Paraglider Hasan Kaval watches Tom and Jerry with a bag of chips and a can of soda as he sails over the Turkish Riviera on a couch. With no helmet and no seatbelt, Kaval looks like someone who's ready to settle in for the night -- except it's daytime -- as he changes into his slippers and stretches out his legs for his DIY flight. According to 9NewsAustralia, it took him two years to prepare for this flight, and besides the bumpy landing, it was as smooth as a kickback evening in the living room. (Forward to 1:15 in the video to see him launch.) Read the rest
Next year, the United States Mint will release a silver dollar coin commemorating astronaut and elementary school teacher Christa McAuliffe who died with her six crewmates when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff on January 28, 1986. The candidate coin designs (below) were presented to the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) and the group's majority vote aligned with the preferences of the McAuliffe family. The US Treasury will make the final decision. From Space.com:The heads-side design focuses on McAuliffe's profile, in a way reminiscent of the U.S. Mint's more traditional commemorative coins. The black and white NASA photograph on which it was based was taken on Sept. 12, 1985, while McAuliffe, NASA's "Teacher in Space" participant, received a briefing on the flight suit and personal hygiene equipment that she would use on Challenger's STS-51L mission."With respect to the coin and the purpose of the coin, I think what strikes me is the gaze is to the future, as it should be," said [Christa McAuliffe's widower U.S. District Court judge Steven McAuliffe]. "It is the look of quiet, committed courageousness[...]"The family's preferred tails-side design depicts McAuliffe in her role as a New Hampshire social studies teacher, prior to her being selected for NASA's Teacher in Space program from a nationwide pool of more than 11,000 applicants. She is shown standing alongside three children while pointing upwards to the sky[...]Surcharges from the sale of the McAuliffe silver dollar will benefit Kamen's FIRST organization and its student robotics competitions for "the purpose of engaging and inspiring young people through mentor-based programs to become leaders in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics," [director of the U.S. Read the rest
Cory Olsen, aka The Tolkein Professor, explains how Tolkein's hobbit stories got fused with his earlier mythologic work around languages he created to become the Tolkein universe inhabited by Hobbits, Men, Ents, Elves, Dwarves, and what-not.Olsen teaches at Signum University, which will offer a separate course in the fall titled The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien:Place is one of the defining features of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium; Middle-earth is arguably its most constant and central character. How and why did he build what he called a secondary world, and in what ways did our primary world help to shape its landscape, geography and cultures? How does his work relate to contemporary understanding of the cultural landscape, to ideas of nationhood, and to environmental issues?John Garth, influential Tolkien biographer and scholar, will act as your guide in this deep dive into the themes he researched for his latest book, The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth.Image: YouTube / WIRED Read the rest
Someone outfitted a Boston Dynamics SPOT mobile robot with a silly fake horse head and suddenly the future of robotics looks a lot less scary.As esteemed futurist Jim Dator once said, "Any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous." Read the rest
Yesterday I posted about Finger on the App, a game in which players must keep their finger on their smartphone screen (and occasionally move it to a new spot indicated by the app, to prevent cheating). The last person to keep their finger on the app wins a prize of up to $25,000. Over 48 hours later, 15 players are still vying for the prize. The game started with 1.3 million players. Yesterday morning about 80 players remained. As of now (12:55 p.m. Pacific time) 15 players are left.MrBeast is keeping track of the activity.Below, a "montage of people losing the $25k finger on the app challenge on livestream when viewers trick Siri to open."A montage of people losing the $25k finger on the app challenge on livestream when viewers trick Siri to open. from r/WellthatsucksImage: Twitter Read the rest
What is Arduino? It's a credit card size electronics prototyping platform that lets artists, designers, and others add interactivity to their projects. (My book Maker Dad, has a useful Arduino tutorial.)This Arduino UNO clone starter kit is very inexpensive and has the following components: Read the rest
“The guitar has a kind of grit and excitement possessed by nothing else.” - Brian MayIf someone was assigned to turn raw sexiness into an actual, physical real-world object, it would have to be a guitar. The sound. The fit. The swagger. The allure. The longing. It’s all right there in 38 inches and those six magical strings.Learning to become a guitar hero is the dream of any kid who has ever seen a performance and wanted to bask in that kind of artistry and fame. And even if you don’t dream of the spotlight, the expression and therapeutic nature of playing has its own benefits. With the training found in The Complete Learn to Master the Guitar Bundle, anyone can take some time and learn how to play.And this is no simple bland tutorial. This collection features 14 different courses that can help even a complete guitar novice start learning the basics, then progress into understanding a host of different playing styles and even the music theory that drives every classic song.Even if you don’t know a guitar pick from a nose pick, this package gets you started the right way, including four beginner courses in acoustic, rock, and blues guitar playing that will run you through all the basics. After learning how to master the fretboard in six easy steps and even some simple strumming patterns, you’ll be off and running. From there, you’ll move into improving your technique, learning exercises to help your hands move with more speed and efficiency between chords. Read the rest
