Filmmaker Michel Gondry shot a video for an old White Stripes' track "City Lights," without telling Jack White or Third Man Records, and surprised them with it last week. The just-finished track is included on the new collection Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998 - 2016."City Lights" was written for The White Stripes' GET BEHIND ME SATAN but then forgotten until White revisited the 2005 album for Third Man's Record Store Day 2015 vinyl reissue and finished the recording in 2016. The track is the first new, worldwide commercially released song by The White Stripes since 2008.

The Donald J Trump Foundation raised a lot of other peoples' money and spent it on things that benefited Trump, while allowing the Republican presidential candidate to falsely claim to have made enormous, public spirited donations. (more…)

Reddit user rykahn confirms that there is no lock on the door of the Existential Toilet they chanced across this weekend, where one is always alone yet fully empowered by the cold vastness of the universe. [via CrappyDesign]

In Digital discrimination: Political bias in Internet service provision across ethnic groups (Sci-hub mirror), a new paper in Science, political scientists from the Universityof Konstanz and elsewhere document the practice of "ethnic favoritism" in internet provision, through which autocratic regimes use telcoms policies to discriminate against opposition groups. (more…)

47 grackles fell from the heavens on the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston this weekend, with at least 32 dead. Two cats who ate the remains also ran out of lives.City officials have sent the dead grackles, which are a type of songbird that travels in flocks, to Tufts University to help determine the cause of death. It is currently unclear whether the birds perished due to a virus, some sort of environmental pollution or intentional poisoning. Test results are expected next week.“We don’t know what is going on,” John Meaney of the city of Boston’s Inspectional Services told NECN. “So we are investigating all avenues.”Local resident Willien Pugh told the Boston Herald that his cat Sally B was found dying on the back porch as deceased birds fell from the sky.“We took the cat from outside and we thought it was a girl so we named it Sally – then when we took it to the vet, we found out it was a boy, so we started calling her Sally B,” Pugh said. “Real good cat.”47 Grackles is my new mid-2000s-style productivity blog-cum-punk band. [Photo: MDF]

Phil from Adafruit sez, "Adafruit released and shipped one of the only maker/hacker subscription boxes." (more…)

Gene Wilder's death reminded me of the lovely 2008 interview Wilder did for the Legends series about Marty Feldman. Most Americans associate Feldman with his film roles, but he had a long career in UK radio and later in television before moving on to Hollywood. (more…)

You'll either love or hate this cut of 2001: A Space Odyssey set to Tame Impala's song "Eventually." No middle ground. (more…)

The U.K. organization Clinic Compare has created a set of GIFs that replicate the experience of being colorblind. Far from just seeing the world in black and white, it turns out there are a whole bunch of different types of colorblindness. Here’s some of the ways the condition can manifest:[via Mic]

There are plenty of web series about twentysomethings trying to make it in L.A. But few of them center on witches. That’s the twist of Bwitches, a new web series created by and starring Johanna Middleton and Martine Moore. Billed as a cross between Broad City and Bewitched, the series follows roommates/witches Reese and Maddie as they grapple with Hollywood sexism, annoying day jobs, and the frustrations of dating. But, hey, at least they have magic on their side. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQn0wvuLEPwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt3cFFQfywEThere are five episodes in the show's first season. You can find them all on YouTube or the Bwitches website.

None of these sandwiches are actually that unfamiliar, but watching kids try new foods for the first time is awfully adorable.

This image depicts the most commonly-found stylesheet colors on the web's top sites—Paul Hebert did an amazing amount of analysis and this is just one of the intriguing visualizations he came up with.Most of these are obvious staples, especially HTML red and blue, though it's interesting how far the blue "cluster" is from the default blue hue, whereas the red cluster merely modifies the saturation and lightness. This might be influenced by various "studies" of the most effective link color.The odd thing is the popularity of #d2b48c (triggered by the "Tan" HTML color name), which appears to be the single most popular nonblack color after #0000FF (HTML Blue) and #FF0000 (HTML Red). Google uses it somewhere (though I don't see it) Is everyone just following the leader?UPDATE: Hebert explains the Tan thing in the comments.

