This mysteriously "tattooed" fish was caught near Lopez Jaena in the Misamis Occidental province of the Philippines. Some locals considered the fish a warning from the depths. They're actually right, as the likely non-magical explanation is that the fish was caught in a printed plastic bag floating in the ocean and the pattern transferred to the animal's scales over time. (Mysterious Universe)

Researchers from the Technical University of Denmark demonstrated a new nanotechnology-based printing technique that produces long-lasting color images on plastic at resolutions up to 127,000 dots per inch, many times more detailed than traditional laser printers. The system uses a laser to alter the structure of nanoscale structures on the plastic material. (A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; a human hair is around 60,000 nanometers in diameter.) The nanoprinting technique could also lead to new kinds of 3D displays or invisible watermarks. From New Scientist: The surface of the plastic is shaped so that it has lots of tiny pillars, one roughly every 200 nanometers. A thin film of the element germanium is then spread over the plastic. Heat from a laser melts the germanium on each pillar, morphing its shape and thickness. As a result, it reflects a specific color. The coating protects the shapes of the newly carved nanostructures.Resonant laser printing of structural colors on high-index dielectric metasurfaces (ScienceAdvances)

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones makes almost all of his money selling nostrums, says Seth Brown of Select/All. His audience buys so many bottle of Infowars Life Silver Bullet Colloidal Silver, Infowars Life Brain Force Plus, Infowars Life Super Male Vitality, and Infowars Life Liver Shield that he no longer depends on 3rd party advertising to make money.A representative from PowerReviews, which manages Infowars’ review system, told me that between 3 percent and 8 percent of purchasers generally review their products. Assuming that 5 percent of Jones’s customers review each product they’ve purchased, the total sales would be more than 500,000 units sold over two years. At an average price of $30, this would represent $15,000,000 in sales over the same two-year period. If we assume more generously that reviews represent closer to 3 percent of the total number of purchasers, the number balloons to nearly $25,000,000. That’s a lot of money — especially when you consider that a devoted audience like Jones’s is likely filled with repeat customers who may not review each individual purchase.It is a brilliant business model. If you can be convinced that an international cabal of globalists is hell-bent on creating a New World Order, perhaps you could be persuaded to buy Infowars Life Survival Shield X-2, a one-fluid-ounce bottle of iodine supplement for $39.95. If you can be convinced that President Barack Obama was a member of Al Qaeda, perhaps you will buy two ounces of Infowars Life Super Male Vitality drops for $59.95. Alex Jones does sell some other products on his website, but the vast majority of the web ads and on-air product pitches are for his dietary supplements. The products themselves are largely produced by Dr. Edward F. Group III, a Houston chiropractor and founder of dietary-supplement-maker Global Healing Center. Group is an atypical doctor in that while he lists a bevy of educational accomplishments on his website and LinkedIn profile, degree-verification services indicate that he seems not to have completed college. When asked about Group’s undergraduate education, a representative of Global Healing Center declined to comment.

https://vimeo.com/215759124Julia Wick found a cinematic trailer for a Opus, a "$100 million "state of the art dream home" currently for sale in Los Angeles." The creators "wanted to do something really high art," she quotes a spokesperson mercifully left unnamed. [via JWZ]The video was created by the Society Group—a luxury public relations firm whose "mission is to spark authentic conversations in society by intersecting the worlds of art + architecture + lifestyle"—along with a "celebrity developer," a high-end realtor, and "a french director who specializes in marketing luxury brands." We spoke to the Society Group's Alexander Ali over email for some more information.It's all so Trumpian.

David Dockery performed a drum solo of the climactic scene in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Then Dan Felix upped the game with a saxophone accompaniment to the original. (more…)

Thanks to all of you who came out to my tour-stop last night for Walkaway at Winnipeg's McNally Robinson bookstore -- what a fine time we had! Now I'm leaving for the airport to fly to Denver, where I'm appearing at Tattered Cover at 7PM. (more…)

It's been a year since we warned that Intel's Management Engine -- a separate computer within your own computer, intended to verify and supervise the main system -- presented a terrifying, unauditable security risk that could lead to devastating, unstoppable attacks. Guess what happened next? (more…)

The August 21 eclipse is being commemorated by the US Postal Service with a new stamp printed with thermochromic ink; when you rub the stamp the image transforms from an image of the 2006 total eclipse as shot from Jalu, Libya, to a photo of the full moon, both taken by Fred Espenak, aka Mr. Eclipse, of Portal, AZ. (more…)

