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by Cory Doctorow on (#29K8V)
China is engaged in a bizarre dystopian experiment to use social network ratings to punish political dissidence, "antisocial behavior" and noncomformity, using data pulled from many sources, including purchases on China's major ecommerce networks like Alibaba; but you don't have to be the Chinese government to spy on people with an extraordinary degree of creepy precision: for a very small amount of money, China's private data-brokers will let you spy on anyone in the country. (more…)
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| Link | http://feeds.boingboing.net/ |
| Feed | http://feeds.boingboing.net/boingboing/iBag |
| Updated | 2024-11-25 06:02 |
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by Cory Doctorow on (#29JAM)
Xnet, a wonderful Spanish activist group, has created the Anti-Corruption Complaint Box, a whistleblowing platform for the city of Barcelona that allows people to file anonymous claims in a Globalleaks repository, with their anonymity protected by Tor. (more…)
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by David Pescovitz on (#29GZX)
The new Gorillaz video, the first track in six years from the animated, virtual band, features real singer and Mercury Prize winner Benjamin Clementine crooning in Trump Tower. The song is called... "Hallelujah Money."
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by David Pescovitz on (#29GYD)
BB pal Rob Walker says:My Significant Objects co-conspirator Joshua Glenn and I have started a new adventure: PROJECT:OBJECT will publish four “themed†volumes of stories-about-objects from an all-star cast of writers. Volume 1, POLITICAL OBJECTS launched today, with stories from Luc Sante, Lydia Millet, and Ben Greenman. This series will continue on HiLobrow through Q1 (with a bunch clustered around Inauguration Day.) Then a new volume with a new theme will launch in April, etc. The POLITICAL OBJECTS stories are here. And here’s the once-a-week email newsletter we’ll use to distribute links to new stories in the year ahead.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#29GYF)
Brian says: "I thought you’d dig this Chrome Extension that I made. Basically, it takes instances of President Trump, and changes them to “President†Trump. It’s a subtle reminder to the illegitimacy of his presidency."
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#29GCR)
Jim Lewis made a beautiful marble machine Turing complete computer. He says, "For several years I've been thinking about building a mechanical computer that demonstrates the Rule 110 principle. In this video I'll show my marble machine which I call the Rule 110 Marble Computer."
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by Jason Weisberger on (#29G5Y)
Long of the short of it, Trump knows he's a fraud.Politico interviewed several biographers who have followed Trump for most of his garish, boorish life.D’Antonio: Those early influences are essential, and I also think it’s correct that he has been conducting his entire life as a vanity show, and he’s been rewarded, most recently since his reality TV show, by ever-greater public interest in him. This is a guy who is a president-elect who describes himself as a ratings machine, which is an absolutely absurd thing for a president to be reflecting on, but that matters to him.But one thing I think that we have overlooked as we see Trump trying to delegitimize others is what I suspect is a feeling he has inside that nothing he’s ever achieved himself has ever been legitimate. This is a person who has never known whether anybody wants to be around him because he’s a person they want to be around or they want to be around his money. And since he’s promoted himself as this glamorous, incredibly wealthy person, that’s the draw he’s always given. So he doesn’t know if he has any legitimate relationships outside of his family, and that’s why he emphasizes family. … He’s always kind of gaming the system—not, in my view, winning on the merits. And even his election was with almost 3 million fewer votes than his opponent. So he has this deep fear that he is himself not a legitimate president, and I think that’s why he goes to such great lengths to delegitimize even the intelligence community, which is the president’s key resource in security, and he’s going to do this demeaning and delegitimizing behavior rather than accept what they have to tell him.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#29FXF)
These organic gummy cherries may look gross, but I heard they are very teste.[via]
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#29FXH)
In the latest episode of Scam School, Brian Brushwood shows you how to always beat a sucker in a card order guessing game.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#29FN6)
Israeli author Shahak Shapira found a use for foolish and disrespectful selfies taken at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.A newly unveiled online project called “Yolocaust†delivers a stinging message for those who not only act disrespectfully at a Berlin Holocaust memorial but capture their behavior and share it with their friends on social media. The project, which debuted on Wednesday, was visited by so many Germans that the computer server hosting it crashed, according to reports in the German media, where it was covered with great interest.You only live once, but we die twice: once when the body fails, the second when we are forgotten. [Haaretz, via]
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by Caroline Siede on (#29EY8)
The gif was created from a 2012 project called Asobi by Japanese art student Yasutoki Kariya of Musashino Art University.[via Laughing Squid]
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by Cory Doctorow on (#29DX7)
The Harvard Institute for Quantitative Science team that published 2016's analysis of the Chinese government's '50c Party', who flood social media with government-approved comments has published a new paper, How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument, in which they reveal their painstaking analysis of a huge trove of leaked emails between 50c Party members and their government handlers. (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#29DT1)
When the Youtube description is "I am sold dance, happy pupper dance," you know nothing can go wrong.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#29DGB)
Mozilla announced its new ＢＲＡＮＤ ＩＤＥＮＴＩＴＹ today. There it is above. Reception has not been kind. But is it ever? Its nerdliness (:// indeed!) is being held responsible for the inelegance of the logotype, but it's the best thing about it. I know it's easy to toss off "how I woulda done it" logo designs, but I think a little subtlety could have worked wonders. Something like the following, perhaps? Making the :// live within the flow of the type...
