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by Jason Weisberger on (#1J9N4)
My daughter loves these darling Iwacko erasers, and I kinda do too. You can get a random bag of 30 for $12!These erasers are great quick gifts, or party favors.30 Assorted Iwako Eraser - Animal Collection (30 items will be randomly selected from image shown) via Amazon
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| Updated | 2024-11-26 08:16 |
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by David Pescovitz on (#1J9C5)
Artist and baker Katherine Dey made this creepy-as-hell but probably delicious cake that looks like a Madagascar hissing cockroach. Its innards oozes with Boston cream filling. Dey made a video how-to, below. Just make sure you clean up the crumbs or else the real roaches will come and then who knows what could happen if they realize what you just ate.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge1oe157FLU
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J962)
In May, Facebook division Oculus broke its longstanding promise not to use DRM to limit its customers' choices, deploying a system that prevented Oculus customers from porting the software they'd purchased to run on non-Oculus hardware. (more…)
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by David Pescovitz on (#1J964)
Until the 18th century, the seashore was not a place most people would go to relax. In ancient times, it was where you might run into a variety of monsters like Scylla and Charybdis. The shore is also where one might encounter pirates, smallpox, or even a wayward Kraken. Then something changed. Sorbonne University historian Alain Corbin explores this unusual history in the book The Lure of the Sea: The Discovery of the Seaside in the Western World, 1750-1840, one of the sources for a fascinating Smithsonian magazine article about "Inventing the Beach":Around the mid-18th century, according to Corbin, European elites began touting the curative qualities of fresh air, exercise and sea bathing. Especially in Britain, home of the Industrial Revolution, aristocrats and intellectuals became preoccupied with their own health and hygiene. They viewed workers, whose numbers were multiplying in factories and new industrial towns, as strengthened through labor. By comparison, the upper classes seemed fragile and effete: lacking in physical prowess and destined for decline. The notion of the “restorative sea†was born. Physicians prescribed a plunge into chilly waters to invigorate and enliven. The first seaside resort opened on England’s eastern shore in the tiny town of Scarborough near York. Other coastal communities followed, catering to a growing clientele of sea bathers seeking treatment for a number of conditions: melancholy, rickets, leprosy, gout, impotence, tubercular infections, menstrual problems and “hysteria.†In an earlier version of today’s wellness culture, the practice of sea bathing went mainstream...Tracing this remarkable turnaround, “the irresistible awakening of a collective desire for the shore,†Corbin concludes that by 1840, the beach meant something new to Europeans. It had become a place of human consumption; a sought-after “escape†from the city and the drudgery of modern life. The rise of trains and tourism facilitated this cultural and commercial process. Travel became affordable and easy. Middle-class families took to the shore in ever-increasing numbers. In sailors’ jargon, “on the beach†once connoted poverty and helplessness; being stranded or left behind. Now it conveyed health and pleasure. The term “vacation,†once used to describe an involuntary absence from work, was now a desired interlude."Inventing the Beach: The Unnatural History of a Natural Place" (Smithsonian)The Lure of the Sea: The Discovery of the Seaside in the Western World, 1750-1840 (Amazon)photo above by Gray Malin; painting below by Edouard Manet
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1J966)
No protruding buttons on the glass surface of this digital kitchen scale make it easy to wipe down. The graduation is 0.1oz/1g, and can weigh things up to 13 lbs. Use code NVU8KPUX and get it on Amazon for $10.
