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

[MIKA27]

The Police Of The Future Were Going To Soar Over Traffic To Save Lives

In the 1950s and 60s, Americans were fascinated by the idea of flying cars and jetpacks that would let people soar above the traffic. But it wasn’t just the average commuter who was supposed to benefit from these space-age technologies.

Emergency responders like police and ambulances were going to take to the skies to help save lives, like in this illustration from legendary retro-future artist Frank Tinsley.

Tinsley was a popular illustrator for periodicals in the 1950s and 60s, showing people of that era what could be in store by the 21st century. The illustration above appeared in the November 1958 issue of Mechanix Illustrated magazine and demonstrated how a futuristic patrol car might come to the rescue by hovering over the traffic that was snarled below.

The excellent old magazine blog Modern Mechanix has scans of this particular magazine spread featuring the “copter cops” of tomorrow.

From the magazine:

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TODAY’S high-speed turnpikes require ground-bound traffic police to take to the air and graduate to the status of “Copter Cops”, mounted in a vehicle that could speed safely above the car-choked roads and provide a bird’s eye view of driving conditions and dangers. Such a vehicle could go far beyond the utility of the present patrol car.

It could control traffic speed, clear jams at bottle-necks, perform emergency rescue work and provide fast aerial ambulance service, plus offering a more efficient pursuit of criminals.

MI’s paddy-wagon for Copter Cops is based on the Army’s specifications for a compact, high-lift aerial jeep. It takes the form of a stable “flying platform,” built around three ducted-fan units. Each of these is fitted with a pair of contra-rotating propellers spinning on a horizontal plane to drive a column of air downward. The force of this airstream provides the machine’s lift. Power is provided by twin gas turbines.

 

The “flying platform” that the article refers to was being tested by the U.S. military in the 1950s. The platform was strange and ultimately never saw the battlefield, but that didn’t stop popular illustrators like Tinsley from imagining how they might be modified for the future.

Again, from the magazine:

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The vehicle is designed to carry three policemen, the minimum crew for efficient patrol work. In the event of a wreck, as shown, it lands on the central safety island with one of the crew clearing a space by directions called through an electric “bull horn.” Upon landing, one of the men takes over traffic control while the other two place the injured on litters and lock them safely in place in the enclosed “Utter wells” on either side of the copter’s cabin.

The pilot then takes off for the nearest hospital, leaving his mates to superintend activities at the accident scene. Upon the patrol vehicle’s return, a cable is hooked to the wreck and it is dragged or lifted to a safe spot off the highway.

With its inflated pontoon rim, MI’s copter is capable of landing on land, water or in deep snow. A kit of emergency tools is carried and the crew is armed with rifles and sub-machine gun. Floodlights are set in the lower surface and a built-in loud speaker can be used to flag down an offending vehicle.

 

The world didn’t get its flying cars or jetpacks, at least not in the way that we imagined them 60 years ago. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying.

There are plenty of companies that insist flying cars are still just around the corner. But we’re not going to hold our breath. We’ve heard it all before. We’ll believe it when we see it being sold at the shop down the corner.

Until then, these copter cops are relegated to the future that never was. And it’s probably for the best. Have you seen what American cops are doing with the tools they already have? The last thing they need is more advanced technology.

[MIKA27]

A Renowned Art Detective Just Recovered A Stolen 1,600-Year-Old Mosaic

A sleuth famous in the art world for tracking down works of art thought to be lost or destroyed has delivered one of his greatest finds yet - a Byzantine-era mosaic of Saint Marks that was stolen from a Cyprus church after the Turkish invasion in 1974.

Arthur Brand is a Dutch art historian who moonlights as an investigator of art crimes. He’s reportedly recovered more than 200 works of art, according to CNN.

His findings range from Surrealist paintings to a copy of the Gospel of Judas to artwork stolen by Nazis.

In 2015, Brand retrieved two horse sculptures by Josef Thorak that stood outside of Adolph Hitler’s Reichstag building. According to the Independent, Brand reportedly used satellite images, archival documents, and military informants to figure out the location and authenticity of the sculptures, thought to have been lost in the Battle of Berlin. Then he reportedly created a fake Dallas-based art buyer persona to gather more information so that he could tip off German law enforcement.

For about the last three years he’s been hunting a 1,600-year-old mosaic that he returned last week to Cyprus.

According to Agence France-Presse, Brand first started looking for this mosaic when a London art dealer tipped him off that it was in Monaco. Brand told the outlet that he used several intermediaries — many in the underground art scene — to determine the apartment where the art was located.

Brand wrote on his website that the owner of the artwork (who wishes to remain anonymous) inherited it from his father, who allegedly did not know it was stolen when he bought it in the 1970s.

“It was in the possession of a British family, who bought the mosaic in good faith more than four decades ago,” Brand told AFP. “They were horrified when they found out that it was, in fact, a priceless art treasure, looted from the Kanakaria Church after the Turkish invasion.”

After the owner was contacted by Brand, they agreed to give it back to “to the people of Cyprus” in exchange for payment to cover the cost of storage and restoration.

Brand told AFP that finding the mosaic “was one of the greatest moments of my life.”

The mosaic is believed to be worth five to 10 million euros (between $8 million to $16 million), according to AFP. Brand returned it to the Embassy of Cyprus in the Netherlands on November 16. The piece made it to Cyprus two days later.

Brand believes this mosaic is one of the last artworks stolen from the Cyprus church in the invasion that had yet to be returned.

