Beijing is strongly against a Trump-forced sale of TikTok's U.S. operations by Chinese owner ByteDance, and the government of China would rather that TikTok shut down all operations in United States, Reuters reports on Friday. China has previously characterized the forced sale to a U.S. based buyer as "theft." ByteDance has been in talks to […]

Enjoying sex and food is not a sin and church leaders who tell you that are "overzealous," says Pope Francis. From the New York Post: "Pleasure arrives directly from God. It is neither Catholic nor Christian nor anything else; it is simply divine," he tells [author Carlo] Petrini in the book "TerraFutura: Conversations With Pope […]

Officials have signed an agreement to buy 50 million doses, plan to distribute in November

When you grind coffee beans, you want to use a burr grinder, not a blade grinder. Burr grinders break the beans into uniformly sized chunks, unlike blade grinders, which flay the beans into pieces of widely varying size. I've had my Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder for over 10 years and it's still working like […]

Donald Trump, who is definitely not a drug user at all and has never been reported as a habitual user of stimulants to this very day, casually accuses Joe Biden of using performance enhancing drugs in this wacky news clip from the year of our hellscape 2020. DARVO'd Trump, "I think there's probably, possibly drugs […]

"Put your damn mask on!" from r/funny This swan doesn't like it when people don't wear face masks.

Kurdish journalist Oktay Candemir was arrested on Monday for making fun of an upcoming Turkish TV series about a 13th-century Ottoman sultan. From .coda: Authorities didn't find it funny and Candemir now faces up to two years in prison. He was briefly placed under house arrest and, while his case is pending, remains subject to […]

It is wonderful to have room temperature butter around to put on the baked goods. This butter bell is the crock that makes it happen safely. Simply fill the bell with warm butter and put about 1 ¼ cm of water into the crock. Place the bell in the crock when you are not using […]

To be fair, it does appear to have a ticket.

Punk-rock magic absurdist Zabrecky is at it again, and this time he's got Puddles Pity Party joining him! Saturday the 12th of September will see two shows of this new 'Magic Extravaganza.'

This 1902(!) video footage of the Flying Train in Wuppertal, Germany is of such high quality it seems hard to believe. But there it is. MoMA explains the stunning quality in the video's description: The Flying Train" depicts a ride on a suspended railway in Germany in 1902. The footage is almost as impressive as […]

One More Try is a free web-based service that records something on your computers webcam then plays it back after a specified amount of time. The creator made it to review a skateboard trick he was trying to learn. He says it's also useful for juggling, magic tricks, yo-yo, and anything else that would benefit […]

"Adults with positive SARS-CoV-2 test results were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those with negative SARS-CoV-2 test results," according to the Centers for Disease Control's latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The CDC recommends that efforts to "reduce possible exposures where mask use and social distancing […]

From Punk News: The Dead Milkmen are releasing a role-playing game module called Lost Tomb of the Bitchin' Chimera. It's a 5e game meaning that it is comparable with Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. The game is written by Andrew Ervin and is out via severed books this summer. Presumably, this means you need to […]

Neuroscientists at Georgetown University tested volunteers on their ability to predict patterns of dots appearing sequentially on a computer screen. The volunteers who were able to subconsciously anticipate the patterns were found to be more likely to believe in a god than volunteers who lacked the ability to subconsciously recognize patterns. From Georgetown University Medical […]

Is this episode of Rick Beato's "What Makes This Song Great?," he breaks down The Cure's "Just Like Heaven." What appears to be a peppy pop confection on the surface has a lot going on when you isolate its constituent parts. One thing we clearly hear is the sweetness of Robert Smith's voice and the […]

If 2020 has you pinching pennies, this site listing foods by calories per dollar may be helpful. Engineer Michael Kirk says he was inspired to create the list after calculating cost per calorie of fast foods. He notes, "We think we know what food costs, but we have no idea what nutrition costs. We needed […]

Crowdsource the Truth thought it would be fun to market their Crony Awards with a version of an Emmy statuette holding a coronavirus. When the Television Academies tried to stop the organization from using their trademarked image, open mockery ensued. A new lawsuit says the org doubled down, with one person claiming the Academies president […]

