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

[MIKA27]

Here's The Big Two-Stroke Parade Of Trabants And Wartburgs To Celebrate The Fall Of The Berlin Wall

In what is very likely the smokiest, smelliest tribute to human freedom ever, a parade of around 65 Trabants, Wartburgs and the occasional Barkas van trundled through a surviving gate between Thuringia and Bavaria, celebrating the fact that the people on the East side of that wall no longer have to buy cars like this. Oh, and freedom.

Here’s a nice little video of the magical event:

The Trabant, especially, has become a symbol of life in East Germany, at least a symbol of the less repressive aspects, at least, and one that has actually managed to generate a bit of nostalgia.

The Trabant often gets panned as one of the worst cars ever built, but if you consider the context, with the extremely limited resources available and how many people the car actually managed to put on the roads, it’s really something of a triumph. I mean, the thing was built from recycled Soviet underpants and relied on gravity to keep its fuel pumping, yet somehow still managed to get millions of East Germans where they needed to go for decades.

It’s good to see there’s still people who appreciate these humble little reminders of the Bad Old Days.

[MIKA27]

‘Fantasy Island’ Trailer Reveals Blumhouse’s Creepy Update on the ’80s TV Show

Blumhouse has released the first trailer for its upcoming adaptation-with-a-twist, Fantasy Island. Based on the 1980s TV series of the same name, the movie stars Michael Peña as Mr. Roarke, the role originally played on the Fantasy Island series by Ricardo Montalban. Peña’s co-stars include Lucy Hale, Maggie Q, Parisa Fitz-Henley, Jimmy O. Yang, and Michael Rooker.

If it wasn’t clear from the studio backing it, this new Fantasy Island definitely veers away from the tone of the original. Sure, the initial pitch may be the same — bring attractive young folks to a remote luxury destination and let them run wild— but it’s clear from the outset this reimagining has some dark twists. Peña’s charming-but-deadly vibe is ominous and it’s clear things are going to get real bad, real fast when you realize his character’s definition of “fantasy” isn’t what you’d expect.

It also looks like Hale (already a road-tested scream queen with Truth or Dare) will be one of the main characters (if not the primary protagonist) who quickly finds herself battling against Roarke and the very sinister forces at work on Fantasy Island. The official trailer will likely confirm this but the Fantasy Island trailer is also giving off heavy Hostel vibes with Mr. Roarke’s promise guests “must see your fantasy through — no matter what” along with shots of dark rooms, surgical tools, and Fantasy Island employees that go bump in the night as they promise you a place to indulge your dark side.

Fantasy Island hits theaters February 14, 2020.

 

[MIKA27]

Japan's Asteroid Probe Is Finally Returning To Earth With Its Precious Cargo

The Japanese space agency has declared an end to the exploratory phase of the Hayabusa2 mission. Beginning tomorrow, the overachieving spacecraft will leave Ryugu and head back to Earth, bringing—hopefully—its asteroid samples along with it.

After a year and a half of exploratory work around the Ryugu asteroid, the time has finally come for JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft to return home.

At 10:05 a.m. tomorrow Japan time, the probe will receive its instructions to leave the Ryugu system, reports the AFP. Hayabusa2 should break free of the asteroid’s gravity on November 18, after which time it will fire its main thrusters and begin its journey toward Earth. The probe is expected to return in December 2020.

The Ryugu asteroid.

Along for the ride will be the all-important asteroid samples. The probe managed to touch the surface twice, attempting to collect surface samples on February 21, 2019 and deeper materials on July 11, 2019.

In addition, Hayabusa2 took numerous photos of the asteroid and deployed several robotic probes to the surface, among other tasks. Looking back, the mission has been nothing short of a spectacular success—though the final sigh of relief will come when scientists open the cargo containers and confirm that they really do contain the samples of asteroid they were designed to collect.

“I’m feeling half-sad, half-determined to do our best to get the probe home,” project manager Yuichi Tsuda told reporters earlier this week, as reported by AFP. “Ryugu has been at the heart of our everyday life for the past year and a half.”

Thankfully, the year-long journey home is much shorter than the 3.5 years it took for Hayabusa2 to reach the asteroid. Earth and Ryugu are now closer together along their respective orbital paths compared to 2014, when the asteroid was nearly 300 million kilometres from Earth.

Hayabusa2 began packing for home earlier this summer when it placed the sample chamber inside its re-entry capsule. Unlike its predecessor, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft will not burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, it will jettison the samples once at Earth, where they’re expected to land in the South Australian Desert (JAXA is currently negotiating with the Aussie government to iron out some important details, including permits to retrieve the re-entry capsule in the restricted Woomera territory). As for Hayabusa2, it will stay in space, where it could be recycled for another asteroid mission.

JAXA scientists are expecting the samples to contain bits of carbon and organic compounds. By studying these samples, scientists hope to glean new insights into the composition of asteroids and how they formed some 4 billion years ago during the early days of the solar system.

[MIKA27]

Japan To Reinvent Fukushima As A Renewable Energy Hub

Plans have been announced to convert abandoned areas in Fukushima to a renewable energy hub, a scheme that will involve the construction of new solar plants, wind farms, and a power transmission grid that will feed Tokyo with electricity.

It’s been eight years since an earthquake and tsunami triggered a catastrophic meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The immediate area around the facility remains unsafe, but as Nikkei Asian Review reports, Japan is hatching a plan to convert the area into a haven for renewable energy.

The plan calls for 11 solar plants and 10 wind farms to be built on land in the Fukushima prefecture that “cannot be cultivated anymore and mountainous areas from where population outflows continue,” according to Nikkei.

Nearly 43,000 Japanese citizens remain displaced by the disaster—many of whom are understandably wary about returning home, despite the government’s assurances.

Meanwhile, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operates the ruined nuclear power plant, says the facility may not be completely decommissioned until the 2050s. And then there are Fukushima’s three Evacuation-Designed Zones to consider, which encompass 371 square kilometres of space, or nearly 3 per cent of the prefecture’s total area.

If the Fukushima nuclear disaster is essentially a gigantic lemon, then Japan is now trying to make some lemonade in the form of this renewable energy hub. The new facilities are expected to be completed by March 2024 at an estimated cost of $4 billion. A line of credit to partially support the cost of the project will be provided by the state-run Development Bank of Japan and the privately owned Mizuho Bank according to Nikkei.

The hub is expected to produce around 600 megawatts of electricity. That’s a fraction of the nearly 4,700 megawatts the former nuclear plant was capable of producing, but will still be enough electricity to power 114,000 average American homes. The project also calls for the construction of a grid connected to TEPCO’s main backbone grid that can be used to transmit electricity to Tokyo.

This new plan is consistent with prefecture’s goal of having renewable energy supply 40 per cent of its demand by 2020, two-thirds by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2040, according to the Japan Times.

This plan is reminiscent of a China-backed scheme to build solar power stations in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the only other area on Earth ravaged by a nuclear meltdown. There’s a curious poetic irony to these plans, in which areas wrecked by power plants can still be used to generate power. Life is weird.

[Fuzz]

20 minutes ago, MIKA27 said:

Japan's Asteroid Probe Is Finally Returning To Earth With Its Precious Cargo

 

[MIKA27]

Divers Just Saved 900 Bottles Of 100-Year-Old Booze From A World War I Shipwreck

The 50 salvaged cases of cognac brandy and 15 cases of herbal liqueur were originally intended for the aristocracy of Russia.

The Swedish dive team Ocean X just recovered 900 bottles of century-old cognac and liqueur from the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The ship carrying this luxurious cargo was sunk by a German U-boat in 1917, leaving its contents lost in the ocean for more than 100 years.

According to Live Science, this shipment was originally intended for Russia’s aristocracy — perhaps even for Czar Nicholas II. It was only a year later that he was executed by the Communist government.

The 15 salvaged cases of the herbal liqueur Benedictine and 50 cases of cognac brandy may still be drinkable today. The cold, shadowy waters of the Baltic provide surprisingly good conditions for preserving spirits. Further testing and analysis will soon be underway to confirm this theory.

Though water pressure naturally pushed some of the corks in, and some sediment found its way inside, many bottles perfectly retained the tin seals during the last century. Experts are confident that the alcohol is not only still worth imbibing, but that the find will be highly valued at an auction.

“This was the last shipment for Russia, and for the czar,” said Ocean X founder Peter Lindberg, who led the expedition.

It may come as a surprise that the sunken ship, Kyros, was Swedish. Though Sweden was a neutral country during World War I, Germany and Russia were enemies. The German navy had orders to sink any ship carrying war supplies into Russian harbors — so they had no qualms about sinking this one.

“It’s a fantastic moment to find these bottles… finally,” said Ocean X spokesperson Dennis Asberg. “It took 20 years to bring up this historic treasure. Many of the bottles are in good condition… but we will now do an analysis on all the bottles.”

According to Fox News, the wreckage had been damaged by fishing nets throughout the 20th century. It wasn’t discovered until 1999. And now, at long last, the bottles of “De Haartman & Co” cognac and Benedictine liqueur have finally been retrieved from the ocean floor, which is 253 feet deep.

