Fab Filippo and friends have a new show, "Save Me," up for production on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which is flush with cash now that the hateful Tories are out of office. (more…)

These days it seems like every job description includes a hefty requirement of computer know-how. Coding is the new typing and everyone needs to get hip to it already. But where to even begin? For a newbie, brogrammers who can build anything are totally intimidating and you don’t have time to go back to school. Luckily this Complete Web Developer Course is now 92% off and can get your fingertips whizzing across the keyboard like a master.With over 236 lectures making up 28 hours of content, you’ll be a coding guru after this pack of courses that covers Java, HTML, CSS, MySQL, jQuery and way more. You’ll build responsive websites using these tools and WordPress for ecommerce and blogging applications with both backend and user interface elements. To connect these products with Google and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter you’ll learn how to integrate API’s too. All these skills will add up to you being able to make amazing websites that consumers will love to use and you’ll love to show off.These hands-on projects are the best way to learn in the trenches, plus they’ll give you a solid portfolio of sample work to show existing or potential employers to up your career game. Coding is the language of the future and you can start speaking it today for 92% off. Startup jobs will totally be in your wheelhouse now. Check out the link below for more details on everything this bundle offers.Save 92% on The Complete Web Developer Course in the Boing Boing Store.

Mixed emotions. That's what NASA astronaut Scott Kelly says he's feeling upon returning to Earth after 340 days on the International Space Station. (more…)

Yesterday a Tennessee teenager didn't want to wake up and go to school. After threatening them to no avail, the 16 year old male produced a handgun and shot his 67-year-old grandmother twice. His 6-year-old nephew and 12-year-old sister were each struck once. All three are recovering. (more…)

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Walking through the children’s section of any given book store, this book will immediately catch your eye. The front cover has gears sticking out the side, and if you turn them, you can see one of our main characters moving up and down on a wheel and axel system. Open the book, and you’ll be treated to even more interactive illustration done in the book’s playful art style.The plot of the story follows two friends who live in a zoo, Sloth and Sengi. After many years of living there, they have decided to escape using some simple machines. Along the way, they encounter many problems (as you can imagine would occur when a sloth and a variety of elephant shrew attempt to scale a zoo enclosure). Each page outlines a different type of machinery and invites the reader to learn about how each system functions. When Sloth and Sengi try and use an inclined plane to escape, the narrator demonstrates why it takes less effort to climb up an inclined plane than straight over the vertical fence. Later on, this idea of the inclined plane returns when Sloth and Sengi try and use a screw to escape. Probably my favorite section of the book involves the section on levers. The author outlines how a lever functions with an effort, a fulcrum, and a load. You can construct a lever from cardboard cut-outs in the book, and then use it to try and fling Sloth and Sengi over the fence of their enclosure, usually with more success than our main characters.The art style is delightful, with playful, sketchy designs, and fold-out panels introducing new information. The various hijinks of the main characters are illustrated with humor and affection, giving the book a lively feel, and the interactive aspect of building machinery, moving gears, and sliding-out panels easily keeps the reader’s attention. Overall, an enjoyable read that demonstrates that one is never too old to want to fling a cardboard sloth over a fence using a basic knowledge of physics.– Julia PillardHow Machines Work: Zoo Break!by David MacaulayDK Children2015, 32 pages, 8.7 x 11.1 x 1.3 inches $14 Buy a copy on Amazon

Wintergatan is Martin Molin's musical alterego, who runs 2,000 steel ball-bearings through its many channels and troughs to strike out a musical composition, turning handles, throwing switches and making other adjustments as needed to play his composition, which is rather catchy.

