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

[MIKA27]

The S.O.E. Roadster Chronograph Honors Racing-Legends-Turned-WWII-Spies

It’s not unusual for a newly-launched microbrand watch to have some sort of background story attached to it, but it is unusual for said story to be as interesting as the one that spawned Trafford Watch Co.’s S.O.E. Roadster chronograph.

At first blush, the watch does not appear to be too dissimilar to the plethora of other vintage racing-inspired mecaquartz-powered chronographs that populate the microbrand space, but it’s the story that sets the S.O.E. Roadster apart. The watch was inspired by three twentieth-century racecar drivers: Britain’s most successful Grand Prix racer, William Grover-Williams, and French Le Mans-winners Jean-Pierre Wimille and Robert Benoist. After WWII broke out, all three men joined the UK’s S.O.E., a secretive organization tasked with conducting espionage and sabotage within Nazi-occupied Europe. The watch was styled after the Bugatti Type 35 and comes in three variants that match the preferred car color of each of the respective drivers turned spies. And since a good story will only take you so far, the watches are well-specced, too, with fully-lumed ceramic bezels, sapphire crystals, and inner steel tachymeters. The Trafford S.O.E. Roadster will launch on Kickstarter in March 2021.

 

[MIKA27]

Explore The Majesty Of The Cosmos With This Cutting-Edge Smart Telescope

In 2018, Vaonis introduced the world to its game-changing Stellina telescope, which the company touted as the “world’s first smart exploration station.” After amassing a considerable following with its first high-tech telescope, the startup has now announced its next offering with the even more compact and user-friendly Vespera Smart Telescope.

Part camera and part telescope, this cutting-edge smart device is built atop a small yet stable tripod and features a state-of-the-art quadruplet apochromatic refractor, a Starvis-tech-enabled Sony IMX462 sensor, a 200mm focal length, and a 50mm aperture. Incredibly travel friendly and sold with an included carrying case, the Vespera’s camera automatically links to smartphones or tablets via a custom-designed app, allowing users to take, record, and share photographs of their planetary and extraterrestrial discoveries, or to punch in coordinates to have Vespera automatically hone in on a specific constellation, star, or planetary body. IP43-rated for water protection, the Vaonis Vespera is available for preorder now, with deliveries scheduled to commence in the Spring of 2022, and pre-sale pricing set at $1,499.

 

[MIKA27]

Toyota Unveils A Le Mans-Ready Version Of Its Upcoming Hybrid GR Hypercar

Early last autumn, Toyota teased the public with the first images of its hotly-awaited hybrid hypercar project known as the GR SS. As the homologated version of automaker’s upcoming Le Mans contestant, it bore a number of striking similarities to the endurance race’s closed-top canopy designs, all the while still maintaining its road legality.

With the unveiling of the GR010 Hybrid, Toyota has pulled the wraps off the fully-liveried race-ready version. Under the hood, it’s driven by a 670HP 3.5L V6 twin-turbo and a 268HP electric motor. All in, they’re good for a combined 938HP; however, per FIA regulations, the GR010 is capped at just 670HP. In practice, this means that the GR010 employs a complex power management system that reduces the engine output relative to the amount of hybrid boost deployed. And when it comes to aerodynamics, Toyota is working within an equally stringent set of rules. With a single bodywork package available per season — and just one adjustable aerodynamic device — it’s more important than ever to optimize the design for efficiency. The GR010 will start its 2021 WEC campaign with the 1,000 miles of Sebring on March 19th and close out the season in Bahrain on November 20th.

[MIKA27]

‘YEZO’ Is A Luxury Retreat Nestled Atop Japan’s Hokkaido Mountain Range

Despite only spanning less than146,000 square miles, the Island of Japan is home to a surprisingly diverse array of landscapes and typography, containing everything from picturesque beaches to rocky mountain ranges to wide-open valleys. And it’s the beauty Japan’s natural scenery has to offer that ultimately inspired the latest conceptual work from designers, Kristof Crolla and Julien Klisz.

Dubbed the “YEZO,” this mountainous modern cabin retreat is perched high atop a hill on the island’s northern mountain range of Hokkaido. The structure is pieced together around a main central concrete chimney which acts as an anchor point for the building’s series of glue-laminated timber beams that comprise the building’s sloping roof. What’s more, the chimney is flanked by a spiral staircase leading up to an observation deck that overlooks the local landscape while the front of the building is capped off with a patio with a sunken hot tub, and a modern take on traditional Japanese temple stairs. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide additional views of the mountainous region. To learn more about the project you can check out the link below.

 

[MIKA27]

Second SpaceX Starship Test Ends In A Massive Fireball

You may recall back in December when SpaceX was doing a short up-and-down test of their colossal new Starship that ended in a crash and a gigantic fireball when the quad-winged-silo-like rocket attempted to make a vertical landing but came in a bit hot and crashed. This time, the rocket didn’t even manage to get to the proper orientation, instead of coming down at about a 45-degree angle and then meeting the ground, immediately to be consumed by a ball of flame. Rockets are hard, friends.

This kind of vertical landing is sort of SpaceX’ signature manoeuvre, as they were the first to really make this sort of landing work for their very successful Falcon 9 rockets back in 2015, and this landing method is what enabled SpaceX to make the first stage of the Falcon 9 reusable.

The Falcon 9 first stage landing is confirmed. Second stage continuing nominally.

The plans for Starship mission profiles include a similar vertical landing, though that has yet to be achieved in SpaceX’ testing. Here’s how it went earlier today, from their Boca Chica, Texas launch facility:

Exciting stuff, and it was going pretty great until it went pretty un-great.

Here’s another video of the test flight:

The Starship SN9 prototype seems to have done the high-altitude part of the flight just fine, reaching about 32,800 feet (that’s about 10 km up) and was seen throttling back its three Raptor engines down to two, then one engine. It also performed a manoeuvre to translate from a vertical orientation to a horizontal one(called the belly flop), but in the process of the “flip” manoeuvre, where the vehicle returns to its vertical orientation for landing, it seems to have overshot the angle and ended up too horizontal.

It’s important to remember that these are test flights; this is part of how engineers learn, and sometimes it’s loud and messy. There’s no doubt a metric crapton of useful data to be gathered here, and it appears that much of the flight, prior to the fireball, went well: engines worked, engines were re-routed to separate landing propellant tank and the flap control systems seemed to be working, at least somewhat.

But, yeah, that landing is, uh, not there yet. That’s ok, though, as you can see in that video there’s another Starship prototype waiting to be tested — SN10 — so it’s pretty assured that SpaceX will be trying again, soon, hopefully, this time with much less dramatic results, at least visually.

MIKA: I suppose this is the entire point of testing, to perfect future missions.

Can't believe it's been 35 years since Challengers accident and 18 years since Columbia.

[MIKA27]

17th-Century England Had Some Seriously Horrible Weather

The frost of 1683 froze much of England, and fairs were held on the River Thames. 

Recent years have brought record-breaking wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters supercharged by climate change. But even to our jaded modern eyes, the weather that befell Bristol in Western England at the turn of 17th century is pretty shocking.

The meteorological situation in Bristol occurred during a short timespan within the Little Ice Age called the Grindelwald Fluctuation, so named for the expansion of a Swiss glacier by the same name. A team of researchers from the University of Bristol and University College London recently inspected Tudor-era chronicles describing the weather phenomena, which included huge floods, snowstorms, frigid temperatures, and storms. Their findings are published in the Royal Meteorological Society journal Weather.

“This was taking it down on the level of one city, one place, but there’s no reason to think it would be atypical,” said Evan Jones, a historian at the University of Bristol and lead author of the recent paper, in a video call.

Kicking off in 1560, the 80-year Grindelwald Fluctuation is typically blamed on a slew of volcanic eruptions across the Atlantic, which temporarily lowered temperatures around the world as particles from the eruptions clogged the atmosphere and blocked sunlight. The cascading effects of this led to famine and mass starvation in the 1590s, and unusual weather continued for decades.

“Although explosive volcanic eruptions cause cooling globally (that lasts for several years), regionally weather can become more chaotic, especially as the thing that causes the change is so abrupt,” said co-author Anson Mackay, a geographer and paleoecologist at University College London, in an email. “Cold snaps, floods, droughts are all possible, but it is their extreme nature that characterises them all.”

An illustration of Bristol's Great Flood from 1607. 

In Bristol, the sustained climatic condition meant blizzards in October and floods that left water lines that persist to this day on some churches in town. Contemporary chroniclers in the area by and large had accurate reports, Jones said, though they were at times “providential” and “messianic” in their language. The October snow, for example, was “greatest snow that ever was known by the memory of man, which continued four days,” and the winter of 1610-11 was “very stormy in so much that it occasioned the greatest shipwrecks that ever was known in England,” according to contemporary accounts.

