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

[MIKA27]

THE GLENLIVET WINCHESTER COLLECTION VINTAGE 1967 SCOTCH

Way back in 1967, The Glenlivet’s former master distiller, Robert Arthur, crafted an especially exceptional and rare single malt scotch whisky. After decades of aging, the brand has finally tapped into that spirit and bottled it, creating the 3rd edition in their legendary Winchester Collection.

Another entry in the series named for the brand’s current master distiller, Alan Winchester, the 150-bottle Vintage 1967 was aged in American oak barrels before being “non-chill-filtered” and bottled at a cask strength of 48% ABV. It’s described as being earthy and fruity, with a bit of smoke on the nose and a smooth orange-chocolate palate. The brilliant spirit is also bottled in glass — inspired by Cairngorms National Park where the distillery is located — created by award-winning designer Bethan Gray and hand-blown by master glassblower Brodie Nairn. And said bottles are housed in a birds-eye maple case with curved solid copper overlays inlaid with mother-of-pearl (a nod to the indigenous mussels of the Spey River). Priced at $25,000 a bottle, this is a rarified spirit, indeed. $25K

[MIKA27]

BRABUS 800 WIDESTAR

Brabus and Mercedes-Benz go together like gasoline and combustion. So when Benz revamped their legendary G-Class SUV, Brabus was right on their heels with a performance kit that immediately upped the ante. From the look of it, however, it wasn’t enough for the tuning brand, as they’ve just unveiled another upgrade kit called the Brabus 800 Widestar.

In classic fashion, this new edition looks both more refined and somehow more aggressive — both inside and out. That’s thanks in large part to a lot of carbon fiber additions across the body in conjunction with a stunning premium quilted leather interior — marked by an illuminated headliner resembling a starry sky (not unlike those found in Bentleys). But the real star of the show is under the hood: a 4.0-liter twin-turbo engine that’s been tuned up to a whopping 780 horsepower and 737 foot-pounds of torque. That means this AWD beast has an electronically-limited top speed of 149 mph and can do 0-62 in just 4.1 seconds — blistering by any account. We can’t say for certain, but this might just be the tuner’s magnum opus.

[oliverdst]

On 3/12/2019 at 2:39 AM, MIKA27 said:

HISPANO SUIZA CARMEN ELECTRIC HYPERCAR

 

It’s nothing new to see a brand take inspiration from the past for a future release. But it’s definitely a little more unusual to see a company reach back nearly a century into history to reboot a brand. But that’s exactly the case with the Spanish automakers at Hispano Suiza and their upcoming Carmen all-electric hypercar.

Rebooted by the very family that founded the original company back in the 1930s, Hispano Suiza is back and better than ever — hinging their new business on sustainable future technologies while remaining true to their roots. That can be seen clearly in the Carmen, an all-electric hypercar with styling inspired by the Art-Deco masterpiece that was the 1938 Hispano Suiza Dubonnet Xenia. Inside, however, it’s all modern — including a powerful gas-free powertrain that’s good for over 1,005 horsepower, a 0-62 time of under three seconds, and a 250-mile range. That performance is only bolstered by the vehicle’s ultralight carbon fiber monocoque and body panels (the whole vehicle weighs just over 3,725 pounds), as well as a number of aerodynamic design features and a double-wishbone suspension with active dampening. With only 19 units to be built through 2021, the Carmen starts at $1.7 million.

 

 

 

 

 

I read "Hispano Suiza Carmen ELECTRA Hypercar" ?

[Fuzz]

2 hours ago, oliverdst said:

I read "Hispano Suiza Carmen ELECTRA Hypercar" ?

I'll buy that!!!

