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Researchers discover a potential new way in which diet influences aging-related diseases.

A lot of roleplaying gamers who are used to playing in "theater of the mind" mode (with nothing more than pencil, paper, dice, and vivid imaginations) are often intimidated by the idea of switching over to miniatures and terrain-based gaming. The idea of acquiring and painting the minis, building a gaming board, and making a bunch of terrain and props can be an overwhelming prospect. All of this "dungeon crafting" really is a hobby unto itself for many of us [raises hand].So, I really like these projects on Dungeon Craft. Basically, you build a stone floor on top of a lazy Susan using insulation foam and some simple walls, doors, and other dungeon furnishings (also out of foam). Your main tool is a gel pen that you use to simply draw/carve the stones into the foam.You don't need to create a complete dungeons and all of the furnishings to do mini-based RPGs. All you need is this little, moveable theater-in-the-round stage that you can change up with each encounter you're looking to represent to your players. Image: YouTube Read the rest

How does an owl's tail help it fly? To better see the role of the tail in raptor aerodynamics, researchers at the UK's Royal Veterinary College recorded birds of prey flying through clouds of tiny helium bubbles. According to the science journal Nature, analyzing the swirling motion of the bubbles enabled the scientists to discover "a new way in which birds use their tail to provide lift and so reduce drag while gliding... Their findings could provide a new way to improve the efficiency of small gliding aircraft."More: "High aerodynamic lift from the tail reduces drag in gliding raptors" (Journal of Experimental Biology) Read the rest

Baby Yoda brought the internet together, its adorableness somehow overpowering the divisive animosity that has otherwise ruled over this pre-post-apocalyptic era.And now the Army's branded the Child onto the cannon of an M1 Abrams tank.https://twitter.com/USArmy/status/1230357926289846272/photo/1You can re-appropriate the Punisher all you'd like, but please leave our sweet Baby Yoda out of it. In the famous words of Baby Yoda's older counterpart, "Wars not make one great."We salute the Army crew that named their tank 'Baby Yoda' [Jared Keller / Task and Purpose]Image: U.S. Army by PFC. Daniel Alkana Read the rest

The great Katherine Johnson, one of the legendary African-American mathematicians who were essential to the Apollo 11 moon landing, has died at age 101. You'll recall that Johnson, who worked at NASA’s Flight Research Division for more than three decades, was the central character in the film Hidden Figures. From the New York Times:Mrs. Johnson was one of several hundred rigorously educated, supremely capable yet largely unheralded women who, well before the modern feminist movement, worked as NASA mathematicians.But it was not only her sex that kept her long marginalized and long unsung: Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, a West Virginia native who began her scientific career in the age of Jim Crow, was also African-American.In old age, Mrs. Johnson became the most celebrated of the small cadre of black women — perhaps three dozen — who at midcentury served as mathematicians for the space agency and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, proclaiming, “Katherine G. Johnson refused to be limited by society’s expectations of her gender and race while expanding the boundaries of humanity’s reach.”In 2017, NASA dedicated a building in her honor, the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility, at its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.More: Katherine Johnson (NASA) Read the rest

In balmy Edmonton, a woman was arrested for liberating a package from a front porch. Watch the exciting police action on YouTube!Image: YouTube Read the rest

Back in September, a Hyundai Glovis cargo ship capsized off the coast of Georgia. The 665-foot ship, called the Golden Ray, tipped over in St. Simons Sound, Georgia but fortunately every crew member was rescued. The ship was holding around 4,000 US-made automobiles that are now quite waterlogged. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources and other organizations are orchestrating environmental protection measures and disassembling the vessel to remove it in pieces via barge. This week, the St. Simons Sound Incident Response Unified Company will begin constructing an "environmental protection barrier" that includes "large floating containment barrier to help contain surface pollutants, as well as large netting to contain subsurface debris."The Unified Command used LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology to create 3D images of inaccessible areas inside the vessel.Follow the situation here: St. Simons Sound Responseimage: Georgia Department of Natural Resources (photo release) Read the rest

The Manhattan Institute issued a report that reveals that a year of middle class wages no longer pays for major household expenditures.From The Washington Post:Lead author Oren Cass distills it as follows: “In 1985, the typical male worker could cover a family of four’s major expenditures (housing, health care, transportation, education) on 30 weeks of salary,” he wrote on Twitter last week. “By 2018 it took 53 weeks. Which is a problem, there being 52 weeks in a year.”Image: Washington Post Read the rest

Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood mogul accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women, was today convicted of of assaulting two women in New York. After six weeks of testimony, Weinstein was convicted of forcing oral sex on Miriam Haley in his New York City apartment in 2006 and raping Jessica Mann at a Manhattan hotel in 2013. But he was acquitted on two counts of predatory sexual assault in connection to Annabella Sciorra's claim he attacked her in her apartment in 1993. Jurors were deadlocked over the weekend on those more serious charges and returned the mixed verdict after 26 hours of deliberation.Weinstein, who presented himself in court using a walker for the duration of the trial, was immediately surrounded by court officers as the guilty counts were announced, according to wire reports. Weinstein maintained that the encounters were consensual. Read the rest

