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

[MIKA27]

SUNTORY AO WORLD WHISKY

While single malt spirits often get all the attention, we’re firm believers that blends are an art unto themselves, especially if they can tell an interesting story. And perhaps no story is more interesting than the one that brought Suntory’s Ao World Whisky to fruition.

Sourced from the brand’s distilleries in Scotland, Ireland, America, Canada, and Japan — Ao (Japanese for “blue”) is a blend named after the color of the world’s oceans, which serve to connect the five major whisky-making regions. And it’s the first time Suntory has taken up such an endeavor with this level of transparency, making this an important global effort helmed by one of the most respected whisky brands in the world. The spirit itself is said to boast a “complicated and rich” and “comfortably smoky” flavor profile, though little else has been revealed. Ao is set for a Japan-only release at roughly $50 a bottle.

 

[MIKA27]

New NASA Mission Will Look Back At Billions Of Years Of Cosmic History

A newly approved NASA mission, called SPHEREx, will use a space-based observatory to study the early conditions of the Universe and hunt for the celestial ingredients required for life.

Proposed in 2016, the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer mission, or SPHEREx for short, was chosen by NASA from eight other proposed missions because it “offered the best science potential and most feasible development plan,” in the words of the space agency. The orbital observatory will survey space in both visible and near-infrared light, providing a “treasure trove of unique data for astronomers,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in an agency statement.

The two-year, $340 million mission (excluding launch costs), could be up-and-running as early as 2023. Caltech astronomer James Bock will serve as the project’s principal investigator. Other partners for the project include NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, and Colorado’s Ball Aerospace.

SPHEREx will be used to analyse more than 300,000 galaxies, including ones as far as 10 billion light-years away. Accordingly, the observatory will peer back far into cosmological time, allowing astronomers to catch a glimpse of the early Universe. SPHEREx “will deliver an unprecedented galactic map containing ‘fingerprints’ from the first moments in the Universe’s history,” said Zurbuchen, adding that it’ll provide new clues to one of the greatest mysteries in science: “What made the Universe expand so quickly less than a nanosecond after the Big Bang?”

Astronomers will also use SPHEREx to study the millions of stars within the Milky Way galaxy, using it to search for the fundamental building blocks of life, such as water and organic molecules. Regions in which stars form from dense clouds of gas and dust will also be studied, along with protoplanetary disks, where planets form around young stars.

SPHEREx will complete surveys of space in six-month increments. This data will be used to create maps of the cosmos in 96 different colour bands—far more than previous efforts. The mission will also do some groundwork in preparation for future space telescopes, such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, by flagging candidate objects worthy of more detailed observations.

David Sobral, an astrophysicist at Lancaster University, said he’s “thrilled” that NASA is going ahead with SPHEREx, saying it’ll help astronomers in their continued quest to understand the origin of the Universe, galaxies, and even the origin of water in planetary systems.

“I think the fact that it will be surveying the entire sky, including long wavelengths, and also actually splitting the light in different wavelengths, will allow for some fantastic planned, but also likely many surprising, discoveries,” Sobral told Gizmodo.

“It’s not just about the hundreds of millions of galaxies that we will be able to study in detail, but also about the light from even fainter sources, some of them incredibly distant, which SPHEREx will be able to unveil and that will advance our understanding of the very early Universe.”

Sobral also appreciated the mission’s simplicity and careful design, which he said will “lead to fantastic science at very reduced costs.”

Personally, I love the fact that SPHEREx will provide four complete scans of visible space over the course of its two-year mission (at least). In addition to allowing for comparative analyses of the objects studied, the observatory will likely be used to corroborate data from other telescopes in the event of unexpected celestial phenomena, such as a supernova explosion.

This mission sounds exciting now, but we’ll truly appreciate the effort once the data starts trickling in—hopefully in as little as four years.

[MIKA27]

Famed WW2 Aircraft Carrier Torpedoed In 1942 Found Miles Deep In Pacific Ocean

After 77 years, the wreck of the USS Hornet has finally been found, lying more than three miles deep in South Pacific waters. The storied aircraft carrier — sunk by Japanese torpedoes in 1942 with the loss of 140 men — played a critical role during the Second World War, most famously in the Doolittle Raid and the Battle of Midway.

Vulcan Inc., an exploration team financed by the Paul Allen estate, discovered the sunken American aircraft carrier near the Solomon Islands in late January, CBS reports. Crewmembers aboard the RV Petrel used a deep-sea sonar drone to detect the ship 5,330 meters below the surface.

The USS Hornet in October 1941.

A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) was then sent down to investigate further, confirming the wreckage as belonging to the Hornet, which it did by spotting its naval designation, CV-8. The Hornet went down during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands in 1942 after a fierce fight with ships and planes from the Japanese Imperial Navy.

A hole in the hull of the sunken aircraft carrier.

