Boing Boing

Re-edit courtesy of Everything is Terrible, although I also found the original VHS source on Amazon which includes this delightful plot summary:Chadder Chipmunk wants to be the first chipmunk in space. So Space Mission Bible Camp sounded like the perfect place to launch his career. But no sooner did Chadder pull on his jumpsuit than he was spotted by The Exterminator … a rodent-thumping commando who can't wait to catch Chadder!Featuring footage shot at Kennedy Space Center, here's fast-paces, out-of-this-world adventure your kids will turn to again and again. And each time they'll be reminded that the best launch of all is to be launched on a mission of God's love!And yes of course the villainous Exterminator is Russian. Who else would want to ruin Space Mission Bible Camp for chipmunks? Read the rest

It can be tough to convey to kids just how big and amazing the world really is, even with the internet. One of the great things about augmented reality is how it can combine education with tactile experience, making the facts really hit home.That's just one great feature of this SmartGlobe 3-in-1 Illuminated Globe, a toy that will do a lot more than just sit idle in your curious kid's room.By day it's a globe, with all the countries, capitals and oceans of the world rendered in rich detail. Flip a switch, and the terrestrial map fades to reveal an illuminating guide to the constellations - a fantastic night light or inspiration for any budding stargazer.Download the SmartGlobe AR app, and that's when the functionality really opens up. Use your tablet to scan the globe and "Patrick the World Traveller" will reveal a ton of info on every corner of the world. You can use him to reveal tidbits about important landmarks or activate animated tutorials about different climates. Wildlife-loving kids will get a kick out of his tour of indigenous dino species and local animals. There's even a host of puzzles and games to play, building on all the newfound geography knowledge.Right now, you can pick up the SmartGlobe 3-in-1 Illuminated Globe with Built-In Augmented Reality for 25% off the retail price. Read the rest

Renowned sci-fi and fantasy publisher Tor just launched a new book imprint called Nightfire, focusing on new horror fiction. And to celebrate, they're giving away 35 free short horror stories as audiobooks. The list includes stories by Alyssa Wong, Chuck Wendig, China Miéville, Carmen Maria Machado, and more.The only catch is that the stories are only available through the GooglePlay Store, or through Google Assistant commands. This is only really a minor inconvenience if you (like me) are not an Android user—but also if you're like me, it's totally worth it.Come Join Us By The Fire: 35 Short Horror Tales From Nightfire Books Read the rest

William Chyr’s psychogeographic abyss stares back. It's a good puzzle game, too.

This is an excellent Halloween costume.“I was the pink Yip Yip, my husband was the gray Yip Yip. It won us the best couple's at a friend's party last year.”That's @DumptruckWithABeard.Yip Yip Yip, uh-huh, uh-huhGot no idea what this is about? Watch.I remember being so scared of these Yip Yips when I was a kid.[IMGUR] Read the rest

In episode two of The Life Cycle, John and Eva stare up at the night sky and get deep. Where are all the aliens? Are we alone in the universe? Could it be that we’re just pets in some zoo run by alien overlords? Does this mean everything we do is meaningless? And what has Jodie Foster got to say about it all? Time to get your SETI on, folks... (Featuring Joshua Tan, Ph.D. in Computer Science at Oxford, and Professor Stefan Sorgner, Professor of Philosophy at John Cabot University, Rome.)The Life Cycle is a production of Klang Games, creator of Seed, the planet colonization MMO -- watch the new trailer here. Subscribe to The Life Cycle on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Follow The Life Cycle on Twitter and Instagram. Read the rest

“It’s not clear why the resident ordered the uranium.”

Russia's state nuclear company Rosatom announced on Twitter today they have signed a deal with The Republic of Rwanda to build a center for nuclear science and technology.The Kremlin and the industries it controls are trying to expand in this Central African country and beyond, just like China is doing with its investments throughout the African continent.From Reuters:The center will also have a research water-cooled reactor with up to 10 MW capacity, Rosatom said. The deal, as Rosatom hopes, would allow in the future to supply Rwanda with small modular reactors for power generation, a Rosatom official said.Rosatom is the world’s biggest nuclear company by foreign orders, with a total of 36 nuclear blocks on order. The countries include Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Egypt, Finland, Hungary, India and Turkey.In a separate statement on Thursday, Rosatom said it has agreed with Ethiopia to cooperate in developing nuclear infrastructure. Rosatom was also in talks with South Africa on building more nuclear reactors there but President Cyril Ramaphosa put nuclear expansion plans on hold.READ MORE:Russia's Rosatom, Rwanda sign deal to build nuclear science center [REUTERS, photo courtesy @rosatom]Подписали соглашение с Руандой о сотрудничестве в сооружении центра ядерной науки и технологий в республике pic.twitter.com/2aBASl9bu7— Росатом (@rosatom) October 24, 2019 Read the rest