Pegged on the reopening of many hotels, Inside Edition investigated whether New York City hotels including the Hyatt Place Times Square, the Hampton Inn Times Square Central, and yes, the Trump International Hotel & Tower are consistently changing bed sheets between guests. The answer appears to be (gulp) no. A spokesperson for the Trump International Hotel and Tower responded that "the claims made by Inside Edition are categorically false." Watch the video and decide for yourself. Meanwhile, Hyatt and Hampton Inns report that they are investigating to make sure appropriate cleaning protocols are followed. Read the rest
Live auctioneers are literally fast talkers but the skill is much more nuanced than just speed speaking. You want to build excitement and keep the bidders engaged without putting them into such a trance that they stop raising their paddles. What does it really take to be a master auctioneer? Writer Katy Vine attended an eight day America’s Auction Academy training held at the Addison Radisson hotel near Dallas. From Texas Monthly:“You have to sound melodic, but you don’t have to do a lot. If you roll it out right, it sounds like you’re doing a lot of work, but you’re not, really,” he said. He stressed that the chant needed to fit the situation. “If you’re doing a charity auction and you go too fast, you’ll lose your crowd. In real estate, you’ll scare them to death.” [...]That morning, like we did every day, we warmed up with tongue twisters and number drills, our forearms outstretched like a droning choir of capitalists. “You need to have hands out, asking for money,” Jones said on the first day. “That’s your number one job. No lazy arms. Put your hands out.” We needed to appear natural, moving one hand out in the direction of a possible bidder. Where is the bidder? What’s your current bid? What’s the bid you want after that and the one after that? Where are your hands? How’s your rhythm? Are you projecting from the diaphragm? Is your chant melodic? Quit swaying from side to side! Read the rest
Ghislaine Maxwell, the British heiress and longtime confidant of billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, is in FBI custody. She was arrested in New Hampshire, reports NBC News, and charged with conspiracy to sexually abuse children.The six-count indictment in Manhattan federal court alleges that Maxwell helped Epstein groom girls as young as 14 years old, going back as far as 1994."In some instances, Maxwell was present for and participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims," the indictment says. The daughter of media baron Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine was a one-time girlfriend of Epstein's and was at the high-flying investor's side for decades. But she was also alleged to have helped Epstein groom teen girls for sex with the rich and powerful. One of those teens, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, leveled that charge against Maxwell in a 2015 defamation suit, as have a number of other women. Read the rest
In September 1977 at the 4eme Festival de la Science Fiction in Metz, France, surrealist author Philip K. Dick delivered an astounding address with the title, "If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others." He wasn't joking. The speech spanned the themes that define Dick's work and also his life: visionary experiences, déjà vu, the simulation hypothesis, and the nature of reality. Far fucking out. Here are a few choice bits:The subject of this speech is a topic which has been discovered recently, and which may not exist all. I may be talking about something that does not exist. Therefore I’m free to say everything and nothing. I in my stories and novels sometimes write about counterfeit worlds. Semi-real worlds as well as deranged private worlds, inhabited often by just one person…. At no time did I have a theoretical or conscious explanation for my preoccupation with these pluriform pseudo-worlds, but now I think I understand. What I was sensing was the manifold of partially actualized realities lying tangent to what evidently is the most actualized one—the one that the majority of us, by consensus gentium, agree on.We are living in a computer-programmed reality, and the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed, and some alteration in our reality occurs. We would have the overwhelming impression that we were re-living the present - déjà vu - perhaps in precisely the same way: hearing the same words, saying the same words. Read the rest
The Toledo Hemp Dispensary in Ohio is offering free CBD dog treats this week to help reduce animal anxiety triggered by fireworks. Every treat contains 10 milligrams of CBD. Good for the dogs and for the business, it seems."Most people come back every year and tell their friends so they come and try it," dispensary manager Payton De Moe told 13ABC. "Most people if they try it on the first, come back and get a bag for the next few days because with it on the weekend people are going to be doing (fireworks) the whole weekend."Ooooh. Ahhhh.image: modified version of "Kintamani dog white" by lmk0278 (public domain) Read the rest
