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

[MIKA27]

HAVE YOU ASKED IDRIS ELBA ABOUT JAMES BOND LATELY?

It's a Saturday afternoon in late spring, and the Farmers' Market in London's Notting Hill neighborhood is bustling: People mill about the tents and tables, blissfully shopping for organically grown tomatoes, raw milk, and little gem lettuce. A white Range Rover pulls up and Idris Elba steps onto the sidewalk. He is dressed in black, from his loafers to the oversized beanie cocked atop his head, and from the looks of it—eyes lowered, hands in pockets—he is doing his best to go unnoticed.

Not gonna happen. As he heads for a nearby restaurant called Electric House, the market comes to a halt. All eyes are on him. Okay, so maybe the market doesn't come to a complete standstill and perhaps not everyone turns his way, but close to it. Honey, honey, look . . . ohmygod! Ohmygod! Ohmygod! If this were a market in Topeka—or, heaven help him, Baltimore—the forty-four-year-old Elba would most likely be recognized as Stringer Bell, the Machiavellian heroin dealer he played on the HBO series The Wire. In the UK, where he was raised, he's better known as the Golden Globe-winning star of Luther, the BBC series on which he plays a gifted detective with a disastrous personal life. Today, however, he's called out for a role he's never had and may never play: Just as Elba ducks into the restaurant, an enthusiastic fan cups his hands around his mouth and shouts, "Idris, you gonna be 007?"

The rumor that Elba is in line to play James Bond has endured for years. In 2014, in one of the thousands of emails made public when Sony Pictures was hacked, then-studio cochair Amy Pascal told a colleague, "Idris should be the next Bond." Steven Spielberg said in an interview that Elba would be his "first choice" to fill Daniel Craig's tux. Elba has long maintained that the conversation is moot; no one, so far as he knows, is seriously considering him for the role.

Nevertheless, the rumor's persistence highlights a large part of what makes Elba such a rare talent. Why did Pascal intuit that he had the qualities required to play a continent-hopping man of mystery? For the same reason each one of his hypermasculine characters is so memorable: The guy has an invaluable Something Else, a swagger and self-confidence that he brings to every scene even before he utters a line. Hany Abu-Assad, who directed Elba and Kate Winslet in The Mountain Between Us, a plane-crash-survival movie out this October, says that "with Idris, you immediately think, This is a man who is going to survive. This is a man you can count on. This is a man who can handle anything."

Aaron Sorkin, who cast Elba as a criminal-defense lawyer in his upcoming directorial debut, Molly's Game, tells me, "There are certain things an actor can't fake. They can't act smart, they can't act being funny, they can't act like they have gravitas...Idris brings all those things. Plus, he can act." It was, he says, an easy decision: "If Idris Elba says he wants to play a part, that's pretty much the end of your casting search."

Electric House has an ambience that might be described as mod-Dickensian. As the host leads us to a table in back, many patrons, from the well-heeled hipsters to the casually dapper young parents with their more-dapper children, get wide-eyed and whisper in our direction. Elba fixes his gaze forward, outwardly unaffected by the attention. He slides into a U-shaped booth that seems large until his wide frame occupies it. This month, Elba stars in The Dark Tower, a sci-fi thriller based on the Stephen King series that is set in a part-Blade Runner, part-spaghetti-western multiverse. He plays the Gunslinger, the solitary hero who survives through his superior instincts and weaponry skills. Nikolaj Arcel, the director of the movie, says that talking to Elba is like "looking up at the sky." Even seated, he has a commanding presence.

Almost immediately, Elba is the one doing the interviewing. "I think my life is pretty well documented," he tells me. "If you look me up, you're gonna find some shit." He rests his hands on the table, fingertips pressed together professorially; his eyes are locked on mine. "And that must be—not disheartening but discouraging for a journalist." He pauses. I wait. He continues: "Like, How the fuck do I approach this to get anything that no one else has read before? What is that approach?" He takes a sip of Johnnie Walker Black and Diet Coke and tilts his head to the side, never dropping his stare.

Fair question, but let's give it a shot. One approach, at least the one to understanding how Elba came to be one of Hollywood's most compelling leading men, begins with his father, Winston. Between bites of steak, flame-licked to well-done, he tells me about some advice Winston once gave him. " 'Look whoever you're talking to in the eyes. Don't look away. Two reasons: You can tell whether they are lying. Also, so that they can see whatever you're saying you mean and you can connect to that person.' That's great advice for a young actor."

Elba was born in Hackney, one of London's poorest boroughs, not long after Winston, from Sierra Leone, and his Ghanaian wife, Eve, emigrated to the UK in the 1970s. Whereas many of his friends ended up on the dole or dealing drugs, Elba, an only child, devoted his energy to music. As a little kid, he'd turn cereal boxes into make-believe turntables. At fourteen, he worked part-time with an uncle who had a DJ business and was soon spinning at gigs of his own.

At eighteen, Elba attended the National Youth Music Theatre, a prestigious school for the arts. Winston, who worked at a Ford plant, ponied up the money for the tuition not covered by a grant. Though music was Elba's first creative passion, his drama classes captivated him more. After he finished the program, he got a job at the auto plant, working the night shift in order to make auditions during the day. He nabbed bit parts on BBC series including Crimewatch, playing characters too small to have proper names—Drug Dealer, Delivery Man—and appeared as a gigolo on Absolutely Fabulous.

It was his parents' pilgrimage to London that inspired Elba to try his luck in New York. "I was not afraid of this concept of flying from the nest," he tells me. "I thought, It's a big jump, but fuck it, I'm going to move to another country. That came from my dad. He made a journey." By 2001, two years after he married makeup artist Kim Norgaard, he had a pregnant wife and an apartment just outside the city. Elba says he spent hours hanging out at a Brooklyn barbershop to work on his American accent. He landed one-off roles here and there, including a small part on Law & Order, but those didn't provide enough to live on. He picked up DJ gigs, worked as a doorman at the renowned comedy club Carolines, and sold weed. If he heard of an audition back in London that seemed like it was worth the flight, he'd go.

