![](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--voWutOYz--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/gebqs5bp5iobz0emtmzl.jpg)
Cyberattacks continue to rise in frequency and scope, affecting everyone from private citizens to corporations to city governments, with frequently embarrassing or distressing results. The Onion takes a look at some key facts about cybercrime.
Cyberattacks continue to rise in frequency and scope, affecting everyone from private citizens to corporations to city governments, with frequently embarrassing or distressing results. The Onion takes a look at some key facts about cybercrime.
jimkoBest quote: "Huh. Want do it again?"
If you like 11foot8bridge and its evil cousin 10foot6bridge, you'll love this super slo-mo recreation of a crash from multiple angles. (more…)
jimkosearch up the full story on this, it's hillarious
The Fairmont Empress Hotel has forgiven a guest 17 years after he left a suitcase filled with pepperoni sticks by an open window, thereby attracting a flock of seagulls and causing the room’s destruction. What do you think?
Cloudflare, a company with a history of resisting surveillance and censorship orders (albeit imperfectly and sometimes with undesirable consequences) has announced a new DNS service, hosted at the easy-to-remember address of 1.1.1.1, which accepts connections under the still-novel DNS-over-HTTPS protocol, and which has privacy designed in, with all logs written only to RAM (never to disk) and flushed every 24 hours. (more…)
I've lived in British Columbia and Nova Scotia. This is, hands down, the best story I've ever read that involves both coasts.
According to The Times Colonist, 17 years ago, Nick Burchill, a naval reservist from Nova Scotia, was in Victoria, British Columbia for a work-related conference. He chose to stay at the Fairmont Empress Hotel: a high-falootin' luxury joint that's been a fixture on the city's downtown waterfront for decades. When Burchill came from the east coast, he knew that he'd be meeting with friends from the navy when time allowed for it. He brought them a gift: Chris Brothers Pepperoni sticks: a much-loved Nova Scotian delicacy. Not wanting anyone to feel left out, he brought, well, a lot. To keep the meat cool and edible until he could hand it over to his pals, Burchill cracked the window in his hotel room and laid the pepperoni out on the windowsill. He figured that the cool spring air would be enough to refrigerate the food. What happened next is the stuff of legend:
From the Times Colonist:
He spread the packages of pepperoni out on a table and along the window sill, then went for a leisurely four or five hour walk.
“I remember walking down the long hall and opening the door to my room to find an entire flock of seagulls in my room,” Burchill wrote. “I didn’t have time to count, but there must have been 40 of them and they had been in my room, eating pepperoni for a long time.”
Burchill discovered that spicy pepperoni does not agree with a seagull’s digestive system. The room was covered in guano.
Burchill’s unexpected entry startled the birds.
The birds, losing their shit over their being a human in the room, began to literally lose their shit, everywhere they flew in the room, spreading poop over everything. As they took to the air, the seagulls knocked over lamps, decorations and anything else that wasn't bolted down. As Burchill put it, the resulting chaos was "...a tornado of seagull excrement, feathers, pepperoni chunks and fairly large birds whipping around the room." Fighting his way through the flock, Burchill managed to open the rest of the windows in his suite so that the birds could escape. As one of the birds tried to re-enter the room in search of more food, Burchill threw his shoe at it. The shoe ended up on the front lawn of the hotel, narrowly missing a group of vistors.
Burchill has been, understandably, banned from staying at the Empress for the past 17 years. This past week, his lifetime ban was lifted by the hotel's management after he wrote them a passionate letter explaining his part in the pepperoni-and-seagull related disaster.
That Burchill included a pound of Chris Brothers pepperoni with the letter as a peace offering may have had something to do with it too.
Image via pixabay, courtesy of cocoparisienne
jimkoclick through to vid
"No computer graphics tricks were used in this video," writes Jiri Zemanek of Czech Technical University in Prague.
