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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]

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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!)

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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…)

Further to yesterday's news that US military whistleblower Chelsea Manning had been hospitalized and cut off from her lawyers and family, a statement from her legal team. (more…)

The agricultural sector is increasingly a data-driven business, where the "internet of farming" holds out the promise of highly optimized plowing, fertilizing, sowing, pest-management and harvesting -- a development that is supercharging the worst practices of the ag-business monopolies that have been squeezing farmers for most of a century. (more…)

More than 250,000 of Mumbai's workers enjoy a home-cooked lunch every day thanks to the dabbawallas, who bring tiffins -- stacking lunchpails -- filled at each worker's family kitchen directly to their workplace, in a miracle of coordinated logistics that consistently beats Mumbai's legendary traffic jams and attains unheard-of accuracy despite the low levels of literacy among dabbawallas. (more…)

On the Media's classic "Breaking News Consumer's Handbook" is a timeless, concise, and essential guide to the way that the media reports on events like last night's shooting in Dallas, and how you can get at something like the truth through cautious, critical thinking. (more…)

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING. Reports broke at roughly 10pm ET tonight that shots were fired at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Dallas, where people gathered to protest the recent police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Multiple police officers and peaceful protesters were shot from "elevated positions," with series of controlled bursts, 6 shots at a time, audible on footage. Dallas police report that 2 snipers opened fire and shot 11 officers. Five officers are reported to have died from their injuries. At least one person who was not a police officer is said to have been injured.Two sniper suspects have been apprehended, Dallas Police reported around 1AM ET. There may be more suspects.The Dallas Police Chief says some of officers were shot in the back, and that the suspects "intended to injure and kill as many law officers as they could." Police say the suspects threatened to place a bomb in downtown Dallas. Update: pic.twitter.com/qBJe3q0EtN— Dallas Police Depart (@DallasPD) July 8, 2016WATCH: Dallas Police chief believes suspects may have planted a bomb in the downtown area: https://t.co/VKQPFEQwU7 https://t.co/3rGbTdq9eh— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 8, 2016At the time of this post, no confirmed information on identity or motive of shooters. Early reports on mass shootings tend to include errors, inaccuracies, bias, and speculation. Here are early tweets about the mass shooting, including raw video that contains graphic content. (more…)

“He shocked my head out my goddamned mustache.” Reginald "Reggie" Noble, aka Redman, on First We Feast: “The Hot Ones,“ eating hot wings and answering “even hotter” questions. Such a weird premise for a show, but it totally works. In this episode, right around 9 minutes in, the famed rapper talks about this one time he performed, took LSD, and got shocked with an electric cattle prod. [via Kwame Opam]https://youtu.be/WCYy8jpp7R8https://youtu.be/tdx6Z7qujIAhttps://youtu.be/ZBNh2PPqlJshttps://youtu.be/ovN8bNUmWk8https://youtu.be/zGtgx4dgzqghttps://youtu.be/Si186d57Ra4

Title 18 U.S. Code, Section 242 sets out punishments for people who "willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States." (more…)

