Do Large (Magnitude ≥8) Global Earthquakes Occur on Preferred Days of the Calender Year of Lunar Cycle?(more…)

https://youtu.be/2jSHKPp-66wNeil Gaiman says Edgar Allan Poe should be read aloud, and he's right: he recorded this video of him reading "The Raven" in 2016 as part of Pat Rothfuss's Worldbuilders charity drive. It's Poe's birthday today, and I can think of no better way to celebrate it than to listen to it again. (more…)

Alternative protein advocates in Europe have been stymied by the hodgepodge of national rules regarding insect consumption, but now the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will approve applications for edible bugs that will then be legal to serve to Europeans throughout the EU. (more…)

Astrophysicist Katie Mack (astrokatie.com) created this startling pie-chart to illustrate the ratio of observed matter to dark matter and energy, the invisible bulk of the universe.https://twitter.com/AstroKatie/status/953983237918994432From her 2014 article, The Dark Matter Poltergeist:

MP Andrea Leadsom wants the Royal Mail to commemorate Brexit with a postage stamp. Twitter has run with the idea, shooping and tagging with #BrexitStamps, making sure to tag @andrealeadsom. (more…)

You may be expecting a typically wild blend of natural wonder and action-cam chaos. But not everyday is Monday.

The Pale Blue Dot was made as a tribute to Carl Sagan "as the final project for the Animation 01 course at Ringling College of Art and Design." (more…)

Lithophanes were originally bas-relief artworks made of translucent porcelain that let varying amounts of light through depending on thickness. Now they same effect can be created using a 3D printer and applied to anything from Wonder Woman images to personal photos. (more…)

Ask any marketing guru, and they'll tell you that social media sites like Facebook and Instagram are an essential part of their everyday toolbox. So, whether you're looking to build your own brand or market someone else's for a pretty penny, understanding social media marketing is a must, and getting started is easy with the Pay What You Want Social Marketing Mastery Bundle. This bundle boasts more than 15 courses on the subject, and they can be all yours for a price you choose.Here's how the deal works: Simply pay what you want, and you'll instantly unlock two of the collection's 15 courses. Beat the average price paid, and you'll get the remaining 13 at no extra charge.From writing Facebook ads to optimizing campaigns with Google AdWords, this collection delivers a complete digital marketing education. You'll have more than 75 hours of training at your disposal as you explore tried-and-true copywriting techniques and unique approaches to capturing leads on specific platforms, like Snapchat, Periscope, and Twitter.Kickstart your digital marketing education for a price you choose with the Pay What You Want Social Marketing Mastery Bundle.

The City of Los Angeles posted on Facebook -- with this awesome ad -- that they are hiring for a Graphic Designer, sorry, "Graphics Designer." Applicants clearly must know MS Paint inside and out.Thanks, Heathervescent!

Since January 2015, the high-def 360 panoramic webcam on top of the Space Needle has been consistently capturing images every ten minutes of Seattle. Ricardo Martin Brualla took that footage and made this super-groovy timelapse video.He explains his process in depth on Hackernoon:

YouTuber Dave Lee starts off his video review by saying that he went into Starbucks during the holidays to get a cup of coffee and was soon persuaded by their heavy advertising to buy an $80 Ember mug*."So basically I got conned into buying this thing," he says.He goes on to talk about the Ember, which is a ceramic temperature control mug. It measures the temperature of your your coffee or tea (or whatever hot beverage) and let's you decide what temperature you want it to be all day. It also syncs with the Ember's smartdevice app.He likes it overall but has some issues with it. For example, it doesn't hold the full 10 ounces unless it's filled to the brim. It holds more like eight to eight and a half ounces.While I appreciate Dave's thorough review, if I'm spending $80 for a mug, it had better be making and serving me my hot beverage on a silver platter. I recently got a $40 electric kettle and -- call me old fashioned, if you will -- when I want to heat up my tea, I simply get off my butt, walk over to flip the kettle on, and take a break while I wait for it to heat up.*Ember's travel mug version is a mere $150!Previously: Man creates a snarky review of his office's janky $1K/yr water cooler

The folks at Reality Check Documentaries took the trailer for Netflix's gritty drug-crime docuseries DOPE and made it into a clever parody for the "Tide Pods epidemic." It works a little too well, imo.