Videos taken by the ROV showed the aircraft carrier’s 13cm guns still pointing upward, along with a gaping hole in the ship’s hull. Incredibly, an aircraft tug can still be seen sitting upright—a scene that’s all the more unbelievable given the ship plummeted some 5km before settling on the seafloor.

An International Harvester aircraft tug still resting upright on the ship.

The discovery of the USS Hornet is a big deal, given its storied role during the Pacific campaign in the Second World War. On April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers took off from the deck of the Hornet to participate in the legendary Doolittle Raid — the first airborne attack on Japanese cities, including Tokyo.

The air raid served as a serious wakeup call for the Japanese military and its civilians, who falsely assumed such attacks were impossible given the reach of its Imperial Navy at the time. Two months later, the Hornet played a critical role at the Battle of Midway—a decisive victory for the the U.S. during the early stages of the Pacific campaign, and just six months after the shocking Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.

The Hornet under attack by Val bombers during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.

It was at the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands in late October 1942, however, that the Hornet would meet its end. The ship, along with the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, endured relentless attacks from Japanese dive-bombers and torpedo planes. An account by the Aircraft Carrier Hornet Foundation explains what happened:

Quote

 

When Hornet and Enterprise were just north of the Santa Cruz Islands, search aircraft from the opposing forces found each other’s main fleet. Within ten minutes, Hornet was hit by four bombs and two torpedoes, and sustained significant damage from two Val dive bombers [Japanese Type 99 Aichi D3A1 dive bombers] that crashed into her. Hornet lost her propulsion capability and was dead in the water.

After most of the crew was transferred from the ship, a damage control party put out the fires and repaired some of the damage. Later that afternoon, she was attacked again and hit by another torpedo and two bombs. At this time, she was abandoned and sank early the next morning—one year and seven days after being commissioned.

 

Some 140 sailors were killed before the ship sank, but because orders were given to abandon the listing aircraft carrier, 2,060 sailers out of the ship’s 2,200 were saved.

Dead in the water, the abandoned USS Hornet shortly before it was sunk.

This latest find by Paul Allen’s team marks another important discovery in its ongoing mission to chronicle the locations of Second World War wrecks in the Pacific Ocean. Previous missions have uncovered the sunken remains of the USS Juneau, the USS Lexington, the USS Indianapolis, and many others.

“We had the Hornet on our list of WWII warships that we wanted to locate because of its place in history as a capitol carrier that saw many pivotal moments in naval battles,” Robert Kraft, director of subsea operations for Vulcan Inc., said in a statement. “Paul Allen was particularly interested in aircraft carriers so this was a discovery that honours his memory.” Allen, cofounder of Microsoft, died of cancer in October 2018.

The exact location of the USS Hornet will remain a secret, and the site designed an official war grave.

[MIKA27]

Transformers Golden Lagoon Soundwave From Takara Tomy Up For Order

Transformers is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, and to help celebrate Takara Tomy is releasing a Golden Lagoon edition of everyone’s favorite cassette-ejecting Decepticon Soundwave. This is a gold chrome repaint of the Power of the Primes version of Soundwave, and based on the Golden Lagoon episode of the G1 Transformers cartoon. he will come in gold metallic paint, and will feature 3 transformations: robot mode, radio mode, and a battlestation mode. He is all plastic, and sadly does not come with any of his cassettes. Watch them release a pack with all of those separately. This figure will run you around $100 depending on where you order from and ships in March. @Fuzz You can preorder here.

 

 

[MIKA27]

SONY WENA WRIST SMART WATCH BAND

Especially with the horological crowd, smartwatches aren’t for everybody. But it’s not that they’re not useful — it’s just that they lose a lot of the artful craftsmanship found in more traditional timekeepers. If you want all the benefits of a smartwatch without the digital drawbacks, however, Sony has an excellent answer in their Wena Wrist smart watch bands.

Available in two styles, Active and Pro, these standalone bands actually house all the digital bits that offer features like activity tracking, notifications, and contactless payments — effectively turning any watch into a smart one. The Active, which comes with a silicon housing, also boasts onboard GPS and advanced activity tracking for those with fitness goals. And the Pro features a sleek and stylish format with a discreet OLED screen for notifications. Available for preorder now in the U.K., these Sony smart watch bands sell for $450 and $515, respectively. $450

[MIKA27]

Amazon Hanna TV Series Release Date, Trailer, Cast, and More

Hanna, the stylish 2011 action film, which elevated the career of Saoirse Ronan, is set to be adapted as a TV series by Amazon Prime. Interestingly enough, the series will also serve as a reunion platform for two of its announced main players in Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos, who co-starred on the 2011-2014 AMC-later-Netflix murder-mystery series, The Killing. 

The Hanna TV series will essentially adapt the story of director Joe Wright’s 2011 film, centering on the titular character (Ronan), a teenage girl who spent her entire life detached from civilization, raised to be a ruthlessly efficient fighting machine in rural Finland by her father, Erik (Eric Bana), until they attract the attention of Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a relentless C.I.A. agent with a vendetta, who wants to kill Erik and covet Hannah for sinister purposes. Likewise, the Amazon series will see the character dynamic replicated in a longer serialized form.

