https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_OXoxymehoUni's Kuru Toga Roulettes are mechanical pencils that solve a problem I've never had, which is that the tip wears differentially, eventually creating a blunt instrument (I am a clod whose draftsmanship looks like I tried writing in a zeppelin caught in a tornado, so this is not a problem for me) -- the Roulette contains a tiny gearing mechanism that rotates the lead by a quarter-turn every time you lift the tip (e.g. between words); this creates an even wear around the lead's tip, keeping it sharp and reducing the likelihood that it will snap. (via Core 77)

My preferred way get in shape involves mercilessly tracking my effort and results. I have a mishmosh of fitness trackers and gadgets I use to monitor my daily progress towards, or away from, being physically fit. Integrating all that data into one place? Oy vey. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On8v-Wr3XxUFor more than 15 years, we've been writing about the strandbeests, Theo Jansen's incredibly, multilegged windwalking machines that clatter their way along in eerily lifelike fashion (I even wrote them into my fiction). (more…)

If you spend your life in cities or on the interstates that connect them to one another, it’s easy to forget that there are parts of the world where cellular connectivity simply doesn’t exist. Right now, I’m 45 minutes from the nearest town, sitting in a motorhome, surrounded by nothing but trees. Out here, a busy day consists of seeing a few logging trucks or maybe some elk wander by. It’s remote, but I’m still able to connect to the Internet and do my job over my cellphone’s cellular connection. I can amplify my connection to cell towers using a cellular booster that I installed on our rig, earlier this year. But there have been instances where we’ve found ourselves far enough out in the sticks that I couldn’t find a cell signal to save my life. That’s why a device like Garmin’s InReach Mini is so cool. It’s a tiny satellite-connected communications device that lets me stay in touch with the outside world even when the outside world is too far away to connect to.At 2.04” x 3.90” x 1.03” in size and weighing less than four ounces, this thing is designed for the backpacking crowd. It has an IPX7 rating, so it’s OK to clip it to your belt or a backpack without fear of it being fried in a downpour while you’re out and about. That’s good news, as the Mini needs a clear view of the sky for it to connect to Iridium satellite network in order to do its thing. If you’re hoping to score a connection while it’s still inside of your rucksack or while you’re under tree cover, you’re going to be disappointed. While you’re out in the open, say in a clearing in the middle of a forest or at the side of a logging road—examples that draws on my experience with the device—it’s another story. Without a single bar of cellular connectivity, I can use the inReach Mini to send a canned message to my loved ones and let them know that I’m OK while I’m out on trail. They can send messages right back to me. If they feel like stalking me, they can. The InReach Mini can be set to upload my whereabouts to Garmin's servers every ten minutes. This data is overlaid on a map that's accessable via a private website. The map details my current location and the track I've taken. When the Mini is connected to the Earthmate App on my iPhone via Bluetooth, I can use the it to send short text messages or emails to anyone in my phone’s contact list, via the device’s satellite uplink. I can even use the thing to check in on the weather for my location. For the six months of the year that I spend in Alberta, Canada, this is wildly important as the forecast here can turn on a dime. Dangerous thunderstorms and hail the size of quarters are not uncommon.Most importantly, if either of my wife or I get into trouble with an illness, injury or a mechanical failure that prevents us from getting to help, the InReach Mini has our back. On the side of the device, there’s a small panel that flips up. Under that panel you’ll find an SOS button. Pushing it will send your location and a distress call to GEOS Worldwide—a company that specializes in providing safety solutions to travelers and adventurers. After receiving your distress signal, GEOS will call first responders in your vicinity to come and lend you the hand that you need. To keep you from wondering whether your message was received while you wait, they’ll also send along status updates to the InReach Mini to let you know when help is due to arrive. After owning one for a few months and using it every time I leave the RV to go for a hike, I’ve got nothing bad to say about this thing. However, there are a few of caveats that you you should know before you consider buying one of your own. First, satellite-connected hardware doesn't come cheap. A Garmin InReach Mini will set you back $350—and that’s just for the hardware. You’ll need to subscribe for a rate plan to use it. Garmin’s plans for the device range in price from $12 to around $80, per month. To be able to use all of the features I do, you’ll need to pay for their Expedition plan, to the tune of $50 per month. Without a rate plan attached to it, the InReach Mini is nothing but an expensive paperweight—and a light one, at that.Second, you will wait for your messages. You will wait for a weather report. Almost everything that this device can do involves beaming data to and from a man-made moon orbiting the earth which then relays that data to a ground station. Shit like that takes time. Leave your expectations of instant communication at the door while you're using one of these things. Finally, having a device designed to save your ass in an emergency is no substitute for the training required to get yourself out of trouble. Before you go anywhere that having a piece of hardware like this might be an asset, take a first aid course. Learn how to read a map and use a compass instead of simply relying on GPS: figure out what you need in order to survive while you’re exploring the places you love. Doing so should keep you from having to push that SOS button in so many situations and provide you with a sense of confidence that just might spill over into other areas of your life.