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by Bill Barol on (#1J949)
Not a hotel, not a dorm, not quite a hostel, open by design and communitarian in spirit — Los Angeles-based PodShare is something else. And, potentially, something bigger: An affordable way to foster community in a city that’s increasingly stratified by class. This week, to start Season 3 of HOME: Stories From L.A., it’s the story of one young entrepreneur and her unstoppable enthusiasm for her big idea.HOME is a member of the Boing Boing Podcast Network. Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Email | Google Play | RSS
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by Kevin Kelly on (#1J94B)
See sample pages from this book at Wink.Things Organized Neatly: The Art of Arranging the Everyday by Austin RadcliffeUniverse2016, 104 pages, 7.8 x 10 x 0.8 inches$17 Buy a copy on AmazonSimply as advertised. Rows and rows of diverse things neatly organized. This process is often called knolling. The applied organizing logic varies: it can be by size, by color, by age; in rows, in grids, in fitted mosaics. The effect is always hypnotic. Seemingly meaningless collections gain intelligence and order which focuses attention on the parts. The book ranges wide and far in the type of things that are inspected. You will soon knoll your own.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J94D)
Bleach-toothed motivational speaker Tony Robbins charged between $650 and $3000 for tickets to his 3.5 day Unleash the Power Within seminar outside Dallas, Texas, where participants are taught to walk on hot coals. (more…)
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by Andrea James on (#1J8ES)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l293Qyua5QMWriting good dialogue is a craft few can master. Lewis Criswell draws from a nice survey of recent and classic examples, both good and bad, to explain the craft of designing dialogue. (more…)
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by Andrea James on (#1J86V)
Alex Schauer has impressive parkour skills, but just as impressive is cinematographer GimbalNinja, who manages to hold the shot while doing plenty of gymnastics himself: (more…)
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by Cool Tools on (#1J6NF)
Duralex is a French manufacturer of glassware, tableware and cookware. Picardie is one of the lines of of glassware they sell, and it is actually somewhat famous on their own, for good reason. I have had sets of the 3 3/4 oz. and the 12 oz. glasses for about 12 years.The good:They are made from tempered glass, like car windshields, so they are tough and resistant to breaking and chipping. They will survive most falls from table-height, even onto stone or tile floors. In fact I have yet to break one, and I have gone through perhaps six wine glasses in the same time. When they do break, they break into little squarish pebbles rather than sharp shards. (But that is not unique to Duralex.)They come in nine different sizes, from little 3 oz. Old-Fashioned glasses to 16 oz. tumblers.They are relatively thin and light, their strength notwithstanding.They nest and stack nicely.The faceted, swelling design makes the glasses easy to hold, even for small hands, and even when wet.They have an absolutely classic design. They might be the only glasses that people will actually recognize. I saw something very like them in a painting by van Gogh.The bad:There are no bads as such. They might only be the second toughest glasses there are (the first might be the Bormioli Rocco Rock Bar line, which resembles the Picardie line, but doesn't have exactly the same familiar design. Especially, the lip is thicker, which makes them subtly less comfortable to drink from.) The Libbey Gibraltar glasses are similar but made of thicker glass, which makes them heavier. Some people might like that, especially for sipping whiskey. But they don't stack.In sum, Duralex Picardie glasses are a design classic that look as good in a 18th century Provence kitchen as a sleek London flat. They are also durable, light, comfortable, and cheap. They don't have any real flaws. -- Karl ChweDuralex Picardie 12 oz. Clear Tumbler, Set of 6 ($30
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by David Pescovitz on (#1J67A)
Banksy's iconic SWAT Van artwork goes up for auction at Bonhams next week. The piece first appeared in Banksy's infamous 2006 Los Angeles show Barely Legal. The hammer price is expected to hit US$300,000 - $450,000. From Bonhams: Banksy's classic response to fear and tyranny is laughter and in the case of the present work the artist toys with his anti-establishment persona, ridiculing the police not just by depicting a scene in which heavily armed, faceless Special Forces agents are hoodwinked by a small boy but by doing so on the very apparatus of their strength. Banksy's best works combine vicious black humour with a clarity of message that many of the best advertisers would kill for and a rage that simply will not be ignored. His playfulness is the velvet glove that hides the iron fist of a social conscience honed on the streets of Bristol and which found its apotheosis in his breakout show Barely Legal in Los Angeles in 2006...The present work was acquired directly from this exhibition and has remained in the same magnificent collection ever since, coming to the open market now for the first time. Despite the nature of the sculpture the condition is excellent and testament to the care with which the artist approaches even his most challenging works. This is a work that by the artist's own admission was first shown in a 'vandalised warehouse extravaganza' and yet it is worthy of any museum collection in the world.