This is the former Newark, Ohio headquarters of The Longaberger Company, a basket manufacturer that went under last year. This week, the developers who bought the property announced that it will become a luxury hotel. According to WCPO, "project officials say the exterior look of a basket will remain intact." Well duh.From Wikipedia:The seven-story, 180,000-square-foot building was designed by The Longaberger Company, and executed by NBBJ and Korda Nemeth Engineering. The building opened in 1997. The basket handles weigh almost 150 tons and can be heated during cold weather to prevent ice damage. Originally, Dave Longaberger wanted all of the Longaberger buildings to be shaped like baskets, but only the headquarters was completed at the time of his death.(Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)image: Derek Jensen (public domain) Read the rest

It's hardly news that Donald Trump's spokesmonster Kellyanne Conway is an awful person, but rarely do we see evidence of the Third Reich's favorite blonde with a microphone threatening to investigate and expose the personal lives of news reporters.And yet, here she is, doing just that, to a Washington Examiner (!) reporter. Excerpt from transcript of the phone call between Kellyanne Conway and Caitlin Yilek:Yilek: Like I said, I’d be happy to pass you on to my editor, if you would like to speak with him.Conway: I’d be [inaudible] to tell him you have no answer when asked why you were characterizing somebody’s feelings, having never talked to that person. If you have some psychology degree [inaudible].Yilek: I don’t know that that is characterizing your feelings to say you are put in the middle if your husband and your boss are attacking each other.Conway: When are they attacking each other? When did the president even mention his name?Yilek: All right, like I said, I have got to go. I’d be happy —Conway: So, listen, if you’re going to cover my personal life, if you’re going to cover my personal life, then we’re welcome to do the same around here. If it has nothing to do with my job, which it doesn’t, that’s obvious, then we’re either going to expect you to cover everybody’s personal life or we’re going to start covering them over here.Transcript of telephone call between Kellyanne Conway and Caitlin Yilek [washingtonexaminer.com]The Washington Examiner (!) has published a transcript of its reporter’s conversation with Kellyanne Conway. Read the rest

Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, aka The Office's Pam and Angela, are launching a new podcast together about The Office. Listen to the trailer below. Titled “Office Ladies,” the podcast will feature the two actresses, who are real life best pals, rewatching every episode of the TV series and bantering about it. It premiers tomorrow! From an interview in the New York Times:So where did the idea for the podcast come from?KINSEY I was going through my garage, and I have all of these Rubbermaid bins full of photos and memorabilia. Jenna jokes that I’m a hoarder because I save everything. I would save a little note that Oscar passed me, a drawing that Jenna drew or a prop. I have Michael Scott’s business card.FISCHER You have Dwight and Angela’s wedding invitation.KINSEY So I was going through it all and Jenna came over and was looking through it with me, and it made us really nostalgic. We started reminiscing, and the 15-year anniversary is coming up so we thought this is a great opportunity for us to rewatch it and talk about our memories, our behind-the-scenes moments and share it with the fans. Read the rest

Finally, Trump tweeted something this morning that I can agree with: "Impeach the Pres." This came at the end of a longer tweet filled with the usual brags and exaggerated claims. Just out: MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME IS AT THE HIGHEST POINT EVER, EVER, EVER! How about saying it this way, IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! Also, MORE PEOPLE WORKING TODAY IN THE USA THAN AT ANY TIME IN HISTORY! Tough numbers for the Radical Left Democrats to beat! Impeach the Pres.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2019 Via Mashable:Trump is infamous for splitting tweets in awkward places and chaotically threading his thoughts, so at first it seemed as though there would be more letters on the way. (Impeach the Press, perhaps?) But no. Trump tweeted "Impeach the Pres" and that's it. So it seems that was really just the tweet.Image: by Gage Skidmore - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/30566507291/in/photolist-Nz4kGp-NGQzxT-NyTxfp-NDt6Nq-Nz4p8c-NwvYaw-NDDNYm-MJSdQS-NGQDVF-NGEJ2M-MJSn2b-MJSje7-NfaSKN-NDtktb-MJEq7x-NfaTPw-NwkLgb-MJSpNd-NwkTvG-NwkZNw-NfaXx3-NyTQcv-NGF22i-MJSDc7-MJSGth-MJEHo6-Nwm57b-Nwmf3J-NyTS1R-NGFevX-NDtLe3-NGFmvZ-NfbioA-NGFgUz-Nvwird-NFEYzR-NGWyju-MJa9mo-NL3MmR-NF4NWn-NDNd4n-MFMkbp-NDNbHg-MF27TC-NCRx8z-NzCQZm-MEQQVp-Nsw3BS-Nsw1As-NbmxTG, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link Read the rest

