In 2010, Jerry Alex neglected to renew jerryalex.com, and woke up one day to find his website had turned into a squatter's template, with a $1500 ransom. So he waited 9 years before pouncing on the drop.I had given up hope of ever retrieving my personal domain name. Then, a few months ago, I got really lucky. ... It went from a reseller to a popular domain auction where it sat waiting to be bid on. Generally, these auctions will drive up the price by bidding on their own domains to get you to pay more. For me, I felt that it was a good idea to avoid bidding all together. I didn’t want to encourage price gouging, so I decided to wait on the domain to make it look undesirable. Fortunately, my gamble paid off.He had a good gameplan, but his domain-drop script only ran once every 10 minutes! A few years ago the domain might have been sniped within seconds by a bot slurping up every dropped .com that contains English words or common names. Fortunately the assumed value of whatever dot com seems to have fallen off a cliff. Read the rest

On Saturday at the X Games Minneapolis, Mitchie Brusco landed the first 1260 in the history of professional skateboarding. And yep, he acts like it was nothing.This was exactly twenty years since Tony Hawk famously landed the first 900 at the X-Games in 1999 (video below). Read the rest

When Congress legalized phone unlocking in 2014, they added a bunch of carve-outs that let phone companies veto your attempt to unlock your phone, with the big one being that you couldn't unlock your phone while you were still in a contract that provided it to you at a reduced price. That meant that you couldn't (for example) unlock your phone so you could use it with a foreign SIM while traveling, or simply continue to pay your bill to the company that sold you the phone while using another company's SIM to get cheaper data or some other desirable service.This created a black market in unauthorized phone unlocking. The DOJ has just indicted Muhammad Fahd and extradited him from Hong Kong, claiming that he paid out $420,000 to AT&T employees in a five-year fraud operation that resulted in his unlocking of millions of phones. The indictment says that Fahd systematized his operation, paying insiders to install malware and compromised routers that let him have the run of AT&T's network so he could unlock phones on his own. These insiders have pleaded guilty and are apparently going to give testimony against Fahd.The DOJ estimates that, in total, his actions cost AT&T millions of dollars in lost revenue as phones were transferred off its network. Forbes reports that Fahd would take payments from customers who were looking to unlock their phones and leave AT&T’s network. He would make payments to his AT&T contacts via a series of front companies after initially approaching them over Facebook Messenger or via a telephone call. Read the rest

Every time I write about the unfolding scandal of Amazon's secret partnerships with hundreds of US police departments who get free merch and access to Ring surveillance doorbell footage in exchange for acting as a guerrilla marketing street-team for Ring, I get an affronted email from Amazon PR, implying that I got it all wrong, but unwilling to enter into detailed discussions of what's actually going on (the PR flacks also usually ask to be quoted officially but anonymously, something I never agree to). For example, when I published this story, an Amazon PR person wrote to tell me that the statement that "Amazon provides their local law enforcement with comprehensive dossiers on everyone who activates a Ring doorbell, including 'where they live, the MAC addresses of each of their devices, and how to reach them by email or phone'" was incorrect, but could not explain why a public records request showed that the cops had all that information. At first, they said that the Ring owners must have provided it voluntarily to law enforcement, but when I asked if they really believed that someone had found the MAC address for their surveillance doorbells and painstakingly entered the long hexadecimal number into a website or dictated it over the phone, they said "We defer to law enforcement for questions about their process and operations." One common thread in the PR spin I get on this story is that any access that law enforcement gets to Ring footage is a result of the cops asking -- via Amazon -- whether Ring customer will voluntarily provide it. Read the rest

Granted, the ancient box hosting rhyal.com has had a few upgradesThis site is being hosted and served by a Macintosh SE/30 running MacOS 7.5.5. This SE/30 is a 16MHz computer built in 1989. Mine shipped with 2 megabytes of RAM, a floppy drive, and an 80-meg internal SCSI ("Scuzzy") hard drive. It has recently been upgraded with a custom 32-bit ROM, 68 megabytes of RAM, and a 4,000-megabyte Solid-State Drive. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself. Thanks for visiting! Read the rest

