It's true that your gut biome is awesome, complicated, poorly understood and crucial to your body's normal functioning. (more…)

Gel-based super glue is much easier to use than regular super glue, because it's thick and easier to control. You can apply a dab to a vertical surface without having it drip. It's also slightly tacky to begin with, which helps to keep parts stick together without holding them. And because it's thicker, it works well on porous surfaces, like the ones on this elephant coffee creamer that one of our cats broke. I've had the same tube of Gorilla Super Glue Gel for years. I've used it dozens of times, there's a lot left, and it shows no sign of drying up. A 15g bottle is just $5.80 on Amazon.

Air Bonsai are mag-lev Bonsai trees that float spookily over their elaborate, Japanese-designed pots. Prices start at $800 and go way, way up. The plants are real—you can even transplant your favorite to the setup—and most of the materials traditional.

I've been a fan since I first saw photographs of Bobby Love's stunning costume designs! Images of his work fill several of my friends Facebook feeds, and I had to learn more about him! I hope you enjoy these photos, and his story, as much as I do! -- Jason"Fantasy couture designer Bobby Love lives in a fantastical world populated by circus performers, artists and other worldly creatures. His whimsical fashion and costume designs featured here are influenced by legendary Art Deco master Erte, whom he names all his parrots after.Born in Hong Kong, Bobby Love attended Chapman University at age 16 (youngest in his class), and went on to earn post graduate degrees in Business Administration and Psychology from USC. Through his first job working graveyard shift at a psychiatric hospital for 3 years, he learned to think quickly on his feet and handle unpredictable situations. The ability to empathize and be a good listener would be important skills he acquired.Arriving in Hollywood at age 20, Bobby Love worked diligently and achieved a successful business career. However, he also knew he needed an outlet to express his artistic creativity. Bobby started his hobby of sketching fashion designs at age 14. This is a passion which led to him meeting many artists and performers, ultimately inspiring him to create the many fantastical fantasy couture wardrobe we see today.Designing between 20 to 30 "suites" a year using only his free time on weekends, each "suite" represents a different fantasy/mythical theme and may include a coat, vest, matching pants, hat and accessories. Traveling to Hong Kong twice yearly with exotic fabrics and trims during family visits, his resourceful tailor Simpson turns these detailed sketches into whimsical fantasy wardrobe which Bobby debuts at West Coast fantasy events and conventions. He is best known for bringing multiple elaborate costume changes to each event, is popular with photographers and usually wows everyone with their originality and sense of playfulness.Bobby Love's fantasy couture photos have been featured in LA Weekly, OC Weekly, TwoMaverix.com among many other magazine, photography and cosplay websites. He also collaborates with local artists Christopher and Shannon Hoage to create his unique hats as wearable art. Although this is strictly a hobby and not a business, Bobby appears to have found his true passion and happiness. With the increasing popularity of fantasy and sci-fi themes in movies, television and the explosive growth of cosplay conventions both domestically and overseas, Bobby Love's imaginative fantasy designs are quite timely indeed.Below are a few recent comments regarding Bobby Love’s couture designs from his appreciative audience:“Vibrance personified!!”“THAT HAT!!!!!!! I absolutely call dibs should you EVER decide to part with it. #WearableArt”“A moment of personified fantasy, immortalized on film! Thx 4 this”“You never fail to make me smile!”The photos featured in this article are from Bobby Love's two recent design collections - "Alice in Wonderland" and "Venice Carnevale", and include the lyrical Cinderella Golden Pumpkin Carriage hat and the Circus Wedding Cake hat. Many of these fantastical photos are taken by the talented Star Foreman, contributing photographer of LA Weekly and OC Weekly Magazine. They feature popular performers including Bobby's second family and muse the fabulous Flying Morgans - Gary, Suzy, Molly and Bonnie Morgan, and their photogenic parrot Picasso. Bobby shares his whimsical creations with friends via the photography website www.HappyPlaceDesignStudio.com."

