Previously: Investigating the Great Earthquake of 2012This year for the 4th of July, I varied my routine ever so slightly by spending the day aboard the R/V Marion Dufresne outside of Sabang harbor on the island of We, which is just north of the tip of Sumatra. For more than 12 hours, from roughly 11 in the morning to almost half past 11 at night, we waited and waited, and waited some more, as the local Indonesian immigration and port officials did whatever it was they needed to do to release eight of their fellow citizens into our care. As you can see, I took a few snapshots of the little islands that fringe the marginally larger island of We, but we were not permitted to go ashore.The following morning, the mystery of our delay was partially explained. As I understand it, the local Sabang authorities had wanted to send our new passengers’ passports to Jakarta for approval, which would have delayed our expedition by days. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, the passports were returned, and we were allowed to proceed south.Most of the new members of our crew are Indonesian students studying geophysics and other sciences related to our survey of a seismically active section of the Wharton Basin, which is 3 kilometers below the surface of the Indian Ocean. Also aboard are a couple of Indonesian scientists, as well as an Indonesian security officer, who’s a captain in the Indonesian Navy and has been empowered to approve any changes to the expedition plan that’s already been approved by the Indonesian government. Should a question about that arise in the Wharton Basin, at least his answer will be a simple “yes” or “no,” with no need to trouble anyone in Sumatra for confirmation.To follow the progress of MIRAGE, visit the EOS blog. #MIRAGEcruise

A woman in Okaloosa County, Florida was so deep in prayer that she blew through a stop sign and drove right into a house. You can't really blame her though. According to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, she was so immersed in praying that she had closed her eyes and couldn't have seen the stop sign or the house. Police cited the 28-year-old for reckless driving and property damage. Thank God nobody was injured. (NWFDailyNews)

Punk-as-fuck sorceress Rose McGowan directed this hyperdelic video for Yoko Ono's "Catman," a Miike Snow remix/remake of a track from Ono's 1973 album Approximately Infinite Universe. This version is included on Ono's latest album, Yes, I'm A Witch Too. "Yoko Ono has been an ardent supporter of women and modern dance for years and so I wanted to thank her for that," McGowan says. "Casting women dancers over 60, including one with cancer, was my way of showing that vitality doesn't die with age. I used color overlays to create my own visual beat. Very proud to be in Ono world, it's an important one."

A recent study has found that the gay dating app Grindr is a pretty effective way to get black and Hispanic men who like to have sex with men to try home H.I.V. self-testing kits. The home test doesn't require blood, but rather uses a swab of the gums to generate reliable results in 20 minutes.Of the 56 Los Angeles area men who participated in the study and received kits, two men learned from the kits that they were infected. (more…)

Today, Chelsea Manning spoke with her attorneys for the first time since her hospitalization last week. Attorneys Chase Strangio, Vincent Ward and Nancy Hollander released the following statement on the imprisoned whistleblower's behalf. (more…)

A privacy trainwreck: Pokemon Go, the hit augmented reality game that's seeing kids and adults alike scouring the real world looking for monsters to nab, quietly gets access to players' entire Google accounts. And check out the small print that goes with it. (more…)

Photographers covering the black human rights protests throughout the U.S. this weekend produced powerful and iconic images that are now spreading worldwide on social media, often without credit. Here are 10 photos from photograpers with the Reuters news agency over the past few days of demonstrations against the killing of people of color by police. (more…)

Welp, this explains a lot. A collected series of Twitter musings on why and exactly how the magical great bearded old dude in the sky (and his indentured angelic maker minions) created various critters. (more…)

Pokemon Go wants access to your Google account (and thus your email and Google Docs) and its privacy policy is a Kafka-esque nightmare document that lets them collect every single imaginable piece of private information about your life and share it with pretty much anyone they want to, forever. (more…)

Here are five baffling stories from one of our favorite sites on the internet! Fark is like waking up and realizing you are still on acid. Rabid bat attacks woman cleaning a swimming pool, biting her in the neck. Neighbors say they were vlad it wasn't themIf you are thinking about getting bitten by a rattlesnake this weekend, make sure and carry $50,000 with you when you go to the hospitalYet another video-game auction falls afoul of eBay's 'You can't sell human blood' bright-line ruleFrench tourists call Queensland police to shoot the scary spiders in their campervan, unaware of the two-meter scrub python on their back seat Man hit by blow dart in drive by shooting. Police seek information...if only they spoke Hovitos

Michael Ridge glued a bird's skull to a piezoelectric buzzer (which works well as an acoustic pick-up) and used it as a record needle.A new experimental vinyl playback piece depicting the beak of a seagull skull playing excerpts from a 7″ vinyl of British birdsong; a contact microphone aids with amplification. In its present form the video is a prototype / rough demonstration, however I think it works surprisingly well!

