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

[MIKA27]

MISFIT COMMAND HYBRID SMARTWATCH

Building on lessons learned making its prior smartwatches, the Phase and the Vapor, the Misfit Command Hybrid Smartwatch keeps an analog design but doesn't skimp on features. It tracks steps, calories burned, distance, and sleep duration, and can provide customized notifications for calls, texts, emails, and other apps using a dedicated subdial. Automatically time and date updates, second-time-zone keeping, and the ability to act as a Bluetooth remote are also included. Its 44mm stainless steel case is water-resistant to 50 meters and comes in four colors with complementary dials. $150+

 

[MIKA27]

KENTUCKY OWL RYE WHISKEY

The Kentucky Owl brand was born all the way back in 1879 and brought back to life in 2014. Since then, they've released seven batches of award-winning bourbon. To follow up on that success, Kentucky Owl unveiled this rye whiskey, and it's a fitting extension of their barrel proof whiskeys. The rye spent 11 years in barrels before being blended and bottled at 110.6 proof.

[Fuzz]

On 11/29/2017 at 1:32 PM, MIKA27 said:

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

 

And that's why I took chemistry classes in uni, despite doing a BSc in physics and electronics.... to learn how to make napalm/explosives for just these instances.

[MIKA27]

16 hours ago, Fuzz said:

And that's why I took chemistry classes in uni, despite doing a BSc in physics and electronics.... to learn how to make napalm/explosives for just these instances.

Well youre certainly not Tony Stark

[Fuzz]

7 minutes ago, MIKA27 said:

Well youre certainly not Tony Stark

But I do have his heart...

[MIKA27]

26 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

But I do have his heart...

....why am I not surprised! 

[MIKA27]

For The First Time In Decades, A Drug For Migraines Shows Promise

A new drug, called Erenumab, has shown promise in preventing migraine attacks, the intense headaches that chronically plague millions of adults each year.

Erenumab is a lab-made antibody that works by blocking a neural pathway called CGRP. Data from a recent phase three reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine found that it cut the number of "migraine days" experienced each month by 1000 patients to between three and four. In half of those patients, the length that the migraines lasted were reduced by at least half.

Migraines are an extremely common ailment, and recent estimates suggest they affect about one in seven adults annually. They're a significant public health problem, contributing every year to many outpatient doctors visits as well as visits to the ER.

The phase three trial compared patients taking erenumab for six months with others given a placebo. By months four to six, there was at least a 50 per cent reduction in the mean number of migraine days per month for about 43 per cent of patients injected under the skin with a 70mg dose of erenumab each month. With a doubled dose, half of patients saw similar results. More than a quarter of those on the placebo, though, also experienced benefits.

Placebo effects are common in studies related to pain, including migraines. Whether the drug ultimately passes muster with the FDA will depend on whether the agency views the benefits as robust enough, and in enough people. Either way, though, the drug points to an important avenue of research to explore for a terrible condition that impacts millions each year.

MIKA: I really hope this works! I get migraines often so this would be bliss!

[MIKA27]

George R.R. Martin Confirms Syfy Is Adapting Nightflyers 

Rumours have been circulating for months that Syfy would be producing an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's horror novella Nightflyers. However, apart from a pilot script and some star wishing, everything was relatively up in the air. Now Martin has confirmed that Nightflyers is coming to television with a 10-episode first season

Martin shared on his Livejournal that Syfy is getting ready to start production on the first season of Nightflyers, with plans to hopefully have the series debut late July 2018 on Syfy, and with Netflix in charge of international distribution. They're currently casting actors for the series - Martin shared that the casting choices have "pleased me more than I can possibly say", but wouldn't share who's been hired or considered.

He also said he didn't actually know that Syfy had acquired the television rights to the new series, via a 1984 movie deal, until last year and was "baffled as to how they hoped to get a series out of my story". Set in Martin's "Thousand Worlds" universe, the sci-fi novella, about a ship heading to meet an alien only for things to go horribly wrong, is pretty short and almost everyone dies in the end. However, Martin said he's talked to showrunner Daniel Cerone (Constantine, The Blacklist) and writer/creator Jeff Buhler (The Midnight Meat Train), getting an idea of what they have in mind, and he also got a chance to read the original pilot script.

"I read a draft of his pilot back in May, when I first heard of the Nightflyers television project. While it departs considerably from my novella in certain details, the essence of the story remains the same - and I thought the teleplay was quite strong on its own terms, and a good launching point for a series," Martin wrote.

