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Updated 2024-11-26 06:32
Advances in transparent, brain-revealing skull-windows
Researchers at UC Riverside and Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada have published a paper describing their ongoing success in setting a "transparent nanocrystalline yttria-stabilized-zirconia" into patients' skulls, which reveal the patients' brains so that the patients' brains can be zapped with therapeutic lasers. (more…)
What is going on in this video of a Russian freeway incident?
I watched this bizarre video a couple of times and couldn't figure out what's going on. I think Folderpirate on Reddit has the best theory:The guy on the bike was in on it. It was a carjacking/kidnapping targeting the first car.Guy on bike stops traffic by trying to cross in front of mark.Mark stops. Argument ensues as cyclist smacks car/yells/is obnoxious/wont move out of way.Mark gets out of car while it's running.Two kidnapper cars come up, grab the mark and his passenger, and steal their car.Also, the guy filming is in on it as well. He's filming this to mail it to whomever they are going to try and get money from.There seems to be a bit more going on. Are the guys in white caps bodyguards? The car that stopped for the bike looks expensive, so maybe it belongs to an oligarch's kid who has two white-capped face-pushing goons to clear the way for him? Whatever happened, it was well planned and smoothly executed, like a scene from a thriller.
Excellent Game of Thrones character impersonator
I wish this video of Steve Love reverse-lip-syncing characters in Game of Thrones was longer. He's incredible.
Boars, Gore, and Swords podcast continues the A Song of Ice and Fire book club
The Boars, Gore, and Swords book club forges on with the Boiled Leather chapter order combining George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. In this week's "Ghost of Sand Snakes Yet to Come," Ivan and Red cover the chapters "The Prophet" and "The Captain of the Guards." They discuss the religious importance of drowning, weapon-based objectophilia, and which European landmarks found their way to Dorne.To catch up on previous television seasons, the A Song of Ice And Fire books, and other TV and movies, check out the BGaS archive. You can find them on Twitter @boarsgoreswords, like their Facebook fanpage, and email them. If you want access to extra episodes and content, you can donate to the Patreon.
Wherever you are on the the having guts scale, you can level up with Gutsy Girl
See sample pages from this book at Wink.The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure by Caroline PaulBloomsbury USA2016, 160 pages, 6.4 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches $12 Buy a copy on AmazonIf ever there was a book I wished was around when I was little, it’s The Gutsy Girl. But I’m just as glad to have it in the world now. While I would have read it to pieces as a kid, it also gave grown-up me a powerful reminder: bravery and resilience are skills. Anyone can develop them.The Gutsy Girl comprises author Caroline Paul’s stories of her own (mis)adventures, accompanied by short bios and quotes from other inspiring ladies, and helpful how-tos (make a compass outside, find the North Star, recognize animal tracks, etc.). All together, the book is everything it promises to be: escapades for your life of epic adventures. Throughout the book, Paul models adventure through her own life, from racing a boat she made of milk cartons down a river as a young girl, to white-water rafting and working as a firefighter as an adult. And she shares what she’s learned along the way. While the lessons — about planning, communication, teamwork, knowing your limits and when to push them – and when not to — are valuable, I think the bigger idea is that all of her failures and triumphs are part of a learning process. With each new experience, Paul tests, hones, and ultimately grows her own bravery and resilience. This idea is also sweetly captured by the book’s illustrator Wendy MacNaughton in a drawing titled “The Gutsy-O-Meter.” Readers are asked to rate themselves on a meter that swings from low guts (watching TV and sleeping) to high guts (sleeping to scaling ice cliffs.) If you’re at six (sleeping outside), the book encourages you to try seven (navigating through woods by compass). If you’re already a 10 — watch out world!– Sara Distin at Tiny Bop
The story of Donald Crowhurst, who tried to fake sailing around the world in 1968.
