Philadelphia had many "gay houses" and "ladies of pleasure" in the 1840s, so it's not surprising that an enterprising publisher created a guidebook for travelers to the city "of brotherly love and sisterly affection," which was estimated to employ 10,000 sex workers at the time.

Flashbak has some highlights from the "pocket companion."

At this house you will hear no disgusting language to annoy your ear; everything connected with this establishment is calculated to make a man happy. The young ladies are beautiful and accomplished; they will at any time amuse you with a fine tune on the piano, or use their melodious voices to drive dull care away. Stranger, do not neglect to pay a visit to this house before you leave our quiet city of sisterly affection.

...

This lady is the Queen of Trumps, tall and majestic, and noble in appearance. She is a lady in manners and conversation. She lives well and her house is comfortable and safe. One glance will satisfy a person of that fact.

...

…be cautious when you visit this place, or you may rue it all your lifetime.

...

Beware this house, stranger, as you would the sting of a viper.

...

This is one of the worst conducted houses in the city. The girls, though few in number, are ugly, vulgar and drunken. We would not advise any body of common sense to stay there.

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My daughter loves the flip sequin shirts that are all the rage for kids these days. Ekaggrat Singh Kalsi's daughter digs them too and she inspired his fantastic Sequino clock that "writes and rewrites" the time by flipping the sequins. Kalsi posted his build notes over at Hackaday.

Sequino: A Clock Which Rewrites Time Again and Again

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In Pueblo, Colorado at 3:330am Friday morning, terrified McDonald's employees called police after hearing "'demonic sounds' from a screaming woman" inside the restaurant.

According to Pueblo Police captain Tom Rummel, the employees also reported sounds of a "strange language and barking."

"They were so unnerved by the sounds that they said they wouldn’t be going back outside their building until after the sun came up," Rummel tweeted. "Three officers searched the area, but didn’t come up with the source of the disturbance."

(Pueblo Chieftain)

image: transformation of photo by Towinn (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

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Love Hult'en, who makes retrofuturistic game consoles, built this thing called an EvoBoxx, which lets you play mathematician John Horton Conway's Game of Life, a cellular automaton he devised in 1970. "The game is a zero-player game," writes Hult'en, "meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no further input. One interacts with the Game of Life by creating an initial configuration and observing how it evolves, or, for advanced players, by creating patterns with particular properties."

If you don't have an EvoBoxx, you can play The Game of Life here.

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https://boingboing.net/2020/02/17/cool-retro-console-lets-you-pl.html

No, they aren't wearing any harnesses. But some of them are sporting rather dashing chapeaus. From Speed Graphic Film and Video:

New York's Chrysler Building, one of the city's most iconic skyscrapers, was built in a remarkably short time--foundation work began in November 1928, and the building officially opened in May 1930. Even more remarkably, the steelwork went up in just six months in the summer of 1929 at an average rate of four floors a week.

Fox Movietone's sound cameras visited the construction site several times in 1929 and 1930, staging a number of shots to maximize viewers' sense of the spectacular heights. Movietone almost never put somebody in front of a camera without giving them something to say, so a number of scenes include some staged dialogue.

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Writing for The New York Times, Randall Monroe (creator of the xkcd comic) looks into the world's worst smell. It turns out that there is no universal agreement, but a strong contender for the title is something called U.S. Government Standard Bathroom Malodor, "a substance that was designed to mimic the scent of military field latrines, in order to test cleaning products."

Another contender was accidentally cooked up one day by Derek Lowe, an industrial chemist:

Dr. Lowe said that the worst thing he’d ever smelled in his career as a chemist arose when he inadvertently combined dimethyl sulfide (think farts) with some silicon he was putting through a reaction called a Peterson olefination. Neither odor would smell great on its own, but combined they produced something transcendently foul. “It smelled like what you’d imagine the exhaust of a U.F.O. to smell like,” he said. “It was spectacularly weird and horrible.”

By Cornischong at lb.wikipedia - Own workTransferred from lb.wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0, Link Read the rest

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Over the weekend, the Luchon-Superbagn`eres ski resort in the French Pyrenees used a helicopter to bring in fresh snow to the slopes from higher elevations. The chopper dumped 50 tonnes of snow on the beginner and ski school slopes. From The Guardian:

Herv'e Pounau, the director of the local department council, said the cost of the operation would be recouped many times over by the business that would have been lost to a lack of snow.

“It will cost us between €5,000 and €6,000, in the knowledge that over the long term we will get at least 10 times’ return on that investment,” Pounau said in a statement...

The operation has angered French ecologists. Bastien Ho, the secretary of Europe 'Ecologie Les Verts party, said the snow transfer operation was evidence of an “upside-down world”.

“Instead of adapting to global warming we’re going to end up with a double problem: something that costs a lot of energy, that contributes heavily to global warming and that in addition is only for an elite group of people who can afford it. It is the world upside down,” he told French television.

