It's invariably the cheapest on the shelf, but the Taylor/TruTemp 3516 I got at Target fell apart the first time I pushed the button. It's the shabbiest piece of electronic tat I've bought from a major U.S. retailer. Don't buy it! A different brand is only $4 at Amazon, has good reviews, and isn't held together by the clasping pressure of a plastic cap that will obviously expand when pushed.I even tried gluing it on with superglue. Then it stopped working altogether. Then I threw it in the trash.

My daughter erupted in smiles when I told her I'd gotten her a few latch hook kits for our upcoming roadtrip.While I'm sure a Smartphone isn't enough to help my kid stay sane for hours, I'd have given my brother for one. While Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies won't be enough to entertain her, latch hook surprisingly will!Buy your own hook! Frequently the kits don't come with them!I am looking forward to having this 70s style shag heart for our VW Camper, as we go visit some National Parks. WORK FASTER CHILD!Wonderart Shaggy From The Heart Latch Hook Kit, 12" X 12" via Amazon6.5in. Wooden Latch Hook Tool via Amazon

More than 1 million people have been non-fatally shot in the USA since 2000: all of them would have uninsurable pre-existing conditions in the eyes of insurers if Trumpcare passes. (more…)

Dronestagram's fourth annual International Drone Photography Contest had to be tough to judge, given how many great shots made the finals. Above: "Waterlilly" by helios1412. Below: "Two Moo" by LukeMaximoBell. (more…)

Years ago, someone found a turtle hit by a car and brought it to Hocking Hills Animal Clinic, where they applied a fiberglass shell and released it in the wood. Years later, guess who the vet found while walking in the woods? (more…)

Duncan Skiles created a short but perfectly wonderful tribute to scenes in Arnold Schwarzenegger movies where something that is obviously not Arnold Schwarzenegger is presented as Arnold Schwarzenegger.Previously: INFINITE Schwarzenegger.

Trump is an infamously domineering handshaker, who uses the gesture to impose and humiliate. Sometimes, a wily Trudeau or muscular Macron will get the better of him, but they're still playing his game. Agata Kornhauser-Duda isn't, drifting right past his outstretched l'il smokies to greet Melania Trump instead, only turning to the orange morgellons monster once she had dealt with its much better half.https://twitter.com/marv_vien/status/882982124063563776

https://vimeo.com/220291411Designer Dani Clode's Third Thumb is a 3D printed robotic prosthetic thumb that goes on the pinky side of your hand, created a motorized, opposable additional thumb that you can use to play the guitar, pick up objects, or crack an egg. (more…)

https://vimeo.com/209070629Magali Barbé's short film Strange Beasts depicts a futuristic augmented reality product for kids and parents -- a piece of design fiction with a serious sting it its tail. (via Beyond the Beyond)

My latest Locus column is "Be the First One to Not Do Something that No One Else Has Ever Not Thought of Doing Before," and it's about science fiction's addiction to certain harmful fallacies, like the idea that you can sideline the actual capabilities and constraints of computers in order to advance the plot of a thriller. (more…)

Unable to secure equal pay, Hawaii Five-O stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park have quit the show.Members of Hollywood’s small but vocal Asian-American community are speaking out in support of former Hawaii Five-0 stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, who have left the series after failed contract negotiations with CBS and CBS Television Studios.“Unfortunately, the racial hierarchy established in the original 1968-1980 series remained intact in the 2010 reboot: Two white stars on top, two Asian/Pacific Islander stars on bottom,” Guy Aoki, founding president of Media Action Network for Asian Americans, wrote in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.News of Kim's and Park’s departures broke Friday before the Independence Day holiday, with sources confirming to THR that Kim and Park had requested and been denied pay equity alongside fellow original castmembers Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan. In a lengthy Facebook post Wednesday, Kim noted that he based his decision to leave on the inability to reach an agreement on a new contract, and added, “The path to equality is rarely easy.” Sources say that Kim and Park asked to be compensated on par with leads O’Loughlin and Caan, who also receive a cut of the series’ back-end profit.Via the Hollywood Reporter

Volvo, the tank-like Swedish station wagon of yesteryear, is giving up on gasoline. By 2019 all new Volvo automobiles will be powered by electricity.Volvo plans to build only electric and hybrid vehicles starting in 2019, making it the first major automaker to abandon cars and SUVs powered solely by the internal combustion engine.CEO Hakan Samuelsson said the move was dictated by customer demand. It means that in two years, all new Volvo vehicles will have some form of electric propulsion.Via SF Chronhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTJZEK4JP0k

Elite European sophistication prevails once again over vulgar American exports.

