A good website should be able to do a lot of things, and that means a good web designer needs to be just as versatile. If you're looking to break into this in-demand field but aren't sure where to start, give The Complete 2020 Learn to Design Certification Bundle a look.It's actually a package of 10 courses, all designed to help get you working as a web designer in any company. You'll get beginner courses in all the essentials, but also deep dives into some of the latest platforms.For example, there's a full walkthrough on Javascript, which provides a foundation for a guide to Javascript Console Object and its debugging possibilities. You'll also get a lot of know-how on graphic design, with special focus on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. CSS, HTML Canvas and more are all covered here.All in all, it's more than 80 hours of content leading to certifications that you can be sure will attract eyes to your resume. Lifetime access to the full 10-course bundle is now 98% off the original retail price. Read the rest

The fan-made hay sculpture's name is “Will-Hay Nelson.”In Huddleston, Virginia, a woman who makes hay art sculptures every year decided to make one of Willie Nelson, and the internet went nuts about it. Turns out the country music legend kind of liked it, and shared it on his social media page (Link, and see screengrab above).“Will-Hay Nelson” is (well, was) a 15-foot-tall hay sculpture of the singer that was created as part of an annual holiday tradition in Huddleston. View this post on Instagram Not the best video, just a screen recording off my phone but still pretty darn cool!!A post shared by beth bays (@farmerbays) on Dec 31, 2019 at 4:52am PST From the News-Advance:For the past eight years, Huddleston native Beth Bays has debuted a new hay bale creation in late November or early December at her farm on Tolers Ferry Road. Past creations include characters from “The Wizard of Oz;” a drummer bear; a cow; an elephant; the Virginia Tech Hokie bird; and characters from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”However, this year’s creation — “Will-Hay Nelson” — has struck a chord in the community, Bays said.“This one seems to be everyone’s favorite by far,” Bays said. “My cousin joked that I might have to quit now because I’ll never be able to top this.”Bays — who owns Buckscrape Farms — started making the giant hay sculptures as part of Bedford Farm Bureau Young Farmers’ hay bale decorating contest.More:• Hay bale creation an annual tradition in Huddleston [newsadvance.com] Read the rest

Some news you may have missed on New Year's Eve -- a federal judge has rejected efforts by Elon Musk's Tesla to dismiss claims brought by two former California employees that the car factory where they worked was a racist environment. The judge's decision clears the way for a trial, which is scheduled for May 11, 2020. “U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco found open questions over whether Owen Diaz and his son Demetric Di-az faced 'severe and pervasive racial harassment' in 2015 and 2016 at Tesla’s factory in suburban Fremont, which employs more than 10,000 people,” reported Reuters on December 31:The plaintiffs, who are black, said they were subjected to repeated racial epithets dozens of times, as well as racist cartoons, and that supervisors engaged in or did little to stop the racism.Orrick said Diaz could pursue claims that Tesla allowed and did not take reasonable steps to stop racial harassment.He said punitive damages might be available if Tesla must have known about the harassment and “ratified” it, even if only lower level workers were directly involved.“The n-word is perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English, a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry,” Orrick wrote. “This case will proceed to trial.”Tesla must face lawsuit claiming racism at California factory [reuters.com] Read the rest

Legendary underground cartoonist R. Crumb in a rare video interview recorded a few months back during the Louisiana Literature festival at Humlebæk, Denmark's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. From a summary of Crumb's comments:“I was so alienated when I was young, that drawing was like my only connection to society. That was the only thing that I could see was going to save me from a really dismal fate of God knows what.” Crumb describes his social skills as a young man as being “completely nil.” At the same time, he was driven by his “fucked-up ego,” and he had to balance those two sides. Drawing became a way for him to deal with reality, and in the 1950s, where “being a comic-book artist was the lowest level of commercial art,” he pushed toward a more personal use of the medium: “At a certain point I decided I don’t want to be America’s best-loved hippie cartoonist. I don’t want that role. So I’ll just be honest about who I am, and the weirdness, and take my chances.” Consequently, Crumb alienated a lot of people with his often provocative content: “It was just too disturbing for most people, too weird.”Crumb has an urge to question things and is acutely aware that he’s going to get hell for what he’s doing – even lose friends – but he is willing to take the heat for it. He feels that he plays with images, emphasixing the word “play.” Nowadays, he argues, there’s a tendency to take everything at face value – including his artwork: “The artwork I did that used those images and expressed those kinds of feelings, I stand by it… I still think that that’s something that needed to be said and needed to be done… It probably hurts some people’s feelings to see those images, but still, I had to put it out there.” Read the rest

In this brilliant billboard for the new Dracula TV series, the 3D stakes create an ominous shadow. (And yes, there's an electric light in case the sun doesn't cooperate.)A fun find on the Dracula Art Department WhatsApp group. Bravo, marketing team..! 🦇 pic.twitter.com/sHUSJDodVI— Richard🦇Wells (@Slippery_Jack) December 29, 2019 Read the rest

The new decade has brought some remarkable changes to the enlightened, kinder and gentler tabloids.