Earlier this month, the United States Copyright Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization co-sponsored a symposium titled Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. The purpose of the symposium was to examine "how the creative community currently is using artificial intelligence (AI) to create original works," and "what level of human input is sufficient for the resulting work to be eligible for copyright protection," among other topics.In his article for The Scholarly Kitchen, Todd A Carpenter read the discussion threads in WIPO's public consultation and learned that the court decision regarding the famous monkey selfie of 2011 could steer copyright law regarding works created by artificial intelligence.In 2011, a nature photographer left his camera on a tripod and an endangered Celebes crested macaques, intrigued by its reflection in the lens snapped perhaps hundreds of pictures of itself. One of those photos ended up promoted by the photographer and it ended up in the British press. Other sites, such as Wikipedia and Techdirt reproduced the photo on their sites, that the photographer and PETA eventually perused in court to seek compensation as violation of copyright. Whether the photographer could assert copyright in the photograph was eventually dismissed by the Ninth Circuit court of appeals in 2018.In the Copyright Office’s Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, released on 22 December, 2014, the Office stated that, “only works created by a human can be copyrighted under United States law, which excludes photographs and artwork created by animals or by machines without human intervention” and furthermore, “Because copyright law is limited to ‘original intellectual conceptions of the author,’ the [copyright] office will refuse to register a claim if it determines that a human being did not create the work. Read the rest

Laura Kampf made this cool looking plywood chair with a storage space for books. She says she'll upload plans for making one of your own soon.If you like videos of people making things, I highly recommend Laura's YouTube channel. She makes a new thing every week, such as a cargo bike, a bike trailer for her dog, and a solar food dehydrator. I don't know how she does it!Image: YouTube Read the rest

Trail runner Joseph Oldendorf badly injured himself on the Duckabush River Trail in the Olympic National Park, Washington. His tibia detached, Oldendorf was unable to walk. He was wearing lightweight running clothes and it was literally freezing outside. He had a cell phone but there was no service. So he crawled. For eight hours. From CNN:At 12:45 a.m. on Saturday, he realized his phone had a signal because he received a text message.He called 911 and kept crawling, (a Jefferson County Search and Rescue) release said.Oldendorf told the station that he tried lying down to wait, but he was too cold and believed that if he didn't keep moving he could die. Thoughts of his family kept him going, he said...A crew from the Brinnon Fire Department along with Jefferson Search and Rescue volunteers responded and started up the trail to find the injured runner. A Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy managed coordination and communication at the trailhead, said.The runner was located by his voice five to six miles from the spot where he was injured, the release said. image: "View from the helicopter as the basket was lowered to retrieve the subject" (courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard) Read the rest

In 1981, Tony Hawk, age 13, appeared on the Captain Kangaroo TV program shredding at the legendary Del Mar Skate Ranch in Southern California.(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

Despite legalization in 11 states and decriminalization in 15 more, marijuana-based products are still an often tough sell with many Americans. While the psychoactive THC portion of the plant remains controversial, the medicinal impact of the non-altering component of cannibis, CBD, is widely hailed.Many portions of those claims still await medical verification, but for those who swear by CBD, you can try it for yourself with these Holiday CBD Premium CBD Gummies. Right now, a bottle is available for just $32.99, almost 20 percent off the retail price.Made from sustainable and organically grown hemp and containing absolutely zero THC, each of these 20 tasty gummies pack 10 mg of CBD and all its benefits without any of marijuana’s mood-altering side-effects.As a warning, you should be aware that these gummies are only available to those 18 or older; are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease; and should only be used as a dietary supplement after consultation with a doctor.Regularly $39.99, a bottle of Holiday CBD Premium CBD Gummies are now $8 off, just $32. Read the rest

Japan is increasingly obsessed with capybaras, the best rodent and very likely the best animal of all time. Accordingly, there's a plush toy craze to go with it: behold Kapibara-san. No animal is complete without its own cute character in Japan—and capybaras have Kapibara-san (link in Japanese). By one estimate, over 5,000 items (link in Japanese) now bear the face of the character, which was launched in 2005. According to Kapibara-san’s owner, toy giant Bandai, capybaras are known for their ”happy, natural, and easygoing lifestyle” and loved for their healing effect on humans.The photo above was posted by Tryworks. Kapibara-San are available on Amazon, but eBay has better deals.【TRYWORKSより】春ですね～カピバラさんたちもお花見を楽しんでいるようです♪ pic.twitter.com/d9ICZc6QjO— カピバラさん【公式】 (@FROM_TRYWORKS) April 7, 2017かわいい〜💓うちのカピバラさんもお花見楽しんでます🌸✨ pic.twitter.com/OqxXNNES61— 🎀風間りぃ🎀 (@kazamarii) April 7, 2017If you like flying capybaras, you’ll love capybaras taking a yuzu hot bath. (Very popular in Japan.) pic.twitter.com/lu0Mtn5TZL— 🩸Hirondelle🦷 (@realHirondelle) February 24, 2020 Read the rest

