Boing Boing

After successful treatment for pancreatic cancer this summer, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she’s 'cancer free.'This was her fourth round of the disease, and she told CNN that her doctors say she now has no evidence of disease.From Colby Itkowitz at the Washington Post:The 86-year-old justice, one of the oldest to serve on the Supreme Court, offered the health update to CNN in an interview in her chambers Tuesday evening.“I’m cancer free. That’s good,” Ginsburg said, with CNN reporting that she was “sounding energized and speaking animatedly.”Ginsburg’s intensive radiation treatment for a malignant tumor on her pancreas in August had followed a diagnosis of lung cancer at the end of 2018 that resulted in the removal of part of her left lung and forced her to miss oral arguments for the first time in 25 years on the bench.Ruth Bader Ginsburg declares she’s ‘cancer free’ [washingtonpost.com] Read the rest

What if you took Segway's standard self-balancing technology, but you didn't even have to stand on it?That's basically the promise of the new Segway S-Pod, a "vision for the future of mobility" that the company announced at CES 2020. It was supposedly was inspired by the Gyrosphere from Jurassic World, but let's be real — we just got one step closer to the futuristic lethargy of Wall-E. From the press release:The Segway S-Pod is a first-class smart transporting pod for enclosed campuses such as airports, theme parks and malls. It is a safe, self-balancing vehicle that is operated by an intuitive assistive navigation panel. With an adaptive center-of-gravity automatic control system, passengers can easily adjust the speed — up to 24 mph — by handling the knob to change the center of gravity in the pod. The S-Pod spins and rotates by the center smoothly for directional changes. The rider does not need to physically lean forward and back to accelerate or slow down.I always figured that the Silicon Valley vision of the future would eventually bring us towards personalized robot car pods that are basically just trains with private seating. So at least this is a slight improvement on that?No word on price yet.Image via YouTube Read the rest

By various reports, multiple (two or three) Katyusha rockets hit targets inside Baghdad's Green Zone in the past hour. The rockets landed near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone. The United States Army and Iraqi police both reported news of the strike late in the day Wednesday, U.S. time, as did reporters and others on Twitter who were nearby. This is a developing story, and will be updated.شاهد.. المنطقة الخضراء وسط #بغداد أثناء إطلاق صافرات الإنذار بعد سقوط صاروخين بمحيط السفارة الأمريكية دون خسائر. #العراق #إيران #المرصد pic.twitter.com/zgkQW0m8uu— صحيفة المرصد (@marsdnews24) January 8, 2020BELOW: From Twitter, selected real-time tweets on the strike, and observations from news organizations and individual freelance journalists who are in Baghdad or in the region.No official word on responsibility for the attack, but various theories.Three Katyusha rockets fall inside Baghdad's Green Zone: police sources https://t.co/LlX3cy7QUI— Matt Brown (@abcmatt) January 8, 2020Katyusha rockets fall near the #US embassy in the Green Zone in central #Baghdad, and the embassy alert is heard.#Iraq, #Iran. pic.twitter.com/xvPDMClVoQ— Ahmad Algohbary (@AhmadAlgohbary) January 8, 2020‌A couple of rockets land inside #Baghdad's Green Zone, close to the #US Embassy. Responsibility not claimed by anyone yet. Most likely Iraqi groups.— Zafar Mehdi (@mehdizafar) January 8, 2020BREAKING: Two rockets land in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home of the US Embassy in Iraq https://t.co/wbHibjvvOK pic.twitter.com/YsRbt3x6hG— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 8, 2020The debris of Katyusha rocket that fell in the vicinity of #US embassy in #Baghdad. Read the rest

Today is David Bowie's birthday (born Jan 8, 1947, died Jan 10, 2016). Here's a great example of our favorite leper messiah's sense of humor as he impersonates a number of fellow singers during the Absolute Beginner's recording sessions in 1985. In the six-minute clip, you hear David doing his best impressions of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Anthony Newley, Iggy Pop, and Neil Young. Some of them are quite good, especially Springsteen.And, if you (like me) are going full Bowiemas this week (can I get an alien mullet amen?), check out this 19-hour Bowie playlist on Spotify:Listen to David Bowie from beginning to end in a 19-hour, complete chronological playlist"If you're going to be a fucking rockstar, go be one. People don't want to see the guy next door on stage; they want to see a being from another planet."-Lemmy KilmisterHappy Birthday, David. We miss you! Read the rest

In 2017, three people drilled 26 holes into a UNESCO world heritage protected landmark in China called Python Rock so they could climb the 420-foot natural rock spire and take drone footage. It turned out to be a costly excursion -- on December 30 a court ordered them to pay a $860,000 fine and one of the climbers received a prison sentence.[via Ananova]Image: YouTube/Live Leak Read the rest

