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

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The X-Files' Return Resurrects An Old Favourite And A Major Dropped Plot Point

At New York Comic Con, Fox released the very first look at the eleventh season of The X-Files, due on our screens next year. They have only filmed five of the ten new episodes, so we know that only those episodes must be included. Which means there's a lot going on in the beginning of the season.

Series creator Chris Carter, Mitch Pileggi (Skinner), Gillian Anderson (Scully), and David Duchovny (Mulder) were all on hand in New York to talk about the second season of the X-Files reboot and the eleventh season of the show overall.

The big thing is that obviously William, Mulder and Scully's son, is playing a huge role in the mythology (down to only two episodes of the ten). During the panel, Carter said that they'd "Explore that relationship, the father-son-mother relationship" and "you'll see more of William than you've seen in a long time." Of the relationship between Mulder and Scully, which was less romantic than fans may have wanted, Carter said they would be "kissing close."

The trailer has a shot of a younger man smoking in front of an alien. It was revealed in the panel that the first episode back will begin with some backstory on the Cigarette Smoking Man. There are also a few shots of Lone Gunmen member Langley, who looks very much not dead. All Carter would say was "Langley is in the show this season."

Carter said there was a doppelganger episode, which is the episode that Karin Konoval will be in. She'll play four characters, two of them men, in episode three of the new season. Carter also said that the eighth episode of the season would be "similarly messed up" to the episode Konoval was in originally, "Home." Like "Home," that episode is being written by James Wong and Glen Morgan.

Of the episode written by fan favourite Darin Morgan, Carter said it was "original, idiosyncratic, very very funny" and a "thumb in the eye of the show itself." In a press event before the panel, Duchovny said that Morgan seems to be working out some hatred of Mulder in how he writes him. "Mulder is often foolish, but in Darin's episodes he's a real imbecile," Duchovny said. "I find it really interesting to play this somewhat heroic character as an imbecile. I thank Darin for the opportunity to deflate the show every now and then."

Pileggi said he was happy to finally be in a Darin Morgan episode. Another episode this season will be a Skinner-centric episode, which Pileggi told press would explain why he's still an Assistant Director. And there will be flashbacks to young Skinner.

Carter was asked if we'd be ending on a cliffhanger again this year, and he jokingly answered yes. Which is very in-keeping with the way the show has always gone, but deeply frustrating. "There's a lot of life left in this show," Carter said. Later, he said the same thing about Millennium.

Carter resurrected all sorts of things, also saying "Never say never" to another X-Files movie. At this point, anything can come back.

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Justice League Trailer

Keen for more on-screen action with Aquaman, Batman, Wonder Woman and more? Here's the latest trailer for you.
Apart from featuring a wonderfully cheeky Gal Gadot saving Batman from being ripped out of the Batmobile, there's plenty of scenes showing off The Flash and Cyborg's roles in the movie as well. 

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MYSTERY OF THE BURIED FERRARI DINO SOLVED

The story of the buried Dino Ferrari is fascinating, and until 2012 it was incomplete. That is until Jalopnik Senior Editor Mike Spinelli did some digging and uncovered the story behind the car, why it was buried, and who now owns it.

Many of us have seen the pictures of the Dino being dug up, and I’ve heard at least half a dozen differing stories about what happened – including wild tales of Mexican drug cartels and another claiming the car was used as a coffin by a rich owner who didn’t want to be separated from his beloved Dino even in death.

Neither of these stories are even remotely true, but up until Spinelli came along, almost no one knew what to believe.

I’m not going to go into detail here so as not to ruin the short film, it runs a tad over 20 mins and includes the full story – with interviews with the owner, and a Sheriff’s Deputy who was instrumental in discovering the buried car.

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WRENSILVA SONOS EDITION CONSOLE

Some audiophiles fall on the analogue side of the fence, while others swear by digital. San Diego-based boutique audio company Wrensilva has a foot in both camps. Just take a look at their new Sonos Edition Console and you’ll see what we mean.

This mid-century-minded console made from north American walnut and white lacquer holds both a fully decoupled belt driven turntable with a Hurst 24v AC synchronous motor, and a pair of Sonos Play:5 speakers. The combination of these two styles means that owners will be able to play their vinyl records on the console, and have the audio synch seamlessly with other Sonos speakers located throughout the house. Don’t feel like spinning wax? The Sonos app makes it just as easy to use WiFi mesh streaming to play all of your favorite music from online services or offline digital audio players. All of this functionality paired with the stand-out design makes this console a truly one of a kind player. $5K

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Archaeologists Just Unearthed a Giant Bronze Arm From the Antikythera Shipwreck

The Antikythera Shipwreck is a Roman-era wreck dating all the way back to the 2nd quarter of the 1st century BC that’s been explored since the early 1900s by various archaeologists and explorers (including Jacques Cousteau) to unearth treasures and artifacts that are nothing short of mind-blowing. During the most recent expedition, 2017 Return to Antikythera, a team of archaeologists from the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities and Lund University in Sweden uncovered quite a few new treasures including the giant bronze arm you see here. Seeing as how bronze statues were regularly melted down for other purposes during antiquity, this find is particularly interesting because of the fact that it’s been preserved until today. In addition to the arm, the team found a few other sculpture fragments, pottery shards, lead sheathing and a metal disc decorated with a bull (observed through x-rays) that could be ornamental or a part of the Antikythera Mechanism.

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DETROIT FOUNDATION HOTEL

Housed in the former Fire Department Headquarters, the Detroit Foundation Hotel pays homage to the city's past while showcasing its bright future. Large arched doorways, vaulted ceilings, original marble flooring, and exposed brick exhibit the DNA of the historic building, working as a backdrop to the artwork and installations of neighboring artists. The 100 guest rooms are a testament to the modern Motor City as everything from the iron-welded door handles and bottle openers to the wallpaper and in-room private bar are crafted by local artisans, while antique woodwork and vintage rugs maintain the historic aesthetic. The full Detroit experience it capped off by a ground-floor restaurant, helmed by Michigan-native Chef Thomas Lents.

