The Tonight Show demonstrates that Trump is cognitively there.Can you say… Person! Woman! Man! Camera! TV! #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/9dHIMedoIx— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) July 24, 2020 Read the rest

From the Lincoln Project. Read the rest

Therapy sessions for families of Mario addicts? "Nintendpendent"? OK boomer, 1991. (r/ObscureMedia, thanks UPSO!) Read the rest

Enjoy this amazingly satisfying video of a contractor using magic to measure a door jamb then cutting a tile to fit it, freehand, with an angle grinder. It slides in nice and kentucky. Read the rest

The U.S Senate yesterday voted to rename bases currently bearing the names of Confederate officers, as part of a sweeping defence spending bill.The renaming amendment was added by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and only a handful of senators opposed it, resulting in a veto-proof 86-14 "blowout", as The Washington Post put it.The Senate passed its version of a $740 billion defense bill Thursday by a veto-proof majority, in the latest sign that Congress is undeterred by President Trump’s threat to reject legislation mandating that the Pentagon rename bases honoring Confederate generals.The 86-to-14 Senate vote follows the House’s 295-to-125 vote earlier in the week on parallel legislation. Both bills instruct the Defense Department to come up with new names for the problematic bases; the Senate gives the Pentagon three years to make the changes, while the House bill instructs officials to finish the process within one year.The White House objected to the inclusion of any mandate earlier in the week in a 13-page memorandum threatening that Trump would veto the House bill if it passed in its current form. The House and Senate will have to negotiate a compromise between the two versions of the defense bill before sending it to the president’s desk.1. Psalm 86:14: "O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them." Read the rest

The best video I ever captured. #NewYork #WeatherChannel #NYC pic.twitter.com/cOBqTqJ9LO— Mikey Cee (@_Mikey_Cee) July 22, 2020Twitter user @_Mikey_Cee of Staten Island captured this amazing footage of lightning striking really close (just behind?) to the Statue of Liberty. It's aptly captioned, "The best video I ever captured."screengrab via @_Mikey_Cee/Twitter Read the rest

If you’re a regular visitor to Boing Boing, chances are you’re into cool stuff. So when you’re looking to pick up something fairly generic like a toaster oven or a clock or a lamp, you’re probably also looking for something that brings with it a little personality, a little pizzazz, and a little personal style that signals you as its owner are not cut from the ordinary cloth.So if you’re looking for cool and off the beaten path, there’s no excuse for not taking a serious look at the Marangoni Electromagnetic Light. Because... damn, this thing is cool.This lamp can sit in your office, hallway, bedroom, or other space and look entirely at home...because it doesn’t even look like a lamp. It doesn’t even have an on or off switch. Point it out to a visitor and they might be hard-pressed to tell you what it is beyond a piece of trippy home or office decor.But the trick is when this sleek, modern design gets a touch of electromagnetism thrown in. The lamp features two magnetic spheres positioned at opposite ends. When the two spheres are moved close enough together for their magnetic properties to kick in, the spheres lock together, and the LED light ring springs to life. To turn the light back off, all you have to do is break the connection.The LED bulbs are virtually invisible, casually positioned inside the lamp’s frame, so rather than a harsh blast of light, you get a warm, more subtle, indirect light that casts an off-kilter vibe to any room. Read the rest

It turns out that the U.S. military never closed down its investigations into unidentified flying objects. Not only that, but it plans to release its findings presently, reports The New York Times.While retired officials involved with the effort — including Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader — hope the program will seek evidence of vehicles from other worlds, its main focus is on discovering whether another nation, especially any potential adversary, is using breakout aviation technology that could threaten the United States. ...Eric W. Davis, an astrophysicist who worked as a subcontractor and then a consultant for the Pentagon U.F.O. program since 2007, said that, in some cases, examination of the materials had so far failed to determine their source and led him to conclude, “We couldn’t make it ourselves.”The constraints on discussing classified programs — and the ambiguity of information cited in unclassified slides from the briefings — have put officials who have studied U.F.O.s in the position of stating their views without presenting any hard evidence.Mr. Davis, who now works for Aerospace Corporation, a defense contractor, said he gave a classified briefing to a Defense Department agency as recently as March about retrievals from “off-world vehicles not made on this earth.”I was just reading The Socorro Saucer, one of the more convincing run-ins, and marveled at how much it reads as a panic-memory recollection of NASA landers, escape modules and the like, some of which had then just begun testing at White Sands Missile Range, 13 miles from Socorro. Read the rest

