Two year old Nicholas solves the trolley problem by treating everyone equally.His dad, E.J. Masicampo, says:I'm teaching a moral psychology class this semester, and we spent part of the first day discussing the trolley problem, which is a frequently used ethical dilemma in discussions of morality. When I returned home that night and was playing trains with my son, I thought it would be interesting to see his response to the trolley problem. I recorded his response so that I could share and discuss it with my class, given especially that we also will be discussing moral development from birth onward. My wife and I are constantly talking with our son about how properly to treat others -- so this has been teachable moment both for my class and for our son!

This bento-style R2-D2 lunch box is pretty cool. I hope my daughter likes it as much as I do. Star Wars R2-D2 Bento Box via Amazon

Sarah Palin slipped and banged her head on a rock. Stephen Colber offers, something I think is, a get well message.

We’re excited to announce our biggest Android giveaway yet: for a limited time, you can enter to win a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge: the phone TechRadar Calls "The Best Smartphone in the World Right Now.” That’s a $769 value, and you could have it in your hands 100% free.The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is one of the best reviewed Android phones of all time. It’s the first phone to have a patented water-resistant rating, meaning you could accidentally drop it in your water, or the toilet, or pour champagne all over it, and still have it be completely fine.All you have to do to enter to win is sign up through this link and answer a few questions. You could be on your way to owning one of the most sought-after devices on the market today. Terms and conditions are listed here.Good luck! We’re rooting for you.

In this episode we interview Dean Burnett, author of Idiot Brain: What Your Brain is Really Up To. Burnett’s book is a guide to the neuroscience behind the things that our amazing brains do poorly.In the interview we discuss motion sickness, the pain of breakups, why criticisms are more powerful than compliments, the imposter syndrome, anti-intellectualism, irrational fears, and more. Burnett also explains how the brain is kinda sorta like a computer, but a really bad one that messes with your files, rewrites your documents, and edits your photos when you aren’t around.Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist who lectures at Cardiff University and writes about brain stuff over at his blog, Brain Flapping hosted by The Guardian.Download – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – SoundcloudThis episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Get unlimited access to a huge library of The Great Courses lecture series on many fascinating subjects. Start FOR FREE with The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries taught byNeil deGrasse Tyson. Everything we now know about the universe—from the behavior of quarks to the birth of entire galaxies—has stemmed from scientists who’ve been willing to ponder the unanswerable. Click here for a FREE TRIAL.For less than $10 per meal, Blue Apron delivers seasonal recipes along with pre-portioned ingredients to make delicious, home-cooked meals. Blue Apron knows that when you cook with incredible ingredients, you make incredible meals, so they set the highest quality standards for their community of artisanal suppliers, family-run farms, fisheries and ranchers. Check out this week’s menu and get your first THREE meals FREE—WITH FREE SHIPPING—by going to blueapron.com/yanssSupport the show directly by becoming a patron! Get episodes one-day-early and ad-free. Head over to the YANSS Patreon Page for more details.Links and SourcesDownload – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – SoundcloudPrevious EpisodesBoing Boing PodcastsCookie RecipesIdiot BrainDean Burnett’s WebsiteBrain FlappingIllustration: Wikimedia Commons

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its payload—a communications satellite backed by Facebook—were destroyed this morning during launch tests at Cape Canaveral, Fla. No-one was hurt in the explosion. (more…)

Vice, the media powerhouse said to be worth upwards of $5bn and "sloshing with cash" thanks to annual revenues in the $900m range, treats its freelancers badly, according to Columbia Journalism Review. Work goes unpaid, payment is late when it comes, assignments are rescinded, and freelancers seem generally expected to work like salaried staff, pitching in on tasks related to their work without further compensation. (more…)

In 1978 a team of geologists discovered a family of five living deep in the Siberian forest, 150 miles from the nearest village. Fearing persecution, they had lived entirely on their own since 1936, praying, tending a meager garden, and suffering through winter temperatures of 40 below zero. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll meet the Lykov family, whose religious beliefs committed them to "the greatest solitude on the earth."We'll also learn about Esperanto's role in a Spanish prison break and puzzle over a self-incriminating murderer.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

The hermit crab housing shortage of empty shells is forcing some crabs to use marine waste, as documented by Okinawa-based photographer Shawn M. Miller. (more…)

Scott Portingale created the sumptuously animated and sound-designed film Infinitude, which starts with abstract mathematical shapes, then evolves into the creation of the universe. (more…)