In 2009, Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara was hanging out with his business manager Tim Blum in the Manhattan bar Niagrara. Nara pulled out a marker and drew some of his fantastic figures on the walls. (Later that night, he did the same thing at a subway station and was promptly arrested.) Last week, one of Nara's paintings sold in a Sotheby's auction for $24.9 million, driving up the value of his other work including this graffiti. According to Blum though, Nara doesn't want anyone to pull out the bar walls and sell his graffiti. Fortunately, the bar owners seem to agree. For now anyway. From CNN:"The (drawings at the bar are) quite in keeping with his style," said David Schrader, head of private sales at Sotheby's. "My guess is it's probably worth hundreds of thousands. For sure, when an artist gets a record-selling price, it elevates them in the market. My gut is there are definitely people who would want to own this or the multiple pieces individually..."The Niagara's management declined to comment, but a bartender told CNN that the artwork "has been a part of the bar for a long time and will stay that way." The drawings are safeguarded by a thin layer of plastic that was installed by the bar's ownership.#DailyJapanArt via #NYPost:Yoshitomo Nara’s Decade-Old Doodles At East Village Dive Bar Niagara Could Be Worth Millions.Value Skyrocketed After His Painting “Knife Behind Back” Sold For $25 million @ Sotheby’s Hong Kong On Sunday#奈良美智 #YoshitomoNarahttps://t.co/P8AEGWSMjP pic.twitter.com/sqOEBtAuPr— DailyJapan (@DailyJapan1) October 11, 2019 Read the rest

OpenAI Inc. demonstrated a one-handed robot solving a Rubik's Cube. Apparently the real breakthrough in this milestone was teaching the system to do the task in simulation. “While the video makes it easy to focus on the physical robot, the magic is mostly happening in simulation, and transferring things learned in simulation to the real world," writes Evan Ackerman in IEEE Spectrum:The researchers point out that the method they’ve developed here is general purpose, and you can train a real-world robot to do pretty much any task that you can adequately simulate. You don’t need any real-world training at all, as long as your simulations are diverse enough, which is where the automatic domain randomization comes in. The long-term goal is to reduce the task specialization that’s inherent to most robots, which will help them be more useful and adaptable in real-world applications. Read the rest

Omozoc created this terrific stop motion animation from 1,667 photographs! Read the rest

In Social, demographic, and economic correlates of food and chemical consumption measured by wastewater-based epidemiology, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, a group of researchers in Australia and Norway present their analysis of a 2016 Australian sewage census, which sampled 22 waste-water treatment facilities and looked for 42 biomarkers.The findings reveal that inequality can be detected in sewage. Wealthy people's shit has biomarkers for digested fresh fruits and veggies and grains, as well as higher doses of caffeine. The poorer you are, the more likely it is that your waste contains biomarkers for antidepressants, opioids, and meds for neuropathy and blood pressure. The findings bear out other epidemiological studies that look at self-reporting, prescription data, and other public health markers.They were even able to link demographics with specific types of antidepressants. A higher proportion of labourers were prescribed desvenlafaxine. Amitriptyline was most often prescribed to people who didn't finish high school. And people taking citalopram tended to live alone, and were often separated or divorced.We don't have to take the sewage at face value, either. All of these results appear to be consistent with other studies into the lifestyles of demographic groups. Social, demographic, and economic correlates of food and chemical consumption measured by wastewater-based epidemiology [Phil M. Choi, Benjamin Tscharke, Saer Samanipour, Wayne D. Hall, Coral E. Gartner, Jochen F. Mueller, Kevin V. Thomas, and Jake W. O’Brien/PNAS] There's a Depressing Difference Between The Sewage of Wealthy Areas And Poorer Ones [Michelle Starr/Science Alert](via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

Trump Town is a Propublica/Columbia Journalism Investigations interactive database of everyone working in the Trump administration; the latest revision reveals that Trump has hired 281 former lobbyists to regulate the industries that used to sign their paychecks.That's one in every 14 political appointments, quadruple the peak rate of lobbyist hiring under Obama, which arrived six years into his presidency.In many cases, these lobbyists are working directly in senior oversight roles for the industries they once represented: Colin Roskey spent two decades repping the health care industry, and now he's deputy secretary for legislation for mandatory health in Trump's Department of Health and Human Services. His recusals are confidential, but prior to his appointment, he was working for the price-gouging dialysis giant Fresenius Medical Care, which made more than a third of a billion a year from Medicare. That was just one of 27 clients he lobbied for before he entered Trump's HHS. But don't worry, Roskey's not overseeing the health care industry anymore. He quit government service and was immediately rehired by the health industry lobbying firm he'd worked for prior to his government service, Lincoln Policy Group.And while Trump has dismantled the Obama ethics rule that lobbyists from working in government, Obama's former appointees are not shy about taking lobbying work. For example, Bridgett Taylor -- who was deputy secretary for legislation for mandatory health in Obama's Department of Health and Human Services -- now lobbies for PHRMA, the lobbying arm of the price-gouging, monopolistic, murderous pharmaceutical industry. Read the rest

