Following reports this week that Mick Mulvaney, Trump's new chief of the Consumer Finance Protection Board had stopped all activity related to probing the Equifax breach in which the sensitive financial data of virtually every adult American was stolen, 32 Democratic senators have written to Mulvaney demanding that he account for himself. (more…)

Linda at Eponases creates all kinds of cool cross-stich projects, but this massive piece of Pokemon characters is out of this world. (more…)

If squeezing pimples until they pop and ooze pus sounds appealing to you, then you'll want to check out the Pop It Pal. It's a fleshy, blemish-blowing novelty toy that lets you obsessively squeeze out "pus" without tearing apart your own skin. The married couple behind it, Billy and Summer Pierce, came up with the idea one day while driving. Billy explains:You see, one day, my wife and I were driving down the road.She said: "How awesome would it be if we could make a pimple that felt real and the pop was huge, just like those videos we watch?"I thought: "You might be on to something Dear."Maybe, just maybe, this means she would STOP picking on me all the time. Ladies and Gentlemen, I KNOW you know what I'm talking about.So, I spent the next year figuring out how to make it happen. It's now available in their online shop for $19.99. "Pus" refills are available for $5.99.

If you've never seen an octopus hatch, now is your chance. These cute baby Caribbean reef octopuses, the size of a pinky nail, were hatched at the Virginia Aquarium. The way they immediately darken to purple is a fun surprise.According to The Verge:The video, posted by the Virginia Aquarium, shows a baby Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus) no bigger than a pinky nail hatching from a bundle of eggs. As for the color change, these octopuses are known to be masters of disguise. “It was going into an instant camouflage as soon as it came out of the egg,” says Julie Levans, senior curator at the aquarium. These octopuses use specialized muscles to open and close little sacs of pigment in their skin called chromatophores — and this little guy was probably responding to the black tabletop beneath its tank.The baby octopus’s mom arrived at the aquarium about six months ago, and four months later, she laid between 100 and 200 eggs. Since this softball-sized species is solitary and also sometimes cannibalistic, this octopus lives alone at the aquarium. The eggs themselves weren’t surprising — female octopuses typically lay eggs. “What did catch us by surprise was the fact that they were fertilized,” Levans says.ICYMI: Your daily squee has arrived. #octobabies pic.twitter.com/D9e5T5bkun— Virginia Aquarium (@VAAquarium) February 7, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcDPOvFdUcEIsaac Protiva wanted to know who was behind the "Stop City-Funded Internet" campaign that was pouring a fortune into scuttling the plan to build a fast, efficient, low-cost city network in his hometown of West Plains, Missouri; after a lot of digging, he discovered that (naturally), the "collection of fiscally conservative Missourians" who were nominally behind the site was actually the local cable-monopoly, Fidelity Communications, who came clean (but never apologized). (more…)

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David Daley's hugely important 2016 book Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy uses original documents to trace the Republican master gerrymandering plan -- which gave them disproportionate control in several states, allowing them to redraw federal districts to repeat the feat at the national level -- to meetings in 2009; but a pair of leaked Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) powerpoints show that GOP strategists were scheming and fundraising to ensure that their candidates would wield power regardless of popular support at least a year and a half earlier. (more…)

