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

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The Stringbike Doesn’t Have a Chain

When the bike builders at Stringbike set out to create a completely different bicycle, they opted for a completely unique drive system that uses paracord wrapped around a spring-loaded drum instead of the standard chain and cog system. That’s right, the Stringbike doesn’t have a chain. Power is distributed equally to both sides from the individual systems connected to each pedal, kind of like electric cars with individual wheel motors. If you opt for a multi-speed option, gear changes happen with the mechanism sliding up or down, moving plates as opposed to onto different cogs. The new system is much quieter, more balanced and, most importantly, won’t leave your calves covered in grease. The Stringbike is available in E line (carbon), A line (aluminum), S line (single speed) and D signers (limited series) options with prices starting at $1,100.

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SMOKE LOUNGE CHAIR

The design may look traditional, but the Smoke Lounge Chair is anything but. Its classic carved wood frame has been given a fired finish. This treatment not only creates a unique chair but also gives each piece its own individual characteristics. The charred timber is then sealed with an epoxy resin for an added level of strength. Black leather covers the back seat and features tufted detailing, creating a timeless look that will compliment any room.

 

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The First Known Interstellar Asteroid Looks Incredibly Weird 

Scientists know of 750,000 or so asteroids and comets - and all of them are part of this fine solar system. That is, all of them but one. And as new research shows, it's weird as hell.

Today, scientists are reporting their analysis of 'Oumuamua, an interstellar object spotted last month. The oddly-shaped, fast-moving rock immediately surprised astronomers with its chemical makeup and other properties, which implied there should be far more interstellar objects floating around than previously thought.

"The presence of 'Oumuamua suggests that previous estimates of the density of interstellar objects were pessimistically low," the authors write in the study published today in the journal Nature.

'Oumuamua's story begins on 19 October 2017 when the Hawaiian Pan-STARRS1 telescope system spotted it. Scientists named it A/2017 U1, but immediately realised that they were looking at something strange, since its orbit's shape was extremely hyperbolic. That means rather than orbiting the Sun, this thing came and went with enough speed to "clearly" imply it was from outside the solar system.

The brief visit made the planet difficult to name - the minor planet designation scheme doesn't allow for naming something only seen once. Researchers created a new classification for these interstellar objects, and gave it a Hawaiian name that "reflects the way this object is like a scout or messenger sent from the distant past to reach out to us," according to a Minor Planet Center communication. Pronounced "Oh-moo-ah-moo-ah", it means "a messenger from afar arriving first".

Observations of the wildly-varying light from 'Oumuamua showed scientists it wasn't spherical, but probably had a cigar shape measuring 800m by 80m by 80m - that's something almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty, but 800m long. It's red, and likely made from metal and carbon-rich matter like some comets. Scientists also observed that it didn't have a fuzzy, comet-like appearance, which is surprising given the fact that most observed rocks originating from the distant Oort cloud are comets.

This set up a conundrum: Scientists assumed interstellar objects would behave more like comets than asteroids until 'Oumuamua came along. If they're more like asteroids, that implied to the team that there are way more of these interstellar rocks in the Solar System than originally thought, according to the paper. It also adds another factor when considering Earth impacts. "Impact from an interstellar object would be far more energetic than from a solar system object with similar mass, due to the larger impact speed," the authors write.

As far as where it came from - no one knows yet. The paper suggests a nearby debris disk, or that its trajectory was changed by some planet or other comet - maybe it was set off by the undiscovered Planet Nine. All that is informed speculation, of course.

Scientists will never get to see 'Oumuamua again as it speeds off - but it brief visit suggests might not be the last time scientists spot something like this.

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HUBLOT PRESENTS THE LIMITED EDITION CLASSIC FUSION ASHES CHRONOGRAPH

The competitive sport of cricket has welcomed the arrival of a brand new timepiece with the Hublot Classic Fusion Ashes Chronograph.

The watch’s debut marks the extended partnership between Hublot and the International Cricket Council which first came together in 2015 with the former playing the role of official timekeeper.

