Boing Boing

I donated to Democrats in 2016, so that means that the DCCC calls me about once a week to ask for money. I always tell them no, because I support Democratic candidates through organizations like Our Revolution -- the kinds of Democrats who stand up for working people, universal health care, a $15 minimum wage, investment in renewables and curbs on the finance industry. (more…)

West Virginia's public school teachers have walked out en masse in a wildcat strike, demanding an end to decades of real-terms wage cuts that have left them among the poorest-paid teachers in America, as well as skyrocketing health insurance costs. (more…)

Street photographer Pao Buscató has gained a reputation for finding moments that feel impossibly coincidental. (more…)

Robin Sloan, the author of wonderful novels like Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough, also spends his time messing around with neural nets that compose and transform language in delightful ways. His latest experiment? An engine that lets you input two sentences -- and it generates a "sentence gradient": i.e. a bunch of plausible sentences that gradually slide from the meaning of the first one to the meaning of the second one. The results are pretty surreal, as you can see from sentence-pair above that Robin uses as an example. As he notes ...So, does that sentence gradient make sense? I honestly don’t know. Is it useful? Probably not! But I do know it’s interesting, and the larger artifact—the continuous sentence space—feels very much like something worth exploring.The fun part is you can input your own sentence pairings and see what the system outputs. I did a few, and they're quite surreal, such as ...Or there's this ...Then I got the idea to input the first and last sentences of a work of literature. Here's Moby Dick ...... and here's the American national anthem:This is pretty mesmerizing, I gotta say.

A theodolite is that gizmo on a tripod used by land surveyors. This explainer shows how they work, and discusses how they shifted from analog devices to the modern digital ones. (more…)

On Thursday, the first ever tie-breaker in regular game play (it's been used in tournament play) happened in Jeopardy!'s nearly 54-year history. After all three contestants answered the Final Jeopardy! clue incorrectly, two were left with the same dollar amount: $6799. Unfazed, host Alex Trebek gave one final tiebreaking clue to determine the winner. Now, if neither of them had gotten that clue correct, Trebek would have kept giving them until one of them did.(reddit)

America's favorite cowboy cosplayer/accused child molestor/senate race loser Roy Moore is pleading to his fans to give him $250,000 to "prevail against the unholy forces of evil" that prevented him from becomes God's own representative in the US Senate. According to AL.com, Moore has raised $32,235 to :fight a lawsuit filed by Leigh Corfman, one of the women who said Moore had sexual contact with her when she was a teenager. Corfman filed a defamation suit after the election, claiming Moore and his campaign defamed her by saying she was a liar and immoral."From Moore's Facebook post:I now face another vicious attack from lawyers in Washington D. C. and San Francisco who have hired one of the biggest firms in Birmingham Alabama to bring another legal action against me and ensure that I never fight again.However, I will trust God that he will allow truth to prevail against the unholy forces of evil behind their attack.I have lawyers who want to help but they are not without cost and besides their fees, legal expenses could run over $100,000. I have had to establish a “legal defense fund, anything you give will be appreciated.The liberal media, in association with some who want to destroy our Country do not want my influence in the 2018 elections and are doing everything they can to stop me.Gays, lesbians, and transgenders have joined forces with those who believe in abortion, sodomy, and destruction of all that we hold dear. Unless we stand together we will lose our Country.Christians can no longer afford to remain silent in these “perilous” times. For we know that in such time men shall become lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.We must fight, an appeal to the God of Heaven is all that is left us!Please help me fight this battle for the heart and soul of this Nation. Your financial contribution to my legal defense fund is crucial.After over 40 years of public service I cannot back down now.When I stood to bring these values and truths to Washington D. C. I was forced to fight the Washington establishment, the Republican Party, the Democrat Party, the ultra-liberal media and people such asGeorge Soros, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and many others who fear the truth.I’m sure that you cannot imagine how this has taken a toll on my wife, my children, and even my friends.My resources have been depleted and I have struggled to make ends meet, but I have not lost my faith in our God, who is our true source of strength and will never leave or forsake us.Incontinent?

