Weekly Web Harvest for 2022-07-31

Turns out novelty pencils, some gift cards, and supportive social media posts don’t make up for all of the huge problems.

The contract specifically reads: “Player shall not receive any credit for Independent Study with respect to any time periods during which any material is displayed or played on an iPad or electronic device if (a) Player is not personally studying or watching the material while it is being displayed or played or (b) Player is engaged in any other activity that may distract his attention (for example, watching television, playing video games or browsing the internet) while such material is being displayed or played,” per Rapoport.

I taught people how to use trackpads back in the day.

The follow up? They’ve actually stopped buying used DSLRs  because — no one seems to want them anymore. They don’t actually sell these days. But Sony A7s, Panasonic GH cameras and Olympus OM-1s, even Leicas, are flying off the shelves.

The Box Jellyfish is the bane of every Australian swimmer. Growing up to 30 centimetres wide with 60 tentacles four metres long, their nematocysts are among the fastest objects in the natural world and are powerful enough to penetrate the carapace of a crab. The venom they deliver is so potent that a mere two metres of tentacle can kill a grown man in under two minutes. And if that wasn’t enough, unlike regular jellyfish which are largely blind and drift passively with ocean currents, box jellyfish possess 24 surprisingly sophisticated eyes and can swim at speeds up to 3 knots.

That’s the premise of “Chronosquad,” a new augmented reality game that takes players on a guided historical tour through the streets of Malden, a small city north of Boston. It’s an unconventional way to expose the city’s 373 years of history, but one that cities and tourism companies are now using to attract tourists in the age of COVID-19.

Designed by Celia Pearce, a professor of game design at Northeastern University, and a team of former students, the game is similar to Pokemon Go, the global AR phenomenon from 2016. Using the camera on their cellphones, players scan real world objects to initiate a stop on the tour. At each stop, characters in the game will appear on the screen, layered over the real world, to teach players about specific elements of Malden history, ranging from abolition and suffrage to immigration and the famous bank robbery/murder involving an heir to the Converse fortune.

The pigs had been lying dead in the lab for an hour — no blood was circulating in their bodies, their hearts were still, their brain waves flat. Then a group of Yale scientists pumped a custom-made solution into the dead pigs’ bodies with a device similar to a heart-lung machine.

What happened next adds questions to what science considers the wall between life and death. Although the pigs were not considered conscious in any way, their seemingly dead cells revived. Their hearts began to beat as the solution, which the scientists called OrganEx, circulated in veins and arteries. Cells in their organs, including the heart, liver, kidneys and brain, were functioning again, and the animals never got stiff like a typical dead pig.

I need to up my rates . . .

Jackson says he had only spoken to his father once since he was arrested, and that they limited their discussion to the card game Magic the Gathering.

Matt Damon started touting crypto investing when Bitcoin was worth twice as much as it is now. Mike Tyson’s NFTs have plunged more than 90% since he introduced his collection. And investors who allege they lost millions on a pump-and-dump scheme are suing Paul Pierce.

–I’d replace “celebrity” with “all”

“School boards have to know that parents are watching, their families are watching, their voters are watching and they will hold us accountable that we reflect what they want from us when we serve and represent them,” Good says. “We want to make sure that we don’t have indoctrination going on in our schools.”

Amazing shot of solar panels. Also crazy to see NFT bidding.