[MIKA27]

Good Luck Finding All The References In This Mega Movie Mashup

What would happen if over 100 heroes and villains from science fiction got together in a room and just went nuts? A new poster answers that question with one word: insanity.

The poster is called RAID 2: Incident on Line 13, and it's the second in a series by artists Josan Gonzalez and Laurie Greasley. You may even remember RAID 1, as we featured it on the site. For RAID 2, though, things have gotten even more manic, with a ton of awesome characters kicking the shit out of each other, all together in one beautiful print.

Check it out.

The issue here is: Can you name all the characters and references? Well, the artists have kindly provided this key to show you where each one is.

Unfortunately, we don't have the answers to that key, nor would we want to fill it in and ruin the fun. But if you think you have all 109 answers, visit this link to submit your answers and five people will be rewarded with a free copy of the poster.

Or, if you simply dig the art, you can grab this print by heading to the Hero Complex Gallery website. There's a timed screen print edition available through November 28, as well as a smaller run of giclée prints and a keyline variant. Plus, the gallery still has some some copies of the original poster as well.

[MIKA27]

Watch The First Teaser For Disney's Lion King Remake

We've heard barely anything about Jon Favreau's take on The Lion King since Disney announced its plans to add the beloved film to its long list of remakes, outside of some extremely exciting casting. But now, we finally have a look. And, unsurprisingly, the man who turned The Jungle Book into a visual feast has done the same here!

The trailer is light on things that aren't just gorgeous shots of immaculate looking CG creatures, but it captures the 1994 animated classic's iconic opening stunningly — and of course we get the legendary James Earl Jones reprising his role as Mufasa, talking to his young son Simba (played by JD McCrary as a cub, and Donald Glover as an adult) about the Pride Lands that will one day be his to rule.

The Lion King heads to theatres once more mid-2019.

[MIKA27]

Sexual Puns Found Decorating Ancient Ruins in Turkey

Mosaics on the floor of 1,800-year-old public toilets in a city on the southern coast of Turkey, reveal some amusing sexual puns that were all the rage in antiquity.

Thanksgiving is a time when people, thrown together into close quarters with their nearest and dearest, need a place to seek relief from the constant haranguing they receive from family members. And there’s no better place for that than the bathroom. Scrolling through one’s newsfeed while lodged between a basin and a wall is the perfect space to find refuge from the chaos and constant togetherness. We’re not the only ones who find light-hearted relief in the latrine: excavations in ancient Turkey recently revealed that dirty jokes were all the rage in the ancient bathroom.

Mosaics on the floor of 1,800-year-old public toilets in Antiochia ad Cragum, a city on the southern coast of Turkey, reveal some amusing sexual puns. The second-century Roman mosaics are based on ancient mythology and show Narcissus (from whom we get the term “narcissist”) preoccupied with his own penis. According to the myth, Narcissus, a beautiful young man, fell in love with his own reflection. In the latrine version Narcissus has a notably long nose (something ancient Romans didn’t consider beautiful), and when he gazes down into the water he is actually admiring his large penis rather than his nose.

In the second scene, Ganymede is having his genitals washed by a bird holding a sponge. According to Homer, Ganymede was the most beautiful mortal in the world. Zeus fell in love with him and kidnapped him to serve as cup-bearer among the immortals. In the mosaic Zeus is shown not as an eagle but a heron. Ganymede (who in ancient art is usually shown holding a stick and hoop) is holding a sponge known as a tersorium. This the same kind of sponge that, ordinarily, would have served, in the words of historian Stephen Nash, as a communal “toilet brush for your butt.” Heron-Zeus grasps a sponge in his beak and dabs at Ganymede’s penis. Michael Hoff, an archaeologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, told Live Science this month, “Instantly, anybody who would have seen that image would have seen the [visual] pun… Is it indicative of cleaning the genitals prior to a sex act or after a sex act? That's a question I cannot answer, and it might have been ambiguous then.” In either case the combination of sexual and scatological imagery in a bathroom context is highly suggestive.

The scientists who discovered the mosaics last summer told Live Science that they were stunned by the discovery. Hoff added that, while a certain literacy with ancient mythology is a prerequisite for understanding the mosaics, “bathroom humor is kind of universal as it turns out."

This kind of deeply sexualized artwork was common among ancient Greeks and Romans. Some of the gardens of houses in Pompeii were decorated with bronze tintinnabula (wind chimes) sculpted in the form of the penis. Sexual imagery was so prevalent in Pompeii that sexually explicit art and objects were kept—at the instructions of Francis I, King of Naples—in a special “Secret Cabinet” (Gabinetto Segreto) at the Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. But it wasn’t just Pompeii (which has a reputation for sexually licentious behaviour because so much of its artwork was preserved). To name just a few examples: wine cups often depict what we might call ‘pornographic scenes’; the deity Priapus is always shown with an oversized penis; and a statue of Pan engaged in sexual congress with a goat (to be fair to Pan he was half goat himself) was found in the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum.

Of course you don’t need mosaics to see a penis in an ancient Roman bathroom. Multi-seat bathrooms (known as foricae) have been found all over the Roman world: there is one in the Circus Maximus; one at Ostia Antica, the ancient port of Rome; another at Ephesus in Turkey; another in Timgad, Algeria; and another at the emperor Hadrian’s second-century villa in Tivoli, Italy. These bathrooms usually sat between eight and twenty people, so most people (men and women alike) would have been used to emptying their bladders and bowels in group settings, cheek-to-cheek. It was only the very wealthy, as Gemma Jansen has argued, who had enough money to guarantee any kind of expectation of privacy.

