How Chase froze $180k and left a tech consultant scrambling
Mark Frauenfelder / 11:26 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Image by Tallmaple / shutterstock.com
A machine learning engineer and consultant named Jason Liu wrote about how Chase bank froze $180,000 of his money with no warning. He couldn't make payroll, and Chase refused to tell him why it froze the funds. After Liu pushed, Chase said it was going to close his account and mail a cashier's check, which turned out to be a lie. He eventually rented an Airbnb next to a Çhase branch so he could meet with them every day to try to resolve the problem.
From his post:
Chase's demands were absurd: Each branch asked for different paperwork—often the same documents I'd already submitted in San Francisco. The demands kept escalating: they wanted the name, address, and phone number of every single person who had sent me money, including Buy Me a Coffee supporters and GitHub sponsors. The story kept changing every time we communicated. Luckily, I had an EA [executive assistant] who could help me do this. Otherwise, I would have been underwater given the various workshops, speaking engagements, client work, and research I had due in the upcoming months.
Liu said it took "months of back-and-forth" to get his money. This is the kind of experience that makes Bitcoin seem like a good idea because no one can stop you from sending bitcoin from one wallet address to another.
Previously:
• Artist specialized in paintings of Chase bank on fire
• Chase credit cards quietly reintroduce the binding arbitration clauses they were forced to eliminate a decade ago
• JP Morgan-Chase paid its billions in fines for mortgage fraud by committing billions in mortgage fraud
• Chase's idiotic poverty-shaming 'inspirational' tweet, and Twitter users' magnificent responses thereto
• A young Black doctor sues Chase Bank after she tried to deposit her first check and was treated like a criminal
• Bank JPMorgan settles with Jeffrey Epstein victims
• Chase freezes man's bank account because his dog's name, 'Dash,' looked like 'Daesh'
• Four years later, we learn why Jamie Dimon's JP Morgan Chase settled US fraud allegations for $13B
A handsome and rare deep sea creature washed up onto the shores of La Jolla this August
Popkin / 10:44 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Oarfish (Pavaphon Supanantananont/shutterstock.com)
When a handsome, gigantic oarfish washed up in La Jolla Cove this August, it seemed as if a mythological sea serpent had drifted to shore. Since 1901, this is only the 20th report of an oarfish having washed up on the California coast.
This charming fish was discovered by kayakers and snorkelers, who decided to lay the deceased, deep-sea fish out on a surfboard and bring it to land. How lucky these snorkelers were. To be graced by the presence of a gigantic, unfamiliar deep sea critter while swimming is simply a dream of mine yet to come true.
Oarfish can reach up to 30 feet in length, and are known as "the doomsday fish" by some, due to lore that says these creatures are an indication of an oncoming natural disaster. A scientist in the video explains that this is because the fish often wash up on shore after a tsunami, which some people view through a mythological lens.
Typically, oarfish stay 600 to 3,000 feet below the surface (darn!). Researchers don't know much about oarfish since their deepwater habitat makes them difficult to study. What exactly brought the oarfish in the video to SoCal is still a mystery to be solved. That oarfish will be studied and kept at Scripps, where it will become part of one of the world's biggest collections of deep sea creatures.
See also: Fish falls from sky, smashes Tesla windshield (video)
Trump gets curious about cocaine and comedian Theo Von hilariously enlightens him (video)
Allan Rose Hill / 10:30 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com
Comedian Theo Von interviewed Donald Trump this week and, among other things, the two discussed cocaine. The conversation is somehow more absurd than you'd expect. Watch below.
Vonn explains that as much as he enjoyed the effects of cocaine, he stopped using it and sticks to alcohol now.
Trump: "Is cocaine a stronger up?"
Von: "…Cocaine will turn you into a damn owl, homie. You know what I'm saying? You'll be out on your own porch. You'll be your own street lamp."
And here is the full podcast interview:
(Thanks, Chanté McCormick!)
Comedian Gary Gulman's memoir "Misfit" is a masterpiece
Ruben Bolling / 10:12 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Misfit, by Gary Gulman. Flatiron Books
I'm a big fan of Gary Gulman's stand-up comedy. So when he released a book late last year, Misfit: Growing Up Awkward in the '80s, I thought it would be an enjoyable but typical comedian memoir. It distills and expands his comedy routines into prose form.
But it's so much more. In his revelatory HBO comedy special, "The Great Depresh," he describes his psychological breakdown in 2017 in which he became so acutely depressed he could not perform anymore. He had to leave his then-girlfriend (now wife) in New York City and move back in with his mother in his childhood home in Peabody, Massachusetts. (Yes, somehow, that special is hilariously funny.)