 

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BRUCE WAYNE'S MERCEDES-BENZ AMG GRAN TURISMO

When you're as rich as Bruce Wayne, Mercedes-Benz lets you buy cars they don't even make. The AMG Gran Turismo is a concept car featured in Gran Turismo, and easily one of the most beautiful cars ever dreamed up by the German company. In the upcoming Justice League film, the AMG Gran Turismo will appear alongside a couple of slightly more attainable Mercedes models, including an E-Class Cabriolet, driven by Wonder Woman, and the G-Class 4x42 SUV.

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BLACK TOMATO GET LOST ADVENTURE EXPERIENCE

Most wilderness experiences involve being led through semi-remote areas, with a guide and group to keep you company and accommodations that are just a step away from "glamping."

Black Tomato's Get Lost Adventure Experience is pretty much the opposite. You get dropped off in an unknown, uncharted destination and have to explore your way through various checkpoints over several days, using nothing but your wits, provided equipment, and some navigational tools to get you there. You can choose the type of environment you want for your adventure — jungle, desert, etc. — but that's all the input you get. When you get to the airport, you won't know where you're heading or what you'll need to do to persevere, but rest assured you'll get quite the send off when you reach your goal, as well as a real feeling of satisfaction knowing you just tackled the great outdoors all by yourself.

MIKA: Kinda reminds me of that Michael Douglas movie "The game" where he chooses his own adventure

 

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GLENFIDDICH FINEST SOLERA SCOTCH WHISKY

A collaborative effort with French glassware specialist Baccarat, Glenfiddich Finest Solera is the first in an upcoming series of premium scotch releases. The whisky was selected from 20 casks from Glenfiddich's collection of rarities maturing in Bourbon and American oak. After it was chosen, it's crafted using the Solera process: a method of blending and maturing whiskies simultaneously. Finally, the whisky is bottled in a Baccarat crystal decanter and capped with a copper stopper and neck collar plus a red cartouche made with 24-carat gold.

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This Fake Cracking Effect On A 1180-Metre High Glass Skywalk Might Be The Meanest Prank Ever

Modern materials engineering allows us to build what looks like precarious glass skywalks perched hundreds of metres off the ground. They're completely safe, but knowing that doesn't make them any less terrifying to traverse — especially when the glass skywalk you're on uses transparent LCD screens to make it look like it's about to shatter and collapse.

This tourist is clearly playing up his simulated peril for the camera, but making a glass floor that hangs 1180m above a valley appear to crack beneath someone's feet ranks up there as one of the meanest pranks we've ever seen. That being said, the next time we happen to find ourselves in the East Taihang Mountains outside of Handan city in China's Hebei Province, we'll definitely be lining up for this tourist trap.

 

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The Walking Dead And Fear The Walking Dead Will Be Crossing Over After All

We don't know when. We don't know how. We don't know who. But at New York Comic Con this weekend, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman announced that his two popular AMC zombie shows will soon be crossing over.

"There is one character that is going to go from one show, that I will not name, to another show, that I will not name," Kirkman said. "This is a huge event in the world of The Walking Dead."

It's so huge, the official Twitter account even posted some art.

Neither The Walking Dead nor Fear the Walking Dead uses specific dates, but it's pretty clear that Fear the Walking Dead, which is set in the US Southwest, is a few years behind The Walking Dead, which is set in the US Southeast. (The Walking Dead is about to start season eight, while Fear is just finishing season three.) The time difference would likely make it easier for a Walking Dead character to cameo on Fear the Walking Dead, since we know that character is still alive a few years later. If it was reversed, it could be considered a spoiler.

And yet, maybe that could be a cool story twist too. There's really no way to tell just yet. Kirkman and his colleagues on both shows have played down this potential crossover for years, but now it's happening anyway. We just know, for fans of both shows, it will be nice to see the shared universe finally come together, whichever way it happens.

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The Turbulent History of Rye Whiskey: The Real American Spirit

For brewing and distilling, these are days of revival. Brewing was a macro-lager mess up until a few years ago, when craft brewing exploded, giving us roughly ten million choices in even the smallest liquor stores. Craft distilling is seeing a similar revitalization. Where we once had only a few enormous brands to choose from, liquor store shelves are now filling up with independently produced whiskeys, vodkas, gins, and rums. Spirit enthusiasts haven’t had this much choice in a century.

One of the major components of the craft distillery movement has been, and continues to be, rye whiskey. Historically speaking, rye has the deepest roots in American distilling. We’d never stop you from enjoying a great bourbon, but for drinkers who want to immerse themselves in American distillation culture, rye whiskey is absolutely mandatory.

In a way, rye whiskey is the mirror image of bourbon. It follows similar rules as bourbon, but does so with different ingredients. Where bourbons tend to be sweeter and smokier with hints of caramel, rye whiskey is spicier, including notes of pepper, grass, and grain. Just as bourbon must be 51 percent corn, to be considered American Rye, the spirit must be 51 percent rye grain, though, like bourbon, most expressions will opt for something higher. Furthermore, rye can be distilled no higher than 160 proof, aged no higher than 125, and bottled no lower than 80. Barrels are much the same as bourbon barrels, in that they are newly constructed, charred oak casks.

Where rye differs from bourbon significantly is in its history. It’s not a history soaked in blood, like moonshine, or rooted in the American slave trade, like Jack Daniels. It’s more a history of a spirit that went from a near monopoly on American imbibers to little more than an alcoholic footnote to driving the cocktail revival of roughly the past decade. The history of rye whiskey is a story about how quickly you can rise to fame and fortune in America, how quickly you can lose it, and that total destruction doesn’t mean you should be completely counted out.

Early History

The two main states we’ll be dealing with in this section are Pennsylvania and Maryland and we’ll borrow a bit from our Moonshine article and say Pennsylvania and Maryland got such huge distilling operations because that’s where Scotch-Irish immigrants settled. Both Scotch and Irish whiskey are made using primarily barley, but barley didn’t adapt well to the new climate of North America. Rye, however, did.

When they got here, the immigrants would build themselves small stills to continue their long distilling tradition, using the rye they grew on their modest farms and accidentally inventing an excellent new American spirit. From there, whiskey production went from small, private operations to large, commercial productions.

Both Maryland and Pennsylvania were seen as the premiere producers of rye whiskey. Pennsylvania’s premiere style was Monongahela Rye, a whiskey named for where it was first made, in the valley of the Monongahela River. Supposedly, the whiskey gained its reputation by accident. Aging the whiskey was a product of necessity, not something the distillers did on purpose. Shipping the whiskey took a long time before the age of steamboats and motor vehicles, so the necessary storing and travel time meant the whiskey could be two years or older by the time it finally reached its destination.

