Jerome Licini is a professor at Lehigh University. He and one of his students developed an apparatus to demonstrate why empty shampoo bottles tip over so easily. The reason: empty bottles have much less mass than full bottles, and their center of gravity is higher so they are basically begging to fall over at the slightest touch. Read the rest

In 1995 I wrote an article in Wired about the Museum of Bad Art, which showcased art found in thrift stores. I'm glad to see the tradition of curating thrift store arts and crafts is still going on at MoBA. And here is an unrelated but similar Instagram account with many examples of mindbending works of primitive art. It also includes a lot of creepy products and other ephemera, which adds to the entertainment value. Read the rest

The Muffaletta, as created and prepared by Central Grocery on Decatur in New Orleans, is my second favorite sandwich on earth. I recently spent a week in New Orleans trying Muffaletta at various locations to see if I might possibly like one better than the OG sandwich sold across from the French Market. I could not.While the location may be part of the experience, and I certainly do love sitting at a counter in the back of Central Grocery, drinking an Abita Amber and enjoying a Muffaletta with Zapp's Voodoo Heat chips, I figured I could make this sandwich at home.The ingredients are commonly available. Mostly the sandwich is made of cured meats and cheese, the tricky parts seemed to be the olive tapenade and the bread. Bread? I figured I could handle the bread, and when I saw the olive salad available for sale online...Sandwich ho!Boing Boing's MuffalettaYou are going to need about 36 hrs for this one.Sponge:⅛ tsp yeast1 cup warm water1 cup bread flourDough:3 ½ cups bread flour2 Tbs shortening1 ½ Tbs salt1 cup warm water¼ tsp yeastBefore you bake:1 egg½ cup waterAbout 4oz each of Mortadella, Genoa Salami, Hot Cappicola. Also sliced provolone, and 1 jar of Central Grocery olive tapenade.Mix all the starter ingredients in a medium-size bowl, cover and set on your counter overnight.Combine the dough ingredients with your starter in a large-size bowl, or your standing kitchen mixer if you have one. Read the rest

An organizer of protests against State efforts to minimize the loss of life during the current global pandemic has tested positive for COVID-19.Said protestor was unsurprisingly unclear about her intentions to follow her state-mandated quarantine for carriers of the virus.WCNC:"As an asymptomatic COVID19 positive patient (quarantine ends 4/26) another concern I have is the treatment of COVID patients as it relates to other communicable diseases. I have been forced to quarantine in my home for 2 weeks," she wrote on her social media page."I have been told not to participate in public or private accommodations as requested by the government, and therefore denied my 1st amendment right of freedom of religion," she wrote."It has been insinuated by others that if I go out, I could be arrested for denying a quarantine order," she wrote. Read the rest

I've never heard of the Disney animated feature Fun and Fancy Free. It's from 1947 and stars Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Jiminy Cricket, and Goofy. (It is also the last Disney cartoon in which Walt himself voiced Mickey) Above, as seen in which Mickey Mouse Goofy and Donald duck have barely any food so they must split one slice of bread and one bean among the three of them.Below, someone re-created the scene in real life:Mickey mouse and friends, IRL from r/combinedgifsImage: Reddit Read the rest

Why do dogs often walk in circles before lying down for bed? Turns out, it's a survival trait inherited from their evolutionary ancestor the wolf. From Southern Living:“Turning in circles before lying down is an act of self-preservation in that the dog may innately know that he needs to position himself in a certain way to ward off an attack in the wild,” notes [veterinarian and Animal Center co-owner Lynn] Buzhardt. “Turning around 360 degrees also provides an opportunity to take one last look for potential predators before bedtime.”[...]In addition to self-protection, circling and nesting help dogs in the wild to make their sleeping space more comfortable. Undomesticated dogs don’t know the luxury of fluffy pillow and plush cushions—to make a “bed,” they mat down grass, clear away rocks and branches, and reposition brush. This practice helps dogs uncover any hidden threats like snakes or other critters, and it also allows them create a nice sleeping niche. Read the rest