In 2017, California passed a state law mandating disclosure of wholesale drug prices, something the Big Pharma companies fought tooth and nail. Now, the first of those disclosures has taken place, and it reveals spectacular levels of price-gouging from the pharmaceutical industry's greediest monopolists: an overall rise of 25.8% in the median drug price since 2017.But the median obscures the incredible increases in the prices at the top end: generic liquid Prozac went up by 667%, generic ADHD meds went up more than 200%, and so on. The companies behind these increases cite nebulous and improbable causes like "market conditions" and (hilariously) "manufacturing costs" for the hikes.PHRMA, the lobbying body for Big Pharma, says there's nothing to see here, because these prices "do not reflect discounts and rebates for insurers and pharmacy benefit managers." PHRMA is suing to overturn the law.California’s new drug law requires companies to report drug price increases quarterly. Only companies that met certain standards — they raised the price of a drug within the first quarter and the price had risen by at least 16% since January 2017 — had to submit data. The companies that met the standards were required to provide pricing data for the previous five years. In its initial report, the state focused its analysis on drug-pricing trends for about 1,000 products from January 2017 through March 2019.California’s transparency law also requires drugmakers to state why they are raising prices. Over time, that information, in addition to cost disclosures, could create “one of the more comprehensive and official drug databases on prices that we have nationwide,” Wright said. Read the rest

The city of San Antonio agreed to pay a woman $205,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that a police detective pulled down her shorts in public and conducted a drug search in her vagina in front of other male officers. The detective accused of conducting the illegal vaginal cavity search, Mara Wilson, was never reprimanded by the police department. She has since retired.From San Antonio Current:According to the allegations in the suit, Wilson, a 32-year force veteran, slid down [the woman's] shorts and examined her vagina in view of the street while male officers were present. The officer also pulled a tampon from Simms’ vagina and held it up, inspecting it in front of the other cops.The suit references video footage taken from a squad car camera that appears to show Simms raising objections when it appeared Wilson was ready to probe her anus to continue the search.Image: Tomás Del Coro/Flickr. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) Read the rest

After a day of making people look at a black hole, Epic Games has released the next iteration in the amazingly popular battle royale shooter Fortnite.A new map, boats and bandage bazookas are just some of the 'new' things. Players can now carry an injured buddy to safety, or go fishing -- maybe both at the same time!Hope we don't run into one another! Read the rest

If you've been enjoying those videos where Bill Hader's face morphs uncannily into whoever he's impersonating, this one from Jim Meskimen is the overwhelming overdose. It's a perfect intentional demonstration of the special effect, generated by adversarial networks, an enchanted warning.Actor/impressionist Jim Meskimen (Parks & Recreation, Whose Line?, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) recites "Pity the Poor Impressionist" poem in 20 celebrity voices, with the help of SHAM00K. Read the rest

Hey, we love Netflix and Hulu, but let's face it: The whole setup doesn't exactly encourage active viewing. For all the binge-watching we've done, it's tough to expand our horizons or learn anything new - except for how many episodes of "The Office" it takes to make us fall asleep.It was only a matter of time before a streaming service would come along that actually welcomes and challenges curious minds. With a library of over 2,000 documentaries, CuriousityStream lets you binge to your heart's content - and it's more than just empty calories.The service includes a ton of established, award-winning films, plus a mix of originals that boast some high-profile talent. You'll find documentaries on nearly every subject imaginable, from the possibilities of space travel to the secrets of lost civilizations, narrated and presented by names like David Attenborough, Stephen Hawking, and Mike Rowe. The more you watch, the more you learn with algorithms that tailor that next documentary to your personal taste.Sign up, and you can access any of the films from a range of devices. A 3-year subscription to CuriosityStream is now 25% of the list price. Read the rest

From 2009 to 2011, Radboud University in the Netherlands featured a "purification grave" as a place of meditation:Good news, the purification grave is once again available, as announced in this cheerfully macabre video:Per Google Translate:Students and staff are welcome to spend time in the grave during office hours and to reflect on their lives, their choices, their questions and doubts. Register here if you want to participate. We will then give you a mat and pillow and you will receive some explanation. Your belongings are stored in a locker. Afterwards a conversation is possible if you need it.(Via @SpyKids2.) Read the rest

Costumes in the early 80's were little more than decorated plastic bags. And before Disney's IP came to dominate Halloween shops, costume makers had to come up with creative ways to let kids embody concepts like an Asteroid or Rubik's Cube. The resulting costumes may have lacked padded muscles, but made up for it with surprisingly disturbing masks:Someone made the call that it was worth spending resources to make a costume based on the cyclops from Krull:You can find more costumes from the 70's and 80's here and here.(Via Attract Mode.) Read the rest

Reuters reports, without offering any context, the fact that a man dressed as a giant broccoli was arrested yesterday in London. While being detained, he yells "give peas a chance."London police arrest protester dressed as broccoli pic.twitter.com/3VSLb1jz2f— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) October 14, 2019 Read the rest

