The folks at Sunflower Farm Creamery in Cumberland, ME just posted this super cute pajama party of 10 baby Nigerian Dwarf Goats. Soon they will have 50 kids romping around, so keep your eyes out. No matter how your day is going, this video will make it more delightful.

The Godfather is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. It’s a Christmas movie right? Well, it’s my favorite movie, and I watch it every year at Christmas. To me, it’s as close to a perfect film as I think you can get. I’ve read Mario Puzo’s novel. I’ve watched every special feature. So, when I heard that this book even existed, I got excited. This is a reproduction of the notebook that director, Francis Ford Coppola, used to bring this wonderful movie to life. It not only lifts the curtain showing how The Godfather came to be, but it reveals Coppola’s invaluable techniques for crafting a story. Coppola went through Mario Puzo’s novel page by page, developing a synopsis that would shape the script and the direction of the film. Each scene is detailed with tone, setting, and pitfalls. Exposition is trimmed, and some characters are cut completely in order to create a story that would work cinematically. The book’s pretty hefty, since there’s a whole other book within it. It also includes a wonderful introduction by Coppola, and behind the scenes photos of the young cast. If you’re a big fan of The Godfather or if you’re interested in how film adaptations are made, definitely pick this up.See sample pages from this book at Wink.The Godfather Notebook by Francis Ford CoppolaRegan Arts2016, 784 pages, 8.5 x 1.5 x 11 inches, Paperback$38 Buy on Amazon

Photographer Ed Gold went deep into the Alaskan wilderness to meet the Atchley family, who have lived there in near-isolation for 18 years. The family of four buys groceries once a year, and live off the land by hunting black bears, wolves, rabbits, ducks and beavers.The family keep their own time to suit their needs, putting the clock as much as three hours forward or back depending on the light.They generally eat breakfast at 16:30, spending the short winter daylight hours busy with carpentry, cleaning and repairs. After supper at about 22:00, they fill the rest of their day with talking, guitar playing and writing, going to bed around 04:00.If they feel short of money, 52-year-old David will sell tanned hides, build log cabins or take work in the local gold mine, about 100 miles away.However, by living off the land and using solar power, they manage to survive on just $12,000 (£9,600) a year.Romey Atchely is also an author. From her bio page:For fourteen of her past nineteen years in Alaska, Romey Atchley has lived with her husband, David, and two sons in the Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge. They are the only people living in this remote natural wilderness area. Their cabin is over two hundred miles from the nearest road—beyond access to schools, doctors, and grocery stores. Romey and her family live among the wild animals where they hunt, fish, garden, tan hides, and home school their children. Through her writings, drawings, and photographs, she brings her wilderness experiences to life for others to share. From the Alaskan Wilderness: The Adventures of Barefoot and Boofoot is the first in a series of Romey Atchley, look out for her next book, “From the Alaskan Wilderness: The Adventures of Barefoot and Boofoot,” Summer, In Which Boofoot Finds His Herd.Image: Oliver Kurmis

The good news is it is funny. The bad news is it is a GoDaddy ad.

A business trade group representing small craft breweries wants them to knock off sexist labels, product names and ads. Zach Fowle, reporting for Draft, says that the new guidelines also want them to stop using imagery that encourages underage consumption. The organization added two new lines to its Marketing and Advertising Code Wednesday, advising brewers that, along with avoiding advertisements that encourage things like underage consumption or drunk driving, their marketing materials should not:contain sexually explicit, lewd, or demeaning brand names, language, text, graphics, photos, video, or other images that reasonable adult consumers would find inappropriate for consumer products offered to the public; or contain derogatory or demeaning text or images.Offenders won't be penalized, they'll just be prohibited from marketing themselves with the groups' awards and indicia, etc. As always, though, you get the feeling people aren't quite up to speed, and might be surprised to learn that vague bans on "inappropriate" content might not serve the interests of diversity. A staggering baby step in the right direction, though; check out the Beer and Sexism blog. [via Metafilter]

Most people think of millennials as minimalists, of sorts: either the hip sort or the poor sort. The New Yorker imagines: what would a millennial hoarder look like?One quip really hit home for me: "A browser just for episode recaps of shows he never watches." I'm not sure if I've ever seen a single episode of ███████ ███ but I can quote chapter and verse from many—a simulation of experience mediated by the psychotic phemonema of the Internet, where work is not quite play and play not quite work, and even talking about it the way I am now turns out to be a nerdy joke about the pretentious way we talked about the Internet future in the 1990s.

