The Pry.Me Bottle Opener holds tens of thousands of times its own weight, and you can pick one up now from the Boing Boing Store.This remarkable keychain is considerably smaller than any of your keys, but don’t let that fool you: it can easily open any bottle, and could even tow a trailer full of bowling balls if you had a hitch small enough. It’s made from Grade 5 titanium — the same type that’s used in countless industrial and aerospace applications. Needless to say, this tiny piece of hardware will easily outlast you.Because of its unique shape and comically high tensile strength, this bottle opener can be so small that you’ll never notice it’s in your pocket. It also includes a heavy-duty key ring to replace the flimsy one that probably came with with your house keys. You can get one of them here for $10.99.

It's been a whole day since we learned about another example of systematic, widespread fraud by America's largest bank Wells Fargo (ripping off small merchants with credit card fees), so it's definitely time to learn about another one: scamming mortgage borrowers out of $43/month for an unrequested and pointless "home warranty service" from American Home Shield, a billion-dollar scam-factory that considers you a customer if you throw away its junk-mail instead of ticking the "no" box and sending it back. (more…)

"Cute Caique Parrot Bird Silly Walk" [via] is among the highlights from a YouTube channel dedicated largely to the adorable exploits of parrots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjwpiNfbVwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN0QvrTyqEY

In The Network Structure of Opioid Distribution on a Darknet Cryptomarket, (Sci-Hub mirror), a paper presented today at the American Sociological Association meeting in Montreal, social scientists Scott W. Duxbury and Dana L. Haynie lay out their findings on using fake bad reviews to disrupt the darknet drug-trade. (more…)

In the summer of 1972, the song "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) by New Jersey bar band Looking Glass took the charts by surprise. Now considered a classic and one of the best songs ever written, it almost didn't get air time. Elliot Lurie wrote and composed the number one hit and tells its story in this 2016 interview. In it, he debunks the many rumors surrounding the song, including that it was inspired by the true story of a real spinster named Mary Ellis who had a hot romance with a sailor. It wasn't, Lurie claims. It's a complete work of fiction.Want to hear the song? Here ya go...https://youtu.be/DVx8L7a3MuE

Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla must open access to a public beach that he'd closed for private use, says a California court.From The Guardian:Khosla’s refusal to restore access has made him something of a symbol of the immense wealth in the tech industry and rising income inequality in the region.Last year, his attorneys claimed that he would open the gate to the beach only if the government paid him $30m, an amount that state officials said was unreasonably high. In October, Khosla also sued two state agencies, accusing the government of using “coercion and harassment” to infringe on his private property rights.The California coastal commission, established by voters in 1972 to protect public use of the coast, has reported that beachgoers have increasingly complained about private security guards telling them they are trespassing on private property and forcing them to leave the public beaches.Photograph of Martin's Beach: Marcin Wichary/Flickr

The hits keep on coming for the largest bank in America: in addition to stealing millions with fraudulent overdraft fees, creating 2,000,000 fraudulent accounts, blackballing whistleblowers, defrauding mortgage borrowers, and stealing tens of thousands of cars with fraudulent repos, they also grossly overcharged America's struggling small businesses for processing their credit-card fees, according to a new lawsuit. (more…)

This project management bundle will help you get organized and learn how to lead a team to success. You can pay what you want for these five courses when you pick them up from the Boing Boing Store.To help you become an invaluable asset for your company, this bundle includes a curated collection of professional resources. In the Six Sigma certification course, you’ll learn how to efficiently plan manufacturing processes that minimize waste and product variation. You can get the best out of your organization’s employees by learning how to set goals for your teammates and monitor their progress in the Performance Management section. This bundle also includes a crash-course in the fundamentals of project planning and cost estimation, as well as handy guides for decluttering your life and getting things done.You can pay what you want for this Project Management Bundle here.