PDFs can be extremely frustrating when you need to sign a document or make a small edit. That's why we swear by PDF Expert 2.0 for Mac—the app that lets you finally edit PDFs directly.With this convenient app, you can alter text, images, links, and outlines, without having to convert your PDFs into Word documents. In fact, you can even type directly onto PDF forms, annotate with a variety of tools, merge PDFs, and sign documents without a hitch. You’ll never have to print and scan a document ever again.PDF Expert 2.0 has even won numerous awards and accolades, including 2015 App of the Year Runner Up in the App Store, Top Paid App in the App Store, and Apple Editors’ Choice. So if you’re ready to upgrade your digital life, we can’t recommend PDF Expert 2.0 for Mac enough. It's now available in the Boing Boing Store for 50% off—just $29.99.

On Friday, Facebook started deleting posts containing "The Terror of War," Nick Ut's photo depicting a young Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm attack on her village; Facebook approach this photo with a scorched earth (ahem) policy, even deleting it when it was posted by the Prime Minister of Norway. (more…)

Dmitry Zakharchenko, the deputy head of the Energy Industry Department of the General Administration of Economic Security and Combating the Corruption, also had €2m in cash. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmWKteYc-qs&feature=youtu.beMagicpeacelove writes, "Magician Ben Seidman wields his cards with elan to nail down the facts about why Trump would be such a great leader."

A day after describing half of Donald Trump's supporters as "deplorables," Hillary Clinton is apologizing, reports the BBC. US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has apologised for calling half of Donald Trump's supporters "deplorable" people.But the Democrat launched a furious attack on her Republican opponent and promised to keep fighting "bigotry and racist rhetoric".Mr Trump had responded by saying the comment was "insulting" to "millions of amazing, hard working people".Opinion polls suggest Mr Trump is gaining on Mrs Clinton.It's a plain fact that many of Trump's supporters are racist, sexist and homophobic, that his campaign has energized the support of white nationalist groups in particular. One in five of his followers think the emancipation of the slaves was a mistake.Here's what she said: To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call 'the basket of deplorables.' Right?" the Democratic presidential nominee told donors at the event. "Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric."American media, particularly major newspapers and television news, cultivate the false balance that's required to make insulting these people a political misstep, and the false equivalence to cast it all as a horse race between two equally undesirable nags. But equivocating like this after a moment of plain speaking is an exemplary Hillary mistake:How very sad.

Raspberry Pi is the microcomputer revolutionizing computer science and programming across the globe. Apart from being super fun to build projects like robots and RC cars with, Raspberry Pi is also an interactive way to learn to program. There's no better time than the present to start tinkering with Raspberry Pi, as they recently released the new and improved version 3. The Boing Boing store is even offering a full Raspberry Pi 3 Kit complete with everything you need to take full advantage of the Raspberry Pi’s considerable computing and processing power. You can link it up with the included SainSmart LCD display to compute more easily, control your Raspberry Pi directly from the board controller (also included), and connect to the internet or Bluetooth right out of the box.In no time, you’ll be coding more complex programs and apps, like music makers and weather stations, and you’ll be doing it all with the functionality of your own mini-supercomputer. Plus, since it comes packing Quad-Core 1.2 GHz CPU and 1 GB of RAM, you’ll never have to worry about how much the Raspberry Pi can handle. It’s as easy as pulling out the included quick start guide and getting started.For a limited time, the Raspberry Pi 3 Complete LCD Display Kit is just $114.99.

Socialist minister Francis J. Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in the 1890s in an effort to paper over the post-Civil War divisions; to accompany it, he devised the "Bellamy Salute": "raise your right hand, flip your palm down, point it toward the flag in a salute and recite the words." (more…)

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has changed its rebate program that subsidized homeowners who ripped up their wasteful turf lawns and put in plastic grass or gravel. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76iuiMppYjMCanadian indie rockers Ol' Time Moonshine's just released a single, "Raven vs. Hawk," from their first full-length album, "The Apocalypse Trilogies: Spacewolf and Other Dark Tales." They've just signed a record deal with Salt of the Earth Records, and the album will be out later this year (no firm release date yet).

