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In Pueblo, Colorado at 3:330am Friday morning, terrified McDonald's employees called police after hearing "'demonic sounds' from a screaming woman" inside the restaurant. According to Pueblo Police captain Tom Rummel, the employees also reported sounds of a "strange language and barking.""They were so unnerved by the sounds that they said they wouldn’t be going back outside their building until after the sun came up," Rummel tweeted. "Three officers searched the area, but didn’t come up with the source of the disturbance."(Pueblo Chieftain)image: transformation of photo by Towinn (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

Love Hultén, who makes retrofuturistic game consoles, built this thing called an EvoBoxx, which lets you play mathematician John Horton Conway's Game of Life, a cellular automaton he devised in 1970. "The game is a zero-player game," writes Hultén, "meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no further input. One interacts with the Game of Life by creating an initial configuration and observing how it evolves, or, for advanced players, by creating patterns with particular properties."If you don't have an EvoBoxx, you can play The Game of Life here.Image: Love Hultén Read the rest

No, they aren't wearing any harnesses. But some of them are sporting rather dashing chapeaus. From Speed Graphic Film and Video:New York's Chrysler Building, one of the city's most iconic skyscrapers, was built in a remarkably short time--foundation work began in November 1928, and the building officially opened in May 1930. Even more remarkably, the steelwork went up in just six months in the summer of 1929 at an average rate of four floors a week.Fox Movietone's sound cameras visited the construction site several times in 1929 and 1930, staging a number of shots to maximize viewers' sense of the spectacular heights. Movietone almost never put somebody in front of a camera without giving them something to say, so a number of scenes include some staged dialogue. Read the rest

"Sonic the Hedgehog gets bluer!" announces the press release for a porn parody of the hit movie based on the classic Sega character.The parody film is titled "Sonic the Vadgehog" and appears to have been conceived, filmed and marketed in total ignorance of all existing Sonic fandom on the internet, furiously horny and curiously religious as it is. WoodRocket mixes porn, comedy, pop culture, and redefines adult entertainment. Creating popular & high-quality content like Ask A Porn Star, Porn Stars Reading Hate Mail, and porn parodies like Ten Inch Mutant Ninja Turtles, Strokémon, and Laygo, WoodRocket is the future of porn. WoodRocket’s content has been featured in Buzzfeed, Uproxx, Gizmodo, Maxim, Complex, AV Club, Spin, Rolling Stone, The Howard Stern Show, GQ, Vice, Esquire, The Hollywood Reporter, @Midnight, Bon Appetit, and many, many, many more wonderful places.Here's the trailer, which is quite safe for work. Read the rest

Marijuana businesses pay for 66% of state’s sponsored highway miles under Clean Colorado program

Face ID Masks plans to offer a service that prints your face onto respirator masks, so you can unlock your phones without exposing yourself to the plague. But there's a shortage of face masks, says creator Danielle Baskin, so for now it's just a dystopian joke.After uploading your face, we use computational mapping to convert your facial features into an image printed onto the surface of N95 surgical masks without distortion.Our printer uses inks made of natural dyes. It's non-toxic and doesn't affect breathability.You can use your mask for everyday life as a barrier for airborne particle droplets. Why?If you're sick, wearing a mask makes it hard to use your biometric data to access your phone.Made this service that prints your face on an N95 mask, so you can protect people from viral epidemics while still being able to unlock your phone.😷+👃🏻👃🏽👃🏿👄=🔓https://t.co/SXslSjoiMz pic.twitter.com/rByMBwdPB8— Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) February 15, 2020 Read the rest

Police on the Big Island of Hawaii are looking for fruit bandits who made off with about $1,000 in exotic fruit, including 18 or so durian -- the spiky fruit with a mega stinky smell and a taste some people crave.The smell of durian fruit's pale yellow flesh has been compared to fungal feet, rotting corpses, and dead fish. Two men entered a property in Hilo on the Big Island and removed 18 durian and other types of fruit on the night of Feb. 1, the Hawaii Police Department said.Authorities released a surveillance camera image of two suspects and asked the public for additional information that could lead to the capture of the fruit bandits.The tropical, spiky durian fruit resembles a small porcupine and typically weighs from 2 to 7 pounds (1 to 3 kilograms).IMAGE: Hawaii Police Department released a surveillance image of two suspects involved in a fruit theft in Hilo. More at AP:Hawaii police say thieves took $1K worth of pungent fruit Read the rest

Samsung claims to have developed an "Ultra Thin Glass" for its new Galaxy Z Flip foldable smartphone, signalling scratch resistance and durability beyond that of similar products. But tests conducted by Zack Nelson using a Mohs Hardness Testkit [Amazon] -- a set of styluses made of different materials -- show that it is no more resistant to scuffs than plastic. In fact, he didn't even need the kit: his fingernail was sharp enough to leave marks. The "glass" scores 2-3 on the Mohs scale, compared to 6-7 for Gorilla Glass: "I don't know what material this is, but Samsung should definitely not be calling it glass."Samsung has pitched this phone as a folding glass phone that ‘bends the laws of physics’ But… is folding glass actually possible? The only way to find out is with a scratch test. Overall I’m impressed with the Galaxy Z Flip. If they change the name of their screen material to something besides glass I would give it a 10/10 as far as folding phones go. The only physical characteristic this screen material shares with actual glass is the clarity. And I dont think thats fair to consumers. At all. The Verge's Chris Welch got Samsung on the record to say there'll be a glass replacement service. We asked Samsung if it planned to offer a screen replacement service for the Z Flip as it did with the Galaxy Fold. It will. Z Flip buyers can get a one-time screen replacement for $119, Samsung says. Read the rest

