Whitney Reynolds of Eater interviewed the director of FinalFantasy XV to find out why the food in the game looks so mouth-wateringly delicious.

Indiana is one of many GOP-led states that assume that the poor performance of schools in poor neighborhoods is the fault of bad teaching -- and not, say, systemic poverty, the absence of funds raised by rich parents, hunger, mass incarceration -- and so teachers are offered bonuses for "improving" their students' outcomes, which generally means their standardized test scores (since presumptively bad teachers can't be trusted to evaluate their students' qualitative improvements). (more…)

In the first act, we visit planet after planet without any sense of place or structure. I almost tuned out in fear of ending up at BOOP CHOWBAH, IMPERIAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT MOON. But once the Death Star fires its first shot, we're off to the races: Rogue One is fast, focused action sci-fi given space to get its hands dirtier than usual Star Wars stuff.Yet it so loves and respects that universe, treating it with great reverence. In particular, I loved how the "primitive" computer displays of the original Star Wars era were convincingly upgraded into an intentional UI aesthetic. Now the 1977 original looks like a faithful low-budget sequel to a beloved classic. (more…)

Legendary nutcase John Bolton was in the running for a high-level cabinet pick in millionaire president-elect Donald Trump's administration. Multiple sources claim that he was denied serious consideration, however, because Trump makes decisions based upon people's looks. To put it plainly: he simply cannot stand to look at Bolton's equally legendary facial hair. The cabinet hunt was described as a "casting call" in one report.

Kreepsville's $65, 8" x 10" x 6" Skull Collection Handbag glows in the dark, gets top marks from reviewers, features a spooky lining and an inside pocket, and can be delivered by Dec 24! Also available in black and pink. (via Punk Fashion)

A leaked memo from Apple CEO Tim Cook to his staff explaining why he met with Donald Trump -- a guy who called Apple traitors for refusing to defeat their own security -- explains the rationale: "tax reform." (more…)

Colin Gordon at Dissent summarizes new national income statistics for America's wealthiest, something that seems likely to worsen under Trump. Since Reagan, the US has been been edging toward income share levels not seen since before World War II. (more…)

Here's the sad story of a Chicago woman who got locked up in 2016 because the court system made a mistake about minor marijuana possession charges from 1993.From Reason:

One of the highlights of our family vacation to Japan was a day spent at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo. Carla wrote an article for Tofugu about how to get tickets to the museum, which isn't as easy as you might think.

White Ops, a security firm, has published a detailed report on a crime-ring they call "Methbot" that generated $3M-$5M by creating 6,000 fake websites to embed videos in, then generating convincing bots that that appeared to watch 300,000,000 videos/day -- running virtual instances of various browsers (mostly Chrome) on virtual machines running MacOS X, from a huge pool of IP addresses that they fraudulently had assigned to US locations, deploying clever grace-notes like limiting access to "daylight" hours in their notional locations; simulating mouse-movements and clicks and more. (more…)

Tim Wu's book The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads (review) was one of the best books I read in 2016; on Rick Kleffel's Narrative Species podcast, Wu discusses the book (MP3) covering depth that he couldn't fit between the covers. (more…)

In March 2015, IOActive's Ruben Santamarta privately disclosed his findings on the major bugs in Panasonic's Avionics IFE in-flight entertainment systems; 18 months later, it's not clear whether all airlines have patched these bugs. (more…)

Cennydd Bowles's essay on "Datafication and ideological blindness" attacks the business/product-design vogue to base every decision on "data" on the grounds that data reflects objective truth, free from bias. (more…)

And she says I'm hard to shop for.Guzzle Buddy is a wine glass with a cork-sized stopper instead of a stem. You put it directly into the bottle, so as to enjoy the contents directly without sacrificing one's elegance and dignity. It's been featured on Live With Kelly and "several British talk shows", so you know it's good. [via]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmZq6hCg2R4A Kentucky woman was banned from JCPenneys after directing a racist tirade against shoppers ahead of her in the checkout line.