This is not new news, it’s old news. But maybe you haven’t seen it, and it’s so nutty that I feel compelled, with a box of Williams Sonoma Peppermint Chocolate Bark sitting open in front of me, to share this with you.It’s a Japanese game show where a curtain is whisked open to reveal a room, and the contestants are shown items in that room, such as a shoe or a picture frame, or a table, or a plant, that are highly unlikely to be edible. They are asked to guess if it’s edible or not and then bite it. Oddly, some of the items turn out to be stunning edible versions of things you would never consider chomping on. The video will give you a chuckle … just don’t take a bite out of anyone sitting next to you. I take no responsibility if your significant other mistakes you for one of the walking dead.https://youtu.be/2ZDq_jIv4sMVia Kotaku

Tattoo artist Phil Berge's handiwork is old school, yes, but some of his tats more than that. They are animated! How does he do it? At the Tattoo Shack in Quebec where he works, he inks multiple people with one frame of an animation. For instance, to create that Bart Simpson "tattoo flipbook" (above), he had to ink 19 different people.This one was inspired by a 1950s Gallo wine commercial and took 11 inked people to animate:https://youtu.be/qWRcoWI6e_Y"Bad Mickey" took 13 (naturally):https://youtu.be/2IHdh0oyfn4This one was inspired by a Popeye cartoon short called, "Sock-a-Bye, Baby" and took 17 individual tattoos to complete:https://youtu.be/jckexfMgUyYPretty cool, isn't it? You can check out more of his (mostly non-animated) work at his Instagram.(Geekologie)

A petition has been posted on Change.org by a Maryland gamer, Brad Smoley, to try and convince Scandinavian stick furniture powerhouse IKEA that there's a significant-enough market for a dining room table that converts into a gaming table. He writes:The board gaming community is passionate and fickle about their gaming accessories. They are also a large group with disposable income. There have been many attempts in the community to develop a high-quality table appropriate for both dining and gaming, but few have been affordable enough for the community at large to enjoy. That is why this petition has been created. IKEA is an industry leader in creating multi-functional furniture at affordable prices. The tabletop gaming community is already a heavy user of IKEA's KALLAX product as it is an efficient way to store and display their gaming collections. An affordable multi-function gaming table designed by IKEA would be an incredible addition to not only IKEA's line up of products, but the board gaming community's list of essential gaming accessories.I believe the petition just launched within the past 24 hours and has already gathered over 5300 signatures (of the desired 7500). I signed. I'm one of those gamers who covets such a table but could never afford what handmade and small production models go for.

President Trump and his family own, operate, and profit bigly from the most expensive hotel in the nation's capital. Driving the inflated rates at the Trump International Hotel in Washington: favor-seekers from around the world know to stay there when they hope to curry favor with Trump's government. (more…)

Fascinating and detailed map of the eclipse path.

Our guest on the Cool Tools Show podcast this week is Adam Rubin. Adam is the New York Times best-selling author of Dragons Love Tacos, Robo-Sauce, and half a dozen other critically-acclaimed picture books. He is also a world-renowned inventor of illusions and was recently named Director of Puzzles and Games for ArtofPlay.com.Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single pageShow notes:Frixion Erasable Blue Gel Ink Pen ($13, 3 Pack)"So, this pen is not actually marketed as a disappearing ink pen. It’s marketed as a Frixion Pen, and its intention is to be an erasable pen — it’s a normal-looking pen and on the back of the pen is this sort of rubber or plastic nib. And if you write with the pen and you rub the nib over the ink, the ink goes away. But, the true nature of the pen is that it's heat activated. So, if you heat up the ink, it disappears. That could be with the nib that's on the back of the pen or that could be with the flame from a lighter or that could be in a microwave. So, basically, what you have, is you have a pen that writes with ink that you can make disappear with fire. And that is a pretty cool tool to me. … One of the cool things about it is that you can use it sort of as a fun science thing to do with kids because, you don’t necessarily need to use fire. If you draw on paper and you put it in the microwave for about 15 seconds, you can watch the ink visibly disappear with nothing touching it, which, is a really fun experiment with kids.”Ultra-Sil Day Pack ($33)"The Super Scrunch Backpack … It’s a rip-stop backpack. It's like 20 liters and it stuffs down into a pouch that's smaller than your fist. It's super strong. It's super reliable. And I keep one in all of my bags. My backpack, my carry-on, my duffle. I always have an extra backpack that takes up less room than a pair of socks. … So, when you’re on the road, you want to put some laundry in there or you want to put extra souvenirs or you just want something for hiking to stick into your larger backpack, it’s a totally awesome product.”Why Knot? ($11)“[Why Knot?] is an illustrated guide to knot tying that was written by Philippe Petit, he is the famous subject of the documentary, Man on Wire. Where, he, tight-rope walked between the Twin Towers before they were finished being built. … An amazing guy. Like a total Polymath. He illustrated and wrote this book himself, which is pretty amazing because he is definitely a guy who is very dependent on knots. So, he's super passionate about the history, and he's really good at explaining the different kinds of knots you might need to use for sailing or for camping or hiking. And he’s even got some magic trick-type of knots in there and there’s some really cool decorative knots as well. … I learned how to tie a monkey knot, or a monkey’s fist from the book.”Black Ergonomic Stool with Foot Ring ($51)“I was in the advertising industry for 10 years, and I quit my day job almost two years ago now to write full-time and work from home at design and I was worried that I would just spend the whole day sitting in a chair and just kind of slouched over. So, I was looking for something to help me overcome that problem and I found this stool. It’s an adjustable height, rotating, rolling, desk stool and it is so perfect for me. …I like it because it gives me a couple of options, like I can sit my feet flat on the floor and get that upright posture for a while and then sort of switch to more of a perched position like a little bit more on the edge of the stool with my heels up on the base ring.”

