Instagram fool damages 6,000-year-old cave art for likes, faces wrath of Spanish authorities
Ellsworth Toohey / 11:42 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Image of the damaged cave paintings: Civil Guard
A gentleman is in hot water for pouring cold water on a 6,000 year-old-cave painting in Spain to make it prettier on Instagram. He ended up damaging it and is in a heap o' trouble for his foolishness.
Here's a machine-translated excerpt from the Spanish newspaper, El País:
The alleged perpetrator of the damage, a 39-year-old man, has been investigated for a crime against historical heritage, acting recklessly on repeated occasions, causing damage to several paintings located in various sites in the Sierra Sur of Jaén. In 1998,
UNESCO declared a total of 69 sites of prehistoric rock art in the Levantine and schematic styles in the mountains of Jaén, Granada and Almería as World Heritage Sites. These are paintings in shallow shelters and on vertical walls that are more than 6,000 years old and are considered the first artistic expressions of man.
Previously:
• Werner Herzog 3D documentary on cave art
• Take a virtual tour of the Pech Merle prehistoric cave paintings
• 'Cave of Bones' scientist Lee Berger talks about extinct apes that buried their dead and created art
Backward Trump thinks racism will help — posts image of Harris with darkened face
Carla Sinclair / 11:26 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Image: Evan El-Amin / shutterstock.com
As an energized Kamala Harris continues to snag more Republicans and Independents from Donald Trump, the old snarling ex-president leans further into his white supremacist faction of his base. As in reposting a racist image of the Vice President with a mask-like schmear of darkened skin (or something) on her face. (See below, posted by Patriot Takes.)
From Meidas Touch:
Ahead of his announced press conference at his Mar-a-Lago country club home on Thursday, Trump reposted a a meme depicting his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, with darkened skin and with the body of a dung beetle on a coconut.
Trump's reposted Truth Social post from account "Patriot4Life," states:
"See the optics!!
See the show!!
See the lies!
See the fraud!!
See it all!!
Don't go down the rabbit hole!"
Trump's reposted meme is an MAGA version of an actual New York Magazine cover showing Kamala Harris and others celebrating her presidential run. In the center is a large coconut with Kamala Harris celebrating on top.
Out of fresh ideas, it's truly amazing how clueless the flailing backward candidate has become. Can't wait for the next round of national poll results to come out.
JD Vance tries to blame "Magic: The Gathering" as the reason girls thought he was a creepy teen
Ellsworth Toohey / 10:54 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
JD Vance struggles to understand why women find him creepy even though he has thick eyelashes. (lev radin/Shutterstock.com)
"The big problem with transitioning from being a 13-year-old who likes Magic: The Gathering to being a 15-year-old who likes Magic: The Gathering is that 15-year-old girls do not like Magic: The Gathering," JD Vance told Semafor. "So I dropped it like a bad habit."
A lot of girls play Magic, JD. I hate it break it you, but it wasn't your fondness of the card game that caused 15-year-old girls to find you icky. It's the very core of your being that repulsed them.
Creepy teens become creepy politicians.
Previously:
• Surprise marriage proposal via Magic: The Gathering
• MTG's new book is no 'Magic: The Gathering' — it's a gathering of poor reviews
• Wizards of the Coast sends Pinkerton agents after YouTuber who unboxed a leaked Magic: The Gathering card set
Ouch! Harris keeps surging ahead of Trump — up 8 points in latest poll
Carla Sinclair / 9:49 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Michael F. Hiatt / Shutterstock.com
With every new poll comes a greater Kamala Harris lead, with the latest Marquette Law School survey showing the Democratic candidate ahead of Donald Trump by up to 8 points.
In the national survey of likely voters, conducted between July 24 and August 1, Harris beat Trump 50% to his 42% when third-party candidates were included, according to Newsweek.
This is a huge jump from a NPR/PBS News/Marist national poll conducted two days earlier (July 22) — a day after Biden dropped out of the race — which showed Harris and Trump tied at 42% (and RFK Jr. at 7%) with likely voters.
According to this latest poll, the gap closes slightly when "registered voters" are asked (rather than "likely voters"), and narrows even more when third party candidates are taken out of the equation. But even when it's just Harris and Trump with registered voters, Harris leads by 4 points, whereas in the July 22 poll, Trump was ahead of Harris in this category by 1 point (46% to 45%).
So far, the forward-thinking Harris isn't kidding around when she says she's "Not Going Back."
From Newsweek:
The surge by Harris has improved the Democrats' position since May, when Trump was leading with 44 percent of the vote to Joe Biden's 41 percent.
