A university, mercifully left unnamed, blew off complaints from students about its slow network. When the problem became too bad to ignore, their IT team found the culprit thanks to a "sudden big interest in seafood-related domains."

Matthew Killip directed this lovely short film about Klaus Kemp, a microscopist whose specialty had its heyday in Victorian times: arranging microscopic creatures into beautiful patterns. (more…)

No Film School has great tips for those who want to document a protest. Meerkat Media has covered a lot of public protests, and the most effective coverage requires more than just pointing a camera or phone at the action. (more…)

Covering your download tracks isn’t the only reason to invest in a VPN service—high-profile hacks and data dumps in recent years have shone a brighter light on online security issues than ever before. It's not just public figures who are at risk, and VPNs have increased in popularity even for casual browsing due to reported extreme government surveillance. Whether it's securing your connection at the cafe down the street, or protecting your local network from prying eyes, Private Internet Access is one all-encompassing solution to your online safety.Like most leading VPN services, it masks your location and IP address, encrypts browsing activity, and lets you bypass regional content locks - a tool that is especially valuable while traveling. But where Private Internet Access excels is in actively blocking ads, tracking cookies, and malware—some of the primary sources for compromised privacy. Most importantly, however, Private Internet Access can’t leak any personal information since it doesn’t log any in the first place.If you feel now is the time to get serious about online security, you can get a two-year subscription to Private Internet Access VPN for $59.95, a big markdown from its $166 retail price.Explore other Best-Sellers on our network:

Bone chillingly brilliant. SNL has been made great again.

It seems there isn't a demographic that justifies stocking Ivanka Trump's "Trump Home" items -- they've now been removed from high-end retailer Nordstrom's, mid-range retailer Sears, and low-end retailer Kmart. They've also been removed from TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Neiman Marcus. (more…)

Yale's Calhoun College was named for the South Carolina politician John C Calhoun, a Yale alum and notorious enslaver and advocate of slavery; this was, understandably, controversial. (more…)

One of the high-profile campaigns by India's Prime Minister Modi is an end to the practice of defecating in public places, with access to toilets for all. (more…)

Speaker John Bercow has stated that Trump hasn't "earned" the right to address the Commons, something that Parliamentarians are likely to back, given the 1.8 million signatures on a petition against a state visit by Trump. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBaZ0Ga8d9oYouTube thinks I love frozen lakes after posting about walking on clear ice, so here is a video of a nearly exhausted moose saved from drowning by two cool Norwegian folks. (more…)

Many people have converted to vaporizers for a healthier alternative to carcinogenic, combusted smoking solutions. But finding the right vape for you can be tricky: cheap units may be dangerous, and higher prices don’t necessarily mean superior quality. You've got to find a happy medium. I just so happen to have done the legwork for you, however, and have a few vapes to recommend.4. Atmos Starter KitThe Atmos is pen-style vape that takes accepts plant material as well as herbal extracts. This vape forgoes advanced features for simplicity and reliability: one charge yields up to 72 hours of continuous use, and it heats up in under ten seconds. This starter kit also comes with two e-liquids and an adapter with which to smoke them.Price: $59.99, 73% off retailBUY NOW3. Hippie 3The Hippie 3 has the same one-button operation as the Atmos, but features more fine-grained temperature control and a glass mouthpiece for better-tasting hits. The unit’s heat level is conveniently displayed on the LCD screen on the side, and is quickly adjustable with a rotating dial.Price: $99, 37% offBUY NOW2. Pax 2The Pax 2 includes some nice perks in its sleek, minimal design. This vape fits nicely in your pocket, and Its motion- and lip-sensitivity ensures an optimum temperature for hits while keeping it cool on the table.Price: $199BUY NOW1. Pax 3The newest Pax vape builds on the success of its predecessor with an improved heating system for faster use and a stronger battery. If you’re looking for customization, this one offers precise temperature settings with a companion smartphone app.Price: $274.99BUY NOW

Deflazacort, a steroid, can be purchased online from non-US sources for $1.00, but now it's being marketed by Illinois's Marathon Pharmaceuticals for $89,000 as Emflaza, to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which predominantly affects men in their 20s. (more…)