John Hodgman's last book, Vacationland, was a kind of absurdist memoir of a weird kid who'd grown up to the kind of self-aware grownup who really wanted to dig into how he got to where he was, with bone-dry wit and real heart (I compared it to Steve Martin's Cruel Shoes, but for adults who'd outgrown it); in his new book, Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms, Hodgman offers something much more uncomfortable (if no less funny), a series of vignettes that explore the hollowness of privilege, the toxicity of comparison, and the melancholy of accomplishment.Medallion Status tells the story of Hodgman's post-TV life. After lucking into a role in a series of Apple TV ads, Hodgman went on to semi-regular stints on The Daily Show under Jon Stewart and a series of medium-sized parts on well-regarded sitcoms, but these have dwindled, and while Hodgman has many other claims to accomplishment and fame, they're not TV fame (and arguably, as Hodgman points out, even TV fame isn't TV fame anymore in our fractured world of streaming services). TV fame is a weird kind of fame, a stopped-in-the-street kind of fame, a fly from New York to LA every week and stay at the Chateau Marmont kind of fame. It's the kind of fame that gets you invited into the swag room at awards-shows where you can be measured for complementary custom-made leather shoes or take home a really amazing pair of jeans.For Hodgman, as riven with insecurity as the next person (especially if the next person is a white, straight dude from a middle-class background who has a keen appreciation that he's living life on the lowest difficulty setting and is likely being serviced and fawned over by people who work harder and are more talented than he is), the gradual withdrawal of the trappings of privilege are a constant, nagging confirmation that every jolt of impostor syndrome you've ever felt was fully deserved. Read the rest

I currently live three hours away from a movie theater. A six-hour toot in our jeep just to watch Joker? Not going to happen. Happily, David Harbour and the cast of Saturday Night Live goofing on Joaquin Phoenix's turn in Joker feels like more than enough to give me the gist of the flick until it pops up on streaming services. Read the rest

Santa Paws is coming to town.Trader Joe's is making the countdown to Christmas more fun this year by offering an advent calendar for fur babies. An episode of the Inside Trader Joe's podcast made the reveal last month."Last year we came out with the dog advent calendar, which seemed pretty odd until we got out in the stores and there was quite a following for it, reports Colin Fields, vice president of merchandising for the grocery chain, "And we heard from our feline, loving customers that we should have something for their cats. So we found it, we developed it and it's pretty cool." What's inside of the calendars? Fields shares that it's filled with "magical treats made of salmon and seaweed." Because, he says, "cats actually love seaweed."No word on when exactly these kitty calendars will hit stores. (Bustle)photo by Lisa Zins via Flickr Read the rest

“This man murdered someone,” the victim's brother, Adarius Carr, said at a news conference. “He should be arrested.”Aaron Dean, the former Fort Worth Texas police officer who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson this weekend while she was playing a video game with her nephew, resigned hours before he was going to be fired.Dean was charged with murder on Monday and booked into jail without bond, per Tarrant County jail records.Aaron Y. Dean, the officer, had resigned earlier on Monday, hours before the police chief had planned to fire him amid the community’s growing anger and frustration after the death of the woman, Atatiana Jefferson.The interim Fort Worth police chief, Ed Kraus, had said in an afternoon news conference that the department was conducting a criminal investigation into the officer’s actions. He said he had reached out to the F.B.I. about the possibility of starting a civil rights investigation.“I get it,” Chief Kraus said of the widespread public outrage that followed the release of body camera video showing that Ms. Jefferson had been given no warning that it was a police officer who had crept into her backyard, shined a light into her bedroom window and shouted, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” immediately before firing a single fatal shot.Fort Worth Police Shooting: Officer Is Charged With Murder for Killing Woman in Her Home [nytimes.com]From our Rob Beschizza's earlier post on Atatiana Jefferson's death by police officer:A black woman was shot dead by a white police officer early Saturday in her own home. Read the rest

In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my Green European Journal short story about the terrible European Copyright Directive which passed last March, False Flag. Published in December 2018, the story highlights the ways in which this badly considered law creates unlimited opportunities for abuse, especially censorship by corporations who've been embarassed by whistleblowers and activists. The crew couldn’t even supply their videos to friendly journalists to rebut the claims from the big corporate papers. Just *linking* to a major newspaper required a paid license, and while the newspapers licensed to one another so they could reference articles in rival publications, the kinds of dissident, independent news outlets that had once provided commentary and analysis of what went into the news and what didn’t had all disappeared once the news corporations had refused to license the right to link to them.Agata spoke with a lawyer she knew, obliquely, in guarded hypotheticals, and the lawyer confirmed what she’d already intuited.“Your imaginary friend has no hope. They’d have to out themselves in order to file a counterclaim, tell everyone their true identity and reveal that they were behind the video. Even so, it would take six months to get the platforms to hear their case, and by then the whole story would have faded from the public eye. And if they *did* miraculously get people to pay attention again? Well, the fakers would just get the video taken offline again. It takes an instant for a bot to file a fake copyright claim. Read the rest