[MIKA27]

AVENGERS 4: ENDGAME Official Trailer #2 

 

[MIKA27]

GARMIN MARQ SMART TOOL WATCHES

To celebrate their 30th anniversary, Garmin is rolling out five new smartwatches with features that bring to mind some of the more versatile tool watches of the past. The individual models have activity-specific functions, like the MARQ Driver with pre-loaded race track course data, or the MARQ Aviator which comes packed with airport info and aviation maps. Each of the five models is made from lightweight titanium and constructed with a sapphire crystal lens. The watches also have a ceramic bezel inlay, and always-on, sunlight-readable display with GPS, music storage, activity tracking, along with wrist-based heart rate and a wrist-based pulse ox2 sensors. $1,500.00

 

 

 

 

 

[MIKA27]

Atari VCS Delayed Again After Swapping Out AMD Hardware

It's been a long road for Atari fans waiting eagerly for the new crowdfunded console. And for those brave enough to take the plunge, that wait just got even longer, with the console delayed this morning until the end of 2019 for North Americans.

In a new blog post, the Atari VCS team explains that the delay is down to a decision to swap out older AMD hardware. The console, which was originally built around 4K capability, 60fps and HDR support, was built off AMD's Bristol Ridge APU, which launched back in 2017. It wasn't the most powerful gaming APU then, with Anandtech finding it was barely capable of hitting 55fps in GTA 5.

On low settings, at 720p.

So for a console that wants to run modern and classic games, the upgrade makes a lot of sense. The new APU chip from AMD will be a dual-core Zen offering with onboard Vega graphics. They also add that the product is currently unannounced, rather than being one of the existing 14nm AMD APUs currently on the market (like the Ryzen 3 2200U, which would fit the bill for this).

Quote

 

AMD’s all-new Ryzen embedded chip will be faster, cooler, and more efficient, allowing the VCS to benefit from a simpler and more effective power architecture and thermal solution. The new processor includes built-in Ethernet, Native 4K video with modern HDCP, and a secure frame buffer that fully-supports DRM video (Netflix, HBO, etc.).

This upgrade will translate to better overall performance in a cooler and quieter box — all with minimal impact to our manufacturing processes. While additional specifications about the new AMD processor will be announced closer to launch, be assured that the new AMD Ryzen processor is a much better fit for this project in multiple ways and will further enable the Atari VCS to deliver on its promise to be a unique and highly flexible platform for creators.

 

The APU upgrade will have a fairly substantial impact on developers. The existing Ryzen APUs already had a significant amount of headroom compared to the older Bristol Ridge line: the 2200G was at least capable of holding above 30fps at 900p in more modern games, in some instances getting nearly double the performance of the older chip. A newer APU again would get further performance bumps still.

But Atari notes that they'll have to issue new guidance about the hardware and its impact, not only to developers but backers as well. The company says it plans to reveal more in the coming months about the user experience, storefront, services, distribution and design architecture. For now, the best we can hope is that Australians might see this console by Christmas - although if Americans aren't expected to get their wooden Atari logos until the holidays, chances are we're looking at a 2020 launch down under.

[MIKA27]

An astronaut with PTSD loses her cool in first trailer for Lucy in the Sky

Director Noah Hawley's film is loosely based on 2007 case of NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak.

A female astronaut returns to Earth and starts a downward psychological spiral in the first trailer for Lucy in the Sky, a forthcoming film from Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Lucy in the Sky tells the story of married astronaut Lucy Cola (Portman), who has an affair with fellow astronaut Mark Goodwin (Jon Hamm). When he dumps her for another woman in the program, she begins to lose her grip on reality. Originally titled Pale Blue Dot, the movie is the feature-film debut for director Noah Hawley, whose TV credits include Fargo and Legion. Reese Witherspoon was initially considered for the lead role of Lucy but dropped out to shoot the second season of Big Little Lies. Portman came aboard instead, making this at least her second song-titled film alongside Jane Got a Gun.

The film is loosely based on the real-world case of NASA astronaut and US Naval officer Lisa Nowak, who became involved with fellow astronaut William Oefelein in 2004 after his divorce. The affair lasted a couple of years, until Nowak discovered her lover had taken up with an Air Force engineer named Colleen Shipman. In February 2007, Nowak drove from Houston to Orlando International Airport with a car full of kidnapping gear (including an 8-inch folding knife) and confronted Shipman in her car in the airport parking lot. Nowak copped a guilty plea in 2009 and received two years' probation; she also received an "other than honorable" discharge from the Navy.

