As someone who who might enjoy a salt lick if only it wasn't considered unseemly for humans, a meal cooked on a Himalayan All Natural Crystal Salt Cooking Tile sounds rather appealing. According to Popular Science, "The block’s crystalline structure has low porosity, which means the slab can stand up to extreme heat and cold for extended periods. So it's a nice-looking way to serve chilled sushi and piping hot steaks. Himalayan salt is also more mineral-rich, which can add a bit more complexity to the taste of your food."Himalayan All Natural Crystal Salt Cooking Tile (Amazon, via Pop Sci)

With over 4.3 million followers, Aimee Song is certainly the Instagram expert. Her debut book, Capture Your Style, aims to teach readers how to transform their Instagram photos, showcase their life, and build the ultimate platform. Whether you’re into snapping stylish outfits, delectable food, awe-inspiring architecture, or wanderlust-inducing travels, this book covers them all. With sections about editing photos, hashtags versus geotags, curating the ultimate grid, working with brands, and pricing (just to name a few), Song’s publication is the all-in-one guide for those wanting to ‘up their Instagame’. Add-in pages upon pages of beautifully curated photographs from Song’s own Instagram feed and you’ve got yourself a publication that isn’t just educational, but pretty inspiring too.This is a must-read for individuals interested in pursuing the platform more seriously, particularly those who are bloggers or wishing to become social media influencers.– Melanie DoncasCapture Your Style: Transform Your Instagram Photos, Showcase Your Life, and Build the Ultimate Platform by Aimee SongHarry N. Abrams2016, 208 pages, 8.0 x 0.5 x 8.1 inches, Paperback$12 Buy on Amazon

The Irish Pub Company offers Irish pub interiors in six styles: "Modern," "Brewery," "Shop," "Country," "Celtic" and "Victorian." Choose your package and they'll ship you a bar, as well as "flooring, decorative glass, mirrors, ceiling tiles, light fixtures, furniture, signage, and bric-a-brac." (more…)

Texas state rep Jessica Farrar has introduced legislation that would fine Texas men $100 for "unregulated masturbatory emissions"; it forces men seeking vasectomies or Viagra prescriptions to undergo medically unnecessary rectal exams, and would require them to review a government pamphlet called "A Man's Right to Know." (more…)

Every time the head of a Lenin statue breaks off, Steve Bannon sheds a tear.

Stop it it's mine, stop it it's mine, stop it it's mine. I SAID STOP IT IT'S MINE.“All life is a purposeful struggle, and your only choice is the choice of a goal.” — John Galt,Atlas Shrugged (Part 3, Chapter 7, Page 1,068)

There are typefaces that attempt to remain legible at ludicrously small sizes. Ken Perlin's Tinyfont attempts to do so while retaining traditional letterforms, putting LCD subpixels to clever use. There are various 3x5 pixel fonts for those who prefer the crisp purity of the traditional pixel, and prior attempts at the holy grail of a legible 3x3 nerd font. Minima is an effort to make the perfect 4x4 pixel font, allowing itself a little more space but also going step further toward abstraction, abandoning legibility in favor of more easily-distinguished characters. It's €10 and I need a tylenol.via Brutalist Websites.

Turkish artist Aydın Büyüktaş recently visited the United States, which inspired him to create the Flatland series of digitally-warped images. (more…)

A team from the University of Twente and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences have published a paper demonstrating gross overbillings by smart energy meters, ranging from -32% to +582% of actual power consumption. (more…)

In 2009, the Library of Congress commissioned a research report into the degradation ofCD-ROMs in storage as a way of assessing the integrity of the media in its collection: the news isn't pretty. (more…)

The Power of Privacy is a brisk animated jaunt through the legal development of privacy, starting with the fireplace chimney. (more…)

Posted to r/interestingasfuck by redditor Got2ReturnVideoTapes.

From our friends at EFF: "A handy guide designed to be printed, folded, and carried in your pocket while traveling." See also:EFF presents: a guide to protecting your data privacy when crossing the US border

On the latest episode of Scam School, Brian Brushwood presented three old brain teasers. Here's my favorite. Make a five-by-five grid of dots. Then draw a cross by connecting the dots in such a way that five dots are enclosed by the cross and eight dots are outside the cross. The example on the right satisfies the first part (five dots inside the cross) but it fails the second requirement (it has four dots outside, but needs eight.) You can learn the solution by watching the video.

