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Visual, recording and generally some-kinda artist Tim Barrett has just released a titular new track entitled They Call Me Hobo. I call him Tim.The Hobo also shares a wonderful series of images juxaposing historic figures and pussy hats, created in the name of resistance. Just look at Melania glower!

An announcement from a police helicopter on Wednesday near Capistrano Beach, California:"You are paddleboarding next to approximately 15 great white sharks. They are advising you exit the water in a calm manner. The sharks are as close as the surfline.” From the OC Register:(more…)

There are few possessions I've held on to like my Remington Rand De Luxe Porta 5. I've been trying to fix it, it mostly works kind of/sort of. OK, I give up. (more…)

In 1986 while a student at CalArts, Jim Reardon, who went on to direct numerous episodes of The Simpsons, created this fantastic faux trailer for "Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown," a bizarro world TV special starring the Peanuts gang.

"At one of the last shows, he finally flipped off the audience," says The Monkees' Mickey Dolzenz. "I don't blame him, frankly."

Sheyla Veronica White was working at her desk at Cinque Terre Energy Partners in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when a piece of a sprinkler fell from the ceiling and unfortunately just missed her. Why unfortunately? Because if it hit her, she could file a worker's compensation claim. So she promptly picked up the metal piece and bashed herself in the head with it. From Fox 13:

On Wednesday 25-year-old Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland -- who is being sued for $100M over his catastrophic schadenfreudefest -- gathered his long-unpaid employees on a conference call this week to tell them that "After conferring with our counsel and all financial people, unfortunately we are not able to proceed with payroll. We’re not firing anyone, we’re just letting you know that there will be no payroll in the short term." (more…)

President Donald Trump, having fired FBI Director James Comey in what he admits was an effort to stymie the Bureau's investigation into links between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, is now threatening him on Twitter.https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473The contrast between his paranoid assumptions and the unconvincing humor of the threat is classic Trump: as subtle as a mob cement truck loaded with diarrhea. But don't let it distract you from what he's insinuating: that he "tapes" his meetings.

Trumpcare was dead on arrival (again) until Rep Tom MacArthur [R-NJ; Twitter: @RepTomMacArthur; DC: (202) 225-4765; Burlington County: (856) 267-5182; Ocean County: (732) 569-6495] introduced an amendment that allowed insurers to refuse to cover people with "pre-existing conditions" including surviving domestic violence and/or rape, living with PTSD, being born with a congenital defect, and so forth. (more…)

Congratulations to humanity for contaminating sea salt! A new study found all but one of 17 commercial sea salt brands from eight different countries contained microscopic plastic particles. Microplastic: it's what's for dinner! (more…)

"Engaging in fine motor activity may assist students with ADHD in resisting the pull of distraction."

Three Waves via Bees and Bombs.

This is why I'll never be able to cast a powerful magic spell by concentrating hard.

Scientists have found fossils of an ankylosaur they've named Zuul. Perhaps this dinosaur slept above the sheets.Via the LA Times:

A Somali-American community has been struck with an outbreak of the measles in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Dr. Mahab Ururshe struggles to convince recent emigres that austism is not a result of the vaccine.Via ABC:

The BBC reports a quick outcome to a televised bout fought between Xu Xiaodong, a practitioner of modern mixed martial arts, and Wei Lei, a Tai Chi master. It was over in a few seconds, with a few more of the traditionalist, hopelessly outmatched, shielding himself on the ground.

Last year, 22-year-old Russian blogger Rusian Sokolovsky played Pokemon Go inside an Orthodox church and filmed it. The video went viral, which put him in detention since October. Today he was convicted and given a suspended sentence of 3 1/2 years. His crime? Religious hatred, the same "crime" that threw the two women from the feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot into jail for two years in 2012.From ABC News:

Colin Johnson is an overnight legend.Earlier...This exchange has all the ingredients of a classic fairy tale — note that it's not really Ladbrokes replying to him, but a cunning trickster. Watch for many more like it in the coming months and years as England generates a new folklore.

This screen from a crashed point-of-sale screen at an Oslo pizzeria reveals that the restaurant was covertly scanning and analyzing the facial expressions of each customer, identifying their age, gender, affect, and attentiveness. (more…)

Keurboom Communications was fined £400,000 by British regulators after making almost 100 million unwelcome phone calls to lines in the UK. The wheeze was to call people late at night and pitch accident compensation claims. The company went into liquidation before anything could be done about it, reports the BBC, but regulators say they plan to recover the fine all the same, and have their eye on company director Greg Rudd.