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by David Pescovitz on (#1J65S)
A federal jury in Los Angeles has just ruled that Led Zeppelin did not swipe the opening to "Stairway to Heaven" from the Spirit song "Taurus." From the New York Times:Mr. Plant and Mr. Page both testified that “Stairway to Heaven†had been composed independently, and that while both bands had played on the same bill a handful of times, they did not recall ever seeing Spirit perform and had no familiarity with “Taurus†until the lawsuit was brought.“I didn’t remember it then, and I don’t remember it now,†Mr. Plant said.The jury found that, although Mr. Page and Mr. Plant had access to “Taurus†before the release of “Stairway to Heaven,†the two songs’ original elements did not contain enough similarities. Before reaching the verdict on Thursday, the jury asked to listen to audio recordings of the introductions to both songs twice.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pPvNqOb6RAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFHLO_2_THg
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by David Pescovitz on (#1J61V)
On September 9, New Order will reissue their career-spanning Singles compilation as a remastered four-LP 180 gram vinyl box set or double CD set priced at $70 for the former and $20 for the latter. Tell me now how should I feel. From Rhino:A decade after its initial release, SINGLES has been refined to become a greatly improved representation of the band's history. The renowned Frank Arkwright (The Smiths' Complete) at Abbey Road has remastered the collection with all audio sourced from high quality transfers.In addition, SINGLES adds "I'll Stay With You" from 2013's Lost Sirens album and replaces the correct single edits or mixes for the tracks "Nineteen63," "Run 2," "Bizarre Love Triangle," "True Faith," "Spooky," "Confusion" and "The Perfect Kiss." The result is a considerable upgrade on the previous version of the album.Video above, "True Faith" (1987). Below, "Ceremony" (1981), the song that bridged the end of Joy Division after Ian Curtis's death and the birth of New Order.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqjgIUYvS2s
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J61X)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImzJAZvVi6U&feature=youtu.beAt this week's O'Reilly Velocity conference in Santa Clara, Artur Bergman, founder and CTO, told the story of how he got involved in starting a denial-of-service-resistant CDN -- a personal story about helping his old company cope with a titanic DDoS attack that brought it and its upstream provider to their knees. (more…)
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by Jason Weisberger on (#1J5HT)
Fantastic photographer Star Foreman recommended this wonderful series of vampire novels to me! I liked them so much, I asked her to write us review!“IF you have never been fortunate enough to see a look of utter surprise race across a werewolf face, I highly recommend you do soâ€- FredThe Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, The Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes is one of my favorite books of all time. The truly awesome Drew Hayes has once again delivered a fun, sweet, interesting set of protagonists who turn the expectations of the genre on its ear. This book has plenty of surprises! I know that naming the types of creatures we meet could dull the charms of Fred for a first time reader. So here is a short, non spoiler synopsis. Fred lived a boring life until one day Fred woke up dead. Even then his life didn't change much beyond his allergic reaction to sunlight and his use of a bit of creative accounting (cooking the books for a local hospital) in exchange for blood. A year after his heart stopped beating Fred was still an accountant, still had no friends, and generally (un)life wasn’t any different then life. Life was terribly uninteresting, until Fred, trying to do something different, went to his ten year high school reunion and his life changed (for the better). Drew Hayes write’s Fred’s tale in diary format (something that I usually loath, but in this case it works) allowing us the great pleasure of enjoying Fred’s delightfully intelligent and slightly self-deprecating narration. Throughout the entire book Fred comes to realize that he is interesting, and fun, and can have friends, and even maybe a drop dead gorgeous girlfriend. By the way, Fred appreciates his girlfriend, they compromise and do things to make the other one happy, and directly ask one another questions. Rather than having a stupid misunderstanding drive the book’s plot forward, Hayes instead writes Fred’s tale with life moving the plot forward. Also, thank Ganesh, no explicit sex scenes; when Fred has sex he says in his diary he had sex, and that is it. He knows we don’t want to read the details, so he doesn’t share them. “I had always tried to be eco-conscious, but realizing I could actually live to be affected by environmental disasters had doubled my effortsâ€- FredEach of the 5 short stories introduces you to one of Fred's new companions. Each of the short stories is great. My favorite story is A Vampire at the Reunion, but all of the stories are delightfully fun. Drew Hayes, like in his other series NPC’s and SuperPowered’s, has taken an old tired genre and made an actually great, original book that is truly enjoyable. I highly recommend this book, and its sequel (Death and Untaxes) to anyone, anywhere, and any age (above the age of 10.)The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes via AmazonPreviously on Boing Boing:To do in LA: '30/90,' photo essays by Star Foreman, Jan. 29
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by Jason Weisberger on (#1J5EE)
Converse is marketing Chuck Taylors with a built in Wah Wah pedal. Here is guitarist J. Mascis, of Dinosaur Jr. fame, trying them out. The only electric effect I much care for is reverb.