This morning, BBC News was interviewing Pusan National University professor Robert Kelly live from what is apparently his home office and someone else apparently wanted his attention...

Just look at that headline! It's a nounpunk antideepstate beanie short of pure condensed random Boing Boing. But the prototype PassivDom “autonomous 3D-printed mobile house” is a €200,000 effort at creating a completely self-powered dwelling fit for the "zombie apocalypse."The first model, the ModulOne, includes solar panels that power the climate control system, a clean water system that takes moisture from the air, and air quality control system that includes includes carbon dioxide control. The frame is made of 3D-printed carbon fiber, fiberglass, and resists and the entire house is recyclable.There are three models, from ultra-simple to full autonomous. The Autonomous house is 36 square meters and costs €59,900 to pre-order. There is already a model in Ukraine and they have a few thousand folks already on the waitlist for the houses. Luckily the team doesn’t take itself too seriously. They also offer a special “Zombie apocalypse” package that includes armored glazing, an alarm system, extra toilet paper storage, and a bible.While the whole thing could be a pie-in-the-sky fantasy it seems that they have a real model built already and all of the technology is feasible. I, for one, look forward to spending my time in a zombie-proof passive house in the middle of the taiga.I would rather not have to see the zombies. The name abbreviates "Passive Domicile," but PassivDom is brilliant; one supposes the innuendo may not be clear to its Ukrainian creators. No-one tell them!

Sir Patrick Stewart OBE is a legendary actor, activist and baldy. Ginger is his family's new dog, a pit bull terrier adopted through ASPCA and Wags And Walks. https://twitter.com/SirPatStew/status/839604439094710272?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe X-Men actor may have outdone himself this week, though, when he posted the above tweet, welcoming his new foster dog Ginger into his home. We don’t want to belabor the point too much, but this is an internet video that combines a cute fostered pitbull and Patrick Stewart speaking in his most gentle, delighted voice, and thus represents the internet’s current stockpile of peak cute.Here Ginger polishes the pate:https://twitter.com/SirPatStew/status/839979016744390657

Adam Fisher is the master of making hedge mazes. He's designed more than 700 mazes in 40 countries. If Jack Torrance ever chases me, I'm calling Fisher for help.

As the Republican Congress and Donald Trump's FCC move to dismantle the most basic protections for American internet users, no target is juicier than Net Neutrality, the simple idea that your ISP should send you the bits you ask for, rather than accepting bribes from big companies to slow down your net connection when you try to connect to their competitors. (more…)

Ironman champion Lentine Alexis has developed a recipe for a She Persisted energy bar: pumpkin seeds, shredded coconut, black sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, bee pollen, dates, coconut oil, cacao powder, vanilla extract, poppy seeds and rolled oats. Bake, bag and eat while you march. Remember: talking with your mouth full isn't cool, but protest chanting is totally OK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjKdKvDS10gThe old stats adage goes: "All models are wrong, but some models are useful." In this 35 minute presentation from the O"Reilly Open Data Science Conference, data ethicist Abe Gong from Aspire Health provides a nuanced, meaningful, accessible and eminently actionable overview of the ways that ethical considerations can be incorporated into the design of powerful algorithms. (more…)

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"Reasons to vote for Democrats" consists of 266 blank pages, a clever troll gift for all your left-leaning friends and family! But Republicans are so eager to stick it to their adversaries that they've paid a collective fortune to push it to the top of Amazon's bestseller list, inadvertently providing a rather convincing one. CNN reports that it's the same trick as Why Trump Deserves Trust, Respect and Admiration, published shortly after last year's election; a blank notebook is a dollar fifty shipped.