Readers familiar with music theory, riddim, or any other aspect of music deeper than a four-chord pop song may already be itching to leap into the comments to explain of course it does, that any bouncy predictable track can back any lines hitherto laid over any other bouncy predictable track.But just as there is a weird power in Thomas the Tank Engine, there is an uncanny magic to Mike O' Donnell and Junior Campbell's theme.Previously: Biggie Smalls the Tank Engine.

With Coco Loko you can snort chocolate, sorry, raw cacao infused with a "special energy blend." The entrepreneur behind this product, 29-year-old Nick Anderson, said he was inspired by Europe's "chocolate-snorting trend." He told the Washington Post, “At first, I was like, ‘Is this a hoax?' And then I tried it and it was like, okay, this is the future right here.” He then invested $10,000 into creating his own.The Washington Post reports:It took about 10 tries over two months to come up with the mixture, which was created by an Orlando-based supplement company.“Some versions, they just burned too much,” Anderson said. “Other times they looked gray and dull, or didn’t have enough stimulants.”The effects of the cacao-based powder, he said, last about 30 minutes to an hour, and are “almost like an energy-drink feeling, like you’re euphoric but also motivated to get things done.”Wondering if it works? Watch this guy's video first:https://youtu.be/3g8GQWTaU_IGotta have some of that sweet, sweet (well, not that sweet) raw cacao snuff? One 1.25 oz. jar will set you back $19.99.(Sean Bonner)

Spotted in Tulsa, Oklahoma by Jerrinq, these distracting traffic signs seem to contradict their messages. (Miss Cellania)

In the wake of CNN threatening to out a critic if he does not limit his speech in the future, former federal prosecutor and First Amendment champion Ken White has published an eminently sensible post about the incoherence of the present moment's views on free speech, and on the way that partisanship causes us to apply a double standard that excuses "our bunch" and damns the "other side." (more…)

Here's a vegetable gardener who didn't want to share his bounty with slugs and snails, so he strung an electric barrier around the perimeter of his raised bed garden. Anytime a voracious mollusk attempts to enter the garden, it must first crawl over a pair of electrified wires, where it receives a mild shock sufficient to thwart its plans. The gardener has kindly posted instructions for others interested in making a 9 volt electric snail/slug fence.

When a bolt or screw is stripped, I drill it out with this extractor set.When working on old motorcycles, or just my old VW bus, I encounter a lot of stuck screws and bolts. Frequently prior mechanics have left fastners completely rounded off. When these things happen, I grab my drill.These extractor bits both burnish the stripped head, and then screw into it and extract it. They are not simple to use, and it takes a very steady hand -- something I don't always have -- but slow and patient work generally produces good results.Speed Out Extractor HSS Broken Bolt and Damaged Screw Extractor via Amazon

Chet Phillips's Monster Zen is a book of 16 beautiful, "Japanese-styled" drawings of monsters, accompanied by haikus by the artist -- you can get the book for $24 or get individual prints. (more…)

From 1993 to 2001, this Serbian middle-school biology textbook sported a cutout of a still from Raising Arizona in which Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter cradle their stolen baby. (more…)

According to this New York Times article, the Secret Service needs more members:...John Roth, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, said last month as he laid out the Secret Service’s personnel shortfall at a hearing on Capitol Hill. Mr. Roth estimated that the agency needs to increase by 1,700 employees in five years, to 8,200, if it is to properly perform its investigative and better-known protection missions.To show exactly what it takes to become (and remain) an agent, the Times went into a Secret Service training facility in Maryland. They filmed recruits performing the five rigorous training exercises they must pass: Physical training, control tactics, firearms (this course alone is 104 hours long), K9 and emergency response, and protective driving. The video is another one of those 360 degree ones.

On Thingiverse, Gentlegiant's beautiful, faithful model of the Haunted Mansion front-gate sign to 3D print at any size or remix into your other designs.

