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This puppy looked so far gone, I don't think most people would have thought they could bring it back to life. But the determined, resourceful cyclist who found the pup did everything right, including cutting off the bottom of a water bottle and then using it as a tube to breath air into the puppy's mouth. The incredible rescue in this video is hard to watch, but seems to have a happy ending – I only wish we could find out how the puppy is doing now.

The Harry Potter series has an unusual new chapter and J.K. Rowling didn't write it, machines did.Botnick Studios, a "human-machine creative collective" which describes itself as "a community of writers, artists and developers collaborating with machines to create strange new things," created a predictive keyboard that later penned the unauthorized chapter. By "training" the keyboard on all seven Harry Potter titles, machines were able to write this humorous new work. Harry Potter and the Portrait of what Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash is the fabricated book's title and the faux chapter is called, "The Handsome One."Here's a few quotes from its ghostwritten pages:"Magic: it was something that Harry Potter thought was very good.""Ron's shirt was just as bad as Ron himself.""The pig of Hufflepuff pulsed like a large bullfrog. Dumbledore smiled at it, and placed his hand on its head: 'You are Hagrid now.'""'The password was BEEF WOMEN,' Hermione cried."Read the entire chapter here. Be sure to take a look at Botnick's other work, like this predictive text Thanksgiving dinner video.("BEEF WOMEN" will now be my new password.)

Hey Santa, 1983 called. Eddie Murphy wants his tight red leather suit back.This Team Coco bit imagines Santa Claus telling off-color jokes for a stand-up comedy special on Netflix called, "Sack Up! Santa Live!" It's so wrong.

The University of Pennsylvania's Matt Blaze (previously) is a legendary figure in cryptography and security circles; most recently he convened Defcon's Vote Hacking Village where security experts with no particular knowledge of voting machines repeatedly, fatally hacked surplus voting machines of the sort routinely used in US elections. (more…)

To celebrate the upcoming release of The Last Jedi, we’re offering a selection of Star Wars-themed interior decorations in the Boing Boing Store for 15% off the usual retail value — all you have to do is enter coupon code GIFTSHOP15 during checkout. Here’s what you can get:3D Mega LampsThese custom-fabricated LED lamps light up the darkness with eye-catching 3D illusions. They’re modeled after a handful of fan-favorite ships and characters, so you can choose one that best matches your digs. If you strongly identify with heroic outlaws like Han and Chewie, you can get one shaped like the iconic Millennium Falcon. Alternatively, anyone who respects the brutal authoritarianism of the empire will die for a 3D Death Star lamp. And for the pacifist droid lovers, we’ve even got one shaped like gravity-defying BB-8. Each one of these 3D Mega Lamps goes for $39.99, but you can take an extra 15% off with code GIFTSHOP15.Star Wars 3D DIY Metal SculpturesGive your office desk some galactic flair with a statue of your favorite Star Wars spacecraft. After choosing which side of the force you’re on, you can put these metal sculptures together yourself. They come in a variety of classic shapes, including X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and Imperial Star Destroyer. Save 15% off our normal $9.99 price when you enter GIFTSHOP15 at checkout.Star Wars ArtThese wall hangings are printed on high-quality 100 lb archival paper, so you can be sure that they’ll last. This artwork is by illustrator Devin Schoeffler, and it depicts memorable scenes from the original trilogy like Luke’s training in the Dagobah system, and the the Empire’s assault on Hoth. These posters are in the Boing Boing Store for $19.99, but you can save an additional 15% with code GIFTSHOP15.

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Not only that, but as Randy Michaels quipped, "The most Christmas carols ever gathered in one book. Period." (more…)

As a safety measure, SNL writer Nick Kocher recently installed a Nest cam in his apartment. He then left town for the weekend, letting his friend Jon Bass crash at his place. (more…)

Donald Trump's FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made a terrible, unfunny video mocking the tens of millions of Net Neutrality advocates whose comments he has discarded (along with filings from the internet's inventors and leading scientists and engineers). The video was posted to the fringe-right website The Daily Caller. (more…)