Today that partnership has once again brought Cricket Australia and the Ashes Series 2017-18 to the forefront of conversation with the help of ex-Australian cricket captain, Michael Clarke. To celebrate the sport the best way they know how, Hublot unveiled the limited edition watch which will only come as 32 examples in the world – each one representing the number of series won by each team.

The watch’s appointments will see a unique design which features a grey dial that wears sport’s most significant symbols – the hands of the two chronograph counters in the shape of a bat and a triple applique at the 12 o’clock marker which mimics the stumps.

The caseback meanwhile wears the Ashes series logo on the sapphire glass and is complimented with a leather strap with triple white saddle stitching to honour the style of a cricket ball. Twin oversized chronograph counters reside at the 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock markers whilst a subtle date window can be found at the 6 o’clock mark.

The Hublot Classic Fusion Ashes Chronograph is now available to order via Hublot Australia for a RRP of $16,200.

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CIGAR WHISKEY GLASS

Some things were just made to go together, like Peanut butter and jelly, Hall & Oats, and – of course – whiskey and cigars. And now the folks at Corkcicle have made a vessel that appropriately pairs the two in a simple one-handed format. It is appropriately named the Cigar Glass.

Carefully handmade, each one of these vessels can hold up to 9 ounces of your liquor of choice, as well as a full-sized cigar in the built-in ergonomic rest. That means you can hold both in one hand without having to fumble around or position your hand in an awkward manner. Not only is it more comfortable, but it also helps to reduce the risk of dropping either your smoke or your beverage, which seems like a win-win to us. Each one of these fabulous glasses retails for $20.

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Villa Chameleon

The jungles of Bali in Indonesia are rich with greenery and wildlife, and if you´re lucky enough, you may even find yourself at one of the islands most luxurious estates, nestled right into that jungle. Villa Chameleon is a contemporary luxury jungle residence available for rent, it is located on 3600sqm west facing land with uninterrupted river and jungle views offering complete privacy and a spectacular living experience. The 5 bedroom home features breathtaking river views from every room, a 20m lap pool, office library, wellbeing space, media room, front and back kitchen, various gardens and a workshop that doubles as a garage. The house is fully serviced with butler, cook, housekeeper, gardener, pool boy and a driver is available on request. An extraordinary place to pamper the soul,  dial up your senses, connect with your family and friends, and expand your mind.    

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Manta5 Hydrofoil Bike

Manta5 is a hydrofoil bike that replicates the cycling experience on water, it is designed to glide across any body of water, including lakes, rivers, and the ocean. The vessel has an aluminum frame, two carbon fiber hydrofoils that provide lift, and a 400-watt motor that augments the riders pedalling power to turn the propeller. The hydrofoil has the ability to perform submerged launches, so if you fall off, the bike can be relaunched from deep water. Its modular design allows quick assembly and transportation.

 

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KRYPT BAR

Tucked below the streets of Vienna, Krypt Bar occupies a forgotten 18th-century cellar. The underground space was rediscovered during the renovations of the surrounding building after a sealed doorway uncovered a hidden lair. Accessed by a set of floating stairs, the large archways and exposed brickwork remain, creating a dramatic backdrop for the marble floors and gold finishes. Drinks are served at a 20-foot walnut bar while surrounding alcoves provide private booths. Along with the lounge, the area is also host to the city's smallest art gallery.

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A Ghost Ship Carrying 8 'Skeletonised' Bodies Washed Up In Japan, And It's Not The First Time

A battered wooden fishing vessel containing eight partially skeletonised bodies washed ashore in northern Japan over the weekend. Disturbingly, it's just the latest in a string of similar "ghost ships" that seem to be coming from North Korea.

At the moment, it's unclear how long the boat had been floating in the Sea of Japan before it was found, but it can take only a few weeks for bodies to fully turn into skeletons in warm, humid environments.

The Japan Coast Guard spotted the 7m-long wooden ship drifting along the Akita Prefecture on Friday, but was not able to inspect the vessel until it washed ashore near the city of Oga on Sunday, according to Kyodo News. In addition to the bodies, investigators found empty cigarette packages and life vests that seemed to have come from North Korea - clues that led authorities to believe the dead seafarers may have been North Korea defectors or fishers. The Korean Peninsula is located about 725km west of Japan's west coast.

