Squeaky gates are more annoying than anything.

Not this gate though, which invokes a sense of nostalgia for everyone’s favourite dinosaur-related film, Jurassic Park.

Twitter user @lukedmond posted a video of his gate which, when opened, issues the same notes as the film’s theme by John Williams — you’ll remember it from the iconic scene when the gates of the wildlife park appear on screen.

While it’s a pretty short clip, you’ll get the gist.

Fortunately, someone else completed the rest of the theme, if only hearing the first few notes of it proved too frustrating for you.

The Jurassic Park gate joins other well-hinged luminaries, such as the door that sounds like Chewbacca:

Or R2D2:

Jazz great Miles Davis: 

Or this one that sounds like the Jaws theme.

Image: Chesnot/Getty Images

An Australian Fortnite streamer has been charged after allegedly assaulting his partner during a live broadcast on Twitch.

Officers from Camden Police were contacted after a witness reported the alleged assault, which took place on Sunday evening.

The 26-year-old man, known by his handle MrDeadMoth, can be heard on the livestream arguing with his partner, a 21-year-old woman, who repeatedly asked him to stop playing the game. Clips of the incident went viral on Twitter.

“Can you not? I said I’ll be out soon,” the man said, before leaving his seat. Then, what appears to be the sound of a slap can be heard off camera. The woman responded by calling him a “woman basher,” and can be heard sobbing in the background. 

“Don’t hit me in the face,” she said. “Do you hear that, all you people there? He just hit me in the face.”

The argument continued for a few more minutes. None of the alleged assault was captured on camera, but a woman and a child can be heard screaming in the background after what appears to be a physical altercation. 

“F*** off you dog, you don’t pay the f***ing bills,” he said.

Police arrested the man later that evening, and he has since been charged with common assault and served with an apprehended violence order (the equivalent of a restraining order). He has been granted conditional bail, and is expected to appear in court on Thursday. 

“While the woman was not seriously injured she was distressed and shaken by the incident,” New South Wales police said in a statement via email.

Police confirmed two girls, aged three and 20 months, were at home at the time of the incident. The man’s Twitch and Twitter accounts appear to be now offline.

It’s not the first time a gaming livestream has seen an alleged assault. In China last year, professional League of Legends player Li Wei Jun was fired from his team after being accused of assaulting his girlfriend during a livestream.

If you want to talk to someone or are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or TTY 1-800-787-3224. For international hotlines, this page has a list of worldwide resources.

As you’re likely aware, the UK’s Brexit deal is well, not very popular.

Despite the turmoil, the deal is very precious to Prime Minister Theresa May though, which makes it prime parody material for Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the Lord of the Rings film series.

“This is it. Our deal,” Serkis, dressed as May, said in the video. “We takes back control — borders, laws, blue passports.”

It’s part of a campaign for the People’s Vote, a group calling for another referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union.

Let your imagination run wild with this Stranger Things Season 3 teaser.

Netflix dropped the mysterious clip on Sunday night, detailing the names of the episodes for the beloved show’s anticipated third season, set to release in summer 2019.

There’s not a whole lot to go on, other than we’ll be in the summer of 1985, but we like the sound of “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard.”

The other episode titles include “Suzie, Do You Copy?,” “The Mall Rats,” “The Sauna Test,” “The Source,” “The Birthday,” “The Bite,” and “The Battle of Starcourt.”

Want more clues? Season 3 comes with its own game, and there’s a trailer.

Metal has been having a transcendent year.

Such a transcendent year, in fact, that I feel comfortable calling 2018 the Year of Extreme Metal — a year in which bands across the extreme metal spectrum have been putting out some of their best, most interesting, and intricate albums of all time.

This was the year that bands like Skeletonwitch and Yob dug deep, looked inward, and perfected their artistry within the genre to create intense, visceral masterpieces. Other bands like Nekrogoblikon and Between the Buried and Me looked outward and pushed extreme metal into new, refreshing directions while holding true to that unmistakable metal spirit.

The problem is that most people don’t even realize this is happening, and most people have never heard of these bands.

To some, “death metal” and “grindcore” just seem like unapproachable musical styles. Some people are turned off by the idea of metal vocals or intense instrumentations. Others don’t like the overtly dark themes. And so extreme metal has never really had its big moment in the sun.

But metal doesn’t thrive in the sun. Bands like The Black Dahlia Murder, Cannibal Corpse, and Mayhem were born in the darkness, and in the darkness they shall remain.

I want you to come with me into that darkness, even if just for a moment, to look at this rich genre, to look beyond your preconceived notions and open your minds and ears to the unparalleled passion and raw talent that came from extreme metal bands in 2018. We’ll look at black metal, thrash metal, prog metal, death metal, goblin-themed metal, and some metal that can’t really be placed into a neat little subgenre.