Given the frequency and severity of the events over the years, you can’t blame the chroniclers for having such grim vocabulary. Seasonally, they would go through “sweating sulphurs drying up the moistures of the earth, to cause barrenness with scarcity,” one documented, “then freezing and cold winters in more than usual extremity to annoy us; another time by floods and overflowings of waters breaking from the bounds of the Seas, in which merciless element many hundreds have perished and have lost both life and goods.”

Some of the events were corroborated by news pamphlets elsewhere in the country, like in London, where a frost in the winter of 1607-8 led to the Thames freezing over, and city residents, trying to keep their spirits up, held a “Frost Fair” out on the ice.

“People will say Shakespeare writes for all time, but he was writing for an audience at the time,” Jones said. “When Shakespeare put on The Tempest for people, it would have resonated with them.”

Studying past weather can lead to plenty of insights into life at the time, as well as how historical events might have gone differently had the wind blown a different way, so to speak. Last year, for example, researchers concluded that a “climate anomaly” made both World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic a lot more deadly than they might have been otherwise.

[MIKA27]

CRAFT IRISH WHISKEY X FABERGE EMERALD ISLE COLLECTION

The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. is teaming up with Fabergé for one of the most varied and deluxe gift set we've ever seen. The limited set is an homage to "The Seven Wonders of Ireland", and is built around two bottles of the distillery's 30-year-old triple-distilled Irish whiskey. And that's just where the set begins, as owners will also receive a bespoke Fabergé Celtic Egg that was handcrafted by a fourth-generation enamel workmaster along with a Fabergé Altruist self-winding timepiece with an 18k rose gold case and a unique dial that pays tribute to the Seven Wonders theme. The collection even includes a humidor with two rare Cohiba Siglo VI Grand Reserva cigars and a gold plated cigar cutter. Seven sets will be available at auction starting this week, with prices starting at $2 million each.

[MIKA27]

BOUKMAN BOTANICAL RHUM

Haitian rhum is a much different spirit than the spiced rums most are accustomed to drinking. Rhum is not only spelled differently but is also made using a time-consuming Agricole way, which pulls directly from fresh sugar cane juice instead of molasses. This rhum is derived from two of Haiti's best rhum terroirs, which are also the location where the spirit's namesake: Dutty Boukman helped start the Haitian Revolution. Local botanicals infuse the rhum and create a complex sip with notes of cinnamon, tarragon, and cardamom.

[MIKA27]

Scientists Are Looking Beyond Antibiotics to Stop the Drug-Resistant Bacteria Crisis

As the world continues to work toward defeating a pandemic caused by a virus, another type of pathogen is increasingly becoming a major threat. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been a growing problem for years due to the overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, as well as “poor infection prevention and control,” according to the World Health Organisation. Researchers say if we don’t develop new ways to kill this kind of bacteria, we could soon lose countless lives every year as our antibiotics fail to treat common infections that can become deadly.

Around 700,000 people across the globe die each year because of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. According to the World Health Organisation, the world could see around 10 million deaths per year from resistant bacteria by 2050 without new kinds of treatments. Many different types of bacteria, from gonorrhea to salmonella, are becoming more resistant to our drugs. It’s a problem that every country will have to deal with.

The seemingly obvious solution to bacteria becoming resistant to our antibiotics would be to develop new antibiotics, but that’s not as simple as it may sound. Not only is it difficult and costly to develop new antibiotics, pharmaceutical companies don’t see any incentive to invest in doing it.

Steffanie Strathdee, associate dean of Global Health Sciences at the University of California, San Diego and author of The Perfect Predator, told Gizmodo that the problem of drug resistance kills the incentive to create new drugs.

“Their shelf life is so short because of multidrug resistance, and the WHO says we should be saving new antibiotics for last resort, so why would you want to invest a billion dollars and 10 to 15 years into developing something that’s going to be used as a last resort?” Strathdee said. “They’re not going to be making any money off of that.”

If we’re going to get pharmaceutical companies to develop new antibiotics, we need to change the incentive structure. Strathdee said a bill that’s before Congress called the PASTEUR Act would do just that. It would have drug companies be paid based on the societal value of the antibiotics they create, rather than them being paid based on how many pills they sell. It would have Congress allocate $US11 ($15) billion to this program over a 10 year-period. Strathdee said she expects it will pass under the Biden administration.

Outside of creating new antibiotics, Strathdee says we need to support research into phage therapy. A phage is a virus that naturally infects and kills a specific kind of bacteria. If you create the right “phage cocktail,” as it’s called, you can inject billions of these phages into someone’s bloodstream and ideally cure their infection without killing other types of bacteria that may be beneficial. These phages basically do one thing, so they’re not harmful to humans when used correctly. Strathdee got into phage research when her husband contracted a serious antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection in 2015, and, with the help of phage researchers, she was able to find the right phages to treat her husband’s infection and save his life.

“First, we need clinical trials to ensure that phage therapy is proven efficacious so the FDA can licence it so it doesn’t have the experimental label on it anymore, because right now it’s a case-by-case basis that they have to approve it,” Strathdee said.

Strathdee and her colleagues at the Centre for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics are preparing to conduct the first National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trial of phage therapy. Not only can you use natural phages to combat bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics, but Strathdee said we should also be focused on utilising genetically modified phages and synthetic phages.

“Metagenomics allows you to kind of splice together different bits of DNA and make synthetic phage,” Strathdee said. “I think a combination of natural phage, genetically modified phage, and synthetic phage will be needed in the future to be able to tackle the full repertoire of pathogens that are affecting human health.”

Similar to phages, a new technique for killing antibiotic-resistant bacteria involves peptides — chains of amino acids — that can target and kill specific types of bacteria. Scott H. Medina, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Penn State and one of the authors on a new study into this technique, told Gizmodo that you can engineer peptides to kill one type of bacteria and leave helpful bacteria alone.

“These peptides we’re making belong to a class called antimicrobial peptides. Any peptide that kills bacteria effectively is called an antimicrobial peptide,” Medina said. “The unique spin on what we did is we engineered one that selectively kills that particular pathogen. In this case, it was tuberculosis. We engineered the peptide to selectively kill that microbe and avoid nonspecific killing of the other bacteria around it.”

Medina believes using peptides to kill bacteria might be superior to using phages, because phages typically target specific receptors or ligands to find and kill bacteria, and the bacteria can evolve to change those characteristics to avoid phages. With peptides, it’s attacking the actual “envelope of the cell,” Medina said, which should make it harder for bacteria to avoid.

“It’s interacting with the sort of membrane of the cell,” Medina said. “Our belief is that it’s much more difficult for bacteria to evolutionarily adapt to that type of assault, so we think this will translate to these therapies being more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance against.”

Medina and his fellow researchers hope to develop specific peptides to kill many different kinds of bacteria. He said bacteria will likely be able to find ways to avoid being killed by these peptides over time, which is why we need to also develop new antibiotics, invest in phage therapy, and avoid the overuse of antibiotics generally so we’re doing everything we can to face this impending crisis.

“In 10 to 20 years, unless we have a game-changing technology, I think we’ll see that drug-resistant bacteria are causing more deaths than cancer,” Medina said. “I don’t think there’s any silver bullet that’s going to solve antimicrobial resistance. I think if we develop therapies that are more difficult for the bacteria to develop resistance against, then that means we can use these therapies for longer.”

Unfortunately, the covid-19 crisis has caused a lot of resources and attention that would otherwise be devoted to this problem to be devoted to fighting the pandemic. Strathdee said we’ve also seen antibiotics be overused much more than normal because doctors are trying to prevent covid-19 patients from getting a secondary infection.

“There’s concern that people with covid who have been in hospitals, especially if they’ve been on the ventilator, are prone to secondary bacterial infections, so physicians are overusing antibiotics to try to prevent those bacterial infections from occurring, and they’re using them even when they’re not necessary,” Strathdee said.

The covid-19 pandemic is, of course, a major threat that we need to address. However, not only is it diverting resources away from fighting the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, it’s actually contributing to that problem. When the pandemic is over, we’ll need to dial up our efforts to face this other threat. Both Strathdee and Medina say they hope we’ll learn from this pandemic that we need to prepare for the next public health crisis and do everything we can to avoid it, so we don’t end up in the kind of disaster we’re in now.

[MIKA27]

Reminder: Jeff Bezos is Building a 10,000-Year Clock Inside A Mountain

This week Jeff Bezos announced he would be stepping down as CEO of Amazon. We thought this would be a good opportunity to remind you that he is also building a 10,000 year clock inside a mountain.