This event is used as a framing device in Misfit, with the narrative bouncing back and forth between his time convalescing in his childhood bedroom, which he regards as an abject humiliation and the story of his school years from Kindergarten through 12th Grade.
Gulman's stand-up soars on its strong wordplay, but I'm not talking about puns. I'm talking about doing a bit and ending it with a punctuated word that is so surprising and perfect that it makes you laugh. But I had no idea that his ability to use words, freed from the strictures of stand-up, goes far beyond that. Misfit is funny, but not necessarily because the stories are amusing, but instead because Gulman's perfect word choices and sentence structures are hilarious.
I found the book to be funniest when he applied this sophisticated writing to his feelings in early childhood. His hyper-articulate descriptions give flight to his outrage at perceived (and very real) juvenile injustices.
But beyond being laugh-out-loud funny, this is a very moving story of how his extreme sensitivity and eccentricities as a child blossomed into the full-blown mental health crisis that sent him back into his childhood room as a 46-year-old.
But maybe it was this sensitivity that allowed him to remember (or invent, which would be more impressive) the details of his childhood so vividly—his meticulous descriptions of emotions, events, wardrobes, and even smells give his anecdotes rich authenticity.
It's hard to believe that a kid who is (a) future-comedian-level funny and (b) a strong enough athlete to start on his high school basketball team and be such a stand-out on his high school football team that he ends up with a scholarship to Boston College, could be a miserable "misfit." How can you lose with a sure-fire winning hand like that?
But spending 283 pages inside Gulman's head as a child and adolescent, you understand that his delicate psyche and pessimistic outlook usually kept him from feeling like he belonged, at ease, or happy. His style of humor was totally different from that of his classmates. He briefly revels in his athletic successes but languishes in his failures, and his sensitivity, at times perceived as feminine, comes off as "odd" to his peers.
I'm so glad that Gulman emerged from his depression episode so powerfully and with such a renewed creative and comic vigor that he could create this eloquent, insightful, and deeply funny book.
The paperback version of Misfit will be released September 10 by Flatiron Books.
Desperate Donald claims he'll be "great for women's reproductive rights"
Mark Frauenfelder / 10:00 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Boing Boing/Midjourney
Trump's Project 2025 spells out his Handmaid's Tale future: halting sales of the abortion pill, reviving the Comstock Act to ban abortion equipment from being sent through the U.S. Postal Service.
In March, NPR reported that Trump would "support a national ban on abortions around 15 weeks of pregnancy."
This kind of talk plays well with deeply religious folk who feel they have a God-given right to force their beliefs down every else's throat, but it's poison to the 63% who think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Donald's poll numbers aren't looking so good lately, and he's probably scared of going to prison if he loses. So in desperation, he just announced on Truth Social that "My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights."
That's like saying, "Hannibal Lecter is the ideal candidate to head your organ donation center."
Families go broke for Disneyland: Are magical memories worth the financial misery?
Yoy Luadha / 10:00 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Photo: Mark Frauenfelder
The cost of living is obviously spiraling up. Food, gas, insurance. The essentials. But it's the price of things above and beyond the daily — things we might call "fun" or "experiential" — that has become untenable, making it difficult for average people to afford. Here's the depressing headline from a piece in the NY Times:
"Families Are Going Into Debt for Disney Vacations"
I get it — we want the best for our kids. And we have FOMO. And YOLO. But IMHO this is just crazy:
…when their son, Lincoln, was born in 2020, Ms. Leach wanted his first visit to the park to be special and spared no expense in planning it. She booked a two-week trip to visit Florida in December 2022, which included stays at Disney World and Universal Studios.
The kid was only two years old? What kind of memories does a two-year-old make? This is not computing for me.
The costs quickly accumulated. Ms. Leach and her family traveled from New Haven, Conn., and paid extra for admission to "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party," an after-hours event that cost about $200 per person. She also shelled out $100 for the theme park's photo service so she could download photos of the family that photographers took during the visit.
The vacation cost around $6,000, which included accommodations, tickets and a car rental, and which Ms. Leach charged to her Disney-branded credit card.
Ms. Leach is one of many parents who have taken on debt for a Disney family vacation. In June, LendingTree… published the results of a survey of over 2,000 people that found that 45 percent of parents with children under 18 who have gone to Disney went into debt for the trip.
I'm a huge believer that it's far better to use our resources for life experiences over buying crap. But 45% are going into debt just to pay for a visit to Disney? Our post-capitalist moment has caused people to have to make crazy, untenable choices.
It's everywhere — hotels, airfare, restaurants, Broadway. Great seats at a hot concert used to be at most a few hundred dollars. I saw Lou Reed at The Bottom Line a bazillion years ago, and the whole night was memorably special. But those tickets cost me, a student, just $22 for standing-room. StubHub lists a floor seat for the Taylor Swift concert in Vancouver at $5,000! One seat! Obviously, I understand this money isn't going to TS, but that's irrelevant to the person buying the ticket. It's still $5k! Who can afford this stuff?
