The Stagcom 19th October Round Up
Flower of Scotland
So if you're a South African rugby referee, it's probably best not to visit Scotland for a while. The brave Scots are still reeling after crashing out of the Rugby World Cup on Sunday in a 35-34 thriller against the Wallabies.
The villain of the piece was Craig Joubert, who gifted Australia a ludicrous penalty in the dying seconds of the quarter final, smashing Scottish hopes as the rain came down. Unsurprisingly, Joubert nipped off pretty quickly after he blew the final whistle - so quickly, in fact, that he didn't even have time to shake hands with the two teams. Bad, Joubert. Bad.
Where we're going, we don't need wheels
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first Back to the Future movie, everyone's going mental for October 21 2015. Which is the date Marty goes forward to in Back to the Future Part II. Confused? Call it an anniversary of the whole trilogy, not just the first film. And guess what? There's a ton of stuff being done to celebrate.
There are actual hoverboards on sale in stores. Yes, they have wheels and don't really hover, but they're the closest thing you're going to get to the real deal for a while (Lexus made a proper one, but it only works over metal). Shell out 300 quid and you could go home on one today. Only you can't, because it's illegal to ride them on public land.
Toyota is unveiling two mystery machines; a modern Hilux based on the one Marty gets at the end of the first film, and a hydrogen-fuelled Mirai. Truck or car, chaps? I'm hanging out for a flying DeLorean.
Oh, and the whole trilogy is coming back to cinemas. If you've got 343 minutes to spare, you can see the lot. I'll be in the front row.
There's a hole in the sun
Eek. On October 12, NASA revealed that the sun has a hole in it. It's 50 times bigger than Earth, and it's radiating a stream of solar wind right at us. Don't be afraid, though. This isn't Armageddon. It might mess with your smartphone signal, and it will definitely cause some spectacular displays of the Northern Lights as we move towards Halloween, but that's it.
You won't even have to go on a stag weekend to Norway to see the big auroras - the increased solar winds should cause the light-shows to happen at much bigger latitudes than normal.