by Cory Doctorow on (#2R900)
Lexmark has spent nearly 20 years fighting the war on carbon, trying to stop you from refilling your laser printer cartridges. In 2003, they attempted to use the DMCA and DRM to argue that it was an act of piracy (the courts didn't buy it) and then in 2015, they went all the way to the Supreme Court with the idea that you were violating their patent license terms if you treated the cartridges you purchased as though you owned them. (more…)
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Updated | 2024-11-24 14:16 |
by David Pescovitz on (#2R902)
Next year, the American Repertory Theater in Massachusetts will premier a new musical based on Alanis Morissette's classic 1995 album Jagged Little Pill. Diablo Cody ("Juno" and "Ricki and the Flash") will write the book while Tony Award winner Diane Paulus ("Pippin) is directing. Jagged Little Pill "had so much meaning in its time,†Paulus told the New York Times, and Morissette is an artist “with courage and power and vulnerability.â€Damn right.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jne9t8sHpUc
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by Jason Weisberger on (#2R8ZP)
I've always been a Raisin Bran fan, but I gotta hand it to Honeycomb. They had such wonderfully creative commercials in the 60s and 70s.
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by Carla Sinclair on (#2R8WK)
This is a great video shot by Christopher Reynolds that shows a snake regurgitating a live snake. According to Gizmodo:So, what the hell’s going on? I asked Sara Ruane, a snake expert and assistant professor at Rutgers University, Newark to watch the video for us.“Snakes eat each other all the time,†she said. “When snakes are startled by something or something is attacking them, one of their first lines of defense is to throw up whatever is in their stomach.†That’s because they no longer have food weighing them down, and it might scare the predator. I, too, would run away from someone vomiting their lunch on the street. In this case, it’s likely that the videographer, Christopher Reynolds from Newton, Texas, startled the bigger snake when he started filming. “As soon as that snake throws it up it takes off,†she said. “Now it doesn’t have this other snake weighing it down.â€
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2R8V4)
Catherine Tedford is curator of the Street Art Graphics collection, an open access collection of 2,700+ political stickers from the 1910s to today. (more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#2R8QH)
My daughter and I set up our home maker space this weekend. On thing we did was organize loose components: capacitors, integrated circuits, diodes, resistors. The markings on some of the components (like the tiny capacitors) are so small that I can't even see them, let alone make them out. This little battery powered illuminated magnifier was just what I needed. It made the markings easy to read. It's only $2 on Amazon with free shipping. If you buy one, you will use it.
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by David Pescovitz on (#2R8QK)
If Mad Max had a fidget spinner, it would probably resemble this one. Make your own with a bearing, assorted nuts, and a few zip ties. No tools necessary. (MAKE:)
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by Jason Weisberger on (#2R8NZ)
The jet formerly known as Elvis' private plane has been sold, sans engine or cockpit equipment, for $430,000. The authenticity of the plane's interior is also in question.Via the Mercury News:A previous owner of the private jet disputed the auction house’s claim the king of rock ‘n’ roll designed its red velvet interior.Roy McKay told KOB-TV in Albuquerque (https://goo.gl/GpE3zV) on Tuesday he designed the interior himself. McKay said that when he purchased the red 1962 Lockheed Jetstar, it had a two-toned gray interior and “kind of looked like a casket.â€But then-GWS spokesman Carl Carter told The Associated Press the auction house is confident Elvis designed the interior, which photos show has red velvet seats and red shag carpet.Federal Aviation Administration records show no interior changes were ever made to the jet, Carter said.
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by David Pescovitz on (#2R8NK)
On a reporting trip in the mid-1990s, I visited the headquarters of a major Japanese construction company. I was there to talk about their plans (unrealized, thus far) to build hotels on the moon. During the tour, they took me underneath the building to show me their state-of-the-art (at the time) seismic base isolators to manage the vibration caused by huge earthquakes. The entire huge building was built on big rubber bearings that sway and sliding mechanisms that move smoothly back and forth. I felt quite safe. I was reminded of that technology when watching this in-building seismic isolation technology doing its job in a Sendai building's server room during the March 11, 2011 TÅhokue earthquake.Of course Boing Boing is impervious to such natural disasters as our private data facility is located in stable orbit at the fifth Lagrange point.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#2R8NN)
Found on The Kid Should See This: "Neuroscientist Ian Robertson explains the trick behind these perception-changing actions: Rather than trying to become calm — the opposite of anxious — it’s much easier to reframe nervous feelings as positive energy."In this video Fiona Phillips is experiencing anxiety about going on a zipline. Robertson tells her to that she can change that negative emotion into one that's positive by telling yourself "I feel excited."
