Binaryjesus

A pilot program starting next week is the first of its kind in North America and will give patrons access to the library when it's closed.

Queen Elizabeth II took part in the royal birthday festivities last weekend wearing a bright green suit that was perfect for chroma key, or green screen technology. And internet users were quick to take advantage of it. Bored Panda has 140 or so different renderings of the fun as people changed her outfit to other outfits, logos, pretty patterns, weather forecasts, memes, and more. -via reddit

Marco Arturo's brilliant 2-minute movie about the anti-vaccine movement starts with the 12-year-old promising to show all the evidence supporting the link between autism and vaccination, after which he holds up a succession of blank pages. (more…)

You’re invited to watch what is possibly the weirdest, most incomprehensible short film ever made (if you discount everything from Cyriak Harris). Sunspring was written by an artificial intelligence program. It’s only eight minutes long, but it will confuse you in every one of those minutes.

Ars is excited to be hosting this online debut of Sunspring, a short science fiction film that's not entirely what it seems. It's about three people living in a weird future, possibly on a space station, probably in a love triangle. You know it's the future because H (played with neurotic gravity by Silicon Valley's Thomas Middleditch) is wearing a shiny gold jacket, H2 (Elisabeth Gray) is playing with computers, and C (Humphrey Ker) announces that he has to "go to the skull" before sticking his face into a bunch of green lights. It sounds like your typical sci-fi B-movie, complete with an incoherent plot. Except Sunspring isn't the product of Hollywood hacks—it was written entirely by an AI. To be specific, it was authored by a recurrent neural network called long short-term memory, or LSTM for short. At least, that's what we'd call it. The AI named itself Benjamin.

They fed Benjamin a whole slew of well-received science fiction films and then gave it a couple of prompts to build a screenplay around. The filmmakers tried their best to render it as written. If you’ve ever worried about artificial intelligence taking over the world, this will assure you that we’ve got a long way to go yet. See the whole thing at Ars Technica.

Ashley Cervantes, a US citizen who was 18 at the time, was stopped at the Mexico border and accused by Customs and Border Protection of smuggling drugs. A search proved fruitless so they gave her a body cavity search. US Customs and Border Protection still couldn't find the drugs they were looking for so they took her to a hospital for an X-ray. No drugs.

(more…)

No parent is ready to learn that their daughter is trending... #hotdogprincess Best part is it was all her idea! pic.twitter.com/YBmUkRoj4y

— Brandon E Turner (@turnerbrandon) June 2, 2016

It was Princess Week at the dance school, and all the little girls came dressed up as their favorite princess -mainly Disney Princesses. But Ainsley put on a hot dog costume because she is the Hot Dog Princess from Adventure Time! Of course, that went right over most people’s heads, but they admired Ainsley for her unique fashion sense. Oh yeah, she was wearing a princess dress under the hot dog costume, and said she was a princess on the inside. Now Ainsley is a viral sensation!

Always be yourself.pic.twitter.com/NVCr6CMwmI

— Holly Springs Dance (@marilynhssod) June 4, 2016

She was even asked to open the show at the school’s spring recital. See more pictures of Ainsley at Buzzfeed.

Many controversial characters have achieved sainthood throughout history, and even saints like Paul the Apostle, Francis of Assisi and Teresa of Avila have skeletons in their closet.

So perhaps in some far off future age, when there's nothing left of the entertainers of today but the strong impression they made on pop culture, the stars will achieve sainthood.

If those idols and sinners ever get called up to the big leagues and become saints the stained glass windows created in their honor will probably look a lot like the amazing works of Neal Fox.

Neal wanted to pay homage to the gods of the underground such as Johnny Cash, J.G. Ballard, Hunter S. Thompson, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Serge Gainsbourg in a hip yet traditional manner.

So he built his stained glass panels the old fashioned way- using leaded stained glass in a steel frame, with each window measuring about 8 feet tall.

From the Daniel Blau exhibition notes:

As traditional church windows show the iconography of saints, through representations of events in their lives, instruments of martyrdom and iconic motifs, Fox plays with the symbolism of each character’s cult of personality; Albert Hoffman takes a psychedelic bicycle ride above the LSD molecule, J G Ballard dissects the world, surrounded by 20th Century imagery and the eroticism of the car crash, and Johnny Cash holds his inner demon in chains after a religious experience in Nickerjack cave.