This image, posted by the 1912 Progressive Party, offers a stark illustration of how commonplace universal healthcare -- i.e. "Medicare for All" -- is in the developed world and even beyond it. It struck me that not having effective healthcare is seen as an aspect of American Exceptionalism, where the lack of something other people enjoy becomes a uniquely American virtue: faith in the generosity of insurance companies. Read the rest

Clint Eastwood, the actor, director and famous conservative interlocutor with empty chairs, has denounced President Trump's lack of gentility and offered his support to Mike Bloomberg in the 2020 elections. The casual endorsement came at the end of a wide-ranging interview for the Wall Street Journal.As for the domestic political scene, Mr. Eastwood seems disheartened. “The politics has gotten so ornery,” he says, hunching his shoulders in resignation. He approves of “certain things that Trump’s done” but wishes the president would act “in a more genteel way, without tweeting and calling people names. I would personally like for him to not bring himself to that level.” As he drives me back to my hotel, he expresses an affinity for another former mayor: “The best thing we could do is just get Mike Bloomberg in there.”Amazing that people think the story here is "Clintwood becomes a Democrat" not "Bloomberg still a Republican" Read the rest

Thanks to TripAdvisor reviews for a hole in a wall, the architectural feature has become the fourth-most popular tourist destination in Ilkeston, a town in Derbyshire, England.The hole reassures users of a nearby NatWest bank ATM that no-one is hiding behind the wall to rob them, but its absurdity and questionable utility resulted in dozens of spoof write-ups on the site, which has temporarily suspended reviews for what one visitor described as a 'national treasure.'Tongue-in-cheek comments for the "NatWest hole" first started appearing in December 2018. By awarding the wall top marks, users were able to propel it above well-known locations in and around Ilkeston, including Bennerley Viaduct. Among 40 new comments added this weekend, one said: "Made my sixth visit to this attraction last week, always worth the nine-hour drive, every time has felt like the first." Read the rest

Mad Mike Hughes just launched himself in a self-made steam-powered rocket and crash landed. Very likely did not survive. #MadMike #MadMikeHughes pic.twitter.com/svtviTEi8f— Justin Chapman (@justindchapman) February 22, 2020Daredevil and flat-earther "Mad" Mike Hughes, 64, died Saturday when his steam-powered rocket crashed after a short flight over the Californian desert. Footage of the self-made craft shows its parachute deploying immediately after lift-off and being destroyed by its wake, leaving it with nothing to slow its descent.A flat-earther, Hughes planned to go high enough to see the curvature of the earth with his own eyes. The launch was being filmed for the so-called "Science Channel", which has come in for heavy criticism for encouraging Hughes' risky stunts.With the help of his partner Waldo Stakes, Hughes was trying to reach an altitude of 5,000ft (1,525m) while riding his steam-powered rocket, according to Space.com. In the video of the launch, a parachute can be seen trailing behind the rocket, apparently deployed too early, seconds after take-off. In a tweet, the Science Channel said Hughes had died pursuing his dream. Read the rest

Anderson Cooper hasn't been this pissed off since Hurricane Katrina.On Friday, Cooper interviewed newly-sprung Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois who had a 14-year prison sentence commuted by Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump. In 2011, Blago was found guilty of federal corruption charges related to then-President Obama's vacant senate seat.During his time in prison, Blago got woke. Comparing himself to fellow "political prisoner" Nelson Mandela, he railed against criminal injustice and the thousands of Americans waiting for clemency.Cooper was NOT having it.In which @AndersonCooper calls actual "bullshit" on Blagojevich in fiery interview pic.twitter.com/8oorGogs7s— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) February 22, 2020Oh, and here's proof that we're living in the worst timeline. One of these people is now the leader of the free world and the other is the new Mandela.Thinking about the time Donald Trump scolded Rod Blagojevich on the Celebrity Apprentice over inaccurate Harry Potter facts and inadequate Harry Potter research pic.twitter.com/rx7PH7qP4I— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) August 8, 2019Image by United States Marshals Service - http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/celebrity/politics/rod-blagojevich, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