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#2R8EB)
I fink Dick Van Dyle would have benefited from watching Matt Pocock's 2-minute Cockney British accent tutorial, had Pocock been alive in 1964.
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by Carla Sinclair on (#2R8DT)
https://youtu.be/T9mu79ihUFoIf you recently ordered a can of Budweiser beer at a bar in China, did it taste a bit off? An underground "factory" in Dongguan produced 600,000 boxes of counterfeit Bud each month, sending them to bars and nightclubs until they were finally busted on May 5th. This video shows how they did it, and it ain't pretty. Notice how they fill the beer cans - by dunking them – along with their bare hands – in a plastic bin filled with who knows what kind of cheap beer. Check out Mashable for more details.
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by Jason Weisberger on (#2R8DW)
I liked this owl and wanted it on my kitchen counter, so I purchased an Echo dot. (more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#2R8CH)
Turing Tumble is a mechanical computer with switches that are activated by rolling marbles down an inclined plane. To program it, you attach plastic switches and components to it. The Kickstarter launched today and it's off to a great start.How it works: The game board releases one marble at a time from the top. Each marble falls down the board and when it reaches the bottom, it pushes down one of two black flippers at the bottom that release another ball. If it pushes down the left flipper, a blue ball is released. If it pushes down the right flipper, a red ball is released.Players add logic by putting 6 different types of parts onto the board:The ramp directs balls in one direction, either to the left or to the right.The crossover lets ball paths cross over one another. Balls come in one side and exit on the opposite side.The bit adds logic. It stores information by pointing to the right or to the left, like a 1 or 0. It becomes more and more important as the puzzles progress.When the computer’s objective is complete, the interceptor is used to stop the computer from releasing any more balls.https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/016/325/172/fba4ce58106b82007d4e8046479330d1_original.gif?w=680&fit=max&v=1492659269&auto=format&gif-q=50&q=92&s=0a7e4c734e5fa03d51d6f2b435b163bbLike the bit, the gear bit stores information by pointing right or left, but when the gear bit is flipped, it also turns other gear bits connected to it by gears. The gear bits are mind-bending, but they add a whole new level of functionality to the board. They also make the computer "Turing complete", which means that if the board was big enough, it could do anything a regular computer could do!Turing Tumble comes with a book of 51 puzzles. They start out easy and become steadily more challenging. Each puzzle leads the player to discover new concepts that can be applied to more complicated puzzles later on. The puzzles are woven into a 20-page comic story, beautifully illustrated by Jiaoyang Li, where each puzzle brings Alia the space engineer closer to rescue from a seemingly deserted planet. Jiaoyang is a senior at the University of Minnesota, majoring in both art and computer science. This will hopefully be her first published artwork.
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by Caroline Siede on (#2R83G)
Aileen of the YouTube channel Lavendaire shares her tips and tricks for getting the most out of your carry-on. Here’s another quick packing video utilizing the “KonMari†method:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P6v2qx2JH4
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by David Pescovitz on (#2R81W)
The South Texas Hunting Association shared Markcuz Rangel's photo of him holding this absolutely massive bullfrog that he apparently dispatched near Batesville, Texas. Steve Lightfoot, spokesman for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, confirmed to Chron.com that the photo IS real, but that doesn't necessarily mean monster frogs are taking over South Texas."It's not as bigly as it appears," Lightfoot said... "[It's an] optical illusion created by extending frog toward the camera -- similar to what you see with fishermen holding up fish to make them appear larger. Still a big bullfrog, though."