When Massachusetts GOP Senator Scott Brown was elected in a 2010 special election, Senate Democrats agreed to delay a key vote on health care reform until he could be seated, so that the vote would be held by elected officials, not the appointed lame duck who was sitting in the seat that Brown was about to occupy. (more…)

It’s rare, but once in a while the tabloids just get a story right. While Us magazine bores us with the “most fascinating people of 2017” (Melania Trump? Meghan Markle?) and the National Enquirer tells us “What shocked and rocked in 2017” (branding Hollywood’s sex harassment scandals “Pervnado"), it is the Globe that hits the pitch-perfect end-of-year note with its “50 Most Annoying People of 2017.”Its catalogue of “whiners, losers and lamebrains” is hard to argue with: Kim Kardashian, Bill O’Reilly, Justin Bieber, Madonna, Harvey Weinstein, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow . . . the list goes on. Caitlyn Jenner, Megyn Kelly, Anthony Scaramucci, Johnny Depp . . . there’s ten pages of this, and I’ll bet they could have filled the entire magazine with names if they wanted to.Yet the Globe inexplicably omits the year's unquestionably most annoying person: Donald Trump. It’s another week when the Trump-toadying tabloids become the mouthpiece of the White House, with highly debatable information that appears spoon-fed from the West Wing.“Clintons Rigged Trump Investigation!” screams the grammatically-challenged cover of the Enquirer, which claims to have exposed “Bill & Hillary’s dirty tricks” in loading special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team with Clinton supporters. But while Mueller’s law firm WilmerHale indeed made contributions to Democrats as the Enquirer alleges, it also made substantial contributions to Republicans, in fact donating almost twice as much to Republicans from 1996 to 2002, though favoring Democrats in recent years.Prince Harry’s betrothed Meghan Markle’s father Tom “won’t live to see wedding,” predicts the Enquirer, based solely on a photo that shows the 73-year-old appearing rather portly. They roll out the standard rent-a-quote doctors to explain the health dangers of being overweight, concluding that Mr. Markle is “eating and smoking himself to early grave.” Obesity carries many risks, it’s true, but it takes the Enquirer team of medically trained psychics to diagnose that Mr. Markle’s demise will come before his daughter’s wedding in May.The Globe doesn’t need psychics, however, when it has a “body language expert” to predict that Big Bang Theory actress Kaley Cuoco’s “upcoming marriage is doomed!” It must be right – you can’t argue with science.The Queen’s “last Christmas” is in ruins, reports the Globe. You might think she’d be happy with a third child on the way for grandson Prince William, and Prince Harry poised to walk down the aisle, but no – the Globe reveals: “It’s malice at the palace like we’ve never seen before,” according to an “insider.” Maybe it's one of the Queen’s Corgis ratting out the Royals again. Apparently the Royals are all at each others’ throats, because they’re just characters in a soap opera, after all.Old houses always need a lot of maintenance, and the White House is no exception. The General Services Administration, which maintains the venerable mansion, recently reported that it has dealt with cockroach infestations, mice and ants, and replaced a toilet seat in the Oval Office bathroom – all routine problems that have plagued the abode for decades, through successive administrations. But that’s enough for the Globe to claim: “Obama family left place a total disaster . . . leaving it a disgusting vermin-infested roach motel."Snopes has noted that President Jimmy Carter battled mice and that First Lady Barbara Bush had a run-in with a rat. President Grover Cleveland’s wife found a giant rat trying to devour her pet canary, and lamented numerous infestations of spiders and cockroaches. Screw history, says the Globe, it’s all the fault of those filthy Obamas.People magazine barely brightens the mood with its innocuously bland cover story on Full House star John Stamos revealing: “I’m Gonna Be a Dad!” When a man realizes at the age of 54 that “I had to do some work on myself first” before considering fatherhood, and admits "I had to straighten up,” it’s not so much a reason for celebration as it is for sadness that it took him so long.Fortunately Us magazine’s crack team of investigative reporters tell us that Jennifer Lopez wore it best (when did we stop calling her J Lo?), that Kate Sackhoff carries eyedrops, decongestant and skin cream in her Chanel bag, and that the stars are just like us: they grocery shop, buy Christmas trees and feed parking meters. But wait! This week Us brings us a rare page of reality: “Stars – They’re NOT like Us!” They ride on yachts, have streets named after them, and fly in private jets. I always had my suspicions that the stars were not like us, but now it’s finally been proven! Thank you, Us magazine.Onwards and downwards . . .