But this ship of cadavers is just the latest in an alarming trend. According to The Japan Times, 11 bodies believed to have come from Korea were found along Japan's coast last year. In 2015, it was 27. In addition, Sky News reports that 44 seemingly Korean vessels have washed ashore or been spotted off the coast of Japan this year.

Since North Korea started facing famines in the 1990s, about 30,000 citizens have defected from the country. But many of these "ghost ships" seem to be carrying dead fishers who intended to return to North Korea.

Satoru Miyamoto, a professor at Seigakuin University and North Korea expert, told CNN that more and more ships have been appearing on Japan shores since 2013. "It's after Kim Jong Un decided to expand the fisheries industry as a way of increasing revenue for the military. They are using old boats manned by the military, by people who have no knowledge about fishing," Miyamoto told CNN. "It will continue."

Seo Yu-Suk, a researcher at Seoul's North Korean Studies Institution, told Sky News that as the United States has put stronger sanctions upon the nation, North Koreans are pressured to travel farther away from shore for longer periods of time in order to gather more fish.

Last Thursday, another boat carrying eight men washed ashore in the Akita Prefecture. Those men, however, were alive and told authorities they were fishing for squid and planned on returning to North Korea.

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The Post-Apocalypse Is A Little Less Bleak When You Have A Beloved Game Of Thrones Star On Your Side

The year is 2054, and humanity's prospects are very bleak in the wake of a devastating virus. London's become an unstable wasteland of junk peddlers and wild-eyed zealots, but one tough, determined woman keeps it together for her much younger brother - until he's spirited away by an unknown foe.

Liam Garvo's dystopian proof-of-concept film Biopunk creates a vividly chaotic and realistic post-apocalyptic world in just a few short scenes. It also features a gruff but charming supporting turn by Game of Thrones' Kristian Nairn - who you'll recognise instantly, of course, but will also have a brief moment of disconnect listening to him deliver lines that aren't simply "Hodor." (His character does, however, refer to himself in the third person... a lot.)

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You Can Finally Buy A Copy Of The Voyager Golden Record, Gold Plating Not Included

The Voyager 1 spacecraft might be the most famous time capsule in history, soaring through space as a testament to humanity's achievements. We don't know if intelligent life will ever find the craft or its contents, launched in 1977 to explore the planets before sailing indefinitely beyond our solar system. But at least humans here on Earth can finally own a piece of its history.

The Voyager spacecraft includes the so-called Golden Record that is now available for purchase on both LP and CD. The album has 90 minutes of music from around the world, though the only contemporary American song is a lone track from Chuck Berry, "Johnny B. Goode". Carl Sagan reportedly wanted to go with the song "Roll Over Beethoven" but was persuaded by his university students that "Johnny B. Goode" was a better choice. The Australian inclusions were the Aboriginal songs "Morning Star" and "Devil Bird", recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes.

A Kickstarter campaign to release the record raised over $US1.3 million ($1.7 million), but you don't have to be a contributor to get your hands on one. The album is available to order on both CD and LP, though the three-vinyl LP version isn't a copper disc wrapped in gold, like the version that's now hurtling through space. That version was sealed in real gold to protect it from the elements (both meteoroids and radiation) as it searches for intelligent life that may be able to listen to the record. The spacecraft record has a needle and primitive instructions for how to play it, should ET ever discover the thing.

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 contain the Golden Record, but Voyager 1 is on a faster course (despite being launched after Voyager 2) and is the farthest human-made object from Earth. The new LP version is a costly $US98 ($129), but it does include perks such as a 96-page softcover book with plenty of information about the Voyager missions. The CD version is a more affordable $US50 ($66).

It's a rare treat to be able to buy the record today. Even Carl Sagan didn't get a copy of the record, which is being released by Ozma Records. You can order a copy of the LP or the CD over at the Ozma Records website, though the LP version has proved so popular that you probably won't get it until January. So don't get your hopes up if you were planning to give it as a Christmas present.