Elba's peripatetic lifestyle put a strain on his marriage. He and Norgaard broke up before she gave birth to their daughter, now fifteen. He'd been living out of a Chevy Astro van on the streets for three months when he went to audition for a part on a new HBO series called The Wire.

The role that changed his life, as Elba puts it, came as a consolation prize. He badly wanted to play drug kingpin Avon Barksdale. David Simon, the show's creator, was on the casting team; he tells me he had no idea Elba was from London because the actor never broke his American accent throughout the audition process. After several callbacks, the Wire team informed Elba that they wanted him not for Barksdale but for Stringer Bell.

"I was like, 'Great, great!' " Elba says. "But really, I was like, Who?" As initially sketched out in the pilot, Bell came off as a shrewd Baltimore dealer, but Elba set out to make the character more his own, as though asking himself, How the fuck do I approach this to get anything that no one else has done before? "Where I grew up, gangsters had to be smart," he says. "That whole flashy thing—no, mate. It was suits and smiles. I said, 'That's how I'm going to make Stringer.' "

At the end of season three, just as Bell's fan appeal was peaking, Simon wrote the character off the show. Elba was stunned. As a rule, Simon would give scripts to the actors shortly before filming. He didn't want them to know when their characters were being killed off until the last minute. "Actors have enough of a burden bringing the soul of a character to life," says Simon. "If they know they're going to die, no matter how professional the actor is, they can't help but approach the character differently. They'll drink their last cup of coffee like they know it's their last cup of coffee."

The day he talked to Elba about Bell's demise, The Wire was filming in a cemetery. As they walked among the headstones, Simon assured Elba that Bell wasn't being killed off because of anything the actor had done wrong. Simon recalls saying, "This death is going to make people sit up and take notice because of the story arc. It's going to be a remarkable moment for you, Idris. After people see this, you're going to have film roles coming at you to pick and choose."

Simon was right about the recognition, but his prediction about Elba's career wasn't quite as accurate. For several years, Elba found himself in a run of mostly forgettable movies and television series, including Girlfriends, Sometimes in April, Jonny Zero, Daddy's Little Girls, and Obsessed.

A seven-episode role on NBC's The Office, in 2009, proved a turning point. Elba played the calculating nemesis of Steve Carell's Michael Scott. His comedic turn brought him to the attention of Sorkin and others, which led to offers on a wider range of projects. He landed the lead on Luther, which became a smash hit in the UK, and costarred in a series of Hollywood action flicks, including Prometheus and Pacific Rim. In 2013, he played the title character in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.

Though Winston was pleased that his son had found work doing what he loved, he was never much impressed by Elba's turns in Luther and the others. But the day Elba told his dad he'd be playing Nelson Mandela, Winston wept. "I cannot believe my son has been asked to play that great man," Elba recalls his father saying.

After Elba showed him the film, in 2013, Winston said that his son's depiction of Mandela reminded him of his own father, Moses. "It's funny you say that," Elba told his father, "because I was trying to be you." As he tells me about this moment, Elba quietly lowers his head for a few seconds, then looks up and smiles. "I'm glad my dad got to see that."

Winston, who was a smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer that year. At the time, Elba was dating Naiyana Garth, who, like his ex-wife, was a makeup artist. On Elba's birthday, seven days before his father died, he and Garth visited Winston to tell him they were expecting. "If it's a boy," he replied, "you must call him Winston." Seven months after Elba buried his father, Garth gave birth to their son, now three, and they did just that.

"He was seventy-two. Too young," Elba says. "He had so much life in him. My old man wanted to do so much more. He just didn't get a chance."

Experiencing his father's death, Elba says, contributed to the onset of a midlife crisis. "I got to a place where I wasn't even living anymore. I was becoming a robot with my work. I have no fear of jumping out of burning cars or out of buildings on set, but in reality, I couldn't run one hundred meters. I just felt out of touch with reality," he says. His friends teased him affectionately, calling him Moprah—as in Male Oprah. To heal, he thought about another piece of advice his father gave him: "Fear nothing. Do what you want to do, but be educated and intelligent and confident about it."

Elba decided he wasn't going to miss the chances life presented. "I had forgotten what it is to feel that burn on your tongue, when your adrenaline is going so much and you're in fight or flight. I was like, I'll be tired when I'm dead. . . . I just thought, Yo, Dris, do you want to do something crazy? Should we just try to make a documentary?"

Thus was born Idris Elba: No Limits, a four-part series on Discovery UK that afforded the actor the opportunity to put himself in fight-or-flight situations, sometimes literally. Starting in early 2015 and over the course of several months, Elba took to Pendine Sands beach in Wales in a 626-horsepower Bentley Continental GT Speed and hit 180.361 miles per hour, shattering the eighty-eight-year-old record; he learned to fly a stunt plane and beat three experienced actual pilots in an aerobatics competition; he completed the Circuit of Ireland Rally. In the follow-up series, Idris Elba: Fighter, he won his professional kickboxing debut by knockout. "I could have been sitting in a comfortable place and earning the dough, going, I wish, I wish. But my way of being a popular male actor is to say, 'Dudes, if I can do it, you can fucking do it.' "

Also in 2015, he took on his gutsiest role yet: as the Commandant, the ruthless rebel leader of a battalion of child soldiers in Africa, in Beasts of No Nation. Written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, one of the minds behind the excellent first (but not the terrible second) season of True Detective, Beasts is relentlessly dark. And Elba took a despicable character and rendered him a man viewers couldn't ignore or soon forget.