Belgian artist Jan Pypers created NIGHTGARDENERS, a series of evocative photorealistic illustrations depicting nighttime scenes that are both recognizable and foreign. Each invites the viewer to make up a story. (more…)

A few months ago my friend Joshua Glenn asked me to contribute a short piece to a series of true stories "about objects that are lucky, magical, kept on your person or close by at all times." The series is called Talismanic Objects. You can read all the stories at Hilobrow. Here's mine:As a little kid in the 1960s with limited access to television, my role models were my friends’ big brothers. My friends certainly weren’t role models — they were dweebs like me. And grown ups — they might as well have been a different species, with a way of thinking that made them impossible to relate to. Big brothers were still kids, but infinitely more sophisticated and wiser than 6-years-olds like me (who big brothers regarded with indifference at best and as sticky-fingered pests at all other times).It was a thrill to walk past a big brother’s open bedroom door and sneak a glimpse in their rooms to find Aurora Monster Models, Mars Attacks trading cards, black light fluorescent posters, MAD magazines, Green Hornet’s Black Beauty model car, Cowsills LPs, Lost In Space View-Master reels, Super Balls, Sixfingers, and Ka-Bala game boards. To me, these treasures will forever be imbued with big brother mojo.I have a talisman that I can use to summon big brother mojo. It’s a Martian Fink ring — a little armless vinyl creature with pointed ears, antennae, square feet, and a long tongue curling from its leering mouth. It’s attached to a plastic ring so I can wear it on my finger (I don’t).The Martian Fink is a knock-off of the much more popular Rat Fink character created by custom car builder Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. It was manufactured as a gumball machine novelty in 1965 by the Henal Novelty and Premium Co. Anyone with five cents could buy one, but I didn’t know that at the time. I was too dense or shy to ask my friend’s big brother, who had one in 1967, where he got his. As a big brother, he simply had access to cool stuff that I could only dream about.I bought mine on eBay 15 years ago, and keep it in a box in my bed table drawer. I try not to look at it too much, because I don’t want the magic to run out.

Exhibit A: (above) Joel Carroll (@joelcarroll) hypothesizes a many-legged parasite that replaces the internal mechanics in the manner of Cymothia Exigua, the tongue-replacing fish louse. Buy the T-shirt.Exhibit B: (below) Yui Abe hypothesizes a giant man literally confined within the chassis of the engine (via); the tees are sold out; presumably a collector's item.

The 555 timer integrated circuit was invented in 1971. Over a billion are made every year, because they are so versatile. Charles Platt wrote of the chip:It has turned out to be the most successful chip in history, both in the number of units sold (tens of billions, and still counting) and the longevity of its design (fundamentally unchanged for almost forty years). Even now, about a billion 555s are manufactured each year.In Make: Electronics, I decided to include the 555, because it remains so fundamental. It’s also a wonderful teaching tool, since it can be used in so many ways. If you want to build, say, a reaction timer, using a counter and a couple of logic chips, you’re going to run it with a 555 timer, and you may end up adding a couple more 555s to take care of functions such as delaying the start of the count and locking the display until a reset button is pressed. You can also run a 555 fast enough to generate audible tones, which can be incorporated into a burglar alarm, or you can use it in a combination lock. All three of these projects are included in the book.Make magazine celebrated the 555 timer and its creator, Hans Camenzind, a few years ago when it featuring a 555 Week on its website.555s are dirt cheap, too. Ebay sells 100 for $4.Because the 555 is so fundamental electronics, people honor it by making giant size versions of it. In the photo above, you can see the 555 storage ottoman Ross built.Here's a similar project -- a 555 timer stool:I also like the 555 footstool that Windell and Lenore of Evil Mad Science built:

Starting in October, Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social media companies could be fined up to nearly $57-million by Germany for hateful messages posted on their site. The new law, which passed Germany's parliament on Friday, will give a company 24 hours to delete a post that has been flagged as racist, defamatory, or hateful before fining them.According to The Washington Post:The measure is seen as a test case in the battle against fake news and online hate, problems bedeviling governments across the West. But Germany's muscular approach has human rights groups worried about a chilling effect on free expression...Germany has staked out a stance that's among the most vigorous in the world against spurious posts and comments on social media. It also has some of the strictest laws regulating forms of expression seen as encouraging violence. Denying the Holocaust and stirring hatred against minorities are punishable with prison time.Under the new measure, which takes effect in October, companies have 24 hours to erase illegal content after it is flagged. They have another seven days to sift through messages marked as offensive but not necessarily criminal under German statute. Fines for consistently failing to respond begin at 5 million euros, about $5.7 million, but may go as high as 50 million euros.According to Germany’s justice minister, Heiko Maas, hate crimes have increased by 300 percent in the past two years, which explains the thinking behind the aggressive new law. But Facebook, critical of the new law, says it “will not improve efforts to tackle this important societal problem.” One thing it does do is destroy free speech, and Germany could set a global trend if their law is deemed "successful." Image: Max Pixel

