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.

One wonders what was going through the mind of Edmonson County High School Principal Tommy Hodges when he ordered a teenage girl to get on her knees so he could measure her dress length. The Kentucky school has a dress code requiring skirts to end no more than six inches above the knee.Amanda said she felt “embarrassed” and “humiliated” by having to kneel on the ground, especially with her mom and dad watching.“I didn’t really appreciate having to get down on my knees, especially while I was in a dress,” she said.She said the first time Hodges measured her, she was in dress code, with 5 inches. However, she said Hodges then made her walk across the room with her hands up and kneel back down, to check if her dress would ride up.She said her dress was then 8 inches above the knee, and she went home because she was “technically” out of code. [via]

“Somebody told me.”This is my Friday jam. "Everything She Wants," from 1984 by British pop duo Wham!. This is a perfect pop song, and you can buy it on vinyl. It gives me wiggly dance-chills every time I hear it, and I was around when it first became a solid gold hit in 1984. (more…)

When I was a kid one of my favorite books was George Gamow's One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science. (It's a pity that the current edition has such a crappy cover. Here's the cover to the copy I own, which is much cooler looking). This book taught me about huge numbers, infinity, and the fourth dimension. I loved Gamow's hand-drawn illustrations, too. If you don't have this book, I suspect you will enjoy it.Professor Stewart's Incredible Numbers, by Ian Stewart, reminds me of One Two Three . . . Infinity. It's missing the charming hand-drawn illustrations, but it has many of the same topics in Gamow's book (like the Towers of Hanoi, and the Four Color Map Theory), plus quite a few other fun number-related items that Gamow didn't cover, such as fractals, the Birthday Paradox, and the Sausage Conjecture. When I told my 12-year-old about the Four Color Map Theory, she immediately went to work with colored pencils and paper to prove me wrong. I can't find the fantastically complex maps she came up with, but if I locate them, I'll post them here. She eventually came up with an intuitive understanding of why any map you draw only needs four colors to ensure no two bordering shapes have the same color.

Darwintunes are short musical loops that mutate and evolve as listeners vote: "the higher rated loops get to have sex and have baby loops which form the next generation, to be rated, have sex, have babies and so on."The examples given start out as warbly bursts of random noise. A hundred generations in, and it sounds like kids fooling around with water-filled bottles. https://soundcloud.com/uncoolbob/darwintunes-medley-at-30-generationsFive-hundred in, chords emerge. A thousand mutations in and melodies and rhythm are present…https://soundcloud.com/uncoolbob/darwintunes-medley-at-200-generationsThree-thousand, and drums and textures seem weirdly to emerge from the deep.https://soundcloud.com/uncoolbob/darwintunes-medley-at-5170Eight-thousand generations down the line, and we have something simple and magical…https://soundcloud.com/uncoolbob/darwintunes-medley-at-8700It's a wonderful example of a simple idea: that apparent design shows up fast, and the "designs" are often lovely. This process, repeated for fifty thousand years, has given us all that we make, say and do; it is the process of "cultural evolution".However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. For example, how important is human creative input compared to audience selection? Is progress smooth and continuous or step-like? We set up DarwinTunes as a test-bed for the evolution of music, the oldest and most widespread form of culture; and, thanks to your participation, we've shown that reasonably complex and pleasing music can evolve purely under selection by listeners.Check out the full set below. [via r/internetisbeautiful]

