In a staged, pre-taped meeting with frontline workers for the RNC, President Trump calls coronavirus "the China virus." "Some people may get insulted, but that's the way it is." Of course no one is wearing masks. And he can't say "plasma" correctly.

“If you want to really drive them crazy, you say 12 more years.” — Trump

Yesterday in Southfield, Michigan, the parents of a 20-year-old woman found their daughter at home in cardiac arrest. They called 911 and paramedics performed CPR and attempted to save her life. After 30 minutes, they pronounced her dead. The Oakland County Medical Examiner's office had the young woman moved to the James H. Cole Funeral […]

As of May 2018, it's federal law that all new cars and trucks in the U.S. must be equipped with rearview monitoring technology. However, that still leaves millions and millions of vehicles produced before two years ago without rear-mounted sensors capable of telling you when you're about to back into a BMW while parking, for […]

According to current NASA data, there's a chance that a celestial immigrant dubbed Asteroid 2018VP1 will try to illegally cross our planetary border on or around Nov. 2, 2020 — the day before the next US election. The good news — or the bad news, depending on how apocalyptic you're feeling — is that this […]

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un is reportedly gravely ill or even dead again, according to the vague sources of South Korean defectors and the newspapers they feed. Last time Kim Jong-Un "died" it seemed to be a cunning ploy crafted to reveal disloyality in his administration, but his appearances since show him looking odd— failing […]

Back in June, the GOP released a working draft of their 2020 election platform that was literally the same as their 2016 agenda. This included passages like (emphasis added): The survival of the internet as we know it is at risk. Its gravest peril originates in the White House, the current occupant of which has […]

Prog-emo band Coheed and Cambria have always had a penchant for the dramatic, having built their career on a multi-generational 4th-wall-busting sci-fi rock opera spanning multiple albums. So it's only natural that the next stage in their musical growth would be … a sonic sequel to "Jessie's Girl" where Jessie gets the girl but she […]

My pal Brody Q just dropped off some unusual, but delicious, treats to my doorstep, a box of her homemade gourmet "s'mores." Unlike traditional s'mores these are made without a campfire, a sort of culinary response to the climate crisis. She writes: Lapsang souchong (smoky tea) marshmallows dipped in dark chocolate and gluten-free graham crackers. […]

The newly-released Microsoft Flight Simulator has been made fun of for some peculiar generative results of its world-spanning simulation of planet Earth, but it is a stunningly realistic experience all the same. This video compares the in-game graphics to footage shot from drones, and it's a very effective advertisement. And no, it does not let […]

The DC FanDome got a preview of next year's The Batman, and it is definitely in keeping with the dark and brooding aesthetic of recent iterations. Via IGN: Director Matt Reeves gave Batman fans the first trailer for his franchise reboot starring Robert Pattinson at DC FanDome. Reeves' detective film also stars Zoe Kravitz as […]

"I was trying to read outside on a lovely Summer day," wrote Robert Wilson, "but my two pet ducks, Quacker and Jack, wanted my attention."

This BBC report examines the "molka" phenomenon in South Korea (previously at BB): the proliferation of hidden wireless cameras in toilets and hotel rooms, and the culture of blackmail and revenge porn around it. "How many spycams can Stacey Dooley find in a love motel bedroom?" Pornography is illegal in South Korea, and molka has […]

From The Nation: From May to September 2017, the DOE's Office of Civil Rights partnered with National Coalition for Men Carolinas (NCFMC), Families Advocating for Campus Equality (FACE), and Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) to develop regulations on campus sexual assault. E-mails make clear that staffers from these organizations participated in conference calls, offered […]

Top Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway announced tonight that she's leaving the White House at the end of the month. Minutes earlier, her husband George Conway tweeted that he's departing from anti-Trump political action committee The Lincoln Project. From Conway's statement: I will be transitioning from the White House at the end of this month. George […]

For years, you've heard the steady drumbeat. You need to have a VPN to protect yourself online. It's been drilled into all of us for more than a decade. But in the wake of VPN, KeepSolid, one of the world's most respected VPN providers, has jumped into the market with a new service called SmartDNS. […]

Impeached and manifestly unfit U.S. President Donald Trump has been demanding of late that armed federal law enforcement agents be placed at polling sites throughout the nation on voting day. The top homeland security official said on Sunday that his department does not have the authority to carry out any such demand by Trump. "That's […]