He earned another Golden Globe nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Award. An Oscar nod, it seemed, was guaranteed: In the days leading up to the announcement of the 2016 Academy Award nominations, FiveThirtyEight reported that Elba was the online gambling world's 6-to-1 favorite for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Yet his name wasn't on the list of nominees; the names of five white actors were. This, along with other perceived snubs of actors of color, reignited the debate about diversity in Hollywood, hashtagged #OscarsSoWhite, that had begun the previous year. Once the dust settled, what remained was Elba's stunning performance.

This November, he's reprising his role as Thor's right-hand man in November's Thor: Ragnarok. In Molly's Game, he stars opposite Jessica Chastain, whose character is busted for running an illegal high-stakes poker game. Meanwhile, the risk taking continues unabated: He's about to start production on a thriller called Yardie, which will mark his directorial debut. And he doesn't shy away from controversy. Discussing The Dark Tower, which is studded with elaborately choreographed shoot-outs, he says, "I had a clash of conscience with my character. In America, there's a real awareness of gun culture. I had to break down why he's good at shooting. We erred on the side of 'This is his tool. It's set in this world that's part of Stephen King's imagination, and it is what it is. . . .' I'll probably be crucified by the film company for even mentioning this."

I ask a question before he heads off to review script changes for Yardie. Since his midlife crisis, Elba has launched a successful clothing line with Superdry; become an Officer of the Order of the British Empire; and given a speech to Parliament about promoting diversity in British television and film. Is there anything he thinks he can't do?

"I'm not good at building furniture."

How does he know?

"I've tried it."

Of course he has.

[MIKA27]

Pimm's Popsicles are Real, and They're Spectacular

It's Pimm's O'clock somewhere, right?

Pimm's, the beloved gin liqueur from our older brother across the pond, has joined the ranks of Frosé, Prosecco, and Moscow Mule flavors from POPS, Britain's premium popsicle masterminds. Paying homage to the classic "Pimm's No. 1" recipe, the refreshing summer treat combines lemonade, cucumber, strawberries, and mint to take you back to that time you returned from study abroad in London and called your apartment a flat for six obnoxious months.

In addition to the Instagram-worthy packaging, each Pimm's popsicle is made with all-natural ingredients and clocks in at 4.3% ABV—so please refresh responsibly. For those in the US Southwest enduring some of the worst heatwaves in decades, a little booze-by-popsicle is a very welcome distraction.

The only downside? Pimm's-flavored pops are only available (for now) in the UK, so book a ticket stat and be sure to bring some back for the rest of us.

[MIKA27]

MERCEDES-BENZ TEASES THE ARRIVAL OF THE X-CLASS UTE

A different breed of Mercedes is about to be unleashed on the world and this time it’s not just a concept. 

After doing the promotional rounds earlier this year, Mercedes-Benz have continued to tease the impending debut of their first ever luxury ute (pick-up truck for you Americans). 

The teaser video entitled ‘Mercedes-Benz X-Class: First of a New Kind’ showcases the car in a rugged urban environment as it weathers a storm and shows off its newly sculpted masculine lines.  

Gorden Wagener who is the Chief Design Officer of Daimler said that the pickup embodies the “sensual purity” design language of the Mercedes brand. This means its a mix of emotion, aesthetic appeal and intelligent solutions all rolled into one package. Oh and it will also be built on the Nissan Navara platform whilst the front fascia begins to mimic more of the current generation GLE SUV.

The good news is that the car which has polarised a many in the motoring world will go into production but beyond that there hasn’t been many details. Until now. 

It’s expected that the Silver Arrows will mate a V6 engine to the X-Class whilst power will be sent to all four wheels via the company’s 4MATIC drivetrain.

[MIKA27]

New ‘Geostorm’ Trailer Heralds the End of the World

Skydance Productions and Warner Bros. Pictures have unveiled a new trailer for the upcoming disaster film Geostorm, and it’s certainly a big-budget disaster movie. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Independence Day and Stargate producer Dean Devlin and takes place in a world where our weather has become so out of control that it’s now controlled by satellites in outer space. But when they start malfunctioning and creating “a man-made storm of epic proportions”, only one man can save the world: Gerard Butler.

This Geostorm trailer won me over.  This movie looks so delightfully stupid that I feel like I have no choice but to see it.  The plot looks like three movies smushed into one.  There’s the weather disaster plot, the Gerard Butler in space plot, and there’s the kidnapping the President plot just for good measure.  Here’s hoping that Geostorm is an idiotically good time.

Check out the first Geostorm trailer. The film also stars Abbie Cornish, Ed Harris, Andy Garcia, and Jim Sturgess. Geostorm opens in theaters on October 20th.

 

[MIKA27]

Porsche 911 GT3 Exhaust Pipe Speaker

In addition to producing some of the most ridiculous cars on the planet, Porsche’s Design group produces some of the coolest products associated with the brand. Joining the likes of the Lacie collaboration hard drive and the Eton radio in your collection of Porsche gadgets is the new Porsche Design 911 GT3 Exhaust Pipe Bluetooth Speaker. Modeled after the iconic dual center exhaust of the 911 GT3, this Porsche caliber speaker packs Bluetooth 4.0 with apt-X technology, NFC pairing, a 60-watt system and up to twenty-four hours of battery life. At roughly 12″ x 6″ x 5″ and weighing in at just over 7 lbs this is probably not a speaker you’re going to want to be carrying around with you. The lack of portability is fine in this particular instance because this speaker is going to look so great displayed on a table, bookshelf or cabinet that you’re not going to want to move it anyway. $569

 

[MIKA27]

Starbucks Opened a New Location in an Old Japanese Townhouse

Determining whether a coffee shop is a Starbucks is rather easy. There’s the green accent color, the long line, and the fact that, you know, it says “Starbucks” on the front of the building. Well that’s not the case with the company’s latest venture. Housed inside a 100-year-old townhouse that was formerly inhabited by geishas, this Starbucks is devoid of all the classic Starbucks trimmings. Inside you’ll find three matted rooms, where guests must remove their shoes and follow customs, along with gardens and bamboo walls. They even did away with the lines, as they are forbidden to extend outside the shop out of respect to the town. If you want to drink your Unicorn Frappucino in peace, this is where to do it.