It’s summer, so let the body shaming begin. The National Enquirer brings us four pages of “Celebs with Cellulite,” and Us magazine assaults us with six pages of “bikini diet tips,” which lamentably forget to include the genetic code for readers to reverse-engineer themselves to look like Gigi Hadid. People magazine sends mixed messages, offering two pages of hard-bodied stars splashing about in the ocean, along with eight pages of celebrities cooking dishes of dubious health benefit such as brown sugar bacon, honey-pepper cast-iron biscuits, and spaghetti with meatballs.But don’t lose too much weight for the summer - the National Examiner warns that country singer Dolly Parton is 89 pounds and “wasting away."Comedy veteran Carol Burnett “Tells all before she dies!” screams the Globe, which is good, because it’s probably easier than telling all after she dies. What does she tell? Nothing to the Globe, which is going to have to wait with the rest of us for the publication of her memoir later this year, though that doesn’t stop the Globe speculating that Burnett was saddened by her daughter’s drug addiction. Seems like a stretch to me. What parent wouldn’t be proud of their child’s drug addiction?With all the chaos surrounding Brexit, I must have missed the abdication at Buckingham Palace and Prince Charles’ refusal to accept the crown, because the Globe splashes its cover with: “Queen Kate’s Reign Begins - and she’s pregnant with twins!” Ignoring for a moment the fact that Kate Middleton remains Duchess of Cambridge and has not been named Queen, reports of her pregnancy with twins have been circulating since April, so she should be showing a considerable baby bump by now if it were true. A tabloid editor can dream, I suppose.Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie is facing a $700 million "dirty divorce" according to the Enquirer, though she’s already lost more than half her fortune in the Globe, which accuses her husband of squandering Presley’s “$300 million fortune.” Maybe the missing $400 simply slipped behind the sofa cushions.Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have separated and face a $480 million divorce, claims the Enquirer, which repeats this story almost weekly, and hasn’t been right yet. But a tabloid editor can dream.Tom Cruise must be thinking he can’t win with the tabloids, and he’d be right. Accused repeatedly of not seeing his daughter Suri for almost three years - a statistic which actually means that the paparazzi haven’t seen Tom with Suri for three years - this week’s Enquirer claims that Cruise reunited with Suri “to get revenge on ex Katie.” Any other divorced father seeing his daughter would be enjoying legal visitation rights, but the Enquirer says that Cruise “snatched back” Suri. It’s rare that I feel sorry for Tom Cruise, but on this occasion I’ll make an exception.It takes the National Examiner’s world-respected religious correspondent to bring us the week’s most impressive tabloid revelation: a Bible prophecy “cover-up” and the “shocking truths the church doesn’t want you to know.” Inspired by texts from the lost gospels that failed to make it into the original version of the Bible, the Examiner warns readers to “Beware the Lost Angel,” that Heaven and Hell are real, and that “The Christian belief in reincarnation is one of the best-kept secrets of the church.” Naturally they predict the End of Days, global conflagration, and for true believers “salvation guaranteed.” Or your money back?Fortunately we have Us magazine’s crack team of investigative reporters to inform us that Blake Lively wore it best (but only by showing more cleavage), TV’s ‘Bachelorette' suitor JoJo Fletcher loves the smell of gasoline and fresh-cut grass (perhaps she has a future as a rural arsonist?), US Olympic gymnastic hopeful Simone Biles carries keys, lipstick and a hairbrush in her Nike duffel bag (how do Us reporters elicit such intimately personal information from celebrities?) and the stars are just like us: they apply makeup, get haircuts and eat ice cream (though little bits of hair would get all over your Rocky Road if you tried doing both at the same time.) Talk about the Book of Revelations.Onwards and downwards . . .

The National Rifle Association has been silent after Wednesday’s police killing of Philando Castile, a 32 year old black man who had a conceal carry gun license, and whose legal right to that weapon played a key role in his death. (more…)

U.S. military officials are preventing imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning from having contact with her legal team or her friends, following unconfirmed reports that she was hospitalized after a health crisis. (more…)

Shockingly, advice from trained dermatologists is more useful when buying sunscreen than Amazon reviews, or so a study by a lot of doctors says! (more…)

This $15 tea kettle is just fine!I didn't care about imparting off flavors to my tea. I rarely think about the heavy metals I'm clearly ingesting from a 20 year old stainless steel tea kettle. Mostly, the metal tea kettle is too difficult to clean. I know glass is easier to clean, and after a few decades I can use a change.I figure cheap is also just fine. The water boils.Medelco 12-cup Glass Stovetop Whistling Kettle via Amazon

When I'm in a rush between flights at the airport, I sometimes buy a canned Illy espresso from one of the stores in the terminal. It's got 6.8 ounces of coffee and 10 grams of sugar. I don't love sugar in my coffee, but it's better than no espresso. I recently discovered that Illy sells unsweetened versions of the espresso. It's pretty good, and I like being able to grab one from the fridge when I'm headed out the door. I wish the TSA would let me bring it on the plane.