We hear so much in certain sectors of the press about how "illiberalism" is overwhelming free speech, but if this chart is to be believed it's a very selective intolerance, counterbalanced by a greater tolerance of speech in other respects.It does make you wonder what those centrist liberal sorts are stuck on when they obsess over the threat to free speech posed by teenagers at Oberlin College or whatever.The above chart is particularly fascinating: it depicts both liberals and conservatives becoming more favorable to free speech in recent years, including racism. But closer to the center, things are static. It gives me a sense of a small island of elite or establishment opinions where bickering between two otherwise barely-distinguishable poles -- anti-racist moderate progressives vs centrist moderates, if you like -- continues to dominate discussion among pundits and opinion writers while the house comes down. The far right got to occupy the ruins first thanks to Trump and the cooperation of the GOP, so we're seeing a lot more racism. In the long run, though, we'll find that "political correctness" was the most liberal form of selective intolerance that racists could have hoped for, and they will eventually become its last advocates.

A man from Nigeria named Tobi tried to pull an online scam on a guy in the United States. The would-be victim hired Tobi to make a short documentary of life in his town. The scammer accepted the job. Here's the Gofundme campaign to fund Tobi's documentary.Here's a similar story.

An inebriated gentleman at a party in West Virginia thought he was ordering an Uber to take him to West Virginia University's campus. But in his drunken state he messed up his order, blacked out in the Uber, and ended up at his house in Gloucester County, N.J. The fare came to a mere $1,635.93.According to USA Today:The report states that [Kenny] Bachman woke up two hours into the trip, but didn't want to just be dropped off in the middle of no where, so he stuck it out all the way home. 300 miles from where he was partying and staying."Afterwards I had it fully sink in," Bachman told NJ Advance Media. "Once the ride ended and I saw how much it was when I was like 'Alright, this is insane, that's just crazy.'"Uber confirmed the ride occurred, the report states, and the driver took Bachman to the destination he requested.Let's hope the party was fun.Image: Mark Warner/Flickr

Famed weirdo Zach Galifianakis decided to make an Alien-style entrance on his latest Conan appearance.[via The A.V. Club]

There's a good, long piece in this issue of Smithsonian about the scientific debate over whether trees talk to one another.Trees certainly communicate. In forests, they're connected to each other through underground fungal networks (sometimes jokingly referred to as the "wood wide web"), and they'll send carbon back and forth as needed, as ecologist Suzanne Simard explained in her wildly viral TED Talk on tree-to-tree networks.But while scientists agree that trees pick up on each other's signals, there's a question of intent. Are the trees intentionally trying to send messages to other trees? Or are they just broadcasting messages ambiently -- in the matter of course of, y'know, being trees -- that other trees just happen to pick up? Are some tree scientists overly anthropomorphizing trees, with talk of tree "mothers" that warn their child-trees of danger, or younger trees that actively try to keep alive elder, progenitor trees?It's a damn cool area of science, either way. Here's a taste of the Smithsonian piece, which is really worth reading in full: Once, he came across a gigantic beech stump in this forest, four or five feet across. The tree was felled 400 or 500 years ago, but scraping away the surface with his penknife, Wohlleben found something astonishing: the stump was still green with chlorophyll. There was only one explanation. The surrounding beeches were keeping it alive, by pumping sugar to it through the network. “When beeches do this, they remind me of elephants,” he says. “They are reluctant to abandon their dead, especially when it’s a big, old, revered matriarch.”To communicate through the network, trees send chemical, hormonal and slow-pulsing electrical signals, which scientists are just beginning to decipher. Edward Farmer at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland has been studying the electrical pulses, and he has identified a voltage-based signaling system that appears strikingly similar to animal nervous systems (although he does not suggest that plants have neurons or brains). Alarm and distress appear to be the main topics of tree conversation, although Wohlleben wonders if that’s all they talk about. “What do trees say when there is no danger and they feel content? This I would love to know.” Monica Gagliano at the University of Western Australia has gathered evidence that some plants may also emit and detect sounds, and in particular, a crackling noise in the roots at a frequency of 220 hertz, inaudible to humans.Trees also communicate through the air, using pheromones and other scent signals. Wohlleben’s favorite example occurs on the hot, dusty savannas of sub-Saharan Africa, where the wide-crowned umbrella thorn acacia is the emblematic tree. When a giraffe starts chewing acacia leaves, the tree notices the injury and emits a distress signal in the form of ethylene gas. Upon detecting this gas, neighboring acacias start pumping tannins into their leaves. In large enough quantities these compounds can sicken or even kill large herbivores.Giraffes are aware of this, however, having evolved with acacias, and this is why they browse into the wind, so the warning gas doesn’t reach the trees ahead of them. If there’s no wind, a giraffe will typically walk 100 yards— farther than ethylene gas can travel in still air—before feeding on the next acacia. Giraffes, you might say, know that the trees are talking to one another.(CC-licensed photo via Scott Wylie)

