How to Get Your Car Ready for Hurricane Season
When you’re prepping for hurricane season, it’s easy to get caught up in protecting your house and making sure you’re stocked with basic supplies.
Keep it maintained Before hurricane season starts, do a basic maintenance check.
Buy a gas can or two and keep them filled, and follow these basic safety rules: Only use approved containers, and store them outside or in your garage or shed.
With your insurance information on hand, even if your car is damaged, you can start the coverage process immediately.
Keep it stocked The next move in prepping your car for hurricane season is to consider what you might need if you have to quickly evacuate, or if you’re not able to reach your house for some time.
Here are some other smart items to include: Solar-powered lights Portable water filter or water purification tablets Strong flashlight with extra batteries Power inverter Battery-powered fan Blankets Battery packs for your mobile devices Ponchos for every member of the family Small toys and games for children It’s also a good idea to have a couple of quarts of oil on hand, so you can top off your oil, if needed.
Weathering a storm is all about helping one another.
You might have already packed a go-bag for each person in your family, kept in your home.
For every member of the family, include two (or more) sets of clothes, a pair of sturdy shoes, extra socks, basic hygiene supplies, and a copy of identification.
Stash some cash Don’t forget about money.
20+ Controversial Photos Of Prison Cells Reveal How Differently Countries Treat Their Criminals
In comparison to the year 2000, the total number of women serving time has increased about 50% while the male prison population has grown by about 18%.
But prison population rates vary considerably all around the globe.
For instance, the United States have 698 inmates for every 100,000 citizens while Denmark has 61.
And there are more differences, too.
A prisoner in one place might have access to musical instruments and video games but might be fighting over a roll of toilet paper in another.
Bored Panda has collected photos of cells from all over to show how different countries treat their criminals, and the contrast is eye-opening.
The prison cells in this list vary from low security to max security, and while they can’t be all compared directly, it gives us a pretty good sense how different countries deal with criminals.
It might be due to economic reasons or the way societies value life, but if you found the information above a bit grey, the images below will definitely grab everyone’s attention.
George Clooney Walks Unassisted Just Five Days After Terrifying Scooter Crash — Pic
George Clooney looks to be healing quickly after his frightening motorcycle accident in Italy less than a week ago.
The Oscar-winner was spotted flashing his winning smile as he arrived in Rome via airplane on Sunday, where walked off his private jet and crossed the tarmac unassisted, while carrying his backpack.
The 57-year-old actor — who was involved in a head-on collision on July 10 while traveling 60mph on his scooter on the Italian island of Sardinia — seemed to be in high spirits, but was still clearly in pain as he gingerly walked through the small airport in Rome, where he is currently filming his new Hulu series, Catch-22.
The sighting comes just three days after Clooney was seen getting on a private plane with his wife, Amal Clooney, and their twins, during which the actor required help from flight crew as he hobbled onto the small aircraft.
Italian authorities previously confirmed to ET that Clooney was involved in a traffic collision while riding his scooter near Olbia, Italy.
Security camera footage of the crash shows just how serious the accident was.
In the video, a motorbike ahead of Clooney is actually able to narrowly dodge a black car when the vehicle suddenly stops in front of it, but the actor isn’t so lucky, and smashes straight into the car.
A source told ET that Clooney’s helmet hit the windshield so hard it broke due to the force of the impact.
He was hospitalized after the accident.
For more on the motorcycle accident, watch the video below.
Hulk Hogan Is Back, AJ Styles Isn’t Main Event Again and Other WWE Extreme Rules Takeaways
The day finished with Extreme Rules, which was a show that featured losses by Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns, and Braun Strowman, as well as marked a fifth consecutive pay per view where WWE champion AJ Styles did not main event the show.
Extreme Rules included a new storyline about Universal champion Brock Lesnar, saw the return of Randy Orton, and continued the descent of Asuka, who lost again to Carmella and has lost considerable luster following her undefeated streak.
Here are the results: ·The B-Team defeated “Woken” Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt for the Raw tag team titles ·Finn Balor defeated Baron Corbin ·Carmella defeated Asuka to remain SmackDown women’s champion ·Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Jeff Hardy in six seconds to win the United States title ·Kevin Owens defeated Braun Strowman in a steel cage match ·The Bludgeon Brothers retained their SmackDown tag team titles by defeating Daniel Bryan and Kane ·Bobby Lashley pinned Roman Reigns ·Alexa Bliss defended her Raw women’s title over Nia Jax ·AJ Styles remained WWE champion with his win over Rusev ·Dolph Ziggler defeated Seth Rollins in a 30-minute Iron Man match in sudden-death overtime And here are my takeaways from the show… 1.
All signs point to Brock Lesnar defending the Universal championship at SummerSlam against Bobby Lashley, with the possibility also remaining that Roman Reigns will be included to make the match a triple threat.
Hogan was backstage at Extreme Rules and is rumored to return on Raw in Buffalo, New York.
Strowman lost the match, but the story was that his desire to inflict pain on Owens meant more to him than winning the match.
Shinsuke Nakamura finally tasted WWE gold as he defeated Jeff Hardy in just six seconds to win the United States championship.
AJ Styles wrestled a fantastic match with Rusev, which is to be expected, as is the fact that Styles—despite being WWE champion–did not close out the show as the main event.
One of the most compelling storylines in wrestling is whether Ziggler can again reach world champion status in the company.
Paul Heyman’s return, a potential Hulk Hogan video and advancing the story for Bobby Lashley, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins are all highly anticipated components of the show.
