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Updated 2025-01-01 15:17
TripAdvisor blocks posts about dangerous Mexican resorts
https://youtu.be/loh50mM987wWhen a US woman posted about being raped at a Mexican resort, TripAdvisor deleted the post, saying it "wasn't family friendly." Other people say they've posted about rapes and deaths at resorts only to have them deleted by TripAdvisor for spurious reasons.Via Uproxx:
How much should you pay your babysitter?
According UrbanSitter's 2017 National Childcare Rate Survey, babysitters in the US charge an average of $15.20 an hour for one child. San Francisco's babysitters are the most expensive at $17.34 an hour, and Denver's are the cheapest at $12.22 an hour.[via Lifehacker]
Trump appointed a loan-shark fixer as an assistant Attorney General, who then wrote a controversial memo justifying the neutering of the consumer finance watchdog
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a rare gem in the US financial regulatory apparatus, a regulator that actually tackles fraud and criminality by monied, powerful financial institutions, exacts meaningful penalties from them, and forces them to stop. They're one of the only things standing between you and highway robbery. (more…)
Religious fanatics go to the Supreme Court for the First Amendment right to trick women into bearing unwanted children
"Crisis Pregnancy Centers" are fake abortion clinics run by religious fanatics who use online fraud to get them to the top of the search results in order to lure women seeking abortions to visiting a place they believe to be an abortion clinic, but which is really a religious mission where the people pretending to be medical professionals dispense misinformation about the medical risks of abortion, then apply high-pressure sales tactics to bully and trick women into carrying unwanted pregnancies to term. (more…)
Comcast spams social media with Net Neutrality promises, hopes you won't notice that they used to promise a LOT more
Back in 2014, Comcast was desperately trying to stop the FCC from bringing meaningful Net Neutrality regulation to the web, and they laid out a suite of promises about their future conduct, with or without the rules, including a promise not to introduce internet slow lanes that publishers who wouldn't pay bribes would be stuck in, while their spendier competitors would be able to reach Comcast subscribers faster. (more…)
Breitbart editor cites Ringo Starr's "You're Sixteen..." to defend Roy Moore
In discussing allegations on CNN that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore assaulted a minor teenage girl Breitbart News senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak pointed out that Ringo Starr was "thirtysomething" when he covered “You’re Sixteen, You’re Beautiful, and You’re Mine.”From Washington Examiner:
Cheese expert asked to guess which cheese is more expensive
Cheese expert Liz Thorpe was asked to sample pairs of cheese and guess which one was more expensive. Was she right every time? You'll have to watch to find out, but it's worth watching because you'll learn a lot about cheese in 11 minutes.[via Digg]
These extra-bright flashlights work great in an emergency kit
It’s always a good idea to keep a flashlight in an easy-to-reach place in case your house is rendered powerless, or in the event of an emergency. Stay prepared for emergencies with this 2-pack of UltraBright 500-Lumen Tactical Military Flashlights, available now in the Boing Boing Store for $17.99.These LED torches have an adjustable aperture, so you can illuminate wide areas, or focus your beam to shine up to a mile away. They feature a blinking SOS mode in case you get stranded somewhere in the dark, and are built from lightweight aircraft-grade aluminum to stand up to the elements.They come with a durable carrying case, and run on a single (not included) AA battery each. Grab two UltraBright 500-Lumen Tactical Military Flashlights here for $17.99.
Trump now privately denies authenticity of the Access Hollywood tape
The New York Times reports Orange Julius now denies the Access Hollywood tapes are legit. The gaslighting of America continues...Via NYT:
How to play Muddy Waters on a cigar box guitar
Shane Speal, the king of cigar box guitars, has a great tutorial on how to play Muddy Waters' music on a three-string guitar tuned to open-G.Here's part 2:https://youtu.be/u7wPcmDWEpM
Enjoy the heavenly sounds of the glass armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin
After seeing people make musical tones by rubbing their wet fingers around the rim of a wine glass, Benjamin Franklin invented the glass armonica in 1761. Today, there are very few glass armonica players. Chris Funk of the Decemberists went to visit one of them.