Two employees at the US embassy in Havana have been sent home after suffering hearing loss from a silent "acoustic attack." From http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/09/politics/us-cuba-acoustic-attack-embassy/index.html:The sophisticated device that operated outside the range of audible sound was deployed either inside or outside the residences of US diplomats living in Havana, according to three US officials.The Cuban government says it had nothing to do with the attack.From Time:Cuba employs a state security apparatus that keeps many people under surveillance and U.S. diplomats are among the most closely monitored people on the island. Like virtually all foreign diplomats in Cuba, the victims of the incidents lived in housing owned and maintained by the Cuban government.However, officials familiar with the probe said investigators were looking into the possibilities that the incidents were carried out by a third country such as Russia, possibly operating without the knowledge of Cuba's formal chain of command.

I'm not sure if this dog is looking for snacks in the rug or if it just found a new way to feel good. But it sure is cute!

What if Quentin Tarantino made a 1-minute video on how to make spaghetti and meatballs? This would be it! Self-described "freelance foodie-for-hire" David Ma has created a brilliant mini-series of recipe how-tos, reimagined in the style of movie directors. His other titles, all on YouTube, include What if Wes Anderson Made S'mores?, What if Michael Bay Made Waffles?, and What if Alfonso Cuaron Made Pancakes? You need to see them all!https://youtu.be/51sqHeClZ3s

My Walkaway book-tour is basically over, but I'm taking a little victory lap tonight at my local library, the Buena Vista Branch of the Burbank Public Library. Hope to see you there!

Listen: 'Nuclear War,' by space prophet Sun Ra and his mighty arkestra. (more…)

Russ writes, "Via a FOIA request I made, this is Ajit Pai's detailed schedule from January 20 to the end of June. Shows who he met with, where he traveled, etc."

Buzzfeed presents a long (and somewhat rambling) data-driven look at the recent history and current state of Facebook's hyper-partisan news (AKA "fake news") bubble, tracing the money, growth areas, declines and personalities behind what's possibly the cause or the effect (or both) of today's political chaos. (more…)

Why can a mouse survive a fall from a skyscraper, but not a dog or an elephant? This episode of Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell explores size differences in animals, and how it affects their anatomies and physiologies.

America's internet is sucks and the law obliges the FCC to "take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market," but dingo-babysitter Ajit Pai (a former telcoms lobbyist that Donald Trump put in charge of the FCC) has a counterproposal: just declare fast internet unimportant to Americans, and hope that they'll put up with slow mobile broadband instead of blazing-fast wired connections. (more…)

That now-ex-Googler who published a memo explaining why it's a fact that women are biologically unable to be good tech workers had a point, but honestly, the problem isn't ovaries: it's organs. (more…)

This summer, ABC News made a historically large payout to settle a defamation lawsuit over 'pink slime,' or what the meat industry likes to call 'lean finely textured beef.'No, that's not referring to Hulk Hogan, but there is a worrisome connection between this media lawsuit and the one backed by Peter Thiel against Gawker, which silenced that publication. (more…)

Today at the Usenix Security conference, a group of University of Washington researchers will present a paper showing how they wrote a piece of malware that attacks common gene-sequencing devices and encoded it into a strand of DNA: gene sequencers that read the malware are corrupted by it, giving control to the attackers. (more…)

