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

[MIKA27]

ISLE OF DOGS

Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, and Jeff Goldblum form a scary indestructible pack of alpha dogs in the latest from Wes Anderson. The stop-motion film sees a Japan 20 years in the future that has been overrun by dogs. In an attempt to solve this crisis, the evil Mayor Kobayashi has banished all K9s to Trash Island which leads a 12-year-old boy to the area in search of his furry friend, Spots. Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Courtney B. Vance, Fisher Stevens, Liev Schreiber, Bob Balaban, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, and Yoko Ono also lend their voices when the film comes to theaters March 23, 2018. 

[MIKA27]

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

Resting on a stone pedestal, the Observation Lounge offers an entertaining space above the treetops. A wooden spiral staircase leads you through the three-story tower. Among the levels are a natural oak and chiseled stone kitchen and a living area above. Local materials make up the rustic palette which is finished with a mix of custom furniture and family heirlooms. Encased in floor-to-ceiling windows, the main room is afforded sweeping views of the countryside.

[MIKA27]

First Trailer Unleashes Tom Hardy as the Twisted Antihero

Sony has released the first Venom trailer. Based off the Marvel Comics character, the film is directed by Zombieland and Gangster Squad filmmaker Ruben Fleischer and stars Tom Hardy as the eponymous antihero. Details on the plot have been scarce, and we don’t know how the movie will exist inside its own universe. We’ve been told that it’s disconnected from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but in the comics, Venom comes from Spider-Man.

For those who don’t know, in the comics, Spider-Man comes into contact with an alien symbiote. That symbiote gives him special powers like increased strength and unlimited web-fluid. However, it also causes increased aggression. When Spider-Man gets rid of the symbiote, it finds his rival Eddie Brock, latches onto him, and Brock becomes Venom, which is why Venom has Spider-Man’s powers and resembles a grotesque version of the webslinger.

All that being said, this movie could go in a completely different direction. It’s clear that Sony wants to find a way forward with all the characters from the Spider-Man universe even if they entered into a sharing agreement on the live-action Spider-Man with Marvel Studios. What that means for this Venom movie remains to be seen, but this teaser trailer offers only a mere taste of what’s in store. Indeed, we don’t even actually see the symbiote in action, which could be due to the fact that filming only just wrapped a few weeks ago. Still, it’s a bit disappoint to see the first trailer for the long-awaited Venom movie unleashed—only to get no actual Venom.

It’ll be interesting to see how the character is handled. Director Sam Raimi was famously forced to include the character in Spider-Man 3, portrayed by Topher Grace, and his lack of enthusiasm showed. A Venom movie could be pretty cool, but there are a lot of ways it could go wrong.

Scripted by Scott Rosenberg & Jeff Pinkner and Kelly Marcel and Will Beal, the film opens October 5th and also stars Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, and Reid Scott.

[MIKA27]

Joaquin Phoenix in Talks to Play The Joker in Standalone DC Movie

How’s this for a bit of superhero news: Three-time Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix is in talks to play The Joker in a standalone DC movie for Warner Bros. Yes indeed, Variety reports that the Inherent Vice star has entered talks to lead the untitled Joker origin movie co-written and directed by Todd Phillips, the filmmaker behind War Dogs and The Hangover trilogy. Per the trade, Phoenix was Phillips’ top choice to star and after thinking it over, the actor has agreed to the role. Although now studio negotiations must begin, so this is far from a done deal.

Indeed, talks fell apart with Phoenix’s last brush with the superhero genre. The actor was in extensive talks to lead Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange for director Scott Derrickson, but he ended up backing out over concerns about the extensive press requirements that come with signing on to a Marvel movie. Although given Phoenix’s caliber and the position Warner Bros. is in with its DC properties, one imagines concessions could definitely made for the press-shy actor as a stipulation of signing onto this project.

We first learned of Phillips’ Joker movie last year, when word broke that a new banner was being formed at Warner Bros. to created DC Comics adaptations that would exist outside the continuity of the DC Extended Universe. This is how Jared Leto can still reprise his role as The Joker in Suicide Squad 2 without infringing upon this project, and how Phillips is able to lure actors of Phoenix’s caliber. Since these movies aren’t necessarily made to be franchises but instead ambitious one-offs, Phoenix may not have to sign an extensive contract that ties him to franchise obligations for years on end.