The case notably raised questions about the psychological effects of long-term space missions, in addition to how well NASA screens its astronauts for mental stability, themes that clearly inform Lucy in the Sky. That's earned the film some advance criticism for its stated premise from retired astronaut Marsha Ivins about how Hollywood misrepresents female astronauts: "Hollywood may consider spaceflight traumatic, and certainly our mothers do, but astronauts do not," she wrote for Time in 2017.

Granted, the film was still being cast when Ivins wrote her article, so the criticism was premature. But I'm not sure there's anything in this trailer that will put her concerns to rest. We first see Lucy during a spacewalk, mesmerized by the sight of Earth at night, until her fellow astronaut (Goodwin) tells her, "Time to wrap it up. We're going home." Then we see her back on Earth and get a series of flashbacks—her husband and kids, the beginnings of her affair with Goodwin—interspersed with a voiceover counting down.

"I just feel a little off," Lucy admits. "You go up there and see the whole universe, and everything here just seems so small." Goodwin commiserates, noting that everything she saw in space "blew your mind, and now nothing else makes sense." But hey, fleeting glimpse of a pistol aside, she's probably fine. Right?

Lucy in the Sky hits theaters later this year.

[MIKA27]

Don’t believe the hype: We may never know the identity of Jack the Ripper

Controversial new DNA forensics study is just the latest claim to ID infamous killer.

A new DNA analysis of stains on a silk shawl that may have belonged to one of Jack the Ripper's victims concluded that the killer was a Polish barber named Aaron Kosminski, according to a paper published last week in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. But other scientists are already calling into question the paper's bombshell conclusions—and they're not exactly mincing words.

Finally putting to rest the identity of one of history's most notorious killers would indeed be very big news, especially for true-crime buffs who have followed the Ripper saga for years (so-called "Ripperologists"). The problem is, we've been here many times before. This is just the latest claim to have "proof" of Jack the Ripper's true identity, and while it has all the trappings of solid science, the analysis doesn't hold up under closer scrutiny. Several geneticists have already spoken out on Twitter and to Science magazine to point out, as Kristina Killgrove writes at Forbes, that "the research is neither new nor scientifically accurate."

On August 31, 1888, police discovered the body of Mary Ann Nichols in Bucks Row in London's Whitechapel district. Her throat had been cut and her abdomen ripped open. Over the next few months, a serial killer who came to be known as Jack the Ripper would use the same method to kill four women: Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. And then, as abruptly as they began, the murders stopped. (These are the "canonical five." Other murders sometimes attributed to the Ripper are inconclusive.)

The murders remain unsolved in terms of the Ripper's true identity. Kosminski, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, is a frequently suggested suspect, since he was committed to an asylum right around the time when the murders suddenly ceased. But FBI criminal profiler John Douglas noted in his 2001 book, The Cases That Haunt Us, that if Kosminski had been the Ripper, he would likely have boasted of the killings during his incarceration, and there's no evidence he did so.

The cover of the 21 September 1889 issue of Puck magazine, featuring cartoonist Tom Merry's depiction of the unidentified Whitechapel murderer Jack the Ripper.

Other men on the potential Ripper list include a barrister named Montague John Druitt; Queen Victoria's physician, Sir William Withey Gull; Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale; and author/mathematician Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll. In her 2002 nonfiction book, Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed, crime novelist Patricia Cornwall described her own years of research, concluding that a German-born artist named Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper. Despite its optimistic title, Cornwall's treatise failed to convince her critics; nor did her 2017 follow-up, Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert.

So there's a long history of people claiming to have made the definitive identification of Jack the Ripper. This latest analysis, by Jari Louhelainen of Liverpool John Moores University and David Miller of the University of Leeds, focuses on a shawl that supposedly belonged to Ripper victim Catherine Eddowes. Author Russell Edwards bought the shawl at auction in 2007 and supplied it to the authors for analysis. His 2014 book, Naming Jack the Ripper, relied on that then-unpublished work to claim Kosminski as the Ripper. (Edwards reportedly became interested in "solving" the Ripper murders—and cashing in on Ripper-mania in the process—after watching the 2001 film From Hell.)