Harris is also leading among registered voters, with 47 percent of the vote to Trump's 41 percent. In Marquette Law School's last poll in May, Trump was three points ahead of Biden among registered voters, securing 40 percent of the vote to the president's 37 percent.
Harris is also leading her opponent in a head-to-head matchup with the support of 52 percent of registered voters, while Trump is the choice for 48 percent.
The poll surveyed 879 registered voters and 683 likely voters, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Previously: More Republicans endorse Kamala Harris
Fox News host Laura Ingraham claims Milwaukee is in Minnesota in cringe video
Ellsworth Toohey / 9:33 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Fox's Unhappy Harpy: Laura Ingraham is mad about something or other again
Fox News' Laura Ingraham, a mean girl desperate to find a way to attack Democratic VP candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, decided to try complaining about Minnesota.
She considers herself something of an expert on Minnesota, and after what she said on her show, who can argue with her? "If you know Minnesota, and I know it well, especially Milwaukee, it's changed."
People like me who don't know Minnesota as well as Laura does mistakenly assume Milwaukee is in Wisconsin, which isn't part of Minnesota. Or is it? Only Laura "I know it well" Ingraham can say for sure!
Previously:
• Laura Ingraham is full of hate because her father was a Nazi sympathizer, says brother
Trump on Project 2025: "Exactly what our movement will do"
Jason Weisberger / 9:20 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
lev radin/shutterstock.com
After taking a private flight with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Rogers, a traitor and convicted felon, Donald Trump lauded the foundation's efforts "to lay the groundwork and detail the plans" for his next administration.
Donald Trump has failed in his efforts to distance himself from Project 2025. Recordings from a 2022 keynote speech to the Heritage Foundation made shortly after the flight clearly state his intention to rely on the Heritage Foundation's work.
"They're going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do," Trump said in the speech.
Separately, Roberts told The Washington Post in an interview in April of this year that he had previously discussed Project 2025 with Trump as part of offering briefings to all presidential candidates. "I personally have talked to President Trump about Project 2025," he said in the interview, "because my role in the project has been to make sure that all of the candidates who have responded to our offer for a briefing on Project 2025 get one from me."
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Roberts never briefed Trump. A Heritage spokeswoman declined to elaborate on private meetings.
The flight, Trump's speech and Roberts's interview cut against the former president's recent efforts to distance himself from Project 2025 once Democrats turned some of its most controversial proposals into a frequent campaign attack. The proposals came from alumni of Trump's first term and often overlap with his own official campaign pronouncements, such as eliminating the Education Department, weakening protections for career civil servants, ending affirmative action and reversing restrictions on greenhouse gases. One of the proposals calls for federal restrictions on access to abortion medication, a position at odds with the Trump campaign stance.
via C&L
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'
• Fox News denying Trump's Project 2025 connections
• 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
When your beach day turns into a live-action "Tremors" sequel
Popkin / 9:00 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Imagine walking down the beach when you spot something sticking out of the sand. It looks like a tangled piece of seaweed or a sand toy left by a forgetful kid. Curious, you bend down and grasp it, giving it a tug.
To your surprise, the object resists for a moment before slowly getting loose. As you pull a massive, cthulhuian creature begins to emerge from the wet sand. Its body stretched on endlessly, like a kraken coming out of Mary Poppins' purse.
This is what happened to someone on the beach when they encountered a buried cuttlefish, and you can see the video here. The name "cuttlefish" is misleading because this creature does not look cute or cuddly in the slightest.
This marine mollusk belongs to the class Cephalopoda, which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. They're usually found in the deep sea, and rarely wash up on shore like the one in the video. A new fear has been unlocked.
Previously:
• Cuttlefish passes cognitive tests designed for human children
• Squid, cuttlefish, trilobite and Cthulhu jewelry
• Cuttlefish embryos can spot prey
• Watch this cuttlefish hypnotize a crab (and maybe you, too)
• Meet a googly-eyed cuttlefish
Raspberry Pi Pico 2 arrives for $5
Rob Beschizza / 8:47 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Photo: Raspberry PI
Raspberry Pi's Pico 2 is the company's latest tiny microcontroller, powered by its new RP2350 chip, and went on sale today. Just $5, it double's the original's clock speed and is programmable in C/C++ and Python. The use cases are many, but I'm looking forward to more powerful DIY pocket game emulators.