The ADL surveyed 1,045 US adult gamers (oversampling Jewish, Muslim, African American and Hispanic/Latinx individuals) and asked them about their experiences in multiplayer games: on the one hand, they found that playing these social games brought many benefits: friendship, support, fun, connection and romance; on the other hand, they found that a very high proportion of gamers experienced harassment of varying kinds, that many players had quit games because of harassment, and that some games were home to much more harassment than others.The most "positive" games (where players said they were unlikely to experience harassment) were World of Warcraft (59%), Minecraft (55%), NBA 2k (51%), Overwatch (49%), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (48%), and Fortnite (47%); while the worse offenders for harassment were Ancients 2 (DOTA 2) (79% of players of the game), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (75%), Overwatch (75%), PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds (75%) and League of Legends (75%). That one set of figures is itself a little arresting: the most positive games are actually pretty negative (about half of players experience harassment), while in the world of negative games, the players reporting harassment represent large supermajorities of all sampled players.Harassment often targets players based on race, gender and gender identity. Racial harassment varies based on race: if you're Black, it's 31%; Latinx, 24%; and if you're Asian, it's 23%. Jews and Muslims are harassed for their background 19% of the time. The highest levels of targeted harassment are experienced by women (38%) and queer players (35%).This should probably matter to games companies: about one in five players have quit a game to escape harassment. Read the rest

Having a snooze on the grass in bear country is never a great idea, especially when the pair of assholes watching you get checked out by a bear prefer to film shit going down instead of yelling a warning. Read the rest

An explosion at a military base in Siberia rocked residents of remote Kamensk Sunday, according to reports, and 11,000 were evacuated. The blast was caused by wildfires reaching ammunition stores. The incident comes after wildfires engulfed thousands of hectares of forest in Siberia. The fires, which have been raging for two days, have been described by environmentalists as an "ecological catastrope." Russia sent military planes to help firefighters battling the fires engulfing more than 3.1 million hectares, an area roughly the size of Belgium.The base is three miles out of town; the nearest large settlement is Krasnoyarsk. No fatalities, they're saying, just some shrapnel wounds.Here's the local "keep calm and carry on" siren."Please keep calm" alert warning pic.twitter.com/ArAFm43LMz— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) August 5, 2019 Read the rest

Heartwarming, but also quite tailwarming. Read the rest

Thoughts and prayers. Video games are fucking folks up. He's white so let's call it mental illness. Apologists for the far right talking shit. It's always the same song and dance anytime some asshole with a credit card buys an assault rifle to do what they feel entitled to do to innocent souls. As an outsider who watches terrorist acts like the one that unfold unfolded in El Paso this past weekend, one after another, it's a tune that I'm tired of hearing. I can't imagine how the citizens of your nation must feel. I mourn for your dead the way that I mourned for our own when a similar tragedy struck a few years back. Mourning and rising up in protest are all that we as citizens have available to us to give voice to our outrage.That's not the case, however, where a grieving nation is concerned. During the El Paso terrorist attack, seven Mexican nationals were killed. Six were wounded. Their nation's government, in their grief, has decided that it's had enough.From Buzzfeed News:Mexico's foreign minister on Monday called the mass shooting at a Texas Walmart that claimed the lives of eight Mexican nationals an act of terrorism against its citizens on US soil and vowed to take legal action.Marcelo Ebrard, who had threatened to take action after the shooting, said the Mexican government will "definitely" launch legal action against the selling and distribution of assault rifles in the US, like the one used by the shooter in Saturday's attack. Read the rest

You're fretting about hackers, political shenigans and data breaches. Then your creepy uncle shares photos of your newborn baby, complete with its location, to his thousands of fake facebook "friends". The call is coming from inside the house.“Older folks, certainly, there’s a learning curve because this is new,” said Amy Nofziger, who, as director of fraud victim support for AARP, helps older people parse the new rules of the internet. “People who are grandparents or great-grandparents today are the first people to have color TVs in their homes, and now they have this thing called the internet.”“My mom has a public profile and posts several times a day on her page and has tons of interactions, often with people she doesn’t necessarily know,” said Danielle. “Because I want to be more private about photos of my son, I have had to ask her to please not post his picture — or, if she’s going to, that she please change the privacy settings for that specific post. For the most part she has done what I’ve asked, but I could tell she was really annoyed about it. One time she posted a photo that straight-up had our home address on it, and she couldn’t understand why I was so upset!”The posting of it is the small part of the problem. The resentful-boomer "how dare you tell me not to" is the bigger part. Read the rest