While the authors claim this is "the most systematic and most advanced genetic analysis to date regarding the Jack the Ripper murders," their work has not been well received, either back in 2014 or now. Geneticist and popular-science writer Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived (among other tomes), interviewed Louhelainen at the time of the book's publication for BBC Inside Science. "I asked him if this evidence would stand up in court if the murder had taken place recently, and he said 'no,'" Rutherford tweeted. "So why do we even vaguely consider that 130 years later it would be valid?" Turi King, a geneticist at the University of Leicester, whose team did the genome sequencing of Richard III, called the new paper "unpublishable" on Twitter, asking, "How did this ever get past peer review?"

One issue is the lack of conclusive proof that the silk shawl in question actually belonged to Eddowes—or, even if it did, that she was wearing it when she was murdered. The authors state that it is "purportedly linked" to Eddowes, but that provenance is questionable, according to both Rutherford and King. Furthermore, the authors merely "hypothesize" that the stains are related to blood spatter from the victim and semen from the killer.

Both Rutherford and King noted that the silk shawl has been handled extensively over the years by lots of people who did not take the slightest precautions to avoid contamination (i.e., wearing gloves), and those people included the same descendants of Kosminski whose DNA was used for the comparison in the study. So despite the authors' good-faith attempt to exclude the DNA of contemporary people, the shawl has already been hopelessly tainted.

Upper left: largest piece of the shawl purportedly belonging to Ripper victim Catherine Eddowes. Lower left: the floral detail on the shawl. Right: smaller piece of the shawl from the blue side.

Then there's the authors' use of mitochondrial DNA for their analysis, i.e., DNA that passed from a mother to her children. That might work to link Eddowes with her maternal descendants but not for the descendants of Kosminski. "The suspect couldn't have passed on his mitochondrial DNA, as he was a man," King tweeted. "And yes, I know [about] that recent publication of rare set of cases." Furthermore, "Based on mitochondrial DNA one can only exclude a suspect," Hansi Weissenberger of Innsbruck Medical University told Science.

Walther Parson, a forensic scientist also at Innsbruck Medical University in Austria, questioned the authors' decision not to include the specific genetic variants used for their analysis in the paper, opting instead for a public-friendly graphic using colored boxes to illustrate where DNA sequences overlapped. The authors cite the UK's Data Protection Act as their rationale, but Parson said publishing mitochondrial DNA sequences isn't a privacy risk. "I wonder where science and research are going when we start to avoid showing results but instead present colored boxes," he told Science.

Biologist Jerry Coyne raised similar criticisms on his blog, although he was initially a bit less scathing in his evaluation of the claims. "The data, at least in the weak form presented here, increase the likelihood that Aaron Kosminski, who was a suspect in the murders, was the killer," he wrote. "But we're a long way from knowing who butchered those five women. Caveat lector." He later posted a lengthy critique supplied by Rutherford, however.

Rutherford is confident the identity of Jack the Ripper "will never be known" and reserved some of his harshest criticism for media coverage of the paper, which he felt lacked skepticism and was hence irresponsible. "This is terrible science and terrible history," he said on Twitter. "It doesn't warrant discussion in the press, let alone in an academic journal. Nonsense like this paper and a gullible media does nothing but foment scientific and historical illiteracy built upon the grotesque romanticization of the brutal murders of five women. And we should all try harder to be better than this."

[MIKA27]

Terminator 6 Is Called Terminator: Dark Fate...Yes, Really

Well, at least it’s not as bad as “Genisys.”

Though it was previously reported to just be a working title, Deadline reports that the upcoming sixth Terminator film is now, officially, called Terminator: Dark Fate. For real. We actually confirmed it with Paramount and the official Twitter account has already been rebranded.

Directed by Tim Miller (Deadpool) and produced by James Cameron, Dark Fate brings back franchise stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton in what is being planned as the first in a new series of Terminator films. Which, it should be pointed out, is exactly what everyone said when both Terminator Genisys was released in 2015 and Terminator Salvation was released in 2009.

This film will reportedly ignore those movies, though (as well as 2003's Terminator: Rise of the Machines). Halt and Catch Fire’s Mackenzie Davis joins the cast along with Gabriel Luna (Agents of SHIELD) and Natalia Reyes. They’re the main focus of the story, with Schwarzenegger and Hamilton there in support.