Putin got your tongue? President Donald Trump's history of remarks on U.S. election hacking makes his current silence on the France election cyberattacks very strange. Russia is suspected of being behind those recent hacking attacks, which appeared to be directed at helping the fascist, hardcore right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen win. Despite open support from Donald Trump and others aligned with the U.S. President, Le Pen lost to the more moderate candidate, Emmanuel Macron. (more…)

Drip, drip, drip. A collection of real-time takes on today's extraordinary and historic testimony by former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired by Donald Trump after getting a little too close to whatever is going on in the Trump White House with Michael Flynn, the Russians, the Trump Organization, and who knows what else. Aliens. Probably aliens.. (more…)

Say what you will about Sean Hannity, the beleaguered Fox News talking head. You can't say the man isn't capable of changing his point of view on highly sensitive topics like the NSA and surveillance, and national security. (more…)

A GOP lawmaker swears he's not the notorious internet misogynist who said this... (more…)

My friend, John Edgar Park, has a video about low-bandwidth, long-range packet radio signals, which he uses to make a remote effects trigger box. Really cool!

The Internet says it looks good, and I'm inclined to agree with it.

The advice in the beloved The Elements of Style "ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense," wrote Geoffrey K. Pullum (head of linguistics and English language at the University of Edinburgh) in his 2009 essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Why does he despise a book that thousands of high school and college professors foist on their students and has a 4.6 star rating on Amazon with 2,622 reviews?Here are a few reasons: "...both authors were grammatical incompetents...""Some of the recommendations are vapid, like 'Be clear' (how could one disagree?). Some are tautologous, like 'Do not explain too much.' (Explaining too much means explaining more than you should, so of course you shouldn't.) Many are useless, like 'Omit needless words.' (The students who know which words are needless don't need the instruction.)""...advice on that topic [grammar] does real damage. It is atrocious."The book's contempt for its own grammatical dictates seems almost willful, as if the authors were flaunting the fact that the rules don't apply to them. But I don't think they are.

https://youtu.be/g67-LyG6JBY?t=7m33sI played this video to watch Buddy Rich say mean things about country music (at 9:46 in) ("Anybody could play it on one string"), but his drum solo was a lot more fun.Incidentally, here's Buddy Rich's classic dressing down of his band. Obviously the inspiration for the abusive band teacher in Whiplash.

Martin Pavelk pre-ordered a gluten-free breakfast for his All Nippon Airways flight from Tokyo to Sydney, Australia. He was served a single banana, a packet of salt, and a knife and fork. “All other passengers were served a full breakfast meal consisting of eggs, sausage, mushrooms, bread, and yogurt,” Pavelk said. “This was a nine-hour flight. Although definitely gluten-free, the banana did not keep me full for very long.”All Nippon Airways told The Telegraph that they have since "apologized to him personally and as a result of his experience we are reviewing our policy on gluten free options and how they are served.”

Wonder Woman hits theaters June 2. Looks like a rather intense three hours, yet I still wish it was Lynda Carter, in her satin tights, fighting for our rights, and the old Red, White and Blue.

Keep your eye on the upper right. You'll see a large ship slowly approach and knock into a huge metal structure, which buckles and collapses. The people talking in the background don't seem very concerned about it. Perhaps it's an everyday occurrence here.From YouTube description:A CCTV footage shows CMA CGM Centaurus which is a container Ship Hits Terminal T1, According to this video accident took place at one of the biggest port of middle east on 06 April 2017.

Stoned special effects fun from the 1970s."I created these films in the 70's using Super 8mm film and a bunch of my creative friends," writes uploader WooferHound Town. "This is a collection of clips, there is no story here. This stuff was mostly filled in Huntsville Alabama. (via /r/ObscureMedia, thanks UPSO!)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xvS29rZVk8

Impoliteness and vulgarity are, according to recent recearch, a sign of honesty. Moreover, "the more an individual swears, the more honest they are likely to be."They first asked a group of 276 participants about their swearing habits, as well as how honest they were in different situations, and found the most honest people were also the heaviest swearers. They also found that people were much more likely to use swearing as a way to express themselves and their emotions, rather than in an anti-social or harmful way towards others.In a second study the researchers tested these findings in a more real-life setting, by analysing the status updates of more than 73,000 Facebook users.They measured for honesty (previous research shows liars prefer to use third-person pronouns than first-person ones and more negative words) and profanity.Again, they found that honest people were more likely to use profane language.They ranked swearing and integrity by U.S. state. The sweariest state, Connecticut (52%), was also the second-most most honest (86%). Polite Utah (26%) scored a relatively untrustworthy 65%. Most-honest Iowa (87%), though, could only maintain a middling swear rate of 40%. Still, the habitual liars of Georgia (49% integrity) sure talk sweet (36% swears).