Last night Kentucky Republican state Rep. Dan Johnson drove onto a bridge in Louisville, Kentucky, shot himself inside his car, and died. 24 hours earlier, he had been publicly accused of molesting a teenager in 2013.In 2013, then 17-year-old Maranda Richmond had to ward off a drunk evangelical pastor – Dan Johnson – who kissed her and put his hands underneath her clothes inside a church on New Years Day. Three months later she reported the incident to police, and the Louisville Metro Police Department started but then closed an investigation without charging Johnson.In January of this year pastor Johnson became a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from the 49th district, but it wasn't until earlier this week that the molestation case was made public with a lengthy report by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.According to CNN:The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting got its hands on police documents on the alleged sexual assault, and interviewed Richmond, leading to its story on how Johnson allegedly forced himself on her when she was a teenager.On Tuesday, a day after the center published its report, Johnson denied the allegations, saying Richmond was motivated by his political opponents."This allegation concerning this young girl absolutely has no merit," he said. "As a matter of fact, some of this I heard yesterday for the first time as I read the story."...Johnson posted a message on his Facebook page Wednesday evening, saying the accusations "are false" and 'only God knows the truth." The post appears to have been deleted. https://youtu.be/38tqfW9-ncg

Patients of Dr. Simon Bramhall probably weren’t expecting an autograph on their transplanted organs. That didn’t stop the surgeon from signing their livers like Roy Moore on high school yearbook day. Bramhall pleaded guilty to two counts of assault for using an argon beam to burn his initials on two patients’ livers at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 2013, according to the BBC. The beam can be used to sketch a non-harmful outline for operation on the livers surface. Bramhall pleaded not guilty to assault causing bodily harm. His initials were originally discovered by another surgeon. Via the BBC: "It was done in the presence of colleagues," he said.His actions were carried out "with a disregard for the feelings of unconscious patients", the prosecutor added.Bramhall resigned after a disciplinary hearing with University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust in May 2014.Image: Alex Nelson

The driver of a DeLorean modded to resemble the version from Back to the Future didn’t impress a Texas state trooper for hitting 88 mph. Mark Shields, who was driving his car to an event, told KHOU he thought the officer was joking when he pulled him over for the time-traveling speed. Shields said the trooper responded by saying he doesn’t “joke” about his job. Shields said the trooper continued to ask about the car and questions related to the movie, but ultimately handed the butthead a ticket. Image: Oto Godfrey and Justin Morton

Neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer was recently pushed off the web by domain registrars, but can supposedly still be found as a hidden service. And would you know that it has a 17-page style guide? They pay $14.88 a post. The site’s stylistic decisions, the subjects it covers, the specific racial slurs it employs — all are consciously chosen for the purpose of furthering The Daily Stormer’s ultimate goal, which, according to the style guide itself, is “to spread the message of nationalism and anti-Semitism to the masses.” Everything is deliberate. The guide is particularly interested in ways to lend the site’s hyperbolic racial invective a facade of credibility and good faith. Or at the very least, in how to confuse its readers to the point where they can’t tell the difference. The Daily Stormer, for instance, uses block quotes for much the same reason Richard Spencer stuffs himself into vestsHere's some tips on encoding incitements to violence as "joking."

My op-ed in New Internationalist, ‘Don’t break the 21st century nervous system’, seeks to cut through the needless complexity in the Net Neutrality debate, which is as clear-cut as climate change or the link between smoking and cancer -- and, like those subjects, the complexity is only there because someone paid to introduce it. (more…)

Last year, the Mirai botnet harnessed a legion of badly secured internet of things devices and turned them into a denial of service superweapon that brought down critical pieces of internet infrastructure (and even a country), and now its creators have entered guilty pleas to a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act federal case, and explained that they created the whole thing to knock down Minecraft servers that competed with their nascent Minecraft hosting business. (more…)

