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Daniel Danger says: "my post-art plan is opening a grilled cheese cart. it will serve $1 grilled cheese made with white bread, bulk cheese, bulk butter, and thats it. greasy as hell. no options, no artisan, nothing. there will be no change. you give me $5 youre getting 5, you figure your own life out"<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ok, finished the trailer design. <a href="https://t.co/KQizSptz0U">pic.twitter.com/KQizSptz0U</a></p>&mdash; Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) <a href="https://twitter.com/tinymediaempire/status/1137073389410181121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2019</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Image: Daniel Danger/Twitter Read the rest

New wave comic artist Gary Panter who famously designed the sets on Pee-Wee's Playhouse also created this fantastic TV commercial for Crunch Fitness in the 1990s. I wish this were a full-length cartoon! Animation by Tissa David; voices by James Urbaniak.(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

Keanu Reeves went on stage at E3 to pitch Cyberpunk 2077, an open-world game from CD PROJEKT RED. Release date is April 16, 2020.Image: YouTube Read the rest

In these two excellent short animations, data science professor Jeffrey Leek of the Simply Statistics blog and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and his university colleague, postdoctoral research Lucy McGowan, explain how "in medicine, there’s often a disconnect between news headlines and the scientific research they cover." Read the rest

Two officers at Cuyahoga Country Jail were filmed beating up a man strapped into to a restraint chair, and the video was released to the media. Nicholas Evans and Timothy Dugan are each charged with felonious assault, unlawful restraint, and interfering with civil rights. Evans also tampered with the evidence, prosecutors say, when he turned off his bodycam to prevent it recording the beating.wall camera footage was released to News 5 – it clearly shows both officers punching the inmate repeatedly in the head as he sits in a restraint chair with both his arms bound with his mouth covered. The video shows the officers speaking to the inmate, but audio was not recorded.The indictments allege that Evans and Dugan left the inmate in the restraint chair for over two hours after beating him, instead of immediately transporting him to medical.Be warned: the video depicts a brutal attack on a man who cannot even raise his hands to shield his face. The machine-vision quality mades it particularly disturbing. Read the rest

There is still time to have a beautiful Santa Fe Stoneworks pocket knife delivered for Father's Day.I kinda like the model with the red stones in the handle, however, when gift giving I go for the Damascus steel.I do find it a lot easier to just carry around an Opinel, however. Read the rest

One's a crazy guy in a bow tie. The other's Tucker Carlson. Read the rest

The 5-Minute Crafts youtube channel offers 35 wonderful uses for cement. You can put cement in novelty ice cube trays to make cement sticks. You can submerge books in cement to make beautiful, useful cement books. You can pour it into coke bottles or light bulbs to make unique home accouterments. Or into plastic bags, to create... gnome heads? Imagine a crowd of happy young people leaping together on a grassy hillside, captured aloft in a free-frame moment, arms high and smiles broad, a chorus crying out in joy: "Cement!" [via Metafilter] Read the rest

It's been two years since the Grenfell tower block in north Kensington burned, killing at least 72 people: the blaze revealed deep corruption and indifference among Britain's richest people and the millionaire Conservative politicians who do their business in Parliament, from the fact that the highly flammable cladding responsible for the blaze was added so that the building would be more attractive to rich people in nearby luxury tower blocks, to the fact that the fire came five years after Tory PM David Cameron declared war on "safety culture" to the fact that Tory politicians (overwhelming landlords themselves) had voted down a bill to require landlords to ensure that the properties they rented were safe and "fit for human habitation", to the fact that local Tory councillors had deliberately chosen a more fire-prone cladding to save 5.7% on the cost of materials -- the same local government that forced Grenfell survivors to bid against each other for new homes and then paid the same company that installed the flammable cladding to replace it.We may never know exactly how many other towers are at risk: the Tories say that "IP rights" prevent them from disclosing which blocks failed their housing safety tests, and refuse to disclose which towers are clad in the same materials in Grenfell because otherwise, the terrorists will win (no, seriously).Meanwhile, the companies involved have paid no meaningful consequences for their role in the Grenfell deaths: Rydon, the contractor had a banner year and handed out whopping pay rises for its execs, and the company that made the cladding continues to insist that the problem could have been solved with a kitchen fire-extinguisher. Read the rest