Good News in History, July 16
100 years ago today, George Mueller, “the father of the space shuttle”, was born.
The electrical engineer was the NASA administrator who headed the Office of Manned Space Flight and ensured the success of the Apollo program that landed a man on the Moon and returned him safely to the Earth in 1969.
NASA’s “most brilliant and fearless manager”, Mueller also played a key part in the design of Skylab, and championed the space shuttle’s development… (1918) As a boy, George enjoyed reading science fiction and was curious about how things worked, building his own radios.
Working part time and attending college at night, he studied until he obtained a doctorate in physics.
While at TRW working on missile systems, Mueller became convinced that “all-up testing” was essential, and pushed through that philosophy at NASA—with “impeccable reasoning” convincing others that testing piecemeal, one system without the integration of the whole, was not good enough.
He also refused to work at NASA at all in 1963 unless they restructured the agency so that three centers would report directly to him—and took a substantial pay cut to do so.
MORE Good News on this Day: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signed the first constitution of Ethiopia (1930) The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France with Italy opened (1965) It is the 50th birthday of Larry Sanger, the Doctor of Philosophy and co-founder of Wikipedia (2001) who proposed implementing the wiki project as complementary to his 2000 Nupedia website, a wiki written by experts in their various fields (1968) The first space mission to land a man on the moon, Apollo 11, launched from Kennedy Space Center carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin (1969) The native Apache trout species in Arizona was upgraded from endangered to threatened on the US Endangered Species List after conservation efforts brought the creek dweller back from the brink (1975) The Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation was signed by the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation (2001) Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois’s first and most ambitious early 21st century architectural project, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley (2004) And on this day in 1966, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton formed the rock band Cream.
In their two years as a group, they recorded four LPs and classic songs like ‘Sunshine of Your Love,’ ‘Strange Brew,’ ‘Crossroads,’ and ‘White Room.’ Regarded as the world’s first successful supergroup, their third album, Wheels of Fire (1968), was the world’s first platinum-selling double album.
That year, Clapton wanted to end the band, which was having personnel disputes, and pursue a different musical direction.
He formed Blind Faith with Stevie Winwood in the aftermath of the break up.
Podcast Episode 209: Lost Off Newfoundland
In 1883 fisherman Howard Blackburn was caught in a blizzard off the coast of Newfoundland.
In this week’s episode of the Futility Closet podcast we’ll follow Blackburn’s dramatic story, which made him famous around the world.
We’ll also admire a runaway chicken and puzzle over a growing circle of dust.
With the introduction of electric light, some American cities erected “moonlight towers.” Sources for our feature on Howard Blackburn: Joseph E. Garland, Lone Voyager: The Extraordinary Adventures of Howard Blackburn, Hero Fisherman of Gloucester, 1963.
Peter Nielsen, “Howard Blackburn: Heroism at Sea,” Sail, July 31, 2017.
“Alone in a Four-Ton Boat,” New York Times, June 19, 1899.
“Passed Blackburn’s Boat,” New York Times, Aug. 11, 1899.
Blackburn at Lisbon,” New York Times, July 21, 1901.
Levick, “Fog Is Still the Fisherman’s Nemesis,” New York Times, July 19, 1925.
Robbins, “Out of Gloucester to the Winter Sea,” New York Times, Feb. 12, 1933.
Forget Learning How to Multitask: Boosts Productivity 10X More with Focus
How often are you ever focused on just one thing?
In this article, I’ll show you how you can accomplish more work in less time.
Why is multitasking a myth?
There’s so much data suggesting that multitasking is ineffective but people insist that they can multitask.
How to stop multitasking and work productively Flitting back and forth between tasks feels second-nature after a while.
In addition to changing how the brain works, this serial tasking behavior can quickly turn into a habit.
As an astronaut, he had many things to take care of every day.
Instead of trying to work and watch a mindless video at the same time, give yourself times when you’re allowed to enjoy your distracting activity of choice.
Limit how much time you’ll spend on this break so that your guilt-free distraction time doesn’t turn into hours of wasted time.
It’s far better to schedule time to focus on each task than it is to try to do everything at once.
Kate Middleton Is a Vision in Yellow as She Joins Prince William at Wimbledon
Yellow is the color for summer…just ask Meghan Markle and now, Kate Middleton.
The Duchess of Cambridge looked like a ray of sunshine in a yellow flutter sleeve, over-the-knee Dolce & Gabbana dress as she and husband Prince William watched South Africa’s Kevin Anderson take on Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in the Men’s Singles Final at Wimbledon on Sunday, marking her second appearance at the tournament this weekend.
Earlier this month, Kate’s sister-in-law Meghan had turned heads herself in a yellow outfit, a sleeveless Brandon Maxwell dress, while attending an event in London with husband Prince Harry.
As Kate and William made their way to the royal box, they passed by British Prime Minister Theresa May and stopped a chatted with her briefly.
She also sat in the same section, as actors Hugh Grant, Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston.
Wearing a cream and white polka dot Jenny Packham dress, Kate had attended the Women’s Singles Final on Saturday with Meghan, who sported a blue and white shirt and high-waisted white pants by Ralph Lauren.
It marked their first solo outing.
Meghan cheered on her good friend Serena Williams as she competed against Angelique Kerber, who ultimately won.
Meghan was later seen tearing up as Serena, who is making a tennis comeback after giving birth to her first child last year, gave an emotional speech.