[MIKA27]

Sling Club Chair

The Sling Club Chair is a beautiful piece of furniture designed by the guys at BassamFellows. It has the ideal balance, blending a minimal geometrical form with organic premium materials, and mixing the cold industrial steel with natural warm leather and walnut wood. This perfect combination is assembled by highly competent craftsmanship, making this piece into something close to a work of art. Form and function are present, comfort and look also combine in a chair that will be the highlight in any room you put it into. The down feather cushioning along with dual density foam assure you’ll have a cloud like feel when sitting on it and the smooth soft leather grain will wrap you in a silky mood that will get you into a zen state real quickly.    

[MIKA27]

COTTON HOUSE HOTEL

Housed in the former headquarters of the Cotton Textile Foundation, the Cotton House Hotel offers luxury accommodations in the heart of Barcelona. The 19th-century building has been completely restored, preserving the original marble staircase, parquet floors, and boiserie embellished ceilings and walls. All of the 83 rooms and 5 suites evoke the site's textile past, borrowing everything from the textures to the color pallete from the cotton plant. Along with their bar and restaurant, the hotel also offers a library, outdoor terrace, pool, concierge service, and an artisanal tailor service provided by Santa Eulalia.

[MIKA27]

CASA MALCA

Situated along the beach in Tulum, Mexico, Casa Malca is far removed from its notorious past. Once the home of Pablo Escobar, the property has since been transformed into a 35-room hotel. The renovated rooms are filled with eclectic furniture and art, which are given a chance to shine thanks to the white walls and polished concrete floors. Nourishment comes in the form of two on-site restaurants serving light, local fare, and a bar is available for mid-afternoon indulgence. Floor-to-ceiling windows give a view of the ocean and gardens, but with three pools and rooftop deck, odds are you won't be spending much time inside.

[MIKA27]

Secretive Company Says It Could Be 'Mining' The Moon By 2020

For years, private space company Moon Express has touted its grand ambitions of one day mining the moon for delicious resources that do not include cheese. After years of secrecy, today, the company stepped out of the shadows talk about just how it plans to achieve its lofty goals — apparently, it's aiming to set up a lunar outpost on the Moon as early as 2020. That sounds like a tight timeline, because it is.

According to Ars Technica, the company plans to send a series of missions to the Moon over the next few years, three of which it claims to have funding for — Lunar Scout, Lunar Outpost, and Harvest Moon. The first mission is set to launch at the end of this year, in which an MX-1 spacecraft will launch aboard Rocketlab's Electron launch vehicle.

Subsequent missions are planned for 2019 and 2020, when the company hopes to start returning lunar samples to Earth.

Moon Express is especially keen on mining iron ore, precious metals, and perhaps most importantly water, which space enthusiasts are interested in turning into rocket fuel. Moon Express is interested in turning that rocket fuel into money, because obviously.

In less than a decade, the Florida-based company has outgrown its original ambition of winning Google's $US20 million ($26 million) Lunar XPRIZE competition. While Moon Express is still very much in the running to land on the Moon in late 2017 and get that cash, at this point, it's expanded into something far greater than a single mission to the Moon.

If Moon Express is successful, it could be the first private company to land on the Moon. Whether it will succeed in setting up a lunar mining apparatus in three years remains to be seen. As always, ad astra.

[MIKA27]

Antarctica Just Plopped A One Trillion Tonne Iceberg Into The Ocean

As expected, an iceberg half the size of Jamaica has finally cut itself loose from Antarctica's Larsen C Ice Shelf. Dubbed A68, the 5,800 square km chunk of ice one of the biggest ever recorded — but what happens now, both to the iceberg and the ice shelf, is anyone's guess.

The calving event was confirmed by NASA's Aqua MODIS satellite instrument and by the ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. The ESA is currently anticipating a second pass of Sentinel1 over the site to make doubly sure.

The fissure that had been growing for years finally reached the sea sometime between July 10 and July 12, releasing the overbearing chunk of ice into the ocean. The calving event itself wouldn't have been dramatic to an observer, as the tremendously heavy iceberg will now slowly make its way north into the Weddell Sea. A68 contains twice the volume of water as Lake Erie, but it won't contribute to rising sea levels because it's already displacing a huge amount of sea water.

The question now is what'll happen next. The Larsen C Ice Shelf has now been reduced by more than 12 per cent, and the complexion of the Antarctic Peninsula has been altered, perhaps forever. The remaining ice shelf is expected to grow in the coming years, but research from Swansea University suggests the region is now more precarious and less stable. There's a good chance that Larsen C may follow in the footsteps of its neighbour, Larsen B, which collapsed following a similar calving event in 2002.

NASA Suomi VIIRS panchromatic image from July 12 2017, confirming the calving.
 

"We have been anticipating this event for months, and have been surprised how long it took for the rift to break through the final few kilometres of ice. We will continue to monitor both the impact of this calving event on the Larsen C Ice Shelf, and the fate of this huge iceberg," said Adrian Luckman, lead investigator of the UK-based Project MIDAS, which has been monitoring the iceberg closely over the past few months.

As for the iceberg itself, it's now one of the largest ever recorded, and its fate is difficult to predict. Luckman says it may remain in one piece, but it's more likely to break into fragments.

"Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters," he said in a statement.

