Tuesday 31 December 2019

ProjectDue handles your business' busywork so you can get more done

Details are the bane of any manager. It's tough to innovate when you've got invoices to approve, gripes to address and countless fires to put out on any number of projects.

Here is where technology can actually help you, because businesses run better when they integrate all their procedures, inflow and outflow under one system. ProjectDue.co aims to be just that system, and it's got the functionality to do it.

This business suite has all the nuts-and-bolts essentials that let you keep track of employees and clients, but it also integrates that info in a way that allows you to work dynamically. You can track progress with any lead on the fly and communicate their needs to the right people on you team.

Invoices are approved with the click of a button, inventory gets tracked at a glance, and projects can be managed much more efficiently with all the relevant info at your fingertips.

A lifetime subscription to ProjectDue.co is already more than 95% off, but you can take an extra 20% off that final cost with the discount code 20SAVE20.



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Hack your cooking in 2020 with an air fryer. These 6 are on sale today

You may have heard of air fryers, but they're a lot more versatile than the name implies. Healthier (and quicker!) french fries are just the tip of the iceberg with these innovative cookers, and here are six of our favorites. As if they needed any additional highlighting, you can save an extra 20% off the final price on any of them by using the coupon code 20SAVE20.

GoWISE USA® 12.7QT Electric Air Fryer Toaster Oven

This premiere unit in the GoWISE line lets you take full advantage of the Rapid Air Circulation tech that cooks food fast with minimal amounts of oil. With a 12.7 quart capacity, you can roast and fry everything up to a full chicken while the 15 presets make it easy to make a variety of meals on the fly.

MSRP: $159.99

Sale Price: $149.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon: $119.99

GoWISE USA® 11-in-1 Programmable 12.7QT Electric Air Fryer Toaster Oven

Here's another high-capacity model from GoWISE USA that's designed to save space. There are three removable racks that allow you to make multiple dishes at the same time, and a recipe book that shows you how to refine them.

MSRP: $180.00

Sale Price: $159.00

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon: $127.20

GoWISE USA® 8-in-1 Programmable 4.6QT Stainless Electric Air Fryer

This smaller air fryer lets you cook a wide array of meals (even desserts) in a PFOA-free stainless steel pan. There's even a crisper tray that allows for more efficient toasting, frying or warming up.

MSRP: $149.00

Sale Price: $89.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon: $71.99

GoWISE USA® 8-in-1 Programmable 11.6QT Air Fryer Toaster Oven

Bake up a quick batch of cookies or slow roast a rotisserie chicken over a series of hours with this mid-sized model. The 8 presets include a dehydration mode for making great snacks out of fruits or veggies.

MSRP: $149.00

Sale Price: $124.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon: $99.99

Chefman 6L Digital Multi-Functional Air Fryer

The Chefman is perfect for tight spaces, packing a ton of functionality into a 6-liter space. It sports 6 presets for easy operation and the speedy cooking times are made even quicker with no preheating necessary.

MSRP: $149.99

Sale Price: $127.00

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon: $101.60

Power Air Fryer 10-in-1 Pro Elite Oven (Refurbished)

On a budget? This refurbished power air fryer is deeply discounted but still makes a variety of great meals with 8 presets to help you along the way. The 6-quart capacity lets it handle big entrees or multiple side dishes at once.

MSRP: $169.95

Sale Price: $84.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon: $67.99



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Wanda Diaz Merced is a blind astronomer who hears the science of the stars

Wanda Diaz Merced is an astronomer at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Office for Astronomy Outreach in Mitaka, Japan. Diaz Merced is blind and uses a technique to transform data from astronomical surveys into sounds for analysis. Over at Nature, Elizabeth Gibney interviewed Merced about how "converting astronomical data into sound could bring discoveries that conventional techniques miss." From Nature:

How did you begin your work with sonification?

Sonification has been around for a long time. In 1933, for example, US physicist Karl Jansky reported detecting the first radio waves from space, as an audible hiss in his antenna. But at some point, visualization came to dominate the way we interpret astrophysical data. When I was an intern at NASA in 2005, my mentor, Robert Candey, wanted me to create a prototype data analysis tool that would familiarize blind people with space-physics data. So we developed software that could map astronomical data into sound — its pitch, rhythm and volume. Then, in my 2013 PhD dissertation at the University of Glasgow, UK, I proved that it is useful....

Can you describe a real-world example?