A British man was sentenced to indefinite detention, according to the BBC, after having been caught on camera attempting to burn down a synagogue and instead burning down himself. [Via Charles Stross]When police arrested him at his Alexander Terrace home he had burns to his hands, forehead and hair and was carrying two lock knives and two lighters. As he was put in a police van, Morgan said: "Please tell me that synagogue is burning to the ground. If not, it's poor preparation."The court heard the attack on the building coincided with a Jewish feast day commemorating disasters, including the Holocaust. The repairs totalled more than £23,000. Judge Anthony Leonard QC handed Morgan a hospital order without limit of time, saying most people would feel "anger and revulsion" for what he did.President of the synagogue, Mr Richard Halsey, thanked the police for their "brilliant response" and "support".The video is like a Looney Tunes cartoon, a true "Instant Karma" classic. Read the rest

At the turn of the 20th century, a rogue tiger terrorized the villages of Nepal and northern India. By the time British hunter Jim Corbett was called in, it had killed 434 people. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Corbett's pursuit of the elusive cat, and his enlightened efforts to address the source of the problem.We'll also revisit a Confederate spy and puzzle over a bloody ship.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Back in December, ProPublica published a fascinating look into the snake-oil industry around Scientific Content Analysis or SCAN, a so-called "law enforcement tool" that purports to help investigators determine whether their suspects lying. This highly-profitable yet totally-dubious training method works through a rigid grammar analysis that relies entirely on the assumption that human brains only ever work in one completely uniform, logical, rational, conscious, and deliberate manner:With SCAN, Sapir encourages the asking of a simple, open question: What happened? After the person writes a statement, the SCAN investigator looks for signs of deception, analyzing, among other things, pronouns used, changes in vocabulary, what’s left out and how much of a statement is devoted to what happened before, during and after an event. Indications of truthfulness include use of the past tense, first-person singular (“I went to the store”); pronouns, such as “my,” which signal commitment; and direct denials, the best being: “I did not do it.” Signs of deception include lack of memory, spontaneous corrections and swapping one word in for another — for example, writing “kids” in one place and “children” in another.[…] Sapir likens SCAN to Sudoku, only with words, not numbers, sentences, not squares: “Everything must fit — left to right, and top to bottom.”And of course, there's no consideration for the possibility that someone might be, idunno, nervous or anxious or god forbid under-educated and therefore might respond to this "test" in ways that seem arbitrarily "suspicious."Yet there are still tons of cops who swear by it anyway — even though, as ProPublica reveals through a comprehensive analysis of SCAN test results, the system has about a 50 percent likelihood of accurately predicting whether a suspect is lying, which is … no better than a random guess. Read the rest

Mistaking an open fishtank for a bench in a restaurant, a man on a phone takes a seat there to have a conversation. Unfortunately neither the surface tension of the water nor the man's natural buoyancy are sufficient to keep him from plunging in.Image: LiveLeak Read the rest

Apparently there's been a rash of fraudulent text messages informing recipients that they have been drafted in the United States Army and they should call the recruiting office immediately. I'd bet that the phone number is actually an international toll call and most of the fees go to the scammer, like the common "one-ring call" scams. From the US Army Recruiting Command:The decision to enact a draft is not made at or by U.S. Army Recruiting Command. The Selective Service System, a separate agency outside of the Department of Defense, is the organization that manages registration for the Selective Service. "The Selective Service System is conducting business as usual,” according to the Selective Service System’s official Facebook page. “In the event that a national emergency necessitates a draft, Congress and the President would need to pass official legislation to authorize a draft."And of course that's highly unlikely, right? RIGHT?!?image: Maj. Jessica Rovero Read the rest

Jimmy Kimmel started out last night's monologue by complaining how difficult it is to cancel a subscription to an app on the iPhone. He's right. There should be a menu option accessible from every subscription app that lets you cancel on the spot.He moves on to talking about Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar, a singularly unsavory Trump Chump who recently tweeted a realistic photo of Obama and the president of Iran together, even though the two never met. When he got called out for posting the fraudulent photo without disclosing it was fake, he had a peevish hissy fit about his right to artistic expression.Here's Kimmel's take on Gosar (transcript courtesy The Daily Beast): In response to the many reporters and others on Twitter who pointed out the error, Gosar tweeted, “No one said this wasn’t Photoshopped. No one said the president of Iran was dead. No one said Obama met with Rouhani in person.”“Well, OK then!” Kimmel shot back “‘No one said this wasn’t Photoshopped?’ Is that the standard now? You can post whatever you want and leave it to us to figure out if it’s Photoshopped? Because if that’s the case I have a photo of Paul Gosar being spanked by Jared from Subway that I would like a lot of people to see.”Then Kimmel shared another “real photo” of President Donald Trump “happily shaking tiny hands with the guy who ordered the murder of a reporter for the Washington Post.” He helpfully added, “That is not Photoshopped.” Read the rest