“Why is Chris Matthews on this air talking about the victory [of] Bernie Sanders, who had kin murdered in the Holocaust, analogizing it to the Nazi conquest of France?” asked Anand Giridharadas of his fellow MSNBC colleague when he appeared on MSNBC’s AM Joy.From The Daily Beast:Matthews’ latest remarks have led to progressives calling on MSNBC to fire the veteran host. The Hardball anchor isn’t the only one who has found himself in hot water over his anti-Bernie rhetoric. MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson faced swift and loud backlash after he dismissed the “island of misfit black girls” who supported Sanders. Read the rest

When I was a teen devourer of sci-fi, I was obsessed with the spaceship designs on paperback book covers. I would buy any novel or short story collection, however sketchy the contents seemed, if I dug the ship on the cover. Conversely, I would pass over well-regarded books if I thought the spaceship art was crappy. Sometimes, the covers would make a more lasting impression on me than the contents.I can't imagine how high over the moon teenage me would be for YouTube channels like Spacedock. This excellently-produced channel is a collection of deep-nerdings over the minutia of spaceship designs found in sci-fi media. Episodes look at categories of ships across different sci-fi universes or they are deep dives into a specific class of ship from a world, or a single, iconic ship from a series. The opinions are definitely those of the creator of the channel, and I don't always agree with them, but current me and teenage me are in love with the nerdiness of it all. Read the rest

If you remember your Norse mythology (or just watched Marvel’s Thor movies), you’re probably familiar with Heimdal, the god whose ever-watchful eye was entrusted with protecting the home of the gods in Asgard.Back on Earth, Heimdal Thor is also the name of a security package from Heimdal Security, that’s actually dedicated to much the same principle: protecting your home or business computer systems from viruses, malware, and other potentially crippling online security threats. Right now, they’re offering some of their most powerful cyberattack preventative tools at up to 87 percent off.First, Heimdal Thor Vigilance: Next-Gen Antivirus ($39.99; originally $249.75) is available as a first line of defense against online threats. Vigilance Home is lightweight, hassle-free software that uses both traditional and next-gen antivirus engines to root out cybercriminals, black malware, and stop viruses, APTs, ransomware, data leakage and a host of concerning digital problems that may infect your systems.But sometimes, that may not be enough. Since the newest, most deceitful malware is created specifically to bypass most antivirus detection methods, Heimdal Thor Foresight Home: Malware Prevention Software ($49.99, originally $349.75) increases your protection.Foresight Home gets proactive in the fight, assuring your systems are protected before they can ever be infected. It filters all internet traffic, blocks dicey sources that may distribute ransomware, throws another layer of security on your bank account and automatically spots and blocks any security holes found in your favorite apps.Finally, Heimdal Thor Premium: All-in-One Security Suite ($59.99; originally $499.75) brings both Vigilance and Foresight’s reactive and proactive measures together in one package, along with some unique threat prevention features that will have your computer and all its valuable information protected at all times. Read the rest

Everyone's got their nose in a phone these days, and that doesn't seem like it's going to change anytime soon. With the increase in mobile device and e-commerce reliance comes increased need for developers who can build the apps we're all so glued to. In fact, employment of devs is expected to grow up to 13% by 2028, quite a bit faster than other occupations. Milk that for all its worth by snapping up the 2020 Mobile App Developers Bundle and teaching yourself these in-demand technologies.With over 20 hours of beginner-friendly training, this bundle will teach you the skills you need to help market yourself for a $70K-ish salary, thanks to 7 courses presented by world-class e-learning platform Zenva Academy.Across 265 lessons, you'll use simple text color selecting and input/output apps plus more complex weather forecasting, pet activity, and contacts apps projects as hands-on teaching tools. You'll learn how to build apps for both Android and iOS using Swift & Apple's integrated development environment XCode, Android Studio, XML, Kotlin, SQL database integration, RESTful APIs, Flutter open-source framework, Java, and Firebase (Google's cloud-based platform that allows you to build mobile applications without needing to write the back-end code).The 2020 Mobile App Developers Bundle is available now for only $29.99, 91% off MSRP. Read the rest

Here's a little public service announcement with a lot to unpack. Fatbergs are horrifying agglomerations of grease, excrement and fiber clogging the waterworks beneath our cities. Britain's ancient sewers seem especially vulnerable, providing an endless stream of "thousand-foot fatberg removed" stories, complete with nightmarish footage of yet another London lard shoggoth. Flushed wet-wipes are a key cause of the problem, as they do not break down and instead become fatberg rebar.Hence the need for Andy Serkis to play a talking anus in an anti-fatberg PSA, begging Britons to stop flushing wet-wipes. Read the rest