Leonardo DiCaprio was the first actor approached for this role, but that casting didn’t work out. The take for this Joker origin story is a 1980s-set gritty crime drama, more in the vein of Taxi Driver than a superhero movie. The story will delve into “what it took for the Joker to become a mastermind criminal.”

While reports swirled that Martin Scorsese was in talks to produce this film, he’s not mentioned in Variety’s most recent story so one imagines that’s either still in the works or won’t be panning out. Regardless, Scott Silver working with Phillips as co-writer on what has now become one of the most interesting DC projects Warner Bros. currently has in the works.

[MIKA27]

Interstellar Asteroids Like 'Oumuamua Could Rewrite The Origins Of Life On Earth

Late last year, astronomers detected the first known interstellar asteroid, dubbed 'Oumuamua. New research suggests these exotic objects are more abundant than we thought, an observation that boosts the panspermia hypothesis - the idea that asteroids seeded life on Earth. At the same time, the presence of so many foreign objects in our Solar System could also change the way we search for extraterrestrial life.

The cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua (pronounced "oh-moo-ah-moo-ah" and meaning "a messenger from afar arriving first") may have caught astronomers off guard when it zipped through our Solar System last November, but they have been studying it at a fevered pitch ever since. Scientists are trying to understand where it came from and what it's made of and see if it can tell us anything about how planets form and what distant star systems might look like. Some scientists even speculated that 'Oumuamua might be a spaceship or some kind of probe, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Another important implication of the discovery is that it's challenging our notions of how common such interstellar objects are, both in the Milky Way galaxy and our Solar System. New research by Manasavi Lingam, a postdoc at the Harvard Institute for Theory and Computation, and Abraham Loeb, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, suggests our Solar System is acting like a celestial "fishing net," capturing these objects with surprising frequency. Their new study, which is currently being considered for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, suggests there may be as many as several thousand interstellar asteroids in our Solar System at this very moment.

Lingam and Loeb used a computer model to calculate the rate at which our Solar System has been able to capture objects like 'Oumuamua over time, using the gravitational strength of the Sun and Jupiter as the metaphorical fishing net (the so-called three-body interaction model). They did the same for another star system, the binary stars Alpha Centauri A and B, to compare the results and to get a sense of the conditions elsewhere (binaries are exceptionally common in our galaxy). The hypothetical frequency of interstellar objects was pulled from a recent study by researchers at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, who revised their estimates in the wake of 'Oumuamua.

Lingam and Loeb's model suggests thousands of interstellar objects are inside our Solar System at any given time, some potentially as large as a few dozen kilometers in size. In the case of Alpha Centauri A and B, this binary system has the potential to capture Earth-sized objects - meaning it could snatch rogue planets drifting through interstellar space.

The researchers also modelled the rate at which such interstellar objects may have collided with Earth - an important implication for the panspermia hypothesis. Or more specifically, the lithopanspermia hypothesis, whereby a chunk of material originating from a different planet, whether inside or outside the Solar System, delivers the seeds of life during a collision with another planet. These "seeds" could be bits of RNA/DNA, some kind of alien extremophile, or even just the organic, biochemical prerequisites required for life (a process known as pseudo-panspermia). Scientists aren't entirely sure if these seeds can survive the rigors of space, atmospheric entry, and the ensuing collision, but life and biological matter appear to be surprisingly durable and resilient (see here, here).

Incredibly, Lingam and Loeb's model showed that around 400 interstellar objects with a radius of 325 feet (100 meters), and around 10 objects nearly a kilometer in size, could have struck Earth prior to abiogenesis - the moment when life first emerged on our planet some 3.8 billion years ago. "Hence, this opens up the possibility that life could have been transferred to the Earth by means of lithopanspermia," conclude the authors in the study. The "seeding" of life could've happened in one of two ways, either through a direct impact with Earth, or by "glaciopanspermia" whereby an asteroid strikes another planet or planetesimal (e.g. Ceres) in our Solar System, and it spreads to Earth from there.

