How do you become a spaceship pilot?First, practice flapping your wings very hard.Or watch this Virgin Galactic video, and learn how these people became exactly that, and on “what inspires our spaceship pilots to do what they do.” Read the rest

Help a disadvantaged fellow American obtain an ID to get a job, a safe place to live, and so they can vote.

I have a few multimeters, and this is the one I usually grab first because it's so dead simple to use. I've had it for a least a year and have had no problems with it. Use promo code M2UAA4EY to get it for less than the price of a large, heavily sweetened coffee drink. Read the rest

Billy Wilder was the director of many excellent movies, including Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot,and Double Indemnity. Here are 10 tips about moviemaking that he shared in the late 1990s with Cameron Crowe (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire)From Open Culture:Wilder was 90 years old when the young director Cameron Crowe approached him in 1996 about playing a small role in Jerry Maguire. Wilder said no, but the two men formed a friendship. Over the next several years they talked extensively about filmmaking, and in 1999 Crowe published Conversations with Wilder. One of the book's highlights is a list of ten screenwriting tips by Wilder. "I know a lot of people that have already Xeroxed that list and put it by their typewriter," Crowe said in a 1999 NPR interview. "And, you know, there's no better film school really than listening to what Billy Wilder says."Here are Wilder's ten rules of good filmmaking:1: The audience is fickle.2: Grab 'em by the throat and never let 'em go.3: Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.4: Know where you're going.5: The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.6: If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.7: A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They'll love you forever. Read the rest

Vox's lawyers convinced YouTube to issue dreaded copyright strikes against two reaction videos that made fun of bad advice given by The Verge (owned by Vox Media) on how to build gaming PCs. The resulting backlash convinced The Verge's editor to ask YouTube to rescind the strikes.From Ars Technica:Last week, The Verge's lawyers suddenly asked YouTube to remove two reaction videos that had been online since September. Both videos reproduced the vast majority of the original Verge video, interspersed and overlaid with commentary, criticism, and ridicule.These takedowns attracted widespread attention. Other prominent YouTubers posted videos weighing in on the controversy, with most blasting The Verge's decision.[Verge editor Nilay Patel] says he wasn't involved in the initial decision to issue the copyright strikes. When he learned of the decision, he says, he requested that the strikes be retracted."When this was brought to my attention a few hours later, I told them that although I fully agreed with their legal argument, I did not think we should use copyright strikes against legitimate channels," Patel wrote in a Friday post.Patel says that at his request, The Verge asked YouTube to retract the strikes against the two videos.Still, Patel said The Verge's lawyers were on solid legal ground."I fully agree with our legal team that these videos crossed the line of fair use," he wrote. Read the rest

Take a walk with me down a little garden path in a secluded place; you’ll delight in the discovery of a beautiful mathematical equation. –– TibeessTibees is a blissed out mathematician who likens her style to Bob Ross. And I definitely see it. She's soft spoken, easy to follow, and has described math as beautiful and fun. When introducing this video, she says we'll be "exploring the square root of i. It's a curious question with a delightful answer."So get out your "pen, some paper, and a vision in your mind," and let's get started! Read the rest

Measles is a global epidemic.Nearly half of the 136 people who have died of measels in the Philippines are children under the age of 4.The Centers for Disease Control currently reports ten US states with active measles outbreaks: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. Ohio appears ready to make measles go to 11. Read the rest

Do you want to try on a pair of shoes... in cyberspace? Do what this guy did:This guy is living in 3019 😂 pic.twitter.com/vxv433Xbcx— Memes 😈 (@memetiddies) February 15, 2019Image: Twitter Read the rest

