Cool things worth checking out: Kooba/Menu reader/Workshop tip

Once a week, Kevin Kelly, Claudia Dawson, and I send out a weekly newsletter that gives you 6 brief personal recommendations of cool stuff. We have 11,821 subscribers. Here's issue #54. Get the Recomendo weekly newsletter a week early by email.

Getting good stuff on craigslist:
This brief, succinct blog post has great advice on how to find what you want (at least with used furniture) on Craigslist. For instance, don’t forget to search for common misspellings of your target. These tips match my experience in buying used tools on Craigslist. —  KK

Better book finder:
Kooba is a fun option for finding the next book on your reading list. Just type in a title you like and you’ll get an interactive graph of suggestions. You can keep adding book, remove any you don’t want or start clicking to create a deeper web of recommendations. — CD

Menu reader:
This $8 magnifier is the size of a credit card, and as thick as a stack of six quarters. The lens is 1.75" square and there’s a smaller round lens in the corner. A button on the side turns on a bright LED. I’ve taken to carrying it in my pocket. It comes in especially handy for reading menus in dark restaurants. — MF

Workshop tip:
When mixing epoxies, resins, goops, paints, glues, I always need to dispose of the gunked up mixing container afterwards. I try to hoard used take-out containers and paper cups yet run out. By far the best solution is to use flexible silicone mixing bowls. Nothing sticks. Turn them inside out to clean, and use again and again. They come in all sizes. You need only one each size. Since I mostly use small amounts of epoxy, I use the smallest silicone cup I could find, Norpro Mini Pinch Cups. — KK

Become a mind reader:
A good practice in empathy I like is copying someone’s body language to get a glimpse of what they’re feeling. Sometimes taking notice is enough, but if you mimic a person’s posture or positioning you might be able to understand them better. — CD

DIY Cleaner Spray:
We’ve been making our own cleaner spray for years. It’s mainly water with rubbing alcohol, vinegar, and corn starch. It cuts right through grease, smells much better than commercial cleaners, and costs less than 50 cents a gallon. The recipe is called the “Alvin Corn Homemade Glass Cleaner” and is posted here. — MF

Nominative Determinism

Nominative determinism: "the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their names."

Exhibit A.

Police are confident that 59-year-old John Burns has a connection to at least 19 arsons on Sharon’s west side. All of those fires have happened since the beginning of this year.

At this point, he is only charged with one count of attempted arson and one count of causing or risking catastrophe. ... Over the past two years, the total number of fires in Sharon is estimated to be near 30.

Exhibit B.

Outback Steakhouse is a chain of Satan

Is Outback Steakhouse the devil's restaurant? Several twitter users mapped the location of Outbacks around some major cities to the shape of a pentacle or pentagram. Are the restaurant's flame broiled steaks delivered rom Satan's kitchen? Or is it just the fact that Outbacks are generally located in the suburbs around metropolitan areas? Outback's response below. (WCPO)

Outback Steakhouse is slaughtering cows and sacrificing them to SATAN: a conspiracy theory pic.twitter.com/RQP8DWUvDt

— ♡ JUJU ♡ (@QueenIdle) July 28, 2017

Plot twist. pic.twitter.com/t2VEpCrWY2

— Outback Steakhouse (@Outback) July 28, 2017

Wtf is Outback Steakhouse planning pic.twitter.com/l1CSafkdOK

— balenci-who? aga ☭ (@eatmyaesthetics) July 27, 2017

Adam Savage meets makers of cool costumes for kids in wheelchairs

Magic Wheelchair is an organization that teams up with makers to build costumes for kids in wheelchairs. In this video, Adam Savage met with them to check out some cool Justice League-themed costumes.

Odd video about egg yolk massages, pine needle baths, and strawberries for skin care

"This is not cookery as the egg breaking implies, but massage." Scenes from Madam Frieda Moroz's Natural Beauty and Health Salon, circa 1962. (via Weird Universe)

Daniel Handler: "Want Teenage Boys to Read? Give Them Books About Sex."

Teenage girls read far more than teenage boys. Daniel Handler, author of the Lemony Snicket series and other fantastic tales, has a suggestion on how to increase teen boys' interest in books: more sex in the pages. From Daniel's essay in the New York Times:

It is a gross generalization, of course, to say that what young men want to read about is sex — or to imply that the rest of us aren’t as interested — but it’s also offensive to pretend, when we’re ostensibly wondering how to get more young men to read, that they’re not interested in the thing we all know they’re interested in. There’s hardly any real sex in young adult books, and when it happens, it’s largely couched in the utopian dreams or the finger-wagging object lessons of the world we hope for, rather than the messy, risky, delicious and heartbreaking one we live in.

