Fisticuffs broke out on an American Airlines jet earlier this week after a passenger refused to wear a face mask and refused to get off the plane. A video clip of the brawl on the Vegas-to-Charlotte flight was posted online by passenger Jack Ross. CNN reports on the aftermath, and interviewed Jack. American Airlines released […]

Event producers are pivoting to make shows/money happen during the pandemic. Case in point, this "Drive-into Experience" event based on Stranger Things. It's like a haunted house but you remain in your vehicle the entire time. io9 explains: Netflix has teamed up with Fever and Secret Cinema to debut a drive-through immersive Stranger Things adventure […]

Slow TV YouTuber CruisingTheCut shared a relaxing cruise through part of the Macclesfield canal, a 26-mile historic waterway in Cheshire. The canal includes locks, historic buildings, and even roving bridges that allowed horses to cross the canal when the tow path changed banks. Some of the roving bridges are built with a 360-degree ramp so […]

In September 1935, Modern Mechanix covered a new "electric glove" invented by Cirilo Diaz of Cuba. According to the report, it's intended for "use by police while handling rough characters or in quelling riots…" Persons contacted by an officer wearing the glove receive a 1,500-volt shock, sufficient to remove all traces of flight." (Archive.org via […]

Break out the Sharpies! Two dangerous weather systems are headed toward the gulf coast, a double-whammy experts fear could stretch emergency resources to the limit during the pandemic. ABC 11 News: If forecasts are correct, we could see something that has never happened before: two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time. […]

In 1954, English taxi driver George King received an extraterrestrial message in his mind: "Prepare yourself! You are to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament." This was the seed of the Aetherius Society, a religious movement based on following guidance from our Cosmic Masters to help save humanity. Today, the Aetherius Society has 35 prayer […]

To pull more customers, street vendors who serve teh tarik have developed difficult maneuvers for mixing and serving their product. It's so popular that there is a teh tarik championship. Behold past winner Syed Khaidir showing why he's one of the very best. Below are some examples of individual and team routines: Here is Syed […]

Steve Bannon might look like a fraudster who got arrested on a boat, but Fox News bloviator Lou Dobbs insists that he is in fact the target of a "Deep State" conspiracy. Addressing the story on his show on Thursday night, Dobbs, one of Donald Trump's favorite Fox hosts, said Bannon "was arrested this morning, […]

We were already moving closer to the day where every man, woman and child would have their own iPad before COVID-19, but now…it's even more vital. With distance learning and other activities, kids need their own working devices to handle schoolwork and beyond. Of course, nobody is looking forward to paying up to $1,149 to […]

Following Trump's posthumous pardon for suffragist Susan B. Anthony, the museum founded in her memory is rejecting the gesture. "Objection! Mr. President, Susan B. Anthony must decline your offer of a pardon," Deborah L. Hughes wrote in a statement. She continued: "Anthony wrote in her diary in 1873 that her trial for voting was 'The […]

Mike Lindell is the CEO of MyPillow. It's a pillow company! So, when he claims that oleandrin is an incredible breakthrough in the fight against COVID-19, you know you can trust him. But hey, if the medical opinion of a pillow company manager isn't enough for you, you can rest assured that supplement has been […]

Action Park was the stuff of legend even before it shut down for its unbelievably dangerous attractions and laissez-faire attitudes about things like regulations, safety protocols, and keeping patrons alive while on premises. Now HBO Max presents Class Action Park, "the first-ever feature-length documentary to explore the legend, legacy, and truth behind a place that […]

One of the most fundamental principles of marketing is to bring your message to the places where your potential customers can be found. And one place people can be found online is YouTube. The video site sees 2 billion global users every month, and those users are highly engaged. And how's this for impact…ads on […]

If you're a music aficionado with an appreciation of the arcane for whom the forgotten tunes of the 1910s and '20s are just as compelling as anything you might stream on Spotify, and you've never heard of Janet Klein: welcome to a wonderful sinkhole of fun, where every day is Throwback Blursday. Klein is a […]

Is blockchain currency too intangible and complicated for you? Does Facebook Pay feel too In-Zuckerberg-We-Trust? Does your couch potato lifestyle prevent you from going on a Sweatcoin shopping spree? Could Goldbacks, the world's first local, spendable, voluntary currency made of physical gold, be the alt-tender answer? The Beehive State is leading the way with the […]