“The importance of this event cannot be overemphasized — it’s not only a find of rare cognac and liqueur, but also a part of history of the former imperial Russia,” the team said.

But the Kyros seemed to be smuggling more than party supplies into Russia. One Ocean X video showed divers retrieving parts of a German Luger pistol and a bullet from the wreckage. The find suggested the Kyros may have, indeed, been carrying war supplies.

“If it’s more than one, then it’s smuggling because it’s not on the cargo manifest,” an Ocean X member said.

The cargo manifest also indicated that the ship was carrying steel and machine parts, possibly to aid the Russian war effort. Though the voyage from France through Sweden was originally set for December 1916, treacherous ice sheets in the sea of Bothnia led to a one-year delay.

It was on May 19, 1917 that a German U-boat stopped the Kyros at sea, while traversing the Sea of Aland. Upon inspecting the vessel, the U-boat commander made the fateful choice of sinking it with explosives.

Fortunately, the crew was first placed on another ship and allowed a safe passage back to Sweden.

In order to retrieve the wayward spirits, Ocean X decided that remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) were the best course of action. These underwater drones were extremely helpful despite the poor visibility.

Since both the wreck and its cargo are under the international maritime rules of salvage, anyone is legally allowed to retrieve and keep whatever they want. For Lindberg and his diving company, it’s precisely these kinds of scenarios that have proven lucrative in the past.

Back in 1997, the team salvaged nearly 2,000 bottles of Champagne from a shipwreck in the Baltic, from a sunken vessel originally headed for Russia. With each bottle valued at between $5,000 and $10,000 at auctions, it’s certainly a financially buoyant endeavor.

The bottles have been underwater for 102 years. Potability tests are currently underway.

This particular haul is potentially worth millions of dollars — with the Benedictine brand’s contemporary tie to Bacardi possibly being a profitable variable. “De Haartman & Co.” is simply no longer being produced, and could thus have a certain kind of appeal.

“I don’t know yet if the collectors would like to buy vintage cognac of a known brand, or is it worth more or less because it is unknown?” Lindberg pondered.

Ultimately, the resourceful diver and his company will have to wait and see. As it stands, the 1997 Champagne haul and this year’s Kyros haul may have left no more spirits on the Baltic seafloor for anyone else to snatch up.

“This was the last shipment to find,” said Lindberg.

However, Ocean X still has some interesting prospects for the near future, including a hunt for Nicholas II’s bedazzled Faberge eggs. The eerily dubbed “Baltic anomaly” — a circular underwater structure discovered in 2012 — currently holds most of Lindberg’s attention.

“This summer, we found new strange things out there, which make us believe that it may have been a very early settlement,” he said.

[MIKA27]

Whiskey: A Tasting Course

Whiskey is undoubtedly a form of art, and it requires a bit of study to know what you are actually talking about. Perfect for the whisky curious, this new book Whiskey: A Tasting Course is jam-packed with a series of guided at-home tastings to elevate your palate. Taste your way to whisky wisdom with this hands-on handbook that features 20 step-by-step tastings, with clear infographics and jargon-busting advice. There are also guides to whiskey prices and ages that will help you to make smarter buys as you learn to pour, pair, and craft speakeasy-level cocktails.

[MIKA27]

The $2.5 Million McLaren Elva Doesn't Need A Windshield To Be Faster Than The Senna

Well damn, you may as well throw your McLaren Senna right in the trash heap because the British supercar maker just bested itself again. The new 2020 McLaren Elva is lighter, faster with an 804 horsepower twin-turbo V8, and audacious in its lack of a windshield and windows.

That 804 HP power coupled with the lightest carbon body McLaren has ever designed gets the Elva from 0 to 62 mph in under 3 seconds, and from 0 to 200km/h quicker than the Senna in just 6.7 seconds. The Elva also has the benefit of looking considerably better than the Senna.

The Elva name comes from 1960s McLaren-Elva sports cars for the street designed by Bruce McLaren and derived from Group 7 race cars, which is the company’s excuse to make a terrifyingly quick modern supercar with no windshield.

McLaren claims the Elva has been homologated for every market, and because of that the car is also available with a fixed windshield. You know, for those of us that don’t enjoy turning road insects into tiny bullets to be collected by our face while driving.

But McLaren also claims that won’t be a problem if you go for no windshield, as the Elva has been designed with a so-called “McLaren Active Air Management System” that deflects air away from just directly pummelling the vehicle occupants creating a “bubble of calm.”

There will only be 399 Elvas built, with or without windshields, starting at $US1,690,000 ($2,473,623) before you make any personalised touches. Yet again a fancy car company is charging more for less, technically. They love doing that.

Find a good helmet with a visor, too, even if McLaren claims you don’t need it.

[MIKA27]

The Final Days Of Japan's Most Incredible Arcade

Japan is known for its video arcades, from the tiniest little collections of claw games in basements to entire high-rise buildings packed with floor after floor of video amusements. On Sunday, November 17, perhaps the most elaborately themed arcade in the country, Anata no Warehouse in Kawasaki, will shut down for reasons that remain unexplained.

The five-story mega-arcade was the brainchild of Taishiro Hoshino, a set designer for kabuki theatre, who opened it in 2019. Far from a simple collection of games, Anata no Warehouse (“Your Warehouse”) was a recreation of the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong’s New Territories, a gravity-defying mega-slum that had captured the world’s imagination until it was torn down in 1993.

The Walled City began as a Chinese military outpost to protect trade shipments, and over the years, morphed into a squatters’ haven. Many incoming residents had been displaced by war or the Communist revolution, while others craved freedom from Chinese and British interference.

The Walled City had attracted widespread attention in Japan, and its demolition was even aired on national television. During the arcade’s construction, Hoshino asked a family friend to mail over a bunch of real Hong Kong garbage to get everything just right. His team even spent time sourcing old electronics and authentic tin mailboxes from Hong Kong. Visiting Anata no Warehouse became a low-key pilgrimage for film buffs, historians, architects, researchers, and even young Hong Kongers.

Across decades of film, literature, and video games, Kowloon Walled City had been the setting for numerous dystopian tales of lawlessness and corruption. The architectural behemoth appeared in iconic movies like Bloodsport, Baraka, and Crime Story. The Walled City popped up in Shenmue II, Call of Duty: Black Ops, the Street Fighter V II anime, and naturally, Shadowrun: Hong Kong.

Over the years, photographers documented its chaotic facade and day-to-day life inside the city. It was sometimes called “the city of darkness” because most of its inhabitants did not receive natural light. To outsiders, it was a place of unimaginable crime, poverty, and inhumane living conditions. At its peak, it was described as the most densely populated settlement in the world. But to those who grew up in the Walled City, it was a tight-knit community of families, co-ops, and small businesses. Many residents had nothing to do with crime: The Walled City was simply home.

Its reincarnation as a Japanese arcade was also a nod to its role as a place of community. Even today, Japanese people flock to arcades to escape from reality, or immerse themselves in larger-than-life experiences that can’t be had at home. On a mundane level, the arcade is still a place to hang out with friends, go on dates, or simply be alone. On a larger scale, it’s a refuge for both old and young who seek human connections in a digital world.

I visited Anata no Warehouse earlier this year, in the middle of a sweaty Japanese summer. Walking through the main entrance into a cool, dim hallway, I was surrounded by a din of recorded Cantonese voices. The combination of strategically-placed speakers, papered-over windows, and grimy lighting was strikingly effective; the “conversation” around me breathed life into the illusion of a real human presence behind the grungy walls.

I walked past dozens of torn flyers for escort services, under bare lightbulbs that dangled from the ceiling in spartan metal cages. There was also a groan-inducing window that showed a recreation of a Walled City prostitute’s room, complete with a sleeping mannequin in a bra and peeling art deco posters. While some descriptions of the warehouse have called it an “amusement park,” there were no ticket booths or guides to show you the way—visiting the warehouse was an entirely self-driven experience.

A well-curated collection of retro classics greeted me on the second floor, including Gauntlet and Space Harrier. This second-floor museum section was also the most iconic (and most photographed) part of the warehouse, accentuated with neon lighting, hanging laundry, apartment facades, and a food stall with fake poultry. Neat placards sat alongside an array of different games that came in the form of sit-down consoles, tabletops, and standard uprights.

There was a well-kept Rad Mobile cabinet—the 1991 racing game that featured a then-unknown Sonic the Hedgehog as a dangling rearview mirror decoration—tucked into an alcove. A vintage light blue cabinet housed Taito’s 1987 arcade shooter Darius, known for its trio of mirrored screens that created the illusion of one super-wide monitor.

Next to these was an artificially aged vending machine that I ultimately decided against making a purchase from, even though its drinks looked fine. Its equally beat-up neighbour was a UFO Catcher claw machine whose mottled glass showed silhouettes of stuffed animal prizes inside. It was like stepping into a lost world, set to an ambient soundtrack of clinks, chimes, and soothing trills of far-off slot machines.

