With a keen eye for presenting fresh food in tantalizingly ways, the Foodbites Instagram account is a food-lover’s dream.https://www.instagram.com/p/BVPEOCChUSf/https://www.instagram.com/p/BUeVkOIBk5F/https://www.instagram.com/p/BTvm7-1hKZT/https://www.instagram.com/p/BU8q6HTh3wU/https://www.instagram.com/p/BU_q63Mhd1j/https://www.instagram.com/p/BUeCpvhBcSU/https://www.instagram.com/p/BUYxOk0hVhh/https://www.instagram.com/p/BUJv5YTBN4H/https://www.instagram.com/p/BTqV8XYBOOF/You can see more gorgeous food photography on the Foodbites’ Instagram.

Said one intellectual property attorney, “The speed with which these appeals were decided is mind-blowing.” (more…)

On Tor.com, an excerpt from Christopher Brown's forthcoming debut novel Tropic of Kansas, an outstanding and well-timed thriller about a corporate-presidency dystopia (you may recall it from Brown's essay in March). (more…)

Remember when the President of Turkey came to Washington to visit Trump, and his goons beat the crap out of American protesters on American soil? The DC-based Turkish news site Washington Hatti reported today that Eyup Yildirim was arrested for playing a role in this incident, and the Daily Caller now reports that a second, Sinan Narin, was also arrested. Both men beat peaceful protesters outside of the embassy of Turkey.Reports Chuck Ross at the Daily Caller:U.S. Marshals have arrested two Turkish men living in U.S. for their role in beating peaceful protesters outside of the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C. last month, a source with knowledge of the matter tells The Daily Caller.The State Department confirmed in a statement to TheDC that arrests have been, and the Washington, D.C. Metro police department identified the two men as Eyup Yildirim and Sinan Narin.“Now that charges have been filed, the Department will weigh additional actions for the named individuals, as appropriate under relevant laws and regulations. Any further steps will be responsive and proportional to the charges,” a State Department official said.Yildirim, a 50-year-old construction company owner from New Jersey, faces charges of assault with significant bodily injury and aggravated assault. Narin, from Virginia, faces an aggravated assault charge. (more…)

A rare joint alert from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation explicitly blames the government of North Korea for a series of hacking attacks on various American targets, dating as far back as 2009. The government alert warns that more such ”state-sponsored cyberattacks,” as they're known in security jargon, are likely to come. (more…)

Yesterday I posted the story of the gentleman who paved his private road with raw, unwashed clamshells, creating a horrible-smelling, maggot-infested mess. Well, all good things must come to an end. After weeks of causing a sickening stench, the rotting shells are being removed. The same company that supplied the shells is taking them away, hopefully far, far away.From local news station 10 in Rhode Island:The state Department of Environmental Management said its investigation found the clamshells contained a significant amount of decaying clam meat and thus were considered waste. The DEM said it issued a Letter of Non-Compliance to the property owner on Thursday, requiring the clamshells to be removed and disposed of at a licensed solid waste management or composting facility.

Here is delightful factory footage from 1965 of Matchbox car manufacturing in the London Borough of Hackney. From Wikipedia:The Matchbox name originated in 1953 as a brand name of the British die-casting company, Lesney Products, whose reputation would be moulded by John W. "Jack" Odell (1920–2007), Leslie Charles Smith (1918–2005), and Rodney Smith (hence the name Lesney, a portmanteau of Leslie and Rodney Smith's first names). Their first major sales success was the popular model of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation coach, which sold more than a million models. Shortly thereafter, Lesney co-owner Jack Odell created a toy that effectively paved the way for the company's future success. It was designed for his daughter: her school only allowed children to bring toys that could fit inside a matchbox, so Odell crafted a scaled-down version of the Lesney green and red road roller. This toy ultimately became the first of the 1-75 miniature range. A dump truck and a cement mixer completed the original three-model release that marked the starting point for the mass-market success of the Matchbox series. As a result of the inspiration for the toys' size, the idea was born to sell the models in replica matchboxes — thus yielding the name of the series. It also resulted in the description of the models' scales being "1:box" (as opposed to more mathematical scales such as 1:87, 1:64, or 1:43).(via Laughing Squid)

