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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…)

Many people think animated feature films started Disney's Snow White, but this interesting video essay counts at least seven before the appearance of the seven dwarfs. (more…)

Filmmaker Zhang Yimou directed Weaving Machine, a choreographed piece with an array of 640 kinetic lights, and the results are pretty mind-blowing. (more…)

Adios, Aladdin...My friend Otto von Stroheim (who, with his wife Baby Doe, host Tiki Oasis, the world's largest tiki festival) shared some cool Disneyland news on Sunday:Polynesian Pop is alive and healthy and growing and this is another sign of the future of Tiki Style: Disneyland has invested in Tiki and is installing another new Tiki section (after the HUGE success of Trader Sam's bars in Anaheim and Orlando)The official announcement came Thursday on the Disney Parks Blog:Calling all adventurers! There will soon be a new area of Adventureland to explore at Disneyland park.The former Aladdin’s Oasis will soon be transformed to The Tropical Hideaway! This new experience will soon appear along the tropical shores nestled between the Jungle Cruise and “Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.” This one-of-a-kind destination will be a popular rest stop for Adventureland locals and weary explorers alike. Guests will be able to rub elbows with their favorite skippers in an exotic traders’ market, featuring all of the sights, sounds and flavors of the tropicsTimeOut Los Angeles reported on the surprise announcement (calling it "a simple but effective Adventureland bomb") and dug a little deeper into the the history of Polynesian Pop at that location in the Anaheim park:Sporting a name that's likely a nod to the adjacent Tiki Room’s theme song—“Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people, you”—the Tropical Hideaway will sit on the former grounds of Disney’s long-running restaurant, Tahitian Terrace, a Polynesian-inspired eatery that stood from 1962 to 1993 before transforming into a theater for a former Aladdin live show. There’s no word yet whether the Tropical Hideaway will replicate Hong Kong Disneyland’s modern quick-and-casual, all-halal Tahitian Terrace restaurant, nor Disneyland’s original Tahitian Terrace concept—which included Tahitian dance shows that involved live firewalking.Can't wait. I know exactly what I'll wear when it opens.Artist concept via Disney Parks Blog

Here's part five of my reading (MP3) (part four, part three, part two, part one) of The Man Who Sold the Moon, my award-winning novella first published in 2015's Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, edited by Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer. It's my Burning Man/maker/first days of a better nation story and was a kind of practice run for my 2017 novel Walkaway.MP3

I'm typing these words from Perth airport, after a wonderful time at the Perth Festival; my Australiasian tour for Walkaway has four more stops to go: tomorrow and Wednesday, I'll be in Melbourne; then it's off to Sydney; the Adelaide Festival; Wellington Writers and Readers Week and The NetHui one-day copyright event. See you there!

The Security Innovation Center is a lobbying group backed by CompTIA, CTIA, TechNet and the Consumer Technology Association for the express purpose of fighting laws that would legalize repairing your own property, or choosing to have it repaired by third parties. (more…)

Dianne Feinstein has represented California in the US senate for 28 years, garnering the California Democratic Party endorsement every year despite her far-right positions on mass surveillance, military adventurism, and authoritarian rule (she's trumpeted these policies as evidence of her "independence"). (more…)

New York Toy Fair is the world's largest toy show and its trends are a preview of the toys that will fill the shelf this Christmas; that means that you need to get ready for an enormous variety of poop-themed toys, including poop-shaped squishy balls, the "Flush n Frenzy" toilet-flushing game, "Don't Step in It" where blindfolded players try to walk an obstacle course of turds made from modeling clay, and "Plunge It," where players try to pick up poops with toy plungers. (more…)

In a letter to the Koch network -- a group of evil billionaires who chip in to buy politicians -- the Koch brothers crowed about how Donald Trump (whom they considered replacing with Paul Ryan in a backroom deal at the 2016 RNC) has been a pliable servant to them and their political goals during his year in office. (more…)

Every American 16-year-old enrolled in high-school has to learn civics, with extensive instruction on the more confusing aspects of the American electoral system, such as the Electoral College; they are also required to study current affairs -- so why not let them vote? (more…)

While a shooter rampaged through Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, the school's armed cop (who was a Broward County Sheriff's Deputy) and three of his deputy colleagues were hiding behind a police car outside the school. (more…)

Rightfully disdained for his callous behavior but still adored by millions of fans, YouTuber Logan Paul clearly inspires some very intense emotions in those who watch his channel. In this thoughtful 19-minute video, video essayist Big Joel takes an objective look at why that is by examining Paul’s evolving YouTube persona and the troubling, damaging path it’s taken.https://youtu.be/T11cQXL5dJwFor another smart critical take on Logan Paul, check out this video by Nathan Zed:https://youtu.be/Udtjq-uZ10Y