Playa Elvis sings Bridge Over Troubled Waters, at Burning Man 2016. It's a magnificent thing. (more…)

Here's a fun fact about Cincy Comicon. It's not in Cincinnati. It's not even in Ohio! It's in Covington, KY. But Cincinnati is close. In fact, I walked from my hotel over the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge this morning before the convention got started and was in downtown Cincinnati in 15 minutes. The bridge is great for walking and biking, with a wide path shielded from motor vehicle traffic. When then bridge opened on December 1, 1866 it was the world's longest suspension bridge. It was designed by John A. Roebling, the same civil engineer who designed the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a beaut:Once I got into Cincinnati, I headed to a restaurant called Cheapside, which has excellent espresso. I also had a tasty smoked salmon salade niçoise. It's called Cheapside not because the ingredients are cheap, but because it's on the corner of 8th and Cheapside street.Before I tell you about the convention, here's another important thing. There were some scary bugs clinging to the outside of my hotel window on the 11th floor. I took a photo and called Cincinnati born-and-bred David Pescovitz to tell me what they were, but he didn't know. If you do, please tell me in the comments:OK, now onto the con! The cool thing about this con is its focus on comic books. I don't go to many cons, but the ones I have gone to seem to give comic books short shrift. Not here! I think one of the reasons is that Tony Moore, co-creator of The Walking Dead comic book series, is one of the organizers, and Tony loves comic books. The other producers I met also have a deep fondness for comics. (Yes, there are some sword and throwing star dealers here, but they are off to the side.)The first person I met when the doors opened was a guy named Gabriel. He told me that he has read every single post on Boing Boing! That's 124,540 posts, including this one. Gabriel is the proprietor of Psychological Industries, which makes stickers, posters, T-shirts, and zines for happy mutants. Gabriel also brought along his 21-year-old copy of the Happy Mutant Handbook for me to sign. I was honored.Here are some of the artists I met today:The two images directly below are by Annie Wu. She's a storyboard artist for Adult Swim's The Venture Bros, and draws for Marvel, DC, and Vertigo. Her work has the same kind of quiet confidence and delicateness of Adriane Tomine's work.Below, Frank Ready. His specialty is science fiction and monster tattoo art, as well as very cool art prints like this one:I knew Jason would like this owl print, so I bought it for him. The artist is Carrie South (aka Crap Panther). Love her work. Her husband is Frank Ready.I met Angela Oster, a watercolor artist who likes Boing Boing! After we chatted, she went back to her table and painted this flattering portrait of me. I like to fantasize that I'm as handsome as the fellow in her painting:I also recommend that you check out Angela's very cute book, Little Vampire Girl.This poster was taped next to a urinal in the men's room. Can someone call the number and tell me what it's about?One thing that bugs me about mainstream comics is how they have really great artists do the covers, and then not-so-great artists do the guts. Jenny Frison only does covers -- she's one of the great ones. She told me that after graduating from Northwestern she took classes at the venerable Kubert School on New York, where they take comic art very seriously:Not surprisingly, Walking Dead co-creator Tony Moore had a very long line of people who wanted his autograph on their incredible Moore artwork.Time for a snack. I went to a Persian restaurant in Covington called House of Grill. The owner was really nice and gave me a free refill of doogh (yogurt drink), which was delicious and had a lot of minced mint leaves in it. I also liked that the menu used lorem ipsum to describe their dishes. I had the chicken kebab plate. Fantastic!I am definitely going back for lunch again tomorrow. When I got back to the convention hall, I was thrilled to meet Jim Rugg. He's a fantastic artist from Pittsburgh who co-hosted Boing Boing's Tell Me Something I Don't Know podcast, and was the creator of Street Angel, which he drew for Boing Boing. Jim gave me a copy of his new one shot zine, BW, which has samples of obscure 1980s black-and-white urban superhero comics in the vein of Escape from New York and The Warriors. It's cool!I told Brian Ewing (below), that Cory has one of his prints at his house. His work is stunning, and he has one of the best business cards ever:I met book cover and fantasy artist Rebecca Frank. She had several fine canvases on display, and I asked her if they were oil or acrylic. She said they are digital prints. She's a self-taught artist who paints in Photoshop:Clint Basinger is a well-dressed comic book artist who has a publishing company called Cosmic Mustache Comics. At his partner's urging, he gave me a copy of his comic, Bad Guy Bounty Hunters. I'm looking forward to reading it!Finally, meet Kate Leth, the famous cartoonist and comic book writer. We flew to the con on the same plane out of Los Angeles, and rode to the hotel together. Her work includes, Patsy Walker A.K.A. Hellcat!, Vampirella, Girl Over Paris, Spell on Wheels, Adventure Time, Edward Scissorhands, Fraggle Rock, and Bravest Warriors. She's very friendly and her artist's table is next to mine. I have an artist's table, too, but I didn't know I was supposed to bring anything so my table is bare. It's terribly embarrassing. I brought a deck of cards, and I will show you a magic trick if you'd like to see one.Cincy Comicon is taking place all weekend long. Get your tickets here!