Interesting article in SciAm about the difficulty in treating head lice infestations. "Overexposure to insecticides has bred resistance in the parasites, making it harder than ever to treat infestation." The situation is different in Europe, where they've stopped using insecticides to kill lice and nits and use synthetic oils:Further confounding matters, the co-pay for visiting a doctor, plus the cost of prescriptions, which may or may not be covered by insurance, can impede patient access to these newer medications. And despite their diminishing efficacy, over-the-counter lice shampoos remain the first response recommended by most doctors, health plans and even the American Academy of Pediatrics. For its part, the combing method used by many parents and professional lice pickers such as LiceDoctors is theoretically effective, Clark and Yoon note, but hard to do well.The situation is totally different in Europe, where treatment moved on from pyrethroids and virtually all insecticides about a decade ago, says Ian Burgess, president of the International Society of Phthirapterists (people who study lice). Instead most Europeans now rely on silicone and other synthetic oils to eliminate head lice. The oils envelop the lice, preventing them from excreting water. As liquid builds up inside the louse, its internal organs start to shut down from the exhaustion of trying to pump out the water. Either it dies of this exhaustion, Burgess says, or its guts rupture from the liquid.My kids have gotten lice a few times. I've always wondered if plain old rubbing alcohol could kill lice and nits. Apart from accidentally setting your kid's hair on fire, it seems worth a try.Image: Gilles San Martin/Wikipedia

For all I know, this guy could be younger than James Hetfield, but in any case, the fun he's having is infectious. "Old man is having fun under metallica" (YouTube via DIGG)

I have never actually seen anyone drink Lancers. It must be popular, it seems to still be commercially produced!https://youtu.be/Nap3AgOwLEEI remember my parents having two bottles of this in the fridge from the time I was like 5 years old until I moved out of their home. If I go look, it may still be there.I'm gonna look for a bottle when my kid and I go to the market later. This could be bad.

If you don't have an iron handy, you can always use a pot of hot water to smooth out your clothes. This method looks like it does a pretty good job, but you might want to use oven mitts – this guy keeps burning his fingers.

This video of a young guy riding around the lip of a tall building in Hong Kong made my palms sweaty. He comes within a fraction of an inch from the edge. He's lucky to be alive.

After five people were shot today, including Republican House Whip Steve Scalise, during a morning game of baseball, a scheduled hearing that included the leader of the NRA to deregulate gun silencers was cancelled. According to Think Progress:The GOP-sponsored bill up for debate in the House Natural Resources Committee, the Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act (SHARE Act), would have removed gun silencers from the list of items regulated by the 1934 National Firearms Act.Silencers — also referred to as suppressors by the gun lobby — reduce the noise emitted from firearms. Under current law, they are regulated as strictly as machine guns and short-barreled rifles, but the gun lobby claims that these regulations are costly and unnecessary. They argue it’s more important to protect law-abiding gun owners against potential hearing loss.Opponents, meanwhile, claim that deregulation would lead to more gun violence.“The proliferation of silencers would introduce a menacing new threat to our nation’s communities and our law enforcement professionals,” Sean Simons, deputy press secretary at Americans for Responsible Solutions, told The Trace.But gun lobbyists need not worry. The Trump administration is working on making it easier for fugitives and people who are mentally ill to legally buy guns, and the hearing cancellation is really just delayed out of respect for those shot today. You can bet it'll be rescheduled. Image: DickClarkMises

The main body of the tour for my novel Walkaway is done (though there are still upcoming stops at Denver Comic-Con, San Diego Comic-Con, the Burbank Public Library and Defcon in Las Vegas), but you can still get signed, personalized copies of Walkaway! (more…)

My friend and Cool Tools partner Kevin Kelly went to Uzbekistan and he posted a bunch of breathing photos he took while he was there. See them all here.It's everybody's favorite vacation getaway: Uzbekistan! I knew almost nothing of Uzbekistan before my visit there so everyday was a cascade of surprises. While Americans think of Central Asia as the most remote places possible, people in Uzbekistan see themselves as at the center of the universe. They've been farming there for 6,000 years, and everyone has passed through over the centuries. I was so delighted I could as well.