While there is relatively little stock in channel today, Pico 2 is in full-rate production with our friends at Sony. Many of our Approved Reseller partners are operating backorder and reservation schemes, and we will be shipping units to them on a regular basis over the next few weeks.
Before the end of the year, we expect to ship a wireless-enabled Pico 2 W, using the same Infineon 43439 modem as Pico W, and versions of both Pico 2 and Pico 2 W with pre-installed 0.1-inch headers.
It won't ship until later this month. Be sure to coo over the various new Pi-powered doohickeys listed and photographed in the announcement, like the Thumby.
Previously:
• How to turn a Raspberry Pi into an open source media center
• The joy of troubleshooting the Raspberry Pi
• Raspberry Pi but it's a TRS-80
Humane AI pin company processing more returns than sales
Rob Beschizza / 8:25 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Photo: Humane
Humane's AI pin was roughly received. Functionally a tiny Android device without a screen, its unique UI called for a level of reliability that isn't there yet with voice assistants, leading to frustration for users and "scathing" reviews. And returns. Lots and lots of returns, reports Kyle Robison.
Between May and August, more AI Pins were returned than purchased, according to internal sales data obtained by The Verge. By June, only around 8,000 units hadn't been returned, a source with direct knowledge of sales and return data told me. As of today, the number of units still in customer hands had fallen closer to 7,000, a source with direct knowledge said.
The company raised hundreds of millions but has only sold $9m-worth of gadgets so far—and there's a whole bunch of things that it needs to do better quickly if a second-gen is to land better. Robison reports that the company can't even refurbish those that are send back to it because the bundled and necessary cellular accounts can't be reassigned.
Once a Humane Pin is returned, the company has no way to refurbish it, sources with knowledge of the return process confirmed. The Pin becomes e-waste, and Humane doesn't have the opportunity to reclaim the revenue by selling it again. The core issue is that there is a T-Mobile limitation that makes it impossible (for now) for Humane to reassign a Pin to a new user once it's been assigned to someone. One source said they don't believe Humane has disposed of the old Pins because "they're still hopeful they can solve this problem eventually." T-Mobile declined to comment and referred us to Humane.
The competition isn't doing much better, though: I like everything about the Rabbit except everything it actually does. When they turn up by the boxload on eBay for $20 each, then I'm going to go to town on it.
Trump's ghoul Miller gets super screamy on MSNBC
Jason Weisberger / 8:25 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
lev radin/shutterstock.com
MSNBC's Ari Melber went for the ratings; what he got was Stephen Miller raising his voice a lot.
Immigration expert Stephen Miller, architect of the Trump Administration's famed "babies in cages" family separation plan and advocate for the Muslim ban, was invited on MSNBC's Ari Melber show. Melber, who frequently likes to quote rap lyrics, had to spend his time fact-checking nearly everything Miller said. Miller spent the interview looking uneasy, laughing at inappropriate times, and yelling at Melber scoldingly.
ARI MELBER: You played it all the way up to January 6th. You know what happened after that? A lot of other people have been convicted of crimes. Stephen, I, as you–.
STEPHEN MILLER: A lot of innocent people, have been persecuted by a corrupt system!
What kind of corrupt system throws Republican lawyers in jail for offering good, sound legal advice, but does nothing with secretaries of state who plainly violate their own state laws and constitutions? How many people are in jail right now?
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the number one traffickers of children– girls into sex slavery on planet Earth! How many people are in jail for that?
ARI MELBER: We've gone this far– We've gone. We've gone this far in an exchange, we're not doing just anything you want to rip off the internet that's false. And we're not doing defamation here!
As you know, there's other Trump allies who've got a lot of trouble with that. We're not doing that here.
STEPHEN MILLER: What is defamation, Ari?
ARI MELBER: You want to talk about democracy? You sound right now. I'll let you I'll let you respond. And we are running over on time. But you sound more outraged about what you — Stephen I'm going to finish the question. I'll give you time.
You sound tonight more outraged about what you allege is that double standard. And I giving you time to explain it. Than the people who battered the cops and led to deaths and stormed the Capitol.
Previously:
• Trump advisor Stephen Miller and Fox's Jesse Watters fantasize about mass deportations
• Trump still paying Stephen Miller with tax-payer funds
• Stephen Miller's seriously racist emails
• Trump aide Stephen Miller paints on hair
Prepare to be underwhelmed by Trump's press conference
Jason Weisberger / 8:02 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Image: Dall-E/BoingBoing
If we follow the standard movie tropes, this is where Trump reveals his plan (Project 2025), mistakenly self-electrocutes via windmill-generated power, and falls into a giant shark tank. The 11 am pst/2 pm est press conference will probably be less interesting than that.
