The world's central banks, freaked out about huge leverage by financial institutions and borrowers and unwilling to engage in economic stimulus themselves, have been moving interest rates lower and lower, until now, many banks are offering negative interest rates, meaning that buying $100 worth of treasury bills today will return $99 in cash tomorrow -- hoping that this will incentivize banks to issue enough loans to make up for politically impossible governmental fiscal stimulus. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=q1Mrfu4yE-wI remember John Stewart's first nights on The Daily Show, when the radioactive, manifest awfulness of GW Bush and his nakedly opportunistic response to 9/11 seemed to reach deep into the comedian's psyche and conjure forth an heroic, blazing best self whose invective and wit skewered, enraged, and succored all of us who were living through those years. (more…)

We've been writing about the efforts of parfumiers to make book-smell scents (chemistry, product, hoax) for many years, but the reality has been pretty disappointing -- I bought some smell early on and found that I ended up just smelling like vanilla. (more…)

Sosha Makani, 29, was goalkeeper of Tehran's Persepolis soccer club. But not any more, after Iranian morality police saw him photographed in a pair of SpongeBob Squarepants pants.“Sosha suspended for six months because of yellow trousers,” read the headline of Varzesh3, an Iranian sports news agency. “SpongeBob [trousers] cause six-month suspension for Sosha,” said the online news agency Asriran. ... Last month, Iranian news agencies reported that Makani, who played for Iran’s national football team at the 2014 World Cup, was being scrutinised by the authorities over his trousers.

In a pre-sentencing letter to the judge released today by the New York Times, convicted rapist Brock Turner fails to own any responsibility for raping an unconscious woman behind a trash dumpster on Jan. 17, 2015. Turner's plea letter reads like a laundry list of white male privilege lost. It touched the white male judge in all the right places. Turner begs for leniency in his letter, and he got it. (more…)

Two Canadian families are suing Atlanta sperm bank Xytex for selling them sperm advertised as coming from a healthy PhD candidate in neuroscience engineering with an IQ of 160. In actuality, Donor #9623 was diagnosed in 2000 with "schizophrenia, narcissistic personality disorder, a drug-induced psychotic disorder, and significant grandiose delusions."MSN: While he was a donor, Donor #9623 was hospitalized for mental health reasons and arrested several times, according to court documents.In addition, he had no degrees, was a convicted felon and had been arrested for burglary, trespassing, driving under the influence and disorderly conduct.The donor is believed to have fathered 36 children.

16th century barber-surgeon Georg Bartisch began his barber-surgeon apprenticeship in 1548 in Saxony, and three years later, became an itinerant barber-surgeon in Saxony, Silesia, and Bohemia. (more…)

One of the things I hate about home video, is how shaky mine always are. This cheap camera stabilizer seems to be my answer.I've tried this solution, via Cory, many times, and I like to be able to walk around. I'll report back when I can get the animals out from under a table. Neewer Video Stabilizer for Digital Cameras, SLR's and Camcorders, Supports Up To 2.1 lbs/1kg via Amazon

Rudy Rucker, the consummate happy mutant, and Michael Blumlein, a writer of terrifying horror novels, will be interviewed by Terry Bisson, as is traditional at the SF in SF reading series, which has a new home at the gorgeous Bookbinders Museum: $10 at the door on June 12.(Images: Rudy Rucker by Rudy Rucker, CC-BY-SA, Michael Blumlein, Flurb)

Some EU countries' copyright laws allow rightsholders to make claims against street photographers who capture potentially copyrighted works, from the facades of buildings to public art. The EU's plan to harmonize a "right of panorama" (previously) would protect those of us who document the public world and upload our images to public places, from social media to Wikipedia to news-sites. (more…)

Vanity Fair breaks down the individual incomes of people who work on a major Hollywood blockbuster. Assuming a budget of $200m, the breakdown is approximate but based upon average union rates and published figures. [YouTube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leUDOjV4LbcGus the hacker puppeteer (previously) writes, "Most of us have a relative whose computer or phone is still a snake's nest of pop-ups and malware. The 'YOUR COMPUTER HAS A VIRUS, CLICK TO SCAN' attack is still a thing, 2016 though it may be. And there are enough people asking 'why do ads pop up (on my iPhone, computer, etc)' for that question to register on Google search autocomplete." (more…)

