On the always excellent Expanding Mind podcast, we hear from Jeremy Crawford, one of the designers of the new 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. "We discuss identity, the multicultural multiverse, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the sacred absurdity of terrible dice rolls," says host Erik Davis.Listen here:

Oscar Lhermitte and Kudu's MOON lunar globe eclipses every other Kickstarter project currently underway.MOON is the most accurate lunar globe, using NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter topographic data combined with electronic and mechanical engineering alongside careful craftsmanship in mold making.MOON is unlike traditional lunar globes that uses 2D photographs or illustrations of the Moon. 1. it is a truly accurate 1/20 million replica of the Moon featuring all the craters, elevation and ridges in accurate 3D.2. it has a ring of LED lights that revolves around the globe, constantly illuminating the correct face of the moon and recreating the lunar phases as seen from Earth.The combination of the 3D terrain with a light source is what makes it unique. By projecting the light onto the Moon, all the craters, ridges and elevations are brought into relief by their shadows. This recreates the lunar features as we see them from Earth.For the first time, MOON allows you to see the side not visible from Earth ("dark side of the Moon" or "far side" to be scientifically correct).[via]

There's been an awful lot of talk about “cyber pathogens” and “cyber bombs” lately from the mouths of American officials discussing terrorism, and how we will vanquish it. President Obama mentioned “cyber ops” against Islamic State terrorists in one recent address. Today, we know a little more about what was behind last week's cyber-hawkish hacking headlines. (more…)

How do you get millennials to pack the house at your campaign rallies? Easy: all you have to do is win the hearts and minds of the nation's hottest indie rockers and they'll volunteer to be your opening act. (more…)

Hugh writes, "In a post-Tay world, where we've proved the Internet can train a bot to be a plausible shitposter, what's the future of politics, hate, and mob rule? (more…)

Donald Trump, though leading in delegates and votes in the Republican presidential candidate race, doesn't like the "delegate math" that could let Ted Cruz (or someone else) take the nomination at the party's convention this summer.Trump criticized the delegate selection process as undemocratic and said the RNC will face a “rough July” if he’s denied the nomination.“I hope it doesn’t involve violence. I hope it doesn’t. I’m not suggesting that,” Trump told reporters Sunday in Staten Island. “I hope it doesn’t involve violence, and I don’t think it will. But I will say this, it’s a rigged system, it’s a crooked system. It’s 100 percent corrupt.”Reince Priebus, the chairman of the National Republican Committee, has told his colleagues not to consider making changes to the rules that govern the convention's nomination process.

From The Economist to the White House Council of Economic Advisers to Goldman Sachs itself, the staunchest supporters of capitalism are worried about the consistently high profit margins in key industries, especially finance. (more…)

Brutalist websites: "In its ruggedness and lack of concern to look comfortable or easy, Brutalism can be seen as a reaction by a younger generation to the lightness, optimism, and frivolity of todays webdesign."An evocative (if imperfect) word for the combination of considered minimalism and retro-HTML design that's coming into vogue as a reaction to the overtracked bloat of the modern web. I'll take it! But "brutalism" doesn't seem to account for the nostalgic component that suffuses a lot of the entries, even if the materials match. Brutalism didn't look like something from 20 years ago until it was 20 years old.P.S. There are many ways to view Boing Boing, but ASCII is worstbest.

Black Americans Are Killed At 12 Times The Rate Of People In Other Developed Countries, writes Nate Silver. And the ratio gets worse when you compare to other western democracies such as the United Kingdom and Germany. America's often tagged with a much higher homicide rate than similar nations; it's a difference that would become modest were the killing of black people to stop. Extending on an analysis by the academic Kieran Healy, I calculated the rate of U.S. homicide deaths by racial group, based on the CDC WONDER data.3 From 2010 through 2012, the annual rate of homicide deaths among non-Hispanic white Americans was 2.5 per 100,000 persons, meaning that about one in every 40,000 white Americans is a homicide victim each year. By comparison, the rate of homicide deaths among non-Hispanic black Americans is 19.4 per 100,000 persons, or about 1 in 5,000 people per year. Black Americans are almost eight times as likely as white ones to be homicide victims, in other words.