NSO is an Israel cyberarms dealer, which buys or researches vulnerabilities in software and then weaponizes them; claiming that these cyberweapons will only be used by democratic governments and their police forces to attacks serious criminals and terrorists -- a claim repeated by its competitors, such as Italy's Hacking Team and Gamma Group. (more…)

Club drugs: when they're good, they're good, and when they're bad, they're better. Five directors collaborated on this trippy animation that stands among the best depictions of a club trip I have seen. Headphones, full screen, and dark room strongly recommended. (more…)

Pro surfer Mitch Parkinson makes surfing barrels look relaxing in this gorgeous montage. Owen Milne cut together this beautiful footage he shot with Lachlan McKinnon and John Wiley. (more…)

The UK's Forbidden Planet is now offering signed hardcovers of Walkaway, my first novel for adults since 2009 -- this is in addition to the signed US hardcovers being sold by Barnes and Noble. (more…)

South Dakota state Rep. Wayne H Steinhauer [R-9] (Phone: 605-526-4269/ 605-773-3851/ 605-359-6298); Email: Wayne.Steinhauer@sdlegislature.gov, never-used Twitter account) was part of a group of eight male, GOP reps who killed a bill that would have guaranteed workplace accommodations to pregnant South Dakotans. During the hearing, Rep Steinhauer told women "It’s not prison. You can quit." (more…)

The AP reports that an 80-year-old South Carolina woman had no idea her cane contained a sword until she attempted to board a plane and it was inspected by TSA staff.

Artist Benjamin Shine gathers colorful tulle into artistic forms, and now he has branched out into wearable art for the Maison Margiela spring collection: (more…)