Ever wish the anonymous jerks who comments on your online life would be made to eat their words? Wish no more, Trollcakes is here. (more…)

When Thomas Piketty and his team undertook their landmark study of wealth inequality in the world, they had to rely on the self-reported income of the super rich to see just how income was distributed -- by definition, they couldn't directly measure the unreported income hidden in tax havens (though they did estimate it, with what was eventually shown to be pretty good precision). (more…)

The hexidecimal color #C0FFEE (192 Red, 255 Green, 238 Blue, on a scale of 0-255) is a pleasing greenish color, while #BEADED is a kind of mauve. (more…)

The 188 square foot parking space went for HKD5.18m (USD664,300) -- HKD27,500/sqft. (more…)

Watch as James 'Dynamite' Hillier somehow manages to keep a nearly out of control Kawasaki superbike upright, on the road and in the race! Blazing around the Isle of Man's 'Ballagarey Corner’, also known as Balla-Scary, Hillier wills the machine back into line.Headshake like that would throw me right off my rubber cow.

A rock cracked my windshield as I was driving along the 5 freeway. This $11 kit and youtube video patched it nicely!I did a bunch a looking around and I think this style kit, with its suction/pressure system of injecting the resin into your crack is likely the best. I found this video by Chris Fix super helpful as well. Following his simple directions, I worked on a chip that looked like a 5 point star. I'd say it is now 85% or so invisible and 100% sealed. I am not sure a professional glass repair person could have done much better, but they'd have cost $140 to come out to the house.Much like the resin I use to repair surfboard dings, if you get this in direct sunlight it cures very, very fast. This kit is easier than making an appointment to have someone else do it.Permatex 09103 Windshield Repair Kit via Amazon

A few days ago Jason Kottke posted his media diet - a list of books and movies he's read and watched recenty. I found some interesting things on his list, which I made a note of. (I keep a running list of media to consume on Workflowy, the best task manager. If I meet you and we chat, chances are good I will pull out my phone and add something we talked about to my list.) In the spirit of Kottke's media diet list, here are some books that I've read recently and recommend.People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo -- and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up, by Richard Lloyd Parry. A true crime novel about the disappearence of a young British woman who worked as a hostess in Toyko's Roppongi nightclub district. Her body was found several months later. The most interesting part was the glimpse into Tokyo's criminal justice system, which is very different from the United States'. In Japan, getting a suspect to confess is an essential part of the process, and their legal system almost breaks down when a suspect refuses to confess.11/22/63: A Novel, by Stephen King. This was my first Stephen King novel, and many people say it's his best work. It's about guy who finds a secret portal to 1958. He enters it through the back of a diner, and no matter how long he is in that past, when he re-enters the present, only a few minutes have elapsed. He is tasked with preventing Oswald from killing JFK. He falls in love with a woman from the past, which complicates things. It's a long book, and I was sorry when I got to the end. (I'd appreciate other recommendations for King novels.)Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden. The author studied Japanese culture at Harvard and Columbia. His story about a woman who was kidnapped as a young girl from a fishing village and trained as a Kyoto geisha in the first half of the 20th century is a page turning historical romance with rich world building and excellent villains.This One is Mine, by Maria Semple. I loved Semple's novel, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, so I read her earlier novel about the unhappy wife of a very rich LA record producer. It's a modern day Anna Karenina with lots of great Los Angeles characters. (Fun fact: Maria's father, Lorenzo Semple, Jr. wrote the pilot for the television series Batman.)A Kiss Before Dying, by Ira Levin. Better known Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives, Levin wrote this psychological thriller about a charming college student killer in 1953. The main character reminded me quite a bit of Tom Ripley, the genteel sociopath in Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley. (I just poked around online and it looks like a lot of other readers agree.)The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography, by Simon Singh. I've always wanted to understand how cryptography works, and this book did the job. Singh was able to clearly explain how public key encryption works, how Germany's Enigma machine worked and how the British cracked it, how researchers cracked ancient dead languages, the idea behind quantum computers, and much more. This book was so well written and interesting that I read it twice, and want to read it a third time one day. (I feel the same way about Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari.)

