Leon Haughton was arrested at Baltimore-Washington International Airport on December 29 when cops told him that 3 jars of honey in his baggage had tested positive for methamphetamine. He was charged with three felony drug counts. On January 17, the lab test results revealed the the jars were honey - no meth. The prosecutors dropped the charges. But the state of Maryland kept Haughton in jail for a total of 87 days before letting him go.From Reason:The case highlights a heap of inane government incompetence. Why would an immigration detainer remain in place for a misdemeanor drug offense, even after the government shutdown ended on January 25? Why was Haughton's honey tested at the first lab if that facility was not prepared to render a result? Why did it need to be tested three times to get an accurate result, and why did that take so many months to complete?During the ordeal, Haughton lost both of his jobs, one as a cleaner and the other as a construction worker. He also has six children, and he says that their school performance suffered immensely while he was away.(Image: Emily Mathews, CC-BY) Read the rest

Shipbrook makes 3D models of "props from science fiction movies, TV shows, and computer games that I enjoy" and uploads the models to Thingiverse so other people can print them out on a 3D printer. Here are the plans for his Star Trek Original Series - Hand Phaser Type II Body model.Image: Shipbrook/Thingiverse Read the rest

The Monty Hall Problem is a probability puzzle, but the actual problem with the Monty Hall problem was just Monty Hall. Probability doesn't really matter if the game show host has free will and a willingness to mess with you.This is the classic 'three doors' problem, where there is a prize behind one door and nothing behind the other two. After you, the contestant, picks Door 1, the Host then opens Door 2 and shows you it is empty. The host then offers you a chance to switch your choice to Door 3? Do you take it?If probability were the only thing at play, yes. However, as Monty Hall noted: if the host is not bound by any rules, they can mess with you and are not predictable.Monty was the problem, hence the name of the problem. Read the rest

Like Funko? Love Marvel? This Funko/Marvel 80th Anniversary advent calendar will fill the advent calendar role in my daughter's holiday ritual.I do not understand much about Christ or how his adherents celebrate his birth, but my daughter's mother's family sure enjoys it! My child believes in quality time with her family AND PRESENTS. The advent calendar supplies her with 24 presents. Advent calendars rule in her book. She keeps one in each of her homes.I saw Addams Family themed candy displays in the market for Halloween this week.Funko Advent Calendar: Marvel 80th Anniversary via Amazon Read the rest

Own your own squadron of F-16s with the all the tactical upgrades one could, or should, ask for.I just want ONE G-21 Super Goose, ffs.The Drive:We reached out to Jet Lease to get all the details on this intriguing offering. They were really enthusiastic about it and about their growing surplus military aircraft sales portfolio. As a result, we learned a lot, paramount of which is that the firm has three similar F-16s that could be sold together to create a private F-16 mini-squadron. These aircraft are F-16AM and BM Block 20 Mid-Life-Update (MLU) jets that are imported from Jordan. That country had bought dozens of second-hand F-16s from America's NATO allies in Europe—Belgium and the Netherlands—between 2008 and 2017 under the Peace Falcon III to Peace Falcon VI initiatives. They have subsequently been in the process of liquidating some of their older F-16s in recent years, including selling Block 15 F-16s to Pakistan. Read the rest

A "time capsule" from 1969, which is to say an old, locked safe, was opened to reveal air inside. A time capsule in Derry that was sealed 50 years ago was recently opened to reveal its contents -- nothing. "We were a little horrified to find it was nothing in it"A perfect metaphor for the boomer generation. There's no list of what was originally supposed to be in it, either.(Previously...) Read the rest

According to data from two large studies spanning thirty years, optimistic people live considerably longer than pessimists. Why? Apparently optimistic people eat better, exercise, manage stress more effectively, and generally lead healthier lives. Well goody for them. From Science:...The scientists were able to show that the most optimistic women (top 25%) lived an average of 14.9% longer than their more pessimistic peers. For the men the results were a bit less dramatic: The most optimistic of the bunch lived 10.9% longer than their peers, on average, the team reports today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."Optimism is associated with exceptional longevity in 2 epidemiologic cohorts of men and women" (PNAS) Read the rest

At yesterday's D23 Expo, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening put an end to speculation that the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is going to disappear. Apu's future has been publicly questioned since comedian Hari Kodabolu's 2017 documentary "The Problem with Apu" argued that the character is a racist caricature. From Variety:When asked by a young fan whether Apu would remain on the show — following reports that the character had been written out of the show — Groening said, “Yes. We love Apu. We’re proud of Apu.” Read the rest

