Mr. Grabher's personalized plate, GRABHER, has never been a problem until this year's renewal. The BBC reports that the Nova Scotian motorist was refused permission to plate up his own name—of fine German vintage—by the local transport department. He blames Trump."I've never once had anybody come up to me and say they were offended," Mr Grabher told CBC News."They would look at it and say, 'Am I reading this right?' And I would go, 'Yes.'"And they would go, 'Is this your last name?' And I would go, 'Yes.' And they would always just give a little chuckle."Mr Grabher said he thinks he's being punished for Donald Trump's obscene language.

The Miele PG 8528 is a "washer-disinfector" intended for hospitals and other locations with potentially dangerous pathogens on their dirty dishes; it's networked and smart. And dumb. (more…)

http://amzn.to/2mKmut5Gaff cards are playing cards that have been doctored ion one way or another so you can do magic tricks that would be very difficult or impossible to do with an ordinary deck. I got The Blue Gaff Deck a few months ago and I love it. There are some amazing tricks you can do with it, and because they have the familiar Bicycle backs, no one will know that you are using gaff cards (as long as you don't flub).You can do 40 different tricks with the deck (and it comes with a DVD so you can learn them all). My favorite is the B-Wave, which is worth the price of the deck:https://youtu.be/39IcQIjuSzc

Carla and I took a one-week trip to Tokyo. It was my sixth visit to Japan's capital, and it was my favorite so far. For the next few days, I'll be writing about recommended things to do there. See them all here.[caption id="attachment_516200" align="alignnone" width="680"] Image: Wikipedia/Pawel Loj[/caption]I don't think you're supposed to fry onigiri, at least not the triangle-shaped ones that you buy at convenience stores in Japan. But that's what I did when I made breakfast in our Airbnb on our first morning in Tokyo. The onigiri weren't wrapped in seaweed, and they didn't have a filling. Instead, they were mixed with "mountain vegetables" and pressed into triangles. I heated them up in a skillet with butter, and the outside got crispy brown. They went well with the scrambled eggs I made. (I ended up buying this rice mold on Amazon so I can make them at home.) One thing about Japanese eggs - the yolks are a deep orange color. I don't know why, but they were delicious.[caption id="attachment_516202" align="alignnone" width="680"] Torii gate at Yoyogi Park[/caption]After breakfast we walked to Yoyogi Park in Shibuya. This 40-foot torii gate was just a few minute's walk from our Airbnb. As soon as we passed under it, we felt like we were far away from the hubbub of Tokyo and had entered a quiet forest. As it was early in the morning (the time difference between LA and Tokyo made it easy to wake up at 5am) there were few people in the park. We walked along a wide, tree-lined path until we reached the huge Meiji shrine. This Shinto shrine was built in 1921, destroyed in WWII air raids, and rebuilt in 1958. Visitors are invited to write prayers on small wooden placards and hang them on hooks in the courtyard We also visited the Meiji Jingu Inner Garden, which is in the park. It costs about $6 to enter, and is well worth the price. It's been around since the early Edo period (1603-1867) and was the garden of various lords and the Imperial Family. Emperor Meiji (1852-1912) liked the garden so much he wrote a poem about it:Deep in the woodland of Yoyogi, the quietude creates the illusion of seclusion from the city.I couldn't have said it better myself.There's also a pond, a teahouse (closed), and a well that was made by Katō Kiyomasa (1561 – 1611), a famous samurai and a playable character in Pokémon Conquest.After that, we walked to Harajuku and strolled through the narrow winding streets. I'll write about that tomorrow!

Rudy Rucker writes, "Isabel Rucker and friends are promoting a GoFundMe project to give an Ms. subscription to each of the elected officials in Wyoming. Why? To raise awareness of women's issues. Wyoming has the largest gender pay gap in the country, has the smallest percentage of women in its state legislature, is among the costliest for childcare, and faces continuing cuts in publicly funded family planning and in women's health services." (more…)

This weekend saw Star Wars Rebels season three draw to a close. This was an exciting episode, but very little resolved. (more…)

https://youtu.be/xrGlWAFy1LUI was expecting this to be a train wreck, but Orson Welles (in an unusually ungrumpy mood) did a terrific job of interviewing Andy Kaufman, who was always a tough nut to crack. Welles basically took over and did most of the talking and was very funny.

Today, Shaun Cassidy is a successful TV producer. In the 1970s he was better know as the little brother of David Cassidy. In 1979 Shaun hired Todd Rundgren to produce his album Wasp. I don't think the album did well, but is has some great tracks on it, including a cover of David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel," "So Sad About Us' (Pete Townshend), "The Book I Read" (Talking Heads) ,"Once Bitten Twice Shy" (Ian Hunter), "It's My Life" ( Animals) and "Shake Me Wake Me" (Four Tops).It was his last album.Here's the whole album:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vmy5yorlrI

Megan Phelps-Roper was born into the Westboro Baptist Church. In this TED Talk, she explains what ut was like in the church and why she left.What's it like to grow up within a group of people who exult in demonizing ... everyone else? Megan Phelps-Roper shares details of life inside America's most controversial church and describes how conversations on Twitter were key to her decision to leave it. In this extraordinary talk, she shares her personal experience of extreme polarization, along with some sharp ways we can learn to successfully engage across ideological lines.