Having grown out of its awkward adolescence, JavaScript is no longer a novelty language for animating elements on webpages. It has become the lingua franca of the web, imbued with a variety of other libraries and tools to form complex, interactive sites. To make a real career as a programmer it's not enough to just know the base JavaScript language, you stand a much better chance at staying employed if you're a master of the MEAN Stack. Take a look at this Full Stack JavaScript Bundle to start learning some of the tech that makes JavaScript such a broad and formidable development tool.Throughout these eight courses, you’ll be introduced to a more comprehensive approach to web development using the MEAN Stack: a collection of technologies that includes MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS, Node.js, and more. A taste of what you’ll study:A comprehensive overview of web tech and common techniques for front- and back-end developmentRunning JavaScript code within and outside the browser with Node.jsBuilding NoSQL databases using MongoDBCreating single-page applications with AngularJS, and lightweight servers that use ExpressJS for network communicationWorking programmers aren't just one trick ponies. Take a step in the right direction with the Full Stack JavaScript Bundle, available in the Boing Boing Store for $39.

This year David J, legendary member of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets and solo artist, turned 60 years old. To celebrate, David's friend/manager/collaborator Darwin Meiners, a talented musician in his own right, asked many of David's musician friends to record covers of J's songs from throughout his incredible career. Darwin compiled the recordings onto an (ultra) limited CD set, titled Kanreki, that he presented to David. Darwin's contribution was this fantastically gorgeous cover of my favorite Love and Rockets' b-side, "Holiday on the Moon," from 1986. The song's lunar theme is especially appropriate for a 60th birthday gift, as David explains:"Kanreki is the celebration of a person's 60th birthday which is a big deal in Japan as, according to the lunar calendar, it takes 60 years for a person to finish a cycle on this earth. In a 60-year cycle the honoree has gone five times around the twelve animal years of the Chinese zodiac. It marks a person's rebirth and return to second childhood. The cycle of life returns to the beginning."Happy birthday, David J!(backing vocals by Julian Shaw-Tayler; video by John Thompson)

https://youtu.be/CaeUqF8FO7IThis is such a bizarre video that just surfaced on YouTube of a United Airlines employee at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston pushing a 71-year-old man to the ground, and then walking away. The man, passenger Ronald Tigner, was left motionless on the ground as people walked past him. Tigner, a Houston lawyer, had walked up to the employee, trying to get help with his boarding pass, which was illegible and therefore not allowing him to go through security checkpoint. He was hoping to get another boarding pass that was legible.According to The Washington Post: Tigner went back to the United ticketing area and tried once more to get a new ticket, the lawsuit states. Two United employees, Alejandro Anastasia and Ianthe Phillips-Allred, allegedly refused to help Tigner, laughing and cursing at him, the lawsuit states.Tigner’s attorney, William Hoke, told KPRC that when Tigner asked Anastasia for a new ticket, he replied with a smile, saying, “Can’t you see I’m busy?”Tigner then told Anastasia to “wipe that smile off your face,” Hoke said, to which Anastasia responded with an obscenity.Then, Anastasia “suddenly, unexpectedly and violently injured” Tigner, the lawsuit alleges.After being pushed down to the ground, it took about a minute before someone finally helped him – and the good samaritan did not work for United Airlines. She was another passenger as well as a nurse.In response to the video, United released a statement to KPRC saying it is “disturbed by the completely unacceptable behavior shown in a video of a customer and a former United employee.” The employee is no longer with the company, according to the statement.The incident happened two years ago, and Tigner is suing United for more than 1-million dollars. Interesting how physical violence at United Airlines towards their passengers is not a new trend. According to KPRC, Anastasia was charged with a felony of injuring an elderly individual. He was fined, and ordered to apologize to Tigner and to attend anger-management classes.