Read the rest

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Legendary musical force Andrew Weatherhall -- who produced Primal Scream's seminal album Screamadelica, famously remixed the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Meat Beat Manifesto, and as a DJ helped turn the world on to acid house -- has died. He was 56 and suffered a pulmonary embolism. From The Guardian:

Following a young adulthood in the post-punk scene, Weatherall became a key figure in countercultural – and occasionally mainstream – British music after becoming one of the key DJs in the acid house movement of the late 1980s. He was recruited by Danny Rampling to play at London nightclub Shoom, and soon founded the record label Boy’s Own Recordings and the production outfit Bocca Juniors.

Further musical projects included the group the Sabres of Paradise, which splintered into the duo Two Lone Swordsmen with Keith Tenniswood, though perhaps his most famous musical work was with Primal Scream on their breakthrough 1991 album Screamadelica. By taking the band’s anthemic songwriting and adding samples, loops and the euphoric energy of Ibiza, Weatherall’s production made the album one of the most celebrated of the 1990s....

He spoke of the eternal appeal of DJing in a 2016 Guardian interview: “It’s quite vampyric, DJing. You’re never going to have that feeling of hearing that record for the first time again, but if you look into the eyes of someone who’s hearing it for the first time, it’s a nice vicarious feeling. But it’s not selfish. I think I’ve never lost that thing I had when I was 12 years old and inviting my mates round to my house.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/17/andrew-weatherall-primal-scre.html

"Sonic the Hedgehog gets bluer!" announces the press release for a porn parody of the hit movie based on the classic Sega character.

The parody film is titled "Sonic the Vadgehog" and appears to have been conceived, filmed and marketed in total ignorance of all existing Sonic fandom on the internet, furiously horny and curiously religious as it is.

WoodRocket mixes porn, comedy, pop culture, and redefines adult entertainment. Creating popular & high-quality content like Ask A Porn Star, Porn Stars Reading Hate Mail, and porn parodies like Ten Inch Mutant Ninja Turtles, Strok'emon, and Laygo, WoodRocket is the future of porn. WoodRocket’s content has been featured in Buzzfeed, Uproxx, Gizmodo, Maxim, Complex, AV Club, Spin, Rolling Stone, The Howard Stern Show, GQ, Vice, Esquire, The Hollywood Reporter, @Midnight, Bon Appetit, and many, many, many more wonderful places.

Here's the trailer, which is quite safe for work.

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Marijuana businesses pay for 66% of state’s sponsored highway miles under Clean Colorado program

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/17/why-there-are-so-many-cannabis.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/17/respirator-masks-with-your-fac.html

Police on the Big Island of Hawaii are looking for fruit bandits who made off with about $1,000 in exotic fruit, including 18 or so durian -- the spiky fruit with a mega stinky smell and a taste some people crave.

The smell of durian fruit's pale yellow flesh has been compared to fungal feet, rotting corpses, and dead fish.

Two men entered a property in Hilo on the Big Island and removed 18 durian and other types of fruit on the night of Feb. 1, the Hawaii Police Department said.

Authorities released a surveillance camera image of two suspects and asked the public for additional information that could lead to the capture of the fruit bandits.

The tropical, spiky durian fruit resembles a small porcupine and typically weighs from 2 to 7 pounds (1 to 3 kilograms).

IMAGE: Hawaii Police Department released a surveillance image of two suspects involved in a fruit theft in Hilo.

More at AP: Hawaii police say thieves took $1K worth of pungent fruit Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/17/hawaii-police-seek-fruit-thiev.html

Samsung claims to have developed an "Ultra Thin Glass" for its new Galaxy Z Flip foldable smartphone, signalling scratch resistance and durability beyond that of similar products. But tests conducted by Zack Nelson using a Mohs Hardness Testkit [Amazon] -- a set of styluses made of different materials -- show that it is no more resistant to scuffs than plastic. In fact, he didn't even need the kit: his fingernail was sharp enough to leave marks. The "glass" scores 2-3 on the Mohs scale, compared to 6-7 for Gorilla Glass: "I don't know what material this is, but Samsung should definitely not be calling it glass."

Samsung has pitched this phone as a folding glass phone that ‘bends the laws of physics’ But… is folding glass actually possible? The only way to find out is with a scratch test. Overall I’m impressed with the Galaxy Z Flip. If they change the name of their screen material to something besides glass I would give it a 10/10 as far as folding phones go. The only physical characteristic this screen material shares with actual glass is the clarity. And I dont think thats fair to consumers. At all.

The Verge's Chris Welch got Samsung on the record to say there'll be a glass replacement service.

We asked Samsung if it planned to offer a screen replacement service for the Z Flip as it did with the Galaxy Fold. It will. Z Flip buyers can get a one-time screen replacement for $119, Samsung says.

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You may have seen the archeological news item late last year of a macabre funeral find in Ecuador. Some baby graves from around 100 B.C. were unearthed where the babies are apparently wearing the skulls of other babies and children as hats.