Surprise! Princicples of free speech are often deployed by its enemies as cover for racial prejudice. Which is, of course, free speech.The new study reveals a positive correlation (Pearson r = .43) between having racial prejudice and defending racist speech using the “free speech argument” — a stronger correlation than the researchers expected. White and Crandall recruited hundreds of participants via the Amazon Mechanical Turk service, conducting several interrelated studies where participants responded to descriptions of recent news events or readings involving someone being punished for racist speech. The racial attitudes of the respondents themselves were gauged using the Henry and Sears Symbolic Racism 2000 scale, a standard measure of racial prejudice in social psychology and political science.The underlying opposition to free speech is key: "many who defend racist speech using the “free speech argument” might not extend the same principle of free speech to negative comments aimed at authority figures or the public in general."“You might think that, ‘Maybe people who defend this racist speech are just big fans of free speech, that they’re principled supporters of freedom,’” Crandall said. “Well, no. We give them a ‘news’ article with the same speech aimed at police — and prejudice scores are completely uncorrelated with defending speech aimed at police — and also uncorrelated with snarky speech aimed at customers at a coffee shop, but with no racial content.”So much for the tolerant right!

Harsh Reality is a short movie about how horrible VR is going to be; here's the trailer for the crowdfunding campaign. ENERGEIA FILMS is proud to be a part of the launch campaign for NOIR Systems's latest entry in the field of VR-enhanced rehabilitation -- the NSYS-EX. As seen in the new short film, HARSH REALITY!What happens when the technology designed to help us is turned against us? Please help fund HARSH REALITY so you can find out!VR dystopias are usually posed as an assault on our senses, on our privacy, our sense of self. But honoring the utopian viewpoint--VR as a manifestation of everything we want to see and become, an unfettered self--always held more power for me, especially as prelude to dystopia. The 1988(!) Red Dwarf episode Better Than Life, wherein fully-immersive VR is revealed as a way to completely idealize one's everyday personal flaws, remains my favorite!

This lovely short subject documentary gives some cool insights into the awe-inspiring experience of space travel, as told by several women who have had the honor of doing so. Imagine shedding a tear at the beauty, then laughing as it floats away. (more…)

After 22 episodes, Ben Tardif has completed his masterful mini golf marble run, and it was worth the wait. (more…)

Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen by about 66%-34% in France's presidential election Sunday, with few votes outstanding. Macron, a 39-year-old centrist newcomer, faced a strong challenge from his far-right adversary, but polls never gave her a serious shot at the job. And on the day, the margin was even wider than expected.Mr Macron will also become the first president from outside the two traditional main parties since the modern republic's foundation in 1958. ...The Macron team said that the new president had had a "cordial" telephone conversation with Ms Le Pen.In a speech she thanked the 11 million people who had voted for her. She said the election had shown a division between "patriots and globalists" and called for the emergence of a new political force.The result came despite an internet-driven effort to torpedo Macron's campaign with hacks, leaked emails and conspiracy theories—a pattern that stoked fears of a similar outcome to last year's election in the U.S., where similar circumstances saw millionaire reality TV star Donald Trump prevail over Hillary Clinton.It is indeed a sad day for American media who hoped the French were as dumb as us.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-d4otHE-YILiving treasure and outspoken atheist Stephen Fry has a classic bit from a two-year-old episode of RTE's "The Meaning of Life" in which he answers the question, "What would you say to God if you died and found yourself at the gates of heaven?" (more…)

I bought this 3-pack of Enviroboard Microwavable Sterilization Antibacterial Cutting Board in 2015 for $35. They're on sale now for $24. (more…)

Perspective. pic.twitter.com/k53zRHbg9Y— IM🍑HIM (@ziyatong) May 6, 2017Ziya Tong, producer and host of The Daily Planet on Discovery Canada, tweeted a gif that clearly shows how the same two colors can look either black and blue or yellow and white.

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Although it can be tough to talk to Alexa when your Echo is blasting music at full volume, Amazon’s voice-activated cloud assistant works remarkably well. But there’s a lot of uncharted territory in the realm of conversational interfaces, and Alexa is still limited to services that have integrated her abilities. If you have an amazing idea for a voice application, or are curious to learn how Alexa works underneath the friendly voice, this Amazon Alexa Coding Bundle is an excellent resource for beginners.This bundle includes two courses—a set of beginner lessons to introduce the fundamentals of Alexa’s API, and some advanced projects to test your skills. Each course will teach you to build ten skills for Alexa that include audio streaming functionality, database communication, and 3rd-party services.These lessons are presented in short, digestible chunks, so you can work through 13 hours of instructional material at your own pace. You can pick up this Amazon Alexa Coding Bundle here in our store.