Various patterns are generated in MATLAB using mathematical equations similar to ones describing Spirograph (or harmonograph) and Phyllotaxis. The patterns are calculated in such a way that when rotated under a stroboscopic light of suitable frequency or when recorded by a camera, they start to animate. It is kind of zoetrope---early device for animation. Eggs were painted using EggBot (designed by Bruce Shapiro as open hardware and available as a kit from http://www.evilmadscientist.com/). To draw on eggs, we used standard permanent markers and an electro kistka with bee wax followed by dying. Eggs are rotated at a constant speed, special for each pattern, by a brushless motor.
Here's more: "This apparatus creates stroboscopic patterns on an egg covered in photochromic paint"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIgpqlrj-G0
jimkoone of their best! The explainer video is good too.
As brilliant as OK Go's "The One Moment" music video is from their Hungry Ghosts album, the math that went behind it is even more genius. Using spreadsheets and an incredible amount of math, you'll see why this meticulous and gorgeous video took years to make. If you haven't yet seen the "The One Moment" music video, you should watch it first (below) before seeing how it all added up.
https://youtu.be/QvW61K2s0tAIf you mainly use Chrome to do research academic papers, projects, or assignments, why not use handy browser extensions to manage that homework for you?
These learning tools in your browser let you plan your tasks, help you research, and assist with your studies. And best of all, you don’t have to worry about opening a separate application.
Homework needs its own routine and habits. Use the right tools to make a plan and stick to it. These Chrome extensions help you organize every class and assignment.
For assignments, reminders, and a helpful calendar, check out Student e-Planner. With this extremely handy extension, just add your courses, enter your assignments, schedule due dates and times, and mark off items as you complete them.
Extra features include a calendar view of all homework, a tab to see your completed items, the ability to add notes, editable colors per class, an overall theme color, and desktop notifications for reminders. Student e-Planner is a pretty impressive little extension that helps you stay on course.
Download: Student e-Planner
Another great planner to check out is myHomework Student Planner. Track classes, assignments, and projects, receive reminders, and sync between your devices; all with a free account. The button in your toolbar takes you directly to the site where you can manage it all.
Along with the above features, you have options to attach class details like your schedule, syllabus, and files. You can view your task list by class, priority, or type. You can also search for instructors with Teachers.io so that your assignments can be entered by them, making it automatic for you. For tons of extra features, myHomework Student Planner is awesome.
Download: myHomework Student Planner
Quick lists can help you stay on track. These cool tools let you add and mark off items as you go.
Sometimes simple is sensational. Maybe you just have a basic list of assignments or projects that you want to track. Homework Tracker is ideal for this. Click the toolbar button to add or view your items and see a count of uncompleted tasks with the icon badge.
Enter your class, assignment, and due date (if you have one) and click Add. Then, as you complete your work, hit the Done button. You can sort by due date, so the closest items are right at the top. Homework Tracker is basic yet effective.
Download: Homework Tracker
My Homework Reminder is another good assignment list extension for Chrome. Click the toolbar button, add your assignment and due date, and hit Save.
You can sort by assignment or due date, mark the boxes for items you finish, and review your completed assignments easily. If you need to delete an item, just click the trash can and away it goes. Just like Homework Tracker, My Homework Reminder is simple but gets the job done.
Download: My Homework Reminder
Instead of random Googling, try a toolbar built for education. These options get you the results you need quickly.
Homework Simplified is a cool toolbar that can help you research what you need. What’s nice about it is that in addition to the search box, you can choose from the buttons for Math, Science, English, and History. Each offers tools for the topic.
For example, the Math button lets you pick from calculators and sample problems while the Science tools include a unit converter and periodic table.
Along with the subject tools, you have a Tutor button with resources like Sylvan Learning and Tutor.com plus a button with popular sites such as Britannica and CollegeBoard.
Download: Homework Simplified
Similar but different, the StudyHQ toolbar lets you search and gives you subject buttons, however, the tools are flashcards. So, if you click the History, Language, Math, or Science buttons, you can directly access helpful flashcards on the StudyHQ site. Plus, you can create your own flashcards.
Check out the practice tests button with resources for SAT and AP tests or use the translator button for resources in another language. If flashcards help you study, then combine those tools with a search option and you have StudyHQ.
Download: StudyHQ
When you need to do a fast search, a basic button can be the answer. These Chrome extensions let you search with a click.