Who Time Magazine should award Person of the Year to
Donald Trump claims he turned down this year's "Person of the Year" award. Time denied it. Trump famously had a fake Time magazine cover featuring him on his wall, and is just as famously obsessed with the appointment, which he won in 2016.Now, Time's not great at picking winners. So don't get your hopes up! They once specialized in dull-edged controversy but often retreat into daft cop-outs like, say, "anonymous Twitter accounts." Perhaps they'll just wring their hands into giving it to Trump anyway.I'd like to see Time give it to this pair. You might well disgree with one or the other, but it would make Trump's head explode. Not that he's hard to get going. Pence would be finding chunks of his brain in the Oval Office for months.
Explore an infinite, procedurally-generated Ikea
Ikea is a Swedish furniture retailer famous for its vast and disorienting store layouts. SCP is fictional universe depicted exclusively as reports filed with a secret government agency whose job is to secure and contain supernatural objects, entities and places — think Torchwood meets the OSHA Hazardous Materials Specifications Committee and you're all set. One of my favorite SCP stories is SCP-3008, concerning the discovery of a nascent civilization formed by shoppers lost in an infinite Ikea.And now it is a game!
Cross-stitched scene from Ultima 1
Glenda Adams created this pixel-perfect cross-stitch depicting a scene from 1981's Ultima, one of Richard Garriott's first adventures in the fantasy world of Brittania.https://twitter.com/glenda_atom/status/934526491307794434https://twitter.com/glenda_atom/status/934526737454641152
Chicago offers to give Amazon the taxes that Amazon's workers pay
In hopes of inducing Amazon to build its proposed second headquarters in Chicago, the city has offered to pay it the taxes paid by Amazon's own employees. In effect, Amazon's workers would be paying taxes to their own bosses.
Fighting robots, as fast as the eye can see
If the last you saw of fighting wheeled robots was Robot Wars, well, things have moved on in the last few years! Check out these single-minded sumobots, as fast as the eye can see and ruthlessly optimized to their purpose.The video was shot/compiled by Robert McGregor. Here's more:https://twitter.com/ID_R_McGregor/status/877050984127713281With the slower, more implicitly purposeful Boston Dynamics bots, there are usually two responses: firstly, "holy shit!", and secondly, "something something welcome our new robot overlords." Their resemblance to mammal forms is both appealing and unnerving.But here there is only "holy shit!" These lightning-fast, plainly unlovable little fellas are a good reminder of what the reality will be: the same overlords as before, but wielding weapons so tiny and fast that you won't even see them coming.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MW0mDZysxc[via]
A million anti-Net Neutrality comments reportedly fake
Over on Hackernoon, data scientist and "language nerd," Jeff Kao, has posted the results of a data analysis he did on Net Neutrality comments submitted to the FCC between April-October 2017. Using natural language processing techniques, he was able to look for suspicious patterns in the language used. What he found was alarming.
Painter Bob Ross: friend to the critters
Known for his soothing voice, fantastic 'fro and mad painting skills, you may not remember that the late great Bob Ross was an animal lover, as evidenced by these videos.https://youtu.be/puGk2iFvvp0?t=12m20shttps://youtu.be/NqfRLiv0SZ0https://youtu.be/dN4HjAn8p5UPreviously: Bob Ross Chia Pet(reddit)
Obsession: A lot of trees died for OK Go's new music video
OK Go is known for their complicated, flashy music videos, so when the quirky four-man band launched "Obsession" Thursday, the internet took notice. With over a million views already, the video is an impressive visual feast that uses walls of printers (567 of them to be exact) spitting out sheets of paper as its backdrop.It comes with a warning though. The band writes:
Great Pyr stuck inside on a rainy day
This. All day. Except when barking at particularly heavy moments of rain.Nemo is a Great Pyrenees. He'd rather be outside in the rain, but I would rather he not.