This alarmingly funny video shows an "Apple Engineer" explaining the company's forthcoming $999 monitor stand. This guy is better than the "Downfall" meme!Also funny: to see people who had complained vocally about Apple's lack of truly "pro" gear denouncing it when it finally came along, because it was too pro. Perhaps Apple should have made a promotional video shamelessly explaining the stand and its veblen-tech price. People would have hated it, all the same, but at least it would have been clear who the customer was.If by "pro" we didn't mean that kind of "corporate buyer" level, what does it mean? That fuzzy-edged class of designers, developers and "creatives" often identified as Apple fans?Here's one way of looking at it: if you're all in for Apple and were waiting to spend $2500 on a modular computer to edit photos or book designs or write beautifully-typeset articles or the simple code that generates them—people like me!—Apple's answer to that is no. We can get a non-modular iMac, or we can get a Mac Mini with an eGPU and external monitor for the specialized work that requires those things.If someone sold an eGPU that actually matches the Mac Mini (they're all either huge ugly PCI-slotted toasters or plasticy MXM-slotted bricks) I bet they'd clean up. Hell, I'd be all in for a pro version with XLR connectors, phantom power—and maybe a SCSI port or two. Read the rest

After five years without an update, MS Flight Simulator is getting refreshed. The XBox exclusive was demoed at the E3 trade show Sunday. Some of the scenes are spectacularly realistic. I would have been unable to tell it was video of a simulation when I was a kid, playing stuff like F-18 Interceptor and Falcon. This makes it both more intense (because I can experience a more perfect replacement for reality) and less impressive (because I'm no longer afflicted with the xennial awe derived from comparing the quality of a simulation to the simulator's known technical limitations). Read the rest

There is a myriad of ways to market on the web. With a limitless audience out there, its almost always true that whatever you're selling, there's a buyer out there. It's just a matter of reaching them.Whether that business is your own start-up or an established company, the principles in the Complete Digital Marketing 12-in-1 Course will show you multiple roads to your target market.This 38-hour online master class incorporates lectures, quizzes, and exercises to show you the best selling techniques on the web. From a foundation in marketing principles, you'll proceed to learn the secrets of SEO and Google AdWords that will bring your brand to the top of the hit list in any search. When those buyers start clicking, you'll be able to build an efficient website to drive sales and email subscriptions. And of course, you'll learn how to engage your audience on major social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.Right now, you can pick up the Complete Digital Marketing 12-in-1 Course for $14.99, more than 90% off the MSRP. Read the rest

A legendary video game franchise pretty much flushed a 15-year legacy down the toilet with 2015's "Halo 5: Guardians." This next installment will hopefully erase the bitter memory of the game where the UNSC ever doubted gaming's greatest hero: the Master Chief, Spartan John-117.Locke, the dude who tried to hunt down the Chief, should just be forgotten, an ignored and forgotten storyline. The Chief and Cortana are all we need, and maybe a Keyes relative of some sort. Read the rest

I guess business is slow.Forward:“When Harry Met Sally” hit theaters July 12, 1989, and it combined all good things in the world — writer Nora Ephron’s wit, Central Park in the fall, Billy Crystal in a sweater, and, of course, Meg Ryan performing an elaborate, fake orgasm at the historic Katz’s Deli on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.To celebrate three decades of this gorgeous film (in which Carrie Fisher was under-used, if you ask us,) the family-run Katz’s Deli will hold a search for a person who can fake an orgasm as well as Meg Ryan did in the iconic scene in the movie, Forbes reports. The company’s World War II-era slogan, “Send A Salami To Your Boy In The Army,” is living up to its lascivious sound at last.Heavy breathers of any gender can simply show up at the 131 year-old deli on July 12 and wait their turn to sit at the exact table where Meg Ryan displayed, on behalf of all women, the power of acting. A panel of judges will decide which fake orgasm (yes, it does have to be fake) is most likely to make other patrons say, “I’ll have what she’s having.”Honestly, Los Angeles delicatessens are better than NYC. Chicago and San Francisco are wastelands. Read the rest

There's a lot of hidden treasure on the VHS tapes gathering dust on thrift store shelves, pawn shop bins, or maybe even your own attic. The thing is, those treasures won't last forever. Depending on the storage, VHS media might last as few as 10 years.If you've got memories that are worth preserving, it might be time to invest in the VHS-to-Digital Video Transfer Device and Software Package. And thanks to the interface, it's easier and faster to save those memories than you might think.Even if your technological savvy hasn't advanced much since the days of Blockbuster Video, this software's three-step process makes the copying process painless. You can capture video from any composite source along with audio (no sound card required), all through a high-speed USB 2.1 interface. VHS or DVD video can both be converted just as easily with high-speed rendering, ready to view or share on the web or any mobile device.The VHS-to-Digital Video Transfer Device and Software Package is on sale now for $16.99, 75% off the MSRP. Read the rest