Canada's privacy authorities on Friday said they are investigating New York-based Clearview AI over concerns the facial recognition technology may not comply with Canadian privacy law. “Clearview AI bills itself as a tool for law enforcement, scraping the internet for publicly available photos and using facial recognition to identify potential suspects,” reports Moira Warburton at Reuters, “Critics in both Canada and the United States have raised concerns about the lack of consent of those searched, and the potential for misuse of the service.” Snip:Several police forces in Ontario have publicly acknowledged they have used Clearview’s services, including the police force in Toronto, Canada’s most populous city.The privacy commissioners of Canada and of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Québec will jointly investigate whether the company’s practices are in compliance with Canadian privacy legislation.The investigation was initiated as a result of media reports that “raised questions and concerns about whether the company is collecting and using personal information without consent,” said a joint statement from the commissioners’ offices. Read more at Reuters:• Facial recognition company Clearview AI probed by Canada privacy agenciesPreviously at Boing Boing:• Clearview AI founder linked to Trump world and Far-Right, NYPD denies facial recognition firm's boast that it helped catch terrorist suspect• Twitter tells facial-recognition app maker to stop scraping photos, Clearview AI used by 600+ US law enforcement agencies• The answer to the Clearview AI scandal is better privacy laws, not anti-scraping laws Read the rest

In the days leading up to the U.S. presidential election and on Election Day, YouTube's homepage will reportedly be advertising only one candidate: Donald Trump.The impeached president’s re-election campaign bought out YouTube's costly advertising space for early November, and the deal ensures Trump will be all anyone sees on Google's YouTube during the critical days when voters get ready to head to the polls on November 3, reports Bloomberg News:While the bulk of digital ad spending typically focuses on targeting specific messages to certain audiences, the top spot on YouTube is more akin to a Super Bowl TV ad. About three-quarters of U.S. adults say they use YouTube, exceeding the reach of even Facebook, according to the Pew Research Center.Ads on the YouTube masthead—as the video on the top of the homepage is known—generally run for an entire day. The exact duration of Trump’s ad buy and financial details were unclear, but estimates for the space range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to more than $1 million a day.YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, lets advertisers target users based on a variety of factors, though it recently limited those options for political content. The Trump campaign bought the digital real estate nationwide, one of the people familiar with the deal said, both of whom asked not to be identified.Read more at Bloomberg News, Business Insider, and CJR. [via MediaGazer]Donald Trump’s re-election committee will take over YouTube’s homepage in early November in the immediate run up to Election Day through advertising space it has purchased from the Google streaming video website. Read the rest

Ethos, the private equity firm owned by Republican billionaires that is trying to buy the rights to operate the internet’s .org domain range, said on Friday it will cap price hikes, and will agree to create an advisory board with veto powers to partly address some of the concerns of the nonprofit community.Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow and Jason Weisberger wrote previously about this story on Boing Boing, for those catching up:• ICANN hits pause on the sale of .ORG to Republican billionaires' private equity fund [12/2019]• We need to save .ORG from arbitrary censorship by halting the private equity buy-out [12/2019]• Private equity take-over of .ORG domain delayed [1/2020]Here's what happened today, from AP:Ethos Capital has offered $1.1 billion to buy the Public Interest Registry, the nonprofit corporation that runs the databases containing more than 10 million .org names registered worldwide. Organizations ranging from the Girl Scouts of the USA and Consumer Reports to the American Bible Society have opposed the sale, warning of potential price gouging and censorship. California’s attorney general has also requested information to evaluate a deal’s potential impact to nonprofits.It wasn’t immediately clear whether the concessions are enough to satisfy critics. The cap on price hikes, for instance, will expire in eight years, and most of the advisory board’s initial members will be appointed by the Public Interest Registry’s board.Domain names such as apnews.com have historically been used by computers to find websites and send email, and their value grew as companies and groups adopted them for branding. Read the rest

Reporting at the WSJ today says Alphabet/Google hasn't met the demands of state investigators to surrender emails, texts, and other documents in an ongoing anticompetitive digital-ad practices investigation.Google is reluctant to surrender documents in the investigation of alleged anticompetitive practices, reports John D. McKinnon at The Wall Street Journal:Google is resisting efforts to surrender emails, text messages and other documents sought by state investigators probing possible anticompetitive practices, according to records and interviews.Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., also hasn’t agreed to a waiver that would give the coalition of state attorneys general access to documents obtained by the Justice Department for its own probe, according to a person familiar with the situation.... Read more at the WSJ: Google Resists Demands From States in Digital-Ad Probe Responses from Twitter, below.Without a whiff of irony, Google is concerned that by handing over its personal information, it could end up in the hands of other companies @WSJ @johndmckinnon https://t.co/V1IvHf7XYE pic.twitter.com/HLIEpqU1rC— 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚐 𝚋𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛. (@GregBensinger) February 21, 2020Can’t they just Google them? https://t.co/CgY8ftFii6— Joe Flint (@JBFlint) February 21, 2020Text messages and chats and emails are not the sort of documents that contain trade secrets about Google’s proprietary algorithms.They are the sort of documents that show intent, motivation and schemes — and ⁦@KenPaxtonTX⁩ is right to push for them https://t.co/U5jJwSF90F— Dave Yost (@Yost4Ohio) February 21, 2020New: Google reports to be defying efforts of 48 state AGs to investigate its anticompetitive behavior. “It’s the Google playbook—stall, stonewall, deflect and deny, because they are afraid the public will finally get the truth.” Read the rest