Of course, bathroom humor could go much further down market than elegantly crafted mosaics. Scatological and sexual graffiti adorned the walls of public bathrooms (and elsewhere) in the ancient world. One from Pompeii reads “Apollinaris, doctor to the emperor Titus, had a good crap (cacavit) here!” Another example of ancient bathroom grafitto reads “don’t shit here.” And these are the tamer examples (click here for the NSFW stuff).

The intriguing thing about the mosaics from Antioch ad Cragnum is that the sexualized jovial tone is by thoughtful design. Many ancient bathrooms were beautiful; with frescoes on the walls, sculptures in the corners and, sometimes, marble slabs for ‘toilet seats.’ Bathroom humor was a matter of taste and consideration.

[Fuzz]

On 11/15/2018 at 2:39 PM, MIKA27 said:

Stan Lee's Spider-Man PS4 Cameo Is So Quintessentially Stan Lee

Stan Lee loved a good cameo. The legendary comics icon, who died yesterday at 95, got to sneak into so many movies based on heroes he’d helped bring to life over the past two decades—and even into some based on ones he didn’t.

But maybe the one that best encapsulates Stan Lee as a creative is one of his most recent.

Lee’s movie cameos are, by and large, brief moments of levity. From “Tony Stank” in Captain America: Civil War to his senior flirting in Spider-Man: Homecoming, they exist to be a tiny knowing nod as you go “oh look, Stan Lee!” to yourself. Rarely are they actually rooted in the emotional context of the wider film story — perhaps only his appearance in Spider-Man 3 came close to that idea, in a moment poignantly shared across the internet yesterday as the news of his passing broke:

The recent PS4 game Marvel’s Spider-Man also features a Lee cameo (sure, it’s a game and not a movie, but it’d almost feel wrong without one) that is likewise ephemeral and fleeting. But taking a look back at the wider scene in the game it’s placed in, it is perhaps the perfect Stan Lee cameo — and in light of his passing, it becomes one of the most perfect tributes to Lee’s legacy as a creator who played a part in forging some of pop culture’s most marvellous icons.

 

What about Stan Lee's cameo in the DC animated film, "Teen Titans Go! To The Movies"?

 

[MIKA27]

ISS Footage Of Soyuz Rocket Launch Puts Hollywood Directors To Shame

In a video that looks like something a special effects shop would produce, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has captured one of the most remarkable views of a rocket launch we've ever seen.

This extraordinary timelapse shows the launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket that took flight on November 16, 2018 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A Progress MS-10 spacecraft filled with 2564kg worth of cargo sat atop the rocket, which is seen en route to the International Space Station.

The ISS is about 400km above the Earth's surface, and it moves at around 28,000km/h. Supply runs are launched after the ISS flies overhead, allowing the cargo craft to pursue and catch-up to the outpost in about two days, which in this case was November 18, 2018.

Armed with a camera, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst shot the video while inside the European-built Cupola module. The playback ranges between eight to 16 times normal speed, and it compresses 15 minutes of footage into a single minute.

In terms of notable moments, the Soyuz-FG rocket booster separation happens at the 7-second mark, followed by the core stage separation at 19 seconds. At 34 seconds, the core stage begins to burn in the atmosphere, returning to Earth after exhausting its fuel supply. Watching it burn on reentry is actually quite cool. After this stage, the Progress spacecraft separates from the rocket and enters an orbit in pursuit of the ISS.

Gerst's video offers a perspective of a rocket launch we're not typically used to, but it's yet another reminder of just how spectacular the view is from the ISS. As breathtaking as this video is, however, it probably pales in comparison to what it's like in person.

[MIKA27]

Gaze Upon The Reconstructed Face Of An Infamous 19th Century British Assassin

One of the most intriguing items on display at the Queen Mary Pathology Museum — the skull belonging to British assassin John Bellingham — has been used to create a digital reconstruction of the killer's face.

John Bellingham, a bankrupt and disgruntled businessman, shot British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the Palace of Westminster on May 11, 1812. Four days later, after being convicted of the crime, Bellingham was hanged. To this day, he's the only person to have successfully assassinated a British Prime Minister.

As was customary for someone accused of such an atrocious act, Bellingham's body was "anatomised," meaning his remains were studied by medical scientists. Eventually, his skull ended up at the Queen Mary Pathology Museum in London, England, where it's currently on display.

Digital facial reconstruction of John Bellingham, the only person to have successfully assassinated a British Prime Minister, which he did in 1812

The museum's curators recently decided to give an actual face to one of its most popular items. To that end, they recruited forensic artist Hew Morrison, who had previously reconstructed the face of a 3700-year-old Bronze Age woman dubbed Ava.

For the reconstruction, Morrison was given access to the skull, along with some historical information. Smartly, the museum contacted the living members of Bellingham's family for permission, which they granted.

"I found the skull to be rather unusual looking, with quite a bulbous cranium and noticeable asymmetry of the chin," said Morrison in a statement. "John Bellingham would have had a long, narrow, slightly downturned nose. This was apparent when I saw the skull as the nasal aperture was indeed quite significant in length with a downward nasal spine."

John Bellingham's skull. 

