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One pocket to rule them all. Now, if you have a wallet, you have a battery. This slim, powerful charger is a paragon of efficiency and can make your mobile life a heckuva lot easier. For 66% off right now you can be the proud owner of this ultra thin battery that slides right into your wallet and can charge up any of your devices. Having a white cord hanging out of your back pocket isn’t exactly the greatest look, so switch to this charger and save the cords for when you’re on the couch. Today, you’re on the go.Right off the bat, you’ll notice this thing’s fit and feel. It’s crazy thin, no larger than five credit cards together which would fit into any wallet. It’s housed in billet aluminum for maximum sleekness and durability, which is mandatory if it’s going to get sat on in your back pocket. With its tiny flip-out charging cables, you can juice up any device at a lightning speed of one percent every minute. Never worry about your battery dying at a restaurant, party or event again. It’s also available with a micro USB cord, if that’s more your speed.This is charging perfection in an aluminum nutshell. Once you’ve got this resting comfortably and inconspicuously in your wallet, you’ll never need or want to use those cords again. The device itself charges up fast with a long lasting battery too so you’ll never go without. Your wallet can become a power hub for 66% off and your friends will be begging to use it when you’re out and about.

https://youtu.be/2GjW5HSOpiUThey say this 28-year-old guy tossed 2 tomatoes at presidential candidate Donald Trump, during the noted racist shitbag's Iowa campaign stop. He missed. But his t-shirt slogan did not. (more…)

Catherine Elhoffer from Elhoffer Design created these awesome "The Force, Fashioned" dresses that riff off the costume designs in The Force Awakens. (more…)

https://youtu.be/Qv0eWN8v_tgThis video is pretty rabid Reddit rage-fodder today. Certainly, selective video edits by someone with a point to make can be damning where nothing wrong has been done, but--come on. This looks pretty bad. [From Brandon Farley (MischiefMaker37), YouTube » Reddit]Looks like there are a bunch of these newly out, via Reddit. But it's been brewing for weeks, or months, really. Vox has a good explainer here. I am not the comedy police, so I do not know.

Social media giant Facebook today reported sales and earnings that well exceeded Wall Street's expectations, as both the number of users and mobile ad dollars rose from October to December. (more…)

This foldable step stool is 11 inches high, and is only 1.5 inches thick when folded up. It has replaced a non-folding plastic step stool that we'd kept in on the floor in the closet. It's on sale at Amazon for $10.

Transylvania's Salina Turda themepark is housed in an ancient salt mine with millennia of history. Visitors use its vertical shafts to access vast underground salt caverns and lakes dotted with a concert hall, mini-golf courses, bowling alleys, and rowboats. (more…)

It's not just dissident Hong Kong booksellers who're being snatched -- China's snatch-squads have kidnapped expatriate dissidents (including those with foreign passports) from Sweden, Burma and Thailand. (more…)

Despite the fact that it "takes the privacy and security of our members' information seriously," the health insurance company Centene can't find six unencrypted hard drives with 950,000 customers' private health data, addresses, dates of birth and social security data. (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…)

The Passport Index ranks passports according to their "power", defined around how many countries will let you in without a visa. British and American passports share the top spot. Meanwhile, a South Sudanese or Palestinian passport wouldn't get you into a candy store.Visa Free ScorePassports accumulate points for each visa free country that their holders can visit without a visa, or they can obtain a visa on arrival.Passport Power RankPassports are ranked based on their Visa Free Score. The higher the Visa Free Score, the better the Passport Power Rank.MethodologyThe country list is based on the 193 UN member countries and 6 territories (Macao, Kosovo, etc.) for a total of 199. Territories annexed to other countries such as Norfolk Island, French Polynesia, etc. are excluded. Data is based on research from publicly available sources, as well as information shared by government agencies.The best part of the site is the page where you can sort the passport cover images by color.

Obama wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post (bio: "Barack Obama is president of the United States") explaining his suite of penal reform policies, which begin with ending the barbaric practice of putting children into solitary confinement, deemed a form of torture, "an affront to our common humanity." (more…)

Classical nude statues at Italy's Capitoline Museum were covered up this week in anticipation of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit. Some politicians and art critics called out the stupidity. From The Telegraph:The president’s aides were also reportedly anxious that he not be photographed too close to a giant bronze statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius on horseback.The Iranians objected to what one Italian newspaper delicately described as “the attributes” or genitalia of the huge horse, which dates from the second century AD.

https://youtu.be/KY43Vytro60If you're a cop in Oregon, I guess the way to get promoted is to rear end your unmarked patrol car into a motorcycle and then violently kick the nonresistant rider with enough force to break his collarbone. It'll cost taxpayers $180,000 to settle the lawsuit against you, but that not your problem!

