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

[MIKA27]

German beer brewers in 'world heritage' appeal

German beer brewers want their five-century-old purity law recognised as world heritage by the United Nations' cultural agency.

They have applied to Unesco for their Reinheitsgebot law to join a list of "intangible heritage" that includes Spanish flamenco and Turkey's Kirkpinar oil-wrestling festival.

The law allows only water, barley malt, hops and yeast for brewing.

Germany has about 1,300 breweries and 5,000 brands of beer.

"If Germany is still regarded as the undisputed beer nation, that is due to the Reinheitsgebot," said Hans-Georg Eils, president of the German Brewers' Federation.

Also included on Unesco's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding are the Argentine tango, carpet weaving from southwest Iran, the French gastronomic meal and Bigwala music and dance by the Basoga people of Uganda.

The Reinheitsgebot was introduced in Bavaria in 1516 and adopted nationwide in 1906. Mr Eils said it was the oldest food and beverage regulation in the world.

The law was introduced to protect beer drinkers from cheap and sometimes hazardous ingredients.

Although Germany is Europe's biggest beer producer, beer consumption per head in the country has been declining for years.

However, Germany is still home to the world's biggest beer festival, the Oktoberfest, a 16-day event in Munich that began in 1810 and this year attracted 6.4 million visitors, according to official figures.

[MIKA27]

China: Prehistoric sacrifice skulls found

Archaeologists have found more than 80 skulls in the ruins of a neolithic Chinese city, it's reported.

The remains are mainly those of young women, thought to have died in ancient sacrifices or foundation-laying ceremonies, says China's state news agency Xinhua. Archaeologists found the skulls in pits in front of the east gate and along the city wall of the Shimao Ruins in north-west China. No limb bones have yet been found, says Sun Zhouyong, deputy head of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.

The Shimao Ruins were first unearthed in 1976. The walled stone city is the largest neolithic settlement to be found in China.

Archaeologists believe it was built about 4,300 years ago, and then abandoned three centuries later during the Xia Dynasty. The skulls will aid research into the religious practices and construction techniques of those living in the Yellow River Basin at the time, when anthropologists say people often used their enemies and captives as sacrifices.

[MIKA27]

Gramophone for iPad

Most speakers built for the iPhone and iPad involve some sort of electronics. The Gramophone for iPhone & iPad ($200-$300) does its work naturally.

Simply set your device in the handcrafted, solid wood base, and the built-in iron and brass horn will amplify its volume by three to four times, all while looking amazing. A terrific blend of old and new.

[MIKA27]

Tissot Heritage Navigator 160th Anniversary Watch

First made in 1953 to celebrate their centennial, the Tissot Heritage Navigator 160th Anniversary Watch ($TBA; available November) has been rebuilt, maintaining its classic appeal while adding in some modern functionality.

Made with traveling in mind, it has a rotating bezel with the capitals of 24 countries of the world, letting you easily determine the time in any major city around the globe. Available with either an 18-karat gold or stainless steel case, a sapphire crystal with a non-reflective coating, and a leather band, this watch features swiss-made automatic mechanical movement and water resistance down to 100 feet.

[MIKA27]

Martin Jetpack

Odds are, you've dreamed of having the ability to fly unaided, soaring above the rooftops effortlessly, only to wake up and realize that you're still bound to the ground.

With the Martin Jetpack ($100,000 and up), you can fly to altitudes of up to 800 feet, at speeds of nearly 50 miles per hour, for as long as thirty minutes — and while that doesn't quite meet your dream of flying without help, it's the next best thing. Built on top of a V4 engine that produces 200 horsepower and 180 pound-feet of torque, and capable of flying with a pilot or remotely, this jetpack is also built with safety in mind. A ducted fan, easy-to-use controls, a composite airframe built for strength, and a deployable parachute makes it nearly as safe as walking.

[jangoman88]

Derailed Metro-North Train Was Traveling 82 MPH in 30 MPH Zone

Still no word on whether human error or equipment failure was to blame

The Metro-North train that derailed in New York on Sunday morning was traveling at 82 miles per hour while heading into the 30 mph zone before the fatal event, National Transit Security Board officials said Monday.

Though the information is a breakthrough in the investigation of the deadly crashed that killed four and injured over 60 people in the Bronx, NTSB Board member Earl Weener said at a press conference on Monday it is unclear if human error or equipment failure caused the crash.