(more…)

If you, like me, heard former UK Prime Minister David Cameron's post-abdication accidentally captured odd tune and self-affirmation and thought, "That's my next ringtone," then here you go.(Image: ITV)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhce4AkmJ_oLanceypooh, a maker of Youtube videos, was out hunting for Pokemon, playing the tulip-fever-sensation game Pokemon Go, when he seems to have trespassed on a stranger's land, drawing gunfire from the irate landholder. (more…)

Gina is 16 and gay, something she was sure her folks would be cool with, so she told them in the best way possible: by holding up a sign at a strategic moment on the family's plunge down Disneyland's Splash Mountain. She's hoping others will do the same. (more…)

Though he'd planned to stay on for two more months while his party chose a new leader, Prime Minister David Cameron is to step down Wednesday after opposition to Theresa May evaporated. What's getting everyone's attention, though, is the odd little tune he hummed after making his announcement.Believing himself off the air, Cameron's mic was in fact still hot as he turned from the podium in Downing Street to retreat into Number 10. "Do doooo, do doo," Cameron hummed, to a tune suggestive both of ironic victory and melancholy detachment. Then, as he closed the door, he paused a moment and added a stout "Right"—the customary rhetorical punctuation mark of a British man who has completely and irremediably ruined everything around him.The video above was captured by ITV journalist Vincent McAviney.

There has perhaps never been a more useful tool for smokers than the Rocket Grinder. The Rocket is a grinder, container, heating chamber, and one hitter all condensed into a compact, EDC device that fits comfortably on your keychain. Taking the edge off has never been easier.Clip on your keychain for easy everyday carry, grind and carry your herbs discreetly, funnel directly into the heating chamber, and detached the contained mouth-piece for easy vaping on-the-go. From grinder to one-hitter, this keychain will be your new best friend for 25% off its original price.[embed]https://youtu.be/Xa1Rb7zM7Bc[/embed]

National treasury bonds are the safe option in times of global turmoil, and the more uncertain things are, the more people buy them, and the higher their prices go. (more…)

Farai Chideya -- a reporter and journalism professor at NYU -- describes the lessons she's learned in reporting from the "Heart of Whiteness" (Klansmen; Sheriff Joe Arpaio's plans for a war with Mexico; a white church that wanted to "disinter the body of a dead mixed-race infant"), and how the media has failed to learn those lessons -- to report on the systemic racism in American life -- for decades. (more…)

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Sinatra 100by Charles Pignone Thames & Hudson2015, 288 pages, 11.2 x 13.9 x 1.3 inches $32 Buy a copy on AmazonSinatra 100 encapsulates the legendary performer’s life through text and previously unseen photographs from the family archives as well as classic images from various photo shoots. After forewords by two friends who knew him best, Tony Bennet and Steve Wyn, as well as an introduction by book author Charles Pignone, the book is broken into three long sections: The Voice 1915-1952, Chairman Of The Board 1953-1972, and Ol’ Blue Eyes 1973-1998. That leads readers into afterward sections by various family members and other items of interest. Frank Sinatra, the man who would be known as “The Voice,” was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on December 12, 1915. Singing in his Dad’s bar led to a lifetime in music. The pages of that first section detail in photographs and text how difficult his early career was as well as his personal circumstances. After having some very early success, by the early 1950s Sinatra could have easily been relegated to a brief footnote in history. It was those early days that taught him what loyalty meant to both himself and others. While the early fifties were ugly, things changed fairly rapidly. Winning the Oscar on March 25, 1954 was a pivotal point in that turnaround and a small taste of what was to come. In Chairman Of The Board 1953-1972, that turnaround is thoroughly detailed. Sinatra quickly became a box office superstar while his deal with Capital Records made him a major business success. His personal life was another matter as marriages came and went. All of this is detailed in both text and pictures though it is the pictures that really tell Sinatra’s story by way of Hollywood movie sets, recording studios, award events, and more. The final section, Ol Blue Eyes 1973-1998, covers the later years of Frank Sinatra’s incredible life. He had found peace and had gradually returned to singing by way of touring. Along the way the awards and accolades came to him from a worldwide audience as he continued to entertain people everywhere. While the text is important, the pictures truly tell the tale and are the real story of the book. Often the photographs capture other well-known figures such as Orson Wells, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable, etc. As such the photographs not only give readers a glimpse back in time of Sinatra, they also serve to showcase other legendary talents and others who just happened to be in the right place at the right time to be immortalized. They serve as a window into history, not only of Frank Sinatra, but of our history and culture over decades of American life.It is worth noting that the coffee table-sized book is very heavy. Beyond the sheer weight of approximately six pounds is the fact that the text in captions and elsewhere in the book is very small. The caption text is even smaller than the main text with the result being a very well done book that could be difficult to read for those who have eyesight issues. Published by Thomas and Hudson this tome is meant as an all-encompassing historical visual record to commemorate the singer’s 100th birthday. – Kevin Tipple

