Read it.

CeramicSpeed and Friction Facts have made a business of reducing friction to an absolute minimum, whether with ceramic bearings or oversized pulleys or highly specialized chain lube. Today, the company won a Eurobike Award at the tradeshow in Germany for its DrivEn drive shaft concept, which CeramicSpeed claims to be substantially more efficient than even the most optimized chain system.

Read it.

No mention of whether pumpkin-spice SPAM is involved. I have my suspicions. (Hey, Harvard….)

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Read it.

Tell the truth: We’ve all wanted to do that.

Read it.

A landmark deal for US procurement of Israel’s Iron Dome anti-air missile defense systems was finalized this week. It became official when on Tuesday the US Defense Department announced it had formally signed a contract for two complete Iron Dome systems.

Co-developed by Raytheon and Israeli defense firm Rafael, the system has been touted by Israeli leaders as the most advanced short to mid-range interceptor in the world with a proven track record, given that even within the past year it’s been engaged in dozens if not hundreds of Hamas rocket intercepts from Gaza.

President Trump has made 12,019 false or misleading claims over 928 days  And he’s the only President for which such a tabulation has been made. Bias? What bias?

Get Him Tin Foil! MSNBC Analyst Claims Barr, Trump ‘Facilitated Mr. Epstein’s Suicide’

MSNBC Analyst Likens Trump Supporters to Members of a ‘Terrorist Organization’

Donald Trump accused of being soft on China over Hong Kong protests  Yeah, those tariffs are only window-dressing.

MSNBC on New Trump Immigration Policy: ‘This is What White Nationalism Looks Like in Policy’

Over 90,000 Sign Petition To Rename Street Outside Trump Tower After Obama

New York Times Demotes Deputy DC Editor for Upsetting Radical ‘Justice Democrats’

The left is the New York Times’ executive editor

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Read it.

“Your stupid boycotts will never make a dent in a company like P&G,” one liberal scoffed back in January. Turns out, they didn’t just make a dent.

After a string of male-bashing, transgender shaving ads, the parent company of Gillette got nicked so badly, market experts wonder if the brand will survive.

Gillette’s CEO insists the radical activism was “worth the price.” Let’s hope so—because so far, that price is a whopping $8 billion.

In a world that has Harry’s, who needs Gillette?

Get Woke, Go Broke.

Read it.

Less than one week after ICE raided 7 food processing facilities in Mississippi apprehending nearly 700 illegal workers, American citizens are rushing to freshly-available jobs.

Koch Foods is headquartered in Chicago but maintains a chicken processing facility in Mississippi that employed 243 of the 680 undocumented Latino workers arrested in the raids last Thursday. Koch has since collaborated with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES), holding a job fair to recruit new, legal, workers, according to the Associated Press.

Read it.

Unanticipated honesty. It won’t last.

Read it.

Feel free to panic.

Read it.

Just after he became the world’s richest man one year ago, Bezos, who had until then been conspicuously absent from the world of serious charitable giving, announced that he would give $2 billion to bolster homelessness services and early childhood education in the US. He quickly sent $100 million to two dozen well-regarded nonprofits working to provide shelter to homeless families across the country.

And since then, he has done something that even the nonprofits receiving his millions remark is highly unusual: He has given them life-changing money with virtually no restrictions, formal vetting, or oversight, according to Recode’s interviews with eight of those funded by him and others familiar with his donations.

This is why the Chattering Class hate rich people — they actually get shit done.

Read it.

Which we desperately need.

Read it.

The way to find a cure for a disease is to have it target (a) rich homosexuals or (b) poor Africans.

Oh, and the poor Africans have to be actually in Africa. Poor Africans in the U.S. don’t count.

Read it.

Is this an urban legend? I’ve never seen a cat eat grass.

I have seen cats eat plastic, yarn (both wool and cotton) and anything long and stringy they can get their teeth on.

I think it’s just because cats are weird.

Read it.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that.

Fix that, and you’ll live forever.

Easy-peasy.

Read it.

I am not making this up.

Yet another reason not to fly — avoiding miniature horse poop.

Read it.