Allergies are brutal, affecting about 30 percent of all American adults. While many only saddle sufferers with mild irritations like coughing, sneezing, a runny nose or watering eyes, some symptoms can be even more intrusive and significantly more painful.Sinus pressure is one of those unholy side effects, causing a pain that can stretch from the forehead to the nose to around the eyes to down through the teeth and jaw. And the pressure can make your entire face feel so tender that it almost feels like somebody hauled off and punched you in the face.Sinus pain can be treated with over-the-counter or prescription drugs, but the ClearUP Sinus Pain Relief device is a new way of managing allergy-fueled sinus pain without the use of medication.Users just need to glide the handheld bioelectrical device along the cheek, nose and brow bone. The ClearUP finds the areas of skin where low-current electrical stimulation can most easily penetrate to help break up sinus pain. Treatments take just five minutes and can last up to 6 hours.The ClearUP is already generating lots of attention, including being named to Time Magazine’s list of 2019’s Top 100 Best Inventions.In addition to being a chemical-free, non-invasive method for pain relief, the ClearUP is also incredibly portable with the reusable, rechargeable unit easily able to slip into your pocket or purse for use at home, work or on the road.Regularly priced at $149, you can get fast-acting pain relief with the ClearUP now for $30 off at just $119.99 Read the rest
As long as Sheldon Adelson keeps raking in gamblers' losses, who cares about the body count?From Rt.live: These are up-to-date values for Rt, a key measure of how fast the virus is growing. It’s the average number of people who become infected by an infectious person. If Rt is above 1.0, the virus will spread quickly. When Rt is below 1.0, the virus will stop spreading. Read the rest
Mike Judge will revive Beavis and Butt-head for two seasons of the seminal cartoon-cum-cultural criticism. (Heh heh, I wrote "cum," heh heh.) The original TV series aired on MTV from 1993 to 1997 and featured the two teens hilariously deconstructing the very music videos that MTV played at the time. A feature film followed in 1996 and then another MTV season in 2011. Also, I need TP for my bunghole. From the New York Times:Comedy Central said in a news release that its latest “Beavis and Butt-Head” series will find the characters “entering a whole new Gen Z world” and dealing with “meta-themes relatable to both new and old fans — Gen X parents and their Gen Z kids.”Judge said in a statement, “It seemed like the time was right to get stupid again.” Read the rest
A few Republicans are starting to think that the germ theory of disease might have some merit to it, according to this Washington Post article. But GOP strategist Alex Castellanos thinks mask wearers have another purpose in mind:Alex Castellanos, a veteran Republican strategist, said the divide over whether to cover one’s face is, like many things in the Trump era, political.“Mask-wearing has become a totem, a secular religious symbol,” Castellanos said. “Christians wear crosses, Muslims wear a hijab, and members of the Church of Secular Science bow to the Gods of Data by wearing a mask as their symbol, demonstrating that they are the elite; smarter, more rational, and morally superior to everyone else.”Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest
Video artist Nam June Paik's "Zen for Film" (1964) is a projection of clear film leader. The image changes over time as dust and imperfections become visible. From the Bard Graduate Center gallery:Inherent in the work’s material and conceptual aspects are notions of chance, trace, changeability, boredom, silence, and nothingness. With Zen for Film, the projection of a film leader creates an image of apparent nothingness that oscillates between the immateriality of projected light and the material traces, which slowly obliterate the leader’s transparent surface. Zen for Film shares meaningful aspects of chance, silence, and nothingness with such works as composer John Cage’s 4”33” (1952) and artist Robert Rauschenberg’s White Painting (1951). Read the rest
Place a higher bid, Dave. This "nearly complete" spacesuit from Stanley Kubrick's seminal space opera 2001: A Space Odyssey is currently up for auction. Starting bid is $50,000 and it's expected to go as high as $300,000. From the Julien's Auctions description:The spacesuit is an amalgamation of components worn by different actors and in many scenes throughout the film. This is highlighted by a helmet featuring four distinct layers of paint (a base of color of white, then green, then yellow, and lastly in its present color of white), indicating that it was used in different scenes by multiple actors and representing a number of characters . This nearly complete costume is of the lunar type in its present state (silver body suit, blue back pack, white helmet). This suit appears to be original in silver (never repainted). However, due to the layering of paint, the helmet appears to have been employed as a lunar type, then two of the four Discovery types (green and then yellow; the other colors/types being red and blue), then as a lunar type again. This helmet has a textured strip of tape inside with "HELMET A" written across in red.Most notably, the base green layer of paint seen in chips, cracks, and green overspray throughout the helmet surface suggest that it may have been the very helmet worn by Keir Dullea, who portrayed Dr. Dave Bowman (the lead astronaut on the film’s Discovery mission to Jupiter) in the sequence in which he reenters antechamber of the Discovery surrounded by banks of circuit breakers leading to the "brain room" and logic center to “kill” HAL in one of the most famous science fiction scenes of all time. Read the rest
