The 2019 LEGO Harry Potter advent calendar is here!This years set includes Harry and Hedqig, Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, Professor Flitwick, and a "Hogwarts Architect" and a micro Hogwarts Express train amongst the many treats.I wonder what the Jewish wizards and witches do for Hannukah? My daughter likes the Star Wars advent set.LEGO Harry Potter Advent Calendar 75964 Building Kit, New 2019 (305 Pieces) via Amazon Read the rest

Last month, the "Wizard Rock," an iconic 1-ton boulder, mysteriously vanished without a trace from Arizona's Prescott National Forest. It was the third boulder disappearance in the region over the last few months. Now, Prescott National Forest officials report that the Wizard Rock has mysteriously returned. From CNN:The slab of black rock with streaks of white quartz holds special meaning to local geology enthusiasts, forest officials said. It's greeted passing motorists along scenic Highway 89 for years and makes for a strong selfie setting.Its disappearance confounded rangers. The stunning chunk of stone weighs about the same as a small car, so discreetly lifting it would've required some extreme effort.Seems to me they should check with the local interdimensional Bigfoot. Read the rest

A clip from director Hugues Nancy's "Paris 1900, the City of Lights," featuring restored and colorized film footage from the fin de siècle. From C21Media:Thanks to incredible archives restored and fully colorized, this film presents a previously unseen journey through time and space. Discover, Paris in 1900 at the time of the Exposition Universelle and the very beginning of modern art and cinema. The City of Lights became a showcase city, displaying the latest technical and scientific inventions, and also boasting avant-garde art galleries, lively cabarets, the ultimate in high fashion, and… the Parisiennes. The myth of “La Belle Epoque” reigned supreme. Read the rest

There are near misses and then there's this guy in Oakland, California who got saved just before a subway train creamed him. Wow! BART's humble hero saves a passenger from fast approaching train. On Sunday, November 3, 2019, transportation supervisor, John O'Connor was working crowd control at the Coliseum Station after the Raiders game when an intoxicated passengers miss-stepped and fell into the trackway. John sprang into action and pulled him to safety.Tonight we are thankful for John. He’s a former Train Operator who was promoted to Transportation Supervisor. He was working the Coliseum Station for the Raiders game and saw someone on the platform who needed help. He saved a life tonight. Thank you John. Show him some love. https://t.co/BIb5NMdZFj— SFBART (@SFBART) November 4, 2019(KQED) Read the rest

Neal Agarwal made this website about the size of space. You click through it one page at a time, starting with a single astronaut and ending with the observable universe. Read the rest

The fact that Trumped hired his spiritual advisor Paula White to come to work for him tells you everything you need to know about her. This video will add no new information. It's for entertainment purposes only. Skip to :47 if you want to see her speaking in High Valyrian.How totally not shocking that Paula White, Trump's official spiritual advisor, is just like him: a lying, narcissistic shakedown charlatan who uses radical, right-wing, fake Christianity to con gullible people to get attention, money, and power. pic.twitter.com/9naBxUmJK7— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) November 5, 2019Image: Twitter Read the rest

Our pal Andy Baio has been experimenting with an audio separation library called spleeter "that uses machine learning to quickly and freely separate music into stems." It does a surprisingly good job, and he is using it to make funny mashups:nobody should have this kind of power pic.twitter.com/4vbl2MGK4Z— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) November 5, 2019 Read the rest

Pokémon Sword and Shield comes out later this month. If a recent leak of the Pokemon included in the game is to be believed (and people are certainly acting like the leak is reliable), then the game will include what looks like bleached coral Pokemon. Ghost type Galarian Corsola and Cursola:They certainly won't be the only pollution-related characters. Here are poison gas Pokemon:For more grim Pokemon, check out this article on "The extremely dark, disturbing origins of 25 Pokémon."(Bleached coral via Wikipedia.) Read the rest

Abbie Hoffman and Martin Carey arrive at The Pentagon to do a literal hand-count on how many protestors will be needed to encircle the building for a protest. On the way out they apply for, and receive, a permit to initiate an Exorcism to rid the base of its evil demons. Part one of "LEVITATION OF THE PENTAGON" — Continued Next WeekFrom John Wilcock, New York Years, by Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall.(See all Boing Boing installments) Read the rest

A teacher, mercifully left anonymous, was filmed rapping in blackface on Halloween. Chris Norwood, the MUSD school board president, called the teacher's actions "inappropriate, unprofessional and insensitive," according to an online statement."As an African American man, the history of Blackface reminds me of the cruelty, hatred and fear my parents and people of African Ancestry have dealt with in the past and still experience today around the world," Norwood said.Imagine: it's 2019, you're a history teacher, you ain't black, but your school board president is. The thought comes to you: I know, I'll black up and rap for the kids. 🤷 🤷 🤷 Sooooooooo... one of our WHITE teachers at mhs yesterday decided to paint his face so look like common the rapper yesterday. pic.twitter.com/1WudSddCLZ— karrington (@karrington_kk) November 1, 2019 Read the rest

Bryan Berg builds elaborate houses of cards. He's so good that he gets paid to do it. According to Guy Georgeson, the creator of the Coolest Thing I've Ever Made YouTube channel, Berg "holds 4 Guinness World Records including world's largest card tower (4000 decks) and world's tallest tower at 26 feet tall." In this video we learn about Berg, get his tips for stacking them, and watch him attempt to build a card tower outdoors, where a light breeze can be devastating.Image: YouTube Read the rest

