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Traditional Muay Thai gyms are rather simple affairs. You need a flat surface, a roof, a ring, enthusiastic spectators and two of the most skilled fighters willing to go head to head with knees and elbows with extreme prejudice.Okay, it’s a bit more than that. But if you’re going to set up a Muay Thai gym in a Zaha Hadid designed building then it needs to be something truly special. That gym would be the latest Muay Thai facility by Bwao Studio in Beijing’s Wangjing Soho complex.The building itself is a sight to behold from the outside but step inside with its unique elliptical design, but step inside and there’s a brand spanking new Muay Thai studio which features an interior fit out that could rival a modern art gallery’s.The centrepiece is of course the ring which is laid out as 5 square metres of fighting space. There are also neighbouring punching bags which face the cathedral-style windows that allow for ample natural lighting to flood in.Facilities such as showers and changerooms receive their own enclosed area in the gym which is beautifully wrapped layers of curved shapes to draw attention to spatial efficiency and ambience.Given how brutal some Muay Thai fights can be, we only have one recommendation: choose a different floor colour.Like your fighting arenas with a bit of designer flair? Check out the London boxing gym you wouldn’t mind calling home.[via Designboom]

The post Step Inside The Designer Muay Thai Gym Of The Future appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Not all passports are created equal, and for the first time in history, an Asian country has the most powerful passport in the world.

Singapore elbowed past Germany to take the top spot in this year’s Global Passport Index, thanks to a recent decision by Paraguay to remove visa requirements for citizens of the city-state. Singapore had previously tied with Germany with a passport score of 158, but this year bested the European nation by one. Holders of a Singaporean passport can now easily visit 159 countries, either visa-free or by securing a visa on arrival.

The Passport Index is an interactive online tool developed by international residence and citizenship advisory firm Arton Capital. The index ranks the world’s most powerful passports by analysing cross-border access and assigning a ‘visa-free score’ based on the number of countries a passport holder can visit without a visa or with a visa acquired on arrival.

Philippe May, managing director of Arton Capital’s Singapore office, told CNN, “Singapore has constantly increased its passport strength since it became independent in 1965. This due to a smart and far-sighted foreign policy, excellent diplomacy and by understanding globalization as an opportunity.”

May added that Singapore, unlike Schengen member countries in Europe, does not share a common travel zone with other countries. It is therefore not locked into visa restrictions decided by other nations, leaving it entirely responsible for its own decisions about who to grant visa-free access.

Plenty of European countries still made the list – including Germany holding strong at #2 – along with several more in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Meanwhile the US passport has fallen in favour since Trump took office, but its ranking at #6 still puts it leagues ahead of the passports with the least mobility: Somalia (34), Syria (29), Pakistan and Iraq (26), and Afghanistan (22).

May told CNN he expects two sets of independent nations to continue improving their passport strength going forward: “Small nations who are no threat to anyone as well as smart and open-minded nations, especially when there is a strong rule of law.”

View the new Passport Index power ranking in the gallery above. Should you need to leave the country and assume a new identity, you now know which passport to ask the forger for.

The post These Are The Most Powerful Passports In The World Right Now appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon their sneakers – but not all of you. Created for all walks of life, your sneakers, dear gents, speak miles about you.

From your basic hand-me-down Nikes to the wild world of unapologetically kickass Louboutin sneakers, every shoe tells a story. Shall we begin yours? Let’s see what your sneakers have to say.

Standard Nikes

You can’t exactly pinpoint why you’re loyal to Nikes, but somehow their legendary name is good enough for you. With their clean look and go-getter design, you feel like you’re doing your fashion diligence when you “Just do it”.  

You’re often confused about where to rock your Nikes. Are they only okay for the gym and errand-running, or can you don them casually for, say a UFC bar night? You feel lame for caring but even lamer for not knowing— you covertly crave a woman who’ll serve as a sort of  Obi-Wan Kenobi in these matters, guiding you in the forces of fashion.

You dream of applying a “Just do it” mentality to more areas of your life, sex mostly. But until such time, you’ve mastered the art of cyber stalking girls on Instagram whom you screenshot for your buddies’ group chat to provoke pointless debates about female hotness.