ADSL was a miracle when it debuted, delivering high speeds over old copper, thanks to a protocol that was so adaptable to suboptimal media that it was said it could run "over a piece of wet string." (more…)

I fondly remember the unalloyed joy of eating lionfish tacos in the Caribbean, consuming an invasive species that was wrecking a reef preserve; if you've never experienced a similar pleasure, be on the lookout for "jellyfish crisps" made from the huge blooms of jellyfish that are the result of climate change, whose presence is a nuisance and worse. (more…)

Gawker was bankrupted by Peter Thiel, who secretly backed Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against the network of news, entertainment and gossip sites in an act of petty revenge. (more…)

Ever find yourself coming home from an attack-dog training session in heavy armored shinguards and come across a snowy hill and muse, man, if only my shinguards were a leeeetle optimized, I could drop to my knees and slide down that bad boy! (more…)

A dozen Michigan cops from Grand Rapids broke into a family home and rushed an 11 year old black girl, pointing guns at her and cuffing her while her terrified mother begged them not to shoot her. (more…)

Emojipedia notes that with Twitter's adoption of David Bowie-like figures for its singer emojis, the British pop legend lives on as such on four major platforms: Apple, Google, Microsoft and Twitter. The only other easily-identified star is Prince, as used by WhatsApp. Bowie- and Prince-inspired characters are used for both man and woman singer emojis. Facebook, Samsung and others use generic (or at least less identifiable) characters, because they are boring.

Boot Camp is an excellent way for fans of Mac hardware to run Windows for work, games, or legacy software, but rebooting to switch operating systems is a hassle if you’re just looking to launch one or two apps. Fortunately, CrossOver 17 lets you install and run Windows software inside MacOS. Right now, this indispensable emulation layer can be had for $19 when you order it from the Boing Boing Store.CrossOver 17 removes the need for a full OS installation or virtual machine, and it treats Windows apps like anything else on your Mac. Everything runs at native speeds, and you can even launch programs from the dock. And because you never need to leave the confines of MacOS, you don’t have to worry about malware from questionable app downloads.Grab a copy of CrossOver 17 here for $19.

Towering English bodybuilder David Prowse was the man actor behind Darth Vader's menacing presence. With James Earl Jones's voice and Sebastian Shaw's face, he helped create one of cinema's greatest villains. But he's also famously eccentric and cantankerous, which will doubtless make the forthcomimg movie about his life more interesting.Chronicling his journey from champion weightlifter to the biggest bad ass in the universe, Strongman will follow Prowse through his tenure as Green Cross Code man, a British road safety mascot, and his career as an actor, where he appeared in films such as 1967's Casino Royale, A Clockwork Orange, The Horror of Frankenstein, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, and others.One of the peculiar coincidences of Star Wars casting is that Hayden Christiansen, who played a younger Anakin/Vader in the Star Wars prequels, looks uncannily like a young David Prowse, the only Vader actor whose face is never actually seen in the series. When Jedi Return of the Jedi called for mask-off scenes, however, Prowse (and Jones) were replaced by Shaw. If Hayden got the role, that'd be extremely cool.

Roy Moore, who has been thoroughly endorsed by Donald Trump, said in 2011 that the US government would "solve many problems" by ridding itself of every Constitutional amendment after the first ten -- a list that included the 13th Amendment (which ended slavery), the 14th (which gave citizenship to former enslaved people); the 15th (which gave the vote to black men) and the 19th (which extended voting to women). (more…)

Oliver Schmidt, the general manager of Volkswagen's Michigan environmental and engineering office, is going to jail for his role in Dieselgate, the company's criminal conspiracy to trick regulators about the emissions from their diesel cars, allowing them to emit lethal levels of NOx on roads all over the world. (more…)

Breitbart, Steve Bannon and co. mused often about destroying Twitter, reports Buzzfeed, exploring financial and legal options to bring the site to heel and Jack Dorsey to his knees. On Jan. 15, Yiannopoulos sent a peace offering to Twitter — a cordial email to Jack Dorsey asking for his verification to be restored in exchange for a detente. A screenshot of an email tracker Yiannopoulos used registered that the email was opened 111 times.But Dorsey never responded.And so the “#war,” as Bannon called it, carried on. Begging is not a position of strength. But Twitter ignoring the alt right and its fellow travelers still had consequences.This is hilarious, though:[Chuck] Johnson didn’t just short Twitter from behind the scenes. He had helped create a Twitter account @shortthebird in July 2015 and organized a campaign to put stickers and posters up around the company’s San Francisco headquarters with the hashtag #shorttwitter. (The hashtag never really took off, however, as it was simultaneously being employed by Twitter users to joke about their physical stature.)