The Verge's Dieter Bohn reviews Microsoft's Surface Pro X laptop. It's pretty and it's small, but it's slow.... the core of Windows 10 runs just fine for me [but] there are still occasional, confounding slowdowns, especially when waking from sleep. In general, I just didn’t have as strong a feel for what would and would not bog down this computer — with an Intel chip, I know what to expect.But it wasn’t fast, certainly not as fast as an equivalently priced Intel device would be. Still, the main problem with this ARM chip doesn’t come from slowness with Windows itself, but with many of the apps. Here's a serious problem for anyone doing anything more than basic productivity: "64-bit x86 apps won’t run at all on the Surface Pro X. ... even Microsoft’s own app store doesn’t properly filter out incompatible apps when you visit it from this computer. You can (and I did!) buy apps in the Microsoft Store and only find out after the fact that they’re incompatible."The Verge also notes that setting it up presents the user with a baker's dozen of clickwrap contracts, including Windows itself, "Activity History", OneDrive, Office 365, Cortana, and a Microsoft account that can only be skipped if you remember not to connect it to the internet. You apparently cannot get into this laptop without allowing "Microsoft to access your location, location history, contacts, voice input, speech and handwriting patterns, typing history, search history, calendar details, messages, apps, and Edge browsing history."All that said, it's very light, has fast LTE and a solid workday's battery life. Read the rest

If you want to start cooking like a grown-up, the clock is ticking. Thanksgiving is coming soon, and one of these years that cheap set of kitchenware that you bought for the college dorm is not going to cut it anymore.If that's your situation, might we suggest the Grown-Up Home Chef Starter Kit — better known as the Inspired Home 5-Piece Enameled Cast Iron Cookware + Bakeware Set.If your parents have a set they've been faithfully using for decades, chances are it's made of the same durable stuff. The cast iron core of these pots and pans makes sure everything from soups to steaks heats evenly and quickly. The enamel protects and against stains or abrasion and makes the whole set much easier to clean than naked cast iron.No matter what the meal, they make sure all the flavor stays locked in. And best of all, they'll likely keep that quality through decades of use.Snap up the whole five-piece set today so you can start giving it a test run before turkey day. The Inspired Home Set is now 66% off the retail price. Read the rest

I've been a fan of cartoonist, novelist and memoirist Lynda Barry for decades, long before she was declared a certified genius; Barry's latest book, Making Comics is an intensely practical, incredibly inspiring curriculum for finding, honing and realizing your creativity through drawing and writing.

My latest Locus Magazine column is Jeannette Ng Was Right: John W. Campbell Was a Fascist, which revisits Jeannette Ng's Campbell Awards speech from this summer's World Science Fiction convention.As far as I know, I'm the only person to have won both awards named for Campbell, which, I think, gives me license to speak on the subject. I think that Ng was absolutely right about Campbell and his legacy, and I think that understanding that the good that people do doesn't erase the harms they cause (and vice-versa) is critical to navigating a world of flawed people.Here’s the thing: neither one of those facets of Campbell cancels the other one out. Just as it’s not true that any amount of good deeds done for some people can repair the harms he visited on others, it’s also true that none of those harms can­cel out the kindnesses he did for the people he was kind to.Life is not a ledger. Your sins can’t be paid off through good deeds. Your good deeds are not cancelled by your sins. Your sins and your good deeds live alongside one another. They coexist in superposition.You (and I) can (and should) atone for our misdeeds. We can (and should) apologize for them to the people we’ve wronged. We should do those things, not because they will erase our misdeeds, but because the only thing worse than being really wrong is not learning to be better.People are flawed vessels. The circumstances around us – our social norms and institutions – can be structured to bring out our worst natures or our best. Read the rest

Lauren Bard works as a nurse at Dignity Health, a "Christian hospital" (motto: Hello humankindness). In 2018, Bard went to UC Irvine hospital to deliver her very premature (21 week) baby.Bard's employer provides coverage through Anthem Blue Cross, but requires parents of newborns to register their children within 31 days. Bard missed this deadline because she was distracted by having a preemie in the NICU, so Dignity Health refused to cover the bill for her baby's care, which came to $898,984.Dignity Health's position is that Bard was informed of the paperwork requirement when she got her job, six years prior to giving birth to a premature baby that needed sustained, intense, emergency medical care to survive, and if she couldn't remember on her own to fill in the paperwork, then she was going to have to pay the nearly $1 million in medical expenses on her own (Dignity also blamed the IRS for this).Bard exhausted every avenue of appeal within her employer's bureaucracy, and was repeatedly told that there was no possible way that her employer's insurance would pay for it. She was going to have to go on a $100/month repayment plan, which would see her in debt for the next 748 years.Then Propublica contacted Dignity Health, and they reversed their decision. They attribute the reversal to "additional information" they received about Bard's case, but could not say what that new information was. It appears the "new information" was that they were about to be pilloried in a national press outlet for bankrupting an employee whose only fault was failing to complete a paperwork requirement while in extreme emotional and physical distress, despite having been notified of it six years before. Read the rest