When it comes to understanding American culture one of the most important things is to listen to a diverse set of voices. And with that in mind, NPR’s Code Switch makes a perfect addition to your podcast rotation. The show centers on issues of race, but within that framework it tackles a huge variety of topics that are political, social, cultural, and everything in between. Alongside a rotating panel of guests and co-hosts, Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji discuss everything from school busing to Tupac’s legacy to all sorts of different immigrant experiences.The episodes can vary quite a bit in terms of tone and subject matter, and I get the sense that Code Switch is still finding its voice, which actually makes for an even more fascinating listening experience. Some of my favorite episodes have included “46 Stops: The Driving Life and Death of Philando Castile,” “A Letter From Young Asian Americans, To Their Parents, About Black Lives Matter,” and “Say My Name, Say My Name (Correctly, Please).” I also particularly enjoyed one of the show’s latest episodes, “Hold Up! Time For An Explanatory Comma,” in which Demby and Meraji directly grapple with the question of who they are making the podcast for.You can find more information and listen to old episodes on the Code Switch site.

From superhero blockbusters to Oscar contenders to indie dramas, the YouTube channel Sleepy Skunk looks back on all that 2016 films had to offer in this mega-mashup.[via Nerdist]

Dan Ozzi, over at Vice, took the fan theory that Elvis made a cameo in near forgotten holiday classic Home Alone and ran with it. Ran and ran.Seems a fan spotted someone who looks like an older Elvis in the background of one of the scenes in Home Alone. A lot of theorizing has since taken place...

Three posts from the Electronic Frontier Foundation dispassionately recount the on-the-record policies of Trump and his advisors on issues that matter to a free, fair and open internet: net neutrality; surveillance, encryption and cybersecurity; free speech and freedom of the press. (more…)

I've not read Wuthering Heights but Carla read it twice and keeps telling me too. I found out Amazon has the Kindle edition for free, which isn't a big deal because you can get it on Gutenberg for free, but it also includes the free Audible audiobook, too.

My daughter and I are planning a road trip to Yellowstone this summer in our VW Westy. When I asked her what would make it more fun, she said a fan.I saw the $84 Happy Camper fan and passed as it was far too expensive (even for 2.) Just a few products down the list I found what appeared extremely similar for a mere $13 shipped. I decided to take the risk on this "Image Portable" version.It arrived in a Happy Camper box, with Image as the manufacturer.The fan is great. Takes 2 D cell batteries and should run for a long time. The LED lamp is bright enough to be used to light up the whole cabin when hung from the Westy's tent frame. With the pop-top down you might be banging your face into the fan, but the hanger/stand is really adjustable. You can turn it into a table top fan in seconds.I showed it to my daughter, she sighed and she told me she meant a hand fan, the kind we get in Chinatown.Image Portable LED Camping Lantern with Ceiling Fan via Amazon

Way back in the early 1970s, during the prior “pre-Photoshop” millennium, my fellow industrial design students and I labored to create photo-realistic renderings of products and cars with old-school, analog materials. Air-brushed gouache paints created super-smooth graduations of color, magic markers made deep shadows, and razor-sharp details like sparkling highlights and chrome reflections were added precisely with colored pencil.Our shining inspiration was a series of print ads by Pontiac, which appeared in popular magazines like National Geographic. Exaggerated perspectives made for dynamic views of the “Wide Track” Pontiac cars, and the far-flung settings included romantic, young couples doing exotic things like surfing or rally racing in Europe. These dramatically lit and staged renderings of cars and people were totally believable and more glamorous and compelling than any photograph ever could be. And who were the artists? Each of fantastic renderings was signed only with the mysterious initials: “VK AF.”VK was Van Kauman, a former Disney animator who painted the wonderful figures and background settings. AF was Art Fitzpatrick, a long-time automotive illustrator. Together they created 285 of these magical masterpieces for Pontiac.This book brings you the art of Art Fitzpatrick, featuring new paintings of many of the muscle cars and other “Wide Track” Pontiacs. The large format is fitting — the square book opens up to a wide, two-page layout and the car renderings are reproduced in the eye-popping panoramas. The exaggerated perspective of AF’s early work is best appreciated at this big scale and even at that, some of the cars literally burst out of the layout frames.But wait — there’s more! The text contains the stories behind the cars from the time when Detroit ruled the roads (and showrooms). Automotive marketer Jim Wanger’s remembrances will be of interest to any fan of muscle cars. The competition for bigger and bigger engine displacements, competitive racing sponsorships, even pop culture cars like the customized Monkeemobile GTO and the Smokey and Bandit Firebird are all included. Come for the art — stay for the stories.Pontiac Pizazz!

