Amazing work from Dinahmoe Labs: an online soundbox that makes it easy to make your own custom remix of Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley. All you need to do to get rolling is click the switches and enjoy. Annoyingly, you cannot share links to configurations: I like [blip, normal, jesus, blip, hiphop] (more…)

[caption id="attachment_474727" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Images: PAD Tiny Houses[/caption]In February I asked myself the question, “Will I always live in my tiny house?” And the answer was a classic Dee Williams hedge: maybe. I went on to write about why I still love my house -- the skylight windows that pull the moon in at night, the cedar planking that supports the loft and the way it looks from the kitchen. I love the story of dragging the front door out of a dumpster, and how scared I was the day I took a leap of faith and bought a trailer. There are a thousand stories about my house held in the walls, roof and floorboards. There are even more stories about how the house has worked a bit of magic in my life, giving me a chance to re-define home and to grow into someone that I think is kinder to the earth, her community and herself.A month or so after writing about how much I still love my house, my friend Derin from Shelter Wise suggested that we should take the house to Colorado for the Tiny House Jamboree, mostly so we could do an awesome road trip and grab photos of the house passing through the high desert of eastern Oregon, the arches and pinnacles of Utah, and sitting quietly at the base of the Rocky Mountains. The conversation planted a little seed, and then I talked with my nephew Jonathan, who had just returned from a six-month bicycle trip through South America. He and I had kicked around the idea that I might pass the house along to him some day, and he’d had a lot of time to think about that on his bicycle trip. He was ready, and was planning to live in Colorado.The stars seemed to align, and “Tiny to Tinier 2016” was born.The MoveFor the past couple of years, I’ve enjoyed a 56-square foot vardo, a little curved-roof mini-house called “Jolene” that I’ve been using as a studio and office when I’m in Portland. I’ve been thinking for a while that one day I’d downsize into it as my primary living space, and now's the time. I’m moving Jolene to Olympia, taking my current "Kozy Kabin" little house to Colorado to give to Jonathan, and then he and I will both begin the process of rebooting our day-to-day lives in new spaces.Jonathan recently wrote about what scares and excites him about moving into the little house, comparing the feeling to white water rafting – the hydraulics, sink holes, Class V water and keeping your wits so you land on the right shore at the right time, laughing your ass off along the way. I’ll compare my feelings to rock climbing, since that’s what I know. I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a canyon, ready to rappel down a hundred foot decline, hoping I’ve properly tied into my rope and harness. Am I safe? It's a crazy mixture of, "Holy guacamole, what am I doing?" and, "Cowabunga!”The Plan and the QuestionsHere are some of the things I’m excited and nervous about:

Are you a left-leaning voter who thought Green Party candidate Jill Stein might be a suitable refuge after Hillary Clinton's eyes glazed over at the prospect of picking up moderate Republicans? Sucks to be you! Stein not only panders to anti-vaxxers, but thinks WiFi is bad for childrens' brains.

Today we try to figure out what happens when our future presidential candidates have thousands of Tweets and Tumblr posts and Instagrams in their online record.Flash Forward:RSS|iTunes|Twitter| Facebook|Web|Patreon |RedditWhat happens, when today’s teens start running for office? When their entire internet history is there, searchable, for us to read? What if these teens Tweet something at 15 that they might regret at 45? Do we learn to accept that their opinions have changed? Or do we go through every candidate's entire social media history to find dirt on them? Does that tactic still work in the future? Or do we all just throw up our hands and admit that teens have bad opinions and that hopefully those opinions have changed?

After the Battle of Gettysburg, a dead Union soldier was found near the center of town. He bore no identification, but in his hands he held a photograph of three children. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow the efforts of one Philadelphia physician to track down the lost man's family using only the image of his children.We'll also sample a 9-year-old's comedy of manners and puzzle over a letter that copies itself.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

Jacob Laukaitis made this wonderful video that shows what it's like to be a tourist in North Korea.

https://youtu.be/5ioQ8a7o3MoASAPScience just put out this fun sex ed video comparing orgasms between women and men.Some of the exciting points from the video:1. Men's orgasms usually last only 3-10 seconds, while women can clock in at 20 seconds or more.2. During sex, men have orgasms 95% of the time while women have them only 69% of the time. Although this goes up 12 percentage points when women have sex with other women.3. Lesbian couples spend more time in bed during sex (30-45 mins) than straight couples (15-30 mins).The four-minute video has all kinds of other interesting scientific tidbits about sex by the sexes as well. And after hearing the evidence, it's hard to say who wins.

