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Updated 2024-11-26 11:47
What's stuck in this brick wall?
I couldn't see it for a long time, but once I did, it was impossible to unsee. Spoiler at The Irish Examiner.
Space Age Language Translator!
I never had an ear for foreign language, and after three years studying Spanish in junior high school, all I could say was “Esta lloviendo, aqui!” which means it’s raining or something like that. Pretty embarrassing.The first time you travel to a foreign country where your native language is not spoken widely, it’s a surreal experience. Everyone sounds like the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon.The day of enlightenment may be upon us.For $129 The Pilot by Waverly Labs, which hits the stores in September, will provide real-time translation of French, Spanish, Italian, and English when you insert the devices into your ears.They look a little bulky now, but of course further miniaturization is just around the corner.c'est magnifique!https://youtu.be/Cpgof3n6zf8Via Bored Panda
If you could chose to find out your death date, would you?
Today we travel to a future where everybody knows exactly when they’re going to die. Flash Forward: RSS | iTunes | Twitter | Facebook | Web | Patreon | RedditIf you could know your death date, would you chose to find out? Why? How would knowing your death date change your outlook on life, your behavior, your relationships. How many dictators will try to change the calendars to skip over their date? ▹▹ Full show notes
Foundations of early Shakespeare theater uncovered
Foundations of the Curtain Theater, where Shakespeare performed early in his stage career, were uncovered by developers in Shoreditch, London. And they come with a surprise: they're rectangular, not the expected oval shape.“There is going to have to be a certain amount of revision of the chapter on The Curtain in my book,” Bowsher said. “It now seems clear that the playhouse was a conversion of an earlier tenement – essentially a block of flats – and was later converted back into a tenement again.“There’s been a lot of scholarly argument about the shape of Tudor theatres, but the evidence from actors is that it made no difference to the performance of the plays, you could ask them to stand on a chair and they’d just get on and do it.”The Curtain was first found in 2012, and plans for a Shakespeare museum unveiled shortly thereafter, with the ruins encased under a huge transparent glass stage. Other finds on the site include a green eggcup, a broken comb, and a report of a cutpurse's arrest.
Big Vitamin bankrolls naturopaths' attempts to go legit and get public money
Backed by huge donations from vitamin companies, the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians is pushing to get naturopathic medicine recognized and regulated in all 50 US states, paving the way to receiving public funds in the form of Medicare reimbursements. (more…)
Martin Gardner's 'Science Magic,' fun tricks you can try at home
Martin Gardner's 'Science Magic: Tricks and Puzzles' teaches fun and easy experiments to demonstrate physics. I'm thrilled with the new tricks I'm learning!Gardner shares exciting, and generally simple, science experiments with engaging, sometimes astounding results. Play with the adhesion and cohesion of water, magnetism, volume and mass, friction, stiction, pressure, and tons of other fascinating scientific properties, to both learn and amaze. Some simple effects, like 'three jets' are pretty simple, where you drill holes in a milk carton at different levels to show changes in water pressure, however some are not for younger kids to try on their own. 'The electric pickle' is one that requires adult supervision. A glowing pickle is certainly cool, but spiking a cucumber, and plugging it into a wall socket via a cut extension cord, is something I'd prefer an adult be present for. My kid and I are having fun playing with 1-2 of these experiments each week. A few of the presentations may become magic tricks I use with friends.Martin Gardner's Science Magic: Tricks and Puzzles via Amazon
Copyright trolls Rightscorp are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy
Rightscorp, the copyright trolls whose business-model was convincing ISPs to freeze their customers' Internet access in response to unsubstantiated copyright accusations, and then ransom those connections back for $20 each, will be out of money by the end of this quarter. (more…)
Magic-mushroom drug lifts depression in first human trial
Nature Magazine reports that researchers from Imperial College London gave psilocybin to 12 people with depression. All the patients showed "a marked improvement in their symptoms." From Nature:Researchers from Imperial College London gave 12 people psilocybin, the active component in magic mushrooms. All had been clinically depressed for a significant amount of time — on average 17.8 years. None of the patients had responded to standard medications, such as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), or had electroconvulsive therapy.One week after receiving an oral dose of psilocybin, all patients experienced a marked improvement in their symptoms. Three months on, five patients were in complete remission. “That is pretty remarkable in the context of currently available treatments,” says Robin Carhart-Harris, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London and first author of the latest study, which is published in The Lancet Psychiatry.The equivalent remission rate for SSRIs is around 20%.
GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human
See more sample pages from this book at Wink.GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human by Thomas ThwaitesPrinceton Architectural Press2016, 208 pages, 5.9 x 8.6 x 0.9 inches $16 Buy a copy on AmazonThomas Thwaites has a curious idea of what it means to take a vacation, at least if the just released GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human is any indication. What started off as a casual observation about how Queen Elizabeth’s dog, Noggin, probably worries a good deal less than his royal master evolved into a quixotic book full of ruminations on ruminants. Animals, Thwaites imagined, live in the moment, free from worry, at one with the land. How wonderful to be so unburdened, he thought. So, after briefly considering becoming an elephant, he decided to try his hand at being a goat.Along the way, Thwaites learned a good deal about goats. Humans, Thwaites tells us, have been interacting with them since 9000 BCE – from the domestication of bezoar goats somewhere in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains to the mythical, sexual subjugation of goats by the goat-horned, Greek god Pan, as depicted in a rather graphic sculpture discovered under layers of ash deposited on the city of Herculaneum by Mount Vesuvius in the year 79. Much to our relief, Thwaites just wants to be a goat, not to “do” one.Which is not to say the book is not occasionally disgusting. The section describing the R&D behind his goat suit includes the dissection of a goat named Venus, who died of natural causes and whose skinned limbs, palm-sized brain, and oozing guts are explored in gory detail. I’ll spare you. Suffice it to say that in the end, Thwaites gets his opportunity to clomp about on all fours on the steep hillsides of Switzerland, where he hangs out with a herd of Swiss goats and does what goats do – he grazes. For the record, the green-green grass, he reports, is sweeter than the blue-green stuff, which is bitter. Later, Thwaites makes a meal of the grass he’d been chewing and spitting into an artificial goat stomach, using decidedly non-goat cooking techniques to make it digestible for his human digestive system. The resulting “burnt grass stew,” he confesses, was the “most unappetising meal of my life.” Perhaps, though, if Thwaites had simply spent a few days hiking on two legs instead of four in this beautiful place, he would have had fewer goat concerns on his human mind.
Mount Washington Observatory shares video of man being blown away by 109-mph winds
The Mount Washington Observatory published this insane video from weather observers Mike Dorfman and Tom Padham demonstrating the effects of strong winds on top of a New Hampshire mountain. (more…)
When snakes attack at Lowe's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYPvEaMudocA 4.5-foot copperhead snake, hidden in a tree, bit an employee at the Lowe's in in Denver, North Carolina. WPXI reports that "this could happen at any store that sells trees." (more…)
Watch - unshielded padlocks are braindead simple to open without a key
Lock expert Bosnian Bill shows the difference between shielded and unshielded padlock, by bypassing the tumblers with a simple tool.
1970s magazine ads for drug paraphernalia
Buzzfeed collected a bunch of drug toy ads from the early 70s. Here are a few:
Marco Rubio melts down on Twitter
Let's dispel with this fiction that Marco Rubio knows what he's doing. He doesn't know exactly what he's doing. The BBC reports on the former Republican presidential candidate's "Twitter tirade" last night, described by one wit as "losing the 2020 New Hampshire primary four years ahead of schedule." (more…)
Animated map shows two centuries of US immigration
It looks like Wargames but with Skittles: colored balls representing immigrants arcing through low orbit to land somewhere within the United States of America—Oklahoma, by the looks of it. Creator Max Galka writes that it covers 1820 to 2013 and that each dot represents 10,000 people. (more…)
Trump campaign cancels interview after overhearing reporter speaking in Spanish
Donald Trump was all set to be interviewed by TV Azteca's Marcos Stupenengo -- a white, green-eyed Argentine expat -- until they overheard him talking on the phone in Spanish, whereupon the interview was summarily cancelled and Stupenengo was escorted out of the building by Trump's Secret Service detail (who apologized to him). (more…)
Haptic sneakers give you turn-by-turn directions through vibrations in your feet
Low-cost carrier Easyjet has prototyped "Sneakairs," a pair of shoes that have small vibrating motors and Bluetooth links; they work in concert with your mobile phone's mapping app, buzzing left or right when it's time to turn, and twice if you've gone the wrong way. (more…)
Using ALLCAPS to denote SHOUTING dates to 19th, maybe even 17th century