Google offers a ton of search tools and some are specific to patents, images, and of course, education. The Google Scholar Button lets you search for a topic easily. Click the button in your toolbar, pop in your search term, and then get your results.
You will receive a short number of results within the search window and can select a title to go right to the page. Or to view all results, click the button at the bottom of the pop-up window and a new tab will open for you.
Download: Google Scholar Button
Course Hero is similar to Google Scholar in that you click the button to search for a topic and then head to the site for the results. What’s a bit different is that you need to create an account to obtain the resource. But, you can create one for free in just a few minutes.
Then, you will have access to documents and flashcards relating to your topic. Plus, you can get help from educators. You can also bookmark sources, keep track of your recently viewed items, and download the mobile app to study on-the-go.
Download: Course Hero Search Button
Download: Course Hero for Android | iOS (Free)
Don’t get distracted by social media when you are doing homework. Use one of these awesome tools to help you focus and finish.
Set up your study session, mark the pages you want to monitor, and get to work with ReCall Study Time. You can choose from two hours for those quick homework sessions or 24 hours for the all-nighters. Then, select the social media sites to block like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
If you feel yourself weaken and head to one of the monitored sights, you will instead be greeted with a nasty-gram like the one above. If you have trouble staying away from social media to get your homework done, check out ReCall Study Time.
Download: ReCall Study Time
Focus Mode is another site-blocking tool to use while you are doing your homework. The extension monitors seven sites by default including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. You can choose which to unblock and add a custom blocked site if there is an additional temptation not on that list.
When you start your study or research session, just hit the button in the toolbar and click Activate. Then, when you try to access one of the monitored pages, you will receive a Return to Work message instead. When you finish, click Deactivate and check out your distraction attempts if you’re curious.
Download: Focus Mode
A simple tool that lets you continue your online work but keep you on track at the same time can be a huge help. Do you use one of these Chrome extensions or prefer a different one for school research and assignments?
I've been getting a lot of review copies of games sent to me lately, so I thought, periodically, I'd share some of what looks interesting and fun to me with Boing Boing readers.
Stuffed Fables Plaid Hat Games, $60, 2-4 players, Ages 7+
Stuffed Fables, by Mice and Mystics designer, Jerry Hawthorne, is a cooperative story-telling miniatures game that literally takes place inside of an illustrated storybook. I love the backstory here. The game is played within ten adventures that take place in a little girl's bedroom (with each adventure triggered by a milestone event in her life, like moving into a big girl bed). As she sleeps at night, her nightmares come to life and crawl out from under her bed.To defend her from these boogeymen, her beloved stuffed animals ("stuffies") come to life and go to battle against these monsters from her nightmares. The little girl remains none-the-wiser about the epic battles that take place as she slumbers. While the game has a fairy-horror theme, and awesome miniatures to fit that theme, it's not very dark to play. It's rated 7+, and that probably holds true in practice, although the rules and game mechanics might prove a little too fussy for younger attention spans. The plastic miniatures (23 of them), the storybook/gameboards, and all of the rest of the components are gorgeous and very much fit the dreamy/fairy-horror theme. I'm planning on doing a Stuffed Fables game night at my house soon and requiring players to come in PJs and bring their own stuffies. Molly, optional.
OGRE Miniatures Set 1 SJ Games, $30.53, 2 players, Ages 14+
OGRE has a soft spot in my geeky little hexagonal heart because it was the first map and counters wargame I ever bought. This was the ancient "pocket edition" from the late 70s which sold for $2.95. OGRE-love is stronger than ever these days, with a multitude of ways of playing the game (look for a feature on current OGRE madness soon). The latest offering from Steve Jackson Games is a wonderful set of plastic OGRE miniatures.The set includes 40 6mm plastic miniatures, including two OGRE cybertanks (1 Mk III, 1 Mk V). This set is sold as a box of miniatures for use with 6th edition OGRE, but the box also includes the OGRE Lite rules, a lovely pearlescent d6 OGRE die, and two erasable record sheets for your OGREs. With all of this, you basically have everything you need to play (minus an irradiated post-apocalyptic battlefield to further irradiate).