Hanna Release Date

Like Amazon's Jack Ryan and Homecoming before it, Hanna will debut all of its eight episodes at once. Hanna Season 1 debuts on March 29 on Amazon Prime. 

Hanna Trailer

You know you think you're sick of movie and TV trailers featuring weird, moody covers of popular songs...but then you hear what the Hanna trailer has in store for The Smashing Pumpkin's "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." All of the femme fatale action is pretty cool too.

The first teaser trailer for Amazon's Hanna is titled "Baby Heist" and it absolutely delivers what it promises.

 

[Fuzz]

43 minutes ago, MIKA27 said:

Transformers Golden Lagoon Soundwave From Takara Tomy Up For Order

 

 

Sorry, Mika. You're a llittle late to the party. And who wants Soundwave? He's an uncrasamatic bore....

Besides, there's a lot more Transformers done in the "electrum" plating from the episode "Golden Lagoon".

[MIKA27]

16 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

Sorry, Mika. You're a llittle late to the party. And who wants Soundwave? He's an uncrasamatic bore....

Besides, there's a lot more Transformers done in the "electrum" plating from the episode "Golden Lagoon".

What's wrong with Soundwave!? My fave was Starscream  

[MIKA27]

Sealed Copy Of Super Mario Bros. Sells For A Record-Breaking $140,608

Is this copy of Super Mario Bros. the highest-priced video game ever? That’s what experts in the field of classic game collecting are saying today. A first-run copy of the Nintendo Entertainment System game sold in a private transaction earlier this month for $US100,150 ($140,608), and the people involved in the deal say it’s the first six-figure transaction for a single collectible game.

This sale represents a huge jump over the copy of Super Mario Bros. that sold in 2017 for over $US30,000 ($42,119), which itself was a record price. The difference comes down to a tiny sticker. Instead of being shrinkwrapped in plastic, the boxes containing the very first run of NES games produced in America were only sealed on the top flap, using a black foil circular sticker with the Nintendo logo on it.

These were only sold for a brief period of time before the NES’ national rollout, while Nintendo was still test-marketing the console in cities like New York and Los Angeles in 1985 and 1986. At that time, an NES set came packaged with Duck Hunt and Gyromite, but not Super Mario Bros., which was sold separately.

“I’ve always said personally that I believe that sticker-sealed Mario is possibly one of the most significant video gaming items historically,” said Deniz Khan, the president of Wata Games, a company that authenticates and certifies gaming collectibles. Wata certified the game’s authenticity.

While there are many other sealed copies of Super Mario Bros. out there, Khan said that this copy of the game is the only known copy of Super Mario Bros. that still has an intact sticker seal from the NES’ brief launch window.

The game is jointly owned by three buyers: Jim Halperin, the founder and co-chairman of the collectibles auction company Heritage Auctions, coin dealer and game collector Rich Lecce, and video game store owner Zac Gieg. The sale was announced today by Heritage Auctions in a press release, which it also used to promote the fact that Heritage recently got into the business of selling Wata-certified collectible games at auction.

While there’s certainly a bit of a publicity element to the sale, Khan said the deal was legitimate. Besides being the service that authenticated the game, Wata had no part of the transaction, Khan said.

The seller, a collector who has occasionally advised Wata in a volunteer capacity, was not actively looking to sell the Super Mario Bros. He asked to not be named in this story, citing concerns for his privacy.

“The guy who was selling it has always said that he would never accept less than six figures for this item, for years now,” Khan said. “There have been interested buyers I know, outside of this group, who have made him very significant, solid five-figure offers on it. Over $US50 ($70),000 ($70,199). But it was just never rich enough for him.”

“The people who bought it are not just outsiders like Jim,” he said. “Two of the buyers are huge video game collectors… Those guys would not pay for something unless they truly thought the value was there.”

There are more copies of Super Mario Bros. out there than any other NES game, and they run the gamut in terms of pricing. You can buy a loose copy of the Super Mario Bros. cartridge for a few bucks. Put it into a box with some wear and tear, and you’ll maybe spend $US50 ($70).

But as the condition of that box improves, and once you start talking about sealed copies, that price goes into the stratosphere. Not only is this the only known sealed copy of the first U.S. print run of Super Mario Bros., it is also in nearly immaculate condition.

While collectible games like Stadium Events, which are only desired because of their rarity, dominated the early days of video game collecting, we’re now starting to see condition and historical relevance become more of a factor in rising prices. The million-dollar comic book Action Comics #1 is far from the rarest comic book in the world, but it is the first print of the first appearance of Superman. That’s something like what this copy of Super Mario Bros. represents to collectors.

“I’ve always said, video games are going to go the way of comics, or cars, or coins; it’s only a matter of time until a video game sells for a million dollars,” Khan said.

