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One imagines the late Queen frontman might have enjoyed this very much.“I crocheted Freddie Mercury!,” says the very eager and talented crafter birdsaremybuddies on IMGUR.I usually crochet animals. Freddy was my first attempt at a person. Here's the full view of their crafty creation:They got this delightful pattern from Mojo Moji design, and with it you can crochet the iconic and legendary former singer of Queen yourself.Moji Moji offers the pattern for free, but the considerate thing to do is donate something if you can, because this wonderful crafting project supports the Mercury Phoenix Trust:The Mercury Phoenix Trust was founded by Brian May, Roger Taylor and their manager Jim Beach in memory of rock band Queen’s iconic lead singer Freddie Mercury who sadly died in 1991 from AIDS related pneumonia. In the last 21 years the Trust has given away over 15 million dollars in his name and funded over 700 projects in the global battle against HIV/AIDS.As a tribute to the legendary Freddie I’ve created his likeness in amigurumi, capturing his essential awesomeness in yarn!Here's the full crocheting process from birdsaremybuddies on IMGUR.I crocheted Freddy Mercury Read the rest

You need this.A rare and beautiful full spectrum rainbow documented at Yosemite Falls. This gorgeous location is situated 2,400 feet (730 meters) above sea level at Yosemite National Park in California. This amazing Instagram video was shot by Greg Harlow of GREG HARLOW MEDIA, Salt Lake City, UT.Nature is pretty awesome. So is the science behind the human perception of color and light.The occasion of a full spectrum rainbow at this site is pretty rare, and may not have been captured in video before.Here's the full video. View this post on Instagram This phenomenon lasted over 8 minutes. This is how the 1400’ Yosemite Falls rainbow looked from Glacier Point in real time. This certainly was not a planned event. I spent over 3 months total in Yosemite last year and just got lucky. For those asking...this happened November 1st, at 9:15 AM. #yosemite #natgeoA post shared by GREG HARLOW MEDIA (@gregharlowmedia) on Mar 27, 2019 at 7:12am PDT Read the rest

Bite my shiny metal deathstar.

Now I have a great excuse to rewatch Midsommar, Ari Aster's disturbing and beautifully executed horror movie about a group of American grad students who visit a creepy Swedish nature cult. After I saw it I tweeted that it was the best Wicker Man remake I've ever seen, and I meant it as a compliment.From the iTunes Store:Your purchase of Midsommar comes with Ari Aster’s extended and unrated director’s cut, exclusive to Apple TV. Plus go behind the scenes with the cast and crew of Midsommar in an exclusive featurette, and watch the creation of Hälsingland in time-lapse footage of the elaborate and meticulous set construction.In her review on Bloody Disgusting, Julieann Stipidis writes: "After witnessing the more comprehensive version of Aster’s vision in this (nearly) three-hour film, I’m happy to say I prefer this cut in spades.” Read the rest

This is a really incredible game-inspired DIY art project.IMGURian M3l4rl03 shares the creation of their playable Super Mario Bros 1st level 19-foot mural.“The sprites are attached with Velcro so they can move around or be removed altogether!”Scroll down to the bottom of this wonderful gallery of how they did it, and turn your sound on for the video.Creation of my playable Super Mario Bros 1st level 19 foot mural! Read the rest

And this dude finally got his moment. Your caption in the BBS thread.Dorian in Charleston[via IMGUR] Read the rest

"Differential privacy" (previously) is a promising, complicated statistical method for analyzing data while preventing reidentification attacks that de-anonymize people in aggregated data-sets.If differential privacy were to be perfected, it would represent an amazing have-your-cake-and-eat-it proposition for Big Tech, which could continue to mine "behavioral data" for insights without having to worry about privacy scandals, regulation or liability (it would also have giant benefits for other kinds of research, such as medical studies).So far, though, differential privacy has been all promise, no pants, as implementations have been shown to be weak or flawed or both (and once these implementation defects have been published, all the data that was released prior to the disclosure is in danger of re-identification attacks).Now, Google has published a set of differential privacy libraries under the very permissive Apache License, which anyone can use, study, modify or distribute for free. Google is hoping that flaws and weaknesses in its library will be discovered through widespread scrutiny of its code, and that uptake of the differential privacy tools will reduce the pressure to end commercial data collection and retention. Google has also published a suite of testing and auditing tools to spot problems with implementations before they are made public.Developers could use Google’s tools to protect all sorts of database queries. For example, with differential privacy in place, employees at a scooter share company could analyze drop-offs and pickups at different times without also specifically knowing who rode which scooter where. And differential privacy also has protections to keep aggregate data from revealing too much. Read the rest