Wow, this blew up and imploded and tried to disappear quickly.Not sure what happened, but -- a piece went up first not identified as sponsored editorial content. Then, a label was added. And finally, the piece was taken down altogether.Now, Facebook says it was *not* sponsored editorial content?Here's the story in 3 images.Then, moments later, after being dragged by media-watchers on Twitter...But not for long! Within less than one hour... We hardly knew ye.interesting pivot for Teen Vogue here to… Facebook PR? https://t.co/9piUkJOHYW— Steven Perlberg (@perlberg) January 8, 2020fwiw, FB disputes this. Says it's a "purely editorial" story, not sponcon https://t.co/tLeSZYgAgF— Rob Price (@robaeprice) January 8, 2020Some weird things going on with this Teen Vogue story I’m seeing lots of Facebook employees share today https://t.co/lveRoORpaa— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) January 8, 2020Timeline for the vogue article:Not labeled as spon on publishLabeled as spon by 9:08not labeled as spon at 9:53taken down by 9:57— Matthew Panzarino (@panzer) January 8, 2020Publishing this sort of uncritical corporate propaganda is especially noxious on a website like Teen Vogue.The website's demographic doesn't remember in a world without Facebook. To frame this as a fun guide to election integrity is shameful.https://t.co/fimjbUVDqg pic.twitter.com/kK4HVQSERM— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) January 8, 2020Teen Vogue / Facebook article now appears to have been removed: pic.twitter.com/kY3IFWw8m9— Alexandra S. Levine (@Ali_Lev) January 8, 2020Let's play a fun game of spot the difference between 20 minutes ago and now pic.twitter.com/bfbVTw6peQ Read the rest

The Boeing 737 Next Generation has a gnarly bug: on instrument approach to seven specific runways, the six cockpit display units used to guide the pilots to their landing go suddenly black and they remain black until the pilots choose a different runway to land on.The FAA has ordered Boeing to fix its software. The seven affected runways are: Pine Bluffs, WY; Wayne County, OH; Chippewa County, MI; Cavern City, NM; Barrow, AK; La Mina, La Guajira, Colombia; and Cheddi Jagan, Georgetown, Guyana.Yesterday, a 737-800 crashed on a flight from Iran to Ukraine, killing 167 passengers and nine crew members. Boeing's 737 Max has been plagued by software errors that have led to the aircraft being grounded around the world. A whistleblower claims that the Boeing 787s are also unsafe due to negligence and fraud by the company.The FAA received reports earlier this year of three incidents of display electronic unit (DEU) software errors on Model 737 NG airplanes flying into runway PABR in Barrow, Alaska. All six display units (DUs) blanked with a selected instrument approach to a runway with a 270-degree true heading, and all six DUs stayed blank until a different runway was selected. The Integrated Standby Flight Display (ISFD) and Heads-Up-Display (HUD) remained operational during this failure of the primary flight displays. The investigation has traced the behavior to a combination of common display system (CDS) block point (BP) 15 software in the DEUs and U12 or later software in the flight management computer (FMC). Read the rest

The University of North Florida is the latest customer of the Pizza ATM, an automated vending machine. The machine costs around $60,000. From the Florida Times-Union:Brook Adams, senior executive chef for UNF’s Dining Services, said they make the pizza dough and shred the cheese from scratch daily in the campus kitchen.“It’s all fresh toppings. Everything is absolutely fresh. There is no frozen pizza or anything going into the machine, Adams said.After assembling the uncooked pizzas, they are placed into boxes with a bar code identifying the toppings and loaded into refrigerated storage shelves in the back of the vending machine.Students use a touch-screen to select the pizza they want, pay for it and the machine then grabs the pizza from the refrigerated storage area and puts it into one of the machine’s two infrared ovens, Adams said.“It cooks in about 3 minutes 45 seconds and dispenses it out to the student,” said Adams, noting the pizzas cost about $8.50 to $9 each, depending on the toppings. Read the rest

This is the future, I guess.Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro went on Facebook Wednesday to livestream himself observing U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech on Iran.Oh, the stupidity.From Bloomberg Business:After a few minutes of the video showing Bolsonaro apparently taking notes while watching Trump on TV, the Brazilian President turned to the camera to read sections of the country’s constitution condemning terrorism, and accused his predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of supporting Iran’s plans to enrich uranium.[More at Bloomberg, image above is a screenshot Jair Bolsonaro's official Facebook livestream earlier today.]Acredite se quiser – Bolsonaro fez uma live de Facebook assistindo o pronunciamento de Trump https://t.co/4kb2TO09ui— DCM ONLINE (@DCM_online) January 8, 2020Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro took to Facebook to broadcast himself watching Donald Trump’s speech on Iran, taking the opportunity to stress that he supports peace efforts and rejects terrorism. by @neyhayashi https://t.co/9rVNFdyoFz— Bruce Douglas (@bruceecurb) January 8, 2020Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro filmed himself on Facebook Live while watching Donald Trump’s speech on Iran https://t.co/no7JywF1Pl https://t.co/cSOwe4Z6E0— Luis Velarde (@luivelarde) January 8, 2020 Read the rest