A Freedom of Information Act request reveals that the DEA spent $575,000 buying access to weaponized zero-day exploits sold by Hacking Team, the hacked and disgraced Italian cyber-arms dealer who outfitted despots, dictators, the FBI, and America's local police departments. (more…)

Chris Johnstone's "Binary Keyboard" is an open source hardware, Arduino-based two-button input device that you can build for yourself, if you have the urge to key data directly to your computer in binary (don't worry, you can configure it to be little-endian or big-endian for ease of use). (more…)

Bill Nye—everyone’s favorite science guy—shared the new theme song for his upcoming Netflix show Bill Nye Saves The World. Rapper Tyler The Creator penned the new intro, which calls back to Nye’s iconic original intro while giving it an updated spin.https://twitter.com/BillNyeSaves/status/854029959437836290Here’s the trailer for Nye’s new series, which debuts April 21:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-_HKOcYBK8

FOLLOW @RubenBolling on the Twitters and a Face Book.JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the Proud & Mighty INNER HIVE, for exclusive early access to comics, extra comics, and much more. GET Ruben Bolling’s new hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures. (”A book for the curious and adventurous!” -Cory Doctorow) Book One here. Book Two here. More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

They Live, the classic critique of Reagan-era greed, gets updated context in this overview. As John Carpenter says in the video, "Right now, it's even more true than it was back then." (more…)

Wyman Meinzer describes his journey from outdoorsman to renowned photographer in this inspiring profile. Below are a couple of examples of his wonderful photography: (more…)

BuzzFeed’s Louis Peitzman wrote a really great profile of Broadway’s new production of The Glass Menagerie, which stars newcomer Madison Ferris, an actor with a mobility disability, in the role of Laura, a character with a mobility disability. As Peitzman points out, casting actors with disabilities as characters with disabilities remains exceedingly rare both on Broadway and in Hollywood. But director Sam Gold wanted to change that and to reimagine The Glass Menagerie as a story where traditionally meek and shy Laura has more agency. Here’s an excerpt from the piece:More to the point, [Gold] noted, much of [the criticism against the production] exposes the larger problem of ignorance about disability. “The theater community, the people who make it and the people who go see it and the people who write about it, are mostly people who think of themselves as open-minded, progressive people. They’re people who would like to be on the right side of identity politics and inclusion and diversity. And a lot of those people have a real blind spot when it comes to the disability community,” Gold said. “They’re not seeing that the way they’re perceiving the production is colored by an inability to look at that community with an open mind.”About her role in making a statement, Ferris reiterated that she wants her acting to speak for itself so that she’s not known solely for “being an inspiration or being considered brave.” At the same time, she recognizes how few representations of disability there are onstage, and she’s willing to speak out about why she hopes to see that change.“There are many reasons why I act, and one of them is I’m tired of seeing the same bodies all the time, in general, and I think a lot of people are, in terms of race and body shape and ability,” Ferris said. “It’s just so boring all the time to see the same people onscreen [and onstage]. And it’s just not life either.”You can read the full profile on BuzzFeed.[Production photo by Julieta Cervantes]

This is the perfect use for that post-Easter Easter basket.

Before planning a trip to Disneyland or Disney World, be sure to check out the Disney Food Blog’s YouTube channel, DFBGuide, for tips and tricks on making the most of your visit food-wise. That includes the above guide to the secret menu items hidden around the Disneyland park, as well as this video highlighting Disney World meals under $20:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlUBIIVCEVoAnd this one featuring the best Disney World restaurants for first-timers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_EKZh4V098

