Use promo code 84AE5BMG and get this repair toolkit for $7. I bought one in August and it's come in handy many times since then.

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In 1944 George Orwell wrote an essay called “Benefit of Clergy,” in which he calls Salvador Dali a “disgusting human being.” Read the rest

Here's a short National Geographic video about a crying therapy service. Women pay a "handsome man" to make them cry, then gently wipe their tears away. The practiced is said to relieve stress.

Entrepreneur Hiroki Terai ... is the founder of a group crying service that encourages people to cry together while a “handsome weeping boy” wipes their tears away. Known as rui-katsu or 'tear-seeking,’ the practice is especially popular with women and is said to relieve stress levels. In Crying with the Handsome Man, filmmaker Darryl Thoms explores this unusual practice and why its founder believes it is bringing people together.

Marilyn Hartman (66) flew from Chicago to London on a British Airways jet last week. She didn't have a ticket or a passport. How did she do it? She simply walked past TSA security officers and airline ticket collectors!

From The New York Times:

First, she walked past two Transportation Security Administration officers while they were checking the boarding passes of other passengers, Tandra R. Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County State’s Attorney, said in a phone interview on Sunday.

“She hid her face with her hair and walked past the officers without presenting proper documentation to board a flight,” Ms. Simonton said.

After Ms. Hartman joined the security line and was screened by the T.S.A., she tried to board a flight to Connecticut around 2 p.m., attempting to conceal herself behind a passenger who was waiting in line, Ms. Simonton said. As Ms. Hartman tried to dart past the passenger, the gate agent stopped her, and directed her to sit down, Ms. Simonton said.

Prosecutors said Ms. Hartman stayed overnight at the airport, and the next day she approached a shuttle bus headed for the international gate.

“This shuttle requires a passport and plane ticket to board,” Ms. Simonton said, but despite having neither document, Ms. Hartman boarded the shuttle.

According to the police, she then got on a flight that landed at Heathrow Airport in London, where she was detained by British customs officials and denied entry into the United Kingdom. When she arrived in the United States on Thursday, she was charged with one felony count of theft and one misdemeanor for trespassing.

The best way to avoid the many trolls, Russian agents, and nazis that Twitter is eager to host is to stop using Twitter. The next best thing might be to use "soft blocks," as described by Barry Ritholtz on his The Big Picture site.

Enlist mutes, blocks (soft blocks, too) and reports: Use these tools to manage your flow and keep out the unruly elements. My rule is that I mute the annoying and block the intellectually dishonest. The truly dangerous and offensive jerks get reported (doing this helps the community police its worst elements). And you can import other people’s block lists via a free service called Block Together (but it can result in some false positives, meaning some blocks you may have wanted to keep).

I also have been known to “soft block” people, a quick block/unblock and mute so that a) they no longer follow me and b) I no longer see them. It reduces the jerk factor dramatically.

Avoid forecasters, too: When they are correct, it’s mostly random, and when they are wrong, the advice is hilariously expensive. Steer clear of the relentless self-promoters. When PR people tweet at me, I not only block them on Twitter, but I also blacklist them everywhere else I can.

Be wary of blocking people whose views are diametrically opposed to yours. Try to find people with whom you can respectfully disagree. This will encourage you to be civil and help you avoid creating your own biased ideological bubble.

Finally, keep clear of the jerks.

This wireless scale works with Apple HealthKit and costs $25 when you use the coupon on the Amazon page and apply promo code D7DQA4SJ. It measures body fat, too, but I don't think any scale is very good at measuring body fat. Read the rest

The Republican party is rapidly becoming the party of white men. Minorities want nothing to do with the GOP and a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that white women are now ditching the party of pussy grabber apologists.

From Reason:

According to exit polls, some 53 percent of white women who voted in the 2016 presidential election chose Trump, giving him a nine-point lead over Clinton with this cohort. White women were also more likely to choose Republican candidates in the 2014 midterm elections, by 14 points.

This latest survey marks a change. White female voters now poll more like women (and men) of color than like white men.

Among registered voters, the poll showed white women preferring Democrats by a 12-point lead. Some 50 percent said they would vote Democrat in the 2018 midterms, with only 38 percent preferring GOP candidates.

Non-white female voters preferred Democrats by a 53-point margin.

Overall, 64 percent of all women polled preferred Democrats (up from 55 percent in fall 2017), with 29 percent preferring Republicans. The score was 57–31 in Democrats' favor when we consider only women who are registered voters. And two-thirds of this group said they "strongly disapprove" of Trump's presidential performance so far.