Can't tell if it's because he's an illiterate dunce, or a narcissist. The singular form: “President’s Day.” Perhaps he thinks it's all about him? Today in the United States, we celebrate Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday to mark the birthday of America's first president, George Washington.The President of the United States, however, is celebrating a different holiday. In 2020, this day is all about Trump himself, just like every other day in this kleptocratic hellscape.Here's the link to the original @realdonaldtrump tweet. Read the rest

Congratulations, shoppers! You can order plastic crates in beautiful pastel colors at significantly inflated prices. Available in large, medium or small. [Goodhoodstore via dieworkwear] These look very similar indeed to similarly pricey pastel crates on Amazon, being sold under randomly-generated brand names like SHINEME and MUYOZZ. At the New York Times, John Hermann recently wrote about this bizarre new branding trend: All Your Favorite Brands, From BSTOEM to ZGGCD. Read the rest

You hear the stories all the time. You know the ones about how a new vehicle instantly loses hundreds, even thousands of dollars in value the second a new owner drives it off the lot. Depreciation is a killer, especially when the item itself works just as well — or maybe even better than all their younger siblings still nestled snugly in their unopened boxes.That’s why the word to combat depreciation is refurbished. Right now, Microsoft is not only selling off loads of high-end refurbished Surface Book and Surface Pro models as part of their Presidents’ Day Sale, but they’re also doing it at hundreds, even thousands off their original price.Take that, evil depreciators!Surface Books everywhere!Surface Books do it all, shifting effortlessly from their reliable laptop configuration right into tablet mode when you detach it from the dock. Of course, either way, it’s still got the goods under the hood to compete with any of the most powerful laptops out there.For the power user, the Microsoft Surface 2 ($1,509, originally $2,499.99) definitely has your back. Called the “sleek, strong, and silent” sequel to the original Surface, this thing has the specs heavy tech-heads need like a crazy-fast Intel Core i7 processor clocking 2.9GHz and 16MB of RAM to keep multiple apps running smoothly simultaneously.Rocking that same Intel processor, Microsoft is also cutting big deals on a Surface Book with 8MB of RAM and a 256GB hard drive ($1,109, originally $2499.99) as well as another Surface Book with an earlier generation i7 ($879, originally $2,799.99) Read the rest

This video shows the preparation of kkwabaegi (twisted donuts) at a small bakery in Korea. There are things both similar and different to the experiences of bakers here in the west (let alone large-scale production). It's one of those "relaxing" or "satisfying" videos too, at least for the viewer, until one imagines doing it forty hours or more a week. Did you know we used to call these things "oily cakes" until the marketers came along? Read the rest

There is very little evidence that Ring reduces crime. Hundreds of police departments have signed agreements with Amazon-owned Ring to obtain access to the home surveillance camera footage. Interviews with many of them, in 8 different states, show little to no evidence that Ring actually deters criminal activity.“We don’t have any research data showing that Ring has a correlation to a reduction,” Jodee Reyes, a spokeswoman for the Carlsbad Police Department near San Diego told NBC News. “Our residential burglary rate began decreasing before Ring gave us access to their portal. There are more than likely many factors that have led to this decrease.”From reporting by Cyrus Farivar:Since 2018, Ring has signed up more than 800 law enforcement agencies as “partners,” offering them access to video footage recorded by its millions of customers’ internet-connected cameras across the U.S. through an app called Neighbors.Ring promises to “make neighborhoods safer” by deterring and helping to solve crimes, citing its own research that says an installation of its doorbell cameras reduces burglaries by more than 50 percent. But an NBC News Investigation has found — after interviews with 40 law enforcement agencies in eight states that have partnered with Ring for at least three months — that there is little concrete evidence to support the claim.Three agencies said the ease with which the public can share Ring videos means officers spend time reviewing clips of non-criminal issues such as racoons and petty disagreements between neighbors. Others noted that the flood of footage generated by Ring cameras rarely led to positive identifications of suspects, let alone arrests. Read the rest

The crowd at this weekend's Fire Fight Australia was humbled by an intense, heart-felt performance by k.d. lang of her signature cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Fire Fight Australia was a benefit concert held in Sydney to help raise relief money in the wake of the country's devastating brush fires. Image: YouTube Read the rest

You may have seen the archeological news item late last year of a macabre funeral find in Ecuador. Some baby graves from around 100 B.C. were unearthed where the babies are apparently wearing the skulls of other babies and children as hats.In this "Morbid Minute" installment of the ever-excellent Ask a Mortician, our favorite Goth funeral director and "death positivity" educator, Caitlin Doughty, looks more closely at the discovery and what this practice might have meant.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Have you ever heard of the Grasshopper mouse? It lives in the deserts of North America, lives on a meat diet, and hunts scorpions. Unlike other animals, it is immune to scorpion venom and actually turns it into a pain killer. Oh, and this little rodent bad ass also howls at the moon, giving it the nickname of werewolf mouse.Image: Video screengrab Read the rest