Instead of individually covering the fourth and fifth books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Boars, Gore, and Swords book club is reading the Boiled Leather chapter order organized by Sean T. Collins. The new order combines the concurrently occurring events of A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons into one massive undertaking. In this week's "World of Wargcraft," Ivan and Red get into the books' respective prologues. Catch up on previous book club episodes, going over the previous novels as well as the Dunk and Egg stories.To catch up on previous television seasons, the A Song of Ice And Fire books, and other TV and movies, check out the BGaS archive. You can find them on Twitter @boarsgoreswords, like their Facebook fanpage, and email them. If you want access to extra episodes and content, you can donate to the Patreon.

The $2 roadside drug-test kit is the go-to weapon of the War on Drugs, despite its incredibly high failure rate and the scientific consensus that the tests need to be validated in labs later; once you've had a random crumb of sandwich or aspirin identified as drugs by one of these kits, you're almost certain to plead guilty, thanks to the heavy-handed tacts of prosecutors and the disarray of public defenders, and then you're off for prison time and a lifetime as a felon. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX_zI4tIueYThe Nazi V-1 "robot bomb" (AKA the "buzz bomb") was a kind of flying landmine that terrorized London during the Blitz, doing incredible damage to the city, sowing disarray and fear, as this Periscope newsreel makes clear. (more…)

UK politics are in disarray: the leaders of the Conservative and UK Independence Parties have both quit; the Tory leadership race is a neverending night of the long knives and the Blairite wing of the Labour Party can't figure out which dice-lawyers to trust on their roll for initiative. (more…)