BBC Offers First Look at Doctor Who’s New “Companions” in World Cup Halftime Teaser
Doctor Who fans across the world on Sunday got their first glimpse of the Time Lord’s new companions in a specially filmed preview of the new series, due to air this fall on BBC America.
Last summer, the BBC used another major sporting event, Wimbledon, to announce the first-ever woman to play the lead role on Doctor Who’, Jodie Whittaker.
The actress was already familiar to U.K. audiences for her role on ITV’s Broadchurch (coincidentally written by new Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall).
Whovians, as fans love to call themselves, were treated to seeing the new Doctor’s new “friends” (a term the new production team seem to be favoring over the more well-established “companions”) in action during the World Cup preview.
Seemingly now adopting Flash-like superpowers, the Doctor (Whittaker) swooshed in and around Bradley Walsh (Law & Order U.K.), Tosin Cole (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Mandip Gill as new characters Graham, Ryan and Yasmin, respectively.
With no dialogue present, Whittaker’s Time Lord stole a sausage from Ryan’s breakfast, swapped Graham’s newspaper for The Beano (a children’s comic and another U.K. institution) and replaced a missing pizza for Yasmin — all oblivious to the Doctor’s presence and actions.
The brief preview ended with Whittaker smiling to camera.
Sadly, for Whovians, there was no first look at the Doctor’s iconic time-traveling ship, the TARDIS, which is also expected to undergo a regeneration with its leading lady.
Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch) is head writer and executive producer, while Matt Strevens (Tin Star) and Sam Hoyle (Broadchurch) are exec producers for BBC Studios and Ben Irving (Paddington, Paddington 2) is exec producer for BBC One.
Doctor Who is a BBC Studios production for BBC One and a BBC America co-production.
Naturally, Princess Charlotte Steals the Spotlight in Her Brother’s Official Christening Portraits
Prince Louis’s christening portraits are here, and his big sister Charlotte managed to steal the spotlight — would you expect anything else?
On Sunday, the royal family shared a handful of official photos from their third child’s christening, which took place at the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace in London on July 9.
In the sweet snaps, Kate Middleton cradles her baby boy in her arms in the garden of Clarence House and poses lovingly with the rest of her family in a series of group shots.
Huddled around the sleeping 3-month-old are his parents; siblings George and Charlotte (who is adorable while checking on her baby brother in one photo); and grandparents Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Michael and Carole Middleton.
Kate’s brother James and pregnant sister Pippa and her husband James Matthews make an appearance, as do newlyweds Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Prince Louis entered the world on April 23, and his christening marked the first time we’ve seen the tiny royal since his official photos with sister Charlotte in May.
On the same day as releasing Louis’s precious pictures, Kate and Prince William popped up at Wimbledon together to watch the men’s singles final, and Kate checked out Serena William’s match with sister-in-law Meghan Markle on Saturday.
Keep reading to see Louis’s cute christening photos, then look back on George and Charlotte’s royal baptisms.
Josh Flagg Wears Turban During Charades … Cracks Airplane Bombing Joke
“Million Dollar Listing L.A.” star Josh Flagg made a terrible joke at a hotel in the South of France, but he says there were Muslims, Jews, Christians and others at the table … all playing what he says was an innocent game of charades.
Josh says he was pretending to be Grace Kelly with sunglasses and a scarf that looked like a turban, when he cracked, “I’m about to blow up an airline.”
Flagg tells TMZ, “I am sorry for how offensive this comment was and I regret saying it.
In today’s environment, which is so politically correct, people will make a big thing about anything you do.
He goes on … “Of course it looks horrible.
But in today’s environment, everything gets taken out of context.
I was sitting at a table with several Jews and Muslims and all of us were making fun of each other. “If they filmed 5 minutes earlier they would have seen others acting out in the game, such as my friend being a Jewish grandma cooking matzo ball soup.
Here’s the problem with today — you can innocently do something among friends who are Christian, Jewish and Arab and have a good time.
As for how the “bombing” comment came about, he says someone at the table asked who he was supposed to be during a question about old film stars, and that’s when he says he “made fun of the person” with the remark.
Power of Expectations
Today I read an article in the New York Times that reminded me just how powerful our expectations are–both positive and negative.
The nocebo effect is the tendency of people to get expected side effects even when they are taking a sugar pill.
Even though the pills themselves had no effect on their body, their blood pressure dropped dangerously low.
If you expect to have a negative interaction with a coworker, your expectation may very well make you respond in a way to get exactly what you expect.
Expectations are a difficult thing to change and while you can try to “think positive” or maybe “expect positive” you may need to actually do something to give yourself a reason to expect different results.
For example, maybe you can’t expect a good interaction with a particular coworker, but what if you try to do something different yourself that will help create a better result?
They are trying to improve X so they do something small with the expectation that it will improve X.
By having the expectation, their subconscious participates in many ways to help get the results they are expecting.
Maybe it means their brain instructs their body to regulate certain processes differently.
If your expectations are low in a certain area, then you are going to be working against yourself unless you can find some way to make improvements that also involves raising your expectations.
Can Blockchain Eliminate The Myth Of The Starving Artist?
Dada is a cross between a marketplace, an art project, and a technology startup—a uniquely hybrid status that may well be the key to redefining success for artists in the digital age.
The concept of partial ownership of an artwork has little weight in the art world because it has been historically unfeasible to track the sale and resale of a work of art and there is no mechanism to ensure a percentage of that profit is funneled back to the artist in an efficient and transparent way.