Our guest this week on the Cool Tools Show is Simone Giertz. Simone is a Swedish native who now resides in San Francisco. Millions of people come to watch her build shitty robots on YouTube and she recently launched her own astronaut training program to get herself into space. Simone's videos have been featured on The Ellen Show, The Late Show, Mashable, Business Insider, Wired, Conan O'Brien, and more. Whilst most recently joining master builder Adam Savage's tested team.Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single pageShow notes: Dremel 4200 ($114)“I started building stuff about 3 years and I’m rediscovering everything that people have known for a long time. … Dremel tool kind of goes in the line of that … it blew my mind because I do a lot of aluminum fabrications. I make parts out of aluminum frames or customized parts that I already have and for that it's freakin' great because it's like having your own arm do it but at a much higher RPM. It's like a little pen. It's just such an accessible tool. You're just sitting there and you're cutting. It has the tiniest little cutter blades and it’s just nice. … It’s a super versatile tool and it takes up no space.”Original Prusa i3 MK2S kit ($699)"I am definitely not an authority in 3D printing. I am a total 3D printing novice. I think in some way that gives me a bit of authority to speak on this because I’ve used a fair amount of 3D printers and I’m always like, ‘I have no freaking idea what’s going on.' ... The Prusa has, from the start, worked brilliantly. It’s a really open design. … It looks like a very maker printer because you can definitely tinker with it without having to take some big casing off. … This is the first 3D printer that has worked well enough to me to actually use it on a regular basis.”Glowforge laser cutter($2995)“One of many unique features that it has is that you have a view. It's all in the browse. You just go on your printer's domain or you log into your account and there you have the bed view of your printer. You can see the material and that's where you upload and place the designs. You can also scan stuff on it. You can draw something on the material and it scans it and then it can etch it or rasterize it. It’s really an improvement of the work flow."Shaper Origin ($1699)"This is a great tool. I'm not sponsored. They did let me take home their beta version and try it out. It's a handheld milling machine. Basically you load an SVG on it — a file. Your design. …Just like a CNC machine but it’s handheld. … Then it auto corrects your path. It shows you where to move out. … You could be making the map of the United States on your wall in your bedroom and just hold it up on the wall. I think it's just such a ... it's super cool and it works. I've just tried their beta version. I haven't tried the final version but I'm really impressed with the capabilities of the beta version. It’s just worked really. really great. … You can do a cut halfway through and then take a break for a couple of weeks and then get back to it and keep on doing it and it knows where it laid out all the parts.”Hitachi KNT50AB Air Compressor ($229)"The virtues of an air compressor. Where do I start? Most of all, building robots and tinkering with electronics used to be my hobby and then it became my job. I had to find a new hobby. I've been doing a lot of wood working in my free time. I do it at home. I have a little workbench in the garden. I've always covered in sawdust. Just being able to blow off my tools before I bring them into my bedroom is amazing.”Simone recently wowed Stephen Colbert with her dangerous, shitty robots:https://youtu.be/O61wJPNJgZQ

In an abrupt aboutface the Department of Homeland Security, which is not the Drug Enforcement Agency, has made some interesting statements about the evils of marijuana.Sounds more like a customs and import tariff problem than immigration law enforcement.Via Talking Points Memo:In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd Sunday, DHS Secretary John Kelly said that marijuana was “not a factor” in the drug war (methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin were, he said). He seemed to change his tone Tuesday in a speech at George Washington University, according to a copy of prepared remarks provided by DHS.“And let me be clear about marijuana. It is a potentially dangerous gateway drug that frequently leads to the use of harder drugs,” Kelly said, adding: “Its use and possession is against federal law and until the law is changed by the U.S. Congress we in DHS are sworn to uphold all the laws on the books.”“DHS personnel will continue to investigate marijuana’s illegal pathways along the network into the U.S., its distribution within the homeland, and will arrest those involved in the drug trade according to federal law,” he continued. “CBP will continue to search for marijuana at sea, air and land ports of entry and when found take similar appropriate action.”And marijuana possession, distribution and convictions thereof, Kelly said, would be considered “essential elements” for ICE “as they build their deportation / removal apprehension packages for targeted operations against illegal aliens. They have done this in the past, are doing it today, and will do it in the future.”

Visit the LA Times Festival of Books, this April 22nd and 23rd on the USC campus! (more…)

Constructed in 1972, the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England contains five small clockwise roundabouts located around a sixth counterclockwise roundabout. While it's frequently criticized as one of the scariest junctions in the region, the Magic Roundabout is apparently a fantastically efficient design, thought I'd imagine it would take a few turns to get used to it. The Swindon Magic Roundabouts is one of several similar Magic Roundabouts in the UK. From 99% Invisible:In such roundabouts, each peripheral circle facilitates car entries and exits from an associated feeder road. Experienced drivers can traverse the intersection in more direct and efficient ways, saving time. Less proficient motorists may choose to go with the flow, cycling around the edges until they reach their desired exit. For drivers going from one end to the other, a magic roundabout can enable traversals that are up to twice as fast as conventional roundabouts would allow.(via @pickover)

You can now explore the St. Kilda archipelago, a tiny collection of islands 40 miles off the Scottish coast, in Minecraft. This is great because it rains less in Minecraft, and the wind won't shear your face off.The BBC reports that the 1:1 scale map of the islands took 125 hours to produce.The last islanders left the main island of Hirta in 1930 after life there became unsustainable.People only now live on Hirta on a temporary basis to work at the military site, or on wildlife conservation projects. ...The map is available for public download to allow gamers all over the world to explore the archipelago's history, heritage, stories, people and landscapes.St. Kilda really is perfectly-sized to be a Minecraft map: a main island about 2km long and some smaller outlying ones. I hope they made it so the Minecraft version is fully playable, and not just a vast block of stone under the surface.1. Can anyone actually find the download? Am I going crazy?