In 2015, Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a compelling and sobering article for Boing Boing titled, “Our Generation Ships Will Sink.” Robinson argued that humanity’s hope for spreading among the stars, an ancient longing popularized during the Golden Age of science fiction, and later, the Golden Age of television and science fiction film, was an impossible longing that we would most likely never be able to fulfill. This grasping for the stars could not logically occur because of the physical, biological, ecological, sociological, and psychological limitations of human beings. In summary, Earth was our one and only home, and we are as intrinsically tied to it as the flora in our own guts are tied to us. If we go, they go. When Earth goes, we go.Christopher Mari and Jeremy K. Brown's Ocean of Storms is available from Amazon.There is a call to action in this epiphany, and it is that we must take care of this, our only home, and invest in it and its future with all the madness and passion we have invested in the stars.While I agree wholeheartedly that we should invest in maintaining our home, I also recognize that this sobering damper on the speculative imagination is also dangerous. Focusing only on what is known, what can be seen and observed, when we are incredibly limited in what we can see and observe, breeds complacency. Cutting off a doorway, a possibility, is a rejection of innovation. There is no greater threat to progress than the phrase, “That’s impossible.”I, too, write speculative worlds. I also live in a world that was once speculative to the generations that came before me. I do impossible things today – flying in a great metal bird in the sky, pulling maps from satellites circling the earth as I drive, crossing impossible distances in a vehicle that burns dead dinosaurs for fuel.If we figured out how to jettison ourselves from the Earth, we can figure out how to alter ourselves to traverse the incredible distances between stars and even galaxies. And here, then, is the difference in ideas that drives my writing as opposed to that of many other science fiction writers. I understand that space travel and expansion is just as much about altering ourselves, our attitudes, our social structures, our very biology, as it is about altering the places we choose to live.Robinson is right that the distances are long, that we are reliant on Terran bacteria, that our current starship technology cannot sustain us, that human psychology and physiology are not optimized for deep space, let alone new planets. But at no point does Robinson’s piece consider that to take the stars we will have to change ourselves. In fact, we will have to interrogate what it is to be human, and remake the human body and mind. Much of our science fiction still looks out at the universe from the vantage of the colonizer: we are the Galactic Empire, imposing our Terran biological needs on the unsuspecting lands – populated or not – where we plant our flags. Instead, we must reframe this expansion as an evolution of humanity. We must see ourselves not as colonizers or parasites, but as organisms seeking symbiosis with the ecological systems of other worlds. Because if we go into space as colonizers, then yes, Robinson is right: we will absolutely fail.Many science fiction novels focus on the nuts and bolts of engineering and physics while ignoring or glossing over concerns related to biology and sociology, the much-dismissed “softer” sciences that most likely the key to helping us reach the stars. The left-brain wants something predictable, knowable; it wants a button to push, and a clear line of causation. But organic life is a lot messier than a computer switch.For a short time, this button-pushing future created only on what is known instead of what could be possible led to the attempted science fiction “mundane SF” movement, which suffered from lackluster branding (who wants to read something mundane?) and a depressing lack of wonder (“we’re all going to die!” isn’t exactly an inspiring message). Human beings thrive on imagination and pushing boundaries and limitations. Imposing limits when we don’t actually have any true idea of what’s possible is like imposing a steel trap over the mind.So much of the future and the possible is unknown that when we build it, we have to reach for the fantastic. Take the current pace of discovery and progress in materials science, immunotherapy, quantum mechanics, and leap forward two hundred, three hundred, five hundred years. How much of what we believe to be true now will still be true? How many immutable facts will turn out to be, well, mutable?Robinson likens generation ships to islands, and like islands, notes that they would be especially vulnerable to disease and blight, and incursions from rapidly evolving bacteria. Our bodies would change in unknown ways. This is true. I would argue, then, that we need to think of our generation ships not as metal islands, but as organic, fleshy worlds unto themselves, with interconnected ecosystems. What happens when the starship itself is a biological organism, a living and breathing thing, and we are the fauna living its guts?This was a concept I explored deeply in my novel, The Stars are Legion. Because certainly, we will change if we create and inhabit a living organism to which we are intrinsically tied. The Earth has shaped our evolution in every way, and our world-ships will no doubt do the same. Perhaps we’ll never be able to leave these ships. But propelling ourselves across the universe inside a self-sustaining world that can repair and reproduce itself solves the problems of distance and reduces the chance of ecological collapse, particularly if the worlds moved together as a legion and included independent layers of systems so that if one began to decline, another would rise. Think of it as naturally evolving back-up systems.Those who arrive in the next star system, if they have created societies that allow them to change what we currently consider to be the intrinsically human foibles of war and strife and pettiness and bickering, will require time to adapt to a new environment. Consider how symbiotic parasites can chemically change and shape their hosts to suit them. Now imagine a ship is programmed to merge its flora and fauna with a new planet when it arrives, making the world-ship, now, into a living terraforming machine, a bacterial incubator that rapidly adapts the local environment to sustain its hosts. If symbiotic parasites can do this here on earth, why can’t we hurl something like it through space?Creating a future requires a profound and yes, unrealistic, vision of what is possible. But it is fantasy and wonder that drive technology and innovation. The stories of Pygmalion and his statue come to life, the Star Trek communicator; even flight itself was once considered a mathematical impossibility. The Taser, too, was inspired by an outlandishly fictional “electric rifle” that was written into Tom Swift stories at the turn of the last century.When science fiction writers ask why it is so many readers have turned away from science fiction, consider that in much of our work, readers experience a fear and exhaustion with the future. We are fatigued with ennui, obsessed with dystopia. Is it because many of us have lost our sense of wonder, our sense that anything is possible? Grounding us on our own planet, by necessity, limits the future of the human species and locks us into an inevitable end.Certainly, let’s invest in our planet and take care of our only home. But it’s also true that our star will eventually expand and destroy us, even if we are clever enough not to destroy ourselves first. Seeing the end of one’s species, however likely, doesn’t inspire innovation, only despair, no matter how far out that future may be.We must continually look past what is possible, and even what is probable, if we want to inspire the creation of a more hopeful and lasting future. We can never stop reaching for the stars.Christopher Mari was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and was educated at Fordham University. He has edited books on a wide variety of topics, including three on space exploration. His writing has appeared in such magazines as America, Current Biography, Issues and Controversies, and US Catholic. His next novel, The Beachhead, was published by 47North in 2017. He lives with his family in Queens, New York.