Jeff Bezos’ 10,000 Year Clock of the Long Now

This isn’t news, but it is a fact that some people tend to either not know or have completely forgotten.

Called the Clock of the Long now and has been under construction within a mountain on property Jeff Bezos owns in Texas since 2018. Bezos has reportedly contributed at least $US42 million to the project.

The 500ft structure has been designed to keep time for 10,000 years and will only tick one per year and chime once per millennium.

If hollowing out a mountain to build a multi-millennia time piece sounds like supervillain areas, we can’t blame you for that. But the purpose of the clock is supposed to encourage people to think about the long-term future of the human race.

“Why would anyone build a Clock inside a mountain with the hope that it will ring for 10,000 years?” the Long Now website asks.

“Part of the answer: just so people will ask this question, and having asked it, prompt themselves to conjure with notions of generations and millennia. If you have a Clock ticking for 10,000 years what kinds of generational-scale questions and projects will it suggest?”

“If a Clock can keep going for ten millennia, shouldn’t we make sure our civilization does as well? If the Clock keeps going after we are personally long dead, why not attempt other projects that require future generations to finish?”

Anniversary chambers

According to the plans, the clock will contain five ‘room-sized anniversary chambers’ for the 1 year, 10 year, 100 year, 1,000 year, and 10,000 year anniversaries of the clock’s completion.

The one year chamber will reportedly include a model of the solar system and each year it will run the animation. There are also apparently plans to create an animation for the 10-year cycle but we don’t have details on that yet.

However, we do know that the team behind the project will not create the animations for the remaining anniversary chambers.

“[We] will instead leave those to future generations. We are providing a mechanical interface into those chambers that provides those future builders with power and the correct Clock triggering events,” Bezos wrote at the time.

At the present time there is no completion date scheduled for the 10,000 year clock. But it will apparently be open to the public once its finished.

It wasn’t Jeff’s idea

The clock itself is designed by computer scientist and entrepreneur, Danny Hillis, who first conceived of the idea back in 1986. Since then he has done some pretty cool stuff, like building super computers, working on Disney rides and building autonomous dinosaur robots.

He also started the Long Now Foundation back in 1996 to help make his 10,000 years clock a reality.

While some far smaller working prototypes have been made, this is the first full-sized version of the clock to be built. One of these was activated on December 31, 1999 and now resides in the Science Museum in London.

However, a site for a second full-scale Clock of the Long Now has already been purchased in Nevada.

What’s perhaps most impressive about the project, besides the sheer scale, is its optimism. Hillis clearly wanted to build something that will not only transcend generations but make those of us in the present think beyond ourselves and our time.

This philosophy is woven throughout the entirety of the Long Now website. Poetry is woven into facts about the clock, and it’s really quite beautiful.

Here’s an excerpt:

There is a Clock ringing deep inside a mountain. It is a huge Clock, hundreds of feet tall, designed to tick for 10,000 years.

Every once in a while the bells of this buried Clock play a melody. Each time the chimes ring, it’s a melody the Clock has never played before.

The Clock’s chimes have been programmed to not repeat themselves for 10,000 years. Most times the

Clock rings when a visitor has wound it, but the Clock hoards energy from a different source and occasionally it will ring itself when no one is around to hear it.

It’s anyone’s guess how many beautiful songs will never be heard over the Clock’s 10 millennial lifespan.

[MIKA27]

World Whiskey Book

World Whiskey is your whiskey bible to more than 700 varieties from some of the world’s top distilleries. This gorgeous leather-bound book is a nation-by-nation exploration of every important distilling country and the best bottles they have to offer. It is packed with tasting notes and information on the factors that contribute to these unique aromas, plus info on whiskey production, distillery secrets, whiskey tour maps for major whiskey-producing regions, and much more. $110

[MIKA27]

Suntory Hibiki Blossom Harmony Japanese Whisky

There were a number of great Japanese whiskies we mourned the loss of last year, but 2021 is off to bang with a new Suntory whisky that will surely end up on multiple “Best Of” lists this year. Suntory Hibiki Blossom Harmony Japanese Whisky is a blend of Hibiki Whisky with whisky finished in cherry barrels, which makes it the first blend to be aged in Sakura wood barrels. This “meticulous blend of select finest whiskies” represents a number of firsts for the brand, along with the creation of a spirit that properly pays homage to the cherry blossoms it draws its inspiration from. Suntory Hibiki Blossom Harmony Japanese Whisky will go on sale in limited quantities in Japan on May 25th at a recommended retail price of 8,000 Yen (about $77 USD). There’s no word yet on an international release, but we’re fairly certain a Japanese whiskey with an aroma reminiscent of the cherry blossoms will certainly end up on the list of Best Japanese Whiskies.

 

 

[MIKA27]

How a Serial Killer’s Game Show Appearance Gave Him Away

The new Britbox doc “The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Game Show Killer” chronicles the hunt for a British serial killer—and the TV footage that helped nab him.

Discussing the search for material evidence in The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Game Show Killer, forensic analyst Dr. Angela Gallop states, “Every contact, absolutely, I’m sure leaves a trace. It’s just whether or not we’re clever enough to find it.” Clever she and her compatriots certainly were when it came to multiple cases of murder and rape in Wales’ southwest county of Pembrokeshire. A sleepy coastal region known as a vacation spot, Pembrokeshire was a peaceful rural idyll—until, in 1985, a double homicide ushered in a wave of carnage that, investigators soon came to believe, was being carried out by a lone individual.

Premiering on Britbox (the BBC/ITV streaming platform) on Feb. 2, The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Game Show Killer is a non-fiction companion piece to the service’s three-part dramatic miniseries The Pembrokeshire Murders starring Luke Evans. As such, it’s bolstered by dramatic reenactments of a higher order than most found in today’s true-crime efforts. Nonetheless, the chief draw of Matthew Tune and Jonathan Hill’s hour-long documentary is that it gets to the heart of the matter with less fanfare than its scripted sibling, taking a clear-sighted, archival footage-based approach to recounting the horrors that befell Pembrokeshire beginning in 1985, when siblings Richard and Helen Thomas were incinerated during a raging fire in their secluded manor house. Investigators quickly identified shotgun wounds on both of their bodies, rope tied around Helen’s neck, and signs that she had also been sexually assaulted—all of which indicated that the inferno had been staged to cover the tracks of a twin murder.

One of the many local residents interviewed about this incident was 41-year-old handyman John Cooper. However, since he had a rock-solid alibi—his family claimed that on the rainy night in question, he’d been at home with them—police dismissed him as a suspect, and with no other potential culprits on their radar, the case went cold. Then, in 1989, a similar slaying took place on a coastal path. The victims, husband and wife Peter and Gwenda Dixon, were found beneath twigs and bushes not far from their camping tent and vehicle, she partially unclothed (suggesting sexual assault), and both of them tied up and shot numerous times with a shotgun. As former detective chief superintendent Don Evans recalls, it was “the most horrific sight you’d ever see. The worst I’ve ever seen. It was an assassination.”

Through interviews with the officers tasked with looking into this atrocity, The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Game Show Killer reveals that on this second homicidal occasion, the mysterious fiend made a crucial mistake: he took the Dixons’ credit cards and used them at various ATM machines around the area. More than 6,000 witness statements later, cops produced a sketch of their target—a modestly built white male with shaggy hair and an unkempt appearance, carrying a backpack and wearing boots and shorts. The image came to be known as “The Wild Man,” and it gave detectives a further lead with which to work. Unfortunately, though, their sleuthing would swiftly hit another dead end.

Victims (L-R) Peter and Gwenda Dixon and brother and sister Richard and Helen Thomas from The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Game Show Killer.

Law enforcement’s initial big break turned out to be fortuitous—Cooper was arrested and convicted of 30 burglaries and one robbery for a string of thefts in the Pembrokeshire area, earning him the nickname “The Super Burglar.” He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for these infractions, and while he was incarcerated, police reopened the prior two double-murders via the clandestine Operation Ottawa, reviewing over 11,000 exhibits and over one million documents. What they discovered was yet another unsolved nearby case—a rape and sexual assault of two young women. They also came to believe that Cooper was their man, and an ensuing examination of a pair of his shorts turned up traces of DNA, and fibers, that linked him to all three of these baffling crimes. Moreover, discarded gloves from a failed robbery were also connected to Cooper through forensic analysis.

At that point, Detective Chief Superintendent (and Operation Ottawa senior investigating officer) Steve Wilkins lasered in on Cooper, and the last piece of this whodunit puzzle came from the unlikeliest of sources—and provides The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Game Show Killer with its intriguing title. Bolstered by not only news reports from the era but also old TV footage, Tune and Hill’s documentary explains that the final nail in Cooper’s coffin was his appearance—three weeks before the Dixon murders—on the popular and long-running game show Bullseye, in which contestants answer general knowledge questions and play darts in order to win prizes. With the aid of ITV news reporter Jonathan Hill, an archivist manually combed through hundreds of hours of episodes to find Cooper’s installment. What it proved was that, in 1989, Cooper boasted the identical long, shaggy hair and physical build of the “Wild Man” sketch-artist impression. As one interviewee states, “It was like a tracing.”