A. Lee Martinez's The Last Adventure of Constance Verity is available from Amazon.The Last Adventure of Constance Verity is my homage to classic pulp traditions. I love pulp, and I always have. Whether it’s the tough-as-nails noir gumshoes, weird science robots, or fearsome barbarian warriors, I find myself drawn to the genre over and over again. At least half of my novels have obvious pulp influences, some more obvious than others. My newest novel wears those influences on its sleeve from the opening scene, where Constance defeats a cult determined to sacrifice her to a mindless, hungry god. It only gets weirder from there.Constance herself is an intentional resurrection of the pulp hero. She’s better at (almost) everything than you or me. She faces danger with the resolute determination with complete faith in her abilities. Constance is human, but that ultra-capable brand of pulp human that never existed in real life. I have a real soft spot for this type of heroes and stories. They say great protagonists are defined by their limitations, but I love finding something human in the extraordinary heroes of the past. Here are five pulp heroes that have undisputed influence on Constance Verity.TARZANI love Tarzan. I know he comes with baggage. Trepidation over the ugly attitudes of the past he might represent aren’t to be dismissed. The original books are surprisingly even-handed and progressive in a lot of ways, which still makes them questionable at times.But I still love Tarzan. He’s a great character, defined by his unbridled physical power and fearlessness. In a pure physical confrontation, Tarzan is guaranteed victory. Growing up wrestling apes and fighting lions will do that for you. Yet Tarzan struggles in other ways, most typically with civilization.The books actually address this, and it’s interesting watching Tarzan evolve from an animalistic brute to a thoughtful character. Underneath it all, he’s still a ruthless and dangerous opponent, who expects no quarter and offers none in return. But he loves his wife, his family, his friends. A foolish villain might try to exploit that weakness, but they’ll soon discover the error of that choice.DOC SAVAGEThe Man of Bronze, Doc is perhaps the embodiment of every ridiculous ideal of perfection. He’s a genius, a master of science, a super athlete. At least Tarzan doesn’t always “get” the civilized world, but Doc strides across his adventures like a golden colossus. Aided by his cohorts of accomplished scientists and scholars, Doc Savage had all manner of adventures. The problem with Doc is that he’s too good. His adventures were great, but you never had the impression he couldn’t handle them, and even in the calm moments, Doc never seemed out of place. He makes up for it by having some of the wildest adventures, but his inhuman perfection is a problem. Making a character relatable doesn’t mean they have to be weak, but if they don’t ever have an awkward moment, it’s hard to care. For Constance, the quiet moments are awkward. She can defuse a bomb and outfight a ninja, but dating and just hanging out with friends can be dangerous territory.CONAN THE BARBARIANEveryone knows this guy. The broad-shoulder Cimmerian of the Hyborian Age remains steadfastly part of popular culture. Conan is the archetype of every barbarian since. Like Tarzan, he is a powerhouse of muscle and martial prowess. He’s also quite clever, which helps immensely when fighting evil wizards, strange monsters, and even plain ol’ enemy warriors. Conan is a wanderer, an adventurer, a man without a kingdom or roots of any kind. That void is rarely explored in any of his stories, but it is why when he eventually finds a kingdom to rule that it feels like a genuine accomplishment when a hero without a home finally finds one.NANCY DREWNot really a pulp hero if you want to get technical about it, I still love her and the idea of the intrepid teen detective. Constance was one of these in her misspent youth, and like Nancy, she developed a keen mind and resolve that got her into and out of trouble.While it made barely a ripple in the pop culture pool, the 2007 Nancy Drew movie played with the idea of a young girl who had more experience with danger and mystery than most hardened detectives. A central conceit of the film is how capable Nancy is, and after years of adventuring, she’d have to be.It’s tempting to call Nancy a “Mary Sue”, a term all too often misapplied to any character that is consciously written as more capable than ordinary people. There’s definite aspects of wish fulfillment here, but show me a character on this list that doesn’t apply to. Nancy is the only one aimed at young women, and that, along with her enduring appeal, easily earn her a spot here.TARS TARKASEdgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom novels star John Carter, a hero of superhuman strength and master swordsman. Also, a really boring guy. I love Burroughs, but Carter has the personality of a block of wood. He’s a good guy, sure, and good to have around when the world is falling apart around you, but he’s never been why I love the Barsoom stories.I love this fantastic version of Mars for its strange adventures and inventive weirdness. I’m fine with hanging out with Carter so long as he’s fighting evil, but when it comes to people I want to spend time with on the red planet, it’s Tars Tarkas.Jeddak of Thark, Tars Tarkas is one badass dude, leader of an entire tribe of badass dudes. The green-skinned, four-armed Tharks are ruthless, brutal, and endearing as hell. I have my quibbles with the 2012 film, but not with its interpretation of Tars Tarkas, who was everything I wanted him to be. Warrior, leader, father, friend, Tars Tarkas is everything great about the Barsoom stories in one awesome green package.And I know that Tars and Constance would get along great. Unless my secret drawer full of fanfiction is a liar, and I think that’s highly unlikely.A. Lee Martinez enjoys juggling, origami, skulking, and time travel.

Ieshia Evans was arrested for "obstructing traffic" by heavily armored Baton Rouge police officers on July 9. Jonathan Bachman's photograph of the event tells so many stories. Revealed in the margins is the impossibly of 'traffic' when a formation of riot police fills the street. In the center, Evans stands like a pillar in front of officers we know are advancing upon her, but who appear to be falling away. Police uniforms so overbearingly militarized it's a wonder they can move at all.They can remove their armor at the end of the day. She can't remove hers. The BBC describes the image, all of two days old, as legendary.In an atmosphere of heightened racial tension, and amid growing debate over the seeming militarisation of American police, one photo has stood out. ... The photograph was taken outside the Baton Rouge police headquarters, where most of Saturday's protest was focused. ... AP reported that the woman in the photograph was grabbed by officers after refusing to move off the public highway.Heavy.com reports that it was her first protest and spent the night in jail.On Facebook, she thanked people for the well wishes and wrote: “I just need you people to know. I appreciate the well wishes and love, but this is the work of God. I am a vessel! Glory to the most high! I’m glad I’m alive and safe. And that there were no casualties that I have witnessed first hand.”Evans was arrested in the same protest as DeRay Mckesson, whom The New York Times calls “one of the best known voices for the Black Lives Matter movement.” The Times says Mckesson spent 16 hours in jail in Baton Rouge before he was released on Sunday.https://www.instagram.com/p/BHtZW9TjXYB/Update: The woman in the photograph is named Ieshia Evans, not Leshia Evans.