I traveled to Japan to buy a notebook.As a tech journalist and hardware reviewer, my primary function is to tell you whether or not the products you may be thinking of buying are, in a word, shit. It’s not typically a job that requires I leave my home. Hardware companies or my employers have products shipped out to me. I play with them for a few weeks, or less. Then, most of the time, I ship the stuff back to make room for more stuff. Occasionally, I’m offered the opportunity to travel for work: a cellphone company might be showing off a new version of something they released last year. Sometimes, a well known company wants to give me a peek behind the curtain to see how they build the things that I'll wind up calling shit somewhere down the road. Such an instance happened this past August. I was asked by a well-known peddler of audio equipment if I’d be willing to travel to Japan to take a look at something new they’d been cooking up. I agreed, but warned that if they didn’t show me anything compelling while I visited their manufacturing facility, I wouldn’t be writing a story. They agreed to the terms.A few weeks and a long flight in coach later, I was in Japan. I’d been sent an itinerary a week before I was due to fly. It detailed a stacked week of factory tours, site seeing and cultural events. In the middle of all of the goings on, was a single day where I could do whatever I damn well pleased while I was in Tokyo. If you haven’t been, it's sprawling metropolis that no one stands a chance in hell of fully experiencing in a single trip. So I didn’t even try.My hotel overlooked Shibuya Crossing, so I crossed out seeing it by wandering the area on the evening before my day off. The next morning, I wandered the Imperial Palace grounds with friends and then headed down the block to visit the National Museum of Modern Art. All of it was a feint to get me to a nearby subway line. My mission was to ride 30 minutes, to Meguro. I was venturing out in search of the Midori Traveler's Factory.The Midori Traveler’s Notebook, you see, is my favorite writing tool out of everything I’ve ever used. For the uninitiated, the Travelers notebook comes in two different sizes: one about the size of a passport, and the other, well, it’s larger. They’re not much to look at. When bought new, a Traveler’s notebook comes with a pliable leather cover and a single blank notebook inside. The book is held in place with a string. An elastic keeps the notebook sealed when not in use. What makes them so special to me is that they’re designed to be modified and added to in a gazillion different ways. With the right inserts, notebooks and other add-ons, a Traveler's Notebook becomes an invaluable tool. They’re hard to buy in North America—most of the time aficionados of the brand are forced to order components to use with their notebook, online, at highly inflated prices. I wanted to go to the source and build my own. It’d be a memory of my time in Japan that I would be able to use and enjoy every day.Provided I could find the factory outlet.Getting off the subway in Meguro, I was certain that I was in the wrong place. There were stores, but nothing that suggested warehousing or a factory where the notebooks, or at least some of their components could be made. Walking in the direction suggested by Google Maps, I became more certain that I must be in the wrong place: the small shops and restaurants had given way to tight, winding residential backstreets, wide enough for a single car to pass through. Children played in the lane. I stopped to pet a dog. I came to the point where the factory store was meant to be, according to the directions on my phone. More houses. Frustrated, I walked on another block and there it was:It was smaller than I would have imagined, but real enough that I felt like my day off in the city had been well spent. Walking into the store, I found wall-to-wall stationary, and a few shoppers that seemed surprised to see me.I wandered the store’s aisle, collecting bits and pieces, building the notebook that I had always wanted. I happened upon a special edition green leather cover, that was only made in 2017, making the book all the more special to me. By the time I was done, I dropped $200 in the shop—enough to ensure that I’d not be running out of refills to write on for at least a year. I tried to explain to my friends later that evening why I was so excited to have found the place, when there was so much to see and do in the city. It was hopeless.Passions, especially for small things, can be difficult to share. I never did find a story to write, but I'll always have my notebook.Image credits: Seamus Bellamy

Using electronic key cards, homeless men and women in New York City will soon be able to get three free items a day from one of these orange vending machines. Basic but necessary items like socks, tampons, toothbrushes, and water will be made available to them. There will also be food, like fresh fruit, chips, sandwiches, and chocolate (all donations from local supermarkets, charities, and shops). One of the most popular items? Books. The man behind the project is Huzaifah Khaled. He's the founder of Action Hunger, a British charity that is "committed to alleviating poverty and hardship amongst the homeless." Khaled was recently interviewed on WBUR, and talked about the first machine already being used in Nottingham, England since January:"The early data and feedback has been very, very promising. In fact, it's far surpassed even our own expectations. It's offering them a little more dignity. It's giving them a little more agency over their own lives. It's really heartwarming to see our service being used exactly as designed."Thanks, Robin!images via Action Hunger

With art fashioned after kids pussycat Valentines of yore, Casey Weldon's new 5-card vintage-inspired set is definitely geared to grownups. The Seattle-based artist's messages will put some much-needed sass into this Hallmark holiday. They are, as follows: -- I want to fuck you like an animal-- And Heaven knows I'm miserable now-- Life's an illusion, Love is a dream-- This is getting old and so are you-- Do you want to find Hell with me?-- I don't even care, We don't have to breed Sets of these cards (and stickers) go on sale Thursday morning at 10 AM through the Spoke Art gallery website (the original art for these were recently exhibited there).image 1 via Spoke Art, image 2 via Casey Weldon

Techpowerup has published a redacted presentation from an unnamed AI company to an unnamed big-budget multiplayer video-game publisher, setting out a suite of surveillance capitalism tools combined with machine-learning to manipulate players to make them as addicted as possible and drain them of as much money as possible. (more…)