You know which part we object to most, dear reader.A Florida man was found by police to be in the possession of ecstasy pills formed in the shape of illegitimate, popular-vote-losing U.S. President Donald Trump's head. The accused MDMA-haver has been charged with unlawful possession of controlled substances, according Pinellas County court documents.Extremely bad vibes, man.More from Reuters:Brendan Dolan-King, 23, was charged on Friday in Clearwater, Florida after police searched his apartment in June and discovered fentanyl and five orange pills shaped like Trump’s head, which were later found to contain the hallucinogen MDMA, or ecstasy.The confiscation resembles one in Indiana in 2018, when the Lafayette Courier-Journal reported that police patrolling an interstate highway seized an orange tablet in the shape of the 45th U.S. president’s head, with his lips puckered on the front and “Great Again” printed on the back.[image: Pinellas County Sheriff's Department, Florida] Read the rest

I've been using this Wen rotary tool for a couple of years now and I really like it. It has plenty of power (I've never turned it up to full speed for anything I've used it for), comes with a bunch of tool bits, and costs a tiny fraction of the price of a similar Dremel tool: on Amazon. Read the rest

Case affects privacy rights of law enforcement officers, and freedom of information for those investigating police abuse.

The Barcelona area has beautiful beaches, including some that are nudist-friendly. But skinny dippers beware — robbery is common when people leave their stuff on the sand to swim (more than 850 thefts so far this summer), and many of the victims are naked, who come back to their spot on the sand without a stitch of clothing to be had.Thankfully, the local police are stocked with clothing replacement kits just for the occasion, which include "a T-shirt bearing the city council logo, a pair of shorts, flip-flops and a metro ticket," according to The Guardian.The kits handed out by officers of the city’s Guàrdia Urbana have saved the blushes of 174 bathers since this year’s summer season officially began on 27 May. The number given out has increased each year since they were introduced in 2016.If you plan on swimming au natural in Spain, or anywhere for that matter, you might want to bring a buddy to guard your belongings. Actually, this goes for suited swimmers as well.Image: by David Sim from London, United Kingdom - Rear view, CC BY 2.0, Link Read the rest

At noon ET, employees at the New York Times received the following email:Dear Colleagues,During an extermination sweep of the newsroom over the weekend, we discovered evidence of bedbugs in a wellness room (02E4-253) on the second floor, a couch on the third floor and a booth on the fourth floor. These specific areas were then swept by professionals and found to be otherwise clean. In an abundance of caution, the second-floor room has been temporarily closed, the booth has been blocked off and the couch has been removed to be treated and professionally cleaned.Additionally, evidence of possible bedbug activity was found in a few personal lockers on the third floor. Individuals associated with those lockers have been contacted and treatment is underway.We continue to monitor the situation and, as a precaution, we intend to sweep all New York Times-occupied floors. We will provide updates as they become available.If you have any questions, please contact Pat Whelan from Facilities at [redacted].Building OperationsVia Slate Read the rest

Ever since he was a kid, Matt Bilsky has wanted to make a kite-string winder. His first attempt, at age 8, didn't work because the motor was not strong enough and the string kept getting tangled. But a couple of decades later, he made one with a 3D printer that gets the job done. Read the rest

The amazing Owl's Nest Sanctuary For Wildlife shared images of this incredibly beautiful blue-eyed baby deer on their Facebook page.Look at them BABY BLUES!!! 👀 We are *fawning* over this stunning whitetail deer baby! 😍 Sunny came to us a while back for rehab after being abandoned by his mom and although some fawns are born with blue eyes, they almost always change color to the dark brown usually seen in older deer 🦌 Well, this boy has KEPT his blue eyes!!! 😱 According to our veterinarians at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, this is a rare, recessive trait and not often seen! ✨ We feel so lucky to have this unique boy in our care! 🤗 Doug DeFelice took the the incredible shots, and we're sharing them courtesy of Owl's Nest Sanctuary For Wildlife.[via @arin_twit] Read the rest

It's always fun to discover the photo references that comic book artists and illustrators use. Here's one that Steve posted to Flickr. On the left, Yvonne De Carlo in Hotel Sahara. On the right, Gino D'Achille's cover for Tribesmen of Gor.See also: Unpublished Gor books Read the rest

