From the 1930s to the 1970s, Aerolux Light Corporation manufactured "artful gas-discharge light bulbs," lightbulbs containing tiny sculptures that glowed when switched on. From Wikipedia:Aerolux gas discharge light bulbs contained low pressure gas, either neon or argon, or a mixture of the two. Also within the bulb were metal sculptures coated with phosphors. These phosphors fluoresced when excited by glow discharge. Because glow discharge occurs readily at 110-120 volts AC, one could use these bulbs in standard household lamps in the United States.(via This is Colossal)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KvIzyij4P8

Skitt’s Law says that “any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself.” I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to spot the typo on this angry grammar scold's mug.

Jess shows the host of Real Future what a vishing call is by taking over his mobile phone account in 30 seconds. It involves a recording of a crying baby.

At a market in northern Myanmar (Burma), China University scientist Lida Xing found a piece of amber containing a remarkably well-preserved dinosaur tail, complete with feathers. It likely belonged to a coelurosaur, a birdlike beast that lived about 99 million years ago. National Geographic video above. Plans for future research below.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMsJe3TymqY

Now how the hell are Starbucks cups in the news again and no one's talking about a guy spreading his cheeks open on McDonald's cups pic.twitter.com/QmIuZiDJst— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) December 11, 2016Warmest greetings.

A Charlie Brown Christmas won the 1966 Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program. Half of US viewers watched it when it aired. But the project was under threat of being killed every step of the way. From Jennings Brown's article in The Vindicated:Lyrics or not, the CBS executives didn’t think jazz belonged in a cartoon. They also challenged Schulz’s decision to use untrained children instead of professional adult voice actors. They especially couldn’t understand why children would use such big words. (Lucy: “We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big Eastern syndicate, you know.” Charlie Brown: “Don’t think of it as dust. Think of it as maybe the soil of some great past civilization. Maybe the soil of ancient Babylon. It staggers the imagination. Maybe carrying soil that was trod upon by Solomon, or even Nebuchadnezzar.”) This, despite the fact that for about 15 years, “Peanuts” characters had spoken with advanced vocabularies.Schulz even got pushback from his own team. Mendelson suggested a laugh track would save the show and Schulz responded by standing up and walking out of the room. When Schulz, a Sunday school teacher, said Linus should recite from the Gospel of Luke, Mendelson and Melendez protested. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Well, there goes our careers right down the drain,’” Mendelson recalls. “Nobody had ever animated anything from the Bible before, and we knew it probably wouldn’t work. We were flabbergasted by it.”Of course, now Mendelson realizes that Linus’s segment probably made the entire project work. “That 10-year-old kid who recited that speech from the Bible was as good as any scene from Hamlet,” he says.

The Macro Room sliced numerous objects in half -- from a toothpaste tube to a seashell to a digital camera -- to reveal the beautiful mysteries inside. (via Laughing Squid)

ArkadiusBear posted this photo to Reddit, saying:This thing is 40 years old. It looks like it was thrown away yesterday. When you throw away plastic, it will basically never go away, ever. IF it breaks down, it breaks down into smaller and smaller micro plastic beads. It may even end up back on your plate some day when ingested by fish.Again, this thing is 40 years old, and it will look almost the same in another 40 years. In fact, some types plastic trash can take up to 450(!) years to decompose.This piece of plastic, thrown into the sea in 1976, still hasn't degraded at all

It's been a week since the Army Corps of Engineers announced that they would not grant a permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross the river that the indigenous Sioux people relied upon for their drinking, farming and washing. (more…)

"No President" is an unsigned editorial in N+1, and is, along with Ta-Nehisi Coates's My President Was Black, the best postmortem on the events of November 8 yet published: it begins with the door-to-door canvas of voters in the runup to the election and the strange ideological contradictions on display on America's doorsteps, reflects on the questions of gender and Clinton's election outcomes, and moves on to a realistic, but firm and inspiring, call for resistance in the years to come. (more…)

