Boing Boing

Tokyo is a sound-saturated city: bustling traffic, train station announcements, people everywhere, the barrage of loud adverts, drunk salarymen singing in the Ginza streets at night, and even the loud caws of the Tokyo’s infamous large crows. Then there’s the seemingly ubiquitous background music in shopping centers, department stores, offices, and super markets.Tokyo Listening – Sound and Sense in a Contemporary City, by anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Lorraine Plourde is a compelling examination of listening cultures via four main ethnographic sites in Tokyo which includes an experimental music venue, classical music cafes, office workspaces, and department stores. The book provides fascinating insights on two different types of sonic spaces: places where people go specifically for the music (experimental music venue, classical music café), places where the music comes to them (offices, department stores).Tokyo Listening looks at how sound and music impacts life, leisure, work and productivity in modern day Tokyo. Plourde’s analysis is academic but her prose, narratives, and supporting historical background explanations are fascinating, clear and accessible for non-academics like myself. There is a precision and clarity in the descriptions of listening spaces – whether in a classical music listening café or sterile modern office – often written as a first-person account that places the reader into the setting. Overall, it’s this attention to detail combined with Plourde’s ground-breaking field research and respect for the subject that makes Tokyo Listening an illuminating work.I caught up with Plourde to get more insights on her research and field work presented in Tokyo Listening. Read the rest

Purportedly searching for a missing girl, a cop barged into a house in Carpentersville, Illinois, without a warrant and choked a teenage boy who was home alone. The attack was captured on video and the family is suing.In video of the raid, the 16-year-old boy, who wishes to remain anonymous, was knocked off his feet by the officer, who charges through the doorway. ... As the officer's partner searches upstairs, there's more grabbing and pushing. Twice the officer grabs the boy's neck, and then he throws him on the couch again. The missing girl is not at the home, but the officers handcuff and arrest the boy, whose mother is at work."It was an illegal search of this home," said Keenan Saulter, attorney for the family. "It was an illegal seizure of that minor, and ultimately it was a false arrest."The Washington Post reports that the cops arrested the boy only after he told them they were being recorded on video. Read the rest

Behold StoryAI: Type in a few sentences, and the model autocompletes your story, writing a few hundred more words that, by its calculations, could plausibly follow.It was created by the folks at BotSociety Inc, using the GPT-2 774M model created by OpenAI, which is eerily good. As an example, it was fed these three sentences as a seed ...President Trump is buying Greenland in a surprise deal. The state of California is traded in return. The deal was well received by Republicans.... and it generated this following story:The Washington Post reports:"Trump said the country's unique geography and natural mineral resources would be 'an asset' to the state over its lifespans. He is expected to move swiftly to make good the investment in the $10.8 billion purchase of a national park that he and the president of Denmark, Jens Stoltenberg, announced last year."The sale of the state could help the U.S. in its fight against global warming, which is already heating up the planet. The government of Denmark says the purchase will pay for a 10-year expansion of a national park in the north of the island, which is one of the world's most biodiverse areas."This move doesn't come as a surprise to political analysts. A recent study by the World Wildlife Fund and the Smithsonian's National Center for Atmospheric Research revealed several Arctic nations have substantial oil reserves and natural gas reserves and they are in talks to trade them in for the Arctic. Read the rest

If you have "large" hands, it's your lucky day. Amazon has a box of 100 nitrile gloves on sale for just . I use them for any kind of messy work - gluing PVC pipe, wiping up cat barf, fixing greasy garage door mechanisms. I appreciate having a never ending supply, so I just bought another box. Read the rest

In the late 1980s, Woolworths made a training video to help its staff catch shoplifters. Video of actual shoplifters are narrated by a former shoplifter, who says things like, "People do not shop looking back and forth. Watch how people move," and "watch people's hands. We steal with them."See also: Gentleman shoplifts a drink right before inquiring about a job there[via Weird Universe]Image: YouTube Read the rest