Laura Poitras, whose 2014 Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour won the Academy Award for best doc, has a show on at NYC's Whitney Museum called "Astro Noise," which attempts to capture the sense of overwhelming surveillance she's lived under since the US government targeted her while she was shooting a documentary in Iraq. (more…)

As John Holbo notes, the Ku Klux Klan's extensive, bizarre, fanciful "titles and vocabulary," set out in a 1916 volume called the "Kloran," has enough weirdness to match the Monster Manual for its "hydras, furies, nighthawks, giants, goblins, ghouls, titans, magi, monks, grand turks, dragons, wizards, cyclops." (more…)

Indie sf movie kingpin Jim Munroe writes, "Ever wonder how the Hilton and the Marriott families feel about Airbnb? What would happen if the heir to a hotel chain empire gets fed up and decides to rebrand the sharing economy... as the scaring economy? A concept trailer for a new tech-horror webseries called THE INTERNET WANTS by Postopian Pictures, the guys behind HAPHEAD and GHOSTS WITH SHIT JOBS."

The US government is attempting to force Apple to backdoor its Iphone security, congress is considering mandatory backdoors for all secure technology, and FBI director James Comey insists that this will work, because there's no way that America's enemies might just switch over to using technology produced in other countries without such mandates. (more…)

NASA reports that astronaut and Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly and his Russian counterpart Mikhail Kornienko have returned to Earth Tuesday night, after a historic 340-day mission aboard the International Space Station. The space travelers touched down in Kazakhstan at 11:26 p.m. EST (10:26 a.m. March 2 Kazakhstan time). (more…)

It took a while, but FBI director Jim Comey got a little bit of the grilling he has earned in the FBI vs. Apple case. Freedom of the Press Foundation's Trevor Timm writes on today's House Judiciary Committee hearings on Capitol Hill, at which both the government and the Cupertino tech giant were represented. (more…)

What's at stake in the fight between the FBI and Apple over those iPhones? Oh, no big deal, just the legal green light for “virtually limitless” surveillance under the Internet of Things. That's what a federal judge has ruled in an order rejecting a government request in a New York drug case. (more…)

On NPR's wonderful podcast “The Hidden Brain,” an exploration of what it is that makes some people non-conforming, risk-taking individuals. (more…)

Amazon prime members can get this catnip-filled banana cat toy for $3.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Featuring hallucinatory, psychedelic art inspired by the classic 1960s comic art of Jack Kirby, Space Riders is boldly drawn and beautifully inked in vibrant ultramarine, fuchsia, chartreuse, and the inky blackness of space. Every panel leaps from the page in a dynamic shock of color. Referencing psychedelic rock posters, motorcycle culture, Dia De Los Muertos, and hindu iconography, and presented within the framework of an outer space road odyssey, Space Riders is a pulpy, gritty adventure in intergalactic chaos. The first four issues of the rare, sold-out, and pricey Space Riders from Black Mask Studios are combined in this hardcover anthology for Local Comic Book Shop Day. Capitan Peligro, pilot of the skull-shaped spacecraft Santa Muerte, has been recently relieved of his duty with the E.I.S.F. and must complete three missions before being reinstated. He's accompanied by Mono, his monk-like baboon first mate, and Yara, a female robotic warrior. They're being pursued by the Vikers, armored viking space bikers, when the crew is inexorably dragged toward a haunted planetoid, ruled by the sultry wizard Dona Barbara. Afterward, they encounter the galactic behemoth An-Anu Gigantus, the Space Whale.Recalling a more naive time in the Silver Age of comic books, long before the current state of multi-title event crossovers in graphic novels, Space Riders is an archetypical story told and presented simply, wherein lies its appeal. Adventurers travel through space, fight villains, and save the day. Biff, bang, pow! – S. DeathrageSpace Riders Volume 1: Vengeful Universeby Fabian Rangel (author) and Alexis Ziritt (illustrator)Black Mask Studios2015, 96 pages, 6.4 x 10.1 x 0.4 inches (softcover) $12 Buy a copy on Amazon

A New York search engine optimization consultant gave two psychics more than $718,000. Now he's broke.He sat in a Denny's restaurant, drinking coffee between cigarette breaks after a long and sleepless night, answering question after question.He knew none of it made sense: He was a successful and well-traveled professional, with close to seven figures in the bank, and plans for much more. And then he gave it all away, more than $718,000, in chunks at a time, to two Manhattan psychics....Mr. Rice went broke. He lost his apartment in Manhattan and sold his BMW, expensive watch and laptop. He asked his father for a few thousand dollars. Now, he said, he is barely making his rent payments of $500.Last week, Mr. Rice said he wanted to return to England — “I’m trying to get it together” — but acknowledged that he had been drinking again, including the day of the interview. New York Times: Man Who Gave Psychics $718,000 ‘Just Got Sucked In’[via]Image: Shutterstock

