I Can't Believe It's Not Buddha flags and explains the many misquotes attributed to the sage. It's collected and maintained by Bodhipaksa, a Buddhist author since 1982 and a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order.

Often shared as a map of Europe at midnight from the International Space Station (or with some other cosy story) this is actually a composite produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revealing a decade in European economic development and decline.

I don't care about too many people's opinions, in this year's democratic primary, but Tom Hayden is a politician I stop and listen to.Hayden has been a radical activist, an anti-war protestor, California State Assemblyman, and State Senator, as well as a prolific author. While Hayden has written a number of books, he's best known as the author of the Port Huron Statement, organizing the Students for a Democratic Society, and was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy and incitement to riot at the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention.Today Tom explains why he is changing his vote from Bernie Sanders to Hillary Clinton.Here is an excerpt:

"Today, we commit to this next great leap into the cosmos," Stephen Hawking said today in New York. "Because we are human, and our nature is to fly."(more…)

Business or pleasure? When you’re the right kind of traveler, it’s always the latter. Staying organized helps you relax, even if you are on the road for work. If it’s a vacation, you don’t want to spend half the time searching through a messy duffle to find that last sock, and if it’s business, you definitely don’t want to dig around down there for that pair of underwear you swore you packed. For 26% off you can take a load off with this easy travel bag that makes finding your clothes and accessories a breeze. For the first time, traveling to your closet will feel like a staycation.Everything you need fits right in here, categorized neatly among its mesh pockets and handy zippered areas. Simply untie, unfurl and hang it up anywhere to have your personal closet right there in your hotel room. All your clothes and knick nacks are right at eye level so you don’t have to scrounge around. It even acts as a portable wardrobe with the included hanger, so your shirts won’t get wrinkled. It’s just as easy on the going as the coming, because all you do is unhook again, roll up and roll out.Hitting up Seattle? Maine? Since this is made from waterproof nylon you’re totally cool to swing by places that might get you a little wet with rain or snow. It’s lightweight too and you can carry it by itself or clip it to a backpack and either way it won’t weigh you down. Save 26% on this travel essential today and never stress again about being away from your closet.Get 26% Off the Rolo Travel Bag in the Boing Boing Store[embed]https://youtu.be/tB_3rAT9zdU[/embed]

There are many conspiracy theories about the source of the Panama Papers leak. One of the more prominent theories today blames the CIA. Bradley Birkenfeld is “the most significant financial whistleblower of all time,” and he has opinions about who's responsible for leaking the Panama Papers rattling financial and political power centers around the world.(more…)

“Hey, Obama,” a weird letter from North Korea to the President of the United States opens, according to a translation offered by the Associated Press. “I know you have a lot on your mind these days … I’ve decided to give you a little advice.”(more…)

“Food Warriors,” the wonderful street food video series created by Rafi Kam, Dallas Penn, and Casimir Nozkowski, just published a wonderful new episode focused on the cheap eats of Rockaway Beach and Far Rockaway.(more…)

Martin Gardner wrote Aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight and Aha! Insight in the early 1980s and I love them both. Both books have excellent brain teasers with charming illustrations. They are both out of print, which is criminal, but Amazon has used copies for $0.01 (plus $3.99 s&h).

The Trojan condom Dash button costs $4.99, but you receive a $4.99 credit after your first press, so it's actually free!Even if you don't need condoms, you can hack Dash buttons and use them for other things.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.We live in a world of backgrounded miracles, entire worlds of wonder and beauty that we either can’t see or stopped noticing a long time ago. Look closely at the wings of a fly on your window sill, stare into a bisected piece of fruit, or look carefully at a growth of mold on a dish. Millions of such micro worlds surround us, breathtaking examples of design, engineering, and evolutionary artistry. When we bother to look.Feathers is a photographic examination of one such overlooked natural wonder, the lowly bird feather. A single bird has thousands of feathers, of different types, and there are some ten-thousand species of birds. Feathers takes a broad view of the evolution of the bird and its feathers while focusing its lens on the plumage of 75 or so notable species. Each species gets a few pages, with one or two impressively photographed feather close-ups and a brief explanatory text.This book reminded me a lot of Rose Lynn Fisher’s BEE (which I loved). Both books are minimal in content and feel, but that only helps to narrow and maintain your focus on the world under examination. The text in Feathers doesn’t try to tell you everything about the species of the bird and feather that you’re looking at, but the bits of fascinating science it does contain are probably far more memorable. Like BEE, I felt like I got to peer into a world I don’t normally see and came away greatly enriched by the experience. You can’t really ask for more from a book.– Gareth Branwyn