https://youtu.be/HjLMAoejW-AWhy are so many Alabamians voting for Roy Moore, even after nine women say he sexually assaulted or pursued them when they were teenagers? They believe the women were paid to do so. They believe it is a "George Soros assassination plan." They believe it was OK because Moore didn't undress the teenage girls. They believe it's the fault of both Moore *and* the 14-year-old girl. They believe the women have questionable reputations. They believe Moore must be trusted until he's criminally convicted. They believe Moore must be forgiven because Christians forgive. They believe that "forty years ago in Alabama, there's a lot of mommas and daddies that would be thrilled that their 14-year-old was getting hit on by a district attorney." YouTube description:These are the views of twelve conservative voters who gathered inside a Birmingham coffee house Thursday for a candid discussion about the senate race in their state. Voters dismissed many of the allegations against Moore — while saying behavior that was acceptable in Alabama decades ago shouldn’t be measured by modern standards....The panel was compiled and moderated by Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster well known for arranging focus groups with GOP voters.

Trump FCC Chairman Ajit Pai -- a former Verizon exec -- says that we can count on ISPs to voluntarily refrain from abusing their natural monopolies to degrade service to their customers in order to maximize their profits. (more…)

Sydney's Wynyard Station wooden escalators, built in 1932, have been preserved and repurposed as a sculpture titled Interloop, in the station where they operated for over 80 years. (more…)

Architect Shinsuke Fujii accepted the challenge from a client who wanted an accessible tall bookshelf that would not be affected by an earthquake. One entire wall of the house is slanted outward to allow climbing without any chance of tipping over. (more…)

A group of 21 of the internet's most esteemed pioneers have written an open letter to the FCC's Congressional overseers that critiques the agency's foolish, self-serving description of how the net works in eye-watering detail. (more…)

At this point, I can't tell if it's a race to the bottom or the top of the "ugly Christmas sweater" genre. Either way, there's a new contender. An enterprising Etsy shop owner has created a line of one-of-a-kind holiday sweaters that allow you to get your drink on easily. By sewing a giant stocking on the front of some already-ugly sweaters, Berkleysbiz has made it possible for you to carry around an entire bottle of wine or liquor right on your chest. Happy holidays, indeed!Pro tip: They suggest stuffing the bottom of the stocking with paper towels, so the bottle's top will peek over the stocking's edge.Prices start at $42.99 and do not include the booze.

Dust is a YouTube channel for short science fiction movies. Today they are showing George's Lucas's 1967 student short-film "Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB" "While monitored and pursued, a man races to escape through a futuristic labyrinth. "Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB" by Star Wars creator George Lucas was the student film that helped launch his film career. Dust is proud to present it to you as part of USC Student Week."From Wikipedia:Lucas had had an idea for a long time "based on the concept that we live in the future and that you could make a futuristic film using existing stuff". Fellow USC students Matthew Robbins and Walter Murch had a similar idea which Robbins developed into a short treatment, but Robbins and Murch lost interest in the idea, whereas Lucas was keen to persist.One of Lucas' USC instructors suggested an opportunity for Lucas to make the short film that he had in mind: since the 1940s, the USC film school had had a working arrangement with the US Navy, whereby Navy filmmakers attended USC for additional study. Teaching the class was not popular amongst USC staff, as the Navy filmmakers often had rigid, preconceived ideas about filmmaking, and sometimes misbehaved in class. But the Navy paid for unlimited color film, and lab processing costs, for their students. Lucas offered to teach the class, and was allowed the opportunity.The Navy men formed the crew of the film, and some appeared in the cast. Because of the Navy connection, Lucas was able to access filming locations which would not otherwise have been available to him: the USC computer center, a parking lot at UCLA, the Los Angeles International Airport, and the Van Nuys Airport. Much of the filming was done at night, with some at weekends.The film was completed in 12 weeks, with Lucas editing it on the Moviola at the home of Verna Fields, where he was working during the day editing United States Information Agency films under Fields' supervision.Image of George Lucas on the set of "Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB" provided by Dust

