People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness — they cannot work and their civilization collapses.
The new Parrot Bebop 2 HD Drone (quadcopter) is the latest in the range of ultra steady flying cameras from the French manufacturer. The product is a completely new build from the ground up, which means they’ve managed to incorporate some neat updated features, including 25 minutes flying time, while keeping the weight of the whole craft to just 500g. Pretty cool.
For those who don’t know the original Bebop model, the quad offers ultra steady [...]
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Early this morning, FBI agents arrested pharma-hedge-douche Martin Shkreli for securities fraud at his apartment in NYC; Reuters photographers were on-hand at the arrest to photograph his "perp-walk" in handcuffs. (more…)
"Why should we base the validity of all of our life's beliefs on a theory?" I'm not even sure what that question means, but the UC Berkeley student who asked it to Dr. White didn't look pleased by his fact-based answer.
From Wikipedia: Timothy Douglas White is an American paleoanthropologist and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is most famous for his work on Lucy as Australopithecus afarensis with discoverer Donald Johanson.
The Intercept has obtained a secret government catalog that law enforcement agencies use to source even-more-secret cellular spying devices, mostly variants on the Stingray/Dirtbox, which pretend to be cellular towers in order to harvest the subscriber details of all the people within range (up to an entire city, for the airplane-mounted Dirtboxes). (more…)
The Effects of a Year in Ketosis by James McCarter from Quantified Self on Vimeo.
At the most recent Quantified Self conference, geneticist Jim McCarter t talked about the effects of going on a ketogenic diet for a year.
In this fascinating short talk by geneticist Jim McCarter, we see detailed data about the effects of a ketogenic diet: lower blood pressure, better cholesterol numbers, and vastly improved daily well being. Jim also describes the mid-course adjustments he made to reduce side effects such as including muscle cramps and increased sensitivity to cold.
Jim begins: “When I tell my friends I’ve given up sugar and starch and get 80% of my calories from fat, the first question I get is: Why?”
Image: Wikipedia
Neighbors of the Daybreak community, in South Jordan, Utah have been putting Amazon and UPS packages filled with rocks and other junk on their porches. The idea is that thieves will steal them, take them home to find they've got garbage instead of shiny new products, and swear off stealing other people's stuff for good.
From Oddity Central:
Daybreak is a tight-knit community of about 4,000 homes and 15,000 people who all know each other very well well. For the past few years, many of them faced the same problem during the holidays – thieves would steal the packages that were delivered to their front door. So when a resident named Jeff posted the fake-package idea on Facebook, it caught on pretty quickly.
“When Jeff came up with the idea, it spread like wildfire,” Menzer said. “The post spread to Riverton and Herriman. That’s why it’s going to work, because it’s not just a half a dozen homes doing it. It’s a whole community.” The contents of the decoy packages will vary. Menzer says some people plan to put in old electronics while others are going with rocks. A few altruistic folks want to throw in some clothes, which might eventually be donated to the needy. And some people want to use the idea to actually catch thieves, so they’re installing tracking devices on the boxes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR3lXEH80Nw
The short movie Uncanny Valley is a beautifully made, effects-heavy science fiction film about virtual reality "addicts." It starts a little slowly, but just as soon as you think you've got the gag, the movie veers off into some extremely interesting territory. (via JWZ)
Widespread human trafficking is a big part of why Thailand is now one the world’s biggest shrimp providers, an Associated Press investigative series details.
They're from Middle of Beyond (who make the bigfoot and Krampus sweaters). $20 each, 8" tall: Krampus, Cthulhu, or Baphomet. (via Christian Nightmares)
For the last two years, Jasen Dixon of Sycamore Township, Ohio has displayed a front yard nativity scene with zombified versions of Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the three magi. The city has demanded that Dixon remove the scene from his yard, because it says the "accessory structure" violates the zoning code. From Local 12:
[via]Dixon's not buying it. "I think it's the theme. It just rubs people the wrong way and it puts the spotlight on me.
"That's why they're coming down so hard on me," Dixon said. Dixon could be fined $500 per day. He believes his zombies should stay for the holidays. "It's not hurting anything and it's here not even for a month," Dixon said. He is considering an appeal. He has yet to receive a fine but said he hasn't decided what he will do if he does.