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a true-blue fan of intermediate-reader adventures published during the Sixties (1964–73). Attribute this, if you will, to the fact that these books were popular when I was an impressionable adolescent in the late 1970s. The fact remains, the Sixties were a cornucopia producing a flood of extraordinary titles: Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising series, Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Joan Aiken’s Wolves Chronicles series, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wind in the Door, S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, E.L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Sure, I dig older kids’ lit from other eras, too. But nothing compares.In anticipation of their 50th anniversaries, this year, here’s my list of the Best Older Kid’s Lit of 1966. Please let me know which favorite titles of yours I’ve overlooked!OLDER KIDS’ LIT on HILOBROW: Best of 1963 | Best of 1964 | Best of 1965 | Best of 1966 | Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Lost Prince (serialized) | YA Sci-Fi | ALSO SEE: Best 1966 Adventures (for Grownups).*In no particular order…René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s bande dessinée Asterix adventure Asterix the Legionary. The tenth Asterix story is a particular favorite of mine — because it is a sardonic inversion of one of my favorite sub-genres of adventure: the all-for-one, one-for-all argonautica. In order to rescue a Gaul who has been conscripted into the Roman army and shipped to North Africa, where Julius Caesar was battling Metellus Scipio, Asterix and Obelix enlist in the army themselves. Along with a rag-tag group of conscripts from every corner of the empire — Hemispheric the Goth, Selectivemploymentax the Briton, Gastronomix the Belgian, Neveratalos the Greek, and Ptenisnet the Egyptian (who speaks in hieroglyphics) — our heroes must, for once, help Caesar win a battle.*Lloyd Alexander’s fantasy adventure The Castle of Llyr. The third of five volumes in The Chronicles of Prydain is the series’ most gothic installment: ruined castle, secret identities, lost memories! When heroic princess Eilonwy is forced to continue her education on the Isle of Mona, her companion Taran — assistant pig-keeper and would-be hero — comes along. Joined by the bard Fflewddur Fflam, Prince Gwydion (disguised as a shoemaker), and an incompetent princeling named Rhun, Taran seeks to rescue Eilonwy after she is kidnapped by the sorceress Achren. Along the way, they encounter Glew, a pathetic but dangerous giant, and an enormous mountain cat too. When Taran locates Eilonwy, in a castle that’s sinking into the sea, she doesn’t know him! Fun fact: “Isle of Mona” is a version of Ynys Môn, the Welsh name for the Isle of Anglesey.*Hergé’s bande dessinée Tintin adventure Flight 714. In their 22nd adventure, Tintin, Snowy, Haddock, and Professor Calculus are inadvertently embroiled in the villainous Rastapopoulos’s scheme to kidnap and rob the eccentric aircraft industrialist Laszlo Carreidas. Whisked away to an uncharted Southeastern Asian island, Tintin and his friends must escape from Rastapopoulos and his henchman, Alan, and rescue Carreidas; after which, guided by a telepathic voice (!), they discover a temple hidden inside the island’s volcano. Why do the temple’s ancient statues resemble astronauts? When Rastapopoulos triggers a volcanic eruption, how will any of them survive? Fun fact: Hergé’s story was influenced by the ancient-astronaut theories of French sci-fi comic strip author Robert Charroux. Note that I didn’t let my own children read this Tintin adventure until they were older, because: hypodermics, machine guns, Alan’s shattered teeth.*Joan Aiken’s parallel-history adventure Nightbirds on Nantucket. Having gone down with the ship at the end of the previous installment in Aiken’s terrific Wolves Chronicles, Cockney ne’er-do-well Dido Twite wakes up in the middle of the Arctic sea, aboard a whaler out of Nantucket. While an Ahab-like Captain Casket pursues a magnificent pink whale, his motherless young daughter, Dutiful Penitence, refuses to venture out of her cabin. Dido befriends Penny, then accompanies her to her Aunt Tribulation’s home on Nantucket. The girls soon uncover a Hanoverian plot involving a giant cannon — designed by a Wernher von Braun-type German scientist — that will be fired from Nantucket, and which will destroy England’s Buckingham Palace. Meanwhile, Aunt Tribulation may not be what she seems. As ever, Dido’s use of dialect — “havey-cavey,” “tipple-topped,” “in the nitch” — is awesome. Fun fact: Some Dido Twite fans suggest reading Nightbirds on Nantucket first, then (as prequels) The Whispering Mountain (1968), The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962), and Black Hearts in Battersea (1964), before reading the rest of the series in the order of their publication. That’s not how I did it, but I do like the idea.*K.M. Peyton’s sailing adventure Thunder in the Sky. Before K.M. Peyton became famous for innumerable books about girls and ponies, not to mention her romantic Flambards series, she wrote several YA adventures which — like this one — revolve around sailing. So if, like me, you’re a fan of sailing adventures like The Riddle of the Sands, the Swallows and Amazons series, or the Horatio Hornblower books, then check out Peyton’s Windfall (1962), The Maplin Bird (1964), and The Plan for Birdsmarsh (1965). In Thunder in the Sky, which is set during WWI, 16-year-old Sam works on his family’s sailing barge. He is disappointed that his older brother, Gil, doesn’t see it as his patriotic duty to enlist in the fighting; in fact, he begins to suspect that Gil might be an enemy spy. Will a supply run to France — carrying flammable cargo past bomb-dropping dirigibles — end in disaster? Some readers may complain about the exacting detail into which Peyton goes about how barges are sailed. But not this reader! Fun fact: Recommended by the British Library Association as one of the outstanding books for young readers published that year.