In this charming stop motion animation, YouTubers BrickBros created a lovely children's toy, shooting it in a way that makes it seem as if their woodshop consisted only of LEGO-based items. Some very clever uses of small pieces throughout. (more…)

Paul Manafort, lobbyist for tyrannical foreign leaders and Trump's former campaign manager, is currently being tried on a 32 counts of tax fraud and offshore money laundering. This video by the Washington Post shows how well connected he was (he worked for Reagan and Bush), and how awful he is (he lobbied to arm murderous warlords and worked to change the image of thuggish Eastern European leaders). Is this the end of the road for Manafort? If the kooky judge presiding over Manafort's trial doesn't keep him out of prison, Trump will might give him a pardon, but he could still get nailed for violating laws in New York or another state.

These stickers, thinner than temporary tattoos, have a grid of silver wires in them that make sound when electrified. They also work as microphones. From ScienceMag:After receiving an electric audio signal from a music player, the tiny loudspeaker heats up the wire grid to about 33°C, which replicates the sound pattern by changing the pressure of the surrounding air. Our ears pick up these changes in air pressure as sound waves.The microphone operates in reverse, converting speech sound waves back into an electric signal, which can then be stored and played back by a smartphone or computer. It can detect sound waves coming from the mouth, but it can also recognize words simply from the rumbling of the vocal cords through the skin, the team reports today in Science Advances.

OpenDrop is a ~$800 microfluidics platform from GaudiLabs. It can be used to programmatically move droplets of liquid around a matrix. When I saw the video, I thought it was an LCD display, but it's real liquid being moved around.Potential applications are lab on a chip devices for automating processes of digital biology. However the present design should also open the technology to other field and allow experimentation to find new applications. Including the field of art, music, games and education.https://youtu.be/3zCAIKZ1F18https://youtu.be/2Y4pxhPit_I

From Food Insider:Rainbow cake sprinkles have been around since the late 18th century, when French candy chefs used them as decorations. Today, liquid food coloring, shortening, and sugar are mixed in hot water to form the sprinkle's colorful dough. Long strands of the dough are broken into the tiny shapes we see on cakes, doughnuts, cookies, and ice cream. (via Laughing Squid)

This is brilliant. Make sure your sound is on.Twisted Sifter writes:The Internet has a penchant for taking things, adding to them and making them funnier, quirkier or even more bizarre. In this instance, we’ll go with all three. Apparently this was found on a now defunct Tumblr page, so the creator looms large and anonymous.For those unfamiliar, the audio is ‘Immigrant Song’ by Led Zeppelin...Here's the original bird video, sans the Zeppelin upgrade:https://youtu.be/hbmjtoQLvKshttps://twitter.com/emotionalpedant/status/1023983232021356544

This happened in September of last year, but I just saw it this morning. What a wonderful GIF!This gigantic asshole is reported to have been instigating fights.People should be afraid to wear symbols that openly identify themselves as supporting genocide.Red hats and Confederate flags are a gateway drug to German National Socialist armbands. Why do these morons all want America to be its greatest enemies? The Confederacy, Nazi Germany and Russia.The GIF came from humanpersonface, a Tumblr that covers the entire timeline of events with tweeted and socially shared images. Seattle Times published the following:Seattle police are responding Monday to a viral video of a man wearing a swastika armband getting punched in downtown Seattle.Police said they they received several reports Sunday of a man wearing a swastika instigating fights at Third Avenue and Pine Street. Police said they were on the scene within five minutes and found the man — with a Nazi flag armband — on the ground.“He declined to provide info about incident & left after removing his armband,” Seattle police said in a tweet about the incident on Monday.No one else at the scene contacted officers to make a report about the incident, police said.