Hitherto believed to be a fairly recent innovation derived from the imperative quality of official telegraphy, etc., it turns out that there is a much longer history of using all-caps text to signify SHOUTING AT THE READER. Glenn Fleishman:I’m here to BLOW THIS OUT OF THE WATER, with a series of citations that date back to 1856. People have been uppercase shouting intentionally for a century more than recollected. And, as with so many things, longtime Internet users want to claim credit, when they really just passed on and more broadly popularized an existing practice... The first clear citation I can find is in the Evening Star, a Washington, D.C., newspaper. It appears on February 28, 1856 and was syndicated to other papers around the same time. In a “hilarious” dialect story about a Dutchman who seems to be disease-ridden, this wonderful sentence appears:[“]I dells you I’ve got der small pox. Ton’t you vetsteh? der SMALL POX!” This time he shouted it out in capital letters.And that's just an explicit reference to allcaps-as-shouting. Implicitly, it goes back to the Stuart era.Sue Walker, the director of collections and archives in typography at the University of Reading, England, found an apposite description in a 1674 book, The Compleat English Schoolmaster, by Elisha Coles. The author wrote that a whole word in capitals “is alwa[y]es more than ordinarily remarkable; as some signal name, Title, Inscription, or the like...”
Yellowstone bison calf killed by park rangers after tourists placed it in their rental car trunk
This is why we can't have nice things.Some really stupid visitors to Yellowstone National Park decided that a baby bison they'd seen was "too cold," so they put it in their rental car trunk to warm it up, and drove it around for a while. After the herd rejected the calf, the National Park Service decided to kill (or if you prefer, “euthanize”) the calf, and warned tourists not to interact with animals. For, like, the billionth time.National Park Service officials want everyone who visits Yellowstone to know that adult animals, like this calf's mom and dad, can become aggressive when they're trying to protect their young. Mothers sometimes reject offspring that have interacted with humans.[caption id="attachment_116242" align="alignnone" width="970"] Bison grazing in Yellowstone park, 2011. Photo: Xeni Jardin.[/caption]As Mark wrote here, the father and son tourists visiting the park in Wyoming received a ticket from Park Rangers for putting the bison calf in their rental car.As dumb as these tourists were, they're not alone. There have been several similar incidents this year in the park, shared on social media in which visitors ignore the rules, get too close to animals, and pose for selfies. In 2015, Bison seriously injured five park visitors, which makes them more dangerous by the statistics than any other animal, including predators like bear, wolves, or big cats.From the Denver Post:The newborn bison calf that visitors to Yellowstone National Park last week inadvisedly tried to rescue from the cold has been euthanized after efforts to reunite it with the herd were rejected, according to the National Park Service.The foreign tourists drew widespread public scorn for placing the calf in their vehicle and driving it to a park ranger station, citing their fear that the animal was in danger from the cold. They were ticketed for violating park rules that prohibit approaching closer than 25 yards.The incident prompted the NPS to issue an advisory reminding visitors of the potential consequences of such interactions and remind tourists of safety measures.Although park rangers tried repeatedly to reintroduce the calf to the herd, the other bison abandoned it. After the calf continually approached people and vehicles, creating what officials deemed a dangerous situation, the animal was killed.Still not clear on the rules around interacting with wildlife at Yellowstone? The National Park Service explains here. Snip:Do not approach wildlife, no matter how tame or calm they appear. Always obey instructions from park staff on scene. You must stay at least 100 yards (91 m) away from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards (23 m) away from all other large animals - bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, and coyotes. Do not feed any animals. It harms them and it is illegal.Bison can sprint three times faster than humans can run. • They are unpredictable and dangerous. • Your best view may be from inside a hard-sided vehicle. • Every year visitors are gored and some have been killed.[via Heather Beschizza]
The mind-blowing neuroscience of hacking your dreams
Moran Cerf, a pen-testing bank-robber turned horribly misunderstood neuroscientist (previously, previously) gets to do consensual, cutting-edge science on the exposed brains of people with epilepsy while they're having brain surgery. (more…)
The Intercept begins publishing Snowden docs
The Intercept has begun publishing a large tranche of NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden. All 166 articles from SID Today, an NSA internal newsletter, are coming in the first portion of Snowden docs that The Intercept will release, with more to come. (more…)
Watch this brief history of LSD, and glimpse of its future
What a long, strange trip it's been, and continues to be. Just say know. (Retro Report)
Outtakes from an Orson Welles wine commercial after he had drunk too much wine
We Will Sell No Wine Before Its Time! Previously: Orson Welles hates the advertising copy he's been asked to read.If you enjoyed this video, Publio Delgado's weirdly harmonized guitar backing is an essential accompaniment.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY97alZkUMw
Beware commercialized feminism -- or embrace it?
