Donald Trump said Lester Holt, tonight's debate moderator, was a Democrat. Holt is in fact a Republican. Leaving aside why Trump assumed he was a Democrat, when called on this mistake, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway gave this response: (more…)

Joey Alexander picked up jazz at six, dedicated his childhood to jazz at 8, and won a major international competition at 9. Here he is playing City Lights from his latest album. (more…)

Want to get Cool Tools' Recomendo a week early in your inbox? Sign up for the Sunday newsletter here.Game:Google Feud is a game that challenges you to guess the top ten Google autocompletes for a particular word or term. For instance, the game might prompt you with “my friend is addicted to” and you have to fill in the rest of the query. (FYI, the top ten autocompletes for this example are weed, her phone, drugs, coke, pills, drama, oxycodone, crack, anime, and alcohol.) — Mark Frauenfelder Stuff:Over the years, I’ve had to buy a variety of bras for different types of dresses and tops (racerback, backless, strapless, etc.), but the most useful purchase I’ve made has been Nippies. I’ve had these for a couple years now. They are washable, reusable and so comfortable I forget I have them on. — Claudia LamarTip:Before buying something on Amazon, enter the URL for the product at fakespot.com. This free service will analyze how many shill reviewers have rated a product, and award a “Fakespot Grade” from A to F. A low grade doesn’t necessarily mean a product is bad, it just means you shouldn’t take the reviews and user ratings into consideration when making your decision to buy something. — MF Tool:I’m trying out Splash, a cool free experimental photo search engine from 500Pixels. You sketch the rough contours of a photo you seek in color, and it will display two dozen images that “match” your sketch. The match is mostly in color, mood, and rough shapes, but it does present you with some interesting images, all licensable. — Kevin KellyReadables:A long time ago, after a bad breakup I read If the Buddha Dated by Charlotte Kasi. By the time I had finished the book, it was covered in notes and dog-eared pages, and I felt healed and ready to move on. Now, as a newlywed, I am enjoying listening to If the Buddha Married on Audible. So many great insights and communication tips. — CLStuff:All my dress shirts are now “Non-Iron” cotton material. I don’t know how this stuff works, but the ones I clumsily fold into my luggage, will unwrinkle shortly after I put them on. I use Non-Iron Oxford shirts from Land’s End and L.L. Bean, but most clothing brands seem to carry them. Eagle brand Non-Iron shirts are popular on Amazon. — KK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8os-nKuoM3o&feature=youtu.beRobbo sez, "Jonathan Pie, preeminent UK political satirist, takes on British media and their role in declaring newly re-elected Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn 'unelectable'. Pie destroys the outrageous un-democratic media bias that has hounded Corbyn throughout his time as Labour leader and does so with his usual outstanding, hilarious, enraged and profane style."

When Wells Fargo fired 5,300 employees for opening 2,000,000 accounts in its customers name (stealing their cash and trashing their credit scores in the process), it wanted us all to know that it had cleaned house, because this was just 5,300 people who, without any help from senior management, all happened to coincidentally engage in the same fraud. (more…)

The National Economic Council convened a symposium at NYU's Information Law Institute in July, and they've released their report: 25 crisp (if slightly wonky) pages on how AI could increase inequality, erode accountability, and lead us into temptation -- along with recommendations for how to prevent this, from involving marginalized and displaced people in AI oversight; to increasing the diversity of AI researchers; to modifying the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Digital Millennium Copyright Act to clarify that neither stands in the way of independent auditing of AI systems. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0V3MNAXQUThe cast of Hamilton joined with the New York Deaf theater in a video that is pure amazeballs. (more…)