He added that he hopes to make it to Ireland to see production for both Nightflyers and the final season of Game of Thrones, but that he'll probably be too busy - not writing the next book, most likely.

[MIKA27]

Where Did The Term 'Desktop Computer' Come From?

Everybody knows that computers were huge and unwieldy in the middle of the 20th century. But a lot of the tech terminology that we take for granted today had to be invented at some point. Such is the case with the term "desktop computer", which emerged long before "personal computers" became commonplace in homes.

You probably never think about it here in the 21st century, but the term desktop computer, which is recorded as early as 1958, entered the wider technical lexicon in the mid-'60s as computers transitioned from devices that would fill up an entire room to those that could fit on a desk.

The November 1966 issue of Computers and Automation magazine had a great article that not only explored these futuristic "desk top" computers, but also looked at the other advances that were revolutionising computer technology at the time.

The section in the article on super-storage and super-retrieval will be particularly interesting for those of us who only think of storage in 21st century terms. When storage consisted of tape, it wasn't too difficult to store information. But what about when it came time to find what you were looking for? It wasn't so easy with tapes.

We're spoiled by storage devices such as USB drives that you plug in and just drag and click. But then again, every generation is a bit more spoiled technologically than the one that came before it.

Some excerpts from the November 1966 issue of Computers and Automation:

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Once upon a time, not too long ago, the status of computer companies was determined by how many square feet of space their equipment occupied and how many tons of air conditioning it needed. The "almost block long" computers were undisputed kings. A little later, computers with the highest transistor count were considered the ultimate in sophistication.

This is no longer true. As the art and the applications progress, such "sophistication" becomes increasingly unnecessary.

Now it is considered fashionable to call one's computer "desk top" - although often a very special "desk" has to slip underneath or by its side to support it physically and electronically.

 

And there's the truly amusing part. Even as the computer was evolving into something that could fit on a desk, there were still plenty of adjustments that needed to be made for it to fit.

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Desk-Top Computers

A great many desk-top computers have made their appearance during 1965-66. A prime advertising point has been that they are fast and noiseless compared with their mechanical predecessors. In some models this is the only advantage.

Many manufacturers, however, have provided some additional, significant advantages:

1. The ability to store many numbers.

(It is difficult to store more than a few numbers in a mechanical desk top computer.)

2. The ability to accept machine inputs and produce machine outputs; that is, outputs that can be used again as inputs either in part or in total.

Punched tapes, punched cards, or special inserts are the most commonly used machine input/output media. Even though relatively slow, they are flexible, compatible, and economical; they expand greatly the memory and programming capacity of the small computer and provide a vital key for the future increase of small computers.

Automatic input and output are very important even for small computers, because the time for manual keying for input and manual reading and transferring of output largely over- shadows the time for computing. Also this kind of manual work is very unsuitable for the human brain, which here is famous for the quantity of its errors.

 

If you talk to someone who worked in computing in the 1970s they will tell you about bringing enormous stacks of punch cards to feed into a computer. These days it's hard to imagine that doing such a thing was considered the easy and "automatic" alternative.

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Time-Sharing, 1966

This was a year when more was heard about time-sharing than about any other single computer subject. But great joy and acceptance has yet to come from the users rather than from advertising departments.

In some cases a central data processor is decidedly the right solution because of the centralised nature of the problem. However, in most cases the logistics of using a remote computer, together with the extra cost and complexity of programming and data communications, make the universal acceptance of time-sharing less than a foregone conclusion.

Where local computational ability is required, the small computer will be the answer because it has no problem of data communications. Also it is devoid of the logistics problems of having to share a central facility.

 

As I mentioned earlier, the idea of being able to store information fairly easily but having difficulty retrieving it is a fascinating one in the history of computers. The article addresses this issue and perhaps causes us to reflect on the ways in which we still struggle with information retrieval here in the 21st century. Sometimes those struggles aren't strictly from a technical standpoint, given the relative ease with which we can quickly copy a file from a drive. The difficulty here in 2017 more often comes with finding the information you're looking for among documents that may not be machine readable yet, such as a scanned document with type that hasn't been put through OCR software.

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Super-Storage and Super-Retrieval

Most of the advances in information handling in the past decade have been in the application, cost, and reliability of information transformation. The ability to store has changed relatively little.