As for the title itself? Look, it’s bad. “Dark Fate.” It’s probably somehow related to Sarah Conner’s mantra that “There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves,” which she learned from Kyle Reese and passed to her son, John. It seems that maybe Sarah’s fate wasn’t all that promising after saving the world in Terminator 2 and now it’s “dark,” somehow. Because there are still Terminators? We’re just spitballing here but, either way, we’ll find out soon enough.

The film is scheduled to open on November 1 and Paramount is “extremely confident” in it, according to Deadline. Which is encouraging. They could call it Terminator: This Sucks and if the movie was good, I wouldn’t care. It’s just been so long since fans have felt any confidence in the franchise that it would be nice to get some of that back.

[Fuzz]

1 hour ago, MIKA27 said:

Terminator 6 Is Called Terminator: Dark Fate...Yes, Really

 

I prefer my title; "Terminator 6 - The Grab For More Cash".

[Ken Gargett]

2 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

I prefer my title; "Terminator 6 - The Grab For More Cash".

how about 'Terminator 6: i won't be back'. 

[Ken Gargett]

i vaguely remember a 3. no clue about 4 or 5. 

[Fuzz]

3 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

i vaguely remember a 3. no clue about 4 or 5. 

1984 - Terminator

1991 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day

2003 - Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

2009 - Terminator Salvation

2015 - Terminator Genisys

 

[MIKA27]

7 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

i vaguely remember a 3. no clue about 4 or 5. 

T3 was one of the worst. T1 and T2 brilliant. I also liked the Non Arnie one (Salvation) with Christian Bale.

[Ken Gargett]

1 minute ago, MIKA27 said:

T3 was one of the worst. T1 and T2 brilliant. I also liked the Non Arnie one (Salvation) with Christian Bale.

was living in the states for the launch of 2. huge. loved it. had only just seen 1 at that stage - had been travelling etc. i think i have seen the others but they were all so dire, i tried to forget. 

[MIKA27]

The Art of Self Defense

Perhaps no one does on-screen awkwardness, angst, and a seething undercurrent of rage as well as Jesse Eisenberg, whether it’s as a bizarre (And S**t) Lex Luthor in Batman vs Superman or as Simon/James in The Double. This time, he may get his most revelatory role in the dark comedy, The Art of Self Defense, where he plays a sniveling and frightened victim of violence who goes down the rabbit hole of masculine transformation opened by his foray into martial arts and his instructor, played by Alessandro Nivola.

Debuting at SXSW, the film capitalizes on Eisenberg’s acting talents and his brilliant physicality in the role of a man who goes from victim to victimizer by way of a local Karate dojo. The short teaser trailer shows us what darkness and wit to expect from the Riley Stearns written and directed film that opens this summer.

[MIKA27]

BOTTLE LOGIC FUNDAMENTAL THEOREM BEER

Fundamental Observation is one of the best beers on earth. So when Bottle Logic announced what essentially is a bigger version of the beer to celebrate their 5th anniversary, it was impossible to ignore. Fundamental Theorem is an imperial stout aged in four sets of bourbon barrels over the course of a two year period. The beer is finished with a blend of Madagascar and Tahitian vanilla beans and bottled at a whopping 20.59 percent ABV -- the strongest the brewery has ever produced.

[MIKA27]

The Race to Build the World’s Best Bourbon Barrel

Boutique and established cooperages around the country are trying to reinvent the whiskey barrel.

It was a classic January day in upstate New York: gray overcast skies, six inches of snow cover and more lightly drifting down. I was on my way to the Adirondack Barrel Cooperage (ABC) in Remsen about half an hour north of Utica. It’s one of the new, small cooperages that have popped up in America in response to the surge of small-scale spirits and beer makers.

In a recent story, I wrote about how craft brewing and distilling are putting up some impressive employment numbers, especially when you include what economists call the multiplier effect, the jobs in affiliated industries. Cooperages, a truly old-timey business that had shrunk right along with the bourbon industry, have hugely benefited from this craft liquor boom.