We've all heard that there's a federal judge in California who ordered Apple to make a tool to help the FBI decrypt a phone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters -- but despite the FBI's insistence that this is a special circumstance, San Bernardino is just one of a dozen-odd cases where the FBI is making similar demands on Apple. (more…)

Rephone makes modular open source hardware cellphone components -- GSM cores, touchscreens, speakers, GPS, miscellaneous sensors, and antennas -- that you can mix and match to build cellular capability into everyday gadgets; one project builds a complete cellular phone into a watch-strap for a Pebble smartwatch. (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…)

Besides cozying up to the old boss or making really good cookies to leave in the break room every week, there aren’t too many ways to get ahead in your career other than good old hard work. Unless you can magically add another bullet to your resume like by getting certified as a MCSA Windows Server 2012 & Cisco Network Associate. That would help, and now you can take that course for 94% off. Absorb these lessons at your own leisure, on your own time, and learn from the comfort of your couch.The course to become a Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate covers cloud computing, server and desktop infrastructure, SharePoint and messaging. This skillset foundation will help you come up with creative system solutions for any organization. The Cisco Certified Network Associate training will teach you all about switches, routers, security threat migrations, and much more about wireless networking. Here you’ll dig deep into LAN and WAN technologies as well as frame relay and serial line interface protocol.With access to all this material for a whole year, you can learn any time, any way you want on your own schedule since you can check out the material online 24/7. You’ll be totally, fully prepped for the certification exam, all for 94% off, so that you can pass without any stress and add that accolade to your resume and casually drop that humble brag into your next boss conversation. Check out the link below for more details.Save 94% on MCSA Windows Server 2012 & Cisco Network Associate Certification Training in the Boing Boing Store.

Here's a report about a Catholic priest said to have been found snorting cocaine in a room adorned with Nazi symbols. In other words, another Monday on the internet. (more…)

[Peter Savodnik, a filmmaker and founder of Stateless Media, made a short film about Catherine Abegg, a woman who lives in a van with her husband and newborn child. Catherine is a celebrated LGBT wedding photographer.]How did you meet Michael? Michael & I met and immediately fell in love about seven years ago, at a bar, and he met the criterium on this little list that I had written of what I was looking for in a partner. On that serendipitous list, I had stated that I needed a man with a VW van; which sounds absurd, but I always thought families with vans always looked like they were having so much fun. I also knew that if someone owns a van, they tend to be adventurous, and either be handy, have a semi-disposable income, or maybe even both... and all of that sounded just fine to me.How did you know he was your soul mate?That first night we met, we talked all night and all the way until the sun rose; and we've just never stopped talking. We fell in love within days, but it wasn't until he met Madeline a few weeks later that everything really fell into place.Why did you guys choose to live in a van? We have spent many days & many miles together in a collection of different vans throughout the years; most notably in our prized 1990 Vanagon Syncro, named Priscilla. When Mads started to reach an age that her future outside of our home was becoming an impending reality, Michael & I decided that it made most sense to move into our van once she graduated high school so that we could travel full time. So, over the course of about two years of planning, Priscilla transformed from a Syncro tin-top to a Syncro-Aventurewagen-Westfalia with a Subaru engine conversion... all in the name of becoming an over-landing rig that we could live. Michael is an accomplished mechanic with the curious mind of an artist, and did all of the work himself, save for the engine conversion which we trusted to our friends over at Northwesty.As the end of Madeline's school years were drawing nearer, we were more & more ready to move into our van full time... and then a few weeks before Mads turned 18 years old, we got the surprise of a lifetime & found out that we are expecting a second child! We spent some time considering if we should settle back down & buy a home again, but quickly realized that starting this new & unexpected chapter in our life only made sense in our beloved van. We don't have a purpose or platform that we represent, but we do believe in living a life of togetherness, mindfulness, and adventure... and being in our van only strengthens that belief for us.How is Haakan enjoying the van? As far as we know, he loves it! All children want & need is to be loved, and I'm sure having us so physically close to him makes him pretty happy. He's a very content child who eats & sleeps well, but I'm not sure how much that has to do with living in a van... but who knows?Do you have van-wi-fi? We don't have wifi outside of our iphones, but so far that hasn't been a problem.We're told Madeline is a photographer. You must be proud. What does this say about your relationship? Madeline is an excellent photographer. I didn't teach her much, but she often came to both Michael & I for critique (and praise) of her work, and I know that's had a positive impact on her progress. I like to think that she comes to us because she values our opinions and trusts that we are proud of her & want the best for her, which says everything about our relationship.How do her images differ from yours? Madeline is a better photographer than I am, which is what every parent wants, right? A better version of themselves?! Her images are fearless, imaginative, and tell a story with equal parts subtlety & strength. I'm a well-seasoned photographer having shot for that last 21 years, but my work is more traditional. I don't want to downplay my own photography because I think it's quite good and I'm great at storytelling with my imagery, but the heart of my work shows up much differently than from hers. I'm her biggest fan, obviously.What's your all-time favorite wedding you've photographed?I've shot so many great weddings!!! My favorites have always been where you can really feel the love & respect between the couple as well as with their families. However, I do have a wedding that stands out above the rest, that involved a few days of camping, and a couple who canoed into their ceremony and jumped into the lake together after their vows were exchanged... and the celebration that night included campfire, dancing, and skinny-dipping. It was so much fun, and broke all the rules in the best way possible.Do you have any regrets?Nope.