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by Andrea James on (#2R81Y)
Ridley Scott pauses his iconic in-camera chestburster scene in several places to show the tricks he used to make it so memorable. (more…)
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by Andrea James on (#2R7ZF)
Corey Alexander estimates he spent about three hours a day on social media, almost 5,000 hours since he got a phone at age 13. He lists the seven changes he's noticed since going cold turkey and deleting all of it three months ago: (more…)
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by Andrea James on (#2R7ZH)
John Severson, the iconic figure of surfing media, has died at age 83. His 1961 film Big Wednesday is arguably the greatest of the early surf films, part of a lifetime of innovations in surf media. (more…)
by Caroline Siede on (#2R7ZJ)
As the YouTube channel Eater explains, it all comes down to factory efficiency.
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by Caroline Siede on (#2R7ZM)
Beauty YouTuber Jackie Aina offers high heel tips and tricks for everyone from beginners to experts.
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by David Pescovitz on (#2R7XV)
Terry Selwood, 73, was fishing near Evans Head, New South Wales, Australia when a nine-foot great white shark jumped onto the deck of his boat. "I caught a blur of something coming over the boat … and the pectoral fin of the shark hit me on the forearm and knocked me down on the ground to my hands and knees," Selwood told ABC. "He came right over the top of the motor and then dropped onto the floor... There I was on all fours and he's looking at me and I'm looking at him and then he started to do the dance around and shake and I couldn't get out quick enough onto the gunnel."According to the Evans Head Marine Rescue Unit, they arrived to find the shark on the on the boat and Selwood "covered in blood with numerous lacerations on his right forearm."Selwood received stitches and is now fine. The dead shark was delivered to the Department of Primary Industries for study.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2R7XX)
While China has enlisted its internet giants -- such as Weibo -- in its system of social control and surveillance for years, a new "cyber security law" will come into effect on Thursday that expands and formalizes this role for tech companies, with implications for non-Chinese companies doing business in China. (more…)
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by Andrea James on (#2R7ZP)
A meta-analysis of 15 published studies concluded that "although sexting might be an indicator of risky sexual practices, it is not a particularly good one." (more…)
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by Boing Boing's Store on (#2R7HY)
Proofreading your own writing can be tough. WhiteSmoke is a marked improvement upon the spellchecker bundled with your word processor of choice. It detects complex stylistic errors like monotonous language, inconsistent tense, and punctuation mistakes to ensure that your writing flows naturally with technical accuracy. While it’s definitely a boon to non-native speakers who might have difficulty with the countless inconsistencies of English grammar rules, WhiteSmoke is a powerful aid for writing academic papers and maintaining a clear voice in your professional communications.It also integrates into all major browsers as a plugin, so you can also use it to draft airtight emails and social media posts. A lifetime subscription to WhiteSmoke Web is available here for $99.99.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#2R594)
I have a battery powered Dremel which is good for light work, but I wanted a rotary tool with more oomph. I decided to take a chance on the $13 WEN Variable Speed Rotary Tool Kit. This thingsis crazy powerful and fast. I used it to rough out some wooden spoons I made this weekend:It comes with a bunch of bits, sanding discs, polishing pads, and mandrels. It also has a keyless chuck spindle lock that you can turn by hand to swap bits without a wrench.For a few bucks more you can buy the the same tool with a flexible shaft. I just bought that one, too!
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#2R57Y)
This malicious tire is a more terrifying than Rover.[via]
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#2R565)
When rich people are somehow forced to go to prison, they stay in minimum-security federal prison camps (FPCs). Perks include air conditioning, "superior" medical care, regular Internet access, step aerobics classes, ceramics, crocheting, knitting, practice rooms for musicians, basketball, volleyball, softball, soccer, and an "on-site sweat lodge that's used for Native American religious ceremonies." This 2012 Town and Country article has photos of these places, which look like pretty nice college dorms.[via]
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#2R55W)
A review of five studies, involving 260 patients, published last month found that 'open-label' placebos – those that patients know contain no active medication – can improve symptoms in a range of conditions," reports The Guardian. One Harvard Medical School study gave placebos to 80 patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Thirty seven patients were told they were being given placebo pills and 43 were given no treatment. Those receiving the placebo had "significantly greater scores than the no-treatment control on the main outcome measure, Global Improvement Scale." In another study "chronic lower back pain patients openly given dummy pills to add to their existing treatments reported an average 30% pain reduction." The other three open placebo studies "reported reduced symptoms for depression, lower back pain, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder."Why do placebos work? The Guardian lists three possibilities:Patients who have had positive experiences with doctors might have "subconscious boosts to levels of endorphins and neurotransmitters," making them feel better.When patients are told that placebos are effective, it could result in "a conscious expectation of improvements, resulting in chemical releases that relieve their symptoms."The embodied cognition effect: "the possibility of improvement can trigger subconscious signals to pass between different parts of the body, resulting in chemical releases that alleviate symptoms."