What could Trump have to discuss today? Is it JD Vance taking over the ticket? Is that why Vance trails around, sniffing after Harris and Walz while Don hides at his supper club? The idea that Trump will replace Vance seems out of reach, as admitting that mistake doesn't seem possible. The new "shocking" poll results today show that Harris is building a lead nationally and may have the temper tantrum-throwing convict in fits. I expect a lot of sharks, electrocution, and windmill talk. He could get into some screaming for Mommy and going on about the bad woman and bad man stuff. You know, gibbering nonsense the red hats use gematria to turn into the words of Sun Tzu.
It's unclear what he aims to discuss at Thursday's event, scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.
"I will be doing a General News Conference at 2:00 P.M. at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach," he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
The venue of Trump's home raised eyebrows, considering that his opponent and his running mate have been crisscrossing swing state battlegrounds including Pennsylvania and Michigan this week.
While the Trump campaign appears to be headed to an epic flameout, it seems more likely Trump and Vance can continue along exactly like this for the next three months, shoveling poisoned red meat at their cult-like adherents and simply losing. The Trump org seems to have spent more time worrying about how to steal the election than how to win it, and the real battle may be after the polls close. The bigger a Harris-Walz win is, the less likely those shenanigans provide the MAGAs any pathway, but they have been far more proactive this time.
Previously:
• Trump's worst nightmare: Harris leaps ahead in latest poll as enthusiasm gap widens
• Kamala Harris can beat Trump easier than Biden (or anyone else) can, says new CNN poll
• Kamala Harris far out raises Donald Trump in July
• Spinning out of control, Donald Trump authors an unhinged fantasy about Joe Biden
• Compare Harris and Trump phone calls asking Walz and Vance to join them: the difference is striking (video)
Graham's 3-Wheeler: a 1929 science-fiction movie car that defied convention
Popkin / 7:18 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
A 3-wheeled car from 1929
This three-wheeled car was invented by Mr. A. Graham of Kingston, Surrey in 1929. My favorite thing about this car is its nautical, circular door. Although it's only meant for dry land, the car looks like it could transform into an underwater vehicle.
The car was made completely from sheet iron, and reached a max of 70mph, and looks like something out of a Fleischer cartoon.
I learned from Vintage Everyday that the vehicle was likely powered by a two-cylinder motorcycle engine. It's also been mentioned that Graham used this vehicle to drive around with his wife on their honeymoon in August 1931.
The car was used in a 1929 science fiction movie called high treason, which The New York Times called a "farrago of nonsense." The movie is best known for showing people using wireless video phones.
From the 1929 movie, High Treason.
Previously:
• This page contains weird vintage photos galore
Italian paper struggles with difference between American "Indians" and Indians
Rob Beschizza / 7:05 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Il Tempo's intemporate cover
The editor of conservative Italian newspaper Il Tempo, having front-paged this mercilessly stupid illustration, now disclaims the obvious mistake it appears to encompass. He's racist, he all but admits, but not ignorant. The headline translates to "Hunting for the white man."
"[Tomasso] Cerno defended today's cover, saying that he decided to depict Kamala Harris with the "headress of a redskin [sic]" because "redskins [sic] are the symbol par excellence of all america's minorities" who are "galvanized" by her candidacy, not because he confused her origins," tweeted Davide Maria De Luca.
Late-medieval Italian explorers mistook the Americas for the east Indies and its inhabitants for Indians. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in Tamil Nadu, the southermost state in India.
Trash panda or tiny genius? This raccoon's knot-tying skills are unbelievable
Popkin / 6:55 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Ninoo/shutterstock.com
This video features a raccoon in Portland who has remarkable problem solving skills. When the raccoon encounters a rope in its pathway, he isn't very pleased. The clever trash panda then manages to untie the rope using its mouth and paws. After untying the rope, he carries it to an overhead structure, and ties it away up there to clear its path.
It's easy to forget just how intelligent non-human critters can be, and videos like this are a humble reminder that oftentimes, animals can have much better problem-solving skills than many humans do.
Studies have shown that raccoons can remember solutions to tasks for at least three years. They have excellent memory, particularly for solving complex problems, which they can apply to new situations. They can learn to manipulate objects and understand their mechanisms, such as opening container lids and latches. Their cognitive skills are comparable to those of primates and some birds, making them one of the more intelligent animals in the mammalian world.