Jazz trumpeter Jack Sheldon, singer of the Schoolhouse Rock! classics "I'm Just a Bill" and "Conjunction Junction," has died at age 88. With roots in the 1950s West Coast and bebop jazz scene, Sheldon became the longtime musical director of the Merv Griffin Show. In 1973, he became an ongoing contributor to Schoolhouse Rock!, voicing many of the series' most popular tunes.(CNN)image: "Jack Sheldon at Palo Alto CA Jazz Festival September 26, 1987" by Brian McMillen (CC BY-SA 4.0) Read the rest

These beetles do not exist: Confusing Coleopterists is an AI trained on illustrations from zoological textbooks. The extreme formality of this art genre, and its placement within the public domain, makes it uniquely apt to the medium of generative adversarial networks: "Results were interesting and mesmerising."I set up a machine at PaperSpace with 1 GPU (According to NVIDIA’s repository, running StyleGan on 256px images takes over 14 days with 1 Tesla GPU) 😅I trained it with 128px images and ran it for 3 days, costing €125. Results were nice! but tiny. ... I loaded the beetle dataset and trained it at full 1024px, [on top of the FlickrHD model] and after 3000 steps the results were very nice. No-one below Ph.D. level should ever trust an illustration of a beetle again! Read the rest

If you've got more than one Apple device, chances are your nightstand is a cluttered mess of charging cables; and if you take them out with you on the daily, your bag probably also has a tangled mass of chargers for your iPhone, AirPods, Apple Watch and so on.It's time to de-clutter your charging setup, and this 3-in-1 Apple Watch, AirPods & iPhone Charger is here to help.Find a plug or USB and you've got everything covered with this one. It's easily portable and splits the signal from one charging source into three Lightning cables. Voila! Instant juice.Even better, it's got short circuit protection and regulates the signal so that your gadgets don't get overheated or overpowered.The 3-in-1 Apple Watch, AirPods & iPhone Charger is now priced at more than 55% off the MSRP. Read the rest

Never tell me the odds of avoiding a DMCA takedown. Read the rest

Nearly ten grand. That's what it will cost to get the STAR WARS Millennium Falcon Hyperspace Jump Experience bouncy house into your life. Magic Jump, the company behind this 1,100 pound officially-licensed monstrosity, also offers financing for $237.38/month. Or you can find an entertainment company with one in their inflatable jumper repertoire to bring you this:Passengers will encounter a Chewbacca inflatable as they enter and an R2D2 inflatable replica and C-3PO graphic as they jump their way around the ship. Passengers will feel the rush as they imagine piloting the Millennium Falcon like Han Solo and Chewbacca as they explore the cockpit area; pretend to operate the cockpit's master control panel with its gears, switches, and buttons; and eject themselves down a small slide. In the main cabin, they'll come across inflatable pop-up obstacles such as a bunk, storage container, and holo-map where they can see a holographic-like rendering of the Death Star. Passengers can step up to the laser cannon turret where they can pretend to defend against Imperial forces, and they can also pretend to play dejarik at the hologame table. The pièce de ré·sis·tance is the climber/slide in the center of the ship with ceiling hatch graphic showing explosive battle with a Star Destroyer and TIE fighters.(Geekologie)images via Magic Jump Read the rest

If you were hoping that 2020 would mean less superficially amusing yet disquieting videos from me, I'm afraid you're on the wrong timeline. Happy New Year! Read the rest

For over 20 years, Barbara Walters anchored ABC's newsmagazine 20/20. So, there was PLENTY of material to make this supercut of her saying, "This is 20/20." Or, as the folks behind the New Year's Eve countdown site, www.thisis2020.com, want you to think, "This is 2020." This all led to this... Anderson Cooper losing it on air at the Times Square ball drop: Happy New Year, Happy Mutants! View this post on Instagram The most shareable moment of 2019 happened in the 90s #thisis2020 #BarbaraWalters #barbarawalters2020 #2020A post shared by This Is 2020 (@thisistwennytwenny) on Nov 19, 2019 at 9:30am PSTscreenshot via This is 2020 Read the rest

Anne Innis Dagg was the first female biologist to study giraffes; while all the men who preceded her had observed firsthand that male giraffes are super queer (their primary form of play is a game dubbed "penis fencing," which is exactly what it sounds like), only Dagg was willing to write it down and publish it.Dagg's work on giraffes -- several of the seminal books on the animals -- was initially mocked or ignored, partly because of her pioneering approach of living among the animals (as opposed to observing them at a distance) offended the establishment; partly because of her gender.Though Dagg earned a PhD and taught for decades, she was denied tenure. She continued to produce challenging, brave, brilliant work at the intersection of biology and gender politics, ranging over both scholarly and popular works. In particular, she specialized in pointing out the lack of rigor in her male colleagues' work when discussing sex and gender among animals, and how that spilled over into the way the field was organized, and gender bias within research institutions and in research publishing.Her 2004 book, Love of Shopping is Not a Gene, is an absolute must-read book on the subject, addressing the total absence of rigor and falsifiability in hypotheses from male biologists to explain human gender and power roles with reference to animal behavior and/or the imaginary lives of early hominids -- howlers like "Rape is genetic" or "Black people are genetically destined to have lower IQ scores than white people." Read the rest