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by David Pescovitz on (#1J5EG)
KFC's new "Watt a Box" is a meal box with a built-in battery, micro-USB, and lightning cables to charge your smartphone. It's available as a special limited edition "prize" for customers at KFC stores in Delhi and Mumbai. BGR reviewed the Watt a Box. It's a fun marketing gimmick but, no surprise, the battery kinda sucks. They claim it's a 6,100mAh power bank but perhaps a better approach (and name) would have been a Bucket of Batteries. From BGR:The power bank claims to have a 6,100mAh battery but the claims fell short during our brief test. We put an iPhone 5s to charge, which gained 17 percent battery after charging for half-an-hour. But the downside was that the power bank was drained during this process. We recharged the power bank to 100 percent and tried to charge a Redmi Note 3. But the power bank ran out of juice again with the phone gaining just 7 percent of charge...KFC is not the only one to toy with such marketing campaigns. Pizza Hut came up with a limited edition box in Hong Kong that converted into a projector for smartphones. McDonald’s had launched a special edition of its Happy Meal boxes in Sweden that could be converted into cardboard VR headsets. Coca Cola too had a similar cardboard VR headset one could make from its 12-pack cartons."Hands-on with KFC’s ‘Watt a Box’ that charges your phone while you eat" (via Laughing Squid)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#1J5E4)
Here's something to fear about self-driving cars! Once they're up and running and insurance companies and legislators realize they're much better at it than humans, you won't even be allowed to drive. Also, the infrastructure is decaying badly and there's no political will to face up to the costs of fixing it, so the roads themselves may end up getting effectively sold off.Public-private partnerships for roads might begin the erosion of the public right of way. But it’s also possible that autonomous vehicles will all but require limited access to public roads to operate effectively.Today’s self-driving cars have to be designed and programmed to interact with messy circumstances. Pedestrians, dogs, bicycles, human-driven vehicles, and other obstacles all pose challenges to robocars, and if autonomous vehicles are even modestly successful, avoiding collisions with fallible human drivers will prove a temporary problem. ... The more self-driving cars there are on the roads, the less complex and more predictable the overall behavior of traffic becomes.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#1J5CB)
All My Sports Teams Suck charted the subjects of each country's national anthem. They found that most of them are about countries.
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by Wink on (#1J5CH)
See sample pages from this book at Wink.After Dinner Games: 40 of the Greatest After Dinner Gamesby Jenny Lynch (editor)Lagoon Books1998, 96 pages, 4.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches $1-$8 Buy a copy on AmazonThis pocket-sized book is for that time when things get awkward. That time when conversation has dried up. When you have new friends over for dinner and you’re stuck sitting there, clearing your throat, having used up all of your conversation starters. That’s when you need a book like this.As the tagline explains, After Dinner Games offers 40 of the best games for these post-dinner situations. It’s great to either break the ice or to break out with old friends!For example, if you really want to get personal with your guests, try the game Head To Head, which is when two players carry an orange placed between their foreheads. But if acquaintances are involved, you could start with the game Botticelli. Essentially, one player thinks of a famous person (dead or alive), announces the first letter of their name, and everyone else tries to guess who it is. Safe, fun, and no moving involved.This book is packed with old-fashioned graphics that make you want to drink an Old Fashioned while playing the games. And the simple explanations of the rules allow a smooth transition from dinner to fun. To avoid a dinner party drought, keep this book handy. Not only will the ideas in this book keep your party alive, they will make it thrive. Calling all dinner partiers, this is your book! – Caleb Murphy
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1J58X)
Jeff Guo of Washington Post's Wonkblog says he watches all his television shows at 160% speed. Above a clip from ABC's Modern Family sped up the way Guo views it.For years, podcast and audiobook players have provided speedup options, and research shows that most people prefer listening to accelerated speech.In recent years, software has made it much easier to perform the same operation on videos. This was impossible for home viewers in the age of VHS. But computers can now easily speed up any video you throw at them. You can play DVDs and iTunes purchases at whatever tempo you like. YouTube allows you select a speedup factor on its player. And a Google engineer has written a popular Chrome extension that accelerates most other Web videos, including on Netflix, Vimeo and Amazon Prime.Over 100,000 people have downloaded that plug-in, and the reviews are ecstatic. “Oh my God! I regret all the wasted time I've lived before finding this gem!!†one user wrote.Image: Dani Johnson, Amy King / The Washington Post
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J58Z)
Daniel "Tinkercast" Struzyna, a designer in Dusseldorf, sells these tights with handmade silicone scales: $72.09 a pair, comes in aqua or coral. (via Seanan McGuire)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1J591)
California experienced a "net outward migration" of 61,100 people in the last twelve months, the biggest exodus since 2011.San Jose Mercury News:The region's soaring housing prices are a key factor driving dissatisfied residents toward the exit door. Several people who have departed, or soon will leave, say they potentially could have hundreds of thousands of dollars left over even after buying a house in their new locations."They're taking advantage of the housing bubble right now," McElfresh said. "The majority of the people we are seeing are moving to states that don't have state income taxes."