In 1968 British engineer Donald Crowhurst entered a round-the-world yacht race, hoping to use the prize money to save his failing electronics business. Woefully unprepared and falling behind, he resorted to falsifying a journey around the world. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the desperate measures that Crowhurst turned to as events spiraled out of his control.We'll also get some updates on Japanese fire balloons and puzzle over a computer that turns on the radio.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!
Belushi, Bette and Beverly Hills
This week on HOME: Stories From L.A.: The process by which one place stops being home and another starts -- it's a mysterious thing. It happens, most often, when we're not paying attention. And sometimes, as it did for comedy writer and transplanted East Coaster Janis Hirsch, it happens in stages. First she started to feel at home in Los Angeles; but it was only later, after a series of addresses and a run-in or two with Bette Davis, that she landed in the exact place that would be, finally, her home.HOME is a member of the Boing Boing Podcast Network.Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Email | Google Play | Stitcher | RSSNEW: The HOME mailing list is live. Sign up now for instant-ish notifications of new episodes, behind-the-scenes information about the show and bonus content. It's free and ad-free, and we promise we'll never ever ever sell your address or otherwise use your information to annoy you.
Become a game development rockstar with this Unity 3D training - now under $20
It’s no secret that technology is changing the way we all work—but it’s also transforming the way we play. The games of today look nothing like those of 10 or even 20 years ago: these days it’s all about mobile and 3D. And now you can learn to design 3D mobile games with the Intro to Unity 3D Game Development Bundle. With 7 courses including over 267 lessons, this package of lessons includes all you need to know to create a 3D mobile shooter game, even if you have zero coding experience. That’s because Unity has the tools you need to handle design, pixel art, and everything in between. Plus, you’ll even learn how to publish apps and games to the Apple App Store and Google Play.If you’re ready to get started learning how to create unique games that have the potential to be the next big thing in gaming, you’re in luck. Right now, the Unity 3D Game Development Bundle is going for just $19.99 (92% off the regular price of $265).
Recessed LED light kit
For some reason, when we moved into our house, many of the trims for the recessed lighting were missing. At $14, they are pretty expensive for what you get - a ring of plastic and a disc of frosted glass. Recently I discovered these recessed LED light kits, which include LED lights built into trims. You get 4 for $40 (I've seen them as low as $30 for 4), making them cheaper than the trims!They are dimmable, they don't buzz, and were super easy to install. I love them and I'm going to replace every recessed light in the house with them.
This month, Japan will manufacture its last VHS video cassette recorder
Funai Electric Company, maker of VHS video cassette recorders for its brands like Magnavox, Emerson, and Sanyo, has announced that they will stop production on new VHS video cassette records this month.According to the newspaper Nikkei, it's difficult to source the parts and, surprise, sales of new units have continued to plummet.Expect a VHS-only store to appear in a hipster neighborhood near you soon. Y'now, the image just looks... warmer.(Anime News Network)
Crowdfunding a second anthology of great UK sf magazine Holdfast
Laurel writes, "Holdfast is an award-winning free online speculative fiction magazine that celebrates all things fantastic. We are trying to raise enough money to pay our writers and artists for their valuable work and also print a beautiful paperback. After a successful campaign for anthology #1 and winning the British Fantasy Society award for best magazine 2015 - we're hoping to create an even bigger and better anthology this time." (more…)
Dumptrump: your poop emoji/Trump mashup
Available as tees and diecut stickers at Bumperactive.
See this fellow test a 20,000 watt light bulb
Most of the lightbulbs in your home are probably equivalent to 60 to 100 watts and emit around 800 to 1600 lumens. Above, "electrical overload" fan Photonicinduction fires up a 20,000 watt halogen bulb in a small lab space. Such bulbs are most frequently used on massive film sets. As the gent says, "Mmmm... that is a light bulb." If we had one in our home, my family would still forget to turn it off before leaving the house.