As recently as a couple years ago, using the word "neoliberalism" here on Boing Boing would inevitably provoke an outraged comment from someone who wanted to know why we were "liberal-bashing." Though the term was a little more widely used in Europe than in the USA, it still pretty obscure there. That obscurity is the ideology's strength. (more…)

Every business wants to harness the power of technology to better predict, direct and streamline the focus of their operations. Amazon Web Services have become a go-to name in cloud-based business and technology solutions - and with this 10-module, 17-hour coursework package (available now for just $39 - 94% off in the Boing Boing Store), you’ll learn how to put the universe of AWS platforms to work to have your business’ IT infrastructure humming.With e-learning materials augmented by practical hands-on exercises, you’ll discover how AWS can improve your operational efficiency, cut costs, properly scale your future IT needs, leverage cloud-based infrastructure solutions as well as manage and support your own cloud-based apps and services.This bundle of coursework will not only help you learn the basics of cloud computing, but truly understand the concepts behind the technology and the potential benefits they could offer to your particular business.With so much commerce moving toward cloud-based services, this learning package is also the perfect training module for an IT professional either looking to advance in their current position or add a highly-marketable new skill-set to their current roster of abilities.This deep-dive into cloud computing regularly costs around $700, so jump in and grab this offer now at 94% off its original price.

I've wanted a set of bluetooth headphones for a while. The cord free-ish operation, and no need to actually be tethered to my phone seemed too good to be true. This $25 pair does it all. The earliest generations of bluetooth headphones seemed that this technology would never take to quality listening. It may still not be for the audiophile, but for active folks, who enough spending time moving around a bit more, these AYL QY8 Bluetooth headphones do the trick. The earbuds fit easily into your ear, come complete with several varied size tips for a more custom fit, and have a simple pressure latch that holds them in your ear. Controls, from activation, to volume adjustment, are made via button press on the right side earbud. Pairing was easy, and charging was quick.It is very nice having no extra cord dangling from my head, into my jacket or back pocket, when I'm walking the dogs. I'm frequently working two leashes, and I hate it when the phone gets tangled in the mess. The other place I'd hope to use them is on the motorcycle, but inside a helmet, with no ability to control the unit, its kinda limited to just playing music. Also, when I did manage to get the button jammed up against the foam, it just held it in and powered the unit off.The sound quality on these phones is certainly good enough for an afternoon out walking the dogs. fishing, or paddling. When compared to other $19-50 bluetooth headsets, as well as my in-helmet Sena bluetooth communications system, sound better. They are not tinny, have enough bass for the wide variety of music I like, and present a bit of a sound stage. My prior experience with bluetooth streamed music has been something along the lines of AM radio. These AYL QY8s are the first lower end bluetooth headphone I've found that I was willing to use. For phone calls people said they sounded fine. For $25 this is a fine set of outdoor/active sport headphones where the wires can be tucked up under your hat, and won't yank at your phone. AYL Bluetooth Headphones V4.1 Wireless Sport Stereo In-Ear Noise Cancelling Sweatproof Headset with APT-X/Mic for iPhone 6s Plus Samsung Galaxy S6 S5 and Android Phones via Amazon

Seems again we're hearing about cracked and deteriorating anchor rods on the new span of the Oakland Bay Bridge. This time it appears the potential failure calls continued use for daily service into question! The structure's inability to withstand a bay area sized earthquake seems likely.This via SF Gate:Experts say the only way such a high-strength rod could fail after becoming brittle was from exposure to hydrogen in the water.Lisa Fulton, a Berkeley engineer and corrosion expert who has studied the problem on the bridge project, said the discovery “means that there doesn’t have to be a lot of force on those rods for them to break.”“That could indicate that we don’t need an earthquake for them to snap, that they are unreliable in the service loads that they are under now,” she said. “The micro-cracking is a sure sign of hydrogen attack. It’s a portent of catastrophe.” The span that should be named for Emperor Norton, appears to be just fine.