YouTube description translated from the Russian: "Cat Boris lives in a shelter. He and the other tails looking for a home! Dear friends, we are a haven for cats. We are located in St. Petersburg."[via]

This simple, inflatable pillow provides the lower back support I wish a coach airplane seat would. (more…)

When Pink Floyd took the stage on their mid-1970s "Dark Side of the Moon" tour, they performed in front of a stunning video cut-up created by British animator Ian Emes. Above are screen projections from the 1974 French tour. Below, a reel from the 1975 North American tour. (The album audio was added by someone else later.) From Wikipedia:Emes' first major work, 'French Windows', was started while he was subsequently a student at Birmingham College of Art and finished while he was unemployed. It was set to the Pink Floyd recording "One of These Days". After it was shown at Birmingham's Ikon Gallery, it was screened on the television programme The Old Grey Whistle Test, and thereby came to the attention of Pink Floyd. The band invited Emes to give them a private screening, and afterwards to make films to be projected during performances of The Dark Side of the Moon. His animation for their song "Time" is on Pink Floyd's Pulse DVD. He subsequently worked with Roger Waters, making live action film for his performance of The Wall – Live in Berlin.As a result of his work for Pink Floyd, Linda McCartney asked Emes to animate Wings' "Oriental Nightfish". He has also made animations for concerts by Mike Oldfield, and directed The Chauffeur for Duran Duran.(via r/ObscureMedia)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3npoz5A4yU

The Bottle Boys blow like nobody's business. (via Laughing Squid)

Flag Waver accepts uploaded images or URLs and turns them into an on-screen waving flag. There are advanced options for wind and hoisting! Sadly, you cannot export or save animations.

KodyXO's video has everything going for it, from landscape-oriented 60fps footage to elderly ladies refereeing a wrestling match in a grocery store between a store manager and an alleged shoplifter. There's even an annoying photobomber!EMPLOYEE: "You're shoplifting, you can't shoplift here!"THE ACCUSED: "Yeah? Why not?"EMPLOYEE: (momentarily baffled) "Wh.. Why not?"The arrestee was reportedly charged with third-degree robbery.Big retailers might let you walk off if the cops don't arrive in time, but stores can and do detain shoplifters. Rite-Aid's got its staffer's back, but one imagines there may be a chain-wide round of "why we just let them go" retraining days quite soon.It's interesting to see how different media cast the events of the video. The local Hillsborough Tribune sticks to the facts, as it sees them...The two fight over the purse, with the woman pulling, yanking and twisting in order to pry it from his grip. At one point the woman tries to punch the employee, and kicks him. He tells her that she is not allowed to shoplift in the store. Eventally the man wrestles her to the floor as she attempts to strike him."Ma'am, you need to chill out," a voice is heard on the video as the woman is on the ground. "You need to chill."The woman screams "Let me go!" several times, but eventually relinquishes the purse to the employee as Washington County Sheriff's deputies arrive and arrest her. ... "You can use reasonable force to detain someone," Reimann said. "But that's a subjective thing. He's trying to hold onto her, and she gets violent, so he takes her to the ground. Those are hard situations to call."... Whereas Britain's seething tabloids do what they do. The Daily Mail:'I'm gonna take you down for that': Shocking moment Rite Aid employee bodyslams female 'shoplifter' as she tries to punch himThe best line: "She continues to writhe under his grasp!"

Anyone familiar with Star Wars or even the modern art of movie-making will know what's coming as soon as Rey says it, but it's a brilliantly effective joke.

Johanna Nordblad holds the world record for free diving under ice. This gorgeous film captures the beauty and danger. She can stay under for more than 6.5 minutes with no gear of any kind. (more…)

A book of John Wilcock comics is now available

Cystisoma is an amphipod, a creature with two kinds of legs, and they are almost entirely translucent. One major exception is their pale orange retinas, which each take up about half of its head. (more…)

Over a decade ago, we tipped readers to the astronomy illustrations of Trouvelot. now the New York Public Library has a large collection of his work available online. (more…)

https://youtu.be/3VwbkAMfFlUThe first mind-blowing episode of Twin Peaks aired in 1990. On May 21 this year, Showtime will debut a two-hour episode of the revival series, produced by creators David Lynch and Mark Frost, and starring the original crew. In this video, Kyle MacLachlan, Sherilyn Fenn, Peggy Lipton, Everett McGill, and Wendy Robie talk about what it's like to play characters for the first time in 25 years.

