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

[MIKA27]

Uncle Duke’s Whisky

BrewDog, known for their wild beer and wilder TV show, offers drinks a bit stiffer than an IPA should you need something stronger. Namely, they make Uncle Duke’s Whisky, a sweet spirit in a bottle with all kinds of old school charm. With an ABV of 40% and notes of honey, vanilla, and sticky toffee, the booze is flavorful yet smooth. Perhaps best of all is how it looks on your bar cart, as the label and bottle shape look pulled from an old saloon. You can order from BrewDog’s overseas shop, or visit one of their outposts for a bottle of your own.

[MIKA27]

The History of the Field Watch, the Military’s Most Trusted Timepiece

The field watch is among our favorite wristwatch styles. You can wear them with nearly any outfit, they’ll survive anything your noncombatant life can throw at them, and they follow in a long tradition of civilian style people adopted from the military. Their dials are designed to be as easy-to-read as possible, their straps don’t stretch out after a day or two, and their movements are so simple they’re nearly impossible to break. The field watch might be the closest we’re ever going to get to a perfect wristwatch. Here’s a little of its story.

The Original Military Watch

The original wristwatch may have been invented anywhere between 1571 and 1868, but no matter the source, all agree that those were close to three centuries of nearly exclusively female clientele. These watches were seen more as jewelry than functional timepieces and early names for them, like wristlet, montre watch, and bracelet watch, were more suited for delicate accessories than rugged equipment. If a man was wearing a wristwatch, he’d better be demonstrating 19th century appropriate masculinity elsewhere, through bicycling or maybe ballooning. And they were switching back to their perfectly manly pocket watch almost as soon as they were off their bike.

The first wristwatch designed with men in mind that we could find comes from an order by Kaiser Wilhelm I in 1879. He bought two series of a thousand watches for his naval officers from Girard-Perregaux, making it the first time the military and wristwatches had officially mixed, though they were still a long shot from the field watches modern men are so proud of.

Parts of the watch were made of 14k gold so they wouldn’t rust, something we can accomplish today with simple stainless steel. And since more durable forms of casings had yet to be invented, these watches protected their dials with metal grids over glass, obscuring quite a bit of the watch face. Finally, these watches didn’t come with the leather, fabric, or rubber bands so many modern watches use. They used chains, much like their pocket counterparts. In fact, from the descriptions we’ve read, if you were a late 19th century gentleman and wrapped your pocket watch’s chain around your wrist, you’d also have invented the wristwatch.

But that single order didn’t guarantee every military was on board with wristwatches. It took another few decades before other countries started outfitting their troops with similar devices. In the meantime, wristwatches remained a woman’s toy.

World War 1 Makes Watches Cool While It Kills a Lot of People

Traditionally macho pocket watches were not an ideal way to tell time in the trenches. They might be convenient for a stroll in turn-of-the-century London, but a trench in France is cramped, dirty, and fast moving. An officer can’t be fumbling with the pockets on his trench coat while his men are supposed to be going over the top. Granted, this wasn’t something the British military knew going into the war in 1914, so the pocket watch was still standard issue.

Since militaries always seem to learn from the bottom up, the trench officers themselves are the ones who pioneered the switch from pocket watches to wristwatches, or trench or service watches, as they were initially known. Officers would buy trench watches in anticipation of their deployment, either knowing from previous personal experience or from talk amongst comrades that a trench watch was an invaluable tool in the war. Advertisements from 1915 and 1916 took different paths, with the first simply advertising function, while the second attempts to turn the service watch into a symbol of status.

While telling people a product is a status symbol might be an effective way to get the public to buy your product, officers in the trenches found a much more basic use for their watches. Namely, not having themselves blown to kingdom come by friendly fire. During any sort of operation, officers carefully synchronized their watches to those of the artillerymen behind them. This meant they could time their movements down to the second. Men could know the exact time the big guns were going to shift fire, making it theoretically impossible to skip a beat.

But all this wristwatch coordination happened outside the realm of standard issue equipment. The reason the field watch wasn’t invented in the First World War is because everyone was so busy making personal wristwatch purchases that no nation needed to commission one. There isn’t a watch from World War One, because everyone bought what they liked or whatever was on sale. It wasn’t until the tail end of the war when the British were finally looking into creating a standard issue wristwatch.

World War Two Goes Standard Issue

It’s a good thing world militaries took a few of the right lessons from the Great War, because World War Two was on its way to finish off whatever bits of Europe thought themselves untouched. And it was going to do so thanks, in part, to the precision accuracy of brand new standard issue wristwatches.

The American A-11 is easily the most widespread of the field watches to come from the Second World War, manufactured by four separate companies—Elgin, Bulova, Waltham, and Hamilton. The A-11 is what still sets the production standard for American military watches and where the distinctive style gained popularity. It was sturdy, accurate, dust and waterproof, and was the perfect illustration of function over form (though where the form was still pretty nice). Air and ground forces synchronized their watches much like the artillerymen and trench forces of World War One, allowing the Western Front Allies to exercise near total air superiority later in the war. Some call it the “watch that won the war,” and we’ll point that out to you, but take it with a grain of salt. Nearly everything America fielded during that period has been called the “____ that won the war,” so the phrase has started to lose a bit of its punch.