Target employee SentioVenia uses all sorts of accents when he informs shoppers that Target will be closing in 10 minutes. A few of them are crude stereotypes, but it's worth it for Mickey Mouse. (more…)

Trump's voters don't care that he's racist or sexist. They don't care if he's really a billionaire or if he fudges his taxes. And they don't care if something he's blathering on about is impossible or went out of business years ago. But when an issue comes up that connects all three of these supposed weaknesses—his frauds, his bigotry and his failures— magic happens. Trump University and The Mexican Judge is exemplary, a story so strong that it's not only hurting Trump but any Republican dumb enough to open his mouth to try and parse it for him. A fraudulent shakedown that failed in the marketplace, Trump University punctures both his business credibility and his ego. But two out of three ain't enough. They exploded, though, when a third element—a "Mexican" judge—allowed those two factors to make contact with his racism. On the other hand, imagine a sort of fourth dimensional space outside the Venn diagram where all three factors are negated completely and it is conceptually impossible to hurt Trump at all. Think insults, cute nicknames, appeals to authority, that sort of thing. That's probably where Hillary will spend the next six months. Sad!

Motorcyclists should wear ear plugs. For as little as $5 you can get comfortable noise reduction that could have you a lot of trouble in the long run.It is a fact that riding a motorcycle at normal highway speeds, even in a full face helmet, without ear protection, does irreversible damage to your hearing over time. Noise fatigue is also a very real effect of riding, and can leave rider far more tired than expected.Another long time rider told me he's getting a hearing aid today, and he never wore ear plugs. I've heard a number of reasons from some friends about why they won't or don't wear them. Those reasons are weak. Here are a few:Traffic, horns, sirens and other noises will be hard to hear: Good hearing protection will lower high frequency noise, like wind buffeting your helmet. While ear plugs will lower the volume of all sound, they won't eliminate those interruptive sounds from making it to you at all, rather you'll be more likely to hear them as the effects of constant high frequency noise will not be as bad.I wear a full face helmet: So what? Comfortable helmets flow a lot of air, and are pretty damn noisy! Helmet noise reduction studies show very minimal improvement due to a full face helmet. I do not have loud pipes: While the silly loud pipes of many a Harley rider could make anyone deaf, you are really looking to block out the wind noise rushing past your head. Loud pipes just add another droning source of white noise like sound that will deafen you over time, but they are not the primary one motorcyclists need fear!Lately I've been using these Hearo's, for less than $6 shipped shouldn't you try?Previously on Boing Boing:Etymotic Research ER20 ETY-Plugs Hearing Protection Earplugs

From Reuters: "Actress Jamie Lee Curtis staggered people attending the global premiere of 'Warcraft' by turning up dressed as an 'Orc shaman' and talking about Hillary Clinton."

Ridendo was a French medical and humor (!) magazine launched in the 1930s. Recently, illustrator Jérôme Dubois found his great-great-grandfather's collection of the magazine and shared some of the fantastic pharmaceutical ads that ran in its pages. See more at Flashbak.

Check out A Year In The Life of Earth's CO, a visualization of greenhouse gases swirling in the atmosphere. A voice-over explains what you're seeing as the months roll by, such as summer carbon monoxide blooms in the southern hemisphere. Tip: change the projection by dragging the map.

Uber terminated access to its API for Urbanhail, a startup that compared pricing and availability among ride-hailing apps and taxi companies, after chastising the company's founders for violating its terms of service, which forbid creating competitive uses. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhLY0JqXP-sFrank Schaeffer is the son of radical evangelical cleric Francis Schaeffer, who was instrumental in creating the modern anti-abortion movement and forging the alliance between the Republican party and evangelical Christians. (more…)

American photographer Spencer Tunick invited thousands of Colombians to take off their clothes and pose nude in Bogota's Bolivar Plaza. Every participant will receive free print. Tunick has taken over 75 similar photos in cities around the world since 1994.

