My cat came inside soaking wet, so I did some investigating and found this. pic.twitter.com/s1ygmFQArp
— Laura Lee (@Laura88Lee) October 3, 2019
You have been warned. Cats do take revenge.
We did a further investigation, it was plotted revenge. pic.twitter.com/9lduGij4NI
— Laura Lee (@Laura88Lee) October 3, 2019
This one's good not only because it's simple yet interactive, but because it shows the receipts and the spending. There are various others on the site for different tendrils of the British state; hopefully the same visualization can be used to show other governments at work too. United Kingdom Budget 2016 [uk.wikibudgets]
Cue the "Psycho" violins. If you're a true Halloween completist who's wondering how to deck out your bathroom for the holiday, we have your accessory: The Bloody Bath Mat
.
When it's dormant, this devious prank is a nondescript, almost paper-thin (.03 inch thick) mat, white with a matte finish. Placed beside your shower, it's the kind of thing no one will ever notice - at first. But the specially coated surface means any water that hits it instantly turns red.
You can imagine the results: Spatters of convincingly crimson "blood" as soon as guests hop out of the shower, followed by bloody footprints wherever they step. And the best part is, it's reusable. Hang it out or leave it to dry, and the red stains will fade away within 10 minutes or less, returning the mat to its original, innocent white finish. Cue the next unsuspecting victim.
Right now, you can pick up a 16.5" L x 39.3" W Bloody Bath Mat for $14.99, down more than 10% from the original retail price.
I think the dog prefers to have the gate there.
This gate is not getting in the way of playing fetch. from r/aww
Image: r/aww/
A truck was traveling across the Nanfang’ao Bridge in Taiwan this morning when the bridge collapsed.
According to Mashable:
A truck can be seen passing over the span as it falls, almost making it to the other side before being dragged down. The tanker caught fire when it landed, according to the New York Times. The driver was injured but survived.
According to reports, five people are still missing after the accident. At least 12 people were injured, including the truck driver, two rescue workers, and several people in fishing boats.
And via The New York Times:
Maintenance consultants responsible for the bridge had in previous years found rusted cables, and several connected points had been hit by vehicles and damaged, according to The Liberty Times.
The consultants had reported the problems several times to the harbor administration, but did not receive a reply, the newspaper reported. The public affairs office of the Su’ao Port branch office of the Taiwan International Ports Corporation declined to comment on the report.
Mathematician Clifford Pickover's brilliant caption for this clip: "Philosopher-cat explores the nature of reality, identity, mind, and its place in the vast space-time cosmos that we call home."
Privacy laws have been, and always will be, a hotly debated topic. Corporations, governments, and citizens all have differing opinions when it comes to how private users’ information should be. New legislation is set to be signed next month that will give the UK access to user data from Facebook, WhatsApp, and other US-based tech firms. This latest development is convoluted and sure to spark privacy fears.
This is the first CLOUD Act agreement that will be signed by the US and the UK.
Read MoreUS technology companies will have to share user data with UK government under new agreement was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have Nintendo's free-to-play mobile racer Mario Kart Tour, a port of a premium tower defense game, and a delightful card-based puzzler. So without further ado, here are the most notable Android games released the week of September 23, 2019.
19 best new Android games from the week of September 23, 2019: Mario Kart Tour, Lock's Quest, and Vestigium was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
This squirrel is surprised to encounter a hard, solid, almost completely invisible force field.
It looks like he's typing an angry tweet.
Via IMGUR. And there's a remix.
What do babies know about grass that we don't?
Dunno why I’m laughing
this the cutest thing I’ve seen on the internet. pic.twitter.com/jixWBbEb53
— MISTAHMASALATI
Dog breeder Wally Conron says he regrets his invention of the Labradoodle, which is ½ poodle and ½ Labrador Retriever.
From Futurism:
Conron told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that creating the labradoodle may be his greatest regret, citing strange behavior, health concerns and unscrupulous breeders imitating his work with little regard for the dogs’ welfare. “I find that the biggest majority are either crazy or have a hereditary problem,” he told the ABC. “I do see some damn nice labradoodles but they’re few and far between.”