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Filmmaker Joe Capra says just released his new video PHASED | LA, shot in 12K 100 megapixel resolution. It's gorgeous!Shot by Joe Capra of Scientifantastic.com, PHASED | LA was shot natively in 12K resolution entirely on the Phase One XF IQ3 100 megapixel camera . That is three times the resolution of existing 4K Ultra HD content, and each and every single frame of this film is 100 megapixels. With the latest software update to the XF system Phase One added a new timelapse mode which allows users to easily shoot extreme resolution timelapses. Having the ability to shoot in such extreme resolution allows you much more creative freedom and flexibility in post production, and this film's purpose is to demonstrate that. You can punch in extremely far into a scene while maintaining massive amounts of detail.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Jane Austen: An Illustrated Biography andVirginia Woolf: An Illustrated Biographyby Zena Alkayat (author) and Nina Cosford (illustrator)Chronicle2016, 128 pages, 6.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches $11 (Virgina Woolf) Buy a copy on Amazon$14 (Jane Austen) Buy a copy on AmazonHand-written text, whimsical illustrations and lots of fun facts are combined into Library of Luminaries’ new series of Illustrated Biographies. The series launches with small, foil-embossed hardcover books about two famous authors – Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf. (The series will release Coco Chanel and Frida Khalo in August.) This collection is an easy way to learn about the lives and careers of classic authors – it’s like Cliff Notes for literature lovers.Through bits about family histories, friendships, inspirations, career highlights and low points, the reader gets a glimpse into Austen and Woolf’s worlds. I knew some stuff about both authors’ backgrounds, but wow! I still learned a lot! I had no idea that Austen only earned the meager sum of 140 British pounds in royalties for two years' worth of the sales for Sense and Sensibility. And that once Austen’s identity was made public, the Prince Regent contacted her directly because he was a huge fan of her books. She went on to dedicate Emma to him. I also didn’t know that Woolf loved dogs and had a pet marmoset named “Mitz,” nor did I know that it took 15 years for the book The Voyage Out to sell 2000 copies. We know these women had tragic lives, but they had joys too. I finished these books with a sigh. – Carole Rosner

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Pictured here is the Taj Mahal as seen from the Taj Mahal, by photographer Oliver Curtis. Curtis spent years creating a photo set of famous landmarks as they have never been seen—literally!Brought up in the Cotswolds, Oliver began his photographic education studying photography at the renowned course at Filton Technical College in Bristol. He went on to study film and television at the London College of Printing and has been balancing work in stills and moving image ever since.His first solo exhibition entitled Volte-face will premier at London's Royal Geographical Society in September 2016. Taken over a period of four years, Volte-face is a series of images taken at the world’s most photographed historic sites, buildings and monuments - but looking away from them. To coincide with the exhibition at the RGS a book of the project, featuring an essay by Geoff Dyer, will be published by Dewi Lewis Publishing Ltd.

Neal Gershenfeld, founder of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, has been talking about making digital things physical and physical things digital longer than almost anyone, and his books -- notably FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop -- are visionary and inspirational ways to think about how information technology has changed our species' relationship with the universe; while the Fab Labs he helped invent represent the best and most thoughtful way that a makerspace can be built to suit local community needs. (more…)

When Wendy Brown was 33 years old, she used her 15 year old daughter's identity and enrolled in high school as a sophomore. She tried and and was accepted on the cheerleading team. She was arrested two weeks later. From Jeff Maysh's profile in The Atlantic:Brown says her husband took her to the mall to buy school clothes. (She says he was in on it, even encouraging her plan, but the judge later said that her husband had “no idea.”) She selected a fashionable Esprit shoulder bag. Then she flicked through racks of jeans and Levi’s clothing in the junior section. She weighed 103 pounds and wore a petite size. Brown tried on a pair of Nike shoes, the brand she always bought her own children. But the real trick was the voice. “I just did that little valley girl thing, the California thing,” Wendy says. In the coffee shop, she transforms her voice into an up-speaking teen’s. It is disquieting.