For the British, they went with the W.W.W., which stood for Wrist. Watch. Waterproof. and it took every bit of creativity British High Command could muster. It was less common than the A-11, but still very similar. It was a watch built to withstand battlefield punishment while maintaining accuracy and integrity, though it did have a leg up on the American watch in at least one aspect. Namely, the W.W.W. came with luminous hands, meaning no more risking life and limb to try to get your watch hand into a little bit of light. Though, since it was Radium-226 that made the watch glow, people started destroying them for fear of radioactivity, making these watches much more rare than other Second World War field watches.

Germany and Japan both built respectable field watches as well, but since few people are enthusiastic about wearing standard issue Rising Sun or Nazi gear, their designs didn’t do much to influence the modern field watch. Most field watches you’ll find today follow the Allied designs more than anything else.

The Vietnam War saw a few tweaks and introductions, as well as some disposable plastic construction, but the war’s field watches mostly followed the same specs as the A-11. It had the same production standard to follow, the same general display format, and the same need to stand up to demanding battlefield conditions.

A Few Options for the Modern Civilian

As with virtually every product any military ever uses, field watches are plentiful on the civilian market at almost every price point. If you want to drop $500 on what your uncle wore in the jungles of Vietnam, you can do that. If you have a handful of loose change and love the look of the W.W.W., you can probably find yourself a knockoff. These designs are so ubiquitous we wouldn’t be surprised if McDonald’s started handing out A-11’s with Happy Meals this Veteran’s Day.

Timex Expedition

Remember last paragraph where we said loose change could buy you a great field watch? We kind of wrote that with Timex in mind. They might be making the most faithful modernization of the field watch, because they’re cheap, reliable, and they’d probably be able to shrug off a bullet. And looking at their selection, you could probably buy one of each and wear them all for years before anyone noticed you only had one model of watch. For a field watch, we like to keep it traditional, so our first pick has to be the Green/Gray model, but Blue and Red Buffalo Check adds some nice color, and the straight up Blue would be a great weekend watch. $39

1960s US Vietnam Military Watch

Vietnam didn’t get a whole lot of copy space up in the main body of the article, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look into getting yourself a watch from the era. Vietnam designs improved a lot of what came before, so you can get yourself a WWII-looking watch with a clearer dial or more functional layout. You can pick between Olive and Black, either of which works well as an accompaniment to anything from nudity to business casual (which, if Vietnam movies are anything to believe, is pretty much what those guys wore anyway). $60

Victorinox Infantry

For not being one of the original manufacturers of a World War Two field watch, Victorinox has a great handle on why we like them. Giant numbers, a bright face, clear calendar window, and large but unobtrusive hands make this one of the easiest to read watches we’ve ever seen. They’ve also held close to that original case shape, which is one of the most attractive we’ve ever worn on our wrists. It’s a solid watch from a solid company, so we don’t mind shelling out a bit extra if it means we’ll get a watch that’ll last us through whatever personal conflicts we might have. $199

I skipped over this in the main part of the article, but the G10 has an interesting history that we’ll try to make brief. If a soldier in the United Kingdom’s military wants a watch, they’d have to fill out form G1098. Since everyone is lazy, regardless of profession, soldiers started referring to the watches as G10s. At this point, G10 describes a style and strap more than a specific form or watch, since the official manufacturers for the British military have changed so frequently.

All that’s a long way to say, if you’re particularly taken with the W.W.W., look into getting yourself a CWC G10. They were the official supplier of the British forces for a considerable amount of time and the influence of the Second World War watch design can still be seen in their model, while most of the other watches look more toward the American A-11. $222

Hamilton Watch Field Line

Hamilton was one of the original manufacturers of the A-11 and their designs haven’t strayed much from that first production standard, at least in a big picture way. They still have the big clear dials and distinctive case shape, though when they brought the design into the civilian market, they started adding metal and leather straps, along with calendar windows, automatic movements, and some serious internal upgrades. Of their offerings, our favorite is their upcoming Officer Mechanical with olive drab canvas strap. It’s the perfect mix of old and new design and a great watch to wear everyday. The price tag is admittedly high, but to get a military watch from Hamilton, you used to have to freeze your ass off in a European foxhole, so maybe it’s not that bad. $395

[MIKA27]

SIDE PROJECT DOUBLE BARREL DERIVATION BEER

True to its name, the line of beer from Side Project Brewing known as Derivation becomes something entirely new after time spent in barrels. The most sought after beer in this line is arguably Double Barrel Derivation, an Imperial Stout aged for two years in Willett 12-year-old barrels before being racked to Port barrels for three months of finishing. It's then bottled and naturally conditioned for eight months before being released to the public.

[MIKA27]

BRIPE COFFEE BREW PIPE KIT

Brew up a tasty shot of coffee anywhere you go with the Bripe Coffee Brew Pipe Kit. This all-in-one package includes everything you need (except coffee), including a butane-powered quad jet torch, the brewer with patent-pending inner cone and integrated straw, thermometer, a copper cooling stand, a stainless-steel filter, and a test tube-like canister for your grinds. To use it, add coffee and water to the brewer, heat the mixture to at least 185 degrees, let it cool to your preferred temperature, and sip. The suction automatically extracts an ideal shot from the brewer, providing barista-quality results miles away from the nearest cafe.

