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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…)

Dick Van Dyke, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday, has written an op-ed in the Hollywood Reporter endorsing Bernie Sanders as the best candidate for senior citizens. (more…)

Gizmodo's Matt Novak filed a clever request to the FCC under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): what are all the FOIA requests you've "withheld in full"? So they sent him the list. (more…)

If you're a Californian registered Independent/No Party Preference, you are entitled to cast a ballot in the Democratic primary on June 7, but some Orange County poll workers report that they've been instructed to give independent voters "provisional ballots," which, in practice, are rarely if ever counted. (more…)

An independent investigation by The Guardian found 33 cities in 17 US states (including Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee) are systematically cheating on the tests to monitor lead levels in the municipal water. 21 of those cities used the same cheating techniques that led to criminal charges in the Flint water scandal. (more…)

In my weekly segment on KCRW's “Press Play” news program with host Madeleine Brand, we listen to Elon Musk wax poetic about artificial intelligence and whether life might be a dream--and his plans to send humans to Mars by 2025. (more…)

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, cringing from the decision for days after it became clear who would win the party's nomination, has finally endorsed Donald Trump's bid to become U.S. President.The Wisconsin Republican has voice reservations over Trump's tone throughout the campaign and disagrees with him on many policy areas. Last month, he met with the likely GOP nominee and still withheld his endorsement. As recent as last week, he was still holding out.But on Thursday he finally acquiesced. In a column in the Janesville Gazette, the Speaker wrote that the two "have more common ground than disagreement." And despite never using the word "endorse" in the article, Ryan's spokesman confirmed it was an official endorsement.For Republicans, obedience or oblivion.

This orphaned baby rhino likes to walk with this girl to school in the morning.Rhinos are endangered across Africa, as demand for their horn fuels ruthless criminal poaching networks. Ol Pejeta is the largest black rhino sanctuary in east Africa, and is also home to the last three northern white rhinos on the planet. When Ringo is ~4 years old, it is hoped he can be released into the wild.(Thanks, McRaney!)

"Either we're going to create simulations that are indistinguishable from reality, or civilization will cease to exist," Musk says. (Recode)More on the Simulation Argument here and here.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.The Science Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)DK2014, 352 pages, 8 x 9.6 x 1 inches $15 Buy a copy on AmazonThe Science Book is DK publishing’s “greatest hits” of science. Laid out chronologically and full of diagrams and photos, it gives you a coffee table book experience but in a manageable way. No book clocking in at 350-ish pages could be totally comprehensive, yet it includes most of the major scientific milestones from 600 BCE to today without being dry or overwhelming. I found that I was able to gain a better understanding of principles that I only marginally understood, like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, which is clearly laid out in layman’s terms and with genuinely helpful visuals. Genetics is a particularly complicated topic that has always fascinated me, so I was especially drawn to the chapters that tackled it and found a diagram using bees to explain recessive traits to be one of my favorite features. The individual chapters are broken up into sections and use sidebars and trivia to keep things interesting, so no matter what topic you land on the information is always accessible. I haven’t read it cover to cover, but rather peruse whatever topic catches my eye and always find something I didn’t known before. Textbooks devoted to science have an unfortunate tendency to be dry and technical, so I am especially excited to share The Science Book with my son as he gets older, with the hope that it may help him develop a real interest in science and an appreciation of its value.– Amber Troska

Satellite data from the European Space Agency have revealed that the Earth’s magnetic poles are weakening, and doing so faster than scientists previously thought.From Mysterious Universe:Chris Finlay, one of the researchers with the ESA, says that this new data is groundbreaking in terms of how much it reveals about Earth’s magnetic field: "Swarm data are now enabling us to map detailed changes in Earth’s magnetic field, not just at Earth’s surface but also down at the edge of its source region in the core. Unexpectedly, we are finding rapid localized field changes that seem to be a result of accelerations of liquid metal flowing within the core."From ESA:Although invisible, the magnetic field and electric currents in and around Earth generate complex forces that have immeasurable effects on our everyday lives.The field can be thought of as a huge bubble, protecting us from cosmic radiation and electrically charged atomic particles that bombard Earth in solar winds. However, it is in a permanent state of flux.

Ben Krasnow of Applied Science demonstrates the tiny fingers of a piezoelectric motor. (Here's my interview with Ben from last year.)