Rangers in Saskatchewan have warned the public against attempting to take selfies with a moose that often swims in Wascana Lake.Lake Moose appears to have wandered from its more remote usual habitat to take up residence near a suburban park frequented by humans. It hasn't done anything aggressive, and conservation experts want things to stay that way so they don't have to shoot it.Facebook users began posting pictures of the moose swimming near Spruce Island, on the southwest side of the lake, around 10 a.m. Monday morning. Passersby stopped to watch the moose during its swim and some canoeists even got a close-up view as it approached the shore of Spruce Island.Leko reported the moose still in the water as of late Monday afternoon. He said the moose will not be shot, unless it “goes into attack mode.” He said in the worst-case scenario the moose would be tranquilized and relocated to its natural habitat.

The Ringing Bells Freedom 251 phone "costs" $4. Among its qualities are a 4" IPS display, 1GB of RAM, front and rear cameras, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, and Android 5.1 Lollipop with no extra bloatware. It's "surprisingly decent," writes Manish Singh. (more…)

Fox News chief Roger Ailes sexually harassed Gretchen Carlson and ended her career after being rebuffed, according to a lawsuit filed by the former Fox & Friends co-anchor.Carlson alleged she was fired after rebuking sexual advances by Ailes and after trying to challenge the way that male colleagues treated her. She alleged that Ailes propositioned her sexually after she met with him last September to discuss discriminatory treatment. In one of the most inflammatory accusations, Carlson alleged Ailes told her, “I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then you’d be good and better and I’d be good and better,” adding that “sometimes problems are easier to solve” that way. The lawsuit contends that in retaliation for Carlson’s complaints about the alleged harassment and discrimination, Ailes denied her “fair compensation, desirable assignments and other career-enhancing opportunities,” before eventually terminating her employment.The Daily Beast openly suggests (albeit with a "Betteridge" headline) that Ailes is the "next Bill Cosby." The impression that presenters are hired at Fox to someone's tastes has long been in play; there's no mystery regarding whose.In response to learning of Carlson’s complaints, Carlson’s lawsuit alleges, Ailes purportedly responded by calling Carlson a “man hater” and telling her she needed to learn to “get along with the boys.” The lawsuit cites examples of Ailes’ alleged sexual and sexist comments, including claims that Ailes engaged in “ogling Carlson in his office and asking her to turn around so he could view her posterior,” “commenting repeatedly about Carlson’s legs,” and “claiming that Carlson saw everything as if it ‘only rains on women’ and admonishing her to stop worrying about being treated equally and ‘getting offended so God damn easy about everything.'”

This week, Kevin Kelly and I spoke with author Tim Ferriss for the Cool Tools podcast. We had a great time chatting about his favorite tools, including a microphone with a built-in recorder, a food-expiration app, sports injury tape, and mushroom coffee.Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page

Selena Savić and Gordan Savicic (previously) have published Unpleasant Design, their long-awaited book on "design that bullies its users" -- that is, devices, street furniture, tools and products designed to control humans. (more…)

The Australian Department of Unusual Events is no place for the weak hearted. L.G. Estrella's The Trouble with Werewolves is a great first taste of this new series. And a taste is all you'll get! 99 cents buys you 75 pages, and I read them over lunch. We are introduced to some colorful characters, and snarky humor, as Australia's monster hunters get a quick course in Werewolf 101. Experienced team members Mike and Haley have to get the new guy, Mark, up to speed. While the team in no way handled the entire werewolf menace threatening Australia, I expect we'll see a wide range of outback monsters in future installments!L.G. Estrella's The Trouble with Werewolves via Amazon