And if you’re a metalhead yourself, please enjoy below some of the best metal albums not only of 2018, but of all time. This won’t contain every outstanding album of the year, of course, and it may not even contain your favorite. But that’s OK, because we’re all just here to have a good time.

Let’s begin with an album so gripping, so thoroughly entertaining that it alone could stand as metal’s standard-bearer for 2018 — a symbol of growth and mastery that has permeated throughout the genre.

Skeletonwitch, Devouring Radiant Light

Skeletonwitch’s latest album begins with a song that quickly establishes itself as one of the greatest singles of the year. “Fen of Shadows” starts with an orchestral black metal vibe that builds tension expertly, droning with beautiful operatic guitars, then digging in and adding bass-heavy drums and amping up the distortion to build anxiety. It builds for almost two whole minutes before unleashing one of the most cathartic death growls to ever grace the earth, and then doesn’t let up for six more minutes of black metal bliss.

This soaring song is the perfect opener for Devouring Radiant Light, Skeletonwitch’s deepest and most technically impressive album that masterfully blends soft, poignant moments with the hard-hitting thrashing they’ve developed since 2003. It’s a soulful album with some tracks like “Devouring Radiant Light” and “The Vault” pushing well-past the six-minute mark and exploring the depths of black, death, and thrash metal with a feral reverence.

With a new lead vocalist and few years between this album and the band’s last, something seems to have clicked deep within Skeletonwitch to deliver something special. Devouring Radiant Light is introspective, sometimes hauntingly so, and immediately became one of my favorite albums not just of this year, but of all time.

Between the Buried and Me, Automata I and Automata II

Between the Buried and Me released an album in two parts this year. Automata I dropped in March with six songs that show off what this band does best: face-melting prog metal. And then they followed it up in July with Automata II, a four-track coda that gets really out there and brings the band into new spaces like swing jazz (“Voice of Trespass” is a very interesting song).

What Between the Buried and Me brings with the Automata couplet is a showcase of their immense talent, built up over years and years of exploring progressive metal. Automata weaves between ethereal movements, tight melodic rocking, and head-banging abandon. A single song can touch most of these, switching between styles without missing a beat and making a cohesive-yet-dynamic experience all the way through.

Cult Leader, A Patient Man

If ever an album embodied pain and longing for help, it’s Cult Leader’s A Patient Man. In the group’s second album, Cult Leader takes its hardcore punk/metalcore roots and injects so much raw, aching emotion into it that what comes out is something completely unique to extreme metal.

Part of the majesty of A Patient Man is the album’s structure. With a song like “To: Achlys” we see something borderline emo with clean, clear vocals, but the song before it, “Isolation in the Land of Milk and Honey,” is pure metalcore thrash with guttural vocals and intense drumming. Cult Leader seems to reject the idea of fitting into a snug little box with its eclectic shifts, yet retains a consistent, deeply pained tone that drives a stake through every single second of every single song.

A Patient Man is an album worth listening to from beginning to end, experiencing it as a whole work of art. It’s brutal. It’s emotional. It’s surprising. And yet, it’s incredibly tight and composed.

Judas Priest, Firepower

Judas Priest is more of a heavy metal band than an extreme metal band, but I wanted to include an album that was at least a bit more approachable to people who aren’t all in on extreme metal already.

Judas Priest is one of the most influential metal bands to ever exist, having helped pioneer the genre starting in the late ’60s and establishing themselves as a household name in the ’80s. At least in some households. Their latest album, Firepower, is an incredible feat for a group that’s teetering on the edge of 50 years old, containing an onslaught of head-banging bangers that rock hard and raise hell.

Songs like “Necromancer,” “Evil Never Dies,” and “No Surrender” could be held up as iconic examples of heavy metal with its triumphant guitars, driving bass and drums, and the indelible screams of Rob Halford who is still belting out lyrics about demons, death, and destruction all these years on. Firepower is nothing less than a shining example of pure heavy metal fun.

Aura Noir, Aura Noire

Moving back to extreme metal and taking a bit of a departure from our theme of blending styles and reinventions of sound, we have Aura Noir’s almost self-titled album Aura Noire, which sets its heels in black and thrash metal and refuses to relent for even a single second.

Aura Noire is an album that exudes indignation and aggression. It’s pure, in-your-face brutality rife with tenacious distortion and heart-pumping blast beats. Between the mosh-inspiring music and the blasphemous lyrical themes, Aura Noire presents the epitome of metal rage that undoubtedly has caused individuals to clutch their pearls around the globe.

