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

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CORAZÓN ANEJO OLD RIP VAN WINKLE TEQUILA

Using 100 percent blue agave from the highlands of Jalisco that are then distilled at the 130 years old Casa San Matías Distillery — Corazón knows how to produce quality tequila. Corazón Anejo Old Rip Van Winkle Tequila however, requires expertise from both tequila and bourbon industries, as the Blanco tequila is aged for 23 months in Old Rip Van Winkle bourbon barrels before bottling. It's the third time Buffalo Trace and Corazón have collaborated for the line of unique tequilas known as the Expresiones del Corazón series.

[MIKA27]

Your Ridiculously Awesome Ford GT Wallpaper Is Here 

If you’re still patiently waiting for the racing season to be back in full swing, that’s totally understandable. Most of us are. Let this wonderful photo from the Rolex 24 get your through your tough times.

This weekend’s wallpaper comes from Mason Bleasdell and features the No. 67 Ford GT entry from the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, accented by the blanket of nightfall that makes these race photos so beautiful every year. That being said, you’re probably too busy staring at the photo to even read this.

The No. 67 team ended the day—literally, the 24-hour day of racing—in 27th spot overall and 10th in its class. Meanwhile, the Cadillac prototype dream team of Jeff Gordon, Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli won in the overall standings at Daytona. If you want to see other great photos from the race, go check out Kurt Bradley’s huge gallery right here.

You're welcome.

[MIKA27]

The New 'Ghost In The Shell' Trailer Is Here

Here's the second trailer for the upcoming Ghost In The Shell live action film.

Directed by Rupert Sanders, Scarlett Johansson stars as Major - a special ops, one-of-a-kind human-cyborg hybrid, leads the elite task force Section 9. Devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, Section 9 is faced with an enemy whose singular goal is to wipe out Hanka Robotic’s advancements in cyber technology.

Also featuring Beat Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche, Michael Pitt, Pilou Asbæk, Kaori Momoi, Chin Han, Danusia Samal, Lasarus Ratuere, Yutaka Izumihara and Tuwanda Manyimo, it hits cinemas 30 March.

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IRONIC ILLUSTRATIONS OF WHEN CLIENTS ASK FOR FREE WORK

Ryan Estrada runs a hilarious and unfortunately accurate Twitter account dedicated to the topic of clients asking for free work. He calls it "For Exposure". Now if you've ever tried to work as a freelancer, you know exactly what he's talking about.

But wait, the Twitter account just got even better.

Thanks to Format Magazine and artist Emmie Tsumura, Estrada's sadly accurate Instagram account is now illustrated! There's something wonderfully ironic about seeing these rude client comments written with watercolor.

In this creative format, they almost look like inspirational quotes!

 

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This Cologne Makes You Smell Like Someone Who Drives a Bentley

Just in case dropping $200,000 on a car wasn’t enough of a status symbol for you, Bentley announced the impending release of their new men’s fragrance called “Momentum.” The product comes from a collaboration between the renowned English car company and Nathalie Lorson, who is to fragrances what Bentley is to cars.  If you, like us, are wondering what it smells like, don’t worry. Bentley didn’t hold back in its press announcement, saying the fragrance opens with a splash of energetic bergamot and green violet, balanced by an herbaceous, aromatic sage that hints at sensuous warmth. It then somehow “gains momentum” into ambergris and cashmere wood before ending with a “burnished blend of smooth sandalwood and dusky tonka bean, in a sensuous trail of musk and moss.” That’s twice they say sensuous in a press release full of more descriptive language than most creative writing workshops, so let’s hope the scent delivers on its rather lofty promises. You’ll be able to get the fragrance in either Eau de Toilette or Eau de Parfum.

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Bang & Olufseon Beoplay H4 Headphones

Bang are the latest release in B&O’s line of functional, high-quality and sleek Beoplay headphones. The wireless, over-ear headphones continue the traditions that make Beoplay headphones great, but these have a number of different features and an even more affordable price tag. Designed by Jakob Wagner and built with lambskin leather, aluminum, stainless and braided cord, the streamlined headphones will give you up to 19 hours of playback on 2.5 hours of charge. Don’t worry about your calls and workouts either, because there are three button controls on the right ear cup along with an omnidirectional microphone. Should you ever run out of juice, just plug in the included cord and use the headphones corded. Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H4 Headphones are currently available through Beoplay in a charcoal grey style with silver and gold accents.

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Clear Ice Mold

The Clear Ice Mold by W&P Design aims to produce an ice cube close to perfection, for those who wish to cool down their drink in style and slowly enjoy it. The perfectly insulated mold cools down the water from top to bottom, this process ensures that almost no air pockets are formed oin the freezing process thus producing a crystal clear ice cube, plus, because of its generous proportion, the ice cube will melt slowly allowing you to drink to the pace of your choice. The whole process takes a bit more time but we assure you its worth the wait.

