This fascinating mini-documentary describes the downfall of Irish politician Pádraig Flynn, who gave a bizarre interview to broadcaster Gay Byrne in 1999 that drew all the threads of his career and his party into a fuse and lit it without a second thought. As it is with the best of these things, it's not really […]

The two Tom the Dancing Bug books, Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse, and The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader, are now available. Information about the books, including how to order, and special offers here. "Delve into the dementia, the dread, and the delightfulness of this collection of Tom the Dancing Bug's strips — it's history […]

In this footage a dog is asked not to woof. Instead of complying with the request, however, the dog says "woof". And by "says", I mean the dog says it.

We covered Jason Shron's basement recreation of a VIA traincar almost 10 years ago, but his effort—staggeringly completist thought it is—is now just one among many examples of "secret fantasy worlds" built in the basements of otherwise unassuming homes. The Guardian's Amelia Tait takes a trip through some of the most amazing, starting with his. […]

Matt Farrell delves into what carbon capture utilization storage (CCUS) can and can't do for reducing greenhouse gases. There are several big issues. First, doing CCUS at a scale that would make a difference will take a lot of time and money, so as a species, we would need to commit to retrofitting carbon-emitting energy […]

Another event is going virtual. The quirky What the Fluff? festival can't happen as planned at their in-person location of Union Square in Somerville, Massachusetts, so they are taking it online this year. The live-streamed festivities happen Saturday, September 12 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. EDT. You may not know this but I'm a […]

Solutions and Other Problems [Amazon] is the forthcoming follow-up to BB fave Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh's amusing and insightful collection of autobiographical sketches. Her new work, out September 22, picks up where the original left off, powered by similar anxieties and the same perfectly-expressive MS Paint artwork. Solutions and Other Problems includes humorous […]

Mere humans can never harness the sea, but the Hacksmith had fun making Aquaman's trident with a few tweaks. While his generates impressive 800 psi water pressure, its capacity is limited, and the gold required would have cost over 2.2 million dollars. Next best thing, though. We need an Aquaman powerwasher attachment to make those […]

Here's Louis Vuitton's take on fashion facemasks, reportedly part of its 2021 Cruise Collection. Ian Servantes points out that there's no price or product page, but adds what many are likely thinking: "A great way to tell people you're excited for the guillotine." Here's my Louis Vuitton face mask (below). Easily repurposed for the Covid […]

Kayaker Jimmy MacDonald lost his paddle and tipped over in the choppy waters of New York's Lake George when the miraculous appearance of priests touring the lake on a floating tiki bar appeared and saved him. Via WNYT, Tiki Tours captain Greg Barrett was shuttling the priests around when he saw the paddle, then MacDonald. […]

Stars Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves joined co-creators Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon to discuss the arduous journey to screen for the beloved franchise. Fun fact: the writers were fired by their agent after submitting the script, which was based on characters they developed in improv shows. Bonus video: Zach Gallifinakis roasting Keanu on Between […]

“Watch all the stealing and robbing they do. This is important.” — Trump

"In a court filing Tuesday, the Justice Department said Trump was acting 'within the scope' of his job as president when he said Carroll lied about the incident" The U.S. Justice Department, controlled by Donald Trump and headed by the lyin'-ass Worst Attorney General Ever, Bill Barr, is trying to take over as President Donald […]

In case you haven't tried an electric board before, know this — it's not a toy. With 2800 watts of power, the beefy 36V, 4.4 Ah battery propels the Flowdeck X at a respectably speedy 20 mph with real stability. In fact, the motors have so much zip that they can easily shoot a rider […]

A tiny baby gorilla has been born at the zoo in New Orleans, the Audubon Zoo said Tuesday. The critically endangered western lowland gorilla was born Friday to 13-year-old Tumani and father Okpara, and the sex of the baby isn't yet known. "Tumani is demonstrating excellent mothering behaviors and the entire troop is doing exceptionally […]

Fact check: True

In Britain, the government says that beginning Monday, gatherings of more than six people in England are banned. Officials are working to thwart a spike in new coronavirus infections. The recent jump in daily cases is blamed on "party-going young adults disregarding social distancing rules," reports AP: The U.K. has the worst COVID-19 death toll […]

I have a few different mechanical pencils. The ones I commonly use have lead thicknesses of 0.7mm and 0.5mm, both of which are fine for everyday notetaking. But when my daughter and I fire up the DOSBOX DOS emulator on my Macbook Pro to play Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981) only one […]