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#29CH0)
This looks like it will be a great show for people with a strong enough stomach to listen to criminal monster Bernie Madoff explain how he pulled off a $65 Ponzi fraud. 'Ponzi Supernova,' is a six-part, original series hosted by Steve Fishman. It's produced of the Audible Channels, which means you have to be an Audible member to listen to it. Here's a link to a 30-day free trial.
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by Peter Sheridan on (#29CFC)
What do Charles Manson and O.J. Simpson have in common? Both plan to come back from the dead, according to this week's fact-challenged tabloids.Mass killer Manson is "using voodoo to live again and get revenge" claims the 'Globe.' Inspired by allegations that Manson has been sticking pins in voodoo dolls of his enemies, the 'Globe' alleges that "Manson's most chilling plan is to use voodoo to turn himself into a zombie, a walking dead man, after his demise, so he could continue taking revenge on the world!"O.J. Simpson evidently plans a more exulted route to life after incarceration. "Tell them to expect me like they're expecting Jesus to come back - because I'm coming," reports the 'National Enquirer.'One thing is certain: If both men get to walk the Earth again it won't be long before Ryan Seacrest Productions combines them for one hell of a reality TV show. Or maybe 'Lifestyles of the Undead & Famous?'I really need to tell any tabloid Editors out there: This word "Exclusive" - You keep using that word. It does not mean what you think it means.Just look at that blurred, fuzzy photo purporting to be Charles Manson in a hospital bed, beneath the headline "Another Enquirer Exclusive - The Photo That No Other Publication In The World Could Get!"It's not such a singular sensation when the 'Globe' publishes the same photo on its cover, beneath the headline "World Exclusive."Or how about the 'Globe' offering its "Exclusive Interview & Photos" of actress Shelley Duvall living in what appears to be reduced circumstances on a ranch in Texas? How does that compare with the 'Enquirer Exclusive" interview and photos of Shelley Duvall at her ranch in Texas?Does "Exclusive" mean "Everyone has this"? Or is it just another example of Trumpian Newspeak?Questionable headline of the week comes courtesy of the 'Globe': "Jane Fonda Boots Sickly Toy Boy, 74!" If there is ever a statute of limitations on the age limit for describing a lover as a "toy boy," surely 74 has to be several decades in excess of that mark.Two competing figurines offered for sale in this week's 'Globe' also present its readers with a quandary. Do they buy the "President Donald Trump Commemorative Tribute" limited-edition figurine unveiled for the first time, "hand-crafted, hand-painted" and seven inches tall depicting a dark-suited Trump raising his right hand in a wave? Or do they opt for the 17-inch sculpted figurine of Herman Munster, dark-suited and waving his right hand - and playing the 'Munsters' theme tune at the push of a button? The Munster figurine promises his "sculpted hair" and "ghoulish shade of green" skin, while the Trump figurine offers his unnaturally glowing flesh tones and equally sculpted hair. Herman Munster costs $139.99, while the Trump figurine costs only $49.98 but plays no songs at all. The Trump figurine doesn't even build a small wall around itself, which may disappoint many fans. I'd love to know which sells best."Princess Kate's Secret Bulimia Battle" might be a better exclusive in the 'Enquirer' if they hadn't reported on her alleged eating disorder so many times before. Singer Kenny Rogers' "cancer nightmare" revealed in the 'Globe' might also seem a little fresher if they hadn't accompanied the story with a photo Rogers posted on social media explaining that he had cancer back in 2014, when he had skin cancer removed from his face.The 'National Examiner' brings us the oldest story in this week's tabloids, however - more than 460 years old, to be precise - reporting Nostradamus's predictions for 2017. The 16th century French physician and tabloid favorite predicted nuclear war, a giant planet approaching Earth, the largest earthquake ever to hit the U.S., the growth of solar power, a truce between Ukraine and Russia, and commercial space travel in orbit around Earth for the year ahead. But good luck finding mention of any of these things if you go searching through anything Nostradamus actually wrote.Fortunately we have the crack investigative team at 'Us' magazine to tell us that Kenya Moore wore it best, Rachel Bilson carries crayons, Q-tips and her son's Hot Wheels car in her backpack, and that the stars are just like us: they shop for shoes, eat finger foods, and feed parking meters. Riveting revelations, as always.'People' devotes its cover story to America's "Daughter in Chief," Ivanka Trump, an incredibly sycophantic piece of pablum that looks at "her gorgeous D.C. home," her "daily talks with her dad (she speaks her mind!)" and how she plans on "raising kids and working in the White House." With no hint of irony 'People' reports that as one of Trump's most trusted advisers Ivanka will "push a female-centric agenda." She tells the mag: "I'm a huge advocate for women and women's