This is CAM (cybernetic anthropomorphous machine), a "walking truck" designed by Ralph Mosher at General Electric in 1965. It may not be as rough-and-tumble as Boston Dynamics' BigDog but it was certainly more fun because the operator rode inside of it! From Wikipedia:The stepping of the robot was controlled by a human operator through foot and hand movements coupled to hydraulic valves. The complex movements of the legs and body pose were done entirely through hydraulics. The hydraulic fluid and pressure was supplied through an off-board system. The walking truck was one of the first technological hardware design applications to incorporate force feed-back to give the operator a feel of what was happening.(via Weird Universe)

Moscow artist Nikita Golubev, aka ProBoyNick, says he likes to experiment in different medias. Lately he's been using dirty trucks as his canvas, "painting" through the dirt with brushes and his fingers to create intricate works of art. See Golubev's entire collection of "DirtyCarArt," as well as his other collections, on his Facebook page.

I've been using Aukey's Flush Fit Dual Port USB adapter since early 2016. Once you push it into the car's "cigarette lighter" hole, it's close to a flush fit. It could be a chore to pull it out, but I've never had a reason to. It's regularly $9 but if you use the Amazon code AUKECAR7 it costs $7.

The Chinese media report on a man called Zhao from Xi'an who took revenge on his noisy upstairs neighbors whose boy wouldn't stop jumping on his ceiling by buying a "building shaker" -- a gadget that thumps your shared walls until your neighbors capitulate -- and leaving it on while he went away for the weekend. (more…)

Two hackers supplied Motherboard with 130,000 account details hacked from Retina-X and FlexiSpy, who market covert surveillance tools to jealous spouses and nervous parents -- tools that are intended to be covertly installed on their laptops and mobile devices in order to tap into their keystrokes, mics, calls, stored photos and other capabilities. (more…)

In 1821, Scottish adventurer Gregor MacGregor undertook one of the most brazen scams in history: He invented a fictional Central American republic and convinced hundreds of his countrymen to invest in its development. Worse, he persuaded 250 people to set sail for this imagined utopia with dreams of starting a new life. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the disastrous results of MacGregor's deceit.We'll also illuminate a hermit's behavior and puzzle over Liechtenstein's flag.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

Jean-Luc Mélenchon was a longshot candidate in the French presidential race: an avowed socialist who split from the mainstream (and dysfunctional, and centrist) Socialist Party to found a new party -- La France Insoumise ("Unsubmissive France") -- pundits wrote Mélenchon off early in the race. (more…)

At The Wrap, Oscar-nominated writers share some of the dumbest notes left by studio people on their scripts. They range from merely heavy-handed ("There is no wife. Continue.") to idiotic ("Where are the white people?" regarding Moonlight.) Remarks hinting at someone's gender or race are striking: it's that familiar vicariously-bigoted voice: with Hollywood folk you can never quite tell if it's their voice, the voice of viewers they imagine and fear, or simply a voice they've heard and rehearsed so many times they don't even know anymore, and all they do know is that they have to listen to it. But it's also true that many of the remarks aren't like that at all. They're just nuts, especially when they come from Kevin Costner.

The UK Prime Minister -- riding high on a recent uptick in Brexit popularity and taking advantage of divisions in the Labour Party -- has called snap elections for June 8. (more…)

Artist Butcher Billy brilliantly reimagined 1970s and 1980s songs about the dark side of love as if they were Stephen King paperback covers from the era. The series is titled Stranger Love Things.