There are many. Sonification can help us to study the habitability of an exoplanet, by understanding how much high-energy cosmic and solar rays interact with its magnetic field or atmosphere. Such interactions cause fluctuations of electromagnetic emission from that star system that vary in a way that relates to frequency . BBut because astronomers usually separate out different frequency components into many graphs, this is easy to miss. With sonification, we can listen to all the different frequencies together and pick out the signal from the noise.



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Groovy synth Star Wars soundtrack from Japan (1978)

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



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Ingenious Cold War keylogger the Russians used to bug Selectric typewriters in the US embassy

In the 1970s, the Soviets managed to intercept top secret communications in the US embassy in Moscow and nobody could figure out how. While an antenna was eventually found hidden in the embassy's chimney, it took years to determine how what data was being collected for transmission and how. As a last resort, all equipment at the embassy was shipped back to the US for analysis. From IEEE Spectrum:

After tens of thousands of fruitless X-rays, a technician noticed a small coil of wire inside the on/off switch of an IBM Selectric typewriter. (NSA engineer Charles) Gandy believed that this coil was acting as a step-down transformer to supply lower-voltage power to something within the typewriter. Eventually he uncovered a series of modifications that had been concealed so expertly that they had previously defied detection.

A solid aluminum bar, part of the structural support of the typewriter, had been replaced with one that looked identical but was hollow. Inside the cavity was a circuit board and six magnetometers. The magnetometers sensed movements of tiny magnets that had been embedded in the transposers that moved the typing “golf ball” into position for striking a given letter.

Other components of the typewriters, such as springs and screws, had been repurposed to deliver power to the hidden circuits and to act as antennas. Keystroke information was stored and sent in encrypted burst transmissions that hopped across multiple frequencies.

For more on this fascinating story, check out former intelligence officer and technologist Eric Haseltine's new book: "The Spy in Moscow Station"

image: IBM Selectric by Oliver Kurmis (CC BY 2.5)

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Kevin Smith reveals Joker's much darker alternative ending

(SPOILER ALERT)

On this episode of the Fatman Beyond podcast, Kevin Smith claims that Todd Phillips' Joker originally had a much darker ending written for it. From Hypebeast:

While the final release of the film ended with Arthur Fleck being locked up in a psychiatric hospital with a scene suggesting he killed his new therapist, Smith says around the 16:35 mark in the video above that a source close to the project revealed an alternative ending featuring a flashback at the hospital. The flashback would’ve taken the audience back to Thomas and Martha Wayne’s murder scene in the alley, and reveal that it was actually the Joker who killed them. Even more shocking is the fact that the Joker then also shoots Bruce Wayne, effectively killing Batman in that particular universe.

“Originally, the ending in the hospital was different,” Smith said. “He’s in the hospital and he laughs, chuckles, and he says, ‘I was just thinking of something funny.’ What was supposed to happen was you flashed back to the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne and it was him killing Thomas and Martha Wayne and the boy was screaming and crying and he turned to walk away and he turned back, shrugged, and shot the kid. Credits.”



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Why you should almost always order one large pizza instead of two mediums

Many pizza places offer special "deals" if you order two medium pies. You might think that two mediums deliver more cheesy goodness than one large pie, but usually you'd be mistaken. From Primer, a mathematical comparison of two 12" pizzas and one 18" pizza:

Area of two 12” pizzas:

12/2 = 6 6×6=36 36xπ = 113.1 in² x 2 = 226.2 in²

Area of one 18” pizza:

18/2=9 9×9=81 81xπ = 254.5 in²

And as we know, more pizza is always better.

image: igorovsyannykov (CC0)

(via Cliff Pickover)

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West Virginia corrections cadets give Nazi salute in photo

Granted anonymity somewhere along the line from shutter to public exposure, cadets in the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation's basic training program offer the camera a Nazi salute in a photo that emerged earlier this month. Two academy trainers and one cadet have already lost their jobs; the state's governer says he wants the whole class fired. [ht Thom]

A third staff member who failed to report the contents of the photograph will also be fired, bringing the total number of staff terminations to three. Additionally, four academy instructors who are known to have seen the picture and failed to report it will also be suspended without pay.

In the image, nearly all members of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Basic Training Class #18 — 31 cadets — are giving what appears to be a Nazi salute. The others are posing with a clenched fist in the air.

I count five closed fists among the Nazi saluters.



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$tupid jewelry: Earring-card earring

This poor gal could only afford half a pair. If only there was another way...

