firehose

Conor Oberst has issued a statement responding to Joanie Faircloth, the woman who accused him of sexual assault. Oberst says he “has accepted” Joanie Faircloth’s apology and attempt to clear his name, adding understandably that “this has been extremely difficult and stressful for me personally and for those I love.” The Bright Eyes frontman also says he’s thankful for his family and friends and that he is looking forward to “happier times.”

According to Oberst’s team, Faircloth’s apology came after seven months of the singer trying to reach out to her. There’s still no word on whether their exchange means Oberst is dropping his $1.2 million libel case against Faircloth.

July 20th marks the 45th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing. To commemorate the occasion, GE partnered with Los Angeles-based boutique shoe company Android Homme and JackThreads to release high-top sneakers inspired by the space boots worn by the likes of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they set foot on the moon that day.

100 pairs of the shoes will be available for sale online on Sunday at 4:18PM ET — the same time as the moon landing. GE, which was one of the many companies and agencies that provided designs for the original launch, is stressing the materials used in the sneakers to make them stand out. For one, each side of the shoe is comprised of super-light, heat-resistant carbon fiber. "We really wanted to about the benefits materials have in industry and correlate that to the benefits materials have in fashion."

In addition, GE has launched a campaign on Snapchat to promote the materials used in the shoes:

The sneakers will retail for $196.90.

A new David Bowie record might be coming sooner than fans had imagined. The reclusive singer sent a message to fans at a charity auction suggesting he’d have “more music soon”—a move that would be surprising, considering it took him a solid 10 years to put out 2013’s The Next Day. In his message to fans, Bowie cryptically added, “This city is even better than the one you were in last year, so remember to dance, dance, dance. And then sit down for a minute, knit something, then get up and run all over the place.” Wait: Does David Bowie knit? That would be an even more startling revelation.

Apple and Samsung are already bitter enemies in the smartphone world, and headphones may be their next battleground. Samsung has just launched its "Level" family of high-end audio products in the United States. Each will be available to purchase from Gilt beginning tomorrow.

The lineup, first introduced in April, is led by Level Over, a $349.99 pair of over-ear Bluetooth headphones with active noise cancellation, NFC pairing, and what Samsung claims is "powerful, clear, sharp sound." They can also be plugged in thanks to a detachable audio cable (with microphone and remote controls for your smartphone). And if you don't like the way Level Over headphones sound out of the box, Samsung also offers an Android app that allows for EQ customization, or what the company refers to as "SoundAlive."

Samsung targets big audio spenders

Next in the family is Level On at $179.99. If it wasn't obvious at first, the Level products are all named based on how you wear them. These are wired, on-ear cans that promise "powerful, clear and pure sound." They're foldable for easier transport and look similar to Level Over, though without the fancy touch controls and Bluetooth functionality. Moving down the line we come to Level In, a $149.99 pair of earbuds that are priced a bit high for our tastes. Samsung says paying that much will get you "clear sound separation and rich, natural sound quality." And then there's the Level Box, a Bluetooth speaker that joins a massive field of competitors including Bose's SoundLink Mini, the Beats Pill, Jawbone's Jambox, and our favorite, Logitech's UE Boom. Samsung's speaker is priced at $169.99, making it slightly cheaper than the Boom and SoundLink Mini.

The rollout of Samsung's Level products comes as Apple looks to complete its acquisition of Beats Electronics. Samsung has also entered the music subscription market with the unfortunately named Milk app. But the company has some serious work to do if it intends to make a name for itself against Beats with mainstream consumers and other competitors that appeal to audiophiles. That doesn't mean Samsung should be dismissed outright, though. It's brought some clever audio products to the table before, but $349.99 headphones may prove a very hard sell — especially when there's no Beats emblem on the side.

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No matter how hard you try to stop them, some cats will always find a way to devour the food contained in pet dishes that neighbor their own. Pet owners with multiple cats will recognize this scenario: you put food out for all your furry friends, and that one greedy tabby cheerfully trots up to gobble — and subsequently throw up — whatever their siblings' dishes contain. But a new Indiegogo campaign launched today by a Taiwanese company called 42ARK might have a high-tech solution for your feline feeding problems: a cat feeding device that uses facial recognition technology to dispense a pre-determined amount of kibble to the appropriate cat.

