Trump, his deal-making skills having failed him, simply ordered his party Thursday night to pass his unappetizing Obamacare replacement plan, or else. And the "else" is Obamacare, forever and ever and ever. (more…)

Toronto high-school students have been visiting the USA since their inception; I remember my own high-school trips to Buffalo's Albright Knox gallery warmly. But they are a relic of the past, because the Toronto District School Board will not risk harassment and worse of its students at the US border, where people born to Arab or Muslim families, or in majority-Muslim families, report widespread discrimination. (more…)

In a party-line split, the U.S. Senate today voted to allow internet service providers to retain personal data without permission and sell it to whomever might pay for it.The Senate voted 50:48 in favor of S.J. 34, which would remove the rules and, under the authority of the Congressional Review Act, prevent similar rules from being enacted. It now heads to the House for approval.“If signed by the President, this law would repeal the FCC’s widely-supported broadband privacy framework, and eliminate the requirement that cable and broadband providers offer customers a choice before selling their sensitive, personal information,” said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny in a joint statement.

Despite the widespread belief that meme-warriors won the election through tactical shitposting of photoshopped Pepe the Frogs in Nazi arm-bands, the reality is a lot more complicated. (more…)

The public bathroom at Beijing's Temple of Heaven Park now has a toilet paper dispenser outfitted with a camera and facial recognition technology to prevent toilet paper theft. From the New York Times:Before entering restrooms in the park, visitors must now stare into a computer mounted on the wall for three seconds before a machine dispenses a sheet of toilet paper, precisely two feet in length. If visitors require more, they are out of luck. The machine will not dispense a second roll to the same person for nine minutes.At the Temple of Heaven Park, one of Beijing’s busiest tourist sites, many people said on Monday they were pleased by the new machines.“The people who steal toilet paper are greedy,” said He Zhiqiang, 19, a customer service worker from the northwestern region of Ningxia. “Toilet paper is a public resource. We need to prevent waste...”I agree with park visitor Wang Jianquan, 63: “The sheets are too short.""China’s High-Tech Tool to Fight Toilet Paper Bandits" (NYT)

Israeli makeup magician Ilana Kolihanov created this wonderfully creepy optical illusion. See more of her incredible work on her Instagram feed. A post shared by Ilana Makeup Artist🌻🐙 (@ilana_makeup_artist) on Sep 2, 2016 at 10:02am PDT A post shared by Ilana Makeup Artist🌻🐙 (@ilana_makeup_artist) on Aug 29, 2016 at 2:27pm PDT A post shared by Ilana Makeup Artist🌻🐙 (@ilana_makeup_artist) on Oct 7, 2016 at 3:01pm PDT

Commodore's C64 had a famously decisive, if drab set of 16 colors to choose from, a note of artistic intent amid the unthinking mathematical extremities of other 8-bit color palettes. But did you know there were secret colors? Aaron Bell writes up a discovery that blew his mind many years ago and which, 26 years later, he's finally figured out.If you swap two colours rapidly enough - say at 50 or 60 frames per second - you can fool the eye into seeing something that isn't there. On a machine with sixteen colours, just one or two extra can add a lot to a scene. Since today we all live in the future and you are reading a fully programmable document on a supercomputer, let's try it.The sad part is that the trick doesn't work for most pairings due to the obvious strobing/flickering effect it generates. But now wily coders can add a whole host of new grays to their vivid Commodore palettes. ("The tartan for the clan McPuke" is definitely the best description of the C64 palette I've ever read. I doubt it'll be topped.)I read somewhere this is more or less what's done on cheapo monitors to make you think you're getting 24-bit color.Previously: How the hell did they get 1024 colors out of a 1981 PC?