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by Xeni Jardin on (#1J50D)
A mass shooting took place in Viernheim, Germany, near Frankfurt today. A gunman wearing a mask opened fire in a movie theater complex in the small western German town, German media reported. (more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1J50F)
In 2004 Harvey Derrick Glanton mistook Daniel B. Balbaugh for a chicken, and killed him by crushing his skull with a cast-iron pot lid. At trial, Glanton was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. On Tuesday, Chesterfield County Circuit Judge Herbert C. Gill Jr. "set Glanton free from his oversight and the supervision of mental health workers with the Chesterfield County Community Services Board," reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.According to evidence presented at his trial, Glanton, then a forklift driver from Atlanta, was convinced he had to get to Washington to warn the government that aliens were taking over the world by converting people to chickens....At Glanton’s 2004 trial, psychologist Evan S. Nelson testified that Glanton believed Balbaugh was a chicken when he encountered Balbaugh outside the victim’s mobile home at the James River Marina.Nelson explained that Glanton lost an eye in a fight about 25 years earlier and developed the delusion that the eye had magical powers that protected him from aliens who were taking over the world by converting people to chickens.
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by Xeni Jardin on (#1J4YZ)
Caesar Goodson, the Baltimore Police van driver accused of giving a violent "rough ride" that broke Freddie Gray's neck and killed him was acquitted of all charges Thursday by Circuit Judge Barry Williams. Goodson was the driver of the van in which Gray died, and faced the most serious charges of the 6 cops accused in Gray's death while in police custody. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J4PX)
A new US voter database leak has exposed the addresses, estimated income, ethnicity, phone numbers, political affiliation, and voting history of 154 million Americans. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J4HR)
Thomas H Crown's Twitter rant about the Trump campaign compares it to the real-estate developer playbook, which is based on inveigling others into putting up all the capital for a high-risk venture that is sold on the basis of the developer's confidence and force of personality. (more…)
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by Andrea James on (#1J4FX)
If your palms are too dry, this helmetcam from the Mount Huashan plank path might help. Best part? It's a two-way path, so one hiker has to swing out and around anyone going the other way. (more…)
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by Boing Boing's Store on (#1J4FZ)
Bluetooth speakers may be convenient to use, but many of them just aren't that powerful. Sure, it may be fine if you’re seated in front of the speaker. But move across the room, and you may strain to hear what’s coming from those tiny drivers.There’s a reason why the G-BOOM Wireless Bluetooth Boombox (now $79.99 in the Boing Boing Store) was named an iLounge Speaker of the Year - and that’s because this rechargeable box definitely brings the boom.Sync it to your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth and the G-BOOM pumps out big sound from its 2.2-inch configuration. On top of that, the unit sports features normally found in pricier models: bass modulation, a pair of rear-firing bass ports, MAXX AUDIO digital sound processing and up to six hours of play on a single charge.At 20% off, find out why experts are talking about the G-BOOM Wireless Bluetooth Boombox -- before this deal runs out.
