Boing Boing

"My child bit me." "I had a boyfriend who punched me in the face." "I tried to cut myself." "Broke my femur bone in a car accident." "Breast implants." These are quotes from five of the one hundred people in this video talking about how they got their scars.Image: The Cut/YouTube Read the rest

Julie McDowall experiences synaesthesia, a cross-wiring of sensations where sights may have sounds, numbers may spark smells, or, in her case, words trigger tastes. What does your name taste like?Catherine is a Rusk dipped in chocolate and coffeeAntonio is a bowl of Frosties, turning soggy.Rebecca is shortbread and Feeney is a watery, weak onionPaul...the fondant inside a Creme Egg.Bryan is coconut caught between my teethThough literally experienced by McDowall thanks to an exceptional brain condition, her definitions are clearly just right. It reminds me of The Meaning of Liff. Someone should give McDowall a book deal to write The Meaning of Biff. Read the rest

Resident Evil 2 is a just-released remake of the Capcom classic, updated with ultra-realistic performance-captured animation. DPO23 hacked the game's configuration to exaggerate characters' facial movements 500%. It's an unsettling illustration of what lies beneath cutting-edge graphics tech—and far scarier than the zombies. (See DP023's YouTube channel for more) Read the rest

"Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?” ― John Lennon Read the rest

You may have heard that artist Anish Kapoor has an exclusive license to produce art using Vantablack, a pigment made from carbon nanotubes that absorbs up to 99.96% of visible light. Covering an object with Vantablack makes it look like the object, and everything behind it, has been removed from the universe. Artists who are not Anish Kapoor are understandably upset that Kapoor has a lock on Vantablack. Many people have tried to create pigments as dark as Vantablack, and the person with the most success so far is Stuart Semple. He created Black 2.0 a few years ago, and now he is Kickstarted a new formulation, Black 3.0, which absorbs between 98 and 99% of visible light.The Kickstarter includes the following caution: "By backing this project you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not backing this on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. To the best of your knowledge, information and belief this material will not make its way into the hands of Anish Kapoor." Read the rest

Casey Hathaway, age 3, was lost for three days in the woods of Craven County, North Carolina before police found him alive and well. He had survived pouring rain and near-freezing temperatures. According to Hathaway, a bear looked after him in the forest."He made a comment about having a friend while he was in the woods -- his friend was a bear," Maj. David McFadyen of the Craven County Sheriff's Office told CNN. "In the emergency room he started talking about what happened in the woods and he said he had a friend that was a bear with him while he was in the woods."It is true that there are bears in those woods. Read the rest

South Carolina has a bill in the works to become the 34th state in the nation to legalize medical marijuana, and Attorney General Alan Wilson is freaking out. He went to the Statehouse lobby and stood in the middle of a row of serious-faced white-robed doctors and called marijuana “the most dangerous drug” in America. Marijuana, he says, causes addiction, traffic accidents, and deaths by overdose. ("A fatal dose of marijuana would require ingestion of fifteen hundred pounds in fifteen minutes," says David Schmader, author of Weed: The User's Guide.)Here’s the clip of AG Alan Wilson starting off the press conference today on medical marijuana. Some Republicans and Democrats are trying to legalize cannabis for medical purposes this year in South Carolina. pic.twitter.com/UwZ9NlSRTN— Andrew Brown (@Andy_Ed_Brown) January 23, 2019From the Post and Courier:“They use words like stoned, high, wasted, baked, fried, cooked, chonged, cheeched, dope-faced, blazed, blitzed, blunted, blasted, danked, stupid, wrecked — and that’s only half the words they use,” Wilson said. “Are these consistent with something that describes a medicine?” Someone needs to use that as a song sample.Image: Screenshot of Andrew Brown's Twitter video Read the rest

Students at Mackie Academy secondary school in Aberdeenshire, Scotland created a piece of high art on the playing field. While the act occurred last year, its documentation -- which was actually the real prank -- apparently lives on in Google Earth.“I’m sure there is lots of penises drawn in lots of places around the school and many other schools across the country, but this really is impressive," said one former student.(The Scottish Sun)Of course, they weren't the first students to play this particular, er, long game. For example: "Suspected high school prank goes unnoticed by APS for years" Read the rest

The immense sense of vicarious satisfaction I feel watching this gives me hope for the machines that will replace us. [via r/perfectfit] Read the rest

During the 1960s and 1970s at Bell Labs, the intersection of science and art was rightfully recognized as an extremely fertile ground for creative and technological experimentation. New York City's avant-garde artists collaborated with Bell Labs engineers to develop new tools, technologies, and creative practices that continue to shape our digital world today. It was in Bell Labs' hotbed of digital creativity where composer and software engineer Laurie Spiegel helped make the future of electronic music. Waveshaper TV produced a multi-part interview with Spiegel whose seminal works, including The Expanding Universe, are available in stunning editions from the Unseen Worlds label.I was particularly excited about Part 2 of the interview with Spiegel, released today and seen above, because it focuses on how she came to contribute an audio manifestation of "Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds" ("Music of the Spheres") to the Voyager Golden Record, the iconic message for extraterrestrials attached to the Voyager I and II space probes launched in 1977. The Golden Record tells a story of our planet expressed in sounds, images, and science: Earth’s greatest music from myriad peoples and eras, from Bach to Blind Willie Johnson to Chuck Berry, Benin percussion to Solomon Island panpipes. A short segment of Spiegel's "Music of the Spheres" opens the Voyager Record's "Sounds of Earth" segment, a collage of dozens of recordings that represent our planet, from birds and chimpanzees to thunder, a baby's cry, laughter, and a kiss.Two years ago, my friends Timothy Daly, Lawrence Azerrad, and I released the Voyager Golden Record on vinyl for the first time as a lavish box set. Read the rest