I have a thing for beautiful wooden boxes, and I absolutely lose my mind when they perform magical feats. My friend Les Cookson recently sent me a prototype of a Camera Obscura he’s been working on and just looking at it makes me happy. His design is based on a principle that’s been around since 500 BC and it's exactly what I enjoy sharing.Here's how it works:When the camera faces an object or image, rays of light enter though a convex lens and projects a reverse image toward the back end of the darkened box. A mirror intersects the image and makes it viewable through a glass plate at the top where it can be traced or photographed. This is an excellent artist's tool for getting a quick sketch for proportion and layout as you can draw right on top of the glass.The images produced by the device are surprisingly otherworldly and here's something that will definitely seem crazy – it is possible to turn any room in your home into a Camera Obscura by blocking out all light and cutting a small hole in the window covering. I just came across the video below and I want to try this out for myself.https://youtu.be/gvzpu0Q9RTU?t=7sThe science behind how the Camera Obscura and the human eye takes in imagery is similar. Just as the lens of the Camera lets light waves in and reverses them, so does the lens of the eye. The difference is that our brain automatically mirrors what’s taken in so that we see things as they should be.In 1646 Athanasius Kircher took things to a new level when he developed a Camera Obscura in the round when he placed 2 darkened boxes inside of one other.In his design, each of the 4 walls had lenses at their center that projected surrounding views onto stretched paper. An artist could trace what he saw and in the end have a perfectly captured, 360° view of the outside environment.This idea of multiple views taken with the same Camera Obscura has been refined and reused for hundreds of years.If you’re a fan of ancient visualization techniques or a master painter in the making, you can’t go wrong with Les’s Cookson’s Camera Obsucra. I'm very much looking forward to playing around with mine and I've already begun the process of blacking out my living room in the name of photographic science.

The death-toll on London's Grenfell Tower fire continues to mount, it's worth remembering that there are no "natural disasters," only human disasters, created by people who weigh different interests in the balance and create policies based on the way the scales come up. (more…)

In this 2012 video, comedian Brett Eidman dons a mask depicting stereotypical Asian features, performs an Asian-themed routine, harangues an Asian couple in the front row, and is punched in the face. The video's gone viral overnight, years after the initial 15 minutes of infamy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh324dc_D_sThe whole thing was staged, but at the time it wasn't quite so obvious. Gawker tried to get the bottom of it, concluding that it doesn't matter whether it's a hoax or not: he's an asshole irrespective of how "ironic" his bullshit it. Rich Juzwiak:If the punching video above is a hoax, fuck this guy. He's gloating while admitting that telling racist jokes is an asshole thing to do that will get your ass punched. It's also the worst way possible to launch a career: did this guy learn nothing from Michael Richards?If this isn't a hoax, fuck this guy harder.The clip is Eidman's only real fame, but he apparently makes a decent living in insurance and the comedy circuit and was profiled in 2016, by an acquaintance who reports being shocked to find him star in one of "the dumbest, most offensive pieces I’ve seen a “comedian” make", a "a shockingly unfunny character he says is based on infomercial personality Tom Vu."Basically, Eidman doesn't get it. He thinks it's mocking racism; it's just a joke.SPLITSIDER: Do you feel that this was an ill-timed bit? Like, in your mind, if you had done this 25 years before, would it have been successful? EIDMAN: I definitely think so, even just in the sense that there was no internet 25 years ago, so when I was doing different bits in nightclubs and stuff like that, no one would ever come up to me and tell me something was racist or something like that. I didn’t even think of it that way, I just thought of it as an improvisational exercise. I was just doing a parody of someone who also happens to be Asian, not doing a racist bit.SPLITSIDER: Well, the glasses and all that does make it seem less like parody and more like plain racism.EIDMAN:Yeah, I can see that. But, in my mind, even the glasses are just so comical looking that it’s like I don’t know how people can watch it and not see I’m doing a joke.Grandpa 4chan's performance and his excuses are bellweathers for the contemporary return to casual racism and the jocular contempt for women, all under the veil of parody, irony and provocation. But every time it comes up again, it seems somehow new. The internet dissolves everything, the good with the bad and the time it happened too.

London's Grenfell Tower, built in the 1970s, is 27 stories tall and the subject of years of desperate complaints by its residents concerning safety. Last night it was completely consumed by fire, claiming the lives of at least six residents and sending hundreds more to hospital. Witnesses report that they heard no alarms and saw no sprinklers, despite a recent "renovation."Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved.Firefighters rescued "large numbers", but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said "a lot" of people were unaccounted for.The 24-storey block, which is still on fire, looks at risk of collapsing.During the night, eyewitnesses said they saw lights - thought to be mobile phones or torches - flashing at the top of the block of flats, and trapped residents coming to their windows - some holding children.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVI2D_FFMmsThe Grenfell residents association's blog amounts to years of postings, desperately pleading with local government and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation for their lives, in full knowledge that they would soon lose them. It's disgusting and terrifying. A baby was caught by a member of the public after being dropped from Grenfell Tower as it was engulfed with flames, a witness said.Samira Lamrani said she saw a woman try to save a baby by dropping it from a window "on the ninth or 10th floor" to waiting members of the public below."People were starting to appear at the windows, frantically banging and screaming," she said. "The windows were slightly ajar, a woman was gesturing that she was about to throw her baby and if somebody could catch her baby."Somebody did, a gentleman ran forward and managed to grab the baby."Photo: Reuters / Toby Melville