On June 30, 2001, a woman brought a strange sculpture onto the Antiques Roadshow for appraisal called The Kangaroo Bird. She paid $60.00 for it and wasn’t she excited to find out it was an original Dr. Seuss sculpture valued at $25,000?!
The Kangaroo Bird was part of a project that Ted Geisel, Dr. Seuss, called The Seuss System of Unorthodox Taxidermy. He created these heads to be displayed in bookshops around New York to promote his new book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. They are very striking and unforgettable. I dare you. Just try to not remember The Kangaroo Bird.
I got my first glimpse of Dr. Seuss’s Unorthodox Taxidermy while in Kauai, Hawaii, in 2000. I was strolling through an art gallery and nearly dropped my ice cream cone when I saw the Blue Green Abalard.
It was beautiful. It was unique. And it was something I just couldn't take with me. What I assumed was an original Seuss sculpture, was actually a one of 99, limited edition, hand-painted, cast resin reproductions. You can sometimes find the Blue Green Abalard on Ebay with a buy it now price of about $20,000 - and this is just a copy. Isn’t that something?
Anyway, I talked about the Blue Green Abalard for the next 5 years to whoever would listen to me. I was haunted by the missed opportunity to have something so interesting and then I met my wife. She had just learned about a Secret Art of Dr. Seuss show that was featuring the Blue Green Abalard and a few new “findings" that limited edition copies had been made of.
Gina suggested that if the price was right, we’d be able to bring one home and I just couldn't believe it. The day before I didn't even know of the existence of other Seuss sculptures and here I was...so close to having blissful closure! I thought if I got one, the obsession would be over and I could move onto different and more productive obsessions.
That was my wife’s first mistake because, you see, I have a problem. I love even the illusion of a good deal. The 4 new featured sculptures were each as amazing as the Blue Green Abalard! The good people at The Sara Bain Gallery in Orange County said that a collector could purchase them individually or they could be purchased as a 4 piece set and at a discounted rate. They would all share the same serial numbers and be a happy family. Doesn't that sound great? If you purchase all 4, you would automatically become "a collector"!
Naturally, I talked my wife into the benefits of taking out a loan against our home and buying all 4. I explained that it was like we were making money. I gave Gina some cockamamie story about selling one of the sculptures each year to pay back the loan and do you know what? She believed me! That was her second mistake. Why would she believe me? I NEVER intend to get rid of these! Just look at them! Would you?
At that point in my life, besides the Blue Green Abalard, I thought we had EVERY possible Dr. Seuss sculpture ever created! Mission Accomplished! I had won and I could now move on to bigger and better things...but, do you know what happened? The victory was short-lived because before we even hung up the ones we had, I received an email. It was a press release for a new Secret Art of Dr. Seuss sculpture that was "just discovered". It was called the Semi-Normal Green Lidded Fawn and believe it or not...it too was amazing!
C’mon! How could I not see this coming? They got me hooked on the hand-painted goodness. From the start I was fixing a hole that could never be filled— because, year after year, they keep releasing newly found “Secret Art”.
I was sick. I kept saying to myself, “just one more Mike. This will definitely be the last one. How many could this man have possibly produced?!” Even now, I don’t know the answer but I’ll tell you this: I’ve since gone cold turkey. The obsession…no…the addiction was getting the better of me and though I’ve got it pretty much under control, I still think about the ones that I don’t have each and every day. I check the web for new releases. I look on eBay to see what is being bought and sold. I have a serious problem.
As misery loves company, this is where I give you a link to the current sculpture catalog.
And just so you know, if you want to go big guns and take out a loan, the Marine Muggs collection at the bottom left of the page looks pretty sweet! I can only imagine the money you're going to save when you buy 7 at a time!
Cheers!
Jessica Jones may be the most subversive of Marvel’s superhero stories thus far, but it’s still full of cameos, shout-outs and connections—to the cinematic universe it is part of, and the comic books it came from. Here’s a few of the links to the wider world of Marvel movies and comics we noticed while watching.
If the sticker is missing, so is the phone number to report that the sticker is missing. Someone working for the state of Florida is a closet Situationist. How else can you explain this self-referential sticker, which seems to have no purpose? I'm sure there is another explanation, but I don't want to know what it is.