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Project CARS 2 Plans To Take Out Forza And GranTurismo

Ben Collins, Formula 3 racer and one of the many drivers who has worn the mantle of Top Gear‘s The Stig, has been working with Slightly Mad Studios on Project CARS 2 in order to make it a racing game that actually feels like racing. Collins, game director Stephen Viljoen, and creative director Andy Tudor spoke with IGN about their work on the first game and now on the sequel.

Collins famously spoke out against racing games like Forza and GranTurismo for “feeling too gamey.” Ian Bell, CEO of Slightly Mad Studios, went to Collins with the original Project Cars, hoping it would be a racing game that “felt like it should feel, rather than be obscenely tricky just for the sake of it.” Collins worked with Slightly Mad Studios on the handling for the original Project CARS along with another UK racing driver, Nicolas Hamilton.

About the original Project CARS, Collins said “This process took some getting used to but after two or three years that polished version of Project CARS 1 was really fantastic.” Which is glowing praise from a noted cynic.

Collins went on to speak about the work the Project CARS 2 has been doing saying, “They absolutely cracked it,” he says. “Whatever it was, they identified the secret ingredient that really makes the cars come to life… You can push them to the limit, and you can go over the limit. You won’t set the fastest time but you won’t spin off, and it’s intuitive to drive, it’s totally immersive…”

The team has managed to get licenses to a decent number of cars as shown off by their latest updates. And they’re looking forward to expanding their esports competitions.

Tudor summed up their experience, saying: “Just to rewind back in time, the reason we started crowdfunding Project CARS 1 is because we went to big massive publishers and said, ‘We’ve got an idea for a racing game; it’s gonna take on Forza and Gran Turismo’… So we made it on our own, and we did a good job, and now look what’s happened… We’re here to win on this.”

 

 

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188,000 evacuated as California’s massive Oroville Dam threatens catastrophic floods

  About 188,000 residents near Oroville, Calif., were ordered to evacuate Sunday after a hole in an emergency spillway in the Oroville Dam threatened to flood the surrounding area. Thousands clogged highways leading out of the area headed south, north and west, and arteries major and minor remained jammed as midnight approached on the West Coast — though by early Monday, Lake Oroville’s water level had dropped to a point at which water was no longer spilling over, and the crisis appeared to be stabilizing.

The level in the massive man-made lake reached its peak of 902.59 feet at about 3 a.m. Sunday and dropped to 898 feet by 4 a.m. Monday, according to the Sacramento Bee. Water flows over the emergency spillway at 901 feet.

“The drop in the lake level was early evidence that the Department of Water Resources’ desperate attempt to prevent a catastrophic failure of the dam’s emergency spillway appeared to be paying dividends,” the Bee reported Monday.

Officials doubled the flow of water out of the nearly mile-long primary spillway to 100,000 cubic feet per second, with the hope of lowering the lake level by 50 feet to leave room for upcoming rain. The normal flow is about half as much, but increased flows are common at this time of year, during peak rain season, officials said.

Officials also warned that damaged infrastructure could create further dangers as storms approach in the week ahead. During a midday news conference on Monday, they said they’re continuing to monitor the spillways for erosion. It also remains unclear when residents will be allowed back into their homes. Inmates at the Butte County Jail also have been moved to Alameda County about 170 miles away.

“I recognize that this is displacing a lot of people,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told reporters. “We did this because our primary purpose is to ensure public safety. It was a hard decision to make.”

Dry start to the week, but that will be changing. A series of Pacific frontal systems are lined up and taking aim on the west.

An early-morning inspection of the main spillway revealed no additional erosion, the Bee reported, and the Department of Water Resources said water would continue to flow at 100,000 cubic feet per second.

Officials also will have to determine whether the damaged primary spillway will be able to handle high levels of water through the rest of the rainy season, Jay Lund, a civil engineering professor at the University of California at Davis, told the Bee.

Lake Oroville is one of California’s largest man-made lakes, with 3.5 million acre-feet of water and 167 miles of shoreline. And the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam is the nation’s tallest, about 44 feet higher than the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. The lake is the linchpin of California’s government-run water delivery system, sending water from the Sierra Nevada for agriculture in the Central Valley and for residents and businesses in Southern California.

After a record-setting drought, California has been battered by potentially record-setting rain, with the Northern California region getting 228 percent more than its normal rainfall for this time of year. The average annual rainfall of about 50 inches had already been overtaken with 68 inches in 2017 alone.

There was never any danger of the dam collapsing. The problem was with the spillways, which are safety valves designed to release water in a controlled fashion, preventing water from topping over the wall of the colossal dam that retains Lake Oroville.