Xanathar's Guide to Everything Wizards of the Coast, $29
The first major rules supplement to the wildly-popular 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, Xanathar's Guide to Everything doesn't exactly contain everything (that's the Beholder talking), but it does contain some welcome and exciting additions to the game. This is definitely a book designed to inspire more of the roleplaying and world-building elements of D&D. A lengthy section on subclasses and character class motivations and backstories is designed to add more depth and dimension to your characters. Many of the new spells, such as Ceremony (rituals for marriage, funeral rites, dedications), Mighty Fortress (conjuring a defensive stone fortress from the ground), and Temple of the Gods (conjuring a temple mirage that can trap enemies who attempt to enter it), are all designed to make your characters more true-to-type and gameplay richer and more cinematic. The book also has a section on Tools that character classes use, random encounter tables for different bio-regions, new traps and magic items, a character name generator, and lots more. Throughout, Xanathar, Waterdeep's most notorious Beholder and crime lord, offers his snarky, menacing thoughts in the marginalia. With recent books like Volo's Guide to Monsters, and now Xanathar's Guide to Everything, the D&D manuals themselves are in fine roleplaying character.
Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago: Lost Colossus Osprey Games, $16, 2-8 players, Ages 12+
Osprey continues to knock it out of the park with their Frostgrave fantasy skirmish game system. Last year saw a new area of the Frostgrave world fleshed out with the release of Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago, a tropical, pirate-y game set within a mysterious, enchanted group of islands that winks in and out of existence every few centuries. With Ghost Archipelago: Lost Colossus, the ethereal islands get a series of interlinked adventures to go on in search of the broken pieces of the Colossus of Argantheon. Finding the pieces of this gigantic ruined statue may provide clues to the Crystal Pool, the lost, magical wellspring of the Archipelago, which grants various powers to those who drink from it.
Photosynthesis Blue Orange Games, $33, 2-4 players, Ages 10+
Based on a number of breathless reviews, I bought this game for several people as gifts this past Christmas. Imagine if chess pieces grew as you played and shaded out the pieces of your opponent. That's kind of what happens in Photosynthesis. You're growing trees on a game board. A sun marker moves around the board as you play, shining light on some trees, making them grow, and in the process, throwing shade on other trees, slowing down their growth. The game is easy to learn but has impressive tactical depth as you have to think ahead to where the sun will be in moves ahead and how you can use the position of the sun (and the shade cast by your trees) to slow the growth of your opponents' trees. The artwork for Photosynthesis is gorgeous and the components are top quality. Punching out and assembling all of the trees and counters is a bit of a pain, but the lovely results are worth it.
Gaslands: Post-Apocalyptic Vehicular Combat Osprey Games, $14.38, Players 2-6, Ages 11+
Nerds of a certain age will likely (and lovingly) remember Car Wars, the Mad Max-y post-apocalyptic car combat game that Steve Jackson released in the 1980s. The game components were minimal and funky (paper battlemats and thin cardboard chits for the vehicles) and the rules were notoriously crunch, but that didn't stop masses of high-domed gamers from falling in love with the world of Car Wars. In a similar vein comes Gaslands, a new vehicular combat game from Osprey with a far more streamlined rule set. Continuing the Osprey formula of engaging game worlds, explored through tight, eminently playable rule sets, all presented in slim, inexpensive rulebooks with lovely and evocative artwork, you can get deep into Gaslands with little cash outlay. Besides the rulebook (which has templates and counters in the back to photocopy, print, and cut), all you need are some weaponized cars to send into battle. For these, you get to convert Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. [caption id="attachment_576092" align="aligncenter" width="1856"] I had a ball going through my gaming miniatures "bitz box" looking for weapons and gubbins to add to my first Gaslands battlecar.[/caption]I cannot tell you how much fun it is to get some of these metal toy cars (you can get bundles of them on eBay for pocket lint) and to use whatever bits and bobs you have laying around to turn them into road warriors. Gaslands has a great backstory, too. In an alternative universe timeline, humans colonized Mars by the 1980s. All of Earth's rich and elite quickly moved to the Red Planet, eventually returning to Earth to strip it for parts and lay waste to what was left. For the entertainment of the Martians, they created a TV show, your basic Death Race 2000, called Gaslands, where car warriors combat to the death. The year is now 2018, and for the 10th anniversary of the Gaslands TV show, they're offering the winners a one-way ticket to Mars (and to freedom).