“For a train to be going 82 miles an hour around that curve is just a frightening thought,” said New York Senator Charles Schumer at the NTSB press conference. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal joined the chorus of officials demanding answers after the crash, saying, “That train was going way too fast and certainly speed was a contributing factor.”

This crash was the latest in a slew of incidents that have plagued the Metro-North line this year, including a collision in Connecticut that injured more than 70 people in May. Over the summer, a freight train derailed along the same curve that killed four on Monday. The investigation on the crash is still ongoing.

I live in CT, its crazy with these issues that Metro North keeps having. 2 this year and another freight train having an accident.

[MIKA27]

The Fukushima Earthquake Actually Changed Earth's Gravity

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake, which caused the tsunami behind the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown, disrupted more than man-made structures. The European Space Agency’s GOCE satellite, measured a significant change in Earth’s gravity after the earthquake before falling out of the sky on November 11th.

The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer, launched in 2009, collected data to map Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision. While we generally think of gravity as constant (an assumption well known to Physics 101 students), the force varies regionally due to uneven distribution of material deep within the earth. The GOCE satellite was tasked with measuring this variation to produce a detailed gravity map, or geoid:

What researchers didn’t expect was that the GOCE satellite would capture a real-time change in gravity. But the 2011 earthquake, the fifth-strongest ever recorded, shifted rock formations several kilometers below earth’s surface, and changed the shape of the sea bed, altering the gravitational pull off Japan’s coast. The quake was so powerful, instruments on the satellite even recorded sound waves emanating from the tectonic movement.

In the image at the top of this post, we see areas of reduced (blue) and increased (yellow) gravitational pull around the epicentre of the earthquake (indicated by the yellow and white “beach ball”). Compare this to the gravity map completed a year before the earthquake, where Japan sits in a relatively uniform gravitational plane:

As for the satellite, after a briefly worrying period last month when scientists revealed they couldn’t predict where it would land, GOCE crossed the skies over Siberia, the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and Antarctica, burning up in the process. It gave us our clearest understanding yet of Earth’s gravity — a force it couldn’t escape.

[MIKA27]

Japan Wants To Ring The Moon With Solar Panels To Power The Earth

After the Fukushima boondoggle back in 2011, Japan has wholeheartedly embraced solar power as its alternative energy of choice.

So much so, that one Japanese construction firm is campaigning to power the whole Earth with solar energy — that they will beam down from the moon.

The Shimizu Corporation wants to, essentially, build a ring of solar panels around the moon’s equator and transmitted back to the Earth via microwave. And they want to get the project, dubbed LUNA RING (yes, all caps), started by 2035.

“A shift from economical use of limited resources to the unlimited use of clean energy is the ultimate dream of all mankind,”

Shimizu wrote on their website.

“The LUNA RING, our lunar solar power generation concept, translates this dream into reality through ingenious ideas coupled with advanced space technologies.”

That “advanced space technology” being robots. Shimizu wants to employ a small army of robotic construction workers to install a 400m-wide ring of solar voltaic panels along the 11,000km lunar equator. Not only will the ring’s concrete base be constructed from local resources, Shimizu envisions that at least a portion of the panels themselves will be built using local materials as well. It certainly beats shipping them there.

And since the moon lacks an atmosphere, the LUNA RING would enjoy a non-stop bombardment of solar radiation which it would soak up, convert to current, and beam down to receiving stations located along the Pacific Rim via microwave antennas 20km in diameter. Seems simple enough.

Of course this is all still very much in the concept phase. And given that these days Japan and China can’t even agree on who owns the Senkaku Islands, can we really expect them to agree over who has development rights for the moon?

[MIKA27]

Huawei 'Exiting The US Market' Following Spying Accusations

It looks like China’s Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, is sick and tired of the United States accusing it of cyberspying. In an interview with the French press, the company’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said they’re throwing in the towel stateside.

Ren did not mince his words. “If Huawei gets in the middle of US-China relations [and causes problems,] it’s not worth it,”

Ren reportedly said. “Therefore, we have decided to exit the US market, and not stay in the middle.”

However, it seems not everybody at Huawei got the memo. Huawei vice president William Plummer, who Foreign Policy describes as “the company’s point person in Washington,” wouldn’t corroborate Ren’s claim. Plummer told FP that “Huawei has adjusted our priority focus to markets that welcome competition and investment, like Europe,” and suggested that Ren was just “making a comment on the current market environment” in the interview.

