"Huge drug bust" at Gatwick Airport was actually vegan cake mix

@BTPSussex huge drugs bust at Gatwick airport. In collaboration with @ukhomeoffice powders tested and discovered to be vegan cake ingredients. Please label your foods and bring samples of cakes next time you visit. #cakefine pic.twitter.com/tmyuOI5rLw

— BTP Sussex (@BTPSussex) August 28, 2019

Last week, police at London's Gatwick Airport turned up a suitcase filled with bags of white powder. Further testing revealed that the pile of evidence was actually vegan cake mix on its way to a restaurant in Brighton.

According to a statement from the British Transport Police, the bags "were soon reunited with the owner, who has promised officers and staff a slice of cake in return."

(CNN)

Recomendo: a book of 550 recommendations of cool stuff

This book features 550 recommendations grouped by subject. These “best of” recommendations have been selected from the accumulated pool of 6 brief suggestions Kevin Kelly, Claudia Dawson, and I have sent out each Sunday for the past two years in a free email newsletter called Recomendo.

It's available as a searchable DRM-free PDF for $1.99, or you can buy a paperback copy on Amazon for $9.99.

Sample pages:

Pedro Bell, the psychedelic painter behind Funkadelic's visual vibe, RIP

Pedro Bell, the visionary painter whose astonishing psychedelic art (and liner notes) appeared on numerous Funkadelic albums and helped inspire the band's visual aesthetic, died on Tuesday at 69. From the New York Times:

“The artwork of Pedro Bell was an essential component of the alternately utopian and dystopian world of P-Funk, which placed African-American reality in the context of a science fiction future that was both scary and hopeful,” (art curator Pan) Wendt said by email. “Pedro was a brilliant autodidact who was a key source of George Clinton’s ideology through his readings of science fiction, media theory and environmentalist tracts, as well as his knowledge of Sun Ra’s Afrofuturism..."

Mr. Clinton was especially fond of what Mr. Bell came up with for Funkadelic’s “Standing on the Verge of Getting It On” (1974): an alien landscape that was both scary and whimsical.

“It was a combination of Ralph Bakshi and Samuel R. Delany and Superfly and Fat Albert and Philip K. Dick and Krazy Kat and Flash Gordon,” he wrote in his book, “all mixed together in Pedro’s brain with some kind of blender that hadn’t even been invented yet.”

If you enjoy the work of the great cartoonist Gahan Wilson, he needs your help

One of the world's great single-panel cartoonists, Gahan Wilson, is ailing and needs support for his care. His wife Nancy passed away in March, and his son-in-law has set up a GoFundMe, to which I contributed.

Gahan drew wryly macabre cartoons for National Lampoon and Playboy (for over 50 years!) Even though he is showing signs of dementia, he still continues to draw cartoons:

Take a look at some of the terrific cartoons he drew over his long career.

The Microwriter, a tiny chording word processor from 1984

Back in the 80s, the inventor Cy Enfield created this fascinating device -- a six-button "Microwriter" where you'd chord combos of buttons to produce the entire alphabet, letting you jot down notes on the go.

Microsoft's Bill Buxton calls it "the world’s first portable digital word processor" (the front-page photo for this post is from Buxton's hardware collection) and Open Culture wrote a terrific piece about the Microwriter a few years ago, citing from a 1984 interview Enfield did with NPR, discussing his "aha" moment:

“It occurred to me that ... it would be possible to combine a set of signals from separate keys, and therefore you could reduce the total number of keys. But, of course, this involved the learning of chords… difficult to memorize… But how do you make these chords memorable? And, one day, staring at a sheet of paper on which I was drawing a set of five keys in sort of the arch formed by the finger ends, it occurred to me, ah! if I press the thumb key, and the index finger key, anybody can do this just listening now, press your thumb key and your index finger down and you’ll see that a vertical line joins those two finger ends, a short vertical line. There is an equivalence between that short vertical line and one letter of the alphabet. It’s the letter “I.”

Buxton's site has some scans of the gorgeous user's manual, including this one:

There are chording keyboards these days, most notably the Twiddler, and stenography tech. But I don't know of any full-on personal word processor that works this way any more; in the world of portable devices, we're all mostly typing on glass these days, or dictating to it.

It'd be an interesting project to recreate the Microwriter using a modern inexpensive microprocessor like the Arduino, and a one-line display.

Nail-biting video of frightened fellow paragliding, now with subtitled terror

This man's fear and exhilaration is palpable without understanding what he's saying. The subtitles amplify his terror.

Woman wins her fight with New Hampshire to keep her vanity license plate

Fifteen years ago Wendy Auger got a vanity license plate that read, "PB4WEGO" (pee before we go). But the New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles suddenly decided the plate was "offensive to good taste" and ordered her to return it. She refused, posted about it on Facebook, and ended up getting the attention of the governor, who was sympathetic to her plight.

From Reason:

Since going public about her predicament, Auger gained a strong ally: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told CNN yesterday that he had spoken to the DMV on her behalf.

"Upon this being brought to my attention, I reached out to the Division of Motor Vehicles and strongly urged them to allow Wendy to keep the license plate she has had for the last 15 years," he said. "I recently left a message on her phone to share the good news that her plate will not be recalled."

Image: Wendy Lee Auger/Facebook

Gorgeous photos of undersea life, in black and white

Typically, marine photography is done in rich, saturated color -- the better to show off the riot of life beneath the waves.

But the photographer Christian Vizl has done it in high-contrast black and white, producing eerily intense ways of re-seeing marine life. You can see the work on his site, and in his new book Silent Kingdom.

From his interview with My Modern Met:

Any particular favorite images from the book or a story behind a particularly interesting photo you’d like to share?