View this post on Instagram My Baby Sonic Cake! 🥰😍 Watch me make it on my YouTube channel . . . #soniccake #babysoniccake #cake #cakedecorating #cakesofinstagram #cakes #sonicthehedgehog #sonic #cakeboss #cakevideo #cakedesigner #sonicmovieA post shared by Sugar High Score (@sugarhighscore) on Jan 6, 2020 at 8:53am PSTSugar High Score makes stunning cakes based around pop culture themes, but it's her Baby Sonic that we're getting a slice of today. Above, the coup de grace; below, the how-to video.In this video, I am going to show you all the steps in creating this adorable Baby Sonic the Hedgehog CAKE from the new Sonic movie 2020. He turned out so cute! Enjoy. :) Read the rest

These are just a small sample of Michael Schlegel's glorious photographs of trees in Fanal, the laurisilva forest of Madeira, Portugal. The otherworldly images reassure me with their quiet calm.(via Kottke) Read the rest

The Canadian Broadcasting Coporation's annual Canada Reads prize is one of Canada's top literary prizes, ranking with the Governor General's prize for prestige and reach; it begins early in January with the announcement of a longlist of 15 recommended books, and then these are whittled down to a shortlist of five books later in the month. Over the months that follow, each of the shortlisted books is championed by a Canadian celebrity in a series of events across the country, with the grand prize winner being announced in late March after a televised debate among the five books' "champions."The CBC has just announced its longlist, and I'm delighted to announce that Radicalized, my 2019 book of four novellas, is among them.The entire list is incredibly impressive -- really humbling company to be in! -- and the five finalists will be announced on Jan 22.I discussed Radicalized on the CBC radio programme Day 6 last year, and the CBC reviewed the book in glowing terms, later naming it one of their summer reads and best books of the year.I'm sincerely honoured to be included.Radicalized is a collection of four novellas that explore the quandaries — social, economic and technological — of contemporary America. Cory Doctorow's characters deal with issues around immigration, corrupt police forces, dark web uprisings and more. Here is the Canada Reads 2020 longlist [CBC Books] Read the rest

That's quite a scene, man. No wonder I'm addicted to the stuff. According to the Sweet Jane blog, a young Bruce Robinson is one of the hep cats. From British Film Institute:Little is known about this kaleidoscopic cinema short advocating the use of coffee as a stimulant, other than that it was produced by advertising agency Battey, Barton, Durstine and Osborne. Intriguingly, it does not promote a specific brand of coffee. Far fucking out. Read the rest

Paul Zimmer was hot on Instagram until his young fans accused him of ripping them off: he sold shout-outs but failed to deliver, according to reports, then vanished from social media when a #banpaulzimmer hashtag aerosolized the allegations. Now his account is back in action, writes New Statesman's Sarah Manavis, trying to pass the torch to "Troy", first introduced as a lookalike, then as Paul's own younger brother.The third post, on 18 December, was a bombshell: “Hey it’s Paul Zimmer,” he wrote, “this is prolly gonna be my last social post ever… I have come to a place in my life where being in the spotlight and being an entertainer is no longer my passion... although it deeply saddens me to leave so bluntly, especially that so many of you have watched me for so many years.... I didn’t wanna leave my social media pages just sitting to die... soo I have decided to give my social media accounts to @troybeckerig because he is one of the dopest people I know and he is literally my younger twin my much younger twin I believe Troy is 15 or 16 years old hahaha…”The weirdest thing about social media is how it rewards those least aware of how clearly they are seen through. Any doubts may be dispelled by Manavis's sleuthing:Zimmer continues to maintain that he and Becker aren’t the same person. However, Becker’s IMDb page indicates the actor may have had doubts of his own. While in its current state it includes very little information, a cached version from 7 October 2019 shows that Troy Becker's "nickname" was "Paul Zimmer". Read the rest

Russian doll artist and photographer Lara Vychuzhanina takes Barbie and Ken out of their Malibu dream house and imagines them "back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSR."Working with real photographs as a reference, Vychuzhanina manages to capture the style of the Soviet world in incredible detail. The delightfully nostalgic, 60 x 40 x 50cm (23.6 x 15.7 x 19.6 inch) model apartment features plastic pots, pans, and kitchen appliances that Vychuzhanina scuffed up to look as though they’re old and rusting. The meticulous artist even printed out scaled-downed food labels and stuck them onto tiny boxes and cans, and the table is laid out with a simple breakfast. View this post on Instagram Подумываю снять нечто похожее на эти фотографии, но в декорациях деревенского дома. Чтоб тоже был и мужик с водкой, и общая убогость убранства, в общем незамысловатый быт деревенского забулдыги. Конечно же с Гришей в главной роли)) Опять будете сетовать, что уж больно он цивильно выглядит для алкаша:))) . . #dollphotography #lara_v #photography_art #miniature #barbiedoll #toys #dollhouse #dollphotogallery #dollhouseminiatures #fineart #ussr #roombox #barbieworld #dollsofinstagram #communalapartment #kitchen #soviet #sovietkitchen #vodka #barbiemadetomove #ссср #коммуналка #коммунальнаяквартира #советскийсоюз #советскаякухня #алкаш #мужик #советскиймужик #водка #соседиA post shared by LARA V. (@lara_art_dolls) on Nov 16, 2017 at 9:16pm PST View this post on Instagram Как и обещала - продолжение фоток с коммунальной кухни;) Гриша съел всю жареную картошку, выкурил всю Приму и теперь размышляет о смысле жизни)) . . #dollphotography #lara_v #photography_art #miniature #barbiedoll #toys #dollhouse #dollphotogallery #dollhouseminiatures #fineart #ussr #roombox #barbieworld #dollsofinstagram #communalapartment #kitchen #soviet #sovietkitchen #vodka #boozer #ссср #коммуналка #коммунальнаяквартира #советскийсоюз #советскаякухня #алкаш #мужик #советскиймужик #водка #соседиA post shared by LARA V. Read the rest