And, yes, the vinyl version includes a digital download card that allows you to grab MP3 or FLAC versions of the music. This is the future, after all.

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Your Dark Side Shrine Needs This Burnt Darth Vader Helmet Replica

Kylo Ren is a dedicated collector. It takes resourcefulness to find, and preserve, the half-burnt helmet of Darth Vader to serve as a centrepiece of one's very own evil family shrine. Fortunately, the rest of us won't have to go through the trouble, because Hot Toys has us covered.

This week, Hot Toys unveiled its own life-size replica of Darth Vader's crumpled, charred helmet from Star Wars: The Force Awakens (and, technically, Return of the Jedi, I guess).

The collectible, which has no release date or price as of yet, will be displayed in a showcase in Japan as part of a The Last Jedi promotional event.

So now's the time to craft the shadowed, hidden place where all your worst fears and memories can gather, fuelling your quest to fulfil your family's cruel destiny. Dark Side resonance sold separately.

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NASA's New Titanium Airless Tyres Are Nearly Indestructible

Stretch a Slinky toy too far, and eventually the metal coil will be warped so much it won't be able to return to its original spring shape. That's a problem also faced by the metal spring tyres designed to roll across our Moon, and other planets our rovers are exploring. But NASA has created an alternative, made from titanium, that can tackle any terrain and always return to its original tyre shape.

Because puncturing an inflatable tyre while driving around the surface of the Moon would have been a disaster, the Lunar Rover, delivered by Apollo 15, instead featured airless tyres made of hollow metal springs. They absorb bumps like a rubber air-filled tyre does, but over time, those metal springs get warped and deformed until they're misshapen and don't roll as efficiently.

What's happening is that over time, the bonds between the atomic structures that make up the materials in a metal spring tyre are stretched to the point where they can't return to their original arrangement, which is a problem when repair technicians are millions of kilometres away from a vehicle.

The solution to the problem is a new type of metal spring tyre made from a nickel titanium alloy, whose atomic bonds are instead re-arranged as the tyre deforms and stretches when rolling over uneven terrain. Known as "shape memory alloys", the metals are assembled in what looks like a tyre made from chain mail, whose structure can be compressed right to the hub and still spring back to its original shape afterwards.

The advantage to using a tyre like this here on Earth is immediately obvious, especially if you've ever had to change a flat tyre on the side of the road in the cold of night. But having a tyre that can last for years with minimal maintenance is even more important when sending rovers to the other planets in our Solar System. The tyres used for the Curiosity Rover deteriorated faster than expected, and when you're spending hundreds of millions of dollars to send an autonomous explorer to another world, the last thing you want to derail your experiment is a damaged tyre.

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World's Last German A7V Tank Is Inside A Giant Plastic 'Carcoon' In Queensland

That's an odd place for a tank, you might say, especially one with such historical significance. Don't fear, it's all part of the plan! The "Mephisto", a German A7V Sturmpanzerwagen dating back to the First World War, is undergoing maintenance at Ipswich before a permanent relocation to the Queensland Museum in Southbank.

Currently located at The Workshops Rail Museum, Mephisto needs a little love and care before it'll be ready for its final home. According to Queensland Museum, along with "corrosion treatments" and "replacing oil and fluids", Mephisto will get a few (non-functional) upgrades in the form of replica guns.

As for the plastic bubble, that's a carcoon and yes, it's "car" and "cocoon" mashed together. The bubble is described as a "de-humidified balloon-like cover" and serves to protect the tank from the harmful effects of, well, air and water.

How did Mephisto find its way to Australia in the first place? I'll let the museum explain:

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Mephisto is the only surviving German A7V Sturmpanzerwagen tank in the world, captured during World War One in July 1918 near the French town of Villers-Bretonneux. The tank was salvaged by soldiers from the 26th Battalion, comprised mainly of Queenslanders, who helped recover the abandoned tank and drag it behind allied lines. It was sent to Australia as a war artefact, arriving in Brisbane in June 1919 where it was towed by two Brisbane City Council steamrollers to the Queensland Museum.