I had the pleasure of writing the cover feature, on Limor Fried (aka "Ladyada") and her company, Adafruit, for the latest issue of Make: (Volume 57). Since a lot had already been made about the company's impressive and popular open source product line and Limor as a successful female entrepreneur, I decided to focus on what I think is another rather unique aspect of the company: the fact that the open source ethos that informs the design of their hardware also informs their corporate culture. There's a openness, a spirit of sharing, educating, and supporting, that is shot through the fabric of Adafruit Industries.They open-source many of the details of how the company is run and post the details of what they're learning (as a company) on their Adafruit Learning System and in their newsletters. They use the feedback and ideas from their substantial online social community to crowdsource product development. And they're attempting to create a corporate culture where employees feel respected, cared for, and given room to grow. As the Founder Collective put it on Twitter this morning: "105 full-time employees, $45M in revenue, no venture capital. Adafruit is a great case study in efficient entrepreneurship."[caption id="attachment_528942" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Michele Santomauro and Vance Lewis holding component reels in preparation to load the pick and place machines. Photo by Andrew Tingle[/caption]Founded in a dorm room in 2005 by MIT engineer Limor “Ladyada” Fried as an online learning resource and marketplace for do-it-yourself electronics, Adafruit is now a highly successful community-driven electronics company, educational resource, and maker community thriving in SoHo, Manhattan.Limor sees three keys to the success of the company: “Being focused on others, having an unconditional belief that you can be both a good cause and a good company, and seeing risk-taking as your friend and your only real competition as yourself.”It is these high-minded tenets that make Adafruit something special. That they’ve managed to hold on to these values as they’ve grown — creating an increasingly open source company culture around them — is especially laudable.[caption id="attachment_528943" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Limor and a future engineer at the HOPE conference who asked if there were boy engineers, too. Photo courtesy of Adafruit[/caption]How can Limor handle being CEO of the company, the star (as Ladyada) and co-creator of so many of Adafruit’s YouTube shows (and other online content), and the main product designer? It’s exhausting just to think about it all.“A lot of it is just knowing how to do triage on projects and manage my time effectively,” she says. “In planning what I’m going to do, I often decide based on what can get the most people on our team going. This maximizes my efforts.” She continues: “When leading a group, it’s important to identify what we call ‘NP problems’ [“Nondeterministic polynomial time”] — these are tasks that may take some time and care to complete, but they can be quickly verified. Such ‘NP problems’ can be given to people on the team so that they can quickly take them on, practicing and learning new skills as they tackle them. Then, we can come back together and I can check in on the final result.”[caption id="attachment_528944" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The Adafruit team. Photo by Andrew Tingle[/caption]Adafruit prides itself on the supportive culture it creates among employees. Limor says she especially loves seeing employees grow and advance, and she takes great satisfaction in offering excellent employee benefits. Limor also notes that Adafruit has been able to bring significant electronics manufacturing to the U.S., specifically, to New York City. The positive, open source culture that Adafruit has engendered has attracted talented engineers and makers from around the world who want to engage with the company, support its community-driven products and culture, and to work there.Read the full article here.

