Boing Boing

The Swiss are the richest people on Earth, with median wealth per adult os $227,891. Haiti is the worst ($214). Howmuch.net created a map of the world that shows the median net worth per adult in different countries. The United States ranks 22nd, at $65,904. The world median wealth per adult is $7,087. Read the rest

This DYMO Xpress embossing label gun is the boss. Read the rest

Rats flee sinking ships?The president is speaking and you can see folks streaming out of the arena. It’s just unusual for his rally events. Those who remain are fired up. pic.twitter.com/nfxm1NVXeO— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) November 7, 2019 Read the rest

A restaurant in Singapore is under fire for putting live crabs in a claw game vending machine. After social media backlash, the restaurant owner has apologized and removed the crabs.From Oddity Central:The restaurant had posted a video of clients using its controversial claw machine to catch live crabs in early October, and then lifestyle website Shout posted its own video on it as well, which drew a lot of attention on social media. Apparently, for a $5 token, clients could try their luck at the claw machine, only instead of a plush animal, they could catch a live Sri Lankan crab. If they were lucky enough to catch one of the 500 to 800 gram crustaceans the restaurant would cook it for them for free.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Watch two of the world's greatest living actors play the role of Donald Trump in his now infamous extortion phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky. Read the rest

According to the Louvre museum, 80 percent of 10 million people who visit the famed Paris art museum come to see the Mona Lisa. "[A]nd most of them leave unhappy," writes Jason Farago, art critic for The New York Times. He recently went to the Louvre and described the dreadful experience:[Y]ou must line up in a hideous, T.S.A.-style snake of retractable barriers that ends about 12 feet from the Leonardo — which, for a painting that’s just two and a half feet tall, is too far for looking and way too far for a good selfie.Apparently the painting is beneath some nifty new nonreflective glass, but at this distance how could I tell? My fellow visitors and I could hardly see the thing, and we were shunted off in less than a minute. All this for a painting that (as the Louvre’s current show confirms) is hardly Leonardo’s most interesting, and that has drowned out the Venetian masterpieces in the Salle des États, such as Titian’s “Woman With a Mirror,” or Veronese’s “Wedding at Cana,” which Beyoncé was smart enough not to neglect. The museum is admitting as much with the pathetic new signs in the Salle des États: “The Mona Lisa is surrounded by other masterpieces — take a look around the room.”Image: by Victor Grigas - Own work, , CC BY-SA 4.0, Link Read the rest

This was just explained to him.THIS was just explained to the President of the United States.His tweet: It was just explained to me that for next weeks Fake Hearing (trial) in the House, as they interview Never Trumpers and others, I get NO LAWYER & NO DUE PROCESS. It is a Pelosi, Schiff, Scam against the Republican Party and me. This Witch Hunt should not be allowed to proceed!I keep thinking it can't get any more surreal and weird, and it does.Every.God.Damned.Day.Lots of this today. The walls are closing in.The degenerate Washington Post MADE UP the story about me asking Bill Barr to hold a news conference. Never happened, and there were no sources!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2019Bill Barr did not decline my request to talk about Ukraine. The story was a Fake Washington Post con job with an “anonymous” source that doesn’t exist. Just read the Transcript. The Justice Department already ruled that the call was good. We don’t have freedom of the press!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2019The Amazon Washington Post and three lowlife reporters, Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, and Carol Leonnig, wrote another Fake News story, without any sources (pure fiction), about Bill Barr & myself. We both deny this story, which they knew before they wrote it. A garbage newspaper!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2019PHOTO: At Donald Trump's 'Keep America Great' hate rally in Monroe, Louisiana, Trump hammered the whistleblower attorney, Mark Zaid, based on a Fox News article earlier in the day. Read the rest

A young Massachusetts woman who recently graduated from Tufts University is convinced that she has found a 'secret' encoded message in “Paradise Lost,” the poem by John Milton.The Boston Globe reports that Miranda Phaal, who is 23, discovered what she believes is an acrostic, a coded message one sees when scanning the first character in multiple lines, while she was re-reading the poem when she was a senior at Tufts University last year."Paradise Lost" is about the story of Adam and Eve from the Christian bible.The first letters of eight lines in one section spell “fall” three times, Phaal says, and she believes this refers to the 'falls from grace' of Adam, Eve, and Satan. Phaal also says it could be a coincidence, but Milton is known to have enjoyed secret messages.Read the full story:Tufts student may have found secret message in ‘Paradise Lost’ [image: WIKIPEDIA] Read the rest