Photo by Bruce Williamson on Unsplash
Today is the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album and to celebrate, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and their collaborators have released a new video for "Here Comes The Sun." From a statement:
The "Here Comes The Sun" music video welcomes the viewer into Abbey Road Studios' Studio Two, where The Beatles famously recorded most of Abbey Road, to experience a unique and moving sunrise above the band's instruments and gear. Working closely with Apple Corps Ltd., the video is directed by Trunk Animation's director team Alasdair + Jock (Alasdair Brotherston and Jock Mooney) and produced by Trunk's Maria Manton. The video's sun centerpiece was filmed as it was meticulously crafted on-set in Abbey Road's Studio Two. The video features photos from the Apple Corps archive, and photos and footage shot by Linda McCartney supplied by Paul McCartney.
Happy Chonker Cat Fall!
This is a good one.
If you have to fall, have a happy Fall, everyone.
UNMUTE THIS ONE!
[IMGUR]
Thomas Cook is one of the oldest travel agencies in the world, operating their own flights, ships, hotels, etc, whose founders effectively invented modern tourism (listen to this excellent Stuff You Missed in History Class episode for the fascinating and fraught tale of how that happened) but a consolidation in the travel industry combined with private equity chicanery that loaded the company up with $2.1b in debt in order to pay out investors drove the company to its knees, and, last week, it finally died.
The collapse stranded 150,000 passengers and resulted in the cancellation of 600,000 paid-for future holidays, and the UK government has had to dig into its own pockets to pay to bring 16,500 British stranded passengers home (the largest peacetime repatriation in UK history!), leaving it to the British taxpayers to clean up after the financial wizards who crashed the firm.
But those financial wizards aren't done yet: Chief Executive Peter Fankhauser has pulled in GBP8.3m since he took the job in 2015, and other execs drew fat checks -- even as the stranded aircrews were left to fend for themselves (some say they were quoted GBP10,000 for flights home).
It's a story that's familiar to anyone who followed the looting and destruction of Toys R Us, right down to the employees being turfed out with nothing while the sociopaths who engineered the destruction took home millions.
Thomas Cook was brought down by a $2.1 billion debt pile, built up by a series of ill-fated deals, that hobbled its response to nimble online rivals. It had to sell three million holidays a year just to cover interest payments.
With the business draining cash, Chief Executive Peter Fankhauser found its lenders were no longer willing to step in. Fankhauser has earned 8.3 million pounds ($10.3 million), including 4.3 million pounds in 2015.
The Unite union said changes were needed to stop UK airlines collapsing at huge cost to the taxpayer, workers and customers.
“Ministers must legislate as necessary to allow UK airlines in financial trouble to trade in protective administration,” the union said. “Other countries do it as a matter of course. We should do it in the UK.”
As Thomas Cook customers return home, blame game begins [Paul Sandle and Kylie MacLellan/Reuters]
How to Get 150,000 Stranded People Home in 2 Weeks [Adam Rogers/Wired]
(Image: Alan Wilson, CC BY-SA, modified)
“I like to design complex paper sculptures by combining mechanisms,” says Paul DeGraaf.
They're absolutely amazing! A playable electronic keyboard!
Courtesy Paul DeGraaf
Here's a couple of wonderful IMGUR galleries where Paul showcases his absolutely beautiful mechanized papercraft sculptures: Part One, and Two.
From Paul:
I like to work with paper and create mechanisms that are complex. It’s lots of fun and there’s a lot of problem solving involved. Some may think it boring or a waste of time but for me it’s like playing with paper LEGO.
Just incredible.
Here's gallery part one:
Here's gallery number two.
Update: All of today’s new products are now available for pre-order at Amazon.
Amazon has taken the stage in Seattle today to unveil a host of new hardware and services. While rumors have been swirling as to what the online giant had up its sleeve today, we now officially know that new Echo speakers, home security accessories and more are on the way. Hit the jump to find out everything that Amazon announced today.
