Toothbrushes might seem like a good idea for scrubbing small areas, but they are not angled properly for the job and they wear out fast. The OXO good grips deep clean brush set has two brushes and a wiper blade designed for cleaning tile grout and other hard to reach areas. Read the rest

As long as Sheldon Adelson keeps raking in gamblers' losses, who cares about the body count?

From Rt.live:

These are up-to-date values for Rt, a key measure of how fast the virus is growing. It’s the average number of people who become infected by an infectious person. If Rt is above 1.0, the virus will spread quickly. When Rt is below 1.0, the virus will stop spreading.

Read the rest

A few Republicans are starting to think that the germ theory of disease might have some merit to it, according to this Washington Post article. But GOP strategist Alex Castellanos thinks mask wearers have another purpose in mind:

Alex Castellanos, a veteran Republican strategist, said the divide over whether to cover one’s face is, like many things in the Trump era, political.

“Mask-wearing has become a totem, a secular religious symbol,” Castellanos said. “Christians wear crosses, Muslims wear a hijab, and members of the Church of Secular Science bow to the Gods of Data by wearing a mask as their symbol, demonstrating that they are the elite; smarter, more rational, and morally superior to everyone else.”

Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest

Chinese newspaper Global Times reports that "Australia is waging an intensifying espionage offensive against China - sending agents to China to spy, gather intelligence and recruit assets, instigating defection among Chinese nationals, spying on Chinese students and organizations in Australia, feeding fake news to media to hype up the 'China espionage theory' and even in early years attempting to install wiretaps in the Chinese Embassy in Canberra, the Global Times has learned from a source with a Chinese law-enforcement agency.

The paper even has photos of the tools used by the Downunder spies to ply their nefarious trade: "espionage equipment, US dollars and Chinese yuan used for espionage funds, and the intelligence information they were going to exchange."

Nothing Q-like at all. Disappointing!

[via Bruce Sterling] Read the rest

This Public Restroom By A River from r/interestingasfuck

I don't know where this riverside relief room resides, but I like the view. I'm guessing it's not in the US, since a) it hasn't been tagged and vandalized, and b) the door says WC. Read the rest

Over a million people started playing a game called "Finger on the App" yesterday morning. Right now, 24 hours and 21 minutes since the start of the game, 92 82 people are still playing. To win, you have to be the last person with your finger touching your smartphone screen. The winner will get up to $25,000.

Taping a hotdog to the screen won't work. From the FAQ:

To play Finger On The App you put your finger on your phone and keep it there for as long as possible. Occasionally we will prompt you to slide your finger to a specific location. That’s it! Whoever stays on longest wins.

Some players are livestreaming:

This brings to mind the 1969 movie They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, the 1997 documentary Hands on a Hard Body, and the 2015 Reddit meta-game The Button. Read the rest

A screw with a stripped head can be difficult to remove.

There are a number of ways to remove screws with stripped heads. Lifehacker has a nice article on this subject.

My favorite method of removing a stuck/stripped screw is with a pair of screw removal pliers. They bite into the exposed sides of the screw head and you can twist the screw loose, then finish the job with a screwdriver. It's also a nice brute-force workaround for tamper-proof screw heads. This is the kind of tool you want to have in your toolbox now, instead of having to run out and buy one when it's needed.

If the screw is really stuck, you risk breaking the head off the screw. If that happens, all is not lost. You can try to drill a small hole into the center of the screw shaft and pull out the screw with a screw extractor. Read the rest

In the last couple of weeks over 200 major advertisers, including Starbucks, Ford, GM, Clorox, Reebok, Adidas, Best Buy, Clif Bar, and Chobani have left Facebook, citing concerns over the social media platform's lack of meaningful action against voter suppression campaigns and hate speech that takes place there.

In a statement, Denny's said: "As America's diner, we offer an inclusive and welcoming environment where all people can enjoy a nice meal and we strongly oppose hate speech of any kind. It is our belief that Facebook has not done enough to address this important issue on its platform and we are calling on Facebook to make positive changes in its process for combatting hate speech and disinformation."