Pete Davidson seemed to hate the students at University of Central Florida during his stand up performance last night. The Saturday Night Live comedian was triggered by students who were recording him on their phones.“I don’t have to be here. I can just give them their money back because I don’t give a fuck,” he yelled. He called the students "privileged little assholes," "idiots," and "fucking retarded." The audience laughs at first, but the room seems to get tense as his rant goes on.Jeez, not sure where his sense of humor went. Read the rest

Apple wants you to "unwind with the whispered legend of Ghost Forest," with this ASMR video designed to send tingles through your body.In a previous Boing Boing post, Gareth Branwyn explains ASMR in a nutshell: "For those unfamiliar, ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is an intense tingling sensation some people claim they experience when they hear certain soft voices, pleasant repetitive sounds, or while watching someone doing a particularly mundane, repetitive activity."See also:A neuroscientist explains the "brain orgasm" response of ASMR videosChina announces crackdown on ASMR videos as pornographicImage: YouTube/Apple Read the rest

Photographer Claire Droppert experiments with using gravity as a mechanic for art, tossing natural objects in the air and snapshotting how they fly and fall. She's just released a second set of "Sand Creatures" -- gorgeous and ghostly shapes created by clumps of sand being tossed in the air, and photographed as they begin to break apart.As she writes on her site ...“Sand comes alive and creatures are born in frozen moments of weightlessness...” [snip]... these are captured on beaches in Holland, and contain landscape, natural elements and zero gravity. The Sand Creatures series focuses on nature in an unexpected way. The explosive and at times powdery scenes of the grainy sand being thrown into the air can be taken as a manifesting life form, and they become sand creatures. Here are a few more of them ...You can see more of Droppert's work via her Instagram, Twitter, her online print store, or Facebook accounts.(Thanks to Droppert for permission to use her photos here!) Read the rest

Leave it to Japan to design a modern television that's styled to look like it's from the fifties. That's just what Japanese electronics brand Doshisha has done with this fun, retro-styled cabinet that houses an LCD TV. Technabob:This ’50s-style TV has a wooden cabinet, real working volume and channel knobs on front, and stands on spindly wooden legs. While its facade looks a bit like the cool, but fragile Bakelite of the era, I’m betting it’s just cheap plastic that’s been colored that way. Inside, it’s got a 20″ LCD screen with HDMI, AV and USB inputs.And, because the TV itself isn't hogging up space in the cabinet, the top opens and reveals a place to store things:The bad news? This TV isn't going to work outside of Japan. Bummer. For ~$786 plus shipping, it better be able to do a lot more than look pretty. (Pee-wee Herman) Read the rest

Hackaday has a great post about a recreation of the GENIAC, an electric toy from 1955 that used simple switches to creative a turn-based interactive game narrative.The GENIAC, short for "GENIus Almost-automatic Computer", lets the player work through a scenario called "The Uranian Shipment and the Space Pirates", where the goal is to figure out whether a ship traveling from Callisto to Earth is a uranium shipment or a pirate vessel disguised as a shipment. Depending on how you decide to react, you rotate the switches back and forth and the game displays the reaction via four lightbulbs -- "PIRATES WIN", "ALL LOST", "NO COMBAT", and "PIRATES KILLED".The GENIAC is super rare, but Michael Gardi -- who has a track record of doing fabulous builds of old lost logic games from the predigital era (previously) -- created a functioning model. If you want to built it yourself, he's made a guide on Instructables.As Tom Nardi notes over at Hackaday: This might seem a little silly to modern audiences, but thanks to a well written manual that featured a collection of compelling projects, the GENIAC managed to get a lot of mileage out of a couple light bulbs and some wire. In fact, [Mike] says that the GENIAC is often considered one of the first examples of an interactive electronic narrative, as the carefully crafted stories from the manual allowed players to go on virtual adventures long before the average kid had ever heard of a “video game”. Read the rest