Police in a Phoenix, Arizona suburb received a 911 emergency call recently from a 5-year-old boy who just wanted to order a Happy Meal from McDonald’s, and who, other than this, didn't have an actual emergency.The City of Mesa Police Department published the call audio on their Facebook page. In the recording, Charlie Skabelund, who is five, asks if he's speaking with McDonald's.“Do you have an emergency?” dispatcher Anthony Bonilla replies. There's a pause. Then, the kindergartener says he would like “One Mc-Happy Meal.” The child then hangs up the phone.Fifteen minutes later, Mesa police officer Randolph “Scott” Valdez arrived at the Skabelund’s driveway to deliver the Happy Meal in person to Charlie.Officer Valdez also spoke to the child about how 911 is to be used properly.The boy's dad, Randy Skabelund, spoke to the dispatcher in a follow-up call later to apologize and explain that there was not an emergency, but that little Charlie probably got a hold of dad's cellphone.Kim Skabelund, Charlie's mom, says officer Valdez handled the situation with “love and kindness.”[More: Today.com, PHOTO: City of Mesa Police Department] Read the rest

If you have any unpaid parking fines at the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, and you have a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and jelly, you can now reduce or cover the cost of your tickets by making a PB&J sandwich.Anchorage local NBC news affiliate KTUU-TV reports the university will take donations for their annual payment bartering tradition until November 8, to help combat student hunger. From KTUU-TV, ktuu.com:The food goes to the university's emergency food cache, which provides food to students who face hunger on a regular basis. The drive typically runs for two weeks. This year, through a partnership with the on-campus dining facilities, week two will focus on collecting canned soup for the emergency cache program.Parking fees can be offset by different amounts depending on the size of any donation, but there is a limit to how far you can spread that peanut butter. Parking services capped the number of PB&J payments at two citations per individual. Two 16 oz. jars will be good for a $10 credit, three jars will cover a $35 citation, and five jars will cover a $60 ticket. Tickets must have been issued within the past 45 days, or be within the 60-day "late status" window.According to the UAA Parking Service's webpage: "Any nut butter-almond, cashew, peanut butter- or any flavor jam, jelly, marmalade, preserves, etc. will be accepted. All donations must be commercially produced (no home canning), unopened and not expired."This week only: UAA Parking Services will take PB&J as payment for citations [ktuu.com]PHOTO: “A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, made with Skippy peanut butter and Welch's grape jelly on white bread.” WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, PUBLIC DOMAIN Read the rest

In Northern California, sheriff's deputies helped a large bear get out of a locked trash bin, which the bear somehow managed to get stuck inside while dumpster diving for dinner.The bear was discovered Monday in a locked trash bin in Kings Beach, on Lake Tahoe’s northern shore, by Placer County sheriff’s deputies.From AP:Video the agency posted to Facebook shows a deputy shining a flashlight on the dumpster and the bear suddenly popping its head out. As the startled deputy jumps back, others laugh and say “whoa!”They recognize it as the bear they’ve dubbed “T-Shirt” for a patch of white fur on its chest. The agency says the animal has had run-ins with deputies before.They unlock the dumpster from a distance and fling open one of the doors. The bear is stuck in a smaller opening in the top of one of the doors, but eventually drops down, pushes it open and lumbers out.California deputies help dumpster-diving bear escape [associated press] Read the rest

H.P. Lovecraft's only good short story is now a movie starring Nicolas Cage. Here's the trailer; it's out January 24, 2020. They've updated the setting to the present day and it's looks like they've gone all in for contemporary cosmic horror, a la Annihilation, over the original's disquieting radioactive miseries. Can't wait! Read the rest

In 1902, scam artist Cassie Chadwick convinced an Ohio lawyer that she was the illegitimate daughter of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. She parlayed this reputation into a life of unthinkable extravagance -- until her debts came due. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Chadwick's efforts to maintain the ruse -- and how she hoped to get away with it.We'll also encounter a haunted tomb and puzzle over an exonerated merchant.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Tyler Russo: "Let's eat raw chicken now/Drown me in chicken now/Please eat raw chicken with me."Previously: Keep fucking that chicken. Read the rest

His first mistake was driving his front-wheel-drive compact onto the loose sands of Tynemouth, England. His second mistake was calling the police instead of a tow truck.Northumbria Police:"At about 7am this morning we received a call from a man who had been fishing on Tynemouth Longsands. He reported that he had got his car stuck in the sand after driving it on to the beach. Emergency services attended and the car was brought to safety ... The 32-year-old man who made the call has also been reported to court for the offences of driving with no insurance and driving without a licence." Read the rest

The reputation of Damascus steel goes back as far as the 3rd century, to ancient Syria. Without getting into the nerdier aspects of metallurgy, there's a good reason it was highly prized by the weaponsmiths of old.These days, you can still get a taste of its distinctive look in this Hand-Forged Damascus Steel Chef Knife Set.That telltale wavy pattern isn't just for show, either. It's the result of layering high-carbon steel over lower-carbon steel as much as 200 times. The result is a blade with a hardness rating of 55 HRC, suitable for display in any serious chef's kitchen.This particular set of three knives comes with pakka wood handles that only increase its pedigree as an heirloom. This kind of performance requires a little extra TLC, and a wipe with vegetable oil will keep it rust-free. But with proper care, it'll be in your kitchen for many expertly-cut meals.You can now get the full set of three for more than 20% off the retail cost - just in time for Thanksgiving. Read the rest

