Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Reporter spent a night photographing people setting off illegal fireworks in New York

Slate:
I asked someone sitting outside near where I saw some if he knew where they were coming from. He smiled and pointed me to just further down the block. “You won’t miss them,” he said, just as another one went off.

...

Soon after, another car pulled up. This one parked right in front of the group and popped the trunk. It was full of fireworks. The man was clearly from out of town and was selling them for cash, from $5 to more than $100. He wouldn’t speak to me—he was only there to make a quick sale. The group I’m standing with bought more. One guy pointed to a group further down the block and said “Try them.” He gives them a nod, then pulls away.

The party went on: “Check this out, I’ma shoot two at a time.” I told them I was going to keep walking and find more groups to photograph. One guy invited me back, and said this was nothing compared to what they have planned for July 4.

...

I found another crew almost immediately.

Is it a good sign we locked up Remdesivir?; All contemporary fiction has become period fiction; Their lungs are too weak to handle masks




Great short story by Janelle Shane about a roomba of the future that becomes a space pirate

68:HAZARD:COLD.

Also, Dorth Darth Darth is a very good name:



If a baseball hits your cutout in the A's stadium, they'll send you the ball



Details:
Cutouts are $49 each for A’s Access members, $89 each for general fans, or $129 for a Foul Ball Zone cutout (limited availability). If a cutout in the Foul Ball Zone gets hit with a foul ball, we will send the ball to that fan! Plus, with every purchase of a cutout, you’ll also receive two complimentary tickets to our first exhibition game at the Coliseum during the 2021 season. Proceeds from Coliseum Cutouts benefit the Oakland A’s Community Fund.

...

Please note, we are unable to create cutouts that include the following;

Commercial advertisements, including slogans, websites, and phone numbers.
Social media handles and hashtags.
Offensive or negative references to any MLB team.
Names of any MLB players.
Statements or endorsements of political candidates.
Third party logos/branding

Terminator Dark Fate is a 99 cent rental today, which reminds me about these Weta vinyl figures

It's got to be worth 99 cents, right? Although, I never finished Alita...

I think Weta never actually released these, which is too bad because the design of the Sarah Connor was great:

Arm assembly cheat sheet poster and pants



Today's funny posts




































































*More funny posts.

Photo of a giraffe looming in the mist

"Sprites or red sprites are large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds"










Wikipedia
:
Jellyfish sprite – very large, up to 50 by 50 km (31 by 31 mi).
Column sprite (C-sprite) – large scale electrical discharges above the earth that are still not totally understood.
Carrot sprite – a column sprite with long tendrils.

Monday, June 29, 2020

There's a population of between 8,500 and 17,000 Karens in St. Paul, Minnesota (they emigrated from Myanmar)



(The Wikipedia entry)

Refs can hear players mouthing off in silent stadiums; Costco has stopped selling sheet cakes but is bringing back samples; New York built a Covid mountain





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*More funny posts.

Cars with infinity mirror taillights







*Previously: Cars with tiny spoilers.

Sunday, June 28, 2020

The explanation for why Kellog's is releasing a Green Onion Chex cereal in South Korea



Korea Herald:
In 2004, Nongshim Kellogg launched an online “election” for the president of Chex featuring two candidates, chocolate-colored character Chekkie and green-colored character Chaka. Chekkie promised to make the cereal more chocolatey while Chaka promised to put green onion in the cereal. When internet communities heard about this election, they started voting for Chaka, to Kellogg Korea’s horror.

With Chaka bound for victory, Kellogg deleted over 42,000 votes, citing “security reasons.” With Chaka still winning by a few thousand votes, Kellogg added offline votes and ARS call votes, in a blatant manipulation of the result, to make Chekkie the winner.

...

After 16 years, Kellogg has finally responded.

Chex Green Onion will finally be available online starting June 28 before hitting the shelves on July 1 in stores for a limited time.

...

Opening the box of Chex Green Onion sent from Kellogg for review, the scent of green onion hit sharper than expected


The new Twilight Zone episode "Downtime" is good



(Partial spoiler at the end of the post if you need more coaxing).

This episode is directed by JD Dillard (Sweetheart, upcoming Star Wars thing)






Spoiler: It's basically an extended take on the Dr. Edgemar scene from Total Recall.