-Via Dangerous Minds

There are at least two articles posted online about how similar Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe look, and how this is either proof they were separated at birth or that they're part of a clone conspiracy.

Daniel has remarked "Me and Elijah Wood just need to do a film together where we play brothers" to distract from the cloning angle and make it all look like it's just a coincidence.

But when you see their portraits side-by-side and then look at a GIF showing the subtle differences between Elijah and Daniel the clone stuff somehow seems more plausible.

(Image Link)

Does this GIF prove they're part of a clone conspiracy? Nah, all it really proves is that Hollywood likes to cast facial "types", and both of these megastars fit the mold.

-Via BuzzFeed

The Senate has approved a defense budget that would also require women to register for the draft. The new rules would apply to any woman who turns 18 on or after January 1, 2018. The key opponents to drafting women were conservative Republicans, including your old friend, botched Madam Tussauds exhibit Ted Cruz.

Read more...

(more…)

moonipulations:

The Moon And The Castle - Photography by Mauro Maione Full moon viewed from the Town Hall building in Siena, Italy.

Although Minneapolis man Hooman Nikizad arrived at the airport two hours early, as recommended, his hour-and-a-half wait in the security line made him miss his flight. He then had to buy a second ticket on another airline in order to get to his destination on time. Now he's suing the TSA for $506.85 to cover the cost.

"I had to buy a ticket with another airline to be able to make my destination and meet my obligations," Nikizad said in his claim, which noted the TSA had limited staff on duty at the time and "only one body scanner for the regular security line [in operation]"...The money being sought, he said, is to reimburse him for a replacement ticket, additional ground transportation expenses and the $75 court fee to file his claim.

No comment from the TSA. For more, read the full story at the Star Tribune.

I’m sending love, support, and yes, cash to the city next door, where I’ve honeymooned, Disneyed, taken my sweetie for her birthday, geeked out, and done fun stuff in the place that’s all about doing fun stuff.

I’ll close with the best musical tribute to Orlando that I’m aware of: the song Two by Two from the musical The Book of Mormon:

Music video: Goldfrapp performing 'Strict Machine.'

Trips me out to realize this song is 13 years old. It never aged, for me, and I'm enjoying it again today. Here's a Vimeo link if you prefer.

I'm dressed in white noise
U know just what I want so please
Wonderful electric, wonderful electric
Wonderful electric, cover me in u

Tony Zentil, a mechanical engineer, has a fully funded Kickstarter for a variety of multitool belt-buckles aimed at skateboarders, snowboarders, and motorcyclists -- they're a significant advance on my old, beloved 686 belt-buckle stolen by the security staff of London Gatwick airport in 2011. (more…)

If you're into craft beers, then you know there are a lot of seriously weird beers out there. The thing is, some of those brews are actually amazing, while others are just plain nasty. Bon Appetit recently went ahead and taste tested some of the most bizarre brews on the market -from the one made with yeast out of the brewer's beard to the one made with a sheep dung-smoked whale testicle. They give you a good idea of which of these beers are actually good and which are just gimmicks -though each of these companies almost certainly has die-hard fans who will defend their brand until they die, so don't be surprised if you hear someone disagree entirely.

If you’re a believer in video-as-therapy and you possess a Netflix account or the log-in of a very distant relation, Bob Ross is now there waiting for you. The streaming service just added his Beauty is Everywhere series—though he’s best known for the PBS series The Joy of Painting—wherein viewers are soothed by his steady fro, easy brushstrokes, and speaking voice so hushed it sounds conspiratorial. (It’s a really benevolent and gentle eco-conspiracy, like sneaking into private property to plant herbs and wildflowers under the cover of night.)

Read more...

Mitsubishi may have needed to cut some corners recently, but one odd decision the nice folks of the diamond-star made has left a huge security hole. The 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid’s mobile app talks to the car over regular WiFi, and security researchers found that to be a big problem.

Read more...

The Trumpocalypse is real and it is coming. Only the TPA stands between us and the coming of The Orange.

"One Got Fat" is a surreal bicycle safety film from 1963 where the gang of freewheeling bicycling kids in monkey masks suffer brutal fates, one by one. (Thanks, UPSO!)

