The other day, I retweeted a post from my own band about a collaborative playlist of songs about conspiracy theories. It seemed like a fun promotional exercise, ya know?What's your favorite song about #conspiracytheories? ⠀Add your favorites tunes about the #illuminati or #911truthers or #UFOs or #Qanon or whatever other weird shit you're into to our #playlist: https://t.co/BhcRmZJZqP⠀We've already got @therentals @nathanleighsays and more! pic.twitter.com/3v7YVagByK— The Roland High Life has a new album coming out?! (@RolandHighLife) July 14, 2020A friend of mine responded with something much more surprising: the revelation that Exxon Corporation released an album of showtunes in 1976. I certainly knew that the oil industry pumped money into all kinds of strange avenues of propaganda, but this was not something I had ever heard about or expected. Even more bizarre is that they weren't the only oil company to get into the musical business, either.There's not a lot of information available about these musicals, but the best I found came from a Tiny Mixtapes blog:Produced to entertain, inform, and mildly indoctrinate employees at the 1976 Exxon Convention, The Spirit of Achievement is something of a pro-corporate conservative manifesto set to music. As you can guess, it’s not a project steeped in subtlety. Tracks like “America’s Way” gives a full-throated endorsement of laissez-faire economics with lines like “America’s way, the free enterprise way / that’s what got us here today.” Backed by a triumphant slice of sunshine pop, the Singers deliver these hummable slogans with a straight-forward sincerity. Read the rest

I installed the GPT-2 language model 0n my laptop last year and I've been fascinated by the text it produces from a prompt. Here's an example. I entered the following as prompt:Pennsylvania is sometimes referred to as "East Utah" in regards to its legendarily restrictive alcohol laws. Where else in the United States were you forced to buy a minimum of 24 beers from a 'Beer Distributor' if you wanted to take a drink home? Until recently, one could buy no beer from grocery stores or gas stations--just bars (and bar prices) or a box of two dozen from the nearest opaque-windowed distributor.Here's what GPT-2 generated in response:What's more, Pennsylvania's beer laws are still considered fairly liberal by comparison to other states. The minimum age for buying beer in Pennsylvania is 21, and if you've been drinking in a bar for more than two years, you can get a free beer. If you've been driving drunk for more than six months, you can get a $100 fine and six (or 24) months in jail.(I was drinking in a bar, so I didn't get two months for driving drunk, but I was being a piece of shit, and I wasn't about to admit it.)Not only did the laws make it pretty easy to get drunk in Pennsylvania, but they did it with a wink and a nod to a tradition that dates back to the days of our ancestors.As the "Beer Distributor Law" of 1848 explained, the original "Beer Distributor" was a man named Samuel P. Read the rest

Chalk washes away with the next rain, and there's plenty of both in Washington state. But that's not stopping authorities in Selah, Wa., from threatening people who chalk "Black Lives Matter" on sidewalks with a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.As the 10 protesters covered parts of their artwork with their bodies, a city worker walked between them, spraying away the exposed parts of their messages and sending tubs of chalk tumbling into the street. The young activists, wet from the washing, watched in silence and held up signs that were outside the reach of the pressure washer.“Hate has no home in Selah,” one of them said.The standoff last week was just one of a growing series of conflicts between conservative leaders of Selah, a community with only a few dozen Black residents, and young people from a wide range of backgrounds who believe the city is long overdue for a conversation about race.The problem, of course, is that authorities aren't much interested in conversation. Read the rest

YouTuber Chico Roze and friends have taken OutKast's 2003 hip-hop hit "Hey Ya!" into the age of coronavirus with their parody song, "Ro-Na." Song starts around the 1:11 mark.Thanks, Simon!screengrab via Chico Roze/YouTube Read the rest

Audrey Di Niambil belts out the anti-police brutality anthem "Killing in the Name" with aplomb in this delightful acoustic cover of the RATM classic.The song is getting a lot of play this year. Here's the original, which also never gets old:Image: YouTube / Paradigmaestro Read the rest

Intelligence is a surprisingly difficult thing to define. Kurzgesagt jumps into the debate with an interesting overview of where intelligence begins. Is a slime mold intelligent? Are plants intelligent? They don't really go too deep into human intelligence, but it's something I know a lot about it from my tour of duty in the Wikipedia wars on articles covering intelligence. The most interesting work to me was that of Howard Gardner, who proposed that humans have multiple intelligences. Most intelligence tests only measure a couple of them. He proposed eight kinds that meet his criteria for what constitutes human intelligence:musical-rhythmicvisual-spatialverbal-linguisticlogical-mathematicalbodily-kinestheticinterpersonalintrapersonalnaturalisticImage: YouTube / Kurzgesagt Read the rest

