Christopher.kantos

In Avignon, France, Trillade Primary School has strongly advised parents to stop throwing their tardy children over the building's 1.8 meter gate. The school requests that you return at one of the two other times during the day when the gate reopens. — Read the rest

This looks like a bizarre parody ad, but it's real. It was originally scheduled to run during last week's Saturday Night Live, but ultimately did not. Arby's produced a pillow that fits over your head and resembles a deep-fried turkey. — Read the rest

The winning photographs in the 2020 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest have been announced by the Natural History Museum in London. Photos above by Shanyuan Li, Weiwei Zeng, and Greg du Toit. (via in focus)

A burrito's foil and paper wrapper is a joke. It tears easily and the burrito's filling spills out. The Burrito Pop solves this problem. Think of it like a giant Chapstick tube but instead of containing lip balm, it contains a burrito.… Read the rest

In the 1960s, the Great Apes house at the Bronx Zoo featured an exhibit titled “The Most Dangerous Animal in the World.”

The enclosure contained a mirror.

Run away!

Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death this morning in the first federal execution in 17 years.

Lee was pronounced dead by the coroner at 8:07 a.m. ET in Terre Haute, Indiana. His last words were "I didn't do it. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life but I'm not a murderer. You're killing an innocent man," according to a pool report. The Supreme Court cleared the way for the resumption of the federal death penalty in an unsigned order released after 2 a.m. ET Tuesday. The court wiped away a lower court order temporarily blocking the execution of Lee in a 5-4 vote. Lee, a one-time white supremacist who killed a family of three, was scheduled to be executed Monday. A federal judge blocked the planned execution of Lee, and three others, citing ongoing challenges to the federal government's lethal injection protocol.

Screengrab: ABC News

My blog is turning 15 today. Maintaining this little corner on the internet has been one of the most rewarding projects ever. I wish more people would go back to owning their content, maintaining their own, well curated corner of the internet. Some of the folks that are doing that and I consistently go back to are:

Jason Kottke

Chris Glass

Christopher Jobson

Jonnie Waldman

Bailey

Kevin Kelly

Frank Chimero

Seth Godin

Maria Popova

What personal blogs do you go back to regularly?

Let’s bring blogrolls back!

Happy my 15th blog-iversary to you! Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.

For his new book, Humankind: A Hopeful History, Rutger Bregman uncovered the real-life story of 6 schoolboys who were stranded on a Pacific island for 15 months in 1965-66. What he learned was not the familiar tale of savagery & death told in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. Instead, the boys cooperated and thrived.

But “by the time we arrived,” Captain Warner wrote in his memoirs, “the boys had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination.” While the boys in Lord of the Flies come to blows over the fire, those in this real-life version tended their flame so it never went out, for more than a year.

On Twitter, Bregman shared how he came to learn about this story:

As a proper investigative journalist, I started Googling. Search terms: ‘Kids shipwrecked’. ‘Real-life Lord of the Flies’ etc. After a while, I came across a blog that told this story.

Wow, I thought. If this really happened, then why isn’t it a super famous story? The article did not provide sources. After a couple of hours, I discovered that it came from a book by the anarchist Colin Ward from 1988. He cited an Italian politician Susanna Agnelli.

From a second-hand bookshop in the UK, I ordered her 1986 book, got it two weeks later, and found the story on page 94. But again: same details, same wording, no source. At that point I started to think that it probably didn’t happen.

Here’s a photo of the six boys with Peter Warner, the sea captain who rescued them:

After the rescue, Warner hired the boys as crew members and they worked with him for years. you can read more about Bregman and his new book in this related article.

Update: You may have noticed that Bregman’s piece is told from the perspective of the discoverer of a good story and the sea captain who rescued the boys, and there’s actually relatively little from the boys themselves. Tongan writer Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi wrote a pair of threads on Twitter about how problematic it is that a story about six indigenous schoolboys became one about two white men. First of all, the story was not unknown or forgotten:

I’ve been told many stories about (both) my people getting lost by sea and being stuck on either a boat or Island. But I remember this one significantly because the boys were stuck on ‘Ata. I remember it being called the rock Island.