“I’ve always said, and truly believe,” he said, that a sticker-sealed Mario like this one “would be the first million-dollar video game.”

[Fuzz]

13 minutes ago, MIKA27 said:

What's wrong with Soundwave!? My fave was Starscream  

As I said, Soundwave is an uncrasamatic bore!

And Starscream is the Daffy Duck of the Transformers universe.

[MD Puffer]

On 2/11/2019 at 11:01 PM, MIKA27 said:

Russian Authorities Declare State Of Emergency After 'Mass Invasion' Of Polar Bears In Remote Settlement

Russian authorities have declared a state of emergency in the remote, sparsely populated Novaya Zemlya islands in the Arctic Ocean, the BBC reported this weekend, after “dozens” of polar bears whose food sources are limited due to climate change started rooting through homes and other buildings near the settlement of Belushya Guba looking for something to eat.

According to the BBC, officials said that the bears no longer fear either police patrols or the signals used to keep them away from humans, and that they have even crossed onto the grounds of the local air defence garrison.

Though the animals are considered endangered by Russia (the IUCN Red List classifies them as “vulnerable,” with a decreasing population), officials said that if non-lethal means fail to drive the bears away, they may be forced to cull the animals, the BBC added.

Videos circulating on social media and posted by the Russia-based Siberian Times appeared to show bears rummaging through parts of the settlement, as well as sort of wandering around and staring at people through windows, though these videos were not independently verified by Gizmodo.

 

However, no order has been given to kill the bears and federal authorities have declined to issue licenses that would allow locals to kill them without legal repercussions.

Deutche Welle reported that Russian leadership in Moscow said they have sent a team of investigators to look into the situation, while deputy chief of the local administration Alexander Minayev said in a report to regional officials that some 52 polar bears have been spotted since December, Agence France-Presse wrote.

In the past hundreds of disused military structures had to be demolished after the bears took a liking to them, AFP reported, but the current wave is unprecedented.

The bears are displaying “aggressive behaviour,” Minayev wrote, including “attacks on people and entering residential homes and public buildings... There are constantly 6 to 10 bears inside the settlement.”

“I’ve been on Novaya Zemlya since 1983 and there’s never been such a mass invasion of polar bears,” local administration head Zhigansha Musin added, AFP wrote.

In a statement to the state-run media agency TASS, Severtsev Institute of Ecology and Evolution lead researcher Ilya Mordvintsev said that the bears are migrating north...

They should build a wall to keep them out...

[Fuzz]

6 hours ago, MD Puffer said:

They should build a wall to keep them out...

But how will they make the polar bears pay for it?

[MD Puffer]

26 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

But how will they make the polar bears pay for it?

They could probably stop giving them free food and veterinarian care.  It's those very handouts which possibly attracting the polar bears.  Teach those polar bears to be independent and hunt and forage for themselves.  This all seems vaguely familiar for some reason...

 

[MIKA27]

Tokyo Is Testing A New System To Detect 'Guerilla' Rain And Tornadoes Up To 30 Minutes In Advance

Officials in Tokyo are testing a new technology that utilises weather radar and terrestrial digital radio waves to “quickly and precisely predict torrential rain and tornadoes” up to 20 to 30 minutes in advance, the Mainichi reported on Sunday.

The new technology is being developed by “industry, government and academic bodies including the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)” based in Koganei, the Mainichi wrote, and is hoped to be ready for deployment ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

Existing radar systems are limited in their ability to predict “guerilla rainstorms”, so called because they form quickly from rising, cooling water vapour and strike with little warning in specific areas. However, the new system is much more powerful and capable of estimating the size of raindrops and the structure of clouds, the Mainichi wrote:

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Developers say the new “multi parameter phased array weather radar” (MP-PAWR) being tested can predict torrential downpours and tornadoes 20 to 30 minutes before they occur. This is because it has a flat antenna that emits radio waves over a wider range than the rotating bowl-shaped antennas used in traditional radars. It is a combination of an MP radar that enables observation of the size of raindrops, and a phased array radar that provides 3-D scans of the structure of clouds in about 30 seconds.

The phased array is then paired with terrestrial radio waves which can be used to measure incredibly minute variations in water vapour levels, which can help narrow down the timing of a potential storm by showing weather personnel when the vapour is likely to rise high enough to cool and condense, Mainichi added.

As the Guardian wrote in 2015, predicting sudden, torrential rainfall is a major priority for Japanese officials, as around 30 per cent of Tokyo lays below sea level and preparations for catastrophic flooding are widely known to be inadequate.

In 2018, Reuters reported that the Japan Society of Civil Engineers had estimated a massive flood in eastern Tokyo “would kill more than 2,000 people and cause 62 trillion yen ($784 billion) in damage,” while officials acknowledged that the pace of construction was still very slow.

