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Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard the re-argument of Sessions v. Dimaya, a case that asks whether the administration can treat lawful immigrants to the USA (including Green Card holders like me) as though we have no Constitutional rights. (more…)

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A dumb teenage laxative-devouring competition ended in tears; also in low blood potassium, massive dehydration, crippling headaches, and the transformation of the victim's body into a toxic waste dump: "If your kidney doesn't function, your body, down to its bones, will rot away and eventually you'll die in a pool of your own waste that should have been your urine".Here's an illustration of what was left of his kidneys.

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. GET Ruben Bolling’s new hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures. (”Filled with wild twists and funny dialogue” -Publishers Weekly) Book One here. Book Two here. More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

"I dress for myself because I never know where I'm going to land, or where I'm going to sing, or what I'm going to do," says Frances, who is 103 years old. Pond's Cold Cream, short bangs, Sephora, manicures, lipstick only... watch these amazing women 100-years and older share their beauty secrets with us.

I can't wait to see Jane, the new National Geographic documentary about the inspiring primatologist Jane Goodall who famously lived with chimpanzees in Tanzania for decades and has worked tireless on conservation and animal welfare issues her entire adult life. The film, containing unseen footage of Jane in the jungle, was directed by Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck) with music by minimalist master Philip Glass!This photo below of Jane Goodall observing chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, taken by her mother Vanne Morris-Goodall, was encoded on the Voyager Golden Record launched into space 40 years ago:

As the Spanish government was hacking the Catalonian independence movement, shutting down the .cat top-level domain, and engaging mass-blocking of websites and apps to control information about yesterday's referendum on Catalonian independence, the Xnet collective published a basic (but wide-ranging) guide to "preserving fundamental rights on the Internet," suitable for anyone living under the kind of state suppression that Spain underwent. (more…)

Firefighters had to rescue this fellow who got stuck on a telephone wire 19 floors above the ground. He found himself in this predicament because he didn't want to pay his hotel bill and decided to climb out the window and traverse along a phone wire to another building, thus avoiding the pesky clerk at the counter on the ground floor. About halfway across, he gave up and waited for someone to save him.

NPR's All Things Considered aired a wonderful piece about the Voyager Golden Record's first-ever vinyl release that I co-produced with my friends Tim Daly and Lawrence Azerrad. Listen to Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi's report here:Last week, (the original Voyager Golden Record's producer Timothy) Ferris got his box set in the mail. He says that his friend, the late Carl Sagan, would be delighted by what they made."I think this record exceeds Carl's — not only his expectations, but probably his highest hopes for a release of the Voyager record," Ferris says. "I'm glad these folks were finally able to make it happen."Pescovitz says he's just glad to have returned the Golden Record to the world that created it.At a moment of political division and media oversaturation, Pescovitz and Daly say they hope that their Golden Record can offer a chance for people to slow down for a moment; to gather around the turntable and bask in the crackly sounds of what Sagan called the "pale blue dot" that we call home."As much as it was a gift from humanity to the cosmos, it was really a gift to humanity as well," Pescovitz says. "It's a reminder of what we can accomplish when we're at our best.""The Voyager Golden Record Finally Finds An Earthly Audience" (NPR)The Voyager Golden Record is now available for pre-order on vinyl or CD from Ozma Records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnES-PPWVbYTim O'Reilly (previously) is my kind of technologist: someone who goes past the "is technology good or bad for us?" question and dives into the really meaty, important question, namely: "how can we make technology better for us?" (more…)

The official party line from Taser -- who make less-lethal electrical weapons as well as a range of police body-cameras and other forensic devices -- is that its weapons don't kill ("no one has died directly from the device’s shock"). Reuters reporters who heard this claim decided it was highly suspect and took action, mining America's court records to find "150 autopsy reports citing Tasers as a cause or contributor to deaths," and that those deaths were disproportionately inflicted on "society’s vulnerable – unarmed, in psychological distress and seeking help" -- all told, they found 1005 deaths in which Tasers were implicated. (more…)

