Karl Jenkins' "Adiemus" is apparently the most-performed piece of music in the world. A sweeping classical epic with vocals written in a mysterious imaginary language, it was composed for Delta Airlines, which wanted to copy British Airways' classic "Aria on Air" ad (itself by the spookily brilliant pairing of Malcolm McLaren and Yanni.) (more…)

New Jersey governor Chris Christie has vehemently denied knowing anything about his staff's scheme to punish a local mayor by ordering lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in 2013. But today, prosecutors in the trial against two former Christie staffers charged with closing the lanes said Christie knew about it all along.Via NYT:

While looking into the Kano snap-together learning computer kit (Kickstarted in 2013, reviewed here last January) I got to thinking about Radio Shack's classic, much-loved 150-in-One Electronics Kit, which occupied literal years of my time when I was a boy. (more…)

The Nuggy Smoker's Multi-Tool is a ten-in-one tool that takes all the mess out of the smoking process - from packing to scraping it clean. The tools included are:

Lemmings is one of the best video games of all time, and seemed in the 90s to be on the verge of becoming an explosive media phenomenon. Its tiny animated characters are fab: adorable yet down-to-earth, capable yet doomed, a smorgasbord of sarcastic bite and hurt/comfort neediness. After publisher Psygnosis was bought by Sony, though, the Lemmings soon vanished into the corporate archives. The creators went on to make the Grand Theft Auto series. But perhaps their first mega-hit could have its day again.

Jess Morrissette writes, "I'm a professor of Political Science at Marshall University, and I recently launched a project aimed at cataloging screenshots of every soda machine to have ever appeared in a video game. We've reached over 400 entries in less than a month, featuring virtual soda machines ranging from the earliest days of video game history through games released in recent weeks." (more…)

Hey, you know Ahmad Khan Rahami, right? Yeah mate, google that mug. He's our man, tell us if you spot him.The real text message, sent to New Yorkers using an emergency response system, was a little less casual: "WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-yr-old male. See media for pic. Call 9–1–1 if seen." But it's annoyed critics of sloppy policing and convinced some area Muslims that it's not a good day to be out on the streets.The wireless emergency alert system is for Amber Alerts, alerts from the President, and imminent threats to public safety. It's a bad idea to use such a rudimentary, text-only, in-your-face alert system to directly deputize 13m people in the search of a man with a common Arab name.

The Chelsea Manning Support Network has just emailed us this latest update:1. Chelsea has written an Op-Ed for the Guardian that will be publishedtomorrow at 7am EST.2. Recap: New Administrative board date Thursday, September 22, 9:30 am.3. Please sign the petition at FreeChelsea.com(Image courtesy of the Chelsea Manning Support Network)

Written by and starring Dan Carlyon, the web series The Adventures of Jacketman gives a voice to all the nerdy would-be superheroes out there. You can find all six episodes of the show's first season on the Jacketman YouTube page. (more…)

Kristie Wolfe loved The Hobbit ever since seeing the cartoon as a child, so she decided to build a hobbit house in Washington State. This fun video shows the whole process, and it's even listed on Airbnb. (more…)

One year ago, grandmother Shirley Curry started posting impossibly charming Let's Play videos while playing Skyrim to connect with her grandkids. They are delightful to watch and listen to. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcXsH88XlKMAfter Every Frame a Painting analyzed The Marvel Symphonic Universe (see last week's post), Dan Golding expanded on that great video arguing that film music, and films themselves, have an interesting relationship with originality. (more…)

You'll never miss Cool Tools Lab's Recomendo newsletter if you sign up for the newsletter here.Readables:Books related to my new book The Inevitable that I have found useful:Magic and Loss by Virginia Heffernan: Treats the digital world as a great work of art. The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos: Best book to date on artificial intelligence. Machines of Loving Grace by John Markoff: Best book to date on robots. Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock: Why predicting is hard and how to get better at it. Pogue’s Basics by David Pogue: Extremely practical tips for techno-literacy. — Kevin KellyFollow:I’m a big Welcome to Night Vale fan, a community news podcast about a fictional town plagued by paranormal and spooky events. Besides listening to the podcast, I prioritized my Facebook feed to see their absurd status updates first. They always make me smile. Example: “Scientists discover a new species of spider on the back of your shirt. ‘Oh wow. It’s crazy big. Good luck,’ their press release reads.” — Claudia LamarEdible:When it comes to airplane food, I agree with Anthony Bourdain: it’s better to go hungry. But I don’t like going hungry so I pack snacks with me. One of my favorites is the Graze Bar. It’s a tasty, chewy stick of grass fed beef containing no sugar, gluten, or MSG. — Mark FrauenfelderTravel tip:Hopper is a smartphone app that predicts when airfare to a desired destination will be the cheapest. I’ve set up an alert for Chiang Mai, Thailand. About once a month Hopper sends me a message with the best price it can find, telling me to “wait” or “buy.” The price recently dropped from the $900s to the $500s and Hopper said “buy.” — MFStuff:We bought this heated Shiatsu Massager more than a year ago, and it has definitely been put to good use. We keep it plugged in right next to the couch and use it every night. The arm handles allows you to adjust and place the massage nodes directly on hard to reach muscles. — CLThings:Amazon now has a section where they sell originally Kickstarted projects. Bottom up retailing. — KK