“This actually happened,” says Peter Serafinowicz. “I dubbed his voice, but it's all Trump's words.” (more…)

“We had an unusually fog-filled August here in the San Francisco area,” says California-based landscape and nature photographer ElmoFoto on IMGUR. (more…)

The United States government today ordered a temporary halt to construction of a stretch of North Dakota oil pipeline that has been the focus of a sustained and growing occupation protest by Native Americans and environmental activists. (more…)

Stephen Colbert looks into Florida attorney general Pam Bondi's decision not to join other states in prosecuting Trump University. (more…)

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Coloring DC: Batman: Mad Love Featuring Harley Quinn by Paul Dini (author) and Bruce Timm (illustrator)DC Comics2016, 7.5 x 11.5 x 0.4 inches (softcover)$10 Buy a copy on AmazonOver the past few decades the dynamic duo of legacy comic book companies, Marvel and DC, have introduced hundreds of new characters. Most have failed to catch on (sorry, Adam-X, the X-Treme!), and while recently many new characters have garnered acclaim and small cadres of devoted fans, the new Ms. Marvel and Prez have yet to become the next Wolverine. 2016 has seen two major breakthroughs that may pave the way: Marvel’s Deadpool and DC’s Harley Quinn. Both were created in the 1990s and have suddenly become the superhero equivalent of rock stars, with T-shirts and tchotchkes available at every Target and Hot Topic in America. One of them even has their own make-up line (I’ll let you guess who). My dad in his 70s now knows these characters, which I find equally amusing and eye rolling. Which brings us to coloring books. Okay, maybe not directly, but the ascension of Harley Quinn as a character and the recent popularity of coloring books for adults has created a perfect storm, and now we have Coloring DC – Batman: Mad Love Featuring Harley Quinn, a coloring book written and drawn by her creators Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. This oversized tome contains a few extra stories of DC heroines and villians on the undercard, but the prime material is a reprinting of the terrific Harley story Mad Love.While she was originally created for Batman: The Animated Series, no story has defined her as much as Mad Love. Her origin as both a gymnast and psychiatrist is laid out, her love for the Joker in all its complicated (and icky) glory is explained, and most importantly it showcases her as a real character. She’s not a sidekick, she’s not the Joker’s girlfriend, she’s someone who’s been searching for something and now that she thinks she’s found it she’ll do anything (and kill anyone) to get it. Oh, and there are fights and piranhas and Batman being smart and everything else you could possible want in a Batman story. There’s a reason it won the Eisner Award (the comics' equivalent of an Oscar) and is still being reprinted more than 20 years later. The story is fast-paced, funny, exciting, and disturbingly sweet. It’s the perfect Harley Quinn story and it’s fun to read. One thing about Harley is that she can comfortably fit in a story for kids or adults, even if she sometimes sports lingerie (“It’s just her pajamas,” I told my nephew). Kids can enjoy Harley and the Joker’s antics and Batman’s heroics, while adults can read the story and understand the sadness and sickness that lies beneath it and makes the Batman world such an oddball creation. Plus with this version you get to color it! I haven’t colored anything since I was maybe 10 so this was a new experience for me (my son is a year old and hasn’t quite developed enough Crayola patience), and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Even quickly scribbling in colors made me appreciate Timm’s smooth lines and minimalist artwork. He can define body language and convey attitude with the merest of curves. No line is wasted and no line would improve it. It’s amazing work and getting to savor the panels through coloring gave me even greater appreciation for the art of comics and the talent of Bruce Timm. Even if you’ve read this story I highly recommend experiencing it a different way. There’s no racing from speech balloon to speech balloon, no jumping through panels to get to something that caught your eye as you turned the page. You can slowly pour through the book and experience what I think is easily one of the best Batman stories (plus you’ll soon realize how incredible the work of a comic book colorist can be and how much skill it takes). There’s no escaping Harley Quinn this year, so succumb to her charms, grab a box of crayons, and test your coloring mettle against a great story. You’ll have as much fun as Harley and Mr. J blowing something up for no good reason, I guarantee it.– Rob Trevino

Sofie Dossi, a finalist in this season of America's Got Talent, "is a self-taught contortionist and hand balancer. She became captivated at age 12 after watching an online video. Having been a competitive gymnast and dancer, she had a great foundation of strength and flexibility and advanced her skills using YouTube videos as her teacher, combined with disciplined practice at home."