Amazon's got a tried-and-true way to deal with the negative consequences of high-speed ecommerce logistics: use subcontractors who can absorb the blame for the human toll wrought by the machine-like pace it demands of its workers.Until ow, the majority of attention has been on the conditions in Amazon warehouses, from the humiliating searches to the punishing physical labor to limits on things like bathroom breaks. True to form, Amazon's boilerplate response to the deaths and injuries (and lesser evils like wage theft) at these facilities has been to blame contractors and subcontractors for cutting corners.Now, a masterful, long, deeply researched Propublica/NYT investigation shows that the same pattern has been manifested outside of Amazon's warehouses, on our city streets, where the pressure to meet unrealistic delivery promises has led to an epidemic of deaths and injuries to Amazon drivers and the bystanders who happened to get in their way.These drivers are classed as contractors or subcontractors by Amazon, though the company retains the right to blacklist disfavored drivers, and uses an app to minutely schedule and direct the work of these "independent contractors" who are expected to indemnify Amazon for damages arising from the people they kill on the road. Many of the contractors providing delivery services to Amazon only have one customer: Amazon.To aid in these layers of obfuscation, Amazon has fought local ordinances that require drivers to affix signs to their vehicles identifying them as Amazon delivery vehicles, leaving the dead and injured to imagine that they were run over by some rando in a Penkse rental box-truck. Read the rest

State and federal labs reported that an oil called vitamin E acetate was discovered in samples of cannabis products that have made people sick around the United States, reports the Washington Post.From the article:Vitamin E acetate is basically grease, said Michelle Francl, a chemistry professor at Bryn Mawr College. Its molecular structure means that “you have to heat it up pretty hot” for it to vaporize. Its boiling point is 363 degrees Fahrenheit, which is well above the 212 degree F boiling point for water, and nearly four times higher than normal human body temperature.Once the oil is heated hot enough to vaporize, it can potentially decompose and “now you’re breathing in who-knows-what,” Francl said.When that vapor cools down in the lungs, it returns to its original state at that temperature and pressure, she said, which means “it has now coated the inside of your lungs with that oil,” she said.Photo by John Caroro on Unsplash Read the rest

As if zipping along a track at speeds up to 83 mph is no big deal, a man riding PortAventura Park's Shambhala rollercoaster in Spain also had enough wits about him to grab a stranger's phone that was flying through the sky. Amazing reflexes, to say the least. Read the rest

Who Said That? is a chunky 340-page book that tests your trivia knowledge on the origin of famous quotes. The quotes are arranged by topic (Love and Marriage, Work and Money, Politics and War, Aging, etc.) and are presented in different ways to keep things lively.Sometimes you'll be asked to choose which person said a particular quote:"History is made by active, determined minorities, not by the majority, which seldom has a clear and consistent idea of what it really wants."A: Margaret MeadB: Theodore Kaczynski, a.k.a. the UnabomberC: Susan B AnthonyD: Maximilien RobespierreAnswer: B. This line occurs in the Unabomber’s infamous manifesto. Kaczynski’s brother read it in the newspaper, recognized his older siblings writing style, and tipped off the FBI, leading to Ted’s arrest.Other times you'll be asked which quotes a person actually said:John Lennon said only one of these quotes. But which is it?A: "We thought we’d be really big in Liverpool."B: "We're more popular than Jesus now."C: "Everything is OK in the end. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end."D: "There was no play on words, we just didn’t know how to spell the word 'beetle.'"Answer:B. Lennon’s "bigger-than-Jesus" comments in 1966 sparked outrage in America, leading to boycott and death threats. Lennon would remain controversial until his untimely 1980 death. "If there is such a thing as genius, I am one," he once said. "And if there isn’t, I don’t care."There are a number of other question formats, too. Read the rest

Kick-ass political posters were a big deal generations before the moral panic over whether the #resistance was too concerned with instagrammable anti-trump signs; democratized access to layout, design and publishing tools have made the new authoritarian era into a golden age of brilliant protest art, as is evidenced by the Internet Archive's collection of protest posters from the Hong Kong uprising. Read the rest

In 1988, I worked in a toy store and quickly became annoyed by all the requests for the Snuggle bear. But this I can tolerate. For a moment anyway. Read the rest