Drug dealer Clifton Collins, 49, invested his earnings in bitcoin, eventually racking up $60 million. For safekeeping, he printed the PIN codes to access his accounts and stored them in a fishing rod case at his house. But after Collins was busted on a weed charge and sent to jail, his landlord had all of Collins's stuff hauled to the dump. From The Guardian:According to the Irish Times, which first reported the story, workers at the dump told the Irish police force, the gardaí, they remembered seeing discarded fishing gear. Waste from the dump goes to Germany and China to be incinerated. The fishing rod case has never been found.Collins, 49, has apparently told the gardaí he has come to terms with the loss of the fortune and considers it punishment for his own stupidity.The high court in Dublin ruled this week that Collins had forfeited the accounts because they were proceeds from crime...The Criminal Assets Bureau thought it had hit the jackpot when it confiscated the accounts. Authorities hope they may some day access them."Irish drug dealer loses £46m bitcoin codes he hid in fishing rod case" (The Guardian)And in case you missed this excellent tale:• "‘I Forgot My PIN’: An Epic Tale of Losing $30,000 in Bitcoin" by Mark Frauenfelder Read the rest

This iron-on three-inch patch, inspired by Untitled Goose Game, features an angry or perhaps merely determined goose preparing to commit crimes. It's on the etsy store of Roamin Bison Workshop, which specializes in cool animal pins. [via]Be Goose Do Crime design!3x3 inch circleIron-on backing Read the rest

Portland Laser Co. offers a puzzle based on Joy Division's famous cover to Unknown Pleasures, a plot of signals emitted by pulsar CP 1919. Yours for $50.One of the most iconic album covers of all time, made into a puzzle. Read the rest

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission was founded in 1972 with the purpose of "protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of the thousands of types of consumer products." And since they brought on Joseph Galbo as a social media specialist in 2016, the department has grown increasingly infamous for its delightfully weird Twitter account.You know, things like this.As the Squirrel Realm believes pic.twitter.com/9HQr0HcqRi— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) February 21, 2020At least there's one part of the federal government that's still improving the quality of our lives. And now I'm going to subscribe to these recall emails.How a Government Bureaucrat Became the King of Internet Memes [Taylor Lorenz / The Daily Beast]The U.S. Government's Weirdest Twitter Account Is Postmodern Internet Art [Emma Roller / Splinter]Why a government agency is spreading memes about dogs riding pigeons [Rachel Becker / The Verge] Read the rest

Whether you love cooking at home or you swore this was going to be the year you curbed your DoorDash addiction, you know you can't get the job done well without the proper tools on hand. For all your recipe and meal prep needs, this 3-piece Sukasu Osami Chef's Knife set will do you right and look pretty sweet in your Insta stories to boot.Forged from ultra-durable 3CR13 stainless steel with a cool-as-heck wavy pattern etched into the blades and set in gorgeous pakka wood handles, the 8" chef's knife, 5" utility knife, and 3.5" paring knife will have you slicing, dicing, chopping, peeling, cubing, and julienning even the toughest fruits, veggies, and meats.This cutlery set is built to last with better-grip 18/0 bolster handles and blades from 2 to 2.5mm thick. Plus, it comes in a sleek storage box, making it great for gifting to that friend who just got his first roommate-free apartment.Iron Chef your way through your next meal! The Sukasu Osami 3-Pc Chef's Knife Set is available for 60% off at $39.99. Read the rest

In recent years, the high-margin world of mattress shops has been heavily disrupted by mail-order alternatives. To get customers to buy vacuum-shrunk mattresses they haven't seen, let alone bounced on, these companies have generous return policies. But what happens to these big, heavy, unmailable items when someone comes to pick them up? Maggie Koerth (formerly at Boing Boing) explains over at FiveThirtyEight.At the other end of those eerily identical ads I found a single seller — an independent agent for a new kind of company that’s aiming to solve the mattress companies’ problems and reduce landfill waste. Called Sharetown, it works kind of like Uber and Lyft: A mattress company contracts with Sharetown to handle returns and, when one pops up, Sharetown connects the customer with an nearby agent who takes the mattress off their hands, cleans it up, and markets it for sale on local community sites like Facebook and Craigslist. When the mattress sells, everybody gets a cut — the agent, Sharetown and the company that originally sold the mattress. Read the rest

If you're not already familiar with what it takes to gather semen from an elephant, this video of the process will serve as the ultimate "I'm not sure what I expected" experience. The scene is from the Extinctions documentary released in 2011.Artificial stimulation of the animal does not produce large quantities of sperm. Each drop must be retrieved quickly. The sample is immediately sent to the neighboring laboratory. Read the rest