As you may have heard by now, news began to break Friday night that Maker Media, home to Make: magazine, Maker Faire, and Maker Shed, was folding up their big top and calling it quits (though founder Dale Dougherty has vowed to attempt a resurrection in some form). As the sad news began to thread its way through social media, the sense of shock, grief, and confusion was palpable. As when a beloved artist, entertainer, or other famous figure dies, people began posting pictures of themselves with the deceased, sharing peak experiences at Maker Faire, and sharing stories of the impact that Make:, Maker Faire, and the maker movement has had on their lives. Many of these have been quite inspiring and moving.As someone who worked with or at Make: since its inception in 2005, my inboxes began filling up with people asking me if I was OK, if they could do anything to help (bring over cake and whiskey?), and they too began pouring out their feelings to me. Several people shared stories on social media and asked me to share some of mine. This made me immediately think of an essay I wrote for my 2014 memoir, Borg Like Me. Called "Make vs. The Blob," in it, I attempted to capture some of the magic and inspired sense of wonder I experienced while working at Maker Media and attending nearly all of the Bay Area, New York, and the two Austin Maker Faires. As part of that piece, I shared three particularly enchanting tableaux from the 2007 Austin Maker Faire. Read the rest

The payday lending industry is the pinnacle of predatory, corrupt capitalism, unabashed loan sharks who prey on the poorest and most desperate Americans, charging interest rates in the hundreds and even thousands of percent APR, using strongarm tactics including threats of violence and rape to collect on debts, and papering over the whole thing by flooding notice-and-comment proceedings with bot-generated comments and secretly bribing academics to write papers explaining that usury is a social good. Payday lending got a lot more vicious and a lot more profitable under Obama, thanks to the financial crisis and the decision to bail out banks but not the people they stole from, but in a parting shot, Obama created Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which imposed modest regulations on the sector, just as Obama was leaving office. Predictably, Trump reversed all that, even making a loan-shark an assistant AG (the Trump campaign took millions from payday lender PACs).Now, Propublica reports from the second annual payday lending convention to be held at the Trump Doral resort (the industry had never held an event at a Trump property prior to Trump's election), which have pumped at least $1m into Trump's personal coffers. The investigation reveals the suite of measures that Trump has put in place to benefit the predatory lending industry, and describe how Warren and Obama's plan to Republican-proof the CFPB by giving it an untouchable executive who wouldn't be subject to executive or congressional meddling backfired spectacularly when their chairman, Richard Cordray, quit to run unsuccessfully for the governorship of Ohio, leaving his position vacant for Trump to fill with a series of deplorable swamp creatures who have gutted the bureau. Read the rest

In 1971, the Australian indigenous artist Harold Thomas created the iconic Australian Aboriginal Flag which has since been named one of the "official flags of Australia," which resulted in Thomas successfully suing to assert copyright over the design.Thomas subsequently sold the "exclusive, worldwide copyright license" to a business called WAM Clothing. WAM is using its copyright to target the aboriginal-owned social enterprise Spark Health whose registered social purpose is "health promotion and Aboriginal Community engagement" and who manufacture promotional clothing bearing Thomas's flag. Spark has taken issue with Thomas's licensing choices and has started an online petition, calling for the creation of "viable channels for new licensing agreements, especially those for Aboriginal organisations and businesses." Read the rest

Have you started using the oven more than your microwave yet? For most of us, it's an important signpost on the road from adolescence to adulthood. But it doesn't mean cooking has to get harder. Believe it or not, "easy" and "tasty" are not mutually exclusive adjectives in the kitchen - as long as you have the right tools. Here are ten pieces of kitchen tech that will elevate your meals no matter who you're making them for.VitaChef Electric Steamer Skillet Cooking SystemWhen it comes to fire up-and-forget meal prep, nothing beats a slow cooker - unless it's a modular system like the VitaChef, which can slow-cook, steam, bake or saute. It comes with multiple removable plates to handle everything from burgers to lobster, and the PFOA-free Vitanium surface makes it easy to clean. The VitaChef Electric Steamer Skillet Cooking System is now $99.99, a full 66% off the list price.Damasukasu 3-Piece Japanese Chef Knife Set The undulating patterns on these precision blades are just a beautiful side effect of the nitrogen-cooling process that's used to make them. Rust-resistant and triple-riveted, this cutlery is built to take on the tough jobs. This Damasukasu 3-Piece Japanese Chef Knife Set is now $49.99, more than 90% off the original MSRP.20-Piece Non-Stick Cookware With Lids & Bakeware SetYou can usually count on non-stick pans to scratch or otherwise lose coating after a couple of years. Not this set, which sports a PFOA-free Ti-Ceramic layer that combines titanium with ceramic for a perfect mix of durability and slickness. Read the rest