Erin Ehm's insurance company will buy her a new set of prosthetic feet every three years, but her $6,000/foot Echelon VT hydraulic prosthetics break down every 10 months. Erin's feet are now out of warranty, but she doesn't yet qualify for a new insurance-funded replacement, and one of them has broken down. She contacted the manufacturer, Blatchford UA (formerly Endolite) and asked them if she could pay for a repair, but Blatchford "would not repair them for any cost. Full stop." But they did offer to sell her a new one.Erin depends on her prosthetic feet for everything (as you might imagine!): both the physical activities that keep her fit, healthy and happy, as well as everyday necessities like driving her car, which has not been fitted with hand-controls. Last week I “blew out” the hydraulics on one of my feet. It was a foot that had been repaired under warranty in 2017, then stored in my closet until just a couple weeks ago as a backup emergency pair. I need emergency feet, because if I can't walk, I can't really do much. I can't take my son to school or make him meals. I can't drive to work. Not to mention the fact that I can’t leave the house to do any of the things I enjoy. I don't own a wheelchair and wouldn't know the first thing about navigating the world in one. My cars don't have hand controls. Let it be known that I acknowledge that I am extremely privileged in disabled society for the record. Read the rest

Pete Tridish and pals made a hell of a Hallowe'en haunt this year: on their "porch of doom," trick-or-treaters were sent to a Mars colonized by billionaires where they were expected to mine Mars rocks and put them in Amazon Mars boxes at a sweatshop Amazon Mars warehouse; Pete notes that the haunt was partly inspired by my 2011 young adult novella Martian Chronicles, which was recently podcast in two parts by the excellent Escape Pod podcast!Billionaires talk about going to Mars. They paint a picture of the utopia they will build there. But a utopia for billionaires is where we work as slaves in their labor camps. This years Halloween Porch of Doom gives you an opportunity to visit this glorious future of “progress,“ as defined by Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. Capitalism gives ridiculous rewards to people on top, and pays little to people who do the actual physical work. Entrepreneurs don’t come up with ideas on their own… school, reading works of others, talking with peers, and the labor to bring it to reality. So how come one person gets to decide what to do with all the profit that the idea creates? It was expensive when NASA built rockets, because as part of the government, their first priority was safety. Even so, space travel was dangerous. The biggest innovation by these entrepreneurs is cost cutting by tolerating more risk. Billionaires must be taxed sensibly to give society a return on the investments in education, roads, social services and other things that made their businesses successful. Read the rest

In 2016, Cloudflare was targeted by a notorious patent troll called Blackbird Technologies; rather than capitulate, the company set up a fund called "Project Jengo" to pay bounties to researchers who documented prior art that could be used to invalidate the patent in question -- and all of Blackbird's patents, and began to file to have additional patents invalidated based on that crowdsourced research.Not only did Cloudflare prevail in its litigation, it also seems to have taken a serious bite out of Blackbird, whose headcount has dropped precipitously, along with the number of lawsuits the company has filed. And to add insult to injury, the Cloudflare filed ethics complaints against the company's founder (who are both lawyers) with their individual bar associations.I proposed a variation on this in 2013. It's great to see it in action now! Sic semper tyrannis!As promised, Cloudflare distributed more than $50,000 in cash awards to eighteen people who submitted prior art as part of the crowdsourced effort. We gave out more than $25,000 to people in support of their submissions related to the ’335 patent asserted against Cloudflare. Additionally we awarded more than $30,000 to submitters in support of our efforts to invalidate the other patents in Blackbird’s portfolio.In general, we awarded bounties based on whether we incorporated the art found by the community into our legal filings, the analysis of the art as provided in the submission, whether someone else had previously submitted the art, and the strength and number of claims the art challenged in the specified Blackbird patent. Read the rest

Venezuela, one the wealthiest countries in Latin America, has collapsed. The economy is in shambles and people are starving. What happened? I watched this 7-minute explainer by Vox and feel much less ignorant than I did. I also see many parallels between what happened in there and what is starting to happen in the United States. Venezuela's problem doesn't have anything to do with it being an ostensibly socialist government. It has to do with the rise of authoritarianism.[via Doobybrain]Image: YouTube/Vox Read the rest

For a long time, meal prep was a binary choice: Slow and healthy in the oven, or quick and dirty in the microwave. Then people started to realize their pressure cookers actually had a lot to offer.Now, it looks like air fryers might be getting their due. Or at least, they will be if they all start offering the functionality of a Chefman 6L Digital Multi-Functional Air Fryer.If you've never used an air fryer, let us clear one thing up right away: This unit does a lot more than fry food. Feel like pizza? Make enough for everybody on the dual airflow racks. Chicken dinner? Do it the right way with a rotisserie function that incorporates the real-deal turning spit for an evenly roasting bird. It can bake cookies or pies, and its dehydrating function can turn fruits and veggies into a fun, long-lasting snack.And yes, by the way, it also fries, using its well-designed convection to crisp up food with a minimum amount of oil.What's more, it can do all this without preheating. And with a generous six-liter capacity, it might just replace both that oven and microwave as the cooker of choice.Right now, you can pick up the Chefman for 15% off the list price. Read the rest

Amazon has this Arduino UNO clone starter kit on sale for just . It's got the following components:What is Arduino? It's a credit card size microcontroller that lets artist, designers, and others add interactivity to their projects. My book Maker Dad, has a useful Arduino tutorial. Read the rest