Scientists believe that the noted surge in the number of guerilla storms in Japan in recent years is linked to climate change, Reuters noted:

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Intense rainfall is on the upswing across Japan. Downpours of more than 80 millimetres in an hour happened 18 times a year on average over the 10 years through 2017, up from 11 times between 1976-85.

... “Higher ocean temperatures cause more moisture to get sucked up into the air,” said University of Tokyo’s [disaster engineering professor Toshitaka Katada]. “That means a very large amount of rain falling at once, and typhoons are more likely to grow stronger.”

 

According to the Mainichi, preliminary tests of the system have been ongoing since 2018, with one NICT official saying they intend to bring it “into practical use as soon as possible.”

[MIKA27]

Rolls-Royce Can't Keep Up With Demand For The Cullinan SUV

In a twist that literally everyone saw coming, Rolls-Royce is working at capacity to fulfil orders for its new gargantuan SUV the 2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Sales keep rolling in to dealers, so much so that Rolls has had to increase its staff to 2000 total employees (up 200 from last year at this time) to deal with the uptick in order sheets.

With the new model having been teased since 2013 and finally hitting showrooms late last year, there has been a pent up demand for the high Roller, and it’s reaching critical mass, according to a report by Automotive News.

Rolls-Royce order bookings are backed up through the end of July right now, thanks in large part to Cullinan orders. Reportedly as many as half of Cullinan buyers are new to the Rolls brand. Rolls also says the Cullinan appeals better to women, who make up a larger percentage of buyer for the SUV model. The model is also drawing in a younger customer than traditionally seen in a Rolls.

2018 was a record year for Rolls production, but the Cullinan didn’t hit dealer showrooms until November. While some of that uptick was found following the 2017 launch of the Phantom, Cullinan has been a boon for the brand. It’s fair to assume that Rolls is headed for another banner year in 2019.

“Many customers that already drive a Dawn or a Phantom buy a second Rolls-Royce,” Martin Fritsches, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Americas told Automotive News.

Fritsches also stated that he expects the Cullinan to sell exceptionally well in Canada, where the brand currently has four dealerships. In 2018 Rolls of Canada sold exactly 100 cars, and Fritsches expects that number to exceed 150 this year.

To paraphrase Nicolas Cage’s seminal character Randall “Memphis” Raines from the astonishing year 2000 “Gone in 60 Seconds” cinematic masterpiece, “There are too many self-indulgent wieners in the world with too much bloody money.”

There is a zero per cent chance that I would purchase this ridiculous poseur’s soft roader over any of the other amazing Rolls available. Buy a Wraith and have some fun, dammit.

[MIKA27]

Remote-Controlled Probe Picks Up Radioactive Debris At Fukushima For The First Time

Tepco, the state-owned operator of the badly damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, has conducted an important test in which a remote-controlled probe managed to grasp several small grains of radioactive debris, AFP reports. The successful operation marked an important achievement for the company as it prepares for a cleanup operation that could take decades.

In March 2011, the devastating Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami triggered the core meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Eight years later, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco), is still in the formative stages of devising a clean-up plan.

The primary challenge, of course, is dealing with the intense radiation emanating from the melted fuel. Two years ago, for example, a robot became unresponsive after just two hours in reactor No. 2; there’s enough radiation down there — approximately 650 sieverts per hour — to fry a person within a few seconds. The episode showed that technical advancements will be required to make robots more resilient to radiation near the core, and that the cleanup will likely take longer than expected.

Illustration showing how radioactive debris from the reactor pressure vessel are collecting at the bottom of the primary containment vessel.

Early last year, a camera attached to a remote-controlled probe was sent into reactor No. 2. Images confirmed that fuel debris had melted through the reactor pressure vessel (RPV), also known as the reactor core, dripping down into a collection chamber known as the primary containment vessel (PCV).

Images of the chamber showed pebble and clay-like deposits covering the entire bottom of the PCV pedestal. This accumulated waste, along with similar piles at reactors No. 1 and 3, needs to be cleaned up, and Tepco is currently trying to determine the best way of doing so.

To that end, the state-owned company devised an operation to see what that material is like and determine if it can be moved. On Wednesday February 13, Tepco sent a probe equipped with a remotely operated robotic hand down into the No. 2 lower chamber, Japan Times reports.

Using its tong-like fingers, the probe picked up five grain-sized pieces of radioactive melted fuel. AFP reported that the pieces were moved to a maximum height of 5 centimeters above the bottom of the chamber. In addition to taking images with a camera, the probe measured radiation and temperature during the investigation, according to a Tepco release.

The two-pronged robotic hand picking up radioactive debris at the bottom of reactor No. 2. 

No radioactive debris was removed from the chamber, but the eight-hour-long operation showed that some of the melted fuel can be moved — an important bit of evidence that will inform future plans to clean up the plant. But as the Japan Times noted, one of the six areas explored by the probe contained debris that had solidified into a clay-like substance, which the robotic hand was unable to grasp. Future robots will need to slice or saw through this material such that it can be removed. That won’t be easy.