Kobolds and Cobblestones: Fantasy Game Rumbles Osprey Games, $18.18
Another recent rules release from Osprey that looks like a lot of fun is Kobolds and Cobblestones. For those familiar with gang-based games like Necromunda, Kobolds... is a similar kind of skirmish game which takes place on the streets of a fantasy city riddled with crime, corruption, and gang rivalry. From a pool of sketchy characters from the standard fantasy races (humans, dwarves, elves, goblins, kobolds, etc) you choose a small gang and go on adventures of plunder, profit, and white-knuckled street fighting. One of the fascinating mechanics of this game (perfect for a game of crime and gang warfare) is that you use playing cards and poker hands to resolve all combat and other actions in the game. You even use the length and width of regular playing cards to measure distance. Neat!
Star Wars: Legion Fantasy Flight Games, $88, Players 2, Ages 14+
The recent release of Star Wars: Legion joins a growing list of Star Wars game titles from FFG. Let's see, there's Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, Star Wars: Force and Destiny, Star Wars: The Card Game, Star Wars: Destiny, Star Wars: Armada, Star Wars: Imperial Assault, Star Wars: X-Wing. And now, Star Wars: Legion. Legion is FFG's attempt at creating a hugely popular Star Wars miniature wargame for ground battles like they did for space combat with X-Wing and Armada. The starter box comes with 33 gorgeous 28mm plastic figures, including an AT-RT, two speeder bikes, Vader and Luke Skywalker. Legion is the only game in this list that I haven't at least seen in person and monkeyed around with. It looks lovely from the video reviews, but I've heard many reservations from my gaming friends about yet another FFG Star Wars money pit and another miniatures battle game to paint up and play. There are so many amazing tabletop miniatures games these days. For me personally, I already have a big investment in X-Wing and Imperial Assault. I have no desire to buy, build, learn, and play another Star Wars game. But, as in all things, Your Mileage May Vary.
jimkoSounds like it is narrated by Jill Newslady
The ROICHEN EASY TRAY "helps you to stock and pull out your clothes without making a mess" and is an instant classic in the annals of weird advertising.
The Slow Mo Guys invited three Shaolin monks on to throw a needle through a piece of glass in super slow mo, and it's quite interesting to watch at that speed. (more…)
jimkoThis is a cool way to make "artistic" 3d models. It's a free web site, and you can download your model file.
This approach to 3D modeling may appeal to you. The layered approach takes a little thinking, but you'll create some pretty interesting shapes.
The post PlastiSketch Offers a New Approach to 3D Modeling appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
Click play below and, er, enjoy.
This is the most frustrating gif I've ever seen in my life pic.twitter.com/eTzcg4LJfq
— Casanova 🇯🇲 (@KRUZAA_) February 18, 2018
(via Daily Grail)
jimkolol
It would be gauche of me to explain this wonderful moment of web video, but I feel obliged to protect you from any potential disappointment with respect to the interactions of rubber chickens and ceiling fans. It's a sample from this performance by Vitas, Russia's answer to Babylon Zoo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwzUs1IMdyQ
(Nor is the the first wedding of Russian glam pop and chickens)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0HVJ8obNdw
Guldies (previously) posted this weirdly satisfing stop-motion animation of life in the woods. The visuals are amazing -- 2500 still pictures taken with a Canon DSLR and sequenced at 18 frames per second in Dragonframe -- but it's the way it works with sound that I really felt.
jimkoGet one of these so you'll be ready for a fight and not get beat up for being a weirdo
David Rickman wanted to make an arcade machine, but instead of just making another Raspberry Pi system, he used a steam link.