Still using elbow grease to clean the sinks, tubs and other grimy surfaces around your house? Save your elbows, and some time. If you've got a power drill, the RevoClean® 4-in-1 Drill Brush Cleaning Kit will instantly turn it into a professional scrubber that can tackle any stain on any surface.Attach the 4" nylon round brush to the drill bit on any standard drill and you can clean tile, showers and even caked-on grill stains in a fraction of the time it would take by hand. The 3.5" nylon ball brush is great for general purpose jobs like porcelain and those pesky shower corners. Finally, there are two non-scratch attachments: A medium scrubber for stainless steel, granite or cookware and a sponge for glass, wood furniture or other sensitive but stubborn areas.There's hardly a stain that can stand up to it and no area in any house where this won't save tons of time. Again, you'll need your own drill to take advantage of the RevoClean® 4-in-1 Drill Brush Cleaning Kit, now available in a 2-pack for 37% off the retail price. Read the rest

• Trump lawyer’s bank records examined• Witnesses questioned on work for Ukraine mayor• Feds probing efforts to oust U.S. ambassadorDonald Trump's longtime personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is the subject of a federal criminal investigation.Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutors are reported by the Wall Street Journal to now be examining Rudy Giuliani's business dealings in Ukraine.Investigators have examined Giuliani's bank records.The areas of Giuliani's operations now under investigation include his personal finances, travel, meetings, and work for a city mayor in Ukraine, the WSJ reports citing people familiar with the probe.Read more at the WSJ:Federal Prosecutors Scrutinize Rudy Giuliani’s Ukraine Business Dealings, FinancesNEWS: Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are examining Rudy Giuliani’s business dealings in Ukraine, including his finances, meetings and work for a city mayor there. Investigators have also examined Giuliani’s bank records. w/@aviswanatha @rebeccadobrien https://t.co/01qKdTMsWW— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) October 14, 2019[WSJ, reporting by Aruna Viswanatha, Rebecca Davis O’Brien, and Rebecca Ballhaus, Oct. 14, 2019 6:32 pm ET, via] Read the rest

The Donald Trump impeachment inquiry is picking up speed.A senior adviser to Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who just resigned will be questioned under oath on Wednesday on Capitol Hill in the accelerating House impeachment inquiry. Tweeted CNN's Manu Raju, among the first to break the news today:“Michael McKinley, a senior adviser to Pompeo who just resigned, is scheduled for a transcribed interview with the committees leading the impeachment inquiry on Wednesday at 10a, according to multiple congressional sources.”It's going to be be a full week. “Tomorrow: George Kent; Wednesday: McKinley; Thursday: Sondland; Friday: Laura Cooper (new addition), who is the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia,” quips Raju.We are now looking at a full week. Tomorrow: George Kent; Wednesday: McKinley; Thursday: Sondland; Friday: Laura Cooper (new addition), who is the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 14, 2019 NEWS: Michael McKinley -- the former senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who resigned his post earlier this month -- is expected to appear Wednesday in a closed session before the committees leading the impeachment inquiry— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) October 14, 2019NEWS: Former Pompeo adviser Michael McKinley, who resigned last week, will testify in closed session on Wednesday before House impeachment investigators, according to an official working on the inquiry.— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) October 14, 2019DEPOSITIONS THIS WEEK:Deputy Asst Secy George Kent expected TuesdayFmr Senior Advisor to Secy of State Ambassador P. Read the rest

Get those sea creatures!Odin the German Shepherd is an adorable plush coat puppy. In this video from 2017, his human says Odin had zero interest in bath time. View this post on Instagram Get those sea creatures! 🐳🐠🦑Anyone have any tips on how I can get him to not freak out when we give him a bath? he's warming up to the kiddie pool but still dreaddddsss a bath, getting rinsed off with a hose, getting water poured on him with a cup to rinse off. Basically anything to try to get him clean! Help!! #dreadedbathtime #gsdstagram #gsdlife #gsdpage #gsdlove #gsdofig #gsdofinstagram #gsdpuppy #gsdpuppies #germanshepherd #germanshepherddog #germanshepherdofig #germanshepherdworld #germanshepherdsofinstagram #gsdlovers #gsdstagram #gsdoftheworld #puppiesofinstagram #puppydog #puppygram #mansbestfriend #petsofinstagram #germanshepherdpuppy #gsdpuppy #odinthegreatgsdnj #odinzms #k9 #odinA post shared by 🐾•ODIN•🐾 (@odin.thegreat.gsd) on Jul 8, 2017 at 1:27pm PDT The kiddie pool was a way to get the little puppy to become more comfortable with getting a bath.He's warming up to the kiddie pool but still dreaddddsss a bath, getting rinsed off with a hose, getting water poured on him with a cup to rinse off.This is a newly-viral-again doggie video that actually dates back a couple years. At odin.thegreat.gsd, you can follow how Odin has been growing up, and what became of his initial wariness about water time.[Instagram, 2017] Read the rest

Aww, look at him having the best time!“My old chunky pupper enjoying the snow,” shares IMGURian @quoththeravennever.“Roland is 12 years old and usually quite the couch potato, but he loves the snow! Also, he knows he’s very handsome in his new sweater. All the old ladies tell him so.”My old chunky pupper enjoying the snow Read the rest