issues, like child care." Because when issues of abortion rights, equal pay, sex discrimination and a woman's right to control her own body are at issue, America's women need a pampered millionairess fighting to make them better care-givers.The big mystery of the week, however, is posed by the 'National Examiner,' which reports that "Ancient Egyptian Tombs Hold Alien Coffins!" Two dozen large granite boxes, carved to a degree of precision that suggests alien manufacture to any self-respecting tabloid reporter, are thought by Egyptologists to be the intended last resting place for mummified bulls. But "UFO theorists," who I suspect are a lot more fun at parties than Egyptologists, "say the boxes may have been intended to hold the remains of the aliens who directed their construction, but that the aliens left Earth before they died."I'd be much more impressed if they opened these ancient granite sarcophagi and found a Trump figurine inside one, and a musical Herman Munster figurine inside another. Nostradamus probably saw that coming a mile away.Onwards and downwards . . .
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#29C78)
Global News reports that an arena roof caved in during a game. Here's a scary video. No one was hurt.It is not clear why the roof suddenly collapsed, arena designer Tomas Fris told reporters, adding that all construction standards were observed. There was a 25-centimetre layer of snow on the roof before the accident, but Fris said the snow could not have caused the collapse.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#29C2H)
From Rare Historical Photos, this 1934 snapshot of the Italian Fascist Party Federation in Rome. The building in the picture is Palazzo Braschi in Rome, the headquarters of the Fascist Party Federation (the local one, not the national Party headquarters). It was not always covered up like that; this set-up was displayed for the 1934 elections, in which Italians were called to vote either for or against the Fascist representatives list. The “SI SI…†lettering (meaning “Yes Yes…â€) was propaganda for one of the two plebiscite elections held during the Fascist Regime, where electors didn’t vote for individual parties (there wasn’t any but the Fascist one), neither for single candidates, but just voted “Yes†or “No†to a single list of candidates presented by the Duce himself.
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by Ben Marks on (#29C0B)
Maurice Collins has written a terrific new book about his collection of bizarre and outlandish gadgets and doohickeys called — wait for it — Bizarre & Outlandish Gadgets & Doohickeys. It’s a wonderful collection of objects made between 1851 and 1951 by what you might call early disruptors. Recently, I spoke to Collins to find out how he got started in this curious collecting realm, and asked him to point out some of his favorite pieces.The Memorandum Clock is not an especially disruptive piece of technology, unless, of course, you’re a customer in one of those houses of ill repute. It’s just a timepiece, you might say, whose time was up. For a better example of attempted disruption, as well as good old-fashioned charlatanism, Collins directs my attention to the “Anita†Nose Shaper, which, he tells me, was “the ultimate in nasal quackery.†The Memorandum Clock, he notes with some pride, is an English item. “This is American,†Collins says of the Nose Shaper, with just a trace of judgment in his voice.According to an advertisement for the device, the cure for “nasal irregularity†is as easy as strapping on the nose adjuster before bed—“No need for costly, painful operations,†promises the advertising copy. In a few short weeks, your ugly nose will be as cute as a button. “What a con,†Collins huffs, “quackery to the Nth degree.â€
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by David Pescovitz on (#29BZR)
Scientific American summarized five of Donald Trump's "major moves many see as hostile toward science." They are:• Trump’s pick for head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actively battled its mission"To lead the EPA, Trump appointed Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general who has long opposed environmental regulations and has questioned the science behind climate change."• He chose former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for Energy Secretary"It is a science-heavy department, and one that (climate change skeptic) Perry—who is not a scientist—had advocated dismantling during his 2012 presidential bid."• He chose an energy company executive for secretary of State"Trump tapped former ExxonMobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State."• He met with a vaccine critic while planning a commission on autism"(Robert Kennedy, Jr) has repeatedly promoted discredited arguments that link vaccines to autism."• His transition team sought information about Energy Department staff associated with climate change"In December Trump’s team asked the DoE for the names of employees who have worked on issues related to climate change.""Trump's 5 Most 'Anti-Science†Moves (Scientific American)
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by David Pescovitz on (#29BXS)
The Nerdwriter presents a fascinating analysis of why Louis CK's jokes are funny.