French design house Maison Margiela has a long history of making dumb stuff in the name of fashion. But now they've really topped themselves. Introducing Tag, a single earring made of a pair of gold (well, brass) hoop earrings on a white lambskin card. The cost? Well, it was $305 but now you can get one for just $92 on sale.

It's being called "shoplifter chic":

And it's not the first time it's been done:

(Neatorama)

screenshots via Ssense



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This top-tier NetGear Nighthawk router is on sale for over 80% off

So you've beefed up your media arsenal with mega-screen HDTVs, top-of-the-line laptops and gaming consoles galore. That's great, but don't forget that you need some internet infrastructure to keep it all humming.

If a better router is what you need, you could do a lot worse than this NetGear Nighthawk AC1900 - especially a model that's refurbished and available at a fraction of the original cost.

The 2-in-1 CableLabs DOCSIS® 3.0 Cable Modem and Wi-Fi Router can provide internet speeds of 1.9 Gbps and downloads at 960 Mbps. That's even while using multiple devices at peak hours, which can be a real help for busy households.

The 24x8 channel bonding feature is a particular boon for video, and you'll have less dead spots in any size house thanks to the NETGEAR Beamforming+ capability.The Nighthawk AC1900 is certified to work with most any ISP, and you can even separate secure logins for your kids or guests.

This NetGear Nighthawk AC1900 is refurbished with an "A" rating, and is now more than 60% off the original retail price. You can even take an extra 20% off that cost by using the coupon code 20SAVE20.



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Australia is only a horrifying natural death trap so it can balance out the adorableness of the quokka

I've always understood Australia to be a nightmare hellscape full of crazy killer creatures. But that's only because I hadn't heard about the quokka. This teddy bear-sized marsupial lives on the islands off the mainland of Australia, and they're just — I mean — look at this thing!

It's basically a non-cannibalistic Ewok, and apparently they're known for being friendly as hell (also exceptionally horny), earning them the distinction of the "happiest animal in the world." Though it's illegal to touch one, they're allegedly super-down with selfies, too.

I would brave any Australian beast just to be best friends with one of these lil' fellas.

Image via Wikimedia Commons



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Footage of Australian fire crew overwhelmed by flames

Dozens are likely dead in Australia, which is beset by uncontrolled wildfires. Experts believe a third of the koala population on the continent's east coast is already wiped out, and there's no end in sight. Residents are fleeing to the beaches to escape the flames. In the video embedded here from New South Wales Fire + Rescue, a crew sits in their truck, unable to do anything to fight the the blaze as it tears throught the forest toward them, then around them, then away from them.

Here's (NSFW) footage from Tyson Whelan, which he says he took at 10:30 a.m. in Mallacoota, Victoria:

Australia's government appears unmoved. Here's the Prime Minister, talking earlier in wildfire season, about why there would be no change in policy toward carbon emissions: “What we won’t do is engage in reckless and job-destroying and economy-crunching targets which are being sought."



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Cop "fired" after fabricating story of insulting McDonalds coffee cup

An anonymous police officer in Herington, Kansas, claimed he was given a coffee cup with "fucking pigs" written on it by staff at McDonalds. The story went viral, uncritically laundered by local media and spread by outraged conservatives on the internet. But it turned out he was lying. McDonalds had the receipts—video surveillance of the purchase—and forced the Herington P.D. to admit that it didn't happen. The cop "is no longer employed" by Herington Police Department, says Chief Brian Hornaday

"In (our) investigation we have found that McDonald's and its employees did not have anything whatsoever to do with this incident, this was completely and solely fabricated by a Herington police officer who is no longer employed with our agency," Herington Police Department Chief Brian Hornaday said in a news conference Monday.

The incident, the chief said, has been an "obvious violation of ... public trust."

"Our job is solely to do this job with the utmost integrity because if you can't trust the cops, who can you trust," he said.

It was Hornaday himself who first posted the photos to social media, which is why we don't know the name of the cop, because he is refusing to tell anyone. "If you can't trust the cops, who can you trust," he adds.



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Esoteric programming language coded with images

Piet is an esoteric programming language where the programs are encoded as images and resemble abstract paintings. Spot-on Mondrians (pictures) are the hook, but a wide range of pixelated styles are possible; the logic of the program can be exposed in the image.

Prime Number Generator

Sylvain Tintillier provides a method of generating prime numbers using Piet. Figuring out how it works is easy, he says, "Just look at the bitmap!"