Spring cleaning time is right around the corner, and, if we're being honest, the whole thing is kind of a drag. But keeping your home clean in any season is necessary for both health and happiness, so why not make it a little less daunting? The correct tools help make any work easier, and that's what these Elicto products and small appliances will do. Plus, they're on sale for Presidents' Day, so there's no better time to stock your cleaning arsenal.Elicto SS-130 Super Sweeper Requiring zero electricity and only a little bit of elbow grease, this multipurpose tool cleans all types of surfaces around your home, including rugs, upholstery, floors, showers, windows, and more. So much better than a broom, this pro-grade sweeper with extension handle revolutionizes your cleaning routine with its 6 blades that capture debris large and small, liquid spills, even broken eggs.The Super Sweeper is on sale for $24, but you can get it for an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price to just $20.40!Elicto ES-100 Waterproof Telescopic Power ScrubberGrime doesn't stand a chance with this electric scrubber at your disposal. It comes with 5 different rotating heads to help you clean the toughest messes inside and outside your home. On full charge, you'll get up to 2 hours from this cordless powerhouse, so you can handle the grossest of the gross from afar (as far as the telescoping handle anyway).The Waterproof Telescopic Power Scrubber is on sale for $119, but you can get it for an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price to just $101.15! Read the rest

Quality knives matter -- and in more ways than you might expect.At the most basic level, having a functioning set of proper kitchen knives means you can actually get in a kitchen, start putting together a meal and have the right tools to handle all tasks. From the blunt force of the clever to the skilled precision of the paring knife, you're ready.But do you know what else a well-stocked knife block in your kitchen says to visitors? It says an adult uses this kitchen. Butter knives and pizza cutters will only get you so far in life, gents. At some point, a lack of quality knives on display in your kitchen might as well scream that your culinary skills haven't advanced beyond reheating fish sticks in your illegal dorm toaster oven.That’s a bad look. To save you from yourself, we’ve assembled 20 (yes, 20!) deals on worthy knives and knife sets. And since these deals coincide with the Presidents’ Day holiday, enter the coupon code PRESIDENT15 at checkout and take another 15% off each of these offers.All we’re saying is...invest in yourself.Chef’s KnivesIf you purchase nothing else, at least lock up the services of a quality chef’s knife. It’s the most important tool in any chef’s arsenal and can sub in to handle almost any kitchen task like a champ. Another consideration is going with Damascus steel blades over standard stainless steel. Damascus steel, which is actually an iron and steel alloy, producing brilliantly intricate, eye-catching blade patterns. Read the rest

I have a lot of issues with the American obsession around political binaries. But it's hard to deny that it's an overwhelming force that maintains a maddening influence on our country. Both-side-isms are built on the assumption that the "political center" is the exact middle between two equal but opposite poles. Given the choice between killing 100 people, or killing none, this kind of radical centrist confidently strides forward with their "logical" assertion that killing 50 people is the only possible solution that would allow us to maintain what they see as the equilibrium of the status quo.The latest example of this comes from an FBI briefing in front of the House Judiciary Committee in early February. The bureau has been working to fine-tune its language in order to better address the (very real!) threat of domestic terrorism, which has often gone overlooked in the past. As part of these linguistic changes, the FBI has broken down domestic terrorism into four broad categories, including "abortion violent extremism," which FBI Director Christopher Wray described as "people on either side of that issue who commit violence on behalf of different views on that topic."Rep. Karen Bass of California rightly pointed out to Wray that there is no evidence of violence on "both sides" of the abortion issue. But Wray insisted that the threats must be balanced on both sides. Later, when pressed by the Daily Beast, the FBI could only cite a single instance of "pro-choice extremism," which involved a man who threatened anti-abortion activists online. Read the rest

If you've ever looked into making clear ice for drinks, you know that there are all sorts of assertions about needing to boil the water first, or using filtered water, or you need a special clear ice maker.According to Nick, the Cocktail Chemist, in this video, all you need is a small 6-pack cooler with the lid removed. Thanks to directional freezing, all of the impurities (clouding, bubbles) will settle to the bottom of the open cooler as you freeze it and the top section of the resulting ice block will be clear. You then simply remove the block and cut off the bottom part to have a clear block of ice remaining. Image: YouTube Read the rest

MIT researchers outfitted a baby diaper with an RFID tag that emits a wireless signal when the surrounding material gets wet. The wetness "sensor" is actually a type of hydrogel that's commonly found in diapers to absorb liquid. As the hydrogel gets wet, it swells and its conductivity increases, triggering the RFID tag. The RFID tags are printed as stickers for around 2 cents each compared to other Internet-connected diapers in development with reusable sensors that cost as much as $40/each. From MIT News:Over time, smart diapers may help record and identify certain health problems, such as signs of constipation or incontinence. The new sensor may be especially useful for nurses working in neonatal units and caring for multiple babies at a time...(MIT AutoID Lab researcher Pankhuri Sen) envisions that an RFID reader connected to the internet could be placed in a baby’s room to detect wet diapers, at which point it could send a notification to a caregiver’s phone or computer that a change is needed. For geriatric patients who might also benefit from smart diapers, she says small RFID readers may even be attached to assistive devices, such as canes and wheelchairs to pick up a tag’s signals.image: MIT News (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) Read the rest

You kill it at the gym all week, your nutrition is dialed in, and you're drinking so much water that your spare time is spent walking back and forth to the bathroom (way to get those steps in!)—so how do you take things to the next level? By focusing on recovery. A proper post-workout routine, which includes deep-tissue massage, will help your muscles recover faster and more efficiently, leading to less DOMS and less time before you're ready for more box jumps. Since seeing a masseuse every day isn't an option, you need a massage gun, but some of them cost almost as much as those daily massages. Some — but not these. Here are 5 options that cover a range of budgets and are still way cheaper than a Theragun. Plus, right now you can use code PRESIDENT15 for an extra 15% off.Evertone™ Prosage Deep Tissue MassagerThis budget-friendly, 3-intensity-level model from Evertone is cordless and will give you up to 2 hours of professional-grade deep-tissue trigger-point massage per charge to ensure you don't lose power mid-session. It will help you reduce joint pain, increase circulation, and break up knots to regain mobility and improve recovery.The Evertone Prosage Deep Tissue Massager is on sale for $96.99, but you'll get an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the cost to $82.44!Evertone™ Prosage Thermo: Percussion Massager with Warm-Up TechnologyThe Kickstarter-funded Thermo model of the Evertone Prosage takes things to the next level with its warming technology to ensure muscles are primed for treatment. Read the rest

