Olivia Newton-John recently auctioned off hundreds of personal items from her career to benefit the Cancer Wellness & Research Centre she built in Australia. The big ticket item was her leather jacket from Grease that sold for almost $250,000. Turns out the buyer, a Grease superfan, is a wealthy physician and entrepreneur who returned the jacket to Newton-John. From CNN:

"This jacket belongs to you and the collective soul of those who love you, those for whom you are the soundtrack of their lives. It should not sit in a billionaire's closet for country club bragging rights," the anonymous buyer said in Los Angeles this weekend, in a video posted on Facebook by Julien's Auctions. "For this reason I humbly and respectfully return it to its rightful owner, which is you."

The buyer wanted to remain anonymous, so his face is blurred in the video...

"You're the best, you're the best! I'm so grateful," Newton-John said, while hugging the jacket and then the buyer. "This is the most beautiful present, but mainly it's your heart that I'm grateful for."

She seemed thrilled when the buyer asked if she would put it on display in her cancer center.

"Yes, it was was always my dream to do that, so yes!" Newton-John said.

Here's Julien's Auctions video of the moment posted to their Facebook page. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/AuDEUEyl1o0/olivia-newton-john-now-has-her.html

As a kid, I devoured cheap paperback books about “strange but true” phenomena. The short stories were anthologized from men’s adventure magazines of the 40s-60s and recounted mysteries such as: Who made the eerie statues on Easter Island? What happened on Amelia Earhart’s final flight? How do rocks in the desert move by themselves and leave trails in the mud? How do people spontaneously combust? Why did hundreds and hundreds of fish rain from the sky onto the heads of astonished residents of a small town in Australia? These stories set my imagination on fire.

Unfortunately, as I learned years later by going online, most of the stories turned out to be poorly researched or outright bogus. Mysteries of the Unknown is like these old books, but the stories are backed by solid research and a healthy amount of skepticism that does not detract from the fun. In fact, it makes the stories more fun. As an added bonus, the ample photos and illustrations bring the mysteries to life, making them even more mysterious.

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Sqz4xctCYK0/mysteries-of-the-unknown-insi.html

Aliexpress has lots of these little gadgets that rock a phone back-and-forth to fool the pedometer into thinking you are walking on a treadmill. They cost about $2.

Why? "Some insurance companies in China allow people who consistently reach a certain daily step count to get discounted health insurance premiums," writes Matthew Brennan.

Chinese phone cradle for boosting your phone's daily step count. Some insurance companies in China allow people who consistently reach a certain daily step count to get discounted health insurance premiums. pic.twitter.com/pJFBSYqdlb

 Matthew Brennan (@mbrennanchina) May 14, 2019

[via 52 Things I Learned in 2019] Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/5vKyUWj5cVs/cheap-phone-rocker-for-boostin.html

Last month, I posted about "witch bottles" -- containers of curious items like human teeth, fish hooks, glass shards, and undetermined liquid -- sometimes found in chimneys or inside walls of old buildings where they were placed to ward off evil spells, spirits, and curses. Turns out that there's a new book -- "Magical House Protection: the Archaeology of Counter-Witchcraft" by Brian Hoggard -- all about the strange history of witch bottles and other kinds of occult home protection! From John Rimmer's post about the text over at Magonia Review of Books:

We are all familiar with the practice of hanging up horse-shoes as a ‘good-luck’ token, although there is some disagreement as to whether the points of the shoe should be pointing up or down. My grandmother insisted that if the points were turned down, “the luck would all run out”.

Lots of people hang up a horseshoe, but maybe we would be less inclined to bury a dead cat under our threshold, or place a bottle full of urine and nail clippings up our chimney, or nail horses skulls underneath the floorboards? These are just some of the objects which have been used for centuries to offer some sort of ‘magical protection’ to houses and other properties.

In the past magic and witchcraft was not a topic for discussion between believers and sceptics, it was just an ordinary part of everyday life, and taking precautions to divert its power was seen as no more remarkable than taking an umbrella with you on a wet day to protect you from the rain.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/5OsoUWXif2o/the-weird-history-of-magical-w.html

In Prescott Valley, Arizona, David Keller was annoyed by the number of people he believes are falsely registering their pets as service animals so they can take them anywhere they want. So he visited a site called USAServiceDogRegistration.com and registered a hive of bees as his service animals. Of course, as service dog trainer Jaymie Cardin told AZFamily, these sites "don't mean anything. You can go pay for a registry on one of those web sites, and basically, you're just paying for a piece of paper and to put a name on a list."

