Sometimes in our research we come across stories that are regarded as true but that we can't fully verify. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll share two such stories from the 1920s, about a pair of New York fruit dealers and a mythologized bank robber, and discuss the strength of the evidence behind them.
We'll also salute a retiring cat and puzzle over a heartless spouse.
A trailer for Denis Villeneuve's forthcoming Dune played at the premiere of Tenet last night. Everyone in the audience, it seems, filmed it on their phones and posted it to social media. Here's a reasonably good angle.
"What's in the box?"
"Pain."
James Cook is reviving the arcane art of creating images with an analog typewriter, aka the original ASCII art:
This is vol. 2 of the production of my typewriter art from various scenes around the Essex countryside in the summer of 2020. The three "typicitions" were drawn from observation at the historic Layer Marney Tower, Tollesbury Marina and Thaxted Parish Church. These drawings were typed on my 73" Silverreed 200 and I managed to get through a couple of ribbons on these pieces of work!
He did part one before the pandemic:
Here he creates Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor Who, on a manual typewriter, no less!
Image: YouTube / James Cook
During quarantine, amateur Belgian luthier tchicks' local lumber store was closed, so as a challenge, he made his third guitar from a shelf:
This is my third guitar build, handcrafted in Brussels, Belgium. I used wood from a shelf to make the body, not only because Brian May is my hero, but mostly because the build started in mid April 2020, as Belgium was in complete lockdown and my usual lumber store was closed. Making this guitar may look tedious (or stupid) to you, but this was my own personal therapy during this insane period.
More lovely pics on his Instagram:
Image: YouTube / tchiks guitars and furniture
It was the best of vans,
It was the worst of vans.
From Vancouver to Los Cabos, I explored the west coast of North America in that van.
My daughter's childhood memories will be filled with camping trips all over Northern California in that van. She named it Serendipity and stuck each sticker on the back window for us.
I fell in love in that van.
Last July, my dog Nemo died in that van. I never slept in it again.
In February, when I took possession of my new home the transmission let go. I had long expected it, and she got me home. I picked the wrong shop to rebuild it and a few miles north of Santa Barbara airport she suffered a catastrophic failure.
Having just restored a 1902 craftstman shotgun shack I lacked the energy. A very good, life long friend of mine had long wanted to do a ground up restoration of that van.
I let him have it for a song.
</vanlife>
The charcoal-drawing artist Nokis Art [Facebook, YouTube] did this beautiful tribute to the late actor Chadwick Boseman of 'Black Panther' fame.
Chadwick Boseman died of cancer at age 43, an announcement shared to his Twitter account on August 29 read. "He died in his home with his wife and family by his side," read the statement.
VIDEO courtesy Nokis Art
If you're a fan of edibles, then you already know this, but for everybody else, a look at the price of some standard edibles might shock you. Depending on the dosage, an edible baked good is often about $15 to $20. A weed-infused lollipop is $10 to $12. And a pound of butter with a healthy supply of THC could be anywhere from $40 to $60.
Of course, the price of these items usually depends on the cost of the cannabis that's inside. But rather than paying a premium for these infused goodies, it's always going to save you a healthy bit of cash to just make them yourself.
For years, that's often been easier said than done. But the Hi Herbal Infuser is all about helping users create herbally-infused foods faster and easier than ever before.
Unlike other infusion devices, the Herbal Infusion was designed to look perfectly at home sitting on your kitchen counter or tabletop. Crafted from stainless steel and high-quality, food-grade materials, it appears and mostly works just like most kitchen appliances.
Once you've measured out your herb, you can choose one of three state-of-the-art microprocessor-controlled infusion cycles for your product, whether you're infusing butter, oil, tincture, honey, agave, milk or something else.
The Hi is able to quickly and efficiently transfer plant compounds from herbs directly into your base, producing anywhere from 2 to 5 cups worth of highly potent butter, oil, milk, honey, maple syrup and more in just 45 minutes. There's also a 90-minute cycle for strains that require some extra time as well as a 4-hour cycle capable of infusing alcohol.
The unit also has a built-in digital LED countdown timer, so you'll always know when your infusion is finished. With just one infusion process, you can make yourself several months' worth of infused foodstuff.
The Herbal Infuser also comes with its own detailed recipe book, loaded with recipes, tips, and suggestions on any infusion from herb butter, oils, tinctures, puree soups, nut milks and more.
Retailing at $144, you can get The Herbal Infuser right now and save almost 10 percent off with this offer, down to just $129.99.
Prices are subject to change.
Do you have your stay-at-home essentials? Here are some you may have missed.
Oh they REALLY want you to start flying again. We may be witnessing the end of the $200 ticket-change fees that U.S. airline travelers have hated for at least a decade.