NASA Earth Observatory's Lauren Dauphin captured this lovely portrait of the Marree Man, a 2.2 mile (3.5 kilometer) tall illustration of a person etched into a South Australian plateau, southeast of Lake Eyre. A pilot first spotted Marree Man in 1998 but to this day nobody knows for sure who created the geoglyph. While an Alice Springs artist reportedly confessed on his deathbed that he is the artist behind the geoglyph, there are other clues suggesting an American origin. Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith has offered a $5000 reward to anyone who can definitively solve the mystery of the Marree Man. From NASA:In August 2016, local business owners, concerned about the loss of what had become a tourist draw, decided to restore the fading geoglyph. With accurate GPS coordinates for the original in hand, they used a construction grader to redraw Marree Man over a period of five days.The restoration team thinks the updated geoglyph will last longer than the original because they created wind grooves, designed to trap water and encourage the growth of vegetation. Over time, they hope vegetation will turn the lines green. The OLI acquired this image of the feature on June 22, 2019. Read the rest

For the last couple weeks, residents of Colorado and Nebraska have reported squadrons of large drones flying overhead. The drones are large, with a reported 6-foot wingspan, and their operators and purpose remain a mystery. The Federal Aviation Administration has now opened an investigation into the matter. From the New York Times:Some have suggested they might be part of a simple mapping operation, or a land survey conducted by an oil and gas company — but why would such flights run at night?...The drone sightings started in northeast Colorado around mid-December and have only grown more widespread since then. Almost all the sightings have occurred between sunset and about 10 p.m., though (Palisade, Nebraska resident Missy) Blackman said she had seen them out later one night in Nebraska and, for the first time on Wednesday, during daylight hours. She said she had looked at them through binoculars and did not see any markings, just plain silver and white coloring.Across the state line in Colorado, Captain Yowell tried to photograph the drones on Tuesday night with the camera he uses to document crime scenes, but came away without a clear image. He estimated that up to 30 drones were flying each night, though not all in the same place...Sheriff Todd Combs of Yuma County, Colo., said in a Facebook post Tuesday that the drones appeared to be staying at least 150 feet from buildings or people, based on the footage he has seen.“There are many theories about what is going on, but at this point, that’s all they are,” he said. Read the rest

Randy Lubin (previously) writes, "New work is entering the public domain and Mike Masnick and I are hosting a game jam to celebrate. Designers have all of January to design analog and digital games about, inspired by, or remixing works from 1924. We have amazing judges, great prizes, and are excited to see what you make!"This jam is open to both digital and analog games – choose the medium that excites you!For digital games, we’ll only be judging games that are playable in the browser. This includes interactive fiction using frameworks like Twine. You can submit desktop or mobile games but we won’t consider them for prizes.For analog games, we’re looking for tabletop RPGs, larps, board games, and everything in between. We encourage you to design something short and quickly playable. Our judges are only committed to reading the first four pages of your submission. Golden Cobra and Game Chef contain great examples of brief, compelling games.Don’t worry about making a highly polished game! We’re more interested in your ideas and how you use the public domain.Gaming Like It's 1924 [Randy Lubun/Itch.io] Read the rest

Brush up on those interview skills all you like, but all the charm in the world won't help you past the primary obstacle for modern job seekers: Applicant tracking systems. These bots comb online applications before a human ever sees them, searching for keywords that would indicate particular titles or skills.That's where Rezi Résumé Software comes in handy.It's a fine line: You don't want your resume to read like an SEO checklist, but you do want it to be flagged by the right companies. Rezi allows you to do this by providing simple forms for your job experience, skills, education and other essentials. It then organizes them in a way that puts your best traits front and center, letting you customize it at every step so you can still maintain your unique voice. The results will bump up your score on ATS algorithms while still providing a compelling "best foot forward" once that manager gets their first look.A lifetime subscription to Rezi is now available for a full 94% off the retail price. Read the rest

As a teenager, Mark Holmgren of Edmonton, Canada lost all use of his arm after a motorcycle accident. Last year, he decided to have the nonfunctional arm amputated. But he also had a curious request of his physicians: Holmgren wanted to keep the lost limb. “I carried it out of the hospital in a garbage bag,” Holmgren told CTV News Edmonton. “I actually kept it in my freezer for about a month.”Apparently it wasn't easy to find a taxidermist willing to remove the flesh and prepare the bones for display. “A couple of them told me no, like right away. There was no way that they were going to touch human body parts.”Eventually, he found a taxidermy shop willing to do the job. “I’m just going to keep it probably behind the sink in the kitchen," Holmgren says. "I’m happy I did it. It’s just not for everybody.”More: "This Edmonton man had his arm amputated. Then he kept the bones." (CTV News Edmonton) Read the rest