I have just replaced my first set of Envelop AA batteries, ten years after I bought them. Around 10-12 years ago I was I doing a lot of underwater photography. High capacity, low-static-discharge AA batteries were pretty new, but an absolute must for digital strobes. I'd swap 2 sets of 4 in each one of my UW strobes almost every other dive, as blasting tons of light around the bottom of the sea takes a lot of juice. Sanyo's Eneloop batteries were the only really choice. Low Self-Discharge batteries are pretty amazing. Not only do Eneloops hold their charge if not used for up to 10 years, but the fact that they discharge while not in use so incredibly slowly means the batteries also stay healthy much, much longer. Whenever one starts to get a bit flakey, I run a refresh cycle on my charger. After a decade, finally, a few have shorted out.Over time I stopped diving as much, and Panasonic bought Sanyo. My batteries started to be used for everything around the house. I've had them in remote controlled cars, planes, head-sets, remote controls, flash-lights... you name it. These AA's were in constant service for nearly 10 years. Of the 16 I originally purchased, 8 are still in service and charge up to 1988 mAh. Eneloops are pretty amazing!Panasonic BK-3MCCA8BA Eneloop AA 2100 Cycle Ni-MH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries (Pack of 8) via Amazon

If you own a dog, you've most likely heard of BarkBox - the monthly subscription box for dogs. What started as a simple idea to try out the subscription model on pet owners has since developed a cult following of dog lovers. If you haven't given it a try yet, this one month free deal is the perfect excuse to treat your dog.Here's how it works: each month, BarkBox ships a box full of goods straight to your front door—all you have to do is tell them the size of your dog, and they’ll do the rest. Each box comes packed with five or more products ranging from toys and all-natural treats to hygiene products to specially designed stuffed animals. Some of the boxes we've received have included Bully Flakes from Barkworthies, Herban Essential Pet Towelettes, and Primal Freeze-Dried Liver Munchies, to name a few.But the best part is, BarkBox supports the nearly 7 million animals entering shelters every year by donating a portion of all their proceeds to animals in need. With this special deal from the Boing Boing Store, you’ll get a full month free with a 6-month or 12-month membership.

D10D3 built this "cyberdeck" on a C64c (a modern recreation of the Commmodore 64) with a Raspberry Pi CPU, VGA port, and all the I/O you could ask for (USB/Bluetooth/wifi/Ethernet). (more…)

Beth Jacobson was a Wells Fargo loan officer who blew the whistle on the bank's predatory, racist loan-fraud in the runup to the 2008 financial crisis, which tanked the world's economy and nearly wiped out Wells Fargo (they were rescued with a $36B taxpayer-funded bailout). (more…)

Eli Livingston's $23 viynl Big Chap bank is a beaut (I bought one last week when I saw it in person in a store): the whole sculpt is awesome, but the tinted/clear-plastic brain-casing is just the best. (more…)

Writer/artist Ingrid Burrington has published a book called Networks of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide to Urban Internet Infrastructure, which sketches the physical extrusions of the internet into New York City's streets and buildings, and makes especial note of how much of that infrastructure has been built as part of the post 9/11 surveillance network that NYC has erected over the past 15 years. (more…)

Pteryxx writes, "Writer who has spent 30+ years in solitary has his own published writing censored from reaching him - and his unpublished manuscript was destroyed in moving him to a different facility. " (more…)

This wonderful little video by Randy Olson lays out one argument for why as a public political speaker, Donald Trump is perceived to be such a crowd-pleaser, and Hillary Clinton gets weaker scores. It's all about narrative design. (more…)

A team working with our video director genius friend Joe Sabia created this video for Glamour, that calculates the difference in total time that men and women spend, on average, on a variety of everyday activities. (more…)

Part of an ongoing series by weird chart-maker Scott Bateman; link to today's edition.