Japan has a wild boar problem. According to this 2015 Tofugu article, inoshishi (the Japanese word for wild boar) attacks are on the rise:Kobe, January, 2011: An elderly woman attempted to feed a boar, which bit off her finger. Feeding boars was actually made illegal nine years prior, but the penalties are minor and not well enforced.Taishi, Hyogo Prefecture, April 6, 2013: Eight people, mostly senior citizens, were injured by a single, large boar. According to local police the animal first bit a woman in her yard, then headed east. Tada Miyuki, 68, was talking with a friend on the street, when she was bowled over by the boar and broke two ribs. “The boar came almost out of nowhere, and before I knew it, it rushed toward me,” she said. Local authorities issued a warning to local residents, and later that day a boar suspected of being the culprit was found as roadkill nearby.Kobe, June, 2014: Local media responded to sightings of a wild boar that attacked a teenage girl and an elderly man. After knocking down a young woman, the boar then charges the cameraman. He does his best to avoid and fend off the boar, but sustains bites on both legs, requiring stitches. It was later found that the boar had four offspring, and the attacks were probably caused by motherly defensiveness. Authorities later disposed of the mother, with no word on what happened to the young.In the video below, an inoshishi decides to attack a Japanese businessman for no discernable reason. Read the rest

It's important for kids to learn that the world is replete with charlatans, mountebanks, rascals, rogues, hustlers, flim-flammers, tricksters, and con artists.Disney is doing its part by selling a kit of "1001 Stickers" of famous Disney princesses like Ariel, Jasmine, etc. But when kids open the package, they'll see that 768 of the stickers are, as one disappointed Reddit user put it, "useless fucking squares. Thanks Disney."Thanks, indeed! It's a cheap way to learn a valuable lesson.1001 stickers and 768 of them are useless fucking squares. Thanks Disney. from r/assholedesignImage: r/assholedesign Read the rest

On Halloween, a child at Creekside Elementary School in Kaysville, Utah wore a Nazi uniform as his costume for a parade at school. After some people complained online, the school principal and a teacher were suspended with pay for allowing such a thing. I wish they could suspend the boy's parents from being parents. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, "others (on social media) supported the boy." From the Salt Lake Tribune:In a statement, the Davis County School District apologized for the costume.“[The district] does not tolerate speech, images or conduct that portray or promote hate in any form,” the statement read. “The district is taking the matter very seriously and is investigating every aspect of the situation.”School district spokesman Chris Williams declined to name the faculty members who were placed on paid leave, but the elementary school’s website lists Steve B. Hammer as the principal. Read the rest

A ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Trump's accounting firm to hand over his tax returns to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr today. From to Business Insider:The three-judge panel on the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected Trump's argument that he is immune from criminal investigation and prosecution while he is the president.The Manhattan District Attorney's Office subpoenaed eight years of Trump's corporate and personal taxes as part of an investigation into whether the Trump Organization violated New York laws by fabricating business records connected to hush-money payments made to women who said they had affairs with Trump.Of course this doesn't mean he will – in fact, we all know he won't. He'll instead "appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court" says one of his attorneys, Jay Sekulow. According to NPR:"The decision of the Second Circuit will be taken to the Supreme Court. The issue raised in this case goes to the heart of our Republic. The constitutional issues are significant," said Sekulow in a statement.Vance has sought the records as part of an investigation into whether two women who said they had affairs with Trump were paid for their silence before the 2016 election....Trump's attorneys claim that as president, he is immune from criminal investigation. A lower court found that argument "repugnant to the nation's fundamental structure and constitutional values."The appeals court did not rule on the merits of that claim but said that because Vance's office was seeking the records from Trump's accounting firm, and not the president, the question of immunity was not a factor. Read the rest

For a while, I blamed myself. I had that noticed my paltry Bitcoin investment was doing well, so I threw some extra cash in, just to say what it would do. That was just this past July. Days later, the value tanked. By September, I was down nearly 25 percent. Things have started to settle, but it's seemed so unpredictable that I've been hesitant to celebrate.Now I know the truth. It wasn't my fault. It was the avocados—those same god damn avocados that ruined everything for millennials like me. But at least I got to enjoy them for cheaper while I stuffed my face to escape the pain of my crashing investment.*BITCOIN DROPS TO LOWEST LEVEL SINCE JUNEThe avocados told me this would happen. pic.twitter.com/5rOyE3Ohak— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) October 24, 2019This isn't the first time someone has noticed the correlation, either. Back in April, the price of both jumped 35 percent. The avocados made sense—at the time, Trump had threatened to completely close the US-Mexico border, which would have seriously diminished our access to those delicious Aztesticles. Of course, we can always grow more avocados, whereas there will only ever be a finite 21 million theoretical Bitcoins in the world.Clearly, there's a deeper meaning here. Correlation is not necessarily causation, it's true. But it's hard to deny the synchronicity, so weighted as it is with meaning. Perhaps the answer lies in the last untried home investment for millennials: Bitcoin Toast.Think about it. Read the rest

