From Vancouver to Los Cabos, I explored the west coast of North America in that van.
My daughter's childhood memories will be filled with camping trips all over Northern California in that van. She named it Serendipity and stuck each sticker on the back window for us.
Last July, my dog Nemo died in that van. I never slept in it again.
In February, when I took possession of my new home the transmission let go. I had long expected it, and she got me home. I picked the wrong shop to rebuild it and a few miles north of Santa Barbara airport she suffered a catastrophic failure.
Having just restored a 1902 craftstman shotgun shack I lacked the energy. A very good, life long friend of mine had long wanted to do a ground up restoration of that van.
The charcoal-drawing artist Nokis Art [Facebook, YouTube] did this beautiful tribute to the late actor Chadwick Boseman of 'Black Panther' fame.
Chadwick Boseman died of cancer at age 43, an announcement shared to his Twitter account on August 29 read. "He died in his home with his wife and family by his side," read the statement.
If you're a fan of edibles, then you already know this, but for everybody else, a look at the price of some standard edibles might shock you. Depending on the dosage, an edible baked good is often about $15 to $20. A weed-infused lollipop is $10 to $12. And a pound of butter with a healthy supply of THC could be anywhere from $40 to $60.
Of course, the price of these items usually depends on the cost of the cannabis that's inside. But rather than paying a premium for these infused goodies, it's always going to save you a healthy bit of cash to just make them yourself.
For years, that's often been easier said than done. But the Hi Herbal Infuser is all about helping users create herbally-infused foods faster and easier than ever before.
Unlike other infusion devices, the Herbal Infusion was designed to look perfectly at home sitting on your kitchen counter or tabletop. Crafted from stainless steel and high-quality, food-grade materials, it appears and mostly works just like most kitchen appliances.
Once you've measured out your herb, you can choose one of three state-of-the-art microprocessor-controlled infusion cycles for your product, whether you're infusing butter, oil, tincture, honey, agave, milk or something else.
The Hi is able to quickly and efficiently transfer plant compounds from herbs directly into your base, producing anywhere from 2 to 5 cups worth of highly potent butter, oil, milk, honey, maple syrup and more in just 45 minutes. There's also a 90-minute cycle for strains that require some extra time as well as a 4-hour cycle capable of infusing alcohol.
The unit also has a built-in digital LED countdown timer, so you'll always know when your infusion is finished. With just one infusion process, you can make yourself several months' worth of infused foodstuff.
The Herbal Infuser also comes with its own detailed recipe book, loaded with recipes, tips, and suggestions on any infusion from herb butter, oils, tinctures, puree soups, nut milks and more.
Retailing at $144, you can get The Herbal Infuser right now and save almost 10 percent off with this offer, down to just $129.99.
Oh they REALLY want you to start flying again. We may be witnessing the end of the $200 ticket-change fees that U.S. airline travelers have hated for at least a decade.
Delta Air Lines and American Airlines both said Monday they will drop the $200 fee that applied to changes on most tickets for most domestic flights, copying United Airlines' announcement from one day ago.
Southwest Airlines didn't levy change fees to start with, so Monday's announcements mean that the four biggest U.S. carriers will have roughly similar policies.
Airlines are being battered by the coronavirus pandemic, as travel restrictions and fear of contracting the virus are keeping travelers at home. Normally in summer, 2 million or more people pass through security checkpoints at U.S. airports each day, but that number hasn't been above 900,000 since mid-March, the early days of the pandemic.
To woo passengers, airlines have required face masks and stepped up cleaning of planes. A few, including Delta, Southwest and JetBlue, limit seating, although American and United try to sell every seat.
The government of Donald Trump says it has recovered about 70% of those $1200 federal pandemic relief checks that were mistakenly sent to dead people.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Monday the Treasury Department told GAO that roughly 70% of the $1.6 billion in economic stimulus checks mailed to dead people has now been recovered.
The GAO said it could not immediately verify that amount but said its auditors were working with Treasury to determine the exact number of payments that have been recovered.
Treasury is also considering sending letters to request the return of the remaining outstanding payments, but has not moved forward with that effort yet, GAO said. Treasury said it was delaying that move because Congress is considering legislation that would clarify or make changes to payment eligibility requirements.
U.S. regulatory approval for UAV delivery tests brings Amazon Prime Air closer to goal of delivery times under 30 minutes
Amazon.com said Monday its drone-based delivery service has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that allows the company to start testing commercial deliveries with its UAV fleet.
Amazon Prime Air is the company's special service delivering packages in 30 minutes or less, reports Reuters:
The company joins Alphabet Inc's unit Wing and United Parcel Service Inc to receive FAA approval for drone delivery, while other smaller companies are still seeking approval.
"Amazon says it is still testing drones, and doesn't say when it expects to begin making deliveries to shoppers by air," reports AP.
LATEST: Amazon is now one step closer to drone delivery after joining only a handful of companies certified by the U.S. government to operate as a drone airline.
Japanese firm SkyDrive released a video demonstration of their prototype flying car. It's an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle that operates similarly to an oversized quadcopter drone, although the SD-03 flying car has eight motors and propellers. According to SkyDrive, the SD-03 flew at an altitude of ten feet and stayed aloft for four minutes. From the New York Times:
Safety is one of two challenges preventing the technology from becoming widely used, said Derya Aksaray, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at the University of Minnesota. Safe autonomous technology for eVTOL aircrafts is still being developed, Professor Aksaray said.
"These vehicles need to look at their environment, assess the situation and act accordingly," she said. "They cannot wait for a pilot or an operator to say, 'Now do this, now do that.' We cannot wait for that kind of micromanagement of the vehicle."
The other challenge is design: The vehicles should be powerful enough to carry any necessary weight, yet quiet enough to fly at undetermined low altitudes, she said.
At a kite festival in Taiwan yesterday, a 3-year-old girl was accidentally swooped high into the air caught in a huge kite's tail. She was flying for around 30 seconds before she fortunately was brought down to terra firma. From CNN:
She was immediately rushed to the hospital with her mother and festival staffers, but miraculously only suffered minor injuries with abrasions to her face and neck, according to Taiwan's government-run Central News Agency. She has since been discharged and is home with her family.
In a statement on Facebook, Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien apologized for the incident, and said the festival was immediately suspended to ensure attendees' safety.
"We will review the circumstances to prevent accidents like this from happening again, and hold people accountable," he said.
The acoustics at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England's magical megalithic structure, were phenomenal, according to new archaeological research. According to research from the University of Salford's Acoustic Research Centre, the placement of the stones in the circle not only naturally amplified voices and music played there, but the sound would not have projected out far outside the monument. From Science News:
To explore Stonehenge's sound dynamics, acoustical engineer Trevor Cox and colleagues used laser scans of the site and archaeological evidence to construct a physical model one-twelfth the size of the actual monument. That was the largest possible scale replica that could fit inside an acoustic chamber at the University of Salford in England, where Cox works. This room simulated the acoustic effects of the open landscape surrounding Stonehenge and compacted ground inside the monument[…]
Stonehenge Lego, as Cox dubbed the model, was assembled assuming that Stonehenge's outer circle of standing sarsen stones — a type of silcrete rock found in southern England — had originally consisted of 30 stones. Stonehenge today includes 63 complete stones, including five standing sarsen stones and 12 other stones in fragments. Based on an estimated total of 157 stones placed at the site around 4,200 years ago, the researchers 3-D printed 27 stones of all sizes and shapes. Then, the team used silicone molds of those items and plaster mixed with other materials to re-create the remaining 130 stones. Simulated stones were constructed to minimize sound absorption, much like actual stones at Stonehenge, Cox says.
NYT's @KevinRoose says the MSM is missing what's happening on Facebook: "It's a completely parallel universe, in which Trump's response to Covid-19 has been fast and effective; in which these riots in Portland and other cities are THE biggest news story in the world…" pic.twitter.com/OdVYcE2FGA
The New York Times's Kevin Roose says that Facebook has become "a completely parallel universe, in which Trump's response to Covid-19 has been fast and effective; in which these riots in Portland and other cities are the biggest news story in the world." He dived in to the data and was shocked by what he found.
But the right's dominance on Facebook, specifically, is something to behold. Here are just a few data points I pulled from CrowdTangle this week:
The conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has gotten 56 million total interactions on his Facebook page in the last 30 days. That's more than the main pages of ABC News, NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR combined. (Data from a different firm, NewsWhip, showed that Mr. Shapiro's news outlet, The Daily Wire, was the No. 1 publisher on Facebook in July.)
Facebook posts by Breitbart, the far-right news outlet, have been shared four million times in the past 30 days, roughly three times as many as posts from the official pages of every Democratic member of the U.S. Senate combined.
The most-shared Facebook post containing the term "Black Lives Matter" over the past six months is a June video by the right-wing commentators The Hodgetwins, which calls the racial justice movement a "damn lie." The second most-shared Black Lives Matter post? A different viral video from The Hodgetwins, this one calling the movement a "leftist lie." (The Hodgetwins also have the 4th, 6th, and 12th most shared posts.)
Facebook's Trump Army goes hand in glove with its QAnon following. Explosive, vast, impermeable and useful. Data on its size, shape and intentions is Facebook's to know, share and exploit.
We're too used to talking about Facebook a certain way: that it (and Zuckerberg) is naively allowing the far right to prevail there because it is obsessed with "engagement", sentiment graphing, and all the other measures of our minds it can sell to advertisers. Sometimes this is further identified with a vaguely-liberal techie libertarianism in which free speech is the paramount virtue. This might be taken in good faith, or as an ideological cover for encouraging people to throw in more data to wring money from.
But we have to consider that Facebook's cultivation of these audiences is intentional, simply because a Democratic congress and president would present a more potent threat to Facebook than Trump and his cronified GOP ever will. It's no secret that Zuckerberg is more concerned with conservative critics than progressive ones, a concern often cast as fear but could just as well be because that's who he and his team wants to please. The right will carp but it knows it rules Facebook from the inside out. Only the left talks seriously about breaking it up.
Facebook is happy to deliver the election to Trump because it has overwhelming incentives to do exactly that. Democrats must stop looking at Facebook as a battlefield and see clearly that it's a weapon that's pointed right at them.
2020 still has a few months, so the mashup of Karens and an impending zombie apocalypse does not feel out of the question. The metal music is a ::chef's kiss:: touch, too.
The Karen mask is shaping up to be a top costume for Halloween this year, which is of course extra-ironic, because many Karens refuse to wear masks.
The Auckland Zoo posted adorable footage of Jamila and Zambezi's first calf having fun doing laps around her mum. The baby rhino was just born a few weeks ago and clearly has a lot of pent up energy.
North Korea on Saturday broadcast a series of mysterious numbers, presumed to be an encrypted message to its spies in the South, for the first time on YouTube.
A video clip was posted on the state-run Radio Pyongyang's YouTube account, in which a female announcer read what she described as "an information technology review assignment of the remote education university for No. 719 expedition agents."
Martyn Williams, founder and owner of the North Korea Tech website who has previously written about the phenomena of so-called numbers stations, said that the media reports about the now-deleted video were false.
"The channel isn't run by North Korea," he said. "It's run from Mexico and was only recently renamed to Pyongyang Broadcast Station– which is incorrect anyway, the [official] radio station is called Pyongyang Broadcasting Station."
Since the 1980s, North Korea has broadcasted formatted numbers via state-run Pyongyang Broadcasting Station to provide intelligence to spies across the border. Although Pyongyang's numbers broadcasting officially halted after the inter-Korean summit in 2000, there have been suspicions that it revived the system in 2016.
However, Saturday's video turned out to be a parody uploaded by a South Korean conservative students' group on its own YouTube channel in July 2019, ending speculation that it was an encrypted message from the North. But why "Pyongyang Broadcast Service" posted the clip remains a mystery.
"With a population of 328 million in the United States, it may require 2.13 million deaths to reach a 65 percent threshold of herd immunity, assuming the virus has a 1 percent fatality rate, according to an analysis by The Washington Post."
Impeached President Donald Trump's new top medical adviser is leading the White House to adopt a "herd immunity" strategy for the coronavirus pandemic.
If the plan is adopted, more than 2 million Americans would be predicted to die before that goal is reached.
The White House strategy allows COVID-19 to "spread through most of the population to quickly build resistance to the virus, while taking steps to protect those in nursing homes and other vulnerable populations, according to five people familiar with the discussions," write Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey at the Washington Post:
The approach's chief proponent is Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist from Stanford's conservative Hoover Institution, who joined the White House earlier this month as a pandemic adviser. He has advocated that the United States adopt the model Sweden has used to respond to the virus outbreak, according to these officials, which relies on lifting restrictions so the healthy can build up immunity to the disease rather than limiting social and business interactions to prevent the virus from spreading.
(…) Atlas has fashioned himself as the "anti-Dr. Fauci," one senior administration official said, referring to Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease official, who has repeatedly been at odds with the president over his public comments about the threat posed by the virus. He has clashed with Fauci as well as Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, over the administration's pandemic response.
Atlas has argued both internally and in public that an increased case count will move the nation more quickly to herd immunity and won't lead to more deaths if the vulnerable are protected. But infectious-disease experts strongly dispute that, noting that more than 25,000 people younger than 65 have died of the virus in the United States. In addition, the United States has a higher number of vulnerable people of all ages because of high rates of heart and lung disease and obesity, and millions of vulnerable people live outside nursing homes — many in the same households with children, whom Atlas believes should return to school.
At least 5.9 million infections have been reported and at least 179,000 have died from the virus this year.
The Los Angeles Zoo's 19-year-old lion Frasier had a busy 1972. Over an 18 month period, he sired 35 cubs, baffling zookeepers and earning him the sobriquets "The Sensuous Lion" and "The Lovable Lion."
He's featured in the first episode of Wild Lives, a new series by Popular Science. He captured the public's imagination and even inspired jazz legend Sarah Vaughn to write a fictionalized backstory for him. Groovy!
Moscow police said on Monday they have begun a criminal investigation into the beating of opposition activist and political blogger Yegor Zhukov, longtime foe of the Kremlin. An image of Zhukov bloodied and beaten outside his home circulated on social media this weekend.
Fellow Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny remains in a medically induced coma in a German hospital after being poisoned, reports Reuters:
The 22-year-old student, who was a leading figure in large anti-government protests last year, was taken to hospital late on Sunday after being assaulted by two people outside his apartment in western Moscow, his allies said on social media. (…) He was among more than 1,000 people detained in Moscow in July 2019 in one of the biggest crackdowns on anti-Kremlin demonstrators in recent years. He and other protesters had taken to the streets to call for free elections.
A Russian court last year found him guilty of inciting extremism on his YouTube channel and banned him from using the Internet for two years, a move he decried as politically motivated.
The Moscow police force said it was seeking to identify and detain Zhukov's assailants, who his allies said had fled the scene of the attack on scooters. If convicted of assault, Zhukov's attackers could face up to two years in jail.
Elon Musk confirmed last week that a Tesla employee reported a credible ransomware plot. The employee had been offered $1 million dollars to install the ransomware at their Giga Nevada facility, according to the FBI.
Via Wired, which has excellent coverage of the details:
Earlier this month, according to a recently unsealed criminal complaint, a 27-year-old Russian man named Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov met an old associate who now worked at Tesla at a bar in Reno. They drank till last call. At some point in the evening, the FBI says, Kriuchkov took the person's phone, put it on top of his own, and placed both devices at arm's length—the universal sign that he was about to say something for their ears only. He then invited the Tesla employee to collaborate with a "group" that carries out "special projects." More specifically, he offered the staffer $500,000 to install malware on his employer's network that would be used to ransom its data for millions of dollars.
Just a few weeks after that Reno meeting, FBI agents arrested Kriuchkov in Los Angeles as, the Department of Justice says, he was trying to flee the country. His recruitment scheme failed, the complaint says, when the employee instead reported Kriuchkov's offer to the company, which in turn alerted the FBI, leading the bureau to surveil Kriuchkov and arrest him not long after.
A drone floating serenely off the Florida coast, checking out the beaches and towers, almost gets sliced and diced by a chopper racing by.
"The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation of a near collision off the Hollywood coast," reports CBS Miami.
The hotel you can see at the beginning of the clip is the Westin Diplomat, which is 440ft tall, and the drone is exatly level with the top. The FAA has a 400ft heigh limit on drones, with exceptions. Someone's gonna get in trouble.
In 2019, climate scientists deliberately lockedThe Polarstern into an Arctic ice floe about 500 km from the North Pole, taking detailed and novel measurements. Scientist Gunnar Spreen of MOSAiC, aka the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate, shared a grim report about the summer melt. Via Earther:
But there should not nearly be as much open water as there is right now. In the summer, ice now covers just half the area it did in the 1980s, and has become younger and far thinner, too. All told, the Arctic has lost 75% of its volume of ice in the past 30 years.
Up near the North Pole, this is all creating breathtaking scenes. The vast, deep blue ocean is covered in splintering white ice floes. Those floes are spotted with melt ponds, or shallow pools of water form which form on their surface and reflect the bright turquoise sky.
"It's actually quite beautiful," said Spreen.
Check out the article for images of the beauty and tragedy unfolding.
Boyce Langston from Living Big in a Tiny House visits Keith and Jen, who created a yellow submarine in their backyard. It started with a small grain silo that Keith bought for next to nothing, then they kept adding little flourishes. Now they use it as a bed and breakfast or a guest house.
Boyce sez:
The yellow submarine has almost entirely been constructed using up-cycled materials. From old spa baths, to radar domes, you'll be amazed at how all these old parts have been combined to create a remarkable small bnb. For Keith And Jen, this project was all about putting their creativity to the test, having fun, and creating a tiny house experience that would be entertaining for visitors.
Keith and Jen look like the delightfully eccentric neighbors we all wish we had!
Kraig Adams makes beautiful and soothing documentaries about his hiking alone on scenic trails, like this 70-mile hike on the Sawtooth Loop Trail in Idaho.
With just a touch of quiet music underneath the nature sounds, and the occasional drone shot, these are a very relaxing way to spend an afternoon working. They're great for watching as you're going to sleep, too. He says, "I hope to bring a kind of stillness and calm to you while watching at home." Here's a recent one from Alaska.
He's also been to South America, Japan, Icealnd and Nepal (below).
Ohio-based Michael Dutko must be nuts about squirrels, or maybe he's just a little nuts. Either way, he's crafted an amazing "Nutty Bar" that offers seven kinds of nuts on tap for his backyard bushy-tailed critters. Hilarious!
Dutko said he built it to help his neighbor with her bird-watching hobby.
"The whole reason I even started to make this is because my neighbor bird watches with her daughter and told me all of the squirrels keep getting in her way," Dutko told CNN. "I didn't even tell her what I was going to do, I just built it and put it back there and when she saw it, she just started cracking up."
Lucky squirrels who find their way to the bar get to choose from seven different nuts named after beers: Cashew Dunkel, Peanut Pilsner, Almond Ale, Walnut Stout, Sunflower Saison, Pecan Porter and Pistachio Pale Ale.
Dutko's favorite part of the bar is its quirky bathroom sign: "Nuts" and "No Nuts."
The project, which measures about 25 inches wide and 16 inches tall, took him eight hours to design and build.
After posting a video on YouTube showing the build process, Dutko said he was "overwhelmed" with comments and requests to purchase the bar. He immediately applied for a design patent and is now planning to launch a business to sell The Nutty Bar for about $175 – $200.
Staring at the blank page is often the most intimidating moment of any writing project. Deciding exactly what to say and how to say it can be nerve-racking. If you're writing fiction, you've also got a whole separate set of questions that need answering.
Have you worked out your story beats? Have you defined your characters? Most importantly, have you truly determined what your work is supposed to be saying to your readers?
Big questions all, but knowing your work before you start to write is key to your success, regardless of the type of story you're telling. With the training in The Ultimate Creative Novel and Screenwriting Academy Bundle, students get expert guidance in bringing that story from idea to the page.
The collection features 11 courses with nearly 50 hours of instruction, offering proven techniques for story building throughout several different popular genres.
While novel writing is the heart of this compilation, non-fiction writers get some attention too in the Non-Fiction Writing Workshop and Write Your Life Story courses. Each offers helpful advice on the steps for writing either a non-fiction work or your biography.
If you're going to tell a story, you need to understand how that story works. That's the basis for the Novel Writing Workshop, which breaks down the process of successful novel writing into six simple steps.
While the structure of a novel is mostly constant, various genres of writing often live and work under their own set of time-honored guidelines. Five of the biggest sub-genres and all of their idiosyncrasies earn focus here with courses in writing for children (Writing for Children), young adults (Young Adult Fiction Writing Workshop), or fans of the sci-fi/fantasy (Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy), mystery (Mystery Writing Workshop) and romance (Romance Writing Workshop) markets.
In Publish Your Book Now, you learn what to do with your finished tome, including the steps for self-publishing in paperback, e-book, and audiobook formats through Amazon and Kindle, often in the same day.
Since you might want to turn your book into a movie someday, the Screenwriting Workshop teaches the basics of creating and polishing a screenplay step by step, while Adapting Novel to Screenplay lays out how to adapt your original work into this new form.
Each of these 11 courses is a $199 value, but with the current deal, the entire package is available now for less than $5 per course, just $49.99.
Police broke up an illegal all-night rave on Sunday in Thetford Forest in eastern England. The rave raid came days after the British government launched a crackdown on "serious breaches" of COVID-19 restrictions. Potential fines for breaking the rules are as much as 10,000 pounds ($13,000).
Dozens of officers, some holding protective shields, faced off with the revellers in Thetford Forest but despite a few scuffles, the party was largely dispersed peacefully. There did not appear to have been any arrests and the police dismantled the sound system.
Before a three-day bank holiday weekend, the government had said "those facilitating or organising illegal raves, unlicensed music events, or any other unlawful gathering of more than 30 people may face a 10,000-pound fine".
United Airlines on Sunday released a video saying they've listened to customer complaints and will end their standard $200 fee for changing a ticket for travel within the United States.
"When we hear from customers about where we can improve, getting rid of fees is often the top request," United CEO Scott Kirby said in a video posted Sunday.
Best news of 2020.
We're getting rid of change fees for good on all standard Economy and Premium tickets for travel within the U.S. and making same-day standby free for everyone.
Also, starting in January, United will let customers fly standby for free on other flights the same day as their booked flight, reports the Associated Press:
United's move will put pressure on American Airlines and Delta Air Lines to drop their change fees, also $200 on domestic travel. Delta and American said they are waiving change fees for travel affected by the virus through the year's end. Southwest Airlines does not charge change fees, a policy which its CEO says has helped it gain more business.
United said that it eliminated change fees for people who buy a standard or premium economy ticket for U.S. travel.
United also said that it will extend a broad waiver of change fees — including for international travel — through Dec. 31. Customers who pay the lowest fares, called "basic economy," can also change tickets free because of the extended waiver announced Sunday.
A 55-year-old man was critically injured today while trail running at Antelope Island State Park.
Two women who were on the Antelope Island State Park Lakeside Trail came across a lone trail runner who was calling out for help. The women called 911 and state park personnel responded. They then promptly administered first aid and called for a medical helicopter to transport the injured man to the University of Utah hospital for further treatment.
The man's injuries are consistent with a possible bison encounter, but there were no known witnesses. This incident remains under investigation at this time.
The man, whose name has not been released publicly, died on Saturday night, a family friend told KSL-TV. TODAY reached out to Utah State Parks for comment but did not immediately hear back. The friend said the man ran on Antelope Island regularly.
The day before the attack, the official Instagram account for Antelope Island State Park posted a warning alongside a picture of a bison.
"He was certainly injured," [said Eugene Swalberg, public affairs coordinator for the Utah State Parks], "But there was no eyewitness, and we don't know how long he'd been lying there. He certainly had injuries consistent with a goring, but it's still under investigation, so we cannot definitively say that's what happened."
In addition to wounds that were "consistent with a goring," the man had lacerations that also support being thrown by a bison.
"There was a hat near this individual and also some earbuds," he said. "Was he running with earbuds and spooked a bison? That's entirely possible. We just don't know the circumstances, but he does have wounds and injuries consistent with a goring … and maybe if he was thrown, lacerations from the rocks."
He said the area where the man was found "is an area that's certainly frequented by bison. It's on the north end of the island, near the corrals and the administration building." He said park employees called for a medical helicopter, and the man was flown to University of Utah Hospital in critical condition.
Every week, Boing Boing inundates you with attention-worthy offers for cool stuff. And frankly, it's probably too much cool stuff — because there's no realistic way you could follow along and keep track of it all.
Our bad. Enthusiasm can get the better of us all. But we can get pretty excited about these deals too and just want to share.
In that spirit, we wanted to give everybody another shot at some of the best offers we've come across that you may have missed over the past seven days. Consider it a public service. Enjoy!
With two ultra-breathable cotton layers and a full block anti-pollution center, here's your ticket to staying safe out in the world from airborne contaminants. It's also hand-washable and dries fast for continued reuse.
Perfect for all-day wear and extra breathable for the summer months, you get a 5-pack with an assortment of colors like grey, black, green, or blue. They're super comfortable while also helping you protect yourself and others from stray germs and particulates.
It's become an everyday carry essential, and this antimicrobial solid brass tool for opening doors, pressing buttons, touching screens and more can help you avoid exposure to 99 percent of contaminated surfaces.
Infused with therapeutic essential oils and leaves, these travel-ready sanitizers shield hands from germ-based infections while leaving them feeling soft and moisturized. Utilizing a costlier food-grade pure ethanol mixture, Klean+ is better for your hands and better for your family.
This blend of botanicals including cinnamon, allspice, clove, and eucalyptus was inspired by the mixture that helped protect medieval Europe from the plague. It's also alcohol-based, so it disinfects fast while also hydrating your skin with soothing aloe.
Have you ever tried popcorn charged with electrolytes? Those minerals that help keep your body hydrated and at optimal performance are all throughout this health-conscious snack. They're high fiber, low calorie and the perfect crunch to fuel you back up for the rest of your day.
Cheap plastic pill cases are a dime a dozen, but this handcrafted organizer made with real wood, aluminum, silicone and more is a big step up. It takes care of all your pill storage needs and isn't so embarrassing you'll have to hide it when guests come over.
If you want a tight, toned core, low-impact exercises like this rocker board can help get you there. Burn calories all day at your standing desk as you not only increase your agility, but stimulate core muscles to improve your balance and maximize your stand-up work routine.
With four different angle adjustments, you can relieve calf tightness and increase your flexibility while you attack problems like plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, shin splints, knee pain, and more.
With its unique contoured shape and exclusive textured design, the DualSphere delivers concentrated massage right at muscle ache and helps stimulate blood flow in hard to reach areas along your spine, neck and more.
The silicone honeycomb design of this cushion conforms to your tailbone and promotes good posture as it absorbs pressure points and relieves back pain. Meanwhile, the honeycomb grid allows air to circulate through the cushion, so it stays cool and dry even after hours of sitting.
The memory foam naturally adapts to your head and neck and reacts to pressure changes, redistributing your weight more evenly. Meanwhile, the highly breathable foam and cover work together to provide the coolest and most comfortable night's sleep possible.
The Screen Mom is more than just giving your TV a once-over with a dry rag. The special screen cleaning potion eliminates all fingerprints, smudges, dust, streaks, and all other debris from your screens with the help of the included microfiber towels. It's odor-free and chemical-free too.
This tempered glass screen shield protects your retinas from the ravages of blue light, blocking 90 percent of the harmful rays from your tech that can lead to headaches, eye irritation, and sleeplessness. This premium coverage is available for several iPhone and Android phone models.
Lightweight, compact, and sweatproof, these in-ear headphones feature 10mm drivers to pump out enhanced bass and crystal clarity. They also feature a locked-in fit that blocks outside noise for a premium audio experience.
In addition to deep, thumping bass and crystal-clear treble, these water and sweat resistant wireless earbuds feature a battery offering up to eight hours of play on a single charge. And after listening, all you've got to do to turn these off is let the magnetic earbuds lock together…that's it.
This firm, stable grip can turn your tablet into a steady second screen for your laptop. Compatible with iPads and tablets, as well asMacBooks and other laptops, these grips are made to avoid putting any undue pressure on the screen, while the unit also handles pass-through charging while keeping cables safely tucked behind your laptop.
Here's the gadget that syncs all your tech together. Featuring five outputs, including two USB ports and an HDMI port, you can transfer files at twice the speed, mirror your laptop display to a second device or monitor and even connect headphones through the 3.5mm audio jack. It's a Swiss Army knife of connectivity.
Mount this to your wall, then rest easy as this award-winning smart safe delivers 24/7 real-time security alerts to your smartphone, keeping you connected at all times to the state of your valuables. Through the app, you can even pop the safe open from virtually anywhere.
The GoFish perches on your fishing line and takes the guesswork out of fishing, allowing you to see exactly how fish are reacting to your bait. When synced to your phone, you can also record video so you'll always be able to share the evidence of the ones that get away.
The Moza is a pro-grade camera gimbal, capable of helping you capture cinema quality fluid shots with larger cameras that often send lesser gimbals running. With up to 12 hours of battery life, you can enjoy full automatic rotation, speed adjustments and angle control to create virtually any video shots you can dream up.
Lightweight and portable, this cube uses its patented purification system along with UV LED light to destroy toxic chemical gases, molds, bacteria, allergens, and unpleasant smells. It's energy efficient, doesn't require a filter and it's eco-friendly, emitting no ozone to go with its clean, fresh air.
The highly calibrated sensors detect contaminants in the air, then the 6-stage purification system starts removing 99.98 percent of all airborne contaminants, including pet dander, mold, dust, viruses, bacteria, and more. It's also rocking a soft LED night light to cast just the right mood in your room, office, kitchen, bathroom or other space that needs some purifying.
No cords and no connections, yet the Zero Breeze Mark 2 brings brilliant air conditioning in a virtually handheld device. Set it up in any space and the built-in 24V micro inverter compressor will drop your temperature up to 30 degrees in just 10 minutes. It's also 60 percent lighter and almost half the size of traditional plug-in air conditioners.
Inspired by traditional doctor bags, the AirLight is half travel bag, half backpack and all versatile. The lightweight fabric is water and weather resistant, so your belongings always stay dry while the inside has enough space for you to carry almost everything, including a padded compartment for a laptop and other fragile equipment.
Nothing says Old World style like genuine leather — and this duffel is crafted for upscale adult travel. Double-stitched to ensure durability and strength, this spacious bag has ample room, padded shoulder straps for easy carrying and even brass features to give it a firm grounding when you set it down.
If you're out camping, you just might appreciate the outdoorsman's answer to the Snuggie. Designed for maximum comfort and warmth with a wide range of motion, this wearable bag regulates temperature for warm and cold environments, while making sure you never have to tote a sleeping bag around ever again.
It looks and wears like a stylish bracelet, but it's actually a medical grade silicone and surgical steel reusable drinking straw. Thanks to this straw (and its helpful cleaner), you won't heap another single-use straw into our world's landfills ever again.
This 4-pack of LED bulbs are energy efficient and dance through over 16 million different colors and white tones. Sync it up to your phone and through the app, you can customize your lights to match any mood you're trying to set.
Designed for healthy living and 100 percent hypoallergenic, this luxury comforter presents a quality alternative to down and is as cozy as it looks all year round. You also get shams with tiny hidden zippers so your pillows can be integrated seamlessly into a fantastic bedding collection that looks gorgeous.
The AXIS Gear turns your home window shades into smart shades. Within 5 minutes of installation, you can motorize and automate your blinds and coverings — and it's all controllable right through a phone app.
They're the classic red roses everybody loves — and you'll get 16 beautiful blooms that'll live for a full year. Sourced from Ecuador and packed in a classic glass box, this is a truly epic way of expressing your love for an eternal Valentine.
This print by artist and designer Rhys Owens is almost as hypnotic and stimulating as it is large. Almost. At a whopping 48 by 72 inches, this is giant wall art that makes an immediate statement in any living room, bedroom, office or den.
This CBD-infused blend by Bean and Bud crosses the highest quality Arabica coffee beans, hints of raspberry and dark chocolate and full spectrum hemp extract for a naturally processed and infused morning or afternoon pick-me-up.
The Mighty Safe solves the problem of expensive edibles going stale. Just lock 'em in the vacuum vault, where this stainless-steel food grade storage container will lock in the freshness and of your treat for up to 15 days while locking out curious kids or pets.
This ingeniously stylish and durable little innovation stores your smokeables, then once lit, cools your smoke for a smoother, tastier flavor. The whole thing stashes easily in your pocket, is easy to light on the go and makes sampling your herb that much simpler.
Don't let the Art Deco trappings fool you — this pipe is anything but old school. The waterless filtering system comes with a Genius TruTaste screen and an Evolution slider to help you get the most out of your smoking.
Here's how to infuse everything from butter, oil, alcohol, honey and more with cannabis-infused goodness. With a built-in countdown timer and state-of-the-art microprocessor-controlled infusion cycles, Hi transfers plant compounds from herbs into your base, setting the stage for epic cookie, brownie and other pot-fueled treats.
This is a momentous occasion for all Aucklanders as it's the first time in twenty years that a rhino calf has been born at Auckland Zoo, as well as an incredible win for the Australasian breeding programme. This sturdy female calf, with a birth weight of around 65kgs, was born in the early hours of August 14th in a speedy one-hour labour. Rhino gestation lasts 16-months in total and faecal testing for progesterone levels provided a great indicator of when Jamila would give birth. With the support of @panasonic_nz, we were able to install and utilise low light security camera equipment that allowed our ungulates team to monitor Jamila's pregnancy at all hours of the day – both at the Zoo and from home. As many of you will know, in late-2018 Jamila made the journey to Auckland from our friends at @hamiltonzoo and it was our hope that she would soon become a first-time mum. "It's been a long wait, but absolutely worth every second," says ungulates team leader Tommy. "Jamila's total focus on her calf's needs is really impressive. She's growing by the day, and as she's finding her feet, doing these little jumps, almost dancing, which is pretty adorable." It's early days so the calf and her mum have not yet ventured out into their African Savannah habitat and we'll keep you updated on when you'll be able to see them. Read more at aucklandzoo.co.nz/news 
– ungulates keepers Dan & Jade