"The 'seeds' of life can be protected by means of shielding, for example by being buried deep inside the rock or ice," Lingam told Gizmodo. "There have been several laboratory studies that suggest interplanetary panspermia - even over 10 million-year timescales - may be feasible, and hence interstellar panspermia, which may involve billion-year timescales, could also be possible."

In addition to boosting the panspermia hypothesis, the new study also offers a new strategy for searching for extraterrestrial life. Instead of using our telescopes to scan planets in distant star systems, Lingam and Loeb say we should examine the interstellar objects captured by our Solar System.

"The presence of thousands of interstellar objects means that a third route is open to exploring objects outside the Solar system," said Lingam. The two other routes being the use of telescopes to study planets remotely (which is feasible) and sending interstellar probes (something we're not even close to doing). The third route - detecting and exploring interstellar asteroids within our Solar System - is also feasible with current technologies. And should we want to explore the millions of objects in our Solar System's outer Oort Cloud, we could construct a solar sail.

The trick, however, will be to tell which asteroids are native and which are foreign.

"The situation resembles a family dinner," Loeb told Gizmodo. "You sit down for dinner and look around the table and you assume that everyone is a member of the family. But occasionally you realise that there is a guest who is not related to the family. Then you can learn about the outside world by examining that person."

He says the simplest way to discern between the two is to examine the abundance ratio of Oxygen isotopes in the water vapour that produces cometary tails, which can be done through high-resolution spectroscopy. "After identifying a trapped interstellar object, we could launch a probe that will search on its surface for signatures of primitive life or artifacts of a technological civilisation," said Loeb.

The researchers added that it should be easier to detect smaller objects at closer distances using reflected sunlight, but that larger objects at greater distances could also be detected by scanning for their heat signatures.

Of course, there's lots we don't know about interstellar asteroids and how abundant they really are, whether on a galactic or local scale. The researchers are using an estimate to power their models, and scientists have only ever discovered one such object. We also don't know if panspermia is actually a thing, or whether such a process might actually work. Intense radiation in space could fry any RNA/DNA that may be hitching a ride aboard an asteroid, and any life-giving material could be destroyed on impact. What's more, we have no reason to believe that life didn't originate spontaneously on Earth.

But until we have definitive answers to all these questions, it's fair to speculate and explore the possibilities.

This paper is currently being considered for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, but a pre-print can be found at arXiv.

[MIKA27]

Russian Engineers Arrested For Using Nuclear Weapons Facility To Mine Cryptocurrency

Russian authorities say they have arrested several engineers employed at the the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics in Sarov, a top secret nuclear weapons facility, because they were involved in a cryptocurrency-mining scheme at work.

The tightly guarded nuclear facility is where the USSR's first nuclear bomb was built. According to the BBC, it has about 20,000 employees and one of the country's strongest supercomputers, which can run at one petaflop, or perform a quadrillion operations per second. That's ideal for running nuclear scientific calculations and simulations.

According to some Russian media reports, the employees tried to use the power of the supercomputer to mine cryptocurrency, and were detected when they attempted to connect the usually offline machine to the internet.

Mining is a way to amass cryptocoins without paying for them. But it requires massive amounts of computing power and energy. Recently it has become more difficult for small-scale miners to compete with major operations with mighty mining setups. And now those mining startups might also have to compete with nuclear facility supercomputers.

A spokesperson for the facility told Russian news agency Interfax that "there was an attempt to unauthorised use of office computing capacities for personal purposes, including for so-called mining".

Aside from the fact that this operation was happening in a government facility, it makes sense that Russia is cracking down on crypto-mining operations. After all, the country is on the brink of launching an official state cryptocurrency, which is likely a way for the government to manoeuvre around international sanctions.

[MIKA27]

We're Facing a Massive Global Tequila Shortage

Here's a shot of bad news: The world is facing a global tequila shortage, and we could be feeling the effects very soon.

Tequila producers in Jalisco, the heartland of Mexico's signature spirit, are struggling to deal with a lack of blue agave, the plant from which tequila is made. The 18 million blue agaves planted in 2011 and ready for harvest now come nowhere near the estimated 42 million needed to satisfy this year's demand, which 140 companies registered by the Tequila Regulatory Council are trying to meet.