With its seventh album, Aura Noir says “fuck your innovation, we want to play loud, fast, and angry,” and succeeds with nine chaotic tracks that clock in at just under 40 minutes of aural assault.

Kalmah, Palo

Palo opens with triumphant jubilation, embracing everything that makes melodic death metal such a fun subgenre to listen to with its driving core and soaring lead guitars and keyboards.

With Palo, Kalmah takes a bit of a departure from its usual focus on swamp-themed death metal seen in albums like Swamplord, Swampsong, and Seventh Swamphony. Sure there are still swampy references like the song “Into the Black Marsh,” but Kalmah steps away from the mostly successful gimmick to create an album that one could ride into battle with. 

Palo is so thoroughly Scandinavian and emblematic of melodic death metal that if I was asked to describe that subgenre was, I would just point at this album. The album is tight, powerful, and well-produced, spotlighting Kalmah’s experience in the space without ever feeling overwrought.

Yob, Our Raw Heart

Yob’s latest album Our Raw Heart comes from an incredibly dark place. In 2017, frontman Mike Scheidt revealed that he was suffering from an incredibly painful intestinal disease that sent him to the hospital numerous times for multiple surgeries. In his own words, “I did almost die, and was within hours of death.”

While that was going on, Scheidt took that experience and his energy and turned it into music, writing some of the most heart-wrenching songs that have ever graced the doom metal genre. The enrapturing tone of the music, that unmistakable labor that permeates throughout Our Raw Heart, is a perfect way to capture that experience.

In nine tracks, most of which stretch past nine minutes (with the achingly light “Beauty in Falling Leaves” pushing past 16 minutes), Yob delivers its most impassioned album to date. Yob utilizes the molasses-like, behemoth quality of doom metal with delicacy to look at life, death, anguish, and perseverance in songs that crash with wave after wave of unadulterated emotion.

Tribulation, Down Below

Down Below is another album on this list that defies many of the preset categories that metal fans love to squabble over. Instead of taking a predetermined sound or two and working within them, Tribulation seems to pull inspiration from every corner of the metal world and produce something that feels very unique.

The talent expressed throughout Down Below is hard to match, even in such a rich year for metal. From the almost anthemic “Nightbound” to the deep dark bowels of “Subterranea,” Tribulation crafts moods with each song that are all-encompassing, transporting listeners into vivid scenes dripping with dark atmospheres.

Sleep, The Sciences

While I wouldn’t consider Sleep to be extreme metal, exactly, they are an iconic band in the doom metal/stoner metal scene, having gotten their start in the ’90s and having major influence over metal bands to this day. The Sciences, only Sleep’s fourth full-length album, is a flooring display of doom prowess.

The Sciences dropped, appropriately, on April 20, and stands up as one of the greatest stoner metal albums of all time. With a heavy focus on deep, distorted bass lines and shredding guitars, this album is masterclass in infusing dank, slow, doom-y tones with the drive required to keep things interesting. It’s like getting hit with a wall of sound and being completely enveloped by its cold, hazy embrace and lifted inexorably upward.

“Antarcticans Thawed” is a prime example. It labors on with a melody that feels like trudging through deep snow, but cooks in enough tension and layering of sounds to make a song that can keep heads banging ever so slowly for 14 minutes.

Nekrogoblikon, Welcome to Bonkers

Finally, we come to perhaps the weirdest band on this list, and possibly the weirdest band you’ve ever heard of: Nekrogoblikon. Nekrogoblikon is a band that plays songs about goblins and from the viewpoint of goblins, which according to the lyrics are immortal beings from space.

Up until their latest album Welcome to Bonkers, the focus of Nekrogoblikon seemed to be more on creating goofy metal rather than creating really good metal. Their songs have always be fun and entertaining, and honestly pretty good, but nothing they’ve put out thus far compares to Welcome to Bonkers.

This album is astoundingly good. From beginning to end it’s a blast, mixing its absurd themes with some of the greatest metal (and non-metal music) of the year. It doesn’t take itself seriously, which can be very refreshing in the metal scene, but at the same time it’s so well-produced, thoughtful, unique, and downright awesome that it can stand side-by-side with other, more serious metal contributors of 2018.

There are more traditional extreme metal songs like “Dressed as Goblins” and “The Skin Thief” that hit hard and never stop, and they’re great, but some of the standouts are the tracks that break free from metal’s constraints. “The Magic Spider” blends death metal with psychedelic pop. “Killing Time (and Space)” mixes death metal with bluegrass, of all things. The album is full of fun surprises, each one more shocking and delightful than the last.  