Baker/cookbook author Heather Baird was so inspired by a book of photos from the Hubble space telescope that she created a "Black Velvet Nebula Cake" that is studded with edible white confetti sprinkles to create a starscape that shoots right through the whole cross-section, while the surface is intricately painted with gorgeous nebulae made from tinted edible gels. (more…)

I was wondering how this "swing thing" kept going. I had to make the video full screen to see the power source. Very cool!

Journalist Alejandro Alvarez took this striking photo of a campaign finance reform activist being arrested at a Democracy Spring demonstration at the US Capitol yesterday.(more…)

Dictionary.com set themselves up by posting the above photo with a quote from Abigail Reynold's 2008 novel, Pemberley by the SeaMerriam-Webster was quick to attack its rival:

Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart fortune, donated $353,400 to Hillary Clinton's "Victory Fund" and another $25,000 to the Ready for Hillary PAC. (more…)

Chariot for Women is a new woman-only rideshare service launched by a former Uber driver who had a bad run-in with a hulking drunk dude that made him realize how scary things must be for woman riders and drivers both. (more…)

https://youtu.be/RRJBs3pjF90A string of hoax calls to Burger King restaurants had employees smash windows to prevent the premises from "exploding," and the fast-food chain is having to buy a lot of glass as a result.

At least 400 people were arrested at a Democracy Spring demonstration at the US Capitol yesterday. The protesters were calling for controls on the influence of big money over politics. (more…)

The headline figure of a $5B settlement that Goldman will have to pay after admitting to the toxic-asset fraud that led to the global economic collapse is just window-dressing: in the fine print are exemptions and giveaways that could cut that number in half. (more…)

What do you do if you're a powerful, belligerent, racist drunk who's used to getting your own way, and you're visiting Prohibition-wracked America? (more…)

We've written often about how dreadful and dangerous cheapo third-party power supplies and adapters get, but the Swees QY08-05010 hub takes the cake: it supplies full mains power over USB. Clive Mitchell writes:

When identical twins from Russia tried a faceswapping app, the results were neither comically bad nor perfectly seamless. Instead, we get a raw look at the ever-so-uncanny world of machine vision, with its subtly unsettling glitches, wobbles and warps.

The World Wide Web Consortium, once the world's most trusted source of open standards, is helping Comcast make a DRM standard designed to give studios a veto over the legal use of their programming -- something that would have prevented the cable industry from ever coming into being. (more…)

No one at Goldman Sachs will go to jail despite the company's world-destroying, multi-billion-dollar frauds that culminated in its unloading billions' worth of worthless mortgage-backed securities on its customers just before the crash. (more…)

Since the International Modern Media Institute was founded in 2011 it has been an independent watchdog and advocacy group working to promote and protect freedom of expression and freedom of information.The Icelandic Parliament resolved unanimously to make Iceland a Safe Haven for freedom of expression and freedom of information. These intended legal protections promote whistleblowing, journalism and online rights. It is local in scope but global in impact.Over the last week the world has witnessed the revelations of the Panama Papers making public the offshore dealings of politicians and business leaders. Offshore tax havens serve two functions; to avoid tax and to hide ownership. Already, in Iceland, the Prime Minister has been forced to resign as a consequence of these reports which unveiled his offshore dealings.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Q61ulxjVMThe Panama Papers were the result of a whistleblower coming forth with information and a huge team of investigative journalists working to verify data and coordinating its reporting. The safe haven initiative aims to encourage and promote governmental transparency, holding power to account, empowering citizens and thereby democracy.IMMI conducts legal research, advocates for legislative reform and is an active participant in working groups established to implement a legislative framework in Iceland where journalism and online rights are protected and supported. This includes drafting and implementing an act on whistleblower protection, fighting to remove data retention from Icelandic law, drafting and promoting legislation on the limited liability of intermediaries and a host of other measures.In order to protect democracy, real and meaningful democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of information must to be protected, ensuring access to information and freedom of the media.To support IMMI you can donate to the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign: Switzerland of Bits. And help us gain exposure by sharing our campaign. Your support is vital!Like IMMI on Facebook