On Friday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced new policies he claimed would "crack down on voter suppression and fight hate speech." But according to Popular Information, critics said the policy was toothless and would do little to stop voter suppression and hate speech.

So now Facebook has enlisted the help of Nick Clegg, vice president for global affairs and communications (and former Deputy Prime Minister of the UK) to educate the media that Facebook is just a "mirror to society."

On CNN, host Brian Stelter asked Clegg what Facebook was doing to combat divisive speech on its platform. Clegg's response was there was nothing Facebook could do because the divisive content was merely a reflection of broader societal trends.

"Yes, and I'm afraid that in a highly polarized time in U.S. society, particularly in the run-up to this highly consequential election in November where, you know, people are shouting at each other from right and left, and where, of course, in some sense, Facebook is a mirror to society.

Read the rest

A survey of 2000 adults who exercise twice a week or more said they will never return to a gym. Only one-third said they will retain their gym membership, but said they will go less frequently than before the pandemic.

The covidiots among those surveyed were divided into two camps: 26% said that they will not go to any gym that requires face masks. Another 29% said they are against masks, but wear one if the gym requires it.

Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest

A judge granted a temporary restraining order against the publication of Mary Trump's forthcoming book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Written by Donald Trump's niece, the book is a tell-all with unflattering details about Trump and his family. The book was due to be released on July 28th.

From The Daily Beast:

This decision is only preliminary, leaving the book’s ultimate fate up to a later decision on the merits of the lawsuit.

Mary Trump’s attorney, Theadore Boutrous Jr., told The Daily Beast in a statement, “The trial court’s temporary restraining order is only temporary but it still is a prior restraint on core political speech that flatly violates the First Amendment. We will immediately appeal.”

A person familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast the book, to be published by Simon and Schuster, is already on its third print run and the publishing giant are working to get the tome, which is currently Number Four on Amazon’s best-seller list, out to bookstores ahead of its July 28th release.

Read the rest

Currently, the United States is seeing about 40,000 new COVID-19 cases a day. Today, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he "would not be surprised" if the US started getting 100,000 new cases a day. But what's curious is that even though more people are becoming infected with the Coronavirus, a lower percentage of them are requiring ventilators.

A Medium article by Elad Simchayoff explores five possible reasons why this could be happening.

The least likely explanation is that the virus is becoming less lethal. A minority of experts think that Covid-19 is becoming weaker over time. It's also unlikely that hot weather and sunshine is causing the virus to decay. though some experts believe this is a reason. Testing has increased in recent weeks, which likely accounts for part of the reason why fewer people are requiring ventilators. "More people are reported sick, many of them in a very mild state, which makes the percentage of those in critical condition drop." Hospitals are starting to use treatments other than ventilators. "In some countries, the practice has now shifted considerably to no more early ventilating and efforts being made to avoid ventilators at almost any cost." Younger people are getting sick. For example, in Florida, the median age for infected people is 37, but in March it was 65. Younger people are less likely to become seriously ill from coronavirus, and as a result, do not require ventilators.

Photo by Javier Matheu on Unsplash Read the rest

The National Park Service reports that a 72-year-old woman repeatedly came within ten feet of a bison Yellowstone National Park to take a photo, and was gored by the animal.

From a Park Service Statement:

After a 72-year-old woman from California approached within 10 feet of a bison multiple times to take its photo, the animal gored her. The incident occurred on the evening of June 25, 2020, at the female’s campsite at Bridge Bay Campground. Rangers provided immediate medical care to the woman who sustained multiple goring wounds. She was then flown via helicopter to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. “The series of events that led to the goring suggest the bison was threatened by being repeatedly approached to within 10 feet,” said Yellowstone’s Senior Bison Biologist Chris Geremia. “Bison are wild animals that respond to threats by displaying aggressive behaviors like pawing the ground, snorting, bobbing their head, bellowing, and raising their tail. If that doesn’t make the threat (in this instance it was a person) move away, a threatened bison may charge. To be safe around bison, stay at least 25 yards away, move away if they approach, and run away or find cover if they charge.”