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This list just scratches the surface of extreme metal in 2018. Other bands like Slugdge, Zeal and Ardor, and Immortal had phenomenal showings, just to name a few.

Part of the beauty of metal is its diversity of sound. There are so many styles that fit under the metal umbrella, each one of them with their own strengths and distinct voices. And like other, more publicly popular genres of music, it’s constantly going through transformations and evolutions.

This happens to be a high moment for metal, one of many its had over the years, and it looks like things are only going to get better.

The real Smokey Bear narrowly avoided death in the pine-filled Capitan Mountains of New Mexico, nearly 70 years ago. 

Just west of the town of Roswell, firefighters found the bear cub clutching to the upper reaches of a tree, with singed paws and legs. The stranded black bear would almost certainly have perished amid the ashy land, but foresters saved him, and ultimately brought the tiny omnivore to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. 

Here, the newly named “Smokey Bear” lived out his domesticated life, well beyond the wild threats of the American West, where forests burn, and indomitable fires are king.

Today, of course, Smokey Bear lives on as a 74-year-old message, the longest-serving public service campaign in U.S. history. He is stern, though approachable. Authoritative, yet gentle. He only says one thing, ever.

“Only you can prevent wildfires.”

But as Smokey the campaign — run by the U.S. Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, and the non-profit advertiser the Ad Council — approaches his 75-birthday, he has entered changing climes. Earth’s temperature has been rising for over a century — a rise that is indisputably caused by humans. But over the past four decades, this rate of warming has accelerated.

<img class="" data-credit-name="Rudy Wendelin/U.S. department of Agriculture
” data-credit-provider=”custom type” data-caption=”A Smokey illustration in 1995, as he puts out a forgotten campfire.” title=”A Smokey illustration in 1995, as he puts out a forgotten campfire.” src=”https://i.amz.mshcdn.com/xHRvv90-3Y6faKflWR0xewUL_t4=/fit-in/1200×9600/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F893205%2F512a30dc-c8f8-47bd-861e-94a53d29bad2.jpg&#8221; alt=”A Smokey illustration in 1995, as he puts out a forgotten campfire.” data-fragment=”m!8270″ data-image=”https://ift.tt/2L7YOHT; data-micro=”1″>

Image: Rudy Wendelin/U.S. department of Agriculture

Though the nation’s fire woes are a complex confluence of potent culprits, Smokey’s modern world, parched by heat and dryness, is increasingly aflame, and climate change is making it worse. 

Wildfires are burning more than twice as much land as they were in the early 1980s (when modern record-keeping began), and these blazes are burning for weeks — not just days — longer. 

Yet Smokey’s message — though imperfect — remains relevant in an increasingly fire-damaged nation. 

“You can prevent wildfires — that’s a great message,” Mike Flannigan, a fire scientist at the University of Alberta, said in an interview. “I like to think every human-caused fire is preventable.”

Globally, humans are responsible for starting around 95 percent of fires, said Flannigan, whether by downed power lines, a sparking vehicle, or a campfire gone wrong. So, encouraging Americans to be careful in fire country — by drowning campfires in water or not carelessly tossing cigarette butts into the woods — is unquestionably valuable, if not critical.

Image: Ad Council, US Forest Service & National Association of State Foresters

But limited to five words, Smokey’s famous adage — while memorable and enduring — comes with a catch.

“Smokey’s other message is not as obvious,” said Flannigan. “It’s ‘Fire is bad’.”

“Smokey’s other message is not as obvious”

But, emphasized Flannigan, “Fire is not bad — it’s nature at work.”

“Smokey has a place,” Stephen Pyne, a wildlife historian at Arizona State University, added in an interview. “The problem is when Smokey’s message gets generalized.”

Smokey’s modern message

There are bad fires, and there are good fires. “We want fires of the right sort,” said Pyne.

Wildfires improve the wilderness. They open up sunlight while removing dead brush. They fertilize the land and crack open pine cones, spreading seeds. And, critically, they thin the forests and woodlands, depriving large fires of the fuel they relish when growing into towering conflagrations. 

In a modern world besieged by fires, then, we also need fire. In fact, when it’s possible, many fire experts promote intentionally and intelligently lighting fires — to thin out forests that we’ve let become overgrown. This is called prescribed burning.  

“Some fires we need to fight, and some we need to light,” said Pyne. 

That’s why Pyne suggests a mild alteration of Smokey’s legendary message.

“Why not just have him say ‘Help Smokey stop bad fires?” wondered Pyne. 

Or, perhaps, it’s time to let Smokey retire and hand over the reins to Smokey’s cubs to carry the modern message, while leaving Smokey to walk into the sunset, with his furry head and iconic flat-hat held high.

“Let him retire with dignity,” said Pyne. 