Basically, you’re always chasing life’s big checkmark. Don’t worry, you’ll get there, mate.

Skater Sneakers

You’re a hoodie-wearing millennial or an older equivalent who embraces Louis CK as a diabolical life coach. You don’t actually skate that often, or at all, but still dig skater sneakers for their laidback vibe.

To match your skater sneakers, you go with black skinny jeans. In fact, you wear black often. It may even be your emotional identifier. So every time you feel like you’re surrounded by pinheads, you rely on your cynical black garments to say, “piss off!”

You’ve probably had piercings, many of which were removed, so you can compete in today’s workforce. But now you’re left with clumsy earlobe holes. Although they’re barely-visible, you know that nothing will quite fill the holes created by your life’s wrong turns: to name a few, your wasted summer playing Pokemon Go, your attempt at copying Viserys Targaryen’s silver bob and failing to dissociate from a leaked D pick.  

Currently, you despise over-animated emojis and the bimbos who abuse them.

Converse

Classic and reliable, your Converse are timelessly trendy, much like yourself. You’ve got a v-neck shirt in every color, and at least three identical ones in grey–because you’re practical like that.

Converse also say that you don’t work in a field directly related to your degree– like those Poli Sci majors who become marketers for Uber.

You appreciate great decor but aren’t necessarily too creative. Ever since you took a bird course in University about modern artists, you think you’re the next up-and-coming art critic. Just as misguidedly, you’re a sucker for obscure, underground sushi spots because dining there makes you feel like a real non-conformist. On the way to such places, you listen to music that nobody else knows.

Yet you secretly get giddy whenever you hear Justin Bieber’s music. And while you pretend to be one of his haters, you also secretly love that he wears Converse. At times, you have even fantasised about being Justin Bieber— wearing Converse.

Blinged Out Designer Sneakers

Great taste comes easily when the world is your oyster.

From Gucci to Giuseppe Zanottis, you can’t speak a word of Italian, but your living, breathing proof of its pedigree. With your seasoned eye for hot cars and women, there’s no stopping your kingdom of impressive sneakers.

At a club, whenever you’re cosy in your booth, which is always prime and center, you’ll be sure to sit with your toes pointing up, so everyone can see your branded souls – just in case anyone didn’t already know you’re god. You always order a side of strawberries with your Dom because your harem of attention-leaching, twenty-something strumpets love them.

Your iPhone camera roll contains more pictures of your sneakers than humans. You likely have other designer sneakers (most of which you never wear) which serve as a shrine to your amazingness. Even your maid is not permitted to enter this room of pristine excellence.

You’re a music snob, specialising in exclusive, rarely-heard  DJ music, but if it’s last call and BSB (Backstreet Boys) comes on, you’ll suddenly feel at peace with the universe. Just BSB, you and your sneakers – the ass-holy trinity.

Basic No-name Sneakers

You’ve got no shame in your game. Whether it was Walmart or a token flea market that had you in the zone (savings-wise), you found a great deal on some no-name sneakers and you weren’t going to pass on them.

You’re essentially the male version of a basic bitch – nay, you’re the reigning posterchild.

Your girlfriends are usually blonde-ish, live in yoga pants and are better at constructing hashtags than sentences. These girls have all known your no-name sneakers smell – not quite like sweaty feet, but more like moldy sourdough. And on some weird level, they have all sort of liked it.

You have an inflated sense of superiority over anyone who judges your shoes. Because according to you, labels are for sheep. Yet, truthfully, the real reason you don’t dress better is because you invest most of your time, energy and pretty much all personal pride in your fantasy football team.

Netflix n’ chill is your weekend mantra. And you probably experimented with Sun-In as a kid— but you used some shady no-name version like your sneakers.

Pimped Out Sneakers

The sky’s the limit when it comes to pricy sneaker upgrades.

We’re talking about sneakers with insanely over-the-top embellishments: platinum locks and plates, diamond add-ons, laces sewn from the rarest cashmere spun by topless goddesses from far-off lands…okay, you get the idea.