In 2014, the Philae space probe left the Rosetta spacecraft and descended to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Unfortunately, Philae missed its landing due to an anchor mishap, bounced around, and then vanished. On Sunday, just a few weeks before Rosetta's expected crash into the comet and the end of the mission, Cecilia Tubiana of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research was scouring new images of the comet transmitted from Rosetta and noticed the dishwasher-sized probe in a crack. From Nadia Drake's post at National Geographic:“I immediately recognized Philae, there was no doubt about it,” says Tubiana, who’s at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. “I could not believe that we had finally — one month before the end of the Rosetta mission — successfully imaged it! I was so happy!”Now, with Philae found, scientists can finally rest. The lander won’t be doing any more science, but knowing where it came to rest on 67P will help the team interpret the data Philae could collect during those few short days when it was operational in November 2014. And anyway, soon enough, its comet will carry it—and Rosetta—away from the sun and into a long, dark night."Long-Lost Comet Lander Finally Found" (Nat Geo)

When it comes to creating great designs, it’s going to take a lot of time, and in many cases, it’s going to take a lot of money. And of course, both of those things are usually in pretty short supply.Which is why the The Giant Design Asset & Vector Bundle is such an great deal for designers and marketers alike. This package is a treasure trove of the assets designers need: fonts, UX templates, and icons, all specifically assembled to help you do your design work without breaking the bank or running behind on deadlines.Here's a taste of what's included:2400+ Hand Crafted Icons - The last thing you want to spend your precious time on is designing general purpose icons. With this library of everything from thumbtacks to Pac-Man, you’ll never have to again.UX/UI Templates - Want to save time on the design process but don’t know where to start? Hint: use UX/UI templates. With this collection of 76 from designer Yuriy Kondratkov, all your projects—from streaming apps to task managers—will run more smoothly.Stock Photos - Nothing kills a project quite like a clunky stock photo. With this bundle of high-quality photos worth $400, you’ll be sure to find photos that are on par with your beautiful designs.With these and many more options, you’ll be able to spend your time where it matters most. Score this bundle today for 97% off the regular price.

Cyan, the company behind the legendary Myst adventure game, is back with an unexpectedly well-received sequel, Obduction. Though the original and Riven were huge hits, further sequels suffered from changing tastes, growing ambitions, and a crank-em-out publishing deal with Ubisoft. But 2016, it turns out, is a great time for perfectly-refined retro adventures in beautifully strange Art Nouveau worlds.After Myst 5's release Cyan was in dire straits. Staff was let go then rehired and the studio was only surviving through contract work and ports of its older titles on new platforms like IOS and Android. A new version of Myst was released on Steam."We finished up Myst 5 as contract work for Ubisoft because the way things panned out and then it was just a matter of trying to stay alive," Miller says. "We got some gigs selling some of the older stuff and trying to put stuff online. We converted our stuff to mobile apps, which kind of saved us a lot with people leaving and we were getting getting smaller and smaller."And then the mobile market came up and allowed us to at least keep some of our key people. And that allowed us to think, gave us some breathing room. The mobile market was keeping us alive, then we realised there was potential now with Kickstarter to maybe consider something larger. And that's where the seeds of Obduction started to take route."

Butt-lifting jeans are a success in Colombia, reports the BBC, and the innovation is heading north: "The decorated butt-lifter has become the archetypical Colombian jean, a product that has reached markets outside the country.""It is exclusively Colombian," says a proud Mr Rivera.The name says it all - the design has a few tricks to shape the buttocks of the wearer.There are at least three secrets that make the butt-lifters work, and they can be seen extensively in the Gran San shopping centre:A high waistband that covers the stomachMore cloth in the buttocks than other jeansPinched in one, two or three places above the back pockets or under the waistband, to shape the excess cloth"It has been perfected over time so now the competition is to see who can lift more," says Mr Rivera.I can't wait to buy my first pair of butt-lifting jeans. Recommend me a brand of butt-lifting jeans.