We all understand the healing powers of music. Putting on your favorite songs, zoning out, and letting the immersive sensation wash over you and carry you away is part of music's universal appeal. And the link between music and feeling good isn't just anecdotal. In four separate research trials, music therapy was found to reduce […]

When I'm not writing things here on BoingBoing and elsewhere, I also sing and play guitar for an indie rock called the Roland High Life. And today, we have a new album out called "Songs About Comic Books & Mid-30s Malaise!" The subject matter is precisely as you would expect it to be. You can […]

The great thing about online education is that no matter where you feel you need to shore up your skill sets, there's a package of coursework that can help get you there. You just have to know where to look. Skillingo assembles those training packages, grouping up series of classes all directed toward some area […]

PMS 130, taken on 9/9/20 by Adam Dexter Woke up this morning here in Alameda (San Francisco Bay Area) and it was still dark, with a strong orange coming through the blinds. I can best describe it as a "hellscape." It's caused, of course, by the wildfires. But, oddly enough, it doesn't smell like smoke […]

I've had a cheap Brother wireless laser printer for 10 years. It's so much faster and cheaper than an inkjet printer, and doesn't cause problems like an inkjet printer. It also prints on both sides of a sheet of paper. That feature comes in handy when my daughters and I want to make a small […]

From breaching humpback whales to European tulip fields to frozen lakes in Antarctica, enjoy a drone's eye view of the world in this relaxing montage of scenic drone footage. [Video link, source: Storyful]

A former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security has filed a whistleblower complaint, in which he claims he was told to stop providing intelligence analysis reports about ongoing Russian interference attacks on America because it "made the President look bad." The official, Brian Murphy, said he believed the instruction he received from acting […]

Walmart said Wednesday it will soon start a pilot project for drone delivery of grocery and household products. The retailer is partnering for the test launch with end-to-end delivery firm Flytrex. Walmart is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, and says the test starts Wednesday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with drones controlled remotely through the internet picking […]

What's on the nightstand by your bed? Probably a lamp, maybe a clock, your phone, a tablet, a pair of glasses, some books you haven't read yet, some tissues, a remote control, and likely at least a few other personal items. Before you realize it, you've stacked up a lot of stuff on that tiny […]

Visual Capitalist's graph of the world's 25 richest families includes only those that inherited their wealth (not "self-made" centi-billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, or Bill Gates). I was surprised that the Mars family is second on the list (behind the Walmart family, which is worth $215 billion). The supercilious Koch family comes in third, […]

In 2001 Portugal decriminalized the consumption of all drugs. Meanwhile, the Philippines deals with drug users by shooting them in the street or throwing them in prison. Neither approach eliminates the harm that drug abuse (and its secondary and tertiary effects) causes to individuals and society, but only one them reduces the harm while the […]

Microsoft says the Xbox Series X will cost $500, a stripped-down $300 Series S will also be available, and both will launch on November 10, as the holiday shopping season kicks off. AP: There haven't been new generations of video game consoles for several years. The most recent Xbox, Xbox One, was released in 2013, […]

• Shocking new excerpt from Bob Woodward's book 'Rage' show Trump downplayed COVID-19 threat but knew how deadly and contagious it is • Trump: "I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic." An excerpt from RAGE, Bob Woodward's new book, reveals that […]

The United States and Mexico are each others greatest trading partners and share a 3,000 kilometer border. The number of U.S. residents with Mexican ancestry is about 37 million. And yet, the border is heavily restricted and U.S. law makes it very difficult for most people from Mexico to legally immigrate to the United States. […]

Stevie gives an amazing performance here. Where can I get his pants suit?

