Boing Boing

If you’ve ever worked on a video project or engineered a podcast and thought you’d make your own sound effects... how'd that go for ya? We assume it was a bigger undertaking than you’d probably bargained for.From using stalks of celery to replicate breaking tree limbs to frying bacon to reproduce the sound of rain, foley artists are just that — artists. And it’s no small feat to properly create, record, and mix all that sound into a realistic, balanced soundscape.Instead of going DIY, you can leave all of your sound effect worries up to the professionals with a one-year subscription to Soundsnap Stock Audio and Sounds.Soundsnap is 0ne of the most popular sound effects library online, offering more than 280,000 separate sound clips for unlimited downloading. That’s an archive more than twice as large as almost all the other major sfx options available. With clients like Disney, HBO, CBS, Pixar, and more using Soundsnap, you can feel confident they’ll have what you’re looking for.And these are not lukewarm, poorly recorded files recorded off YouTube. All of Soundsnap’s audio is recorded by professional sound designers and engineers, including a collection of working Hollywood pros responsible for working on films like “The Dark Knight,” “Tron Legacy,” “Baby Driver” and more. All it takes is a quick spin through Soundsnap’s library to understand the scope of their offerings. If your work needs a crack of thunder, they’ve got over 800 different variations to choose from. If you need the sounds of a restaurant to create ambiance in your production, there are over 650 to try. Read the rest

I posted this on Adafruit yesterday, but I've been digging it so much, I wanted to share it here on Boing Boing, too. This is eight hours of "perpetual rain" and Vangelis' "Blade Runner Blues," taken from the soundtrack to the film.It's gorgeous and relaxing music to work to, sleep to, or continuously wafting through the rooms and hallways of your under-quarantine hab unit.The channel this video is from has dozens of other ambient Blade Runner offerings (“’I’ve seen things …’ – Tears in Rain ambiance (1 hour),” “The ambient sounds of the city, 2019,” “Deckard’s apartment sounds (12 hours),” and many more.)Image: YouTube Read the rest

A 17-year-old boy from Tampa, Florida was arrested by the FBI, IRS, US Secret Service, and Florida law enforcement, who accuse the teenager of being the "mastermind" behind the Bitcoin scam Twitter hack that compromised the accounts of over a dozen famous people including Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, and President Obama.Here's the press release from Andrew H Warren, in the Office of the State Attorney 13th judicial circuit:Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office tapped to prosecute worldwide “Bit-Con” hack of prominent Twitter usersTampa, FL (July 31, 2020) — Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren has filed 30 felony charges against a Tampa resident for scamming people across America, perpetrating the “Bit-Con” hack of prominent Twitter accounts including Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Elon Musk on July 15, 2020.The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a complex nationwide investigation, locating and apprehending the suspect in Hillsborough County.“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here. This ‘Bit-Con’ was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that,” State Attorney Warren said.The investigation revealed REDACTED, 17, was the mastermind of the recent hack of Twitter. He was arrested in Tampa early on July 31. REDACTED’s scheme to defraud stole the identities of prominent people, posted messages in their names directing victims to send Bitcoin to accounts associated with REDACTED, and reaped more than $100,000 in Bitcoin in just one day. Read the rest

Three years ago, Ian Davis was diagnosed with a cancer that weakens the bones. Shortly after, the engineer had an accident in his machine shop that resulted in physicians amputating four fingers on his dominant hand. “When I was still in the hospital I started designing a prosthetic hand," Davis told KOBI News last year. "It was kind of my day job. That’s what I used to maintain my sanity.”Davis's work-in-progress is an elegant feat of engineering. Coincidentally though, this isn't new maker territory for him. Long before he lost his fingers; he built a prosthetic arm as a high school science project. You can follow the project's development on Davis's YouTube channel and Instagram. View this post on Instagram Out in the wild, figuring out different hand gestures. A post shared by Ian Davis (@acmeworksfab) on Jul 23, 2020 at 9:52pm PDT View this post on Instagram After many weeks of designing and prototyping, I finally have the splay feature pretty well dialed! There were points during this process that I was getting concerned I was chasing a frivolous function, but after using it for half a day so far, I have no doubt that it was completely worth the time and effort. A post shared by Ian Davis (@acmeworksfab) on Jul 1, 2020 at 10:52am PDT Read the rest

Astoria Bowl is a something of landmark in the Queens borough of New York City, a struggling business inside a massive building where time has seemingly stopped. Turtle Down Films created this lovely short documentary (shot before COVID-19) about this "anachronism, a vestige of the sport's mid-century heyday era... an oasis in the truest sense of the word, a place of pure recreation and levity in a city where life tends to be serious and weighty."This is A Place To Bowl. Read the rest

