Behold the "One HTML Page Challenge" -- to build a one-page site using just the code in a single html file: "Practice your skills with no assistance from libraries, no separation of files, and no assistance of a modern framework."There are a just few entries so far, but they're pretty cool -- like this one that creates a slowly-growing ant colony in ASCII, or this racing game, or this quiz to see if you can identify the correct name of a color. I dig the constraints here -- all code in one file, no outside code libraries -- because it really honors "view source" culture. When I was interviewing developers for my latest book Coders, all the ones who grew up during the late 90s and early 00s web talked about how powerful view-source was in teaching themselves to code and make stuff online. But web development these days has grown byzantine in its complexity; if newbie is trying to learn, view-source is liable to just cough up a slurry of incomprehensible, minified javascript. It closes off the easy onramps that existed back in the earlier days of the web.So, projects like this one-page challenge are awesome, because the whole goal is to encourage the writing of web-site code that's more legible and tractable. If you view-source any of the entries, some might be a little complex for newbies, but if you spend enough time walking it through, you can figure out what's going on. Read the rest

Hey upstate NY state folks: My band The Delorean Sisters is in your neck of the woods, tonight and tomorrow!We're a country-Americana band -- our first album was a fun concept project, where we took 80s synthpop hits by acts like Depeche Mode and Eurythmics and transformed 'em into country/bluegrass, with three-part country harmonies and banjo. (This worked surprisingly well, since wow -- 80s synthpop has some of saddest damn lyrics I've ever heard. It's basically already hurtin' country music.) Our second album from this spring is an EP of originals', in the same vein of Americana. 'Tis all on Spotify, or Bandcamp if you're looking for glisteningly DRM-free MP3s or vinyl.Tonight, Fri. Aug. 23 we're in Rochester, playing at Abilene Bar & Lounge at 9 pm; tomorrow night, Sat. Aug. 24 at 8 pm we're in Buffalo, playing Sportsmen's. Come on out and hassle me! (In the photo, that's our three singers, Gary, Lizzie and Diane, with our bass player Danny -- I'm hiding behind Diane, on electric.) Read the rest

The last planned launch of a Delta IV single stick rocket was a success. The single-core Delta rocket will now be retired, as SpaceX is cheaper.The iconic Delta IV Heavy is still in use with its multiple boosters.Ars:A 2017 report by the US Government Accountability Office put the per-unit cost of a single-core Delta launch at $164 million. This is nearly three times the price of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which can not only be re-used but has comparable or better performance.To compete more effectively in this new landscape, United Launch Alliance is phasing out its use of heritage Delta and Atlas rockets in favor of a new Vulcan-Centaur rocket. In dropping the Delta IV Medium, the company is eschewing Aerojet Rocketdyne's costly RS-68A main engine in favor of the less-expensive BE-4 engine under development by the new space company Blue Origin. Similarly, it is seeking to cut costs on Vulcan in other ways, while maintaining its performance.This is not the last Delta rocket to fly, however. The US Air Force will continue to support the Delta IV Heavy program—which consists of three cores and is the second most powerful rocket in existence after the Falcon Heavy—until other heavy-lift alternatives emerge. The final flight for that vehicle is likely to come in 2024, when it lofts a heavy spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.Image via Wikipedia Read the rest

Remember the guy who rigged up his first-gen Roku to an old black-and-white TV to watch The Twilight Zone? Well, that "guy" is my artist pal Josh Ellingson and he's taking his viral moment to the next level. He's created glow-in-the-dark enamel pins of his Roku-enabled 1975 General Electric model 12XB9104V TV. That's cool on its own but he's also made a pack of stick-on screen decals that make it look like a vintage show or movie is playing. The pin shown in the photo above depicts the Moon landing but there are others, like the Nosferatu below. He's made the pins available on Indiegogo for $10 each, or two for $18, which includes the sticker pack. As of this writing, the campaign is 931% funded.(RED) Read the rest

Ryan Alden, a 39 year-old professional sack of filth/security technician, was charged with 28 felonies after getting caught by the cops doing some incredibly invasive, heinous shit.From Gizmodo:Nichols Hills Police Chief Steven Cox told News9 that one of the homeowners had called a heat and air company to come and take a look at a climate control issue in their home. Cameras were then found zip-tied to air vents in the teen daughter’s bedroom, bathroom, and closet, according to court documents. As the home was under renovation, several different crews had been in and out of the residence and Alden became a suspect.After an investigation into Alden’s personal devices, it was discovered that there were victims outside of just the individuals in the homes he had serviced, and an officer with the Edmond Police Department said the recordings could fill 12 spindles of compact discs, News 9 reported. Police said that there was child pornography on five of his computers and two of his phones.But it doesn't stop there. According to the Associated Press, the investigation into Alden's crimes uncovered that he'd also installed cameras in public bathrooms, clothing store change rooms, schools and gyms. The investigation, which started in 2018 after one of the clients serviced by Alden's company uncovered the cameras secreted away on their property. Upon raiding his Alden's home, the police discovered that he had what was described as "tens of thousands of files" in his possession. Alden was found guilty of all 28 felonies and, for his crimes, was committed to life in prison, plus 150 years. Read the rest