From ADA.gov:

There are individuals and organizations that sell service animal certification or registration documents online. These documents do not convey any rights under the ADA and the Department of Justice does not recognize them as proof...

Also, Federal Law states that only dogs and miniature horses can be officially recognized as service animals.

In any case, Keller called his prank a success due to the, er, buzz it generated. "(These sites) are making people believe all animals are service animals when they're not," Keller said. "And there's a clear difference."

image: "Western honey bee" by Andreas Trepte (CC BY-SA 2.5) Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/cwXbDH1N32g/man-registers-hive-of-bees.html

Money laundering meets bacon?

The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office in Shelby, N.C. say they seized approximately $3 million in cash, wrapped in plastic, which is displayed in this photo near the barrels of raw pork shoulder in which it was discovered.

North Carolina deputies recovered the barrels Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019, from a tractor trailer they pulled over.

“It’s one of the largest U.S. currency seizures in Cleveland County history,” Sheriff Alan Norman told The Shelby Star.

Authorities say they believe the money was headed to drug cartels in Mexico, proceeds from drug sales in North Carolina.

The Department of Justice has been called to assist in the investigation, AP reports.

Approximately $3 million in cash was recovered from the barrels Saturday, the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Tuesday. The driver of the tractor trailer was accused of failing to maintain his lane and impeding the flow of traffic on Interstate 85.

(IMAGES: Cleveland County Sheriff's Office) Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/cs_hgELyVY0/cash-3-million-found-in-bar.html

I have but one question. Are they hiring? Sounds like a great place to work.

In Baltimore, a commercial real estate developer is distributing a total of $10 million in holiday bonuses to a total of 198 employees.

On Monday, WTOP TV news in Baltimore reported that St. John Properties was announcing the bonuses at the firm's holiday party.

From AP:

Edward St. John, the founder and chairman of the company, said the amount of money that each employee gets is based on tenure. The average bonus was $50,000, but some employees will get upward of $250,000.

The company has employees throughout Maryland and northern Virginia. The bonuses celebrate the company’s achievement of developing 20 million square feet of office space, retail and warehouses. That real estate is spread out over eight states.

Edward St. John said that he is “thankful for every one of our employees for their hard work and dedication. I couldn’t think of a better way to show it.”

PHOTO: Edward St. John, the founder and chairman of St. John Properties, IMAGE COURTESY St. John Properties Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/_P_rssq16Mk/this-firm-gave-10-million-in.html

It's not surprising that Trump used his own charity like a personal piggy bank. Nor is it surprising that his base loves him all the more for stealing the money. What is surprising is that there was still almost $2 million left in the charity's account. I guess he'll be heading to Moscow again soon, MAGA hat in hand.

From The Intelligencer:

A judge ordered the payment last month after Trump admitted to abusing the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which he used over the years to buy a portrait of himself and a Broncos helmet autographed by Tim Tebow, among other noncharitable items.

The foundation, which has been shut down, also distributed the $1.8 million left in its coffers to the eight charities, giving them each a total of $476,140.41. The charities are Army Emergency Relief, the Children’s Aid Society, Citymeals on Wheels, Give an Hour, Martha’s Table, the United Negro College Fund, United Way of the National Capital Area, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The NY attorney general's office also said that Don Jr, Eric, and Ivanka, who were officials with the foundation, took “compulsory training to ensure this type of illegal activity never takes place again.” Thank goodness this type of illegal activity will never take place again!

Photo of Trump by Gage Skidmore - Flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link. Modified. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/477IBNZCTzA/trump-pays-2-million-fine-for.html

Each plate of sushi at this joint has been blessed with the clammy hand of a toddler, at no extra charge.

Hands-off parenting at a conveyor belt sushi bar from r/trashy

Image: Reddit Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/1g-8ORTQtZk/please-tell-me-where-this-conv.html

This is something that would happen to me. Now I know to wear mittens around shopping carts. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/0HCb0qVivBs/emergency-team-rescues-girl-wh.html

Check out this jerk smacking a @WSAV reporter's ass live on air. And sorry, that's my kiddo making horribly timed weird noises in the background. pic.twitter.com/6tzi6P1Jbo

 Tonya (@GrrrlZilla) December 7, 2019

The runner who slapped WSAV-TV reporter Alex Bozarjian's butt on TV has been identified as Tommy Callaway (43) of Statesboro, Georgia. Callaway, a youth minister and boy scout leader, did not come forward until his identity was revealed by social media users who used his numbered race bib to figure out who he is. Callaway has locked his social media accounts and is communicating through his attorney, who issued the following statement:

“While we regret the situation, Mr. Callaway did not act with any criminal intentions. Tommy is a loving husband and father who is very active in his community. We have been in touch with WSAV and representatives for Ms. Alex Bozarjian, as well as members of Savannah law enforcement. We do not expect any criminal charges to arise from this incident, and we are working with those involved to correct the situation.”