$3.98 gets you this flexible, grippy camera tripod plus bluetooth remote, GoPro adapter, and smartphone holder. Use code ADJ758YT on Amazon. I just ordered one and Amazon says it'll arrive on September 25.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.The Pet Dragon by Christopher NiemannGreenwillow Books2008, 40 pages, 9 x 11.8 x 0.4 inches (hardcover)$16 Buy a copy on AmazonChinese characters are wonderfully expressive, straddling the fine line between the written word and illustration. Esteemed graphic designer and picture book creator Christoph Niemann realized as much with The Pet Dragon, a whimsical story about a Chinese girl who raises a baby dragon to adulthood. In his introduction to the book, Niemann states that he had fun imagining connections between the calligraphic characters and their meanings. Reading the book, it’s clear that the author has a love of his subject and was very much enjoying himself.The story is straightforward. A young Chinese girl named Lin receives a baby dragon who grows too quickly to stay in her home. After breaking a vase, Lin’s father condemns the baby dragon to its cage. The wily dragon escapes, leading Lin on a quest to find her beloved pet. Niemann enriches his tale by transposing Chinese characters on top of his illustrations to demonstrate the relationship between each symbol and what it represents. A forest is shown as a series of trees with the symbol for tree superimposed on them, the curving lines below indicating the roots and the extended lines at the top stretching outward for the branches. The upraised slashes and crossed lines in the symbol for father become the raised eyebrows and nose on his face, while the character denoting mountain has its three upward prongs displayed over a towering mountain range. The story concludes with the twin calligraphic symbols denoting the word friend displayed atop the reunited Lin and the titular dragon.Niemann’s artwork is clean and modernist in style, and his novel approach to integrating expressive, ebullient images with the sparse, minimalist strokes of traditional calligraphy proves both endearing and effective. Although this is a book that can be read quickly, the reader should also take time to examine and enjoy the interplay between pictures and meaning that the author meticulously constructs.– Lee Hollman

My friend, Mrs. Homegrown of Root Simple, looks at sleep mattresses filled with sand.Recently a friend and frequent Root Simple commenter who goes by the handle “P” here, sent us an intriguing note. Like us, she lives in the Los Angeles area, and like us, she’s been obsessed with the idea of a mattress alternative for a while. Then she got a lead on an exciting bed option, and she shared it with us, saying basically, “I know this couple that you have to meet. They’ve made a bed out of sand!”So we went to meet Michael Garcia and Stephanie Wing-Garcia and their sand mattress. They live just a few minutes from our house, in a big, sunny apartment full of beautiful things–and they sleep on a king sized bed which consists of a low wooden platform, a pair of twin-sized canvas mattress casings filled with ground white marble sand, which in turn are topped by an inch thick natural latex mat and a layer of sheepskin.They love their bed. The idea for it came them in a flash of inspiration, and it has changed their lives. Stephanie credits the bed with healing the excruciating chronic back pain which she’d been suffering from for seven years.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/183848557Timeshares are so awful that there are companies that you get you can hire to help you get out of the timeshare you were intimidated into buying. This video is an ad for timeshareexitteam, which compares the cost of a timeshare to just taking a vacation in a hotel.

Rakeyia Scott, the wife of recent police shooting victim Keith L. Scott, recorded a video on her cell phone just before and after the fatal shooting of her husband by police in Charlotte, N.C. The New York Times obtained the video from attorneys for the Scott family. It includes graphic violence of a man being killed by police, and strong language. (more…)

Rarely do I hear "Oh, awesome!" when I hand my daughter a book. David Scarfe's Geeky LEGO Crafts also elected squeals of delight. Packed with projects like building your own Space Invaders, and a cassette tape, Geeky LEGO Crafts immediately led us to dragging out a few tubs of LEGO and to get snapping! The directions are great, and easy to follow. We especially enjoy the Tetrix fridge magnets!Geeky LEGO Crafts by David Scarfe via Amazon

Google is downranking websites that use pejorative, racist terms like n*gger, so the awful people of 4chan and /pol/ are replacing that word with "google." (more…)

Three gentleman were allowed to resign from their jobs after they were accused of forcing a 19-year-old man to eat marijuana. The gentlemen's names are Richard G. Pina, Jason E. McFadden, and Michael J. Carnicle, and they were all Phoenix Police Department officers. The officers' superior, Lt. Jeff Farrior, was told about the incident but chose not to investigate. For this, he was demoted to the position of sergeant. From USA Today:All three officers had been wearing body cameras but they were turned off at the time, he said.The 19-year-old, a Phoenix resident, brought the matter to the department's attention, Yahner said. The man reported that several officers stopped him for a traffic violation at about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 13. The officers were reported to have found marijuana in his vehicle during the stop, [Phoenix Police Chief Joe] Yahner said.When the marijuana was found, the man told police, officers demanded he eat the marijuana to avoid being taken to jail, Yahner said. The man said he ate about a gram of marijuana, was issued traffic tickets and then released. He reported being sick as a result.

