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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…)

The Slow Mo Guys invited three Shaolin monks on to throw a needle through a piece of glass in super slow mo, and it's quite interesting to watch at that speed. (more…)

Admiral Mike Rogers, America's Cyber Command chief, told lawmakers today that President Donald Trump and his administration have not granted him the 'authority to disrupt Russian election hacking operations where they originate.' Huh. Wonder why. (more…)

A gentleman in Long Beach, CA decided to celebrate his 29th birthday by galloping down a freeway on his white Arabian horse. And this was after he celebrated by getting drunk.According to ABC7News:CHP officers responded around 1 a.m. Saturday to a report of a man riding a white horse on the eastbound 91 from Paramount Boulevard to Downey Avenue. Officers found the man on his horse after he had exited at Downey and rode into Bellflower.They stopped the man and administered field sobriety tests, with results of .21 and .19 percent - or more than double the legal limit.The man, Luis Alfredo Perez of Placentia, CA, was arrested and charged with a DUI. His horse wasn't hurt and was handed over to Perez's mother.So a horse walks onto the 91 freeway...no joke. Rider arrested by CHP for DUI in the greater Long Beach area. Don’t put yourself, your beautiful animal, or others in danger of being killed in traffic. @CBSLA @NBCLA @KTLA @ABC7 @FOXLA @CNN @FoxNews @ABC @NBCNews @CBSNews @CHP_HQ pic.twitter.com/YdiL54ctvQ— CHP Santa Fe Springs (@CHP_SFS) February 25, 2018No, you may not ride your horse on the freeway, and certainly not while intoxicated. #CHP pic.twitter.com/IQ09Qgeq4j— CHP Santa Fe Springs (@CHP_SFS) February 24, 2018

I remember Sneakers as being far, far more exciting than it apparently was.So much for memory.

How did they make macaroni and cheese back in the 18th century before powdered cheese packets became a thing? (more…)

Yesterday we all heard the asinine remark made by Cadet Bone Spurs about the Parkland school shooting: "I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon." (more…)

I absolutely love my Roku player. Their simplest player, the Express is now $29.After recently comparing with the Apple, Google and Amazon TV devices I have, again, happily stuck with the Roku! Roku's "channel" based content system makes it easy for me to have access to everything I'd like without subscriptions for cable. I replaced over $125/mo worth of satellite service with my Netflix and Hulu accounts.Roku's 2017 Express displays at 1080p and has access to nearly all the same features as the other models. The dirt cheap Express doesn't support voice searching, and won't handle the 4k and UltraHD resolutions. If you have a 1080p tv, and don't like talking to electronics, you are golden.My favorite feature, which I understand other vendors now emulate, is Roku's ability to search all your available sources of video and tell you where to find what you are looking for. I watch a lot of old and obscure stuff, Roku makes that easier. Roku Express (2017) via AmazonImage via Amazon

Don't just look at the image here--click through to the interactive feature at National Geographic that details the towers under construction or proposed in Manhattan. The Nordstrom Tower, to be completed next year, will be the tallest roof in the USA; the Freedom Tower will remain the official #1, but much of its height is a spindly antenna.

Jack Douglass is his name, and he has a cough."You found my YouTube channel where I like to make fun of everything because I'm too scared to confront reality. Enjoy your stay!

Join Ruben Bolling at An Unlikely Story, in Plainville, MA on March 9, where he'll be joined by Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), and talk about comics, his hit kid's book series, The EMU Club Adventures, and the real-life monster that made him an author. Info here. (Buy Book One here. Buy Book Two here.) FOLLOW @RubenBolling on the Twitters and a Face Book.JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the Proud & Mighty INNER HIVE, for exclusive early access to comics, extra comics, and much more. More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