Many locals whine that tech has killed the creative vibe in San Francisco but don't bury it just yet. A merry group of urban pranksters -- who call themselves Swing Bomb SF -- have surreptitiously placed over 50 swings around the city, as a way of turning it into an all-ages "pop-up playground"! They've marked the bottom of each of these "swing bombs" with both the #SwingBombSF hashtag and a number from one to ??. They encourage folks to try and find all of their swings. However, since the project started a few weeks ago, some have already been removed. But don't let that stop you from searching them out.Head to their Instagram for clues:https://www.instagram.com/p/BfTol2sFuMc/?tagged=swingbombsfhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BfUOJfIlTuA/?taken-by=swingbombsfhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BfUCP1qFrI8/?taken-by=swingbombsfphoto by Christie Aurélio(SFWeekly)

An unreleased demo by a 17-year-old Amy Winehouse called "My Own Way" has surfaced. NPR Music reports:In 2015, four years after singer Amy Winehouse's death, Universal Music U.K. CEO David Joseph announced that he'd destroyed all of her demo recordings in an attempt to prevent anyone from releasing them posthumously. Despite that, composer Gil Cang, who wrote songs for Winehouse early in her career, has posted a Winehouse track called "My Own Way" to YouTube.Cang, who co-wrote the scratch track with James McMillan, announced on the YouTube post that the song is one "we love and want the world to be able to hear." He says he recently rediscovered the recording, made when Winehouse was in her late teens, and decided to share it.It Turns Out Not All Amy Winehouse Demos Were Destroyedphoto by Fionn Kidney(RED)

Ambassador of Americana Charles Phoenix has announced a new swoonworthy line of his & hers* vintage-inspired coordinated clothing. The matchy-matchy shirt/dress combos are a collaboration with Pinup Girl Clothing sold under the newly-formed Sir Charles of Phoenix brand. Not only are they super cute but they are available in a wide range of sizes.Get'em while they're hot!And, if you're in the Burbank area this Saturday, swing by the Pinup Girl Clothing boutique for the line's debut party from 6 PM to 10 PM. Charles will be there, along with some of his special Test Kitchen creations. Hawaiian Honeymoon printCalypso Castaway print*Of course, there's nothing stopping you from making these his & his or hers & hers (or even they & they) sets. All pieces are sold separately.

People who need custom furniture in the future may be able to feed the design into a program and then have robot-assisted carpentry do the rest. (more…)

The fellow is indignant that his reflection will not let him pass into the mirror world, where everything is so much better than here.

Baby whales aren't very good at making various calls, but a new study shows that even adults continue to improve their calling techniques. (more…)