Maryland’s version of rye mixed more corn into the mash, making it a sweeter whiskey, slightly easier on the palate of the less initiated. It was easier to drink, but no less a rye whiskey than anything made in Pennsylvania.

The Rise

After the Revolution, rum wasn’t as widely available, seeing as how the newly established country just fought a protracted rebellion against the largest naval power in the world. Since rum is made of molasses, molasses is made using sugar cane, and sugar cane was only widely available as a Caribbean export, the liquor wasn’t making its way to America. This left a vacuum in the spirit world that Americans felt almost immediately.

At the same time, the Scotch-Irish immigrants we mentioned earlier had perfected their craft, turning it from a local operation into something that was ready to supply something far larger. They jumped at the opportunity to fill the gap left by rum and urban populations enthusiastically bought up the new whiskey. An American spirit for the new America. Pennsylvania rye began to make its mark.

Quickly, the mark became profound. This was whiskey production at levels that would boggle modern rye drinkers’ minds. In 1810, Kentucky made 2.2 million gallons of bourbon, a perfectly respectable whiskey with deep ties to American distilling history. That same year, Pennsylvania shipped 6.5 million gallons of mostly Monongahela rye, nearly three times as much. That’s a drastic disparity between what bourbon distillers market as the quintessential traditional American whiskey and what Americans actually drank.

Rye whiskey was so ingrained in the American psyche that George Washington ran his own distilling operation in the late 18th and early 19th century. It was a small operation by today’s standards, when huge distilleries run productions in the millions of gallons, but by contemporary measurements, George Washington was a veritable whiskey tycoon. His five still, 11,000 gallon production was an enviable one, and modern consumers are again flocking to Mount Vernon to get a taste of Washington’s whiskey. That’d be like Obama leaving the White House and opening a craft beer operation akin to Yuengling’s current output. And having it be just as successful.

There might be some doubt as to the credibility of these claims, as rye isn’t easy to drink straight like bourbon, Scotch, or Irish whiskey. Its flavors can overwhelm or alienate drinkers who are more accustomed to sweeter, smoother spirits. But drinking it straight wasn’t the only way people consumed the whiskey. In the 1800s, people were mixing cocktails and plenty of them. The Manhattan, Old Fashioned, and Sazerac all used rye as their base alcohol, and all were insanely popular. Modern speakeasies would salivate at the chance to mix drinks in the volumes the people of the 1800s did.

This emphasis on cocktails and mixed drinks carried straight through to the 1900s, when rye whiskey’s empire was going to get its first real challenge since it came out of Pennsylvania and Maryland. But these challengers weren’t going to be another kind of alcohol. They were Prohibition and two World Wars. It wasn’t going to go in rye’s favour.

The Fall

Prohibition’s role in the rapid decline of rye whiskey isn’t much of a surprise. As a grain and a whiskey, rye is one of the more expensive and intensive to produce. If plenty of people are buying it, or you’re distilling as a personal operation, that expenditure of money and effort don’t affect the process too drastically. You have a pretty stable operation, so you can make an affordable, delicious whiskey.

But the moment the federal government decides your product is not only illegal, but unconstitutional, your little distilling operation becomes far more problematic. That’s exactly what happened to rye. It’s market collapsed almost overnight, just like the majority of American breweries and distilleries at the beginning of the 20th century. And true American rye was more expensive to produce, Canadians apparently aren’t such sticklers to mash standards. Canadian whisky, just like now, could be called rye, despite not actually requiring rye to be an ingredient in the mash. Rye became the equivalent of bottom-shelf, frat party vodka.

Beyond the economics of supply, demand, and illegality, rye also took heavy flak from contemporary pop culture and its previously great name was dragged through the deepest mud Hollywood could find. It went from everyone’s favorite whiskey to what drunkards and layabouts drank on their never-ending quest for a quick, cheap fix. Rye was put in the hip flasks of 1930s gangsters and got Ray Milland black out drunk in the 1945 film The Lost Weekend. It was some seriously bad PR for a whiskey that couldn’t afford it.

A few distilleries survived, particularly in Maryland. Since Maryland never ratified the 18th Amendment, it would appear the state government never put a lot of energy into enforcing it. Some Maryland distilleries produced medicinal whiskey (pretty much the exact same way people get weed for their “glaucoma”), while other simply didn’t call attention to their moonshining.

Let’s move on from Prohibition to something we talked about earlier. Bourbon distillers would love for you to think corn whiskey made to their specific standards is the pinnacle of the American distilling tradition, and it absolutely deserves the popularity it’s enjoying right now, but the truth behind its popularity isn’t quite so romantic as marketers would have you believe. It’s riding a cultural wave created by the perfect storm that wrecked rye whiskey.

Just before and after Prohibition, during the First and Second World Wars, the US government subsidized corn, making it a far more enticing crop for farmers. Corn got cheaper and more available, while rye retained its inherent expense and difficulty. Distillers flocked to corn before Prohibition to make a quick buck and after to reestablish their industry. It was a pragmatic business move more than a deep seated respect for traditional American distilling.

After the world stopped tearing itself apart and American consumers could refocus on alcohol, they started buying up vodka and gin, thanks to a certain smooth talking British secret agent. Vodka and gin drinks became the sign of classy drinkers and people eschewed brown liquors that weren’t bourbons or Scotches. By the 1980s, rye was the drink of Don McLean’s aging alcoholics.

It was a sorry end for a whiskey that had spent nearly two hundred years as Americans’ whiskey of choice and three hundred as Western Pennsylvania’s proudest product. But history has a tendency to rectify this level of injustice and a new generation of cocktail enthusiasts were about to discover what rye whiskey can do for the experimental mixologist.

The Rise (Again)

Just as everything in history is cyclic, rye whiskey is roaring back onto the bar scene. Relative to other types of whiskey sales, rye is still dwarfed, but rye’s volume is up more than 500 percent since 2009, a figure that wildly outpaces the growth of those other whiskeys. Big brands like Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam have noticed and launched their own rye expressions, while Wild Turkey’s was so popular they nearly completely ran out.