Super-storage has always been available, but not super-retrieval. Huge amounts of information can be stored on tape or, for that matter, in printed form; but accessibility has so far been somewhat inversely proportional to storage capacity.

In spite of many efforts for improvement, information retrieval remains a great technical and conceptual roadblock in information technology. The solution to the popularly- called "information explosion" is severely hampered by lack of retrieval technology and by a basic lack of definition and understanding of what information is and what it is not.

 

When computers started to become mainstream in business circles as large hulking machines, there were instances when companies bought the things but had no real use for them. Maybe that's just the nature capitalism, but it was a very real issue worth addressing when not everyone was sold on this whole computer revolution.

The article from 1966 explains this difficult situation, noting that people might brag about having a computer as it sat in the corner doing nothing:

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Large Computer, Small Computer, No Computer?

Voices of disenchantment have been raised in the last few months. For the first time, it has become fashionable to throw the computer out and replace it again with a "personal touch." "Our attempts to utilise electronic data processing in billing our accounts have been unsuccessful, it has caused us to become too mechanical in our handling of our subscribers," writes an answering service to its subscribers. This is in sharp contrast to previous habits of bragging about the computer standing in the corner, even though it had barely been un-packed.

Many of these problems have been caused by overselling large general purpose computers to customers who had only limited, special problems; and the customers then got entangled in endless programming efforts rather than in solving their problems.

To be sure, for very dissatisfied customer of electronic data processing there are ten satisfied ones. There are 'even some who could no longer operate without electronic data processing. Nevertheless, it is in the interest of everyone concerned with the industry to avoid dissatisfied customers, and to consider "when not to use a computer."

 

Another thing we take for granted here in the 21st century is the modern keyboard. But that was yet another thing that had to be invented and then become adopted by the wider computer community.

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The Computerised Typewriter

The day of the "computerised typewriter" is coming. In the past, typewriter-like devices have been used for various odds and ends on the periphery of computer systems. The next few years will see a reverse trend. Typewriter-like devices, which have computing, memorising, selecting and processing capabilities will make the, computerised typewriter compete in popularity with the present electric typewriter.

Technically, there may be nothing new. Practically, the computerised typewriter may mean a change as huge as the success of desk-top copying machines - even though the technical capacity to make copies had existed for many decades.

 

Again, it's fascinating to read about the emergence of the "computerised typewriter" in 1966, a time when plenty of people saw things such as the light pen as a useful input device that was more than likely going to take over the future.

We take so much for granted when it comes to technology today. Even a term like the "internet" is so ingrained in us that we can forget it had to be coined, competing with other potential monikers such as "the catenet". But no technology is simply born. People have to build it and name it and develop it. And as was the case with the desktop computer, people had to decide that they wanted to keep calling it that.

[MIKA27]

World's Deepest-Living Fish Found 8 Kilometres Beneath The Sea Surface

The oceans's deepest point is Challenger Deep, a chasm almost 11,000m below the surface. Few fish species can stand this dark, hostile environment - but scientists have identified one that flourishes.

Meet the Mariana snailfish or Pseudoliparis swirei, the deepest fish species collected from the ocean floor. Scientists netted samples from 7966m at the deepest, but their video spotted some as deep as 8098m - and recently, a Japanese team spotted one at 8178m. That's real deep.

There's been talk about a new species living this deep since a 2014 visit to the trench. But now, this slimy boogerboy has an official name.

The fish has a fleshy coloured body with transparent skin through which its organs and muscles are visible. Some bigger ones have dark spots on their heads. Scientists at the University of Hawaii, Newcastle University and the University of Washington spotted it on several research trips from 2014 to 2017, pulling up 37 specimens on a mission using the R/V Falkor research vessel. The fish is named for Herbert Swire, HMS Challenger officer credited with discovering the Mariana Trench.

The fish may look fairly fetal, but they're the top predator down in the trench where there's little competition to feed on the invertebrates, according to a University of Washington statement. They team published the paper announcing the discovery yesterday in the journal Zootaxa.

It's not a surprise that this slippery snailfish lives so deep - snailfish do occasionally get caught on film down there including similar species like Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis. DNA analysis determined that P. swirei was a different species all along.

Nice to meet you, Mariana snailfish. Have fun down there.