In this latest Lincoln Project ad, "Betrayed," former US Navy Seal Dr. Dan Barkhuff says that months ago Trump chose to do nothing about Putin paying bounties for dead American soldiers in Afghanistan. "He chose to do nothing about it. Any commander-in-chief with a spine would be stomping the living shit out of some Russians right now." The "pro-life, gun-owning veteran" says he "sees Trump for what he is: a coward." His best line is in the form of a question: "Mr. Trump, you're either a coward who can't stand up to an ex-KGB goon, or you're complicit -- which is it?"The Lincoln Project, made up of Republicans against Trump, including Kellyanne Conway's husband George Conway, is firing out anti-Trump ads as fast as Trump spits out hatred and lies. This one is one of their best yet. Read the rest
A screw with a stripped head can be difficult to remove.There are a number of ways to remove screws with stripped heads. Lifehacker has a nice article on this subject.My favorite method of removing a stuck/stripped screw is with a pair of screw removal pliers. They bite into the exposed sides of the screw head and you can twist the screw loose, then finish the job with a screwdriver. It's also a nice brute-force workaround for tamper-proof screw heads. This is the kind of tool you want to have in your toolbox now, instead of having to run out and buy one when it's needed.If the screw is really stuck, you risk breaking the head off the screw. If that happens, all is not lost. You can try to drill a small hole into the center of the screw shaft and pull out the screw with a screw extractor. Read the rest
In the last couple of weeks over 200 major advertisers, including Starbucks, Ford, GM, Clorox, Reebok, Adidas, Best Buy, Clif Bar, and Chobani have left Facebook, citing concerns over the social media platform's lack of meaningful action against voter suppression campaigns and hate speech that takes place there.In a statement, Denny's said: "As America's diner, we offer an inclusive and welcoming environment where all people can enjoy a nice meal and we strongly oppose hate speech of any kind. It is our belief that Facebook has not done enough to address this important issue on its platform and we are calling on Facebook to make positive changes in its process for combatting hate speech and disinformation."On Friday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced new policies he claimed would "crack down on voter suppression and fight hate speech." But according to Popular Information, critics said the policy was toothless and would do little to stop voter suppression and hate speech.So now Facebook has enlisted the help of Nick Clegg, vice president for global affairs and communications (and former Deputy Prime Minister of the UK) to educate the media that Facebook is just a "mirror to society."On CNN, host Brian Stelter asked Clegg what Facebook was doing to combat divisive speech on its platform. Clegg's response was there was nothing Facebook could do because the divisive content was merely a reflection of broader societal trends."Yes, and I'm afraid that in a highly polarized time in U.S. society, particularly in the run-up to this highly consequential election in November where, you know, people are shouting at each other from right and left, and where, of course, in some sense, Facebook is a mirror to society. Read the rest
A survey of 2000 adults who exercise twice a week or more said they will never return to a gym. Only one-third said they will retain their gym membership, but said they will go less frequently than before the pandemic.The covidiots among those surveyed were divided into two camps: 26% said that they will not go to any gym that requires face masks. Another 29% said they are against masks, but wear one if the gym requires it.Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest
A judge granted a temporary restraining order against the publication of Mary Trump's forthcoming book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Written by Donald Trump's niece, the book is a tell-all with unflattering details about Trump and his family. The book was due to be released on July 28th.From The Daily Beast:This decision is only preliminary, leaving the book’s ultimate fate up to a later decision on the merits of the lawsuit. Mary Trump’s attorney, Theadore Boutrous Jr., told The Daily Beast in a statement, “The trial court’s temporary restraining order is only temporary but it still is a prior restraint on core political speech that flatly violates the First Amendment. We will immediately appeal.” A person familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast the book, to be published by Simon and Schuster, is already on its third print run and the publishing giant are working to get the tome, which is currently Number Four on Amazon’s best-seller list, out to bookstores ahead of its July 28th release. Read the rest
Yesterday, Fox host Trace Gallagher questioned whether Trump would drop out of November's presidential race. And today, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy has pushed for Trump to wear a mask in at least two different segments. “More states every day are mandating people, their citizens to wear masks and I think that if the president wore one, it would just set a good example,” he said to RNC Chair and truth spinner Ronna McDaniel. “He would be a good role model. I don’t see any downside to the president wearing a mask in public.”Steve Doocy: “I think that if the president wore [a mask], it would just set a good example. He’d be a good role model. I don’t see any downside to the president wearing a mask in public" pic.twitter.com/ko8gbts865— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) June 30, 2020 And when speaking to Rep. Kevin McCarthy, he asks, "What about the President? He's made it clear he doesn't want to wear a mask, but his Federal government says everyone should wear a mask. Don't you think it would be a powerful symbol [if he] would put on a mask...? and then adds, ""It's symbolic, obviously it's patriotic because you're not only protecting yourself, you're protecting other people. ... It would be a powerful symbol."Steve Doocy presses Rep. Kevin McCarthy on Trump's hesitancy to be seen wearing a mask: "It's symbolic, obviously it's patriotic because you're not only protecting yourself, you're protecting other people. ... It would be a powerful symbol." Read the rest