In this "Morbid Minute" installment of the ever-excellent Ask a Mortician, our favorite Goth funeral director and "death positivity" educator, Caitlin Doughty, looks more closely at the discovery and what this practice might have meant.

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Have you ever heard of the Grasshopper mouse? It lives in the deserts of North America, lives on a meat diet, and hunts scorpions. Unlike other animals, it is immune to scorpion venom and actually turns it into a pain killer. Oh, and this little rodent bad ass also howls at the moon, giving it the nickname of werewolf mouse.

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https://boingboing.net/2020/02/16/meet-the-werewolf-mouse-wh.html

Spring cleaning time is right around the corner, and, if we're being honest, the whole thing is kind of a drag. But keeping your home clean in any season is necessary for both health and happiness, so why not make it a little less daunting? The correct tools help make any work easier, and that's what these Elicto products and small appliances will do. Plus, they're on sale for Presidents' Day, so there's no better time to stock your cleaning arsenal.

Elicto SS-130 Super Sweeper 

Requiring zero electricity and only a little bit of elbow grease, this multipurpose tool cleans all types of surfaces around your home, including rugs, upholstery, floors, showers, windows, and more. So much better than a broom, this pro-grade sweeper with extension handle revolutionizes your cleaning routine with its 6 blades that capture debris large and small, liquid spills, even broken eggs.

The Super Sweeper is on sale for $24, but you can get it for an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price to just $20.40!

Elicto ES-100 Waterproof Telescopic Power Scrubber

Grime doesn't stand a chance with this electric scrubber at your disposal. It comes with 5 different rotating heads to help you clean the toughest messes inside and outside your home. On full charge, you'll get up to 2 hours from this cordless powerhouse, so you can handle the grossest of the gross from afar (as far as the telescoping handle anyway).

The Waterproof Telescopic Power Scrubber is on sale for $119, but you can get it for an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price to just $101.15! Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/16/get-a-head-start-on-spring-cle.html

Quality knives matter -- and in more ways than you might expect.

At the most basic level, having a functioning set of proper kitchen knives means you can actually get in a kitchen, start putting together a meal and have the right tools to handle all tasks. From the blunt force of the clever to the skilled precision of the paring knife, you're ready.

But do you know what else a well-stocked knife block in your kitchen says to visitors? It says an adult uses this kitchen. Butter knives and pizza cutters will only get you so far in life, gents. At some point, a lack of quality knives on display in your kitchen might as well scream that your culinary skills haven't advanced beyond reheating fish sticks in your illegal dorm toaster oven.

That’s a bad look. To save you from yourself, we’ve assembled 20 (yes, 20!) deals on worthy knives and knife sets. And since these deals coincide with the Presidents’ Day holiday, enter the coupon code PRESIDENT15 at checkout and take another 15% off each of these offers.

All we’re saying is...invest in yourself.

Chef’s Knives

If you purchase nothing else, at least lock up the services of a quality chef’s knife. It’s the most important tool in any chef’s arsenal and can sub in to handle almost any kitchen task like a champ. Another consideration is going with Damascus steel blades over standard stainless steel. Damascus steel, which is actually an iron and steel alloy, producing brilliantly intricate, eye-catching blade patterns. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/16/the-right-knife-can-change-you.html

I have a lot of issues with the American obsession around political binaries. But it's hard to deny that it's an overwhelming force that maintains a maddening influence on our country. Both-side-isms are built on the assumption that the "political center" is the exact middle between two equal but opposite poles. Given the choice between killing 100 people, or killing none, this kind of radical centrist confidently strides forward with their "logical" assertion that killing 50 people is the only possible solution that would allow us to maintain what they see as the equilibrium of the status quo.

The latest example of this comes from an FBI briefing in front of the House Judiciary Committee in early February. The bureau has been working to fine-tune its language in order to better address the (very real!) threat of domestic terrorism, which has often gone overlooked in the past. As part of these linguistic changes, the FBI has broken down domestic terrorism into four broad categories, including "abortion violent extremism," which FBI Director Christopher Wray described as "people on either side of that issue who commit violence on behalf of different views on that topic."

Rep. Karen Bass of California rightly pointed out to Wray that there is no evidence of violence on "both sides" of the abortion issue. But Wray insisted that the threats must be balanced on both sides. Later, when pressed by the Daily Beast, the FBI could only cite a single instance of "pro-choice extremism," which involved a man who threatened anti-abortion activists online. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/16/both-side-ism-comes-for-the-fb.html

If you've ever looked into making clear ice for drinks, you know that there are all sorts of assertions about needing to boil the water first, or using filtered water, or you need a special clear ice maker.

According to Nick, the Cocktail Chemist, in this video, all you need is a small 6-pack cooler with the lid removed.

Thanks to directional freezing, all of the impurities (clouding, bubbles) will settle to the bottom of the open cooler as you freeze it and the top section of the resulting ice block will be clear. You then simply remove the block and cut off the bottom part to have a clear block of ice remaining.

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