This is why Ann Coulter has long espoused the opinion that women shouldn't be allowed to vote.

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Here's the set up: two cars are side by side on the road. One car is going 70mph and the other is going 100mph. The drivers of the cars see a fallen tree in the road and start braking at the same time. The car that had been going 70mph stops right before touching the tree. How fast is the other car going when it hits the tree? The answer surprised me. Read the rest

"Larry, you do now realize that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time are now a force, and you are nothing." Read the rest

Little Ripper is a remote controlled multicopter that carries a floatation device. On its first day of service off the coast of Lennox Head in Australia, the drone was used to drop a floatation device for two boys in distress.

From Core 77:

In a little over a minute, a lifeguard supervisor had launched the drone, spotted the boys, flew it over to them, and remotely dropped the flotation device. The boys were able to grab it and swim to shore.

The drone is manufactured by a company called Little Ripper Lifesaver, founded by Kevin Weldon after he witnessed a drone canvassing the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and realized its lifesaving potential. The Marine Pod dropped over Lennox Head contained a water-triggered flotation device, which is repackable and reusable. The company is now testing a saltwater-activated electromagnetic shark repellent device, with plans to include that in future kits.

Image: Little Ripper Lifesaver website Read the rest

Hill Billies Ice Hole is a seasonal bar that sits on Minnesota’s frozen Lake Lida. It's a favorite among ice fisherfolk, especially because you can fish from inside the bar. The favorite drink is the minnow shot, which is a shot of hooch with -- you guessed it -- a live, wriggling minnow in it.

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Stairs that lead nowhere. Toilets that get in the way of doors. Balconies you can't stand on. Pfusch am bau is a Pinterest page with delightful examples of building boo-boos. Read the rest

Just a few minutes left to get this super lightweight backpack that folds into a small pouch. I just bought one for our upcoming trip to Japan. It's $16 on sale. Read the rest

Delta passengers who wish to bring emotional-support animals with them on flights now face tighter restrictions. Beginning March 1, passengers must provide a letter signed by a doctor or licensed mental-health professional attesting to the passenger's need to travel with the animal and a letter that states the animal can behave out of a kennel.

From USA Today:

Because of a vague definition for what qualifies, Delta said passengers have brought turkeys, possums and snakes on planes as comfort animals.

Delta said it won't accept those critters as comfort animals any more — or other exotic animals such as hedgehogs, ferrets, reptiles, or anything with tusks or hooves.

Comfort animals can be discomforting to others. Incidents of animals urinating, defecating and biting, and behaving more aggressively with growling and lunging, have increased dramatically in recent years, according to the airline.

In one highly publicized case in June, an emotional-support dog bit a neighboring passenger in the face during the boarding of a flight from Atlanta to San Diego.

“The rise in serious incidents involving animals in flight leads us to believe that the lack of regulation in both health and training screening for these animals is creating unsafe conditions across U.S. air travel,” Laughter said. “We are committed to consistently improving our policies, prioritizing the safety of all Delta customers and employees.”

My seatmate, CLT➡️AVL, is this handsome duck named Daniel. His gentle quacking eases the sadness of leaving #SFA16. pic.twitter.com/iDKWCceAFi

— Mark Essig (@mark_essig) October 16, 2016

Image: DanDee Shots/Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Read the rest

Master woodworker Matthias Wandel made this demonstration safe lock. He sells the plans for $7 here.

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Chris Christie, the much-reviled former New Jersey governor, learned that he will no longer be treated like the important person he pretends to be. Yesterday at Newark Liberty International Airport Christie headed straight to the special VIP entrance with his state police security detail but was turned away.

From Huffington Post:

The entry point is typically used by dignitaries and others to bypass the normal Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, and Christie used it himself recently, according to NBC New York.

However, his access to the bypass appears to have ended this week along with his two terms as governor of the Garden State.

“Port Authority says Christie showed up at Newark Airport today with NJ State PD detail,” a Port Authority spokesman told CBS New York. “They tried to go into the special access area where they have been going for years. A PA cop told him he was no longer allowed to use that access and they escorted him to the regular area.”

Christie was quick to say the story was fake news, but at that point, nobody really cared what he had to say about it, or anything else.

Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) Read the rest

Pianist Scott Bradlee gives the old ragtime treatment to Super Mario Bros. It's as if the music was always meant to be played that way.

Here's the obligatory death metal version from the Bowser Castle music:

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