Half of you do it because you get some sick Joker-type thrill out of savagely burning through cash when you’re unstable and bored. For the rest of you, it’s a loud and proud distraction from your less-showy parts.

You hate that wearing sunglasses at night is no longer a thing. If chin straps were back in style, you’d rock them. You’ll never abandon your silver chain necklace in hopes that one day, the fashion gods may take pity on you and make them cool again.

Before a guy’s night out, you always bestow an extra spritz of cologne (DB) in case you get lucky. But it’s usually just a lot of wasted product.

Sneakers, as you can see, are one the craziest storytellers. Not sold? Well then, you can take comfort in the advice shared by that fellow in To Kill a Mockingbird: “Don’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.”

And while we can all respect this wisdom, the real lesson here is that it’s way more fun to judge a man!

The post What Your Choice In Sneakers Actually Says About You appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Australian whiskies have been on the market for some time now but none of them have put to use the full spectrum of native Australian grains until now.

Adelaide Hills Distillery, the team who took out this year’s title for the world’s best gin at the American Distilling Institute Awards have been quietly tinkering away at their first ever whisky project.

RELATED: The Best Australian Gins You Have To Try

Just earlier this month the South Australian distiller released a limited preview of its Native Grain Spirit, a drink which is created from barley malt and wattleseed, the latter of which is an edible seed found in 120 species of Australian Acacia that has traditionally been used as a food source amongst Indigenous Australians.

The reception to Native Grain Spirit was swift, with the small batch of nine-month-old spirits selling out via their website within days of its launch. Whilst the initial run of the spirits came in 700ml bottles at 46.2 per cent ABV which sold for $120, there will soon be a second batch for those who missed out on that initial allocation.

The second release will be aged for 12-months and become available by the end of the year of early 2018. More importantly though, Native Grain Spirit will be officially sold as whisky once it has spent more than two years ageing in French oak barrels brought over from the neighbouring Howard Winery.

Sacha La Forgia who is the head distiller at Adelaide Hills Distillery told IN Daily that his ultimate goal was to produce a whisky made entirely from native Australian grains.

“My biggest concern was that because we’re breaking from tradition so much, I thought people might get a bit upset and riled up, but they haven’t at all.”

“It’s quite a big experiment what we’re doing, so we wanted to get it out and see what people thought.”

“It’s very new – no one’s ever done it before – so we wanted to make sure people would accept it and get behind it; we didn’t want to wait two or three years and have everyone hate it.”

“My biggest concern was that because we’re breaking from tradition so much, I thought people might get a bit upset and riled up, but they haven’t at all.”

Given that the company’s 78 Degrees Gin has already won international acclaim, it’ll be interesting to see where the native whisky route takes the distillery.

“When I made gin I took a winemaker’s approach,” explained La Forgia.

“So I made it all around the blending, so when I started making whisky I used a gin maker’s approach of starting with a blank canvas and building layers of flavour on top. You do that with the way you distil it, the grains you put in the mash and the barrels you use.”

“So we thought why not start making spirits that speak of place, that are Australian and are not just copies of Scotch whiskies made in Australia; they are Australian whiskies made in Australia.”

The task wasn’t as straight forward as one would think with La Forgia going through a lengthy process to determine which native Australian grains fermented and distilled the best whilst retaining a distinct note. The wattleseed eventually won out

La Forgia said he went through a long process of experimenting with native Australian grains to figure out the best ways to ferment them, distil them and extract flavour, before settling on wattleseed.

Only one issue stands in the way for now and that’s the limited availability of wattleseed which is sourced by a single native food company who aren’t too keen on increasing its supply to the distillery.

Read Next:

• The Best Distilleries To Visit In Sydney

The post Australia's First Ever Native Whisky Will Come From The Makers Of The World's Best Gin appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Most people like to build their home around a growing family or maybe even the number of guests they’d like to entertain. Not the owners of Autohaus in Austin.

The architects here made the million dollar vintage cars the real stars and built a generous home around it, resulting in a humble abode that’s fit for any true petrolhead.