SpiderOak is a cloud backup service with a warrant canary: a formal statement that assured users that the company and its operators had never been made to secretly cooperate with the government, law enforcement or other surveilling authority. The canary reportedly disappeared this weekend, then reappeared, along with a statement saying it was being replaced by a "transparency report." https://twitter.com/SpiderOak/status/1025488889564327936Don't be mad at the company! The canary worked exactly as it was supposed to.

Anyone who has ever worked on making a parade float knows how time-consuming the process is. Artist Crystal Wagner takes it to the next level with her gigantic amorphous abstract works.The Bedford Gallery commissions internationally renowned artist Crystal Wagner to create a large-scale, immersive piece that uses the entire gallery. Her colorful, mind-blowing installations are built from ordinary materials—primarily chicken wire and vinyl disposable tablecloths—that appear to grow organically within the gallery.More on her Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/p/BmBzwnQnXl6/?taken-by=artistcrystalwagnerhttps://www.instagram.com/p/Bl6VE6RHYcb/?taken-by=artistcrystalwagnerhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BlntsCCHiQl/?taken-by=artistcrystalwagnerhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BksvF6YHvOu/?taken-by=artistcrystalwagner• Crystal Wagner's FLUX @ The Bedford Gallery (YouTube / City of Walnut Creek)

'N Sync's Lance Bass tweeted on Friday afternoon how he had won the bid to buy the real-life Brady Bunch house.https://twitter.com/LanceBass/status/1025489741913968640A couple of Brady kids congratulated him.Actress Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady), wrote:https://twitter.com/MoMcCormick7/status/1025594773871050753Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady) wrote: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmEh09KHWCS/?taken-by=thesusanolsenBut by Saturday night, he shared that the agent called to tell him a Hollywood studio was willing to buy the house "at any cost": Marcia Marcia Marcia! Im feeling heartbroken today. As many of you may have heard, we placed the winning bid on the iconic Brady Bunch house—at least that’s what we were told. The agent representing the estate informed us we made the winning bid (which was WAY over the asking price) after the final deadline for all offers had passed—even writing up the “winning bid” for my team after informing me of the good news. Isn’t a deadline a deadline? This was a dream come true for me and I spent the night celebrating amongst friends, family, and fans alike. The next day, due to “unforeseen circumstances” the same agent informed us that there’s another Corporate Buyer (Hollywood studio) who wants the house at any cost. We were prepared to go even higher but totally discouraged by the sellers agent, they will outperform any bid with unlimited resources. How is this fair or legal?? How can I compete with a billion dollar corporate entity? I truly believe I was used to drive up the price of the home knowing very well that this corporation intended on making their offer and it’s not a good feeling. I feel used but most importantly I’m hurt and saddened by this highly questionable outcome. I just hope it is not demolished. #CrushedDream #ShadyAF #DouglasElliman #ShadyBrady Oh yea, register and vote November 6th!Bye bye bye.(EW)

Nintendo's retro-themed 3DS XL is rarely marked down, but is currently $150 at Amazon, which is $50 off the normal price.By far the weirdest and most portable of the company's growing rack of retro-fueled gear, it's also one that has a serious library of modern games to play too, in addition to the oldschool cool that comes with it—in this case, Super Mario Cart.Nintendo's classic consoles, dating to decades-old designs, now regularly top the hardware charts, driven by cheap prices and an endless reservoir of nostalgia.SNES edition 3DS XL [Amazon link]

A version of this song that doesn't make me want to burn down my surroundings? Yes please.