In an absolutely epic Twitter thread (unrolled here) author CZ Edwards lays out an incredibly compelling explanation of spiralling real-estate prices: oligarchs need to launder a lot of oil money -- think Russia, Iran, ex-Soviet basket-case states, Saudi -- and so they plow the money into offshore Real Estate Investment Trust that then cleans it by outbidding any actual real-estate investors or would-be homeowners, bidding up and snapping up all the property in desirable cities, and then realizing the rental income-flows as legitimate, clean money.It's as neat and compelling a way of describing the link between oligarchy and spiraling real-estate prices as you could ask for. Shelter is not optional, so people will spend whatever it takes to get a roof over their heads. Cities are not infinitely sprawlable, so it's possible to corner the market on places to live in them. Eventually, the parasites will devour the hosts and leave the cities empty shells (ahem, Venice), but by then the money-launderers have sold up and moved on.And of course, since real-estate is a great way to launder money, real-estate developers are often mobbed up af, which explains a lot about the president and his grifter inner circle.Edwards points out that her work on money-laundering came out of her research on a novel called "Rien's Rebellion: Kingdom" (" Once upon a time, a nation’s fate depended on an informant, a lawyer and a warrior. They all lived under a good Monarch’s leadership. Until he was assassinated."). Read the rest

Everybody's on Instagram to be seen, but what separates the average selfies-and-food account from the true influencers? Chances are, it's not random chance. Check out our favorite online tools geared to get you the kind of visibility advertisers dream of, from educational courses to optimizing apps.PostFly Instagram AutomationIf you're looking to get the most out of your Instagram account, do what the big brands do: Enhance it with automation. There no business too small to benefit from a PostFly setup, which can schedule your posts, automatically like your followers' content, and even sniff out new followers for you based on relevance. It's the best way to free up time and still keep your public face personal and accessible. Right now, a lifetime subscription to PostFly Instagram Automation is 96% off at $39.Instagram Master ClassNo matter how artful your posts are, there's a definite science to grabbing an Instagram following. Digital agent Evan Kimbrell helped oversee the social media strategies of Fortune 100 companies, and he shares those secrets in this 22-hour online course. Through targeted hashtags and strategic automation, you'll be able to bump up your numbers to the thousands in no time. Originally priced at $199.99, the Instagram Master Class is currently on sale for $11.99.Savvant Instagram OptimizerDon't just throw posts to the wall and hope they stick. With Savvant's complex analytics, you can find out what draws likes, why and from where. Based on its algorithms, the app can choose the best hashtags and keywords for you, and suggest the content that's really going to drive your brand no matter what it is. Read the rest

All in the form of signature character Richard Sharpe — add Ed Stark and we'd be here all weekend. Read the rest

From the archives of Germany's public broadcasting institution WDR, this televised concert video of Kraftwerk from 1970, the year of the band's formation. Even then, their post-Krautrock motorik dynamism is trance-inducing. Far fucking out.(via Laughing Squid) Read the rest

Just days after LA teachers declared victory in their strike for better classroom conditions and limits on charter schools, their colleagues in Denver -- another "blue state" -- have voted to walk off the job, with a very similar set of demands.Last year's #RedForEd strikes were concentrated in Republican-dominated red states, but beating up on teachers and advocating through charter-school privatization of public system is a bipartisan disease, with many establishment Democrat backers.California's not done, either: Oakland teachers have seen a steady decline in their funding and working conditions, a phenomenon that has tracked closely with the number of black and brown students in their classes (and the siphoning off of privileged and wealthier white students into charter schools). ARLENE INOUYE: Yes, and we’re excited for the educators in Denver that they’ve taken this step.And I feel like what we’ve learned through the years is that when you communicate clearly what the message is and you reach out to parents and community, our collective power is what got us to win. We have a chapter leader in every single school. And we have teams now, organizing teams, at every school. And we have constant communication. I think, as you see, Amy, when you talk to anybody, any teacher or parent out there that were on the picket lines, they will tell you the same message, why we’re fighting. And it’s very clear to us.And I think by being able to organize across the board and bring in the voices, the ordinary voices of our parents and our educators—and I, myself, by the way, am a speech and language specialist. Read the rest