In an extremely weird National Park Service notice, tourists are advised that these poop-y looking brown balls of mystery crap that have been observed rolling over trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are indeed critter poop, and nothing is wrong.Dung beetles, also known as tumblebugs, move the balls of dung around as part of their birthing process. Nature is weird.Here the little dude is again, normal speed.From the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Facebook Page:It’s like they always say: “When life gives you crap……….roll it into a ball, lay an egg inside it, bury it, and use it to nourish your offspring!”At least, that’s what dung beetles and tumblebugs do. This tumblebug (Canthon sp.) is one of the many beetles found in the Smokies that relies on animal scat to complete its life cycle. The female tumblebug will lay only one egg inside each ball of dung, allowing the developing larvae to have all the resources they need without having to compete with their siblings. The male will help bury the balls of dung in the ground for safe keeping. Dung beetles and tumblebugs do us a great service by keeping the trails clean and aiding in decomposition!IMAGE [Photographer: Nelson Goodman] A dung beetle rolls a ball of dung across a trail. Tourists alerted to mysterious rolling balls of poop in Great Smoky Mountains [sacbee.com] Read the rest

The Lockpicking Lawyer found a serious vulnerability in the high-tech TurboLock YL-99: phillips head screws in the handle.Image: Lockpicking Lawyer/YouTube Read the rest

No clear leader of the pack, yet.

Federal lawsuit challenges new rule allowing indefinite detention of migrant kids

“My five year old daughter asked for a 'pink forest to camp in' for her bedroom. I think I delivered, on a budget!”Don't miss the “starry night sky.”Photos and some how-to information for other DIY parents, from pretty amazing father and IMGURian @babygreenvines:More of those $4 curtains and $5 string lights, staple gunned across the ceiling.I started with the fabric gathered in the center above the light (this is just wire rimmed crepe paper crinkled up and birdcaged over the dome light. For the fabric draping:I started with all the curtains gathered in the center and then stapled a ring of curtains around the light. Then splayed the other ends of the curtains out to the edges of the room and stapled them there, leaving a little slack to create slight billows. Overall, she’s in love with it and I feel satisfied that I was able to give my sweet little goofball her dream room without spending a stupid amount of money on redecorating.My 5 yr old daughter asked for a “pink forest to camp in” for her bedroom. I think I delivered, on a budget! Read the rest

I remember the urban legend of rats from my youth.Engadget shares this nugget:Plant-based meat substitutes may soon be an option for fast food chicken. CNBC reports that KFC will start testing Beyond Fried Chicken at an Atlanta restaurant on August 27th. Yes, you could grab a bucket of chicken without feeling quite so guilty -- or greasy, if Beyond Meat's earlier work is any indication. Whether or not availability grows will depend on feedback, but other restaurant chains (such as Del Taco) have seen upticks in demand since adding meat substitutes.KFC had acknowledged talking to suppliers months ago to investigate meatless chicken, but didn't have any definitive plans until now. Read the rest

Yesterday I posted a video by Jim Browning, who runs the Tech Support Scam website. In that video, Jim shows how he figured out the likely suspect behind a recent spate of telemarketing scam calls in the UK. In the video above, Jim reveals that the people he suspects to be behind the scam have disappeared from the Internet by wiping out their websites, Facebook pages, and LinkedIn accounts. Read the rest

Trump foe may be charged by Trump cronies with lying to federal agents

This permanent USB port has everything I want: QC 3.0 charging, 2 USB ports, and a voltmeter.My little USB 2 port plug in has kept me going in the Vanagon for years. It does tend to fall out when I go over a lot of bumps, or a daughter or dog bumps it. The only thing I ever swap into that lighter port is a voltmeter.Voilla. Adding QC 3.0 is a big bonus cause I love this battery.I no longer smoke cigarettes and can light joints with a lighter.Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger Socket, ADSDIA 12V/24V 36W Aluminum Waterproof Dual QC3.0 Car Charger Power Adapter Outlet with LED Display via Amazon Read the rest

The gall. Pardoned by Orange Julius, racist birther asshat Joe Arpaio is running for his old job of Maricopa County Sheriff.The Guardian:Joe Arpaio announced on Sunday – the second anniversary of his pardon by Donald Trump – that he will see re-election to his old job next year.Arpaio, 87, is a Republican who was voted out of office in 2016 after 24 years as sheriff of Maricopa county. He said he would seek his party’s nomination again in the 4 August 2020 primary, running against his former chief deputy, Gerard Sheridan.Perhaps this is what they meant about the dead walking the earth. Read the rest

