Here's something that might make H. P. Lovecraft proud (or just really, really confused): a watermelon carved to look like Cthulhu.In this very dramatic timelapse video from 2014, Italian sculptor Valeriano Fatica offers a tutorial on how to carve the monstrous entity into an ordinary summertime favorite. It's called a tutorial, but good luck trying to match this guy's mad skills. He writes on his site, "Watermelon is the most difficult material I’ve tried so far. I studied for years the right method to carve it best."(Geeks are Sexy)

“What do you do with an old Texas rodeo cowboy when he marries a Jersey girl, he’s up in Jersey, and he has no place to keep a horse in Cranford? You make a mechanical horse!”Steve Bacque, aka the Crazy Cranford Cowboy, is that Texan and he did indeed make himself an electric horse. Four golf cart batteries power his not-street-legal e-horse, which he calls "Charger."According to NJ.com,

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Netflix has a new magic six-part series called Magic For Humans. The show's star, magician Justin Willman, worked with an audience to help him pull off the trick in this clip. Working together, they make two guys believe they've become invisible, and they really, really do believe they can't be seen. (I was a little worried about the second guy. I think "being invisible" broke his brain.)

The primary debate between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Cynthia Nixon got pretty intense. (more…)

They served in the Army, Border Patrol and as police. They have legitimate U.S. birth certificates. But Trump's government is denying their passport applications and telling them they aren't U.S. citizens. (more…)

Susan Greene, the editor of the Colorado Independent, was handcuffed and detained by Denver police while attempting to film them near the Colorado State Capitol building. When she points out to officer James Brooks that what she's doing is protected by the First Amendment, he claims that it does not supercede other laws, cuffs her, and orders her to "act like a lady."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Ih5abBptgFilming police officers in public is legal, and attempts to prevent it are oftentimes a warning that police feel they have something to hide. Two studies have found that at least 40 percent of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10 percent of families in the general population. District Attorney Beth McCann "last week called Greene to inform her that the D.A.’s office would not be pressing charges against the officers."Here's the photo Denver cops didn't want Ms. Greene taking, which she published in a post about the incident.

I enjoy flying with Air Canada. I did not, however, enjoy the email I received from them this morning warning me they'd been hacked. (more…)

For nearly two months now, the people of Poland have been captivated by the tale of a missing 16-foot python that is believed to be slithering around Warsaw still. (more…)

Picular is a simple, very nicely-done search engine for colors. Above is is puce, french for "flea", the color of laundered but still-bloodstained fabric. The green swatch is legit, as it has a second meaning of uncertain etymology (perhaps "puke") attached to it.I think it's doing some kind of "distinctive color detection" trick on Google image results:

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Susan Greene responds. “Act like a lady?”“There you go,” the police officer says. “Now you can go to jail.” (more…)

On Monday I posted a video of a young cow enjoying a rotating brush called the Happycow. I wrote, "I think my cats would go for a Happycat." It turns out there is something similar - the Self Groomer Cat Toy ($5). I bought one and it arrived today. It's a plastic brush that you fill with a pinch of catnip (included) then attach to a corner with double sided adhesive tape (also included). I tested it out on our cat. She was sleeping in another room, and I carried her over to it and set her down in front of it. She ignored it and started to wander away, so I picked her up and rubbed her cheek against the plastic bristles. She immediately caught on and started rubbing her head against it and purring like crazy. She kept at it for a good three minutes. I caught about a minute of it on video.

When we were in Tokyo earlier this month I went with my family along with David and his kid to teamLab's Borderless interactive exhibition at the Mori Building digital Art Museum in Tokyo. To say we were blown away is almost an understatement. The 10,000 square meter space has about a dozen very large experiential spaces, each of which would have been worth the price of admission. The different spaces combined light, sound, and 3D design to create pocket universes that either stunned people into blissed out silence or made them run around gleefully. I wasn't expecting it to be as magical as it was.teamLab, the creator of the exhibit, was founded in 2001, and it describes itself as "an art collective, an interdisciplinary group of ultratechnologists whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, design and the natural world." They succeeded with Borderless!The exhibit closes on September 30, and many of the days are already sold out. You can buy tickets here.

So little goes on at a baseball game the announcers have time to pick on the crowd for being bored.