A 12-year-old Australian boy accused of twice raping a six-year-old girl in a school restroom has had his bail conditions amended so he can take a vacation with his family.Via The Independent:The boy is accused of raping the girl twice in separate attacks and is further accused of indecently assaulting her three further times with the other 12-year-old boy.The boys were arrested at Chatswood Police Station on 30 August and suspended from school when police were alerted by the girl’s parents to the incident after it took place.The boy has been charged with three counts of aggravated indecency in company, two counts of sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10 and one count of indecent assault.

Princeton University psych prof Susan Fiske published an open letter denouncing the practice of using social media to call out statistical errors in psychology research, describing the people who do this as "terrorists" and arguing that this was toxic because of the structure of social science scholarship, having an outsized effect on careers. (more…)

Star Citizen is an epic game development project, crowdfunded to the tune of $124m (million!) and directed by industry legend Chris Roberts. But whether it'll end up an epic game remains unclear, as endless feature creep, ambition and internal rancor see the project enter its fifth year. While Roberts was bothering his devs to add multiple layers of clothing to the game, each with different fabric properties, David Braben was shipping Elite 4 to hungry star pilots. (more…)

Robert Croucher owns Hatton & Berkeley, a firm that sent "speculative invoices" to people it accused of illegally downloading the Robert Redford movie "The Company You Keep" -- letters so egregious that Lord Lucas described the company as "scammers" and the letters as "extortion," urging Britons to "put them in the bin." (more…)

Yesterday's disciplinary board hearing for imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning ended with Manning being sentenced to 14 days' worth of solitary confinement, with 7 of the days "suspended" unless there is another infraction. (more…)

One interesting annoyance of my gender transition was the surprise that many jackets and pants for women do not have functional pockets. Chelsea Summers delves into the politicized history of this phenomenon: (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAFvGrOwVugThe Guardian's released the first of "The Vagina Dispatches," four short documentaries about women's genitals. This episode is about vulvas, labiaplasty, anatomy, and sex, and is a fascinating 15 minutes. NSFW, if you work somewhere where images of vulvas are frowned upon. (Thanks, Mae!)

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson makes his case for why he should be included in the forthcoming debates with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican millionaire Donald Trump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZZQ28YZXSEHigh-end printers began decorating the edges of books as the craft developed, including dyeing and gilding the edges, but in the 17th century, artisans began creating fore-edge paintings that could only be seen when books were fanned. Below is another example: (more…)

Frontline's forthcoming documentary about millionaire Donald Trump's bid for the presidency airs next week; the trailer's embedded above. Here's a completely normal, not at all crazy line from Trump supporter Omarosa:“Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”The Presidency Part 45: The Ultimate Revenge.

The skydiving video genre is rife with energy drink ad clichés, so "Strings Attached" by Johannes Bergfors feels very calming. The divers do some innovative formations as well, and Bergfors' camera work is really nice. (more…)

YouTuber Die Struktur created the first rotating cat automaton that paints to musical accompaniment. Now, instead of "my kid could paint that," idiots can say "my maneki-neko on a turntable could paint that." (more…)

This is very sad and infuriating. A 15-year-old girl from Hagerstown, Maryland was riding her bike and collided with a car. When police arrived they told her an ambulance was going to take her to the hospital. She didn't want to go. She got back on her bike, but before she could get away, an officer grabbed her from behind. The next thing you know, she was roughed up, cuffed, put in the back of a patrol car, and then pepper sprayed. Instead of taking her to the hospital, the officers took her to the police station for interrogation. (more…)

Reddit user 0039 tricked a Nigerian scammer into donating $20 to a Los Angeles food bank.

Everything went according to planSometimes the crime is the punishment.

