You’ve seen a one man band, but how about a complete symphony orchestra?

Ben Morfitt, a composer from England, recently created in a music video of one of his new, original songs, in which he plays every instrument while also acting as conductor.

The piece was written for a new cartoon he created called “Pegul,” which he describes in the video’s caption.

You could say he is a man of many talents.

Watch the video above, and you can check out more of his music on SoundCloud.

I am a pun machine, ready to reload~.

CES is one of the biggest tech events of the year. It’s when everyone convinces you that you need to buy a terrifying robot Einstein for some reason.

But Nick Offerman aka Ron Swanson and American Greetings — yeah, the greeting card company — trolled all of them.

Promising “a device like none other,” Offerman and America Greetings delivered just that. Offerman took to the stage to present… a regular greeting card that looks like:



via Mashable

Offerman, who was there to present the product had this to say:

"When I started dating my wife — her name is Megan Mullally, she's a very beautiful actress and singer and goddess — she and I loved giving each other cards," he told a crowd at the press event. "It's a very important part of our relationship, and so we've continued that practice.

"Even though there are times when it's more appropriate, of course, to send a text or an email ... when you really want to get a sentiment across, there's nothing like the artifact of the handwritten card." 

D'awwww... now go buy one for you mother or something.

H/T Mashable

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Apple executives have defended the relocation of the power button to the bottom of its new M4 Mac mini, citing the computer's significantly reduced size as the driving factor behind the design change. In a Bilibili video interview, Apple's Greg Joswiak and John Ternus explained that the Mac mini's form factor, now half the size of its predecessor, necessitated finding a new position for the power button. The executives said that the bottom placement allows for convenient access despite initial user criticism.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mark Rainey: Engineers are currently debugging why the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which is 15 billions miles away, turned off its main radio and switched to a backup radio that hasn't been used in over forty years! I've had some tricky debugging issues in the past, including finding compiler bugs and debugging code with no debugger that had been burnt into prom packs for terminals, however I have huge admiration for the engineers maintaining the operation of Voyager 1. Recently they sent a command to the craft that caused it to shut off its main radio transmitter, seemingly in an effort to preserve power and protect from faults. This prompted it to switch over to the backup radio transmitter, that is lower power. Now they have regained communication they are trying to determine the cause on hardware that is nearly 50 years old. Any communication takes days. When you think you have a difficult issue to debug, spare a thought for this team.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AmiMoJo writes: The climate-damaging vapors left behind by jet planes could be easily tackled, aviation experts say, with a new study suggesting they could be eliminated for a few pounds per flight. Jet condensation trails, or contrails, have spawned wild conspiracy theories alleging mind control and the spreading of disease, but scientists say the real problem is their warming effect. "They create an artificial layer of clouds, which traps the heat from the Earth that's trying to escape to outer space," said Carlos Lopez de la Osa, from the Transport & Environment campaign group, which has carried out a new study on the solutions to contrails. "The scale of the warming that's associated with them is roughly having a similar impact to that of aviation carbon emissions." Tweaking the flight paths of a handful of aircraft could reduce contrail warming by more than half by 2040, at a cost of less than $5.1 per flight. Geography and a flight's latitude have a strong influence on whether a contrail is warming. Time of day also influences the climate effects of contrails. Those formed by evening and night flights have the largest warming contribution. Seasonality is also important -- the most warming contrails tend to occur in winter. "Planes are already flying around thunderstorms and turbulence areas," Mr Lopez de la Osa said. "We will need to add one more constraint to flight planning, which is avoiding areas of contrail formation."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The IOC needs to improve rules on transgender athletes to protect "female sport", says World Athletics president Lord Coe.

Mysterious metal group Sleep Token are one of three headliners announced for Download festival.

For many Welsh speakers, Eryri and Yr Wyddfa are the names they have used all along.

Pistiwan Jameel described migrants as "pigeons" or "sticks" as he facilitated illegal crossings.