The skull also featured particularly large eye sockets, which explains the high position of Bellingham's eyebrows on the reconstruction. Because the top teeth are missing, Morrison had to estimate the thickness of the upper lips (a task that's typically done by measuring the height of the enamel of the front teeth).

Morrison decided to give Bellingham a neutral expression, and treat the facial reconstruction like any other. Despite "committing the crime that he was found guilty of and subsequently executed for, I did not feel the need to make him look bad or mean in any way," he said.

An engraving made of Bellingham at the time of his trial.

Factors other than a cranial analysis were also used for the reconstruction. Bellingham was in his forties when he was executed, and of British descent. Accordingly, Morrison used a modern database applicable to European males of the same age group, which included tissue depth markers, to estimate the thickness of the tissues overlying the skull.

An illustration of Bellingham made during his trial. 

Using computer software and a database of high-resolution photos of human faces, Morrison finalised the digital reconstruction, blending and combining elements together to create a believable, life-like portrait of the assassin. The colour of Bellingham's eyes and hair is not known, nor is his skin tone, so Morrison had to improvise those elements.

At the completion of the reconstruction, Bellingham was given a contemporary haircut, along with sideburns, which are evident in illustrations made of Bellingham. For added realism, he was adorned with an old-fashioned Jabot-type necktie and a dark woollen Crombie overcoat with the collar turned up.

It's difficult to know if this is exactly what Bellingham looked like. If you squint really hard, the reconstruction does bear a resemblance to some of the illustrations made of him. Admittedly, his face does look a bit... off, but that could be an artefact or limitation of the digital restoration. But as Morrison observed, the skull did have some distinguishing features; it's quite possible that Bellingham had a peculiar look to him.

Regardless, it's a fascinating exercise — one that transports us to another era and better connects us to people from this time period. Even if they were cold-hearted killers.

[MIKA27]

BAREBONES CAST IRON GRILL

Don’t be fooled by the name, this cast iron camping essential is so much more than your standard grill. In fact, thanks to its incredibly modular setup, this is a grill, wok, smoker, skillet, braiser, roaster, deep fryer, slow cooker, and a stock pot all rolled into one.

Yes, you read that correctly. Serving as your one-stop-shop for the camp kitchen, Barebones’ Cast Iron Grill is a dream for outdoor chefs on the go. Each compact piece comes equipped with a domed lid, grill grate, tripod stand, steel baking sheet, and coal tray that can be configured in a myriad of ways to suit any and all campfire cooking needs. The best part of all, each Cast Iron Grill packs down to a self-contained bundle for easy transport. Time to take weekends in the wild to the next level. Available now $78

 

[MIKA27]

NERA 3D-PRINTED ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE

Electric vehicles are no longer a thing of the future, and manufacturing processes are catching up to propulsion technology. Composite materials like carbon fiber can be found in many mass-produced cars, but construction is still based on the traditional assembly line. German 3D printing company BigRep has unveiled the Nera, an electric motorcycle that is completely — you guessed it — 3D-printed. Developed by BigRep's internal NOWlab, every part of the Nera, from the frame to the tubeless tires, is printed, minus only the electric drivetrain. Using fused filament fabrication, the Nera is designed to make the best use of the tech instead of relying on traditional motorcycle design. 3D-printed, airless tires, electric powertrain — the Nera is a harbinger of the future of transportation.

 

[Akela3rd]

BAREBONES CAST IRON GRILL

Don’t be fooled by the name, this cast iron camping essential is so much more than your standard grill. In fact, thanks to its incredibly modular setup, this is a grill, wok, smoker, skillet, braiser, roaster, deep fryer, slow cooker, and a stock pot all rolled into one.

Yes, you read that correctly. Serving as your one-stop-shop for the camp kitchen, Barebones’ Cast Iron Grill is a dream for outdoor chefs on the go. Each compact piece comes equipped with a domed lid, grill grate, tripod stand, steel baking sheet, and coal tray that can be configured in a myriad of ways to suit any and all campfire cooking needs. The best part of all, each Cast Iron Grill packs down to a self-contained bundle for easy transport. Time to take weekends in the wild to the next level. Available now $78

 

I've just had a look on their website and this item is listed at $120..? And I need one now. I didn't know I did, but I really really do!

 

Sent from my ActionMan walkie-talkie

 

 

 

[MIKA27]

3 hours ago, Akela3rd said:

I've just had a look on their website and this item is listed at $120..? And I need one now. I didn't know I did, but I really really do!

 

Sent from my ActionMan walkie-talkie

 

 

 

Sorry mate, Head over to Barebones website and Apply discount code HC35

Unsure how long that code will last.

Saying this, even if code ends, new subscribers to Barebones receive 20% off their first purchase so that's not a bad discount either.  

[MIKA27]

We Now Have The Technology To Build A Star Trek Shuttle

Planes that fly with no moving parts are now a reality. You might have seen them on Star Trek, gliding through space silently on ionic winds. MIT associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics Steven Barrett saw them when he was a kid. And now he's developed the ionic wind-powered plane of his childhood dreams.

Here it is in action:

It's the first time a plane has flown without any moving parts.

"In the long-term future, planes shouldn’t have propellers and turbines,” Barrett says. “They should be more like the shuttles in ‘Star Trek,’ that have just a blue glow and silently glide.”

What's powering it are these lines of wires strung across the front of the model:

"Ionic wind" is more generally known as "electroaerodynamic thrust" and it's actually based on a principle that was first identified in the 1920s.