Other craft distillers have taken notice, with Anchor Distilling actually having the foresight to establish their rye 18 years ago, beating even Mount Vernon to reviving George Washington’s styles. These are whiskey’s made from purely rye mash and only lightly aged, if at all, just as the earliest versions of rye were sold. They’re sharp, herbal, sweet, and basically clear, perfect for taking your cocktail game back to basics.

Buffalo Trace (not exactly craft distilling, but their experimental stills kind of qualify), provided the rye that made the Sazerac famous in the 1800s and has relaunched their brand. Sazeracs, Old Fashioneds, and Manhattans all enjoy a more nuanced flavor when made with rye, and people are noticing. Plus, as soon as you say something is more suited for the “experienced drinker” millions of people decide they’re old pros.

We already talked about Mount Vernon’s distilling operation, but we might as well reiterate. They make their whiskeys with the results of their research into George Washington’s own recipes. They’re more than happy to talk about the history of their distillery and alcohol in America, and a whiskey tasting with them automatically puts you one step closer to having wooden teeth and an undying love for colonial independence.

Surprisingly though, not all the established brands are experiencing a rebirth. Old Overholt, one of, if not the, most oldest names in rye whiskey, hit every beat of rye’s life in America except for the modern twist. They were huge in the 1800s, were gutted by the World Wars and Prohibition in between (despite having a “medicinal whiskey” permit), were forced to turn their whiskey in cheap, diluted rotgut, was overshadowed by vodka for much of the later half of the 20th century, and was eventually bought by what became Beam Suntory. But instead of jumping back on the shelves and into cocktails, Old Overholt is in a sort of limbo. Beam Suntory isn’t completely convinced that the rye revival is a credible movement, so they’re leaving some of their rye brands in the background, Overholt being one of them. Hopefully a year or two more of solid sales means the brand will come back.

Rye’s resurgence can largely be attributed to something you are undoubtedly intimately familiar with. Bartenders and their customers are getting more adventurous. They started with an authentic Manhattan and moved out from there, crafting more and more cocktails on the spicy backbone of flavorful ryes. People go to mixologists for experimental flavors, not watered down vodka drinks.

New distilleries are also eager for the chance to make their mark with an unknown type of whiskey. They see in rye and opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the revival of a whiskey with distinctive flavors. People love the new taste, and if these distilleries can create a memorable rye, they can count on a few years of fierce brand loyalty. With more people mixing rye based cocktails at home and requesting specific brands at bars, distilleries want to make sure they’re the ones being asked after.

Where bourbon was at the beginning of its renaissance, rye is now. It was within our lifetimes that century old bourbon brands were struggling to make an impact on the public. Now, bars have shelves devoted to bourbon and only bourbon. It’s not inconceivable that, a decade or so in the future, we’ll see dozens of ryes taking up a serious amount of that space.

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JOHNNY CARSON'S MALIBU ESTATE

Situated on a bluff in Point Dume, Johnny Carson's Malibu Estate is a home fit for a TV icon. The legendary Tonight Show host lived on the property for 20 years and it remains mostly unchanged today. The 7,000-square-foot main house was built by architect Ed Niles in 1978 and is comprised of four bedrooms, five baths, a chef's kitchen, dining room, elevator, Asian-inspired lounge, and a living room with 30-foot glazed walls overlooking the Pacific. A master suite occupies the entire second floor and features his and her walk-in closets, onyx bathrooms, and separate offices. Consisting of four acres, the property includes a two-acre garden, tennis court with a workout pavilion, guest house, an outdoor saltwater pool with oceanfront terrace, and access to Little Dume Beach.

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The Hellscape Northern California’s Wildfires Left Behind in Santa Rosa 

The strong winds swept in quickly, whipping up flames in the heart of Wine Country. Homes and even entire roads are completely gone.

Wildfires have scorched more than 100,000 acres across Northern California, with at least 11 people reported dead and hundreds reported injured or missing in the chaos. Thousands of homes and even entire roads are completely gone.

A burning structure at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country, Santa Rosa, California. The region is home to world-renowned wineries and more than 20,000 people, including tourists, have been forced to evacuate. Oct. 9, 2017.

A damaged cart is seen amid burning ruins at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country during the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa. Oct. 9, 2017.

Smoke and flames rise from the remains of the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country during the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa, California. Oct. 9, 2017.

A lone firefighter sprays down a car in Santa Rosa, trying to contain the damage from the deadly wildfire. Oct. 9, 2017.

A SUV burns in the driveway of an already burned-down home threatening another home in a neighborhood off Fountaingrove Parkway near the Hilltop in Santa Rosa. Oct. 9, 2017.

Mark Williams, right, and friend Norina Wong, left, look over what’s left of their friends’ neighborhood off Fountaingrove Parkway near the Hilltop in Santa Rosa. Oct. 9, 2017.

A San Jose firefighter keep flames down at a home in Hidden Valley, where most of the homes were destroyed by fire on October 9, 2017 in Santa Rosa, California.

Smoke and flames rise as a wildfire from the Santa Rosa and Napa Valley moves through the area. Oct. 10, 2017.

A burnt tree stands amid the destroyed Journey’s End Mobile Home Park, Santa Rosa, California. Oct. 9, 2017.

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Drone Video Shows Postal Worker Still Delivering Mail In Neighbourhood Ravaged By Wildfire

Wildfires have consumed over 170,000 acres in California since Sunday and thousands have taken refuge in shelters as their homes have burned. But for the United States Postal Service, the deliveries must go on. In a devastated neighbourhood in Santa Rosa, a professional drone cinematographer caught this astonishing footage of one mail carrier's surreal shift.

Douglas Thron is a freelance cinematographer who was getting drone footage of the Coffey Park neighbourhood for The Today Show when he noticed the carrier continuing to do his job in the unsettling landscape. "It was a trippy thing — he was actually delivering the mail," he told San Diego's Mercury News. "I was shocked to see him because most of the roads were blocked-off, but he obviously had access."

I know the "motto" that's going through your head right now: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." But as NPR points out, the USPS doesn't have an official motto, those words are just a quote from the Greek historian Herodotus that is inscribed on the facade of the New York City Post Office on 8th Avenue. The fact that people associate the quote with the Post Office is a badge of honour for the institution.