Countrywide is the UK's largest property agents (they own estate agencies like Hamptons International, Bairstow Eves and Bridgfords), with 900 locations and 10,000 employees, and they're selling off shares at fire-sale prices in a desperate bid to raise £140 million to service their massive debts; the sum is 300% of the company's market cap, their shares are down 60% on the news, and the company blames plummeting London prices and Brexit jitters for their misfortunes. (more…)

When preparing the screen adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining, director Stanley Kubrick highlighted, crossed out and wrote marginalia throughout his personal copy of the hardback novel, available online. (more…)

In King County (which encompasses Seattle), the number of people living in their cars surged by 46% in the past year; and other big cities are catching up: LA, San Francisco, Portland, etc. (more…)

Whitney Phillips (previously), a researcher at the "think/do tank" Data & Society (previously) has prepared a snappy, short report on the paradox of covering disinformation campaigns, trolling, and outright lies? (more…)

It is important to remember that the President of the United States of America is plain stupid: "I have great respect for the U.K. United Kingdom. Great respect. People call it Britain. They call it Great Britain. They used to call it England, different parts."https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1025166892468789248?ref_src=twsrc^tfwFor the record, the part formerly known as England is still known as England, the United Kingdom is no— oh, never mind. From Brilliant Maps, with the caveat that Ireland is actually much closer to Britain:

So… remember a few days ago when the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo as having come to an end. Well, the disease is back on its bullshit again with a brand-new outbreak in the same damn country. From Al Jazeera:Four cases of the virus were confirmed in northeastern North Kivu province, the DRC's health minister said in a statement on Wednesday, though there was no indication they were linked to the country's previous - and ninth - Ebola outbreak in northwestern Equateur Province."Although we did not expect to face a tenth epidemic so early, the detection of the virus is an indicator of the proper functioning of the surveillance system," Health Minister Oly Ilunga said.However, it might be impossible to use a vaccine to tackle the new outbreak, Peter Salama, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official, said.Yeah, that’s right: the vaccine that worked a miracle this past go-around with Ebola may not be able to do anything for anyone during the latest outbreak of the disease. Experts currently believe that the iteration of Ebola that Congo is currently facing could be one of three strains Zaire, Sudan or Bundibugyo. If it’s the Zaire strain of the disease? Party time: the vaccine developed by Merck should work a treat on it. Unfortunately, if one of the other two possible strains is responsible for the latest outbreak, The WHO admits that there may not be a vaccine option for them to undertake. According to Reuters, an international team of experts have set up shop in the Congolese town of Beni, 18 miles from where the latest outbreak was identified. Image via Wikipedia Commons

Amazon has removed Nazi paraphernalia and other far-right junk from its online store after a report took it to task for helping white nationalist groups prosper online. Politicians and organisations that track hate groups identified several sellers offering the goods via Amazon. Amazon said it had blocked the sellers, removed the items and was now checking for other similarly-themed goods. ... It said it used automated methods as well as teams of investigators to scan listings looking for items that break its policies or national laws covering hate speech, violence or racial intolerance. More from the New York Times:In a letter dated Tuesday to Representative Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, Amazon said it had removed products that violated its policy against product listings that promote hatred, violence or discrimination.“We have reviewed the products and content referenced in your letter, and removed the listings that were found in violation of our policies and permanently blocked the seller accounts that were in violation of Amazon policy,” Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president for public policy, wrote in the letter, which was earlier reported by BuzzFeed. “We are also reviewing the seller accounts for potential suspension.”

A 3 percent climb in share price made Apple the world's first trillion-dollar publicly-traded company.Apple’s ascent from the brink of bankruptcy to the world’s most valuable public company has been a business tour de force, marked by rapid innovation, a series of smash-hit products and the creation of a sophisticated, globe-spanning supply chain that keeps costs down while producing enormous volumes of cutting-edge devices.That ascent has also been marked by controversy, tragedy and challenges. Apple’s aggressive use of outside manufacturers in China, for example, has led to criticism that it is taking advantage of poorly paid workers in other countries and robbing Americans of good manufacturing jobs. The company faces numerous questions about how it can continue to grow.Gas giant Saudi Aramco has twice Apple's revenues and is valued at up to $2tn. But you can't buy yourself a chunk of it—not yet, anyway.

