University of Washington profs Carl T. Bergstrom (Biology) and Jevin West (Information School) have proposed a course called "Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data" that characterizes "the majority of administrative activity" as "sophisticated exercise(s) in the combinatorial reassembly of bullshit" and aims to train students to "navigate the bullshit-rich modern environment by identifying bullshit, seeing through it, and combatting it with effective analysis and argument." (more…)

After 2016's bungled coup and as part of his subsequent crackdown on political enemies and the media, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants new powers to hire and fire government ministers. The debate in Turkey's parliament got out of hand, with members of the ruling AK Party and opposition Republican People's Party getting into fisticuffs.

Just days before the end of Barack Obama’s presidency, YouTuber Nathan Zed edited this lovely tribute to our 44th president.

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YouTuber Autistic Tic has a great series of videos on inexpensive toys for fidgeting and stimulation. Great for pets, kids, and fidgety adults! (more…)

Hidden Figures—which tells the previously untold story of three black women who were influential in NASA’s Apollo program—is one of my favorite films I’ve seen in a long time. And in this wonderful video, 15-year-old Giovanna from Black Girls Code interviews the stars of the film about its message and the importance of representation. As Janelle Monáe puts it, “Hopefully when [young girls interested in STEM] watch this, you’ll realize that your dream is valid and you are the coolest girls around the planet.”You can learn more on FutureKatherineJohnsons.com, which is built by Black Girls Code.[via Chic Inspector]

YouTuber Mamrie Hart celebrates Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes win (and Streep's kickass speech) with a unique cocktail, some jabs at Donald Trump, and a whole bunch of puns.

Last year Polish graphic designer Michał Kulesza completed not one, but two daily Lego projects. For the first half of the project, he spend 135 days photographing everyday objects transformed into Legos. Kulesza writes, “[In the project] simple everyday objects are connected (or totally inverted) into Lego bricks. In this way I created different grotesque or even absurd daily situations. I took photos in minimal composition and every time I showed new ideas. In my work I just wanted to make people smile.”For the second half of the project, Kulesza was accidentally “transformed” into a Lego figure and photographed himself in everyday situations.In the end, Kulesza ended up with 240 images. You can read more about the project here and here. And you can see the full collection of Daily Lego photos and LegomanDaily photos.

In this 360 degree video, the YouTube channel Skunk Bear explores how long it would take to walk to the Moon. And it does so while paying homage to David Bowie’s long career.

Brutal London: Construct Your Own Concrete Capital tells the stories of nine of London's greatest brutalist structures (with an intro by Norman Foster!), including the Barbican Estate, Robin Hood Gardens, Balfron Tower and the National Theatre -- and includes pull-out papercraft models of these buildings for you to assemble and display. (more…)

Thomas "Capital in the 21st Century" Piketty endorses the World Wealth and Income Database, where you will find "open and convenient access to the most extensive available database on the historical evolution of the global distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries" in English, with upcoming translations in Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and French. (more…)

Recent surveillance laws in Germany, France and the UK require online service providers to store (undoubtedly leaky and infinitely toxic) databases of everything you do online, and allow government agencies to raid these databases without accountability or meaningful oversight). (more…)

From the amazing Sean Tejatchi, "Twilight Zone introductions, 1959-1961."

Kodak's Ektachrome film, developed in the 1940s, was a favorite of National Geographic photographers. But digital cameras flatlined the sales and it was discontinued in 2012. A revived interest in film cameras has prompted Kodak to revive the beloved 35mm film. Look for it later this year.From Kodak's press release:

Train Global says: "I made a song using a weird phone call my friend sent me from his pest control job." He reports in the comments, "Apparently she only had a few ants in her house."

https://youtu.be/JSfDQyf-sw8It looks like a big piece of ice started spinning in a river current. As it rotated, irregular chunks broke off until it formed a circle.