Pope Francis apologized for slapping the hand of a woman who wouldn't let go of the pontiff's paw outside the Vatican's Nativity scene last night. “Many times we lose our patience,” the Pope said. “I do, too, and I’m sorry for yesterday’s bad example.”(New York Times) Read the rest

The principal of Lafayette Elementary School in Washington DC has apologized after a fifth grade lesson on the Civil War and Reconstruction had some children of color role-playing "a person of color drinking from a segregated water fountain and an enslaved person." From CNN:During classroom circles and small group discussions, (principal Carrie) Broquard said, some students said they were uncomfortable with the roles their peers had asked them to play. Others, she said, had been unsure how to respond or stand up for their peers who were uncomfortable."We deeply regret that we did not foresee this as a potential challenge in role playing so we could set appropriate parameters to protect students," the fifth grade team said...Broquard outlined a number of steps the school is taking in response to the lesson.In her letter, she said students who were directly affected have been meeting with the school's social emotional learning team and members of the administration to "process and talk through" the incident. The social emotional learning team and a racial equity committee at the school will work to ensure all assignments are "culturally sensitive and appropriate," she wrote.The staff will participate in a full day of training on equity and race in January, and the school plans to create a diversity and inclusion committee, the letter stated. Read the rest

I'd seen this before, but I was reminded of it when I saw Billy Bragg share a webcomic version of it on Facebook. But here are Woody Guthrie's New Year's resolutions from 1943. While they were written in the throes of World War II, I think we'd all do well by following their example every day and every year, but especially right now.1. Work more and better2. Work by a schedule3. Wash teeth if any4. Shave5. Take bath6. Eat good — fruit — vegetables — milk7. Drink very scant if any8. Write a song a day9. Wear clean clothes — look good10. Shine shoes11. Change socks12. Change bed cloths often13. Read lots good books14. Listen to radio a lot15. Learn people better16. Keep rancho clean17. Dont get lonesome18. Stay glad19. Keep hoping machine running20. Dream good21. Bank all extra money22. Save dough23. Have company but dont waste time24. Send Mary and kids money25. Play and sing good26. Dance better27. Help win war — beat fascism28. Love mama29. Love papa30. Love Pete31. Love everybody32. Make up your mind33. Wake up and fightDance better. Beat fascism. Keep the hope machine running. I think that pretty much covers everything.Woody Guthrie’s Doodle-Filled List of 33 New Year’s Resolutions From 1943 Read the rest

Creative agency Wieden+Kennedy NY developed this wide-mouth cup that enables NASCAR fans to take a sip without taking their eyes off the racetrack. I'd say that The Cup -- a 2009 promotional item for NASCAR and ESPN -- was quite an improvement over beer guzzler helmets worn by dedicated sports fans in prior decades.(Jalopnik)The Cup. In 2009 the creatives at @wknyc produced this wonderful at track giveaway for client @espn. Designed with the fans in mind, this drinking apparatus allowed you to enjoy any tasty beverage without missing the action on the track. #nascar pic.twitter.com/64sb2heoWp— I Want to Believe Nascar (@IWTBNASCAR) December 29, 2019 Read the rest

A gentleman attempted to drive his pickup truck across the iced over Big Shag Lake in Marquette County, Michigan. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. From the Mining Journal:Crossroads Truck Repair and the (Michigan Department of Natural Resources) assessed the scene and advised the driver that they have 72 hours from when the incident occurred to pay to have their vehicle removed from the lake...The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy will evaluate the lake after the vehicle’s removal for any fluid cleanup. Read the rest

Thinking it was a really old bottle of alcohol, Antiques Roadshow expert Andy McConnell took a tiny drink of some brown mystery liquid in a 2016 episode. Repulsed by the taste, the glass expert said, "I think it's port - port or red wine... or it's full of rusty old nails and that's rust." In a new episode, the show's host, Fiona Bruce, has now revealed that he was partially right. There was rust, as well as urine, a single human hair, and a couple other things. Independent:"Inside were these brass pins, all of these dating from the late 1840s, and the liquid – urine, a tiny pit of alcohol and one human hair," explained Bruce."And a mysterious little creature called an ostracod, which is like a little cockle. So [this] was not a bottle of port or wine, but a witches bottle."So buried in the threshold of the house as a talisman against witchcraft, against curses, against misfortune coming into the home."McConnell replied: "Yummy. Such good news."screenshot via News 247 Live Read the rest

There was an inspiring sight for indigenous and women's rights in the mountains of Chiapas this week, as more than 3,200 women from 49 countries reportedly gathered together for the second annual International Gathering of Women Who Struggle.Words from the #Zapatista Women at the Opening of the Second International Gathering of Women Who Struggle - #ezln #Chiapas #feminism #antireport - Read here: https://t.co/9MYftJy78K pic.twitter.com/6v7YyLUT89— Enough 14 (@enough14) December 31, 2019From the opening statement at the event:As the Zapatistas that we are, we know that they will give us many examples of women who have advanced, triumphed, won prizes and high salaries—who have been successful, as they put it. We respond by talking about the women whom have been raped, disappeared, murdered. We point out that the rights they talk about above are won by a precious few women above. And we respond, we explain, we shout that what is lacking is the most basic and most important of rights for all women: the right to live. We’ve said it many times, compañera and sister, but we’ll repeat it again now:Nobody is going to grant us our right to live and all the other rights we need and deserve. No man—good, bad, normal, or whatever—is going to grant these to us.The capitalist system is not going to give them to us, regardless of the laws it passes and the promises it makes.We will have to win our right to live, as well as all our other rights, always and everywhere. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Billy Billings learns that his pal God-Man is a jealous God-Man.