Jesselyn Cook noticed that a site called NewsBuzzr had ripped off one of her stories at Huffington Post. It turned out to be some kind of awful plagiarism bot that uses a thesaurus to avoid detection as duplicate content, resulting in hilariously mangled prose. Cook calls it "truly excellent “Florida Male” content" and I hope that term sticks.The intro to my story, which describes a woman feeling an “urgent tap” on her shoulder, had been changed to say that she felt a “pressing faucet” instead. The term “sex videos” had become “intercourse movies,” and the quote “I was definitely shocked” had morphed into this nonsense: “I used to be indisputably surprised.” The entire piece had been altered, seemingly word-by-word, rendering some sentences far less coherent than others.Humor aside, the scale of the scam is such that it makes real money, which it is ultimately depriving its victims of. There was a point about a decade ago where the number of sites scraping Boing Boing became uncountable, but sadly none of them turned our hard-driving coverage into magnetic storage delineations.The screengrab above is from the NewsBuzzr-world's own science educator, "Invoice Nye the Science Man." Google has already banned NewsBuzzr from AdSense. Read the rest

If there's one thing that stayed consistent through the last decade or so of tech industry turmoil, it's the love affair between techies and Linux. There's just a ton you can do with the OS, and its open-source format means you can customize your rig from the ground up.Apparently not content with that level of devotion, the good folks at VoCore have gone and made a tiny Linux computer that is impossibly cute, on top of its multiple applications.The VoCore2 Mini Linux Computer packs a wireless router and 16M of onboard storage into a cube about the size of a coin. Just hook it up to any display monitor through a standard USB2.0 port, and you're ready to put it to work. With 128MB of DDR2 memory and an MT7628AN MIPS processor, it's equally useful as a streaming station, VPN gateway, data storage - you name it.The standard VoCore2 package comes with an Ultimate Dock that takes MicroSD cards for $42.99 - a full 14% off the list price. For those who want to get cracking right out of the box, there's a VoCore2 Mini Linux Computer Bundle for $69 (a 13% discount), including an 800 X 480 screen just perfect for the tiny powerhouse. Read the rest

Children's Fairyland, the mid-century theme park for little kids in Oakland, California, posted this video of their resident donkeys reacting to classical music that is too cute not to share. Fairyland:Donkeys get a kick out of classical music! We were testing out our PA system and Gideon and Chiquita got into it. As Brett, our staff mechanic, notes, "It's like a real-life Fantasia!"When they aren't digging classical music (or doing whatever donkeys do), they can be found grazing on grass in the big field when the park is closed: Previously on BB: Children's Fairyland, the mid-century storybook theme park that inspired Walt Disney and where Frank Oz got his start Read the rest

Circuitbeard created this adorable and pixel-perfect miniature OutRun cabinet to sit atop their bar, complete with not-a-Ferrari dashboard and original cabinet decal art. Check out Picade for a primer on how the guts work (and to buy similar guts). Read the rest

My "bee"-obsessed young son will not be delighted to see the addition of bees to Minecraft, as he is still too young to have played Minecraft or, indeed, to have become cognizant of the difference between bees and other winged insects.We’re buzzing with excitement!• Bees are cute, fuzzy, neutral mobs• Don’t hurt them, they don’t want to hurt you• If a bee does sting you, it will leave its stinger in you and eventually die, dropping nothing :(• Bees love pretty flowers and spend their lives gathering pollen from them• After gathering pollen, bees fly back to their home nest• Bees help you by growing crops while carrying pollen back to the nest• Bees can be bred using flowers• Bees like sharing the location of their favorite flowers with other bees• If a bee can't find nectar, after a while it will return home for a bit• If a bee doesn’t have a home nest, it will wander around until it finds one it can use• Bees don’t like the rain and they sleep at night. They will go back to the nest in these casesIn keeping with Minecraft's rougueish leanings, there's an entire ecology of honey production to go with it. Can't wait! Read the rest

There's an unlimited wealth of useless USB gadgetry to be acquired, obviously, but something about the USB half-golfball with one USB port [Amazon] posted to Twitter by @foone (whose epic threads about subjects such as "possibly cursed USB adapters" are easily the best thing on Twitter right now) captures the very essence of the genre. I immediately bought one, as it's the perfect gift for an older boomer-age male relative who has never in their life played golf.Tell me about your conspicuously pointless, low-effort USB gifts in the comments! No prizes for Cuecats. Read the rest