From The New York Post:

Speaking on CBS TV’s “This Morning” on Tuesday, Bozarjian confirmed that Callaway “did try to make contact ” with her to say that “his intentions were not to hurt me, he didn’t intend to do it.

“I’m not going to really debate that — because he did hurt me,” she insisted of the slap that she said had a “heavy impact.”

“He separates himself from the runners, and he kind of winds up.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/zxil0UhgwP4/runner-who-slapped-journalist.html

The Merriam-Webster dictionary's word of the year is... "They." According to Merriam-Webster, online dictionary look-ups for the word "they" increased by 313% this year. Others top look-ups include "quid pro quo," "impeach," and "egregious. Makes sense. And it's great that more people are learning that the word "they" is sometimes "used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary," according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition. From Merriam-Webster:

English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years.

More recently, though, they has also been used to refer to one person whose gender identity is nonbinary, a sense that is increasingly common in published, edited text, as well as social media and in daily personal interactions between English speakers.

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ajsgWIoVdok/the-merriam-webster-dictionary.html

Alex from Copy Me (previously) writes, "Copying is one of the most essential steps to creativity. And if we don’t understand how it works, copyright can easily become detrimental to the very creativity we want to protect. Copy-Me's got a new video about how even the great geniuses copied others and how this practice goes waaaay back to the most famous artists and inventions. With loads of examples and quotes from experts. We tried to reach the emotion behind the beliefs we all carry with us because facts alone don’t change anyone’s mind, especially when those beliefs are so woven into every aspect of our society. It’s called, appropriately, 'Geniuses Steal', the 3rd part in a miniseries about how minds really work and how the romantic notions about creation hinder our own ability to create.

We know geniuses are not real and minds don’t have Eureka moments. But we still cling to the idea of an original artist. That romantic notion of someone who creates something out of nothing, with their mind alone.

But the truth is every single piece of art and technology ever created is a remix. Shakespeare copied. Mozart copied. Picasso copied. Morse copied. Tarkovsky copied too. They’re all based in the work of others before them. The obsession with originality is quite a new phenomenon in the history of our species. And maybe it’s time to reconsider how art and inventions come about before our laws destroy the very creativity we want to protect.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ACD2xPFJ7xc/roll-over-beethoven-2.html

Paolo Pedercini compares every bee-themed game with an eye to their scientific accuracy.

Bees, particularly honeybees, are often incorrectly characterized in videogames – as well as in other media. Sometimes that’s due to their similarity with with the more aggressive wasps (which make for better enemies), sometimes that is due to the alien-like complexity of their social behavior, sometimes the creators are interested in bees only beecause they allow a multitude of puns around on the letter B. Hilarious.

At the inaccurate end of things, Flappy Bee (bees do not flap) loses to a title that features bees eating pizza and operating mechas. The winners are Drunk Bee, Monarchies, and Bee Hunting Simulator 2016; the issue is salient due to the recent high-profile commercial release Bee Simulator, which scores a respectable 4/5 on Paolo's list. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/GX4L3rjQXOE/bee-simulator-games-compared.html

Propublica's blockbuster report on the magistrate judges in South Carolina revealed a system of patronage, cronies, and gross miscarriages of justice, with judges appointed on the say-so of a single state senator, without regard to whether they had any legal experience (some judges took the bench after working construction, or as pharmacists, or as underwear distributors), and without any vetting of their ethical lapses (some judges were disgraced lawyers who stole from clients, or retired lawmakers notorious for their racism).

Earlier attempts to reform the magistrate system had foundered in South Carolina's senate, whose members jealously guard their power to hand over these patronage appointments to connected party insiders and outgoing lawmakers.

But Propublica's story may yet shame South Carolina's lawmakers into taking some halting, tiny steps toward reform: state senator Thom Davis [R-Beaufort] has proposed legislation that would require the House as well as the Senate to confirm prospective magistrates, which would end the practice of appointing judges on the say-so of a single senator. Davis would also end the practice of allowing judges to serve after their terms end as "holdovers" (a practice designed to allow judges to serve briefly between their term expiry and their reappointments while paperwork is processed, but which has allowed some SC magistrates to serve for decades without being reconfirmed). Under the proposal, magistrates would receive additional legal training.