Cartoonist Mimi Pond recently discovered that her local Costco sells Costco-themed pajamas for women! Look closely at the pattern. It depicts, using cute illustrations, their famous sample food carts, and customers hauling oversized products like a pizza slice, bottle of wine, jar of peanut butter pretzels, steak, and more. Plus, tires and big-screen TVs! I don't even have a Costco membership but I want a pair of these. Available online at Costco for $23 (includes matching socks). Read the rest

Tales of piss-headed police officers dominated the news in the week before New Years (at least, in my social circles, if we discount everything related to Star Wars). In West Virginia, the governor has finally recommended the firing of the full Hitler Heil-ing cadet class. In Kansas, another cop was (allegedly) terminated after writing "Fucking Pig" on his own McDonald's coffee cup and trying to blame it on the hard-working, underpaid workers whom he should be theoretically serving and protecting. (Some cops in Alabama also made a mocking "homeless quilt" that the department later apologized for, though the officers weren't actually reprimanded as far as I can tell.)On the surface, this is largely a good thing. Although these are somewhat-minor acts in the grand scheme of police behaviors, the fact that there are actually repercussions for police misconduct already represents a sea change from the way things have been. Police departments across the country have kept secret lists of criminal crops who remain in their employ; typically, when cops are caught lying about things (even as dumb and small as a McDonald's coffee cup), the rest of their testimony is still given weight. Hell, the National Center for Women and Policing found that at least 40% of police officers self-reported domestic violence in the home … and still keep their jobs.But these guys in West Virginia and Kansas? They might actually lose their jobs over a couple of pictures.The public outrage towards unfair and overly aggressive policing has noticeably swelled alongside the raise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and particularly in the aftermath of that obscene military occupation in Ferguson. Read the rest

Details are the bane of any manager. It's tough to innovate when you've got invoices to approve, gripes to address and countless fires to put out on any number of projects.Here is where technology can actually help you, because businesses run better when they integrate all their procedures, inflow and outflow under one system. ProjectDue.co aims to be just that system, and it's got the functionality to do it.This business suite has all the nuts-and-bolts essentials that let you keep track of employees and clients, but it also integrates that info in a way that allows you to work dynamically. You can track progress with any lead on the fly and communicate their needs to the right people on you team.Invoices are approved with the click of a button, inventory gets tracked at a glance, and projects can be managed much more efficiently with all the relevant info at your fingertips.A lifetime subscription to ProjectDue.co is already more than 95% off, but you can take an extra 20% off that final cost with the discount code 20SAVE20. Read the rest

You may have heard of air fryers, but they're a lot more versatile than the name implies. Healthier (and quicker!) french fries are just the tip of the iceberg with these innovative cookers, and here are six of our favorites. As if they needed any additional highlighting, you can save an extra 20% off the final price on any of them by using the coupon code 20SAVE20.GoWISE USA® 12.7QT Electric Air Fryer Toaster OvenThis premiere unit in the GoWISE line lets you take full advantage of the Rapid Air Circulation tech that cooks food fast with minimal amounts of oil. With a 12.7 quart capacity, you can roast and fry everything up to a full chicken while the 15 presets make it easy to make a variety of meals on the fly.MSRP: $159.99Sale Price: $149.99Price after 20SAVE20 coupon: $119.99GoWISE USA® 11-in-1 Programmable 12.7QT Electric Air Fryer Toaster OvenHere's another high-capacity model from GoWISE USA that's designed to save space. There are three removable racks that allow you to make multiple dishes at the same time, and a recipe book that shows you how to refine them.MSRP: $180.00Sale Price: $159.00Price after 20SAVE20 coupon: $127.20GoWISE USA® 8-in-1 Programmable 4.6QT Stainless Electric Air FryerThis smaller air fryer lets you cook a wide array of meals (even desserts) in a PFOA-free stainless steel pan. There's even a crisper tray that allows for more efficient toasting, frying or warming up.MSRP: $149.00Sale Price: $89.99 Read the rest

Wanda Diaz Merced is an astronomer at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Office for Astronomy Outreach in Mitaka, Japan. Diaz Merced is blind and uses a technique to transform data from astronomical surveys into sounds for analysis. Over at Nature, Elizabeth Gibney interviewed Merced about how "converting astronomical data into sound could bring discoveries that conventional techniques miss." From Nature:How did you begin your work with sonification?Sonification has been around for a long time. In 1933, for example, US physicist Karl Jansky reported detecting the first radio waves from space, as an audible hiss in his antenna. But at some point, visualization came to dominate the way we interpret astrophysical data. When I was an intern at NASA in 2005, my mentor, Robert Candey, wanted me to create a prototype data analysis tool that would familiarize blind people with space-physics data. So we developed software that could map astronomical data into sound — its pitch, rhythm and volume. Then, in my 2013 PhD dissertation at the University of Glasgow, UK, I proved that it is useful....Can you describe a real-world example?There are many. Sonification can help us to study the habitability of an exoplanet, by understanding how much high-energy cosmic and solar rays interact with its magnetic field or atmosphere. Such interactions cause fluctuations of electromagnetic emission from that star system that vary in a way that relates to frequency . BBut because astronomers usually separate out different frequency components into many graphs, this is easy to miss. Read the rest

In 1978, Japanese electronic music maestro Osamu Shoji (1932-2018) released this killer analog synth reimagining of the Star Wars soundtrack. I find Shoji's take on the familiar themes to be far groovier than the disco exploitation of Meco's US chart-topping "Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk" released the previous year. Read the rest

In the 1970s, the Soviets managed to intercept top secret communications in the US embassy in Moscow and nobody could figure out how. While an antenna was eventually found hidden in the embassy's chimney, it took years to determine how what data was being collected for transmission and how. As a last resort, all equipment at the embassy was shipped back to the US for analysis. From IEEE Spectrum:After tens of thousands of fruitless X-rays, a technician noticed a small coil of wire inside the on/off switch of an IBM Selectric typewriter. (NSA engineer Charles) Gandy believed that this coil was acting as a step-down transformer to supply lower-voltage power to something within the typewriter. Eventually he uncovered a series of modifications that had been concealed so expertly that they had previously defied detection.A solid aluminum bar, part of the structural support of the typewriter, had been replaced with one that looked identical but was hollow. Inside the cavity was a circuit board and six magnetometers. The magnetometers sensed movements of tiny magnets that had been embedded in the transposers that moved the typing “golf ball” into position for striking a given letter.Other components of the typewriters, such as springs and screws, had been repurposed to deliver power to the hidden circuits and to act as antennas. Keystroke information was stored and sent in encrypted burst transmissions that hopped across multiple frequencies.For more on this fascinating story, check out former intelligence officer and technologist Eric Haseltine's new book: "The Spy in Moscow Station"image: IBM Selectric by Oliver Kurmis (CC BY 2.5 Read the rest

(SPOILER ALERT)On this episode of the Fatman Beyond podcast, Kevin Smith claims that Todd Phillips' Joker originally had a much darker ending written for it. From Hypebeast:While the final release of the film ended with Arthur Fleck being locked up in a psychiatric hospital with a scene suggesting he killed his new therapist, Smith says around the 16:35 mark in the video above that a source close to the project revealed an alternative ending featuring a flashback at the hospital. The flashback would’ve taken the audience back to Thomas and Martha Wayne’s murder scene in the alley, and reveal that it was actually the Joker who killed them. Even more shocking is the fact that the Joker then also shoots Bruce Wayne, effectively killing Batman in that particular universe.“Originally, the ending in the hospital was different,” Smith said. “He’s in the hospital and he laughs, chuckles, and he says, ‘I was just thinking of something funny.’ What was supposed to happen was you flashed back to the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne and it was him killing Thomas and Martha Wayne and the boy was screaming and crying and he turned to walk away and he turned back, shrugged, and shot the kid. Credits.” Read the rest

Many pizza places offer special "deals" if you order two medium pies. You might think that two mediums deliver more cheesy goodness than one large pie, but usually you'd be mistaken. From Primer, a mathematical comparison of two 12" pizzas and one 18" pizza:Area of two 12” pizzas:12/2 = 6 6×6=36 36xπ = 113.1 in² x 2 = 226.2 in²Area of one 18” pizza:18/2=9 9×9=81 81xπ = 254.5 in²And as we know, more pizza is always better. image: igorovsyannykov (CC0)(via Cliff Pickover) Read the rest

Granted anonymity somewhere along the line from shutter to public exposure, cadets in the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation's basic training program offer the camera a Nazi salute in a photo that emerged earlier this month. Two academy trainers and one cadet have already lost their jobs; the state's governer says he wants the whole class fired. [ht Thom]A third staff member who failed to report the contents of the photograph will also be fired, bringing the total number of staff terminations to three. Additionally, four academy instructors who are known to have seen the picture and failed to report it will also be suspended without pay.In the image, nearly all members of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Basic Training Class #18 — 31 cadets — are giving what appears to be a Nazi salute. The others are posing with a clenched fist in the air. I count five closed fists among the Nazi saluters. Read the rest