Two Canadian families are suing Atlanta sperm bank Xytex for selling them sperm advertised as coming from a healthy PhD candidate in neuroscience engineering with an IQ of 160. In actuality, Donor #9623 was diagnosed in 2000 with "schizophrenia, narcissistic personality disorder, a drug-induced psychotic disorder, and significant grandiose delusions." MSN:

While he was a donor, Donor #9623 was hospitalized for mental health reasons and arrested several times, according to court documents.

In addition, he had no degrees, was a convicted felon and had been arrested for burglary, trespassing, driving under the influence and disorderly conduct.

The donor is believed to have fathered 36 children.

On the Career Questions forum on Reddit, user FiletOfFish1066 said he was hired seven years ago by an "incredibly well known" tech company in the Bay Area as a software developer. He wrote, "After around 8 months I had basically automated my own job by writing some programs to do it all for me. After that I would mostly just browse forums and do absolutely jack shit at work. My boss never really checked in on me and as long as the needed tests were taken care of he didn't give a fuck."

From around 6 years ago up until now, I have done nothing at work. I am not joking. For 40 hours each week I go to work, play League of Legends in my office, browse reddit, and do whatever I feel like. In the past 6 years I have maybe done 50 hours of real work. So basically nothing. And nobody really cared. The tests were all running successfully. I shit you not, I had no friends or anything at work either, so nobody ever talked to me except my boss and occasionally the devs for the software I was testing.

Yesterday my boss fired me. I guess IT found out after 6 years or so what I was doing and reported it to my boss. I explained I had automated my own job, but was still updating the automation tool, which was a lie. Anyway, I was fired.

He says that during those six years of goofing off, he forgot how to code, and now he doesn't know what to do next. But 376 other Reddit users have advice for him, which you can read here.

Bicycle playing cards are probably the most common playing cards, at least here in the United States. I prefer to do magic tricks using Bicycle cards, because they don't make people suspicious like a deck with an unfamiliar back might.

In my book, Trick Decks, I show how to mark your own Bicycle deck with a Sharpie, but to use it, you have to memorize the code.

If you are lazy and want an easy-to-read deck, get the Ultimate Marked Deck, available with red or blue Bicycle backs. The cards look and feel exactly like a regular bicycle deck, but you can instantly read the suit and value of any card with a quick glance at its back.

Historically, the company that makes Bicycle cards has not made marked Bicycle decks, so this is kind of a big deal in the magic world. At $30, it's pricey, but you can do some amazing tricks with a marked deck.

Wolfgang Saus demonstrates polyphonic overtone singing, aka throat singing, aka singing two melodies at the same time.

(more…)

View

This interview with UBS whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld is as neat a case study in financial corruption as you could ask for: Birkenfeld's disclosures detailed 19,000 US tax evaders, including the bank's super-secretive list of "politically exposed persons," including people who laundered money for terrorists, and the US government threw him in prison (as well as paying him the largest reward in US history), declined to prosecute three quarters of those implicated, and then put him in prison. (more…)

TV shows like to teach us about responsibility, and adult TV shows like The Daily Show teach us about adult stuff like drinking responsibly during Spring Break.

Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell are both responsible fellows, so they were selected as the spokesmen for moderation in this 2001 clip from The Daily Show.

(YouTube Link)

Colbert and Carell are both saucy fellows even when they're not hitting the sauce, but after about eight cocktails it was hard for Carell to contain his sauciness, let alone serve as the spokesman for responsible drinking. He looks like he'd be a really fun drinking buddy though!

-Via Laughing Squid

Nyree Holmes is a senior at Cosumnes Oaks High School in Sacramento County. When Mr. Holmes tried to express his African heritage by wearing a kente cloth (a cultural cloth from Ghana) to his graduation ceremony, school officials insisted he remove it.

When he refused, school officials called sheriff's deputies to kick the high school senior out of his graduation ceremony.

Police Escort Black Merit Scholar Out of Graduation After Refusing to Remove Kente Cloth

Pleased to present for your consideration, this quote from the creator of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling: "The most unfettered imagination belongs to young people, and they don’t walk through life; they fly.” (Blank on Blank)

If you’re ready to take the plunge into LED lighting, this 6-pack of higly-rated TCP daylight bulbs is down to just $18 on Amazon right now, one of the best per-bulb prices we’ve ever seen. They aren’t dimmable, so you won’t want to put them in certain fixtures, but it’s a great bulk pack for filling out ceiling lights and lamps throughout your house.

Read more...