I wrote about the terrific Plugable USB Handheld Digital Microscope in 2015. It's on sale for $29.70 right now.I had the earlier version of the Plugable USB Handheld Digital Microscope and liked it a lot. The second version just came out and I love it. Smaller than a prescription pill bottle, the microscope has a USB cord that can be plugged into any computer. Download the software here and start looking up close at money, leaves, circuit boards, bugs, skin, hair, and anything else.The scope has a built-in, adjustable-brightness LED for illumination. The brightest setting is not always the best - try different levels of illumination and let the software auto-adjust the contrast. I also learned that in order to see things at the maximum 250X magnification you need to follow the instructions in the FAQ.The scope comes with a suction-cup gooseneck mount that is very stable, and a plastic board with a grid pattern, which helps you align and locate the thing you are looking at. You can also simply hold the scope against things. The software takes still photos and movies, and hasn't crashed on me yet (the earlier version was buggy).At this price, the microscope is an amazingly entertaining device and I find myself grabbing it to check out all sorts of things, including splinters, skin cuts, bugs, and playing card designs.Top row (left to right): One black whisker and many white whiskers on my chin, strawberry seed, George Washington’s eye on a $1 bill at 250XMiddle row: Snap blade knife at 250X, pixels on an iPhone 6 Plus display, seal from $1Bottom row: Nickel, George Washington’s eye on a $1 bill at 50X, Snap blade knife at 50X,

This brainfart from the Republican speaker of the house dates to 2013, not the aftermath of his failure to pass 2017's universally-loathed Obamacare replacement plan. Snopes:WHAT'S TRUEHouse Speaker Ryan said he would not give up on destroying the United States' health care system.WHAT'S FALSEThe statement was a gaffe that was taken out of context, not an actual admission of intent. ...Although Ryan did say “we’re not going to give up on destroying the healthcare system for the American people,” this was merely a gaffe, not a statement of intent. Ryan was referring to the Affordable Care Act and his efforts to not let that law destroy the health care system.This is fair context, but "merely a gaffe" handwaves what makes gaffes interesting. Lack of intent is not intrinsic to gaffes. Indeed, the fact gaffes tend to reveal intent is embodied by a term a journalists use for political ones to distinguish them from lesser varieties: the Kinsley Gaffe.The first appearance in print of “Kinsley’s Law of Gaffes” may have been on January 17, 2008, when Hendrik Hertzberg wrote in a post about a Democratic candidates’ debate in his New Yorker blog:No article or blog post of this kind can be complete without a reference to (Michael) Kinsley’s Law of Gaffes, which states that a gaffe occurs when a politician accidentally tells the truth. Perhaps this should be supplemented by the notion of a Deductive Slip, meaning something a politician says, however inadvertently, that can be shoehorned into a pre-existing “narrative.”Kinsley himself points out that in political cases, the supposed gaffe is never animated by surprise. Just as everyone knew, for example, that Rush Limbaugh had a low opinion of women before revealing it in a "gaffe," everyone already knows Paul Ryan didn't need Obamacare to become an Ayn Randian laissez-faire dork. What he is has already been established; the gaffe is haggling over the price.

The humiliating inability of Republicans to legislate even when they control the Presidency, House and Senate has emboldened the left wing of the Democratic party, led by Bernie Sanders, to push to replace Obamacare (designed by the Heritage Foundation and first trialled by Mitt Romney) with "Medicare-For-All," a state run, universal healthcare system that will end the out-of-control transfer of tax funds to insurance companies and the bonanza for Big Pharma. (more…)

You know the drill. You go to the dentist and they ask you how often you floss. You lie through your teeth and say, “every day!” (Bonus points if you have some cilantro or chives stuck in your gums from lunch). You don’t want to keep up the charade any longer, but rubbing that tiny strand of nylon between your pearly yellows is tedious at best, and painful at worst. There has to be a better way.Fortunately, this water flosser will transform you from Steve Buscemi-lookalike to a paragon of dental hygiene. The battery-powered flosser shoots thin jets of water in the crevices of your gums like a gentler power washer to hose off the most stubborn bits of plaque. Plus, it’s been clinically shown to clean your mouth faster and more comfortably than normal floss.This kit includes a full set of dental cleaning tools and four color-coded tips to let multiple members of your household use it without gross cross-contamination. Lowered from $149.99, get the Aqua Flosser Water Flosser here for just $38.99.Explore other Best-Sellers in our store:Coding + DevelopmentLearn to Code 2017 Bundle (Pay What You Want)Accessories Twisty Glass BluntD-I-Y CourseRaspberry Pi 3 Course

https://youtu.be/uZGFTmK6Yk4It's no secret that Boing Boing (along with over 4 million other netizens) loves the Primitive Technology channel on YouTube. We've covered this channel numerous times (about a guy making primitive tech in the wilds of Far North Queensland, Australia with nothing but the gym shorts on his ass). I anxiously await each episode and am like a kid at Christmas when I get the alert that a new one is up.But this month, thanks to one of the reader comments, I made a cool discovery. The videos are without narration. The un-named survivalist, who some have dubbed "Prim," is really good at showing you what he's doing so that you can understand it without explanation, and he writes up decent notes that are published along with the videos. But then I saw the comment: "[Turns on captions] That clever bastard has been talking to us the entire time!!" Whoa.The captions and the notes are pretty similar, but you do get extra content in the captions and you get to see them in situ. I've been using closed captioning on my TV recently and have been delighted to see how much additional information you actually get: background conversations you would never hear, song titles and lyrics, and wonderful sound descriptions like "sexual gasping." So, it's great to discover another instance of CC being useful.