What the fuck is she talking about? pic.twitter.com/Mchf0L4rDx— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) August 24, 2019 Pockets are not actually in the bill of rights. Read the rest

Beep. From Uncommon Ephemera:The second filmstrip in Sunburst Communications' "How You Get VD" series focuses on syphilis. Reusing a few frames from the previous title, but focusing on a hand-drawn style instead of photography, "How to Get Syphilis" focuses on Mary Jane, who is a tad irresponsible with her sex life. Read the rest

Diana Krall's cover of Tom Waits' 'Temptation' is either "Oh, shit! I'm falling in love again." or "Oops. Looks like I fell out of love again."I prefer the former, and studio version, but this live track is really cool as well:Less and less in rotation, as the years pass by.Covers of Tom Waits by women are one of my favorite ways to enjoy his work. I am very much looking forward to the album 'Women Sing Waits' which I believe does NOT feature Krall but should. Read the rest

Storm chaser Ty Schmitt created this astounding 8K time-lapse film, titled "From Darkness to Light," using footage he collected while traveling 30,000 back and forth across the Great Plains last spring. Read the rest

"The story of a generation comes to an end." Who wins?: Kylo Ren vs Rey. Read the rest

I haven't been watching HBO'S Succession, but I will be now after watching this clip from last night's episode. Assuming the clip is representative, it's a show about a King Lear-esque millionaire (played by Brian Cox) who is sick of hearing bullshit from his sons and executives. In the clip, he improves a fancy dinner by ordering some of them to get down on their knees and pretend to be boars fighting over a sausage. Read the rest

Behold the President of the United States of America: "Trump suggested nuking hurricanes to stop them from hitting U.S." Axios:President Trump has suggested multiple times to senior Homeland Security and national security officials that they explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States, according to sources who have heard the president's private remarks and been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded those comments. Behind the scenes: During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, "I got it. I got it. Why don't we nuke them?" according to one source who was there. "They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they're moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can't we do that?" the source added, paraphrasing the president's remarks.It's like a dark sitcom: a lazy, indifferent president hates the job and pitches increasingly blithe acts of insanity in the hope that he will be 25thd out of office, but the GOP loves it and works round-the-clock to keep him strapped to the horse, while congressional Democrats are just too spineless and compromised to oppose him. Read the rest

Austin Kleon with some excellent advice: "Go to Goodwill and buy a gigantic used paper dictionary for $5 and keep it on your desk."When you’re looking for a word to replace a word in your writing, John McPhee suggests skipping the thesaurus and going straight to the dictionary: "With dictionaries, I spend a great deal more time looking up words I know than words I have never heard of—at least ninety-nine to one. The dictionary definitions of words you are trying to replace are far more likely to help you out than a scattershot wad from a thesaurus."The dictionary not only gives you a gives you a list synonyms for the word you’re looking up, it also gives you a deeper understanding of the meaning of the word, and sometimes the definition can lead you to a better way of phrasing altogether. (Stephen King: “Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word.”)There are benefits to spending a little more to grab a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of English or Merriam-Websters; note that the ODE is not the OED [Amazon] which is on another level of logophilia entirely. Get it as well. Read the rest

Bennett Feely created YouTube Decade, a website that shows the top videos at YouTube from exactly 10 years ago. I was expecting it to be a bunch of happy-go-lucky kitteh videos and blithely optimistic first-gen YouTubers, but as it happens the top videos 10 years ago were a parody of Baz Luhrmann's Sunscreen Song, part 10 of 13 of Cecil B. De Mille's 1949 production of Samson and Delilah, a Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica promo spot, the Top 50 industrial accidents, and a small dog humping a large cat. If you'd hit it yesterday, you'd have gotten one of the first 10 million-view conspiracy theorist rants about Barack Obama. So you can embark upon your week safe in the knowledge that everything has always been completely horrible! Read the rest

Around this time last year, I picked up a Surface Go. It's been a great piece of hardware. While it might not be the most powerful Windows PC going, it's got more than enough guts to power me through a day of writing, editing and photo tweaking in situations where hauling along my laptop isn't desirable. Better still is the fact that, at the end of the day, it's an absolute beast for consuming comic books and RSS feeds with. My only complaint is that most of my workflow is made possible by rocking a system driving Mac OS. While the situation has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years, a number of apps that I rely upon to get shit done aren't available as a desktop app outside Mac OS. Day One, a journaling app that I use to record my PTSD symptoms and travelogues is a big one. OmniFocus, a GTD project management app is another. Up until now, I've been getting by by using the iOS versions of these apps on my iPhone when I'm on the road with my Windows 10 machine. It's less than ideal. Happily, I think I can put a pin in this workaround, now. Today, I sorted out a more desirable workaround: Using Android apps in Bluestacks 4 inside of Windows 10.The last time I took Bluestacks for a spin was a few years back. It was intriguing, but still too buggy and slow to be of much use to me. Read the rest