There's a temptation to ascribe this rare and dramatic calving event to climate change, but scientist have been at great pains to point out that this is very likely a natural occurrence. This is what ice shelves do — they grow until the point of collapse, and then the cycle repeats itself. Writing in The Conversation, Luckman explains:

Quote

 

This event has also been widely but over-simplistically linked to climate change. This is not surprising because notable changes in the earth's glaciers and ice sheets are normally associated with rising environmental temperatures. The collapses of Larsen A and B have previously been linked to regional warming, and the iceberg calving will leave Larsen C at its most retreated position in records going back over a hundred years.

However, in satellite images from the 1980s, the rift was already clearly a long-established feature, and there is no direct evidence to link its recent growth to either atmospheric warming, which is not felt deep enough within the ice shelf, or ocean warming, which is an unlikely source of change given that most of Larsen C has recently been thickening. It is probably too early to blame this event directly on human-generated climate change.

 

Now all this doesn't mean that climate change isn't relevant to this story. What happens next — both to the ice sheet and the new iceberg — could definitely be influenced by warmer waters, changes to wind and water flow patterns, and so on. In a way, the story of the Antarctic Peninsula, Larsen C, and its new baby A68, has only just begun.

NASA has released an incredible new thermal perspective of the new iceberg, and a GIF showing the fissure as it grew over time.

A thermal wavelength image of the iceberg. Darker colours are colder, and brighter colours are warmer, so the rift between the iceberg and the ice shelf appears as a thin line of slightly warmer area

Animation of the growth of the crack in the Larsen C ice shelf, from 2006 to 2017, as recorded by NASA/USGS Landsat satellites.
 

 

[MIKA27]

The First Poster For Stranger Things Season 2 Is Ominous As Hell

A storm is coming to Hawkins, Indiana — but it's a bit more than just some inclement weather when said storm also seems to house a giant spindly monster.

Announcing the return date for Stranger Things' second season, Netflix unveiled this gorgeous new poster for the series last night, and it's damn cool, despite giving us another incredibly ominous look at that giant creature we've been seeing a lot of since the first trailer.

Mark your calendars, because the Stranger Things 2: The Strangening binge starts October 27.

[MIKA27]

Mondo's Fantastic Pop Culture Posters Are Getting A Gorgeous New Art Book

Mondo is home to some of our favourite nerdy art, and responsible for making a certain members of our staff spend a lot of time pondering just where the hell to put their latest purchase. But if you've run out of wall space or missed out on the oodles of limited posters the company's done, good news — a new book is collecting some of its best.

The Art of Mondo, published by Insight Editions, collects some of the most iconic works of art the company has released over the years, charting all sorts of corners of pop culture, from sci-fi and fantasy to thrillers and action movie classics. The hardcover volume offers one of the most definitive looks at the huge swathes of talent behind Mondo's posters, and their unique, often stunning insights into the movies and shows we love.

It isn't the same as owning a few spectacular pieces yourself, but it's still a great chance to enjoy all the wonderful work Mondo has put out over the years — such as these gorgeous Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier posters by Tyler Stout and Rich Kelly, respectively, seen in our exclusive look inside the new book:

The Art of Mondo hits shelves September 12.

[MIKA27]

Ötzi The Iceman's Axe Came From Surprisingly Far Away

Ötzi the Iceman — our favourite Copper Age corpsicle — is the gift that keeps on giving. A recent analysis of the metal found in the Neolithic hunter's copper axe suggests a point of origin in Southern Tuscany, which is far from where Ötzi's frozen body was found. This suggests a long-distance trade route might have existed between central Italy and the Alps some 5300 years ago.

Ötzi's frozen remains were found sticking out of a glacier high in the Italian Alps in 1991. By analysing his mummified body, scientists have learned much about this ancient European, and by inference, his Neolithic contemporaries.

We know, for example, that Ötzi was between 40 and 50 years old when he died, and that he was killed by an arrow which struck his left shoulder. He suffered from chronic joint pain, Lyme disease, periodontal disease and ulcers. His body, in addition to being covered in tattoos, is peppered with numerous non-fatal wounds, including knife cuts and a serious blow to his face inflicted during the final days or hours of his life. On a more positive note, Ötzi had access to an ancient form of prosciutto. Life was obviously tough for these ancient Europeans — at least for Ötzi.

But it isn't just the iceman's body that's telling us a story about Neolithic Europeans. As a new study published in PLoS One reveals, Ötzi's axe contained copper that came from Southern Tuscany — a region located well over 555km from where the Iceman met his fate in the Italian Alps.

What's particularly strange about this finding is that copper was being mined in the Alps during this time, so it's a mystery as to why his blade should have come from so far. According to the University of Padova scientists who conducted the study, the metal was likely delivered to the area via a long-distance trade route, which if true, shows just how sophisticated Copper Age European culture was over 5000 years ago.

To pinpoint the origin of Ötzi's metal, archaeologist Gilberto Artioli and his colleagues measured the lead isotope ratios of the copper blade. "The results unambiguously indicate that the source of the metal is the ore-rich area of Southern Tuscany, despite ample evidence that Alpine copper ore sources were known and exploited at the time," write the researchers in their study.

Ötzi's axe blade.

What the researchers don't know, however, is whether the copper was delivered or traded as a raw ingot (which was then forged into an axe blade), or if the axe was shipped as a completed product. Also, because the scientists are working with a sample of one, that is, Ötzi the Iceman, it's difficult to know how he himself came to acquire the axe. It's quite possible that he purchased it from merchants along a trade route, as per the researchers. But it's also possible that he found it lying on the ground, or he inherited it from someone. Perhaps Ötzi was a journeyman, a person capable of traversing vast distances by himself, or maybe he was a thief, and he acquired the axe by stealing it.

The possibilities are vast, but the presence of a Copper Age trading route is far from outlandish. The discovery of active copper metallurgy in Central Italy during this period is meshing well with what archaeologists know about the various cultures who inhabited Italy at the time. An active trading route, extending north from Tuscany for hundreds of kilometres, may explain the spread of metals throughout the region during this era.