[MIKA27]

RENOVO X GLENMORANGIE ORIGINAL BICYCLE

It's no secret that the wood from whisky barrels is versatile. But the Renovo x Glenmorangie Original Bicycle shows just how versatile a barrel can be. The collaborative effort from the bicycle maker and Scotch Whisky distiller is the first of its kind and gives new life to Single Malt casks that once held Glenmorangie Scotch. The hollow frame is created from 15 staves to reflect the curvature of the casks, and take more than 20 hours to create. The finished product weighs around 18 pounds, are individually numbered, and are finished with Glenmorangie's Signet icon.

 

[MIKA27]

John Wick 3 Is Happening, And It's Out In 2019

The third chapter in the John Wick franchise has been confirmed. Start the clock: there's 20 months to go until we get more Keanu Reeves on-screen shredding.

International distributor Lionsgate has confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that the third movie will be the first to get a US summer release, a time usually reserved for big-budget flicks expected to make bank.

Collider makes the point that that the third Wick flick will come a fortnight after the new Avengers and a week before Minecraft and Aladdin — all quite different films, but all ones we're excited to see. Director Chad Stahelski said back in May that John Wick 3 was in the middle of writing, but hadn't been greenlit for production by a studio yet; it isn't clear who'll be directing just yet.

John Wick 3 will be out on May 17, 2019 internationally. There's no word just yet on an Australian release date; we'll keep our cards close to our chest on that one after John Wick 2

[MIKA27]

Scientists Discover Vampiric ‘Hell Ants’ with Metal Jaws

If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to step in a nest of fire ants, you know how painful bites from even the tiniest of insects can be. No matter how bad fire ant bites might be, they’ve got nothing on the bites from a recently discovered species of hell ant. Scientists have discovered the hellish new species inside a 98-million-year-old piece of amber mined in amber-rich Myanmar. The new ant has been named Linguamyrmex vladi, the species name coming from Vlad the Impaler, infamous 15th-century ruler who inspired the Dracula legend. The ant belongs to a group of Cretaceous-era ants known as haidomyrmecines, or “hell ants.” Unlike modern ants, these species had mandibles that opened and closed vertically rather than horizontally.

Close-up of the ant’s vertical jaws.

The ant’s jaws are truly terrifying looking, sharp and long and covered in trigger hairs that initiate an involuntary closing response any time the hairs come into contact with prey. What really makes this ant unique – and terrifying – is the fact that its massive spiked jaws are made of metal.

CT scans revealed the ants jaws to be coated in a layer of metal.

No ant orthodontists were needed to create these metal jaws. Instead, researchers believe the ant’s diet was rich in various minerals like iron, zinc, and calcium and that the ants’ bodies created the metal coating on their own. According to the published study of the ants, these metal reinforcement allowed the ants to snap their jaws shut around prey with terrifying strength and speed, likely enough to punch right through the rigid bodies of insects much larger than the ants themselves,

Based on the shape and location of their teeth and a special hollow channel running along the ants’ mandibles, the researchers believe the ants instead had an all-liquid diet. This means these hell ants fed exclusively on the blood and other precious bodily fluids which leaked from their poor impaled prey; hence the ant’s vampire-inspired name. While I don’t wish extinction upon any animal, this is one species I’m glad is long gone.

[MIKA27]

How to Make Mulled Wine

Bonny McKenzie won't make or serve mulled wine until it's very cold outside, not even for her favorite customers. The delightful Australian behind the bar (and managing partner) of New York's bibi has to have standards; she's been running one of the best wine bars in the East Village since 2014. Mulled wine remains a winter favorite—a sweet, spicy, and boozy concoction to cozy up to during the frostier months—and best of all, it's easy to make at home.

The key to fixing up a good pot of mulled is finding the right tempranillo or cabernet. "You're adding so much spice, you need to use a really dry wine," says McKenzie, who shared her go-to recipe below. Add it to your cold-weather cocktail lineup to get in the holiday spirit.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 c. raw sugar
2 star anise
3 whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1 lemon, peeled
1 orange, juiced and peeled
nutmeg, grated
2 bottles dry red wine

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring all ingredients except wine to a boil. Turn down to a simmer for 45 minutes (toss in a splash of wine if reduces too low).

2. Add the wine and keep it on very low heat. (Tip: If you want something stronger, add a 1/2 cup of brandy.)

3. Serve in glass mugs and garnish with fat orange twists.

 

 

 

[MIKA27]

HERE’S WHAT FUTURE WHISKY COULD LOOK & TASTE LIKE

If James Bond can sip on his Martini across twenty-five different films then surely Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard of Blade Runner fame can also have his signature drink of choice. Whisky neat, of course.

Blade Runner officially landed in theatres 35 years ago and during that feature there was a small cameo from a Johnnie Walker Black Label.

Fast forward to 2017 and Blade Runner 2049 is now at our doorstep, with Ryan Gosling and Jared Leto at the helm whilst Ford returns alongside his trusty drop which now looks cooler than ever being toted around by the retired cop.