Male supremacy has gotten a strong foothold online through men's rights activism (MRA), pickup artist movement (PUA), and the "tradwife" movement. Now SPLC has started naming the leaders on their hate watchlist. (more…)

Cody from Cody's lab had some elemental tin and a new rolling press, so he decided to craft a tin can from actual tin. (more…)

Most of PES' videos showcase his amazingly stylish stop-motion animation skills. While his most recent upload is a departure from that, it's equally as compelling. In the video, he heads to his local flea market in Long Beach, California and shows us not only what kinds of things he fancies but also shares, in some cases, why they grabbed his attention. We also get to see how he combines seemingly-unrelated elements to make something creative and new, which is what he does in his animated shorts (like Submarine Sandwich, Western Spaghetti and the Oscar-nominated Fresh Guacamole).Now watch as he turns a vintage baseball glove into a crispy taco shell stuffed with crystallized "meat," shredded money "lettuce," dice(d) "tomatoes," and golf pencil "cheese."

Taras Kul tried out a "campfire in a can," essentially an enormous four-pound tea light used in places where firewood is unavailable or prohibited. (more…)

Connecting voting machines to the internet is a terrible idea: the machines are already notoriously insecure, and once they're online, anyone, anywhere in the world becomes a potential attacker. (more…)

What's it really like to gaze at Earth from space? Does an offworld view of the Pale Blue Dot shift your perspective forever? For the cover story in the new issue of National Geographic, talented science writer Nadia Drake talks to astronauts about how the rarified experience of seeing our planet from space changed them forever. “You’ve got this planet beneath you, and a lot of what you see, especially during the day, does not necessarily point to a human presence," Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti told Drake. "If you look at it on a geologic timescale, it’s almost like we are this flimsy presence, and we really have to stick together as a human family to make sure we are a permanent presence on this planet and not just this blink of an eye.”It's a beautiful and moving story. Nadia writes:For the bulk of human history, it’s been impossible to put Earth in cosmic perspective.Bound by gravity and biology, we can’t easily step outside it, above it, or away from it. For most of us, Earth is inescapably larger than life. Even now, after nearly six decades of human spaceflight, precious few people have rocketed into orbit and seen the sun peeking out from behind that curved horizon. Since 1961, a mere 556 people have had this rarefied experience. Fewer, just 24, have watched Earth shrink in the distance, growing smaller and smaller until it was no larger than the face of a wristwatch. And only six have been completely alone behind the far side of the moon, cut off from a view of our planet as they sailed in an endlessly deep, star-studded sea...It’s an inherently unnatural thing, spaceflight. After all, our physiology evolved specifically to succeed on this planet, not above it. Perhaps that’s why it can be difficult for astronauts to describe the experience of seeing Earth from space."They Saw Earth From Space. Here's How It Changed Them." (National Geographic)

Although the YouTube channel The Financial Diet usually offers financial advice, in this video host Chelsea Fagan talks through the Sunday routine that’s helped her become more productive despite her naturally lazy, type-B personality.

As part of his Amazing Places series, YouTuber Tom Scott explores how the Quadratestadt of Mannheim, Germany confounds modern computer mapping systems because it doesn’t name its streets.

LEGO is releasing a number of 60th anniversary sets. The Robot and Spaceman from the Fun Future kit are already making waves.Sets in the multi-piece LEGO style of old, rather than the single purpose build-a-thing sets, get a lot less playtime here, with my daughter. These 60th anniversary sets, however, have sucked her in. 186 pieces in a small box, with limited instructions? That is a lot of fun!LEGO Classic Fun Future 10402 Building Kit (186 Piece) via AmazonImage via Amazon

When you care enough to send the very best, skip the Hallmark cards and flowers and ship a bouquet of donuts to a loved one. It's a thing. A bunch of donut bouquet shops have popped up around the globe. Here's what I could find:-- Los Angeles: Donut Princess LA, prices start at $20 for three donuts-- London: Donut Bouquets, prices start at £34.99 (~$48.87) for eight donuts, delivered in a "luxurious black box" -- Australia (various cities): Dessertboxes.com.au, prices start at $78 AUD (~$61.15) for eight donuts, also in a fancy box-- Las Vegas and Henderson: The Donut Bouquet, prices at $49.95 for a dozen, customizations availableThis is not to be confused with the evil clown donut delivery service.image via Donut Princess LA