Additional scrutiny of Cooper’s shotgun and home—which turned up even more blood and fibers—irrefutably corroborated detectives’ theory, thereby verifying Gallop’s belief that sometimes the trick to catching a killer is not only initially locating evidence but knowing how to precisely interpret it. The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Game Show Killer thus stands as a case study in investigative doggedness, and the fact that looking at crimes from a fresh perspective—or with new eyes—is often central to uncovering the sort of smoking-gun “golden nuggets” that Wilkens sought, and eventually attained, in his quest to put Cooper behind bars.

On the other hand, though, The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Game Show Killer is simply another portrait of “cold, controlled evil,” here embodied by a man who—like The Night Stalker’s Richard Ramirez and The Night Caller’s Eric Edgar Cooke—temporarily evaded capture by committing several serial offenses at the same time, which confounded detectives who didn’t immediately consider the possibility that these disparate felonies could be the handiwork of a single monstrous individual. As a result, it’s no surprise to learn, at documentary’s close, that Wilkens still believes Cooper was guilty of more than just the crimes for which he was convicted—even if, for now, he can’t scientifically prove it.

[MIKA27]

My Close Encounter With the Toxic Pigs of Fukushima

Filmmaker Otto Bell writes about his new film “The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima,” and surveying the devastation (and brave souls) left behind from the disaster.

Almost 10 years ago to the day, a 9.1-magnitude, undersea-megathrust earthquake created a 120-foot tsunami that swept across coastal towns and villages of eastern Japan, most notably triggering Level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex. On March 11, 2011, a radioactive cloud the size of Connecticut spewed across this picturesque prefecture and beyond, sending over 200,000 residents fleeing for their lives. Prior to the pandemic I visited Fukushima with a small film crew to find out how life had changed for the handful of brave citizens who had chosen to remain and eke out an existence in the shadow of this tragic disaster.

Our first taste of Fukushima was a lonely hotel a few miles from the crippled reactors. This new budget lodging was not an early sign of some bright recovery, but more of a modern flop house built specifically to house the seemingly endless stream of clean-up workers who were several years into a largely futile task with no clear end in sight. The radiation that has come to define this place will not be entirely gone for 120 years. It was rainy season when we got there, and Caesium-137 was constantly washing down from the mountainous forests that surround the coastal region, polluting the area anew. The mood was low on hope, and that became the governing tone of my short documentary The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima.

It was the animals that brought me to this forgotten place. I had read reports that in the absence of humans, emboldened wild boars had come down from the woods and overtaken the abandoned streets and houses of the evacuated towns and villages in Fukushima. Boars are omnivores—they eat anything and everything—and scientific tests were returning radiation readings over 300 times higher than accepted safety levels. These “toxic pigs” seemed to me to be an interesting benchmark for the ecosystem at large, and perhaps a fitting way in to what life was like in the aftermath of the meltdown.

Our arrival coincided with a push by the Japanese government to encourage resettlement ahead of the Olympic Games. Local hunters had been empowered to dispose of the invasive boars, and we began to follow them on their heart-wrenching daily duties. To be clear, these hunters were not gung-ho in any way; we noticed they did this grim work reluctantly, sorry that they could not even eat what they killed. The hunters took us deep into an eerie, post-apocalyptic landscape. We think our roads and structures will leave indelible fingerprints on the world, but the Fukushima I found was almost absent of people and characterized by an explosion of dust, cobwebs, weeds, and vines. We quickly realized that in less than a decade, nature had clawed back what was always hers.

The symbols of our “progress”—video game consoles, packaged food, a child’s saxophone, a Porsche sports car—all lay frozen in place, forgotten in haste, and now degraded by time and radiation. When you see this devastation first-hand, you can begin to understand why less than 10 percent of evacuees have made the tough decision to return to the homes and lives they once knew here. In today’s parlance, it felt a bit like standing next to someone indoors, having a coughing fit, without a mask on, constantly. You did not need to look at your personal Geiger counter to measure the omnipresent threat of the radiation—you could almost feel it weighing invisibly upon you.

There are a small number of citizens who never really left the area however, and we focused our cameras on them. As we followed the hunters we bumped into farmers, activists, contractors, and grieving family members. It felt right to branch off and memorialize their stories. Many were older, sheltering in place out of respect to their ancestors, and resigned to the fact that old age would claim them before the effects of radiation poisoning ever did. Most told us they felt forgotten by the authorities—or worse—stigmatized by the wider Japanese population: a farmer who had recently visited Tokyo quoted city folk as saying, “Don’t marry girls from Fukushima.”

A low-level sense of despair over this lack of progress was a recurring theme. The leader of the local hunting club recounted how he had physically carried his severely disabled son out of town on the day of the disaster, masticating bread to feed to him along the way. He dejectedly told us he has seen no evidence that the government learned any lessons about the plight of the less-abled during natural disasters. Similarly, Dr. Sachihiko Fuse told us that rising thyroid cancer rates among survivors have been pushed aside as a symptom of “over-testing.”

In fairness to the more disgruntled residents, there is something of a pattern here. When investigative journalists from the quality broadsheet Asahi Shimbun started publishing worrying stories about the organized crime syndicates and sub-optimal safety standards for clean-up crews in Fukushima, the unit was promptly shut down on the grounds that the reporters had displayed “an excessive sense of mission in their monitoring of authorities.” Indeed, the powers that be seem more interested in turning the page and promoting positive stories about the recovery; like announcing Azuma Stadium as the home for Olympic baseball and softball, just 50 miles from the disaster site.

Despite the sadness and fumbling, there are some genuine signs of hope to be found in Fukushima. Grassroots organisations like “Tomioka Will Rise Again” are striving to reopen local businesses. Fishermen and farmers are fighting to prove the cleanliness of their once-revered produce. A profound art project, “Don’t Follow The Wind,” seeks to provoke honest reflection. For my part, I will never forget and will always be grateful for the warm welcome and gracious hospitality we received from everyone we met in the area.

Those who chose to remain are rightly proud of what they have endured and display great fortitude in holding out and working toward a brighter future. One green shoot we visited was the local school. The kindly headmaster was clearly committed to his calling and had arranged a minibus to pick up his students, so they could avoid any encounters with the wild boars. As with everyone we met in Fukushima, a sense of duty weighed heavily upon him: “It’s our responsibility to make this a safe school anyone could look at and feel good about,” he told me. His school was built for 1,500 students, but “currently we have 26” he said as a little girl walked past with a Geiger counter in her hand. “This is how we’ll make a new town. This school will be the beginning.” A promising sentiment which he followed with the sad truth of the matter: “Not in two or three years. I’m thinking 10, 20 years ahead.”

The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima premieres Jan. 31 on Vice TV.

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Does Australia Really Have the Deadliest Snakes? We Debunk 6 Common Myths

As we settle into summer and temperatures rise, snakes are emerging from their winter hideouts to bask in the sun. But don’t be alarmed if you spot one, it’s hard to imagine a more misunderstood group of animals than snakes.

Our interactions with snakes are conversation starters, with yarns told and retold. But knowing what’s fact and fiction gets harder with each retelling.

As is so often the case with wildlife, the myths pale in comparison to what science has shown us about these incredible creatures. So let’s debunk six misconceptions we, as wildlife ecologists, often hear.

1. Black snakes and blue tongue lizards keep brown snakes away
This is a common old wives’ tale in southern Australia. The myth goes that if you see a red-bellied black snake or a blue-tongue lizard on your property, you’re unlikely to see the highly venomous brown snake, because black snakes keep brown snakes at bay.

This myth probably originates from observations of black snakes eating brown snakes (which they do).

But it’s not one-way traffic. There are many reported examples of brown snakes killing black snakes, too. Overall, no scientific evidence suggests one suppresses the other.

There is also no evidence blue-tongue lizards prey upon or scare brown snakes. In fact, many snakes feed on lizards, including brown snakes which, despite a preference for mammal prey as adults, won’t hesitate to have a blue tongue for lunch.

2. Snakes are poisonous
While the term poisonous and venomous are often used interchangeably, they mean quite different things. If you eat or ingest a toxic plant or animal, it’s said to be poisonous, whereas if an animal stings or bites you and you get sick, it’s venomous.

Venom is a specialised type of poison that has evolved for a specific purpose. For venom to work, it needs a wound to enter the body and into the bloodstream. Snakes, therefore, are generally venomous, not poisonous.