Mental health problems are a pain in the ass. One of the more obnoxious coping mechanisms I used to use to deal with depression and anxiety was shopping.Having nightmares again? Stressed out? But something new! You earned it, pal! Sometimes, the brief rush of endorphins I'd snag from spending a little dough was enough to allow me to slide through another day without addressing any of the problems I was suffering from. On other days, I'd buy something I knew damn well that I didn't need and feel almost instantly guilty. I'd want to return it, but the shame and embarrassment of walking back into a store and having to explain myself felt like too much to tolerate. I'd find ways around having to return stuff by buying non-returnable items, like digital downloads. Back when I was first confronting my addiction to this kind of rampant consumerism, I figured out that I had spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 on iTunes downloads over a five-year period. That's fucked up, by anyone's standard.I thought that starting into a career as a tech journalist would help to cure me of my desire to buy stuff all of the time: if I get to play with all the latest gear for free, there's no need to invest any cash in it, right? Nah. I hoped that my exposure to new and fabulous things would allow me to tire of them after spending some time with them. Instead, I ended up having a better idea of what I wanted to buy and, as I already knew what a given product could do, was able to talk myself into it, guilt-free. Read the rest

The sound this tiny little 4-week-old “pound puppy” makes when he's smacking his toof-less gums around that soaked kibble? It gives me all the squees in the world. Look at that little dude just go.That chubby little belly!Those crusty li'l paws!Unmute.Little Mowgli is 4 weeks old, can smack on some soaked kibble, and smiles in his sleep. Read the rest

What just happened? asks the Los Angeles Times, concerning the sale of "the Mountain", a large undeveloped plot of land overlooking Los Angeles that was listed for $1bn but nabbed at auction for only $100k, despite the seller needing to cover a $200m loan.The auction was over almost as soon as it began. The attorney overseeing the sale, David Bark of First American Title, asked if anyone was interested in being prequalified to bid. No one stepped forward, presumably because a buyer would be on the hook for the outstanding debt.He then announced that the Hughes estate, which forced the auction, had placed a $100,000 credit bid on the property, which means the money comes from the debt they’re owed instead of cash.The tldr: the auction amounts to a legal maneuver that passes the property to the seller's original lender, owed the $200m, after having having already turned down offers in the $150m+ range. Read the rest

“Finally working again at 70 years, happily playing Casablanca.” 📺 Wow. Seriously impressed by @hrf3420's 1949 Zenith 28T962R restoration project shared on IMGUR.Look at the beast in its original form! “Original pic of TV, not even out of the car yet.”And get a load of its guts!Do check out the entire gallery.Have you ever attempted a vintage and/or antique technology restoration project like this? Tell me about it in the BBS thread.1949 Zenith 28T962R Restoration Read the rest

From Etudes.ru (Google translation):More than 40 years ago in 1968 ... A team led by Nikolai Nikolaevich Konstantinov creates a mathematical model of the motion of the animal (cat). The BESM-4 machine, executing a written program for solving ordinary (in the mathematical sense of the word) differential equations, draws a cartoon "Kitty" containing even by modern standards an amazing animation of cat movements created by a computer.(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

Shipping on my favorite notebooks went from 30 days to overnight.Last time I ordered a Maruman notebook it took a month for it to arrive. I love the Mnemosyne paper for writing upon with fountain pens and my favorite inks. I have been writing a lot lately, letters to friends as well as the mundane shit that passes thru my head. As my last notebook filled up I started to freak out a bit.I did not, however, get off my ass and just order a new notebook.I waited until I was surely doomed. Then I checked online and delivery times were down to 1 day. I ordered 2 notebooks. I like the "182" which is about 5"x8", spiral bound with perforated and SQUARE RULED pages.I rarely tear pages out, but perforation is nice when you need it.Ink doesn't feather. Pens both fine and medium glide over the surface. The white is good for me to spend lots of time staring at a blank page thinking about whatever terror I am trying to get out of my head and onto a page.There are many size and rule options.My go-to pen is a Parker Duofold International with a medium nib, and my favorite daily-use ink is Noodler's Heart of Darkness.Maruman 1 Hardcover Executive Notebook (N182A) via Amazon Read the rest

Ramsey Lewis, Red Holt and Eldee Young recorded such amazing music. Read the rest