Oracles is a new book that presents 123 notable calling cards in an interesting way: as facsimiles of the originals, inserted into a two-page spread giving context. (more…)

Persirai is a new strain of Internet of Things malware that infects more than 1,250 models of security camera, all manufactured by an unnamed Chinese manufacturer that has sold at least 185,000 units worldwide. (more…)

Shedworks is making a video game and I don't care what it's about or whether it's "good" because it looks like Jean "Moebius" Giraud drew every frame of the teaser animations, and I am sold. Emerging from a shed in North London, the unnamed project is by Gregorios Kythreotis and Daniel Fineberg.https://twitter.com/ShedworksGreg/status/859792029148225536https://twitter.com/ShedworksGreg/status/859724452887756801

https://gfycat.com/CraftyScientificHuskyThis video of a dog counfounded by a spinner represents me every morning when I turn on the internet. [via]

Whenever it seems that timelapse has become a bit overused, someone like Jamie Scott refreshes the format with something like Spring, a dizzying film of flowers in bloom. (more…)

There still isn't one unified AC power standard. Although USB power is definitely making plug convergence much more likely to happen down the line, plenty of older buildings still have whatever outlet made sense at the time they were wired for electricity. Since international travel will definitely require power adapters for the foreseeable future, anyone who frequently bounces between the UK, EU, Australia, and the United States should pick up this BESTEK Portable International Travel Voltage Converter.This power strip has a selection of adapters for the most common plugs you’ll encounter while travelling, and converts 220 Volt power sources to 110 - 120 VAC. It is designed to fit in a carry-on, while still being tough enough to take a beating from negligent baggage carriers.To ensure that your phone, laptop, and other devices can get power while abroad, get this Travel Voltage Converter here in our Boing Boing Store.

"The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" is the first single from The National's forthcoming album Sleep Well Beast, out September 8. What a stunner. Four months is a mighty long time.

What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?Stalinism was at its height when Mikhail Bulgakov wrote this masterfully absurd satire of Soviet life. Written in the 1940s, but unpublished until 1966, The Master and Margarita captures what it is to live under the thumb of a dark regime.A scream against limiting artistic expression and a demonstration of the folly brought about by Soviet atheism, Bulgakov revised and re-wrote this novel over the course of several years, unable to publish it for fear of losing his life. When the first part was printed in 1966 it was an instant success, revered for its commitment to artistic and spiritual freedom.Bulgakov weaves a fantastic world, meshed with chilling realism, as the story lines reel between Satan guiding the weary Margarita in a search for her former lover, The Master, and his destroyed manuscript in 1930s Russia, and Pontius Pilate ordering Christ to the cross in ancient Jerusalem. You'll marvel at a giant vodka drinking cat, join a Satanic ball, and meet a very different Jesus Christ in this mind wrenching tale.There are many translation and free versions available on the internet. I like the Mirra Ginsburg translation, easily available at Amazon.This became one of my 'favorite books of all-time' the first time I read it.

Neural networks, it is said, cannot explain their decisions. Which is probably a good thing, at least when it comes to the machine mind's ideas for new Dungeons & Dragons spells, as guided by Janelle Shane. [via Patrick Ziselberger‏]

Here are a few of the best of the worst examples of design from the Crappy Design subreddit.

In VR, everyone can hear you scream.(Oculus, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Playstation VR, Google Daydream, and other mobile VR devices)

If you had a gun pointed at your head and had to choose one, which of the following five companies would you eradicate from your life: Facebook, Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, or Amazon?Which would come second?Here's a fun "quiz" by Farhad Manjoo in The New York Times today. Rank these "Frightful Five" companies in order of which you could most do without to which you are most dependent on, and then see how your results compare with everyone else's. Manjoo will give you his take on why he chose the way he did, and what he thinks of your picks.Image: Pixabay

Former FBI Director James Comey was in Los Angeles talking to FBI employees when the TV in the room delivered the news that he'd been fired. "He immediately thought it was a prank, and a pretty funny one at that," says The Week. But no one else was laughing.

theydidthemath is a fun subreddit. In this post a fellow named Nym figured out how many lentils a recording artist can can buy each time someone plays one of their songs. The assumption is that one Spotify play is worth a half cent, and lentils cost $1.50 a pound.