Within days of our move to Los Angeles last summer, John Edgar Park and family came over with a bottle of his homemade bitters. It's been a year of astounding cocktails, thanks to him. (more…)

Facebook has banned one of the most famous images of the Vietnam war—then 9-year-old Kim Phuc running naked from a napalm attack on her village—for contravening the site's prohibition on "nudity." It even removed a posting of it by the Norwegian Prime Minister. The editor of Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten said the entire post, which was about iconic war imagery, was later deleted and the account of the reporter behind it suspended.Espen Egil Hansen has accused Mark Zuckerberg of "an abuse of power".Facebook said it has to restrict nudity for cultural reasons.Mr Hansen said the image of Kim Phuc, then aged nine, was removed less than 24 hours after the newspaper received a request from the firm to either take down the image or pixelate it and before it had responded.Phuc suffered horrific burns in the attack, which she described as "a blast of heat which felt like someone had opened the door of an oven." Though it was unlikely she'd survive, journalists Nick Ut (who shot the photo) and Christopher Wain took her to hospital and she pulled through. She lives in pain to this day, and the photograph is part of the world's cultural heritage, a powerful warning of the horror of war.Facebook's won: it doesn't have to pretend to care anymore about being the "public square" it sometimes affects to be. But let's hope it can be convinced to reconsider this one. It's time for expectations to change, though. Nobly declaring "I shall not comply with your requirement to remove this picture" only highlights to whom publishers have ceded their power, given that Facebook already removed the picture. Take this quote from Sue Llewellyn, a social media consultant:She also disagreed with Mark Zuckerberg's comments last month that his company is a technology firm, not a media organisation."You can't be a distributor of news without having editorial responsibilities," she said. "They can't keep washing their hands of it and then censoring content."Of course they can! As hypocritical and smarmy and holier-than-thou Facebook is about rights and access to Facebook, it still belongs to them.Even if we got Facebook to agree to embody ideals of free expression, even if it believed in them to the heart of its culture, its nature and vulnerability as a private corporation forces it to act in its own perceived interests when a dilemma presents itself. If you care about being able to say what you want, your only option is not to speechcrop on Facebook. If you're not prepared to leave it for commercial reasons, because it's where the market is, that's cool. But unless it's nationalized and operated as a state-run utility—as if!—Facebook will always have the last word on what you get to say on Facebook.