So it remains unclear exactly what Huawei’s next move will be. It’s no mystery that the United States is deeply suspicious of the company and its ties to China’s People’s Liberation Army. US House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers somewhat famously said last year that Huawei’s products “cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems.” The committee also released a report that accused Huawei of all kinds of bad behaviour including bribery, corruption, and immigration violations. Huawei, of course, denied the claims.

Regardless of the exact plans, it does look like Huawei’s up to something. It should be said that Ren doesn’t have absolute power; he only owns 1.4 per cent of the company. As FP points out, he’s also prone to saying crazy things in interviews. But, hey, sometimes CEOs say crazy things in interviews and then they come true

[MIKA27]

Swearing At The Ref In NBA 2K14 Still Gets You A Foul

How many times have you been watching a sporting match and wanted to tell the ref exactly what you thought of them? Turns out you still can’t do that in NBA 2k14 for Xbox One, as the Kinect is always listening to you, and calls a foul when you drop profanity on the black and white stripey bloke.

It’s always fun watching people, like the guy in the video above, figure out that screaming “f**k you” at the TV in NBA 2k14 will earn you a technical foul.

[MIKA27]

There's A Naturally Occurring Nuclear Fission Reactor In West Africa

In May 1972, in a uranium enrichment plant in France, scientists examining ore from a mine in Gabon, West Africa, discovered that a natural nuclear reactor had spontaneously manifested in that region in the Earth’s primordial past, churning out approximately 100Kw worth of energy continuously for a few hundred thousand years about 1.7 billion years ago.

In order to understand how the natural nuclear reactor came about, it helps to understand a little of the history and science of nuclear reactions.

Nuclear Reactions in a Nutshell

According to the International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA), there are over 400 nuclear power plants operating in over 30 countries; and despite recent catastrophic safety failures like the tragedy at the Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, nearly 70 new nuclear power plants are currently under construction. So why do we keep building such potentially dangerous facilities? Power that, despite such disasters asChernobyland Fukushima, megawatt for megawatt is actually, overall, generally considered safer and “greener” than power generated via coal or gas.

This type of nuclear power is created when an isotope, frequently uranium 235 (U-235), is bombarded with a neutron. The collision typically breaks the isotope into two pieces, each containing half of the neutrons and protons of the original atom, in a process called nuclear fission. During the reaction, a small amount of mass is lost, which is the result of a tiny bit of matter being converted into a relatively large amount of energy.

In a typical reactor, a whole lot of U-235 is assembled and then bombarded with neutrons; in each collision between U-235 and the neutron, two more neutrons are produced along with the release of energy. As long as there are enough U-235 isotopes about, those extra neutrons will cause additional reactions. The reactions grow exponentially in a process called a chain reaction that produces even more energy. Nuclear power plants harness the energy from these controlled chain reactions and convert it to electricity that powers things like this MacBook Air on which I’m writing.

Uranium-235

Uranium is one of the heaviest elements, with an atomic weight of 238.03. Pertinent to this article, only three isotopes of it are found naturally in the Earth’s crust; U-238, which makes up 99.3% of all uranium, U-235, which comprises most of the remaining .7%, and U-234, which is present in only an infinitesimal amount. U-238 is only mildly reactive and does not make good fissionable material.

U-235, however, is outstanding at being split and producing lots of energy.

When it comes out of the ground, uranium ore is comprised of the three isotopes in their relative proportions. In order to be fissionable, the percentage of U-235 in the ore must be increased from .7% to about 5% of the whole. This process is known as uranium enrichment. In the typical enrichment scenario, the uranium is converted into a gas, uranium hexafluoride (UF-6), and the gas is separated by weight (remember, U-234 and U-235 are lighter than U-238). The separation allows enough of the heavier uranium to be removed, and the remaining substance ultimately has a suitable concentration of U-235 for fission.

Gabon Nuclear Reactor

You may ask: “If uranium ore is unsuitable for nuclear reactions without a complicated, manmade enrichment process, how did a natural one get started nearly two billion years ago?” Good question, and the answer is not “aliens.”

U-235 has a significantly shorter half-life than U-238, so in the far distant past, it should have been far more abundant, and in greater concentrations than it is today. Scientist Paul K. Kuroda proposed in1956 that this U-235-rich ore, under the right conditions, would have supported nuclear fission, and chain reactions, that would form natural nuclear reactors.