Video of one year on Earth, from one million miles away
One million miles from Earth, hanging in space between Earth's gravitational pull and the sun's, is the DSCOVR satellite and NASA's incredible EPIC camera. Every two hours, EPIC takes a photo of Earth "to monitor ozone and aerosol levels in Earth’s atmosphere, cloud height, vegetation properties and the ultraviolet reflectivity of Earth." The above video combines one year of those images.From the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center:The primary objective of DSCOVR, a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force, is to maintain the nation’s real-time solar wind monitoring capabilities, which are critical to the accuracy and lead time of space weather alerts and forecasts from NOAA.
High-res 3-D model of Apollo 11 command module to explore and print
You can download a high-res model of a 3D scan of the command module “Columbia.” (more…)
EFF is suing the US government to invalidate the DMCA's DRM provisions
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just filed a lawsuit that challenges the Constitutionality of Section 1201 of the DMCA, the "Digital Rights Management" provision of the law, a notoriously overbroad law that bans activities that bypass or weaken copyright access-control systems, including reconfiguring software-enabled devices (making sure your IoT light-socket will accept third-party lightbulbs; tapping into diagnostic info in your car or tractor to allow an independent party to repair it) and reporting security vulnerabilities in these devices. (more…)
Survey: Republicans don't like Game of Thrones
Research firm E-Score asked Democrats and Republicans about their favorite shows. Game of Thrones was #1 in the Democrat list, but it didn't appear in the top 10 on the Republican list.Ethnically DiverseOn the Democrats' list, 3 of the top 10 shows: The Haves and the Have Nots on OWN, How to Get Away with Murder on ABC, and Empire on FOX all have a racially diverse cast and have powerful lead roles for women. This reflects the Democratic viewer who is also typically more diverse, with higher concentration of black and female supporters.Good vs. EvilRepublicans enjoy clearer "good vs. evil" characters and storylines compared to the Democrats' favorites. Republicans prefer shows featuring superheroes like The Flash, Arrow and the super intelligent team on Scorpion. Two procedural programs such as NCIS and Blue Bloods also have the "good vs. evil" component, as well as skewing slightly older than some other programs in the list.If you want to watch a show with a member of the opposing party, watch The Walking Dead. Everyone likes The Walking Dead.[via]
American Airlines backs stewardess who announced she was "watching" Muslim passenger in Seat 25-A, then kicked him off flight
A Muslim man was booted from a flight after an attendant publicly announced his name and seat number and warned him she was “watching” him. Welcome to American (real ones) Airlines.Mohamed Ahmed Radwan had boarded a plane in Charlotte, North Carolina and the flight attendant went to the tannoy and said: “Mohamed Ahmed, Seat 25-A: I will be watching you.”The employee made no other announcements about any other passenger. Mr Radwan asked the employee why she had made the announcements. She reportedly responded that he was being “too sensitive” [and] was told he must leave the plane as he had made the first air stewardess “uncomfortable”.The company's response: "We thoroughly reviewed these allegations and concluded that no discrimination occurred."The same way bad police use "felt threatened" as an excuse for beatings and killings, bad airlines have settled on "felt uncomfortable" as their lawyer-approved all-bases-covered method of booting Muslims from flights.
Sheepview: cameras attached to roaming ruminants in the Faeroe Islands
Sheep in the remote Faeroe islands, between Scotland and Norway, have been fitted with cameras to provide a vast corpus of sheepcam footage. At Sheepview, you may soon be able to explore the windblasted heaths and crags as if you were yourself an ambling, grass-munching ruminant—and help Google to catch up and generate street-view imagery that islanders need.As the sheep walk and graze around the island, the pictures are sent back to Andreassen with GPS co-ordinates, which she then uploads to Google Street View.“Here in the Faroe Islands we have to do things our way,” says Andreassen. “Knowing that we are so small and Google is so big, we felt this was the thing to do.”So far the Sheep View team have taken panoramic images of five locations on the island. They have also produced 360 video so you can explore the island as if you are, quite literally, a sheep.