These Edifier R1700BT speakers are perfect for my home office and bedroom.I had been using Amazon Echo Dot's to play music and podcasts. The sound quality was less than exciting. A friend pointed me to these Edifier R1700BT speakers and I couldn't be happier.Built solidly and super sharp looking, these little Edifier boxes put out pretty good sound. Warm, rich, bright and chipper would be my attempt at description. The bass is a bit on the thuddy and undefined side, but for $150 there really isn't much to complain about.Easy to set up, the Edifier's competently handled mp3's of varying quality over the Bluetooth stream. You can plug in RCA analog devices if you want, there are two sets of ports. For another $50 there is a model that does optical-in and subwoofer-out. I didn't need this for my use.The grills are also removable if you want to show off the drivers.Budget Bluetooth sound that is plenty good.Edifier R1700BT Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers - Active Near-Field Studio Monitors via Amazon Read the rest

LA radio and tv host David Horowitz has passed away at the age of 81.Fight Back with David Horowitz taught me to question marketing and advertising. Working in advertising taught me to doubt everything. Read the rest

This 90s video on the milkcap fad is totally awesome. I was baffled that kids wanted to collect POGs but my younger brother was all about his cool slammers.Head right back to the decade that kicked off the Netscape thing with a host mimicking Nickelodeon! This "dude" manages to make a backward hat and sweatshirt speak for an entire generation.VHS quality everything and weak as hell video overlays will help you remember a game that never should have been. Read the rest

When a teenage girl in China was traveling over her Lunar New Year break, she shocked her mother. The resourceful student somehow managed to squeeze in a ton of homework, including the grueling work of essays and copying passages from textbooks, all while packing her days with holiday festivities. And the work was amazingly accurate and neat, with perfect handwriting.Her suspicious mom, Zhang, went through the girl's belongings and found an explanation: a strange device with a "metal frame and pen," that turned out to be a "copying robot," according to South China Morning Post. The teen had bought it online for approximately $120. Furious, the mother destroyed the robot and went straight to social media to complain.Via Oddity Central:After her daughter admitted to using the device to complete her holiday homework a lot faster, the woman reportedly broke it and took to social media to complain about the girl’s deceitful tactic. “It can help you with homework, but can it help you on tests?” Zhang was quoted as saying.Perhaps surprising to her mother, a rush of commenters came to the girl's defense. From South China Morning Post:Most of the comments on the newspaper report’s social media posts enthused about the robot. Some said they wished they had owned such an item when they were younger, while others compared the girl’s short cut to their own, including tieing three or four pens in a row so they could write multiple words at once.Some argued that the girl should no longer be made to copy texts at her age, while one called for education reform allowing teachers to set challenging and creative homework rather than boring the pupils and adding to their burdens. Read the rest

English is a dragon of a language, dozing atop an enormous mountain of phonemes. What if they were all melted down and minted into something more consistent? And then we tried to speak it? The results sound a bit like a Welsh accent. [YouTube] Read the rest

Ever dreamed of escaping the desk job life and jumping into a more hands-on, labor-intensive career? Mike Rowe, the former host of the eight-season-long Dirty Jobs and outspoken advocate for skilled laborers, can help. For the past 11 years, he's been offering scholarships to wannabe tradespeople to formally learn the ropes of blue-collar work. Training for jobs in such trades as plumbing, automotive technology, construction, and lots more are covered. Slackers need not apply:We’re looking for the next generation of aspiring workers who will work smart and hard. This program doesn’t focus on test scores, grades, or grammar. It’s about the people who share our values and understand the importance of work ethic, personal responsibility, delayed gratification, and a positive attitude.Applicants must first enroll in a trade program and sign his S.W.E.A.T. Pledge ("Skills and Work Ethic Aren’t Taboo"):click to embiggenApplications for Rowe's 2019 Work Ethic Scholarship Program opened January 28 and will close on March 28, 2019. Read the rest

TIL: Sharks are attracted to the sound of death metal. Apparently, the "dense tones" of it mimics the "low frequencies of struggling fish." (Damn.)In 2015, a Discovery Channel crew -- hoping to attract a large great white named "Joan of Shark" -- dropped a speaker underwater and played some. Independent:Desperate to feature the 16-foot, 1.6 tonne shark in their documentary, they submerged a speaker to see if the shark would react. Unfortunately they didn't manage to attract Joan, but did catch the attention of two others, one of which was 12 feet long.Sharks 'hear' by picking up vibrations from receptors on their bodies, meaning they can be attracted to the low-frequency vibrations of heavy music, which apparently sounds like struggling fish.(Soap Plant Wacko) Read the rest