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Six lateral thinking puzzles

Here are six new lateral thinking puzzles to test your wits and stump your friends -- play along with us as we try to untangle some perplexing situations using yes-or-no questions.

Show notes

Please support us on Patreon!



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A deep dive into the visual branding of Cyberdyne Systems from the "Terminator" films

Speculative Identities is a site run by Roger Strunk that analyzes and examines the graphic design and UI details of science fictional companies. For example, the myriad corporations that comprise the worlds as seen in Blade Runner and Total Rekall, or looking into the ways that the divergent timelines from Back to the Future II impacted the logos for Pizza Hut and USA Today.

Even more recently, they've taken a branding approach to one of my favorite dystopian sci-fi corporations: Cyberdyne Industries from the Terminator films.

Strunk reverse-engineers from each and every iteration of the Cyberdyne logo as it appears across the movies in order to create the kind of standard branding standards sheet that any corporation would get from a graphic designer. These includes rules on things like fonts, color strategies, and permissible variations of the logo. And—because it's Cyberdyne—this extends beyond the instances of the logo as it appears on company badges and clothing, but also the variations that occur in divergent timelines.

It's an impressively comprehensive breakdown, approached with specificity and care of a professional graphic designer, as if they were actually hired to brand this multi-temporal company. Strunk even speculates into how this company's branding came about, both in-universe and in the real world. It's pretty fascinating stuff.

At the Cyberdyne Systems building, we see extensive application of the corporate identity, across exterior and interior signs, on employee items and uniforms, and on equipment and screens. This primarily consists of the logo, in a variety of versions that have been detailed in the overview section of this entry. The "Usage" sections that follow capture examples of each way it was used in the film.

[…]

The Cyberdyne Systems visual identity, as it first appeared in the film T2: Judgement Day, is composed of two elements — a mark and wordmark — that appear in a variety of versions and lockups, and independently as standalone identifiers.

The mark (Figure 10.1) can be described overall as an upward pointing triangle divided into three separate parts, each of which is an irregularly shaped diamond, arrayed around a central point. The primary, 2-color version of the mark is black and light gray, with the lower right diamond being highlighted in most versions of the mark. It is not apparent what the mark or the highlight signifies. Given the company’s name, there is no reason to read the overall triangle shape as an “A”. It can be classified as an abstract or non-figurative mark. But that doesn’t mean it is just arbitrary shapes — looking for possible inspiration, by examining the trends and companies mentioned in the previous section, could point to it being a reference or homage to real-world marks and what they represent.

Speculative Identities: Cyberdyne Systems

Image via Gisela Giardino/Flickr



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Monday 30 December 2019

Happy Public Domain Day 2020!

Jennifer Jenkins from the Duke Center for the Public Domain writes, "January 1, 2020 is Public Domain Day! Works published in 1924 are entering the US public domain. They include George Gershwin’s 'Rhapsody in Blue' and 'Fascinating Rhythm,' silent films by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and Thomas Mann’s 'The Magic Mountain,' E. M. Forster’s 'A Passage to India,' and A. A. Milne’s 'When We Were Very Young.' These works were supposed to go into the public domain in 2000, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years. See what will (finally) be open to all!"

Works from 1924 are finally entering the public domain, after a 95-year copyright term. However, under the laws that were in effect until 1978, thousands of works from 1963 would be entering the public domain this year. They range from the books The Fire Next Time and Where the Wild Things Are, to the film The Birds and the albums and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and much more. Have a look at some of the others. In fact, since copyright used to come in renewable terms of 28 years, and 85% of authors did not renew, 85% of the works from 1991 might be entering the public domain! Imagine what the great libraries of the world—or just internet hobbyists—could do: digitizing those holdings, making them available for education and research, for pleasure and for creative reuse.

Public Domain Day 2020 [Center for the Study of the Public Domain/Duke University School of Law]

(Thanks, Jennifer!)

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Take an extra 20% off everything in the Boing Boing store from luggage to gaming accessories

So you didn't get all the gifts you wanted this year. Who does? The good news is, there's still time to take advantage of holiday discounts. Here are 10 of our favorite holdovers on holiday deals. Most are already on sale, but you can take an extra 20% off the final price by using the holiday coupon code 20SAVE20.

Playseat® Challenge Racing Video Game Chair

Get into the driver's seat with the ultimate accessory for racing games. It's compatible with current Xbox and Playstation systems as well as PC or Mac, and it even folds up for storage when not in use.