Earlier this month, unexpected erosion crumbled through the main spillway, sending chunks of concrete flying and creating a large hole. Then sheets of water began spilling over the dam’s emergency spillway for the first time in its nearly 50-year history.

Water from rain and snow rapidly flowed into the lake, causing it to rise to perilous levels, and sending water down the wooded hillside’s emergency spillway, carrying murky debris into the Feather River below.

“Once we have damage to a structure like that, it’s catastrophic,” Bill Croyle, acting director of the state’s Department of Water Resources, said at a news conference late Sunday, in reference to the erosion of the main spillway. “We determined we could not fix the hole. You don’t just throw a little bit of rock in it.”

Anticipating a possible catastrophe for the Lake Oroville area, located about 75 miles north of Sacramento and about 25 miles southeast of Chico, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office ordered evacuations, adding in a news release that it was “NOT a drill.”

But as the reservoir’s water levels lowered, the flows over the emergency spillway ceased late Sunday night.

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) issued an emergency order to boost the state’s response to the evacuation efforts and spillway crisis, which Brown called “complex and rapidly changing.” The Federal Emergency Management Agency sent an incident management team to the governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Despite the minimized threats, Honea, the sheriff, said that he would not be lifting the mandatory evacuation order until water resources officials had a better grasp on the anticipated risks.

The evacuation took residents by surprise.

April Torlone, 18, was at work at a Dollar General in Live Oak, Calif., Sunday evening when she received a flood emergency alert on her phone. She hurried home, she said, where she had about 10 minutes to gather some clothes and her late father’s ashes.

Torlone drove with her mother and sister to her grandmother’s house in Sacramento, arriving well after midnight. The roughly 40-mile trip took six hours, she said. Gas stations were packed and stores were running out of food. Along the way, they saw more than 30 people camped out in their cars on the side of the road, many with trunks full of belongings, Torlone said.

“I just hope everyone is safe and finds a place to stay, and that no one’s homes are damaged,” she told The Washington Post. “It’s honestly so sad.”

Shelters, churches, schools and seven Sikh temples opened their doors, and people offered to open their homes to strangers via Twitter messages. Hotels and motels out of harm’s way filled up quickly, creating communities of the suddenly displaced. Beale Air Force Base, east of Marysville, also opened its gates to area residents and said early Monday that it had received approximately 250 evacuees.

The dam itself remained structurally sound, the state Department of Water Resources said, and officials said helicopters would be deployed to drop bags of rocks into the crevice and prevent any further erosion.

Croyle, the acting Department of Water Resources director, said Lake Oroville would need to lower almost 50 feet to reach levels at which the system would normally operate. Croyle said that personnel were unable to access the eroded emergency spillway Sunday to do repair work. Officials aimed to continue to discharge as much water as possible ahead of upcoming storms, without adding too much pressure to the already damaged infrastructure.

“Our goal is to be able to use that infrastructure throughout this wet season,” Croyle said. Forecasts indicate that dry weather will dominate through Tuesday, but a series of Pacific storms are expected to arrive across the region Wednesday into Thursday, bringing up to four inches of rain to parts of the Central Valley, according to the National Weather Service.

Honea called the evacuation order a “critical and difficult decision” and said he recognized it would cause significant dislocations and traffic jams, which it did. Residents of Oroville, a town of 16,000 people, were ordered to head north toward Chico, while other nearby residents drove south toward Sacramento.

“I recognize how tough this situation is on people,” Honea said Sunday night. “I recognize that we’ve had to displace a lot of people.”

The California National Guard will provide eight helicopters to assist with emergency spillway repair, Adjutant General David S. Baldwin said. All 23,000 soldiers and airmen statewide received an alert to be “ready to go if needed,” Baldwin said. The last time such an alert was sent out to the entire California National Guard was the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which erupted after a trial jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department of the use of excessive force in the videotaped arrest and beating of Rodney King.

Officials said 250 law enforcement personnel were being deployed to patrol the evacuated areas.

Travelers reported traffic at a standstill on some routes, especially on Highway 99 between Oroville and Chico.

Nicholas Mertz, a front desk supervisor at Oxford Suites Chico, told The Post that when he started his shift at 3 p.m. on Sunday, the hotel’s 184 rooms were at 54 percent occupancy, but within an hour or two, the rooms reached full capacity. What began as a normal night quickly turned into “hectic craziness, everything all at once,” Mertz said. The hotel’s five phone lines were ringing nonstop, and hundreds of guests came pouring in.

“It’s never happened that fast,” Mertz said. Larger families of five to eight people packed into rooms, without having to pay the usual fees for additional guests, Mertz said, because “in this scenario, it’s whatever you can do.”

Many guests expressed confusion and frustration, while others spoke of their fears: What would happen to the pets they left behind? Would there be looting in the evacuated neighborhoods? Would their homes still be standing when they returned?