I guess I'm really just asking: is any of this worth it? Is the memory of a journey through Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and a hug from Belle quantifiably that many times better than an unbranded memory like canoeing on a lake somewhere?
Are we all just being sold a bill of goods by advertisers and social media? Can we "make memories" at a cabin in the woods or is Disney worth the extra cost?
Previously:
• Opening day Disneyland compared to today
• Disneyland's bizarre House of the Future, of the past
• Disneyland's un-gangs
• My father rates Disneyland's most hyped cookie: The Harbor Galley Chocolate Chip
• I went to Tokyo Disneyland Cosplay Day and it was spectacular
• Woman dies from allergic reaction at Disneyland, but Disney says husband can't sue because he used Disney+ three years earlier
Freaked-out Eric Bolling rants — and rants — over Kamala Harris surge: "We're losing the race!" (video)
Carla Sinclair / 9:40 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Image: Eric Bolling; The Old Major / shutterstock.com
Conservative reporter Eric Bolling freaked out today over the surging success of Kamala Harris, telling viewers that the GOP is doomed.
"We're losing. We're losing the race! We're losing the presidency," the former Fox and Newsmax host cried in video that's circulating on social media. (See below, posted by Ron Filipkowski.)
"And I said it along time ago!" he ranted, with raised voice and pointed finger. "Trump will be the last GOP president in our lifetime, and I meant it!"
Bolling, fired from Fox News after he was accused of sending pics of gentleman bits to his female co-workers, then whipped out his phone to show graphs comparing the dull viewerships of Newsmax and Fox to MSNBC's surging popularity. "MSNBC is beating Fox News — beating Fox! — it's unheard of."
"The enthusiasm level on the left is overwhelming..They're trying to redefine the Democrat Party! They're trying to say that the Democrats are the patriots! They're wearing camo hats with Kamala Harris' name on it! Camoflauge — that's ours!" he wailed, in full panic mode.
Perhaps the MAGA minion is unaware that while his leader, ol' Bone Spurs, was ducking out of service, Coach Tim Walz served in the National Guard for 24 years and Vice President Kamala Harris has spent her entire career in public service. Sorry to break it to you, Sir, but that's what true patriotism is.
Previously: Fox News reports "Harris Topping Trump"
The 11'8"+8" bridge wins again
Jason Weisberger / 9:22 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Image: YouTube
After hitting the bridge, a trucker almost backs into an ambulance. Laissez les bons temps rouler!
This trucker does not read the clearance warning or check his mirrors before backing up. I wonder how much the bridge has been credited for in total insurance claims. I also wonder if the massively expensive work that'd need to be done to lower the road could be paid for by insurance companies just wanting this to end.
Previously:
• Sad news: truck-eating bridge to be raised this week
• Another victim claimed by 11foot8 + 8 bridge
• Watch how the 11foot8 bridge is being raised by 8 inches
• Just another awesome video about the 11' 8' bridge that peels the tops off trucks
• The 11'8'+8' bridge renovates a camper trailer
Family refuses late French actor's request to kill dog
Ruben Bolling / 9:13 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Alain Delon in 2019. Photo credit: taniavolobueva / Shutterstock.com
French actor Alain Delon requested that when he died, his Belgian Shepherd dog Loubo be "euthanized" and buried with him. When he died on Sunday, there was an outcry in France, and the family announced that it would not honor his request.
Euthanization seems to be too kind a word for what this senseless killing would have been.
Delon, an icon of French cinema known for his starring roles in "The Leopard" and "Our Story," died on Sunday.
The French actor had clearly expressed his wish to have his beloved Belgian Shepherd dog, Loubo, buried alongside him when he passed.
He disclosed the unusual request during an interview with Paris Match magazine in 2018, describing Loubo as his "end-of-life" dog who he loved "like a child."
"I've had 50 dogs in my life, but I have a special relationship with this one," Delon told the magazine. "If I die before him, I'll ask the vet to take us away together. He'll put him to sleep in my arms."
The Society for the Protection of Animals was one of the organizations that strenuously criticized Delon's bizarre demand.
CNN.com reports, "Delon's children told CNN affiliate BFMTV on Tuesday that the dog will continue to reside in their father's Douchy residence."