Some Donald Trump supporters on 4chan--that time-honored bastion of gentility, courtesy, and sensibility-- hatched a plan on the forum to use sockpuppet Twitter accounts to pit Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters against one other. The plan had a slogan: “Let’s troll Bernie and Hillary supporters systematically.” Their scheme didn’t really work, and has been removed from 4chan. But something like this could be effective in the future--and who knows, another instance of this same political game may be working elsewhere, undetected, right now. (more…)

"Liftblr" is the informal, amorphous community of shoplifters who post their hauls to Tumblr using pseudonymous accounts, offering each other support and encouragement. Most seem to be young women, and their community's discourse often circles back to class war, politics, gender and consumerism. (more…)

If you're an Amazon seller and you pay people to review your products on Amazon, the company may sue you. The online commerce giant sued three sellers today for using sockpuppet accounts to post glowing but phony product reviews. (more…)

Here's Brian Brushwood showing how to do a great mentalism trick. The effect: Brian explains to the spectator that a psychologist once taught him about a famous Robert Frost poem that, when recited, will force the person who hears it to imagine a specific playing card. Brian then recites the poem to the spectator and asks the spectator what card he thought of. Then Brian tells the spectator to do a YouTube search on the psychologist who told Brian about it. The spectator plays the video and the psychologist says the same card the spectator thought of.

Forthcoming game No Mans Sky promises players the experience of exploring a nigh-infinite universe of beautiful, dreamlike worlds. But its fans are far from serene. When a journalist reported a development delay, he was sent death threats--a black hole of rage that expanded to the game's creators when they confirmed the news. (more…)

Dave Maass from EFF says, "Right now, NIST researchers are working with the FBI to develop tattoo recognition technology that police can use to learn as much as possible about people through their tattoos. But an EFF investigation has found that these experiments exploit inmates, with little regard for the research's implications for privacy, free expression, religious freedom, and the right to associate. And so far, researchers have avoided ethical oversight while doing it." (more…)

Between cyber-thieves, government agencies and other shadowy forces, the Web is chock-full of malicious entities looking to co-opt your online data.The solution? A virtual private network (VPN), which helps you browse anonymously and secure your data. You can get one of PC Mag's best reviewed VPNs with Hotspot Shield Elite VPN, now only $39.99 for a premium subscription.Connect to one of Hotspot’s 20+ server locations around the world, and Shield Elite throws an immediate cover of security over all your Web activity. While you surf the Web, you’ll be able to hide your IP address, bypass Internet censorship, avoid malicious sites, and more.Whether you’re shopping online, watching video, or protecting your devices on public Wi-Fi, Hotspot Shield Elite offers full coverage at all times.At just $39.99 (or 59% off MSRP), that works out to full VPN coverage for a few cents a month - so grab this deal now.

Though there are important differences, the parallels between Reagan's political life and Trump's are downright chilling, from their media careers to the way that the press and their own party establishment viewed them. (more…)

Toby Morris (previously) uses animated gifs in his regular cartoon strip for a NZ website; this week, he writes, "I interviewed Hussam, a 16 year old Syrian refugee about how he escaped." (more…)