As the price for his work increased with his increasing reputation as an artist, each resale of his works would have resulted in significant additional income for Johns in his lifetime.
When associated with a cryptocurrency, the partial ownership model to artistic creation is extremely easy to implement using blockchain, because digital works can be “signed” and tracked so every sale and resale results in an automatic partial payment to the originating artist.
By October 2017, Dada had added a new type of user to the platform—the collector—and released “Creeps and Weirdos,” a collection of limited edition digital drawings generated exclusively on the platform which were signed and available for purchase in the cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Equal parts artist and entrepreneur, Ramos has been successful by most measures.
It also promises to create revenue for Dada’s artists while maintaining the beauty and authenticity of its user interactions.
An uneasy mix of money and magic With the investment from ConsenSys, the Dada team are now looking to design and implement a custom cryptocurrency—a DADA coin—that would form the underlying unit of value for Dada’s marketplace.
Value and values How might an ideal economy for artists actually work?
On Dada, each drawing is displayed, literally, next to the drawing that inspired it, making the value of artistic inspiration explicit in an intriguing new way.
A course package that’ll make you a professional-grade photographer, and you name your price
Photography is no different than other artistic pursuits like painting or writing or music.
If you want to get good, you need to understand the tools, learn the philosophies, and complete the training to truly master the craft.
Sure, you can noodle around with a digital camera until you’re blue in the face (which actually sounds like an oft-made photography mistake like redeye), but there’s no need to waste all that time with trial and error when a solid foundation can be set right from the beginning.
The Professional Photography course bundle can provide the background needed to truly understand the art of picture taking — and right now, you can name your price for this fully-rounded training package.
By matching the average price paid by other shoppers, you get the complete 7-course collection, featuring tutorials on a host of photography basics.
The pack includes: Photography Masterclass (a $199.99 value) Mac Photos 2018: Photo Editing, Organizing And Sharing On Mac (a $99.99 value) Ten Top Tips: Be More Creative With Your Camera (a $34.99 value) Mastering Photographic Exposure: Learn The Fundamentals (a $199.99 value) Posing Individuals, Groups, And Families (a $34.99 value) The Ultimate Guide To Using Off-Camera Flash (a $25 value) Wedding Photography: Tips, Tricks And Ideas For Amazing Photos (a $34.99 value) With this package, you’ll work through over 37 hours of coursework, highlighting introductory dos and don’ts, shutter speeds and aperture settings, composition with people, lighting, digital editing and more.
There’s even an entire course on everything you need to know to photograph a wedding, shooting everything from the vow exchange to the cake cutting to the dance floor and beyond.
These seven courses are regularly priced at $630, but with this deal, you can pick up the whole collection for a fraction of that total.
Traeger Timberline 850 Review: Can Your Smartphone Make A Grill Better?
Traeger approached me to see if I would be interested in a long-term review of its Timberline 850 wood pellet grill.
Once assembled, the Timberline 850 is a large and imposing looking grill, with lots of useful work surfaces, 850 square inches of cooking surface (enough for eight rib racks or nine chickens) spread across three adjustable levels, a 24 pound pellet hopper, and the integrated WiFIRE controller.
In terms of cost of operation, the Timberline 850 hopper consumes pellets at a fairly slow rate when cooking at low temperatures, but the rate increases significantly when you dial the thermostat up (the company says anywhere from one to three pounds per hour).
Every 20 minutes or so for the next six hours, I have to walk out to the back yard “BBQ pit” to add charcoal, adjust the vent to keep the temperature low (it can quickly take off to 300 degrees or more if not watched closely), and continually add wood chips to keep the smoke coming.
If the temperature was ramped up, there could be a short period where it exceeded the target temperature by five or even 10 degrees, but that backed off as the fire pot was allowed to burn down.
I made a point of checking the Traeger grill temperature and meat probe temperature against the readings from my own thermometer.
So if you had any doubts about whether a wood pellet grill can truly replace a traditional charcoal or gas grill instead of primarily being a smoker, the Traeger Timberline 850 easily puts those to rest.
Based on my time with the Traeger Timberline 850 grill, there were three primary downsides compared to what I’m accustomed to: charcoal and propane.
Depending on how you cook, those wood pellets will likely cost a few dollars more per session than using charcoal or gas –although you don’t need to buy wood chips for smoke, which could even that cost out.
Based on my experience, Traeger’s WiFIRE connectivity makes an already great grill even better.
Robot Maps Rooms with Help From iPhone
The Unity engine has been around since Apple started using Intel chips, and has made quite a splash in the gaming world.
Unity allows developers to create 2D and 3D games, but there are some other interesting applications of this gaming engine as well.
For example, [matthewhallberg] used it to build a robot that can map rooms in 3D.
The impetus for this project was a robotics company that used a series of robots around their business.
The robots navigate using computer vision, but couldn’t map the rooms from scratch.
Using the Unity engine and an iPhone, the robot can perform in one of three modes.
The first is a user-controlled mode, the second is object following, and the third is 3D mapping.
Most of the computational work is done remotely, with the robot simply receiving its movement commands from another computer.
There’s a lot going on here, software-wise, and a lot of toolkits and software packages to install and communicate with one another, but the video below does a good job of showing what you’ll need and how it all works together.
If that’s all too much, there are other robots with a form of computer vision that can get you started into the world of computer vision and mapping.
