Nearly a month after producer JJ Abrams and director Justin Lin went public with their call for Paramount to drop its litigation against the crowdfunded Star Trek fan-film Axanar, Paramount's lawyers have told a judge that its suit is still a live issue. (more…)

I spoke to KCRW Press Play host Madeleine Brand today about some of the macabre social media details coming out of the Orlando Pulse mass shooting in Florida, and the terrorist attack two days later on a police officer and his family in Paris. (more…)

SpaceX successfully deployed two satellites on Wednesday, but the Falcon 9 rocket that carried them into orbit then crashed into its drone ship while touching down in the Atlantic Ocean.(more…)

Earth's most remote continent finally caught up with its more populated counterparts. “Carbon dioxide has been steadily rising since the start of the Industrial Revolution, setting a new high year after year,” writes Brian Kahn at Climate Central. “There’s a notable new entry to the record books. The last station on Earth without a 400 parts per million (ppm) reading has reached it.”(more…)

“Get some popcorn. This July 4, we're going to Jupiter.”(more…)

On July 4, NASA plans to fly a solar-powered spacecraft the size of a basketball court within 2,900 miles (4,667 kilometers) of Jupiter's cloud tops. It's part of the JUNO mission, and Boing Boing plans to cover the big event live from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory——so, watch this space, because we are fascinated by all things space.(more…)

Stanford University made a big show and dance about ridding itself of Brock Turner, but that was only after his arrest on rape charges. Intouch quotes an "insider" who claims that other swim team members were in fear of his behavior—and that school officials told them to stay quiet.

A dog ate a bottle of Gorilla Glue. Gross!(via Life with Dogs)

This kid from Chicago has a bright future ahead of him, in political personality impersonations. His Hillary, Trump, Obama, and Bernie Sanders impressions are all great.(more…)

Where kawaii meets the KKK.(more…)

Everybody and their moms has an app idea that they KNOW can make them rich. Of course, if they can’t actually build the app to house that idea...well, no six-figure royalty check for you.Learn how to turn ideas into real products with the Professional App Developer Bundle, now just $49 in the Boing Boing Store.Across nine courses, you get all the tools you need to design creative, working apps ready to hit either the Android or iOS markets. You’ll receive:

Ashley Cervantes, a US citizen who was 18 at the time, was stopped at the Mexico border and accused by Customs and Border Protection of smuggling drugs. A search proved fruitless so they gave her a body cavity search. US Customs and Border Protection still couldn't find the drugs they were looking for so they took her to a hospital for an X-ray. No drugs. (more…)

Austrian designer Moriz Büsing created this grim interactive map of migrant and refugee deaths on the way to Europe, or trying to stay in Europe; over 32,000 deaths in 15 years. (more…)

The Encrypted Page Maker lets you paste in a HTML document, pick a password, and then hosts the resulting page at its own site. Simple public publishing, with the source code available in the page source.

At Joe Nall Week last month, Mr Steele flew his FPV drone inches from Giant Scale remote control planes as their operators did some fantastic stunts, with remarkable results.(more…)

From 1987, John Moschitta, Jr., Guiness Book of World Records certified fastest talking man sings Michael Jackson's BAD in 20 seconds.

After 20 years at the heart of the web, Yahoo is all but done, with a sale expected soon and talent fleeing as fast as it can. CEO Marissa Mayer's plan to turn things around involve buying 50 startups. What happened to them? (more…)

Gus Van Harten is a law professor at York University's Osgoode Hall and a well-respected expert on trade law; he's published a damning report on the Trans Pacific Partnership deal. (more…)

A video making the rounds shows fertilized chicken eggs incubated outside their shells. It's fascinating, but not a first. (more…)

Earlier this week Crowdstrike, a security company hired by the Democratic National Committee, announced that the party's servers had been deeply penetrated by hackers working for the Russian government, who had made off with many sensitive files, including the DNC's Trump oppo research spreadsheet. (more…)