The AP reports that Jeremy Putnam, 31, was arrested in Winchester, Virginia, and charged with "wearing a mask in public," a felony in that state.He was armed with a "sword" in public, which apparently alarmed residents. But they haven't charged him with that; they've charged him with this, a fascinatingly terrible law:§ 18.2-422. Prohibition of wearing of masks in certain places; exceptions.It shall be unlawful for any person over 16 years of age to, with the intent to conceal his identity, wear any mask, hood or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden or covered so as to conceal the identity of the wearer......with specific exceptions for "traditional holiday costumes," protective or medical masks, or ones for a "bona fide theatrical production or masquerade ball." Putnam is being held at the Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center.

Barack Obama’s real Kenyan birth certificate has been discovered, President Trump has caught “Russia’s White House spy,” and actor Robert Wagner has been hit by “grand jury murder charges” - if you believe this week’s tabloids.Alas, it’s another basketful of wishful thinking, fact-challenged alternate realities.“Proof Obama was born in Kenya!” screams the ‘Globe’ front cover, declaring his Hawaiian birth certificate a forgery, and publishing “the real deal” issued by the Coast Province General Hospital in Mombasa, the Republic of Kenya, on August 4, 1961. The “damning hospital birth certificate” was revealed by Obama’s own “brother” - actually, his half-brother, Malik Obama.It ’s a great scoop, except for a few minor details: This is the same Kenyan birth certificate we first saw eight years ago; in the early 1960s the term “Coast Province” was not used, as provinces were still referred to as “regions;” the nation was then called the Dominion of Kenya, not the Republic; Mombasa was part of Zanzibar until 1963; and the attending physician named on the certificate worked in Nairobi, not Mombasa. The alleged certificate also uses American-style date notations - month, day, year - rather than the British-style then used in Kenya: day, month, year. And the certificate looks nothing like any Kenyan birth certificate of its time.Apart from that, it’s a good story.Robert Wagner has finally been brought to justice for killing his wife, Natalie Wood, the ‘Globe’ claims on its cover. Except when you read the story inside, it turns out to be more wishful thinking. “Robert Wagner MUST be indicted,” pleads the opening sentence. “New grand jury MUST target Robert Wagner,” screams a headline. Why is that, you wonder? “Damning new forensic evidence and chilling photos ‘implicating’ the actor . . . have finally surfaced.”Except they haven’t. It’s just an unnamed “source close to the cold-case probe” citing unnamed “investigators” who claim that “marks found on her body prove she was choked into unconsciousness and ‘rolled off’ her yacht.” But Natalie Wood, who spent hours in the ocean before her body was recovered in 1981, was covered in bruises when found. The coroner believed she had fallen off the yacht, and it’s clearly difficult to distinguish between bruises from falling off a yacht and being 'rolled off’ it. Old bruises hardly constitute new proof. But wait! The ‘Globe’ reveals that “a secret witness is ready to step forward - and doom Wagner for good!” It's deus ex machina journalism at its best. I bet the butler did it.The ‘National Enquirer’ cover proudly tells us that “Trump Catches Russia’s White House Spy!” and “Now he’s spilling Putin’s secrets.” Who is this nefarious operative trapped by spy-catcher-in-chief Trump? It’s “White House mole Michael Flynn!” crows the ‘Enquirer.’ Excuse me? It’s true that Trump ousted National Security Advisor Flynn in February after it was revealed that he had met with Russian officials and discussed sanctions, and had then lied about it. But White House spokesman Sean Spicer made clear that Flynn had been axed “not based on a legal issue, but based on a trust issue” after “trust between the President and General Flynn had eroded . . . “ It was only after investigations by the FBI, the U.S. Army, and multiple media outlets, that Flynn resigned. But he was hardly “caught” by Trump. And though Flynn seems to have had more ties to Russia than he let on, calling him a “spy” may be a stretch.But the ‘Enquirer story then mysteriously focuses on “KGB spymaster-turned-U.S.-defector Jack Barsky.” Born Albrecht Dittrich, Barsky was sent by the KGB to spy on America in 1978, and was identified to the FBI as a spy in 1992. But Barsky was never charged, having apparently given up espionage by then, and later even wrote a book about life as a KGB spy in America. He’s made no secret of his past, yet the ‘Enquirer’ headline screams that Barsky is “Hiding in Atlanta Lair.” But Barsky, outed as a spy 25 years ago, can hardly be said to have been caught by Trump, any more than Flynn was caught by Trump. It’s all just anti-Russia scare-mongering nonsense.The ‘Enquirer’ also brings us a center-spread proclaiming: “Janet Jackson Love Child Shocker!” The headline continues: “Secret DNA test brings 31-year mystery to a jaw-dropping conclusion!” It’s the antique story alleging that Janet Jackson gave up a baby at birth three decades ago, and then-boyfriend James DeBarge volunteered his DNA sample to prove that Tiffany Whyte of Philadelphia is their love child. And the “jaw-dropping” conclusion? “The life-shattering scientific report determined there is literally ZERO chance of paternity between James and Tiffany,” reports the ‘Enquirer’ - in the 14th paragraph of the non-story. Well, there’s a surprise.At least there’s fun and games to be had with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. “Jen & Ben Are Having Twins!” claims the ‘Globe,’ reporting that the couple are visiting a fertility doctor. But wait: The ‘Enquirer’ reports that they are still split, and “She’ll take him back only if he can dry out and get in shape" after a stint in rehab. Hang on though - ‘Us’ magazine reports that Affleck and Garner are “putting the children first,” dropping their children off at school and taking them to church - but still living apart, though sharing the same three-acre Pacific Palisades property - Ben in the guesthouse, and Jen in the main mansion. “They are not a couple by any means,” says an “insider.” They must also be exhausted reading so many conflicting tabloid and celebrity mags each week.Fortunately we have ‘Us’ magazine’s crack team of investigative reporters to tell us that Julie Bowen wore it best, singer Vanessa Carlton carries dried sage and matches in her Clare V fanny pack (to purify hotel rooms - though one suspects she burns this in “no smoking” rooms), and that the stars are just like us: they eat take-out, play softball, and spread jam on scones (because that’s how celebrities roll.)‘People’ magazine devotes its cover to the mystery behind one-time “fitness guru” Richard Simmons’ supposed disappearance, not seen in public in nearly three years. The mag promises “the real story,” but offers only speculation and denials. Simmons’ publicist insists that the 68-year-old is fine. Simmons’ brother Lenny agrees: “My brother is fine” and is just tired of the limelight. And then ‘People’ recites all the old concerns: a 911 call last summer after Simmons exhibited “bizarre” behavior, knee surgery, the death of his beloved Dalmatian,and shying away from friends. It’s a litany of old accusations, but “the real story” it’s not.Onwards and downwards . . .