Delta Air Lines and American Airlines both said Monday they will drop the $200 fee that applied to changes on most tickets for most domestic flights, copying United Airlines' announcement from one day ago.
From the Associated Press:
Southwest Airlines didn't levy change fees to start with, so Monday's announcements mean that the four biggest U.S. carriers will have roughly similar policies.
Airlines are being battered by the coronavirus pandemic, as travel restrictions and fear of contracting the virus are keeping travelers at home. Normally in summer, 2 million or more people pass through security checkpoints at U.S. airports each day, but that number hasn't been above 900,000 since mid-March, the early days of the pandemic.
To woo passengers, airlines have required face masks and stepped up cleaning of planes. A few, including Delta, Southwest and JetBlue, limit seating, although American and United try to sell every seat.
More at AP: Delta, American join United in dropping most US change fees
The government of Donald Trump says it has recovered about 70% of those $1200 federal pandemic relief checks that were mistakenly sent to dead people.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Monday the Treasury Department told GAO that roughly 70% of the $1.6 billion in economic stimulus checks mailed to dead people has now been recovered.
From AP:
The GAO said it could not immediately verify that amount but said its auditors were working with Treasury to determine the exact number of payments that have been recovered.
Treasury is also considering sending letters to request the return of the remaining outstanding payments, but has not moved forward with that effort yet, GAO said. Treasury said it was delaying that move because Congress is considering legislation that would clarify or make changes to payment eligibility requirements.
MORE at the Associated Press: Administration: 70% of relief payments to the dead recovered
U.S. regulatory approval for UAV delivery tests brings Amazon Prime Air closer to goal of delivery times under 30 minutes
Amazon.com said Monday its drone-based delivery service has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that allows the company to start testing commercial deliveries with its UAV fleet.
Amazon Prime Air is the company's special service delivering packages in 30 minutes or less, reports Reuters:
The company joins Alphabet Inc's unit Wing and United Parcel Service Inc to receive FAA approval for drone delivery, while other smaller companies are still seeking approval.
"Amazon says it is still testing drones, and doesn't say when it expects to begin making deliveries to shoppers by air," reports AP.
It's just been revealed in a (must-read) Los Angeles Times article that Devo cofounder Mark Mothersbaugh spent his summer battling COVID-19. He was not only isolated from his family for three months but the virus caused him to have delusions while hospitalized.
Mothersbaugh's delusions lasted more than two weeks during his time both on and off the ventilator. In fact, the artist didn't contract the virus that causes COVID-19 while shopping in Little Tokyo. He caught it shuttling between his house and his Sunset Strip offices and studios in late May. His family was in Palm Springs. After he tested positive, he insisted on isolating by himself.
Three harrowing months later, Mothersbaugh and his family are back together and virus free. His experience, he says, was devastating. It was also unfortunately instructive, as it confirms an argument that he and his groundbreaking band, Devo, have been making for nearly 50 years.
"Everything's become more devolved than I would have imagined possible," he said. "For anybody that's doubting whether the coronavirus and COVID-19 is real, it's really real."
…"Before COVID, I was like, 'Yeah, I'm starting to feel about 50 now, and I'm 70.' When I was in the hospital, I was feeling like I was about 90. And now I'm back to 70, and I'm trying to get back to 50. That's my goal."
He's at home now, working again. We wish him a full and speedy recovery.
Previously: The shield you want — DEVO selling Energy Dome PPE face shields
Porn actor Ron Jeremy was charged with rape and sexual assault earlier this year. Today he was charged with 17 more counts along similar lines, including one alleged victim who was only 15 years old. The number of charges and their severity could send Jeremy, 67, to jail for the rest of his life.
The new charges date as far back as 2004, while the most recent one involves an incident that allegedly took place January 1st, 2020. The ages of the alleged victims range from 15 to 54.
The 2004 incident involves a 15-year-old girl who attended a party in Santa Clarita, California, where Jeremy allegedly assaulted her. For that incident, Jeremy was charged with assault with intent to commit rape, penetration by a foreign object on an unconscious or sleeping victim and lewd conduct.
You may not be a fan of paper straws. And honestly, we don't blame you. They're almost universally ill-equipped to handle their one job. But as sub-par as most paper straws are, most of us would agree they're better than the usual alternative.
Single-use plastic straws are part of a plastic scourge that has landfills exploding and everywhere else teeming with discarded plastic refuse. In the U.S. alone, we go through 500 million straws per day. And researchers believe there could be over 8 billion straws — 8 billion! —currently littering the world's beaches right now.
In addition to their planet clogging downsides, many plastic straws aren't even all that great at their job anyway, especially if you're trying to drink a thick milkshake or a smoothie.