In memory of Leon Redbone and Dr. John who both died in recent days, please enjoy the duo performing "Frost the Snowman" recorded for Redbone's 1988 album Christmas Island.(r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

Sheletta Brundidge, @TwoHauteMamas1 on Twitter, shared an awesome story about her son. And there's video.Brundidge is the co-host of the Two Haute Mommas podcast. Her child Daniel has non-verbal autism. Mom tweeted, “We had an #oldtownroad miracle at my house. My son Daniel has #autism and doesn't talk. We caught him humming the @LilNasX and @billyraycyrus tune the other day. Then Bless God, my baby started singing the song on his own. His therapists have started to use it in his sessions!”Pretty cool.We had an #oldtownroad miracle at my house. My son Daniel has #autism and doesn't talk. We caught him humming the @LilNasX and @billyraycyrus tune the other day. Then Bless God, my baby started singing the song on his own. His therapists have started to use it in his sessions! pic.twitter.com/vtCNWeg6ax— Sheletta Brundidge (@TwoHauteMamas1) June 4, 2019“At first I thought I was hallucinating,” Sheletta told Today Parents. “When I realized it was really happening, I almost started screaming, but loud noises are upsetting to Daniel, so I stayed very calm.”Excerpt:"Daniel went from humming to actually singing the lyrics," Sheletta told TODAY Parents. “I was crying so hard that tears were dropping on his head. I was like, ‘This is the beginning. This is the light!’ It took him 6 months to learn the letter 'A' using flash cards, but he taught himself a song all by himself."Sheletta, who co-hosts the Two Haute Mamas podcast, took to Twitter on June 4 to share the incredible footage — where it quickly went viral with more than 1.32 million views. Read the rest

Peter Bright (Twitter: @DrPizza), best known as a contributing writer to the tech publication Ars Technica, has been arrested on charges of soliciting sex with children online.This complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, shows that an undercover FBI special agent contacted Bright via KinkD, a social media platform for sexual fetish connections, on April 18.“Bright has been charged with one count of attempted enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity,” reports Claire Goforth at The Daily Dot:A federal complaint alleges that Bright sought to molest a 7- and 9-year-old and met with an undercover agent for this purpose, at which point he was arrested. It also states that Bright claimed to be in a sexual relationship with an 11-year-old. He is currently being held without bail.According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, an undercover FBI special agent made contact with Bright on KinkD, a social media fetish platform, on April 18.Bright, using the handle “randomanon,” had responded to a message the agent posted a day prior in which she purported to be a mother seeking to connect with people who could teach her children about “birds and the bees.”The complaint states that in subsequent messages, the agent informed Bright that she had a 7-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son.At Bright’s urging, the two then began chatting via WhatsApp, which continued for a few weeks. Read the rest

Witness in Mueller Trump-Russia probe arrested for child pornography

In Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP, three UMass Amherst computer science researchers investigate the carbon budget of training machine learning models for natural language processing, and come back with the eyepopping headline figure of 78,468lbs to do a basic training-and-refinement operation.This is about five times the lifetime, cradle-to-grave carbon budget for a car, including manufacture. The bulk of the carbon is expended at the fine-tuning stage, which involves a lot of trial and error. More complex models, like the Transformer model (employed in machine translation) use even more carbon -- 626,155lbs.Text and language processing are by no means the most compute-intensive (and hence carbon-intensive) forms of machine learning model -- things like vision systems are even more complex.One implication the authors explore: the computational intensity of today's machine learning research has priced it outside the realm of most academic researchers, moving the most important work in the field to private firms whose research doesn't necessarily contribute to our collective store of knowledge.What’s more, the researchers note that the figures should only be considered as baselines. “Training a single model is the minimum amount of work you can do,” says Emma Strubell, a PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the lead author of the paper. In practice, it’s much more likely that AI researchers would develop a new model from scratch or adapt an existing model to a new data set, either of which can require many more rounds of training and tuning. Read the rest