Via Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post, here's the official White House transcript of President Trump's remarks on the terrorist mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. It includes his mistaken statement that it occured in Toledo, two hours up the road. Struck out, at least: God bless America, he cares!This is what the official White House transcript of Trump's remarks this morning, just emailed to journalists, looks like pic.twitter.com/X6cVAsa9iJ— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) August 5, 2019 Read the rest

Your binge-watching options just got a lot more interesting. Get ready to be the first choice venue for movie night, because there's a giveaway right now on a Samsung 65" QLED 4K Smart TV.Size isn't quite everything for this theater-quality set, though it is impressive. The Q70 series TV is able to upscale even older games and movies to 4K quality, and it's fully compatible with major voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home.All you need to do is register here, and you'll be eligible to win the TV, free and clear.Too good to be true? Suit yourself. While you're sipping that half-empty glass, here are a few deals that will allow you to pay actual money for some great video technology, albeit at a heavy discount:Rveal Digital Indoor HDTV AntennaFill in that blind spot in your TV diet with free network channels, thanks to this new school unit that picks up local and national stations the old fashioned way, up to 50 miles from broadcast antennas. The best part: It broadcasts them in HD. The Rveal Digital Indoor HDTV Antenna is on sale for $19.99, more than 30% off the list price.LG B8 Series 55" OLED 4K HDR TVThis ultra-thin set made Consumer Reports' list of top 4K TVs for 2018, thanks to its α7 intelligent processor and Dolby Atmos sound. It's also controllable with Alexa or Google Home for full smart home integration. The LG B8 Series 55" OLED 4K HDR TV is now $1199.99, down from the previous sale price of $1553.99 and a full 47% off the retail price. Read the rest

Here's a sweet little sanity break for your achy-breaky brain.🐶 This video shared by IMGURian @Toast2 during IMGUR's #PetShow2019 is a great example of how to use a GoPro camera to great effect with dogs.Love it.That's one happy little pupper, living their best little life.Here's the video:Backyard ZoomiesWe should each live so well. Read the rest

“Looks like he is howling but he was almost completely silent while he was doing this,” says Max's temporary human.“Our foster dog was a silly boy!,” says IMGURian Kika1112“GOOD NEWS, he was just recently adopted out to a wonderful family!”Happy ending. Hope he has a nice place in which to practice his yoga now.Yoga with Max Read the rest

Aww. Poor little sweet thing.An archival image of awkward, tender, funny cuteness, photographer uncredited, viral from years ago. Looks a lot like this poor pet getting an uncomfortable groom, which is frankly how I feel, too, when I have to go in for medical scans. I feel you, pups and babies.Help! Read the rest

That Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining features a wealth of subtle references is not in doubt, not least the inconsistent geography of the Overlook Hotel, which seems unremarkable at first viewing but becomes a brain-worm of weirdness when you think about it. Trying to map it out was a fetish of the early 2010s web, but I recalled those efforts ending as inconclusively as the location of the Gold Room. With the sequel coming soon, I decided to check in, and can happily report that the Overlook mappers have taken it to the next level. Check out this beaut:The Overlook is not exceptional amongst Kubrick's films for its disequilibrium.The interior of The Overlook doesn't at all begin to fit with either the exterior on the studio set or the real life exterior of the Timberline in Oregon. At first glance it seems he might have had it constructed to fit with the set exterior, but he didn't. Eventually one realizes that there is likely only one window in the whole of the film that works with the interior, and only one entry/exit likewise. Nor do the different parts of the hotel's interior connect together in the way Kubrick visually leads one to believe. His manner of editing establishes assumptions, but those assumptions are wrong. One finds that the only possible room in the second floor section around which Danny cycles, is room 237. I think that Kubrick's obsessive, idiosyncratic approach to cinematic composition is the only true reason for the hotel's impossible geography. Read the rest