Fred Benenson (previously) just quit his job to make weird internet stuff, something he excels at: his latest is Pitch Deck, a kickstarted card game that uses a madlibs/Cards Against Humanity-style mechanism to challenge you to come up with excellent pitches for terrible startups. (more…)

French primary and secondary school students will no longer be allowed to use their phones in class, or during breaks and lunch. The French education minister says the ban is necessary because "These days the children don't play at break time anymore, they are just all in front of their smartphones and from an educational point of view that's a problem."From The Telegraph:Peep, one of France's biggest parents' associations, has already expressed scepticism. "We don't think it's possible at the moment," said its head, Gerard Pommier. "Imagine a secondary school with 600 pupils. Are they going to put all their phones in a box? How do you store them? And give them back at the end?," he asked."One must live with the times. It would be more intelligent to pose rules and discuss their meaning with pupils," said Peep, pointing out that "adults themselves are not always exemplary with mobiles".But for the education minister the issue of mobile phones and tablets is a matter of "public health". "It's important that children under the age of seven are not in front of these screens," he added.

"Toot toot!" I yelled, as my friends and I were delayed and waiting around at the San Francisco Bay Area's Emeryville Station, waiting for the Amtrak Coast Starlight train to arrive.I was being paid $1 every time I yelled "toot toot!"The train was probably my idea. I am not sure why I'm reluctant to take credit, but I've always wanted to ride Amtrak's Coast Starlight. Trip Advisor says the Coast Starlight is the 1050th most fun thing to do in California. Also, I like slow travel. I drive a goddamn VW Vanagon when I go on vacation, and that should tell you enough. Some friends and I were heading to see Puddles Pity Party in Los Angeles that weekend. We'd all traveled from the Bay Area south to the City of Fallen Angeles so many times in 2017, we needed a break from driving and airports. Amtrak seemed like a great adventure. I like adventure.I did not consider, however, that the coast part of the Coast Starlight, at least on the SF to LA leg of the trip, would be transited at night. As in, when it is dark. And you can't see. I did see some interesting California scenery, and experience what may be the very best Amtrak has to offer, but this isn't a review of the LA to SF trip, which is actually lets you see the coast.Our train was two hours late. Surprised? Luckily, I had packed a bunch of edibles and some pre-rolled joints. Just outside the San Francisco Bay Area's Emeryville Station is a fantastic place to pause and not care so very much about your schedule. Honestly, if you are gonna take a train -- this is the way to fly. There are also 'smoke stops' along the route, just ask your conductor.When the Coast Starlight arrives, passengers have to find their train car fast. We were traveling in business class, which meant that our door would be the farthest down the line. The business class car is sandwiched between the dining and observation cars, both of which are AWESOME on a 12 hour journey to Los Angeles. We were seated, handed complimentary bottles of water, and we experienced PLENTY of space for the first time in recent travel memory. Each person in our party of four was able to take a full 2 business class seats and spread out. There were very few other passengers in this $30 a person more car. What you get for that $30 extra seems to be SPACE, a $6 voucher off food (which you will use) and a bit of priority in making dining car reservations. Once we were seated on what we assumed would be the view side of the train, it was time to explore.https://youtu.be/jX2aR0IoK-kThe snack shop is in the bottom of the observation car. The observation car is a great, though slightly less comfortable, place to sit, read and watch the scenery go by. I spent several hours here, with headphones in and Kindle out. Occasionally you'll look up and stare in marvel for a bit at how beautiful California is, even in its inland valleys. Most of the first 7 or 8 hours, the rails parallel the 101. You get a very different view, as the train tracks are typically sandwiched on either side by farms. I was struck by the cruelty of chicken farms, the beauty of rolling past rows of worked farmland, and the sheer number of homeless encampments.The dining car is a fantastic experience. If you are traveling in a group smaller than four, you will be seated with others. You will meet an amazing blend of folks traveling on America's trains. All sorts of folks are on Amtrak, and you have nothing but time to get to know them! I met some Mennonites and a really large dude who was too big to fly on an aeroplane. That big dude had a "Leeeeroy Jeeeeeeenkis" ID tag hanging off his duffle, so I immediately knew he was cool. While the people are colorful, the food is bland. You will find hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, fish and steak on the menu. The food is better than anything I've had in First Class on an international airplane trip -- but its still nothing to write home about. I'd put Amtrak dining at about Disney in park concession quality. The prices aren't bad and the service is SUPER. Happily, Amtrak also carries an assortment of bottled beers and boxed wines. There were some "mixed" drinks available, but I'd seen them come from cans in the snack shop, so I passed.The snack shop has some stuff, but I suggest packing your own, especially if you get the munchies. Amtrak's got beer, wine, sodas, candies and chips in a very limited selection. Curling up comfortably in your big old double armchair, with some great snacks, music and a book for 3-4 hours is totally do-able, but may take some planning if you are picky.There is a special bar and dining car for people in sleeper cars. As a business class passenger it seems you MAY be invited in for a wine and cheese tasting IF there is space, but on my journey the 1% bastards in sleeper cars sucked up all the fine wine. Even our conductor couldn't pull off a quick photo tour for me. It is supposedly a real old timey train parlour car. I can not wait to see all the comments in this blog post telling me how I wasted a 12 hour trip by missing it.The staff are all wonderful people. I think our conductor Joseph was living his dream. While I merely yelled "toot toot!" over and over again, Joseph displayed mastery at yelling "All Aboard!" He also made sure our trip was wonderful. The service folks in the dining car and snack shop all seemed to be having the time of their lives, and were super happy to help you. I've never seen people so happy to be at work. Really. Amtrak!The Coast Starlight pulled along the pitch black southern California coast, where we saw a few oil rigs, and then pulled into LA's fabled Union Station. It is ghastly ugly from the arrivals view point. The showpiece building is lovely, but you walk through a lot of rusted corrugated metal to get there.I loved Amtrak and am looking forward to taking another trip, however, I'll look more carefully at the schedule and routes before future trips. South to North is the way for the Coast Starlight. I think Jim owes me about $12 for all the "Toot toots!" Also, this was stuck in my head the entire trip.