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by Jason Weisberger on (#29BVZ)
As the United States continues to head down a dark, dark road more bomb threats have been phoned in against Jewish community centers across America.Via NBC:Jewish community centers around the country were again targeted with bomb threats Wednesday morning, a week after a spate of similar threats against many centers. In Miami, police responded to reports of a bomb threat at the Miami Beach Jewish Community Center. Threats were called in at the same center a week ago. Police in Newton, Massachusetts, responded after a suspicious phone call prompted an evacuation Wednesday morning at a local JCC.Jewish community centers in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and two in Connecticut, one at the JCC of Greater New Haven in Woodbridge and another at The Mandell JCC West Hartford, reported receiving bomb threats.Threats were made to at least seven JCCs in Florida, New Jersey, Delaware, Tennessee and North Carolina last week.A JCC building in Marin County, California, was also evacuated as a precaution after a threat.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#29BQQ)
John Park made a couple of videos with instructions on how to make two very cool mystery boxes. One is a wood box that opens only when you place a special item on the lid. The other is a deck of cards that makes a Morse Code sound when the deck is in free fall.https://youtu.be/lEyds5eImpo
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by David Pescovitz on (#29BQV)
In the 1960s and 1970s, the US Navy researched whether they could use synthesized whale sounds for submarines to have encoded conversations across long distances underwater. Called Project COMBO, it was a fascinating attempt at biomimicry. The project's culminating experiment even attracted a pod of whales. Alas, Project COMBO ultimately failed, but it makes for a great story. From Cara Giaimo's article in Atlas Obscura:Positioning themselves off of Catalina Island, 150 feet underwater, they blasted their squeaky, warbly codes through a transmitter. The receiver, placed at varying distances away, plucked the messages out of the noise flawlessly. Another test, in the fall, went deeper down and extended the range. In June of 1974, they sent out a real submarine, the USS Dolphin, which successfully transmitted sounds to a receiving ship—and, in a true vote of confidence, attracted a pod of pilot whales.After these testing successes, researchers were left with a lot of work to do. Although they had the pilot whale on lock, they wanted to expand their repertoire by inventing “techniques and equipment to synthesize large whale sounds and small whale screams.†They still had to create scalable versions of their tools, including the call generator and the spectrograph-recognizer. Looking ahead, more problems loomed: the researchers figured this was a good enough idea that the Soviets would steal it, at which point American submariners would need to add another skill to their arsenal. “Fleet sonarmen must become more familiar with bioacoustic signals,†they wrote—inspiring thoughts of submarine soldiers, facing long days underwater, taking up sonic seal- and whale-watching.On the receiving side, submarines were already equipped with spectrographs, which transform incoming sound waves into visual charts. Since the coded pilot whale sounds were synthesized, and therefore identical, receiving and decoding them was merely a matter of recognizing a particular pattern as it came through the machine. A real whale’s call, with its unique combinations of pitch and timbre, would produce a slightly different readout, and could be weeded out as noise with the help of recognition software.“It was never successful,†writes Dr. Christopher Willes Clark, founder of the Cornell Bioacoustics Research Program, in an email. “The process of projecting coded ‘whale’ sounds out to functional distances is not viable.†Despite the promise of those initial tests, the technological barriers proved too large to overcome, and subsequent attempts in future years also failed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI2VqZYsW_kObligatory reference to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDTCXy6VQ_c
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by Boing Boing's Store on (#29BQX)
Computer hacking isn’t just something happening to the DNC. Major software companies need white-hat hackers to ensure the security of their products and users, and I came across a Computer Hacker Professional Certification Package that conveniently teaches those advanced IT techniques online.This course package will prepare you for various computer security certification exams with over 60 hours of content. Explore forensic data analysis to understand how to safely and legally handle data without contaminating digital evidence. Learn how to perform security audits to identify software vulnerabilities and provide expertise in IT systems maintenance. By studying ethical hacking, you will gain the authority to fix critical security holes and also advise businesses in Risk Management best practices.With 24/5 technical support and access to expert instructors, this bundle helped me pass a variety of professional security certification exams. For a limited time, get 12 months of access to this Ethical Hacking Certification Package for just $59, 96% off its usual $1499 price.