Unmute the video below. You need this, in all its glory.Brian Kidd, aka the Unipiper, has been featured before here on Boing Boing. He's internet-famous and locally renowned in Portland for for playing the flaming bagpipes on his unicycle while wearin' a Darth Vader mask.He upped the ante on himself by doing it with two flaming bagpipes, and it's awesome. This video of him playing the bagpipe as he unicycles around a blow-up Star Wars All Terrain Armored Transport, or AT-AT walker is a wonderful weird balm.Now I want a giant inflatable AT-AT, too.Watch out, you never know where you're going to run into the Unipiper. View this post on Instagram Watch out for what's behind door #2. You might run into the Portapiper. #bagpipesinthebathroom #honeybucketsurprise #keepportlandweird #HoneyBucketSelfie @officialhoneybucketA post shared by The Unipiper (@theunipiper) on Aug 1, 2019 at 7:05pm PDT You can follow and contribute on Patreon.PREVIOUSLY: Brian Kidd is the Unipiper: the unicycling bagpiper Read the rest

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Wait for it.🐈 TFW you encounter something you seriously did not anticipate.BOX: [exists]CAT: [figures shit out]Kitty gets a little surprise. Read the rest

Laura Dale is a trans woman who got a "new vagina" through "bottom surgery"; afterwards, as she cast about for ways to strengthen her pelvic floor muscles, she discovered Perifit, a Bluetooth kegel-based video-game controller that registers every time the user bears down on it with their pelvic floor muscles.The controller is not a simple on-off switch, but rather it registers subtle gradients of pressure, making it suited to controlling a variety of video-game sprites.Dale describes the games she played: Catch the Lotus (a Flappy Bird clone), Manage the Gate (a block-the-falling-objects game) and the actual Flappy Bird, though Perifit calls it Perifit Bird.With all the prepackaged games played, I was honestly a little disappointed by the lack of compelling software for this new gaming controller. Off the top of my head, I am pretty sure I can come up with a decent list of other gaming applications this vagina controller could be used for. You could make a slot car racing game, where you have to contract harder to speed up on the straights, but lessen your pressure on corners to not fly off the track and lose time. How about using the controller to play a music rhythm game, with contractions done in time with the music. Maybe a Pong-style game, where players contract to raise the paddle and relax to lower it? You could use it as a boost button in a racing game, or to launch your ultimate attack in a fighting game, or even use it to mash through dialogue in a text adventure game until the next actual choice based moment comes up. Read the rest

In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my essay "IBM PC Compatible": how adversarial interoperability saved PCs from monopolization, published today on EFF's Deeplinks; it's another installment in my series about "adversarial interoperability," and the role it has historically played in keeping tech open and competitive. This time, I relate the origin story of the "PC compatible" computer, with help from Tom Jennings (inventor of FidoNet!) who played a key role in the story. All that changed in 1981, when IBM entered the PC market with its first personal computer, which quickly became the de facto standard for PC hardware. There are many reasons that IBM came to dominate the fragmented PC market: they had the name recognition ("No one ever got fired for buying IBM," as the saying went) and the manufacturing experience to produce reliable products.Equally important was IBM's departure from its usual business practice of pursuing advantage by manufacturing entire systems, down to the subcomponents. Instead, IBM decided to go with an "open" design that incorporated the same commodity parts that the existing PC vendors were using, including MS-DOS and Intel's 8086 chip. To accompany this open hardware, IBM published exhaustive technical documentation that covered every pin on every chip, every way that programmers could interact with IBM's firmware (analogous to today's "APIs"), as well as all the non-standard specifications for its proprietary ROM chip, which included things like the addresses where IBM had stored the fonts it bundled with the system.Once IBM's PC became the standard, rival hardware manufacturers realized that they had to create systems that were compatible with IBM's systems. Read the rest

Under Covers is a delightful NSFW animation by Mighty Oak.On the night of a lunar eclipse, we uncover the sweet, salacious, and spooky secrets of a small town. From a pigtailed psychopath to naughty nuns and everything in between, this stop motion animated film conjures a comforting thought: that weird is relative.From the Vimeo blog:The film, which originally debuted as part of Sundance Film Festival’s 2018 Midnight Shorts Program, provides a God’s-eye-view into the bedrooms of seemingly sweet characters hiding a secret or two under their blankets. What may seem innocuous is not always as innocent as it appears, and Olsen shows us that through a powerful combination of stop-motion animation, detailed character design, and a sick sense of humor. Read the rest