On Wednesday, Panama's National Aeronaval Service seized this homemade semi-submersible vessel in territorial waters off Bocas del Toro. Authorities discovered 5 tons of drugs inside and nabbed four Colombian citizens. According to CNN, "the ministry (of public security in Panama) did not specify what type of drugs were seized in the raid, but smugglers have previously been caught using similar vessels to transport cocaine into the United States and Europe."Indeed, you may recall the intense video below from last summer showing US Coast Guard crew members boarding a similar narco-sub in the Pacific Ocean: Read the rest

YouTube user Chave created a supercut of all the locust swarm videos being posted to social media by people in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. My favorites are "falling from the sky like hail" and "so thickly gathered on a tree they become writhing hallucinatory bark". Read the rest

Sure, when the rubes glance at your feet, all they see are five-pointed stars. But when YOU gaze in the direction of the underworld... HAIL SATAN!Provenance unknown; posted by u/black_rose_ to r/coolguides. Read the rest

It was hip to be square, even in 1986. Especially in 1986. Jma Mitch writes:As a teenager in 1985 and 1986, I used my trusty Commodore 64 and the "Music Construction Set" program to create computer versions of a slew of songs by the greatest musical artist of all time: Huey Lewis and The News. Only Huey songs, that was the only artist I did. I recently (Feb 2020) was able to access my 35 year old C64 disks, many of which survived, including the ones with the songs I'm uploading to this channel. Some of the songs sound better than others, but these are the original unedited files.More here: "Commodore 64 plays Huey Lewis (1985-1986)" (YouTube via Waxy) Read the rest

US Customs and Border Protection seized a human brain that was part of an international mail shipment from Canada to the United States. They discovered the brain during an inspection at Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron, Michigan, US and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The brain was on its way from Toronto to Kenosha, Wisconsin. From Fox5NY:During the routine mail operation, they say they came across a shipment manifested as an "Antique Teaching Specimen..."The brain specimen is being investigated by the CDC for any potential infectious biological agents, infectious substances, and a decision on what to do with the specimen. Read the rest

It may not rank up there with climate change or personal debt, but confess...isn’t it the worst when you’re trying to put a food container in the fridge, but can’t find the right lid to fit?Hey, not everything has to be a global crisis to be irritating to the core. But still...it’s even more annoying when you start thinking of how easy it should be to fix this all-container, no-lid conundrum.Apparently, modern science is tackling the big problems first because now, The Food Guard ($16.99 for a 5-piece set, 15 percent off) has arrived to solve this vexing kitchen dilemma.The Food Guard is the one-size-fits-all fix. While it looks like a typical food wrap, it’s actually a stretchable, stackable, washable, reusable, environmentally friendly, money-saving alternative that’s so simple that it’s surprising someone hadn’t created it before.Made from a silicon material, a 7 ½-inch Food Guard can stretch up to 3 times its normal size and clings to any container, plate, bowl, dishpan, or other storage items. The airtight seal keeps your food fresher and locks in flavor -- and when you’re done, the Guard snaps back into shape, never losing its strength or durability.If you want to use it in the oven or microwave, no problem. It’s capable of withstanding temperatures up to 446 degrees.With the Food Guard, you can stop sweeping the backs of your cupboards for stray lids and stop using all those plastic wraps that end up in a landfill.Right now, you can get $3 off this five-pack including a blue, red, green, yellow and clear Food Guard for just $16.99 Read the rest

An annual parade of kinetic sculptures and other artworks and performances in a Dutch canal to celebrate the work of hometown hero Hieronymus Bosch? More of this in the world, please!Bosch is known for his symbolic paintings often tying in gruesome representations of the afterlife and human desire and fear. He is also regarded as one of the earliest genre painters, depicting common people and their everyday experiences. The annual Bosch Parade is described by organizers as “a theatrical and musical art spectacle on water,” drawing thousands of visitors to the southern city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, where Bosch was born and eventually got his name from.Read the full story and view some love photos on Colossal. Also, follow the parade's Instagram feed for more fun images.Image: YouTube Read the rest

“Can we get 'Gone with the Wind' back, please?” — Donald Trump, 2/20/2020, Colorado