In other words, we're drinking too damn much of the stuff. According to Reuters, agave prices have risen six-fold—from 3.8 pesos per kilo to 22—over the past two years, while demand from the United States and Japan has skyrocketed. (The United States alone is responsible for over 80 percent of Mexico's tequila exports.) And as prices have risen, so has theft—15,000 plants were estimated to have been stolen in 2017.

The industry is doing what it can to take corrective measures, but solving the problem won't be easy—or quick. Agave plants typically take seven to eight years to properly mature, which makes forecasting rises and falls in demand difficult, especially for smaller producers, who have begun looking into distilling other spirits, such as gin and vodka.

[MIKA27]

‘A House to Die In’ Is a Sculpture Someone Lives In

Leave it to the Norwegians to do something as crazy as creating a giant sculpture that doubles as a house. Dubbed “A House to Die In,” the project combines the work of Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard, the Selvaag brothers (Olav and Frederik) and Snøhetta all working together to build a private residence and atelier for Melgaard that’s also based on his work. In the seven years since the project started, the artists and architects have worked through ideas, drawings, 3D models and documents to eventually arrive at a structure with a triangular facade clad with black, burnt oak inspired by Japanese building traditions that sits on poles of white animal-shaped sculptures that really separate it from the landscape below. It’s art. It’s architecture. It’s design. It’s a desire to think outside the box when it comes to what’s possible and what a home should be. We can’t wait to see inside once it’s finished.

[MIKA27]

CRAFTER'S AROMATIC FLOWER GIN

The copper pot used to distill Crafters Aromatic Flower Gin has been hard at work for more than a century. And it's not only distilled this unique spirit, which employs 12 botanicals to round out the flavor profile, but it also inspired the copper-colored bottle that houses the Estonian-made gin. The liquid itself even takes on a gold color thanks to rose hip flower extract, and when presented in a cocktail its appearance is as attractive as its taste.

[MIKA27]

Boston Dynamics' Unsettling Robodog Can Now Escape Through (Unlocked) Doors

The first time we saw Boston Dynamics' SpotMini robo-dog in action, it used its gripping arm to help load a dishwasher. But after getting a fancy new yellow coat a few months ago, SpotMini has apparently since learned how to open doors, enabling the robot, and its comrades, to escape a life of servitude.

It's nice to see that Boston Dynamics has continued its ground-breaking robotics research after Alphabet (Google) sold the lab to Japan's Softbank last year, but why does every video it releases serve to make us more anxious about the future?

A giant robo-dog that helps out around the house sounds like a dream come true. But I can't imagine much good coming from one that can open the front door with a clever manipulation of its gripping arm and legs. While you're away at work, the worst a real dog will do is shred the toilet paper in the bathroom. Boston Dynamics' contraption, on the other hand, will probably let all of its little robo-friends in so they can hang out and plot humanity's demise.

 

[MIKA27]

Here's What It's Like To Be In The Cockpit Of An Indycar

It's not often that we get to see exactly what an Indycar driver sees when they're driving at over 322km/h. Fortunately, through the magic of the internet and a video by RACER, we can get a glimpse of what it's like to drive an Indycar.

This helmet cam footage was captured when Indycar driver Scott Dixon was testing the new windscreen safety equipment on his No. 9 Honda in Phoenix. While the windscreen test didn't involve them launching any frozen chickens at the screen like an episode of Mythbusters, it's still cool to live vicariously through a world champion race car driver.

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DRUNK RESEARCHERS BELIEVE THAT CRAFT BEER IS HEALTHIER THAN RED WINE

It’s time to find your closest hipster for high-fives all-round. The latest research from Associate Professor Mike McCullough of California’s Polytechnic State University has found that craft beer may well be the healthier option to red wine.

“We all know that a glass of red wine is good for you, but it turns outs a pint of craft beer is better, it has got more good things in it,” Professor McCullough explained to AAP.

These “good things” that McCullough refers to includes niacin or vitamin B3, and brewers yeast which is known to lower bad cholesterol. The science behind why it has to be craft beer and not just any old standard beer is because the latter is less pasteurised in mass production, according to Professor McCullough.