Via the miracle of society's visual memory on Youtube, you can see the entire cast of Gilligan's Island reunited on a Fox talk show in 1988.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9yJ5zegnDY

Hospital chain Intermountain Healthcare is leading a industry consortium representing 450 hospitals in total in an initiative to manufacture their own generic drugs, either directly or through subcontractors. (more…)

A few weeks ago we were shocked to learn that Playboy had, without notifying us, sued us over this post (we learned about it when a journalist DM'ed us on Twitter to ask about it). Today, we filed a motion to dismiss, asking the judge to throw out this baseless, bizarre case. We really hope the courts see it our way, for all our sakes.Playboy’s lawsuit is based on an imaginary (and dangerous) version of US copyright law that bears no connection to any US statute or precedent. Playboy -- once legendary champions for the First Amendment -- now advances a fringe copyright theory: that it is illegal to link to things other people have posted on the web, on pain of millions in damages -- the kinds of sums that would put us (and every other small publisher in America) out of business.Rather than pursuing the individual who created the allegedly infringing archive, Playboy is pursuing a news site for pointing out the archive’s value as a historical document. In so doing, Playboy is seeking to change the legal system so that deep-pocketed opponents of journalism can shut down media organizations that displease them. It's a law that they could never get from Congress, but which they hope the courts will conjure into existence by wiping us off the net.It's not just independent publishers who rely on the current state of copyright law, either. Major media outlets (like Playboy!) routinely link and embed media, without having to pay a lawyer to research the copyright status of something someone else posted, before discussing, explaining or criticizing it.The world can't afford a judgment against us in this case -- it would end the web as we know it, threatening everyone who publishes online, from us five weirdos in our basements to multimillion-dollar, globe-spanning publishing empires like Playboy.As a group of people who have had long associations with Playboy, reading the articles (really!) and sometimes writing them, we hope the judge sees it our way -- for our sakes... and for Playboy's.You can read our motion here, and EFF's press release here. We'll have more to say after the judge issues his ruling.Here's the introduction from our motion to dismiss:

The U.S. Senate today passed a bill that will renew the National Security Agency’s warrantless internet surveillance program for six years with no substantive changes. It's bad news, say privacy and security advocates, but not a surprise.(more…)

People in 134 countries rated their approval of U.S. leadership at an all-time low under President Donald Trump in a new Gallup poll released one year after he took office. The souring of global opinion toward America is most likely to benefit Russia, China, and European nations such as Germany.(more…)

President Donald Trump himself made the decision and gave the executive order “to curtail the testimony of former chief White House political strategist Steve Bannon before the House Intelligence Committee,” FP reports, citing ”two people with firsthand knowledge of the matter.”(more…)

Get your barf bag handy before you read this post. We're not joking.(more…)

Sick burn, EWR. The crooked as heck governor of New Jersey has barely been out of office for three whole days, and he gets escorted out by a cop when attempting to waddle his way into Newark International Airport's VIP entrance.(more…)

On September 13, 1997, Prince, who had changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, was the special guest on "Muppets Tonight." I like how he didn't take himself too seriously! But then, how could he with this crowd.P>"Episode 201: The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" (Muppet Wiki)

I've owned the earlier model of Panasonic's nose hair and ear hair trimmer for over ten years, and it still works perfectly. I've never had the sharpen the blades. (Can they even be sharpened?) It's easy to clean - just turn it on and run it under water -- the "'Vortex Cleaning System' draws in water from all sides and spins through the trimmer for easy nasal hair trimmer cleaning in seconds." It uses a single AA battery, which lasts months, even for a astonishingly hirsute personage such as myself.The new model features some kind of "advanced micro-vacuum system designed to quickly and neatly collect and deposit nose, ear and other trimmed hair particles into an easy-clean collection chamber." It's regularly $15, but is on sale for $12 on Amazon when you click the little green coupon button on the product page.

Paul Waldman, a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post, says democrats should be thanks that racist criminal nutcase Joe Arpaio is running for the Senate. And on the outside chance he wins, he won't be able to do much more damage than the average GOP senator anyway.From The Week:

Silverybield Foss is a simple, very low-fi walking simulator by Twisted Tree (of Proteus fame) that knows where you're going. You'll arrive (using arrow keys) in just a few minutes.