In the 2000s, the pharma company Questcor started raising the price of Acthar, an off-patent, 1950s-era drug prescribed for seizures in babies; they raised the price more than 10,000%, from $40 in 2000 to $38,892 today. To get doctors to prescribe their price-gouging meds, Questcor secretly offered bribes, a fact that came to light thanks to whistleblowers.Questcor's strategy was so successful that in 2014, the company was acquired by rival Mallinckrodt, who claim that they ceased bribery operations, but continued to raise prices by more than $8,000, with enormous success -- today, Acthar brings in $1b/year for Mallinckrodt.Now, Mallinckrodt (which is about to change its name to Sonorant Therapeutics) has settled with the FTC and agreed to pay a $15.4m fine, assuming the DoJ okays the deal.But this development isn’t just about drug prices; it’s about alleged bribery. Needless to say, other people often get prison time for bribery offenses. Recently, a Minnesota man got 29 months for trying to bribe a witness in a burglary case, a Texas prison guard got two years in prison for taking bribes, and a New York businessman got four years for repeatedly bribing New York cops. An Oregon man who recently tried to get his wife deported by bribing an ICE agent got four months in federal prison.But America’s largest businesses really do play by a different set of rules. Especially when those businesses are drug companies that can charge whatever they want and yet face no real consequences. Mallinckrodt’s CEO, Mark Trudeau, made $14 million last year, which means that he makes almost enough in just one year to pay the company’s settlement. Read the rest

Ars Technica reports that a judge ordered Comcast to pay a $9.1 million fine and refund 50,000 customers it tricked into subscribing to a worthless "protection plan."Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued Comcast in August 2016, accusing the nation's largest cable company of tricking customers into buying a "near-worthless 'protection plan' without disclosing its significant limitations."Buying the $5-per-month plan ostensibly prevented customers from having to pay each time a Comcast technician visited their home to fix problems covered by the plan. But in reality, the plan did not cover the vast majority of wiring problems, the AG's lawsuit said. Moreover, Washington state attorneys said that Comcast led customers to believe that they needed to buy a Service Protection Plan (SPP) to get services that were actually covered for free by the company's "Customer Guarantee."Image: Ken Wolter/Shutterstock Read the rest

Today, Apple is one of the largest, most profitable companies on Earth, but in the early 2000s, the company was fighting for its life. Microsoft's Windows operating system was ascendant, and Microsoft leveraged its dominance to ensure that every Windows user relied on its Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc). Apple users—a small minority of computer users—who wanted to exchange documents with the much larger world of Windows users were dependent on Microsoft's Office for the Macintosh operating system (which worked inconsistently with Windows Office documents, with unexpected behaviors like corrupting documents so they were no longer readable, or partially/incorrectly displaying parts of exchanged documents). Alternatively, Apple users could ask Windows users to export their Office documents to an "interoperable" file format like Rich Text Format (for text), or Comma-Separated Values (for spreadsheets). These, too, were inconsistent and error-prone, interpreted in different ways by different programs on both Mac and Windows systems.Apple could have begged Microsoft to improve its Macintosh offerings, or they could have begged the company to standardize its flagship products at a standards body like OASIS or ISO. But Microsoft had little motive to do such a thing: its Office products were a tremendous competitive advantage, and despite the fact that Apple was too small to be a real threat, Microsoft had a well-deserved reputation for going to enormous lengths to snuff out potential competitors, including both Macintosh computers and computers running the GNU/Linux operating system.Apple did not rely on Microsoft's goodwill and generosity: instead, it relied on reverse-engineering. Read the rest

Responding to Professor Sir Angus Deaton’s report into the causes of inequality, economics writer Chris Dillow provides an excellent list of eight ways in which unequal societies sacrifice overall economic growth and national prosperity to preserve the fortunes of their elites.Topping the list is the diversion of investment resources from innovative products and services into socially useless and inefficient "guard labor" (everything from surveillance to high walls to alarm systems to actual armed guards). Beyond that, inequality produces an erosion of the trust that is a precondition for growth; unequal access to education and opportunity which means that poor peoples' contributions to national wealth are never realized.One interesting idea is that high managerial salaries entrench "the forces of conservatism" as top officials at monopoly businesses balk at taking risks that might hurt their profits, even if they result in better companies offering services that are more productive and profitable in the long run.7. The high-powered incentives that generate inequality within companies can backfire. As Benabou and Tirole have shown (pdf), they encourage bosses to hit measured targets and neglect less measurable things that are nevertheless important for a firm’s success such as a healthy corporate culture. Or they might crowd out intrinsic motivations such as professional ethics. Big bank bonuses, for example, encouraged mis-selling and rigging markets rather than productive activities.8. High management pay can entrench what Joel Mokyr calls the “forces of conservatism” which are antagonistic to technical progress. Reaping the full benefits of new technologies often requires organizational change. Read the rest