It’s quite unlikely, however, that Smokey will be retired. 

He’s not just a massive advertising success, perhaps one of the most successful in U.S. history — who doesn’t know Smokey Bear? 

His message, though oversimplified, remains important not because of his legend, but because of his relevance to the future. Because forests, especially in the Western U.S. and Canada, are growing more susceptible to flames. 

“The climate is changing,” said Flannigan. “We’re getting more extreme weather for fire, and there are more people on the landscape.”

“The climate is changing”

This is a recipe for catastrophic flames, which recently proved historically deadly in the California town of Paradise. 

Though this blaze might have been caused by flawed power lines, not poor campfire etiquette, the consequences of accidental fire can be identical: towering, unstoppable flames. 

Image: Ad Council, US Forest Service & National Association of State Foresters

Thousands of years ago, before hundreds of millions of people had populated North America, lightning strikes likely started nearly every fire on Earth. Lightning however, is more limited in scope, in part because lightning has a season.

“But now with humans, as long as the fuels are dry and the weather is conducive, you can have a fire any time of the year,” said Flannigan. 

After all, in the parched West, all it takes is a spark.

Under the right conditions, once a fire reaches the crowns of trees, humans are generally powerless to stop the flames, noted Flannigan. Even massive 747 aircraft swooping over fires and dropping loads of crimson retardant has little effect.

“Dropping retardant makes a nice picture,” said Flannigan, “But you might as well be spitting on a campfire.”

Smokey’s survival 

Smokey has survived through 14 presidential administrations, largely immune to America’s contemporary episodes of social unrest, warring, and economic tumult. 

Yet, how successful has Smokey been at stopping, or avoiding, wildfires?

Image: Ad Council, US Forest Service & National Association of State Foresters

It’s nearly impossible to say. As the Ad Council pointed out over email, “there are difficulties measuring something that never happens.” 

What is understood, however, is that Smokey is well known. Of over 6,700 outdoor recreationists recently surveyed, 8 of 10 could identify Smokey, according to the Ad Council. So his message is likely being heard. 

And Smokey has evolved and changed his message, in a nuanced but relevant way. In 2001, his message shifted from “Only you can prevent forest fires” to “Only you can prevent .” 

This was appropriate, as some of the America’s largest wildfires don’t occur in forests, but in scrublands and chaparral.

Whatever Smokey’s true success rate, the U.S. Forest Service still considers the anthropomorphized bear as one weapon in its battle to stop accidental fires. 

“The objective of wildfire prevention strategies, whether engineering, enforcement, education, administration or the Smokey Bear campaign, is to prevent human-caused ignitions from starting,” the federal agency said in a statement. “Smokey’s message is about preventing a wildfire from starting in the first place.”

Although seasoned fire experts — like Pyne, who grew up with Smokey — think his message can be refined, it’s hard to argue Smokey isn’t an important part of the modern solution to climate change-enhanced infernos.

After all, we’re going to need all the help we can get.

Money alone, to fight fires and treat the land (reducing fuels in heavily wooded forest) won’t solve the problem. And the U.S. Forest Service knows it.

In 1995, 16 percent of the agency’s budget was devoted to fighting fire. Now, it’s up to 50 percent. And by 2025, “two out of every three dollars the Forest Service gets from Congress as part of its appropriated budget will be spent on fire programs,” the agency concluded in a 2015 report.  

Image: RUDY WENDELIN/U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

“We’re seeing expenditures go up and up and up,” said Flannigan. “Despite how much we’re spending, our area burned has more than doubled.” 

Solving the nation’s modern wildfire woes doesn’t have a silver bullet solution — regardless of what leading politicians, like Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, contend. 

Yes, it will mean reducing overgrown vegetation, or fuels, in our historically ill-managed forests. It will mean dramatically lowering global societies reliance on carbon emitting fossil fuels. It will mean fortifying communities against fire. 

And it will mean not acting foolishly in fire country. That’s where Smokey, with his unpretentious, chummy demeanor, comes in.

“The status quo is not an option for the future,” said Flannigan. “We can’t spend, spend, and spend and continue to get our butts kicked. When you have a battle with a lion you lose.” 

“We’re losing.”

 

 

Image: RHONA WISE/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Most fans of professional football that don’t live in or have family ties to Boston hate the New England Patriots. Those people are very happy on this late-season Sunday.

It looked like a Patriots win was all but secured as the game clock ticked into its final seconds during an afternoon match-up against the Miami Dolphins. But that’s when it happened, a real-deal NFL miracle. The “Miami Miracle,” as it’s now been dubbed.