Police fetch high-powered rifle to kill family dog at child's birthday party
Fox News reports that kids watched as a Wynnewood, Oklahoma police officer used a high-powered rifle, retrieved from his vehicle, to kill a dog after it "lunged at him" when he entered their gated, fenced property searching for someone who had not lived there in a decade.The police chief said the officer was serving a warrant, which gave him legal authority to be on the private property. However, the Malones said they were never shown any warrant. They were only told the officer was looking for someone who had listed that address as his ten years ago...“I respect what the police do, but this was senseless, but he didn’t show any remorse and didn’t even act like he was sorry or anything,” Malone told FOX 25.The Malones believe the death of their dog could have been avoided either by the use of less-lethal force or by fact checking on the warrant.The Wynnewood cops have already been caught in a lie: the chief claims the dog was shot "coming around the house" to attack the officer, but video shows that the dog was killed behind a closed gate in an expansive, open yard. "The police chief said he hasn't seen the video," reports Fox. "He said 'His officers have every right to shoot dogs if they feel in danger.'"The first rule of modern U.S. police training is that you are a soldier. The second rule is kill the dogs.
Donald Trump and his family watch grimly as Ted Cruz refuses to endorse him
Last night, Ted Cruz refused to endorse Republican nominee Donald Trump at the party's national convention in Ohio. This photo's doing the rounds and supposedly shows the moment when it became clear he would not do so. It's sweet revenge for Cruz, to whom Trump was nasty during the primaries. On the one hand, teleprompter shots suggest the endorsement was expected, contrary to some claims. On the other hand, video of the key moment—Cruz telling the audience to vote their conscience—shows Trump not giving much of a damn at all by that point. The photo was from earlier in the speech.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PUSRF9LB50The image above is a low-res close up of this Getty Images photo by Win McNamee.Embed from Getty Images
Rollaboard luggage trailer-hitch for your butt
A pilot invented this $18 plastic hook for your belt/waistband that can tow a 25lb rollaboard around the airport behind you, leaving you hands-free as you maneuver the concourse. (more…)
100 yard-long kraken surfaces near Antarctica, and other tabloid stunners
“It’s war!” screams the cover of Us magazine.Forget Iraq and Afghanistan, Syria and Nigeria. It’s Kim Kardashian vs Taylor Swift that has Us mag so excited, after the reality TV queen called the singer a “f--king liar.”People magazine also gets in on the war reporting as Kim and Tay’s “feud explodes” after Kim videoed husband Kanye West asking Swift’s permission to include a song lyric saying they might have sex - but failed to tell Taylor that he was going to call her a “bitch" that he made famous. Therein lies the philosophical difference that evidently is the pop culture equivalent of assassinating the Archduke of Austro-Hungary.The Globe is preoccupied with another battle-front: “Queen Kate’s War With Di’s Brother!” Ignoring for a moment the fact that Kate is neither Queen, nor will she be even when HRH Queen Elizabeth pops her royal clogs, Duchess Kate is supposedly outraged that Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer, is renting out his stately home - and Diana’s last resting place - to well-heeled tourists. for up to $40,000- a-night. Perhaps the Globe is forgetting that Buckingham Palace is currently open to visitors until October 1 for a mere 37 pounds (about $49)?A “Top Secret GOP Convention Plot” to ensure that Donald Trump wins the presidential election is exposed by the National Enquirer. I’m not sure how secret a “convention plot” can be when it’s being televised live every day, but the Enquirer nevertheless reveals Trump’s “7-Step Plan to destroy Hillary.” This supposedly involves the GOP exposing seven dark secrets about the Democratic candidate and her husband, including Hillary’s alleged “lesbian shenanigans,” her spell in an Illinois mental hospital “following a nervous breakdown caused by Bill’s cheating,” Bill’s illegitimate love child with an