The European Parliament's Chief Negotiator plans to offer British nationals the right to opt into "associate citizenship" in the EU, with the right to travel and work in the continent. (more…)

Public Citizen's extraordinary new 74-second political ad features audio of Donald Trump promising to end the role of big money, lobbyists, and special interests in politics, contrasted with headlines describing the industrial big-money ties of his transition team and cabinet picks, packed with billionaires, notorious CEOs of corrupt companies, offshoring specialists, and other looters. (more…)

FOLLOW @RubenBolling on the Twitters and a Face Book.JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the a href="http://bit.ly/1EikWTm">INNER HIVE, for exclusive early access to comics, extra comics, and more. JOIN TODAY, and a donation will be made to The Committee to Protect Journalists, to help defend Freedom of Speech. Information here. More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

This 3-pack of 10-ft Samsung-certified cables is one of the best deals I've seen on micro USB cables. For the price of one regular length cable, you get three quality, extra long cables. Most importantly, they’re certified by Samsung, meaning they won't overheat or damage your devices. They can be used to charge your smartphones, tablets, cameras, and any other micro-USB compatible devices you have.With this trio of cables, I'm able to keep one at home, one in the car, and one at my office. Plus with 10 feet of slack to work with, I can charge and use my phone without having to get out of bed or cross the room.For a limited time, get the 10-Ft Samsung-Certified Micro-USB Cable: 3-Pack for 80% off the retail price, just $24.99.Also check out the Boing Boing Store's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide to treat yourself or someone close to you.

If you don't live in a state that allows recreational marijuana yet, perhaps this fabulous Hopalong Orbits Visualizer by Iacopo Sassarini will tide you over till then. (more…)

Much of San Francisco's Financial District used to be Yerba Buena Cove, where Gold Rush ships were abandoned in such numbers that many just rotted away till they sank. (more…)

In the 1950s, car enthusiasts began playing around with illuminated tires made of translucent synthetic rubber that could be tinted any color. Goodyear soon got in the game in case it took off, which unfortunately never happened. (more…)

Rogue archivist Carl Malamud writes, "In keeping with best practices for major Internet providers to issue periodic transparency reports, Public Resource would like to issue two reports. (more…)

Continuing in his totally consistent and predictable pattern of wacky authoritarian behavior, President-elect Donald Trump said today he'll postpone telling America how he plans to deal with a wide array of conflicts of interest until after he is sworn in as President in January, 2017. That's one month away. (more…)

“This is what happens when a terminally ill child dies in Santa’s arms.” (more…)

Many thanks to J. Kenji López-Alt for "boiling and peeling hundreds of eggs" to learn the best way to make a boiled egg so the shell doesn't stick. His finding: "For the most evenly cooked, tender hard boiled eggs, forget the boiling water, use a steamer instead."

Thom Leavy of PopSci shows how to make a wind-powered record player. (more…)

As I've posted previously, Under The Weather is a single-person pop-up shelter to sit inside that my big brother Rick came up with a while back. (He was sick of getting soaked at his kids' soccer games and was inspired by a portable toilet he saw by the field.) Late last night, he had me cracking up at this new video of him pitching his product (literally). "Bet I can't do it blindfolded? Let's see."Under The Weather is designed for spectator sports, fishing, and other outdoor events where it's raining, windy, or cold, but you are either obligated to watch or having so much fun you don't want to leave. No doubt it's an odd invention but he's selling a slew of them!You can buy the pods directly here: Under the Weather Pods

All Trump's words. (more…)

In 1945, police initiated a campaign to stop people from beeping their car horns in Morse Code to "signal out 'vile and filthy language,'" according to the Ottawa Journal on January 18. Amazing that back then enough people recognized the encoded vulgarities to convince the police to take action, and the media to cover it. (Weird Universe)

This fellow, possibly inebriated, messed with the wrong cone. (more…)