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Not that it would stop the TSA from rifling through your clothes, but I do think the transparency of Crumpler's Vis-A-Vis clear suitcase makes a fun statement. The clear polycarbonate trunk is 46.5cm x 68cm x 25cm and sells for AU$745.00.VIS-A-VIS - TRUNK 68CM CLEAR (via Weird Universe)

My favorites from Rolling Stone's list "25 Worst Original Names of Famous Bands":

Andy Greenberg's colorful and nuanced profile of Moxie Marlinspike offers some insight into the young, talented cryptographer whose tool, Signal, is now part of both Whatsapp and (shortly) Allo -- an anarchist who walked away from $1M in Twitter payouts after a near-death experience and decided, instead, to build free and open tools to give the entire world the power to keep secrets from the police. (more…)

When Pagan Kennedy wrote her 2012 New York Times Magazine history of home pregnancy testing, it didn't mention Margaret Crane, the product designer who created, designed and championed the test and all it stood for: the right of "a woman to peer into her own body and to make her own decisions about it, without anyone else — husband, boyfriend, boss, doctor — getting in the way." (more…)

In 2007 Cheryl Lankford's husband was killed while serving in the US military. She used the money the government gave her to enroll in a $35,000 Trump University package. Within a week, she realized the course wasn't going to work for her and when she tried to contact her "mentor" at the fake university, he refused to help her.Here's Lankford telling the story at the DNC last week:https://youtu.be/A_vexI1YdUA

Kristian Williams created this compelling video essay analyzing why Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen was "unfilmable" without, well, ruining it."If we only see comics in relation to movies then the best that they will ever be is films that do not move," Moore once said.

When Hugo "Award" Gernsback launched Volume 1, Number 1 of Amazing Stories in April, 1926, he created the first magazine in the world solely devoted to science fiction stories: on the magazine's editorial page, Gernsback laid out his vision for the genre. (more…)

I don't know where and when this happened, but the employees are acting as if a river flowing down the middle of their store is a regular occurrence.

London's Victoria and Albert Museum, one of the world's great museums devoted to material culture and design, has joined a long line of museums who've allowed the owners of loaned items for temporary exhibitions to require them to ban photography and sketching of these items. (more…)

The Brexit vote split firmly along the Scottish-English border, with the Scottish Remain vote leaving no doubt that the region wanted to stay in the EU; it's just the latest in a series of ever-more-obvious examples of the political incompatibility of the Scottish electorate with English Toryism. (more…)

Alter is a robot made by Takashi Ikegami (University of Tokyo) that moves in a eerily lifelike way. It's behavior doesn't seem very human, but it is more alive than the typical Disney animatronic android. From Engadget:

Linda Munoz, of Cuba, Alabama, seemed to think a wild snake wouldn't mind having its tail touched. She was surprised to learn otherwise.

Miss Teen USA is shrugging off its champion's repeated use of a racial slur on Twitter, disclaiming it as having occurred years before Texan teen Karlie Hay's participation in the tournament.Hay, crowned Saturday in Vegas, will continue to receive support for "her continued growth," the organization told People Magazine.

Each face of a Dungeon Morph die features an interlinking section of dungeons, caves, wilderness or medieval city: simply push a set of five together and remove and re-roll as needed to create a never-ending map for your adventures.DungeonMorph Dice Adventurer Set [Amazon link; see also the other sets]They also come in the form of a square deck of 90 double-sided cards.There's something about this sort of thing that throws a hook into my brain and reels me in.

If you thought a new week might bring an end Trump's anger at Khizr Khan, the father of a dead Muslim American war hero, you would be mistaken. Khan suggested Trump learn more about the U.S. Constitution and his son's sacrifice; Trump insists Khan has no right to speak to him like that. (He does.) (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqKk0u0-XScGus the hacker puppeteer writes, "Last weekend was the Hackers On Planet Earth conference (where, ICYMI, Cory was the keynote address). I always come away from HOPE wishing there were easier ways to share what I learned there with friends and family. Fortunately, the Internet Society has been streaming and storing videos of HOPE talks for the past two conferences. (My own talk, on getting into the minds of everyday computer users, should be up there eventually.)" (more…)