https://youtu.be/dKOnTziBtLMArtist Eirik Brandal makes sculptural electronic circuits that generate music. Above, "composition #11"Interactive sound sculpture, 2016+12V, self-suppliedTwo proximity sensors trigger and control the frequency of sine waves. The design is inspired by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, hence the title, ‘Composition #11’. Exhibited in De Fabriek, Eindhoven, 2016.He makes neat synths, too!

Here's another one to add to the gallery of off-label fake butter brands.I sure hope so

Last Monday, a Chinese woman named Zhang was munching on what she thought was an aloe vera plant for her live vlog, in which she eats unusual foods for her audience of a few hundred. But after two bites she realized she'd made a mistake. After the first bite, the 26-year-old vlogger said, "This is great. Yum." But after the second bite she says, "Oh, that's bitter. That's really bitter." The camera then shut off.Off camera, Zhang's mouth quickly became numb, and her throat felt like it was on fire. She was also losing her voice. Severe rashes and blisters began to cover her body. She rushed herself to the hospital and recovered after having her stomach pumped. According to The Mirror:Her "Aloe Vera Feast" - as her channel's stream was title - turned very bad, very fast as she actually ate the leaves of a century plant - which is also called the agave Americana. The poison desert plant from the Americas, which resembles aloe vera, is sold in China as an ornament, and its likeness to aloe vera is thought to have fooled the woman.

These days, a conveyor belt can be so much more than a belt. Omnidirectional belts are programmable, allowing items to be rotated, aligned, and even transferred to other belts as they zip along. (more…)

Coming after improvements to Firefox and continued unease at Google's life-pervading insight, this image is outperforming the ███████ ████ Virality Control Group today (via). It got me thinking about all the promises that were made. Here's the earliest article in Google News to contain "Big browser" in its headline, published by Time Magazine on Nov. 18, 1994.World Wide Web die-hard surfers -- many of whom tend to be privacy-rights absolutists -- have been horrified to learn that the software that guides them through the Internet could pose huge Orwellian problems. Over the last week or so, a growing number of heads-up E-mail dispatches have warned that some "browsers," including free and commercial copycats of the popular Mosaic program, quietly supply the Internet E-mail addresses of Net site visitors. These lists, critics argue, could soon be sold to the highest bidder --or even to government snoopers. "You'll go into a bulletin board that has an ad, and in a little bit of time, the manufacturer can start sending you junk mail," David Farber, a University of Pennsylvania computer science professor, told TIME Daily. The next step, Farber and others theorize, is a credit-card-like record of what you've bought over the Net and which political discussion groups you've perused. Web programmers, who never intended such consequences, are now talking about creating either "privacy buttons" or warning labels.The concerns isolated:• Browsers secretly collect and share personal data.• Aggregated data could be sold or shared to marketers and the government.• The technology to do this will be tunneled within advertising.• Individual preferences graphed, especially political ones.• Privacy controls and warnings.Damn! They even predicted our empty gestures of resistance!

My quest for an inflatable tardigrade is yet to yield results, but they say the journey is the destination and I have discovered a plethora of inflatable unicorns along the way. This one is the best. It's quite expensive, at $43 shipped, but you can't cut corners when it comes to quality inflatables.P.S. The inflatable unicorn wall head is just incredibly nasty, thanks to the uncannily realistic horse photo printed on it. Unless you're putting it in someone's bed as a warning, avoid.

The WiFi232 is a traditional old-timey old-schooley Hayes-compatible 300-115200 baud modem, no wider than its own parallel port. Automatically responds with a customizable busy message when already in a call.The killer app seems to be using it to get internet onto ancient retro portables like the TRS-80 Model 102, but it's been put through its paces on various 16-bit Commodores, Ataris and Apples too. Here's Blake Patterson:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92RIT_L-8jAThe purpose of the device is to act as a bridge between your serial port and your local WiFi router. It has a 25-pin RS-232 data interface and a Mini-USB connector for power — it should work with any computer sporting a standard serial port.The WiFi232 is configured by connecting to the device’s built-in web server and loading the configuration page or by issuing extended AT configuration commands. For example,AT$SSID=MyWifiHotspotNamepoints the device to your WiFi hotspot. Once things are configured (it supports 300 to 115,200 baud), just load up your favorite terminal program, type:ATDT bbs.myfavbbs.comand the WiFi232 “dials” into that telnet BBS. Your vintage computer thinks its talking on the phone.It's $33 as a pile o' parts or $49 assembled, but there's a waiting list.