[MIKA27]

The Black Death May Have Had A Surprising Effect On The Environment

From 1347 to 1351, a nightmare disease ravaged Europe, afflicting victims with putrid black boils, fevers, vomiting, and in short order, death. Daily life ground to a halt as the Black Death spread along medieval trade routes, claiming an estimated 20 million lives with ruthless efficiency. Now, a team of researchers is asserting that the plague had an unexpected impact: Clearing the air of a toxic pollutant for the first time in over a thousand years.

Lead pollution is typically considered a hallmark of industrial society, but a growing body of research suggests human activity has been fouling the air with harmful heavy metals for millennia. Results of a new ice core analysis, published last week in the journal GeoHealth, support the idea that in Western Europe at least, mining and smelting activity has tainted the air with lead for at least 2000 years. In fact, the only sliver of time during which the scientists' instruments sniffed lead-free air was from 1349 to 1353, when folks were presumably too busy dying in droves to work the mines.

"With the closing of the mines, you can see the levels of lead dropping to zero," Alexander More, a historian of science at Harvard University and lead author on the new study, told Gizmodo. "We can go down to the month of the arrival of the plague, and you can see the immediate drop, right along mining activity."

More and his colleagues say their findings have implications for health and environmental policy today, suggesting that "natural background" levels of lead — as seen during plague years — are quite close to zero. But other experts contacted by Gizmodo were sceptical of that claim, saying more data is needed to confirm that air pollution plummeted during the plague, and that the reason was an abatement of industrial activity.

These researchers certainly aren't the first to point out that pre-industrial societies were fouling the air with lead, which was used for winemaking, pipes and coinage in the Roman empire, stained glass windows and rooftops in medieval Europe, and silver smelting in colonial South America. Alpine sediment lake records from Spain even indicate high levels of lead pollution caused by metallurgy during the Bronze Age, some 4000 years ago.

But the new analysis offers one of the highest-resolution snapshots of atmospheric lead levels to date, which, coupled with an extensive analysis of historical records, appears to tell a compelling story. Working at the Climate Change Institute's Laser Ice Facility at the University of Maine, the researchers used high-resolution mass spectrometry and laser ablation techniques to measure lead concentrations in the upper portion of 72m-long ice core, extracted from the Colle Gnifetti glacier in the Swiss-Italian Alps. The ice core, whose layers preserve an environmental record from the time they were first packed down, allowed the researchers to see how much lead was in European air centuries ago, down to the level of individual years.

Not surprisingly, the researchers found that lead levels rose steadily in the early 1800s, coinciding with the onset of the Industrial revolution. Prior to that, atmospheric lead varied substantially, but almost never fell near zero. Except, for a brief period, after the plague struck. Corroboration with historical records indicated a dramatic decrease in mining activity upwind of the ice core site during plague years, particularly in medieval Britain.

Reconstruction of atmospheric lead concentrations from a Swiss Alpine ice core over the past 2000 years. Image: More et al. 201

"Our historical perspective shows that we've always been smelting lead, and the levels [in the air] have been elevated," More said. "And then, we saw, in the period of time when 50% of the Eurasian population died because of a pandemic, the levels of lead dropped to zero."

This interpretation suggests that pre-industrial levels of lead, which are used as a baseline for forming air quality standards, are not as free of human influence as we thought. "We assume that anything before 1800 doesn't matter, there was no industry and no pollution," More said. "That's not true. We've been exploiting nature and polluting the air for the past 2000 years, with consequences we still have to discover."

Indeed, a large body of research shows that even small levels of lead exposure in air, water or soil can have harmful impacts on everything from fertility to early childhood development. The US Centres for Disease Control says no levels of blood lead are safe for children, and that even low levels can have an impact on IQ. The researchers believe that tying pre-industrial lead pollution to human activity could bolster the case for tightening air quality standards even further.

But not everyone is convinced of the authors' interpretation. Paolo Gabrelli, a paleoclimatologist at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State University, told Gizmodo he found the results interesting, but cautioned that they need to be corroborated with data from other ice cores in the same region.

"Independent studies using different Alpine cores need to be performed," Gabrelli said. "In fact, the reproducibility of small features as observed in ice core records (e.g. Black Death drop in lead around 1349-1353 CE) is not always obvious even when the analysis are performed on multiple ice cores extracted from the very same drilling site."

Margit Schwikowski, a chemist at the Paul Scherrer Institute who has done research on other Colle Gnifetti ice cores, told Gizmodo the results didn't surprise him. "We have known about pre-industrial Pb emissions even during Greek and Roman times," he said. But he also felt the study's attribution of a decline in lead pollution to the Black Death was "very speculative," due to uncertainties in dating ice core layers, and noted that mineral dust might be contributing to some of the lead signal, as well.

Others were enthusiastic about the new study's conclusions. Gonzalo Jimenez Moreno, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Granada, felt that the research aligned with an emerging picture. "The study shows something that has been observed in other sediment records from Europe — the air has been polluted with lead for thousands of years," he told Gizmodo. Celia Sapart, a paleoclimatologist at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, told Gizmodo she has observed "similar patterns for other compounds such as methane."

"They did not use our data in their paper, but it would definitely support strongly their interpretation and I am even surprised on how similar our profiles are," she told Gizmodo, referencing a paper on historic methane pollution her research team published in 2012. Sapart praised the new study for its "very solid and high quality dataset".

Reconstructing the past is a messy business, and the debate over how much our ancestors sullied the air — and the extent to which catastrophic events like the Black Death cleared it — is likely to rage on for years. But if one thing's clear, it's that we need to stop thinking of the pre-industrial past as a pollution-free era. Humans have always impacted their environment, and we're just starting to come to terms with the consequences.