Previously:
• Awesome nonprofit Wings of Rescue: pilots donate flights to take euthanasia-bound dogs and cats to adopting homes
• Dummy who attempted to euthanize dog with handgun almost euthanized a human
• Beautiful art made from ashes of euthanized shelter animals
From "Iraqi head seeks arms" to "Kids make nutritious snacks": Epic headline fails
Yoy Luadha / 9:00 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Juice Flair/shutterstock.com
I must admit — I'm not 100% sure these were ever actual headlines somewhere. They were collected on this US government website, plainlanguage.gov, so… maybe? But real or not, language fails always make me laugh and these are some pretty funny fails.
Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Ax
Farmer Bill Dies in House
British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands
Teacher Strikes Idle Kids
Miners Refuse to Work after Death
Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
War Dims Hope for Peace
If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge
New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
Chef Throws His Heart into Helping Feed Needy
Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
The mission of plainlanguage.gov is kinda great. They claim:
The Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN) is a community of federal employees dedicated to the idea that citizens deserve clear communication from government. We believe that using plain language saves federal agencies time and money and provides better service to the American public.
Plain language makes it easier for the public to read, understand, and use government communications.
I'm not sure if they've made a dent in the absurd language of the bureaucracy, but I commend the effort. Maybe they can get corporate America to sign up for one of their seminars.
Previously:
• Can you spot the real New York Times headline?
• Sensationalist London newspaper headline
• Headline fail: Kansas students get 'first hand job experience'
TikTok's bizarre priorities: Blurring cigarettes but allowing Nazi propaganda
Yoy Luadha / 8:40 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Boing Boing/Stable Diffusioni
Content on TikTok frequently has images blurred out, presumably so they won't get flagged and removed by the moderators. These images surely are the worst things imaginable, shocking to our humanity: violence (usually fake violence from TV or movies), guns (usually fake guns from TV or movies), and… cigarettes (sometimes real, sometimes fake from TV or movies.).
And yet…overtly Nazi themed content? Oh, that's a-ok. Unless those Nazi's are smoking, I suppose. Otherwise, have at it.
This piece in Wired looks at a side of TikTok that most of us don't see — the algorithm doesn't push this shit to us so we're unaware it exists.
Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are sharing Hitler-related propaganda and trying to recruit new members on TikTok, according to a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD)… The TikTok algorithm is also promoting this content to new users, researchers found, as extremist communities are leveraging the huge popularity of TikTok among younger audiences to spread their message.
Fabulous. Of course, TikTok claims they're trying to clamp down on this kind of stuff, but these fascist assholes are finding ways to skirt the moderators.
Part of the reason platforms like TikTok have in the past been unable to effectively clamp down on extremist content is due to the use of code language, emojis, acronyms, and numbers by these groups. For example, many of the neo-Nazi accounts used a juice box emoji to refer to Jewish people.
Bad news: lots of Nazi imagery and propaganda is flowing freely on social media. But the good news: we don't have to suffer anything as profoundly upsetting as seeing people smoke. Thanks, TikTok.
Pack of wild pigs unleash destruction at Northern California school
Allan Rose Hill / 8:31 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
image: City of Morgan Hill
A pack of wild boars tore up a school last week in Sonoma County, California, just north of San Francisco. The animals ripped up the grounds, destroyed irrigation systems, and left a mess in their wake. According to the Geyserville Unified School District, the boars caused over $150,000 in damages.
"At first, I thought my maintenance crew was doing repairs on our sprinklers," said Superintendent Deborah Bertolucci. "Then I realized, 'Oh no, it's the pigs.' It's crazy."
From SFGate:
The history of wild pigs in California is a twisted tale. Native to Eurasia and Northern Africa, domestic pigs were introduced to the state in the early 1700s when Spanish colonizers brought them in as livestock, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Some Russian immigrants also let a number of them loose near Fort Ross in Sonoma in the 1800s — many of which fled for good and became feral. The animals likely propagated after an eccentric socialite let European wild boars, a subspecies, run rampant across his Carmel Valley property for hunting excursions in the 1920s. The boars bred with the domestic pigs, resulting in the large, hybrid porcine breed we know today, which can grow up to 5 feet long and weigh as much as 400 pounds.
[Bertolucci is] trying to turn the situation into a real-world learning opportunity for students. An agricultural science class went out this week to observe discussions with school officials and offer their own ideas for mitigating the pig problem and where the cyclone fencing should be deployed. Many of the students said they didn't want the school to "look like a prison," she said.
"The minute you start closing everything off, it seems like you're trying to keep people out," Bertolucci said. "The only thing I want out are the wild pigs."
Previously:
• More than 30-50 Feral Canadian Hybrid 'Super Pigs' reportedly headed towards USA
• Wild boar steals laptop, gets chased by a naked German man
MSNBC hosts mock and laugh at Trump
Jason Weisberger / 8:08 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Trump drugs
Following Kamala Harris' acceptance speech, Donald Trump went up in flames. The adjudicated rapist posted a flurry of angry lies on his miniature social network and called Fox to embarrass himself further on the air. MSNBC's morning show laughed at him and his pathetic attempts to make anything stick.