A future test, planned for April, will see some debris removed from the chamber, according to the Japan Times. Tepco has yet to disclose how and where this radioactive waste will be stored.

The company is hoping to start removing radioactive fuel in earnest by 2021, but the clean-up is expected to take decades, with some estimates suggesting it won’t be done until the 2050s. Many other technological hurdles still exist, such as determining the full extent of structural damage at the Fukushima plant, locating all the melted fuel in the three damaged reactors, and figuring out a way to remove the large quantities of contaminated water stored at the site.

If that all sounds overwhelming, well, it is. As we’ve said before, when nuclear power goes wrong, it really goes wrong.

[MIKA27]

SWATCH FLYMAGIC WATCH

Staying ahead of the curve, Swatch has created a device to battle the negative effects of a magnetic field. The revolutionary device will make its grand debut in Swatch’s Flymagic watch, bathing under the spotlight in style.

Constructed from a new titanium-based alloy with incredible paramagnetic capabilities, the ‘Nivachron’ balance spring in the Flymagic reduces the detrimental effects of magnetic fields in your everyday environment. The Swiss-made spring also provides resistance to temperature changes and superb shock-resistance, further improving the performance of the Flymagic. The 45mm stainless steel timepiece debuts with three models and each one is limited to 500 examples. The beautiful watch has a transparent dial, showcasing a reversed movement with the second hand running backward, which is a first for Swatch. Each watch comes with one rubber strap and two high-quality calfskin straps. The Flymagic will be available in April for $1,500.

 

[MIKA27]

MCINTOSH RS200 WIRELESS LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM

Music is capable of filling your soul with hope when the world is all doom and gloom, so investing in a modern sound system is a must. McIntosh’s RS200 Wireless Loudspeaker System is a modern device that will perfectly pair with your streaming lifestyle.

Packing a massive 650 watts of power, this Bluetooth sound system delivers smooth tunes through eight drivers, consisting of two woofers, four midranges, and two tweeters. There’s also a subwoofer output, allowing you to hook up an externally powered subwoofer for improved low frequencies. It has several built-in streaming options, such as Apple AirPlay 2, and it’s compatible with AAC, Qualcomm aptX HD, and DTS Play-Fi whole-home wireless audio. You can set this device up in various locations around your home and use the three-position EQ switch to adjust the sound based on your preference. This sleek wireless sound system is available now for $3,000.

[MIKA27]

BUMBU XO RUM

Distilled and aged at a Panamanian distillery that is over 120 years old, Bumbu XO rum is the first premium rum from the up and coming brand. The small-batch rum was aged for up to 18 years in bourbon barrels and then finished in white oak sherry barrels from Spain. Perfect for rum cocktails or on its own, Bumba XO is bottled at 80 proof in a matte black finish bottle with silver and white details along with a silver "X" medallion.

[MIKA27]

Farewell, Opportunity: Rover Dies, But Its Hugely Successful Mars Mission Is Helping Us Design The Next One

NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars has been officially pronounced dead. Its amazingly successful mission lasted nearly 15 years, well beyond its initial three-month goal. Opportunity provided the first proof that water once existed on Mars and shaped its surface, a crucial piece of knowledge informing both current and future missions.

Opportunity landed on the red planet on January 25, 2004, and was last heard from on June 10, 2018, when a huge dust storm reduced light levels there significantly. This prevented the rover from using its solar panels to charge its batteries. The solar panels had already started to degrade due to the longer than expected mission, and the low light levels and the build up of dust may have caused its ultimate demise.

The rover has driven over 45km on the Martian surface despite being designed to travel for just 1km – an interplanetary record. Lasting almost 60 times its expected lifetime, it is an incredible achievement for space exploration. The mission is therefore helping scientists design new rover missions including NASA’s Mars 2020 rover and the ExoMars 2020 rover that I work on, recently named “Rosalind Franklin” after the DNA pioneer.

Stunning science

The science from the Mars exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity has been simply groundbreaking. For Opportunity, it started with landing by chance in a 22-metre wide crater called “Eagle” on an otherwise mainly flat plain – a space exploration “hole in one”.

Immediately after landing, it spotted a layered rocky outcrop, similar to sedimentary rocks on Earth but never before seen on Mars. And because it was mobile, it could actually examine the rock composition directly after leaving the landing platform.

By illuminating the rocks with radioactive sources, the rover discovered the expected iron (effectively rust) that makes Mars’ surface reddish brown, along with other metals such as nickel and zinc. But it also found more volatile elements like bromine, chlorine and sulphur, which indicated that these rocks may have reacted with ancient water.

Most excitingly, it detected the mineral “jarosite”, which is often seen in the outflow of acidic water from mining sites on Earth. This provided direct evidence that acidic water had been involved in the formation of Mars’ rocks 3.8 - 4 billion years ago.