In the confusing but exciting battle over who will become Lord Protector of Albion during its difficult negotiations to leave the Continental Breakfast, all but one of the challengers has dropped out.Minister of Hot Messes Andrea Leadsom bungled a Smarm Charm over the weekend so badly that her credibility as a candidate collapsed. This means that Secretary of Secrets (Other People's) Theresa May is running unopposed to lead the ruling Conservators faction and thereby become the next Premium Minister.Meanwhile, the sinister yet plucky Shadow Cabinet is itself embroiled in intrigue, as a former member, Angela Eagle, announced her intention to replace Jeremy Corbyn upon the Rust Throne, still standing thanks to augmentation with Bankers' Plastic by the mad king Tony but beginning to glow strangely, as if about to melt or explode.

Awaroa beach -- which was open to all -- in New Zealand's Abel Tasman National Park was privately held by Michael Spackman (a businessman embroiled in complex financial shenanigans) who had decided to sell it; two New Zealanders, fearing that the new owners would use it as a private beach, started a crowdfunding campaign that raised about NZ$2.3m from some 40,000 people to buy it and donate it to the country's national parks system. (more…)

Pokemon Go is the game of the summer: the first really successful alternate reality game that mashes up crowdsourced maps, in-phone cameras, seriously addictive game mechanics, and (of course) a free-to-play/cash-to-accelerate slot machine mechanic that children wouldn't be allowed to stand near if it were in a casino -- in less than a week, it's lifted Nintendo's stock price by 10% and been implicated in any number of bizarre news stories: (more…)

On April 11, 2012, a magnitude-8.6 earthquake, followed a few hours later by a magnitude-8.2, struck the Wharton Basin, which lies approximately five kilometers below the surface of the Indian Ocean, and some 500 kilometers southwest of the tip of Sumatra. Unlike the magnitude 9.2 earthquake of 2004, whose epicenter was in the volatile subduction zone just off the western coast of Sumatra, the Great Earthquake of 2012, as it’s come to be called, did not trigger devastating tsunamis resulting in the loss of thousands of lives. That may be because its epicenter was well within the Indo-Australian plate, at a depth of 50 kilometers. Even so, the Great Earthquake of 2012 is of keen interest to scientists—at magnitude-8.6, it is the largest intraplate earthquake ever recorded.During the month of July, I get to accompany an international group of scientists and students on an expedition dubbed MIRAGE, which stands for “Marine Investigation of the Rupture Anatomy of the 2012 Great Earthquake.” Composed of representatives from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), and the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), the group’s collective task is to acquire bathymetry (i.e., to map the seafloor and its sub-surface) in the section of the Wharton Basin directly above and around the epicenter of the 2012 magnitude-8.6 earthquake. My job is to write about their work for EOS's blog. #MIRAGEcruise.I’ll also be posting at Boing Boing from time to time, to give this site’s readers a heads up on what’s been posted at EOS, as well as to share some of my photos and impressions of the trip. For example, yes, if you must know, I did get seasick the first morning and afternoon, but it’s been smooth sailing ever since. Also, we’ve been told to keep an eye out for pirates, but I have to say that compared to the noisy hype leading up to the nominating conventions and being bombarded by Donald’s bombast 24/7, a potential pirate attack is preferable. And that’s my first impression of being out here in the middle of the Indian Ocean: A month ago, like just about everybody else I know in the States, I was consumed by each fresh outrage, each new poll. Over the last few days, though, I’m up at dawn to watch the sunrise, and back up on “I” deck to watch it go down. That may get old as the weeks wear on, but right now it’s difficult to imagine how…To follow the progress of MIRAGE, visit the EOS blog. #MIRAGEcruise[caption id="attachment_470942" align="alignnone" width="800"] Cranes on the bow of the R/V Marion Dufresne, in Colombo harbor[/caption][caption id="attachment_470941" align="alignnone" width="800"] At 120 meters long, the Marion Dufresne is the largest research vessel in the French fleet. Here it is at the dock in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where our voyage began.[/caption][caption id="attachment_470947" align="alignnone" width="800"] As we left Colombo harbor early in the morning, we passed numerous small boats coming in from the fishing grounds.[/caption][caption id="attachment_470944" align="alignnone" width="800"] Before I left the United States, I worried that my cabin on the ship would resemble [caption id="attachment_470948" align="alignnone" width="800"] MIRAGE scientists Helen Carton (left), Jerome Dyment (and), and Nugroho Hananto (right) prepare the log book to record the bathymetry, a manual double-check on electronic data collection.[/caption]the inside of a sardine can, but it is actually quite spacious and comfortable.[/caption][caption id="attachment_470943" align="alignnone" width="800"] MIRAGE scientists Helen Carton (left), Jerome Dyment (and), and Nugroho Hananto (right) prepare the log book to record the bathymetry, a manual double-check on electronic data collection.[/caption][caption id="attachment_470946" align="alignnone" width="800"] Sunset, July 1, 2016, east of Sri Lanka[/caption][caption id="attachment_470945" align="alignnone" width="800"] Sunset, July 1, 2016, east of Sri Lanka.[/caption]

