Have you heard about those 16 experts who have been working feverishly for a week in advance of Thursday night’s presidential debate, putting Joe Biden together in a Hollywood-style studio inside an airplane hangar like Sandra Bullock in “Miss Congeniality”? As a past member of the Screen Actors Guild, I can assure you it’s true that sometimes a boneheaded actor just can’t remember his lines. In the old days in Hollywood, the director would yell: “Somebody from the art department get in here with a magic marker and draw up some cue cards … right now!” Now, far be it from our side to engage in any “dirty tricks,” but IFBs operate on a radio frequency, and frequencies can be easily intercepted and jammed. A large swath of the online right has spent the lead-up to the debate speculating about what exotic cocktail of drugs Biden will need to ingest to look sharp and sound coherent in his CNN face-off with Donald Trump. They’re thinking of the catatonic Robert De Niro character in "Awakenings.” Wrong movie. Today, it’s much easier for the brain-cell-challenged actor who can’t remember anything. The answer is a wireless version of a pigtail earphone called an IFB — interruptible foldback — often used by newscasters. It’s an ear-prompter, a tiny device that sits invisibly in the ear canal. They’re readily available online. There’s one called Ovation, and the complete wireless package, which includes a recorder to hold prepared comments, costs around $1,000. Such a unit, properly modified, could provide direct radio access for instant communication. This is particularly valuable to a handsome bard who can’t act, either, in that his acting coach can reassure him and lead him from a distance. “Look up. Turn left. Look into her eyes.” Equipped with such devices, Biden’s 16 debate aides, divided into two teams speaking into left and right ear-prompters — one for dialogue and the other for direction — can become the greatest ventriloquists since Edgar Bergen manipulated Charlie McCarthy. Just imagine moderator Jake Tapper asks, “What is the greatest threat to democracy?” And an aide-ventriloquist responds, “Donald Trump is the greatest threat to democracy!” Another aide says, “Look to your left with anger, Joe.” With any luck, it will come out, “Trump is angry at the left, Joe.” A further question, from Dana Bash, might be, “Will you pardon your son, Hunter, now that he’s been convicted of a gun crime?” The first aide says, “I will never stoop to that level.” Another aide panics and yells, “No, Joe! He said stoop, not poop! Watch out for the stairs!” Of course, this isn’t the first time the idea of Biden using an earpiece has come up. In 2020, the Trump campaign complained that Biden’s camp first agreed to an inspection for illicit devices and then reneged at the last minute. A Biden spokesman denied the charge. Naturally, the unquestioning press accepted the spokesman’s statement and dismissed Trump’s claims as just another “conspiracy theory.” Maybe. Who knows? Now, far be it from those supporting the Bad Orange Man to engage in any “dirty tricks,” but IFBs transmit on radio frequencies, and those frequencies can be easily intercepted and jammed. A Trump campaign staffer would need a scanner. If Biden is using an IFB, the frequency wouldn’t be difficult to locate, unless he is using a more sophisticated device that hops frequencies. Once located, it could be jammed — or taken over. The British did this often during World War II, using men and later women who spoke fluent German to insert confusing instructions over Nazi night fighter control channels. It worked marvelously well. Not that the Trump campaign would ever consider such chicanery. Or that Biden would seriously consider cheating in the first place.

In October 2023, Egyptian archaeologists unveiled a trove of artifacts from a New Kingdom cemetery, including a sarcophagus lid with an image of the goddess Nut — which had an uncanny resemblance to Marge Simpson. The post Archaeologists Uncovered An Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagus With A Painting That Looks Eerily Like Marge Simpson appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Just months after the Bataan Death March, Joseph C. Murphy died in a horrific prisoner of war camp — and was buried among countless other deceased soldiers. The post A U.S. Prisoner Of War’s Remains Have Finally Been Identified From The 1942 Bataan Death March appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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Image: The New York Times Strands, The New York Times’ very good word search game, has been officially added to the NYT’s Games app on iOS and Android. For me personally, this is huge. Strands has become my favorite of the NYT’s games since it launched in beta in March, but I was annoyed that I had to bounce between the app and a browser to complete my daily Wordle, Connections, and Strands. Now, I can do all of the puzzles right in the app over my morning coffee. It’s the little things! Each Strands puzzle has a theme. That theme hints at the words you’ll need to find — including the “spanagram” word that spans across opposite sides of the puzzle. Every letter in the puzzle is used for a themed word or the spanagram. If you need some help, you can get hints by... Continue reading…

An anatomical study of a piece of a Neanderthal child’s skull showed that this young person had been born with severe health challenges, of a type commonly associated with Down’s syndrome. Yet somehow this child survived to at least the age of six and likely somewhat longer than that, despite the perils and the challenges he or she would have faced. For this to be possible the child would have needed regular care and attention, even beyond what the child’s mother would have been able to provide. According to the scientists involved in this new study, their discovery helps confirm the theory that Neanderthals were not only capable of empathy and compassion, but demonstrated these emotions in real-life circumstances. Signature of Down Syndrome Found in Ancient Humans Researchers claim Flores bones do not represent new species of 'Hobbit' human Read moreSection: NewsEvolution & Human OriginsRead Later