Back in 2015, U2, Sinead O'Conner and Hozier were all up for Choice Music Prize for Best Irish Album of the Year. Big names, but none of them walked away with the award. Instead, the accolades went to The Gloaming. There's a very good chance that you haven't heard of them. You may not like them. But man, you gotta give them a chance.Comprised of Irishmen Iarla O Lionaird, Martin Hayes and Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh on vocals and fiddle, respectively, as well as Americans Thomas Bartlett on piano with Dennis Cahill on guitar, they're a musical force like none other. Each musician in The Gloaming came to the band with successful careers of their own. Not a one of them has a damn thing to prove. You won't find any ego on stage at one of their concerts – just some of the best music you'll ever have the privilege of hearing. It's moody stuff, and at times joyous, with many of their compositions moving from slow dirges into barn burning reels in a matter of minutes. This video of their tune, Opening Set, runs SIXTEEN MINUTES LONG. They don't stop for a break, there are no solos. Just a wall of beautiful noise. The Gloaming don't fuck around.Seriously give this song a chance, from start to finish, before you form an opinion. Then, stop by the comments and tell me what you think. Oh, and if you're into them, you can hear both of their records on Apple Music, and Spotify.

Over the weekend, flat-Earther and DIY rocketeer Mike Hughes tried again to launch himself into space. Unfortunately, he failed. As a result, his belief that the Earth isn't round stands. The Washington Post has been following Hughes's misadventures:All critics would be silenced, Hughes promised then, when he finally launched on private property outside the town of Amboy, Calif., on Saturday....“I pulled the plunger five different times,” Hughes said. “I considered beating on the rocket nozzle from the underneath side. But you can't get anyone under there. It'll kill you. It'll scald you to death. It'll blow the skin and muscle off your bones.”..Hughes's plans are unclear now. He said he'd take apart the rocket to see what went wrong, but he has commitments to think of besides science. He was supposed to be in court on Tuesday, he told the crowd, because he was suing the governor of California for unspecified reasons. He was also trying to claim the legal right to Charles Manson's guitar. He is a man of many ambitions...“Guys, I'm sorry,” Hughes said. “What can you do?”"A flat-earther finally tried to fly away. His rocket didn’t even ignite." (Washington Post)

The authors of the entertaining 388-page Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies For Dummies make short work of debunking a bunch of popular tinfoil hat bugaboos, like Roswell, Area 51, underground government installations, chemtrails, faked moon landings, 911 truthers, Illuminati, etc. They also have a good section explaining why some people are attracted to conspiracy theories, and tips for being a good skeptic. The paperback version is just $8.42 and according to the decription, it was was required reading in a 2010 course on conspiracy at Harvard University. My kids are at the age when they are wondering about conspiracy theories, because it is a appealing but flawed filter for understanding a complicated world. I'm hoping they'll read it. I wish I had this book when I was a teenager. Background image by Adamgasth - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Reddit has shut down /r/deepfakes, the subreddit where people collaborate to produce incredibly disturbing faceswapped pornography that uses machine-learning to put the faces of famous people who aren't pornography performers onto the bodies of people having sex in pornographic videos. (more…)

The producers of last year's disastrous Fyre Fest should consider hiring Atlanta entrepreneur Tiffany Brown, whose company, Tribute Contracting LLC, was awarded a $156 million contract from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deliver 30 million meals to starving Puerto Ricans. According to the New York Times, "By the time 18.5 million meals were due, Tribute had delivered only 50,000."From the New York Times:For this huge task, FEMA tapped Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large-scale disaster relief and at least five canceled government contracts in her past. FEMA awarded her $156 million for the job, and Ms. Brown, who is the sole owner and employee of her company, Tribute Contracting LLC, set out to find some help.Ms. Brown, who is adept at navigating the federal contracting system, hired a wedding caterer in Atlanta with a staff of 11 to freeze-dry wild mushrooms and rice, chicken and rice, and vegetable soup. She found a nonprofit in Texas that had shipped food aid overseas and domestically, including to a Houston food bank after Hurricane Harvey.By the time 18.5 million meals were due, Tribute had delivered only 50,000. And FEMA inspectors discovered a problem: The food had been packaged separately from the pouches used to heat them. FEMA’s solicitation required “self-heating meals.”“Do not ship another meal. Your contract is terminated,” Carolyn Ward, the FEMA contracting officer who handled Tribute’s agreement, wrote to Ms. Brown in an email dated Oct. 19 that Ms. Brown provided to The New York Times. “This is a logistical nightmare.”From Dr. Tiffany Brown's "About Me" page:Dr. Brown is a former 2009 Write-in Atlanta Mayoral Candidate and owner of 3 companies:Tribute Contracting LLC, a minority owned government consulting firm (with Three FEMA Contracts over a span of five that equals 10.8 million and 1 million sales this year alone)Tiffany Brown Designs- women’s clothing lineTiffany Brown Holdings Inc.- Consulting firm that have five divisions: entertainment, vending, radio, food, nonprofit management and book publishingLuxe Fuel- A beverage delivery software appShe is the an author of several books: Daily Reflections of Life: A Book of Affirmations for the Ambitious (2010), Prayers of a Faithful Woman (2011), Anger: How to Control It So It Won’t Control You (2014) and Beware: The Risks to Faith Based organizations regarding political advocacy and corporate sponsorship (October 2018 Release).