Arjen Robben was lured out of retirement by watching clips from Jordan documentary "The Last Dance"

Bein:
Groningen technical director Mark-Jan Fledderus said: "We first went to Munich to speak to him about coming to play for us, just days after he retired in May last year.

"That didn't happen. But we kept up contact and then arranged secretly with his wife to travel down and talk to him again last month.

...

"We ordered sushi from their favorite restaurant and we made a compilation of footage from the documentary 'The Last Dance' and footage of Robben.

"We then said that the best way to help our club was to play football with us."
Speaking of soccer, filthy backheel:

Bears wander past boy reading on a porch

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*More funny posts.

"China sent martial artists to India border before deadly clash: state media"

AFP:
Tensions are common between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in the mountainous border terrain, but this month's fighting was their deadliest encounter in over 50 years.

Five new militia divisions including former members of a Mount Everest Olympic torch relay team and fighters from a mixed martial arts club presented themselves for inspection at Lhasa on June 15, official military newspaper China National Defense News reported.

State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of hundreds of new troops lining up in the Tibetan capital.
Also:
2 more deaths in Galwan: Soldiers building bridge drown in river accidents

Caravan of low riders brings supplies to California farmworkers; The Italian response to the Black Death sounds familiar; Vegas showgirls with facemasks





Dozens of project ideas for an aspiring game developer; NBA Jam confirms a longstanding conspiracy theory; Using teenagers to search Eastern Europe
































Ready or Not fan art; Danger Moose; A charming tribute to Guy Davis




























Saturday, June 27, 2020

The replies to this are very good: "Literally nothing on earth is better than repeatedly doing a bit your partner doesn’t like"













































"A joke amongst a diverse group of friends became an accidental cultural moment for 20K people, an examination of exclusivity culture, and raised $110K for these racial justice philanthropies"



Business Insider:
Ever feel like you're looking in on an inside joke that everyone online understands besides you? Welcome to itiswhatitis.fm.

On Thursday night, the tech industry was introduced via Twitter, en masse, to this emoji combination: 👁👄👁. Word spread about a mysterious app called "It Is What It Is," as Silicon Valley clamored to figure out what the hype was all about and how the elite could secure their own access to the invite-only platform.

Many have struggled figure out what was really going on and whether this is a real app — or something else — or merely an elaborate satire of tech marketing. The website doesn't help explain any further: The only clickable thing on it is a box directing you to "give us ur info," where you can enter your email to, presumably, get on the app's waitlist.
Josh Constine:
It also may just be an enormous inside joke by “Design Twitter” to expose how thirsty we all are for something new.

...

If there’s no actual app, and instead merely a call to further spread the intrigue, it just proves the marketing savvy of the team behind it and gullibility of everyone else. Hell, with all the email addresses it’s collecting, this could become a startup if it isn’t one.

...

at 9pm, they revealed the true story. A joke amongst a diverse group of friends became an accidental cultural moment for 20K people, an examination of exclusivity culture, and raised $110K for these racial justice philanthropies.






They have stickers and tees:

Library asks patrons to stop microwaving books; A list of the billionaires that own baseball teams; Restaurant creates isolation pods






Today's funny posts




















































*More funny posts.

10 key (and mindbending) episodes of Fringe

From 2012, but useful if you want to watch on Prime.

This week's best Warhammer and Warhammer 40K miniatures








Friday, June 26, 2020

Watch an abandoned pangolin scamper about its foster mother's home




Coronavirus is killing the Dutch mink industry; Six Flags to reopen without rides; Farmworkers go on strike






Charming carousel with animals based on drawings by children









Totally Kid Carousel created by Maria Reidelbach and Milo Mottola is at Riverside State Park in New York:
When it was decided that Riverbank State Park needed a carousel, Milo Mottola needed a plain and simple design in order to fit the budget, since there wasn't enough money for the type of elaborate carving that a traditional merry-go-round would use. To achieve this, a contest was held and 36 drawings made by children living in the area were selected and were rendered in foam and fiberglass.

Brutalist Tie Fighter; Iden Versio custom action figure; Why weren't they "Salt Troopers"?





















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