The post Amazon announces new hardware including Echo speakers, more appeared first on 9to5Google.
You need this.
Unmute it and turn up the sound -- then prepare for your dogs to freak out.
Has anyone remixed this yet?
The kid gets it.
And here's another sweet Basset Hound who loved to sing.
The video is titled "Veterinary Technician Training: Handling a Fractious Cat."
After several viewings, it occurs to me that they mean "cat" as in "hepcat."
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have the return of Downwell (and it's currently free), the sequel to SimpleRockets, and an interesting soccer management game that sports a unique story. So without further ado, here are the most notable games released this week.
23 best new Android games from the week of September 16, 2019: Downwell, SimpleRockets 2, and Football Drama was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
When I was a kid, my whole circle of D&D-playing, science-fiction reading pals was really into Roger Zelazny's ten-volume Chronicles of Amber, but somehow I never read it; for years, I'd intended to correct this oversight, but I never seemed to find the time -- after all, there's more amazing new stuff than I can possibly read, how could I justify looking backwards, especially over the course of ten books?
But I do have some time in my day to read older books: I swim every day for my chronic pain, and when I do, I use an underwater MP3 player to listen to audiobooks that I generally get from Libro.fm, Downpour, or Google's DRM-free audiobook store (the market-leading Audible, a division of Amazon, mandatorily wraps audiobooks in its proprietary DRM without allowing publishers to opt out, which has the dual deal-breaking effect of locking me into Amazon's ecosystem and not working on my underwater MP3 player).
A couple of months ago, I decided to go looking for DRM-free versions of the Amber books, which is how I found Speaking Volumes' editions of Roger Zelazny's own readings of the books, long believed to have been accidentally erased and lost forever, but which were recovered and remastered in the mid-2000s. Speaking Volumes sells these as MP3 downloads and MP3 CDs, and I bought the complete set of the former and listened to them over a couple of months' worth of laps in the pool.
Zelazny's reading is pretty much fantastic. The books are justly loved for their deadpan, ironic, noirish prose style, and Zelazny's voice -- smoke-cured by the same cigarettes that were blamed for the cancer that killed him in 1995 at the age of 58 -- and delivery are absolutely delightful. The audio quality is patchy at best -- whatever medium these recordings were recovered from was evidently in less-than-perfect shape -- and in some places there's bleed-through of other people having arguments. One book was only partially recovered and is read in places by another reader, who is competent enough, though he's no Zelazny. Despite these imperfections (or, perversely, because of them), it's pretty fabulous to hear these rediscovered lost treasures.
What about the books themselves, then?
They're...a mixed bag. The story is a set of courtly intrigues based loosely on Hindu and Buddhist scripture, infused with heavy doses of psychedelic imagery as the forces of Order and Chaos fight one another for dominance over the universe, even as the royal houses of godlings who represent each force squabble among one another in succession struggles for the thrones of their respective realms. The hero of the first five books is Prince Corwin of Amber, fighting for the crown of the lands of Order, while the second five books tell the story of his son, Merlin, whose mother is demon of Chaos and who might find himself running either one or both of the great houses.
The books start strong, as Corwin awakens in a hospital in our world with amnesia and slowly recovers his memories, thus easing us into Zelazny's universe. These books sport psychedelic interludes in which Corwin walks through "shadow" (the branching, unimportant worlds, including ours, in which everything that can happen does, which the godlings of Chaos and Order can traverse to find any possible outcome) that Zelazny brings to life with deliveries that turn them into free verse poetry, heavy on delightfully weird symbolism.
But -- even with the book six reboot and the switch to a new PoV character -- Zelazny struggles to keep the story together. His multiple mystical systems of magic allow him to squeak out of narrative problems by inventing some new twist on the rules he's set up that conveniently allows characters to escape from the dead ends he writes them into. This has the unfortunate side effect of setting up characters with overpowered artifacts, unfollowably complicated powers, and an sense of anything-can-happen whose corollary is nothing matters.
The psychedelic interludes that are so much fun in the early volumes turn into self-indulgent cheap tricks for getting characters in and out of trouble the action flags.