Augmented reality startup Magic Leap was founded in 2014. It demonstrated a new kind of technology called "light field signal generation" that promised to be far superior to existing augmented reality and virtual reality technology. It received $2.6 billion in funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Google.In 2018 Magic Leap released a headset called the Magic Leap One, which almost everyone was disappointed with. The problem with it, according to this Tech Crunch article is that Magic Leap pulled a bait-and-switch. It did not use light field signal generation. It used the same kind of technology found in other augmented reality headsets released by Microsoft and others years earlier.It appears Magic Leap was unable to sufficiently miniaturize the groundbreaking technology. From Tech Crunch:As The Information’s Reed Albergotti revealed more than three years ago, “The Beast” was Magic Leap’s original demo box. It was everything people said. It was stunning, dreamlike, breakthrough technology. And it weighed “several hundred pounds.”“The Beast” was followed by “The Cheesehead,” which fit on a human head, and “showed they could miniaturize the light field signal generator they’d invented” … but still weighed “tens of pounds,” obviously far too heavy for any real-world applications. (There are pictures of both in the linked CNET piece.)“The Beast” and “The Cheesehead” help explain the multiple rounds of massive venture investment. But then — could Magic Leap miniaturize their breakthrough technology further, to anything actually releasable?Clearly they could not, and that’s the crux of the matter, the answer to how and why Magic Leap raised $2.6 Read the rest

Studio Ghibli fans can now conduct their online meetings from Miyazaki land. Choose a still from a variety of films including My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo, Kiki's Delivery Service and more, and make it your background. (Images offered here for free.) Thanks Studio Ghibli! Image: Studio Ghibli / Spirited Away Read the rest

ETA prime has been using a Pinebook Pro laptop with an ARM CPU. It has an aluminum shell and 14.1-inch display. Overall, he's impressed with the performance, but says he had a few missed-click problems with the trackpad, and isn't sure if it's a hardware or software issue.But he says he would rather have the Lenovo Ideapad S130, a similarly priced Windows laptop that "crushes the Pinebook Pro" in terms of performance.I went to the Pine64 website and learned that they also have an 11.6 inch Linux laptop for $100.Image: YouTube Read the rest

On Sunday, police in Paso Robles, California were called to Fatte's Pizza after an armed robber made off with cash from the register. Later that evening, the cops apprehended the suspect, one Darryl Allan, 38, who apparently owns a Fatte's Pizza just 15 minutes away in Atascadero. He had stopped at In-N-Out for a bite."Upon their search of the vehicle police found a gun, large amounts of cash, along with drug paraphernalia," reports KSBY News. Read the rest

Of the 7,500 people tested statewide for antibodies against coronavirus, 14.9% have tested positive, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced at a press briefing on Monday.Coronavirus antibodies are reported to be present in almost 25% of all New York City residents, said governor Andrew Cuomo at a press briefing on Monday.The governor also addressed when the state would lift coronavirus restrictions throughout the state.“We want to un-PAUSE. May 15 is when the PAUSE regulations expire statewide. I will extend them in many parts of the state. But in some parts of the state, some regions, you can make the case that we should un-PAUSE on May 15. But you have to be smart about it,” Cuomo said. “Start thinking through what it means to reopen.”From CBS-NY: Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that the number of statewide random antibody tests has expanded to 7,500, which reveals a better picture of the extent of coronavirus spread in New York.Cuomo said 14.9% of those tested statewide tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, which is up from the initial 13.9% statewide when a previous sample of 3,000 people was done on April 22. Cuomo said the 1% increase is statistically in the margin of error.Regionally, the results suggest: 24.7% positive in New York City 15.1% positive in Westchester/Rockland 14.4% positive on Long Island 3.2% positive in the rest of the stateThe governor said he’s going to conduct antibody surveys of 1,000 NYPD and FDNY personnel to determine the infection rate in those organizations. Read the rest

Mark Di Stefano of the Financial Times is accused by The Independent of accessing private Zoom meetings held by The Independent and The Evening Standard as journalists were learning how coronavirus restrictions would affect them.A Financial Times reporter ‘accessed private Zoom calls at Independent and Evening Standard,’ the Independent (UK) reports today.The Independent contacted the Financial Times and Mark Di Stefano, neither would comment.Excerpt:Log files show an account registered to Di Stefano’s FT.com email address joined the private video call for Independent staff on Thursday for 16 seconds. The caller’s video was disabled, but journalists saw his name flash briefly on screen before he left the meeting.Five minutes later, a separate account joined the call, this time unnamed. Again, video was switched off so that only a black square was displayed among the screens showing up to 100 people who had been invited to attend. The anonymous user account, which remained in the meeting until the end, was later shown to be linked to the mobile phone used by the same Financial Times reporter.Watch moreDi Stefano posted the news on Twitter while The Independent’s staff were still being told details of and reasons behind salary cuts and furloughs, and before the editor, Christian Broughton, and senior management at the title had contacted other journalists who could not join the video call, including those based in the US.Shortly afterwards, the Financial Times published a report by Di Stefano, including confidential details about the company’s advertising downturn and quoting chief executive Zach Leonard. Read the rest