“Your instances of heart disease and your instances of type 2 diabetes decreases on an amount that’s comparable, if not a little bit more, than if you are drinking red wine.”

Professor McCullough went on to explain that craft beer often received a bad wrap when compared to the better known health benefits of drinking red wine (reduced risk of heart disease and dementia). This was down to the unhealthy lifestyle stigma that’s often attached to beer.

“You associate a beer drinker’s diet with nachos and unhealthy eating habits but the trend with more differentiated beer and higher-end beer is that you are eating it with meals,” said Professor McCullough.

Australia’s craft beer scene has exploded in recent years with small brewers keen to bring their own unique taste to the market. This has further fuelled fans of the movement who have driven the industry to an estimated value of $500 million a year in Australia alone.

[MIKA27]

TEELING WHISKEY 34-YEAR SINGLE MALT

A lot of things happened in 1983; the Redskins beat the Dolphins in the Super Bowl, Michael Jackson introduced the Moonwalk, and Teeling Whiskey’s 34-Year-Old Vintage Single Malt was distilled and casked in Ireland.

Only 38 bottles-worth of this stuff – the oldest ever single malt bottled in Ireland – was pulled from the ex-American oak bourbon barrels in which they were aged for north of three decades. Bottled at 40.9% (in glass produced by Glencairn, no less), the whiskey has what they describe as floral notes and layered flavors. Finding out for yourself will cost you, however, as the bottles are retailing for $5,000 each. Look for them in the fanciest of liquor stores starting March 1st.

[MIKA27]

Alp Racing & Design Made a Land Speed Racer Out of an Old Triumph Motorcycle

The pursuit of speed has driven many people to do innovative, bizarre, and potentially deadly things. So maybe it should come as no surprise that Alp Racing & Design took a Triumph motorcycle and transformed it into the rocket you see here. The L.A.-based outfit used a Triumph 650cc engine to start in its quest of 200 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. They took that engine and transformed it from a machine that produces 33 horsepower to one that registers more than 150. The build took more than 1,500 hours to complete, as Alp Sungurtekin and company made a custom cylinder head and hand formed the tubing for the frame. That doesn’t even touch on the engine, which is now fuel cooled and features a total loss oil system. Record or no record, this bike will look good bombing down the flats.

[MIKA27]

This Horror Movie Trailer Doesn't Even Need to Show the Monster to Be Terrifying

In the new trailer for Marrowbone, something is terrorizing four orphans in a creepy old house. Something—but we don't know what, because this first two-minute clip doesn't show what is lurking in the shadows.

We see the orphans played by Mia Goth, Charlie Heaton, George MacKay, and Matthew Stagg move into the house and befriend The Witch's Anya Taylor-Joy (who also starred in Split; maybe don't hang around Anya Taylor-Joy?) when a bunch of unsettling stuff starts happening. What, exactly, is causing this? We don't know. Nor do we see why the orphans have started carrying around guns or hiding in attic forts or getting scared while playing Monopoly. There's something terrifying in the unknown, and this trailer builds the tension until all we see is a hand wrap around a door.

[MIKA27]

The First Teaser For Cobra Kai Features A Karate Kid Stand-Off 30 Years In The Making

If Daniel LaRusso had fought John Lawrence again, would it have been the same outcome? Would Daniel have triumphed over evil a second time? We may just find out later this year when Cobra Kai debuts on YouTube Red.

The first teaser trailer for the online series Cobra Kai is finally here. The show is set in modern times, decades after the events of The Karate Kid movies. Both Ralph Macchio and William Zabka are reprising their roles as Daniel and Johnny but, this time, their rivalry extends to their kids. Here's the first look.

 

[MIKA27]

Arnold Schwarzenegger Joins Michael Fassbender in the ‘Kung Fury’ Movie

If you missed it, that bananas 2015 viral video Kung Fury is getting a feature film adaptation, starring none other than Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender. That’s real, I didn’t make that up. And now, Kung Fury has signed on exactly the kind of actor you want to see in a 1980s nostalgia-fest, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The consummate 80s action star has signed on to join Fassbender and David Hasselhoff (who returns from a cameo in the short).