Records in a class-action lawsuit uncovered Facebook's "multi-year effort" to bilk money from kids who unwittingly spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on games on Facebook, who refused to refund the money when the kids' parents complained.From Reveal:Facebook encouraged game developers to let children spend money without their parents’ permission – something the social media giant called “friendly fraud” – in an effort to maximize revenues, according to a document detailing the company’s game strategy.Sometimes the children did not even know they were spending money, according to another internal Facebook report. Facebook employees knew this. Their own reports showed underage users did not realize their parent’s credit cards were connected to their Facebook accounts and they were spending real money in the games, according to the unsealed documents.For years, the company ignored warnings from its own employees that it was bamboozling children.A team of Facebook employees even developed a method that would have reduced the problem of children being hoodwinked into spending money, but the company did not implement it, and instead told game developers that the social media giant was focused on maximizing revenues.When parents found out how much their children had spent – one 15-year-old racked up $6,500 in charges in about two weeks playing games on Facebook – the company denied requests for refunds. Facebook employees referred to these children as “whales” – a term borrowed from the casino industry to describe profligate spenders. A child could spend hundreds of dollars a day on in-game features such as arming their character with a flaming sword or a new magic spell to defeat an enemy – even if they didn’t realize it until the credit card bill arrived. Read the rest

Even though jet travel is a major contributor to global warming, the pluto-kakisto-klepto-cracy coming to the World Economic Forum in Davos will arrive in an estimated 1,500 private jets. One of the topics that the 0.001% will be discussing at the Swiss Ski resort is global warming. From Inquisitr:In general, private jet travel to the event has increased by about 11 percent year over year, according to the Air Charter Service (ACS), which charters aircraft for cargo and private use.“There appears to be a trend towards larger aircraft, with expensive heavy jets the aircraft of choice,” said Andy Christie, private jets director at the ACS. “Gulfstream GVs and Global Expresses [were] both used more than 100 times each last year.”Image: Tyler Olson/Shutterstock Read the rest

Researchers at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, a United States Department of Defense research facility, developed laser systems that can "transmit various tones, music and recorded speech at a conversational volume" to specific people without the recipient wearing any special equipment. Basically, the operator points a laser at someone from a distance and that individual hears the transmitted audio even though others in the area don't. Conspiracy theorists, start your engines. From the Optical Society of America:"Our system can be used from some distance away to beam information directly to someone's ear," said research team leader Charles M. Wynn. "It is the first system that uses lasers that are fully safe for the eyes and skin to localize an audible signal to a particular person in any setting..."The new approaches are based on the photoacoustic effect, which occurs when a material forms sound waves after absorbing light. In this case, the researchers used water vapor in the air to absorb light and create sound...One unique aspect of this laser sweeping technique is that the signal can only be heard at a certain distance from the transmitter. This means that a message could be sent to an individual, rather than everyone who crosses the beam of light. It also opens the possibility of targeting a message to multiple individuals."New technology uses lasers to transmit audible messages to specific people" (Phys.org via The Daily Grail)"Photoacoustic communications: delivering audible signals via absorption of light by atmospheric H2O" (Optics Letter) Read the rest

Libertycon is the annual conference of Students for Liberty, a libertarian youth group, held in DC; at this year's conference, Google was the $25,000 platinum sponsor, while Facebook and Microsoft were each $10,000 sponsors.Libertycon's other sponsors included three notorious climate denial groups, including the CO2 Coalition, backed by billionaire family foundations (including the Mercers' foundation and the Koch foundation), who argue that increased atmospheric CO2 is "good news" for the planet; they distributed literature to "explain how our lives and our planet Earth will be improved by additional atmospheric carbon dioxide" because "more carbon dioxide will help everyone, including future generations of our families" and the "recent increase in CO2 levels has had a measurable, positive effect on plant life."The conference featured a presentation by Caleb Rossiter, a retired stats prof who sits on the outer fringe of the climate denial movement; he praised higher atmospheric CO2 levels ("I'm cheering") and claimed that "There has been no increase in storms, in intensity or frequency." He also claimed that increased CO2 levels "improve life expectancy"The Big Tech companies claim that their sponsorship of Libertycon is part of their wider political event funding that crosses party lines and is nonpartisan in nature. But conferences that give platforms to climate deniers are not part of the normal political discourse: they are as dangerous and beyond the pale as conferences that feature eugenicists. I believe that those people should be allowed to have conferences! But I also think that anyone who gives those conferences a dime is either an immoral opportunist or a sociopath. Read the rest

On Sunday, Ozzy Osbourne launched pre-orders for this darling plushie bat with a detachable head, and it has already sold out. Today is the 37th anniversary of Ozzy's show at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa during which he bit the head off a real bat. From a January 22, 1982 article in the Des Moines Register: Osbourne reportedly put a dead bat in his mouth, bit its head off and threw it back into the crowd of about 5,000 at the auditorium Wednesday night.Some skeptics think the whole thing was a publicity stunt – even the taking of the first of a series of five rabies shots at a Des Moines hospital after the concert.But Mark Neal, 17, of Des Moines said he threw the dead bat onto the stage, saw Osbourne pick it up, bite its head off and then throw it into the audience.“It really freaked me out,” Neal said. “I won’t get in any trouble for admitting this, will I?”After the show, Osbourne went to Mercy Hospital Medical Center, and was referred to Broadlawns Medical Center because rabies vaccine was available there.Today marks the 37th Anniversary since I bit a head off a f*cking bat! Celebrate with this commemorative plush with detachable head.https://t.co/Of23jCDtaa pic.twitter.com/U8ZkmOYOey— Ozzy Osbourne (@OzzyOsbourne) January 20, 2019 Read the rest