If you absolutely can’t wait for the return of Netflix’s nostalgic sci-fi masterwork at the end of the month, this premium Stranger Things poster might help tide you over.This 11” x 17” wall decoration features a chilling render of Millie Bobby Brown’s iconic shaved head, complete with a silhouette of the monstrous Demogorgon. Whether you appreciate the Duffer Brothers’ creation for its love of tabletop role-playing games, the accurate depiction of early 1980's Indiana, or you just dig the spooky, Carpenter-esque synth theme, you can celebrate Stranger Things with crisp image quality from this 100lb. archival photo paper.Grab a Stranger Things poster from the Boing Boing Store for $13.95.More Deals from the Boing Boing Store:Social Media Rockstar Bundle: $29 (97% off)Clip & Snap Smartphone Camera Lenses: $17.99 (74% off)4-Piece Knife and Peeler Set: $26.99 (73% off)

Remember 2004, pre-Twitter times, when Donald Trump was forced to secretly write his insults on paper and then mail them to his enemies? Virgin Group founder Richard Branson sure does, and he’s sharing a 13-year-old letter Trump sent scolding him for starting a reality show similar to The Apprentice. Branson published the surly letter in his upcoming book, Finding My Virginity, according to The Independent. The tirade includes Trump ravings such as: “You should try to get out of the airline business too...;” “I wonder out loud how you can be anywhere close to a billionaire…;” and “Do not use me to promote your rapidly sinking show…” Excerpts of Trump’s letter via The Independent: “At least your dismal ratings can now allow you to concentrate on your airline which, I am sure, needs every ounce of your energy,” Mr Trump wrote.“It is obviously a terrible business and I can’t imagine, with fuel prices etc, that you can be doing any better in it than anyone else.“Like television, you should try to get out of the airline business too, as soon as possible! Actually, I wonder out loud how you can be anywhere close to a billionaire and be in that business. Perhaps the title of your show, The Rebel Billionaire, is misleading?“In any event, do not use me to promote your rapidly sinking show – you are a big boy, try doing it yourself!”Image: Jarle Naustvik

When there's a mass shooting in America, a pattern repeats itself. Some people remind themselves that nothing will ever change...https://twitter.com/dpjhodges/status/611943312401002496?lang=en... and others assume that this time it will, and go out and buy guns before it's too late. Shares of Sturm Ruger (RGR) were up 6%, while American Outdoor Brands (AOBC), the company formerly known as Smith & Wesson, gained nearly 7%. Both stocks have tended to rally in the immediate aftermath of mass killings, which sadly have become more routine.The Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June 2016. San Bernardino in December 2015. The Aurora, Colorado movie theater and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. in 2012.Investors had bet that these massacres would lead to tougher gun control laws, especially because of tough talk from President Obama.The stricter laws never materialized. Instead, gun sales climbed during the Obama administration's two terms as gun aficionados bought more firearms just in case rules changed at a national level or in individual states controlled by Democrats.The presumption is that liberals tend to be fatalistic, while conservatives expect gun control. The business's been depressed since Trump won the election, so both beliefs now benefit the gun lobby in the wake of an attack.

Ruth from Openmedia writes, "This Thursday legislators in the EU Parliament are voting on proposals in the EU for mass content filters, and restrictions on links, all in the name of 'updating copyright. (more…)

If you're one of those people who constantly dips into a text editor to work with snippets of text -- notes, lists, quotes, URLs, and so on -- you'll love Tyke. A free app by Andre Torrez, it lives in the MacOS menu bar and replaces those barely-used editor windows cluttering desktop and dock. The Susan Kare-esque icon is maybe my favorite thing about it, suggesting a missing feature of Macs going back decades.

Though it looks like a normal sponge, the Gonzo Pet Hair Lifter – a brick of latex mattress material – has a peculiar tacky texture. It's easy to mistake for other "clever" sponge products, such as those covered in suede, cellulose or microfiber or whatever, but it's much better for dealing with fuzz. It's the most effective thing for dealing with dog hair I've ever tried, in fact, and I'll never go back to adhesive lint rollers or static brushes after risking $6 on it. (more…)

https://youtu.be/7e4vFMJmBIcLast night's Saturday Night Live once again took aim at Donald Trump, with Alec Baldwin reprising his eerily good Trump impression, while Kate McKinnon stole the show with her racist elf Jeff Sessions (Alex Moffat is also a body-double for Chuck Schumer, but regrettably wasn't very funny).

Equifax sources say that the massive breach of 140,000,000 Americans' personal information was the result of state-sponsored hackers, likely from China, but attribution is hard and inexact. (more…)

TangerineBlast's Alexander Hamilton: An Equestrian Musical is far from perfect, but there are inspired moments in the execution that speak of an encylopedic grasp of the entire corpus of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic canon. (Thanks, Alice!)