My new novel portrays a young boy’s emotional, heteroflexible sex life — and I’d like young people to read it. But it’s being published for adults, partly because the guardians of young people’s literature get so easily riled up about sex, preferring to recommend, say, books about teenagers slaughtering one another in a post-apocalyptic landscape, rather than books about kids masturbating at home.

To which many would say, so what? Don’t we have more important things to worry about than giving sexually explicit literature to young people? Shouldn’t we be more concerned about, say, the rampant misogyny of everyday life, in a nation led by a self-admitted sexual predator?

Which to me is precisely the point. I believe in the power of literature to connect, to transform, particularly for young minds beginning to explore the world. I want books to be an unlimited resource for young people and their curiosity, not a sphere restricted by how uncomfortable some curiosities make adults feel.

"Want Teenage Boys to Read? Easy. Give Them Books About Sex."

Danger looms at California's Oroville Dam

Last winter's epic rainfall brought the Oroville Dam, the country's tallest embankment dam and a crucial reservoir in California's beleaguered water supply system, near an epic collapse. Tens of thousands were evacuated as decision-making worsened the situation and an emergency spillway began to crumble. Now, one of the team leads studying the dam says more trouble is looming...

A 15-member team at UC Berkeley, through the university's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, issued the report earlier this month, and one of the team leads, professor emeritus Robert Bea, tells SFGate that the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) has been disingenuous in their public lack of concern over some patches of green vegetation that have appeared partway down the earthen dam which could be signs of slow water seepage that could lead to the dam's ultimate failure.

According to the report, "Oroville Dam may be facing a breach danger from a serious and a dangerous form of a slow motion failure mode of the left abutment of the dam."

The green spots, which the report points out have appeared in both rainy and drought years, are the result of a "natural spring" according to the DWR. But why, then, did the DWR conduct some sort of drill test near the green spots in 2016 if they aren't concerned about them.

Via SFist

(Image via Robert Bea/SFist)

Please Destroy My Enemies

I love Michael Sweater's collection of 60 darlingly ironic and awful comics.

It feels like each comic perfectly captures the frustration and fultility of today.

Please Destroy My Enemies by Michael Sweater via Amazon

Trump removes Scaramucci from communications director role

Kelly says no more dicksucking jokes. The Mooch is out.

From the NY Times:

The decision to remove Mr. Scaramucci, who had boasted about reporting directly to the president not the chief of staff, John F. Kelly, came at Mr. Kelly’s request, the people said. Mr. Kelly made clear to members of the White House staff at a meeting Monday morning that he is in charge.

It was not clear whether Mr. Scaramucci will remain employed at the White House in another position or will leave altogether.

Image: Jdarsie11

Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio found guilty

Joe Arpaio, the notoriously brutal and racist former Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, was found guilty of criminal contempt, report correspondents from the courthouse in Phoenix. He'll be sentenced in October. https://twitter.com/MarcyJonesFox10/status/892086824843198464

The charges stem from Arpaio's illegal roundups of dark-skinned people, ostensibly illegal immigrants, which were condemned as racial profiling in an earlier court ruling. Arpaio refused to stop the patrols, and was therafter charged and today convicted.

Gentleman eats 203 Chips Ahoy cookies in 27 minutes

Trencherman Matt Stonie was able to drink one gallon of milk and eat 203 Chips Ahoy cookies in 27 minutes, 33 seconds. That's 12,800 calories. He was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to do it because his dog headbutted him in the jaw earlier that day and it was sore.

Nuclear energy is the safest major energy source, says University of Oxford group

When measured by power output, nuclear energy is the safest major energy source, according to Our World in Data, an online publication produced at the University of Oxford.

Discussions with regards to energy safety often incite the question of: how many died from the nuclear incidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima? We addressed this question in a separate blog post. In summary: estimates vary but the death toll from Chernobyl is likely to be of the order of tens of thousands. For Fukushima, the majority of deaths are expected to be related to induced stress from the evacuation process (standing at 1600 deaths) rather than from direct radiation exposure.

As stand-alone events these impacts are large. However, even as isolated, large-impact events, the death toll stands at several orders of magnitude lower than deaths attributed to air pollution from other traditional energy sources — the World Health Organization estimates that 3 million die every year from ambient air pollution, and 4.3 million from indoor air pollution. As so often is the case, single events that make headlines overshadow permanent risks that result in silent tragedies.

Based on historical and current figures of deaths related to energy production, nuclear appears to have caused by far the least harm of the current major energy sources. This empirical reality is largely at odds with public perceptions, where public support for nuclear energy is often low as a result of safety concerns.