Nike Live Shows Physical Retail Is Far From Dead
Retail stores will completely die by the end of this decade, warned venture capitalist Marc Andreessen in an infamous interview back in 2013.
Perhaps LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman was right in his blog post response to Andreessen in 2013: “Software will not replace all offline retail, but will be used instead to transform certain offline retail experiences.” A prime example of bits and bytes transforming brick and mortar is the new Nike by Melrose store which opened last Thursday in Los Angeles.
The first “Nike Live” concept, Nike by Melrose is built on data and driven by digital.
The store checks many of the boxes of what physical retail needs to be in 2018 and beyond – Localized, Digitized, Personalized, Humanized, Socialized: Localized – As reported in Fast Company, it’s called Nike by Melrose not just for its Melrose Avenue street address, but because “the store was built by the people of Melrose”.
Both its location and the product it stocks were determined by Nike digital commerce data, gathered from the surrounding area (particularly via input from NikePlus members).
As VP and GM of Nike Direct Stores Cathy Sparks told the Los Angeles Times, “About 15% of our apparel and 25% of our footwear is going to change every two weeks…if a color like yellow is trending with our customers, then we’re going to bring in yellow.” Digitized – The concept is not just informed by the NikePlus app, it’s controlled by it.
To get the most out of the experience, shoppers need to access the store via NikePlus, which in turn generates new data, which is then fed back into Nike by Melrose – a virtuous cycle.
NikePlus members will be recognized as soon as they enter a geofenced area around the store, and as Nike learns more about a NikePlus user’s behavior, items might be automatically set aside, in that person’s size, regardless of whether a request has been made.
The store is the first time we can take that digital mechanic and apply it in a physical setting.” Humanized – One of the defining differences of physical retail is the ability to be served by a living, breathing human being, not a chatbot.
As quoted in Business Insider, O’Neill said that this is a living lab.
How to check the security of your Google Chrome extensions
What are Chrome extensions?
And as if things are not bad enough, Google Chrome allows extensions to be installed from third-party websites through something called the inline install API.
Things you should check before installing a Chrome extension Make sure you really need the extension This one is not about the extension you intend to install but rather proper security hygiene.
Every functionality that you add to your system will increase your possible attack surface.
Never install an extension from outside of the Chrome Web Store Google has already enforced this policy for Chrome extensions that are published after June 12th, 2018.
Google says that the descriptions and feature lists in the Chrome Web Store are vital to help users make informed decisions on whether or not they really need a particular extension.
Please note that developers will still be able to locally install their extensions for testing by enabling developer mode.
Earlier this year AdGuard, a company that offers ad blocking products, revealed a list of five malicious Chrome extensions that in all had compromised over 20 million users.
Read the extension’s reviews on Chrome Web Store Malicious actors can and have created good reviews on Chrome Web Store to make their piece of malware look good.
This story is republished from TechTalks, the blog that explores how technology is solving problems… and creating new ones.
Amazon’s Curious Case of the $2,630.52 Used Paperback
That, after all, is usually how you make a sale in a competitive marketplace.
“Zowie,” the romance author Deborah Macgillivray wrote on Twitter last month after she discovered copies of her 2009 novel, “One Snowy Knight,” being offered for four figures.
Then there are the wild pricing specialists, who sell both new and secondhand copies.
One seller offered two copies, each for $1,967, although only one was described as “Nice!” All these were a bargain compared with the copy that cost $2,464.
Buying books on Amazon can be confusing, because sometimes the exact same book can have more than one listing.
This time, there was just one copy for sale, which cost a mere $691.
Acme Books, which was selling the $691 Petry book, used that exact price for “101 Blessings for the Best Mom in the World” and quite a few other books.
Flexibility noted in many venues.” Neither Acme nor Red Rhino returned emails for comment sent through their Amazon pages.
(Copies from other booksellers are as little as $30.)
Ms. Macgillivray, who has published eight novels, said she had been poking around Amazon’s bookstore and was more perplexed than ever by the pricing.
Watney: A Fully 3D Printed Rover Platform
We’re getting to the point that seeing 3D printed parts in a project or hack isn’t as exciting as it was just a few years ago.
Gone are the days of heading to a local hackerspace or college hoping their janky Mendel felt like working that day.
But all that really means is that hackers and makers now have the ability to utilize 3D printing even more.
Forget printing one or two parts of your design, just print the whole thing.
Over the course of several design iterations, he built a very capable all-wheel drive platform that needs only some electronics and a handful of M3 screws to leap into action.
Plus it’s low warp, which is really going to help when printing the top and bottom sections of the body.
TPU is advised for the tires, but if you don’t have any (or your printer chokes on flexible filaments) you can just wrap the wheels with wide rubber bands.
[Nik] is using a Raspberry Pi Zero W as the brains of the operation, but the beauty of an open platform like this is that you could easily swap out the controls for something else to meet your needs.
In addition to the Pi, there’s a L298N H-bridge motor controller to interface with the dual geared motors, as well as a servo to provide tilt for the SainSmart camera module.
Though if you’re looking for something a little more rough and tumble, we’ve seen a 3D printed rover that looks combat-ready.
Ugh, Elon Musk attacks British diver who called his submarine ‘just a PR stunt’
Surprise!
In a series of tweets Sunday morning, Musk referred to Unsworth as a “pedo,” requested video of the cave rescue, retracted that request, then promised proof that his submarine could have, in fact, performed the rescue.
It’s a lot.