If you’ve ever wondered how to build a computer, how the brain functions, or any number of other things about how the world works, this bundle of courses is for you: The Scientific Essentials Bundle.This package of courses dives into the science that drives the world around us with 41 hours of hands-on instruction. Everything from game theory to how cars work under the hood is covered. Here's a taste of what's included:From 0 to 1: Raspberry Pi and the Internet of Things - Learn the core principles behind internet-connected objects, dive into the Internet of Things, and focus on home automation using Raspberry Pi. At the end of the course, you’ll know specific uses for IoT applications and have the skills to actually build and implement them. Economics: Game Theory, Competition, Elasticity - Get a crash course on the competitive theories of economics: learn how to think about markets, finance, and the economic drivers that guide all of our decisions. With these and five additional courses, the Scientific Essentials Bundle makes the perfect gift for your favorite inquisitive person—just in time for the holidays. Or maybe that person is actually you. Either way, get it today for 91% off retail.Also check out the Boing Boing Store's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide to treat yourself or someone close to you.

Our friends at Noise Pop and Another Planet Entertainment are co-hosting a benefit concert headlined by Primus on December 14 to support the Oakland Fire Relief Fund raising money for victims of the devastating Ghost Ship warehouse fire. The artist community tragically burned during an electronic music party earlier this month, killing 36 people and destroying the lives of so many more in the Bay Area creative community. The concert, taking place at Oakland's Fox Theater and will also feature Dan Deacon, Geographer, Hieroglyphics, Jay Som, Rogue Wave, Sidecar Tommy, Thao Nguyen, The Coup, tUnE-yArDs, and Tycho. Buy tickets here. More info in this Billboard article.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCuXMiu2184&feature=youtu.beDJ Cummerbund's latest mashup does real justice to Rick James's "Superfreak": Featuring Rick James, Foo Fighters, The Beach Boys, and Led Zeppelin. And Rick James.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbS0oHXZ8LoUniversal Health Services (UHS) is the largest chain of psychiatric facilities in the USA, with 2.5x more beds than its closest competitor, and dozens of whistleblowers from inside the company told a Buzzfeed reporter that they were pressured to find pretenses to lock up people who voluntarily presented for assessments, holding them against their will until their insurance ran out, with massive bonuses for executives who increased profits (and much smaller bonuses for execs who improved health outcomes for patients). (more…)

The AirJamz Bluetooth Air Pick & Music Toy creates music out of thin air—literally. It looks like a big, electronic guitar pick, but the accompanying iOS/Android app packs over 100 instruments and sounds. All you have to do is connect to your device via Bluetooth, pick a song, and get playing that air guitar (or piano, or flute…). The app will register the physical guitar strums or finger movements, and play the sounds just like as if you were playing the instrument. I prefer to download songs via the app to add background music to my amateur instrument playing, but you can play solo, too.I hear toy and think of kids, but this gadget is just as much made for adults. The best part is that the AirJamz Bluetooth Air Pick & Music Toy is on sale for 20% off the retail price, just $39.99.Also check out the Boing Boing Store's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide to treat yourself or someone close to you.

The Trump administration will put a fox in every henhouse, from the Goldman Sachs execs who'll run the treasury to the working conditions repeat offender who'll run the Department of Labor to the public school abolitionist who'll run the Department of Education, but when it comes to climate and energy, the Trump administration is pulling out all the stops. (more…)

This 2012 performance of “Carol Of The Bells” should be redubbed “Carol Of The Balls.”