In 1969, Hillary Rodham, at age 21, was the first student ever to give a commencement speech at Wellesley College, and the college has just released excerpts of it. I would not have recognized her voice, which was higher-pitched and had a faster rhythm, but she had the same intensity and self-assuredness then as she does now. Photo by YouTube

My wife likes this nylon spatula so much that she bought a second one. It's made from nylon and has just the right amount of flex. It has a very thin edge that slides right under whatever you are cooking in the pan or on the griddle - no more fried eggs with broken yolks. We got rid of the silicone spatula we'd been using because it acquired a soapy smell (has that happened to anyone else?).Zyliss Nylon Slotted Spatula ($5 on Amazon)

Britain faces a major maths challenge. The challenge involves a stock of people and a flow of learners. (more…)

Here is one couple's trip around the world, one second per day. What took them six months to experience takes us armchair travelers only three minutes!

Daniel Bukszpan of Fortune compiled a list of quotes about GOP apparatchiks who said very bad things about Donald Trump but now think he would make a wonderful president.Louisiana Governor Bobby JindalSeptember 15, 2015: “Donald Trump is a madman who must be stopped.”May 8, 2016: “I am planning to vote for Donald Trump.”Kentucky Senator Rand PaulJanuary 25, 2016: “Donald Trump is a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag. A speck of dirt is way more qualified to be president.”May 5, 2016: “You know, I’ve always said I’ll endorse the nominee.”New Jersey Governor Chris ChristieJanuary 4, 2016: “Showtime is over. We are not electing an entertainer-in-chief. Showmanship is fun, but it is not the kind of leadership that will truly change America.”February 26, 2016: “There is no one better prepared to provide America with the strong leadership that it needs both at home and around the world than Donald Trump.”Florida Senator Marco RubioMarch 4, 2016: “Donald Trump has been perhaps the most vulgar — no I don’t think perhaps — the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency in terms of how he’s carried out his candidacy.”May 10, 2016: ”I signed a pledge, put my name on it, and said I would support the Republican nominee and that’s what I intend to do.”Utah Representative Chris StewartMarch 7, 2016: “He’s our Mussolini… As a Republican, I’m telling you: Donald Trump does not represent Republican ideals.”May 7, 2016: “While Mr. Trump wasn’t my first choice, we must move forward and unite to defeat Hillary Clinton.”

The future is here! US Navy frogmen will no longer fumble with clumsy underwater dive computers, or GPS. I'm pretty sure AquaLung will acquire the US Navy to get ahold of this technology, and will be marketing it at local dive shops soon. Via the Tech Times:Professional divers could use any help they can get to make their work easier and more streamlined.The Navy acknowledges their need: it has built an underwater head-up display (HUD) prototype that allows divers to check their location and tap into sonar data by looking straight ahead, thus eliminating the need for a smartwatch display.The leader of the research team, Dennis Gallagher, says that "a capability similar to something from an Iron Man movie" is in store to those who will use the new helmet.To put it shortly, all the relevant information can be viewed "within the helmet."Surface sources, such as a ship, can send out information to the Divers Augmented Vision Display (DAVD). Future improvements to the device could bring sonar sensors mounted on the helmet, making it even easier to collect and display info.

Traffic-Simulation.de is exactly what it says it is: a depiction of traffic that you can toy with and bend to your will. A useful reminder that no matter how easy you make it for humans (at least modeled ones) they will turn even the most benign cooperative herd activity into a snarling mess of opportunism and incapacitating self-interest.

In 1976, Muhammad Ali collaborated with Howard Cosell, Frank Sinatra, Jayne Kennedy, Richie Havens, and others on an LP titled "Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay." Listen below! Apparently, there was a planned sequel titled "Ali and His Gang vs. Fat Cat the Dope King" but sadly it never appeared.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtiNbm9o8zU