BetterBook is a notebook/sketchbook designed to match widescreen displays. The idea is you can take photos of it on your phone and it will do a better job of fitting on a screen. It comes in one of three types of paper -- dotted grid, standard grid, or blank. The notebook had a successful run on Indiegogo and is now available for pre-order. Read the rest

EndeavorRx is a first-person racing videogame designed to help children with ADHD and this summer, the FDA approved it as a "prescription treatment." Meanwhile, other researchers are developing videogames that can help lift depression and reduce anxiety by interrupting the feedback loops of negativity and fear. “It’s a well-known fact that so many mobile games use all sorts of psychological tricks to get people to give them money,” Harvard psychology postdoc Chelsey Wilks told IEEE Spectrum. “So we wanted to use the same exact psychological tricks, but to trick [users] into doing something that’s good for them.”From IEEE Spectrum:Boston-based Akili Interactive Labs, maker of [EndeavorRx], says its racer was originally licensed from the lab of Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco. The company touts four peer-reviewed studies (in PLOS One, The Lancet Digital Health, The Journal of Autism, and Developmental Disorders) as well as one paper in process as support for its claims that EndeavorRx significantly improves clinical markers of attention in patients with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).“EndeavorRx looks and feels like a traditional game, but it’s very different,” says Matt Omernick, Akili cofounder and the company’s chief creative officer. “EndeavorRx uses a video-game experience to present specific sensory stimuli and simultaneous motor challenges designed to target and activate the prefrontal cortex of the brain.... As a child progresses in game play, the technology is continuously measuring their performance and using adaptive algorithms to adjust the difficulty and personalize the treatment experience for each individual.” Read the rest

Cape sundews live in bogs and other locations lacking nutritious soil so they supplement their diet with insects. Watch the Deep Look video above to see how "they exude sweet, shimmering droplets from their tentacles to lure in unsuspecting insects. Once their prey is hopelessly stuck, they wrap it up and dissolve it for a tasty meal."More at Deep Look: "Cape Sundews Trap Bugs In A Sticky Situation" Read the rest

It’s summer. And this year, Europe and Disney World just aren’t really all that feasible as part of your travel plans.Yet especially with the last few months we’ve all endured, the need to get away and experience something new is like a raging fire in many of us. So if you can’t be around too many people these days, how about going where people ain’t?Camping in the great — and vast — outdoors might be just what you need to decompress a bit, so stock up on these 10 tents, hammock and camping essentials, all at savings up to 60 percent, to make your time away as fulfilling as you need it to be.Nylon Mesh Hammock - $17.99; originally $29Sleeping on the ground is never comfortable, so this premium nylon and mesh hammock is ideal for sleeping under the stars without grimacing your way through the whole night. Portable and lightweight at less than 8 ounces, it holds up to 220 pounds comfortably for a relaxing afternoon swing or a full night’s slumber.Foldable Nylon Hammock - $34.99; originally $49With durable nylon construction and anchored by twin metal carabiners, this beast can support up to 485 pounds of weight. It’s also extremely versatile, foldable into a carrying back that even includes a strap for improved portability when you’re hiking to your campsite.Natural Cotton Rope Hammock - $79.99; originally $199Hand-dyed and woven from 100 percent natural cotton with soft to the touch materials, the Yellow Leaf hammock comes from a thicker weaving yarn, so you can hang with no flipping or even those waffle print markings all over your body. Read the rest

This video starts by helping you visualize 1 million. A thick book has about 1 million alphanumeric characters. It moves to 1 billion -- it would take 32 years to count to 1 billion. A trillion bacteria can fit in a single cube of sugar. About 1 quadrillion ants live on earth. The diameter of the Milky Way is about 1 quintillion kilometers. A glass of water contains about 10 septillion water molecules. A googol is 1 with 100 zeros following it. There are a googol possible hypothetical chess games. The video then shows a machine created by an artist that has a 100 of 10-to-1 reduction gears. The first gear needs to be rotated a googol number of times for the last gear to rotate once. Read the rest

The stock market hasn't crashed yet, but a Bloomberg headline reveals what's really happening in the United States: "Almost 30 Million in U.S. Didn’t Have Enough to Eat Last Week. The US GDP fell by 9.5% in the second quarter. The New York Times says "The percentage decrease in GDP is by far the biggest on record."The chart below, which shows the rise and fall of the GDP since the late 1940s reveals the enormity of the decline:Trump responded to the news by giving people something else to talk about:With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020 Read the rest