The Lightning port has thus far resisted the cruel fate that befell the headphone jack, and despite rumors that it may be disappearing come iPhone 8, for the present and foreseeable future, Lightning cables are a hot commodity for iPhone users. As such, we must make do in this strange time in which long, glorified strings are desirable objects. So go ahead and indulge in these 10-foot long Lightning cables, giving you extreme flexibility while you charge.These Lightning cables offer over three times the normal reach of a standard power cord and are 100% MFi-Certified, so you can use them safely without fear of frying your $800 slab of glass. This pack even includes three of them, so you can keep one plugged in behind the bed, one by the couch, and one by the other couch for near-infinite battery life.But seriously, having a cord that will wrap behind a chunky office desk or comfortably reach the back seat of a car is a definite improvement. Also remember that three of these still cost less than one Apple-branded Lightning cable. Get a 3-pack of 10-Ft MFi-certified Lightning cables for $20, reduced from the usual $89 price.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

"Faaaaaack!""You SILLY person!"Jesus Chroiiiiist!etcetera.

Troy Hunt, proprietor of the essential Have I Been Pwned (previously) sets out the hard lessons learned through years of cataloging the human costs of breaches from companies that overcollected their customers' data; undersecured it; and then failed to warn their customers that they were at risk. (more…)

Florian Kohler, aka Venom, may look like an unassuming guy, but he's one of the greatest living pool trickshot artists. Tired of claims that his videos are faked, he gathered an audience and compiled his five most viewed trickshot videos. (more…)

Photographer Brian Tomlinson creates beautiful stills of liquids dropped into an aquarium. Some of the results are below: (more…)

This industry video from Korean steelsmiths Dai Han Anchor shows workers forging and testing the largest anchor chains in the world. A fascinating mix of forge technology and cutting-edge quality control awaits. (more…)

Australian artist Joshua Smith makes models of run-down everyday things like dumpsters, but they have such detail and craftsmanship that they are truly remarkable. (more…)

Mister Alphabet is an action-figure designed to cleverly bend and contort into every letter of the Latin alphabet; the website is long on trademark warnings and arty Instagram photos, but short on details, like, "Is this an object of commerce?" and "If so, where does one buy it?" (via Kottke)

Two sisters who were trying to escape violence and poverty in Guatemala for a better life “became so desperately lost trekking across the Texas desert that when they saw a U.S. Customs and Border Protection truck, they waved for help,” reports the Los Angeles Times. An officer in that truck later confined them by force, and sexually assaulted them, one by one. (more…)

Before he worked for the Donald Trump presidential campaign, Paul Manafort worked for a Russian billionaire to help promote Russian president Vladimir Putin's agenda in the United States. (more…)

A white supremacist U.S. military veteran who had a known history of obsessively hating black men told police in New York that he stabbed a homeless black man to death to make a statement. (more…)

This seems like a big escalation in the Trump/Russia investigation story. Late Wednesday, the FBI said it has evidence that associates of Donald Trump communicated with Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, possibly to coordinate the release of Hillary Clinton campaign info via Wikileaks. (more…)

The intrepid counterculture archivists/publishers of Boo-Hooray have posted their "Top 100 Posters" for sale. What a stunning collection of avant-garde art and design. It makes me yearn for the downtown scenes of the prior century. (more…)

The titular track from 1971's (For God's Sake) Give More Power to the People by The Chi-Lites.

Demeter, the fragrance "library" that famously released a cologne with the smell of used paperback books, now offers a Kitten Fur scent. It's available as a cologne, body lotion, shower gel, and other toiletries. (Note: Wow, that's one tiny kitten next to the one ounce bottle in their product photo above.)Cats. Love them or hate them. There is no in between. But everyone loves Kittens! Now after 15 years of effort, Demeter has captured the olfactory essence of the warmth and comfort of that purrfect spot, just behind a kitten's neck.

Tom T. Hall's "May the Force Be With You" always was the first single from his November 1977 album New Train Same Rider. The song hit number 13 on Billboard's "Hot Country Songs" chart and went to number 5 in Canada. Sing along with me now, sweetheart:There is a force that moves our lives from place to placeThere is a force exchanging smiles from face to faceIf we must go and we must go then we will be apartMay the force be with you always sweetheart.There is a force that moves the wind and changes tidesNot that we would but if we should we couldn't hideThe force is all and we as one are but a tiny partMay the force be with you always sweetheart.The force is bigger than the little plans we madeThe force picks winners in the little games we playIf we are part of something bigger we can face the darkMay the force be with you always sweetheart

Daftworld compiled some of the killer samples that Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter made their own. Full versions of the tracks heard here would make for a killer rare groove and disco DJ set!