 

[MIKA27]

THIS URBAN TREEHOUSE IN ITALY IS A DREAM COME TRUE FOR ECO-CONSCIOUS GROWNUPS

25 Verde is a treehouse apartment building located in Turin, Italy. Covered in local plant life and unique private terraces, the building combines child-like whimsy with sustainable energy solutions.

Designed by Luciano Pia, the five-story building is an urban oasis featuring 150 trees and 50 courtyard plants which, combined, produces 150,000 liters of oxygen each hour. In addition to producing fresh air, the trees also reduce fine dust created by cars and help to naturally regulate the temperature inside the building.

The building houses 63 apartment units and each one comes with two private, irregular terraces. Of course, the plants and creative construction make this apartment building aesthetically beautiful – but the main goal here is energy efficiency.

With that in mind, Pia equipped the building with a heating and cooling system which runs on groundwater, a rainwater recovery system, and ventilation systems to regulate the building's climate.

 

[MIKA27]

2018 Jeep Wrangler 

Here it his folks, the new 2018 Jeep Wrangler range! The 2018 Jeep Wrangler sports the same iconic boxy build, round headlights, seven-slot grill crown, and square tail lights as Wranglers in the past, but now gets a bold new take on a classic look. With innovative new features, new levels of finish and interior enhancements, combined with rugged purposeful details, the new Wrangler range looks gorgeous. The new 2018 Wranglers now feature new lightweight aluminum bodies, new engine and powertrain options, and dozens of door, top, and windshield combos available to choose from, so you can customize and choose the perfect Wrangler for you.     

[MIKA27]

Kardia Band

Make your Apple Watch even smarter with the new Kardia Band by AliveCor. The strap aims to bring you professional level EKG to your home and at the tip of your fingers, much like AliveCor´s existing KardiaMobile device. Easily detect atrial fibrillation early on and prevent a potential heart attack or stroke which, as we all know, are one of the main causes of death or incapacity. Along with the fingertip electrode tracker you also get the mandatory app that will analyze, interpret and record all of your heart’s monitoring and then transmit it to your physician. Its accuracy is at a very high level (98%). No more need for long, exhausting, and most of the times inconclusive trips to the doctor, with this device you’re in control and get relevant data to share with your doctor. It´s really easy to use and will present you the immediate, trustworthy results.

 

[MIKA27]

COACHMAN HOTEL

First built in the 1960s, Lake Tahoe's Coachman Hotel has been transformed into a modern mountain retreat. The 42 guestrooms now offer both queen and king configurations and feature plywood bathrooms and curated minibars. The lobby houses a bar and cafe, serving beer, wine, and Stumptown coffee. Located within walking distance to Lakeside Beach and Heavenly Gondola, you can spend your day on the slopes or by the water, and then finish it off with complimentary s'mores around the firepit.

[MIKA27]

RADO HYPERCHROME 1616 WATCH

First introduced in the late 60s, the updated model features a 46mm high-tech ceramic case with a square shape that is true to the original. It's powered by an ETA automatic movement, has an impressive 80-hour power reserve, and is water resistant up to 100m. The 1616 also has a unique dual-tone day-date display window placed in a vertical position rather than the typical horizontal placement at 3 o'clock. $2,700

[MIKA27]

2019 MERCEDES-BENZ CLS

The originator of the four-door coupe has gotten an extensive makeover for 2018. The Mercedes-Benz CLS's exterior features a smoother design and rear tail lights that better fit the current Mercedes design language, while the new straight-six gets a bump in power and torque over the previous model. A new 48-volt electrical system can add 21 extra hp and 184 extra lb-ft of torque for short bursts. Expect the new CLS to arrive in Fall of 2018.

[MIKA27]

How Castle Rock Unites the Stephen King Universe

Showrunner Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason explain how Hulu's Castle Rock connects different corners of the Stephen King universe.

It's not often that we hear about a horror show as ambitious as Hulu's Castle Rock, a series set in one of Stephen King's most iconic fictional Maine towns. Castle Rock is the setting of four major King novels, not to mention quite a few short stories and novellas. And that's not even counting the number of references to the town sprinkled throughout the rest of King's work of over 50 novels and almost 200 short stories. 

You see, the King universe has always been a place of interconnections, whether it's through recurring characters, monsters, themes, or the handful of small towns the writer has doomed for all of eternity with horrors unimaginable. Castle Rock is one of those haunted places and the centerpoint of Hulu's new anthology series, which will tell a new story every season, all set in the infamous town.