On the other side of the second floor, surrounded by more faux-decrepit walls and faded posters, sat a horde of shiny white Namco claw machines and change machines with deliberately yellowed, stained casings. Claw machines boasted everything from hot sauce and dried squid to Red Bull and Monster energy drinks. The machine holding the latter was accompanied by a printed sign that said “It’s fucking delicious,” like some kind of pre-Death Stranding guerrilla marketing.

Occasionally, I’d bump into a uniformed employee cheerfully restocking a claw machine, which was a comforting reassurance that the food was being monitored by real humans. I waved at a young man approaching the dried squid claw machine, hoping to ask why he’d rather play for a cheap snack instead of just buying one at a convenience store, but he brushed me aside.

I wasn’t the only rubbernecker in Anata no Warehouse’s claw game section that day. A giggling tourist couple with a telephoto lens was similarly enthralled by the sheer variety of prizes on parade. One machine was dedicated entirely to Minions merch, another to vegetarian-friendly tofu cookies, and several to electronics and anime figurines.

Like any respectable arcade, Anata no Warehouse also had its share of classic slot machines, dance staples like Dance Dance Revolution and Dancerush Stardom, various Street Fighters, a row of Formula One racing games (and some old Daytonas), and rhythm games like Taiko No Tatsujin. The dance games, stationed in front of a wall of shuttered old “storefronts,” looked oddly at home, like a scene you wouldn’t be surprised to see in cyberpunk concept art.

In contrast to their surroundings, all the actual game machines were normal and unspoiled, probably to avoid putting people off actually using them. It was hard to miss the truck-shaped cabinet for Let’s Go Jungle: Lost on the Island of Spice, a cheesy Sega rail shooter where players sit in a revolving seat to blast huge mutant creatures on two screens. Made for two, it’s quite possibly the ultimate co-op experience for couples trying not to break up. Sadly, nobody was playing it.

One of the more intriguing cabinets was something called Prohunt, an offensively bright, pulsating red situation with ice-blue lettering and a massive joystick resembling a dildo. A quick online search suggested that it was based on a 1970s Japanese TV drama set in the Edo era, and that the show’s name translated to something along the lines of “must kill workers.” There was clearly a lot to discover, even if I didn’t have enough time to fully plumb the depths.

The Walled City aesthetic ends on the third floor. The topmost floor of the structure is taken up by bizarre marble statuary flooded in unnerving red lighting, plus a large area for billiard tables. I spent most of my time creeping around the first three floors, thinking about how Hoshino had mentioned, but never disclosed, the “super secret ageing techniques” used to achieve this special environment. With any kind of historic recreation, the devil is truly in the details. I noticed a clump of realistic weeds “growing” next to the Gauntlet machine.

On this quiet weekday afternoon, the entire warehouse seemed to have a little over three dozen guests. Most of them were perched at regular slot machines, perfecting their DDR moves, or chatting with friends.

In contrast to some of the brighter, perkier mega-arcades in places like Akihabara, Anata no Warehouse was cool, dark, and inviting. It was a windowless escape from the heat outside, or if you wanted to be alone, the perfect place to hole up for the afternoon.

Most people just wanted to be left alone, as Anata no Warehouse, for all its weirdness, was just their regular neighbourhood haunt, a chance to disappear into the Walled City.

[MIKA27]

The Israelite Hospital Raised the Rent on Rome’s Antico Caffe Greco. Now The Storied Cafe is a Neo Nazi Magnet

The 260-year-old Antico Caffe Greco in Rome once drew intellectuals. Now saving it is a cause célèbre for neo-nazis and fascists after an Israeli hospital raised its rent.

ROME–The lush textured walls of the Antico Caffe Greco at the foot of the Spanish Steps in central Rome have been a backdrop to history for centuries. The cafe, which opened its gilded doors on the posh Via Condotti in 1760, has been painted and primped over the years, but it's spirit has largely remained the same. For centuries, the long narrow mirrored hall leading to smaller enclaves was the place in Rome for great minds to meet over coffee and spirits. 

Much of its glory is memorialized in the 300 paintings and vintage photographs on the walls. And the list of past patrons sounds more like an all-time best seller listing, including Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lord Byron, Henry James, Percy Shelley, and John Keats, who lived and eventually died around the corner from here. Hans Christian Andersen lived in a room upstairs and, when he moved out, he left his velvet sofa which is still in use today. Casanova played court here, as did stars from Elizabeth Taylor to Audrey Hepburn. Buffalo Bill even showed up in 1890 with a group of cowboys for caffè Americano, and Orson Welles had his own corner table. Legend has it there was even a time when any cardinal who sat at a certain table would eventually become pope, which prompted long waiting lists for those with such aspirations. 

Today, walking into the cafe from the posh designer lined street is like stepping back in time. Artists and academics have long since stopped coming here, but that doesn’t stop locals who live in this part of Rome from standing at the bar for their affordable espresso and cappuccino and reminiscing about how great things used to be. The tourists and glitterati who want to experience a slice of the history head down the narrow hallway that gives way to a salotto that could be a movie set. They settle into the worn velvet sofas and chairs while tuxedoed waiters glide around the room. Table service is five times more than what the locals pay, but to have a such an elegant waiter bring freshly squeezed orange juice or handcrafted cappuccino is somehow worth it. Most weekday late mornings, Stellario Baccellieri, the artist in situ, is perched on his bench seat sketching or painting patrons or random depictions of Rome’s most important tourist sites. There has always been a local artist at the cafe and Baccellieri recently told the Guardian that he’s seen “everything and everyone.” He is as much a fixture as the opulent chandeliers and hand maids who hand out towels in the restroom. “ The most important people have been here,” he said. “This place is not only a [cafe], it’s a museum.”

But this glorious icon–which is a World Heritage Site—is in danger of closing after the Israelite Hospital of Rome, which owns the palazzo the cafe is housed in, raised ites rent from $19,400 a month to $132,000 a month when its ancient lease expired in September. The Israel-owned hospital says the price is in line with the cafe’s neighbors, which include the likes of Gucci, Louis Viutton, and Prada. But the current cafe owner say that despite charging around $14 for a cappuccino with table service, there is no way they can pay that price–nor should they. The cafe was granted a stay from its original October eviction notice until January 8, 2020, by which time the managers must either put up or pack up. The current management took the Israelite Hospital to court over the rent hike, but lost.

“The sentence is incomprehensible and the rent hike extortionate,” Carlo Pellegrini, the cafe manager said when the court ruled the price hike was fair. “We would be ready to pay more rent to keep the cafe open but not six times the amount we’re paying now. I feel very angry, but we will fight this.”

Under pressure from a number of cultural institutions in Rome, lawyers for the Israelite Hospital say that they will likely find a new management group and revamp the old cafe “bringing it up to the modern era.” But the move has prompted a slurry of Anti-Semitic abuse on the cafe’s Facebook page, of which about the only thing we can print is reference to a long barrage of complaints that such a Roman establishment must never be Jewish-owned. “If the management of the Antico Caffe Greco were to pass to the zionists, then this place must also be included in the boycott against Israel,” one post says.

Antisemitic graffiti can now be found on the sidewalks and nearby buildings. For more than a week, a corner table at the cafe was inhabited by Anti-Semite types ranging from skinheads to members of Italy’s far right Brothers of Italy party, whose message is hardly subtle. 

“We are here to make a stand,” one of the men from Brothers of Italy told The Daily Beast. “We cannot possibly allow a place like this to be run by Jews. We will not allow that to happen.”

The spike in hate comes at a particularly delicate time in Italy. This week, Liliana Segre, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor who was sent to Auschwitz when she was 13, was assigned police protection after receiving death threats from some of the same groups now trying to save the Antico Caffe Greco. She has been honored as a “senator for life” in parliament, despite a number of right wing groups, including the Brothers of Italy, opposing her. These groups also abstained from a vote to establish a hate commission she penned, though it passed by a narrow margin without them. 

The Israelite Hospital owners have also taken notice of the abuse. Bruno Sed, president of the hospital, filed a defamation suit against the right-wing supporters of the cafe. "We are collecting the contents of some posts, which will be the object of complaint for instigating racial hatred,” Sed said in a statement this week. He says he will file the complaint in criminal court on Monday. 

The cafe’s manager Pelligrini, who had originally replied to the zionist remark by assuring the person who wrote: “that will never happen” distanced himself from the hateful comments, and says he will file his own defamation suit against those who are using the rent hike as an excuse to spew hate. “Throwing up painful and sad questions about an abominable story that has involved the history of Europe on a battle of civilization over high rent price is demented and in bad taste.”

In many ways, the survival of this cafe–the oldest in Rome—through some of this country’s darkest hours is a true testament to the endurance Rome itself. And whatever eventually happens to this grand old place–whether it somehow stays just as it is through a last minute agreement in the rental dispute or if it is reinvented under new management–it seems impossible to ignore its historical significance over so many decades, or to silence the voices of the many ghosts who have passed through its doors. 