This video, apparently depicting teens driving around and yelling mostly non-problematic compliments at pedestrians through a bullhorn, recalls the halcyon days of 2014. Read the rest

This video shows a firefighting helicopter pilot refilling its bucket in a backyard swimming pool in Portugal, to tackle a nearby blaze. João Guimarães, the next-door neighbor, writes that the fire was brought under control in 20 minutes.I woke up this morning to this show. A loaded helo (Eurocopter AS350) from the portuguese firefighters landed in front of my house, droped 5 men in full gear, hooked up a bucket and started waterbombing a fire that broke out (or someone started, most likely) right next to a neighbor's house. After 20 mins the fire was controlled by a 6 men team :).Many thanks to the unseen team on the ground, for risking their lives to save other's property.Here's a closer angle, apparently shot by the pool's owner:More from Guimarães:I became friends with the pilot flying on the video, he has a very nice onboard video from another mission ... filling at swimming pools is only done as a last resort (but not illegal in Portugal) because of the risks involved (children playing, damage to property, flying debris such as garden furniture, etc), but he did so on this case because there were houses in danger and the water source was so convenient. ... He also detailed the operation a little bit more: he was returning to the airfield from another bushfire when he saw the initial smoke column. He took the initiative to land and start the attack on his own since the fire was so close to houses. Read the rest

A remarkably effective example of the "minor key" genre, where software is used to shift the chords and notes of an uplifting song to give it it a downcast mood (or vice versa). Read the rest

It's not uncommon for the White House (under any administration) to make multiple overlapping "proclamations" for any given month. Many of these celebrations date back years—Black History Month and Women's History Month, for example, which both fall in March. But this year, the Trump administration has continued in its proud tradition of surreptitiously erasing non-white-dudes from the narrative in favor of some revisionist history of American Exceptionalism that prides itself on the many glorious accomplishments of violent Christian colonialism.That's why November has now been proclaimed as the inaugural "National American History and Founders Month," with a press release full of the most painfully generic platitudes of 1st graders naive vision of American history. It focuses largely on those classic conservatives go-to's of revering the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, and even quotes from every Republican's favorite Founding Father: Ronald Reagan.Yes, I'm serious.But the anachronistic Reagan quote is hardly the most egregious offense here. No, that would be the fact the White House neglected to proclaim November as National Native American Heritage Month, which it has done every year since 1990. It ignored the original inhabitants of our country—who helped colonists settle here, perhaps against their wills—in lieu of celebrating the men who immortalized them as "merciless savages" in the Declaration of Independence.If you check the White House archives of Presidential Actions right now, you will see that National Native American Heritage Month is there, with a date of October 31, 2019—as if it was proclaimed on the same day as National American History and Founders Month. Read the rest

Disney has always been a problematic company, from its crypto-minstrelsy (and not-so-crypto-minstrelsy) to its perpetual copyright extensions to its censorship activities to its gender stereotyping to its anti-union work and so on, but, as anti-monopoly activist Matt Stoller (previously) writes, under CEO Bob Iger the company has changed into an entirely different kind of corporate menace: a monopolist committed to crushing competition, rather than an entertainment company that -- whatever its other sins -- was ferociously committed to making movies, TV shows, theme parks, art and toys.Stoller points to Iger's acquisition spree -- ABC, ESPN, Marvel, Lucas, Pixar, Fox, Maker Media (and licenses for Muppets, Avatar, etc) -- as the key to understanding the change in the company's nature. Where once Disney was a powerhouse of proprietary, studio-created stories and characters (albeit many of them based on public domain fairy tales), under Iger the main sources of new Disney products and stories has been other companies that it purchased. And of course, none of those purchases would have been permitted under the version of antitrust law that led to the founding and growth Disney -- it wasn't until Ronald Reagan, Robert Bork, and every US president since systematically dismantled antitrust that these kind of acquisitions became possible.This growth strategy warps the competitive landscape in all kinds of ways (not just would would-be animation studio founders, who are now gasping for market oxygen in a monopolized marketplace). Disney is now reportedly insisting on "block booking" from cinema owners -- that's the (once) illegal practice whereby a movie studio only permits cinemas to exhibit its top films if they also agree to take its turkeys -- while simultaneously clawing back all of its (and now, Fox's) old films from exhibition in the nation's 600 struggling independent cinemas. Read the rest

If you have €7,000,000 you want to spend before capitalism collapses, you can scoop up Château du Bouilh, built for Louis XVI on the eve of the French Revolution, never occupied by royalty, and lovingly preserved to this day, with period interiors to match.It's a perfect pied-a-terre for the discerning oligarch to cower in, pissing one's drawers while inequality, corruption and climate change trigger the collapse of the rotten system that elevated one to one's exalted position. It has 30 bedrooms, so you can go from bed to bed, night after night, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. It has seven hectares of wine-caves in which to hide from the truth and reconciliation commission's bailiffs. It has a series of outbuildings ("follies") that will made picturesque backdrops for your war-crimes trial. Everything was right on track for the Neoclassical castle until the Revolution got under way. In fact, there should be another house to bookend the demi-moon gallery, but building came to a screeching halt during the trial of Marie-Antoinette, Linda tells us, when Jean-Frédéric was arrested as a suspect in assisting the monarch. Even before the jury, he insisted on calling Marie Antoinette “Your Majesty.” Sadly, it cost him his powdered little head in 1794. A Sleeping Chateau, Untouched since the Revolution, is For Sale [Francky Knapp/Messy Nessy Chic](via Kottke) Read the rest