Australian illustrator Steven Rhodes' art has an unmistakable retro-kid-book-creepy aesthetic that's both dark and hilarious. You're probably familiar with his work through his line of t-shirts (the "Easy-Bake Coven" one is a personal favorite). Well, now he's announced an actual book based on his parody children's book covers (the preview pages literally made me laugh out loud). My Little Occult Book Club is available for pre-order now ($14.95). The humorous fake titles include Sell Your Soul! (Economics for Children), Necromancy for Beginners, and Caring for Your Demon Cat, and much more.-- Written in a playful voice that parodies subscription book catalogs-- Features puzzles, activities, and even a free fold-out poster-- Funny fake mail order offers for gifts such as "Cursed Videocassette"Steven Rhodes, previously on BB Read the rest

Using the European Southern Observatory (ESO)'s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in northern Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers created this dramatic image of two giant planets in orbit around a star. About 300 light years from Earth, this is the first multiplanet system to be photographed that includes a star similar to our own Sun. The outer planet is six times more massive than Jupiter while the outer planet is 14 times heavier. The researchers published their work today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. From ESO: “Even though astronomers have indirectly detected thousands of planets in our galaxy, only a tiny fraction of these exoplanets have been directly imaged,” says co-author Matthew Kenworthy, Associate Professor at Leiden University, adding that “direct observations are important in the search for environments that can support life.” The direct imaging of two or more exoplanets around the same star is even more rare; only two such systems have been directly observed so far, both around stars markedly different from our Sun. The new ESO’s VLT image is the first direct image of more than one exoplanet around a Sun-like star. ESO’s VLT was also the first telescope to directly image an exoplanet, back in 2004, when it captured a speck of light around a brown dwarf, a type of ‘failed’ star.“Our team has now been able to take the first image of two gas giant companions that are orbiting a young, solar analogue,” says Maddalena Reggiani, a postdoctoral researcher from KU Leuven, Belgium, who also participated in the study. Read the rest

The Airbus A400M Atlas is a large military transport plane. Here's one in service with the Royal Air Force making a touch-and-go landing on a Welsh beach, then looping around to make a full one. Dafydd Phillips captured the beast in motion:An airbus A400M from RAF Brize Norton making a rare visit to Pembrey sands to conduct natural surfaces operations. With the weather being wet prior to the aircraft arriving the pilot conducted some low approaches then some touch and go’s before the all clear to land the 76 tonne aircraft on the beach. Read the rest

Animator Takahiro Shibata made this delightful facemask that turns fogged-up eyeglasses into a fun feature of the design. "I made a mask for people with glasses," reads Shibata's translated tweet. "The more clouded your glasses are, the hotter you can see the ramen."眼鏡の人専用マスクをつくりました。眼鏡が曇るほど、ラーメンが熱々にみえます。使いにくさ、この上なし。 pic.twitter.com/rSV0tmlleA— しばたたかひろ | Takahiro SHIBATA (@iine_piroshiki) July 13, 2020(via Laughing Squid) Read the rest

Recommendations released by the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control include using glory holes to minimize the likelihood of coronavirus transmission, among other sage tips. [via]• Choose sexual positions that limit face-to-face contact.• Use barriers, like walls (e.g., glory holes), that allow for sexual contact but prevent close face-to-face contact.• Using condoms, lubricant, and dental dams may help to further reduce the risk by minimizing contact with saliva, semen and feces during sex. Read the rest

Commie Hunting Season (1980) - Considered one of the worst SNL sketches, it was part of the disastrous sixth season and aired during the Malcolm McDowell episode, often deemed as one of the worst episodes of the series from r/ObscureMediaThis 1980 SNL sketch, called "Commie Hunting Season," is noteworthy for a few reasons. First and foremost, it was shocking to hear the N-word uttered. Second, the audience didn't laugh once because nothing is remotely funny in the sketch. Third, the way the men are lined up in front of the sporting goods store (some coincidentally wearing red caps) reminds me of the armed racists who show up at racial inequality protests to protect Confederate statues.This episode of SNL also had a performance by Captain Beefheart:[via r/ObscureMedia] Read the rest