Dylan Farrow was seven years old when she told her mother, Mia Farrow, that her father, Woody Allen had sexually molested her. She described the assault in detail in a 2014 open letter published in The New York Times. Today she went on CBS This Morning to talk about the alleged assault.

“I went to turn and I noticed a ball of flame coming at an angle,” Danny McEwen Jr. told the Detroit News. "...It just blew up into a bunch of sparks. I didn’t even know what to think. It was kind of odd how orange the sky was behind me and this blaze of flame out of nowhere.”A brilliant meteor tore through Earth's atmosphere around 8pm on Tuesday night over southeastern Michigan. The United States Geological Survey measured the rumble as equivalent to a magnitude 2.0 earthquake.From the Washington Post:

In 2011, before she signed her non-disclosure agreement with Trump, porn actress Stormy Daniels gave a detailed account of her 2006 sex affair with Trump to InTouch magazine. During last night's airing of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert read some of the choice bits.

Yet again an OMOTON iPhone screen saver spared me a trip to the Apple Store.I can credit these screensavers for having taking a hit that'd have cost me $100+ many times over the last year, and again this week! It had been almost 6 months since I'd busted a one of these, but all it takes is a second of inattention and...I just ordered a new set. Easy to apply, the peace of mind OMOTON's screen savers provide me is more than worth the effort.Make sure to get the right one for your model phone!OMOTON 9H Hardness HD Tempered Glass Screen Protector for Apple iPhone 8 Plus / iPhone 7 Plus, 2 Pack via Amazon

Central Michigan University student Anna G should earn an honorary doctorate in pranksterism. Welcome to, er, Wii U.

This poor kid. He ordered a part for his video game console, but the mail order company screwed up and sent him a bong by mistake and he had to open the box under the watchful eye of his mother.Kid: "It looks like a big plastic... metal... vase. It's got a glass bottom... I think it's a vase."Mother: "Open it then."Kid: "I'm opening it! Chill!"Kid: "It just looks like a vase for a bunch of... things."Mother: "It's a bong."Kid: "What the frick?"Mother: "It's a bong."Kid: "What the heck? I didn't order that! I ordered an XBox card... an XBox remote. Oh wow, I did not order that."

What, um, "perfect" timing.(via Laughing Squid)

Two teenage boys swimming off the shore of New South Wales, Australia found themselves in trouble half a mile out from the beach. Then along came a drone that spotted the boys and dropped a yellow flotation device which inflated once it hit the water. The boys were able to grab on and swim to safety.The drone wasn't on official duty to save swimmers in distress – it was still part of a pilot program just testing the waters. But when lifeguards were notified that the boys were in trouble, the drone was put to real-life-rescue action, taking only 70 seconds to help the boys, rather than the six minutes it would have taken lifeguards to reach them.According to The Verge:

One way to get out of paying airline pet fees is to stuff your beloved pet inside your checked baggage right between the multiple sweatshirts you’re never going to wear. The downside is you’ll have to spend the rest of your life being a complete piece of shit.Pennsylvania TSA agents foiled such an attempt when workers discovered a 6-month-old kitten being stowed away in a bag at Erie International Airport, according to SFGATE.

Flybrix kits allow you to turn a variety of Lego builds into little copter-drones that you can fly with an app or a Bluetooth joystick. (more…)

Those pesky deer loitering around Japanese railroad tracks are certain to be no match for expected train technology featuring the sound of barking dogs.Tokyo railway researchers say the “dog yaps” are effective at disbanding deer and saving them from being struck by trains, which often lead to delays, according to the Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun. Besides the woof mechanisms, the Railway Technical Research Institute is hoping to outfit trains this year with “deer snorts” used to warn fellow deer of potential danger.The likely unintended consequence is all the undelivered mail to homes built next to the train track.Via The Asahi Shimbun:

Google's Cloud Automl Vision system -- a machine-learning-based image classifier -- is now available to the general public; anyone can sign up to the program, upload a set of 20-10,000 images and train a new model with them, which they can then use. (more…)

Visual artist and photographer Eli Rezkallah has turned the tables on some of the most nauseatingly-sexist (and 100% real) midcentury ads in his latest project, In a parallel universe. He writes:

Reportedly costing $179K, this elaborate cake wowed guests at a wedding Sunday in Kazakhstan. Styled like a castle, the one-ton cake featured many moving parts including a small horse-drawn carriage that brought small representations of the wedding couple to the front door of the castle. From there, the figurines were whisked up to a balcony near the top of the cake.Watch for yourself:https://www.instagram.com/p/BeDl-9zhi2T/?hl=en&taken-by=renat_agzamovAKIPress named the bride and groom and their social status:

Motherboard reports that a university professor created an app that detects net neutrality violations -- that is, when service providers block, throttle, prioritize or otherwise interfere with legal internet use. It's like a speed-test app, same as all the others, but with more detail and a serious research goal in mind. Apple, sadly, finds it contains "objectionable content" that lacks "direct benefits" to its users, unlike utilitarian AppStore mainstays such as iFart: The Original Fart Sounds App and Thump Trump.

Hawai'ians and the rest of the world want to understand why they were warned of their imminent demise -- what kind of bad design choices could allow such a thing to happen? (more…)

This cute Planet Earth-style video was created by the pro-Norwegian business organization Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon (NHO) as a way of highlighting the many benefits of working in Norway. It shows what the starting day of a young Norwegian's (the "youngster") first real job might be like, all narrated as if he were integrating into the "den" of his new "pack."(Holy Kaw!)

When you lie in the dark of night, a faint neural echo of human connection urging you to reach for your phone, do you fight it? The Aumum Mini, a compact nightlight that lets you know when someone retweets you, etc, will help you fail even better!

Designers Tobias Frere-Jones and Nina Stössinger created Conductor in an homage to "the delicate, blocky numerals from vintage Bulgarian lottery tickets" with "elements of vernacular shopfront lettering and mid-century type design." (via Kottke) (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufOnBRXy3PcHere's two minutes of Scottish trials cyclist Danny MacAskill doing astounding bike tricks in Düsseldorf, making his bike leap from one narrow ledge to another, climb over walls and fences, and many other feats of daring, coordination and balance. There's a full 26 minutes of this on Ali Clarkson's Vlog 69. (via Kottke)

The prohibition on psychedelics was memorably described as "the worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo" by former UK Drugs Czar David Nutt, and despite the ban, there has been a consistent, determined, very promising (sometimes surprising) drumbeat of scientific papers about the use of psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") and other psychedelics in treating a range of chronic illnesses, including mental illnesses. (more…)

In this video, Frogger, a pet red-shouldered hawk in Carson City, Nevada, tries to attack the images of prey in a small game hunting regulations guide. He packs and scratches at it, not realizing the birds and animals aren't real.This totally reminds me of something I witnessed in the mid-1990s. Those days I lived on the third story of an apartment building across from Oakland's Lake Merritt with my then-boyfriend, a biologist. He had a lizard named Mr. Businessman Socks who was housed inside a glass cage. That long rectangular glass box was seated directly in front of our livingroom's big, curtainless window.That window was nearly on level with the top of the telephone poles on our street. We would often see the neighborhood's Cooper hawks tearing apart smaller birds on the top of those poles, with all the tiny feathers floating slowly to the ground.One Sunday morning, I was reading the paper and heard some commotion. I looked up to see one of the hawks had flown directly over to the ledge of that window. His wings were spread out completely as if he were about to attack. Mr. Businessman Socks was FREAKING OUT, puffing himself up and running around like mad. He clearly thought he was a goner. The large meaty hawk looked at the lizard and then looked at me. There was a long pause and then it flew away, knowing it had been defeated.This was before cell phones so, saldy, I have no photographic evidence to share with you. I'll tell you though, that incident is permanently burned into my memory.(Tastefully Offensive)

McClatchy DC reports that the FBI is investigating whether a Kremlin-tied Russian banker illegally funded money to the National Rifle Association to help Trump win the presidency.

EV Nautilus shared a spectacular unplanned find during a recent live filming of a sampling expedition: a pink and purple Halitrephes maasi jelly that looks like a firework. (more…)

The music of Journey and Beyoncé shouldn't work well together but this mashup by oneboredjeu (aka Maddy) proves otherwise. By combining "Any Way You Want It" with "Drunk in Love," she's created a super-trippy mix called "Any Way You Love It."Previously: Listen to this fantastic mashup of Pearl Jam's 'Jeremy' and the Footloose theme(Digg)