Cosplayer Krystle Starr appeared at Comic-Con with this new outfit. It combines Princess Leia in her iconic slave outfit from Return of the Jedi with Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager, including the Borg's hand and optical implants. Fun will now commence.
John Farrier's Blog Posts
Thieves Navan, County Meath, Ireland broke into a home while the residents were away on holiday. Alerted to their presence, police pursued them. The burglars fled in a car until they ran into a cul-de-sac, then continued on foot across a field.
That's when they messed with the wrong cow. The Irish Times reports:
One of the cows, a court was told, began charging the burglars and forced one of them, Daniel Lawlor, 23, to run straight into the path of a garda cordon, which was lying in wait on a road at the other side of the field, where he was promptly arrested.
None of the other gang members were caught, however.
“They were of valuable assistance,” Det Pat Muldowney said speaking about his bovine backers.
-via Instapundit | Photo: Simone Berna
In 1912, Kodak issued the Vest Pocket Camera. It was cheap and portable and thus became the "soldier's camera" when World War I broke out two years later.
Photographer Mathieu Stern, whom we last saw experimenting with time-lapse and UV photography, recently took a trip to Vienna with a camera lens from one of those Vest Pocket Cameras. He used it to record video from the most famous sights in that city. This is the result.
-via Nag on the Lake
While under German occupation during World War II, the French car company Citroën continued to produce trucks. But it had to do so for the hated enemy armies.
In response, Pierre-Jules Boulanger, the president of Citroën, found a brilliant and subtle way to sabotage those trucks.
He had factory workers move the engine oil indicator notch on the dipstick down just a little bit. Jalopnik explains:
By moving the notch down, the trucks would not have enough oil, but German mechanics would have no idea, because, hey, they little notch on the dipstick says its just fine. Then, after the truck has been used for a while and is out deployed somewhere crucial, whammo, the engine seizes up, and you’ve got a lot of angry, stranded, vulnerable Nazis, balling up their little fists and redly barking curses in German.
Photos: TycoonX and Dvortygirl
Scientists say that the Mollisquama mississippiensis is called a "pocket shark" not because it's so cute you want to keep it in your pocket for when you need a smile, but because it has pockets near its gills. From these pockets, the little shark secretes luminous chemicals that attract prey. CBS News reports that scientists are delighted with the find, as it resembles the only other known pocket shark species:
"In the history of fisheries science, only two pocket sharks have ever been captured or reported," Mark Grace of NOAA'S NMFS Mississippi Laboratories said in the press release. "Both are separate species, each from separate oceans. Both are exceedingly rare."
-via Debby Witt | Photo: Mark Doosey
Which wine goes best with Cheez-It crackers? That depends on which cheesy flavor you have selected. Your sommelier from House Wine will guide you. For a limited time, it's possible to purchase a box that contains both wine and Cheez-It crackers. Ad Week explains:
Though this may be one of the more unconventional collaborations, it is an interesting way to draw attention to the Cheez-It brand’s use of real cheese in their baked crackers while highlighting the versatility of House Wine by associating it with an everyday snack.
-via Dave Barry | Photo: Kellogg's
Fredrik Haren is a public speaker, author, and thought leader. He often addresses the topic of creativity and would like to help other people develop their creative ideas.
Haren is fascinated by islands. He owns two in Sweden, one of which he lives on. The other, which is near Stockholm, has a guesthouse, outbuildings, and a dock. If you impress him with an idea, he will give you a week of bucolic isolation on the island to develop it.
For free.
Would you like to apply? Here's a form to fill out. Haren is currently taking applications for the summer of 2020.
-via Messy Nessy Chic
Then & Now Movie Locations is a fascinating blog that photographs the location shots of famous movies. Most recently, it recorded images from the locations used to shoot scenes from the desert planet of Tatooine from the first Star Wars film.
Here you see R2-D2 rolling through an area of Death Valley National Park known as "Artist's Palette". It's an alluvial fan noted for a wide range of colorful hues.
Sure, a skilled parent with time and proper sewing equipment on hand can adapt a costume to suit a child with special needs. But wouldn't it be nice if big retailers offered them for sale, ready to go? Now they do. Biz Women reports:
Target will offer four costumes this Halloween that cater to children with special needs, including covers that transform a wheelchair into a pirate ship or princess carriage and costumes without the tags and seams that can be problematic for children with sensory-processing disorders. [...]
In April, the company added adaptive pieces to its Pillowfort kids’ furniture collection that accommodate both the need for stimulation and for calming, per Fast Company, including a foam “crash pad,” a desk chair that rocks, a weighted blanket and bean bag chairs with waterproof covers.