But the goal of the show isn't just to tell an original story set in Castle Rock - a story which we know very little about besides the fact that it stars Andre Holland (Moonlight) as a lawyer named Henry Deaver and Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men) as a real estate agent in the most haunted town in America - but to connect all the different corners of the Stephen King universe, from Castle Rock and Derry, Maine to the Overlook Hotel in Sidewinder, Colorado. The show incorporates elements from many of King's most famous stories while making allusions to others.

According to showrunners Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason, whom I spoke to at New York Comic Con back in October, the point is to make Castle Rock feel like part of a living, breathing horror universe.

"What we loved about Stephen King is that there are these surprising interconnections and easter eggs and setups and payoffs and crossover characters," Shaw says. "We felt like it would be really exciting to set a show in [Castle Rock] and to use it as an opportunity to explore and interpret the Stephen King library for TV in a slightly different way. Which is to say, not take one book and retell The Shining for television, but to try to adapt Stephen King almost as a genre onto himself. He is so insanely prolific that you can do that. But also there are themes and ideas that sort of recur, you know? He's a writer who really returns to the scene of the crimes."

King has spent more than 40 years turning his home state of Maine into a terrifying no man's land. Among his most famous fictional locations are Castle Rock, best known as the setting of Cujo and The Dark Half; Derry, where his epic tome of a horror novel It takes place; and Jerusalem's Lot, which has been infested with bloodthirsty vampires since 1975. So why did the showrunners choose Castle Rock specifically? One reason might be that, while the stories set in Derry and Jerusalem's Lot lean more heavily on the supernatural, those that take place in Castle Rock seem to focus more on the townspeople themselves.

Cujo is about a mother trying to protect her son from a rabid dog, while The Dark Half is about a writer suffering from a horrific case of multiple personality disorder. Even slightly more supernatural yarns, such as Needful Things, have to do with the character's desires as opposed to a creepy monster - although the Devil does make an appearance.

To Shaw, telling a story in Castle Rock, which he describes as "the worst luck town in the world," seemed like the perfect way to dive deeper into the King canon.

"I mean, it's been visited by two serial killers, a homicidal rabid dog, a demonic truck, the devil hung out there for a while, and there are a handful of haunted houses," Shaw explains. You start to think, 'Who the fuck has stayed in this town? Why does the town still exist?' And that was a really provocative question for us too, and it seemed interesting."

The way that Shaw and Thomason describe Castle Rock, everything about the show, down to the way they present the story on the screen, should scream Stephen King. They hope that the show will even make nods at the great King adaptations that have come before.

"[Castle Rock] sort of becomes an avenue to explore this town of horror and interpret the Stephen King aesthetic on TV in a way we hope harkens back to [Brian] De Palma and [David] Cronenberg and [Stanley] Kubrick and that heyday of great filmmakers doing psychological horror fare that's based on King's books."

I asked Shaw and Thomason about the process of collecting all of the easter eggs and references for the show, and whether they had a story bible. They told me that it really just came down to the years they spent consuming novel after novel as fans, as well as doing "homework" by re-reading the books while developing the show.  

"As fans and readers of it, we've been kind of mentally amassing it for quite a while," Thomason says. "But we've actually looked at some amazing maps that literally detail every interconnection between the books."

If you've never seen what these fan-made maps to the connections in the King universe look like, behold:

As you can see, Shaw and Thomason had a lot to work with when crafting the first season, and have enough material to last them several years should the show prove to be a success. The showrunners promise Castle Rock is chock-full of these interconnections. 

The show even reintroduces a character from the books: Alan Pangborn, the town's former sheriff who presided over the events of Needful Things and The Dark Half. Pangborn will be played by Scott Glenn (Daredevil). Shaw and Thomason decided to include Pangborn in their story in order to give the town a lived in quality and to connect the show directly to the books. Pangborn making an appearance on this show means that there's history in this town, and Shaw and Thomason hint that there are other characters who are traumatized by all of the messed up things that have gone on in the town's past.

Pangborn isn't the only way the showrunners are nodding at past King stories, though. Some of the cast members themselves serve as callbacks to previous King movies, such as Sissy Spacek, who played Carrie White all the back in the 1976 De Palma movie, and Bill Skarsgard, who terrified audiences earlier this year as Pennywise the Clown in It. Lynskey herself had a role in the TV miniseries Rose Red. 

