Saturday, September 30, 2017

"Last Friday, a statue memorializing the 'comfort women' of the Imperial Japanese Army was unveiled in San Francisco’s Chinatown"

"Calling the statue 'Japan-bashing,' Osaka mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura said this week that if San Francisco officials continue with plans to integrate the statue into a public park, he will push to end Osaka’s sister city relationship with San Francisco."

"China will prosecute the 'degenerate' former top official of one of China's most important cities, the southwestern megalopolis of Chongqing, for leaking secrets, bribery and abuse of power"

"a senior official once considered a contender for top leadership, had been Communist Party chief of the city until an abrupt announcement in July that he had been replaced by a rising political star close to President Xi Jinping"

Friday, September 29, 2017

"Mad Men restaurant and Hunger Games bakery to open in Times Square"

TG:
There are plans to introduce a Mad Men dining experience as well as a John Wick shooting ride that will give customers a chance to take down various assailants.

Fans of The Hunger Games will also be able to eat at either Peeta’s bakery or The Capitol Confectionery

"Serta is suing Casper for patent infringement in a showdown between the country's biggest mattress brand and the leading startup attempting to disrupt it"

MA:
Casper first unveiled the high-end Wave model in August with prices ranging from $1,000 to $2,250, around double that of its regular mattresses. Its design is meant to conform to the shape of a sleeper's body with alternating layers of soft and firm material.

Serta claims this construction too closely resembles its own "Channel Cut Technology,"

The new Flatliners has a perfect 0% rating among top critics

Thursday, September 28, 2017

"The deadly germ warfare island abandoned by the Soviets"

BBC:
Vozrozhdeniya was once home to a vibrant fishing village fringed by turquoise lagoons, back when the Aral Sea was the fourth-largest in the world and abundant with fish.

...

Now Vozrozhdeniya has swallowed up so much of the sea that it’s swelled to 10 times its original size, and is connected to the mainland by a peninsula. But it is thanks to another Soviet project that it is one of the deadliest places on the planet.

From the 1970s, the island has been implicated in a number of sinister incidents. In 1971, a young scientist fell ill after a research vessel, the Lev Berg, strayed into a brownish haze. Days later, she was diagnosed with smallpox. Mysteriously, she had already been vaccinated against the disease. Though she recovered, the outbreak went on to infect a further nine people back in her hometown, three of whom died.

...

A year later, the corpses of two missing fishermen were found nearby, drifting in their boat. It’s thought that they had caught the plague. Not long afterwards, locals started landing whole nets of dead fish. No one knows why. Then in May 1988, 50,000 saiga antelope which had been grazing on a nearby steppe dropped dead – in the space of an hour.

Catherine Zeta-Jones has a QVC line called Casa Zeta-Jones

"FCC chairman Ajit Pai wants Apple to turn on the FM radio that’s hidden inside of every iPhone"

TV:
Most smartphones have an FM radio inside, and they have for a long time. Until recently, however, most of those radios were deactivated, so that owners couldn’t use them. There were a handful of reasons for this, but two of the more obvious ones were that if your phone receives FM radio, you’re going to be less likely to pay for music and extra wireless data — instead, you’d just tune into the radio for free.

As Pai points out, most wireless carriers and phone manufacturers have backed down on that in recent years and offered access to FM. “Apple is the one major phone manufacturer that has resisted doing so,” Pai says.

...

“When wireless networks go down during a natural disaster, smartphones with activated FM chips can allow Americans to get vital access to life-saving information,”

"Meet the Camperforce, Amazon's Nomadic Retiree Army"

Wired:
Chuck still remembers the call from Wells Fargo that brought the 2008 financial crisis crashing down on his head. He had invested his $250,000 nest egg in a fund that supposedly guaranteed him $4,000 a month to live on. “You have no more money,” he recalls his banker saying flatly.

...

In the mid-2000s, Amazon had a problem. Every year, the company scrambled to find temporary workers during the peak months of hectic commerce leading up to Christmas. In some areas of the country, reliable on-demand labor was so hard to come by that it resorted to busing in workers from three to five hours away. Then, in 2008, a staffing agency came up with something new: inviting a team of migrant RVers to work at the facility in Coffeyville, Kansas.

Pleased with the results, Amazon brought in more RVers the following year, expanding the program to warehouses in Campbellsville, Kentucky, and Fernley, Nevada. Amazon gave the new initiative a name—Camper­Force—and a logo: the silhouette of an RV in motion, bearing the corporation’s “smile” logo.

Many of the workers who joined Camper­Force were around traditional retirement age, in their sixties or even seventies. They were glad to have a job, even if it involved walking as many as 15 miles a day on the concrete floor of a warehouse. From a hiring perspective, the RVers were a dream labor force. They showed up on demand and dispersed just before Christmas in what the company cheerfully called a “taillight parade.” They asked for little in the way of benefits or protections. And though warehouse jobs were physically taxing—not an obvious fit for older bodies—recruiters came to see Camper­Force workers’ maturity as an asset. These were diligent, responsible employees. Their attendance rates were excellent.

"The High-End Horse Market Has Finally Recovered From the Financial Crisis"

"It’s been a slow climb back for the thoroughbred market since it collapsed amid the panic of the global financial crisis."

Major league baseball player talks about helping his older brother through PTSD

BB:
DC: “You bring up your older brother, Logan, your best friend, who you shared an extremely difficult time with 13 years ago. A U.S. Army veteran who served in Baghdad as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he came back to the U.S. suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the same time you were dealing with career-threatening, left shoulder surgery as a minor leaguer. What do you remember most about that time and the deep depression that the two of you faced together?”

JJH: “Yeah, 2004 was my Triple-A year and it was kind of, for me, maybe the year I was gonna get called up to the big leagues, and I felt like I was going to have this opportunity that I’d been dreaming of my whole life. And then I blew out my shoulder about 30 games into the season, ended up having season-ending surgery. It was a bad surgery. It was one of those that you don’t know if you’re gonna come back from it. Since I’ve been playing, there have been a few athletes that have had that same (full labrum tear) injury, and it’s basically ended their careers. Luke Scott had it. Richie Sexson, Scott Rolen, all these guys toward the end of their careers had the same type of thing and never really bounced back. For me to be thinking that I might have missed my opportunity to make it to the big leagues, I went into a pretty sad state of mind.