All in all, it has the ring of a D&D game whose inventive Dungeon Master has set down all the twists and turns that were so much fun to play through in a book that's significantly less fun to read -- like dreams, D&D adventures are generally more fun to live through than to hear about (and it doesn't help that much of the action in the Amber books takes place in characters' dreams).
I nearly met Zelazny. He was scheduled to be the Guest of Honor at Toronto's Ad Astra science fiction convention, but died shortly before the event. Ad Astra was my first con, where I volunteered as a gofer, then attended as a neopro, and I remember being disappointed that I wouldn't get to meet him in person -- even if I hadn't read the Amber books, I'd enjoyed his story Auto-da-Fe in Harlan Ellison's first Dangerous Visions anthology and, more importantly, Zelazny was the mentor of one of my favorite writers, Steven Brust (previously) whom I met for the first time two years later when he was a guest of honor at Ad Astra, in 1997.
Brust's work is an instructive counterpoint to Zelazny. His longrunning, nearly complete, must-must-must read Taltos series is filled with homages to Zelazny and Amber, from the hard-boiled tone to the beautifully choreographed sword- and knife-fighting scenes, to the mystical, semi-sentient cord his hero wears around his wrist (Brust even named his kid Corwin!).
What's more, Brust's Taltos books are literally based on an RPG, with the same gods-and-mortals dynamic that Zelazny propels the action in Amber with.
But Brust's books are infinitely better than Zelazny's. It's not just that he doesn't have the same problematic characterizations of (and interactions with) female characters that plague the Amber books -- Brust's story is much more consequential because it moves very swiftly from the kind of courtly intrigues that fuel the Amber books, and onto the lives of myriad, everyday people struggling to survive the terrible fallout generated by the power struggles of the unthinking, unregarding great and noble personages who are Zelanzy's heroes and Brust's ultimate villains. Brust's "little people" are heroes; Zelazny's are literal figments of the aristocracy's imagination.
While Brust's magic and mysticism are nearly as expansive as Zelazny's, his tales don't suffer from Zelanzy's ultimately boring, consequence-free meandering, because Brust focuses on consequences for people who have no choice but to live through the aftermath of these mythic struggles in their (decidedly non-mythic) everyday lives.
Brust is nearly finished with the Vlad books, after nearly four decades in progress (!), and here, too, Brust shows that the student outshines the master. As the Amber books approach their ending, they get more chaotic, less controlled, more improvised and, frankly, sillier. Brust, by contrast, keeps getting more salient, trenchant and consequential with every volume, building to a climax that makes me shiver in delight whenever I remember that it's on our foreseeable horizon.
Ultimately, Zelazny ended the Amber books on a note so disappointingly nonsensical and lazy that I could hardly believe it -- it was a disappointment to rival the end of Stephen King's Dark Tower books; having made us slog through a Silmarillion's worth of family trees and ancient history, he just...fizzled (Zelazny didn't read the final volume for audio -- for that, I suggest ripping the CD version of Wil Wheaton's reading, which does an admirable job with some pretty weak material).
They say "the Golden Age of science fiction is 12," and perhaps if I'd read Amber when my friends were all fizzing with it, I'd have found it more interesting. Decades later, I'm glad I read them, but I'm also not planning on re-reading them ever again -- unlike the Taltos books, which I sneak into my queue all the time, inevitably revealing new delights with each fresh reading.
In the meantime, I still recommend the Speaking Volumes editions: for all the failings of the series in hindsight, Zelazny brings in a brilliant performance, one that might have been lost forever. And these books, flawed as they are, are important parts of the genre's history -- for one thing, without them, we might never have had Brust's Taltos books.
The Chronicles of Amber [Roger Zelazny/Speaking Volumes]
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have an early-access release for a new feature-filled email app, a new video streaming app from BET, and a new open-source Reddit app. So without further ado, here are the most notable Android apps released in the last week.