It describes the wind, or thrust, that's produced when a current is passed between a thin and a thick electrode. If enough voltage is applied, the air in between the electrodes can produce enough thrust to propel a small aircraft.

But in practice, the reality of it has never progressed beyond hobbyists lifting small models, tethered to large voltage supplies, off their workbench.

Nine years ago on a sleepless night in a hotel, a jetlagged Barrett went to work on the back of an envelope to find a way to turn the theory into a viable propulsion system.

And just recently, in the gymnasium in MIT's duPont Athletic Center, they made a plane with a 5-metre wingspan fly 60 metres without the aid of any moving parts.

They repeated the flight 10 times, with the plane repeatedly producing enough thrust to sustain it over similar distances each time.

"This was the simplest possible plane we could design that could prove the concept that an ion plane could fly," Barrett says.

"It's still some way away from an aircraft that could perform a useful mission. It needs to be more efficient, fly for longer, and fly outside."

Ions, how do they work?

The power comes from a stack of lithium-polymer batteries in the fuselage.

But the key to making it work came from members of Professor David Perreault's Power Electronics Research Group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics

They designed a power supply that converted the batteries' output so they could supply electricity at 40,000 volts - enough to positively charge the wires via a lightweight power converter.

Here the technical explanation of what happens next, via MIT News:

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Once the wires are energized, they act to attract and strip away negatively charged electrons from the surrounding air molecules, like a giant magnet attracting iron filings. The air molecules that are left behind are newly ionized, and are in turn attracted to the negatively charged electrodes at the back of the plane.

As the newly formed cloud of ions flows toward the negatively charged wires, each ion collides millions of times with other air molecules, creating a thrust that propels the aircraft forward.

 

We've seen ion drives before. NASA has a system called HiPEP, and University of Sydney student Patrick “Paddy” Neumann has a system he wants to use to enable long voyages through space.

But neither of those have to fight gravity.

Barrett's team can now move on to trying to improve the efficiency of their design, to produce more ionic wind with less voltage.

"It took a long time to get here," Barrett says. "Going from the basic principle to something that actually flies was a long journey of characterising the physics, then coming up with the design and making it work.

"Now the possibilities for this kind of propulsion system are viable."

Here's more video of the test:

You read more about the results of the test in the journal Nature.

[MIKA27]

NASA's InSight Probe Just Touched Down On Mars -- Here's What's Next

Now that NASA’s InSight probe has successfully landed, you might wonder what’s next for it. Well, humanity’s latest probe to the Martian surface isn’t just interested in rocks and molecules. The InSight lander is interested in the Red Planet as a whole, including what’s happening deep beneath the surface.

The probe, which took a six-month journey beginning with a California launch, has delivered three new instruments to the surface of Mars. One will measure how heat flows out of the planet. Another will use the planet’s poles to study its core, and one will hunt for “Marsquakes.” It’s a look at Mars scientists have never had before.

“InSight is the first mission sent to look at the interior of Mars,” Tanya Harrison, Director of Research for the NewSpace Initiative, Arizona State University, told Gizmodo. “We have so many unanswered questions about its interior because we haven’t had a good look at it before.”

Mars and Earth are both rocky planets that seem to have had water in their history, but have evolved to become vastly different. InSight hopes to study how rocky planets form and evolve. It also seeks to understand how much tectonic activity Mars has—how actively things are moving on and below it surface.

When InSight arrives, its scientists will spend two to three months analysing its landing area to determine where to place two of these three instruments, SEIS or the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure and HP3 or the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe. A third experiment, the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment or RISE, sits on the lander itself and will monitor the position of Mars’ North Pole to determine how much the planet is wobbling. This can provide information on the planet’s core, including whether or not it’s liquid and whether it contains elements other than iron.

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a testbed that looks like a pile of gravel in a lab, complete with boulders and a full engineering model of InSight that they can recreate the landing site with. They will use this to practice placing SEIS and HP3. SEIS must sit on the planet’s surface beneath a wind and thermal shield to ensure its seismic measurements come only from the planet. HP3 will bury itself nearly 4.88m into the Martian crust to study heat leaving the planet. A robotic arm will deploy both.

Seismic activity could come from various sources, Kirsten Siebach, assistant professor in Rice University’s Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences told Gizmodo. Potential sources include meteor impacts, landslides, or motion beneath the surface. Observing the speed of the sound waves could help determine the composition inside the planet. Meanwhile, heat travelling from the interior of the planet could help inform scientists as to its composition. It might also determine whether there’s some subsurface liquid freezing and melting, said Harrison.

Of course, the amount of data that a lander can gather is limited, as it’s only sitting on one spot on Mars, and it will take some waiting before the mission reveals interesting information. Researchers may have to wait for an impact to generate sound waves to travel through the planet, for example.

Ultimately, these measurements won’t just inform scientists about Mars, but about rocky planets in general. Why, for instance, is Earth tectonically active but Mars isn’t? What about either planet’s composition allowed life to flourish and water to exist on one, but caused the water to disappear from the other?

“This is a whole new way to compare what’s happening on another planet to what we see on Earth,” said Siebach. “This will help us understand the formation and evolution of planets as a whole.”

[MIKA27]

Watch A First-Time Hang Glider Hang On For Dear Life After Realising He's Not Strapped In

If you’ve ever been on the fence about trying an extreme sport like hang gliding, this video will have you keeping your feet firmly planted on terra firma. On his first day of a holiday in Switzerland, YouTuber Gursk3 decided to try hang gliding, but the excursion didn’t go exactly as planned.