Earlier this month, Ben "and Jerry's" Cohen spitballed with an MSNBC reporter about his idea for a Bernie Sanders ice-cream flavor: "Bernie's Yearning," a pint of mint with a disk of solid chocolate on the top, representing the fortunes of the 1%. Before you eat it, you use a spoon to smash the wealth and distribute it evenly through the pint. (more…)

D. Allan Drummond, the University of Chicago biologist who recently 3D printed and cast a fascinating model of a yeast cell dividing, also creates exquisite bronze sculptures of trilobites, marine arthropods that went extinct 250 million years ago. Images and video below.See more at Professor Drummond's Instagram feed.(via SciAm)

Nightflight has a great article about the weird and wonderful cult exploitation 70s movie, Pretty Maids All in a Row, with a screenplay by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry!Pretty Maids would end up being Roddenberry’s first — and only — feature film writing credit during his impressive and long career. He transformed the problematic first draft of Pollini’s original story completely, deepening the dark comedy (it’s pretty black, actually) and softcore semi-misogynistic erotica of the original story — about a high school guidance counselor and football coach who sleeps with a lot of his foxy female students and then murders some of them (the ones who fall in love with him, and ask him to leave his wife, and daughter) — and turning the story into a whodunit that one writer later described as “an episode of ‘Kojak’ written by the staff of Penthouse Forum.“I also like the opening song by the Osmand Brothers, called "Chilly Winds."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDFGBD83uCQ

Conjunction Junction, what's your function? That iconic tune (below) and others from the "Schoolhouse Rock!" cartoon were the work of composer Bob Dorough, now 92-years-old and still playing music. (Great Big Story)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zFS7TFzlro

One of our favorite photographers, Star Foreman, recently engaged on a mission to conduct 30 photo essay in 90 days. With that many different shoots to imagine and arrange, Star never ran out of ideas. Amazing portraits of some familiar faces, and fantasy scenes from a life clearly spent in and around Hollywood, Star's work is visually, and painstakingly, beautiful.Star worked in partnership with the Ricardo Montalbán Foundation and had the opportunity to show me around the amazing Montalbán theater, where her gallery show will be held. Star also had full use of the space as her studio, and many of her essays are fantastic explorations of costume, set and light. She has mermaids in urban settings, princesses in sports cars, and marionettes!The 30/90 is a passion project, financed through crowd sharing, where Star Foreman in partnership with the Ricardo Montalbán Foundation, completed 30 photo essays in 90 days. There are mermaids, princesses, ballerinas, bellydancers and so much more in vibrant, campy tableaux. With 30 photo essays, 400 people, 30,000 images and only 90 days to complete shooting, The 30/90 gallery show and possible book will take people into the mind of Star Foreman who created a series of images unmatched in scope and time.Star ForemanOrganizer of 30/90 Gallery ShowNamed one of the top 200 photographers by Luerzer's Archive, Star Foreman is a fine art, editorial and fashion photographer in Los Angeles. A contributing photographer for the LA and OC Weekly, Star's work has also graced the cover of the Village Voice, Pasadena Magazine, The Dallas Observer, and Tease and Cake magazine. Her work has been featured in The LA Times Sunday Edition, Frame Magazine, Los Angeles magazine, Backstage Magazine, LA Confidential, Adobe Masterclass, SF Weekly, Latino Leaders, and INStyle Australia. Star received an honorable mention from the IPA awards (a division of the Lucies) in 2012 for her photo series of Dita Von Teese and was nominated in 2011 for a Los Angeles Press Club Award for her images of Flying Lotus. Two of her pieces are part of the permanent collection at the Riverside Art Museum. Star holds a BA in photography from the Art Center College of Design.The Gallery Show, hosted by The Montalban in Hollywood, CA will feature images from each photo essay, as well as wood prints, banners, and a no host bar!Friday, January 29, 2016 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM (PST)1615 Vine St - 1615 Vine Street Los Angeles, CA 90028I'm looking forward to the opportunity to see these prints in person!Tickets and more information here.