In 1987 or so, the Welsh island of Anglesey, legendary redoubt of the druids, hosted a similarly legendary gathering to which only people with fish-themed surnames were invited. In Fish Story, Charlie Lynn (with the help of one Caspar Salmon) sets out to unravel "the truth behind a fishy tale."

Immersive 3D sound is usually only possible with an array of surround-sound speakers, or by using headphones with Binaural audio content. And since most readily-available media is mastered for generic stereo, your Dolby 5.1 setup won’t automagically add an extra dimension to your listening experience. But you can still simulate a rich audio environment with Boom 3D’s spatializing equalizer.Using only your Mac’s built-in speakers, Boom 3D adds a remarkably convincing 3D effect to your media playback. It’s specifically tuned to get the best sound out of your Apple hardware, and offers helpful EQ presets for a wide variety of contexts and content. You can boost the volume of specific applications, and enjoy easy access to smart system audio controls.Boom 3D also includes a built-in media player to get the most out of your music library. Right now, you can get a discounted license for this powerful audio utility in the Boing Boing Store for $9.99.

The seven-foot tall sad clown with the golden voice is at it again. Per his fan's request, Puddles Pity Party covers David Bowie's "Life on Mars." He wrote on his Facebook page:Ya know, David Bowie is very near and dear to me and I gave this one all I got. I took some unintentional liberties with the lyrics while I was in the "flow". I hope ya don't mind.Don't mind at all. Wow, that 1:50 mark... chills.Previously: Puddles the clown takes no prisoners on America's Got Talent

Dutch artist Germans Ermič crafted this lovely ombré glass chair, an update of the classic laminated glass chair created by Shiro Kuramata in 1976. (more…)

Ubitricity is a nifty little company that modifies existing electric street lamps into charging stations for electric cars. (more…)

Animalogic offers a beginner’s guide to the adorable pangolin. Maybe the best thing about them is that they walk on two legs like some sort of tiny, strange T-Rex:

(more…)

Starting July 10, you can bid on TRS-80 computers, dot matrix printers, Realistic speakers, shortwave receivers, old catalogs, and company "memorabilia" from the bowels of bankrupt RadioShack. From the auction site:From humble beginnings in Boston in 1921, over the past 95 years RadioShack established itself as a globally recognized leader and the go to retailer for consumer electronics. RadioShack has always been known as the place for answers to the American public's technology and electronics questions. "You've got questions, we've got answers." Over the years, RadioShack introduced consumers to exciting and affordable gadgets and electronics that have become household items. As we cleaned out our historic archives in Fort Worth, Texas, we uncovered a cache of iconic memorabilia in 12 huge safes, including: unused original TRS-80 Microcomputers, Realistic Transistor Radios, Tandy computer software games, original brick cell phones and so much more. We all remember coming into RadioShack whether it was for the battery-of-the-month, new walkie-talkies, or to check out the newest RC toy cars. Now we reintroduce many of those nostalgic items and more with our rolling online memorabilia auction.RadioShack Auction #1 (thanks, Charles Platt!)

The city of Hangzhou, China has more than 86,000 public bicycles. Unfortunately, when many people are done using them, they don't put them in the designated docking center but just drop them wherever. According to Wired, "police have rounded up 23,000 bikes so far this year and hauled them to 16 corrals around the city" like the one seen above. And that's not even the whole lot of 'em.

FoxWoolDesigns will make you a perfectly pink felt tardigrade, and has one in stock to fulfill your immediate felt tardigrade requirements.This felt tardigrade is made of coral wool and is about five inches long. That's about 250 times larger than a live tardigrade!My creatures are lovingly handcrafted from sheep's wool in a process called needle felting, which uses a special barbed needle to mesh fibers into felt. Because needle felted creatures can be delicate, this toy is not suitable for young children.Previously: Tardigrade plushies for unkillable cuddlingHow tardigrades survive extreme conditionsTardigrade is plump, loveable3D-printed tardigrades

Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced Wednesday that it plans to land an astronaut on the moon by 2030, joining China in a new manned race to space. It is the first time JAXA has revealed an intention to send Japanese astronauts beyond the International Space Station, and it will mostly likely be part of an international mission, the agency said.The announcement from Japan Wednesday is just the latest in a series of ambitious space exploration plans by Asian countries, with the increasing competition for space-related power and prestige in the region echoing that of the Cold War space race of the mid-20th century.In December 2016, China announced plans to land a rover on Mars by 2020 as well as a manned mission to the Moon at some point in the future.Pictured here is one of JAXA's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rockets, via Danspace.