7,000 pages of leaked documents from the Six4Three lawsuit against Facebook reveal how the company provides or restricts access to user data as part of its overall strategy to crush potential competitors who rely on its platform, and deliberately manufactures cynical explanations about "protecting users" to justify the actions.Within the trove are extensive internal communications that reveal Facebook giving special user-data access to Amazon based on Amazon's massive advertising spending, then choking off data to a company called Messageme because its products had become too successful and represented a potential competitive threat to Facebook. Facebook execs candidly discussed how they could justify anticompetitive action against Messageme by saying that they were protecting their users' privacy.Six4Three made a disgusting Facebook app that let shitty men search for photos of their female contacts in bikinis, then sued Facebook for kicking them off the platform. When the company's CEO visited the UK, Parliament tried to summon him along with sealed court documents, and when he refused, they sent Parliament's sergeant-at-arms to drag him -- and the documents -- from his hotel to Westminster. Some of the documents were published immediately, even as redacted US versions of the documents were un-redacted thanks to laughable redaction errors made by Six4Three (errors so basic that many speculated that they were deliberate).4,000 pages of of Six4Three/Facebook leaks first came to light last April when Olivia Solon and Cyrus Farivar reported on them for NBC. Now, the team is back with another 7,000 pages. Read the rest

[We've been covering the grimy, sleazy stalkerware industry for years, and so it's nice to see that the FTC is finally taking action against the worst of the worst actors -- pity that they're still getting it wrong, as EFF's Gennie Gephart and Eva Galperin explain in this Deeplinks post that I've mirrored below. -Cory] The FTC recently took action against stalkerware developer Retina-X, the company behind apps Flexispy, PhoneSheriff, and Teenspy. The FTC settlement bars Retina-X from distributing its mobile apps until it can adequately secure user information and ensure its apps will only be used for “legitimate purposes.” But here’s the problem: there are simply no legitimate purposes for secret stalking apps.Retina-X, and its own James N. Johns Jr., seem to have come to the FTC’s attention not necessarily for making stalkerware, but for making stalkerware poorly. The company has suffered multiple security breaches over the past several years, including attacks from “vigilante hackers” who deleted petabytes of the company’s data—essentially, data that stalking app users had collected through spying on spouses, children, employees, and other targets. The FTC alleged that the poor security was a deceptive practice, which the FTC has authority to regulate under Section V of the FTC Act.In addition to requiring Retina X to demonstrate tighter security overall, the FTC alleged that the company violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires companies like Retina X to secure information—especially the kind of sensitive information Retina-X’s apps collect, like physical location and online activities—from children under 13. Read the rest

Even Bill Barr knew it was dumb

Twitter has some very serious security explaining to do.The Department of Justice is charging former Twitter employees with espionage on allegations of improperly accessing the accounts of people who were critical of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including specifically Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. One of the suspects has been arrested.The charges were unveiled Wednesday. You can read the U.S. charges here.MBS and the KSA are believed to have murdered Washington Post journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi by cutting off his head and dismembering him alive.“One of those implicated in the scheme, according to court papers, is an associate of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA has concluded likely ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last year.” Greg Bensinger and Ellen Nakashima for the Washington Post report:The charges, unveiled Wednesday in San Francisco, came a day after the arrest of one of the former Twitter employees, Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen who is alleged to have spied on the accounts of three users — including one whose posts discussed the inner workings of the Saudi leadership — on behalf of the government in Riyadh.Abouammo is also charged with falsifying an invoice to obstruct an FBI investigation.The second former Twitter employee — Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen — was accused of accessing the personal information of more than 6,000 Twitter accounts in 2015 on behalf of Saudi Arabia. One of those accounts belonged to a prominent dissident, Omar Abdulaziz, who later became close to Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who advocated for free expression in the Arab world. Read the rest

Being home for the holidays is great, but it's nice to know you've got a vacation waiting just around the corner. Impossible with all those gift expenses? Not so. Right now, you can enter for a chance to win a $1000 gift certificate to the airline of your choice. Entry is free, so you've got nothing to lose.And hey, now that we've got you excited about impending travel plans, here are a few other deals that are the next best thing to free: Deep discounts on some innovative and essential vacation gear, from carry-on bags to support pillows.Twist Memory Foam Travel PillowGot neck or back problems that keep you from sleeping on flights or buses? This pillow can target them no matter where they are. The memory foam cushion bends into whatever shape you need to support your head, spine or shoulders.Sale Price: $19.99MSRP: $24.99ALPAKA Shift PackWhether you're an urban commuter or mountaineer, the ALPAKA aims to be your go-to bag. It's got dedicated compartments for smartphones and laptops, plus quick-access pockets for cash or cards built into the straps. And with a waterproof, rolltop configuration, they'll all be well protected even on the longest hikes.Sale Price: $189.00MSRP:$249.00Dr. Save Vacuum Travel KitThis kit includes an air pump and four bags that will do more than just save you space. Pop in your clothes or other soft goods and the vacuum seal will reduce their volume by as much as 70%, allowing you to even take that bulky comforter on your next trip. Read the rest