I don't know what to say other than here's a man playing "Imperial March" (Darth Vader's Theme) from Star Wars with a coffee-stirring stick.

I've seen about half of these examples of products that are smaller, grosser, crappier than expected, but there are some excellent new ones in here, too.

...and the result is oddly satisfying.[via]

My enormous head is about 62 centimeters around. That's 24 inches. This has had two consequences for my life. Firstly, no matter what I do, I look vaguely like a bobblehead doll. Secondly, hat acquisition is a problem. (more…)

Stephen McMennamy created this brilliant and delightful series of montages that he calls "Combophotos"! You can see more on his Tumblr and Instagram. Also below, a CNN interview with the artist!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD8p8ulY-8U&feature=youtu.be

"There are kids who had a security blanket; I had a security string," says Coffin Nachtmahr.Invisible Thread, directed by Early Light Media. (National Geographic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9DXSCpcz9EEverybody knows about the ridiculous McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit where a lady who spilled coffee on her lap got millions out of McDonald's in damages for a frivolous lawsuit -- and everyone is wrong. As we've previously reported, Stella Liebeck sued McDonald's after sustaining permanently disfiguring third-degree burns to her genitals and thighs because McDonald's had served its coffee at unsafe temperatures, something that had been going on for years and had severely burned 700 other people -- and she didn't get millions, she just got enough to cover her medical expenses. (more…)

According to a federal indictment, Platinum Partners founder Mark Nordlicht and four others faked the hedge fund's books for years to allow them to siphon off one billion dollars to their personal accounts, swindling 600 investors. (more…)

Re-Tales, a blog specializing in the wonders and horrors of retailing, has an excellent selection of creepy vintage toys to enjoy. [via Metafilter]The implicit appeal of these, I think, is that they were originally intended to be creepy, but have become unintentionally creepy. The primary amused-children creepiness of an one era becomes the unsettled-adults creepiness of another, but it's not really the same thing performing the work in each case. And, maybe, the real creepiness is in our appreciation of how the object slowly acquires its secondary creepiness.

In addition to performing on the Casey Affleck-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live, Chance the Rapper also starred in this stellar Run-D.M.C. homage alongside Kenan Thompson, Leslie Jones, and D.M.C. himself. “Jingle Barack” matches the vibe of Run-D.M.C.'s “Christmas In Hollis” music video to a tee.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR07r0ZMFb8

Jeffrey Stephenson's latest deco desktop is the Clean Slate.The design concept is to eliminate the usual case and instead give each component its own box, each air-cooled and installed on a beautiful maple plinth. It's a beefy system, too, with a recent video card, a socket 1151 Core CPU and 8GB of RAM.

In a set of photos posted to his Instagram, White House photographer Pete Souza detailed a snowman-related prank the staff pulled on President Obama. Here's a photo of the snowmen in question:https://www.instagram.com/p/BNz_kMXjT6W/In a later photo Souza writes:

James Mazi writes, "Wole Talabi, a Nigerian SF writer and editor who lives in Malaysia, has rounded up his ten favorite African science fiction and fantasy stories of 2016. This is a follow up to his list from 2015 and just like that list, the stories are wildly varied, from fun techno-thrillers set in Uganda to emotional universe-spanning stories of family." (more…)

If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel tries to convey the vastness of space by inviting you to side-scroll through our Solar System with (you guessed it) the scale of 1 pixel to the diameter of the moon. These scale comparisons always manage to temporarily invoke something in me that approaches intuitive understanding, but before long, I can feel it fading and being replaced with the nonsensical science fictional conceit of solar systems as being something tractable. (via Making Light)

Enjoy Moskovskiy Kreditniy Bank's special Christmas commercial, wherein Grandfather Frost helps a businesswoman learn to appreciate her daughter and perhaps her place. [via]

Somebody put liquid mercury in a balloon, then dropped it on the ground to see what would happen.