Nomblr created a fully-functional USB keyboard out of a 1950s Morse Key he inherited from his dad.I can just about remember growing up around beautifully designed analogue devices like rotary dial phones, typewriters, and record players. I’ve always like the idea of converting these largely defunct objects into digital devices, and my Dad’s old Morse key seemed like a simple project to get started on. It was a surprisingly involved process, requiring not just learning to program a Teensy but also some good old-fashioned woodwork.

Transgender teen Ally Lee Steinfeld was stabbed in the genitals, had her eyes gouged out, and was burned to a charred crisp. But she was not the victim of a hate crime, say the police and prosecutor.Steinfeld, 17, was allegedly attacked by her girlfriend and two teenagers in an assault in Cabool, Texas Country, Missouri which left her with her eyes gouged out, court records said.Steinfeld, who was born as Joseph Matthew Steinfeld, had been missing for a month before investigators found her charred remains in a bag dumped in a chicken coop.It came weeks after a post on social media site Instagram where she described herself as "mtf", or male-to-female, later adding: “I am proud to be me I am proud to be trans.”But the authorities insisted Steinfeld’s murder was not motivated by her sexuality or gender.Prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr told news agency AP: "I would say murder in the first-degree is all that matters. That is a hate crime in itself."If all murders are hate crimes, none of them are. If you can thank the Internet for one thing this summer, it's the fact it might force at least a perfunctory prosecution out of this gentleman.

Python is one of the first languages taught in university Computer Science degrees for a reason. It’s got a plethora of modern language features that help you write clean, human-readable code that doesn’t dwell on low-level stuff like memory management. But Python skills will take you far beyond introductory CS courses — this language is used extensively in the realm of machine learning, big data, and web development. To get a thorough understanding of everything that this versatile tech is capable of, take a look at the Python Power Coder BONUS Bundle.If you’ve never coded before, this bundle will introduce you to the fundamentals of programming. But once you’ve wrapped your head around the basics, you’ll start making real web applications, build network services, explore artificial intelligence, and learn to analyze massive volumes of data. Here’s everything that’s included in this collection:The Developers' Guide to Python 3 ProgrammingStep by Step: Build a Data Analysis ProgramThe Python Mega Course: Build 10 Real World ApplicationsThe Complete Computer Vision Course with PythonLearn Python 3 from ScratchPython Tutorial: Python Network Programming - Build 7 AppsPython Web ProgrammingTaming Big Data with Apache Spark and PythonThis bundle is available now for $44 from the Boing Boing Store.More Deals from the Boing Boing store:1080p HD Waterproof WiFi Wireless Endoscopic Camera $39.99Pay What You Want: Learn to Code 2017 BundleThe MacX Media Conversion Lifetime License Bundle $19.99

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok2q1iOVihAThinkgeek's $30 Critical Hit Waffle Maker produces D20 carbohydrates on demand, which makes it the best breakfast roll going. (more…)