Here's a sandbox with a topographical map projected onto it. Move sand about, and the map moves with it, like an insane tech demo of some augmented-reality version of classic God-game Populous.Your very own AR sandbox costs $7,050 and it comes with the laptop, projector and camera rig. The software, though, is free of charge. Here's a detailed project report on the prototype if you fancy shaving a few grand off that tag. [via r/interestingasfuck]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorjCgY8Bj8Correction: this post originally likened the shaping of land to the activities of God. Slartibartfast is the correct object of comparison. Boing Boing regrets the error.

This Vox video illustrates the fact that type design was the true culprit in last month's Oscars cockup, and how easy it would have been to prevent. But backslapping award shows are only the beginning of bad design when it comes to type.The 2017 Oscars ended with a pretty shocking mix-up. Announcer Warren Beatty incorrectly named La La Land as the Best Picture winner, and the mistake wasn't revealed until crew members had already started giving their acceptance speeches. A lot of things went wrong for the snafu to happen the way it did. But what if typography was one of them? A better announcement card design could have made for a very different Academy Awards show — not to mention a much less embarrassing Miss Universe show for Steve Harvey back in 2015. But the implications of bad typography don't end there: poorly designed ballots in the 2000 presidential election arguably could have swayed the outcome, and illegible type on medicine bottles could be causing nearly 500,000 cases of drug misuse per year in the U.S. The way pill bottles are turned into incomprehensible ads for the pharmacy--and how graphic designer Deborah Adler proposes to fix it--is intriguing, not least because there are always a lot of unseen pressures and constraints that design is bound by. Nothing will ever be done to fix it: informational text gets perverted by conceit, branding, regulation and corporate bikeshedding until it is worse than useless for any purpose. Except one, perhaps! I'm especially fond of how manuals for electrical appliances are mostly regulatory safety warnings that succeed both in limiting liability and making the device less safe, because they are so forbidding and badly written no human will ever comprehend them. The true magic of capitalism isn't guns and butter, but FTC mouseprint regulations.

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, 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…)

All the filters in the world won’t save your smartphone pics from a shaky hand. To really step up your mobile photography game, you’ll need some kind of mount to hold it steady. You could buy a smartphone attachment for a conventional camera tripod, but who wants to carry that kind of gear everywhere they go?The Gekkopod offers extensive flexibility thanks to its bendy legs, and secures smartphones tighter than a rubber band wrapped around a finger two dozen times. You can use it as a quadrupedal stand to keep your phone out of the dirt, wrap it around branches for high-vantage shots, attach it to a backpack strap, or even upgrade to make it compatible with your GoPro.Made with waterproof material, this rugged camera companion folds up into a pocketable bundle so you can take it anywhere. You can get the Gekkopod Mobile Smartphone Mount here for $19.95, that’s 20% off the sticker price.

In 1913 outdoorsman Joseph Knowles pledged to spend two months in the woods of northern Maine, naked and alone, using only what he was able to find in the forest. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Knowles' adventures in the woods and the controversy that followed his return to civilization.We'll also consider the roots of nostalgia and puzzle over some busy brothers.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

Bill Nye and The Planetary Society released a direct appeal to the Trump administration, asking that the government continue to focus on Mars and support commercial space industry. Trump proposed a reduction in the NASA budget. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34LGPIXvU5MIn this gorgeous video produced by Al Jazeera's media literacy show The Listening Post, Amy Goodman from Democracy Now narrates an explanation of the "5 Filters of Media Manipulation" set out by Noam Chomsky and Edward S Herman in their 1988 classic Manufacturing Consent, brought to life by Pierangelo Pirak's spectacular animations. You could hardly ask for a more timely intervention in our current media and political landscape. (via JWZ)