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by David Pescovitz on (#29BM5)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27nCc2eiERMWilliam Onyeabor, the Nigerian musician who pioneered African electro-funk in the 1970s, has died. He was 70-years-old. Onyeabor's music experienced a resurgence in recent years thanks to the Luaka Bop label's reissues of his deeply groovy albums. From Luaka Bop:It is with incredibly heavy hearts that we have to announce that the great Nigerian business leader and mythic music pioneer William Onyeabor has passed away at the age of 70. He died peacefully in his sleep following a brief illness, at his home in Enugu, Nigeria. An extraordinary artist, businessman and visionary, Mr. Onyeabor composed and self-released 9 brilliant albums of groundbreaking electronic-funk from 1977-1985, which he recorded, pressed and printed at Wilfilms Limited—his personal pressing plant in southeast Nigeria.For people in his hometown of Enugu, Nigeria, Mr. Onyeabor was simply referred to as "The Chiefâ€. He was known for having created many opportunities for the people in his community. In his early 30s, he traveled the world to study record manufacturing, so that he could build, "the greatest record manufacturing business in all of West Africa." After those successful years as an artist and record label President in the 1980's, he opened a flour mill and food processing business. In 1987 these new business ventures saw him awarded West African Industrialist of the Year—just two years after the release of his most successful song "When The Going is Smooth and Good", and what should have been the height of his musical career. He was given the honorary title "Justice of the Peace"—a local judicial position elected by the community to provide independent legal ruling. In the early 1990's, he became the President of Enugu's Musician's Union and Chairman of the city's local football team, The Enugu Rangers. Despite all of these extraordinary achievements, his biography was always shrouded in mystery—some claimed he had studied filmmaking in the Soviet Union, while others placed him in France or Great Britain. To his great amusement (and ours too for that matter), this mythic image was at times so deeply ingrained, that we often encountered people who were convinced that he didn't actually exist. Whenever we shared this with him, or would ask him a question about his past, he would just smile and say, "I only want to speak about God."After five long years of painstaking waiting, negotiating and intense research, we were finally able to release “Who is William Onyeabor?†in 2013 and his music and story took the world by storm. The release was featured in major newspapers, radio and television stations around the world. Time Magazine listed him as number 4 on a shortlist of that year’s best albums. In 2014, the film documentary “Fantastic Man†followed, as well as the “Atomic Bomb! Who is William Onyeabor?†live shows, which travelled to the most regarded festivals and music venues worldwide-starring over 50 special guests from many diverse generations, genres and backgrounds.Still, William Onyeabor would never speak about himself and for a long time refused any of the many interview requests that came his way. For an artist that had never performed live in his entire life, he repeatedly, and very sadly, would always decline our invitations to take part in any of the joyous celebrations that were created in his honor. Having become Born Again in the latter part of life, he had turned his back on the music from the earlier part of his life.As one of the absolutely smartest people we ever encountered—William Onyeabor was always in charge, whatever the situation may be (and even though he was living in a fairly isolated part of rural West Africa). As can be heard in many of his songs, he looked at the world from a bird's eye view. He would watch American, Chinese and European news simultaneously, so he could learn about the different points of view from around the world. In his later years, he was still conducting business as usual. Whenever we visited him in Nigeria, he welcomed us warmly into his home. Whether it be at his palace outside of Enugu or via crackly phone lines to America, he always made us laugh. As is also very evident in his songwriting—another example of his true intellect and originality—he had the greatest sense of humor. His life and accomplishments will never cease to astonish us. More than anything, and still to this very day, his music continues to live on—nearly 40 years after it was originally released.Chief William Ezechukwu Onyeabor is survived by his wife, children, and four grandchildren. We would like to send our deepest condolences to his family and thank each and every one of you who has helped share the love for his music around the world.In the short and wonderfully intense nine years that we came to know him, he changed our lives in many ways. If he hasn't yet, we hope he will affect you too, one day.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17s4WXaqT-Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiaRp0M2fxE
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by Cory Doctorow on (#299ZA)
Demand Protest, a service that bills itself as providing "deliver[ing the appearance of rage] at scale while keeping your reputation intact" purportedly pays protesters $2500/month plus $50/hour for left-wing protesters to take to the streets, and claims to have run 48 campaigns, despite having only registered its domain last month (it also displays a copyright notice that spans 2015-2017). (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#299W7)
Sean Bonner's posted his share of viral images over the years, but the most recent time was a little different: he tweeted a picture of an anti-Trump political sticker he spotted in Tokyo, created by street artist 281_Anti nuke. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#299VX)
Convicted election fraudster and public education opponent Betsy Devos made her billions through hard work -- really, you can't overstate the effort required to emerge from the loins of someone who married a rich guy, nor the work of later marrying someone else who emerged from the loins someone who married a rich guy. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#299TZ)
Japan's leading bidet toilet manufacturers (including Toto, Panasonic, and Toshiba) have come together through their industry association, the Japan Sanitary Equipment Industry Association, to agree upon a common set of UI conventions for the meanings of the icons on the buttons on the bidets' control panels, thus ending an era in which you might think you were getting "wash and dry" but actually ended up with "layer-cut and dye-job." (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#29983)
Rough metal dice, fresh off the forge! Dice so heavy and clunky and sharp you can ruin tables and kill cheats without brandishing a dagger. But is this ren-faire fun fair play? I decided to put them to the test and see how random they were. I'm not great at math, so I'll just show my method and results and you can do the judging. (more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#298TG)
You can be as happy as the people in this photo if you buy the Woodstock 40th Anniversary Limited Edition 3-disc Blu-ray. It's on sale for $5 on Amazon. It has 11 never-before-seen songs.