The rover then moved out of the Eagle crater onto the flat, surrounding plain. In the first weeks, it discovered “blueberries” – millimetre-sized spheres of the mineral hematite. Although this could have formed due to volcanism or meteor impacts, analysis revealed that it most likely formed in water.

Opportunity later visited the spectacular Victoria crater, which is 750 metres in diameter and some 70 metres deep, with dunes on the crater floor. Remarkably, the rover and its tracks were imaged from orbit by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter near the crater rim. There was more hematite here, too, showing that this may have formed underground in water, before being brought to the surface when the crater formed via an impact.

Opportunity at Victoria Crater spotted from orbit.

Its next destination was the Endeavour crater, which is 22km in diameter and 300 metres deep. Here it also made a major discovery - there were clays near the crater rim, which would have required fresh, abundant and non-acidic water for their formation. This was the first indication that Mars was actually habitable 3.8 - 4 billion years ago, containing drinkable as well as acidic water.

These main science results are key to our scientific exploration of Mars today. The question of habitability is being pursued further by the NASA Curiosity mission, which has already found evidence of a large, ancient lake on early Mars that contained organic matter by drilling into the mudstones that remain.

Digging deeper

Thanks to Opportunity, upcoming missions will look closer at the spots where ancient water flowed. NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will gather samples from Jezero crater, a location where orbiters have detected signs of an ancient river delta. These samples may be returned to Earth by a future international mission. Analysis in labs on Earth may ultimately answer the question of whether there is or ever was life on Mars, if we haven’t already.

Opportunity outside Endeavour crater. 

Meanwhile, our Rosalind Franklin rover, a collaboration between the European Space Agency and Russia, is due for launch in 2020. It will land in March, 2021, at Oxia Planum, an elevated plain. Here, there are also signs of prolonged exposure to ancient water, clays and a river outflow channel.

Rosalind the rover will pick up where Opportunity and Curiosity left off by examining a key, unexplored dimension on Mars – depth. We will drill down to two metres below the surface of Mars for the first time, much further than Curiosity’s five centimetres. This is enough to take us far enough below the harsh surface environment of Mars – with cold temperatures, a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere and high levels of harmful radiation – to see if anything lives there.

We will decide where to drill using a number of instruments, including the PanCam instrument which I lead. Samples will be vaporised and put into a drawer for analysis by three instruments which will look for markers of life – such as complex carbonates.

One of the key aspects of Opportunity’s success was the teamwork between its science and engineering teams. This is definitely something that will be implemented on upcoming rovers. Many members of the Mars 2020 team, and some on the ExoMars team, have direct experience from Opportunity which will be invaluable as we learn how to operate our rovers on the planet.

Another interesting legacy of Opportunity is that we we don’t have to worry too much about Martian dust, except during exceptional global storms. Opportunity showed that that during the rest of the time, accumulating dust blows away naturally in the wind – helped by the movement of the rover over the ground causing vibration. It was a surprise that Opportunity lasted so long, and it certainly blazed a trail for us.

Rosalind Franklin has the best chance of any currently planned mission for detecting biomarkers and even perhaps evidence for past or present life on Mars. But we are building on the shoulders of giants, like the Opportunity Rover. #ThanksOppy indeed!

[MIKA27]

Brain-Eating Zombie Deer Disease Will Likely Spread To Humans

People who eat deer meat could be at risk of contracting a deadly infectious disease that is spreading across the animals’ US populations, experts have warned.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) –dubbed “zombie” deer disease – has infected deer, elk and moose across 24 American states and two Canadian provinces.

The disease attacks tissues including the brain and spinal cord, causing dramatic weight loss, loss of coordination, listlessness, drooling, excessive thirst or urination and intense aggression before the animal dies.

Up to 15,000 infected animals are eaten each year, a number that could rise by 20 per cent annually, according to Michael Osterholm, an expert in infectious disease from the University of Minnesota.

“It is probable that human cases of chronic wasting disease associated with consumption with contaminated meat will be documented in the years ahead,” he said.

“It’s possible the number of human cases will be substantial and will not be isolated events,” he told state lawmakers, USA Today reported.

Mr Osterholm compared the situation to “mad cow” disease in Britain, when 177 people died in the UK between 1986 and 2014.

A red deer farm near Ontario in Canada has had 11 confirmed cases.

CWD was seen in captive deer as far back as the late 1960s but was first spotted in the wild about 40 years ago.

There have been no documented cases so far of humans contracting it, but recent research shows it can be transmitted to other animals, including primates, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

Eating infected deer meat would be the most likely way for people to catch it, the centres say, but there are no certainties.

Mr Osterholm said: “It’s like a throw at the genetic roulette table.

“If you put this into a meat processing plant ... this is kind of a worst-case nightmare.” 