In a change to Catholic doctrine, Pope Francis wrote that it is always "inadmissible" to inflict the death penalty because of the inherent dignity of human life. "Consequently the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person," and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide," reads the new text, which was approved in May but only published Thursday.This helps folks talk about abortion with a straight face but it's not as if a selective approach to the sanctity of life bothered many to begin with. It doesn't seem to be going down well.

It's fascinating to see how MAD's covers have evolved over the years. It started as a comic book in 1952 with covers drawn by creator Harvey Kurtzman. He also wrote the stories in each issue, but they were illustrated by artists like Wally Wood and Jack Davis. When the publisher, EC, was almost wiped out during the comic book moral panic of the mid-50s, EC stopped publishing their great horror and science fiction titles and converted MAD into a magazine. Doug Gilford's MAD Cover Site has all 553 covers, from 1952 to the present day. As you browse through the decades, it's interesting to see how the covers reflect the culture of the time in which they were published.From Open Culture:To see the archive's covers in a large format, you need only scroll to the desired year, click on the issue number, and then click on the image that appears. (Alternatively, those with advanced Mad knowledge can simply pick an issue number from the pull-down "Select-a-Mad" menu at the top of the page.) Gilford keeps the site updated with covers right up to the latest issue: number three, as of this writing, since the magazine "rebooted" this past June as it relocated its offices from New York to California. Recent targets have included Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, and, of course, Donald Trump. Mad's longevity may be surprising, but it certainly doesn't look like America will stop providing the ridiculousness on which it has always survived any time soon.

Charted by /u/draypresct at Reddit, this shows the death rates due to unintentional injuries by age for men and women. Data from the CDC National Vital Statistics System. Cause of death methodology and other data descriptions here: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/lcwk1_hr.htmedit: I used Microsoft Excel to make the graph. The data I used were the tables that included all races and ethnicities.I'm surprised that teenage boys appear to suffer less accidents than adult men of any subsequent age.

Antarctica's brutal climate is taking its toll on the historic bases built by the original explorers and scientists. Now preservationists are working to preserve these important sites. (more…)

UkuRobot is a programmable ukulele player. Here, it plays the haunting theme from Requiem for a Dream, since used in a kajillion movie trailers. In the video below, there's a second shot of its mechanisms. (more…)

A little over two weeks ago, Russian feminist protest group Pussy Riot was arrested for crashing the field at the World Cup final wearing police uniforms. They were protesting illegal arrests. After serving 15 days in jail for their "crime," they were released, but then, to their surprise, were immediately arrested again. Looking at this video, it's obvious they weren't expecting this. Their crime this time? According to The Guardian:A tweet on Pussy Riot's official Twitter page said they had been charged with "the organisation and holding of public events without prior notice" and could face another 10 days behind bars.our 4 activists (nika nikulshina, olya pahtusova, olya kuracheva, petya verzilov) are arrested again and brought to the police station; they're charged with article "20.2.2" - "the organization and holding of public events without prior written notice’ - up to 10 days of arrest.— 𝖕𝖚𝖘𝖘𝖞 𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖙 (@pussyrrriot) July 30, 2018Here they are at the world cup:https://youtu.be/FWg7cKeJHUc

https://youtu.be/TukuNt6EBDEThree people brought a net to the San Antonio Aquarium, and when no one was looking, they scooped up a 16-inch horn shark and placed it into a baby carriage. They then strolled it up a staircase and made their way to the parking lot, taking off in a red pick up truck.The thieves were able to steal the shark from the aquarium's "touch pool," the area where people are able to touch and pet sea life, while the attendant was distracted by other visitors.According to NBC:They then ducked into a filter room and emptied out a bleach bucket, into which they deposited the shark, the aquarium said. They used the bucket to transfer the shark into the stroller and "hurried up the stairs and out to the parking lot," it said.Unfortunately, the shark is still at large."We are offering a reward for any tips that lead to the recovery of this animal," says the aquarium. "We value the lives of all of our animals and take pride in the care that we are able to give them as well as the education that we are able to give to the general public about these treasured species." Via NBC newsImage: by Ed Bierman from CA, usa - horn shark, CC BY 2.0, Link

