One of Salvador Dalí's unpublished notebooks is up for auction at Sotheby's in Paris. Part of a fantastic array of Dada and Surrealist items for sale by the Bibliothèque R. & B. L. From CNN:

Unlike URL shorteners, Shady URL takes any URL you give it and generates a sinister long one instead: "Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening." For example, boingboing.net becomes http://www.5z8.info/pirate-anything_p5r2pa_getPersonalData-start and twitter.net becomes http://www.5z8.info/inject_worm_d4o6ox_oneweirdoldtiptolosebellyfatThe creation of Mike Lacher, it was revamped by snipe.

Campaigners from Liberty, a civil liberties group, took to the streets of London (and the lobby of the Home Office!) and grabbed peoples' phones, browsing them while explaining that they just wanted to build a detailed dossier of their lives by looking at their communications, browsing history and location data -- mirroring the way that the Snoopers Charter, pending mass surveillance legislation, will allow UK government agencies to harvest "bulk data" and store and search it, without suspicion or warrant. (via B2FXXX)

Some of the technology activists who were key to the Dean, Obama and Sanders campaign have a new, audacious program: they're going to run 535 bipartisan candidates for office in the 2016 election, backed by a single website for fundraising, grassroots organizing and messages, based on Bernie Sanders' political platform. (more…)

This is a genius piece of media criticism: mapping the BBC's own slavishly patriotic broadcast of the British royals' 2015 "celebrations" onto its breathless voice-over for a North Korean patriotic demonstration in celebration of a Kim birthday. (via Kottke)

Mitsubishi has admitted that it cheated on emissions standards tests for a quarter of a century, and it admits that this affected 600,000 cars, but the company says that the cheating cars were only sold to Japanese people. (more…)

Doniguitar -- makers of the Rebel Bass Millennium Falcon bass guitar -- also make the NES Paul, a guitar whose body is made from hollowed out, vintage Nintendo Entertainment Systems. (more…)

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Felines of New York: A Glimpse into the Lives of New York's Feline Inhabitants

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Being a sloppy drunk is never a good look. Seriously...never. But invariably, after throwing back a few at a bar, party or get-together, the edge of your sobriety starts to get a little bit murky. Are you drunk...or not? Considering the potentially extraordinary legal, financial and social consequences for being wrong on that incredibly critical point, the BACtrack Trace Professional Breathalyzer could be just the tool you need to avoid jail, a massive legal bill and the black mark of a DUI on your record. And now, Boing Boing Store shoppers can pick one up for $79.99, 38% off its MSRP.With its one-touch operation, just blow into the BACtrack and you’ll immediately get an accurate estimate on your blood alcohol level. The unit sports a sensor that’s fully police-grade, DOT/NHTSA compliant and produces results on par with anything used in hospitals, doctors’ offices or out on the streets with law enforcement officers.The clear LCD display makes your results simple to read and understand and the BACtrack even catalogues your previous 10 results.The BACtrack fits comfortably in your pocket, so it’s always ready when you’re ready to party and the six included mouthpieces mean you and your friends can all check your levels without running into any icky sanitation issues.At $79.99, it’s a fraction of what you’d pay if you got pulled over...and measured against what could happen if you got behind the wheel drunk, it’s a mandatory precaution that’s too important to ignore. Invest now in your future now at 38% off its regular price.[embed]https://youtu.be/jSQctM1Z8m0[/embed]

Artist James Gurney (creator of Dinotopia) explains why the Victoria and Albert Museum's decision to ban sketching in the special exhibition Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear stinks.

In a 2013 episode of New Girl, the characters were invited to a party hosted by Prince. When Prince was made aware of the intended plot, he sent the producers a list of jams he played at his real parties. Damn it's a smoking mix. Spotify playlist below.

When Jennie Rose Halperin left her job as a product engagement manager and researcher last month, she applied for unemployment benefits via Massachusetts Department of Unemployment website. She says, "I soon learned that a masters degree in Information Science and several years of work on systems and usability could not prepare me for the excruciating process of applying for unemployment in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."(more…)

Apparently America's spy agencies have a seven-year plan for cryptographic adoption: James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, has credited Edward Snowden with the acceleration of commercial adoption of encryption by 7 years. (more…)

Mississippi has 12 grounds for divorce, including impotency, adultery, habitual drunkenness and incurable mental illness. But a bill that would have added domestic violence to the list died in the senate last week.