A post shared by Настя Рыбка (@nastya_rybka.ru) on Feb 23, 2018 at 11:41pm PST Nastya Rybka (aka Anastasia Vashukevich) (Instagram/NSFW) is a Belarusian "sex expert" who just got thrown into a Thai jail for conducting a “sex training” seminar. She has released videos of a yacht trip she took with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. “I am the only witness and the missing link in the connection between Russia and the U.S. elections — the long chain of Oleg Deripaska, Prikhodko, Manafort, and Trump," she said in an Instragram post. She's willing to help if Mueller springs her from jail. 1. Настя Рыбка заболела в тюрьме. 2 суток на холодном полу. Кровати нет. Врача не предоставляют. 3. Сегодня был суд. По суду выпустили под залог 6 человек включая Алекса Лесли и Андрея Покера. Они были счастливые с алексом и остальными. Их из суда свободных перевезли в иммиграцию. И в иммиграции сообщили что после суда несмотря на залог их лишили тайских виз. Так, Заплатив за каждого ололо ста тыс бати они получили 10 минут свободы при перевозке из одной тюрьмы в другую. Суд разрешил выйти под залог !!! Но видимо кто то спровоцировал тайскую иммиграцию лишить всех виз за несколько минут! В суде вины своей они не признали. Вина доказана не была. По статусу они должны были быть свободными ведь они невиновны и под залогом. 3. Теперь их держат в условиях ещё хуже. Бетонный пол. Нет кроватей. Еда только то что принесут. Врача к Насте не вызвали. Она отморозила почки похоже. Состояние очень плохое. По данным наших очевидцев кто то из русского консульства воздействовал на тайскую полицию. Настя рассказала что в тюрьме приходил человек от консульства и говорил насте и алексу что лучше им признать вину и лететь срочно в Россию. Настя считает что Россия стремится чтобы она сгнила в тайских тюрьмах из-за дела Навального и из-за интервью которое она давала журналисту НБС но оно ещё не вышло, если что то случиться с ней она сказала обратиться к нбс по поводу ее интервью. Пишем как есть с ее слов. Телефонов для связи у ребят нет. Настя думает, что все это из-за ее интервью и свидетельств по поводу дела Навального, и интервью журналистам США о том разговоре на яхте(записано со слов рыбки). Настя сегодня, пока ее перевозили из тюрьмы в тюрьму сумела одолжить телефон, провести трансляцию. Ей передали слова что депутаты гос думы хотят чтобы она сгнила в тюрьме в Тайланде, она ответила что - тех кто этого хочет возможно не любят женщины, желать зла любому человеку очень низко для госдумы РФ. И эти люди ее позорят. Настя официально через свою страницу в Инстаграмм попросила США о помощи выбраться из этой ситуации. И предоставить защиту и политическое убежище 10 репрессируемым членам команды которых Россия достала в Тайланде Просьба распространить слова Насти Рыбки A post shared by Настя Рыбка (@nastya_rybka.ru) on Feb 27, 2018 at 6:10am PST From Brian Krassenstein's Twitter thread:Basically [Russian Opposition leader Alexey Navalny] has used a prostitute and her Instagram account to confirm that Oleg Deripaska is a Russian businessman was bribing the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Sergei Eduardovich Prikhodko.Deripaska had Prikhodko vacation on his yacht for multiple days in 2016. This shows how much influence Deripaska has on Putin and the Russian Federation. It also makes it quite clear that Deripaska was an intermediary/back channel between the Trump campaign and Putin.Recall the Washington post story last year seen here: washingtonpost.com/politics/manaf… Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort emailed Deripaska and told him that he would provide private briefings to him on the Trump campaign’s progress.This in itself was HUGE news back then because Manafort offered to provide a Russian oligarch with campaign updates. It becomes a bombshell when one realizes that Deripaska is incredibly close to the Kremlin and vacations with the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia.As you may recall, Manafort owed a substantial amount of money to Deripaska from a past loan. It is almost a certainty that Manafort was providing Deripaska updates on the campaign, who then was providing Putin’s inner circle with these updates, in exchange for debt forgiveness. The relationship then likely grew as Deripaska acted as the back channel between the Trump campaign and Putin. In conclusion, Manafort is clearly the man Mueller needs to flip. If Manafort flips, the entire house comes crumbling down in a heart beat.Image: From Associated Press video.

Science Youtuber Steve Mould explains why vinyl records are better than digital media. Not because they have better audio quality (I'm not getting into that argument, because I don't care much about sound quality) -- it's because LP grooves can be used in unusual ways. For instance, the spiral of an LP ends in a circular track called a "locked groove" or "runout groove" and some records include a recorded snippet that endlessly runs, just for fun. For instance, The Beatles famously added a loop of gibberish at the end of side two of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.Mould also demonstrates "interwoven tracks," which were used on horse race game recordes, with a random horse winning each time the stylus was set on the record. Mould's old toys with tiny records inside are very cool, too.

Robbin Gregorio created this papercut portrait of Olenna Tyrell, as well as many other fan favorites from Game of Thrones. (more…)

Maximize flavor, minimize cleaning.

“Only one of these nine films will win the coveted title of Best Picture—unless it’s accidentally given to someone else.”

From Nasa; check out the space agency's 3D Pluto globe.

Dinotopia artist James Gurney writes: Old people were lively and well spoken a century ago. Some of the people in these video clips were born earlier than 1840, with one man vividly recalling an event he witnessed in the Civil War."