Chuck Woolery is best known for being the host of The Love Connection, a dating game show that ran from 1983 to 1994. In recent years he forged his reputation as a far-right Twitter troll who argued that scientists and epidemiologists were part of a conspiracy to hype the dangers of Covid-19 as a way to make Trump look bad. He quit Twitter soon after his son sadly contracted the virus. But I just learned that in the late 1960s Woolery was a founding member of The Avant-Garde, a psychedelic pop group that released three singles, including "Naturally Stoned" (1968), which reached number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Above, The Avant-Garde lip-syncs "Naturally Stoned" on Playboy After Dark.Here's "Yellow Beads" (1967):and "Fly With Me! (1968)"[via r/ObscureMedia] Read the rest

A reporter went to the 2020 Border Security Expo in San Antonio, TX to interview the vendors who sell cages and technology to worsen the lives of desperate people. I didn't agree with much of what they had to say, but couldn't agree more with the guy who declared he would only eat meat grilled on charcoal, not gas. Read the rest

It took mere seconds for this pair of famished waterfowl to devour a bowl of peas. I wonder if there was a tragedy of the commons writ small thing happening here? Like, if only one duck was present, maybe it would have slowed down to savor the delicate flavor of the viridescent legumes.Image: YouTube Read the rest

It's hard to imagine what an obscene amount of wealth $1 billion is, so Tom Scott demonstrates via travel times. Basically, a tall stack of a million $1 bills laid on its side would take about a minute to walk from end to end. A stack of a billion $1 bills would be a 75-minute car ride from end to end.There are ways to make the visualization more comparable, like walking both distances or driving both distances at a consistent speed, but the basic idea that a billion is a LOT more than a million is pretty clear.This one with rice that originally appeared on TikTok also shows a billion, as well as Jeff Bezos' billions:Image: YouTube / Tom Scott Read the rest

I doomscroll for money, but you're doing it for free! If you want to stop paying the hidden costs, this handy guide might shake out out of the not-so-ludic loop The recent onslaught of dystopian stories related to the coronavirus pandemic, combined with stay-at-home orders, have enabled our penchant for binging on bad news. But the habit is eroding our mental health, experts say.Karen Ho, a finance reporter for Quartz, has been tweeting about doomscrolling every day over the past few months, often alongside a gentle nudge to stop and engage in healthier alternatives.The three main tips are "Time yourself", "Remind yourself why you wanted to look at your phone" and "Create new habits that replace doomscrolling." I can recommend pizza for the last one there! Just huge slabs of Detroit-style pizza shoveled in like VHS tapes into the slot. Read the rest

In this footage, a supercomputer's CPU cores -- nearly 900 of them -- are neatly lined up in the Task Manager. The Doom logo appears, generated by code that targets each core. Then Doom itself plays, each "pixel" generated by thrashing a core with just the right amount of busy work.Max Holt: Finally got it working and looking decent! But can it run Crysis?... Done by taking the original pixels, then parsing to black and white and scaling down to 56x32 pixels. I spent quite a lot of time finding a good function to scale the brightness to try to make the contrast good.An amazing illustration of how much power modern computers have. Read the rest

Remember engineer Shane Wighton of Stuff Made Here who impressed the Internet with his robotic basketball backboard that helps the ball into the hoop? Now he's built a robot that cuts his hair. Using a combination of physical sensors and computer vision, it gave him a pretty great looking mullet! I also appreciate its Flowbee-like vacuum attachment that lifts the hair up for cutting while also keeping the process nice and tidy. Read the rest