Inspired by the "evolutionary tree diagram" format, Talking Heads vocalist, artist, and writer David Byrne drew numerous tree diagrams meant to "explain" everyday phenomena, terminology, and the irrationality of life. For example, above is the diagram of "Romantic Destiny" (2003). Ten years ago, Byrne collected his diagrams in a wonderful book titled Arboretum.Möbius Structure of Relationships:Legacy of Good Habits:History of Mark-Making:See more on Byrne's site: "Tree Drawings/Arboretum"

The BLU Vivo Air, a GSM 4G phone, has just 16GB of internal storage (with no microSD expansion), but at $100, this unlocked 0.2-inch thick phone with a 4.8-inch display is a great deal. A newer LTE version is available for $144.

At around 500 rubber bands, the external pressure forces the watermelon to explode. https://t.co/xqP5IXz9Ht pic.twitter.com/IpJ0TnE3Hr— Cliff Pickover (@pickover) February 21, 2016This is from Mental Floss' gallery of 15 cool science GIFs. I love this one:When you notice that the air bubbles “fall down,” you’ll realize these divers are actually walking upside down on the underside of the ice on a frozen lake. This becomes possible when they inflate their gear with air, which increases their buoyancy and makes them go up. A little fine tuning, and they can simulate gravity upside down. They can do that as long as they have air in their bottles, because the water pressure around them is supporting their entire bodies from all sides.[via]

Life isn’t all just couch-sitting and TV-watching. Sometimes it’s bananas action packed like those Saturdays when you’re out trekking in the wild and need to slice through vines to even see your path, or speed racing down a mountain into a fiery crash and need to cut your seatbelt loose before the car explodes. Typical weekend warrior stuff, right? OK, so maybe getting a package in the mail is the most thrilling thing on your Saturday list. In that case, you still want this StatGear Rescue Knife, either the Volcano or the Storm, both of which are 35% off right now. They’ll get you out of any pickle you’re in, even if it’s a pretty chill one.This knife is way more than just a blade and handle, it’s a bona fide rescue tool. It’s super lightweight so you can attach it onto your belt loop with the handy clip or carry it in your pocket or travel pack easily. And it’s made of ultra strong stainless steel that can quite literally cut through anything, including said seat belt in case of emergency. In that same crisis or one in a building - God forbid - it can even punch out a window too. Pretty badass.You’ll never feel safer and more prepared than with this knife at your fingertips. The blade is spring assisted so it pops right out when you need it, which hopefully won’t be in a dangerous situation, but sure is convenient for opening a box. It’s 35% off right now and it ships to you for free within the continental US. Check out the link below for more details on both the Volcano and Storm versions.Take 35% Off the StatGear Rescue Knife in the Boing Boing Store.