I was lucky enough to be invited to submit a piece to Ian Bogost's Atlantic series on the future of cities (previously: James Bridle, Bruce Sterling, Molly Sauter, Adam Greenfield); I told Ian I wanted to build on my 2017 Locus column about using networks to allow us to coordinate our work and play in a way that maximized our freedom, so that we could work outdoors on nice days, or commute when the traffic was light, or just throw an impromptu block party when the neighborhood needed a break. (more…)

To launch an effective Denial of Service attack, your bots need to overwhelm your target with a flood of requests; the more bandwidth and computing-power your target has, the more you need to knock them off the internet. (more…)

Fonts in Use took a stab at identifying all of the fonts used in the Srirachi bottle label, which breaks all design rules but still looks awesome.Both the packaging and contents of tương ớt sriracha hot chili sauce bottles from Huy Fong Foods, Inc. have become condiment icons in recent decades. Sometimes referred to as “rooster sauce” because of the rooster on its label (the illustrator of which is unknown), the chili sauce features a chaotic jumble of elements on its packaging in multiple writing systems.The most prominent Latin text elements are rendered in a variety of informal script typefaces released by American Type Founders in the 20th century, namely Balloon and its shaded counterpart, Balloon Drop Shadow, as well as Brody. Smaller text on the back of the bottle is set in Impress and Tekton.Unfortunately my skills with recognizing fonts for Chinese text aren’t good enough to identify those used on the label. Any insight is welcome.[via Kottke]Image by Guilhem Vellut from Paris, France - Song Huong @ Paris, CC BY 2.0, Link

Greg at Public Displays of Confection created this delightful honey-flavored crystal candy with a sunflower pattern inside. It's really cool to see how they did it. (more…)

Last year, photographer Jim Young visited murder scenes and memorials in Chicago and documented what he saw with an instant camera. Last year, there were 650 murders in the area with 90 percent of them involving guns. Enough. “Though most of the [memorials] are gone,” Young says, “their photographs will be forever, and I hope memories [of the victims] will be, too.” See the series at FOTO: "Behind the Bullets"Image above:On Sept. 21, Manuel Hernandez was in a car when a minivan pulled up beside him. Someone in that van opened fire, killing the 30-year-old father of two girls. Pictured: the shattered glass of a nearby restaurant, hit by a stray bullet.Twin sisters Addison and Makayla Henning loved riding their bikes. They were just shy of 6 years old when their mother, Celisa Henning, shot them in a murder-suicide on Aug. 31, 2017. The twins’ grandmother said Celisa Henning had suffered health issues resulting from a car crash in 2015.Damien Santoyo, 14, was killed by shots fired from a car while he stood on the steps of an apartment with two other boys on Aug. 6. His killers had reportedly yelled gang slogans as they drove by, but relatives said Santoyo was not involved in any gang activity. A football player in junior high school, he was weeks from beginning high school.

TANU is a master at the magical art of coin stacking. Don't sneeze... More on Twitter: @thumb_tani(via Laughing Squid)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWU-N6HyhX0

I've lived my whole life as a pale, red headed fella. So, I say this, with authority: white people are dicks.According to Smithsonian.com, white pioneers and archeologists in the 18th and 19th centuries pumped out a bullshit story about Cahokia, once the largest Native American city north of Mexico, as having been built by the Welsh, Vikings, Hindus – anyone but the indigenous population:The city of Cahokia is one of many large earthen mound complexes that dot the landscapes of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys and across the Southeast. Despite the preponderance of archaeological evidence that these mound complexes were the work of sophisticated Native American civilizations, this rich history was obscured by the Myth of the Mound Builders, a narrative that arose ostensibly to explain the existence of the mounds. Examining both the history of Cahokia and the historic myths that were created to explain it reveals the troubling role that early archaeologists played in diminishing, or even eradicating, the achievements of pre-Columbian civilizations on the North American continent, just as the U.S. government was expanding westward by taking control of Native American lands.So yeah: it's hard to claim that you're displacing or irradiating a gaggle of savages when they prove themselves to be part of a society with a culture and history that's just as complex as your own.Cahokia's collection of earthen mound structures aren't the only ones said to have been created by a mysterious group of builders. Similar sites can be found all over Ohio, the Mississippi Valley and well into the Southeast.Image: Skubasteve834 - EN.Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

One Hour One Life is a "multiplayer survival game of parenting and civilization building" by Jason Rohrer. Your character ages one year every minute. I'm not completely clear on how it works but I like the hand-drawn characters and graphics.