Up for auction is one of Darth Vader's helmets worn by actor Dave Prowse in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. It's estimated to sell for nearly half a million dollars. That's a lot of galactic credits. From iCollector:David Prowse "Darth Vader" screen used signature mask and helmet from Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. (TCF, 1980) Without question, Darth Vader is one of the greatest villains ever portrayed on film. His angular, skull-like mask and helmet has been lifted to iconic status and is universally recognized as a symbol of evil in pop culture. Both the mask and helmet are constructed of fiberglass. The Mask is painted in dark metallic gray with black accents; its interior is marked with a "1" in white paint with worn foam rubber padding and tinted plastic lenses. Two of the original three elastic straps are present to secure the mask to David Prowse's head. The top of the mask originally secured to the jet-black helmet with a circular PVC connection (now missing; the three screw holes used to attached the PVC fitting are present). For added security, the mask's forehead attached to the inner portion of the helmet with Velcro (still present on the helmet's interior, but only the adhesive remnants remain on the mask, and remain hidden behind the helmet). The helmet's interior is marked with a "3" in brown paint. Interior metal mesh behind the triangular respiratory vent and "chin grille" are missing, as are the turned aluminum "atmospheric sensors" at either side of the vent. Read the rest

Tom Deininger, previously seen on Boing Boing, is a Boston-based assemblage artist who creates incredible sculptures and 3D "paintings" from plastic garbage. Deininger created the self-portrait below from "studio trash kept for two months. The size of the self portrait was determined by the trash." Read the rest

With Hurricane Dorian threatening a Florida man's property in Jacksonville, he didn't want to take any chances with his Smart car. Although he had a garage with space for one car, his wife, Jessica Eldridge, already had her car parked in that spot. Worried that his tiny vehicle would blow away — and up for a challenge — he made a cozy spot for it in the kitchen. According to AP:“I said there was no way he could. He said he could,” Jessica said. “So he opened the double doors and had it in. I was amazed that it could fit. He had it in with no problems.”Images by Jessica EdridgeVia YouTube: Read the rest

The Really Rude Map is a Glitch app that renders customizable maps of the world featuring only the rudest place names. Zoom in to reveal more geographical grotesquery! Read the rest

Shardcore (previously), "I made a video for Saddy Waddy by The Private Sector using a new deepfake lipsync method to get Boris Johnson to sing the words." [Ed: Warning, strobe effects] Read the rest

Open Culture and Class Central compiled a list of thousands of enticing free MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and lectures from top-shelf educators at great universities like MIT, Stanford, and Harvard. Here are just a few:• Astrobiology and Space Exploration -- Lynn Rothschild, Stanford • Science, Magic and Religion - Free iTunes Video - Free Online Video - Courtenay Raia, UCLA• 21 Hours of Lectures by Howard Zinn - Boston University• Hacking Consciousness: Consciousness, Cognition and the Brain - Michael Heinrich, Stanford• Heidegger Meets Van Gogh: Art, Freedom and Technology - Simon Glendinning, London School of Economics• Jack Kerouac – Allen Ginsberg, Naropa University• Science Fiction and Politics - Courtney Brown, Emory University"3,700+ MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) Getting Started in September: Enroll Today" (Open Culture) Read the rest

I'm on record as being a big supporter of learning regular expressions (AKA "regexp") -- handy ways to search through text with very complex criteria. It's notoriously opaque to beginners, but it's such a massively effective automation tool and drudgery reliever! Regex Crosswords help you hone your regexp skills with fiendishly clever regular expressions that ascend a smooth complexity gradient from beginner to expert. (via Kottke) Read the rest

Joey Hess designed the first Fridge0 a year ago: it uses a standard chest freezer with added thermal mass, a simple controller, and a photovoltaic panel that effectively stores sunshine as coldness, obviating the need for expensive backup batteries. The Fridge0 is an advance on traditional off-grid 12v solar fridges that assume that solar panels are expensive and inefficient; by exploiting modern PV technology, Hess says "A kilowatt of solar panels provides enough power to run a conventional fridge on even most cloudy days, and costs less than a commercial offgrid fridge." (via Kottke) Read the rest

Australia has a pending, comprehensive "data sharing" law that regulates the dispersal of data collected by the Australian state; in a new government white-paper, the Australian state has proposed that the rules could gain "nuance" if the government were allowed to share data without obtaining consent from the people whose privacy is implicated in that sharing.The proposal would modify the legislation, removing the absolute requirement for consent before data was shared, and instead "[place] the responsibility on Data Custodians and Accredited Users to safely and respectfully share personal information where reasonably required for a legitimate objective."The paper admits that the original proposal received support in large part because it required consent prior to data-releases, but says that the popular will isn't as important as preventing biased outcomes from skewed data analysis, which will head off the "improved experience" the government is hoping to deliver.According to the government, requiring consent for all data sharing will lead to biased data that delivers the wrong outcomes."The Data Sharing and Release legislation is about improving government policy and research by helping government and researchers use a better evidence base. If we required consent, then data would only be shared where consent was given," the paper says."This will skew the data which is shared, leaving it unfit for many important purposes in the public benefit; it also runs the risk of leading to flawed policy and research which impacts negatively on society."Consent removed from Australia's proposed data-sharing legislation [Asha Barbaschow/Zdnet](via /. Read the rest

