Author: Robert

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We have three rescue cats, and one of them slow blinks at me every time I look at him. According to this article, cats slow blink to Indicate that they do not feel threatened by you.

Rae Paoletta writes:

If a cat closes its eyes around like it’s falling asleep, it’s signaling that it doesn’t view you as a threat. This is similar to the way some cats expose their bellies to their humans, which signals trust and vulnerability. For kitties, the absence of extreme hatred is love, and as cat owners know, there is no in-between.

Now I want someone to explain why my cat stretches and raises his paw to me like he’s saying hello.

Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest

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Back in January, the new movie Palm Springs broke a record for the highest sale at the Sundance Film Festival — by exactly 69 cents.

We should have seen that as an omen.

The movie began streaming on Hulu this past Friday, July 10th, and in less than a week, it has an 84% on MetaCritic and a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Those are some impressively high accolades for any movie, but especially for a RomCom by a first-time director starring Andy Samberg. But, in my humble opinion, the film deserves it.

The elevator pitch for Palm Springs is essentially Groundhog’s Day meets Hot Tub Time Machine meets Wedding Crashers — again, not the type of film you’d expect to garner such critical acclaim. Andy Samberg’s character, Nyles, has been trapped in a time loop at a wedding where he doesn’t know anyone except his girlfriend, who’s in the wedding party, and also cheating on him. He is stuck at the resort, living the day over and over and over and over again, eventually resigning himself to the situation and trying to have some fun before the loop resets. When he tries to hook up with Sarah (Cristin Milioti), the older sister of the bride, he accidentally brings her into the time loop as well. And we soon learn that there are other wedding guests whose fates are now locked into this same endless repeating pattern. (Spoiler: one is JK Simmons, delightful as ever.)

Palm Springs does the expected job of working through all the humor of time travel and repetition; of course, the timeliness of its release during our collective societal quarantine probably helps to make that monotony feel even relatable. Read the rest

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Boing Boing presents these words from our sponsor, Real Tested CBD!

Given there is a global pandemic, ways to boost the immune system are even more sought after than usual. Having a strong immune system is the base for staying healthy, and though there are a lot of products people use to aid in immune wellness, CBD is on the rise as a top choice in boosting immune health. So how can this ever-growing in popularity compound help you with health and wellness, specifically boosting your immune system? Here is a breakdown of what you need to know.

What Is The Immune System?

Our bodies have a built-in system that keeps invaders at bay. On a daily basis we are exposed to streams of diseases, infections, viruses and bacteria. Our immune systems, a network of cells, organs and tissues that work together to destroy these foreign cells or particles, keeping us healthy and alive. The heroes of our immune system are the white blood cells, which fall into two categories. There are the lymphocytes and phagocytes. Lymphocytes are also known as B or T-cells, and are responsible for destroying toxins and identifying foreign substances within the body. Phagocytes help to absorb these invaders, neutralizing and preventing further spread of toxins. Out immune system also works to eliminate dead or non-functioning cells, preventing multiplication and tumor growth.

What Is CBD?

CBD is a non-psychoactive compound derived from cannabis or hemp plants. CBD, also known as cannabidiol, is the cousin to its well-known intoxicating counterpart, THC. Read the rest

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This Saturday, some San Francisco families will be bringing a four-mile long hopscotch course to their neighborhood. With their day-long “Hopscotch Your Block” event, the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association (NOPNA) hopes to chalk the playground game over a 30-block area.

NOPNA thinks this will be really fun and a way to help build community, support our local merchants, and improve morale…all while keeping a safe social distance from each other! And… we could potentially even break the Guiness World Record for the longest hopscotch course (currently 3.8 miles)! Let’s make history together by breaking this record!

The four mile course runs East-West (Turk, Golden Gate, McAllister, Fulton, Grove, Hayes and Fell) and connects north-south along Divisadero and Masonic. We’ll be “chalking up the blocks” and connecting them all together; please only chalk the north side of sidewalk (if on an east-west street) or east side of sidewalk (if on a north-south street).

photo by Fiona Moore/Flickr Read the rest

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With all the website builders on the market, it can feel overwhelming to choose the best one for your needs. The most important things to look for are usability, flexibility and a professional look and feel. That’s why over 180 million people use Wix to create the website of their dreams.

Here are the top 3 reasons to build your website with Wix.

Wix caters to everyone, from beginners to professionals

Whether you’re creating your very first or your 100th website, Wix has a solution for you. If you’re a beginner, one option is to let Wix do the work for you with its advanced design intelligence (ADI) tool. Simply answer a few questions about the type of website you want to create and ADI will create it for you. The other option is to use Wix’s editor that lets you choose from hundreds of templates that you can customize yourself. If you have lots of experience creating websites, Corvid by Wix gives you the freedom to code and build your own advanced web applications.

Wix offers professional features for any kind of website

Wix has over 500 templates for a wide range of industries including eCommerce, health, beauty, fitness, hospitality, food, design, creative arts, and more. You can customize any template to fit the look and feel of your brand. In addition, Wix has an App Market with hundreds of Wix and third-party apps to meet your needs and enhance your business.

Wix helps you get site traffic

Building your website is only part of the process. Read the rest

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For five years, Boing Boing contributor Ariel Waldman, an artist-turned-science hacker developed the skills necessary to become a “wildlife filmmaker at the microbial scale.” Finally, she spent more than a month in Antarctica documenting the strange, beautiful, and “invisible” creatures that live there. Her project, “Life Under Ice,” was meant to be the subject of her TED2020 talk in Vancouver in April. Of course, TED2020 was changed to an entirely online event. Above is Ariel’s wonderful talk about the incredibly curious and beautiful lifeforms she encountered in Antarctica. From TED:

In this tour of the microscopic world, explorer and artist Ariel Waldman introduces the charismatic creatures lurking beneath Antarctica’s massive ice sheet, the largest on earth. From “cuddly” water bears to geometric algae made of glass, Waldman shows how this seemingly barren landmass is actually a polar oasis of life — if we just know where to look.

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This bit of grainy film footage with bad audio wouldn’t be notable except that it depicts Easy Cure playing a 1977 show in Crawley, UK. The following year, Easy Cure dropped “Easy” from their name, recorded the demos below, signed to Polydor Records’ Fiction label, and released their first single, “Killing An Arab.” The rest is post-punk, proto-goth history.

(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

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Star Inn, a pub in Cornwall, has installed electric fencing around its bar. Jonny McFadden, who runs the bar, says it’s a “normal electric fence that you would find in the field.” When asked if it’s turned on, he responded, “Come and find out. There’s a fear factor and it works. People keep away from it. People are like sheep. They know it’s a fence. They don’t want to touch it to find out if it’s on or off.”

The Cornish pub using electric fencing to keep people away from the bar and follow #SocialDistancing rules – but is it switched on?@tamsinmelville asked but Jonny McFadden at the Star Inn in St Just wasn’t saying

Listen back to the interview here?? https://t.co/gmaM5dw7P3 ?? pic.twitter.com/fraEYP1xqC

— BBC Radio Cornwall (@BBCCornwall) July 13, 2020

image via Canva

(CNN) Read the rest

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Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH the “Law & Order: Trump Unit” gang must investigate two cases: a BLM protester, and a traitorous villain who conspired with a foreign adversary to undermine our Democracy