[MIKA27]

‘Black Adam’ Unleashes Its First Poster and Sets a Release Date

This past year, Warner Bros. has proven you can make a successful movie set in the Shazam! world and you can make a hit featuring a single villain (although to be fair, Joker has a lot of name recognition and notoriety). This all bodes well for the upcoming Black Adam, which has been in development for years with Dwayne Johnson attached to star. Now Warner Bros. has finally announced a release date for the movie and released a poster featuring concept art of Johnson as Black Adam.

The upcoming supervillain movie will hit theaters on December 22, 2021

[MIKA27]

There Was A Time When Ford Didn't Think The Mustang Brand Was Worth What A Fancy Truck Costs

How much do you think the Mustang brand identity is worth to Ford today? A hell of a lot, right? It’s a legit automotive icon, and the only non truck/crossover/SUV they’re still even willing to sell in America anymore, so you’d think it’s safe to say that the Mustang brand is considered a crown jewel of Ford. Incredibly, this hasn’t always been the case; in fact, at one time, Ford wasn’t even willing to pay the price of a top-spec F450 for it. I’ll explain.

When the Mustang was first released in 1965 (we’ll just leave that 1964 1/2 stuff to the real dorks) and they began to investigate exporting the car to Europe, they ran into a bit of a snag in Germany: the name Mustang was taken.

A company called Krupp had been building multipurpose utility trucks under the Mustang name for years, and held the German trademark to the name.

They offered to sell the name to Ford, but Ford refused, choosing instead to re-brand the Mustang in Germany as the T5.

T5 was a development name used by the Mustang project, but it had no special significance otherwise. There was still the galloping horse on the fenders, but I guess that was just some random, unrelated horse in this context.

Now, this is interesting and all, but it’s not exactly unknown—real Mustang obsessives are very aware of these German T5s. What I think is fascinating—and what I never really realised before—is the amount Krupp wanted from Ford for the Mustang name: $US10 ($15),000 ($14,745).

Now, this baffles me. $US10 ($15) large just doesn’t seem like a big deal to a huge company like Ford, even in 1965. If we calculate what $US10,000 ($14,745) in 1965 is in today’s dollars, it comes to right about $US81,500 ($120,175).

That’s less than the cost of one well-equipped Ford F-450 Super Duty Crew Cab truck.

Ford wasn’t exactly a tiny, struggling company in 1965—they were huge, arguably more powerful and influential than they are today. Ten grand would have been a trivial amount for them to get the Mustang name, certainly a hell of a lot easier and cheaper than having to produce badging, advertising, documentation, and so on for an identical car in one, solitary market.

I have yet to find a really good explanation of why Ford made this decision way back then. Sure, the Mustang was new, and nobody could really know how legendary the nameplate would one day become, but even so, what was the point of cheaping out and not buying the name, when it had to have cost Ford more to make all those special T5 badges and steering wheels and hubcaps and owners manuals and on and on. It makes no sense.

Even if Krupp was asking much more money, you’d think it’d have been worth it—they were willing to sell the rights to the name, which you’d think would be the important part.

Eventually, in 1979 Krupp’s trademark on the Mustang name expired, and Ford began badging German Mustangs just like the rest of the world.

But for well over a decade—an incredibly influential decade in that car’s life—Ford did this weird-arse not-Mustang thing in Germany because—why again? They’re incredibly cheap, if you don’t pay attention to the extra cost associated with totally re-badging a car and maintaining a unique marketing arm for one market?

They didn’t want to give Krupp any money? Pride? A childhood promise Edsel Ford made to Kaiser Wilhelm II? Who the hell knows. All I do actually know is that this has to be one of the strangest (stupidest?) automotive marketing decisions made by a major carmaker ever.

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Ford V. Ferrari Shines A Rare Light On Unsung Racing Hero Ken Miles

In the battle between Ford and Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, there are a lot of icons from the world of cars: Enzo Ferrari, Henry Ford II, Lee Iacocca, and Carroll Shelby. But director James Mangold focused on an unlikely and somewhat unsung protagonist for his newest film Ford v. Ferrari (or Le Mans ‘66, for those of you across the pond): British racing driver Ken Miles.

While Shelby does play a significant role in the film, initial reviews have said its title could easily have been The Untold Story of Ken Miles. It’s an interesting choice, considering he isn’t the household name that you’d anticipate. So who was Ken Miles?

There are reasons he’s not as famous as the other figures in this tale. Miles was a very private person and had no interest in the spotlight. He rarely gave interviews, so it can be tough to actually track down any hard facts today. And, well, a significant amount of the work that contributed to his success was done behind the scenes. He doesn’t have a repertoire of one-liners and clever quips the way Carroll Shelby did. In fact, the only direct quotes I was able to find came from the book Go Like Hell by A.J. Baime.

Miles in 1965.

But given how much as we love the story of Le Mans ’66, it may be time to give Miles more of his due.

Miles was born in Birmingham, England in 1918, where he grew up racing motorcycles before serving as a tank commander in the British Army in World War II, as recounted by Motor Sport Magazine. But his heart was set on other racing; he’d tried to run away once while he was young, failed, and returned to apprentice at early British automaker Wolseley Motors. When attempts at racing professionally in the UK left Miles and his family—at the time, his wife and infant son—destitute, he accepted a job offer in California and set out to pursue the American Dream, or at least a steady living.

A skilled racer, test driver, general mechanic, and engineer, Miles quickly appeared on Carroll Shelby’s radar. By 1964, the two were working together, and Miles was serving as competition director and test driver for Shelby American.

That made Miles the perfect driver for the Le Mans project that Ford was funelling money into. Shelby figured if anyone was going to kick Ferrari’s arse, it would probably be this guy. When it came time to take the Ford GT MkII out to the races in 1966, Miles was in hot demand.

That year, he won both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring—at the time, arguably two of the biggest endurance races outside of Le Mans. With those skills under his belt, he was a favourite to take home the victory at Le Mans.

Now at this point, we’re about to hit some pretty significant movie plot points, so if you don’t want to be spoiled regarding this historical event that happened over five decades ago and has also been the subject of countless documentaries and books, you can probably stop here.

Ford did indeed kick arse at Le Mans that year. Miles, alongside co-driver Denny Hulme, had dominated the lead of the race. The Fords of Ronnie Bucknam/Dick Hutcherson and Bruce McLaren/Chris Amon were pulling up second and third.

Then came an infamous call from Ford’s management: it wanted all three drivers to cross the finish line at the same time. The sanctioning body presiding over Le Mans supposedly promised that they would honour the running order, thus ensuring Miles and Hulme would win the race.

That’s not what happened. Instead, the win was given to Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. Because they had started further down the grid than Miles and Hulme, they had technically covered more distance in the race. They were declared the winners. Miles and Hulme came second. McLaren, for his own part, said it was honestly likely that he’d accelerated right at the end and crossed the finish line first, as recounted in Go Like Hell.

The Ford team on podium, 1966.

Whatever the case, Miles got the short end of the stick. Immediately after the race, Miles reportedly summed up the whole situation very precisely: “I think I’ve been fucked.”

But that didn’t mean Miles was ready to shirk his duties to Ford. In an interview about the Le Mans fiasco, he was said to have pleaded to Los Angeles Times reporter Bob Thomas, “Please be careful in how you report what I have said. I work for these people. They have been awfully good to me.” He was frank, but he wasn’t the kind of person to let one bad call sour a longstanding relationship.

What made things all the more poignant was Miles’ death in August of that same year. Miles was behind the wheel of the ‘J-Car’ project at Riverside, Ford’s next evolution of its winning GT40. However, the car flipped and rolled multiple times at over 321 kilometres per hour, throwing Miles out of it on the third revolution before lighting on fire. Investigations revealed a mechanical failure had caused the accident. Miles was 47 years old.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t ever heard much about Miles, it’s because there was never really a chance to learn. Much of his career had been spent on the sidelines, with a focus on engineering and testing cars and organising race teams. His one opportunity to step out into the spotlight was overshadowed by, depending on the version of the story, bad management or overeager teammates. And he died before he was able to try for that elusive win in 1967.

No matter the plot of the movie, it’s admittedly great to finally give Miles his chance to gain the recognition he deserves for being a significant driving force behind Ford’s winning GT40 project. It’s hard to imagine Le Mans 1966 being as legendary as it was without Miles’s brainpower and on-track skills driving the Ford’s project to success.

Ford v. Ferrari is in Australian cinemas now.

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Lawrence G. Paull, Oscar-Nominated Visionary Behind Blade Runner, Back To The Future, Dies At 81

Lawrence G. Paull, the art director and production designer behind iconic movies like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future, died November 10 per the Hollywood Reporter. According to a publicist’s announcement, he passed away in La Jolla, California, at the age of 81. No cause of death was cited, THR reported.

Though his career spanned decades, Paull’s Oscar-nominated work on the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner remains some of his most prolific, as the dystopian Los Angeles aesthetic he helped actualize continues to inspire and influence how creators tackle the genre today. In a 2015 interview THR’s report cites, Paull attributes this success in part to Ridley’s hands-off directing approach.