In what feels as tense as Wages of Fear in places, teams of drivers transport wind turbine blades up a steep switchback mountain road. According to Wind Power Monthly:The route to the government-sponsored Baoding Mountain Wind Farm is 5.5 km long, and includes 212 turns and slopes as steep as 30 degrees. The journey with each blade took five hours, and the drivers had to negotiate the load through villages with buildings on either side of the road, and high voltage power lines. The blades are 52.4 metres long, and weigh over 12 tons.• C&C trucks carrying wind turbine blades to the mountaintop (via Wind Power Monthly)

Devin Ryan created a computer program that is valid, and produces identical output, in two completely different languages, PHP and Java. (more…)

After a very weird day in Mexico with President Enrique Peña Nieto, then a Twitter shitstorm in which Trump was accused of lying about the content of that meeting, the Republican Presidential candidate gave a long-awaited speech in Arizona that was to put forth his policies on immigration. (more…)

Cameras on the International Space Station captured this footage of three major hurricanes on Earth on August 30. Two of these storms are in the Pacific Ocean, and one is in the Atlantic Ocean. (more…)

Youtube description:A bagpipe playing student drowned out a homophobic bigot who compared being gay to bestiality in megaphone rant.Brave Brice Ehmig confronted the preacher who was wearing a “Jesus saves from hell” T-shirt on the campus at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, USA, on Friday August 19.Despite the preacher’s best efforts to have his voice heard, the fourth year student follows him around continuing to play the loud Scottish music.As the video ends, applause and cheering can be heard from out of shot as Brice calls her girlfriend over.

Mosaic portrait artist Jason Mecier shares his recent Gene Wilder tribute portrait as Willy Wonka. (more…)

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Tiki Styleby Sven KirstenTaschen2015, 192 pages, 4.9 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches (softcover)$10 Buy a copy on AmazonThis little pocket book packs a big punch full of tiki culture with flamboyant images and a fun history. The author Sven A. Kirsten is the go-to guy for everything tiki. He’s the author of the Book of Tiki, which this bite-sized edition pulls from. The book takes you through the origins of tiki in the South Pacific, explains how this island culture worked its way into mainstream Americana, and highlights some of the legends like Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic. There’s something about Tikidom that’s just fun. The mugs, the artwork, the cocktails – it’s easy to get wrapped up in the tropical fantasy. Maybe it was growing up in grey and rainy Seattle that made me a sucker for tiki, but I can’t get enough and this book delivers. It’s filled cover to cover with photographs, illustrations, and incredible island imagery. So grab your favorite ceramic mug, pour yourself a Mai-Tai and enjoy this fantastic look at the stylish world of tiki. – JP LeRouxNote: If you already have The Book of Tiki there won’t be anything new for you here, but I’d highly recommend picking up any of Sven’s other tiki books if you want to learn even more about the culture.

https://youtu.be/C_rttgtyigcI should have tried this when I was in Malmö![via]

A cup of Asskicker coffee supposedly has 5 grams of caffeine, or 80 times the amount in a regular cup of coffee. Can that be right? According to Wikipedia, the median lethal does of caffeine "is estimated to be 150 to 200 milligrams per kilogram of body mass (75–100 cups of coffee for a 70 kilogram adult)." That would mean you'd have a good chance of dropping dead from drinking a cup of Asskicker coffee.From Oddity Central:[Adelaide, Australia's Viscous Coffee owner Steve Benington] says he came up with the idea for the Asskicker when an emergency department nurse asked him for something that would keep her awake and alert for an unexpected night shift. “She consumed her drink over two days and it kept her up for almost three days — I toned it down a little after that and the Asskicker was born,” he recalls. Nowadays, the complex concoction is made with four espresso shots, four 48-hour brewed cold drip ice cubes, 120ml of 10-day brewed cold drip and is finished with four more 48-hour brewed cold drip ice cubes. “Each cold drip ice cube is approximately equivalent of a bit more than two shots of espresso in caffeine,” Benington explains.

Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt has written a book called The Sting of the Wild, about his mission to "compare the impacts of stinging insects on humans, mainly using himself as the gauge." Here's how he poetically describes a few bug stings, based on his own 4-point "Schmidt Pain Scale for Stinging Insects."Red fire ant (1): "Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch."Anthophorid bee (1): "Almost pleasant, a lover just bit your earlobe a little too hard."California carpenter bee (2): "Swift, sharp, and decisive. Your fingertip has been slammed by a car door."Western yellowjacket (2): "Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W.C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue."Fierce black polybia wasp: (2.5): "A ritual gone wrong, satanic. The gas lamp in the old church explodes in your face when you light it."Velvet ant (3): "Explosive and long lasting, you sound insane as you scream. Hot oil from the deep frying spilling over your entire hand."Florida harvester ant (3): "Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a power drill to excavate your ingrown toenail."Tarantula hawk (4): "Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has just been dropped into your bubble bath."Bullet ant (4): "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over a flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail embedded in your heel."Warrior (or armadillo) wasp: "Torture. You are chained in the flow of an active volcano. Why did I start this list?"[via]

If you’re like us, packing and unpacking are two of your least favorite aspects of traveling. Specifically with multi-destination trips, our suitcases usually end in wrinkled clothing, toothpaste stains, and a misplaced deodorant.The good news is that we've found a suitcase that eliminates the disastrous effects of packing and unpacking: The Rolo Travel Bag ($42.99). You essentially use it just as you would your closet. It comes with four separated mesh pockets that easily store all your stuff (from toiletries down to tiny accessories) and even comes with a 360-degree hanger.All you have to do is pack what you want to bring, roll the bag up, and hook it up once you arrive for easy access to all your essentials. Plus it's made of waterproof nylon so you don't have to worry about any accidentals spills or unfortunate weather.This bag is the greatest thing to happen to our travel routines, and we think you'll like it too. The Rolo Travel Bag is even 14% off for a limited time.

Robert Bevan's silly satire of RPG gamers continues in Probing the Annis. Bevan must really hate the folks he games with.Don't expect a lot of intellectual discourse in any of Bevan's short but funny tales of the Caverns and Creatures universe. His bunch of beer'd up bozo bros are still trying to rules lawyer their way out of trouble in an RPG that has become all too real. Clearly, the situation gets uncomfortable.Get ready for a lot of puns about butts!Probing the Annis (Caverns and Creatures) by Robert Bevan via Amazon

On September 26, 1991, Nirvana performed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at The Moon, a small club in New Haven, Connecticut. This was two days after the release of Nevermind and moments before punk broke (down).Here we are now, entertain us.More of that show:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVH3mB0f_Ec

A 17-year-old boy in Mexico City has died after reportedly receiving a hickey from his 24-year-old girlfriend. According to physicians, the hickey suction likely caused a blood clot that traveled to his brain, resulting in a deadly stroke. It's rare for a hickey to cause a stroke but it does happen. From WWMT:In a 2010 case... reported in a New Zealand Medical Journal where a 44-year-old woman was rushed to the hospital after losing movement in her arm due to a hickey on her neck, Doctors weren't sure why the woman was having a stroke, but then noticed a bruise on her neck and realized the suction on a major artery created a blood clot. According to an interview with the doctor who treated the woman, Dr Teddy Whu, the clot was in the "artery underneath where the hickey was" (and the clot traveled to the woman's heart.)

A pile of cocaine worth US$55 million was found at a Coca-Cola plant in Signes, France."The first elements of the investigation have shown that employees are in no way involved," said regional Coca-Cola president Jean-Denis Malgras.The 370kg stash of bagged blow was discovered in a shipment of orange juice concentrate from South America.When first launched at the end of the 19th century, a glass of Coca-Cola was estimated to contain nine milligrams of cocaine. In 1904, the company replaced that ingredient with cocaine-free coca leaf extract. Or at least that's what they tell us.(BBC)

For a year, six people lived inside a small dome on the desolate side of a volcano on Mauna Loa, Hawaii. The aim of the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) was to approximate life on Mars (albeit with much more surface gravity). This week, the team stepped out of the dome and National Geographic's Nadia Drake took a tour:Inside the 1,200-square-foot habitat, they dealt with a 20-minute communications delay, limited water supplies, and a few strict house rules. But as we saw on a recent tour, this habitat is the lap of luxury for Martian hopefuls. And if this two-story house were on the earthbound market, it would be a total steal, considering that room, board, and utilities are all free....Itching for some entertainment? The living room has a bookshelf full of Russian language guides, DVDs, astronaut jigsaw puzzles, and board games, which are perfect for a wild night on the mountain with your five favorite roommates. There’s also a virtual reality setup where you can explore 30 different environments, in addition to creating your own personal getaway.Finally, Wi-Fi is already installed. Although there’s that pesky 20-minute delay, you can send emails, texts, and video messages, completely Comcast-free."Take a Look Inside a House Meant for Mars" (Nat Geo)photos above and below by Nadia Drake