"I believe I have created one of the smallest working miniature trebuchets I have ever seen," writes Alex Presle. "It launches items up to 10 ft!"The model, which Presle sells directly on Amazon, measures 4.9 inches by 3.75 inches and is 3 inches tall at rest, weighs half a pound, and is designed to be easy to assemble.It's a well-designed and crafted mechanical toy; great to display basic principle of mechanical energy; fantastic gift for people you love. Many people bought this machine as gift to families, fathers, teachers, friends, boyfriends and very rarely will this machine fail to cheer them up! It's made of aluminum, except for the steel counterweight. Here's video of it in action:Mini Desktop Trebuchet [Amazon] Read the rest

I have a friend who was born in the Czech Republic, and moved to the US as a toddler. After Trump was elected, she was surprised to find letter in the mail from ICE asking her to confirm her lawful presence in the country — for the first time in 35 years.I have another friend who was born in China and adopted by American parents as a newborn. The same thing happened.Another friend of mine was fortunate enough to avoid this fate, because after 35 years in the United States — ten of which we'd been friends — he had finally formalized his citizenship. I remember the shock and double-take that fell across my face in 2014 when I learned that he hadn't been a citizen after all this time. He had moved to the US from Argentina as a toddler, and though his presence remained legal for those 35 years, he hadn't done anything to formalize his citizenship until after his father passed away.I thought of these friends as I read this New York Times article about an adopted woman who is married with two children, and recently discovered — much to her surprise, and by no fault of her own — that her presence isn't lawful.It was on the eve of getting married in 2012 that she realized there was something amiss in her all-American upbringing. Adopted as an infant from Mexico, she discovered that what she thought was a minor mix-up in her paperwork was something else entirely. Read the rest

If you want to be a doctor, your path is relatively clear. You go to school, study the ways of the human body, understand the medical steps needed to fix it, graduate, then start practicing your craft. But if you want to be an artist, your course forward isn’t quite so well defined. Art is so subjective that it’s difficult to know what processes you must follow to develop your talent. Different voices can differ wildly on whether art school is essential or if you have to specialize in a certain genre. And most importantly, you’ll likely ask the same question over and over: Am I good enough?The training in the Pencil Kings Ultimate Character Drawing and Design Course Bundle can go a long way toward answering that very question.Created by Canadian artist Mitch Bowler, Pencil Kings is an art education system developed by artists for artists. Rather than getting bogged down in dead ends and self-doubt, this program is devised to methodically train anyone with some talent and ambition to become a working artist.Bowler assembled a talented roster of instructors to teach Pencil Kings courses, artists with experience working at studios in the highest echelon of the business like Marvel, Warner Bros., Dreamworks, Sony, EA, Activision and more.Over 11 basic to advanced courses, Pencil Kings students learn pragmatic art techniques in a simple, tangible, and applicable manner as their confidence and skill levels grow by the day.Unlike programs that take a scattershot approach to art training, Pencil Kings courses focus on a particular skillset, layout steps from one to 100 and beyond, then lead you through accomplishing each step. Read the rest

“Hospitals have been ordered to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all patient information to a central database in Washington, raising questions about transparency.”The Trump administration is ordering hospitals around America to bypass the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and send COVID-19 info to a database that is not open to the public, with access to reporters and researchers unlikely and unclear.Here's the official order. Beginning on Wednesday, hospitals are told they must send all Covid-19 patient information to a central database in Washington, rather than the CDC. This is highly unusual, and the New York Times reports “The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.” From Sheryl Gay Stolberg at the New York Times:The new instructions were posted recently in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. From now on, the department — not the C.D.C. — will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.Officials say the change will streamline data gathering and assist the White House coronavirus task force in allocating scarce supplies like personal protective gear and remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the virus. But the Health and Human Services database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on C.D.C. Read the rest

Police officers in Ft. Lauderdale detained a kangaroo that was bouncing around in a Florida neighborhood Thursday morning.From AP:After receiving a call about a kangaroo running loose, Fort Lauderdale police officers managed to capture him and place him in a squad car. The marsupial was taken to a barn where the agency keeps its horses.Anthony Macias, who claims to be the kangaroo’s owner, told the Sun Sentinel he had been hoping to bring his pet, Jack, home, but police told him the animal won’t be returned, because Fort Lauderdale isn’t zoned for kangaroos. Macias said he was at work when he learned Jack had escaped.“I was taking out the recycle bin, and I didn’t shut the gate all the way,” Macias said. “I guess he just punched his way through.”Jack was first spotted about a block from Macias’s home around 9:30 a.m., officials said. Officers followed him for three blocks before grabbing him. Macias said he got Jack about four months ago from a Davie man who was moving and did not want the animal anymore. Macias also has a Corgi named Max.Alright then.You can own a kangaroo in Florida.Got it.More at AP. Read the rest

The cats of kagonekoshiro.com live a good life. Here, one of the cute piebald shorthairs is hanging out in the kitchen while grandmother makes dough for dumplings. Looks delicious. Read the rest