*Henry Treece’s historical adventures The Bronze Sword, The Queen’s Brooch, and Red Queen, White Queen. Treece, a British poet and author, is best remembered today for his YA historical novels set at the end of the Viking period and during the Roman conquest of Britain. These three novels are set during Queen Boudicca’s uprising against the Romans. The Bronze Sword is the most famous, I suppose, but I’m fond of The Queen’s Brooch, in which Marcus, the son of a Roman Tribune, familiar with Celtic customs and friendly with the Celts, becomes a warrior… only to encounter horrific behavior on the part of tribal chieftains and their Roman conquerors alike. In the end, he becomes a proto-modern figure: adrift in a heartless world. Fun fact: As a poet, Treece was a founder of the New Apocalypse movement, a reaction against the politically oriented, machine-age literature and realist poetry of the 1930s. I also recommended Treece’s Viking Trilogy, which includes Viking’s Dawn (1955), The Road to Miklagard (1957), and Viking’s Sunset (1960); and his 1956 prehistoric yarn, The Golden Strangers, one of my all-time favorite adventures, which depicts the encounter between primitive Britons and Indo-European invaders.*Leon Garfield’s historical adventure Devil-in-the-Fog. If Garfield’s first YA novel, Jack Holborn (1964), was an homage to Robert Louis Stevenson, then his second, Devil-In-The-Fog, pays obeisance to Charles Dickens. George is a member of the traveling Treet family, impoverished but happy thespians; twice a year, a mysterious stranger emerges from foggy London streets and delivers a sum of money to Mr. Treet. When George turns 14, he learns that he is actually the son of a nobleman, Sir John Dexter, with whom he must now live. But his father has been wounded in a duel with his brother, Richard. When Richard escapes from prison, someone tries to kill George. What devil lurks in the fog? To quote a recent Guardian write-up of Garfield’s third novel, Smith (1967): “Not an easy read if you are under eleven, but an enormously satisfying one. The vividness of Garfield’s writing puts the blandness of many modern writers’ prose in the shade.” Fun fact: Devil-in-the-Fog won the inaugural, 1967 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. *Scott O’Dell’s historical, treasure-seeking adventure The King’s Fifth. Think of The Treasure of Sierra Madre, but set in 1540 and written for older kids. During Vasquez de Coronado’s expedition from Mexico through parts of the present-day southwestern United States, a rogue conquistador strikes out on his own in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold. He is accompanied by the story’s narrator, Esteban, a teenage Spanish cartographer who becomes one of the first Europeans to catch sight of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. The conquistadors’ lust for gold drives their cruel treatment of the native Indians, and their mutual mistrust. We learn that Esteban is later imprisoned for having found a treasure without submitting the “King’s Fifth,” a tax levied by the King of Spain on precious metals. What has happened to the mule-train of gold? Fun fact: Written by the author of the much-admired YA adventure Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960). In 1982, The King’s Fifth was adapted into the Japanese-French anime TV series The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Oh, and the few good ideas from the Disney movie The Road to El Dorado (2000) appear to have been lifted from O’Dell’s book, too.Sid Fleischman’s historical/tall-tale adventure Chancy and the Grand Rascal. Separated from his family during the Civil War, an Ohio farm boy sets out to locate his orphaned brother and sisters. He soon falls in with a wily, charming, peripatetic con-man and BS artist… who turns out to be his long-lost uncle, Will Buckthorn. Together, Chancy and the Grand Rascal see the world along the Ohio River and the Great Plains frontier, seeking their family and getting into and out of scrapes. After many adventures, they discover that Chancy’s siblings have been taken in by a pretty schoolmarm in Sun Dance, Kansas. What’s a Grand Rascal to do? As a “coming-and-going” kind of man, can he be persuaded to settle down at last? Fun fact: Chancy and the Grand Rascal is the final installment in an extraordinary run of titles that Fleischman cranked out in the early 1960s, including: Mr. Mysterious & Company (1962, his first children’s book), By the Great Horn Spoon! (1963), and The Ghost in the Noonday Sun (1965). I’m also a fan of Jingo Django (1971), which was recently adapted as a Quentin Tarantino movie. Just joshin’.*R. Macherot’s talking-animal bande dessinée adventure Sibyl-Anne Vs. Ratticus. When Ratticus, an aristocratic rat, is kicked out of his ancestral castle, he preys on the mice and other animals in the surrounding forest. It’s up to hot-tempered Sibyl-Anne, her easy-going fiancé Boomer, the cowardly but entrepreneurial crow Floozemaker, the porcupine police sergeant Verboten, and others to stop him. Long before Brian Jacques’ similar Redwall series, here we find a peaceful mouse forced to band together with an unlikely assortment of animals and defend her homeland against the land, sea, and air invasion of an invading rat horde. Fun fact: Serialized, as “Sibylline en Danger,” in the Franco-Belgian comics journal Spirou in 1966 and 1967. I’ve waited for years for this strip to appear in English; in 2011, Fantagraphics’s Kim Thompson translated and published it. Sibyl-Anne Vs. Ratticus comprises the fourth and fifth Sibylline stories.*Happy 50th anniversary!