Still, this left some wondering if this was the right thing to do. Would people know that they should pick up their mail? The Mercury News received a statement from Noemi Luna, the Postal Service's San Francisco district manager, explaining what was going on:

Quote

This is an example of the long standing relationship that has been established between our carriers and their customers based on trust. The carrier in question was honouring a request by a few customers who were being let back in the fire zone to retrieve personal items. A few customers asked the carrier to leave their mail if the mailbox was still standing because they could not get to the annex to retrieve it.

According to The Washington Post, the death toll in the region has climbed to 23, and 285 people are still missing after the fires destroyed 3,500 businesses and homes. Authorities have blamed a combination of hurricane strength winds, renewed vegetation following a rainy Spring, and a subsequent drought that turned that vegetation into kindling over the course of the summer. It's still unknown what initially sparked the fires.

It's a small comfort for victims who've lost their homes, but at least they know where they can find their mail.

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This Thor: Ragnarok Scene Exists Because Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth Loved Playing With The Props

It's not uncommon for directors to make appearances in their own work, but Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi's own cameo wasn't actually planned. As par for the course with the upcoming film, it was totally improvised, and happened because he and Chris Hemsworth were goofing around.

Hemsworth appeared on the latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, armed with a clip from Thor: Ragnarok. The short scene shows Thor trying out some weapons while chatting with fellow gladiator Korg (voiced by Waititi) about missing his hammer because it could do cool stuff like help him fly — something the rock monster fighter has trouble understanding. Then again, Thor isn't exactly explaining it well.

While chatting with Kimmel, Hemsworth shared that the scene was originally just one line, but they decided to add Waititi and expand it after the crew caught the two of them playing around with the prop weapons. He said the art department "just went mental" on creating the weapons, most of which are never actually used in the film, and they thought it would be fun to take some more time and show them off properly.

"We were laughing about, 'Oh my god what the hell is this thing? What the hell is that?', and we started improving a lot of that scene," Hemsworth said. "That was the tone of most of the movie, was sort of encouraged improvisation."

Thor: Ragnarok comes out October 26, with a lot of weapons and even more crazy improv. 

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Scorpions Can Tweak Their Venom In Response To Changing Threats

New research shows that some scorpions can tailor their venom depending on the task at hand, whether it be snatching its next meal or protecting itself against predators. It marks the first time that scientists have documented the ability of an animal to adjust the toxicity of its venom according to need.

Scorpions need to be able to find and capture food (usually insects), but also deter predators (such as small mammals). Thankfully for these arachnids, venom can perform double-duty for these tasks, but as Jamie Seymour from James Cook University points out, scorpions produce venom that's specific for predators and another kind that's specific for prey. And in fact, scorpion venom is, at any given time, a complex mixture of different toxins.

"Scorpions contain three separate subtypes of toxins that are effective against mammals only, insects only, and both," said Seymour in a statement. "The question was whether the 'recipe' for this cocktail is fixed or can adapt in response to different environments and predator — prey interactions."

Going into the study, Seymour figured that frequent exposure to predators should cause a scorpion to produce greater amounts of the defensive venom compared to offensive venom. To test this theory, he recruited a team of ecologists, chemists, physiologists, and a batch of Australian rainforest scorpions. Also known as Hormurus waigiensis, these two-to-three inch long scorpions are well adapted to the rainforests of Queensland and northeastern New South Wales.

For the experiment, Seymour's team subjected these scorpions to one of three conditions: exposure to live crickets (prey), exposure to dead crickets (control), and exposure to a taxidermied mouse (which simulated a predator threat). After six weeks, the scorpions who were exposed to the simulated predator featured a very different venom chemistry than those who weren't exposed to the taxidermied rodent.

"Exposure to a simulated predator appeared to decrease relative production of toxins that would work on insects, while generally increasing the production of a section of the venom profile with activity towards mammalian, e.g. mouse, cells," said ecologist Tobin Northfield, a co-author of the new study, which now appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

This finding doesn't mean that scorpions can suddenly adjust the chemistry of their venom on the fly. Rather, it means that scorpions who are under constant pressure by predators over a protracted period of time (in this case, six weeks), are capable of adjusting their venom chemistry in response. "Our findings provide, to our knowledge, the first evidence for adaptive plasticity in venom composition," conclude the researchers in the new study.

This is cool because it means that scorpions — or at least the Australian rainforest scorpions — have a built-in toxin regulator that re-routes internal resources to increase or decrease venom production according to need. Looking to the future, scientists will need to detect the same ability in other scorpion species, and study how they do it. In terms of real world applications, these future discoveries could be used improve the efficacy of anti-venoms.

[MIKA27]

Why Climate Scientists Depend On Alaska's Indigenous Communities Now More Than Ever

Arnold Brower Jr., a 70-year-old Iñupiat whaling captain, can recall his first encounter with scientists clearly. It was 1977, and the International Whaling Commission (IWC) had just placed a moratorium on bowhead whale hunting, after a US government-led population survey determined the marine mammals' numbers to be dangerously low. But Brower, who has been hunting in the icy Arctic waters surrounding Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) since he was a boy, felt certain that conclusion was wrong.

"They told us were are diminishing these whales by taking them, that there were only a few hundred left," Brower tells me. "We knew there were thousands. We were [treated] like we were lying to them, and we couldn't take that."

Harpooning a whale, Point Barrow, 1935, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

And so Brower and his fellow whaling captains decided to take matters in their own hands. They formed the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC), and partnered with wildlife biologists at the local government of the North Slope Borough to try to improve the population census. Within a few years, the hunters amassed clear evidence that researchers with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration had been undercounting bowheads, by overlooking whales that swam hidden beneath sea ice and far offshore. Armed with a revised census, the hunters convinced the IWC to grant them an annual subsistence harvest quota. Over the years, the quota has increased to meet the community's subsistence needs, and the bowhead whale population has grown in step.

"The people of the North became scientists, and proved to the world there are [thousands of] whales," Charlie Hopson, a 75-year-old whaling captain with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, tells me as we chat in AEWC's headquarters in Utqiaġvik. As Hopson puts it, Iñupiat knowledge prevailed because it was hard-earned, through lifetimes of learning to endure brutally cold winters, where the only food is what can be caught trekking across sea ice platforms atop the Arctic Ocean. "It's a gorgeous ocean," he said. "It's been my classroom, up to today."

