Boing Boing

Clair writes, "In light of all the coverage of Trump Valentines, I wanted to share a kickass content piece I helped create that is a feminist alternative. With the Women's Marches and Trump's complete disregard for the American people--especially women--it's important to share positive, pro-female content too!" (more…)

Blue Emu's Maximum Arthritis cream contains Trolamine Salicylate in addition to Emu oil, adding science to woo and offering some real relief from minor aches and pains. Carpal tunnel syndrome. My hands started hurting in the first Dotcom boom. By Web 2.0 I was running on trackballs and ibuprofen. Now that we live in the Bro-pocalyptic era of internet development, my hands are a complete waste. This Blue Emu Maximum Arthritis helps me keep typing all day long. Trolamine Salicylate is well understood to reduce inflammation when applied topically. Rub it in and 15-30 minutes later you'll notice the aches have become more dull. I put it on pre-emtively, as studies have shown athletes benefit from this, and it allows them to have more productive workouts, reducing recovery times. There is a lot of difficult to believe, but you want to, lore about Emu Oil and how it works with human skin. It certainly doesn't seem to get in the way of anything. There is supposedly aloe vera in this as well...Works well on my hands. Has helped with some sprains as well, and on a sore neck.Blue Emu Maximum Arthritis Pain Relief Cream, 3 Ounce via Amazon

In 2013, the TSA blew $1B on "behavioral detection," which would allegedly train agents to spot potential terrorists by looking for a hilariously stupid list of "tells" including "a bobbing adam's apple," "arriving late," "trembling," "yawning," "excessive throat clearing," "improper attire," "gazing down," and "wide open staring eyes," Also: "being in disguise." (more…)

A group of security researchers from academe and industry (including perennial Boing Boing favorite J Alex Halderman) have published an important paper documenting the prevalence and problems of firewalls that break secure web sessions in order to scan their contents for undesirable and malicious content. (more…)

US Customs and Border Protection officers in Pharr, Texas found two tons of marijuana packed inside key limes on a truck near the Texas-Mexico border. According to CNN, "over 34,000 of the fake fruit packages were discovered by an imaging inspection system and narcotics K-9 team."Last year, carrots were the mule of choice in the area.

Duqu 2.0 is a strain of clever, nearly undetectable malware, derived from Stuxnet, that stays resident in its hosts' memory without ever writing persistent files to the system's drives. (more…)

@hateshaliek: "i started singing 'chemtrails' in the tune to the ducktales theme a half hour ago so i just had to make this real quick:"https://twitter.com/hateshaliek/status/829097929080123392

While I enjoyed the first few seasons of the new Battlestar Galactica, nothing in it compares with the first run's 2-part story arc "The Living Legend" about Commander Cain, played by Lloyd Bridges. Cain and the super cool Battlestar Pegasus have miraculously survived the destruction of the "Fifth Fleet," during the surprise Cylon attack. These badasses have been harrying the robots ever since. Unburdened by the responsibilities of keeping a rag-tag fleet of survivors safe, Cain and his crew are far more bloodthirsty, and out for revenge! Upon running into their old comrades-in-arms the Galactica, Cain and Pegasus have a hard time fitting into the new human society. These 2 episodes were just wonderful. The side story of other survivors really expanded the Galactica universe for me, and Lloyd Bridges was such a contrast to Adama!Today the Youtubes decided I needed to see these 12 minutes of deleted scenes. I am glad they did.RIP Richard Hatch.

Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, published in 1985, is a dystopian novel that imagines the United States ruled by a conservative Christian theocracy. It's currently the best-selling book on Amazon, knocking George Orwell's 1984 to the third spot.From Washington Post:

Paul Di Filippo has written a masterful, lively history of the many ways in which science fiction has explored the collapse of the American project, from JA Mitchell's 1889 The Last American to contemporary novels like Too Like the Lightning, Liberation, DMZ and Counting Heads. (more…)

Who doesn’t like a Chinese steamed bun? I love it. It’s also called a “bao” and its soft doughy exterior often contains roast pork. All you want to know here.Who doesn’t like Flan? I love it. You know the stuff—an eggy, silky smooth type of custard with a drizzling layer of caramel on top. Learn to make it.Smash them together and what do you get? Only in Japan will you get a steamed bun with flan inside for a buck.I say double yum.Via Rocket News.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCON4zfMzjUHyperloop One engineers demonstrate the power of maglev using spinning arrays atop a copper plate. Despite weighing over 100 pounds, the gadget floats and could hold considerably more weight. (more…)