Assigned to covertly observe and, if necessary, violently protect air travelers on flights which include passengers on a TSA terrorist watch list or on routes that are considered to have a higher probability of coming under attack in a terrorist action, federal air marshals have been a fixture on many flights since the September 11th attacks of 2001. That we seldom hear about the work that air marshals do is a very good thing. It means that we’re safe as we travel and that they’re very good at keeping a low profile as part of doing their job. It’s a gig that anyone should be proud to do. However, the pride that comes with quietly and professionally protecting folks may be in for a bit of tarnish thanks to a disturbing new program launched by the TSA called Quiet Skies. As part of Quiet Skies, air marshals are being asked to step off of the flights that they’ve been assigned to protect to undertake a new detail: gathering intelligence on civilians who aren’t on a terrorist watchlist – regular folks like you and me. Unlike ICE, which giddily has accepted a larger number of troubling new powers and responsibilities from the federal government, the air marshals are voicing their concern with the new marching orders being given to them.From The Boston Globe:Since this initiative launched in March, dozens of air marshals have raised concerns about the Quiet Skies program with senior officials and colleagues, sought legal counsel, and expressed misgivings about the surveillance program, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Globe.“What we are doing [in Quiet Skies] is troubling and raising some serious questions as to the validity and legality of what we are doing and how we are doing it,” one air marshal wrote in a text message to colleagues.It’s not just texts and mumbled complaints cherry picked by a whack of investigative journalists, either. Recently, John Casaretti, president of the Air Marshal Association, stated “The Air Marshal Association believes that missions based on recognized intelligence, or in support of ongoing federal investigations, is the proper criteria for flight scheduling. Currently, the Quiet Skies program does not meet the criteria we find acceptable.”According to the Boston Globe, TSA documents show there are about 40-50 Quiet Skies passengers pinged on domestic flights each day. On average, air marshals follow and surveil about 35 of them. Think about that: every day, 35 people, who have engaged in no criminal activity, are being researched and followed by undercover agents just because someone doesn’t like the look of them. We’re not talking about citizens of foreign nations here, either – Quiet Skies targets American citizens. For the time being, the TSA is mum on how they choose who the program targets or what makes those individuals worth the attention that they’re being given. Could it be skin color? Religious or political affiliations? Information gleamed from their private email or text conversations? Your guess is as good as anyone’s. After a ton of digging, The Boston Globe uncovered that the purpose of Quiet Skies is to “unknown or partially known terrorists; and to identify and provide enhanced screening to higher risk travelers before they board aircraft based on analysis of terrorist travel trends, tradecraft and associations.” Dig that unknown. Maybe the person air marshals are being asked to follow is a terrorist – someone better be there watching, just in case they make any sudden movements. As part of the program, travel patterns are studied and acted upon. Some of the victims of this grossly sketchy surveillance program have included a federal agent, a flight attendant and some poor schlep traveling for work. In the case of the latter, it could very well have been you or me. From a civil liberties standpoint, Quiet Skies is a serious issue. If you want to learn more about it, you’d do well with checking in with The Boston Globe’s excellent coverage of it, here. Image: by Sstrobeck23 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

