You can view the photos on Instagram or Facebook:UPS drivers deliver packages all day long. During each day, drivers encounter many dogs, most friendly and some not so nice. When time permits, drivers snap a photo and send it in to UPS Dogs.Plenty of UPS superfan dogs: View this post on Instagram My boyfriend and our girl, Nori, out delivering packages in Dayton, OH.A post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Dec 18, 2019 at 3:29am PST View this post on Instagram Rutt Ro! 🤣 Molly Cle Elum, Washington.A post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Oct 24, 2019 at 6:34pm PDT View this post on Instagram We met a fantastic UPS driver downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan today! Denny (dog) helped himself inside the truck and wanted to sniff all the packages for Christmas goodies. :-)A post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Dec 18, 2019 at 2:53am PST View this post on Instagram Our dogs Luna & Bergen adore their UPS delivery man Sean, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada! Here they are giving Sean his Christmas card.A post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Dec 15, 2019 at 2:04pm PSTBut it's not just dogs. Goats, turkeys, and more make an appearance: View this post on Instagram This “dog” jumped in my truck before it even stopped. I had a hard time convincing him he couldn’t go with me 😊 Mill Creek, WV. #upsA post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Jul 15, 2019 at 5:06pm PDT View this post on Instagram When you pull up to your stop and their newest "Dogs" jump in to investigate your truck.💕 Read the rest

Last-minute stocking stuffer! After many requests I have finally made the Choam-azon logo available on tees, mugs and housewares, with absolutely no-one's permission. Celebrate the crushing monopoly on interstellar trade enjoyed by Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles with this handsome design evoking its distant origins on Old Earth. Shipped directly by Guild Heighliner to your sietch!For those not in the know, it's a parody of the Amazon logo referring to CHOAM, the overwhelming retail cartel from the Dune universe. But of course, abominations that you are, you already knew that.CHOAM-azon logo tees and mugs [inktale] Read the rest

Traditionally, people in Japan used personal seals called hanko for signing important documents. But increasingly banks and government bodies have permitted use of digital signatures instead. Some are dedicated to preserving hanko culture, leading to stories like this:The official website of new Japanese information technology minister Naokazu Takemoto has been unviewable for the past few months, raising concerns among social media users over his ability to handle the portfolio, it was learned Friday....In a news conference a day earlier, Takemoto said online administrative procedures and the country’s practice of using hanko (personal seals) should coexist.The Diet in May enacted legislation that simplified procedures related to events such as changes of address, death certificates and property inheritance through online administrative procedures, rather than forcing citizens to go to government offices, fill out forms and stamp paperwork using hanko.Takemoto, who heads a group of lawmakers working to protect the nation’s hanko culture, said: “The two should not be regarded as conflicting things. We have to think about how to let them flourish together.”Now, Denso and Hitachi have announced a robot that can stamp documents:The robot “COBOTTA”, which automatically signs contracts and electronic documents, contributes to the automation of office operations in response to customer needs for operational efficiency, labor savings, and productivity improvements.話題の「ハンコ押印ロボット」の実機です。ロボットアーム2本とカメラ、スキャナからなるシステムで、1枚1枚時間をかけて丁寧に押印します。書類を電子化してソフトウェアによる自動化(RPA)サービスとも連携できます。 https://t.co/kzVncJ05bd pic.twitter.com/x8xPCFs1pF— 石井 徹 (@ishiit_aroka) December 18, 2019I can't tell whether this hanko-bot is intended as a joke, but there are also robots for making dumplings: Read the rest

The phrase “You couldn’t make this shit up” clearly hasn’t reached the corridors of power at the tabloids, where they can, and do.

For all the good that many organized religions try to do in the world (albeit, often with ulterior motives,) there's no end to the amount of greasy shit that individual preachers and congregations get up too. Every creed has its assholes. Many are worse than others. If the allegations against SPAC Nation—a UK-based Christian organization, praised for working with young men and women in London to reduce the amount of knife violence that the city has been plagued by of late—are true, they'll have positioned themselves pretty high up there in the scummy religious ranks.From The Telegram:A scandal-hit church is being investigated by the charity watchdog over claims that pastors pressured young congregants into selling their blood for money to donate to the church.The Charity Commission today announced that it had opened an inquiry into SPAC Nation, based in London, to probe financial and safeguarding concerns.The commission, which describes the church as a charity set up to "advance Christianity" and that works particularly with young people, has ordered it to bank all cash while the investigation takes place.The announcement comes after HuffPost UK reported allegations that some members of the church had been taking teenagers to donate blood for medical trials in a practice known as "bleeding for seed".The publication reported that that some members go to donate blood and are paid up to £100 by medical trial companies. This money is then handed by the young people over to the church’s pastors.I mean, is it on the same level as torturing and robbing native children of their cultural heritage in a residential school, marginalizing the rights of women or sexually abusing defenseless congregants? Read the rest

If Sesame Street characters doing impressions of each other doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.The cast of 'Sesame Street' test out their best impressions of Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Rosita and The Count.'Sesame Street' is celebrating its 50th anniversary of helping kids everywhere grow up smarter, stronger and kinder. The 50th season is currently running on HBO and will premiere on PBS in the summer of 2020.Previously, and definitely worth a watch: "Start Wearing Purple" as sung by Sesame Street's CountThanks, Mark! Read the rest

In 1984, Norwegian pop band a-ha struggled to get the first version of their now-iconic song "Take on Me" to chart. And record sales of the single were dismal at just 300 copies. The video itself? Eh. Now I Know reports that it was the band's new music video that made a revised version of the song soar:A-ha’s version of Take On Me was the #1 single in the U.S. and nine other countries in 1985, and their pencil-art video linked above won six MTV Video Music Awards and was nominated for two others, including Video of the Year. But that all almost never happened. The song that topped the charts was a re-release of an earlier version that the band released in 1984, and that version failed to make it into the top 100 singles on the U.S. Billboard chart. The pencil-art video is widely credited with giving the song the necessary boost... Read the rest

Although you won't find any official toys of "the Child" from Disney's The Mandalorian in stores yet, you can decorate your tree with this authorized papercraft version of Baby Yoda in his floating bassinet. All you need is scissors, glue, and a healthy amount of some patience to get all the fiddly bits stuck together. Read the rest

A holiday letter to John Wilcock from Hunter S. Thompson (written exactly fifty years ago this week!) - Describing Thompson's intentions to run for sheriff of Aspen and Joe Edwards' nearly successful run for Mayor.Read John's previous encounter with Hunter here.From John Wilcock, New York Years, by Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall.(See all Boing Boing installments) Read the rest

The Premier League’s official fantasy football league has over seven million entrants. And as of a few days, World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen was number one in the league. As of this writing, he's down to third place.Apparently, Norwegians tend to do well in the league:Carlsen, like many Norwegians, is obsessed with both the Premier League and its fantasy league spin-off. In 2017, eight players from Norway were in the top 50 FPL players in the world.Along with a "phenomenal memory for Premier League details," Here's his strategy:This qoute may have been included in the @guardian story, but since a lot of people are asking about my #FPL strategy, mine is the not so groundbreaking one of part stats and part gut feeling. Part @Opta-mist and part optimist. Patent pending— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) December 9, 2019 Read the rest

Want to get people really into the music at your next house party? Well, a killer playlist is clearly key. But we have to say, this amazingly striking sculpture/speaker combo is a pretty good plan B.This polygonal curiosity is the AD'OM Prime: Kalium Humanoid Speaker. He looks like he just stepped off a prog album cover, which is fitting because he's also a first-rate Bluetooth speaker. Oh, and he puts on an impressive light show to boot.The ABS plastic sculpture is hypnotic enough to look at on his own, but he's also outfitted with strategically-placed RGB LED lights that can set the mood or pulse to the music in a range of 16 million colors. It's all controllable through the Sound Heroes app, which you can also use to sync up your favorite music player via WiFi.You can also use its 4.0 Bluetooth connectivity, which is good for players up to 33 feet away. The sound is impressively clean even at high levels, and the rechargeable battery is good for over 6 hours of playtime.The AD'OM Prime: Kalium Humanoid Speaker is already on sale for 33% off retail, but you can take an additional 15% off the final price by using the holiday coupon code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

On a party-line vote, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Trump on two counts this evening. Trump is only the third U.S. head of state to be impeached, and now proceeds to the U.S. Senate for trial. There is no illusion about what will happen there, as leaders of his party have already signaled they will not convict him irrespective of the evidence presented. Read the rest

HOUSE VOTES FOR IMPEACHMENT IN HISTORIC VOTE

“Sir? This is an Arby's card.”

Bluetooth audio is all about convenience. It's so convenient, in fact, that it's somewhat disappointing when you return from a run with those wireless earbuds to home audio or TVs that aren't equipped with the technology.There's an easy fix: The beamit Wireless Bluetooth Audio Transmitter & Receiver.The unit connects easily to most any device in your home by way of digital outputs or old-school 3.5 mm AUX outlets. From there, it switches easily between receiving transmission mode.The possibilities are endless. Hook it up to your TV and you can listen to the audio on wireless headphones while your partner studies quietly. Conversely, you can listen to streaming music services from your phone on a stereo system connected to the beamit. You can even transmit sound to two headphones simultaneously. And thanks to low latency audio coding, you'll have the optimal sound no matter what your listening device of choice is.The beamit Wireless Bluetooth Audio Transmitter & Receivers already on sale for 20% off retail, but you can knock off an extra 15% by using the holiday coupon code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

Facebook offered a revealing explanation to lawmakers for why it continues to track users’ locations even after those users turn Facebook's location tracking services off.Responding to a letter from Sen. Josh Hawley, (R-MO), and Sen. Chris Coons, (D-DE), Facebook said it needs that extra location data to target ads, and for various security functions.The two senators asked Facebook last month to “respect” users’ decisions to keep their locations private. Coons and Hawley now say that Facebook needs to give users more control over their data.I say, delete Facebook.Here is Lauren Feiner, reporting for CNBC:In a letter dated December 12 that was released Tuesday, Facebook explained how it is able to estimate users’ locations used to target ads even when they’ve chosen to reject location tracking through their smartphone’s operating system.Facebook said that even when location tracking is turned off, it can deduce users’ general locations from context clues like locations they tag in photos as well as their devices’ IP addresses. While this data is not as precise as Facebook would collect with location tracking enabled, the company said it uses the information for several purposes, including alerting users when their accounts have been accessed in an unusual place and clamping down on the spread of false information.Facebook acknowledged it also targets ads based on the limited location information it receives when users turn off or limit tracking. Facebook doesn’t allow users to turn off location-based ads, although it does allow users to block Facebook from collecting their precise location, the company wrote. Read the rest

After LifeLabs was hit by a a cyber attack in November, the Canada-based medical lab paid a ransom to recover stolen data belonging to more than 15 million of its customers. That stolen data included usernames, password, and some 80,000 or more test results. "We did this [paying off the hackers] in collaboration with experts familiar with cyber-attacks and negotiations with cyber criminals," the company today said in a press release."I want to emphasize that at this time, our cyber security firms have advised that the risk to our customers in connection with this cyber-attack is low and that they have not seen any public disclosure of customer data as part of their investigations, including monitoring of the dark web and other online locations," said Charles Brown, LifeLabs President and CEO.Catalin Cimpanu has more in a report for ZDNet.There's more information for impacted users of LifeLabs in a security notice on the LifeLabs website.LifeLabs pays hackers to recover data of 15 million customers [www.zdnet.com]We recently identified a cyber-attack that involved unauthorized access to our computer systems. We are sorry that this incident happened. The data has been retrieved, and a law enforcement investigation is underway. For more info, visit https://t.co/gUYdHeR0Kh.— LifeLabs (@LifeLabs) December 17, 201940% of Canada was breached in October - I totally missed this one amid all of those other data breaches that happen every day.Compromised information may include:- Name- Address- Username/password- DoB- Health card number- Lab test results https://t.co/dk9P67MHIX Read the rest

Any California resident with current identification may obtain a Los Angeles Public Library card in moments.After reading this fantastic list of benefits associated with an LA Library card I immediately pre-registered online. A few minutes later I walked into my local branch and the Librarian was very easily able to finish the process and hand me a card.LAist:Here are a few extra-awesome highlights:Free or discounted admission to L.A. cultural institutions like The Broad, the Autry Museum of the American West, Kidspace Children's Museum and more. Most put a limit on how many free passes you can get per month or per year. In most cases, you must make a reservation and print out a pass to show when you arrive. Find a full list of participating places at the library's Discover & Go site.The New York Times and The Washington Post: Free access to both newspapers' digital sites. The access only lasts 24 hours, but you can log back on immediately. If the logging in and out doesn't bother you, this is a serious money-saver.Octavia Lab, a new space at the Central Library in DTLA that is full of all kinds of technology and gadgets to help users create. The lab is 3,000 square feet, and includes a 3D printing machine, virtual reality gear, a laser cutter, Final Cut Pro, Logic and much more.Language learning apps, including the popular Mango. By entering your library card number and PIN, you can log in and start learning at no charge. Read the rest

You've seriously gotta unmute this.Donkeys must think the sound of these humans playing the violin sounds like other donkeys, because the donkeys in these videos appear to be really enjoying it.Here's another video of the same situation with a totally different donkey, and completely different humans playing a different violin.Cracks me up so hard every time. Read the rest

Salt, bae.There is only one proper way to salt the roads when the weather gets icy and it snows.Source: @mickyo25 Read the rest

On this week's Intercepted podcast (MP3) (previously), host Jeremy Scahill (previously) takes a long, deep look at the history of McKinsey and Company, whose consultants are the architects of ICE's gulags, a failed, high-cost initiative to curb violence at Rikers Island that used falsified data to secure ongoing funding -- a company whose internal documents compare management consultants to "the Marine Corps, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Jesuits" and whose government contracts bill out freshly hired, inexperienced junior consultants at $3m/year.McKinsey has played a role in many of capitalism's greatest hits, from the Enron collapse to the Saudi purge of dissidents that culminated in the murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Scahill speaks to a variety of guests about how McKinsey grew to a global, multibillion-dollar enabler of despots, crooks, and murderers, including the health insurance whistleblower Wendell Potter (previously), whose must-read Twitter thread on Mayor Pete's "Medicare for Some" proposal is brutal and brilliant.Scahill also talks with Propublica's Ian MacDougall (previously, the lawyer/journalist whose coverage of McKinsey has put the firm on its back foot. As a bonus, the opening audio montage for this week's episode is stellar, even by Intercepted's high standards: it mashes up Trump with Dr Seuss, to startlingly good effect.Capitalism’s Consigliere: McKinsey’s Work for Insurance Companies, ICE, Drug Manufacturers, and Despots [Intercepted/The Intercept]' Read the rest

Last year, artist Jason Stieva completed work on "Leviathan – Ark of the Apocalypse," a spectacular, 7-foot-long, 8-foot-high sculpture of a ghostly pirate ship. Steiva is an assemblage sculptor and tattoo artist from Whitby, ON who spent 15 months on the ship, which is populated by a variety of readymade Warcraft miniatures and other findings.He called it his "most daunting project" and it ended up with a tattoo customer (Stieva tattooed a ship on his chest) who is also an "avid collector."Stieva's other work is equally spectacular.Members of the That's Insane subreddit compared the ship to the CGI "ghost ship" from the opening credits of Black Sails and there are certainly some similarities, but Stieva's work is, if anything, far more impressive, both as an accomplishment and as a work of art.“Overall it was the most daunting project I’ve ever worked on and will probably ever create,” he shares. “There is a lot of extremely tedious detail from front to back, top to bottom. Just severing the army heads alone and sanding the back of each to be certain they would sit flush once applied with tweezers took weeks. Sourcing all the characters took quite a while. Redesigning, taking apart, rebuilding, and making the ark structurally sound long before any sculpting began took quite a while.”Artist Spends 15 Months Constructing Ghostly Pirate Ship With Ordinary Found Materials [Jessica Stewart/My Modern Met](via /r/ThatsInsane)(Images: @shallowgravestudios/Jason Stieva) Read the rest

New Year's Day will be a good day to be in Illinois if you like marijuana and you are an adult 21 and over with valid photo identification.“On Jan. 1, 2020, as early as 6 a.m. Central Standard Time, the doors open on a new era for cannabis, as the Prairie State initiates commercial sales to all adults over 21 and older with valid ID,” David Downs at Leafly writes.Hope someone is carrying Jim Belushi's Blues Brothers Joints on January 1! Smoke 'em if you got 'em.Excerpt: The United States’ 11th legalization state is also the first to regulate retail sales through a legislative process. That makes this rollout among America’s most fully baked, since it relies on the existing medical cannabis system to serve adult-use customers swiftly and reliably. (...) Thirty stores have state licenses to start adult-use sales on Jan. 1, 2020, and 27 are ready to go with local approval on opening day. Here they are in a Leafly list:Where to buy: Illinois dispensaries open New Year’s Day"#Illinois #cannabis dispensaries open New Year’s Day for adult-use sales"https://t.co/mxs6JSZY3dFor fun Jan. 1: @revbrew #LegalHero 🍻 + hot cookies 🍪🍪. pic.twitter.com/GbgLKeL9j9— David Downs (@davidrdowns) December 18, 2019 Read the rest

With a couple of family members going on a long plane flight soon, I bought a couple of these wireless active-noise canceling headphones on sale for a really low price using code LBAKMMEL. Read the rest

In this experiment, aluminum foil is spread out on the floor of a hallway. The only way for this cat to walk down the hallway is by walking on top of the foil, something cats are known to dislike. What will happen???Image: YouTube[via Neatorama] Read the rest

New Jersey's Democrat governor today signed legislation to clear the state criminal records of low-level marijuana offenders, and he approved restoring the voting rights of more than 80,000 convicts.Phil Murphy's signature today amounts to another big step toward legalization, and a positive move to increase the number of 2020 voters -- notable, because right now, other GOP-controlled U.S. states are passing laws to restrict how many people have the right to vote.The marijuana law signed Wednesday allows low-level convicts to petition for expungement so long as they have stayed free of criminal offenses for at least 10 years. The records of future minor offenders will be sealed upon the case’s disposition.Another law signed Wednesday, to take effect in 90 days, will allow voting by more than 80,000 New Jerseyans who are on probation or parole. At least 16 states have similar laws, according to a news release from the governor’s office.“Our administration is deeply committed to transforming our criminal justice system, and today we are taking a historic step to give residents impacted by that system a second chance,” Murphy, 62, said in a statement. He called the marijuana legislation “one of the most progressive expungement laws in the nation.” More at Bloomberg: N.J. Lets Some Pot Convictions Go in Step Toward Legalization Read the rest

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth and concluding episode of the Star Wars saga, opens this week. Critics are mauling it, by and large, leaving it with the worst average rating of the series: 54, according to review tracking-site Metacritic. Even Solo got a better reception.Good news at Rotten Tomatoes, though. Star Wars: Phantom Menace beats it to the not-so-coveted worst spot. In the spirit of avoiding spoilers, I'll just leave you with the BBC's conclusion: "The main feeling it instils in the viewer is a renewed respect for the imagination of Lucas" Read the rest

Stephen Colbert is my favorite Trump impressionist. He captures Trump's ever-present pouty whine perfectly Here he is giving a dramatic reading of Trump's six-page temper tantrum about his impeachment. Read the rest

Casey Neistat rode on the Etihad A380 The Residence, and made a video about it. The $27,000 ticket (which was comped) is basically a small apartment, which a private bathroom and shower (with a 10-minute meter, as if he was on Arrakis), a living room, and a private bedroom.I like to imagine a rich person flying this way and being miserable because they can't afford a private jet. Read the rest

I'm not usually one for gimmicky kitchen gadgets but OTOTO's Nessie Ladle is cryptozoological comedy genius. Also available as a Sweet Nessie Spoon! (Amazon) Read the rest

Earlier this month at the Festival of Lights event in Riverside, California, a gentleman requested that a caricature artist paint his portrait. Once the drawing was finished, the subject snatched the artist's bag of earnings containing around $500. He left his portrait behind. From KTLA:“Do you recognize this caricature? And no, we are not kidding,” police said in a Facebook post sharing the drawing. “This caricature is of the suspect, but of course, has exaggerated characteristics and features.” Read the rest

Writing for The Atlantic, Geoff Manaugh has a lengthy new article about a team of elite jewel thieves operating in Florida. The story is full of absurdly-cinematic details.The burglars were able to operate for years by moving from town to town, confident the local authorities would not notify each other of the crimes. And when the authorities did investigate, they sometimes did so sloppily, such as overlooking a drill hole in a safe, causing suspicion to fall on the only people who knew the safe's combination. A retired detective started to investigate the burglaries, but found himself largely shunned by active officers, and even fed false information.Eventually, suspicion fell on known thieves, including a man who may flown for the DEA, and a man working as a safe and lock technician.The ensuing investigation included the chase of a man driving a truck loaded with palm trees, and an FBI dive team that had to be disguised lest they be spotted by the conspirators.Read the whole thing here. Read the rest

I remember buying Westwood Studios (miss those guys) point-and-click Blade Runner game to play on my old ThinkPad, back in the late 1990s. It was the first game I can recall owning that spanned multiple disks. While I was surprised to find that the main character in the game neither looked or sounded like Harrison Ford—I didn't know much about how licensing and actor's contracts worked at the time—I was completely hooked from the first time that I turned it on. I finished the game multiple times over the years until, sadly, a friend that I lent the game to moved out of province without returning it to me. By then, I'd moved on to other games and had tired of changing discs just to travel from one area to another. However, every once in a while, I sigh, wistfully, wishing I could give it another go. Today, I found out that this is a very doable thing:From The Verge:Blade Runner is beloved to this day, but until very recently, the odds of a digital rerelease seemed almost nonexistent. Westwood lost the original source code in 2003 during a move. So players needed to find one of the game’s increasingly rare hard copies or an unofficially cracked version of it, then go through the considerable trouble of getting it to work on a modern PC.That started to change this summer when a team started publicly testing ScummVM emulator support. The game became playable through ScummVM in October, but the content still couldn’t be officially found online. Read the rest

A Southern California man and his dog were on their way home from a "disappointing" trip to Sequoia National Park when they encountered a bear. After the bear and dog eyed each other with interest through the windows, the bear jumped on the back of the car. Both the driver and an individual in the next car back managed to get plenty of footage: Read the rest

Jason Stieva (insta) makes elaborate, intense gothic sculptures: skulls with disturbing patterns of growth and embedded machinery, themselves assembled into clocks, ships, and miniature armies of the undead. Amazingly, this isn't his day job: he's a tattoo artist! Read the rest

When it comes to bathroom breaks, do you struggle to stay..."regular"? You're not alone. Most people don't use the toilet correctly, for the simple reason that toilets in the western hemisphere aren't actually designed to make eliminations as easy as they could be.For that, you need a stool. And unlike your toilet, the TURBOâ„¢ Bathroom Toilet Stool is ideally crafted for its job.Studies show that a squatting position on the toilet as vastly better and healthier than a simple sitting posture. But differing body types and leg lengths mean it's difficult to find a stool that suits everyone.The TURBOâ„¢ Bathroom Toilet Stool, however, is slanted ergonomically, with grooves that allow you to anchor your feet lower or higher depending on your needs.It's made of sturdy plastic that can accommodate pressure up to 350 pounds, and stores discreetly under the toilet after each use. It's even equipped with a rolling foot massager in the middle to help you de-stress and "let go," as it were.The TURBOâ„¢ Bathroom Toilet Stool is already on sale for a full 40% off the MSRP, but you can take an additional 15% off the final price by using the holiday discount code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

This video shows a labrador puppy receiving his D&D alignment examination prior to being put up for adoption. King is adorable. King is a tabula rasa. He'll be two years old now —I wonder how he's doing?King is a 6 week old male AKC yellow lab from Sadie's 2017 litter who will be ready to go home as early as 10/28/17. Read more about our pups and approach to temperament testing at highdesertlabradors.com/new-owner-infomration.htmlIf this wasn't enough, here's a video of a stray kitten getting its first bath. Read the rest

Wally Backman, seen here as manager of the South Georgia Peanuts, just wants to know what he said that got him ejected from the game along with his player. The umpire, he says, is "an embarrassment to professional baseball."The screaming begins 1 minute in; the action begins 3 minutes 8 seconds in. Read the rest

I'm looking forward to Weird West, for a number of reasons. Its hand-painted aesthetic and top-down tactical game play bring to mind all of the love that I hold for Fallout and Fallout 2 and Wasteland 2—as does the fact that it's full of monsters and other horrific entities that crawl around the desert waiting to carve up any travelers that they come across. the description for this recently announced title reads like a shopping list for all of the shit I adore in a game:From Wolfeye Studios:Survive and unveil the mysteries of the Weird West through the intertwined destinies of its unusual heroes in an immersive sim from the co-creators of Dishonored and Prey.Discover a dark fantasy re-imagining of the Wild West where lawmen and gunslingers share the frontier with fantastical creatures. Journey through the origin stories of a group of atypical heroes, written into legend by the decisions you make in an unforgiving land. Each journey is unique and tailored to the actions taken - a series of high stakes stories where everything counts and the world reacts to the choices you make. Form a posse or venture forth alone into otherworldly confines of the Weird West and make each legend your own.Currently, it looks like Weird West is only destined to make its way to Steam, but tell me I'm wrong: this title has Nintendo Switch written all over it. Read the rest

Writing for Vice, Gabriel Soares takes a look at Civilization and why a standard playthrough tends to get more boring as the player reaches modern day technology:what is progress in an historical 4X game? To be blunt, it’s the elimination of difference. The closer you are to “us”, the more you have progressed....Effectively your only decisions are how to advance through a predetermined trajectory culminating with “us”, "the US”. This is easier to perceive in tech trees, but it’s also true of those two other Xs: expand, exterminate. Make the world homogenous, make the world boring. Those early turns players like put them into contact with difference. The rest of the game sees them destroy it.In the course of discussing what "progress" means, Soares describes an effort to study aboriginal culture. A sociologist had planned to derive the "Elementary Forms of Religious Life" by observing the supposedly simplest religion of Aboriginal Australians: Problem is, if you’re going to grade different peoples on their relative simplicity like some kind of Olympic judge, you first need to decide what the sport is. Nobody disputes that Indo-Europeans are great at making products, matter of fact “providers of merchandise” or “people of merchandise” is one of the most common names for the “white man” among Amazonian peoples. But what about everything else?Because those very same Australian aboriginal populations who have been so continuously discriminated against by generations of academics have also developed the most complex kinship systems on the planet. Read the rest

Mark Rober is bad at darts, but he still gets perfect scores, because he's good at engineering.I fulfilled a 3 year long dream to create a dartboard where you get a bullseye every time thanks to some engineering. Basically, you throw a dart and then a Vicon motion capture system tracks the dart in the air. We use those x,y,z positions in matlab to predict where the dart will land using some regression analysis. Once we know where it will land, we move the board to the right spot using 6 stepper motors that attach to the back of the board using fishing line. All of this happens in 400ms or so. Then we took it to a bar to see what people would think of it Read the rest

Buckingham Palace is seeking a Head of Digital Engagement to manage the social media accounts of Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family. It's a full-time job and the annual pay is £45,000 - £50,000, depending on experience of course. Perks include free lunch at the Palace! From The Royal Household job listing:It's about never standing still and finding new ways to maintain The Queen's presence in the public eye and on the world stage. This is what makes working for the Royal Household exceptional.The role of Royal Communications is to engage a worldwide audience with the public role and work of The Royal Family. Joining this fast paced and dynamic team, your challenge will be to lead on and develop our digital communications strategy, and ensure that we make effective use of a range of digital platforms to support these aims...Whether you're covering a State Visit, award ceremony or Royal engagement, you'll make sure our digital channels consistently spark interest and reach a range of audiences.(via Neatorama)image: "The British royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, June 2013" by Carfax2 (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

The 2020 Game Developers Conference will include alt.ctrl.GDC, a showcase of video game using unconventional, accessible or alternative physical controls. The 20 finalists include Far Away Cage, an Alien-inspired game where you interact with the ship by sliding on a skateboard:Ready? Set. Haiya! is a motion-based fighting rhythm game played by interacting with a live-sized kung fu wooden dummy:And The Sword lets players try to find the Grail in order to pull Excalibur from the stone:You can see trailers for the 20 finalists here, including a racing game controlled by manipulating a giraffe head, and a milking game that uses udders. Read the rest