Spoken Word with Electronics is an audio series delivering to you a two side recording of unusual stories paired with vintage modular electronic soundsGreetings, all. This is the final set of SWWE for a few weeks. This has been a crazy experience to put together an hour-long show every week for around twenty episodes, and I need a little time off to regroup, record some new music, and write out a few other pieces. This final episode catches me up, personally, with posting a bunch of work, too. Much of this show originated as a proposed album series on writers I love. It became a weekly show, partly out of Covid changing my focus and time. But there have been a number of writers I love included here from those earliest recordings: from David Berman, Henry Miller, Kathy Acker, e.e. cummings, Paul Krassner, and even performers like Mel Blanc or Belle Barth.The final piece from those original set of music are two tracks I'm posting today. It's a tribute to Anne Sexton, and I suppose a subheading could be "Romancing our worst intentions". — I think about Anne Sexton a lot. I think about her from her work, which has an indelible effect on anyone who ever reads it, to the final beautiful book title, "The Awful Rowing Toward God", and to her poised and amazing speaking voice. Few poets speak their work as well as Anne Sexton, which I think you'll hear in the two tribute pieces in the playlist. Read the rest

Thomas Renoldner's polarizing short film DON'T KNOW WHAT has been on the festival circuit, but since all that has moved online during the pandemic, you can now watch it on Vimeo. Those with sensitivity to strobing or flashing should use caution.There's probably not much middle ground, as it's kind of a love-it or hate-it sort of work. Via the artist:Employing the method of single frame editing, primarily focused on sound, the realistic film image transforms into a surreal, structuralist and finally even abstract film. It creates a musical composition while experimenting with the human voice and transforming language into sound and music. DONT KNOW WHAT questions classical rules of different film genres by combining elements of avant-garde film / video art and entertainment cinema.Image: Vimeo / Thomas Renoldner Read the rest

Every company needs to have a firm grasp on their bottom line. But while every company used to have their official ledger books or one of those old-school physical world accountings of a company’s every asset and expenditure, many firms don’t work that way anymore. Oh, they all still balance their “books” (if they want to survive, that is), but many of those full accountancies are now solely housed on the web.With a one-year subscription to QuickBooks Essential Plan, you’ll not only be able to turn your business into a paperless environment, but you’ll also get all the tools needed to make all of your business financials accessible 24/7/365 from anywhere.For the past three decades, QuickBooks has been the gold standard for small business accounting -- and now, this package will help any company, especially those who do plenty of invoicing, get all their business affairs in perfect order, all online.QuickBooks allows you and up to two others full access to everything, including all the features and streamlined processes to help turn your organization into a machine of efficiency without dominating your time.With QuickBooks, you can track income and expenses, send invoices, accept payments, send estimates, organize receipts, manage bills and perform all the tasks it takes for a full up-to-the-minute understanding of your company’s fiscal health.In addition to features like the ability to fire off multiple payments to multiple vendors all at once or creating your own digital checks, QuickBooks is also full of reporting modes so you can get a look at every aspect of your company’s performance. Read the rest

For all its downsides, you have to admit all this extra time spent at home has to have boosted your creativity. More time to sit and think means more time to develop new original ideas. Trust us, you wouldn’t be the first to find that a global emergency has fueled the need to start a great new creative project.A book. You need to write a book. However, just the thought of taking on a project like that is enough to make you break out in hives. First, the process of bringing your thoughts and concepts together into an actual written manuscript is daunting, to say the least. Then once it’s finished...well, then what?It’s no cause for alarm. In fact, the training in a package like The Creative Writing eBook Self-Publishing Bundle can efficiently lead you by the hand through the entire book writing process, from ideation and writing to publication to bringing that work to the public.This collection features 10 courses that should help you get a strong idea of some of the most popular and profitable routes for authoring your own eBook.If your work is non-fiction, you’ve got plenty of work to do before you even write word no. 1. In Novel Writing 101, students examine the essential phases of writing a novel, from research through starting your draft to the ongoing editing and polishing phases. The Scrivener Simplified course can help with that, showing how one published author creates a path for you to follow to use the popular writing software to gather notes, outline, write, rewrite and edit your work. Read the rest

US government officials told the Associated Press today that three different English-language websites are spreading disinformation about the novel coronavirus directly from Russia.Is one of them white house dot gov?No names given yet.WASHINGTON (AP) — US government officials tell AP that Russia is using 3 English-language websites to spread coronavirus disinformation.— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) July 28, 2020 Read the rest