Much of economics is both esoteric and vital, meaning you need to understand it, but it's hard sledding. Today, economist Tim Harford does us the service of explaining "dissipation of economic rents" -- inefficient systems in which the effort expended by everyone chasing value wipes out the value they're chasing. (more…)

Boing Boing is proud to welcome Robert Jackson Bennett's The City of Blades as a sponsor!In a world where politics have run amuck and consumers must choose from over 300 varieties of toothpaste, one seemingly simple question rises to the fore: what is my next great read? Luckily for you, ladies and gentlemen, we have the answer to that question – a book that will satisfy your cravings, turn that frown upside down, reduce wrinkles in women and stimulate hair growth in men. In short, my friends, it is a miracle book indeed. And you don’t have to take my word for it; the bookish masses all agree that Robert Jackson Bennett’s books are a wonder. Author Jim C. Hines (Libriomancer) said: “Every once in a while I read a book that's so well done, I find myself wanting to punch the author in the face out of pure envy. Congratulations Bennett, you just made the face-punching list!" Blogger G. Brown of Nerds of a Feather, writes “Dazzling, sophisticated and thoroughly modern... Imagine China Mieville and George R. R. Martin stuck in an elevator, with only a laptop to keep them company, and you’re almost there. Robert Jackson Bennett is a name to remember and a talent to behold.” – G. BROWN, NERDS OF A FEATHER Lean in closer, my friends, and I will whisper to you the names of these great books: Mr. Shivers, The Company Man, The Troupe, American Elsewhere, City of Stairs and the brand-new, much-anticipated, and thoroughly-magnificent (imagine a drum roll here, please) City... of... BLADES! And now, without any further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce to you the man himself: Robert Jackson Bennett!✦ ✦ ✦Q: Who are you, really? And why should we care?A: I’m Robert Jackson Bennett. As opposed to living a quiet life of desperation, my desperation is loud as hell. You can probably hear it from where you are. Roll down a window and give it a shot.Q: What did you think was missing from the science fiction/fantasy genre shelf that you were trying to fill when you began writing THE DIVINE CITIES books?A: I didn’t really come into the books thinking, “There’s a gap in the market, and I’m just the fella to fill it!” I just realized I found two things interesting—the bleak, miserable, cutthroat world of espionage and government control, and the storybook, disturbing, incomprehensible logic of ancient myths—and realized the two overlapped: both were about controlling the reality of others. So I wrote a book combining the two.Q: The heroines in both CITY OF BLADES and CITY OF STAIRS (a soldier and a spy, respectively) are awesome, and they seem to break the mold of traditional sexy/dangerous character trope. What was your thinking behind this?A: When I first wrote Shara, a lot of her inspiration came from George Smiley from the Tinker Tailor books: he’s the anti-Bond, an aging, plump, cuckolded, but brilliant spymaster who uses his elephantine memory and understanding of human psychology to ferret out weaknesses in the European and Eastern intelligence theaters. What was so thrilling about Smiley was how underwhelming he initially seemed: you didn’t realize that beneath his drab exterior there was a mind of chilling proficiency that could outplay any of his enemies. I wanted to write someone like that. And there’s a moment in CITY OF STAIRS that highlights this juxtaposition. An embassy gopher is sent to fetch the fearsome new spymaster from the train station and is stunned to see who steps off the train: a tall, well-muscled, fearsome, Viking-looking figure, scowling and one-eyed. In a normal fantasy novel, this would absolutely be the main character. But then there’s a quiet cough, and he steps aside, revealing Shara standing behind him, looking every bit like a meek librarian out on her lunch break. One would never guess that, by the end of the series, she’d have brought down and built up world governments.I think Mulaghesh, the main character of CITY OF BLADES, is of a similar breed: both women are superhumanly capable, work-oriented creatures. Mulaghesh is a little more swashbuckly than Shara is, but neither of them is looking for a parade. They’re middle-aged, experienced people who have few pretensions about the world and what they’re doing.And as far as sexiness goes: in my own personal opinion, there are few things sexier than a confident, competent, sensible middle-aged woman. Q: You also play very heavily on themes of colonialism and have main characters who are very clearly from different races and cultures. What drew you to these themes?A: Originally, it was a gut decision—I knew that I wanted the Continent to feel a bit Byzantine and Eastern European, and thought that a Southeast Asian culture would have been an interesting clash. But I think part of it was that I grew up in Houston, and I was a huge nerd, so in school I sat with the other nerds. And though some were white, most of them were Indian, Pakistani, Saudi, Korean, Chinese, and so on. I was, out of our group, the token white boy. This is because Houston is a port and an oil town and is thus an international world unto itself—Houston is not Texas, Houston is Houston. It’s a city-state with a wildly diverse population.Then I moved to Austin, where people are either white or Latino. And I went home to see my parents; and I was at the pool in their neighborhood, and I realized I was hearing about four different languages going on around me at any given moment—all these different nationalities, all in the Houston suburbs, hanging out at the pool with their kids.There’s a lot of criticism that Houston deserves, but its diversity is to be admired. I found I wanted to write about cities like that: diverse, messy, and somewhat cutthroat, exposed to the whims of the market and trade.Q: How did it feel to lose the 2015 WORLD FANTASY AWARD to David Mitchell?A: As I had been powerfully intoxicated for the previous three days, it mostly felt exhausting. But by that point, everything did.Q: Fill-in-the-blank challenge: Answer any or all these FILL-IN-THE-BLANK questions:I go weak at the knees for congenital cartilage disorders.I can never read Pale Fire enough times.My dream dinner party (across space and time) would include Diphyllobothrium, Taenia solium, and Taenia saginata among the attendees.My single proudest moment was snatching my son inches from the ground after he fell off of a bench, like a goddamned superhero.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-lf2TxTEts&hd=1Check out Robert Jackson Bennett's The City of Blades