The post This Fancy Transforming Arcade Cabinet Uses Steam Link appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
Everything is awesome. Bricks are bigger than they’ve ever been before, and everyone loves Lego. Well, almost everyone. But if you need your Lego fix but don’t fancy idly sticking bricks together or slavishly following the manual, what do you do? Well, you fire up your game console, mobile device, or PC, and enjoy a Lego video game! Over the years, we’ve seen many Lego games released. They’re incredibly popular, and often quite funny. But with so many Lego games available, you may be unsure which one to choose. Fortunately, we’ve played most of them. We think the following ten...
Read the full article: 10 Awesome Lego Games for Multiplayer Building Action
In 2010, The Royal Society featured the "Desiderata" (previously) of Robert "Boyle's Law" Boyle, a list of dozens of scientific discoverie and breakthroughs that Boyle hoped would be discovered by scientists.
* The Prolongation of Life.
* The Recovery of Youth, or at least some of the Marks of it, as new Teeth, new Hair colour’d as in youth.
* The Art of Flying.
* The Art of Continuing long under water, and exercising functions freely there.
* The Cure of Wounds at a Distance.
* The Cure of Diseases at a distance or at least by Transplantation.
* The Attaining Gigantick Dimensions.
* The Emulating of Fish without Engines by Custome and Education only.
* The Acceleration of the Production of things out of Seed.
* The Transmutation of Metalls.
* The makeing of Glass Malleable.
* The Transmutation of Species in Mineralls, Animals, and Vegetables.
* The Liquid Alkaest and Other dissolving Menstruums.
* The making of Parabolicall and Hyperbolicall Glasses.
* The making Armor light and extremely hard.
* The practicable and certain way of finding Longitudes.
* The use of Pendulums at Sea and in Journeys, and the Application of it to watches.
* Potent Druggs to alter or Exalt Imagination, Waking, Memory, and other functions, and appease pain, procure innocent sleep, harmless dreams, etc.
* A Ship to saile with All Winds, and A Ship not to be Sunk.
* Freedom from Necessity of much Sleeping exemplify’d by the Operations of Tea and what happens in Mad-Men.
* Pleasing Dreams and physicall Exercises exemplify’d by the Egyptian Electuary and by the Fungus mentioned by the French Author.
* Great Strength and Agility of Body exemplify’d by that of Frantick Epileptick and Hystericall persons.
* A perpetuall Light.
* Varnishes perfumable by Rubbing.
What scientists want: Robert Boyle’s to-do list [The Repository/Royal Society Archives]
(via Beyond the Beyond)
I love this concept of a "measuring cube" for cooking -- where each side is indented with different measurements.
It's downloadable for 3D printing from Thingiverse, and posted by the designer iomaa.
You can easily prototype and fabricate simple parts, tools, and jigs, either from your own designs or from online repositories
The post Get Some Practical Use Out of Your 3D Printer appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
jimkowrapping is ok and only takes 60 sec, but rest of vid about xmas tree was funny.
It's not a good machine or a precise machine, but it is still a machine that will wrap gifts (and sandwiches and ankles) in 10 seconds.
But the best part of this video isn't the present wrapping, it's when inventor Joseph Herscher of Joseph's Machines shows his many attempts at automating the Christmas-tree-decorating process.
Linn at Darbin Orvar shares 8 simple and lovely DIY leather gift ideas.
The post 8 DIY Leather Gifts That Don’t Take Forever to Make appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
Everything you need to know to bring your own game design to life.
The post Making Your Own Game Components appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
jimkoMurder moss
CLEVELAND—Saying the activity was proving highly effective at halting mental deterioration, a new report released Tuesday by the Cleveland Clinic found that a growing number of elderly Americans are improving their cognitive functioning by solving simple murders each day. “We’ve long known that it’s important to keep…
“I was pretty out of it... I was trying to get home as fast as possible to go back to sleep and wasn’t ready for the day at all.”
But then she spotted this cat quietly perched in this outdoor nativity scene's "manger" and snapped this funny shot.
Let's get a closer look at our new "lord and savior"'s face, shall we?
"Bah humbug!"
photo by Brooke Goldman
Previously: Behold the Hipster Nativity Set