Leica's X-U is waterproof to 49 feet, drop-proof, and costs less than $3,000: a relatively cheap entry in the fancy camera-maker's legendary lineup. Sean O'Kane reviews it at The Verge. (more…)

To protest the UK's antiquated film censorship regime, Charlie Lyne crowdfunded a movie of paint drying. Having raised £5963, Charlie was able to submit a 607 minute film, which the censors now have to sit through. Charlie's just done an "ask me anything" interview at Reddit, with some illuminating answers.

This week, Whatsapp -- an instant messaging company that was founded on the principle of charging $1/year and preserving your privacy in exchange, but which sold to Facebook in 2014 for $19B -- sent users a message that their accounts would be free forevermore -- at the same time as the app quietly introduced a tickbox (optional, for now) to share your data with Facebook "to improve your Facebook experience." (more…)

Following a 2014 verdict, courts may now punish patent trolls with the defense costs that their litigation incurs. An appeals court has now upheld an attorney fees ruling handed to Lumen View, a company that makes nothing of value, yet behaved as if it owned the abstract concept of matchmaking.The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided, however, that the $300k awarded was too high, and returned the case to district court for another hearing. Joe Mullin writes:

Churchill Solitaire is a card game for iOS that comes from an unexpected source: former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Inspired by a version of the game played by British war leader Winston Churchill, the game is free of charge and adheres to Rumsfeld's preference for minimalism and flat design, as seen in the post-2003 architecture of various Iraqi neighborhoods.The Wall Street Journal reports that it's likely "the only videogame developed by an 83-year-old man using a Dictaphone to record memos for the programmers."

What would you call someone who is a total Linux ninja? Linja? Ninjux? You can go with either of those in a few weeks once you become just that. This course pack will take you from basic to baller and make you a true Linux power user. Nab the pack now for 97% off and start dreaming of that raise, or a new career altogether. Even if you’re brand new to the system and just starting down the path to Linux domination, these courses will get you on your feet and running in no time.The beginner’s course has been completed by over 25,000 students so far, and familiarizes you with Linux pure basics. The intro class alone offer 6 hours of content including 67 lectures. That’s a lot of knowledge to drop. You don’t even need to know anything to start, and by the time you finish you’ll be able to install a web and database server. No big deal. Don’t have much time? The bundle also includes a 5-hour rapid course to get you quickly up to speed on new concepts and commands, fast. If you’re more familiar with Windows, there’s a transitional course here to help you navigate the switch between the two systems. Lastly, the Command Line delves into the essentials to have you navigating Linux like a true expert.Manage files and directories, create aliases, easily locate commands, all of these skills are about to be yours. Level up your career when you guzzle up these courses. The lectures and content are visual and interactive to match your learning style, and you can rewatch them again and again until you’re a comfortable pro. At 97% right now, it’s a super steal for this much of an upgrade to your ninja moves.

Bruno Mars's ubiquitous, kicky song-of-the summer is even better when it's interpreted through 66 classic cinematic dance numbers. Watch it now, before it is crushed in the remorseless maw of some joyless Vichy nerd’s copyright bot. (via Metafilter)

You’re sitting in a cute cafe, sipping your coffee at a little table, browsing the world wide web on your laptop or tablet. Living the dream. Then all of the sudden - boom! - you’re hacked. In an instant you barely noticed, all of your personal information could vanish right under your fingertips, simply because you linked up to an unknown WiFi source. Well, fear no more with your new subscription to NordVPN that you can get for 59% off right now. You’ll be safer than you could have ever imagined from threats you don’t even want to know about. Let Nord handle those bad boys.With the ability to connect up to six devices simultaneously, this is unprecedented secure access. You can even use secret notes that automatically self-destruct plus an encrypted chat function. This whole package is 59% off and trust us, you’ll sleep a lot better knowing your computer is shielded like this. There’s unlimited data use with the two-year subscription and you’ll want every last byte.

Just look at it.