It’s hard for me to choose only one because I have so many memorable encounters with marine life, but one would be two giant mantas touching each other’s tips. I observed this behavior for the first time during the first dive we did in a very remote and special dive area in Mexico called Revillagigedo Islands. The two mantas were swimming directly towards each other when, at the last second before colliding, they would move upwards, positioning themselves slightly to one opposite side so they could touch each other’s tip of their wings. I was so amazed by this behavior that I wanted to capture it. I tried many times and finally the last day of diving in the last minute before having to go for the surface I managed to take this picture in the exact time. I felt so happy!

Some of the images are incredibly striking; in black and white, this school of fish looks like the hull of a ship ...

... and manta rays look even more extraterrestrial than they normally do, which is saying a lot.

The high-contrast detail one achieves with black and white makes the details on a sea turtle really stand out ...

Plenty more of Vizl's photos on his Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

(Thanks to Vizl for permission to use his photos here!)

Here's what happens when you touch a wild monkey

The large primate could not resist touching the little primate.  The little primate didn't want to be touched by the large primate, and showed its displeasure by scratching the large primate.

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/ozoW6TS"><a href="//imgur.com/a/ozoW6TS">Let me just touch this monkey to see what happens</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Dior launches Native American-themed ad campaign for "The New Sauvage"

You can explain it to them. They can sense the damage, and they can perceive that they have made a mistake. They can pretend to get it, and maybe for a brief moment they can even understand what it is they have done wrong. But as soon as the voices of complaint fade away and the crisis subsides, they'll go right back to doing it again, because the truth is they don't care and they despise everything about you that they cannot take and sell.

Watch the PuppetMaster, a robotic puppeteer, control marionettes

ETH Zurich engineers demonstrated a system enabling a robot to control a marionette. Although a robotic puppeteer is pretty damn cool, that's not the point of the research.

"Our long term goal is to enable robots to manipulate various types of complex physical systems – clothing, soft parcels in warehouses or stores, flexible sheets and cables in hospitals or on construction sites, plush toys or bedding in our homes, etc – as skillfully as humans do," they write in their technical paper. "We believe the technical framework we have set up for robotic puppeteering will also prove useful in beginning to address this very important grand-challenge."

(via IEEE Spectrum)

Stuff you don't expect to see speeding around the Nürburgring

The Jag at 1:29 and Volkswagen Bug at 3:26 are my favorites.

Zero jail time for those two bribe-taking NYPD cops who had sex with a handcuffed teenager in custody

Eddie Martins and Richard Hall, the two former New York detectives who pleaded guilty to accepting bribes and nine counts of "official misconduct" for having sex with a handcuffed 18-year-old woman in the back of their unmarked van while she was in their custody, will get no prison time, reports CNN.

State Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun said the men didn't deserve prison time because the "credibility of the victim, or the complainant, in this case was seriously, seriously questionable, at best."

"These defendants engaged in a shocking abuse of power, which they finally acknowledged," [Brooklyn District Attorney Eric] Gonzalez said. "While I would have preferred to see them serve prison time, they are no longer members of our police department and with today's plea are convicted felons."

The district attorney said the case resulted in New York passing a law prohibiting police officers from having sex with people in custody, closing a loophole that allowed police to claim the sex was consensual.

"We could not apply the new law retroactively, and serious credibility issues in this case precluded us from proceeding on additional charges, yet we remained committed to holding these defendants accountable," Gonzalez said.

The woman's attorney, Michael N. David, said the sentence was unacceptable and sent a bad message to victims about police violence.

"We're outraged. It's complete injustice what happened today. You can't consent when you're 5'3, 100 pounds and they're both over 6 feet and very muscular. They had her in handcuffs. These cops got a free pass," he said.

Image: Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash

How skaters resolved a dispute in 1986

These were the same kids that declared break dancing a memory.

The Mall, footage from a dying mall in 1994

This is The Mall, first opened in Huntsville, Alabama and demolished in 1998. Collected by Highway Explorer in 1994 as this former retail haven was taking its dying breaths, this footage could do quite well with a dark vaporwave (or mallwave) soundtrack. From Highway Explorer:

This footage was shot on a very quiet Saturday night in February 1994 only a few years before its demolition. Books A Million is still there, and Home Depot is there now too. The sculpture used in the fountain sits in the traffic circle between Home Depot and Staples. The site is now called The Fountain.

Amazon reviewers note: "This is a lot of cheese."

This short set of Amazon reviews had me laughing out loud! Check out Amazon's bulk Cheez Whiz offer.

After the top rated review, the remarks purchasers make about their 39 POUNDS of Cheez Whiz are pretty great. I guess folks are surprised at just how much Cheez Whiz 39 pounds really is.

Top rated reviewer is a humorist, however Amazon does list him as a verified purchaser so ENJOY YOUR WHIZ, SIR!

Also, Cheez Whiz is not cheese, but it does include it.

Trailer for new documentary series about Bill Gates

Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates is a new three-part documentary that premieres on November 20. It's directed by Davis Guggenheim who produced An Inconvenient Truth and directed Waiting for Superman.

"When I thought about topics to cover, I knew I didn’t want to make a promotional piece about his work," Guggenheim said. "Instead, I opted to focus on the tougher, more complex problems that nobody wants to think about, like sanitation and nuclear energy. Bill chose to take these issues on, even knowing that he might fail, and I had an instinct that seeing him wrestle with these intractable and frustrating problems would reveal something interesting about him as a person.”

It'll be interesting to see how warts-and-all the documentary really is (or isn't).