In 1972 billy barr (he spells it lowercase) was a Rutgers University environmental science student and did some research in Gothic, Colorado, a ghost town built around a silver mine. The native New Jerseyan returned after graduation and has lived in the town as its sole full-time resident ever since. He has also taken meticulous snowfall and temperature measurements, which have proven valuable to climate scientists.From Oddity Central:

Fort Bourtange is a 16th-century star fort that is now a museum. This drone footage captures the scope of the spectacular engineering feat. (more…)

According to an anonymously-sourced dossier, Donald Trump paid to watch hookers piss on a Russian hotel bed where he knew President Obama and his wife had once slept.The report (read it!) was supposedly compiled by a former British intelligence official who researched the candidate for his Republican rivals and, later, Hillary Clinton's campaign. It alleges that Russia has compromising information on Trump. The report is unverified, and was in the hands of D.C. insiders, the FBI and CIA leadership and some journalists long before election day.More than the lurid sexual allegations, the report claims various contacts between Trump aides and Russian operatives during the election and overwhelmingly suggests Mr. Trump has a lot at personal stake when it comes to dealings with the Russian government.

This commercial for New York City's Man's Country bathhouse aired in the late 1970s on Channel J, Manhattan's influential public access television channel.

Felicia Herman writes:

A 1958 episode of the television western Trackdown features a con artist named Trump who wants to build a wall to protect a town from destruction. From the Classic TV Archive:

Of all of the accolades that Bowie received after his death last January 10th, there was precious little said about his pioneering work on the Internet and the burgeoning World Wide Web. In 1998, he launched Bowie.net and became the first major artist to create his own internet service, to distribute his songs online, to use the Web to offer things like branded/vanity email (yourname@bowie.net) and exclusive backstage access to Bowie.net subscribers (using crappy late-90s streaming technology), and to use the Web to communicate directly and collaborate with fans.https://www.facebook.com/bbctwo/videos/10154189456851200/In this video clip from 1999, he talks with the BBC's Jeremy Paxman and seems to shock him with what sounds like an alarming prediction about the future of the Internet.Bowie: I think the potential for what the Internet is going to do for society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. I think we are on the cusp of something both exhilarating and terrifying.Paxman: It's just a tool, though. Isn't it?Bowie: No it's not, no. It's an alien life form. [Laughs] Is there life on Mars? YES, and it's just landed here.[H/t Will Kreth]

On The Nib, Andy Warner posts a quick primer on the Voting Rights Act, which was weakened in a 2013 Supreme Court case that struck down the requirement for districts with a history of racist voter suppression to get federal oversight for changes to their voting procedures; of note is the section on Jeff Sessions, whose Attorney General confirmation hearing is underway right now. (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Last October, an Apple Store in Brisbane, Australia terminated some of its employees after they were accused of searching customers' devices for sexually explicit selfies and sharing them with colleagues, rating them on a scale of 1-10. (more…)

Procedure at New York's Rikers Island prison is for visitors to be subjected to a pat-down search, but women who visit their loved ones are suing the New York Department of Corrections because guards there subject them to illegal, violent, humiliating strip and cavity searches, sometimes holding them down while forcibly penetrating them with their fingers. (more…)