But there are exceptions. For example, the American garter snake preys on the rough-skinned newt which contains a powerful toxin.

The toxins from the rough-skinned newt can stay in a garter snake’s liver for up to a month. 

The newt’s toxin accumulates in the snake’s liver, and effectively makes this non-venomous snake species poisonous if another animal or human eats it. Remarkably, these snakes can also assess whether a given newt is too toxic for them to handle, and so will avoid it.

3. Australia has the deadliest snakes in the world
Approximately 20% of the world’s 3,800-plus snake species are venomous. Based on the median lethal dose — the standard measurement for how deadly a toxin is — the Australian inland taipan is ranked number one in the world. Several other Australian snakes feature in the top 10. But does that make them the deadliest?

It depends on how you define “deadly”. Death by snake bite in Australia is very uncommon, with just two per year, on average, compared to 81,000-138,000 deaths from snakes annually worldwide.

If we define “deadly snakes” as those responsible for killing many people, then the list would be topped by snakes such as the Indian cobra, common krait, Russell’s viper and the saw-scaled viper, which occur in densely populated parts of India and Asia.

A lack of access to antivenoms and health care contribute substantially to deaths from snake bites.

Indian cobra’s are one of the deadliest snakes in the world. 

4. Snakes have poor eyesight
Compared to other reptiles, such as monitor lizards, most snakes have poor eyesight, especially species that are active at night or burrow in soil.

However, snakes that are active by day and feed on fast-moving prey have relatively good vision.

One study in 1999 showed people are less likely to encounter eastern brown snakes when wearing clothing that contrasted with the colour of the sky, such as dark clothing on a bright day. This suggests they can see you well before you see them.

Some snakes such as the American coachwhip can even improve their eyesight when presented with a threat by constricting blood vessels in the transparent scale covering the eye.

An olive sea snake can actually detect light through their tail.

And then there’s the olive sea snake, whose “phototactic tails” can sense light, allowing them to retract their tails under shelter to avoid predation.

5. Young snakes are more dangerous than adults
This myth is based on the idea juvenile snakes can’t control the amount of venom they inject. No evidence suggests this is true.

However, research shows the venom of young and old snakes can differ. A 2017 study showed the venom of young brown snakes is different to adults, probably to facilitate the capture of different types of prey: young brown snakes feed on reptiles, whereas adult brown snakes predominantly feed on mammals.

But it’s not just age — venom toxicity can vary among individuals of the same population, or among populations of the same species.

Bandy Bandy (Vermicella annulata). Defensive behaviours are often misinterpreted as aggression.

6. Snakes are aggressive
Perhaps the most pervasive myth about snakes is they’re aggressive, probably because defensive behaviours are often misinterpreted.

But snakes don’t attack unprovoked. Stories of snakes chasing people are more likely cases where a snake was attempting to reach a retreat site behind the observer.

When threatened, many snakes give a postural warning such as neck flaring, raising their head off the ground, and opening their mouths, providing clear signals they feel threatened.

It’s fair to say this approach to dissuade an approaching person, or other animal, works pretty well.

Rhesus macaques display more fearful behaviour when confronted with snakes in a striking pose compared to a coiled or elongated posture. And showing Japanese macaques images of snakes in a striking posture sets of a flurry of brain activity that isn’t evoked when they’re shown images of snakes in non-threatening postures.

The same is true for humans. Children and adults detect images of snakes in a striking posture more rapidly than a resting posture. And a study from earlier this year found human infants (aged seven to 10 months) have an innate ability to detect snakes.

Snakes are amazing, but shouldn’t be feared. If you encounter one on a sunny day, don’t make sudden movements, just back away slowly. Never pick them up (or attempt to kill them), as this is often when people are bitten.

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The Mistake That Changed the History of Blade Runner

These days, Blade Runner is considered one of the all-time masterpieces of science fiction. The combination of Philip K. Dick’s idea, Ridley Scott’s direction, Harrison Ford’s performance, and a laundry list of technical masters behind the scenes created a film that has stood the test of time. But it wasn’t that way at the time of release and, if not for a tiny mishap, it might not have happened.

In the past few days, many people on Twitter have been responding to this prompt asking about moviegoing “flexes.” The responses have been incredibly varied. And then, filmmaker Bruce Wright chimed in.

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Bruce Wright
@heybrucewright 17h
Director’s cut of Blade Runner accidentally shown instead of the theatrical cut. I then mounted a campaign to get it released. And succeeded.

Um, what?

Now, this is a story I’m certain some fans, especially Blade Runner fans, have heard before. It’s on the Wikipedia and everything. But I hadn’t — so I’m guessing some others will find it new too. Hence the blog.

Wright’s thread above explains in more detail but we’ll summarize. Basically, in 1990, a 70mm print of Blade Runner found its way from Warner Bros. to a repertory theatre in Los Angeles. The problem was, the print wasn’t the theatrical version of the film, which had flopped at the box office in large part because the studio demanded Scott make changes to clarify the film’s mysteries.

The print that screened didn’t have the explanatory voiceover. It didn’t have the more neatly tied up ending. And everyone in the audience couldn’t believe what they were watching: Ridley Scott’s original version, or so they thought.

As Wright says, this incredible LA Times article gets into it more. Apparently what happened was a man named Michael Arick, who was Warner Bros.’ director of asset management in 1989, found the print randomly and hid it so he wouldn’t lose it. He never watched it, though, and didn’t know it wasn’t the theatrical version. So it got sent to the theatres.

However, the film that screened was not the Ridley Scott “Director’s Cut” as we know it now. It was close, but there were several major changes, most of which were just because it wasn’t a finished version. The film didn’t have the all-important unicorn dream sequences (a key to the question of Deckard’s biology), some of the music was temporary, and more. But, thanks to Wright’s write up as detailed in his Twitter thread, film fans got very interested in seeing this seemingly out of the blue alternative version of the film. So fans wrote to the studio, audiences started showing up to theatres, and after negotiations and discussions with Scott himself, Warner Bros. tracked down the unicorn footage and let him finish the film the way it intended. The director’s cut was finally released in 1992, 10 years after the original version.

The rest is history — history that might not have happened if a Warner Bros. executive hadn’t found one random print of the film and mistakenly sent it to a Los Angeles theatre. A theatre filled with fans so passionate about the film, they instantly knew they were watching something new and different. And got it out into the world.

I’d highly encourage you to read this whole LA Times article, which goes deeper into the history of Blade Runner, and also Wright’s full thread. Blade Runner (and the changed again Final Cut) is currently on HBO Max.

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'Eternals' Helmer Chloe Zhao to Direct 'Dracula' Movie Conceived as a Sci-Fi Western

The 'Nomadland' filmmaker recently became the first Asian woman to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.

One day after becoming the first Asian woman to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director, Nomadland helmer Chloe Zhao has signed on to write and direct a new Dracula movie for Universal Pictures that features a tonal twist on the classic monster.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news, this new iteration of Dracula will be an original, futuristic sci-fi Western. Zhao will also produce the movie via her Highwayman banner.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Universal's original Dracula movie, which starred Bela Lugosi as the famed vampire, and was directed by Tod Browning. That timeless classic is a far cry from the studio's last Dracula outing, 2014's Dracula Untold, which boasts a measly 25 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though the film did gross a surprising $217 million worldwide despite its obvious lack of quality.

Per THR, Zhao's Dracula is expected to find the character either living on or feasting on the fringes of society -- an area Zhao seems most comfortable working, as her acclaimed drama Nomadland finds Frances McDormand living in a van among a nomad community. Basically, don't expect the typical vampire iconography in this film. 

"I’ve always been fascinated by vampires and the concept of the Other they embody. I’m very excited to work with Donna [Langley], Peter [Cramer] and the team at Universal to reimagine such a beloved character," Zhao told THR.

"Chloé’s singular lens shines a light on stories of the overlooked and misunderstood. We are thrilled to be working with her as she reimagines one of the most iconic outsider characters ever created," added Universal president Peter Cramer.

Nomadland earned four Golden Globe nominations on Wednesday, including Best Picture (drama), Best Director and Best Screenplay for Zhao. It also won the top prize at both the Venice Film Festival (the Golden Lion) and the Toronto International Film Festival (the People's Choice Award) -- a first, mind you -- and the film was named Best Picture by the National Society of Film Critics and the Gotham Awards.

Zhao has already wrapped her next movie --Marvel's star-studded Eternals, which is scheduled to hit theaters on Nov. 5, 2021. It's the director's first big-budget project, and one that should prepare her for the pressure that comes with directing a Dracula movie. She's the latest to join Universal's roster of directors working on the studio's next generation of monster movies, a list that also includes James Wan, Paul Feig, Dexter Fletcher and Elizabeth Banks, as well as Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Meanwhile, Karyn Kusama (The Invitation) is also working on a Dracula movie for Blumhouse, so I suppose the race is on!