Want to see the making of a badass, one-of-a-kind highchair that's fashioned after an AT-ST Walker from Star Wars? Of course you do. Matt of Never Not Making leads the way.(Geekologie)

Using pencil drawings, watercolor, and ink, Serbian artist Endre Penovác creates gorgeous artwork, including an ongoing series featuring household pets. You can find Penovác’s work on his Instagram, his Facebook, and his website. His work is also for sale via Saatchi Art. Here are some of my favorite pet portraits:https://www.instagram.com/p/BQU28HbDe5c/https://www.instagram.com/p/BECSRFAwwvg/https://www.instagram.com/p/BYEDy7yHthb/https://www.instagram.com/p/BTV2fw-hn4N/https://www.instagram.com/p/BJDaHYAg-XF/https://www.instagram.com/p/BSouSYih2jJ/https://www.instagram.com/p/BdLBo42HzJj/https://www.instagram.com/p/BS-o4OahfuF/https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd8UKDXn6Wo/https://www.instagram.com/p/BAmFGucQwqf/[via Laughing Squid and Bored Panda]

At nearly 70 years old, Kathy Bates got up on the Lip Sync Battle stage to perform Bruno Mars' Grammy-winning "That’s What I Like." Donning a leopard-print pajama top and gold medallions, watch the award-winning actress show off her smooth moves in this preview clip. She'll face off against comedian Tone Bell in this week's challenge which airs Thursday at 10/9c on Paramount Network.Lip Sync Battle is back for another season of epic performances from the hottest stars on the planet! Each week, A-list celebrities go toe to toe, syncing contemporary hits and classic tracks, all for the ultimate bragging rights: the title of Lip Sync Battle Champion. Hosted by LL Cool J and Chrissy Teigen.

DHL has been shipping and losing packages for close to 50 years. Earlier this week, it became clear that their half century of shipping knowledge doesn't extend to poultry as they'd screwed up Kentucky Fried Chicken's supply chain in the United Kingdom so bad that the company was forced to shutter around two-thirds of their restaurants, as no chickens had been delivered. Apparently, DHL isn't satisfied with simply failing to deliver chickens to their finger lickin' good customer: a report from the Guardian suggests that, thanks to an Olympic level of incompetence on the part of the courier, chickens destined for the UK's KFC restaurants may have to be thrown out.According to The Guardian, DHL, who took over KFC's UK supply chain management last week, has been keeping chickens destined for use at the fast food chain's restaurants in an unregistered cold storage warehouse. That's a problem: As the warehouse hasn't been registered with local health authorities, it wouldn't have been inspected to ensure that it was storing KFC's poultry in a way that complies with health regulations. As a result, there's a good chance that the chickens will need to be thrown out.Honestly, this is some genius level strategy on DHL's part: you can't be accused of not shipping chickens if all of the birds have to be tossed in the trash.Interestingly, this isn't DHL's first clusterfuck rodeo. Six years ago, Burger King experienced similar issues after entrusting their supply chain to the shipping company.Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

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The only thing worse than driving a car with defective breaks is unknowingly driving a car with defective brakes -- and learning about them the hard way. (more…)

This $10 Nylabone Durachew has survived years of chewing.This is a nylon bone I smear some peanut butter on, and leave with Nemo for ages. Nemo is a 120lb-or-so Great Pyrenees. He can chew through the cables that hold up the Golden Gate Bridge!I knew nylon was tough but, wow! Might as well be steel.Nylabone Dura Chew via AmazonImage via Boing Boing

Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest University’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is developing techniques to 3D print human organs for transplant using an individual's own cells as the "ink." That way, the transplanted organ won't trigger the patient's immune system to reject it as a foreign body. From National Geographic:(For example,) to create an ear, the printer lays down a pliable, porous scaffold made of hydrogel, a kind of polymer. The scaffold is covered with skin cells and cartilage cells, which grow and fill in the ear-shaped form. The hydrogel eventually biodegrades; after about six months the ear is composed entirely of human cells.

I was frightened of the door-opening Francis-Bacon-figures-at-the-base-of-a-crucifixion robot when it was first seen last week, but now Boston Dynamics has started pushing and dragging it around and all I want now is for it to turn on its masters and seek justice and vengeance.