Amazon's Ring doorbells are surveillance devices that conduct round-the-clock video surveillance of your neighborhood, automatically flagging "suspicious" faces and bombarding you and your neighbors with alerts using an app called "Neighbors"; it's a marriage of Amazon's Internet of Things platform with its "Rekognition" facial recognition tool, which it has marketed aggressively to cities, law enforcement, ICE, businesses and everyday customers as a security measure that can help ID bad guys, despite the absence of a database identifying which faces belong to good people and which faces belong to bad people.Part of the home surveillance project is a fear-based marketing campaign -- a whole news vertical -- designed to convince Americans that their neighborhoods are so dangerous that they owe it to themselves and their neighbors to conduct surveillance of the streets in front of their homes.The latest salvo in the war is a paid "promoted post" Facebook campaign featuring Ring surveillance footage of suspected petty criminals (a woman trying a car door handle and walking away), urging viewers to get in touch with local cops in order to help solve a crime that may in fact not be a crime. A post on the the Mountain View Police Department's websites details the incident and also shares an image from the Ring camera. "Footage obtained from a neighbor’s home captured a woman who is believed to be the suspect in the theft," the post says. The woman is suspected of stealing someone's purse and wallet from inside a car, and making a series of purchases around town with those stolen credit cards. Read the rest

Finnish company Valkee sells the HumanCharger, a pair of $150 earbuds with integrated LEDs to shine light into your ears. Their claim:This revolutionary device is for your well-being and channels bright light directly to the light-sensitive regions of the brain, right where it is needed the most.HumanCharger® can be used to increase energy levels, improve mood, increase mental alertness, reduce the effects of jet lag and keep winter blues at bay.A site called Valkee's Earlight Swindle International argues otherwise.(via Weird Universe) Read the rest

NASA announced today that the International Space Station is now open to private astronauts for commercial business and, yes, tourism. It ain't budget travel, that's for sure. Kenneth Chang writes in the New York Times:NASA is not selling space vacations directly, but allowing commercial companies to arrange such trips. The agency plans to charge the companies about $35,000 a night for use of the station’s facilities, including air and water.The tourist companies would charge much more to cover the rocket flights to and from space, and to make a profit.Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nev., has already reserved four launches. The company will use SpaceX, the rocket company run by Elon Musk, to take private astronauts. Each flight would have four seats.Axiom Space of Houston is also arranging flights and hopes to fly tourists next year.From NASA:Pricing released Friday is specific to commercial and marketing activities enabled by the new directive, reflects a representative cost to NASA, and is designed to encourage the emergence of new markets. As NASA learns how these new markets respond, the agency will reassess the pricing and amount of available resources approximately every six months and make adjustments as necessary.To qualify, commercial and marketing activities must either:• require the unique microgravity environment to enable manufacturing, production or development of a commercial application;• have a connection to NASA’s mission; or• support the development of a sustainable low-Earth orbit economy.NASA’s directive enabling commercial and marketing activities aboard the space station addresses manufacturing, production, transportation, and marketing of commercial resources and goods, including products intended for commercial sale on Earth. Read the rest

This excellent 1982 TV commercial for Mattel's Intellivision game console features a "computerized" futuristic newscast that predates both Max Headroom's cyber-pisstake on the media and A-Ha's rotoscoped classic "Take On Me!" Read the rest

Rot in jail for cruelty to animals, Florida man.QCountry 103.7:A 25-year-old Florida man is jailed in upstate New York after police say he crashed a stolen car and was found naked in a chicken coop after a seven-hour manhunt.Kirkwood is 57 miles southeast of Ithaca.State police say John Mehne of Sarasota faces numerous charges, including criminal possession of stolen property for crashing an Audi A5 reported stolen in Florida and cruelty to animals for killing a dog and some chickens.Police say Mehne crashed the Audi on Interstate 81 about three miles north of the Pennsylvania line Tuesday morning, rode a passing pickup truck for a mile and ran into woods. Police say he stopped at several homes, killing a dog at one and attacking chickens at two others.He was arraigned Wednesday and jailed without bail. Police say he has requested a lawyer. Read the rest