Reverse-engineering a connected Furby toy, revealing its disturbing security defects
When Context Labs teamed up with UK consumer group Which? to produce an outstanding report on the surveillance, privacy and security risks of kids' "connected toys," it undertook the reverse-engineering of Hasbro's new Furby Connect, a device that works with a mobile app to listen and watch the people around it and interact with them. (more…)
Rightscorp finished Sept 2017 with $3,147 in the bank, warns investors it will likely have to shut down without more cash
Rightscorp (previously) is the extortion outfit that terrifies people into paying it money for unproven accusations of copyright violations, enlisting ISPs to cut off subscribers who won't cough up. (more…)
Arrogant overreach: Ajit Pai's plan to totally destroy net neutrality may doom him in court
If Trump FCC chairman Ajit Pai had confined his attack on Net Neutrality to merely rolling back the 2015 Title II rules, he might have gotten away with it; but like the Republican plan to kill Obamacare, the Republican plan to rob the middle class to enrich billionaires, and, well, every other Republican plan in this administration, Pai's plan is so grotesque, so overreaching, so nakedly corrupt that it is likely to collapse under its own weight. (more…)
China’s bike-sharing bubble bursts and leaves giant graveyard of unwanted transportation
Untouched sharable bikes on China's sidewalks are now being gathered in a massively grim pile of failed business endeavors.Thousands of the bikes were dumped in the Chinese city of Xiamen after the country’s third largest bicycle sharing company went bankrupt, according to The Guardian. Bluegogo, who claims to have at 20 million users at its peak, shut down its operations earlier this month due to a market apparently inundated with affordable shared bikes.The pile contains multiple-colored bikes from all three companies. These bike sharing systems still have a healthy environmental impact, but overeager venture capitalism left behind an unfortunate mountain of aluminum and polymer. Bluegogo’s CEO Li Gang seems to have said it best when he described himself as “filled with arrogance” in an open letter apology. Gang also cited criticism for running a promotion on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests showing bike icons depicted as tanks for contributing to the company’s downfall. https://youtu.be/1IYu4wzy9Lw
For the next year, TV, newspapers, and the web will run massive ads from tobacco companies admitting that their products kill people, that they were engineered to be addictive, and that they covered t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=O8I39Yb2a_IAfter losing their 19-year court battle with the US Department of Justice, tobacco giants Altria, R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard and Philip Morris USA are now beginning to run their court-ordered "corrective statements" as full-page newspaper ads, major web display ads, and primetime TV spots, containing frank admissions that they violated federal racketeering and fraud laws when they conspired to cover up the fact that their products killed their customers and that they intentionally designed their products to be as addictive as possible. (more…)
You can get these Cyber Monday deals right now
Since Black Friday is just the start of the shopping season, the holiday overlords added Cyber Monday to give us a second chance to save on our seasonal purchases. Here are some items from the Boing Boing store at Cyber Monday prices a little early:Scientific Magnetic Space PuttyThis modern version of Silly Putty retains all the bouncy gooiness of its 1950s predecessor while adding some extra magnetic abilities. Filled with iron-infused carbon, it responds to the presence of any nearby magnet. You can watch the ferric dough dance, or just use it as a fridge magnet. Grab 2 tins of Scientific Magnetic Space Putty from our store for our normal $14.99 price, or save an extra 20% when you use code CYBER20.The Black Friday Mac BundleWith this app bundle, you can give your Mac some new superpowers for the holidays. Some highlights from the collection include PDF Expert, an essential tool for editing text and image inside generated PDF files, and Roxio Toast Titanium for capturing multi-source media, burning DVDs, and editing video. You also get some handy utilities for file management, logo creation, and website design. Make sure to enter CYBER20 at checkout to get 20% off the usual $39 price.Twisty Glass BluntRolling papers can be a hassle for less dextrous hands, and can sometimes cause your combustibles to burn unevenly. To ease your smoking pains, the Twisty Glass Blunt fits up to a half gram of plant material at a time, and lets you reload hits and eject ashes with a quick twist. Plus, the extra chambers provide smoother, longer hits without pulling through. We usually stock it for $44.99, but you can get it for an additional 20% off with coupon code CYBER20.Pay What You Want: White Hat Hacker 2017 BundleLarge-scale data breaches have become too numerous to count and highlight the critical role that information security plays in our connected world. To teach yourself how to think like a cyber attacker but work for the good guys, this White Hat Hacker 2017 Bundle will train you in the art of penetration testing, threat modeling, and basic IT infrastructure management. You can get these 8 comprehensive courses for a pay-what-you-want arrangement from the Boing Boing store.FEZ VaporizerIf you’re concerned about your long-term respiratory health, but still want to enjoy a puff every now and again, consider a FEZ Vaporizer. This sleek unit accepts all kinds of smokable herbs and turns them into clean vapor. It heats up in just 60 seconds, and its temperature settings are totally customizable. You can save an extra 20% off our $79 price when you use code CYBER20 at checkout.