There's finally a good use for autotuning; use it to enhance your pet's vocals.Animator Joaquin Baldwin (previously on BB) did just that. He autotuned his cat Elton using an app called Voloco. It's really funny!Elton's not the only pet who got autotuned. In fact, it seems it may have started with a howling dog named paco:i auto tuned by dog howling pic.twitter.com/RQwIqKqjvC— 🌻 (@_avall) February 14, 2019(Nerdcore) Read the rest

Well, here's something you don't see every day, tiki mugs of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. Choose the form of the Destructor, and hopefully this jolly giant marshmallow man pops in your head, and hand. Holding approx. 36oz of your favorite ectoplasmic beverage, this tiki-ized manifestation of something that could never ever possibly destroy us is ready for you to trap in your collection.Currently available from Mondo in limited-to-650 Bone Variant ($55, shown in second to left) and Standard Edition ($50, shown in blue and red). The Crossing the Streams Variant ("orange-wiped" glaze) was created for Designer Con and appears to not be for sale. The Brown Glaze one will be heading to select Alamo Drafthouse theater locations soon.(Geekologie) Read the rest

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will challenge Donald Trump for president in 2020. Thanks to popular (rather than merely "populist") policies, and a strong primary run in 2016 against a Democratic party apparatus that did everything it could to stop him, he becomes an instant front-runner."We began the political revolution in the 2016 campaign, and now it's time to move that revolution forward," the independent senator told Vermont Public Radio in an interview airing Tuesday morning. ... Sanders pointed to the Democratic Party's leftward shift as a reason for a second run. "It turns out that many of the ideas that I talked about – that health care is a right, not a privilege, and that we've got to move toward a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system: very, very popular. The idea that we have got to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour," he told Vermont Public Radio. "When I talked about making public colleges and universities tuition-free and lowering student debt, that was another issue that people said was too radical. Well, that's also happening around the country."If he has a policy problem, it's that most of the other Democrats are already running with his ones. Read the rest

Italian composer and arranger Giovanni Dettori based his "Lady Gaga Fugue" on her 2009 hit "Bad Romance." In this video, his friend Vincenzo Culotta plays his neo-Baroque piece on the piano. Dettori writes, "To give a "modern feeling" I used a special treatment of fourths, fifths, suspensions and rythm [sic]."Ok, full disclosure: this video was posted on YouTube way back in April 2011 and was a big hit back then apparently. It was the first time I had seen it though. I enjoyed it and figured many of you would too. Sheet music is available. Incidentally, just this year, the original video for "Bad Romance" surpassed 1 billion views.(Nag on the Lake) Read the rest

The mystery of the glorious fireball emitted by microwaved grapes (featured in my novel Little Brother) has been resolved, thanks to a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which Trent University researchers Hamza Khattak and Aaron Slepkov explain how they destroyed a dozen microwaves before figuring out that the grapes were just the right size and had enough humidity to set up standing waves that amplify the microwaves -- and anything roughly grape-sized will do the same.The paper is offline at both PNAS and Sci-Hub, which is weird, but there's good coverage of it at Ars and Wired."Previous explanations leaned on the idea that the grape was acting as an antenna and that an electrical current was being generated across the 'skin bridge' holding the two halves to a grape together," said co-author Pablo Bianucci of Concordia University in Montreal, who did the computer simulations for the study. It's that current, conventional wisdom goes, that generates the plasma.These new experiments show that's not quite right. The skin bridge isn't necessary for the effect to occur.Rather, "Our interpretation is that the plasma is generated by an electromagnetic 'hot spot' that is a purely (microwave) bulk effect," said Bianucci. "The grapes have the right refractive index and size to 'trap' microwaves, and putting two of them close together leads to the generation of this hot spot between them." Read the rest