This year marked the 75th birthday of the great Bob Marley (1945-1981). As part of the celebration, Bob Marley and Rita Marley's son Ziggy Marley, 51, just recorded a full concert of his father's music. Watch above! (The performance was recorded at a studio in Los Angeles with clear partitioners between the band members.) According to Rolling Stone, Marley's platinum birthday year will be commemorated by numerous events and releases including "the 12-part documentary series Bob Marley: Righteousness as well as soccer doc Rhythm of the Game, new videos for “No Women, No Cry” and “Three Little Birds,” the unearthing of live performances and a SiriusXM station dedicated to the reggae legend." Read the rest

Enjoy the unique comedy stylings of Leonard Cohen! He's quite funny although I keep waiting for him to break into song or, at the very least, do an impression of Dustin Hoffman. The clip is included in the 1965 documentary Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen, which also included his reading of "The only tourist in Havana turns his thoughts homeward" that I posted about previously. You can watch the full documentary here: Read the rest

COVID-19 has led to a coin shortage for businesses as customers are going cashless to avoid touching anything. To help bring more coins into circulation, Wisconsin's Community State Bank is offering a $5 bonus for every $100 in coins you turn in. The maximum bonus is $500. (As comparison, Coinstar takes 11.9% of the money you exchange unless you opt for a gift card.) From CNN:"We knew we needed to figure something out. We hate the idea of telling our customers, 'No, we can't give you one of the services we're proud to provide,' so we came up with a creative way to get things done," Community State Bank Vice President Neil Buchanan told CNN. "Just because this hasn't been done before doesn't mean it isn't going to work -- and it has already made a huge difference."Just days after launching the program, hundreds of people have dropped off their spare change, already resulting in an "incredible impact" on local businesses that were struggling because of the shortage, according to Buchanan.image: Roman Oleinik (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

"Ducks annihilate a bowl of peas" promises the title to this footage, and it is not an empty promise.Previously in Ducks Eating Peas. Read the rest

David Doel of The Rational National shares the story of a recent Canadian "hate crime" that involved vandalism of a Toronto-area war monument to the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician). The cenotaph was spray-painted with the phrase "Nazi War Memorial."Per the CBC, the cops later walked back the hate crime part:On Friday, Halton police walked back their original statement and apologized, saying the "initial information" indicated that the group being targeted was "Ukrainians in general," or members of this specific cultural centre."At no time did the Halton Regional Police Service consider that the identifiable group targeted by the graffiti was Nazis," police said in a news release."We regret any hurt caused by misinformation that suggests that the Service in any way supports Nazism."Images: YouTube / Kontakt TV / Wikimedia Commons Read the rest

Going to the grocery store used to just be a daily chore you had to fit into your schedule. But now, a trip to the grocery store can actually be dangerous, especially for the elderly or those with compromised immune systems.Which is why Sam’s Club has started an actual concierge service, allowing members on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to drive up to a Sam’s location, get help from a staffer entering items through the Sam’s Club app, then waiting as another worker gathers their order and brings it to their car.As the old commercial goes, membership has its privileges. Even if you don’t need that level of service, it’s nice to know that premium Sam’s Club members can expect that level of attention. And now, you can not only sign up for a one-year membership to the exclusive warehouse store club, you can basically do it for free.If you want to become a new Sam’s Club member, you can sign up now for just $45, which gives you access to their overwhelming supply of grocery, household, electronics, furniture, and other critical goods in their nearly 600 warehouse club locations in 44 states.Of course, we already said it was basically free. And it is. Within 10 days of signing up, you’ll receive a $25 eGiftcard via email. After the purchase of $20 or more at SamsClub.com, you’ll get a second eGiftcard for $20, effectively paying for the cost of your entire membership.If you’ve ever been through a Sam’s Club, you already know the volume discounts available on literally thousands of goods, which makes an effectively free membership a must, particularly for any large or growing families. Read the rest

Designer Takayuki Sato wanted to turn his artist logo into a sci-fi short, and the result is "Portal."He says:This is my personal project created for learning and for exploring new creativity. Like the short films I've made so far, I love creating imaginary worlds, looking for moments of beauty and adding the illusion of light. This time, the logo of OTAS.TV, which is my artist logo, becomes the "portal" and after passing through it, we will travel to the unique world I imagined and created freely. I hope you enjoy it.Image: Vimeo / Takayuki Sato Read the rest