That bottle is more than just a prop though. To truly honour the iconic film, Johnnie Walker wanted to create a blend that gave a nod to the future palate as well as its dystopian aesthetic which reflected the new film.

The result? Johnnie Walker Black Label The Director’s Cut, a limited-edition version of Black Label created by master blender Jim Beveridge along with filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.

The blend uses Johnnie Walker Black Label as its base but adds a contemporary twist to it with distinct notes of dark, rich, and smooth with “clouds of smokiness and a touch of femininity”.

Furthering the whisky maker’s homage to the film is an ABV level of 49% (2049) and a futuristic bottle which is an exact replica of the one used in the latest film.

Those keen to score a piece of cinematic history will need to move quick though as only 39,000 bottles will be produced with an American retail price of $89.99.

 

[MIKA27]

‘Better Watch Out’ Trailer Cues up a Twisted Holiday Home Invasion

It’s a very merry Christmas in the new trailer for the upcoming home invasion horror Better Watch Out, with all the requisite holiday jingles, snowy settings, and Home Alone inspired hijinks. Ok, murder. By hijinks I mean murder. I caught this film at Fantastic Fest last year and passed on reviewing it because it was almost impossible to do so without revealing some of the major twists and turns. Now in a strange promotional move, the latest trailer has decided to give a lot of the film’s big moments away pretty much point blank. So, spoiler warning y’all.

Better Watch Out offers an interesting spin on the rather tired home invasion genre and an always-welcome new entry into the catalogue of holiday horror films. The movie follows a babysitter who finds herself in a perilous predicament when deadly intruders lay siege to the suburban home and she must team up with the kids under her charge to bring them down… until it becomes clear things aren’t quite what they seem.

Directed by Chris Peckover from a story by Zack Kahn, Better Watch Out stars Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbould, Olivia DeJonge, Dacre Montgomery, Virginia Madsen, Patrick Warburton. Well Go USA will release the film in theaters and on VOD October 6th.

[MIKA27]

VILLA LOS LEONES

Ingrained in the Pointe Milou cliffside, the Villa Los Leones brings Mediterranean architecture to the middle of the Caribbean. The property occupies over an acre on the St. Barts coastline. Its white stucco facade is reminiscent of the homes that dot the coastlines of Greece's Cyclades islands, while both Croatian and Moroccan influences can be seen throughout its four bedrooms An eastern orientation takes advantage of the incoming breeze and sweeping seaward views.

 

[MIKA27]

RED SPARROW

Undercover spy. Blonde bangs, Licence to kill. Jennifer Lawrence is giving us major Atomic Blonde vibes in her first reunion with Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence. Based on the novel by Jason Matthews, Lawrence is a prima ballerina turned deadly assassin after being recruited for Sparrow School. Set for theaters March 2, 2018.

[MIKA27]

James Cameron's True Lies Is Being Turned Into A TV Show

The 1994 James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzengger and Jamie Lee Curtis blockbuster hit True Lies may be coming back... to a TV screen near you.

Fox will attempt to turn the action film into a television show, with Cameron aboard to produce and McG, director of Charlie's Angels and Terminator Salvation, potentially directing the pilot. Prolific TV producer/writer Marc Guggenheim (Arrow, Flashforward, Legends of Tomorrow) will write the first episode, which will offer a modern take on the movie's story.

True Lies is about a seemingly mundane suburban family in which the wife (Curtis) and teenage daughter have no idea that the father (Schwarzenegger) is actually a super spy. By the end — spoilers — the wife character becomes a secret agent, too. If it wasn't already a movie, the plot already sounds like a TV show. I've been a huge True Lies fan since it was first released and still quote some of its weirder moments (most of which involve Bill Paxton) regularly. I never considered it as anything but a movie, but this makes perfect sense; the whole thing just has a simple, adaptable structure. Plus, there are a ton of quirky side characters, action, spy-gadget stuff and humour. It could almost be a sitcom, actually.

True Lies has a put-pilot deal with Fox, which means at least the first episode will make it on air (if the first episode gets made, of course). And for us True Lies fans, since we'll never get a sequel, this sounds like the next best thing.

[MIKA27]

Jamie Lee Curtis Will Reprise Her Iconic Role As Laurie Strode In The New Halloween Movie

Well, here's a welcome surprise. Blumhouse just announced that legendary scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis will reprise her role as Laurie Strode when the new Halloween movie opens in the US on 19 October 2018.

There's a lot to unpack here. The simplest thing is that the new Halloween, co-written by Danny McBride and directed by David Gordon Green, has a US release date, perfectly timed for next Halloween. But bringing back Curtis means so much more.

It's a nod to the original films, of course. But it's also a very strong statement to everyone that that while this new Halloween is a reboot, it's also a sequel. Yup, it's one of those very en vogue sequel-reboots.

Curtis has played Strode in multiple Halloween movies, including the first two as well as the last two (the seventh and eighth films) in the first series of films. Of course, the character died in the last one — but McBride cleared that continuity problem up a few months ago, explaining that the film won't take into account Halloween: H20 or Halloween: Resurrection.

Quote

You know, it's not a remake. It's actually, it's gonna continue the story of Michael Myers in a really grounded way. And for our mythology, we're focusing mainly in the first two movies and what that sets up and then where the story can go from there.