My Life on the Road: Accidental Rocket Sighting

In April, my wife and I returned from a few months in Mexico, to Texas. We were planning on hanging around until the end of the month before driving back up to Canada. On a particularly hot day, we thought it'd be nice to take our pooch to the beach so that she could cool off. Landlocked as we were, in Mission, we opted to drive east, to the coast. We considered South Padre Island, but seeing the traffic thicken the closer we got, we opted out at the last minute. Instead, on the advice of a fella we met while pulled over for a few licks of an ice cream, we set our Garmin to direct us to Boca Chica. The beach was beautiful, we were told, and no one cares if your dog plays the goof, provided she doesn't bother anyone else.

We were sold.

It wasn't a long drive, but it was a damn flat one. When we arrive in south Texas each year, I'm always thrilled to see the scrub brush, flatlands and palm trees. It's a completely alien world compared to what I grew up with in Canada. By the time we're getting ready to head north, I long for mountains. As the miles down the lone road to Boca Chica clicked by, I starting to whine that I knew what would be around the next corner... it would be flat and dry, with just a hint of dust, just as with the last corner we'd whipped around. As soon as that bullshit left my cake hole, we saw this:

Neither of us were aware that SpaceX had a research facility out there. The compound, built around what appeared to be the ass end of a rocket, was secure, but almost completely deserted. A lone, bored security officer sat in a pickup truck by the compound's main entrance, eyeing us as we slowed down to gawk. Later on, when I came back to take this photo, he was suspicious of us as we slowly drove up with both of my hands sticking out of the window. He warmed up and relaxed when I asked him for his permission to take a few shots of Elon Musk's hardware, through the facility's open gate. "No one ever bothers to ask me," he said as he smiled and waved us ahead.

The beach was lovely, as promised. dozens of families had driven out on to the sand to set up shop for cookouts, fires and an escape from the inland heat. We let the pooch loose. It's the first year that's she hasn't been convinced that the ocean was going to eat her. She smelt of brine all the way home. Once we settled back into the RV for the evening, I looked up the launch site online. a few months previous, the rocket ass, called the Starhopper, apparently, had been blown over in high winds. I wasn't surprised to hear this: the winds in south Texas are no joke.

We've been home for months. I haven't thought too often about Boca Chica. On Thursday evening, I was scrolling around online when I ran across this video:

It's a hell of a thing to see something that had been kicked around by the wind and left tended to by a lone man in a truck take flight—and land in one—piece. Knowing that it may well help us get into orbit one day soon, and beyond? Having been so close to such a thing gives me goosebumps.

Blind kitten gets a new pair of (googly) eyes

No animals were harmed in the making of this video.

"Vink is a 5-month-old kitten who is blind. He was found on the streets of Greece and thanks to 'Athene Stray Kittens, he found his forever home with me. Vink is a very energetic, happy kitten who loves life! He also loves his crazy cat mum. Who, sometimes, makes a bit fun of him, but Vink is okay with that. Vink has no eyes, and wasn't harmed in this video! As you can tell of his body language."

(Geekologie)

Wonkette posts bizarre cease-and-decist letter it received from "Diamond and Silk"

Diamond and Silk are a social media duo famous for supporting Trump and claiming, without evidence, that Facebook "censored" them. Wonkette is a news, politics and culture website. Bianca DeLaRosa writes for it, and recently offered the opinion that Diamond and Silk were notable as "Black White Nationalists" due to their support of Trump's policies and their own ethnicity. Diamond and Silk threatened to sue Wonkette, it claims, over this opinion piece, and the cease-and-decist letter is amazing.

The consensus among lawyers on the internet appears to be that the "Diamond and Silk Legal Team" is not, technically, a lawyer.

Diamond and Silk sent @Wonkette a cease and desist letter and I haven't been this excited to write about something since Bob Murray sued John Oliver for telling him to eat shit. https://t.co/cerFwN3eur

— Needlessly Snarky (@jamielynncrofts) August 29, 2019

If we ate bread the way we drank beer

I'm actually a big fan of Bread Pong. Razmig writes: "When it comes to calories, 1 beer = 2 slices of bread...but you never have your friends over for a loaf? Or do you? It's a bread party! "

Hero EMT driver has a message for California's awful drivers

In this video, a paramedic with San Bernadino County Fire Department attempts to reach the site of an accident, but finds his way blocked by motorists who would rather drive in the shoulder than wait to get by.

The Picture of Dorian Spray: Category 4 feared for hurricane approaching Florida

CBS News reports that Hurricane Dorian has become more alarming overnight and may grow to Category 4, making it "very dangerous" to the Miami-area coastline it's headed toward.

There's a good chance Dorian will power its way into a Category 4 with potentially catastrophic 140 mph winds before making landfall on the mainland U.S., the center added, according to CBS News weather producer David Parkinson.

He said Dorian would probably make landfall early Monday evening at the earliest and Tuesday morning at the latest, probably over the central Florida Atlantic coast though possibly farther south.

Florida residents rushed to supermarkets across the state to buy food and supplies.

CNN is now predicting a "monster."

"If you're anywhere on that east coast of Florida, you want to have food, water, medicine for up to seven days," Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday. Dorian warrants a multibillion dollar price tag, FEMA associate administrator Jeffrey Byard told reporters Thursday.

"This is going to be a big storm. We're prepared for a big response," he said.

Since Dorian had minimal impact on Puerto Rico, the agency is shifting staff from the island to Florida in preparation.

Illustration: CNN. Headline: Heather Beschizza

Renovated Brady Bunch house debuts September 9 on HGTV

The Brady "kids" have been busy all year helping to renovate the Brady Bunch house (well, the Studio City home that served as its exterior shot). You may remember that HGTV bought the house last year and has been updating its interior to look like the Brady home we saw on TV. Well, the show they've been filming, A Very Brady Renovation, has a premiere date: Monday, September 9.

