You may have heard of Git or GitHub, but had no idea what it is or what it does. Unless you're a coder, there's probably no reason you'd ever cross paths with this resourceful programming tool. For the uninitiated, Git is a software known as a version control system, which keeps track of each and every source code change made to a large application or document. — Read the rest
As a web developer, you never know what tool you'll need to do the job. Some coders have full workshops full of crafty little baubles ready for tackling any build problem. Others are bringing a hammer and nails…and that's about it. — Read the rest
As any true gamer will tell you, not all joysticks are created equal. While standard-issue joysticks and console controllers are often fine for most gaming experiences, some of today's most intricate games require a level of responsiveness and control that makes lesser joysticks virtually useless for competitive gaming. — Read the rest
"My mind works in unusual ways," says soon-to-be YouTube sensation Allan Herrod. "When I hear a song, I frequently think of new lyrics that match my current situation. Once that happens, the song sticks in my head, not to be denied. — Read the rest
What is the point of this aluminum coin purse called The Dango Coin Capsule? Rain Noe of Core77 is as perplexed as I am. The advertising copy attempts to answer the question this way: "Designed to be taken with you on your daily adventures. — Read the rest
Gabriella Paiella ran the numbers and found that Frasier Crane would likely have had the savings, from his psychiatry career, to put 20% down on his fancy Seattle apartment. But his new job as a radio announcer would not cover the mortgage, of course, so she extracted a backstory from the writers on how Frasier Crane might have essentially retired so well at 40. — Read the rest
High school students in Burlington, Vermont are now going to class in a deserted former Macy's department store. The school's prior campus was closed after the discovery of cancer-causing PCBs in the building and surrounding grounds. Lunch is apparently now served in the Michael Kors Cafeteria. — Read the rest
When you get a Covid vaccination, the person who administered it will give you a card that has information about the manufacturer and date, as well as their signature. It's important not to lose or damage the card, and one reason is that is might be needed to travel to certain destinations. — Read the rest
Essential (and bleak) reporting by David Gilbert on how the QAnon conspiracy framework is tearing American families apart: "there is no such thing as a typical Q follower."
— Read the restChristian evangelicalism appears to be a major gateway to QAnon belief, with many of those VICE News spoke to reporting that their family member's belief in the conspiracy theory was tightly integrated with their faith.
Many of the suspected terrorists who broke into the Capitol seem to have lost the gleeful enthusiasm they had on January 6 when they were attacking police with weapons and tear gas and hunting for the Vice President so they could execute him on the gallows they'd constructed. — Read the rest
Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, because you're a indescribable non-Euclidean entity who defies all physical comprehension anyway, so prepositions are essentially meaningless.
Because HP Lovecraft is sexist, racist and often transphobic in context, just like Rickrolling. — Read the rest
Not Your Nanas Yarn on Etsy sells a squeaky penis dog toy and it can be yours for just $22!
— Read the restMy dog absolutely loves squeaking the balls and chasing her penis around for hours. It is like a stick, but much softer and more lightweight, making it ideal for playing inside or out.
If you love math puzzles, you'll love this sequence, discovered by mathematician Lionel Levine in 1997. Neil Sloane, founder of the OEIS (On-line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences), explains the Levine Sequence – which escalates incredibly quickly – for numberphiles at any math level.
In 2017 Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) bragged on Facebook that he was "the only 'no' vote in the entire Congress against legislation that had 'Human Trafficking' in the title." He also tweeted, "I want Gaetzgate." Now Gaetz is under investigation by the Justice Department for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and possible violation of sex-trafficking laws, as reported by The New York Times. — Read the rest
Enjoy Mike Diva's ads for Omega Mart, a real-life place you can go in Vegas made by Santa Fe art collective Meow Wolf. These segments are perhaps the most perfect examples of that darkly humorous, haunted cosmic consumer horror in the vein of Windows 95 Tips, Portal, SCP Foundation, and so forth. — Read the rest
Matt Gaetz, a loyal pro-Trump Republican representing Florida's 1st congressional district since 2017, is under investigation by the Department of Justice over his relationship with a 17 year old girl who it suspects he "trafficked" over state lines. The investigation began during the Trump administration and continues now, reports The New York Times. — Read the rest
The notoriously sticky concrete or tile theater floors experienced a makeover in the '90s. Teal, purple, and yellow confetti star and squiggle carpets became ubiquitous in multiplex theaters around the country. But how did this trend start and who was responsible? — Read the rest
YOU can buy the two new Tom the Dancing Bug books, Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse, and The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader! Information here.
"Delve into the dementia, the dread, and the delightfulness of this collection of Tom the Dancing Bug's strips — it's history through the lens of a self-loathing insomniac. — Read the rest
Big Brother is licking you. Sweat monitors (aka scram cams) are ankle bands that monitor the wearer's sweat for alcohol, to enforce court-ordered abstinence. They're rolling them out nationwide in the UK in a bid to tackle booze-related crime. — Read the rest
A few weeks back, a restaurant receipt went weirdly viral on Twitter, because it was, well, wow.
I was personally thrown by the "scare quotes" around the "spaghetti" which apparently $80 per "serving." — Read the rest
San Francisco's PBS affiliate KQED launched the Homemade Film Festival last year as a means to stay connected and creative during shelter-in-place. The festival received such a positive response that first year, we decided make it an annual event.
California filmmakers of all skill levels are invited to showcase their iPhone filmmaking prowess and create a short movie at home. — Read the rest
G. Gordon Liddy, the retired FBI agent best known for his 1986 turn as Berkeley Case in "Day of Jeopardy", the fifteenth episide of the third season of TV classic Airwolf, is dead at 90.
— Read the restHe died March 30 at his daughter's home in Mount Vernon, Virginia, according to The New York Times, citing his son Thomas P.
As it turns out, those who claimed they were going to spend their quarantine time catching up on books they'd been meaning to read have been doing just that. According to research from Global English Editing, 35 percent of web users worldwide read more during the pandemic, with 14 percent reporting their reading to be up significantly. — Read the rest
If a crab can cuddle, this is what it looks like as it stares at the underwater camera, chases it a bit, and then gives it a long snuggly embrace.
Or, more realistically perhaps, the crab just wants to crack the hell out of the strange glass eye that's been following it around all day. — Read the rest
Horror is my favorite genre of comics and manga, especially the kind where a person's ordinary life takes an unexpected turn that heads straight toward a nightmare. But it's hard to find this formula in comics that feels fresh and original. — Read the rest
Ted Cruz is aghast at the temerity of people on the south side of Trump's porous fence. "Just a few minutes ago there were multiple smugglers on the other side," said Cruz, dressed in only what can be described as a Disneyland Jungle Cruise guide uniform. — Read the rest
After four decades of the dubious practice, the Texas Department of Public Safety has stopped using hypnosis during police investigations. Still, evidence purportedly gleaned from hypnosis is admissible in Texas courts. From the Dallas Morning News:
— Read the restThe Texas Rangers are among the most prolific hypnotists in the state,The News found, performing at least 1,700 hypnosis sessions since the 1980s.
Police dogs are trained to attack aggressors, so it's a wonder more four-legged officers don't do what this one did: attack the cop. During the Bristol, U.K. protests over the weekend, according to Daily Dot, officers grab and club a person who they might think is a protestor. — Read the rest
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-GA) who was kicked off all congressional committees for espousing wacky and irresponsible lies (e.g. — Read the rest
Twitter has suspended a number of accounts claiming to be Amazon workers who love working for the company, reports the BBC, after Amazon confirmed that the accounts were not authentic. The astroturf effort comes as Amazon workers in Alabama vote on whether to unionize. — Read the rest
In a recent New York Times opinion piece, Pure Invention author Matt Alt explains why QAnon didn't take off in Japan. In short, as a conspiracy theory, QAnon is like a 1980s American car: shoddily constructed, with low-quality components and no overall vision. — Read the rest
Moog Sound Studio, announced today, is a modular analog synthesizer "exploration station" designed to give even newbies the thrill of using patch cables to create a wide variety of sounds.
To celebrate the launch of Sound Studio, Moog invited designer, director, and musician Julian House (INTRO, Ghost Box) electronic artist Dan Deacon to create the above video. — Read the rest
Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and a loyal Trump supporter, went on Steve Bannon's podcast to declare in no uncertain terms that his god-emperor-in-exile will retake his rightful place in the oval office in August. — Read the rest
Intrepid vernacular photography collector Robert E. Jackson curated a delightful collection of vintage snapshots of women making fashion statements with their hats. My favorites are, naturally, the nutty ones. See them all: "Wild-Wacky-Stylish: Vintage Photos of Women's Hats Through the Ages" (Flashbak)
The New Yorker went into the depths of Dell to understand the tech history that resulted in an iconic pandemic moment when a live-streamed lawyer became a cat in court.
The AP reports that a man suspected of participating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arrested at his home while wearing a t-shirt saying "I Was There, Washington D.C., January 6, 2021".
— Read the restOn a recorded call immediately after his arrest, Miller told his mother, "I don't feel that I've done anything wrong and now I'm being locked up," according to prosecutors.
Less than half of Americans are in a church, according to Gallup, the lowest in the history of its survey. A membership rate around 70% held steady from 1940 to 2000, with more granular polls in the 1990s suggesting a little back-and-forth. — Read the rest
Power and electricity are so foundational to modern life that it's jarring to even consider what happens if the delivery of current to the homes and businesses of millions isn't reliable or, even more shockingly, gone altogether.
But when breakdowns like February's power grid failure in Texas happen, faith is tested — and everyone starts asking questions. — Read the rest
You've seen a metal sphere explosively hydroformed. But have you seen eight metal spheres explosively hydroformed?
Not all heroes wear capes. Allen Pan of the YouTube Channel Sufficiently Advanced wears a $900 camera-stabilizing exoskeleton, which he bought for the express purpose of using it to help him wield a comically huge sword like Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. — Read the rest
I remember being grossed out by Brussels Sprouts as a kid. Because I was a kid, and there were reasons to be grossed out by every vegetable, probably because of some off-hand comment you overheard in a cartoon or something (How much damage did the Ninja Turtles really do to the anchovies industry?). — Read the rest
Aruká Juma is dead, reports The New York Times — and with him, the culture knowledge of the indigenous Juma people of the Amazon.
— Read the restAruká Juma saw his Amazon tribe dwindle to just a handful of people during his lifetime.
Numbering an estimated 15,000 in the 18th century, they were ravaged over years by disease and successive massacres by rubber tappers, loggers and miners.
The worst of winter is behind us. Things are still terrifying out there, but vaccinations have begun (unless you live anywhere other than a high-income nation). It might just be a sucker patch, but the clouds are beginning to clear. — Read the rest
The Ever Given is free at last, but if you miss sitting back and watching capitalism choke at the table you can now fly around the enormous stuck boat in Microsoft Flight Sim 2020.
I've been using Moment's lens system since the company was a scrappy Kickstarter startup. For a fella keen on traveling with nothing more than the pack on his back, they were a great way to get shots out of my smartphone's camera (I first used them with an iPhone 5S) that sucked significantly less. — Read the rest
Fox News harbored sexual harasser Bill O'Reilly, whose offensive show pandered to the gaggle of dopes his former network still attracts. The pre-2016 presidential election segment featuring correspondent Jesse Watters going to New York's Chinatown to denigrate and ridicule the Asian-American people living there, and the Daily Show's Ronny Chieng's response, was revisited recently in this current time of hate received by Asians. — Read the rest
It's the kind of chaos that would have Steve Jobs spinning in his grave. After decades of crafting computers and other devices around their decidedly sleek, modern aesthetic, how are all of your Apple products recharged now? Through a whole gaggle of twisty white cables, adapter boxes, and assorted tech mishmash that can turn your desk into a heaping mess of albino spaghetti. — Read the rest
One in five startup businesses fails within its first 12 months. Five years after launch, that number rises 50 percent. And while the number of new business ideas shows no signs of slowing, a study spearheaded by MIT professor Scott Stern found that "there seems to be a reduction in the ability of companies to scale in a meaningful and systematic way." — Read the rest
This amongst the so many other lies they controlled our lives with!
— Read the restOne reason coffee isn't usually given to kids may be the widely held belief that the caffeinated beverage can stunt children's growth. But is there any truth to this idea?