Watch marine biologist Ocean Ramsey (yes, Ocean is her first name!) swim with a 20-foot great white shark off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii. First spotted off Guadalupe in 2014, this animal, nicknamed "Deep Blue," is thought to be the largest great white in the world. They're definitely going to need a bigger boat.“We never would have imagined we would be fortunate enough to be graced with the presence of this massive, big, beautiful, female white shark," says Ramsey, who at the time was observing tiger sharks with her One Ocean Research team. “It fills my heart with joy and takes my breath away.”(NBC News) View this post on Instagram Beyond magic! Please #helpsavesharks !!!! Incredible swimming with “Deep Blue” one of the largest great white s for hour! Just using our @oneoceandiving boat as a scratching post, so mellow and beautiful. Help ban the purposeful killing of sharks and rays with @oneoceanconservation this year & in your local/international community ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ AHHHHHHMAZING!!!! #Beyondwords still out to sea/going back in 😍😍😍😍😍😍 vid shot by @oneoceandiving Shark specialist & my amazing #seaster @mermaid_kayleigh out with @juansharks @forrest.in.focus @camgrantphotography @oneoceanresearch A post shared by Ocean Ramsey #OceanRamsey (@oceanramsey) on Jan 15, 2019 at 5:54pm PST Read the rest

MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAT!I haven't paid attention to Mortal Kombat since the 1995 movie. There was a time it was my go-to coming down off of hallucinogenic drugs film. This game trailer would have made my eyes explode out of my head.I do not put a lot of stock in the whole "video games are making kids violent" thing. Kids can't develop magic superpowers that allow them to flash freeze the freshly-ripped-from-a-body-with-the-eyes-still-a-blinking-skull and then grind it to dust in front of their remaining opponents. They just can't.I kinda of sort of remember the Mortal Kombat storyline as being pretty much over in the 1995 movie. The great battle only comes around every 1000 years? I dunno. MORTAL KOMBAAAAAT!!!! Read the rest

Over the weekend in St, Petersburg, Kentucky, Cody Lutz, his fiancee, and her sister built a beautiful 9-foot snowman in their yard. When Lutz returned home from work this week though, he noticed tire tracks on his lawn. From WLWT:There’s now a massive stump now exposed, with a snowy imprint of a bumper stuck to it.“You reap what you sow,” Lutz said. “Still standing and still smiling, Frosty certainly had the last laugh!”(Thanks, Rick Pescovitz/Under the Weather!) Read the rest

If you roll up a copy of this week’s Globe tabloid into the shape of a seashell and hold it to your ear, you can hear the sound of President Trump screaming. Just because they’re packed with fact-challenged celebrity gossip doesn’t mean that the tabloids can’t give us insight into American politics. President Trump has long used the National Enquirer and Globe as mouthpieces for his thoughts, and this week it appears that trend continues. Just because Globe and National Enquirer chief David Pecker has been granted immunity by Robert Mueller’s investigation into former Trump attorney Michael Cohen in exchange for spilling the beans about covering up scandals it uncovered on the president, that apparently doesn’t mean the magazine has ceased in its slavish devotion to the man who believes that cold hamburgers are an appropriate breakfast (or lunch) of champions. Which is why it’s illuminating to see this week’s Globe effectively demonize conservative talk radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh for almost single-handedly helping to “shut down the government.”Forget President Trump’s order to close down the government, the Democrats’ inability to find a compromise that doesn’t involve building a wall along the border with Mexico, and the Republicans’ refusal to stand up to Trump. As far as the Globe is concerned, it wants its readers to know that Limbaugh, dubbed on its front page the “Most Powerful Man in Politics” – is the one most responsible for the shutdown, thanks to his repeated radio attacks on immigrants.“He demanded GOP legislators and the White House refuse to support any funding bill to keep federal agencies operating unless the legislation financed building the wall,” reports the Globe. Read the rest

Things move fast in the world of social media, and they don't slow down for marketers looking to make an impact. Whether you're grabbing eyeballs for a major company or a local business, you'll need to adjust your strategy for every platform. Don't have a strategy to begin with? That's where the Social Media Marketing Master Class Bundle can help.Taught by the gurus at Integrity Training, this is a class that's as comprehensive as it gets on a very wide topic. The 11-course bundle begins with a broad overview of marketing principles to keep in mind for any platform - analog or digital. It then shows how those rules apply to some very different arenas. You'll get lessons devoted to marketing not just on Facebook, but on its Groups and Marketplace channels. You'll be able to raise a buzz on crowded sites like Reddit, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and learn how to manage reviews of your business on tastemaking spots like Yelp.With more than 28 hours of training, the Social Media Marketing Master Class Bundle is $29 for lifetime access, a full 97% off the MSRP. Read the rest