The document says “Defendant Shall Not Attend Protests.” In Portland, getting out of jail now means relinquishing constitutionally protected rights.“This is what it looks like when you're released from jail on federal charges...on the condition that you stop showing up to protest,” writes Dara Lind at ProPublica.A dozen protesters facing federal charges are barred from going to “public gatherings” as a condition of release from jail — a tactic one expert describes in Dara's reporting as “sort of hilariously unconstitutional.”This is what it looks like when you're released from jail on federal charges...on the condition that you stop showing up to protests. https://t.co/PZ1d4pr7x5 pic.twitter.com/6oi4LggnLD— Dara Lind (@DLind) July 28, 2020Alternatively: This is what it looks like when the magistrate judge _handwrites an addition to your conditions of release_ so that you can't attend protests. pic.twitter.com/tEyi1HLcVi— Dara Lind (@DLind) July 28, 2020Excerpt:Federal authorities are using a new tactic in their battle against protesters in Portland, Oregon: arrest them on offenses as minor as “failing to obey” an order to get off a sidewalk on federal property — and then tell them they can’t protest anymore as a condition for release from jail.Legal experts describe the move as a blatant violation of the constitutional right to free assembly, but at least 12 protesters arrested in recent weeks have been specifically barred from attending protests or demonstrations as they await trials on federal misdemeanor charges.“Defendant may not attend any other protests, rallies, assemblies or public gathering in the state of Oregon,” states one “Order Setting Conditions of Release” for an accused protester, alongside other conditions such as appearing for court dates. Read the rest

WATCH: During Bill Barr's hearing on Capitol Hill today, Rep. Pramila Jayapal tore him a new one.“When White men with swastikas storm a government building with guns, there is no need for the president to activate you, because they're getting the president's personal agenda done.” Watch.From PBS NewsHour:Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., asked Attorney General William Barr about what she characterized as the unequal treatment of protesters against the excessive use of force by police versus "right-wing extremists threatening to lynch a governor.""Apparently the president believes you can be activated to implement the president's agenda and dominate American people exercising First Amendment rights if they are protesting against him. But let's look at how you respond when the protesters are supporters of the president," she said.“Are you aware that these [stay-at-home] protesters called for the [Michigan] governor to be lynched, shot and beheaded?” Jayapal asked.Saying he did not know about the Michigan protests, Barr added that "there are a lot of protests around the United States."Jayapal questioned Barr during a committee hearing examining whether the attorney general has inappropriately politicized the Justice Department. Democrats launched the investigation earlier this year over Barr’s handling of the case against Roger Stone, a close ally of President Donald Trump, whose 40-month prison sentence was commuted by the president this month. Democrats have since expanded their probe to several subsequent episodes in which they believe Barr is working for Trump’s own benefit.Rep. Pramila Jayapal eviscerated Barr for his unequal response to BLM vs Michigan protesters: "When White men with swastikas storm a government building with guns, there is no need for the president to activate you, because they're getting the president's personal agenda done." Read the rest

"I turned Nirvana's "Come As You Are" into an old-fashioned swing tune and now I hate myself," writes the creator. Don't beat yourself up too much; old-timey Nirvana is kinda catchy! Read the rest

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Iskander Utebayev (@bat.not.bad) on Jul 25, 2020 at 5:11pm PDT Designer Iskander Utebayev did a fantastic job making a concept video that imagines what Apple's forthcoming alternate reality eyeglasses might look like. You put them on, and a monitor-like interface appears before you. This would do away with the need for an LCD display. Utebayev even included a virtual keyboard, which would probably be hard to use for writing a lot of text, but adequate for inserting emoticons, as shown in this short video.Image: Instagram Read the rest

Twitter today blocked Donald Trump Jr. from tweeting for 12 hours after he posted quack conspiracy theories about the Covid crisis. Trump Jr. posted a video encouraging people to take hydroxyquinone, a potentially dangerous drug the FDA says does nothing to improve Covid outcomes, and accusing virus chief Dr. Anthony Fauci of suppressing proof it works.Trump Jr. was not suspended from Twitter, as some on the right are falsely claiming.Donald Trump Jr will still be able to browse Twitter and send direct messages in the interim.Twitter told the BBC: "We are taking action in line with our policy."The main US social media sites have all taken measures to crack down on misinformation about the coronavirus. Read the rest