A couple of weeks ago Carla and I went to the newly opened Japan House in Hollywood to see a presentation about prototyping of robots. Japan House is a combination gallery, shop, event venue, and restaurant at Hollywood and Highland that "seeks to foster awareness and appreciation for Japan around the world by showcasing the very best of Japanese art, design, gastronomy, innovation, technology, and more."The current exhibition at Japan House focuses on the work of professor Shunji Yamanaka, who leads the Yamanaka Laboratory at the University of Tokyo. Visitors can pick up and inspect 3D printed prototypes of lifelike robotic creatures that look like insects, lizards, and otherworldly animals. Many of the robots are outfitted with motors and they move in lifelike ways.Professor Yamanaka gave a presentation of his work that evening. I learned that he was the inventor of the card-activated gate that's used by millions of Japanese every day when they ride the rail system. I used these gates dozens of times when I was in Japan this summer to ride the subway, activating the gates with a stored value card called SUICA. (You can also open the gates with a smart watch, like the Apple Watch.)Professor Yamanaka also co-created, along with Takayuki Furuta of the Future Robotics Technology Center at Chiba Institute of Technology, a robot called the CanguRo (Spanish for kangaroo). The robot can be ridden like a motorized scooter or it can roll alongside you and carry heavy items. Here's a video of it in action:https://youtu.be/BVobmBB0f58“Prototyping in Tokyo” runs until 10 October 2018, Monday - Saturday from 10 am - 8 pm and Sunday from 10 am – 7pm. Admission is free.

This is a chair? The contraption looks straight out of Robocop. Acer has announced, and Tom's Hardware Guide has tested, the PREDATOR THRONOS. This is a robotic, tilting, rumbling, video game chair that is absolutely heavier, and may be faster, than my motorcycle.They do not show a lot of real in-game use of the Predator Thronos because, lets face it, it isn't that exciting.A reader suggests it may be a rebranded "Imperator" already available on Amazon for $3500.

The whiner-in-chief frequently turns to Twitter to complain about how he is mistreated and misunderstood. While his relatively small coterie of lickspittle sycophants lap it up, people with more than two neurons to rub together have no trouble recognizing his hypocrisy, lies, and ignorance. Someecards has collected "15 of the internet’s best clapbacks at Trump that we really, really hope he saw." Here are a few of my favorites:1. Hypocrisy

A handsome stallion is introduced to an inanimate denizen of the Uncanny Valley. You can almost hear it thinking, "What eldritch horror has been loosed upon the earth?"Image: YouTube screengrab

Ron DeSantis, who won the GOP nomination in Florida's gubernatorial race, went on Fox News to issue a dire warning not to "monkey this up" by voting for Andrew Gillum, the black mayor of Tallahassee who is running against DeSantis.

Donut County is a new video game in which you play a hole in the ground that tries to swallow up everything. The more the hole eats, the bigger it gets. It reminds me a bit of Katamari Damacy, the game where you roll an adhesive ball around to get objects to stick to it.

Kids today. They understand a racist, homophobic, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, symbol when they see one.Via CBS News:

Further proof that Anatidae are the meanest of birds.

San Diego Republican Congressperson Duncan Hunter threw his wife under the bus over his indictment for gross financial abuses. Speaking to a women's group of volunteers, Hunter is now all about family.Talking Points Memo:

This is my daily wear Apple Watch band.Apple Watch is a fantastic fitness tracker, but its ability to switch bands in mere seconds is a pretty great feature as well. I have bands dress up, and bands for getting sweaty, but mostly I wear this leather cuff.My father used to wear his watch on a big ugly leather "Hercules" cuff, or so I called it as a tyke back in the 70s. I found that watch, and put it on a nice band sometime in my 20s, but it was later stolen from my home. When I was searching for bands for my Apple Watch I came across this one, and it reminded me of his, but the white stitching gives it more style than my father could likely handle.The leather is a very nice quality, and has both the look and feel I expect of those 1970s leather bracelets. It has worn and scuffed just enough to look pretty legit, and is super comfortable. I have even taken to wearing it to bed, as I've added a sleep tracking app to the watch as well.This band should fit most everyone out of the box. My wrists are on the thin side, of the seven holes for fitment I use the 2nd. At my largest I'll never need more than the 3rd. I'd assume most men and women can wear this band, and if you have an awl you'll be just fine. There is lots of room to add smaller and larger holes. I wear this watchband as a tribute to my father, the Inspector Clouseau of fashion.LoveBlue Compatible Apple Watch Band 42mm, iwatch Band Apple Watch Genuine Leather Band Replacement Strap with Stainless Steel Clasp for Series 3/2/ 1 (42mm-Crazy Horse Leather Coffe) via Amazon

Last year in Yemen, cholera ran rampant. In a single week, the United Nations reported 50,000 new cases of the diarrhea and vomit-inducing illness. In 2018, thanks to computer modeling, the number of individuals that have succumb to the virus have dropped to an average of 2,500 cases over a seven-day period. From The BBC:

For more than a decade, Connecticut public schools have banned the sale of sodas to students as part of a health initiative. But at West Haven High School, sodas could still be purchased if you knew which door to knock on: the office of the school's two police officers. From WTNH:

Applestone Meat Co. has installed meat vending machines at their Stone Ridge, NY shop with plans to deploy 24-hour meat machines in Hudson, Scarsdale, and Manhattan. From Bloomberg:

In Indonesian culture, Pacu Jawi, or cow racing, is kind of a big deal. Used by famrers to pass the time after they've harvested their crops and, more recently to attract tourists to rural areas and festivals, Pacu Jawi racers prefer to do their thing in rice paddies, as the wet, muddy conditions make it easy for those jokeying their team of cows to skid along as the bovine bullets advance.

InstantSunrise on Twitter embarked upon a Twitter epic: dragging every single U.S. president in chronological order. [via Kottke]

It's getting more difficult with every passing day to keep from being spied upon by nefarious tools interested in getting their hands on your personal information, creeping on what you're browsing with on your laptop or phone and, if you've not bothered to cover up that webcam, keep tabs on your life as they stream images of your day-to-day doings across the Internet. Thanks to a group of computer-savvy scientists, it looks like there may soon be one more monitoring method that we'll have to watch out for.From Ars Technica:

If you're worried about menacing gangs of goats roaming the moor, here's how to sweeten the savage beasts: smile. Scientists found that "goats are drawn to humans with happy facial expressions."

Sarah Jeong's book The Internet of Garbage was first published in 2015. Then a timely primer about online harassment, the structure of the internet, and why corporate policies can't and won't deal with it, things have since changed: everything is now worse. The Verge is publishing a new edition, The Internet of Garbage 1.5 [Amazon], which they're also giving away as a free-of-charge eBook. This excerpt about copyright law and harassment—especially the complex dangers of using the former to counteract the latter—is an excellent taster.

All of 2018's latest computer graphics techniques and toys in one eight-minute video. I hope you like ray tracing! More.

Fresh off his role as Prince Philip in The Crown (oh, and a rather obscure British TV show called Doctor Who), Matt Smith has joined the cast of the yet-unnamed ninth installment of the Star Wars saga. He joins Dominic Monaghan, Keri Russell, Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant as newcomers to the series. Episode IX is scheduled to open on December 20th, 2019. Matt Smith Joins 'Star Wars: Episode IX' [Aaron Couch/Hollywood Reporter][Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons]

One of the most baffling superstitions I've ever heard while living in Japan came from my mother-in-law. One day we were walking on a trail with my kindergarten-aged son when we looked down to see there was an earthworm crossing our path. We stopped, but before I could find a stick to nudge him out of the way, my mother-in-law screamed, grabbed my son, and yelled, "Don't pee on it!". I didn't know where to start. I think I started by explaining that her grandson doesn't usually make a habit out of dropping trou and piddling on every bug he happens to come across. But, also, was the looming question, why? I mean aside from the fact it's not a cool thing to do to such a tiny creature. Why? So I asked. She went on to lecture me about how little boys like peeing on worms (It's what she said, really.) and how if they do, their little boy parts will swell up and start itching terribly. It's an awful thing, she told me.Oookay. Keep in mind, this was pre-Internet, so there was no way for me to whip out (heh) my phone and check. I decided it was probably a silly old wives' tale made to keep rambunctious little boys from doing mischievous things. I even heard it a couple times after that fateful day, from different people. But still there was no insight into why this idea even started in the first place. Then one day, many years later, I was watching a Japanese TV show doing a bit about superstitions and this one came up. Some research was done and it turns out there is a kind of worm that when frightened expels some low grade poison that can travel up a urine stream to reach the offending genitalia. Swelling and itching ensue. I've still never met anyone willing to admit this has happened to them, however. Not that I don't ask now and then.