"The Name is Bootsy, Baby" is the fantastic 1996 pilot for a cartoon about the interplanetary adventures of Bootsy Collins, otherworldly bass player for Parliament-Funkadelic. Made for MTV but never aired on the channel, the cartoon was executive produced by Abby Terkuhle (Daria, Beavis and Butt-head) and also featured the voice of Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-head, King of the Hill)! Bonus below, Bootsy's appearance on the animated documentary series "Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus": Read the rest

Philadelphia Flyers' mascot / Real American Folk Hero Gritty has been passing his (its?) quarantine time with daily 15-minute Instagram livestreams. Topics range from Spelling Bees, to Charades, to Golf Tips, to … Gritty literally explaining the meta-ness of his (its?) own beloved existence.It's every bit as glorious as it sounds. Praise be to Gritty. Read the rest

Becky Ames, mayor of Beaumont, Texas, was spotted last Tuesday visiting The Nail Bar, a salon that should not be open because of lockdown rules imposed by Beaumost, Texas, mayor Becky Ames."A photo appearing to show Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames getting a manicure was shared on Instagram this week," reports 12 News's Scott Eslinger.Mayor Ames told 12News earlier this week she did go to the nail salon after talking to the owner about how to remove an old manicure set. She needed acetone, and the salon owner said she would leave some out for her.Instead, the owner had the solution set up in a bowl inside. The mayor says she was in and out in 10 minutes, and the owner was the only person in the salon. The back door was open and the salon was dark.Ames "sent photos to 12News, reiterating that she did not have her nails done." The photos are of Ames' visibly peeling and calloused nails and need not be reproduced here. In the meantime, an apology:My heartfelt apology to all of the citizens of Beaumont for my lapse in judgement on Tuesday, April 21st.I promise that there was no malice intended. I should never have entered the salon last Tuesday.I did not intend to take personal privilege while asking others to sacrifice and for that I am truly remorseful.As an elected official I am held to a higher standard, I regret my action that day. I am honestly sorry and I pray that you will forgive me. Read the rest

The Daily Mail, a UK tabloid, ran a story accusing British athlete James Cracknell of breaking social distancing rules in a visit with his parents. It illustrated this with the above photograph, showing Cracknell sat inches from his father. The Daily Mail, however, fabricated this image by photoshopping what Cracknell actually posted, below. The real photo was, in fact, a humorous illustration of the social distancing measures the Daily Mail accused Cracknell of breaking.Here’s a game of spot the difference. 1) @dailymail ‘s pic of me & my dad 2) the actual picture. Socially distant, no physical contact & was bringing them food. Been a long month of no contact, my mum worked for the NHS her whole career so she was ruthless about distance. Thanks pic.twitter.com/4cWifBGzMa— James Cracknell (@jamescracknell) April 26, 2020The blatant, pervasive, smirking fakeness of UK newspaper reportage is one of those things that everyone accepts but never quite groks. It's not just the occasional photo, but the basic formula for content generation. Even editors who take it too far, such as Piers Morgan, tend to fail upward after a perfunctory moment of disgrace.In this case, the defense upon which the Mail depends is that Cracknell's visit was still against the rules. The fact of this isn't clear, as Cracknell claims he bought them food, but this defense works with Britons delighted to be thusly policed. Read the rest

Over the weekend, Trump railed about journalists on Twitter in a typo-strewn rant in which he repeatedly confused the Pulitzer Prize with the Nobel Prize (which lacks a journalism category) and spelled Nobel "Noble" throughout. Trump (or a handler) has deleted the tweets, but they live on in the archives. Read the rest

You probably heard that the U.S. Postal Service is tanking, expecting to run out of money by October 2020. Interestingly, it's not funded by taxpayers, but entirely through the sale of postage, gifts, and services. So, now there's a growing movement to help save them by purchasing postage stamps and other products from their online store. Like this Dog Mail Carrier Costume for $17.99. So, do your part, dog owners! P.S. I'll take one of these, please!Thanks, Carolee! Read the rest

Phil the enormous malamute hasn't taken a bath in months, is increasingly in need of a bath, and has no intention whatsoever of having a bath. SPOILER: Ultimately, Phil is bathed. Phil's vengeance begins at exactly 14:00. Read the rest