Previously:
• Frosty eats raccoon: the story of the carnivorous snowman
• Watch this sleepy raccoon yawning, stretching, and settling in for the night
• Watch the adorable yawn of a raccoon named Crystal
• Watch the adorable yawn of a raccoon named Crystal
• Sneaky raccoon 'walks' between ceiling joists
• Meet Louie the Raccoon, winner of the 2024 Cadbury Bunny Tryouts
• Video: Raccoons try and squeeze their way into open window
Meta and Google secretly targeted kids with ads
Rob Beschizza / 6:35 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Kids on their smartphones
Meta and Google secretly teamed up to target minors with advertisements, reports the Financial Times. The paywalled story is summarized by The Verge and details complete disregard for the promises made after earlier privacy complaints—and the companies' own policies. Meta is parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
The publication reports that Google directed ads to a subset of users labeled as "unknown" in its advertising systems, in an attempt to disguise the group skewed toward teenagers. According to a Google Ads help page, the "unknown" demographic category refers to people whose age, gender, parental status, or household income are supposedly unidentified, and can allow advertisers to reach "a significantly wider audience" when selected. However, Google could use app downloads and online activity to determine "with a high degree of confidence" that the "unknown" group was populated by younger users, reports the FT. Google staffers are said to have used this loophole to get around the company's own policies, having introduced rules that block ad targeting based on "age, gender, or interests of people under 18" back in 2021.
Spark Foundry, part of ad giant Publicis, worked with the companies to launch the illicit campaign in Canada in the spring of this year and in the U.S. in May.
"We prohibit ads being personalized to people under-18, period," Google said in a statement to the publication. "We'll also be taking additional action to reinforce with sales representatives that they must not help advertisers or agencies run campaigns attempting to work around our policies."
After years of complaints, lawsuits and regulatory efforts, nothing is actually stopping them do this stuff. It's a bad feeling.
The exploitation of children is the thing, but it also hints at the competitive advantages that platforms have over their own advertisers. They know more about the audience, and that aspect of the advertiser's business, than they disclose. And all the advertiser gets in return some algorithmically-filtered customer attention. Advertising on these black-boxed social media platforms is like dining alone with Hannibal Lecter: he's going to tell you everything you didn't know about yourself, it won't help you in any way whatsoever, and you might get eaten. This situation is especially bad on Amazon, according the Wall Street Journal in 2020, where the platform directly competes with its own sellers.
Taylor Swift cancels Vienna tour stops after terror threat
Rob Beschizza / 5:59 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Swift
Taylor Swift will skip Vienna on her "Eras" tour after plans for a terrorist attack were uncovered and two men arrested there. Deadline reports that Swift was scheduled to perform at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and that all tickets will be refunded within 10 days.
"Taylor Swift The Eras Tour Vienna shows cancelled due to government officials confirmation of planned terrorist attack," a statement from Barracuda Music read.
ABC News quoted Franz Ruf, director-general for public safety in the Ministry of the Interior, who said that two 19-year-olds were arrested Wednesday. NBC News further reports that one of the two "pledged allegiance to ISIS," were radicalized online, and had other targets as well as the concerts.
Swift's next scheduled tour stop is at Wembley in London, on August 15. Perfect time to come to Britain!
Jack Karlson has eaten his last succulent Chinese meal
Rob Beschizza / 5:05 am PT Thu Aug 8, 2024
Karlson during his 1991 arrest.
Jack Karlson, the Aussie famed for his arrest while enjoying a "Succulent Chinese Meal," is dead at 82. Karlson's grandiose outrage at the circumstances of his detention—"Gentlemen, this is Democracy manifest! Get your hand off my penis!"—gave Australia its best meme and inspired generations of diner.
"Sad news: Mr Democracy Manifest has died," wrote Chris Reason, the reporter who covered the arrest, adding that Karlson had cancer. "His immortal words will echo through generations."
Karlson—one of several aliases—was a prison escapee and petty criminal who attained worldwide fame in 2009 when footage of him being collared at a Chinese restaurant in Brisbane in 1991 went viral. The BBC reports it as a "seminal moment" that inspired "musical remixes, reaction videos and even a few tattoos." Democracy Manifest is now an Australian racehorse.
Hillbilly Eulogy: JD Vance's approval rating nosedives
Ellsworth Toohey / 6:49 pm PT Wed Aug 7, 2024
JD Vance giving the best he's got (Maxim Elramsisy/doomu/Shutterstock.com)
JD Vance must've thought he was immune from the Trump Curse: those showing the greatest loyalty pay the greatest price.