Impeached president Donald Trump held a small campaign rally without social distancing and not many masks, at North Carolina's Smith Reynolds Airport. "It's very simple to remember: If Biden wins, China wins," lied @POTUS. And then, moments later, the line changed. "If Biden wins, the rioters, anarchists and looters win," Trump lied. And then, the […]

Cory just kicked off his first Kickstart and I just kicked in! It's for the audiobook edition of Cory's third "Little Brother" novel, Attack Surface. You can read the details on the Kickstarter page and on his website, Pluralistic: I have a favor to ask of you. I don't often ask readers for stuff, but […]

The drug spice has been chemically altered to circumvent the UK's laws against it, and the new version is causing havoc in the streets. It's also being blamed for a threefold increase in unnatural deaths among UK prisoners. Via VICE: Responding to a series of bans in the 2010s, Chinese chemists repeatedly tweaked the molecular […]

In the U.S., 32 states currently have either restrictions or an outright ban on driving with a smartphone in your hand. Whether you're talking, texting or looking up directions, using your phone while you drive is distracted driving — and no matter how skilled you are, it can lead to lapses or even a tragic […]

From the makers of General Jeff's "Old Rebel" Session Papers, comes this six pack of Smoke-A-Dope pre-rolled cones ($5). Introducing Smoke-A-Dope, the new Trolling Papers that let you ridicule and dishonor the awful president by burning an effigy* of him. Because he deserves it… Let's smoke this dope out of office! *Remember, kids: burning an effigy is strictly a symbolic act, […]

Over at Wirecutter, my friend and colleague James Austin has a wonderful new guide that covers everything you need to run a remote/online Dungeons and Dragons campaign with your friends while still keeping a social distance from everything but goblins (it's always goblins). Most importantly, the article includes this wonderful passage: The real world is […]

A gentleman aggressively borrowing THE plot device from a beloved children's novel is surprised people want to win a candy factory. Fast Company: David Klein, who sold his stake in Jelly Belly in 1980 and now runs a company called Spectrum Confections, announced last week that he will give away a candy factory to one […]

Since he was a kid, Destin Sandlin from Smarter Every Day has wondered what would happen when a baseball went supersonic. So he build a supersonic baseball cannon. You may recall he built a similar gun to stress test a golf ball: Image: YouTube / Smarter Every Day

When you're the king, someone is always coming for your crown. Nowhere is that more true than in the tech sector, where a perennial favorite like Adobe and their insanely popular Creative Cloud app suite have to keep innovating to stay on top of the digital media creation software game. Keeping abreast of changes and […]

Last week when Trump arrived in Wilmington, North Carolina for an appearance, The Animals classic 1964 hit "House of the Rising Sun" blared from the loudspeakers. The Animals' Eric Burdon heard about that and is A-OK with that use of the traditional folk song his band made famous. From Burdon's Instagram post: Even though nobody […]

On August 21 at the US Smithsonian's National Zoo, Mei Xiang gave birth to a beautiful panda cub. You can check out the Zoo's Giant Panda Cams but for an immediate dose of panda joy, Zoo curators Michael Brown-Palsgrove and Laurie Thompson and panda keeper Marty Dearie selected their "Top Ten Panda Cub Cam Moments." […]

This is from the 7 Sep 2020 issue of my new newsletter, The Magnet. Sign up for it here! (Before reading further, please draw a simple bicycle without looking at a reference image.) Ten years ago, Andrew Neher invited me to draw a bike from memory for his Bike Drawings website. I asked my wife and daughters to participate, […]

This essay from Moneyness by JP Koning is from 2019, but I just came across it. It's about Starbucks stored value accounts, which come in the form of physical cards but also as smartphone and smartwatch apps. In 2019 customers were holding about $1.6 billion in stored value.