The proposal also prohibits nepotism, barring lawmakers from nominating their family members, and would bar ex-lawmakers from serving as magistrates for two years after their terms expire. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/HAP6vDj7JlU/judge-brodys-courtroom.html

I think we can all agree that the endless plague of robo-calls has spiraled out of control. But the folks at the public data directory  BeenVerified wanted to quantify exactly how much worse this onslaught has gotten. They collected data from more than 200,000 spam call reports from across the country, and crunched the numbers to see what they could find.

And while the results aren't really surprising, per se, they're certainly harrowing.

The frequency of Social Security spam calls has multiplied 23 times, from 0.4% of all spam calls in 2018, to 9.5% in 2019.

BeenVerified does acknowledge that their data does not necessarily reflect a complete picture. They actually suspect that things might be worse. "The Spam Complaint Monitor is a canary in the coal mine showing broad spam and robocall topic trends," said spokesperson Justin Lavelle. "As the data is self-reported, the total numbers of complaints related to each of these spam call topics are almost certainly higher."

They add:

The results from the BeenVerified Spam Call Complaint Monitor mirror broader trends, as more than 76,000 Social Security scam calls were reported to the Federal Trade Commission in the 12-month period ending in March 2019, with losses totaling $19 million. Losses related to IRS scams peaked at $17 million for the 12 months ending in September 2016, the FTC reports.

Less than 3.5% of Social Security scam complaints to the FTC resulted in lost cash, but when victims take the bait, the losses are comparatively high. The median reported loss was $1,500 in 2018, more than four times higher than losses from all other frauds, the FTC reports.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ziIKkvlRt00/its-not-just-you-social.html

Before YouTube, it was a TV show that brought us crazy home movie clips. That show, of course, is America's Funniest Home Videos (or "AFV" for short). On the air since 1989, AFV has seen several hosts and has somehow survived the Internet. Now there's a limited-run podcast that looks at its 30-year history from behind the scenes.

I just learned that my friend Brittany High (previously on BB) has spent the greater part of her year working on this five-part podcast series. For America, This Is You, she's interviewed the show's creator Vin Di Bona, the writers, producers, and all of the hosts, including Bob Saget. She wrote, "Yes, he sassed me. More than once. I loved every minute of it!!!!!"

She's even voiced its promo video:

I'm excited for her and to listen in!

America, This Is You is available now on:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/america-this-is-you/id1488369919 Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/afv-america-this-is-you/PC:27414 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/siriusxm/afv-america-this-is-you Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1488369919/afv-america-this-is-you

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/C12T3YrIaIY/americas-funniest-home-vid.html

In barely months, a 16 year-old Swedish activist has changed the record on climate change, drawing the attention of the world to a problem as it becomes critical--and the contemptuous wrath of politicians and pundits who think she'll go away if they just call her a stupid little brat again. Greta Thunberg is Time's Person of the Year for 2019.

We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow,” she says, tugging on the sleeve of her blue sweatshirt. “That is all we are saying.”

It’s a simple truth, delivered by a teenage girl in a fateful moment. The sailboat, La Vagabonde, will shepherd Thunberg to the Port of Lisbon, and from there she will travel to Madrid, where the United Nations is hosting this year’s climate conference. It is the last such summit before nations commit to new plans to meet a major deadline set by the Paris Agreement. Unless they agree on transformative action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the world’s temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution will hit the 1.5°C mark—an eventuality that scientists warn will expose some 350 million additional people to drought and push roughly 120 million people into extreme poverty by 2030.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/1FAk_fnRsQg/climate-activist-greta-thunber.html

The Mariah Carey mashups are coming out of the woodwork this holiday season.

There's this one that combines her chipper hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You" with Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People." Its creator, YouTuber Bill McClintock, calls it "All I Want For Christmas is the Beautiful People":

Then there's YouTuber William Maranci's Radiohead/Mariah mashup. It takes Carey's same Christmas hit and combines it with "Creep," making for "Creep But It's All I Want For Christmas Is You." One commenter describes it aptly, "this feels exactly like dissociating in a jcpenny in December":

Wait! There's one more, called "Don't Stop Christmas Now," and it brings in Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now." It came out last year, but I'm going to include it anyway.

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/I1DPXQ_s0xM/mariah-christmas-song-mashups.html

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/kkZJ9e-a1Eo/this-cool-hitting-glass-pipe-w.html