Dan Gillmor writes: "Time for journalists to declare a boycott on bullshit. Start with muting the sound when Trump lies during the debate." (more…)

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Cats that are sleeping. Sleeping cats. That is all.(more…)

There was no one like Artie Simek (1916-1975), who lettered most of Marvel's Silver Age titles. This terrific short documentary about comic book lettering makes me want to pull out my Ames Lettering Guide and nib pen.

Noah writes, "This weekend a group of roguelike enthusiasts and developers are getting together for the first ever Roguelike Celebration. It'll feature talks from developers of the game that spawned the genre - rogue - as well as the creators of Dwarf Fortress, Kingdom of Loathing, ADOM, Tracery and lots more.It'll take place all day on the 17th and will be streamed live on Twitch.tv for those who can't make it in person." (Image: Deon-23, Mike Mayday, public domain)

Rachel Warwick suffers from aquagenic urticaria, an immune reaction to contact with water. According to the BBC, it "is like being stung by a bush of particularly pernicious nettles, combined with the malaise of hay fever, every single day." From the BBC:

Just look at this week’s ’National Enquirer’ cover, breathlessly billed as “The story that will doom Hillary.”Under the heading “World Exclusive,” the headline screams: “Bill Groped Me On Campaign Jet - and Hillary Did Nothing!”Campaign flight attendant Cristy Zercher is horrified that Bill Clinton allegedly hugged her from behind and placed a hand on her breast. On another occasion she claims to have opened the plane's toilet door to find Bill standing with his fly unzipped, though exposing nothing.The cover photo of Hillary Clinton’s campaign plane leaves no doubt that Hillary is sex-fiend Bill’s enabler-in-chief.I almost hate to mention it, but there are just one or two minor details of this ground-breaking story that I’d like to take issue with.Like the fact that this “world exclusive” first appeared in the 'Star' tabloid in March 1998. That Zercher’s harassment allegedly occurred on Bill Clinton’s campaign plane 24 years ago - not on Hillary’s current campaign jet. And even Zercher confessed that the reason Hillary “did nothing” was because she was asleep at the time of the alleged incident. Let’s note that much of Zercher’s new “world exclusive interview” appeared word-for-word 18 years ago. We’re not supposed to recall that Zercher was interviewed by the Washington Post in July 1994 and never mentioned being harassed by Bill Clinton, saying only that he had flirted with her. Is it churlish to point out that TV news show ‘Inside Edition’ ran a two-night special on Zercher’s claims in April 1998, and revealed that she not only flunked a lie detector test, but “failed miserably,” according to show spokesperson Jan Murray. There are a long list of women who have claimed that the former president sexually assaulted or harassed them, but why resuscitate Zercher’s threadbare claims now? To smear Hillary Clinton by making it appear to have taken place on her campaign jet. Tabloid reporting at its best, no doubt.The ‘Enquirer’ continues its Trump-loving vendetta against the Clintons with its Page Two story: “Hillary Brain Cancer Drama!” Hillary was spotted last week apparently wearing some kind of earpiece during a presidential TV debate. It’s been the subject of widespread speculation and heated denial by the Clinton campaign, but for the ‘Enquirer’ it’s proof positive that Hillary has been “spoon-fed lies live on national TV because of ‘memory lapses.’” And to the ‘Enquirer’ medical team, that can only mean cancer. Well, it stands to reason: why would anyone wear an earpiece if they didn’t have cancer. Right? though I’m intrigued: why does the ‘Enquirer’ believe that Clinton’s back-stage aides are feeding her “lies?” That’s fair and balanced reporting at its best.“Queen Kate’s having Twin Girls!” yells the cover of the ‘Globe,’ which continues to forget that Kate Middleton is not a queen, not even a princess, but a mere Duchess. Kate is reportedly “three months pregnant and William is naming one of them Diana!” This report has been circulating in the tabloid world since April, which means that Kate has been three months pregnant for the past five months. Kate reportedly has only told “William, his brother Harry, her family and grandma Queen Elizabeth.” And the ‘Globe,’ of course, who must be on Kate’s speed-dial - though she seems to have fed them a lot of misinformation in the past. You have to admire the ‘Globe’ Royal reporters’ restraint in referring to Prince Charles’ bride as his “evil wife Camilla . . . The 69-year-old, horse-faced banshee . . . “ Seems like impartial reporting to me.Unfulfilled promises abound in ‘People’ magazine, whose cover boasts Renée Zellweger’s "most revealing interview ever,” while the inside story assures that she addresses “the changes in her life (and her appearance) . . . “ So, to address the elephant in Zellweger’s mirror: why did her face appear so dramatically changed a few years ago? We’ll never know. “That’s a big question,” she says, moving on the evade addressing the issue. Zellweger’s most revealing interview ever, indeed.At least ‘Us’ mag tells us how ‘Real Housewife’ reality star Bethenny Frankel “survived my divorce from hell.” Her secret? “Focusing on her daughter . . . helped her survive the insanity,” reports ‘Us.’ And that’s it. That’s the secret to surviving the divorce from hell. The rest of the feature is dedicated to exhuming her messy divorce in gloriously painful detail, with ‘People’ magazine’s typical celebrity trainwreck voyeurism.Thankfully we have ‘Us’ mag’s crack team of reporters to tell us that Cara Delevingne wore it best (and still looked a mess), that Kiefer Sutherland “can be impatient,” actress Piper Perabo carries natural wood incense sticks, Italian hair perfume and wildflowers seeds in her Friends of the Library tote (are these stars now hiring stylists to curate their handbag contents?), and that the stars are just like us, as long as you can surf, ride a bike, shoot hoops and eat cotton candy (though not necessarily all at the same time.)As ever, the big news of the week comes courtesy of the ‘National Examiner,’ which reports “Reincarnation is Real!” Researchers have evidently found a number of infant children who accurately recall details of past lives of which they could have no possible prior knowledge, like the two-year-old who remembered being shot down in his plane over Iwo Jima in WWII, even accurately recalling the name of his boat and his co-pilot. This information from a toddler, of course, was told to a parent before any researcher was summoned - and there’s no possible way that any parent could have planted such information in a pliable young mind, is there?Onwards and downwards . . .