Replace your AC outlets with this dual USB charger

This AC outlet has two built-in USB charging ports. I have found it to be useful not only for phone charging, but for keeping bluetooth speakers charged, too. One reviewer said it will charge two iPads at the same time. Last April they were $18, but they are on sale for $15.

Ofsteve acquires The Atlantic

Two related tweets from Joey DeVilla.

I bought and clock for a quarter and 3D printed new hands for it

I bought this wall clock at a garage sale on Saturday for 25 cents. The aluminum clock hands were bent and damaged beyond repair, but I figured I could 3D print some replacements.

The clock was a single piece of molded black plastic. It was dusty but was otherwise in great shape. I decided to remove the battery powered quartz movement so I could wash the body in the sink. To do that I had to remove the hands from the movement. There was a little pin, which looked like a thumbtack, at the end of the shaft. I had to get it off to remove the hands. I inspected the pin with a magnifying glass (this awesome illuminated one that costs $1.85 including shipping). I thought I saw threads on the shaft. I tried to unscrew it but the shaft just rotated. So, foolishly, I removed the back cover on the quartz movement in other to hold the shaft woth pliers, and a bunch of the gears fell out. At the same time I also learned that it didn't help to lock down the shaft to unscrew the pin. It wouldn't unscrew. But I stopped worrying about getting the pin off for the time being. I worked in getting the gears back in place. I thought I succeeded, but when I closed the cover, the movement didn't work any longer. Only some of the gears were rotating. After a while I discovered the problem - one of the gears was missing. I found it on the floor (it was the only clear gear -- the others were white) and put it where it belonged. This time when I closed the cover, I was happy to see all the gears turning.

Next, I did what I should have done at the outset, learn from YouTube. There are many videos about quartz movement clock repair. I learned that you can simply pull the pin out with a pair of pliers. I was able to pull it out with my fingers. Oh well, I least I got a tour of the inner workings of a quartz clock movement. It's amazing how simple they are. And inexpensive! You can buy them on eBay for $1:

Once the pin was off, it was easy to get the hands off and remove the single nut keeping the movement secured to the clock body. I cleaned the body with soap and water and spray rinsed it.

Finally, I got to work on making new hands. I used this $13 pair of digital calipers to get the diameter of the holes in the existing hands. I measured the length and width of the hands. With these measurements, I went to Tinkercad and modeled a new set of hands. It took a few iterations to get everything right - I had to make the hole diameter a bit bigger, and I made the hands less floppy by adding a reinforcement beam along the length. I also decided to use red plastic inside of the metallic silver I started with:

If, for some reason, you want the 3D model, here you go.

The end result: Later that evening, I became curious about quartz movements. Here's a good article that presents a high level overview. Basically, when a quartz crystal is electrically stimulated, it oscillates 32,768 times a second. And when it oscillates, it produced electrical pulses at the same frequency. A small circuit with a microchip divides the frequency to produce a 1 Hz signal, which drives a stepper motor. The gearing provides the rotation of the minute and hour hands. Quartz movements are very accurate - to within 5 seconds a month!

Days before elections, the official in charge of Kenya's voting machines has been tortured and murdered

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6DlkMBKVVs

Chris Msando is the Kenyan electoral commission IT manager who oversaw the country's computerized voting systems; now, just days before a hotly contested election, his body has been found in the Kikuyu area in Nairobi's outskirts, and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission says he was tortured and murdered. (more…)

Headbadges: the lost, gorgeous bicycle hood ornaments of yesteryear

Collectors Weekly's feature on "headbages" tells the story of the 1000+ badge collection of bike-mechanic-turned-evolutionary-biologist Jeffrey Conner, who published a book on the subject, featuring an alphabetic index of photos from his collection.

(more…)

Security researchers repeatedly warned Kids Pass about bad security, only to be ignored and blocked

Kids Pass is a service that offers discounts on family activities in the UK; their website makes several common -- and serious -- security problems that could allow hackers to capture their users' passwords, which endangers those users' data on other services where they have (unwisely) recycled those same passwords. (more…)

John Oliver reveals Alex Jones's woo-empire of overpriced, terror-fuelled quack remedies

Alex Jones is the self-described "performance artist" whose four-hour-per-day show mixes odious conspiracy theories (like the idea that Sandy Hook was a hoax and the grieving parents are paid actors) and aggressive pitches for foul-tasting, evidence-free "remedies" that are often just the same shit Gwenyth Paltrow sells through her Goop empire, repackaged for easily confused right-wingers. (more…)

Watch the primitive technology guy make a pair of attractive sandals

The fellow in Australia, who makes tools and shelters from his bare hands and natural materials, is back with a new video. This time, he weaves a pair of sandals for his cracked feet.