California's heavy rains led to a bounty for wildlife in the woods where I live. The local rat population has soared, due to a lack of predators, and apparently they have declared my woodshed home. I would have thought rats would steer a clear path around a home with several cats and dogs. My Great Pyrenees spreads gallons of dog urine over the yard to warn invading animals to steer clear. My Maine Coon cat, Heart, constantly patrols the inside of the home, and I sometimes leave bags of his spent litter outside the back door to allow their scent to permeate the area. None of this has deterred the Norwegian Tree Rat from establishing a base of operations in my woodshed.Simply clearing the Spring and Summer's over-grown vegetation back from around my house was a cultural misstep and I have unintentionally offended the rodent kingdom. Not happy to stay in their thinned back ivy and cypress hedges, rats have set up a refugee colony in my woodshed, or greatly expanded a long minor outpost. I'm not excited to move a cord of wood just to displace this rodent insurrection. Luckily I do not see any signs of them inside my home, where canine and feline alike patrol constantly. Their presence, however, is easily detectable around the foundation of my home. Yuck! I can also hear them in the shed and bushes when I step outside to smoke weed at night. Do not fuck with my rituals, rats. Do not.I decided it was time to take action before things got more serious. I had a few traps around from the last time I saw rat-sign, several years ago. I would set them.I use old fashioned wood and metal spring rat-sized snap traps. You can get them for less than $2 each via Amazon in packs of 12. You may not need 12. I think I may be needing several dozen. When I first moved into my home, 10 years ago, the prior owners had left a lot of those city-park style "pet and kid safe" black boxes full of warfarin based rat poison all over the property. I thought the potential for local rat predators to suffer out-of-bounds for I who chooses to live near lots of wildlife. It was years before I saw evidence of any rodentia, so when they did appear I used the tried and true method of snap traps.I'm typing this with a gouge in one of my thumbs from setting the traps, so I do need to exercise more care. I caught myself on a sharp bit, rather than breaking fingers in the trap but BE CAREFUL! This trap will cause immense pain to humans and pets. You can bend the bait/release platform a bit to increase or decrease trap sensitivity. I tend to find the traps come too sensitive out of the package, but are easy to get set right. Spend some time before baiting the trap making sure you can set it and then place it where you want it without it going off. This will be much cleaner in the long run.In the world of baits there appears to be only one that works reliably, and it works so well I do not know why anyone hunting Norwegian Tree Rats would bother with anything but smooth Skippy peanut butter. School children, dogs and those awful vermin all love the stuff. I use the peanut butter for getting the dogs to take pills, and getting rats to die. A teaspoon scoop covers the bait-plate and is sticky enough the rats set off the trap and meet their doom.Another reason I prefer the all wood/metal traps is that I can just throw them away with the dead rodent. There have been local reports of rabid bats that give me pause. I don't need to muck around with bloody, ant covered rat carcasses to save a $2 trap that may now smell like death and not work anyways. I have read that the yellow plastic bait-plate traps are "better" because they have pre-set sensitivity spots and the surface of the plate is larger for easier set-it-off-leverage. I just think the plastic gets in the way of recycling the nasty trap, and costs a bit more.I also stuffed steel wool into every hole I saw in the exterior of my home that may admit vermin, I hear the vermin do not like that.I have been setting two traps a night for the last 2 nights. 4 rats are dead. I am going to set two traps a night for the next week. I realize I can never and will never eradicate them, but I'd like to push the population back to where they stay out of sight, again.I will let you know how the battle progresses.

Republican Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico allegedly dashed on her bill at a burger restaurant Wednesday in what her office is calling a “super-sized nothing burger.” The manager of Five Star Burgers in Santa Fe said that when separate bills came for the to-go order, Martinez “crumpled” hers and threw it in the trash, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. A few hours later after reports broke about the incident, the man Martinez ordered with came back and paid for her $17 Bison Burger meal, a server said. Martinez’s office said the incident was simply a misunderstanding. “The governor pays for her meals, including this one, and attempting to exploit an obviously honest misunderstanding just demonstrates how petty our politics have become,” a spokesman for the governor said. Image: New Mexico State Government

Erin Haworth of The Smithsonian says:Thought you might be interested in Clive Thompson’s latest tech column in the October issue of Smithsonian magazine, which takes a look at virtual reality and how its shocking power was all the buzz once before — about 150 years ago! Thompson admits he once thought modern day virtual reality might be a fad. He changed his mind about it as he researched the similarities between VR and the stereoscope, a curious illusion discovered in 1838 that used vision and perspective to make the brain assemble two slightly varied images into a three-dimensional view. Thompson now predicts VR is here to stay.The stereoscope became wildly popular in its day, crossing all cultural and class boundaries, transforming science, inspiring artists and being used as an educational tool. As VR edges into the mainstream, Thompson also takes a look at the various applications of today’s technology as it gets better and cheaper.

I just came across this amazing company, La-La Land Records, that releases soundtracks of movies and TV shows.But they don't just release ordinary soundtracks, like their score to the new movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle. They also produce obsessively researched and mind-bogglingly complete soundtracks for older properties.For example, they offer a 3-CD set for the Henry Mancini soundtrack to the 1965 movie The Great Race, which must have a running time longer than the movie itself. But it's on televisions series that they really shine. The Star Trek: The Original Series soundtrack is a 15-CD monster that will set you back $224.98. The complete DVD set for the series (which includes music and dialog and moving pictures) only costs $39. The La-La Land soundtrack set is beautifully packaged, and includes such tracks as "Zap the Space Ship" and "Mudd's Farewell/Back in Orbit"If you love the incidental music from the TV show Lost In Space, you are really in luck. Their 12-CD set contains over 14 hours of musical interludes like"A Running Start / Never Fear / Zeno's Plan", and includes a 104-page booklet.This stuff is not for me; I couldn't even make it through the end of one of those sample tracks. But I'm strangely glad this stuff exists. Some might call this music entertainment detritus, but others clearly love it, and for them and for posterity, it's been expertly curated, cataloged and archived.