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by Andrea James on (#1J4CZ)
A Blair Witch Project for the Snapchat generation, Sickhouse originally rolled out on Snapchat star Andrea Russett's account as if it were real and in real time. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J49S)
Shawl and Ward's impetus came during their tenure at the Clarion West 1992 writing workshop, when one of their classmates, having taken lumps for poorly handling characters of racial backgrounds other than their own, announced that from now on, they'd stick to writing white people like themselves, rather than get it so wrong and risk giving offense and having to deal with outrage.This is no solution. If all the writers who are sensitive enough to worry about getting this kind of thing right opt out of it altogether, then what remains in literature from the dominant culture will be stories told by people who don't care about getting it wrong.Enter Writing the Other, a slim volume of exercises, theory and essays on how to be less wrong -- and even, now and again, right. As Shawl and Ward are at pains to point out, science fiction and fantasy is all about telling stories about people who are fundamentally unlike the writer and the reader -- aliens, magical beings, AIs... The authors set out a general theory of empathic consideration for people unlike you that constitutes both a political education and a very useful guide for writers who are trying to tell those stories. (more…)
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by Ben Marks on (#1J2S4)
Lisa Hix of has written a lengthy piece for Collectors Weekly on the Oneida Community of the late 19th century, and how it morphed from a group of men and women who "believed the liquid electricity of Jesus Christ’s spirit flowed through words and touch, and that a chain of sexual intercourse would create a spiritual battery so charged with God’s energy that the community would transcend into immortality, creating heaven on earth," to a company that was famous for its flatware. For her article, Lisa interviewed Ellen Wayland-Smith, a descendant of members of the Oneida commune, and the author of Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table, who spoke to Hix about the community's laudable-for-its-time, but ultimately limited, view of equality between the sexes.Here's a snip:“Oneidans never for a minute pretended that women were equal to men,†Wayland-Smith says. “Theologically, they had a pecking order. They would cite Paul and say that a man’s natural place is ahead of the woman. But on the ground, practically, women could do anything that men could do. They thought it was absurd that Victorian women wore long skirts and corsets and had this big pile of hair that prevented them from moving or being physical, which the Community believed contributed to the poor health of traditional housewives. The women of Oneida engaged in the same physical activities as men, and the Community thought that was healthy. Women played sports. They went out and chopped down trees; they cleared swamps.“Oneida broke down the popular idea that there was a domestic sphere where women excelled and a public sphere where men excelled,†she continues. “The workload occasionally fell into stereotypical divisions. Most of the people who worked in the Children’s House were women, although there were some men taking care of the kids, too. But the men had to do laundry side by side with the women, and the women could work in the trap shop if they wanted. A lot of women were bookkeepers for the Community businesses. One woman wanted to be a dentist and so she took lessons from the Community dentist and became a dental assistant. Within reason, Oneida offered a wide variety of choice in one’s occupations.â€
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by Richard Kaufman on (#1J2S6)
Whether you like it, hate it, or just couldn’t give a flying fig (personally, I haven’t seen it), the Disney movie Frozen has been a huge success for the Walt Disney Company.Sometimes the popularity of a film can have an unexpected benefit. With all the hand-wringing among Disney fans about how The Walt Disney Company has been throwing all of its resources into Shanghai Disneyland at the expense of the Disney theme parks in the United States, everyone got a big surprise yesterday when the new ride “Frozen Ever After†opened at the Norway Pavilion in World Showcase at Epcot simply because they spent a lot of money on it and did a swell job.Disney has used its state-of-the-art internal digital projection systems for the faces of the "human" characters and the Audio-Animatronic figures of Olaf are top of the line and move with great fluidity."Frozen Ever After" replaces “Maelstrom,†which I think was well liked simply because it was one of only two rides in World Showcase, the other being “Rio Del Tiempo†in the Mexican pavilion (which was clichéd and boring, but is now much more enjoyable since a rehab several years ago which added the Three Caballeros—Donald, Jose Carioca, and Panchito).Originally, almost every country’s pavilion was supposed to have a film, show, or ride, though many were the victim of budget cutting. “Frozen Ever After†is destined to be extremely popular judging by its almost three-hour wait time yesterday.Don’t forget to get a Fast Pass Plus BEFORE you go!https://youtu.be/qX9aIx2QzkwOriginal Source: Blog Mickey
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by Jason Weisberger on (#1J2QY)
Talking Points Memorandum shares this incredible story of an America I don't believe I live in. Tennessee congressional candidate Rick Tyler is proudly running on a platform of racism.Via TPM:An independent candidate running for Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District seat is under fire for a campaign billboard he posted with the slogan "Make America White Again," local TV station WRCB reported Wednesday.Rick Tyler confirmed to the station that he put up the billboard, which also lists the address for his campaign website. Tyler told WRCB that he does not hate people of color, but does believe America "should go back to the 1960s.""(The) Leave it to Beaver time when there were no break-ins; no violent crime; no mass immigration," he told the news station.Tyler also posted a billboard for his campaign that features part of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech superimposed on a drawing of the White House with Confederate flags around it, according to WRCB.Some residents wrote in to the news station stating their desire to have the signs taken down. Tyler said that he respects their First Amendment rights but thinks many others share his views.You'd hope these signs lose him more votes than they gain. I cry for Tennessee.