Miami, down by 5 points with just seven seconds to go, delivered the most unexpected touchdown play. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see at the end of a sports movie, when the underdog team completely trips up the reigning champs by pulling off a trick play that nobody saw coming.

This is one of those obscure pro football rules that most people, even casual fans, don’t necessarily know about. In the NFL, forward passes can only happen from behind the line of scrimmage — the place where players set up before a play begins. But lateral passes, which don’t move the ball further down the field, can happen anywhere and at any time after a play has begun.

That’s what you’re seeing here: Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill let the ball fly to his waiting receiver, Kenny Stills. It looked like a dead play right there, with Stills facing an imminent tackle as soon as he took possession of the ball.

That’s not how things went though! Stills dumped the ball to a nearby player, who then tossed it again to another nearby player. The dizzying few seconds of action caught the Patriots by surprise and opened the door for Miami to score a final touchdown on the last play, multiple seconds after the game clock hit zero.

It’s the kind of football maneuver that transcends fandom and goes down in history. You don’t have to fully understand the sport to appreciate what happened here. The replay video tells the whole story.

Predictably, this brief, made-for-the-movies moment drew a loud and excited response on social media.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is coming back Jan. 10 for a sixth season on NBC, against all odds after Fox’s cancellation failed to stick.

Now there’s this new trailer, freshly released on Sunday, to get you in the mood. You can hit play without fear of spoilers. This is more of a random riff on Die Hard and other action movies, with Andy Samberg’s Jake taking on the hero role.

It’s fun! It should be! We all had every reason to think Brooklyn Nine-Nine was never coming back after Fox dropped the hammer on it, so every episode from Season 6 (and potentially beyond) is technically a gift, for both the actors and their fans.

Come December, many elect to adorn their homes with lights and decorations. And some take holiday decorating to the next level by curating intricate light shows.

Holiday light shows have become an American tradition over the past couple of years. Using  special lighting equipment and a ridiculous amount of holiday decorations, people have created entertaining shows set to an array of music. These light shows have become so popular that they even spawned the popular seasonal reality show, The Great Christmas Light Fight.

Whether you’re looking for a classic holiday spectacular, or a more modern dubstep bonanza, you’re bound to find everything you’re looking for on YouTube. 

1. A snow-inspired “Let it Go” light show

Watch Frozen‘s biggest hit, “Let it Go,” come to life in this snowy and intricate light display. 

2. A delightful remix of all your favorite holiday songs

This wildly impressive display used 17,000 computerized lights to create its many different effects, all to the tune of holiday classics like, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and “Jingle Bells.”

3. A light set up Clark Griswold would approve of 

This light show perfectly captures the famous Christmas Vacation scene when the main character Clark Griswold tries and fails to get his Christmas lights to, well, light up. 

But not to worry, there’s lights a plenty! 

4. This take on an old holiday classic

“Carol of the Bells” gets beautifully reimagined in this bright, twinkling, light celebration — complete with ringing bells, of course.

5. A perfect Grinch tribute

From the singing Santa hologram to the green lights, and scenes from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, this is one of the best salutes to the old animated Grinch tale.

6. Ping Pong, but make it lights

You wouldn’t think a light show that drew its inspiration from ping pong would have much to offer, but this is a surprisingly creative and delightful techno-filled experience.

7. Your favorite Christmas Carol, “Sexy and I Know It”

Wild how adding a simple Santa Claus hat can add a sense of holiday festive-ness to anything, even this flashy rendition of LMFAO’s hit single, “Sexy and I Know It.”

8. A flashy homage to Star Wars 

Tired: Star Wars laser shows. Wired: Star Wars-inspired holiday decorations.

9. This beautiful residential rave

I’m sure this person’s neighbor dreads the holidays, but for everyone who does not live next door, this is quite the treat.

10. A dubstep light show for the ages

A light show as electric as the music it’s set to, this holiday display will get your heart racing and your body moving.

11. “Amazing Grace” gets … updated?

The hymn “Amazing Grace” gets an uplifting and colorful update in this fun holiday light show.

This post is part of our High-tech High series, which explores weed innovations, and our cultural relationship with cannabis, as legalization in several U.S. states, Canada, and Uruguay moves the market further out of the shadows.

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It’s 2018, and marijuana vape pens are so common in California they may as well be on the state flag. (They’re certainly more widespread than bears. Sorry, bears.) 

Pens are not the preserve of stoner stereotypes, either: Walk through the Financial District of San Francisco on a sunny day after work, and at the outdoor tables of wine bars and pubs alike, you’ll easily spot dozens of those slim, telltale cartridges being casually withdrawn from suit jackets and purses for a politely discreet two-second sip. 