There are two theories about how the Gabon reactor worked, although both assume a cycle of chain reaction, cessation, cooling, repeat, over a period of thousands of years, until the fissionable material was exhausted.

One theory proposes that the uranium was covered with groundwater, which moderated the neutrons and provided an environment that supported a chain reaction. The energy generated eventually heated the groundwater to boiling, and it steamed away. With the groundwater gone, the reaction stopped. Eventually, water seeped back into the uranium cavern, and the process repeated, until the concentrations were too low to support further reactions.

The second theory, which is not well accepted, proposed that the burning reactor released certain rare earth elements, like samarium, gadolinium and dysprosium, which absorbed the neutrons and stopped the chain reaction, for a time, or in certain places, only to have it pop up again nearby.

Details of the first theory were reported in Space Daily in 2004:

This similarity (to a geyser) suggests that a half an hour after the onset of the chain reaction, unbounded water was converted to steam, decreasing the thermal neutron flux and making the reactor sub-critical.

It took at least two-and-a-half hours for the reactor to cool down until fission Xe (xenon) began to retain. Then the water returned to the reactor zone, providing neutron moderation and once again establishing a self-sustaining chain.

Proof of the Oklo Fossil Fission Reactor

So how do we know this ever happened at all? Several reasons.

First, in the initial, French investigation in 1972, it was found that the concentration of U-235 from the site was much lower than it is typically observed in nature; in fact, the concentrations from the Oklo samples were similar to those found in spent nuclear fuel.

Second, the French also discovered discrepancies in other isotopes from the site, including neodymium and ruthenium, both of which are consistent with U-235 fission.

Third, in a 2004 study Washington University physicists investigating the site discovered elevated amounts of zirconium, cerium and strontium that were produced via nuclear fission.

Fourth, the American scholars also identified that the Oklo deposits contained the largest concentrations of fission-produced xenon and krypton ever found.

Lessons from the Oklo Reactor

One surprising discovery from Oklo is that, unlike our fission reactors that produce significant toxic waste that no one wants to store (think Yucca Mountain), Mother Nature safely disposed of hers. According to the Wash U researchers, the natural reactor safely trapped its toxic waste (Xe and Kr-85) in the chemical compound, aluminophosphate:

It is fascinating to think that a natural nuclear reaction can reach the critical conditions, and that it is also capable of storing its own waste.

On a final note, it is reassuring to know that naturally occurring U-235 does not exist today in the concentrations necessary to start or sustain a modern day natural nuclear reactor. So, although someday we may have to live through another Chernobyl, at least we’ll know we only have ourselves to blame.

Bonus Facts:

• Three Mile Island, the nuclear power plant accident near Middletown, Pennsylvania, is the most serious power plant accident in U.S. History. It led to no deaths and no injuries to plant workers or the nearby community. It was still rated a level 5 on the INES, even though it really should have just been rated a level 2.
  
• If you camped out at the plant at Three Mile Island during the accident that happened there in 1979, you’d have received only an additional 80 millirems of exposure during the duration of the accident. For reference, if you’ve ever had your spine x-rayed, you’d have received about double that just during the few seconds of the x-ray. If you were around 10 miles away from the reactor during the accident, you’d have received about 8 millirems or about the equivalent ionizing radiation of eating 800 bananas, which are naturally radioactive. There are no known deaths/cancers/etc. that resulted from the Three Mile Island accident.
  
• Public reaction to Three Mile Island went extremely overboard from what the actual event warranted. This was largely due to misinformation in the press; misunderstanding of ionizing radiation among the general public; and the fact that, not 12 days before it happened, the movie The China Syndrome was released. The plot of the movie was how unsafe nuclear reactors were and just about everyone in the movie but one of the main characters was trying to cover it up. The China Syndrome movie title’s concept comes from the premise that if an American nuclear reactor core were to melt down, it would melt through the center of the Earth to China. Getting around the fact that it is actually the Indian Ocean that is on the opposite side of the Earth from the U.S., not China, and the obvious problems with the “melt through the Earth” premise, it couldn’t have been a better timed movie as far as free advertisement through the press due to the Three Mile Island incident. The movie was nominated for several academy awards, including best actress by Jane Fonda.
  