"If a human can recognize the facial differences [that distinguish one cat from another], than the machine can do it too," says 42ARK co-founder Mu-Chi Sung. "And the platform that the cat sits on is actually a scale, so it can recognize cats by weight" as well.

facial recognition technology in a kibble dispenser

Sung first came up with the idea for this kibble dispenser — called the Bistro Smart cat feeder — after experiencing a scare with one of his pets, Momo. The white feline developed pancreatitis and subsequently stopped feeding, but Sung's other pets were eating her food, so he didn't notice right away. "I have been raising so many cats and some passed away, but usually we didn't notice that they were sick," Sung explains. "I should have noticed earlier, because it's often too late when they show serious symptoms."

Momo's brief but serious illness is what prompted Sung to think about integrating facial recognition technology in a kibble dispenser. But the Bistro smart cat feeder doesn't just hand out food to a specific animal: it also knows when to stop. By monitoring how much your cat has eaten and had to drink during each feeding session, the company says that the feeder can determine when your feline has had enough — or when it hasn't eaten at all. And users can set the food dispenser to only hand out small quantities of kibble at a time, so cats that tend to eat quickly and throw up are forced to pace themselves.

quantifying your cat to avert throw-up

Moreover, the device records your cat's feeding and weight information in the accompanying free Bistro app, which graphs your pet's food intake over time. "I wanted to have a device to monitor their appetite and their weight changes" Sung says, "because these are early symptoms [of illness]."

And especially involved cat owners will be happy to learn that the camera that recognizes their cat can also be used to livestream their feeding sessions. All a user has to do is setup the Bistro app to notify them when an animal is feeding — thus allowing cat-lovers to watch their pets eat while at work, or on the go.

"It's also a social network," Sung explains. "You can use this device to establish your cat's profile." When you take a picture of your cat, you can post it to the profile, and your cat's feeding history can be posted as well, Sung says. "It's basically a live stream of your cats' everyday moments."

"It's basically a live stream of your cats' everyday moments."

The feeder isn't perfect though, because it won't prevent multiple cats from sticking their heads in there at once. To counter this, 42ARK suggests that users try different strategies like adjusting food quantities to ensure that nothing is left on the tray once a cat has finished eating, or by spacing out feeding times. And eventually, the founders say they will "open up fully programmable feeder APIs for people/hackers to create new sharable feeding strategy to control [a cat's] daily intake" using the Bistro app.

For now, 42ARK has chosen to market the Bistro feeder solely as a cat-specific kibble dispenser because of the device's size. But Sung says that it might also work for small dogs, despite the fact that it's not optimized for canines. Early bird Indiegogo backers can get a Bistro for $149 USD, but quantities are limited. The official Indiegogo price for the Bistro is $179. And once it hits the market, Sung expects that the price will rise to $249, so retailers can turn a profit. If the project is a success, 42ARK plans to ship the Bistros to backers by February 2015.

As for Momo, Sung says she's doing well now. She lost two legs because of her illness, but "she plays with the laser pointer every day." And for $50, you might actually get to see her do this, since one of the Indiegogo rewards involves a video chat session with Momo and the 42ARK founders.

This post is sponsored by Anchor Distilling, makers of Genevieve genever-style gin, White Christmas white whiskey, and other distilled products.

In previous posts, I took a look at how Anchor Distilling developed and makes their rye whiskeys and gins. Now we'll look at their genever, which is a whiskey-gin hybrid of sorts, as well as White Christmas, a white whiskey distilled from Anchor's Christmas Ale. 

Genevieve: Like Gin-Flavored Whiskey

Historian David Wondrich has said, “Gin is flavored vodka; genever is flavored whiskey.”

While gin has a neutral spirit base spirit with juniper and usually other botanical flavors are added, in genever the base is malt spirit more like whiskey.

At Anchor Distilling they take that literally, so Genevieve is made in their two whiskey stills rather than in their gin still. Instead of fermenting a 100% malted rye base as they do for their three rye whiskeys, for Genevieve they create a fermented mash that’s a combination of wheat, barley, and rye malts.