Trump and Junior are urging their social media followers to heed the Covid-19 advice of Dr. Stella Immanuel, a Houston pediatrician who has determined that many diseases are caused by sex with demons and/or alien DNA. The Daily Beast reported that Dr. Immanuel "praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus."From The Daily Beast:In sermons posted on YouTube and articles on her website, Immanuel claims that medical issues like endometriosis, cysts, infertility, and impotence are caused by sex with “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives”—a phenomenon Immanuel describes essentially as witches and demons having sex with people in a dreamworld.“They are responsible for serious gynecological problems,” Immanuel said. “We call them all kinds of names—endometriosis, we call them molar pregnancies, we call them fibroids, we call them cysts, but most of them are evil deposits from the spirit husband,” Immanuel said of the medical issues in a 2013 sermon. “They are responsible for miscarriages, impotence—men that can’t get it up.”In related news, Twitter penalized Junior for posting hydroxychloroquine misinformation. From The Washington Post:Twitter said it ordered the president’s son to delete the misleading tweet and said it would “limit some account functionality for 12 hours.”The tweet, which featured a viral video showing a group of doctors making misleading and false claims about the coronavirus pandemic, was directly tweeted by Trump Jr.‘s account. That contrasts with his father, who retweeted multiple clips of the same video to his 84.2 million followers Monday night. Read the rest

SOUND GUY: Didnt mean nothin by it.BARDEM: Didn't mean nothing by it. Read the rest

Comedian and filmmaker Matthew Highton recreates classic TV show title sequences using only stock footage. The results remind me of the Seinfeld episode "The Bizarro Jerry." Above, Highton's take on Friends. Below, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and, yes, Ducktales.(via Kottke) Read the rest

David Hines, 29, received $3.9 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans, a COVID-19 relief program for businesses. So naturally he spent $300,000 on a 2020 Lamborghini Huracán. According to WFTS news, police charged Hines with "one count of bank fraud, one count of making false statements to a financial institution and one count of engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds." Sweet ride, dude. From WFTS:The complaints allege that Hines asked for around $13.5 million in PPP loans through applications to an insured financial institution for different companies. He received $3.9 million in PPP loans.[...]The complaint says Hines submitted fraudulent loan applications that made numerous false and misleading statements about the companies' payroll expenses.(Thanks to our Florida bureau chief, Charles Pescovitz!)image: Jakub Halun (CC BY-SA 4.0) Read the rest

This grim yet amusing description of the statistical realities of flight safety might save more lives than the usual snoozefest. To quote YouTube commenter Alan Macphail: "100% of accidents happen within the last 8 minutes of the flight." Read the rest

Senator David Perdue (R-GA) posted a campaign ad featuring an image of his Jewish opponent, Jon Ossoff, digitally manipulated to have a larger nose. Once the timeworn antisemitic stereotype was noticed, he was forced to retract the ad, but Perdue is refusing to apologize for it. Matt Novak summarizes the imbroglio:The photoshopped ad, first reported by Forward, featured photos of Ossoff along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who’s also Jewish, and included text that reads “Democrats are trying to buy Georgia!” along with “Schumer’s SUPER PAC is spending $3 million in Georgia for Jon Ossoff!”The original unedited photo was taken for Reuters by photojournalist Chris Aluka Berry in 2017 after Ossoff lost an election for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. Perdue’s campaign denied that the edit had been intentional and sought to distance itself from the unnamed designer who made the ad.Purdue claims it was an "accident" caused by a filter, but was unable to explain exactly how that happened.https://twitter.com/ossoff/status/1287907702660829186 Read the rest

Twitter removed two rule-breaking Trump tweets last night. One touted the conspiracy theory that hydroxychloroquine "cures" Covid19 and that Dr. Anthony Fauci suppressed it, whereas the other promoted a story that falsely claimed that a protestor shot dead at a BLM rally had fired the first shots. Beyond the automated notifications at the top of Trump's Twitter feed, the company did not release a statement on the deletions: a new normal, perhaps, as their regularity increases. Read the rest

NBC News has a recent piece on, "the hidden hand that uses money to reform troubled police departments" — essentially, looking at the private industry solutions to public law enforcement problems. It's a worthwhile read if you're interested in police reform like me. While it doesn't go too in-depth, it does provide a glimpse at the ways that the existence (read: threat) of private insurers have helped to mitigate some potential police misconduct … and also how that can totally backfire and end up sapping resources away from a town — especially when the lawsuit and insurance coverage means that offending cops still keep their jobs..For insurers, police reform is about money, not morality. Just as State Farm wants to prevent car crashes, a liability insurer wants to prevent lawsuits.When the customers are police departments, "loss prevention" means teaching police departments how to reduce risk. In the first in-depth study of how insurers affect police, Rappaport surveyed the industry's carrots and sticks, from policy audits to virtual reality use-of-force simulators. Often, insurers educate departments about risky topics like vehicle pursuits and strip searches. Many do site visits and go on ride-alongs, keeping "watch lists" for departments with histories of costly lawsuits, according to the study. Rappaport's favorite example is the insurer that sends representatives incognito to hang out at "cop bars" to observe the police culture."Insurers are clearly affecting the behavior of police departments they insure, for better or for worse," Rappaport said. "They are capable of doing it for the better and sometimes more efficiently than governmental agencies and prosecutors." Read the rest