As season six of HBO's Game of Thrones continues, characters make returns both expected and incredibly unexpected. Each week following the show, Boars, Gore, and Swords recaps everything that goes down in the world of Westeros. For this week's "The Broken Man," Ivan and Red discuss skateboarding preachers, Margaery's manipulations, Yara's immersion therapy, and how Lady Mormont is the greatest character on the show even if she's only ten.To catch up on previous 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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m2LbZIXia4In August 1963, Cassius Clay released a spoken word/musical LP titled "I Am The Greatest." This was before he became the heavyweight champion of the world and renamed himself Muhammad Ali after converting to Islam. Above is the title track from that album, which was also released as two different 7" singles. The first single's b-side was a song called "Will The Real Sonny Liston Please Fall Down," (released after Ali beat Liston), and the second was a cover of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," both below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1uuHt4WCwkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK5JEkGixS4

Doug Costello, 66, sold a printer on craigslist for $40. The buyer—described as a "prolific, abusive litigant"—alleged it was broken and sued him claiming astronomical damages. The resulting artisanal interstate legal snarl has cost Costello $12,000 so far. USA Today reports on a mess that's still not over after 7 years.The printer's buyer was Gersh Zavodnik, a 54-year-old Indianapolis man known to many in the legal community as a frequent lawsuit filer who also represents himself in court. The Indiana Supreme Court said the "prolific, abusive litigant" has brought dozens of lawsuits against individuals and businesses, often asking for astronomical damages. Most, according to court records, involve online sales and transactions.Small claims court wasn't interested, but Zavodnik's pro se actions were relentless. Even though they were insane, that's the point: Costello's failure to respond meant a default verdict for the plaintiff.Zavodnik also had sent Costello two more requests for admissions. One asked Costello to admit that he conspired with the judge presiding over the case, and that he was liable for more than $300,000. Another one requested Costello to admit that he was liable for more than $600,000.And so was necessitated the hiring of very expensive lawywers. Zavodnik appears to be a master of plinking the legal system until he shops his way to a useful-enough judge.Wuertz said the case went through several Marion County judges, many of whom recused themselves. At one point, Zavodnik sought to have a judge removed, and the Supreme Court appointed a special judge from Boone County. Finally, in March 2015 — six years after Costello sold the printer — Special Judge J. Jeffrey Edens issued a ruling. He awarded Zavodnik a judgment of $30,044.07 for breach of contract.The ruling was overturned on appeal: "the trial court abused its discretion," wrote Chief Judge Nancy Vaidik, issuing an award "with no basis in reality" using logic that "would have granted Zavodnik a judgment for $600,000, or $6,000,000, or $60,000,000, if Zavodnik had simply linked such an amount to the phrase “for breaching the legally binding contract.”"Seven years of this.

John Oliver now holds the American record for largest single giveaway in history, doubling Oprah's "you get a car!" record -- but Oliver did it by forming a debt-collection agency and buying up the debt of Americans who'd defaulted on the sky-high expenses from life-threatening illnesses, then forgiving the debts. (more…)

The father of Brock Turner, convicted of raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, told the court that imprisonment would be "a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action" (more…)

Former Talking Heads frontman and happiest of all the mutants David Byrne has a great post up about voter suppression, voter registration, and the state of American politics. (more…)

A promo for "Sadako vs. Kayako," a forthcoming movie in which the monsters from J-horror classics The Ring and The Grudge fight one another, saw the two of them playing out the ceremonial first pitch at a Nippon-Ham Fighters baseball game, with The Ring's Sadako pitching a 96km/h ball to The Grudge's Kayako, who handed off running duties to Toshio.

Today, Parliament is debating the Snoopers Charter, a wide-ranging mass-scale domestic surveillance law that allows government agencies to peer into the most intimate details of your life, conscripting internet and technology companies as participants in surveillance, with only the thinnest veneer of checks and balances and accountability for the inevitable abuse. (more…)

If you have gunked-up stove burner grates, this might do the trick. I wonder if it works for barbecue grills, too?

Evidently June 5th was the day Ferris took off. SAVE FERRIS

In the past, only the most hardcore of programmers could tackle the complexity of building virtual worlds -- but that's changed with platforms like the AGFPRO 3.0 Game Creator, now available for just $9.99 (90% off).Whether you’re looking to craft RPGs or first-person shooters, AGFPRO makes it easier than ever for you to create a game. This toolset doesn't require any coding knowledge and is bundled with extra content to further elevate your game creation process.Here's what's in your bundle ($109.94 total value):AGRPRO 3.0Voxel Sculpt for AGFPRODrone Kombat FPS Multiplayer for AGFPROZombie FPS Player for AGFPROFantasy Side-Scroller Player for AGFPROBattleMat Multi-Player for AGFPROThe AGFPRO 3.0 Game Creator and DLC bundle usually would cost over $100 -- but you can start building games today for only $9.99, while the deal lasts.