Rudy Giuliani — disbarred and bankrupt, Michael Cohen — disbarred and imprisoned. Michael Navarro — jailed for contempt of Congress. Steve Bannon — jailed for contempt of Congress. Elliott Broidy — pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Allen Weisselberg — pleaded guilty to tax fraud, Roger Stone – convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering.
The list is endless: Michael Flynn, Roger Manafort, Brad Parscale, Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark. Their lives are much worse off for being Trump surrogates. Only Steven Miller seems to have avoided the curse, but that's because somewhere along the way a warlock cursed him into becoming a barking seal and it may have provided him immunity.
Trump sees people as oranges. If they come too close, he sucks out the juice and spits out the husk, usually complaining about the taste afterward.
Vance hasn't been in Trump's juice-sucking orbit for long, but he's already withering. A Washington Post analysis by Aaron Blake reveals Vance's decline from unpleasant to revolting:
A half-dozen polls have now tested views of Vance more than once in the last few weeks. In each of them, his already-underwhelming image ratings have deteriorated — sometimes significantly.
And crucially, his struggles appear particularly pronounced among educated voters and women. That would suggest that his derisive past comments about childless women are indeed proving to be liabilities.
But first, the big picture. Vance's net favorable rating (favorable vs. unfavorable) is now nine points underwater in the FiveThirtyEight average. That's a marked contrast to other recent running mates, who have generally polled in popular territory.
And notably, three of the repeated polls show about as many people view Vance very unfavorably as have any kind of positive view of him.
His net favorable ratings have dropped:
– Three points in Reuters-Ipsos polls between July 16 and July 28 (the end dates for the polls).
– Five points in Economist-YouGov polls between July 23 and July 30.
– Eight points in AP-NORC polls between July 15 and July 29.
– Nine points in other YouGov polls (that weren't sponsored by a media outlet) between July 15 and July 25.
– Nine points in ABC News-Ipsos polls between July 20 and July 27.
– And six points in a new NPR/PBS/Marist College poll, versus its July 22 poll.
Vance must be leaving a bad taste in Trump's mouth about now. Is he going to get spit out?
Previously:
• Trump campaign fails to spin JD Vance yelling at his son into a heartwarming story
• Book with forward by JD Vance delayed until people forget JD Vance
• Panicked JD Vance blames 'chaos' of finances on Harris — meanwhile, Dow Jones nears all-time high (video)
• Tim Walz can't wait to debate J.D. Vance 'if he's willing to get off the couch and show up'
JD Vance's ugly, disrespectful debate challenge
Jason Weisberger / 6:27 pm PT Wed Aug 7, 2024
Image: Consolidated News Photos/Shutterstock.com
The traitor, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and Republican candidate for President of the United States is in hiding while his sidekick JD Vance is digging them into a deep, dark hole.
There has been a lot of "speculation" about debates between the candidates in the current, recast US Presidential stakes. Since Joe Biden stepped out of the way and allowed Vice President Kamala Harris to take over, the Democratic party has been reinvigorated. Having named Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, the media is focused on her energetic campaign built on a hopeful view of the future, and Trump has lost all momentum. Trump is running scared from debating Harris, and now Vance threw a weird hat into the wrong ring.
Like a level 1 newb trying to pull a Leroy Jenkins, Just Despicable Vance is looking for a boss fight before he's even pressed start. I am sure he's now going to claim VP Harris is afraid of him, when he isn't worth her time. The Harris Walz campaign is doing a good job aggressively calling Team MAGA on their bullshit, and I expect that to continue.
Previously:
• Trump campaign fails to spin JD Vance yelling at his son into a heartwarming story
• Book with forward by JD Vance delayed until people forget JD Vance
• Panicked JD Vance blames 'chaos' of finances on Harris — meanwhile, Dow Jones nears all-time high (video)
• Usha Vance defends husband's weird 'cat ladies' insult on Fox News
• Tim Walz can't wait to debate J.D. Vance 'if he's willing to get off the couch and show up'
• JD Vance's attempt to insult Josh Shapiro backfires spectacularly (video)
Communist shatterproof drinking glasses make a comeback
Mark Frauenfelder / 4:00 pm PT Wed Aug 7, 2024
A Superfest glass from East Germany By Fotograf Michael Ernst, User: Mernst1806 - Michael Ernst, User: Mernst1806, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Superfest was an East German brand of nearly indestructible drinking glasses that promised to revolutionize the industry but went bankrupt at the end of the Cold War. (Here's a video of a Superfest glass being dropped to the floor. Instead of cracking, it bounces.) They are highly desirable by collectors, and now a Berlin-based Kickstarter-funded effort is underway to bring the brand to life.