“Not only are you just a front desk person you’re kind of like a therapist as well,” Mertz said.

Kyle Dobson, 41, said he was visiting the dam Sunday afternoon from Yuba City, Calif., and noticed that the lake was higher than he had ever seen it. He said he got a call later in the day that Oroville was being evacuated. By the time he got home, Yuba City had also been ordered to evacuate.

Dobson said he and his wife packed about a week’s worth of clothes for themselves and their four young children, and moved pictures and other belongings to the second floor of their two-story home. For now, they are staying put, but if the situation gets worse, they will drive to Sutter, Calif., to stay with family, Dobson said.

“I’ll stay up probably all night, listen to the police scanner and watch the reports come in,” he said. “The river levels — that’s what you’ve got to watch out for.”

Adriana Weidman of Marysville, Calif., said she heard about the evacuation around 5 p.m. Fearing that nearby rivers would overflow, she rushed to pack as much as she could, then got into the car with her husband and two children, she said. By 10 p.m., the family was still sitting in gridlocked traffic on the way to Colfax, Calif., about 45 miles east.

“It’s scary,” Weidman told The Post. “I’m terrified I’m not going to have a home to come home to.”

Out of an “abundance of caution,” inmates were in the process of being evacuated from the Butte County Jail Sunday night, the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook.

“We needed to get people moving quickly in order to protect the public and save lives if the worst case scenario did come to fruition,” Honea said.

The damaged primary spillway caused water flowing downstream to become muddy and brown with debris earlier this week, threatening the lives of millions of baby Chinook salmon in the Feather River Hatchery below. In a rescue operation, officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife successfully moved about 5 million Chinook salmon to a nearby annex, the department said on Facebook.

The other 3 million baby salmon will remain at the main hatchery, where staff and engineers have rigged a system of pumps, pipes and generators and a sediment pond in the hopes of filtering the water enough to support the fish.

Ironically, the state’s five years of drought caused Lake Oroville’s water levels to plunge to a low of 33 percent of capacity, according to the Los Angeles Times. The lake became a poster child for the drought. In a dramatic shift, Northern California witnessed an extraordinarily rainy winter this year that caused waters to rise to their highest levels in decades.

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The Atari Flashback Has 101 Built-In Games (And You Can Buy It Right Now)

Frogger, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Centipede, Jungle Hunt, Missile Command, and Pong are among the 101 built-in games on the new Atari Flashback 7 Classic Game Console, available right now. Isn't life grand?

The console also comes with two wireless controllers "styled after the Atari 2600 originals" that need two AAA batteries each (not included) and there are also two legacy controller ports for optional wired joysticks or paddles.

The PAL format "Plug and Play on any TV" style console uses a 5VDC 1500/7 Adaptor.

JB Hi-Fi has it for $99, but the cheapest we've found it for is $89 at Target

MIKA: Shut up and take my money! 

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There's A New Actor Playing R2-D2 In Star Wars: The Last Jedi

After the passing of Kenny Baker last year, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Lucasfilm and Disney would go the all-robot (or part-robot-part-CGI) route for the rest of R2-D2's movies appearances. Instead, the role has gone to Jimmy Vee (Doctor Who).

It's legitimately surprising — and weirdly impractical — that there's still going to be an actual person inside the astromech droid. As it is, Rogue One's K-2SO was created with computers, and The Force Awakens built themselves a BB-8. But it's also pretty cool that Star Wars wants to keep a real actor playing Artoo, even if remote-control or CG would probably be easier.

In a statement, Vee said, "It's been an absolute pleasure to have worked alongside the legendary Kenny Baker. Kenny was a fantastic actor and taught me all the 'tricks' on how he brought R2-D2 to life which I will continue to portray in his honour. I'm so excited to be a part of the Star Wars universe and can't wait for everyone to see what we've been working so hard on for the last year."

He'll be, well, not seen exactly, but you know what we mean, when The Last Jedi comes out in December.

[MIKA27]

Watch A Redback Spider Fight A Brown Snake

This one is a cliffhanger people...

The brown snake gets caught in the Redback's web. The redback climbs down because he needs to act fast. The snake is all, "get me out of here this is not how I imagined dying."

I'm guessing the Redback's thinking, I don't want to have to do this, but I don't see any other way. So he scoots down his web and appears to bite the snake.

This is like the Aliens vs Predator of REAL LIFE.

Also worth it for amazing Australian commentary.

 

[MIKA27]

Knog Oi Bell 

The Oi Bell by Knog is a minimalist and high quality built bike bell. It´s meant to discretely blend on to the handlebar in a subtle way. Made from high end materials, you may choose your own style from copper, aluminum, brass or even a pricy but stylish titanium one. The sound it produces is very audible and may very well keep you safe and out of traffic trouble. It also comes in two different sizes to best fit your bike. An interesting add-on after market item that will surely come in handy for this fast paced market segment of urban bike commuters that love their rides and wish to upgrade them in style.    

