Whether you're an aspiring comic book artist or a budding graphic designer, there is lots of opportunity in the art world. But with traditional art courses costing a pretty penny, you'll become a "starving artist" long before you ever get to enjoy any success. — Read the rest
Wayne Couzens, a police officer in London, was nicknamed The Rapist by his colleagues on the Metropolitan force. Couzens, 48, was today sentenced to spend his whole life in jail for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in March. — Read the rest
Here's a new twist on the weirdness we've come to expect in airplane passenger news.
Right after an American Airlines flight from Columbia landed at Miami International Airport last night, a man opened up an emergency exit door and walked onto the wing of the plane (video below). — Read the rest
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) recently spoke at the North Carolina Faith & Freedom Coalition's "Salt & Light Conference" where he said historical inaccurate things about Christianity to an adoring crowd.
Rafi Schwartz, who describes himself as a "person who actually paid money to a major university to receive a degree in religious studies," said Cawthorn not only invoked "expressly Jewish figures as upholding 'Christian principles'" but also cited horrifically violent stories from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible as models of the Christian theocracy Cawthor is striving to install in the United States. — Read the rest
In the olden days, Schoolhouse Rock!'s "I'm Just a Bill" taught kids all they needed to know about the steps a young bill must take on Capitol Hill take to become a full-fledged law. But that was then, this is now. — Read the rest
Proof that John Oliver can make anything funny, I was trying to skip this one based on its subject matter but nope, anatomically correct ducks are nothing but fun.
What an unfair disqualification! My vote is with hunting duck, tho.
Here's an Atari ST that's been in daily use since 1985 as a general-purpose business machine at a campground, complete with software written by its single careful owner, Frans Bos. Victor Bart interviews him about his decades of happy computing.
— Read the restThis Atari 1040ST is still in use after 36 years!
As COVID-19 re-openings have staggered across Europe, the clowning industry has suffered. The BBC spoke with David Duffy, co-owner of Duffy's Circus, and the sixth generation of Duffys to run the Irish circus family.
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a shortage of the performers, as many returned to their home countries when the first lockdown came into force in early 2020, according to David Duffy, co-owner of Duffy's Circus, who is appealing for people from Northern Ireland to become clowns. — Read the rest
From RR Auction:
— Read the restA 1965 Mosrite Ventures II electric guitar personally-owned and -used by Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) for nearly two decades as the guitarist for punk rock legends the Ramones, with the back of the guitar signed in black felt tip, "Johnny Ramone, My Main Guitar, 1977-1996."
This past Monday evening, I went to my first full concert since March 2020 to see Phoebe Bridgers perform. The whole show was wonderful, but she closed out the evening with a somber rendition of Bo Burnham's song "That Funny Feeling," from his recent Netflix quarantine comedy special Inside. — Read the rest
In this footage, pyrotechnics are inappropriately set off indoors, igniting flammable decorations above a wedding party. The blaze goes from barely-visible to a horrifying conflagration in just a few seconds, despite someone noticing within moments of it starting and grabbing a fire extinguisher (though it appears to malfunction or suffer from user error). — Read the rest
Whether it's a website, promotional content, or your personal social media account, photos and videos just aren't what they used to be — and if you've ever employed a handy "pretty" filter on a selfie, you know exactly what that means. — Read the rest
This orrery, made by marian from Lego, models the movements of the Sun, Earth and Moon with accurate rotational and orbital periods, axial tilts and lunar precession (the inclination of the moon's orbit is "exaggerated to make it noticeable"). There are two cranks to operate it and even a 12-sided stand representing the Zodiac. — Read the rest
Imagine covering one of Dolly Parton's biggest hits and then getting a shoutout from the icon herself on social media. That's exactly what happened with Lil Nas X. Recently for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, he sang "Jolene." A little over a week later, Dolly posted a photo on Instagram of them together, with the humble words:
Seeing faces in inanimate objects isn't anything new, and the word pareidolia has been in use since the 1860s. An Instagram account called @things.faces documents some of the best. Our brains are highly tuned to see faces, and in 2014, a team of researchers from Canada and China dug into the neural mechanisms behind the phenomenon. — Read the rest
Yasuzo Masumura's "Giants and Toys" (1958, color) is a funny and satirical look at go-go, post WWII Japan. This unblinking look at corporate values and pop culture is colorful, kooky, and sardonically dark.
Three caramel companies slug it out in the 1950's cut-throat world of candy selling. — Read the rest
Jamie Spears, the father of pop star Britney Spears, was today removed from her conservatorship in what CNN describes as a legal victory in her "fight to regain control of her life." Control of Britney, placed under a conservatorship 13 years ago after a reported mental health crisis, amounts to control of her $60m fortune—a sharpener and a sweetener for the myriad of personae deeply interested in her wellbeing. — Read the rest
It's no newsflash that the planet is burning. Sure, we may just have unlocked anxiety you've forgotten about thanks to the delta variant, but it's the harsh and dystopian reality. You may not be starting the forest fires directly, but using products that indirectly mess with the planet like toilet paper, paper towels, and other paper products that cannot be recycled isn't doing mother nature any favors (and some of us are just being plain irresponsible). — Read the rest
Gritty, who single-handedly breathed life back into the world of sportsball team mascots, is now three. The Philidelphia Flyers could not be more proud!
Evidently, three is the legal age to conduct a motor vehicle in the state of Pennsylvania.
Happiest birthday, Gritty!
The Jiro Miura Gallery in Tokyo is hosting its fourth ephemeral – Territory of Girls show, with paintings by women artists including our friends Amy Crehore and Audrey Kawasaki.
Above: Ye-Ye Girl with Guitar by Amy Crehore. Below: Dreaming California by Audrey Kawasaki. — Read the rest
Alana Aamodt was a guest on the Cool Tools podcast a while back, and she told me about a cool Kickstarter project she was rolling out, called Momentix motionKit: The toy for making chain reactions. It blew past its funding goal, but there's still time to order a kit. — Read the rest
This is not someone parodying Vanilla Ice, although Vanilla Ice may be parodying himself. Either way, word to your mother. From Samsung UK:
— Read the restReduce Your Ice, Ice Baby! 90s rap superstar Vanilla Ice has teamed up with Samsung to re-release his hit single 'Ice, Ice Baby' delivering a powerful message "with a sustainable edge".
It's not likely that the habitués of the top Christian Facebook page of 2019, Be Happy Enjoy Life, would give a hoot that the page was run by an Eastern European troll farm. They'd just be happy that the Putin-directed propagandists are doing the Lord's work. — Read the rest
New York City now has several ultratall buildings constructed for ultrawealthy owners. They're a Jungian archetype of howling inequality: many apartments stand empty, since they're either pieds-Ã -terre for the moneyed classes or wealth stores for foreign tax-evading gazillionaires.
It turns out they're also terribly built! — Read the rest
The great Dr. Lonnie Smith who has been pushing the edges of jazz organ since the 1960s died yesterday at age 79. Smith recorded groundbreaking sessions for Columbia Records and Blue Note, eventually creating cross-genre collaborations with the likes of The Roots, Norah Jones, and, most recently, Iggy Pop. — Read the rest
Aaron Francis wanted a pen-plotter that could write out thousands of pieces of direct mail. He bought the Axidraw from Evil Mad Scientist and liked it a lot — but wanted some way to have one robot write out multiple pieces of paper, unattended. — Read the rest
The Scotsman reports that Scotland will be the first country to teach queer history as part of its standard school curriculum [paywall]. Molly Sprayregan summarizes:
— Read the restWhile the new curricula were created, in part, for students to receive a more well-rounded education, the Scottish government also hopes the lessons will help reduce bullying.
A resident of Virginia Beach, Virginia reportedly plays audio of monkey sounds and recorded racist skits meant to harass a Black family who lives nearby. The Martinez family reported the neighbor to the police but authorities claim they are powerless to stop the horrible behavior. — Read the rest
YouTube announced that anti-vaxxers will no longer be welcome on the video-hosting platform, reports The Washington Post.
YouTube already had a policy in place to ban videos that make false claims about the coronavirus vaccine. This latest announcement extends the ban to other vaccines as well. — Read the rest
Japanese artist Masayoshi Matsumoto is a true auteur of the balloon animal genre. Which is not something I ever thought existed, until I saw these:
Top image via the artist's YouTube channel