If Trump gets his way, your elderly relatives will be evicted from nursing homes after their Alzheimer's care eats up their lifetime Medicaid benefits; as Yves Smith writes, "are family members supposed to let them wander out into traffic and have nature take its course?" (more…)

Botin Restaurant in Madrid has been in operation for 293 years, a world record. The owners claim the oven hasn't once gone out. The house specialty is roast suckling pig, which is 25 euros.Ever since the doors opened in 1725, the oven has been sizzling continuously, never to be extinguished. According to deputy manager Luis Javier Sànchez Alvarez, the oven is the crown jewel of the restaurant and the fundamental element of their most popular dish, the roast suckling pig. The recipes used today have been passed down from generation to generation, keeping the legacy of these traditional dishes alive. With the honor of being the oldest restaurant in the world, Alvarez hopes to keep the doors open for centuries to come.

Oneita Jackson is a national treasure. You should read Nappy-Headed Negro Syndrome, her amazing collection of short stories!A few years ago I took a trip to Michigan, selling ads for Boing Boing. While there a friend arranged a tour of revival Detroit; this was the first I'd met Oneita Jackson.Oneita is a magical tour-guide, a fantastic journalist, and the best damn cab driver you'll ever meet. She knows absolutely everyone in Detroit worth knowing, and was so incredibly enthusiastic that I will never forget the experience. When Oneita sent me a copy of Nappy-Headed Negro Syndrome I knew I had to read it that very day. This collection chronicles the experiences of a highly educated black woman as she moves about the many circles in American culture. Her stories will make you laugh, and you will facepalm, and most of all you will THINK. The following story is a wonderful introduction to Oneita's work. I think these are as much poetry as short story.BLACK PEOPLE KNITby Oneita JacksonI said I was a knitter, but that’s not what she heard.We were at a loud party at my friend’s house in West Village and I was the only One.It didn’t matter that we were having a polite and interesting conversation, one of those getting-to- know-you, how-do-you-know-so-and-so (read: Why are YOU here?) conversations, where my announcement would have been inappropriate, moreover, inappropriate, moreover, awkward, o -topic, out of context, strange.Arresting.“I’m a nigger.”What dumb-ass nigger says that at a white- people’s party?No HNIC knitter. No hood-rat knitter. No church-folk knitter. Weed-smokin’ knitter. Educated knitter. Politically correct knitter. Hip-hop knitter. White-people-loving knitter. Avant-garde knitter. President of the United Fucking States knitter.I knew she thought I said that other word because she didn’t react. Usually, when I announce myself as a “knitter,” people say something.“I’m a knitter, too.”“My grandmother knits.”“I learned to knit when I was a kid.” “My aunt knits my kids sweaters.” “We have a stitch-and-bitch.”“What do you knit?”“Do you knit hats?”“Can you knit me a scarf?”“How long have you been knitting?”“Where do you buy your yarn?”“What are you working on?”“How many projects you got goin’?”“Do you knit on straight needles or circulars?”They say something.She said nothing.It was her blank pale face that gave me pause.I was a few sentences in before I came to. No questions forthcoming, I looked at her askance.“Wait: Did you just think I said I was a nigger?”“Yes.”Ladies and gentlemen, tonight’s Golden Globe for BEST PORTRAYAL OF A POLITICALLY CORRECT WHITE WOMAN IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATION goes to the horrified little suburbanite at a house party in Detroit.I placed my hand on her shoulder, amazed by her composure.“Girl, you are good! That was so polite.”“I said, ‘knitter,’ ” I said, and started air-knitting.We laughed and laughed and laughed.It’s not funny.Nappy-Headed Negro Syndrome by Oneita JacksonCover: Brian McNamara. Photo: Emmy Perryman.