James Wallace Harris is a retired programmer who maintains an interesting blog called Auxiliary Memory. In his latest post, he wrote about how his spelling and grammar accuracy has declined over the past two years, as evidenced by the statistics of a grammar and spelling checker called Grammarly that he uses.I want to document my own decline. Like the researchers in Flowers for Algernon, they tell Charlie to keep a journal. I’m going to be my own researcher and subject. I think it’s useful to be aware of my diminishing abilities. Aging is natural, and I accept it. I’m willing to work to squeeze all I can from my dwindling resources. What’s vital is being aware of what’s happening. The real problem to fear is becoming unconscious to who we are. Like Dirty Harry said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”The reason why Flowers for Algernon was such a magnificent story is that we’re all Charlie Gordon. We all start out dumb, get smart, and then get dumb again. Charlie just did it very fast, and that felt tragic. We do it slowly and try to ignore it’s happening. That’s also tragic.Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash Read the rest

Weed is so cheap in CA, I'm going to fill my own pre-rolls. Watching me roll a joint is like watching the Benny Hill show, but not any fun. A friend suggested this kit. I am going to try it out.The price of plain ol' weed in California has sunk a lot but pre-rolled joints are too expensive for the shake they are usually made of. This way I may purchase the cheap, good weed and make cheap, good joints.RAW Classic King Size Pre-Rolled Cones with Filter Tips - Bundle (50 Pack and Cone Loader) via Amazon Read the rest

Ashley Feinberg's "brief history of overreaction" hilariously chronicles the New York Times' current roster of columnists and their haters. Many readers of the New York Times were astonished by Bret Stephens’ Aug. 30 column, which warned that Nazi-style propaganda was on the march because he couldn’t handle being called a bedbug in a joke on Twitter. But Stephens was simply carrying on a now-familiar tradition in the opinion section: spending hundreds of words in the country’s most prominent newspaper to complain that someone was mean to the writer online. Facing the leveling effects of the internet—and especially Twitter—where anyone can make fun of anyone else, the credentialed columnists of the Times have consistently lost their sense of proportion, turning their attention away from a criminal presidency or impending ecological collapse to use their platforms to try to accomplish what normal people would do with a “lol” or the mute button. Here is a brief history of that practice under editorial page editor James Bennet, who took over the section in May 2016.My favorite word for the NYT's opinion section under Bennet is prosciutto: fancy, fragile, salty, undercooked ham. Read the rest

Famous Fortnite streamer Turner “Tfue” Tenney violated Twitch's rules against using racial slurs last night when he could be heard saying, "You guys fucking killed all the villagers, man. Y’all motherfuckers killed them niggas. You can suck my pee pee, man." This appears to be Tfue's third strike, which according to Twitch's guidelines automatically results in "indefinite suspension." But so far Twitch hasn't banned Tfue or issued a statement. After all, he's got 7 million followers there, making him the second most popular streamer on the platform. Kicking him off would put a big dent in Twitch's bank account.From The Verge:Lol tfue just said the n word pic.twitter.com/BYBQZ6PFJH— Obie (@vxobie) September 3, 2019Image: By Leon Lush - Leon Lushhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SzKHhOd9asYoutube, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link Read the rest

A ridiculous show of LEGO mastery.However... Read the rest

Usually cops use ladders to save stranded kitties from trees (at least that's the myth), but last week they used one in Lake Tahoe, California, to save a baby bear. After one cub stands on its mother's back, trying to open the top of a dumpster to free another cub who is trapped inside (who knew bears were that clever!), a couple of deputies come to the rescue with said ladder. If only all cop stories were this wonderful. Via Mashable Read the rest

One can't help but think of Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias" while watching this animation of various web browsers as they rise to dominance and then collapse to obscurity.Image: r/dataisbeautiful Read the rest

This study recently published by the Journal of the American Medical Association says no to drinking soft drinks. I am sure many folks will read this as "do not drink soft drinks in those 10 European countries." Association Between Soft Drink Consumption and Mortality in 10 European Countries:Findings: In this population-based cohort study of 451 743 individuals from 10 countries in Europe, greater consumption of total, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened soft drinks was associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. Consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks was positively associated with deaths from circulatory diseases, and sugar-sweetened soft drinks were associated with deaths from digestive diseases.Meaning: Results of this study appear to support ongoing public health measures to reduce the consumption of soft drinks. Read the rest