Even though I’m at Burning Man, I’ve snuck out an extra scheduled podcast episode (MP3): Barlow’s Legacy is my contribution to the Duke Law and Tech Review’s special edition, THE PAST AND FUTURE OF THE INTERNET: Symposium for John Perry Barlow:“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”1And now we are come to the great techlash, long overdue and desperately needed. With the techlash comes the political contest to assemble the narrative of What Just Happened and How We Got Here, because “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”Barlow is a key figure in that narrative, and so defining his legacy is key to the project of seizing the future.As we contest over that legacy, I will here set out my view on it. It’s an insider’s view: I met Barlow first through his writing, and then as a teenager on The WELL, and then at a dinner in London with Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) attorney Cindy Cohn (now the executive director of EFF), and then I worked with him, on and off, for more than a decade, through my work with EFF. He lectured to my students at USC, and wrote the introduction to one of my essay collections, and hung out with me at Burning Man, and we spoke on so many bills together, and I wrote him into one of my novels as a character, an act that he blessed. Read the rest

Jim Browning, who runs the YouTube channel called Tech Support Scams, recorded this call from fraudsters who "are robo-calling thousands of people in the UK with alarming messages apparently from 'VISA.' These messages are designed to alarm potential victims and is a ruse to gain access to people's bank accounts via remote access software." Read the rest

The black ink in Sakura Pigma markers is very rich. I love drawing with them. This set of six, which sells for just , has nibs ranging from 0.20mm in diameter up to 0.50mm. Read the rest

So, there's a new theory about what happened to Amelia Earhart: She crash-landed on a Pacific island, and after death, her body was slowly eaten and pulled apart by coconut crabs.Lemme break this one down for you.Earhart, as you may remember, vanished in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the planet. No-one's ever found her plane or her body, but one intriguing clue emerged in 1940: On Nikumaroro, a small Pacific island, 13 human bones were found. An analysis at the time concluded they were male bones and thus couldn't be Earhart's, and the bones were subsequently lost. Then last year, a new analysis of the original bone report (previously) argued that 1940 analysis was wrong -- the bones were indeed consistent with a woman's body type, and thus it was entirely possible they were Earhart's.The question is, why were there only 13 bones found?The new hypothesis: They were all absconded with by the island's teeming hordes of coconut crabs.Coconut crabs, as National Geographic notes, are pretty ferocious. They climb trees, are "the same size as an explorer’s hiking boot," have a pinch as powerful as the bite of an animal, and devour not just coconuts but "birds, rodents, other crabs -- and carrion". (Their nickname is "robber crabs".)Is it possible the crabs devoured the human body and dragged the bones back to their burrows? Back in 1940 when the researcher originally found the site with the 13 bones, he noted that “coconut crabs had scattered many bones.” To test if this crab-theft were possible, a Earhart-hunting expedition that has been exploring the island performed a few experiments:In one, they brought a pig carcass to the island and filmed what happened to it. Read the rest

Can't wait to get a mouthful. Read the rest

Hey, Lama, hey! How about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know?! Read the rest

Are we done with capsule coffee makers yet? Sure, they're easy. But they are not so easy on the environment, and it's debatable whether they actually make a better cup. Luckily, there's never been a better time to switch back to the good old reliable drip method - especially when drip coffeemakers have quietly been improving over the years.Case in point: The Wilfa Precision Automatic Coffee Brewer.This sleek-looking unit won a 2013 Red Dot Design Award, but the real beauty is in the operation. It was designed in cooperation with barista artist and coffee guru Tim Wendelboe to be a failsafe conduit to consistently great coffee. All you do is follow the measurements for coffee and water on the water tank, press and watch. A no-drip lock on the filter prevents spillage, and the leftover water gets automatically removed after each brew. There's even a child safety lock for extra security.You can get the Wilfa Precision Automatic Coffee Brewer in silver aluminum or black plastic, both of which are 75% off the retail price. Read the rest