It is kind of hard to imagine that it's taken until 2020 for the identity of the woman on the cover of Black Sabbath's heavy metal masterpiece, Black Sabbath, to finally be known. The woman has been identified as Louisa Livingston. The image was shot by photographer and album designer, Keith "Keef" Macmillan.The photographer opted for Oxfordshire's Mapledurham Watermill because it fit the band's sound in his opinion. Louisa told Rolling Stone: "I remember it was freezing cold. I had to get up at about 4 o'clock in the morning. Keith was rushing around with dry ice, throwing it into the water. It didn't seem to be working very well, so he ended up using a smoke machine. "It was just, 'Stand there and do that.' I'm sure he said it was for Black Sabbath, but I don't know if that meant anything much to me at the time."As a teenage headbanger, I spent countless record-spinning hours poring over every inch of this haunting cover, completely enthralled by the creepy building and the beautiful green-skinned witch in front of it. It is probably a good thing that I (and every other pubescent teen listener) was ignorant of this fact: "She wasn't wearing any clothes under that cloak because we were doing things that were slightly more risqué, but we decided none of that worked. "Any kind of sexuality took away from the more foreboding mood. But she was a terrific model. She had amazing courage and understanding of what I was trying to do." Read the rest

Everybody wears socks, even presidents, but not everybody wears sophisticated, ultra-comfortable socks made with bamboo yarn that offers softness, ventilation, and durability. So with all these DeadSoxy socks on sale for Presidents' Day, why not use this opportunity to make those hard-working feet of yours happier than they've ever been? With styles for work and play, you'll have everything you need for everyday life.DeadSoxy No-Show SocksAvailable in a variety of pack sizes (6 or 10) foot sizes (small or medium) and style packs (President 3 [no pun intended], Analyst 2, or Analyst 3), these unisex no-shows will make living the sockless life a little nicer. Made with 75% bamboo rayon, DeadSoxy pairs offer comfort that feels luxurious like cashmere but still performs. We're talking ventilation, arch support, durable elasticity—and a design that stays in place and out of sight.These sets of no-show socks are on sale starting at $81.99, but you can get an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price for a 6-pack to just $69.69!DeadSoxy Jules No-Show SocksMuch like the President and Analyst packs (OK, exactly like the President and Analyst packs), these socks feature patented silicone in the welt to eliminate sock slippage, flat seams, a Y-heel, and 75% bamboo rayon for extremely comfortable wear. The men's and women's Jules (which is also available in some of the packs above) is great if you want to pick up just a pair or two.These Jules no-show socks are on sale for $13.99, Read the rest

According to a piece on Deadline, 70s prog rock behemoths, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, are having a movie made from their 30-minute sci-fi song suite, "Karn Evil 9", from 1973's Brain Salad Surgery.Centered on a society that has drained all its blood with a dependence on technology, the film will explore the world controlled by a pervasive and dictatorial technocracy. The annual “Karn Evil” — a macabre rite of passage — is a young person’s once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience unbridled freedom, before subjugating themselves to the ruling class. When people stop returning from their Karn Evil experience, fear drives a revolution to topple the status quo and the artificial intelligence discovered at its heart.The film is being produced by Radar Pictures, producers of the Jumanji films. The screenplay is being written by best-selling author Daniel H. Wilson:Wilson, the author behind bestselling sci-fi novels Robopocalypse and The Andromeda Evolution, has adapted several of his works for the screen, most recently penning the script to Robopocalypse for DreamWorks and Michael Bay.“I’m incredibly excited to partner with Ted and Radar to explore Karn Evil 9—a unique and thrilling world,” said Wilson. “I couldn’t ask for better collaborators and I can’t wait to help add the Karn Evil 9 franchise to the Radar family.”Read the rest here.Here is ELP performing "Karn Evil 9 Third Impression" at 1974's California Jam.ELP fun-fact: "Karn Evil 9" was co-written by Peter Sinfield, the poet and lyricist best-known for his writing on the first four King Crimson records, including the hugely influential In the Court of the Crimson King and In the Wake of Poseidon. Read the rest

If you're looking to read more in 2020, you probably wish you had more time to get that done. Well, we can't create more hours in the day (we're mad about it too), but we can help you maximize those hours. Catch up on that book list and get ahead of the game when you utilize these apps and speed reading techniques that are on sale for the holiday.SumizeIt Book Summaries: Lifetime MembershipFeaturing 5-minute, easy-to-digest, non-fiction book summaries, SumizeIt will help you tackle all those career-boosting books you keep meaning to read. Using clear and uncomplicated language, in text or audio, key insights from hundreds of book are revealed, helping you master small talk at networking events.SumizeIt is on sale for $19, but you can get it for an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price to only $16.15!The Speed Reading Mastery BundleThrough 6 courses and 226 lessons, you'll gain the speed-reading skills you need to take your life and memory to the next level. Taught by instructors with a varying history of success, this bundle will help you learn faster and more effectively in addition to speed reading and neuroscience-based memory-boosting techniques and mnemonics used by world champions.The Speed Reading Mastery Bundle is on sale for $21, but you can get it for an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price to just $17.85!Become A Speed Reading Machine: Read 300 Books This YearIf reading almost a full book every day sounds like your idea of a good time, you won't want to skip this online course that teaches the secrets and techniques used by Elon Musk and Bill Gates to do just that. Read the rest