This Inception-like moment as all the doorways form a straight line is both satisfying and mesmerizing. (more…)

Christopher Tan created Retrocade, a delightful 3D printed arcade machine project that lets users play classic games. He's even releasing the files and instructions. (more…)

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has done outstanding work packing a fully capable desktop computer into a package the size of a deck cards—especially one that only costs $35. But if you already have a working laptop, why should you care? Oh, how much you have to learn. Besides operating well as a compact digital media hub, the Raspberry Pi is an exceptional tool for Internet of Things construction, programming robots, hacking, and a whole slew of other cool stuff thanks to accessible, general-purpose inputs and outputs, and an open-source operating system.If you are planning on ordering one of these single-board wonders (or impulsively bought one without any idea of what to do with it), this Raspberry Pi 3 training bundle will give you a nice taste of what you can do with it. Here’s some of what you'll learn:Cybersecurity fundamentals with a Raspberry Pi equipped with Kali, the Linux distribution focused around network penetration testingHow to link several Raspberry Pi boards together to perform complex parallel computationsAdvanced networking and web development techniques that use the Raspberry Pi as a file and web serverRaspberry Pi-powered roboticsThe foundations of IoT devicesWith over 20 hours of instructional material spread across six targeted courses, you’ll get more than a taste of what this delicious platform is capable of. Get the Complete Raspberry Pi 3 Training Bundle for 91% off—just $19.Explore other Best-Sellers in our store:Coding + DevelopmentLearn to Code 2017 Bundle (Pay What You Want)Accessories Twisty Glass BluntD-I-Y CourseRaspberry Pi 3 Course