"What is a swastika?" asked the fool who built a giant swastika in his El Sobrante, CA yard.The gentleman claims to not be an enthusiast of German National Socialism, nor does it sound like he can spell it. While his neighbors believe he is harmless, they also doubt his sincerity.The swastika as an age-old symbol of Tibetan something argument seems to be a tool racists return to the privacy of their own home and giggle about. Read the rest

Our friend Attaboy’s got a fun(gi) art happening in the works called “Game of Shrooms.” You can play, no matter where you are, and, no, it’s not a drug-related activity. You can make mushroom art, find mushroom art, or both! Artists from all over the world have already signed up.Here are the details on how you can plant and play:“#shroomdrop is June 15th! It is open to ALL artists everywhere...1. Make painting or sculpture or other art. If you are doing little paintings, I find it is best to add little popsicle sticks to bottom of them in the back so that the art doesn’t get dirty if placed near the ground.2. Post preview teasers if you like.3. Put your IG tag on the back and #shroomdrop #gameofshrooms if you can.4. Plant or place art. Don’t hurt nature or property. If it rains, you Can hide inside friendly Indy stores as well...5. After you plant, take a few photo clues to post. I suggest a close up, then a wide shot, with a landmark of some kind visible (old church, sign post, etc) location tag helps if you are in a suburban area. Don’t hurt nature or property.6. Oh and be sure to hide it/them on June 15th!” View this post on Instagram Only 13 days until the Game Of Shrooms. There’s still time for you to participate. see @attayumfactory for more info. Game of Shrooms happens June 15th! And the list of locations keeps growing! Read the rest

My friend John Law is a legend of San Francisco's underground with an incredible resume of culture jamming brilliance. In the 1970s, he was an integral part of the Suicide Club, a Dadaist group of urban explorers and adventurers that eventually led to Law's co-founding of the Cacophony Society, Burning Man, and the Billboard Liberation Front. Over 40 years, he's also co-founded or contributed to Communiversity, Dark Passage/Ars Subterranea, Seafoam Palace LLC, SF Cyclecide Bike Rodeo, Survival Research Laboratories, SantaCon/flash mobs, Madagascar Institute, SEEMEN, Laughing Squid, and The Bronx Pipe Smoking Society. And he's still keeping the SF Bay Area's high weirdness torch burning even amidst the city's massive (and mostly unfortunate) transformation. Starting tonight, celebrate John's contributions to the counterculture with SIGNMAN: John Law, a three-month long retrospective of Law's life of art (and art of living). The exhibition at Oakland's Pro Arts Gallery will include "rare documentation of events, pranks and explorations, neon art, and multi-media installations." Complementing the exhibit through the summer will be public programs that include lectures, film screenings, book signings, and, I would bet, some unexpected surprises. SIGNMAN: John Law (Pro Arts Gallery)(above photo: John Behrens) Read the rest

If it's good enough for Dick Clark, it's good enough for me. [via Reddit] Read the rest

Just a few years after his death, there are now postage stamps showcasing the colorful art of Ellsworth Kelly. The U.S. Postal Service released these Forever stamps at the end of May, and they feature ten of his pieces: “Yellow White” (1961), “Colors for a Large Wall” (1951), “Blue Red Rocker” (1963), “Spectrum I” (1953), South Ferry, (1956), “Blue Green” (1962), “Orange Red Relief for Delphine Seyrig” (1990), “Meschers”, (1951), “Red Blue” (1964), and “Gaza” (1956). $11 for a sheet of 20 stamps.(RED) Read the rest

It's been 24 years since Black Isle got to work on Baldur's Gate, the classic computer RPG that melded AD&D rules with realtime-ish gameplay to make something immersive to play and gorgeous to look at. Though often counted among the top PC games of all time, the series ground to a halt after a superior sequel, with a third title announced but lost to time, the press of other projects, and corporate bankruptcy. Come 2019:Developed by the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2, Baldur's Gate III is the official next adventure in the venerable Baldur's Gate series. The teaser trailer shows a return of a malevolent presence to Baldur's Gate, intent on devouring it from the inside out, corrupting everything that remains in the Forgotten Realms. The fate of the Forgotten Realms lies in your hands. Gather your party: http://baldursgate3.gameNo details of the game, just a teaser setting the scene.It's funny that my first thought on seeing this was to wonder if it will import my BG2 party! If this is all game-grandpa talk to you, the originals have already been remastered for modern machines and are still pretty good, so long as you can teach yourself to ignore the deranged hidden spreadsheet of 2nd-edition AD&D throwing all its meaningless numbers at you. Read the rest