Last year Scotty of Strange Parts made an iPhone from spare parts he picked up at the mind-boggling electronics markets in Shenzhen, China. He recently returned to buy parts to make a one-of-a-kind iPhone from parts. In this video he selects a back and gets it laser engraved with a neat design.Enough of these boring looking iPhones - let's make a custom Strange Parts iPhone here in Shenzhen, China. I headed out to the cell phone parts markets in Huaqiangbei, to find a custom iPhone back. I then headed off to the laser engraving booths to have them etch a custom design in the iphone back. I think it came out pretty well!

Tavis McGinn came to a job interview at Facebook to do the kind of work he'd done at Google, using analytics to help advertisers refine their campaigns; instead he was offered a job as Zuck's personal pollster, tracking the CEO's approval rating in fine-grained detail as he toured America and the world. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=vHwOMWGAg_oCORDELL! CORDELL! WHERE'S MY RUBBER CEMENT?https://twitter.com/_iPed/status/961194053240020992

https://twitter.com/meaghan_fogarty/status/956693680190115840"Who are these people?"Megan Fogarty posted this wonderful video of kindergarteners singing "Happy Birthday" to a hatching chicken.UPDATE: Chickens return the compliment:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcs9S9viEmg

Not all of us have the writing chops of Fitzgerald or Hemingway, but that's still no excuse to send off emails plagued with typos and confusing prose. Whether you're communicating with a friend or a potential employer, poor spelling and grammar can make a rough impression. But, you can take matters into your own hands and polish your writing with WhiteSmoke Premium, which is now on sale for $69.99 in the Boing Boing Store.Rated as the number one solution for English grammar, style, spelling, and punctuation by TopTenReviews, WhiteSmoke uses unique artificial intelligence algorithms to check your work for writing errors, so you can avoid the embarrassment that comes with typos or awkward phrasing. It activates with a single click in browser-based text editors and is also compatible with Microsoft Word and Outlook. What's more, WhiteSmoke even includes a translator for over 50 languages for added versatility.Lifetime subscriptions to WhiteSmoke Premium retail for $399.95, but you can sign up today for $69.99 in the Boing Boing Store.

Just days before the opening of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, 41 security guards who were assigned to protect an Olympic venue in Pyeongchang have fallen ill, due to a norovirus outbreak. In an effort to quell the norovirus from spreading, an additional 1,200 security guards have been quarantined.At an event like the Olympic Games, norovirus can be particularly virulent. A norovirus can be spread in a number of ways: touching surfaces that have the virus on it and then touching your eyes or mouth, eating food made by someone who’s already sick with the virus or otherwise coming into contact with an infected individual’s bodily fluids. With the opening of the Olympic Games being just a few days away, officials are doing what they can to sterilize the vehicles and facilities that the afflicted guards may have come into contact with. In order to deal with the sudden unavailability of the 1,200 security personnel, the Korean government has deployed 900 soldiers to ensure that the Games’ visitors and athletes will remain safe.If you’ve never had the pleasure, there’s nothing like a norovirus cleanse. Where all juice diets and enemas fail, a bout of norovirus will quickly clean you out, through surprisingly violent diarrhea and vomiting. Speaking from personal experience (Norwalk virus damn near killed me,) the illness can be so bad, in some cases, that those who come down with it need to be hospitalized for re-hydration therapy. That said, if you’re lucky enough to survive it, however, those jeans that are two sizes too small for you that you have stashed at the back of your closet will finally fit.Image: DAVID HOLT - originally posted to Flickr as Interesting London 2012 Olympic Facts, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

We were promised flying cars, and we finally pretty much got 'em. Elon Musk, Tesla, and SpaceX's 'Live Views of Starman' is the first car commercial broadcast in real time from space. (more…)

Usagi Yojimbo, my favorite ronin rabbit, is to star in his own TV series.Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo takes place amidst a rich fantasy setting in 17th century Japan and features a diverse world of anthropomorphic characters. Miyamoto Usagi, otherwise known as Usagi Yojimbo, is a ronin warrior with the heart of a hero. A skilled swordsrabbit, and one-time bodyguard for a Japanese War Lord, he’s now masterless, and explores his world of immense castles and humble villages, encountering dinosaurs, Yokai (ghosts/monsters), cats, bats, bounty hunters, giant snakes, and even aliens, facing exciting adventures at every turn, always ready to help.Usagi's turned up as an interdimensional guest star now and again on the Ninja Turtles, but it's high time Stan Sakai's world hit the screen in its own right.