30 years ago, the Just Say No anti-drug campaign launched. In response, Cliff Roth created one of the first analog viral videos passed around on VHS: The Reagans Speak Out on Drugs. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm_F0i176d8Dang, I never knew Satchmo could be that funky. (via Marginal Revolution)(Images: Louis Armstrong, Ben In for Peace, Nationaal Archief, CC-BY-SA)

Robbo writes, "Lloyd Kaufman is best known as the uber super epic producer/director who runs Troma Films, creators of such cinema icons as 'The Toxic Avenger' and 'Surf Nazis Must Die.' Lloyd is also a die-hard advocate for Net Neutrality and he has posted an article to the Huffington Post entitled: Innovation And Our Better Future Depend On Preserving Net Neutrality - and it's a good read by a passionate and intelligent individual - who also happens to make movies like 'Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead.'" (more…)

These strange wooden boxes by Paolo del Toro have whimsical designs that open at the mouths to reveal a secret compartment. Just loosen the drawstring and add whatever you'd like. (more…)

Let's take the path less traveled for some holiday gift giving. Two brothers well known in the world of magic and cardistry , Dan and Dave Buck, have a number of enterprises going, including a website called Art of Play . While its nucleus is the sale of unique decks of playing cards, the site has expanded greatly under the guidance of Adam Rubin, the "Director of Puzzles and Games."We travel the world in search of objects designed to dazzle the eyes and fascinate the mind. From luxurious playing cards to ingenious puzzles and stimulating amusements—each beautiful item in our collection holds a whisper of mystery, brimming with potential for surprise and delight.25 Days of Christmas Extravaganza! Whatever you celebrate this December, we're honoring you and the ones you love with our 25 Days of Christmas extravaganza. Every day through December 25th we will offer either a free gift or an exclusive item, such as a rare deck of playing cards. Offers are limited to one day only. To take part, just be sure you're subscribed to our newsletter.I'm personally not much interested in fancy decks of cards—I do my card tricks the old-fashioned way, using Bicycle Rider back cards from the U.S. Playing Card Company. But if, for example, you're a fan of Neil Patrick Harris (who also does magic in addition to being able to sing, dance, act, emcee, etc. and so on) then you might find this special deck interesting.NPH Playing Cards ($10.00)Neil Patrick Harris Playing Cards are elegant, intricate, and visually stunning. Every aspect was handcrafted with relentless, unrivaled attention to detail. With a combination of artistic influences, NPH Playing Cards are a tribute to Neil's love of mystery, magic, games, and theater. The cards feature a custom Ace of Spades, Joker, box design, and modified court card typography. Even the inside of the box has a custom, elegant gold foil pattern. Printed by the U.S. Playing Card Co.My favorite part of the site, and where I've spent my money, is the section on "curiosities." Here you will find items from the modest to the lavish, and several of these have a chance of ending up on my shelves. These folks really know how to make their products sound interesting:3D Card Star $8.00Behold the magnificent twelve card star, a stellar explosion of geometry in three dimensions. Created by Professor George W. Hart, co-founder of the Museum of Mathematics in New York City. Once assembled, the dozen pre-cut playing cards included will lock together to create a 5.5" tall starburst. A thought provoking sculpture to display on your coffee table or hang from your ceiling.Dymaxion Folding Globe $15.00Explore the geometry of earth with this handheld magnetic folding globe. Inspired by the work of famed architect, Buckminster Fuller, the Dymaxion globe is accurate even when unfolded and laid flat on the table. Designed by Brendan Ravenhill for Areaware.Paper Zoetrope $12.00Create your own moving pictures with this simple animation kit. The zoetrope first gained popularity in the 1860s yet this optical illusion is no less fascinating today. Illustrated strips magically come to life when viewed inside the spinning drum. Six sets of images are included but you can also follow the patterns to design some animations of your own.Handmade Praxinoscope $195.00Rediscover the magic of animation with this vintage optical toy. Invented by Charles Reynaud in 1877, the praxinoscope utilizes a rotating drum and a series of mirrors to create brilliant moving pictures. This mesmerizing instrument is constructed from copper and wood. 8 illustrated paper strips are included to create a variety different animations. Measures 8" wide by 11" tall. Curiosity Box $65.00This box is full of potential epiphanies—puzzles, illusions, and amusements designed to reward the curious mind. Some may not reveal their true beauty easily but that's the nature of any satisfying mystery. If you delight in the surprise of these rare novelties, remember—the best thing to do with curiosity is to share it. Limited Edition of 200.They make a good pitch for their products, don't they? Even if you don't want to purchase anything, the site has a blogof entertaining entries with articles on optical illusions, puzzles, and magic tricks. So that's where I'm doing some of my holiday shopping. I really really want that Praxinoscope! Hint, hint … I hope my wife is reading this. Helloooooooo?