New York City councilmember Ritchie Torres wants to know how much cash NYPD seizes every from citizens every year using using civil asset forfeiture, so he introduced legislation requiring annual reports from NYPD. But NYPD said at a hearing that the bill shouldn't be allowed to pass because NYPD's computers will crash if they attempt to generate the reports. Sounds legit!Via Village Voice

Cat Rackham

VICE Media, USA Today owner Gannett, and the Associated Press today announced a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI. The news organizations want to how much and who the government paid to hack into the San Bernardino shooters' iPhone, during the government's investigation into last year's mass shooting.(more…)

The case against grammar snobbery laid out by British data journalist Mona Chalabi. (more…)

Gabriella Coleman, the anthropologist whose first book, Coding Freedom, explained hacking culture better than any book before or since; and whose second book, Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy, told the inside story of Anonymous with technical and social brilliance, appeared on the Theory of Everything podcast (MP3) to discuss the ways that free software hackers and the more business-friendly open source world have fought, reconciled and fought again. (more…)

The storied Walt Disney Family Museum hosts Imagineer Kim Irvine, former Disney lead Twitter writer Ed Squair, and Winchester Mystery House manager Walter Magnuson in a panel on Oct 15, discussing the origins of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion, a subject near and dear to my heart. (more…)

Many people claim that they don't need much sleep, insisting that even five hours a night is enough shuteye for them to feel rested. According to new scientific research, "habitual short sleepers" may actually be handling the brain tasks that most of us deal with during the night, like memory consolidation. From Medical Xpress:

Once I got my green card this year, I was allowed to make the same campaign contributions as any US citizen: $2700 per candidate. But thanks to the three Republican members of the Federal Election Commission, who refused to even allow an agenda item to begin discussions to commence planning for limits on wholly-foreign-owned corporations making unlimited donations to super PACs, offshore oligarchs living abroad can go on spending tens of millions to influence the outcome of US elections. (more…)

Radiohead debuted their latest music video, for the track "Present Tense" from Moon Shaped Pool. Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Radiohead's "Daydreaming") directed the clip that features Thom Yorke, Johnny Greenwood, and the classic Roland CR-78 drum machine from 1978.

Rémi Gaillard is a former shoe store salesman who has become the "seventeenth most subscribed comedian on YouTube," according to Wikipedia.