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by Ben Marks on (#1J2H9)
When I was a kid in the late 1960s, I briefly washed dishes and carried equipment for a light show called Garden of Delights, which was based in Sausalito, California. So it was a dream come true to interview Bill Ham, the artist behind the first light shows in 1966 at San Francisco's fabled Avalon Ballroom. Over the course of three mornings and afternoons, I spoke with Bill about how he got into light shows, the techniques that evolved from his early experiments with Elias Romero, the reactions of musicians to his work, and his years in Europe at the beginning of the 1970s, which included a stay at a French chateau with the Grateful Dead. Highlights from those conversations, clocking in at 9,000 or so words, have now been published at Collectors Weekly.Here's a snip:Collectors Weekly: Can you describe the techniques you were using at that time?Ham: It started with the overhead projectors, which had been designed for lectures and presentations, so that lecturers could show their audiences diagrams, text, and other information as they spoke. Overhead projectors were used mostly in educational settings, for corporate meetings, that sort of thing. We repurposed them.The main medium of the overhead projector had been the transparency. The light source below the projector’s flat surface, which is actually a Fresnel lens, would beam the image or words on the transparency onto a mirror above, which, in turn, aimed that image through a focusing lens and onto a screen or wall. Transparencies are dry, but we were projecting liquids, so the first things we needed to do were to protect the lens with a clear sheet of glass and then contain the liquids.Early on, Elias had discovered that clock crystals -- the clear pieces of glass that protect a clock’s hands and other moving parts -- made good bowls for light-show liquids. They came in all shapes and sizes. Those that were deeply concave held more liquid. Others were flatter, which allowed you to do different things to the liquids. Some crystals with round bottoms could actually be spun in circles on the projector’s flat surface. And then, by setting one bowl on top of another, you could stack them up, several at a time, to produce even more effects, liquid- and color-wise.Whatever the effect, the overhead projector was the only tool a light-show artist could use that let him actively direct the form and composition of the projection. Slide and film projectors were also used in light shows, but only the overhead projector allowed the artist to work directly with his liquid materials in a way that was truly spontaneous.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J2HB)
Thinkgeek has posted a pair of spinning fidget rings for gamers: a $20 D20 ring you flick to get a value between 1-20, and a $25 "counter ring" that clicks from values between 0-99, useful for tracking hit points. (more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1J2D6)
Yippee! My wife has started making dirty martinis (vodka, a swish of vermouth, and olive brine) lately, and I have been drinking them, after having been a virtual teetotaler for many years. Our old cocktail shaker was missing its lid, so I ordered this stainless steel shaker, which is on sale for $9 on Amazon. It also comes with a jigger. The price dropped from $49 in April, so this is quite a deal.
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by Xeni Jardin on (#1J28G)
(UPDATE BELOW)Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department documents obtained by Radar Online describe materials depicting "animal torture" and "nude children" that were found during a 2003 search of Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch. The issue of pornography in the Michael Jackson child abuse investigations first arose about a decade ago. The pop music icon died seven years ago, but the ugly secrets of his alleged abuse keep surfacing. (more…)
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by Wink on (#1J28J)
See sample pages from this book at Wink.Sharks. Face-to-Face With the Ocean's Endangered Predator by Michael MullerTaschen2016, 334 pages, 11.5 x 15 x 1.5 inches $45 Buy a copy on AmazonSharks. The word alone conjures images of grey and white shadows, dorsal fins slicing through the water, row after row of fierce, terrifying, teeth. And we love them for it. Since Jaws first made us all afraid to go into the water, sharks have become our favorite bad guys. We paint them as the apex predators, devouring everything that dares enter their territory, including we frail, defenseless humans. And then we anthropomorphize them into relentless, driven killers, intent on feasting upon every last one of us. While this characterization makes for great entertainment, it has also lead to the idea that shark attacks are the result of killing machines stalking easy prey instead of the mistaken identity accidents that they are. This, combined with a pronounced market for shark fins, liver, and other body parts has lead to a severe decline in several shark species across the globe.Sharks are magnificent animals. They are the undisputed kings of the sea, at home and graceful in the ocean, beautiful and awe inspiring to watch. This beautiful animal, while dangerous, is something to be respected rather than feared; they are animals that offer far more in their exotic beauty than ever they could cut up in rare dishes and cuisine. Which is exactly what underwater photographer Michael Muller shows us in Sharks. Face-to-Face with the Ocean’s Endangered