacts in Los Angeles that was confiscated by the FBI in 1945 here. At the very least it serves as a frightening reminder that authoritarian regimes aren't above getting plenty of buy-in from allegedly "liberal" institutions like the press and academia.

As far as I know, virtually none of the people on this list advertised their connection to the Nazis like Chandler did. But their connections to the Nazi regime no doubt stoked the flames of hatred in supposedly liberal American cities like Los Angeles — from the classroom to the newspapers.

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The Green Hornet Is Coming Back To Theatres With A Realistic, Contemporary Spin

After spending years pursuing the rights to the franchise, director Gavin O'Connor will team with Paramount to make a reimagining of The Green Hornet.

"As a kid, when most of my friends were into Superman and Batman, there was only one superhero who held my interest: The Green Hornet," O'Connor told Deadline. "I always thought he was the baddest badass because he had no superpowers. The Green Hornet was a human superhero."

To that end, the director plans on taking the characters, which have usually been adapted with an eye on camp (like on TV) or traditional comedy (like in the 2011 Seth Rogen movie), and giving them a more serious, modern take.

"My intention is to bring a gravitas to The Green Hornet that wipes away the camp and kitsch of the previous iteration," O'Connor said. "I want to re-mythologize The Green Hornet in a contemporary context, with an emphasis on story and character, while at the same time, incorporating themes that speak to my heart."

O'Connor, who recently directed The Accountant but also did the underrated Pride & Glory and Warrior, will work closely with video game writer Sean O'Keefe on the screenplay — and Paramount, of course, hopes this is the start of a new franchise.

"I think of this film as Batman upside down meets Bourne inside out by way of Chris Kyle," O'Connor said. "He's the anti-Bruce Wayne. His struggle: Is he a saviour or a destroyer? Britt made money doing bad things, but moving forward he's making no money doing good things. He must realise his destiny as a protector and force of justice by becoming the last thing he thought he'd ever become: his father's son. Which makes him a modern Hamlet. By uncovering his past, and the truth of his father, Britt unlocks the future."

There's no immediate timeline for the film.