The show's host, Jasmine Roth, was interviewed in The Orange County Register about the project:

...It was completely surreal to be able to work with the Brady kids, and I didn’t know what to expect at first because I was, “OK, are they going to be into this? Are they going to actually swing a hammer? Are they going to be excited? Are they going to remember things?” Because that was part of it, we don’t know the paint colors, we don’t know what stone was used on the fireplace, but being able to research and go back and watch the show and then to have the memories of the six Brady kids, who aren’t kids anymore, to help us was so cool, and everybody was really into it. So that made it so much more fun. They really wanted to work on it, they were super excited to make everything exactly like it was back when they were on the set as children, and for that I couldn’t be more proud of how it turned out.

It’s interesting to see like, the show, it’s been 50 years, to see where everybody’s careers have taken them and all of their various experiences all kind of came back together to work on this project. Mike [Lookinland, who played Bobby Brady] owns a concrete company in Utah, so he was probably the most comfortable around tools. But everybody had their own story, whether they had renovated their own kitchen or their house or they’d helped their kids renovate a house, everybody had their own thing and that experience was super helpful as we went through this project because it was a lot of work. I think we all learned a lot as well.

And if you want a sneak peek, go see the three interior shots HGTV has already shared.

-- Have you got any of this 'Brady Bunch' memorabilia? HGTV needs your help
-- For Sale: The real-life Brady Bunch house
-- Here's the story of how 'N Sync's Lance Bass won and then lost the Brady Bunch house
-- HGTV not saying how much it paid for the Brady house ($3.5M)
-- All six Brady kids reunite at their TV home

Save an extra 15% on these Bluetooth speakers and headphones

Just in time for your songs of the summer playlist, we've got a roundup of headphones, speakers, and earbuds. The best part? They're all 15% off the already discounted price. Just use the online code SAVE15SOUND to take the extra savings off the final listed cost.

Owlee Scroll Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

No matter how big the party, this 4.0 Bluetooth-enabled speaker can provide the soundtrack. Connectivity is rock solid as far as 32 feet away, and the 360° Soundstage technology ensures a full, rich sound. Right now, you can get the Owlee Scroll Wireless Bluetooth Speaker for $79.99, down 33% from the original cost. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

TREBLAB X5 Wireless Earbuds

With an ergonomic fit, these earbuds are well-equipped for any workout or adventure - or even just a long commute. The built-in microphone is compatible with leading voice assistants for quick calling, and the beryllium drivers deliver sharp, static-free sound when it's time to get in the zone. You can get the TREBLAB X5 Wireless Earbuds for $64.99, a 17% discount off the MSRP. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

Bluetooth 5.0 Sweatproof HD Sport Earphones

An impressive IPX7 sweatproof rating means these buds won't stop when the burn gets intense. And thanks to RAWtronics' 5.0 Bluetooth connectivity, you won't have to worry about losing your signal halfway through the playlist. Pick up a pair of Bluetooth 5.0 Sweatproof HD Sport Earphones for $25, a full 66% off the original cost. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

xFyro ARIA True Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds

It's tough to beat the endurance of these 5.0 Bluetooth buds. Their long-lasting battery supplies 8 hours of listening time on a single charge, and the charging case can boost that up to 32. They're also easy to set up with auto-pairing hardwired in. These xFyro ARIA True Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds are now $99, a 60% drop off the list price. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

Owlee Aviary Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

The minimalist design of this Owlee speaker is a modest shell for some solid tech. It packs the same 360° Soundstage audio as the Scroll with special attention to the crisp, deep bass, plus a nine-hour battery capacity. Pick up the Owlee Aviary Wireless Bluetooth Speaker for $84.99, a full 34% off retail. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

Oomo 3D 5.1 Virtual Surround Sound Bluetooth Earphones

The infrasonic frequencies of these hi-fi earphones deliver super-clear bass, while the smart construction of the speakers absorbs excess feedback. These lightweight Oomo 3D 5.1 Virtual Surround Sound Bluetooth Earphones are now $99.95, a 23% discount off the in-store price. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

Back Bay Audio Newbury Bluetooth Speaker

This unit is tailor-made for pool parties, with an IPX4 splashproof exterior and astounding 24-hour battery life. The sound is no slouch either thanks to twin 45mm drivers. This Back Bay Audio Newbury Bluetooth Speaker is on sale for $39.98, a 20% discount. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

Anker Soundcore Flare Bluetooth Speaker

The Anker Soundcore uses more than just its 360° sound and enhanced bass to set the mood. You can choose from five color themes and illumination patterns to create your own subtle light show. Right now, the Anker Soundcore Flare Bluetooth Speaker is on sale for $59.99. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

Audeze Mobius Gaming Headphones

With planar magnetic drivers and 3D emulation that accommodates nearly any surround sound mode, these headphones are a nearly essential gaming accessory. They even track your head movements to keep the atmosphere consistent as you dodge that imaginary incoming fire. Grab your pair of Audeze Mobius Gaming Headphones for $399, a 13% discount off the MSRP. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

Owlee Artus Bluetooth Wireless Headphones

Choose your connection. These headphones support Bluetooth 4.1, NFC or you can use the included 3.5mm aux jack. The noise-reducing earcups make for an immersive experience, and you can even access Siri or Google Assistant directly through the headphones to make calls on the built-in mic. Your set of Owlee Artus Bluetooth Wireless Headphones is now $59.99, a full 40% off retail. Take an extra 15% off with the online code SAVE15SOUND.

Apple sets date to plop our new iPhones

I spend a lot of time typing shit and talking smack about Apple's recent hardware shortcomings, greasy dealings with authoritarian governments and questionable labor practices. But you know what? The still make my favorite smartphone. I kind of hate myself for that, but here we are.

It's looking like we'll soon have a whole new crop of iPhones to love/covet and loathe as the invitations for this fall's iPhone event have, it would seem, been dispatched on the chamfered wings of a lily white dove.

From The Verge:

Although Apple’s invitation doesn’t explicitly say what the company plans to announce at the event, the rumors suggest we’ll see three new iPhone models, and these will act as successors to the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max. Two of these phones are expected to feature Apple’s first triple-camera system on the rear of the device, and the successor to the XS could also have a slightly bigger 6.1-inch display (up from 5.8 inches on the current model).

Another rumor suggests that these iPhones could support bidirectional wireless charging, allowing them to charge AirPods when used with their new wireless charging case. Upgrades to battery life and Face ID biometric security, as well as the use of new shatter-resistance technology have also been suggested.

I tend to ignore any talk of what Apple'll be releasing until it's been trotted out on stage—the world's on fire and careening off into space. So you know, things to do. But I know that lots of people dig playing what if with Cupertino-designed hardware. If you fall into that camp, you'd best fill your boots while you still can. September 10th is only a few weeks away.

Image courtesy of Apple

Los Angeles invites doggos to swim in their public pools on Labor Day

Who let the dogs out... and into the swimming pool? L.A. County does, as part of their third annual "Pooches in the Pool" event.

Come Monday, September 2, 2019, doggos will get the opportunity to swim (doggy paddle?) in select Los Angeles-area public pools. Little dogs can swim from 5 to 6 p.m., and big ones from 6 to 7 p.m. at these eight participating locations:

City Terrace Park - 1126 N. Hazard Ave., City Terrace
Don Knabe Park - 19700 Bloomfield Ave., Cerritos
El Cariso Pool - 13100 Hubbard St., Sylmar
Knollwood County Club - 12040 Balboa Blvd., Granada Hills
Lane Pool - 5520 W. Ave., L8, Quartz Hill
Loma Alta Park - 3330 Lincoln Ave., Altadena
Martin Pool - 35548 N. 92nd St. E., Littlerock
Victoria Park - 419 E. M.L.K. Jr., Carson

But wait, you have to fill out a form and there are rules.

KTLA5:

Before their pooch can jump in, dog owners will have to present current licensing and vaccination documents, and fill out a form.

There are a few rules, like there must be one handler for every two dogs and they can only be off-leash on the pool deck. Click here for a full list.

This is the final event before the pools are closed and cleaned for the season. What a terrific idea!

.@lacountyparks are closing out the summer season with #PoochesInThePool! Bring your dog for a dunk on Labor Day https://t.co/FNpVRFWuOP pic.twitter.com/B2SiceqoeP

— Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) August 28, 2019

image via L.A. County

(Soap Plant WACKO)

Infowars relaunches YouTube channel one day after Susan Wojcicki takes action to reduce extremist content

Infowars' “War Room” created a brand-new hate channel on YouTube exactly one day after chief executive Susan Wojcicki's letter to content creators about reducing extremist content. YouTube deleted Alex Jones's all-new garbage channel shortly after receiving reports of its relaunch from VICE.

Yes, they're nuts. All the Infowars guys. This fluoride thing is *literally* from the “Dr. Strangelove” script, that's how old the right-wing macho conspiracy chestnuts they're pushing are.

YouTube has been taking more publicly visible action of late to stamp out hate content that the Google-owned video hosting company recommends via algorithm.

Reporting by Matthew Gault at VICE:

Infowars returned to YouTube today after YouTube's CEO, Susan Wojcicki, invited "offensive" content back onto the site. On Tuesday, Wojcicki published a letter to YouTube’s creators on the company's official blog. “Without an open system, diverse and authentic voices have trouble breaking through,” she wrote. “I believe preserving an open platform is more important than ever.”

The next day, the War Room—Infowars’ program for afternoon commuters—relaunched its YouTube channel. The first video uploaded to the new channel has been up for 17 hours. It shows War Room host Owen Shroyer reading a portion of Wojcicki letters in a video titled “Breaking! YouTube CEO says ‘Alex Jones’ and ‘Infowars Ban Is Over.’” Wojcicki didn't mention Infowars in her letter, but this is how Shroyer apparently interpreted it. Since going live, War Room has uploaded 13 videos covering topics typical to Infowars, like “liberal racism,” the end of “globalism,” and how Lizzo’s performance at the VMAs was “disgusting.”

Shortly after VICE published their story, YouTube deleted Infowars' War Room channel.

“We’re committed to preserving openness and balancing it with our responsibility to protect our community," YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi told VICE. "This means taking action against channels that continue to violate our policies.”

Infowars Returns to YouTube After CEO Said It Will Allow ‘Offensive’ Content [Updated]

[via techmeme.com, image: Screengrab from Infowars]

The Milky Way from Anza Borrego desert, a sky-stabilized timelapse

A moment of peace.

Photographer and night sky enthusiast Eric Brummel captured this incredible sky-stabilized Milky Way timelapse in August 2016 at Font's Point, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, CA.

Watch:

[I]t's the Earth that rotates, not the sky. We all *know* that's the case, but we don't really perceive it that way. I was able to use a Vixen Polarie star tracker to stabilize the sky and illustrate the Earth's rotation.

You can follow Eric on Instagram.

Sky-Stabilized Milky Way Timelapse - Font's Point, CA

[via]

It's fun to play with this colorful fluid simulator

Pavel Dobryakov's beautiful fluid simulation requires no plug-ins to play with.

Hawaii's action adventure helicopter tour company rings a bell

If you want more than just humming around the skies in luxury, Magnum has you covered.

This seems to strike some odd note of familiarity...

Two people got lifetime bans for bringing CBD oil into the US

Two Canadians who tried to bring bottles of cannabidiol (CBD) oil into the Washington state have been banned from entering the US again, even though cannabis and CBD are legal in Washington and the US.

From CTV News:

When CTV News reached out to U.S. Customs & Border Protection for clarification about these cases, a CBP spokesperson reiterated that it remains illegal to import marijuana under U.S. federal law.

When asked about specific marijuana-derived products like CBD oil, spokesperson Jason Givens directed CTV to a website related to hemp seed importation that read in part: "Products containing THC, the hallucinogenic substance in marijuana, are illegal to import. Products that do not cause THC to enter the human body are therefore legal products."

Saunders couldn't say how much THC, if any, his clients' oils contained, or if the content was clearly labelled. CBD oils for sale vary from high THC concentrations to little-to-no THC content.

When CTV News pressed the CBP's Givens on whether a Canadian carrying CBD oil that was labeled as containing "no THC" would be stopped at the border and subjected to a lifetime entry ban, he responded:

"Items labeled 'THC free' sometimes contain detectable amounts of THC… every situation is unique and determinations about admissibility are made by an immigration officer based on the facts and circumstances known to the officer at the time, including responses to questions that are posed by CBP officers."

Photo by CBD Infos on Unsplash

Guy turns Precious Moments into "Precious Mutations"

Apple tech, jewelry, guns: Dataviz of what Americans pawn

I'm coming late to this one, because it was posted last year -- but hey, better late than never: Behold this fascinating set of Pricenomics graphics about what types of objects Americans pawn.

One thing that jumps out in the data? Apple products dominate the realm of pawning. Here's the chart:

Basically, Apple products are amazingly good at holding their value. Electronics are the single biggest category of what Americans pawn overall, but even within that valuable vertical, Steve Jobs has created a storehouse of capital value for everyday Americans: "Apple’s products retain value far longer than its competitors in both personal computing and smartphones. They’re the Honda of electronics– or maybe the Volvo." Jewelry and guns are the only other things in the top 5. "It turns out that weapons serve as a remarkably durable store of value."

Speaking of jewelry and guns, they are, perhaps unsurprisingly, super gendered in their empawnment. Fully 76% of guns are pawned by men, and 69% of jewelry is pawned by women.

Also interesting is the geographic distribution of pawning, as rendered in the state-by-state dataviz of which items are disproportionately likely to be pawned; that's the chart at the top of this entry. As the Pricenomics folks note ...

Perhaps most notable in the above analysis is the category of guns. In American pawn shops, there are “gun states” and “everything” else states. In Southern states and ones with larger rural populations, like the Mountain West, people pawn guns at a much higher rate than the national average.

Outside of guns, there is much more diversity in the popularity of pawned items by state. Luxury watches are the most disproportionately popular item to pawn in California, New York, Louisiana, and Delaware. Tools are popular in Oklahoma, while Designer Clothes and Handbags over-index in Texas.

Me, the only times I've set foot in a pawn shop are to buy or sell musical instruments, which makes me one of the 2.9% of Americans to have done so.

Molly of Denali has a pretty great dog

I like Suki, Molly of Denali's pet dog.

Molly and her dog Suki, an Alaskan Malamute, live in the fictional town of Qyah, Alaska. Molly of Denali is the first US children's show to feature a Native American lead character, the titular Molly. Every indigenous character is voiced by an indigenous actor. Alaska Native and Canadian First Tribes people also work as writers, producers, and staff on the show.

Wisconsin Public Television Blog:

“When I was growing up, Indigenous people weren’t reflected in television and film,” said Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neets’aii Gwich’in), creative producer for Molly of Denali. “When an Indigenous person was portrayed, it was usually a stereotype. What makes the Molly of Denali series so exciting is that Alaska Native voices were incorporated from the start of the show, and WGBH and PBS KIDS continue to incorporate more Alaska Native voices at every level of production. We can’t wait for Native youth to see themselves in Molly and her friends.”

Molly of Denali includes Alaska Native voices in all aspects of the production, both on camera and behind the scenes. Every Indigenous character is voiced by an Indigenous actor. Producers developed Molly of Denali with a working group of Alaska Native advisors, and is creating opportunities for developing Alaska Native talent via a scriptwriting fellowship.

The show also provides a window into the Alaskan experience through live-action interstitials featuring local children and regions, filmed by Alaskan production teams.

My first dog was an Alaskan Malamute, her name was Sabrina. She was the best dog ever.

YouTube removed battlebot videos because its system thought they contained "animal suffering"

Apparently YouTube has been removing videos of battlebots, after their system flagged the videos for containing "animal suffering".

Ars Technica has a good story on several removals that took place last week across several battlebot accounts. They've got a screenshot of a takedown notice sent to a YouTuber who'd posted "Dark Blade vs Gizmo". As the notice explained ...

Content that displays the deliberate infliction of animal suffering or the forcing of animals to fight is not allowed on YouTube. Examples include, but are not limited to, dog fighting and cock fighting. We review educational, documentary, artistic, and scientific content on a case-by-case basis. Limited exceptions are made for content with sufficient and appropriate context and where the purpose of posting is clear.

After being alerted about the errors, YouTube restored most of the videos -- but as Ars notes, it's still not clear exactly how they got flagged. By bleary-eyed, overworked humans? By visual AI that figured the bots looked like animals?

It may not be that surprising that semiautomated review systems occasionally conclude that robots are animals, since we humans have a long track record of treating them as such.

This whole episode reminded me of a terrific 2007 story in the Washington Post describing the emotional attachment that soldiers develop for their combat robots. It opens up with a story of a colonel who's observing a multi-legged robot wander around a minefield, blowing up mines by intentionally stepping on them. When the robot's finally reduced to dragging itself around on its last functioning leg, the colonel orders the experiment halted -- claiming that it was "inhumane" to the robot.

(Picture of the battlebot above -- not one of those taken down by YouTube, just a rando -- courtesy Jason Scott's CC-2.0 licensed Flickr feed)

Everblaze, book 3 of Shannon Messenger's 'Keeper of Lost Cities' series is so good

I am addicted to Shannon Messenger's Keeper of Lost Cities series. Everblaze continues the saga of seriously reluctant hero Sophie Foster.

Sophie was abducted from her human family by elves who claim she is one. Unwittingly Sophie has averted genocide, provided a long-awaited hope for the future, and somehow convinced the elves not to ruthlessly murder the people who raised her.

Sophie was cruelly rejected by her elven Foster family and has suffered so many other indignities in the first two books it is shocking. In Everblaze, Sophie fucks some shit up.

Ignoring the ONE RULE they gave her about being a telepath, Sophie nearly starts an interspecies war by invading the mind of the Ogre King. This comes shortly after Sophie participates in the near destruction of the Elven capital. It looks like she is starting to blossom!

These books are fantastic!

Everblaze, Book 3 in Shannon Messenger's Keeper of the Lost Cities series via Amazon

Beekeeper uses bears to taste test his honey

Trabzon is a northeastern province of Turkey. You'll find a lot of light industry there: small farmers, plantations growing tea and craftsman. It also happens to be home to some of the most sought-after honey in the world.

Ibrahim Sedef, is a beekeeper who, along with his bees, works in the region, producing Anzer honey. It's aromatic stuff and is wildly believed to have curative powers—your healthcare mileage may vary. People love Sedef's honey. Unfortunately, so do a bunch of local bears.

Sedef tried a number of solutions to keep the animals away from his beehives: he locked the hives up for the night. He secured his home against the animals breaking in. He even left out sweet fruit and baked goods for the bears to draw them away from his products. No dice. Over three years, he lost over $10,000 in profits. At this point, a lot of folks may have turned to having the animals killed, in order to protect their profits. Not Sedef: he enlisted the furry brutes to do a bit of taste testing for him, instead.

Image via Flickr, courtesy of Beverly

Double-layered D20

Majestic Trinkets created a double-layered D20 that looks like something right out of a dingy pub in Waterdeep. It's $80, but think how quickly you'll win it back!

This die is perfect for the most extra member of your adventuring party.

This is the regular gaming D20 in my 'Advantage' design family of dice. It is mathematically balanced in CAD software design to ensure that the die is centered and fair.

A 'clean' roll where the inner die settles with the outer die may not happen with every roll. When rolling on a flat surface, like a table or dice tray, it settles roughly 40% of the time. When rolling with a dice tower, it settles roughly 70% of the time. If it did not settle, give it a little shimmy on the surface it's laying and it should settle.

Apple cleans up Siri's privacy problems, screwing over workers in the process

Good news everybody: Apple's really sorry about recording our conversations with Siri. In a statement issued earlier today, the company's talking heads stated that they realized that the '...haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals'. The letter goes on to say that, to make up for their eavesdropping shenanigans, Apple's going to be making a few changes to how Siri does its thing.

From Apple:

First, by default, we will no longer retain audio recordings of Siri interactions. We will continue to use computer-generated transcripts to help Siri improve.

Second, users will be able to opt in to help Siri improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests. We hope that many people will choose to help Siri get better, knowing that Apple respects their data and has strong privacy controls in place. Those who choose to participate will be able to opt out at any time.

Third, when customers opt in, only Apple employees will be allowed to listen to audio samples of the Siri interactions. Our team will work to delete any recording which is determined to be an inadvertent trigger of Siri

This of course, is great news for anyone that uses Apple's Siri voice assistant. Unfortunately, that less people will be needed to snoop on the conversations between the companies customers and their tech likely means that some resources will need to be shifted around in order to accomoda—wait, what?

From The Guardian:

Hundreds of Apple workers across Europe who were employed to check Siri recordings for errors have lost their jobs after the company announced it was suspending the programme earlier this month.

More than 300 employees have had their contracts ended in the company’s Cork facility alone, according to former employees, with more sent home from other sites across Europe.

The staff had been on paid leave since 2 August, the day Apple announced its decision to suspend the programme, referred to as “grading”, as it conducted “a thorough review”.

Some of the people shit-canned as a result of Apple's shift in its privacy policies have been given a little more than a week's notice that their employment and, consequentially, their ability to pay their bills and eat, is coming to an end.

Smearing an area of your business in shit in an attempt to clean up something else will never allow you to come away clean.

Image via Wikipedia Commons

Shocking: Trump campaign official insists President Trump has never lied

It is all the fake media, she says.

"No. I don't believe the President has lied."
Trump campaign national press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tells @ChrisCuomo President Trump has never lied to the country. pic.twitter.com/oSlLHZ4h0m

— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) August 29, 2019

AI increases the resolution of emoji, turning them into horrifying creatures

There's an AI algorithmic technique known as "Progressive Face Super-Resolution", which can take low-rez photos of people's faces and enhance them into higher-rez versions.

It's actually a rather unsettling development for public privacy, as Futurism points out, because it means it's increasingly possible to take grainy surveillance-cam pictures and produce detailed pictures. (Or even more worryingly, I'd add, it'll produce pictures that have seeming realism but are in fact inaccurate up-rezzings of the low-rez pictures, thus misidentifying innocent people. These days, some AI's biggest dangers come not from its omnipotent successes but from its clown-show failures ... particularly when authorities can't tell the difference, or don't care.)

Anyway! Over at I Forced A Bot, Jonathan Fly wondered what would happen if he used Progressive Face Super-Resolution to increase the resolution of emoji.

Super freaky results, as it turns out! Fly used it on Twitter emoji, and the result is the picture above. As he writes:

Because this model is trained specifically to look for facial landmarks it will take any excuse to draw eyes and nostrils on a pixel. And I’m pretty sure the pepperoni on that pizza is made out of human lips…

Here are a few more of Fry's transformed Twitter emoji ...

I'm gonna have trouble getting to sleep tonight.

The final trailer for Joaquin Phoenix's Joker movie ain't nothing to laugh about

DC makes some fabulous animated movies and their television programming has, even where budget has been a concern, been pretty good (I still cry over Constantine and what could have been, however). I've been way less thrilled with the last few DC Universe movies, however. Batman vs. Superman, Justice League and Aquaman weren't to my liking. I've got high hopes for The Batman movie though. Between now and when filming is complete on what will hopefully be a gem of a film featuring the Dark Knight Detective, I've got my hopes fixed on Joker. It looks dark as hell, complex and, with a stellar cast including Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro and Zazie Beetz, could well be worth forking over $40 for a ticket and popcorn to see in the theater.

We won't have to wait long to find out if it's as great as it looks. Joker'll be released this October.

"Mysterious medallions" popping up on Bay Area sidewalks

There's a Happy Mutant reality hacker on the loose in Berkeley, California... affixing "mysterious medallions" on the city's sidewalks.

Berkeleyside reports:

There is a person out there with a sly sense of humor, a way with words, a working knowledge of Berkeley history and a desire to impart pithy observations.

He or she or they has been going around town the past few months affixing round metal medallions with clever sayings to sidewalks around Central Berkeley...

No one seems to know the creator’s identity, even though the question has been posed on Facebook and Twitter and even on Tom Dalzell’s Quirky Berkeley website.

“These days, just everybody – tout le monde – is talking about the mysterious medallions that are appearing in Berkeley’s sidewalks,” Dalzell wrote. “You read about them in Berkeleyside, you see them on Twitter, your hip friends are talking about them. “Plaque” might be a better word for what these are, but medallion gives us alliteration with mysterious.”

images via a friend

After US trial, YouTube will adjust UK algorithm to reduce hate videos and fake content

In an effort to reduce the amount of false and extremist content pushed to viewers, Google's video platform YouTube will adjust its presentation algorithm for UK users. YouTube tried a similar algorithm tweak in the US recently, and recommendations of such ‘borderline’ videos were cut by 50%.

After six months of the US trial, YouTube says recommendation-led views to extremist content fell by half.

Because the trial was so effective, it will now be extended to the UK, Ireland, South Africa “and other English-language markets”, says Susan Wojicki.

According to the video sharing site’s chief executive, Susan Wojcicki, the move is intended to give quality content “more of a chance to shine” and has the effect of reducing views from recommendations by 50%.

YouTube has long taken action against content that violates the site’s policies, removing infringing videos and issuing “strikes” against creators that can ultimately result in them being blocked from uploading new videos.

But only recently has the company moved against content that, in Wojcicki’s words, “brushes right up against our policy line”. This sort of content is the bedrock of the fear that YouTube is a driver of extremist views worldwide: the combination of borderline content and a recommendation algorithm that rewards the most engaging content can, critics argue, cause audiences to spiral towards more radical viewing.

YouTube first took action against borderline content in the US earlier this year, and focused on videos that “could misinform users in harmful ways – such as videos promoting a phoney miracle cure for a serious illness, claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11”.

The company distinguishes between this sort of content and content that violates its terms of service, but the distinction is confusing for outsiders like me.

YouTube to adjust UK algorithm to cut false and extremist content
[theguardian.com]

Trump: Fox News works for me. Fox News: no. Fox News viewers: yes you do

Exhibit A is this tweet, from the President of the United States of America, angered at the presence of criticism on his favorite channel:

Exhibit B is this almost-plaintive response from Fox News anchor Brit Hume, not quite able to plainly say Fox News doesn't work for him, but at least managing to say it isn't supposed to work for him.

Exhibit C is all the responses to Brit Hume from angry Fox News viewers, which don't need to be embedded here, or even read, because you already know exactly what they say.

A cereal bowl that amplifies the "snap, crackle, and pop" of your Rice Krispies

Be still my heart. There's a cereal bowl that lets you listen to the snap, crackle, and pop of your Rice Krispies! I'm just hearing about it but apparently the "Snap Crack and Pop Amplifier Cereal Bowl" was designed by Dominic Wilcox back in 2015:

Kellogg’s challenged artist and designer Dominic Wilcox to make breakfast more interesting and fun for families and children going back to school in September. Over the course of 10 weeks he designed 7 inventions and prototypes from a robot spoon to a head worn cereal serving device.

The sound of Rice Krispies popping is a well known sound for many breakfast eaters, particularly from their childhood. Instead of hearing a quiet snap crackle and pop why not increase the sound? This technological cereal bowl amplifies the sound of Rice Krispies using a microphone and volume control. Simply fill the bowl with Rice Krispies, pour in the milk, with on the bowl and increase the volume of the pops by turning the dial.

"Well, turn it up, man!"

Check out Dominic's other neat-o inventions at his website.

(Dude I Want That)

Thanks a million, Kent!