After two solid days of failure and crisis, including three lost votes and a disastrous performance at Prime Minister's Question Time, the government of Boris Johnson is already floundering badly. Now his own brother, Jo Johnson, is quitting not only his government, but his seat and the ruling Conservative party too.The business minister and Tory MP for Orpington, south-east London, cited an "unresolvable tension" in his role. Mr Johnson voted Remain in the 2016 EU membership referendum, while his brother co-led the Leave campaign.BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said it was "unbelievable timing".Mr Johnson's resignation follows the removal of the Tory whip from 21 MPs this week for supporting moves to prevent a no-deal Brexit. Our political editor tweeted that Mr Johnson was "understood to be upset about the purge of colleagues" and that the brothers were "in very different places" on Brexit.Today I learned that Boris Johnson's younger brother looks exactly like him, but hasn't been infected by the Bene Gesserit with a genetically-targeted STD that turns you into a pustulent floating poisoned bag of a man. Read the rest

The Mysterious Dance Company showed us how it could be done! Read the rest

Diplo? More like Dipsh*t.DJ Diplo, a.k.a. Thomas Wesley, was en route to Burning Man when this photo of him shilling fast-food fried chicken was shot: View this post on Instagram Popeye’s heard I wanted to try their sandwich so they sent me some in a jet.... Wendy’s your move.A post shared by Thomas Wesley (@diplo) on Aug 31, 2019 at 4:12pm PDTFor the stunt, Broke-Ass Stuart has awarded him "2019 Burning Man Douchebag of the Year":Burning Man is a great place for art, community, music, gifting, hedonism, self-expression, self-discovery, and self-reliance. Founded by a community who wanted an environment “unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising”, which is why we are awarding the Burning Man Douche Bag of the Year to DJ Diplo, for using the festival for corporate advertising! Diplo & Popeyes’ chicken teamed up this year to use Burning Man to market fast food... Diplo, is famous for dubstep, sexist tweets, and now for being a FuckJerry sized corporate douche. Popeye’s posed Diplo in front of a giant Popeye’s billboard, in the form of a jet, so that he could pretend he and the billboard were actually at Burning Man, and use the photo-op as an instagram marketing opportunity. He wrote, “Popeyes heard I wanted to try their sandwich so they sent me some in a jet... Wendy’s your move.” What he should have written was, “Here I am, pretending to be at Burning Man, and selling out to a corporation, sick right? Read the rest

EDM whiz Tycho has once again gifted his Burning Man sunrise DJ set by posting it for us to listen to on SoundCloud. Happy to present this year's sunrise set, live from the Dusty Rhino in Black Rock City on Thursday, August 29th, 2019. Thank you all for taking the time to share in this moment, it's truly a highlight for me to spend this morning with you each year 🙏 Big thanks and love to the Dusty Rhino crew...2019 tracks:Van Halen - 1984Boards of Canada - Alpha and OmegaTycho - Japan (Instrumental)Muddy Monk & Jimmy Whoo - DivineBakradze - Quiet LoopKarol XVII & MB Valence - AquaTycho - EasyTigerskin - This Place Is Empty Without YouOctavian - Lightning (Ross from Friends Remix)Bonobo - LinkedKiasmos - DrawnTycho - Into The WoodsLetherette - After DawnFour Tet - Evening Side (Oneohtrix Point Never Edit)You Man - BirdcageIcarus - OctoberPhotay - Illusion Of Seclusion<<>>Westerman - RoadsTourist - ElixirBicep - Opal (Four Tet Remix)Maribou State - TurnmillsTycho - JettyB. Traits NorthShoreTycho - Pink & Blue (Instrumental)Chrome Sparks - The Meaning of LoveTycho - Weather View this post on InstagramA post shared by Tycho / Scott Hansen (@tychomusic) on Aug 23, 2019 at 7:58pm PDT View this post on Instagram ‪Happy to present this year's sunrise DJ set live from the Dusty Rhino in Black Rock City, Thursday, August 29th, 2019 🌞 Thank you all for taking the time to share in this moment, it's truly a highlight for me to spend this morning with you each year 🙏‬ ‪Listen at link in profile 🔊A post shared by Tycho / Scott Hansen (@tychomusic) on Sep 2, 2019 at 7:36am PDTscreenshot via @TychomusicTycho's 2018 DJ set(Kottke) Read the rest

Or not.New rule: You haven't jumped the shark until your likeness is made into a "sexy" Halloween costume. Don't get me wrong, I love Bob Ross but I gotta think he's rolling in his grave with the existence of Yandy's "Happy Tree Painter" costume ($69.95). Art is a joy and you can't make any mistakes! Create a landscape masterpiece while wearing this Happy Tree Painter costume featuring a stretch shirt romper with a scoop neck, paint stains, button detail, and a snap crotch opening, stretch denim booty shorts with an adjustable belt, a plush squirrel, a paint pallet clutch, and an afro wig. (Paint brush not included.)The plush squirrel is a nice touch though.screenshot via Yandy Read the rest