"It honestly took every bit of strength in me to get through all 50 donuts as they were incredibly sweet but I'm so glad I did," said competitive eater Nela Zisser.

Media artist Michael Naimark writes:

Roppongi Hills is a very hoity-toity shopping area in Tokyo. You have to buy tickets to get into the mall! But a seven minute walk from the Roppongi subway station you will find the brand new Snoopy Museum. Now, it may be called the “Snoopy” Museum, and from the outside it looks like the Snoopy Museum …… in fact it’s really a “Peanuts” Museum. If your response to that is “Good grief,” then please hit the back button and all of Boing Boing awaits you. But, if you’re like me and you’ve been reading “Peanuts” your whole life, this is a sublime pleasure and I look forward to visiting in October.The museum has just opened on April 23, and its English language website [http://www.snoopymuseum.tokyo/en/] says that tickets sell for a measly 1,800 yen ($16.50) if you buy them in advance, which I would since the Japanese are very well organized and obsessive about this kind of stuff:

Directed by Kota Yamaji, the the music is by Vocaloid producer tilt six, whose YouTube channel is full of similar delights. The director describes the inspirations and creative process at Behance.

Jeremy Buckingham, a Green Party MP, took a dingy out on Queensland's Condamine River, about 220km west of Brisbane, and set the river on fire with a barbeque lighter. (more…)

Artist Clement Valla collects the most remarkable machine-vision nightmares and curiosities from Google Earth, a world whose parallels to our own become uncannier with each sweep of the satellites and Googlecars. [Previously. via]

Lax enforcement from the SEC has allowed the biggest companies in America -- 90 percent of the companies in the S&P 500, led by the faltering energy sector -- to ignore the "Generally Accepted Accounting Principles" (GAAP) in presenting their financial information to investors, manufacturing nonexistent profits in quarters where they suffer punishing losses. (more…)

Neither can beat him, but Ted Cruz and John Kasich are teaming up against Donald Trump in a last-ditch effort to prevent him winning the Republican presidential nomination.The two candidates, at opposite spectrums of the Republican spectrum, still agree on enough things (e.g. that Donald Trump is bad for America) to put aside their differences and announce the collaboration. The deal will involve Kasich supporting Cruz in Indiana while Cruz supports Kazich in Oregon and New Mexico – and perhaps other states where one or the other candidate is too weak to challenge Trump.“To ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico, and we would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead,” wrote Cruz's campaign manager, Jeff Roe.John Weaver, from Kasich's camp, said that they were giving Cruz “a clear path in Indiana.”“In turn, we will focus our time and resources in New Mexico and Oregon, both areas that are structurally similar to the Northeast politically, where Gov. Kasich is performing well,” Weaver wrote.Trump hit Twitter almost immediately to denounce the deal as "DESPERATE!" and "sad!" collusion.https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/724442801933565952https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/724445148910915584And, in a press release: “This horrible act of desperation, from two campaigns who have totally failed, makes me even more determined, for the good of the Republican Party and our country, to prevail!”The Republican convention begins July 18 in Cleveland. If Trump fails to pick up 1,237 or more delegates by then, it's likely that voting will proceed to a second round, where many will be free to defect to another candidate. Trump has said that he hopes it doesn't involve violence if he is denied the nomination.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos

Bruno Kramm, leader of Berlin's branch of the German Pirate Party, was arrested Saturday for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Kramm was detained while conducting a "literary analysis," in support of comedian Jan Boehmermann, outside the Turkish Embassy in Berlin. As part of the publicity stunt, he read two lines of Boehmermann poem ridiculing Erdogan.The incident comes after chancellor Angela Merkel allowed prosecutors to file charges against Boehmermann, following Turkish demands that he be punished for broadcasting the poem on local television.Boehmermann, however, was not physically detained by police.RT reports that Kramm was "approached by several police officers" after he began citing the lines and taken into custody. Police dispersed the gathering, according to RT.The arrest will further embarrass the German government, which sees itself as supportive of free speech but has failed to scrap an old law against insulting foreign heads of state. Merkel has promised to do so, but has also been criticized for condemning the poem and cosying up to the Turks to get them to accept more Syrian refugees.

