YouTuber DoodleChaos spent over a month configuring a track in the 2006 hit game Line Rider. The result is a delightful harmonic pairing of Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” to the originally silent flash game.The tiny sledder dips and bounces on lines drawn to hit Grieg’s musical notes. The adventure grows more treacherous for the sledder as the tempo picks up and the rider reaches an increasingly louder and sled-less end.

Californians nearing the end or getting an early start choosing how they want to decay can now consider liquid cremation due to a new state law allowing the procedure by 2020. California will be the 15th state to allow the controversial option, according to SFGate.The procedure decomposes a corpse’s flesh with an alkaline solution, leaving only the bones behind to be crushed into ashes.The next generation of soulless air breathers can thank those who choose the liquidy way out for lowering the carbon footprint, as traditional burials tend to be more harmful to the environment.Image: Davide Ragusa

Is this thing on? Musician Spencer Tweedy (son of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy) is bringing his design sensibility and appreciation for finely-crafted musical gear to one of the most boring and ubiquitous items on stages and in recording studios: the microphone cable. "We have compressors with classic faceplates and microphones with precision-milled grates," Spencer says. "But the little things, like cables, usually go uncared for. Just because they're little."So with the help of Conway Electric, makers of luxurious cotton-jacketed extension cords, and Alchemy Audio, he's launched a company to manufacture Fjord XLR cables, a made-in-the-USA product whose "main feature is that it looks nicer than other cables... but its looks are backed up by components that make it sound great and feel great to use, too."He's launched a Kickstarter with a very modest goal; a $40 pledge gets you a sharp-looking new cable! And don't miss the excellent project video below!Fjord XLR: Classic microphone cables

Drawn & Quarterly has a new edition of Lynda Barry’s coming-of-age novella, The Good Times are Killing Me

As part of Vice's new video series, Hysteria, which examines mass social panics in the U.S., here's a 20-minute documentary about the Georgia III% Security Force -- "one of America’s right-wing, pro-Trump, anti-terror militias."

The After On podcast a series of unhurried conversations with thinkers, founders, and scientists. It began as a complement to the novel After On, in that its first eight episodes explore science, tech, and social issues featured in the storyline. But there is no need to read After On before listening to any of these episodes. You can subscribe to the podcast within any podcast app. Simply use your app's search function (type in "After On") to find and subscribe. Or, to subscribe via your computer click here, then click the blue “View on iTunes” button (left side of the page under the After On image), then click “Subscribe” (similar location) in the iTunes window. Or simply follow the feed http://afteron.libsyn.com/rssAsk any archaeologist, and you'll learn that the tools of their trade are simple and universal: a pointing trowel for excavation; a brush for removing dust from finds; side arms to fend off Nazi grave robbers; and a large constellation of satellites. That last item joined the toolkit back in 1984, when NASA's Tom Sever (who is not a Hall of Fame pitcher, and must be sick of being asked if he is) convened an archaeological summit to offer up images and other goodies from his agency. And with that, the field of space archaeology was. In roughly the same year, the Tooth Fairy delivered a children's book about ancient Egypt to one Sarah Parcak, age 5, of Bangor Maine. An early childhood obsession with pharaonic culture is common amongst future Egyptologists, and Sarah's began then. We discuss this and Sarah's amazing (and still early-ish) career as a leading space archaeologist in this week's episode of the After On podcast. You can find it in your podcasting app, or just click here: Sarah began her formal study of the field as a Yale undergraduate, then went to Cambridge for her PhD. Space archaeology had grown semi-dormant after an initial flurry of excitement and papers. But the falling cost of satellite imagery, plus the emergence of Google Earth, electrified a young cohort of academics as Sarah was doing her graduate work. Her thesis leaned heavily on satellite imagery, and landed her a professorship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Then the BBC called. They were interested in Sarah's emerging field, so they rang her up for an interview. One thing led to another, and eventually the network agreed to fund (and film) Sarah as she carried out a satellite survey of known and potential archaeological sites in Egypt. Covering the entire country, the project was unprecedented in its scope. Much has happened since. In the wake of the Arab Spring, Sarah's team did groundbreaking work in documenting and monitoring the looting of hundreds of archaeological sites. In 2012 she was invited to be both a TED Fellow and a National Geographic Explorer, and in 2016 she won the million-dollar TED Prize to further her work. She applied the money and the platform that TED gave her to launch a citizen science project called GlobalXPlorer. This has already leveraged the eyeballs of over 50,000 volunteers to create a sweeping archaeological survey of Peru. Sarah has near-term plans to take the platform to a grand new level, but can't quiiiiite talk about them yet. We cover all of this and more in our interview. For those in a hurry, here are timestamps of some highlights: 0:04:15 - Space archaeology is defined 0:07:55 - Sarah's early career, from Tooth Fairy through PhD 0:20:34 - How satellite imagery is used in archaeology 0:34:23 - About the ancient Egyptian capital Sarah may have located 0:45:46 - Tracking archaeological looting in the wake of the Arab Spring 1:04:20 - The TED Prize ... and Harrison Ford 1:14:46 - Sarah's citizen science platform, GlobalXPlorer