Scientists at the University of Plymouth discovered a new group of stem cells which form skeletal tissue and contribute to the making dentin – the hard tissue that surrounds the main body of the tooth. They also showed that a gene called Dlk1 sparks the stem cells into action, so they can mend damage such as decay, crumbling or cracked teeth.

Read it.

In a bizarre incident that has left the police with no leads, an explosion ripped through Denmark’s national tax agency late Tuesday. Though nobody was seriously injured (one passerby was hit by flying degree and sustained minor injuries), Danish police are baffled why anybody would want to destroy the tax agency in a country that boasts one of the heaviest tax rates in the OECD.

Yeah, that’s a real head-scratcher. It’s probably Trump’s fault.

Read it.

In findings that give fresh meaning to the old adage that a good night’s sleep clears the mind, a new study shows that a recently discovered system that flushes waste from the brain is primarily active during sleep. This revelation could transform scientists’ understanding of the biological purpose of sleep and point to new ways to treat neurological disorders.

Yet another reason to enjoy sleep.

Read it.

While on the face of it, it looks as if the US is directly taking action against Russia (and don’t get me wrong, it totally is doing that as well), the fact remains that the US wants out of this treaty because it was concerned it was limiting its ability to combat China in the Asia-Pacific theater.

Read it.

The phone numbers add tracking before connecting to a restaurant so that Grubhub can bill for a marketing fee.

I don’t use Yelp so it doesn’t affect me, but it points out what some businesses are doing these days to make a buck.

Read it.

Read it.

Read it.

The company’s modified blast furnace uses FastOx gasification technology to heat all of the trash to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about twice as hot as the heart of a volcano.

While it may seem like this would require large amounts of energy, the system is able to generate the heat simply by injecting pure oxygen into the furnace. The oxygen then reacts with the carbon emanating from the rotting garbage in order to create carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The steam is then pumped back into the furnace to maintain the internal temperature.

Read it.

That might work on a Canadian cougar, but it wouldn’t faze an American cougar.

Read it.

A federal judge blocked New York state from turning over President Donald Trump’s tax returns to Congress Thursday.

The order from Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, came in agreement to a proposal from the state that would allow it to challenge Nichols’ jurisdiction over the issue, Politico reported Thursday.

The order will block any House Ways and Means Committee requests for the tax returns via the New York law until the jurisdictional dispute is resolved.

Read it.

As Dr. Gottfried Curio mentioned in his press conference a couple of days ago, a fortified moat is being constructed around the Bundestag in Berlin to protect it from… Well, I don’t know what they’re protecting it from, but it couldn’t possibly be from all those wonderful “New Germans” who are doing so much to enrich the culture of the Federal Republic.

I guess no wall on the border eventually leads to a moat around the federal government.

Read it.

Jousting will be officiated using Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology for the first time – but purists complain it will ruin the authenticity of the medieval sport.

English Heritage have teamed up with Hawk-Eye experts to trial the new system at Pendennis Castle in Cornwall during a series of jousts in August.

Read it.

Time to stock up.

Read it.

Regional experts had immediately suspected the possibility of an Israeli air raid after a pro-Iranian militia arms depot in Iraq was obliterated during a mysterious attack on July 19, and another reported follow-up attack this past Sunday.

The attack happened around 80 km from the Iranian border and 40 km north-east of Baghdad at Camp Ashraf, former home to the Iranian exile group Mojahedin-e Khalq, but now reportedly in the hands of Iranian intelligence and paramilitaries.

Sounds as if the Israelis are losing patience.

Read it.

According to the newspaper’s investigation, “the IAF F-35 “Adir” planes penetrated Iran’s airspace, circled high above Tehran, Karajrak, Isfahan, Shiraz and Bandar Abbas – and photographed Iran’s air defense system.”

One of the sources reported that Iran’s air defense system, including its Russian radar, did not detect the entry and exit of the fighter planes, and that Ismaili hid this information from the supreme leader to cover his service failure. However Iranian intelligence discovered that the Israeli fighter jets had carried out this sortie as a test of the possibility of an undetected attack on Iranian outposts and bases, during which they photographed those sensitive bases, evading the Russian S-300 missile system’s radar.

Read it.

As the 2020 election cycle is well underway and the hearts of voters all across the country are sought after by a variety of campaigns, online outreach will set records.