ex-lover, exposing Monica Lewinsky’s secret diaries, and Hillary’s secret pact to divorce Bill if she loses the election. Let’s see how many of these are even mentioned at the convention, let alone becoming major planks in the GOP platform, shall we?Actor Nick Nolte has only “4 weeks to live!” claims the Globe. “Nolte dead in a month,” agrees the Enquirer. Evidently he is suffering “clogged sinuses” (sounds like a death sentence to me) and “cardiac palpitations.” How do they know he has only days to live? “Friends are worried,” reports the Globe. He was reportedly spotted wandering the streets of Los Angeles “in filthy clothes.” As everyone knows, dirty clothes are an infallible sign of terminal late-stage chronic fashion blindness. Death is sure to follow swiftly (or Kardashianly, depending on which side of that conflict you’re on.). I'm starting a death count-down. Let's see if Mr. Nolte is still with us in four week’s time. He won’t let the tabloids down like Val Kilmer, who over a year ago was given just weeks to live but stubbornly refuses to go. Or Cher, or Bill Clinton, or the Queen, or George Bush, or all the others who have been given weeks to live by the tabloids yet keep clinging on.Hopefully Nolte will live long enough to see the “100 yard-long kraken” which surfaced near Antarctica, according to the National Examiner. I can’t help wondering if its crack team of science reporters might be adding just the merest touch of spin to the satellite photo that supposedly shows a “massive disturbance” breaching the ocean surface and a “fin-like object” in a black patch of sea? Apparently not. “This looks like the kraken,” says Scott Waring of the UFO Sighting Daily website, which certainly sounds like it must be some branch of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The Examiner quotes a “commenter” who says: “Maybe the stories about the giant monster of the deep are all true.” Hang on a second: what’s a “commenter?” Just a random person making a comment, who they can’t even be bothered to name? Like the kraken, this smells fishy.Michael Caine’s “amazing secret to learning his lines” is also revealed in the Examiner: he repeats them to himself, over and over. Amazing!Fortunately we have Us mag’s crack investigative team to tell us that Lucy Liu wore it best, Zoe Saldana lacks feeling in one finger after a childhood bicycling accident, Abby Elliott (Who she, Ed?) carries lip balm, bobby pins, sunglasses and keys in her straw Clare V bag, and the stars are just like us: they enjoy a cold beer, sip drinks while they stroll, ride bikes and “they hold the phone.” Remarkable. I’m holding my phone right now, and I’ve never felt more like a celebrity.The presence of Kim vs Tay on the cover of both Us and People magazines gives you a good indication of the vacuousness of the rest of the stories inside. People magazine devotes its cover to “The JFK Jr you never knew,” and since almost 100 per cent of People’s readers never met, spoke to or knew the former President’s son, it should be a slam-dunk to tell us something we don’t know. But that's not to be. People, celebrating the 17th anniversary of JFK Jr’s death - because 17 is a prime number? - tells us that John John was “ridiculously handsome,” a “reluctant hunk,” had “brains and brawn . . . but no coordination,” and was “his father’s son.” Well, we never knew that.TV’s Bachelorette suitor JoJo gets rejects a lover in the Fantasy Suite next week, reveals Us, which is good, because we need more room in the Fantasy Suite for the editors of the tabloids and celebrity magazines. We can only hope and pray that they wear their flak jackets and survive another week in the savage trenches of celebrity war reporting.Onwards and downwards . . .
Elderly woman beats mugger with bacon
Police in Greater Manchester, UK report that an 86-year-old woman withdrew cash from an ATM before entering a supermarket where she was confronted by a mugger. "The lady then defended herself by repeatedly hitting the female offender over the head with a packet of bacon," according to a GMP Trafford South post on Facebook. "The offender then retreated and made off from the supermarket."
Watch this side-by-side video of Los Angeles in the 1940s and today
A drive through downtown Los Angeles in the 1940s and today. Spoiler: Less traffic then! Uglier now!