• U.S. intelligence briefed House on Russia to ensure Trump's re-election.• Classified briefing to lawmakers made Trump angry• Trump said Democrats would “weaponize” news of Russian military campaign• Trump was mad DNI Joseph Maguire would let staff appear• That's why Maguire's out, Richard Grenell's in as 'acting' DNI. In Washington last week, U.S. intelligence officials told lawmakers that Russia is carrying out a military-grade attack on the 2020 elections, with the goal of making Americans doubt the integrity of the vote and ensure re-election for impeached, manifestly unfit and corrupt President Donald Trump, Reuters reported Thursday. Earlier today, The New York Times reported that one day after this briefing on Russian interference in the 2020 US elections, Trump punished acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire for allowing his staff to appear before the committee. The NYT quotes five people familiar with the matter:The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, Mr. Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said. Mr. Trump cited the presence in the briefing of Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who led the impeachment proceedings against him, as a particular irritant.On Wednesday, as NYT notes, Trump announced Maguire was out and that Richard Grenell, a Trump toady who has served as ambassador to Germany since 2018, will be 'acting' DNI. Intelligence officials and analysts say Grenell is not qualified, and this is manifestly corrupt and bizarre. Read the rest

Until I bumped into the first video below on YouTube this morning, I had no idea that a lot of The Mandalorian was shot on a virtual set using the Unreal Engine.Over 50 percent of The Mandalorian Season 1 was filmed using this ground-breaking new methodology, eliminating the need for location shoots entirely. Instead, actors in The Mandalorian performed in an immersive and massive 20’ high by 270-degree semicircular LED video wall and ceiling with a 75’-diameter performance space, where the practical set pieces were combined with digital extensions on the screens. Digital 3D environments created by ILM played back interactively on the LED walls, edited in real-time during the shoot, which allowed for pixel-accurate tracking and perspective-correct 3D imagery rendered at high resolution via systems powered by NVIDIA GPUs. The environments were lit and rendered from the perspective of the camera to provide parallax in real-time, as if the camera were really capturing the physical environment with accurate interactive light on the actors and practical sets, giving showrunner Jon Favreau, executive producer and director Dave Filoni, visual effects supervisor Richard Bluff, and cinematographers Greig Frazier and Barry Baz Idoine, and the episodic directors the ability to make concrete creative choices for visual effects-driven work during photography and achieve real-time in-camera composites on set.Here is an article about it on the Unreal Engine's website.Image: YouTube Read the rest

I write a weekly newsletter with Claudia Dawson and Kevin Kelly, called Recomendo. In each issue we briefly recommend 6 things. Here's a great tip in the Jan 26, 2020 issue, which Kevin shared with me a few years back and has proven to be very useful in helping me make decisions about whether or not to accept invitations to events weeks or months away:Immediacy filterOne of the most useful bits of advice I ever got, came from the writer Anne Herbert who said that whenever she got an invitation to do something months away or even a week away, she asked herself whether she would accept the gig/meeting/task if it was tomorrow. The answer was often no. I use that immediacy trick all the time, and it has served me very well. — KKBy the way, Claudia, Kevin, and I recently published a book of the best of Recomendo, with 500 brief reviews of cool stuff. Read the rest

I really enjoyed this interview that Kevin Kelly conducted with sci-fi author, Neal Stephenson, as part of The Long Now Foundation's salon series at The Interval in San Francisco.During the one hour exchange, these two inspiring thinkers discuss Neal's latest book, Fall, or Dodge in Hell, some of the inspirations behind it, and how some of these technologies may come to pass. Half of the video is Q&A with the audience.Here is the cover slap copy for the book:Fall, or Dodge in Hell" is pure, unadulterated fun: a grand drama of analog and digital, man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers, the finite and the eternal. In this exhilarating epic, Neal Stephenson raises profound existential questions and touches on the revolutionary breakthroughs that are transforming our future. Combining the technological, philosophical, and spiritual in one grand myth, he delivers a mind-blowing speculative literary saga for the modern age.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have come up with this new IoT Assistant app (available for both iOS and Android) that will supposedly inform you about what Internet-connected smart devices are around you at any point in time, and what kind of information they might be collecting.“Because of new laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), people need to be informed about what data is collected about them and they need to be given some choices over these processes,” says Professor Norman Sadeh, a CyLab faculty member in Carnegie Mellon’s Institute for Software Research and the principal investigator on the project. “We have built an infrastructure that enables owners of IoT technologies to comply with these laws, and an app that takes advantage of this infrastructure to empower people to find out about and control data collected by these technologies.”I've downloaded the app myself, and I plan on adding my own smart home devices to their database, just to see what I can find. I don't know how well it will actually work, but I'm certainly intrigued by the idea.New infrastructure will enhance privacy in today’s Internet of Things [Daniel Tkacik / CyLab, the Carnegie Mellon University Security and Privacy Institute] Read the rest

Facebook leader Mark Zuckerberg has a Facebook executive blow-dry his armpits before making speeches, according to a forthcoming book about the company by journalist Steven Levy.Zuckerberg is harder to read, ping-ponging in Levy’s portrayal between naive genius and robotic robber baron. He, too, is consumed by his public image. (A communications exec is shown blow-drying the CEO’s armpits before speaking appearances to eliminate anxiety sweat.)The book, Facebook: The Inside Story [Amazon], is out in two days and available for pre-order now. Read the rest