Laurie Penny reviews Andi Zeisler's ‘We Were Feminists Once’ and considers the progressive dilemma of popularity: how do you turn new popularity into change, when the idea of change is so easily turned into an ersatz commercial product?As a founding editor of Bitch Magazine, which was first published as a zine in 1996, Zeisler understands the fraught relationship between feminism and pop culture. It’s a relationship of toxic codependency. Activists need the media to help spread the word, even as it pumps out sexist stereotypes; the media, meanwhile, cannot risk losing touch with the zeitgeist. In her introduction, Zeisler describes her book as “an exploration of how the new embrace of marketplace feminism — mediated, decoupled from politics, staunchly focused on individual experience and actualization — dovetails with entrenched beliefs about power, about activism, about who feminists are and what they do.”However, Penny writes that things have become more nuanced, less monolithic, and that feminists are one again engaging the in the "time-honored tradition" of being too hard on their own movement -- and especially on grassroots creativity that's succeeded despite media indifference.Granted, as she points out, this newfound feminist populism hasn’t stopped the relentless conservative assault on abortion rights in the United States. Given the tireless work of abortion rights activists, however, perhaps it’s time we stopped blaming feminists for that and started blaming Republicans. The women’s movement has always been good at rebuking itself for every imperfection. The “confidence” promised by Dove body lotion may not be the revolution we have waited for — but feminism could use a little more faith in itself.Sometimes we don’t know when we’re winning. When Miley Cyrus described herself as pansexual, I thought it was awesome but that it presented a similar "semiotic" dilemma where everyone's constantly thinking about what it all means rather than what was said. Celebrity self-presentation as queer is easily understood as performance and often assumed to be a cynical commercial act. But it's also worthy in its own right, even if untrue, as an act of affirmation: an empowered willingness to broaden and define our identities irrespective of traditional standards and values, to whatever ends suit the willing. I still can't decide if I think it's bullshit or not, but the point is maybe that no-one should care what I think in the first place.As of press time, Google will reply "Liam Hemsworth" if you ask it who Miley Cyrus's girlfriend is.
Lumberjanes: ground-breaking, wonderful, hilarious comic about adventurous girls
Lumberjanes began life as an 8-issue series written by Marvel/Disney alumnus Noelle Stevenson and a rotating crew of talented woman comics creators -- the entire series is woman-led and -produced -- that tells the story of the five girls of Roanoke cabin at Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady Types, where strange things are afoot.The initial 8-book run was so popular that the series continued, and was licensed as a live-action movie from Fox. It's easy to see why: there's rarely been a more likable cast of characters in kids' comic history, each one with her own distinctive personality, quirks and challenges. They're variously gonzo, timid, adventurous, fearless, cunning, and hilarious, and their friendships leap off the page to skewer the reader's heart.The first two books tell a single long story that introduces the many Lumberjanes mysteries -- and the many badges that a Lumberjane can earn during her summers at camp. The third book is an anthology that features guest contributions from some of my favorite comics creators, like the incredible Faith Erin Hicks, whose affection for this story shines out like a lighthouse beam (specifically, like the beam of the enchanted lighthouse in the first two books).The comic has moved from strength to strength during its run, sensitively and intelligently tackling one character's trans identity and a romance between two others, in a way that's both sweet and age-appropriate for the youngest readers of the series (Boom Box, the publisher, rates it for eight and up).What's more, the creators are building out a huge, satisfying world with many well-drawn peripheral characters (I want to go to a camp with counselors like the ones we only meet for a panel or two in book three!). It's no wonder that the comic has spawned such a huge fandom, producing their own Lumberjanes merit badges (which you can wear on this official $48 Lumberjanes denim jacket).Always fast-paced, always funny, Lumberjanes nevertheless is a story about characters, about intense friendship, and about overcoming personal challenges with help from your friends. Lumberjanes Vol. 1: Beware The Kitten Holy [Noelle Stevenson, Brooke A Allen, Shannon Watters/Boom Box]Lumberjanes Vol. 2: Friendship To The Max [Noelle Stevenson, Brooke A Allen, Shannon Watters/Boom Box]Lumberjanes Vol. 3: A Terrible Plan [Noelle Stevenson, Brooke A Allen, Shannon Watters/Boom Box]