Sześć lat temu Polacy wyszli na ulice by uratować Europę przed ACTA – międzynarodową umową handlową, negocjowaną z inicjatywy Stanów Zjednoczonych, która groziła wprowadzeniem szeroko zakrojonej cenzury i nadzoru w Internecie w imię rzekomej ochrony praw autorskich.Dziś Polacy znów są w centrum uwagi, walcząc z “ACTA2”: Dyrektywą w sprawie praw autorskich na jednolitym rynku cyfrowym. Wasza pomoc nigdy nie była bardziej potrzebna!W tym miesiącu Unia Europejska wynegocjuje najnowszy (i zapewne ostateczny) kształt projektu Dyrektywy. Ku naszemu rozczarowaniu – aczkolwiek nie zaskoczeniu! – żaden z problematycznych zapisów (prowadzących do większej cenzury i koncentracji rynku niż nawet w przypadku ACTA) nie został poprawiony. Przeciwnie, zapisy te stały się pod wieloma względami gorsze.Unia Europejska i jej państwa członkowskie negocjowały Dyrektywę od września, jednak nie znalazły żadnego sposobu poprawienia jej dwóch kontrowersyjnych zapisów:Artykuł 11: mający na celu zmuszenie platform do płacenia za linkowanie do stron informacyjnych poprzez stworzenie niezbywalnego prawa do pobierania opłat licencyjnych za linkowanie przez komercyjne serwisy (gdy linki zawierają kilka słów z treści linkowanej strony lub jej nagłówka). Artykuł 11 nie definiuje „stron informacyjnych”, „platform komercyjnych”, ani „linków”, co może doprowadzić 28 krajów członkowskich UE do stworzenia 28 różnych, wzajemnie się wykluczających systemów licencyjnych. Co więcej, „niezbywalność” tego uprawnienia oznacza, że strony informacyjne publikowane na zasadach otwartego dostępu, lub takie, którym zależy na szerokim publicznym dostępie, w tym strony niekomercyjne i strony udostępniane na wolnych licencjach (np. z rodziny Creative Commons) nie mogą wypisać się z tego systemu.Artykuł 13: mający zwalczyć pojawianie się nielicencjonowanych dzieł objętych prawem autorskim na dużych platformach internetowych, nawet na moment. Read the rest

Political pranksters extrodinaire the Yes Men (previously) have printed a satirical edition of the Washington Post announcing that Donald Trump has abdicated and volunteers have fanned out across DC (where Trump is universally loathed) to distribute copies to all and sundry: you can follow their adventures at the #ByeBye45 hashtag. Read the rest

NBC declined to comment.Huffington Post:NBC News’ standards department sent an email to staffers Tuesday telling them not to directly refer to Rep. Steve King’s recent comments about white supremacy as “racist.”“Be careful to avoid characterizing [King’s] remarks as racist,” reads the email, which two NBC News staffers shared with HuffPost. “It is ok to attribute to others as in ‘what many are calling racist’ or something like that.”The email was sent to staffers by Susan Sullivan, a senior employee in the standards division at NBC News. In a news organization, the standards department offers guidance and issues rules about what is legally and ethically appropriate to report, and about how certain topics should be covered.NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this article. Read the rest

Cryptocurrencies and Tor hidden services ushered in a new golden age for markets in illegal goods, especially banned or circumscribed drugs: Bitcoin was widely (and incorrectly) viewed as intrinsically anonymous, while the marketplaces themselves were significantly safer and more reliable than traditional criminal markets, and as sellers realized real savings in losses due to law enforcement and related risks, the prices of their merchandise plummeted, while their profits soared.But much of the security of dark markets was an illusion. The anonymity of cryptocurrencies could often be pierced; the services themselves could be subverted by law enforcement in order to roll up many sellers and buyers at once; and the "last mile" problem of shipping illegal substances through the mails exposed buyers and sellers to real risks.The buyers and sellers in dark markets have responded to these revelations and new facts on the ground with a range of ingenious, high-tech countermeasures.Buyers are now more likely to conduct sales negotiations through encrypted messenger technologies, and each customer is assigned their own unique contact, staffed by a bot that can answer questions on pricing and availability and broker transactions. Many of these transactions now take place through "private cryptocurrencies" that have improved anonymity functions (there is a lot of development on these technologies).Delivery is now largely managed through single-use "dead drops" -- hidden-in-plain-sight caches that are pre-seeded by sellers, who sometimes use low-cost Bluetooth beacons to identify them (these beacons can be programmed to activate only in the presence of a wifi network with a specific name: a seller provides the buyer with a codeword and a GPS coordinate; the buyer goes to the assigned place and creates a wifi network on their phone with the codeword for its name, and this activates the Bluetooth beacon that guides the buyer to their merchandise). Read the rest

BREAKING: Donald Trump asked by reporter: "Have you ever worked for Russia?" pic.twitter.com/a2ph4Raduq— Paul Lee Ticks (@PaulLeeTicks) January 14, 2019No sniffles tho. Read the rest

Following a publicity campaign to make it the most popular photo on Instagram, a photo of an egg became the most popular photo on Instagram.The campaign started off slowly, with under 10,000 likes by Tuesday. Then, the egg gained momentum. The anonymous person behind it said they were still trying to work out how, exactly, the egg achieved its dream. The egg’s Instagram story also contains a brief statement.“This is madness, What a time to be alive.” The Egg Gang also promises this isn’t the last you will hear of Egg. Read the rest