Parasites are threatening to “destroy the human race,” claims the National Examiner, which coincidentally is what this week’s tabloid magazines also appear to have in mind.Just like the Examiner's “evil bugs” with “the power to turn us into zombies,” the tabloids try to burrow into our brains with their latest mindless worm-like ravings.Comedy legend Robin Williams’ death “is now a murder probe” claims the Globe, reporting that the case has been re-opened as “cops probe brutal murder!”But read the story and you learn that the case has not be reopened by police; it’s merely Globe’s rent-a-quote “investigators” speculating wildly, accompanied by a disturbing photo purporting to show Williams’ corpse with horrific strangulation marks around his neck. This is the same discredited photo which in 2014 was proven not to be Williams after being traced back to a Spanish website specializing in strangulation. But that hasn’t stopped the Globe reprinting the image, even with its own caution: “the authenticity is in question.” No kidding.Happy marriages simply aren’t allowed in the tabloids’ version of Hollywood. Jennifer Aniston’s marriage is “in crisis” because husband Justin Theroux is away filming in Australia, claims the Globe, and John Travolta’s marriage to Kelly Preston is heading toward a $275 million divorce, claims the Enquirer, which for years has repeatedly floated this story questioning the actor’s sexuality, in the forlorn hope that one day it may be proven right.“Hillary will never be President!” screams the Enquirer’s cover, accusing her of treason for leaking US intelligence, bribery for accepting a $145 million Russian “payoff” to the Clinton Foundation, and conspiracy for the Benghazi attack. “This means the end of Crooked Hillary,” a source tells the Enquirer, suspiciously echoing Donald Trump’s language to describe her. “You can stick a fork in her. She’s done!”With such parasitic thoughts worming their way into tabloid-lovers’ brains, what will they make of the Globe’s full-page ad for a “Barack and Michelle Obama Commemorative Tribute” limited edition “heirloom-quality” statuette, nearly 12 inches tall and incredibly life-like: Barack in tuxedo and white tie, Michelle in red off-the-shoulder halter gown, both waving and smiling? Will they use the “hand-cast, hand-painted sculpture” for AR-15 target practice? Search the statuette’s “marble-look” base for a “Made in Kenya” stamp? Use it as a fancy spatula to flip their Trump Steaks on the grill?“Dolly Parton in Gun Threat Drama!” screams the Enquirer. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the singer was threatened by a gunman - but no. Dolly was nowhere near when her brother opened the door to his Tennessee home with a gun in hand . . . because the Enquirer was knocking on his door. Seems like a reasonable response to me.Muhammad Ali was a “gentle giant nobody knew,” according to the Enquirer, but to the Globe he led a “shocking double life,” leaving behind “four love children and died a victim of elder abuse.”North Carolina blonde Pixee Fox has spent $125,000 to look like Jessica Rabbit, including having six ribs removed, liposuction, body sculpting, four rhinoplasties, four breast augmentations, cheek and lip injections, and having her eyes made a permanent neon green, reports the Globe, breaking the news only seven months after this story appeared everywhere from the New York Daily News to the UK’s Daily Mirror. Perhaps better never than late?People magazine devotes its cover and eight pages inside to remembering those slain in the June 12 Orlando mass shooting, and even Us magazine gives up two pages to report how celebrities and the rest of the world memorialized and mourned the attack. Of course, Us devotes the same amount of space to Oprah Winfrey, who proves that the stars are just like us - as long as you fly 20 loaves of your favorite bread over from South Africa because American bread just doesn’t ring your bell. Oprah admits: “I’ve literally been in hotels and brought my own: ‘Please, can you toast this? I have my own bread.’” Marie Antoinette had nothing on her.But the stars are just like us, insists Us magazine, showing celebrities texting while cycling, eating ice cream cones, carrying packages and shopping for groceries like Alicia Vikander, pictured amid the fruit aisle in a market in Sydney, Australia, presumably because she prefers to fly to her food than have it flown to her.Us mag’s crack investigative team tells us that Beyonce wore it best, Chelsea Handler doesn’t like water but loves chicken nuggets, and that Ashley Tisdale carries a vegan smoothie, lip gloss and hand cream in her goatskin Givenchy satchel.Leave it to the Examiner to tell us that a pet parrot could be poised to testify in a Michigan murder trial because the victim’s family believe the African grey witnessed the slaying - and could tell whodunnit. As risible as this seems, it appears to be one of the rare accurate stories in this week’s tabloids, though whether the court will admit evidence from a genuine stool-pigeon is open to doubt.As for the zombie parasite threat that could “destroy the human race," the Examiner is simply dipping into some of nature’s more wondrously destructive microscopic killing machines, from Toxoplasma gondii to Trypanosoma, and good old-fashioned rabies. The Examiner delights in the threat of Naegleria fowleri, calling it “the insanity amoeba” which “chews through a host’s brain,” leading to hallucinations, unconsciousness and death - a fate almost as debilitating as reading the tabloids every week.Onwards and downwards . . .