On Wednesday, Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin signed HB1123, a new "trespass" law that declared an immediate "state of emergency" allowing prosecutors to charge protesters with felonies for "trespassing" on any property containing a "critical infrastructure facility," impose fines of up to $10,000 for acts that "damage, vandalize, deface, impede or inhibit operations of the facility", and fines of up to $100,000 or up to ten years in prison for "tampering" with the facility. (more…)

Colorado prosecutors have dismissed felony drug and weapons charges against a suspect because they learned that Pueblo Police Department offier Seth Jensen defrauded the court by faking his bodycam footage, "recreating" his bust after the suspect's car was in the impound lot. (more…)

Richard Mosse uses military-grade surveillance equipment intended for detecting enemy movement for an unintended use: to document the plight of refugees, an extension of an earlier project titled Incoming. (more…)

We live in a golden age of Star Wars merch, but even by those hopeful standards, the Luke Skywalker flight suit tee is pretty fine. The matching Chewbacca tee is also worth a look. (via Canopy)

This was a Fun movie, and a very funny one, too. Until the end, I wasn't sure if it was a good one. Hell, it is good. The first was well-made and profoundly clever in its use of nostalgia as part of its storytelling soul rather than just appearances, but the sequel has a more perfect magic: emotional honesty. It's about a team of famous yet bickering mercenaries and their unseemly associates, all outmaneuvering enemies and gravitating toward epic destinies that turn out to be mirages obscuring the smaller truths of family. I suspect this will make older viewers like it more, but younger ones like it less, because they don't sleep with the sort of well-settled emotional tangles that the movie vicariously unravels. I don't really feel like more should be said, frankly, than that. It's a light show, lacking any suggestion of physical threat or danger, yet it wields its human weaponry so well.

On Monday evenings some of the best magicians in the world perform intimate sets at the Santa Monica Playhouse.The Santa Monica Playhouse is a long running, classic, beautiful small theatre just off the 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica, CA. I was thrilled, last year, when I had the chance to catch a few performances at Albie Selznick's Magic Monday. Albie is an accomplished actor and magician who brings together phenomenal acts for a very playful and in-your-lap kind of night. Frequently, you'll see the most sought after magicians and variety performers from the Magic Castle here, in a far less formal but no less charming setting.This week, Monday May 8th, two of my favourites are in the cast: puppeteer Scott Land, and (if memorry hasn't failed me) Troop 2 Santa Monica Eagle Scout, and world renowned magician Matt Marcy.The most fun you'll have on a Monday west of Sepulveda!Magic Monday at the Santa Monica Playhouse

Today Show host Matt Lauer interviewed Ellen DeGeneres, and after asking her what it was like to publicly come out as gay 20 years ago, he moved on to Trump. Lauer: What's your relationship with Donald Trump? Do you know him at all? Have you had a chance to interview him?DeGeneres: I mean, I know him from Celebrity Apprentice because when we first started the show... we filmed something with him. I flew in his helicopter and did a bit with him. So I knew him then. I have not spoken to him since he he's run for president or become president.Lauer: Would you like him to come on the show?Degeneres: Um...No. [Explosive laughter, hoots and applause from audience.]Lauer: Why not?DeGeneres: Because I'm not gonna change his mind. He's against everything I stand for.Here's the full segment:https://youtu.be/0dki_Wg45xM

https://youtu.be/hv5lcQBv8mYIs this the teaser for Portal 3? The disarray, scattered equipment, and posters on the wall seem like the work of a thoughtful set decorator. But, as Sean Hannity likes to say, "Wow if true." lockquote>While walking through the territory of a factory, located in the industrial area of the city, I noticed a weird concrete block with a metal gate on the side of it. I opened it and a latter climb later I was in a dark, small tunnel leading to an underground bomb shelter/safe house.

What I learned from this awe-inspiring animated explainer video from Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell.Ninety-seven percent of all stars will eventually become white dwarfs.White dwarfs have a long lifespan! Up to 100 billion billion years. That's 10 billion times longer than the universe has existed. Intelligent life has a few billion years to learn how to move close to white dwarfs in order to survive. (In other words, it's a good idea to start planning now!)When a white dwarf dies, it will become a black dwarf. The universe will begin the slow process of heat death, and all life will die.*If protons decay the universe will eventually dissolve into nothingness.If protons don't decay, then they will become iron spheres, suspended in a black cold universe. This will be the forever end state of the universe.*Not in the video, but Freeman Dyson has put forth the idea (in his wonderful book, Infinite in All Directions) that as long as there is a temperature differential (and there always will be), energy can be used to support life. Imagine a system that harvests energy for 10 billion years, which is enough to power a computer with a universe simulation in it for one second before shutting down. The next time, it has to harvest energy for 20 billion years to run the simulation for a second. This could go on literally forever, and the conscious entities in the simulation would not be aware of the long hibernation periods. Other physicists have shot down Dyson's "Eternal Life Postulate."