Kim Jong-Un had a Vice premier for education Kim Yong-Jin executed for "disrespect" after he fell asleep in a meeting, reports the AFP, citing South Korean sources. (more…)

Lost in Light is Sriram Murali's simple yet beautifully-crafted demonstration of levels of light pollution from worst to best, and how much gets lost in the night sky. (more…)

An enraging gallery features more than 50 screenshots and messages showing people asking artists to do free work and sometimes getting angry and nasty when denied. It's good for your portfolio! You're getting paid in exposure! Why do artists only care about money? Most are taken from the excellent For Exposure twitter account, where more beauties are regularly posted. And then there's this classic from The Oatmeal.

The fountain of eternal meth has been located in Baltimore, where a study found the drug in local waterways. Plants and animals are even getting addicted, reports Jen Christensen.It appears aquatic life -- the moss that grows on rocks, the bacteria that live in the water and the bugs that hatch there -- are the unexpected victims of Americans' struggle with drug addiction. ... Drug-addicted water bugs may not be on the top of your regular list of things to worry about, and it doesn't mean you'll be getting high off your tap water any time soon, but the kind of change these scientists saw could be a bigger concern. Here's why: These plants and bugs are the base of the aquatic food web. Birds eat the bugs, as do frogs and fish. As emergent contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors become more common in ground and drinking water, they could affect humans. Scientists say the direct health effects are pretty much unknown, and more research will need to be done.

MahaNakhon debuted as Thailand's tallest building this week with an unforgettable light show. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPX76USpHRcMacro Room grabbed a bunch of frozen treats and filmed extreme closeups as they melted. The melting patterns create beautiful and sometimes surprising delights. (more…)

Donald Trump says he will fly to Mexico City Wednesday to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, hours before the GOP presidential nominee is to deliver a speech in Arizona on immigration. (more…)

“Everything is cosplay,” says Low Cost Cosplay guy. (more…)

Bowing to intense pressure from elves and the people who believe in them, the government of Iceland will unearth a purportedly magical “Elfin Lady Stone” buried by highway workers by mistake. The inadvertent burial of their sacred site seriously pissed off the mythical creatures, according to reports. (more…)

Anonymous U.S. intelligence sources cited by NBC News say the White House has ordered a special intelligence task force to look into Russia's recent hacks of various Democratic political organizations. (more…)

The U.S. State Department said today that about 30 or so emails out of the nearly 15,000 the FBI obtained from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may have involved Benghazi. Last week, officials announced that the FBI had recovered 14,900 emails that Clinton did not turn over with the server she used while secretary of State. (more…)

Lucy, the famed Australopithecus afarensis, may have died from falling out of a tree 3.18 million years ago, according to new forensic analysis. This video explains the reasoning behind the hypothesis. (more…)

Wow! Directed by Spike Jonze, this high-energy KENZO World ad, or "short film" as they're calling it, is the best perfume commercial I've ever seen. And the most bizarre. The brand’s new ad, directed by Spike Jonze, shows what may be best described as a perfume rapturing. Actress and dancer Margaret Qualley (star of The Leftovers and Andie MacDowell’s daughter) works herself into a full-body perfume frenzy choreographed by Ryan Heffington, the choreographer of Sia’s “Chandelier.” (New York Magazine) The song, "Mutant Brain," is an original track by Sam Spiegel (Jonze' brother) and Ape Drums. You can download the song from Amazon.

A HAZMAT team evacuated a Rochester, New York high-rise apartment building yesterday after residents complained of burning sensations in their eyes and once the fire department investigated. They found a 55-gallon sealed drum in one of the apartments. Turns out, it contained donated clothes packed for Africa. The cause of the tennants' breathing difficulties and watery eyes was actually a hot pepper microwaved by one of the building's residents."I do not know what kind of pepper it was, but clearly spicy enough to affect the people in the hallway," said fire department lieutenant Dana Cieslinski.(WHAM)

Where do man-splainers get their water?From a well, actually...(via /r/Jokes)