(more…)

Though the code for Apollo 11's "Apollo Guidance Computer" has been online since 2003, when Ron Burkey rekeyed it from the scans that Gary Neff had uploaded, ex-NASA intern Chris Garry's posting of the code to Github last week has precipitated a widespread interest in the code, along with close scrutiny of the code itself. (more…)

No release date as yet! (Thanks, Sal!)

Protect your PC, streamline your workflow, and enhance your media library with this amazing software bundle at 91% off. This dynamic bundle includes the fan-favorite writing app Scrivener, the freeform mind-mapping software app Scapple, the productivity management and anti-clutter tool CCleaner Pro, the music transfer and conversion app WALTR, and many more. At only $39.99, don't miss out on this steal of a deal while it lasts.

George Takei, the actor who played Lt. Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series, says he is delighted that the franchise's new movie, Star Trek Beyond has a gay character in it, but the decision to make Sulu gay was a "really unfortunate" decision because it went against series creator Gene Roddenberry's original vision. Simon Pegg, who co-write the movie script (and played Scotty) respectfully disagreed.

Hanging out with Mark and Xeni has led to the development of a 'fermenting shelf' in my pantry.It all started for me with Xeni recommending a Picklemeister jar for fermenting things in. A few totally failed experiments later, and then some good sauerkraut and I was hooked. A week or so ago, Mark instagrammed a photo of some kraut he'd just put up and I was left staring at huge pile of vegetables from my CSA. I decided to start fermenting.I've got some plain -- just the cabbage -- sauerkraut going, intending to try to make a sauerkraut soup with it, and I've started some other more flavorful jars. I still use Xeni's Picklemeister but for smaller, widely varied batches I've just been using wide-mouth Ball Jars. The one I'm most excited about is full of jalapeño, cilantro, carrot kraut. Recipe:1 medium green cabbage4 medium jalapeño peppersA couple carrots1 small bunch cilantro1 Tbs Kosher or Sea Salt, not iodizedMaybe some water and some more salt1 wide-mouth quart Ball JarWash your hands.Rinse the cabbage. Remove the other 2-3 leaves from the cabbage whole, set aside. Shred the cabbage. I'm from southern California and no one needs to tell me how to shred, but if you need help, Boing Boing never seeks to disappoint. Set the shredded cabbage into a large bowl. Slice the jalapeños into rounds. You can cut them into strips, instead of rounds, facilitating the removal of seeds and membranes if you lack the chutzpah to just put them in the bowl. Similarly cut the carrots, and put them in the bowl. I feel there is something wrong with cutting the peppers into strips, and the carrots into rounds, however. Stay consistent with shape! Do not mess with my OCD!Sprinkle slightly less than 1 Tbs of coarse salt over the mix. Toss the mix and salt around a bit.Rinse, or wash your hands. Smash the cut veggies together with your hands repeatedly. Treat the assortment of plant matter as if it were someone you wanted to teach a lesson to, but not permanently disfigure or damage. Smash! Smash! Smash! After 7-10 minutes of free therapy, you should have a soggy pile of leaves 'n stuff, with a good amount of salty plant juice at the bottom of your bowl. Get your Ball Jar.I wash mine on the hot/sterilize cycle in my dishwasher, and then use them. You want the jars to be clean. Freshly washing them out with hot, soapy water and rinsing will likely be just fine. I do not worry about any sort of fermentation lock, but there are some great options for Ball jars. Pack the vegetable matter into the jar. When you reach the bottom of the shoulder of the jar, stop and smash it all down one more time so you've got 1/2 cm of space or so below the shoulder of the jar. You should have left over veggie mix. I find that making a little extra ensures I've got enough brine to cover. Pour the brine over the cabbage leaves, and tap the jar a few times to get all the air bubbles out/voids filled with brine. Trim one of the reserved cabbage leaves, and use it to cover the smashed vegetable mix, pushing it down into the brine. The idea is to use the cabbage leaf to hold the mix all under the brine. Once thats in place, I take a paper towel and screw the outside of the Ball jar lid down over it. The paper towel keeps dust and bugs out, while letting the fermenting mass off gas. Should you not have enough brine just mix 1 tsp of salt with 1 cup of water. It'll be MORE than plenty. Idea, however, is not to add water without keeping the salinity up. The saline water helps keep bad bacterias and yeasts from taking over the fermentation.Wait 7-10 days and taste it. If you obsessively check your fermenting kraut, like I do, you can mash it down to make sure all the vegetable matter is submerged in brine, stuff that pokes out can encourage bad bacterial growth. Likely, it'll all be fine. When fermenting always go with the old "Relax, have a home-brew" approach.I love fermented carrots, and I think adding the jalapeños and cilantro will give them a heck of a punch.