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A lawyer for Melania Trump argued in a lawsuit filed today that a since-retracted Daily Mail article claiming she once worked as an escort harmed her odds of establishing “multimillion dollar business relationships” during the years in which she would be “one of the most photographed women in the world.” In a sense, the lawsuit is all about a purported right to cash in on being the First Lady. Because that's what being the First Lady is all about. (more…)

President Donald Trump went full Alex Jones Infowars conspiracy theory wingnut today, saying the American news media are conspiring to cover up a vast series of Islamic terrorist attacks in which innocent God-fearin' Americans have been killed. Statements like this from authoritarian leaders are the sort of thing you hear when a regime is preparing to institute martial law. Perhaps that is where America is now headed. Hope not.Today's wackadoodle Trump camp statement was yet another nutty lie, just like Trump's long-running racist birther campaign against President Barack Obama, whom we miss terribly, please for the love of God make this descent into national insanity stop. (more…)

Footage shot by Brendan Wells as he and his brother descended the rapids of Washington state's White Salmon River and Outlet Creek in kayaking gear outlined with LED rope lights.

When the government of Romanian PM Sorin Grindeanu announced that they would gut the country's anticorruption statutes, removing criminal sanctions for official corruption, the country erupted into mass protests. (more…)

Guardians of the Galaxy was a huge surprise for me. I'm looking forward to this one!

An astronaut on the International Space Station snapped this striking photo last month of forest land adjacent to the Priest River in northern Idaho. From NASA:The squares in this landscape checkerboard appear to be the result of forest management. Similar patterns originated in the 1800s, when alternate parcels of land were granted by the U.S. government to railroads such as the Northern Pacific. Many parcels in the Pacific Northwest were later sold off and harvested for timber.The land shown here is now managed for wildlife and for timber harvesting. The white patches reflect areas with younger, smaller trees, where winter snow cover shows up brightly to the astronauts. Dark green-brown squares are parcels of denser, intact forest. The checkerboard is used as a method of maintaining the sustainability of forested tracts while still enabling a harvest of trees.

Nebraska State Sen. Burke Harr is pushing for a redesign of his state's flag because, well, it sucks. From the Omaha World-Herald:For 10 days, the state flag, which is hoisted over the State Capitol’s west side when lawmakers are in session, flew upside down.“Nobody noticed it,” State Sen. Burke Harr told members of the Legislature’s Executive Board. “It took someone drawing it to my attention before it was changed...”An effort in 2002 to develop a new flag design with the public’s help, however, died after critics called it a blow to the state’s heritage.Harr brushed off criticism from earlier this month that the state has more pressing issues to deal with, saying that the lawmakers can take a look at the state flag while addressing the looming budget deficit, the troubled Department of Correctional Services and other areas of concern.“We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” he said.And for more on vexillology, don't miss this classic episode of the 99% Invisible podcast: "Vexillology Revisited: Fixing the Worst Civic Flag Designs in America"

When Donald Trump killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a "trade deal" that had been negotiated by representatives of multinational corporations and government bureaucrats in utmost secrecy in order to give corporations the power to decide which labor, environmental and safety laws they'd obey, I started to hear from "progressives" who had suddenly discovered the deal, and decided that if Trump was against it, they should be for it. (more…)

John Yoo authored the "Torture Memos" which provided the government with legal advice on getting away with torturing prisoners. Whenever the media needs someone to exemplify "conscious amorality in support of state power," he's our man. Writing in the New York Times, though, he thinks Trump is "running amok."after the order was issued, his adviser Rudolph Giuliani disclosed that Mr. Trump had initially asked for “a Muslim ban,” which would most likely violate the Constitution’s protection for freedom of religion or its prohibition on the state establishment of religion, or both — no mean feat. Had Mr. Trump taken advantage of the resources of the executive branch as a whole, not just a few White House advisers, he would not have rushed out an ill-conceived policy made vulnerable to judicial challenge.Remember: you still have to take a shot when the Times calls it "enhanced interrogation," and drink the whole bottle when Yoo says it.