McDonald's Black Friday oopsy tweet
McDonald's accidentally tweeted this late Thursday night:While the internet was having a field day deciding if the tweet was intentional or not, McDonald's copped up to the boo-boo with this tweet nine hours later:https://twitter.com/McDonaldsCorp/status/934071220412264449(Mashable)photo by Rusty Blazenhoff
Despacito performed by a rubber chicken
Franco Muñoz presents a Despacito cover by "Mr. Chicken." You will get exactly what you have been promised. (Thanks, Heather!)
Enjoy a stay at Cold-War era bunker available on Airbnb
With the doomsday clock ticking forward, you might as well keep your family extra safe on the next vacation by staying in an underground missile silo.A Kansas couple is offering the former Atlas E missile site known as Subterra Castle to guests on Airbnb. The steel fortress includes such amenities as a missile bay, a "47 ton drive-in door," and of course, complimentary wifi. The bunker’s decor is described as “bohemian eclectic.”For only $140 a night, enjoy the added protection of surviving the imminent nuclear crisis. There is no additional information on rates when fallout levels spike.Via Airbnb:
Melt a Nazi with the Major Toht candle
The Indiana Jones Melting Toht Candle is $33.39 from Firebox, and while the listing doesn't give dimensions, it certainly gets good reviews! (via Bonnie Burton) (more…)
Researchers craft Android app that reveals menagerie of hidden spyware; legally barred from doing the same with iOS
Yale Privacy Lab and Exodus Privacy's devastating report on the dozens of invasive, dangerous "trackers" hidden in common Android apps was generated by writing code that spied on their target devices' internal operations, uncovering all manner of sneaking trickery. (more…)
You can still get these 5 deals at Black Friday prices
If your food coma caused you to miss out on all of the Black Friday deals, we’ve got your back — you can still get all of the following items from the Boing Boing store at their lowest-ever prices.Universal Waterproof Solar ChargerAnyone who’s always looking for an excuse to escape civilization for the weekend will love a Universal Waterproof Solar Charger. This power pack houses a massive 5,000 mAh battery that can fully recharge up to two Android or iOS phones at once using just sunlight. It even accommodates larger 2.1A devices like iPads. It’s also shock- and water-resistant, and comes with a sturdy clip for attaching to your pack. Usually $49.99, we have this Universal Waterproof Solar Charger for $13.99, saving you an extra 20% off with BFRIDAY20.Private Internet Access VPN: 2-Yr SubscriptionPrivate Internet Access is one of PC Magazine’s favorite VPN services, and for good reason: it’s got over 3,000 servers across 25 countries to ensure a secure, high-speed connection in plenty of locations worldwide. Aside from encrypting all of your browser traffic, it blocks ad trackers and malware at the network level, and works with up to 5 of your devices at once. You can get a 2-year subscription today for $39.99.XXL Shower SpeakerBluetooth speakers are a great way to enjoy your tunes outside, but battery life and volume are often compromised in favor of portability. If you’re just looking for a soundtrack for your morning routine, this XXL Shower Speaker is a better solution. It’s fully waterproof, and it securely sticks to the bathroom wall with a suction cup. Plus, its bigger size accommodates a surprisingly loud 3-watt speaker, and a battery that can last for a month on a single charge. You can get an XXL Shower Speaker for 20% off our $19.99 price with coupon code BFRIDAY20.SpiderOak ONE 1TB Cloud Storage: 1-Yr SubscriptionDropbox and Google Drive might be more popular cloud storage options, but neither of those services have the approval of whistleblowing privacy advocate Edward Snowden. With SpiderOak ONE, you get a terabyte of storage with complete end-to-end encryption — your files are totally protected before they ever leave your machine. This service is also available for every major OS, including Android and Linux, so you can enjoy the convenience of cross-platform sync without sacrificing security. You can get a year of SpiderOak for $39.99 from the Boing Boing store, and get an additional 20% off with code BFRIDAY20.eLearnExcel + eLearnOffice: Lifetime SubscriptionWith lifetime access to eLearnOffice and eLearnExcel, you can become a CPD-certified expert in Microsoft’s essential software suite on your own time. You’ll learn how to structure sheets the right way, build complex pivot tables, and automate tasks within Excel with VBA scripts. Once you’ve mastered spreadsheets, plumb the depths of Word, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, and every other Office app. Use BFRIDAY20 to save an extra $14 off the usual cost of this subscription, just $35.