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by David Pescovitz on (#298E3)
President Obama commuted whistleblower Chelsea Manning's remaining prison sentence. She will go free on May 17 of this year as opposed to 2045, the duration of her full sentence. From the New York Times:The commutation also relieved the Department of Defense of the difficult responsibility of her incarceration as she pushes for treatment for her gender dysphoria — including sex reassignment surgery — that the military has no experience providing.In recent days, the White House had signaled that Mr. Obama was seriously considering granting Ms. Manning’s commutation application, in contrast to a pardon application submitted on behalf of the other large-scale leaker of the era, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who disclosed archives of top secret surveillance files and is living as a fugitive in Russia.Asked about the two clemency applications on Friday, the White House spokesman, Joshua Earnest, discussed the “pretty stark difference†between Ms. Manning’s case for mercy with Mr. Snowden’s. While their offenses were similar, he said, there were “some important differences.â€â€œChelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,†he said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy.â€
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by Jason Weisberger on (#298B3)
About 2 months ago I wrote about trying a tempered glass screen protector. I'm going to say they work great. I'm a fan of the Omoton brand ones, they make them for almost every glass fronted device. About 2 weeks into iPhone stewardship, my 9-year-old texted to report her first screen break. I was concerned and highly interested -- did just the protector break, or the phone's actual screen? The screen protector worked wonderfully, it shattered but stuck to the undamaged screen. The phone remained usable even with the protector cracked. When next I saw her, we replaced it with the 2nd in the 2-pack and off on her merry way she went. I was actually putting the wrenches back in their plasti-form wrench box neatly for once. One slipped from my hand and struck my waiting iPhone midscreen. A small impact spot, like a bullet shot, had several spiderweb veins reaching across the protector. Screen undamaged. Over the holidays my daughter was off on the east coast with her mother's family. I got call telling me she'd need a new screen protector but everything was OK. Seems her phone went down a flight of stairs. I went back to Amazon and splurged on another $7.00 set of 2 for her phone.Not everything went wrong that could go wrong during my VW Vanagon Westfalia adventure to an oasis in the deserts of northern Baja Mexico, but a hell of a lot that didn't have to did. During a trip that involved as much bad judgement as beautiful vistas, I dropped my phone on more than a few rocks and only the FSM knows what else. 2 impact cracks on the very edges of screen protectors bezel worked to spare the screen 2 certain deadly cracks. The micro-pre-cracked glass construction really appears to work, the kinetic force of these strikes was redirected in what looked like miraculous ways. I'm a fan. I think 4 screen replacements would have cost me $400, these were around $30 all in. I'm fairly certain each break looked likely to have chipped or cracked the actual phone had the protector not been there. They've also saved us having the Phones actually worked on and potentially destroyed! Mark once told me it was easy to replace my own screen. I ended up needing a whole new phone when I was done. OMOTON Tempered Glass Screen Protectors via Amazon
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#297HD)
Only men are allowed to show their nipples on Instagram. Poor Instagram, now they will have to use human or software-based nipple inspectors to determine the gender of the bodies attached to the nipples posted to genderless_nipples.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#297EM)
We knew President-elect Donald Trump was having trouble finding acts willing to perform at his inauguration, but now we know he's worried about public turnout too. How? Because he's running Facebook ads begging New Yorkers to attend. (more…)
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by David Pescovitz on (#297AT)
When most people commission a bespoke suit, they pay attention to the stitching and drape of the fabric. For MythBuster Adam Savage's latest custom tailoring job, he had some more esoteric details in mind. Here he is on Tested giving a tour of his Apollo A7L spacesuit replica, fashioned by Ryan Nagata. (Tested)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#297AW)