Andy from The Jerx (previously) shows how you can use Thomas Bloomberg's Konami Code effect (which allows the performer to force an observer to pick a certain square in a grid, despite a seeming free choice) to perform a baffling and delightful effect using a box of assorted chocolates this Valentine's Day. (more…)

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Twitter, Snap, Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, Dropbox, Cloudflare, Box, eBay, GitHub, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Medium, Mozilla, Patreon, Paypal, Pinterest, Reddit, Salesforce, Spotfy, Stripe, Wikimedia, Yelp, Y Combinator and many, many others (97 in all!) have co-signed an amicus brief filed with the Ninth Circuit to oppose Trump's Muslim Ban, as part of the ongoing litigation over the constitutionality of Trump's chaotic executive order. (more…)

With track titles such as "Max Decides On Vengeance" and "Max Enters the Compound," the first two Mad Max soundtracks embody the movies' stark and ironic dystopia. Disc 3, of course, has "We Don't Need Another Hero." I have embedded the instrumental version here as a taster of the forthcoming vinyl set, with Brian May, Maurice Jarre and Tina together at last.For the first time ever, the original Mad Max trilogy of soundtracks have been combined into a stellar deluxe package designed by Marvel comic artist Tim Bradstreet (The Punisher, Blade). The outside three panels consist of all new original artwork while the inner panels display minis of the original jackets and the tracklisting. The color of the vinyl is Gray, Sand and Black respectively in keeping with the central colors of the new art panels. No more than 2000 units will be made and the trilogy will not be duplicated in another package.It's up for preorders at $70 and will ship in April. I wonder: why doesn't it include Mad Max 4?Mad Max Trilogy [3 LP] Soundtrack [Amazon]

We just got the Sport model of the EPIKGO hoverboard at my office. Besides being terribly chic, it’s apparently bulletproof. (more…)

Most of history exists for us only in black and white. As a kid, we had a black and white TV because it was all we could afford. I grew up watching The Wizard of Oz every year in the 1960s and had no idea it was a color film.At least that exists in color because it was a big budget motion picture; most moving images of pop culture before a certain period don’t—or, at the very least, the color film is hard to find.I’m doing research for a new book which involves the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. At ages 6 and 7 I spent many splendid hours at the 1964/65 World’s Fair in Queens, where I lived. Of course not only is my memory of it in color, but there’s lots of color film of it available. But the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair is something I only saw in black and white until recently. There are many intriguing photos such as this one.via Chicago CollectionsSo it was quite shocking to discover this Technicolor short film (the first full-length motion picture made in 3-strip Technicolor, Becky Sharp, was still two years away). The buildings are painted in a wild assortment of colors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrt4p8MU6kQ

The Amazon Fire tablet that I use every day to watch videos, check twitter, learn kanji, and read ebooks, is on sale for $40. This is a great deal for a tablet, especially you install Google Play on it so you can download Android apps.

Here is another photo. This is the best pitcher in the Superb Owl.

Some folks may have missed this.

Ok, it’s not just solar powered. It’s also an anti-theft, waterproof marvel that keeps my phone’s power bar from ever getting into the red.Sure the idea seems obvious now - tuck a gigantic solar powered battery pack into an exposed slot and turn the wearer into a walking energy harvester. Simple maybe, but I didn't think of it. Way to go Solgaard.The battery brick is called the Solarbank and the backside acts as a nifty speaker that wirelessly plays tunes from my phone.And as long as there’s direct sunlight, I can have non-stop music playback with absolutely no battery drain. I believe it'd be the perfect "trapped on a desert island device". In fact, if Tom Hanks had one in the movie Castaway (and a brand new smartphone), he wouldn’t have needed that goofy volley ball at all.And I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking my desert island concept is flawed because the sun would eventually set and its magical recharging rays will disappear. Well I can’t argue with you on that – but just imagine a life where you weren’t trapped on a desert island and followed my easy to execute 2 step plan.Step 1) Create an autonomous vehicle that moves fast enough around the Earth so that you’re always under direct sunlight. Below is a handy illustration that explains how to gain maximum charging time with a LIFEPACK backpack.As you can see, it all depends upon your starting latitude and your ability to stay within it as you travel. At the equator, you’d need to travel west at approximately 1650km/h to counteract the rotation speed of the Earth. As you travel towards the poles, the needed speed decreases dramatically.Step 2) Create an algorithm that auto-coordinates your musical playlist with the regions you travel over. Flying over Poland? Why not rock out to a 30 second snippet of The Pennsylvania Polka? Tooting along over Russia? The theme song to Tetris is pretty darned relaxing.But if you intend to forego my Rube-Goldbergian plan, you could simply charge your Solarbank once a week by plugging it into a wall outlet while you sleep. The pack can store up to 6 phone charges and has 2 USB ports that allow for romantic charging sessions for you and your nerdy mate.The bag has 5 secret zipper compartments for your nerdy odds and ends and there’s even a built in combination lock that will keep your computer safe from…traveling computer thieves I guess.Look, this is the most well thought out, high-tech backpack I’ve ever seen and since the solar pack has already bailed me out of a professional jam I’m going to give the weird combination lock thing a pass.Check out LIFEPACK. If you’re nerdy like me or stranded on a desert island, you’ll love it.FYI - Getting Wilson's image on your LIFEPACK will be entirely up to you.