In a few short years of legalization, vape pens have become the cocktails of weed: pretty, classy, concentrated, available in many intriguing varieties, dinner-party friendly; a nice little sippable pick-me-up, presuming you don’t have too much. It’s fair to say I am familiar with (and respectful of) pens and cocktails in equal measure. 

Then at the other end of the spectrum, there’s dabbing. Until last week, like a lot of people, I would have described dabbing as the crack-smoking of weed; the thing you do if you want to get seriously messed up, like downing a pitcher of a particularly strong cocktail. 

But I also would have had no idea what I was talking about. Because it turns out dabbing is a lot closer to downing a double espresso than chugging martinis.

The rhyme and reason of rigs 

From a chemistry-class perspective, dabbing and vaping are almost the same thing. The pens heat liquid cannabis concentrate (added to various kinds of oil) very fast to create vapor, whereas dabbing is simply about heating solid cannabis concentrate very fast to create vapor. The solid version unadulterated by oil may be a little healthier because you don’t add anything in the extraction process, but dabbing has historically involved a cumbersome, daunting industrial setup.

Dabbers own “rigs” that look like they belong in the lair of an evil scientist. They use blowtorches, albeit indirectly, and vape their solid concentrate on a “nail” or an “e-nail.” I’d heard of dabbers placing concentrate between red hot kitchen knives. Getting high around large hot pointy objects? Yeah, that’s a big fat nope from me. Besides, why bother if it’s the same effect as a vape pen?

Then I interviewed Roger Volodarsky, the Los Angeles-based founder CEO of PuffCo, who assured me it was most definitely not the same effect. Volodarsky created the PuffCo Peak, a small push-button “smart rig” that “removes the stigma and the learning curve from dabbing,” he says (and makes you pay $380 for the privilege). 

Price notwithstanding, the Peak has been getting rave reviews all year, including the ultimate design distinction of being compared to an iPhone. But more than the Steve Jobs of rig design, Volodarsky sees himself as a dabbing evangelist. He’s the Johnny Appleseed of solid concentrate. And he thinks people like me have greatly misunderstood the effects and the benefits of dabbing.

‘When I dab, I’m not slowed down. I’m more interested.’

“That’s likely THC distillate in your vape pen,” Volodarsky said dismissively when I made the comparison. “That’s one slim shade of cannabis, and not a fraction of the experience of dabbing. When you’re consuming concentrate, you’re leaving behind CBN, which is [a cannabinoid molecule] known for making you sleepy and disassociated. When I dab, it’s like having a coffee. I’m not slowed down. I’m more interested.” He described the effect as “zoning in.”

Well, okay then. Who doesn’t want to be more interested? Who couldn’t use being more focused and “zoned in”? Who has consumed cannabis (or cocktails, for that matter) and not had the occasional unreliable experience where they wished the result was less head-foggy, with more ability to hold down a conversation? Maybe Volodarsky was on to something with this no CBN thing. 

I found a few studies suggesting that “reclaim” —  dark sticky stuff left over after dabbing — was indeed unusually high in the CBN molecule. But that didn’t seem conclusive, so I ran Voldarsky’s claim past my next interviewee, scientist Tristan Watkins, who has a Ph.D in what cannabinoids do to the brain. He cautioned that more study was needed — a perennial problem for what is still, unbelievably, a schedule 1 drug at the Federal level. 

But Watkins did add his own memorable anecdote to the pile. He recalled that one time, he had set out to dab the CBN-heavy reclaim of a CBN-heavy strain. He was so immediately ready for a snooze that “it was a struggle to go upstairs to get to bed,” he said. 

If we have indeed isolated the must-sleep-now molecule in marijuana, that alone could be a game-changer. Some $2 billion is spent every year on sleeping pills in the U.S. alone; three quarters of that is spent on prescription drugs. CBN would probably be a lot safer and more reliable than a hypnotic like Ambien, which can apparently lead to crazy tweeting. 

Meanwhile, the CBN-free, pot-as-coffee market could be just as big a deal. So when PuffCo sent me a Peak to review, I swallowed my reluctance and marched into my nearest recreational dispensary. 

Peak Experience

That’s where I ran into the other problem that confronts dabbing newbies: the confusing varieties of non-liquid concentrate. They too are cursed with names as foreboding as rig and nail. There are the solid shards known as “shatter,” which look like something Walter White might cook up. Then there’s “wax,” which calls to mind Madame Tussauds’ and ears and ewwww. 

On the advice of my budtender, I dropped $45 on something called Sweet and Sour live resin sauce by a company called Raw Garden. Live resin is made by a process that preserves the plant immediately after harvesting, flash freezing it so it doesn’t dry out and lose its terpenes in the traditional curing process. 