He was supposed to be safely tethered to the hang glider and just along for a leisurely ride while a skilled pilot steered the craft down a steep mountain. But shortly after takeoff, the pair realised that his harness hadn’t been connected to the glider at all, resulting in Gursk3 having to spend two minutes and 14 seconds desperately clinging to the craft while the pilot attempted to find a safe place to quickly land.

Complicating things further was the pilot trying to hold onto his passenger with one hand, while attempting to manoeuvre the hang glider with the other, resulting in an erratic descent that lasted a lot longer than both of them probably would have liked.

Farther down the mountain, the pilot does manage to eventually bring the hang glider in for a landing, but after his passenger was low enough to the ground to safely let go and fall. He lived to tell the tale (and share the heart-racing footage on YouTube) but ended up with a fragmented distal radius fracture on his wrist, which required surgery and a titanium plate to fix, and a torn left bicep muscle. Despite a terrifying vacation memory he’ll never forget, the passenger claims: “I will go hang gliding again as I did not get to enjoy my first flight.” Uh, good luck!

[MIKA27]

Gerard Butler, Gold, Greed, Murder in ‘The Vanishing’ First Trailer

We have to say, this first trailer for Saban Films The Vanishing looks really damn promising. Gerard Butler, Peter Mullan and Connor Swindells star as lighthouse keepers trying to hide the secret of a chest of gold, and it’s apparently based on a true story.

The Vanishing will hit select theaters and On Demand starting January 4th, 2019.

[MIKA27]

New ‘I Am the Night’ Trailer Has Chris Pine in a Twisty Noir Tale

TNT has released a new trailer for Patty Jenkins’ upcoming limited series I Am the Night. The six-episode drama hails from writer Sam Sheridan and stars Chris Pine as a former Marine-turned hack reporter who seeks redemption in uncovering the truth behind a Hollywood scandal that has ties to the Black Dahlia murderer. India Eisley plays Fauna Hodel, a woman who was given away by her teenage birth mother in 1949, and whose quest to uncover the secrets to her path leads her down a dark and dangerous road.

I’m getting a heavy L.A. Confidential vibe from this trailer, and I mean that as the highest praise. Jenkins looks like she’s given this noir a slick, uneasy vibe that’s still gorgeously photographed while retaining a modern look. Deep down, I know that this is going to fall on the pile of all the other great television I need to watch, but I do want to put it on the pile! The vibe here is very much my jam, and I’m a huge fan of James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia, so I’m curious to see Jenkins’ spin on the infamous Hollywood true crime. At the very least, the surreal visuals and disturbing imagery are a far cry from Wonder Woman.

Check out the I Am the Night trailer below. The series premieres on TNT on January 28, 2019.

[MIKA27]

Artemis Fowl's First Trailer Is Finally Here And It's Surprisingly Epic

If you happened to set foot in the YA lit section of a Borders Books (RIP) during the late ‘90s, then you undoubtedly came across one of those fantastic cardboard endcaps putting Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books and their loud covers on glorious display. “Read these books,” the displays shouted. “They’re gonna become movies someday.” That day is finally here.

The promise of an Artemis Fowl movie has been the stuff of YA legend mainly because the project’s been stuck in development hell almost as long as buzz about the project first started making the rounds years ago. For a time, it seemed as if the film might never come to fruition even after a cast was announced and Kenneth Branagh was attached to direct. But against all hope, Artemis Fowl is, in fact, coming to theatres and Disney announced the latest development by dropping an unexpected trailer in the middle of the night (for the U.S. at least).

It’s only a teaser trailer and doesn’t delve all that much into the specific story of how preteen, criminal billionaire Artemis (Ferdia Shaw) and his bodyguard Domovoi Butler (Nonso Anozie) set out to rob the hidden society of fairies who live in under the crust of the world. But at least a few of the teaser’s shots will remind anyone who read at least the first Artemis Fowl book of how weirdly epic the story was.

With Dame Judi Dench signed on to portray Commander Root, Josh Gash as Mulch Diggums, and Lara McDonnell as Captain Holly Short, the film’s cast is reason enough to keep an eye on Artemis Fowl ahead of its August 2019 release date. One has to wonder, though, whether this is a franchise that anybody—especially younger audiences—are still hyped for.

[Derboesekoenig]

11 hours ago, MIKA27 said:

Artemis Fowl's First Trailer Is Finally Here And It's Surprisingly Epic

If you happened to set foot in the YA lit section of a Borders Books (RIP) during the late ‘90s, then you undoubtedly came across one of those fantastic cardboard endcaps putting Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books and their loud covers on glorious display. “Read these books,” the displays shouted. “They’re gonna become movies someday.” That day is finally here.

The promise of an Artemis Fowl movie has been the stuff of YA legend mainly because the project’s been stuck in development hell almost as long as buzz about the project first started making the rounds years ago. For a time, it seemed as if the film might never come to fruition even after a cast was announced and Kenneth Branagh was attached to direct. But against all hope, Artemis Fowl is, in fact, coming to theatres and Disney announced the latest development by dropping an unexpected trailer in the middle of the night (for the U.S. at least).

It’s only a teaser trailer and doesn’t delve all that much into the specific story of how preteen, criminal billionaire Artemis (Ferdia Shaw) and his bodyguard Domovoi Butler (Nonso Anozie) set out to rob the hidden society of fairies who live in under the crust of the world. But at least a few of the teaser’s shots will remind anyone who read at least the first Artemis Fowl book of how weirdly epic the story was.