“What he would say, up in the art department: ‘If you build it, I’ll shoot it.’ And who could resist the temptation of that? Because we’ve all suffered, making films with gigantic sets, and beautiful sets, and all that is shown are talking heads. And that was disappointing. But because [Ridley] was an art director, he knew he could hook us with that bait. And he did it — if we built it, he shot it,” he told Inverse.

In a statement Scott provided to THR, the director recalled he was “always struck by [Paull’s] staunch and faithful support of the strange plan for the unique world of Blade Runner. Between Syd [Means, visual futurist on the film] and myself and Larry, it was a challenging, monumental task for him and against all odds — the proof is in his work in the film. So I guess we won. My hat comes off for him.”

After retiring from the production side of the industry in the early 2000s, Paull went on to use his architectural degree and lifetime of showbiz experience to teach production design at Chapman University, according to the report. He also acted as a guest speaker at other universities like Harvard, USC, UCLA, Catholic University, and his architecture alma mater, the University of Arizona.

There will be no services, per THR, and the family has requested any donations made in his memory be submitted to a charity of your choice.

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Deep-Sea Vents Might Solve Mystery Of Ancient Ocean Carbon

Scientists have found deep-sea graphite that might help solve a deep-sea carbonaceous mystery, according to a new study.

The deep ocean contains various kinds of carbon, including fresh carbon-based material from sources on the surface and old carbon whose source is unknown. Scientists have theorised different sources for that older carbon, including soot from combustion processes, kicked-up sediments, or maybe hydrothermal vents. The recent discovery of graphite at these vents make them a likely source for this mysterious old carbon.

Carbon dating, a method to determine the age of molecules based on how a radioactive carbon isotope decays, has found that much of the ocean’s dissolved carbon is older than expected based on how molecules circulate through the ocean. Researchers have proposed various sources to explain this old carbon, including molecules that are difficult to break down or soot and charcoal resulting from burning material on the surface flowing into the ocean through rivers.

But past research seems to rule out rivers delivering burned carbon—which leaves the 400°C hydrothermal vents as one of the best candidates for the old carbon.

Back in 2017, scientists descended in the submersible Alvin to the East Pacific Rise 9° 50′ N vent field in the Pacific Ocean, southwest of Mexico. They took samples of the high-temperature hydrothermal vent fluid and analysed them back on the deck of the research vessel Atlantis. Lo and behold, the sample contained graphite emitted from the vents, according to the paper published in Nature Communications.

This alone means that the vents are a worthy candidate as the source of the carbon. But there’s a lot work left to do. It’s still unclear how the carbon forms in these vents, though the researchers proposed a mechanism based on the vents moving the material around under high temperature and pressures. Nailing the vents as the source of this ancient carbon would also require knowing just how much carbon they (and the other vents) produce.

I’m just thrilled that people still get to experience rides in Alvin. “What’s great about Alvin is that you can be down there with the vent, get direct samples, and see everything in 3D,” Estes told Gizmodo. “I felt so focused and exhilarated and excited to be there.”

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THE SNOW CRUISER – ANTARCTICA’S ABANDONED BEHEMOTH

The Snow Cruiser – Antarctica’s Abandoned Behemoth is a short documentary that gives a concise history of one of the most unusual land-based vehicles ever built.

The film uses a combination of archive video footage and still images to tell the story of the Snow Cruiser, it’s a remarkable tale of ambition and engineering that resulted in the Snow Cruiser being designed and built in Chicago between 1937 and 1939 before being driven on public roads to Boston, over 1,000 miles away.

In Boston it would be loaded onto a ship and taken to Antarctica by way of the Panama Canal and New Zealand. I won’t go into what happened next as I don’t want to ruin the film.

The giant machine weighed in at 75,000 lbs (34,019 kgs) and was powered by twin 11.0 litre (672 cu. in.) Cummins H-6 diesel engines which generated power for four 56 kW electric motors, one of which powered each wheel. The suspension was independent, each wheel could be lifted up into the wheel arch if needed and all four wheels could be extended up or down to increase ground clearance as needed.

The total length of the Snow Cruiser was over 55 feet (669 inches / 17 metres). The wheelbase was 20 feet (239 inches / 6 metres), and the height could be adjusted between 16 feet (192 inches / 5 metres) with the wheels extended, to 12 feet (144 inches / 4 metres) with the wheels retracted.

Inside there were living quarters for crew, a small machining room, a cockpit, and a number of other spaces that the crew would need while underway.

If you’d like to read more about the Snow Cruiser you can click here.

[MIKA27]

‘Ben-Hur’: Still a Captivating Spectacle on Its 60th Anniversary

The old adage “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” applies more aptly to 1959’s Ben-Hur than almost any film of its era. An epic on a scale never before seen, it survives now like a Hollywood time capsule. Watching it through modern eyes is a constant reminder of a bygone period of filmmaking. Today marks sixty years since William Wyler’s larger than life picture hit theaters. Made on an enormous budget then—$15 million—the movie was a tremendous hit, despite a runtime of about three and a half hours. For millennials and Gen Z-ers, Ben-Hur is a movie for their grandparents. The world has moved on, after all; no need to go back and consume such antiquated art. One can’t help but wonder, in 2019, what about this movie so appealed to audiences then, and why studios haven’t bothered developing anything of its ilk in eons.

It was the penultimate month of the 1950s when Ben-Hur squeaked in, finishing off a decade that saw the emergence of method acting on a broader scale, the rise of science fiction, and a slow death for the traditional film noir. Biblical adventure pictures were not a new breed, though the timing of Wyler’s film stood out in a year whose other notable releases were North by Northwest, Some Like It Hot, and Anatomy of a Murder. The ‘50s gave way to a 1960s in film that grew more experimental as it went on, thanks to the cultural revolution, Vietnam, and the abolition of the Motion Picture Production Code, which held certain on-screen immoral behaviors at bay. Influenced by edgier foreign films and darker takes on humanity, Hollywood began leaning in more and more to grit, less on grand period spectacle. If Ben-Hur didn’t come to fruition when it did, it may have never seen production.

Its realization was no small feat, as is the case with many studio projects. MGM had intended to shoot a remake of the 1925 silent classic as early as 1954, two years after plans were announced. It had its eye on silent film director Sidney A. Franklin to helm the film, with Marlon Brando playing the title role. Things didn’t quite turn out that way. Karl Tunberg turned in an underwhelming script in 1955, prompting the studio to hire additional scribes for re-writes, Gore Vidal among them. Wyler came aboard in 1957 once the budget had ballooned to $10 million. He was promised $350,000 and a percentage of the box office gross, plus a chance to shoot in Rome. He couldn’t refuse. With Charlton Heston cast as the lead, the movie went to production in May of 1958.

The finished product—one that took nearly eight months to shoot, resulting in over one million feet of film—is a sight to behold. It tells you in its opening credits that it was shot on the MGM Camera 65, that is, an anamorphic lens producing a much wider aspect ratio than had been the norm until its introduction two years prior. Wyler and DP Robert Surtees took advantage of the extended scope as often as they could, capturing so much allure across the pastoral Italian countrysides and hills, and sets dressed up as first century Jerusalem, rendering the film a beautiful work of art. Of course, no sequence in the film is as breathtaking as the iconic chariot race, which occurs at the end of the second act. Even today it’s a marvelous achievement—technically, practically, physically.

As the cinema progressed technologically, practical effects diminished. Consider Ben-Hur’s crowd sequences as compared to that of, say, Gladiator. The former relied on the work of 1,500 extras (10,000 for the whole production). The latter digitally reproduced large swaths of its crowd to create the illusion of a Colosseum brimming with spectators. This, of course, is a common practice in the digital age, but in re-visiting old Hollywood, the appreciation value of the time and energy it took to film each sequence is exponentially higher. In Ben-Hur, what you see on screen is really there, with some exceptions of course, like painted mural backgrounds and early green screen technology, thanks to the work of special effects engineer Petro Vlahos.

Like the vast majority of truly great movies, the element of Ben-Hur that resonates most deeply is the tale within its stimulating tableaus. Those opening titles once again tell us something important. As “Ben-Hur” dissolves, the next words we see on screen are these: “A Tale of the Christ, by General Lew Wallace.” Based on the Civil War general’s 1880 novel, Ben-Hur is indeed a Jesus movie. But a Jesus movie as told through the eyes of its first title character—Judah Ben-Hur. Perhaps it can be best described as the story of how Jesus changes Judah Ben-Hur. But it takes its time getting there (three and a half hours, remember). And in order to be changed, one must begin as—or become—someone in need of change. It’s this key ingredient that the film shares with so many character studies—before and after 1959. What separates this one is the reason for that change—the One who does the changing.