When I'm not here pointing out dog videos, I spend the rest of my work day as a technology journalist. I decided that I wanted in on this line of work because I love gadgets. There was always something new coming out that I couldn't afford to buy. Now, as I get to play with new tech on an almost daily basis, I don't feel like I'm missing out on much of anything. My office is full of smartphones, computers, wearables and travel gear. It's loaned to me, I play with it and then, I send it back. It's such a privilege to have access to the sorts of swag that a lot of geeks like me drool over. I never get tired of playing with new products. But having done it for close to a decade has left me a bit jaded: what's new is seldom as spectacular as we want it to be.Take this year's crop of flagship smartphones, for example. They're a little bit faster, a little bit glossier. Maybe the one you've been looking at has an edge-to-edge display. I get it: bezels on a handset are bullshit, so, you totally want one. I know I do. But I also know, having played with them, that the incremental differences between one year's model and the next is so moot, that they won't make a lick of difference in my day-to-day life. TVs are the same. Most of the folks I know just want the shows and movies that they watch to look their best. When 4K displays first rolled around a few years back, they were absolutely amazing--provided you could find something to watch on them. It takes content creators a while to catch up with the technology. A new flat screen might look great in your living room. But it's not going to do anything to change your life.The TV I watch with my wife when I'm kicking back is close to 12 years old. It pushes out pixels in 1080p. I don't care about the fact that it doesn't provide me with the sharpest image or that it's not as thin as new models are. I love it because my wife and I can cuddle on the couch in front of it and share an experience together. A newer model wouldn't do much to change that. My smartphone is two years old. It takes decent photos and lets me stay in touch with people. Sometimes I watch a movie on it. I can't imagine myself saying anything different about this year's handsets. Would I love an iPhone X? Probably. Do I think that it's worth forking over $1,000 for? Not for a second. I'll use it until the wheels fall off because it's good enough. Now, before anyone gets bent out of shape and suggests that I think I know what's best for people, let me tell you: I haven't got a clue of what's in your hearts. I don't know why you buy what you buy. It's none of my business. But I'm in the rare position of being a guy who gets to play with the shit that most people want to get their hands on. I'm suggesting that maybe that maybe the latest shit isn't as great as you think it'll be. It could be worth examining why you want that shit and what else you could do with the money it'd cost you to buy it.Maybe living with what's good enough might make your life just a little better.Image via Wikipedia Commons

Fair warning: This might just be the cutest, and simultaneously educational, thing you'll see all week. Using the drawings and story provided by his young son Nathan, Allen Mezquida created a wonderful "animated dinosaur drama" they've simply titled, Dinosaur. Allen writes that his dino-obsessed five-year-old spends hours drawing ("mostly dinosaurs") every day and that he was "so inspired" by his work that he offered to animate them:He also loves watching BBC documentaries about dinosaurs. Next thing I knew, we were working on this short film together. Nathan was very clear about the story he wanted to tell and how he wanted it to look. He said he wanted it to be very real, "never cartoony." I did my best to stay true to his vision...Yes, proud father aside, it came out great. The Museum of Natural History in LA even posted it.Parent/child collabs ftw!

Hey all you Ray Bradbury fans, here's HBO's just-released Fahrenheit 451 trailer, based on Bradbury's 1953 dystopian novel about book burning and censorship. Black Panther's Michael B. Jordan stars as the book's protagonist, fireman-turned-resistant rebel Guy Montag, while his "mentor," fire captain Beatty, is played by The Shape of Water's Michael Shannon. The movie will hit our television sets this May.

"It is important that as adults we take the lead and the responsibility in helping our children manage the many issues they are facing today. This means encouraging positive habits with social media and technology..." -M. Trump (via Christian Nightmares)

Bloomberg:Apple Inc. is preparing to release a trio of new smartphones later this year: the largest iPhone ever, an upgraded handset the same size as the current iPhone X and a less expensive model with some of the flagship phone’s key featuresThe Munster Coefficient: the number of paragraphs into a news item that announces an exceedingly unlikely Apple product before you realize that Gene Munster is its sole named source.Photo: vernhart

The wealthiest 2% of Americans got $1.15 trillion richer in 2017, nearly all of it in stock market gains -- more than enough to pay for state and federal Medicaid, and all mandatory and discretionary social welfare programs nationwide. (more…)

Bestselling true crime author Rebecca Morris spotted a flag like the one seen above flying outside one of her Seattle neighbor's homes. She tipped off the Seattle Times, stating:Suddenly there is a Confederate flag flying in front of a house in my Greenwood neighborhood. It is at the north-east corner of 92nd and Palatine, just a block west of 92nd and Greenwood Ave N. I would love to know what this ‘means’ … but of course don’t want to knock on their door. Maybe others in the area are flying the flag? Maybe it’s a story? Thank you.Reporter Erik Lacitis investigated.“That’s a Norwegian flag,” said the Norwegian-American man who lives at the home. “It’s been up there since the start of the Olympics.”(Time)

Amazon reported to the IRS that Patrick Reames had made $24,000 selling books on its Createspace self-publishing platform, but Patrick Reames never got a dime of that money; it appears that a money-launderer who had Reames's Social Security Number used a fake book to cash out money from stolen credit cards by buying the garbage book repeatedly and pocketing the 70% from each sale. (more…)