“Ever wondered what birds with arms would look like? Here is the answer.”Another wonderful video from @curlykidlife, Duncan Evans. Read the rest

Public records show that the IRS made a deal with cryptocurrnecy exchange firm Coinbase to use the Coinbase Analytics blockchain tracing software.Reports Michael McSweeney at The Block:The signing date is listed as July 15 on the Sam.gov database, which tracks contract offerings for U.S. agencies. The contract becomes effective on July 23 and lasts for a single year with an option to renew for a second year. Based on the contents of the public record, it appears that the IRS is paying Coinbase $124,950.00 for the single-year duration. The deal has yet to be added to USAspending.gov, a database that tracks completed contracts.As The Block previously reported, the IRS was among a group of major U.S. agencies being sought by Coinbase as potential clients for its Analytics platform. The IRS had signaled its intention to buy a software license from Coinbase in April, noting in published documents that "[i]n addition to the Bitcoin Blockchain, Coinbase Analytics (fka Neutrino) allows for the analysis and tracking of cryptocurrency flows across multiple blockchains that criminals are currently using. Coinbase Analytics also provides some enhanced law enforcement sensitive capabilities that are not currently found in other tools on the market."The Analytics platform arose from Coinbase's controversial acquisition of Neutrino, which, as previously reported, was founded by members of the Italian spyware company Hacking Team. In a July 11 tweet, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledged that the Neutrino acquisition "did not go very well honestly, and we had to cycle out some team members" but added that "we were able to rebuild the team, and set up this functionality in house." Read the rest

Numerous videos shot in the last two days show unidentified armed agents driving around Portland, Oregon, in unmarked vans and forcing protesters into them. The Department of Homeland Securuity admits they sent them in, but local authorities say they have had no contact with the armed men and are not coordinating with them. The Secretary of Homeland Security released a statement justifying the invasion of Portland, by a variety of federal agencies that refuse to identify themselves or speak with local officials, using a list of violent Antifa crimes. Only issue is it’s a list of graffiti incidents. pic.twitter.com/B5TJ1Mb8KB— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) July 17, 2020Senator Jeff Merkley posted his outrage at the presence of the mystery forces: "Authoritarian governments, not democratic republics, send unmarked authorities after protesters," he wrote on Twitter.The Portland Tribune:"I am very concerned that I have seen these pictures (of federal officers) with no ID who are on the streets with camouflage and military-style equipment," he said. "Who are they? Were those U.S. marshals? What organization were they from? How many of them were on the street? Do their protocols allow them to shoot peaceful protesters with rubber bullets? I could get no answers."If they cannot be transparent with the public about their role and what they are doing, they should not be here at all. They are probably making the situation worse, rather than better."Merkley said Driscoll would not discuss how the marshals are coordinating with Portland police — if at all — but promised someone would be designated as a liaison with police. Read the rest

It’s one of those eternal questions — what do you do with your valuables when you go to the beach or take a swim in a public pool? You can’t take your phone in the water with you. Your wallet, sunglasses, keys and other assorted EDC items probably shouldn’t be getting wet either.Of course, leaving your phone and wallet lying on a beach towel is a recipe for disaster — or at least, it’s a very easy payday for an enterprising thief. You could always try to hide them under a blanket or wrap them up in your clothes, but overall, there aren’t a lot of good solutions.That’s the thinking that brought the Beachsafe Valuable Storage and Phone Cooling Kit to life.Made from durable, water-resistant ABS plastic, the Beachsafe has a spacious compartment inside, fully equipped to hold all those items you want to be protected from theft or the elements. With enough room to store all those valuables, all you have to do once you fill it up is snap it closed. Armed with a high-quality, commercial-grade, four-digit reprogrammable lock, nobody but you will have access to your stuff. And just to make sure no one walks off with your Beachsafe, it’s also packing a stainless steel securing cable that can be locked to a bike rack, fence, beach chair, or other stationary objects to assure your loaded Beachsafe is still there when you get back.While that would normally offer enough value, the Beachsafe has the extra versatility of two USB ports and a built-in battery pack, so you can plug in up to two phones at once and stay fully charged, even when they’re chilling in the Beachsafe. Read the rest

These two guys went to Huntington Beach, California, and offered masks to people who weren't wearing them. One of the no-maskers said they didn't need a mask because only their god could decide their fate, another asked the two men if they were mentally incapacitated from smoking marijuana, another said the saltwater from the ocean would kill the virus, another said they didn't need a mask because they lived in Huntington Beach, another said coronavirus is a "bullshit lie," another said "It's all fake, dude," another said "that shit's a fraud, I like freedom, dawg."Before the pandemic, I had no idea that there were so many idiots and sociopaths in the population.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Eighty-four hotdogs is the "maximum possible limit" a human being can consume in 10 minutes, says a researcher at High Point University in North Carolina. James Smoliga, a sports medicine specialist, based his research on 39 years of historical data from Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, reports The Guardian. The current world record was set this month by Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, who walked down 75 hot dogs in 10 minutes.From The Guardian:The 84 theoretical maximum comes from fitting a curve to the data and also factoring in the possibility of outliers whose performance lies within a certain error margin of the curve.The prediction should hold true, Smoliga said, unless a “new kind of competitor” shows up – someone with gigantism or a metabolic condition that placed them well outside the normal parameters of human biology.The limiting factor is likely to be chewing and swallowing rather than gastric capacity, based on the observation that at the end of the 10 minutes many competitors are still trying to gobble down more sausages and buns. Read the rest