It's always interesting to hear what Robert Crumb has to say about notable people, alive and dead. In the latest installment of "Crumb on Others," Alexander Wood asks Crumb about Castro, Lenin, and Trump.Crumb: Yeah, but I would watch him and find him so offensive, so obnoxious and hateful. How could anybody just looking at him and watching his behavior think for one second that he’s anything but a sociopath!? I just couldn’t imagine how anyone could think he’s a viable candidate for the presidency. On the other hand, Bernie Sanders who was out actually speaking some truth – I thought he was great. You see that’s what happens when you get a politician who actually tells the truth— nope, can’t have him. The Democrats made sure he didn’t get nominated. They reaped what they sowed, the Democratic Party operatives, when they fixed it so Bernie would lose the primary votes in New York and California. Alex: Also, a lot of people are just biologically wired to be really taken in by authoritarian people. Crumb: That’s true, you’re right. You’re right. They just want a big, strong chief who will take care of everything, lead them into battle and provide the big feast afterward and parcel out the spoils. Yep.Alex: And the weird thing is, it doesn’t have that much to do with education. You can be a very educated person but a very pro-authoritarian person and you’re really going to be sympathetic to Trump. Crumb: “We’re going to take care of this.†Yeah. “We’re gonna get this straightened out and kick out all the parasites and lock some people up, etc.†Alex: Some eggs are gonna be broken when you make an omelet, you know? And that’s just the way it is, and he’s gotta take charge. A lot of Americans like that. A no nonsense kind of guy, who’s just gonna take charge, because it simplifies their world. They just feel someone’s going to take care of the problems that are just too complicated for them. Crumb: Yeah, that’s right. Hitler explains all that in Mein Kampf. He’s very straight forward about it. If you want to galvanize the population behind your political cause you’ve got to speak simply to them, you’ve got to keep it black and white and you’ve got to have an enemy that’s very obvious, that you can point to. Hitler was kind of a genius that way. I wonder how soon it’s going to be before the general run of the supporters of Trump start to feel betrayed. I wonder how long that’s going to take.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#2971R)
Andrea Aidekman writes, "I'm a cartoonist and graphic designer from New York. I was asked by a few friends to make some posters for the women's marches on Saturday. I made this little vagina/eye logo and I really got on a roll and designed 10 posters. I want everyone to have a chance to have a well designed and provocative poster so if you need one you can download and print your favorite, or all of them!" (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#296Y7)
I learned that Boing Boing seems never to have linked to one of my favorite things on the internet: Zogg, the Cuddly Menace. Jason Yungbluth's brilliant remix of My Little Golden Book About God is as wonderful as it was 478 glorns ago, so I thought it would be fun to perform a dramatic reading to celebrate the impending arrival of the star tankers.Yungbluth (@IAmDeathRay) is a cartoonist and "all around sexy beast" living in Rochester, NY. His comic books include Deep Fried, PEEK and the Weapon Brown graphic novel. You can read Jason’s work in the pages of MAD magazine too.Weapon Brown in particular is getting great reviews lately, such as the following from Total Nerd. A parody of Peanuts sent in a grim dystopian techno-future, it was originally published in 2002 but has recently been collected in Omnibus form.https://www.facebook.com/rankertotalnerd/videos/1370649412985232/?pnref=storyDo not fail your species.
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by Caroline Siede on (#296RS)
During the course of 2016, CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Conor Knighton visited all 59 National Parks in America, and he filmed himself singing “America The Beautiful†in every one of them. You can learn more about Knighton’s journey in this CBS Sunday Morning segment:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S62yIFTxF-U
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by Rob Beschizza on (#296RV)
Malaysia Airlines flight #MH370 pitched somewhere in the vast oceans west of Australia three years ago, the only evidence washing ashore thousands of miles away. The search for its remains, and those of hundreds of missing passengers and crew, has been called off.Families of the victims of flight MH370 say a decision to halt the search for the Malaysian airliner that vanished in March 2014 is "irresponsible". ... More than 120,000 sq km (46,300 miles) of the Indian Ocean has been searched with no results. Pieces of debris have been found as far away as Madagascar. But only seven have been identified as definitely or highly likely to be from the Boeing 777.It's 2017 and they still dress airline pilots up like commodores and let them turn off the transponders.