Currently, the United States is seeing about 40,000 new COVID-19 cases a day. Today, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he "would not be surprised" if the US started getting 100,000 new cases a day. But what's curious is that even though more people are becoming infected with the Coronavirus, a lower percentage of them are requiring ventilators.A Medium article by Elad Simchayoff explores five possible reasons why this could be happening.The least likely explanation is that the virus is becoming less lethal. A minority of experts think that Covid-19 is becoming weaker over time.It's also unlikely that hot weather and sunshine is causing the virus to decay. though some experts believe this is a reason.Testing has increased in recent weeks, which likely accounts for part of the reason why fewer people are requiring ventilators. "More people are reported sick, many of them in a very mild state, which makes the percentage of those in critical condition drop."Hospitals are starting to use treatments other than ventilators. "In some countries, the practice has now shifted considerably to no more early ventilating and efforts being made to avoid ventilators at almost any cost."Younger people are getting sick. For example, in Florida, the median age for infected people is 37, but in March it was 65. Younger people are less likely to become seriously ill from coronavirus, and as a result, do not require ventilators. Photo by Javier Matheu on Unsplash Read the rest
The National Park Service reports that a 72-year-old woman repeatedly came within ten feet of a bison Yellowstone National Park to take a photo, and was gored by the animal.From a Park Service Statement:After a 72-year-old woman from California approached within 10 feet of a bison multiple times to take its photo, the animal gored her.The incident occurred on the evening of June 25, 2020, at the female’s campsite at Bridge Bay Campground.Rangers provided immediate medical care to the woman who sustained multiple goring wounds. She was then flown via helicopter to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.“The series of events that led to the goring suggest the bison was threatened by being repeatedly approached to within 10 feet,” said Yellowstone’s Senior Bison Biologist Chris Geremia. “Bison are wild animals that respond to threats by displaying aggressive behaviors like pawing the ground, snorting, bobbing their head, bellowing, and raising their tail. If that doesn’t make the threat (in this instance it was a person) move away, a threatened bison may charge. To be safe around bison, stay at least 25 yards away, move away if they approach, and run away or find cover if they charge.”Image: NPS / Jacob W. Frank Read the rest
A colossal star in the Kinman Dwarf galaxy (PHL 293B), estimated to be "100 times more massive than the sun," has "possibly" disappeared, according to a study published today. Ten years ago, when astronomers observed the star -- which was 75 million light years away -- it completely lit up its galaxy. But when astronomers looked for it last summer, it was nowhere to be found.From Vice: The head-scratching discovery was announced in a study published on Tuesday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.“We were quite surprised when we couldn’t find the star,” said lead author Andrew Allan, a PhD student at Trinity College Dublin, in a call. “It is a very extreme star, and it has quite a strong wind, so we can distinguish it from the galaxy. That’s what we couldn’t see in the newer observations.”...Allan and his colleagues considered several explanations for the observations, and eventually narrowed down the possibilities to two scenarios: Survival or death.If the star lived, we could be witnessing the fallout of its huge senescent outbursts, which may have enshrouded it in dust clouds that dimmed its light. If the star died, it may have collapsed into a black hole without ever producing a supernova.This second option seems bizarre, but it would not be the first potential “failed supernova” that has been detected by scientists. Another star appears to have fizzled out without any fireworks in a galaxy 22 million light years away, though it was only 25 times as massive as the Sun (which is still pretty huge). Read the rest
Europe is reopening its borders to travelers as the coronavirus pandemic subsides in most developed countries. But not to those coming from the U.S., where the virus's spread remains largely unchecked. Most travelers from the United States will be barred from entering the European Union after it reopens its borders Wednesday because the coronavirus is still far too prevalent in the U.S., European officials announced Tuesday.The E.U.'s 27 members have been drawing up a list of countries whose virus levels are deemed low enough to allow people from those places to travel into the bloc, which has been mostly sealed off since March.Europe was a hotbed of coronavirus infection, with Italy hosting the earliest outbreaks in the west and the UK and Spain ending up suffering the worst per-capita numbers in the world. But infection rates there are now very low, compared the the U.S., which only briefly "flattened the curve" and is now experiencing its highest per-day infection rates since the pandemic began. The list of acceptable travel origins is only 15 countries and will be reviewed every two weeks, say officials. Read the rest