So if you find yourself near the Rail Museum, be sure to check it out. Otherwise, you'll have a chance once it's moved to its permanent home in Southbank, sometime in 2018.

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Watching This Exterminator Remove A Gigantic Hornet's Nest Sent My Heart Racing

If the sound of a single mosquito buzzing near your ear is enough to send you running, you might want to skip this video of a Louisiana exterminator battling what is easily the largest hornet's nest I've ever seen in my life, hiding inside someone's backyard shed.

Jude Verret, the brave, brave soul in the white suit, set up a GoPro camera to capture the frenetic cloud of enraged hornets while he cleaned out the shed. Miraculously, even though the cleanup took 45 minutes, Verret wasn't stung a single time. Although the terrifying hum of thousands of angry hornets is going to be stuck in my head for weeks.

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10 MUST-WATCH MOVIE TRAILERS OF THE WEEK

El Camino Christmas

When Eric Roth (Luke Grimes) goes on an impulsive journey to find the father he never knew, his search takes him to the remote desert town of El Camino, Nevada, where he’s mistaken for a drug dealer by local, dim-witted law enforcement and winds up pinned down in a liquor store holdup with five other lost souls on Christmas Eve… one of which is his father.

You Were Never Really Here

A missing teenage girl. A brutal and tormented enforcer on a rescue mission. Corrupt power and vengeance unleash a storm of violence that may lead to his awakening.

The Midnight Man

A girl and her friends find a game in the attic that summons a creature known as The Midnight Man, who uses their worst fears against them.

Journeyman

After winning a punishing title defense on points, middleweight boxing champion Matty Burton (Paddy Considine) collapses at home from a delayed reaction to a devastating punch. The real fight begins when Matty awakes from a coma, and begins the journey towards regaining his speech, movement and memory. Suffering from memory loss and with his personality altered, Matty must piece his life back together as his world disintegrates. Journeyman is a powerful story about loss, identity, and ultimately, triumph.

The Crown

Netflix’s award winning period drama The Crown returns on December 8. The second season of the Claire Foy- and Matt Smith-starrer ushers in the revolutionary era of the 1960s, introducing “American royalty” Jack and Jackie Kennedy (Michael C. Hall and Jodi Balfour, respectively), and depicting a fragile monarchy in a Britain that has “changed beyond recognition”.

12 Strong

12 Strong is set in the harrowing days following 9/11 when a U.S. Special Forces team, led by their new Captain, Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth), is chosen to be the first U.S. troops sent into Afghanistan for an extremely dangerous mission. There, in the rugged mountains, they must convince Northern Alliance General Dostum (Nvid Negahban) to join forces with them to fight their common adversary: the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies. In addition to overcoming mutual distrust and a vast cultural divide, the Americans—accustomed to state-of-the-art warfare—must adopt the rudimentary tactics of the Afghani horse soldiers. But despite their uneasy bond, the new allies face overwhelming odds: outnumbered and outgunned by a ruthless enemy that does not take prisoners.

A Wrinkle In Time

From visionary director Ava DuVernay comes Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, an epic adventure based on Madeleine L’Engle’s timeless classic, which takes audiences across dimensions of time and space to examine the nature of darkness versus light and, ultimately, the triumph of love. Through one girl’s transformative journey led by three celestial guides, we discover that strength comes from embracing one’s individuality, and that the best way to triumph over fear is to travel by one’s own light.

The Final Year

The Final Year gives a look at the inner workings of the Obama administration as they prepare to establish a legacy upon leaving office after eight years. The film revolves around Obama’s foreign policy team: Secretary of State John Kerry, US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, Deputy National Security Adviser and presidential confidant Ben Rhodes, as well as National Security Adviser Susan Rice and President Obama himself. Over the course of 2016, they travel the world attempting to advance and solidify policies that they believe will define their legacy, promote diplomacy over large-scale military action, and fundamentally alter how the US government confronts questions of war and peace, as they prepare to hand over the machinery of American power to a new administration.