If you’ve ever looked around and wondered, where are all the aliens, hit Play, below. No, you won’t find an alien. But you’ll hear a luxuriously unhurried interview with British astronomer Stephen Webb. He has probably given this question more careful thought than any living person, and many (but by no means all) of his reflections can be found in his brilliant book, Where Is Everybody.This is the eighth episode of my podcast series (co-hosted by Tom Merritt), which launched here on Boing Boing last month. The series goes deep into the science, tech, and sociological issues explored in my novel After On – but no familiarity with the novel is necessary to listen to it.Today’s interviewee is a world-leading expert on the subject of Fermi’s paradox – which is encapsulated in his book’s title. And the paradox’s roots are quite literally as old as Earth itself.Life arose here – presumably from dead matter – almost as soon as the collisions and volcanism of planetary formation calmed enough to permit its existence. If that’s a normal pattern, billions of planets out there should harbor some form of life. Because some of those planets are billions of years older than ours, their brainier occupants could have far surpassed today’s technology when our forerunners still had fins. Yet we see no evidence of this. And it’s not for a lack of seeking it, as there are scientists who have done little else for decades.There isn’t just one possible solution to Fermi’s paradox. There are at least 75 by Stephen’s count, and we discuss several. Our interview is delightfully wide-ranging, as Fermi solutions touch on every aspect of science, and several branches of sociology. This makes the paradox a worthy subject of study for anyone - even those with zero interest in extraterrestrials.You can subscribe to my podcast within any podcast app. Simply use your app's search function (type in "After On") to find and subscribe. To subscribe via your computer on iTunes, just click here, then click the blue “View on iTunes” button (on the left side of the page), then click “Subscribe” (in a similar location) in the iTunes window. Or follow the feed http://afteron.libsyn.com/rss

According to the poster Mystic_L, each bottle represents a year in the cask. A good illustration of how fast (slow?) whiskies age, but also where diminishing returns kick in, and the Angel's Share — the loss of volume over time through evaporation.

These power plant control rooms are so cool looking that they don't even seem real. This site, called Present /&/ Correct, has a nice gallery of them. Above image is from the nuclear ship Savannah.

Harry Shearer says he received $98 in total music royalties and $81 in merchandising income for Spinal Tap from entertainment giant Vivendi, thanks to the company's (extremely) creative accounting. He's been suing them for more than a year, and just scored an important court victory that will allow him to proceed, with US District Court Dolly Gee ruling that the case will go to trial. (more…)

Keiko Otsuhata created a set of three "anatomical fish zip-bags" for Colossal, in kinme, saury, and sea bream. They're $18 each. (more…)

A baseball fan wearing a glove leaned out and scooped up a ball that was still in play. He was very excited about his trophy, but when it became clear that he'd screwed up in a big way, his mood changed to confusion followed by cowed embarrassment.

There has never been a moment in which digital rights in the UK were more up for grabs, between Brexit, sweeping new surveillance powers, and the accelerating drumbeat of the digitisation of every aspect of life and society. (more…)

The Roqos Core Firewall Router comes with a built-in VPN and a host of other cybersecurity features, giving your home network powerful protection from online threats with minimal setup.Like any respectable consumer router, the Roqos Core provides dual-band WiFi and gigabit ethernet — but its security features truly tip the scales. To ensure that you’ll stay safe from malware, ransomware, and denial-of-service attacks, it blocks anything deemed fishy by the Roqos cloud at the network level. It’s always connected to stay up to date on the latest threats, and it doesn’t store any of your user data so you maintain total privacy. This router is also built on open-source software to give you maximum flexibility in your network configuration. If you’re looking for a wireless solution that doesn’t require tons of software to be installed on your devices, or an extra layer of security for your home automation, the Roqos Core Firewall Router is a solid all-around choice. You can get it here for $119, which includes a month of their integrated cybersecurity, parental control, dynamic DNS, and VPN services for free.