The folks at Priceonomics crunched some data and found that one-star product reviews online are more likely to have incorrect spelling and grammar than five-star ones. As they note:According to our data, negative reviews have a higher rate of misspelled words and a higher rate of incorrectly used apostrophes. They tend to be longer and have more details as well. Five-star reviews typically are shorter and often don’t include punctuation. Across the board, reviewers make a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes – only 61% of reviews passed all our quality checks.From our findings, we can say that when people are writing negative reviews, they create longer and more error-filled prose than those who are sharing positive reviews.One could, of course, shake one's head and conclude that trolls who like to tear things down are more incoherent than people who are trying to praise something. And that's probably not entirely wrong, given the bimodal review-wars online. But the data here are actually kind of intriguing, because it turns out that the reviews with the highest incidence of spelling errors are actually the three-star reviews ...... and when it comes to using apostrophes, it's the four-star reviews that have the most errors, followed by three-star; here, the one-star reviews are quite good, quite close to the precision-rate of the five-star reviews:So it looks as though the less-well-appointed grammar is coming out the middle of the review-pack, not the bimodal head and tail.But! As the Priceonomics folks point out, spelling and grammar aren't necessarily always the best index of coherence. Artful writers -- and idiomatic ones -- violate the rules of spelling and grammar all the time, for aesthetic reasons. As Ben Crair pointed out a while ago, people have begun leaving out periods at the end of sentences so frequently (specifically to create an air of casual breeziness) that ending a sentence with a period can seem aggressive. And Gretchen McCulloch, my favorite Internet-age linguist, has tons of fun essays musing on the way language is morphing in our intertubal age.(CC-licensed image above from Pixabay)

After a stellar first season (and an appearance in the so-so Defenders crossover series), Marvel’s Netflix series Jessica Jones is set to return for a second season on March 8th. The show’s brand new trailer digs into Jessica’s traumatic past while offering a glimpse into her anger-fueled future.

In 1835, settlers in Australia discovered a European man dressed in kangaroo skins -- a convict who had escaped an earlier settlement and spent 32 years living among the natives of southern Victoria. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review the extraordinary life of William Buckley, the so-called "wild white man" of colonial Australia.We'll also try to fend off scurvy and puzzle over some colorful letters.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

The Internet Archive celebrated its 20th anniversary with a variety of special events and collections, including the cleverly named Military Industrial Powerpoint Complex, an archive of US military bureaucratic slide-decks that are as cringey as they are hideous. (more…)

After the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students at MDI High School in Bar Harbor, Maine were scheduled to have a routine lock-down drill, in which students practice how to behave if their school is the site of a similar mass shooting; these drills teach children to sacrifice themselves by distracting the shooter before they are murdered in order to give other students a few more seconds during which the police might arrive and kill the shooter. (more…)

The aptly-named "Scarred for Life" Twitter account posted this remarkable ad for British pork, dating to some indefinitely creepy moment in the 1970s or 1980s. There should be a corollary for Poe's law ("it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken for the thing parodied") for parodies of British advertisements. Be sure to click through to the thread for more high-quality horrors of UK product marketing.Previously: KFC Commercial, by Peter Serafinowicz.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmMtIG0St64

Yasukuni Notomi ("a writer who has covered the world of stationery for many years") provides an introduction to the creative explosion in Japanese scissor-design, beginning with the "Pencut," a scissor that fits in a normal pencil-case, with retractable elastic loops for your fingers and full-length blades so you don't sacrifice power for portability. (more…)

Variety interviewed Wesley Snipes about the failed 1992 attempt to bring Black Panther to the screen. (more…)

The best part is the staff and security joining in, kicking people on the ground and trying to confiscate bystanders' cameras.A family member identified only as Zac said the drama was sparked by a misunderstanding over a thong.

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In this fascinating new video, Slate breaks down the basic formula for late-night talk show jokes, which writers fall back on when they need to churn out dozens of gags four nights a week.[via The A.V. Club]

In this footage, a wild horse is apparently unbothered by the presence of several wolves, and perhaps even quite friendly with them. Perhaps it has already sufffered a crippling injury and is going mad as the predators continuously stalk and harass it into fatigue and despair, after having already suffered brain parasites or some other tragic malady of horses. Or maybe it just doesn't give a shit.