Looking forward to this one. You surely know what Dune is all about, but if not, well, few are the fools who would attempt to explain it in a paragraph. The only way to catch up is to buy the entire six-book series (even after all this time, there are only six Dune books!) and […]

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health released guidelines forbidding door-to-door trick-or-treating. "Door-to-door trick-or-treating is not allowed because it can be very difficult to maintain proper social distancing on porches and at front doors especially in neighborhoods that are popular with trick or treaters. Also verboten: 'Trunk-or-treating' events where children go from car to […]

De Niro and Bob James's "Angela"—what's not to love?(kingkida)

Despite reports of their death in the Washington Post back in 2017, it appears that guitars are, in fact, still alive — and indeed, might even be cool once more. As The New York Times reports, in the aptly titled "Guitars are back, baby!" A half-year into a pandemic that has threatened to sink entire […]

As part of the new transmedia Doctor Who series, Time Lord Victorious, the BBC has announced that the Daleks are getting their own animated CGI miniseries. Yes, that's right: everyone's favorite genocidal trashcans on wheels, now immortalized as adorable cartoons. Here's the blurb. The Dalek Empire comes up against a terrible force. The Daleks' plundering […]

Senryu are sort of a sister poem to the Haiku. While traditional Haiku are about nature, Senryu follow the same 5-7-5 syllable format to address elements of human nature. Latitude and longitude are available for the seriously committed. (h/t Ava)

When you walk around carrying a heavy backpack, the movement of the pack against your body increases the amount of energy you need to take each step. Now, Huazhong University of Science and Technology professor Caihua Xiong and colleagues developed a motorized backpack that automatically adjusts the load you're carrying. From IEEE Spectrum: "Asian people […]

Denim is a popular clothing fabric. Half the world is wearing blue jeans or denim right now (well, at least they were before the pandemic). A new study published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters presents the unfortunate finding that a single pair of blue jeans "can release 56000 ± 4100 microfibers per wash." Microfibers […]

YouTubers There I Ruined It have lived up to their name but making Survivor's Rocky III hit "Eye of the Tiger" a doo-wop song (cringe). Here's the original to listen to as a palate cleanser: (Born in Space, The Awesomer) image via eil.com

An outbreak of wildfires has spread across Oregon. As Oregon Public Broadcasting explains: Thousands of Oregonians were evacuated from their homes Tuesday, as conditions led to a spate of surging wildfires state officials said is unprecedented in modern memory. […] The gusts that began Monday gave new life to fires that had burned in central […]

"Using 19 years of data on 1,172 public firms, we show that firms' distinctive strategies are systematically linked to their CEOs' uncommon names," write the authors of a new study published in Strategic Management Journal. The reason? People with "uncommon names tend to have a self‐conception of being different from their peers." From the report's […]

Fossils found within other fossils happen when an animal dies with its undigested prey inside. Cases generally involve prehistoric fish and reptiles, as they tend to swallow prey whole. Scientists working in China have reported finding a thalattosaur inside the stomach of an ichthyosaur species called a guizhouichthyosaurus. This was surprising, because scientists believed there […]

Yarh-io is a handheld Linux-based computer with keyboard, trackpad and 800×480-pixel display made with a Raspberry Pi 3B+, a custom 3D-printed case and many hours of love. [via Liliputing] YARH.IO is a fully hackable and custamizable Raspberry Pi based handheld, running Raspberry Pi OS and supporting all other Operating Systems available for Raspberry Pi. The […]

Kurt is a baby horse born last month. But Kurt is a very special horse because he's one of approximately 2,000 endangered Przewalski's horses alive on the planet, and he was cloned from genetic material that's been frozen for 40 years. Revive & Restore—the wildlife conservation organization most famous for their efforts to resurrect the […]

I don't know about you, but in this pandemic, I feel as though the weeks are flying by. In this interview conducted by Darryn King, neuroscientist David Eagleman talks about the many ways the world wrought by Covid-19 has affected the way we think. In one of your famous experiments, you had people fall from […]

I wonder if this was just a friendly greeting or a congratulatory gesture, and, if it's the latter, what exactly was being praised.

Adrian Smith is a bug nerd. The head of the Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, he studies insects and also creates digital media to share the wonder with the public. Above is his stunning slow motion video of "takeoff and flight sequences of insects spanning 8 different taxonomic orders […]