This poor gal could only afford half a pair. If only there was another way...French design house Maison Margiela has a long history of making dumb stuff in the name of fashion. But now they've really topped themselves. Introducing Tag, a single earring made of a pair of gold (well, brass) hoop earrings on a white lambskin card. The cost? Well, it was $305 but now you can get one for just $92 on sale. It's being called "shoplifter chic":*online shopping* Oo this would be a nice basic set of earrings *swipes through photos* wait what pic.twitter.com/2s34s2QTZC— . (@doragzplora) December 24, 2019And it's not the first time it's been done: View this post on Instagram 🦋🎄Been getting a lot of attention about this recent meme post by @3.1415926535897932384626433832 and calling out that time @maisonmargiela copied a design earlier this year . Thanks for calling it out and supporting small businesses with authentic design ideas 🌹💕 Merry christmas .A post shared by GEORGINA TREVIÑO JEWELRY (@georginatrevino) on Dec 25, 2019 at 11:27am PST View this post on Instagram Amazing photos of my design for Artistar Jewels Book, 📷 by Andrea Salpetre #staceyhuang #jewellery #artistarjewels2018A post shared by Stacey Huang (@stacey_huangg) on Feb 4, 2018 at 5:07am PST(Neatorama)screenshots via Ssense Read the rest

So you've beefed up your media arsenal with mega-screen HDTVs, top-of-the-line laptops and gaming consoles galore. That's great, but don't forget that you need some internet infrastructure to keep it all humming.If a better router is what you need, you could do a lot worse than this NetGear Nighthawk AC1900 - especially a model that's refurbished and available at a fraction of the original cost.The 2-in-1 CableLabs DOCSIS® 3.0 Cable Modem and Wi-Fi Router can provide internet speeds of 1.9 Gbps and downloads at 960 Mbps. That's even while using multiple devices at peak hours, which can be a real help for busy households.The 24x8 channel bonding feature is a particular boon for video, and you'll have less dead spots in any size house thanks to the NETGEAR Beamforming+ capability.The Nighthawk AC1900 is certified to work with most any ISP, and you can even separate secure logins for your kids or guests.This NetGear Nighthawk AC1900 is refurbished with an "A" rating, and is now more than 60% off the original retail price. You can even take an extra 20% off that cost by using the coupon code 20SAVE20. Read the rest

I've always understood Australia to be a nightmare hellscape full of crazy killer creatures. But that's only because I hadn't heard about the quokka. This teddy bear-sized marsupial lives on the islands off the mainland of Australia, and they're just — I mean — look at this thing!Mother Nature made Australia into a horrifying natural death trap just to balance out the adorableness of the quokka pic.twitter.com/CBbHAZW9RX— This Is Not A Thom Dunn T-Shirt (@thomdunn) December 22, 2019It's basically a non-cannibalistic Ewok, and apparently they're known for being friendly as hell (also exceptionally horny), earning them the distinction of the "happiest animal in the world." Though it's illegal to touch one, they're allegedly super-down with selfies, too.I would brave any Australian beast just to be best friends with one of these lil' fellas.Image via Wikimedia Commons Read the rest

Dozens are likely dead in Australia, which is beset by uncontrolled wildfires. Experts believe a third of the koala population on the continent's east coast is already wiped out, and there's no end in sight. Residents are fleeing to the beaches to escape the flames. In the video embedded here from New South Wales Fire + Rescue, a crew sits in their truck, unable to do anything to fight the the blaze as it tears throught the forest toward them, then around them, then away from them. Here's (NSFW) footage from Tyson Whelan, which he says he took at 10:30 a.m. in Mallacoota, Victoria:How bad are the #AustralianFires? Absolutey fucked.video;cubin’ on fb #mallacoota pic.twitter.com/cDKjjK2m7U— rbm (@doc_ryan) December 31, 2019Australia's government appears unmoved. Here's the Prime Minister, talking earlier in wildfire season, about why there would be no change in policy toward carbon emissions: “What we won’t do is engage in reckless and job-destroying and economy-crunching targets which are being sought." Read the rest

An anonymous police officer in Herington, Kansas, claimed he was given a coffee cup with "fucking pigs" written on it by staff at McDonalds. The story went viral, uncritically laundered by local media and spread by outraged conservatives on the internet. But it turned out he was lying. McDonalds had the receipts—video surveillance of the purchase—and forced the Herington P.D. to admit that it didn't happen. The cop "is no longer employed" by Herington Police Department, says Chief Brian Hornaday"In (our) investigation we have found that McDonald's and its employees did not have anything whatsoever to do with this incident, this was completely and solely fabricated by a Herington police officer who is no longer employed with our agency," Herington Police Department Chief Brian Hornaday said in a news conference Monday.The incident, the chief said, has been an "obvious violation of ... public trust.""Our job is solely to do this job with the utmost integrity because if you can't trust the cops, who can you trust," he said.It was Hornaday himself who first posted the photos to social media, which is why we don't know the name of the cop, because he is refusing to tell anyone. "If you can't trust the cops, who can you trust," he adds. Read the rest