Now's your chance to get drunk with Dumb Donald! Chicago-based Spiteful Brewing just introduced Dumb Donald this week. No, not the Republican nominee, but a double IPA beer with a nice and sour Key lime flavor. So why call it Dumb Donald?According to the beer's label, "Dumb Donald is, well, dumb. So dumb in fact, we named a beer after him. It's like he got caught in a pause halfway through evolution. His brain still functions, at a minimal level with a vocabulary of a second grade student. You might even start to feel sorry for this man-child. Resist that urge, pop open this Key lime DIPPA and pretend you're on a far away island where people like Dumb Donald simply don't exist."Spiteful Brewing isn't the first brewery to mock the Donald. Last March, Philadelphia's Dock Street Brewery introduced the beer Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Drumpf. (Drumpf was Trump's grandfather's original name.)Unfortunately right now Dumb Donald is only available in Chicago, but if you happen to be in the city, Spiteful Brewing's website, which opens with "Don't fight it, spite it!" on their homepage, has a hefty list of the city's stores that carry it.

Scores of Trump supporters have been fighting with an automated Twitter robot that spouts nonsense, and was designed to piss them off and waste their time on the internet.(more…)

NASA announced today that a small asteroid has been discovered in an orbit around our Sun that keeps it as a constant companion of Earth. And it'll stay that way for centuries to come.(more…)

If you believe that God has imbued your blood with special zoomph, thus ennobling you, and you marry someone of the same sex, the College of Arms has you covered! (more…)

Freedom of the Press Foundation recently filed a huge brief in the organization's case demanding that the Justice Department release its secret rules for targeting journalists with National Security Letters. And in related news, a coalition of 37 news organizations - including the New York Times, The Associated Press, USA Today, Buzzfeed, and tons more - filed an amicus brief in support of the Freedom of the Press Foundation case, demanding that the Department of Justice do the same.(more…)

Hieronymous Bosch: Complete Works

Ladies and gentlemen, the Washington Post's infographic-heavy guide to surviving an active shooter, for all your clip-art needs.

Sen Chris Murphy [D-CT] and colleagues are attempting to push an amendment to a spending bill that would require background checks on gun sales and exclusion of terror suspects from sales. (more…)

ALE, a Japanese start-up, aims to create artificial meteor showers. From their very own satellite, the engineers at ALE would launch pellets into the upper atmosphere, creating one giant light show.Via National Geographic:

Two women have come forward to accuse Sir Clement Freud, grandson of Sigmund, MP, broadcaster, dogfood spokesman, and children's author of sexually abusing them when they were children, and of rape. (more…)

Pastor Roger Jimenez of Sacramento's Verity Baptist Church delivered a sermon praising the Orlando shooter and lamenting that The tragedy is more of them didn’t die…. I’m kind of upset he didn’t finish the job!" (more…)

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer reviewed 1,000+ papers investigating the link between coffee and cancer and concluded that the WHO's 1991 classification of coffee as a carcinogen was mistaken. (more…)

When Sarah, a 17 year old in Texas, decided to take her girlfriend to the prom, her parents forced her into an "East Texas Christian boarding facility for troubled teens" from which she has repeatedly attempted to escape. (more…)

Donald Trump's butt-hurt, thin-skinned response to the Washington Post's basic, journalistic skepticism about his Obama-conspires-with-terrorists was to yank the paper's media credentials, adding them to the growing pool of media that is barred from Trump events, which includes "Politico, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Gawker, Foreign Policy, Fusion, Univision, Mother Jones, the New Hampshire Union Leader, the Des Moines Register and the Daily Beast" -- as well as any previously accredited news outlet that Trump doesn't feel like admitting on any given day. (more…)

I'm having pretty good luck with this TP-Link range extender. It has lots of antennae.My house is a long, 3 level rectangle, and of course the internet access point is on a distant end, at the lowest level. I've been very happy with the Nighthawk router I've been using, but there are still parts of the house that are a pain to reach. I've tried various wireless extenders, have Apple Airport Expresses coming out the wazoo, and Ethernet-over-Power, none of which allowed me decent access while I'm working in the kitchen. Enter the TP-Link AC1750.There is some crazy marketing on the box. I have no idea what the beam forming technology is or does, I expected to see the wifi radio waves all bending in towards my iPad as I worked away in the kitchen. What this is, is a wall wort WiFi extender that works. Thankfully it was made with a fit flat profile rather than one like Apple's awful '90-degrees-off-the-wall' Express. What does work is more antennae. I'm convinced. More antennae is the criteria I use when selecting WiFi gear.The TP-Link AC1750 works on my 2.4 and 5 GHz devices just fine. I had a lot of stuttering start with iTunes and Airplay between devices in my kitchen, and my stereo. I switched the Airport Express I use for the stereo to 2.4GHz only and the funk is back.Configuration was simple, and via an iPhone app. Android is also available.TP-LINK AC1750 Wi-Fi Range Extender (RE450) via Amazon