Carla and I just returned from a one-week trip to Tokyo. It was my sixth visit to Japan's capital, and it was my favorite. For the next few days, I'll be writing about recommended things to do there. See them all here.We arrived at Narita airport about 1:30pm Tokyo time. At the airport, I noticed a lot of vending machines selling SIM cards with high-speed data. You can get a week's worth of unlimited data for less than $10 a day. If your phone is locked, you can rent a wi-fi hot spot for about the same amount. I used a wi-fi hotspot to consult Google Maps many times every day to navigate around the city. Google Maps will also tell you which trains to use to get from one place to another. We also used Yelp to find restaurants and learn when they open and close.There are several ways to get from Narita to Tokyo (about 50 miles). A taxi or Uber costs almost $300 and you will have to deal with traffic. There are also luxury buses, which can take you right to your hotel (provided you are staying in one of the major ones). My favorite way to get to Tokyo from the airport is by train. Both the Narita Express ($28) and the Skyliner ($22) have terminals inside the airport. They are convenient and fast. The Skyliner is faster and cheaper, but stops only at the Ueno and Nippori stations. The Narita Express stops at more places, including Shibuya and Shinjuku. We took the Narita Express because we were staying near the Shinjuku Station.At Shinjuku station we took a taxi to our Airbnb. I've taken a lot of taxi rides in Japan, and in 100% of the cases the following five things were true:1. The driver didn't understand a word of English. (Hand your phone to him with the address displayed on the screen. He'll enter the address in his navigation system.)2. The car was immaculate inside and out.3. The driver was a man.4. The driver got confused if I tried to tip him.5. The driver automatically opened and closed my door for me. Do not try to open and close the yourself because it will strain the mechanism and annoy the heck out of the driver. Cars drive on the left side of the road in Japan, by the way.We took a very short ride to our Airbnb (right next to Yoyogi Park, home to the famous Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine) and took the elevator to the 9th floor. Here's what the place looked like, along with views from the balcony:At $225 a night, (here's a referral code you can use to get a $40 Airbnb credit. I'll get $20 in credit if you use it) it's much cheaper than many hotels in the area. It has a kitchen, a loft with two futons, a bedroom with two large beds, a dining area, a Japanese style tub, and a washer/dryer. It also includes a wi-fi hotspot that you can take with you as you travel around Tokyo. By the time we got settled in and took a shower after 16 hours of travel, we were hungry and sleepy. I looked on Yelp and found a place called Vegetable Curry Camp just a few minutes walk from our place. It was a cute tiny restaurant in the basement. They had boxes of fresh vegetables next to the front door, and the decor was "1960 American campground." We got sizzling skillets of fresh vegetable curry and plates of rice. The bill for both of us was less than $20. (In fact, many of the restaurants we went to were a lot cheaper than places in Los Angeles).On the way back, we stopped at one of the ubiquitous konbini (コンビニ, short for convenience store) to buy eggs and onigiri (rice filled with fish or other fillings) for breakfast the next morning. We slept like logs.Stayed tuned for day 2, to find out about Meiji Jingu and the interesting little stores in Harajuku.

I have a Fender Telecaster but no case or stand. It usually sits on a couch. I finally broke down and bought the ChromaCast CC-MINIGS Universal Folding Guitar Stand with Secure Lock for $8.96 on Amazon. It's got a 4.5-star rating on Amazon with over 1,200 reviews.

People in the 400 highest-income households are gnashing their teeth today. If the repeal of Obamacare hadn't stalled, they stood to get tax cuts of about $7 million each. Mother Jones made this graph based on a report from the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities.You know what really gets me? Even among the millionaires, repeal will only net them about $50,000. That's like finding spare change in the sofa cushions for this crowd. Is clawing back a few nickels and dimes really worth immiserating 20 million people?

https://youtu.be/S2BB52xc_ccYou are a king and have invited 1,000 guests to a party. Each guest has brought one bottle of wine. But before any of the wine has been opened, your chief spy takes you aside and tells you that he is certain that one, and only one, bottle of wine contains a poison that will kill anyone who drinks even a drop. The poison takes one hour to kick in. The king has 10 prisoners he doesn't mind killing. How does he use them to identify the poison wine and get rid of the bottle (and the person who brought it) so he can get on with the party?In this video of Scam School, Brian Brushwood gives the answer.Image: @threetails via Twenty20

By day, Scott Weaver is a grocery store clerk. When he's not working, he's making elaborate sculptures out of toothpicks and Elmer's Glue. His tool is a nail clipper. His largest work is called "Rolling Through the Bay." It's a 9-foot sculpture of San Francisco. You drop a marble in it at the top, and it will take a rolling tour through Coit Tower, Chinatown, the Golden Gate Bridge, and other landmarks. It took him over 3,000 hours over a 30-year-year period to make it, and it has 105,387 and 1/2 toothpicks.I saw Scott's work at Maker Faire a few years ago, and it has stuck with me ever since. This video is part of an excellent series called "Coolest Thing I've Ever Made."

Republicans withdrew Trump's favored legislative plan to replace Obamacare on Friday, understanding that they lacked the votes to pass it in the House of Representatives. This despite the president's threat to leave Obamacare as law of the land if they did not give the American Health Care Act an up-or-down hearing today.The GOP bill—a comically mangled "Obamacare Lite" stripped of everything people like about the original and little that they don't—held only a 17% public approval rating, according to a Quinnipiac poll. It attempted to please both conservatives, who want unfettered profitability for insurance companies, and GOP moderates, who are wary of killing quite so many poor people as this would entail.Trump, however, made clear that he isn't blaming House Speaker Paul Ryan for its failure.https://twitter.com/costareports/status/845358347801055233Run, Paul. Run!Update:The GOP's health care bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Health Care Act was scheduled for a House vote today, but was withdrawn just before. In an address, Speaker Paul Ryan said "we were close, but not quite there" and said that the United States would be living with Obamacare "for the foreseeable future."