Each section of the two-storey home freely spills into one another to create a seamless living, working and playing environment. The designers, Matt Fajkus Architecture, took inspiration from modern home design whilst sticking to the design criteria that the cars should come first.

As such, the living quarters have been moved to the top floor above the expansive garage below so that the owner can work on the cars whilst showing them off to the world.

And those worried about thieving eyes needn’t be too phased. Autohaus comes with a smart Bautex Wall System which looks after security, safety and moisture resistance with the added ability to control temperature, humidity, and energy efficiency.

The infamous Texan climate? Never heard of it.

The post Austin's Autohaus Is A Petrolhead's Humble Abode appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

We’ve scooped one of the first iPhone X’s in Australia and had time to test fresh its new features.

We think those of you who have decided to buy the flagship iPhone X won’t be disappointed. It’s enough of a leap from the 8 to ensure the new features will keep you occupied for at least day or two.

So what’s keeping us busy?

Animoji… Is… The… Best!

Remember when you were kid and you got that new toy? Animoji is that new toy. I’m a grown man who’s happy to admit he’s spent most of the morning pulling faces, making monkey noises and saying things like ‘helloooooo baby’. The depth of facial movement in the emojis is impressive thanks to FaceID. Expect this simple (and silly) feature to keep you entertained for hours. The Alien emoji is perhaps the best for range of facial expressions. The Poo? Not to much.

FaceID Is Really Easy To Use

We’re not here to hack the iPhone X or tell you its broken, rather we’ve been impressed with how easy it was to setup. Two rounds of calibration takes about 20 seconds and you’re done. It’s a lot quicker than the previous fingerprint scanning and a lot more secure too. Fingerprint scanning was a 1 / 50,000 chance of being hacked, FaceID is 1 / 1,000,000. We have also found you quickly forget about having to scan your face to open the device, it does so rather seamlessly.

No More Home Button

Arguably the biggest change in the iPhone X is the removal of the home button. Now in its place is a simple tap and swipe up gesture to access your applications. To scroll though your open applications its swipe up with a pause. Easy. It’s taken about 30 minutes to get accustomed to life without the home button so don’t see this as a big problem rather an evolution which is easy to embrace.

New OLED Screen

The new OLED screen is brighter and has a higher resolution which runs edge to edge of the device. To be honest, we haven’t noticed the edge to edge screen as being a massive change to the user experience. If anything it feels longer.

Selfie Portrait Mode

The iPhone X has the new self facing camera which you can now use Apple’s Portrait mode to enhance your selfies. Whilst we’re not huge fans of selfies, this feature should keep the instafamousbloggers happy.

Size Isn’t Everything

Lastly the one size fits all approach to the iPhone X will take some getting used to. Yes, the screen is larger but it’s smaller in overall size might weird out 7/8 Plus users. This is the one thing we’re still getting our heads around… but apparently size isn’t everything.

We’re still testing the device so watch this space….

The post iPhone X: Hands On First Impressions Of Apple's New Flagship Device appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

When YouTubers aren’t flying in $21,000 first class seats or recreating Mad Max with go-karts and paintballs, they’re out showing lazy costumers how it’s done on Halloween. Jesse Wellens and Carmella Rose easily nabbed this year’s award for Most Dedicated Dressing Up with their Star Wars-inspired takeover of New York City.

Dressed as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, the duo hit the streets of Manhattan on a custom Star Wars Speeder Bike built by Lithium Cycles, much to the delight of the city’s usually unperturbable and stone-faced citizens. Behind the camera is Casey Neistat, another YouTube fixture who’s known for occasionally snowboarding through the Big Apple.

Neistat uploaded a behind the scenes look at how the “levitating” bike was made and the difficulties in pulling the stunt off.

Lithium Cycles also posted a peek at the production process. The Speeder was constructed using a Super 73 electric bike. Lead designer Ian Chambers, together with a team of carpenters, woodworkers, and other artisans, created an outer body frame with mirrors ingeniously used to hide the wheels and create the illustion of levitation. Get a backstage pass to the build below.

This is not the first time Wellens and Neistat have teamed up for a Halloween spectacle. Previous adventures include turning a Boosted Board into Aladdin’s magic carpet and investing in a lot of body paint to become the Silver Surfer.