The combination of his looming sentencing for 34 criminal convictions, the half billion or more he owes in civil fraud and defamation penalties, his terrible running mate, his sons, getting shot at, his Federal cases picking back up, and Kamala Harris's existence have got Trump on edge. Kamala Harris has figured out how to live in his head, and he is in a panic. He hates being laughed at the most, and he is now a laughingstock.
As co-host Willie Geist explained, "Even last night, as Vice President Harris was giving her address, Donald Trump was live Truth Socialing with comments. His rejoinder to her comments were, all caps, 'Where's Hunter?' I mean, is that all you've got?"
"Oh, my God," MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski uttered as Joe Scarborough burst out laughing and Geist continued, "Come on now, come on, you have to do a little better than that. He's playing the hits."
"At least try," Scarborough joked.
'Yeah, he's not even trying anymore," Geist replied. "He's just playing the old classics in his mind. Part of the message last night, too, was this has been an extraordinary week —."
"I mean, 'Where is Hunter?'" Scarborough interrupted. "That's like Elvis, like, wearing fringe in 1967 in the Summer of Love. I mean, come on! 'Where's Hunter? God, I'm sorry."
Previously:
• In unhinged Truth Social post, an infuriated Trump accuses Biden of being angry
• Trump not technically saying he'll refuse to accept election results—he just won't accept them and has explained why
• Barack Obama on Trump's crowd size obsession
• Trump makes worse comments about Medal of Honor recipients
Texas mom builds a squirrel city and spa
Gail Sherman / 8:03 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Image: Svet foto / shutterstock.com
TikToker breeintheforest and her family moved to Texas, and she wanted to fill their property with animals. Her husband vetoed all of her suggestions: no goats, no cows, no peacocks, just chickens and dogs. Then she noticed that squirrels were using the battery-powered fans on their porch for relief from the Texas heat, and the idea for a squirrel spa was born. Check out the cute squirrel sploots!
The spa was a hit, and more squirrels showed up to enjoy the facilities. To ensure there was enough room for these adorable furry freeloaders, the squirrel resort was expanded into… a squirrel city!
The feeding station/bistro is a work of art.
I wonder how the dogs feel about this. If I had any of this at my house, my dogs would absolutely lose their minds.
Previously: A hilarious squirrel keeps spying on a woman through different windows of her house
Kenan Thompson shares how Project 2025 screws over everyone
Jason Weisberger / 7:44 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Image: Kashif - Khan/shutterstock.com
SNL's brilliant Kenan Thompson shows how Project 2025 is Dianetics for MAGAs. There is a scary new law or policy for everyone except billionaires.
Kenan Thompson is one of my favorite SNL actors of all time. It was great seeing him walk out on the stage at the DNC and help dissect Project 2025. People need to understand what the current "conservative" movement is about because Project 2025 is the guidebook to fascism. As Thompson demonstrates, they are coming for everyone.
Previously:
• Media Matters publishes useful guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda that 'represents a threat to democracy, civil rights, the climate, and more'
• '25 and Me' is your guide to the horrors of Project 2025
• Project 2025 is also very racist
• Trump's distancing himself from Project 2025 is all part of the plan
• A list of the terrible things Project 2025 has in store for us
• Project 2025's goal: Trump as President for life
• Fox News denying Trump's Project 2025 connections
Senator Warren gets in on the couch jokes
Jason Weisberger / 7:23 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Image: Maverick Pictures/shutterstock.com
During her speech on Day Four of the DNC, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren counted another witty jab at the weirdos.
I've enjoyed seeing how different politicians make cracks about the couch. Warren's joke is fantastic because it also ties Trump to the weirdness. It is wonderful seeing Republicans try to cast off the jokes, and even better when they claim foul play. Everyone understands that Vance's book did not include the falsified passage, but the barbs are just reminders that people CAN believe outlandishly creepy weird things about him. Trump is an adjudicated rapist.
Previously:
• Thomas Piketty explains how Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax is American as apple pie
• Elizabeth Warren profile: portrait of a savvy politician who appeals to working people, and who can get stuff done
• Elizabeth Warren reveals her plan to break up Big Tech
Retro-futuristic blimp provides connectivity from the stratosphere
Gail Sherman / 7:17 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
High-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) Blimp
Sceye, a Swiss materials science company, continues developing high-altitude platform stations (HAPS).