A headline meaningful only to Britons of a certain age, and for all others a momentary visit to the strange alternative reality of UK childrens' light entertainment in the 1970s and 1980s. Keith Chegwin is dead at 60.Chegwin was known for hosting programmes including children's game show Cheggers Plays Pop and Swap Shop. ...He went on to make infamous Channel 5 nudist gameshow Naked Jungle, appearing naked except for a hat, and also starred as himself in Ricky Gervais show Extras....The larger-than-life character, described by his family as "a loving husband, father, son, brother, uncle and friend" leaves two children and his wife Maria. He had been cared for at a hospice in recent weeks.Photo: BBCHere is footage from the nude game show.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4jRCfhIUy8

Origamist Leyla Torres of Origami Spirit interviews paper crane enthusiast Cristian Marianciuc, and their lovely conversation covers a cool project that Marianciuc started over 1,000 days ago: creating a super-fancy paper crane each day. (more…)

Previous Wilcock/Lenny comics on Boing Boing:Ladies and Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce!When Lenny Bruce Stayed at My Apartment- Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall

As the new Wired Guide to Digital Security points out, finding hidden cameras is really, really hard, so the fact that several Airbnb guests have discovered them suggests that there are a bunch more that have never been spotted. (more…)

A town in Buckinghamshire, England, has repositioned road barriers made to look like children after a resident said they were too creepy. The toddler-sized safety posts were designed to be more attention-grabbing than the standard poles, and are.There are eight of the child-shaped bollards outside four primary schools in Iver and Iver Heath.Iver Parish Council said the bollards cost £5,395, excluding installation.In September, local resident Jonny Baker said the bollards were "creepy and hideous"."I look out of my window every morning and these are what I see. They're absolutely terrifying," he said.Here's video of the bollards.