The biggest and most direct callback to King's work? Shawshank State Penitentiary. 

"Shawshank Prison plays a huge, significant role in this first season, and that was a cool thing for us, too!" Shaw reveals. Skarsgard's character, whose name hasn't been unveiled yet, seems to be an inmate at the famous prison, although that's not been confirmed, either.

Thomason shares that one of the most interesting aspects of developing the show was imagining what Shawshank would look like set in the modern day. 

"The original conceit of the show was that we were going to set this first season in contemporary America so that we could really embrace this question of what is Castle Rock after all these horrors have been visited on it and what does a place like Shawshank look like in 2017?"

The prison first appeared in the King novella, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," which was adapted into the 1994 Academy Award-nominated film by director Frank Darabont. The Shawshank Redemption remains one of the greatest King adaptations of all time, second perhaps only to Kubrick's The Shining. It's safe to say that Shaw and Thomason have some pretty big shoes to fill with their modern version of the prison. 

There's no doubt that eagle-eyed Constant Readers (as hardcore King fans are often called) will be picking apart every little detail of the prison, making sure its consistent with the story they know and love. In fact, it's hard to imagine that the show won't be polarizing among the myriad of King fans around the world. As one of the most popular writers on the planet, King's books are precious things - and not to be trifled with. Just look at the lashing The Dark Tower received from angry fans last August.

That said, Shaw and Thomason assure that Castle Rock isn't only for the hardcore King fan, though. The showrunners hope that the story they're telling will also bring in more casual fans who haven't spent too much time in the King universe before. 

"Part of the hope was to tell a story that is seeded with easter eggs and crossovers and surprises that I think will reward the most encyclopedic, PhD-level King super wonk," Shaw says. "But also, there are some surprise guest appearances and turns in the storytelling that I think anybody who's just seen a couple of the classic movies will also feel excited about, too."

The showrunners were very tight-lipped about who those guests may be, but perhaps one of them could be King himself? After all, he has a knack for appearing in adaptations of his own work. If you've not seen King in George A. Romero's Creepshow, I seriously suggest you stop what you're doing and find "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill" ASAP. It would also make sense for King to appear in Castle Rock considering that he made himself a character in his own universe in The Dark Tower novels. There's a metafictional aspect of the canon Shaw and Thomason might be interested in exploring down the line...

Ultimately, it's this kind of attention to detail and willingness to celebrate what's come before that makes Castle Rock such an intriguing project. There has never been a King adaptation quite like this one, which is attempting to unite all of the different aspects that make the horror master's work so great. Even The Dark Tower, a movie that actually connects all corners of the King universe under one tale, couldn't quite succeed at being a fun experience on top of all the references and easter eggs. Perhaps Castle Rock can succeed where its predecessor failed. I just pray that this isn't another one of Leland Gaunt's tricks.

Castle Rock will arrive on Hulu in 2018.

[MIKA27]

The First Trailer For The Batman Ninja Anime Is A Gloriously Brutal Work Of Art

While the mere concept of Warner Bros. Japan's upcoming Batman Ninja anime is fantastic enough, it's the film's gorgeous visuals that really turn it into a truly unique, compelling work of art. Character designer Takashi Okazaki has reimagined Gotham's heroes and villains as avant garde fashion statements inspired by Medieval Japan.

Batman Ninja is the story of how Batman, the Bat Family, and a number of Gotham's criminals are transported through time and space back to Medieval Japan, where they become embroiled in a local power struggle. Director Jumpei Mizusaki has described Batman Ninja as a film meant to show the world how Japan sees Batman and not one about how Batman (and Bruce Wayne) see Japan. Judging by the trailer, Japan sees a badarse side of Batman that's like nothing we've ever seen before.

Batman Ninja hits stores on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2018.

 

[MIKA27]

‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Trailer Teaser Finds Chris Pratt on the Run

Universal Pictures has released the official trailer teaser for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the sequel to the $1.6 billion grossing “rebootquel” Jurassic World. Filmmaker J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls, The Impossible) steps into the director’s chair this time around as Jurassic World helmer Colin Trevorrow moved on to developing Star Wars: Episode IX (a film he ultimately exited). Trevorrow is still mighty involved here, though, as he co-wrote the screenplay with Jurassic World co-writer Derek Connolly and served as an executive producer.

The story finds Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard’s characters returning to the fold after the fallout of Jurassic World, encountering brand new dinosaurs that offer even more terror than before.