I made a pair of sandals from loya cane. Walking bare footed in the bush generally doesn't cause problems for my feet. But when repetitively carrying loads of various materials the soles of the feet become cracked and split. So I made some basic footwear for the purpose of working on rough surfaces.

I cut some cane and measured out a length 6 times the length of the foot (about 1.5 m), folded it into loops and wove more cane between the loops to form the sole, adding new cane as needed. Next, I made bark fiber cordage and threaded it through the sandal to keep it on. The pair took about 1 hour to make (longer due to setting up the camera).

The sandals do protect from the ground, preventing the feet from cracking. I personally don't like wearing footwear in the forest as bare feet give better grip, especially on inclines. But for heavy work or when my feet are injured I'll wear these. These sandals are so quick to make that I've already got 2 pairs. The material used to make them (loya cane) is everywhere here but pretty much any rope like material will do. Bark fiber rope, grass, vine, flexible roots etc. will all make usable alternative materials.

Read tons and tons amazing Golden/Silver age comic books for free

The Comic Book Plus site has an unbelievable trove of over 33,000 Golden Age and Silver Age comics books, scanned and ready to be read in full. Once you get drawn into it, it's like you're a kid sitting on the floor, surrounded by piles of rare and amazing comic books you'd never imagined you'd ever get to read.

I love the Dell comics section, particularly the Four Color series. This is a series that was published several times a month, featuring mostly licensed one-shot comics. The quality of the art and writing is surprisingly high, and the comic book versions of obscure sitcoms (Car 54, Where Are You?), cartoons (King Leonardo and His Short Subjects), adventure shows (Sea Hunt), and tons of other material are fascinating and hilarious (intentionally and otherwise).

Where else would I have discovered King of Diamonds, a comic book based on a short-lived TV show about detective John King (Broderick Crawford) who ONLY takes cases involving the recovery of stolen diamonds? The guy is weirdly obsessed. And he's a comic book hero who looks like this: (art by Mike Sekowsky, Frank Giacoia)

I have no comment on the site's claim that all the comic books on the site are in the Public Domain, except to say that it's so obviously in everyone's interest that these comics are made available for people to see, and no one's economic interests are harmed in the least.

Reader reviews for animal medication tell a grim story about human healthcare in America

If you want an idea how desperately bad the U.S. healthcare system is for those unable to afford it, the reader reviews on Moxifish—aquarium antibiotics—make for grim reading.

Worked in two days! My fish no longer has a tooth infection:) lol

My fish started work at a new job and his insurance hadn't kicked in yet. Well, of course, my fish got a bad case of bronchitis or something like that. Nevertheless, we decided to get him some meds and boom! Within 2 days he was all new again and just kept swimming!

My fish got bronchitis the first week of a new job and didn't have the time or money to go see a doctor. I received these quickly after ordering them and now my fishy's nasty cough is gone!

My fish have been sick for two weeks straight and having trouble sleeping at night. I finally figured out that the fish have a bad sinus infection and swollen glands. After just a few hours the swelling is gone and my fish can breath again. They were even outside all day building a shed and didn't feel sick at all. :).

$40 for thirty 500mg amoxycillin capsules isn't a good deal, and it seems likely the reader reviews have become more about the joke than the broke. But doctor visits can cost hundreds of dollars without insurance (and $50 or more with it), alternatives are not easily accessible, so here we are.

Buy the book "How I Made $290,000 Selling Books," only $290,000 on Amazon

Jack Stratton, the leader of the band Vulfpeck has offered a book on Amazon, "How I Made $290,000 Selling Books." It was much funnier when the page first went up and Amazon provided an order link to purchase the book for $290,000. They have since replaced that link with a note that the book is "currently unavailable."

By the way, this dubious side project aside, I cannot recommend Vulfpeck enough; they've become my favorite band. On the surface, they're pranksters and ironists, but strip away a few layers of irony (and then a few more) and they are the exact opposite: incredibly sincere, making fantastic, mind-blowing "minimalist funk" music.

One of my favorite Vulfpeck songs is "Wait for the Moment," featuring Antwaun Stanley. It has special resonance for me because it's about a ~10 year old kid, but it's done in my favorite funky musical style, which happens to have been the dominiant musical style at the time that I was a ~10 year old kid!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4G0nbpLySI

My other favorite Vulfpeck song (also feat. Mr. Stanley) is "1612," which can be seen as an elaborate device for remembering a four-digit keypad code. My biggest fear is that someone will hack into my iTunes account and find out how many times I've played these two songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRHQPG1xd9o

The first traveling library

Said to be the first example of a portable, miniaturized selection of books, this 17th-century traveling library toured England and was reportedly commissioned by William Hakewill, MP., who liked it so much he made several more.