How to bake a Pie-Ger: the HR Giger Pie
"HR Pieger" Recipe by Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin (aka @ThePieous) (more…)
Phoenix airport threatens to kick out TSA, hire private (unaccountable) contractors
The administrators of the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport are apparently considering getting rid of the TSA and replacing them with private contractors, similar to the setup at San Francisco International Airport. (more…)
Iceland's Pirate Party to receive millions in election funding
Iceland's elections are publicly funded, with funds awarded based on polls of the electorate; the Pirates have consistently polled higher than any other party, and the incumbent coalition (whose parties are polling in the single digits) has been scrambling to avoid a general election after the Panama Papers revealed that he had secret offshore accounts that benefited from his bailout of Iceland's planet-destroying banks. (more…)
Beyond Brookledge is less than one week away
I'm excitedly preparing to head down to Beyond Brookledge!This from event organizer Bob Self:Gaze upon this year’s Beyond Brookledge giclée poster (which will be gifted to event attendees along with a few other treasures May 20-21st at the Mission Inn in Riverside). The art is by Ragnar who also created the imagery for the Beyond Brookledge 2013 and 2014 posters.As always, visual treats will be abound throughout the weekend-long whirlwind of magic, music and comedy. Connoisseurs of Walking Your Octopus creator Brian Kesinger’s art, board game aficionados, and devotees of the alternative histories of acclaimed author Tim Powers are sure to be pleased with the event’s mysterious and exhilarating goings-on.A few tickets (very few) are still available at http://beyondbrookledge.com… but they are only recommended for those who are daring enough to plunge headlong into an art and entertainment wonderland.Event co-producer Bob Self says, “You’ve never experienced anything like this… except maybe in your most spectacular dreams. Leave your expectations at home, because nothing can prepare you for what will happen when you join us.”And corn dogs!
Banker implicated in one of history's biggest frauds says boss beat him with a tiny baseball bat
Jonathan Mathew is one of the bankers at Barclays who participated in the Libor rigging fraud, which cost people all over the world trillions of dollars in higher payments on mortgages, government bonds, student loans, and other assets totalling $350 trillion. (more…)
Famous writers with their first word processors
U Maryland English professor Matthew G. Kirschenbaum has a new book called Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing that tells the story of word processing from writers' perspectives; an accompanying gallery collects photos of famous authors with their first word processors (mine was an Apple //e). Pictured above: Stephen King with his Wang System 5 Model 3 word processor in 1982. (more…)
Russian Embassy in London tweets game screengrab, thinks it's real
The Russian Embassy in London retweeted a screengrab from Command And Conquer Generals: Zero Hour along with the comment, "Extremists near Aleppo received several truckloads of chemical ammo." People replied with funny tweets.. @mod_russia: Extremists near Aleppo received several truckloads of chemical ammo. pic.twitter.com/scCEMXRvwH— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) May 12, 2016.@RussianEmbassy @mod_russia Real drone footage of Baghdadi's secret hideout: pic.twitter.com/pddHg1jo6T— Mansour Moufid (@EliteRaspberrie) May 12, 2016@RussianEmbassy @mod_russia Folks this tweet is not legitimate;I understand the Russian Embassy has been infiltrated pic.twitter.com/OWDL5PRZ8R— Nerpov Rupelnrop (@Zinkugel) May 12, 2016@RussianEmbassy @mod_russia An column of Russian tanks were defeated by an unit of ISIS spearmen this thursday. pic.twitter.com/LcW1gf26m1— rfcapa (@rfcapa) May 12, 2016@RussianEmbassy @mod_russia Extremists from Italian terrorist cells have been seen attacking innocent civilians. pic.twitter.com/qmCmgsX4pE— Kevin (@iam16bit) May 12, 2016
Orangutan cools off with washcloth
This man of the forest enjoys a cool washcloth, even when his young friend tries to take it from him.