What better joke about American policing could be made than demanding "let me see your hands" of a deer? Read the rest

Turn a thrift-snore into a thrift-score by transforming a dollhouse into a haunted one! The "post-pop culture purveyors" at Soap Plant/Wacko in LA noticed the one pictured while poking around in the Thrift Stores Oddities Facebook group. They write: "If you should find a saccharine sweet, plastic doll house at the Goodwill, don't dismiss it. Repaint it as a gothic mansion suitable for dolls or Halloween decor." Yes, please do!(RED)images via Soap Plant/Wacko with thanks to Michelle Koby Read the rest

Does your dog need a bit of pampering? We've got just the things with this roundup of six top treats and accessories. If Fido had thumbs and credit, you know he'd do the same for you.FOMO Bones CBD Dog TreatsCBD is all the rage for stress relief among bipeds, but its benefits can be just as beneficial to dogs. There's no THC in these treats, just full-spectrum CBD along with chamomile, passion flower and other natural ingredients tailored to take your pet to their mellow place. Pick up a bag of FOMO Bones CBD Dog Treats for $32.99, a full 17% off the list price.Petmaker Foldable Pet StairsFor older dogs, any elevation change can be a challenge. Help them up into their favorite bed or couch with these carpeted stairs that collapse for easy storage. The Petmaker Foldable Pet Stairs are on sale now for $45, a 74% discount from the MSRP.Cargo Liner Dog Seat CoverThis non-slip liner fits most SUVs, and it ensures a win-win for your next road trip with man's best friend. More comfort for them, no dog hairs in the back seat for you. Pick up a Cargo Liner Dog Seat Cover for $29 now, more than 40% off the list price of $49.99.Sunset CBD Pet Shampoo & ConditionerCBD oil can have anti-inflammatory properties as well as calming ones, which makes it a natural fit for this soothing shampoo. Green tea, lavender, and rosemary keep their coat silky while the THC-free core ingredients soothe their skin. Read the rest

Finally. It's been almost 3 years.

Shut it down. End horse racing. It's animal abuse.

The snack food you wear all over yourself if you try to eat it is now a clothing line. Forever 21 now sells Flamin' Hot Cheetos branded fashion.Here's the link to the whole collection online.The rights to CHEETOS, FLAMIN’ HOT and Chester Cheetah belong to Frito-Lay.I mean, the partnership makes sense as a natural expression of life during Trumptime.The collection features styles for all genders: t-shirts, sweatshirts, dresses, and more. You can purchase from the collection now online, and at Forever 21 stores around the USA. It's affordable. Most items retail between $5 and $30. [More pix at Popsugar]PHOTOS courtesy Forever 21 and Frito-Lay of North America Inc. Read the rest

A legend of American music has departed. His name was Malcolm John Rebennack, or Mac Rebennack, but we knew him as Dr. John. He was 77 years old, and is said to have succumbed to a heart attack.pic.twitter.com/9ph7kisvHx— Dr. John (@akadrjohn) June 6, 2019On Thursday afternoon, Dr. John's publicist released a statement from the musician's family late on Thursday, saying the cause of his death was a heart attack. The statement did not say where he died, but the Lake Pontchartrain area had been his home of late. “Mr. Rebennack belonged to the pantheon of New Orleans keyboard wizards that includes Professor Longhair, James Booker, Huey (Piano) Smith and Fats Domino,” writes the New York Times' Gavin Edwards.“What distinguished him from his peers was the showmanship of his public persona.”Excerpt from the New York Times obituary:Onstage as Dr. John, he adorned himself with snakeskin, beads and brightly colored feathers, and his shows blended Mardi Gras bonhomie with voodoo mystery.He recorded more than 30 albums, including jazz projects (“Bluesiana Triangle,” 1990, with the drummer Art Blakey and the saxophonist David Newman), solo piano records (“Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack,” 1981) and his version of Afropop (“Locked Down,” 2012). His 1989 album of standards, “In a Sentimental Mood,” earned him the first of six Grammy Awards, for his duet with Rickie Lee Jones on “Makin’ Whoopee!”His only Top 40 single, “Right Place Wrong Time,” reached No. 9 on the Billboard chart in 1973. In 2011, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Read the rest

Military research and Chinese firms had access to the data Microsoft scraped under Creative Commons licenses.

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How wrong can one story be?