Quackometer checked out a gadget that purports to "protect" users from 5G. It's probably a scam, as 5G is as safe as any other radio transmission and you don't need protection from it. But what's in the box, exactly? Turns out it's a battery-powered light and a copper tube. Whatever the copper device is doing, it is not electrically connected to the battery. Those wires have a gap and so no voltage is applied. And even more curious, the copper coil is not insulated from the copper tube device. So, it is not clear what function this could have. It looks purely decorative. The markings on the copper device suggest this is no more than a 2 inch long piece of 15mm domestic copper plumbing pipe with some end caps stuck on each side. It does nothing.I bet they didn't even deburr the copper pipe ends under the endcaps! [via Input Mag] Read the rest

According to a recent press release, KFC wants to become a "restaurant of the future" by "crafting the 'meat of the future,'" with help from a Russian company called 3D Bioprinting Solutions. This initiative, "arose among partners in response to the growing popularity of a healthy lifestyle and nutrition, the annual increase in demand for alternatives to traditional meat and the need to develop more environmentally friendly methods of food production."If all goes to plan — which is definitely a thing that happens in the Hell Year 2020 — KFC will begin to sell the world's first lab-grown chicken nuggets in Moscow in the fall.These lab-grown nuggies will of course still feature the same blend of 11 spices and herbs that made them famous, while combining chicken cells with plant material, "allowing it to reproduce the taste and texture of chicken meat almost without involving animals in the process." It's not clear if they'll be vegan friendly, or if they're meant to vaguely compete with fully plant-based meats like the Beyond or Impossible Burger.The press releases — shared verbatim across companies — includes some thoughts on the project's environmental sustainability as well:Biomeat has exactly the same microelements as the original product, while excluding various additives that are used in traditional farming and animal husbandry, creating a cleaner final product. Cell-based meat products are also more ethical – the production process does not cause any harm to animals. Along with that, KFC remains committed to continuous improvement in animal welfare from the farm and through all aspects of our supply chain, including raising, handling, transportation and processing. Read the rest

On of the things I love about Squidmar Miniatures is that Emil is always trying unique, unusual, and just plain kooky stuff to make his miniature painting channel more entertaining and fun. Chalk this one up to kooky.In it, he paints the bust of a medieval knight while dressed in a set of 14th century armor. Given the weight and the heat, he's exhausted even before he starts painting and it's not long before he starts removing the helmet, the gauntlets...Some of the YouTube comments are great:"Now to take it to the next level: Painting a dragon, as a dragon.""When you realize the bust of the knight has no arms.""You should make a series called 'painting an X dressed as an X.' That would be cool."Image: YouTube Read the rest

Spotted this while flying over the High Desert this weekend. It’s just north of Black Rock City, home to Burning Man from BlackLivesMatter While flying over Nevada's Black Rock Desert a week ago, Redditor Nick Howard captured this aerial footage of a giant "Black Lives Matter" mural in the dust.One commenter on Reddit figured out its location — it's not far from where Burning Man's temporary Black Rock City can be found every summer (though, not this summer):It’s due East of where the city usually is by a few miles. Just North of Pahsupp Mountain. Rough coordinates 11TLF 2198 2473No word on who's behind the mural!image pieced together from screengrabs via Nick Howard/Reddit Read the rest

I loved the movie Memento, about a man on a mission who has severe short-term memory loss. Every morning when he wakes up he had no memory of the hundreds of days preceding it, and so he develops a bunch of processes to bring him up to speed each day and keep him on mission. The movie was based on a short story called "Memento Mori" by Jonathan Nolan, and I read it when it came out in Esquire magazine in 2001.Here's an excellent reading of the short story, which runs about 30 minutes. Highly recommended.[via The Browser] Read the rest

Use code ADHNRSNZ to get these excellent noise-canceling Bluetooth over-ear headphones for a great price. Both my daughters have a pair and use them for hours a day. The batteries last a long time, and the noise canceling is comparable to my Bose wired noise-canceling headphones. Read the rest