Azure is the posh restaurant Intercontinental Hotel Toronto Centre, where the menu boasts "BC salmon" (which turns out to mean "boned and cleaned" not "British Columbia"), "freshly squeezed" orange juice (comes out of a bottle that boasts that the oranges were freshly squeezed before bottling), and some out-and-out lies, like calling boxed Quaker Harvest Crunch granola "organic granola" and store-bought salad dressing "home made." (more…)

The Jerx is an anonymous, iconoclastic blog written by a heterodox magician who holds his fellow magicians in disdain for their terrible storytelling skills. (more…)

69% of the alcohol sold in the UK is sold to "harmful," "hazardous" or "increasing risk" drinkers, accounting for more than 60% of the industry's revenues. The number of alcohol-related hospitalisations in the UK has doubled in the past ten years, to more than 1m/year. (more…)

Sure, you poke around on your Macbook. It’s pretty incredible what this little machine can do, right? But here’s the dirty secret: you’re just scratching the surface. There are apps and shortcuts and capabilities sitting beneath your fingertips right now that you can’t even imagine. This thing's a beast, and you can learn all about how to let it rip with this Mac bundle. Best of all, just pay what you want for it. That’s twelve awesome Mac apps, all for however much you think they’re worth.Just to name a sampling of the gems in this package: Flip PDF, a BluRay player, Boom 2, Disc Expert, Clean Exit, plus half a dozen more rad apps. If you’re a creator, this bundle will help you watch and review content more easily than ever and focus your energy on making something beautiful, whether it’s writing, film or music. You can keep your data safe with protecting apps, open up some much-needed storage space, and get organized with Unclutter which allows you to store notes and cleanly sync all your files. Using Keylogger you can even track every single activity on your Mac, and with RapidWeaver you can create gorgeous, professional looking websites, without a single day of coding experience.

In it to win it.

If you don't want my love, you're free to go...

Six Arizona HS students at Desert Vista High School decided to re-arrange the letters of a slogan spelled out on t-shirts to offend their fellow classmates, teachers, administrators, local congress person, and pretty much everyone else who sees the story.Seems they got a single day suspension.AZCentral shares the story:

The movie theater in Sausalito, CA is struggling to find a new tenant. The Mayor has formed a blue-ribbon committee to keep the theater open, but is she ready to take on a curse? A local resident claims to be the source of the theater's trouble.Via the MarinScope:

In Hell's Super, Steve is hell's superintendent. Working with his assistant, the damned Orson Welles, there is an unending list of problems to be solved, but nothing can ever be fixed! It is Hell, after all!Existence is pretty humdrum until Flo comes to the underworld. Flo is a force of good, who comes to hell to help ease the suffering. Something is certainly kindling between them, can there be love in Hell?Can Steve use duct tape to hold everything together, including his love life?Hell's Super (Circles In Hell Book 1) by Mark Cain via Amazon (free via Kindle Unlimited)

A group of activists, data scientists and policy analysts have conducted a survey of the use of force policies in place in America's cities, ranking them by whether they meet four common-sense criteria: whether the priority of force is "preserving life"; whether officers are required to de-escalate situations; whether officers are allowed to choke civilians; and whether officers are required to intervene to prevent their colleagues from using excessive force. (more…)

Disney won its war on overflights by planes towing advertising banners in 2003, winning the only no-fly zone over a theme-park in the USA. (more…)

Five people were killed in a school shooting in the northern Saskatchewan community of La Loche, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said late Friday.(more…)

In wintry Omaha, Nebraska, a local veteran is using his modded wheelchair to help neighbors with snow plowing.(more…)

Coding, programming and designing. Those are essential elements of the tech world we live in. But the foundation? The rock solid structures beneath it all? That’s what this starter kit wants to teach you. Using your hands, you can physically put together the elements that make up the computers we live in. For 87% off this is your last chance to get your hands on the wires, screws, circuit boards plus the instructions, diagrams and troubleshooting tips to hold your hand all along the way.The world’s foremost electronics prototyping platform is right here. There are hours upon hours of courses and lectures here that will walk you through the basics principles of electronic design using all kinds of sensors and components. Advance your skills from fundamentals to fun when you unlock the course to build a remote controlled car to master communications between transceivers. Learn about battery types for mobile applications and even work on retrofitting an existing toy to fit your specs.There’s a course where you’ll learn to make your own environment monitor system too, uploading sensor data and displaying it on an LCD screen. All in all, at 87% off the starter kit is a major deal to get you up and running on your way to becoming an electronics master programmer and now is your last chance to nab it. After tackling all thirteen of these tasks with the fully stocked beginner toolkit you’ll be ready for a whole new job, or at least a big, fat raise.