Smithsonian launches online Apollo 11 high-res 3D spacecraft model for moon landing's 47th anniversary
One great way to commemorate the 47th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 11 moon landing, which took place this day in 1969, is to travel to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC (highly recommended!), and see in person the "Columbia" spacecraft that carried astronauts to the moon. But for those of us who can't get to DC and are feeling the O.G. space spirit, starting today you can explore a virtual reality simulation of the capsule's interior, painstakingly digitized by Smithsonian staff. (more…)
Maine Man accused of "nearly decapitating" neighbor with machete, burying him with rotting dead deer
A very bad man in Maine is charged with a very weird murder. Prosecutors say Bruce Akers used a machete to try and decapitate a neighbor (is "nearly decapitating" worse? because that's what happened), then buried the victim's remains together with the partially decomposed carcasses of deer he killed previously.Yep. (more…)
Hacker claims $20K in dark web sales of leaked 'World-Check' terrorism watchlist
Ever wonder if it's really a good idea for there to be “terrorism watch lists” created by for-profit businesses, with no accountability to the privacy rights of ordinary citizens like you and me? The best-known of these, Thomson Reuters' “World-Check,” recently leaked to the so-called dark web. The database is compiled from public sources, and is sold by Thomson Reuters to vetted clients in government, intelligence agencies, banks, law firms, and the like. (more…)
Rock Against the TPP: coming to a town near you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKGRYypHogo&feature=youtu.beEvan from Fight for the Future writes, "Hey Internet! How about some good news for a change? A bunch of awesome musicians, actors, and activists are teaming up to organize a series of concerts, protests, and teach-ins to spark an uprising and stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the shadowy global deal that threatens Internet freedom, the environment, jobs, and more. Check out this video to see who's on board, and then see if the tour is coming to your town, and get FREE tickets."
The Gathering of the Juggalos turns 17
The RNC in Cleveland isn't the only unhinged, drunken, drug-fueled marathon party going on this week. Starting today, thousands of Juggalos and Juggalettes gather in Thornville, Ohio, to participate in the 17th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos, which runs through Saturday. Each year at the Gathering, fans of Insane Clown Posse gather to celebrate the weirdness that unites them. The "Juggalo" moniker is from the rap act's 1992 track, “The Juggla.” (more…)
LEGO Classic 60's TV BatCave
Wow. The Bat mobile and Bat copter alone make me want to pick up this fantastic LEGO set. The Adam West Batcave is interpreted with fantastic detail!LEGO Super Heroes Batman Classic TV Series - Batcave 76052 via Amazon
Why did the Concorde supersonic plane fail?
The Concorde is a supersonic commercial airliner that took people from New York City to Paris in around 3.5 hours. It's heyday was in the 1970s and it finally stopped operation in 2003. Learn why in the Vox video above and in Lawrence Azerrad's magnificent Boing Boing classic feature "Flight of the Concordes!"
Real time coffee statistics infographic
This chart shows how much coffee is being consumed around the world, and how much people spend on it. It's hard to believe that a flat white is the most popular form of coffee. I don't think that's true in the US.
Modern Farmer on how the DMCA takes away farmers' rights over their tractors
In spring, 2015, American farmers started to spread the word that John Deere claimed that a notorious copyright law gave the company exclusive dominion over repairs to Deere farm-equipment, making it a felony (punishable by 5 years in prison and a $500K fine for a first offense) to fix your own tractor. (more…)
Bookworm rugs
The Bookworm Rug (100% woven polyester) come in 2' x 3' ($28), 3' x 5' ($58) and 4' x 6' ($79), and feature a selection of spines from some rather good books, including Iain Banks's debut "The Wasp Factory" some Virginia Woolf, Charles Bukowksi and Haruki Murakami. (via Bookshelf)
Hand-colored footage from The Addams Family
Zach Smothers, who hand-colorized 1,300 frames from the credits of The Munsters has posted 64 seconds of similarly hand-colored footage from The Addams Family.