This simple game uses six playing card (1 through 6). Each player blindly draws one card and peeks at it. Then one player can ask the other if they would like to trade cards. The other player can accept or reject the offer. Then they turn over the cards. High card wins. What is the best strategy? Read the rest

Florida Governor Ron "Rona Ronnie" DeSantis's insistence on "reopening" his state's economy has resulted in a new surge of deaths from COVID-19. On Thursday 156 people were reported dead from COVID-19 in Florida, a horrific new record for the state.DeSantis can also brag about today's record for the highest ever reported number of hospitalizations in the Sunshine State. From Trust.org:Hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19 was the highest ever reported at 8,626 currently hospitalized, up 321 in the past 24 hours, according to a state agency. (Writing by Lisa Shumaker, Editing by Franklin Paul) Read the rest

Sha Na Na was a strangely popular TV variety show that aired in the 1970s. Featuring a 1950s tribute band of the same name, the program featured comedy skits and and performance from contemporary musical acts. Every episode ended with "Bowzer" Bauman's sign-off "Good night and grease for peace!" Notably, Sha Na Na had previously played Woodstock (at Jimi Hendrix's urging) and later appeared in the film Grease as the National Dance-Off band.This odd TV simulacra of 1950s cartoon rock-and-roll culture was at its weirdest when The Ramones—who themselves were inspired by 50s and 60s bubblegum pop—appeared on Sha Na Na in 1979. (via Obscure Media) Read the rest

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter satellite took this incredible image of the Sun, the closest photo ever taken of our star. It reveals tiny solar flares dotting the surface. The image above was captured at a distance of 77 million kilometers. From Nature:“When the first images came in, my first thought was this is not possible, it can’t be that good,” David Berghmans, principal investigator for the orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instrument, told a press briefing on 16 July. “It was much better than we dared to hope for.”“The Sun might look quiet at the first glance, but when we look in detail, we can see those miniature flares everywhere we look,” said Berghams, a solar physicist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, in a statement.The fires are millions or billions of times smaller than solar flares that can be seen from Earth, which are energetic eruptions thought to be caused by interactions within the Sun's magnetic fields. The mission team has yet to figure out whether the two phenomena are driven by the same process, but they speculate that the combined effect of the many campfires could contribute to the searing heat of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona. Why the corona is hundreds of times hotter than its surface is a longstanding mystery. Read the rest

Audible · The Sandman | "Death Isn't Happy with Dream"Eventually, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman will make its way to Netflix as the TV series announced last year. Meanwhile though, we can listen to a new audio adaptation of the classic comic. Released this week on Audible, the audio drama features the voices of Gaiman as narrator, James McAvoy as Morpheus, and Kat Dennings as Death. Listen to a clip above. From an interview with Gaiman in Entertainment Weekly:You’ve previously done audio adaptations of your novels Neverwhere and Good Omens. What was the difference translating a comic book into that format?NEIL GAIMAN: The biggest difference is they are made up of words, while comics have pictures. Having said that, comics are weirdly close to audio drama. They sort of work in very similar ways. One of the first adaptations of my stuff I ever did was taking the graphic novel Signal to Noise, which I did with Dave McKean, and doing it for BBC in the mid-’90s. We’re proud of what we’ve done. One of the things I was able to do was give Dirk Maggs, who did all of the heavy lifting on this, the original scripts for Sandman. I had to go into long-forgotten parts of my computer and wander down dusty corridors with cyber cobwebs to find files in Word Perfect 4.1 format, and translate them out of Word Perfect and send them over to Dirk. What was great about that was Dirk got to take instructions I had written 30 years ago for artists to tell them what to draw, and take lines from that to me as the narrator. Read the rest

For your next crafternoon: Make yourself a face shield with an empty Krispy Kreme box. YouTuber Andy Clockwise shows you how with this tutorial. First step, eat 12 donuts.screengrab via Andy Clockwise/YouTube(swissmiss) Read the rest

Being for the benefit of Mr. Cat, Haburu performs the soundtrack to Howl's Moving Castle. Read the rest