Doublehand: a robotic pair of hands you control with two fingers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ngPRSuyO0&feature=youtu.beFederico Ciccarese's €1800, 3D-printed Doublehand from Youbionic is a "wearable robotic device" that lets you control two hands using two fingers. (via Oh Gizmo)
Spam was nearly dead, then it became an essential tool for crime and came roaring back
In the early 2000s, a mix of legislative action, vigorous prosecution and advanced countermeasures looked set to kill spam: the terrible economics of mass-scale marketing could easily be disrupted by even moderately effective curbs. (more…)
Watch: Here's an easy way to make a fancy gift box
With just paper, a pencil, a saucer, some ribbon and glue, it looks like even the least crafty of us could make this pretty gift box.
Roy Moore is still in the running because "values voters" would support Satan himself if he was anti-abortion and homophobic
The term "values voter" is taken to mean someone who votes for politicians on the basis of their personal integrity and values; in reality, polls and studies show that evangelicals who identify as "values voters" support candidates they know to be repugnant or even monstrous, if they believe that those politicians will promise to take away abortion rights and persecute queers. (more…)
UK authors and librarians' open letter to Education Secretary: stop closing school libraries!
I remember the day I realised that my daughter's London school had no library, the shock I felt, the sense that the cuts had gone beyond the bone, and that kids were being deprived of something critical -- and then the discovery that then-Education Minister Michael Gove was planning to spend a fortune distributing Bibles to schoolchildren with his name embossed in metal foil on the cover. (more…)
God will no longer be "He" or "Lord" in Sweden
The Church of Sweden is changing its language so that God will no longer take on the human characteristic of "he." And while they're at it, "Lord" will be dropped as well.After an eight-day discussion about updating a church handbook that offers guidelines on now to conduct services, the decision to make God gender-neutral was made yesterday. Church of Sweden Archbishop Antje Jackelén, a woman, says that a gender-neutral God is something that the church has been talking about since a 1986 conference, and "we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human.”Not everyone in the church agrees with this move. According to The Guardian:
Citing Trump, Philippines dictator declares himself to be a "fascist" and vows to persecute peaceful left-wing opposition groups
Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, has been the source of many shocks since he took office last year: he admitted to murdering people as a teen gangbanger and then later as a public official; he zeroed out the budget for the National Commission on Human Rights, and announced that deposed mass-murdering dictator Ferdinand Marcos would be treated as a hero, even as he rolled out death squads that have murdered thousands in cold blood (he also hears voices from God). (more…)
Jeremy Corbyn tears into the Tories over incoherent Brexit bumbling
https://youtu.be/FVpE3LfpV_Y?t=2m43sA frequent criticism of Jeremy Corbyn and the revitalised, principled, post-Blair Labour Party is their lack of clarity on Brexit -- some speculated that Corbyn felt that Brexit would, at least, allow for re-nationalisation of privatised industries, something the EU might block -- but at Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions, Corbyn shredded Theresa May and the Tories with a series of relentless, devastating questions about the slow-motion train-wreck that is the Tories' bungling handling of Brexit. (more…)
10 awesome Black Friday deals from the Boing Boing Store
To make the day after Thanksgiving a stress-free shopping experience, we’ve selected some of the best items from our online shop to be marked down for Black Friday. Check out our complete collection of Black Friday deals here. The following items are available for the lowest prices anywhere to welcome the holiday season:TREBLAB X11 EarphonesMSRP: $199 | Normal: $41.99 | Black Friday: $36.99Buying Bluetooth earbuds is an exercise in compromise, often forcing you to choose between price, battery life, and sound quality. The TREBLAB X11 Earphones are a rare exception — they deliver crystal-clear HD sound with minimal lag, and work in stereo for up to 6 hours straight on a single charge. As an added bonus, they also pair with multiple devices for painless audio source switching. They usually cost $200, but we stock them for $41.99, and you can pick them up on Black Friday