In addition to the pirate and princess wheelchair-friendly costumes, the Halloween line includes a shark and a unicorn costume both with flat seams and no tags and detachable parts and hidden openings to accommodate dressing challenges.
On Monday morning, a truck flipped over during a terrible crash on a busy freeway in Chicago. One man inside was able to climb out, but the other was trapped.
Almost immediately, other drivers stopped and rushed to his aid. Together, these men flipped the pickup truck over and pulled the crash victim, Orlando Hernandez, to safety. ABC News reports:
Tom Meyers was leaving his full-time job as a firefighter in Rosemont, Illinois, for his part-time firefighting job in Aurora Township when he drove past the scene.
"Anytime you see something like that happen, you always … have that urge to help," he told WLS. [...]
Meyers and others used the construction workers' tools to break the windshield and cut Hernandez's seat belt, WLS reported.
The group cheered once they realized Hernandez wasn't seriously injured.
-via Nick Short
For the ultimate in home security, you need a fortified offshore tower armed with muzzle-loading cannons.
This gun tower in Pembroke Dock, Wales, UK, was built in 1851 to protect the harbor from invasion. It was manned during World War I and II, when the UK was again under threat.
And now it's for sale! You can buy the fort and live in at as a home for a mere £70,000 ($87,000 USD). Here's the real estate listing.
It even comes with the original cannons! Really, the place has everything you could ask for in a residence. The Daily Mail reports:
The Grade II listed tower has substantial curved walls that are 13 metres high and up to 2.7 metres thick in some parts. [...]
It is accessed via a long walkway built on land owned by the Crown Estate, which would be leased for an annual 'peppercorn' rent, according to John Francis, the estate agent handling the sale.
A peppercorn rent is a nominal rent--usually consisting of a single peppercorn. I suggest trying to buy the walkway, then rigging it with demolition charges for emergency use.
-via Ace of Spades HQ
Would you like to learn about an exciting new business opportunity that can earn you a great income from the comfort of your home? Then let me tell you about snail slime!
We've previously clued you into the snail cream beauty treatment that is used by your favorite models and celebrities in South Korea. This luxury beauty product that millions of your future customers are craving is made from slime that is "milked" from snails in Thailand. Here's how one entrepreneur is using it to supplement her income. Phys.org reports:
The snails at Phatinisiri Thangkeaw's farm were once the scourge of rice farmers, loathed for eating the buds of new crops. [...]
With her 1,000 snails, the teacher makes an extra $320 to $650 a month.
It is one of more than 80 farms in Nakhon Nayok province, two hours from the capital Bangkok, cashing in on the global snail beauty market, estimated at $314 million, according to research group Coherent Market Insights.
Snail farms are popping up all over Thailand. You should get into the market now to secure your share of the future!
-via Dave Barry | Photo: Phys.org
It is an understandable response. For what could be better than to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women?
Just don't say it out loud. That will tip them off as to your ultimate plans.
If you listen to old radio dramas, you may notice that women's voices are often pitched higher than you may be used to. It may be because, as researchers have found, women in English-speaking countries are actually speaking with deeper voices. A BBC report from 2018 explained:
The researchers compared archival recordings of women talking in 1945 with more recent recordings taken in the early 1990s. The team found that the “fundamental frequency” had dropped by 23 Hz over five decades – from an average of 229 Hz (roughly an A# below middle C) to 206 Hz (roughly a G#). That’s a significant, audible difference.
The researchers tried to control for external variables that may result in vocal changes:
The researchers had carefully selected their samples to control for any potential demographic factors: the women were all university students and none of them smoked. The team also considered the fact that members of the more recent group from the 1990s were using the contraceptive pill, which could have led to hormonal changes that could have altered the vocal chords. Yet the drop in pitch remained even when the team excluded those women from their sample.
Their best guess is that women have habitually deepened their voices as they have gained authority in society:
Instead, the researchers speculated that the transformation reflects the rise of women to more prominent roles in society, leading them to adopt a deeper tone to project authority and dominance in the workplace.
-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: US Army Corps of Engineers
No, it doesn't change itself.
That would be revolutionary and worth purchasing.
What the new line by Pampers does is track the baby's pee and sleep with a sensor that attaches with velcro to the front of the diaper. The camera observes the baby's movement, as well as the humidity and temperature of the room. An app pulls all of the data together so that you know what your baby is doing and when. You can see more photos at Design Boom.
Photo: Proctor & Gamble
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