“At that same time, my brother was coming home from Iraq and was having a lot more problems than I was. But I was too blind and selfish to even realize anything but what was going on with me. We lived together for a couple months in Tempe; didn’t talk. Basically, sat in the house, had all the blinds closed. It was like a cave. We didn’t talk. We literally would sit there on the couch, looking at a TV that was not turned on and go about our days like that. And then one day, I think I might have said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna sit out in the hot tub. You want to come out? And he said, ‘Sure.’ So, we sat out in the hot tub and I remember the first … I still get …”

DC: At this point, Hardy stopped the interview for about a minute, sat in silence in the dugout with his hands cupped in front of his face, pushing away tears and trying to collect himself.

"Hollywood tour buses could get more rules slapped on them under the law Gov. Jerry Brown just signed"

"The measure allows cities and counties to adopt rules that restrict the routes or streets used by the tour buses, and prohibit the use of loudspeakers on open-topped buses and vans."

"Some of fast-food’s biggest names, including Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Pizza Hut and, until recently, McDonald’s, prohibited franchisees from hiring workers away from one another"

NYT:
The restrictions do not appear in a contract that employees sign, or even see. They are typically included in a paragraph buried in lengthy contracts that owners of fast-food outlets sign with corporate headquarters.

Yet the provisions can keep employees tied to one spot, unable to switch jobs or negotiate higher pay. A lack of worker mobility has long been viewed as contributing to wage stagnation because switching jobs is one of the most reliable ways to get a raise.

Defenders of the practice argue that the restaurants spend time and money training workers and want to protect their investment.

"Norwegian shipping company Höegh Autoliners AS has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $21 million criminal fine for its involvement in a conspiracy to fix prices, allocate customers, and rig bids"

GC:
Höegh is the fifth company to plead guilty in this investigation—bringing the total criminal fines to over $255 million. Four executives have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison terms. An additional seven executives are known to have been indicted, but remain fugitives.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

"Equifax CEO Richard Smith Who Oversaw Breach to Collect $90 Million"

Fortune:
"The cybersecurity incident has affected millions of consumers, and I have been completely dedicated to making this right," he said in a statement announcing his retirement. "At this critical juncture, I believe it is in the best interests of the company to have new leadership to move the company forward."

Kong: Skull Island director and other foreigners attacked in Vietnam

"Massive explosions and a blaze at a military ammunition depot in central Ukraine forced authorities to evacuate 24,000 people and close airspace over the region"

"Arriving in the region hours later, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said 'external factors' were behind the incident."

"Two brothers have sent their toy pirate ship on a North Sea voyage"

CNN:
it traveled 390 miles to Denmark where it was picked up by a family, who contacted the Fergusons via Facebook with photos of them with the boat before returning it to the sea.

From there, it traveled to Sweden where it found its way into a tree, found by a woman in her boat who did some running repairs before setting it off on its latest voyage, this time to Norway.

"Partly because it was going to waste, we used the Playmobil boat but also as it was more eye-catching for people to pick up rather than leave it where it is," he says. "It's obviously worked better than it ever could have."

Its last appearance was in Norway, where it was found by a crew member aboard a conservation vessel a quarter-of-a-mile off the Norwegian shoreline.

"It made it to three countries in just about six weeks which is incredible," says Ferguson, with an infinitely more demanding journey now under way.

It was put on board the Christian Radich, a fully-rigged ship, and pushed into the waters towards Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean.

"Emails Show How An Ivy League Prof Tried To Do Damage Control For His Bogus Food Science"

BF:
Journals have so far retracted three of these papers and corrected at least seven.

...

The most recent retraction — a rare move typically seen as a black mark on a scientist’s reputation — happened last Thursday, when JAMA Pediatrics pulled a similar study, also from 2012, titled “Can branding improve school lunches?”

Both studies claimed that children are more likely to choose fruits and vegetables when they’re jazzed up, such as when carrots are called “X-Ray Vision Carrots” and when apples have Sesame Street stickers. The underlying theory is that fun, descriptive branding will not only make an eater more aware of the food, but will “also raise one’s taste expectations,”

...

The USDA has funded $8.4 million in research grants related to the program to date, according to an agency spokesperson. Since 2014, it’s also awarded nearly $14 million in training grants. Almost 30,000 schools have adopted those techniques, and the government pays each one up to $2,000 for doing so.

1/12 scale Genesis Climber Mospeada available for preorder



At the BBTS.

"SNES mini teardown confirms recycled NES mini tech"

EG:
The same processor, storage and RAM sit on an almost identical mainboard.

...

The magic comes from the bespoke Super NES emulation software layer, likely built from the ground up by Nintendo's Paris-based European Research and Development (NERD) team, running on open source OS, Linux.

"Adidas hired [Athletics Director] Tom Jurich's daughter months before $160 million deal with University of Louisville"

"as an 'NCAA brand communications manager'"

"China plans to build Djibouti facility to allow naval flotilla to dock at first overseas base"

SCMP:
But another source close to the navy said the wharf had originally been designed as a “naval maintenance and repair port” because of an “accident” in 2010.

“China decided to set up a ship maintenance and repair stop in Djibouti after the power system of its Type-052B destroyer Guangzhou broke down when it was carrying out anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden in May of 2010,” the second source said.

“Sailors on the Guangzhou were facing the most embarrassing situation as they didn’t know where they could go and who they should seek help from because Beijing and Djibouti hadn’t formally set up military ties in that time.”

"God is a Bot, and Anthony Levandowski is his Messenger"

"In September 2015, the multi-millionaire engineer at the heart of the patent and trade secrets lawsuit between Uber and Waymo, Google’s self-driving car company, founded a religious organization called Way of the Future. Its purpose, according to previously unreported state filings, is nothing less than to 'develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence.'"

"Wheaton College team and fans show support for players accused of hazing"

"In addition to the support shown by players, fans of the team put on both symbolic and vocal displays about the scandal."

Previously: "Five Wheaton College football players face felony charges after being accused of a 2016 hazing incident in which a freshman teammate was restrained with duct tape, beaten and left half-naked with two torn shoulders on a baseball field."

"For a cool quarter-million dollars per couple, wealthy Republican donors participated in a 'private round-table' with President Trump on Tuesday night"

"The restaurant appears to be a favorite of Mr. Trump’s, though it has fallen on hard times in recent years — its owner filed for bankruptcy protection in March."

Annihilation trailer

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

A Reddit post from last month, "What is Oklahoma State selling to recruits?"

R/UVA:
I want to preface this by saying I know this will come off as critical of OK State. But I want to make it clear that this is just in comparison to the schools with which they are competing for recruits.

In the past few days, 2 more recruits (David McCormack and Elijah Weaver) have put Oklahoma State in their final X list. Now, I could be wrong, but it sure feels like the past couple years there have been a lot of great recruits seriously considering the Cowboys (although it doesn't seem they've been getting picked by these top guys).