Besides being an editor at Boing Boing, I'm also an editor at Cool Tools. Cool Tools has an annual gift guide, and it's worth sharing. It's got felt guitar picks, stainless steel can insulators, mushroom coffee, hand-crank coffee grinders, cast aluminum kitty litter scoops, and much, much more. (I'm also sharing Boing Boing's gift guide with Cool Tools readers.)Check out Cool Tools' gift guide here.

Apple -- which is one of the multinational poster children for tax dodging, along with Google, Amazon, Ikea and others -- has billions of dollars "offshore" and in theory they can't bring that money into the USA without paying tax on it; but thanks to some fancy accounting, much of that money is sunk into US Treasury Bills (floated by the government Apple is starving through tax evasion), and the US taxpayers pay Apple, about $600M so far. (more…)

The Mirai worm made its way into information security lore in September, when it was identified as the source of the punishing flood of junk traffic launched against Brian Krebs in retaliation for his investigative reporting about a couple of petty Israeli criminals; subsequent analysis showed Mirai to be amateurish and clumsy, and despite this, it went on to infect devices all over the world, gaining virulence as it hybridized with other Internet of Things worms, endangering entire countries, growing by leaps and bounds, helped along by negligent engineering practices at major companies like Sony. (more…)

The Black Friday Mac Bundle 2.0 is one of the Boing Boing Store’s best-selling Mac bundles yet, and it’s about to come to an end. If you don’t get your copy now, here’s what you’ll be missing:This bundle comes packing 9 top-rated Mac apps in one package, at the hugely discounted price of just $23.99. For less than the price of one of these apps, you get all nine. Included in the bundle are:PDF Expert 2.0 for Mac - This 2015 App of the Year will boost your productivity by removing the pain of working with PDFs. It lets you edit PDF text, images, links, and outlines quickly and easily—right in the PDF document itself.CrossOver 15 - If you game on a PC, but use a Mac for everything else, this app will be a game-changer. It lets you run PC games and apps, while still operating on your Mac desktop.MainMenu Pro - With MainMenu, you’ll be able to keep your Mac in good shape even as it gets older. Free up disk space, run maintenance scripts, clean up your system, fix common disk problems, and much more. With these and six additional apps, The Black Friday Mac Bundle 2.0 is definitely a solid investment for your Mac. Just don’t wait too long to snap it up: this is the last day for this extended Black Friday pricing.Also check out the Boing Boing Store's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide to treat yourself or someone close to you.