After a lifetime of Walkmans and iPods and computer speakers and all that, I thought: why don't I just get a standalone stereo like a normal person? To sit down and listen to music that isn't stereo-fielded inside my own head or competing with error messages on a screen. But I didn't want to spend any money, and certainly didn't want to obey that familiar, sinister calling to begin researching things. So I got some speakers from the thift store ($5), an old iPhone at the back of a drawer (free), a basic mini-amp I had lying around ($20 for the legendary Lepai will do). Voila! Works fine: the iPhone's in its dock; the headphone-out is connected to RCA stereo inputs on the amp.The original iPhones are slow! They play songs just fine, though, and the decent music apps will still install over wifi. But I'm really posting this because when I took a photo, it struck me that the tableaux – thrifted vintage gear, an original iphone, a cult cheapo amp, on a metal cabinet against a whitewashed brick wall – represents exactly the sort of minimalism that seems to really annoy people on the internet. So I pulled my MacBook (12-inch with Retina Display) out of my 1950s school satchel (inherited from Great Uncle Etsy) and decided to tell y'all about it.P.S. the iPhone is currently loaded exclusively with 1970s childrens' library music, an acid house remix of Philip Glass's score for Koyaanisqatsi that no natural-born American has ever heard, and albums by The Lickets.

Sarah Jeong continues her excellent series of critical perspectives on technology with a piece on the way that technology is being used to let computers control their users, on behalf of the corporations who make and sell these tools. (more…)

If you haven’t experimented with the latest programs for naturally drawing and sketching on a touchscreen, then you may be surprised how far those advancements have come. Replicating the fine detail produced by a skilled human hand is becoming surprisingly possible in the digital environment - with the proper tools at your disposal, of course.The Adonit Adobe Ink & Slide is just the creative tool for translating your artistry digitally -- and now, it’s available for $19.99 - 90% off - in the Boing Boing Store.The Ink & Slide syncs perfectly via Bluetooth with users of Adobe Creative Cloud programs (particularly Illustrator Draw and Photoshop Sketch) and allows your iPad to become a full-service sketch pad or canvas. Use the Ink stylus’ variable tip and pressure sensitivity to draw smooth, seamless lines of varying weights and colors as straight edges, circles, curves or even those pesky French curves. Grab the Slide ruler and you can hone those lines and curves to pinpoint specifications, offering all the precision of the digital realm with all of the creative license a true artist demands.Try the Adonit Adobe Ink & Slide out for yourself and prepare to be impressed...even though the most impressive aspect of this deal may well be the 90% off price tag.And if you can’t get enough computer design in your life, don’t forget to also pick up our other crazy-good deals; the comprehensive, 60-plus course Ultimate Design & Animation Bundle ($29, 98% off its MSRP) and the CrazyTalk Animator 2 Standard & Complete Training Bundle ($39, 51% off), also available now.

Economist Tim Harford attacks three of the statistics being widely cited in the campaigns over the upcoming referendum on the UK remaining in the EU, two from the "leave" camp and one from the "stay" camp. (more…)

A Southwest Air flight attendant ordered the removal of a woman of Somali descent in a headscarf from a Chicago-Seattle flight after the passenger asked her neighbor if she could switch seats with him. The flight attendant said she "did not feel comfortable" with the passenger onboard. (more…)

The way most of the world knows about Niue, a 100 square mile island in the south Pacific with a population of about 1,100, is because of its country-code top-level domain (CCTLD), which is the ubiquitous .nu. (more…)