Every single election year online advertising spending increases and 2020 is set to break the 2016 record even before the general election push begins.

As the major market shareholders (by outreach numbers) continue to be Alphabet’s Google and Facebook, they are sure to get an annual bump from the increased spending.

Read it.

n the event of war with Pakistan or China, India has determined that the first domain of warfare to defend is low Earth orbit.

Indian news reported last week that the country’s first space war drill on Thursday [July 25] was focused on defending space assets in the event of a shooting conflict with China.

Read it.

Following Iran’s provocative test firing last week of its medium-range ballistic missile the Shahab-3, which is capable of hitting Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday the successful test firing of Israel’s own Arrow-3 ballistic missile shield over Alaska, tests previously considered secretive.

Read it.

The dream of nuclear fusion has long been out-of-reach, but now, with companies like the Jeff Bezos-backed General Fusion and a huge pool of fusion startups heating up the competition, fusion is quickly becoming a reality. Just this week, the “world’s largest nuclear fusion experiment” has made a major breakthrough.

Read it.

For those who think the world of high technology looks only with scorn at Midwestern “flyover country,” FarmWise is proof otherwise. Two and a half years ago, the Silicon Valley company’s founders had an idea for a chemical-free method of removing weeds in big farming operations: an autonomous weeding robot. That’s a focus that obviously offers big potential benefits to much of middle America. Today their machines are actively working in farm fields.

Maybe now we can limit immigration from Turd World countries without agribusiness lobbyists crying and wringing their hands about ‘crops rotting in the fields’.

Read it.

Read it.

Who’s on first?

Read it.

“In this experiment, we targeted the prefrontal cortex with individualized non-invasive stimulation montages,” lead HRL researcher Praveen Pilly said in a statement. “That is the region that controls many executive functions, including decision-making, cognitive control, and contextual memory retrieval. It is connected to almost all the other cortical areas of the brain, and stimulating it has widespread effects.”

Read it.

A multination project to build a fusion reactor cleared a milestone yesterday and is now 6 ½ years away from “First Plasma,” officials announced.

Read it.

A 16-year-old boy and a woman in her 60s are able to walk and move freely thanks to a 3D printed implant developed by Utrecht’s UMC teaching hospital.

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

WARNING: None of these work on Congress. (They’ve been tried.)

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

It would be difficult to find a pair of tweezers big enough to handle George R. R. Martin. I’d try Amazon.

Read it.

Some food delivery services guarantee a minimum payment for their drivers, which seems like a good thing on the surface. Basically, the company will pay the driver the agreed-upon base payment, even if it’s a slow shift and they don’t actually reach that amount in delivery charges. But it also means that everything they earn, including tip, is going toward that base payment. In other words, your tip is saving the company from having to pay more of the base payment.

The best way to ensure that your tip goes into your driver’s pocket is to give them a tip that they can literally put in their pocket—namely, cash. If you don’t have cash around or like to keep your finances digital for credit card rewards or tracking purposes, you should choose a delivery service that promises to pay their employees the full amount of whatever they earn, including tip.

I always keep cash on hand for this very reason.

Read it.

More human activity has been found at L’Anse aux Meadows, the only confirmed site in North America where the Vikings had a settlement.

Read it.

I should hope so.

Read it.

Abortion Barbie is back in the ring.

This district has been Republican since 1979. They’re going to have to bus Democrats in from Austin and San Antonio.

Read it.

Already, Vancouver’s 18-storey Brock Commons tower stands as a testament to the vast possibilities of wood. Once the world’s tallest timber building, it was built cheaper, faster and with less environmental impact than a comparable steel and concrete structure would have been – offsetting an estimated 2,432 metric tonnes of carbon.

Now the provincial government has changed its building codes, effectively doubling the height limit for wood-frame buildings to 12 storeys (Brock Commons was granted an exception when it was built). The Canadian government is expected to match BC’s codes nationwide.

Uh-huh. You first.

Read it.

Essentially, tumors are “tricked” into inviting the chemotherapeutics inside, allowing the drug to destroy them from the inside out. After making it inside the tumor, the hidden drug activates and kills cancer cells. This innovative delivery method is also lower in toxicity, thus causing less harmful side effects than most other chemotherapy treatments available today.