The Constitutional Court in South Korea upheld the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye on Friday. She has now been formally removed from office over a bribery and big business corruption scandal that dragged on for months. Park is the first democratically elected leader in South Korea to be kicked out of office. The nation's constitution states that presidential election shall be held in 60 days. And now the question is, will they “lock her up”? (more…)

Sad news: Malta's famous natural land bridge, the "Azure Window," has broken into bits by relentless ocean waves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUehN7hCTyAFlickr: Tobias ScheckFrom The Times of Malta:“Suddenly, the arch collapsed into the sea with a loud whoomph, throwing up a huge spray. By the time the spray had faded, the stack had gone too."In a press conference, Environment Minister Jose Herrera said several studies had shown that no man-made intervention could have prevented the collapse. [via]

U Washington robot-law scholar Ryan Calo (previously) writes, "Technology ethnographer Alex Rosenblat and I have a new paper arguing that the Uber Greyball program, whereby Uber serves a fake version of the app to police, is part of a broader pattern of participant manipulation. Uber uses Greyball-like tools against drivers and consumers as well." (more…)

A puzzle from our friends at Futility Closet:Five children — Ivan, Sylvia, Ernie, Dennis, and Linda — entered a candy store, and one of them stole a box of candy from the shelf. Afterward each child made three statements:Ivan:1. I didn’t take the box of candy.2. I have never stolen anything.3. Dennis did it.Sylvia:4. I didn’t take the box of candy.5. I’m rich and I can buy my own candy.6. Linda knows who the crook is.Ernie:7. I didn’t take the box of candy.8. I didn’t know Linda until this year.9. Dennis did it.Dennis:10. I didn’t take the box of candy.11. Linda did it.12. Ivan is lying when he says I stole the candy.Linda:13. I didn’t take the box of candy.14. Sylvia is guilty.15. Ernie can vouch for me, because he has known me since I was a baby eight years ago.If each child made two true and one false statement, who stole the candy?A problem by Wayne M. Delia and Bernadette D. Barnes:Click here for answer.

Hugh writes, "These amazing animated shorts on physics feature an adorable, 1930's style version of Maxwell's Demon. There are 3 so far -- can't wait to see more!"

The 20 finalists have been named in the glorious UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP CHEESE CONTEST! Thirteen of them are from Wisconsin, neatly demonstrating that Wisconsin still exists.I don't think of flavoured gouda as actual cheese.Via WEAU.com:2017 United States Championship Cheese Contest20 FinalistsClass: Cheddar, Medium (3 to 6 months)Team Meister 3, Meister Cheese, Muscoda, WI, Medium CheddarClass: Cheddar, Aged One to Two YearsTerry Lensmire, Agropur, Weyauwega, WI, Cheddar Cheese, Cut from 640Class: Cheddar, Aged Two Years or LongerDaniel Stearns, Agropur, Weyauwega, WI, Cheddar Cheese, Cut from 640Class: Bandaged Cheddar, Mild to MediumSaxon Cheese LLC, Saxon Cheese LLC, Cleveland, WI, Old English Style Cheddar, Aged 5 MonthsClass: Bandaged Cheddar, Sharp to AgedWayne Hintz, Red Barn Family Farms, Appleton, WI, Bandaged Cheddar, Sharp to AgedClass: Baby Swiss StyleCasey Petak, Rothenbuhler Cheesemakers, Middlefield, OH, Baby Swiss cheeseClass: Blue Veined CheesesImperia Foods Montfort WI Team, Schuman Cheese, Fairfield, NJ, Montforte Bleu WheelClass: Brie & CamembertJasper Hill, Cellars at Jasper Hill, Greensboro Bend, VT, Moses SleeperClass: Edam & GoudaMarieke Gouda Team, Marieke Gouda, Thorp, WI, Marieke Gouda BelegenClass: Gouda, AgedMarieke Gouda Team, Marieke Gouda, Thorp, WI, Marieke Gouda AgedClass: Gouda, FlavoredGonzales Christopher, Glanbia Nutritionals, Twin Falls, ID, Gouda/Green Olives & PimentoClass: Smoked GoudaSaxon Creamery Team, Saxon Cheese LLC, Cleveland, WI, Smoked Gouda Aged 7 MonthsClass: Open Class: Flavored Semi-soft (semi-hard) CheesesLake Country Dairy Team, Schuman Cheese, Fairfield, NJ, Yellow Door Creamery Harissa Rubbed Fontal CheeseClass: Open Class: Flavored Hard CheesesMike Matucheski, Sartori Company, Antigo, WI, Sartori Reserve Black Pepper BellaVitanoClass: Open Class: Smoked Soft and Semi-soft CheesesZimmerman Cheese Team 2, Zimmerman Cheese, South Wayne, WI, Smoked BrickClass: Reduced Fat Soft & Semi-soft CheesesJohn (Randy) Pitman, Mill Creek Cheese, Arena, WI, Reduced Fat MuensterClass: Cold Pack Cheese, Cheese FoodWidmer's Cheese Cellars, Widmer's Cheese Cellars, Theresa, WI, Traditional Washed Rind Aged Brick SpreadClass: Surface (Mold) Ripened Goat's Milk CheesesCypress Grove, Cypress Grove, Arcata, CA, Fresh Goat CheeseClass: Hard Goat’s Milk CheesesTeam Montchevre, Montchevre-Betin, Inc., Belmont, WI, TriviumClass: Hard Mixed Milk CheesesMike Matucheski, Sartori Company, Antigo, WI, Sartori Tre Donnes