Heritage Auctions is selling one of the most recognizable pages in the history of underground comics:The original art for an instantly recognizable image by legendary underground comics artist Robert Crumb is coming to auction for the first time ever in Heritage Auctions’ Comics & Comic Art Auction Nov. 21-24 in Dallas, Texas.Robert Crumb's “Stoned Agin!” Your Hytone Comix Inside Back Cover Original Art (Apex Novelties, 1971) is considered a “Holy Grail” among serious collectors of artwork by the iconic Crumb, and is being offered for the first time ever, in part because of the artist’s love of music.For years, the whereabouts of the artwork (estimate: $250,000+) were unknown and the subject of considerable speculation.“The consignor received the artwork directly from Robert Crumb,” Heritage Auctions Senior Vice President Todd Hignite said. “After moving to Northern California in 1970 and getting to know Crumb through friendships with other underground cartoonists, a trade was arranged with the artist, swapping some rare old blues 78 records for the artwork. The original has remained in our consignor’s personal collection ever since, buried away and securely stored for more than four decades, which has only added to the appeal and demand among collectors. This art is not only the great “lost” Crumb, but an incredibly key image for 1960s and 1970s counter-cultural history. Such powerful images that have been seared into the imaginations of so many very infrequently come up at auction.”The art is in ink on Bristol board, with an image size of approximately 12 by 8 inches on paper measuring 13-7/8 by 10-7/8 inches. Read the rest

Pantry moths are experts at finding their way into any open container of rice, flour, cereal, chips, nuts, etc. Then they breed in the boxes and bags. I hate it when I open a cabinet and a couple of moths fly out. It's even worse when I look at a bag of rice, and it is alive with motion.We've been putting our food into wide-mouth mason jars with these convenient one-piece plastic lids. That has reduced the problem. We also started using pantry moth traps. These traps fold into little A-frame houses. The interior is coated with a sticky material that traps the flies. The traps also come with a postage stamp size pheromone lure to fool the pests into thinking a sexy moth is inside waiting for them. These things work well. After using them for a few weeks the only moths I see now are the dead ones stuck to the inside of the traps. Read the rest

I so enjoyed the poodle in a box that Xeni posted that I decided to add some more dog gifs, and also a cat, for a full minute of House of Pain's Jump Around. Read the rest

At Mysterious Universe, Paul Seaburn writes:In what can be considered an unusual convergence of conspiracy theories, a man who runs a Bigfoot videos YouTube channel was chasing chemtrails when he claimed to have recorded a UFO chasing them as well. If you’re playing Conspiracy Scrabble, ‘Chemtrail’, ‘Bigfoot’ and ‘UFO’ is a triple-word score. According to his commentary during the video, Marc Abell –the CEO of Colorado Bigfoot, a provider of Bigfoot videos – was recording a plane making a contrail over a snow-covered terrain in Vail, Colorado, and believed the color and shape changes in the contrail were signs that the plane was actually spraying something rather than just trailing the usual water vapor and jet exhaust. That's when Abell spotted the UFO. Read the rest

On Monday I posted a story about how Krispy Kreme told a 21-year-old college student that he couldn't buy its donuts at full retail price from a store in Iowa and resell them 250 miles away in Minnesota, where there are no Krispy Kreme stores.Well, it looks like the corporate bigwigs at Krispy Kreme have changed their mind. Not only are they giving Jayson Gonzalez the OK to resell its donuts at a handsome profit, they are going to help him with his business and college education.From CNN:The company tells CNN that it was concerned that the doughnuts were not meeting its quality standards due to the long drive from Iowa to Minnesota.However, after an outpouring of support, the company is now working on a deal with Gonzalez to allow him to become an independent operator."Today, we reached out to Jayson to express our appreciation for his love of Krispy Kreme and admiration for his entrepreneurial spirit," a spokeswoman for Krispy Kreme tells CNN. "We are going to help him achieve his goals, which include being debt-free when he graduates in 2021, in part by selling Krispy Kreme Doughnuts."We wish Jayson great success and we're thrilled to help him achieve it by donating 500 dozen doughnuts when he re-starts his business."Photo by Kelli McClintock on Unsplash Read the rest