Original short director David Sandberg returns to helm the feature, and will also co-sar and produce under his Laser Unicorns banner. Riding high off the success of IT, David Katzenberg, Seth Grahame-Smith and Aaron Schmidt will also produce under their KatzSmith Productions banner, alongside Philip Westgren of B-Reel Films and Conor McCaughan. The Kung Fury short became a record-breaking Kickstarter hit and has since gained more than 40 million views worldwide.

The feature is a sequel to that short film, starring Fassbender as “the greatest damn cop of all time”, Kung Fury, who has assembled the police force known as “Theundercops” to defeat Adolf Hitler — until a mysterious villain arises to aid Hitler’s quest for the ultimate weapon, sending Kung Fury on a journey through space and time itself. Cameras are expected to roll this summer.

Here’s the official synopsis:

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“It’s 1985, the best year ever. Miami is kept safe under the watchful eye of Kung Fury, the greatest damn cop of all time. Kung Fury’s Thundercops are the ultimate police force assembled from across history to defeat the villainous Kung Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. After the tragic death of a Thundercop causes the group to disband, a mysterious villain emerges from the shadows to aid in the Fuhrer’s quest to attain the ultimate weapon. Kung Fury must travel space and time itself to save his friends, defend the prestigious Miami Kung Fu Academy, and defeat evil once and for all.”

[MIKA27]

BRABUS SHADOW 800 BOAT

Looking good while cruising the lake is pretty much the goal for most weekend motor boaters, and there are others that take their seafaring swagger to the next level. For those boisterous boaters, German luxury auto manufacturer Brabus has teamed up with Finnish boat house Axopar to turn out the Shadow 800, a high performance, ultra luxury hyper-boat.

Being made in a short run of only 20 units, in part due to the high end nature of the materials the boat is made from, the Shadow 800 is based on the 37 Sun Top offshore cruising boat already produced by Axopar, the fastest growing boat brand in Europe. Capable of holding 10 adults, the twin Mercury Verado 400R motors kick down 400 hp for a max speed of over 50 knots, getting your party into gear with no hesitation. The deck is trimmed in carbon fiber, Brabus’ fine leather, and in the double berth cabin below, the entertainment system’s 42-inch flat screen is connected to Apple TV, ensuring you never miss any of your favorites while out on the high seas. $494,000.00

 

[MIKA27]

NASA Opportunity Rover Just Experienced Its 5000th Martian Dawn

Saturday, February 17 marked the 5000th local day (sol) of operations for NASA's Mars Opportunity rover, which was originally designed to last for just 90 sols after its January 2004 landing date, but has instead continued to set milestones like completing a marathon-length tour of its surroundings and taking huge composite photos of its new world's surface.

Now some 45km from its original, NASA-trash-covered landing site, Opportunity continues to provide a wealth of scientific data about Mars, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a blog post:

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A Martian "sol" lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, and a Martian year lasts nearly two Earth years. Opportunity's Sol 1 was landing day, Jan. 25, 2004 (that's in Universal Time; it was Jan. 24 in California). The prime mission was planned to last 90 sols. NASA did not expect the rover to survive through a Martian winter. Sol 5,000 will begin early Friday, Universal Time, with the 4,999th dawn a few hours later. Opportunity has worked actively right through the lowest-energy months of its eighth Martian winter.

According to JPL, Opportunity has now taken over 225,000 photos, including a recent selfie NASA posted on Friday.

Teen Life: Now 14-year-old Opportunity celebrates 5,000 sols on Mars with first full #selfie.
 These frames from the Microscopic Imager at the end of the rover's robotic arm were used to create the photomontage

It's also drilled into Martian rocks and repeatedly turned up evidence that the planet's surface once harbored liquid water.

While its twin rover, Spirit, sent its last transmission in 2010 after getting stuck in sand and losing power, Opportunity has been able to continuously recharge thanks to Marian winds which clear dust from its solar panels. It has at times experienced significant downtime like 19 weeks stuck in a single spot, space.com reported, or another occasion it got stuck in a sand dune.

Opportunity's NASA controllers have to periodically re-orient the rover to get better exposure to sunlight.