They distill this beer once, then add botanicals and redistill it. Those botanicals are the same ones used in Junipero gin, in the same ratios as in Junipero. However, they use a greater quantity of them for Genevieve as those flavors must stand up against the malty whiskey base.

Essentially, they’re making whiskey the usual way, but also tossing botanicals into the still between the first and second distillation. However, they do one thing different from their rye whiskeys: they change the cap on the still to a traditional genever still shape.

When Genevieve was first released, I was invited to meet with then-owner and founder Fritz Maytag to talk about this new product. He told me that they took a trip to the genever-producing regions and toured distilleries and museums. He brought back a stack of books that he loaned me for a week or so, but it turned out that they were all in Dutch.

I asked Maytag, “Do you read Dutch?”

He replied, “No, but I can look at the pictures.”

And it was from the pictures that they had the genever-style still cap custom made for Anchor Distilling. When they produce Genevieve, which is only for a few weeks of the year (as the demand for the whiskey is so big and they use the same stills), they replace the whiskey still cap with the genever still cap to do so.

Genevieve is bottled at 49% ABV.

Dreaming Up White Christmas

The newest (as of this writing) spirit made at Anchor Distilling is White Christmas, which is a white whiskey distilled from Anchor’s 2012 spiced Christmas Ale.

Every year for decades, Anchor Brewing has made a Christmas Ale with a different blend of added spices each time. (Maytag said that by the time they made Junipero gin in the 1990s, he was already very familiar with many different spices from making the Christmas Ale and that made it easier to put together.)

Head Distiller Bruce Joseph says they actually experimented with distilling their beer for years before getting it right, but in the end “We distilled it just like it was a wash for whisky.”

It may have been easier to distill than their rye whiskey though, as for rye the gummy fermented rye bits go into the still, while with the beer it’s only liquid, not the rye bits.

White Christmas was only available in California during 2013 and was bottled at 45% ABV.

What the Future Holds

Anchor Distilling is tiny: Three stills crammed into the corner of the brewery's basement, and not enough room to age their barrels of whiskey on-site. At one point the distillery was going to relocate to a warehouse across the street from the Potrero Hill brewery, but the amount of fireproofing and other structural work to make it legal were cost prohibitive- especially because they’re likely to move again soon.

Anchor announced a major new project, an additional brewery and distillery site on Pier 48 in San Francisco. It will allow them to quadruple beer production and they’ll still keep the Potrero brewery.

The press release states, “The new Anchor facility will feature production facilities for brewing, distilling, packaging, storing, and shipping; a restaurant, museum and educational facility in the headhouse of Pier 48; and a restored walkway around the entire pier apron that will connect pedestrians to the Portwalk and allow views into the Anchor brewhouse. Anchor will offer tours of the facilities and educational seminars with a focus on the history of craft beer, the art of craft distilling and Anchor’s history in San Francisco.”

This project will take a few years though, and in the meantime the demand for Junipero, Old Potrero, and other distilled products from Anchor continues to grow. To keep up with production, they’ve added a third distilling shift (five days per week) and are training staff to produce the product range day and night.

Joseph says, “You still can’t get around the size of the stills, which are small.”

This post is sponsored by Anchor Distilling, makers of Genevieve genever-style gin, White Christmas white whiskey, and other distilled products.

The game industry isn't a stranger to lawsuits over unpaid use of personal likenesses, from NFL players seeking compensation from EA to Lindsay Lohan complaining over a lookalike in Grand Theft Auto V. Still, we're a bit confused by the claims in deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's lawsuit over his appearance in Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Courthouse News Service reports that Noriega filed a 13-page Superior Court suit against Call of Duty publisher Activision for using his image "without authorization of consent." According to the lawsuit, the game unfairly shows Noriega "as a kidnapper, murderer and enemy of the state" and "an antagonist and... the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes."

Noriega, of course, is well known as a brutal dictator and a key player in Central America's drug cartels in the '80s, when he also worked as a CIA informant. After being deposed in a US invasion in 1989, he was convicted of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in 1992, and he has been in prison ever since. In other words, Noriega's depiction in the game can't do much more to defame him than his actions already have.