Anyways, I don't know what I'm missing, but I just don't see what's getting them on these lists. They really don't check off any of the boxes that would give them an edge on other P5 or elite programs.
And the news today.

Million dollar home in San Francisco with bizarre kitchen



Listing. Some possible explanations.

"Approximately 24 percent of the league’s concussions sustained during games came during kickoffs, which only accounted for six percent of all plays"

"What the Ivy League discovered when it moved kickoffs up 5 yards"

"Sheriff's Department Demands Apology After Fox's Tupac/Biggie Special Accuses Wrong Officer Of Mishandling Case"

LAi:
There was one big problem with the special’s claims about Katz. The photo they used of Katz was actually that of Commander Stephen D. Katz of the L.A. County Sheriff’s department, not of Steven Katz of the Los Angeles Police Department (the real detective who'd handled the case). As stated in a later LASD statement, this mistake also erroneously suggests that the Sheriff’s department was involved in the investigation over Small’s death (in the special Katz was shown wearing a LASD badge, and standing in front of LASD logos), when in fact the case was being handled by the LAPD.

"Roy Moore Wins Senate G.O.P. Runoff in Alabama"

NYT:
The outcome in the closely watched Senate race dealt a humbling blow to President Trump and other party leaders days after the president pleaded with voters in the state to back Mr. Strange

...

Mr. Moore’s incendiary rhetoric will also oblige others in the party to answer for his comments, perhaps for years to come, at a time when many Republicans would just as soon move on from the debate over gay rights

...

Mr. Moore, 70, has proved himself to be a political survivor since he first rose to prominence. He has been effectively removed from the State Supreme Court twice — the first time in 2003 over a statue of the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, and the second over same-sex marriage licenses
From yesterday:
Trump phones 'Rick & Bubba,' calls Roy Moore 'Ray' as he stumps for Strange

...

When host Rick Burgess clarified that Moore's first name was Roy and not Ray, Trump came back with why it's "not a good sign" when the president doesn't know your name.

"I don't know that much about Roy Moore," Trump said, using the correct first name. "Roy Moore is going to have a very hard time getting elected against the Democrat. Against Luther, they won't even fight."
He's deleted his tweets supporting Strange.

Also:
Trump, who sometimes talks about staffing the government like running a television show, sees the hulking, 6-foot-9 senator as out of central casting. The president likes that Strange “can fill a room, literally and figuratively,” one White House official said, and admiringly calls him “Big Luther.” Their phone calls sometimes stretch for more than an hour.

"Pitbull is sending his private plane to Puerto Rico so that cancer patients can receive treatment in the United States"

NYDN.

"Wells Fargo Upgrades Equifax (EFX) to Outperform, 'Megabreach Creates Opportunity'"

"The magnitude of the breach combined with a multitude of high-profile issues (notification timing, Congressional investigations/hearings insider stock sales, management turnover) have created, in our opinion, an attractive entry point for this high-quality consumer credit franchise"

"Nothing is too strange for cities wooing Amazon to build there"

BG:
In Philadelphia, hundreds of Wharton Business School students have a new fall semester assignment: Pitch the city to Amazon

...

“It’s like ‘The Amazing Race,’” said Jim Watson, the mayor of Ottawa. “You’ve got this cast of characters running toward the Holy Grail.”

...

Mark D. Boughton, the mayor of Danbury, Connecticut, posted a video Sept. 14 calling himself a “proud Amazon customer” and asking Alexa, the Amazon virtual assistant, where Amazon should build its second headquarters. “Danbury,” a female voice responds.

...

Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans, has also built an Amazon war room, where more than 40 people are trying to analyze what the online retailer “likes and doesn’t like.” They are also trying to read Bezos’ psyche.

...

Joe Snell, a business leader with an economic development group in Tucson, was behind the recent shipment to Bezos of the local saguaro cactus, which he said was symbolic of the region’s people.

"Pentagon Tests Lasers and Nets to Combat a Vexing Foe: ISIS Drones"

NYT:
Iranian drones have buzzed United States Navy ships more than a dozen times in the Persian Gulf this year. In Europe, American and allied soldiers accustomed to operating from large, secure bases in Iraq and Afghanistan now practice using camouflage netting to disguise their positions and dispersing into smaller groups to avoid sophisticated Russian surveillance drones that could potentially direct rocket or missile attacks against personnel or command posts.

In the United States, the authorities voice increasing concerns about possible Islamic State-inspired drone attacks against dams, nuclear power plants and other critical infrastructure. Over the summer, the Pentagon issued classified guidance to base commanders around the country to warn local communities to keep commercial drone hobbyists away from installations.

...

Contestants had to destroy or disable 30 drones flying more than 250 yards away. A total of 10 systems competed, including four high-energy laser weapons and an attack drone that carried a big net to capture hostile drones, military officials said.

"This past weekend, Showtime websites were found to be running a script that allows the sites to mine visitors’ extra CPU power for cryptocurrency"

TV:
The script mines the cryptocurrency known as Monero.

...

Thirty percent of the proceeds go to Coinhive, while sites using the service, like Showtime and The Pirate Bay, keep the rest. For its part, The Pirate Bay has apologized for secretly running the script and then asked its users if they preferred ads or CPU mining.

...

Coinhive updated its site to include the statement: “We're a bit saddened to see that some of our customers integrate Coinhive into their pages without disclosing to their users what's going on, let alone asking for their permission
Giz:
We reached out to Showtime earlier this afternoon to ask if this script was included intentionally or if an outside actor had perhaps hacked its website. After multiple attempts to get an answer, a spokesperson for Showtime bluntly replied, “We decline comment.”

"Donald Trump Jr.'s Secret Service protection has been reactivated"

"Previously, Trump Jr. had also requested to travel without protection during a family trip"

"Dyson has announced plans to build an electric car that will be 'radically different' from current models and go on sale in 2020"

TG:
No prototype has yet been built

...

We don’t have an existing chassis

...

We’ll choose the best place to make it

"I asked Tinder for my data. It sent me 800 pages"

TG:
Some 800 pages came back containing information such as my Facebook “likes”, my photos from Instagram (even after I deleted the associated account), my education, the age-rank of men I was interested in, how many times I connected, when and where every online conversation with every single one of my matches happened … the list goes on.

...

It knows how often you connect and at which times; the percentage of white men, black men, Asian men you have matched; which kinds of people are interested in you; which words you use the most; how much time people spend on your picture before swiping you, and so on

"DirecTV is offering unprecedented refunds for fans who want to cancel their NFL Sunday Ticket package, if they inform the company that they are doing so due to the recent protests during the national anthem"

"An AT&T spokesperson declined to confirm the cancellation policy and said the company would have no numbers to share."

