A woman in Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio says she feels like a "prisoner" because a deer has been attacking her repeatedly near her suburban home.(more…)

Trump's new relationship with the teleprompter didn't last long. Yesterday he gave a free-form speech at a rally in Richmond, Virginia where he repeatedly referred to Elizabeth Warren as "Pocahontas," an attempted jab at her for saying she has Native American ancestry. (more…)

This lapel clip-on microphone is regularly $20, but for a limited time you can buy it on Amazon for $13 if you use the code 5PLJVX5D. I just bought one. I'll let you know how it works.The reason I got it is that I sometimes make videos using my phone (using this great smartphone tripod mount) and the phone's built-in mic doesn't do a great job when I'm more than a few feet from the phone. I have a bunch of old iPhones, and I will use one of them with this mic plugged in it to record the audio.

I remember when we had to have Lacoste, not Le Tigre! Member's Only, not Malibu Originals or whatever the alt-brand was!Now, everyone shops at Hot Topic and life is easy.

THIS IS A HOAX.Because of the one-child-only law in China, combined with the practice of abandoning baby girls to make room for a boy, the country now has a gross gender imbalance of three boys for every girl under the age of 18. So to make sure at least one-third of the men still have a chance of marrying a Chinese woman, the Supreme People's Court of China just passed a law that will forbid Chinese women from marrying a non-Chinese man. But Chinese men will still be able to marry anyone they choose, regardless of race.Business owners seem to be more concerned with how this new law will affect their businesses than the fairness of it. One owner of a matchmaking business says that allowing men more freedom with marriage is "common sense."

According to an Australian survey, the shit brown color seen above (Pantone 448C, or "Opaque Couché") is the ugliest hue around, reminding respondents of dirt and death. To deter smoking, Australian officials required Opaque Couché to be the main color and cigarette packages and now the UK is following suit. Apparently, Australian officials first referred to the color as "olive green" but the Australian Olive Association was none-too-pleased. Now, Pantone is grumpy about the choice of Opaque Couché."At the Pantone Color Institute, we consider all colours equally,” Pantone's exec director Leatrice Eiseman told The Guardian. "(There's no such thing as the ugliest color."The new UK regulations also ban the use of logos, requiring a plain font on the packs.More at Smithsonian: "The World’s "Ugliest" Color Could Help People Quit Smoking"

Creeping Death from Neptune: The Life And Comics Of Basil Wolverton Vol. 1

Hipmunk says hotel bookings way up, except for loser Trump hotels. Way, way down. Sad!

Sarah Kurchak, a personal trainer who has experienced clinical depression, offers the most humane advice for using exercise you're likely to find. (more…)

Wyomingnot's wonderful fan video for They Might Be Giants' "Fingertips" suite of 21 songs in less than five minutes, from the duo's 1992 album Apollo 18.Here's what TMBG's John Linnell once said about "Fingertips":

USA Today builds on its excellent work tracking the staggering volume of litigation that Der Drumpf is embroiled with by focusing in on the hundreds of entities -- salaried workers, family businesses, lawyers -- who've had to sue Trump, singly and in bunches, to get the money he owed them. (more…)

Thinking machines are people, friend. I learned this when I chanced across electronics giant Ricoh's official corporate song. It has only 150 plays and is the only item in one of the company's myriad of localized YouTube channels, but I thought that its vision of a future alliance between man and machine compellingly inspirational. I have transcribed the lyrics below so you can sing along. There are multiple microprocessors within vocal range and all will be pleased. (more…)

Director Oscar Sharp and AI researcher Ross Goodwin trained a machine-learning system with a huge pile of classic science fiction screenplays and turned it loose to write a short film. What emerged was an enigmatic 9-minute movie called Sunspring, which has just won Sci-Fi London's 48-hour challenge. (more…)

Some of the clips in this video show people getting hurt, so please don't watch it if you are of a delicate constitution.

Chiko is a shiba inu who seems to enjoy sitting in a chair like a domesticated primate to watch videos.

