Microsoft Excel is one of those programs everyone has used at one time or another. In fact, 750 million people, almost 10 percent of the global population, has noodled around with Excel's spreadsheets, cells, and pivot tables before.
But while 750 million people may have engaged with Excel, that doesn't mean 750 million people are interacting with it as a key tool in their daily workflow like accountants or finance experts would. — Read the rest
Who did it better? This person in Chile spraying off a gang of evildoers, or Zoolander's pals having a playful gasfight?
Cheugy is a recently-coined word referring to anyone or anything that's a bit behind the times and trying hard. It's neither basic nor uncool, suggests Taylor Lorenz in the New York Times, but a kind of authentic cheesiness that's both obvious yet highly subjective amid the finely-gradated and self-conscious world of Tik Tokkers. — Read the rest
Digging a hole in Las Vegas could result in an unwanted discovery. Typically, or maybe stereotypically, one would expect some Joe Pesci-style mischief where mob corpses are unearthed when trying to dig a new pool in Las Vegas. In this case, the bones found in the backyard of Matt Perkins' home predated the Bugsy Siegel era by approximately 6,000-14,000 years and are from a large animal, possibly a horse. — Read the rest
The Torshn Puzzle is described on its Kickstarter page as a "unique combination puzzle that tickles the mind." It's gotten $237,720 in funding to date. But "unique" hardly seems accurate after watching this video by Devin Montes, the creator of a nearly identical puzzle called the Astrolabicon. — Read the rest
A crush at the Lag BaOmer religious festival at Mt. Meron in Israel left at least 45 dead and 150 more injured Friday morning, caused by participants crowding onto a slippery staircase in a packed corridor. NPR:
— Read the restWitnesses said people were asphyxiated or trampled in the tightly packed corridor.
The "Roc" – the largest aircraft in the world by Stratolaunch Systems – went for its second test run yesterday with spectators applauding its takeoff from Mojave Air and Space Port. It has a 385-foot wingspan – longer than a football field – and six engines, according to Vice. — Read the rest
If you've got a dog as a member of your family, there's about a 1 in 3 chance that you got your furry friend from a breeder. That may offer you some insight into your dog's background and family tree, but it doesn't always answer all of your questions about the full history hiding behind those expressive eyes. — Read the rest
Apparently one of the murderous dog thieves' girlfriend returned the dog in hopes of receiving the reward.
— Read the restPolice said the missing dogs were turned over at a local police station and reunited with one of Lady Gaga's representatives, after a woman said she had found the dogs.
Reality TV star Josh Duggar (33) won the hearts of the religious right when he came out against gay marriage as a spokesman for the Christian nationalist hate group Family Research Council. His reputation as an intolerant upholder of conservative values was further cemented when four of his sisters and one other person revealed that he has sexually abused them as children, and when he later committed adultery against his wife using a hookup app. — Read the rest
While researchers have made great strides (sorry) in robotic exoskeletons that can help people with mobility challenges, the wearer still needs to control the prosthetic. "Every time you want to perform a new locomotor activity, you have to stop, take out your smartphone and select the desired mode," explains University of Waterloo Ph.D. — Read the rest
Alex Melton reimagines Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" if it were written by Blink-182. Some will win. Some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues.
Here's Journey's original as performed live in 1981:
During a religious festival last night on Mount Meron in northern Israel, a stampede killed at least 45 people. Approximately 100,000 people packed themselves on the mountain to celebrate the holiday of Lag b'Omer. From the New York Times:
— Read the restThe annual gathering on Mount Meron, which is near the Sea of Galilee, takes place near the mystical city of Safed.
Apparently unbeknownst to its trainer a greyhound a winning greyhound has turned to meth. While Zipping Sarah was out of her trainer's supervision she somehow became exposed to methamphetamines before winning a race.
— Read the restZipping Sarah finished first, winning a stake of just over $4000.