Last year, a few days after David Bowie died, I posted the following reminiscence/remembrance to my Facebook page. On the anniversary of his death, I thought I might share it here.It was Friday, November 16, 1973. I was 16 years old. Every Friday night, I would rush home from whatever trouble my friends and I were trying to get into to watch The Midnight Special, hosted by the chronically-howling Wolfman Jack. For a sheltered kid growing up in a small Southern Baptist town outside of Richmond, Virginia, The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert were the critical means for seeing live-performance rock n' roll.https://youtu.be/rvwySPk6IB0On this night, the show broadcast David Bowie's 1980 Floor Show, a special that had been recorded in October of 1973 at The Marquee Club in London, but not previously aired. Up to that point, I don't know how much Bowie I'd been exposed to, but it wasn't much. I'd certainly heard “Space Oddity” countless times on the radio, and likely a few other tracks, but my exposure was minimal. And I don't think I'd ever laid eyes on the man until this broadcast.I was so excited as the show began, but that enthusiasm soon turned to confusion, then outright fear. I saw this....creature that I had no frame of reference to understand. I was looking at some strange and incomprehensible being, some OTHER. The freedom I saw, the creativity, the gender fluidity, and the flaunted sexuality, it was both seductive and alarming; this pandrogyny felt fundamentally threatening to whatever male heterosexuality I'd been trying so desperately to understand and to model. Part of me was attracted, inspired even, part of me was repulsed. Or at least scared.https://youtu.be/0iLoJMfNQSQWhen “Space Oddity” began, intercut with shots of launching Saturn V's and a swift-orbiting Skylab, by the time they were checking ignition and wishing us God's love, I think the top of my head had fully come off. At 16, I was a total NASA nerd, so this was something I knew, a place where I was comfortable -- hardware! Rockets! Blast-off! Oh, wait, never mind. I floated up from the basement family room, through the roof of the chocolate brown Colonial split-level, and into that November midnight. Far above the world. Then "Can't Explain" came on and the exuberance with which Bowie struts that song completely shorted out whatever circuits I had left in my limited understanding of gender or what I could find attractive. I still had no idea who or what I was looking at, but I knew this was something unique, something inspired.https://youtu.be/ytDNc6TxrV8I lived with my confused but... "aroused" feelings all weekend long, anxious to discuss them with my friends at school on Monday morning. That Monday, in the hallways, it was the first item I brought to the huddle of freaks and fuckups by the lockers. "Hey, did you see Bowie on Midnight Special? Wasn't that amazing!?," I enthused. They laughed, they grimaced. "That dude is gross, man, a total fag!," said one of them. "Yeah, faggot music," said another. They all shook their heads in agreement and I demurred. Now I was really confused. Does liking this guy make me gay? I was pretty sure I wasn't gay, but I couldn't deny the feelings I had for what I'd experienced.I didn't have much to do with Bowie until two years later when I joined a hippie commune. One of the friends I made there was a young gay man (RIP Rick Kellar) who had been heavily into glam. He turned me on to Hunky Dory, The Man Who Sold the World, Ziggy Stardust, and Diamond Dogs (along with the Velvets and Iggy Pop). He also gave me a little appreciation for what it must have been like being a gay kid growing up in Ohio in the 70s. And how Bowie had felt life-saving to him and his friends. Bowie had gifted them the weirdo to celebrate within themselves. I realized that seeing Bowie that night in 1973 had done something similar for me. I was a different kind of Other, but I was most certainly Other. Here was a guy who was flying his freak flag with such smirking abandoned and ridiculous levels of creative self-expression. If he could be that comfortable being this unapologetically strange, certainly my strangeness, my otherness, was tame by comparison. Lying there on my back, on the couch at the commune, listening to Rick's stack of Bowie vinyl on the living room stereo, I knew that my initial instincts had been right. This alien fellow was on to something. He was a spokesperson for all of us freaks, Earthbound aliens, and disenfranchised weirdos. I put the raygun to my head in that moment, pulled the trigger, and have never looked back.The night before David Bowie died, I was listening to some of the tracks from Blackstar in honor of his birthday. I saw the Hammersmith Odeon performance for “Moonage Daydream” on the right rail of YouTube and decided to open it full-screen on my large monitor and crank it to 11. I watch this performance every few years and it never ceases to enchant me and make me want to cultishly follow the Spiders all over again. But that Sunday night, the performance hit me especially hard. I cried tears of joy so big, they frightened me. I exclaimed things out loud. I was filled with such profound feelings of love and appreciation for what this artist, this extraordinary being, was able to inspire in that awkward 16 year old, on that Friday night in 1973 when he began loving the alien.https://youtu.be/5VR7XX5S-qYAfter “Moonage Daydream” finished, I watched “My Death,” another favorite from the Hammersmith show. I thought about my own mortality, allowed myself to be overwhelmed by the beauty of human frailty expressed in that song. I went to bed. At 2:26am, I awoken to a text from a friend: "So devastated. RIP our amazing Bowie." But whatever lies behind the door

The man who will decide how law is enforced in America for the next four years was deemed too racist to be a judge, voted to allow American soldiers to torture people, and is a general hot mess on crypto, surveillance, net neutrality and press freedoms: EFF staffers will liveblog his confirmation hearing this morning. (Image: Gage Skidmore, CC-BY-SA)

Tumblr user Svzannebrown shared this utterly delightful video, noting that it’s “all that anyone needs to know” about her time in Japan.

Commodore's C64 and Sinclair's ZX Spectrum were the most successful 8-bit computers in Europe, but Amstrad's CPC ran a close third. Ellie Gibson writes on how it—especially the magazine Amstrad Action—changed her life.