Last week's publication of the final draft of the new EU Copyright Directive baffled and infuriated almost everyone, including the massive entertainment companies that lobbied for it in the first place; the artists' groups who endorsed it only to have their interests stripped out of the final document; and the millions and millions of Europeans who had publicly called on lawmakers to fix grave deficiencies in the earlier drafts, only to find these deficiencies made even worse.Thankfully, Europeans aren't taking this lying down. With the final vote expected to come during the March 25-28 session, mere weeks before European elections, European activists are pouring the pressure onto their Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), letting them know that their vote on this dreadful mess will be on everyone's mind during the election campaigns.The epicenter of the uprising is Germany, which is only fitting, given that German MEP Axel Voss is almost singlehandedly responsible for poisoning the Directive with rules that will lead to mass surveillance and mass censorship, not to mention undermining much of Europe's tech sector.The German Consumer Association were swift to condemn the Directive, stating: "The reform of copyright law in this form does not benefit anyone, let alone consumers. MEPs are now obliged to do so. Since the outcome of the trilogue falls short of the EU Parliament's positions at key points, they should refuse to give their consent."A viral video of Axel Voss being confronted by activists has been picked up by politicians campaigning against Voss's Christian Democratic Party in the upcoming elections, spreading to Germany's top TV personalities, like Jan Böhmermann. Read the rest

The rise in a belief that the Earth is flat is bizarre and somewhat frightening, a repudiation of one of the most basic elements of scientific consensus. Texas Tech University psych researcher Asheley R. Landrum attended a 2017 flat earth convention and interviewed 30 attendees to trace the origins of their belief in a flat earth, finding that Youtube videos were key to their journey into conspiracy theories; her findings were bolstered by a survey of more than 500 participants.Landrum presented her research at an AAAS meeting a year ago, and it paints a compelling picture of the role Youtube plays in spreading conspiracy theories.I think that a good model for understanding the spread of these theories needs to also take account of the breakdown of epistemological consensus about how we know things are true.This breakdown has at least two contributing factors: the first is a decades-long, deliberate campaign to undermine the consensus about how we know things are true, from the denial of the link between cancer and smoking to climate denial. The denial playbook starts with undermining the idea that science produces reliable outcomes, or that a scientific consensus can be trusted.But denialism is greatly augmented by a legitimate perception of corruption in both expert circles and regulators. The anti-vax movement, for example, relies on two true facts to suggest an untrue conclusion: * the pharma industry is corrupt and willing to endanger people for profit; and * regulators are captured by pharma and willing to let them get away with it; therefore* vaccines can't be trusted. Read the rest

Goodloe Sutton is publisher of the Democrat-Reporter, a newspaper published in the small town of Linden, Alabama, and he is very upset about "Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats [who] are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama," so much so that he published an editorial calling on "the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again" to address the issue.In his editorial, Sutton claimed, falsely, that freed slaves sometimes donned Klan robes to "frighten some evil doer." The Montgomery Advertiser contacted Sutton to ask him about his editorial. Sutton elaborated that "cleaning up DC" was meant to suggest lynchings, saying "We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them." He defended himself against a charge of advocating for lynching Americans by denying that the politicians he opposed were Americans, saying "These are socialist-communists we're talking about. Do you know what socialism and communism is?"Sutton went on to deny that the Klan was violent, and suggested that they were a community group comparable to the NAACP, saying "Well, they didn't kill but a few people. The Klan wasn't violent until they needed to be."Sutton inherited the newspaper from his father. In the newspaper editorial, Sutton wrote: Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama. They do not understand how to eliminate expenses when money is needed in other areas. This socialist-communist ideology sounds good to the ignorant, the uneducated, and the simple-minded people. Alabama newspaper editor calls for Klan return to 'clean out D.C.' [Melissa Brown/Montgomery Advertiser](Thanks, Fipi Lele! Read the rest