[MIKA27]

Quentin Tarantino's Next Movie Sounds Insanely Violent—Even For Him

From WWII to international assassins, thieves, and the Wild West, Quentin Tarantino's movies are always based on concepts that are already pretty violent. And that's fine! The guy makes violent movies. They're brilliant, but bloody as hell, and if you're the squeamish type, don't see them.

But Tarantino might outdo himself on his next film. As The Hollywood Reporter writes, Tarantino is already putting together a cast for his next project, which "is promising to be a unique take on the Manson Family murders."

That's dark, even for Tarantino, whose characters tend to be criminals and vigilantes with morals—rarely cold-blooded murderers. As THR notes, "Script details are fuzzy but one of the stories centers on Sharon Tate, the actress and wife of director Roman Polanski who was murdered by Manson and his followers in 1969." Which promises to be even more gruesome, as those murders occurred when Manson's followers entered Tate's home and used guns and knives to brutally murder her (she was eight months pregnant at the time) and four others inside.

While it will definitely be uniquely violent, this would also be Tarantino's first movie based on real events—yes WWII happened, but Hitler was not killed in a movie theater.

Tarantino has approached Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lawrence to star in the film that's scheduled to begin shooting in 2018. The iconic director has vowed to only make 10 films, leaving him with two more to direct after 2015's The Hateful Eight. Last year, he said those two final films could be a "Bonnie and Clyde-esque" tale set in 1930s Australia and a historical nonfiction project.

[MIKA27]

LOUIS VUITTON JUST TOOK THE SMARTWATCH TO LUXURIOUS NEW HEIGHTS

It’s taken numerous attempts from numerous watchmakers but it’s safe to say that Louis Vuitton have finally stepped up to take the crown for a fashionable smartwatch that is on par with some of the best out there when it comes to features.

What sets the Tambour Horizon apart of course is the LV moniker, a symbol of contemporary high fashion whether you’re a fan of the label’s tenacious approach or not. The Tambour name first set Louis Vuitton on its watchmaking voyage back in 2002 and it’s only fitting that the name returns more than a decade later to take on a new digital frontier in timekeeping. 

The idea for the new Tambour Horizon was born in Paris with parts meticulously crafted in Switzerland before calling on Silicon Valley’s brightest to develop the technology which can be enjoyed by any wearer from around the world. The result of teaming up with Google and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.? The arrival of a highly capable smartwatch which boasts the signature elegance and grace of a Tambour.

For the new smartwatch, Louis Vuitton focused on the Maison’s pursuit of personalisation for everyday wearables. Packed within the fine 42mm brushed stainless steel case is a 1.2’’ full round AMOLED touch screen boasting 390 x 390 resolution which shows off the 24 hour watch face which includes 24 time zones, a City Guide travel app (geolocation function that indicates nearby restaurants, hotels, historical landmarks and tourist attractions in real time), weather, temperature and step counter functions.

The Tambour Horizon also features customisable watch faces with stripes and initials to drastically change its overall aesthetic. This includes a “My Flight” Travel watch face made for those who are constantly in transit. Personalisation is further enhanced on the Tambour with up to 30 different straps to choose from.

The luxurious feel of the timepiece is finely complemented with sapphire glass on the front and back, the latter of which features the iconic ‘LV’ logo. For everyday wearability the watch affords 30 metres of water resistance, approximately a day’s worth of juice between charges and WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. 

The bridge between luxury, style and technology has arrived.

 

[MIKA27]

CHINA IS BUILDING THE WORLD’S FIRST VERTICAL FOREST CITY

Italian architect Stefano Boeri has devised an innovative way to ease China’s pollution problem: a Vertical Forest City, in which every office, apartment, hotel, school, and skyscraper is blanketed in smog-sucking greenery.

If the concept sounds familiar, that’s because this isn’t Boeri’s first time at the eco-friendly rodeo. His architecture firm is also behind two vertical forest buildings planned for Nanjing in eastern China. In this iteration, Boeri’s ultra-ambitious idea will expand to span two-thirds of a mile along the Liujiang River in the southern city of Liuzhou.

When complete, the development will be home to around 30,000 people and be connected to the main Liuzhou city via a fast-rail line designed for electric cars. It will boast nearly a million plants from over 100 species and about 40,000 trees, all working together to replace urban air pollution with clean oxygen and boost local biodiversity. They’ll absorb an estimated 10,000 tonnes of Co2 and 57 tonnes of pollutants per year, as well as produce up to 900 tonnes of oxygen.

Additionally, the greenery will provide shade during warm months and insulation during winter, helping residents use less heating and electricity, and act as a noise barrier from local highways. Each building incorporates geothermal systems for air conditioning and rooftop solar panels for renewable energy to maximise sustainability and self-sufficiency.

Vertical Forest City has started construction and is slated to be completed in 2020.

[MIKA27]

DANIEL CRAIG REPORTEDLY SET TO RETURN FOR BOND 25

If the latest reports are true then 007 favourite Daniel Craig will once again return to the iconic spy role for the forthcoming Bond 25 film.

The news broke via The Mirror who reported that Craig has confirmed his participation in the project with producer Barbara Broccoli in which filming will commence next year for a 2019 release. Alongside that massive news was also reports that producers were keen to enlist the Oscar-winning services of Adele to once again helm the theme song.

The bad news? These are all just reports from an anonymous source close to the project. That particular insider has been quoted as saying: 

Quote

“Craig and Adele together are the winning team, the ultimate choice, the money spinners. It’s taken time but Daniel has come round and the strong con–sensus [sic] in the Bond offices is that Mr Craig is 007 again. As for Adele, she’s more of an unknown quantity but loved being part of Bond, so the signs are positive.”