If you’ve ever wished there was a soundtrack to your life, we have a suggestion for you. Personally, we love the Samsung Level Box Mini Bluetooth Speaker, which lets us easily play our music anywhere--indoors, outdoors, everywhere in between.Why we love it: this compact, high tech speaker looks great. And it sounds even better (we swear it's like having a full-sized speaker in our bags, but without all that annoying bulk and weight).And with A2DP wireless streaming technology and built-in Samsung SoundAlive, we never find ourselves missing a beat of any of our favorite songs. Nor will any bystanders around us...which can be good or bad depending upon what song we're blasting at the moment.It's easy to set up too, meaning we have no trouble getting the party started: just pair it with your NFC or Bluetooth device, and you’re good to go.See for yourself: take your love of music to the next level, and grab one of these bad boys today (just $49.99, or 50% off MSRP).

https://youtu.be/VVV4xeWBIxEWe've previously written about "Primitive Technology," the amazing YouTube channel chronicling a guy (who never identifies himself) navigating the wilds of Far North Queensland, Australia with nothing more than what he fashions with his own hands. Those hands seem to have nearly magical powers as he confidently conjures what he needs to survive from the very elements around him (while capturing it all on a future phone). As part of my work, I spend a big chunk of my day watching DIY videos of every kind of "It" you can imagine. This YouTube channel is one where I anxiously await new content.In this latest video, the mystery man that some have dubbed "Prim" builds himself a bow-drill blower and clay forge near the entrance to his tiled-roof mud hut. With his blower and forge in working order, he then collects orange iron bacteria (iron oxide) from the creek (that baby shit-brown substance at 3:14), mixes it with powdered charcoal (carbon for reducing oxide to metal), and wood ash (flux to lower meting point). He forms all of this into a cylindrical brick and fires it in a charcoal oven. The result is a melted iron ore slag with tiny, 1mm-sized specs of iron in it.Congratulations, Prim! You just entered the Iron Age! On his blog, he explains that wasn't really his intent:

Beginning today, the editors of Cool Tools will be recommending 6 items in an extremely short email every week. Mark, myself, and Claudia — the entire staff of Cool Tools — will suggest good stuff we have personally used, consumed, or experienced. We’ll try to keep each recommendation light and fast. They won’t be definitive reviews; rather they’ll be quick recommendations. Going back again to our roots, we’ve named it Recomendo — which, believe it or not, was the name of Cool Tools before I renamed it.If you want great tools, stay on (or sign onto) the Cool Tools newsletter. To get all the other kinds of things we encounter and enjoy sharing, sign up for Recomendo here. As usual, we don’t do anything with your info except send you short and sweet one-screen news once a week.Here's the first issue of Recomendo:DESTINATION: The world's coolest nature museum: The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England (pictured above). It's a day trip from London. Take the 1-hour train to Oxford, then walk 15 minutes from the station to the museum, co-housed with the Oxford University Nature Museum. Enter into a lost world of curiosity. You are surrounded by three floors of artifacts collected over centuries by eccentric British explorers. Displays include shrunken heads, voodoo dolls, tomb relics, weird insects, ancient folk tools, dinosaurs skeletons, taxidermy galore, uncountable biological and mineralogical specimens, all stacked in glassy cabinets with typed cards and labels. It's supremely old-school and hugely satisfying. — KKEXPERIENCE: My family and I are obsessed with escape rooms. Twelve people are locked in a themed room (theater backstage, 1940s Hollywood private eye office, alchemist's laboratory, etc.) and given one hour to solve clues to get out. You'll quickly get over any shyness of strangers as you collaborate to beat the clock. There are escape rooms all over the world. I recommend Escape Room LA in downtown Los Angeles. — MFTIP: If you book a one-day round trip on Southwest, you won't be allowed to check in for the return flight until after you complete the first flight. This means you'll end up with the dreaded C boarding pass (which means a middle seat). I've learned from experience to book two one-way trips instead of a round trip (it costs the same). This allows me to check in to each flight exactly 24 hours before take-off. That way, I get an A or B boarding pass. (Extra tip: set your alarm 23 hours and 58 minutes before each flight so you can check as soon as Southwest allows it. The A and B passes go fast!) — MFTHING: For some reason I frequently cut myself shaving when I travel. I've stopped trying to figure out why. I just bring along a pack of KutKit Styptic Swabs. They look like Q-Tips but have a glass ampoule of staunching liquid inside the straw that is released when you bend the tube like a light stick. It stops the bleeding instantly. — MFENJOYMENT: The broadway hit Hamilton is worth attending in any mode. Current tickets are precious and rare, but anyone can download or purchase the musical soundtrack by the original cast. Its super popularity is not just hype: Hamilton is as great as any Shakespeare play. The lyrics are topical, timeless, profound, and linguistically witty. The entire 2.5 hour play is sung, so there are 46 songs, each one memorable. You may have heard that much of it is in rap, with different characters rapping in their own style. It's an incredible experience just in audio. I've lost track of how many times I've listened to it, but each time I derive more understanding of that period of American history, more appreciation of early American culture, and more heartbreak about the biography of a political icon. And you can sing along! If you eventually are able to get reasonably priced tickets to some version of the performance, my tip is to listen all the way through the album at least twice before you go. This play is so dense with layers, and so packed with powerful language, that your enjoyment will be multiplied by 10 each time you pre-listen. — KKTOOL: I’m a meditation-app junkie and have spent many dollars and downloads searching for the perfect one. I would recommend any app by Meditation Oasis. I use iSleep Easy (there is a free version) at night, which lets me create playlists of guided meditations and pair it up with either a background instrumental or nature sounds, with separate volume controls for each. My emergency go-to for quick and re-energizing naps is the 13-minute Deep Rest meditation, available on the Relax and Rest app. I usually start to doze off at around minute 10, but I come to feeling as if I had taken a super long nap, and without that awful groggy feeling. Individual apps range from $1.99-$5.99, but you can purchase bundles, which I suggest, because once you try one you’ll definitely want the others. — CLWant to get our next Recomendo a week early in your inbox? Sign up for next Sunday newsletter here.