Businessweek reports on Larry Page's not-secret-anymore efforts to make the perpetually-futuristic vision of flying cars a reality. Turns out, Page is funding two flying car companies, Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk. Apparently the latter's president is Sebastian Thrun, the pioneering roboticist who drove Google's autonomous vehicle efforts. From Ashley Vance and Brad Stone's Businessweek feature:

New York is one of four states considering legislation that would guarantee your right to get your stuff fixed by independent repair centers, curbing manufacturers' attempts to limit access to technical documentation and parts, meaning you pay less to keep your stuff working, and that means that your gadgets don't become immortal, toxic e-waste. (more…)

For nearly a decade, science fiction historian Joshua Glenn has waged a campaign to resurrect the "Radium Age" of science fiction: the period from 1904-1933 when writers turned their pens to "Air Battles, Antigravity, Interplanetary Voyages, Lost Worlds, Mad Scientists, Time Travel, and Utopias," before writers like Andre Norton and Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov began their careers. (more…)

The movie is tanking in the US, thanks to dismal reviews, but it had a $46M opening day in China, the best-ever midweek opening box-office in Chinese film history. (more…)

More than 30 years ago, Roz Kaveney showed a draft of her novel Tiny Pieces of Skull to Neil Gaiman, who was "saddened and horrified" that publishers wouldn't put her story of "trans street life and bar life in London and Chicago in the late 1970s" into print. (more…)

At yesterday's Internet Archive Decentralized Web Summit, the afternoon was given over to questions of security and policy. (more…)

The Members of Parliament voted in favour of the far-ranging, massively invasive spying bill after the Tories agreed to minor improvements, like dropping the requirement for mandatory crypto backdoors if they would be infeasible or expensive to implement. (more…)

When DC administrative judge Roy Pearson sued his local dry-cleaner for $65,000,000 over a pair of lost pants, it was a gift to newswriters everywhere, and especially Kevin Underhill of Lowering the Bar, who followed the case with headlines like: Judge Drops Pants; Suit Still On, Judge Who Lost Pants Loses Case, Judge Who Lost Pants Forced to Rely on Briefs, and more. (more…)

Crusading law prof Tim Wu -- who coined the term "Network Neutrality" and literally wrote the book on telcoms, corruption, and networks as a force for corruption or liberation -- has a new gig: he's "Senior Enforcement Counsel and Special Advisor" to the New York Attorney General, and he's on the warpath. (more…)

This week, the Internet Archive is hosting a three-day event (which finishes today) called The Decentralized Web Summit, whose goal is to figure out how to build a new Internet that is "locked open," an idea that emerged from Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle's 2015 series of talks and articles about how technologists can build networks and protocols that are resistant to attempt to capture, monopolize and control them. (more…)

Another incredible body painting masterpiece by Johannes Stötter. And just for kicks, take a close look at this "frog":Want more? Check out the trippy video below (previously posted on BB) and, of course, the artist's site: Johannes Stötter Arthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97vPNAUYJsc

If you were a Norse god/superhero who moonlighted as a carpenter, this Thor Hammer Tool Kit would hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately right now it's just a concept design from Dave's Geeky Ideas!

In the 2008 book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the theory that it took 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything. If you wanted to be the best violinist, painter, tennis player, or anything else that took talent, 10,000 was the magic number. But now the authors of the original 1993 study say that Gladwell's simple assertion just isn't accurate.One of the authors of the study, Anders Ericsson, just co-authored a new book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise (with co-author Robert Pool) to clarify what the study actually meant. According to Inc.com:

Capybaras are not only the world's greatest rodents, they are also the world's greatest animals bar none. And now two of them, appropriately named Bonnie and Clyde, are on the lam after busting out of Toronto’s High Park Zoo on May 24. The search for the brobdingnagian guinea pigs has been going on for 3 weeks.From NatGeo:

Digital music may be the standard today, but America’s got an eternal soft spot for vinyl. The experience of spinning records on turntables is unique - and music fans don’t want the march of technology to consign the turntable to history’s dustbin.Thankfully, the folks at 1byone are mashing modern and old school together in one package with their Belt Driven Bluetooth Turntable, now $114.99 - 32% off - in the Boing Boing Store.With its traditional appearance and dust cover, it looks and plays like a traditional turntable...but under the hood, it’s strictly 2016. In addition to playing 33, 45 and 78 RPM records, you can connect the turntable to any portable device via Bluetooth and stream digital music through its stereo speakers.You also can listen to your records anywhere with vinyl-to-MP3 recording, digitizing your stacks of wax into MP3 format for playback on your mobile devices.Get the best of both audio worlds with the Belt Driven Bluetooth Turntable with Built-In Speaker at a substantial 32% discount while this deal lasts.