Wow! Watch Anderson Cooper grill, er, I mean interview Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who for years has fought tooth and nail to ban same sex marriage and adoption by gay couples, but who is now acting like an LGBT advocate after the Orlando shooting.Cooper actually calls her a hypocrite, and then goes on to say, "You were arguing that if there was same sex marriage...that would do harm to the people of Florida.”Bondi squirms. "Of course not. Of course not. I’ve never said that. Those words have never come out of my mouth.""But that is specifically what you were arguing in court," Cooper counters.The interview goes on for over five minutes, every bit of it as cringe-worthy as the next. Towards the end Cooper says, "Had there been no gay marriage...you do realize that there would be no spouces, that boyfriends and girlfriends of the dead would not be able to get information and would probably not be able to visit in the hospital here. Isn’t there a sick irony in that?"

Elly from Microcosm Publishing writes, "Artist Automne Zingg started drawing pictures of Nick Cave gorging on comfort foods and Morrissey hoarding treats a few years ago to get over a breakup and it turned into an obsession. We got rockstar chef Joshua Ploeg to write lyrics-inspired vegan recipes to go with the books, and the result is... magic." (more…)

Sixty hikers from Hungary were stranded in the Austrian Alps last weekend when their drunk guide disappeared. Apparently the guide wandered off and found his way back to the bottom of the mountain, leaving his group behind.

Data-scientist Kevin H Wilson argues that computers are tools for manipulating data -- from companies' sales data to the input from games controllers -- but we teach computer programming as either a way to make cool stuff (like games) or as a gateway to "rigorous implementation details of complicated language," while we should be focusing on fusing computer and math curriciula to produce a new generation of people who understand how to use computers to plumb numbers to find deep, nuanced truths we can act upon. (more…)

Speed reading is one of those abilities that feels like a superpower. But the truth is, it’s a skill anyone can develop with the right instruction!Understand the art of speed reading, and learn to read and comprehend up to 3,700 times faster with this Essential Speed Reading Bundle, only $19 in the Boing Boing Store.You’ll start your instruction with a three-year subscription to Spreeder CX, an e-reading program that ramps up your RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation) skills. It’s a text method that cuts down on eye movement and boosts how much information you receive as your reading speed increases.But just reading faster doesn’t matter if you can’t retain it...so you’ll also get a three-year subscription to its companion program 7 Speed Reading EX. Here, you focus on training videos, exercises and other methods to improve your reading speed while achieving 100% information retention.A $150 value, boost your information intake with the Essential Speed Reading Bundle for 87% off MSRP, while this offer lasts.

Joe Hanson from It’s Okay to be Smart and Dianna Cowern from Physics Girl met up with Joe DiPrima of Arc Attack to sear aluminum cans apart with a powerful electromagnet.

Today, organizations like The Open Organisation of Lockpickers Worldwide support locksport with tools, educational materials, training and organized events, but in the Victorian era, locksmiths competed at expositions to show off their talents and show off the weaknesses of their competitors' wares. (more…)

Evan from Fight for the Future writes, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a massive, secretive deal that poses a serious threat to human rights, the environment, and your Internet freedom. But one of the biggest problems with it is that too many people still don't know what it is or why it's so dangerous." (more…)

Peter Thiel's lawyers are threatening Gawker with a lawsuit over its expose of Donald Trump's "hair," weeks after winning a lawsuit over Gawker's publishing of Hulk Hogan's "sex" tape. As we now have all the carnies in one tent—the billionaire, the millionaire and Donald Trump—it behooves us to imagine them sharing their props.

Whenever I think I've exhausted the possibilities of Netflix or Amazon Prime, I jump on Cinesift and use their handy filters for a deep dive into the vaults.(more…)

“We ask strangers on the street which celebrities they've been told they look like.” Another fun piece from our friend and collaborator Joe Sabia, for Vanity Fair.

The first in a series of NPR reports online and on-air about Traumatic Brain Injuries and the military is a must-listen. (more…)

Aaron Persky, the California judge who let rapist Brock Turner off with a 6-month term in county jail, was removed from a new case Tuesday after prosecutors complained they lacked confidence in him.