Speak the names of 1970s & early-'80s women rock icons such as Patty Smith, Debbie Harry, or Joan Jett, and you'll undoubtedly receive a nod of recognition. Say Suzi Quatro, and for the few who know the name, most will point to Happy Days, the American Graffiti-inspired hit '70s sit-com that featured Quatro in the […]

In the first issue of The Magnet (my new newsletter), I shared my recipe for very low-carb almond flour bread. It calls for 3 egg whites. When I make this bread, I usually make a double batch, which leaves me with 6 egg yolks. I didn't want to waste them, though, and I knew ice cream often […]

When it started in 1999, San Francisco-based upstart Salesforce wanted to become the primary digital home for companies to track their interactions with clients and work on converting more sales through better communication and smarter analytics. Fast forward 20 years and Salesforce has mostly accomplished that goal. As the world's no. 1 customer relationship management […]

On Sunday, for a Kerwin Frost/YouTube Previously: Bid on real "Pee-wee's Playhouse" history: Penny cartoon figures

At The New Republic, Alex Shephard traces the rise of "zombie" magazines: respected but failed outlets raised from the dead to crank out bizarre, low-quality or extremist content that wears the old masthead's prestigious corpse. Zombie king is "Newsweek", in the news this week after publishing a racist legal falsehood to suggest Kamala Harris is […]

After reading this Wirecutter article about products that are overpriced, crappy, or just plain don't work, I'm never buying an air fryer. As they're marketed, air fryers are miracle devices, supplying crispy fries and fish sticks without the oil and mess of a standard deep fryer. But like all things that seem too good to be […]

In the visible light spectrum, standard glass is almost completely transparent, and the metalloid germanium is almost completely opaque. But in infrared light, the opposite is true. Here's another demo: ProTip: if you find yourself hiding from authorities looking for you with an IR camera, your best bet is to find a large cardboard box […]

B.J. Fogg is the founder of Stanford University's Behavior Design Lab. In his FBM [Fogg Behavior Model], behaviors are guided by motivation, ability, and triggers, and the reason we procrastinate is that we are having a problem with one or more of these. To build motivation, you need to have a compelling, emotional reason to […]

"Travel Influencers Be Like" by Julie Nolke. The only bit missing is: "The people who live there are so poor but they are sooo happy."

The NAACP is suing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in Washington federal court. The lawsuit demands the United States Postal Service restore prompt and reliable mail delivery, and ensure that mail-in ballots are given priority status in the 2020 election. Read the complaint here. BREAKING: @NAACP_LDF & @Public_Citizen filed a lawsuit on behalf of @NAACP against […]

Screwdrivers are among the most used tools in the old household toolbox. But for all of their utility, the garden variety flathead or Phillips can come up short more often than you'd like. Some projects require finer precision for more delicate work, while others need as much power as your forearm can muster to tighten […]

The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee just released their fifth and final report on Russian involvement in the 2016 US Presidential Election. The nearly-one-thousand-page tome is more damning than the Mueller Report was, on many fronts — and even more notable due to the fact that sitting Senators from both parties signed off on the content. […]

"During 'unbearable' temperatures this bear took a dip the Liang Family pool on Aug. 18 in Arcadia, California." [source, image courtesy the Liang Family of Arcadia, CA]

Impeached U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded a boycott of Goodyear, because the American tire and automotive gear company reportedly banned his red MAGA hats on factory floors. Don't buy GOODYEAR TIRES – They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. […]

Eddy Burback makes the compelling case that late night talk shows have actually improved during the pandemic. There's also a compelling case to be made that they could not have gotten much worse. His video is a follow-up from his widely-viewed pre-pandemic criticism of the genre. It had become clear that the best interviews were […]

Data artist Nicholas Rougeux created a gorgeous collage of over 2,000 early 19th-century illustrations by James Sowerby. The public domain images were organized from over 700 color plates by color as a beautiful poster, but Rougeux also created a website where the work can be explored as a learning tool. For instance, here is his […]

South Korea in general and Seoul in particular has attracted a wave of prominent architects, and photographer Ekaterina Busygina captured some of the incredible diversity: MVRDV's The Imprint, a dual structured entertainment facility, sits as the center piece of a new tourist hub in Seoul, South Korea. The sibling buildings, the Wonderbox and Nightclub, share […]

Say what you will about the British Royal Family, but Queen Elizabeth II has excellent taste in movies. In a recent article published by The Guardian, Brian Blessed, actor and goddamn international treasure, is said to have stated that The Queen's favorite movie is the 1980 sci-fi touchstone, Flash Gordon. In the film, in Blessed […]

SungWon Cho makes a strong argument (jokument?) that the heel turn of videogame characters is telegraphed too crudely. On the other hand, this is every NPC you ever met in an Elder Scrolls game, and some of those guys turned out fine.

