Ignoring the fact that the upholstery is hideous and the beds look like prison cots, this bunk bed sofa sleeper is a mechanical marvel.

Anyone considering undergoing cosmetic surgery performed by an unlicensed teenager named Dr Kitty in her basement should be aware that there's a risk of infection.From a Toronto Police press release:

My friend Barnaby Ward is an artist who lives in Barbados. He emailed me and said:

This decorative storm glass "predicts" the weather. Admiral FitzRoy says so.It seems natural, to me anyway, that there would be a storm glass on my curio packed shelves. Purported to change in advance of weather, the chemicals in solution form crystals as the temperatures mildly change around the glass.Most notably Admiral FitzRoy, once the Captain of Darwin's HMS Beagle, recorded changes observed in his weather glass, and claimed them to be a true indicator of what was to come.I like this round one. It indicates if I have the heat on or not.Pawaca Storm Glass Weather Monitors Decorative Desktop Barometer via Amazon

As NASA continues to examine the treasure trove of data from the New Horizons project, one interesting phenomenon at Pluto's equator has been identified as massive ice blades made of methane. (more…)

If you search Amazon for Linda Belcher from the animated TV show Bob's Burgers, you will find the "Supportive Burger Wife" costume. [via Nicole Zhu] Not to be left out, though, are members of the younger generation, who can dream of being a Burger Heiress. (Sadly, there does not appear to be a Burger Prince or gender-nonspecific Burger Scion)

Donald Trump has said many astoundingly stupid things in his spoiled, thuggish life. R. Sikoryak's The Unquotable Trump, compiles Trump's biggest whoppers, boners, and boasts, presenting them as familiar comic book covers. The effect is hilarious and scary.The publisher, Drawn & Quarterly, is donating 25% of the book's proceeds to the ACLU.I took the above photo of The Unquotable Trump next to a comic from my collection so you can see how big it is. It's based on The Hulk on the Rampage from 1975. Here is Ruben Bolling's copy, which he purchased on the newsstand:From the book description:

Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women is a compendium of curiosities by magician and historian of wonders Ricky Jay. In 1989, CBS aired a TV special inspired by the book and featuring a "human calculator," wine glass musician, ballet dancer automaton, Steve Martin (!), and other delightful characters. (Special bonus is the classic "SPECIAL" motion graphic preceding the program.)

Released in Japan in 1989, Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros is a series of three fairy tale animations starring the Super Mario characters. From the Mario Wiki:

Spanish Etsy seller EasyPrintAndCut makes tiny, printable papercraft furniture, housewares and decor for haunted dollhouses: grimoires, vampire hunting kits, spooky wallpaper and wainscotting, tiny taxidermy, adorably tiny engravings from tiny gothic antique books and much more -- all for instant delivery. (more…)

Proposed Canadian legislation to legalise operating watercraft "propelled exclusively by means of muscular power" has been canceled, after the Canadian Safe Boating Council convinced the legislation's author, Liberal MP Colin Fraser, that "it would send the wrong message to the public to exclude drunk canoeing." (more…)

While there’s a plethora of free and ad-supported resources for learning languages, they don’t often don't offer a strong focus on conversational fluency. uTalk teaches you how to speak like a native instead of endlessly drilling vocabulary words, and a variety of plans are now available in the Boing Boing Store starting at $19.99.With a top-tier uTalk subscription, you can choose from one of over 130 languages — it’s just as good for learning common international tongues as it is for more obscure choices. To get you speaking as soon as possible, you’ll start off by learning only common, useful words. From there, you’ll spend time listening to clips of real vocal artists, and practice your own pronunciation with speech games powered by voice recognition. uTalk tracks your progress online, so you can pick up where you left off on any device.For a language program that’s firmly grounded in real-world utility, try a lifetime subscription to uTalk. Plans start at $19.99.

I've said before that Drew Friedman is the greatest living portrait artist, and his new book, Drew Freidman's Chosen People, offers proof of my claim. It's available for pre-order now.