The post This 'Levitating' Star Wars Speeder Costume Won Halloween 2017 appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

The horrors of spam, poutine, and spray cheese are well-documented, but they’re not the only culinary curiosities North America has to offer.Though the lands of stuffed moose hearts and deep-fried-everything at state fairs may seem innocuous to fellow Westerners, make no mistake: they have plenty of edible oddities to discover. Below you’ll find a collection of some of the weirdest eats in the US and Canada.You’ve heard of comfort food. This is the opposite of that.

Rocky Mountain Oysters

‘Oyster’ may be in the name, but you won’t find these bad boys in any seafood restaurant. Rocky Mountain oysters, also known as prairie oysters, are battered and deep-fried bull testicles served in the western regions of the US and Canada. The dish reportedly originated as cowboy fare, but today is most commonly found at festivals and sporting events. Several American states hold annual testicle festivals, and Eagle, Idaho, claims to have the “World’s Largest Rocky Mountain Oyster Feed” during its Eagle Fun Days.

Ambrosia Salad

Trust America to find a way to make salad unhealthy. Ambrosia is a variation on the traditional fruit salad, typically containing pineapple, orange segments, shredded coconut, maraschino cherries, marshmallows, and whipped cream. Other variations include yoghurt, pudding, Jell-O, cottage cheese, or sour cream, as well as other fruit options and crushed pecans. The mixture is refrigerated for a few hours or overnight before serving, often as a Christmas tradition in the South.

Tepa

The nickname of this Alaskan snack says everything you need to know: stinkheads. Eaten by the indigenous Yup’ik people, tepa is fermented King salmon heads prepared by placing the fish heads and guts in a wooden barrel, covering it with burlap, and burying it in the ground for about a week. In modern times, plastic bags and buckets replaced the barrel, but due to the increased risk of botulism, stinkheads are now fermented directly in the ground in special burial pits. Once the bones have softened and the head has a mashable consistency, stinkheads are ready to be eaten as a pungent and putty-like mush.

Turducken

Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme claims to have invented this over-the-top example of bird-ception: a chicken, stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside a turkey. The thoracic cavity of the chicken and any other gaps are also filled, typically with a seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat. Some versions sport a different stuffing for each bird. And if the turducken is not extreme enough for you, you can cram the entire fowl package into a pig for maximum meatsurdity.

Sourtoe Cocktail

The Sourtoe Cocktail is, unfortunately, exactly what it sounds like: a drink seasoned with a severed, mummified human toe. Visitors to Canada’s Dawson City have enjoyed this outlandish libation since 1973, when the original toe was discovered and given new life as a garnish. The liquid can be whatever you like, but one rule remains the same: “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow—but the lips have gotta touch the toe.” The toe must touch your lips if you wish to become a member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club, which is an absolutely real thing commemorated with a certificate of achievement. Just don’t swallow. An ingested toe incurs a fine of $2,500.

Chitlins

Chitlins, more formally known as ‘chitterlings’, are not for the faint of palate or nose. The quintessentially Southern soul food dish is made from pig intestines which undergo a time-consuming and thorough cleaning process, then are boiled down, and sometimes battered and fried to finish. If you can get over the smell during cooking – which is exactly as bad as you imagine stewed intestines smelling – and smother them in the traditional condiments of apple cider vinegar and hot sauce, you may be able to enjoy this piece of Southern culinary history without hurling.

Jellied Moose Nose

It stands to reason that, in a region populated by wild game, eating said game would be a wise move. We can also respect a commitment to minimising waste from any animal brought home from a hunt. That being said, jellied moose nose may be a step too far for weaker stomachs. This not-so-choice cut is served in Alaska and parts of Canada, where it’s boiled with onions and spices, stripped of its hair, boiled again, then chopped and tossed into a loaf pan. The final step is to cover it with a broth that sets into a jelly. Slice the loaf and serve cold.