Only people in sight were the Thai navy/army guys, who were great.
Thai navy seals escorted us in — total opposite of wanting us to leave.
Huge credit to pump & generator team.
Unsung heroes here.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2018 You know what, don’t bother showing the video.
We will make one of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo.
Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.
Taylor Swift is hilariously shocked when two fans get engaged at her meet-and-greet
Taylor Swift really may have been shocked this time.
The pop icon, who is famous for seeming genuinely stunned every time she wins an award, was left open-mouthed when two fans got engaged right in front of her at a meet-and-greet during her Reputation tour.
The proposal went down Friday night at Swift’s Philadephia show.
The couple, Anthony Yannuzzi and Stephanie Pysher, say they met five years ago when Swift’s Red tour stopped in Philadelphia.
Naturally, Swift Instagrammed the happy occasion, with the hashtag #thirdwheel.
They walk into the meet and greet and he says “We met 5 years ago at the Red Tour” and then….. 😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻 #thirdwheel A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Jul 13, 2018 at 10:55pm PDT Anthony had been tweeting about his plans on the sly since June 6 from @TSphilaPROPOSAL, where he urged other Swifties to help him get Taylor’s attention.
“I want to give my girlfriend the proposal of her dreams!” he wrote.
“Help me spread the word so Taylor can see this.
I know Taylor can make this night unforgettable.” It worked, though not quite in the way they expected: The couple was picked at random to participate in the meet-and-greet, meaning Swift was as surprised as Stephanie.
Now, they’re wearing matching T-shirts of the moment on Instagram: “We are back as an engaged couple!” Swift may have started something here: Mariah Carey helped one of her backup dancers get engaged onstage during her Butterfly Returns show Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Conor McGregor Watches World Cup Final as Vladimir Putin’s Guest
Conor McGregor got to sit in on the World Cup final in person this weekend, showing up as a guest of none other than Vladimir Putin.
The UFC star posted a photo of himself Sunday alongside Russia’s president, posing like a tough guy with someone he calls “one of the greatest leaders of our time.”
Conor’s caption read … “Today I was invited to the World Cup final as a guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This man is one of the greatest leaders of our time and I was honored to attend such a landmark event alongside him.
Today was an honor for me Mr. Putin.
Thank you and congratulations on an amazing World Cup.”
Hopefully they’re both aware Russia got knocked out in the quarter finals, but that’s beside the point.
What’s important (and weird) is that Conor is super chummy with Putin … who’s known as kind of a bad dude, depending on who you talk to.
All we can say … it’s an interesting way to ring in the big baby news from this weekend.
Word to your Mother, Russia …we guess.
Bogus Production Problems Might Stop Bill & Ted 3 From Happening
The adventures of Bill S. Preston and Theodore Logan might not be continuing after all, in some of the least radical news we’ve gotten in a while.
Just a couple months ago, word was that a third Bill & Ted movie, Bill & Ted Face the Music, was a sure thing, with the main cast ready to reprise their roles as older-but-not-wiser heroes.
Now, star Keanu Reeves isn’t so sure.
Talking to Yahoo!
Entertainment, he said that, “I don’t know if [Bill & Ted 3] is a reality,” adding, “We’ve been trying for a long time to get that film made, and it still has its challenges.” Those challenges, apparently, are the normal logistical concerns that can torpedo so many movies.
“Part of it is business stuff—financing, rights, deals.
Nothing creatively.” Friends, this is not triumphant news.
I am officially bummed.
Please, someone, let Keanu make his movie.
He deserves it.
How to Read pH Strips
Edit Article If you’re interested in testing the alkalinity or acidity of a liquid, you can use pH strips to help you determine the pH level.
Compare it to the colors on the pH chart that came with the strips to determine the pH level of your substance.
Some test strips only need to be left in the test liquid for about a second, while others need about 20 seconds to produce a reading.
Be sure to read the instructions to ensure that your reading will be accurate.
[2] 3 Dip one end of the test strip in the substance you want to test.
Hold the strip at one end and dip the other end in the liquid, then remove it after the appropriate length of time.
[3] You can use pH strips to test the pH level of any liquid.
Your pH strips should come with a pH color chart.
When your test strip has finished reacting, hold it up to the chart and compare the color of the strip to the color chart.
When you find the number associated with the color on the strip, you’ll have your pH reading.
For a Brief, Glorious Moment, Camera-Wielding Pigeons Spied From Above
We are used to satellite imagery, drone photography, and of course pictures taken from airplanes.
That was all pie-in-the-sky, so to speak, in 1909.
Sure, people had used kites to take photographs from high above ground, but kites had their limitations.
The pictures the public saw at at the 1909 Dresden International Exhibition of Photography were something else.
They came about because a pigeon owner wanted to see where his birds went.
His name was Julius Neubronner, and he had a family history of using pigeons in unconventional ways.
His father, also an apothecary, received prescriptions and sent out urgent medications by pigeon.
Neubronner also relied on pigeons to replenish his stocks of medications.
But when a bird went missing for a month, Neubronner was curious to know where it had been.
While other bird-owners might consider this thought a mere flight of fancy, an unanswerable question, Neubronner took a different view: He designed a camera, one that shot automatically, for his pigeons to wear.
Girl’s Postcard to a Veteran Boasts the Simple Wisdom of Children
When a certain work assignment brought me to Nebraska for two weeks, this Canadian was given a wonderful opportunity to become immersed not only in the passion and pride of American culture, but in the generous nature of the Heartland.