Looking for an insulated travel tumbler? Consider this $10 Polar Pad Drifter Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel Tumbler (30-ounce). It's nearly identical to the 30-ounce Yeti, but 1/3 the price. If 30-ounces is too big, Polar Pad has a 20-ounce model, also for $10. The nice thing about vacuum insulated tumblers like this is that condensation doesn't form on the surface.

Warhol:

This week on Maker Update, Blade Runner binoculars, setbacks at Glowforge, custom zipper pulls, JOY pads, and colorized laser engraving. This week’s Cool Tool is the Canary Corrugated Cardboard Cutter.

Comic artist Brian Fies and his family lost their home last week in the Northern California fires. To process the tragedy, the Eisner Award-winner made a deeply moving Web comic about it. Seen here are just a few panels. Read it all: "A Fire Story"

The Property and Evidence Tracking System (PETS) is the NYPD's huge database where it stores ownership information on the millions in New Yorkers' property it takes charge of every year (including about $68m in cash and counting), through evidence collection and asset forfeiture. (more…)

Next year, French graphic design house Super Terrain will publish this very special edition of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 that can only be read by burning the pages.(more…)

ICE have become house-flippers, using the notorious and discredited "civil asset forfeiture" process to steal houses from people they say were involved in crime, then selling the houses to fund their operations, and more seizures of more houses. (more…)

Richard Branson got a call from the UK Secretary of State for Defence asking for his help in a covert ransom payment of $5m to rescue a ranking diplomat from kidnappers; Branson recognised the man's voice but he was suspicious of the plan to validate the scheme by sending an assistant to lobby of a government building to meet the Secretary's secretary and exchange codewords. (more…)

I love dollar stores, and so does rural America.(more…)

This month, University of Washington researchers will present Exploring ADINT: Using Ad Targeting for Surveillance on aBudget — or — How Alice Can Buy Ads to Track Bob at the Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society in Dallas; the paper details a novel way that stalkers and other low-level criminals can accomplish state-grade surveillance on the cheap with targeted ad-purchases. (more…)

Here are new images of Apple's self-driving car technology (Project Titan) mounted on a Lexus RX350. That gear on the top is a rack of six LIDAR sensors that use lasers to collect spatial data about the vehicle's surroundings.

The Syndaver is a super-realistic robotic human corpse simulator with replaceable viscera that med students can dissect again and again, freeing them to use the donated bodies of people who willed their remains to science for med school pranks, like sneaking them into the alumni dinner in a tuxedo. (more…)

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said that he didn't expect the risk of fraud to go up this tax-filing season despite the world-beating Equifax breach of 145,000,000 Americans' sensitive personal and financial data because a "significant" number of Equifax's breaches had already been exposed by earlier breaches of other databases. (more…)

Limor "ladyada" Fried (previously) is one of the great hardware hackers of her generation and is the co-founder of the pioneering open source hardware company Adafruit; she's also not allowed on Facebook anymore. (more…)

This jerk at an NFL game doesn't feel folks should protest civil injustice against black Americans by kneeling, but thinks the flag is there to keep his ass dry.Who is disrespecting what?Via Deadspin.

I've been using this $10 lightbox an awful lot.This is simply a white plastic box with some very white LED lights and two foam backdrops. There is nothing to it. You can fold it up to the size of a legal pad if you want to put it away, or take it someplace.I'm getting lovely photos using just my iPhone 7+. Imagine if I tried any of the tens of cameras I have laying around the house? Probably not much different. Photo Light Box For Jewellery and Small Items ( Size 9 x 9 x9.5"/ 22 x 22 x24cm ) with Two Backdrops Included via Amazon

In 2013, the Scottish city of Inverness had the unfortunate fate of being picked as the trial site for a pilot of "universal credit," one of the UK Conservative government's big ideas, in which the various benefits paid to low-income people were replaced with a single payment, centrally administered. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INa-oOAexno&feature=youtu.beMama was 59 years old, the oldest among Amsterdam's Royal Burgers Zoo chimpanzee colony.

