See sample pages from this book at Wink.Building Stories

When New Jersey police went to the wrong house to investigate a 911 hang-up call they shot resident 76-year-old Gerald Sykes, who called 911 to let them know he'd been shot. The police sent to investigate the shooting did not shoot Skyes.From NJ.com:

At the Daily Grail, Greg Taylor posted a fascinating essay about the Pokemon Go experience seen through the lens of medieval occult practices in which "incorporeal entities have sometimes been as much a part of the landscape as the everyday physical objects surrounding us that we can touch and see." As Gregory Benford once said, riffing on Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology." From the Daily Grail:

Want to see what kind of house $300k will buy in Finland, Greece, Dominican Republic, Russia, Portugal, Brazil, Italy, Montenegro, Spain, USA, Turkey, France, Croatia, and Indonesia (above)? Check out the photos below:

On Reddit, Llaver showed how to reveal the inner workings of a Skype messaging bot. He/She explained that it was a mistake: "I was going to send some quick and dirty code to a friend but I mistakenly sent it to a Skype messaging bot. Hillarity ensues."Here's a screengrab of a chat with a bot from five years ago:

UC Berkeley researchers are developing "Neural Dust," tiny wireless sensors for implanting in the brain, muscles, and intestines that could someday be used to control prosthetics or a "electroceuticals" to treat epilepsy or fire up the immune system. So far, they've tested a 3 millimeter long version of the device in rats.“I think the long-term prospects for neural dust are not only within nerves and the brain, but much broader,“ says researcher Michel Maharbiz. “Having access to in-body telemetry has never been possible because there has been no way to put something supertiny superdeep. But now I can take a speck of nothing and park it next to a nerve or organ, your GI tract or a muscle, and read out the data."Maharbiz, neuroengineer Jose Carmena, and their colleagues published their latest results on "Wireless Recording in the Peripheral Nervous System with Ultrasonic Neural Dust" in the journal Neuron.From UC Berkeley:

Our guest on the Cool Tools show this week is Star Simpson. She is an electronics designer whose greatest joy is designing objects and tools that are useful to others, which inspire and delight. Her previous work includes research on robotics and work in drones, PLIBMTTBHGATY, an event where people convene to try new programming languages, and an electronics reference card PCB designed for Octopart, now carried in the wallets of electrical engineers everywhere. She is also the creator of Circuit Classics -- printed circuit boards that bring to life Forrest Mims' vintage designs from Getting Started in Electronics.Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page (more…)

Long before Suntory boosted its brand awareness thanks to Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (2003), the inimitable Sammy Davis Jr. really did pitch the Japanese whiskey in 1974. Amazing.(Thanks, UPSO!)

Perry Rosen turned his passion for jukeboxes into a career. This man knows from motors, vacuum tubes, and turntables. If I had a jukebox, I'd ask Rosen if he could mod it tod play with a punch to the chassis, Fonz style.

GPS security is increasingly implicated in both physical and information security: from steering a super-yacht (or a super-tanker) into pirate-friendly waters to diverting self-driving cars or even unlocking geo-tagged tokens and AR game objectives. (more…)

Surfing the web today is packed with all sorts of perils--hackers, annoying trackers, ads, you name it. Luckily, there’s still a way to protect yourself and ensure anonymity when you’re web browsing: it’s called TigerVPN.We want to feel safe whenever we browse the internet, and this innovative software helps immeasurably. Whenever we want fast, private web access free from location restrictions, we just connect to TigerVPN's 15 servers located worldwide.It's damn well a Fort Knox of online security, what with its 256bit SSL encryption—and doesn’t limit our data in the process. And it's versatile too: we simply choose the encryption protocol that suits our needs and go to town using the included mobile and desktop apps.And best of all, we love that there are three TigerVPN subscriptions, available at a steep discount each, to choose from. The Full lifetime subscription is now $49, the Lite lifetime subscription is $29, and the Lite 3-year subscription is $19.(All that extra cash you save? It can go towards your premium Netflix subscription instead, or a primo night on the town. You can thank us later.)

Cool behind-the-scenes special effects shot from a movie I've never heard of.

This squabble between a rock-throwing human and a nimble excavator went on for several minutes. Finnish police arrived and broke it up before a clear victor emerged.