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FREE SPIRIT SPHERES

Floating in a grove of cedar and maple trees, the Free Spirit Spheres offers treehouse accommodations in the rainforest of Vancouver Island. Each of the three suspended domes varies in size and comes equipped with sleeping for two, a dining table, built-in speakers, purified drinking water, and a circular window to admire the lush coastal environment. The first two models are hand-craft from Sitka Spruce, while the newest addition is made from a vivid yellow fiberglass with a black walnut interior and more spacious living area. When you're ready to leave your pod, Horne Lake Caves, Parksville Beach, and the Lighthouse Country Regional Trail are all at your disposal.

 

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PAGANI HUAYRA ROADSTER

There's lots of good news when it comes to the Pagani Huayra Roadster. It has the same Mercedes-AMG twin-turbo V12 as its hard-topped predecessor, yet ups the power to 754 hp, sent to the rear wheels via a seven-speed gearbox. Space-age materials carbo-titanium and carbo-triax are used to craft the monocoque, delivering a 52% increase in stiffness while shedding about 80kg compared to the coupe — unheard of for a roadster conversion. It also looks fantastic. The bad news? Pagani is only building 100 examples and has already sold them all.

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OLD RIPY BOURBON

As the bourbon renaissance continues, more and more forgotten brands are being dusted off and revived. The latest is Old Ripy Bourbon, a brand created by Irish immigrant James Ripy that was made in Lawrenceburg, KY up until 1950. The new iteration of Old Ripy is distilled at Wild Turkey, which just happens to be the same location of the former Old Ripy distillery. It's a combination of 8-year-old Kentucky straight bourbon with other whiskeys of varying ages, up to 12 years old. It's bottled at 104 proof in smaller than normal 375ml bottles, which is a nod to the pre-Prohibition period of bourbon making. Old Ripy is also one of two new releases in the Whiskey Barons collection, which was established to honor and recreate historically significant Bourbons lost after Prohibition.

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The Gory Teaser Trailer for The Void Hints at a Truly Terrifying World

As The Void begins, it’s impossible to guess where it’s heading. Initially, it seems to be about a weird cult in a small town. But then there’s a shot of something odd in the clouds. And a very strange creature-thing. Slowly, it becomes obvious what you think you’re watching isn’t the point at all.

I saw The Void at Fantastic Fest last year and found a lot of it really, really good. The film is finally coming to theaters on March 31 and a teaser trailer was just released. It’s super gross and offers a great peek at the best things the film has going for it. 

Directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski, The Void follows a small-town detective (Aaron Poole) who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He runs into a mysterious stranger on the street and takes them to the hospital—and that’s when things start to go really, really wrong.

I don’t want to specifically say how or why things go wrong because that would ruin half the fun. But what I will say is, it takes a pretty typical movie set-up and instantly elevates it. Where the film ends up going isn’t exactly new or unique, and you’ll notice influences from some pretty famous horror movies along the way (films that, if named, would kind of ruin everything). However, when juxtaposed with the first half, this change feels surprising and ambitious. There’s a ton of gross-out fun, crazy practical effects, and very kinetic violent horror. It’s kind of fantastic.

On the other hand, the best part of the movie is really only the last half to two-thirds of it. Gillespie and Kostanski certainly drop enough clues not to make it completely random, but the insane final act puts the more typical first half to shame. That makes it hard to ignore an inconsistency that makes you think “I wish they got to THIS sooner.” So then, the question becomes, does the third act only work because it contrasts so much with what came before? I think in the case of The Void, maybe not. The different parts feel like two different movies.

There’s little in The Void that you haven’t seen before, but maybe you haven’t seen it like this. And with a movie that has almost zero expectations riding on it, even if only one-third of the movie is really good, that’s almost enough.

The Void opens April 7.

[MIKA27]

Why Arcades Haven't Died In Japan

In many places, arcades seem to have nearly, if not completely, vanished. Yet, in Japan, they continue to hang on. 

As The Financial Times reports in a recent piece on Japanese arcades, there were 44,000 of them during their mid-1980s heyday. Today, the Japan Amusement Industry Association says there are 4,856 registered arcades across the country. There also another estimated 9,000 locales, each having under fifty machines.

Even though there are fewer arcades now than in decades past, new games and cabinets continue continue to hit game centers, such as Dissidia Final Fantasy, Pokken, and KanColle, a title so popular that it drew lines upon release.

Japanese arcades not only hang on, but keep getting new games. Here’s why. 

Arcade game makers own arcades.