The coolest vending machine I’ve ever seen is not high-tech. It’s not the one in Japan that studies your face and decides which is the best drink for you.It’s not the one from Coca-Cola that allows you to mix any variety of sodas and syrups together (though I have admit to a slight addiction to Raspberry Ginger Ale at my local Five Guys).This one is decidedly retro, so take a look and tell me where you think it’s located.Obviously it’s someplace pretending to exist in the 1920s.Here are some of the items available.Located on Buena Vista Street in Disney California Adventure, this marvelous antique vending machine is something you would normally only see in a museum. It can be found in the store Trolley Treats at the far end of the west side of Buena Vista Street.I have only one wish: that it actually dispensed those licorice candy tombstones, and then my momentary transition to a boy of 5 would be complete. Mmmmmmm.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Secret Hero Society: Study Hall of Justice is Batman for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid crowd. Ostensibly a graphic novel, Study Hall of Justice adds to the format with pages drawn like diary entries, or web chats between the heroes. Some pages are flyers for school events and some are progress reports or official school documents that Bruce annotates. Most of the plot is in traditional comic panels, but the real clues of the central mystery unfold in these unique pages.The story is about a young Bruce Wayne enrolling in a Gotham prep school called Ducard. Immediately he feels something is off about the school, as everyone there seems more interested in misbehaving than studying, and the faculty appears supportive of this misconduct. Sharp readers will notice many Batman villains both as staff and students, and you’ll quickly figure out what is going on behind the scenes. Bruce makes it his mission to get to the bottom of it and expose whoever is at the top running this nefarious school. Helping him are a young Clark Kent and Diana Prince, which sets up a cool origin for the future crime team. Humor in the story comes from Bruce’s repeated attempts to be a good detective, training for his later moniker as “world’s greatest detective.”While the story is fun and enjoyable and kids should get a lot out of it, my major gripe with the book is that you probably can’t introduce Batman this way because of the ending. This book is definitely meant for someone already familiar with at least the top villains in Batman’s Rogues Gallery. Most of the references won’t interrupt your reading, but the plot hinges on a couple of references that I’m not sure would have the same impact on someone newer to the character. To keep it vague, some character identities are revealed that feel inconsequential in context, but are meaningful if you understand their place in Batman’s larger story.But that’s a small problem overall, and I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from sharing the book with the young Batman fan in their life. Kids will surely eat this up, and adults could knock it out in an hour or less. There’s a lot to like here, both in terms of story and even the design of it. Pages are in black and white and the art style feels like a sketchbook, with an almost unfinished look that can be somewhat off putting at first, but quickly finds its place. It fits the tone of the world, as if Bruce himself had gotten bored in class and sketched a comic story about his own heroism. Study Hall of Justice is likely the first book in a series, and I for one am interested to see the continuing adventures of a young Bruce Wayne.– Alex Strine

The talented engineer Star Simpson is designing circuits from in Forrest M. Mims' terrific 1980s electronics books published by Radio Shack. They look great!Each circuit depicts an original, traced and hand-drawn schematic created by Forrest Mims for his iconic books Getting Started in Electronics, and the Engineers’ Notebook series. Every board includes a description of how it works, in Mims’ handwriting, on the reverse side.Alongside the schematic is the circuit itself. Paired with the components you need to build up timeless examples such as the Dual-LED Flasher, the Stepped Tone Generator, and the Bargraph Voltage Indicator, each board is carefully designed for easy assembly recreating the wonder of learning how electronics work— whether it’s your first soldering project or your fifty-thousandth.Here's Star on the O'Reilly Hardware podcast talking about designing beautiful circuit boards:

This Tumblr gives new software-development titles to old paintings.“Engineering manager returning from a budget meeting” Ilya Repin, Oil paint, 1888“Front end programmer”Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1570–1575“Sysadmin grants sudo privileges to developer on production web server” - Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci, 1425-1475, Oil on wood

The molten stuff in this 1996 Chernobyl photo was so radioactive that anyone standing three feet away from it would be dead in less than two minutes. According to Atlas Obscura, "the man in this photo, Artur Korneyev, has likely visited this area more than anyone else, and in doing so has been exposed to more radiation than almost anyone in history. Remarkably, he’s probably still alive. The story of how the United States got a hold of this singular photo of a human in the presence of this incredibly toxic material is itself fraught with mystery—almost as much as why someone would take what is essentially a selfie with a hunk of molten radiated lava."