Nirvana's breakthrough album Nevermind was released September 24, 1991. Just a week earlier, on September 16, the band played a 45-minute set at Beehive Records in Seattle. Lines to get in went around the block. According to the biography Heavier than Heaven, it was the first time Kurt Cobain realized that the band was rising in popularity, and that fame was at his doorstep:Two days later, Nirvana held an “in-store” at Beehive Records. DGC expected about 50 patrons, but when over 200 kids were lined up by two in the afternoon — for an event scheduled to start at seven — it began to dawn on them that perhaps the band’s popularity was greater than first thought. Kurt had decided that rather than simply sign albums and shake people’s hands — the usual business of an in-store — Nirvana would play. When he saw the line at the store that afternoon, it marked the first time he was heard to utter the words “holy shit” in response to his popularity. The band retreated to the Blue Moon Tavern and began drinking, but when they looked out the window and saw dozens of fans looking in, they felt like they were in the movie A Hard Day’s Night. When the show began, Beehive was so crowded that kids were standing on racks of albums and sawhorses had to be lined up in front of the store’s glass windows to protect them. Nirvana played a 45-minute set — performing on the store floor — until the crowd began smashing into the band like the pep rally in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video. Read the rest

Still not made available to the general public, the bodycam footage from the cops who killed George Floyd shows that they gave no explanation for arresting him, swore at him, pointed a gun at him and pushed him around. Lane’s video showed that medics at the scene did not appear alarmed or rushed in assisting Floyd after taking his pulse, and that about three minutes passed before anyone began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Floyd, who had been unresponsive for several minutes by then.Kueng’s video showed that the body camera worn by Chauvin fell off at the scene for an unknown period of time. Prosecutors have said Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly 8 minutes, but Kueng’s video showed that it as about 9 minutes and 30 seconds.The footage (evidently of abusive, foul-mouthed, handsy officers goading Floyd into giving them cause to escalate the violence) can be reviewed "by appointment." Read the rest

I found this listing on AbleAuction for, "Over 50 life size animatronic dinosaurs inc. T-Rex, Brontosaurus and Raptors; plus hundreds of fossils, animatronic equipment, lighting, speakers and more." So of course, I had to know more.While the auction house won't say where, exactly, these delightful leviathans came from, the Vancouver Sun reports that, "the Vancouver-based Experiential Media Group (Canada) Corp. went into voluntary bankruptcy on May 5, 2020 and KPMG was appointed trustee." The article continues:According to a KPMG report, EMG Canada was formed in January 2019 to buy the assets of Dinoking Tech Inc., that had been operating an animatronics business since 2007. In 2015, Dinoking merged with a U.S. company Premier Exhibitions that focused on historical artifact exhibitions and began having financial problems a year later.[…]The company’s failure come despite it creating touring exhibitions of dinosaurs and bugs that were leased to museums, zoos and tourist attractions for a fix period in over 100 cities around the world.Apparently Dinoking Tech, Inc. also owned the only collection of artifacts for display from the Titanic wreck as well.Able Auctions CEO Jeremy Dodd also told the Sun, "There’s just about every type of dinosaur. We also have a whole pile of authentic and original fossils and all the equipment that’s related to putting on a show like this."Bidding on this army of robotic dinosaurs begins on Wednesday, August 5; AbleAuction advises that you sign up for their service at least one day ahead of time. Read the rest

From The New York Times:The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all Covid-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.The new instructions were posted recently in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. From now on, the department — not the C.D.C. — will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.To make matters worse, the HHS data archives are not open to the public — meaning the American people cannot independently verify any of the information. In other words, the Republicans are consolidating control of data in the hands of a centralized big government, because it's one that they have power over.A spokesperson for HHS told the Times that the decision was made because CDC's data collection was inefficient. That spokesperson claimed that CDC's data was lagging about a week behind, and that CDC and HHS would ultimately be sharing data. But this conflicts with a memo from the HHS, which states, "As of July 15, 2020, hospitals should no longer report the Covid-19 information in this document to the National Healthcare Safety Network site."Instead, HHS will route their data through a private company called TeleTracking, based in Pittsburgh. Read the rest

Why are Cis people so obsessed with made-up genders? Read the rest

Have you ever been let down by a business you frequent? Have you ever patronized an establishment and thought, “Man, who’s running this place? A pack of teacup chihuahua’s in a person suit?” That feeling of betrayal inspired Curb Your Enthusiasm's character Larry David to open up his very first spite store, Latte Larry’s. The spite began when Mocha Joe, the owner of Mocha Joe’s, served Mr. David a cup of coffee that became too cool, too fast. The disagreement over proper beverage temperature motivated Mr. David to invent his shop’s signature self-heating mug. Located right next to Mocha Joe’s, Latte Larry’s goal was to ensure that not a single customer’s cup of joe goes cold. However, Mr. David was unable to revel in the contemptuous victory, for where he goes fiasco follows. His invention ended up in flames, reducing both Mocha Joe’s and Latte Larry’s to ashes. Mr. David blames the accident on an employee’s rogue appendage. While Mr. David is under investigation, a real-life version of the mugs, ironically called the Ember, has topped Science Focus Magazine’s list of the coolest gadgets for 2020. This iteration of the self-heating mug connects to your smartphone and will keep your beverage at the temperature of your choice for 1.5 hours. If you can stomach the scorching $99.95 price, check out Ember, along with 46 other new pieces of tech, here. If you plan to avenge your enemies, please be cautious not to take yourself down with them. Read the rest