Bertolt Meyer wears a myoelectric prosthetic arm and hand controlled by electrodes attached to his residual limb that pick up impulses generated when he consciously contracts that muscle. Those impulses are then translated into control signals for the prosthetic hand. An electronic musician, Meyer had the idea to swap out the prosthetic hand for a DIY controller for his modular synthesizers so he can play music just by thinking about it. This is the SynLimb. Meyer writes:Together with Chrisi from KOMA Elektronik and my husband Daniel, I am in the process of building a device (the "SynLimb") that attaches to my arm prosthesis instead of the prosthetic hand. The SynLimb converts the electrode signals that my prosthesis picks up from my residual limb into control voltages (CV) for controlling my modular synthesizer. The SynLimb thus allows me to plug my prosthesis directly into my snythesizer so that I can control its parameters with the signals from my body that normally control the hand. For me, this feels like controlling the synth with my thoughts. Read the rest

For the last couple years, my dear friend Mikael Jorgensen (Wilco, Quindar) and Isaac Koren (The Kin, Bråves) have been exploring their shared passion for the great American songbook and electronic music. They call their act Expandards and have been making the SoCal scene to great acclaim. These two are the real deal. Above, Expandards' new video for the tune "Nature Boy," written by Eden Ahbez in 1947 and originally made famous by Nat King Cole. This burns. It burns so good.Shot on location at The Record Parlour in Los Angeles. Written and directed by Trevor Tuttle; Starring Tari Elegele and Isaac Koren Read the rest

Grover Cleveland served as America’s 22nd President before being narrowly defeated for re-election by Benjamin Harrison in 1888. But the undeterred Cleveland roared back four years later, winning the 1892 election for his second term in the White House.If the American people can give a president a second chance, don’t you think a gently-used MacBook should get that same shot at redemption too?In honor of President’s Day, we’ve assembled current deals on 5 refurbished MacBook models, each fully tested to be in 100 percent working order — and each hundreds of dollars off their retail prices.Best value:Deciding the best value from this group sort of depends on your definition of value. The Apple MacBook Pro 13" Core i5 ($428.99) with a 500GB hard drive and a 7-hour battery life is the biggest discount (67%) of its $1,299 retail price. But if you’re just looking for the rock-bottom cheapest price, check out this Apple MacBook Air with an Intel Core i5 1.6GHz processor and 64GB of storage for just $329.99 (regularly $799).Best for the executive:Sometimes, nothing but the best will do. With that in mind, the Apple MacBook Pro 15" ($999.97, down from $1,999) sporting a 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 chip with Retina Display and 256GB is hands down the beefiest entry in this list.Best for your students:When picking up a laptop for your kids, two factors come into play: how portable is it to carry back and forth from school; and how much is it gonna cost to replace if they break it? Read the rest

Engineers versed in the care and feeding of system development on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform are in an IT job sector so vital right now that they can practically set their own salaries. And a look at the annual Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report suggests that might not be far from wrong.According to the 2019 survey, the average AWS-certified IT pro is bringing home almost $130,000 annually, one of the best-paying certification jobs in all of North America.The Complete AWS Dev and Ops Certification Training Bundle is a four-course fast track into building a career as an AWS DevOps expert. In fact, this nine-hour training bootcamp covers everything students are testing on for the AWS Certified Development and Operations Engineer Professional exam, a premier industry benchmark.Each of these four courses covers a critical segment of exam prep training. Part 1 introduces students to continuous integration and delivery concepts as well as automation, while Part 2 delves into using Amazon CloudWatch for tasks like monitoring, custom metrics, and logging files.Part 3 covers AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) so you’ll always know who’s authenticated and authorized to use and access AWS resources. Finally, Part 4 teaches elasticity and scalability on the platform with best practices building top-notch architectures and implementing groups that scale automatically.The $796 training package to become a certified AWS pro is discounted now to just $29.96, a small price to pay to land a six-figure gig. Read the rest

As a magician and sleight-of-hand artist, I've been wrestling with the thorny and slippery notion of Art for a long time. A recent "magical project" rekindled my attention about this ongoing quest. Here follow my latest musings on this domain.What is Art?Art can be seen as the lifeblood running through the veins of human history. From prelinguistic cave dweller to postmodern city dweller, art stands as a witness to the evolution of every culture, reflecting and participating in our views of reality, consciousness, and the cosmos. Art existed long before the word "art" itself existed; for most of history there were no museums, no galleries, no concert halls, and no special class of people to be known as "artists." As human societies developed and evolved, so did the category of art -- which now includes a boundless constellation of forms, languages, media, materials, technologies, and aesthetic theories. As a result, the contemporary discourse on art is a fascinating and intricate spectacle. Many players -- creators, critics, curators, merchants, collectors -- interact within a matrix of sociological, cultural, political, and economic forces. The interplay of unpredictable factors generates the perceived value of artists, as well as the price of their work, and ultimately what ends up being labelled as art. The art industry produces an unstoppable stream of innovative ideas and artifacts, never-seen-before contaminations, and all sorts of category-defying "artwork." On the inevitable flip side are all kinds of aberrant deviations and plainly Barnumesque stunts. Today, everyone is welcome to decide for themselves what is what, and consume any piece of the cake of their liking. Read the rest