Sean Spicer, a former dishonest mouthpiece of the Trump Administration, will be joining the cast of a game show where he'll be paid to dance instead of lie in front millions.Politico:Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer will compete in the upcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC.The network announced the latest celebrity lineup for the popular reality television dance show Wednesday morning on “Good Morning America.”“Straight from the briefing room, it’s Sean Spicer!” proclaimed ABC News chief meteorologist Ginger Zee during a glitzy segment introducing the contestants. Read the rest

somebody needsto throw a god damn bootat Mr. Mistoffeleesillusionsscrew this jellical distractionthis is not quiet, smallnor should one anthropomorphizea pissant catprancing about a stage you don't know what theater isI am telling the director, who is not therefuck your memories!there is no fire, it is a cop out, a fakesomething to cry in a theater that needs emptyingas they escort me to the doorthreatening legal actionI go to Charlie's and order a pint of ryeit tastes good Read the rest

This is my last day at my desk until Labor Day: tomorrow, we're driving to Burning Man to get our annual dirtrave fix! If you're heading to the playa, here's three places and times you can find me:1. The Liminal Labs Couch Chat, Weds, 12 noon, at Camp Liminal Labs (8:15 and Center Camp). Liminal Labs is my camp (celebrating its 21st year!), and every year, we put on a public lecture. This year, I'm hosting Andrew "bunnie" Huang (previously) the legendary hardware hacker and entrepreneur whom EFF is representing in a lawsuit to overturn part of the DMCA to make it legal to bypass DRM. Seating is always limited at these things (our living room is big, but it's not that big!) so come by early!2. Center Camp Speaker Series, Weds, 3PM, at Center Camp Cafe. I'm doing a solo talk on the Center Camp stage again, about Big Tech, competition, and corruption.3. Palenque Norte at Camp Soft Landings, Fri, 1PM, 8:30 and E. I'll be talking about "Surveillance Capitalism" and our "epistemological crisis," and how we can choose to fix Big Tech, or the internet, but not both.I hope you have an amazing burn -- we always do! This year I'm taking a break from working in the cafe pulling shots in favor of my first-ever Greeter shift, which I'm really looking forward to.While we're on the subject, there's still time to sign up for the Liminal Labs Assassination Game! Read the rest

When someone punches you so hard your brain flies out the orifices of your face, how exactly does that sound? Foley artists know how that sounds, and they use a variety of clever techniqes to generate the wet, crunchy, nasty noises required to gross out and entertain players. If you twist a bell pepper in just the right way, it sounds like someone’s chest cavity being ripped open. A lot of non-gamers may not be aware that Mortal Kombat is still being produced. In the early 90s, the game was at the bleeding edge of realistic digitized violence, and the franchise was so controversial that Congress held hearings about it. Believe it or not, the series has only gotten more violent since then.MK always had interesting sound design, right back to the original arcade game from 1992. Here's the sound test, reeling off all the samples like a string of low-fidelity sausages: Read the rest

Skeleton Lake is so named for the hundreds of skeletons found there, a spooky tableux high in a Himalayan pass. It was believed that the 500 or so dead were killed by a freak hailstorm, but a new study reportedly rebunks that hypothesis. It's more mysterious than ever.In a new study published today in Nature Communications, an international team of more than two dozen archaeologists, geneticists, and other specialists dated and analyzed the DNA from the bones of 37 individuals found at Roopkund. They were able to suss out new details about these people, but if anything, their findings make the story of this place even more complex. The team determined that the majority of the deceased indeed died 1,000 or so years ago, but not simultaneously. And a few died much more recently, likely in the early 1800s. Stranger still, the skeletons’ genetic makeup is more typical of Mediterranean heritage than South Asian.“It may be even more of a mystery than before,” says David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard and one of the senior authors of the new paper. “It was unbelievable, because the type of ancestry we find in about a third of the individuals is so unusual for this part of the world.” Read the rest

Everyone these days seems to have one of those fancy programmable pressure cookers known as the Instant Pot (IP). Now I've learned that people are decorating their IP's stainless steel exterior with decorating decals and wraps. In fact, over on Etsy, there are whole shops dedicated to beautifying your IP. One shop, in particular, has a magnetic, easily-removable wrap that will make your IP look like R2-D2. If this is your jam, head over to InstantWraps to get one. They offer them in a variety of IP sizes with prices starting at $11.(Technabob) Read the rest

Swoon...!Look what SHAG whipped up (that's a reference to the Dole Whip, btw) for Disneyland: Enchanted Tiki Room mouse ears. Since early July, Disney has been releasing a series of Mickey Mouse ear hats and Minnie Mouse ear headbands designed by notable celebrities, designers, and artists. Photos of the other designs and their release dates can be found on the Disney Parks Blog.He writes:I’ll be signing these and other exclusive Disney products at D23 on Saturday, August 24 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm at Talent Central in the Anaheim Convention Center. These limited edition Enchanted Tiki Room Mouse Ears are part of Disney’s Designer Collection, featuring ear hats by Betsey Johnson, Vera Wang, Heidi Klum and other celebrity artists and designers. Mine are debuting at D23 and will be available at Disneyland and Disney World on August 28. Skip through the images to see the back of the ears: View this post on Instagram I’ll be signing these and other exclusive Disney products at D23 on Saturday, August 24 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm at Talent Central in the Anaheim Convention Center. These limited edition Enchanted Tiki Room Mouse Ears are part of Disney’s Designer Collection, featuring ear hats by Betsey Johnson, Vera Wang, Heidi Klum and other celebrity artists and designers. Mine are debuting at D23 and will be available at Disneyland and Disney World on August 28. @disneyd23 #enchantedtikiears #enchantedtikiroomears #enchantedtikiroom #waltdisneysenchantedtikiroomA post shared by Josh Agle (@theartistshag) on Aug 20, 2019 at 5:22pm PDTAs you're probably aware, this is just one of the many groovy products he's designed for them over the years. Read the rest