My friend Matt Dibble works for Voice of America and put together this little report about some streets in Oakland neighborhoods being designated as "soft streets." Through-traffic is not allowed and resident drivers using are warned that their neighbors may be out playing in the streets.I suspect we will see many more creative solutions like this as we move into the next phase of living with COVID-19 and figuring ways to be out of the house while maintaining social distance.Image: YouTube Read the rest

When you were 10 and your mom demanded you finish your vegetables or go to your room, you were mad. Even as kids, we hated it when we were ordered to do something. Car insurance is a federal mandate, yet that’s only one of the reasons why most Americans would rather do just about anything than deal with car insurance.Over a quarter (28%) of Americans — 28 percent — think they pay too much for car insurance, yet almost 40 percent say they haven’t checked their current rates against competitors in at least three years. 17 percent have never checked at all. Ever.The Zebra wants to change that car insurance aversion mindset. The nation’s leading car insurance comparison site, they’ve developed a free, safe, simple way to make sure users are getting the absolute best price on car insurance. And if they’re not, The Zebra paves the way for any driver to get the lowest rate available anywhere.Through The Zebra website, users identify their vehicle make and model as well as where they live. With that handful of data, The Zebra stretches its legs, tapping their relationships with over 200 different national and regional insurance providers to find out which will offer gives that user the best possible coverage plan.The Zebra checks in with providers like Farmers, Liberty Mutual, Allstate, and GEICO, crunching the numbers and offering all the best coverage offers in a matter of seconds.For users who find an option they like, The Zebra will facilitate the switch, working with the new provider to hammer out the policy details while all the user has to do is sign on the dotted line to make it official. Read the rest

The mark of true greatness in tech is longevity. Because if you’ve survived more than an 18-month product cycle and endured...well, you’re one of the lucky few. That’s part of why the continuing devotion and market dominance of Microsoft Excel is such a historic story.Today, 35 years after its introduction, this spreadsheet titan is arguably just as popular and vital to the daily health of American business as it was in the 80s. And considering how many competitors have come and gone in that time, it’s safe to say it’s an app you should know. Because hey, it could well be around for another 35 years.eLearnExcel has become one of the best-known sources for understanding everything that makes Excel special — and the eLearnExcel: The 2020 Excel Certification School Bundle can help make sure your Excel skills are deep, on point and worthy of a place on your resume.International Academy of Computer Training has trained over 800,000 users in the fine art of Excel over the past quarter-century. It’s even trusted by Microsoft itself to teach its employees how to manage Excel like a pro, which should be all the confidence in this training that you would need.The course takes more than 60 hours and is powered by nearly 300 video lessons, highlighting all the basic and advanced operations any Excel guru must understand.From step-by-step basics to everyday time-saving tips to more expert-level skills like must-know formulas, functions, pivot tables, and scalability, the course comes with a detailed presentation with example projects to help embed your learning. Read the rest

The number one rule for anyone wishing to be in Trump's good graces is to defend every lie and stupid thing he says. Defense tactics include: doubling down on the lie, blaming the fake media for twisting their god emperor's words, or wondering aloud why people can't understand that he was just kidding. In this case, Dr. Deborah Birx, U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, used a combination of the first two tactics to evade the question. She did a pretty good job, meaning it's unlikely that Trump will issue a "Dumb Deborah" tweet in response.Image: YouTube Read the rest

From national and local news anchors to Ellen Degeneres, from Saturday Night Live to the all-star Together At Home concert, we’re learning another new reality of our 2020 entertainment world: everyone has their own home production equipment these days.Granted, it’s often just an iPhone, a mic and some extra lighting, but the shuttering of Hollywood and most television production has sparked a whole new DIY-driven aesthetic across our screens — and even now, it doesn’t take a lot anymore to make even your own home vlogs look right on par with Jimmy Fallon or Anderson Cooper.In fact, you can take a big step toward having all the pieces of a brilliant home video hub with the U-STREAM Home Streaming Studio with 10" Ring Light and Tripod package.It all begins with an adjustable tripod stand grips your phone to capture just the right shooting angle. The stand extends from 18 up to 52 inches, allowing you to maneuver into the position that best fits the physical demands of your environment. The phone holder also features a non-slip rubber grip, so your device stays locked in during streaming.Of course, no video looks good without the proper lighting, so your phone and stand are also haloed by an all-purpose 10-inch ring light. Equipped with three distinct lighting options — white, warm yellow, and warm white — you can fire up this ring light and get just the right amount of fill, shadow, and ambiance for a perfect shot. Read the rest

