Dan Jones

The Hedonometer measures the average happiness of Twitter on a daily basis and the shooting in Las Vegas has pushed the index to a new low. The previous low point was after the terror attack in Orlando last July. The two other lowest scores have occurred in the past year and a half: the mass shooting of Dallas police officers and the election of Donald Trump, which is the only non-shooting or non-terror attack to achieve such a low score in the 9-year history of the index.

A band called The Academic cleverly took advantage of the slight broadcast delay in Facebook Live to construct a loop sampler out of video, so that at any given moment, each member of the band is performing with their past and future selves and bandmates.

We rearranged each instrument on “Bear Claws” to fit Facebook Live’s delay, with each loop getting more complex, adding instruments, rhythms, and melodies. Additionally, by projecting the video live from a soundstage we created an infinite tunnel consisting of all the previously recorded loops.

OK Go is probably kicking themselves for not thinking of this first. See also Piano/Video Phase, David Cossin’s performance of Steve Reich’s Piano Phase with himself. (via clive thompson)

Just a day before Google’s event, Walmart spills the beans and briefly puts up the page for the Google Home Mini. The listing shows off the device in all its glory and gives us a few more details.

The device, which will launch at a mere $49, is now confirmed to be 4.53 x 4.53 x 4.72 and under a pound, making it very compact. The power port is also visible in one of the photos, looking surprisingly like a microUSB port rather than the USB Type-C Google uses on every other device.

We also get a release date, which is October 19. It’ll be available two weeks after tomorrow’s event, so you can pre-order it once it launches tomorrow and get it pretty quick.

The last photo also shows off the Pixel 2 XL. Though this device is no mystery to us anymore, it’s nice to see that the bezels are indeed quite small despite the dual stereo speakers.

Will you be picking up a Google Home Mini at launch? Leave a comment!

Cathleen O’Grady writes about a possible result of Brexit that hadn’t occurred to me; after describing a guide called “Misused English words and expressions in EU publications” that details “many of the ways in which European English has gone a bit wibbly” from the point of view of UKanians, she says:

Following Brexit, the UK will no longer be able to call these kinds of shots. In a paper published in the journal World Englishes last week, linguist Marko Modiano speculates about what this is likely to mean for the future of English in Europe. He argues that the newfound neutrality of English is likely to help it survive Brexit – and that without the UK’s clout in Europe, European English will be free to do what language does best: change. […]

Modiano argues that Brexit will give English a surprise boost, by making it the neutral option. Without the UK’s 60 million native English speakers, the five million native speakers from Ireland and Malta will make up only 1% of the total EU population. This will leave almost everyone else who speaks English in Europe on an equal footing, all using their second language to communicate. Even after losing the UK’s native speakers, the 38% (and growing) who speak English as a second language will make it the most widely-spoken language in Europe: German sits at around 27%, including native and second-language speakers, and French at around 24%. […]

The major change, argues Modiano, is that the UK will no longer have a say in how English is used. There will be no chance to exert the kind of influence exhibited by Gardner’s document, pulling the continent’s use of English towards a British English standard. This will leave European English free to drift towards US or Commonwealth conventions, and to develop features of vocabulary and grammar that are perfectly well-understood by other Europeans speaking English as a second language – for example, entrenching the use of structures like “I am coming from Spain,” rather than “I come from Spain”.

There’s a precedent for this kind of language change: the varieties of English spoken around the world in the ex-colonies. Much as standard English has changed its own rules over time (“thou” fell out of vogue quite a while ago, while the grip of “shall” is weakening swiftly), Malaysian English, Indian English, and a multitude of other varieties have developed their own grammars and norms. These varieties aren’t the result of speakers learning British English incompletely—their learning of English is aimed at an entirely different target, and English is often one of their native languages.

I don’t imagine there will be drastic changes, but it’s still interesting to think about. Thanks, Trevor!

Texts From Superheroes

Facebook | Twitter | Patreon

Phoozy thermal capsules protect smartphones from physically destructive temperature swings, similar to how Silent Pocket privacy cases protect them from personally destructive cellular, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, RFID, and NFC signals. Phoozy blocks out heat and cold; Silent Pockets block out skimmers and trackers. Both aim to keep your phone safer from the demons that hunt it.

Now all you have to worry about is all the demons that hunt all the rest of your stuff. Alexa! Order me a Buffybot!