Earth’s climate functions as its life support system. That system is under heavy threat from over seven billion people and the bleeding heat of industry: as jungle and forest are rendered into farmland; greenhouse gases belch and fume, destabilizing the environment, shrinking biodiversity, pushing the limits of the Earth's natural mechanisms.2016 was the hottest year in the modern temperature record. Climate change is a long-term issue on a massive scale – from shrinking glaciers, changes in rainfall patterns, severe heat waves and other irreversible conditions. The worldwide scientific community has issued warnings for years about the present and future impacts of climate change linked to fossil fuel use.Earth faces unprecedented challenges caused by human agency, yet here we stand, like a deer in headlights, knowing something big and bad is coming, too dazzled to do anything to stop it.Science fiction has long been the literature that speculates on scientific change while reflecting contemporary societal concerns.Climate change is happening now, and we need a literature of now to address its issues. As glaciers melt, corals bleach, typhoons kill and forest fires rage, a new genre called climate fiction has emerged from science fiction to stand out on its own. Climate fiction focuses on anthropogenic climate change rather than natural unstoppable ecological catastrophes, such as supervolcanos, solar flares or large, Earth impacting meteorites. And most importantly, climate fiction uses real scientific data to translate climate change from the abstract to the cultural, enabling readers to vicariously experience threats and effects they might be expected to encounter across their own lifetimes.Climate fiction highlights the hard-impacting economic and interpersonal realities of climate change. It encourages us to understand that climate change is a problem we have brought upon ourselves and that changes to our economic and energy systems are required if we are to survive it.Climate fiction straddles genre boundaries: science fiction, utopia, dystopia, fantasy, thriller, romance, mimetic fiction, nature writing, and the literary, from fast-paced thrillers, to inward looking present day narratives.Climate change is emerging as a set of philosophical and existentialist problems as well as physical challenges. It is yet to receive the crisis response and treatment it deserves from world leaders.Cat Spark's Lotus Blue is available for pre-order on Amazon.Fiction – and indeed all art -- has a role to play, by humanising the effects of climate change; by illuminating the human dimensions of technological futures; by encouraging people to challenge ingrained confirmation bias and become climate voters -- active on the issue, making their views known loudly to politicians.Storytelling has the power to give climate change a human focus by translating complex and evolving scientific concepts into tales reimagining human interactions with the world. Non-didactic, people-centric narratives stressing the social aspects of climate change as much as the technical and scientific encourage societal long-term thinking about the power and potential of clean energy. Climate fiction’s growing popularity proves that we desire narratives showing how we might adapt to a changing world as ice melts and seas rise. Stories appealing to social ethics, questioning established hierarchies, and addressing our responsibility for fashioning an ecologically sustainable future.The coming decades will see problems of increasing complexity, such as permanent political and social instability, dangerous weather, food and water insecurity, and an increase in displaced persons as more and more land is swallowed by the sea. Climate fiction tackles these topics, detailing the practical domestic implications of carbon rationing and renewable energy, and exploring how practical changes might be implemented across ordinary lives. Some climate fiction stories investigate nascent technologies and their integration into business and culture, questioning how far our growing dependence on technology might end up detrimentally estranging us from nature. The topics are wide ranging, and use topical, political and scientific bases, ensuring that while it feels like fiction, it is applicable to current events and daily life.While much realist and literary fiction continues to focus inwards on individual identities and challenges, climate fiction takes on the task of envisioning physical and cultural landscapes facing uncertainty through processes of transformation and adaptation. Climate fiction forms a bridge connecting scientific information with people preparing to face an uncertain future the past can no longer be relied upon to guide us through.Art possess inherent empathetic value. Entwined with technological and social change, climate fiction functions as a universally understandable language while serving as a catalyst for forging new trans-disciplinary alliances, shifting debates and values, inspiring and motivating legal and institutional action, opening hearts and minds to new ways of thinking, encouraging resilience, resistance and resolve while continuing to imagine possible futures.More than anything, we must learn from these possible climate fiction futures, rooted in what we scientifically know today -- if we actually believe such futures might conceivably come to pass. Based on the science, those futures are closer than we think.Cat Sparks, author of the upcoming novel Lotus Blue, available from Talos Press, an imprint of Skyhorse, in March 2017.