Ewan Wilson spotted this remarkable jacket designed by Thierry Mugler in 1990, so odd it won its own spread (cropped above) in Elle magazine.Certainly Giger-influenced, as Wilson suggests; check out the bottle designs of Mugler's contemporary eaux de parfum Womanity and Alien [Amazon]. Read the rest

When real athletes train, they clearly don't go into it blindly. Balance is important, and the recovery is just as important as the workout itself.As for the rest of us, we barely have time for the workout, much less a professional massage afterward. That's why a professional-grade hand-held massage gun like the DEEP4s might end up being the best piece of exercise equipment you own.Power isn't everything when it comes to these tools, but the DEEP4s has it in spades. There are 4 speeds of intensity, ratcheting up to percussive strokes at 3,200 RPMs. The driver goes 4.7" deep, and there are 5 interchangeable heads that allows that pressure to reach any muscle group that needs it. (The 3-angle arm adjustment doesn't hurt either.)It's got all that and a durable battery that will last up to 8 hours, making it a week-long workout companion.Pick up your DEEP4s Percussive Therapy Massage Gun for Athletes right now for 23% off the retail price. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Super-Fun-Pak Comix does feature "McGruff the Crime Dog," "Guy Walks Into a Bar," and more other "Hilarious Comix"

Each winter, millions of Christmas Island red crabs mass migrate from the rainforest to the sea to lay their eggs. While the roads are closed during migration season to protect the crustaceans, a couple who live in this Australian territory still needed vehicle access to their two luxury eco-lodges. So, Chris Bray and his wife Jess attached sweeper "shoes" to their Toyota Land Cruiser tires to "gently push the crabs out of the way without harming them."They call their invention the "crab mobile": View this post on Instagram The #crab mobile working a treat! The roads are thick with red crabs migrating to the coast for a refreshing dip in the #ocean. What an amazing time to be on #Christmas Island @christmasisland @parksaustraliaA post shared by Swell Lodge (@swelllodge) on Dec 29, 2019 at 7:44pm PST(Nag on the Lake)screenshot via Chris Bray Photography/Caters Clips Read the rest

The U.K.'s Royal Mail is putting out a set of stamps featuring screenshots of classic British-made computer games, from 1984's Elite to the recent Tomb Raider remakes. A basic set is £9 at the Royal Mail's shop, with various collector sets on offer too.Two First Class stamps, two Second Class stamps, two £1.55 stamps and two £1.60 stamps.Elite | 1984 | BBC Micro and Acorn Electron Second ClassDizzy | 1987 | ZX Spectrum £1.60Populous | 1989 | Commodore Amiga £1.60Lemmings | 1991 | Commodore Amiga First ClassMicro Machines | 1991 | Sega Mega Drive £1.55Sensible Soccer | 1992 | Commodore Amiga First ClassWipeout | 1995 | Sony Playstation £1.55Worms | 1995 | Commodore Amiga Second Class Read the rest

Give me a fun novelty purse and I'm a happy gal. The kitschier the better. My collection ranges from vintage Enid Collins bags to modern-day Betsey Johnson ones (the whipped cream can is probably my favorite). My most recent acquisition is shaped to look like an oversized box of Chinese food. Now I've learned that Russian Etsy shop KruKru Studio is making leather purses that look like gas cans ($180), and lots of other uniquely-shaped bags. All of them are out of my price range but I still appreciate the heck out of them. (Neatorama) Read the rest

Sam Battle of Look Mum No Computer, the mad sonic scientist who brought us the Furby Organ, has done it again. This time, he turned a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive into an awesomely retro-sounding synthesizer.The Sega Mega Drive included a Yamaha YM2612 six-channel FM synthesizer chip under the hood. Sam broke that out to create his synth which so epically invokes that iconic, often cringe-worthy, 80s synth sound.On his second YouTube channel, Look Mum No Computer But More Serious-ish, he goes into more detail about the YM2612, the Sega Drive, and putting together the synth. Read the rest

Digital marketing in the coming decade will be a battle fought on multiple fronts. Companies are finding their customers on more web outlets than ever, and they're not getting any less fickle.It can all be pretty confusing for anyone looking to make their brand breakthrough, but the 2020 Full Stack Digital Marketing Certification Bundle is one of the best resources for anyone looking to cut through the noise.The package has 12 courses that serve as instructions for all the best tools in the marketer's belt. No "rah-rah" pep talks here, just raw info about how you can use today's biggest platforms to elevate your brand.There are specific looks at what draws face time on YouTube, Google Ads and Facebook. You'll learn how to use Google Analytics to track and act upon shifts in incoming traffic. And of course, you'll get expert, up to date advice on how to use SEO effectively across the board.The bundle is already over 90% off the cost of the individual courses. Read the rest