The miniature library was contained in a wooden case, bound in brown turkey leather, disguising it as a large folio volume, containing three shelves of gold-tooled vellum-bound books.

Now it may not be backlit or be able to use Wi-Fi, but back in 17th century England only four families were lucky enough to have one.

Stella Butler, University Librarian and Keeper of the Brotherton Collection, said: 'The Jacobean travelling library - one of only four made - dates from 1617 and is one of the most curious items in the Brotherton Collection. The miniature books are contained in a wooden case disguised to look like a large book. It's essentially a 17th century e-book reader such as a Kindle.'

Is there a good "briefcase 'o books" you can buy nowadays? You can get plenty of sets, for sure, including miniature encyclopedias and classic fiction, but none are designed to travel.

A list of the most deadly calorie bombs for sale at America's chain restaurants

Dave and Buster's will sell you a 1,970 calorie appetizer (the "Carnivore Pizzadilla"); Texas Roadhouse adds marshmallows and caramel sauce to the sweet potato in its "16-oz. Prime Rib with Loaded Sweet Potato" to bring a single meal up to 2,820 calories, and The Cheesecake Factory's "Flying Gorilla" cocktail crams 950 calories into a single beverage, making it calorically equal to a Big Mac and fries. (more…)

Insights from statistical analysis of great (and not-great) literature

Ben Blatt's Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing takes advantage of the fact that so much literature has been digitized, allowing him to run statistical analyses on writers, old and new, and make both fun and meaningful inferences about the empirical nature of writing. (more…)

Man steals chicken and biscuits, say police

A Bronx restaurant has one less chicken today, according to reports from ABC News in New York, with the pollo purloiner also making off with a tray of biscuits.

Employees are reportedly "crying foul."

After taking the food, the suspect flew the coop.

The suspect is described as a man with long braids. He was last seen wearing a black and pink shirt, blue jeans and blue sneakers. He also had a white towel over his head.

Cat adopts orphaned hedgehogs

The story varies depending on the source—momma being killed by a trap, run over by a car, lawnmowered, etc—but in all cases the result is this video of a pile of baby hedgehogs suckling on a cat.

https://twitter.com/RTUKnews/status/891645569319424001

What not to do when you're anonymous, if you want to stay that way

If you're using an anonymity tool -- Tor or something like it -- to be anonymous on the internet, it's really easy to screw it up and do something that would allow an adversary of varying degrees of power (up to and including powerful governments) to unmask you. (more…)

Carlos from Night Vale has a new podcast where he talks with his trolls

Conversations with People Who Hate Me is a new podcast from the Welcome to Night Vale folks in which Dylan Marron, who voices Carlos the Scientist on Night Vale, tracks down the people who troll him online and has long, thoughtful, substantive (and funny!) discussions about where they're coming from. (more…)

Counting cuts in 'There Will Be Blood' yields interesting insights

Cinemetrics is an emerging field of media studies, and NerdWriter deftly applies cinemetrics to There Will Be Blood to mine it for insights. (more…)

Watch an astonishing demonstration of face-mapping art

INORI (Prayer) is a proof of concept inspired by a call for artists and technologists to collaborate on works that push boundaries. (more…)

Grandpas smoke weed for the first time

For one reason or another, these three elderly gentleman had never tried cannabis, until now. Watch as "grandpas" Robert, Marvin, and Graham smoke some sweet bud for the very first time.

Graham about smoking from the bong, "It's like a porno thing."

Robert, when asked what his parents would think about him trying weed, "My dad, if he was still alive, would disown me."

"Legal? It never should have been illegal," Marvin's thoughts on whether weed should be legal.

As they get higher, the video gets funnier. By the middle, Grandpa Graham is starting to feel "really relaxed."

(digg)

Zoom in and zone out on this Mandelbrot set

Set this Mandelbrot zoom video to full screen and prepare to zone out on deep fractals for the next five+ minutes. It has 750 million iterations and its creator Fractal universe claims that's a new record. They also report that it took "more than 10 gigabytes of ram to render the reference."