Utah state senator Todd Weiler (@goptodd, (801) 538-1035) made his nutjob-religious-grandstander bones by proposing preinstalled mandatory porn-filtering software on all mobile phones, has found a new calling: calling for the revival of the state's moribund "porn czar" in order to stamp out the scourge of sexy women's magazines, especially Cosmo. (more…)

https://youtu.be/ewMZCxi8l8ASubaru's wireless keyless entry protocol uses a system of "rolling codes" that jump from one value to another in a way that is supposed to be impossible to predict without possession of a cryptographic secret, shared by both the keys and the cars' firmware. (more…)

Earlier this year, UK tabloid The Daily Mail, famous for its incompetent fakery, published a bombshell article claiming "World leaders duped by manipulated global warming data". This article was hailed by conservative media from Breitbart to The National Review as proof of what they were saying all along. Sadly for them, the Mail has admitted its misleading and inaccurate reporting and, to satisfy press regulators, added a deadpan self-debunking at the top of the article.

The late-great Johnny Cash had a playful sense of humor, as evidenced by this to-do list.According to a 2012 New York Times article, the note, which was hand written by the legendary Man in Black, was sold at auction in 2010 for $6,250.Julien's Auction reports the list appears on page 64 of the 2005 book, Cash: An American Man.(bookofjoe)photo by Jim Marshall (the story of Cash flipping the bird is here)

Adafruit greeted the news that Trump Treasure Secretary Steve Mnuchin had cancelled the plan to make the great hero Harriet Tubman the first African-American and the first woman on US currency with a video and tutorial for 3D printing a Harriet Tubman stamp that you could use to blot out the genocidal racist scoundrel Andrew Jackson on your money. (more…)

Trump's Fascistic, un-American rantings about NFL players kneeling in protest during the playing of the National Anthem are offensive and repugnant. But they're also probably illegal, carrying a possible penalty to Trump of disqualification from public office, fines, and up to 15 years in prison.There's a specific statute at play, and it's 18 U.S.C. sec. 227. This statute reads:The first question could be, Is the President covered by this statute? Yes, he is specifically listed as a "covered government person" under (b)(3).Next, Does the President have the intent to influence an employment decision or employment practice of a private entity? Clearly, he does. The current version of his outrage started when he said, at an Alabama rally in support of his losing candidate, "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired.'"If this sort-of rhetorical question phrasing isn't obvious enough, his subsequent tweets make explicitly clear that he intends to influence the employment decisions and practices of the NFL. He urges flatly, "Fire or suspend!" and "NFL should change policy!"Next, with that intent, has there been some official act he's taken, influenced, offered or threatened? For a while, that was unclear. Surely when the president presses for an action so strongly and repeatedly, there's some implied threat that he'll use his power to effectuate some official act in response to non-compliance. But any uncertainty vanished on Tuesday when he tweeted a bald threat to impose taxes on the NFL unless they change their employment practices to stop players from kneeling.So, finally, Trump's guilt would turn on whether Trump is acting on the basis of partisan political affiliation. Some have argued that this must be narrowly interpreted to mean only whether he's trying to influence employment decisions based on whether people are Democrats or Republicans. But there's no reason for this restrictive reading. The general meaning of "partisan" is adherence to a cause, not necessarily a party. It's unclear what an "affiliation" would be in that context anyway; would this require that an affected employee be registered in that party, or vote for that party, or simply tend to vote for that party?A clearly reasonable interpretation of "partisan political affiliation" would be some affiliation with a political cause, which is the obvious, stated reason for Trump's attacks on the NFL players. This is not a case where a president is calling for the dismissal of a CEO who has been engaged in some malfeasance. He's calling for the punishment, firing, or suspension of people who are expressing a political view, promoting policy changes in our nation. And these views and policies are certainly affiliated with the political movement Black Lives Matter.That these views and policies are closely, maybe even perfectly, aligned with one of our country's two major political parties could be helpful in this interpretation, but not even necessary.So, the next step is to wait for Jeff Session's Department of Justice to file charges against Donald Trump. Looking forward to the chants of "Lock him up! Lock him up!"See also, Shaun King's article Did Trump Break the Law by Telling NFL Owners to Fire Players?