Per NASA, Spirit and Opportunity's onboard instruments included four spectrometers and rock abrasion tools, which helped provide huge amounts of information about the composition of Mars' surface and its weather patterns:

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With data from the rovers, mission scientists have reconstructed an ancient past when Mars was awash in water. Spirit and Opportunity each found evidence for past wet conditions that possibly could have supported microbial life. Opportunity's study of "Eagle" and "Endurance" craters revealed evidence for past inter-dune playa lakes that evaporated to form sulfate-rich sands. The sands were reworked by water and wind, solidified into rock, and soaked by groundwater.

While Spirit's initial travels in Gusev Crater revealed a more basaltic setting, after reaching the "Columbia Hills" the rover found a variety of rocks indicating that early Mars was characterised by impacts, explosive volcanism, and subsurface water. Unusual-looking bright patches of soil turned out to be extremely salty and affected by past water. At "Home Plate," a circular feature in the "Inner Basin" of the "Columbia Hills," Spirit discovered finely layered rocks that are as geologically compelling as those found by Opportunity.

 

Both models were major improvements on their predecessors, Popular Science noted. In 1997, NASA's Pathfinder mission arrived on Mars, but its Sojourner rover broke down after just three months and carried a relative dearth of useful scientific tools. The United Kingdom's Beagle 2 lander was lost in 2003 upon arrival, likely after failing to fully deploy solar arrays that blocked its transmitters.

The most recent NASA craft to roam the Red Planet, the Curiosity rover, uses a small radioisotope thermoelectric generator as its power source and has currently spent just over 1960 sols on Mars.

 

 

[MIKA27]

STRONGWATER OLD FASHIONED SYRUP

You could buy all the ingredients needed to make an Old Fashioned, and then work to perfect your own. Or you could count on three years of tastings, and let Strongwater Old Fashioned Syrup do the work for you. This carefully-selected blend of organic demerara sugar, orange peel, cherries, and bitter herbs mixes perfectly with your favorite bourbon, requiring only a 1/2 oz. to 2 oz. ratio.

[MIKA27]

THE SEXTON IRISH WHISKEY

An eye-catching bottle with a taste to match. That's one way to sum up the newest Single Malt from Ireland called The Sexton. The whiskey was inspired by a long tradition of distilling on the North Coast of Ireland and is crafted by one of the only female blenders in the country. It's made "old-school" using only three ingredients: Irish barley, water, and yeast. After being triple distilled in copper pot stills, it's aged for four years in Oloroso Sherry butts and bottled in this hexagonal black bottle that is a worthy addition to any bar.

[Fuzz]

3 hours ago, MIKA27 said:

NASA Opportunity Rover Just Experienced Its 5000th Martian Dawn

 

 

 

[MIKA27]

Indonesia's Mount Sinabung Volcano Erupted Yesterday And The Photos Are Spooky As Hell

The photos and video emerging from the Indonesian island of Sumatra right now are absolutely terrifying. Thankfully, no one has been hurt, but the smoke and ash bubbling from Mount Sinabung after an eruption yesterday is like watching some kind of mythical monster slowing taking over the sky.

The volcano was dormant for over 400 years before awaking from its slumber in 2010 and killing two people. It killed another 16 people in 2014, and seven people lost their lives to the volcano in 2016. No one has been reported dead or injured from yesterday's eruption.

According to Discover magazine, yesterday's eruption of Mount Sinabung was probably its biggest blast yet - at least vertically. But thankfully, it's unlikely that we'll see any impact on the climate from this explosion.

From Erik Klemetti at Discover:

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Even with the relative size of the eruption, there is no chance this causes any climate impact. The initial estimates of sulphur released are too low to cause much atmosphere effects and the height of the plume wasn't tall enough to reach the stratosphere. Current estimates of the ash plume are between 5-7 kilometers, so between 16,000-20,000 feet (down from the initial guesses of over 50,000 feet).

We even had GIFs of what the volcano looks like from space.

As Reuters reports, flight advisories have been issued for as far south as Darwin in the northern tip of Australia. The ash is covering everything in sight, again creating surreal images that seem more appropriate for mythical stories than the real world.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesperson for Indonesia's Disaster Agency, has been tweeting images from the island, including this handful of small rocks that came raining down and crops covered in volcanic dust, like the plants above.