Western science has a long history of dismissing of indigenous knowledge. But in Utqiaġvik, the 4,400-strong Iñupiat community at the northern tip of Alaska's North Slope, scientists have come to rely on Native experts' unmatched familiarity with the Arctic environment. Now, some of the same whalers who worked with biologists to revise the bowhead census forty years ago, along with other Native hunters across Alaska, are partnering with researchers to document and interpret the signs of human-caused climate change.

"Local indigenous experts have a very sophisticated understanding of the environment, far more sophisticated than some of us scientists have," Hajo Eicken, a sea ice researcher who works with indigenous communities across the North Slope and Western Alaska, told me from his office at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. "But it's a different form of knowledge."

Few issues crystallize the difference between academic knowledge and indigenous expertise like climate change, an inescapable reality for the Native Alaskans whose livelihoods depend on the seasonal cycles of ice and animals. Plunging caribou populations linked to rising temperatures and development are threatening the food security of subsistence hunters in Alaska's interior. Thawing permafrost on Alaska's North Slope is causing roads and buildings sink and shift, cracking water pipes and sewage lines. Tundra fires are becoming more frequent and severe, posing an unprecedented threat to villages located hundreds of miles from emergency responders.

An Inuit woman celebrating the spring whale catch by blanket tossing Point Barrow, Alaska. The woman jumps from an elastic walrus skin held by her fellow celebrators. 1921.

But for Utiaqgvik, and other villages on Alaska's North Slope, no change is more profound than the recent, dramatic retreat of Arctic sea ice, which Natives use to fish, hunt, and travel between villages. A generation ago, the first "shorefast" ice would form in October, creating miles-wide platforms from land to sea that were stable from early November until mid-July. Now, the shorefast ice firms up later in the fall, and it breaks up weeks earlier in the spring. Even in the dead of winter, the ice is less predictable than it used to be, making it more dangerous to traverse and more difficult to use as a platform for harvesting whales, seals, and walruses.

"It's kind of insane to me when I see people deny climate change," Evelyn 'Aubie' Gregg, Natural Resources Director at the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS), tells me when I visit the tribal government's headquarters in Utqiaġvik. "We see it on a daily basis."

Eicken got his first taste of the extensive environmental knowledge possessed by hunters back in 2000, when Native experts and scientists gathered at a symposium in Utqiaġvik to share their observations of changing sea ice conditions. It was the first in a series of community dialogs that would lead to several formal collaborations, including the Sea Ice Zone Observing Network (SIZONet), and more recently, the Alaskan Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub (AAOHK). Through these networks, Alaskan Iñupiat and Yup'ik hunters work with researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to record, archive, and disseminate observations of sea ice conditions in searchable online databases, using terms in their Native languages and English. (There are more than 100 terms for sea ice in Kingikmiut, the dialect spoken by the Iñupiat people of Wales, alone.) For researchers who rely mainly on satellite remote sensing data, hunters' vivid descriptions of conditions on the ground offer invaluable insight into changing weather conditions and ice dynamics.

"[The locals] have provided this whole level of information that we really could not have gotten on our own," said Olivia Lee, a marine ecologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks who started working with Native communities as a post-doctoral researcher in 2013. "They have long term knowledge of what ice conditions are like, and they often would include anecdotal information about how the current ice conditions compared with what they're familiar with over the long term."

Lee has been heavily involved with one of the community-oriented products of these collaborations, the Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO). A partnership between the National Weather Service, the Eskimo Walrus Commission, and others, SIWO combines local observations with data collected by satellites to issue a weekly springtime weather and ice forecast for villages in northwestern Alaska. These forecasts help hunters decide when when it's safe to venture onto the ice to catch walruses, a task that is becoming more challenging as nearshore ice breaks up earlier.

"With climate change, it's getting harder to figure out what the next weather is going to be like, especially during peak hunting periods," explained Eskimo Walrus Commission director Vera Metcalf. "The ice is becoming less stable — less ideal." She added that so far, the villages involved in SIWO — Gambell, Savoonga, Wales, Nome, and Shishmaref — have found the collaboration to be "quite valuable."

UTQIAGVIK, ALASKA - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017: A dumpster in Utqiaġvik, Alaska reads "Got Muktak," which refers to whale blubber. Utqiaġvik is an Inupiat village that subsists off of marine mammals such as whales and seals, which is a practice deeply woven into the culture of the people of the village.

"It's a good practice, the co-production of knowledge that includes indigenous knowledge," she said.

Lee says her long-term hope is to build a network of hunter/observers who can help biologists keep track of changing marine mammal migration patterns, particularly the migration of grey and bowhead whales, which seem to be travelling north from the Bering to the Chukchi and Beaufort seas earlier in the spring.

"You can sort of track them with acoustic info — but that doesn't give you the contextual information of whether the animals are accessible to hunters, which has implications for food security," she said. "And it also won't tell you about coastal ice conditions. There's a huge role that communities and their knowledge can contribute."

"It's a great way to work," said Craig George, a wildlife biologist at the North Slope Borough, noting that he and his colleagues have long benefitted from a close relationship with hunters, who allow them access to recently-harvested bowheads for all kinds of anatomical studies. As far as climate change goes, he and the North Slope Borough research team are most concerned about its impact on the body condition of the animals, invasive disease outbreaks, reproduction, and migration patterns. Last year, the team received its very first report of kidney worms in a bowhead from the women among the whaling crews. They speculate that it could be the result of greater interactions with species known to carry these parasites, like humpback whales, but only long-term monitoring and research will tell.

"If there's anything unusual about an animal, we get a call immediately from the hunters," he said. "We can develop scientific inquiry around local observations and give something useful back to the communities that rely on these animals."

UTQIAGVIK, ALASKA - MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017: Anne Jensen, Arctic Anthropologist and Archaeologist with UIC Sciences in Utqiaġvik, looks over some of the artifacts recovered by her team earlier that year at the Walakpa site.

Collaborations between scientists and Alaskan Native communities aren't always so smooth, however. It can takes years for researchers to build rapport with a village, and not all scientists will commit to that level of engagement. In communities that have seen lots of scientists come and go, Lee said, there's often "a sense of research fatigue, a sense of burnout. They don't always see what they get back out of it."