The Mysterious Package Company’s (previously) audience is bifurcated into two groups which seem to overlap only slightly. The first group buys one or more of the six (soon to be seven) “experiences” and sends it either to themselves, or more likely to an unsuspecting victim … and then waits for the fun or horror to start. The second group subscribes to a quarterly newspaper called Curios & Conundrums (more about that in a moment). If an experience is sent to yourself, it’s a collectible rather than a mystery; but if sent to someone who has no clue what it is or what’s coming next, then it becomes the unexpected and thus unsettling occurrence the folks at the Mysterious Package Company have in mind. Here is their video for “The Century B*e*a*s*t,” their first Kickstarter project sold last summer.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NH383G19cEIn the end, "The Century B*e*a*s*t" seemed too scattered and drawn out, with 10 mailings sent out over almost a year. The older experiences are more compact with fewer mailings, a lower price, and have more impact. If you’ve never done anything like this before, and wish more immediate satisfaction, I would become a member of the Mysterious Package Company and send either “R*i*s*e*n” or “The K*i*n*g in Yellow” to yourself or a friend—they will begin shipping with 30 days of your order and are both creepy.Costing only $99 is the least expensive experience which consists of a single mailing, “The W*e*e*p*i*n*g Book,” which is genuinely dark stuff and prompted at least one terrified recipient to call the police. The experience “Tempus F*u*g*i*t” is more suited to people who don’t like horror, but prefer sci-fi with a tinge of romance. And for those who like lighter fare, “Under the C*e*i*b*a Tree” is designed for the young and the young at heart—something entirely different than the company has done before. Since it has just started, whether or not it will be a success is unknown. More information on all of these experiences is available once your membership has been approved. Yes, you must apply and be accepted by The Curator!To join The Mysterious Package Company click here and request membership. If granted, then your journey has begun and you will discover that its Curator has done much more than merely create the type of “experience” we enjoyed yesterday.Or you can visit the Kickstarter campaign and buy one of the levels of “Filigree of Shadow” for $250 ($325 in Canadian bucks). A more customized version ($513; $666 Canadian) adds a secondary story of a séance to the tale and gets a photo of the person to whom you’ve gifted the experience, or yourself, converted into a spirit photograph. “Filigree of Shadow” will begin in April, 2017. Membership is granted automatically with your purchase.Curios & Conundrums is a quarterly newspaper the MPC publishes. Now printed in full color, volume one contains five issues including a Prologue. The newspaper almost doubled in size with the start of volume 2 and now continues in volume 3. Each issue comes with various extra “things” that are in some way related to an ongoing series of puzzles, stories, and assorted bits of odd business that eventually will come together into a somewhat cohesive narrative … unless at the end we are just left screaming in the red room like Twin Peaks.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUhPmwcY23MThe various bits of ephemera that come with Curios & Conundrums are only sent to those who subscribe to the newspaper at the time of each issue’s original release: subscriptions are $34.99 per copy. Earlier issues of Volume 3 with ephemera are still available for members at $29.99 each.For those who’ve come to the party late, there are “Catch-Up Kits” which offer just the newspapers from Volumes 1 and 2 for the very reasonable price of $49, but without the ephemera. And without the ephemera, what is there to do when you become mired in the puzzles? They have an answer for that, too.There used to be a special place on the MPC’s website known as The Sitting Room. Once inside, the modern world evaporated and those who partook were transported to a non-existent faux Victorian era in which the members banded together to help one another solve the fiendishly difficult puzzles and crosswords. But The Mysterious Package Company closed The Sitting Room forum without warning, so the community took it upon themselves to create a new and more organized unofficial forum where, once you have registered, you’ll find a thriving group with hundreds of puzzlers who are happy to help even those most helpless.Several members have also created a Wiki that offers much valuable information to help one another in solving the puzzles, including images of the artifacts sometimes important to solving them in Curios & Conundrums, and then taken that even further and established an ephemeral chat room where members assist one another … and then the conversation vanishes at the end of the evening.If you enjoy difficult puzzles that play out on a larger canvas of a narrative, then a subscription to Curios & Conundrums might bring loads of enjoyment. And there are also vaults on the MPC website which can only be opened with codes gleaned from solving the puzzles.Once a year, in August or September, membership kits chock full of goodies are offered for sale. Various levels are available, the most delightful of which comes nailed shut in one of the MPC’s signature wooden crates. The Curator and his coterie are quite firm about the limited window of availability of certain offerings; in modern parlance, “you snooze, you lose.”No one knows where it will end …While we have come to the end of our experience, much more you awaits at www.mysteriouspackage.com—if you have the nerve for it, or a friend who is ripe for a good puzzle or a strange, frightening, and thought-provoking episode that always ends with the delivery of an ominous wooden crate which demands to be opened.

The Circumstellar Habitable Zone Simulator provides detailed views of six star systems known to have exoplanets. You can change the stars' mass and the planetary distances and fool around with Goldilocks' breakfast, but it's the timeline control that's scary: drag it right to fly through the billions of years, watching the habitable zone head out of town as the star goes nova then contract to nothing.

Tumblr artist Kayla of fleamontpotter always knows how to inject humor into the world of Harry Potter. And this Half-Blood Prince-inspired post is particularly great: (more…)