Image: NPS / Jacob W. Frank Read the rest

I don't know who Grandpa Witmer is, but around our compound, he's a SubGenius ShorDurPerSav and a Discordian Saint. We use Saint Witmer's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Mixer to mix peanut butter quickly and without a mess.

The kind of peanut butter I buy from Trader Joe's separates into two layers. The oil is on top, and the solid stuff is on the bottom. It's hard to mix with a knife or spoon. The oil is likely to spill on the counter or splash on my clothes. This hand-powered stirrer does a great job. I bought the model with a lid that fits my brand of peanut butter. The stirring rod slips through a rubber hole in the lid, and when I remove it, the rubber hole squeegees the peanut butter off so there's no mess. Read the rest

The latest issue of The MagPi is out, and you can get a free PDF. The projects in this issue look like fun!

Build a Raspberry Pi 4 games console. We’ve got the best cases, awesome controllers, and easy to use kit. Also a step-by-step guide to setting up RetroPie OS with Raspberry Pi 4, so you can run classic games. Plus! How to get games legally. Learn Computing & ICT at home. It’s a lot of fun telling computers what to do, but getting started can be intimidating. Here’s a gentle introduction to getting serious with computing. Build a DOS emulation system. Use the powerful DOSBox-X emulator to boot Raspberry Pi to DOS and run anything from Windows 3.11 to classic games Upcycle a vintage radio. Fed up with boring black-box Bluetooth speakers? Hack Raspberry Pi into a vintage radio and give it a new lease of life. Share your keyboard and mouse. Use Barrier to move your mouse seamlessly from Raspberry Pi to the screen of another computer, and control both machines at once. Use an Inky wHAT display with Raspberry Pi. Make a great impression with a fancy e-ink name badge or custom display that subtly shows off your tech skills. Piano-Playing Robot. Discover a robot that can play scales, chords, arpeggios, or totally new musical scores. Singing Toilet. A trip to the washroom need no longer be boring. This musical instrument is played by pulling toilet paper from the roll. Migration Museum. How one museum comes to life when visitors linger near its artefacts. Read the rest

The 790,000 subscribers to The_Donald have suddenly found themselves without a place to spread hate and harassment after Reddit shut down the subreddit earlier this morning, reports The New York Times. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told reporters “Reddit is a place for community and belonging, not for attacking people. The_Donald has been in violation of that.”

From The New York Times:

Reddit said people in “The_Donald” consistently posted racist and vulgar messages that incited harassment and targeted people of different religious and ethnic groups on and off its site.

“The_Donald” has also heavily trafficked in conspiracy theories, including spreading the debunked “PizzaGate” conspiracy, in which Hillary Clinton and top Democrats were falsely accused of running a child sex trafficking ring from a pizza parlor in Washington.

Reddit said that as of Monday, it was introducing eight rules that laid out the terms people must abide by to use the site. Those include prohibiting targeted harassment, revealing the identities of others, posting sexually exploitative content related to underage children, or trafficking in illegal substances or other illicit transactions.

While the site had already banned many of these behaviors, the latest changes take a harder line on speech that “promotes hate based on identity or vulnerability.”

Image: Gage Skidmore - Flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link Read the rest

Scambuster Jim Browning got access to a tech support scammer's computer and was able to find out his real name and monitor his communications with his boss and colleagues. He spooked them so much that it looks like they shut down operations, at least temporarily. I love Browning's laconic, bored-sounding voice as he talks to the increasingly panicked scammer. Read the rest

If you're a professional illustrator, podcaster, or filmmaker, a $53 a month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud is a fair price to pay. But if you're just interested in having a good vector graphics application, you can probably get by using Inkscape (free) or Affinity Designer (one time cost $50). Inkscape even runs on Linux computers. This video runs through the key features of each application. Read the rest