The full trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is set to hit this coming Thursday, December 7th, so this 15-second trailer teaser is more of an announcement than anything. But we do see Pratt’s character on the run not only from dinosaurs, but also what looks to be an erupting volcano. The sequence appears to take place on the same island as Jurassic World given the dilapidated gyroscope, so one wonders if this story finds Pratt and Howard’s characters returning to Isla Nublar once again. I suppose we’ll find out on Thursday.

The sequel also stars James Cromwell, Ted Levine, Justice Smith, Geraldine Chaplin, Daniella Pineda, Toby Jones, Rafe Spall, BD Wong, and Jeff Goldblum. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens in theaters on June 22, 2018.

[MIKA27]

Barbara Custom Motorcycles Triumph E ‘Black Matter’

If you’re not familiar with Barbara Custom Motorcycles, imagine a bike builder who traveled back in time to reimagine the bikes of today as the bikes of tomorrow. We’ve shared a few of these renderings before and we simply can’t get enough of the company’s work. That’s why we’re bringing you one of their more recent builds that caught our eye, the Triumph E Black Matter. Eschewing the classic, proper look of a Triumph motorcycle in favor of something more menacing and futuristic, Barbara Custom Motorcycles went with a sloping frame that gives the impression of speed. Speed this bike will no doubt have in spades. As always, there’s not much info, but looking at the pics is enough for us.

[MIKA27]

BOWMORE 1966 50 YEARS OLD SCOTCH WHISKY

In 1966, Bowmore bottled the first batch of their Single Malt Scotch. More than 50 years later, only one cask of that vintage remains. The rare bottling is packaged in a handmade crystal decanter with sterling silver adornments and housed in a handcrafted cabinet made from Scottish oak. The center of each cabinet has five hand-laid silver tree rings that depict the five decades the spirit spent aging. Only 74 bottles of this rare scotch exist, and a portion of those will be available in the U.S. this month. $30K

[MIKA27]

Quentin Tarantino Might Direct A Star Trek Movie 

No, it isn't April Fools' Day. Deadline is reporting that Quentin Tarantino - yes, that Quentin Tarantino - might direct a Star Trek movie.

Apparently Tarantino recently pitched an idea for a Trek movie to producer J.J. Abrams, who loved it, and they will soon begin to assembling a writer's room to flesh it out. If everything falls into place, Tarantino could be interested in directing with Abrams producing.

This isn't something that will be happening soon, though. Next up for the iconic director is his still-untitled 1969-set movie, which Sony Pictures just picked up. That already has a US release date of 9 August 2019, so there's no doubt that's next for him. That leaves almost two years of time for a script to get written that could woo Tarantino into doing several things he's never done before.

He's never directed a feature he didn't write. He's never done a sci-fi film. He's never done a major franchise film. If he does make this movie, it could potentially be his 10th movie, and he's famously said he would retire after 10 movies. Would he really go out with a Star Trek movie? And there are probably 15 other things that make this news that surprising.

Deadline was unable to get comment from Paramount or Tarantino's camp, and that's to be expected. Something this huge, this early, isn't regularly publicised. Plus, there's also no word on how, if at all, this would change the proposed fourth Trek movie which was reportedly going to bring back Chris Hemsworth as George Kirk.

But holy crap. Holy crap. Quentin Tarantino might direct a Star Trek movie. And even if he doesn't actually direct the movie, we still may actually see a Star Trek movie from the mind of Quentin Tarantino.

[MIKA27]

Marvel Is Making A Serial-Like Murder Mystery Podcast Starring Richard Armitage As Wolverine

You can't swing a severed arm laced with adamantium these days without hitting someone who has a new podcast. Everyone's gotten into the game these days and Marvel's Wolverine is no exception. Beginning next year, Marvel will launch The Long Night, its first scripted podcast styled after WBEZ's Serial. And it will star The Hobbit's Richard Armitage.

Today, Marvel announced they're partnering with Stitcher Audio to produce the scripted podcast writer Ben Percy described as a blend of programs such as Serial, S-Town, True Detective and Unforgiven. He said the show is meant specifically to pull audiences in as the characters slowly begin to piece together the elements of a larger mystery. Said Percy:

Quote

If you look at the success of Serial and S-Town, it has everything to do I think with their investigative formats, the way the listeners become complicit in the narrative. They're co-authors, they're literary detectives, because they're piecing together the clues alongside the reporters, and I wanted to take a similar approach to that.