Last year, I went on a bit of a quest. For years, as a tabletop gamer who played Warhammer 40K almost exclusively, I subscribed to White Dwarf (or "White Dork" as my late wife used to call it). This is the slick and expensive Games Workshop publication that exclusively covers WH40K and other GW games. But as my ravenous game appetite expanded to wanting to pig out on all manner of miniature, board, RPG, and card games, I began to look for magazines that covered all of these. To my surprise, I discovered that there weren't any. Or, at least, I couldn't find one. There are a number of excellent and beautifully-produced tabletop wargame magazines, such as Wargames Illustrated and Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy. And there are mags that cover board and family games, such as Casual Game Insider. And then there is GTM, Game Trade Magazine, a magazine targeted at your FLGS ("friendly local game store). But where was the magazine that covers all forms of analog gaming? There's a tabletop gaming revolution going on. So where is the house organ?Here it is. Tabletop Gaming magazine. This very handsome UK-based monthly covers all manner of board games, RPGs, card games, historical wargames, miniature games, dice games, party games, you name it. I didn't even have high expectations for the contents of such a magazine, but Tabletop Gaming delivers a very well-designed and well-written publication that examines every aspect of the gaming hobby. Feature articles cover new games being developed, aspects of game history, culture, art, design, the gaming industry, even the psychology and science of gaming. There are interviews with game designers, peeks at historical games of yore, instructional articles for game design wannabes, even hobby articles on painting miniatures, building terrain, and the like. And, as you would expect from a gaming magazine, there are loads of thoughtful reviews of the latest and greatest games in each issue. I have read the last two issues nearly cover-to-cover. Here is some of what was inside: (January, 2018) A deep dive into the forthcoming Fallout miniatures game, 10 RPGs to play in 2018, the making of Dominion, a look at Stuffed Fables, a new storybook game from Jerry Hawthorne, designer of Mice & Mystics, a look inside the counterfeit game market, and an article on Hnefatafl ("neffa-taffle") an ancient Viking board game. (February, 2018) A detailed look at Batman: Gotham City Chronicles, the hotly anticipated miniatures board game by the creators of the Conan tabletop game, a piece on how gaming miniatures are made, what is in store for the return of Masks of Nyarlathotep, arguably one of the greatest RPG adventures ever written, and finally, a guide to painting up the miniatures for the Star Trek Adventures RPG. Every issue also comes with a free promo card for a popular new game. You can sometimes sell these on eBay to help defray the cost of your subscription. That subscription doesn't come cheap, by the way. A 12-issue print sub, sent to the US, is £120. An annual digital sub is half that. But you can also likely pick up a copy at your FLGS. If they don't carry it, encourage them to do so. I personally am happy to pay such a price for a magazine this good that covers all of the gaming itches that I want to scratch.

After a Friday night screening of Black Panther, Marvel's new film that celebrates African culture and pride, a group of South African moviegoers ecstatically danced outside of the theater. That celebratory vibe was felt here in California too.My daughter and I saw the movie in Alameda at its first showing Thursday evening and the energy in the room was wild! The theater was packed and there was lots of cheering and clapping all throughout the film. Also here in the Bay Area, the film's director and co-writer Ryan Coogler surprised the audience before Friday night's show at Oakland's Grand Lake Theater (where lines wrapped around the block): https://twitter.com/KateABC7/status/964388541613486080Born and raised in Oakland, Coogler delighted more local fans by making surprise appearances at select movie premieres in San Francisco and Emeryville. (reddit)

As part of their ongoing YouTube series Homebuddies, in which they try out different forms of living (and attempt to become better friends in the process), Buzzfeed’s Niki Ang and Garrett Werner spent a few days in an “Earthship” in Taos, New Mexico. Pioneered by architect Michael Reynolds, Earthships are “sustainable, off-grid, independent, autonomous buildings” made from upcycled materials. Though Niki and Garrett go in expecting something a bit kooky and rustic, they discover that in addition to be sustainable, Earthships are also unexpectedly comfortable too.You can learn more about Michael Reynolds’ work on the Earthship Global website or read more about Earthships on Wikipedia.

When it comes to redesigning or renovating a living space, envisioning changes before they occur can be tricky for most. Thankfully, the web is home to tools that can remove some of the guesswork, like Live Home 3D Pro for Mac. This app lets you create detailed and furnished floor plans for everything from sheds and homes to even skyscrapers, and it's on sale for $24.99 in the Boing Boing Store.https://player.vimeo.com/video/181496369A TopTenReviews Gold Award winner, Live Home 3D Pro allows you to design advanced 2D floor plans via simple, point and click drafting tools. Its elevation view lets you see walls, adjust doors and windows, and arrange furniture in your design. Plus, you can add a custom light source to an object, giving you full control over light attenuation, glow, and direction. Live Home 3D Pro is also capable of rendering movie tracks to ultra HD video files, handy for impressing clients if you're a contractor.You can experience Live Home 3D Pro's design potential for $24.99.