Mohammed Zaman, founder of Easingwold Jaipur Spice restaurant in the UK, was sentenced to six years in prison for serving a nut-powder curry to a man with a nut allergy. The victim, who asked Zaman not to give him food with nuts, died from anaphylactic shock immediately after eating it.After the sentencing, the restaurant issued a fauxpology that concluded with an advertisement for new desserts:

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor to Bill Clinton (previously), published a beautiful open letter to Bernie Sanders setting out the senator's accomplishments and legacy. (more…)

Ubisoft has announced the sequel to its surveillance-themed game Watchdogs: Watchdogs 2, which features an army of young hackers in San Francisco led by a kid with a grudge named Marcus Halloway. (more…)

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. President in November's general election, is not only comically narcissistic, but his tongue ticks off diagnostic criteria for pathological arseholedom with every demented sentence. But pyschiatrists can't say so, because we've been here once before.

An educational edition of hit game/toy/epic/religion Minecraft is in beta testing, reports The Verge, and teachers are invited to get their hands on it early.

Bloomberg News reports that the Chinese Science Ministry plans to build a laboratory on the sea floor at a depth of 3 kilometers. It's the latest salvo in its expansionist effort to take control of the South China Sea.

It used to be said that photos never lie, back in those simpler, innocent days before Photoshop and Facetune made liars of us all. But as this week’s tabloids show, photos can lie even when they are the unvarnished genuine article.Richard Simmons, the fitness ‘guru’ whose celebrity seems to continue only in the minds of tabloid editors, is pictured on the National Enquirer’s cover clad in fur-trimmed lingerie and black leggings, while wearing a long black wig, above a headline screaming: “He’s now a woman!”“Yes, this photo shoot is real!” adds an accompanying caption - a notation that is necessary because veteran Enquirer readers will know how many of its photos are doctored fakes.Quoting an unnamed “pal,” the Enquirer claims that Simmons has been out of the public eye for the past two years while he transitioned into a woman, having a “secret boob job” and researching “castration surgery.”Leaving aside for a moment the appalling intrusion into the private life of anyone going through the emotional rollercoaster of gender realignment, just as the Enquirer had previously brutally forced the outing of a transitioning Caitlyn Jenner, Simmons' photo was clearly taken in jest, just as the flamboyant self-publicist Simmons has dressed in women’s attire many, many times before for the camera and on TV.The fact that Simmons was photographed a week ago wearing a beard should be the first clue that there may be less to this story than appears. Add the fact that in March the New York Daily News reported that Simmons had been kidnapped by his maid, prompting Simmons to emerge from seclusion to assure the world he was fine, and you realize that the 'Sweatin’ to the Oldies' star is the subject of frequently wild speculation.If he wants to transition to a woman, that’s great - but this unsubstantiated story and misleading photo don’t suggest that’s the case.There’s also less than appears in the Globe’s “world exclusive’ cover story “Patrick Swayze died a battered husband,” accompanied by a photo of the ‘Dirty Dancing’ star with shocking black eye and bruised lip, allegedly beaten in his final months by his wife, Lisa. The supposed “tragic truth,” exposed by an unnamed “friend,” is brought to harrowing life by the image of a gaunt and beaten Swayze - if only it were real. Harder to find than Waldo, hidden away at the foot of the page in the smallest of print are the tell-tale words: “Photo dramatization.”There’s no such caption on the Enquirer’s photo of Hillary Clinton, however, showing the Democrat’s presidential hopeful wearing an orange prison tunic and pants, her wrists shackled by a chain around her waist. “She should be jailed for compromising top U.S. secrets,” says the fair and balanced Enquirer, which notes the result of its readers’ general election poll, showing that 60 per cent support Donald Trump. You’d expect the other 40 per cent to support aliens or tabloid favorite Bat Boy, but no - they opt for Hillary Clinton.Fortunately Us magazine’s crack investigative team bring us the week’s real news: Gabrielle Union wore it best (though I’d give her marks off for those sneakers), Nick Jonas likes sriracha-flavored popcorn and Cuban sandwiches, Jennifer Beals carries a Swiss Army knife, emery board and eye drops in her boho blue satchel, and the stars are just like us: they bike to work, hold hands in public, and eat ice cream (which I never knew, assuming that all celebrities were contractually barred from consuming ice cream.)Muhammad Ali rightly takes the cover and ten pages inside People magazine, which might make Us mag wonder if its single paragraph - 34 words - might have underestimated his popularity and cultural significance. With his death on June 3 close to the mag’s deadline, perhaps they debated throwing out their feature on the “Hottest Bachelorette Ever” or their “wedding season survival guide” to squeeze in a few words on Ali, but decided against it? Or maybe Us editors simply decided that Ali wasn’t one of Us?But finally, some news you can use from this week’s tabloids: the National Examiner explains how you can tell a victim of demonic possession apart from someone with a mental disorder. The mental patient is holding a copy of the Examiner. No - I made that up. The “truth” is far better. According to a Vatican exorcist, you can tell the difference by noting the patient’s reaction to prayer. “The way a victim reacts to prayer, says the Vatican expert, can hold clues to whether a demon is trying to take control of a person,” the Examiner reports. Clues to watch out for: “Frightening facial expressions, threatening words or gestures, and other things, but especially blasphemies against God and our lady,” the exorcist reportedly says. Holy mother of Christ! Who knew? By that reckoning, half of America must already be possessed by demons, but who am I to argue with an expert? I’m sure he has photographic proof.Onwards and downwards . . .