Michael Coteau, a member of the Ontario provincial parliament from the opposition Liberal party has announced for provincial Right to Repair legislation, which he will introduce in a private member's bill -- he says the legislation was prompted when he was charged nearly $400 to fix his daughter's Samsung phone screen and he recalled a CBC special on US efforts to pass Right to Repair laws at the state level; Coteau says he's looking for co-sponsors from the NDP and the ruling Conservative Party (whose caucus is a disgraceful shambles). Read the rest

The EU Commission has been forced to retract a Medium post in which it patronised and dismissed opponents of the controversial Article 13 proposal that will force platforms to surveil and censor users' postings with copyright filters, calling them a "mob."The Commission characterised the opposition as being stooges for Google, hoodwinked by the company to carry water for it, despite the fact that Google has quietly supported the idea of filters as an acceptable alternative to other forms of regulation (Facebook, too, has supported the proposal).The Copyright Directive -- which contains the offending Article 13 -- is coming up for a vote this spring, just before EU elections; the Commission has, it seems, chosen a side in that vote and is attempting to sideline and marginalise EU voters who might put pressure on their elected representatives. The Commission's piece has been removed (read an archived copy here), and replaced with a message that blames readers for not understanding it correctly.This patronising dismissal marks a new phase in the effort to force the Directive through the Parliament; it supercedes an earlier tactic of characterising opponents of the Directive as "bots" (one German politician tweeted his suspicion that Google had unleashed bots on him, citing the fact that the voters who'd contacted him were using Gmail accounts!).The tactic is backfiring. This weekend, thousands marched against the Directive in Cologne, carrying signs that mocked the "mob" and "bot" characterisations. More events are planned for March across the EU, ahead of the final vote. Read the rest

This is what happiness and best-friends-forever friendship looks like.[source]...? Read the rest

The smash hit Chinese government propaganda app Xuexi Qiangguo, which translates to 'Study to make China strong', was developed by the technology firm Alibaba, reports Reuters today.Just last week, the propaganda app knocked Wechat and Tik Tok’s Chinese version Douyin off the "most popular app" pedestal in Apple’s China app store. Two people at Alibaba disclosed their company's role in the Xuexi Qiangguo app to Reuters during a time when the relationships between Chinese technology firms and the Chinese government are being newly questioned.Here's a screengrab of the associated Chinese Government website, which features glowing, nationalistic prose throughout:And here's an excerpt from the Reuters report:It was developed by a largely unknown special projects team at Alibaba known as the “Y Projects Business Unit”, which takes on development projects outside the company, said the people.New York-listed Alibaba declined to comment on whether the business unit had developed the app.The app’s development by Alibaba, whose Chairman Jack Ma is a member of the Communist Party, is the latest example of a Chinese tech company collaborating with the government.The country’s propaganda department has released the app ahead of next month’s National People’s Congress in Beijing, China’s top annual parliamentary gathering.IMAGE: Xuexi Qiangguo is seen on a mobile phone in this illustration picture taken February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/Illustration Read the rest

The judge imposed a limited gag order on Roger Stone last week.

Do you think your life is tough? Be grateful you aren't this guy, reported in The Guardian:Pandora Mather-Lees, an Oxford-educated art historian and conservator, started giving lessons after a billionaire asked for help to restore a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting damaged not by sea spray, but by breakfast cereal. “His kids had thrown their cornflakes at it over breakfast on his yacht because they thought it was scary,” Mather-Lees said. “And the crew had made the damage worse by wiping them off the painting.”She declined to name the owner or identify the artwork, but a Basquiat painting depicting a crazed, skull-shaped face sold at auction for a US record $110.5m (£84.5m) in 2017.Image: Sasa Kadrijevic/Shutterstock Read the rest