MSRP: $277

Sale Price: $249

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $199.20

EZ-PET Smart Programmable Automatic Feeder

Does your pet need some TLC when you're away? This automatic feeder pairs with your smartphone, allowing you to remotely dole out exact portions of food from anywhere. You can even record your voice and have it call your pup or kitty to chow time.

MSRP: $99.99

Sale Price: $79.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $63.99

EndlessID® Smart Luggage & Backpack Tag

Say goodbye to lost luggage with this simple tag. It can give you the exact location of your bag through any smartphone or other NFC-enabled devices. You can also make use of it as a secure medical ID tag which will share crucial info with doctors or EMTs.

MSRP: $19.99

Sale Price: $16.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $13.59

Insulated Touchscreen Gloves

If the weather outside is frightful, you should at the very least have your smartphone to keep you company. This insulated yet fully conductive glove lets you scroll away in any climate.

MSRP: $49.90

Sale Price: $21.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $17.59

Surfer Electric Standing Desk

Standing desks can be great for your health across the board, but there are times when you just need to take a load off. Switch between the two on the fly with this motorized desk that raises up to 48.5" with three customizable, preset heights.

MSRP: $995.00

Sale Price: $800.00

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $640.00

Gbros. Wireless Adapter for Nintendo Switch

Just when you thought your Switch gaming experience couldn't get any better, this adapter offers a dose of instant retro. Install it and you can control your Switch with classic controllers from the Gamecube, Wii or NES.

MSRP: $19.99

Sale Price: $14.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $11.99

DH1000 Amplifier (Black)

Are you losing out on sound quality? Pushing it through smartphone or laptop audio will do that. This mini-amp is specifically designed for MP3 and other digital formats. filtering it back its into its original analog fullness.

MSRP: $299.00

Sale Price: $268.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $215.19

Blanket ID Tag + Membership

This pet tag is more than just a simple ID. When paired with a Blanket ID membership, it can locate your furry pal by GPS, issue lost pet alerts and more.

MSRP: $43.00

Sale Price: $35.00

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $28.00

APT-X 4.1 Bluetooth Receiver (Black)

Unshackle any set of headphones with this Bluetooth receiver and its low latency chip design. That means no lost signals and crisp, uninterrupted sound on any device, from any device.

MSRP: $49.00

Sale Price: $43.99

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $35.19

Infinity Glow LED Beer Pong Table

Add a little extra drama to any beer pong match with this man-cave centerpiece. It lights up continuously or shifts in a hypnotic mirrored pattern and the steel construction allows it to survive the most egregious party fouls.

MSRP: $579.00

Sale Price: $549.00

Price after 20SAVE20 coupon code: $439.20



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Ivanka Trump to provide excuse to boycott CES

Looking for a reason to finally power down that annual orgy of future high-tech landfill poisons? Here ya go.

From Variety:

It’s official: Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser, will be on the CES 2020 keynote stage next month in Las Vegas.

Ivanka Trump will join a keynote discussion on jobs and the future of work with Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Assn., which produces CES (originally known as the Consumer Electronics Show). The talk is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 2 p.m. PT in the Venetian’s Palazzo Ballroom. Trump and Shapiro will discuss “employer-led strategies to reskill workers, create apprenticeships and develop K-12 STEM education programs,” according to the CTA.

Read the rest.

[Image: Screen capture of Ivanka's address to the RNC, 2016]



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Syd Mead, 1933-2019

The futurist and artist Syd Mead has died, according to the Associated Press.

His work powered the visionary qualities of movies such as Blade Runner, Tron, Star Trek The Motion Picture, Aliens and Elysium, but his work as a designer for automaker Ford and electronics company Philips are just as influential. His is a body of work truly without end: "I've called science fiction 'reality ahead of schedule.'"



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In this tic-tac-toe variant played with all X's, the loser is actually the winner

In Misère Tic-tac-toe, getting three-in-a-row means you lose. I can't wait to unleash this game on my kids at our next dinner out.

Here is a wonderfully-named app version: Notakto

Here is a scientific paper on the mathematics of the game: "The Secrets of Notakto: Winning at X-onlyTic-Tac-Toe" by Thane E. Plambeck, Greg Whitehead

And below is part 2 of the Numberphile video. Note from the video description:

Correction from Thane: The configuration with two X's, one in a corner and one in the middle, is a "b" and not a "b^2". It's at 5:24 in the video.

(via Cliff Pickover)



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Massive sea lions commandeer small boat

Two big sea lions kicked back aboard a small, empty anchored boat in Eld Inlet at the southern end of Washington's Puget Sound. Josh Phillips of Spawn Fly Fish captured this delightful moment two weeks ago. “It looked a little off and we got closer and closer and realized there were two massive animals on board,” Phillips told The Olympian.



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Watch the best TV news bloopers of 2019

Keep fucking that chicken!

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Scientists genetically engineer E. coli to produce the psychedelic psilocybin

Finally, researchers are again exploring the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics to treat the likes of depression, addiction, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. To provide pharmaceutical-quality compounds for clinical trials, scientists are developing new ways to produce the psychedelics. Chemical engineers at Miami University in Ohio have now genetically engineered E. coli to crank put psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms. From Scientific American:

The modified microbes generated up to 1.16 grams of psilocybin per liter of culture medium—the highest yield to date from any engineered organism and a 10-fold increase over the next best attempt. Scaled up, the new method could produce psilocybin for potential therapeutic use.

“The number-one advantage is it's simply cheaper” than—or at least cost-competitive with—other methods, says lead study author Alexandra Adams, an undergraduate student in chemical engineering at Miami University in Ohio...

Adams and her colleagues engineered E. coli that incorporated three genes from the Psilocybe cubensis mushroom, enabling the bacteria to synthesize psilocybin from the cheap and easily obtainable precursor molecule 4-hydroxyindole, and then they optimized the process to produce the drug on a larger scale.



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Alabama cops gloat over "quilt" made from cardboard signs confiscated from homeless people over Christmas

In this photo posted to Facebook, two police officers from Mobile, Alabama pose with a "quilt" made from cardboard signs confiscated from homeless people in the area over the Christmas break.

“Wanna wish everybody in the 4th precinct a Merry Christmas, especially our captain," says the caption to the posting. “Hope you enjoy our homeless quilt. Sincerely Panhandler patrol.”

Al.com names the two grinning officers as Preston McGraw and Alexandre Olivier, and points out that the photo was taken in a police department office. It was first posted to Officer McGraw's page, but has been shared widely since.

Mobile Police Department has not responded to a request for comment. AL.com also emailed every city council member for comment. No one has yet responded.

Since being posted online the image has been shared more than 10,000 times and has over 3,000 comments. Many comments claim the image to be in poor taste, especially during the holiday season.

God Bless. God Bless.
God Bless. God Bless.
God Bless. God Bless.
God Bless. God Bless.



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Vaughan Oliver -- graphic designer for 4AD, Cocteau Twins, Pixies -- RIP

Vaughan Oliver, the graphic designer whose work defined the 4AD record label, has died. He was 62. His ethereal, surreal, magnificent album art for The Pixies, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, and Clan of Xymox brought together design and music in a way that forever changed and elevated the design of music packaging. From The Guardian:

Oliver, born in 1957, grew up in County Durham and studied graphic design at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic. “I was a working class lad from a dull town,” he said in 2014. “There was no real culture, my parents were not really interested in anything unusual – everything I was getting was through record sleeves. It was a democratic way of discovering art.”

He moved to London and in 1982 became the first employee for the record label 4AD. As their in-house designer, he created artwork that helped define them as purveyors of dark and complex alt-rock music; with their clashing fonts and boldly allusive but mysterious symbolism, his sleeves became some of the most revered in modern pop. “I like to elevate the banal through surrealism,” he said in 2014. “Mystery and ambiguity are important weapons in a designer’s arsenal.”



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This electric toothbrush removes 10 times more plaque than traditional brushes

Tooth decay is no joke. As dentists are fond of telling you, you've only got one set. (Unless you're, like, 5.)

If you're tired of hearing that, maybe it's time to minimize those dental visits. This AquaSonic Vibe Toothbrush kit will go a long way toward showing you're serious about your teeth.

The brush itself is an impressive piece of engineering, able to vibrate at 40,000 strokes per minute. It also has timers that make sure you know how much time to spend on each zone of your teeth. And don't neglect those gums: The AquaSonic has separate modes that are perfect for massaging them at the end.

The result is three times less plaque on your gums and teeth than you'll find with other electric toothbrushes.

The brush is waterproof and the entire kit is portable. It includes eight interchangeable heads, plus a case with wireless charger.

The full kit is already down to $35.99 from the original retail price of $169.99, but you can take an extra 20% off the final cost by entering the coupon code 20SAVE20.



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Review: "The Nobody People" is like a literary X-Men novel for the Trump era

The X-Men are often cited as a pop culture metaphor for the struggles of persecuted peoples in the face of bigotry. But the allegory is far from perfect. It's barely even present in the foundational DNA of the earliest comics. The idea of "mutants" was initially just an excuse to skip over the origin stories and get straight to the super-powered superhero antics. These days, we commonly hear comparisons between Magneto and Professor X to Malcolm X and MLK. Even though it's, erm, not quite accurate. And even though Magneto started out by literally calling his team "The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants."

But Bob Proehl's new novel, The Nobody People, takes the opposite approach. Proehl is a friend of mine — I even wrote a song to help him promote the book, before I actually I read it — and he'll pretty openly admit that he envisioned it as a sort-of love letter to the X-Men. Whereas the X-Men began as pulpy superhero comics that eventually mutated into a political metaphor, The Nobody People starts with the metaphor, and mutates into a powerful personal drama. Here, the super-powered individuals are known as Resonants, and at the start of the novel, their presence is largely hidden from the modern world. The first part of the book mostly follows war correspondent Avi Hirsch, an amputee who learns that his biracial daughter is one of those powered Resonants; once they're outed, the book shifts into a sort of Bildungsroman, with a series of episodes that follow the logical progression of what always happens when a marginalized group tries to claim their own tiny corner in a world full of ignorance of hate. There are friendly Homeland Security agents who still do terrible things; well-intentioned journalists whose cozy relationships with money and power threaten their objectivity; and of course, plenty of powered people, struggling to survive. Moments that should be given more emotional heft—the breakups and deaths of beloved characters—pass by in a blip of a sentence with no deeper dwelling on the subject, because of course these terrible, heartbreaking things happen to persecuted people, and of course the world just keeps moving on without a care.

Nobody People by Thom Dunn

Proehl is much less interested in showing off superpowers than he is in what would happen should a group of super-powered people emerge amidst the social media-fueled vitriol of the Trump era. The book excels not in the fantastical world-building — although there is that — but rather in his acute observations of the way that different marginalized identities overlap and intersect and fall under different threats in the world. There are Resonants who look like normal wealthy white people, and those privileges cause friction with other characters like Fahima, the queer Muslim woman who also has the ability to speak to machines, or Hayden, a non-binary shape-shifter who relies on their powers as a sort of hormone-replacement therapy. Kay Washington, the wife of the aforementioned war correspondent and mother to a biracial Resonant, is an immigration lawyer who uses her legal skills to argue in favor of the personhood of Resonants whose only crime is being born. Of course, Kay and Avi have to deal with the fact that they used to worry about their daughter non-white appearance, before they realized she'd be under threat for other reasons. There's also a conspiracy theorist media mogul named Jefferson Hargreaves who spews any hateful rhetoric just to help him turn a profit, in a not-so-subtle nod to Alex Jones and InfoWars. Even the main antagonist, Owen Curry, comes off as a frighteningly empathetic school shooter-type—he's violent and terrifying, sure, but you also understand his hatred towards the "Damps" (non-powered people) once you see the way the world has manipulated him.

The Nobody People is the first of a two-book series, with the follow-up, The Somebody People, out in September 2020. As such, the conclusion is, well, hardly conclusive. At some points, it does feel it's already two books in one—Avi Hirsch's journey with his daughter before the Resonants go public, and then the aftermath of that, which has a lot more shifting perspectives. But if you want to read a superhero story that cares more about the intimacies of human relationships in a modern socio-political climate than it does about huge epic battle scenes, it's absolutely worth a read.

"The Nobody People" by Bob Proehl [Penguin Random House]

Image via Random House / YouTube



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Inspector Gadget and He-Man themes performed on church organ

The theme tune to classic 80s' cartoon Inspector Gadget performed by Riccardo Bonci at St Barnabas with Christ's Chapel in Dulwich, England.

Here's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe:



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Racist lady on bus informed U.S. has no official language

A woman on a bus in Amherst, Ma., objects to young passengers not speaking English in a private conversation she was not party to. Other riders on the vehicle then object to her making a big racist fuss. The cops arrive and assure her that it is she who is in the wrong. Then she storms off.

Is it telling that a cop comes along and asks the victims for their IDs, but not the elderly white man defending them? He had clearly put himself at the center of events, after all.



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This company wants to use AI to help you pretend to increase diversity

Generated Photos is the latest stupid startup that sounds like a joke from "Silicon Valley" that someone took too far. From their announcement on Medium:

Generated Photos is the free resource of 100k faces for you to use however you wish. But these aren’t just common faces. They were produced completely by artificial intelligence — none of these people are real! Generated photos are created from scratch by AI systems.

In other words, they're Deepfakes for other peoples' ad campaigns.

I've spent enough time around higher ed administration that I've seen firsthand how universities will recruit a perfect United-Colors-Of-Benetton rainbow of students for admissions ads. But this takes that to a whole new level. Why even bother trying to build relationships with non-white-dudes, when you can just generate some friendly colorful faces for promotional use and call it a day?

The company's website brags of "democratizing creative photography and video," which is some impressively nauseating PR speak. In their defense, "We aim to make creative works both more accessible and higher quality through generative processes" sounds a lot better than "Auto-diversify the avatars for your army of Twitter sockpuppets!"

But my favorite part is how openly they acknowledge the poor quality of their images. "A part of the process is training and refining the generative models," the company explains in a Medium post. "The iterations move fast although not everything is perfect yet. So you will also have some fun with the pack of AI-generated photos. When you see a face that is a bit ‘off’, just give it some slack." And then there's this, from their official FAQ:

Why do some of these faces look strange?
Generating media can definitely come out weird at times! Some faces will have strange ‘stuff’ in the background, while others just seem slightly off for no apparent reason. For example, we have noted a common issue with something that looks like a crater appearing in random places. Those familiar with generative adversarial networks have likely seen worse. Our whole process is designed to gradually improve the final results and we are far from done yet! We find these stages of growth quite fascinating. Take a look at this early sample to see where we started:

So they're not only making creepy Deepfakes for PR stock photos…they're also admittedly bad at it. But hey, at least they're totally free of copyright, right?

Generated Photos

AI-Generated Faces: Free Resource of 100K Faces Without Copyright [Medium]



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A happy sing-along song about Krampus

Krampus, Oh Krampus is a brand-new accordion-filled sing-along by my friends at Tight Pajamas. It's surprisingly chipper!

Susie Davis of the band wrote me:

My fascination with Krampus began after joining 'SF Krampus,' a street theater group that once a year dresses up as Krampus and prowls San Francisco’s infamous Union Square in search of naughty children. Krampus has been a part of Central European folklore for centuries. In early December children in the Alpine villages are visited not only by Saint Nicholas, who gives treats to deserving girls and boys, but also by his dreaded partner - Krampus, who comes to punish the naughty children or take them away in the basket on his back to the underworld. Its proven that children from countries who have Christmas demons do better on test scores…so maybe all we need to make the world a better place is just a little more Krampus!

The song is also available as an MP3.

Thanks, Susie!



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Totally Accurate Battle Simulator not entirely accurate

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator [Landfall Games] plays out skirmishes between bands of fighters with a state-of-the-art physics engine. This engine is the "totally accurate" part, but if you know anything about physics in games, you'll know that its wobbly ragdoll fingers are crossed firmly behind its back. Instead of gravity and momentum being kept under tight slow cheaty control, as in Total War games, here everything flops wildly free: berserkers leap into the fray, trees block whirling broadswords, mammoths crush all underfoot, cannonballs neatly enfilade rows of infantry.

The cartoon madness of its physics is embraced in its attitude: bulging ragdoll eyes, lurching Foddyesque advances, and dozens of bizarre units to command and place in whatever anachronistic nightmare matchup pleases you. Battles tend to be over in seconds. Players compete to post the most bizarre set-pieces on YouTube.

TABS is still in early-access and has no framing or narrative elements. The campaign is a collection of arbitrary but often cunningly-designed battles; the harder and more specific they get, the more the game feels like a series of puzzles and less like a tactical sim. It is nonetheless hilarious, absorbing and shockingly habit-forming, hours disappearing into the promise of a single coffee-break battle.

It's well-worth the $15 price tag, and I've barely scratched the surface of the early-access version--you can make custom maps, units and campaigns, with more features to come. Players interested in customization, in creating ingenious set-pieces and mapping their minds to its demented combat mechanics, are already completely catered for. Those looking for a more epic-scale or narrative view of battle are, clearly, not.

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator [Epic Games Store]
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator [Steam]



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