Sceye platforms are solar-powered by day and battery-powered by night and are designed to launch into the stratosphere. From there, the balloons/blimps/platforms hover and can perform various functions. According to a Sceye press release, they include "universal and equitable connectivity, improve climate change monitoring, natural resource stewardship, forest fire monitoring and better detect and contain disasters before they spiral out of control." The company calls them "enhanced balloons." Still, they look like blimps from early sci-fi, as you can see in this melodramatically scored promo video:
Internet access is a basic right that improves healthcare, education, quality of life and democracy itself. Sceye can provide the first truly equitable connectivity across rural communities and urban centers — connecting underserved locations that have previously been out of reach.
We're also committed to monitoring and protecting the Earth. Our platforms can carry advanced sensors that can track greenhouse gas emissions in real-time, supporting the development of enforceable, accountable climate-friendly policies.
Sceye believes that doing good is good business. We are committed to providing universal connectivity, and to enabling environmental stewardship.
The founder and CEO of Sceye, Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, is also the owner and former CEO of Vestergaard, the company behind LifeStraw, a portable personal water purifier, and PermaNet, a pesticide-infused mosquito net. The company spent $3 million on kits with a straw, a net, and condoms, to be given away for free, with an HIV test, to 50,000 residents of a rural district in Kenya. This resulted in 80% of the population being tested, as opposed to 20% before the kits and testing. Despite this initiative and other humanitarian efforts, the company is still profitable, something more companies should note.
via New Atlas
Bonus: Archer does not understand blimps
Previously: Bring back blimps!
Hands off: Victorian books laden with toxic dyes
Rob Beschizza / 7:02 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Leila Ais cuts a sample from a book cover to test for toxic dyes. Photo: Kirsty Jones / American Chemical Society
I regret to inform you that you must stop licking brightly colored books published in the Victorian era. The dyes are poisonous.
The latest research on these poisonous books used three techniques—including one that hasn't previously been applied to books—to assess dangerous dyes in a university collection and found some volumes may be unsafe to handle. The researchers present their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society. "These old books with toxic dyes may be in universities, public libraries and private collections," says Abigail Hoermann, an undergraduate studying chemistry at Lipscomb University. Users can be put at risk if pigments from the cloth covers rub onto their hands or become airborne and are inhaled. "So, we want to find a way to make it easy for everyone to be able to find what their exposure is to these books, and how to safely store them." Hoermann, recent graduate Jafer Aljorani, and undergraduate Leila Ais have been conducting the study with Joseph Weinstein-Webb, an assistant chemistry professor at Lipscomb
See also the beautifully-named Poison Book Project. We already knew about the arsenic and lead, obviously.
Our May 4, 2024 update to the Arsenical Books Database brings the total of confirmed arsenical green books identified around the world to 313! We are grateful for data submissions from Dr. Andreas Janke at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz; conservator Anna Johnson at the University of Southampton Library (UK); MLIS student Ashlyn Higareda, and Head of Preservation Stephanie Lamson at the University of Washington Library (U.S.). We would also like to thank our colleague Jill LeMin Lee at the Philadelphia Athenaeum, who pointed out that the "Date Added" column was not sorting properly. We have changed the date format and believe this has resolved the problem. We appreciate constructive feedback from users that helps us improve the website functionality.
Interesting domino effects. A related truthie: the tie-dye era was a side effect of the British military wanting better camouflage in the 1940s. If that seems dark, well, don't think about what the German dye industry was up to back then.
This light painting of Raygun's signature "breakdancing" moves
Jennifer Sandlin / 6:33 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Image: YouTube
I promise this will be my last Rachael "Raygun" Gunn post – but this light painting by artist Darren Pearson, aka DARIUSTWIN, was just too excellent not to share.
In a recent video shared on DARIUSTWIN's YouTube channel, Pearson introduces his work by stating: "I light painted 44 photos of Raygun the Australian Breakdancer to make this." What follows is an awesome light-painted animation of some of Raygun's infamous moves. DARIUSTWIN's light painting definitely showcases way more talent and creativity than the original, *ahem*, performance. Enjoy!
On his website, Pearson provides this overview of his work:
DARIUSTWIN is the magical light painting universe created by artist, Darren Pearson, using light, long exposure and the night sky. Darren has been lighting up the world for over a decade and has expanded his glowing artwork into more than just still images, but also moving animations composed of hundreds and thousands light painting photographs all straight out of the camera. His works have led to collaborations with companies like Apple, Disney, Pixar, National Geographic, Intel, Google, Honda, Samsung, and many more. He lives in the mountains of Southern California with his wife, Jordan, and their young son, Jasper. Jordan handles the editing, partnerships, concepts and the day-to-day at their home headquarters. You can also find her modeling in many of DARIUSTWIN's stop motion pieces. The pair have turned DARIUSTWIN into a storefront where they offer many products, including fine art prints, light painting tools, clothing and more. They are constantly creating content for many ad campaigns with top of the line clients.