for just $36.99.RevolCam: The Multi-Lens Photo Revolution for SmartphonesMSRP: $59.99 | Normal: $34.99 | Black Friday: $29.99Step up your smartphone photography game with a RevolCam. It clips onto your device to provide 3 different lens options with a unique rotating mechanism, as well as a detachable LED lamp to light your scene. It uses the magnetic backing to work with nearly any major smartphone, iOS and Android alike. The retail value is $59, and we’re dropping our price from $34.99 to $29.99.The Complete Computer Science BundleValue: $367 | Normal: $39 | Black Friday: $25Unlike many online coding resources that stop at web development, the Complete Computer Science Bundle covers the fundamentals of programming, data structures, and algorithms. Throughout these 8 courses, you’ll get a lower-level understanding of computing concepts that apply to a wide variety of technology stacks. It’s a $367 value, and we usually have it for $39, but it’s been marked down to $25 for Black Friday.SKEYE Nano 2 FPV DroneMSRP: $99 Normal: $64 | Black Friday: $54.40 (use GIFTSHOP15 at checkout)The SKEYE Nano 2 FPV Drone is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and comes equipped with an HD camera that streams video to your phone in real-time. Aside from FPV flight, it’s capable of amazing acrobatic stunts at the press of a button. This ready-to-fly drone is being offered for 35% off the usual $99 price — just $54.VPN Unlimited: 3-Yr SubscriptionValue: $129 | Normal: $29.99 | Black Friday: $24 (Use BFRIDAY20 at checkout)Take control of your online privacy with a 3-year subscription to VPN Unlimited. This acclaimed virtual private network service has servers in 53 locations worldwide to provide a fast, encrypted connection for up to 5 devices simultaneously. It works with a wide variety of mobile and desktop platforms, as well as wireless routers. This subscription is typically $130, but you can get 3 years of VPN Unlimited for $24 from the Boing Boing Store — and take an extra 20% off with code BFRIDAY20.Raspberry Pi 3 + Speech Controlled Smart Robot Car Kithttps://www.youtube.com/embed/N1qC9TXbESINormal: $169.99 | Black Friday: $136 (use BFRIDAY20 at checkout)Dive into the Raspberry Pi computer and discover the fundamentals of hardware hacking with this Raspberry Pi 3 + Speech Controlled Smart Robot Car Kit. After putting everything together your creation will respond to human voice commands using speech-to-text, and communicate back with text-to-speech for intuitive control. This kit comes with everything you need for $170, and you can save 20% at checkout when you enter BFRIDAY20.Ethical Hacking A to Z BundleValue: $1,200 | Normal: $59 | Black Friday: $25With billions of internet-connected things in the wild, Information Security is a rapidly growing field. In this Ethical Hacking A to Z Bundle, you’ll get familiar with a wide variety of penetration testing techniques and learn how to hack into Android devices and web services. These 8 courses are worth over $1,000 separately, but we usually sell the whole collection for $59. And just in time for the holidays, you can pick it up for $25.Jump: 12-Month SubscriptionMSRP: $120 | Normal: $79.99 | Black Friday: $39.99Jump is a subscription service for scores of web-based indie games. They have over 60 fast-paced titles, and add new curated selections every month to give you the best interactive online experiences without waiting for huge downloads. A year’s subscription to Jump is worth $120, but we’re offering the same deal for $39.99 on Black Friday — $40 less than our usual offer.Hyperchiller Coffee Chiller: 2-PackMSRP: $60 | Normal: 54.99 | Black Friday: $45Enjoying cold coffee usually requires a 24-hour wait while your brew steeps in the fridge, but the Hyperchiller turns any hot beverage ice-cold in just a minute without watering it down. It uses a unique multi-chamber design to keep the ice separate from your drink and can hold 12.5 oz of liquid at a time. The MSRP of this 2-pack of Hyperchillers is $60, and we’re dropping our $54.99 discount to just $45.uTalk Language Education: Lifetime SubscriptionValue: $64.99 | Normal: $19.99 | Black Friday: $9.99uTalk is a highly-effective language learning system that gets you conversing in a new tongue as quickly as possible with interactive games and lessons from native speakers. It tracks your progress online so you can practice on any device, anywhere. And uTalk lets you choose from a massive selection of 130 world languages, so you can get fluent in something less common than what’s typically offered in school. You can get lifetime access from our store for an extra $10 off, just $9.99.Check out the rest of our Black Friday deals here!