Famed Columbia University Ob-Gyn Dr. Robert Hadden was arrested in 2012 for licking a patient's vagina, but prosecutors didn't press charges, so Dr. Hadden went back to work. In the following weeks, he allegedly assaulted two more women, including Evelyn Yang, wife of former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, reports CNN.Dr. Hadden took a plea deal and was able to register as the lowest-level sex offender. He was given no prison sentence, no probation, and no community service.From CNN:This defied the recommendation of the State of New York Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders to label Hadden a Level 2 -- or moderate -- offender, which would require his inclusion in an online sex-offender registry for life.Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor and a CNN legal analyst, called the 2016 agreement "inexplicable.""I cannot think of any legitimate reason why you would give this guy a plea deal that would not put him behind bars for one day," he said. "It is unjust."Since Yang went public with the assault, Dr. Hadden had been accused by 42 more women of sexual assault. Unfortunately, Dr. Hadden's plea deal includes a stipulation that the New York district attorney can't prosecute him for any of the 19 "similar crimes" the DA knew about.Manhattan's DA refused to speak with CNN.Image: CNN Read the rest

"Two men, one highly detailed resin fantasy village, and five days to paint it."If you're a fantasy tabletop gamer, you likely know about Tabletop World, two Croatian terrain makers whose resign-cast buildings are the gold standard in tabletop gaming.You may also know Goobertown Hobbies and Real Terrain Hobbies, two of the best painters and terrain crafters in the game.Tabletop World sent them $2500 worth of buildings, a small Medieval village, and the two crafters challenged each other to paint the town in just five days.Besides it being fun to watch these guys hang out and paint these jaw-dropping buildings together, there are a lot of cool terrain painting and weathering techniques you can pick up.Image: YouYube Read the rest

The UK's Far Out Magazine has posted the playlists of 27 songs that Lou Reed was listening to when he died in 2013 of liver disease.Reed continually kept his finger on the pulse of contemporary and popular music. Taking a hands-on approach to the developing technology around him, Reed controlled his own Spotify account which hosted several different playlists of songs he liked from the radio, or, alternatively, general songs he was listening to at that time.Entitled ‘What I’m listening to’, Reed’s final contributions to his creative Spotify account was to curate two playlists for his followers. Combining some more predictable selections with the likes of Roy Orbison, Prince, Tom Waits and more, Reed also managed to raise a few eyebrows when he includes artists such as Nicki Minaj, Robyn and more.Read the rest of the piece and access the playlists here.Image: Danny Norton, CC BY 2.0 Read the rest

In this video on Pask Makes, he fashions a really lovely utility knife out of brass using nothing more than common shop tools like a saw, drill, hacksaw, router, files, etc.If you've ever made a tool yourself, you know what an inspired object that tool can become in your shop. Imagine making and gifting one of these to a friend or loved one. They would cherish it for life.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Michael Avenatti, the pugnacious lawyer who rose to fame representing porn star and Trump mistress Stormy Daniels, is now a convicted criminal. A jury found him guilty today of trying to extort millions of dollars from fashion brand Nike by threatening to publicly accuse them of making illegal payments to amateur athletes. He'll be sentenced in June, and faces two other trials: one on a count of fraud, and another for allegedly stealing Daniels' book advance.Avenatti made the sign of the cross prior to the verdict being read, stared at the jury and looked down at the table. He told the lawyers, "Great job, you guys," and hugged one of them as he was led away to a backroom. He was not handcuffed."Of course there will be an appeal," Scott Srebnick, Avenatti's lead defense attorney, told CNN. Srebnick said he was going to meet with Avenatti before his cient was taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he's been in custody throughout the trial. ... Nike lawyers who took the stand during the trial said Avenatti told them he would hold a press conference claiming the company illegally paid players. In exchange for not going public, Avenatti told the lawyers in one meeting Nike would have to pay Franklin $1.5 million for any claims he had and immediately pay Avenatti and another attorney $12 million, and guarantee $15 to $25 million in payments for an internal investigation, prosecutors said."An old fashioned shakedown," as the prosecutor put it. Read the rest

Outside of Black Friday, there may be no bigger shopping day than the often-overlooked, unassuming Presidents’ Day. Sure, we can spend the day honoring Washington, Lincoln, and the rest of the crew — or we can just celebrate by embracing good old fashion American capitalism.Hewlett Packard knows which way you want to go. The tech giant is jumping into the fray with both feet this year, offering up to 60 percent off on over 130 items as part of their Presidents’ Day Sale. If you’ve had your heart set on a new desktop, laptop, or even some flashy new peripheries for your office, this may be the perfect time to strike.Here are a few of the standout offers: the HP Pavilion Laptop 15z, featuring an AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor and 16GB of SDRAM, is only $549.99, a huge $750 savings off its regular price.If gaming is your thing, you can upgrade your setup with a built-to-your-specs HP OMEN Obelisk 875-1040st desktop, powered by the new NVIDIA Turing GPU and a GeForce RTX graphics card. Regularly $1,399, this gaming behemoth is $300 off, down to just $1,099.Even if you’re good with your base computer, you can also check out dozens of similarly discounted items, including printers, monitors, headphones, keyboards, software, and more.And on top of those deals, you can also throw in a special code at checkout for even bigger savings: use code 5PDS2020 to get an extra 5 percent off select configurable PCs and bundles priced at $599 or more, or use code 10PDS2020 to get an extra 10 percent off PCs and bundles over $999. Read the rest