Police in Millersburg, Kentucky, pulled over a driver last week after noticing that their license plate looked a bit "off model," as cartoonists say. The individual was also lacking auto insurance and driving on a suspended license. The Millersburg Police Department offered this "pro tip": "Don't forget to draw the registration sticker." (WDRB)

In 1984 The New Yorker published a story written by Janet Malcolm. The story, says Malcolm in the 24 Sep 2020 issue of The New York Review of Books, was "about a disturbance in an obscure corner of the psychoanalytic world whose chief subject, a man named Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, hadn't liked his portrayal and […]

Many children who get Covid-19 are unlikely to show symptoms and very few will die from the disease. But the authors of a new paper in EClinicalMedicine (a journal of The Lancet) say even asymptomatic children are susceptible to a heart inflammation syndrome that can cause permanent heart damage. From The University of Texas Health […]

Using Europe's largest solar telescope, GREGOR, researchers captured these incredible images of details on the surface of the sun. Above is a sunspot while the image below "reveals intricate structures of solar magnetic fields." In this case, the smallest details are around 50 km, which compared to the sun's diameter of 1.4 million km, is […]

I recently re-watched the Spielberg-Tom Cruise big screen adaptation of Minority Report. It still holds up as a great sci-fi film about the dangers of the surveillance state, but it also loses something in the way it strays from the source material. I'm hardly an adaptation purist, but Philip K Dick's original "Minority Report" short […]

In 1912, 4-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing during a family fishing trip in Louisiana. Eight months later, a boy matching his description appeared in Mississippi. But was it Bobby Dunbar? In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the dispute over the boy's identity. We'll also contemplate a scholarship for idlers and […]

Everyday carry items have to clear new hurdles these days. Because while the number of items we might like to have with us at all times keeps growing, we still only have two hands. And bags start getting pretty darn heavy. To make the cut now, an item usually has to serve a few distinct […]

This is me, every morning, turning on the internet to see what new delights await.

YouTuber Ann Reardon of How to Cook That looks closely at viral content channels to learn how they get millions, even billions, of views with some sneaky tricks. Humorously, she's titled her own video using the clickbait formula she reveals in the video: Number + Adjective + Keyword + Promise. And, unlike the ones she […]

Actor John Boyega — he played Finn in the most recent Star Wars trilogy — is the feature of this month's GQ cover story. There are lots of great insights and anecdotes throughout the lengthy interview, especially as Boyega discusses his diasporic experiences in Nigeria, his mental health, Black fashion, and shifting perspectives of racism […]

The New York City rats are hungry. That's not a good sign. From the New York Post: "I saw the little pigeon that was hurt and it was kind staggering and injured and out of nowhere, the rat came and just literally attacked it," [Naquazia] Gresham, 32, told The Post on Thursday. One of her […]

Octavia Butler was the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship — a particularly impressive feat, considering the hurdles that have traditional stood in the way for both women, and Black people, in publishing and elsewhere. 11 years later, she died of a stroke at the age of 58. And despite her […]

After reports of a casket floating in the South River near Annapolis, Maryland, police responded only to find that it was a dock. [103 WRNR via AP] Photos of the slab were posted to the Facebook page of local station WRNR. In the comments, one Allen Rucker shared a local legend. This is no lie, […]

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated just 73 seconds after liftoff. The seven person crew included high school teacher Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian to fly into space. I'll never forget that day nor will anyone who tuned in and watched the tragedy happen in the blink of an eye. Challenger: The […]

Imagine that your jacket changes shape depending on the temperature or your socks can provide additional support with the push of a button. Harvard engineers created a new material using keratin from wool that can be 3D printed in unusual shapes. Even after the material is deformed and "locked" as another kind of shape, just […]

Discovered by journalists with Vesti Yamal TV in Russia, a 164-ft crater in Siberia joins the other mysterious holes (previously, previously) thought to be the result of methane explosions. Record temperatures in the region accellerate the thawing of permafrost, releasing the trapped gases. This is the 17th such feature, called a hydrolaccolith, that scientists have […]

Pretzel discovered bowl hockey as a puppy and has never looked back. Affectionately known as Zuul the destroyer, Pretzel will bat that that bowl until I put food into it or take it away. She is the most snuggly of puppies and sleeps on my head.

On November 13, just days after the presidential election, Negativland is releasing their new album, The World Will Decide. The music video for the first single, "Don't Don't Get Freaked Out" is available to view now. They've also got a new Chrome browser extension — interesting! What is The World Will Decide? What's even worth remembering […]

A few years ago, writer David F. Walker and illustrator Sanford Greene worked on a run of Power Fist and Iron Man for Marvel Comics that was utterly delightful. I loved Greene's gritty cartooning, and I loved the unapologetic Blackness of the story (and, for me, the embarrassingly relatable idiocy of Iron Fist's whiteness). So […]