Boing BoingHere's a guide to the charities the Boingers support in our own annual giving. Please add the causes and charities you give to in the forums!Planned ParenthoodBecause we deserve health care, including reproductive, gender, and sexual health care. Because access to birth control and safe abortion is a human right. Because Trump's regime wants to destroy all of this. —XJElectronic Frontier FoundationEver since its landmark 1992 lawsuit over civilian access to strong cryptography, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been fighting governments around the world in the fight over whether the internet is a tool for dialog and innovation around the world, or a nightmarish system for control and censorship. Trump just inherited the surveillance infrastructure that GW Bush built and Obama operationalized it -- a surveillance apparatus that EFF is already suing to end. There has never been more EFF moment than this one. —CDCreative CommonsCreative Commons is best known as a tool for sharing-friendly artists, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Since the beginngin, and all over the world, CC has provided governments, agencies, research and scholarly institutions and NGOs with the tools to easily share across borders and the bewildering array of copyright laws. We can't beat trumpism without collaboration tools, and that includes legal tools. —CDWikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)If "post-truth" is the 2016's word of the year, then Wikipedia's moment has arrived. For 15 years, Wikipedia has been figuring out how to negotiate truth among diverse and even warring points of view. It's not always pretty and it's not always nice, but no one's yet found a better way to let ideas bash against each other until something everyone agrees upon emerges. —CDHuman Rights Data Analysis GroupFor more than twenty-five years, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) has held heads of state accountable for human rights violations, and they'll continue in the United States under our new President. They analyze data collected by human rights workers using cutting-edge methods from computer science and statistics. Those scientific results bring clarity to human rights violence and support the fight for justice. We have challenging times ahead of us to hold our president-elect accountable-- recall that during the campaign, President-elect Trump promised to order US forces to commit torture, and to bomb the families of suspected insurgents. Both actions would be war crimes. We will continue to stand for justice for the victims of human rights violations. Facts do matter. And all leaders, around the world, must to be held to account for their actions.Institute for the FutureThere are no facts about the future, only fictions. As we've learned in this election, nothing is certain about tomorrow. But even as our attention is captured by the present, we can begin to write the story to come. A place to start is the Institute for the Future's Future for Good fellowship. Institute for the Future, where Mark and David are researchers, is a 50-year-old nonprofit that helps the public think about the future to make better decisions in the present. The Fellowship directly supports inspiring social innovators who are working to make tomorrow a better place. You can help too. Make a donation of $100 and you’ll receive our new limited edition Future Now ‘zine and a custom enamel pin that Mark designed!The National Wildlife FederationNational Wildlife Federation is a voice for wildlife, dedicated to protecting wildlife and habitat and inspiring the future generation of conservationists. Now's the time: the shortlist for our new Secretary of the Interior is reportedly Sarah Palin and Forrest Lucas, an "advocate of trophy hunting and puppy mills ... who never met a case of animal exploitation he wouldn’t defend." — RBThe Marine Mammal CenterWhen seals, sea lion, or many other sea going pals need help, if they get lucky, they may be taken to The Marine Mammal Center, a veterinary hospital just for them. Thousands of heartbreakingly cute, but very wild, animals are rescued, rehabilitated and released on an annual basis. I'm a volunteer. In addition to the hundreds of highly trained volunteers that make the hospital run, the center always needs cash for fish and medicine. —JWThe Southern Poverty Law Center & the Anti-Defamation LeagueThe Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defemation League fight hate, teach tolerance, and help secure justice, and fair treatment for all. "There is no 'them' and 'us.' There is only us." --Greg Boyle —JWFacing History and OurselvesFacing History and Ourselves is an international educational group that helps young people study issues around racism, antisemitism, and prejudice in history, from the Holocaust to today's immigrant experiences to the killing fields of Cambodia. Their aim is to teach young people "to think critically, to empathize, to recognize moral choices, to make their voices heard, we put in their hands the possibility--and the responsibility--to do the serious work demanded of us all as citizens." —DPFree Software Foundation/Defective By DesignThe Free Software Foundation's principled litigation, license creation and campaigning is fierce, uncompromising and has changed the world. You interact with code that they made possible a million times a day, and they never stop working to make sure that the code stays free. —CDFree Software Foundation EuropeSoftware has eaten the world, and software freedom is increasingly synonymous with human freedom. In Europe, far-right parties and authoritarians are inheriting a constellation of gadgets and devices that are "defective by design," built to allow corporations spy on and control their owners -- and those thugs are contemplating how they can use those companies' extraordinary powers to put whole populations under their thumbs. Free softwar in Europe, free software everywhere! —CDThe Internet Archive: In an era where the control of information has been weaponized, the Internet Archive's mission -- universal access to all human knowledge -- is a revolutionary manifesto. The Archive isn't screwing around: they're siting a copy of their data in Canada to resist trumpian grabs and spying. —CDOpen Rights GroupFor Britons, 2016 was the year of Brexit, and while we were all fighting about Brexit, Theresa May's Tory government passed the most intrusive surveillance bill in the history of modern democracies. It's a longstanding joke that the gnomes of Westminster Village think that Nineteen Eighty-Four was a manual for statecraft, but the joke is getting less funny by the second. ORG is a decade old: spunky, going though a timely growth spurt, and badly needed. —CDAmnesty InternationalI just looked up Amnesty's founding principles and found tears rolling down my cheeks: "Only when the last prisoner of conscience has been freed, when the last torture chamber has been closed, when the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a reality for the world’s people, will our work be done." 2016 is a year when these values need our support more than ever. —CDACLUOn November 9, ACLU changed its homepage to a picture of Trump superimposed with the words SEE YOU IN COURT. ACLU's deep bench of kick-ass lawyers has been lately augmented by a much-needed group of freedom-fighting technologists, welded into the fighting force we'll need for the next four years and beyond: from voter suppression to free speech, the ACLU is key to the fight. —CDLibertyWith the UK plunging into surveillance dystopia where human rights are an afterthought and racial profiling is becoming official doctrine, it needs Liberty, an organisation with 80+ years' track record fighting for human rights in many incarnations of the British project. The Tories ran on a platform of repealing the Human Rights Act: when the government is officially anti "human rights," you need someone like Liberty to take the "pro" side. —CD 826 NationalBorn in San Francisco’s Mission District in the back room of a piratesupply store, 826 National teaches young people the art and magic ofcreative writing through classes, DIY publishing projects, in-schoolprograms, and drop-in tutoring at seven centers around the US. And it’sall free for the kids. Help open more 826 locations around the country! —DPFight for the FutureSome of the Internet's savviest, hard-working-est activists. Fight forthe Future is in all the Internet fights, kicking ass on Net Neutrality -- a fight that's back on in 2017, thanks Trump -- mass surveillance and justice for Chelsea Manning.DemandProgressAaron Swartz co-founded Demand Progress, and as you'd expect from thathistory, they're relentless in reinventing the activist playbook for the21st century. MySocietySoftware in the public interest -- it's a damned good idea. MySociety produces software like Pledgebank ("I will risk arrest by refusing to register for a UK ID card if 100,000 other Britons will also do it") and TheyWorkForYou (every word and deed by every Member of Parliament). It's plumbing for activists and community organizers. —CD