Hannah Jacobs animated this simple and clean kite-themed video for Secret For The Mad by Dodie (previously). (more…)

Marcin Nowrotek filmed a jazz quartet with a Kinect, then ran the recording through volumetric processors to give NEBULA an otherworldly 3D look and feel. (more…)

Russian digital artist Igor Lipchanskiy humorously imagines what's just beyond the edges of iconic album covers. In every case, it's him. He writes, "I like to listen to music and when I peer into the cover of the album I find a place for myself there."https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfq-Q-kjcYy/?taken-by=igor.lipchanskiyhttps://www.instagram.com/p/Be29Q20jPLi/?taken-by=igor.lipchanskiyhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BcrXD1HjWgE/?taken-by=igor.lipchanskiyhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BaUnE-Ej6hF/?taken-by=igor.lipchanskiyhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BcFOrDzjk7U/?taken-by=igor.lipchanskiyhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BV7dZNbj5Zy/?taken-by=igor.lipchanskiy(Bored Panda)

As part of her incredibly aesthetically pleasing Instagram account, Russian artist Marina Malinovaya creates these whimsical photographs in which plants and flowers stand in for tea and steam.https://www.instagram.com/p/BW4axxXFPRF/https://www.instagram.com/p/7KSHt5ltsV/https://www.instagram.com/p/BOJqzmoDmex/https://www.instagram.com/p/BNBkFgTD-si/https://www.instagram.com/p/6cAnWVFtqF/https://www.instagram.com/p/yOvSyCFtgP/https://www.instagram.com/p/BSiThWzDv3d/You can see more Floral Tea Stories, as well as other gorgeous photography, on Malinovaya’s Instagram.[via My Modern Met]

The racial justice organization Color of Change has launched the #GiveAChildTheUniverse campaign to make it easier for kids to see Ava DuVernay’s highly anticipated big screen adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time. For every $10 donated, AMC Theatres will provide a ticket to a child or teen who might not otherwise be able to see the film. The premise behind the campaign is that, “Kids of all kinds should see image of themselves throughout the universe.”Based on Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved 1962 book, A Wrinkle In Time stars Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris Pine, and newcomer Storm Reid as Meg Murry. The movie opens on March 9th. You can make a donation to the #GiveAChildTheUniverse campaign right here or learn more about the campaign on this FAQ.

Legendary naturalist and longtime BBC personality Sir David Attenborough is the inspiration for "Jungle Boogie," an ongoing series of all-night raves planned by two students of the UK's Leeds University. Producers Louis Jadwat and Will Burbage give each venue a rainforest vibe, hand out cardboard cutouts of the 91-year-old biologist, and hire local DJs to blend Attenborough's distinctive "grandfatherly" voice with vintage house, disco, funk, and soul. Their dance party also features projections of Blue Planet and Planet Earth on the walls.Jadwat told The Independent: "We saw the immense popularity of him amongst students in that every Sunday people would love watching Blue Planet and Planet Earth so thought it would be great to pay homage to him."According to Mixmag, "Jungle Boogie" has already sold out two 600-800 capacity shows. Future dates can be found here. A portion of the proceeds benefit World Land Trust.photo via DAJBoogie

Rowan County county clerk Kim Davis famously refused to issue licenses to gay couples after same-sex marriage was legalized in Kentucky. She was briefly jailed for contempt of court after refusing a judge's order to do her job or quit it, making her a hero to conservatives. Now she is writing a book. “Under God’s Authority: The Kim Davis Story” is being promoted and sold by the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, which defended Davis in her legal battles and describes itself as “a nationwide public interest religious civil liberties law firm.”A description of the book says “Kim chronicles her dramatic encounters with furious, fist-pounding, homosexual men and the hate mail that flooded her office.”Nate McDermott:https://twitter.com/natemcdermott/status/968646339289649152

This burglar doesn't realize he's got about a minute to get his work done before the Scottish police turn up. It's interesting seeing British commenters complain that he was treated too roughly by them, while the American ones marvel that he wasn't executed on the spot.My guess is the copper didn't see the crowbar until right on top of him in the cramped backyard, creating an opportunity for the burglar to strike and thereby necessitating a pre-emptive beating that sadly lacks the usual jaunty interaction between British police and suspect, the extended ironic ruminations on the nature of crime and the inevitability of justice, the perverse yet socially reinforcing affectations of honor and fair play, the tea and biscuits down the station, etc., that are the usual hallmarks of modern British policing and its interactions with the criminal element.