[UPDATE 2/18/2019, 3:37pm PT: Here's a statement from a Google spokesperson: “While we continue to investigate the matter, we have not found any evidence that Google Images was ranking the Pakistani flag in response to this particular search. Many news outlets wrote about an old screenshot from a meme website that is inconsistent with our UI and dates back to 2017, and we have not seen any independent verification that these results ever appeared as depicted. Since these news stories published, images from those articles are now ranking for this query, as the pages contain words relevant to the search.”][UPDATE 2/18/2019 I've learned that tt's likely the screenshot images are fakes, and are based on a 2017 meme. I'll post an update as I get more information.]Unknown persons gamed Google's algorithm so that search results for "best toilet paper" returned photos of the Pakistan flag.From BBC:The results are believed to be the work of protesters acting in response to an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that left at least 40 soldiers dead....Now a Google search returns news stories about the link but anyone searching images for the "best toilet paper in the world" gets a page dominated by the green and white flag. Many of the images are from news stories about the connection. Others are screenshots of the critical social media posts that linked the flag to toilet paper. Read the rest

Every country once ran on its own time. This wasn't much of a problem until the era of global telecommunications began. That's when Denmark decided to use the line that's 15 degrees east of Greenwich, England as the spot to set Central European Time (one hour difference from Greenwich Mean Time). Clocks in Europe were all set so that when the sun was at its zenith 15 degrees east of Greenwich, it was noon. But because the Earth wobbles and its rotation is slowing down, "noon drifts by a fraction of a second each day," says Tom Scott. The world now uses Coordinated Universal Time, based on "a network of atomic clocks around the world" so that electronic assets trading can take place around world, where tiny fractions of a second can make a big difference.But Denmark has never changed its law from 1894, which dictates that it must follow Mean Solar Time, to match the rest of the world, which uses Coordinated Universal Time. That means the error is now 0.07 seconds, and by the end of 2019, the error will be 0.25 seconds. Fortunately, everyone ignores the outdated law.Images: Tom Scott/YouTube Read the rest

What do Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google all have in common? Somewhere in their framework, they all use MySQL, that most versatile (and free!) of database management systems. And they're not alone. If your company or the one you'd like to work for wrangles data (and who doesn't?), they're going to need someone with a working knowledge of how to do that effectively. That's where the Complete MySQL Bootcamp comes in.As taught by motivational coach Joe Parys, this course is perfect for beginners but a valuable resource for anyone who works with MySQL. You'll start with the basic syntax and other foundational concepts, then move quickly to the practical applications of this open-source tool. Before the end of the eight-hour run-through, you'll be building tables and schemes, then move on to design actual PHP web apps and the core structure of a social media website. The more you learn, the more you'll be able to do with MySQL.The Complete MySQL Bootcamp is currently on sale for $10.99. Read the rest

It's the last day of the Apollo 11's Command Module tour's stay at Pittsburgh's Heinz History Center, and I enjoyed taking a look at the capsule that splashed down 50 years ago, returning NASA's moon-walkers to planet Earth. What really caught my eye, though, was this coloring book in the NASA gift shop set up for the tour. What the hell, NASA? Read the rest

Not like this parrot, though. Previously in Parrots. Read the rest

Costco is giving new meaning to "cutting the cheese" by offering five-tiered artisan wedding "cakes" made of 24 pounds of fancy fromage. Each one is estimated to serve between 105-150 lactose-tolerant guests.These literal cheese cakes are packed by Massachusetts-based cheesemongers Sid Wainer & Son and are made of five different gourmet wheels: Red Leicester, Danish Blue, Murcia al Vino (a "drunken goat cheese"), Tuscan Sheep’s Cheese, and Brillat Savarin Triple Cream Brie. Couples who say "I do" to these non-traditional low-carb cakes will need to kick down $440 (which is roughly the same cost of its sugar-laden equivalent).Floral adornments and crackers are sold separately. And, some assembly is required:via Simplemost Read the rest

You'd be surprised how often we cover NASCAR: "Well, that ruined everything." Read the rest

Look closer at this charming Hawaiian shirt, sold as the Apocaloha!—exclamation point included. If zombies ripping apart Magnum, P.I. and other haoles in an apocalyptic scene appeals to you, this is the shirt for you. Read the rest

