Friday, August 31, 2018

"$40,000 Insect and Lizard Theft Was an Inside Job, Police Say"

NYT:
Three current or former employees are suspected of stealing thousands of insects and lizards [from the] Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion.

...

The police have contacted the suspects and are searching their homes in hopes of finding surviving insects. It is difficult to know which creatures were stolen because the thieves also stole the logs used by the pavilion to keep track of the insects.


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a six-eyed sand spider, one of the most venomous of its kind in the world, is still missing.
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Dune Dog Montage





"In the 1984 film 'Dune', House Atreides has a pet pug that was not in the book. The dog is present for many key moments, and even leads a charge against Sardaukar legions with Gurney Halleck in tow. After disappearing during the confusion of the fall of House Atreidis the dog reappears at Paul's coronation, having somehow survived the harsh climate of Arrakis."
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"Earlier this month, the LAPD's Valley Traffic Division launched a new Special Enforcement Team to target street racers"

LAist:
We have more personnel this time around. Some nights, I'll have up to 15 officers. We go out to the locations that are frequented by the street racers and we use certain tactics to shut down the roadways ... and make arrests.

...

Does your team do any undercover work?

We do that tactic on occasion, but they're just a spectator. We don't (get involved) in any illegal activity or anything that's going to bring danger to anything else or officers who are trying to stop that activity. They're not racing or out there doing donuts.
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Killmonger, Yellowjacket, and Janet Pym concept art





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Ten funny tweets





















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Twitter's blue checkmark armor; An RPG that can beaten in minutes; Vintage Toys R Us ad for Metroid







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Wednesday, August 29, 2018

"USA Gymnastics’ new elite development coordinator, Mary Lee Tracy, once stood up for Larry Nassar after more than 50 gymnasts and patients had accused the former team doctor of sexual abuse"

LAT:
In December 2016, Tracy, who is the owner of Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy, told local TV station WCPO of Nassar: "My Olympians have all worked with Larry. We were all defending him because he has helped so many kids in their careers. He has protected them, taken care of them, worked with me and worked with their parents. He's been amazing."
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Ten funny tweets



















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Untitled Goose Game socks

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"Why Are STDs on the Rise if Americans Are Having Less Sex?"

Atlantic:
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that reported cases of three sexually transmitted diseases in the United States had reached an all-time high in 2017. Rates of gonorrhea rose by 67 percent, syphilis by 76 percent, and chlamydia by 21 percent, to a total of almost 2.3 million cases nationwide. According to the CDC, 2017 surpassed 2016 as the year with the most reported STD cases on record—and marked the fourth year in a row that STDs increased steeply in the U.S.

It might seem logical that higher STD rates would go hand in hand with increased sexual activity, but a flurry of recent research indicated American adults are actually having less sex on average than they have in decades.
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Firewatch and Kentucky Route Zero tees; Fortnite Dance Class; Creepy driving game








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Penguin logo; Ant-Man enjoys the bathtub; Knockoff Jordan brand









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Tuesday, August 28, 2018

QOTSA concert poster


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"After more than five years in development, gorgeous-looking hole-based puzzler Donut County is out today. It’s definitely not everything I had hoped for"

RPS:
here it just grates for me. But on the larger scale, I don’t get it, I don’t understand why this group of unintroduced creatures are sneering at each other in this game at all, and I’m absolutely certain none of it was necessary. I don’t think any narrative justification for the hole was needed, and while it eventually reaches a ludicrous finale that makes its own sort of sense, I found myself wishing they’d all be quiet so I could get on with playing the game.

...

I really wanted to love this. Since 2013 I’ve been quietly enamoured with the concept.
Hole.io was dismissed as a shameless clone when it came out. Kotaku said:
There isn’t much an indie developer can do when another company publishes a skeleton of their game.

...

When it’s released this year, Donut County will rely on its charm to lure in players. It’s not a free charm, but it’s one Esposito has been pouring himself into for half a decade. The fact that a company like Voodoo can take part of what makes his game special, push it out for free, advertise it massively, and earn the coveted number one spot on the iOS store, he says, is “discouraging.”
Variety said :
Goldman Sachs-Backed Cloner Uses War Chest, Ad Buys to Overshadow Original Games

...

“Game cloning” is a euphemism. It’s what you say in polite company when you don’t want to outright accuse someone of stealing your game idea and rushing a slipshod version to market. It’s hard to be genteel about the behavior though, when the culprit touts a massive influx of cash from a Wall Street investment bank.
Hole.io doesn't have a review at Metacritic.