Everything is awful in this hellscape reality so you may as well enjoy some mustard, relish, and processed meatstuff with your marshmallow-lathered cereal.https://thevulgarchef.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Automatic.mp4Hot Dog Rice Krispies Treat, Hellooooooooo Summer [The Vulgar Chef] Read the rest

YouTuber Greg Stone has an in-depth interview with ocean explorer Fabien Cousteau, who just unveiled his design for his next long-term undersea habitat called Proteus.Greg is a longtime friend of Cousteau, grandson of the famed environmentalist and explorer Jacques Cousteau. Via Greg:Greg Stone spends time with aquanaut Fabien Cousteau, an old friend and dive partner, about his passion for the exploration of the undersea world. From his next underwater habitat Proteus to memories of his previous underwater immersion, Mission 31, Fabien engages us with his unique history being part of the Cousteau legacy. Join us with a candid and interesting conversation between two of the ocean’s biggest advocates.This isn't just some pipe dream. Cousteau lived for 31 days underwater in 2014, breaking his grandfather's 1963 record of 30 days.Image: YouTube / The Sea Has Many Voices Read the rest

This is a pretty cool — and historically important — project from the Boston Public Library!The Boston Public Library's Anti-Slavery collection—one of the largest and most important collections of abolitionist material in the United States—contains roughly 40,000 pieces of correspondence, broadsides, newspapers, pamphlets, books, and memorabilia from the 1830s through the 1870s.[…]We need your help to turn our collection of handwritten correspondence between anti-slavery activists in the 19th century into texts that can be more easily read and researched by students, teachers, historians, and big data applications.It's not paid work, but if you're historically curious, they welcome volunteers to comb through their online archives to help digitize everything line-by-line. It looks like a pretty straight-forward process, although it doesn't work on mobile devices or tablets.Anti-Slavery Manuscripts [Boston Public Library] Read the rest

YouTuber Macrofying zooms in on common objects to the microscopic level. It's fun to guess what each one is before the camera zooms out.Here's a zoom in on a coin, which includes some VFX enhancements:The channel owner made a tongue-in-cheek "making of" video:Image: YouTube / Macrofying Read the rest

It’s bad enough when regular food stuff gets stale after a couple days sitting on your kitchen counter. But when infused edibles start losing their freshness...well, heck, edibles aren’t cheap!If you’re going to do edibles, you may as well do them right, which means having the equipment to make sure your product remains both tasty and appealing while also staying out of the hands of anybody in your household who shouldn’t be partaking.The Herbal Infuser came up with a smart, practical answer to the freshness question with their Mighty Safe Vacuum Vault.Just like a vault stores and protects your valuables, so does the Mighty Safe stand guard over the quality and longevity of your food or herbs. Crafted from stainless steel, this food-grade storage container employs a reusable vacuum seal system that locks in odors and seals in freshness.Just put your product inside this 0.7-liter container, lock on your lid, hit the pump about 20 or 30 times to suck out all the air, and your edibles and herbs will stay fresh for up to 15 days. There’s even a color indicating nipple that lets you know when you’ve got a secure vacuum seal. The Mighty Safe makes it possible to pace yourself without feeling the need to scarf down the whole edible in one sitting so it doesn’t go bad. It also keeps your product safely encased, protected from sunlight and completely out of the way of potentially curious animals or children who might be enticed by unattended cookie or brownie. Read the rest

Impeached president Donald Trump today tweeted an imaginary law that does not exist. Anarchists, Agitators or Protestors who vandalize or damage our Federal Courthouse in Portland, or any Federal Buildings in any of our Cities or States, will be prosecuted under our recently re-enacted Statues & Monuments Act. MINIMUM TEN YEARS IN PRISON. Don’t do it! @DHSgovThere is no such law.It doesn't exist.Complete fiction.Here's the original tweet.Anarchists, Agitators or Protestors who vandalize or damage our Federal Courthouse in Portland, or any Federal Buildings in any of our Cities or States, will be prosecuted under our recently re-enacted Statues & Monuments Act. MINIMUM TEN YEARS IN PRISON. Don’t do it! @DHSgov— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2020 Read the rest