Allen Pan decided to make a gun that would shoot a mask onto a maskless face. Unless it gets declared a Second Amendment matter, it may be a while until this medical weaponry gets regulatory approval. Because the Venn diagram of West Coast anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers has a high overlap, he took his invention to […]

The agency that runs the electrical grid in California has warned state residents that some 3 million homes may be subjected to rolling blackouts to manage the surging energy demands caused by an ongoing extreme heat wave. Death Valley, CA saw a high of 130 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, a record temperature, and a bad […]

“It is what it is.” — Michelle Obama

Anamorphosis, or variable geometry, it the art of creating a work that must be viewed from specific vantage points to see an intended form. Georges Rousse is one of the major practitioners of the form. Here's are nice overviews of some of his finished works: Image: YouTube / Musée de l'Homme

Setting the Teletubbies' intro to Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" works a little too well, as you'll see. This pop-classical mashup is the work of Brazilian composer Martim Gueller who gives no explanation for taking Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po out of their comfort zone. P.S. Here's what that "baby sun" looks like […]

"In Girls We Trust" is a Bic pen artwork by Helena Hauss. She depicts a $20 bill that replaces Andrew Jackson with feminist icon Princess Leia. Watch her complete the 400-hour project in about a minute: She also has a YouTube channel worth checking out: Image: Instagram / helenahauss

Lewis Del Mar has released a video for "TV" that feels like a zoetrope of collaged art. It's a follow-up to "The Ceiling," which visually feels like a variation on the theme. Image: YouTube / Lewis Del Mar

If you haven't kept tabs on the advancements in smart glasses since the Google Glass project folded in 2015, we have some news — they're getting closer. Well, maybe not Google…but other manufacturers have continued to push forward the smart glasses concept. MAD Gaze has become one of the pioneers in smart glasses technology, producing […]

Ever since the great TP shortage of 2020, it's a thought that's been inching around in the back of your mind. Should I become…a bidet person? The answer is a resounding yes. There's a reason much of the rest of the modern world embraced the bidet lifestyle decades ago. Americans use about 36.5 billion rolls […]

Batman never roars into the Gotham night without his utility belt. James Bond never embarks on a world-saving mission without stopping to see Q and picking up a few helpful gadgets. The world can be a challenging, even occasionally dangerous place — and that's never been more apparent than in the past few months. So […]

Jim Kelly, he of The Tabletop Engineer and Bexim's Bazaar magazine, has launched another new monthly publication, The RPG and Wargame Supply Sourcebook. The idea is to create a one-stop resource guide to those largely small/indie companies making and selling miniatures, gaming terrain, RPG materials, modeling tools and supplies, and other gaming-related products and services. […]

The much-anticipated Ruth Asawa stamps are here! Buy several sheets and give one of the US's most beloved and relied-upon institutions a little infusion of scratch. Image: USPS

Vacuum cleaners have come a long way since those giant bulky bag behemoths that used to take up most of the hall closet. Machines that handle that kind of cleanup now have to be more than just carpet sweepers. They need to be small, powerful, convenient, and capable of handling a variety of big and […]

Everybody's got a story. Unfortunately, not everybody has the tools to tell that story the right way. That's especially true for someone looking to produce their first screenplay. Just as with any type of writing, penning a script for the screen has a set of rules all its own. Understanding that structure, as well as […]

Super weird. Sound up. Video and music by Ghoul Skool of Everything Is Terrible! Thank you, The Memory Hole.

In Georgia, the City of Stone Mountain is shutting down public transportation, closing a park, and urging everyone to avoid the area on Saturday, when a large number of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and militia members plan to gather. Why? Located in suburban Atlanta, Stone Mountain Park is home to a giant sculpture of Confederate heroes. […]