Rick Kleffel sends us his latest podcast (MP3), "A conversation with one of the authors of a wonderful and strange book; science-fiction thought experiments ('robot versus baby') informed by social psychology experiments of fascinating design, part ethics, philosophy, neuroscience, the minds of god and the dead and machines... authentically mind-boggling. And Fun!" (more…)

A German satirist faces court action after insulting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on television.Chancellor Angela Merkel, in granting Turkey's request to allow the prosecution of Jan Boehmermann, cast her decision as adherence to the country's laws against insulting heads of state: “In a state governed by the rule of law, it’s not the domain of the government, but rather the prosecutors and the courts, to weigh individual rights.”But critics say the law itself is an unacceptable infringement of essential freedoms, and point to another issue weighing heavily on Merkel's mind: the need to keep Turkey sweet so it will accept more refugees. The furor has centered on Boehmermann, a comedian with public broadcaster ZDF who two weeks ago recited a poem about Erdogan that plumbed the depths of bawdiness in an effort to test the boundaries of acceptable satire under a law protecting foreign heads of state from libel. Merkel says her decision wasn’t a prejudgment on the satirist’s culpability.Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday that the German comedian had committed a “crime against humanity” by insulting the Turkish head of state. “No one has the right to insult” Erdogan, Kurtulmus told reporters. Erdogan himself also filed a complaint with German prosecutors seeking legal action.Boehmermann would receive no more than a small fine if convicted, according to legal experts. The poem was designed to test German limits on free speech, writes the BBC.In true Boehmermann fashion, the poem was more complicated than simply a string of obscenities.It was prefaced with an explanation that the poem was illegal in Germany, in reference to an Erdogan parody on German TV that the Turkish president had taken offence to days before.The joke presumably was that in Germany you could be fined or even jailed for saying something so childish; and it highlighted Germany's own problematic issues with free speech.That is why Boehmermann refuses to back down. "What appears to have been overlooked is that the poem was not broadcast on its own, but rather as part of an overall presentation about what is allowed in Germany and what isn't," as his lawyer explained on Thursday.Merkel says her government will seek to scrap the lèse-majesté law, but the circumstances have already deeply embarrassed Germany's political establishment.Erdogan, notoriously thin-skinned, has cracked down on press freedom in his own country, and built himself a marvelous palace at public expense.

In 1863 the residents of Nova Scotia discovered a legless man on the shore of St. Mary's Bay. He spoke no English and couldn't tell them who he was or where he'd come from. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell what we know about the strange man they called Jerome and the guesses that have been made about his story.We'll also learn about explosive rats in World War II and puzzle over a computer that works better when its users sit.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

I’ve always wanted to go to Australia, an enormous continent with a small population (relative to its size) that’s mostly gathered on the coastlines. The main body of the continent is uninhabitable desert. But it’s a really long trip – at least 24 hours, including layovers and plane changes – so that’s not happening anytime soon. But if the trip wasn’t such a drag, I’d go for Jurassic World: The Exhibition, now open in Melbourne. (more…)

I didn't know glam rock icon Marc Bolan hosted a music TV show in the 1970s. It was called simply MARC, and judging from this sixth (and final) episode, it was terrific. There's a very young Billy Idol with Generation X, pub-rockers Eddie and the Hot Rods, David Bowie, and plenty of Marc Bolan with T. Rex. There are also a few odd but interesting numbers, like the Lawrence Welk-y disco performances by the Heart Throb Dance Troupe.From Wikipedia:The last episode featured Bolan duetting with his friend David Bowie. Before the song had reached its end, Bolan tripped over a microphone cable and fell off the stage. Bowie is said to have called out "Could we have a wooden box for Marc [to stand on]?". Following the show Bolan and Bowie co-wrote and recorded a rough outline of a new song, "Madman." The new wave band Cuddly Toys found a bootleg tape and recorded it, which became a UK Indie Chart single and featured on their Guillotine Theatre album.The final show was recorded on 7 September 1977, but not broadcast until after Bolan's funeral on 20 September 1977, which was also attended by David Bowie and Rod Stewart, among others.Here are episodes 1, 3, 4, and 5: https://youtu.be/Q0NEfm_Y-iohttps://youtu.be/kDUTtaPe14Ahttps://youtu.be/DFnanAKtUbshttps://youtu.be/H5yzqG4beZAI couldn't find episode 2, but here is a clip from it, featuring the Heart Throb Dance troupe:https://youtu.be/ZdiTH96vXvc(By the way, Marc Bolan (1947-1977) and cartoonist Vaughn Bode (1941 – 1975) could have been brothers:)

