Zippia, a career website, has a fun bit of research for the Independence Day holiday: which states spend the most money on fireworks, at least based on population and firework imports. The list is a bit surprising — Texas, for example, doesn’t make the Top Ten list despite its popular association with independence and firepower. The research is a basic, … Continue reading
The State Dept. will allow people to obtain passports and IDs using a gender neutral “X” marker instead of “M” or “F.”
The creator of the “1619 Project” had said she would not begin a professorship without tenure.
Created using Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa woodblock print, this is a cat scratcher in a 3D form of the masterpiece. Released by the Cat Club division of Japanese lifestyle brand Felissimo, the scratcher sells for around $90. It’s certainly not the cheapest cat scratcher, but it does look like it belongs in a museum.
The scratcher measures approximately 24″ long, 16″ tall, and 8″ deep, and Felissimo insists that not only is it a great scratching post, but the concave shape of the wave makes it a good place to curl up and take a cat nap as well. I’m already yawning just thinking about it.
So, is this going to be the first in a series of fine art turned cat scratchers? Only time will tell. Well time, and people’s willingness to spend money on them. I feel like the cost of anything I buy for my cat is inversely proportional to how much she actually uses it. At $90 I doubt this will even warrant a second glance. The box it’s shipped in? She’ll sleep in it for years.
[via SoraNews24]
A company that makes small, mobile robots with thermal imaging cameras, Teledyne Flir, overnighted two of them to the Miami-Dade Fire Department in the hope they may help with the ongoing search-and-rescue effort following a disastrous condo collapse in Surfside, Florida.
In some ways, Space Jam fans were dreading this since the moment the first trailer essentially turned “cartoons play sci-fi basketball” into “what if Ready Player One had exclusive access to the Warner Bros. back catalogue?” but truly, to see this Matrix riff in action is… well, it’s a lot.
The World Health Organization has published new guidance on the use of artificial intelligence in health, something that took experts across multiple fields 18 months to debate. WHO acknowledges this technology offers many benefits to the healthcare industry, including when it comes to diagnosing tricky illnesses, but there are also some big issues that need to be addressed. We’ve seen … Continue reading
One of the most iconic and longest-running adult cartoons The Simpsons is no stranger to guest appearances and brief crossovers with other universes (remember the Simpsons/Family Guy episode that kicked off Season 13?). Some of the crossovers have been amusing, such as the Star Wars episodes, but others have been lacking (Lady Gaga, for example). The next crossover, which is … Continue reading
Amazon Prime’s film version of the classic take gives the heroine and her fairy godmother — modern makeovers.
Spotify is reportedly “considering” expanding into events, according to The Information. The outlet reports the company could sell tickets for both virtual and live concerts as it looks to diversify its business. However, making money off of ticketed events isn’t necessarily Spotify’s short-term goal. Its more immediate plan is to use them as a way to improve its relationship with artists.
The Information suggests Spotify thinks there’s an opportunity to leverage the data it has to help musicians plan successful concerts in places most promoters avoid. In this way, the company is said to believe it can better show those artists it’s invested in their careers. It would also be a way for it to differentiate its platform from Apple Music.
Spotify has already dabbled in live events. This past spring, the company put on a handful of prerecorded virtual concerts featuring artists like The Black Keys and Leon Bridges. It sold tickets to those shows for $15 each. The Information reports the results of those concerts “validated” Spotify’s thinking on what events could do for it in the future, and it’s been thinking about next steps ever since. Of course, we wouldn’t say that makes an expansion is a done deal. Selling tickets to concerts might make a lot of sense for a music streaming platform, but it would still represent a massive business shift for Spotify.
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