Call it what you want: faith-based, religious, Biblical. Studios don’t make them on the scale they once did. Even the biggest hit in the genre, The Passion of the Christ, was funded largely out of Mel Gibson’s own pockets. Some studios have faith-based labels, like Sony Pictures’ Affirm Films. Their shrewd business strategy is grounded in packaging their product as a wholesome alternative to mainstream material whose content is objectionable to some. But non-Christians simply don’t get out there to see those films, which are generally ham-fisted and preachy, as they elevate the message over the story, rather than the other way around. In 1959, when the most magnificent moviegoing experience you were going to find was a Bible picture, you went out to see it, regardless of your faith, or the faith of the people behind it. “It took a Jew to make a really good movie about Christ,” Wyler used to say.

Times have changed. Church attendance is down in the U.S., and the most powerful Hollywood executives have replaced the heroes of history with those from the pages of our comic books. The classics don’t find their way before fresh eyes. But they ought to, no rebooting or re-imagining necessary. At sixty, Ben-Hur still captivates. Its influence has been seen all over some of our favorite movies in the years since. A man of some status or privilege (Judah is a wealthy prince) is accused of something heinous and sent away to slavery, his thirst for vengeance fueling his survival. The aforementioned Gladiator uses this same concept as its basis. So did The Shawshank Redemption. And long, long before Ben-Hur, there was the Biblical story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. The favorite son of his father Abraham, Joseph is pummeled by his jealous brothers and left for dead. Enslaved in Egypt, the young dream interpreter eventually finds good favor with Pharaoh, is made the second most powerful man in the land, and ultimately comes face to face with his brothers years later (he forgives them). That story, and Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, undoubtedly influenced Wallace’s novel, though the endings of all these works vary greatly—that includes Wallace’s and Wyler’s versions of Ben-Hur.

What all variations of it have in common—the novel, the 1925 silent film, the ’59 iteration, and the much maligned 2016 take—is the iconic chariot race. It’s worth spending time on because of its weight. This enthralling sequence is in the movie for so much more than the mere thrill of it. There’s so much riding on it. Everything is riding on it, one might say. The chariot race ought to serve as a lesson for up and coming storytellers on how to deliver high stakes action, because on par with the excitement are the emotional arcs of the characters involved. It’s been roughly five years since childhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd), now a Roman tribune, sent Judah away into punishing slavery. He’s been starved in the desert, suffered in the galleys of a war ship, beaten, whipped, and treated as inhuman by Roman overlords. After escaping an enemy attack on the Mediterranean and saving his commander, Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins), when their ship is lost, Judah is hailed a hero. He’s a Jew embraced by Roman authorities, finding a new father-figure in Quintus. Again, the Joseph account comes to mind, or even the Moses story from Exodus. Even though life in Rome is far superior than the misery under its thumb, Judah has a sense of unfinished business within. He cannot let his hatred for Messala die, and the mystery of what happened to his mother and sister burdens him daily. He must get back to Jerusalem, must right these wrongs.

Judah is a man of principle. Messala had offered him the world in the first act. All Judah needed to do was align with him and help squash whatever Jewish uprising may have been brewing. But Judah puts his people over the comforts extended his way and, after an accident leads to an accusation of a threat against the Roman governor, the fates of Judah, his mother, and his sister, are all sealed. Even men of principle are flawed. Judah’s quest for vengeance is not a virtue, though we may understand it and hope he achieves it. So when he finally sees Messala in the flesh at Antioch, years of pent up rage is ready to burst forth. This is not simply a race; it’s an opportunity to scratch the most tormenting of itches. And it’s also a contest in which people will die. Messala has turned his chariot into a weapon. He aims to destroy the competition, quite literally, because what happens out on the track is fair game, so say the rules of these things. Nine times around they go, more and more drivers flipping out of their chariots, trampled to death by galloping steeds. It’s an intense scene that could not easily be faked. It cost more than $1 million alone, and took roughly five weeks to shoot. The circus at Antioch is a brilliant construction, and Wyler and Surtees give us so many angles of the deadly race—above, beside, within. Oftentimes, it’s evident that Heston and Boyd really are driving these horses themselves. In the end, it’s Messala that suffers mortal injuries, allowing Judah to come out on top, awarded a crown by none other than Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea.

What follows the race is the film’s most potent scene. Messala is tended to in some sort of an infirmary, though he won’t last long. One final meeting between he and Judah takes place. Looking at his old friend in anguish, Judah assures him that he no longer sees an enemy. But it’s Messala who will not let Judah win. Grabbing on to Judah, Messala informs him that the mother and sister he’d presumed were dead, are in fact alive… and they’re suffering as lepers. Messala delights in sharing this information. Every word is a struggle, but these ones taste sweet to his wicked soul. And with his last breaths, he utters this chilling taunt: “It goes on. It goes on, Judah. The race… the race is not over.”

So you see, the action is elevated by the emotional stakes. It is earned. And the payoff is a gut punch. Judah has his vengeance, and still he is empty inside. Because the quest was never about vengeance; it was about healing. And here we find the crux—literally—of the whole thing. It’s the reason Wallace wrote the novel and titled it as he did. Anecdotally, Wallace himself would later claim he neither believed nor disbelieved the Bible’s claims. He was largely ignorant of them just a few short years before beginning research for the novel. And then something changed as he worked on it. “I found myself writing reverentially, and frequently with awe,” he said. From the chariot race to the conclusion, the novel and the film have a number of significant plot differences. Judah’s arc, however, remains the same. It’s at Golgotha’s cross where he recognizes his need for grace—for forgiveness. His mother and sister are made clean on the outside; Judah is washed of the leprosy of his heart.

Sixty years on, discussions surrounding Ben-Hur seem to touch on other matters, like Welsh actor Hugh Griffith in brownface as Sheik Ilderim. He would win Best Supporting Actor for the performance. Or the debate over whether or not Gore Vidal wrote the Judah/Messala relationship as a homosexual one. In 1995, he made that claim, suggesting he, Wyler, and Boyd were in on it, the latter being directed to play his role as a spurned lover. Heston would deny all of this, leading to a public spat between he and Vidal in 1996.

Controversies aside, Ben-Hur exists today as a memento, yet still a blueprint on how to tell an ambitious tale. It’s a big budget adventure and a character piece. It’s a Biblically reverent film and it’s aimed at a broad audience. And no, neither Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings nor Darren Aronofsky’s Noah meet this criteria. Western culture shifted. Technology evolved. Entertainment transformed. They don’t make ‘em like they used to because they can’t. Art reflects the time in which it is created, making the preservation of it so important. So long as it’s still accessible, we don’t need more movies like Ben-Hur; we already have them.

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Ken Block’s Climbkhana TWO: 914hp Hoonitruck on China's Most Dangerous Road; Tianmen Mountain

Even outside the automotive world, Ken Block is practically a household name for his unrivaled motorized antics — which have been captured in spectacular fashion in his series of Gymkhana videos. And while that particular endeavor looks to have come to a close, it’s been replaced by Hoonigan’s newest series with the high-speed madman. And they may have just released their most bonkers entry yet with Climbkhana TWO.

This new jaw-dropping video features Block in his Hoonitruck — a Ford F150-based custom rig boasting a blistering 914 horsepower. And while taming such a beast is a feat in itself, what makes this particular clip all the more mind-blowing is that he drives it up China’s Tianmen Mountain on a 99-turn road known for being the most dangerous in the entire country. You’ll have to watch the video yourself if you want to see how well Ken Block fares, but if this is the next evolution in his absurd catalog of automotive feats, we’ll be waiting with bated breath for the next entry.

[MIKA27]

How To Build A Moon Base

Half a century after humans first walked on the moon, a number of private companies and nations are planning to build permanent bases on the lunar surface. Despite the technological progress since the Apollo era, this will be extremely challenging. So how should you get started?

The conditions at the lunar surface are extreme. The moon has a 28-day rotation period, resulting in two weeks of continuous sunlight followed by two weeks of darkness at most latitudes. As the moon lacks any significant atmosphere to distribute heat from the sun, temperatures during the day can rise to 130°C. Meanwhile, the coldest nighttime temperatures have been recorded as -247°C.

The lack of a protective atmosphere also means there’s little protection against harmful cosmic radiation. This means moon inhabitants would have to construct buildings with walls sufficiently thick to block radiation from coming in and use cumbersome spacesuits when leaving the facility. The walls must also be strong enough to withstand the pressure differences between the outside and inside and to cope with the impact of micrometeorites – tiny specks of rock and dust crashing onto the surface at high speeds.

These considerations mean that, when we expand the first bases and start actually building structures on the moon, lunar concrete, which is a mixture of sulphur and aggregate (grains or crushed rock – normal concrete is aggregate, cement and water) would be a good option. That’s because it’s non-porous, strong and doesn’t require water, which is in short supply on the moon.

Another problem is the low gravity on the moon – only a sixth of that at Earth. Over time, this can cause problems such as muscle and bone loss. Any permanent lunar settlement must minimise these risks, for example by making exercise a requirement.

Although few space agencies have released any details about their plans yet, we can probably assume that the first bases on the moon will have to be pre-built and transported to the moon from Earth, so they can be used right away.