An Ashland, Oregon man dropped an old shoebox into his recycling bin, somehow forgetting that he had stashed $23,000 in the box. He contacted the Recology recycling center in California where the haul had been sent for processing. The facility wasn't optimistic but promised to alert staff to look out for it. Then on Friday, en eagle-eyed employee spotted the box before it reached the baler. Only $320 was missing. (UPI) Read the rest

Nancy Segula (79) of Garfield Heights, Ohio, doesn't like the idea of allowing stray cats to starve, so she feeds them when they come around, which is a crime. She's been sentenced to 10 days in jail for allowing the cats to accumulate on her property.From Reason:Segula's actions are clearly creating a nuisance for her neighbors. But while police are justified in responding to their complaints, it is not beyond the realm of possibilities for the court system to find a more humane approach than incarceration. After all, Segula's 10-day jail sentence is longer than the punishments given for other, much more heinous animal-related offenses that have occurred in the area, including starving dogs, the strangulation of a cat, and leaving kittens in a hot car. And when it's over, is there any reason to think she won't do what she's done after every other intervention, and go back to feeding the cats?Image: WKYC Read the rest

Approximately 14 percent of the world's population suffer from dry eye disease (DED) but treatments are limited because it's difficult to model the complex human eye for drug development. Now though, University of Pennsylvania bioengineers developed an "eye-on-a-chip" complete with a motorized blinking eyelid. The hope is that the artificial eye will lead to a deeper understanding of dry eye disease, enable drug screening, and even become a testbed for contact lens technology and eye surgery. Their technology also received the 2018 Lush Prize awarded for innovations that could help eliminate animal testing for shampoos and other beauty product. From Eurekalert:In this study, (Dan) Huh and (Jeongyun) Seo focused on engineering an eye model that could imitate a healthy eye and an eye with DED, allowing them to test an experimental drug without risk of human harm.To construct their eye-on-a-chip, Huh's team starts with a porous scaffold engineered with 3D printing, about the size of a dime and the shape of a contact lens, on which they grow human eye cells. The cells of the cornea grow on the inner circle of scaffolding, dyed yellow, and the cells of the conjunctiva, the specialized tissue covering the white part of human eyes, grow on the surrounding red circle. A slab of gelatin acts as the eyelid, mechanically sliding over the eye at the same rate as human blinking. Fed by a tear duct, dyed blue, the eyelid spreads artificial tear secretions over the eye to form what is called a tear film. Read the rest

The war-dialing safe-opener takes a maximum of 8 hours to open a safe. It looks like something that could be pretty easily built with an Arduino and a stepper motor, but how does it know when is has arrived at5 the right combination? Maybe it feels a change in the torque on the dial, or senses a certain kind of click?Image: YouTube Read the rest

An Lord Ashcroft Poll for Holyrood found that the largest group of Scots with a preference favour independence from the UK: 46% leave vs 43% remain; after removing undecided voters, the figures are 52%-48%.The Scottish Conservatives are adamant that there is no appetite for a Scottish independence referendum; the other major UK-wide parties are also officially opposed another referendum. The majority of poll subjects were in favor of a referendum in 2021.(via Bruce Sterling) Read the rest

Here's your daily dose of deepfaking and Keanu. Read the rest

These highly rated noise cancelling bluetooth headphones are normally but if you use code MPOW284A1 at checkout on Amazon, you can get them at a much lower price. They are USB chargeable and have a wired mode, too. Read the rest

