Wednesday, June 30, 2021

The Mandalorian 2021 Season 2 Trading Cards Hobby Box in stock

"Guaranteed to receive one of either the on-card autograph or High-Tek sketch card"

Today's funny posts




Shazam cover is a Gustave Dore homage; Dog with wine tattoo; Misleading chart

















A 25th Anniversary Quake map with a surprise inspiration; Control a kung-fu student on a path of revenge; Mecha marble shooter


(This article mentioned at the link above is also good.)
















Tuesday, June 29, 2021

A San Francisco business says it will open a tasting room for its lab-grown "salmon"

SF Chronicle on the company's plan to open a tasting room this fall for chefs and students:

it’s more like an interactive museum where visitors get a window into how the fish is made, literally. The tasting room will have a glass barrier allowing diners to peer into the production facility where the salmon is grown in stainless steel tanks, similar to what visitors might find in a brewery.

...

Companies like Wildtype fall into the category of what’s known as cell-based agriculture, where instead of plant-based alternatives, animal cells are used to create cuts of meat in a lab. In the case of Wildtype, the company is still working with the same salmon cells it acquired a few years ago to create fish in its lab. These salmon cells are then fed nutrients in the tank before they are harvested and affixed to plant-based structures that enable the cells to grow into a particular cut of the fish.


A juror was fined $11,000 for misconduct during jury deliberations in a trial in New Jersey

He researched the case online and shared his findings with the other jurors. The amount of the fine was based on court costs for the trial.

A Tennessee-based foundation funded by a "GOP mega-donor" is paying for South Dakota to send National Guard troops to Texas

Military News:

Roughly 50 guardsmen will deploy on the mission, according to a South Dakota Guard spokesman. However, the mission is still in its early planning stages. It’s unclear where the troops will deploy on the border, which unit will be sent or what the mission will be.

Today's funny posts




Lego mouse knight; Crystal duck; Magical stones













Monday, June 28, 2021

Today's funny posts




Homemade Star Tours ride; Becky Cloonan's illustrated essay about Keats; Does anyone sell Charlie Brown's goth tee?

















Sunday, June 27, 2021

Egzod - Changes (ft. Fenris)

Michelin-starred restaurants in California say they're shocked to find out the fish they were selling wasn't "hand-raised and sustainable"

SF Chronicle:

For years, chefs at some of the Bay Area’s most lauded three-Michelin-starred restaurants have proudly worked with a celebrated seafood farm just outside Sacramento.... They’ve plated the ranch’s caviar atop delicate egg custard and decorated its smoked sturgeon with wild strawberries for customers who pay more than $300 for the privilege of eating the best — including what they thought was hand-raised, sustainable product from [the farm].

...

Allegations about [the farm] began spreading in June, beginning on an anonymous Instagram account. These posts inspired some former employees to speak up.

...

While [the farm owner] initially defended his practices of reselling purchased seafood as common in the industry, he told The Chronicle on Tuesday that he understands why some chefs feel deceived. He plans to apologize to all of his customers.

“There is no question to me now that I have failed to effectively communicate to my chefs the origins of the fish, roe, and caviar they trust me to provide to them. This is unacceptable and I take full responsibility for it”

Today's funny posts




Photos of America's fastest growing job?; Sun-bleached books; Obmuloc is terrifying



















The Transformers episode that took place in "Carbombya"; Junji Ito's "The Lighthouse"; This is a really good Superman, honestly


(The wiki.)











Saturday, June 26, 2021

A hilarious performance of the debut episode of "The Calrissian Chronicles," with writing attributed to an artificial intelligence



"Heavy rains leave 1,000 cars underwater in Detroit"

Kiro7:

“Torrential rainfall” is expected to continue Sunday.

“Damaging wind gusts to 60 mph will be the primary threat with these storms,” weather officials said. “Secondary threats include an isolated tornado or two and large hail.”


More speculation about why that Miami condo tower collapsed (150 people unaccounted for)

It's an international issue:
The sister of [Paraguay's] first lady ... her husband ... and three children were in the United States to receive Covid-19 vaccinations at the time of the Miami building collapse, according to Paraguay's Foreign Minister ....

They are among six Paraguayans who are unaccounted for following the building collapse. 

Miami Herald:

In a 2018 report about the Champlain Towers South Condo in Surfside, an engineer flagged a “major error” dating back to the building’s origin where lack of proper drainage on the pool deck had caused “major structural damage,” according to records released late Friday night by town officials in the wake of the tower’s disastrous collapse on Thursday.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the issue was repaired or whether it could have ultimately contributed to the building’s partial collapse

On Miami's building codes:


Great short story about gig workers remotely operating the monsters in a haunted house attraction when something goes very wrong

By Janelle Shane, it's a little like Murderbot crossed with Jurassic Park.

"Mexican Gothic" is $2.99 today

at Amazon:

FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AWARD •  NOMINATED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • Vanity Fair • NPR • The Washington Post • Tordotcom • Marie Claire • Vox • Mashable • Men’s Health • Library Journal • Book Riot • LibraryReads

Also $2.99 today, Leave the World Behind: A Novel:

Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award (Fiction)

A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago Public Library * The New York Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher's Lunch * LitHub * Book Marks * Electric Literature * Brooklyn Based * The Boston Globe

Today's funny posts




Cyberpunk Minecraft renders




This week's best Warhammer 40k miniatures and other hobby creations




Friday, June 25, 2021

Tornadoes in London and the Czech Republic

Guardian:

A suspected tornado has damaged homes, torn down garden walls and sent dustbins flying hundreds of metres through the air in east London.





CNN:
At least three people have been killed and dozens injured after a rare tornado along with tennis ball-sized hailstones hit several villages in South Moravia, in the southeast of the Czech Republic

The collapsed Miami condominium tower has a twin that "is almost identical"

The Miami Herald wrote up the early guesses as to what caused the collapse (salt water-eroded concrete, a sudden sinkhole). By comparison, Los Angeles's big earthquake in 1994 killed around 57 people.

Today's funny posts




Custom Gonk droid; Unpublished Star Wars art book; Imagining a Power of the Force Luke Skywalker Lego minifig

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Thursday, June 24, 2021

A Covid patient escaped from the 6th floor of a hotel in Osaka, Japan

"Public health center workers are looking for the man in his 20s, who apparently forcibly opened a hotel window and escaped."

Two South African brothers have reportedly disappeared with $3.6 billion in Bitcoin

Engadget:

Cryptocurrency investors in South Africa may have lost nearly $3.6 billion in Bitcoin following the disappearance of two brothers associated with one of the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. 

...

Complicating any recovery attempt is that South Africa’s Finance Sector Conduct Authority can’t launch a formal investigation into the incident because cryptocurrency isn’t legally considered a financial product in the country.

Yahoo:

The incident would make it one of South Africa’s biggest ever incidents related to crypto

Here's a thread about the company's investor presentation. 


There's still almost 100 people unaccounted for in that collapsed Miami beachfront condominium tower

CNN says there's no indication of foul play, or any solid guess as to what caused the portion of the building, built in 1981, to shear right off.

Good interview about the recent collapse in collectible card values

Both interviews in this video are enjoyable, but especially starting around 25 minutes, a discussion about the connection between the collapse in crypto and collectible cards.
 

Today's funny posts





How they filmed "North by Northwest"; Mystique by Peach Momoko; Coca-Cola's making this mistake in 2021?











(CNN has a summary.)







Oklahoma’s Parallel Forest; Flyer has fake ink bleedthrough; Spiral