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by Rob Beschizza on (#2R54Q)
Spotted on the Pittsburgh craigslist, the future of law enforcement.
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by Carla Sinclair on (#2R4YG)
Last week, Astral Pipes released a commercial in India that addresses the lack of our most basic needs: privacy when urinating and defecating. This is especially important for women, who take a risk every time they venture out to relieve themselves in nature. In the ad, a group of men in their pajamas go out to a field to do their business, when suddenly they are surrounded by a bunch of chanting women, who shame the men and even snap photos of them with an cel phone. When the men plead with them to consider their honor, the women respond, "Oh, really? When we are assaulted or raped because we have to go to the field in the cover of darkness to relieve ourselves, what happens to privacy or honor?" According to NPR:More than 500 million people — representing more than half of the world's toilet-less people – live in India. According to UNICEF, India has nearly 200,000 diarrheal deaths yearly among children under age five, the highest number in the world. Open defecation is a contributing factor.And without private toilets, the health of women and girls suffers, too. Many develop genitourinary infections from not urinating frequently enough — and from poor hygiene during menstruation.The U.N. report also says the lack of private toilets exposes women to physical attacks and even natural dangers like animal attacks and snake bites. Stories of girls being assaulted when they go to do their business in the fields abound.The ad has gone viral on YouTube, at almost 600,000 views.
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by Jason Weisberger on (#2R4X5)
I could not resist a $9 Death Star weed grinder.It looks like the Death Star and it grinds weed! Mission accomplished. I am not sure I will use it very often, but this grinder will sit next to the headpiece for the Staff of Ra in my living room. Its a cool knickknack for $9.The 'heavy feeling' zinc alloy feels heavy. You have the choice of leaving a screen in and having the weed all sit in the grinder teeth, and kief falling in a holding cell -- OR you can remove the screen and have the weed all just fall together! Not a lot to this baby.This item appears to be the same as more expensive variants of the Death Star grinder, down to the packaging. This version does not come with the cleaning tools that I doubt you'll really want.Formax420 Death Star Grinder Star War Round Grinder 3 Pieces Spice Mill 1.9 inch via Amazon
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by Rob Beschizza on (#2R4D0)
The peace and quiet and the camera operator's calm framing of the shot really make it. In a few days this will have gone viral, covered in jaunty music, giant text, and an inane voiceover.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2R48T)
The Nation's outstanding roundtable  What Will Kill Neoliberalism? has many admirable interventions (including a notable one from Paul "Postcapitalism" Mason), but the one that got me right between the eyes was William Darity, Jr's "A Revolution of Managers." (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2R44V)
UK Theresa May called snap UK elections (after promising not to) in order to consolidate power in her own party, shutting up the MPs who didn't fall into line with her policies -- this was the same logic behind her predecessor David Cameron's decision to call a referendum on Brexit, and both banked on the idea that the UK electorate wasn't willing to vote for an "unthinkable" alternative in order to tell the establishment to go fuck itself. (more…)
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by Caroline Siede on (#2R44Z)
MinuteEarth refutes a common saying with some geopolitical culinary history.