[via]
Enjoy Your Shit-Assed Little Bark Machine
Lisa Rein writes, "On November 12th, The Intercept published a story about one of its SecureDrop uploads: 70 million records of prisoner phone data. The hack exposed that at least 14,000 phone calls between prisoners and their attorneys had been improperly recorded, and neither the calls themselves or the millions of metadata records about the calls were being stored securely." (more…)
[Editor's note: science fiction novelist Spider Robinson forever influenced my liquor consumption habits with the rhapsodic praises for Bushmill's 1608 Irish whiskey that feature in so many of his books. I've bought rather a large number of bottles of the stuff. So when I got this email (with the subject "Unsolicited testimonial") from him in my inbox this morning, I did two things: ordered a bottle and asked if I could republish the email here here. Spider graciously permitted this. -Cory]
I’ve tried most high-end Irish whiskeys, and always kept coming back to Bushmills 1608. But I just switched loyalties.
I freely confess I was initially attracted by the name alone. I’d have bought my first bottle just to own the bottle, even if the contents had been undrinkable. But it’s not why I’m now already up to my sixth bottle—and at approximately CAN$65 per bottle! In my opinion, it tastes like what God drinks when He’s sitting at His typewriter. Whiskey—uisge baugh—means “water of Life.” This tastes to me a bit like the first tide pool that developed chemistry sophisticated enough to make its own alcohol. I just gave bottles to my siblings for Christmas, and I recommend the stuff unreservedly to you, my friends.
If your local Liquor Commission doesn’t stock it and is too stupid to order it for you, just Google up the online hootch-delivery service called Master Of Malt, and you’ll be drinking it less than a week later without paying shipping, plus they’ll happily sell you either 1 or 6 handsome tasting glasses for a reasonable extra sum. I’ve used MoM to ship the stuff to both NYC and rural Florida without incident; both received breakage-free delivery within 3 days.
It’s called Writer’s Tears.
Isn’t that glorious? And it tastes good enough to deserve that grand name.
It is made by what is called the pot still method. The pot still is worth googling up: it is the direct lineal descendant of the alchemist’s alembic, first source of ancient magic. The one pictured in Wikipedia (attached) looks startlingly like a stupendous bronze Hershey’s Kiss, the size of a hobbit house, with a little stem sticking out the top representing the smokestack. Or I suppose it could be a half-buried grenade whose pin has just been pulled. Or half of a giant’s brass bra. As I said: ancient magic. Battle, brass boobs, chocolate.
Oh, and while you’re at Master Of Malt’s website, look around and you’ll find the surprising and delightful answer to the age-old question, “Why do some people spell it ‘whisky’ and some spell it ‘whiskey’?” I loved the answer.
(Images: Spider Robinson, Stephan Schulz/JamesonStillCork)
The Cigar Connoisseur from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
Philip Bloom is a filmmaker who teaches 3-day documentary making workshops. He went to a cigar shop in New York and shot this short profile of one of the customers, who turned out to be interesting and charming. Bloom says, "As students took what they had learned on day one and made a mini documentary for themselves in NYC I also did the same thing. This is the end result, which we found and shot within two hours."
[via]
Category-wide sales on Amazon are few and far between, and this is one of the most wide-ranging discounts they’ve ever offered: Promo code HOLIDAY30 will take 30% off any physical book they sell, up to $10.
Drone delivery of packages is just on the horizon in Amazon’s eyes, and the company posted a YouTube advertisement with Jeremy Clarkson earlier today to prepare us all for the new Amazon Prime Air delivery service.
Melissa Rosenberg just helped redefine what we expect from superheroes on screen with the new Jessica Jones Netflix series. But let’s not forget her previous foray into superheroics: the 2002-2003 Birds of Prey TV show, which featured a ridiculously creepy Harley Quinn.
The Code Black is our top-selling drone of all time—and for good reason. This powerful, palm-size drone is not only insanely fun to fly, but can capture some serious video footage from up above. With a flight time of about 10 minutes and an ultra-smooth ride, it’s a great introductory drone for anyone looking to dominate the sky. This exclusive offer can’t be found anywhere else on the web, so be sure to snag this great price before it flies away!
Get it for only $63.99 for a limited time only in the Boing Boing store.
After watching this video, I realize I've never eaten a yam. According to the President of the Sweet Potato Council, yams in the United States are only found in "specialty stores." Yams have been a staple in some African countries for centuries, and when slaves were brought to the US, they referred to sweet potatoes as "yams." The name stuck.