But somewhere along the line, free games on the iOS store became good. Hole.io is really fun and feels nothing like Donut County.
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"Man buries 42 school buses to build North America’s largest nuclear fallout shelter"

From 2017:
The retired couple, who reside on 12.5 acres in the rural town of Horning’s Mills just outside of Toronto, Canada, have built themselves a massive, 10,000-square-foot underground bunker. Beyond being the largest private nuclear fallout shelter in North America (as far as we know, at least), the post-apocalyptic den has also been craftily built using 42 decommissioned school buses entombed in concrete.
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Tongue games; Pug needs help; Bear cub wants the flag











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Monday, August 27, 2018

Names have power...at Starbucks

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Graphic design by Phil Hartman; Great outdoors print; Dust redesign








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Jackie Chan made a movie about stealing back treasures British and French soldiers looted in the Second Opium War

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The White Sox have a home run chain

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Ten funny tweets



















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"Online Bettors Can Sniff Out Weak Psychology Studies"

Atlantic:
Psychologists are in the midst of an ongoing, difficult reckoning. Many believe that their field is experiencing a “reproducibility crisis,” because they’ve tried and failed to repeat experiments done by their peers. Even classic results—the stuff of textbooks and TED talks—have proven surprisingly hard to replicate, perhaps because they’re the results of poor methods and statistical tomfoolery. These problems have spawned a community of researchers dedicated to improving the practices of their field and forging a more reliable way of doing science.

These attempts at reform have met resistance. Critics have argued that the so-called crisis is nothing of the sort, and that researchers who have failed to repeat past experiments were variously incompetent, prejudiced, or acting in bad faith.

But if those critiques are correct, then why is it that scientists seem to be remarkably good at predicting which studies in psychology and other social sciences will replicate, and which will not?
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"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald…Trophy"

Athletic:
The Great Lakes Freighter Trophy, an unwieldy hunk of bronze nicknamed “The Barge” by Cleveland Browns writers, had spent years gathering dust in the Browns’ media room. Commissioned in 2002 by one-time Browns CEO Carmen Policy as a prize for a preseason rivalry game with the Detroit Lions, The Barge was apparently decommissioned in secret.

During last season’s training camp, Cleveland.com Browns writer Scott Patsko asked his readers what the team should do with the derelict ship. By the end of the season, he realized it was gone. [p]

How did a massive bronze sculpture commissioned by an NFL team just disappear? Where did the big ship go—and how did it get built in the first place?
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Would these be the Oreos in the Bad Place, or in the Medium Place?



Related, a recent episode of The Good Place podcast addressed the possibility of dessert clam chowder.
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Sunday, August 26, 2018

Timbers supporters promise "You'll float too"

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Beck - Colors (Picard Brothers Remix)

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Ten funny tweets




















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"The demolition of the market is expected to trigger a major exodus of rats to other parts of the neighbourhood"

"Tokyo fears losing a part of its soul as world’s biggest fish market moves"
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Wargaming Miniatures: Stormcast Eternals Gallery



















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Tee-collecting dog from last night's college football game



Related, the lights going out during extra innings of the Dodgers game in LA:

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Exclusive pants

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Saturday, August 25, 2018

"Only about 10 percent of Japan’s parliament is made up of women"

"That means it ranks lower than 150 other countries — including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and the US."
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University of Hawaii's football helmet



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Blade Runner IRL



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The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles rejected the opportunity to have free admission

TAN:
Just before I left MOCA, I made a proposal to the board that the museum should be free and even arranged for a donor to underwrite three years of income that would be lost from admissions at $350,000 a year. Unfortunately, the board was not comfortable with moving forward; they thought people would not value it if they didn’t pay for it.
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Wargaming miniatures gallery: Scenery





















A post shared by Peter (@seraphim.016) on




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Pole vault training



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"a new, even more patriarchal political conceit . . . the egg was merely a passive receptacle waiting"

Aeon:
Convincing evidence has instead revealed that human sperm are passively transported over considerable distances while travelling through the womb and up the oviducts. So much for Olympic-style racing sperm!

In fact, of the 250 million sperm in the average human ejaculate, only a few hundred actually end up at the fertilisation site high up in the oviduct. Sperm passage up the female tract is more like an extremely challenging military obstacle course than a standard sprint-style swimming race. Sperm numbers are progressively whittled down as they migrate up the female tract, so that less than one in a million from the original ejaculate will surround the egg at the time of fertilisation. Any sperm with physical abnormalities are progressively eliminated along the way, but survivors surrounding the egg are a random sample of intact sperm.