https://www.youtube.com/v/-pb3z2w9gDgArtificial Intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky died yesterday. He was one of computer science's great pioneers, a brilliant researcher who could translate his insights into material accessible even to laypeople. (more…)

The Amiga Graphics Archive is where you can find a growing collection of artwork distinctive of the legendary 16-bit home computer. (i.e. 320x200 in 32 colors (64 with half-brite mode (or 4096 with some nasty attribute clash)) from a palette of 4096)Launched in 1985 the Commodore Amiga boasted graphics capabilities that were unsurpassed for it's time. It featured an intricate collection of custom chips that enabled it to do things that, until then, had been impossible to achieve with other personal computers. This site is dedicated to graphics made with or for the Commodore Amiga home computer.Pictured above is "The Seeing Angel", by Louis Markoya.

Reagan didn't fulfill his signature campaign promises -- he raised taxes, created more big government agencies, never introduced his promised anti-abortion Constitutional amendment -- but he changed the way Americans thought about government spending, labor unions, and regulation. (more…)

In 1907, Charles Morgan of Broome Station sent this telegram to Henry Prinsep, the Chief Protector of Aborigines for Western Australia, in Perth: "Send cask arsenic exterminate aborigines letter will follow." (more…)

MIT professor Marvin Minsky, a "founding father" of the field of artificial intelligence whose work opened up new vistas in computer science, cognitive psychology, philosophy, robotics, and optics, has died of a brain hemorrhage. He was 88. In 1959, Minsky co-founded MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (now the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) and dedicated his career to exploring how we might replicate the functions of the human brain in a machine, a research journey he hoped would help us better understand our own minds. "No computer has ever been designed that is ever aware of what it's doing," Minsky once said. "But most of the time, we aren't either."(New York Times)

https://youtu.be/xRlRAyulN4oDr. Melissa Click, the University of Missouri professor who blocked a student reporter from reporting on a campus protest, has been charged with class C or 3rd degree assault for her actions during the MU campus protests this past fall.Previously on Boing Boing

https://youtu.be/yempitYWLJAThe Super Talon Ultra Net Launcher Kit is a real thing, and it's only $1,999.99 + $4.49 shipping. It comes with enough air cartridges to stop 10 bad people.[via]

I needed a new super bright flashlight, this one by Outlite does the trick! It is super bright, and water resistant for use in the rain!Switching between modes is done with a half press of the power button. Bright is bright! Certainly throws out more light than my lost Surefire 600 lumen lamp. It is a bargain for $14. I am sure it will soon be in a secret pile of flashlights my daughter or dogs are hoarding.If you do not have an 18650 battery around, that may present a hidden expense! Batteries are not included. I have a few for camera flashes, so I didn't mind. The torch has run for 5 weeks without needing a recharge. Outlite 501B LED 900 Lumen Handheld Flashlight via Amazon

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A family found this odd "walking fish" in New Zealand's Bay of Islands. Unable to keep it alive, they sent it to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa who identified it as a striped frogfish (Antennarius striatus) that is very unusual because it's almost entirely black. "There are competing theories around this," the museum posted. "Is it one highly variable species, or several? The tissue sample we took will help to answer this."