Landscape architects are increasingly in the business of designing spaces that are resistant to mass shootings, terrorists driving their cars into crowds and other forms of murderous, technology-assisted rampages. (more…)

I know a kindred spirit when I see one and New Orleans-based bon vivant Sam Malvaney is definitely "one of us," a true kitsch lovin' collector. Take a walk with Sam --who's dressed in a leopard-print tuxedo jacket, no less-- as he gives a virtual tour of his enviable French Quarter home, aka the "Museum of Bad Taste."(David M. Jones via Skip Baker)

In the past few years, Nabisco has come up with some seriously strange Oreos. To name a few, they've made limited-edition cookies that (purportedly) taste like PB&J, Jelly Donuts, Waffles & Syrup, Candy Corn, Marshmallow Peeps, Swedish Fish and, well, I think you get the picture.Now they've got one that has a "mystery" creme. It's not a mystery to them, just to us. Yup, no shock, it's a marketing gimmick to make you buy their cookies for "taste-testing" purposes. If you can figure out the flavor before November 30, you get (a chance to win) $50,000.The Internet already thinks it knows what it is:https://twitter.com/MikeDubberlyGDA/status/917779799376003074https://twitter.com/caitielilly_/status/917959731951550464https://twitter.com/abakousourisrex/status/918149154232250372Wait, I think I might have figured out the mystery flavor. It must be...Sweet, sweet diabeetus. You're welcome.(Super Punch)

Marco Arment calmly explains USB-C, a garble of different standards shoehorned into using physically identical ports and cables which nonetheless remain maddeningly incompatible with one another.

I've been trying these silicone dish scrubbers. They work great and don't get disgusting like sponges.A few weeks ago some internet meme thingery got into my head, and made me throw out all my sponges. Even before I thought they were dirty! I then made the mistake of cleaning some stuff that immediately had me tossing said new sponges out. I was sick of it! I decided to try some reusable, sterilizable silicone scrubbers.Guess what? They work.Not absorbent, but most of what I've used sponges for in recent years is the blue or green scrubbing surface. These do that nicely. You can also just boil them in hot water every once in a while to clean them off.These scrubbers also double as silicone pot-holders, if you need.4 pack of Silicone Dish Scrubbers via AmazonAlso, because sponge.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfQBKB4s1ks

This is supposedly a cheap fluffy clutch bag you an buy at Amazon, but it's clearly a native of Iota Geminorum IV who has found success in life.

This body cam footage of a Sonoma County Sheriff's deputy working rescue efforts is intense.Wild-fires in Northern California have displaced our friends, poisoned our air, and kept many, many Happy Mutants on high alert all week. Be safe. The fires continue to burn out of control.

From a red carpet interview at the 2005 "Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson": Courtney Love worries for a moment about "libel" and then goes ahead with her warning for young actresses not to accept an invite from Harvey Weinstein to attend a "private party" at the Four Seasons.If the video embed below doesn't work, here's the TMZ post!

It’s easy to find a lost phone, but your house keys are usually a different story. The KeySmart Pro is a handy key organizer that features Tile™ smart location, so your keys can always let you know just where they are.This small sleeve has room for up to 10 standard-sized keys, each one accessible with a pocket knife-style folding motion. Since they aren’t jingling around on a ring, you can always find the right one without looking — no more awkward fumbling at your front door. It’s made from durable stainless steel, so it’ll be fine if it takes a tumble out of your pocket.https://www.youtube.com/embed/3UqTux-KOAwWhen that does happen, you can quickly locate your KeySmart and anything that’s attached to it with the Tile tracking app. If your keys are hidden somewhere in your house, you can even give them a buzz and they’ll beep to let you know where they are. For maximum utility, this clever keyring also has an integrated LED light and bottle opener. It gets up to 3 months of life on a single charge, and recharges via microUSB.You can get the KeySmart Pro here for $59.99.BUY NOW

The Arepa Lady started as a food-cart in Jackson Heights, Queens, owned by Maria Cano, whose son and daughter-in-law have continued the family business, moving into permanent digs, with seating for 30. (more…)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2027795026/starshipwright-book-oneJeff Zugale is an artist specializing almost exclusively in spaceships: if you've seen a really nice spaceship in a game (Bioshock, Sunset Eve) or show (V, Falling Skies) the last few years, there's a chance it's one of his. Starshipwright One is his first art book, derived from Zugale's spaceship-a-day drawing and painting regime and the massive sketchbooks it slowly filled up. You can order it through Kickstarter for $20, with upgrades to get sketches and 3D-printed models.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S7mVSz_DPM