It's hard to find someone who doesn't love Dolly Parton. Now, a recently-launched podcast goes deep into the beloved country legend's life and times to examine why she appeals to the masses. Dolly Parton's America follows her journey through her early scrappy days surviving on mustard-and-ketchup "soup," to being discovered, to creating Dollywood and that's just in the first three episodes (there will be a total of nine). Good stuff!It's hosted by Jad Abumrad, creator of Radiolab and More Perfect, who interviews Dolly herself.Everything's coming up Dolly: This podcast isn't the only thing happening in the Dollyverse. Over on Netflix, a new series called Dolly Parton's Heartstrings begins airing November 22. Plus, she's got a new Christmas ornament. Read the rest

I imagine that many of these videos were originally filmed by parents disappointed in the outcome, only to be rescued by teens who realized their failures could be spun into gold:There's more sports bloopers under #highlightreel at Tiktok. Read the rest

Boris Karloff and Vincent Price are perhaps the two most well-known horror movie actors in history. But that's not all they had in common—they were, apparently, both fans of homemade guacamole.Karloff's recipe was originally published in a newspaper (I couldn't track the original source, but the earliest date the image appears online is from November 2013). I personally prefer a squeeze of lime, rather than lemon juice, in my guacamole, but otherwise this is pretty straight-forward—except for that little touch of sherry. I've never tried that myself, but I bet it's worth a shot.(The newspaper article also refers to this as a "sauce," which is…not how I tend to think of my guac?)• 2 avocados• 1 med. tomato, chopped fine• 1 small onion, minced• 1 tbsp. chopped canned green chiles• 1 tbsp. lemon juice• 1 tsp sherry• Dash cayenne, optional• Salt, pepperPeel and mash avocados. Add onion, tomato and chiles, then stir in lemon juice, sherry and seasonings to taste, blending well. Serve as a dip for tortilla pieces or corn chips or as a canape spread. Makes 10 to 12 appetizer servings.Peel and mash avocados. Add onion, tomato and chiles, then stir in lemon juice, sherry and seasonings to taste, blending well. Serve as a dip for tortilla pieces or corn chips or as a canape spread. Makes 10 to 12 appetizer servings.It was much easier to trace the source for Vincent Price's recipe, which was published in a cookbook that he and his wife put out in 1965. Read the rest

Every city needs an "Honest Guide" YouTube channel, which helps visitors from getting ripped off by hustlers, con artists, and shady businesses. But for now Honest Guide exposes rip-offs in Prague only. In this episode your host shows how currency exchange offices rip off tourists and refuse to obey the law that says they have to refund a customer's money if they come back within three hours. Read the rest

Francesca O'Brien, the Conservative candidate for the Gower constituency in the forthcoming UK elections, said that people appearing on the TV show "Benefits Steet" needed "putting down".In the posts following the broadcast of the first episode of Benefits Street five years ago, Ms O'Brien said: "Benefit Street..anyone else watching this?? Wow, these people are unreal!!!"Responding to another user's comment, she said: "My blood is boiling, these people need putting down."In a statement released on Sunday, Ms O'Brien said: "These comments were made off the cuff, a number of years ago."However, I accept that my use of language was unacceptable and I would like to apologise for any upset I have caused."Benefits Street was a Channel 4 documentary about people on welfare, broadcast in 2014, criticized at the time for "vilifying and misrepresenting benefits claimaints" in tabloid fashion. O'Brien neglected to delete her social media history before launching her bid for office. Read the rest

Richard Spencer sought to cast his brand of clean-cut ethnic nationalism as a respectable conservative alternative to nazism, coining the term "alt-right" to refer to it and successfully attracting mainstream media interest. In this audio recording, posted Sunday by provocateur Milo Yiannopoulous and claimed to be of Spencer, a man is heard ranting about Jews and black people in a more traditionally far-right mode. The recording is NSFW and contains terms of racial abuse.“My ancestors fucking enslaved those little pieces of fucking shit,” Spencer is heard shouting on the recording. “They don’t do this to fucking me. We’re going to fucking ritualistically humiliate them.”“Little fucking kikes,” Spencer is heard screaming in a terrifying minute-long rant. “They get ruled by people like me. Little fucking octaroons.”.Yiannopoulous claims the recording was made in the immediate aftermath of counterprotestor Heather Heyer's murder at the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally.Mother Jones was the first to indulge Spencer's media plan ("Meet the dapper white nationalist who wins even if Trump loses") but even those appalled by the cosy coverage were unable to avoid the term "alt-right" for long. Spencer's fame and media sympathy peaked after he was punched on video in 2017 by a protestor, an event that led to much sanctimonious punditry at the dangerous incivility of "punching Nazis". Heyer's killing by another white nationalist sobered up the poseurs and Spencer's media star quickly fell. Now no-one can be in any doubt about how low it always should have been. Read the rest

When you consider the prospect of learning a new language, chances are your mind flashes back to those old high school classes where you repeated useless phrases like "Where is the library?" or "what color is the car?"Thankfully, language learning has come a long way since then. Whether you're at home or on the go, you can get conversant in a new language with Mondly, the app that combines cutting-edge tech with an innovative curriculum to get you speaking a new language faster.Mondly makes good use of the latest things your phone can do. Its speech recognition is first-rate, allowing the app to tweak your pronunciation as you go. The aim is to not only teach you the phrase, but have you sound like you say it every day.Another great add-on is MondlyAR, which is a really fun way to learn on the go. It can pick up on everyday objects around you and prompt you to identify them in your new language of choice.But the real standout here is the actual curriculum. Mondly breaks each language down into bite-sized lessons, each one building on the last. You get a sense of accomplishment at each step, and it actually gets you excited about moving on to the next set of words and phrases.Right now, you can get a variety of plans on sale. A lifetime subscription to Mondly with access to all languages is 95% off the retail price. Read the rest