The Atlas of Moons is National Geographic's amazing interactive project to explore the incredible diversity of over 200 moons in our solar system, like Europa, shown above. Each moon is described and shown with as much recent information available.With the upcoming JUICE launch (aka Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), public interest in Europa will undoubtedly increase. Via National Geographic:With a vast global ocean tucked beneath a smooth, icy shell, Europa is considered one of the best places to look for life beyond Earth. Its ancient, alien sea likely contains all the ingredients needed for life as we know it. Peering beneath that crisscrossed crust is a bit tricky, but scientists recently spotted plumes of possible seawater venting into space, which could be sampled by an orbiting craft.Discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei, it was named after a lover of Zeus. Features are named for people, places, gods, or objects from Celtic myths, as well as for people and places associated with the Greek Europa myth.Image: National Geographic Read the rest

Gorgeous!Follow @druidic_dice on Instagram, TikTok, and visit the Druidicdiceshop if this amazing shot of artisanal gaming dice excites you as much as it does me. Read the rest

Quinnipac University published a new poll today showing Biden with a 15 point lead over Donald Trump. Biden leads 52% to 37%, according to those polled. Biden's share increased by three points and Trump's fell four points since last month's sample, which placed them at 49% to 41%.It's the first time Biden has exceeded 50% in the Quinnipiac poll, leaving the president with no hypothetical path to victory should Biden's support remain steady. "This is a very unpleasant real time look at what the future could be for President Trump," said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy. "There is no upside, no silver lining, no encouraging trend hidden somewhere in this survey for the president"Asked about other key issues:* On handling a crisis, Biden leads 57 - 38 percent;* On handling health care, Biden leads 58 - 35 percent;* On the coronavirus response, Biden leads 59 - 35 percent;* On addressing racial inequality, Biden leads 62 - 30 percent. Oh dear.On handling the military, voters give the president a negative 41 - 51 percent approval.On handling foreign policy, voters give the president a negative 37 - 59 percent approval.On handling health care, voters give the president a negative 35 - 59 percent approval.On handling race relations, voters give the president a negative 31 - 65 percent approval.Ouch.Voters give the president a negative 35 - 62 percent approval rating for his handling of the coronavirus response, his lowest mark since the question was first asked in March. Read the rest

When the police in Allenhurst, Georgia, a town of only 700 people, got a call about a dead female body found by the railroad tracks, they rushed to the scene. But, since they aren't allowed to touch dead bodies until it's been inspected by a coroner, they waited around for a bit. Hence, according to AP, "It took a while before they realized the joke was on them: The corpse was actually a sex doll."Detective Mike Albritton said officers found the female humanoid Tuesday afternoon, WSAV-TV reported...Once the coroner came to the scene, detectives began checking the body for injuries and immediately realized it was a sex doll. Detectives said it was anatomically correct, with realistic features and was fully dressed.It’s unclear whether authorities will investigate. Albritton said he’s never encountered a incident like this.Image: Ventus17 / Pixabay Read the rest

While we obviously don’t ever want to lose sight of exactly why we’re all wearing face coverings now in the first place, it’s also impossible to ignore that masks have already started to evolve in the public consciousness.The mask started as simply a means of combating infection. Then, it became an avenue of free expression, even causing no less a source than White House COVID-19 expert Dr. Deborah Birx to promote mask-wearing as a fashion statement. Now, it’s also jumping into the fray to promote another civic duty during these troubled times: voting. No matter which side of the political schism you find yourself on, this Vote mask is a full-throated endorsement reminding everyone to take their rights as an American incredibly seriously.Created by noted graphic designer Molly May McMahan, this mask makes its point abundantly clear in a bold, direct fashion. With Vote emblazoned across your face a dozen times, could anyone you meet in the outside world miss how you feel about participation in American democracy?While this mask obviously draws attention for its message, don’t forget the 100 percent cotton, double-layered, comfortably fitting mask serves a vital protection function throughout your day as well. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend cloth masks that cover your nose and mouth as an effective means of not only protecting yourself from infection, but spreading potentially viral material to others.Best of all, that protection also puts money where your mouth is...literally. From the purchase of every Vote mask, $2 will be donated to When We All Vote, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization working to increase voter registration in America. Read the rest