(reddit)

These photo awards finalists will make you want to go exploring outside

EyeEm announce the finalists for their 2017 awards, and among the many standouts, the Outdoors category is especially impressive and competitive. (more…)

This algorithmic generative art explores the visual beauty of math

Romanian artist HyperGlu creates programs and algorithms that generate fascinating images and animations with a geometric and mathematical beauty. (more…)

Pop culture detritus illustrated as abandoned, overgrown ruins

What would some of the most iconic items of recent pop culture look like if they were real, enormous, and left to rot away? Filip Hodas explores the possibilities in his cool illustrations. (more…)

Photographer upconverted this lightning photo to 5.45 gigapixels

In 2016, Dan Piech photographed an amazing lightning bolt over New York City. The shot was so popular that he spent hundreds of hours upconverting it to a massive 5.45 gigapixel file that can be printed at 50 feet wide with no loss. (more…)

Boars, Gore, and Swords podcast covers Game of Thrones S7E3, "The Queen's Justice"

The new season of Game of Thrones has come ashore, and Boars, Gore, and Swords is ready to count the many fleets burned in their recap of "Queen's Justice". Ivan and Red discuss Cersei's worsening mental state, a surprisingly subtle torture, Tyrion's massive strategic self-own, and so much more.

To catch up on previous television seasons, the A Song of Ice And Fire books, and other TV and movies, check out the BGaS archive. You can find them on Twitter @boarsgoreswords, like their Facebook fanpage, and email them. If you want access to extra episodes and content, you can donate to the Patreon.

Guitarist and his unbalanced washing machine churn out hits

Aaron Attaboy McAvoy and his unbalanced washing machine "Ken E More" had a big hit earlier this year with a rousing cover of Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down To Georgia."

Now the duo is back with four more squeaky clean covers. Listen for the laundry-inspired lyrics for the Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)," Jerry Reed's "East Bound and Down," Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again," and Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine."

Drummers: the robots are coming for your jobs first.

Ferris wheel karaoke now exists

Starting on August 1, select visitors riding Tokyo Dome City's Big-O Ferris wheel will be able to sing their hearts out as they swing (rock?) high above Tokyo. The Japanese entertainment complex has added karaoke to eight of the Ferris wheel's 40 air-conditioned passenger cabins. Riders have fifteen minutes to belt out songs from the 50-song playlist which includes The Beatles' "Let it Be," and Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together."

Bloggers from SoraNews24 checked it out and report:

As the wheel lifted the men upwards they kicked things off with “Love You Only” by Tokio. Even for these two schlubs it turned out to be surprisingly fun. For some reason, the upward motion seemed to raise the energy as well. This is a sensation you cannot find in any karaoke box or bar.

And as their gondola reached the apex so too did their singing reach a climax. Singing so high up and alone was exhilarating, and even when singing songs for the first time, our boys were belting the lyrics out powerfully like a pair of peckish Pavarottis.

So surprisingly not only was karaoke on a Ferris wheel not a misfire, it turned out that the combination was even greater than the sum of its parts. The two amusements accentuated each other in ways they never could have imagined.

The brilliant idea behind these anti-Elvis buttons

By the late 1950s, Elvis Presley merchandise was selling like hotcakes, but not everyone was buying. So, Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, had an idea to free everyone of their money by selling buttons with anti-Presley statements. These round badges looked similar to the "I Like Elvis" ones that were already being sold but instead read, "I Hate Elvis," "Elvis is a Jerk," and "Elvis is a Joik*." Rather genius!

If you're interested in the Colonel and how he made Presley a big star, a biopic titled The Colonel is slated for 2018. It's based on Alanna Nash’s 2004 book, The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley.

*I'm not 100% sure I know what a "joik" is, but I don't think it's good.

image via TalkBass.com

An '80s music mashup parody by the Sesame Street gang

In classic Sesame Street parody style, the puppets take on 1980s pop music in this mashup music video. As they've been known to do, the Street's Glee Club once again amusingly switch up lyrics to fit their narrative. So, for instance, a-Ha's "Take on Me" becomes Cookie Monster's "Bake Cookie" and Rick James' "Super Freak" becomes Oscar's "Super Grouch." There's even a rickroll (because, of course there is).

Previously: Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage' starring Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang

These DIY projects are great for curious minds of all ages

Many people find it easiest to learn things by doing them. If you’re looking to give a doer in your life an interesting, hands-on project, check out these tech-focused DIY kits:

DIY AT-AT Cable Organizer & Card Case ($32.99)

With this kit, you get to put together a wooden replica of an AT-AT that keeps cables, pens, and other desktop detritus organized. And it’s legs are totally posable to let you re-create the battle on Hoth.

CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 Complete Starter Kit ($69.99)

To set up a Raspberry Pi computer as quickly as possible, this Complete Starter Kit includes a MicroSD card preloaded with the aptly-named NOOBS OS, and all the hardware you need to boot it up.

The Complete Raspberry Pi 3 Training Bundle ($19)

The Raspberry Pi is capable of so much more than emulating old video games. You can learn how to use it for penetration testing, robotics, distributed computing, and internet-of-things devices with this course bundle.