With Dame Judi Dench signed on to portray Commander Root, Josh Gash as Mulch Diggums, and Lara McDonnell as Captain Holly Short, the film’s cast is reason enough to keep an eye on Artemis Fowl ahead of its August 2019 release date. One has to wonder, though, whether this is a franchise that anybody—especially younger audiences—are still hyped for.

Wow I remember reading these books while in elementary and middle school. I think if done right, they can make a lot of money. Don't know if the books are even still popular, but the age range will be 20s-30s currently, for when they were popular. Interesting.

[MIKA27]

Marvel And Netflix Have Cancelled Daredevil

The show that kicked off Marvel and Netflix's ambitious series of interconnected superhero shows has come to an untimely end.

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Daredevil — which recently launched its third season to acclaim — has joined Iron Fist and Luke Cage in being cancelled by Netflix, as the streaming service begins to move on from its Marvel universe while Marvel Studios sets its sights on premium series for its parent company Disney's upcoming service, Disney+.

Here's a statement from Netflix, that promises while the series is over, Daredevil as a character will "live on in future projects for Marvel":

Quote

 

Marvel's Daredevil will not return for a fourth season on Netflix. We are tremendously proud of the show's last and final season and although it's painful for the fans, we feel it best to close this chapter on a high note.

We're thankful to our partners at Marvel, showrunner Erik Oleson, the show's writers, stellar crew and incredible cast including Charlie Cox as Daredevil himself, and we're grateful to the fans who have supported the show over the years. While the series on Netflix has ended, the three existing seasons will remain on the service for years to come, while the Daredevil character will live on in future projects for Marvel.

 

Just Jessica Jones and The Punisher remain as current shows from Marvel's initial deal with Netflix, but given the rapid decline in the relationship between the streaming giant and Marvel, just how long they will survive — a third season of Jessica Jones has entered production in June of this year, while The Punisher has only been greenlit for a second season with no further details — beyond their current commitments remains to be seen.

MIKA: It's such a shame when a strong show like Daredevil is canceled. 

[MIKA27]

NASA Names Private Companies That Will Help It Send Science Experiments To The Moon

NASA announced the names of companies who'd be able to bid on contracts for lunar exploration projects as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services at a press conference today.

Last year, the Trump administration signed Space Policy Directive 1, which authorised NASA to return humans to the surface of the Moon before people are sent onward to Mars. As part of that directive, companies can bid on contracts to develop services to deliver new lunar payloads, through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services.

Essentially, NASA's new Moon strategy will involve using private companies to build the stuff they send their experiments to the Moon on.

The companies announced today include Astrobotic Technology, Deep Space Systems, Draper, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin, Masten Space Systems, Moon Express, and Orbit Beyond. The contracts that the companies can bid on include launching and landing services and payload delivery systems.

NASA hopes that others will use these services as space travel becomes an endeavour accessible to private corporations.

Ultimately, these upcoming missions will help NASA gather data in order to prepare to send a lander with a person in it to the Martian surface.

The selected companies will compete on "cost and innovation," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said at the press conference today. The first missions could launch next year, as NASA only recently called for proposals for experiments to study the Moon.

This announcement and its press conference demonstrate the continuing shift in NASA's direction, driven by Space Policy Directive 1. This includes encouraging private investment where possible and shifting sights to lunar science, including the Gateway Lunar Orbital Platform and a human return to the Moon in the short term.

The companies will bid contracts worth a combined value of $US2.6 ($4) billion.

[MIKA27]

9 Charged In Plot To Steal Samsung's Most-Hyped Phone Technology

While the jury is still out on how practical bendy phone screens will be, the tech behind them is still one of the most lucrative trade secrets in the industry. So it probably doesn't come as a surprise to hear that the CEO of a Samsung supplier and eight employees have been charged by South Korean officials for trying to sell the flexible screen tech to a Chinese competitor.

According to Bloomberg, prosecutors say that after a recent dip in sales, the CEO of a Samsung supplier set up a fake company and built critical bendy screen components in a separate factory before selling the tech to a Chinese screen maker between May and August for 15.5 billion won (around 13.8 million dollars).

The components in question have been billed as "3D lamination" tech, which include things like bendable OLED panels, shock-absorbent films, and flexible adhesives that are used to create Samsung's Infinity Flex Display.

Chinese competitor.

According to Bloomberg, prosecutors say that after a recent dip in sales, the CEO of a Samsung supplier set up a fake company and built critical bendy screen components in a separate factory before selling the tech to a Chinese screen maker between May and August for 15.5 billion won (around 13.8 million dollars).

The components in question have been billed as "3D lamination" tech, which include things like bendable OLED panels, shock-absorbent films, and flexible adhesives that are used to create Samsung's Infinity Flex Display.

In the end, the whole scheme reportedly unravelled when the Samsung supplier was caught loading components onto a ship destined for mainland China. We may never know which Chinese manufacturer was trying to buy the tech, as the names of the companies and individuals in this case have not been disclosed.

Corporate espionage is nothing new, but situations such as this seem to be cropping up more frequently, as just recently an Apple engineer was charged with stealing documents related to autonomous driving and Chinese company Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. was charged with stealing DRAM tech from US-based Micron.

With the looming arrival of Samsung's first bendable-screen phone scheduled for sometime next year, this case may be the highest-profile example of the dastardly ways tech companies are trying to keep up with one another. And while Samsung may have stopped one company selling its secrets for now, it's only a matter of time before that knowledge gets out.