Any such base must reliably maintain breathable air, meaning oxygen must be provided and carbon dioxide must be removed. The International Space Station (ISS) uses electrolysis to break water down into oxygen and hydrogen and vents captured carbon dioxide into space.

Power sources

An essential ingredient for any base is a power supply. The ISS typically supports six astronauts when fully crewed and requires 75kW to 90kW of power for everything from life support and powering scientific equipment to water recycling. Depending on the number of lunar colonists and the tasks they carry out, this power requirement could be considered an absolute minimum.

One option would be to use solar panels. But if the base is located in equatorial regions, then solar panels will only produce power for 14 days consecutively, followed by two weeks of darkness. Colonists would therefore have to store power in batteries and use it during the dark period. If the base was placed in the north or south pole, however, solar panels would receive constant sunlight.

Nuclear reactors are a more reliable alternative to solar power. In recent years there’s been a lot of interest in miniaturised fission reactors. The problem is that even small reactors can weigh several tonnes, which is a problem given that they’d need to be transported from Earth. There is also the risk that we made end up spreading nuclear material on a currently pristine location.

Another possibility are radioisotope thermal generators. These produce energy by generating an electric current from the temperature difference between a radioactive material and a cooler external environment. On Earth, these are not very effective as room temperature is fairly warm, but in the shaded areas of the moon it gets very cold. These devices have often been used as a power source for deep space probes, which travel too far from the sun to harness solar energy. But for lunar colonisation, a very large number would be required as they are not very efficient at converting heat into electricity.

Each potential power source has its advantages and disadvantages but the solar panels are the best option if you can place them in the right location.

Food and water

Clearly, the inhabitants of a lunar base would have to survive on a primarily plant-based diet. Meat and other foods would have to be provided by supply ships, as agriculture requires a large infrastructure in place to be practical. It is, however, theoretically possible to grow plants in lunar soil – computer models show tomato and wheat could germinate.

The plants will require substantial amounts of space to be able to provide enough food – the base must be made big enough to accommodate for this. While many nutrients for crops are available in lunar soil, the absence of nitrogen, which is essential for plant growth, remains a significant challenge. There are also high levels of metals such as aluminium and chromium, which can be toxic to plants.

We can remove some of these problems by using a technique known as hydroponics – growing plants in water rather than soil, with LED lights providing artificial sunlight. For example, this can be performed in an internal windowless room.

A disadvantage of hydroponics is the amount of water required. Water can easily be recycled using current techniques from sink and shower runoff, sweat and urine, although inevitably some will be lost and need topping up. Luckily it is possible to extract modest amounts of water ice from the moon – especially at the poles.

The final major consideration for any future lunar colony is health and safety. The potential risks of exploration are well documented. We have trouble recovering ill people in inaccessible locations such as the Antarctic – where medical support is limited in the summer months and virtually non-existent in the winter months. This suggests that a lunar base would have to be medically self-sufficient, requiring more weight to be sent to the moon in the form of medical equipment and trained personnel.

Ultimately we have the technology to make a lunar base viable, but no amount of innovation can completely negate the risks involved. Whether such a base goes ahead or not will depend on this calculation perhaps more than any other. The question is whether we as a society have the stomach for lunar settlement, as well as lunar lettuce, or not.

[MIKA27]

Rise Of Skywalker's New Character Posters Are Simply Beautiful

Every action-packed glimpse of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that we’ve seen has been full of interesting information about what to expect from the film as it brings its heroes and villains into the next chapter of the epic space opera. But there’s something to be said for simple, powerful images—like the latest batch of posters showcasing the movie’s characters in a way that makes you appreciate the level of detail that’s gone into their aesthetics.

Each of the 12 posters features one of the movie’s characters in action poses that appear to be from scenes plucked from the film. By now, we’ve all spent ages staring at Finn, Rey, and Poe, and we know what R2, Chewie, and C-3PO look like. But the new images also give us a much, much better look at newcomers Zorii Bliss, Jannah and D-O, as well as showcasing Lando’s luxurious cape in all of its badass glory.

Finn, Rey, and Poe

Lando Calrissian, Zorii Bliss, and Jannah. 

D-O, Kylo Ren, and BB-8.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theatres on December 19.

[MIKA27]

Elon Musk's Starlink Satellites Are Already Causing A Headache For Astronomers

Astronomers at a Chilean observatory were rudely interrupted earlier this week when a SpaceX satellite train consisting of 60 Starlink satellites drifted overhead, in what scientists are apparently going to have to accept as the new normal.

Launched into orbit on November 11, the Starlink smallsat train took five minutes to pass over the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, according to a tweet from astronomer Clarae Martínez-Vázquez.

“Wow!! I am in shock!!,” tweeted Martínez-Vázquez. “The huge amount of Starlink satellites crossed our skies tonight at [Cerro Tololo]. Our DECam [Dark Energy Camera] exposure was heavily affected by 19 of them!,” to which she added: “Rather depressing... This is not cool!”

Responding to this tweet, astronomer Cliff Johnson, a team member and a CIERA Postdoc Fellow in Astronomy at Northwestern, tweeted out a view of the disrupted data, showing an array of satellite trails strewn across an image of space.

The astronomers were collecting data using the DECam instrument, a high-performance, wide-field imager on the CTIO Blanco 4-metre telescope, as part of the DELVE survey, which is currently mapping the outer fringes of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds as well as a significant fraction of the southern sky at optical wavelengths. Key goals of the project are to study the stellar halo around the Magellanic Clouds and detect new dwarf galaxies in orbit around the Clouds or the nearby Milky Way.

The Starlink-tarnished DECam frame, showing satellite trails across the field of view. 

But this research was punctuated as the Starlink train passed overhead during the early morning of Monday, November 18.

“In this case, 1 out of about 40 exposures we took during our half-night of observations was affected by the satellite trails,” Johnson told Gizmodo in an email. “And in the case of that single exposure, a maximum of 15 per cent of the image was affected by the trails. Beyond the image itself, we also had to be careful as the trail-affected image also impacted our survey operations due to the large number of image artifacts biasing our quality-control measurements.”

Taken as a whole, however, “these numbers tend to show that the effect on our science was more on the annoyance level rather than total disruption,” he wrote. That said, “this may only be the beginning of problems for astronomers, so I believe the community reaction and alarm is warranted.” Should the proposed sizes of these satellite megaconstellations—which are projected to include upwards of tens of thousands of individual elements—actually be achieved, “that has the potential to significantly impact our observational data,” said Johnson.

A similar thing happened earlier this year after the first batch of 60 Starlink satellites was delivered to orbit, with some people even believing they were UFOs. Alarmed by the inaugural batch of Starlink satellites, the U.S. American Astronomical Society issued a warning, saying megaconstellations could threaten scientific observations of space.

The train effect, in which the satellites are lined up neatly in a bright row, is a temporary one. Eventually, the smallsats disperse and enter into their own unique orbits in a process that takes a few weeks. That said, the number of objects in space—dispersed or not—is about to experience a dramatic uptick.

As it stands, the impacts of these satellite trains “remain manageable” and the “worst effects temporary,” Johnson told Gizmodo.

“I agree with the tone of the recent IAU statement that calls for immediate, meaningful discussion between regulators, satellite providers, and astronomers to highlight ways that impacts to astronomy can be minimized—and not just optical, but radio astronomy as well—and rule out the worst-case scenarios of unlimited launches and unchecked deployments,” Johnson told Gizmodo.

In response to these concerns, SpaceX has said it is taking steps to colour the base of Starlink satellites black, in order to minimise their brightness. Experts aren’t convinced that’ll work, as some observatories use super-sensitive instruments to detect even the faintest objects.

Scientists will likely have to get used to these sorts of disruptions, as regulating bodies aren’t lending a sympathetic ear. SpaceX has already received approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch 12,000 Starlink smallsats, and in October, the Elon Musk-led private space firm asked the FCC for permission to launch an additional 30,000 satellites on top of that by the mid 2020s. These satellite trains, along with their associated megaconstellations, will soon become a regular fixture of the night sky—and that doesn’t include constellations that are set to be built by SpaceX’s competitors, including networks proposed by OneWeb, Telsat, and Amazon.

With the starry night already obscured by light pollution from our cities, it seems an unhindered view into space may soon elude astronomers as well.

[MIKA27]

Star Trek 4 Is Back On, This Time From The Maker Of Legion And Fargo

Kirk and Spock may be coming back to the big screen and from a very exciting filmmaker too.

Deadline reports that Noah Hawley, who recently made FX’s Legion and Fargo, as well as feature film Lucy in the Sky, is in “final talks” to write and direct a new Star Trek film for Paramount. It would be the fourth in the J.J. Abrams franchise reboot that stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and others. Abrams will produce.

The news comes after almost a year after Paramount reportedly shelved the sequel, which was expected to bring Chris Hemsworth back as Kirk’s father. No word if Hawley will be following that storyline but the Deadline report does say this movie won’t interfere with whatever Quentin Tarantino has cooking in the franchise.