While all the gloom and doom of our COVID-19 quarantine realities can definitely put a damper on life as we know it, all this time spent at home doesn’t have to go to waste.As the world tries to slow the spread of the virus, this would also be a good time to slow down a bit yourself and take a little personal stock. Odds are, there’s some area, or possible, multiple areas of your pre-lockdown life that could use addressing — and you’ll find no better roadmap to getting all those deficiencies on track than the training in The Ultimate Life Hacker Master Class Bundle.This collection features 11 courses featuring 44 hours of instruction all aimed at striking the work-life-productivity-efficiency balance that we all seek.If your career could use some work, four courses here will help you bolster those professional aspirations. Create Your Dream Job: Hack the Job Search and Skip the Ladder teaches some of the most powerful, simple techniques used by some of the world’s most successful people, while The Complete Presentation and Public Speaking Course covers how to give great speeches for both business and personal presentations.Branding You: How to Build Your Multimedia Internet Empire examines the Branding You™ Strategy, a paradigm for creating and managing media that drives traffic; and The Complete Job Interviewing Skills Master Class Course prepares you to walk into the job interview of your dreams and absolutely crush it.If maybe your productivity and organizational skills need some attention, the Productivity Master Class: How to Powerfully Get Things Done can help you dig in on a 4-step framework for immediately getting more done towards your goals. Read the rest

Considering the human race’s utter dependence on coffee, it’s no surprise that more than 40 percent of American homes have a single-cup coffee brewing system. Unfortunately, most of those machines take pods made from various plastic and aluminum materials that aren’t easily recyclable. And while 39,000 of those pods are made every minute worldwide, about 29,000 of those pods will ultimately end up in landfills, where they’ll all sit for up to 500 years.Those are not numbers that’ll make you feel good about your obsession with the perfect cup of coffee. Thankfully, manufacturers are taking note and we’re beginning to see more and more coffee makers start producing compostable pods to combat the ill effects on our environment.For example, you can try out a collection of offerings from Australia’s tastiest sustainable and compostable coffee pod maker Pod and Parcel with a 60-pod sample pack.Pod and Parcel use specialty-grade Arabica beans roasted in the coffee mecca of Melbourne to create six of their most satisfying flavors: Mbeya, Huehuetenango, Bezzera, Florentino, Munro, and Bancroft. Matching blends originating from around the world, each flavor producing intensities from rich and balanced up to bold and assertive.The collection features 10 pods of each variety, with each ready to brew in its own biodegradable and compostable pod. The pod capsules engineered to work with all original style Nespresso coffee machines are made from plant-based materials that break down in just 90 days, shrinking your carbon footprint and assuring you’re part of the ecological solution, not the problem. Read the rest

Reuters reports that China dispatched medical experts to North Korea to "advise on leader Kim Jong-Un", suspected to be very ill after a heart operation. The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean leader. Reuters was unable to immediately determine what the trip by the Chinese team signalled in terms of Kim’s health. A delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday, two of the people said. The department is the main Chinese body dealing with neighbouring North Korea. Japanese weekly Shukan Gendai claims Kim is in a "vegetative state" and unlikely to recover.The Chinese expert told the magazine that Kim clutched his chest and fell to the ground on a visit to the countryside earlier this month. A doctor accompanying Kim performed CPR and took him to a nearby hospital.Kim, believed to be 36, needed a stent procedure, which calls for placing a tube into a congested blood vessel to allow blood to keep flowing to the heart, according to Shukan Gendai. Read the rest

Our reality has felt like a dystopian sci-fi movie for a while now, but at least now there's a positive plot twist. First, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson both survived a bout with COVID-19. Now Hanks tells Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me! that he and his wife both have coronavirus antibodies in their systems, and have donated their blood to science in case the plasma can be used for good:We have not only been approached, we have said, ‘Do you want our blood? Can we give plasma?’ And, in fact, we will be giving it now to the places that hope to work on what I would like to call the Hank-ccine.HANK-CCINE. In all of the stress and awfulness around us, at least we have that happy thought to carry us through.Rita Wilson had previously mentioned this on CBS:Well, that’s what they told us and that’s what the belief is. We recently have been part of a study where we’ve donated our blood, and we’re waiting to hear back if our antibodies will be helpful in developing a vaccine, but also if we are able to donate plasma that can be used as donation to other people who are suffering from the virus because we are immune.WATCH: In her first interview since her COVID-19 diagnosis, @RitaWilson says she's feeling great — and giving back.Wilson told @GayleKing about the story behind her #HipHopHooray remix benefiting @MusiCares, her journey to recovery, and her symptoms when she first got sick. Read the rest