All hail the queen of Halloween. You gotta watch the video, the chainsaw arm makes a scary sound and everything. Seriously impressive Ash Williams and 'The Evil Dead' cosplay going on here. “Made myself a chainsaw arm for my halloween costume. It makes chainsaw noises and everything.”IMGURian @shepardcommander07.Real chainsaw hand action!Ash Williams costume, part 2Groovy[IMGUR Gallery one, two, and three.] Read the rest

I bought this USB rechargeable lighter in May and will never go back to using matches or a butane lighter. I've used it to light many charcoal barbecues, candles, and stove burners and have not had to recharge it yet (the manufacturer says it works 1,000 times before it needs recharging). It usually costs on Amazon but if you use promo code BFM3MDJY you can get it for about half that price. Read the rest

Josh O'Neill writes, "We're doing a box set edition of Dracula in which we reconstitute the novel into the primary source documents from which it's drawn: Mina's diary, Lucy's letters, Dailygraph newspaper clippings, even an actual phonograph record from Dr. Seward. It comes in a suitcase. Or a wooden casket or stone crypt, depending on the edition."Josh is from Beehive Books, who've produced some of the loveliest limited editions we've featured over the past three years, and they've got an excellent track record when it comes to delivering on these crowdfunded editions.Dracula itself is a remarkable text, a combination of epistolary novel and assemblage of clippings and other fragments, still modern-seeming after all these years (which is fitting, given the extent to which it is at root a parable about the power of modernity -- lights, telegraphs, science -- to defeat superstition).$25 gets you a PDF, $100 gets you the record with its jacket and accompanying textual material as well as a map, $350 gets you a suitcase with all the materials, $800 gets you a limited version with bonus materials, $2000 gets you the "Entombed Edition" with a letter from Dacre Stoker (Bram's grand-nephew), handmade items, and a special case ("a stone vault").It's all scheduled to ship in Oct 2021.Beehive ends its pitch by supporting the unionization drive by Kickstarter workers, noting that the workers have not called for a boycott while they seek recognition for their union. We will produce twenty-six premium editions, each lettered A-Z and signed and personally inscribed to you or an individual of your choosing by Dacre Stoker. Read the rest

The legendary Mavis Staples. Read the rest

Descript's Lyrebird is a premium service that "allows you to replace recorded words and phrases with synthesized speech that's tonally blended with the surrounding audio." The interactive samples on the website are amazing -- I can't tell the difference between the original voices and the synthetic voices. This could be useful for podcast editing, but also for deepfakes. Read the rest

Earlier this month, we learned that one of the most enduring frustrations of Trump's presidency is that no one will take his suggestion of building a moat filled with man-eating alligators and poisonous snakes along the US border (something he's been talking up for at least 35 years!). The editorial staff of Defenseone, presumably still stinging from being accused of being anti-Trump propagandists by a belligerent CBP officer at Dulles Airport, have decided to give Trump a little help by costing out the total budget for such a project.They have to make some assumptions, of course -- such as a minimum of 10 gators and 1,000 snakes per moat-mile -- and they also count on making some cost savings by sourcing cheap gators from police auctions. Here's the bottom line, though: 19,450 border gators will run $40.4m, including shipping. 1,954,000 snakes, meanwhile, will cost $683.9m, a cost that must be reupped every seven years, due to the regrettably short lifespans of coral snakes and water moccasins.Then there's the feed issue: if the snakes and gators work, there will be a shortage of human border-crossers for them to eat, so that's $291m/year for frozen rats and gator pellets. The accompanying zoologists will cost $135.7m/year.Then there are the medical costs for border crossers who are injured but not killed by the moat-dwellers, ballparked at $1.3b/year (much of that is price-gouging by monopolistic pharma companies who have giant markups on their antivenom).The total bill? $2.5b to set up and $1.8b/year to operate. Read the rest

Elizabeth Warren overtook Joe Biden in one nationwide poll and the billionaires are already taking his pulse. Michael Bloomberg (~$50bn net worth) today makes clear his intentions if Biden slips away and the left-leaning Warren seems likely to prevail: Bloomberg keeps talking to allies about running for president.Mike Bloomberg has indicated to associates in recent weeks that Joe Biden’s recent struggles are making him rethink his decision to stay out of the 2020 Democratic primary, according to people familiar with the discussions“Bloomberg is in if Biden is out,” says one source. Biden has not indicated any desire to drop out any time soon.Bloomberg could be in for a showdown with Elizabeth Warren, whether he runs or not, as he has been one of her biggest critics on the Democratic side.Pete Buttigieg has done better than expected in recent polls and is, if anything, even more Billionaire-friendly than Biden. And there's that old sawhorse about liberals favoring the farthest-right over even the nearest-left. But Bloomberg doesn't have political affiliations, only vehicles. He served three terms as New York's mayor as a Republican and finally as an Independent. His interest in the Democratic primary is simple: he thinks it'd be a cheap ticket to the White House if Biden were gone. Read the rest