Trump proves yet again how unfit he is to be the next president – and commander in chief – of the United States. In a cringe-worthy ABC interview this morning he tried to educate George Stephanopoulos about a thing or two regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine.With his mafioso expression, he said about Putin, "He's not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want.""Well, he's already there, isn't he?" Stephanopoulos countered. Putin took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.Without missing a beat, Trump tried to cover up. "OK -- well, he's there in a certain way. But I'm not there. You have Obama there. And frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama with all the strength that you're talking about and all of the power of NATO and all of this. In the meantime, he's going away. He takes Crimea."Stick to talking about the "Wall," Donald. That's what you're good at.

Two villages either side of the Apurimac River in Peru must rebuild the rope bridge linking their communities every year. You wonder: why don't they build a modern one that lasts? Then you watch the video and you know why. (more…)

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Ken Barrie, narrator of the British kids' show Postman Pat, died age 83 this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn10cEm8X_EIn only 7 minutes, Australian comedy show The Undercurrent explains exactly how companies like Apple, Google and Facebook use offshore registration, transfer payments, debt loading and tax havens to get a lower tax rate than nurses, starving their host countries like Australia of so much money that they're cutting schools, medicare, public broadcasting, climate change and indigenous services. (more…)

Wikileaks, the clearing house for state secrets, seems more about founder Julian Assange's grudges these days: especially the one for Hillary Clinton. Much fuss was made over a quote—that he had "enough evidence" to guarantee an indictment of her—that was widely attributed to him. It turns out, though, that the quote doesn't check out: most point to a mangled interview on the UK's ITV where it isn't even said. Jesse Singal set out to track down a source that no-one bothered to verify. It's a surprisingly tantalizing and teasing journey, but the tl;dr seems to be that the quote was originally fabricated by the blog Zero Hedge. (more…)

It looks like Zika-infected mosquitos have finally made their way to the U.S. Four people who live in the Miami-Dade and Broward counties of Florida came down with the Zika virus in early July, and they all contracted it locally, most likely from mosquito bites.

Remember that video showing the overwhelming glee of the woman enjoying her new Chewbacca mask? Our hyper talented maker pal John Park recorded this instructional video on hacking the Chewbacca Electronic Mask so you can upload any sounds you want, including the crazed laughter of the woman in that wonderful video!You can still find the mask for sale but, predictably, the third party sellers on Amazon have bumped up the price: Star Wars The Force Awakens Chewbacca Electronic MaskAnd here are John's instructions for the hack: Happy Chewbacca Mask (Adafruit Industries)