Trump tells is like it is, if telling it like it is means using 1930s political tactics to instill fear, doubt and hatred in the voting public. Trump is engaging in dog whistle politics but he’s using a megaphone instead.
![goat-rfv[1]](http://amultiverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/goat-rfv1-450x187.png)
The post The End of Godwin’s Law appeared first on Scenes From A Multiverse.
BB pal Mitch Altman informs us that he's ceased manufacturing on his marvelous invention the TV-B-Gone, a keychain remote control that turns off any television with a push of the button. It's great fun in sports bars, airports, restaurants, and wherever else there's an idiot box that annoys you! Grab one now because when they're gone, you'll have to make your own (also great fun). Mitch writes:
In 2003 I quit my job to explore ways of making a living doing what I love doing. It was kind of scary, since I had no idea how I would make enough money after quitting my work. But I knew that I had to quit doing what was only OK, to make time to explore what I truly love. One thing I knew was that I wanted to design and make one TV-B-Gone remote control -- just for me. I wanted to be able to turn TVs off in public places!
It took me a year and a half to make the first TV-B-Gone remote control. And when I did, I went all over San Francisco turning TVs off everywhere I went -- and enjoying the hell out of it! And, of course my friends all wanted one. So, I made them for all of my friends. But, oddly, most of their friends wanted one. And when it turned out that many of the friends of my friends' friends also wanted one, I thought it would be interesting to make a bunch. So, I took a big gamble, and made 20,000 TV-B-Gone remote controls.
I thought it would take years to sell enough to make my money back. But, instead, this fantastic article in Wired.com on October 19th, 2004 made TV-B-Gone go viral on the first day of sales. And, I sold all 20,000 of the first batch of TV-B-Gone remote controls in 3 weeks! Thus, changing my life forever.
Since then I've traveled the world giving talks and workshops, encouraging everyone to explore and do what they may love.
But, for the first time since TV-B-Gone came out, sales slowed down enough so that I can no longer make a living from it. So, I will no longer be making any more. The batch in my warehouse is the last batch of TV-B-Gone universal remote controls that I'll manufacture.
It's been an amazing 11 years!
I don't know what is next for me. But I do know that I will continue to explore and do what I love. I'm excited to see what will transpire as a result of the choices I make in my life.
And, as always, I hope you will choose well with what you do with the time of your life.
TV-B-Gone (Amazon)
David Bowers, the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, recently praised the concentration camps that the US built during World War II to imprison Japanese American adults and children. And, according to Bowers' logic, that's why we can't allow Syrian refugees to be resettled in his town.
George Takei has something to say about it. From his Facebook post:
Earlier today, the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, Mr. David A. Bowers, in the attached letter, joined several state governors in ordering that Syrian refugees not receive any government assistance, or be relocated to their jurisdiction. Apart from the lack of legal authority to do so (under the Refugee Act of 1980, only the President has authority to accept or deny refugees), his resort to fear-based tactics, and his galling lack of compassion for people fleeing these same terrorists, Mayor Bowers made the following startling statement:
“I’m reminded that Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then.”
Mayor Bowers, there are a few key points of history you seem to have missed:
1) The internment (not a "sequester") was not of Japanese "foreign nationals," but of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. I was one of them, and my family and I spent 4 years in prison camps because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. It is my life’s mission to never let such a thing happen again in America.
2) There never was any proven incident of espionage or sabotage from the suspected “enemies” then, just as there has been no act of terrorism from any of the 1,854 Syrian refugees the U.S. already has accepted. We were judged based on who we looked like, and that is about as un-American as it gets.
3) If you are attempting to compare the actual threat of harm from the 120,000 of us who were interned then to the Syrian situation now, the simple answer is this: There was no threat. We loved America. We were decent, honest, hard-working folks. Tens of thousands of lives were ruined, over nothing.
Mayor Bowers, one of the reasons I am telling our story on Broadway eight times a week in Allegiance is because of people like you. You who hold a position of authority and power, but you demonstrably have failed to learn the most basic of American civics or history lessons. So Mayor Bowers, I am officially inviting you to come see our show, as my personal guest. Perhaps you, too, will come away with more compassion and understanding.
-- George Takei