Piet is an esoteric programming language where the programs are encoded as images and resemble abstract paintings. Spot-on Mondrians (pictures) are the hook, but a wide range of pixelated styles are possible; the logic of the program can be exposed in the image.Prime Number GeneratorSylvain Tintillier provides a method of generating prime numbers using Piet. Figuring out how it works is easy, he says, "Just look at the bitmap!" Read the rest

Here are six new lateral thinking puzzles to test your wits and stump your friends -- play along with us as we try to untangle some perplexing situations using yes-or-no questions.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Jennifer Jenkins from the Duke Center for the Public Domain writes, "January 1, 2020 is Public Domain Day! Works published in 1924 are entering the US public domain. They include George Gershwin’s 'Rhapsody in Blue' and 'Fascinating Rhythm,' silent films by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and Thomas Mann’s 'The Magic Mountain,' E. M. Forster’s 'A Passage to India,' and A. A. Milne’s 'When We Were Very Young.' These works were supposed to go into the public domain in 2000, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years. See what will (finally) be open to all!"Works from 1924 are finally entering the public domain, after a 95-year copyright term. However, under the laws that were in effect until 1978, thousands of works from 1963 would be entering the public domain this year. They range from the books The Fire Next Time and Where the Wild Things Are, to the film The Birds and the albums and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and much more. Have a look at some of the others. In fact, since copyright used to come in renewable terms of 28 years, and 85% of authors did not renew, 85% of the works from 1991 might be entering the public domain! Imagine what the great libraries of the world—or just internet hobbyists—could do: digitizing those holdings, making them available for education and research, for pleasure and for creative reuse.Public Domain Day 2020 [Center for the Study of the Public Domain/Duke University School of Law](Thanks, Jennifer! Read the rest

So you didn't get all the gifts you wanted this year. Who does? The good news is, there's still time to take advantage of holiday discounts. Here are 10 of our favorite holdovers on holiday deals. Most are already on sale, but you can take an extra 20% off the final price by using the holiday coupon code 20SAVE20.Playseat® Challenge Racing Video Game ChairGet into the driver's seat with the ultimate accessory for racing games. It's compatible with current Xbox and Playstation systems as well as PC or Mac, and it even folds up for storage when not in use.MSRP: $277Sale Price: $249Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $199.20EZ-PET Smart Programmable Automatic FeederDoes your pet need some TLC when you're away? This automatic feeder pairs with your smartphone, allowing you to remotely dole out exact portions of food from anywhere. You can even record your voice and have it call your pup or kitty to chow time.MSRP: $99.99Sale Price: $79.99Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $63.99EndlessID® Smart Luggage & Backpack TagSay goodbye to lost luggage with this simple tag. It can give you the exact location of your bag through any smartphone or other NFC-enabled devices. You can also make use of it as a secure medical ID tag which will share crucial info with doctors or EMTs.MSRP: $19.99Sale Price: $16.99Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $13.59Insulated Touchscreen GlovesIf the weather outside is frightful, you should at the very least have your smartphone to keep you company. Read the rest

Looking for a reason to finally power down that annual orgy of future high-tech landfill poisons? Here ya go.From Variety:It’s official: Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser, will be on the CES 2020 keynote stage next month in Las Vegas.Ivanka Trump will join a keynote discussion on jobs and the future of work with Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Assn., which produces CES (originally known as the Consumer Electronics Show). The talk is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 2 p.m. PT in the Venetian’s Palazzo Ballroom. Trump and Shapiro will discuss “employer-led strategies to reskill workers, create apprenticeships and develop K-12 STEM education programs,” according to the CTA.Read the rest.[Image: Screen capture of Ivanka's address to the RNC, 2016] Read the rest

The futurist and artist Syd Mead died today, according to his partner and business manager Roger Servick. The news was first broken by according to auto industry veteran John McElroy and other associates of his on social media, leading fans and peers to post their favorites from the legendary designer's work on social media."I've called science fiction 'reality ahead of schedule,'" wrote Mead.Mead's work powers the visionary qualities of movies such as Blade Runner, Tron, Star Trek The Motion Picture, Aliens and Elysium, but his work as a designer for automaker Ford and electronics company Philips are just as influential. His is a body of work truly without end.Former Boing Boing editor Joel Johnson interviewed Mead for Boing Boing TV and recalls meeting the master.It is my great honor to say I have a Syd Mead story. pic.twitter.com/XIFTSWFb3g— Joel, ᵃ ᶠʳⁱᵉⁿᵈ (@joeljohnson) December 30, 2019[1, 2,3, 4]This post was updated to reflect ongoing developments. Read the rest

In Misère Tic-tac-toe, getting three-in-a-row means you lose. I can't wait to unleash this game on my kids at our next dinner out.Here is a wonderfully-named app version: Notakto Here is a scientific paper on the mathematics of the game: "The Secrets of Notakto: Winning at X-onlyTic-Tac-Toe" by Thane E. Plambeck, Greg WhiteheadAnd below is part 2 of the Numberphile video. Note from the video description: Correction from Thane: The configuration with two X's, one in a corner and one in the middle, is a "b" and not a "b^2". It's at 5:24 in the video.(via Cliff Pickover) Read the rest