Trump isn't America's most anti-immigrant president; that honor goes to Obama, the great deporter, who also extensively tested border wall technologies while deporting 2MM undocumented people. One of the designs that Obama's DHS evaluated was steel "barriers" of the sort Trump wants to spend $5.7 billion on. In their tests, they were able to defeat the barriers with hand-held hacksaws in just a few minutes.Trump officials insist that their barriers represent an improvement on the Obama barriers, with "internally reinforced with materials that require time and multiple industrial tools to breach.""While the design currently being constructed was informed by what we learned in the prototypes, it does not replicate those designs," said Waldman. "The steel bollard design is internally reinforced with materials that require time and multiple industrial tools to breach, thereby providing U.S. Border Patrol agents additional response time to affect a successful law enforcement resolution. In the event that one of the steel bollards becomes damaged, it is quick and cost-effective to repair."The professionals on the border know that a wall system is intended not only to prevent entry, it is intended to defer and to increase the amount of time and effort it takes for one to enter so that we can respond with limited border patrol agents. Even a wall that is being breached is a valuable tool in that it allows us to respond to the attempted illegal entry."Test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through [Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley/NBC](via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

Pigzbe is a digital "piggy-wallet" for children that uses its own cryptocurrency called Wollo (WLO). It has gotten $100k on Kickstarter, but that's not where the real money is. According to ICO Bench, $7,200,000 worth of WLO was sold in an initial coin offering.According to Coincodex, WLO is trading at $0.015 Read the rest

There have been several attempts to force the US telcoms industry to respect our privacy: to stop our ISPs from spying on us and selling our usage data to marketers, to stop the mobile carriers from spying on our location and selling the data to marketers (and, it turns out, stalkers and bounty hunters), and every attempt has fizzled, as telcoms lobbyists and telcoms-funded lawmakers have sold us out, saying that the privacy rules are unnecessary because the carriers wouldn't do anything too sketchy lest they suffer reputational damage.The thing is, there's no way the carriers' reputation could conceivably get any worse: just as you can't libel a scoundrel, any revelation about carrier shenanigans will only confirm our view of telcoms as the worst industry in the country, with the worst companies in the country.Relying on telcoms industry shame to rein in their worst impulses has repeatedly proven to be useless. Telcoms execs lie like crazy, and then when they get caught, they legeresplain and gaslight about it.As Karl Bode points out, there's actually a pretty easy way to make sure the carriers stop abusing us: make it illegal, and enforce the laws. Whether the solution is a new law or just the enforcement of existing rules, getting any serious location data reform efforts over the hump is going to require a critical mass of public outrage to drive meaningful change.Whether the solution is a new law or just the enforcement of existing rules, demanding the protection of your private location data is going to require a critical mass of public outrage to drive change. Read the rest

An Australian woman is in stable condition after a massive freeway sign toppled onto her car near Melbourne. The dashcam video, captured by the driver behind her, is absolutely terrifying.(I wonder if this will fit in J.K. Simmons' insurance-claim wunderkammer.) Read the rest

KARR is my second favorite animated automobile with an attitude. I love how he blew up after flying off a cliff, but was back a few episodes later looking perfect.I remembered KARR as having a different front grill scanner pattern than KITT, I was mistaken.Herbie has gotta be the best.Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, yawn. Dick Van Dyke is a treasure tho. Read the rest

Dr. Ruth Westheimer is a German-born Jewish Holocaust survivor who emigrated to the United States in 1956 and eventually became arguably the world's best known sex therapist. She's hosted multiple radio and TV shows and written dozens of books about sex. Now, the 90-year-old is the subject of a new documentary titled Ask Dr. Ruth that will premier at the Sundance Film Festival in a few weeks. Directed by Ryan White with distribution by Hulu, the film will be in theaters later this year and presumably streaming after that. Read the rest

The video above is an anti-drug PSA from the early 1970s, in which a slick talking magician offers drugs to children on a playground. "Hey kiddies, gather round, the man with the goodies is here!" he says as he sets up a small performance table and uses magical flourishes to show off his illicit wares. One of the kids in the audience, playing the part of a heckler, challenges the prestidigitating pusher at every turn with spoilers like "They say amphetamines can cause something like schizophreem," "Withdrawals from barbituates can cause convulsions," and "[LSD can cause] bad trips and a chance of chromosome damage."When I started reading Malcolm Gladwell's latest New Yorker article, Is Smoking Marijuana as Safe as We Think?, I was reminded of this commercial -- specifically, the part where the magician, annoyed by the kid's heckling, makes a marijuana bouquet spontaneously appear in one hand and a joint in the other. He says to the kid, "Grass. Anything wrong with pot?" The kid replies, "They're not sure yet, they just started studying about it." Gladwell starts off his article like this kid (who was correct in 1973), by arguing that we still don't know anything about marijuana's effects. The problem is, it's 2019 and Gladwell's article disingenuously cherry-picks some facts and fails to disclose other facts as part of what seems to be a strong anti-pot agenda.On Twitter, science journalist Dave Levitan pointed out a number of major problems with Gladwell's piece. For example, Gladwell wrote "smoking pot is widely supposed to diminish the nausea associated with chemotherapy. Read the rest