A trio of iconic posters for the world premiere of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (PEA, 1966) is set to star in Heritage Auctions’ upcoming Movie Posters Signature Auction, July 30-31. The final epic from Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name trilogy, it is ranks amongst the best westerns ever produced. Each poster features one of the three stars; Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach. The set was produced for the film’s December, 1966 world premiere in Rome, a full year before the American release. Each measuring 39” X 110,” they are easily the most powerful posters created for the film. The scarcity of these linen pieces is second to none, as very few from the minuscule production run were saved.Full Auction Description:The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (PEA, 1966). Italian Premiere Displays Set of 3 (39" X 110").Following the success of A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, audiences were clamoring for more of director Sergio Leone's brash new style of Western. Executives at United Artists approached Leone, screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni, and producer Alberto Grimaldi to gauge their interest in a third film.A deal was struck insuring a budget of $1.3 million and production was soon underway. In Spain, an international cast and crew was assembled which featured Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the feature roles. But even with a powerhouse director and three first rate stars, the production was plagued with mishaps, several of which threatened the very lives of the stars. Eli Wallach recalled that on one occasion, a crew member placed a jar of acid next to his soda. When Wallach reached for his drink, he inadvertently drank from the acid, nearly poisoning himself in the process! Stories of a film set, out of control, became almost as legendary as the film itself. In the end, the film proved lucrative for United Artists with a worldwide box office take of over 25 million dollars!Opening in Italy in 1966, American audiences had to wait over a year for the film to hit their shores. But by then, word had spread that this "Spaghetti Western" was nothing short of sheer genius. This trio of country of origin posters was created for the Rome premiere of the film on December 15th, 1966.Each display is composed of two panels depicting the three stars; Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach. These three pieces are arguably the greatest posters ever created for the best and final film in The Man With No Name trilogy. The scarcity of these posters is second to none and an opportunity for ownership is not likely to come along again any time soon. The posters have small chips, tears and pinholes in the borders, small stains at the bottom and small chips and tears along the folds. The Eastwood poster has a tear in his foot and leg and a toned horizontal crease at the top. The Van Cleef poster has diagonal tears in the bottom right section. None of these signs of handling detract from the overall appeal of these three display pieces. Fine/Very Fine on Linen.

Rockin'1000, consisting of 1000+ musicians, cover the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" with 15,000 of their closest friends on vocals.

https://youtu.be/9ctigYpQSTUThis video shows how to turn hard boiled eggs into cute animals with plastic molds, and what I'm guess is soy sauce.Amazon sells the pair for $2, including shipping.

Chris Atkin's says he doesn't mind that a court is forcing him to pay $730 a month in child support for a daughter that isn't his, but he would also like to be able to see her because he feels like a father to her.From Fox31 Denver:

Emily Yoshida interviews filmmaker Werner Herzog for the Verge. A wonderful and insightful conversation about the future of film, but here's the part going viral: in the interview, the gloomy auteur is introduced to Pokémon.(more…)

I spotted this map on Twitter, showing the world divided into seven regions each of 1 billion people. The source appears to be National Geographic but it's not clear.

A Shetland pony wandered into a bar in England and had to be coaxed out with snacks after guzzling ale from pints left out on tables. This is completely normal in England, as the legal drinking height for equines was lowered after the passage of the Horses and Ponies in Public Houses Act (2004)

Yet another U.S. Democratic Party group has been hacked, the FBI said today. This latest cyberattack against the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (or DCCC) could be related to an earlier hack against the Democratic National Committee, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources on the FBI investigation.(more…)

It's Sysadmin Day, when we recognize the tireless, selfless, talented administrators who toil in obscurity and keep every part of our world running: for Boing Boing, that's Mr Ken Snider, an extraordinarily skilled, patient, and upstanding fellow who has kept Boing Boing running for more than a decade, through thick and thin, and is our best hope and first line of defense against everything that the internet and its many ravening hordes of badness and entropy throw at us. Happy SA Day, Ken -- you're the very, very best.

Chinese fashion house Viken Plan makes an excellent range of vibrantly colored, patterned tights that feel very zeitgeisty, designs ranging from emoji-ish to dazzle-oid. (more…)

Though Richard "Datamancer" Nagy died unexpectedly in 2013, his business partner and family continue to fabricate the extraordinary steampunk designs he pioneered. (more…)

Earlier this month, Wikileaks published a database of six years' of email from AKP, Turkey's ruling party -- but as outside experts have plumbed that database, all they can find is archives from public mailing lists, old spam, and some sensitive personal information from private citizens. (more…)

The Trump Campaign showed its cowardice when it announced that journalists who asked tough questions of the candidate or reported negatively on the campaign would not be given press-credentials for future events, but when campaign security blocked a ticketed Washington Post reporter from attending Mike Pence inaugural vice-presidental rally in Milwaukee, a regular, law-abiding private citizen who bought a ticket and showed up like all the other attendees -- it reached a new low. (more…)

An update on the health status and prisoner status of Wikileaks source and U.S. whistleblower Chelsea Manning, from her supporters at Fight for the Future.(more…)