Conservative magazine The National Interest recently published an article celebrating the technological innovations of the Civil War. While I, for one, am not so keen on this narrative framing…If there is anything that drives innovation in science and technology, it’s a good old-fashioned war. When you need to kill your enemies faster and deader than they kill you, governments are willing to try nearly anything, no matter how insane it sounds.That isn’t to say we haven’t gotten amazing technology from war. Rockets, microwaves and radar were all game-changing innovations during battle, but also have turned into essential pieces of our everyday lives, helping humanity even when we aren’t smashing and destroying someone else for looking at us funny.…I cannot deny that there is something interesting about remembering just what kinds of what weapons we forged to fuck ourselves over, including gatling guns, coal torpedoes, shotgun pistol revolvers, and reconnaissance balloons. Sure, half a million American died over a glorified temper tantrum about whether or not Black people deserve to be treated with the most basic human indignity, rather than as pieces of property — but dammit, the CSS Hunley was the first submarine to successfully sink a boat, and that's an important hallmark of American innovation!Anyway I clicked on this link by accident but it's weirdly kind of fascinating to realize just how many horrible things we created — things which continue to benefit the mission of American Imperialism — just so that we could further dehumanize Black people. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH the "Law & Order: Trump Unit" gang must investigate two cases: a BLM protester, and a traitorous villain who conspired with a foreign adversary to undermine our Democracy

Star Inn, a pub in Cornwall, has installed electric fencing around its bar. Jonny McFadden, who runs the bar, says it's a "normal electric fence that you would find in the field." When asked if it's turned on, he responded, "Come and find out. There's a fear factor and it works. People keep away from it. People are like sheep. They know it's a fence. They don't want to touch it to find out if it's on or off."The Cornish pub using electric fencing to keep people away from the bar and follow #SocialDistancing rules - but is it switched on?@tamsinmelville asked but Jonny McFadden at the Star Inn in St Just wasn't sayingListen back to the interview here⚡️ https://t.co/gmaM5dw7P3 ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/fraEYP1xqC— BBC Radio Cornwall (@BBCCornwall) July 13, 2020image via Canva(CNN) Read the rest

My puppy Electra beats the heat. View this post on Instagram The only rule is be cool #puppy #dogsofinstagram #summer #beattheheat #fluffy #cute #adorbsA post shared by Electra (@electra___cute) on Jul 14, 2020 at 5:44pm PDT Read the rest

What's not to love about this opening segment from the Donny & Marie Show, which first aired on January 20, 1978. Besides this a fantastic cover of Steely Dan's "Reelin' In the Years," the episode had an all-star guest lineup with Ruth Buzzi, Buddy Hackett, and Suzanne Somers.If you enjoyed this video, there's moreImage: YouTube Read the rest

Welp.During a maniacal Rose Garden event Tuesday in which he also attacked former VP Joe Biden, President Donald Trump says Europe "has never treated us well," and the European Union was created to compete with the United States.That's it.That's the blog post.Trump says we're in competition with many places, including "Europe, which has never treated us well." He repeats his false claim that the EU was formed "to take advantage of the United States."— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 14, 2020President Trump just claimed Europe "has never treated us well," and the European Union was created to compete with the United States. Just incredible.— David Gura (@davidgura) July 14, 2020Oh, the European Union?No, it was not created to hurt the United States. In fact, the US helped and encouraged its creation.The president's grasp of history is ... not great.— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) July 14, 2020This has gone from a barely veiled campaign speech from the Rose Garden to an explicit one, with Trump attacking Biden by name.— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 14, 2020 Read the rest

Cartoonist extraordinaire Jim Rugg recently launched a successful Kickstarter for a fluorescent blacklight comic book about a Russian Outlaw superhero called Octobriana. Check out samples and how to buy here.This project began when Rugg made a blacklight screen print in 2014 with Telegraph Art & Comics. In the process, he wondered why no one had made a comic book using vivid, fluorescent inks. It would look spectacular. So he decided to make one himself.The story is set in the 1970s, the period when blacklight posters were most popular (also the period of Rugg’s graphic novel, Afrodisiac). In 1971, the west learned about Octobriana - the outlaw Russian superhero comic in Petr Sadecky’s expose, Octobriana and the Russian Underground. Octobriana is part Barbarella, part Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. She’s an unusual cult character with a storied history. David Bowie tried to make a movie about her. Billy Idol has her likeness tattooed on his arm. As a child of the Cold War and fan of underground comix, Rugg identified Octobriana as the perfect character for his psychedelic outlaw comic!The concept of Mtsyry: Octobriana 1976 is that underground American cartoonists made their own Octobriana comic book after reading Sadecky’s book. It was an effort to show solidarity with their Russian cartoonist comrades. Robot Stalin's got a new doomsday bomb! Can the Devil-Woman stop him before he destroys us all? Siberian labor camps, PPP secret orgies, motorcycle gunship train chases - this one has it all! Read the rest