Why we secretly love our cords. Tamara Warren: There’s a certain security in the cord. It’s the idea of connection, perhaps even dating back to our days in the womb. ... A battery, no matter how sophisticated, is fleeting. When we have our cords with us, we are in constant pursuit of power, even when we are fully charged, as a form of security. We often discover our misfortune — the loss of power — when it’s too late. The opposite of being fully charged is dead. Cords, and our attachment to them, have taken on a metaphor weighted in existentialism. There is anxiety in being too far removed. We are in a relationship with our cords.Allow me to retort!The cord is a chain. It's the imposition of place, perhaps even dating back to our days in the mire. ... A cord, no matter how comforting, is invariable. When we wander, we are in pursuit of freedom; we often discover our misfortune — the tether — too late. The opposite of mobility is stasis. Honestly, I hate cords so much! The first trillionaire will be put there by batteries.

In an age of ubiquitous, self-synchronizing phones, timepieces are increasingly a form of kinetic sculpture. (more…)

Rick "Tinyworlds" Hoppmann has released all of his wonderful forest photos under a non-commercial Creative Commons license. You can use it, remix it and share it yourself so long as you credit him and so long as you don't profit from it.If you want to use my photos for commercial use (e.g. album covers), please send me an email: rick.kelgar(at)web.dehttps://twitter.com/Mezaka_/status/739439204883697664

To show its new football field is sitting on one big earthquake fault line -- the Hayward Fault -- UC Berkeley made a crooked line in the north end zone's grass.This is what it looks like up close:https://twitter.com/RGBearTerritory/status/894039327763603456Here's what SBNation: California Golden Bears thinks about the unusual addition:On one hand, the fault line isn’t too prominently sticking out, so you really have to look for it to find it. On the other, it’s probably best not to draw that too much attention to an active earthquake fault line that forced the university to enact millions in overdue athletic renovations and have left the athletic department mired in debt. Always compromises to be made in the football life.Thanks, Sara!lead image via Cal FB Recruiting

If you're on Facebook, no doubt you've seen celebrities peddling their MasterClass online courses. If you're not familiar, for 90 bucks you get lifetime access to a course where masters teach their craft.For instance, Steve Martin teaches comedy, Serena Williams teaches tennis, and Dr. Jane Goodall teaches conservation.That's where this parody by Bellpond Films steps in. It imagines intergalactic gangster Jabba the Hutt as a stand-up comedian whose teaching a Masterclass on comedy. I especially appreciate the way he deals with hecklers.Thanks, Hart Perez!

Photographer Amy Lombard teamed up with nail artist Sonya Meesh to create toenail art that you won't be able to unsee. Whether that's good or bad is in the eye of the beholder. (more…)

Rolling shutters and algorithmic stabilization created an interesting effect on this racing footage. (more…)

Despite the push towards USB-C as the one connector to rule them all, most peripherals in the wild are still largely USB-A. Since there’s little reason to upgrade all of your old flash drives, wired keyboards, and game controllers, you’ll need a decent hub to keep them all talking to your new computer.The MondoHub Master USB Hub features 24 USB 2.0 ports to connect all of your legacy gear, with hardware on/off switches for each one. To quickly charge phones and tablets, and take advantage of external storage with high-speed data transfer capabilities, it also includes four USB 3.0 ports. And to keep your devices safe, it has automatic over-current protection.Reduce cable clutter and extend your desktop’s connectivity options with a MondoHub Master USB Hub. You can pick one up in the Boing Boing Store for $54.99.

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“Chappi found out a way to enjoy bath time. 😍🐾💦” "Splish splash I was taking a bath"By request of @yayboobs [instagram] Chappi found out a way to enjoy bath time. 😍🐾💦 #hedgehogsofinstagram #hedgie #hedgiemom #bathtime #cute A post shared by Chappaquiddick 💫 (@chappi_momma) on Aug 8, 2017 at 12:20pm PDT

What hell hath Peter Thiel and Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker wrought?https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/895399427459993604The Fox News host Eric Bolling is suing social media star and Huffington Post contributor Yashar, who last week reported Bolling sent grotesque sexual messages to female colleagues some years ago. (more…)

In 1969, Alan Watts collaborated with filmmaker Elda Hartley on "The Flow of Zen," a lovely psychedelic 16mm film with a rather eerie score. (Archive.org via /r/ObscureMedia)