Now the Associated Cooperage Industries of America has about 20 new cooperage members, plus there are others that have opened that are unaffiliated with the trade organization. Like the small distillers they supply, these new cooperages are trying new things: Some are highly automated, some are using fiercely traditional methods, some are experimenting with new woods. In response, like the big distillers, the established cooperages are rising to the challenge with their own innovations.

One of the most fiercely debated new developments is the question of how the wood is “seasoned” before being made into barrels. Seasoning takes into account the time between when the tree is cut down, inspected, rough-milled into staves and then made into barrels. While it sounds straightforward, the wood needs to be dried between milling and becoming a barrel—anywhere from four to about 48 months of air drying, and/or kiln drying.

For air drying, the wood has to be stacked just right in order to let air and moisture circulate without creating pockets where the wood stays wet. But you also want some moisture on the wood to promote the growth of beneficial fungus that begins the breakdown of structure and compounds that make oak more than just a container. It’s best to dry it on stone or gravel to cut down on bug infestation.

With proper seasoning, along with the toasting and charring that creates sweeter flavors, oak becomes a major partner in the creation of whiskey flavor. That’s why seasoning has become a selling point for the higher end of the barrel and bourbon market.

I went to the Adirondacks on a tip that ABC was using extra-seasoned wood. The company is run by Kelly and Joe Blazosky. Joe was a master carpenter and had a construction firm. He sold the business in 2009 and was looking for a new one.

“It was the barrel shortage in 2013 that got me thinking,” he told me, referring to the weather-related problems that stymied cooperages. “The smaller distillers had a harder time getting barrels. We talked to New York State producers, and it looked like there was a market.” After writing a business plan, learning coopering at Oregon Barrel Works, and designing some new machinery to make barrels, Joe started production in March of 2016.

ABC is much more high-tech in how they make barrels than any traditional operation I’ve seen. Each stave is cut and shaped to size by an automated machine that then smooths each side. As each stave is selected, a worker checks it, weighs it in his or her hand, and decides if it’s good enough to go into a barrel. The barrel heads (the ends) are made from pieces that are grooved and joined without glue or dowels.

Once the staves are cut, and the barrel is “raised,” or assembled, it’s ready for the heat. Toasting and charring are done with the assistance of temperature probes to make sure the individual barrel gets exactly the heat it needs. “There is a lot of technology,” Joe said, “but it’s all in the service of the craft.”

ABC barrels do look like the product of a master carpenter: smooth, uniform and every custom-forged hoop is in exactly the same place. They aren’t just pretty, they’re sound. “In all the time we’ve been open, all the barrels we’ve made,” Joe said, “we’ve had one leaky barrel. One. I don’t even have any rushes in the building.” Dried rushes are used to plug tiny cracks in new barrels, and you’ll see them used at large cooperages where they literally make as many barrels in a day as ABC makes in a year.

But it all starts with the wood, and Blazosky goes a long way with that as well. He doesn’t use local oak, which I guess I had expected with the craft ethos and the popularity of hyper-local ingredients. “It’s just not the right wood,” he said. He instead sources white oak from Missouri and every piece of it is air dried for three to four years.

What exactly does longer seasoning do? I talked to Matt Hofmann, the co-founder and master distiller at Westland Distillery in Seattle about that. Hofmann has a program of aging malt whiskey in Garryana oak, a species native to the West Coast, which is also known as Oregon white oak. He told me about work the late Dr. Jim Swan, a pioneering wood expert in the industry, had done on Garryana oak chemistry.

“One of the things he identified in Garryana was a high tannin level,” Hofmann told me, “and that’s one of the things that benefits more from air drying. It breaks down tannin. [All the wood] we use in the Garryana barrels has been air dried three years or longer because of that tannin level. We have some stuff that’s been sitting out for 20 years, and we’re trying some two-year stuff just to see the difference.”

This is a topic of interest for the big cooperages as well. Brown-Forman recently flew me out to their cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky, to see how barrel differences change the character of their new Coopers’ Craft Barrel Reserve Bourbon. Their innovative “chiseled” technique cuts grooves in the charred barrel, parallel to the head, with the shavings staying in the barrel for extra surface area exposure. The technique gives the spirit a rich character without going heavy and chewy on the wood.