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Tom Holland Says Marvel Won't Tell Him If Garfield & Maguire Are In Spider-Man 3

Tom Holland claims Marvel hasn't told him if Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire are coming back for the MCU's Spider-Man: Homecoming 3.

Tom Holland says Marvel hasn't told him if Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire are in Spider-Man: Homecoming 3. Garfield and Maguire, of course, played Peter Parker in their own film series before Holland took over the role when Spider-Man was integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Holland's quickly become a fan-favorite since debuting in Captain America: Civil War, going on to reprise the character five more times (including this year's Spider-Man 3). As beloved Holland is, there's long been interest in seeing the previous cinematic Spider-Men returning.

It looks like Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 may be the project to make that happen, as the movie seems to be embracing the multiverse concept. Garfield and Maguire are reportedly among the many actors from Sony's earlier Spider-Man movies said to be returning for this latest film. However, their involvement hasn't been officially confirmed yet, with everyone from Zendaya to Kevin Feige being coy on the matter. Those hoping Holland will be able to provide some clarity are sure to be disappointed by the actor's latest comments.

Appearing on Variety's Awards Circuit podcast, Holland was asked about Garfield and Maguire being in Spider-Man 3 and claimed he's in the dark. The interviewer joked Holland could just "show up and people will just be there."

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"Beats me, I don't know. If they are, they haven't told me yet...  That would be something that Marvel would do. I watch the film and be like ‘So that’s who that tennis ball was!'"

During his MCU tenure, Holland has earned a reputation for spoiling key details in interviews. Even after all this time, the filmmakers still do not fully trust Holland. Obviously, since Holland is the star of Spider-Man 3, he has to be privy to a lot of information about the project, but it's possible some of the specifics have been withheld so he doesn't inadvertently leak them early. At the same time, an argument can be made Holland has simply gotten better at dodging questions now that he's been part of the MCU for a while. After all, last year he revealed he knows all of the Spider-Man 3 spoilers after a pitch meeting with Sony and Marvel, so he could be aware if Maguire and Garfield are part of the movie.

Considering Maguire and Garfield are indeed coming back, it's highly likely Sony and Marvel have something special planned to officially reveal it. Their roles probably won't be confirmed in an interview, it'll either be a money shot for the trailer or saved for the film premiere itself. When it comes to big blockbusters like Spider-Man 3, the studios enjoy being in control of information rollout, which is why they tell talent what they can and cannot discuss with the media. For now, everyone is going to be vague about Garfield and Maguire, but hopefully all will be shared soon.

 

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Halloween Kills Is The Ultimate Slasher, Says John Carpenter

John Carpenter says Halloween Kills, the sequel to 2018's reboot of the long running horror franchise, is the ultimate slasher.

John Carpenter says Halloween Kills is the ultimate slasher film. Carpenter is widely credited as igniting interest in the slasher genre after he directed the original 1978  Halloween. Carpenter became one of horror's most prolific directors, helming both The Fog and The Thing. He also went on to produce various entries in the  Halloween franchise. Carpenter also scored the original Halloween film, crafting the iconic theme music, ubiquitous with horror fans.

Carpenter also served as executive producer on 2018's Halloween. That film famously retconned the previous films in the Halloween franchise and crafted a direct sequel to the 1978 film that explored Laurie Strode's lingering trauma from the original film's events. How she passes that trauma on to her daughter and granddaughter is one of the 2018 film's main plot points. Halloween Kills will continue its timely streak with a story that star Jamie Lee Curtis says is particularly relevant for the current moment.

Carpenter's role in the horror genre is now the stuff of legend, and a blessing from him is a bolster to any film. When asked by EW if he could say anything about Halloween Kills, Carpenter couldn't give away too much. He did call the film "brilliant," though, and went on to call it "the ultimate slasher." His excitement for the film is palpable in the full quote below:

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It's brilliant. It's the ultimate slasher. I mean, there's nothing more than this one. Wow! Man.

Carpenter's excitement is enough to get anyone excited for the upcoming film. Anticipation is already high after Halloween Kills was delayed from its original 2020 release date to October 2021. The delay also forced the third film in the trilogy,  Halloween Ends, to be pushed into 2022. Photos have teased Michael Myers' return after his defeat at the end of Halloween, and the film honestly sounds like a wild ride, with the cast hinting at the expansiveness of Halloween Kills. 

Director David Gordon Green said the film would see Haddonfield residents facing off against Michael Myers, which is in line with Curtis' comments about the film. The Laurie Strode actress also said the film is about mob violence and collective trauma, and it seems as if it picks up directly after Halloween. It sounds like the entire town of Haddonfield will have to reckon with the tragedy Michael inflicted upon their community, with violent results. Halloween Kills will be a bridge between the first and third film, and it's said to be more of an action film, which makes sense within the context of Carpenter's comments. We'll likely see a lot more blood before turning to the incisive examination of trauma seen in the first film.

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The Latest Godzilla vs. Kong Trailer Teases a Very Special Guest Star

We already knew that Mechagodzilla would be popping up in Godzilla vs. Kong, but the latest teaser hyping the movie’s March 25 debut in theatres gives us a glimmer of his robotically glowing orbs… via his archrival Godzilla’s giant peeper. Feast your own eyes and see for yourself:

Neon, underwater battles, lots of monstrous snarling and bellowing, some shots of worried-looking human characters we can’t really be bothered to care about, and…yep, there it is, captured with a lingering pause to make sure we don’t miss it. That arrival should make things interesting for the two “alpha titans” who’ve already got their names in the movie title.

Godzilla vs. Kong arrives in theatres on March 25 in Australia.

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Charles Steinmetz’s Predictions About 2021 From the Year 1921 Were Amazingly Accurate

Back in 1921, Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, the pioneering inventor and mathematician, was published in a Massachusetts newspaper predicting what the fantastical world of 2021 would look like. Steinmetz made some amazingly accurate predictions about things like air conditioning, cooking, electric bicycles, and home entertainment in the future.

At first glance, the predictions may not seem that exceptional to people from the vantage point of 2021. But Steinmetz describes technological advancements that were astonishing for the early 1920s.

From Steinmetz:

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When heating is all done and I want 70 degrees in my home I shall set the thermostat at 70 and the temperature will not rise above that point. This temperature will be maintained uniformly regardless of the weather outside. This will also hold true on the warm days when the temperature outside may be 90 or 100 degrees. The same electrical apparatus will cool the electrical air, and what’s more it will also keep the humidity normal at all times.

That may not sound quite so remarkable, but consider the life that most Americans were living in 1921. At the start of the 1920s, just 35% of Americans had electricity at home. The most high-tech gadgets in hotels of 1921 were alarm clocks centrally controlled to make sure they were accurate and an automatic potato peeler.

With that kind of context, it’s easier to see why predictions about indoor temperature controls were revolutionary for a time when most Americans didn’t even have electricity.

But what about cooking? Steinmetz saw a future filled with automatic temperature controls in the oven, along with a timer to make sure the oven was turned off:

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Cooking by electricity will also be much more satisfactory. No more coal ranges. A great deal of our food can be cooked on the table. This can also be automatically regulated. For example, we want to cook a cake. We know this should be at a heat of 230 degrees for a period of 45 minutes so we set the regulator at 230 deg, 45 min. and cease to worry. At the expiration of 45 minutes the heat is automatically turned off.

Steinmetz also imaging what entertainment of the year 2021 would look like, and it had plenty of music:

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Entertainment in our homes will also be improved. There will be no need to go to some congested, poorly ventilated hall for a musical concert. We just push a plug into a base receptacle, as we do for the vacuum cleaner or table lamp, and we can have the concert brought into our homes.

Music will be supplied by a central station and distributed to subscribers by wire, just as we get our telephone service today. Perhaps this may be by wireless, the home being equipped with a radio-receiving apparatus.

With this arrangement improved, we can hear grand opera stars as they sing in European capitals while sitting in our libraries at home.

 

It’s curious to see Steinmetz mention radio, or in the language of the time “wireless,” almost as an aside rather than as a given. It shows just how rudimentary radio technology was at the time, but also speaks to some of the challenges of imagining a business model for radio in 1921. How do you get someone to pay for radio? Advertising became the most dominant business model for radio of the 20th century, but plenty of inventors tried other means, like playing static-filled broadcasts that could only be unscrambled by special receivers in the 1940s. Some inventors even tried to build their own radio adblockers in the 1930s, proving there really is nothing new under the sun.