The Beatles were known as The Quarrymen in 1958. Here's George, John, and Paul (no Ringo), performing "In Spite of All The Danger" on acoustic instruments.Wikipedia has a good article about the song:"In Spite of All the Danger" is one of the first songs recorded by The Quarrymen, then composed of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, pianist John Lowe and drummer Colin Hanton.The song was written by McCartney and Harrison and is the only song to credit the two alone. It is believed to have been recorded on Saturday 12 July 1958 (three days before Lennon's mother's death). However, that recording date is disputed by the group. The recording was made at Percy Phillips' home studio in Liverpool (see 1958 in music), and cost 17 shillings and six pence (87.5p).Here's Paul McCartney, many years later, talking about "In Spite of All The Danger" and performing it solo on guitar:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWBT1PJHJy8[via]

I've gone through a lot of portable USB charging batteries. My current favorite is this model by RAVPower.I love these batteries for keeping my iPhone going in both music, and GPS mode, over long motorcycle rides. By GPS I mean Waze, and Waze is a pig when it comes to battery power! Even with the screen off, and giving only audio cues via bluetooth, that app drains power. I'll also charge the helmet audio system up whenever I stop for coffee,a meal or to stretch my legs. Two 2.4A smart sockets can full speed charge two tablets at once. The 16750 mAh capacity will charge an iPhone back up 6 or so times, or keep just it running for 2-3 days of heavy use while riding. It does take a good 3-5 hrs to charge this brick back up, so make sure to plug it in before you go to sleep. The flashlight on these batteries is just a farkle, but one that can come in handy.RAVPower 16750mAh Portable Charger Most Powerful 4.5A Output External Battery with iSmart Technology via Amazon

Jamie Keeton of Evergreen Park, Illinois says he makes $1,000 a day suctioning cans and other objects to his head. He recently took his show to China and says he will soon land a Guinness World Record for the unique talent."Twenty three years ago, I shaved my head for the first time," Keeton told WZZM13. "And I was at a ball game. I was trying to cool my head down because it was a hot day. And all of a sudden they hit a home run," Keeton said. "I went up to grab it... I missed it, and then said, 'Where's my drink?' Everybody was laughing... The drink was stuck to the back of my head. The drink was pouring out of it."According to one doctor, the ability stems from Keeton's slightly high baseline body temperature of 100 degrees.