The Gateway Foundation is a private company that claims they could build the first orbital space hotel by 2025. According to their site, the Von Braun Rotating Space Station is designed "to accommodate both national space agencies conducting low gravity research and space tourists who want to experience life on a large space station with the comfort of low gravity and the feel of a nice hotel" large enough for 450 visitors. From Space.com:Gateway Foundation officials acknowledge that the station might not be entirely finished by 2025, but the group aims to develop the station's main structure and basic functions by then. "We expect the operation to begin in 2025, the full station will be built out and completed by 2027. … Once the station's fully operational, our hope, our goal and our objective is to have the station available for the average person," (lead architect Timothy) Alatorre said. "So, a family or an individual could save up reasonably … and be able to have enough money to visit space and have that experience. … It would be something that would be within reach...Alatorre said that the Gateway Foundation feels that such a project is now possible because the growing success of commercial aerospace companies like SpaceX has made launch options more affordable. He added that the company admits that it's possible its timeline is pushing it somewhat. "We completely understand that delays are almost inevitable with aerospace, but based on our internal projections and the fact that we're already dealing with existing technology, we're not inventing anything new. Read the rest

I have been very happy Liquid Wrench Lock and Hinge Lube.The back lid on my Volkswagen Vanagon started sticking a few years ago. A responsible person who does things right would likely take the panels off, clean everything up and lubricate it with whatever factory stuff was used. I have just taken to spraying some of this dry lube in the locks and other mechanisms once every year or so.Doors and locks that were sticking or squeaky around the house have also been cured with one or two squirts of this 'ceflon' lubricant.The spray straw is billed as some kind of special design. It is a very useful straw for directing lube where you want it, like on every other can of spray lube I've seen since the 80s or 90s?Got sticky locks or squeaky hinges? This stuff is good.Liquid Wrench LHL04/6 Lock and Hinge Lube - 4.5 oz. via Amazon Read the rest

Frank Avruch, the first man to play Bozo the Clown, died yesterday in Boston at the age of 89, reports Syracuse.com. He played the role of happy red-haired merrymaker from 1959 to 1970, and starred in the nationally-syndicated television show in the 1960s.Check out Avruch's wild Bozo hair and outfit in the video above. Pennywise would grovel before this Bozo's feet! Read the rest

Rixeyville, Virginia's Little Fork Volunteer Technical Large Animal Rescue Team saved a horse who fell or jumped into a family's swimming pool overnight. When the team arrived, the fire department had already begun draining the pool and a firefighter had jumped in to keep the animal calm. After a vet sedated the horse, the Rescue Team used a sling attached to a tractor and lifted the horse out of the pool. From Fredericksburg.com:The area had experienced high winds and a line of storms the night prior, Halloween night, and “Annie” a Haflinger had escaped from her field and went exploring, according to a Facebook post from Little Fork Volunteer Technical Large Animal Rescue Team.The horse was probably thirsty and saw some water and “just like that” found herself in the swimming pool, the post stated. Shortly after the rescue, Annie had recovered and was happily eating breakfast. Read the rest

Using Jaws of Life to rob an ATM is just so fussy. Around 3:30am this morning, a thief blew up a cash machine outside a Premier convenience store in Nottinghamshire, England. According to one witness, after the huge explosion "there was cash everywhere."The BBC News quotes another witness who said the perp "'stuffed around half of the cash into his hoodie' and quickly drove off when he noticed people were watching." Read the rest

Recursive Kittens Are Recursive

Oh, imagine the internet content glory we almost had. Lev Parnas and his associate David Correia were planning to produce a series of ‘Fraud Guarantee’ TV infomercials starring Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.We almost had to put up with even MORE of Rudy on cable news, report Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng at The Daily Beast:The company was called Fraud Guarantee, and it was run by Lev Parnas and David Correia, who were both arrested last month and charged with criminal violations of campaign-finance law—charges to which both have pleaded not guilty. Parnas and Correia had used Fraud Guarantee to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to Giuliani, with whom they worked closely as he sought to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine and advance their own business interests in the country.According to two sources with knowledge of the matter, Parnas and Correia had plans to expand Giuliani’s role with the company. As of early this year, they were looking to make him into Fraud Guarantee’s spokesman and public face.Both sources described a key part of the plan: a television infomercial featuring Giuliani extolling the virtues of Fraud Guarantee and its services. Parnas and Correia wanted the ad campaign to start airing on U.S. cable-news channels shortly after Giuliani was finished representing Trump in matters pertaining to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation. The probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election concluded earlier this year. Giuliani knew of the plan, reports The Daily Beast, and “had multiple discussions with the two men about possibly signing on as their national pitchman,” but sources say “it’s not clear whether any footage of those planned Fraud Guarantee infomercials was ever shot, or if any deal was ultimately officially inked.”Also completely not clear what the point was on any of this, since they had no known customers. Read the rest