So what's the actual story about? The Long Night will find two special agents investigating a series of gruesome murders taking place in Burns, a fictional Alaskan town. An amnesiac Wolverine (Armitage) is the agents' top suspect for the killings, but as they begin to dig into the town's mysteries, they soon learn that all isn't necessarily as it seems. According to Percy, The Long Night will borrow some narrative elements from popular murder mystery podcasts, but the story will also incorporate a number of themes more common to comic books to set itself apart. There will be murder, there will be cults, and there will be claws. Said Percy:

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I'm also drawing from the Native legends in the area and from cultish mythology. There is a compound set up outside of the town of Burns, Alaska, where the Aurora cult is located. And it's unclear at first whether they are implicated in the murders that are occurring here and whether they might have powers, as they purport to - a connection to and a control over the fabric of light that plays over the winter skies.

As it turns out, Armitage was in the studio working on this new project just a few days ago.

. @ParabolicNY Amazing to be in the studio this week, recording a new and innovative audio production. Press release Tuesday.

[MIKA27]

Secret Time Capsule Found Inside Jesus' Butt

While preserving an 18th century wooden statue of Jesus, a team of Spanish restorers was surprised to discover a time capsule hidden within the hollowed-out arse portion of the carving. Written by a Catholic chaplain, the detailed document contains economic, political and cultural information about the time period.

The Madrid-based Da Vinci Restauro team uncovered the two handwritten pages when detaching a removable portion of the statue's buttocks. Called "Cristo del Miserere", the wooden statue of Jesus belongs to the Church of Santa Águeda in Sotillo de la Ribera, Spain. The document was signed in 1777 by a Spanish Priest named Joaquín Mínguez, chaplain of the Cathedral of the Burgo de Osma.

As reported by the EFE Agency, historian Efrén Arroyo said that, "although it is usual for many sculptures to be hollow, it is not so much to find in his interior some documents written by hand." Arroyo, who's also a member of the Holy Week Brotherhood of Sotillo de la Ribera, suspects that Mínguez's intention was for the document to remain hidden for hundreds of years. To that end, the document serves as a kind of time capsule, making mention of the artist behind the statue and providing detailed information about the era.

The document honours the memory of the sculptor, Manuel Bal, who Mínguez describes as a "natural scholar of San Bernardo de Yagüe and neighbour in Campillo, both of this Bishopric of Osma". Bal carved five other statues, specifically the saints Águeda, Santiago, Millán, Jerónimo and Juan, according to the document.

Mínguez also cites various events of the time, and names the Aldermen of King Charles III (who reigned from 1759-1788). He makes mention of crops that were cultivated in the region, including harvests of wheat, rye, barley and oats. He made a special reference to wine from the Aranda region, saying "its harvest is very numerous for many years, so much that in this time it has been seen, for not taking in the cellars, spilling much wine". The chaplain describes common blights of the time, namely malaria and typhoid fever, while describing popular forms of entertainment, such "cards, ball, bald, bar and other puerile [i.e. silly] games".

The Da Vinci Restauro team has sent the original document to the the archives of the Archbishopric of Burgos, where other documents of the Parish Archives of Sotillo de la Ribera are kept. A copy of the documents were produced and placed back inside the statue in respect for Joaquín Mínguez's intentions.

[MIKA27]

2019 LAMBORGHINI URUS

It’s been awhile since Lamborghini rolled out with an SUV-like addition to their lineup. In fact, the last time the Italian supercar manufacturer tried such a thing was with the LM002 or the “Rambo Lambo,” that, unfortunately, wasn’t very well received at the time.

Well, it looks like Lamborghini took that experience to heart – made evident by the announcement of stunningly sleek 2019 Urus. Boasting smooth lines and an aggressive yet luxurious front fascia, what lies at the heart of this supersport SUV is a 4.0-liter twin turbo V8 with an output of 641 HP and 627 lb. ft of torque. Well beyond common powerplant specs for similar trims, expect the Urus to top out at over 189 mph in conjunction with six different driving modes for given terrain and weather conditions. The SUV also hits 62 mph in just 3.6 seconds, boasts a 4WD system with active torque vectoring along with four-wheel steering, carbon ceramic brakes and an adaptive air suspension. Slated to hit the market sometime next year.