The field of data analytics is growing as fast as the internet itself. Self-driving cars, airline pricing, and huge marketing campaigns are all driven by the insights that data scientists can distill out of vast sums of information. Even with the help of powerful software like Python, it's a highly skilled position.But those skills are attainable to mere mortals, and the Complete Data Science Certification Training Bundle is one good way to dive in.In 85 hours of exercises and lectures, the course covers the software every data scientists needs: Languages like R and Python, software like Hadoop and Excel. But it's more than just rote training in the interface. You'll get a birds-eye view of the linear and logistic regression, forecasting and the other concepts underlying data analytics. By the time you're done, you'll have all the knowledge you need to tackle any database - and any job.The Complete Data Science Certification Training Bundle is now available for $49, more than 90% off the original price. Read the rest

This is the least expensive Arduino-clone starter kit I've seen. It's just on Amazon, and comes with an Arduino Uno clone, a solderless breadboard, resistors, LEDs, jumper wires, pushbuttons, and a lot more.If you need to learn how to use an Arduino, may I recommend my Skillshare video class? If you sign up here you can get 3 months of Skillshare videos for 99 cents. Skillshare has thousands of great videos to teach you about programming, art, animation and more. I've been a happy paying subscriber for years. Read the rest

“The cameras are already transforming modern day policing in Uganda, with facial recognition and artificial intelligence as part of policing and security.” — Ugandan Police.

Spotify may not be literally damaging our brains, but he's not entirely wrong, either.

Manhattan in the early nineties, captured on what must have at the time been an unusually high-def camera.The uploader of this incredible archival B-roll footage said to be of New York in 1993 says they captured it off of “a D-Theater HD DVHS Demo Tape by techmoan.com.It's pretty incredible. I miss this NYC. Read the rest

This cosplay project of V, from 'Cyberpunk 2077' is absolutely incredible, and was shared in two parts online by its creator, @aelirenn. The work in progress is here, and the finished result is here.Cyberpunk 2077 jacket WIPMy V from Cyberpunk 2077 Read the rest

Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music traces the history of electronic music from the early 1900s to the present through a timeline/map that has links to playlists to different subgenres. Read the rest

It sucks to be in a motorcycle accident, as Instagram influencer tifforelie was. She documented the accident by posting a series of professionally-shot photos of her lying in the road, one of which prominently displayed a bottle of Smartwater. The photos have since been deleted, but can be found here on Buzzfeed.Buzzfeed editor Tanya Chen tweeted that tifforelie "denied to me that the Smartwater featured in one of the professional photos is a brand endorsement" and that "Smartwater confirmed to me they 'do not have a paid relationship with Tiffany.'" That settles it!An Influencer Is Defending Her Decision To Post A Photoshoot Of Her Motorcycle Accident On Instagramshe also denied to me that the Smartwater featured in one of the professional photos is a brand endorsement https://t.co/pXe5HDcCF3 pic.twitter.com/r7tuXUNAS1— Tanya Chen (@Tanya_Chen) August 19, 2019 Read the rest

Yes, we're back to the 'disloyal Jews' thing. Because he's a Nazi.

My friend and former Make magazine colleague Sean Michael Ragan is making videos for my Cool Tools YouTube channel. (Subscribe to the channel here!) In his latest video, Sean reviews something called Solder Seals, which allow you to solder wires together without using a soldering iron. Read the rest

Furry fans sometimes use cooling vests to make hot fursuits comfortable to wear. Soldiers also have need for such garments. And now a Dutch fursuit maker has improved the state of the art. Tired of overheating in his own fursuit, Pepeyn Langedijk adapted a military cooling vest to his own ends to create the EZ Cooldown vest. Langedijk, a resident of the Netherlands, goes by “EZ Wolf” in lupine costume and named his invention after his character.Langedijk and his husband Tom live in Amsterdam and run the EZ Cooldown business together full-time. They met during Elfia, a medieval fantasy reenactment fair, and their hobbies led them to test their product on themselves. The team told The Daily Beast that they sold more than a thousand vests in 2018, which each retail for $215, packs included. Roughly 80 percent of the company’s sales are to U.S. customers.The pair don’t have official military contracts, but they told The Daily Beast that a small group of U.S. Navy troops in Japan reached out to EZ Cooldown three years ago to ask if the company could ship to military bases. The service members ended up buying 10 vests, then their friends bought 20, then 30, Langedijk said. He still doesn’t know how they heard of his product. Read the rest