The local culture that the boys grew up in is essential to the story, particularly w/r/t the lesson Bregman wants to assign to it:

Tongans are taught to share from the beginning. You’re also taught to treat everyone like family. You’re taught to survive together not “Everyman to himself”. It’s hard to exist without community. So when one person is ill or hurt, it’s an automatic reaction to help

To heal and to use knowledge passed down to you. This is seen in every aspect of how the boys survived. They created a community, a small family and worked together.

The white boys of LotF cannot relate because of the very fact they are rich white school boys who aren’t from an Island nation.

LotF isn’t what would happen amongst Tongans because of the value system we have. This is true for every Island nation.

Filmmaker Taika Waititi had this to say about a possible film adaptation:

Personally, I think you should prioritize Polynesian (Tongan if possible!) filmmakers as to avoid cultural appropriation, misrepresentation, and to keep the Pasifika voice authentic.

(via @tinakittelty)

Posted on askreddit: "What's a really awkward situation that everyone can relate with?"

A small sampling:

• Sex scene when watching a movie with your parents
• Sitting there when everyone’s singing happy birthday to you
• Saying hi to someone you know and they don’t notice you, or thinking someone was waving at you but it was for someone behind you.
• That awkward moment when you and a stranger are walking opposite directions and you both go the same side multiple times to pass each other lol.
• Going in the wrong direction so you take out your phone and pretend something changed so you can turn around and walk in the right direction.
• saying goodbye to someone only to keep walking in the same direction.
• When you need to talk to someone and they’re in the middle of conversation already. Even worse if they’re with laughing or deeply engaged with the other person
• Sending a text to the wrong person talking bad about the person you sent it to

The film explores Bowie's transformation into his Ziggy Stardust altar ego

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A Boston-area police department issued a request to locals to remember to wear pants when picking up their mail, but the posting appears to have someone in particular in mind.

"You know who you are," Taneytown police wrote on Facebook. "This is your last warning."

Radio Garden is an incredibly delightful website: It presents you with a spinnable globe of the Earth, with each green dot representing a radio station. Rotate the globe, click a dot and you are suddenly listening to live radio in that part of the world. I am currently listening to a station in WeeWaa, Australia. I love the internet!

(via Recommendo)

In a live broadcast Sunday, Queen Elizabeth II spoke about the coronavirus situation. It was a serious and reassuring speech. But, she wore a green dress, a green-screen-green dress. The internet, starting with Peter Chiykowski, took it from there.

One commenter quipped that the dress was the Queen's "'Easter egg' to provide entertainment to the quarantined masses." Unlikely, but fun to think about.

THIS ONE:

green-screen-screengrab via Peter Chiykowski/Twitter

This footage was captured from a demo tape used by home entertainment dealers showing off the high quality of the new D-Theater (D-VHS) digital video recording. Enabling the recording and display of HD content, D-Theater/D-VHS was the VHS videocassette format's last gasp. From Youtube Pedant:

In 2002 D-Theater launched in the US - the dealers needed a demo tape of HD footage. JVC reused some HD video that had been shot as a demo for the Japanese HD market back in 1993. This footage would have most likely been originally used for a HiVision MUSE demo (an HD Broadcast, Tape & Laserdisc format).

You can determine that the year is 1993 by the adverts in Times Square - The Radio 501 CD that's advertised on a billboard came out in 1993 and Paper Moon is playing at the Marquis Theater.

(Thanks, UPSO!)

The Syfy Network is making all fours seasons of Battlestar Galactica available for streaming online. No registration is required.

The network has also made the two BG films, Battlestar Galactica: Razor and Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, available for streaming. But wait! There's more! The Battlestar Galactica mini-series (which I've never seen) is also now available for free streaming.

This is welcome news for all of us who are fans of the critically-acclaimed 2004 reboot of the original 1979 Glen A. Larson series.

Image: Publicity photo

This is a java sparrow that's learned to ride a tiny skateboard.