Founded in 1989, Mr Bongo is an exquisitely-curated indie record (and film) label that uncovers incredible Brazilian psych, rare soul, avant-jazz, and deeply groovy Afrobeat recordings and reissues them in beautiful and informative vinyl and CD packages. Based in Brighton, UK, the label's latest compilation is titled The Original Sound Of Mali and the clips I've heard drive me wild. These 1970s and 1980s cuts from the war-torn West African country are so deeply groovy and raw, culled from tapes that the performers never expected would be heard beyond their local scene. Have a listen below. From an interview with David 'Mr Bongo' Buttle at Ran$om Note: Going back to the beginning, I’ve always been inspired by Mali music. There’s a haunting, heavy quality to it. I used to work with Ali Farka Toure when I worked at World Circuit back in ’88, and I found out about Mali music then. So over the last 20 or 30 years I’ve been getting into the artists featured on this album; Idris Soumaoro, The Rail Band and so on. That process helped me find some of the people involved and start to license stuff. It took a long time; it’s taken about three or four years to put this together...To a certain extent; the record is a document of a certain time that isn’t now. It’s good to draw attention to things though. Just by talking about Mali it opens up a lot of new stories, and that’s what inspired us initially. It’s an ever changing situation. I was really disappointed that the Timbuktu library got destroyed, and all those great documents got destroyed. Mali’s not a place you can go to that easily now. It’s not that safe. It’s really sad what’s happening there. We dedicated the album to Malick Sadibe, and the situation in Mali hasn’t been highlighted that much recently, I guess because we don’t have that Francophone connection in this country. We had that first splurge when the French troops first went in but that was quite a while ago. Hopefully this record will trigger some new interest. 6 Music made this the biggest compilation of the week, and there was a lot of good feedback from people calling in saying they’d like to know more about Mali, so maybe there is a bit of a knowledge gap that this can help fill. The Original Sound of Mali (Mr. Bongo)

Star Wars: Rogue One director Gareth Edwards tells the fascinating backstory behind Darth Vader's brutal stroll down the hallway in Rogue One. (Wired) And if you missed it yesterday, check out the Star Wars: Rogue One ending flow into A New Hope beginning.

In 1948, Moses Asch founded the incredibly influential Folkways Records label to record and share music and sounds from around the world. Along with bringing the music of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, and Elizabeth Cotten to wider audiences, Folkways, acquired in 1987 by Smithsonian, also issued incredible sound recordings from the Ituri rainforest, Navajo Nation, Peru, and many other locations and indigenous peoples across the globe. (In fact, the label provided several tracks for the Voyager Golden Record, now 12+ billion miles from Earth! Researching that project with my partner Tim Daly, a DIY musicologist himself, I've become absolutely enchanted by Folkways. If any of you dear readers have Folkways LPs collecting dust, I'd give them a wonderful home.) Along with music, Folkways released LPs with poetry, language instruction, nature sounds (frogs! insects), and other field recordings. I recently discovered this curious Folkways release from 1964, Sounds of the Office, featuring a time clock, electric typewriter, adding machine, thermofax, pop bottle machine, and of course "coffee break." It reminds me of an early avant-garde tape music composition! You can hear two samples below and more at the Smithsonian Folkways site. "The sounds of the office are essentially sounds of paper and machines. Here are some of them, in a rough chronological sequence, from the start of a day to its end, or at least the end of the morning," wrote the recordist Michael Siegel in the album liner notes.It's interesting to imagine how a contemporary version of this album would sound.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy2VeFSjqZYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ivrNdxvjt8