The World Wide Web Consortium has embarked upon an ill-advised project to standardize Digital Rights Management (DRM) for video at the behest of companies like Netflix; in so doing, they are, for the first time, making a standard whose implementations will be covered under anti-circumvention laws like Section 1201 of the DMCA, which makes it a potential felony to reveal defects in products without the manufacturer's permission. (more…)

An image identified as a scanned copy of U.S. first lady Michelle Obama’s passport was published online today by "DC Leaks," along with personal emails associated with a man identified as a “low-level White House staffer who worked with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.” (more…)

I have some solar-powered copper string lights on our front gate. It's a great way for friends and drivers to find us on our unlighted street in the Hollywood Hills. I just bought this AC-powered, remote-controlled string of 100 LEDs on a 33-foot-long strand. It was $12 on Amazon using code JKL3AOUU.

Calyx is a famous, heroic, radical ISP that has been involved in groundbreaking litigation -- they were the first company to ever get a secret Patriot Act warrant unsealed, fighting for 11 years to overturn the gag order. (more…)

Yahoo today confirmed that it suffered a massive data breach that exposed information for at least 500 million user accounts in 2014. If you have a Yahoo account, the company says you should review all your online accounts for any suspicious activity. (more…)

Drinky Crow Drinks Again by Tony MillionaireFantagraphics2016, 128 pages, 10.8 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches (hardcover)$19 Buy a copy on AmazonCaptain Maak (captain of the ship), Uncle Gabby (the Irish monkey), Gunslinger Jesus, Phoebe Bird, and everyone’s favorite violent, binge-drinking, suicidal avian anti-hero, Drinky Crow, are all back and more beautifully bizarre than ever in Maakies: Drinky Crow Drinks Again. From the confident, well informed, but often fevered hand of well-known American weekly comic strip artist Tony Millionaire, comes this new Fantagraphics landscape hardback collecting recent syndicated strips (along with some additional material). The book is as handsome as you’d expect, coming from this artist and this publisher (even if it’s the first Maakies collection not designed by Chip Kidd).You never know what you’re going to get from Tony Millionaire, but you know it will never be boring and it will always be beautifully rendered. Even more so than most, Millionaire’s comic strips feel like you’re mainlining the author’s own insane membrane, watching him think out loud and exorcising his demons with pen and ink on paper. The incredibly meticulous old-school draftsmanship, the many allusions to old comic strips and classic art, lots of clever twists and brilliant pay-offs, strips that dead end, and ones that go completely off the rails, often ending in violence or suicide – it’s not always the smoothest ride, but it’s one you’re compelled to take, even if just for the gorgeous scenery. Luckily, Tony Millionaire, Maakies, and Drinky Crow have far more riches to offer than that.

“I’m going to kill this motherfucker.” That's what St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley was recorded saying to his partner Brian Bianchi while they were chasing drug suspect Anthony Lamar Smith in his car. Stockley kept his word. Once they stopped Smith, Officer Stockley shot him five times, killing him. Now, newly released video shows Officer Stockley rummaging through a duffel bag in the back of his police SUV, then entering Smith's car. Officer Stockley said he found a gun in Smith's car, but the only DNA found on the gun belonged to Officer Stockley.Officer Stockley was charged with first degree murder. From NY Daily NewsProsecutors have not accused Stockley of planting the firearm that he says Smith has, and told KTVI "The people of the City of St. Louis have a right to determine whether the State has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The courtroom is the appropriate forum for this matter."Stockley has been released on $1 million bail and a hearing for his case is set for Oct. 3.Smith's daughter reached a $900,000 settlement with the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners in 2013.

The sign in front of Treats Family Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlor in Lonsdale, Minnesota advertises its tasty food and also says "Muslims get out." Owner Dan Ruedinger says he means Muslims "extremists" but his sign wasn't big enough to add that part. Folks are flocking to Treats' Facebook page to let Ruedinger know what they think. (more…)

This truck is loading some large pipes onto a barge. The barge slowly slides away, and the truck and its load slowly sink into the water, as a man on shore slowly captures the accident on his phone.