As the line goes "you don't know what you've got til it's gone." The land and sea critters at the Texas State Aquarium were wondering where all of the loud and annoying 2-leggeds went. Figuring they might be missing the limelight, the staff decided to let the sea animals meet some of the land animals.The dolphins seemed to find Chico the sloth particularly amusing. Something tells me Chico may not have been super-excited to meet the inhabitants of the shark tank.Read more and see a video of Chico touring the aquarium on Bored Panda.The also let puppies from a local humane society have a day at the aquarium.Image: Screengrab Read the rest

Celebrated artist, Roger Dean, known for his iconic album cover art for Yes, Uriah Heep, and Asia (but mostly Yes), has been Facebook streaming the development and rendering of the cover for Yes' forthcoming record.Dean did the first session on Wednesday and the second today. Unfortunately, his feed has had bad audio and buffering issues, making it challenging to watch. Let's hope some of that can get sorted out by the next one.See future sessions on his Facebook page.Image: Screengrab Read the rest

I spent the first two weeks of my quarantine shitting in a portapotty in the parking lot of my building. It wasn't great — but hey, at least it was always stocked with hand sanitizer.The contractors I'd hired to renovate my bathroom were not so good on timeliness or communication before the pandemic started. And it only got worse from there. So I drove 300 miles in late March where I could at least be with my pregnant wife, and where at least I could shit indoors.I returned home the other day to find that the bathroom still wasn't finished (though at least I could shower and shit now). Disappointed, I began to unpack my things, and ended up listening to this new NPR Short Wave podcast, which strangely made me feel better. It traces the history of indoor plumbing — including the uphill battle of trying to get people to understand that no, actually, a centralized sewage system will be better for your sanitation, and you shouldn't worry about the shit from other peoples' shit infecting your home. It goes on to explain how things such as porcelain/tiling and first-floor "powder rooms" actually served utilitarian purposes, making it easier for people to distance themselves from potential disease carriers, or clean things off after hosting guests with uncertain medical histories.To be clear, I'm not sure why this made me feel better about my frustrating bathroom contracting experience. Or the deadly virus that continues to rage just outside my doors. Read the rest

While CBD is not a cure-all miracle drug, millions of users can be forgiven for feeling that way and singing its praises.CBD’s direct medical impact still remains to be fully researched and documented, but those who have become believers in the non-psychoactive cannabis extract say the drug is a godsend, alleviating the symptoms of everything from anxiety, depression, and insomnia to chronic pain, drug addiction, muscle spasms, and debilitating illnesses like Parkinson’s disease and cancer.With growing scientific evidence backed by reams of anecdotal findings, the market for CBD and CBD-infused products is exploding, expected to grow to over $2.1 billion in consumer sales this year.Unlike many products containing CBD or even CBD-based oils, capsules of the hemp extract help deliver a more even dosage through the body, which is why products like Common Ground Balance 900mg CBD capsules are a go-to conveyance system for those looking to maximize CBD effects.Common Ground CBD supplements are created with premium full-spectrum hemp extracts that are farmed, extracted, formulated, and packaged in Colorado in proprietary, small-batch processes. Each capsule contains a 30mg dose of that organically-created CBD, enough to offer the whole body the full effects of its soothing properties.Each 30 count bottle contains a month’s supply to work its healing, whether you need physical pain relief from nerve and muscle pain, arthritis, acne, or more; or biochemical support to combat Alzheimer’s symptoms, mental disorders, or high blood pressure.With none of the mind-altering effects of THC, these supplements from Common Ground contain no artificial flavors or additives and are GMO-free, gluten-free, and vegan. Read the rest

Wait... what? First Lucille Ball and Star Trek and now this?Dolly Parton secretly produced Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the unexpected crossover of cultural icons has left fans reeling.While Parton was not herself credited as a producer on the long-running fantasy series, a company she co-created and owned was responsible for it coming to television.Sandollar Entertainment, which is listed on the end credits of every episode of the show, was created by Parton and her friend and former business partner Sandy Gallin in 1986. It produced a number of films, including Father of the Bride (1991) and Fly Away Home (1996), as well as several Parton projects – most recently her Netflix anthology series Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings.Though it sounds like she had no direct involvement in the show, it's still kind of a cool association.Read the rest here. Read the rest

If it’s in this week’s tabloids, chances are it didn’t happen.