1. After Sunita Williams, NASA now worried about her stranded mission partner's losing body mass  Hindustan Times
2. "My Body Has Changed, But....": Sunita Williams On Health Aboard Space Station  NDTV
3. Stranded Sunita Williams dismisses severe weight loss rumours, says she feels ‘healthier than ever’  The Times of India
4. Sunita Williams explains reason behind her changed appearance in space | 'They have routine checks, dedicated surgeons' | Inshorts  Inshorts
5. Inside Sunita Williams' extended mission: What she’s doing in space  India Today

1. John Krasinski reveals wife Emily Blunt's reaction to his Sexiest Man Alive title  Hindustan Times
2. Actor John Krasinski Named 'Sexiest Man Alive' Of 2024 By People Magazine  NDTV
3. Is Jim from The Office really the sexiest man in the world?  The Guardian
4. Not Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Leonardo Dicaprio, Chris Evans, or Tom Cruise, THIS actor is the sexiest  India.com
5. John Krasinski Is PEOPLE's 2024 Sexiest Man Alive!  PEOPLE

1. Global carbon market gets green signal at COP29 under Paris Agreement's Article 6  The Hindu
2. Why India and China have pushed against climate change-related trade measures at COP29  The Indian Express
3. COP29: G77, China agree to use new NCQG draft text as basis for finance negotiations  The New Indian Express
4. Video | UN Scientists Warn Of 'Rising Emissions' Worldwide  NDTV
5. COP29 gets momentum with consensus on creation of carbon credits standards, India wants to conclude work  The Times of India

1. Watch: Nitish Kumar bows to touch PM’s feet at Bihar event. Here’s how Modi reacted  Moneycontrol
2. Watch: PM Modi's unexpected gesture as Nitish Kumar bows down to touch his feet  The Times of India
3. Nitish Kumar tries to touch PM's feet at Bihar event. Modi does this next  India Today
4. PM Modi lays foundation stone for AIIMS Darbhanga in Bihar, says NDA Govt committed to welfare of people  The Hindu
5. PM Modi states ‘1 lakh medical seats in India’, vows to add ‘75,000 more’, lays foundation stone of AIIMS in Bihar  Mint

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Filed under: Panama, Airports, News, Central America

Continue reading $7.2 Million Cash Found in Suitcases at Panama City Airport

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Donald Trump’s policies risk making the US dollar a source of global instability Expert comment LToremark 13 November 2024

Although Trump favours a weaker exchange rate, his policies are likely to have the opposite effect. The risk is that the US dollar could become too strong, which is bad news for the global economy.

President-elect Donald Trump has a dollar problem. In recent months he has shown a clear preference for a weaker exchange rate to support the competitiveness of US exports and help reduce the US trade deficit. And yet, as the market has sensed since the US election, the much more likely outcome is that his policies end up strengthening the greenback. The risk is that the US dollar – which is expensive already – becomes more obviously overvalued, and this could increase the risk of global financial instability. 

The dollar has been on a rollercoaster ride in the past few decades. From 2002 until 2011, for example, the dollar weakened by around 30 per cent in inflation-adjusted, trade-weighted terms, according to BIS data. Yet in the years since 2011, the dollar has strengthened and is now at a more appreciated level than at any time since 1985.

What shapes this rollercoaster, broadly speaking, is the global balance of economic vitality: when the US economy gains momentum relative to the rest of the world, the dollar tends to strengthen; and vice versa. 

After China joined the WTO in 2001, the balance of economic vitality shifted decisively away from the US, in favour of China and other emerging economies. This was the decade of the commodity boom: the longest, biggest peacetime increase in commodity prices in nearly 200 years during which a sustained surge in China’s economy supported GDP growth across the developing world. The dollar weakened as a result.

But after 2011, a combination of factors – including the eurozone crisis and its aftermath, together with the sagging of the Chinese economy – tipped the balance of economic vitality back in favour of the US. The dollar strengthened once again.

And since both the European and Chinese economies remain very fragile, the balance of economic vitality seems likely to keep favouring the US dollar.

Two more considerations also point to a stronger US dollar under a second Trump administration.

The first is the exchange rate implications of Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imports. When the US imposes tariffs on a trading partner, the foreign exchange market tends to sell that trading partner’s currency, forcing it to weaken to offset the dollar-price increase induced by the tariff. This helps explain why the Chinese renminbi depreciated by some 10 per cent in 2018 after Trump began imposing trade restrictions on China in January of that year. 

More widespread tariffs on a whole range of US trading partners should therefore strengthen the dollar more broadly.