Telcoms companies try to rescue TV by imposing Internet usage caps on cord-cutters
What do you do if you're a giant corporation devoted to selling people huge, $100/month bundles of TV channels they don't want anymore, but you also have a monopoly on selling high-speed Internet access, which they want very badly? (more…)
Get your vape on with the FEZ Vaporizer - now just $99
The vaping phenomenon has exploded over the past decade. Whether it’s smokers transitioning to a less harmful pastime, or connoisseurs of exotic tastes and textures, the market for vaping enthusiasts continues to grow. For buyers looking to straddle the gulf between cheap disposable e-cigarettes and ultra-expensive vaporizers in the $300 to $400 price range, FEZ has hit the sweet spot. Meet the FEZ Vaporizer, a high quality dry herb pen with an affordable price tag -- now just $99 (28% off) in the Boing Boing Store.From vaping novices to expert users, the FEZ combines a simple, easy-to-use design with a variety of features and settings to help serious vapers customize their experience. The FEZ charges up via USB, warms up in less than a minute and sports three different temperature settings to modulate your vaping depending on the dry herb or flower you’re burning.The FEZ’s impressive battery will carry you through practically any session, offering up to 2,000 puffs off a single charge. It also comes with a easy cleaning kit to keep your pen in tip-top condition.At around 3.5 inches long and about an inch wide, the FEZ is a perfect portable alternative to bigger, clunkier models, all while putting out a smooth vapor flow to allow for maximum enjoyment while even eliminating any toxic compounds.At 28% off its already low MSRP, grab the FEZ vaporizer now before this deal expires.
Clicking "Buy now" doesn't "buy" anything, but people think it does
In What We Buy When We "Buy Now", a paper forthcoming in The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, respected copyright scholars Aaron Perzanowski and Chris Jay Hoofnagle report on an experiment they set up to test what people clicking the "buy now" button on stores selling digital things (ebooks, games, music, videos, etc) think they get for their money -- it's not what they think. (more…)
In power, Trump will punish the media first
Last night, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump blithely threatened Jeff Bezos over The Washington Post's investigations of him. It's a preview of exactly what form Trump's authoritarianism would take in government: the use of federal power to intimidate media.Amazon is getting away with murder, tax-wise. He’s using the Washington Post for power. So that the politicians in Washington don’t tax Amazon like they should be taxed. He’s getting absolutely away — he’s worried about me, and I think he said that to somebody ... it was in some article, where he thinks I would go after him for antitrust. Because he’s got a huge antitrust problem because he’s controlling so much. ...I’ll tell you what: We can’t let him get away with it. So he’s got about 20, 25 — I just heard they’re taking these really bad stories — I mean, they, you know, wrong, I wouldn’t even say bad. They’re wrong. And in many cases they have no proper information. And they’re putting them together, they’re slopping them together. And they’re gonna do a book. And the book is gonna be all false stuff because the stories are so wrong. And the reporters — I mean, one after another — so what they’re doing is he’s using that as a political instrument to try and stop antitrust, which he thinks I believe he’s antitrust, in other words, what he’s got is a monopoly. And he wants to make sure I don’t get in. So, it’s one of those things. But I’ll tell you what. I’ll tell you what. What he’s doing’s wrong. And the people are being — the whole system is rigged. You see a case like that. The whole system is rigged. Whether it’s Hillary or whether it’s Bezos.tl;dr Amazon is a tax-evader, so The Washington Post's constitutional right to free expression should be abridged. Worth bearing in mind now that the Republican party and conservatives are merrily eating shit and cosying up to the prospective nominee they described as the death of their party and their movement.