The trailer for the upcoming Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049, looks pretty cool. But it’s even cooler now that ScreenCrush has done some clever editing to make it look like it was made in the ’80s. For comparison, you can check out the trailer for the original 1982 film right here:https://youtu.be/eogpIG53Cis

Mattress tags that read "Do Not Remove" have been the butt of jokes for decades, but why is it a crime to begin with? Dan Lewis of Now I Know explains why the much-mocked mattress tag removal law exists.Before springs and coils and memory foam, legit mattresses were filled with straw and other soft, cheap, and safe materials. Unfortunately, there were a lot of less-than-honest vendors. ...who stuffed mattresses with gross things like corncobs and old rags!The tag, originally, was designed to make manufacturers disclose what was in the mattress — the law required mattress makers to print what was inside on the outside. Manufacturers could lie but doing so would run the risk of discovery later on; a government inspector could obtain one of the mattresses, do a spot check, and if anything other than what was listed was inside, the manufacturer could be subject to fines and other penalties.But that didn't stop the manufacturers from selling mattresses filled with nasty stuff, they simply ripped the tags off. So, Congress made it illegal to remove the tag “prior to the time any textile fiber product is sold and delivered to the ultimate consumer.” And, perhaps to protect themselves, manufacturers also printed the “do not remove” warning on the tag itself.For some reason, though, the early mattress tags didn’t note that the end consumer could remove the tag, confusing generations of sleepers.Now you know.https://youtu.be/BAaoHX9KiWY

Still my favorite headline of all time.Since we're talking about putting up pickles, you may want to get in on this crowdfunded doo-dad called the Picklestone, a jar with a heavy weighted lid that exerts pressure on the contents: (more…)

What happens these days when a photographer's photo inadvertently shoulder-surfs your phone screen? If you're a politician and the content vaguely resembles porn, internet sleuths are on the case. In one case this week, depending on your point of view, the results were a disappointment or a relief. (more…)

In this nifty YouTube video, Dave Hax talks through the properties of gallium, the metal that liquefies at just 86ºF and is safe to play with. (Just don’t eat it!)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u6A40QTWVIHax has a whole collection of videos about gallium on his YouTube channel.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaPCUqq5lksIf you want to give it a try yourself, you buy 20 grams of gallium for less than $10 on Amazon.

After serving as the soloist for Wonder Woman’s now iconic theme music in Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, cellist Tina Guo uploaded her own even more badass take on Hans Zimmer’s score to her YouTube channel.Guo also served as a soloist on the new Wonder Woman movie as well.

From green to red to even black, it turns out your pee can turn a whole bunch of different colors for a whole bunch of different reasons. In this new SciShow video, Hank Green breaks down the ins and outs of strange pee colors. And in case you were wondering, here’s another SciShow video from a few years ago about why your poop is sometimes green:https://youtu.be/ueOnWXEDBwc

Artist François Dourlen has a really great Instagram series in which he cleverly lines up Simpsons images with real-life situations.https://www.instagram.com/p/BTMRuimhH5f/https://www.instagram.com/p/BP4u9w9Du0f/https://www.instagram.com/p/BVAPUTMBzTu/https://www.instagram.com/p/BUpIHa7hV19/https://www.instagram.com/p/BTeTGYchyoG/https://www.instagram.com/p/BS6OzDghH1R/https://www.instagram.com/p/BSwKEYvheSV/https://www.instagram.com/p/BSBoqM3hTO4/https://www.instagram.com/p/BRvfu8MB-LZ/https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ0en-gh6AU/Dourlen also has a whole bunch of other “fictional characters in real life” images on his Instagram too:https://www.instagram.com/p/BUmA0tVhYrL/[via Bored Panda]

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Finger choreography by fingertut masters Xtrap Dance Crew.

Boring vegetables need better marketing. That's the gist of a new study from Stanford university psychologists who gave cafeteria vegetables more "indulgent" names to see if students would buy them more often. Healthy labels ("wholesome," etc) didn't do well but indulgent labels ("sizzlin'", "dynamite," etc.) boosted vegetable sales by 25%. From the BBC:The experiment took place over the whole of the autumn academic term. Each day, a vegetable dish was labelled up in one of four ways:• basic - where the description was simply "carrots", for example• healthy restrictive - "carrots with sugar-free citrus dressing"• health positive - "smart-choice vitamin C citrus carrots"• indulgent - "twisted citrus-glazed carrots"...The indulgent labels came out top and included "twisted garlic-ginger butternut squash wedges" and "dynamite chilli and tangy lime-seasoned beets".Seductive names resulted in 25% more people selecting the vegetable compared with basic labelling, 41% more people than the healthy restrictive labelling and 35% more people than the healthy positive labelling."Association Between Indulgent Descriptions and Vegetable Consumption: Twisted Carrots and Dynamite Beets" (JAMA)