The saying goes that everyone is looking to build a better mousetrap. In the case of Elementor, they decided to take a swing at WordPress, the platform used to build a third of the world’s websites, and make it better. Four years later, there are already three million sites using Elementor, a WP plug-in which brings an additional level of drag and drop easy to the WordPress environment. Elementor has opened up a whole new world to the tried and true WordPress procedure -- and with the training in The Elementor and WordPress Master Class Certification Bundle, you can learn all the newest and most effective tactics for elevating a WordPress site into a truly special web experience.The seven courses featured here not only go deep on Elementor but also offer specific guidance on using WordPress to craft some of the most frequently needed site types, so no matter what website template you need, you’ll have a leg up on getting it done and done well.The Elementor Master Class 2020 gets the ball rolling as you learn how to build fantastic looking web pages without needing to know any code. The course lays out a full plan for using sections, columns and widgets to craft virtually any web page design, all without ever having to mess with any programming problems.But Elementor is just the tip of the iceberg. If you need to Build a Full One Page Event Website with WordPress, you’ll get complete training in a plug-in called SiteOrigin to make it look stellar. Read the rest
Officials in Los Angeles have ordered all beaches in the county closed over the Independence Day Holiday, in hopes of slowing the accelerating coronavirus pandemic in Southern California.All beaches, piers, bike paths, and public access points to the Pacific coast in L.A. County will be closed to the public from July 3 to July 6.Today, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors announced the closure of our beaches, piers, beach bike paths, and beach access points beginning 7/3/2020 through 7/6/2020. The LHS Beach Team will be patrolling the beaches throughout the weekend...https://t.co/N2Mb1ETR2A pic.twitter.com/251bXVSuTP— LASD Lost Hills Stn. (@LHSLASD) June 29, 2020IMAGE: Lost Hills Sheriff's Station.BREAKING: All L.A. County beaches ordered CLOSED for 4th of July weekend 7/3 through 7/6. This new order makes it illegal to trespass at these locations and is punishable by law to include, but not limited to, a $1000 fine. @FOXLA— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) June 29, 2020#BREAKING LA County beaches ordered closed for Fourth of July weekendAll beaches, piers, bike paths, access points closed to public from 7/3-7/6 https://t.co/SxkEek5ctZ— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) June 29, 2020BREAKING NEWS: LA County CLOSING beaches for the 4th of July weekend. More on Eyewitness News at 4pm, just minutes away, on ABC7.— Jovana Lara (@abc7jovana) June 29, 2020Supervisor Janice Hahn tells KNX 1070 News live on-air Monday afternoon that they have decided to close all of the LA County beaches for the July 4th weekend. https://t.co/DSKtgPCKpE— KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO (@KNX1070) June 29, 2020BREAKING: Due to the dramatic rise in coronavirus cases reported on Monday, all beaches will be closed in L.A. Read the rest
Quite the scoop at CNN.com from Carl Bernstein, yes, the Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, with a 109-word one sentence lede. One wonders why none of the president's ex-men bothered to do anything about their revelation that Trump is unfit for office, beyond cashing in with speaking engagements and books.He pandered to enemies and strongmen like Putin and Erdogan, and was extremely abusive toward allies and female heads of state including Theresa May and Angela Merkel.https://t.co/CiicJAJaMp— Carl Bernstein (@carlbernstein) June 29, 2020Writes the one and only Carl Bernstein at CNN:In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.The calls caused former top Trump deputies -- including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as well as intelligence officials -- to conclude that the President was often "delusional," as two sources put it, in his dealings with foreign leaders. Read the rest
Unions that represent 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno sued three Nevada casino properties Monday, claiming dangerous working conditions that fail to protect workers from the still accelerating coronavirus outbreak.“The Culinary Workers Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 filed the lawsuit on Monday against Harrah’s Las Vegas, owned by Caesars Entertainment Corp, and the Bellagio and Signature Condominiums, both subsidiaries of MGM Resorts International,” reports Reuters:The lawsuit claims the companies have not sufficiently protected workers and their families from the spread of COVID-19, and that the current rules and procedures for responding to workers who contract COVID-19 have been inadequate.Among other claims, the lawsuit alleges the companies failed to immediately inform employees about co-workers who tested positive, and only “encouraged” guests to wear face masks while in public areas until June 24, the day the Nevada governor ordered guests to wear them.“We have offered free testing to all employees before they report to work and require it if they exhibit symptoms or have been exposed to someone who has tested positive and we have made available tests in other circumstances that do not dictate that a test is required,” an MGM Resorts International spokesman said in a statement.“We have worked to train our managers in our incident response protocols and we work very closely with the health department officials in their efforts to contact trace.” Unions sue three Nevada casino properties, claiming dangerous working conditions Read the rest