On August 20 and September 5, 1977, NASA launched two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, on a grand tour of the solar system and into the mysteries of interstellar space. It was an incredibly audacious mission, and it's still going. My friend Timothy Ferris produced the Voyager golden record that's attached to each of the spacecraft and went on to write a dozen enlightening books about science and culture. (Tim also wrote the liner notes for the Voyager Golden Record vinyl box set I co-produced that's now available here.) In the new issue of National Geographic, Tim tells the remarkable story of the Voyager mission and why "it almost didn’t happen." From National Geographic: The prospect of a “grand tour” of the outer planets emerged in 1965 from the musings of an aeronautics graduate student named Gary Flandro, then working part-time at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the world’s preeminent center for interplanetary exploration. At age six, Flandro had been given Wonders of the Heavens, a book that showed the planets lined up like stepping-stones. “I thought about how neat it would be to go all the way through the solar system and pass each one of those outer planets,” he recalled.Assigned at JPL to envision possible missions beyond Mars, Flandro plotted the future positions of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune with paper and pencil. He found that they would align in such a way that a spacecraft could tap the planets’ orbital momentum to slingshot from one to the next, gaining enough velocity to visit all four planets within 10 or 12 years rather than the decades such a venture would require otherwise. The mission launch window would open for a matter of months in the late 1970s, then close for another 175 years.It was an ambitious idea at a time when the apex of interplanetary exploration was Mariner 4 shooting 21 grainy photos as it flew past Mars. No probe had ever functioned for anything close to a decade in space. None had the intelligence to manage complex planetary encounters at vast distances without constant human hand-holding. Playing crack-the-whip past multiple planets might work in theory but had never been attempted in practice. “I was told, ‘This is impossible; stop wasting my time,’” Flandro recalled."Why NASA’s Interstellar Mission Almost Didn’t Happen" (National Geographic)

In the 1960s, book designers gave many science and psychology paperbacks glorious avant-garde and op art covers. Henning M. Lederer just released his second collection of animations of these fine book jackets! Below is the first, from 2015.https://vimeo.com/141891887

Artist and experiential futurist Stuart Candy created a hypothetical near-future product called the NurturePod, a "programmable para-parenting pod" that takes care of all the bothersome things parents have to do to raise a baby, like pay attention to it. NurturePod is on exhibit at M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp, Belgium.Andrew Curry interviewed Stuart about the project:AC: One more thing that strikes me about this, about the languaging, is it's not just about marketing. There are a whole lot of cues about the idea of the new, the idea of the modern, and the classic ways in which technology companies make us feel inadequate and then sell us reassurance.SC: I suppose using those tropes could be said to invite reflection on how embedded in the tropes we are, because we know this particular thing doesn't exist. But that's a bit of an intellectual angle. I find people's emotional responses interesting, from watching them interact with it and from what they've shared in conversation.AC: What sort of things have they said?SC: "I'm really drawn to this, and also repulsed by it." There's this sense of being torn, and that is quite satisfying to hear, because I think creating or inviting a complex emotional response is something that we should strive for in futures work. This is why design and film and performance and games are important –– the whole repertoire of approaches to experiential futures; like the proverbial toothbrush that reaches places regular ones can't. Hopefully we are on our way to a better futures toothbrush.Related: Baby cries furiously whenever phone taken away, instantly pacified when returned