Obama to schools: let transgendger kids use the bathroom matching their gender
Public schools should allow trandgender students to "use bathrooms matching their gender identity," reports CNN on guidance to be issued later today by the Obama administration.The announcement comes amid heated debate over transgender rights in schools and public life, which includes a legal standoff between the administration and North Carolina over its controversial House Bill 2. The guidance goes beyond the bathroom issue, touching upon privacy rights, education records and sex-segregated athletics, all but guaranteeing transgender students the right to identify in school as they choose."There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. "This guidance gives administrators, teachers and parents the tools they need to protect transgender students from peer harassment and to identify and address unjust school policies."It's getting nasty out there, faster than I think anyone expected. Yesterday, one school district decided to permit students to carry weapons onto campus, with a school board member plainly suggesting they pepper spray transgender people who "follow" them into bathrooms. The future, assumedly, seems to non-gendered bathrooms. It's an interesting architectural, legal and space-efficiency problem: not every venue can just peel off and throw away the stickers.
Billy Corgan upset that "the wrong racial epithet" could destroy his career
Billy Corgan, of the Smashing Pumpkins, laments the fact he can't say a certain word without becoming unpopular, which is the result of social justice groups shutting down free speech."It's pretty remarkable that I could say one word right now that would destroy my career," he said, as the screen displayed images of Michael Richards and Paula Deen, both of whom faced derision after using the N-word. "I could use the wrong racial epithet or say the wrong thing to you or look down at the wrong part of your body and be castigated and it's a meme and I'm a horrible person. Every day through the media, through advertising, we see people being degraded, we see people doing all sorts of things that we should be horrified at as a culture. So we've normalized all sorts of things, but we live in a world where one word could destroy your life but it's OK to, if you're a social-justice warrior, spit in somebody's face."Yet, he says, such groups "don't have power." The epiphany: always hovering just out of view. Good luck sticking to the right racial epithets, Billy.
Footage of security lines snaking out the airport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byUVR04CMBU&feature=youtu.beIncredible footage of the TSA line at Chicago Midway airport yesterday, which snakes out the airport atrium and into the surrounding transit hallways -- it's hundreds of yards long.It follows news of massive layoffs at the TSA, though apparently most of the planned firings haven't happened yet, so it's only going to get worse.The only bright spot is that the airlines themselves appear to be at the end of their tether: the lines are depriving them of passengers who must be rebooked. And, thanks to the Brussels attacks, everyone knows that the compressed packs of humans created by airport security theater are a prime target in their own right.Good to know no dangerous breast milk got on those half-empty flights, though.
Watch the bang as man skips sodium across river
A favorite demonstration in high school science classes of yesteryear, dropping sodium into water is spectacularly explosive. In this video, a fellow attempts to skip a pound of sodium across a river.
Pay What You Want for the Learn Microsoft Office 2016 Training Bundle
Microsoft Office remains the world's most powerful and widely used productivity suite. Right now, you can earn an expert’s understanding of Office with the complete A to Z Microsoft Office 2016 Training Bundle - and you can get it by paying whatever price you want.By paying any price at all, you’ll automatically receive two of the bundle’s popular courses, Basic Microsoft Access 2016 Training and Learn Microsoft OneNote 2016. You’ll learn Access, a database management tool that helps keep all of a website’s information streamlined and ordered; and OneNote, a notebook organizing wizard that will keep all of your thoughts and ideas consolidated and easy to use.The real value kicks in when you pay anything over the average price other shoppers spent, unlocking an additional eight courses to round out your Microsoft Office knowledge. Along with your Access 2016 and OneNote 2016 training, you’ll also get tutorials covering:Microsoft Excel 2016 Basic CourseAdvanced Microsoft Excel 2016Basic Microsoft Word 2016Advanced Microsoft Word 2016Learn Microsoft Outlook 2016 CourseBasic Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 Advanced Microsoft PowerPoint 2016Advanced Microsoft Access 2016 Get ‘em all and you’ll have all the tools you need to unleash Microsoft Office to its fullest potential. Get it at any price you want to pay right now.