In Britain, grounds for divorce are quite specific: adultery, desertion, "unreasonable behavior", the agreement of both parties or five years separation. An appeals court has therefore affirmed another judge's ruling that Tini Owens, 66, is not otherwise permitted to divorce her husband of 39 years.Judge Robin Tolson ruled against Mrs Owens in the family court last year, concluding that her allegations were "of the kind to be expected in marriage" and refused to grant a divorce petition.Three appeal judges, led by Sir James Munby, the most senior family court judge in England and Wales, analysed the case at a hearing in London on Tuesday.Philip Marshall QC, representing Mrs Owens, told the court that the "vast majority" of divorces were undefended in 21st Century England.He said: "It is extraordinarily unusual in modern times for a court to dismiss a petition for divorce."She said the marriage was loveless, desperately unhappy, and that she was left in a wretched state by his manner, tone, insensitivity and mistrust. Her complaint reads like the script of a grim British cringe-humor sitcom: yelling at her in an airport after her failure to buy the right crystal tchotchke from duty free; nasty remarks during dinner with guests; endless passive-aggressive sighing and tutting, etc.He reprimandedthe Respondent saying, “can I say something without youflying off the handle? I have said this before that when you putcardboard in the skip, do it properly and not without anythought about what will happen to it. It was all over the yard. Ihave picked up the big pieces but I want you to clear the restfrom the shrubbery”.Sadly, the law is the law, and if some arsehole wants to be the one arsehole in a generation to cling to its letter all the way to the highest courts in the land, it's still not that court's job to fix it.But the appeal judges, led by Sir James Munby, upheld the original ruling ... "it is not a ground for divorce that you find yourself in a wretchedly unhappy marriage" There's something spectacularly British about the idea of four wigs telling a woman that the misery of her marriage is mandatory. Check out these visions of human joy!That's Tolson, top left, and Munby, top right, and Lady Justice Heather Hallett, another of the appeals court panelists ruling against Mrs. Owens, below. The third was Lady Justice Julia Macur, who has apparently managed to avoid glaring sternly at a kneeling photographer.RTE News:Specialist divorce lawyer Ayesha Vardag says judges should not compel people to stay married."This case highlights the absurdity of fault-based divorce," she said. "If a party is willing to go to the Court of Appeal to fight for a divorce, spending significant sums on the way, there is clearly no future for the marriage. It is beyond archaic that she should have to prove it to a judge. There is no good reason for a court to compel someone to stay married when they clearly do not want to be."She added: "We must push forward with no-fault divorce and end ridiculous charades like this."An interesting aside: a UK court recently affirmed that opposite-sex couples cannot apply for the civil partnerships crafted in an earlier age for same-sex couples who could not marry at all, but which now have the advantage of conferring key benefits of marriage with few of the parochial statutory expectations. Here's the ruling [PDF], some interesting excerpts follow below.It is plain from his judgment that Judge Tolson was unimpressed by the wife’s petition.He variously described it as “hopeless” (judgment, paragraph 2), “anodyne”(paragraph 7), and “scraping the barrel” (paragraph 13). He said it “lacked beefbecause there was none” (paragraph 7). He described paragraphs 3 and 4 as “the only2 grounds which … might in context have provided grounds for divorce.” He said theallegations “are at best flimsy” (paragraph 12). ...46. The judge expressed his conclusion in these words: “In reality I find that the allegations of alleged unreasonablebehaviour in this petition – all of them – are at best flimsy. Iwould not have found unreasonable behaviour on the wife’spleaded case. As it is, having heard both parties give evidence,I am satisfied that the wife has exaggerated the context andseriousness of the allegations to a significant extent. They areall at most minor altercations of a kind to be expected in amarriage. Some are not even that.”Here's Tolson's best line (to be fair, note my ellipses, which elide a lengthy recounting of accusations): I will not overburden thisjudgment by setting out the pleaded allegations in full. This, thewife’s best case, skilfully argued by leading counsel, proceedsby emphasising what he submits is her increased sensitivity tothe husband’s old-school controlling behaviour. ...Having seen him, I hope the husband will forgive mefor describing him as somewhat old-school. I can also find thewife to be more sensitive than most wives. It matters notThe appeals court ruling refers faintly to Tolson having animated media attention with this sort of talk, and recognizes "the hypocrisy and lack of intellectual honesty which is so characteristic a feature of thecurrent law." But it also questions whether the State's interest can he excluded from the institutions it provides. (Don't trust my reading: I'm a British, but I'm not your British)Another good line, from Lady Justice Hallett: "With no enthusiasm whatsoever I have reached the same conclusion on this appeal."Perhaps this is why all those quaint English country villages in TV dramas have the murder rate of Caracas."It may be of little consolation to the wife but she is not totally without remedy under thepresent law. If she waits until February 2020, assuming that she and her husband arestill alive, she will, seemingly, be able to petition"Emphasis mine.

In 2012, Google rolled out Certificate Transparency, a clever system to spot corrupt "Certificate Authorities," the entities who hand out the cryptographic certificates that secure the web. If Certificate Authorities fail to do their jobs, they put the entire electronic realm in danger -- bad certificates could allow anything from eavesdropping on financial transactions to spoofing industrial control systems into accepting malicious software updates. (more…)

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail; when all you have is clip art of a hooded hacker figure... (more…)

Here's a great backstory on the shot of Air Force One that cost a guy his job after commissioning an unannounced low-altitude flight around lower Manhattan. (more…)

Studio North was commissioned to refit an old elevator shaft in a converted warehouse loft in Calgary; they built a tall, narrow library with climbable shelves whose hand- and foot-holds retract into the shelving. (more…)

This nifty crying unicorn candle comes with three colorful wax rainbow horns. Light the horn, and tears of joy start to flow from the unicorn's eyes: (more…)

Trump's distaste for publicly-funded children's programming may or may not be connected to Sesame Street's character Ronald Grump, a grouch who finagles Oscar into relocating from his trash can to Grump Tower. (more…)

CSIR-Tech is the commercial arm of the Indian government's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research; after spending ₹50 crore (about USD7.6M) pursuing more than 13,000 "bio-data patents" (patents of no real value save burnishing the credentials of the scientists whose names appear on them), they have run out of money and shut down. (more…)

Biologist Nipam Patel and his team at UC Berkeley study how butterflies develop wing shape and color by performing surgery on caterpillars, creating translucent windows in their cocoons. (more…)

The chaos surrounding Donald Trump and Paul Ryan's monster of a health care bill grows: a long-planned vote in Congress was called off today, representing a devastating blow to the narcissist-in-chief's bravado. Late news on Thursday night, “The President told Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus to go to the capital and tell Ryan to call a vote tomorrow,” reports MSNBC at 11:30pm ET. (more…)