The Biometric Mirror scans people's faces and uses AI to compare their faces against a database of other faces to produce a personality profile of the scanned person. The reports include ratings for the individual's responsibility, happiness, aggression, attractiveness, weirdness, and emotional stability. The project lead is Dr Niels Wouters at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Social Natural User Interfaces. The project was created for the purpose of examining the ethics of such systems, not to commercialize it.Facial recognition is already being used by police departments, most notably in China, which has announced plans to build an overarching surveillance network that is "omnipresent, completely connected, always on and fully controllable".In Australia, legislation to create a national database of faces and other biometric markers is currently before parliament. For the recent Commonwealth Games, Queensland police matched drivers' licence photos with security footage.City of Perth has deployed facial recognition cameras in the Perth CBD to identity what it calls "troublemakers" on a "Black Watchlist" that it controls. Critics say the local government is trying to be a shadow police force.Aside from the dystopian scenario of an all-powerful government (Minority Report), there's the dystopian scenario of an all-powerful corporation (Bladerunner)Facebook, already under scrutiny for data-mining practices, has rolled out facial recognition tools that consumer and privacy groups say violates user consent. The technology can be used to remotely identify people without their knowledge.Jo Lauder of ABC (Australia) tried out the system and wrote about it. Her report is shown above.

Even what's billed as the world's largest lemon battery can only generate enough juice to charge a small battery cell, so Mark Rober tries a few other fun power generators with a bunch of young scientists-to-be. (more…)

Kids are going crazy making slime with borax and what-not after watching YouTube, but these household chemicals can have seriously powerful reactions that need to be done cautiously. (more…)

At a Saturday bookstore signing, a black man "yelled at former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in a bookstore and accused Spicer of calling him a racial slur when they were students at a prep school decades ago," reports the AP. Spicer is now threatening to sue the AP for reporting Saturday's incident, which occurred in public and which was videotaped by local press.Video of the encounter published by NewportRI.com shows the man, identified as Alex Lombard, approaching Spicer at event."Sean, I was a day student at [Portsmouth] Abbey, too, with you,” Lombard said. “Hey," Spicer replies. "Yes, how are you?”You don’t remember that you tried to fight me?" Lombard said. "But you called me a [n-word] first."The video then shows security escorting Lombard out of the event."I was 14 then. I was a scared kid then, Sean. I’m not scared to fight you now," Lombard can be heard yelling.So much in American politics seems weirdly like kayfabe these days.

Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, and Lily Tomlin are going to be back on the job in a sequel to their 1980 hit comedy 9 to 5, as confirmed by Fonda.Entertainment Weekly:“My role is as an executive producer, and I’m working with the writers, with Lily, and talking to the writers,” Fonda told reporters at the Television Critics Association panel for her new HBO documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts. “Right now, Dolly, Lily and I are all intending to be in it.”The film's original screenwriter Patricia Resnick will be co-writing the script with Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation) under Fonda's executive production.Bust:...They hope to make a story that tackles the work issues of 2018, including the wage gap, sexual harassment in the workplace, shifting technology, and outsourcing.Dolly Parton also weighed in on on the storyline in a recent interview with ABC's Nightline, stating that with the current conversations around unequal pay and sexual harassment in the workplace, a sequel makes sense, and feels right to her and the other stars in a way it hadn’t before. Can't. wait.https://youtu.be/UbxUSsFXYo4

For generations, American mainstream politicians have smeared socialist movements by equating them with Stalinism and other forms of authoritarianism, but today, "socialism" is a label more and more people are embracing. (more…)

Despite being home to millions of sensible people, including a large bloc of potentially progressive Latinx voters, Arizona keeps elevating billionaire-friendly (and billionaire backed) white supremacist authoritarians to high office. (more…)

Yandex is Russia's answer to Weibo, an everything-under-one-(semi-state-controlled)-roof online service, and its answer to Alexa is Alisa. (more…)

One of California's remaining GOP stalwarts, Congressperson Dana Rohrabacher (CA48) has resorted to calling on police to stop citizens asking questions about his deeply suspicious ties to Russia. (more…)

Today's youth might not appreciate the nostalgia that keeps you from throwing out your old box of cassettes, but, like all things, they're bound to wear out with time. This Audio Cassette to MP3 Music Converter lets you digitize your favorite tunes, so you can keep enjoying them well into the future. You can get it on sale today for $20.99.This device hooks up to your computer and allows you to convert tapes to MP3 files for easy digital access. Once converted, you can transfer them to your phone or tablet for sharing whenever you like. What's more, the converter software is compatible with both Mac and PC, so you can reliably backup regardless of your preference.The Audio Cassette to MP3 Music Converter normally retails for $69.99, but it's on sale today for $20.99.