The #MeToo movement has had an impact on many in Hollywood, but maybe not so much in other arenas. Take Trump's arena, for example. Rachel Crooks, one of many who has accused Trump of sexual misconduct, says Donald Trump forcibly kissed her on the lips in 2005 near an elevator in Trump Tower. Crooks had been working in the Tower and saw Trump passing her office every day, so she decided to introduce herself. "He gave me a kiss on each cheek, which was normal, but he held on to my hand and he continued to kiss my cheeks, over and over again...and then finally he kissed me on the lips," she told CNN (video below). When asked if it was unwanted and forcible, she said, "Definitely."But, she says, when she came out publicly about the incident, it was pushed under the rug – her voice was never heard – and this is what has inspired her to run for office.Crooks, age 35, filed petitions yesterday to run for Ohio’s state legislature. Rachel Crooks today filed petitions to run for Ohio’s 88th State House District, which includes Sandusky County and most of Seneca County in northwest Ohio. Follow her campaign: Twitter: @RachelforOhio Facebook: https://t.co/1GI6m2YN98https://t.co/1GI6m2YN98 pic.twitter.com/bbjHuw4uS9— Ohio House Dems (@OhioHouseDems) February 5, 2018According to TIME, her campaign is not actually about Trump, but about being a voice for Americans who are sick of politics as usual.Crooks, one of a record number of first-time female candidates running for office in 2018, said she doesn’t want the allegations to define her campaign, which has the backing of the Ohio Democratic Party. She said she wants to help create jobs, repair the state’s education system and increase access to affordable health care. Here is Crooks describing what happened the day Trump allegedly kissed her without her consent:https://youtu.be/hkl7dke6UQk

What does this DeWalt knife, posted to the "midly interesting" subreddit by turltlecam_son, look like?a) a chickenb) a unicornc) a fishd) a knife

Warning, this post contains upsetting content about the sexual exploitation of children. (more…)

Jupiter's moon Europa has a complex highway system as can be seen in this flyover video edited by NASA engineer Kevin Gill.Processed using low resolution color images (IR, Green, Violet) from March 29 1998 overlaying higher resolution unfiltered images taken September 26 1998. Map projected to Mercator, scale is approximately 225.7 meters per pixel, representing a span of about 1,500 kilometers.[via Kottke]

In what looks like an impulsive move, actress Jennifer Lawrence thought it was okay on Sunday while on a Delta flight from New Orleans to Los Angeles to take charge of the plane's loudspeaker and cheer on the Philadelphia Eagles. After announcing that no, this isn't the pilot, it's Jennifer Lawrence, she tries to get everyone to chant "Fly, Eagles, Fly? Fly, Eagles, fly! Fly, Eagles, fly!” but nobody (except a few passengers in the back) looks the least bit interested. Finally a flustered-looking flight attendant comes out saying "Ma'am!" before the video turns off.

Charlie Stross explains that he's more-or-less stopped reading science fiction, no longer capable of stomaching the paper-thin worldbuilding that refuses to contemplate the profound ways in which technology changes human relations and motivations. (more…)

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, 18, was the first black musician to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year award. A rising star in classical music, Kanneh-Mason is a member of the UK's exceptional Chineke! Orchestra consisting mostly of black and minority ethnic musicians. Below, his stunning cover last year of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLd9PcZW5PQ(via Laughing Squid)

Look at this coyote. Food is right in front of him. It follows him around, like a sack lunch on legs. "Oh, they're great friends," you say as you watch the video, smiling. A click and the link has been copied to your clipboard. Up it goes on your Facebook and Twitter feeds. (more…)

White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah referred to President Donald Trump as “a deplorable” and described the release of the Access Hollywood tape as “some justice,” NY Mag reports, based on private messages independently obtained and verified by the publication. (more…)

On January 17, 2014, Girl 4 Trump USA joined Twitter. She was silent for a week, but on January 24, she suddenly got busy, posting an average of 1,289 tweets a day, many of which were in support of U.S. President Donald Trump. By the time Twitter figured out that Girl 4 Trump USA was a bot, “she” had tweeted 34,800 times. Twitter deleted the account, along with a large number of other Twitter bots with “MAGA,” “deplorable,” and “trump” in the handle and avatar images of young women in bikinis or halter tops, all posting the same headlines from sources like the Kremlin broadcaster RT. But Twitter can’t stop the flood of bots on its platform, and the botmakers are getting smarter about escaping detection.What’s going on? That’s what Sam Woolley is finding out. Woolley, who recently joined Institute for the Future as a Research Director, was the Director of Research at the Computational Propaganda Project at Oxford University. In this episode of For Future Reference, we asked Sam to share highlights of his research showing how political botnets — what he calls computational propaganda — are being used to influence public opinion.Listen to the podcast interview with Sam Woolley here. Subscribe to the IFTF podcast on iTunes | RSS | Download MP3