10 new and notable Android apps and live wallpapers from the last week including Twobird, Firefox Preview Nightly for Developers, and BET+(9/14/19 - 9/21/19) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
In 2017, Banksy painted a giant mural on a wall in Dover, England depicting a worker chiseling a star off the EU flag, by way of a comment on the Brexit vote; now, parties unknown have painted over that mural, whitewashing it. Banksy is philosophical about this development: "Oh. I had planned that on the day of Brexit I was going to change the piece in Dover to this. But seems they've painted over it. Nevermind. I guess a big white flag says it just as well." (via Naked Capitalism) (Image: Dunk, CC BY)
I have found the Uni Kuru Toga to be a mechanical pencil of uncanny perfection. Its shell, carved from the tooth of a displacer beast and engraved with Reformed Mesopotamian sigils, holds a delicate graphite scrivening rod. A hidden mechanism automatically rotates the lead every time you touch the tip of the pencil to parchment, which keeps the lead nicely pointed. — Read the rest
With skills, patience, and help from his friends, this guy built a yurt (or ger) for himself and his partner about 20 minutes outside of downtown Portland.
The finished home looks really cozy and comfortable, and he shares plans so you can build one yourself if you are so inclined.
“Our own little oasis about 20 minutes outside of downtown Portland. 30ft in diameter. 730 sq ft w/ an additional 200 sq ft loft.”
IMGURian ZachBoth shares photos and videos of his yurt adventure.
“Our yurt's distinguishing feature: the bedroom loft surrounded by four dozen house plants.”
“The exterior structure is a kit that we built (most yurts in the US are manufactured by about 10 different "yurt companies"). Interior was completely custom.”
“If you liked this, I encourage you to check out Do It Yurtself, the website I created to document our build in much more detail including several video episodes you can also find on youtube!”
The lost seal pup in this photo, taken by tourist boat operator William McPhee is fine. It was floating unconscious in the water after being parted from its mother, writes the BBC, and was lucky someone chanced across it.
She "would certainly have drowned" if not for their "quick thinking and efforts", a Tynemouth Seal Rescue Unit spokesman said.
Spread over an area of 40 football fields, New Delhi's garbage mountain towers over nearby buildings.
Ghazipur landfill in New Delhi is India's highest rubbish mountain, spreading over an area larger than 40 football pitches. It is predicted to grow taller than the Taj Mahal by 2020. Along with the smell, smoke and pollution from this mountain of trash are said to be the ‘cause of all diseases’ in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Here it is on Google Maps, next to a "dairy farm":
It is, unquestionably, killing the locals.
"It was a flood of trash," says Kumar. "I saw heaps of garbage coming down the hill like a flood and suddenly, we were swept into the canal. For a moment, everything went dark," he told Al Jazeera. Kumar was lucky. A sudden thrust from within the canal pushed him on to the surface and he was rescued by the locals of Mullah Colony, only a few hundred meters away from the infamous landfill site.
He searched for his cousin, but there was no trace of her.
Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye repeat their performance of 'The Saints Go Marching In' from the Five Pennies.
Dave Brubeck was experimenting with meter signatures and 'Unsquare dance' is in 7/4 time.
Lex is a "wearable" chair, an apparatus that attaches to your thighs and waist.
The legs are shaped to conform to your legs when you're walking around, but become stable struts when you sit back.
The LEX is a bionic wearable that enhances posture, comfort, and life. It is designed to let you relax anywhere with a perfect sitting posture and protect your shoulders while on the move by making the backpack feels almost weightless.
It was Kickstartered in 2018 and apparently went out, with follow-up rounds on Indiegogo. But I don't see any reviews or even testimonials. Anyone got one? Do you waddle around and suffer crippling back pain?
Google Assistant offers 11 (yes, eleven) different English voices in the US, but the rest of the world doesn't get as wide a selection. However, Google is now adding more voices in nine more languages, including English (India), English (UK), German, and French.
Here are the nine languages that now offer a second Assistant voice:
All of these new voices were built using DeepMind WaveNet tech, making them sound like an actual person's speech pattern.
Read MoreGoogle Assistant is getting new voices in nine more languages was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
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