The Rebel is the newest offering from the popular vaporizer brand Hippie, and, contrary to the Attorney General's belief, smoking dry herb with it does not necessarily preclude you from being a good person. Rather, the Rebel will make you feel like a very good, smart person. The new design offers two immediate advantages over its predecessors: there is no protruding glass mouthpiece to accidentally break, and the palm-fit is more discreet than a long, protruding tube. Which, who knows, may become especially useful soon enough.With the added surface area, this vape hosts accessible controls to precisely dial in your preferred temperature. Its rounded form makes it easy to clean, and affords plenty of room for a standard micro-USB charge port. But most importantly, it allows the convection heating element to sit underneath the herb chamber for a more efficient, smoother airflow.The Rebel’s lithium ion battery lasts up to 8 use cycles per charge, and it shuts itself off automatically after four minutes in case you forget. You can get the Hippie Rebel Vaporizer in the Boing Boing Store for just $109.Explore more best-sellers in the Boing Boing Store:Protect Your Internet PrivacyTigerVPN ($29)Burn That Old Disney VHS Collection Onto Your ComputerVHS Digitization Software ($21)Jumpstart A New CareerLearn to Code: 2017 Bundle (Average Price~$20)

Brian David Gilbert makes funny videos about millennial bathos, with frequent side orders of yearning. "It's the best bread I've ever had."You've perhaps already seen this instant classic:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h232bilq8eQ

This video goes from a hilarious first attempt at using a rubber dinghy to Bas Keep's palm-sweating BMX stunts in a massive sound mirror. (more…)

Atlantium boasts just 3,000 citizens, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in friendliness and progressive values. Emperor George II explains. (more…)

Industrial Light & Magic visual effects artist John Knoll showed off this funny archival footage at Star Wars Celebration.

I was enjoying a dried seaweed snack the other day and wondered how they harvested seaweed. The answer was even cooler than I expected, involving underwater farms and a giant vacuum. (more…)

As she posted about on Instagram, Angela Dimayuga—the executive chef at Mission Chinese Food—was approached by a writer from Ivanka Trump’s website about doing an interview that spotlighted Dimayuga as a female entrepreneur. Dimayuga wrote this in response:Hi Adi,Thank you for thinking of me. I’m glad you are a fan of my work so much that you want to provide more visibility for my career to inspire “other working women.” However, I’m for women who actually empower other women.I don’t believe that IvankaTrump.com is truly “a non-political platform of empowerment for [women]”. So long as the name Trump is involved, it is political and frankly, an option for the IvankaTrump.com business to make a profit.I don’t see anything empowering about defunding Planned Parenthood, barring asylum from women refugees, rolling back safeguards for equal pay, and treating POC/LGBT and the communities that support these groups like second class citizens.As a queer person of color and daughter of immigrant parents I am not interested in being profiled as an aspirational figure for those that support a brand and a President that slyly disparages female empowerment. Sharing my story with a brand and family that silences our same voices is futile.Thank you for the consideration.Dimayuga also spoke to Elle about her response, explaining, “People, especially in marginalized communities are feeling more encouraged to speak and have their voices and narratives heard, and we all want to hear from them. We are beginning to be both more willing to share with no bullshit, and at the same time learning how to be better listeners.” You can see Dimayuga's message if you click through the Instagram below: https://www.instagram.com/p/BSuFjS-AaRd/?hl=en[Photo: Ali Shaker/VOA]

Eddy Gun is a tortoise keeper and a few weeks ago he shared this adorable video of his son feeding the family’s tortoise collection:https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ9hGinllE2/You can see a few more tortoise videos below and even more photos and videos on Gun’s Instagram.https://www.instagram.com/p/BQrPJk2FDfT/https://www.instagram.com/p/BSUtNWFlK_M/https://www.instagram.com/p/BQZXJpbgxUN/

It turns out ejecting a floppy disk in space is a little more complicated than it is on Earth. Here’s another perspective on the same problem:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMNw99Q8Ok0[Source: Gif87a.com]

It's not your imagination: Sony's Playstation 4 really is unusually vulnerable to cockroach infestation. The reasons why remind me of airline disasters: a combination of several individually-trivial mistakes that combine to form something awful. But the results are so gross Sony won't repair PS4s with roaches in them, writes Kotaku's Cecilia D'Anastasio, sending mystified owners into the arms of disgusted local repair shops.Matt Zieminski, who works for console repair suite IFixit, told me that most of the time, the consoles aren’t sent in for roach cleaning—the users don’t know they’re infested. The PS4s just stop working and the owners don’t know why. Turns out, the PS4’s internal power supply fries roaches onto its components, which can stop the PS4 from turning on. When the bugs have made little homes in there, and have little roach kids, those roach kids and their feces can melt onto the hardware.Zieminski knows a PS4 is infested because “Roaches leave traces,” he says. “Their poop color is distinct and has a certain smell to it. We kind of know right off the bat if there are poop stains on the vent of the fan—we assume it’s bug-loaded.”