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just updated its 2011 guide to Digital Privacy at the U.S. Border with an all new edition that covers the law, administrative rules, technological options and potential repercussions of crossing the US border while not undergoing the warrantless seizure and indefinite retention of all of your sensitive data -- in a guide that breaks out the different risks for US citizens, US permanent residents, and visitors to the USA. (more…)

https://youtu.be/opqIa5JiwuwBobby Kasthuri is a neuroscientist at Argonne National Laboratory. In the video he was asked to explain what a connectome is to 5 different people; a 5 year-old, a 13 year-old, a college student, a neuroscience grad student and a connectome entrepreneur.

Research has shown that crying at work comes off as unprofessional and weakens your promotion prospects -- and surveys suggest that people cry at work a lot, anyway. So how can you balance your human emotional needs with the necessity of presenting yourself as a productive unit of gut-flora for the transhuman, immortal artificial life form that has absorbed you? (more…)

Exhibit A: Calculator operationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB3c06O4e68&feature=youtu.beExhibit B: Apologieshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XspDkqEtWFE

Whether you’re stranded in the Yukon territory after a crash airplane landing or hiding from a Jason impersonator, this handy 5-in-1 Survival Bracelet will provide the tools you need to come out safely on the other side.This 9-inch bracelet holsters a a 10.5-foot long rope for creating fishing lines, making traps, binding rafts or whatever your imagination can conjure. That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. It also contains a waterproof compass, a scraper that can double as a small knife, an emergency whistle that can be heard from miles away, and, most importantly, a flint to make fire.You can get two of these survival bracelets for $15.99.Explore other Best-Sellers in our store:Coding + DevelopmentLearn to Code 2017 Bundle (Pay What You Want)PhotographyMasterclass: Your Complete Guide to Photography ($20)Project ManagementUltimate Project Management Certification

An amusing, slightly unsettling video. Just a glitch, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75AY40b-GVcLast summer, the MIT Media Lab announced its $250,000 prize for Disobedient Research, and now the nominations process has launched. (more…)

Jackson, Mississippi had some strange weather last Saturday – at least according to Houston, the energetic boy who leapt onto the WLBT weather set while meteorologist Patrick Ellis was in the middle of a forecast. After flapping his arms and cawing like a bird, and then appearing to fart a couple of times, Houston pointed at the weather map and said, "There are farts everywhere, and toots!"According to TVSpy:Meteorologist Patrick Ellis was part way through his forecast on Jackson, Ms. NBC affiliate WLBT when a kid, named Houston, stepped into the shot and began forecasting as only a small boy can.WLBT later explained the station hosts a show with local lawyers that airs after the 6 p.m. Saturday newscast. Ellis says it’s not uncommon for the lawyers to bring their kids. One of those kids was Houston.“This Saturday was a little different,” said Ellis. “This Saturday our friend Houston decided he wanted to be on television.”Ellis took it all in stride, chuckling and talking to the boy as if it were all part of the normal weather routine. This is the kind of stuff that makes live TV so much fun to watch.

Brian Macintosh made an Icon Machine that generates procedural potions. Gotta drink 'em all! Source code.