Some of the biggest corporate arcades in Japan are from Sega, Namco, Taito, and Capcom. All of those companies are also game developers, so they’re able to churn out titles for their arcades, whether that’s Namcoland, Taito Station, Plaza Capcom, or Club Sega. Since they’ve already invested in the arcade locations as a business, they need content to keep attracting customers. This integrated system is instrumental for Japanese arcades’ survival.

Since many Japanese game makers got their start in arcades, that connection remains strong. It’s part of their corporate culture and identity, unlike in the U.S., where many game makers either got their start on consoles or on computers, and where famous arcade game makers of the past, like Midway and Atari, no longer exist.

Infrastructure can make or break a business. In Japan, arcades are proof of that.

Japanese arcades are part of the landscape.

In Osaka and Tokyo, arcades are often located near major train stations. Thus, visiting an arcade is something you can do on the way to doing something else. You can pop in, play a few games, and go on your merry way. No wonder arcades are a way to blow off steam after work.

It’s not only in big cities that you find arcades, but also in suburban shopping malls and rural areas. For standalone arcades, it’s important to be close enough to bicycle there to make up for foot traffic (that is, if they want to survive). In Japan, shopping mall arcades tend to be different from their American counterparts of the 1980s: the modern Japanese versions are bright and airy and aimed more at families with small children. The American arcades of my youth were not.

Realize that depending on whether the arcade is located, the line-up of games might change. For example, if kids and parents mostly visit, then the games will most likely be dedicated cabinets like racing games, drumming games, or small indoor train rides—basically, amusements that are easy for anyone to enjoy. If most customers are young adults, you will probably see games that require more skill. If the customers are older, there might be more retro titles or medal games. Which brings us to...

Japanese arcades respond to trends. 

These aren’t only the trends regarding what types of games are popular, but also, trends among patrons. Since 2010, there have been reports of game centers being increasingly frequented by elderly customers. Some arcades offer their older customers blankets should they get cold, and Tokyo Gulliver, the Financial Times reports, has even lowered the sound for certain games and raised on other ones, specifically for these elderly gamers. The FT adds that the arcade has also rolled out softer chairs. This is just one example of Japanese arcades’ continuing responsiveness.

Arcade Only Experiences

What has remained constant is that Japanese arcades have always aimed to offer experiences that players could not get at home. This is a constant throughout Japanese arcade history.

Take crane games, for example. They’re a carry-over from analog arcades, and yet another longstanding example of a unique arcade experience that is difficult, if not impossible, to replicate at home.

The desire experience partly explains the rise of card-based arcade games in which players using (and collecting) IR-chipped cards and playing them on specially designed cabinets for an interactive experience they cannot get elsewhere. 

Continued Innovation

Arcades are not static. In Japan, they have changed over the years from department store rooftops of the 1960s to the game centers of today. The games have changed, too, with developers responding to the trends, decade by decade, whether that’s the shooting game craze, the fighting game craze, or the music game one.

During the 1960s and 1970s, that meant carnival type games and electromagnetic arcade games. During the 1980s and 1990s, that meant better graphics and increasingly large, ride-like arcade cabinets. During the mid-00s, that meant hi-def monitors and collectible IR card games. If this year’s Japan Amusement Expo is any indication, what’s next is VR.

Even as business becomes tougher and tougher, the Japanese arcade makers aren’t complacent, coming up with new and different ideas to not only stay relevant, but most importantly, to stay in business. 

Late last month, the annual Japan Amusement Expo got underway at Chiba’s Makuhari Messe, where the Tokyo Game Show is held. Taito showed off its latest deluxe train game cabinet, while Konami announced a new spin on Bomberman called Bombergirl. Even Koei Tecmo, which is better known for its console games, announced it was releasing a new VR system designed for arcades. It was exciting to see Japanese game makers continuing to back arcades.

Yet, Japanese arcades won’t last forever. At one point, the last one will shut down. But today, there are thousands still remaining, and until that happens, players will keep playing and playing and playing.

 

MIKA: I miss growing up in the 1970'2 and hanging out at the Arcade...

 

 

[MIKA27]

The Arctic Is In Such Bad Shape That Scientists Propose Refreezing It Ourselves

We all know the Earth is warming because humans are emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We've also heard that the Arctic is doing horribly, hitting record sea ice lows for several of the past few months, thanks to recent hot weather that's connected to a longer-term warming trend. The polar bear populations are projected to decline 30 per cent by 2050. There might not be any late-summer sea ice by the 2030s.

OK, so what do we do about it? At least one group of scientists from Arizona State University feel that solution A, cleaning up our act and reducing our emissions, is probably not going to happen thanks to a lack of effective political leadership. So, they have offered an incredible solution instead: Let's just refreeze the ice ourselves with a hundred billion dollar engineering project and pretend things are fine.