Following Tuesday's raid on disgraced offshore incorporation lawfirm Mossack-Fonseca, Panama's public prosecutor has announced that he can't find any evidence of wrongdoing in the firm's files. (more…)

Bernie Sanders denounced the CEO of GE for the company's tax-dodging practices and the CEO of Verizon for doing the same and exploiting its workers, 40,000 of whom are out on strike. (more…)

Let's Encrypt (previously) a joint EFF-Mozilla-Linux Foundation project that lets anyone easily create an SSL certificate for free in minutes and install and configure it so that visitors to their Websites will be shielded from surveillance, came out of beta this week, and it's already making a huge difference. (more…)

Dutch designer Manon Kühne won a Crystal Cabin Award for her "Headrest," which was her Delft University of Technology thesis project, created with Zodiac Aerospace’s Human Factors and Ergonomics Lab. (more…)

Be sure to view the LA Times' interactive graphic, where you can see stats, details of each shot (the longest to sink was from 43ft), and the full court. Folks keep asking why there's a "dead zone." The answer is surely the obvious one: that it's just inside the 3-point line. When you're that close to it, you may as well go for 3 points rather than take another step and only get 2.

America's military forces are dropping "cyber bombs" on Islamic State terrorist groups for the first time, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told reporters accompanying him on a military flight on Tuesday. The ISIS internet attacks, whatever the particulars really may be, are part of a stepped-up coordinated effort to put increasing pressure on the militant organization. (more…)

Looks like the geniuses who run UC Davis never Googled the words “Streisand Effect.” (more…)

“There’s classified, and then there’s classified,” President Barack Obama recently told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace in response to a question about the now-classified material on Hillary Clinton’s private email server from when she was Secretary of State. (more…)