Update: New York State has revoked its approval of the Charter/Time-Warner merger and has ordered the company to finalize plans to sell off the Time-Warner assets within 60 days.When Charter merged with Time Warner Cable, it promised the state of New York that it would expand its broadband network. It didn't actually do that, though it continued to report great progress on the project, which was a lot cheaper than actually making progress. (more…)

Pilot: "It's not my first day in New York. It's not my first day in an aircraft."From the Irish Times:The Aer Lingus plane referred to as “Shamrock 104 Heavy” throughout the recording had gone down the runway southwards, and was intending to turn left across the Atlantic and towards Ireland.The pilot saw a storm upon take off to his left that he deemed unsafe and so carried on straight to await further instructions.While the pilot thought the storm was unsafe to fly through, the air traffic controller became agitated telling the pilot no other aircraft had deviated from the requested course.

Sombra is a drug-detection dog with the Colombian National Police who is apparently responsible for hundreds of arrests and the seizure of nine tons of drugs. As a result, drug traffickers the Urabeños have put a bounty out on Sombra. From the Washington Post:Reports vary on the price tag for killing the dog, between 20 and 200 million Colombian pesos — or about $7,000 and $70,000 in U.S. currency. But the threat is serious enough for the National Police to take extra precautions for Sombra’s security...Sombra came to Colombian law enforcement from a kennel in Antioquia, the region of the country that’s home to the city of Medellin, the springboard for Colombia’s fearsome cartels of the 1980s and 1990s. Outfitted in a neon-yellow vest, the dog is tasked with thrusting her trained snout into luggage and packages in Colombia’s ports and airports along the country’s Gulf Coast....In response to the bounty on Sombra’s life, General Jorge Nieto, head of the national police, has ordered the dog transferred to Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport, outside the Urabeños’ territory on the coast. Nuestro can "Sombra" fue la mejor durante los entrenamientos en detección de drogas ilícitas, en los últimos tres años se convirtió en el tormento de "Otoniel" incautandole 9 toneladas de cocaína #ConozcaMás a "Sombra" en el desfile #20DeJulio #COLOMBIAunasolaFuerza pic.twitter.com/a6tWpjkdiQ— Policía Antinarcóticos (@PoliciaAntiNar) July 20, 2018https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG47CnV0feY

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These Hanao Shoes are two mints in one. They are a combination of geta sandals (those traditional Japanese clogs/flip flops) and white sneakers. They're made by Who Love Kyoto and appear to be sold out at this time.https://www.instagram.com/p/BldB4AmgzfX/?utm_source=ig_embedhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BlSwhpYgDUk/?taken-by=wholelovekyoto(SoraNews24)

In late 2017, we learned that patent trolls (especially pharma patent gougers) were paying US Native Indian tribes to act as fronts for them in order to block review and cancellation of bogus patents -- the tribes have a treaty right to "sovereign immunity," which protects them from some forms of litigation. (more…)

In 1969, The Beatles released Abbey Road. Its iconic cover showing all four Beatles strolling cross the real Abbey Road's crosswalk in London has been mimicked by tourists many times over the years. This time Paul McCartney did the honors of crossing the street, this time in shoes, some 49 years later. https://www.instagram.com/p/BlkvFK3ATBr/?utm_source=ig_embedHis daughter Mary captured this video as he walked back across. She captioned it, "Why did the Beatle cross the Abbey Road":https://www.instagram.com/p/BlkxxU3j5cI/?utm_source=ig_embedThe answer: to perform a "secret show" at Abbey Road Studios of four new songs from his upcoming solo album Egypt Station (September 7).----Also of interest, check out these "before" photos and these outtakes from the album cover's photo shoot.Previously: Paul McCartney takes James Corden on a tour through Liverpool(TIME)

German photographer Stefan Eisele and Markus Weber spend most of their time doing commercial shoots of high-end cars, but they have also created a remarkable series of street shots that capture LA car culture. (more…)