While mosquitoes have certainly earned their title as the deadliest animal on earth, their impact on most of our lives is usually a lot less consequential.But even though they might not transmit a disease to you or seriously affect your life, being a blood donor for one of those insects is certainly an annoyance. In fact, pest control giant Terminix found that mosquito bites are a bigger nuisance to more people than backseat drivers, alarm clocks, people who interrupt, and even those who call you to respond to a text message.Of course, after a bite is inflicted, the damage is done, right? Thankfully, the Bite Helper Itch Neutralizer is a new creation that just might have something to say about the lasting annoyance of a mosquito bite.A CES Innovation Award winner, the Bite Helper actually gets under your skin to attack the itch, irritation and overall discomfort that comes from the mosquito’s bite. Bite Helper is about the size of a TV remote control, but packed inside are thermo-pulse emitters, capable of getting right to the heart of the bite. In just about 30 seconds, those thermo-pulses pound the affected area with heat and vibration, increasing the circulation and stimulating blood flow. That actually works to neutralize and soothe the itch in literally seconds.The Bite Helper is completely drug and chemical-free, so it’s 100 percent safe.While mosquitoes are the most likely offenders, Bite Helper is actually designed to combat the itch and irritation caused by all kinds of insect stings and bites, including fleas, wasps, bees, and ants. Read the rest

In a deep, gentle voice this scolding video for covidiots starts with: "Hello. You should be wearing a fucking mask. Why aren't you wearing a mask? Are you being a snowflake, complaining about your rights? Are you telling people you can't breathe? Good luck breathing with the coronavirus."And it goes on from there, with phrases like, "This isn't about you, you piece of shit," and "This is about the people you love, and people who love you, which is unlikely that there are any..." After asking viewers to put on their mask, the voice kindly acknowledges the good deed with, "See, that wasn't very hard, was it you dumb fuck?" This Covid "PSA" for non-mask wearers is the most delightfully passive-aggressive I've seen. Read the rest

Hurray! Cory's new picture book, Poesy the Monster Slayer, is out today. Illustrated by Matt Rockefeller, it's an "epic tale of toy-hacking, bedtime-avoidance, and monster-slaying."Cory has sample pages on his blog, Pluralistic. Read the rest

It's that time of year when the brown bears of Katmai National Park in Alaska are hungry for a fresh fish feast. And you can watch them capture spawning salmon straight out of Brooks Falls on this Explore.org webcam. Unlike most live webcams, you don't have to wait long to see something interesting because this one always seems to be pointed right at the action. The largest and most successful bears can catch and eat more than 30 salmon (over 120 pounds) per day! Bears are most abundant at Brooks Falls in late June and July during the sockeye salmon migration, but also keep an eye out for bald eagles, lots of gulls, and maybe even the occasional wolf trying to partake in the salmon buffet. image via Explore.org(Pee-wee Herman) Read the rest

Canada-based YouTuber Hildegard von Blingin' is getting medieval on your ears with this charming cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene." Welcome to "bardcore."Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, JoleneI beg of thee, pray take not my lordJolene, Jolene, Jolene, JoleneI fear, from thee, ‘twould take naught but a wordWait! There's more bardcore:-- Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know"-- Radiohead's "Creep"-- Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance"-- Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks"(Digg) Read the rest

Add Internet of Things to the shortlist of those actually benefiting from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. You might not realize it, but the organizing principle that is bringing more automation to the world is actually proving to be a major asset as human beings are forced to stay home and away from the workplace.IoT products are currently doing yeoman’s work monitoring healthcare needs, tracking shipments, and enabling streaming devices to power remote business, education, and even health.Connecting everyday items to the web is only becoming a more vital piece of our everyday lives. The training in The Complete IoT and Hardware eBook and Video Course provides the background to not only understand how those systems work but to even build and program those systems yourself.The knowledge download begins with four videos packed with more than nine hours of instruction in the universe of IoT. You’ll get your feet wet with a comprehensive opener as Introduction to Internet of Things lays all the basics, from the components and philosophies all the way through step-by-step tutorials to start building the perfect IoT case study, guiding you through the concept and execution of building your own web-connected device.The training expands with Internet of Things with Python & Raspberry Pi, as students look at two of the IoT creator’s best friends in crafting IoT projects, the Python coding language, and the Raspberry Pi single-card microcomputer.IoT often engages in robot-controlled mechanics, so the Robotic Process Automation: RPA Fundamentals and Build a Robot first explains the steps for building a robot capable of performing repetitive tasks that a human shouldn’t be performing. Read the rest

"He plagiarized from me," Trump told a reporter today on his way to Miami, Florida, referring to Joe Biden's economic plan. And then, "It's very radical left, but he said the right things, because he is copying what I've done." If this isn't perfect gibberish, I don't know what is. President Trump slams Joe Biden's economic plan: "It's very radical left but he said the right things because he's copying what I've done." pic.twitter.com/bQ73zKhbYU— The Hill (@thehill) July 10, 2020 Read the rest