A security researcher has published a vulnerability and proof-of-concept exploits in Google's Internet of Things security cameras, marketed as Nest Dropcam, Nest Dropcam Pro, Nest Cam Outdoor and Nest Cam Indoor; these vulnerabilities were disclosed to Google last fall, but Google/Nest have not patched them despite the gravity of the vulnerability and the long months since the disclosure. (more…)

Guetzli is Google's new free/open JPEG compression algorithm, which produces images that are more than a third smaller in terms of byte-size, and the resulting images are consistently rated as more attractive than traditionally compressed JPEGs. It's something of a web holy grail: much smaller, better-looking files without having to convince people to install a plugin or browser makers to support a new file-format. (more…)

It's easily the most ganked video in the world, and you've likely already seen it forty times on Facebook and Twitter. But Heather suggested the perfect headline, so here it is once again, in all its fowl glory.

The DHS has advised some airlines that flights originating from some overseas airports will only be allowed to land in the USA if passengers are required to check any electronic device bigger than a phone (excepting medical devices) in the hold. (more…)

During Obama's terms of office and the election campaign, Donald Trump frequently took aim at Obama's golf games, decrying them as scandalous in light of "the problems and difficulties facing the US," and promising that if elected, "I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf." (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2wSfP0qoMk"Stephen Colbert" is a character that was once played by Stephen Colbert: a right-wing blowhard pundit who called Bill O'Reilly "Papa Bear." When Colbert took over the Late Show, the "Stephen Colbert" character disappeared (possibly because Viacom claimed the rights to it!), but now and again, he reappears. (more…)

From the THX sound to Windows startup chimes, audio is a key weapon in the psychological branding arsenal. In this video from Wired, Andrew Stafford (Co-Founder & Director at Big Sync Music) and Steve Milton (Founding Partner at Listen) provide commentary on some of the most famous.There was a time, Stafford says, when the Nokia ringtone was being played 20,000 times a second. [via MeFi]Encore: the story behind Sosumi, the most annoying Mac sound.

Jim Sharkey, a high school football coach in Spokane, was suspended February after reportedly showing his penis to students. The Spokesman-Review reports that the incident occurred last summer at a leadership camp.A couple of weeks after the camp, a Ferris player came forward and said that while Sharkey was grilling, he turned with his exposed penis inside a hot dog bun. Sharkey said, “You think that is a big dog – take a look at this,” according to school records that listed multiple different versions of the same quote.While the coach got a written reprimand and was allowed to coach this past fall, school officials placed him on administrative leave Feb. 1 after more players claimed to have seen the hot dog incident and other students brought up separate incidents of questionable behavior by the 11-year teacher and coach.Sharkey says the allegations are false and will fight to keep his dream job. [via Deadspin]

Kvatch of The Hoax Hotel is masterful at playing rubes who fall for online scams. In this gem, he keeps an "FBI agent" named "Josh" on the line for nearly 22 minutes, riling him up until he's "the angriest scammer I've ever called." (more…)

At a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee, FBI Director James Comey confirmed Monday that the FBI had launched an investigation into Russian efforts to influence 2016's presidential election and into links and coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government."Because it is classified, I cannot say more about what we are doing and whose conduct we are investigating," he told the committee, admitting that this would only make the disclosure frustrating. "... we will follow the facts wherever they lead."He also rebutted the suggestion, presented by Trump on Twitter and elsewhere, that former president Barack Obama wiretapped Trump tower during the election campaign."I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI," said Comey."No individual in the United States can direct surveillance of another individual," he said in response to a question about whether the President had the statutory power to do so. "...No president could."Asked whether he'd seen any evidence of British involvement in the alleged wiretapping, NSA director Michael Rogers, also attending the hearing, denied it unequivocally."That would be expressly against the construct of the Five Eyes agreement," he said, referring to the intelligence-sharing agreement between major western powers in which the US and UK are partners.Prompted, he agreed with the British that that it was a "ridiculous" suggestion, adding that "it frustrates a key ally of ours."The hearing is currently underway.https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/843834982376333312