Predator.This book, Muller’s first, presents the culmination of over a decade’s worth of close encounters with sharks both small and gargantuan, both fierce and gentle, both rare and common. The photographs show incredible beauty at close range and in their natural habitats, all the better to help us overcome our fears, the better to see sharks for the graceful animals they are. Presented by Taschen, this book is huge, beautiful, and comprehensive. Arranged geographically, the photos are printed on heavy, matte paper that allows a full range of colors and tones. The photos are also presented without context. Rather each photo is given its own page or two (or three or four in the gatefolds) and explanations and details are saved for the picture index in the final pages. Additional indices include essays by Philippe Cousteau, Jr. and Dr. Alison Kock detailing the need for conservation efforts as well as an overview of Muller’s work and technique by Arty Nelson. Perhaps the most important, or maybe just most interesting index is the Species Notes, written by Dr. Kock, which includes each species place on the Red List of Threatened Species.This is an amazing, hefty (seriously, you’re gonna need a bigger boat, er, shelf) tome full of stunning photos of wildlife at its most majestic. Pick up a copy for the photographer and wildlife lover in your life and, next time you see a shark on the big screen in the role of bad guy, maybe try to see things from its point of view?– Joel Neff
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by Andrea James on (#1J1MG)
The fine folks at Small Business Web Designs in Australia put together a very helpful list of 50 Top Rated Websites for Royalty Free Stock Images, like Path to the Sea by Paul Jarvis on Life of Pix. (more…)
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by Jason Weisberger on (#1J1MP)
Chiko the Shiba Inu loves him some tv. Not long after Olesia Kuzmychova rescued her little buddy, she realized he really loves to watch the tube. (more…)
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by Jason Weisberger on (#1J1FP)
Getting left behind at a dive site is scary stuff. Some divers chose to carry a GPS transponder they may use to signal the satellite of love, and call in help from Team America. Sometimes those transponders get away from a diver. This one drifted 1100 miles, and was found on a beach. It has been returned to its owner. Via CA Diver:Two years ago, a marine biology professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California was participating on a research dive in the Cayman islands when he inadvertently lost his Nautilus Lifeline radio. Thanks to a curious beachcomber in Texas, it’s being returned to him.On May 26, Harry Payne was walking at Padre Island National Seashore in Texas when he stumbled across an item half buried in the sand. It turned out to be the professor’s Nautilus Lifeline, and it appeared to be in reasonably good condition. Harry located the serial number, contacted the manufacturer, and was given the owner’s email address.The radio had drifted more than 1,100 miles on its journey to South Padre Island.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J1F7)
On March 3, a worker shot this video of him and his co-workers illegally pouring HOCUT 795-B out on the Nevada desert floor, then burning out the residue, at the insistence of their (unnamed) employer. (more…)
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by Jason Weisberger on (#1J1F9)
Working on something in the dark is a whole lot easier when have a flashlight strapped to your noggin. I like this $8 LED headlamp. Sure, it looks silly! Regardless, having a light point where you are looking, when working in the dark, is more than just incidentally great. This lamp has easy to find and adjust knobs, even if you are wearing work gloves. You may aim the lamp, to ensure its illuminating where you need, and can adjust it through 3 useful levels of white light, and one flashing red one. For roadside work on a bike or car, at night, I've found I'd much rather have one of these than a traditional hand flashlight. Easy to fit under the seat of my bike, or in the glove box of the car, this saves me needing to direct a second pair of hands, or constantly adjust the light on my own. I hope not to need the flashing red feature. LE Headlamp LED, 3 AAA Batteries Included via Amazon
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J1BY)
Two windmills are standing in a field and one asks the other, "What kind of music do you like?" (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J1BG)
In Snooping on Mobile Phones: Prevalence and Trends, a paper presented at SOUPS 16, computer scientists from UBC and the University of Lisbon show that a rigorous survey reveals that up to one in five people have snooped on a loved one or friend by accessing their phone. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1J1BJ)
In Insurance coverage of customers induces dishonesty of sellers in markets for credence goods, a research paper in PNAS by German and Austrian economists, the authors show experimental evidence that electronics repair shops are more likely to overcharge for labor when their customers have insurance. (more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1J18G)
This inquisitive fellow was unable to keep his hands off a delicate museum piece hanging from the wall at the National Watch & Clock Museum. After breaking it, he lost interest and walked away, leaving his companion to clean up the mess.
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