These figures of Thing 1 and Thing 2 are absolutely adorable.Thing 1 and Thing 2 are available as a set for $16. I'd love to see Funko models of the Unorthodox Taxidermy collection.Funko Dorbz Dr. Seuss Thing 1 & Thing 2 (2 Pack) Action Figure via Amazon

Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State is a new essay collection from Columbia Journalism Review Books with contributions from Ed Snowden, Alan Rusbridger (former editor-in-chief of The Guardian); Jill Abramson (former New York Times executive editor; Glenn Greenwald, Steve Coll (Dean of Columbia Graduate School of Journalism), Clay Shirky, Cass Sunstein, and Julia Angwin. (more…)

From the 1990 TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue," this catchy anti-drug ditty Wonderful Ways to Say No" (1990), posted to YouTube by a fan of famed Disney lyricist Howard Ashman (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, etc):Here's "Wonderful Ways to Say No" from the multi-network drug-abuse prevention animated special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. With music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, the song was written by the duo at the request of Roy E. Disney, producer of the special.On his official website, Alan says of the song, "Back in the late 60's I would not have been the poster boy for this cause, but when we were asked to write ‘Wonderful Ways to Say No’ how could we say ‘no’?”Just say know. (Thanks, Jess Rotter!)

https://youtu.be/PXsrHuvd0os"French Spiderman" Alain Robert, known for rock climbing and scaling skyscrapers without equipment, just climbed up the 29-story (374 feet) Melia Barcelona Sky hotel in 20 minutes, according to his YouTube channel. We're talking bare hands and no safety harness. According to AP News:He was questioned by police on reaching the top, but was released without charge.The free climber has scaled the world’s tallest structures, almost always without ropes or harnesses and often without permission. He also gives motivational speeches.

An upstanding citizen submitted this photo to Baltimore 311, the city's service request system.(via DIGG)

It took four years, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has finally ruled in favor of 72 year old grandmother Elizabeth Young, whose house was seized by the Philadelphia District Attorney under asset forfeiture rules when her son was caught selling $140 worth of marijuana to undercover agents.Under civil forfeiture rules, cops and DAs get to steal property suspected of being the proceeds of a crime, then they sue the inanimate objects. The owners of the objects can hire lawyers to represent their property, while the taxpayers foot the bill for the state's side of the suit. If the government wins, it gets to keep the property or sell it and pocket the proceeds.The Pennsylvania Supreme Court blasted the DA for the seizure and reminded the state's lawyers and cops that they can only invoke civil forfeiture when there is good reason to believe that the property's owner "knew of and agreed to the crimes" in question.The cop who bought the marijuana from Young's son is currently serving a 3.5 year federal prison sentence for planting drugs on suspects.Young is far from the only person to have her house seized by the Philadelphia D.A. for a minor drug crime that she didn't even commit. In 2013, Philadelphia police seized the house of Christos and Markela Sourovelis after their son was arrested for selling $40-worth of drugs outside of it.The Sourovelis' sued, with assistance from the libertarian-leaning Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that has challenged asset forfeiture laws in several states. The Sourovelis' plight drew national media attention, and the Philadelphia D.A. eventually dropped the case. However, the city is still facing a class-action lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice challenging its asset forfeiture program. According to the firm, Philadelphia has seized more than 1,000 homes, 3,000 vehicles and $44 million in cash over 11 years.Between the new legal standard issued by the Supreme Court, the looming lawsuit, and a potential reformer leading the district attorney's office—Democratic Philadelphia D.A. candidate Larry Krasner vowed to rein in the program in an interview with Reason earlier this year—the salad days of Philadelphia's asset forfeiture machine may be ending.The Philadelphia police officer who coordinated the undercover marijuana buys at Young's house pled guilty and was sentenced in 2015 to three-and-a-half years in federal prison on corruption charges involving planting drug evidence on suspects.Court to Grandma: You Shouldn't Lose Your House Just Because Your Dumb Son Sold Some Weed There [C.J. Ciaramella/Reason](via Techdirt)

Have you ever wished you had a social media feed you could like, fave, signal boost and comment on without having to actually interact with people in any way? Binky has you covered. (more…)