Confession: I know nothing – NOTHING – about coding. I’m still stuck in the glory days of the “if/thens” of my original Apple IIe, circa 1983. And I barely knew how to do anything past whatever I copied verbatim from Byte. I never got that right either. I don’t think. Ever. I remember staying up all night to do a Thundercats hi-res game. Tried to run it at 4am. Nothing. No Lion-O, no Cheetarah, no Snarf... NOTHING. Thus began a life of failure. BUT. I did not want my kids to suffer that same fate. Especially because it is now a presidential mandate that all kids must learn to code. And code they shall.Kano is built on a simple idea: If kids can piece together Legos, then why not a whole computer? So they not only have a tactile experience in the building of the thing, but more importantly, they take ownership. Have a hands on experiece with their computer, and know it inside and out. My kids opened the cleverly packaged Kano box and had their machines up and running in about 45 minutes. The directions are sort of similar to Lego directions. Very simple, very easy to understand, and I’ll be damned... these boys, ages 7 and 9, were coding within the hour.The computer itself comes with a Rasberry Pi brain, all the necessary cables, a keyboard, instructions and stickers to personalize the experience. It comes loaded with a bunch of different apps: Minecraft, Scratch, hack old school Pong, hack Snake, and many other great things, all with an eye towards hacking, coding and exploring. As I’ve said, I’m new to this, but the “come see this, Dada!” echoes that emmanate from their room is pretty incredible, and the stuff they’re coming up with wildly surpasses my expectation (and abilities).You can use a TV for the monitor, or you can purchase a “Screen Package” which is a small, free-standing display, which they also build. It houses the Rasberry Pi brain. The keyboard and all the cables and odds and ends pack up right into the back for a really convenient and well thought-out piece of equipment. (The screen is especially great if your home has wall-mounted TVs. The provided cable is a little short to reach that high.) All in all, I’m amazed at how quickly they’re picking it all up, but more to the point, how much they’re enjoying themselves. They shall never feel the shame and disappointment of not being able to figure out why the “If A$=“yes” then goto 100” line is not working. It was supposed to work! Byte said it would work!!!!!Kano Computer Kit

See sample pages from this book at Wink.The body is a tangle of sensations. It’s both a source of pleasure and a confusing amalgamation of parts that don’t quite seem to function in concert. Teeming with desires and repulsions, the physical self forms the centerpiece of She of the Mountains. The protagonist is unnamed in this slender, poetry-drenched novella by award-winning author Vivek Shraya. He’s keenly aware of his brown body in the sometimes hostile, sometimes indifferent world of Edmonton, Alberta, as he tries to discover what it means to be gay, then falls in love with a woman, and finally begins to establish a life for himself that feels honest.A Canadian youth’s search for social and sexual identity would be fascinating enough in Shraya’s thoughtful hands, but by braiding his tale with a personalized vision of Hindu mythology, he casts it into timeless territory. The goddess Parvati describes herself as “the mother of the universe. … I am life itself, the spark that makes a heart pump, that keeps a tree alive for centuries, green and reaching.” But she isn’t immune to sorrow; a terrible error causes her beloved consort Shiv — Destruction himself — to decapitate her newly born son Ganesh in a fit of rage. Only the substitution of an elephant’s head for Ganesh’s own lets him escape death. In her own lyrical, searching words, Parvati describes her evolving love for Ganesh and Shiv, the wisdom that comes to her through incarnation in a mortal body, and even her newfound empathy for Kali’s destructive powers. Each mythic interlude in the novella mirrors the growing pains of a main character struggling to come to terms with his queerness, his brownness, and his capacity for love.With a story so bound to corporeality, Arsenal Pulp Press has gone the extra mile to make She of the Mountains into a beautiful little book. Lushly enriched by stylized two-tone illustrations from Raymond Biesinger, the novella also features silky-smooth, heavy paper and meticulous design and typesetting. When tactile and literary pleasures combine so seamlessly with a surprisingly intimate tale, the result is a volume you’ll be glad to hold in your own two hands as you read and read. – Lisa BarrowShe of the Mountains

Remember Benjamin Golden, the former Taco Bell executive who beat up his Uber driver? Golden is now suing the driver for $5 million for recording the violent attack.From the Orange County Register:

Described literally as "Deluxe Snorting Kit - Not For Cocaine," this olfactory equipment will enable hours of snorting pleasure.But not, however, if you are snorting cocaine.Mike Wehner found this and several more items on Amazon that are certainly not for snorting cocaine.