Nate Silver, the statistics whiz who founded FiveThirtyEight, tweeted this ominous warning this morning:Anyway, Trump will probably be the GOP nominee and possibly become President. No joke. If you care either way about this, you should vote.— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 29, 2016Silver explains why, in this piece he wrote earlier today:On Twitter this weekend, there was a lot of activity behind the hashtag #NeverTrump, with various conservative intellectuals and operatives pledging that they’d refuse to support Trump in November. Rubio’s Twitter account employed the hashtag also, although Rubio himself has been ambiguous about whether he’d back Trump.It’s reasonably safe to say that some of the people in the #NeverTrump movement will, in fact, wind up supporting Trump. Clinton, very likely the Democratic nominee, is a divisive figure, and some anti-Trump conservatives will conclude that Trump is the lesser of two evils. Others will get caught up in the esprit de corps of the election. Some of them might be reassured by how Trump conducts himself during the general election campaign or whom he picks as his running mate.

I really enjoy the composition, but these lyrics are a bit on the creepy side...

Sounding like something out of a mediocre Hollywood movie, SeaWorld has copped to infiltrating animal rights groups and spying, under the guise of protecting them selves from "credible threats." I also enjoy that "certain employees" were directed to these tasks. Seal trainers? Cotton candy spinners? From the Orlando Sentinel:Reading from a statement while speaking with analysts, Chief Executive Officer Joel Manby said SeaWorld's board of directors has "directed management to end the practice in which certain employees posed as animal-welfare activists. This activity was undertaken in connection with efforts to maintain the safety and security of employees, customers and animals in the face of credible threats."