• AZ governor Ducey orders bars, gyms, theaters to close 8 p.m. tonight• Large gatherings restricted• School start delayedPeople not wearing masks or social distancing is why we can't have nice things. Arizona's governor today ordered all bars, nightclubs, gyms, movie theaters and water parks in the state to close for at least 30 days as coronavirus continues to surge in the state.Better late than never, right?Effective at 8:00 p.m. tonight, we are instituting a month-long pause on the operations of bars, gyms, movie theaters, waterparks and tubing rentals. This will help relieve stress on our health care system and give time for new transmissions to slow. 2/— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) June 29, 2020Effective today, organized events of more than 50 people are prohibited. Arizonans should celebrate the 4th of July responsibly this weekend, including by staying home, avoiding larger gatherings, and wearing a mask if you do go out. 3/— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) June 29, 2020The first day of school for in-person learning will be delayed until August 17, 2020. Distance learning can begin before then. This delay allows additional time for schools to implement safety precautions, including making available remote learning options. 4/— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) June 29, 2020Starting today, the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control shall cease issuing special event licenses for the period between June 29, 2020 and July 27, 2020. 5/— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) June 29, 2020In addition, we’re announcing a new grant program for long-term care facilities. Read the rest
I don't know who Grandpa Witmer is, but around our compound, he's a SubGenius ShorDurPerSav and a Discordian Saint. We use Saint Witmer's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Mixer to mix peanut butter quickly and without a mess.The kind of peanut butter I buy from Trader Joe's separates into two layers. The oil is on top, and the solid stuff is on the bottom. It's hard to mix with a knife or spoon. The oil is likely to spill on the counter or splash on my clothes. This hand-powered stirrer does a great job. I bought the model with a lid that fits my brand of peanut butter. The stirring rod slips through a rubber hole in the lid, and when I remove it, the rubber hole squeegees the peanut butter off so there's no mess. Read the rest
Pro-Trump sub The_Donald was never a pleasant place, but the bubbling sewer of racism and toxic behaviour has become too disgusting even for Reddit. Today the site banned the forum. As summarized at The Verge:In a blog post that cites the company’s new rules, Huffman said users of the r/The_Donald subreddit had violated the site’s policies for years. (The site has no official connection to President Donald Trump, although he did do an Ask Me Anything there as a candidate in 2016.) “The community has consistently hosted and upvoted more rule-breaking content than average (Rule 1), antagonized us and other communities (Rules 2 and 8), and its mods have refused to meet our most basic expectations,” Huffman said.It also banned the Chapo Trap House subreddit and many others; a hamfisted attempt at political balance, not that any of them weren't cesspits of hatred and misery.I am obligated to call you out: You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence. So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don't get to say BLM when reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all day long https://t.co/VN5XCiYp5g— Ellen K. Pao (@ekp) June 2, 2020 Read the rest
The 790,000 subscribers to The_Donald have suddenly found themselves without a place to spread hate and harassment after Reddit shut down the subreddit earlier this morning, reports The New York Times. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told reporters “Reddit is a place for community and belonging, not for attacking people. The_Donald has been in violation of that.”From The New York Times:Reddit said people in “The_Donald” consistently posted racist and vulgar messages that incited harassment and targeted people of different religious and ethnic groups on and off its site.“The_Donald” has also heavily trafficked in conspiracy theories, including spreading the debunked “PizzaGate” conspiracy, in which Hillary Clinton and top Democrats were falsely accused of running a child sex trafficking ring from a pizza parlor in Washington.Reddit said that as of Monday, it was introducing eight rules that laid out the terms people must abide by to use the site. Those include prohibiting targeted harassment, revealing the identities of others, posting sexually exploitative content related to underage children, or trafficking in illegal substances or other illicit transactions.While the site had already banned many of these behaviors, the latest changes take a harder line on speech that “promotes hate based on identity or vulnerability.”Image: Gage Skidmore - Flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link Read the rest
Scambuster Jim Browning got access to a tech support scammer's computer and was able to find out his real name and monitor his communications with his boss and colleagues. He spooked them so much that it looks like they shut down operations, at least temporarily. I love Browning's laconic, bored-sounding voice as he talks to the increasingly panicked scammer. Read the rest