These two gents were allegedly transporting 20 pounds of marijuana from Las Vegas to Montana. When they were driving through Idaho, they suspected that police were tailing them and they called 911 to turn themselves in. They were arrested, and when one of the men showed up in court to plead guilty, he tested positive for marijuana.Here's an equally weird call that David posted in 2007 about an epically stoned police officer from Dearborn, Michigan who made pot brownies with his wife and called 911 to report that he and his wife had died.

Millions of dollars went into the making of this supercut, starring Bentleys, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, Ferraris, and their terrible drivers.

I was hoping for a little firefighter homunculus.[via]

People going to amusement parks in the post World War II boom times of the early 1950s were looking for fast, not slow; they wanted to be thrilled, not dropped into a peaceful and pastoral setting. But that’s just what Walt Disney gave them in The Rivers of America. From the moment Walt Disney began to think about what would eventually become “Disneyland,” he conceived of it as a park — a “themed park.” Different “lands” would bring visitors into exotic or futuristic places with architecture, attractions, and rides. Adventureland took you into the jungle on a cruise through dense forests and encounters with wild animals; Fantasyland put you right into the fairy-tale films for which Disney was already famous; Tommorrowland showed what the future might hold; Frontierland pulled you into the old west, through a small town, toward an Indian Village (populated by real Native Americans back then), and eventually to an enormous ride through the wonders of the old west: Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland. All of Frontierland ran around the peripherary of the Rivers of America, a body of water wide enough for a 5/8 scale recreation of a steamboat—the first one built in America since approximately 1905. The steamboat, named “The Mark Twain,” along with Main Street U.S.A., was the largest physical expression of Walt’s nostalagia for an earlier, more simple lifestyle. It was his boyhood in fantasy.Walt was a dreamer, and one of the things he wanted to do in his park was transport people to the places he remembered and romanticized from his childhood. Walt also planned wholistically; there needed to be quiet places, too. Areas where a weary guest could sit a while and feel a light breeze on a hot day. The mighty Mark Twain did just that.In the middle of the river sits Tom Sawyer Island, a long narrow parcel of land designed by Walt as a play area for kids. The forward half of the island contained a fort (now closed), treehouse, and various play areas for kids. It’s a dry dusty place filled with the imagination of children.As you ride the Twain, there are various sights around the river, including New Orleans Square, the Davey Crockett (Indian War) canoes filled with eager guests paddling in rhythm, the rafts going back and forth between the dock and Tom Sawyer Island. As you pass the hubub of the park at the Hungry Bear restaurant, things suddenly become quiet. Animals stand still as the riverboat moves by, and a bit farther onward Indians engage in hunting, cooking, and story-telling in their village. There are deer, moose, beavers, eagles and other wildlife by the river’s edge.It is just over 13 minutes of tranquility, as anyone who’s ridden it will tell you. The contrast between the atmosphere it provides and the rest of the park is immensely surprising to people the first time they ride it.It simultaneously relaxes you, lifts your spirit, and gives your feet a much-needed rest.That changed on January 11 when a hearty chunk of the rear portion of Disneyland was shut down so that construction could begin on the new 14-acres Star Wars themed area. The exact location of this 14 acres shifted from east to west and back during design (were they going to take out ToonTown?). It was eventually decided that the rear half of Tom Sawyer Island would be removed (most of it had long been inaccessible to guests anyway) and the route of the Rivers of America rerouted — and reduced — by as much as 33 percent, reducing the length of the ride from just over 13 minutes to about eight. It may not sound like a lot, but it will, if proven true, lop off a good deal of your “tranquility-time.” The Disneyland Railroad is also being rerouted to run on trestles along the new edge of the river.[caption id="attachment_444537" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image: Disney[/caption]Walt Disney viewed his park as something ever changing, ever growing, ever being “plussed,” renewed, and revived. He was restless, and the many changes and additions he made to Disneyland during the 10 years he lived are a testament to that. Whether devoting 14 acres, a “land,” to a single piece of intellectual property is a good idea — it’s never been done by The Walt Disney Company before — is a terrific idea is something we’ll have to wait until 2019 to see. In about 18 months the walls surrounding the Rivers of America will come down and the new Rivers of America will either disappoint or enthrall (Disney is hoping for the later, and released the piece of concept art above to placate concerned fans).I cannot see the future, only the past, and I’ve saved some of it for you. Click on the video below and take a relaxing ride on the Mark Twain.https://youtu.be/63pjLyAKfy8