The top-ranked University of Southern California's graduate video game design program has 12 women and seven men, indicative of a rising trend in the ratio of men to women in the graduate and undergraduate programs at USC. Watch the video here.From the LA Times:"I will make a crazy prediction," says Martzi Campos, a master's student in the USC program. "There are the same issues in the film industry, but I would argue that games will grow faster and games will change faster. We're newer. Because film has a long history, it's a bigger boat to steer. Right now, with the indie game explosion, games have the chance to lead the way and be like, 'Hey, films, check us out. Look how diverse and widespread we are.' This is our chance for our medium to really shine."

Your immune system has two approaches: the first wave is a bunch of attacks that make your body less hospitable to germs, like a fever, mucous, and achy lethargy (which keeps you at home, away from opportunistic infectious agents); the second is a tailored antibody attack that kicks in about ten days later. (more…)

The co-founder and CTO of Guesty, Koby Soto, tweeted this graph of his heart rate when he broke up with his partner. The data was captured on his fitbit.Breakup, as captured by my fitbit. #breakup #Fitbit pic.twitter.com/S9sLV2TlCC— Koby (@iamkoby) January 19, 2016A couple of days later, Soto followed up with a tweet to let folks know that all was well.My post being viral is a little scary & embarrassing, yet funny. Thx for all the support and hugs. You are fabulous, and I am very much ok!— Koby (@iamkoby) January 21, 2016

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly demonstrates ping pong with a sphere of water on the International Space Station. From NASA:The paddles are polycarbonate laser etched so that the surfaces are actually arrays of 300 micrometer posts (0.3mm). The surfaces were then spray coated with a Teflon coat. The combined effects of surface roughness and non-wettability produce a super-hydrophobic surface capable of preventing water adhesion in dynamic processes. The larger the drop, the less force it takes to break it up. The smaller the drop, the harder you can hit it. Scott is demonstrating about a 4 mL drop (over 100 times larger than a rain drop).

Seletti's "Cosmic Diner" kitchenware is a set of dishes, bowls and plates themed after our solar system's planets, sun and moons, with an accompanying set of asteroid-themed whiskey glasses. (more…)

Though UK Labour leader Corbyn is substantially to the left of Sanders, they're both far to the left of their parties' establishments, which are dominated by warmongering, banker-loving, anti-immigrant neolberals who have collaborated in moving the political "center" to the right of, say, Richard Nixon. (more…)

The convenience of carrying your favorite hot-sauce in individual sachets -- think "McDonald's ketchup pouches" -- can't be overstated. It's a particularly great format if you're a frequent traveller, as TSA screeners don't recognize the shape as a "liquid" on their X-rays, meaning you can just stash them in your bags and pockets and not worry about getting them all out when you reach a checkpoint. (more…)

Protonmail is a Swiss pro-privacy email provider that offers end-to-end encyption to its customers. When the Swiss government proposed the Nachrichtendienstgesetzt -- a bill to create a "mini NSA" with the power to effect warrantless mass surveillance, including hacking residents' computers -- the company called on its users and supporters to petition the government for a referendum on the law. (more…)

radar.weather.gov's "full loop" depicts the whole of the contiguous United States and is thereby useful for your winter weather anxiety needs regardless of where you reside. Above is a detail of the horrid weather currently being endured by Florida.