Artist Libby VanderPloeg demonstrates just how many layers it takes to get polar vortex-ready.

YouTuber Proto G shot these cool experiments with plasma vortex force fields. Scientists are looking into large-scale practical applications of the force field generated in this manner: (more…)

When building software applications, testing functionality is critical for assuring quality and managing complexity. So critical, that software testers are some of the most in-demand tech positions available.Manual tests can be extremely repetitive and time consuming, so most modern software developers have adopted automated testing to keep apps stable and development cycles short. For web developers, Selenium offers powerful testing capabilities by automating the entire browser.Master this popular technology with this brand new course - offering 86 hours of detailed video lessons to get you proficient in automated testing with a variety of programming languages.For a limited time, get this Selenium Automation Testing Bundle for just $41, 92% off the usual price.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcI9iU98olk&feature=youtu.beJessica Leigh Clark-Bojin, storied nerd piemaker, created this fluorescing Tron pie, doped with tonic water for extra UV-reacting goodness.

Marissa Meyer is to leave Yahoo, which is to change its name to "Altaba"

As BuzzFeed transitions from internet strip mine to legit news and information, they now to put out occasional gems like Auri Jackson's project "I tried to make zero trash for 30 days." (more…)

The November 2016 issue of Vonk (Netherlands) has a photo of Trump that looks a lot like a boxing glove.

In addition to a wonderful and timely message, this PSA for Greenpeace is beautifully illustrated and animated by Elliot Lim. (more…)

A spool of cable fell off a truck on Route 40 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, turning the highway into a hyperrealistic video game.

I enjoy Lithuanian travel vlogger Jacob Laukaitis' YouTube videos. He travels around the world and makes videos like this one about the ruins of Hampi, India, which was once the second most populous city in the world:https://youtu.be/dZy8T0ZYkDsAnd this one of Khari Baoli in New Delhi, the largest spics market in Asia:https://youtu.be/Ze0lmU01eD4Recently, Jacob was hit by a drunk driver in Thailand and broke several bones in his face. His medical insurance company refused to pay the bill until it started getting negative publicity on social media, after which it agreed to pay the $10,000 bill. Lucky for Jacob he has a lot of social media followers to help him out. Jacob said he's heard from other people insured by the same company who have been denied medical coverage.I'd be interested in learning from readers about the travel insurance companies they use, and whether they've had positive experiences. I've used TravelGuard (AIG) a couple of times, but have not needed compensation for anything, so I can't vouch for it.

Built in 1982, this 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath home based on Snow White's cottage is for sale in Olalla, Washington. It's 2,800 square-feet on 7.52 acres and listed at $925,000. From Realtor.com:

Facebook page Modelismo BCN posted this remarkable example of a French diorama that is so lifelike it even has raindrops suspended midair. See the close-up below: (more…)

Li Zan Wen's Heng Balance Lamp uses powerful tethered magnets as an on/off switch: bring them together to turn the lamp on and break them apart to turn it off. (more…)

From the Computer History Museum:

Taking pre-exposure prophylaxis drugs like Truvada before having unprotected sex with HIV+ people can significantly reduce the risk of infection (the drugs can also be taken after potential exposure); though this use is approved in England, the NHS does not yet cover Truveda prescriptions, so people who wish to take the drug are expected to pay £400/month. (more…)

Marek Jacisin creates ceramic wall tiles that are painstakingly hand-cut. The cool patterns he ends up with make the effort worthwhile. (more…)

Artist Najda Buttendorf cast a replica of her own ring finger, then produced Finger-rings in a series of skintones (she also does extra ears you can wear as earrings and many other whimsical/creepy pieces). (via Neatorama) (more…)

I don't know if they're all baked or just too cool, but the audience for The Rezillos' kickass 1978 performance of "Flying Saucer Attack" could not be more apathetic. It makes for a hilarious juxtaposition. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHCxvZJW1S8The Commodore Amiga, ahead of its time and murdered by corporate mismanagement, etc., remains in fairly common use thanks to an enthusiast community and sheer physical longevity. And now a documentary is here so everyone can know how totally awesome it is, reports Ars Technica's Jeremy Reimer.