CBD-infused coffee almost sounds like the premise for a bad sitcom episode. But seriously...isn’t it almost comical to consider what happens when the go-go kick of high-octane caffeine slams headlong into the calming, tranquil effects of CBD? The reality is, it actually can be the best of both worlds situation for many CBD coffee fans. A morning cup not only kickstarts the day and propels you along like traditional coffee, but thanks to CBD, without any of the jitters or headaches that some encounter. Plus, you still get all the pain relief, anti-anxiety, and other medicinal advantages that CBD provides. Since it’s definitely worth trying for yourself, you can start with some quality by sampling this Bean and Bud by Allo Rise blend.Made from 100 percent Arabica coffee beans, this combination of elite beans with CBD is an exquisite balancing act. In order to maintain responsible and sustainable practices, Bean and Bud coffees are sourced directly from farmers, who actually use their own unique natural processes to infuse the coffee with industrial CBD without losing the grain’s genuine properties.This African Essential Blend Coffee is rich, yet bold, with notable hints of raspberry and dark chocolate with no artificial flavors or additives. Meanwhile, the 8-ounce bag contains 320 mg of CBD, which many users swear serves as a near miracle elixir, providing relief for anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, body pain, and even a better night’s sleep.If you’re already someone who makes daily Starbucks runs or appreciates the soothing properties of CBD, this Bean and Bud blend might be the perfect way to see how those two worlds work together to help you navigate through your day. Read the rest

Arkansas GOP state senator Jason Rapert previously tweeted about "liberal quacks" who "keep spreading fear" and who are "trying to quarantine the healthy."What do you see here #Arkansas and #America? An empty airport - I see real trouble. Get this nation back to work & stop trying to quarantine the healthy. You liberal quacks keep spreading fear & the nation will be hobbled economically for years. #WAKEUP #COVID19 @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/QqeyeSToOO— Jason Rapert (@jasonrapert) May 16, 2020The infamously anti-gay senator is now posting from the hospital, after coming down with Coronavirus disease. Read the rest

Smartphones have relegated iconic red British telephone boxes to things of the past, but they are being preserved and repurposed. In fact, Yorkshire now has more repurposed boxes than working phone boxes.Via The Yorkshire Post:Across Yorkshire, 410 phone boxes have now been taken over and transformed, into libraries, art galleries, museums and stores, with just 401 still traditionally taking calls.[...] In Stutton near Tadcaster, the decommissioned box was converted into a Christmas card last year, passing on festive messages to neighbours and friends.There is an art gallery in Settle, while York’s oldest phone box on Duncombe Place now houses a defibrillator.This fellow in London works at one turned into Britain's smallest coffee shop:Photo by Mike from Pexels Read the rest

In decades past, logo redesigns were usually worse than the original. But in recent years logo redesigns seem to have gotten a lot better. Case in point, the new logo for the Rangers Football Club. It's bolder and easier to read but retains the overall feel of the original logo. Even Rangers fans are happy with the redesign if the YouTube comments on this video are representative of popular sentiment. Read the rest

I don't use eBay as much as I used to, but one of my daughters uses it frequently to buy and sell Japanese collectibles. So far she hasn't been scammed, but eBay is well known for being full of sleazy cons. This MakeUseOf video quickly goes through 10 Common scams on eBay. The scam that stood out to me was the "buyer claims broken item" scam. It happens when you ship an item, say a Nintendo Switch, to the buyer and the buyer then claims the item is broken, sending a photo to eBay of a different Switch with a broken screen or missing joystick. The way to prevent this scam is to note to the serial number of the item that you are selling. Read the rest

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that his employees will work from home until at least next July, reports The Wall Street Journal. According to Reuters, "Google had earlier said it would begin reopening more offices globally as early as June this year, but most Google employees would likely work from home until the end of this year." Read the rest

Many videos describing quantum computers try to distill and oversimplify everything. Thoughty's takes its time and gives more historical and theoretical context than most.Because it does take a while to get into the subject, here's a shorter explainer by MIT:Today's computers use bits—a stream of electrical or optical pulses representing 1s or 0s. Everything from your tweets and e-mails to your iTunes songs and YouTube videos are essentially long strings of these binary digits.Quantum computers, on the other hand, use qubits, which are typically subatomic particles such as electrons or photons. Generating and managing qubits is a scientific and engineering challenge. Some companies, such as IBM, Google, and Rigetti Computing, use superconducting circuits cooled to temperatures colder than deep space. Others, like IonQ, trap individual atoms in electromagnetic fields on a silicon chip in ultra-high-vacuum chambers. In both cases, the goal is to isolate the qubits in a controlled quantum state.The processing power possible through these controlled qubits will make today's fastest computers look positively archaic.Image: YouTube / Thoughty2 Read the rest