Instead, the press release says she'll "come to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago".

The release continues: "Inspired by Carpenter's classic, filmmakers David Gordon Green and Danny McBride crafted a story that carves a new path from the events in the landmark 1978 film."

[MIKA27]

Nothing But Water Powers This Tricycle That Goes From 0-100km/h In Half A Second

Remember that feeling of terror when a five-year-old version of you climbed aboard your tricycle before careening down a giant hill? That's nothing compared to what François Gissy must have felt climbing aboard this adult-sized trike powered by a water tank pressurised to 6,000 PSI.

When the valve holding back 132l of pressurised rain water inside the carbon fibre-wrapped tank was released, the tricycle accelerated to 100km/h in just over half a second. But by the time that tank was completely emptied, the tricycle, built from motorcycle and go-kart parts, reached a top speed of 261km/h. Somehow a motorcycle helmet just doesn't seem like enough safety equipment.

[MIKA27]

Posing Captain Kirk And Mr. Spock 1/6th Scale Figures

The latest episode of How To Be A Poser focuses on two figures, the QMx 1/6th scale figures of Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock. The designs are based on the original 1966 Star Trek series based on the roles as portrayed by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

These are the classic uniforms, with Kirk in his yellow tunic and Spock in blue. I find it interesting that the Spock figure comes with the Vulcan Lyre. I have to say, the face sculpts on these figure are very good. I haven’t seen many of QMx’s figures so far, but these are remarkable detailed and accurate.

In the video, we see that the figures are being posed in such away to not only give the feel of an old movie poster, but also show the difference in personalities between the two characters. Kirk and Spock couldn’t be more different, yet they are good friends. They choose to have Spock using the tricorder to examine and get information while Kirk is standing in a more action pose with phaser in hand, read to react. That’s a pretty accurate depiction of the two characters.

As the 1/6th scale figures improve and grow in variety, the art of posing the figures and creating artistic images becomes more and more popular, with a handful of coffee table-style books already out on the market.

You can check out the figures from Sideshow and QMx right here. They also have Dr. McCoy, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and a Captain’s chair available.

 

[MIKA27]

History’s Most Dangerous Games

Sports today are tame by history’s standards. Ancient societies didn’t seem to think twice about spending blood and lives in the pursuit of great athletic entertainment. People have been hacked, poked, drowned, punched, cut, smashed, and skied to death, all in some of history’s greatest games. The good news, depending on your viewpoint, is a few of these games are still around, in one form or another. If you know where to go, you can still see these games play out the way they would have half a millennium ago, sometimes more.

A quick note. If you’ve come here for great Roman games, we’re sorry to disappoint, but we figured everyone knew about those. Putting them on this list would just be wasting your time. We went looking for games outside the Coliseum, since those were the ones most people probably don’t know about. And in our research, we found Romans actually lacked creativity. Historical games can get super weird. Here are history’s most dangerous games.

Calcio Storico

Calcio Storico is the sport that first inspired to write this feature. We needed to know more about it and find other sports with the same sort of cultural roots.

For most of the players, it seems like their motivation for playing is to honor Florentine tradition, as well as test their own personal limits. And test them they will, because in terms of rules, there aren’t many. They were established in 1580 and haven’t changed much. You can’t sucker punch or kick anyone in the head. Otherwise, you can punch, headbutt, trip, wrestle and choke your way across the field.

Players do seem adamant that Calcio Storico isn’t a sport, it’s a game. They might distinguish between the two by saying there isn’t really a season for the game. Players can only participate in a max of two games a year, so you don’t really have the multi-month processes of seasonal sports. Instead, you get a massive, energetic display of violence and tradition that pits the four quarters of Florence, Italy, against each other.

Bo-Taoshi

It’s a shame that modern Japanese culture’s reputation is so dominated by general weirdness and unsettling cartoons, because the small nation has some truly badass traditions, Bo-Taoshi being just one of them. When it comes to rules, Bo-Taoshi is surprisingly simple. For one team, it’s defend a pole for two minutes. For the other, attack it and bend it to a 45 degree angle. Where the complications come in is in practice. Both teams attack and defend at the same time and contain 150 players, meaning there’s 300 guys beating each other to a pulp for two minutes. For protection, all you get is a padded helmet. Otherwise, it’s you and your clothed body smashing one human wall against the other.

There’s no exact date for the first ever game of Bo-Taoshi, but it’s thought to have started sometime in 1945 with Japanese military cadets. That’s plausible enough for us, as the initial chanting and cries of the attacking charge sound a lot like the Japanese soldiers of World War Two. Plus, we imagine the game would be an excellent way to teach soldiers to work together in large groups, as well as withstand serious physical punishment. Not that we’re hoping the Army military starts using Bo-Taoshi at West Point. Just that it’s easy to see there might be some benefits here.