From The Guardian:
Its founders, Paul Kupfer and Georg Tarne, have crowdfunded €251,139 (£215,400) for a production facility that partially draws on Superfest's old GDR-era ion technology.
"Compared to plastic, glass is a material that can be recycled almost as often as you like," says Steve Köhler, who organised Soulbottles' crowdfunding campaign. "It is tasteless and transparent, and it has only one disadvantage: it breaks."
The problem with the original Superfest glass is that its manufacturers worked with modified alumino or borosilicate glass, which is not as easy to recycle as the more common soda-lime glass. So Soulbottles' challenge is to produce glass that is both durable and recyclable.
Soulbottle's August 1 Kickstarter update suggests they've, er, cracked, the challenge:
The new soulbottles ULTRINITY from the series production are up to 10x stronger compared to regular glass and on average can withstand even more. Due to the nature of the manufacturing process, however, there are variations. In our tests, most bottles are 2-12x more durable than regular glass and can withstand most everyday bumps and drops.
However, you should not use them as a replacement hammer. Glass "remembers" drops and impacts in the form of stresses that develop within it. This means a glass bottle is more likely to break on the second drop than on the first. Our goal was to significantly improve the durability of our products, and we are very confident that we have achieved this with this project and your support.
That's great, but it's kind of a bummer that they aren't reviving the Superfest brand, though.
Previously:
• East German advertisements of the 1950s and 1960s
Trump's brain on a 40-year downward spiral, according to analysis of his speeches over time
Ellsworth Toohey / 3:38 pm PT Wed Aug 7, 2024
Boing Boing/Midjourney
Trump has always seemed pretty stupid, but if you compare videos of him in interviews in the 1980s to his recent media appearances, the decline is shocking. It's easy to tell something is wrong with him, and now a new statistical analysis of his verbal communication style over time bolsters support for the widespread belief that Trump's brain is circling the drain.
An article in the medical news publication STAT, titled "Trump keeps losing his train of thought. Cognitive experts have theories about why," includes this telling portion of a disjointed Trump speech:
"Somebody said he [Biden] looks great in a bathing suit, right? When he was in the sand and he was having a hard time lifting his feet through the sand, because you know, sand is heavy. They figure three solid ounces per foot. But sand is a little heavy. And he's sitting in a bathing suit. Look, at 81, do you remember Cary Grant? How good was Cary Grant, right? I don't think Cary Grant — he was good. I don't know what happened to movie stars today," he said at a March rally in Georgia. Trump went on to talk about contemporary actors, Michael Jackson, and border policies before returning to the theme of how Biden looks on the beach.
STAT asked four experts to review and compare clips of Trump's speeches in 2017 and 2024:
Several noticed Trump's 2024 speeches included more short sentences, confused word order, and repetition, alongside extended digressions such as Trump's comments on Biden and Cary Grant, or in another speech, comments on banking abruptly giving way to Trump lamenting the cost of electric cars.
These could be attributed to a variety of possible causes, they said, some benign and others more worrisome. They include mood changes, a desire to appeal to certain audiences, natural aging, or the beginnings of a cognitive condition like Alzheimer's disease.
STAT also asked James Pennebaker, a social psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, to do a statistical analysis on 5 Trump interviews from 2015 to 2024:
Although Pennebaker said he'd want to analyze more texts before submitting his findings to an academic journal, he concluded that the texts showed significant changes in Trump's linguistic tendencies.
Since the end of Trump's presidency in 2021, Pennebaker's analysis showed a steep increase in "all-or-nothing thinking," as indicated by a roughly 60% increase in use of absolute terms like "always," "never," and "completely." This habit, Pennebaker said, can be a sign of depression, which also fits with other changes in Trump's word choices: His dialogue now has far fewer positive words than previously, and includes more references to negative emotions, especially since his return to civilian life.
Previously: Spinning out of control, Donald Trump authors an unhinged fantasy about Joe Biden
Twin Peaks star Chrystabell and David Lynch reunite for ethereal new album
Popkin / 2:47 pm PT Wed Aug 7, 2024
David Lynch in a 2011 handout photo
The new album Cellophane Memories by Chrystabell and David Lynch, originates from a profound vision that Lynch experienced one night while walking through a forest of towering trees, when a bright light appeared overhead, transformed into Chrystabell's voice, and communicated a secret to him. Lynch's vision was the driving force behind this album.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, Chrystabell is a fantastic musician, model, and actress known for her collaborations with Lynch. She appeared as FBI Agent Tammy Preston in the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks: The Return. Lynch and Chrystabell's creative partnership began with their work on the soundtrack for Inland Empire, Lynch's most recent film. Lynch went on to produce and write the lyrics for Chrystabell's 2011 debut album, This Train and the two collaborated on the 2016 LP Somewhere in the Nowhere.