Stop what you’re doing and buy the new omnibus graphic novel of Teri S. Wood's 1990s comic series Wandering Star. It's amazing. Splendtacular, even. Set in the future, it is the tale of Cassandra Andrews, daughter of the President of Earth, and how she became embroiled in a galaxy-spanning war for freedom from tyranny. Wood takes what could be a generic science fiction trope and creates something new and different by weaving in hard, realistic racism, xenophobia, religion and philosophy (which are shockingly and sadly relevant to current world events) paired with well-defined and incredibly likeable—and hateable—characters. In fact, the characters and story are so strong and relatable the scifi setting becomes a simple backdrop, the room in which the tale unfolds. The plot is tight, marching forward chapter by chapter, without excess or unnecessary tangents. It is humorous, horrific, endearing, and heart-crushing all in equal measure. The art is just as good as the story. Wood is a master cartoonist who has a command of human anatomy and understands how to bend, squash and exaggerate it to create visually charming characters, both human and alien alike. Her lines are fluid and alive and playful. I marvel at the stippled, hand-drawn pen and ink effects she puts into every page that make the art in Wandering Star so unique. What’s more, Wood knows how to use sequential art and camera angle to deliver both side-splitting comedy and emotional gut-punches. (And I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention the rad 90’s pop culture and indie comics references hidden in the background details of the art.)While the series has been collected into graphic novels in the past, those editions are long out of print and nowhere near the quality of this new omnibus. The glossy paper in this new edition makes the black and white art crisp and shiny. The hard cover with wraparound jacket featuring new art will compel you to put it on full display on your bookshelf. The extras at the back—including Wood’s amateur sixteen-page first attempt at a Wandering Star comic—are worth the price of the book alone.I first discovered this comic series back in the 1994 and immediately fell in love with it. Reading this new, shiny collection was like visiting an old friend that I didn't realize I desperately missed. Read it. Love it. You won't be disappointed.Follow Teri S. Wood (who now goes by the name Resa Challender) on her website, Facebook, Twitter and DeviantArt.

This redacted pair of letters surfaced two months ago: the first one is a letter from an anonymous law student (or group of students) who wrote to a prof to object to their choice to wear a Black Lives Matter t-shirt in class; the second, a devastating takedown from the prof, is a tiny masterclass in legal thinking, persuasive writing, and the nature and character of a legal education. (more…)

Prior to the UK's EU membership referendum, a pro-Brexit activist named William Oliver Healey set up a petition on the Parliamentary petition site (which guarantees that the government will "respond" to any petition with more than 100,000 signatures) calling for the referendum to be re-run if the outcome was closer than 60%:40% or if voter turnout was less than 75%. (more…)

HideMyAss! VPN: 2-Yr SubscriptionOne of the leading complaints about VPN services is that they slow your browsing experience to a crawl. HideMyAss, however, gives you two years of high-speed browsing experience while allowing you to access servers in over 190 countries. Browse like a local practically anywhere on Earth, while securing your privacy and eluding prying eyes. It’s no surprise HideMyAss was named one of PC Mag’s Best VPN Services of 2016. VPN Unlimited: 3-Yr SubscriptionOr if you'd rather have 3 years of superb VPN service, take a look at VPN Unlimited's subscription plan.Say goodbye to all your online privacy worries. VPN Unlimited is your one-stop shop for protecting both your Wi-Fi and cellular connections, securing your online activity, and bypassing web content restrictions. PureVPN: Lifetime SubscriptionLast but not least, you can make sure your personal data and Internet activity are never exposed with a lifetime subscription from the extremely reliable PureVPN: Lifetime Subscription trusted by over a million users.PureVPN’s self-managed VPN network has a wider reach (550+ servers nodes in 141 countries) and allows more simultaneous device connections (five) than pretty much any other VPN out there.