A comatose Alexei Navalny is being treated in a German hospital after what his allies say was a poison attack. He was flown from Siberia to Berlin when authorities finally released him, two days after the suspected poisoning. The prominent journalist and critic of Vladimir Putin "will survive," Jaka Bizilj, founder of the Cinema for […]

Where do you get your news? Actually, the better question is — who do you trust to bring you your news? And maybe the best question of all…should you trust them? In the age of "fake news" claims, flagrant political biases, and a proliferation of sources that make staying on top of news coverage all […]

The Somali sengi, a type of elephant shrew with an elongated nose, had not been observed since the 1960s. It was recently rediscovered by scientists who lured them out from their rocky habitats with peanut butter, oatmeal, and yeast. The Somali cutie was originally rediscovered in neighboring Ethiopia, per Duke University's Steven Heritage: Here we […]

The Waco Tribune reports that a 30-year-old woman was arrested earlier this week for "driving while intoxicated and aggravated assault charges after she chased at least two cars and intentionally crashed into one, later telling police she thought she was chasing a pedophile who had kidnapped a girl." The police reported that, "Ms. Fulbright pursued […]

Earlier this month, Death Valley, California recorded a temperature of 130 degrees. It was the highest temperature recorded on planet Earth anywhere since 1931 and was likely one of the hottest days ever measured. That's not only inhuman, it's also supremely unhealthy. During extreme heat, the air becomes stagnant, locking in pollutants that lead to […]

You can't have a website or app that works great, but looks like it was assembled with construction paper and paste. You also can't have a gorgeous web experience crippled by slow loads, bad links, and wonky navigation. Those are examples of what happens when the worlds of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) […]

Smart technology isn't always about leashing all of our household devices to our every whim. Sometimes, it's just about protecting us from ourselves. We've all left the house in the heat of summer for an afternoon or even for a weekend getaway, only to return and discover we left the air conditioner on. Not smart. […]

Don't tell your cardiologist, but the first ingredient of the chocolate chunk Monster Cookie recipe created by Tavel Bristol-Joseph (one of Food and Wine Best New Chefs of 2020) is an entire pound of butter. Join the much-lauded Milk Bar chef Christina Tosi (the genius behind Milk Bar's infamous Crack Pie, which was respectfully re-named […]

I had a friend who was so obsessed with Ikea's Swedish meatballs that he bought them frozen, in bulk, from the IKEA Food Market, and kept a bomb shelter ration's worth in his garage freezer. And this was years before anyone heard of Covid-19, or thought to hoard hand sanitizer or toilet paper. My friend […]

And this: today's photo dispatch from a friend-of-a-friend in Phnom Penh. So maybe Covid-19 did not, in fact, originate in a Wuhan wet market as widely reported. Nonetheless, it takes courage to dine at a seafood restaurant with this level of transparency.

Cave City, Kentucky's Wigwam Village Motel #2, a registered National Landmark as well as a culturally-insensitive remnant of roadside kitsch, is currently on the market for $395K. That's 15 conical buildings for the price of one boring rectangular house – quite a deal. Built between the 1930s and 1950s, there was once several of these […]

Rosatom, the Russian state energy company, posted a documentary about the 1961 Tsar Bomba nuclear weapons test, the most powerful on record. The documentary (itself obviously of the era) contains footage that was previously unreleased, according to commentators. The 50-megaton action starts about 22m in. This video purports to be a compilation of the freshly-declassified […]

Years before he played David Brent in The Office, comedian Ricky Gervais sang in a synth-pop group called Seona Dancing. The two-man band, Gervais and his college friend Bill Macrae, was active from 1982 to 1984, splitting up over poor sales. However, one of their songs, "More to Lose," "became an '80s anthem as ubiquitous […]

I've written here before about Irish language and identity stuff, but my friend Darach Ó Séaghdha was kind of enough to have me onto the popular Irish podcast Motherfoclóir to talk at length about diaspora, assimilation, colonialism, and the cultural embarrassment of Plastic Paddies with gross green beer and shitty "St. Patty's Day" parties. And […]

Okay, look…we're gonna let you in on a little secret here. You can't really read someone else's mind. Unless you know something the rest of the human race doesn't, you can't actually go inside someone's head, rummage around in it like the kitchen junk drawer and extract deep, dark secrets. However…"mind-reading" does work. There are […]

Barefoot waterskier Benjamin Thompson writes, "The dolphin start wasn't too great but the Butt Slide more than makes up for it." AGREED! 10/10 (Digg) screengrab via Benjamin Thompson/YouTube