Trippy Cold War-era Hungarian Star Wars movie posters
Tibor Helényi created a lot of great posters for films screened in the Hungarian People's Republic during its communist era, like these posters for the original Star Wars trilogy. (more…)
Sorry not sorry: Try the 'Celebrity Perv Apology Generator'
With so many men in power getting caught with their pants down recently, lame "apologies" and excuses for their unacceptable behavior have become the norm.Enter the "Celebrity Perv Apology Generator."A project by Dana Schwartz (she wrote the apologies), Rob Sheridan, and Scott McCaughey, the website mocks all those lame, out-of-touch non-apologies abusers make by fabricating joke (though surprisingly/sadly realistic) ones with the click of a button. Try it for yourself over at apologygenerator.com.(AV Club)
Mladic the genocide: a moment of silence for the Balkans' lost lives, honor and credibility
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Cloudflare CEO ponders legal methods of slowing down Ajit Pai's internet connection
As Trump FCC Chairman Ajit Pai tries to kill Net Neutrality under cover of Thanksgiving, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince has tweeted that he is looking into ways that he can legally take up Josh Constantine's challenge to give Pai "14.4k dial-up speeds for killing net neutrality." (Image: Evan-Amos, CC-BY-SA) (via /.)
Trump Soho, funded by mobbed-up Russians, is taking Trump's name off the door
11 years ago, Trump made a big deal out of the Trump Soho, a 46-story luxury hotel/condo that paid Trump for the use of his name and the dubious management services of the Trump Organization; now, after a string of scandals including the revelation that Trump's business-partners were money-laundering Russian mafiosi, the revelation that Trump had defrauded buyers with lies about the sell-through, and the toxification of Trump's name for anyone with a lick of sense of decency, the business is parting ways with Trump. (more…)
Women are fleeing Donald Trump's Republican party in droves, and the GOP has no idea what to do about it
The Republican Party has always struggled to attract woman voters, but the triumph of admitted rapist Donald Trump and the party's backing of child-molester Roy Moore, the Dominionist misogyny of Mike Pence, and the painfully obvious hatred of women from the Grand Old Patriarchs has galvanized opposition to the Republicans from women who historically voted without much thought about gender issues: independents, reluctant Democrats, college-educated affluent white women, and other women whom the GOP relied on for votes, or at least indifference. (more…)
Thankful
A year ago today, Scots blogger Kevin Gray posted the final daily item at Nothing To Do With Arbroath, a "daily mish-mash" and perhaps the best blog ever to grace the web.He posted again a few times to update readers on the serious illness that was consuming him, but the last we saw of Gray's inimitable eye for "stuff, fluff and nonsense" was this photo of police helping a family of ducks cross the road, published on November 23, 2016. A final update warned readers he had months to live, not years; he died days later, aged 56.I'm thankful for many things this year, but none more so that my baby son and Kevin Gray. May his sense of wonder still guide us onward, with the diligent empathy of a Japanese traffic police officer, through chaos and heavy traffic.
William S. Burroughs: "A Thanksgiving Prayer" (1986)
Uncle Bill, in keeping with tradition, please lead us in A Thanksgiving Prayer.
How to patch the velveteen side of an air-mattress
Welcome to the holidays!After many a slumber party, my kid told me the air mattress had developed an annoying slow leak. I used this patch kit.The guy in the video found his leak a lot faster than I did. A LOT. Sigh. I used a spray bottle of soapy water. I used a safety razor to shave the fuzz off the mattress.Tear-Aid Repair Type B Vinyl Inflatable Kit via Amazon
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