[MIKA27]

This Incredibly Rare Console From The 1980s Is Like The Switch's Great-Great-Great Grandparent

Without the internet instantly dispersing images to millions of people, it was probably a lot easier to keep video game prototypes under wraps in the ‘80s. Just a handful of photos backed up rumours about the possible existence of a miniature version of the ill-fated Vectrex console, but it’s a rumour no more now that the National Video game Museum in Frisco, Texas has managed to get its hands on that mythical prototype for its collection.

The Vectrex was part of the post-Atari video game boom that had almost every toy maker trying to get a console on the market, including Milton Bradley, which was better known for board games at the time. The Vectrex could render vector graphics on its own portrait-oriented screen (which used the same technology as oscilloscopes do) to bring arcade-quality gaming into the home. But it came with a steep price tag, close to $US500 ($683) in today’s funds, and arrived just in time to be one of the many victims of the 1983 video game crash.

Even with its built-in 9-by-11-inch screen, the Vectrex was by no means a cumbersome piece of hardware. Its controller even slotted into the front of the console so that the whole thing was easier to move around. But an article in the April 2003 issue of Edge magazine revealed the possible existence of a much smaller, shoebox-sized Vectrex console that a fan spotted on the president’s desk during a tour of the company in the early ‘80s.

Then, roughly eight years ago, someone claiming to be the son of someone who worked in the research and design division at Milton Bradley shared scanned vintage photos of the alleged mini Vectrex on Flickr. They looked real enough, but were far from definitive proof that the console actually existed, or even made it past the initial mock-up design phases.

A few weeks ago, however, the existence of the mini Vectrex console was confirmed by the National Video game Museum, which announced on Twitter that it had managed to secure the actual prototype for its collection. To confirm its authenticity, the museum even took the prototype apart and found much of the same circuitry as the Vectrex hardware that actually hit the market. The museum even shared a video of the travel-size mini Vectrex powering up, which, surprisingly, still works just fine.

With a carrying handle integrated into the top of the console, the mini version of the Vectrex was undoubtedly designed to be far more portable than the original hardware. But did it directly influence the creation of the Nintendo Switch, or even the Game Boy which arrived a few years after the Vectrex died? The prototype was a well-protected secret, but you might argue that hardware designers in the industry move from company to company, and secrets undoubtedly get shared.

While the mini Vectrex would have still required you to bring along a power cord wherever you went, as a kid I would have loved to bring this thing along on road trips, visits to grandmas, or basically anywhere my Switch now gets taken—pending available outlets, of course.

[MIKA27]

Blade Runner Is Getting An Anime Series

Remember the promo shorts before Blade Runner 2049 came out, and how one of them was a smashingly good anime from the maker of Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop? Well, a full Blade Runner anime series just got greenlit.

It'll be called Blade Runner - Black Lotus, and it'll be distributed exclusively by Adult Swim and Crunchyroll. Deadline is reporting that Shinichiro Watanabe - the same man behind the Black Out 2022 short and the aforementioned series - will be a creative producer on the project, while Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) will co-direct all of the 13 half-hour episodes.

The series will take place in 2032 while still featuring "some" characters from the Blade Runner movies. Deadline's report notes that Adult Swim will only be airing the English dubs through Toonami, meaning that Australians will likely need to go through Crunchyroll (either through their US library or locally, depending on when its made available) to enjoy more work like the above.

Bring it on.

[MIKA27]

The Japanese Whisky Shortage Won't Stop

Earlier this year, Suntory announced that it was pulling Hakushu 12 and Hibiki 17 off the market. Now the Kirin Distillery is yanking one of the best Japanese whisky deals from shelves: Kirin Sanroku Cask Aged Spirit.

According to Sankei News, the decision was made to pull the blended whisky due to spirit shortages. Kirin doesn’t have enough of the stuff to ensure a stable blend and has to pull the blend.

Kirin Sanroku is distilled at the Kirin Gotemba Distillery at the base of Mount Fuji, which was one of the distilleries I enjoyed visiting while writing my book Japanese Whisky.

Asahi reports that sales increased 14 per cent year on year, and Gotemba is distilling at full capacity. Kirin Whisky is even looking investing in a new distillery to increase production.

Kirin might have planned better for an increase in production because a couple years ago, it retired one of its pot stills to be part of a new distillery tour exhibit. I’m sure it could now make better use of it to produce spirit than as an exhibit piece!

Bottled at 50 per cent alcohol by volume, Sanroku always been a good deal, giving consumer more whisky bang for their buck, er yen.

The blended whisky, which is made from grain and malt spirit distilled and bottled on site, used to be priced under a 1,000 yen ($12.04). However, a few years back, Kirin released a slightly more expensive non-chill filtered version, meaning that more of the original distillate characteristics should carry over to the final blend.

(The good news is that the more expensive Fuji Sanroku Signature Blend, which launched in Japan this past August, will still be available. It’s 5,400 yen ($65). Get it while you can, I guess.)

The kit that Kirin has at its Gotemba Distillery allow it to craft a spirit that is reminiscent of bourbon. One of my favourite things about Sanroku is how its bourbon-like qualities are wrapped in lush, soft Japanese whisky. This was often a blend I would recommend to people who wanted to pick up a bottle as a souvenir while in the country because it’s cheap and readily available at supermarkets.

Make that, was.