Previously:
• Australian otter's tribute to Rachael 'Raygun' Gunn
• Steampunk ray-gun sex-toys
• Pew Pew $6 raygun tee
Arizona paperwork reveals Robert F Kennedy Jr has ended presidential bid
Rob Beschizza / 6:10 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Image: Ringo Chiu / shutterstock.com
The official announcement is expected later today, but the paperwork is already in—at least in Arizona. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is quitting the U.S. presidential race.
Kennedy, his vice-presidential running mate, Nicole Shanahan, and 11 of his presidential electors issued a voluntary withdrawal, Arizona's Fontes said in a post on X.
The Kennedy campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Kennedy, 70, the son of the late Democratic politician and US attorney general Robert F Kennedy and nephew of the late President John F Kennedy, started his presidential campaign as a Democrat, challenging President Joe Biden for the nomination.
If his family and professional credentials briefly animated some excitement among Dems disillusioned by Joe Biden, Kennedy's conspiracy-mongering and weird behavior soon drew more support away from Trump—who he is now expected to endorse in any case.
A Super Pac supporting Kennedy told Reuters on Wednesday that Kennedy wanted a deal with Donald Trump in which he endorsed his Republican rival in exchange for a job in a potential Trump administration.
Taliban bans the sound of womens' voices singing or reading
Rob Beschizza / 5:56 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
This stock photo Talib has an acceptable beard, singing voice. Photo: charnsitr / Shutterstock
They fired all the officers who wouldn't grow beards, and now they're banning the sound of women's voices singing or reading, among many other new controls on public life. The Taliban is sinking in.
The 114-page, 35-article document seen by The Associated Press constitutes the first formal declaration of vice and virtue laws in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021, when it also set up a ministry for the "propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice."
The laws will empower the ministry to be at the frontline of regulating personal conduct, administering punishments like warnings or arrest if enforcers allege that Afghans have broken the laws. The laws ban the publication of images of living beings, threatening an already fragile Afghan media landscape; the playing of music; the transportation of solo female travelers; and the mixing of men and women who are not related to each other. The laws also oblige passengers and drivers to perform prayers at designated times.
The U.N. reported recently on the Taliban's morality police; if a more moderate military faction was ascendant during the fighting, the true believers are now firmly in charge.
Previously:
• The Taliban bans the video game PUBG for being 'too violent'
• Taliban announces it will start stoning women to death in public
• Taliban orders Afghanistan's hair salons to shut
Highlights from Kamala Harris's speech to the DNC
Rob Beschizza / 5:16 am PT Fri Aug 23, 2024
Kamala Harris at the DNC
Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for President last night in a speech that was generally well-received but offered no surprises or details not yet given. In brief: I'm a regular middle-class person, Trump is bad, no change in Gaza/Israel policy, Project 2025 also bad. Excepts are embedded below:
General suggestion of aiming for weak Trump supporters on the center-right and creating an air of inevitability: the Graveyard of the Clintons, but the best strategy to run the table. If you're disappointed by the lack of movement on Gaza, remember that even a millimeter would have animated a week of negative commentary in U.S. media. It wasn't going to happen, not last night.
The only line anyone will remember from last night is Elizabeth Warren's show-stealing couch-fucker gag about Vance, the best yet. [twitter].
This is chatroulette for your eyes only
Allan Rose Hill / 6:13 pm PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
image: Eyechat
Neal Agarwal—the creative coding genius behind the delightful Neal.fun free browser games like Draw Logos From Memory, Space Elevator, Days Since Incident, and so many more—brings us Eyechat. It's like Chatroulette but for your eyes only.
Turn on your Web camera and it crops out everything but your peepers. Then click "Match with stranger" and you'll instantly be eye-to-eye with a random person. No audio. Nothing but your gaze. And theirs.
(via Waxy)
Previously:
• Aggressively click for the Moon or the Sun
• 'Can I Binge?' is an excellent single-serving site for managing your TV time
Landlord demands back rent from tenant who broke her lease by…. dying
Allan Rose Hill / 3:27 pm PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
image: alexskopje/Shutterstock
For a decade, Sandra Bonilla lived at Shavano Park Apartments in San Antonio, Texas. Last June, Bonilla died at age 91. Recently though, Bonilla's children received a bill for $15,676 in back rent. The total is $14,368 of "accelerated rent" and $1,117 as a penalty for breaking her two-year lease.
You might think this is an easily-fixed error on the part of the landlord. However, according to NEWS4SA, the bill itself lists the reason that Bonilla no longer lives there: "deceased."
Bonilla's son David Naterman explains that when his mom died, the family "went to the apartment complex, spoke to the leasing manager and he told us that he would use the security deposit towards the cleaning and turning over the apartment and that they would terminate the lease."