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by Caroline Siede on (#2R451)
From Nancy Sinatra to Beyoncé, Nerdist uses songs by some of the greatest female artists to salute the most famous female superhero, Wonder Woman.[via The Verge]
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by Andrea James on (#2R453)
Aerial photographer Andy Yeung just released Walled City, a look at how Hong Kong's infamous dense and vertical city within a city resonates in buildings that still stand today. (more…)
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by Boing Boing's Store on (#2R12F)
If you don’t want to get stuck footing the bill for a hit and run, this dashboard-mounted camera offers up to 2K resolution to make sure you always have a reliable witness, and it’s available in the Boing Boing Store for 30% off it’s usual price.The PapaGo mounts unobtrusively to your windshield to see everything in its 175º ultra-wide viewing angle. It supports recordings up to 12 hours in length onto a micro SD card, and can be set to activate automatically from nearby motion. To prevent against unexpected data loss, the included G-sensor ensures files are saved in the event of a collision.You can pick up the PapaGo Dash Cam in the Boing Boing Store for $124.99.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2R0K7)
Zachary Zmith writes, "A Kickstarter is funding beautifully-designed and illustrated editions of classic stories, with illustrations from Paul Pope, Yuko Shimizu and Bill Sienkiewicz. They have already met their initial goal to fund a version of Algernon Blackwood's 'The Willows' with art by Paul Pope. If they reach $100k, Bill Sienkiewicz will illustrate H.G. Wells' vivisection classic." (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2R0J8)
Half a million fake, identical anti-Net Neutrality comments were posted on the FCC's docket on killing Net Neutrality, using identities that appear to have been stolen from a voter registration breach. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2R0HF)
Dan Hon (previously) took note of a sponsored tweet in The Atlantic's Twitter feed: "SPONSORED: The future city: What changes when everything is connected? #MSFTCloud #ad" and decided to have a go at answering the question. The results were fantastic. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2QYVN)
Tigerswan, a secretive private mercenary company, was hired by Energy Transfer Partners to run campaigns against Dakota Access Pipeline protesters in five states, including states in which they were not licensed to operate -- the measures they deployed were developed as counterterrorism tactics, including (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2QYSF)
On Friday, a variety of news outlets around the world published the Malta Files, a cache of 150,000 documents leaked "from a Malta-based provider of legal, financial and corporate services," revealing, among other things, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was secretly given a $25M oil tanker (!) by Azeri billionaire Mübariz Mansimov, a "friend" of Trump's who was present at the inauguration. (more…)
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by Caroline Siede on (#2QYF9)
On her Instagram, Andrea Reed of Girl Grey Beauty creates gorgeously complex lip designs that are truly wearable art. Here are some of my favorites:https://www.instagram.com/p/BUCvMiNgKCN/https://www.instagram.com/p/BO5M5uMA0oT/https://www.instagram.com/p/BNuoiu8APj8/https://www.instagram.com/p/BLRW-flg5nm/https://www.instagram.com/p/BFosvMGDBPo/https://www.instagram.com/p/BFPKX62DBD0/https://www.instagram.com/p/BEgpnhRjBOQ/https://www.instagram.com/p/BCgGYg6jBNe/https://www.instagram.com/p/BCidqqMjBEg/You can find more designs on Reed’s Instagram and you can watch her process in action over on her YouTube page:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ABPtXChgKw
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by Andrea James on (#2QYFB)
Last month, musician and YouTube superstar Ronald Jenkees dropped his latest album Rhodes Deep. In honor of this delight, fan Ben Luce created this terrific animation called Quest for the Jam. (more…)
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by Boing Boing's Store on (#2QY8Y)
While some people still maintain that everything in Apple’s walled garden “just works†and is immune to the rampant malware of the Windows world, the reality is different. The Mac’s growing market share has made it a much more viable target for malicious actors, and its built-in tools aren’t always enough to fix things. Drive Genius 5 gives your startup disk a set of robust cleaning tools, and it’s currently available in the Boing Boing Store.Drive Genius keeps your Mac running efficiently by purging unnecessary files. It helps you find large files eating up hard drive space, and monitors your file system for corruption to prevent data loss. It offers a simple tool for creating a bootable backup, so you won’t lose hours in recovery time if your machine stops working unexpectedly. Drive Genius also automatically scans and cleans malware to keep your Mac safe from unseen threats.Usually $99, you can get Drive Genius 5 for $39 here in our store.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2QXNB)
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19th century reporters carried clubs and knives to defend themselves against murderous Congressjerks
by Cory Doctorow on (#2QXND)
Hey, who knew? The reporter-beating crazed thug (and now Congressjerk!) Greg Gianforte is part of a long and dishonorable tradition of American Congressional reps who lashed out at the press! (more…)
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