Without an accurate census, it's virtually impossible to make good national policy, which is why so many countries make census participation mandatory (when former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen "Dumpster Fire" Harper made the long-form census optional, statisticians and policy wonks quailed) -- which is why the Australian government's decision to collect and retain -- for 10 years -- personally identifying information on census participants is such a big deal. (more…)

Silicon Valley's legendary housing crisis -- now several decades old -- has led to the establishment of semi-permanent homeless camps on public lands, including a notable camp on the banks of Coyote Creek, on Santa Clara County Water District land. (more…)

In the wake of Donald Trump's public war of words with the parents of a dead war hero and whatever disgust at it his own party could muster, insiders are claiming his own campaign manager has given up trying to influence him. With his standing in opinion polls headed south with alarming speed, Trump's staff are reportedly "suicidal".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBOdZ6nhDJgWouter Scheublin's 2006 design for a Walking Table echoes Theo Jansen's iconic Strandbeest: the complex mechanical linkages on the legs allow the table to walk when it's given a moderately firm shove. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzaNq2ueQAY&feature=youtu.beLuke Williams writes, "I thought you might like this song called 'Make Heat' from my science-pop album MOONS." (more…)

KC Green updated his classic "everything is fine" comic to reflect the manifest fact that everything is not fine.

No wonder so many GOP senators and governors are supporting Trump. Just look at how smart and considerate his rally attendees are!Overheard:

When the zombie apocalypse breaks out, the Harvard Brain Bank will resemble the scene at a cheap casino buffet's peel-and-eat shrimp table.

At least 90 people have been hospitalized from an anthrax outbreak in Russia, including 50 children. Eight are confirmed as infected with anthrax. Doctors believe at least 6 patients have the more virulent intestinal form of the disease, which killed one boy, age 12. Authorities say it's the first fatal anthrax outbreak in Russia in more than 75 years.(more…)

Pentagon officials told reporters today that at least 33 active-duty American service members, one of whom is a pregnant woman, have Zika. (more…)

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Only What's Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts

Spoilsports within the Atheist Foundation of Australia have asked its citizens to stop listing their religion as "Jedi" on census forms because it is making the country seem more religious than it actually is."Unfortunately I think the Jedi joke is a bit old," the group's president Kylie Sturgess tells Newsbeat. "I've put it down myself in the past, and now we're calling on people to take the census a bit more seriously."According to Wikipedia, "The 2006 census recorded 58,053 Jedi [in Australia] In the 2011 census, the numbers listing their faith as Jedi had picked up from the 2006 census to 65,000."In neighboring New Zealand more people identify as Jedi (1.5%) than Buddhist (1.2%) or Hindu (also 1.2%).

Photographer, public domain enthusiast, and national treasure Carol M Highsmith is suing Getty Images for $1B because they took the photos she'd donated to the Library of Congress and started asking people who'd used them to pay for them (they even sent Highsmith an invoice!); now it turns out that Highsmith is not alone: independent news agency Zuma is suing Getty for doing the same thing with 47,000 of their images. (more…)

This famed 5,000-year-old rock carving on the island of Tro, near Nordland, Norway, depicting a figure on skis, is one of the most important historical sites in the country. Two teenagers may be prosecuted for scratching into the stone to make the artwork clearer. (Above: image at left is before, right is after.)The boys came forward last week, and apologized for their actions.“It was done out of good intentions," said local mayor Bård Anders Langø. "They were trying to make it more visible actually, and I don’t think they understood how serious it was."According to The Telegraph, the teens may still face prosecution under Norway’s Cultural Heritage Act.“It’s a sad, sad story,” Nordland Country archaeologist Tor-Kristian Storvik said. “The new lines are both in and outside where the old marks had been. We will never again be able to experience these carvings again the way we have for the last 5,000 years.”

I was unprepared for the magnitude and quality of stuff on display at LACMA's exhibition of filmmaker Guillermo del Toro's monster memorabilia collection. This just might have been the best museum exhibition I've seen. (more…)

Yes, it's a gimmick, and we've all seen it before on speakers, clocks, etc., but levitation is still magical to behold. The OvRcharge combines magnetic levitation with induction charging for your mobile device. It's available for pre-order via Kickstarter.To achieve altitude and be able to charge wirelessly, phone requires a special case. that consists of two main parts, electricity receiver from the base and a Magnet to hold its position mid air. so we design ultra thin case to not only protects your investment but to go some levels and also powers it up all at same time. This case has a magnet that will help it to levitate & it also has induction receiver for charging without cables.OVRcharge (Kickstarter)

This week on HOME: Stories From L.A.:When TV producer Phil Savenick started collecting vintage TVs and TV memorabilia, he didn’t anticipate that he’d end up with what he now calls a “dreamland of televisions” in the living room of his West Los Angeles home — or that he’d end up helping the family of the man who invented TV heal some old wounds.HOME is a member of the Boing Boing Podcast Network. If you like the show, take a minute to drop by the iTunes Store and give it a rating and/or review.NEW: Subscribe to the HOME newsletter for bonus content and instant-ish notifications of new episodes.Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Email | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS

The Random Note Generator is so good I suspect that it's what Trump's using to keep the GOP in line.