When I'm storing weed, either in small or large (for me) amounts, I use Boveda 62% humidity control packs. (more…)

Mick Mulvaney, the former loan-shark lobbyist who killed plans to regulate payday lenders after being appointed chief of the Consumer Finance Protection Board, has effective abandoned the agency's efforts to punish Equifax for leaking the sensitive personal and financial information of at least 145,500,000 Americans. (more…)

Charles Platt's growing series of electronics books are the best I've come across. He explains concepts very clearly, and his illustrations are excellent. His latest book in the series is called Easy Electronics. It covers voltage, resistance, capacitors, transistors, integrated circuits and more. No tools are needed to make the projects. The book is just $5 on Amazon.

Using a cell phone won't harm you, according to a draft report issued on Friday by the US Department of Health and Human Services' National Toxicology Program.From the LA Times:"The reports don't go much further than what we had reported earlier, and I have not changed the way I use a cellphone," NTP senior scientist John Bucher said in a briefing.Dr. Otis Brawley, the chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, said that the new evidence should not alarm wireless phone users."The evidence for an association between cellphones and cancer is weak, and so far, we have not seen a higher cancer risk in people," Brawley said in a statement.Interestingly, rats exposed to the radiation lived longer than control group rats.LA Times:The researchers also reported that rats and mice exposed to radiofrequency radiation developed more tumors in the brain, prostate, liver, pancreas, pituitary gland and adrenal gland. But they said they weren't sure whether the radiation was responsible.Among non-cancer risks, rat pups had lower birth weights when their mothers were exposed to high levels of radiation during pregnancy and while they were nursing. However, the rats ultimately grew to normal size.Strikingly, the rats exposed to radiation lived longer than rats in an unexposed group that served as controls.The researchers were at a loss to explain this. Perhaps the radiation reduces inflammation, as is seen in a therapy called microwave diathermy, they said. Or it could just be chance."It's a complicated situation here," Bucher said in the briefing. "We're seeing both positive and negative effects in these animals."From Dr. Brawley's statement:“The animals in this study were exposed at high levels for 9 hours per day. So while the link to some rare cancers are important, there is no reason to think this study reflects real life exposures.“Dr. Bucher confirmed this in a press conference with reporters, and when asked whether the new data has changed how he uses cell phones, he replied that it has not, nor has he told his family to change what they do.“Some additional cautions: as one of the reporters on the press conference pointed out, while some radiated animals did indeed have more tumors, in fact they lived longer. Also, it’s far from a slam dunk to apply findings in one species to another. Also, these studies were negative for common tumors, which is somewhat comforting. It suggests if anything, cell phone radiation may (and only “may”) be linked to some very rare tumors. And newer, lower energy cell phones, and more cell towers are likely to make exposures even lower.“A final point to remember is that we should not base our decisions or our point of view on a single study. When deciding where the truth lies, you really need to take all the available evidence into account. And in fact, most studies looking into cell phones and cancer are negative.”

There's the shot; here's the chaser:https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews/status/960565890336149504We're a ways short of the term 'racism' being proudly reclaimed, but there's not much ground left between here and there.

Kaplamino's "The Blue Marble" is made from ordinary items like rubber bands, magnets, blocks of wood, pencils, bottle caps, and plastic forks, but he turns it into an almost magical chain reaction machine on a tilted wood plane.After 3 months of work and probably more than 500 fails, I'm happy to present you my best video ever. Since magnets and marbles I've always wanted to make a big chain reaction in one take with this 2D style ! It's also a "one marble path" which means you have to follow the same marble for all the tricks (in that case the little blue one.) Because everything is in a tilted plane, the hard part was to find different ways of having the marble riding up along the table (magnets, falling weight, catapult ...). To do that, the marble has to be light. And because everything has to be triggered by this little marble, all the tricks are very unstable. Most fails happened when an element fall down earlier than expected.I learned a lot about chain reaction, and I discovered the amazing power of the hot glue gun!