A stronger dollar should also result from the macroeconomic framework Trump seems likely to deliver. He will certainly want to extend his 2017 tax cuts beyond 2025 when they are currently due to expire, so a more sustained loosening of US fiscal policy seems likely. Since boosting the US economy will create inflationary pressure, the market will expect interest rates to end up higher than they might otherwise be. The resulting combination of looser fiscal and tighter monetary policy tends to be a stronger currency.

The dollar probably has a fair amount of room to keep going up, since it is not obviously overvalued just yet. The US current account deficit – the broadest measure of a country’s trade deficit, and a rough but useful measure of financial vulnerability – was a little over 3 per cent of GDP last year. 

This is around half the level it reached in 2006, just before the 2008 global financial crisis, meaning the risks arising from an overvalued dollar may be for the latter part of Trump’s second presidency.

A strengthening dollar is also not great news for the rest of the world economy. A strong dollar tends to depress global trade growth, restrict developing countries’ access to international capital markets, and make it more difficult for countries whose currencies will be weakening to keep inflation under control.

If and when the dollar becomes unsustainably expensive, a further problem will present itself: how to deal with an overvalued currency without risking a lot of financial dislocation.

This problem last occurred in early 1985, when the dollar was universally reckoned to be dangerously dear. At that time the US was able to call on trading partners who depended on the US security umbrella – the UK, Germany, France and Japan – to negotiate the ‘Plaza Accord’, which coordinated a series of interventions in the foreign exchange market that allowed the dollar to decline in a measured way.  

It is virtually unimaginable that something similar could be negotiated today, not least because Chinese policymakers believe that the post-Plaza strengthening of the yen in the late 1980s led to an economic disaster for Japan. Beijing will not play ball.

Without much scope for a negotiated decline in the dollar, more chaotic alternatives seem likely. 

One is that the market decides suddenly that it no longer has an appetite for expensive dollar-denominated assets, and this might lead to a messy adjustment in the foreign exchange market. 

How do you see the Rockies utilizing Ryan McMahon this season? Beat reporter Thomas Harding answers this question and more from fans in the latest Rockies Inbox.

All 30 Major League teams will wear special "MLB 150" patches on their uniforms for the entire 2019 season in honor of the 150th anniversary of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly all-salaried professional baseball team.

A year after looking for ways to move Charlie Blackmon out of the leadoff spot, Rockies manager Bud Black is counting the reasons to keep him up top.

Ryan McMahon and the Rockies hope the struggles of 2018 lead to an immediate payoff. McMahon is a prime competitor for regular starts at second base, and those will come his way if he realizes potential for power and run production.

The baseball field is Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado's refuge from contract talks. But Tuesday's breaking news -- Manny Machado's 10-year, $300 million contract with the Padres -- made its way onto the field.

All 30 Major League teams will wear special "MLB 150" patches on their uniforms for the entire 2019 season in honor of the 150th anniversary of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly all-salaried professional baseball team.

The Blue Jays have followed the lead of several other teams around Major League Baseball by using a Rapsodo machine to analyze spin-rate data. A Rapsodo camer is used to understand how much movement, velocity and spin pitchers are getting on every toss.

The Blue Jays officially added another veteran to their bullpen Saturday morning by signing right-hander John Axford to a Minor League deal with an invitation to Spring Training. Axford hasn't received any guarantees with the short-term contract, but he is a strong candidate to make Toronto's 25-man roster and head north at the end of camp.

Marcus Stroman made himself available to the media for the first time this spring on Sunday morning, and what followed was an eventful 21 minutes that touched on almost every aspect of his game and the Blue Jays roster.

Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins declined to get into a back-and-forth with Marcus Stroman on Sunday afternoon, sidestepping criticism of the organization from his right-handed starter.

With each passing day, the hype continues to grow around Vladimir Guerrero Jr., but MLB Pipeline's top-ranked prospect seems to be keeping a pretty level head throughout all the chaos.

Donald Trump did not win the 2020 election, but asserting that he did became a prerequisite for Republicans standing for nomination to Congress or the Senate to win their primaries. An entire party became a vehicle for disinformation.1 Trump did win the 2024 presidential election, and key to that victory was building on the success of that lie. If you control enough of the information ecosystem, truth no longer matters.Another telling example: Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are not eating cats and dogs. US vice president elect, JD Vance, the source of that claim, admitted as much even as he justified it. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I'm going to do,” he said.2Disinformation in politics is nothing new. History is replete with claims that were fabricated to advance political aims. Although...