In Public opinion in the post-Brexit era, the centre-right thinktank Legatum reveals that 83% of Britons favour re-nationalising water companies; 77% want to re-nationalise electricity, and 76% want to re-nationalize the railroads. (more…)

A cop injured during a protest sued DeRay Mckesson, Black Lives Matter and a hashtag. His suit was tossed by the judge this week.The officer argued Black Lives Matter was a “national unincorporated association” and called Mckesson its leader and co-founder. He claimed the activists had gathered in Baton Rouge to incite violence against police and that Mckesson was responsible for the actions of the unidentified demonstrator who hurled the rock. The judge disagreed. ... The judge also denied the officer’s attempt to add the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter to the suit, writing that “a hashtag is patently incapable of being sued.”Cops and other government entities trying to sue protestors is an emergent free speech problem. Thankfully, Jeff Sessions will be fighting tooth and claw for minority activists' rights in the coming three years.

Mark Zuckerberg explains, in a defensive Facebook blog post, that he thinks that fake news and state-level election manipulation are "ideas and content" and that Facebook is his vision of a neutral place for their propagation. As quoted by Alexis Madrigal,“Liberals say we helped Trump. Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like. That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like.”Trump wants Facebook to be seen as having a traditional anti-Trump bias. Mark Zuckerberg wants the service to be seen as neutral. And they’re both wrong.Zuckerberg’s statement begins with a play right out of the D.C. congressional playbook: The tough-minded, get-things-done pragmatist knows in his heart that if everyone is mad, he must have done something right.But the sophisticated critiques of Facebook are not about ideas and content that people don’t like, but rather the new structural forces that Facebook has created. Zuckerberg got played by people smarter than he is. All we see of him now is the bottomless narcissistic injury inflicted by the fact one of them was Donald Trump.

The code for Sheet fits in one of those newfangled 280-character tweets with room to spare: at 218 bytes, it's the most amazingly compact spreadsheet app committed to screen.A 218b spreadsheet app in HTML/JSInspired by aem1k.com/sheet Golfed by xem, subzey, p01, rlauck, aemkei, odensc, corruptio Related AMA answer See also my new favorite subreddit, r/TinyCode

There used to be 25 years of Howard Stern interviews with now-president Donald Trump to listen to. But not anymore: the unofficial archive's been taken offline after a DMCA takedown notice came by FedEx.On Wednesday afternoon, roughly 48 hours after it was put up, the audio trove has been removed from YouTube and SoundCloud. For now, the transcripts remain on Factba.se, a website created by the startup FactSquared. Factba.se published a total of around 15 hours' worth of audio—exclusively of the minutes when Trump was on The Howard Stern Show—gathered from nearly 25 years of shows, starting in 1993 and ending in 2015."We were in the process of putting [the audio files] on our own server, but then FedEx showed up and that was the official stop," Bill Frischling, the CEO of FactSquared, told Ars. "So we had a good conversation with our attorneys today, and we’re going to be reaching out to [SiriusXM’s attorneys] pretty darned soon. We’ve already exchanged brief notes, everybody is hoping to get it resolved amicably. Our goal is to preserve the record. At least right now, this is the only public version of a massive, quarter-century trove of interviews."

I don't know what is funnier - the things Amtrak passengers whine about, or the way the complaints have been redacted as if they were state secrets.In her what? C'mon, why won't Amtrak tell us?I'm trying to imagine what was censored here. Sure there's more to it than "no snack car."Finally, one that the censor with the black pen didn't catch, about a slow, not-friendly, screaming, laughing, smiling, lady with no name tag.Muckrock has the full, 112-page report.

We use our Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote multiple times a day. The Dot is in our kitchen and we use it to get news updates (NPR), play podcasts and audiobooks, and to get the weather forecast. I also like to ask it the price of bitcoin. The Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote is great if you are an Amazon prime member. It also streams HBO, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Showtime and most other streaming services. Amazon has a good deal today: $60 for a Fire TV Stick and an Echo Dot.