I'm no coin collector but I'm certainly hoping to get this great new quarter, which depicts the fruit bats of the National Park in American Samoa, as change sometime this year. CoinNews.net: Designer: Richard MastersSculptor-Engraver: Phebe HemphillMr. Masters’ design depicts a Samoan Fruit Bat mother hanging in a tree with her pup evoking the remarkable care and energy that this species puts into their offspring. The design is intended to promote awareness of the species’ threatened status due to habitat loss and commercial hunting. The National Park of American Samoa is the only park in the United States that is home to the Samoan Fruit Bat. Inscriptions are "NATIONAL PARK," "AMERICAN SAMOA," "2020," and "E PLURIBUS UNUM."This coin, part of the America the Beautiful collection, has a release date of February 3. Thanks, Kasey!image via CoinWeek Read the rest

Yes, it has come to this. Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg and acting U.S. president and warmongering dumbass Donald Trump are both buying duelling $10 million dollar campaign ads to run against each other during the Super Bowl. Where's that giant flaming meteor, 2020. Bring it on.“The biggest point is getting under Trump’s skin,” Michael Frazier, a spokesman for the Bloomberg campaign, told the New York Times.Citing sources with the campaigns, CNN reports that both Trump and former New York Mayor Bloomberg's presidential campaigns plan to each spend $10 million on 60-second TV spots to run during the much-watched football game.Trump's ad, according to a campaign aide, is expected to run early in the game. The campaign reserved the ad time in December and the spot has already been paid for, the aide added.Bloomberg, after Trump's plans to run an ad during the Super Bowl were reported on last year, decided that he would also air a spot during the February 2 game, a spokesperson for the former New York Mayor told CNN.Neither campaign said exactly how much they paid for their ad, but Fox executives have said that they hope a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl would cost more than $5 million, meaning a 60-second spot could cost each campaign upwards of $10 million. The Bloomberg spokesperson said that the presidential campaign would pay "market rate" for the coveted ad time.Trump, Bloomberg campaigns set to spend millions to air ads during Super Bowl [Dan Merica, Kaitlan Collins and Betsy Klein, CNN, 5:24 PM ET, Tue January 7, 2020]IMAGES courtesy miasbliv.com Read the rest

Softbank-funded unicorn Zume ran out of dough

If you can't or won't or just don't drink cow milk, Starbucks has a new option for you.On Tuesday, the global coffee chain began offering oat milk along with other plant-based milks in beverages, at certain US locations, with plans to expand. Starbucks had previously begun offering new beverages made with coconut and almond milk in the United States and Canada. Soy is a longtime option offered at Starbucks, worldwide. Oat is pretty recent, and I happen to like it.More plant options seem like they'll be a good thing for the planet, because animal agriculture is linked to climate change, not to mention animal suffering.From Reuters:Sweden-based Oatly, which supplies oat milk to Starbucks in the Midwest, started production in the United States about three years ago and has partnered with several cafes in the country, including New York-based bubble tea café Boba Guys and Chicago-based Intelligentsia.The trend mirrors the popularity of plant-based meat substitutes, with Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods adding their vegan patties and sausages to menus at fast-food and fine-dining restaurants.Starbucks has sold lattes and coffees with oat milk in Europe since 2018 and at a few of its upscale Reserve locations in the United States since last year. Starbucks launches oat milk drink as vegan movement grows [reuters.com] Read the rest

“Volume decline accelerated in 2019, down 3% through November.”The new availability of a wide array of legal marijuana products has is beginning to take a bite out of beer consumption in Canada, reports Bloomberg News.That's a big deal for a nation that prides itself in beer. What will Bob and Doug MacKenzie say?Beer volumes fell by 3% through November, data from Beer Canada show.“This is far worse than the trends seen between 2014-2018, where beer industry volumes fell an average 0.3%,” and appears to be related to Canada’s legalization of pot in late 2018, Cowen analyst Vivien Azer told Bloomberg News:Domestic beer volumes slid 3.9% through November, while imported beer volumes grew 1.4%. Cannabis consumers appear to prefer mainstream beer “as they pursue better ‘buzz for your buck,”’ Azer said in a note published Tuesday.There’s some debate about how much impact marijuana legalization has on alcohol consumption, although surveys of pot users indicate that they tend to drink less when they’re high. Declining sales have led to several alcohol-cannabis partnerships, including Constellation Brands Inc.’s investment in Canopy Growth Corp., Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s joint venture with Tilray Inc. and Molson Coors Brewing Co.’s partnership with Hexo Corp.To be sure, the Canadian cannabis market is still tiny. Annual sales based on the most recent monthly data would be C$1.5 billion versus C$9.2 billion for beer and C$23 billion for alcohol.Legal Pot Takes a Bite out of Beer Consumption in Canada [.bloomberg.com] Read the rest