Just like the Mystery Machine I had when I was a kid. I traded it to Takumi Kobayashi for some blue edition star wars cards.Quality on the van is great. Evidently retro Hot Wheels are just like we remember.Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment Diecast The Mystery Machine Vehicle via Amazon

I jumped on the Freewrite/Hemingwrite kickstarter ages ago. It took so long for the single purpose, first-draft-only word processor to show up, I'd occasionally forgotten it was coming. I've had it for a few weeks now, and last weekend I typed a review out, on the unit itself. Thing is, you can't edit on the unit. The review below is the raw output of my clattering away at the old-timey keyboard. If there is elegence to be found in simplicity, the team at Astrohaus have done their damnedest with the Freewrite, their single-purpose, distraction-free word processor. Originally billed as the Hemingwrite, I bought into the kickstarter on this years ago, hoping it'd help me focus on some short stories I never get finished while working on my laptop, or bother to transcribe from my notebooks.I waited a long time for this unit, so I'm a little less forgiving of the problems than I might be with another kickstarted piece of kit. I have absolutely no complaints about the fit and finish. The device is pretty lovely in its gaudiness. It is supposed to resemble a typewriter, I think of the 1920s-1930s generation of my Remington Rand Deluxe Porta 5. It sort of does, the selector switches are mounted in a way to resemble the reels for ribbon, but it more closely feels like a mid to late 1990s portable wordprocessor. It weighs slightly, but not much less. It works about the same, and part of its charm is that it throws back to a mechanical keyboard like they would have used back then. The keyboard is pretty much heaven, if you come from the days of yore, as I do. It feels like I am jamming along on a Commodore Vic20, or a WYSE terminal. While the e-ink isn't vac green, its about as slow as the old led based screens would have been. You get just enough text on the screen to let you read back 1-3 sentences. You can't edit at all, aside from erasing with backspace, so watching as you type and not looking at your fingers on the keyboard is really critical. I find that if I miss a typo by more than 5 words, I try to leave it and not go back.You can edit in Google Docs, Word or whatever editing/wordprocessing program you like, howev er once you start editing off the freewrite, you can't directly append to the edited file with new text. Freewrite only uploads to the cloud, and creates a new file each time it does.You can choose to have your file emailed to you, or saved to a Google drive, Dropbox or some Freewrite sponsored web application. I used Google Drive, as its what I use, and it was pretty easy to connect. Logging into new wifi networks is a mixed bag. Anything that has just an SSID and password will work, but managed free wifi networks like starbucks, which requires some html logging in, will not authenticate, but the network will appear to be working. Don't get too frustrated when your files aren't uploading, I just trusted it'd work out when I got home, and it did.You may not really want to use the thing in public anyhow. I've taken it out a few times and while the fit and finish are lovely, the bright red and white keyboard certainly stand out. The clack clack clack of the keyboard is really soothing to me as I type but I bet it is driving the people around me nuts.I've also had a bunch of power issues with the unit. The guys at Astrohaus tell me there is a firmware update coming that'll allow me to charge the Freewrite off my laptop's usb ports. Right now if I plug it into a laptop the power button becomes inoperable. I have to plug it into a wallwart charger and hard reset it. I keep checking to see if the firmware has updated, and bricking the unit. This error also led to a terrible first weekend with it. All in all, if I force myself to sit down with it, I do actually write. I’d say it works there are a lot of words above. You are reading them. Yee haw! Astrohaus' FreewritePreviously on Boing Boing:The Freewrite, a beautiful, rugged machine for writing -- and nothing elseIs Alphasmart STILL the ultimate writers' tool?

