an

Kids drawing from the 14th century.

When the next president takes office, he brings with him an anti-encryption, anti-free-press, Islamophobic, racist, anti-transparency agenda that will depend on the tech sector's massive databases of identifiable information and their sophisticated collection capabilities to bring his agenda to fruition. (more…)

This brilliant billboard on the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, Canada is actually a PSA to discourage texting and driving. After this, if Wathan Funeral Home were real, people would be dying to get in. (Sorry.)

Excellent work from the john st. advertising agency and Cieslok Media.

(Adweek)

• Google Maps giving live updates on Edinburgh buses and trams
  • Google maps Edinburgh buses trams
• A political question about opposition parties in the UK
  • politics uk
• Every Comment On Recipe Blogs
  • funny food cooking blogging
• The Comment Section For Every Article About Bikini Waxing Ever
  • funny women comments hair vagina
• The hair of the Skywalkers
  • hair starwars
• Would you rather have privacy or convenience?
  • privacy technology internet communication
• Does this shirt make me gay?
  • LGBT clothing
• The internet has made defensive writers of us all
  • writing discussion comments blogging internet argument
• Someone is _very_ angry at the terrible "40 plot holes in The Force Awakens" article
  • Seriously, the original writer doesn't seem to know what a plot hole _is_.
  • writing starwars
• The Hateful Eight (70mm) - Filmhouse Cinema Edinburgh (Anyone up for it?)
  • movies quentintarantino film Edinburgh
• Critics of the 'Microaggressions' Framework Are Skeptical
  • society
• Lead exposure linked to ADHD in kids with genetic mutation
  • adhd lead genes
• Valuing time over money is associated with greater happiness
  • time money happiness psychology
• You Can’t Trust What You Read About Nutrition
  • diet health research

Big streaming content news out of CES this morning: Netflix is now live in 130 additional countries, which makes its service available to billions of new users. The most notable exception: China.

CEO Reed Hastings made the announcement at the annual Consumer Electronics Forum in Las Vegas today.

"You are witnessing the birth of a global TV network," he said.

Netflix "won't be available in Crimea, North Korea and Syria due to U.S. government restrictions on American companies," the company said.

Countries where Netflix will now be available include Azerbaijan, India, Vietnam, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Saudia Arabia, South Korea, Singapore, Turkey and Indonesia can now use Netflix--but presumably with certain restrictions, in certain nations.

"Netflix Is Now Available Around the World" [netflix press release]

[CNN via @brianstelter]

Those Taiwanese Animators are in top form here in their interpretation of the Internet furor surrounding #MilkSiblings hero Jessica Coletti, who committed the unforgivable sin of nursing a baby that didn't come from her womb.

1. I used a buy-one-get-one-free Redbox code to rent a free single DVD. I’d read this was possible if you put the movie on hold online, rather than at the kiosk itself. We watched Ex Machina, which was intensely suspenseful and well acted. Well worth our $0.00!
2. I sold two things on Craigslist — A vintage wrought iron plant stand that I found standing next to a dumpster, (the stand was hanging out at the dumpster, not me) and an Amazon FireTV stick that my husband won at a basketball game. $45 more dollars for the ol’ college fund!
3. I planted some spider plant babies that I’d pinched off my father’s monster plant. I first rooted them in water for a few weeks, and I’m now looking forward to my own lush spider plant. (Spider plants are highly rated for improving indoor air quality.) I have the plant outside right now, but will transition it indoors when temperatures cool down.
4. I posted in my local buy nothing group asking for twin XL sheets for my son who is soon to head off to college. Surely there are people with this dorm-specific size sheets that they no longer have use for. I also offered up a scratching post, that despite my best effort my cats have shown no interest in.
5. Last night’s dinner was a collection of leftovers and gotta-use-em-up stragglers. Bean and cheese quesadillas, baked ziti, cubed cantaloupe and bangers and mash all fed my family while serving to avoid food waste. Plus, I didn’t have to cook . . . yay!

Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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Khoi Vinh tells us how he really feels about coffee.

In the West, and particularly in urban centers of the United States, we've turned coffee into not just a daily habit, but a totem of conspicuous consumption. They are "rituals of self-congratulation" (a choice phrase I believe I read from Sam Sifton, but which I can't seem to source) wherein we continually obsess over certain coffee purveyors or certain methods of brewing coffee - each new one more complex, more Rube Goldbergian and more comically self-involved than the previous brewing fad.

I don't drink coffee either (don't even like the smell), but as someone who regularly indulges in other addictions and "rituals of self-congratulation", I don't take issue with other people's enjoyment of coffee...as long as I'm out of earshot when the "perfect grinder for pulling a great shot" discussion starts.

Coffee, like almost everything else these days, is a sport. Everyone has a favorite team (or coffee making method or political affiliation or design style or TV drama or rapper or comic book), discusses techniques and relives great moments with other likeminded fans, and argues with fans of other teams. The proliferation and diversification of media over the past 35 years created thousands of new sports and billions of new teams. These people turned hard-to-find nail polish into a sport. These people support Apple in their battle against Microsoft and Samsung. This guy scouts fashion phenoms on city streets. Finding the best bowl of ramen in NYC is a sport. Design is a sport. Even hating sports is a sport; people compete for the funniest "what time is the sportsball match today? har har people who like sports are dumb jocks" joke on Twitter. Let people have their sports, I say. Liking coffee can't be any worse than liking the Yankees, can it?