Heirs' property is a relic of post-Reconstruction law, which allows white developers to exploit the diffuse ownership of Black family homes to steal them and kick out the people who live there.Following on an in-depth Propublica investigation into heirs' property title-thefts, Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has included heirs' property reform in her ambitious agriculture plan.In her plan, Warren pledged to end policies that have perpetuated this discrimination and to help these families of color preserve their ownership, build wealth and gain access to sustainable livelihoods. Specifically, she promised to fully fund a relending program laid out in the 2018 Farm Bill, which would provide loans to heirs’ property owners to clear their titles and consolidate ownership. She announced that she would prioritize funding lending organizations in states that have enacted the Uniform Partition of Heirs’ Property Act, legislation that expands heirs’ rights to their property.Warren said she plans to further address the wider needs of heirs’ property owners, who struggle to qualify for U.S. Department of Agriculture loans, disaster relief and housing assistance when they lack a clear title. Her plan would allow heirs’ property owners who want to access farm loans to present alternative documentation to the USDA. In addition, those in need of other forms of federal assistance could use such documentation to access loans through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.Elizabeth Warren Announces Plans to Help Heirs’ Property Owners [Lizzie Presser/Propublica] Read the rest

One of the major contributors to greenhouse gases is the methane that cows belch up as they break down cellulose, but five years ago, research from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found that adding small amounts of a pink seaweed called Asparagopsis to cows' diets eliminated the gut microbes responsible for methane production and "completely knocks out" cows' methane emissions.Asparagopsis grows on the coast of Australia, and cows actually seek it out and eat it without encouragement. Replacing 2% of cows' feed with Asparagopsis is sufficient to end their methane production.Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast are trying to ramp up Asparagopsis production to scale to meet a potential global market for it.The USC team is working at the Bribie Island Research Centre in Moreton Bay to learn more about how to grow the seaweed species, with the goal of informing a scale-up of production that could supplement cow feed on a national—and even global scale.“This seaweed has caused a lot of global interest and people around the world are working to make sure the cows are healthy, the beef and the milk are good quality,” Dr. Paul said.“That’s all happening right now. But the one missing step, the big thing that is going to make sure this works at a global scale, is to make sure we can produce the seaweed sustainably.Burp-free cow feed drives seaweed science at USC [University of the Sunshine Coast](via Kottke) Read the rest

Tim Qian, a "full stack developer and open source activist," has published chart.xkcd, a free/open tool that lets you create interactive, "hand-drawn" charts in the style of XKCD comics. It's pretty fabulous! (via Four Short Links) const svg = document.querySelector('.line-chart') new chartXkcd.Line(svg, { title: 'Monthly income of an indie developer', xLabel: 'Month', yLabel: '$ Dollors', data: { labels:['1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6','7', '8', '9', '10'], datasets: [{ label: 'Plan', data: [30, 70, 200, 300, 500 ,800, 1500, 2900, 5000, 8000], }, { label: 'Reality', data: [0, 1, 30, 70, 80, 100, 50, 80, 40, 150], }] }, }); Read the rest

On Slate Star Codex (previously), Scott Alexander breaks down Invisible Designers: Brain Evolution Through the Lens of Parasite Manipulation, Marco Del Giudice's Quarterly Review of Biology paper that examines the measures that parasites take to influence their hosts' behaviors, and the countermeasures that hosts evolve to combat them.Diligent readers will know that parasites manage some incredible feats of behavior modification (one of Scott Westerfeld's best novels looks at vampirism as a form of parasitic behavior modification and it's just great). It's a truism that the predator carves the prey and the prey carve the predator. Del Giudice's investigations into parasite tactics and countermeasures lead him to hypothesize that perhaps human variation is driven by responses to parasites' attempts at behavior modification (for example, humans have a lot of variability in our major histocompatibility complex genes, which mean that our immune systems can readily distinguish between our cells and invasive ones). It's a super-interesting paper, and Alexander's breakdown is a great path into it.Sixth, you use antiparasitic drugs as neurotransmitters. This is the kind of murderous-yet-clever solution I expect of evolution, and it does not disappoint. Several neurotransmitters, including neuropeptide Y, neurokinin A, and substance P are pretty good antimicrobials. The assumption has always been that the body kills two birds with one stone, getting its signaling done and also having some antimicrobials around to take out stray bacteria. But Del Giudice proposes that this is to prevent parasites from hijacking the signal; any parasite that tried to produce or secrete an antiparasitic drug would die in the process. Read the rest