Robert Reich (previously), Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor, asks "Why did the white working class abandon the Democrats?" and answers himself: it's partly about race, but it's mostly about finance. (more…)

The discovery of a 16mm print of Pages of Death means that Gambit Magazine's 15 lost films is now merely 14 lost films. But that leaves plenty of missing classics left to discover, including Batman fights Dracula and, of course, London After Midnight.This 1927 silent horror film was based on the short story “The Hypnotist” by Tod Browning who also happened to direct this film adaptation. The film is noted for starring Lon Chaney with the makeup used for his vampire character being done by himself. The film was a success upon its release by MGM, but all prints have been lost to time. The film is considered to be the most famous and sought after lost film of all time, with Turner Classic Movies airing a reconstructed version of the film using the original script as well as actual production stills.

Oregon Historical Society has posted Pages of Death, a "long-lost" anti-pornography movie in similar vein to the legendary Reefer Madness: "These kids can pick up girly magazines and sex-violence stuff all over town!"It was released in 1962, much later than most of those propaganda exploitation flicks. If it was already old-fashioned at the time it came out, that fact might not be obvious to present-day viewers.The blurb follows… (more…)

They're sold out, but sculptor Turkey Merck is planning another limited run in February. They're $220 each, one of a kind, made to order, and not dishwasher or microwave safe. (via Crazy Abalone)

A heck of an accessory for your punk Bernie tee: the $25 Bernie Cash tee, with $5 to the Bernie 2016 campaign.

Unsurprisingly, the occupied Malheur Wildlife Refuge buildings contain over 4000 native artifacts, belonging to the Burns Paiute tribe. The militant rebels are not making the native Americans feel good about their occupation, and apparently call the natives "savages."The Burns Paiute Tribe is rightly demanding the United States live up to treaty obligations, and prosecute any damages to their artifacts and archaeological resources.Via ICMNT:Occupation leader Ammon Bundy, from Arizona and son of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher involved in a standoff with the federal government over copy million in unpaid grazing fees on public land, has offered to meet with the tribe but the tribe says he has no right to hold their history hostage and have refused to grant him even the appearance of such authority by meeting with him.“Some of the members of the community were open to them,” Roderique says, “when they first came but now the county chained and locked everything up and said no you can’t have your meeting in town.”Harney County officials have stated they will not allow the militants to use any county-owned building for fear of more takeovers of public property.“They tried to ask us for our gathering center and our facility was booked up. We just kind of laughed and said they want to use our 'savage' facilities?”Roderique was referencing a “Harney County Committee of Safety” website made by supporters of the takeover who profess to exist “to secure the property and lives of the association members from threats from the savages.”