Before we explain how that would work, let's talk about why polar ice is important. Most obviously, entire ecosystems rely on the Arctic having ice, including humans who use it for hunting and travelling. But also, the bright, white ice reflects sunlight, which keeps the whole planet cooler. Without that ice, our poles would absorb and trap more energy, increasing temperatures elsewhere — plus, the melting ice would release even more trapped greenhouse gas. Sea ice changes the density of ocean water, allowing it to better circulate. Our planet is a living thing, and a disease like polar ice loss can harm the entire system.

The turbine might look like this

The scientists behind the new study think that freezing more sea ice to replace what's been lost in the Arctic may simply require a system of floating buoy pumps powered by wind turbines to bring more water to the surface. Surface ice and water keeps the deeper water insulated, but exposing that deeper water to the Arctic's frigid -40 to -35C surface temperatures could help increase the sea ice thickness. The paper, published in the journal Earth's Future, suggests that a "significant fraction" of the water pumped up from beneath the surface could turn to ice that sticks around for the winter. The paper was unclear on how deep the water would have to be pulled from, and whether the system would work if the surface temperatures rose to more alarming levels, and we've reached out to the authors for comment.

The paper's proposal is obviously wild, and comes with lots of challenges. Will there be the right amount of wind for the turbine to run consistently? How would we deploy the hundred million turbine-buoys across the entire Arctic required to complete such a project? Where would we get all the steel? "We estimate that deployment of devices over the entire Arctic in one year would consume essentially all of US steel production, but only 6% of world production," the authors write. All-in-all, such a project would cost around $US500 billion ($649 billion) per year over 10 years to deploy pumps all over the Arctic, though the authors think that at just 10 per cent the scale, strategically-placed pumps could lead to an average one metre increase in ice thickness across the Arctic.

I have no faith that such an idea would work, nor that we'll ever solve the melting sea ice problem, because international cooperation is not humankind's strong point. But we really need to do something about the Arctic sea ice loss, and it's nice to imagine we can engineer away our problems with hundred billion dollar turbine projects. Plus, the authors themselves imply that if humans could afford The Manhattan Project that sent us into the nuclear era, then we can afford to refreeze the Arctic.

[MIKA27]

The Most Dedicated Mechanics In The World Wrench On The Streets Of Hong Kong

A lot of people regard Cubans — who have mechanical ingenuity bred from decades in a closed economic system — as the best wrenchers on earth. I think that title belongs to the mechanics of Hong Kong, because they do their wrenching on the streets.
The rent in Hong Kong is too damn high; so high, in fact, that many mechanics use their tiny workshops for tool and parts storage, while the real wrenching gets done on the footpaths and roadsides.

If that sounds dangerous, it's because it is — and not just for the mechanics who have to worry about being hit by cars, but also for pedestrians, who have to watch out for random engine blocks in the middle of the walkway.

And I mean that literally; here's a guy rebuilding what I suspect is a Honda Integra inline-four on a footpath in Yuen Long:

Is that fluid under the engine stand probably not the most environmentally friendly thing to be pouring onto the ground? Sure, but this guy's got a job to do:

Right up the street, I came across a few mechanics turning a wrench on the cooling system of a Toyota HiAce right there on the side of the road as cars drove by within inches:

And just a block or so down from that, earlier that day, I spotted a street-side glass shop installing a windshield on a Mercedes E-Class:

That shop also threw some rear glass onto a gorgeous Nissan Silvia:

A closer look at the Silvia:

Not far from that location, on the corner, sits a radiator shop where three mechanics braze enormous copper-brass radiators (likely for trucks and buses) everyday from sun-up to sun-down:

This gentleman is melting a filler material with his torch to fuse the two end tanks (like those sitting on the footpath in the background) to the big radiator core:

Though Yuen Long was a goldmine for wrenching, the rest of my travels in Hong Kong also yielded some excellent street-wrenching sights. Like this guy doing God Knows What on a Mitsubishi Triton pickup:

And then there was this mechanic sitting on a footpath rebuilding an engine out of a Nissan NV350 van. Like a boss:

Here's a closer look at that 2.5-litre inline-four diesel alongside the mechanic's office-chair, which he sits in while wrenching:

If you need some new tires, just pull right up to the curb:

In the U.S., if you come across this site, something bad has happened. But in Hong Kong, it's a fairly standard look out front of a tire store:

If you want your car washed, it's a similar process: pull up to the curb right next to some cones, and someone will take care of it:

Mechanics on the streets of Hong Kong work on all sorts of cars, cheap and expensive, big and small. For example, here's an Isuzu truck:

And on the other end of the spectrum, here's a Maserati Quattroporte:

My brother and I walked around Hong Kong, admiring the tiny shops with engines and transmissions literally flowing out of their storefronts. Here's an example we found in Kwun Tong:

Upon closer inspection, it appears to be an entire Subaru engine still mated with its transaxle and halfshafts:

Sights like these aren't particularly uncommon, either:

Here are some gentlemen wrenching on a taxi in front of a small shop called G.W. Auto:

In Kwun Tong, I saw this man welding a bracket for a scooter just right there on the footpath, like it's no big deal:

A few more street-side repairs I spotted in my two weeks in Hong Kong:

Of course, as I showed with that Nissan GT-R shop in Sha Tin, not all mechanics do their wrenching on the streets. But even the big shops in Hong Kong only have space for a few cars.