At Anderson Speedway in Indiana, driver Jeffrey Swinford was not pleased with Shawn Cullen for crashing into him and taking both of them out of a race. Then Cullen was not pleased with Swinford parking his car on top of Cullen's. (more…)

My Swedish-born (former Rubik's Cube champion) pal Lars Petrus has created a Swedish-to-English IKEA product name dictionary.He writes:

For art teacher Michael Fry of Mamaroneck, New York, certain 2017 trends need to be dead and buried. So, for the past few Halloweens, he's made tombstone lawn decorations that lay specific trends to rest.This year it's "so long!" to ombre hair, the hashtag #roséallday, the "old Taylor Swift," homemade slime, and more.ABCNews writes:

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. You can also now join through Patreon!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…)

A Florida attorney filed a petition saying a nearly six-and-a-half year prison term would eat up most of his client’s time left to live, due to the client’s large weight.Attorney Curtis Fallgatter somehow calculated his client Stephen Donaldson Sr., 72, who was recently convicted for marketing an offshore tax shelter scheme that cost the IRS nearly $10 million, would spend 61 percent of his remaining life-years in prison since he is only 5-foot-9 and weighs 273 pounds, according to the Tampa Bay Times.Fallgatter did not use the strange weight excuse for his other Tampa Bay client, who was sentenced to four years and six months in prison.Unfortunately for Donaldson, if his petition is granted and the sentence is overturned, he misses his opportunity to gain a sweet prison bod.Image: Adam Jones, Ph.D.

Republican Georgia state Sen. Michael Williams is holding a giveaway for a bump stock — the same type of device law enforcement officials say the Vegas shooter used to kill over 50 people during a concert in early October.In a statement published on a website for William’s gubernatorial run, Williams says the growing condemnation of bump stocks avoids taking action against gun violence. Williams also cites firearms experts claiming the bump stock prevented more deaths due to the device’s “inaccuracy” when attached.“The tragedy in Las Vegas broke my heart, but any talk of banning or regulating bump stocks is merely cheap political lip service from career politicians,” Williams said. “In reality, the bump stock is the new, shiny object politicians are using to deceive voters into believing they are taking action against gun violence. Many firearms experts determined the Las Vegas shooter’s use of a bump stock actually prevented more casualties and injures [sic] due to its inconsistency, inaccuracy, and lack of control.”Williams’ for-governor webpage allows people to fill out a submission form to win a bump stock. If Williams and experts agree the bump stock makes gun accuracy worse, then giving away a device that adds no value to guns seems like an odd gesture.Democrats and and even some Republican lawmakers are backing efforts to ban or regulate the device, which makes firing a semiautomatic weapon resemble firing a fully automatic one.Image: WASR

From The New Yorker: "Ward Sutton illustrates a satirical comic strip envisioning Melania Trump as a secret agent who went undercover in the U.S. to fight cyberbullying."

https://youtu.be/24F6C1KfbjMStephen Fry's hour-long Shannon Luminary Lecture at Bell Labs tries to bridge the despair of a world where technology enables bullying, greed and surveillance; the optimism of the early hopes for the internet, and a hopeful vision of how we can minimize the former and maximize the latter. (more…)

I gave away or lost my paperback copy of Gibson's superlative 1988 novel, Mona Lisa Overdrive. The Kindle edition is on sale today for just $1.99, so I bought it and am looking forward to re-reading it. If you haven't yet read it, I'm envious of the treat in store for you.

On Thursday (10/19) and Friday (10/20) this week, Cornell University will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Voyager Golden Record, the gold phonograph records launched into space in 1977 as a message to extraterrestrials. (I co-produced the first vinyl release of the Golden Record with my friends Tim Daly and Lawrence Azerrad.) All events are free and the public is invited. I hope you can join us! From Cornell University:

Florida. Apparently, a shopper became irate when a dutiful 7-11 clerk asked she pump, rather than scoop her nacho cheese. It is unclear how quickly the disagreement turned violent, but the cheese was thrown.Via Raw Story:

Twenty-eight years ago today, an art car was born in an earthquake.Its owner, Burning Man founder Michael Mikel (aka "Danger Ranger"), shares the story:

Rarely do I enjoy new television. American Vandal is absolutely wonderful.I listened to about 10 minutes of Serial and shut it off. I've always preferred to see the irony in life, rather than be reminded how terrible everything is. American Vandal is what Serial and all true crime docudrama horeshittery should be! MUNDANE, silly, outrageous, and mildly offensive! This is some of the best new comedy I've seen in ages.It is all about the dicks.Ganj #1