You can strike a blow for adequate drinkability in any situation as well as our environment with this reusable straw bundle, which includes a BiggieStraw, a FinalStraw and carrying cases for each.
If you're looking to suck up a healthy liquid or semi-liquid, look no further than the Biggie Straw. Designed to last a lifetime, this reusable, responsibly-made straw has an angled tip and puncture piece on the cleaner, ready to tackle all your bubble teas, smoothies, milkshakes and more. When not in use, the Biggie Straw easily folds up and fits inside its keychain-sized carrying case until next time.
While the Biggie Straw is dishwasher safe, it also comes with its own cleaning squeegee tool that stores in the case for quick cleaning anywhere you are.
Meanwhile, the bundle also includes another straw alternative, the original Final Straw. Originally seen on Shark Tank, the Final Straw is also a reusable, collapsible straw that stores safely in its own convenient micro-sized carrying case. But unlike the Biggie, the Final Straw is collapsible stainless steel, a telescoping straw that's ready to deploy into any drink at any time. An air-tight straw for your hot, cold, or even lukewarm drinks, all you have to do when done is give it a quick clean, then slip it right back into its case.
This bundle gets you one of each — a Biggie Straw and a Final Straw — for over 20 percent off their regular price. For both, they're on sale now for just $29.99.
Prices are subject to change.
Do you have your stay-at-home essentials? Here are some you may have missed.
In this footage, police approach a protestor in the street. One offers her a large inflatable sausage. When she accepts it, she is arrested.
I really like my Wera slotted screwdriver. I get plenty of torque with the grippy, well-shaped handle, and the hard tip shows no signs of wear. The little one I bought is very cheap, too!
Monopoly is just such a beautifully designed game. The orange and yellow cards with the iconic temporarily embarrassed millionaire. The cast metal player tokens, the green houses and red hotels. The attractively colored currency. What a shame the game is not very much fun to play. Has anyone created a set of rules that makes Monopoly fun? In any case, if you find yourself being forced to play a game of Monopoly, Reddit user FatherofGray has some advice for winning.
Never buy purple, brown, utilities or railroads with the intent of completing the set – instead use them as trades with worae players that think they're good. Railroads in particular are VERY in demand but awful unless you get all 4, at which point they're still worse than the light blues.
The most valuable properties are the oranges and reds because that's where most people land after getting out of jail – thr most common spot to be on in the game. Do pretty much anything you can to get a full set of orange or red. Yellow and light blue are also excellent choices.
Always buy everything you can. 7 turns into the game money becomes worthless in comparison to your properties. Always insist on auctioning a property to the highest bidder if they don't buy it, as per the rules.
You need to get a full set as soon as possible, and put 4 houses on each – never a hotel. As per the rules, once the houses in the box are gone, nobody can get anymore, and therefore no hotels. That's the actual MONOPOLY – the number of houses you can get.
As soon as the last house is taken, anyone without 3+ houses on a set has lost. So you have to make any deals possible to get that full set. Hell, take the browns if you can.
If you use Blender, "give your textures and models a knitted yarn look" with the new "Wooly" shader that makes anything fluffy. A shader changes the surface appearance of an object or scene; procedural refers to a programming technique that creates a convincing illusion of natural or random origin.
Here's video of it in action:
I watch a lot of explaining videos, and Technology Connections makes some of the best. The host is knowledgeable, explains things clearly, and is funny, to boot. And this episode he talks about retroreflectors, which are reflective surfaces that send light back to its source with very little scattering. This is very useful for road signs we're the only source of Illumination is a car's headlights.
Paramecia are tiny near-animals that feed on algae, yeast, and bacteria. Journey to the Microcosmos put its new microscope to good use making a short film about one of paramecia's foes, a bacteria called Holospora, which infect paramecia and make their way to its nuclei.
After Trump's final speech at the Republican National Convention, Leonard Cohen's classic song "Hallelujah" was heard twice, albeit a cover recording by Tori Keller and live opera performance by Christopher Macchio. Leonard Cohen's estate did not, um, praise the use of the classic song. Now, they are "exploring their legal options." Meanwhile, Cohen's publisher, SONY/ATV, said the RNC had asked them at the last minute for permission to do the live performance and were denied.
"We are surprised and dismayed that the RNC would proceed knowing that the Cohen Estate had specifically declined the RNC's use request, and their rather brazen attempt to politicize and exploit in such an egregious manner 'Hallelujah,' one of the most important songs in the Cohen song catalogue," Michelle L. Rice, legal representative of the Cohen Estate, posted on Facebook….
"Had the RNC requested another song, 'You Want it Darker', for which Leonard won a posthumous Grammy in 2017, we might have considered approval of that song."
Amen.