Michel de Nostradame, the 16th century apothecary and seer, published prophecies that remain chilling to this day. Their power is in their peculiar mix of vagueness and specifics: they describe nightmarish scenes with names and analogies that adhere with unsettling elegance to the political forces and personas of later ages. Here, for example, is a classic quatrain held to describe the French Revolution:"From the enslaved populace, songs, Chants and demandsWhile princes and lords are held captive in prisons.These will in the future by headless idiotsBe received as divine prayers."Once you've decided what any given quatrain is about, it reads like an eyewitness report by an educated man from an earlier era, trying naively to describe in terms meaningful to him the sights of an apocalyptic technological future. You can imagine him getting high, looking into the fire or a glass ball, and feverishly transcribing the incomprehensible terrors he observes.Among Nostradamus greatest hits were Hitler (to whom references to "Hister" are said to apply); Saddam Hussein, whose name accommodates the terrifying "Mabus" character; and Barack Obama, of course, who fits that name even better. Sure, it's all quite silly, a load of could-mean-anything Renaissance creepypasta. And there's humor to be found in the fact that Nostradamus is so good at predicting things that have already happened. But where's Donald Trump? https://twitter.com/sarahjeong/status/703424898924851200He's mad, he's bad, and he's on track to be the Republican nominee for U.S. President in the 2016 general election—to the horror of everyone not already supporting him, including his own party.I took a quick poke around the Internet and it seems troublingly light on "Nostradamus predicted Trump" stuff, so I figure we could start a collection here. Now, I'm no Erika Cheetham, but I've done some preliminary searches and found the following. (Yes, I'm searching English translations off the Internet for the word "Trumpet" and "Orange". Hey, if "Hister" is Hitler, it'll do.)My findings are quite disturbing!Century I: 40The false trumpet concealing madnesswill cause Byzantium to change its laws.From Egypt there will go forth a man who wantsthe edict withdrawn, changing money and standards.If you ask me, Nostradamus is pretty much nailing it right out the gate here. Donald Trump ("the false trumpet") is concealing his own madness. As U.S. President, he will cause Byzantium, i.e. Greece — a key entry point into the west for refugees! — to change its laws. The president of Egypt will "want the edict withdrawn," presumably because if the displaced millions are not going north, they're going south. As a result of all this, the Euro collapses.Holy fucking shit! We're four lines in and already on the brink of World War 3.Century I: 57The trumpet shakes with great discord.An agreement broken: lifting the face to heaven:the bloody mouth will swim with blood;the face anointed with milk and honey lies on the ground.If the first example was the sort of quatrain that shows off the Nostradamean illusion of specificity, this one shows off why he's so goddamn scary. Trump, here, is enraged: someone or something has betrayed him. In the name of religion, he talks blood and he ends up swimming in it. The land of "milk and honey" is, of course, Israel—the last line perhaps means he makes a big show of friendship and eating dirt for his efforts.Trump has described his intention of being a 'neutral broker' between Israel and Palestine—the sort of hubris that could make things much worse when he learns everyone is smarter than he expected and not giving an inch. What options would President Trump then have, given a $700 billion military budget and a desperate, narcissistic need to solve whatever problem is making a fool of him? Century III: 50The republic of the great cityWill not want to consent to the great severity:King summoned by trumpet to go out,The ladder at the wall, the city will repent.Such vague Nostradamus metaphors tend to have established interpretations. But for the purposes of blogging, this looks to me like Trump being unable to get America (the republic) to go on some expensive military adventure. So he tells Britain (the King — sorry, Liz, times up!) to do the work. As it begins (ladder at the wall!) America realizes it needs to do its part. Trump looks like a fool and must repent.This could be some kind of risky humanitarian thing that reeks of more immigrants, perhaps -- evacuating Tripoli from an ISIS siege would be ultra-Nostradamean.Century X: 76The great Senate will ordain the triumphFor one who afterwards will be vanquished, driven out:At the sound of the trumpet of his adherents there will bePut up for sale their possessions, enemies expelled.This one's easy but boring. The U.S. Senate makes a show of supporting Trump, but stabs him in the back: he's impeached or ditched after four years. But then "at the sound of the trump his adherents will be there", selling their possessions and expelling enemies. The final apotheosis of Trumpism: the personality cult of a one-term loser.(In a good Nostradamus book, there'd be a wargames-esque picture of Europe here with arrows flying this way and that to indicate where the invasions and refugees are going, which Middle Eastern countries end up frozen in a tranquil seas of glass, what year and month Jesus turns up, etc.)Alright, I'm already going to have nightmares. I'm done! Check out the complete text of Nostradamus in English and French for more juicy Nostradamus Trump Prophecies, and post your findings in the comments

"What is Brazil?" is a funny, insightful 1985 TV documentary about Terry Gilliam's classic film Brazil, a brilliant black comedy about a very bleak future.(Thanks, UPSO!)

Two years ago, the FBI published its official advice to "protect your mobile device," including a recommendation to encrypt your storage. This year, the FBI is suing Apple to force it to break its encryption. (more…)

I know, I know… a John Oliver segment blogged on Monday morning. But you should watch this one, because it's an attack on Trump of the sort that most media are too frightened and smarmy and self-absorbed to commit to. #makeDonaldDrumpfAgain

Marches supporting the Sanders campaign were called for in 70 cities across the USA, and at least 40 had confirmed marches with thousands turning out -- but the press barely noticed. (more…)

Cheap Internet of Things devices like Foscam's home CCTVs are designed to covertly tunnel out of your home network, bypassing your firewall, so they can join a huge P2P network of 7 million other devices that is maintained and surveilled by their Chinese manufacturer. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAobW4PtoMYPea Hicks writes, "Here's a nice circa 1971 Super 8 home movie I picked up at a garage sale recently. I scanned it with a Moviestuff Retroscan Universal film scanner, and added some of my own original music to it."