Good morning Jakarta. Macam mana lah diorang terfikir nak develop taman perumahan atas bangunan? pic.twitter.com/TNQrnEQ8eA— shahrirbahar (@shahrirbahar1) June 24, 2019 Jakarta's Comsmo Park is an entire village built on top of a ten story building above a shopping mall and parking garage. Built a decade ago, Cosmo Park only recently garnered attention when @shahrirbahar1 posted the above drone photo of the curious community. From The Guardian:“It’s a lovely oasis,” says (resident) Fazila Kapasi, as she tails her four-year-old son around on his bike along one of the complex’s neat roads. “I cannot recommend it enough.”Fazila and her husband moved to Jakarta from Mumbai, and chose Cosmo Park partly because they were concerned about Jakarta’s floods. But after living there for six years Fazila can reel off a string of other advantages, including that it is less isolating than standard apartment living.In the afternoon Fazila stops to chat to her neighbours, while most days she and her son feed the pigeons that live in a nearby tree. She also has her own garden, where she has a hammock and space to grow aubergines, tomatoes and chillies.“It is so good. There is so much open space, my son can ride his bike around. It’s so central, it’s really safe, and there is a lovely neighbourhood feel,” she says. Read the rest

A tree discovered a way to thrive in an urban environment by squeezing through a multi-story drainpipe. via GfycatImage: gfycat Read the rest

The Art of Warez by Oliver Payne, celebrates the rise and fall of ANSI art in the 1980s and early 90s. ANSI graphics were made from small rectangles. There were 256 rectangles to choose from - 4 density patterns and 16 colors per pattern.Image: The Art of Warez/Vimeo Read the rest

Brazilian drug lord Clauvino da Silva attempted to escape a Rio de Janeiro prison on Saturday by impersonating his teenage daughter. From The Guardian:hen Silva – AKA Baixinho (“Shorty”) – requested the return of his daughter’s ID card at the prison entrance, officers saw through his low-budget disguise and asked him to strip in front of the cameras. Reports on Monday said the 42-year-old drug trafficker had been moved to solitary confinement but was unlikely to face extra prison time since his unsuccessful bid for freedom had not involved violence.His daughter, Ana Gabriele Leandro da Silva, who had remained behind in the prison as part of the ruse, seemed to have been less lucky.According to Rio newspaper Extra she will be charged with abetting prison escape, a crime punishable with up to two years in prison. Seven other visitors – including a pregnant woman suspected of smuggling the disguise into the jail – are also being investigated. Read the rest

"Coca-Cola: Blade Roller," directed by David Fincher in 1993. (via ObscureMedia) Read the rest

Last month Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe announced that shipments of high tech equipment and material to South Korea will undergo additional screening to make sure the imported materials are not being used for military or weapons purposes. The screenings will start on August 28. Until the announcement, South Korea' enjoyed most favored nation status with Japan, but now it will be treated like any other Asian country Japan trades with. Many Koreans have taken to the streets to protest.Asian Boss went to Seoul to interview Koreans about the new restrictions.Image: YouTube/Asian Boss Read the rest

Today, Hong Kongers are staging a general strike, the latest peak in a series of escalating protests over democratic reforms in the face of increased pressure from Beijing and its autocrat-for-life, Xi Jinping. Writing in the London Review of Books, Chaohua Wang -- an exiled leader of the pro-democratic student uprising that was crushed with the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square -- provides a history of the pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong, showing how the Tiananmen massacre only hardened the resolve of the surviving activists, and how that spirit has been nurtured in Hong Kong, with successive waves of protesters adapting their tactics to survive the increasingly brutal suppression that Beijing has visited upon Hong Kong.It's a vital piece of historical context, illuminating the long history that has led to this moment, while also demonstrating just how brave, smart, principled and resourceful today's strikers have been. It shows the lessons that Hong Kong's pro-mainland puppet regime were too arrogant to learn, and explains how Beijing has been caught flat-footed by the uprising.The protests have not diminished over the last two months. They have instead become ever more confrontational, vis à vis the police, the Hong Kong government and even the central government’s liaison office. Yet public support has not waned. There is a silent consensus that the not-yet-named protest movement is a collective vote of no confidence in Beijing. Beijing must understand this, more or less, but it has not acknowledged as much. Its first press conference on the current situation in Hong Kong was given by the Hong Kong Macau Office of the State Council in Beijing on 29 July. Read the rest

It's as if the Dog of Wisdom and Hi Stranger had a puppy together. I'd like to credit the genius who created this, but can't find the source.Previously: Do not watch Hi Stranger while high. Read the rest