Before we had several tiny screens to entertain us on road trips, we were confined to but one: the window. Imagine being stuffed into the back seat of your mom’s gold Plymouth Duster, rolling through endless miles of dust, fields, and mountains, your eyes feeding your brain a never-ending litany of “tree….tree…cow….tree….rock…rock…tree…” and then, “…Paul BUNYAN??”Beginning in the early '60s, a brethren of Colossus began to fan out across the American countryside. These 14-to-25 foot tall fiberglass giants stood sentry outside tire shops and cafes, designed to act as a homing device for the family station wagon. Though they were known collectively as “Muffler Men,” they also took the form of Paul Bunyan, space men, pirates, cowboys, bikini babes, an Alfred E. Neuman look-a-like, even a chicken or two. A company called International Fiberglass in Venice Beach, CA produced about a thousand of these advertising giants during their heyday, transforming small roadside businesses into landmarks worthy of an ogle.The proliferation of freeways and uptight city zoning laws contributed to the decline of Muffler Men. All of the original molds were destroyed when International Fiberglass closed in 1976. Though a few can still be spotted in the wild, many now belong under the stewardship of private collectors.One such collector, the Bay Area’s Bell Plastics, is refuge to what is perhaps the world’s largest conglomeration of original muffler men. Once a year, they invite the public into their warehouse for a unique opportunity to wander amongst various advertising giants, including the rare Uniroyal Girl (a bikini-clad female “Muffler Man” who is said to be modeled after Jackie Kennedy), two of San Francisco’s beloved Doggie Diner heads, a slightly demented Santa, a pair of industrious car washing octopi, and other oversized company shills. Read the rest

Surprisingly, bikinis with a watermelon theme are a thing. I think IsneakSush1ToBed's hand-crocheted melonkini is the best of the crop, though. Finished the melonkini Read the rest

This is me when I take any kind of lesson.This is the Twitter content I’m here for...💪😍😇🥋😉🔥 pic.twitter.com/h5szw7FK5E— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) August 21, 2019 Image: Twitter Read the rest

Science journalist Bryan Walsh visited scientists from a variety of disciplines, devoured the scientific literature, and identified the catastrophic events most likely to kill us all. The list is a greatest hits of doom, from climate change and asteroid impact to bioengineered pathogens and supervolcanoes, which he wrote about this week in the New York Times. Failing those, we always have nuclear war to worry about. But fret not (too much, anyway), Walsh's new book End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World not only presents “the disasters that could end the human story in midsentence," but also describes how scientists are trying to alleviate the risks. From a review in Science News:To understand asteroids, he spends a night at Mount Lemmon Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., where astronomers are tracking space rocks that might intersect with Earth’s orbit. In theory, there are ways to deflect an incoming asteroid before it slams into Earth, such as trying to change the asteroid’s speed or approach. Walsh suggests that countries with space programs spend more on planetary defense and start practicing asteroid deflection. NASA and the European Space Agency have plans to do just that: In 2022, they intend to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid to try to alter its trajectory...He also discusses more theoretical solutions that scientists have thought up, like how to cool magma beneath a supervolcano to prevent an eruption. Drilling nearly 10 kilometers into the belly of a supervolcano to inject cold water may not really be practical and could cost about $3.5 billion. Read the rest

"Bang Your Head (It's a Celebration)" by the talented Bill McClintock, featuring Kool & The Gang's "Celebration," Quiet Riot's "Bang Your Head," and a little riffage from Free's "All Right Now."(via Laughing Squid) Read the rest

In 1959, Westinghouse imagined the TOTAL ELECTRIC HOME, a life filled with electrical appliances. The company was slowly devoured from the inside out by the media entities it bought, and now the electrical appliances are filled with our lives. Read the rest

The market-research firm Market Force Information surveyed 7,600 people to find out which burger chains the liked the most and least, ranking them by eight attributes, like "food quality", "speed service" and "staff friendliness".Over at Flowing Data, Nathan Yau took that info and charted it out in a superb dataviz:What's interesting here isn't just the burger info. What's fun is noticing how beautifully Yau's dataviz here takes eight tables of data -- hard to look at, hard to spot patterns in (you can see the original tables here) -- and transforms it into something that tells a story at a glance: The customer approval for chains like In-N-Out and Whatabuger are pretty well-rounded, while people seem to have only one big thing they like about chains like Steak 'N Shake (value for the money) or Jack in the Box (speed of service.) Yau's stuff is always good, but this one is a particularly nice object-lesson in the value of well-done data visualization. Read the rest