A CPR tutor needed resuscitating when he went into cardiac arrest during class, it rained pork sausages in Florida, and a pet parrot turned canary to help convict a killer.It’s reassuring to know that good old-fashioned tabloid stories haven’t entirely disappeared, though this week's magazines persist in offering their warped window on the world of politics.“33 Clinton Enemies Murdered!” screams the 'Globe’ cover, asking: “Who’s Behind The Killings?” We don’t have to wait long for the answer: it’s on page 8: “Hillary Killing Her Enemies!” Cue the libel lawsuit. “Evil Clintons will do ANYTHING to bury the truth about corruption,” adds the story, which claims that “Ruthless Hillary Clinton’s secret squad of brutal assassins is quietly rubbing out her enemies.”After citing a succession of suspicious deaths the ‘Globe’ source concedes: “No one has ever proven if any of these people were actually murdered on Bill and Hillary’s orders - but there are just too many of them to ignore!” Right. That should stand up in court.The ‘National Enquirer’ continues its Trump-loving coverage with its cover exclusive: “Obama’s Plot to Destroy Trump!” Its source is none other than ‘Enquirer’ political columnist (a job title that must count as a career pinnacle) Dick Morris. He exposes former President Obama’s “secret war room” in Washington D.C. with its “bunker” that “reeks of sabotage, intrigue & dirty tricks.” Obama is allegedly trying to save his legislative achievements, which is hardly shocking or nefarious. The ‘Enquirer’ even quotes “political maverick Roger Stone” allegedly confirming the existence of an “Obama war room,” explaining “The Obamas are desperate to return to power. Barack intends to insert his wife as president.” Because former presidents have the authority to declare their spouse the next president? Is that really how it works, Roger?“Gotcha!” yells the ‘Globe’ headline (echoing the infamous headline in the ‘Sun’ when Britain sunk Argentine warship the ‘General Belgrano' during the Falklands War) reporting on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arresting 114 “vicious crooks and perverts” in a New York raid, The 11-day operation was “spearheaded by Donald Trump,” reports the ‘Globe,’ which implies that he was out on the raids wearing a SWAT flak jacket and carrying a battering ram, rather than just ranting repeatedly about criminal immigrants. But ICE officials have declined to say if many of those arrested were picked up at courthouses - a self-selecting group that would give the false impression that the majority of immigrants picked up in raids are criminals, and a practice denounced by legal aid groups.But you can't argue with a publication that on the same cover reports on Brad Pitt’s marital split keeping him from his daughter: “Shiloh: 323 Days Without Daddy!” That’s an awfully long time for an 11-year-old not to see her father. Except when you read the story on page 4, the ‘Enquirer’ reports: “Brad has weekly supervised visits with all the kids . . . “ So, it’s actually been no more than seven days since Shiloh last saw her father? That’s close to 323 days, isn’t it?‘Titanic’ movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet “take their romance off-screen,” claims the ‘Enquirer,’ assuring: “It’s Real Love!” Poolside photos show DiCaprio with his arm around Winslet’s shoulder, while she has slipped an arm across his back. Why, they could almost be old friends. The fact that Winslet is married, and that DiCaprio has an appetite for supermodels half his age seems to have been ignored.Back in the real world, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s “divorce is off” according to ‘Us’ magazine, which quotes a less-than-convincing unnamed source saying: “It wouldn’t be surprising if they announced that they’re calling it off and trying to work things out.”‘People’ magazine’s cover girl this week is TV’s ‘Bachelorette’ Rachel Lindsay, who explains why she chose to give her final rose to Bryan Abasolo: “I followed my heart.” Does that mean she ignored her head, and all the voices of logic that told her not to get engaged to a man after only two months of public serial cheating with 30 other men?Fortunately we have the crack investigative team at ‘Us’ magazine to tell us that Jennifer Garner wore it best, Cat Deeley loves cheese (“the stinkier the better”), and that the stars are just like us: they shop at Whole Foods, ride rollercoasters, and play with their pets. Actress Lili Simmons carries bamboo reusable eating utensils, pink Beats headphones and rose quartz from Sedona “that reminds me to love and stay grounded” in her Louis Vuitton purse, How does rose quartz help you stay grounded - unless you carry 200 pounds of the mineral in your purse? Try getting that off the ground.Or 15 pounds of Italian pork sausage, which is what inexplicably fell from the sky and landed on the roof of a South Florida family, according to the ‘National Examiner,’ which also brings us the story of CPR instructor David Knowles who had to tell his students how to save his life when he suffered a heart attack while teaching a class in Exeter, Britain. Both stories, sounding implausible, are of course among the few accurate reports in this week’s tabloids, as is the ‘Enquirer’ story about the parrot which apparently witnessed a Michigan woman killing her husband and whose repeated squawks of “Don’t shoot!” helped convict her.What is the world coming to if the most inane stories in the tabloids are actually true?Onwards and downwards . . .

Televangelist superpastor Robert Jeffress says God has given Trump permission to bomb North Korea. "When it comes to how we should deal with evil doers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear: God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary — including war — to stop evil. In the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong-Un.”From Vox:Jeffress has long been one of Trump’s political allies, one central to Trump and his team’s increasingly unsettling conflation of Christianity, nationalism, and pro-Trump cult of personality. Jeffress spoke at Trump’s inauguration. In July, he led a “Freedom Rally,” during which he praised Trump as God’s choice for America and a church choir sang a hymn with the lyrics “Make America Great Again,” which is now available for pastors to download for their own worship services.Jeffress also attended an impromptu White House evangelical prayer meeting last month, which, I previously argued, heralded a new age in church-state relations for the Trump administration. It was clear that Trump wasn’t just appealing to evangelicals to fire up his voter base, but rather using the rhetoric of divinely ordained rule to delegitimize criticism from the mainstream media or even fellow Republicans.