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[My friend Peter Sheridan is a Los Angeles-based correspondent for British national newspapers. He has covered revolutions, civil wars, riots, wildfires, and Hollywood celebrity misdeeds for longer than he cares to remember. As part of his job, he must read all the weekly tabloids. For the past couple of years, he's been posting terrific weekly tabloid recaps on Facebook and has graciously given us permission to run them on Boing Boing. Enjoy! - Mark]Prince Charles is now a serial killer. Having murdered Princess Diana, he recently ordered the assassination of his “secret daughter” who claimed to be next in line for the British throne. That’s the claim in this week’s Globe magazine, which having had fun for the past two years reporting on ”Sarah” - allegedly conceived in vitro by Charles and Diana during a pre-marital fertility test, and implanted by a devious doctor into his wife’s womb - has now killed her off.As if that wasn’t enough, the Globe declares that “Charles ordered her death.” Presumably because the Tooth Fairy was busy and the Easter Bunny doesn’t do contract hits on innocent women.There has never been a shred of evidence that the Globe’s mystery Sarah ever existed, let alone died. She appears to have been inspired by a 2011 novel The Disappearance of Olivia, which imagined a fictionalized child of Princess Diana’s growing up in Florida.Now - surprise, surprise - Sarah has disappeared while traveling on the Greek isle of Crete, and “a special tracking device she always kept hidden in her clothing” has stopped signaling.Let’s ignore for one moment that there are currently no reports of missing tourists on Crete, and the fact that the Globe wasn’t imaginative to dream up a tracking device embedded under Sarah’s skin rather than in clothing that is easily shed. Why, when Prince Charles' imaginary “secret daughter” fictionally disappears is she first assumed dead, and secondly presumed murdered on her father’s orders? The Globe has the answer: “She knew the truth about Princess’ death in Paris car wreck.” Right. If she ever existed as claimed, Sarah would have been 15 years old and living a life utterly unrelated to the British monarchy when Princess Diana died in 1997. How could she know the truth about anything happening within the Royal Family, let alone events one night in a tunnel in Paris? Perhaps she reads the tabloids - that’s clearly the best way to keep up with the truth about those dastardly Royals.The fate of Prince Charles’ secret daughter has as much of the ring of truth about it as many of the offerings in this week’s tabloids.Bill Cosby was “caught fleeing country!” screams the grammatically-challenged National Enquirer cover, detailing his “plot to escape justice.” But as the 78-year-old disgraced entertainer prepares to face his first criminal trial for sexual assault, the Enquirer claims he has “stashed millions overseas and has plotted his escape from America.” The evidence for this? Zero. It's just what “top law enforcement experts fear.” That should stand up in court.Charlie Sheen “moved to Mexico to satisfy his sick vices!” claims the Enquirer, which claims the actor has purchased a three-home waterfront estate for $1 million in Rosarito. Let’s get real: For Sheen a $15 million mansion would be moving to Mexico. A $1m estate? Just a vacation retreat.On the political front, Hillary Clinton is “freaked out . . . on booze and food binges as Feds expose her lies!” yells the Globe, which actually ran the same story last week with the throw-away line that Hillary is “hooked on pills” amid a larger rant about her physical and mental health. This week Hillary’s alleged predilection for prescription pills is front and center in yet another unsubstantiated attack by the Trump-loving tabloids that alleges: “People are very, very worried about her!” I’d be worried about her too, under all that assault by the tabloids.Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani “elope in Vegas!” says the Globe - except they haven’t. Demi Moore is “painfully thin” and “heading for a deadly collapse,” while Britain’s Princess Kate is being “eaten alive by stress,” claims the Enquirer, for whom being thin is always a life-threatening medical crisis, except when it’s a life-long aspiration.Fortunately we have the crack investigative team from Us magazine to tell us that Kate Hudson wore it best, Paula Abdul believes in UFOs, Roselyn Sanchez carries keys, Chapstick and mascara in her handbag, and the stars are just like us: they drink iced coffee, have facials and walk their dogs - revelations that will doubtless touch many readers and change their lives forever.The “toxic marriage” and “nasty divorce” of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard dominates the covers of People magazine and Us mag respectively. Both promise the "inside story,” but fail to deliver. People mag claims that Depp is possessive, while Heard is freedom-loving, evidently a synonym for screwing around, though she insists she was always faithful. Us mag merely reports the he-said/she-said clash: Heard’s allegations of physical and emotional abuse by Depp, and his army of friends insisting that’s not the gentle peace-loving Caribbean Pirate they all know and love.None of this will matter soon if the National Examiner is right in reporting: “Darth Vader’s Death Star Ready To Attack Earth!” Evidently Saturn’s moon Iapetus bears an uncanny resemblance to Star Wars’ Death Star, complete with a giant crater that looks like the deep-space battle-station's planet-destroying weapon. Photos of Iapetus were taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in 2004, so presumably the Examiner’s scientific team has spent the past 12 years analyzing the images before reaching this devastating conclusion. While conceding that Darth Vader and Imperial Stormtroopers “may not” be living within Iapetus, the mag’s crack reporting team found someone on a UFO web site willing to speculate that “Iapetus is a constructed object, it’s artificial.” And that must mean it has weapons pointed at Earth, because aliens (who say they believe in Paul Abdul, too.)Onwards and downwards . . .

In this presentation from Freedom of the Press Foundation director Trevor Timm talks about what we can do to protect the next generation of whistleblowers. (more…)

When you sign a publishing deal, the contract spells out different royalty rates for different kinds of commercial activity; you get so much every time a copy is sold, and significantly more from every licensing deal for the book. (more…)

Noah Diamond is a Groucho Marx impersonator, actor and singer whose obsession with the Marx Brothers led him, along with his wife, the director Amanda Sisk, to research "I'll Say She Is," a Marx Brothers stage musical that ran to rave reviews in 1924/5 and has not been mounted since. (more…)

Follow @RubenBolling on Twitter and Facebook.Please join Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the INNER HIVE, for early access to comics, and more. And/or buy Ruben Bolling’s new book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures. Book One here. Book Two here. More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

If you liked Rick Remender's Fear Agent, you'll love his pulpy, break-neck paced, dimension hopping adventure Black Science. [caption id="attachment_464537" align="alignright" width="300"] via Comic Book Resources[/caption]Anarchist scientist Grant McKay has created a device that allows travel between alternate universes! The hope is that his team, comprised of other scientists and his family, will find great advancements in science, and medicine, the sad reality is that McKay's anarchist ways have sent them careening through time and space. Volume one is packed with non-stop action, creepy aliens, and amazingly retro-themed artwork by Matt Scalera and Illustrator Dean White. Black Science reminds me a lot of Lost in Space meets Time Tunnel. The series has a strong feeling of those old 1960s space dramas, and Saturday morning cartoons, but with an updated, adult story. CBR did a great interview with Rick Remender, and shares additional art work.Black Science, Vol 1 by Remender, Scalera, and White via Amazon

Mapchart makes it possible to create maps of the world, of Europe, of the Americas and elsewhere with custom colors, captions and descriptions. For example, here is a map of America that I have made.