Starting in 2007, photographer and visual effects artist Dimitris Tsalkanis has been building a digital 3D model of ancient Athens. The result is an immersive historical recreation where everyone online is invited. How did Tsalkanis handle this Herculean (rather, Heraklean) task? He learned as he went. From Sarah Rose Sharp's article about Ancient Athens 3D in Hyperallergic:“I had no previous experience on 3D and I started experimenting in my spare time,” said Tsalkanis in an email interview with Hyperallergic. “I always liked archaeology and since I am from Athens, I was always interested in its monuments and history. During my research, I realised that up until then no one had attempted a complete 3D reconstruction of ancient Athens..."Tsalkanis stays up to date with his fantasy city, updating reconstructions constantly for better quality of models and better archaeological and historical accuracy...Visitors to the site can browse reconstructions that date back as early as 1200 BCE, the Mycenaean period — or Bronze Age — through Classical Athens, featuring the rebuilds made necessary by the Greco-Persian War, and ages of occupation by Romans and Ottomans."Explore Ancient Athens Online Through 3D Models, Created by One Animator Over 12 Years" (Hyperallergic, thanks Mark Dery!)Images below: "Aerial view of the Library of Hadrian" and "Panoramic view of the Acropolis," Dimitris Tsalkanis/Ancient Athens 3D Read the rest

This is a really cool homebuilt arcade game project. “My hobby is designing and building unique arcade games from scratch,” says IMGURian @builtbyblatt. “This is The Blatt Box.”This is Speed mode. You have 45 seconds to score as many points as possible by stopping two lights in circular motion when they meet at a tangent point. Each time you score the circles and direction are randomly reset. There is a small time penalty for a wrong stop and a small time bonus for a hit. The speed increases each time you score.Check out the entire gallery, and --“If you want to support a friendly arcade artist, and see other original games, you can find me on Instagram - @BuiltByBlatt.”My hobby is designing and building unique arcade games from scratch. This is The Blatt Box. Read the rest

An orphaned black bear cub has been placed with a substitute bear mom this week after the little baby bear was saved by a family dog, and tenderly brought to safety.The amazing images of the rescued black bear cub in this post are from the Wildlife Center of Virginia, you can donate to them here.Meet Black Bear cub #20-0084. From the Wildlife Center of Virginia:On February 6, an infant male Black Bear cub was admitted to the Wildlife Center. The cub was found the evening before in Washington County when a family dog brought home the tiny cub. The homeowners were unsure where the cub came from, so they called the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF). A biologist transported the cub to the Center.Dr. Claire, the Center’s veterinary intern, examined the cub when he arrived and found that the cub was bright and alert, and vocalizing readily. The cub weighed just 540 g – smaller than cub #20-0064 at admission – and was mildly dehydrated, though otherwise was healthy.The cub was settled into an incubator, and the rehabilitation staff added him to their ‘round-the-clock bottle feeding scheduleThe wildlife rehab staff described Black Bear cub #20-0084 as bright, alert and “vocalizing readily.” They say the cub was placed with a new bear mother who was already nursing three cubs of her own on Wednesday.From Southwest Virginia Today: Staff members soon plan to introduce the cub to another cub at the center. Read the rest

He wants to know why can't bring his emotional support life-sized cutout of Trump with him to treatments

Thirty years ago today, the Voyager 1 spaceprobe had completed its ncounters with the outer planets and was careening out of our solar system. The time came to shut off the probes' cameras to preserve power and memory for the other onboard scientific instruments. But before engineers flipped the switch, one last photo opportunity was not to be missed. From my liner notes to the Voyager Golden Record vinyl box set:Astronomer and educator Carl Sagan, a member of the Voyager Imaging Team, had persuaded NASA engineers to turn Voyager 1’s cameras back toward the sun and take the first-ever portrait of our solar system from beyond its outer boundary. Sixty frames, taken on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1990, were combined into a single mosaic, known today as the “Solar System Portrait,” albeit with Mars and Mercury lost in the sun’s glare. Centered in a ray of scattered light in the camera’s optics is a tiny speck, just .12 pixels in size: Earth from 6 billion kilometers away—a “pale blue dot,” as Sagan called it. It’s an iconic image that holds the power to shift our perspective in an instant. “There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world,” Sagan wrote in Pale Blue Dot (1994). “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” Please join us in celebrating Carl Sagan's valentine to humanity:(image: NASA) Read the rest

This video has the internet legitimately divided .Dude is in the last seat on the plane. Seat doesn’t recline.Hers does. And she reclines.He’s upset, and is punching her seat incessantly— so she records.Who is right?!Who is wrong?!See you at 7p on #FOX5LION@fox5dc pic.twitter.com/jjjTLLwvEc— Marina Marraco (@MarinaMarraco) February 12, 2020Remember Wendi Williams, the woman who videotaped the man behind her who wouldn't stop punching her seat because she had reclined it?Well, TMZ has a photo of a "passenger disturbance notice" that a flight attendant handed to Williams, warning her that she could be federally prosecuted for not complying with the flight attendant's order to delete the video she'd taken of the seat puncher. The attendant also threatened to kick Williams off the plane if she didn't delete the video. Williams says she deleted the video, but was able to recover it and post it to Twitter.According to TMZ, Williams believes she may have suffered damage from the repeated punches, because she says she has had a number of back surgeries in the past as well as titanium implants in her vertebrae. She wants the seat puncher identified and prosecuted.Williams told TMZ she took the video as a way to stop the man from continuing to violently punching her seat, and that once the man realized he was being taped, he reduced the force of the punches so that they were just an "irritation."Here's the TMZ video interview with Williams:Image: Twitter screengrab Read the rest