[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]You think it’s hard being a celebrity? Try being friends with a celebrity - it’s a life fraught with fear.That’s evident from this week's tabloids, which repeatedly tell how “friends fear” for the well-being of stars.“Portia de Rossi’s terrifying appearance has friends fearing she is on the verge of a life-threatening anorexia relapse” claims the National Enquirer.“Pals fear” that Kelly Osbourne “can’t stop eating,” and “may be eating herself to death” according to the Enquirer, which evokes images of Monty Python’s spheroid Mr Creosote indulging one more wafer-thin mint, though Kelly seems slender by that comparison.Michael Douglas is allegedly looking thin, and “friends fear his cancer has returned,” says the Globe. Because who needs oncologists to carry out scans and tests when we have friends to live in fear for our health?When friends aren’t available, there are plenty of others around who can worry about the stars for them.“Medical experts” are “fearful” that former Friends star Matthew Perry has suffered a stroke, reports the Enquirer, based on a recent TV appearance in which he appeared to be slurring words. As any trained barman can tell you, slurred words are almost always a predictor of a cerebrovascular incident. Right.You don’t need friends when you have family to worry about you. Beach Boy star Brian Wilson is “eating himself to death” - evidently an increasingly popular form of suicide, judging by this week’s tabloids - fears his daughter Carnie Wilson, who is “petrified” and “worried sick,” according to the Globe. The magazine hasn’t actually spoken to Carnie, of course, but they have supposedly spoken to a “pal” who explains Carnie’s fears for her father at great length. Because that’s what good friends do: tell all your private concerns to a tabloid.Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris has a slew of “relatives worry” that she is “charging down the path to ruin” - an unusually poetic metaphor for the Globe - with her new rocker boyfriend. Her “family fears she could revert to her old ways,” the tabloid is told, not by a relative, nor a friend, not even a source or an insider. We’re not told what “her old ways” might entail, but the quote is credited to “a spy” - an extraordinary attribution. We’re accustomed to unnamed (and possibly fictional) “insiders” and “sources" - perhaps a celebrity’s hairdresser, chauffeur, dental technician or gardener - but a spy? Could it really be a CIA agent monitoring Paris Jackson? Or perhaps a foreign spy - Israel’s Mossad? Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence? Or is there someone just stalking Paris, following her every move, eavesdropping on conversations . . ? Oh, wait: there’s a name for that - a tabloid reporter.Friends, family, insiders and sources also reveal such gems this week as Jennifer Aniston heading for a “$170 million divorce” because husband Justin Theroux allegedly still talks with a former girlfriend, according to the Enquirer, and “William and Kate Win The Throne” according to the Globe, which views Britain’s Royal succession as some kind of reality TV game show. “It’s official!” declares the Globe, which clearly doesn’t understand the meaning of the words, since there is absolutely nothing officially announced (or likely) about the Queen abdicating in June and by-passing her son Charles to give the crown to her grandson as “a fitting tribute” to the late Princess Diana.Back in the real world, Us magazine brings us the “stars’ diet secret tips” on its cover - what, is it summer already? Jennifer Lawrence eats chicken and asparagus salad, Ellie Goulding runs half-marathons, Khloe Kardashian avoids cheese, Britney Spears lifts weights, Jessica Alba easts organic produce, Kate Hudson favors pilates, Sheryl Crow eats fiber, Jennifer Lopez meditates, and Anna Faris hikes. I’m exhausting just reading this.People magazine offers “The Untold Story” of Natalie Wood, recounted by her daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, who remembers childhood parties with Audrey Hepburn and Bette Davis, “toys and parties and dinners . . . and animals everywhere.” But she can’t shed any light on the enduring mystery of Natalie Wood’s death, because she was only 11 at the time, and simply wasn’t there when the actress fell - or was thrown - overboard from a boat off Catalina.Fortunately we have Us magazine’s intrepid investigative team to tell us that Nicole Kidman wore it best, Elisabeth Moss carries “five lip glosses, vitamin powder and deodorant” in her handbag, Lionel Richie loves oatmeal cookies and drinks a glass of hot water with lemon every morning, and the stars are just like us: they eat with chopsticks, carry boxes, train their pets, and put product in their hair. But it’s the Examiner which brings us the week’s best story: “Curse of the Ice Man!” Seven scientists and researchers who discovered or worked on preserving the 5,300-year-old remains of a Stone Age hunter dubbed Oetzi have reportedly died prematurely, often with shocking deaths. One succumbed in an avalanche, another of a blood disease, one in a car crash, another fell 300 feet off a cliff, and the man who recovered the latter’s corpse died of a heart attack. ”Stone Age mummy has claimed seven lives since his discovery!” says the magazine. No doubt friends of the Stone Age hunter fear that he’s cursed. Because that’s what friends are for.Onwards and downwards . . .

Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson's 2011 book The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger was an instant classic for the way it described the impact of wealth inequality on the lives of both poor and rich people, driving them both to completely unsustainable working lives that destroyed their families and made them deeply unhappy. (more…)

Ian Burkhart lost all sensation in his hands and legs after a freak swimming accident five years ago. Today, doctors report that a chip in his brain has let him regain some control of his hand. The 24-year-old man has “regained control over his right hand and fingers, using technology that transmits his thoughts directly to his hand muscles and bypasses his spinal injury.” (more…)

What do you do if you're a spy and you want to make untraceable transfers of dirty money without having your funding of your country's nominal enemies exposed to the voters whose money you're spending? You hire Mossack Fonseca to open a numbered account in an offshore tax-haven, naturally. (more…)

For more than a decade, corporate America's lobbying budget has exceeded the entire budget for the operation of both houses of Congress, and this year's lobbying spend ($2.6B) is the largest in history, with no end in sight. (more…)