Get ready to sympathy itch. Watch Jack Black go from Grizzly Adams to Mr. Clean in a little over five minutes. Ok, maybe not Mr. Clean but some bald guy. The video ends with a "to be continued" teaser and I'm not sure I want to know what's coming off next… screengrab via JablinksiGames/YouTube Thanks, […]

There aren't many indisputable facts in how to best market a product, but a few facts are overwhelmingly clear. People want pictures. And people demand pictures. A resounding 93 percent of online shoppers say visual content is the key deciding factor is making a purchase. Ninety percent say the quality of those images is the […]

The human being inside the pod in this photo is Alexei Navalny, opposition leader, journalist, and prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The photo was taken by Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh, and is used with her consent. Mr. Navalny is in a coma, and is being loaded on to the plane that will fly […]

The U.S. Postal Service on Friday launched a new website to help Americans vote by mail in the November general election. The USPS announced the creation of usps.com/votinginfo earlier today, saying the website is intended to provide the voting public with reliable and accessible info on how to vote by mail. From the site: The […]

“South Dakotans whose COVID-19 status and other personal information was collected by state agencies may be subject to a data breach that is under federal investigation.”

“Rallies planned on Facebook by QAnon supporters or sympathizers that have brought the conspiracy theory offline and into the town squares of dozens of cities in recent weeks.”

TikTok is expected to launch a legal challenge as early as Monday against impeached U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order that prohibits transactions with the popular short video app and its China-based owner, ByteDance, reports Reuters late on Friday. From Reuters: Trump issued an executive order on Aug. 14 that gave ByteDance 90 days to […]

"A precious giant panda cub has arrived!" Amazing news on this Friday afternoon, from the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC. "We're overjoyed to share that Mei Xiang gave birth at 6:35 p.m. and is caring for her newborn attentively. Positive mothering behaviors include nursing her cub and cuddling it close." There's a live panda […]

After a 3-day delay, doctors in Omsk, Russia have finally cleared opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be airlifted to Germany. The investigative journalist and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been in a poisoning-induced coma for 36 hours, say his representatives. Navalny's doctors at a state-run in Omsk say he wasn't poisoned, instead […]

One of these days, it might be ok again to have friends over. When that day comes, you'll probably want to let the drinks flow. In that case, it might not be a bad idea to have a few new tricks to liven up your mixology game. You can't just come back from months and […]

"Welcome back, this is Stephen K. Bannon. We're off the coast of St. Tropez in southern France on the Mediterranean, and we're on the million dollar yacht that Brian Kolfage—and Brian Kolfage, he took all that money from Build The Wall. No we're actually in Sunland Park, New Mexico." Previously.

When there isn't a pandemic, Cherie B. Tay works as a Broadway asst/stage manager. Her latest credit is Hadestown which is currently suspended through January 3, 2021. In this forced downtime, she made this recording of herself giving out stage calls for folks who might be missing their work in the theater biz. Thanks, Dave!

On Monday, sneaky thieves robbed the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum in Japan's Mie Prefecture. In just three minutes, the crooks forced open the museum entrance, nabbed a 330 pound safe containing more than a million yen ($9,470), and vanished into the night. I'm not saying it was ninjas who robbed the Ninja Museum but… From CNN: […]

On August 19, 2020, Facebook published, "An Update to How We Address Movements and Organizations Tied to Violence," saying: Today we are taking action against Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts tied to offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests, US-based militia organizations and QAnon. We already remove content calling for or advocating […]

Here's big fun for families, protestors, and families who protest! At Instructables, friedpotatoes explains how to make massive sticks of sidewalk chalk with plaster of Paris, tempera paint, and a Pringles can as the mold. From Instructables: We mixed roughly 6 plastic cups of plaster powder with about 4-5 cups of water for a good […]

Forty years ago, architecture student Graham Birchall created an otherworldly "bubble house" design for his senior thesis project. Then Graham did the unthinkable: he built it. Now, the Bubble House in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia is on the market. Here's the listing (no mention of price). From Domain: While unique in shape, the riverfront property has […]

Despite my love of Smash Mouth memes, the band has been on my shitlist since they held a concert during the pandemic. But I'm willing to ignore that just to indulge in this 6-minute "All Star" cover by Boston "bummer pop" band Future Teens. The track is from their upcoming EP, Sensitive Sessions, which has […]