As I pointed out earlier this week, The Get Down is one of the most enjoyable and original Netflix series out there. And it turns out its star Justice Smith is pretty damn cool himself. The 21-year-old sat down for an extended interview with Vulture and his thoughtful, perceptive answers indicate this younger generation is in great shape. Plus Smith wins endless points in my book for pointing out that while method acting has its benefits, "sometimes it's just an excuse to be an asshole. Like Jared Leto."The conversation touches on not only the process of filming The Get Down, but also on Smith's biracial identity, how his experiences with racism have evolved throughout his life, his views on intersectional feminism, and a time he turned on the waterworks to get out of trouble at school.Here's an excerpt from the portion of the conversation about what it's like to work in Hollywood as an actor of color: I like [The Get Down] because it's set in an urban context and it's about urban life and it's about the ghetto, but the characters are not monolithic. We have an array of people of color and they're all different types of people. Ra Ra is not the same as Boo Boo is not the same as Shaolin Fantastic. Books is a very sensitive; he cries and you don't really see that often in narratives about urban life. I would get sent out for a lot of black roles that I don't connect to. I actually connect to this white role, and they'd be like, “We can't send you in for that.” When I walk in the room for these black roles they laugh at me because I'm this light-skinned biracial dude walking in the room, talking the way that I talk, and they're like, “Why is he here?” I've walked in the room and the casters have said, You're so cute. I'm like, I didn't get this role. Or I'll be right for the role, but I'm not dark enough. If that's happening then why can't I also be sent out for these white roles? My agent would always say, we know you're not the right skin color for this, but there's no hurt in going out for this role because casting directors can see your abilities. That makes a lot of sense to me, but why can't you send me out for the white roles as well? If they're not going to cast me regardless, at least they can see that I can act and I can portray this character.But when asked if he thinks things in Hollywood are changing for the better, Smith responds:Yeah, absolutely. I would not be booking anything in the '70s. Even the '80s, '90s. I would be booking one type of role over and over and over again. I'm able to play the upper middle class nerd in Paper Towns and then I'm able to play the half Puerto Rican, half black poet-turned-rapper growing up in the South Bronx in the 1970s. Any other decade of cinema I don't think I would be able to be a young person of color taking on diverse roles. Even the scripts that I'm reading now are really good. You still get a lot of the stereotypical ones, which are fine because there are people like that. It's not that we need to eradicate those stories. I am starting to see more narratives that address the individuality of people of color and not necessarily these preestablished stereotypes.You can read the full interview over on Vulture.

Freddie Mercury's childhood home in London will now have a blue plaque, the UK's acknowledgement of a significant historical person or place. This endearing film chronicles how it was made. (more…)

Heads up West Wing fans: The West Wing Weekly podcast is your must-listen companion piece. Hosted by West Wing aficionado Hrishikesh Hirway and former West Wing star Joshua Malina, the podcast takes an episode-by-episode look at Aaron Sorkin's beloved political drama. I'm enjoying the podcast so much, it even inspired me to marathon The West Wing all over again. (more…)

On her 1976 variety show, Dolly Parton sang "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind," then performed it again as if it went from a 45 rpm record to a 78. (more…)

As far as I know, Bruce Lee and Freddie Mercury never actually met in real life. But thanks to this toy and game-themed Japanese Twitter account, their action figures are now best friends. Admittedly, I can’t quite figure out exactly what’s unfolding on @suekichiii’s account. But I have to imagine it would be even better scored by Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend.” (more…)

Barnacules Nerdgasm used 3D printing medium with 80% bronze to make some physical bitcoins. The result was cool, but it got even cooler when he threw them in a rock tumbler. (more…)

When Edward Snowden flew to Hong Kong with thumb-drives full of damning US government documents, he assumed his freedom was forfeit: he didn't even make an escape plan. (more…)

Cobham PLC is a surveillance vendor who sells to some of the world's most egregious human rights abusing governments; in 2014, they provided a catalog of cyberweapons and spy tools to Florida Department of Law Enforcement, from whom it leaked. (more…)

5,300 Wells Fargo employees created 2 million phony bank accounts and racked up huge fees, raking in commissions from their employer for being such great salespeople for the bank's services; meanwhile, the fees associated with the 2 million fake accounts created the appearance of much greater earnings for the bank, which it trumpeted to its investors. (more…)

The EU Court of Justice's ruling in GS Media BV v. Sanoma held that any commercial site that linked to a document that infringed copyright is presumed to be a party to the infringement, meaning that if you have a Google ad on your personal page and you link to something that turns out to be incorrectly licensed, you are potentially on the hook for enormous monetary damages. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gyvipBs6VsGhettofunk13 demonstrates the old vinyl-lover's trick of deep-cleaning your wax pancakes by spreading the grooves with Titebond II wood glue, waiting for it to dry, and then peeling off the glue-skin and taking all the gunk with it (presumably there is some way of actually playing the music from the intact glue-skin, given sufficiently advanced apparatus). (more…)

If the “man-made seismic event” reported along the North Korea/China border tonight by the USGS is confirmed to be a new nuclear test, America's next Commander-in-Chief will have complex new Pyongyang problems on their plate. (more…)