Weeks after Equifax announced its worst-in-world-history breach, the IRS awarded the company a $7.5 million no-bid contract to prevent fraud. (more…)

"Weird Al" Yankovic is switching things up for his upcoming North American tour. He's putting away all his props, costumes, and video screens and pulling out "obscure songs you barely remember."He's calling it the "Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour".Here's what he wrote on Facebook about it:

If you've been looking to put your paws on a real animatronic band, get thee to Visalia! In August, the kiddie entertainment chain announced that they were breaking up the band. Now, one has popped up on Craigslist. (This one is quite a bit older and presumably not a victim of the recent shutdown.)Still, the circa 1985 "Beach Bowzer's Band" would make a fine companion to anyone's rumpus room. For $5000, it comes complete with the entire "Cyberamics Control System" and manuals.As shown...And just for kicks, watch some of these things malfunction:https://youtu.be/xaYvIgJp4u0Thanks, Soap Plant Wacko!

Many parents were apparently too lazy to teach millennials how to do even the most basic DIY projects like how to use a tape measure, so Home Depot has released a series of videos based on popular millennial search terms. (more…)

Set the brake on your baby carriage, wheelchair, or wheeled luggage if you plan to take your hands off it. Don't want this to happen. Luckily, this one was empty. (more…)

The Louvre in Paris decided that the "Domestikator," the 40-foot-tall installation by Atelier Van Lieshout seen above, wasn't the right fit for the adjacent Tuileries Gardens. The plan was to show it during this month's Fiac! International Contemporary Art Fair.“Online commentaries point out this work has a brutal aspect,” wrote the Louvre’s director, Jean-Luc Martinez Martinez, in a letter to fair organizers. “It risks being misunderstood by visitors to the gardens.”The Louvre was also reportedly concerned that in the Tuileries Gardens the sculpture would be too close to a children's playground.The new plan is that starting next Wednesday, the "Domestikator" will be situated in front of the Centre Pompidou that houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne.“To have this major piece in front of the Pompidou is a victory,” Julien Lombrail, director of the London-based gallery Carpenters Workshop, which represents Atelier Van Lieshout, told the New York Times. “It’s an incredible moment for Paris and the public, when we have so many issues surrounding art and censorship. It’s important for us to engage for the future.”

Impeccable camera work. This really should win a Pawlitzer.

In Alor Setar, Malaysia, married couple Zul Hanif Anip, 25, and his wife Puteri shot this video of a strange slithering creature emerging from their toilet. Anip insists that it didn't look anything like any snake he'd ever seen. He claims they captured the creature and release it into the river."I think the creature grew up inside the pipe works connected to the toilet hole, because I have checked and there is no entry point for it to have got inside," Anip said. "He was about two meters [6.5 feet] long with a very fat, thick body. I'm not sure if it was a snake or a kind of tidal creature or from the swamp."Its head was very small and it had a short tail, which did not look like a snake."(UPI)

And yet I can barely get mine to walk down the stairs. (KumaFilms via Kottke)And if you're not hip to the fantastic story of the Slinky's invention:

Today, Dan Deacon, composer of avant-EDM, freaky electro, and contemporary classical works, released his score for Theo Anthony's new documentary Rat Film, about the history of Baltimore told through its rodent population. Deacon's collaborators for the score? Actual rats. From NPR's All Things Considered, Deacon's explanation of how the rats worked with him on the track above, titled "Redlining":

Holy video craziness, Batman! These are just brilliant.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gShYLoTLbTYThe red monster reminds me of Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba.Evidently directed by @mikediva

1up Keyboards has these black and orange keycaps in stock, just in time for spooky season. They're $100 a set, and you'll need to have a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches to plug them into.