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, being juvenile can pay off. Two brothers have proven this. They've been humorously scribbling on baseball cards since they were kids and now it's landed them a book deal. As children of the 80s, Beau and Bryan Abbott spent their allowance on their baseball card only to discover the collection wasn't worth the cardstock it was printed on. Instead of dumping the long boxes full of cards, the then-elementary-aged boys started "enhancing" them with Sharpies in "endlessly shameless and shameful attempts at making one another laugh." This continued until high school when they stopped for a while. Mashable (link mine):Then, while Beau was at the San Francisco Art Institute, Bryan sent Beau a care package with a bunch of newly vandalized baseball cards. Beau showed his fellow students and professors and the cards became a big hit.Their popular Tumblr has been around since 2012, their Instagram is gaining some traction, and now their first book is coming out in early March. Baseball Card Vandals: Over 200 Decent Jokes on Worthless Cards! can be pre-ordered now for $12.76. You can also purchase individual cards directly from the Abbott brothers ($35 and up).(RED) Read the rest

Japanese historian Nick Kapur unearthed "Osanaetoki Bankokubanashi" (童絵解万国噺), a wonderfully bizarre illustrated Japanese history of the USA from 1861, filled with fanciful depictions of allegedly great moments in US history, like "George Washington defending his wife 'Carol' from a British official named 'Asura' (same characters as the Buddhist deity)."They just get weirder and better from there: "Washington's 'second-in-command' John Adams battling an enormous snake"; "George Washington straight-up punching a tiger"; a snake eating John Adams's mother and seeking help to avenge himself upon the snake from "a magical mountain fairy"; and so on.If you like this kind of stuff, you should check out Franz Kafka's first novel, Amerika, which was published posthumously and against Kafka's wishes. Kafka knew nothing about the USA, so he just kinda made stuff up (think of "English as She is Spoke"), like millionaires being carried through the streets of New York on sedan chairs (I learned about this from EL Doctorow's -- no relation -- essay collection The Creationists).This 1861 book was by author Kanagaki Robun (仮名垣魯文) and artist Utagawa Yoshitora (歌川芳虎).The title is "Osanaetoki Bankokubanashi" (童絵解万国噺) and it was based on 2 other second-hand sources, "Kaikoku Zushi" (海国図志) and "Amerika Ittōshi" (亜墨利加一統志). A thread of images from a Japanese illustrated history of America from 1861. [Nick Kapur](Thanks, Fipi Lele!)A thread of images from a Japanese illustrated history of America from 1861.Here is George Washington (with bow and arrow) pictured alongside the Goddess of America. Read the rest

It's not just Amazon and Apple that expect massive taxpayer subsidies in exchange for locating physical plant in your town: when Google builds a new data-center, it does so on condition of multimillion-dollar "incentives" from local governments -- but Google also demands extraordinary secrecy from local officials regarding these deals, secrecy so complete that city attorneys have instructed town councillors to refuse to answer questions about it during public meetings.Data-centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, and so companies are always on the hunt for low costs for these necessities. Sometimes, those savings come from geography -- siting a data-center by a river or lake, or in a cooler climate -- but they can also come from sweetheart deals from local power and water companies.The Partnership for Working Families has been fighting for transparency on these deals since Google's first wave of data-center buildouts in San Jose in 2006. They recently filed public records requests in eight cities where Google has built or is building data-center and seven cities with Google offices.The records reveal a pattern of extreme secrecy: Google uses special-purpose, anonymous LLCs to do its deals, sometimes using multiple LLCs for different parts of the deal (for example, one LLC might acquire the land, and another might develop it). Google binds the cities it deals with to vows of silence, through extensive nondisclosure agreements. The agreements prohibit cities from revealing Google's power and water usage, payroll data, and investment level. Google argues that these are trade secrets that might reveal sensitive competitive data, but this is also the information that voters need in order to assess whether they are getting value for money when they hand over millions to one of the world's largest, most profitable companies. Read the rest

One of my first jobs, back in the late 80s, stuck me in a room with an IBM /36, a gigantic floppy drive, and a printer the size of a Volkswagen Scirocco. I think I woke up today still hearing this... Read the rest

That was fast! pic.twitter.com/wZ1Bpf8VBh— Charles Finch (@CharlesFinch) February 16, 2019Someone took the awesome last words of Mars Opportunity and got a tattoo of Mars Curiosity. Twitter was not kind.Keep it clean and out of the sun! Read the rest

Etsy hasn't said how many sellers are affected, but there are hundreds of complaints in their seller forums.