"Huckleberry likes to sit on the roof," says Boing Boing reader Matthew. "His owners made a sign to reassure concerned passersby."

Former FBI director James Comey asked the Justice Department for “a significant increase in money and personnel for the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election” right before Trump fired him, reports the New York Times. That would sure explain a lot about why Trump suddenly delivered the surprise sacking yesterday.(more…)

This week on Maker Update: a giant mechanical iris, a lightsaber, remote control Arduino, a micro torch, python boxes, Google HATs, Processing Spirographs, and Maker Faires. See expanded show notes here.

While THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, seems to cause memory and learning impairment in young mice, surprising new research suggests that it actually reverses cognitive decline in elderly mice. From Scientific American:

A reporter in West Virginia was arrested on Tuesday after attempting to ask a Trump official about the administration's plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Dan Heyman, a reporter for Public News Service, says he asked Price repeatedly about whether domestic violence is considered a preexisting condition under the new GOP healthcare bill.(more…)

Musicless Musicvideo's Mario Wienerroither strips down A-Ha's 1980s anthem "Take On Me" and adds in appropriate sound effects. The result is rather strange and ominous.Here's the beloved original:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

The striking sandstone spires of Zhangjiajie National Park, China's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, inspired the landscape of Pandora, the setting of James Cameron's Avatar.

@vidiot_ on Twitter compiled 536 reactions from members of Congress into a simple, easily-scanned Google spreadsheet.https://twitter.com/vidiot_/status/862202080915836928Many haven't said a thing. Democrats seem united in criticism of Trump. Republicans are mostly silent on the matter, with a dozen or so on the record. Of those, they're about equally split between praise and criticism of the firing.Don't expect Congress to do anything about it. Trump's gift is for grift, and the art of grift is in spotting weak assumptions. What do people think can't be done, but have no will or means to punish or prevent?

Does Shep Smith ever roll his eyes? Asking for a friend.

Trump fired FBI Director James Comey because he "would not publicly state that there were no links between Trump and Russians," reports MSN, citing a paywalled article at The Wall Street Journal. He also hated Comey's relentless attention-seeking from the media, which offered Trump a staggeringly narcissistic excuse to fire him: inappropriate treatment of Hillary's emails.

The War on Drugs hasn't just destroyed cities and families by imprisoning millions while enriching organized crime syndicates: it's also denied millions more access to promising therapies for crippling psychological and physiological ailments. (more…)

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 all kinds of other stuff.GET Ruben Bolling’s new hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures. (”A book for the curious and adventurous!” -Cory Doctorow) Book One here. Book Two here.More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

Donald Trump's racist, perjuring Attorney General, former senator Jefferson Sessions, was signaled that he will reverse Obama-era AG Eric Holder's memo that told federal prosecutors not to bring charges against petty drug offenders, because these crime carry absurd minimum sentences that resulted in America imprisoning a greater proportion of its population than any country in the history of the world, including the USSR and Apartheid-era South Africa. (more…)

You probably get too much email. And it’s not because your spam filter isn’t working. Every digital receipt you get, and each online service you use automatically puts you on any number of mailing lists. Throttle Pro lets you avoid hunting around for those minuscule unsubscribe links by preventing services from ever collecting your contact info in the first place.With Throttle Pro, you can create unlimited dummy email addresses to give to forms and keep marketing emails away from your primary inbox. You can still browse through all the newsletters, product updates, and social media notifications in their browser extension, and it combines multiple messages into manageable digests. If you get tired of anything you’ve willingly signed up for, you can revoke access instantly with a single click.Throttle also syncs across all of your devices, so you can manage everything away from your desktop. To take back control of your email, get a lifetime subscription to Throttle Pro from the Boing Boing Store.

United is deeply sorry that one of its employees canceled a passenger's reservation at the check-in counter because he recorded the employee on his cell phone. The passenger, Navang Oza, says he turned the phone's recorder on because the agent wanted to charge him $300 for his bag, which was over the 50lb weight limit. Oza said he was charged just $125 for same bag with the same stuff inside on the previous flight and he wanted to document the conversation he was having with the agent. When the agent realized that Oza was recording her, she protested and canceled his ticket. He had to buy a ticket on another airline to get home.Here's a link to the video.(Thanks, Matthew!)[via SFGate]