Alien Invasion in My Backyard – From slobbery robots and aliens with briefcases to didgeridoo lessons
See sample pages from this book at Wink.Alien Invasion in My Backyard: An EMU Club Adventureby Ruben BollingAndrews McMeel Publishing2015, 112 pages, 5.3 x 8 x 0.4 inches $12 Buy a copy on AmazonTV will tell you the truth is out there. Decades ago folks would warn you to “Keep watching the skies!” But kids know the truth: The mysteries aren’t out there, they’re right here. They are in every bump from the attic, that weird locked door in the basement, and, especially, the often mystifying backyard. Kids know that’s where the real mysteries lie, and we’re all lucky that Ruben Bolling knows it, too.Alien Invasion in my Backyard, the first in the EMU Club series, is a fun and ridiculous (in just the right way) story of the creation of the Exploration Mystery Unbelievable Club. The book itself is intended to be the Official Report of their first mystery and written by eleven year-old President Stuart Tennemeier who, other than planning on a growth spurt in college, is planning to document all their amazing adventures. His best friend, CEO Brian, and his little sister Violet (no title because Mom makes them let her join) join him to solve all of life’s important mysteries. And we can’t forget Sergeant at Arms Ferdinand, Stuart’s loyal dog who proves critical to cracking the case. As an Official Report the reader gets direct access to the EMU Club files, including photos of their whole adventure lovingly taped to the lined graph paper it’s printed on. This is fresh from the brave pioneers themselves and you’ll read and see every detail, from slobbery robots and aliens with briefcases to didgeridoo lessons.Ruben Bolling is the pen name of the creator of the awesomely acidic Tom the Dancing Bug and a finalist for the 2016 Herblock Award for Editorial Cartooning. This, his first work for kids, is a light, charming read that one can only hope gets into the hands of many a little one thirsting for adventure. As a recovering child who looked for mystery behind every door but mostly found it in books, I can tell you I enjoyed reading every moment of this book and cannot wait until I can share it with my own little adventurer. Once he learns how to talk, find important clues, and play the didgeridoo, of course. – Rob Trevino
The FBI planted bugs in Oakland courthouse without a warrant
The FBI isn't in the mood to discuss why it installed hidden microphones and cameras in and around Alameda County’s Rene C. Davidson Courthouse. It had been conducting secret surveillance for 10 months, even though they didn't have a court order. From the East Bay Express:At the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland, the FBI planted hidden microphones inside light fixtures on the courthouse’s exterior steps to capture the conversations of people attending the foreclosure auctions. Cameras and microphones were installed in parked Alameda County vehicles next to the courthouse. The FBI even hid a microphone in the AC Transit bus stop on Fallon Street, and dropped a bugged backpack next to a statue inside the courthouse, according to a letter sent by US Justice Department attorney Kate Patchen to Marr's attorneys on March 15. The surveillance was ongoing from March 2010 to January 2011....[D]efense attorneys in the San Mateo case said they believe the federal agents committed felonies when they planted the bugs.Facing this challenge, government prosecutors in San Mateo have moved to withdraw the recordings as evidence at trial, but the defense has called this move an attempt by the FBI to "cut its losses and sweep its criminal conduct under the rug."
Gallery show of forks stolen from rich people, sealed to preserve crumbs & saliva
Australian artist Van Thanh Rudd, nephew of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, spent 15 years stealing forks that had been used by the rich and powerful, vacuum sealing them to preserve leftover morsels, saliva and DNA, and now he tours them as a gallery show called "Rich Forks." (more…)
Gen Con attains gender parity for its Industry Insider panelists
Gen Con, the giant, venerable RPG convention in Indianapolis, has announced its Industry Insider slate of featured panelists, revealing that the con's organizers attained (and surpassed) gender parity, with a group composed 52% of women. (more…)
Sky divers play quidditch
Putting Middlebury college kids to shame, these sky divers come about as close as you can to playing quidditch.
Raccoon attacks Seattle
Another attack on North America's power infrastructure by embittered animals has resulted in the death of at least one raccoon. Via KOMO News:The city's electric utility said service was knocked out at around 3 a.m. and power was restored to all customers by 5:30 a.m. At the height of the outage, the utility says 38,778 customers were without electricity.Initial reports from the scene said that the raccoon survived, but later it was determined that it was electrocuted by 26,000 volts when it came into contact with electrical equipment inside the substation.
LEGO Cyberman minifig
Upgrading is compulsory!I had to have this Cyberman minifig. The stacked up bunch of pieces that resembles a Dalek is also cute. Dr. Who Cyberman Fun Pack - Lego Dimensions via Amazon
Experience solitary confinement in VR
The Guardian has recreated a 6x9 solitary confinement cell in VR, designed to be viewed with Google's cheap cardboard VR viewers, which uses your phone for screens. (more…)
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