Normally at this time, I'd already be in Black Rock City. But I left on such a high note last year that I decided to take a year off. Still, I've been feeling tinges of FOMO and have been looking for ways to feel part of this year's Burn somehow. I thought some of you might be in the same boat (Mutant Vehicle?), so I'll share what I've been doing to stave off the FOMO from the comfort of my own home.1. I've been watching the official livestream webcast. Apparently, Vimeo is sponsoring it and it's better than I've ever seen it. Crystal clear. Plus, the temperature of Black Rock City is posted in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. At 9 a.m., it was 89 degrees. Here in Alameda, where I live, it was 64 degrees at the same time. FOMO decreasing... (Seriously though, the webcast is terrific!)2. I also signed up for the BMIR Phone Experimentâ„¢ 2019 which promises to put an on-playa Burner on the phone with me at some random time. People calling you may or may not know anything about this sign up form, why they're calling you, or what's going on at all.Feel free to say whatever you'd like or mess with anyone calling you. Really! Anything goes, but we ask that you aren't a racist, a perv, or a racist perv. Gee, thanks for that. I haven't gotten a call yet but am looking forward to my first one. Read the rest

This is the hardest man I’ve ever seen in my life pic.twitter.com/muRQGCDPF9— Kenjac (@JackKennedy) August 25, 2019 “No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.” --Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Read the rest

Antonio De La Rosa, from Spain, just paddled his way from San Francisco to Honolulu. It took the ultra-endurance athlete 76 days in his stand-up paddle boat, celebrating his 50th birthday by himself along the way.According to AP:He ate dehydrated food, using heated water, and sometimes fished. He paddled eight-to-10 hours daily and slept every night. But he was always tired because he woke up hourly to check on his gear.He said he was disappointed to see fishing gear refuse every day of his voyage — including nets and lineHe used a tracking device to record every minute of his journey and called it a record because he believes no one has ever done what he accomplished. It’s a record because “I certify it,” he said with a laugh.Here's a video of him approaching Waikiki:Image: YouTube Read the rest

When you say you're super into the great outdoors and nature and -- something weird shows up.From Myles and Willows on Instagram. View this post on Instagram Don't you feed that duck my treats!! 🦆 ____________________________________________________ #whattheduck #iloveducks #quackquack #ducksofinstagram #dogsofbark #dachshund #dachshunds #lakelife #dogsofinstaworld #outdoorswithdogs #dachshundsofinstagram #9gagcute #buzzfeedanimals #dachshundworld #dogsandpals #pupflix #petco #9gagcute #chien #perrosdeinstagram #bestwoof #minidachshund #wildlife #sausagedogcentral #animalscoA post shared by Myles, Willow, Finn & Ember (@mylesandwillows) on Oct 9, 2018 at 4:26pm PDT Read the rest

It's rough out there for Uber and Lyft contract drivers. And getting rougher.Based on data from some 14,756 fares, Jalopnik reports that in recent years the ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft have slashed the amount of pay drivers receive by taking a larger portion of each fare. This amounts to slashing driver pay a lot more than they publicly report, Jalopnik reports.“Jalopnik asked drivers to send us fare receipts showing a breakdown of how much the rider paid for the trip, how much of that fare Uber or Lyft kept, and what the driver earned.”Excerpt from what they found:In total, we received 14,756 fares. These came from two sources: the web form where drivers could submit fares individually, and via email where some drivers sent us all their fares from a given time period.Of all the fares Jalopnik examined, Uber kept 35 percent of the revenue, while Lyft kept 38 percent. These numbers are roughly in line with a previous study by Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute which concluded Uber’s take rate to be roughly one-third, or 33 percent.Of the drivers who emailed us breakdowns for all of their fares in a given time period—ranging from a few months to more than a year—Uber kept, on average, 29.6 percent. Lyft pocketed 34.5 percent.Those take rates are 10.6 percent and 8.5 percent higher than Uber and Lyft’s publicly reported figures, respectively.Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say [Dhruv Mehrotra and Aaron Gordon] Read the rest

“Undisclosed amount of products” stolen from the clinic by

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No clear leader of the pack, yet.

Federal lawsuit challenges new rule allowing indefinite detention of migrant kids

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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