Starting up an online business can seem simple, especially when you stack it next to brick-and-mortar startups. No office or storefront to rent, less overhead, fewer (or often, no) employees to deal with...it all seems like a can’t-miss option.But finding digital success obviously isn’t that simple. There’s a learning curve that every online business owner goes through...so learn from their experience and start your operation with your eyes wide open with this Digital Entrepreneur course bundle, now just $19 - 97% off - in the Boing Boing Store.You’ll get seven courses worth of deep-dive info on everything you’ll need to get a successful online business off the ground, including:

See sample pages of Humans of New York at Wink.Brendon Stanton started photographing random strangers in New York City in 2010. He treated each of them like a celebrity, portraying them in a classy portrait on the street. He then added a little bit of their life story in their own words. These mini-autobiographies were the secret sauce that transformed random snapshots of strangers into a remarkable series of portraits of real people that you could connect with. Brandon posted his photos-plus-bio on his blog, Humans of New York, which quickly went viral on social media until he had millions of followers. The 400 best of his portraits were fan-funded into this printed book.

Yesterday, MTV, which surprisingly still exists, remembered that its name is an acronym for Music Television, and launched a Prince music video marathon. Unfortunately, they accidentally slipped a Fresh Prince video in there too. (Cinemablend)

I far too frequently let ink dry inside one of my treasured pens. When simply flushing with hot water won't clear them, I use this cleaning solution.Simply draw some solution into the pen as you normally would ink. Shake it around and then let sit for 5-10 minutes. Flush the pen out several times with warm water, and you are back to an evenly flowing pen.A good practice is to run warm water through the pen between fill ups. I often forget.J. Herbin Fountain Pen Cleaning Solution 15Ml via Amazon

For decades, Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singers has masterfully woven Prince lyrics and melodies into almost every live performance, frequently closing shows with the final strains of "Purple Rain." Dulli has name checked that album as being his favorite record of all time. Dig if you will the intense 2009 cover above of "When Doves Cry" recorded by Dulli's Twilight Singers and Prince's former lover/co-star Apollonia for a special 25th anniversary Purple Rain tribute produced by Spin magazine.From an interview with Dulli at The Quietus from 2014:

For years we've been storing leftover food and drinks in wide mouth mason jars sealed with plastic caps. It's inexpensive and convenient. A 12-pack of Ball 16oz Wide Mouth Mason Jars costs $8.47 on Amazon and an 8-pack of Ball Wide-Mouth Plastic Storage Caps costs $5.32. So, each container cost about $1.40.Carla stores cold brew coffee in them. When its time to drink one, she adds a little halfs and half, stirs it up and it's ready to consume.

If you haven't already been introduced to the coolness of the Raspberry Pi, then it's really about time to catch up to the rest of us tech tinkerers.For the uninitiated, the Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized, single-board micro-computer that’s been opening up all kinds of programming possibilities for the tech-savvy learner. And right now, you can get the latest model - the Pi 2 - and everything you need to get going in the Complete Pi 2 Starter Kit, available for just $115 in the Boing Boing Store.For such a tiny package, the Pi 2 packs some surprisingly powerful punch, including a Broadcom ARMv7 quad core processor (6x faster than the original Pi), 1GB of RAM and the compatibility to run lots of programs, apps...and basically do a lot more than you might expect.But where the Pi 2’s DIY attitude really shines is in its versatility, offering the perfect training ground for any computer hardware and coding experimentation you’ve wanted to try.In this package, you’ll also get the Pi 2’s Quick Starter Kit, including all the start-up accessories you’ll need like a power adapter, ethernet and HDMI cables and a Pi 2 enclosure. And just to make sure you're truly prepped, you’ll also receive five courses full of Pi background:

With the 18th O'Reilly Open Source convention approaching, Tim O'Reilly has written a stirring editorial on the value that inspires him about FLOSS: "to create more value than you capture." (more…)

Privacy International won a lawsuit forcing the UK government to publish thousands of pages of records on the use of "Bulk Personal Datasets" by the spy agencies GCHQ, MI5 and MI6. (more…)