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by Caroline Siede on (#296HN)
This is the latest in a series of “instructional†videos from New Zealand dad Jordan Watson. Here’s another:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MWDIYxweMwAnd one more:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kHBU28CTQ
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by Cory Doctorow on (#296HP)
Every year, Oxfam publishes a headline number about global wealth inequality that takes this form: "The richest X people own more than the poorest Y billion people on Earth" (some examples: 2014, 2016, 2017, UK edition). (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#296GK)
Most YouTube videos have at least a few views: the uploader making sure it works and applying basic edits. But zero views? That's a special class of film: automated, forgotten, mistaken, baffling, beautiful. Astronaut will show them to you. [via MeFi]Today, you are an Astronaut. You are floating in inner space 100 miles above the surface of Earth. You peer through your window and this is what you see. You are people watching. These are fleeting moments.These videos come from YouTube. They were uploaded in the last week and have titles like DSC 1234 and IMG 4321. They have almost zero previous views. They are unnamed, unedited, and unseen by anyone but YOU.I can't stop watching. It seems almost too perfect, like a montage in a movie about the wonderful, unbeknownst things humans were doing before the Orange Death held sway.
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by Caroline Siede on (#296HR)
This new campaign from the National Women’s Law Center centers on the fact that black girls are suspended 5x more than white girls, despite not committing more serious offenses. The #LetHerLearn campaign aims to end the school pushout by educating school leaders about bias and discrimination. You can learn more and support the campaign on the NWLC website.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#295EB)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC2aOG1xDg4&feature=youtu.beSeth Godin sends us this trailer for Coded, a new documentary series on hackers: "There’s an invisible war being waged. And we’re all part of it. Foreign governments are hacking major corporations. Major corporations are collecting massive amounts of consumer data. And the NSA is listening…to everything. But a new generation of programmers armed with powerful technology is rising up and fighting back. Freethink presents a new original series: Coded."
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#293ZM)
Amazon getting in on the all-meat pet food craze. They've got packages of two 10-pound pieces of Waygu Kobe beef, frozen and vacuum sealed. This should last you a week or longer if have a couple of large dogs.The Kuroge breed Wagyu cattle are humanely-raised with special care on grass for 30 months. Wagyu cattle are fed over 600 days on a natural diet including wheat, rice, corn, barley and other wholesome foods that build breed’s natural propensity to exquisite and abundant marbling. A stress-free environment and massage for muscle stimulation are all part of the pampering that the cattle receive. Strict protocols from birth to export ensure beef of unsurpassed quality.It's $3,999.99 plus $30 shipping.
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by Michael Borys on (#293WE)
The office I work in is full of things old people buy to make themselves feel young again. I can honestly say that our awesome new toy, The Swagtron T3 Hoverboard, makes me feel very, very old. I’ll explain why later.Swagtron T3 ProsThere's no way to overcharge the battery and that means no more pesky fires and unplanned explosions!This model actually has a battery life indicator!There’s a new SwagTron app that syncs with your hover-board.You can set the top speed and sensitivity of both acceleration and steering.There’s an odometer that keeps track of lifetime miles traveled.You can toggle the Hoverboard on and off with the app – so no more bending over. Ever!The app has a speedometer! Amazing right?Swagtron T3 ConsThe app has a speedometer! Crazy right?! You have to look at the app while riding to enjoy the speedometer and if you do, you’re no longer watching the terrain which goes against every rule of motorized vehicles.It's pretty pricey at $449.99.But I have to say that the Swagtron T3 is much better than their previous models. The wheels are beefier, the ride is stable, and the motor is peppier.Why does the Swagtron T3 make me feel old? Tonight, I decided to live on the wild side and switched from “Standard†to “Advanced†mode on the app. When I did, I got this friendly warning:“Extremely high injury risk�!There was a time when I’d completely ignore a message like that or treat it as a challenge. But these days, with my back issues, bad knees and fear of everything around me, I have to be careful. And even though the T3 will reach a top speed of only 8 MPH, it’s plenty fast when you’re standing upright with your hands glued to your sides.Which brings me to this dude in Dubai who is surely riding in Advanced mode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKrHDwXeBOUWhat the S#!T is that? And how did I get so old?! PRO/CON COMBINATIONThe SWAGTRON T3 can also play music via Blootooth while you ride. How ridiculous is that? Just today, I terrorized my coworkers as I zipped around the office while blasting Soul Coughing’s Super Bon-Bon. I’ve been told that there's nothing more frightening than a 47 year old man blazing by your cubicle with the lyrics, “Move, aside, and let the man go through!†blaring from his feet.In case you either don't know how great that song actually is or how annoying it would be to hear in the workplace...you're welcome.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRqP52c0OLUI’ve ridden many Hoverboards in the past few years and the SWAGTRON T3 is the best yet. It will always be magical to me to simply lean in a direction of choice and quickly travel there. If only I was 20 years younger and didn’t enjoy lounging around on porch swings so much.
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