Birdspotting looks like the ne plus ultra of walkabout games, putting the player in a remote yet pleasant section of country and handing them a pair of binoculars. It's by Joram van Loenen and Khalil Arafan and they've been working on it since January 2018.I especially like the implication in the trailer that it should be played at low resolution.Finally made some progress on the ocean shader for #birdspotting. Waves are masked with layers of noise then distorted using more noise. Foam is also composite of multiple layers multiplied with depthblend all combined with some nice planar reflection. #unity3d #indiedev #gamedev pic.twitter.com/eNNel1mg9M— 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖆𝖒 𝖛𝖆𝖓 𝕷𝖔𝖊𝖓𝖊𝖓 (@joramvanloenen) July 13, 2019 Read the rest

I love the mindlessness of a good quest-for-loot dungeon crawler. After a long stressful day, playing one for an hour or two gets me right out of my head. They're good games! But, for me, they'll never match the gory, cartoonish charm of Torchlight and Torchlight 2. When I bought my Nintendo Switch, around this time last year, I thought about how great Torchlight 2 would be a perfect port to play on the portable (alliteration, I know. I'm afflicted). I didn't think that it would happen: the game's development studio, Runic Games, closed down in 2017. But here we are: Torchlight 2 was released for the Nintendo Switch this week. After spending a good number of hours with the port, I can tell you that playing the game on a handheld, with control sticks and buttons trumps a keyboard and mouse in every way.Playing with a joystick provided me with more of a challenge than pointing and clicking at enemies with a mouse. At the same time, it also gave me more of a challenge. Being able to map the Switch's buttons with my various abilities, spells and scrolls? Icing on the cake. Graphically, the game looks a lot tighter: but that could be more about the display resolution than anything else.My only complaint about the port is that there's no way to tinker with mods like you can with the PC version of the game. But, for $20 Canadian (so, like what: three U.S. dollars?) it's pretty hard to beat the levels of portable entertainment that Torchlight 2 on the Switch delivers. Read the rest

In 1968, Richard Proenneke left his career as a heavy equipment operator and took up an entirely new existence. He flew to a remote Alaskan lake, built a log cabin by hand, and began a life of quiet self-reliance. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll hear Proenneke's reflections on a simple life lived in harmony with nature.We'll also put a rooster on trial and puzzle over a curious purchase.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

This video shows two fellows building a small cabin out of pallet wood, hand tools and cinematic depth-of-field, but no dialog whatsoever. We build a cheap off grid cabin using free pallet wood. We saved money building the pallet wood cabin by using recycled pallets. This is a great off grid wilderness project as pallet wood is light and easy to carry into the forest. It is also easy to work with using hand tools. Many people do not have the space, time or money to build a log cabin. But building a tiny home off grid is still achievable using cheap or even free materials, and that is where pallet wood works so well. Although only small, this one man cabin has a raised bed, folding table, bookshelf and chair - all made from pallet wood. We fit it out with a woodstove to heat it through the winter months and we installed a pipe cooking oven and water tank to boil water and cook food on. The stove heats the cabin up really fast as the cabin is only small. This small hut in the woods has no electricity or power, but that isn't needed. Be sure to check the markings first, even if you're just making a coffee table. Also, be sure that the cost of making pallet wood last six weeks outdoors where you live isn't greater than the cost of just buying pressure-treated lumber. But now I'm ruining it for everyone!P.S. let's make a short horror movie that starts off as one of these "making something out in the woods with no narration" videos but gets progressively stranger until it's clear They are Here. Read the rest

The so-called Islamic State no longer has the resources to go toe-to-toe with a well trained and equipped army, but its capacity for insurgency and guerrilla warfare is still on point. From The National Post:SIL has been reluctant to use humans to carry bombs because of the group’s reduced numbers, so it has tried out a new tactic: Bovine suicide bombers.Residents of Al Islah, Iraq, on Saturday said they had witnessed “a strange” sight: two cows harnessed to explosive vests roving the northern side of the village, according to Col. Ghalib Al-Atyia, the spokesman for the police commander in Diyala province.The animals wandered into the outskirts of the community, and when they seemed close to houses, the bombs were detonated remotely, killing the cows, and damaging nearby houses, but not harming any people, Al-Atyia said.In the colonel’s assessment, the attack signalled that ISIL, whose ranks were sharply reduced by the group’s four-year fight against Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. special forces, was resorting to unconventional methods since they lacked manpower.Exploding cows! A nightmare right out of Fallout 2! Also, It’s horrible.In addition to the fact that an animal can’t choose to become a living weapon as it lack free will, a cow can cost well over a thousand dollars in Iraq—a small fortune by Iraqi standards. The loss of a cow to ISIL’s cause can mean no milk and a whole lot less meat for a village’s worth of people. The National Post notes that the cows were most likely donated to the poor man’s answer to COBRA by villages sympathetic to the so-called Islamic State’s cause. Read the rest