TinyTesla Musical Tesla Coil Kit ($197)

You can build a singing Tesla coil, also known as a zeusaphone, with this kit. By controlling your plasma speaker from a laptop or midi source, you can put on quite an electrifying performance.

Extpro DIY Assemble Toy Set Solar Powered Car Kit ($10.95)

You and your kids can get excited about robotics and renewable energy together with this homemade Solar Powered Car kit. This project is best for ages six and up.

SunFounder Raspberry Pi Robot Kits ($149.99)

For a much more advanced electronic car project, this Raspberry Pi Kit will have you building a 4-wheeled robot. You’ll learn Python to program its camera and movements, or you can drive it in real time with an external device.

littleBits Electronics Synth Kit ($112.94)

The littleBits analog synthesizer modules can be combined to make some truly amazing sounds. They snap together magnetically, so you can try out different arrangements without needing a mess of patch cables.

Makeblock mBot Kit ($94.99)

If you’ve got a little one that’s itching to learn about programming, electronics, and robots, they can do it all with this mBot Kit. After putting it together, they’ll learn to control their robot’s Arduino brain with the Scratch graphical coding environment.

How African speculative fiction gave birth to itself

Geoff Ryman -- the brilliant science fiction author who curated last year's 100 AFRICAN WRITERS OF SFF project, continues to publish and curate excellent, exciting science fiction from across Africa. (more…)

Scottish government agencies move to block expansion of Trump's unprofitable golf courses

Trump's Scottish golf courses are hemorrhaging money (they lost $1.8M in 2015) and the only way they can be profitable is if they're allowed to expand, but that's almost certainly not going to happen. (more…)

Defcon vote-hacking village shows that "secure" voting machines can be broken in minutes

Since the 2000 Bush-Gore election crisis and the hanging-chad controversy, voting machine vendors have been offering touchscreen voting machines as a solution to America's voting woes -- and security researchers have been pointing out that the products on offer were seriously, gravely defective. (more…)

Ease your mind on your own time with Welzen

Although regular meditation has been shown to ease physical stress and reduce immune system activation, many people have embraced it as a powerful way to support their mental health. Mindfulness techniques like meditation and conscious breathing are powerful tools that can be used by anyone, and newcomers shouldn’t feel intimidated to try them.

If you’ve never meditated before or have found it difficult to fit into your life, Welzen’s 5-day program can help you develop your practice from scratch. Whether you’re looking for a daily commitment or just need a breather on certain tough days, Welzen offers a wide variety of subject-specific guided sessions, as well as a new 10-minute mediation every day. They have meditations to match your current mood, so you can enhance your focus when you’re feeling positive, and lift your spirits when the end of the day can’t come soon enough.

You can pick up a lifetime subscription to Welzen in the Boing Boing Store for $49.

New York property speculators have figured out how to evict everyone

New York's catastrophic homelessness is about to get much, much worse: the skyrocketing property values (driven by speculators who buy apartments in order to get their money out of corrupt and failing states abroad, leaving them empty with the understanding that they can be cashed out on short notice, thanks to the white-hot market of other money-launderers) have attracted very deep-pocketed, anonymous hedge-funds that are snapping up buildings with rent-stabilized and rent-controlled units, who use a ruthless set of highly refined tactics to kick out all their tenants and then flip the building. (more…)

Foxconn's corporate welfare deal will cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than 3 billion dollars

The recent trumpist trumpeting about the plans of Chinese manufacturer Foxconn to open a manufacturing facility in Wisconsin omitted a few key details -- like the fact that Foxconn is being given a sweetheart tax-break that's topped up with 15 years' worth of guarantees of up to $200m/year in cash subsidies at taxpayer expense -- a record-setting taxpayer subsidy that exceeds the previous Wisconsin record-holder by a factor of fifty. (more…)

Roomba walks back plan to sell maps of your house to Amazon and Google

Last week, Reuters published an interview with Irobot CEO Colin Angle, in which the Roomba-czar explained his plan to have his cleaning robots produce detailed maps of your house that the company would sell to Amazon and Google, something the company could do today, thanks to an exceptionally broad and one-sided terms of service that you "agree" to when you become an Irobot customer. (more…)

This shower speaker is twice as powerful as your average shower speaker

The XXL Shower Speaker sticks to your bathroom wall with a sturdy suction cup, and it promises to be the best accompanist you've ever had in the shower.

Aside from hearing your own singing voice, how often do you really get to enjoy the excellent acoustics of the bathtub? This Bluetooth speaker is totally waterproof, so you can bring your music, podcasts, and audiobooks with you into the shower. It puts playback controls front and center, with raised rubber texture so you can always find the play button when your eyes are full of soap. And you can easily answer or decline calls, depending on how hectic your morning is.