I've been back in Canada since May and I am certain I am losing my mind. It's a certainty that takes hold of me, every year.We come home because we have to. As Canadians, we can only stay in the Untied States for a maximum of six months at a time. This past year, we stayed just shy of five months in the United States and, another two, down in Mexico. We drove back across the Canadian border with a few days left to spare. This dates-in-da-States wiggle room is important as I sometimes have to head south for work. I'd rather not get into dutch with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Being back in Canada for half the year is , a must if we want to hold on to our sweet-ass socialized medical care (which we totally do.) and for my wife to return to work. While she's a certified dive instructor, she also loves the land-locked gig she works for half of the year. We also come home because we want to. I have few friends and work remotely. Disappointment and distrust have left me happy in the small company of my partner, our pooch and a few well-chosen friends that I seldom see. My missus? Not so much. Community is important to her. Her sister's family—now my family—means the world to her. Reacquainting herself with her people, each year, brings her a happiness that I try hard to understand. I love to see her light up around her friends. Read the rest

It is, evidently, not a nice job. But you do get to be alone, if that's your thing, with The Inventory, boxing things all day. This eBay seller gets into the nitty gritty of how he sources and sells individual items and it's surprisingly interesting how much the garage sale trash gets (Damaged Oakleys, $20) -- and how little the cool vintage items (Real Pyrex carafe, $5). Raiding the rear alleys of strip malls for free boxes is an clever and maybe obvious hack, but watching him sift through those recycling dumpsters gave me a whiff of some pretty grim work. If he did his groceries on Amazon, he'd have an endless supply. Read the rest

The summer of movies that Séamus willing to pay to see in an actual pay-forty-bucks-for-a-small-popcorn movie theater continues!Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff spent two years hanging out at the oldest skate park in Santiago, Chile, looking to gain a window into the lives of the folks who congregated their to skate their days away. The documentary they came away with, however, is arguably one million times better. They framed their film through the lives of two stray dogs, Football and Chola, that call the skate park home.Sadly, I live in oil and cowboy country, just now. I'll likely have to wait to watch it once it hits DVD. Read the rest

If there's one piece of gear that's essential for both outdoor trailblazers and urban homeowners, it's a good flashlight. And since it doesn't take much more dough to go the extra mile, you might as well get a great one. Here are eight super-durable flashlights and versatile lanterns that will make sure you're never in the dark. So much for the boogeyman.Bell + Howell Taclight Flashlight & Lantern BundleThe lantern can be folded down to the size of a smartphone, and the flashlight features five distinct modes, including a strobe effect that can stun potential attackers. Both are water-resistant, and together make a kit that's a lifesaver for any camp. Pick up the Bell + Howell Taclight Flashlight & Lantern Bundle for $25.99, a full 67% off the MSRP.1Tac Professional Grade Tactical FlashlightThis portable unit puts out a big shine: Up to 1200 lumens, or 20% more light than a standard XML T6 LED. And durability? Not only is it waterproofed to an I65 rating, but it'll also still work whether that water is freezing cold or boiling hot. Get this 1Tac Professional Grade Tactical Flashlight for $47.99, a 14% discount off the list price.1TAC TC1200 Tactical Flashlight KitGoing off the grid or awhile? 1Tac's survival guide includes the TC1200, plus a wall charger, car adaptor, portable rechargeable battery, and emergency holster. Basically, everything you need to keep your path lit no matter where you walk. The 1TAC TC1200 Tactical Flashlight Kit is now $79.99, more than 10% off the original price. Read the rest

When Hawai'i-born Kamaka Dias joined the Peace Corps, he completely shaved his head and facial hair off. Then, during his two years serving in Madagascar, he just let it all grow out. No trims, no shaves, nothing. He's home now and has put together this fun and clever video showing his hair growing back in over those two years abroad. He writes: 1. I didn't touch my hair or facial hair at all for 2 years after I shaved it all off. Saved a lot on shaving cream and haircuts!2. This was filmed in Madagascar; the fourth largest island in the world with some of the kindest people you'll ever meet.3. Some highlights of my service: I taught English to about 500 middle and high schoolers during my two years and raised $3,000 to buy 11 computers for my community among other things. Also cooked a lot of pancakes and pooped in a hole.4. Most of the shots were taken during the school breaks and weekends proving that it is possible to work hard and play even harder ;p ...(Likecool) Read the rest