I was celebrating my first ever Memorial Day when one of my local friends invited me to join her, along with many other community members, to place 900 American flags in the small town’s park before the holiday ceremony to commemorate veterans lost in war.
I enthusiastically accept her thoughtful invitation.
Following the emotional service, we wandered over to see a display of military memorabilia from the little American town.
Scattered among these reminders of the past were hundreds of postcards written to veterans by local school children.
It was quickly obvious that the teachers must have coached the children with examples of what to write, because table after table was filled with postcards that contained the same three messages – except for one that was written by a child named Emily, saying: “THANK YOU FOR PROTECTING THE GOOD.” LOOK: 15-Year-old Melts the Hearts of Airline Passengers When She Befriends Blind and Deaf Passenger I stood and stared at the postcard for a long time, contemplating this big message from such a little girl.
For me, its meaning went far beyond the original intention of the postcard.
As I absorbed Emily’s words, Mike McCardell suddenly jumped into my mind.
Mike is a reporter for a local news program in my home province of British Columbia.
For more than thirty years, Mike wrapped up the last five minutes of the six o’clock news with a feel good story, celebrating the people and places of Vancouver.
The Best Indoor HDTV Antennas
Even though cable companies offer local channels as part of their packages, they typically compress the video for those channels.
Best Overall Indoor Antenna: Channel Master FLATenna 35 ($19) Anyone looking to cut the cord probably doesn’t want to spend that much on any extra hardware.
The standard model FLATenna is good for 35 miles of range, meeting or beating other well-reviewed antennas at twice the price.
Best Amplified Indoor Antenna: ClearStream Eclipse Amplified ($56) If you’re at the outskirts of your metro area, your antenna might need a little extra oomph to pull in strong station signals.
The ClearStream Eclipse is a solid pick in the first place, but pulls ahead of the pack in this bundle that adds a 20db in-line electrical amplifier.
If you need anything longer, you’ll have to go for an exterior model.
The circular antenna looks appealing on its own, but if you’d like something a little more subtle, it’s reversible with white or black faces that can also take standard indoor wall paint.
This variant on ClearStream’s indoor design is for you.
Best Budget Indoor Antenna: 1byone Digital Indoor ($10) This basic antenna isn’t as flexible or as powerful as the other models on this list, but at just ten bucks, it’s a cord-cutting TV option that anyone can afford.
If you need a little more range without stretching your budget much further, an amplified upgrade costs just six bucks more, which should be good for up to fifty miles without any major obstructions to the signal tower.
Thai Boys Cry As They Pay Respects To Navy Seal Who Died Trying To Save Them
The 12 boys evacuated from the flooded cave in Thailand have paid their respects to the brave Navy Seal who lost his life trying to save them.
The boys and their soccer coach were not told that Petty Officer Saman Kunan had drowned ahead of their dramatic three-week rescue.
But now doctors have decided the boys are healthy enough to know of the 37-year-old’s personal sacrifice for them. “All of the boys cried and were in tears when they found out,” said Dr. Jesada Chockbamrungsuk, who is in charge of their treatment. “The survivors expressed their thanks to the Thai Navy Seal by bowing to his picture.
The boys all promised to be a good person and lead a good life to honor him.
We told them about the death of Navy Seal Kunan as part of the process of preparing the boys to go back home and to lead normal lives.”
Hundreds of mourners paid their respects to Kunan at a special ceremony attended by high ranking military officials and a representative of the king at the Wat Ban Nong Khu temple in his home town of Chatuphak Piman yesterday.
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How an Army of Suffragettes Helped Save America From Starvation
During World War I, the US struggled with getting food to soldiers fighting overseas.
Meanwhile, there was a shortage of men to work the farms because they were busy fighting.
That’s when activist women stepped in.
Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, founded the Woman’s Land Army of America to pick up the slack in working the farms of America.
In Great Britain, the government-organized Women’s Land Army had already proved women were capable at taking over farm work during the war.
All three of those efforts served as models for the Women’s Land Army of America (W.L.A.A.
At first, the plan was just to increase home farming and gardens, but soon they realized farms across the country didn’t have the laborers they needed.
Women responded, many even leaving high school to join the Woman’s Land Army.
About 15,000 women worked farms in 21 states in 1918.
-via The Week
Switching to a Chromebook? Here’s What You Need to Know
First Things First: Is a Chromebook Right for You?
Before You Switch: Move All of Your Important Files to Google Drive The first thing you’ll want to do when making the jump over to a Chromebook is make all your files available across both platforms.
The app tray is the first icon in the shelf (sort if like the Windows Start Menu), where you’ll find everything that’s installed on the system.
For example, you can have most Chrome apps run in separate windows by using the “Open as window”option—this can give Chrome OS a very Windows-like feel instead of just running everything inside of a single Chrome window.
It has Google Drive baked into its core so you can access all your Drive files and folders as if they were natively stored on the Chromebook, but there is also local storage should you need something out of the cloud on onto the ‘Book’s physical drive.
The great thing about Chrome OS is how familiar it should feel, both to existing Chrome users and those who are coming from a different operating system.
There are four channels: Stable, Beta, Developer, and Canary, which each one getting progressively less and less stable.
In fact, you can run in the Stable channel, but still enable Developer Mode.
But if you’re okay with sacrificing some security, Developer Mode can unlock a lot of potential on your Chrome OS device—like the ability to sideload Android apps, use ADB and Fastboot in the Chrome Shell (crosh), or even set up Crouton—a Linux installation directly on your Chromebook you can use alongside Chrome OS.