King Tut died young during times of trouble for Egypt, making his death a mystery spanning thousands of years. Though some earlier scans hinted at the possibility of foul play, a recent "digital autopsy" confirmed the teenage Pharaoh was a walking bag of medical problems.…it would have been impossible for the king to have died while riding a chariot, as has been previously thought."We concluded it would not be possible for him, especially with his partially clubbed foot, as he was unable to stand unaided."Scientists believe genetics and inherited diseases played a role in Tut's bad health because of inbreeding. A genetic analysis of his family's mummies suggests that his parents were siblings.But the final insult came last year when eight museum workers botched a cleaning of the King's legendary mask: his beard fell off and they stuck it back on with a big ol' glob of gorilla glue. Then they tried to scratch off the glue, damaging the artifact itself.The workers now face discliplinary charges.“In an attempt to cover up the damage they inflicted, they used sharp instruments such as scalpels and metal tools to remove traces of the glue on the mask, causing damage and scratches that remain,” the statement said. The accused officials have been suspended from their jobs and now face possible dismissal and heavy fines, but they will not go to prison.The scratches to the mask will not be visible to most visitors, according to Monica Hanna, an archaeologist and a member of Egypt’s Heritage Task Force, an initiative to protect the nation’s cultural heritage. Ms Hanna blamed the debacle on declining standards at the 104-year-old museum, which is home to the world’s largest collection of mummies and other Pharaonic antiquities but has become increasingly neglected in recent years.Previously. Previously.

Eric Springer is a former Amazon engineer and a heavy AWS user. He's posted a long, terrifying explanation of how identity thieves have been able to repeatedly extract his personal info from Amazon's customer service reps by following a simple script. (more…)

Hackers have been compromising wireless baby-monitors since 2013, but the more popular they've become, the more vulnerable they've become, and the attacks just keep getting more terrible. (more…)

Every year, like clockwork, longstanding Oklahoma legislators in the state's house and senate introduce bills that try to find a way around the prohibition on teaching Biblical Creationism in American public schools. (more…)

Panda. Snow. Floof-play. Didn't take long on #Blizzard2016 weekend for this video to go viral. Tian Tian, an adult giant panda bear who lives at Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, DC enjoys rolling around in the snow after a winter storm dumped nearly two feet of the white stuff in the region. Video: YouTube | Twitter. (more…)

The Man Who Would Be Fred (aka the Almighty Fred) stars my very good friend Jeff Michalski, was written, produced and directed by Bill Kelman and was scored by the incredible, unforgettable, amazing Fred Kaz. There is a free screening tomorrow night, January 24th, in Venice.In the mid 90s, when I was happily working with Jeff Michalski, and playing softball with his co-star in this film, Jeff Rosenthal, this film was all the buzz around our small theater, UpFront Comedy. Bill was pretty literally breaking him self to produce this film. It was a classic "max out the credit cards and hope for the best" situation, and sadly, after a bit, I never heard of the film again.Michalski is really one of the greats of improvisation and comedy. A Second City performer, director, and founder of the E.T.C. stage, Stephen Colbert credits Jeff with teaching him to love failing. This from GQ Magazine:"“Our first night professionally onstage,” Stephen Colbert said, the longtime Second City director Jeff Michalski told them that the most important lesson he could pass on to them was this: “You have to learn to love the bomb.”“It took me a long time to really understand what that meant,” Colbert said. “It wasn't ‘Don't worry, you'll get it next time.’ It wasn't ‘Laugh it off.’ No, it means what it says. You gotta learn to love when you're failing.… The embracing of that, the discomfort of failing in front of an audience, leads you to penetrate through the fear that blinds you. Fear is the mind killer."Jeff and Jeff play a down on their luck Venice brothers who create a religion based on donuts. "See the donut, not the hole!" becomes the mantra of a generation, as this cult grows and grows. One brother believes he is a god, the other tries to bring him back to earth! It was a shame that this film disappeared, but if you are in LA there is a free screening this Sunday night, as part of the Venice Film Festival!See The Man Who Would Be Fred, 7pm Sunday, January 24th at Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Blvd. Venice, CA 90291.

Washington, D.C., and New York City are under blizzard watches, and states of emergency have been declared in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina ahead of a blustery winter storm now slamming the U.S. East Coast with snow. [caption id="attachment_444842" align="aligncenter" width="1334"] A large winter storm expected to bring heavy snowfall to the U.S. Mid-Atlantic on Jan. 22 and 23 in a Jan. 20, 2016 NASA photo. [/caption]The storm threatens to dump nearly 3 feet of snow on the Middle Atlantic region, and slammed into Washington, D.C. this afternoon, threatening our nation's capital with record accumulations. The storm is now moving up the East Coast and causing all sorts of problems in New York, and throughout the region. (more…)

Gave me chills! This epic wedding haka moved a New Zealand bride to tears, and is making everyone on the internet cry, too. Badass as hell. (more…)