Brass dodecahedrons keep turning up in the European soil. They're of Roman antiquity, but no-one knows for sure what they were for. Thankfully, "mundane ornamentation or maybe a childrens' toy" is not what anyone wants to hear. Mental Floss:Historians have found no written documentation of the dodecahedrons in any historical sources. That void has encouraged dozens of competing, and sometimes colorful, theories about their purpose, from military banner ornaments to candleholders to props used in magic spells. ... Amelia Sparavigna, a physicist at Italy’s Politecnico di Torino, thinks the dodecahedrons were used by the Roman military as a type of rangefinder. In research published on the online repository arXiv in 2012, Sparavigna argued that they could have been used to calculate the distance to an object of known size (such as a military banner or an artillery weapon) by looking through pairs of the dodecahedrons' differently sized holes, until the object and the edges of the two circles in the dodecahedron aligned. Theoretically, only one set of holes for a given distance would line up, according to Sparavigna.Or, perhaps, an astronomic measuring instrument for determining the optimal sowing date for winter grain. [romandodecahedron.com]My favorite explanation: a glove-knitting gadget.Photo: Lokilech (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

As evidence mounts that President Trump tied Ukraine aid to that country announcing a sham investigation into Trump's political rivals, some Republicans are backing off their claim there was no "quid pro quo". Instead, there was a quid pro quo, but there's nothing wrong with quid pro quos. Trump, of course, agrees with them.Perhaps so.The context is particularly damning testimony from a highly-placed national security official and GOP aides caught trying to out the original whistleblower's name. A good example of the goalposts being loudly hauled comes courtesy of Ben Shapiro, the cool kids' philosopher:The next version of the question is "whether it was a criminal quid pro quo" or simply "whether it is an impeachable quid pro quo" to which the only answer is "no." Read the rest

In 1955, a white woman named Carolyn Bryant Donham falsely accused a black child named Emmett Till of making sexual advances towards her; a group of Mississippi men then kidnapped, tortured and lynched Till, an act that they never faced criminal consequences for.Till became a civil rights icon, thanks in part to a stomach-churning photo of his mutilated body that ran in The Chicago Defender and Jet. Today, Till is honored with a memorial in Sumner, Mississippi.Last July, a group of white, racist frat boys from Ole Miss photographed themselves in front of the Till Memorial sign while toting high-powered rifles and posted the picture to social media.The Till sign is routinely vandalized and has been repeatedly riddled with bullet holes. Earlier this year, it was replaced with a new "bulletproof" version that is under video surveillance.On Saturday, a group of people bearing banners for the white supremacist group League of the South were recorded making a video at the sign, with one of the racists narrating, "We are all here are the Emmett Till monument that represents the civil rights movement for blacks. What we want to know is where are all of the white people."A speaker near the sign played an automatically triggered recording warning the white supremacists that they were being recorded. They ran away.The Emmett Till Memorial was recently rededicated and made bulletproof after multiple acts of vandalism -- including getting riddled with 20 bullet holes.The original sign went up in 2007. Read the rest

Steve Morrow saw an "urgent sale" ad on the New Zealand auction site Trade Me from a free-range chicken farmer who was shutting down and selling off his 1,000 chickens; Morrow thought he was bidding on one chicken, but ended up buying all 1,000 of them for NZD1.50.He has since given away 700 of his accidental flock via social media ads. Morrow says the ad was confusing, but the seller, Matthew Blomfield, insists that it was all clear: "It's pretty bloody hard to get that wrong."The two are collaborating with Animal Sanctuary to screen potential bird adopters. Morrow is planning on keeping 20 birds for himself. Morrow said he wasn't going to let the 1000 birds down and let them be killed."I wasn't going to let that happen. I was going to save 1000 lives, even if I had to drive up to Auckland and feed them myself while looking for homes for them." $1.50 for 1000 hens: Hamilton man desperate to rehome birds after accidentally winning auction [Torika Tokalau/Stuff](via Metafilter) Read the rest

Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonald's since 2015, was fired this weekend over his relationship with a company employee. McDonald’s has dumped its chief executive Steve Easterbrook after he engaged in a relationship with a colleague, the company announced on Sunday. Mr Easterbrook, who was credited with doubling the company’s share price since becoming chief executive in March 2015, “violated company policy and demonstrated poor judgment involving a recent consensual relationship with an employee,” the company said. ... Mr Easterbrook, who is British and divorced, wrote in an email to McDonald’s staff: “I engaged in a recent consensual relationship with an employee, which violated McDonald’s policy. This was a mistake. Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on. Beyond this, I hope you can respect my desire to maintain my privacy.”The identity of the person Easterbrook had an inappropriate relationship has not and should not be disclosed, but here's Exhibit A: Read the rest