Be careful what you wish for. In Kentucky, authorities have arrested a man they say expressed a desire to go to jail to support his jailed girlfriend.Raymond Pace, 47, is charged with offenses that include possession of methamphetamine, heroin and drug paraphernalia, Kentucky news outlets reported.From the Garrard County Police Department's Facebook Page:True Love.....On January 4, 2020 at around 7:04 pm, Mr. Raymond Pace called dispatch wanting to report a stolen laptop computer.When Officer Steven Debord arrived to take the report, an intoxicated Mr. Pace stated that he wanted to go to jail and needed to be locked up for 5 months, and asked if assault on a police officer would get him 5 months. Officer Debord advised Mr. Pace that he didn't want to do that, and instead suggested that they talk about whatever issues he was having. Mr. Pace agreed and invited Officer Debord into his home.Once inside, Mr. Pace told Officer Debord that he needed to go to jail for 5 months because his girlfriend was in jail for for 5 months and he wanted to be there with her so she wouldn't be stressing out. Pace again asked if if assault would get him 5 months and shoved Officer Debord's shoulder. Officer Debord advised Pace not to do that again, and suggested that Pace go to bed and sleep off whatever alcohol he had consumed.Pace continued to insist on going to jail, reaching under the couch and pulling out a box containing a baggie filled with suspected methamphetamine, several items of drug paraphernalia, including what Pace claimed was meth residue on a spoon. Read the rest

She has been charged with battery of a person over 65.

In Atlanta, a couple say they returned from their holidays to find their home had been completely wrecked by a squirrel. Their insurance company, Mercury, says nope-- squirrel damage is not covered. The couple has launched a GoFundMe. No word on the squirrel.TODAY AT 5: A local family came home from vacation to find wood damage throughout...caused by a squirrel! Why their insurance carrier won’t cover the damage. pic.twitter.com/gh576P7HAY— Mike Petchenik (@MPetchenikWSB) January 6, 2020Kari and Dustin Drees purchased the home, their first, just in December in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood. Weeks later, off they went to visit family for the holidays.While they were away, their home alarm system went off, signaling a possible intruder. “We had a friend come check it out and our doors and windows were intact, so we just thought it was a software issue,” Ms. Drees said. No windows or doors breached.And yet.They returned to a home with scratched up floors, chewed up baseboards -- even the kitchen sink was left running, Kari Drees told reporters.Who did it?A furry little asshole with a long tail.From the Associated Press:A squirrel had fallen down their chimney and was trapped in the house, defecating and scratching at everything to get out. Eventually it made a nest in the couple’s couch. “We’re stressed at first, but we were like, ‘This is why you have homeowner’s insurance. It’s in situations like this.’ ... and so we weren’t too stressed,” Kari Drees said. Read the rest

I am backing up to this Seagate 2TB portable disk.I last backed up my laptop a little over 8 months ago. I thought I would get back to my usual storage device, a Drobo 5N2, however, I have not visited my brother in a few months. I left the Drobo to serve as his Plex media server until I have a living room again.Living la vida #vanlife! As I frequently work from the road I was suddenly overcome with a need to backup my laptop. The Seagate is fast and fairly quiet. The drive is small and light enough to be a nearly unnoticeable addition to my bag.Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD – USB 3.0 for PC Laptop and Mac (STGX2000400) via Amazon Read the rest

I'm already packing.NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its star's habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the presence of liquid water on the surface. Scientists confirmed the find, called TOI 700 d, using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and have modeled the planet's potential environments to help inform future observations. TOI 700 is a small, cool M dwarf star located just over 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado. It's roughly 40 of the Sun's mass and size and about half its surface temperature. The star appears in 11 of the 13 sectors TESS observed during the mission's first year, and scientists caught multiple transits by its three planets. The innermost planet, called TOI 700 b, is almost exactly Earth-size, is probably rocky and completes an orbit every 10 days. Read the rest

Andrew McCarthy, posting on Instagram as Cosmic Background, takes amazing astronomical photographs. Pictured above a breathtakingly detailed shot of the moon constructed from 100,000 individual photographs. You can buy prints of this and other works of his at his online store.My first lunar image of 2020 is also one of my most detailed. This is a blend of around 100k photos, which allowed me to sharpen the image and overcome some of the fuzzing caused by our turbulent atmosphere. The colors you see are real, caused by variations in the composition of the regolith. This first quarter moon also is one of the best for showing crater detail, as the long shadows long the terminator really make the details pop.Below is a rather menacing photo of the sun looming behing Mercury. View this post on Instagram Behold, the transit of Mercury! This is little guy at around 9:45am Pacific this morning. I captured hundreds of thousands of frames of the event so I could build an animation, but didn't want to wait so long before sharing something. Mercury is about the size of our moon, so seeing it like this really puts the scale of the sun in perspective. #mercurytransit2019 #astrophotography #space #astronomy #opteam #optcorp #meadeinstruments #mercuryA post shared by Andrew McCarthy (@cosmic_background) on Nov 11, 2019 at 11:17am PST View this post on Instagram After I posted a picture of some star trails taken from my backyard I had a lot of positive feedback and requests for prints, but frankly I knew I could do better. Read the rest