If you're a professional illustrator, podcaster, or filmmaker, a $53 a month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud is a fair price to pay. But if you're just interested in having a good vector graphics application, you can probably get by using Inkscape (free) or Affinity Designer (one time cost $50). Inkscape even runs on Linux computers. This video runs through the key features of each application. Read the rest
Spoken Word with Electronics is an audio series delivering to you a two side recording of unusual stories paired with vintage modular electronic soundsHello, everyone - Welcome back. Part of this week's show is on language. One great result of the recent protests is a reassessment of some of our worst phrases. "Master/Slave" is an ugly one, with a direct path to some of the world's most terrible history. Unfortunately, it's largely adopted into electronics as an example of one device maintaining control over countless other devices. It's been suggested a better phrase might be Leader/Follower, and in that way you realize "Master/Slave" also describes politics, too.As language is finally being addressed on this shameful history of semantics, I offer one final discussion on "Master/Slave" as an EXPLANATION for how people are still following and supporting Trump. Electronic control can be their only defense. In sympathy, I call for us all to love Trump Supporters and seek to emancipate them from this mental prison.Mind Control is an interesting subject. There's been an ongoing effort to control minds with technology, and some consider this to be happening right now. Today's episode discusses triggers in drum machines as an explanation for how Trump's very sharp signal clock controls his followers. He's a perfect drum sequencer. He keeps his messages monosyllabic and sharp. That's the best signal for opening up a drum to follow a controller. And the term for this in synthesis is, regrettably, "Master/Slave", in that the Master is the sequencer and the slave is the follower. Read the rest
It took a lot of time and tools to restore this corroded 1960s tin toy car into one that looks brand new.Here's a hint for watching restoration videos like this: most of the restoration processes shown in the videos are shown in time-lapse, and you can speed them up even more by playing the videos at double speed. You won't miss out on anything and, in this case, you will save yourself 10 minutes. Read the rest
Hugo's is one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles. They have one on Santa Monica Blvd that Carla and I have been going to since the 1980s. There's also a Hugo's in Sherman Oaks that's been around for about 20 years, and we order takeout from it. About 15 years ago Hugo's opened two excellent taco stands, one near the Sherman Oaks restaurant. Today I read the sad news that both Hugo's taco stands had to shut down because of sociopaths who were so angry about the "no mask, no service" policy that they "screamed, cursed, and threw drinks," at employees, according to The Sacramento Bee.Nabor Prado says Hugo’s Tacos employees have been on the front lines of the face mask controversy, KNBC reported. One man became so enraged he attacked workers.“He got a cup of water and (threw) the water at my employee, which is unsafe and rude,” Prado said, according to the station. “It’s really sad to see grown up people doing childish things like that.”Workers, who are mostly Latino, also have been called racial epithets by customers who have demanded refunds and thrown drinks through drive-up windows, the Los Angeles Times says.“It’s just gotten more difficult to open every day in an environment where you’re treated with hostility and venom,” Kohne said, KTTV reported. Read the rest
Fox host Trace Gallagher questioned today whether, with Trump's miserable poll numbers (the national polls' average currently has Trump at 56.2 disapproval, 40.4 approval, according to FiveThirtyEight), he “might drop out” of the November presidential race. Speaking to former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, a Republican, Trace added that the “vast majority of Americans” are "not happy with the way the US is handling the coronavirus pandemic." Sununu says there's "no chance" Trump will drop out, but that Trump is "going to be judged in November, not on how the pandemic was handled from January until now. They’re going to be judged on how it’s handled between now and the election.”Sununu then has advice for Trump: “Stop saying the virus is going to go away -- let people know that this is a real second wave, let them know there may be a third wave.”Via Raw Story Read the rest
Police in West Sussex, England responded last week to reports that around 50 people carrying suitcases were spotted walking towards Ardingly Reservoir. Part of the reservoir is a nature reserve popular for organized watersports, fishing, and birding. "“An area search carried out and the team could not locate anyone with suitcases…most bizarre," tweeted Inspector Darren Taylor.I wonder if anyone saw Wilford Brimley in the area.(Evening Express via Anomalist)Team are currently responding to calls from members of the public in regard to approx 50 people walking towards Ardingly reservoir, carrying suitcases! pic.twitter.com/ozM8HURJjd— Inspector Darren Taylor (@InspectorDarren) June 25, 2020image: Antiquary (CC BY 4.0) Read the rest
Videogame developer Phil Compile and 4-year-old son Ollie made this absolutely wonderful Super Mario stop motion animation using refrigerator magnets. That’s so good! How long did that take??— Garrett Cooper (@superdupergc) June 28, 2020 Read the rest
This family was fishing on Marshmiller Lake in Wisconsin when they came across this bear cub swimming with a plastic container stuck on its head. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. Via EuroNews Read the rest