The Computer Entertainment Show gave a digital sex toy an award. Then it rescinded the award because sex toys are "immoral, obscene, indecent [or] profane" and banned it from the trade show floor. Katie Notopoulos reports, however, that they've given such toys awards in the past.It’s unclear why the CTA made the Osé an honoree in the first place, before backtracking on its decision to include an adult product. The trade show gave a sex toy a similar award three years ago, and other companies have exhibited sex toys and adult products at the show over the years.A representative from CTA told BuzzFeed News, “[Osé] does not qualify because it does not fit in to any of our existing CES 2019 categories.” Asked to clarify if this is because it didn’t meet the standards of being a robot or drone, they replied, “it’s an adult product so not eligible.”Those dead-eyed, life-size sex dolls are another feature of CES that are fine by it:Perhaps the answer to all this is that CES's executives are old-school sexist twerps and there's simply no unraveling what's going on under their skin. In 2012, the BBC reported that CES chief Gary Shapiro mocked complaints about the "booth babes" that were then still a pervasive feature at the exhibition. "Well, sometimes it is a little old school, but it does work," Shapiro tells the BBC. "People naturally want to go towards what they consider pretty. So your effort to try to get a story based on booth babes, which is decreasing rather rapidly in the industry, and say that it's somehow sexism imbalancing, it's cute but it's frankly irrelevant in my view."This man is the head of America's main tech industry trade group. Read the rest

Zuckerberg San Francisco General has arranged for all ER care to be out-of-network, allowing the hospital to charge whatever wild prices it likes.VOX:Zuckerberg San Francisco General (ZSFG), recently renamed for the Facebook founder after he donated $75 million, is the largest public hospital in San Francisco and the city’s only top-tier trauma center. But it doesn’t participate in the networks of any private health insurers — a surprise patients like Dang learn after assuming their coverage includes a trip to a large public ER.Most big hospital ERs negotiate prices for care with major health insurance providers and are considered “in-network.” Zuckerberg San Francisco General has not done that bargaining with private plans, making them “out-of-network.” That leaves many insured patients footing big bills.The problem is especially acute for patients like Dang: those who are brought to the hospital by ambulance, still recovering from a trauma and with little ability to research or choose an in-network facility.A spokesperson for the hospital confirmed that ZSFG does not accept any private health insurance, describing this as a normal billing practice. He said the hospital’s focus is on serving those with public health coverage — even if that means offsetting those costs with high bills for the privately-insured.“It’s a pretty common thing,” said Brent Andrew, the hospital spokesperson. “We’re the trauma center for the whole city. Our mission is to serve people who are underserved because of their financial needs. We have to be attuned to that population.”But most medical billing experts say it is rare for major emergency rooms to be out-of-network with all private health plans. Read the rest

Too late for Christmas! Razer's laptops—one of few designed for playing games that an adult could use in public without embarassment—got a spec bump to include 2000-series Nvidia graphics chips. The updated line of laptops will also feature an anti-ghosting keyboard powered by Razer Chroma which offers 16.8 million colors for key customization. New power management options, including modes to boost graphics performance, or to maximize the run time of the 80Wh battery. Audio is delivered through improved dual front-firing speakers and features Dolby Atmos for deeper bass response in the sound.Configurations start with the 2060 part, which was just announced by NVidia at a pre-CES event, but if you're going to spend this much on a laptop you should probably hike up to the 2070. It comes in white and traditional Razer "black 'n' rainbows". They'll be out Jan. 29, and if you have to ask, you can't afford it.I found that a 15" laptop was too hefty for me and recently went back to a 12" MacBook as my daily driver. I'm more tempted to switch, then, by the smaller 13" Razer Blade Stealth laptop [Amazon]. Updated two months ago, it's still the size of a MacBook but now includes the MX150 chip. It won't handle the latest games on Ultra, but it is a credible game-capable GPU in an ultraportable laptop. (Last-gen Stealth owners had to get an external GPU to play—a bulky ask) Read the rest

How can America possibly fund a radical transformation into a carbon-free economy, centered on preparing for the coming centuries of climate crises? ACO knows: a 70% tax on people with more than $10,000,000/year in earnings: “I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country...If that’s what radical means, call me a radical." (via Mitch Wagner) Read the rest

🔊Sound on!Mitch Centers did the effects, and says, “I saw these two fighting and HAD to edit in some effects for them!”This kiddo really delivers an Oscar-worthy performance. Watch: View this post on Instagram 🔊Sound on🔊 I saw these two fighting and HAD to edit in some effects for them! #oscarwinner performance! Original post on Reddit by /u/tjeastman and @leahzielich ___________ #starwars #starwarsdaily #starwarsedit #starwarsmemes #starwarsnerd #aftereffects #vfx #videoedits #lightsaber #funny #cutebabies #funnyvideos #kids #adobeaftereffects #adobe #vfxartist #starwarslife #starwarsepisode9A post shared by Mitch Centers (@mitch.centers) on Jan 4, 2019 at 9:50am PST Originally posted on Reddit, and the *original* video was posted to reddit by proud papa and mama /u/tjeastman and @leahzielich. Read the rest