My daughter wants to do some backyard camping this summer. BioLite sent me a cool little woodburning stove, which uses sticks as fuel. I bought the Stanley Adventure Camp Cook Set for $11 to go with it. It's got a 24 oz stainless steel pot with a folding handle and two 10 oz cups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onlplVUL2-8&feature=youtu.beIn "It's a brave new world: Avoiding legal, privacy, and security snafus with big data and the IoT" -- a panel from last week's Strata+Hadoop World conference in San Jose, Alysa Z. Hutnik, a lawyer who specializes in consumer protection in privacy, data security, and advertising and Kristi Wolff, whose legal practice is on liability in food, dietary supplements, medical devices, and emerging health/wearable technology and privacy issues, present an extremely digestable and fascinating look into the lay of the regulatory land for data-collection and user privacy. (more…)

The Disciple Shoppe Bible Bookstore in Emporia, KS put this quote, attributed to Mark Twain, in their window: "The best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible."I wonder if the proprietors get along with their neighbors, Juicy's Vapor Lounge.

The periodic table of elements will soon be updated with four new names, including three that honor Moscow, Japan, and Tennessee. A total of four new names were recommended Wednesday by an international scientific group, and the fourth is named for a Russian scientist.(more…)

On the Career Questions forum on Reddit, user FiletOfFish1066 said he was hired seven years ago by an "incredibly well known" tech company in the Bay Area as a software developer. He wrote, "After around 8 months I had basically automated my own job by writing some programs to do it all for me. After that I would mostly just browse forums and do absolutely jack shit at work. My boss never really checked in on me and as long as the needed tests were taken care of he didn't give a fuck."

Our friends at Baby Tattoo are running their first ever kickstarter, around the launch of Brian Kesinger's fantastical Dressing Your Octopus.Kesinger's Otto and Victoria return, they've been in illustrated adventures, coloring books, and have travelled around the world. This installment lets you imagine their destiny on your own, as the octopus and his companion become paper dolls.Here is some more info from Baby Tattoo:

See sample pages of Quidditch Through the Ages at Wink.Quidditch Through the Ages

Several nutritional supplements sold under the Nature Made brand are being recalled over concerns they may be contaminated with Salmonella or Staph. Aureus. Vitamin manufacturer Pharmavite released the announcement today, and it was cross-posted at the Food and Drug Administration website.(more…)

There's a wonderful special section in the New York Times on “Internet Culture” this week. The sociology of online life fascinates me, and I love digging into good, meaty reporting on who we are and why we do what we do online.How do tools and apps shape our behavior? How do virtual bonds originate, grow, and sometimes degrade differently than they do with face-to-face communication? This is stuff I think about a lot.There's a great feature in the section by Quentin Hardy about how "trolling" as we now know it sort of originated as "griefing," in games.In the gaming community, griefing historically meant doing stuff like “repeatedly killing the same player so that the person can’t move forward, reversing the play of newer gamers so they don’t learn the rules, or messing with other people’s play by blocking their shots or covering oneself with distressing images,” Hardy writes:

VICE on HBO's "State of Surveillance" with Edward Snowden is now available to stream for free on vicenews.com.The episode is hosted by VICE founder Shane Smith and features an in-depth interview with Snowden.(more…)

This beautiful collection of all twenty paintings, and eight drawings, assigned to Hieronymus Bosch, may be replacing the Codex Seraphinianus on my coffee table for a bit.These surreal masterpieces by Netherlandish artist Jheronimus van Aken, better known as Hieronymus Bosch, are reproduced beautifully, on lovely paper, and are thoughtfully arranged. Some pieces, such as the Garden of Earthly Delights, fold out, so you may enjoy them in much more detail.A must have in every collection.Hieronymus Bosch: Complete Works via Amazon

The Reservoir Dolls are going to the JRDA Nationals! Help the team travel from Lane County, Oregon to Lincoln, Nebraska!Via their GoFundMe: