Lack of caution leads to motorcycling diaster

Youtuber Erica Hoff shares this video of a motorcyclist having a very bad day.

This guy merged onto the I-80E (Sacramento, CA) on his motorcycle as we were driving in the fast lane. As he merged, his bike would shake and wobble. He sometimes would only have one hand on the handle bars while it was shaking!! We couldn't figure out why it was shaking, but we noticed it would only do it once he hit high speeds. We paced him for 5-10 miles after watching him "almost" loose control (about 5 or 6 times), so I got my phone out, thinking "its only a matter of time before he crashes" and I wanted the video as evidence in case anyone else got hurt. Sure enough the very moment I get my phone out, happens to be the time he loses control. We pulled over immediately.....called 911, and help the man (and his bike) off to the side of the road as quickly as possible. He did walk over to the right shoulder by himself. His face was really mashed up (his nose looked broken) and arms covered in blood. Crazy road rash!!! I still wonder how he's doing :(

Oh, and the sirens you hear in the background aren't because he's being chased by the cops....my kids were watching peppa pig.....it was just a coincidence ;)

Bid on old computers, speakers, radios, and other junk from the bowels of RadioShack

Starting July 10, you can bid on TRS-80 computers, dot matrix printers, Realistic speakers, shortwave receivers, old catalogs, and company "memorabilia" from the bowels of bankrupt RadioShack. From the auction site:

From humble beginnings in Boston in 1921, over the past 95 years RadioShack established itself as a globally recognized leader and the go to retailer for consumer electronics. RadioShack has always been known as the place for answers to the American public's technology and electronics questions. "You've got questions, we've got answers."

Over the years, RadioShack introduced consumers to exciting and affordable gadgets and electronics that have become household items. As we cleaned out our historic archives in Fort Worth, Texas, we uncovered a cache of iconic memorabilia in 12 huge safes, including: unused original TRS-80 Microcomputers, Realistic Transistor Radios, Tandy computer software games, original brick cell phones and so much more. We all remember coming into RadioShack whether it was for the battery-of-the-month, new walkie-talkies, or to check out the newest RC toy cars. Now we reintroduce many of those nostalgic items and more with our rolling online memorabilia auction.

RadioShack Auction #1 (thanks, Charles Platt!)

Look at the public bike purgatory in Hangzhou,China

The city of Hangzhou, China has more than 86,000 public bicycles. Unfortunately, when many people are done using them, they don't put them in the designated docking center but just drop them wherever. According to Wired, "police have rounded up 23,000 bikes so far this year and hauled them to 16 corrals around the city" like the one seen above. And that's not even the whole lot of 'em.

Felt Tardigrade

FoxWoolDesigns will make you a perfectly pink felt tardigrade, and has one in stock to fulfill your immediate felt tardigrade requirements.

This felt tardigrade is made of coral wool and is about five inches long. That's about 250 times larger than a live tardigrade!

My creatures are lovingly handcrafted from sheep's wool in a process called needle felting, which uses a special barbed needle to mesh fibers into felt. Because needle felted creatures can be delicate, this toy is not suitable for young children.

Previously:

Tardigrade plushies for unkillable cuddling
How tardigrades survive extreme conditions
Tardigrade is plump, loveable
3D-printed tardigrades

Japan plans to land a human on the moon by 2030

Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced Wednesday that it plans to land an astronaut on the moon by 2030, joining China in a new manned race to space.

It is the first time JAXA has revealed an intention to send Japanese astronauts beyond the International Space Station, and it will mostly likely be part of an international mission, the agency said.

The announcement from Japan Wednesday is just the latest in a series of ambitious space exploration plans by Asian countries, with the increasing competition for space-related power and prestige in the region echoing that of the Cold War space race of the mid-20th century.

In December 2016, China announced plans to land a rover on Mars by 2020 as well as a manned mission to the Moon at some point in the future.

Pictured here is one of JAXA's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rockets, via Danspace.

The forgotten cyberspace of the Neuromancer computer game

William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer is far from forgotten; the times seem almost uncannily like an interregnum between the world he wrote in and the world he wrote. But the 1988 video game adaptation is another matter. [via]

Mark Hill:

The game’s developers were challenged with portraying this futuristic nonspace while still creating an accessible and interesting game, and all with computers that were barely a step up from a calculator and a potent imagination. The end result is surreal, abstract, and lonely. It’s a virtual world that’s simultaneously leagues beyond our internet, yet stunted and impractical, a world where you can bank online before doing battle with an artificial intelligence yet won’t let you run a simple search query and forces you to “physically” move between one virtual location and the next. It’s cyberspace as envisioned by a world that didn’t yet have the computing power to experience it for real, a virtual 2058 that would look archaic before the turn of the millennium.

Hill gets it, especially how the game seeks to understand cyberspace as a city. But I think he's wrong in suggesting that contemporary hardware limitations ("a step up from a calculator") were the game's undoing. If anything, I feel that the cusp of the 16-bit era was perfect for implementing Neuromancer as a solipsistic, non-networked adventure game. Indeed, much of the history of the 16-bit era can be read as increasingly successful efforts to implement the vision of Neuromancer as a narrative experience rather than a labyrinthine multidimensional bulletin board.

This grill press speeds up 4th of July BBQing

Gotta make 25 burgers for a whole bunch of tykes? Increase the speed and control the consistency of your burgers doneness with a grill press!

This cast iron beauty will apply heat directly to the top of your burger, speeding its cooking and making it cook more evenly. Simply heat the press up on your grill before you start cooking, and put it on top of the meat, or veg, that you want to see finish up fast.

I also use a press for making bacon completely flat, when I go full-on compulsive about my bacon.

Update International New 8" Barbecue BBQ Grill Steak Weights via Amazon

The truth about sexual harassment in Silicon Valley

In the New York Times, Katie Bienner relates a cultural shift in Silicon Valley: women victims of sexual harassment describing their experiences frankly. In an industry bound by delusions of meritocracy and egality, simply talking about it is radical.

More than two dozen women in the technology start-up industry spoke to The Times in recent days about being sexually harassed. Ten of them named the investors involved, often providing corroborating messages and emails, and pointed to high-profile venture capitalists such as Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital and Dave McClure of 500 Startups, who did not dispute the accounts.

The disclosures came after the tech news site The Information reported that female entrepreneurs had been preyed upon by a venture capitalist, Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital. The new accounts underscore how sexual harassment in the tech start-up ecosystem goes beyond one firm and is pervasive and ingrained. Now their speaking out suggests a cultural shift in Silicon Valley, where such predatory behavior had often been murmured about but rarely exposed.

From the reports, Ellen Pao striking out in the courts only underscored the impunity enjoyed by these men.

Lindsay Meyer, an entrepreneur in San Francisco, said Mr. Caldbeck put $25,000 of his own money into her fitness start-up in 2015. That gave Mr. Caldbeck reason to constantly text her; in those messages, reviewed by The Times, he asked if she was attracted to him and why she would rather be with her boyfriend than him. At times, he groped and kissed her, she said.

“I felt like I had to tolerate it because this is the cost of being a nonwhite female founder,” said Ms. Meyer, who is Asian-American.

The named names have scuttled off Twitter to go on social media vacations. If they don't face real consequences—permanent professional separation from the wealth they control—it'll just go back to the way it was.

Wikipedia as a Zork-style text-adventure

Kevan Davis's Wikitext is an incredibly clever mashup of Wikipedia and Infocom-style text adventure games: starting with a random Wikipedia entry, it gives you the article summary, an 8-bit-ified version of the main photo, and "directions" to the articles referenced by the one you've landed on. (via Waxy)

"We Buy Ugly Houses" franchisee pleads guilty to defrauding investors

It pleases me to no end to learn that a "We Buy Ugly Houses" franchise owner was found guilty of wire fraud charges. The "We Buy Ugly Houses" billboards I see everywhere are a stomach-churning eyesore and whoever created the repellent Fred Flintstone knockoff mascot should be placed in a hermetically-sealed tungsten spheroid and catapulted outside the Oort Cloud.

[via California Real Estate Fraud Report]

President Trump attempted to "blackmail" TV hosts with threat of tabloid smears, they claim

Yesterday, MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were subject to typical (if unusually gross) insults from the President of the United States, leading to a standard round of milquetoast criticism from his fellow Republicans and futile rage from everyone else. But it's their claim that Trump tried to blackmail them through the threat of negative press coverage that's making news all around the world. Even the BBC has it as its top story.

What started yesterday as an undignified personal spat between Donald Trump and the hosts of a cable news show has morphed into something much more sinister - allegations of White House machinations that tread ever so close to outright blackmail.

If what Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough say is true, they were the targets of political dark arts reminiscent of the schemes of the Watergate "fixers" during the Nixon White House. Could Trump aides have really used the threat of an embarrassing story in a tabloid newspaper to pressure the two hosts to provide more favourable coverage?

Trump admitted it, in one his bizarrely revealing attempts at misdirection... https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880771685460344832

...and yet we're so deep into the surreal dreamland of his presidency that it seems nothing he says or does could possibly lead to consequences. It's as if he's so deranged that his own party simply doesn't feel his behavior will reflect badly on them, irrespective of their support for and tolerance of it.

To many Americans, this seems almost like empty drama--a distraction, perhaps, from the partial implementation of the administration's travel ban on visitors from several Muslim-majority countries. But I wonder if to people in other countries, Trump has always been a superficial spectacle. This story has unusual international import because it looks a lot like the kind of secretive political wetwork they associate with quieter, more dangerous men. So attention is being paid to reportage like this:

Ms Brzezinski said reporters from the supermarket tabloid began harassing her family.

"They were calling my children," she said. "They were calling close friends.

"These calls persisted for quite some time and then Joe had the conversations that he had with the White House where they said 'oh, this could go away'."

Grilling mats are great for grilling cut vegetables

Amazon has a good deal on these BBQ grilling mats. You just set them on the grill and place whatever it is you want to cook right on them. I like the charcoal flavor of steak and chicken, but it's hard to cook vegetables, because they tend to break and fall between the wires These mats prevent that from happening. A set of four costs $13.

Our fascinating evening with Bassem Youssef, the exiled "Jon Stewart of Egypt"

Earlier this week we went to see a Los Angeles screening of Tickling Giants followed by a Q&A with Bassem Youssef, the subject of the film. The evening was presented by Ziya Tong's Black Sheep.

Bassem Youssef, often called the “Jon Stewart of Egypt,” was a prominent heart surgeon who became the creator and host of the Egyptian late-night comedy TV show Al-Bernameg (“The Show”), which began as an immensely popular YouTube channel. The live network show revolved around Bassem’s use of satire and sarcastic humor towards the corrupt and oppressive Egyptian government. As the only program on Egyptian television concerned with free speech and the voice of the people, “The Show” quickly rose in popularity and attracted 30 million viewers per show, significantly more than the 2 million who tuned in nightly to The Daily Show. Even though Bassem and the team behind the show were constantly living in fear that their jokes would put them in danger, they bravely continued to produce a show that criticized authority and the country’s politics. The satirical program ran from 2011-2014, until Egypt’s oppressive military regime made it impossible for the show to continue.

Tickling Giants is a documentary based on Bassem Youssef, “The Show”, and their role in Egyptian culture. The film provides a detailed view of how Youssef “finds creative, non-violent ways to protect free speech and fight a president who abuses his power.”

During the Q&A with Youssef following the documentary, Youssef shared experiences and advice not given in the documentary. When asked how the United States may be able to help Egypt, Youssef spoke about how change is a slow-moving, generational process. Following this answer, one woman asked how the United States can avoid an oppressive government and harmful media. Youssef explained that the U.S. has been practicing democracy for hundreds of years, but Egypt only had a three-year window where free speech and democracy could exist. Given its history, Egypt will likely remain under authoritarian government for the foreseeable future, but “The Show” proved that progress and equality are possible. As Youssef casually joked, “Egypt is North Korea with pyramids.” As for media and freedom in the United States, Youssef suggested not to focus on changing people's deeply rooted ideologies, but to encourage more advocates of equality and free speech to vote.

Bassem Youssef now lives in Los Angeles and is unsure of what would happen if he returns to Egypt. He believes that exile is a state of mind and that Los Angeles is his new home, despite having to start his career from scratch.

Patricia Arquette tweets cryptic warning to Trump about "gossip on the streets"

Actress Patricia Arquette reacted to Trump's childish "bleeding badly from a face-lift" tweet yesterday with a cautionary tweet of her own: "Remove this tweet. There is a lot of gossip about you on the streets that hasn't been in the press-yet."

According to The Wrap:

Arquette didn’t elaborate on what gossip she was referring to, beyond saying that it is something other than the “pee tape” that Twitter users have been semi-jokingly speculating about for months.

And Arquette didn't stop there:

The question is, is this just an empty Trumpian James-Comey-better-hope-that-there-are-no-tapes kind of threat? If not, then out with it already.

Image: Tina Franklin

New oven to bake bread in space

A German start-up has prototyped a bread oven that operated in microgravity that may someday enable astronauts to enjoy fresh-baked goods in space. Currently, astronauts eat tortillas because they aren't crumbly and have a long shelf-life. (See the below photo of a rather unappetizing tortilla cheeseburger on the International Space Station.) From Space.com:

On Earth, bread needs to be baked at a temperature of about 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Once it’s done, the bakers remove it from the heated oven. But that would not be possible in space. Processes such as thermal convection, which helps to mix up air on Earth, don't work in space. If a bubble of air that hot were to escape from the oven in orbit, it could stay floating inside the station for quite a while, posing a serious health risk to the astronauts, (Bake In Space CEO Sebastian) Marcu said.

Marcu said the team has found a way to overcome this challenge.

"We basically put the baking product, the dough, inside the cold oven and start heating it up," he said. "Once it's almost done, we start cooling it down. But at that time, any product will start to get dry, and that's why we need to design the oven so that some water is added during the baking process."

The oven also needs to be able to operate with only 270 watts of power — about one-tenth the power used by conventional ovens on Earth. Marcu said the team hopes to have a prototype ready by the end of this year.

Mastering the process of baking is only one step toward making the space-grade bread. Crumbs could damage the station's equipment, or astronauts could accidently inhale them. Marcu said he hopes the combination of the new baking process and a carefully designed dough will solve the problem.

This company analyzed 100 million headlines to find out which ones were the most effective

Buzzsumo analyzed 100 million article headlines on Facebook and tracked how well they did in terms of shares.

In our sample the most powerful three word phrase used in a headline (by some margin) was:

“Will make you … “

This phrase “will make you” gained more than twice the number of Facebook engagements as the second most popular headline trigram. This was a surprise. When we started out looking for top trigrams, this one wasn’t even on our list.

So why does this particular trigram or three word phrase work so well? One of the interesting things is that it is a linking phrase. It doesn’t start or end a headline, rather it makes explicit the linkage between the content and the potential impact on the reader.

This headline format sets out why the reader should care about the content. It also promises that the content will have a direct impact on the reader, often an emotional reaction. The headline is clear and to the point which makes it elegant and effective.

Typical headlines include:

• 24 Pictures That Will Make You Feel Better About The World
• What This Airline Did for Its Passengers Will Make You Tear Up – So Heartwarming
• 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person
• “Who Wore It Better?” Pics That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud
• 13 Travel Tips That Will Make You Feel Smart

Watch this mama bear carry her cubs across a river on her back

David Roseman, an employee at Alaska's Wood Tikchick State Park, spotted this big bear carrying her cubs across the river on her back. Sweet video below. From National Geographic:

Wayne Kasworm, a grizzly bear biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, explained that bears' high fat content and oily coat helps them easily stay afloat. The bears, which he estimates to be about six months old, will likely start to swim on their own once they reach 30 pounds.

The Private Eye: a supervillain tries to bring the internet back to a world where the press are the cops

(more…)

How to have a great weekend by engaging in "serious leisure"

Katrina Onstad, author of a new book called The Weekend Effect: The Life-Changing Benefits of Taking Time Off and Challenging the Cult of Overwork says people usually feel better after a weekend of engaging in engaging social activities instead of binge-watching TV, loafing, and drinking. From Quartz:

Serious leisure activities provide deeper fulfillment, and—to invoke a fuzzy ’70s word—“self-actualization.” Self-actualization is the pinnacle of human development, according to humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow, who describes it as “the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.” In other words, getting self-actualized is the whole point of life, and passive, hedonistic leisure (fun and occasionally necessary as it might be) won’t get you there.

Instead, the weekend goal should be “eudaimonic” happiness, which is a sense of well-being that arises from meaningful, challenging activities that cause you to grow as a person. This means spending the weekend on serious leisure activities that require the regular refinement of skills: your barbershop-quartet singing, your stamp collecting, or slightly less dorky, but still equally in-depth, projects. You pursue serious leisure with the earnest tenor of a professional, even if the pursuit is amateur.

Thinking about my own weekends, I like ones that include loafing *and* social stuff. My ideal weekend would include reading for a few hours, learning Japanese for an hour, meeting with my amateur magic club for a couple of hours, having a fun date night with Carla (dinner and a movie), watching a couple of episodes of a show we like, taking a long hike with Carla (and one of my daughters if they are around) in the Hollywood Hills, making meals that require lots of chopping and prep, sketching with my daughters, and fixing something broken around the house (especially if it requires me to design a 3D model and make something on my 3D printer). Sometimes, I achieve a weekend that includes all of these things, but it's rare, because other obligations get in the way. But I usually am able to do a few of these things, which is enough.

Disney to stop auctioning off women

After decades of running a mock slave market inside Pirates of the Carribean, Disney has finally decided that Pirates selling women is not a good example for the kids.

The scene also contains many elements which the fans no doubt love, but which are at odds with modern sensibilities. This is beyond a “Politically Correct” issue, it’s an issue about what Disney feels it may be inadvertently teaching its youngest guests when they see images of women being sexualized and sold at auction.

Years ago, Disney took their first step at taming their pirates’ lusty desires when they changed the “chase” scene so instead of aggressively pursuing wenches (it was essentially a rape story), they were chasing after plates of food. One desire replaced with another – lust for gluttony.

It’s the derogatory sexual nature of those two scenes which are problematic for modern Disney and to today’s guests. Theme park rides don’t have an MPAA rating in the way movies do. Pirates is the most tame of attractions and suitable for riders of all ages. Therefore, there is a need to make sure the subject matter is appropriate for those ages as well.

It’s a catch 22 for Disney as the fans are likely to be outraged, at least at first. But not acting also continues to perpetuate themes which are unacceptable for many of today’s guests. Disney has clearly decided they need to act on the moral issue over sentimentality.

Here’s some additional information we were able to obtain about this breaking news. Disney Imagineering bigwigs Marty Sklar and Kathy Mangum weigh in on the alterations:

“To me, the Imagineers are simply reflecting what Walt started the day Disneyland opened – making changes that create exciting new experiences for our guests. I can’t think of a single attraction that has not been enhanced and improved, some over and over again. Change is a ‘tradition’ at Disneyland that today’s Imagineers practice – they learned it from their mentors, many of them Walt’s original team of storytellers and designers – the Disney Legends.” – Marty Sklar, Imagineer Legend. Marty continues, “Pirates of the Caribbean has always represented great Disney Park storytelling; it has set the standard for the theme park industry for half a century! But it’s a story you can continue to add fun to, with great characters in new ‘performances.’ That’s what the Imagineers have done with this new auction scene – it’s like a theatre show with a new act.”

Kathy Mangum, Sr. VP Imagineering stated, “Our team thought long and hard about how to best update this scene. Given the redhead has long been a fan favorite, we wanted to keep her as a pivotal part of the story, so we made her a plundering pirate! We think this keeps to the original vision of the attraction as envisioned by Marc Davis, X Atencio and the other Disney legends who first brought this classic to life.”

Via MiceChat

Algorithms try to channel us into repeating our lives

Molly Sauter (previously) describes in gorgeous, evocative terms how the algorithms in our life try to funnel us into acting the way we always have, or, failing that, like everyone else does. (more…)

How to replace yourself with a very small shell script

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2btv0yUPNQ

Data scientist Hillary Mason (previously) talks through her astoundingly useful collection of small shell scripts that automate all the choresome parts of her daily communications: processes that remind people when they owe her an email; that remind her when she accidentally drops her end of an exchange; that alert her when a likely important email arrives (freeing her up from having to check and check her email to make sure that nothing urgent is going on). It's a hilarious and enlightening talk that offers a glimpse into the kinds of functionality that users can provide for themselves when they run their own infrastructure and aren't at the mercy of giant webmail companies. (via Clive Thompson) videos,youtube,lifehacks,email automation,data science next-level-regexp

Slammed by bus, man stands up and enters bar

Simon Smith was walking beside a bus stop in Reading, Berkshire, on Saturday when he was hit from behind by a double-decker.

The 53-year-old was thrown down the street when the vehicle careered onto the pavement and ploughed straight into him. The impact of his head hitting the windscreen shattered the glass, yet he got up from the pavement seconds later… and went to the pub.

Via MetroUK

Man collides with door divider

Yes, the guy should have looked where he was walking, but good design should take this kind of think into account.

[via Twisted Sifter]

Why do men have nipples?

Dr. Justin Lehmiller answers the question "Why do men have nipples?" on his Sex & Psychology blog:

For the first six weeks that we're in the womb, we exist in a gender neutral state, regardless of the chromosomes we carry. This means that each of us starts with the same set of bodily structures, which have the potential to develop toward either the male or female form depending upon what our genes and hormones direct them to do later on. It is during this neutral stage that the nipples begin to develop, which makes them a permanent structure that everyone is going to have for life, whether they are genetically male or female. The difference, of course, is that if you're a genetic female, you will eventually develop breasts, whereas if you're a genetic male, you won't.

This chair is weaponized ugly

Looking for a gift for your crab or crustacean enthusiast best friend? Amazon has you covered.

Even then, this chair is probably too ugly to be anywhere outside a children's discovery museum or aquarium.

The folks at Design Toscano must really have interesting homes!

Design Toscano Giant Red King Crab Sculptural Chair via Amazon

Broflake defined

Perhaps you are tired of the terminology of online trashtalk, where words (such as snowflake and bro) form billowing epicycles of sincerity, appropriation and reclamation. Me too! Yet there is such a pure beauty to this morning's surprisingly viral portmanteau, Broflake.

From the Urban Dictionary:

Broflake: Straight white male offended by any feminist or ethnic activity which is not directly designed for him.

Kyle: "How come there's no Straight Pride parade"?
Me: OMG you're such a delicate little broflake.

If anything, this definition is too precise, as the word perfectly captures the broader dynamic wherein a person adopts a posture of devil-may-care principled insensitivity to offense, only to collapse in a puddle of outrage and/or legal threats when they are offended.

(For example, the NRA's Dana Loesch is Broflake of the Day for Friday, June 30, 2017. After pitching an insanely totalitarian NRA recruitment ad whose anti-violence fig leaf only drew attention to its naked thirst for bloodshed, she was apparently up all night shrieking legal threats on Twitter at random anonymous interlocutors, insisting that their mockery is not free speech.)

https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/880800435019194368

Man dragging roadkill raccoon shot by bad Samaritan who thought it was an abused dog

Police in Washington state want to find a driver who shot a man Sunday, apparently under the mistaken belief he was abusing a dog. The victim was in fact dragging a dead raccoon down the highway.

He's seen here in a video taken by another motorist who had similar concerns, but the wherewithal to ask questions first.

The man intended to use the already-dead raccoon as bait in his crab pot, the Mason County Sheriff’s Office said, but a confrontation over it quickly got out of hand and police say the suspect ran the man over and shot him in the leg.

Surveillance video captured the truck, which is a Ford extended cab built between 1992 and 1997 with a dark colored canopy. There was a white dog in the cab. ...

A 911 call obtained by KCPQ describes the scene of the shooting.

“He’s aiming a gun … at the guy dragging the raccoon,” the caller reported. “Now the guy’s swinging the raccoon around.”

The universe has cheated us of footage of a half-naked man using a roadkill raccoon as an enormous flail.

Previous Raccoons: Rabid Raccoon. Robber Raccoon.

Goop and Infowars sell the same wellness stuff

You'd think Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow's "lifestyle brand" for clean-freak whippies, and Infowars, Alex Jones' conspiracy compendium for seething fascists, wouldn't share much in common. But they both have exactly the same business model: selling wellness to people skeptical and fearful of mainstream medicine and healthcare. Nikhil Sonnad took a look at the ingredients on each site and found that it's all the same stuff.

We at Quartz have created a compendium, from Ashwagandha to zizyphus, of the magical healing ingredients both sides of the political spectrum are buying, and how they are presented to each. We looked at the ingredients used in products sold on the Infowars store, and compared them to products on the wellness shops Moon Juice and Goop. All make similar claims about the health benefits of these ingredients, but what gets called “Super Male Vitality” by Infowars is branded as “Sex Dust” by Moon Juice.

Call it horseshit theory: opposite extremes of lifestyle branding converging on a hidden axis of shared contempt for their audiences.

[h/t Agies]

How to start a yard fire

The key component of a quality yard fire is ignorance, but you must remember to mix it with a sufficient quantity of flammable material and oxygen.

BONUS: How to start a bonfire on a moor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yig_zO8a35U&feature=youtu.be

Watch a pro drone racer zip around a construction site at sunset

Johnny FPV is a drone racer on the pro circuit. He took one of his drones out for a sunset spin in a construction site next to his hotel, and it's quite beautiful and thrilling. (more…)

Watch 'Jaws' with your feet dangling in the water

Here's an immersive experience that you can truly, well, get immersed in: JAWS on the water. With dates from now until the end of July, you can watch any one of the Jaws movies while sitting on an inner tube on Lake Travis at Volente Beach Water Park in Leander, Texas.

Cue the scary music...Duh nuh...Duh nuh...

Imagine relaxing on an inner tube with a cold drink in hand on a perfect Texas summer night, your feet languidly dangling in the calm Lake Travis water. Now imagine you’re also watching the greatest thriller ever made, projected across the water while unknown terrors threaten from the watery depths...

Birth.Movies.Death.Events, along with Fandango and Alamo Drafthouse, are hosting this perfectly terrifying summer happening. Tickets are $55 and includes dinner (which, oddly enough, isn't seafood).

(RED)

Here’s how to make your own Butterbeer

In honor of Harry Potter’s 20th anniversary, the gentlemen of SORTEDFood concocted their own Butterbeer recipe, which is both sickly sweet and slightly alcoholic.

Six movie-inspired cocktails (and one TV-inspired hangover cure)

From The Dude’s White Russian to James Bond’s shaken martini, Binging with Babish demonstrates how to make six movie-inspired cocktails. He also recreates How I Met Your Mother’s magical hangover cure, which might not be so magical after all.

Intricate paper cutouts of animals, colored by nature

Faye Halliday recently started making variants of her intricate animal drawings with cut-out sections. She then held them up in beautiful locales to create a delightful effect. (more…)

Stray dog joins orchestra on stage during a live performance

While the Vienna Chamber Orchestra performed at an outdoor theatre in Çesme, Turkey recently, a stray Labrador wandered onstage and plopped right down. His surprise appearance garnered a bunch of applause and laughter from the audience but the musicians just kept doing their thing. The dog settled in quietly, right up front, as the orchestra started in on "Mendelssohn’s 'Italian' Symphony No.4." It couldn't have been scripted any better.

(TO)

Previously, on "stray dogs joining things": Stray dog joins Swedish adventure race and Stray dog joins cyclists on 1700km race

Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig answer the internet’s questions about them

Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig are the latest celebrities to tackle the always-entertaining Wired Autocomplete Interview.

Animated chairs made real

Designer nendo created these 50 manga chairs, inspired by animated variations on the theme of a canonical chair form. (more…)

Secret engagement ring box looks like a golden snitch

Freeman Design crafted this gorgeous necklace and pendant inspired by the golden snitch, a ball used in quidditch in the Harry Potter books. This video shows that it holds a secret engagement ring. (more…)

A powerful, political Hamilton mixtape music video and the #Ham4All challenge

The 2016 Hamilton mixtape invited musicians to remix songs from the musical’s cast recording and now one of the tracks has its own music video. “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)” is performed by K’naan, Residente, Riz MC (a.k.a. Rogue One’s Riz Ahmed), and Snow Tha Product. And the video blends the song’s powerful pro-immigrant message with equally evocative visuals.

https://youtu.be/6_35a7sn6ds

The video is part of the #Ham4All challenge, which sprung up around a Prizeo competition Lin-Manuel Miranda is running to raise money for the Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition. For a $10 donation, fans can be entered to win VIP tickets to the opening night of Hamilton in Los Angeles. And Miranda is also encouraging entrants to upload a video of themselves singing a portion of the Hamilton cast recording and then challenge their friends to do the same.

https://twitter.com/Lin_Manuel/status/879323738398916608

Since then a whole bunch of celebrities have gotten in on the action too. For instance, young Beguiled actors Emma Howard, Oona Laurence, Angourie Rice, and Addison Riecke uploaded an adorable “Schuyler Sisters” music video featuring cameos from Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZiK2PNdF9g

To see more videos from celebrities and non-celebrities alike, just search the #Ham4All hashtag on Twitter. You can enter the contest/make a donation via Prizeo.

https://twitter.com/Lin_Manuel/status/880171589471543297

A catchy song made from random Canadian things

To celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary, music producer Andrew Huang put together a surprisingly catchy track using the sounds of Canada (a.k.a. hockey sticks, maple syrup bottles, and bags of milk).

Up for auction: the never-seen original 1957 Haunted Mansion prospectus

Heritage Auctions is selling off a super-rare original 1957 prospectus for the Haunted Mansion, prepared by Ken Anderson as a first approximation of what Disneyland's "spook house" might be. (more…)

Charge any device anywhere with this universal solar charger

It’s easy to forget about your phone’s dependency on modern infrastructure when you have free public WiFi and consistent access to electrical outlets. But for all their ubiquity in first-world urban spaces, smartphones become a lot more temperamental once they're out in the wilderness. To keep using your device’s offline abilities when you go off the grid, the Universal Waterproof Solar Charger can come through in a pinch.

This portable battery pack will deliver a full recharge to your phone using nothing but sunlight. It has a second 2.1-amp port specifically for tablets and other more power-hungry devices, and includes handy adapters for iOS and Android compatibility. It’s also built like a tank; this charger is fully sealed from water and dust, and is shock-proof to protect from unexpected drops. And to keep it off the ground entirely, it features a handy loop that comes with a carabiner to attach to it your gear.

You can get the Universal Waterproof Solar Charger in the Boing Boing Store for $13.99.

Florida town plagued by triple-arse graffiti

Authorities in St. Petersburg, Florida, are battling an onslaught of graffiti depicting a three-buttocked arse. NBC affiliate WFLA reports that the design has appeared at least twenty times across the city. It is thought to be the calling card of a single anonymous artist, who police stress is breaking the law.

St. Pete is a city known for its beautiful art and stunning murals. Many people are upset by this new graffiti involving a tush trend. They don’t like the fact that the bold buttocks are suddenly everywhere.

“This is not art. At all,” said one woman. “It’s vandalism.”

“There should be consequences. You can’t just take it upon yourself to do whatever you want to do,” another man said.

We shall speak in hushed tones, over the beachfires where the Suwannee meets the shore, of the great triple-arsed god worshiped by those who once lived in the sunken cities of the Florida sea.

Inkwell, a family of hand-drawn yet formal typefaces

Type designer Jonathan Hoefler's latest work, Inkwell, is a family of cute, hand-drawn imitations of distinctive type families of past and present. He fears that it will be compared to Comic Sans, popular with the people but reviled by the pros.

“Comic Sans is shooting for ‘informal’ but hits ‘amateurish,'” Hoefler says. “I wanted Inkwell to be informal, but proficient.” Indeed, Inkwell’s “tiny universe of fonts” contains both serif and sans versions, plus four decorative fonts including a cursive-like script, a blueprint-inspired all-caps set, even a blackletter. (“Think less ‘death announcement,’ more ‘country club invitation.'” Hoefler says.)

Inkwell's a lovely antidote to Comic Sans, but the fact you can pay $400 for it and yet find these anxieties and ironies in every line says something about the beast's power.

Sometimes I look at the dawn and I think Comic Sans may be the greatest typeface of all time. If there were another bloodsoaked civil war in this country, leaving it and half the world past it a wasteland scoured of life and beset by a heavensent grief and heartache that makes us pine for death even as we understand finally that the wrath of God lies sleeping, the armistice will be printed in Times New Roman and the new constitution in Comic Sans.

Randee of the Redwoods and 'Pete and Pete' to host MELTASIA, this summer in NY

Holy smokes! Randee of the Redwoods and Pete and Pete? These are some of my favorite television personalities of all time!

The Catskills sure have changed since my dad's day! Meltasia festival makes East Durham, NY the ultimate place to be on Earth this September 8th-10th. My spirit guide, Randee of the Redwoods, will be joined by Pete and Pete, the titular lead characters of of a mid 90s television program apparently targetted at surrealists and absurdists!

There will be music as well!

Check out Meltasia! Maybe you'll head for the Catskills!

Brilliant short story about being trapped in an infinite IKEA

The SCP Foundation features unsettling horror and SF stories, all posed as the technical reports of a secret international consortium whose job is to secure, contain and protect the public from all manner of weird threats, from unnatural beasties to sentient buildings. Written in the dry language of officialdom, they're the perfect short fiction for the internet-era and often extremely clever. I think this one about being trapped in an infinite IKEA, by Mortos, is my favorite yet.

Description: SCP-3008 is a large retail unit previously owned by and branded as IKEA, a popular furniture retail chain. A person entering SCP-3008 through the main entrance and then passing out of sight of the doors will find themselves translocated to SCP-3008-1. This displacement will typically go unnoticed as no change will occur from the perspective of the victim; they will generally not become aware until they try and return to the entrance.

SCP-3008-1 is a space resembling the inside of an IKEA furniture store, extending far beyond the limits of what could physically be contained within the dimensions of the retail unit. Current measurements indicate an area of at least 10km2 with no visible external terminators detected in any direction. Inconclusive results from the use of laser rangefinders has lead to the speculation that the space may be infinite.

SCP-3008-1 is inhabited by an unknown number of civilians trapped within prior to containment. Gathered data suggests they have formed a rudimentary civilisation within SCP-3008-1, including the construction of settlements and fortifications for the purpose of defending against SCP-3008-2.

Don't miss the a recent escapee's journal, hidden behind a link near the end.

(I got sucked into SCP again when someone noted that my randomly generated catalog of creepily nondescript police state technology requires containment)

Here's EFF's letter to Zillow explaining how wrong they are about McMansion Hell

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published its letter to Zillow, explaining in eye-watering detail how wrong the company was to threaten the McMansion Hell blog over its use of realtors' glam-shots of shitty houses. (more…)

Island forms off Cate Hatteras in North Carolina

A mile-long island emerged from the sea 100 yards out from Cape Hatteras.

Since being discovered, countless visitors and locals have made the trek to see if the weeks of rumors about the island’s existence – as well as the stories that it’s a haven for shells – are true.

The answer to both questions appears to be yes.

I superimposed the equivalent view from Google Earth, over Chad Koczera's photo, in the GIF above.