At the outset, let me address the likelihood that this post will eventually be visited by someone who has unspeakable plans for a unicorn, is holding a unicorn hostage, or who intends to affix a unicorn to ducting for less nefarious reasons. First, it's duct tape with a unicorn design (Amazon). As in pictures of unicorns are printed on the tape. Second, duct tape is in fact no good for use with ducting. Third, no special tape is required to immobilize or silence unicorns: any good store brand will do.Unicorn Duct Tape [Amazon]

The American savings crisis is a time-bomb, as multiple generations hurtle toward retirement with effectively no savings, and experts are now saying that having $1 million in the bank on retirement day isn't enough. Future generations will either have to let their parents starve or compromise their own ability to produce the next generation while caring for the previous one (this is the crisis underway in China and Japan right now). (more…)

Rhoda Young turned in a series of high-energy live reports after being first journalist on the scene of a house fire in Norfolk, Virginia. It's got everything local news should have: vertical video, swearing, interfering with authorities. (more…)

As if we haven't already heard, Trump again tweeted this morning that he wants Roy Moore, who has a thing for young teenage girls, to beat Doug Jones, "a former state attorney who prosecuted child molesters and pedophiles." As they say, "Birds of a feather..."LAST thing the Make America Great Again Agenda needs is a Liberal Democrat in Senate where we have so little margin for victory already. The Pelosi/Schumer Puppet Jones would vote against us 100% of the time. He’s bad on Crime, Life, Border, Vets, Guns & Military. VOTE ROY MOORE!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2017Image: Evan Guest

Newborns in Arkansas will go home without a birth certificate, starting today, until the state fixes its unconstitutional birth certificate law. As it now stands, Arkansas favors heterosexual parents by automatically putting the mother's husband's name on the baby's birth certificate, even if he isn't the biological father, but requiring a same-sex couple to get a court order before both parents' names could be put on the certificate.According to the Palm Beach Post:Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox on Friday set aside his orders requiring the state and three same-sex couples go into mediation on how to fix the state law to comply with the U.S. high court's order. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge earlier this week asked the state Supreme Court to stay or lift Fox's mediation order."This case has been pending for over two years and it has been more than six months since the United States Supreme Court ruled the Arkansas statutory scheme unconstitutional," Fox wrote in his order. "There are citizens and residents of the state of Arkansas whose constitutional rights are being violated on a daily basis."Judge Fox hopes that Governor Asa Hutchinson can fix the law through executive action, but if not, it probably won't be until February or later, when lawmakers convene again, that parents can expect to bring home a birth certificate along with their new baby.Image: template.net

So much for the Weinstein Moment: Woody Allen is still too powerful and too well-connected for people in Hollywood to speak ill of. Victim Dylan Farrow (whose sibling's reportage brought Harvey Weinstein down and seemed to open a floodgate) wonders why:A prosecutor took the unusual step of announcing that he had probable cause to charge Allen but declined in order to spare me, a “child victim,” from an exhausting trial.It is a testament to Allen’s public relations team and his lawyers that few know these simple facts. It also speaks to the forces that have historically protected men like Allen: the money and power deployed to make the simple complicated, to massage the story.In this deliberately created fog, A-list actors agree to appear in Allen’s films and journalists tend to avoid the subject.Farrow names names, too: Kate Winslet, Blake Lively and Greta Gerwig each denounced Weinstein but hedge their bets for good old Woody: "Having thought it all through, you put it to one side and just work with the person," Winslet said. "Woody Allen is an incredible director."Farrow:It isn’t just power that allows men accused of sexual abuse to keep their careers and their secrets. It is also our collective choice to see simple situations as complicated and obvious conclusions as a matter of “who can say”? The system worked for Harvey Weinstein for decades. It works for Woody Allen still.

The Gävle goat is an enormous straw goat erected anually in the Swedish town. Just as traditional, though, is the act of (illegally) burning it down. Though the authorities have made efforts to prevent the arson, the Gävle goat only has about a half chance of surviving December. Reddit user desfirsit charted the historical survival rates across the month, and found that the heavy-drinking days leading up to St Lucy's Day and Christmas were most dangerous for the Gävle goat: "Only 44 percent of the goats have survived all of december."