The cat-loving Guinness world record holder and internet personality CatManToo shared this video a couple years ago, but since it's making the viral rounds uncredited, I wanted to share the original. Robert, Didga and Boomer have an online store and a Patreon, if you want to support this cuteness. They're on Instagram and YouTube.Robert Dollwet has 35 years experience as a professional animal trainer/behaviorist, and runs the CATMANTOO channels. He claims his cat Didga is the most talented cat in the world, and I'm inclined to believe them. Here are some more sweet videos from Robert and Didga and the other cats. View this post on Instagram 🛹🐈🤷‍♂️🐈🛹 😊 You can also weigh in below 🤔😁 @catmantoo Cat training tutorials on YouTube and my Patreon page, link in Profile. 🐾 #nocgi . . . . #cats #weeklyfluff #instagram @instagram #video #meow @9gag #9gagA post shared by CATMANTOO (@catmantoo) on Jun 1, 2019 at 4:31am PDT View this post on Instagram Unlimited shelf life 😬@catmantoo #Bindi #adoptdontshop #weeklyfluff #melbourne #catloversshowA post shared by CATMANTOO (@catmantoo) on Aug 6, 2019 at 8:46pm PDT View this post on Instagram Bindi and Jeb pitch in to help. 🤣 @catmantoo #weeklyfluff @instagram #instagram #cats_of_instagram #meowed #videoA post shared by CATMANTOO (@catmantoo) on Jul 15, 2019 at 5:31pm PDT View this post on Instagram Cat on the hat. W/Boomer & Bindi. @catmanto Learn to teach your cat, tutorials on Youtube and many more on Patreon (Link in Profile) #weeklyfluff #video #cattricks #instagram #patreon #tutorials #melbourneA post shared by CATMANTOO (@catmantoo) on Jul 27, 2019 at 4:03am PDT Read the rest

After the EU Copyright Directive passed with a slim majority that only carried because some MEPs got confused and pressed the wrong button, the government of Poland filed a legal challenge with the European Court of Justice, arguing that the Directive -- and its rule requiring that all online discourse be filtered by black-box algorithms that will block anything that might be infringing -- violated both Polish and European law.Now, the first official documents from that court challenge have been made public for the first time. As expected, the challenge asks the court to rule on whether filters are "proportional and necessary" to preventing copyright filters. Poland has asked the court, at a minimum, to strike parts b) and c) of Article 17 (originally Article 13). These are the rules that require online providers to make "best efforts to ensure the unavailability" of works that someone, somewhere has claimed as their copyrighted work; and to make "best efforts to prevent their future uploads."Poland's anticipated that the court may find that removing these parts will prove difficult, and so it's proposed that, as an alternative, the court could just strike down all of Article 17. The Republic of Poland claims specifically that the imposition on online content-sharing service providers of the obligation to make best efforts to ensure the unavailability of specific works and other subject matter for which the rightholders have provided the service providers with the relevant and necessary information (point (b) of Article 17(4) of [EU Copyright] Directive 2019/790) and the imposition on online content-sharing service providers of the obligation to make best efforts to prevent the future uploads of protected works or other subject-matter for which the rightsholders have lodged a sufficiently substantiated notice (point (c), in fine, of Article 17(4) of Directive 2019/790) make it necessary for the service providers -- in order to avoid liability -- to carry out prior automatic verification (filtering) of content uploaded online by users, and therefore make it necessary to introduce preventive control mechanisms. Read the rest

In Hackettstown, New Jersey, a McDonald's drive-through customer reportedly paid with a "smoldering" dollar bill that burned the employee's hand. From NJ.com:After taking the money, the employee realized the dollar was still smoldering and she was burned on the palm of her left hand, police said. The employee refused medical treatment.Police are investigating the incident and said no further information would be released at this time.Obviously the customer has money to burn. Read the rest

As tech began to concentrate, two dominant strategies emerged: Google's (instrument the whole internet for surveillance, which means that you don't have to lock people in in order to spy on them) and Apple's (lock everyone into a walled garden, and extract revenue by refusing to let them out again).But the along came Facebook, whose strategy is lock everyone in and spy on them.Now that Facebook has blazed that trail, everyone else is slowly turning into Facebook. Apple is using its walled garden to turn into a surveillance company and Google is likewise turning into a walled garden.Google's original pitch to the rest of the web was, "We deliver traffic: people search here for answers, and we send them back to you to get them." But over time, and for a variety of reasons (not all of them bad, see e.g., "Not sending people to sites that have malvertising"), the company has been trying to serve the answer to your question with no further clicking required.Now, that strategy has hit a tipping point. According to analytics from Jumpstream, the majority of Google searches no longer end with a click. On Sparktoro, Rand Fishkin calls this "a milestone in Google’s evolution from search engine to walled-garden."Much of Fishkin's post is about how Google's reps refused to give a clear answer to Congress when questioned on this subject (which is true), but the real lesson here is that firms do not practice forbearance: once a company dominates its market, whatever odious measures it took off the table to attain its dominance are reconsidered. Read the rest