The central bank of Bangladesh lost $81M in a digital heist whose perpetrators have not been caught, thanks in large part to the bank's decision to run its computers without a firewall, and to run networking with second-hand cheapie routers it sourced for $10 each. (more…)

The wealthiest one out of 1,000 US families -- the 0.1 percent -- comprise about 115,000 households whose net worth starts at $20M, and goes up and up from there, accounting for at least as much wealth as the poorest 90 percent of US households. (more…)

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Kentucky's tax-payer funded creationist amusement park is hiring, and all types of 'Christian' are welcome. Answers in Genesis, the park operator, plans to hire several hundred adherents who will be required to sign papers confirming they have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Kindly, the park won't discriminate against various flavors of Christianity!Somehow it is legal to use tax dollars for this.Via Christian Daily:

Donald J. Trump, Republican candidate for president, says that transgender people should use whatever bathrooms they like.

Mom loves you. I mean, you’d be nothing without her. And you don’t call or write her nearly as much as you should, do you? Are you feeling guilty yet? Well, you should...because no one will ever love you like your Mom. So for Mother’s Day show her you’re not the ungrateful, wayward child who never calls by showering her with an amazing spring floral assortment from The Bouqs Company. Right now, you can get a $50 site-wide credit for just $35 in the Boing Boing Store.Get to planning for Mom’s big day now (May 8, you slackers) and let Bouqs put together the finest spring blossoms around WITHOUT getting jammed up by florists hiking flower prices through the roof the week before the holiday.To put your mind at ease, Bouqs only gathers flowers from eco-friendly, sustainable farms and with a Bouqs.com purchase, you’ll be assured of getting an incredible assortment up to 10 days fresher than that stuff down at the corner florists.Did we mention that in addition to your savings, delivery from Bouqs is also free? And if by some crazy circumstance you don’t like what Mom receives, Bouqs will backs every purchase with their Bouq’s Company Happiness Guarantee. Just knowing a company has a happiness guarantee makes you feel happy doing business with them, right?Even if you’re not down with a Mother’s Day purchase, don’t forget all the spring birthdays, other holidays and just plain out-of-the-blue brownie points you’ll get sending a fantastic arrangement just because.Jump on board now and get your 30% off today...because Mom deserves this -- and you know it.

BB pal Dustin "UPSO" Hostetler posted evidence of this curious glitch that manifested while he was using his fourth generation Apple TV. A restart eliminated it, but Dustin says, "I wish it was an option! I'd keep it if I could!"

From Coachella 2008.

Here's the story of the lyrics, based on a poem that 19-year-old college student Leonard Lipton wrote in 1959 and popularized in Peter, Paul and Mary's classic 1963 song.

https://youtu.be/KJtfIa135x8Amazing entertainer Prince Rogers Nelson has passed away, at the age of 57.The Atlantic reports:

A couple of weeks ago I complained about buying 1.7 ounces of Teavana English breakfast tea for $9 ($5.20 per ounce). I wanted to try a cheap loose leaf English breakfast tea so I ordered a 32 ounce bag of Coffee Bean Direct English Breakfast Loose Leaf Tea on Amazon for $28 ($0.88 per ounce).I have been drinking it for a few days and I like it at least as much as the Teavana - strong and flavorful and not at all bitter. This two-pound bag is a bargain. At 6 grams per cup, it'll make 150 cups ($0.19 a cup).I'm sure I'm doing it wrong - but here is how I have been preparing it:10 ounces boiling water6 grams loose leaf teaSteep for 5 minutes.

Neil Cicierega took the four (!) Chipmunks movies, superimposed them upon one another, and slowed them down. If CGI remakes of cartoons can be seen as the pigs of our cartoon childhoods ushered into the rendering plant, this is the psychic slime left gluelike under the vats. [via]Previously: Chipmunk Christmas, slowed down to original speed

Epic Music Time is a website that plays only epic music. Other single-serving web radio sites include jazzandrain.com, which plays jazz and the sound of rain, and relaxingbeats.com, which plays Industrial Pornogrind Metal. Just kidding. It actually plays relaxing beats.

Tired of bad publicity? Terrified of the social media snarls that consume unwary brands daily? Your company needs Blandly, a full-service media agency that can bury you in a colorless mush of vacuous positivity, thereby guaranteeing your disappearance from the public imagination.