Steve Harvey finally seems to be having an inevitable existential crisis. Katie and Brigette seem to push him over the precipice after years of soul-crushing torture. (more…)

Star Trek celebrated its 50th anniversary last week and one of the sci-fi series' biggest legacies is shaping our modern concept of “fandom." The original 1960s series inspired everything from conventions to fan magazines to fanfiction. And as Victoria McNally writes for Revelist, “Unlike the classic male nerd archetype that most people tend to picture in their heads, the quintessential Star Trek fan is a woman.” (more…)

If this retro, psychedelic D&D/Masters of the Universe animation meets a crank-boosted acid trip doesn't blow your neck bolts, I don't know what will. This animated short film/music video for Oakland doomy metal legends, High on Fire, was put together by "psychedelic nightmare" painter, Skinner (also from Oakland) and New York design and animation house, Hey Beautiful Jerk.For best results: View in the dark, on the widest possible screen, with the volume cranked up loud enough to rattle your neighbor's windows.

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Earlier this year, I wrote about a wonderful library project that Tibetan friends in India are putting together for a Tibetan exile community there, with the support of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Here's an update from my friend Phuntsok Dorjee, who is one of the organizers.[caption id="attachment_443872" align="aligncenter" width="1500"] The Dalai Lama speaks to his followers at the Gaden Jangtse Thoesam Norling Monastery in Mundgod, 2014. REUTERS[/caption](more…)

“I must go, my people need me.”(more…)

These commercials were insane. Shadoe Stevens was inspirational.

The discussion of last weeks post about American Cheese led me to this article on NPR.Cheese was once colored bright orange to falsely imply it had lots of yellow/orange pigmented cream in it, a sign of quality several centuries ago. The cream had been skimmed, for sale elsewhere, so the cheese mongers colored the cheese.Greed is all natural, right?Via NPR:

The Pilot Precise V5 Stick ($9 for a dozen on Amazon) has replaced my old favorite, the Uni-Ball Vision Elite. The line is finer and darker, is ideally paired with my favorite notebook, the Rhodia Orange Dot Grid Webnotebook (better than Moleskine)

In May 2014, Carla Denise Garrison's 8-year-old daughter picked up a hypodermic needle in the parking lot of a Target in Anderson, South Carolina. When Garrison swatted the needle away from her daughter, she accidentally jabbed herself with the needle. Garrison was prescribed medication to prevent contracting diseases from the needle, which made her bedridden. She asked Target to pay $12,000 to cover her medical bills. Target said no, so she sued Target and was awarded $4.6 million.From USA Today:

Digital Painting Techniques: Masters Collection Vol. 1

Wait for the amazing happiness at the end.(more…)

The Intercept has got hold of a set of Harris's super-secretive manuals for their even-more-secret Stingray devices: fake cellular towers used to spy indiscriminately on whole populations by hacking their cellphones into giving up identifying information and more. (more…)

Donald Trump did not slam the International Paralympic Committee's decision to bar Russian athletes from the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, and the BBC never quoted him as saying, "The decision to bar Russian Paralympics athletes was made by complete retards. These people are the real cripples." But virtually every news outlet in Russia ran a story saying both things were true, after Oppps.ru (The Optimist) ran a completely false story to that effect. (more…)

In the New Yorker, Ariel Levy explores the buzz around Ayahuasca, the ultimate artisanal psychedelic drug.

Someone sent a wind-up robot tottering into a nest of Australian bull ants, a species "characterised by their extreme aggressiveness, ferocity, and painful stings." It's a delight to watch these formicidaen bullies spend themselves impotently on the unfeeling skin of a toy, thus proving the superiority of humans over jerky ants. (via Beyond the Beyond)

Sean Sullivan was fired from his police job in Oregon in 2004 for sexual contact with a 10 year old girl; in 2005, Cedar Vale, KS hired him to be their police chief, where he was accused of having sexual contact with another young girl, and eventually convicted of burglary and criminal conspiracy -- he's currently doing time in a Washington state prison for meth possession and identity theft. (more…)

Emma Goldman was dubbed "one of the most dangerous women in America" by J. Edgar Hoover. But that's just the beginning of a legendary life of keen insight, uncompromising anarchism, and burned bridges. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcje0uhewfg&feature=youtu.beYou can get close with modern clones of the TB-303 bassline synthesizer and the TR-909 drum machine, but Roland made the originals, and it's making them again. They're not identical—being smaller, for starters—but they're taking the job seriously and response seems very positive: users say the new models are faithful and improved. The lineup is being sold as "Roland Boutique" and I doubt I'll be able to resist for long.

The Internet of Things business model dictates that devices be designed with the minimum viable security to keep the products from blowing up before the company is bought or runs out of money, so we're filling our homes with net-connected devices that have crummy default passwords, and the ability to probe our phones and laptops, and to crawl the whole internet for other vulnerable systems to infect. (more…)

The Quest for Enlightenment is a rudimentary but addictive exploration game in the style of Pirates! Sail a randomly-generated Caribbean drinking rum, unearthing dubloons and seeking spiritual enlightenment from His Noodly Appendages. I picked it up while checking out a game engine's (phaser.io) gallery of examples, but didn't put it down until I was a Master Pirate. It took me 18 in-game years, too, thereby proving once again that Malcolm Gladwell is wrong.