Fortunately, Chrome OS is growing rapidly, and Google is doing a lot to make it more powerful without sacrificing a lot of the simplicity that makes it so great in the first place.
The brain may clean out Alzheimer’s plaques during sleep
The markers included some related to A-beta plaques, as well as inflammation and the protein tau, which appears in higher levels in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.
That said, most studies have a chicken-and-egg problem.
Compared with well-rested mice, sleep-deprived animals developed more than two times as many amyloid plaques over about a month, Holtzman says.
Alzheimer’s disease disrupts sleep.
A-beta levels were highest when the animals were awake but fell when the mice were sleeping (SN: 10/24/09, p. 11).
Other scientists have used brain scans to measure what happens to A-beta in people’s brains after a sleepless night.
“Five percent from one night of sleep deprivation is far from trivial.” And while the brain can likely recover with a good night’s sleep, the question is: What happens when sleep deprivation is a pattern night after night, year after year?
They set out to measure levels of A-beta in cerebrospinal fluid and markers of neuron injury in 13 volunteers, sleep deprived and not.
Maybe, she thought, the brain has “a hidden lymphatic system.” Nedergaard and colleagues decided to measure cerebrospinal fluid throughout the brain.
Using data from almost 2,500 people in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, researchers at the New York University School of Medicine found that people with sleep disorders like obstructive sleep apnea showed signs of mild cognitive problems and Alzheimer’s disease at younger ages than those who did not.
Utah Gun Rights Activist Becomes Newest Member of ‘I Was Duped by Sacha Baron Cohen’ Club
Janalee Tobias, a gun rights activist from Utah, has admitted in an interview with Deseret News that she fell victim to filming a segment with Sacha Baron Cohen for his new Showtime series Who Is America?
Per Tobias’s account, she was contacted over email by a “First Freedom Television” crew, who wanted to film her and an “Israeli security expert” highlighting shared security interests between America and Israel.
Almost immediately, she says she became suspicious of the segment’s intended topic: creating a gun safety program for toddlers.
“I knew something went weird when they were putting guns inside of stuffed animals,” she told the newspaper.
“Yanalee, will you teach the boys and girls how you safely handle puppy pistol?” he told her.
“No Yanalee, I want you take the bullets and show them.
Yanalee tell them to look at the pretty colors.” “What you do is you are just feeding the puppy the puppy food and (then) show them how you are tickling the tummy and the puppy spits it out and the bad guys go away,” she said he told her.
“He’s funny OK. He’s good.
But this is not funny with guns.” … “I think the bunny gun (song) was, ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes,’” she said.
“But it was ‘Head, shoulders, not the toes, not the toes.’ … I objected the entire time, but I am sure he will not show (that).” It got progressively worse, she said.
John Mayer Roasts Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin for Steamy Hot Tub Moment on Instagram
John Mayer pointed out one kind of awkward detail about Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin’s steamy makeout photo: the photographer was likely sitting beside them in the hot tub at the time.
“Interesting dynamic with the photographer in the hot tub,” Mayer, 40, wrote underneath the PDA-filled photo Bieber posted of himself and his fiancée on Friday.
Imagine being in a hot tub on business,” the “New Light” singer added in the comment, which was first spotted by Instagram account Comments by Celebs.
During their travel time, the “Sorry” singer and the Drop the Mic host showed off matching his and hers diamond-encrusted watches.
RELATED: Young and In Love!
Every Photo of Justin Bieber & Fiancée Hailey Baldwin Since Rekindling Their Romance Bieber confirmed their engagement on Monday in a heartfelt Instagram post, writing: “Was gonna wait a while to say anything but word travels fast, listen plain and simple Hailey I am soooo in love with everything about you!
So committed to spending my life getting to know every single part of you loving you patiently and kindLY.” Shortly after, Baldwin tweeted: “Not sure what I did in life to deserve such happiness but I am so utterly grateful to God for giving me such an incredible person to share my life with!
No words could ever express my gratitude.” Although they’ve only been engaged for a week, the young lovers are already working on planning their nuptials.
“As of now, they want a small ceremony with their families,” a source close to Bieber previously told PEOPLE.
They are getting married for love and don’t want a flashy wedding.”
#PlaneBae: A cautionary tale about privacy when a story goes viral
A woman secretly photographed on a flight to Dallas has released a statement about how she has been shamed and harassed since a fictional romance about her went viral on social media.
Parts of a conversation she had with a fellow passenger on 3 July was overheard by actress and comedian Rosey Blair and her boyfriend, who documented their interpretation of it as an unfolding romance which became known online as #PlaneBae.
But the woman says she has been hounded and doxxed – internet terminology for revealing someone’s personal information without their consent.
Report The faces of the two passengers who had unwittingly become the subject of Rosey’s story had been blurred out, but an online hunt was under way to try to identify them. “My personal information has been widely distributed online,” she said in the statement.
Embracing the media attention he was receiving, he accepted invitations to appear on US television including Good Morning America, and documented his new found fame on his own Instagram stories, even changing his social media biography to describe himself as “Plane Bae”.
However, criticism of the Plane Bae saga was getting louder, as social media users discussed its privacy and consent implications.
On Tuesday Rosey posted an apology to the woman on Twitter. “They posted images and recordings to social media, and speculated unfairly about my private conduct. “Since then, my personal information has been widely distributed online.
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