On April 1, 22 states will roll back their food stamps rules to pre-crisis levels, so adults without dependents or disabilities will only be entitled to "three months of food stamps in any three-year period—unless they work at least 80 hours a month, or meet education and training or volunteer benchmarks." (more…)

In Anaheim, California, three people were stabbed, one critically, and several others were arrested when a Ku Klux Klan rally erupted in violence. (more…)

Sculptor/machinist Chris Bathgate (previously) has posted the details of his latest piece, "BT 622212453353." (more…)

Chinese law makes independent mapmaking a crime (you may not document "the shapes, sizes, space positions, attributes, etc. of man-made surface installations") and requires tech companies to randomly vary the locations of all landmarks by 100-500m. (more…)

The way these schoolchildren in rural Uganda react to a hobbyist's drone flight demo is so delightful. Honestly, my reaction when I first saw a friend navigate his UAV into the air was about the same.Mark Brandon Smith shot this wonderful video, and tells the tale behind it. (more…)

Donald Trump is the Gamergater of U.S. politics. He and his social media team uses Twitter in abusive ways that few might have predicted a serious contender for President of the United States would employ. But no blow is too low for Trump, and no smear too sexist, racist, or hate-filled. (more…)

Regular Boing Boing readers have seen me credit This Isn't Happiness many times for wonderful visual and audio finds. We've been linking to Peter Nidzgorski's work since way back in 2008. Recently, his wonderful tumblog—a mix of art, music, film, urban ennui, and sexy design ephemera—went dark. No! Why? Automated DMCA takedowns, spurred by the complaint of a well-known copyright troll. (more…)

Few artists in the history of jazz have played piano with the expression and soul of Fred Kaz. The master spent over 30 years as the musical director for the Second City, and was the most magical improvisational musician you could ever have heard perform. Fred's piano led both the audience, and the ensemble through adventures, tragedies and beautifully mundane moments. Fred made sure all was clear. The piano was his voice. While his work on stage, as a composer and as a director, is amazing, Fred's jazz touches the heart. Sadly, it has been hard to find recordings of his music, however since Fred's passing in 2014 his wife Helen has been steadily producing his previously unreleased works. This album was recorded in 1997, at the Ash Grove on the Pier, in Santa Monica, California.I recently found this poem Fred wrote for me, after he and Helen visited my daughter and I, at our home in Muir Beach. Where the river feeds the oceanAnd the dry land meets the seaAnd the hungry, saw-toothed coastlineChews the gasping, high-tide surf,I am harbored with my life-mateBy a sharing, gentle man;And we all imagine futuresIn the ever-present tense,Letting friendship fertilizeeach other's souls.Fred Kaz 6/18/2013We miss him very much.Fred Kaz, Live at the Ash Grove

Tito4re poured molten scrap copper on a 1 pound jawbreaker. It put up a good fight, but eventually succumbed to the heat.

https://youtu.be/aGe9Hr_9YEUThe Freedom 251 is a 3G Android handset with a 4-inch display, a Qualcomm 1.3-GHz quad-core processor and 1 GB RAM. It was introduced a couple of weeks ago in India for the low, low price of 251 rupees (US$3.67). It sounds like a great deal for millions of people who couldn't otherwise afford a smart phone.But India MP Kirit Somaiya says he's looked into the little-known company that makes the phone and says they're Ponzi schemers.“This is a huge scam, that is why I went through all the papers of the company. The government has informed Uttar Pradesh government to check the bonafide of the promoter. This is a Ponzi bogus company scam,” Somaiya told ANI. [Indian Express]On Twitter, @Joydas posted photos of the Freedom 251, calling it a "Chinese Smartphone. Whitener used to Hide Name. Sold in garb of Narendra Modi's "Make in India" campaign."#Freedom251 Chinese Smartphone. Whitener used to Hide Name. Sold in garb of Narendra Modi's "Make in India" campaign pic.twitter.com/BLAZPSBJWk— Joy (@Joydas) February 18, 2016The manufacturer, Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd., announced on its website that it is not taking new orders for the phone:

Junior doctors in the UK National Health Service have been attempting to negotiate a decent wage and decent working conditions in their new contract with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is a terrible person, and who has been publicly libelling the hardworking doctors on the front lines of the UK health system. (more…)