Technological barriers can also create challenges for villages looking to reap the benefits of working with scientists. "It can be hard [to use the SIWO forecasts] because our internet is slow," Metcalf said. "Downloading satellite photos takes quite a bit of time." (Other community-oriented products, such as an Inupiat sea ice dictionary co-developed by local experts and researchers in Wales, do not necessarily require a computer.)

Scientists working with indigenous knowledge, meanwhile, struggle with scepticism from the academic community. Many experts perceive local observations to be anecdotal — inferior to data collected in a quantitative study. "It's an incredible struggle to learn how to use that rich information [from local indigenous experts] when you're classically trained," Lee said.

UTQIAGVIK, ALASKA - MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017: Anne Jensen, Arctic Anthropologist and Archaeologist with UIC Sciences in Utqiaġvik, looks over some of the artifacts recovered by her team earlier that year at the Walakpa site.

Underlying even the most successful collaborations are the scars of colonialism — of forced settlement and forced education, which diluted the traditional identities of many Native Alaskan communities. Some elders, like ICAS president George Edwardson, remember a time when Native Alaskans were deliberately mistreated in the name of science.

A charismatic geologist with long silver hair, Edwardson recalls being administered radioactive iodine tablets a child in the 1950s, as part of a US Air Force experiment that purportedly sought to determine whether the thyroid played a role in Eskimo cold tolerance. Decades later, a National Research Council-led investigation concluded that many Native subjects were not aware they were being asked to consume radioactive material for an experiment that offered no health benefits. "We were lied to," Edwardson tells me.

"Barrow has a long history of working with scientists, and a lot of people have found that useful," Anne Jensen, an ethnographic archaeologist of the North Slope based at the Barrow Arctic Science Center a few miles north of town, tells me. "But there have been unfortunate experiences."

Brower felt recent collaborations with scientists, including the ice observing networks which he has participated in, are to the benefit of hunters — in part, because westerners now take Native expertise more seriously. "Information [from science] has proven traditional knowledge quite accurate," he said. He's hoping future studies on the impact of acoustic surveys in the ocean lead to policies that ban such practices in sensitive bowhead habitats — after all, his people have known for generations that too much noise spooks the whales. "It's bad enough that the ice is receding. Any area that might have detrimental impacts on the species themselves is something that needs critical attention."

UTQIAGVIK, ALASKA - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017: The cemetery in Utqiaġvik, Alaska

As for adapting to the challenges climate change will bring, that's something he's confident his people will do, with or without the aid of scientists. Hopson expressed a similar sentiment.

"We've been making changes and adapting ever since we got here," Hopson said, noting that hunters are taking advantage of more open water by using bigger boats, and they're growing accustomed to the whales' shifting migratory patterns.

Jensen observed that the people of the North Slope have responded to climate changes in the past — not to mention they have managed to survive for millennia in an incredibly challenging environment. "It's something to be absolutely proud of," she said.

In her mind, one of the tragedies of human-caused climate change is that it's causing that long history of adaptation to be lost, as centuries to millennia-old archaeological sites thaw out and erode away faster than they can be excavated and studied. "There is data that will not be there in 10, 20, 30 years," she said.

But Edwardson was less concerned with physical history being wiped away by the rising seas or the coming storms. "This is your worry," he emphasised when I brought up climate change. For Iñupiat culture to live on, he said, his people must continue to pass memories and knowledge down from generation to generation, the way they always have. "This is how, without writing, our stories continue, how we can go through Ice ages surviving right here."

"I'm gonna have to change my hunting habits and go to certain places," that I didn't go before, he said. "But I will survive." Later, walking along Uqtiaqgvik's desolate, salt-scented shoreline, I realised that when he said "I," he meant "we."

[Fuzz]

15 minutes ago, MIKA27 said:

This Thor: Ragnarok Scene Exists Because Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth Loved Playing With The Props

 

"Oh my god. The hammer pulled you off?"

[MIKA27]

THIS LA ARTIST IS BRING "DAY OF THE DEAD" CULTURE TO LIFE IN A COLORFUL WAY

This LA-based artist is spreading the colors and textures of "Day of the Dead" festivities with his dynamic art performances.

Butch Locsin is an artist, painter, and illustrator known as “Skeleton of Colour". His performances involve wearing custom skull masks and colourful suits while dancing with vibrant smoke bombs. The effect is incredibly cinematic and just a touch creepy.

Locsin uses his art to celebrate Mexican culture and together with his lover and fellow artist María Perez, these two are bringing "Day of the Dead" traditions to life!

Locsin's performances are explosive and spontaneous. He doesn't like to tip people off before a performance is about to happen, and his reasoning definitely makes sense.

"I don't announce where and when. I like my freedom do it when I want to," he tells his fans on Instagram. 

Why the skull? Locsin feels that it's a point of commonality among people. No matter what country or race we belong to, all people have a skull under it all.

[MIKA27]

SCHLAFLY IMPERIAL OKTOBERFEST BEER

It's tougher than it should be to find a good Oktoberfest beer made by an American brewery. Thankfully, choices like Schlafly Imperial Oktoberfest are available. The brewery ferments their Marzen for several months, just like the German brewers who created this seasonal style. They add plenty of Munich-sourced malts and German hops to the brew before it's bottled in these 750-ml bottles with a swing-top. It's malty, lightly sweet, and bold enough to share at 8% ABV.

[MIKA27]

Cops In Dubai Are Getting Real, Very Dangerous Looking Hoverbikes

Police in Dubai may soon have access to functional hoverbikes, according to AutoBlog, which reported the Dubai Police unveiled the new technology in conjunction with Russian company Hoversurf at the Gulf Information Technology Exposition last week.

Per Autoblog, the Scorpion hoverbike is capable of flying approximately five meters in the air, moving at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour and carrying 300 kilograms of gear. It's thus capable of clearing traffic-packed roads, but one serious drawback is the unit's limited, 25 minute charge capacity. The Scorpion's rotor blades also look ready to chop through anything it might bump into, like humans, and sort of looks like it is as dangerous for the operator to fly as for anyone who might wander into its path.

The police force intends to use the hoverbikes as tools for officers to bypass traffic and other obstacles during emergencies, though the United Arab Emirates has a notoriously poor human rights record, so authorities there may put them to somewhat less agreeable purposes.

The US military, as well as various specialty shops and hobbyists, have had varying degrees of success working on their own hoverbikes. Most of them look alarmingly dangerous, but hey -- as the saying goes, you can't make a hoverbike without amputating a few limbs.