He claims they sent a termination letter and still received a notice from the apartment complex threatening to alert a credit bureau or pursue legal action. Good luck with that, says debt lawyer Bill Clanton.
"The landlord can charge for about 30 days once the lease is terminated, you can't get blood from a turnip and you certainly can't get rent from a dead person," Clanton said.
Previously:
• 'Sovereign citizen' tenant decapitated landlord with sword over rent dispute, say Hartford, CT police
• Sideburns, handlebar mustaches, and tiny trunks – the wild world of landlord-tenant disputes in the 1970s
Young DNC attendee trolls JD Vance — and pranks MSNBC — with couch joke (video)
Carla Sinclair / 3:25 pm PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
As reporter Jake Sherman stood at the DNC to describe how unpopular Ted Cruz is, a convention-goer trolled JD Vance — and pranked MSNBC — with a more important message.
Quietly making his way behind Sherman's shoulder, the serious-looking young gentleman held his cell phone up to the camera, which read: "JD Vance f*cks couches." (See video below, posted by Acyn.)
Sherman was clueless as to what was going on right behind him, but commenters sure noticed.
While a few praise the prankster as a hero, and others laugh about how stealthy the kid was, the most humorous comment comes in the form of an image that shows a supposed Vance walking past a small padded ottoman with a caption bubble that reads: "Dad?" (See at bottom, posted by Gage Ulrik.)
Previously: Tim Walz can't wait to debate J.D. Vance "if he's willing to get off the couch and show up"
Burglar busted after getting distracted by bedside book
Allan Rose Hill / 2:43 pm PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
image: Chatty G
On Tuesday night, an unidentified man scaled an apartment building in Rome's Della Vittoria neighborhood and climbed into a private residence via a balcony door. The 38-year-old was in the process of burglarizing the apartment when a book on a bedroom nightstand caught his eye.
The book, titled Gli dèi alle sei: L'Iliade all'ora dell'aperitivo by Giovanni Nucci, an analysis of The Illiad from the point of view of the gods. According to a translation of the publisher's description, the text also "highlights the interpretative power of the myth to understand our current situation: the pandemic, the war, the climate crisis, the arrogance of the political classes, the exploitation of resources, the dissipation of childhood, the crisis of patriarchy and the female condition, sexual identity, the incompatibility between the old power and the new generations."
Sounds fascinating right? The burglar agreed as he apparently sat down on the bed and began to read it. Shortly after, the apartment's owner, a a 71-year-old man, awoke and saw the intruder.
"The burglar then tried to escape from the same balcony but was arrested by police who arrived after being called by the owner," reports Wanted In Rome. :Police found the man in possession of a bag of designer clothes, likely stolen earlier that night from another house."
Gli dèi alle sei: L'Iliade all'ora dell'aperitivo was just published last year—I hope they have a copy in the jail library.
Previously:
• Burglar caught on camera doing yoga before robbing bakery (video)
• Blood from squashed mosquito leads police to burglar
Nearly forgotten pundit makes fun of Tim Walz's son
Jennifer Sandlin / 12:38 pm PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Image: Christopher Halloran / shutterstock.com
If you have a heart and are a normal human being, you probably found it heartwarming when watching Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz's son, Gus, getting emotional and exclaiming, "That's my dad!" when seeing his father take the stage at the DNC last night.
So what does it say about Ann Coulter's humanity–or lack thereof–when she posted a photo on her social media accounts of the young man from that moment, with the caption "Talk about weird…"? And, sadly, she's not alone. Lots of other Republicans and MAGAts also made fun of Walz's son, who is neurodivergent. Mother Jones explains:
A few weeks ago, Walz spoke to People about his son, including his life with a non-verbal learning disability, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and clinical anxiety. It is not clear how Gus' symptoms affect him, but some people with ADHD experience sensory overload, which could make an environment like the DNC even more overwhelming. (This year, as the 19th reported, the DNC has made noise-cancelling headphones available for those with noise-sensory issues.)
During his father's speech, Gus was emotional —normal for anyone proud of a parent's big moment, whether they are neurodivergent or neurotypical. On social media, the right's response to Gus' expressions and emotions has been really weird: just go to any replies to videos featuring Gus at the event. Even Ann Coulter chimed in with a tweet she then deleted.
I don't want to repeat the vile things that folks have been saying about Gus because, honestly, they make me sick, but if you want to read them, check out the Mother Jones article.
Previously:
• Ann Coulter cancels Berkeley speech after conservative sponsors back out
• Al Franken vs. Ann Coulter
• College republicans nix Ann Coulter
• Ann Coulter on radiation: Wrong in a really interesting way
• Ann Coulter tells Nikki Haley to 'go back to your own country'