See sample pages from this book at Wink.An Unreliable History of Tattoos by Paul ThomasNobrow Press2016, 96 pages, 7.9 x 10.6 x 0.7 inches (hardcover) $3 Buy a copy on AmazonA minor celebrity/reality star, whose name I can’t remember, said in a recent interview that she thinks of people without tattoos as being “unicorns” because they are so rare. It’s true that today tattoos are much more popular than when I was a kid. In my day, only sailors or criminals had dye permanently etched into their bodies, but according to the graphic novel, An Unreliable History of Tattoos, inking people has been around since Day 1 (think Adam and Eve).In his first book, award-winning British political cartoonist Paul Thomas loosely traces the origins of body art. There’s definitely a focus on European (and specifically British) history in this book, but Thomas also pokes fun at a few famous Americans. Mixing fiction with facts, (honestly sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s made up) this book is interesting, humorous, and very unusual! I don’t know if the Upper Paleolithic man really punctured his skin with blunt twigs, nor do I know if King Harold II had his wife Edith’s name tattooed on his chest way back in 1066. Should I believe Anne Boleyn’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth, had her knuckles tattooed? Was Kings Charles II’s chest covered in permanent ink with names of all his many bedroom conquests? According to this parody, Queen Victoria, Sir Winston Churchill, and even President Obama love body art too. An Unreliable History of Tattoos also touches on Japanese, Greek, Roman and Viking ink. If any, or all, or some of the fun facts in An Unreliable History of Tattoos are true, the thorny roses, tribal arm sleeves, and Mickey Mouse heads that show up on today’s bodies are nothing compared to what came before them. – Carole Rosner

Lion fish are a serious invasive threat along the southern Atlantic coast. Extremely aggressive, lion fish eat a lot of other fish. Fishery managers suggest we eat them!No Florida man joke, sorry.

Forces of Geek has unearthed an amazing gem. To introduce it, they write:In the March 21st, Entertainment Weekly ran an article called In Search of Pop Culture’s Holy Grails, listing, “some hallowed projects (that) evade(d) our grasp. A guide to our great white whales.” Over two dozen, “lost” projects are listed.But in the FOG! world of pop culture, not everything is lost. So, in the coming weeks, we’re going to uncover a number of those projects, including our first, Jack Kirby’s The Prisoner, which EW describes as, “a comic based on the gonzo sci-fi show. Kirby never finished issue No. 1.”Read the rest of the issue here. And, as FOG points out, it appears that the issue was actually complete, except for some final lettering and inking by Mike Royer.[H/t Chris Burke]

https://youtu.be/mw8WK3AaRJU?t=16m01sGreat episode of What's my Line from 1964 in which Elizabeth Taylor uses a squeaky voice in an attempt to trick the blindfolded panelists.

From a conversation with Letty Cottin Progrebin, in 2007, comes this darling animation set to Gene Wilder's wise words on comedy, laughter, love, and confidence.

Joe just wanted to go to the national chemistry convention, but somehow his flight never gets him there. Waking up on a distant planet, where humanity isn't quite as developed, Joe realizes he has been Cast Under an Alien Sun.Olan Thorensen has written a fun, and fast moving, take on two of my Sci-Fi favorites: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. Joe is an unwilling, and unknowing time traveller. His knowledge of science and technology can save his new society, if he just doesn't scare with his sorcerous ways. I've already picked up the next in this series, The Pen and the Sword.Cast Under an Alien Sun (Destiny's Crucible) by Olan Thorensen via Amazon

Finding quality icons is a challenge for designers, and can also get pretty costly if you use them often. And when you’ve got a lot to do, the last thing you want to spend your time on is creating new icons from scratchThat’s why we recommend using the Noun Project ($49). Noun Project is a site that originally began as a small collection of symbols, but now aims to increase collaboration between designers and ultimately make their lives a little bit easier with a huge collection of 430,000+ unique icons. You can find icons for everything from automobiles to standard symbols for global warming, all hand-drawn and uploaded by designers from around the world. Once you find the one you need, just drag and drop it using the Noun Project app.With this 2-year subscription, you get unlimited use of the icons you want to use, no hidden fees or royalties to pay. So if you’re ready to stop wasting your time creating icons and ready to focus on crafting great designs, check out this deal in the Boing Boing store at 79% off.

Fancy a regular cut of the best things at Boing Boing—and perhaps a thing or two you won't read online? Our newsletter goes out weekly and we use only the finest mechanically-separated pixels in its production. (more…)