Sublime Eternal Love is one of my favorite tracks from this new album. Lynch's signature atmospheric production and Chrystabell's haunting vocals teleports me to another world entirely.
See also: "Cellophane Memories" by Chrystabell and David Lynch is a new album coming in August
Tim Walz digs The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. The latter's Bob Mould responds
David Pescovitz / 12:36 pm PT Wed Aug 7, 2024
image: SST/publicity photo
Beto O'Rourke posted yesterday that he and US VP nominee Tim Walz are pals and share a love for Minnesota musicians. Sure, everyone likes Prince and Bob Dylan but apparently they're both fans of alternative rock pioneers The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. Great taste!
"We became friends in Congress, going on early morning runs (in the dead of DC winter, I'm bundled in layers and he's wearing a t-shirt and shorts), talking Minnesota music, the Replacements (Tim!), Prince, Dylan, Husker Du, and sharing stories about our families and hometowns," O'Rourke wrote on X.
The great Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü is just announced a solo electric tour and released a new recording, "Breathing Room," below. Rolling Stone reached out for Bob's reaction to the Walz news:
Given all your earlier years in Minnesota, how are you feeling about Tim Walz?
This is just incredible. He's a sensible guy, a progressive guy, thoughtful. Nineteen eighty nine was the last year I had a Minnesota driver's license. I live in San Francisco now, so I've been Team Kamala for a long time. But, with Tim, this is crazy. You can't write this stuff.He's younger than me. I was already out of Macalester by the time he graduated high school. But he's a straight shooter, has common sense. If he sees shenanigans, he calls shenanigans. I think we've all very quickly come to see what a straight-up guy we have here to help this country keep moving in the right direction. We are happy-dancing in this house. My goodness[…]
We just need to know what his favorite Hüsker album is.
Well, I'm hoping for Flip Your Wig. That's my personal favorite. But Warehouse would be OK, too. Or maybe he'd pick New Day Rising. But I'm telling you: Whatever deity one chooses to believe and worship and spend time with, today is heaven on earth. The whole party is so energized. It's so clear this poison has got to go and we just got to start getting kids educated again and letting people have choices over their own lives.
Previously:
• Magnificent new Hüsker Dü box set
• Hüsker Dü cover the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show
• Bob Mould: An Old Punk Kicks New Ass
• Hear the killer first single from Bob Mould's forthcoming album
• Bob Mould on 'What's in my bag?'
World's largest iceberg breaks free and spins wildly after 30-year Antarctic freeze
Mark Frauenfelder / 12:26 pm PT Wed Aug 7, 2024
The world's largest iceberg, A23a, in the Scotia Sea between Antarctica and South Georgia (Juergen Brand/shutterstock.com)
The world's largest iceberg, affectionately called A23a, has led an exciting life. In 1986, it cleaved from the Antarctica continent and started drifting northward. But then it got stuck in mud at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. I guess that's what happens to an iceberg that's 1,000 feet deep.
But in 2020 it once again broke away, pursuing its original northward path. But suddenly, the trillion-ton iceberg stopped moving and is now spinning in a circle.
From the NY Times (free shared article):
Imagine a 1,600-square-mile piece of ice as deep as the Empire State Building spinning slowly but steadily enough to fully rotate it on its head over the course of about 24 days.
The iceberg is spinning near the South Orkney Islands, about 375 miles northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula, "maintaining a chill 15 degree rotation per day," the British Antarctic Survey, the United Kingdom's polar research institute, said on social media.
When will it stop spinning? "Who knows," says the BBC, "but when Prof Meredith placed a scientific buoy in a Taylor Column above another bump to the east of Pirie Bank, the floating instrument was still rotating in place four years later."
Previously:
• Perfectly rectangular iceberg
• Scientists witness a four-mile wide iceberg being created
• World's largest iceberg splits off Antarctica
• Imploding iceberg in Antarctica
• Massive iceberg six times the size of Manhattan drifts away from Antarctic glacier
• Visitors to the Titanic Museum were attacked by iceberg replicas