Julia, the muppet with autism, will join the Sesame Street TV show in April. She appeared last night on 60 minutes during an interview segment with Sesame Street writer Christine Ferraro. From NPR:"The character Julia, she has wonderful drawing skills. She's like a little budding artist," said Rose Jochum, director of internal initiatives at the Autism Society of America, which characterizes itself as the nation's oldest advocacy group for people with the disorder. "You know — autism — it brings wonderful gifts...""It's not like there is a typical example of an autistic child, but we do believe that [with] Julia, we worked so carefully to make sure that she had certain characteristics that would allow children to identify with her," (Sesame Workshop executive vice president Sherrie) Westin said. "It's what Sesame does best, you know: Reaching children, looking at these things through their lens and building a greater sort of sense of commonality."Here's the 60 Minutes segment script.And more about puppet designer Rollie Krewson.Sesame Street producers hope Julia’s first episode will help the audience understand when a child with autism doesn’t react as they expect. pic.twitter.com/DJCFdksPIk— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 20, 2017

When Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott hopped across the lunar surface in 1971, he was carrying a pouch of tiny US flags in his spacesuit. The stash of flags was such a secret that Scott didn't even know they were there at the time. Now one of the souvenir flags, the pouch, and the bracket where it was attached are up for auction. The flag is estimated to go for $15,000 and the bracket/pouch for $30,000, but I definitely think you need both lots. From Collect Space:"This [hidden pouch] was apparently unknown to anybody else until the (Portable Life Support System's Oxygen Purge System where the pouch was stowed were) disassembled after the mission by some other member of the CSD (Crew Systems Division) and the flag package was discovered," wrote Scott.The identity of the original CSD member who hid the flags, or the person who found them afterward, is unknown...Scott was presented with some of the flags and the 7.5 by 4 inch (19 by 10 cm) bracket as mementos of his flight by his management at the same meeting where he was told of their existence. A law passed in 2012 reaffirmed Apollo-era astronauts' title to the items they retained as souvenirs of their missions...The hidden flags were not the only secret souvenirs on the Apollo 15 mission. Scott and his two crew mates also took postmarked envelopes, a memorial statue, and timepieces that NASA later labeled as unauthorized. The hidden flags were not associated with those items, though.

There's still time to pre-order your signed first-edition hardcover of Walkaway, my novel which comes out on April 25 (US/UK), and while you're waiting for that to ship, here's chapter one of the novel, "Communist Party" (this is read by Wil Wheaton on the audiobook, where he is joined by such readers as Amanda Palmer and Amber Benson!). (more…)

Derek VanAlthuis rigged up a couple of high-power flashlights in a PVC casing, then ran them through an amber gel onto a piece of edge-lit plexiglass to create this winged portrait. Here's the setup: (more…)

This nifty interactive map shows education levels of everyone over 25, with red representing less than high school continuing up the spectrum to blue meaning graduate degree. (more…)

When Apple revealed the new MacBook in 2016, one of the biggest issues raised with the notebook’s new design (aside from ire over the slew of new adapters you’d inevitably have to buy) was the removal of one of its most beloved proprietary features, the magnetic charging cable. Thankfully, third-party peripheral makers have taken up the slack to bring the satisfying click of a magnetic charger to tons of new devices, including that new MacBook, Android phones, and other micro USB devices.This MagCable does exactly what it says on the tin: provides a magnetic cable connection with an unobtrusive plug that stays in your phone’s charging port. With a firm, but breakable link, you can save your device’s Micro USB port from unwanted strain. And you can easily plug and unplug your phone in the dark one-handed thanks to a reversible magnet.This cable includes two magnetic tips, so you can grant magnetic powers to a second device or to save in your drawer as a backup. You can get the MagCable Magnetic Micro USB Cable for 31% off, at $21.99.

The internets will tell you that spraypainting a giant penis around a pothole will get your town's roadworks to prioritize its repair. The internets are wrong. (more…)