CNN reported that the hoverbikes were also announced alongside a new electric motorcycle concept by the Japanese company Mikasa, which was touted as having a 124 mph (200 km/h) top speed. According to ABC, Dubai authorities are also planning on rolling out small, driverless vehicles for surveillance in urban areas.

MIKA: I'll sit up and take notice once technology gets to this level. 

 

 

[MIKA27]

An Apple Genetically Engineered To Never Brown Will Hit US Stores This Spring

The Arctic Apple is a great example of the kinds of things that might happen when you fuse modern genomic technologies with agriculture. Neal Carter, president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits and a descendent of many generations of apple farmers, said that the Arctic Apple was conceived as a way of increasing apple consumption and decreasing apple waste.

"There's an awful lot of apples that go to waste," Carter told Gizmodo from the midst of the apple harvest at his company farm in British Columbia. "We've seen apple consumption decline on a per capita basis over the last few decades, because they're not seen as convenient. When they started selling cut baby carrots, it more than doubled consumption. We were looking for ways to rebrand apples to make them more convenient."

The Arctic Apple, Carter told Gizmodo, will hit the shelves of as many as 400 supermarkets across the United States the beginning of November. Carter expects that this year's harvest of about 82kg of apples will last about 12 weeks. The apples will be sold sliced, just like baby carrots. The first variety of Arctic Apple to hit shelves will be Golden Delicious; next year the company plans to roll out Granny Smiths.

What's most remarkable about the Arctic Apple, though, is not that they don't brown -- outlets like Starbucks have already figured out how to do that using antioxidants and home cooks have long known that a little bit of lemon juice can keep sliced apples crispy-pale for hours. What's remarkable is that the Arctic Apple is being marketed as a genetically engineered apple, to consumers.

"There are certainly people against what we do," Carter said. "But there are less people against it than two years ago or five years ago. Once people experience the apple, generally they say, 'Hey this is just an apple.'"

The labels on packages of Arctic Apples won't disclose directly that it's a GMO, but it will bare the apple's snowflake logo, along with a QR code that links to more information about the apple in accordance with GMO labelling laws passed last year.

The Arctic Apple has a consumer-facing website that explains in a chirpy, first-person tone exactly how the company makes its non-browning apples by silencing the gene the controls polyphenol oxidase production using a technique called RNA interference. Farmers have long been an easy sell for GMOs -- what farmer doesn't want enhanced crops? But Carter is betting that with transparency, consumers may one day get the benefits, too.

This will be no easy task. The only thing consumers and scientists disagree more about than GMO food is climate change. Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth have steadily campaigned every step of the way against the Arctic Apple.

"The GMO Arctic Apple is full of risks," the group wrote before the FDA's approval. "And like other GMOs, it won't be labelled and won't have undergone independent safety testing -- regulators will rely on the company's sole assessment that the apple is safe for human consumption."

But the Arctic Apple may also be helped by the fact that it is not "transgenic" -- meaning it contains a gene from another species -- as many of the first genetically engineered commodity crops like corn were. For consumers, plants that simply have their own genes deleted or altered may not have the same ick factor as, say, a tomato with flounder genes.

Not to mention that in the US, engineered plants that don't introduce new genes don't face the same regulatory hurdles.

Similarly engineered produce like the bruise-resistant Innate potato are already on the shelves. But no company has championed its genetically engineered genes so publicly as Okanagan.

"We're really convinced that it won't be that big an issue," Carter said. "Transparency is key."

[MIKA27]

The New Mutants' First Trailer Trades Xavier's School For A Horrifying Insane Asylum

We've known for a while that Fox's upcoming New Mutants film was going to be more of a horror film than a "traditional" comic book movie like the one that launched the cinematic X-Men franchise. But actually seeing the movie's first trailer makes it clear: this has the potential to be something very different.

While Marvel's original New Mutants comics were about a younger generation of gifted students coming together at Charles Xavier's school for the first time, the Josh Boone-directed film appears to be set largely in an eerie asylum where young mutants are kept in cells and observed for study. The trailer is fleeting and light on details, but it opens with a voice over from Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga,) interviewing a new subject about how much they know about mutants.

Reyes asks the child if they have ever hurt someone, and the footage jumps from a dimly-lit hallway to a graveyard full of headstones only marked with crosses and numbers. Reyes asks her subject if they have ever experienced anything "abnormal," and the shot cuts to Reyes sitting in front of an array of monitors, calmly watching other children located throughout the facility.

Baby rattlesnakes, Reyes explains to a restrained Danielle Moonstar (Blu Hunt,) are actually more dangerous than adult ones because they don't yet know how to control the amount of venom they use while biting. That, Reyes explains as we see the other kids seemingly trapped in the house of horrors, is why they're all there -- because they're dangerous.

[MIKA27]

This Remote Arctic Park in Canada Can Now Be Visited on Google Street View

It's that time of the year when everything gets cold and sad, the deadlines are popping up, and your Halloween costume hasn't been shipped yet. Instead of going for a stroll in your local 200-square-foot park to take a breather, now you can check out Canada's most remote and northern park—it's less than 800 kilometres away from the North Pole—through Google Street View.

Quttinirpaaq National Park is located on Ellesmere Island on the northernmost end of Nunavut—its name means "top of the world" in Inuktitut, the language of the local Indigenous communities. Less than 50 people visit the park each year due to its significant distance from the rest of the country—there are three landing sites where tourists can be dropped off after getting the proper permits, and they're warned of the dangers of river crossings, avalanches, and local wildlife like polar bears. Hikes in the park can last from 9-12 days at a time.

A tent ring at an archaeological site near Kettle Lake in Quttinirpaaq National Park.

Google sent their Street View team to the park to go through some of the hiking trails there, and the images are stunning. While they can't map out the entire park (it clocks in at just under 38,000 square kilometres), the team managed to get a good representation of its different environments—the glaciers, rocky mountains and shining lakes.

I typically use Street View to figure out which side of the road that new restaurant is on, so it's a strange experience to have the freedom to explore somewhere as remote as Quttinirpaaq, especially with the lack of roads in most places on this map—it appears as though the Street View was recorded entirely on foot. I just clicked on some rocks and went from there. With everything going on nowadays, just check out some rocks and take a breather.