This LEGO Space Shuttle kit is pretty awesome!My daughter really loved the LEGO Women of Nasa set, so this $29 Space Shuttle was a no-brainer.285 pieces and several recommendations for things to build other than a Space Shuttle.LEGO says you are go with throttle up.LEGO Creator Space Shuttle Explorer 31066 Building Kit (285 Piece) via AmazonImage via Amazon

Kate Clark combines taxidermy animals with hand-sculpted human faces to create fantastical beasts from unreal lands. From her artist's statement:The fusion of human and animal that I create presents a fiction suggesting that our human state is fully realized when we acknowledge both our current programming and our natural instincts. I emphasize the characteristics that separate us within the animal kingdom, and, importantly, the ones that unite us.The wild animal hide I use has an energy and presence like no other material. I shave sections of the animal's skin to reveal porous and oily features that we recognize as our own. Stitched over a hand-sculpted human face, the material quality of the skin brings believability to the final sculpture: they are portraits we relate to. I emphasize the seams so that the faces are obviously reconstructed yet they are not monstrous, they are approachable, calm, dignified, majestic. The viewer has an intimate relationship with the face and then identifies with the full animal, acknowledging the animalistic inheritance within the human condition.Kate Clark (via Juxtapoz)

In 1986, Canadian musician Beverly Glenn-Copeland recorded a stunning cycle of expansive, meditative, and uplifting synthesizer songs called Keyboard Fantasies. Self-released on cassette, that "New Age multilayered synthesizer music to relax, dance and sing with," as Glenn-Copeland described it, went mostly unheard even as he continued to compose soundtracks, musical theater for children, wrote for Sesame Street, and performed on the Canadian children's TV show Mr. Dressup. Now though, a beautiful reissue from the excellent Seance Centre label has brought Keyboard Fantasies into the sunlight where it belongs. Above, "The Lake Sutra," a brief documentary film following Glenn-Copeland, now in his 70s, to Huntsville, north of Toronto, where he recorded Keyboard Fantasies. Beverly Glenn-Copeland's Keyboard Fantasies is available from Seance Center on vinyl and, of course, cassette.

A woman who goes by @brenaclifton on Twitter insists she doesn't have a cat, but was greeted by this cute kitty who popped out of the vent on the floor of her house. Just passing through!Two things: 1. I don’t have a cat............2. I DON’T HAVE A CAT pic.twitter.com/6WQRIQpA86— brena. (@brenaclifton) February 24, 2018

The only downside about one of my new favorite podcasts, Good Christian Fun, is that it’s a little hard to describe exactly what it is. It sounds like the kind of show that’s designed to proselytize to non-believers or to speak only to Christians, but neither of those are the case. Instead, the podcast features two funny people discussing Christian pop culture with a loving but still-critical eye. Hosts Kevin T. Porter (Gilmore Guys) and Caroline Ely grew up in Christian households and describe themselves as “tour guides through the weird and hilarious world of faith-based entertainment.” Each episode features the duo and a guest discussing a specific element of Christian pop culture, from movies like Kirk Cameron’s Fireproof to musicians like Steven Curtis Chapman.Whether you’re a Christian familiar with the pop culture in question or someone like me who’s just curious about strange subcultures, there’s something to enjoy in Good Christian Fun. Porter and Ely both bring affection, empathetic points of view to the show. They’re curious and non-judgmental about the topic of faith, but they’re also more than happy to criticize the Christian culture they examine—both from an artistic standpoint and from a moral one. Ely, in particular, is interested in the way mainstream Christian culture treats women and the podcast is currently running a series focused on the (often problematic) notion of “Biblical womanhood.”Mostly, however, Good Christian Fun is just a fun, funny examination of a weird subset of pop culture. For instance, the recurring segment “The Hunt for the Worst Christian Song of All Time” has introduced me to some hilariously terrible music. And like a lot of the best podcasts, the show thrives on its hosts’ chemistry as much as anything else. Though I don’t have firsthand experience with most of the Christian culture the show discusses, I still enjoy listening to Porter and Ely break it all down anyway.You can listen to Good Christian Fun wherever you get your podcasts or learn more on the show’s website and Twitter account.

The muppet creations of Frank Oz, Jim Henson, and their collaborators are fused into my earliest memories as a kid growing up in the ‘Sesame Street’ generation. The long-running ‘Muppet Show’ followed, as did films, and a new generation of kids is growing up with the characters online and in mobile games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgrURtZFZFIOn March 16, Muppet Guys Talking will be released online, and it’s the first documentary to reveal the unusual creative culture behind Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie and all the gang, as told by the living performers behind it all. (more…)