How did a bug like krack fester in WPA2, the 13-year-old wifi standard whose flaws have rendered hundreds of millions of devices insecure, some of them permanently so? (more…)

Responding to complaints from people with eating disorders, Google quickly shuttered a test feature from the iOS version of Google Maps that showed how many mini-cupcakes' worth of calories it would take to walk somewhere.From BuzzFeed:

On Sunday Governor Jerry Brown signed the the Gender Recognition Act into law. From The Mary Sue:

https://youtu.be/X7Z9RoZRyBUI constantly worry some distracted motorist will run me down and say "I never even saw him." I wear a hi-viz vest with a bunch of reflective material on it, a white helmet and there are lots of reflective elements on my bike, but it is never enough. Now, I can make just about everything reflective.Albedo 100 is a clear, temporary, spray paint. Just spray it on your pants, jacket, bike, backpack, bags, passenger, whatever. The spray goes on pretty invisibly to textiles, and leaves a bit of a film on leather. It reflects light shone directly on it back in the direction it came from and is very effective for showing someone sitting behind a pair of headlights where you are. The stuff wears off after about a week.I have sprayed it all over my backpack and some cordura/kevlar riding pants. I have really not bothered to look at how toxic it is, perhaps I will start to glow and no longer need the spray.I still prefer to not ride at night.Albedo 100 Reflective Spray Invisible Bright 4.6oz via Amazon

The Ethereum platform makes it possible to run code with no central server. By spreading data across multiple redundant nodes, applications are effectively immune to single points of failure and censorship. If you’re looking to harness this distributed power for your next project, or just learn how it all works, this Ethereum Blockchain Mastery Bundle is now available in the Boing Boing Store.This collection includes four courses that will demystify the blockchain ecosystem and introduce you to the fundamentals of Ethereum development. Using the Solidity language, you’ll learn how to write cryptographically-enforced smart contracts that guarantee proper program execution no matter where your code lives on the network. Once you understand the underlying principles of decentralized software, you’ll build several of Ethereum-backed apps, and even launch your own initial coin offering.The Complete Ethereum Blockchain Bundle is on offer now in the Boing Boing Store for $29. For a limited time, you can take off an additional 50% off with code BUNDLE50.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGYuOqA0pnwIn this video [via Spacetwinks], Hanna-Barbera sound editor Paul Douglas's 10 favorite sound effects are presented for your amusement and transformative misuse. It's sadly missing the "running" sound, though, but it's not hard to find...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grhooP9Qfmw(There's an audio CD on Amazon purporting to offer a set of 100 official Hanna Barbera sound effects, and it's got good reviews, but YouTube surely has the lot anyway)

"Take on horn" is YouTuber Kyrne's humorous take on a-ha's 1985 hit "Take on Me" and it's pretty funny.And who remembers this gem? If 2008 was the last time you watched the literal version of the "Take on Me" music video, it's high time you give it a look again. I had forgotten how good it is!https://youtu.be/8HE9OQ4FnkQNow my face hurts from smiling so much.(Nerdist)Previously: a-ha played 'Take On Me' live on 'MTV Unplugged,' will tour and With no music, A-Ha's "Take On Me" video is dark and disturbing

2015 gave us the wonderful kinetic LEGO sculpture of the tragic Greek mythological character Sisyphus perpetually pushing a boulder.When creator Jason Allemann of JKBrickworks saw fellow LEGO artist Josh David's lawn mower kinetic sculpture, he knew he had to make one of his own &mdashl; but with a twist.Building on his original idea, Allemann swapped out Sisyphus for his modern-day counterpart -- a suburban man in shorts and knee socks -- and replaced the fate of eternally pushing a boulder with mowing an ever-growing lawn.(Sploid)

There's a time and place for intentionally ironic sweaters and apparently it's the holidays. Enter the ALF Ugly Christmas Sweater by Fun.com:

America votes Democrat but elects Republicans, and it's all thanks to how the country is divided up.(more…)

Russsian YouTuber Alex Ulitin has rigged a way for people all over the world to interact with his cat in real time. By using certain commands, anyone can feed or play with his orange tabby using YouTube's live chat.To note: if you want feed the cat, you'll need donate a few bucks:

I've always had a good experience with Anker products, so when I saw this 6700 mAh battery on sale for $14, I bought it. I have other batteries with a lot more capacity, but I wanted one that was more compact and lightweight, but still had enough juice to keep my phone alive for a full day of heavy use.It doesn't include the short Lightning cable shown here. You probably already have a longer Lightning cable, but it you want a short one, Anker sells a 2-pack for $13.