Chronic wasting disease belongs to the same family of diseases – known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies – as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

[bsubtown]

CWD is a huge concern for us hunters here in the States. I am in Indiana and we have thus far not had any free-range populations test positive for the disease. Adjacent states and Wisconsin (one removed) have had quite a time with it. They say the Prions that infect the animal congregate mostly in CNS parts of the deer. They also say that there is no real good way to get rid of the prions one introduced into the wild. Many hunters us salt blocks as bait for their trail cameras. If a deer feeds on the salt that is infected with CWD there is a good possibility that the prions may transfer to the next deer. 

This is a real doomsday scenario for deer hunting.

[MIKA27]

9 hours ago, bsubtown said:

CWD is a huge concern for us hunters here in the States. I am in Indiana and we have thus far not had any free-range populations test positive for the disease. Adjacent states and Wisconsin (one removed) have had quite a time with it. They say the Prions that infect the animal congregate mostly in CNS parts of the deer. They also say that there is no real good way to get rid of the prions one introduced into the wild. Many hunters us salt blocks as bait for their trail cameras. If a deer feeds on the salt that is infected with CWD there is a good possibility that the prions may transfer to the next deer. 

This is a real doomsday scenario for deer hunting.

Many thanks for posting the information and thoughts. Welcome to Forum and thread.  

Just when you think you've heard or read up on the horrible diseases the world seems to throw at us, comes yet another one. I mean, Zombie deer disease. Horrible.

[MIKA27]

Grand Canyon Museumgoers Exposed To Uranium For Years, Safety Manager Claims

Earlier this month, a National Park Service safety manager sent a “rogue” email alleging the improper storing of radioactive material at a Grand Canyon facility frequented by children, the Arizona Republic reports.

According to safety, health, and wellness manager Elston “Swede” Stephenson, three 19l containers of uranium ore were kept near a taxidermy exhibit at the Grand Canyon’s Museum Collections Building for 18 years until they were discovered last year and quietly disposed of.

“If you were in the Museum Collections Building (2C) between the year 2000 and June 18, 2018, you were ‘exposed’ to uranium by OSHA’s definition,” reportedly read the email Stephenson sent to all Park Service employees on February 4.

According to the Arizona Republic, Stephenson’s email explained the uranium was in a park headquarters basement for decades before it was moved to the museum building in 2000. He wrote that the buckets were stored near a taxidermy exhibit that tours for kids stopped at.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Stephenson told the Arizona Republic. He told the newspaper that a teenage Geiger counter enthusiast found the uranium ore in March 2018 and workers then moved the buckets somewhere else in the building. Stephenson said he found out about the uranium a few months later and reported it.

Technicians allegedly came to the building several days after his call and took away the uranium-filled buckets with the aid of a broken mop and gardening and dishwashing gloves. Stephenson included photos of this process in a slideshow he made about the uranium issue, which was reviewed by the Arizona Republic.

Emily Davis, a spokesperson for Grand Canyon National Park, told Gizmodo in a statement that the National Park Service is coordinating with the Arizona Department of Health Services and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for an investigation into the matter.

OSHA did not immediately respond to a Gizmodo request for comment, but the agency confirmed to the Arizona Republic that there is an investigation.

According to Davis, recent tests showed that the museum collection facility had radiation levels that were similar to what is always present in the area — levels that pose no risk for the public.

“The NPS takes public and employee safety and the response to allegations seriously,” Davis’ statement read. “There is no current risk to the public or park employees. The museum collection facility is open and employee work routines have continued as normal.”

Davis did not respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment about the risk the uranium ore posed to employees and tourists all the years it was allegedly stored at the facility.

[MIKA27]

Lightsaber Duels Just Became An Official French Sport

Lightsaber battles have been the best part of Star Wars and any Star Wars game, so it's only natural that the art of rattling said sabres would be a fun competitive pursuit. And, as of this week, it's now an official one.

The ABC and Japan Times have reported that the French Fencing Federation, the governing body for sabre duels in France, has officially recognised the sport.

Fencing clubs in the country are now able to get equipment and instructors through the organisation, with federation secretary general Serge Aubailly saying the move was designed to help connect younger adults and children with more physical activity.

"It’s becoming difficult to (persuade them to) do a sport that has no connection with getting out of the sofa and playing with one’s thumbs," Aubailly said. "That is why we are trying to create a bond between our discipline and modern technologies, so participating in a sport feels natural."

He added that "cape and sword movies" have historically resulted in increased signups for fencing, and Star Wars has a similar effect among younger generations. "Young people want to give it a try," he told the Press Association.

34 competitors attended a national lightsaber event in Paris earlier this month. Matches are all to 15 points or the highest scorer after 3 minutes, with fighters awarded 5 points for strikes to the head or body, 3 for strikes on the arms or legs, and 1 point for a hit to the hands. If both fighters reach 10 points, sudden death rules apply where the first to hit the body or head (but not the hands) wins.

And unlike fencing, where quick thrusts are often the order of the day, blows are only counted if the tip of the lightsaber is first pointed behind the attacker. It results in more cinematic-like combat that's in line with the lightsaber duels in the Star Wars movies.