Many sperm do not even make it into the neck of the womb (cervix). Acid conditions in the vagina are hostile and sperm do not survive there for long. Passing through the cervix, many sperm that escape the vagina become ensnared in mucus. Any with physical deformities are trapped. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of sperm migrate into side-channels, called crypts, where they can be stored for several days. Relatively few sperm travel directly though the womb cavity, and numbers are further reduced during entry into the oviduct. Once in the oviduct, sperm are temporarily bound to the inner surface, and only some are released and allowed to approach the egg.
Related:

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Writer and artist doodle Squirrel Girl

Friday, August 24, 2018

"The Indonesian capital of Jakarta is home to 10 million people but it is also one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world"

BBC:
"If we look at our models, by 2050 about 95% of North Jakarta will be submerged."

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Authorities are also hoping that the Great Garuda, a 32km outer sea wall being built across Jakarta Bay along with 17 artificial islands, will help rescue the sinking city - at a cost of about $40bn.

It's being supported by the Dutch and South Korean governments and creates an artificial lagoon in which water levels can be lowered to allow the city's rivers to drain. It will help with the flooding which is an issue when the rains come.
Related:


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"Families of Australian team each pay $16,000 to support their kids" at the Little League World Series

ESPN:
"When we won states, that's when it really started to get expensive,"

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The Little League World Series has rules against parents fundraising that one Australian parent said basically eliminates everything but bake sales, which can't raise much.
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"In advance of its eerie-as-hell 10-part adaptation of The Purge, USA is launching the satirical (but still deeply unsettling) Purge Shopping Channel"

TVI:
Beginning Saturday, September 1 at 10:45/9:45c on USA's sister network, Syfy, the faux site's on-air promotions will kick off during a 15-minute infomercial featuring hosts Carson Cruz and Rachel Stamp.
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"Drought In Central Europe Reveals Cautionary 'Hunger Stones' In Czech River"

NPR:
A lengthy drought in Europe has exposed carved boulders, known as "hunger stones," that have been used for centuries to commemorate historic droughts — and warn of their consequences.

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One of the stones on the banks of the Elbe is carved with the words "Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine": "If you see me, weep."
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Thursday, August 23, 2018

"Mexican farmers claims Volkswagen 'hail cannons' caused drought"

Telegraph:
Volkswagen, which has a major plant in Puebla, has been using "hail cannons" - sonic devises that purport to disrupt the formation of hail in the atmosphere - to disperse storm clouds menacing the thousands of new cars parked on its lots.

But farmers in Cuautlancingo, the rural municipality where the plant is located, say the controversial technique is causing a drought that has made them lose 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) of crops.

Scientists are skeptical over whether hail cannons actually work.

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Volkswagen tried to defuse the conflict this week by announcing it was taking the cannons off automatic mode and would only fire them when potential hail storms approached.
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Monsieur Acorn

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Ten funny tweets



Read more »
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"Before the Civil War, Congress Was a Hotbed of Violence"

Smithsonian:
I found roughly 70 violent incidents in the 30 years before the Civil War—and very often the incidents featured a Southerner trying to intimidate a Northerner into compliance. It’s all hidden between the lines in the Congressional record; it might say “the conversation became unpleasantly personal.” That meant duel challenges, shoving, pulling guns and knives. In 1858, South Carolina representative Laurence Keitt started trouble with Pennsylvania’s Galusha Grow. It turned into a mass brawl between Southerners and Northerners in the House.

How did voters feel about the violence?

That changes over time, which isn’t surprising. And it wasn’t the same for everyone. There were certain people who were elected to Congress because they played rough. That’s why their constituents sent them there, to play rough, to defend their interests with gusto. And that included sometimes threats and even also sometimes fists or weapons.

People knew who they were electing to Congress, and they did it for a reason. The most striking example of that is, over time, increasingly confrontational Northerners get sent to Congress.
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Victor Mancha by Kris Anka


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Live action Fortnite ad; A touching moment in "Journey"; When the stage ends up much higher than planned








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"Japan gets first woman fighter pilot"

DailyMail:
"Ever since I saw the movie 'Top Gun' when I was in primary school, I have always admired fighter jet pilots," she told local media.
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Scary information about Hawaii's food supply





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Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Ten funny tweets



















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