If you were wondering if you can take a Helite vest on a airplane in the USA, you can. Ignore internet forums.I ride with a Helite Turtle inflatable vest. I do not have the miles on it to give a proper review, but I like it enough to have wanted to drag it to Los Angeles with me yesterday, from San Francisco. I am planning to ride my 1976 BMW R90S home from my my parents where I left it last month, thinking a fall ride would be a little cooler than the heatwave temps I endured on the way down. Before leaving, I decided to check online and see if there were any issues.Internet motorcyclist forum searches all said I was doomed. I did not lose sleep, however. The US Sailing Association website said no problem. Sailors are far more trustworthy than motorcyclists, so I decided to think of my airbag as a Personal Flotation Device when I got to the airport. I also called Virgin America, my airline of choice, and asked if they had any issues. Bring it on board for the party, they said.The bag checker with a badge at the airport looked at me, looked at the hi-viz yellow vest and asked "PFD?" I said "Yes." TSA person said "Put it thru!" I put the vest, spare cartridge and the materials safety sheets I'd printed out, plus a copy of this TSA guideline on CO2 inflating vests on the belt and watched as it was minimally irradiated for our safety.Then it came out the other side. I easily repacked the Helite Turtle into my overhead-able carry-on bag and went my merry way.My flight, and all flights to my destination, were then cancelled due to smoke from California's wild-fires and I took an Uber home where the driver blasted Rammstein's Mutter the entire hour from SFO to my home in Muir Beach. Brutal.I'll give a more detailed review once I've ridden with the bag for a while. I did a lot of research and decided Helite was the way for me. It looks a lot like the $3 highway hi-viz vest I wore for years. It costs $650 and weighs a few pounds. Mostly the vest feels no different, and in theory provides me with more safety. How much more? Research is out but airbag tech has been commonplace in motorcycle racing, and our cars, for years. It appears to greatly reduce injury in racing, and likely will prove out to do the same for us road riders.Helite Turtle Airbag Vest via Amazon

Even after telling FEMA and DOD officials they were improperly copying a reporter on internal discussions the embarrassing emails continued. Bloomberg has annotated and published some examples:

South Park yucks it up with some Harvey-poop potty humor this week. When Catman and his pals, dressed as "superheroes," are accused by an ex-Instagram follower that that they "victimize innocent people and poop in little girls’ mouths," Catman responds, "That's not true. We're 'Coon and Friends, not Harvey Weinstein."

Shitting all over centuries of American history, the sitting President of the United States declared “In America, we don’t worship government, we worship God.” while speaking to a bunch of zealots at the "Value Voters Summit." Trump is the first President to address this group.The Dotard-in-Chief also regaled the audience, of mostly white Christ admiring folk looking to impress their way of life on the rest of us, with tales of his defense of their first amendment rights.Oh, the irony!Via TPM:

Cleaning a cast iron pan is no problem. Cleaning a waffle iron can be a pain in the ass. This $12 chainmail scrubber gets into the nooks and crannies..Fucking waffles. I have no idea why, likely it is just happenstance, but every now and then a waffle sticks to the iron. Admittedly, using a cast iron waffle iron is more art than science. You don't want to over oil it. You better not under oil it, and oh-for-gods-sake do not forget to oil it at all. Whatever I do, occasionally a waffle gets stuck.It is no pleasure getting waffle remains out of a heart-shaped waffle iron, let me tell you. The first thing I try is simply making a new waffle on top of the crusty remains of stuck waffle! Sometimes new waffle pulls dead waffle right the heck out! I suggest undercooking new waffle just a bit. If this does not work I move on to the chainmail scrubber.I've reviewed the chainmail scrubber before, people told me I'm crazy. Ignore people, this thing is great! The links on this chainmail scrubber work perfectly to fit into the waffle-channels and grind out stuck, dried waffle. I'm not going to bullshit you and pretend this is an easy job, but I usually find a medium effort pass with the chainmail, and a quick rinse with warm water and a sponge, will get everything cleaned out. If it doesn't, making a new waffle in whatever is left over always finishes the job.Chainmail won't hurt the seasoning on your cast iron. The seasoning on my waffle irons is always flax, and I use spray canola on them while cooking. Every year or so I'll run lightly flax oiled irons through the oven at 450F or so for an hour, just to clean them up.Chainmail also works great on a skillet.Hudson Essentials Cast Iron Cleaner XL 7x7 Premium Stainless Steel Chainmail Scrubber via Amazon

♬ Darkness falls across the land ♩

One of the highlights of this year's Defcon conference in Vegas was the Voting Machine Hacking Village, where security researchers tore apart the "secure" voting machines America trusts its democracy to. (more…)

Legendary hardware hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang (previously) has an open-source hardware company called Chibitronics; anyone can make their own version of a Chibitronics product, because Bunnie is convinced that his versions will be better and cheaper than theirs. (more…)