Some people don't like Barbara Remington's cover illustrations for J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. I'm not one of those people. Her study is estimated at $20,000 - $30,000 at Heritage's upcoming auction. This landmark illustration was used for a trio of Ballantine Book covers for J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. The covers were designed so that laid side-by-side they create a panoramic scene. This 1965 edition was the first authorized U. S. paperback edition, and the books were issued in a slipcase, which also featured the same artwork as a wrap-around image. A hugely popular poster titled "Wilderness" has also been produced using this iconic image.

I like museums. I like having my mind blown. I am clearly part of the target audience for this book. Other things I appreciate about this book: It’s a manageable size, slightly larger than a postcard. It features a diverse range of museums, both major institutions and lesser-known, more eccentric collections. Its tone and faux Q-and-A format are breezy; the authors are like interesting friends who always have the best vacation stories. And like so many Lonely Planet books, it’s eminently flip-through-able. My favorite section is on quirky museums: those passion projects of eccentric individuals that produce, say, a Turkish collection of women’s hair, or the Japanese museum of instant ramen. I’d love to see this section expanded, at the expense of the more standard museum picks. Yes, the British Museum and the Acropolis are amazing destinations, but they’re also very widely known already. The Watermelon Museum? Less so.Another suggestion for the next edition, due out in 2020, is greater geographical reach. For one thing, the book includes only one museum in Africa. By 2020, I hope, I’ll have made it to all of the museums in this edition that I’ve bookmarked (or, more accurately, sticky note-d).50 Museums to Blow Your Mind by Ben Handicott and Kalya RyanLonely Planet2016, 128 pages, 7.0 x 0.5 x 4.7 inches, Paperback$8 Buy on AmazonSee sample pages from this book at Wink.

Maybe not Otis' best rendition of the song, but a very fun performance to watch.

Louis Rossmann is an independent service technician in New York City who has repaired Apple products for years. (more…)

A sad and infuriating lead sentence from the LA Times: "A 75-year-old woman who tried to sell a paperweight containing a speck of moon rock may try to hold a federal agent liable for detaining her for two hours in a public parking lot in urine-soaked pants, a federal appeals court decided unanimously Thursday." The good news is that she is going to sue NASA for the humiliating treatment.She decided to try to sell the paperweights and contacted auction houses without success. She finally emailed NASA for help in finding a buyer for what she called “rare Apollo 11 space artifacts.” She explained how her late husband had received them.Norman Conley, a special agent and criminal investigator for NASA’s Office of Inspector General, was assigned to investigate whether Davis really possessed a moon rock.He had someone pose as a broker and call Davis. During several conversations, all but one recorded, Davis explained how she obtained the moon rock and insisted she wanted to do everything legally. She also mentioned that she hoped to sell her late husband’s firearms.At no point was she informed that all lunar material is the property of the federal government and that possession was a crime, the court said.If the account in this appeal is accurate, the special agent Norman Conley is a jerk.

The Seventh Sanctum is one of my favorite places on the web to find generators: code that produces everything from the names of wacky gadgets to fascinating writing challenges. My favorite: unusual jobs for fantasy role playing characters.It's maintained by Steven Savage, a former software engineer who now writes on a variety of geeky matters.Seventh Sanctum started somewhere in 1999 when I joked that attacks in various anime sounded like various strings of words put together by computer. Having fooled around with such generators over the years, I decided it'd be fun to make one. Then another followed. Then another . . . until we end up here.I'm Steven Savage, an engineer turned Program Manager, speaker and writer on geek culture, and in the case of Seventh Sanctum, mad scientist. Or glad scientist. Whatever works.Seventh Sanctum was created as a place for me to experiment with randomized tools and provide them to people, though needless to say it got a bit bigger than I expected. Also, it's a lot of fun so after years of work on it, it's still going.

Here we go, "into the grayish brownish world of the early 80s..."

In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, researchers from UC Berkeley reveal that shoelace knots do not gradualy come loose, as was previously supposed -- rather, they fail catastrophically and suddenly, thanks to strange and surprising stresses that they must endure. (more…)

Graphical demos created with severe code-length limitations sometimes betray the techniques used to fit a world into a few kilobytes: tessellating textures, featureless fractals, repetitive sequences, and so on. Final Stage, by 0x4015, is not one of those demos. [via]Here it is rendered on a XEON x560 with a GTX 1070 video card and 24GB of RAM. Check out all the other uploads from the Revision 2017 demoparty.Eidolon, by Poo-brain, won in the 64k category:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bwLkEwLIgQ

By all accounts, German soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer's performance at Coachella last night was magnificent. Here he leads his talented orchestra in a rousing, tension-inducing Inception medley.