Archangel is a five-part science fiction comic written by William Gibson and Michael St. John Smith and illustrated by Butch Guice; Issue #1 came out last month and sold out immediately, and IDW has only just got its second printing into stores this week, just ahead of the ship-date for #2, which is due next Wednesday. (more…)

Benjamin Bennett makes ad-free videos of himself silently sitting in a corner of a room and smiling at the camera. He live streams each one and saves them on his YouTube channel. He posted his 220th one today. (One commenter said it's the "best episode yet.") Bennett launched a Kickstarter in 2015 to fund 200 hours of sitting and smiling. It was unsuccessful but it didn't stop him from doing it anyway.I sit and smile for 4-hour durations, and stream it live on YouTube. By the end of this Kickstarter campaign, I will have sat and smiled for 100 episodes, or 400 hours. I will soon be moving to another city, leaving my part-time job, and so will need a new way to support myself. It is my wish to turn Sitting and Smiling into my job, and this fundraiser could be the beginning of that. If viewers support this project, it would allow me to devote more time and energy to Sitting and Smiling, increasing the frequency and quality of the videos.My goal for this campaign is to make $8 per hour of sitting and smiling for the next 200 hours. My deadline for completing the next 200 hours is August 31st, 2015. I am giving myself leeway because I am moving, but if all goes well with the move, I will be able to finish well before the deadline.The money will go a long way, covering my bills and living expenses, which are quite low by most people's standards. I may also purchase a more comfortable sitting cushion, to replace my chunks of mattress foam. This is amazing.

The fine folks at LoanMe prequalified this Reddit user for a $10,600 loan. The annual interest rate is 99.75 percent. The monthly payment would be $841 and would require 84 payments to pay off the loan. In the end, the loan would cost over $70,000.Over at LoanMe, there are other deals for people desperate enough to take the bait. Idaho residents who need $2600 can get it by paying a $75 loan fee, after which they will be obligated to make 47 monthly payments of $388.40, for a total payback of $18,254.80.

Donald Trump's long-awaited reconciliation meeting with Republican senators went so badly that several attendees anonymously leaked details of Trump's tantrum and namecalling to the New York Times. (more…)

Alex Lambert used to be head chef at the Littleover Lodge Hotel in Derby, UK. That was before he posted on Instragram that he enjoys feeding meat to unsuspecting vegans. From NZ Herald:The chef and father-of-one has since denied he ever fed meat to anybody against their will. He claimed he only made the comment on Instagram to irritate a vegan woman he'd gotten into an argument with.In his bitter exchange, he wrote to the woman: "Well you should find a better way to spend your time, my personal favourite is feeding vegans animal products and them not knowing."The woman replied: "Hope you get caught one day, would love to see that. I know we're a minority and really don't give a sh*t because that has no relevance. Enjoy the heart disease."After a group of vegans threatened a boycott of the hotel, Lambert was fired. He insists he doesn't really give animal products to unsuspecting vegans, and only claimed that he did to wind the woman up. He issued a statement, saying:"I have been a chef for nine years. I have never in this time done anything like feeding a vegan animal products or slipped in contaminated food."My job has always been my passion and something I have always taken very seriously. It was a stupid comment said out of anger."For the record I have no issue with vegans."

Adam writes, "I'm an artist working in Beacon, New York. I make 8-bit inspired geometric paintings based on iconic images and I'd like to share a new series of paintings with you." (more…)

Kimberly Brinton was pumping gas and smoking a cigarette at the Dandy Mini Mart convenience store in Mehoopany, Pennsylvania on June 30. Another customer remarked that it was not safe to smoke around a gas pump and splashed Ms. Brinton with windshield cleaner in an attempt to put out her cigarette. Police syt Ms. Brinton responded by spraying gasoline on the other customer and threatening to light her on fire. The customer slipped in the gasoline and broke her arm.Ms. Brinton was jailed on aggravated assault and other charges.

New York's elderly people qualify for the Senior Citizen Homeowners' Exemption and the Enhanced School Tax Relief Exemption, but the city's Finance Department is supposed to solicit confirmations of eligibility every two years to make sure that the people receiving the tax-breaks are still alive -- a duty the department failed to perform for a solid decade, costing the city nearly $60M in lost revenue. (more…)

My op-ed in today's issue of The Tech, MIT's leading newspaper, describes how browser vendors and the W3C, a standards body that's housed at MIT, are collaborating to make DRM part of the core standards for future browsers, and how their unwillingness to take even the most minimal steps to protect academics and innovators from the DMCA will put the MIT community in the crosshairs of corporate lawyers and government prosecutors. (more…)