In 1994, Jeff Schwartz and Dan Wong fired up the San Francisco FogCam. For 25 years, it kept a constant vigil on the San Francisco State University campus, making the FogCam the longest operating webcam in history. (The first webcam, the Trojan Room coffee pot cam, went online in 1991 and shut down in 2001.) At the end of the month, Schwartz and Wong will turn off the FogCam. From SF Gate:"Our webcam is a throwback to the early days of the Internet when anyone could do anything," Schwartz said.The webcam will be switched off on August 30, but Schwartz says the website itself will be kept up "for sake of posterity." Read the rest

After Deadspin's Laura Wagner published an incredible, brave, detailed look at how her new private equity masters -- Jim Spanfeller/Great Hill Partners -- were running Gawker now that they'd acquired it from Univision, the company (now called "G/O Media") struck back.Wagner's piece painted a picture of a dysfunctional workplace where cronyism and buck-passing were the order of the day, where women who'd earned promotions were leapfrogged by bros who came in with the new boss and failed spectacularly to do their jobs, then blamed the hard working people they'd stepped over for their failures.In the wake of Wagner's piece, Deadspin's editor in chief, Megan Greenwell, resigned over the way that her bosses had handled the event, saying that she'd been "repeatedly undermined, lied to, and gaslit in my job."The same week that Greenwell resigned, the company circulated a draft staff handbook that included the right to search employees' "personal vehicles, parcels, purses, handbags, backpacks, briefcases, lunch boxes" and to review employee emails, tweets, and communications.The same rule prohibits the use of encrypted email systems that might frustrate employers' ability to snoop on journalists. As Mike Masnick points out, this is bonkers: telling top-notch journalists who deal with confidential sources who face retaliation and even physical violence for going public that they're not allowed to use cryptography isn't just stupid, it's malpractice. It could literally get someone killed.Indeed, in light of the monumental stupidity and pig-ignorance behind this policy, the company's ridiculous new dress code looks positively reasonable: " Employees must arrive between 9:30 a.m. Read the rest

A little over a year ago I reviewed Obenauf's. I just ordered another jar.Baking in leather as the sun pounds down on you is kinda the motorcyclist thing. My jacket is a treasured article of clothing that, like Gregory House once observed "It keeps me warm and cool. How does it know?" Abusing that jacket is of par for course.Good leather care stuff makes a jacket last and look wonderful!Obenauf's is also magic on my boots. The boots are expensive, like the jacket, and really take a beating. Shifting a 43-year-old BMW that was famously 'chunk-y' when new takes some force. Sliding my leather-clad feet underneath the horizontally opposed cylinders leaves a lot of marks. Obenauf's doesn't make them look new, it makes them look cared for and it deeps the damage to a minimum. I guess the boots slip more than gouge on all those fins when oiled and waxed up.My favorite thing about Obenaufs is the speed at which the leather accepts it. Boots are wearable 15-30 minutes later, tho I'd give them an hour or two. Jackets need only sit overnight and they cease to leave a sticky, greasy mark wherever I lean. My old leather treatment needed a week or I felt like Squiggy.Obenauf's Heavy Duty LP Leather Conditioner Natural Oil Beeswax Formula via Amazon Read the rest

"The sponsors said it was going to be three days of peace and music. It was that alright, and much more." Read the rest

NASA announced today that the agency is moving ahead with a planned mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. In this next phase, engineers will complete the final design, construction, and testing of the Europa Clipper spacecraft for a launch as soon as 2023. Why the icy moon Europa? From NASA:NASA's Europa Clipper mission will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter's moon Europa to see whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life. The mission will carry a highly capable, radiation-tolerant spacecraft that will perform repeated close flybys of the icy moon from a long, looping orbit around Jupiter.The payload of selected science instruments includes cameras and spectrometers to produce high-resolution images of Europa's surface and determine its composition. An ice penetrating radar will determine the thickness of the moon's icy shell and search for subsurface lakes similar to those beneath Antarctica. The mission also will carry a magnetometer to measure strength and direction of the moon's magnetic field, which will allow scientists to determine the depth and salinity of its ocean."This is a giant step in our search for oases that could support life in our own celestial backyard," says Europa program scientist Curt Niebur.That's all well and good, assuming we attempt no landing there.image: NASA/JPL-Caltech Read the rest