It pleases me to no end to learn that a woman who was once a "We Buy Ugly Houses" franchise owner was found guilty of wire fraud charges. Even though she was not affiliated with "We Buy Ugly Houses" when she committed her crimes, I feel that the "We Buy Ugly Houses" billboards I see everywhere are a stomach-churning eyesore and a crime against good taste. Whoever created the repellent Fred Flintstone knockoff mascot should be placed in a hermetically-sealed tungsten spheroid and catapulted outside the Oort Cloud.[via California Real Estate Fraud Report]

David Roseman, an employee at Alaska's Wood Tikchick State Park, spotted this big bear carrying her cubs across the river on her back. Sweet video below. From National Geographic:Wayne Kasworm, a grizzly bear biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, explained that bears' high fat content and oily coat helps them easily stay afloat. The bears, which he estimates to be about six months old, will likely start to swim on their own once they reach 30 pounds.

After decades of running a mock slave market inside Pirates of the Carribean, Disney has finally decided that Pirates selling women is not a good example for the kids.The scene also contains many elements which the fans no doubt love, but which are at odds with modern sensibilities. This is beyond a “Politically Correct” issue, it’s an issue about what Disney feels it may be inadvertently teaching its youngest guests when they see images of women being sexualized and sold at auction.Years ago, Disney took their first step at taming their pirates’ lusty desires when they changed the “chase” scene so instead of aggressively pursuing wenches (it was essentially a rape story), they were chasing after plates of food. One desire replaced with another – lust for gluttony.It’s the derogatory sexual nature of those two scenes which are problematic for modern Disney and to today’s guests. Theme park rides don’t have an MPAA rating in the way movies do. Pirates is the most tame of attractions and suitable for riders of all ages. Therefore, there is a need to make sure the subject matter is appropriate for those ages as well.It’s a catch 22 for Disney as the fans are likely to be outraged, at least at first. But not acting also continues to perpetuate themes which are unacceptable for many of today’s guests. Disney has clearly decided they need to act on the moral issue over sentimentality.Here’s some additional information we were able to obtain about this breaking news. Disney Imagineering bigwigs Marty Sklar and Kathy Mangum weigh in on the alterations:“To me, the Imagineers are simply reflecting what Walt started the day Disneyland opened – making changes that create exciting new experiences for our guests. I can’t think of a single attraction that has not been enhanced and improved, some over and over again. Change is a ‘tradition’ at Disneyland that today’s Imagineers practice – they learned it from their mentors, many of them Walt’s original team of storytellers and designers – the Disney Legends.” – Marty Sklar, Imagineer Legend. Marty continues, “Pirates of the Caribbean has always represented great Disney Park storytelling; it has set the standard for the theme park industry for half a century! But it’s a story you can continue to add fun to, with great characters in new ‘performances.’ That’s what the Imagineers have done with this new auction scene – it’s like a theatre show with a new act.”Kathy Mangum, Sr. VP Imagineering stated, “Our team thought long and hard about how to best update this scene. Given the redhead has long been a fan favorite, we wanted to keep her as a pivotal part of the story, so we made her a plundering pirate! We think this keeps to the original vision of the attraction as envisioned by Marc Davis, X Atencio and the other Disney legends who first brought this classic to life.”Via MiceChat

Data scientist Hillary Mason (previously) talks through her astoundingly useful collection of small shell scripts that automate all the choresome parts of her daily communications: processes that remind people when they owe her an email; that remind her when she accidentally drops her end of an exchange; that alert her when a likely important email arrives (freeing her up from having to check and check her email to make sure that nothing urgent is going on). It's a hilarious and enlightening talk that offers a glimpse into the kinds of functionality that users can provide for themselves when they run their own infrastructure and aren't at the mercy of giant webmail companies. (via Clive Thompson)