All this cute Pikachu wants to do is dance centerstage with his fellow Pikachus at the The Pokemon World Festival 2017 in South Korea, but because of his pre-existing condition – deflating mid-performance – security swarms up and manhandles him off stage as if he is a ticking bomb. At around 4:30 the Pikachu looks hopeful as he tries to rejoin the other dancers, and almost makes it, but his luck runs out as a stagehand decides he's still not fit for the job.Thanks The Verge!

I have a column in today's International Business Times: Unchecked Surveillance Technology Is Leading Us Towards Totalitarianism, where I discuss this week's NYPL event with Edward Snowden and how mass surveillance connects to the themes in my novel Walkaway. (more…)

Students of Avondale High School in the Detroit neighborhood of Auburn, MI are currently sitting in in the hallways of their school to protest the announcement that 6 of their teachers were to be laid off. (more…)

Landon Meier, maker of fantastically realistic (and hyperrealistic) masks introduces us to a wonderfully weird little girl who visits us from the uncanny valley. (Stan Winston School via Laughing Squid)

The city of Flint, Michigan notoriously poisoned a generation of its children with lead in the water supply, having ignored and covered up reports from whistleblowers and denied complaints from residents. (more…)

With all the excitement/hype around the 20th anniversary of Radiohead's OK Computer, I was compelled to revisit Reggie Watts's 2012 brilliant performance of "Reggiohead" from his A "Live" in Central Park album.

Oskar Stalberg (previously) made Brick Block, a fun online 3D toy that lets you design surreal blocky houses. You can spin the scene to any degree and have it generate random houses. It's like the level editor for a Victorian-themed version of the classic cyberpunk game Syndicate.https://twitter.com/MLFrances/status/860328983539220480

Why do so many people just leave their shopping carts in the parking lot after unloading groceries instead of rolling them to the receptacles? Sure, one answer is laziness. But it's actually more interesting than that, involving what kind of cart user you are and how your motivation aligns with two general categories of social norms. You may be someone who always returns the cart, never returns it, only does so if it's convenience, feels pressure to return it from either a cart attendant or someone waiting to park in the spot where your cart is parked, you have children and they get a kick out of returning it. From Krystal D'Costa's "Anthropology in Practice" column in Scientific American:Social norms fall into two general categories. There are injunctive norms, which drive our responses based on our perception of how others will interpret our actions. This means that we're inclined to act in certain ways if we think people will think well or think poorly of us. And there are descriptive norms, where our responses are driven by contextual clues. This means we're apt to mimic behaviors of others—so what we see or hear or smell suggests the appropriate/accepted response or behavior that we should display.Supermarkets can try and guide our behavior with receptacles or cart attendants, but they’re competing with our own self-serving goals, which in this case may be staying dry, keeping an eye on our children, or simply getting home as quickly as possible, and we’re being guided by the ways others behave on top of that. These goals can override the norm because the support provided by the supermarket—ironically—resets the situation before complete chaos is unleashed with carts running rampant in the parking lot. An attendant will most likely step in before that happens. So if we apply this definition of norms to our classification of cart returners, the injunctive norm applies the greatest pressure to Returners and Pressure Returners. These folks are concerned by what others will think of them on some level, and want to adhere to social rule mandating that the carts are returned. Descriptive norms are at play for Convenience Returners and Pressure Returners who are more inclined to act if there is precedent. These folks are more likely to return a cart if there are no carts parked haphazardly. The Never Returners and the Child-Driven Returners are two example of goal-driven actors, which means that they’re responding to a more individual need. These two are interesting as they’re on opposing ends of the spectrum but still demonstrate the ways an individual goal can work for or against a norm....As a situation broaches on deviance, more people will trend toward disorder; once we have permission to pursue an alternative action, we will do so if it suits us. Not returning our shopping carts opens the door to throwing our circulars on the ground to parking haphazardly or in reserved spaces to other items that impact the quality of our experience at that establishment.Why Don't People Return Their Shopping Carts? (SciAm)(photo: Daniel Blume/Flickr)