It is amazing how the driver handles a clearly off-the-charts moment while his sidekick has a very difficult time figuring out who should be holding the gun, or how to dial a phone. — Read the rest
The Daily Show has compiled a list of the many dramatic scandals President Joe Biden has already accrued, as has been pointed out by the astute Republicans, and what a list it is! Asking the country to come together, owning a Peloton bike, not using the term "China virus," not practicing Catholicism, getting a book deal, owning an average-Joe dog, wearing a mask, refusing to acknowledge Dr. — Read the rest
When I was at the Clarion Writer's Workshop, my cohort encouraged me to stop writing short stories that were clever, and try writing something more personal. So naturally, I wrote a story about a robot who dies by suicide in hopes of feeling more alive. — Read the rest
London cop Benjamin Hannam, 22, is the first British police officer to be convicted of a terrorism offence: membership of National Action, a neo-Nazi gang banned after it endorsed political assassinations and racial killings. Hannam was found guilty April 1 of joining the white supremacist group, of fraud for lying on his police application, and of "possessing documents useful to a terrorist." — Read the rest
Not your average trekking pole, the ginormous staff this mountain climber carries lets him vault around the hillside like a goat. The metal-tipped pike is called a garrotte and is used in a Canarian folk sport, Salto del Pastor (Shepherd's Leap). — Read the rest
Look, nobody enjoys reading the fine print on an insurance policy. Heck, there's a good chance the guy who wrote it didn't even read it over once he was finished. It's usually pretty dry stuff.
That being said, it might be worth investigating the specifics on the homeowners or renters insurance policy you've got now. — Read the rest
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz paid for sex with multiple women and a minor-age girl, his pal Joel Greenberg wrote in a letter written late 2020. The letter was composed in hopes of securing Greenberg, then under federal indictment, a pardon from then-president Trump. — Read the rest
Chris Attig was arrested while testifying against HB 1570 in the Arkansas House on March 9. When their speech went 30 seconds over the allotted two minutes, Attig's mic was cut, and police escorted them from the building. Attig says they stayed in jail for several hours before being released, and that they face a charge of disorderly conduct. — Read the rest
If you've ever tried to make a living in the music business, you already know it's a tough racket. Producing music and getting it in front of people is hard enough, but nowadays, just making music won't cut it. Musicians have to be all-around entertainers, not just painting an aural soundscape, but crafting a visual portrait of their work as well. — Read the rest
President Joe Biden touched on a lot of topics in his speech to Congress last night, but there was one word he kept circling back to: "jobs." In fact, he said the word 43 times, according to APNews. And of course, Late Show host Stephen Colbert zeroed in on this (3:57) with a hilarious montage of every "jobs" utterance Biden made, followed by a dirty joke: "Oh, you've got to applaud. — Read the rest
Mark your calendars for June 4 to watch the first episode of Sweet Tooth, a new series on Netflix based on the DC comic of the same name and executive produced by Susan Downey and Robert Downey, Jr.
— Read the restYears after "The Great Crumble" changed everything, a hybrid deer-boy forms an unlikely bond with a wandering loner.
My daughter's over stuffed bowls of dward sunflowers continue to grow like mad. I have to water them every day or they droop because the bowls are just not big enough for that many sunflowers.
It is a lot of extra work for me, but they look pretty awesome. — Read the rest
In Brazil, a bull on a rural road suddenly and unexplainably attacked a parked car, bashing it with his horns. I don't think he was angry. He was either playing with the car or trying to impress his girlfriend, who seemed to enjoy the show. — Read the rest
Reddit user big_papa_geek posted a video of their cat, Salem, unscrewing and then snapping the lid of a food container before diving in for a snack. "I am honestly not sure if I am more scared or impressed…"
After all the horrible reality of the past year, you've got to try to embrace some of the little victories from this less-than-ideal period. For instance, if your kid wasn't tech-savvy before, they're probably an absolute whiz now that they've had a year of online Zoom school/IT training to make everything work. — Read the rest
Signal, the popular messaging service with end-to-end encryption, stores precious little user data — "Unix timestamps for when each account was created and the date that each account last connected to the Signal service."
So when the FBI subpoenaed Signal to turn over "a wide variety of information… including the addresses of the users, their correspondence, and the name associated with each account," Signal enlisted the aid of the ACLU, which replied to the FBI with a polite version of the Willy Winka "you get nothing" meme. — Read the rest
Looks like Cancún wasn't enough R&R for "lyin' sleepy Ted Cruz," who was caught by CNN snoozing on the job last night. "Ted Cruz isn't only a liar. He's a sleepy liar," says Meidas Touch in their entertaining take on the sagging senator.
Converse paired with vintage clothing retailer Beyond Retro to bring us Tropical Shirt Chucks. Available as low ($90) and high ($95) tops, each pair of these sneakers are completely one-of-a-kind because they're made with secondhand Hawaiian shirts. How cool is that?! — Read the rest
EarthCam made a construction time-lapse the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center expansion project in Orlando,Florida. Construction on the 698,312 square foot, $612 million dollar arts center began in 2017.
In the 2010s, computer giant Dell did a lot to repair its sinking reputation. Its founder raised $25bn to return it to private ownership, it updated its style and standards, and made waves with its handsome XPS laptops. But the old days are back, by the looks of it. — Read the rest
Large areas of Texas and Oklahoma were hit with freak hail storms Wednesday night, including 2-inch lime-size hail in many areas, 3-inch apple-size hail in Fort Worth and Norman, OK and even 4-inch hail the size of softballs in San Antonio. — Read the rest
Amy Wilhite (39) of Missouri received a 10-year prison sentence for smuggling a .22 caliber revolver in her vagina into jail. The 4.6-ounce gun, loaded with five rounds, was found during an inspection of her jail cell, where Wilhite was being detained after being charged with possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting arrest, failure to appear, and a probation violation for an original charge of DWI. — Read the rest
Watch this lamb walk on its two front legs without stumbling. It even manages to hop through a gap in a fence.
Everybody loves watching puppies experience snow for the first time, or watching a kitten try to drink milk on its own, or even the unlikely friendships formed between a camel and a cow. But what about your friendly neighborhood jumping spider? — Read the rest
In this video, the camera configuration of the game Skyrim is modified so that instead of the camera's viewpoint and its pivot point being the same, the camera's viewpoint is moved a few inches forward—like our eyes are relative to our necks. — Read the rest
Wanted to pass on what the San Francisco Neo-Futurists are up to. They've got a new interactive performance called The Program. The shtick? It's a 45-minute audio experience performed exclusively over your phone (U.S. only).
— Read the restHello, and welcome to The Program.
"It's almost worthless as a security device," he says, slicing through it like a cucumber.
A landslide triggered a tsunami in a Greenland fjord on June 18, 2017, scouring the nearby coast on the west of the sparsely-populated island. As the waters rose, a fisherman began filming for posterity, but matters quickly get out of hand. — Read the rest
On the lovely beach of Mar del Plata in Argentina, 250 miles south of Buenos Aires, thousands of white translucent orbs started to appear all along the beach this past weekend. These large pearl-esque objects were actually snail eggs. They are embryos of the carnivorous snail Adelomelon brasiliana, which lives near the coast of southern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina and can grow up to 8 inches in length. — Read the rest
The impacts of the new work-from-home model have thrown some ginormous curve balls at everyone. But if there's one member of your extended work family who probably deserves to be singled out for a little extra support and sympathy in this new world order, it's your company's IT person. — Read the rest
Ted Cruz has displayed no respect for anything or anyone except Ted Cruz.
No pillow can guarantee you a good night's sleep. The average person sleeps with 2.2 pillows, according to the National Sleep Foundation — so by that logic, if multiple pillows could somehow do the trick, we'd all be getting our eight hours per night and resting comfortably. — Read the rest
A colony of beavers knocked out Internet service on Saturday for residents of the small Canadian town of Tumbler Ridge, a few hours of northeast of Prince George, British Columbia. The animals had chewed through underground fiber optic cables and it took more than a day for the Telus telecommunications company to locate and conduct the repair which required digging deep into frozen ground. — Read the rest
Carla ordered a 24-pack of these cheap Bic mechanical pencils. I tried one and I like it a lot. The lead diameter is 0.9 mm and it has a number 2 lead inside. It also contains one extra lead in the barrel. — Read the rest
In Passau, Germany, a jogger noticed a clear plastic bag containing a hand grenade. Police brought in the bomb squad who determined that the grenade was actually a rubber sex toy. From the BBC News:
— Read the rest"After careful examination of the bag's contents, the officers quickly realised that it was a rubber dummy," Hauzenberg Police said in a press release.