Shivan, a computer science student in Montreal, applied for a job at Amazon; the second round interview was conducted remotely by a proctor from an online service called Proctor U who insisted that Shivan install a remote-access trojan on his computer that let the proctor completely control his machine; then he was made to use the camera on his laptop to give the proctor a view of his room and all the things in it (with the proctor barking orders at him to shift his belonging around to give a better view. (more…)

Publio Delgado provides jazz guitar accompaniment to an advertisement for Jones Big ASS Truck Rental & Storage: "In my yard, I don't care!"Here's the original, which now seems naked and bereft of wonder:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0gb9v4LI4oSee also Publio's accompaniment to a lady's unwise attempt to eat a hot pepper raw:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuIiYOgtEuYBest, though, is his accompaniment to The Cat That Says No:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSZlyNGj3dg

Arthur Boycott borrowed a copy of Dr William B Carpenter's The Microscope and its Revelations from Hereford Library in 1886 or thereabouts. His granddaughter, Alice Gillett, just returned it. The £7,446 late fine was waived, reports the BBC. Mrs Gillett discovered the book while she was sorting through a collection of 6,000 books following the death of her husband earlier this year. On discovering the HCS library stamp inside the book, Mrs Gillett, who lives near Taunton, decided to return it."I can't imagine how the school has managed without it," she said.Photo: HEREFORD CATHEDRAL SCHOOL