Though the original video was removed for some reason, YouNews grabbed a copy of footage purporting to show a Vietnamese tactical team running a drill where they scale a wall using the momentum of an officer being pushed upward by a long pole. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yC7-JsR2FkNYU poli sci/econ professor Maria Guadalupe and educational theater prof Joe Salvatore collaborated to stage a recreation of the Trump/Clinton debates with the gender roles reversed, starring actors who played Brenda King, "a female version of Trump" and Jonathan Gordon, "a male version of Hillary Clinton." (more…)

I have always enjoyed Victory at Sea, but lots of people find it really boring.

The GOP is advocating for a "Border Adjustment Tax," which is something like a complicated Value Added Tax that is meant to encourage companies to on-shore or re-shore their manufacturing, without raising prices for Americans (because the US dollar is supposed to rise by up to 25% (!) as a result), while removing the complexity that allows companies to dodge tax by finding loopholes. (more…)

Thirteen shots were fired into Tulsa's Dennis R. Neill Equality Center Monday from a passing truck or SUV. The Gayly reports that no-one was hurt.Around 12:30 am last night a white, four door pickup pulled up in front of the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center and fired 13 shots at the windows and front door. Office Administrator Olivia Cotter discovered the damage to the protective glass on our windows and front door around 8:15 am Monday morning, March 6. ..."We are working closely with Tulsa Police," said Oklahomans For Equality officials. "Captain Cathy Reynolds, the LGBTQ liaison with the Tulsa Police Department, has made our safety and security a top priority.""I am sickened, yet not surprised, by the bullet holes that now riddle the front of the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center," said Geoffrey Brewster, Board President, Oklahomans for Equality. "They are the latest reminder of the deep-seated hatred some individuals have towards the LGBTQ community. Oklahomans for Equality condemns every act of hatred and violence perpetrated against any individual or group based upon difference."We are keenly aware after an event such as this, or the Pulse Night Club shooting in Orlando, FL, that sexual orientation and gender identity are not protected classes in current hate crime legislation. Even though hatred of difference is the motivation for such acts, our community is not equally protected under the law. This must change, and we call on our community and our allies to demand it."Oklahoma legislators are planning to pass a bill that reportedly strips LGBTQ people of housing and employment protections.

The UK Supreme Court recently ruled in MM v SSHD, finding that the UK government could legitimately deny entry to a British citizen's spouse if the citizen didn't have enough money to support them. This same policy is the reason that parents of 15,000 British children are not allowed to live in the UK with their kids. (more…)

Masha Gessen has impeccable credentials as a Putin critic -- you may remember her from her instant classic Autocracy: Rules for Survival, but you may not know that the Jewish lesbian mother of three fled Russia in 2013 to escape the country's Putin-fueled, ultra-violent anti-LGBT movement -- and so when she tells us that the conspiracy theories about Trump and Putin are problematic, it's worth listening. (more…)

It took barely a year for the rebooted Radio Shack -- now a front for Sprint, backed by the same hedge fund that lost its shirt investing in American Apparel -- to go bust again, despite a $50M line of credit and $25M in loans. (via /.)

Yesterday, Rep Jason Chaffetz [R-UT; DC office: (202) 225-7751; Utah office: (801) 851-2500; email; Twitter] defended his plan to take away the health insurance of 22,000,000 Americans by saying "rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care." (more…)

A new episode of Nate DiMeo's Memory Palace podcast is out and it's a good one. It's about a newspaper hoax about the gruesome results of a mass breakout at the Central Park Zoo, which Nate "turns into a comment on Fake News/Pizza Gate/etc by way of an Edward Gorey story." Nate is a terrific storyteller, and I highly recommend every episode of the Memory Palace.

Last week I tried out BioLite's CookStove, which uses sticks for fuel and has a battery-powered fan to create a hot flame that rivals gas camping stoves.BioLite just introduced a new version of its CampStove, which is similar to the CookStove, but it has the extra feature of generating electricity from heat and storing it in its battery pack. The battery can charge the fan and charge any USB powered device as well. The video above shows how it works. I love the way it looks, and how it folds neatly into the included cloth bag. BioLite puts a lot of care into their products.It's designed to work with the BioLite KettlePot (though you can use any old pot, really), and the Campstove Grill Attachment (to grill food).Ben Z, the lead engineer behind the CampStove 2, is the host of the video above and will be hosting a FB Live sessionat 1pm ET today.