Ellie Marie Whitby, 19, has come clean about a Bigfoot hoax she staged in the forests around Runcorn, England, southeast of Liverpool. Whitby admitted to shooting a series of videos and uploading them to Bigfoot pages on Facebook. But if she was behind the camera, who was wearing the furry suit? "I’m still not 100% sure how I managed to convince my mum to dress up as Bigfoot and chase me around the woods but she’s quite crazy, like me," Whitby told The Echo newspaper. Now, residents on the town's Facebook page are reporting their sightings of Whitby and her mom!images: Ellie Marie Whitby Read the rest

YouTuber Anton Petrov summarizes the latest research that suggests a fungus found thriving in Chernobyl could be used to block radiation in spacesuits, extraterrestrial structures, and more, based on successful small-scale tests at the International Space Station.The work at the ISS suggests that a 21 cm (~9-inch) layer of fungus could provide complete blockage of cosmic radiation. The good news is that small quantities can be transported, then grown on site. Also, if the fungus shield gets damaged, it can regenerate.Scientists are looking into all kinds of biological substances that can block ionizing radiation, including one produced by humans: melanin.Image: YouTube / Anton Petrov Read the rest

Sinclair Broadcasting, the massively influential right-wing media conglomerate that cleverly buys up TV stations in local markets in order to push conservative propaganda, plans to push a national news segment featuring a video with Judy Mikovits, the woman behind the quickly-popularized but swiftly-debunked Plandemic YouTube conspiracy theory. Media Matters was first to report:Baseless conspiracy theories about the novel coronavirus and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent member of the White House coronavirus task force, found a platform on the new episode of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s America This Week. The episode is available for streaming on Sinclair-owned or -operated television station websites and is set to air on dozens of Sinclair stations over the weekend.Toward the end of his show, host Eric Bolling interviewed Judy Mikovits of the conspiracy theory video Plandemic and her attorney Larry Klayman about their plans to sue Fauci. He introduced the prerecorded interview by referring to her as “an expert in virology” who previously “worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci.”[…]Bolling immediately followed this interview with an interview of Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier to respond to these claims -- despite her own record of misleading audiences about the coronavirus. Saphier labeled those who believe Fauci created the coronavirus as “conspiracy theorists,” saying “it’s highly unlikely” and that she thought “Dr. Fauci in no way, shape, or form has been involved in the manufacturing of this virus.” But in the same breath, she also suggested it’s likely that the virus was “man-made within a laboratory.” Read the rest

Tracy Kiss calls herself a "natural vegan bodybuilder." Which is confusing, because semen is definitely derived from animals. But, Kiss insists, it's also an essential multivitamin that helps keep her in shape — and, perhaps most crucially, boosts her immune system to prevent infection by the novel coronavirus. From The Sun:The personal trainer has also been putting the product on her skin, which she dubs "nature's multivitamin", as part of healthcare routine for more than three years.She reckons it's packed with vitamin C, calcium and magnesium - so is urging people to use semen to keep healthy during the pandemic.Mum-of-two Tracey, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, said: "It isn't for everyone but it is packed full of vitamins and I haven't had a cold or flu ever since drinking it in 2017 - I also put it on my face to clear up my skin."The purity of it is just wonderful."To be clear, there is no scientific evidence to support Kiss's theory. I'm fairly certain there's no evidence to support the idea that semen is vegan friendly, either, but what do I know. Read the rest

Craft Workbench posted a video of a tiny finger-mounted crossbow, proving that it can assassinate a pickle even after being submerged in water. Read the rest

Johnny Harris took on the brain-melting task of truly understanding the argument that the earth is flat, including the modern conspiracy theory that the military guards ice walls circling earth's perimeter. Hoo boy.The truly terrifying stat in the video is that a recent poll found only two in three people age 18-24 have always believed the world is round:Image: YouTube / Johnny Harris Read the rest

In this footage from 1985 Richard Harrison classic Blood Debts, our hero defeats his adversary and we learn that "Mark Collins, age 45, gave himself up to the authorities after the incident. he is currently serving a life sentence".Here's more from Blood Debts, a very good movie:You can buy the VHS on Amazon, and you should, because that is the only format that does the material justice. Read the rest

I bought the Fire TV Stick 4K (very cheap using promo code 4KFIRETV) and it is so much better than the old model we'd been using. It has voice control so you don't have to use the remote to search. one character at a time. for shows and movies. The remote also has on-off and volume switches for the TV, so you can put the TV remote away. It is also much, much faster than the old Fire TV Stick we were using. App and shows load in a fraction of the time. If you have an older Fire TV Stick, this upgrade is well worth getting. Read the rest