From treehouses to homes on wheels to tiny off-grid cottages, the folks at Living Big In A Tiny House count down their five favorite tiny home tours from last year. (more…)

In this fascinating video, the energy of a bullet is on full display as it's shot directly at the sharp edge of an axe. The first shot from seven yards misses, but the second one sends a visible shock wave through the axe head. (more…)

It’s been a year since the infamous Oscars broadcast in which La La Land was briefly crowned Best Picture before it was revealed that Moonlight was actually the real winner. The Hollywood Reporter has put together a really fascinating oral history of the entire night, which includes some great details, like how Warren Beatty literally held the envelopes hostage to ensure he wasn’t incorrectly blamed for the snafu. Here’s an excerpt:LISA TABACK, Awards consultant, worked on both La La Land and Moonlight campaigns I went backstage, and I see a security guard with Warren Beatty. Warren is really tall, and he was holding his arm up as high as he could—which must be about seven and a half feet off the ground—because in his hand was the envelopes. He was saying into the phone, I believe to his wife, “I’m not giving it up to anybody!” It was dead quiet.ANNETTE BENING, Actress, wife of Warren Beatty My impulse was to call him right away. And I did. And he picked up the phone. And I said, “Oh my God. You did a great job, but what happened?!” And he said, “I have the envelopes, and I’m not giving them to anyone!”MARA BUXBAUM, Publicist, guest of Casey Affleck I was backstage with Casey and there was a logjam by the elevator. I don’t know if it was the [PricewaterhouseCoopers the accounting firm] people, but they were trying to get the envelopes from Warren, and he was like, “No, I need to make sure that everybody knows what this envelope says.” Warren is really smart, and he’s the first to be careful for new narratives to take over, so he would not let go of the envelopes.Plus there’s also this great anecdote from actress Busy Philipps, who was seated in the front row:PHILIPPS Then I’m like, “I’m sitting next to Ben Affleck—he can stop the show because he’s fucking Batman!” I kind of grabbed his arm—we’re not friends, but I was like, “You have to do something! Do something!”You can read the full oral history over on The Hollywood Reporter. Or learn more about the terrible typography that probably caused the mishap in the first place.[Photo: ABC/Image Group LA]

In 1856, an American clipper ship was approaching Cape Horn when its captain collapsed, leaving his 19-year-old wife to navigate the vessel through one of the deadliest sea passages in the world. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of Mary Patten and the harrowing voyage of the Neptune's Car.We'll also consider some improbable recipes and puzzle over a worker's demise.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkachfbskKUSara from MIT Sloan Management Review writes: "Our new (and free)eight-part documentary video series examines a revolutionary newmanufacturing approach — the digital thread." (more…)

Lots of people still think homeopathy works. Scientific studies do not support its purported efficacy. This excellent animated video by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell does a great job of explaining why homeopathy doesn't make sense, and also why it is so popular (over $17 billion worth of homeopathic nostrums are sold every year).

Trump is an excellent businessman and the Republicans are really good with money: if you doubt it, just take a gander at the Urban Institute's report on the costs and effects of Trumpcare: the US government will spend $33 billion more as a result of GOP policies, and cover 8.9 fewer Americans, and those Americans will pay higher premiums (18%, on average!) to get worse care. (more…)

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner's downgraded security clearance prevents him from viewing many of the sensitive documents to which he had unlimited access. (more…)

Gretchen Whitmer wants to be the Democratic governor of Michigan, and she has distinguished herself from her opponents Abdul El-Sayed, and Shri Thanedar by opposing single-payer healthcare and endorsing the broken, expensive, murderous private system, a subject she has deep expertise in thanks to being raised by Richard Whitmer, who built the family fortune during his 18-year tenure as president of Blue Cross of Michigan. (more…)