"Alice Campion" is the pseudonym used by a group of Australian writers -- who, back in 2013, published their first collectively-written book, The Painted Sky. Five of them wrote the first book, and four continued on to collaborate on Alice Campion's next one, The Shifting Light.In The New Yorker, Ceridwen Dovey profiles "The Alices", as they call themselves, as well as some other groups of collaborative novel-writers. And Dovey asks an interesting question: "So why are group-written novels so rare?"Aesthetically, of course, the challenge is whether a group of people can all write in the style of a single person. The Alices seem to have pulled it off -- at least, according to their publisher, who loved the "unified voice" and couldn't put it down. And as Dovey points out, plenty of collaborative art surmounts this challenge. Scripts for TV shows are products of writer's rooms, a lot of songs are co-written, and everyone figures out how to work in single style. There are some intriguing technical challenges in collaborating on a text as long as a novel. Version control is a nightmare; you've got to keep so many little contributions that I'm almost surprised the Alices don't use Github. (Instead, they appointed one of their group to be "the 'sacred kow,' or Keeper of the Words", fulfilling a function sort of like Linus Torvalds in the early period of Linux.) The thing is, these technical and aesthetic challenges are all surmountable. The real reason more novels aren't written collaboratively, Dovey argues, are cultural. Read the rest

Whether it's chronic muscle stiffness or the soreness that comes from an epic workout, there are some pains that can't be soothed by those automatic massage chairs. If you haven't tried a handheld massager, they can be a lifesaver - and the Vortix Muscle Massager aims to be the go-to therapy tool no matter what your aches are.If it looks like an industrial tool, it's because this thing means business. It comes with a variety of massage tips: Two ball massagers and a cone tip. These allow you to target problem areas with pinpoint pressure or broad waves of relief. And with six speeds, you can pick your intensity. Need a gentle approach for sensitive areas? A firmer attack for deep fatigue? The Vortix comes with six speeds that slowly ramp up the torque and vibration frequency according to your needs.And it turns out there's an equal dose of relief on the price. The Vortix Muscle Massager is currently on sale for 57% off the retail price at $170. Read the rest

The Most Dangerous Writing App is a simple, attractive text editor on the web. But there's a twist to Manuel Ebert's design: if you stop typing before 5 minutes is up, your work starts to fade, and if you don't start again immediately, it disappears completely. It's not absolute—you can copy your work out of the box, and it's not bugging you with a spellchecker to stop you going klsdafjgh alskdfjhasd kjfh to get through moments of block. But you are gonna be typing all the same, and that's the point.Do you write your best content under some pressure? Well, I wrote an app for that: https://t.co/9VM3JGe2Rc #MDWA pic.twitter.com/OWuqHtmj2p— Manuel Ebert (@maebert) February 29, 2016 Read the rest

It's not clear to me why the driver of this car didn't just drive through the plastic barriers and avoid having her car destroyed by a train engine. Maybe her car stalled at the worst possible place? Read the rest

“When Google puts 4 paid ads ahead of the first organic result for your own brand name, you’re forced to pay up if you want to be found,” tweeted Basecamp CEO and co-founder Jason Fried, yesterday, along with the funny ad he bought to show up in Google's search results.When Google puts 4 paid ads ahead of the first organic result for your own brand name, you’re forced to pay up if you want to be found. It’s a shakedown. It’s ransom. But at least we can have fun with it. Search for Basecamp and you may see this attached ad. pic.twitter.com/c0oYaBuahL— Jason Fried (@jasonfried) September 3, 2019From CNBC:In a statement, a Google spokeswoman said the company prohibits the use of trademarked terms in the text of an ad if the owner files a complaint. “Our trademark policy balances the interests of users, advertisers and trademark owners,” the statement said. “To provide users with the most relevant ads, we don’t restrict trademarked terms as keywords. We do, however, restrict trademarked terms in ad text if the trademark owner files a complaint.”The CEO of Shopify, Tobias Lutke, shared and weighed in on Fried’s tweet.“It’s totally crazy for google to get away with charging what’s basically protection money on your own brand name,” he wrote. ”‘Nice high intend traffic you got there, would be a shame if something were to happen to it.’” Read the rest