In 1902, chemist Harvey Wiley launched a unique experiment to test the safety of food additives. He recruited a group of young men and fed them meals laced with chemicals to see what the effects might be. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Wiley's "poison squad" and his lifelong crusade for food safety.We'll also follow some garden paths and puzzle over some unwelcome weight-loss news.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

Bears live in Japan, especially Hokkaido. So it’s no surprise that people hunt and eat them from time to time. It’s also no shock that one of these animals might end up in a pot of curry. Bear curry isn’t so entirely surprising. But what is surprising, though, is this new thing I found from Hokkaido, Japan. Zombie Bear Curry. No, wait, that’s Zombear. The curry that makes no promises about possibly being tasty in any way. It says right there on the front of the package in big red font: Decrease Your Appetite! Under that it tells you it’s blue soup curry with the top right-hand corner proclaiming Blue! And guro uma which is a play on words. Guro meaning grotesque/gross and uma short for umai: delicious. Deliciously gross? Still the photo looks good, right? Don’t get your hopes up. The little splotch above the price tag lets you know there are non of those yummy looking ingredients in this bag. It’s just (blue) soup. There aren't even any bears in here. In even finer print: the photo on the box is a serving suggestion. So I tried it and it tastes pretty good, actually. I then did a little research and learned that Zombear has his own website and Twitter account Zombear also has a backstory. He weighs 29 kilos and is 29.9 centimeters tall. His favorite food is fresh salmon. He’s a big stuffed teddy bear who has been wandering the streets of Hokkaido for 70 years looking for the boy that owns him. He’s got a very bad sense of direction, but is lucky nonetheless.Please don’t worry too much about Zombear not having the means to travel around and search for his master. He’s and enterprising little bear, selling all kinds of merchandise from buttons, to t-shirts, to stuffed animals with red intestine cords. The latter of which is very cleverly priced at 4,771 yen. The numbers (4771) can be sounded out to read “shi na na i“, which sounds like different characters that mean “doesn’t die” or “won’t die”. Zombear!

FOLLOW @RubenBolling on the Twitters and a Face Book.JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the Proud & Mighty INNER HIVE, for exclusive early access to comics, extra comics, and much more.GET Ruben Bolling’s new hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures. ("The type of non-stop action and improbably hilarious fun that only a kid could dream up. ... The EMU Club's adventures perfectly capture the intersection of imagination and wonder - the crossroad that's so often found in cardboard boxes, pillow forts and backyards everywhere." -GeekDad) Book One here. Book Two here.More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

All Disney resort workers will be paid at least $15 an hour by 2021, reports Charles Pulliam-Moore.

Atlantic reporter Rosie Gray obtained emails that show a former Homeland Security employee was involved in planning social events with white supremacists, self-described racists, and 'white advocates'. The DHS response: "This type of radical ideology runs counter to the Department’s mission of keeping America safe."Emails reveal that a former Homeland Security Official official was connected to white supremacists. Ian M. Smith has since resigned from his position at the DHS. (more…)

Jacob Soboroff of NBC News has been covering the story of migrant kids separated from their families by Trump's violent policy at the Mexico border. Soboroff is in Florida today, where he stopped by a “temporary” HHS shelter for unaccompanied minors who entered the United States illegally. (more…)

Congressman Devin Nunes, who is an oddly enthusiastic supporter of President Donald Trump's personal legal interests and chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, unsuccessfully tried to meet the leaders of Britain’s three intelligence agencies on a recent trip to London, report multiple news agencies today citing sources familiar with Nunes' travel schedule. (more…)

In 2017, nearly 2.3 million STD cases were diagnosed in the USA, the highest number ever reported, topping previously highest year of 2016 by 200,000 cases.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released new numbers on STDs in America. (more…)

ICYMI: Today, Pretend President Donald Trump feuded with an algorithm after Googling his own name.Today the Trump administration threatened to regulate Google and internet search results, based on an early morning vanity search by Donald Trump. Democrats and Republicans said that would be a violation of free speech protections. So, Trump's "re-election campaign" [aka slush fund for whatever he wants] went and fundraised off the whole thing.(more…)

CALLING ALL EARTHLINGS, the new documentary from filmmaker Jonathan Berman ('Commune,' 'The Schvitz') has it all: UFOs, a mystical dome in the Joshua Tree desert, psychic experiences, time travel, Howard Hughes, Nikolai Tesla, communists, eternal life, murder-- oh yeah, and Nazis. (more…)

I'm not sure what the functional advantage of having a door like this is, but it looks like fun.

Epic Nerd Camp is a 5-day summer camp for adults in Pennsylvania's Poconos Mountains that celebrates cosplay, LARPing, RPGs, Quidditch, escape rooms, swordplay, wizarding, and many other special interests popular among geeks. The Washington Post's Karen Heller paid a visit:

Cardinal Blase Cupich offers a distinctively Catholic response to the church's renewed abuse crisis: the Pope "has a bigger agenda" than going down the "rabbit hole" of allegations. "He's got to get on with other things."

Police in Montgomery County, Texas are searching for this mysterious woman who was apparently ringing multiple doorbells in the middle of the night at subdivision over the weekend. (more…)

This is absolutely the best pet watering dish we've ever had. (more…)