This capybara is excited, unlike all the other capybaras here. Read the rest

A group of high school students in Michigan made good use of their holiday break: they built a toilet paper pyramid.The students belong to a 20-member robotics team, and they plan to sell the (unused) toilet paper now to raise money for their technology studies.“There was a lot of excitement when we got to the last few layers, but the final roll at the top was actually pretty anti-climactic,” teen robotics enthusiast Maxton Herst told MLive.com. “Every single roll you place, you want it to be in the correct spot. It was just kind of mind-numbing work.”The kids got the idea from seeing a similar pyramid in a YouTube video a few years ago.From Associated Press:The students built the pyramid during holiday break. The robotics team began to dismantle the pyramid Monday, the first day of classes after the holidays. Rolls of the two-ply toilet paper were placed into 96-count boxes for purchase.IMAGE: BLITZCREEK ROBOTICS. Read the rest

Ryan Scribner and Jake Carlini stayed at the cheapest Airbnb in New York City. It was $30/night. Above is Ryan's video and below is Jake's documentation of the experience. The verdict: "It wasn't too bad!" Read the rest

I loved this image, posted today to promote a B3TA newsletter but originally from its photoshop thread challenging readers to create album covers for old (largely UK) TV shows. It's by christhebarker.If you're American and Zippy Stardust is a baffling, inexplicable horror to you, be assured the same is also true of Britons. Read the rest

Barrow (aka Utqiaġvik), Alaska is the northernmost city in the United States. It's so far from most civilization that the grocery prices are astronomical. For example, a bag of frozen french fries is $17, cucumbers are $4.50 each, and a carton of orange juice is $12. Read the rest

Millions of animals have been hurt or killed in Australia's devastating months-long fire season, but firefighter Sam Mcglone is able to save at least one of them – a baby kangaroo hiding under a log. He wraps the nervous creature in a towel and later takes it to a vet. Read the rest

Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of the iconic Generation X memoir "Prozac Nation" (1994), died today of metastatic breast cancer. She was 52. Wurtzel was also the author of Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women (1999) and More, Now, Again (2002), about her stimulant addiction. Several years ago, she wrote in the New York Times about the BRCA genetic mutation that can result in breast cancer and her own treatment for the disease. From today's New York Times obituary:Writing about her final illness was a natural choice for Ms. Wurtzel, who had for a quarter-century scrutinized her life in relentless detail, becoming a hero to some, especially to many women of her generation and younger, but also drawing scorn. “Prozac Nation,” her first book, published when she was 27, was unvarnished in its accounts of her student days at Harvard, her drug use, her extensive sex life and more...The book became a cultural reference point and part of a new wave of confessional writing.“Lizzie’s literary genius rests not just in her acres of quotable one-liners,” (Wurtzel's lifelong friend, author David) Samuels said by email, “but in her invention of what was really a new form, which has more or less replaced literary fiction — the memoir by a young person no one has ever heard of before. It was a form that Lizzie fashioned in her own image, because she always needed to be both the character and the author.”photo: detail of Prozac Nation book cover Read the rest

If you like to repair your own electronics, this set of screwdrivers probably has what you need. It comes with the following drivers: Phillips (PH000, PH00, PH0, PH1), Torx (T5, T6, T7), Torx Security (T8H, T9H, T10H), Pentalobe (P2, P5, P6), Triwing 3.0, and Slot 2.5. It also comes with a number of other useful tools: spudgers, tweezers, and scissors. It comes with a pouch and Amazon is selling it for Read the rest

BB contributor and DIY science hacker Ariel Waldman recently went on a research expedition to Antarctica to study microscopic extremophiles under the ice. She made a great video series about it and has now created a wonderful interactive tour of this hidden world called "Life Under the Ice." It's damn cool. (Get it? Get it?!) From Ariel's project description:Typically when we think about Antarctica, we think of a place that's barren and lifeless... except for a few penguins. But Antarctica should instead be known as a polar oasis of life, host to countless creatures that are utterly fascinating. They’ve just been invisible to us – until now. Life Under the Ice enables anyone to delve into the microscopic world of Antarctica as an explorer; as if you had been shrunk down and were wading through one large petri dish of curiosities...The collected Antarctic microbes were found living within glaciers, under the sea ice, next to frozen lakes, and in subglacial ponds. Microbes from under the sea ice were discovered in the Southern Ocean’s McMurdo Sound near McMurdo Station and the Erebus Glacier Tongue. Microbes from glaciers and frozen lakes were discovered in the McMurdo Dry Valleys at Lake Bonney and Lake Hoare.Life Under the Ice Read the rest

It seems like Tesla should have some kind of warning system that forces you to press an override icon if you really want to drive with the door open.Model X oopsie from r/IdiotsInCarsImage: Reddit video screenshot Read the rest