Despite the protestations of the White House Press Secretary and Breitbart — which are not, in fact, the same entity — the 45th President of the United State of America did indeed suggest that people should pump themselves full of toxic disinfectant chemicals and "UV light" to fight off coronavirus. And once again, The Onion proved itself to be not a satire site, but rather, a prophet of the apocalypse.That was Thursday evening. By Friday afternoon, Trump insisted that his public declaration in the middle of an official government press conference was obviously meant to be sarcastic:TRUMP TO REPORTER: "You know the way it was asked -- I was looking at you!"REPORTER: "Sir, I wasn't here yesterday" https://t.co/sJ8wT1pOUs— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) April 24, 2020Even if this were true — which is clearly, embarrassingly not — it would still not make for good optics if the leader of a country where 50,000 people had died from COVID-19 in just over a month was making jokes about it, especially after he had already touted another false cure that ended up killing a group of military veterans.As The Guardian reports, Trump had actually received a message earlier this week from the leader of a religious group that worships cleansing the human body with poisonous chemicals like bleach:[Mark] Grenon styles himself as “archbishop” of Genesis II – a Florida-based outfit that claims to be a church but which in fact is the largest producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach as a “miracle cure” in the US. Read the rest

We bought Crafting With Cat Hair in 2013 when my daughter was 10. She started brushing our three cats and saving their hair in a plastic bag. Her first cat hair project was this little cat. If you aren't allergic to cats, why not take a break from Netflix and crossword puzzles and make something from your cats fur? Read the rest

JAPAN: "Nowhere Man" by Lennon McCartneyRUSSIA: "She Loves You" by The Russian BeatlesCHINA: "Love Me Do" by The CheatlesAUSTRALIA: Medly by The Australian BeatlesPHILIPPINES: "Help" and others by the Tipong BeatlesINDONESIA: "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" by G-pluckIRELAND: "I Feel Fine" by The Classic BeatlesBRAZIL: "I Saw Her Standing There" by The Beetles OneHUNGARY: "Revolution" by The BlackbirdsTURKEY: "Hard Day's Night" and "Love Me Do" by D.E.F. OrchestraImage: YouTube Read the rest

“Mark Grenon wrote to Trump saying chlorine dioxide ‘can rid the body of Covid-19’ days before the president promoted disinfectant as treatment”

“The Postal Service is a joke,” said the President of the United States.

Your phone rings, and you get a little rush of excitement. Maybe it’s a friend. Maybe it’s a family member. Maybe it’s somebody you haven’t spoken to in a while looking to reconnect. It’s a split second surge of adrenaline, pregnant with the hope of infinite promise.Then, you look at your screen and...the spell is broken. It’s a damn telemarketer. Or a spammer. Or some other call you’ll wholeheartedly avoid. Now, you’re actively disappointed. Or annoyed. Or angry. Or all three. And that doesn’t even cover the time-wasting calls from unknown numbers.CallHero Spam Call Blocker is a digital secretary that weeds out all those unsolicited calls that not only burn time but can actually put your data security at risk.CallHero isn’t just a call blocker. It’s a smart, learning AI screening service that intelligently assesses, then deals with calls from numbers you don’t know, the first such AI-powered app in Apple’s App Store.When you see a number you don’t recognize, you can kick it to CallHero’s next-gen technology. CallHero will actually screen the call, determine if it’s legit, then dump scammers or put real callers through to your ringer. So even if a high-tech spammer or robocaller has spoofed a number, CallHero will catch it and deal with it accordingly.So far, CallHero has a solid track record, blocking nearly 100 percent of spam calls through traditional call filtering methods, then allowing the AI to correctly handle the rest with over 90 percent accuracy.You can even personalize your CallHero secretary’s voice from friendly and personable to strictly professional for business lines. Read the rest

The president says he was being sarcastic when he suggested during a White House coronavirus briefing that people should consider injecting bleach and consuming disinfectants as cure for COVID-19. He was not being sarcastic. He was being completely fucking nuts. We should expect more shockers like this as things get worse inside his deranged brain.From the Daily Beast:Inside the West Wing, it was clear that the president’s talk of studying bizarre injections was not something that Trump had put a whole lot of thought into, nor did it seem like something he’d spent much time dwelling on privately before blurting it out.Four senior administration officials and two sources close to the president each said on Friday that they had not previously heard Trump ever bring up disinfectant injections as something scientists should test as a coronavirus treatment. All were dumbfounded by what he had said during the televised briefing. Several official Trump surrogates reached by The Daily Beast on Friday morning had zero appetite to defend the president’s remarks, and were simply waiting for this bit of inconvenient news to slip out of the cable-news cycle.“I was just sitting there watching it [live] and thinking to myself, ‘I guess this is going to be the thing tomorrow,’” said one of the administration officials. In the halls of the White House, top aides went into a very familiar damage-control mode. A former senior White House official noted that in the West Wing, Trump’s lieutenants have a very simple standard operating procedure for when the president “says something dumb that he probably should not have said”: just claim he was taken out of context or misinterpreted, insist that his underlying point was valid or good, and then go on the offense, usually by complaining about mainstream-media outlets treating Trump unfairly or obsessing over insignificant detail. Read the rest