High-def cameras are available to anyone and for much less than they were just a decade ago. Even the phones in our pockets can be used to shoot and edit short films. It's never been easier to be a filmmaker, providing you have the technique. Enter the Film & Cinematography Mastery Bundle, an online boot camp that will take your movie idea from first shot to final cut.In three separate courses, you'll get insights into every step of the moviemaking process from conception to distribution. An overview tutorial lets you know what missteps to avoid when writing your screenplay, and how to raise funds for the shoot once it's done. Then, you'll dive into the shot-by-shot details with an exhaustive course on cinematography, teaching you how to pick your shots and what equipment you'll need to capture them. Whether it's audio recording, lighting or editing, you'll have a working knowledge of almost every aspect of the process.Lifetime access to the Film & Cinematography Mastery Bundle is on sale now for $29. Read the rest

Amazon doubled its profits in 2018, to $11.2 billion; the company will receive a $129 million tax rebate for the year.Though Trump denounced Amazon's tax return, Amazon actually has Trump's tax deal, which handed massive breaks to America's richest people and corporations, to thank.In contrast to Amazon's $129 million tax rebate, millions of Americans will not get their customary tax rebate this year, and many Americans will owe additional tax.According to The Week, Amazon ended up paying an 11.4% federal income tax rate between 2011 and 2016, which is a contrast to the -1% rate this year.Amazon has a history of avoiding various sales taxes and made headlines last summer after successfully convincing Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan to repeal a tax that would have helped the city’s homeless population.Amazon Will Pay a Whopping $0 in Federal Taxes on $11.2 Billion Profits [Laura Stampler/Fortune] Read the rest

When you're learning to play a musical instrument, you have to play the same songs and scales over and over again. YouTube's algorithm doesn't seem to know this, and so it demonetized a piano tutorial channel for "Repetitious content."We just found out that our channel was demonetised for "Repetitious content" and we believe that this is an error, possibly decided by an algorithm, and now the biggest part of our livelihood has been taken away. Please help us by discussing this (tweeting and posting) if possible. We need to be heard by YouTube. It's a risk for the piano and synthesia community as we all have similar-looking videos.I hope they get this sorted out soon! Read the rest

Alfonso Ribeiro sure can move, but the Copyright office doesn't see anything registerable about it. This ruling further imperils Ribeiro's claim that Epic Games 'Fortnite' has stolen from him.The Verge:The US Copyright Office refused to register The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Alfonso Ribeiro’s “Carlton dance” routine, likely weakening lawsuits against two game studios that copied the dance. In new legal filings, Take-Two Interactive produced letters and emails from the Copyright Office, showing serious concern over whether the dance qualified for copyright protection and, if it could, whether Ribeiro even owned the rights.Ribeiro sued Take-Two for copying the Carlton dance, which he created while playing Fresh Prince character Carlton Banks, for a celebratory dance gesture in NBA 2K. He’s also filed a lawsuit against Epic Games, which used a version of the Carlton dance in Fortnite. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Take-Two filed a defense earlier this week, asking a judge to dismiss the case. It argues that Banks’ dance is too basic to be protected by copyright, which only covers more complex “choreography.”A letter from the Copyright Office backs up that argument — at least, for one of three dance variations that Ribeiro submitted. The letter calls his submission “a simple routine made up of three dance steps” and refuses registration. “The fact that a dance or movement may contain more than a trivial amount of original authorship is irrelevant,” it reads. In other words, even if Ribeiro’s dance was unique and distinctive, it’s not protected by copyright. Read the rest

Ja Rule, who claims he hasn't watched either of the Fyre festival documentaries, is ready to rise like a phoenix from the, er, flames:"(Fyre is) the most iconiq festival that never was," he says. "So I have plans to create the iconic music festival." Read the rest