Impossible rooftop illusions
Kokichi Sugihara makes 3D optical illusions. He is the creator of the ambiguous cylinders optical illusion that won the 2nd Prize of the 12th Best illusion of the Year Contest 2016. Here's his entry for 2015, which also won second prize.
School forbids clapping, allows "silent cheering," face pulling, and air punching
In recognition of students who are “sensitive to noise,” a Sydney primary school has banned clapping and cheering at school events. Instead of clapping and cheering, students will be prompted by teachers when it is appropriate for “silent cheering,” “pulling excited faces,” and “punching the air.”From News.com.auIn its July 18 newsletter, the Elanora school has published an item under the headline “Did you know” that “our school has adopted silent cheers at assembly’s” (sic).“If you’ve been to a school assembly recently, you may have noticed our students doing silent cheers,” the item reads.“Instead of clapping, the students are free to punch the air, pull excited faces and wriggle about on the spot.“The practice has been adopted to respect members of our school community who are sensitive to noise.“When you attend an assembly, teachers will prompt the audience to conduct a silent cheer if it is needed.“Teachers have also found the silent cheers to be a great way to expend children’s energy and reduce fidgeting.”
Inspector Crow: birds investigate cause of death when they find a body
Do Crows hold funerals? Nah, not really, but they're up to something when one among the murder is murdered, and scientists are fascinated by their behavior around fallen comrades.Calling to each other, gathering around, and paying special attention to a fallen comrade is common among the highly intelligent corvids, a group of birds that includes crows, jays, magpies, and ravens, says Kaeli Swift, a Ph.D student in environmental science at the University of Washington. (See "Are Crows Smarter Than Children?")But it doesn't necessarily mean the birds are mourning for their lost buddy. Rather, they're likely trying to find out if there's a threat where the death occurred, so they can avoid it in the future.One study involved using masks to see if crows would avoid humans who handled dead crows (and thereby implicated themselves in the investigation.) They did. On the other hand, if crows are smart enough to investigate murders, maybe they're smart enough to take one look at that mask and think: "OK, that is definitely a murderer."
US State Department press-corps grill Brexit Boris over his "lies" and "insults"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrfPWjA2PdABoris Johnson, one of the leaders of the Brexit movement and a lifelong racist, xenophobic clown, is now the UK Foreign Secretary, which means that he gets to do press conferences with John Kerry in front of the US State Department press corps. (more…)
Brexit is a victory for mass surveillance; EU rules Snoopers Charter is illegal
Before Theresa May became Prime Minister of the UK, she was the Pry Minister of the UK, the principle proponent of the Snoopers Charter, a sweeping domestic surveillance bill that the European Court of Justice's Advocate General has just found to be excessive under EU law. (more…)
14% of Americans -- 48 million people -- are "food insecure," and it's about to get much worse
People are "food insecure" if they lack access to "enough food for an active, healthy life." There are 48 million Americans who live in food insecurity, thanks to a combination of nearly all the economic benefits of the post-2008 recovery going to the wealthy; and the sustained attacks on America's social safety net, led by state-level Tea Party governments. (more…)
Review Skeptic reviews hotel reviews
Online hotel reviews are oftentimes fake. How do you tell? Review Skeptic claims to detect bullshit hotel reviews based upon research from Cornell University into the language of fakery. It's been around for years, as this 2011 article in the New York Times attests. Determining the number of fake reviews on the Web is difficult. But it is enough of a problem to attract a team of Cornell researchers, who recently published a paper about creating a computer algorithm for detecting fake reviewers. They were instantly approached by a dozen companies, including Amazon, Hilton, TripAdvisor and several specialist travel sites, all of which have a strong interest in limiting the spread of bogus reviews.“The whole system falls apart if made-up reviews are given the same weight as honest ones,” said one of the researchers, Myle Ott. Among those seeking out Mr. Ott, a 22-year-old Ph.D. candidate in computer science, after the study was published was Google, which asked for his résumé, he said.I wonder if it's still good, with 5 years of bullshit evolution to account for. One thing in its favor: it seems to "know" that top reviewers tend to affect a style imitative of travel writing in an effort to sound credible, and doesn't trigger on their innocuous but very ad-like use of language.