Trick Decks, my e-book about making your own trick magic decks is just 99 cents today. Tomorrow the price goes back to the regular price of $2.99. Learn more about the book on the Trick Decks website.

UK Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, former Minister for Justice, has "outed" himself as a user of poppers -- alkyl nitrites, a psychoactive inhalant often taken before sex -- and decried his party's plan to class poppers as an illegal drug. (more…)

California assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-9th) has copy-pasted New York assemblyman Matthew Titone's (D-61st) insane, reality-denying bill that bans companies from selling smartphones with working crypto on them, introducing nearly identical measures in the California legislature. (more…)

Smart Rope [via] is an "LED-embedded jump rope that displays your fitness data in mid-air as you work out." The four characters it creates appear even in bright rooms and it has handles that look like sleek, high-end vibrators. If you have a smartphone, it all hooks up and you can track the data and do whatever else fitness gadget people do with their apps. It costs $90 and comes in silver, gold and black, with various rope length options.Here's some footage illustrating (if perhaps not depicting) the LEDs in action…Here's the ad:https://youtu.be/3dzasReAri8

Woodie Guthrie lived in one of Fred Trump's building for two years, starting in 1950, and was so taken with the KKK-affiliated landlord, who bribed federal officials in exchange for government handouts that he used to build his income property. (more…)

Ivealreadyreddit, who's working in Thailand, posted this picture of a tropical centipede cradling her newly hatched babies. Dawwww. (more…)

A VOIP encryption protocol the UK spy agency GCHQ is pushing for mandatory adoption comes with a hidden surprise: a built-in backdoor that lets anyone who has a master key decrypt the call. That's according to a security expert at University College in London, who published the findings on his blog this week.(more…)

This is a fascinating seven-minute segment from a 1950s television show called You Asked for It, which exposes the tricks of crooked carnival concession games. Robert Haskell, the vice president of the Society of American Magicians at the time, demonstrated the props and chicanery used by dishonest midway game operators that make it impossible to win.[via]

From George Fest: A Night To Celebrate The Music Of George Harrison that took place in L.A. in 2014. Also making the scene were Norah Jones, Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips), Dhani Harrison (George's son), Ian Astbury (The Cult), Britt Daniel (Spoon), Ben Harper, Ann Wilson (Heart), and many others. The whole event will be available next month on CD, Blu-Ray, digital download, and vinyl. Trailer below.George Fest: A Night To Celebrate The Music Of George Harrison (Amazon)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZionmVDC40

https://youtu.be/hNcoGGzNrhcGbritaney says: "This is me imitating a car alarm on my violin. I learned how to do this when I was in the 5th grade..out of pure boredom due to it being the summer. I would sit next to my parent's car and press the panic button over and over again until I learn this."

Trumpscript -- a python variant -- only allows numbers over 1,000,000; has no import statements (all declarations must be homegrown); only has integers because floating-point numbers are un-American (America never does anything halfway); only allows popular words and the names of politicians as variable names; limits error messages to direct Trump quotes; and requires that all programs end with "America is great." (more…)

Michael from Muckrock writes, "Government research often pushes the boundaries between science and science fiction. Today, the proud bearer of that mantle is often DARPA, experimenting with robots, cybernetics, and more. But in the sixties, during the height of the Cold War, this research often went into more fantastical realms, even exploring whether ExtraSensory Perception (ESP) was possible. Thanks to FOIA, MuckRock looks back on the paranormal history of American surveillance." (more…)

A tape has emerged of David Bowie doing impressions of other singers, apparently on-demand.Slate made a playlist.