"Though she spends most of her time keeping the peace, even Chun-Li needs sleep to recover for the tough trials to come. Bring her sleepwear into battle to become your opponent’s worst nightmare"



New Street Fighter V costumes.

"FoxSports.com has reportedly lost 88% of its audience after pivoting to video"

"If those numbers seem bad, keep in mind that most sports outlets see an increase in traffic when the fall comes along thanks to the return of college football and the NFL."

Also:
MIC’S WEBSITE AUDIENCE is tanking by millions of readers a month—and if it continues, it just may save online journalism.

That’s because Mic is another example of the cautionary tale set by publications that pivot to video.
And: "Right now, Rolling Stone’s video revenue is just $100,000"

Monday, September 25, 2017

"Emma Stone Put on 15 Pounds of Muscle to Play Billie Jean King"

"We had three months to get her to look and feel like an athlete,"

"The Levi's Commuter Trucker Jacket with Jacquard by Google has touch and gesture interactivity woven into the sleeve."

Levi:
When paired with your phone, a simple brush or tap on the sleeve lets you stay connected to your music, navigation and friends without stopping to reach for your pocket

...

With a quick drag and drop in the Jacquard app, you can customize each gesture with various abilities. You choose if a tap or a brush against the sleeve pauses your music or gives your ETA.

"People stop on a highway near a mobile phone antenna tower to try to get a signal after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria in Dorado, Puerto Rico"

Puerto Rico photo gallery.

Very good write up of an XCOM mission

TF:
The VIP is dead and the mission is lost, but we spend a turn cleaning up the enemies before Evacuating.

Except: I can’t place the Evac zone. The button’s not working.

You can’t place the Evac on VIP extractions. It’s pre-set. It’s miles away. And the ship leaves in 2 turns.



Part 2: The Escape

Everyone runs – ignoring cover, ignoring the risk of triggering enemies.

"When archaeologists found a tunnel under Mexico’s ‘birthplace of the gods’, they could only dream of the riches they would discover."

TG:
Even more remarkable was a miniature mountainous landscape, 17 metres underground, with tiny pools of liquid mercury representing lakes. The walls of the tunnel were found to have been carefully impregnated with powdered pyrite, or fool’s gold, to give the effect in firelight of standing under a galaxy of stars.

...

Watermarks along the walls of Gómez Chávez’s passage have proved that the huge plaza above it was deliberately flooded to create a kind of primordial sea, with pyramids as metaphorical mountains emerging from the water as at the beginning of time. Thousands of people would have witnessed ceremonies re-enacting the creation myth.

...

The inhabitants of Teotihuacan would have walked past thousands of square feet of bright illustrated surfaces

"Football fans fill dorms left empty at Mizzou after enrollment drop"

StLT:
with almost 2,000 fewer freshmen this fall than there were two years ago, there is no shortage of empty rooms.

It’s scrappy, Merz argues. It shows leaders are “thinking outside of the box.”

It’s not a Band-Aid for the millions of dollars in lost tuition revenue, but Mizzou spokesman Christian Basi said the school pulled in more than $20,000 per game so far on the dorm rental.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

"Is Disney paying its share in Anaheim?"

LAT:
Faced with growing criticism inside City Hall, last year Disney stepped up its local political spending

...

Even with Disney’s large PAC contributions — which dwarfed the money raised by the candidates it opposed — two politicians supported by the company lost to reform candidates, flipping the balance of power on the council. Now, Disney’s ability to extract lucrative deals from the city is in question.

"an ongoing debate between street style photographers and influencers . . . came to a boil at Milan Fashion Week"

TC:
It all began on Thursday, when a group of 30-something street style photographers met to organize an “unofficial union.” Their goal, as outlined in a statement obtained by WWD, is to stop to “disproportionate gain being derived by the influencers” and to “no longer be viewed as a passive entity in the equation of this industry.” In other words, “The Photographers,” as this anonymous group calls themselves, argue that they need to be seen as an invaluable part of the equation; they’re done watching influencers profit off their images, with no compensation or acknowledgement in return.

...

In a recent article titled, “The Big Business of Street StyleBait,” the blogger Zanita Whittington told Refinery29 that street style is a “huge part of [her] business.” She explained that these photos help boost her reputation as a “style authority,” and a single New York Fashion Week season could yield as much as $100,000.

Some bloggers and street style stars hire their own photographers, but most of the time, they’re relying on the photographers outside of shows — some of whom are being paid by magazines, and others who are also working for free to kickstart their careers. These photographers run after influencers for the chance to be featured on their Instagrams, and the influencers know this, with some then turning it into a game of cat and mouse — as well as a competition amongst photographers. This is exactly the power dynamic that #NoFreePhotos is trying to dismantle.

Character designs by Evgeny Viitman

















"Lowe built several balloons during the Civil War to spy on the Confederate Army, winning him official appointment by President Lincoln as Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army and the unofficial title of the most shot-at man in the Civil War"

ICW:
He was also the grandfather of Florence Lowe, whom he took to the 1910 air meet when she was nine years old. The spectacle of flight entranced the young girl, and she went on to acquire fame as “Pancho” Barnes, a pioneer barnstormer, Hollywood stunt pilot, industry test pilot, and later owner of the Happy Bottom Riding Club, the celebrated watering hole at what became Edwards Air Force Base in the “Right Stuff” era.

"In 1906, this Congolese man was displayed in a zoo. Now, Virginia is honoring him"

WaPo:
Last weekend, Virginia — one of three states in the country that prominently display a statue of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis in its capitol — unveiled a historical highway marker for Ota Benga, a Congolese native and Lynchburg resident who in 1906 garnered global headlines when he was exhibited in the Bronx Zoo monkey house.

...

For nearly a century, the story of Benga’s tragic life was narrated by the very men who were most complicit in his degradation. In dozens of accounts — including one in a Virginia encyclopedia — the man most responsible for his exploitation was absurdly depicted as his friend.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

"The end-of-the-world message heard on some Orange County channels during an Emergency Alert System test on Thursday was a technical glitch prompted by a local radio station, broadcasting officials said on Friday"

OCR:
KWVE-FM, a Santa Ana station that broadcasts Christian programs, was conducting the test for the region that did not properly kick off – prompting a pastor’s comments meant only for that station to be heard over TV and probably radio channels in the county and beyond.

...

“It’s not like we planned the broadcast to coincide with that,” Gemaehlich said. “It was just a fluke thing. Pastor Swindoll would never try to line something up with that. He is a very conservative, sound theologian and not a conspiracy person.”

"Lakers to get more than $30 million from three-year jersey sponsorship deal with Wish"

LAT:
Like many who heard the news on Thursday, the Lakers chief operating officer hadn’t heard of Wish either

...

The app offers budget shopping options and quirky products.

"A huge 5.2 m crocodile has been shot dead in Queensland"

"People need to clearly understand the death of this animal has changed the balance of the crocodile population in the Fitzroy and we can expect increased aggressive activity by younger male crocodiles"

"Tumult After AIDS Fund-Raiser Supports Harvey Weinstein Production"

NYT:
In May 2015, the entertainment producer Harvey Weinstein arranged for two items to be auctioned off at a fund-raiser for amfAR, a New York-based charity that works to cure AIDS.

The offers — a sitting with a famous fashion photographer and a package of tickets to a Hollywood film awards event and parties — came with a condition: $600,000 of the money raised at the auction, in Cannes, France, would go to the American Repertory Theater, a nonprofit playhouse that had done a trial run of “Finding Neverland,” a Broadway musical that Mr. Weinstein produced.

...

Mr. Weinstein, who is a longtime supporter of the AIDS organization and was a chairman of the 2015 event, said that he had done nothing wrong and that everyone benefited from the arrangement, which raised $309,669 for amfAR. “I honestly thought we were doing something fantastic for both sides,” he said in an interview. “We get money, they get money, and it’s all our money.”

"Fog Monster" Mini Fog Machine For Tabletop Games





From a completed kickstarter by Real Game FX:
The first machine is the "Fog Monster" which uses a pipe system to deliver the fog into your game. This design allows you to hide the pipe behind your existing terrain pieces so that the fog enters like it is part of the natural environment.

The second Fog Machine is the The "Dark Crypt" Fog Machine. The Dark Crypt is meant to be placed in the game terrain and produces fog that exits through the doors and windows.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Wooden Iron Giant by Amanda Visell



Available.

"WWE has dealt with racism before, but a scripted rant has fans chanting ‘that’s too far!’"

WP:
“That’s racist,” spectators could be heard shouting as Mahal delivered the lines. Later in Mahal’s five-minute spiel, fans collaborated to chant, “That’s too far!”

...

This problem is hardly unique to WWE, but it happens around the world and sometimes even more shockingly. In 2009, for example, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Japan’s version of WWE, used Nazi imagery on some of its promotional material.
Don't miss the correction at the end of the article.

"KB Home CEO . . . sees his bonus cut [25%] after vulgar rant at Kathy Griffin"

"One of the nation's biggest homebuilders is putting its top executive on notice after a vulgar rant against comedian Kathy Griffin was caught on tape and went viral."

Relatedly.

"The California Coastal Commission plans to issue a cease-and-desist order to Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla, who has refused to provide public access to Martins Beach south of Half Moon Bay despite a state appeals court’s ruling in August that he had no right to block access through his property"

"'We were surprised and disappointed they didn’t respond to the court decision by opening the gates to Martins Beach'"

Mythos Obi-Wan Kenobi figure available for preorder



At the BBTS.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Ebon Hawk in Star Wars Adventures?



Rey faces a group of thugs with good taste in spaceships in Star Wars Adventures #2.

"exporting Foxconn’s Chinese strategy is virtually impossible"

NYT:
Before the Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn pledged to spend $10 billion and create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin, the company made a similar promise in Brazil.

At a news conference in Brazil, Foxconn officials unveiled plans to invest billions of dollars and build one of the world’s biggest manufacturing hubs in the state of São Paulo. The government had high expectations that the project would yield 100,000 jobs.

Six years later . . . “The area where Foxconn said it would build a plant is totally abandoned,”

...

What makes Foxconn’s Chinese operations really hum are the extraordinary level of government subsidies and support, and the sheer scale of those operations

"Resist" pin by Jen Bartel



For a Kickstarter.

"'We're looking at four to six months without electricity' in Puerto Rico"

"Hurricane Maria is likely to have 'destroyed' Puerto Rico, the island's emergency director said Wednesday after the monster storm smashed ripped roofs off buildings and flooded homes across the economically strained U.S. territory."

New York Chick-fil-A will have "elements built into the façade that give a subtle impression of the Twin Towers"

"our guests will always have the same views of Freedom Tower."

"L.A. city attorney targets hard-partying homes in Hollywood Hills"

LAT:
It’s a common occurrence in the affluent Hollywood Hills: Homeowners and property managers rent out their homes to short-term guests who throw raucous events flowing with booze, loud music and hundreds of attendees.

...

In a pair of criminal complaints filed Tuesday, City Atty. Mike Feuer has charged the owner of a single-family home in the 7800 block of Electra Drive and the property manager of a home in the 2600 block of La Cuesta Drive with multiple misdemeanors related to maintaining a public nuisance.

...

the property manager of the La Cuesta Drive estate . . . said neighbors were too sensitive.

“It’s like if anyone talks in the pool area or sneezes, complaints are filed that have no validity,”

Bloodborne and Jet Set Radio figures available for preorder



Jet Set Radio and Bloodborne.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

"Five Wheaton College football players face felony charges after being accused of a 2016 hazing incident in which a freshman teammate was restrained with duct tape, beaten and left half-naked with two torn shoulders on a baseball field"

CT:
The victim, who the Tribune is not naming, left the conservative Christian school shortly after the incident

...

At one point, the players suggested to the freshman that he had been kidnapped by Muslims who wanted to fornicate with goats, the teen told investigators. They patted his foot and suggested he would be their "goat" for the evening

...

The criminal charges add another troubling incident for Wheaton College's football team, which consistently is ranked among the top Division III programs in the country

...

The team made national headlines nearly three years ago after players dressed up in Ku Klux Klan robes as part of so-called team-building activity

"Veterans are about 20 percent more likely than nonveterans to kill themselves, according to a Veterans Affairs press release issued on Friday afternoon"

"Also, the suicide rate for female veterans is 250 percent that for female non-vets."

"Ransomware attack on Montgomery County [Alabama] government computers continues"

WSFA:
The commission said the probate office is currently unable to offer any services regarding vehicle tags and registration, as well as business and marriage licenses. The county's revenue and district attorney offices are also impacted by the attack.

Ialacci believes the sheriff's office's computers will be much more operational by Wednesday

"45 Magnum, P.I. cosplayers ejected from Comerica Park"

"They were there for a bachelor party"

"South Korea’s flagship research ship Isabu seems to have sailed into a controversy with the Japanese government over its name"

Nature:
The Japanese government has issued no formal protest over the ship’s name, but four scientists in South Korea and Japan have told Nature that researchers at Japan’s national marine-research agency have been instructed not to participate in any collaborations or cruises involving Isabu.

...

The ship’s name refers to a sixth-century Korean general, Kim Isabu. In South Korea, he is known for his maritime conquests, which in some historical accounts included two islets that are the subject of a decades-long territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan

"College President Hosts Black Students With Cotton Centerpieces, Collard Greens"

"What transpired will hopefully be a teachable moment for university leaders moving forward."

"Brazilian judge approves 'gay conversion therapy', sparking national outrage"

TG:
Waldemar de Carvalho, a federal judge in the capital of Brasília, overruled a 1999 decision by the Federal Council of Psychology that forbade psychologists from offering widely discredited treatments which claims to “cure” gay people.

...

Brazil has a growing population of evangelical Christians who have protested vociferously

Monday, September 18, 2017

"A biotech startup called Orig3n and the Baltimore Ravens abruptly canceled their plans to give away a free DNA test to 55,000 football fans at Sunday’s game"

BF:
The Maryland Department of Health confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it was “in communications with Orig3n,” but declined to elaborate.

The test makes dubious claims about how four genes influence health and wellness traits, such as how your skin will age, whether you learn words quickly, and your athletic prowess. Interested fans would have dabbed the inside of their cheeks with a cotton-swab kit and dropped it off in bins around the stadium.

The company still hopes to do the promotion (“DNA Day”) at a future game. But several bioethicists and genetic experts told BuzzFeed News that the idea was troubling. Not only are Orig3n’s scientific claims suspect, they said, but giving them out so casually, and without proper consent protocols, could unknowingly compromise customers’ privacy. The company, meanwhile, stands to gain droves of new customers and add valuable genetic data to its proprietary databases.

Marvel and Disney Tsum Tsum Advent Calendars



Marvel and Disney sets in stock.

Tabletop gaming buildings overgrown with trees



Step by step process here.

Jumanji teaser

A post shared by therock (@therock) on

"The era of the Navy's much-reviled blue digital camouflage work uniform is rapidly drawing to a close"

"The uniform, first introduced in 2009, became the butt of many jokes, earning the nickname 'aquaflage,' as it would camouflage a sailor only if he or she fell overboard underway."

"Kevin Durant Trashes Former Coach, Teammates On Twitter"

"Either Durant was feeling particularly feisty and wanted to tweet at a hater in the third person, or . . . he was attempting to use a spoof account to defend his honor and forgot to log out of his main account before tweeting."

"The company that owns WJAR-TV is mandating the broadcast of multiple programs favorable to President Donald Trump on the state’s most-watched television station"

PJ:
Sinclair is poised to become the nation’s largest owner of TV stations

...

Three of the segments have rattled viewers and WJAR’s own news reporters [including] The Terrorism Alert Desk

"Snapchat Removes Al Jazeera Channel in Saudi Arabia" at government's request

"Snap, trying to expand its popularity as a destination for news articles and videos, is encountering a new challenge in the form of potential government censorship of that news."

Obama "continues to be an influential voice in a party torn between celebrating and vilifying corporate power"

BB:
Last month, just before her book “What Happened” was published, Barack Obama spoke in New York to clients of Northern Trust Corp. for about $400,000, a person familiar with his appearance said. Last week, he reminisced about the White House for Carlyle Group LP, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms, according to two people who were there. Next week, he’ll give a keynote speech at investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s health-care conference.

...

“Not everyone’s going to be a Jimmy Carter, who does purely good works after he gets out,”

Mark Zuckerberg "even asked the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, whether Mr. Xi might offer a Chinese name for his soon-to-be-born first child"

"China, which blocked Facebook in 2009, has resisted Mr. Zuckerberg’s efforts to get the social network back into the country."

Relatedly, posted at Instagram today:

A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck) on

Sunday, September 17, 2017

"The Secret History of Dune"

LARB:
Herbert also lifted two of Dune’s most memorable lines directly from Blanch. While describing the Caucasians’ fondness for swordplay, Blanch writes, “To kill with the point lacked artistry.” In Dune, this becomes “[k]illing with the tip lacks artistry,” advice given to a young Paul Atreides by a loquacious weapons instructor. A Caucasian proverb recorded by Blanch transforms into a common desert aphorism. “Polish comes from the city, wisdom from the hills,” an apt saying for a mountain people, becomes “Polish comes from the cities, wisdom from the desert” in Dune.

Dune’s narrative, however, owes more to The Sabres of Paradise than just terminology and customs. The story of a fiercely independent, religiously inspired people resisting an outside power is certainly not unique to the Caucasus, but Blanch’s influence can be found here, too. The name of Herbert’s major villain, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, is redolent of Russian imperialism. Meanwhile, Imam Shamyl, the charismatic leader of Islamic resistance in the Caucasus, describes the Russian Czar as “Padishah” and his provincial governor as “Siridar,” titles that Herbert would later borrow for Dune’s galactic emperor and his military underlings.

...

Why is Blanch’s influence on Dune worth recognizing? Celebrating Blanch is not a means to discredit Herbert, whose imaginative novel transcends the sum of its influences. But Dune remains massively popular while The Sabres of Paradise languishes in relative obscurity, and renewed public interest in Blanch’s forgotten history would be a welcome development.

...

For Blanch, it occupies an entire chapter — a magnificent account of the trade of three Georgian princesses, kidnapped in a daring Muslim raid, for Shamyl’s firstborn son, captured as a boy and raised to manhood in the court of the The Great White Czar.

"Kevin Hart posts emotional video apologizing to wife and kids following alleged extortion attempt"

"This is the third time in two months that the comedian has taken to social media to clear up cheating rumors."

"How Big Business Got Brazil Hooked on Junk Food"

NYT:
As their growth slows in the wealthiest countries, multinational food companies like Nestlé, PepsiCo and General Mills have been aggressively expanding their presence in developing nations, unleashing a marketing juggernaut that is upending traditional diets from Brazil to Ghana to India.

...

In 2010, a coalition of Brazilian food and beverage companies torpedoed a raft of measures that sought to limit junk food ads aimed at children. The latest challenge has come from the country’s president, Michel Temer, a business-friendly centrist whose conservative allies in Congress are now seeking to chip away at the handful of regulations and laws intended to encourage healthy eating.

...

The company’s door-to-door program fulfills a concept that Nestlé articulated in its 1976 annual shareholder report, which noted that “integration with the host country is a basic aim of our company.”

...

Until recently, Nestlé sponsored a river barge that delivered tens of thousands of cartons of milk powder, yogurt, chocolate pudding, cookies and candy to isolated communities in the Amazon basin.

"Kazakhstan’s planned transition to the Latin alphabet raises complex questions"

EN:
My late father used to talk about how Kazan Tatars became illiterate twice in one generation, first as the Arabic script was abandoned in favor of the Yangälif, and then again when that “new alphabet” was abandoned in favor of Cyrillic. Individual Cyrillic alphabets were introduced for Soviet Turkic languages in the 1930s; Kazakh adopted the Cyrillic alphabet only in 1940.

There are inescapable social costs to this change, such as the older generation potentially becoming illiterate, or at least disadvantaged. Then there is the cultural cost, such as the younger generation potentially becoming cut off from its past — for the second or third time! Turkey experienced this shock beginning in 1928, and it still has not gotten over it completely. Although Turkey undertook this as a kind of “shock therapy,” Kazakhstan has chosen a gradual path by choosing the final form of the alphabet by the end of 2017, training educators in the new alphabet, and then finally completing the switch to the Latin alphabet by 2025.

"In my 27 years at these two safety-net hospitals, not one of my patients received an organ or bone marrow transplant"

"Yet the organs that fed the transplant centers across the region came from the dying patients in these hospitals. Our patients — the poorest of the poor — gave, but they never received."

Saturday, September 16, 2017

New York bodega owner is a popular commentator on Egyptian television news programs

NYT:
Mr. El-Gamasy owns the Lotus Deli in Ridgewood, Queens, a place known for its sandwiches, extensive craft beer selection, and its gracious, friendly owner. But few of his customers — and likely, none of his viewers in Egypt — know that the man making egg sandwiches and small talk behind the counter is the same one who appears on popular Egyptian television news programs, holding forth on subjects from immigration policy to North Korea.

Nor do many know that his television studio is actually a washroom in the back, past the potato chips display.

...

Mr. El-Gamasy’s improbable broadcast career began last year, not long after he wrote an opinion piece for an Egyptian news organization predicting Donald J. Trump’s victory in November

'Narcos' Location Manager Shot and Killed in Mexico"

HR:
The motive of the shooting is unclear. Munoz reportedly was scouting solo and he was working in an area prone to murders.

Munoz was an experienced location manager who had worked on numerous Hollywood productions in Mexico, including Tony Scott's Man on Fire, Mel Gibson's Apocalypto and the latest Bond film Spectre.

A better look at Joe King's Chargers and Rams designs for Nike

A post shared by Joe King (@joekingart) on


A post shared by Joe King (@joekingart) on


A post shared by Joe King (@joekingart) on

"Photographer Settles ‘Monkey Selfie’ Copyright Lawsuit"

PP:
PETA has dropped the lawsuit against Slater after Slater agreed to donate 25% of all future profits from the photo to registered charities “dedicated to protecting the welfare or habitat” of the monkey named Naruto

...

Despite these setbacks, PETA pushed forward with its legal battle against Slater, who revealed earlier this year that the lawsuit had driven him to financial ruin.

"the Lagos [Nigeria] megachurches building their very own cities"

TG:
The Redeemed Christian Church of God’s international headquarters in Ogun state has been transformed from a mere megachurch to an entire neighbourhood, with departments anticipating its members’ every practical as well as spiritual need.

A 25-megawatt power plant with gas piped in from the Nigerian capital serves the 5,000 private homes on site, 500 of them built by the church’s construction company. New housing estates are springing up every few months where thick palm forests grew just a few years ago. Education is provided, from creche to university level. The Redemption Camp health centre has an emergency unit and a maternity ward.

On Holiness Avenue, a branch of Tantaliser’s fast food chain does a brisk trade. There is an on-site post office, a supermarket, a dozen banks, furniture makers and mechanics’ workshops. An aerodrome and a polytechnic are in the works.

And in case the children get bored, there is a funfair with a ferris wheel.

"Q&A with [Equifax CEO] Rick Smith, 2017 Most Admired CEO"

"You’ve been named one of Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs of 2017. Please share your thoughts about what other CEOs can do to win such great admiration from their stakeholders."

"How the Ilitches used 'dereliction by design' to get their new Detroit arena"

MT:
Starting in the late 1990s, Ilitch developed and executed a 15-year plan that critics call "dereliction by design," in which he quietly bought around 70 properties and left them to rot. That drove down land value and created a redevelopment dead zone that Detroit quickly regenerated around, thus allowing Ilitch to buy up more property for cheap.

But — most importantly — it also helped him convince lawmakers that the Corridor wouldn't redevelop without the public pitching in over $300 million to fund his plan.

While stadium deals promising questionable returns are common, it's rare to find a franchise that deliberately knocks life out of a neighborhood, then asks residents to help pay to revive it.

Yet in 2012, a weakened Detroit government agreed to do just that.

"Youngstown State University football player Ma’lik Richmond, convicted of raping a teen in a highly publicized case in Steubenville, is eligible to play in the Penguins game on Saturday, a judge ruled"

TI:
Richmond, 21, of Steubenville filed a federal lawsuit against the university Wednesday after the school allowed him to join the team and then told him he could not play after a female student circulated a petition asking he be kept off the team.

The lawsuit asked that Richmond be reinstated to the team’s active roster along with attorney fees and an unspecified amount of damages.

U.S. District Court Judge Benita Pearson issued the temporary order after a lengthy court hearing Thursday evening. Another hearing is set for Sept. 28, when Richmond’s permanent status on the team could be determined.

Iceland's "Government falls in shocking scandal involving one of Iceland's most notorious child abuse cases"

IM:
The reason Bright Future has withdrawn its support for the government is that yesterday the public learned that the father of the Prime Minister, Benedikt Sveinsson, one of the wealthiest men in Iceland, had written a letter on behalf of Hjalti Sigurjón Hauksson, the most notorious child molesters to be sentenced in Icelandic court, asking for his full pardon and that his criminal record to be expunged and "honor restored".

...

The case of two of Iceland's most notorious child molesters who received a full pardon this summer has rattled Icelandic society. The Icelandic public and media have spent much of summer discussing the two cases and the horrifying world of violence and abuse they revealed.

Public suspects a cover-up

One of the two men, who has changed his named to Róbert Downey, had been a prominent attorney before he was sentenced. He had systematically groomed dozens of young girls in difficult social circumstances whom he had singled out as potential victims. The family of one of his victims launched a campaign to answer why this man had been granted a full pardon. This campaign then drew public attention to the pardoning of a second child molester. One of their demands was that it would be revealed who had written letters on behalf of Róbert Downey.

The unwillingness of the government and the Minister of the Interior, as well as the majority of the Judiciary committee of Parliament to support these calls or just take them seriously, was interpreted by many as proof of a cover-up. Not least because the actions and statements of the parliamentary leaders of the Conservative party after the case became front page news alternated between fumbling and arrogance.

A second cover-up

"Once prized as pets, abandoned Tibetan mastiffs are now wreaking havoc in rural Tibet"

SI:
Previously, this majestic breed was kept by wealthy families as a trendy, rather pricey pet and status symbol -- one dog could even be sold for as much as a million yuan. But, recently, interest in the breed has declined dramatically, leading to the abandonment of a significant portion of the country's overbred mastiff population.

...

This continues to cause problems in the region today, besides the insane amount of dog feces on the street and the diseases that these animals carry, free-roaming Tibetan mastiffs have proved to be a danger to livestock and even people. Last November, an 8-year-old girl died after she was mauled by a stray in Qinghai. There are regular reports of mastiffs chasing people in packs and even small towns are known to have a population of at least 500 stray dogs.

"The sharp decline in the price is one reason behind the rise in homeless Tibetan dogs, and the other is their strong fertility.

Friday, September 15, 2017

Thursday, September 14, 2017

"Why boys were required to swim nude" in Chicago public schools

WBEZ:
Another consideration was money. In 1961, the Menasha, Wisconsin school board successfully blocked a parental challenge to the nude rule by claiming it would cost up to $3,000 to buy suits for the boys. CPS would have had to fork over even more money to buy suits for all its male freshmen.

In addition to sanitation and cleanliness, the Menasha officials further defended the practice by saying it “promoted … time saving and the development of good physical education attitudes.”

"Emily Pizza Embroiled in Blogger Spat"

NYE:
The husband-and-wife team behind popular pizzerias Emily and Emmy Squared, Matt and Emily Hyland, called for a boycott of a local hotel that is working with a blogger who they say dined and dashed at Emily.

...


The couple has had a tiff with the blogger that stretches back to 2014, when they accused her of having dinner at Emily and then walking out on the bill. Earlier this week, [the blogger] started leaving nasty comments on Emmy Squared Instagram posts in retaliation like “God she is fucking ugly and . . . “How many investors did you scam you ugly bitch?,”

"ESPN tried to kick Jemele Hill off the air and replace her with another black host"

TP:
ESPN originally tried to keep Hill off the air on Wednesday evening, but Smith refused to do the show without her, the sources said. Both sources also said that producers reached out to two other black ESPN hosts, Michael Eaves and Elle Duncan, to ask them to serve as fill-ins for the show — but Eaves and Duncan did not agree to take the place of Hill and Smith, either.

...

ESPN refutes this account.

"The FTC has taken a big step in cracking down on celebrities doing shady Instagram ads by sending a new set of warning letters to 21 celebrities that require them to respond"

BF:
Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, brought these celebrities’ undisclosed ads to the FTC’s attention months ago, and has been monitoring these celebs since they received the letters back in March. Earlier this summer, they sent a letter to the FTC asking them to take further action, since they saw that many of celebs who received educational letters hadn’t clean up their act at all. Now, they are hoping the FTC will press even harder.

"Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters’"

PP:
Until this week, when we asked Facebook about it, the world’s largest social network enabled advertisers to direct their pitches to the news feeds of almost 2,300 people who expressed interest in the topics of “Jew hater,” “How to burn jews,” or, “History of ‘why jews ruin the world.’”

To test if these ad categories were real, we paid $30 to target those groups with three “promoted posts” — in which a ProPublica article or post was displayed in their news feeds. Facebook approved all three ads within 15 minutes.

After we contacted Facebook, it removed the anti-Semitic categories

...

In all likelihood, the ad categories that we spotted were automatically generated because people had listed those anti-Semitic themes on their Facebook profiles as an interest, an employer or a “field of study.” Facebook’s algorithm automatically transforms people’s declared interests into advertising categories.

Weapon X and Old Man Logan covers



By Razzah.

Two Cleveland Indians pitchers are creating likenesses of each of their teammates out of baseballs

SI:
They are Indians pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer and, to fill the downtime with which every starter contends over the course of a long season, they launched a project. Their aim is to create a likeness of each of their teammates. Their medium is, of course, baseballs.

The 26-year-old Bauer contributes ideas and fine facial features, and Carrasco, who is 30, generally handles the rest. Each doll takes two or three days, from conception to final product.

...

The pitchers strive to represent the characteristics that make each of the Indians unique. Brandon Guyer’s doll has tiny baseballs affixed to his face, as the plate-crowding outfielder was the league’s hit-by-pitch leader in 2015 and '16. Staff ace Corey Kluber’s has red Terminator eyes in honor of his nickname, Klubot. Bauer has a patchy chin beard and a drone, fashioned from tongue depressors and thumb tacks, attached to his cap, memorializing the hobby that led him to famously cut his finger during last year’s World Series.

"Mystery of sonic weapon attacks at US embassy in Cuba deepens"

TG:
Suspicion initially focused on a sonic weapon, and on the Cubans. Yet the diagnosis of mild brain injury, considered unlikely to result from sound, has confounded the FBI, the state department and US intelligence agencies involved in the investigation.

Some victims now have problems concentrating or recalling specific words, several officials said, the latest signs of more serious damage than the US government initially realized. The United States first acknowledged the attacks in August – nine months after symptoms were first reported.

"His Majesty's Dragon: A Novel of Temeraire" is very good

Uprooted by Naomi Novik was terrific, so I read His Majesty's Dragon. It's great, too, and I look forward to reading the next in the series.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

"Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving"

"To evaluate how passers-by, other drivers on the road and cyclists reacted to sharing the road with an autonomous vehicle."

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

"When cars drive over the bumps, drivers can hear and feel the opening beats to the [Texas A&M fight song] 'Hullabaloo Caneck Caneck'"

"To best hear the rhythm trucks should drive in the right lane and cars in the left."

"Wife Stole Identity to Start New Life as Cruise Ship Captain After Husband’s Murder"

TDB:
Since 1994, Knox had lived as Christina White, or “Captain Christina” to the revelers on her Houston-area luxury yachts. But her reign aboard the Royal Princess party ship would end soon after she applied to renew her license with the U.S. Coast Guard.

When federal prosecutors announced her arrest in March 2016, one retired detective and the family of her first husband, Harold “Skeeter” Lyerla, saw a glimmer of hope.

They believe Knox and John Litchfield—her second husband and yacht business partner—are connected to Lyerla’s fatal stabbing in 1988.

Apple's wall of masks

Southern Cross Alien Artifact Pin by Becky Cloonan



$10.

Chip Zdarsky's how to draw Ghost Rider cover

"Firewatch is getting review-bombed on Steam"

"I poked at the most recent 50 negative user reviews and 43 of them show zero hours played in the past two weeks; of those that do have recent time on the clock, five of them are for less than an hour."