Steinmetz saw the incredible advances of electricity — many of which he helped create — and predicted a wondrous world of electric transportation:

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With the electrical improvements to come, there will be a change in our transportation system. There will be more electric automobiles and electric bicycles and tricycles will be developed. Because of their simplicity and low price they will be available to almost everyone. Our cellars will be the place to keep them.

We will have driveways going under the house. This will eliminate the need for garages, which many times mar the beauty of the landscape of the property. While the cars are in the basement they will have their own batteries recharged.

Electricity will be used so generally then that the cost will likely be apportioned on the basis of a tax, like our water tax of today. The charge will probably be so much a plug, as we are now charged so much a faucet. Electricity will be so cheap that it will not pay to have meters installed, readings taken and a system of accounts kept.

 

In this prediction about electricity that’s “too cheap to metre,” Steinmetz was way ahead of his time. This idea wouldn’t become commonplace in futurist circles until the 1950s, when nuclear power was seen as the future of creating abundant energy. But that promise is still unfulfilled, as anyone who pays their home’s energy bill can tell you.

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Today water is used universally and no one would think of charging a friend or even a stranger for a drink. The same will be true of electricity. When the friend calls with his electric vehicle, it will be driver into your cellar and the battery will be recharged while he is making his call.

Steinmetz may sound like he’s making a bold prediction for the future or electric cars, but this one is actually a blast from the past in many ways. Back in 1900, a third of all cars on U.S. roads were electric, and there were plenty of electric vehicles driving around in the 1910s. It wasn’t until the 1920s when gasoline had truly won out as the fuel of choice for motorists. But people of the 1920s would probably be astonished that we’re using fossil fuels to power our cars a hundred years later.

Steinmetz imagined what great thinks of the past like Benjamin Franklin would think of his time, and looked even further into the future to imagine the wonders of 2021:

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Benjamin Franklin said that he would like to be sealed up in a wine cask for 100 years and then come out and view the world as it would be at the end of that time. We can imagine how amazed and delighted Franklin would be permitted to behold the electrical marvels of the twentieth century.

Yet, I feel safe in saying this would be but slight as compared to our surprise if we should seclude ourselves at this time for a like period and view the world in 2021.

 

Steinmetz died in October 1923, just two years after this article was published, so, of course, he didn’t live long enough to see the kind of indoor temperature controls or electrical appliances that he predicted. He also didn’t live long enough to see water become a precious commodity that wouldn’t be safe to drink in some parts of the United States.

Living as a realist in the world is all about trade-offs, of course, but it’s hard not to get a little depressed about the countless ways we’ve gone backwards over the past decade. Yes, things like electric cars have made great strides, but we have such a long way to go as a species. And I can’t help but wonder whether Steinmetz would be somewhat underwhelmed by our advances.

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New Model of Ancient Astronomical Device Reveals a ‘Creation of Genius’

By building a digital model of the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists may have finally exposed a key function of the ancient device, revealing a design that required some seriously advanced thinking.

Pulled from a shipwreck off the coast of Crete in 1901, the 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism has baffled scientists for decades. New research published in Scientific Reports presents a hypothetical model of the astronomical instrument, which Tony Freeth, the lead author and a mechanical engineer at University of College London, says is the first to conform to “all the physical evidence and matches the descriptions in the scientific inscriptions engraved on the Mechanism itself,” he said in a statement.

The hand-powered device is the oldest known analogue astronomical computer, an early example of complex mechanical engineering. Dating back to ancient Greece, the device modelled astronomical phenomena and events, such as lunar and solar eclipses and the positions of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Only a third of the Antikythera Mechanism was recovered, and nothing like it exists for comparison. The incomplete relic, with its 30 bronze gears and 82 individual fragments, has forced scientists to speculate as to what it looked like, what it was used for, and how it worked.

In 2016, scientists presented the results of a decades-long investigation into the relic. Using an X-ray scanner, scientists were able to document 3,500 characters of explanatory text — a kind of instruction manual — embedded onto the device. Analysis of this text suggests the Antikythera Mechanism is not a true computer, in that it’s not programmable. Rather, it was a machine designed to convey our place in the universe and forecast celestial events like lunar and solar eclipses.

Fragment A, the largest part of the device, consists of bearings, pillars, and a block, while Fragment D contains a disk, the purpose of which is unknown, a 63-toothed gear, and a plate. The purpose of the new study was to gain a better understanding of the gearing system at the front of the mechanism, which is largely missing.

The inscriptions made mention of a cosmic mechanical display, in which the planets and Moon, represented by marker beads, moved around on rings. As the authors write in their study, “no previous reconstruction has come close” to creating a model that actually adheres to this apparent specification. To that end, the team took a stab at recreating this missing — and presumed — component of the Antikythera Mechanism.

“Solving this complex 3D puzzle reveals a creation of genius — combining cycles from Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Plato’s Academy and ancient Greek astronomical theories,” wrote the authors, which included mechanical engineer Adam Wojcik, also from UCL.

Indeed, the ancient Babylonians chronicled the motions of the planets, while the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides developed a mathematical model to explain these movements.

Inscriptions on the device made mention of celestial cycles assigned to Venus, at 462 years, and Saturn, at 442 years. The scientists associated these numbers with synodic cycles, which describe the length of time it takes for a celestial object to return to its original position relative to our perspective on Earth. These cycles were important to the ancient Greeks on account of their geocentric view of the universe. Looking up into the night sky, the planets sometimes appear to briefly pause and swing back and forth as they — and we on Earth — orbit the Sun (i.e., retrograde motion), in what is an optical illusion. As a fun fact, the word “planet” comes from the Greek word for “wanderer.”

The Greeks, believing that the planets revolved around Earth, were puzzled by these retrograde motions, and they devised some rather convoluted theories and mathematical explanations to make it all work, many of them flat-out wrong.

Computer model showing the mechanism's gears

Looking at the Antikythera Mechanism itself, the researchers realised that components in Fragments A and D matched the mechanical motions of Venus, “which exactly models its 462-year planetary period relation, with the 63-tooth gear playing a crucial role,” said David Higgon, a PhD student and co-author of the paper, in the UCL statement. The scientists then determined the cycles of the remaining planets, which they did using the ancient Greek formulas, and then incorporated these cycles into “highly compact mechanisms, conforming to the physical evidence,” according to the paper.

What this all means is that the Greeks, with their geocentric view of the cosmos, made it unnecessarily difficult for themselves when designing the Antikythera Mechanism. Instead of showing the planets — represented by beads moving along concentric circles — moving in a single direction around the Sun, they had to show the planets shimmying back-and-forth during their cycles as they moved around Earth. Incredibly, this had to be done for each of the five planets, with the relative position of each having to be accurate at any given time. At least, assuming this is how the machine actually worked.

Equipped with their calculations, the scientists then designed and digitally recreated this monstrously complicated thing. The scientists “created innovative mechanisms for all of the planets that would calculate the new advanced astronomical cycles and minimise the number of gears in the whole system, so that they would fit into the tight spaces available,” said Freeth. Indeed, the gear arrangements couldn’t be arbitrarily large, as the hypothesised components needed to fit inside the device, including spaces no larger than 25 millimetres deep.

A 30-minute film about this research, showing how this model came together, can be seen on Vimeo.

The simulated machine appears to work, but simulated is the key word. The authors are correct in saying a major step still needs to completed.

“Now we must prove its feasibility by making it with ancient techniques,” said Wojcik. “A particular challenge will be the system of nested tubes that carried the astronomical outputs.”

Nice. Sounds like the team is about to embark on some experimental archaeology, in which an actual physical model of the Antikythera Mechanism will be built. Boggles the mind to think we might struggle to recreate this “creation of genius” some 2,000 years later, in what is a remarkable example of lost technology.

[MIKA27]

Keanu Reeves to Star in and Produce 'BRZRKR' Live-Action Film and Anime Series for Netflix

Keanu Reeves is set to produce and star in both a live-action film and an anime spinoff series based on his BOOM! Studios comic book limited series BRZRKR for Netflix, adding to his ever-increasing list of on-screen universes. Per a press release, Netflix announced the creation of the BRZRKR Cinematic Universe — or as we are calling it now, the BRZRKRCU. First up will be a live-action film adaptation, which Reeves is set to both produce and star in, and shortly thereafter, Reeves will voice the titular character in a BRZRKR anime spinoff series that will also stream on Netflix.

Though we don't know much else about either project, it's exciting that Netflix is going all-in on the Reeves-verse (someone needs to come up with a definitive name for it soon), and more anime is always good news. In recent months, the streamer has made headlines by greenlighting anime series based on basically every big franchise out there, so they seem to think BRZRKR has the potential to be another hit for them.