The XXL Shower Speaker comes in several bright colors, or flat black if that fits better with your bath decor. You can get it here for $19.99.

Chemist of Mysteries: Man Ray’s Dream Photos

Minimalist and modern-sounding, Man Ray is the sort of name that seems as if it should be outlined in buzzing neon. Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia on August 27, 1890, the photographer and visual artist shortened his nickname, “Manny,” to Man, and after 1912 went by a less Jewish-sounding version of his surname in response to the anti-Semitism of the times.

It was an inspired choice. Man Ray sounds like a shaft of light in human form—a radiant man. “I have freed myself from the sticky medium of paint and am working directly with light itself,” the frustrated painter exulted, after discovering the technique that enabled him to produce Rayographs, as he called them—spooky, one-of-a-kind images created by placing objects on light-sensitive paper and exposing them to light, producing white silhouettes that glow eerily against a black background, like ectoplasmic manifestations in a Spiritualist photograph. “Everything can be transformed, deformed, and obliterated by light,” he said. “Its flexibility is precisely the same as the suppleness of the brush.”

Ray’s work is collected in a new book, Man Ray (part of Taschen’s Photo Masters series). A fellow traveler of the Dadaists and Surrealists, Ray (1890-1976) pioneered unconventional techniques that, married to his visual wit, evoke hidden realities. “By assembling a vocabulary of seldom-used darkroom techniques, he freed photography from its reputation for recording the observable world and used it to create images drawn from the imagination,” writes Katherine Ware in her essay “Chemist of Mysteries,” included in the book. In his alien still lives, Calla lilies give off a radioactive glow (a special effect produced by solarization, in which a print or a negative is exposed during its development, causing some darks to appear light, some lights to appear dark). He had an offhanded brilliance when it came to titles. An eggbeater, lit so it casts a shadow and photographed from an awkward angle, takes on a life of its own, especially when titled La Femme (“The Woman”).  In “Le Violon d’Ingres” (“The Violin of Ingres”), a pair of f-holes, painted onto a photo of a naked woman with her back to us, turns a run-of-the-mill nude into a sly, Duchampian pun. But it’s his Rayographs of everyday detritus—bottles, combs, toy guns—that open the door to another world. Surrealist X-rays, they expose the unconscious lives of inanimate objects.

Watch Trump's terrifying speech to cops encouraging more police brutality

“Don't be too nice” to “thugs,” said the President.

Yep. In a speech to police in New York today, Donald Trump said it's okay for officers to physically abuse suspects. This is where we are, America.

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Watching a hydraulic press crush 1,500 sheets of paper is oddly soothing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXnK59dRghs

After a long week of demoralizing Trump hijinks, what you need is the satisfying release of a hydraulic press video. Here's one crushing 1500 pounds of paper.

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Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard covers Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque

My friend Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie released a stunning new album today that is actually a re-recording of an old album, Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque from 1991. Bandwagonesque is an iconic album of 1990s indie rock and Ben's magnificent covers are a welcome reminder of the beauty in the originals and, sure, a bit of a flashback to alt.rock's heyday. But Ben's Bandwagonesque isn't a nostalgia trip. The sound of Ben's record is intensely contemporary. It is the emotive sound of today. Or of any day, really. As Ben wrote in a lovely essay in The Guardian, the album "is a retreat from the passage of time, a retreat from the political climate in our country and a reminder that there is beauty in the world." Indeed, let's not forget. Check out "The Concept" above. And here's more from Ben in The Guardian:

There was a show on MTV called 120 Minutes that played underground indie and alternative videos. I would tape it on VHS and watch it over the course of the next week. The first Teenage Fanclub song I heard on it was probably The Concept – it was so melodic and beautiful, and the harmonies were amazing, but at the same time, like the punk rock I was listening to, I could see myself playing it. When I bought Bandwagonesque, it felt attainable to me, but also from some other magical world of music that I could only dream of travelling to. Teenage Fanclub, four men from Scotland, were making music that seemed to grab me by the heart and lift me off the ground. There was such an openness. I fell in love immediately.

Benjamin Gibbard presents Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque

(photo by Rachel Demy)

Adam Savage and John Hodgman cosplay as 'Twobacca' at Comic-Con

“My friend John Hodgman had never cosplayed before,” says Boing Boing pal Adam Savage, “So I invited him to walk the floor with me at Comic-Con as Chewbacca. (He's on the left.).”

Lordy, there are tapes.

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Reince Preibus fired

President Trump has pushed out Reince Priebus, his chief of staff. He'll be replaced by John F. Kelly, DHS secretary.

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