Still, the cost seemed outrageous for what you get: a thumb-sized dollop of yellowish goo, albeit fascinating yellowish goo studded with tiny reflective crystal forms. 

Raw Garden’s marketing copy assured me I was getting “single-source, fresh-frozen, whole-plant flowers” that had been “refined into a flavorful concentration of terpenes and cannabinoids” via “advanced crystallization techniques.” A QR code on the container took me directly to an independent lab test of this batch, certified free of all impurities. 

All of which seemed appropriately uncompromising and futuristic for the Peak. Like the stuff it vaporizes, the Peak is surprisingly small. It looks like a bong from the 22nd century — a 7-inch-tall one that fits in the palm of your hand and carries a Katniss-like quiver of Q-tips to keep it clean. 

It may be simple and push-button so far as rigs go, but the Peak is not un-intimidating for a beginner. There are a lot of confusing spare parts when you unbox it, each in their miniature box, and I reflected on the fact that an “atomizer” is just as intimidatingly named as a “nail.” 

The Peak, at least, is mercifully nail free; you merely place a tiny bit of concentrate (somewhere between a grain of rice and a pea) inside a ceramic chamber (to the right in the picture above, under the glass stopper). Then put a tiny amount of water, a fluid ounce or so, in the main tube. 

The main impediment is charging up the base, which took about 2 hours to fully charge via USB the first time. But that was enough for dozens of cordless sessions, each one initiated by a double tap on the device’s only button. The Peak hits its temperature mark in just 20 seconds. Each session is as compact as the device and its contents, keeping the heat on for just 12 seconds. That’s all you’ll need, trust me. 

It’s also essential to learn the color code of the Peak. A single tap of the button cycles between blue, green, red, and white, which increases in temperature in that order. On an early attempt to dab with my also-a-beginner wife, we mistakenly set the Peak on white — assuming red was the highest setting, therefore white must be the lowest. 

I fizzed with ideas, but more importantly I was capable of remembering them

The result? “It stole an afternoon and confined me to the couch with racing thoughts,” is how my wife describes it now. (Meanwhile, as if to prove how much this stuff affects everyone differently, I acquired a sudden urge to clean the house.) 

But then there was the blue setting. Ah, the blue setting! Blue means the Peak is vaporizing at a mere 450 degrees Fahrenheit, versus 600 degrees for white. At that temperature you can really taste the complex flavors from terpenes coming through in the vapor, chilled by filtration through the water. (Because it’s just vapor, there are none of the horrors of dirty bong water; the only part that needs cleaning is the ceramic bowl.) 

More importantly, I discovered, Volodarsky was right. After a single blue session, I felt focused and utterly calm, like I’d just downed a large cappuccino. I fizzed with ideas, but more importantly I was capable of remembering them for more than a few seconds and writing them all down. 

The traditional forgetfulness was gone, and conversation came easily — something I confirmed by taking it to a dinner party where friends passed it around and nattered happily on a wide range of topics. (Because the Peak disassembles into two main pieces, the base and the glass tube, it’s surprisingly portable.) 

And here’s the result I didn’t expect: Almost immediately, I lost all interest in vape pens. My attitude had flipped 180 degrees. Pens seemed a pale imitation now, foggy and flavorless. Why would anyone bother with them?

I was curious about whether this dislike extended to Puffco’s more portable device, the $80 PuffCo Plus pen. Like the Peak, the Plus is a groundbreaking product in its category; it’s the first dabbing pen to have a built-in “dart.” You use it to secure the wax or resin, as in the image above, before screwing it in to the ceramic chamber. (Other dabbing pens, and even the Peak itself, require you to use a separate and fiddly metal tool to apply the concentrate.) 

My verdict on the Plus? Meh. It’s okay, I guess; better and slightly more clear-headed than a regular vape pen. But you’re inhaling through a rubber flange at the top, which is kind of annoying, and it certainly doesn’t give you the rich, chilled flavor of the Peak. Plus the concentrate seemed to disappear a lot faster in the Plus, which. I suspect I was also therefore inhaling a larger dose of CBN, as the experience wasn’t as clear-headed as the Peak.

After the peak experience of the Peak, in fact, it is possible that I am ruined for other forms of cannabis consumption. All of them seem like going back to basic box wine after you’ve tasted the rich complexity of a good pinot noir for the first time. 

Volodarsky says he’ll still enjoy a joint every now and then, usually at the end of the day when he actually welcomes those foggy, sleepy CBN effects. Personally, I’d be happy to remain smokeless, but I wouldn’t say no to a strong CBN-rich concentrate for the nights when I need to combat insomnia. 

Just don’t give it to me in vape pen form.