Mesoamerican Ball Game

The Olmecs were the first people to record playing the Mesoamerican Ball Game and by all indications for them, it was a fairly ordinary game. It was similar to volleyball, but with a solid rubber ball and where you used your whole body and wore thick padding and a helmet. It wasn’t until the Mayans got their hands on it that it got weirdly hardcore. Presumably, they played it the same, but definitely amplified the mythos. Mostly, the first game was between humans and the lords of the underworld. Under the Mayans, the game could be used to settle territorial and hereditary disputes, stood in for traditional warfare, and could even predict the future. The Mayans would also frequently sacrifice the losing team, who were usually prisoners of war.

The Aztecs kept up the more gruesome aspects of the game, even adding where they thought it needed it. Carvings have been found that depict the game being played with the heads of the previous game’s losers and Spanish observers reported horrific injuries and deaths from unprotected contact with the ball.

If you want a taste of the game, modern Mexicans tamed it and renamed it Ulama. If you find yourself in Mexico and want to experience ancient sporting events, it’s worth looking up or asking around.

Polo

Polo, along with cricket, has to be the most pretentious, upper class sport we’ve ever seen, so to find out polo started as a way to train mounted fighting units is like finding out Marine Recon units invented knitting to train fine motor skills. Although it does start to get more believable once you learn about the numbers involved in those ancient Persian matches. Where today’s polo matches put four fancy Englishmen on each team, Persian matches could have upwards of two hundred mounted units galloping around swinging mallets. There was potentially 700 years of this hardcore version of polo maintaining its military edge undulled, as polo’s on Persian records between the 7th century BC and 1st century AD.

Eventually the game spread out in both directions, reaching China and Japan on one side and England on the other. For the English, it quickly became the high falutin pastime we know today. But it was in China faster and Emperor A-pao-chi took it a little more seriously. When a relative he was particularly fond of died in a match, he beheaded the surviving players. And apparently whoever recorded that incident didn’t feel the need to distinguish between teams, which makes us think the emperor killed anyone and everyone involved in that unfortunate match.

Buzkashi

You have to respect people who look at a sport like polo (in its early days) and decide there’s not enough blood. Then you have to respect them more when they solve the blood deficit with a headless corpse. Not human, granted, but a headless goat carcass shouldn’t be scoffed at. There’s a third level of respect due when you realize people have been playing buzkashi since Turkic tribes invented it as a way to train cavalry units (just like polo). It only took a few years for American football to thicken up its helmets and pads, yet Afghani athletes never once looked at their decapitated herd animal and thought to replace it with a stuffed counterpart.

We’re sure there’s some nuance to the game we’re not grasping here, but basically players have to carry the goat carcass from one end of the field to the other and back, then drop it in the scoring circle. Those are rules that even the most casual observer can understand. This is also the national sport of Afghanistan and personally, we hope it continues to be. It can be disheartening to watch countries lose parts of their national identity just because some people get uncomfortable, so here’s to another few centuries of Afghanis slinging dead goats like polo mallets.

Egyptian Fisherman Joust

We haven’t had much cause to research Egyptian naval activities, so the Egyptian Fisherman Joust is really our first exposure to the ancient empire’s waterborne happenings and we’re alarmed to say the least. The only reason this qualifies as a sport is because archaeologists and historians haven’t found any examples of actual military forces using these techniques to solve problems. If they had, those problems would have stayed solved.

Basically, a bunch of guys stood up in a small boat, each one of them carrying a long pole. Some of them would use the poles to pilot the boat, while a few of them used their poles to hit the people in the other boat. And these weren’t playful jabs. Carvings regularly depict the matches as extremely violent and malicious, most, if not all of them, drawing blood. If the other crew successfully knocked you into the water, it probably didn’t matter if you could swim or not, as the blood in the water had already attracted crocodiles and hippopotamuses. Your chances of becoming a meal were high, so we’d love to know how popular this game actually was. Did they play it once and learn their lesson? Or was this a Roman Coliseum situation, where you just make slaves go out and get cut up and eaten?

Octopus Wrestling

Surprisingly, the craziest part about octopus wrestling isn’t the activity. The sport itself is straightforward. Get in the water, find an octopus, and wrestle it to shore. We would be lucky if more sports had such simple objectives. What’s weird is that this sport was played by modern people in the Pacific Northwest. There are articles from the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, all detailing the lively cephalopod combat sport, with some events drawing crowds that numbered in the thousands. Granted this is also around the time when cramming people into phone booths was a huge event on college campuses, so maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised when we hear about people doing weird stuff in the postwar decades. Also, octopus wrestling is illegal now, so if you go diving into the Puget Sound looking for a fight, you’re better off having one with a human.

Viking Swimming Competitions

When Vikings decided to race each other in the water, they did it in their own special way. Basically, they turned Michael Phelps’s career into a contact sport. If Vikings were swimming competitively, assume they were hitting and shoving each other or dragging their opponent under the water in an attempt to slow them down. And sometimes all this was fully decked out in weapons and armor too, which means they’ve added a whole bunch of soaking wet cloth and leather, as well as pounds of metal to an already far too dangerous sport.

There are even reports, albeit hard to confirm, that sometimes Vikings would strike the swimming altogether. If they did, the competition was to try and hold your opponent under the water for longer than he held you. It’s either an insane sport or Norsemen trying to force each other to develop gills and from what we know of the Vikings, they weren’t super concerned with evolution.