In Phoozy's case, becoming a thermal capsule for your smartphone required some help from the astronauts. Its composition is an adaptation of spacesuits, made from the same materials that protect NASA's finest from extreme extraterrestrial environments. A combination of insulating, reflective, and impact-resistant layers both shield the phones they cover from the sun, high heat, and temperatures as cold as -20 degrees F, and provide military-grade protection from drops and water encounters. In fact, Phoozy compares its Impactor Core Layer to a life jacket - if you drop your Phoozy-cased phone into the water it will become a phloaty.

Additional Phoozy layers include a Chromium Shell that reflects 90+% of solar radiation, and SpaceTech Penetration Layer for toughness and insulation, and a Soft Touch Protective Liner that covers phone screens to guard against nicks and scratches.

Phoozy thermal capsules are available for iPhone 5 and up, Google Pixel and Pixel XL, Samsung Galaxy S, S8, and S8+, and LG, Motorola, Kyocera, HTC, and Microsoft smartphones. Get your Phoozy for 14% off for a limited time.

Short version of my answer:

1. Martian Manhunter
2. Batman
3. Flash
4. Dr. Strange
5. Squirrel Girl

Follow the link for my full answer.

THEC64 Mini puts tech-nostalgia in the palm of your hand. Who was around when the Commodore 64 launched in 1982? Playing some Lode Runner after school with some Shark Bite fruit snacks and a Capri Sun? Ahhh, gone are the days... Like the Super NES Classic, THE C64 Mini will tug at the heart strings of gamers who miss their retro consoles with a perfect 50% scale replica of the highest-selling home computer of all time.

THEC64 Mini will come with a classic joystick and 64 built-in games, plus high-def output courtesy of 21st century HDMI. Plug it into any TV (well, maybe not this one) and fire up the Uridium, Paradroid, Hawkeye, Nebulus, or Monty Mole. Commodore Jr. will also have a pair of USB ports so you can plug in a keyboard, dust off your BASIC skills, and use it as a fully functional home computer. Or add a second joystick for 2-player games.

THEC64 Mini is scheduled for an early 2018 release. THEC64 hopes to have a full-size, fully functional Commodore 64 available in 2018 as well.

Amazon’s Echo Show stands out from other smart speaker devices thanks to its large touchscreen, but it may soon stand out a little less because according to a report from TechCrunch, Google is working on a similar device.

Reportedly codenamed “Manhattan,” sources say the Google device will have a screen that measures in at around seven inches, just like the Echo Show. The new smart speaker will have the standard Google package on board, including YouTube, Google Assistant, the ability to control smart home devices, and support for video calls.

What’s more, this new smart speaker will apparently be running Android on board, which will make it easier for developers to create new apps.

Interestingly, Google apparently originally planned to launch the new Google Home sometime in mid-2018, but apparently the Echo Show has caused some internal pressure to get Manhattan out before the end of 2017. The report indicates that while Google is aiming for a launch before the end of the year, it may still arrive in 2018 anyway. There’s no word on pricing just yet, but you can guess about the price of Google’s Echo Show competitor in the comments below.

Would you pick up a Google Home-style device with a touchscreen?

Last night, Beyonce posted a video of her remix of J Balvin & Willy William’s song Mi Gente and she’s donating the proceeds to hurricane & earthquake relief efforts in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean islands, and other affected areas.

As many have said on Twitter, nothing but respect for my President.

Amazon has decided it’s the perfect time to announce a new, smaller smart speaker that serves as a proper follow-up to the original Echo.

Amazon has officially unveiled its new Echo smart speaker, which takes the things the company did right in the first iteration and improves on just about every facet for the new model. It features a metal frame which is covered by a fabric shell. There are six shells in total, sold by Amazon, which allow owners to change up the device’s color.

One of the primary focuses for Amazon this time around is sound quality. The new Echo smart speaker supports Dolby Audio as well as second-generation far-field microphone technology, second-generation voice recognition, and support for multi-room audio, which means several Echo devices can be used together.

Amazon has priced the new Echo speaker at $99, and it’s available to pre-order beginning today. It’ll begin shipping October 31.

Are you planning on picking up the new Echo speaker?

Women Who Draw, a directory of female illustrators, organized 88 of their members from around the world to draw the sky on August 13, 2017 at noon Eastern Time.

What each artist saw was unique to the time, the weather, and the place. The locations ranged from Tel Aviv to Brooklyn, Buenos Aires to rural Georgia. Some saw different hues of blue. Some saw black, pink, or gray. Some saw stars or clouds or fog or rain. Here it was summer. There it was night.

I love projects like these…moments of time, collectively caught in the amber.