While scientists have studied Moon rocks for 50 years, researchers have for the first time conducted deep analysis on a single grain of lunar dust, atom by atom. Using a common materials science technique called atom probe tomography that's not widely used by geologists, the Chicago Field Museum's Jennika Greer and colleagues probed the grain of soil -- about the width of a human hair -- and were able to learn about the Moon's surface its elemental composition. From the Field Museum:In that tiny grain, she identified products of space weathering, pure iron, water and helium, that formed through the interactions of the lunar soil with the space environment. Extracting these precious resources from lunar soil could help future astronauts sustain their activities on the Moon...Once the sample was inside the atom probe at Northwestern University, Greer zapped it with a laser to knock atoms off one by one. As the atoms flew off the sample, they struck a detector plate. Heavier elements, like iron, take longer to reach the detector than lighter elements, like hydrogen. By measuring the time between the laser firing and the atom striking the detector, the instrument is able to determine the type of atom at that position and its charge. Finally, Greer reconstructed the data in three dimensions, using a color-coded point for each atom and molecule to make a nanoscale 3D map of the Moon dust...Studying soil from the moon's surface gives scientists insight into an important force within our Solar System: space weathering. Read the rest

We've written here at Boing Boing before about Mike Bloomberg's awful memes, which the 2020 presidential hopeful's campaign machine crapped out on Facebook and Instagram this week with awful accounts like FuckJerry. Facebook said Friday it will allow 'influencers' like FuckJerry to produce sponsored content for political campaigns, as long as the posts are clearly identified as ads, but sponsored political content will not be placed in Facebook’s political Ad Library, unless they're "boosted" by the influencer as a paid post, the company announced on Friday. So, they're ads for political campaigns, but they're not political ads. Got it.One of the other accounts getting paid by Bloomberg's 2020 campaign is @kalesalad, a meme account run by BuzzFeed employee Samir Mezrahi. What?Reports Makena Kelly at The Verge:Before Friday, Facebook didn’t have any guidelines for influencers who create sponsored content for politicians and political campaigns. But after Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign was found to have paid popular Instagram meme pages for posts, Facebook decided to allow these paid political partnerships.Sponsored political content will not be placed in Facebook’s political Ad Library unless the creator pays to boost their posts, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to The Verge. Facebook does not receive any money for sponsored posts unless they are boosted.These rules will only apply in the United States for now, Facebook said. “Branded content is different from advertising, but in either case we believe it’s important people know when they’re seeing paid content on our platforms,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Verge. Read the rest

Become the best binge-watcher on the block when you add this sweet smart TV to your living room. Not only is this LG television big—hello, 86"—but it's also packed with cutting-edge tech that will finally justify all those hours you spend watching The Mandalorian. Why not take advantage of Presidents' Day sale pricing and snap one up while it's 28% off?Boasting an a7 Intelligent Processor for rich colors and details, 4K Ultra HD resolution with 8.3 million pixels, wide color gamut, and Ultra Surround sound with audio from 7 virtual channels (requiring only the built-in speakers), this smart TV will make you feel like you're part of the action. Also inside its sleek and slim 3.7" frame are features like Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, advanced tone mapping for scene-by-scene optimization, in-plane switching to maintain a more consistent contrast ratio even at wide viewing angles, and built-in Channel Plus service that offers free streaming of full-length movies and today's top 130+ popular channels.Its award-winning OS makes working through the interface super easy, whether you're looking for your favorite app or linking up your compatible smart home devices. Speaking of, AI ThinQ technology allows for voice interaction, so you can tell your TV what to do—at least when it comes to said devices (Alexa, Google Assistant).So if you missed out on those postseason football TV sales, now's a great time to pull the trigger on a serious upgrade to your home entertainment (you'll save loads of money on going out), because the LG 86" 4K HDR Smart LED UHD TV with AI ThinQ is down to $2149.99. Read the rest

RompHim, the rompers-for-men company that achieved viral success a couple of years back, is going out of business. CNN reports that the initial focus on marketing to straight bros limited their appeal from the outset. Remaining stock is 75% off if you want one. Read the rest

Now acquitted by the Senate, the president can glibly admit to what he was accused of. In a chat last night with Geraldo Rivera, Donald Trump says he sent Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to dig for dirt on political opponents, a fact he insisted was not so during his impeachment trial."Here's my choice: I deal with the Comeys of the world, or I deal with Rudy," Trump said, referring to former FBI Director James Comey. Trump explained that he has "a very bad taste" of the US intelligence community, because of the Russia investigation, so he turned to Giuliani."So when you tell me, why did I use Rudy, and one of the things about Rudy, number one, he was the best prosecutor, you know, one of the best prosecutors, and the best mayor," Trump said. "But also, other presidents had them. FDR had a lawyer who was practically, you know, was totally involved with government. Eisenhower had a lawyer. They all had lawyers." Read the rest

One Zachary Bisenio created a handy chart illustrating age differences in Disney couples. There are some interesting surprises, to be sure, but also lots of statutory rape. Read the rest

Staff at a Wendy's in Greenville, Michigan, are out of a job after video of someone taking a bath in the kitchen sink there went viral.A 23-second video shared on Facebook, originally posted to the TikTok social media platform, shows a young man partially submerged in a ware-washing industrial sink system — normally used to wash kitchen items — laughing and joking inside the restaurant with other employees. ... In the video, one employee wearing a Wendy’s uniform jokingly says “wash yourself” to the individual in the sink. That individual responds with, “It feels like, it feels like a hot tub. I’m just enjoying life,” as a third person recorded the video while additional laughing can be heard in the background. Read the rest