Some medieval mystics did not bathe as part of a self-scourging ritual, and some medieval sources warned against "excessive" bathing (by which they meant, "patronizing co-ed bathhouses where orgies took place" not "avoiding getting clean"), and some non-medieval, 16th and 18th century doctors warned that bathing was bad for you, but they weren't medieval. Medieval people bathed.In an exasperated and delightfully sweary and very informative piece, Dr Eleanor Janega, the medivalist behind the Going Medieval blog ("It exists to explain the medieval influences on the every day world, and hopefully to get people through the every day grind of life in late stage capitalism") enumerates the luxuriant bathing culture of medieval Europe, from peasants to lords, who used soap and deodorant, scented their water, and patronized bathhouses that are European analogs to Japan's glorious onsens.You, my gentle readers may have picked up on something here, and that is that our girls the sex workers be showing right TF up in the public baths. This meant that whether or not you admitted them made the difference between whether you were keeping a bathhouse or a brothel. Here in London, of course the Stews in Southwark were essentially brothels where you could also have a bath (and were largely owned by the Bishop of Winchester (as you do). Having said that, there were plenty of people who went to bathhouses just to go to bathhouses and by 1292 in Paris, there were at least 26 running that could give you just a bath.[4] Medieval people related to this very much as we do having a spa day, and medieval bathhouses often included steam baths along with big wooden tubs where you could sit down and enjoy a meal. Read the rest

At least 10 people were killed after a gunman opened fire in a Dayton nightclub early Sunday, targeting revelers in the Ohio city's Oregon Historic District. 26 more victims were reportedly injured. The shooter was shot dead by police within a minute.The incident came only hours after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas which left at least 20 people dead.It also took place less than a week after three people were killed and 15 injured at a food festival in California.Mayor Whaley ... said it was the 250th mass shooting in the US this year. But the Gun Violence Archive, which categorises mass shootings as four or more people shot or killed (excluding the shooter), said there have in fact been 251. Read the rest

Everybody thinks they know their dog and it's true that you probably share a unique bond with your pet if they've been a part of the family for any length of time. But even though the way you nurture them is important, there are aspects of nature that you can't control.That's why serious pet owners have been going the extra mile with a DNA test like the Embark Dog DNA Test Kit.DNA tests for your dog? It might sound weird if you only know the science from baby-daddy reveals on tabloid talk shows. But these tests can actually help avoid drama with your dog.With Embark, all you do is take a swab from your dog's cheek and send it in for testing. When your lab results come back, you'll know your dog's exact breed and ancestry from a database of more than 250 breeds. That can tell you a lot about your best friend, from his or her predilections to disease to base personality traits. Embark can even help you discover and connect with your dogs living relatives if they're on the extensive family tree that gets created.One of the most popular kits out there, the Embark Dog DNA Test Kit is now $174.99, a 12% discount off the list price.You can also go with the DNA My Dog Breed Identification Test, which is a more medically-focused version.Just take the test, and in two weeks after sending your sample away you'll know all the fun stuff: Breed mix, personality traits and the like. Read the rest

At least 19 people were killed after a gunman opened fire in an El Paso Walmart on Saturday, targeting back-to-school shoppers. Forty more victims were reportedly injured. The shooter was taken into custody, unharmed.The first reports of a shooting emerged at about 11:00 local time (18:00 GMT).Police said the Walmart was "at capacity" with shoppers buying back-to-school supplies at the time of the attack.He said the suspect was a white male in his 20s. No officers had fired their weapons in apprehending him, he added.Twitter's summary of events:- The Associated Press says hospitals are treating 22 victims- Texas AG Ken Paxton says there are "between probably 15 and 20 deaths"- El Paso police say a white male in his 20s is in custody- Situation is no longer active and is transitioning to a crime scene Read the rest

I do most of my reading on a Kindle, but I also read a lot of print books, and I need a way to read them without disturbing Carla when I routinely wake up in the middle of the night. I use a small clip-on reading light like this one. I don't have this particular model but it has good reviews on Amazon and is on sale for just Read the rest