Uncombable hair syndrome is a real thing. It also goes by the names Pili trianguli et canaliculi, Spun-glass hair, and Cheveux incoiffables. According to Wikipedia:The hair is normal in quantity and is usually silvery-blond or straw-colored. It is disorderly, it stands out from the scalp, and cannot be combed flat. The underlying structural anomaly is longitudinal grooving of the hair shaft, which appears triangular in cross section. This is caused by mutations in one of three possible genes; PADI3, TGM or TCHH3.Today profiled Shilah Yin (Instagram), "one of only about 100 people in the world known to have the genetic condition."“Shilah loves her unique hair, but that has come from constant positive reinforcement at home from friends and family,” her mom Celeste Calvert-Yin, who lives in Melbourne Australia, told TODAY via email. People often say she has hair like Doc Brown from back to the future, lucky it's one of our fave movies #uncombablehairsyndrome A post shared by Shilah Madison Calvert-Yin (@shilahmadison) on Jul 12, 2017 at 2:49pm PDT

An influencer marketing agency called Mediakix showed how easy it was to create a phony Instagram star and get brands to pay money for the star to plug their products. They created two different accounts. For calibeachgirl310 they hired a model and photographed her in a lot of different outfits posing in beachy spots. The second account, wanderingggirl, was made completely from free stock photos of exotic locations, some with a blonde woman seen from the back.Then they bought fake followers for the fake stars:We started with buying 1,000 followers per day because we were concerned that purchasing too many followers at the onset would result in Instagram flagging the account. However, we quickly found that we were able to buy up to 15,000 followers at a time without encountering any issues.The pricing for followers ranged from $3-8 per 1,000 followers, depending on the reliability of the service. Websites that sold followers on the lower end of that price range often did not deliver in a timely manner, or sometimes at all, so we switched to more expensive follower providers later in the project. Even at $8 per 1,000 followers, we were able to accumulate over 30,000 followers for the travel account and over 50,000 followers for the fashion account with minimal investment over the course of just two months.Step three was to buy fake engagement -- between 500 to 2,500 fake likes and 10 to 50 fake comments per photo. "We paid around 12 cents per comment, and between $4-9 per 1,000 likes."Then they registered the fake accounts on various influencer marketing platforms: We secured four paid brand deals total, two for each account. The fashion account secured one deal with a swimsuit company and one with a national food and beverage company.The travel account secured brand deals with an alcohol brand and the same national food and beverage company. For each campaign, the "influencers" were offered monetary compensation, free product, or both.

Someone at the BBC is in trouble with the boss. During a news broadcast where anchor Sophie Raworth is talking about the game of cricket, a more interesting video is playing on a screen in the background, watched by a BBC employee who was slumped in a chair wearing headphones. A half-dressed woman peels off her shirt, and then proceeds to take off her black bra. The BBC's 3.8 million viewers got an eyeful – if they happened to look towards the left of the screen.According to The Sun:“The employee is on borrowed time when bosses catch up with him. You can’t get away with this sort of stuff anymore.”Andrew Allison, of The Freedom Association, which wants to axe the BBC license fee, said: “I’m surprised the BBC hasn’t got internet filters to stop staff doing this sort of thing. I bet they get them now.”Bemused viewers took to social media. Zane Jawad tweeted: “@BBCNews why is there a porn video playing behind one of your news anchors during a report?”Another user wrote: “Did I just see boobs on News at Ten?”

A jackass jogging down Putney Bridge in London pushes a 33-year-old woman out out of his way and into oncoming traffic. A bus has to swerve to avoid hitting her. According to The Telegraph, the bus stopped and passengers helped the woman, who had minor injuries. Officers said the jogger ran the other way across the bridge around 15 minutes later and the victim attempted to speak to him, but "he did not acknowledge her".An appeal has been launched for witnesses or anyone who recognises the jogger in the CCTV.The jogger is described as white in his early to mid-30s, with brown eyes and short brown hair.He was wearing a light grey T-shirt and dark blue shorts.Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.