Tony Greenhand, 26, of Albany, Oregon makes pinata-like fully smokable joints that he sells for big bucks.From Vocativ:

Zack Smith writes, "With the film of SUICIDE SQUAD out Friday [ed: alas, it looks like a turkey], you might enjoy this oral history I did of the 1980s series with writer John Ostrander and most of the artistic and editorial team from throughout the book's run. Along with some fun surprises, it includes some never-before-seen script and original art pages from the creators' personal collections." (more…)

This bucolic scene is a work of art that anyone can attempt—so long as they have an unrooted treestump close to hand and the brilliant skills of Alison Moritsugu. [via r/Art] (more…)

"Cuck" is an insult lately beloved of bigots, spreading inexorably from Reddit to the schoolyards of America. What makes it beautiful is that it exposes the speaker's interest in a relatively obscure category of porn centered on the menacing appeal of big black dicks to scared white men: that being by far the most widespread use of the term online before it ascended to the pantheon of inadvertently-revealing insults. (more…)

NPR's On the Media have released a new installment in their indispensable Breaking News Consumer's Handbook (previously), this one about migration -- legal and illegal -- and it's a doozy. (more…)

The Wall in Trump project is looking for enough money to rent the sandbags they'll require to build a 4' tall, 3' wide, quarter-million pound "wall of solidarity" around Trump Towers, using volunteer labor that will be welcomed regardless of whether you can prove US citizenship. (more…)

Suicide Squad, the ensemble DC-villains flick for teens, appears to be Hot Topic Clearance Table: The Movie. It's getting awful reviews on most fronts: the storytelling mess, Jared Leto's oh-so-edgy Joker, Harley Quinn reimagined as dumb psycho sex-kitten "jerk-off material", etc. But it has fans, of course, and they're mad. So much so they're going to shut down movie criticism. (more…)

Secret Wood's rings are handmade creations of carved wood and resin, with tiny, detailed landscapes embedded in their "gems." (more…)

Chinese state corruption is so weird and manifest that it has its own literary movement, and the use of the internet to uncover corruption has become a political football that has spilled over into the Chinese press, and into street-brawls. (more…)

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I started using a magnetic phone mount for my car over a year ago, and I think it is the best way to secure my phone to the dashboard. I've tried lots of other kinds of mounts, and this is the most convenient. The only downside is that you have to apply a thin metal plate to the back of your phone or phone case so it will stick to the the magnet on the mount. But the plate is very thin and it's not a bother.The magnetic mount attaches to an air vent on your car. This could be another downside, but since I live in Los Angeles, I'm almost always running the air conditioning so it keeps my phone from overheating when the sun is on it. That makes the air vent mount an upside for me. (With other mounts, the phone would get so hot that the safety shutdown would sometimes activate to prevent damage to the phone.)Right now the mount is just $4 including shipping if you use promo code FVLTMXX2 at checkout.

Bret Stephens, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal's extremely right-wing editorial page, says that Republican big wigs who support and excuse Donald Trump's sadistic bullying will be lumped with supporters of "the foul names of America’s 20th century," such as "Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, Alger Hiss, Joe McCarthy, and Bull Connor." Despite his dislike of Clinton, Stephens thinks Clinton should and will win the election and that Americans will dump her after one term.

Daftmike made a fantastic miniature Nintendo Entertainment System that's 40% the size of the original. It consists of a Raspberry Pi inside a 3D-printed case that he designed and a selection of mini-cartridges containing NFC tags that are read by the Raspberry Pi. Beautiful work!NESPI (daftmike)

The New York Times' tumblr of photos from its voluminous archive is full of impactful and gorgeous moments.

This might be the best/worst compilation of news blunders yet. See also: Part 1 | Part 2

Mr. and Mrs. McKays live in a house built near a 100-year-old mineshaft near Brisbane, Australia. This week, a giant water-filled sinkhole appeared in their back yard. Fortunately, it looks like the house itself won't be damaged and the city is confident it can fill the hole.“You can see this shaft was full up with rubbish and bottles and whoever did it (filled it), didn’t follow very good practices, Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale told AP. "We will take all the steps to get Lyn and Ray back in their house. It’s the mines department’s responsibility.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en-GB&v=tKFYpd0q9nE&gl=GBAfter Donald Trump attacked the family of a dead Army captain, fallen in the field, on the ground that they were Muslims, many were shocked at the new low that the Republican presidential candidate had sunk to. (more…)

The three senior bankers who were sentenced on Friday are among the first to go to jail for illegal actions that contributed to the global economic crisis of 2008, which triggered waves of global instability, which contributed to the ongoing refugee crises and wars, mass unemployment, crippling austerity, the near-collapse of the Eurozone, Brexit, and soaring inequality. (more…)