U.S. intelligence officials say Russia 'is considering' sending Edward Snowden back to the United States as a "gift" to President Donald Trump, who has consistently referred to the NSA leaker as a "spy" and a "traitor" for whom the death penalty would be appropriate punishment.(more…)

These LED string lights are an easy way to add outdoor lighting. I just bought my third set. They are cheap - $11 for a 30-foot string of 100 lights. It includes a remote control to adjust the brightness or make the lights blink. They are strung onto what looks like very thin copper wire. At night, you can't really see the wire, just the lights.

Reporters with CNN interviewed federal investigators who confirm for the first time that some elements in that mysterious British spy's dossier on Donald Trump's Russia hijinks are legit.(more…)

Let me start off by saying, this black and white reprint of The Killing Joke is a gimmick. I know it’s a gimmick. You know it’s a gimmick. But dang in this case, the gimmick works. The Batman Noir series is part of a recent trend where DC is reprinting some of their most popular books in stark black and white, so that you’ll purchase them again or for the first time. While some of the other Batman Noir comics really lose something with their lack of color, The Killing Joke feels like it should have always been this contrasty. Removing all the color makes one of the darkest stories in the Batman mythos, even darker. If you haven’t read it, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s story dives into the Joker’s origins, and his belief that one bad day is all that separates humanity from madness. While generally considered non-canonical the story had a huge influence on the comics, and how Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan would depict the Joker on film. So why should you purchase another copy of a book that most Batman fans already have? Well, it’s beautiful. The matte hard cover is gorgeous and the added art looks amazing. This edition also includes both additional comics from 2008’s deluxe edition, but does not have the introduction or epilogue, which I don’t miss. So, if you haven’t read The Killing Joke, or if your current copy is dog-eared and fading and you want something to display on your shelf, definitely pick up a copy.Batman Noir: The Killing Joke

Life Where I'm From has a tour of a 4LDK (4 bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen) in Tokyo. Cost is about $480,000. I love that magnetic door stopper, and the high tech toilet.

I remember when I could hear the opening to the William Tell Overture and feel the adventure.I'm not sure if I just got older, the constant comedic uses of The Lone Ranger theme, or I just can't tolerate the racism inherent in most old Western themed tv and movies, but every time I hear this music, I get a brief taste of that old feeling and then it is washed away.For some reason Jonny Quest's theme still works. Hadji deserved better treatment.

The problem is in the architecture of the human brain.

New York Magazine shared Breitbart's interview with White House press secretary Sean Spicer. It's glorious.

During a bizarre meet-and-greet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that ended with the weirdest diplomatic handshake ever, so-called 'President' Donald J. Trump ominously teased his intent to introduce some sort of heightened national security measures next week, and to continue fighting his losing battle with America's judicial system over the #MuslimBan.(more…)

Techdirt, a fearless source of excellent technology news and commentary, is being sued for $15M by Shiva Ayyadurai, who claims to have invented email -- he is represented by Charles Harder, a key figure in the Gawker-killing legal campaign that Peter Thiel financed, and who is also representing Melania Trump in her $150m lawsuit against The Daily Mail. (more…)

Gorsuch has written extensively on the role of judges' personal beliefs and the law; and on the politicization of the judicial confirmation process. Specifically, he called out Congress for its maltreatment of Merrick Garland when his federal judgeship was before the Senate. (more…)

For eight minutes, Breitbart's Charlie Spiering interviewed Sean Spicer, looking into the wrong camera, stumbling over his words, spacing out, sitting silently for long, awkward stretches -- all with CNN running on the large flatscreens behind the President's spokesliar. (more…)

Ha-Joon Chang, an author and reader in Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge, opens his interview about the problems of neoliberalism with Truth-Out by quoting Gore Vidal: Neoliberalism is "free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich," where "the rich have been increasingly protected from the market forces, while the poor have been more and more exposed to them." (more…)

Max Braun is the software lead for robotics at Google X. In his spare time he's written a bot that buys and shorts stocks based on Trump's tweets about publicly traded companies. The gains go to the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Resources Defense Council, and Planned Parenthood.From his Medium post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Aji5BhJ_FPEUkrainian anti-corruption group Chesno has uploaded videos showing five instances in which Ukrainian MPs illegally cast votes in parliament on behalf of their absent colleagues, bringing the total number of such incidents caught by Chesno (which has kept records since Dec 2014) up to 161. (more…)

Whitney Phillips is about to publish her second book on internet trolls: The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online, co-written with Ryan M. Milner during the 2016 election cycle, when trolling became an indomitable force for political goals. (more…)

BB contributor Jess Hemerly spotted this concerning image on the Bay Area's KRON 4 Morning News. Even more disturbing than a middle school student bringing a gun to school is that it was apparently a sawed-off handgun stashed in an invisible holster.(Here's the story.)UPDATE: Thanks to our commenters, I'm now convinced that this is a snubnosed revolver in a plastic belt clip holster.