University of Washington engineers developed a tiny, wireless, and steerable videocamera that can be worn by insects or minuscule micro-robots to stream live video. The device weighs just 248 milligrams. Evan Ackerman writes in IEEE Spectrum:The system was successfully tested on a pair of darkling beetles that were allowed to roam freely outdoors, and the researchers noted that they could also mount it on spiders or moths, or anything else that could handle the payload. (The researchers removed the electronics from the insects after the experiments and observed no noticeable adverse effects on their behavior.)The researchers are already thinking about what it might take to put a wireless camera system on something that flies, and it’s not going to be easy—a bumblebee can only carry between 100 and 200 mg [...] Insects are very mobile platforms for outdoor use, but they’re also not easy to steer, so the researchers also built a little insect-scale robot that they could remotely control while watching the camera feed. "A Bug-Sized Camera for Bug-Sized Robots and Bug-Sized Bugs" (IEEE Spectrum)"Wireless steerable vision for live insects and insect-scale robots" (Science Robotics) Read the rest

If data is worth saving to an external drive, shouldn’t it also be important enough to protect?Since setting up shop in the UK over a decade ago, iStorage has become one of the top makers of encrypted, easy to use and affordable portable data storage devices. And while not everyone needs multi-level security in place before someone accesses their files, iStorage products make steel-trap protection a standard feature in all of their flash drives, hard drives and even cloud services options.datAshur PRO 256-bit Encrypted USB 3.0, 8GB Flash Drive - $70.95; originally $79datAshur PRO² 256-bit Encrypted USB 3.2, 16GB Flash Drive - $79.95; originally $89Flash drives usually live up to their name, used for quick data transportation and transfers. But that pocket-sized convenience has its security downsides as well, including vulnerability to malware, tampering, hacking or just outright theft. With the datAshur PRO and PRO², you get an assortment of protection measures to make sure no one compromises or steals your data ever. In addition to built-in full disk AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption, both models also feature keypad protection. Set a unique PIN of up to 15 digits — and without that PIN, no one gets to your information. The stick auto-locks the moment you unplug and with the brute force hack defense mechanism, all data permanently deletes with 10 incorrect login attempts. Better to be gone than fall into the wrong hands!The PRO is available in sizes from 8GB to 128GB, while the PRO² with faster read and write speeds is available from 16GB to 512GB. Read the rest

Here is an example of the fake crowd noise the Mets are experimenting with at Citi Field.A low murmur, then a cheer when Fargas connects, then a louder cheer when Nimmo makes a nice catch. pic.twitter.com/otLZbFTXBk— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) July 15, 2020The Mets are shown here experimenting with simulated crowd noise, filling their empty stands with the cheering ghosts of the pandemic. Reporter Tim Healey adds...New info on the fake crowd noise:* Every team is using it* MLB is giving clubs the sounds (but teams can have their own) & a touchpad device to use it* There are 75 effects/reactions* MLB-provided sound is derived from audio recorded for "MLB The Show" at real MLB gamesIn the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the entertainment-baudrillardian complex. Read the rest

A historic move in North Carolina: The city council of Asheville has unanimously approved reparations, through investments, for its Black citizens.Forbes:The topic of reparations, which has gained renewed attention in light of recent racial justice protests, got a civic boost this week in Asheville, N.C., as the City Council voted to apologize for the city's historic role in slavery, discrimination and denial of basic liberties to Black residents and voted to provide reparations that will benefit them and their descendants..."Hundreds of years of black blood spilled that basically fills the cup we drink from today,” Councilman Keith Young, one of two Black council members and the measure's chief proponent, said according to the Citizen-Times, adding “it is simply not enough to remove statutes."The resolution does not mandate direct payments, but instead calls for investments in areas where Black residents face disparities, including boosting minority home ownership and access to other affordable housing, increasing minority business ownership and career opportunities, developing strategies to grow generational wealth and closing the gaps in health care, education, employment and pay.image via Canva Read the rest

Great news. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been released from a Baltimore hospital, after receiving treatment for what was described yesterday as a possible infection, a court spokeswoman said on Wednesday.The U.S. Supreme Court’s oldest member returned home and is “doing well,” spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said in a statement. Ginsburg, 87, underwent a procedure at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Tuesday to clean a bile duct stent that was inserted last August, the court said Wednesday. More at Reuters.Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg treated in hospital for 'possible infection' Read the rest