• Amazingly, if we were actually able to convert matter perfectly to energy with 1 kg of matter being completely annihilated, the energy produced from just that small amount of matter is about 42.95 mega tons of TNT. So an adult male weighing in at around 200 pounds has somewhere in the vicinity of 4000 megatons of TNT potential in their matter if completely annihilated.
  
• This is about 80 times more energy than was produced by the largest ever detonated nuclear bomb, the Tzar Bomba, which itself produced a blast about 1,400 times more powerful than the combined explosions of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
  
• To further illustrate, 1 megaton of TNT, when converted to kilowatt hours, makes enough electricity to power an average American home for about 100,000 years. It is also enough to power the entire United States for a little over 3 days. So 1 kg of some matter being completely annihilated would be able to power the entire United States for about four months. One average adult male then, when completely annihilated, would produce enough energy to power the U.S. for about 30 years. Energy crisis solved.
  
• On a completely baffling scale, a typical supernova explosion will give off about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 megatons of TNT. *cowers in the corner*
  

[MIKA27]

Exploding Hog-Manure Foam Is Costing Farmers Millions

Hog farmers across the country are dealing with a pretty shitty problem. A mysterious faecal foam has begun bubbling up from beneath barn floors, down in the darkness where pig manure falls, burping dangerous quantities of methane and hydrogen sulfide. Sometimes, though, it ignites, blowing up not just the barn but all of the pigs inside.

But this isn’t something out of Monty Python. Obviously, exploding barns full of pigs and their mysterious faecal foam is an expensive problem, so farmers are eager to figure out what’s going on.

Science writer Sarah Zhang just published a sleuthing report on what’s causing the poop to foam in the first place, and she traces the problem back to a byproduct of ethanol production, something that U.S. farmers started feeding their pigs around the same time the foaming started. Of course, the government heavily subsidizes ethanol production, making this potentially dangerous food source very cheap. But does this mean a federal program is making pig **** explode, costing farmers millions?

[MIKA27]

Meet the New Wonder Woman Heading to the Big Screen

Her name might not be in the title, but Wonder Woman is finally heading to the big screen in the Man of Steel follow-upBatman vs. Superman.

Gal Gadot, who played former Mossad agent Gisele Harabo in theFast and the Furious franchise, will star as the Amazon warrior (and her civilian alter-ego Diana Prince) opposite Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman.

It’s been an ongoing challenge to get Wonder Woman on the big screen. While the other two-thirds of D.C.’s official Trinity, Batman and Superman, have both fronted multiple feature-film series, Wonder Woman has thus far been limited to the small screen.

The character found the most traction in the 1975-1979 live-action series starring Lynda Carter, but disappeared from live action altogether until a 2011 train-wreck of a pilot starring Adrianne Palicki that never ended up airing on NBC. Rumors of a Wonder Woman feature film in development — briefly attached to Joss Whedon — have been flying around for years, but most have been quashed as quickly as they’ve come up. Now, finally, we’ll get a look at the famous DC Comics heroine on the big screen.

“Not only is Gal an amazing actress, but she also has that magical quality that makes her perfect for the role,” Batman vs. Superman director Zack Snyder said in a statement today.

Like the definitive small-screen Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, Gadot is a former beauty queen, but the Israeli actress brings significant action chops to the roll as well: She’s a motorcycle enthusiast and spent two years as a sports trainer in the Israeli Army.

[MIKA27]

Stolen Radioactive Material Found in Mexico

Truck carrying radioactive isotope cobalt-60 was stolen near Mexico City

Radioactive material that had gone missing near Mexico City this week was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck that had been transporting the material was located, according to the country’s nuclear safety director.

The box that had been holding the radioactive “cobalt-60″, which authorities described as “extremely dangerous,” had been found empty earlier Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press reports. The material was found about a half-kilometer from the town of Hueypoxtla, population 4,000, but poses no threat and is not cause for evacuation, officials said.

The truck transporting the radioactive isotope was stolen Monday in central Mexico State while en route from a hospital – where the material was being used for radiotherapy – to a radioactive waste storage center, NBC News reports. In a statement, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that the radioactive material was properly stored in the truck at the time of the theft; however, “the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged.”

There have been cases of people stealing radioactive material without knowing about it, and an IAEA spokeswoman said that may have been the case with the stolen truck in Mexico.