Professional domino artist Hevesh5 does a lot of great domino builds, but this colorful triple spiral is both beautiful and relaxing to watch. (more…)

Today, days before she is to face an administrative board who will punish her for her recent suicide attempt, whistleblower Chelsea Manning has announced that she will go on hunger strike until she receives treatment for her gender dysphoria. (more…)

Reports NASA today, “The layered geologic past of Mars is revealed in stunning detail in new color images returned by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, which is currently exploring the 'Murray Buttes' region of lower Mount Sharp. The new images arguably rival photos taken in U.S. National Parks.”(more…)

How many burritos does it take to forge a giant steel dice of doom? Watch Gil Ramirez (aka Vlogsmith) excellent process video and find out![via]

New research from University College London suggests that the universe is indeed "isotropic," the same in all directions. Cosmologists Daniela Saadeh and Andrew Pontzen analyzed cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation left over from the Big Bang for any patterns that would indicate "a special direction in space." From the journal Science:

Typewriter sculptor Jeremy Meyer sez, "I just got back from Telluride where the feature-length documentary by Doug Nichol called 'California Typewriter' premiered." (more…)

Luke Towan makes a lot of gorgeous model railroad items, but his tutorial on making tiny trees using wire, latex, glue, and paint is especially cool to watch from start to finish. (more…)

I loved trying to connect by voice. Never worked tho.

Michael Weinberg (who has written seminal stories on 3D printing and copyright) writes, "We are seeing widespread adoption of copyright-based open licenses in 3D printing and open source hardware. This is great in that it shows that the culture of openness has really permeated the culture. It is not so great because a significant number of the things nominally licensed in these communities aren't actually protected by copyright." (more…)

I'm not as fond of processed cheese food as this reviewer, but it is always in my fridge.Via Extra Crispy:

If you were a head in 1974 who happened to enjoy the smell and taste of smoking marijuana but didn't want to get high or busted by the fuzz, or you simply wanted to prank the police, you could light up a Zateeva cigarette! From the April 20 (4/20!), 1974 edition of Florida Today:

Below is a background video about the "Safe-T Rider Program" that is the source of this strangeness, and the original video before it was dubbed by an actor with what sounds like a South Asian accent. (via /r/ObscureMedia, thanks UPSO!)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZao_zR8j1Mhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jutOFp1QOcw

If you missed the iPhone 7 event, this five minute recap will fill you in.

SPOILERS BELOW: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. (previously) (more…)

Mental Floss presents a brief history of magic tricks with 26 facts.

Star Trek celebrates its 50th anniversary today and one series that deserves to be a big part of that celebration is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The third Star Trek series ran from 1993-1999 and while it was once considered the “red-headed stepchild” of Star Trek, it’s now generally accepted as one of the strongest elements of the franchise. (more…)

Blending cool jazz and hot glass earned filmmaker Bert Haanstra the Academy Award for Best Short Documentary in 1959. It set the bar for short documentaries that work internationally. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RtmVnD8_XMComplete with the sort of music that accompanies peaceful villages in Japanese adventure games, newStory's 360° footage of four adorable kittens is here to brighten your day. Drag and click inside the video to look around! [via Metafilter] (more…)

It would not be cool. At all. (AsapSCIENCE)

At the 40 second mark, you can see a diver remove her mask. Fortunately, her dive buddies escort her to the surface and she survives. I hope no one got the bends.[via]

A 295 feet spire was added to the Wilshire Grand in Los Angeles over the weekend, making it the tallest building in the city (1,100 feet). I don't know who the men in the photo are, but it doesn't look like they are strapped to the spire.pFrom Curbed Los Angeles:

Last month, I filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission on behalf of Electronic Frontier Foundation, 22 of EFF's supporters, and a diverse coalition of rightsholders, public interest groups, and retailers, documenting the ways that ordinary Americans come to harm when they buy products without realizing that these goods have been encumbered with DRM, and asking the FTC to investigate fair labeling for products that come with sneaky technological shackles. (more…)

We've found that, more often than not, earbuds offer either high sound quality or comfort and fit. The 100% Copper Audio Blast Earbuds buck that trend by delivering the complete package.These earbuds are made entirely of lightweight yet durable copper, which prevents any excess vibration and blocks unwanted noise from interfering with the audio. They come packing a dynamic audio system with powerful drivers, so your music will always sound on point, whether it’s bass-heavy or more percussion-forward.But our favorite part is actually the silicon-coated nylon cable because it rarely ever tangles. You can even customize the fit of the actual earbuds to your ears, with 3 different sizes of earbud sleeves.Get them now in the Boing Boing Store for 49% off the retail price—just $29.99.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swTWozTxQ-EAfter the astounding success of Spinal Tap, Christopher Guest directed a string of brilliant mockumentaries in the same style, like "Best in Show" and "Waiting for Guffman"; now he's created "Mascots" for Netflix, about "the ultra-competitive world of sports mascots." (more…)

The LA Times' Q&A column tapped a lawyer to answer a reader's question about their crazy-ass homeowners' association, which denied an application to plant a front lawn of drought-tolerant cactii and succulents because it wouldn't be "pretty" and because they "do not want New Mexico, Arizona or Nevada desert landscape." (more…)

Belarusian crafter Orange Cat created the Octopus George felted backpack for "crazy octopus lovers" and "sailor man who loves the sea and marine creatures." (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=50&v=3HFPUIYUMvoSomeone captured and leaked a live presentation by an RCS sales tech, demonstrating his company's cyber-weapon for spying on dissidents, criminals, and whomever else the customer wanted to infect. (more…)

These full-sublimation Star Trek redshirts allow you to LARP an expendable security team-member who's met a horrible end, or a character in an existential John Scalzi comedy: they're $33.88 at Stylin Online (via Wil Wheaton)

Scott London, a longtime burner and photographer (see his 2014 photo book, Burning Man: Art on Fire), produced an amazing set of portraits of art cars -- "mutant vehicles" -- from this year's event, including Maria Del Camino (previously), a flying El Camino/tank hybrid that lives in Liminal Labs, where I camp with its creator, the amazing Bruce Tomb. (more…)