The Shanghai Job

Orlando Bloom reinvents himself as a formidable action hero in this slick, high-stakes thriller set in Shanghai, a film that mixes the heist capers of The Italian Job with impressive action set pieces and the fighting skills of Ip Man alumni thrown in.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a darkly comic drama from Academy Award-winning director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges). After months pass without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), the town’s revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing’s law enforcement is exacerbated.

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Avengers: Infinity War Trailer 

The first trailer for the biggest, most anticipated Marvel movie ever is finally here.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, and starring basically everyone, here's the trailer for Avengers: Infinity War.

Four months ago, Marvel showed fans at the D23 Expo and San Diego Comic-Con the first footage from this highly anticipated film, but didn't release the footage online. It drove people crazy, but now, finally, we have this trailer.

Infinity War is the beginning of the end for the first major story arc of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It will show the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin), who first appeared in 2012's The Avengers, attempting to complete the Infinity Gauntlet in order to take over the galaxy. Fighting back will be every Marvel hero we've seen so far, starting in 2008's Iron Man and going all the way up through the yet-to-be-released Black Panther.

Avengers: Infinity War opens 25 April 2018.

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As North Korea Tests Longer-Range ICBMs, Hawaii Reactivates Nuclear Warning System

It's been hard to ignore the ominous game of nuclear chicken currently ongoing between the totalitarian government of North Korea, which successfully tested an upgraded intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday morning local time, and the US, which is currently led by a belligerent lightweight with an extremely limited understanding of nuclear strategy. That goes double for the US state of Hawaii, one of the easier potential targets in a doomsday scenario, and which has begun renewed tests of its nuclear early-warning system.

Per the New York Times, Hawaii will resume tests of its Attack Warning Tone siren, a "wailing tone" that will play for "about 50 seconds on the first business day of every month, beginning on Dec. 1". A similar system is already tested on the same dates for hurricanes or tsunamis, the paper noted, but the nuclear alert system has been offline since the mid-1990s, after the end of the Cold War.

In the video below, Vern Miyagi of Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency instructs residents that upon hearing the tone, they should "take immediate shelter. Get inside, stay inside, stay tuned."

Though state officials insist that an actual attack on Hawaii is very unlikely, they have quietly begun preparations to determine the possible impact of an attack on the area, The Washington Post reported in September. Spoilers: It isn't great, with a high likelihood double-digit portions of the population would be killed immediately and advice for survivors largely limited to advice on stockpiling supplies and avoiding radioactive fallout. According to planning documents, "There are currently no designated shelters in the State of Hawaii at this time."

Lest anyone enter a full-blown panic, it's important to remember that similar drills were common throughout the US during the Cold War, which notably did not end in a nuclear Armageddon. Still, it's yet another disquieting sign of the progress of North Korea's nuclear arsenal.

The missile North Korea tested on Wednesday achieved an unprecedented altitude of 4500km and flew a distance of roughly 965km. North Korea bragged the new missile was capable of striking the mainland continental US - a troubling assessment backed by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which did note it remains likely the missile was not capable of carrying an actual warhead that far. While North Korea is likely exaggerating the capabilities of its missile systems for bargaining power, they have nonetheless caught up at a troubling pace.

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Watch These Daredevil Wingsuit Flyers Land In A Flying Plane

 

Because jumping off a mountain with just a pair of thin fabric wings underneath your arms isn't already dangerous enough, professional wingsuit flyers Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet decided to do that and then try and land inside an airborne plane, using a side door that was just a couple of metres from the aircraft's spinning propeller.

The pair, who call themselves the Soul Flyers, practised the stunt over 100 times before strapping cameras everywhere to capture the action and leaping off the Jungfrau mountain in Switzerland. But next time we recommend just meeting the pilot at the airport before takeoff like the rest of us do.

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SALVADOR DALÍ'S WEIRD BOOK ABOUT WINE IS THE BEST THING EVER

5 years after the release of his stunning surrealist cookbook 'After Les Diners de Gala' (1973), Salvador Dalí delved once again into the world of fine dinning and culinary oddities by unveiling a new book titled 'The Wines of Gala'.