https://youtu.be/Aor6-DkzBJ0?t=3sA song that became the "unofficial anthem to the civil rights movement" was wrongly placed under copyright, and should be released into the public domain. That's the argument in a lawsuit filed today in federal court over the song "We Shall Overcome." Who's behind it? The same group of lawyers who fought for years to free "Happy Birthday" from copyright prison. The 'Happy Birthday' case succeeded at last just a few months ago, and made it safe for little kids all over the world to sing the song over candlelit cakes at birthday parties, without fear of attorneys knocking on the door demanding royalty payments. The new copyright battle is a proposed class action lawsuit that asks for copyright licensing fees to be returned. The case argues that royalties were wrongfully collected by Ludlow Music Inc. and The Richmond Organization, which claimed copyright over "We Shall Overcome" in 1960. But the song is probably based on an old African-American spiritual, according to popular belief--and the lawsuit.The song is based on “an African-American spiritual with exactly the same melody and nearly identical lyrics from the late 19th or early 20th century,” reads the complaint."This was never copyrightable to begin with," Mark Rifkin, an attorney for the plaintiff, told Reuters Tuesday. "The song had been in the public domain for many, many years before anyone tried to copyright it."From Reuters:The We Shall Overcome Foundation, the plaintiff, is seeking to produce a documentary film about song and its relationship to the civil rights movement. The group asked for permission to use the music in the film but was turned down by TRO, according to the lawsuit.Ars Technica has a copy of the complaint here [PDF]. From Ars Technica:At most, they say, the defendant companies own specific arrangements of the song, or additional verses that were added in 1960 when the song was copyrighted and again in 1963.Once more, the lawyers' chief client is a documentary filmmaker making a movie about the song in question. The named plaintiff is the We Shall Overcome Foundation, an organization created by the filmmakers. The foundation intends to make a movie about the song, and include a performance of it in "at least one scene in the movie."From Ben Sisario's New York Times piece:The suit asserts that the song’s copyright was never as broad as its publishers claimed, and has long since expired. Pete Seeger, who was associated with the song for decades, published a version of “We Will Overcome” in 1948, in a periodical called People’s Songs, and commented over the years that it was unknown exactly how “Will” became “Shall” in the song’s title. (“It could have been me with my Harvard education,” Mr. Seeger wrote in 1993; he died in 2014.)Ludlow, the publisher, filed a copyright registration for “We Shall Overcome” in 1960, but the suit claims that this registration covers only an arrangement of the song and some additional verses. The suit cites a study by a musicologist, conducted at the request of the foundation, stating that this version of the song is essentially the same as the one published in 1948, whose copyright — if it was ever valid — would have expired in 1976.https://youtu.be/TmR1YvfIGng

See sample pages from this book at Wink.When Matthias Buchinger was born in 1674, he arrived without arms or legs. As an adult, he was under 2.5 feet tall. He lived to the age of 65, outliving three wives (his fourth wife outlived him, and he was rumored to have as many as 70 mistresses), and he sired 14 children. Most remarkably, Buchinger was an accomplished artist, magician, sharpshooter, and calligrapher. Buchinger's specialty was micrography: the art of writing tiny letters. He was famous throughout Europe. According to Wikipedia, “Buchinger's fame was so widespread that in the 1780s the term ‘Buckinger's boot’ existed in England as a euphemism for the vagina (because the only ‘limb’ he had was his penis).”The author of Matthias Buchinger: "The Greatest German Living" is Ricky Jay, a famous magician, performer, historian of unusual performers, and writer. Jay’s biography of the extraordinary Buchinger includes many reproductions of Buchinger’s exacting pen and ink drawings, which he made holding a pen in his small fin-like appendages. Jay is a longtime collector of Buchinger original art, and this book includes several entertaining chapters about Jay’s personal interest in collecting Buchinger’s work and his interactions with other Buchinger-philes.

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…)

The Omax Abrasive Waterjet cuts the hell out of things at 180 inches per minute and can be financed at 3.95% APR. They've got plenty of videos of their machines in action on various metals and such, but the unoffical YouTube channel Cut In Half is much more fun. (more…)

The animated graphics before the song starts are the best thing about this 1978 video. Donny and Marie's outfits are the second best thing. Their dancing is the third best thing. Their puffy hair-dos are the fourth best thing. The dancers with the giant bunny tales are the fifth best thing. The song is the second worst thing. The comedy routine at the end is the worst thing.[via]The only Osmonds song I really like is "Chilly Winds":https://youtu.be/yDFGBD83uCQ

https://youtu.be/Bu3SDZSGlxoThe folks at This Old House use clear plastic plumbing to explain how bathroom sinks work, and how to unclog them. We live in an old house and the pipes get clogged a lot. My favorite bathroom sink unclogger is the Drain Weasel.See also: What do you do when you've got a plumbing clog?