Theodore Gray, the co-creator of Mathematica, has written a number of beautifully photographed books that I love: The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything, and Reactions: An Illustrated Exploration of Elements, Molecules, and Change in the Universe. I give all of them my highest recommendation. Gray has a new book out called How Things Work: The Inner Life of Everyday Machines and it's another masterpiece. The publisher gave me permission to run a few sample pages from the chapter on "Clear Things," products that are transparent (often because they were made for prisoners and the prisons don't want prisoners hiding things inside opaque cases.From the intro:When I was young I saw for the first time a picture of a telephone with a transparent case. You could look inside and see all the electronic components that made it work! My first thought was “wow, that is so cool,” followed by “I want one.” But then I got worried.A clear telephone seemed obviously superior to every other possible telephone, so why weren’t all telephones made with clear cases? Who could possibly want a phone that hid all the good stuff inside a pointlessly opaque case? I knew it couldn’t cost more to use clear plastic rather than colored plastic. Did the people who made telephones just not realize that they could use clear plastic? Could people smart enough to make a whole telephone really be that dumb? Read the rest

A company in South Korea will give you a funeral for free, but you have to be alive while it happens.Hyowon Healing Center opened in 2012 and promises visitors improved lives through simulated deaths.Over 25,000 people have participated in mass “living funeral” services, the business claims.From Reuters:“Once you become conscious of death, and experience it, you undertake a new approach to life,” said 75-year-old Cho Jae-hee, who participated in a recent living funeral as part of a “dying well” program offered by her senior welfare center.Dozens took part in the event, from teenagers to retirees, donning shrouds, taking funeral portraits, penning their last testaments, and lying in a closed coffin for around 10 minutes.University student Choi Jin-kyu said his time in the coffin helped him realize that too often, he viewed others as competitors.“When I was in the coffin, I wondered what use that is,” said the 28-year-old, adding that he plans to start his own business after graduation rather than attempting to enter a highly-competitive job market. Dying for a better life: South Koreans fake their funerals for life lessons [reuters.com]There have been previous rounds of coverage of the “death healing” operation, including this biomedical review and New York Times piece from years back -- and there are lots of interesting videos to watch. [photo: Michell Trommler via pixabay] Read the rest

Charles Burns is one of my all-time favorite cartoonists. I had no idea that since 2000 he has been self-publishing a zine that he sends to a small circle of friends, called Free Shit. I'm deeply hurt not to be included on his mailing list, but I can find a morsel of solace in this anthology of drawings from the pages of Free Shit. The book is called Free Shit, and is published by Fantagraphics, who kindly gave me permission to run a selection of the drawings that appear in the book. Read the rest

Police in Los Angeles said on Tuesday they have recovered some $800,000 worth of stolen prints by the Scottish abstract expressionist and esotericist Benjamin Creme.The LAPD was led to this mysterious stolen art discovery by a phone call, and they ended up finding nearly 1,300 prints in a San Fernando valley home. That caller, not identified, told LAPD the art work was found in a relative’s possessions after she died, and later the family realized the prints were listed in a database of stolen artwork.“The family took the stuff and had it stored in their house for several years when they finally started going through it and discovered the art was stolen,” Detective Steven Franssen told the Associated Press. “They immediately packed it up and took it to the police station.”From the AP:The prints, each signed and numbered, include “Flame-Coloured Deva,” “Shakti II” and other colorful works by Creme, who in later years became better known for his belief in UFOs and predictions of a second coming of Christ and other messiahs. He died in London in 2016 at age 93.Franssen said police returned the prints earlier this week to their incredulous owner, lithographer Michael Flaum, who made them. “He was extremely shocked when we called,” the detective said, chuckling. “He didn’t even believe it was the police department at first.”Flaum said he discovered the theft one day in 2012 when he went to a locker where he had 2,300 prints stored. He would sell some from time to time to raise money for the artist, who in his later years was spending more time with metaphysical pursuits. Read the rest

When my friend and Cool Tools partner Kevin Kelly showed me these photos he recently took in Myanmar, I told him that it seems like he has a time machine. And he said, " I do call it a time machine." Read the rest

In the San Francisco elections last night, it looks like there was a big loss for Juul. According to the early vote count from the SF Chronicle and others, San Francisco voters have overwhelmingly defeated Proposition C in Tuesday's election. This means a citywide ban on the sale of electronic cigarette products will go into effect next year, if the numerous legal challenges don't get in the way. Juul is reported to have spent close to $19 million dollars to pass Proposition C, which would have killed the plan to ban e-cig sales in San Francisco. Juul lost big last night, along with Prop C. BUT: Tobacco cigarettes, which are proven to cause cancer, are still available for sale.a big loss for Juul, which poured nearly $19 million into this race. https://t.co/mzRllZBa4t— Stephanie M. Lee (@stephaniemlee) November 6, 2019JUUL put itself on the ballot with Proposition C and San Francisco voters overwhelmingly rejected it, forcing JUUL to drop its own campaign. This should embolden other cities and states to take action to protect children's health. https://t.co/AB8WD0Fmgf— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) November 6, 2019San Francisco also votes down Proposition C around vaping products, which was once backed by Juul, with 80.2% right now overwhelmingly saying "no", according to @sfchronicle https://t.co/cGTRcayhzs— Ken Yeung (@thekenyeung) November 6, 2019Early election results for Proposition C, which would overturn San Francisco’s ban on e-cigarettes and vaping products, show 78% voting no on the measure. Live results: https://t.co/uA0WcaRySK pic.twitter.com/MZVfm14gzg— KRON4 News (@kron4news) November 6, 2019[PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-4.0] Read the rest