Israeli spy-tech firm used WhatsApp accounts to hack, Facebook claims

New York governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday tweeted what he identified as a letter he received from a farmer in northeast Kansas. Enclosed was an N95 mask the man had left over from his farming work, to be donated for use in the coronavirus crisis.It's a beautiful letter. Here's the tweet, below, and under that there's an embedded copy of the image.I received this letter from a farmer in northeast Kansas. His wife is ill and he is aging. He sent me 1 of 5 N95 masks he has from farming to pass on to a doctor or nurse in New York.This is humanity at its best. I share his letter as inspiration. pic.twitter.com/Fa4h5LH9rL— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 24, 2020 Read the rest

Wow, here's something you don't see every day! Here's a video of dolphins "glowing" from the high amount of bioluminescence in the water off of Newport Beach, California.Patrickc_la shot this gorgeous 4K video on a Sony a7Sii and writes:Last night was truly one of the most magical nights of my life. Capt. Ryan @lawofthelandnsea of @newportcoastaladventure invited me along to capture rare video of Dolphins swimming in bioluminescence. The first time I saw this actually filmed was a few months back while watching a Night on Earth documentary on Netflix. The second I saw that footage it became a dream of mine to one day capture something similar and that’s exactly what we did. This was by far the most challenging video I’ve shot for a number of reason. For starters the bioluminescence has sweet spots to where it shows up and then fades away so while on the water it’s impossible to just find it. Not only that but actually finding any type of animal in pitch black is just so ridiculously hard. Conditions have to be absolutely perfect the bioluminescence to show up and to have an animal swim through it so we can film it. On top of all that just trying to nail the focus at such a wide aperture with something moving in the water was a nightmare. We were out for a few hours and on our final stretch back we finally had 2 Dolphins pop up to start the incredible glowing show. Read the rest

It seems like odd timing for Architectural Digest to dig into its archival videos and make a supercut of celebrities' overlardered kitchens.Also, I'm showing my cluelessness here, but I don't know any of these people, with the exception of Cara Delevingne.[via Core77]Image: YouTube Read the rest

As Bruce Sterling says, "Impressive accuracy by whoever that is."Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash Read the rest

The fun "Everybody Must Stay Home" music video is a greatest hits of COVID-19 memes for a song not-by-Bob Dylan."We will get through [this] if we keep our sanity as well as our sense of humor," write the creators. "The only thing more contagious than Covid-19, as it turns out, is creativity. " Read the rest

Visit The Nib to read Gemma Correll's timely and accurate video conference call bingo comic. Read the rest

I recently bumped into this piece in The New York Times Style Magazine from a few years ago which chronicles a day in the life of New York City in the early 80s through the memories of dozens of well-known NY artists (of all stripes), gallerists, club owners, and activists.Kim Gordon, musicianWhen I first moved to the city, there was a garbage strike. I was hustling. I had a horrible graveyard shift at a coffee shop, one of the only places to eat in Chelsea, open 24 hours — super crickets, deserted. I worked part-time for gallerist Annina Nosei. She and Larry Gagosian had this space, it was a condo loft in a building on West Broadway. [By 1 a.m.] I’d be somewhere like [the TriBeCa No Wave club] Tier 3, seeing [the electronic Berlin band] Malaria!, and then walking over to Dave’s Luncheonette. A lot of the alternative spaces — Franklin Furnace, A-Space — had music, too. Hearing hip-hop on the street, minimalist new music, free jazz — it all added to this fabric that was a landscape.I was kind of tomboyish, but also pretty poor. I had glasses, so I put these flip-up sunglass visors on them. But I didn’t feel super cool or anything. The people who were chic, the downtowners, pretty much just wore black — that could instantly give you a look. Our first goal [as Sonic Youth] was getting a gig at CBGB. Then it was getting a good time slot at CBGB, so you weren’t on last and weren’t on first. Read the rest