I sat down with Greg Roshkowski, the vice president and general manager of the Brown-Forman cooperage. We talked about air drying, and that’s when the details on tannins came out. “You’re going from about 50-percent moisture in the wood to about 22-percent in four to six months of air-drying,” he explained. I asked how that works when the wood is sitting out literally in the rain.

“That’s the difference between surface water and ‘bound’ water in the cells,” Roshkowski said. “As the bound water comes out, it brings the tannins with it. If you dry it too quickly, there’s no leaching, and it’s less pliable.” That also causes problems when it’s time to bend the wood into a barrel shape.

Kiln drying is still used, but it’s used to get all the wood to the same moisture level once the tannins have had a chance to leach out. It takes a while. “A four-year-old whiskey has another year in the yard,” Roshkowski said, meaning the time the wood spent air drying.

Seasoning is part of the process that breaks down lignin, the woody structure in oak, into 23 different sugars. “As the lignin breaks down,” he said, “it releases those sugars. It breaks down through heat from the toasting and charring, from age in the drying process, and partly through the bending when the staves are formed.”

Air drying is also key for making white oak the best wood for holding liquids. Trees have tiny pores in order to transfer liquids up and down the trunk. But white oak plugs those pores as the wood dries and seasons with a natural compound called tyloses, making it uniquely qualified for holding whiskey and other liquids.

But overall how much benefit do you get from exceptionally long air-drying? Luckily, Buffalo Trace does such experimentation regularly, and they just happened to conclude one on this topic. Experimental Collection #22 compared whiskey aged in barrels made of wood air dried for 36 and 48 months. The 48-month whiskey was more mellow, less biting, but the younger wood had given its whiskey a more interesting set of flavors.

Buffalo Trace master distiller Harlen Wheatley wasn’t just looking for differences between 36- and 48-month-old wood. “We were trying to determine the differences in 12, 24, 36, and 48 months overall against our standard six-month seasoned wood,” he told me.

Isn’t that a short aging time? “That is not typical for the industry,” Wheatley agreed, but not for the reason I thought. “Typically, a barrel might only be two to three months with kiln dried wood. As the wood ages, the tannins are broken down and creates a softer finish. It does seem to change as you move out and new flavors are created based on the wood. We are very happy with six to 12 months.”

If that’s the young end, what’s the far end, the longest you can go? I was told one distiller was experimenting with eight years of air-drying. Roshkowski was skeptical. “Past four years, you’re going to start losing wood. If you’re losing that much, it’s not making economic sense.”

I think that’s where this comes together, because “economic sense” for Roshkowski and Brown-Forman making 2,500 barrels a day (at just one of their two cooperages) isn’t necessarily “economic sense” for the Blazoskys, making 2,500 barrels a year. ABC uses longer-seasoned wood, and the barrels are shaped to much higher tolerances than Roshkowski requires. But on the other hand, the whiskey I’ve had coming out of the Brown-Forman barrels tastes pretty damn good.

Big cooperages making barrels for big producers have pretty much settled on between 6 and 24 months of air drying, and may go longer for special projects. Going longer than 24 months, though, has higher costs, but it may have benefits, or at least, differences. Those differences may not be to everyone’s palate, or pocketbook.

But the whiskey aficionado is looking for difference. Longer air drying with precision toasting and charring, much like using heirloom grains or pot stills, gives smaller distillers valuable points of differentiation. That’s why places like Adirondack Barrel Cooperage probably have a solid future.  

[MIKA27]

In The First Stranger Things Season 3 Trailer, It's All Fun And Games Until The Monsters Show Up

When last we caught up with Stranger Things’ heroes of Hawkins, they’d successfully managed to fend off yet another inter dimensional threat seeking to breach the divide and enter our world, and for about a few seconds it seemed as if Eleven and her friends were going to be able to enjoy their childhoods in peace.

While the ending of season two made it clear to audiences that there are more monsters yet the gang would have to fight, none of the characters themselves really knew it and in the first trailer for the new season, we see that for the most part, they’re still hanging out and having a good time.