Water beads look like fun. The clear ones almost disappear when submerged in water. Here's a gif of a guy who suspended a figurine in a jar using water beads:

Our Green World: Environment Studies is a children's textbook used in India. Some schools have removed one of the pages from the book because it has an experiment requiring students to kill a "small kitten."From BBC:

Sheets made from hard bamboo might seem like bedding for masochists, but recent advancements in textile manufacturing have allowed soft threads to be extracted from wood pulp. Bamboo is known for its fast growth and positive environmental impact, and current production methods recapture all chemical solvents used to break down the tough fibers. For an eco-friendly, extremely comfortable night's sleep, check out these Bamboo Fiber Sheets.Blending bamboo yarn and ultra-soft microfiber, these sheets have a silky-smooth, wrinkle-free feel. The breathability of the bamboo mitigates that heat and itchiness you get from cheap synthetic sheets to help maintain body temperature and give you a sound sleep. Additionally, the fitted sheet in this set has an extra-deep pocket to fit easily around thicker mattresses.

Chelsea Manning's lawyer Chase Strangio has set up an official Chelsea Manning Welcome Home Fund. Please join those of us who have contributed to help with her living and healthcare expenses. As a reminder of what she's endured: (more…)

Russian architecture student Marie Troïtskaia makes astonishing cakes with mirror glaze in her spare time. Her training is evident in the design concepts.Bonus video: how to make one for Valentine's Day.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZhV63pkDBwMany more on Marie's website.• Marie Oiseau Portfolio: Cakes (via Instagram)

Restauranteur John Horvatinovich refused to serve beer to two undercover teenagers, then let his followers know about the failed sting by sharing a picture of the underage police informants. Next thing he knew, he faced a year in jail for his tweet. (more…)

I missed this story when it was published last Labor Day, but hey: when Steve Bannon was you know, a regular joe working for a scrappy, much-loved, all-American firm called Goldman Sachs, he directed a $60m investment in a company called Internet Gaming Entertainment, which was a marketplace for buying and selling World of Warcraft gold, ground out of the game by botmasters and sweatshop gold-farmers. (more…)

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco today refused to reinstate Donald Trump's ban on travelers from the seven predominantly Muslim nations in which the so-called President has no known business interests.(more…)

Did you forget to turn off your stove burner before leaving the house this morning? Don't worry about it. Easier said than done, but..."A stove is designed to run indefinitely," says John Drengenberg, the Consumer Safety Director at Underwriters Laboratories where they test such things. "Do we recommend that? Absolutely not.""If you leave it on, and there's nothing on the stove or near the stove, it probably will stay running until you come back," he tells DIGG.UL tests just about every stove that hits the market. Part of that testing involves ensuring they hit thermal stability. In other words, they turn the stove on, and check the temperature of the burner, and keep checking the temperature until it stops increasing — just to make sure the burner doesn't ultimately set the entire stove on fire.That said, leaving something cooking unattended on the burner can absolutely cause a fire.

Lenovo's Yoga Book is the most striking personal computer I've seen in years. More than the original iPhone, or Sony's X505, or the Messagepad, here's technology that seems a few years ahead of schedule. It's compact, attractive and thinner than anything else that might be called a laptop. Imagine two hinged pieces of black glass, one of which glows with the internet and the other with Okudagrams, and you have the Yoga Book. (more…)

In a Boing Boing post last December, I wrote that some asshole anti-Semites were planning a march to chase the Jews out of Whitefish, Montana. Well, some asshole anti-Semites didn't like the attention.Look at how angry some Hitler enthusiasts got over my honest comments! I was sharing a quote from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) website! (more…)