Honest Guide is a YouTube channel for people interested in visiting Prague. It's got tips and cautions that are great to know about in advance of going there. I wish there were similar YouTube channels for other places. In its latest episode, Honest Guide describes five common scams that tourists should watch out for. The most interesting one is not so much a scam, but a sucker bet. Some guy has built a structure with a horizontal bar, sort of like a pull-up bar. He sets it up in the middle of Wenceslas Square and has a sign that tells people that if they can hang from it for two minutes, they make 5 times the money they paid for. But no one can do it because the bar spins, making it impossible to hang from. The host also recorded a recent encounter with a scammer who drove up to him in a Mercerdes while he was sitting on a sidewalk bench. The scammer explained that he had lost his wallet and needed to buy gas. He gave the host his "valuable" ring as collateral, but the host started recording the scammer. The scammer threatened to call the cops, and when the host encouraged him to do so, the scammer quickly drove away.(One of the many reasons I like Japan is that in the 8 times I've been there, no one has ever tried to cheat me.) Read the rest

For decades, it was a commonplace in western business that no one could afford to ignore China: whatever problems a CEO might have with China's human rights record could never outweigh the profits to be had by targeting the growing Chinese middle-class.Businesses tied themselves in knots trying to reconcile this. Exactly 15 years ago, I challenged the Chairman of Google's Board at the Web 2.0 Conference over his company's decision to censor its search-results to help the Chinese state suppress political dissidence (his excuse: censoring search results delivered a "superior user experience" because including sites blocked by the Great Firewall in search results would just frustrate Chinese users who tried to click on them). The real reason? Yahoo was in China, and in 2004, if you wanted to get Google to do something stupid, all you needed to do was get Yahoo to do it first.Two years later, we learned that Yahoo had secured their commercial future in China by helping the Chinese state target dissidents' Yahoo Mail inboxes, so that Yahoo's users could be kidnapped and tortured for their political activities.Five years after that, Google disclosed that Chinese spies had hacked Gmail in order to continue their surveillance of pro-democracy activists, and revealed that this was the reason the company had pulled out of China altogether. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, a Soviet refugee, could not stomach being a party to repressive state surveillance.But since then, Google has embarked upon a secret project to re-introduce a censored/surveilling search tool to the Chinese market. Read the rest

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted "secretive talks" and off-the-record dinners with conservative figures in recent months, reports Politico's Daniel Lippman. Among the delights were discussions of "free speech and partnerships" with nationalist Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Trump ally.As part of the series, Zuckerberg met earlier this year with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who insinuated that Facebook had become a monopoly during a congressional hearing last year; Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has fingered Zuckerberg as contributing to “the death of free speech in America”; and conservative radio talk host Hugh Hewitt, who has cautioned against a DOJ enforcement action but has called for a “new regulatory regime” to minimize “big tech bias” against conservatives. It puts into context his (and now Facebook's) recent attacks on Democratic presidential front-runner Elizabeth Warren. Conservative threats to Facebook are part of an effort to co-opt its influence over users and other media. But progressives will follow through on regulation or breaking up its monopoly. Zuckerberg's supplication to conservative politicians and media will, therefore, evolve into urgent support as the next election approaches. Read the rest

If you don't live in England, it might be hard to tell the difference between a northern and southern English accent. If you don't live in the United States you might not know how to distinguish between a northern and southern English accent? In this Wired video, language coach Erik Singer explains how to recognize accents that sound similar to untrained ears.<em>Image: YouTube</em> Read the rest

Viktor Orban and his far-right, xenophobic, conspiratorial Fidesz party have led Hungary through a string of catastrophes, from its handling of Middle Eastern migrants to its ouster of the internationally famous Central European University to the passage of a slave labor bill that allowed employers to require hundreds of hours of mandatory overtime that needn't be paid for for years to the creation of a parallel system of partisan "administrative courts" to investigate government corruption and electoral fraud. Despite widespread opposition to Orban and Fidesz's program, they continued to win supermajorities in national elections, allowing them to ram their agenda (proudly described as "illiberal" by the party itself) through (it didn't help that opposition politicians who spoke against Fidesz's legislation were dragged out of TV stations and administered savage beatings by goon-squads).Finally, the dam is breaking: a "unity" coalition of both right- and left-wing parties backed a slate of candidates in Hungarian municipal elections, winning not just in Budapest, but in 10 of the 23 largest cities in Hungary. The electoral victory was enabled in part by a sex-scandal in Fidesz, but it also overcame promises by Orban to use his office to punish any precincts that voted against Fidesz.There are real parallels between the urban-led repudiation of Orban and the recent, repeated humiliations for Turkey's fascist Recep Tayyip Erdogan suffered in Turkey's municipal elections. It maps to a global pattern (alive and well in the USA, of course) of dense urban centers swinging for progressive candidates, but being swamped by the dwindling cohort of rural, low-density voters whose votes count for much more than those of urbanites (see also: Toronto). Read the rest