Whilst many frown upon anonymous sources in the British media, its relationship with the Bond franchise and its speculation has had a rather good track record in the past. The extended hype also comes from the fact that Craig had previously and publicly stated that he’d rather slash his wrists than make another Bond film, adding that the only thing that would bring him back is money. 

Well it would appear that money is now talking. Adding to the speculation earlier this year was the involvement of Chris Nolan’s production studio Syncopy, who along with five other studios were all vying for the rights to produce the next film.

Neal Purvis and Robert Wade who wrote the hugely successful Skyfall have already signed on for Bond 25 so bringing Craig back on board with Chris Nolan helming the film could be a match made in 007 heaven. And really, it’s only fair after they gave us 2015’s clusterf@&k that was Spectre, right? 

[MIKA27]

ROYAL NAVY HELICOPTER HOTEL

Stirling, Scotland is where people go to get away. The town in the southern part of the country looks like something you’d find on a postcard. It has rolling farmland, nice local shops, and even an ancient castle to visit. This last year, however, the town got a completely different type of attraction; the Helicopter Hotel.

This decommissioned Royal Navy ZA127 Sea King Helicopter has been totally refurbished to sleep a family of five, and even features a kitchenette and working bathroom. The interior of the helicopter has been fitted with wood cladding – almost reminiscent of the hull of a boat – as well as doors and extra windows. Yet, aside from the creature comforts on the inside of the helicopter, not much has changed. The exterior was repainted its original color, new rotors were put on the top and rear of the aircraft, and the flight-deck was kept in-tact. Where pilots once sat, there are now two swivel chairs and a table – ideal for sitting in and enjoying the views of the surrounding farmland. Most impressive, however, is the lighting. All of the Sea King’s lights were preserved or restored to give the helicopter the look of preparing to take-off at night. All things said, this room blows all of those quaint bed-and-breakfasts out of the water.

[MIKA27]

KENNEDY RIDING GLASSES

Individually, Portland-based Shwood makes some of the finest wooden sunglasses around while California-based Iron & Resin manufacturers high-quality motorcycle riding gear for both hardcore and weekend riders. Together, they fuse their passions and talent together to create design-forward yet pragmatic eyewear for the modern rider. Introducing the Kennedy Riding Glasses.

It’s part of a larger collaboration between the two brands – dubbed the Moto Collection – that’s purposed to create riding gear that performs as good as it looks. In this case, the Kennedy Riding Glasses hit the nail on the head thanks to a premium Mazzuchelli Acetate construction, 5-barrel hinges, Japanese polarized lenses, slim wire temples for in-helmet comfort, and magnetic clip-on lenses. They’re available in either classic black or Havana and feature Optics by Carl Zeiss Vision for good measure. Also currently offered in the collection is an EDC tank bag as well. Be sure to check it out if interested; Americana at it’s finest.

 

[MIKA27]

WANDRD HEXAD DUFFEL BAGS

The duffel bag is one of the best pack options in regards to easy-access and capacity. But too many of them are little more than a canvas pouch with a zippered opening. Wandrd is looking to bridge the gap between the ease and capaciousness of a traditional duffel and the organization and carry-friendliness of a dedicated travel bag. And, with their new HEXAD duffels, the might have just done exactly that.

Whether you just need a daily pack, something to get you through the airport, or a superb outdoor adventure pack – the HEXAD duffels have got you covered. Available in one of two options – the Carryall (which comes in both 40 and 60 liters) and the 45-liter Access – these bags are weatherproof; feature waterproof zippers; have an RFID-blocking pocket, padded laptop sleeve, fleece-lined pouch, and adjustable sternum strap; and can be carried backpack- or tote-style. Where they differ is in that the Access was designed specifically to fit both the brand’s large and small Camera Cubes – for easy-transport of photography gear – whereas the Carryalls feature a more casual jet-setter-style packability with a shoe pocket, more internal organization, and internal compression straps. You can back them on Kickstarter now starting at $180.

 

[MIKA27]

EVERY CUT OF MEAT EXPLAINED

You may think you know your cuts of beef, but there's a lot more than just ribeyes and brisket — 36 to be exact. For instance, there's the oyster steak — a tender cut on the loin that butchers don't usually share with everyone else. Starting with half a cow, Jason Yang from Fleisher's Craft Butchery breaks down the beef while sharing some secrets of the trade — explaining all of the cuts you'd see at your local butcher shop along the way.

[MIKA27]

URWERK X LAURENT FERRIER ARPAL ONE WATCH

Talented watchmakers come together for a great cause in the Urwerk x Laurent Ferrier Arpal One Watch. A one-off built specifically for November's Only Watch 2017 charity auction, this timepiece joins the technical prowess of Urwerk with the timeless styling of Ferrier. It's powered by a self-winding UR5.03 movement with a rotating satellite hours display, which is held within a streamlined case inspired by classic cars and made from Arpal+, an 18k gold alloy that's stronger than steel. It's finished with a sand-colored, hand-stitched leather strap and will be sold by Christie's in Geneva.

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WEST CREEK RANCH

Comprised of four scenic parcels stretching across nearly 7,000 acres and two states, West Creek Ranch is far from just a house. While the home itself is impressive, with eight bedrooms, eight baths, over 22,000 square feet of indoor living space, another 3,500 square feet of covered verandas, a pool, and more, it's the total of the amenities set against the backdrop of wildlife and natural formations that truly set it apart. The property includes rock cliff walls of Colorado's Unaweep Canyon and expansive high plateau country with outstanding views of the La Sal Mountains of Utah. Also on site are a bear and mountain lion habitat, a guest house, a cabin, the historic ruins of Driggs Mansion, a helipad, an airstrip, various petroglyphs, and dinosaur footprints. Former owner Discovery Communications founder John Hendricks' love of space can also be found in the observatory, which has a professional-grade 20" Meade Telescope and rotating copper dome.