In response to the old-fart Republicans who thought they finally had a gotcha moment by digging up a college dance video of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she fired back with the best tweet of all – a new dance inside a hall on Capital Hill.Granted, this one isn't nearly long enough, or as joyous as her first one, but it's still fantastic. Notice how she comically peeks over her shoulder before she begins. Once she realizes the coast is clear, she dares to dance to Edwinn Star's "War."I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous.Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too! 💃🏽Have a great weekend everyone :) pic.twitter.com/9y6ALOw4F6— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 4, 2019In case you missed it, here is Ocasio-Cortez's "scandalous" dance that threw frightened Republicans into a tizzy....High School video of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- Congratulations New York! pic.twitter.com/VSKdUImhZj— Dan Jordan (@realdanjordan) January 2, 2019 Read the rest

Reminiscent of the Trumpkin congressman who blamed his wife for his illegal campaign expenses, we've now got a hunter who's pointing his trigger finger at his wife for his illegal killing of a deer.When the Michigan hunter was caught with an illegal spike horn buck, he at first tried to deny it. But when a conservation officer cornered him, saying there was a witness to the deer shooting, he hung his head and blamed his wife, saying, "The honest-to-God truth is that my wife wants deer meat and if I come home without any she’ll get really mad at me.”The hunter was forced to hand over the deer corpse, which he had stashed behind a house, and "enforcement action was taken,” according to CBS.Via CBS Boston Read the rest

A memorial service was held Thursday for Angry Bob the bad swan. Bob went viral in 2010 after killing one mate and chasing two more away.The ceremony for 'Angry Bob' was held after a large online response to a post announcing his death on the Facebook page of Hestercombe House in Somerset.The swan's temperament even inspired a poem which was read at the memorial.Goodbye "Angry Bob"....🦢 A memorial service has taken place at @HestercombeGdns to remember one of it's grumpiest residents. Volunteer Ben Whitworth told us a bit about him... pic.twitter.com/ngnyfpFm3A— BBC Somerset (@bbcsomerset) January 4, 2019Photo: BBC Somerset Read the rest

Earlier today, the China National Space Administration's Chang'e 4 landed a rover on the far side of the moon for the first time. Blocked from direct communication with the Earth, the lander and rover will depend on China's Queqiao communication satellite launched in May. From the New York Times:“This is a major achievement technically and symbolically,” said Namrata Goswami, an independent analyst who wrote about space for the Defense Department’s Minerva Research Institute. “China views this landing as just a steppingstone, as it also views its future manned lunar landing, since its long-term goal is to colonize the moon and use it as a vast supply of energy.”The place the probe is exploring, Dr. Goswami said, could become a future refueling base for missions deeper into space in the way “navies viewed coaling stations, for purposes of refueling and resupply.”The instruments aboard the lander and the rover include cameras, ground-penetrating radar and spectrometers to help identify the composition of the area, which was formed by a meteorite. Scientists hope the rocks and dirt in the area will add to the understanding of the moon’s geology.The lander will also conduct a biology experiment to see if plant seeds will germinate and silkworm eggs will hatch in the moon’s low gravity. Read the rest

In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy prosecuted Eros magazine publisher Ralph Ginzburg for violating federal obscenity laws when Eros ran 8-pages of photos of a naked black man and naked white woman embracing each other (see page 72 of the fourth and final issue of Eros). After a long trial, which went to the Supreme Court, Ginzburg was found guilty and in 1972 was sent to federal prison. He was released on parole eight months later. (Arthur Miller said of the conviction, a man is going to prison for publishing and advertising stuff a few years ago that today would hardly raise an eyebrow in your dentist's office.")In 1964, during his legal battles, Ginzburg launched a quarterly social commentary journal called fact:, and it was a masterpiece of design and content. Bringing to mind the best of Esquire, Rolling Stone, Spy, and The Realist, fact: was "dedicated to the proposition that a great magazine, in its quest for truth, will dare to defy not only Convention, not only Big Business, not only the Church and the State, but also — if necessary — its readers." (From the introduction to 1967's The Best of Fact, by Warren Boroson). The first issue had a delicious takedown of Time magazine, the titan of news magazines in 1964, with quotes from dozens of intellectual luminaries attesting to Time's treacherousness, propensity to lie, and prejudices (P.G. Wodehouse: "Time is about the most inaccurate magazine in existence."). The first issue also ran an Madison avenue advertising executive's "sojourns in heaven and hell while experimenting with peyote, belladonna, and marijuana," a profile of American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell (titled "The Man Who Thinks Goldwater is a Communist"), a piece examining "The Sexual Symbolism of Christmas," and an essay by Bertrand Russell on the inadequacy of the nuclear test ban treaty. Read the rest

Netflix removed an episode of the program "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" in Saudi Arabia because the royal family didn't like its coverage of the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The streaming media service said it was warned that the program violated Saudi Arabia’s "anti-cybercrime law," which forbids content “impinging on public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy.”Via NBC News:In the episode which has been available since October, Minhaj criticizes Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who has been blamed by the U.S. Senate for being responsible for Khashoggi's death in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year.“It blows my mind that it took the killing of a Washington Post journalist for everyone to go, ‘Oh, I guess he’s really not a reformer,'” Minhaj said, referring to the royal who is widely known as MBS. “Meanwhile, every Muslim person you know was like, ‘Yeah, no s---, he’s the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.'” Read the rest