BRZRKR is a 12-issue limited comic book series based on an idea Reeves has been developing for years, and if you haven't read it yet, go catch up soon. If you thought John Wick was violent and cool, wait until you see the titular berserker make a man's head explode with a single punch, and then murder another man by stabbing him with a chunk of his own ribcage. It's basically The Old Guard combined with a modern military action film a la Black Hawk Down, and it is pure, pulpy fun. BRZRKR is created by Reeves, written by Reeves and New York Times bestselling writer Matt Kindt, and illustrated by Ron Garney with colors by Bill Crabtree, letters by Clem Robins, and character designs and covers by Rafael Grampá.

Here's how BOOM! Studios describes BRZRKR:

Quote

"The man known only as B. is half-mortal and half-god, cursed and compelled to violence…even at the sacrifice of his sanity. But after wandering the world for centuries, B. may have finally found a refuge – working for the U.S. government to fight the battles too violent and too dangerous for anyone else. In exchange, B. will be granted the one thing he desires – the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence…and how to end it."

If you still need some convincing that you need to read this comic to get yourself up to speed before the movie and anime come out, Keanu narrated a trailer just last month. Check it out below.

 

[MIKA27]

Researchers May Have Found True Identity of Ancient ‘Hobbit’ Species

Anthropologists know of at least two ancient species of tiny humans that lived on the islands of southeast Asia over 50,000 years ago. The origin of these extinct humans is unknown, but new research suggests they’re more closely related to Denisovans and Neanderthals — and, by consequence, modern humans — than previously thought.

New research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution has found no evidence of interbreeding between modern humans (Homo sapiens) and two extinct species of short-statured humans, Homo floresiensis (commonly known as the Flores Island “hobbits”) and Homo luzonensis (found in the Philippines). Fossil evidence of these two species, described in 2004 and 2019 respectively, suggests these island-dwelling humans stood no taller than around 109 centimetres, a possible consequence of insular dwarfism — an evolutionary process in which the body size of a species shrinks over time as a consequence of limited access to resources.

At the same time, the new paper, led by João Teixeira from the University of Adelaide, provides further confirmation of interbreeding between the Denisovans and modern humans, specifically modern humans living in Island Southeast Asia, an area that encompasses tropical islands between east Asia, Australia, and New Guinea. Denisovans — a sister group of Neanderthals — reached the area some 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, but archaeologists have yet to uncover a shred of fossil evidence related to these so-called “southern Denisovans.” That’s obviously weird, given the overwhelming genetic evidence that they lived in this part of the world, but it means there are important archaeological discoveries still waiting to be found. At least in theory.

So, the new paper, co-authored by anthropologist Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum in London, suggests modern humans interbred with Denisovans but not H. floresiensis or H. luzonensis. That’s an important result, because it could help to explain the presence of the diminutive humans, who died out around 50,000 years ago, in this part of the world. Excitingly, it could mean that these “super-archaics,” in the parlance of the researchers, “are not super-archaic after all, and are more closely related to [modern] humans than previously thought,” explained Teixeira, a population geneticist, in an email.

In other words, H. floresiensis or H. luzonensis might actually be the elusive southern Denisovans.

Given that present-day human populations in Island Southeast Asia have retained a significant amount of Denisovan DNA, the authors wondered if H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis also interbred with modern humans. It was also possible, though unlikely, that another ancient human called H. erectus, which lived in Java until around 117,000 to 108,000 years ago, might’ve also contributed to modern human ancestry. Indeed, one possible scenario is that the super-archaics were descended from H. erectus.

To that end, the scientists studied the DNA of 400 modern humans, of which more than half were of Island Southeast Asia ancestry. The team searched for key genetic signatures indicative of interbreeding events related to “deeply divergent hominin species,” said Teixeira. Island Southeast Asia is the “most likely geographic region where such events could have occurred due to the aforementioned presence of H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis, and perhaps H. erectus as well,” he added.

It’s important to note that scientists do not have genomes for the two short-statured species, nor H. erectus for that matter.

“There are no ‘first-hand’ genomes of the kind we have from Neanderthals and Denisovans, but there are ‘second-hand’ bits of DNA in the Denisovan genomes that seem to come from them having interbred with a super-archaic population,” explained Stringer in an email. “These can be recognised by their greater-than-average divergence within the genome and also, if there has been recent interbreeding, the strands of DNA will have been shuffled up less, and hence found in larger and more ‘pristine’ chunks.”

To be clear, the scientists are not looking for specific species-related genomes, but evidence of interbreeding, which leaves a pronounced genetic signature across the entire genome.

Results showed that modern humans did not interbreed with the two small human species, but the team did confirm Denisovan ancestry among individuals from Island Southeast Asia. As Stringer put it, “the DNA of local populations shows signs of ancestry from the Denisovans, who are currently only known from fossils in Asia, but no genetic evidence deriving from the ancient humans whose bones have actually been found in the area.”

Indeed, fossil evidence of Denisovans is non-existent in Island Southeast Asia, and the evidence that does exist elsewhere is sparse. Aside from genetics, the presence of this human species is known from a finger bone, several teeth, and skull fragments found in Siberia, as well as a 160,000-year-old jawbone found in a cave on the Tibetan Plateau.

The new research confirms that the two super-archaic species “did not contribute ancestry to modern human populations,” or if they did, they’re “not so divergent as currently assumed based on morphological comparisons,” said Teixeira. These short-statured humans may seem very different from modern humans, and thus very divergent, but that could be an illusion, as their DNA may actually be very similar to ours and especially to that of Denisovans, according to this line of thinking.

For Teixeira, the absence of this interbreeding combined with the widespread Denisovan ancestry means the two super-archaic species might represent the missing Denisovans in Island Southeast Asia, or some kind of offshoot.

“The ISEA fossil hominins are thought to represent a much older split (approximately 2 million years ago). But those estimates rely on morphological comparisons to, and the assumption they descend from, H. erectus,” he explained. “Our results show that such super-archaic species did not interbreed with modern humans in ISEA — but what if we’re wrong? What if hominin occupation in ISEA was not continuous? What if Denisovan ancestry in ISEA comes from these groups?”

To which he added: “No one knows for sure what a Denisovan is supposed to look like nor how much morphological variation existed within different Denisovan populations,” he explained. “If that is the case,” the revelation that the super-archaics are actually the southern Denisovans “could have serious implications for paleoanthropology.”

Stringer, on the other hand, isn’t so sure, as his interpretation of the evidence suggests a different lineage for the tiny human species.

“The known fossils of H. erectus, H. floresiensis, and H. luzonensis might seem to be in the right place and time to represent the mysterious ‘southern Denisovans,’ but their ancestors were likely to have been in place in Island Southeast Asia long before the Denisovan lineage had evolved,” and possibly as long as 700,000 years ago, Stringer explained.

“George, co-authors do not always agree on everything,” Teixeira told me when I queried him about this apparent inconsistency.

Regardless, the co-authors believe that interbreeding between southern Denisovans and modern humans happened in Island Southeast Asia.

“The presence of the largest amounts of Denisovan-like DNA in regions like Papua New Guinea and Australia suggests that the interbreeding occurred in ISEA or, much less likely in my opinion, a place like Papua New Guinea,” explained Stringer in his email. “My guess is that Sumatra, Borneo, and Sulawesi were the homelands of the missing ‘southern Denisovans’ and will most likely yield up their fossils.”

Stringer said these results depend on the samples analysed and that more samples are likely to provide a fuller picture.

The new paper, while illuminating, raises some very important questions. First and foremost, where are the Denisovan fossils in Island Southeast Asia? And, as Teixeira asks, “have we already found them but assumed these fossils represented much more distant relatives?” In other words, maybe the “hobbits” were the southern Denisovans all along.

Future discoveries, it would appear, await.

[MIKA27]

Robots Really Hate Humans in the Teaser for Netflix’s Original Anime, Eden

Netflix already has a lot of anime on its service, not to mention plenty more on the way based on existing IP. But today there’s a tease of a brand new original anime, and it seems right up our alley.

Eden was created by Justin Leach (Ghost in the Shell 2) and Yasuhiro Irie (Fullmetal Alchemist) and tells the story of a young girl named Sara — the last human child, in fact — being raised by robots a thousand years into the future. But of course, not all the robots in this world are of the same mind. Some of them seem downright evil if you ask me…

Here’s the official description: “Thousands of years into the future, there are no more humans. Only robots live in the mechanical metropolis, ‘Eden 3.’ Or so they thought…One day, two farming robots find a young human girl in the city. The decision they make will change everything…”

There was also a teaser trailer released earlier if you want to see more.

Featuring the voices of Kyôko Hikami, Marika Kôno, Kentaro Ito, Kôichi Yamadera, and more, Eden begins streaming on Netflix on May 27.