Jacob Wohl is among the more baffling right-wing grifters to grace social media. So inept and comical are his antics (framing politians for impossible crimes, false claims of location belied by the selfies in which the claims are made, claiming to overhear hipsters in coffee shops admit to conservative beliefs, etc) that he's become a figure of fun online. The fun is over; he's being indicted. Wohl and former business partner Matthew Johnson were both charged with the unlawful sale of securities in a Riverside Superior Court criminal complaint filed on Aug. 19. Wohl has not been arrested yet on the charge, according to the court docket. Prosecutors recommended $5,000 bonds for both Wohl and Johnson.The allegation that Wohl and Johnson unlawfully sold securities centers on one of Wohl’s financial companies, Montgomery Assets. A warrant application filed by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office notes that the three-year statute of limitations on the case was set to expire at the end of August 2019, meaning prosecutors had to file by the end of last month if they wanted to pursue charges.Behind the blundering and ridiculous claims, Wohl has been accused of at least one horrible small-time fraud by a person to whom the money -- peanuts to rich-kid Wohl but years of savings to them -- will likely never be recovered. He's a nasty son of a bastard and, all things considered, no joke.Update: Wohl's arrest warrant was rescinded after he appeared in court today and was released on his own recognizance, pending arraignment next month. Read the rest

Today was a bad day in court for Alex Jones and Infowars, who lost an appeal in the defamation case brought against them by parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting. Jones had accused the parents of lying as part of his conspiracy theories concerning the event. The appeal was in regards to Infowars' efforts to have the lawsuit dismissed as frivolous; it may now proceed after months of delay.Infowars filed its now-dismissed appeal one day after Sandy Hook parent Neil Heslin filed a motion for contempt against Infowars as part of an ongoing legal battle against the outlet, which in 2017 broadcast claims that Heslin argued were meant to insinuate that he lied about holding his murdered son’s body and to subject him to harassment and emotional damage by those who believe Sandy Hook was a “false flag” conspiracy—a conspiracy theory advanced by the host of an Infowars program and amplified by Jones himself. Heslin had filed a motion for expedited discovery and a motion for sanctions against defendants Jones, Infowars employee Owen Shroyer, Free Speech Systems LLC, and Infowars LLC, after it was revealed that Jones had ordered Infowars employees to remove “social media pages and video content relating to the Sandy Hook shooting” from the internet. Jones and his lawyers had previously filed a motion to have Heslin’s lawsuit dismissed under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, a 2011 Texas law meant to aid individuals facing a frivolous lawsuits, but the judge hearing the case agreed with Heslin’s argument that Infowars’ efforts to delete content relevant to his case had hampered his ability to respond to Infowars’ motion to dismiss. Read the rest

Get over it! Despite the mockers and complainers, and even attempts to make it illegal to perambulate while looking at your own damned phone, science concludes that the risks of it are negligible. As part of the mandated study, the DOT conducted an in-depth review of written crash narratives in the city between 2014 and 2017. They found just .2 percent of reports made any mention of pedestrians using electronic devices. In one of those cases, the victim was actually reaching to pick up a dropped cell phone when they were fatally struck by a driver.Those numbers bore out at the national level as well. According to the last six years of available federal data, fatalities involving the use of portable electronic devices by pedestrians represented between 0 and .2 percent of pedestrian deaths.Phones are to cars as video games are to guns. Read the rest

The wife of a West Virginia pastor apparently wanted to shoot another woman, but the Pastor realized her intent as she stormed out of the Church to fetch her pistol. Her husband followed her to her car where a single shot was fired, in the Church parking lot. Reportedly they wrestled for the weapon.Newsweek:According to authorities, Melinda walked out of the church during the disagreement and went to her car in the parking lot, where she got her handgun.Realizing what she intended, Earl and followed her outside.Willis reports Pastor Toney intercepted his wife before she was able to come back inside the church and attempted to wrestle the gun out of her hand. The weapon fired a single shot during the struggle, but nobody was hurt.Haywood, who was leaving the church when the gun discharged, called the police and told them that she was Toney's intended target. The department reviewed parking-lot surveillance video but could not determine whether the pistol was aimed at Haywood before it was fired.Image via the NEW LIFE APOSTOLIC CHURCH Read the rest

Meet Chanel Miller, the woman who was Emily Doe in the trial of rapist Brock Turner, a man treated with absurd leniency by the courts.The New York Times:For four years, the woman whose Stanford University sexual assault case caused a public outcry, has been known only as “Emily Doe.” In her new memoir, “Know My Name,” which charts her life since then, she reveals her real name: Chanel Miller.In 2016, Ms. Miller’s case made headlines after BuzzFeed published the statement she read at the sentencing hearing for Brock Turner, the Stanford student convicted of the assault.Mr. Turner, then 20, was found guilty of three counts of felony sexual assault, for which the maximum sentence was 14 years. But the presiding judge, Aaron Persky, sentenced Mr. Turner to six months in county jail, of which he served three.Here's an excerpt from the book's introduction:Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways--there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. Read the rest