Rep. Devin Nunes, author of Friday's declassified dud memo, told a big fat lie on Fox and Friends this morning. "As far as we can tell, Papadopoulos never even knew who Trump was — never even met with the president,” Nunes said with a straight face. Nunes was referring to the Trump campaign's foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, who is now a major witness in the Russia investigation.But this isn't true. Papadopoulos did meet with Trump, and there is proof: In the picture above, from Trump's own Instagram account, Papadopoulos is the straight-backed gentleman sitting third from the left, while Trump is to the right at the foot of the table.According to Vox:In fact, this specific meeting is quite important. According to internal Trump campaign emails obtained by the Washington Post, Papadopoulos offered to broker “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump.”In other words, not only did Trump meet with Papadopoulos, but they literally discussed building a bridge between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.Here's a video of Nunes fibbing to Fox, as Fox's Friends complacently sit there with mock serious expressions.https://youtu.be/-W11t-w__ZE

Ayn Rand fanboy (except for the atheist and abortion stuff) Paul Ryan was busting with pride to announce on Twitter that the GOP's tax bill resulted in a whopping $1.50 a week pay increase for a high school secretary in PA. "She said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for a year," he marveled. But then cruel trolls made fun of him so he deleted the tweet. Lol why would Paul Ryan delete such a relatable and not at all insulting post pic.twitter.com/JJiqPTqSOl— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) February 3, 2018Meanwhile, Americans for Tax Fairness report that "Charles Koch and David Koch and/or Koch Industries could save between $1 billion and $1.4 billion combined in income taxes each year from the Trump tax law―and that doesn’t even count how much the brothers might save in taxes on offshore profits or how much their heirs will benefit from weakening the estate tax."When will Ryan tweet that?Charles, a Koch brother in Wichita, said he was pleasantly surprised that his pay went up $26,923,076 a week... he said [that] will more than cover the cost of buying several more Paul Ryans. pic.twitter.com/pyNYDtTUGw— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) February 3, 2018Image by Gage Skidmore/Flickr, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

In December 2005, NASA lost contact with the IMAGE satellite. After trying to reconnect for two years, the agency gave up. Over a decade later, hobbyist Scott Tilley was able to confirm that IMAGE is not only still in orbit, but also transmitting data. Tilley stumbled on the find while looking for another satellite named Zuma. Via the Washington Post:When Tilley caught a signal after a week of searching, on Jan. 20, he almost ignored it. Whatever it was, it was orbiting much higher than Zuma was supposed to be. There are hundreds of active satellites in space, most of which didn't interest him. “I didn't think of it much more,” he wrote on his blog.But as he continued to scan for Zuma, he came across the signal again — stronger this time — and out of curiosity checked it against a standard catalogue.The signal matched for IMAGE. But IMAGE was supposed to be dead.Tilley had to Google the old satellite to find out what it was, as it had been all but forgotten on Earth. Eventually, he came across a decade-old NASA report on the mission's failure.“Once I read through the failure report and all the geeky language the engineers use, I immediately understood what had happened,” Tilley told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. News.Then he rushed to contact NASA himself.• NASA's IMAGE RECOVERY

They're not called "Italian nachos" on the menu, but make no mistake, Olive Garden's "Loaded Pasta Chips" are nachos. This new $8.49 dish has a base of lightly-fried "homemade pasta chips" (which a writer at Foodbeast says are "actual pieces of lasagna"). Layered on top of those chips is a three-meat sauce, a medley of Italian cheeses, and cherry peppers. This questionable culinary creation is then ladened with a creamy "Alfredo drizzle." Wait, are there jalapenos too?

This is really fun. With Japanese artist Rintaro Hara's latest piece, visitors can make giant bubbles simply by pulling on a rope. By doing so, her Projection Wall raises a grid of ropes that have been dunked in a soapy solution. Then, as it's rising, eight fans blow through to create a rainbow-y wall of extra-large bubbles. And, who doesn't love a wall of bubbles?The concept behind the piece, she writes, "dates back to the representation of water created by Computer Graphics of SF movie "Abyss" by James Cameron (1989)":In the Hollywood movies since the 1990s, computer graphics became an indispensable image technology, shooting taking advantage of analog until now was superseded by digital, and it became possible to express images that were impossible to realize. "Projection wall" inquires about the difference between analog and digital by reducing the expression born by the evolution of the video to an analog method daringly.More of Hara's work can be found at her website and on Vimeo.(Colossal)photos via Rintaro Hara

Illustris TNG is a theoretical astrophysics project that created the most detailed simulation of the universe to date, and it turns out that black holes influence the distribution of dark matter. (more…)