It's already known that Trump throws creepy insults at people that include blood (remember his "blood coming out of her wherever" remark about Megyn Kelly, and "bleeding badly from a facelift" comment about MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski?).Now we've also learned that Trump uses blood as an excuse for his sociopathic behavior. In one of the tidbits we got from the Howard Stern Show archives this week from Bill Frischling at Factbl.og , Trump talks about how an 80-year-old man fell at Mar-a-Lago and started bleeding all over the marble floors. Trump, who thought the man had died, was upset about his marble floors turning red, but expressed no sympathy for the man. He said he forgot to call the man the next day to see how he was doing. "It's just not my thing," he said about the blood.Here's it is in Trump's words, via The Daily Beast:“I was at Mar-a-Lago and we had this incredible ball, the Red Cross Ball, in Palm Beach, Florida. And we had the Marines. And the Marines were there, and it was terrible because all these rich people, they’re there to support the Marines, but they’re really there to get their picture in the Palm Beach Post… so you have all these really rich people, and a man, about 80 years old—very wealthy man, a lot of people didn’t like him—he fell off the stage.“So what happens is, this guy falls off right on his face, hits his head, and I thought he died. And you know what I did? I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. "I couldn’t, you know, he was right in front of me and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him… he’s bleeding all over the place, I felt terrible. You know, beautiful marble floor, didn’t look like it. It changed color. Became very red. And you have this poor guy, 80 years old, laying on the floor unconscious, and all the rich people are turning away. ‘Oh my God! This is terrible! This is disgusting!’ and you know, they’re turning away. Nobody wants to help the guy. His wife is screaming—she’s sitting right next to him, and she’s screaming.“What happens is, these 10 Marines from the back of the room… they come running forward, they grab him, they put the blood all over the place—it’s all over their uniforms—they’re taking it, they’re swiping [it], they ran him out, they created a stretcher. They call it a human stretcher, where they put their arms out with, like, five guys on each side.“I was saying, ‘Get that blood cleaned up! It’s disgusting!’ The next day, I forgot to call [the man] to say he’s OK,” said Trump, adding of the blood, “It’s just not my thing.” Yep. Attaprez!

A Russian government-affiliated troll farm called Internet Research Agency bought a Black Lives Matter ad on Facebook targeting Ferguson and Baltimore, reports CNN, with "the apparent goal of the Russian buyers to amplify political discord and fuel an atmosphere of incivility and chaos."Facebook refuses to release the ad publicly, citing issues of privacy, even though ad ran publicly in late 2015 or early 2016.Snip:Facebook did not comment for this story but did point to a statement from Facebook's chief security officer, Alex Stamos, who said earlier this month that "the vast majority of ads run by these accounts didn't specifically reference the U.S. presidential election, voting or a particular candidate.""Rather," Stamos said, "the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum -- touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights."Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said this week that the aim of the ad-buyers "was to sow chaos.""In many cases, it was more about voter suppression rather than increasing turnout," he told reporters.The Senate Intelligence Committee will also hear from Twitter on Thursday about how foreign nationals may have used its ad service to influence the 2016 election. Twitter has declined to shed any light so far on what information it plans to give to Congress.Related: Russian-generated Facebook posts pushed Trump as "only viable option."

Watch how this adorable little girl reacts when she finds out that she's going to have a baby brother. Not what she wanted. I've never seen a face go red so fast! Good thing there were sweet treats on hand.

Racine, Wisconsin's Reefpoint Brew House is dealing with quite a lot of outrage. Co-owner John Valko's moronic statement suggesting NFL players who do not feel the way he does about our national anthem be killed has not been well received.Via the Journal Times:A co-owner of a popular lakefront restaurant advocated for the killing of kneeling NFL players in a Facebook comment posted Monday, according to multiple screenshots circulating on social media.The owners of Reefpoint Brew House, 2 Christopher Columbus Causeway, acknowledged the comment from fellow co-owner John Valko in a statement released on their Facebook page Tuesday evening.In the comment, which has been deleted but appears as a screenshot multiple times in the comments on the statement, Valko advocates for the killing of NFL players who kneel during the national anthem before games, something more than 200 players did Sunday.“Kill the idiot players,” Valko wrote. “Execute them. They are nothing but garbage. The league is screwed up if they think it is their right. It is their duty to respect our country and our flag. They should go kneel in front of a freight train. Shame on these stupid misfits of society. They need to die.”

While the United States was monkeying about, the Soviet Union was sending dogs into space! Laika, Belka and Strelka were strays that became daring cosmonauts. Soviet Space Dogs shares their stories through the vast collection of art and objects that were made to commemorate and celebrate their adventures.Soviet Space Dogs (hardcover) via Amazon

I was going through my copy of Stewart Brand's 1974 book, II Cybernetic Frontiers (1974) when I came across this sketch by computer scientist Alan Kay, who conceived of a tablet computer in 1972 called the Dynabook. Although it used a stylus and a keyboard, his 43-year-old sketch of two kids sitting in the grass playing video games on their Dynabooks looks like kids today playing games on their iPads.