The Internet is getting all aflutter about a gift-wrapping hack shared by DIY lifestyle site Blossom. It went viral after UK bookseller Waterstones posted it in their Twitter feed. What IS this "life-changing" hack? Well, watch:This is a public service announcement 🎄 📚 🤓pic.twitter.com/vCYELqyVQa— Waterstones (@Waterstones) December 16, 2019That's right, if you cut your gift wrap too short, use it diagonally — so obvious it hurts!If you liked that, watch the original video for other less obvious but still cool wrapping paper tips:Wrapping gifts got a whole lot easier with these clever ideas! pic.twitter.com/sP4MXhpBBu— Blossom (@BlossomHacks) December 14, 2019(RED) Read the rest

Almost 6,000 years ago on the island of Lolland, Denmark, a young girl disposed of her chewing gum. Now, University of Copenhagen researchers have used that gum, made from birch pitch, to sequence the girl's full genome. From Science:The child had black hair, blue eyes, and dark skin, and was more closely related to hunter-gatherers from Western Europe than to farmers who had more recently settled in the region. She left traces of her most recent meal in the gum—she had been chewing hazelnuts and duck. But her oral microbiome also revealed that life could be hard—she had the Epstein-Barr virus and probably had suffered from mononucleosis in her life.More in the scientific paper: "A 5700 year-old human genome and oral microbiome from chewed birch pitch" (Nature Communications) Read the rest

Here is a tweet from Donald Trump, the man serving America as the 45th president.The day after he typed this, Donald Trump will be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors against the United States of America.We write our own scripts, people.Good marks and reviews on the letter I sent to Pelosi today. She is the worst! No wonder with people like her and Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, D.C. has been such a mess for so long - and that includes the previous administration who (and now we know for sure) SPIED on my campaign.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2019 Read the rest

A woman who works as an associate producer on the long-running CBS television show “60 Minutes” today filed a lawsuit that claims she experienced gender discrimination at the TV network. Cassandra Vinograd, who is based in London, says she was retaliated against by CBS after complaining about inappropriate conduct by her boss.A complaint filed Tuesday in NY State Supreme Court against CBS Broadcasting says Vinograd told CBS Broadcasting executives that her supervisor, “60 Minutes” producer Michael Gavshon, texted Vinograd a photo that left her feeling feel “disgusted, uncomfortable and scared.”The complaint says Gavshon, 63, says it was all a mistake and he meant to text the photo to his sister. CBS News “plans to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”“CBS thoroughly and immediately investigated the matter in accordance with its policies,” the network said in a statement. “Subsequently, Ms. Vinograd asked to no longer work with Mr. Gavshon and CBS has made every reasonable effort to honor this request. CBS News vehemently denies there was any retaliation.”More from Reuters:In a statement sent from CBS, Gavshon said he had intended to send the photo to his sister and that he reported the incident and cooperated with a company investigation.According to the complaint, the CBS human resources department conducted an investigation after Vinograd raised the issue. Human resources advised her to stay home if she was uncomfortable working with Gavshon, and told her she should meet with Gavshon and try to “work through” things, according to the complaint. Read the rest

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A sign for our times. “This is Fat Fred.”“He is a boy.”“He is not pregnant.”Source: 'Walking by a vet clinic when I saw this sign' by KneeAppallingTanIceCream on IMGUR.Walking by a vet clinic when I saw this sign... Read the rest

Mitch Wagner writes, "My colleague Iain Morris takes a hammer to 5G hype in an article that's so, so good. The world went bonkers in 2019 and 5G hype is part of that. Yes, 5G is inevitable, Iain notes. And it will prove useful. But it's not the miracle technology it's being hyped as. "Above all, the telecom industry continued to polish the turd that is 5G. Rarely has a technology generated so much industry hype and met with such a blasé response from the broader market. Watch your neighbor's eyes glaze over when you describe its higher speeds and lower latency. Note how he fails to share your excitement when you tell him it will provide extra capacity and reduce costs for service providers. The industry, if not the consumer, seems to be living in 1999, another mad year for technology when IT nerds convinced company bosses that a millennium date change in computer systems would reset clocks, wipe out records and trigger the end of civilization. That year also marked the eve of 3G, which promised a mobile Internet revolution but couldn't work up the subsequent effort. Operators are now switching it off. While 4G quietly cleaned up 3G's mess, with a helping hand from Apple and other gadget makers, 5G is neither fixing a consumer problem nor delivering a new experience. 2019: The Year Telecom Went Doolally About 5G [Iain Morris/Light Reading] Read the rest