Comedian, actor, and nerd, Patton Oswalt shared his grief with the world last year when his wife Michelle McNamara died. Patton revealed on Friday that the medical causes of her resulted from a combination of prescription medications and a heart problem that had not been diagosed. Los Angeles coroner officials informed him earlier today. (more…)

A U.S. judge today temporarily blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump aimed at travelers from seven mostly Muslim countries after the states of Washington Minnesota advocated for an end to the racist “Muslim Ban.” (more…)

Editor Adam Stein posted this charming 2003 short from back when everyone involved was in a very different place in their career. Directed by Miguel Arteta and written by Miranda July, who also stars. (more…)

Last month, a hacker took 900GB of data from Cellebrite, an Israeli cyber-arms dealer that was revealed to be selling surveillance and hacking tools to Russia, the UAE, and Turkey. (more…)

It's $400 to pre-order these 1:26 replicas of the set from Sienfeld, created by the show's production designer Tho. E. Azzari and miniaturist Alan Wolfson (they're $500 retail). (more…)

As trumpism metastasizes, I've taken some comfort in the American system of checks and balances, especially the independent judiciary and the strong Constitutional tradition, which lets impact litigators like EFF and ACLU leverage the courts to overturn the executive branch; I've seen this work many times with EFF and other civil liberties organizations. (more…)

On Twitter, @FutureCNN provides glimpses into the grim future of Trump's america, as depicted as inane CNN roundtables and wry chyron operators.https://twitter.com/FutureCNN/status/826537279204315136

8-Bit Philosophy tackles the age-old question: Are We Living in a Simulation? Fittingly, their explanation uses a Minecraft example. (more…)

After a slew of imitators, badass YouTuber The Hydraulic Press Channel rebranded as Beyond the Press and started doing non-pressing experiments in his inimitable style. Here, he has to jump in a frozen lake to get some stuff he lost in a previous experiment. (more…)

Snap Inc., the parent company behind Snapchat, just filed for an initial public offering. They're the first American social media company to file for IPO so since Twitter did more than three years ago. (more…)

For the last few months I've been learning kanji at Wanikani (my wife is an editor at the sister site, Tofugu). Today, I found a few Japanese coins in a drawer, and I wanted to see if I could read the kanji characters on them, but they were too small for my ever-worsening eyesight. I pulled out my trusty illuminated magnifier that I bought on Amazon for $2.51 (including shipping) and used it to easily see the characters. It uses 2 AAA (I don't remember if they were included).

Lollypop Lorry plays old-schoolish Ska music. They're from Yekaterinburg, Russia. Their music is available on Bandcamp.

Former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson will get a $180 million parting gift from his former employers when he takes the Secretary of State job, thanks in part to four Senate Democrats who voted with the GOP to confirm him for the job, despite his extensive ties to regimes hostile to the US. (more…)

Belgian artist Wim Delvoye attained fame and controversy by tattooing fine-art pieces on pigs; when retired tattoo parlor manager Tim Steiner volunteered his skin for a Delvoye piece, the result was purchased by a German art collector called Rik Reinking for €130,000 (Steiner got a third of that). Steiner has agreed to be flayed after his death, with his skin stretched, cured and framed for Reinking's collection. (more…)

Take your pick!

Erica Chenoweth, co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, says "nonviolent resistance has actually been the quickest, least costly, and safest way to struggle" effectively against dictatorships.From The Guardian:In the US on Tuesday, dozens of lawmakers have said they will boycott confirmation votes for Trump nominees. Numerous police departments countrywide have announced that they will not comply with unethical federal policies (particularly regarding deportations). And the federal government employs more than 3 million civil servants – people on whose continued support the US government relies to implement its policies. Many such civil servants have already begun important conversations about how to dissent from within the administration. They, too, provide an important check on power. The Women’s March on Washington and its affiliated marches – which may have been the largest single-day demonstration in US history – show a population eager and willing to show up to defend their rights. Of course, nonviolent resistance often evokes brutality by the government, especially as campaigns escalate their demands and use more disruptive techniques. But historical data shows that when campaigns are able to prepare, train, and remain resilient, they often succeed regardless of whether the government uses violence against them.By Jonathan McIntosh - Own work, CC BY 2.5, Link

I don't follow football, but Bad Lip Reading hit a grand slam with this one! I'm literally LOLing over here, people...