[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]“Hollywood Death Mysteries Solved!”Natalie Wood, Bruce Lee, Sonny Bono, and David Carradine were all murdered, and Richard Burton was beaten to death.That’s according to the expert forensic authority known in academic circles as Globe magazine.Solved?You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.Those of us who thought Sonny Bono died after skiing at high speed into a tree were evidently fooled by brilliant “drug assassins” who beat him to death and planted his body on a ski slope. Because what could be easier than dragging a dead body up a mountain in deep snow?Autopsy photos “could reveal Natalie Wood’s death was a murder.” Because even though medical examiners, police and prosecutors have viewed the photos, the truth won’t be known until the Globe’s pet attorney has seen the pictures. There you go – solved!Richard Burton got into a bar brawl two days before he died. Though officials ruled that long-standing illnesses killed the actor, the Globe assures us it was the fight that killed him. Because Swiss medical experts who examined his body didn’t have the imagination of Globe reporters. Solved!Bruce Lee was poisoned and David Carradine hanged by the same serial killer “who targets celebrities and stages their deaths to look like accidents.”That all makes perfect sense now. I bet the same killer got to Bob Hope and Lucille Ball too. Solved!"David Bowie died of Aids!” screams the National Enquirer, evidently based on the claims made by a former lover in 1987 – despite Bowie having twice taken court-ordered Aids tests and being proven Aids-free, and the lover also testing negative for the disease. Why let the facts get in the way of a good accusation?O.J. Simpson was Bill Cosby’s drug dealer supplying him with knock-out drugs, and Caitlyn Jenner loves Monica Lewinsky, according to the Enquirer. More mysteries – solved!Deaths dominate this week’s celebrity magazines as well. Celine Dion’s “heart is in pieces” after the demise of both her husband and brother days apart. “There are no words,” says “a friend.” Which is true, since Celine didn’t say a word to People mag.David Bowie’s death is Us magazine’s cover story, telling of his wife “Iman’s sad goodbye.” Not that Iman spoke to Us mag either.Who needs to interview the protagonists in a news story? Just talk to “insiders,” “sources,” and “friends.” Reporters with no real quotes? Solved!Fortunately, we have Us mag’s crack reporting team to tell us that Rachel Platten (Who she, Ed?) wore it best, singer Monica carries two iPhones, a prayer card and a $2 bill in her purse, and the stars are just like us: they carry umbrellas, browse newsstands, and cheer for the team.Tyga tells Us mag that he hates root beer and “could eat chicken wings nonstop,” while Bernie Sanders invites People mag into his home to watch him do the laundry, and embraces his rumpled khaki pants saying: “We’re appealing to the American men who have wrinkles in their pants.”There’s the secret to Bernie’s success – solved!Onwards and downwards . . .

https://youtu.be/DmyMtY9ZOlMWith the unsettling closure and uncertain future of a vast original area of Disneyland which has remained mostly undisturbed since park opening in 1955, it seems fitting to reflect upon some things which made it memorable. This is the first of a series of pieces, and also the most indirect — it’ll take me six paragraphs to make my real point.One thing every parent knows is the delight of “the unexpected moment” when your child comes upon a character at a Disney park without warning.There’s less of that these days, with “Character Meet and Greets” having been turned into controlled experiences and fewer instances of the characters simply walking the parks and freely mingling with the guests. (You tend to see much more of this at the Tokyo Disney Resort.)On a trip to Disneyland when my daughter was about 4 or 5 years old just under a decade ago, we entered the park early, passed through Main Street, and were taking the walkway up to Sleeping Beauty Castle that curves to the right, past Snow White’s Grotto. The white marble statues of Snow White and the Dwarfs were a gift from the Ambassador of Italy, I explained to my daughter. They reside in a man-made grotto with a waterfall. On the walkway itself is a full-size replica of the wishing well from the film Snow White. If you lean over and listen, you will hear Snow White singing. My daughter was listening intently, looking into the well, and when she turned around there was Snow White — pretty, indeed, as a picture. But live she was and my daughter’s eyes grew round. Like silver dollars. Snow White knelt, took my daughter’s hand, and for the next five minutes, nothing in the world existed except my daughter’s conversation with Snow White, who was naught but kind and gentle, and most interested in my daughter’s life at that moment. This is the true magic of Disneyland. It was so early that there were no other people in the immediate area. It still happens on occasion, and sometimes even adults get sprinkled with pixie dust. To get from the mainland to Tom Sawyer Island you take a small wooden raft on which you stand for a few minutes. And who piled in right after about 20 of us last November but The Bootstrappers, a rogue bunch of pirate musicians standing mere feet away. It was unexpected, and we were thoroughly delighted … children again for a brief two minutes. The rafts to Tom Sawyer Island, and the island itself (designed, it is said, personally by Mr. Disney) closed on January 11 and will undergo the chop — literally in this case, since half the island is being removed — to make way for a massive 14 acre new land devoted to Star Wars. What exactly will remain of Tom Sawyer Island is unknown to us for the next 18 months, but for the moment, let yourself be serenaded by The Bootstrappers as you make your way across the Rivers of America.