I like to watch videos (especially magic trick instruction videos) on my iPhone but I don't like using iTunes to transfer movie files to my phone. (I don't like using iTunes for any reason because it is a terrible application.) For the last couple of years, I've been using the LEEF 16GB iBridge ($60). I plug it into the USB port on my computer and copy movie files onto it. To watch the videos on my phone, I plug the Leef into the phone's Lightning port and use the free Leef app to select and view the videos. It has never given me any trouble. 16GB is enough for me, but there are 32GB and 64GB versions available.

Is "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" actually about psychedelic drugs, British colonialism, or penis envy? Depends who you ask. At the BBC, Hephzibah Anderson surveys 150 years of weird readings of Lewis Carroll's classic book. From Anderson's essay:Re-examining the text, critics found plenty of gynaecological imagery, from the rabbit hole itself to the curtain that she must push aside. Locks and keys were seen as symbolic of coitus, and the caterpillar – well, wasn’t he just a bit… phallic? Inevitably, some saw penis envy in the text, rendering Alice’s extending neck a kind of copycat erection. And then there’s the fanning that she does before she starts to shrink, and the salt water that laps her chin once she’s mere inches tall – both acquire a decidedly masturbatory glossing.More nuanced readings have viewed Alice’s journey as being less about sex per se and more about a girl’s progress through childhood and puberty into adulthood. Our heroine feels uncomfortable in her body, which undergoes a series of extreme changes; her sense of her self becomes destabilised, leaving her uncertain of her own identity; she butts heads with authority and strives to understand seemingly arbitrary rules, the games that people around her play, and even death.Famed literary scholar William Empson got especially carried away, declaring that Alice is "a father in getting down the hole, a foetus at the bottom, and can only be born by becoming a mother and producing her own amniotic fluid"."Alice in Wonderland's Hidden Messages" (BBC)(Top artwork from the beautiful edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia.)

This stately and elegant Whiskey Case was made-to-order by Louis Vuitton in the 1980s. There is one available at posh 20th century design shop Pullman Gallery. From Pullman Gallery:In effectively unused condition, the square case with top carrying-handle is in gold Epi leather, with gold-plated studs, latches and lock, and original key. The drop-front exposes the interior, lined in deep green alcantara and grained leather and fitted with compartments containing all a whisky connoisseur would require – a single, heavy glass silver-mounted whisky carafe, four whisky beakers, a Thermos-lined ice bucket and a nut or olive dish, all in Sterling silver and marked Christofle for Louis Vuitton. A stamped pair of silver tongs and a corkscrew with cover, completes the set. I've requested the price. The recent update of the Whiskey Case is approximately $35,000.

Additional storage for your MacBook can be a bigger hassle than you’d expect. External storage can mean toting around an external drive everywhere you go.Instead, increase your storage capacity by another 128GB with the Nifty MiniDrive for MacBooks, available now for just $33.99 in the Boing Boing Store.Just slide the MiniDrive into your MacBook’s SD card slot with a micro SD card - and you’re set. You’ve got up to 128GB of extra space, and it’s mostly invisible once you plug it in, so you can feel free to leave it there permanently.MiniDrive also integrates with Time Machine and can be set to store daily automatic backups of your MacBook’s most vital files. And no matter what type MacBook you’re rocking - Pro, Air or Retina 13 or 15-inch varieties - MiniDrive’s got an version made just for your system.Handle your external storage needs with the Nifty MiniDrive for MacBooks, now 15% off while the deal lasts.

A Goldsboro, North Carolina woman bought her neighbor's used freezer for $30, not realizing it contained frozen parts of the seller's dead mother. Curiously, the buyer had the freezer for several weeks before opening it because the seller told her it was part of a "time capsule" project at Sunday School and the church would pick up the contents. The church folks never came, so the buyer finally peeked inside, spotted the body, and called 911.The seller had already moved away but is under police investigation for felony concealing or failing to notify the death of a person.“(She was) Just the sweetest lady," the buyer said of the seller. "I mean quiet, kept to herself, stayed at home. Just unbelievable how she could just stick her mom in a freezer."Also unbelievable is that someone would purchase a used, $30 freezer without opening it first.(WNCN)

TTIP is the farcically secretive, insanely corrupt trade agreement that the US and EU negotiated behind closed doors in parallel with the faltering Trans-Pacific Partnership. (more…)