Image: YouTube

Disney+, the streaming service from the Walt Disney Company, has been rapidly ramping up in the last several weeks. But while some of that expansion has seen some hiccups, other regions are basically on track. Today, as expected, Disney announced that it is officially launching across 7 markets in Europe — but doing so using reduced bandwidth given the strain on broadband networks as more people are staying home because of the coronavirus pandemic. From today, it will be live in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland; and Disney also reconfirmed the delayed debut in France will be coming online on April 7.

Seven is the operative number here, it seems: it’s the largest multi-country launch so far for the service.

“Launching in seven markets simultaneously marks a new milestone for Disney+,“ said Kevin Mayer, Chairman of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, in a statement. “As the streaming home for Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and National Geographic, Disney+ delivers high-quality, optimistic storytelling that fans expect from our brands, now available broadly, conveniently, and permanently on Disney+. We humbly hope that this service can bring some much-needed moments of respite for families during these difficult times.”

Pricing is £5.99/€6.99 per month, or £59.99/€69.99 for an annual subscription. Belgium, the Nordics, and Portugal, will follow in summer 2020.

The service being rolled out will feature 26 Disney+ Originals plus an “extensive collection” of titles (some 500 films, 26 exclusive original movies and series and thousands of TV episodes to start with) from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and other content producers owned by the entertainment giant, in what has been one of the boldest moves yet from a content company to go head-to-head with OTT streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Apple.

Caught in the crossfire of Covid-19

The expansion of Disney+ has been caught in the crossfire of world events.

The new service is launching at what has become an unprecedented time for streaming media. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of of the world is being told to stay home, and many people are turning to their televisions and other screens for diversion and information.

That means huge demand for new services to entertain or distract people who are now sheltering in place. And that has put a huge strain on broadband networks. So, to be a responsible streamer (and to make sure quality is not too impacted), Disney confirmed (as it previously said it would) that it would be launching the service with “lower overall bandwidth utilization by at least 25%.”

There are now dozens of places to get an online video fix, but Disney has a lot of valuable cards in its hand, specifically in the form of a gigantic catalog of famous, premium content, and the facilities to produce significantly more at scale, dwarfing the efforts (valiant or great as they are) from the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Apple .

Titles in the mix debuting today include “The Mandalorian” live-action Star Wars series; a live-action “Lady and the Tramp,” “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,”; “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” docuseries from National Geographic; “Marvel’s Hero Project,” which celebrates extraordinary kids making a difference in their communities; “Encore!,” executive produced by the multi-talented Kristen Bell; “The Imagineering Story” a 6-part documentary from Emmy and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks and animated short film collections “SparkShorts” and “Forky Asks A Question” from Pixar Animation Studios.

Some 600 episodes of “The Simpsons” is also included (with the latest season 31 coming later this year).

With entire households now being told to stay together and stay inside, we’re seeing a huge amount of pressure being put on to broadband networks and a true test of the multiscreen approach that streaming services have been building over the years.

In this case, you can use all the usuals: mobile phones, streaming media players, smart TVs and gaming consoles to watch the Disney+ service (including Amazon devices, Apple devices, Google devices, LG Smart TVs with webOS, Microsoft’s Xbox Ones, Roku, Samsung Smart TVs and Sony / Sony Interactive Entertainment, with the ability to use four concurrent streams per subscription, or up to 10 devices with unlimited downloads. As you would expect, there is also the ability to set up parental controls and individual profiles.

Carriers with paid-TV services that are also on board so far include Deutsche Telekom, O2 in the UK, Telefonica in Spain, TIM in Italy and Canal+ in France when the country comes online. No BT in the UK, which is too bad for me (sniff). Sky and NOW TV are also on board.

A Vancouver, Washington woman dutifully washed her hands frequently for several days before realizing it wasn't a chunk of soap by her sink. Rather, it was piece of Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese. From the Irish Post:

Sharing her sorry tale on Reddit, Miley explained how the cheese ended up being mistaken for a bit of soap after it was left out of the fridge following a drunken late night snack...

“It was a couple days of 'Why isn’t this foaming?!'

No word on how the soap tasted on a cracker.

Related: "I replaced my friend's fancy soap with a block of fancy cheese"