Of course, it’s only a matter of time before Eleven’s got to start using her powers again to go to-to-toe with a horrific flesh monster if there’s any hope of keeping the residents of Hawkins safe.

[MIKA27]

BREITLING NAVITIMER REF. 806 1959 RE-EDITION WATCH

Over 60 years ago, Breitling revealed a stunning piece of wristwear to the aviation world. Known as the Navitimer, the pilot’s watch would become a mainstay in the cockpits of pilots the world over thanks to its innovative “slide rule” — a system used to calculate critical flight processes. Now, the iconic timekeeper is serving as the manufacturer’s first historic re-issue, boasting a limited-run collection and a glorious classic design principle.

The Navitimer Ref. 806 1959 harkens back to the original aviator’s watch with an impeccably realized all-black dial and tone-on-tone subdial. Alongside the Breitling Manufacture Caliber B09 mechanical movement and Super-Luminova coated elements, the 40.9mm case sports a high-domed acrylic glass, an unsigned winged logo, and a black vintage-inspired leather strap. A water resistance of 30 meters and a COSC-certified chrono­meter revitalize the respectable build — and with just 1,959 units set to be sold, the Navitimer Ref. 806 1959 is sure to be a hit among collectors who are looking to capture a glimpse of aviation’s nostalgic past.

[MIKA27]

New Apple AirPods

Apple just announced the second generation AirPods, available to order today. The new Apple AirPods although they look very similar to the previous version, they come with a bunch of upgrades. They are powered by the all-new H1 chip, that makes the headphones perform more efficiently and connect to your device faster, they also promise 50 percent more talk time (five hours of listening time, three hours of talk time per charge), and now have support for hands-free "Hey Siri" activation for more hands-free convenience. Also new is a handy LED status indicator to the front, and the long-awaited wireless charging case that is compatible with the ubiquitous Qi charging pads that can power up your iPhone. 

[Fuzz]

3 hours ago, MIKA27 said:

New Apple AirPods

 

Hands free "Hey Siri" function, huh? So what happens if a bunch of people are all wearing Air Pods and somebody says, "Hey Siri"?

[MIKA27]

19 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Hands free "Hey Siri" function, huh? So what happens if a bunch of people are all wearing Air Pods and somebody says, "Hey Siri"?

Well there lies the problem and sucked in to those that think Air pods are cool.  

I much prefer my B&O E8's. 

BTW: Siri is becoming dumber every update. 

[MIKA27]

Oh Hell No: Snake Catcher Finds 45 Rattlesnakes At Texas Home After Being Called To Remove A 'Few'

A thing you probably hope to never find underneath your home is one rattlesnake—much less a small army of them.

Nonetheless, this was evidently was the hell scenario that greeted a local snake catcher after he was called to a home near Abilene, Texas about a “few” snakes that turned out to be closer to 45, according to a roughly 18-minute video shared to Facebook on Sunday by the service Big Country Snake Removal.

According to the Facebook post, the removal service was called on March 13 after a man crawled under his home to check on his cable reception and noticed the snakes. It was then the service reportedly realised that a “few” was maybe not the most accurate representation of the considerably larger number of snakes it was dealing with.

Big Country Snake Removal’s owner Nathan Hawkins told USA Today that the largest snake he removed from under the home was well over 1.52m in length.

Hawkins also noted this number of snakes was “nothing” (what?!) and that he’s called to similar jobs “all the time.”

In fact, this lot was about half of what he claimed was his largest-ever snake removal job. Hawkins separately told the Washington Post he once removed nearly 90 snakes from another client’s home.

These snakes, identified by the Post as western diamondbacks, are venomous and prone to biting. But Hawkins appears largely undeterred by the dozens of large rattlers surrounding him in the video. He told the Post he traps and relocates the snakes he does catch on his jobs.

As for the more than 40 he claims to have snagged recently? Hawkins used it as a teachable moment.

“The interesting thing here was they only see a few each year, their yard was very well kept and their house was nice and clean,” he captioned the Facebook post.

“My point is, we run into this scenario often, and people don’t think it can happen to them. As I stated in the teaser video, rattlesnakes don’t care how nice your house is or what kind [of] car you drive—they care simply about survival.”