Get wireless musical bliss with the REMXD On-Ear Bluetooth Headphones - only $35.99
Earbuds are fine for casual listening while you work out or run errands. But when you really want to experience music as it was intended, nothing beats a serious set of noise-canceling, soundscape-enhancing headphones.The REMXD On-Ear Bluetooth Headphones offer high-quality sound with complete wireless connectivity -- and at just $35.99, this rechargeable set won’t even cut into your iTunes budget.Comfortable, adjustable earcups cradle your noggin while delivering wireless audio up to 33 feet away via your smartphone or MP3 device. You’ll enjoy the rich aural experience you crave for up to 15 hours of listening bliss from a single charge.And if your phone rings? No problem - simple controls on the headphones allow you to answer calls, change tracks, or adjust the volume with the push of a button.
Fox confirmed to The Daily Beast that Roger Ailes is getting canned, then retracted
For days, Fox insiders have been leaking that boss Roger Ailes is out, then Fox promptly denies it. The Daily Beast says that it briefly got Fox to "confirm Drudge's report"—that's he's getting $40m to piss off—but Fox called back to walk it back. Soon! Sooooon!
Kickstarting Donald of the Dead: a Trump zombie comic
Dan Taylor sez, "Prepare for the TRUMPOCALYPSE! When there is no more room in HELL, the dead will TRUMP the Earth. An all-new comic book from the creative team that brought you HERO HAPPY HOUR. If you think the idea of Donald Trump as President of the United States is scary, wait until you get a look at him as a zombie overlord amassing an army of undead to rule the world." (more…)
Marc "Half-Life" Laidlaw's gonzo cyberpunk is back in DRM-free ebooks
Marc Laidlaw, the cyberpunk pioneer who went on to serve as writer on some of Valve's greatest video-game titles -- the Half-Life series, Portal -- has just posted his entire backlist to Amazon as $3, DRM-free ebooks, including his debut novel Dad's Nuke (think Fallout, but with religious extremist militants who subsist on "Host on a shingle," this being the cultured recovered foreskin tissue of Jesus Christ on fortified crackers) and Kalifornia, a brilliant and prescient novel about media, cultural disintegration, and celebrity. (more…)
Star Wars Rebels season three trailer
I did not want this trailer to be over! The characters appear to have aged a few years. No sign of Ahsoka but we'll evidently get to see a young Wedge Antilles! Hard core fans of the novels will be thrilled to see Grand Admiral Thrawn reenter the Star Wars canon universe. If you haven't seen them, the first two seasons of Star Wars Rebels are fantastic!
Gorgeous teeny-tiny pencil drawings
Mexican artist Mateo Pizarro draws these beautiful and insanely tiny illustrations using just a pencil. (via Juxtapoz)
US Navy's sonar use violates Marine Mammal Protection Act
The Navy have been blasting the sea with louder than rock concert sounds, hunting for Red October. Apparently the U.S. Navy hasn't done enough to ensure its sonar technology isn't hurting whales tho. Regardless this decision being overturned, the Navy had already planned to phase out much of the harmful sound. Via Vocativ: “The Court of Appeals understood that the Navy can do more to reduce the risk of its powerful long-range sonar, especially in the vast reaches of the ocean where too little is known,” Michael Jasny of the National Resource Defense Council, one of several organizations behind suit, said in a statement. “Ignorance is no excuse for inaction where commonsense safeguards recommended by the government’s own scientists can prevent avoidable harm.”The court’s ruling will send both parties back to a district court for further consideration. But time may well run out on the NMFS’s decision anyway; it expires in 2017. The Navy has already agreed to limit its use of sonar in certain locations starting in 2018. Soon, the only waves in the ocean will be the natural ones made of water, not man-made ones that come from sound.
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