Thijs Broenink audited the AnalyticsCore.apk app that ships pre-installed on all Xiaomi phones (Xiaomi has their own Android fork with a different set of preinstalled apps) and discovered that the app, which seemingly serves no useful purpose, allows the manufacturer to silently install other code on your phone, with unlimited privileges and access. (more…)

The fun-lovin' hackers at Adafruit banged together this teensy weensy MAME cabinet over a weekend; it's more of a kludge than a project, and they didn't document the build in its entirety, meaning that making your own is a challenge that the Fruits have thrown down before you. (more…)

Millionaire presidential candidate Donald Trump was a vocal birther—someone who insinuates Barack Obama was not born in the United States—until at least 2014. Today, he's supposedly going to denounce this position for good, following some recent equivocation on his part.Adds Trump: "We have to keep the suspense going."This sort of statement enrages liberals because it reminds them of how easily Trump manipulates the political media's hunger for a horse race—especially now he's neck and neck with rival Hillary Clinton in national polls and there's no sign of them realizing he understands them better than they understand him.The fear today is of equivocating headlines such as "Trump, Clinton trade accusations on Birtherism," allowing him the plain lie of a she-did-it-first controversy.But days of Trump benefiting from a smarmy rehabilitation narrative, when the most nakedly racist dogwhistle in American politics is still glistening with his saliva, is what's almost too much to bear. Here's Josh Marshall:https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/776765600123219969https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/776765932228243457Accusing his opponent of whatever he is accused of is one of the three key tools in Trump's media arsenal, used over and over again to amazing effect (the others: "I'll tell you tomorrow" and "Something's going on.") Journos are defensively, cynically attached to a supposedly objective voice from nowhere that conceals editorial judgment in the framing of subject matter, and Trump's been doing well since Hillary switched her focus to the "Romney moderates" most influenced by it.Right-wing provocateurs are eager to help the media avoid contaminating balance with facts. One hot emerging term is "post-factual" (cf. Post-truth) which describes both the mainstream journalistic practices they've lucked into and the world they hope will emerge from them.Slate collects all of Trump's birther quotes in once place, for whatever they're worth.

Intergalactic blowhard Zapp Brannigan reading Trump quotations sounds slightly less ridiculous that Trump saying them. Billy West has a hilarious series of videos where he reads actual Trump statements in Brannigan's voice.(more…)

According to NASA’s YouTube page: (more…)

My friend Brendan Scannell wrote and stars in this funny, sad, thoughtful short film about love and robots called Telton 7.(more…)

A giant model moon, part of the Mid-Autumn Festival decorations in Fuzhou, China was blown from its display by Super Typhoon Meranti winds and rolled through traffic today.(Shanghaiist)

Donald Trump Jr. says his father can't release his tax returns "because he's got a 12,000-page tax return that would create ... financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that would detract from (his father's) main message."We can't have people asking questions! Meanwhile, according to CNN, "Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has released nearly four decades of tax returns."

Robert Morin worked for 50 years as a cataloger at the University of New Hampshire library (he was also a UNH alum); he was thrifty, ate microwave dinners and drove a 1992 Plymouth, and saved $4M, which he gave to the university as an unrestricted gift, and so the university is giving $100K to the library he worked in and $1M to the football team to pay for a new scoreboard. (more…)

In 2014, an Indian company called Aglaya brought a 20-page brochure to ISS World (AKA the Wiretappers' Ball -- the annual trade fair where governments shop for surveillance technology): the brochure laid out the company's offerings, which ranged from mobile malware for Ios and Android to a unique "Weaponized Information" selection that combined denial-of-service with disinformation to "discredit a target" online. (more…)

Obama's inaugural White House staff was drawn from his campaign staff, who were mostly dudes, and the women among the newcomers felt that they were getting ignored or talked over in meetings. (more…)

The predatory payday lending industry -- "'legalized loan sharks collect 75 percent of their fees from people stuck in more than 10 loans a year by charging 300 percent APR" -- is lobbying hard to kill the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposed "debt trap" rule, "that would require lenders to determine whether borrowers can afford to pay back their loans and cut off repeated debit attempts that rack up fees and make it harder for consumers to get out of debt." (more…)

The European Commission's "copyright modernisation" plan is an unmitigated disaster, but there's one particularly insane section of it that I want to call your attention to: the "link tax," which entitles publishers to payment when people link to them on the internet. (more…)

In a great piece for Fusion from last month, Lux Alptraum explores the ways in which the distinctions between rape and consensual sex aren’t always so clear cut in practice. (more…)

Some people experience virtual reality sickness while wearing headsets, and it's similar to motion sickness. Mayo Clinic researchers have developed Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) to help with VR sickness, and it may one day help with other balance issues. (more…)

Billionaire trumpkin Peter Thiel's got a law degree and pays lawyers a lot of money to destroy his enemies, so who better to occupy the vacant spot on the Supreme Court of the United States?

Nick Nerbonne captured “A rare and very unique 'roll cloud' along the Lake Michigan shoreline at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.”(more…)

The forthcoming big screen epic King Arthur: Legend of the Sword has nothing on the Pythons. (Cinefix)