[MIKA27]

SNOW WOLF | WHEELED SNOW SHOVEL

With the Wheeled Snow Shovel you can say goodbye to back pain when clearing the snow from your driveway every morning. With virtually no effort, this innovative snow shovel can throw heavy loads of snow without twisting or lifting, a fast and safe alternative to shoveling. Named Snow Wolf, the unique contraption is basically a shovel that has been fitted with a gigantic wheel allowing you to shovel 3x faster and throw twice as much snow as a traditional snow shovel. The Snow Wolf stores compactly by folding down flat.

[MIKA27]

SILO Mesh Card

Fans of keeping their every day carry slim and low profile are going to find a lot to love in the Silo Mesh Card ($40).

Made to keep your back pocket as unencumbered as possible, this small titanium card comes with a removable silicone band that's perfect for grasping all the cards and cash you need for a night out. Its mesh design is made for function, as well as form, letting it double as an iPhone stand and a bottle opener.

Add to that the fact that keeping it in your pocket protects your credit card details from RFID theft, and you get a pretty versatile little addition to your pocket.

[MIKA27]

Gentleman's Bogota Lockpicks

Now, I'm not suggesting you're up to anything nefarious, but given the proper tools, there are few locks that could keep the determined man from entering.

Whether you have a frequent problem locking yourself out of your apartment, or you're getting into something a bit more sinister, the Gentleman's Bogota Lock Picks ($35) are exactly the tools you need to gain entrance just about anywhere. Made to pin discretely under a lapel, collar, sleeve, or hat, these lock picks are light, yet sturdy, made from high-quality, precisely-cut stainless steel — so they'll never let you down in a pinch.

[MIKA27]

Ron Burgundy Scotchy Scotch

One thing Ron Burgundy takes as seriously as news is scotch, so it should come as no surprise that San Diego's top newsman has a scotch of his own, and it's kind of a big deal.Ron Burgundy Scotchy Scotch Scotch ($TBA) is a blend of whiskies from Speyside, Highlands and Islay worthy of the Burgundy catchphrase "Great Odin's Raven."

It sounds like a must have bottle, especially if you have many leather-bound books and your apartment smells of rich mahogany. Don't act like you're not impressed.

[MIKA27]

DELL Ultrasharp UltraHD 4K Monitor

For graphics-intensive work, you need a little more than the average monitor to meet your demands — and the Dell UltraSharp UltraHD 4K Monitor ($1,400-$3,500) is there for you with ridiculous pixel density and color precision.

Available in two sizes, 32 inches and 24 inches, these monitors are made for graphic designers, photographers, video and game designers, CAD designers, and others who demand stunning resolution on a huge screen.

The 32-inch model features 3840 by 2160 resolution on a 31.5-inch screen — while it and the smaller 23.8-inch screen are capable of delivering four times more visual information than your standard HD monitor. Both deliver excellent color reproduction, with support for most of the industry standards, precise calibration, and the ability to deliver nearly the entire color spectrum.

[NJP]

Ron Burgundy Scotch for nights alone in front of the mirror with only one sock and Y fronts on repeating " You are the man"

[Fuzz]

Meet the New Wonder Woman Heading to the Big Screen

She's gonna need to put on a fair amount of weight/muscle (WW is an Amazonian, after all) to pull off the role convincingly.

[Habana Mike]

The Beauty Of Japan's Abandoned Ruins

Japan’s “haikyo” (廃墟), or “ruins”, are fascinating. They provide a look into a world which time forgot, but French photographer Jordy Meow hasn’t.

Meow has been cataloging haikyo across Japan — from a deserted love hotel in Chiba to an abandoned theme park in Nara.

The photos, courtesy of DailyGeekShow, are hauntingly beautiful:

Definitely some eerie stuff. The Pachinko machine gallery caught my eye as my Dad brought us one from Japan many years ago.

[Fuzz]

Definitely some eerie stuff. The Pachinko machine gallery caught my eye as my Dad brought us one from Japan many years ago.

If you've never been in one.... wear ear protection when you do. I couldn't hear a damn thing for 20min after I walked out after being in there for only 5min.

[Habana Mike]

If you've never been in one.... wear ear protection when you do. I couldn't hear a damn thing for 20min after I walked out after being in there for only 5min.

That I can believe considering how much noise the single one we had made!

[MIKA27]

She's gonna need to put on a fair amount of weight/muscle (WW is an Amazonian, after all) to pull off the role convincingly.

I think she definitely has the manner and attitude, I seen her in fast and Furious. By the way, didn't you notice... She's HOT!