A while back we ran some pages from Drew Friedman's new book All the Presidents, which has a portrait of every U.S. President, drawn by Drew. If you happen to be anywhere near Ohio State University, do yourself a favor and see Drew's "Drawn to Presidents” exhibit at the Billy Ireland Library & Museum.The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum presents Drawn to Presidents: Portraits and Satiric Drawings by Drew Friedman November 2, 2019 through February 9, 2020.Pennsylvania-based illustrator Drew Friedman has employed his intensely realistic, warts-and-all style of caricature to satirize celebrity and authority for four decades. In his latest book from Fantagraphics Books, All the Presidents, Friedman points his pen at the exclusive club of the United States presidents.This exhibit features the original artwork created for All the Presidents, as well as presidential-themed original art created for, among others, SPY, MAD, TIME, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The New Republic, The New York Observer, and TOPPS “Wacky Packs.”Building on a centuries-old tradition of cartoonists satirizing those in power, Friedman’s influences include Edward Sorel, Robert Grossman, Mort Drucker, David Levine, and more. Read the rest

On Friday, November 1, 2019, the FBI arrested a self-proclaimed white supremacist named Richard Holzer, who was allegedly planning to bomb Temple Emanuel in Pueblo, Colorado—the second-oldest synagogue in the state.Southern Colorado Man Charged With Federal Hate Crime For Plotting To Blow Up SynagoguePress release: https://t.co/8bFPqO1bctPictured: U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn, FBI SAC Dean Phillips & Pueblo Police Chief Troy Davenport addressing members of the media pic.twitter.com/nyJOy1he9z— Colorado U.S. Attorney (@DCOnews) November 4, 2019This is, largely, a good thing. After sleeping on the white supremacist infiltration of police departments all across the country, it's nice to see the FBI is actually taking action against this hugely dangerous epidemic. And there's absolutely no question that Richard Holzer was a white supremacist with violent intentions. As the Justice Department explained in a press release:Holzer, who self-identifies as a skinhead and a white supremacist, told undercover FBI agents that he wanted to do something that would tell Jewish people in the community that they are not welcome in Pueblo, and they should leave or they will die. The affidavit states that during a meeting with the undercover agents, Holzer repeatedly expressed his hatred of Jewish people and his support for RAHOWA, shorthand for a racial holy war.Holzer also told the undercover FBI agents that he had already hired a "witch doctor" to "hex and poison" the water at the Temple, paying a Mexican cook to add arsenic into the pipes. It's unclear if this actually happened, or if it actually accomplished anything—but clearly, this guy was trouble. Read the rest

No-one ever seems to live in a dream house won in a raffle, so CBS News began to wonder if there was ever really a dream house at all. It turns out that the San Francisco 'Dream House' raffle has "never awarded its top prize" of a dream house.The fine print: there was a winner in two of the ten years tracked, but the fees associated with accepting the $10m prizes are so ominous (eating at least half the value of the prize from the outset, with taxes to come) that the winners will always plump for alternative cash prizes instead. Read the rest

Brendan is a 34-year-old investor building an empire of rentals and seemingly random retail operations. He decided to buy a run-down old-timey laundromat. It's clean and there's a lot of machines in it, but some of them are broken, so he didn't do any marketing beyond an "UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT" sign in the window. How much does such an operation make, in 2019?I appreciate everyone that's becoming interested in my laundromat content.Above is the week 15 update, after buying some new washers; below is the first week, when it was like walking into the 1960s.The tldr: he went from $1366 in the first two weeks (when it was rather obvious coins were walking out the door) to $1050 in the fifteenth week. Take a guess at costs and there you go. But wait, isn't the point of a laundromat to "break even" every year? Read the rest

I spend more time than I probably should wondering when the luxury condo trend will finally come for the dead. Real estate is expensive, and there's lots of valuable land in urban areas that could be used for yet-another fancy steel-and-glass skyscraper used to hide foreign money—if it wasn't for the cemeteries that currently take up all that space. I even have a half-finished short story in a notebook somewhere riffing on the classic Stephen King scenario of towns built on Native American burial grounds, except it's just luxury condos built up on the corpses of, well, everyone.But I was thinking too far ahead. Because I didn't stop to think about what happens to those graveyards now, as flooding and earthquakes and more extreme weather disturb the soil under which our loved ones have been laid to their eternal rests. As a recent article in Scientific American gruesomely details, coffins are already body-surfing through the streets of Louisiana during storms:The caskets and their surface vaults are sealed airtight, so pressure builds inside them when a hurricane or flash flood covers them in water. Moisture weakens the vault seal, and eventually the water begins to bubble with dead air—the tell-tale sign a casket is ready to pop out of its grave, Hunter said.“You hear the bubbles, you see the bubbles, and you know that seal is weakening because of that immense amount of pressure. And then the lid comes off,” he said.The visual of bubbling coffins popping out of the ground is scary enough. Read the rest