Hee Holua

The most dangerous activity we’ve ever associated with Polynesian cultures is crossing oceans in wooden canoes. Not to downplay that, because that’s insanely dangerous in its own right, but it’s tame compared to the Hawaiian tradition of hee holua (sled riding). Hee holua is most closely related to bobsledding, only these Hawaiian sleds don’t speed down cushy tracks of soft snow, but enormous paths created by old lava flows or constructed out of lava rocks. Sledders routinely hit speeds in excess of 80 miles per hour coming down the stone paths, which is enough to shred faces, which is exactly what it’s done.

As far as we can tell, the longest paths that exist went from the top of Hawaii’s volcano down to the ocean. From that, we can only assume Hawaiians only invented enough of the holua to go fast. There aren’t any descriptions of brakes or mechanisms for slowing down, which might be why the paths go to the ocean. The Pacific is the only thing Hawaiians could think of that would stop them after skiing on lava.

[MIKA27]

CODIGA 1530 ROSA TEQUILA

No, the recent demand for Rose Wines has not influenced the world of tequila. It just so happens that Codiga 1530 Rosa Tequila is rested in uncharred Napa Cabernet French White Oak barrels and takes on this natural rose color. The aging process also gives the spirit a subtle floral flavor that is a great option for a classic tequila cocktail like the margarita or to whip up a batch of Rose Sangria.

[MIKA27]

YAMAZAKI MIZUNARA CASK JAPANESE WHISKY

Leave it to Japan's oldest malt distillery to produce one of the most sought-after whiskies each year. The 2017 edition of Yamazaki Mizunara Cask Edition once again utilizes the rare and demanding Japanese oak Mizunara. Suntory's team have spent decades learning how to perfect aging within Mizunara casks, and this annual release is another example of their attention to detail and expertise. The bottle label is 100% handcrafted mulberry Echizen paper produced and dried using a traditional Japanese method, and the wood box is made of casks formerly used to house this precious whisky. A few hundred whiskies were tasted to create this unique blend, aged a minimum of 18 years, and a small portion of which exceed 50 years old, giving it loads of depth and character.

[Ethernut]

This of course fall under the "...plain weird" category. 

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-17/beijing-start-now-offers-sex-dolls-rent

 

 

[MIKA27]

9 hours ago, Ethernut said:

This of course fall under the "...plain weird" category. 

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-17/beijing-start-now-offers-sex-dolls-rent

 

 

Oh wow! Great article, yes, falls in the weird category, unsure which part, sex dolls or the rental of sex dolls part!?  

[MIKA27]

Man Who Saved The World From Nuclear Armageddon In 1983 Dies At 77

On 26 September 1983, Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov received a message that five nuclear missiles had been launched by the United States and were heading to Moscow. He didn't launch a retaliatory strike, believing correctly that it was a false alarm. And with that, he saved the world from nuclear war. But now reports have surfaced that Petrov died this past May. He was 77 years old.

Karl Schumacher, a political activist in Germany, was one of the first people to publicise Petrov's story back in the late 1990s. But Schumacher reportedly learned of Petrov's death this month after contacting Petrov's home. Petrov's son Dmitry reported that the man who saved the world all those years ago had died on 19 May 2017. Schumacher confirmed Petrov's death to Gizmodo this morning.

Lt Col Stanislav Petrov was 44 years old and working at a missile detection bunker south of Moscow on 26 September 1983. His computer told him that five nuclear missiles were on their way, and given their flight time, he had just 20 minutes to launch a counter attack. But Petrov told his superior officers that it was a false alarm. He had absolutely no real evidence that this was true, but it probably saved millions of lives.

"The siren howled, but I just sat there for a few seconds, staring at the big, back-lit, red screen with the word 'launch' on it," Petrov told the BBC's Russian Service back in 2013.

"I had all the data [to suggest there was an ongoing missile attack]. If I had sent my report up the chain of command, nobody would have said a word against it," Petrov said.

"There was no rule about how long we were allowed to think before we reported a strike. But we knew that every second of procrastination took away valuable time; that the Soviet Union's military and political leadership needed to be informed without delay," he told the BBC.

"All I had to do was to reach for the phone; to raise the direct line to our top commanders — but I couldn't move. I felt like I was sitting on a hot frying pan," Petrov said.

Perhaps importantly, Petrov noted that he was the only officer around that day who had received a civilian education. Everyone else were professional soldiers and he believed that they would have simply reported the attack at face value. The men around him were "taught to give and obey orders". Luckily, Petrov disobeyed what simply didn't feel right to him.

Petrov reasoned that if the Americans were going to launch a first strike they'd send more than five missiles, despite the fact that they could still do an enormous amount of damage. He also believed that since the alert system was relatively new it seemed likely that it could be sending a false alarm.

If Petrov had been wrong, he would have compromised the Soviet Union's ability to retaliate against a nuclear strike. But if he was right, World War III would be averted. Thankfully, he was right. And sadly, his wasn't the first, nor the last, close call that the world has seen. The Cold War saw far too many false alarms triggered by everything from a computer simulation in 1979 to a NATO military exercise in 1983, just two months after Petrov's false alarm. And then there was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the Captain who defied his direct orders.

It's truly amazing that the world survived the Cold War. And it will be even more amazing if we survive the current missile crisis that's heating up on the Korean peninsula.