South Carolina State Rep. Bill Chumley pre-filed a bill requiring retailers to install porn-blocking filters on computers sold in the state. However, Rep. Chumley added a part to the bill so the state would profit from people's porn use:

As discussed on r/OldSchoolCool, this 1956 photograph depicts either the "world's largest cat dancing with his pet man" or the "world's smallest man dancing with his pet cat."Further investigation reveals that the fellow is Henry Behrens who at 30 inches tall traveled around with "Burton Lester's Midgets" in the 1950s.

Today Product Hunt gave out its Golden Kitty awards to its favorite hardware and software products. Winners include Gboard by Google, Tesla Model S P100D, Tesla Solar Roof, a plug-n'-plant automatic cannabis home grow system, a flash card app called Tinycards, and more.

In 1980, WMTV in Madison, Wisconsin produced this feature about early personal computers and the geeks who loved them. I enjoyed the discussion of The Source, which was the first online experience I ever had.George Martin, who posted the video to YouTube, writes: "About halfway through the video there is a segment filmed at my home showing how I had programmed a Cromemco Z-2 computer to control lights and appliances."(Thanks, UPSO!)

What would you do? Not much if you are my daughter. She offered me the remaining half of hers, not enjoying her few bites. I bought the Heath Bar variety.

In a society buffeted by technological change, the discipline of "engineering ethics" raises some of our most significant and difficult-to-answer questions: from last year's Moral Character of Cryptographic Work to the Neveragain.tech pledge not to enable trumpism's ethnic cleansing mission (a pledge in the tradition of the 1943 firebombing of the Amsterdam Municipal Register to keep it out of Nazi hands) to the war on general purpose computing, with its many tendrils, from 3D printed guns to creation of legal weapons at standards bodies -- and because science fiction reflects present-day social questions, we've now got a Star Wars movie that's all about "engineering ethics" (spoilers after the jump). (more…)

An anonymous reader writes, "After snap elections on December 11th in Macedonia, when designers united against a dictatorship, Nikola Gruevski, the leader of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party gave a Milosevic-style speech declaring that foreign powers are interfering with the work of the SEC. VMRO-DPMNE won (for now) 51 seats, the opposition party won 49 of total 120 seats in Parliament. Yesterday, obituaries from the US and EU ambassadors to Macedonia appeared on IMGUR.

I have a round face, like a cartoon squirrel submerged unevenly in Nair. Thanks to the "Shirinkongumu Face Slimmer" and its promise to make my skin "youthful and pliant," I can now look forward to a slimmer, prettier profile—all for only $2.29!

Pam and Robyn in San Francisco run an Etsy store called Frankestuffies, selling "monsters for lovies or lovies for monsters, lovingly re-assembled by hand from cleaned, recycled and, um, dismembered stuffed animals": Octo-Gorillas, Platy-Mice, Beaver-Crabs, Baboon-Tigers -- and more! (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHhKMu8jrfw&feature=youtu.beThree members of Halifax's Maritime Bhangra Group appear in this beautifully choreographed dance routine on a snow day, using shovels as props -- they're raising funds for the ALS Society of Nova Scotia. (via Neatorama)

The Remains of LA blog has a mission: to "visit all the cool old places in LA (not all at once)." I met its proprietress today, working at my local Burbank library, and I share her passion for LA's old restaurants, though I lack her devotion! As she notes, "sometimes the food is good, and there are nice people." (more…)