Check out some of Donald Bell's favorite tools

Our guest this week on the Cool Tools Show is Donald Bell. Donald runs a great website called Maker Project Lab, and he also hosts a weekly YouTube show called Maker Update, which collects interesting projects, news, tips, tools, and other stuff for the Maker community. He was a Projects Editor at Make magazine, and he spent eight years as a Senior Editor at CNET.

Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page

Show notes:

Hakko FX-901 ($32)
"I've had inexpensive soldering irons for years now, but they've always been ones that plugged into a wall. I came across the Hakko when I was looking for a soldering iron I could buy multiples of to do a soldering workshop, and the idea of plugging in 30 soldering irons is like plugging in 30 hair dryers. It can become a nightmare if you really are trying to do it without tripping a breaker. …It’s become one of my new favorite things. It runs off of four AA batteries, and it heats up in about 30 seconds to a good soldering temperature for accomplishing just little PCB basic electronic projects, and it’s been great."

Manfrotto 143 Magic Arm Kit ($154)
"This one actually I learned about from Becky Stern, Make alumni. But before I started working at Make, when I was doing how-to projects for CNET, I was trying to figure out the easiest way to take those great shots of your work, like an overhead view of your workbench, while you're working on a project. And I’ve never been able to do that easily with a standard tripod. … the Magic Arm will clamp onto your table and then kind of cantilever out over the workspace so that you can position the camera looking straight down. It’s been a good tool for me to film project videos or be able to document projects as I go, for taking photos and putting them on Instructables and documenting projects."

There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings ($13)
"I think of it as like if Stephen Colbert wrote a book on electronics and describing how electronics work. It’s just a really funny whacked perspective on trying to understand how electricity and electronics work. … It’s not a lightweight text in terms of backing away from teaching you everything you would want to know about circuitry and hobby electronics. It covers all the bases, and more. I mean, there's actually stuff I learned from this on mutual inductance and other ideas that I didn't ... Either weren't taught to me in other books, or I just glazed over it at that point in other texts. But it made its impression from this perspective, and I’m grateful for it."

USB Power Only Cable with Switch ($6)
"This one is like micro-USB, but you can also find them in mini-USB, or barrel-jack connection, a couple different options. When I first looked for this, I was buying it for my son’s Amazon Alexa, or Echo Dot, because it's one of those devices where you plug it in, and you're just expected to keep it on all the time, and having this little inline power switch allows me to turn it off when it's not in use, which doesn't seem like it would be that radical a concept, but I feel like increasingly there are these always-on type devices that you want to be able to have a switch on, and they're just not baked into the design anymore."

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I'll see you this weekend at Denver Comic-Con!

I just checked in for my o-dark-hundred flight to Denver tomorrow morning for this weekend's Denver Comic-Con, where I'm appearing for several hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including panels with some of my favorite writers, like John Scalzi, Richard Kadrey, Catherynne Valente and Scott Sigler: (more…)

A 5-minute animated guide to Stoicism

Here's a one-sentence synopsis for this interesting 5-minute cartoon guide to Stoicism: We can't control much of what happens around us or to us, but we can control how we respond and think about it.

After Trumpcare kills you, this service will send your cremains to the GOP lawmaker of your choosing

Mail Me to the GOP is a new service that will ship your cremains to the GOP lawmaker of your choice after Trumpcare kills you. (more…)

NRA calls for clenched fist in response to the "violence of lies"

America's right, the source of most terrorist acts in the country, loves to see violence from the left because it justifies its thirst for more. This instinct is on full show in this NRA recruitment ad, where spokesperson Dana Loesch seethes at political protesters and promises a "clenched fist of truth" for people screaming about "racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia."

Hey, at least the NRA has a clear idea of its base, something you can't say about, say, the Democratic Party.

What strikes me, though, is a shibboleth of the NRA's totalitarian character, one usually associated with the academic left: the idea that speech is violence ("the violence of lies") as a justification for silencing it. (Some differences remain: the left's weapon of choice is, per the NRA, "political correctness," whereas the NRA's weapon of choice is rifles.)

As Black Lives Matter's Deray McKesson writes: "If I made a video like this, I'd be in jail." https://twitter.com/deray/status/880409739015766016

Great deal on air vent magnetic car mount holder

After trying lots of different phone mounts for cars, the type I've settled on attaches to an air vent and has a magnet on it. You have to stick a thin metal plate on the back of your phone, but it's unobtrusive. Your phone won't slide off. This mount is by far the most convenient kind. Amazon has a sale again today on air vent magnetic phone mounts. This 2-pack costs $6.39 with free one-day shipping.

Casey Neistat videos his Lufthansa first class flight

Vlogger Casey Neistat used miles to fly Lufthansa on first class. "Everybody's so nice!"

They have nice showers in the lounge and they even have a whole closet for his skateboard.

That "ransomware" attack was really a cyberattack on Ukraine

According to Kaspersky, the Petya ransomware that raced around the world this week wasn't ransomware at all, and there is no way to get back your files after it does its work (that's why it was so easy to shut down the email address the ransomware used to negotiate payments and decryption with victims whose computers had been taken over). (more…)