Rest in peace, Stanislav Petrov. You may not have gotten the recognition you deserved in life, but hopefully you'll be remembered in death. Those of us living in the 21st century owe you a tremendous debt. And the best most of us can do is hope that the nuclear powers of the world learn something from your heroism.

[MIKA27]

THE STRANGE, GRISLY WORLD OF CROCODILE HUNTING IN AUSTRALIA

There are more than 100,000 saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia. They grow more 20 feet long, weigh over 1000 pounds, and bite with a force exceeding the weight of a small car. And yet there are a group of people crazy enough to hunt them. They cruise around in boats at night with nothing more than a big light, a big harpoon, and a gun, searching for pairs of glowing eyes peeking just above the water.

“It’s somewhat unnerving,” says photographer Trevor Frost. “It’s not like I think the crocodile is going to jump out of the water and eat me on the boat. But it’s eerie. Eyes are everywhere.”

Frost tagged along on 11 hunts for his ongoing series Cult of the Crocodile. The project captures all aspects of the croc-human relationship, from a breeding farm producing highest-quality skins to delighted tourists gawking at crocodiles gobbling up chicken meat. “Here’s this creature that’s been around for millions of years unchanged,” he says. “It can kill people. Some people love it. Some people hate it. And there’s this entire industry around it."

Nicknamed "salties," the Australian crocodile lurks in warm rivers, lagoons and billabongs, chomping down on large beasts like pigs, water buffalo, and even sharks. But in the 1960s, the crocodile disappeared almost completely due to over hunting. The government banned killing them in 1971, and the population quickly bounced back. Today, a crocodile management program provides “incentives-based” conservation, allowing for a regulated $100 million commercial industry that includes collecting wild eggs, breeding, and about 1,200 hunting permits a year. Hunters must describe the crocodile they want to kill, then film the death so authorities can verify it was cruelty-free. Many crocodiles are killed due to complaints from locals about them wandering too close to neighborhoods or eating their cattle.

Frost lives in Richmond, Virgina and became fascinated with crocodiles when he visited Australia in 2013 on assignment. He met hunter Aaron Rodwell while purchasing a souvenir crocodile tooth, and Rodwell eagerly showed Frost a cell phone video of him wrangling a croc with his bare hands. Frost was hooked. “The hunters are exposing themselves to a serious amount of risk in order to get a crocodile, and it could go either way," he says. "The crocodile could get one of them. Or they could get the crocodile.”

He shadowed Rodwell and his partner Roger Matthews on hunts over the next three years. The men set sail in a small aluminum boat at night, beaming a spotlight into the water to pick up the creature's eyes. They then quietly sidle up beside it and thrust a harpoon in its neck, letting the croc thrash and hiss in the water up to several hours until it tires out. They then lasso its jaw shut, hoist it onto the boat, and execute it with a .22 revolver. There were some close calls. Once, Frost was shooting when a 16-foot croc chomped down on the side of the boat and shook it violently. “When you hear, ‘Get the fuck down!’ that’s when it’s scary,” he says. “Afterwards your heart is beating a thousand miles an hour.”

The cinematic images are fascinating, strange, and often downright grisly. In one photo, a man sits in a hot tub with baby crocs he keeps as pets. In another, Rodwell and Matthews pose proudly with a crocodile strung up in a tree. It's something you don't see every day, but not so unusual in a land of 100,000 crocs.

[MIKA27]

It's Too Cute Watching Arya And Sansa Struggle To Stay Serious During Game Of Thrones Filming

The newest instalment of HBO's Game of Thrones behind-the-scenes series, The Game Revealed, looks at the long-awaited Stark reunion — well, one of them anyway (sorry Bran!) And I have to say, watching real-life best friends Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner try to keep straight faces during their scenes is just too much to handle.

The Game Revealed's latest episode dives into what many consider the season's best instalment, "The Spoils of War". The episode has everything: Dragon battles, amazing performances, and, of course, Stark reunions. One of the things that made it so great was how it brought Arya home to a world that both was and was not her own any more. She was different, Sansa was different... at least in front of the camera. Behind the scenes, the two actors treated it like a camp reunion, much to the chagrin of the camera operators.

"Everyone's like, 'It's so nice you girls are back together again.' And I was like, 'Just you wait, because by week two you're going to hate us,'" Williams said in the video.

Another clip from the behind-the-scenes episode breaks down Arya's sparring fight with Brienne of Tarth. And if you thought the height difference looked incredible enough on the show (Gwendoline Christie is 36cm taller than Williams), take a peek at their fight choreography rehearsals. There's also a deeper dive into the Loot Train battle, which Nerdist recently shared. The full episode of The Game Revealed is available on HBO for subscribers in the US.

 

[MIKA27]

STARCK BEER

It's not every day that a world-famous designer lends his talents to the beer world. But that's exactly the case with Starck Beer, a collaboration between Brasserie d'Olt and French design giant Philippe Starck. The beer is an IPA, created using organic spring barley, three types of hops, and brewed with no additives, coloring, or preservatives. It's packaged in these beautiful and unique glass bottles designed by Starck himself, leaving his creative fingerprints on yet another industry.