What will they think of next? Read on. In every aspect of life, technology is improving on the little things. Here are 10 things that will actually make your life easier - and more fun.OPKIX Dual Wearable Camera + Egg Storage BundleHere's a body cam for the masses. Infinitely portable, it can clip onto just about anywhere and operate with a single click. And with 70 minutes of onboard footage time, you're ready when those once-in-a-lifetime moments come along.Sale Price: $495GoFish Cam Wireless Underwater Fishing CameraSpeaking of cameras, here's a waterproof one that attaches to your fishing line and takes you right into the action during your next catch. Equipped with a night vision LED and viewable through a mobile app, it offers even the most seasoned angler a point of view they've never seen before.MSRP: $239.99Sale Price: $229.99 with promo code GoFish10 SteakStones® Pizza StoneThis stone heats up quickly in 10 minutes to give your pizza the perfect crust. Even when you're not indulging in pizza, it can double as a great serving tray or cheese board.MSRP: $150Sale Price: $127.50Grid WalletThis minimalist wallet is made from two aluminum plates, perfectly sized for up to 12 cards plus a bit of cash. It takes away the bulk from your pocket but adds an extra dose of RFID protection in the bargain.MSRP: $65Sale Price: $25PLX Devices Kiwi 3 Bluetooth OBD2 OBDII Diagnostic Scan ToolThis diagnostic tool plugs into your car's onboard diagnostic port, giving you access to the same info professional mechanics use to troubleshoot. Read the rest

Unless you're Grizzly Adams, there are actually three constant hassles in life: Death, taxes and trash. Dealing with it is a constant grind, and if you're anything like us, it's rarely as easy as taking a bag out the door. Liquid seeps into the bin, odors persist and bags rip.Like we said: A hassle. But, technology has finally caught up to this particular problem in the form of Townew: The World's First Self-Sealing & Changing Trash Can.The bin and the "bags" that come with it are unique in a number of ways. First off, the sealed bin automatically opens when it senses movement within 14", then automatically re-closes.So far, so convenient. But the kicker comes when the bag is full. A mechanism at the top then closes and seals the thermoplastic bag, locking in the smells and ensuring you never have to touch the contents. Take out the bag, and the Townew dispenses a new bag from the same lid mechanism.The bag rings are good for 25 refills, and the entire unit operates on a 2,000 mAh battery that's good for an entire month.You can get the Townew plus 4 refill rings for $105, more than 10% off the MSRP. Read the rest

"Improving Automobile Safety by Removing Blind Spots" is 14 year old Alaina Gassler's prizewinning science-fair project, which uses cameras mounted to the exterior of the car and feeding their video to internal projectors, which projection-map them onto the a-pillars that otherwise obscure the driver's view.The Pennsylvania teen's project won the top $25,000 prize in the Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) science competition.I am a giant fan of projection mapping, which makes for eerily cool and wonderful effects, and Gassler's project -- which used 3D printed components to precisely map the projections -- are no exception.Through her project, Alaina Gassler is seeking to make driving safer by reducing blind spots. She designed a system that uses a webcam to display anything that might block the driver’s line of sight. Alaina was inspired to create her device after seeing her mother struggle with blind spots in their family automobile. 14-Year-Old Genius Solves Blind Spots [Andrew Liszewski/Gizmodo] Read the rest

Cutting through the vertical bollards in Trump's "virtually impenetrable" wall takes mere minutes, using a $100 reciprocating saw and "extreme metal cutting" blades that sell for $10-15; once cut, the length of the bollards provides leverage to wall-cutters so they can be easily bent to allow a person to pass through them, and afterwards, the bollards can be replaced and cemented with easy-to-cut putty that border patrol officers often mistake for official repair welds (these welds are only slightly harder to cut through than the putty).The gaps between the bollards also lend themselves to being defeated by cheap ladders made from rebar; once people have gone over the wall, the ladder can be passed between the bollards for use on inner, secondary walls.In response, the Customs and Border Protection service have developed sophisticated countermeasures: they kick the bollards to see if they'll bend.In defense of the wall design -- budgeted for more than $21b and likely to come in significantly at significantly higher total prices -- CBP says that the cut bollards only allow one person at a time through, while older barriers allowed several people through at once. However, it's more accurate to say that an individual cut bollard only admits one person, but people smugglers can cut through very large numbers of these bollards in very short time for very small sums of money.The wall was paid for in part by diverting money from budgets allocated for schools for the children of active-duty American soldiers. Read the rest

You don't need to be a TV chef to take advantage of the same accessories they use - and if you're still cooking with hand-me-down kitchenware from your parents, it might be time to trade up. Here are 15 kitchen accessories that will make dinnertime prep shorter and the results tastier.Gemelli Twin OvenThis is no mere toaster oven. The Gemelli puts a full convection oven on your countertop, perfectly sized for family meals. There's a rotisserie function for main courses, and a dedicated drawer underneath that makes homemade pizza a snap.MSRP: $379.99Sale Price: $279.99Chefman 1.7L Color-Changing Electric KettleStop listening for the kettle. With the Chefman, you can see your water reach its boiling point as the container changes from black to red. It comes with its own heating base which shuts off automatically when the pot is empty.MSRP: $49.99Sale Price: $37StirMATE® Smart Pot StirrerNot everyone has the endurance to stir a potful of food for hours on end. That's why the StirMATE® Smart Pot Stirrer exists. Just clamp this well-designed stirrer onto the side and go work on other prep - or just relax. A long arm stirs the pot, while a horizontal short arm gently scours the bottom to prevent food from sticking and scorching.MSRP: $59.99Sale Price: $49.99Martha Stewart 8-Qt 7-in-1 Digital Stainless Steel Pressure CookerFrom the lifestyle guru herself comes this essential cooker. It's got a large capacity and 14 presets that can handle any dish easily, from stews to yogurt. Read the rest