That’s the only real detail Deadline provided and Gizmodo has reached out to Paramount to see if there’s anything else that can be reported at the moment. But if Hawley is on board and Paramount is moving ahead with this, one has to think the financial woes the studio experienced with Pine and Hemsworth last year that reportedly put the breaks on an earlier version of this film have been fixed.

Also, it’s interesting that Hawley would be attached to the fourth Star Trek. He famously wrote a script for Doctor Doom, the Fantastic Four villain. It seems that’s not happening just yet but, another “four” will be.

We’ll have more on this story as it comes in. But for now, tell us below what you think about a fourth Star Trek movie written and directed by Noah Hawley.

[MIKA27]

‘Call of the Wild’: Watch Harrison Ford Yell at a Bear in First Trailer

Call of the Wild, a new adaptation of the Jack London novel, debuted its trailer this morning. A “line-action, animation hybrid”, this version stars Han Solo himself Harrison Ford as John Thornton. This was supposed to release on Christmas Day this year, but was pushed back by Disney after the purchase of Fox, so as not to interfere with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Ford just cannot escape Star Wars, can he? Admittedly, I expected zero from this film when I heard it was being made, but it looks pretty solid. Harrison Ford yelling at a bear? 

MIKA: Looks good only except for the CGI on the animals....seen better!

[MIKA27]

KENZO – A REMARKABLE NEW SAMURAI GOLDWING CUSTOM FROM DEATH MACHINES OF LONDON

Inspired by a samurai general’s armor and named after a pioneering Japanese Isle of Man TT racer, Kenzo, a reimagined 1977 Honda Gold Wing, is the result of traditional craft combined with state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques, and plenty of headaches. And cuts. And burns. And serious reconsiderations of life choices.

In 1570, Honda Tadakatsu made a name for himself as one of Japan’s most revered samurai generals, winning against an enemy who outnumbered him 50 to 1 without so much as a punch being thrown, simply because they thought he was either insane, deadly, or both.

In 1930, Kenzo Tada spent forty days travelling to Europe by rail and sea to take part in the Isle of Man TT. He was the events first Japanese racer.

Then, in 1977, the Honda Motor Company popped out another Gold Wing GL1000 from its production line, which eventually found its way to us in 2018. So… Samurai. Kenzo. Gold Wing.

Honda Tadakatsu, the samurai general, probably isn’t related to the Honda Motor Company family. And Kenzo Tada definitely didn’t ride a Honda in the 1930 TT. What’s important here is to not let the details get in the way of a good story.

It’s one thing to have an idea, quite something else to execute it so it actually works. Initially built in too-short a timeframe for the Bike Shed Show in 2018, the machine, while interesting, was unfortunately rather useless – and as William Morris (and later Tony Wilson) said, “Nothing useless can be truly beautiful”. Because of that, it came back to the DMOL (Death Machines Of London) workshop to be rebuilt from the ground up. So, in summary: we killed a machine. We made a machine. We killed that. And then made another. We are nothing if not true to our name.

The machine was built in CAD, but although all the bucks and templates were made from the same data, trying to successfully combine so many manufacturing processes – the inherent asymmetry of handmade aluminium panelling, the slightly more symmetrical composites, with the high-precision 3D prints and CNC parts – created the most instances of wanting to kick everything across the workshop floor and yell “f**k it.”

The result of all this frustration is Kenzo. Our most radical machine to date, it combines traditional metalwork with composites, 3D printing, CNC, precision-etching, holographic lighting and exquisite leather work. The design of the body was inspired by the overlapping segments found in early samurai armor, and utilises mixed media panels that have been meticulously finished with slow, smooth curves to meet razor-sharp folds, while the insert grill was only made possible with 3D printing.

The mirror-polished black ‘blade’ which surrounds the front light cluster and drops down to the base of each fork is a reference to a Katana sword. The body work was then finished in our own custom Titanium Samurai paintwork, with matt black detailing. Additional features include detailed ‘Kenzo’ grill work, an in-house petrol cap, precision-machined aluminium badges and handle bars wrapped in the traditional Tsukamaki sword wrapping technique. The seat unit, CNC’d from high-density foam and concealing a remote proximity sensor, was then wrapped in embossed leather reminiscent of the layered clothing worn under armor.

The front running light, indicators and tail light are all DMOL designed custom parts. Working with Luminit of California, we incorporated the world’s most advanced holographic diffusion film into the units. The light from the LED’s is precisely disbursed at 80 degrees across the surface of the film, removing hot spots and creating a seamless bar of light. Sets of machined internal lenses then hold the film and LED’s at precise distances from each other to ensure a smooth distribution of light.

For instrumentation, Kenzo’s hand-crafted speedometer features a dragon, cast from an 18th Century Japanese jewel box, and handmade pointer of the same finish. The dragon, surrounded by a precision-etched nickel lattice, is encased in a series of custom lenses which not only support the floating number board, but also utilize the same diffusion film technology as the lights. The result is a smooth, radially illuminated dragon ghost – the spirit of the machine.

The frame, finished in satin black, underwent significant modification. At the head, an angular goose neck was designed to extend the machines wheel base by 10cm and decrease the rake by 7 degrees, to not only improve the machines stability at speed, but to provide a more aggressive stance. To the rear, a radical twin-shock cantilever system was created in order to achieve a more visually balanced back-end, allowing the redesigned swingarm to be clearly viewed. The system utilises a pair of updated ACOU 60 Ohlins, with springs made specifically for the build by Hagon. Reworked Ohlins units have been used on the front end and anodised to our specification.

The front brake is cable operated by our latest Type R01 in-house lever. This actuates a BMW master cylinder situated under the fuel cell, finally terminating in a pair of Brembo M4 forged radial callipers to complete the system. Rear brakes are largely stock, except for a Brembo master cylinder and uprated pads. Re-laced to the original hubs, the wheels consist of 18inch rims mated to 120/80/18 front and 150/60/18 rear Avon tires.

It is a testament to Honda’s engineering prowess that very little work needed to be carried out on the 40-year-old engine: a horizontally opposed 1000cc flat four, which was dismantled, inspected and refreshed. The carburettors were tuned to compliment the DMOL Slash Cut mufflers. Painted in satin black, cosmetic detailing features head case plates with ‘Kenzo’ written as 建造.

On the electrics, our in-house designed loom was installed, greatly simplifying the original installation – but to be fair, they didn’t have Motogadget M-Units in 1977. Finally, the machine is brought to life by tapping Kenzo’s proximity key fob on the leather ‘V’ intersection of the seat. This initiates the electrical system, and ignition is achieved through a discreet starter button under the right handle bar.

Kenzo is available now for £56,000.00

Arigatō Gozaimashita.

Visit Death Machines Of London here.

[MIKA27]

THE NOISE – FORMULA 1 EXHAUST SCULPTURES BY MIKE O’CONNOR

Each of these remarkable sculptures is created from a real, race-used Formula 1 exhaust system that have been mounted to a base of carved Italian marble.

They’re made by Mike O’Connor, the founder of the Fastest Club – an exclusive group of historic Formula 1 car owners who travel around the world with their cars to a number of F1 races each year and spend time on track putting their vehicles through their paces, allowing fans to see them in action and hear the collection of much loved V8 and V10s from seasons gone by.

Mike owns a 2011 Sauber Ferrari (chassis #4) that was used by Sergio Perez in the 2011 season, though thankfully it isn’t the one he crashed at the Monaco Grand Prix that year. Fortunately for us, Mike also has an Art Degree, which led him to take the spare exhaust systems he had in storage and do something remarkable with them.

The twisting intricacies of motorsport exhaust systems have captivated people for well over a century, the science of exhaust design isn’t well understood by many (including me), but there’s no denying that this is one instance where function-first engineering almost always produces something that many would consider a work of modern art.

The first sculpture made went to a (very) famous British sculptor’s wife and now lives in her garage, the owners of MOMO (the Italian race equipment company) have one in their apartment in London, and there’s one at Canepa in San Francisco. This is just a small number of owners, and the countries to which these sculptures are being sent increases every year.

Interestingly these exhaust systems are all made from, Inconel – a superalloy made from nickel, chromium, and other metals. It may not sound familiar to you unless you’re a metallurgist or an engineer, but you’d doubtless seen vehicles that make use of it for its exceptional strength and heat resistance.

The Saturn V rocket that sent man to the Moon used Inconel extensively in its engines, it was used in the Space Shuttle, and Elon Musk had a new type of Inconel alloy developed for use in his own rocket engines. Lower altitude applications include jet engine turbine blades, automotive turbo rotors, nuclear reactor components, and Formula 1 exhaust systems.

Every one of these sculptures has a fully traceable history, right back to the exact engine it was fitted to, and which chassis numbers these engines were paired with. Prices do vary quite significantly due to the rarity and desirability of certain Formula 1 car parts, but the MSRP typically falls between £4,500 and £32,000.

If you’d like to read more about them or buy your own you can click here to contact Mike directly.