In Allenhurst, Georgia, a town of less than 700 people, a woman's body was spotted by the railroad tracks. Liberty County deputies gathered at the scene and waited for the coroner, reports WSAV-TV, and after a while they realized the female corpse was actually a sex doll.Detective Mike Albritton said officers found the sex doll Tuesday afternoon, WSAV-TV reported:By policy, law enforcement officers do not touch a deceased person until the coroner arrives, so they placed a sheet over the suspected body and waited.When the coroner arrived, detectives began to check for injuries and immediately discovered the body was a female sex doll. The doll was anatomically correct, with realistic skin and features, and was fully dressed, authorities say.Albritton said in all his years, he has never encountered a situation like this. Body found by railroad tracks in Liberty Co. turns out to be sex doll Read the rest

[This is a guest post from Tara Altebrando, who has a new sci-fi thriller out, called Take Me With You. -- Mark]The Accidental Sci-Fi WriterBy Tara AltebrandoIt’s always nerve-wracking when the first review of your newest novel appears in your inbox. It’s particularly terrifying when that review is from a publication whose anonymous reviewers are not known for their tendency toward high praise. So when I clicked through an email from my editor and saw that this particular anonymous reviewer liked my YA thriller Take Me With You—“Hurray!” said my editor—I was pleasantly surprised. And then just plain surprised…because they tagged the book as “Science Fiction.”What? Who me?I actually said to my husband, “How on earth did I become a science fiction writer?”But upon reflection, it’s not as crazy as I first thought. Yes, I spent a lot of my YA career writing solidly contemporary realistic YA. Way back in 2005, my first YA, The Pursuit of Happiness, was a textbook, semi-autobiographical coming of age story. As recently as 2013, Sara Zarr and I coauthored Roomies, which is firmly grounded in the reality of two-college bound teens. Even my 2015 book The Leaving could technically be thought of as contemporary realistic in that it could maybe happen…but not really…so maybe that’s when I started to delude myself.The Leaving tells the story of six children who disappear when they’re five years old then return (well, five of them do) when they’re sixteen with no memory of where they’ve been. Read the rest

Chris Notap shows how to make a power drill attachment that lets you chill can of soda or beer in 90 seconds. It would take 20 minutes to cool a similar can simply by putting it in an ice bath. Read the rest

Everyone in Minneapolis feels a lot safer, now that police there are using taxpayer-funded drones to spot people -- especially Blacks and topless women -- committing the crime of removing their clothes at an unofficial nude beach.From Fast Company:The devices caught images of people exposing parts of their bodies they later covered up when officers arrived on the beach. The police say the drone surveillance is legal, since the beach is a public place, but it understandably made some beachgoers uncomfortable. Some also consider the current law discriminatory—it allows men to be topless but not women—and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is considering changing it, according to the report.People at the beach also accused police of singling out Black beachgoers, approaching them first, and pushback from the crowd ultimately made the officers leave, according to the report.Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest

On July 12, ex-game show host Chuck Woolery, noted epidemiologist and member of Trump's loyalty cult, tweeted, "The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most,that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it."The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it.— Chuck Woolery (@chuckwoolery) July 13, 2020Trump rewarded Dr. Woolery's insight with a retweet.When Dr. Woolery's son tested positive for the virus, he tweeted, "To further clarify and add perspective, Covid-19 is real and it is here. My son tested positive for the virus, and I feel for of those suffering and especially for those who have lost loved ones."To further clarify and add perspective, Covid-19 is real and it is here. My son tested positive for the virus, and I feel for of those suffering and especially for those who have lost loved ones.— Chuck Woolery (@chuckwoolery) July 13, 2020I don't think Trump will retweet that. :( Read the rest

We have three rescue cats, and one of them slow blinks at me every time I look at him. According to this article, cats slow blink to Indicate that they do not feel threatened by you.Rae Paoletta writes:If a cat closes its eyes around like it’s falling asleep, it’s signaling that it doesn’t view you as a threat. This is similar to the way some cats expose their bellies to their humans, which signals trust and vulnerability. For kitties, the absence of extreme hatred is love, and as cat owners know, there is no in-between.Now I want someone to explain why my cat stretches and raises his paw to me like he's saying hello.Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest

Back in January, the new movie Palm Springs broke a record for the highest sale at the Sundance Film Festival — by exactly 69 cents.We should have seen that as an omen.The movie began streaming on Hulu this past Friday, July 10th, and in less than a week, it has an 84% on MetaCritic and a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Those are some impressively high accolades for any movie, but especially for a RomCom by a first-time director starring Andy Samberg. But, in my humble opinion, the film deserves it.The elevator pitch for Palm Springs is essentially Groundhog's Day meets Hot Tub Time Machine meets Wedding Crashers — again, not the type of film you'd expect to garner such critical acclaim. Andy Samberg's character, Nyles, has been trapped in a time loop at a wedding where he doesn't know anyone except his girlfriend, who's in the wedding party, and also cheating on him. He is stuck at the resort, living the day over and over and over and over again, eventually resigning himself to the situation and trying to have some fun before the loop resets. When he tries to hook up with Sarah (Cristin Milioti), the older sister of the bride, he accidentally brings her into the time loop as well. And we soon learn that there are other wedding guests whose fates are now locked into this same endless repeating pattern. (Spoiler: one is JK Simmons, delightful as ever.)Palm Springs does the expected job of working through all the humor of time travel and repetition; of course, the timeliness of its release during our collective societal quarantine probably helps to make that monotony feel even relatable. Read the rest

While the White House launches its smear campaign against Dr. Fauci, The Lincoln Project churns out another great anti-Trump ad to set things straight. The ad starts by reminding us that Dr. Fauci has worked for six presidents, including President H.W. Bush, who praised Dr. Fauci as an American hero during the fight against AIDS. "Now Trump is attacking Dr Fauci," the narrator says. "Why? Because Trump failed America." As the coronavirus keeps spreading, killing nearly 140,000 people in the United States so far, Fauci's strategy is to give us facts and the truth, while Trump's strategy -- besides pushing "cures" that are proven to be deadly -- is to attack and blame. The final message: "So who do you trust? Donald the dope? Or the doctor?" Read the rest

Boing Boing presents these words from our sponsor, Real Tested CBD!Given there is a global pandemic, ways to boost the immune system are even more sought after than usual. Having a strong immune system is the base for staying healthy, and though there are a lot of products people use to aid in immune wellness, CBD is on the rise as a top choice in boosting immune health. So how can this ever-growing in popularity compound help you with health and wellness, specifically boosting your immune system? Here is a breakdown of what you need to know. What Is The Immune System? Our bodies have a built-in system that keeps invaders at bay. On a daily basis we are exposed to streams of diseases, infections, viruses and bacteria. Our immune systems, a network of cells, organs and tissues that work together to destroy these foreign cells or particles, keeping us healthy and alive. The heroes of our immune system are the white blood cells, which fall into two categories. There are the lymphocytes and phagocytes. Lymphocytes are also known as B or T-cells, and are responsible for destroying toxins and identifying foreign substances within the body. Phagocytes help to absorb these invaders, neutralizing and preventing further spread of toxins. Out immune system also works to eliminate dead or non-functioning cells, preventing multiplication and tumor growth. What Is CBD? CBD is a non-psychoactive compound derived from cannabis or hemp plants. CBD, also known as cannabidiol, is the cousin to its well-known intoxicating counterpart, THC. Read the rest

There is less water on planet Earth than on Pluto, as revealed in this graphic by NASA's Steve Vance (bio). Moreover, five moons orbiting other worlds in our solar system—Europa, Triton, Callisto, Titan and Ganymede—have more. Ganymede has nearly 40 times as much water as planet Earth! Read the rest

This bit of grainy film footage with bad audio wouldn't be notable except that it depicts Easy Cure playing a 1977 show in Crawley, UK. The following year, Easy Cure dropped "Easy" from their name, recorded the demos below, signed to Polydor Records' Fiction label, and released their first single, "Killing An Arab." The rest is post-punk, proto-goth history.(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest