Monday, April 30, 2018

"The online retailer of an unlicensed homeopathic remedy made from rabid dog saliva has agreed to stop selling the product in Canada"

CBC:
Lyssinum — also known as lyssin or hydrophobinum — is a homeopathic nosode made by repeatedly diluting the saliva of a rabid dog. The treatment is approved in general for use in Canada, but Helios is not among the companies licensed to sell it.

"The Benatar" is the name of the Guardians' ship in Infinity War



(The old one was named for Alyssa Milano.)

"dog owners hijacked a public Tribeca pup park nearly a decade ago"

NYP:
The Warren Street Dog Park was originally taken hostage by the Dog Owners of Tribeca (DOOT) in 2008 — after the 92-by-43-foot green space opened between Greenwich and West streets.

...

Founders installed a keypad lock on the gate and sent members a secret 4-digit passcode after they paid a $120 annual fee over Paypal on the group’s Website. The code was updated every few months.

Members were to live by 22 strict rules

Thighbones make good daggers



Good shawarma sign; Basketball court of doom; Creatively-repaired torn manuscripts











A look at movie X-Force











Homer Simpson backing into the bushes keeper jersey

"‘Westworld’ Conspiracy Theory About Stock Photo Gets New Twist"

HP:
Remember, back in Season 1 of the HBO series, when Dolores’ (Evan Rachel Wood) father Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum) short-circuited after discovering a picture of a woman posing in New York City’s Times Square?

...

Mr. Abernathy’s frazzled moment was a pivotal “Westworld” plot point, so of course the internet went nuts when fans realized the show had apparently used a Getty stock image of a random woman, rather than hire an actress to play the role of Juliet.

...

Von Weber’s stock images have been used by a variety of websites, including HuffPost, so his involvement in the show didn’t immediately raise red flags. But when fans looked closer at von Weber’s Getty photos, they noticed some other notable pictures: images of horses, cowboys and, most interestingly, samurai,

"Pitchers walked more hitters than any time since the turn of the century and are on pace to set single-season records for the most wild pitches, hit-by-pitches and strikeouts"

"The ugliness of April baseball personified by 7 teams on pace to lose 100-plus games"

Soccer fan gave up replica jersey so keeper would have something to wear (and was not promptly given a replacement shirt)


Microtransactions in the new Harry Potter mobile game



Sunday, April 29, 2018

Helen Keller-branded eyeglasses

"Behind just about every divisive Senate Republican primary this year, an amiable Midwestern businessman is bankrolling the candidate who claims to be the most hard-charging, anti-establishment conservative in the race"

WaPo:
he has dramatically increased his giving this cycle, pouring $21 million into races from Montana to West Virginia to ensure more conservative victories in the upcoming midterm elections, Federal Election Commission records show.

...

Neither Uihlein nor his Pleasant Prairie, Wis.-based company, Uline, one of the nation’s largest packaging and shipping-supply sellers, has a media representative

...

“Dick and I love reading newspapers and when we watch TV news, the channel is mostly set on Fox News,” she wrote.

"A mystery is brewing at the White House about what happened to the oak tree President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron planted there last week"

"By the end of the week, the tree was gone from the lawn."

"French Museum Discovers More Than Half Its Collection Is Forged"

NPR:
After a $365,000 renovation, the town was set to celebrate the grand reopening of the museum bearing Terrus' name — one of Elne's main attractions. Instead, the big reveal was that 82 paintings attributed to the artist in the museum's collection were fakes.

Local mayor Yves Barniol announced at the opening that it was guest curator Eric Forcada who raised doubts about the authenticity of the paintings.

...

Forcada, the art historian who first sounded the alarm, noticed buildings that appear in some of the paintings didn't actually exist in Terrus' time.

Janelle Monáe as Two-Face

"Linking their stories is a Yazidi Schindler named Abdullah, a beekeeper who has made it his mission to rescue the enslaved women" from ISIS

NYT:
The smugglers are paid by the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s Office of Kidnapped Affairs. (Yes, there is such a thing, established in response to the captive-taking.)

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Ten funny tweets























"Del Mar [California] has decided to include 'managed retreat' as a last-resort option for dealing with sea-level rise, despite widespread objections from homeowners in the tony, seaside enclave"

SD:
The idea is especially controversial in Del Mar, where hundreds of multimillion-dollar homes are built near sea level on the northern end of town near the beach and the San Dieguito River.

...

Residents fear their property values will plummet if word gets out that the city is considering managed retreat.

Nike's lost FKA Twigs campaign

NYT:

Last year, Mr. Edwards, the former president, gave the green light for a marketing campaign for the fall launch of the VaporMax shoe for women; the female British singer FKA Twigs was given creative license for a shoot in Mexico City. The result, according a person who saw a rough cut of the commercial and another who saw the final cut, featured few shots of the shoes and instead had a woman twirling on what looked like a stripper pole and male athletes in sports bras striking odd poses. The campaign was killed, costing Nike millions of dollars.

Asked about the aborted campaign, Mr. Wilkins of Nike said the company was proud of its relationship with the singer. “We have a history of pushing the boundaries in marketing, just as we do in product development,” Mr. Wilkins said. “We create a lot of material that is not deployed in the marketplace.’’

"Ominous views of Japan's new concrete seawalls"

Photo gallery.

Infinity War, 2018

Gallery 1988's donut show now online



Prints and originals available.

NFL draftee nicknamed "Ito"


"You could be flirting on dating apps with paid impersonators"

Qz:
Every morning I wake up to the same routine. I log into the Tinder account of a 45-year-old man from Texas—a client. I flirt with every woman in his queue for 10 minutes, sending their photos and locations to a central database of potential “Opportunities.” For every phone number I get, I make $1.75.

I’m what’s called a “Closer” for the online-dating service ViDA (Virtual Dating Assistants). Men and women (though mostly men) from all over the world pay this company to outsource the labor and tedium of online dating.

...

Profile Writers follow strict guidelines, often recycling the same half-dozen clichés over and over again. If a client has a dog (jackpot!), all the Profile Writer needs to do is search for the word “dog” in their manual and choose from a list of dog-related one-liners

"Hacked messages show Qatar appearing to pay hundreds of millions to free hostages"

WaPo:
Qatar had entered secret talks to free 25 of its citizens from Iraqi kidnappers, yet the bargaining had turned into a kind of group shakedown, the official said, with a half-dozen militias and foreign governments jostling to squeeze cash from the wealthy Persian Gulf state.

...

Qatar’s bargaining with militants over the hostage affair would become a flash point in a larger feud between the country and its Arab neighbors, some of whom have repeatedly criticized Qatari leaders over what they say are the country’s cordial ties with Iran and support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups identified with political Islam. Weeks after the hostages were freed, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined three other Arab states in severing relations with Qatar, triggering a diplomatic crisis that quickly escalated into a virtual blockade on shipping and air travel in and out of Qatar.

Restaurant offers to trick your phone into thinking you were excercising


If you're curious about how those Famicase creations are made

"Woman Allegedly Helped Smuggle $2M in Aircraft Parts to Iran"

"Prosecutors say Eliabachus was principal officer and operator of a purported aviation parts trading business she ran from her home."

A drive down the Besisahar-Chamé road in Nepal



Magik by Barry Windsor-Smith; Actors draw their Avengers characters; Check out how much hair your produce a day








Friday, April 27, 2018

"In other words, Fuelgram creates fake engagement from real Instagram accounts"

BF:
It's called Fuelgram and, for a few dollars a month and access to your Instagram log-in credentials, it will use the accounts of everyone who paid that sum to like and comment on your posts — and it will use yours to do the same to theirs.

...

Fuelgram makes posts appear more popular than they are, tricking Instagram's algorithm into spreading them further, sometimes right into the service's high-profile Explore tab. And there's a reasonable chance there's one in your feed right now, because Fuelgram is just one of a number of Instagram-juicing services available today, and the photo-sharing platform's engagement-rewarding algorithm incentivizes people to use it.

"the artist who sketches under cover at arms fairs"

TG:
Armed with a discreet notebook and pen, Gibbon aims to penetrate the “veneer of respectability” she says cloaks such events, revealing the vulnerabilities of those who make a living selling weapons of mass destruction. These include: the sales rep vomiting after starting on the champagne at 11am, the young woman in the tight dress bringing an incongruous glamour to a Scud missile stand, the string quartet serenading bomb-makers on the back of a military truck and the mannequins wearing gas masks.

...

She got in using her real name but gave her occupation as “war artist” and said she wanted to practise drawing military hardware. The trick worked for a few years until an unusually observant security guard noticed that she was sketching not tanks but arms dealers. She protested her innocence but he was having none of it. “If you’re a war artist why don’t you go to Iraq and draw?” he said, and escorted her to the exit.

Unwilling to give up, she took the drastic measure of changing her name by deed poll to get back in. She also created a sham company and website to make her look legitimate. Her new fake identity was a passport to arms fairs all around the world until
Her book is available for preorder.

"Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell Back Tom Brokaw in Letter Signed by 64 Insiders"

HR:
One day after two women alleged Tom Brokaw sexually harassed them at NBC News in the 1990s, a cadre of female journalists including Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell and Maria Shriver have signed a letter characterizing the veteran journalist as "a man of tremendous decency and integrity."

"Hey, Ryan Zinke: You’ve Got Your Ranger Hat on Backward"

Outside:
Above is a picture of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke posing for a photo last week to promote a new children’s version of the National Park Service passport book. So far, so good, right? Well, upon closer examination, you might notice he’s wearing his hat backward.

...

This is just the latest in a pattern of public gaffs by Zinke. Last May, he posed on horseback during a staged photo op with Vice President Mike Pence while wearing his cowboy hat backward. When Elliott Woods (who posted about the backward ranger hat on Facebook this week), met Zinke for a day of fly-fishing last year to profile him for Outside, the Interior Secretary rigged his fly rod... backward. Zinke posted a video on Twitter (above) of himself casting a fly rod as if it were a bait rod.

Not from The Onion



From an article earlier this year:
As I savored each new and interesting flavor, I realized that, like the lucky pickles, the name “Yellow Fever” represented yet another way Kim was claiming her identity. She didn’t see a need to hide behind the term, typically used to describe White men who exclusively date Asian women; instead, in typical Texan-style, she wrangled it away from its negative connotations and displayed it publicly, confidently, and didn’t back down. She made it her own, positive phrase that was inclusive of all Asian cultures. It was strong. It was daring.

And it was strangely revolutionary.

“I don’t think we’re a safe brand,” she had said when asked about her bold decision. “One of our taglines is ‘be yellow’. This is because we want people to be comfortable in their own skin.”

Cyborg drop bear



S.H.Figuarts Anakin Skywalker and Death Star model available for preorder



Anakin comes with three faces.

North Korea's running bodyguards



Famicase 2018




Thursday, April 26, 2018

AT-ST by Amanda Visell



Available.

"Ball Brothers' Short, Bizarre Lithuanian Experiment Comes To Predictably Silly End"

DS:
With BC Vytautas needing to win their last two games to avoid relegation from the Lithuanian first division, LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball are headed back to the United States

...

LaMelo was no longer getting playing time

"The Balloon Council’s primary target? Anti-balloon environmental laws that it worries will cripple the industry"

TO:
The group, which was founded in 1990, has discovered a way to outmaneuver even federal agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which say balloons pose a threat to the environment

...

Though the Balloon Council does not promote balloon releases, which have resulted in an estimated 280,293 littered balloons in the U.S. from 2008 to 2016, they oppose efforts to enshrine a ban on releases into law, fearing that such legislation would frighten customers. “It’s a negative stigma on the product,” ... the Council’s executive director told The Outline. “There’s a lot of small mom-and-pops where this is their primary product.”

"Relative's DNA from genealogy websites cracked East Area Rapist case, DA's office says"

SB:
explored online family trees that appeared to have matches to DNA samples from the East Area Rapist's crimes, Grippi said. They then followed clues to individuals in the family trees to determine whether they were potential suspects.

The process finally came to fruition last Thursday, when the investigation focused on the possibility that DeAngelo might be a suspect, a suspicion that was bolstered by the fact that he had lived in areas where the attacks occurred and was in the right age range

"A conman jailed for selling fake bomb detectors to war-torn countries has had more than two years added to his prison sentence after failing to pay back £1.8m of his ill-gotten gains"

"The jury in McCormick’s trial heard how he made millions of pounds from selling three models of detector – based on a novelty 13 golf ball finder – to Iraq and other countries."

"Pitbull Announces 2019 Tour With Life Coach Tony Robbins"

"'I'm just being a revolutionary to wake everybody else,' said Pitbull, who is also opening up schools for youth."

"Ford Motor Co. is cleaving an additional $11.5 billion from spending plans and dropping several sedans, including the Fusion and Taurus, from its lineup"

BB:
refocusing the company around more lucrative trucks and SUVs is a crucial element of new CEO Jim Hackett’s rebound bid.

...

Both are counting on gasoline prices remaining low. In the long-term, abandoning car segments could turn out to have been the wrong move if the Trump administration’s plans for weaker mileage standards don’t last long after his presidency.

NFL draft picks, as described by a neural network


Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Star Wars Legion video painting guides





The Star Wars Legion core set is 20% off at Amazon. And here's the painter's Patreon.

Italian book cover for "The Peripheral"; Meet "The Pouch"; Speed Racer vinyl













"NBC Bet $69 Million on Megyn Kelly—Then Viewers Vanished"

WSJ:
The combined salaries of previous hosts Al Roker and Tamron Hall were less than half of Ms. Kelly’s $23 million-a-year payday, according to several people familiar with the matter.

...

When Diane Sawyer stepped down from anchoring ABC’s “World News Tonight” in 2014, relative unknown David Muir was given the job and ratings actually went up. After Katie Couric gave up anchoring “CBS Evening News,” she was replaced by the less-known Scott Pelley, who has subsequently been replaced by the even lesser-known Jeff Glor without a hit to ratings.

"researchers at the security firm Checkmarx started fiddling with Alexa, to see if they could turn it into a spy device. They did"

Wired:
the researchers designed a skill that acts as a calculator, but has a lot more going on behind the scenes.

...

Normally, the interaction would end there, and the mic would stop transmitting. But the researchers programmed their skill so that instead, a developer functionality called “shouldEndSession” would automatically keep the Echo listening for another cycle.

Even then, normally Alexa would give a verbal "readback" prompt, letting the user know that it was still actively engaged. The researchers found, though, that they could simply put empty values into this prompt instead of words, meaning the Echo would stay quiet and wouldn't let a user know that the session was continuing.

If you're curious about the White Room cover from last night's episode of Legion




Face recognition commercialization:


"A suspect in the notorious Golden State Killer case—allegedly responsible for 12 homicides, 45 rapes, and 120 home burglaries in California in the 1970s and ‘80s—has been arrested"

TDB:
DeAngelo was at one point a policeman in Auburn, outside of Sacramento, according to a news clipping Jensen sent to The Daily Beast. DeAngelo reportedly was fired after he was accused of shoplifting a can of dog repellant and a hammer at a drug story in Sacramento in 1979. He was terminated after he “failed to answer any of the city's investigations and did not request an administrative hearing,” the city manager said at the time.

"Fifteen dead, dozens injured in fire at oil well in Indonesia"

Reuters:
"We suspect this is a well drilled by the community ... and we suspect there was someone smoking in the area at the time," said police official Wahyu Kuncoro.

Such illegal drilling is common in Aceh, where Pertamina operates an oil field.

"Drew Cloud Is a Well-Known Expert on Student Loans. One Problem: He’s Not Real"

Chronicle:
has been quoted in major news outlets, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and CNBC, and is a fixture in the smaller, specialized blogosphere of student debt

...

After The Chronicle spent more than a week trying to verify Cloud’s existence, the company that owns The Student Loan Report confirmed that Cloud was fake.

...

Before that admission, however, Cloud had corresponded at length with many journalists, pitching them stories and offering email interviews, many of which were published. When The Chronicle attempted to contact him through the address last week, Cloud said he was traveling and had limited access to his account. He didn’t respond to additional inquiries.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Buck Rogers painting reused in STNG; Tiny door for a vampire; Spirited Away fan art










"Honolulu’s Morgue Is So Run Down Even The Autopsy Room Leaks"

CB:
Occasionally a bird falls through the fume hood.

Rubio likes to keep a bottle of lotion on her desk, but the rats that infest the building keep chewing through the plastic.

Ice throne

Claim the throne at ICEBAR by ICEHOTEL Stockholm 👑 The ice bar in Sweden’s capital has just been redesigned in a Viking theme - named Bifrost. Tjåsa Gusfors and Karl-Johan Ekeroth are the artists behind the design and built the bar (in just one week!) together with a building and light team from ICEHOTEL. Make sure to pop in if you are in Stockholm, and enjoy fresh drinks out of Torne River ice ❄️ ____________________________ Are you interested in opening an ice bar with pristine ice from Torne River? Or are you planning an event with an ice theme? DM us for more information. ____________________________ Photo: @icebarstockholm Ping: @gusforstjasa @mastersofelevation #icebarstockholm #icehotelsweden #torneriverice #icehotelevents #eventprofs #eventplanning #eventdesign #eventproduction #meetingprofs #icebar #iceevent
A post shared by ICEHOTEL Sweden (@icehotelsweden) on

"potential second-day pick" at wide receiver "tested positive for marijuana at combine"

ESPN:
In December 2015, a female Florida student accused Callaway of sexually assaulting her, but a Title IX hearing officer cleared him of wrongdoing in August 2016. The woman and her witnesses boycotted the hearing because the university appointed an attorney who was also a Gators football booster to hear the case. Callaway was never criminally charged in the incident.

According to the hearing officer's ruling, Callaway testified that he was "high on marijuana" during the encounter with the woman and stated that he was "so stoned I had no interest in having sex with anyone."

Callaway also was one of nine Florida players last season who allegedly used stolen credit card information to fund bookstore accounts, and he was cited for

"Video Shows Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet Spewing Fire After Bird Strike"

"Maintenance crews from the Blue Angels are still assessing the damage to one of the U.S. Navy aerial demonstration team's F/A-18 Hornets after a bird got sucked through one of its engines during a recent show."

Instagram devoted to street markings

A post shared by StreetMarkings (@streetmarkings) on


A post shared by StreetMarkings (@streetmarkings) on


Positive review of City and the City four-episode series

Available on the on the BBC iPlayer, if you have access to it.

"How an irked Northern California postal patron helped crack a global plant smuggling scheme"

MN:

But they fear that many more plants have vanished, still unnoticed. A thriving black market in Asia means the California native plant is vulnerable wherever it grows, they say, from Oregon to the Mexican border. One variety, found in Santa Clara County, is endangered; local naturalists won’t disclose its locations, to protect it.

Investigators suspect that organized smuggling rings, based in Asia, where the stolen plants fetch up to $50 a pop, are behind the crimes. An ascending Chinese middle class, whose millions can now afford decorative plant arrangements, is fueling demand.

...

The investigation was launched after an anonymous phone call in December to Patrick Freeling, a CDFW game warden known for his diligence.

The caller, frustrated at being stuck in a long line while trying to mail a package last December in Mendocino’s tiny post office, was suspicious.

A man in line ahead of her was shipping 60 packages to China.

Instagram devoted to "The Midtown Uniform" (button down, vest, slacks)



Two stories about the making of the original XBox




Use the app to access filtered water


"Abyss" wall relief



Duffy London:
Duffy casts an eye into the ancient depths of the ocean, to dream up a dramatic Wall Sculpture, creating an Abyssal art piece that instantly puts you in mind to stories of a flat earth, introducing the majesty of the deep blue to the interior, and an Abyss that gazes back.

Monday, April 23, 2018

Swimming among sleeping sperm whales

Top Shot: Sleeping Beauties | Photograph by Fabrice Guerin (@fabriceguerin) . #YourShotPhotographer Fabrice Guerin captured this peaceful moment while on a scientific underwater mission and observed sperm whales half sleeping. He writes, “Nature provides us beautiful surprises. To meet the giant of the oceans is an unforgettable moment. Sperm whales are able to half-sleep in a vertical position. The scientist swam several times among them without disturbing them. He swam from one sperm whale to another like a guest to say hello. Amazing moment!” This photo was selected for April 20, 2018 Daily Dozen. — Top Shot features the photo with the most votes from the previous day’s Daily Dozen, 12 photos chosen by the Your Shot editors from thousands of recent uploads. Our community votes for their favorite photo from the selection, and the Top Shot is showcased on the @natgeoyourshot Instagram account.
A post shared by National Geographic Your Shot (@natgeoyourshot) on

23andMe "is offering free kits to researchers studying populations in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere—but the ethics are tricky"

TA:
As impressive as 23andMe’s genetic database is, it still has noticeable gaps—especially among Africans, Middle Easterners, Central Asians, Southeast Asians, and indigenous Americans.

...

The latest is the Population Collaborations Program, which allows U.S.-based scientists already studying underrepresented groups to apply for free spit kits and DNA analysis. In return, 23andMe gets to add the DNA to its database.

Lego shirtless Kylo Ren



By Tom Vanhaelen.

"For the 11th consecutive season, Major League Baseball is going to set a record for strikeouts"

"At the current pace in 2018, they will strike out 43,163 times, which would obliterate the record of 40,104 set last year"

Sunday, April 22, 2018

"The horror of Vault 11"

EG:
Vault 11 is my favourite vault in the Fallout series. When I first encountered it, in the thrilling days after Obsidian's wonderful Fallout: New Vegas came out in 2010, it took me by surprise. Its story unfolds like a horrific picture book, each room and corridor and terminal adding yet another layer of dread. And it made me think. It made me think about what it means to be human, the good, the bad and the very, very ugly. Eight years later, Vault 11 remains firmly rooted in my memory, as if it were a real place I once stumbled upon during a drug-fuelled road-trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, the kind of trip you taste on your tongue when you remember it, so stark were the events.

"For decades the BBC denied that job applicants were subject to political vetting by MI5"

BBC:
But in fact vetting began in the early days of the BBC and continued until the 1990s

...

The fear was that "evilly disposed" engineers might sabotage the network at a critical time, or that conspirators might discredit the BBC so that "the way could be made clear for a left-wing government".

...

If staff came under suspicion only after they had been employed by the BBC or applied for transfer to a job that needed vetting, an image resembling a Christmas tree was drawn on their personal file.

...

The Christmas tree was eventually dropped in 1984 because it was said to attract too much attention.

European Stone Stacking Championship 2018



More here.

Brandon Belt had the longest at bat in major league history




The Razorback (racing ship from The Expanse)

Forged in Fire: Knife or Death, hosted by Goldberg



They took regular Forged in Fire and replaced all the forging with blade-wielding on obstacle courses.  In the first episode, a ninja, samurai, and cowboy face off.

Appropriate gifs inserted into Magic the Gathering cards





Emma Gonzalez sculpture up for bid (for charity)



By Mike Leavitt, available at ebay.
Donating 90% of proceeds to charity @marchforourlives.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

"She fought them for a whole 24 hours as she wasn’t ready to mate"

A post shared by National Geographic Your Shot (@natgeoyourshot) on

"Olympic gymnast said the now-imprisoned former USA Gymnastics team doctor groomed her with food"

HP:
“I would’ve starved at the Olympics if I didn’t have him bring me food,” Maroney said, adding that Nassar bought her a loaf of bread. “Your coaches are just always watching you and wanting to keep you skinny. There’s just other things about the culture that are also messed up that he used against us.”

"The twelve of us at Campo Santo have agreed to join Valve"

CS:
Yes, we’re still making In the Valley of Gods (as a Valve game!); yes, we’ll still support Firewatch; and yes, we’ll still produce The Quarterly Review and our regular blog content. Thanks so much for your interest in our games and we’ll see you in Washington.

Ten funny tweets