Hasta La Gadget!

Tara Grinstead, a teacher in Ocilla, Georgia, was last seen on Oct. 22, 2005. After more than a decade of false leads and dead ends, police arrested the individual they believe is responsible for her death.

On Thursday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced that Ryan Alexander Duke was arrested in connection to Grinstead’s murder. Duke was a student at the high school where Grinstead taught, and became a person of interest for investigators after they received a tip linking him to Grinstead.

“We did find the person that was responsible for Tara’s death,” GBI agent J.T. Ricketson said at the courthouse news conference, per CBS.

An extensive effort was made across the state to find the missing 30-year-old since her disappearance. Reports show that her house was left locked with her cell phone inside, and her purse and wallet were missing from the unlocked car in her garage, on the day she was reported missing. Other than a latex glove found in her yard, law enforcement had little physical evidence to use in the investigation. Television outlets like CBS News’ “48 Hours” and Investigation Discovery’s “Disappeared” have covered the case. 

Georgia filmmaker Payne Lindsey began his own investigation of the cold case in mid 2016, through a podcast called “Up and Vanished.” The show went over, in minute detail, the circumstances of Grinstead’s disappearance. Lindsey interviewed friends of the teacher, former law enforcement, and other individuals who might have been able to shed light on the case.

“Up and Vanished” certainly isn’t the first podcast of its kind. When people think “true crime” and “audio,” naturally minds jump to runaway hit “Serial,” which followed the disputed conviction of Adnan Syed. The public’s hunger for true crime, meted out in weekly installments, was evident, and soon other shows followed: “Accused,” “Someone Knows Something,” “In the Dark.” Many focused on long-cold cases.

“Crime is one of those topics that kind of taps into our base curiosity about things: good and bad, right and wrong, and also human emotions,” “Criminal” podcast host Phoebe Judge told The Huffington Post in 2016. “True crime allows the listener to be a detective for a minute.” Still, as many learned with “Serial,” listeners can’t always expect an ambiguous case to be neatly concluded at the end of a season. There’s a base level of expectation that a cold case will remain old news.

It turns out, that’s not the case for “Up and Vanished.” On Thursday, Lindsay posted two brief updates on the podcast feed. In the first, Lindsey announced that the GBI would be holding a press conference, and for listeners to check back in later. His next update: “Ryan Duke killed Tara Grinstead.”

The three-minute clip is a conversation between Lindsey and a female source, where she tells him of Duke’s arrest.

“Listen, I’m going to tell you something,” the woman says. “I know I haven’t helped you very much, because it’s really honestly hard to deal with […] this, but if it hadn’t been for you, none of this would’ve happened.” Later, an unidentified male voice tells Lindsey that Duke admitted to killing Grinstead.

Without further details, there’s no telling what kind of impact the podcast had on the case of Tara Grinstead. Still, it’s undeniable that the tight focus Lindsey placed on her case, delivering it to the crime-hungry public who could consume each detail on their daily commutes or workouts, increased nationwide attention on the missing teacher. The show earned nearly 3,000 ratings on iTunes. Several news outlets covered the podcast after its first few episodes, making an 11-year-old case worthy of headlines once more. 

Lindsey appeared on “Good Morning America” Friday to discuss the revelation of Duke’s involvement, telling host Amy Robach he believed the arrest was “one piece to a bigger puzzle.”

When asked what role he believed “Up and Vanished” played in the development, Lindsey said, “The podcast opened up this atmosphere in Ocilla that created this trust factor and a line of communication, an open channel.”

Listeners can only wait to discover just how impactful the audio program was.

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When you have a hellish week, there are nights where you’re going to miss out on sleep. We can pay off that lack of proper rest when we die, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed during the days following the long nights. Since we can’t put more hours in the day, we spend money on serums, lotions, and gadgets that will give off the appearance of a well-rested person without actually having to be one.

If you seem to live in a constant state of tired, then this Hush Time Menion Eye Warmer will help soothe your eyes, if only a little. Speaking from experience, you can only go so long before your eyelids start to twitch and feel like they’re being kept open by sheer will alone. While a warm towel will do about the same as this device, this gadget is portable, won’t make your face damp, and you don’t have to run the water for five minutes to get it hot enough.

This has three modes of heating, and should be warm enough for use within a few seconds of being turned on. You only need to press it gently over top of your eyelids for a minute or two before some of the edge will disappear. This is not cheap at $255, but is targeted for those who run a hard schedule and have to look like they walked off a magazine everywhere they go.

Available for purchase on JapanTrendShop
[ The Hush Time Menion Eye Warmer hides your fatigue copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

China has some amazing statues, but this Iron Man statue is… weird. It looks like a McDonald’s version of Iron Man that would scare kids when ordering their Happy Meals.

It also looks like an Adventure Time character stole Tony Stark’s suit and is about to lay waste to the Candy Kingdom. Apparently, this weird looking Iron Man was seen parked at a tourist spot called World Cultural Heritage Expo Park in Anhui, China. The 30-meter statue is next to the location’s Sphinx, where they hope it will bolster attendance numbers.

I guess you can’t make them all look cool.

[via QQ via Shanghaiist via Kotaku]

LG has a new series of Gram notebooks for 2017, and it’s launching these six different models with two key areas of focus: weight and battery life. As the name would suggest, LG Gram notebooks are designed to be lightweight, with every entry in the family coming in at just over two pounds. You might think that a slim and … Continue reading

By Joe Kissell

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