If you're in the area, authorities have advised that people should stay at least 6km away from the volcano. Keep you and yours safe out there, friends. The power of a volcano is obviously no joke.

[MIKA27]

CASAMIGOS MEZCAL

Less than a year after purchasing the young tequila brand Casamigos, British liquor giant Diageo is extending their new imprint’s line to include something a little different; Casamigos Mezcal.

Made in Matatlan, Mexico from espadin agaves, this liquor features a smooth, smoked taste that’s easy to drink and has notes of tropical fruit. According to the brand, the agaves used to make this 40% ABV spirit are first split and cooked in an earthen pit for six days, and then cooled for a full day before being fermented for another eight. After being distilled twice in copper pots, they stabilize for about a month and are added with mountain sprint water. This Mezcal, the first of its kind from the brand after being bought from founders Rande Gerber, George Clooney, and Mike Meldman for $1 Billion in July of 2017, is recommended to be enjoyed at room temperature and drunk from special clay pot bowls called Copitas.

[MIKA27]

Jeff Bezos Begins Installation Of His Bonkers 10,000 Year Clock

Depending on the day, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is either the richest or second richest human on Earth. And while he's trying to figure out how to use some of that money philanthropically, he announced today that construction has begun on the giant clock in the middle of nowhere that he put up $US42 million ($53 million) to build. The 10,000 Year Clock is intended as a symbolic reminder that we should consider the long-term impact of our actions.

This morning, Bezos tweeted a neat little timelapse video of the clock being assembled in a remote mountain in West Texas. Though Bezos' money and resources bring attention to the project, it's actually the long-held dream of computer theorist Danny Hillis and the Long Now Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to inspiring projects and ideas that take extremely long-term cultural development into account.

Bezos' contribution to the 10,000 Year Clock consists of his substantial financial donation and supplying the mountain location where it's being built. In 2011, he wrote on a website dedicated to the project, "as I see it, humans are now technologically advanced enough that we can create not only extraordinary wonders but also civilisation-scale problems." This idea leads him to believe that "we're likely to need more long-term thinking." For now, that long-term thinking is going into a 150m cavern that a team drilled into a mountain that Bezos owns.

Once workers finish their task of assembling the gears, dials, levers and pendulums that will make the clock run, it will only tick forward once a year. According to the plans, the clock's chime generator will deliver a unique sequence of bell ringing every 24 hours. From there, the really long-term mechanics come into play.

Five "room-sized anniversary chambers" will each contain a different mechanical animation. The one-year anniversary chamber will feature a model of our solar system, including interplanetary probes that were launched in the 20th century. At the same time each year, that chamber will come alive and run through its animation. Bezos, Hillis and the team plan to also create an anniversary animation for the 10-year cycle, but its subject hasn't been determined yet. The remaining chambers will be triggered on the 100-, 1000- and 10,000-year anniversaries, and their contents will be decided by future generations. And once every millennium, a cuckoo will pop out of its hole, only to return to its lonely holding cell for another thousand years.

"In the year 4000, you'll go see this clock and you'll wonder, 'Why on Earth did they build this,'" Bezos told Wired in 2011. Many people will probably ask that same question in a shorter time frame. Obviously, $US42 million ($53 million) could do a lot of good in the here and now. But it's hard to argue about the value of a truly magnificent piece of engineering, executed at jaw-dropping scale, for little reason other than to inspire people. The pyramids probably seemed like a pretty big waste of time and energy back in the day. People still argue over what the hell Stonehenge is all about - maybe that was the point. Let's face it, pretty much every momentous structure and wonder from history has been created at the whim of one or a few powerful megalomaniacs.

The public will purportedly be able to visit the Clock of the Long Now when it's completed (no completion date has been announced), but Bezos warns the trip will take a "commitment". He writes on the clock's website that "the nearest airport is several hours away by car, and the foot trail to the Clock is rugged, rising almost 2000 feet [610m] above the valley floor". If you have a pair of hiking boots, you know where to find Jeff on the clock's anniversary, every year.