You can’t work at a book publisher for more than five minutes without someone telling you what publishers should do. You know, “to survive.” “Be relevant.” Something.Even literary agents, who should know better, will get in on this action. One of the most prominent agents in New York, seated next to me at an event a few years back, took the opportunity to lecture me through the appetizer course on how book publishers should band together and “build their own Amazon” to sell books. Digital disruption = solved. “Ma'am, you may have a point. You don’t, for All The Reasons, but let’s say you did. The book publishing industry is made of book people. Book people as a class pride themselves on knowing about everything—except computers, with a vengeance. They still edit 100,000-word manuscripts with pencils. I could count on one finger the number of people in this business who could program a coffee-maker. How in the world would the people in charge hire a single competent developer? If you’d seen the technological boondoggles, the 7-figure white-label ‘content management systems,’ these rubes have fallen for…”If you really enjoy unsolicited opinions about what publishers should do, go work at Amazon to help build a New York book publishing imprint from the ground up. The book people who still talk to you afterward will be happy to tell you what you’re doing wrong. (Guys, I'm not working at Amazon anymore. Can we be friends again?)All that said: I know what publishers should do.Some of you are probably familiar with TempleOS, the computer operating system designed by Terry Davis on, according to him, God’s instructions. (Rob posted about it a couple of years ago here.)At first, I wasn’t sure what to think. I didn’t have the technical knowledge to figure out what TempleOS actually was: A real, functioning operating system along the lines of Windows or Mac OS X? Or just a strange piece of software for making your screen look like DOS crossed with Be Here Now?Worse, was Davis faking the God-talks-to-me stuff? Making a “statement” on something? Was this…art?Calculated oddness masquerading as art is a pox on civilization—think Joaquin Phoenix in I’m Still Here or Crispin Glover’s infamous 1987 appearance on David Letterman.More research on my part revealed that Davis, who admits to being schizophrenic and to having manic episodes, actually spent a decade building a functioning, though limited, operating system on the instruction of the Almighty. Among other things, it runs a program called AfterEgypt that allows the user to communicated with God through an oracle.I won’t go further than that—others have written about TempleOS and you can see videos of Terry demonstrating it on YouTube.TempleOS screenshotIt would be easy to dismiss Davis and his creation. Beyond the retro look of TempleOS and the apparent incoherence of much of the text, Davis himself sometimes says regrettable, even racist, things online, which may or may not be a symptom of his mental illness.It would be easy to dismiss most things at first glance, though. Dismissing context, facts, and experience in favor of first impressions and easy answers—it’s kind of an American hobby in 2016.Instead, what I wanted to call out was this thoughtful essay by software engineer Richard Mitton—it’s Mitton’s attempt to look at TempleOS as a work of programming, without any preconceived bias about religion or mental illness, without an angle or an axe to grind, simply as software. Gosh, is it a refreshing read in 2016:There are many bad things to be said about TempleOS, many aspects of it that seem poorly constructed or wouldn’t work in the “real world”. I’m going to ignore them here. It’s very easy to be negative, but you will never learn anything new by doing so…Perhaps we should instead look at TempleOS as a research operating system: what can be accomplished if you’re not locked into established thinking, backwards compatibility, and market demands.What can we learn if we are only willing to listen?For me, this is what publishers should do, whether they are publishing books, websites, conferences, or, well, operating systems: “Look at this. I'll put a frame around it, because the creator cannot truly frame the work. Here is what you need to know to appreciate this. Here is how you should think about this. Consider.”A good publisher is that amazing, life-changing professor from sophomore year at scale.The need for this work—publishing—is more desperate than ever, and most book publishers don’t even bother to pay lip service to this essential role of their business.Thankfully, technology makes publishers of us all, if we choose to accept the responsibility. Your blog can be your publishing house. Put together a Medium collection of your favorite essays on a subject, with commentary.Don’t just share. Frame your selection. Offer rich, well-researched context. Stand over my shoulder and point out where I should direct my attention, what opinions and attitudes I should consider. Call out my preconceived notions. Challenge me to really look, really think, really learn, and judge for myself.Today, I challenge you to go beyond the retweet. Find work—a notion, an argument, a story, a work of art—that excites you and challenges you and that you believe deserves broader attention, and give it a frame, some context, and a little push.Publish.If you’re a writer interested in making your ideas and knowledge public—writing, speaking, sharing—without hating yourself in the morning, sign up for my weekly newsletter here.