Scrapple

Much like a hot dog, scrapple is a “spare parts” recipe. In fact, scrapple is pretty much what’s left after you’ve made the hot dog. The American Mid-Atlantic dish is traditionally a mishmash of pork scraps – like head, heart, and liver – and other trimmings combined with cornmeal, wheat flour, and spices. The mush is formed into what Wikipedia appetisingly describes as “a semi-solid congealed loaf”, which is then sliced and pan-fried before serving. Scrapple is usually eaten as a breakfast side dish, served plain or with a variety of sweet and savory condiments, or in a sandwich.

Geoduck

Geoduck is not, as it may sound, one of the original 150 Pokemon. Nor is it a duck, for that matter. This freaky and highly phallic critter is a large saltwater clam, native to the west coast of North America and pronounced “gooey duck”. The clam can live to be more than 100 years old, making it one of the longest-living organisms in the animal kingdom. Its leathery appendage can stretch up to a metre (3.3 ft) in length, and in culinary contexts is prized for its sweet flavour and delicate, crunchy texture. Geoduck is regarded by some as an aphrodisiac because of its blush-inducing shape.

Garbage Plate

This upper New York icon hails from Rochester, where it has confused tourists and clogged arteries at Nick Tahou Hots for decades. A Garbage Plate, according to a 2010 archive of the restaurant’s official website, starts “with a base of any combination of home fries, macaroni salad, baked beans, or french fries topped by your choice of meats and dressed to your liking with spicy mustard, chopped onions, and the signature Nick Tahou’s hot sauce. Each plate comes with two thick slices of fresh Italian bread and butter.” Essentially, pile on any old rubbish you like and prepare to be amazed and disgusted in equal measures.

Burgoo

The spicy stew known as ‘burgoo’ has been a Kentucky crowd-pleaser for more than 150 years. A fierce debate rages about the origins of the dish, and even about what exactly goes in it. According to the “Burgoo Song” by Robert Myles, “You can toss in almost anything that ever walked or flew.” In other words, any old thing you find rotting in the back of the refrigerator or decomposing on the side of the road is fair game, from venison and game birds to possum, raccoon, or squirrel. Mix your meat of choice with veggies, simmer for hours, then serve with cornbread to soak up the juices.

Fried Rattlesnake

The New York Times described this delicacy as tasting like “a sinewy, half-starved tilapia.” If that soundsss ssscruptious, then head to the American Southwest for a heaping serving of fried rattlesnake. The venomous reptiles are skinned and served by boiling the meat off the bones, then dipping it in egg and coating it in a seasoning mix of salt, flour, and breadcrumbs. The meat is low in fat and calories, but deep-frying removes any hope of this serpent being a healthy snack.

Flipper Pie

No dolphins are harmed in the making of flipper pie, but we can’t say the same for seals. This traditional Eastern Canadian dish contains exactly what it says on the label: seal flippers, typically culled during the annual spring seal hunt in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador. Detractors call it cruel, but locals say it’s a sustainable, healthy source of protein. The meat is dark, oily, gamey, and apparently tastes similar to hare. Flipper pie is traditionally a home-cooked delicacy, but today can also be purchased pre-made at a grocery store.

Oreilles de Crisse

Oreilles de crisse are a Québecois bite similar to pork rinds. The base ingredient is deep-fried pork jowls or fatback, but that’s not the odd part. For starters, the French name’s unpalatable English translation is “the ears of Christ”. For seconds, oreilles de crisse are typically served in cabanes à sucre (sugar shacks) in spring time and topped with maple syrup. To recap: pork fat, deep fried, doused in syrup, named after an appendage of a Christian religious figure. It’s not exactly your average midday snack.

Akutaq

Akutaq – also known as Eskimo ice cream – is found in parts of Alaska and Canada. Worlds away from Häagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s, akutaq was traditionally made with whipped fat rendered from a polar bear, mixed with various native berries, seal oil, and freshly fallen snow – a high-calorie concoction that kept hunters healthy while on long expeditions in the challenging landscape. Recipes could also include fish, tundra greens, roots, and tallow from reindeer, moose, walrus, or caribou. Though it’s not the cool summer treat you’re used to, akutaq is a delightful reminder that no culture, no matter how remote, is immune to the appeal of dessert.

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