It sets out to organise wines "according to the sensations they create in our very depths." Through eclectic metrics like production method, weight, and colour, the book presents wines of the world in such innovative, Dalíesque groupings as “Wines of Frivolity,” “Wines of the Impossible,” and “Wines of Light.”

Spanning 296 pages, it showcases Salvador Dalí's unmistakable passion for wine, it's history and the unique stories attached to each bottle. The book bursting with rich imagery as you'd expect. It's a heady blend of text, photos, paintings, sketches and illustrations that feature more than 140 artworks by Dalí.

Many of these are appropriated artworks, including various classical nudes, all of them reconstructed with suitably Surrealist, provocative touches, like Jean-François Millet’s The Angelus, one of Dalí’s favourite points of reference over the decades.

Dalí also included what is now considered one of the greatest works from his late “Nuclear Mystic” phase, The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955), which sets the iconic biblical scene in a translucent dodecahedron-shaped space before a Catalonian coastal landscape. Dalí was by this stage a devout Catholic, simultaneously captivated by science, optical illusion, and the atomic age.

The first section is dedicated to “Ten Divine Dalí Wines,” an overview of 10 important wine-growing regions, while the second develops Dalí’s revolutionary ordering of wine by emotional experience, instead of by geography or variety.

Rather than any prescriptive classification, it’s a flamboyant, free-flowing manifesto in favour of taste and feeling, as much a multi-sensory treat as a full-bodied document of Dalí’s late-stage oeuvre, in which the artist both reflected on formative influences and refined his own cultural legacy.

You can pick up a copy of The Wines of Gala right here - the wine however, is extra.

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PODMAKERS ESCAPE POD

Owners of homes both big and small can attest to the fact that it never hurts to have a little extra space. Whether you’re looking for another room for hosting guests, socializing, or working – the Escape Pod from Podmakers is a good fit.

This unique, Endorian space is designed to be easily modified. Depending on what it is the owner wants, the team at Podmakers can re-arrange both the interior setup and window configuration to make for a comfortable garden room, office, sleeping space, or studio. But more than just offering customization, this living space boasts a unique, attractive look that comes across as at-home in a green and wild space thanks to its cedar shingles and use of birch Plywood and European oak. $23K

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Bose Sleepbuds

Audio giants Bose are using crowdfunding website Indiegogo for developing an innovative product to end sleepless nights. The Bose Sleepbuds want to fix your snoring and deep sleep, they work by masking noise with soothing sounds preloaded on the built-in flash memory that facilitate sleep. For example, if your partner snores, it produces gentle audio to keep your brain relaxed so you can stay asleep. Using the Bose app, you can set smart alarms letting you wake up without your partner hearing the alarm sounds. They come with an Earpod-like charging case that will keep the buds charged when not in use.

 

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2019 CORVETTE ZR1 CONVERTIBLE

It's been 47 years since the top came down on a Corvette ZR1. Not since the original 1970 ZR1 has there been a convertible offering — until now. Chevrolet has unveiled the convertible version of the ZR1, which gives up nothing performance-wise to the coupe, including a top speed of over 200 MPH. While the performance is nearly identical, the ZR1 convertible comes with the added bonus of a lot of very fast wind in your hair.

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JIM BEAM SMART DECANTER

Add a touch of Kentucky charm to your drinking routine with the Jim Beam Smart Decanter. This tongue-in-cheek gadget is designed not just to store your liquor, but pour you a shot on demand. Its voice capabilities aren't limited to pouring drinks, as it also dispenses humorous bits of advice in the voice of 7th-generation Master Distiller Fred Noe. Even after its wireless connection expires, it will continue to work as a regular decanter as well as an interesting piece of bourbon memorabilia.

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TELEAVIA RETRO TV CONCEPT

Inspired by the classic Teleavia P111 tube set created by Citroën DS designer Flaminio Bertoni, this Teleavia Retro TV Concept is a dream come true for those tired of hanging boring rectangles on their walls. Its curvy design extends past the white exterior to the screen itself, with corner-hugging curves reminiscent of modern smartphones. A brown leather handle enhances portability, and a simplified remote completes the vintage-leaning package.