Award winning journalist Kurt Eichenwald gave a lot of Twitter readers anxiety and insomnia when he posted a 17-part Twitter thread yesterday afternoon about why it wouldn't be difficult for Trump to use executive power to effectively make himself dictator for life.1. For those who don’t understand the fragility of American democracy in the hands of an unscrupulous autocrat - a scenario never imagined possible by the Founders under our Constituion - the cancellation of elections is quite simple and arguably legal. Which is why...— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019 2...I fear for 2020. It all comes down to presidential emergency powers. They are poorly defined in the Constitution and under law. They are enormous and Trump clearly has been told that - remember how trump keeps saying he can do *anything* under the Constitution. Back when....— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019 3...there was Japanese internment, Justice Robert Jackson wrote of this power in his dissent that it “lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.” We have already seen Trump do this without...— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019 4...consequence to override congress to pay for his wall. Nothing can stop him because he said “emergency” and there is nothing to stop him. So, it’s October 25, 2020. Polls show that trump is going to lose in a landslide. He announces a national emergency - we have evidence... Read the rest

Mexican drug smugglers are using cordless reciprocating saws to cut holes in Trump's new border wall. The holes are large enough for people and drug packages to go through, reports The Washington Post.The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool known as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier’s steel-and-concrete bollards in a matter of minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques.Image: By U.S. Customs and Border Protection - Construction Continues on the Replacement Border Wall near the Tecate Port of Entry, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

A voracious appetite for reading is a good indicator of success and fulfillment. And why not? The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the more you can do.By that equation, the Speed Reading Mastery Bundle is out to supercharge the productivity and knowledge in your life.It's a series of online courses, all focused on the science of reading. They benefit from methodical research that breaks down how your brain takes in information, then teaches you how to streamline that process. You'll get the same techniques used by university professors and Guinness World Record holders, allowing you to double your speed in no time.And like any good speed reading resource, you can expect to improve your comprehension as well as your reading speed. There's even a course dedicated to the neuroscience of memory that will allow you to boost your retention of all this newfound knowledge.Right now, you can get all six courses in the Speed Reading Mastery Bundle for $21 - a full 98% off the cost of the individual lessons. Read the rest

A 7-year-old boy from Hannover, Germany inserted his tongue into a juice bottle in an attempt to retrieve the last drops of juice, creating a partial vacuum in the bottle. As a result, the lad's tongue became entrapped. In most cases, doctors will drill a hole through the bottle or insert a tube between the tongue and the bottle to equalize the pressure, but this time the technique didn't work. So the doctor pumped air through the tube into the bottle, and the kid's tongue popped right out.From Eurekalert:Air was then injected into the bottle, and after 60 ml of air, the swollen and discoloured tongue squeezed out of the bottle neck - slowly at first and then swiftly. To help reduce the swelling, prednisolone and ibuprofen were given and the boy was admitted to a paediatric surgical ward for a 24-hr observation period. On discharge, the swelling had largely dissipated but for about three days the front part of the tongue remained very discoloured. At follow-up 14 days after the entrapment, the boy had fully recovered.Image: SWNS Read the rest

When Blizzard Entertainment ejected the Hearthstone champion player Blitzchung in retaliation for voicing a pro-Hong Kong message during a tournament, it kicked off a furious round of protests against the company, resulting in canceled events and more player action in support of the protesters.Today marked the opening of Blizzcon, the company's annual show/expo, and the Anaheim convention center was picketed by players who are furious with Blizzard's capitulation to Beijing.When J Allen Brack took the stage at the opening ceremonies, he led with a very precisely worded apology for the company's conduct, saying, "We moved too quickly in our decision-making and then to make matters worse, we were too slow to talk to all of you...We didn’t live up to the higher standards we set for ourselves. Second, we failed in our purpose. For that, I am sorry, and I accept accountability." He finished by promising that the company "will do better going forward.. with [actions that] matter more than any of these words."Brack did not mention China or Hong Kong.Before Brack took the stage and throughout his statement, Twitch users were filling up the live stream chat window with “FREE HK” and other similar sentiments. Brack was careful not to even mention the words “Hong Kong,” but he did go on to pledge that Blizzard “will do better going forward” and that its actions “will matter more than any of these words.” Blizzard says ‘we failed in our purpose’ after Hearthstone Hong Kong controversy [Nick Statt/The Verge] Read the rest

Greg Olijnyk works as a 2D graphic designer, but his hobby is creating unbelievably wonderful 3D science fictional cardboard sculptures that sport motors and lights that animate them (some use photovoltaic cells for power, too).He told Colossal's Laura Staugaitis: "every piece has the limitations and advantages of the cardboard material in mind, how it bends, how strong it will be, etc.I can't tell if he sells these, but I covet them with the intensity of a thousand suns Read the rest