I continually found myself amazed by the conditions in which Hong Kong mechanics have to work. Hundreds of cars whiz by as these folks lie on their backs, turning a wrench to change a clutch or remove a broken CV-axle. And yet, these wrenchers don't even bat an eyelash; it doesn't get any more badass than that.

Some more photos of Hong Kong auto repair:

A man cutting some sheet metal with an angle grinder

A Mustang in a small Hong Kong shop.

A tire-mounting shop with some turtles out front.

Mechanics wrenching on a Taxi 

Some gorgeous JDM goodness

Even the bigger mechanics shops in Hong Kong can only store a few vehicles. 

A Nissan GT-R getting wrenchedon

Some parts on the curb, just outside of a shop.

The most crowded mechanic's shop I've ever seen.

 

[MIKA27]

Australia Has A New $10 Note

And it looks pretty swish.
Don't get me wrong, it's no $5 note. But still pretty cool.

Like the new $5 the white area is windowed, which is awesome and I still get excited when I get a new $5 note.

"The $10 banknote celebrates two famous Australian writers, Dame Mary Gilmore and AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson," Philip Lowe, Governer of the Reserve Bank. "Their work is recognised in several design elements on the banknote, including images of a pen nib in two of the clear windows and excerpts of their poetry in microprint."

Each banknote features a different species of native Australian wattle and bird. These $10 feature the Bramble Wattle and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. Apparently work has been done to ensure the notes work in vending machines and the like. WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT.

I like the design. Thoughts?

[MIKA27]

BUFFALO TRACE O.F.C. BOURBON

It should be no surprise that one of the rarest bourbons ever released comes from the fine folks at Buffalo Trace. Buffalo Trace O.F.C. Bourbon has been generously offered exclusively to non-profit organizations at no charge to help raise money for their causes. Out of the first release comes this bottle — one of only 100 — from 1980. Named after the O.F.C. Distillery christened by Colonel E.H. Taylor back in 1870, this nearly 40-year-old bourbon is not only special juice, but it also gets special packaging. The lead-free crystal bottle is a replica of an O.F.C. decanter dating back to the early 1900s and features detailed fluting engraved into the mold. Then shoulder facets are cut by glass artisans, and then the bottle is manually polished before inlaying cut copper lettering. This bottle is up for auction from Living Jazz, launched in 1984 with a mission to empower children and adults, inspire creative growth, and unite diverse communities through music.

[MIKA27]

TIMBERLAND KILLINGTON CHUKKA BOOTS

 

Whether you're closing a deal or cleaning up for a date, Timberland Killington Chukka Boots will keep your feet protected and comfortable this Spring. The upper is made from a combo of full-grain leather and mesh, giving the shoe a rugged/casual look that pairs perfectly with a variety of ensembles covering a multitude of occasions. A cushy insole keeps your feet happy all day long, while the SensorFlex outsole moves with your foot and combines three different layers to deliver additional comfort, support, and outstanding traction on any surface. Available in four handsome colorways.

[MIKA27]

Here's The Definitely Doomed Crew Of The Colony Ship Covenant

Here's the first photo of the full crew of the colony ship Covenant, from the newest film in the Alien franchise. Who's taking bets on how many of them will survive 'til the end?

Alien: Covenant is out in Australia on May 18.

[MIKA27]

The Millennium Falcon Is Packed In The First Cast Photo From The Han Solo Movie

The first photo from the set of the still-untitled Han Solo film was posted Tuesday, and things are pretty cramped in the Millennium Falcon.
From left to right you have Woody Harrelson, co-director Chris Miller, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, co-director Phil Lord, Donald Glover and, of course, Chewbacca.

Along with the photo comes a few minor pieces of news. There's confirmation that Waller-Bridge and Thandie Newton are in the film. Joonas Suotamo is playing Chewbacca and, though there were a few rumours to the contrary, the film is back on its 25 May 2018 US release date.

"Watching such inspired people from all over the world, with such unique voices, come together for the sole purpose of making art, is nothing short of miraculous," Lord and Miller said in the release. "We can't think of anything funny to say, because we just feel really moved, and really lucky."

Cameras are now rolling. Expect to learn some more in April at Star Wars Celebration.