This week on HOME: Stories From L.A.:It looks like a Hopper painting plunked incongruously down on a busy commercial street in West Los Angeles — The Apple Pan, home to freshly-baked pies and what hamburger aficionado George Motz says may be the best burger in America. But the affection Angelenos have for The Apple Pan only starts with the food. It’s an oasis, a rock, a spot out of time, essentially unchanged since the day it opened in 1947. It may not be the kind of place where everybody knows your name, but if you’ve been going there for a long time, as it seems like most of its customers have, it is the kind of place where the countermen most likely know your order. Warmth, familiarity, stability in a rapidly-changing landscape… aren’t these some of the things that make a place a home?With this episode HOME wraps up its second season. We'll be back in June with an all-new season; subscribe now and you won't miss a thing.Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Email | RSS

Jake Bible's Z-Burbia series has come a long way from its start in the suburbs of Whispering Pines. Sisters of the Apocalypse is the seventh installment, and focuses on Elsbeth, his ass-kicking female protagonist, and her lethal sisters.Z-burbia started out as the story of a small gated community, just trying to get by in the zombie apocalypse. Terrible, and often hilarious things happen, in this slapstick horror. The community has destroyed the presumptive new government of the United States, survived cannibal hoards, and made their way to a new refuge in Colorado. This seventh novel in Bible's series focuses on Elsbeth Stanford, the daughter of one of the richest women in America before the zombies, and the rest of her very odd private school class.Elsbeth is one of the most interesting characters in this series. She is tough, slightly brain damaged from a fall, and fiercely loyal. Bible has certainly found a way to keep this series pumping along.Z-Burbia 7: Sisters of the Apocalypse via AmazonPreviously on Boing Boing:Z Burbia, a novel by Jake Bible

You know you need a VPN. These days, that’s a given. Guarding your online information and activities from the avalanche of forces that could do you cyber-harm is as essential as knowing where to find your computer’s power button.For the uninitiated, VPNs (virtual private networks) log you into that provider’s dedicated server network and reroutes all your online actions, providing a protected tunnel for all your internet traffic. This shields your IP address and critical connection information from thieves who might use that data to hack your system or from the prying eyes of anyone who may want to know where you’ve been or what you’ve been doing across the internet.And in case you haven’t noticed, there are a ton of VPN service options available. In most cases, however, it’s virtually impossible to distinguish one of these providers from another if you don’t know what to look for. So who’s got the most bang for your buck? We’ve assembled this quick reference guide to some of the best VPN deals on the web today...so you’ve got no excuse not to button up your online security right now.Private Internet AccessRegular Price: $166 for a two-year subscriptionTHE DEAL: $59.95 (63% Off)Top Feature: No logs, high-strength encryptionPrivate Internet Access is one of the leaders in the crowded VPN field...with good reason. PIA has made their name on a privacy-first philosophy, touting they keep absolutely no logs of any user’s online activity. Stack that on top of their advanced encryption methods and their vast 3,300-server, 31-region international network of servers and it’s easy to see why a two-year subscription at 63% off is an amazingly attractive offer.ZenVPNRegular Price: $250 for a five-year subscriptionTHE DEAL: $25 (90% Off)Top Feature: Easy to use interfaceVPNs can be tricky to configure...which is why ZenVPN gets big points for its ease of use. ZenVPN users can simply download the program, run it and you’re basically up and protected -- with zero configuration hassle. ZenVPN also sports interruption-free operation and top-notch connectivity over its 32-location global network. And at $5 a year for the next five years, it’s crazy affordable as well.proXPN VPNRegular Price: $375 for a premium lifetime subscriptionTHE DEAL: $39 (89% Off)Top Feature: Great price; Unlimited bandwidthFor many VPNs, the benefits of offering iron-clad security are negated by the cripplingly slow connection speeds that come with them. If your connection is barely faster than your Commodore 64 days, what’s the point? That’s why proXPN provides users with unlimited bandwidth across their global network, assuring fast speeds and minimal slowdowns to interfere with your activities. At 89% off its regular price, $39 is another super-attractive price for the term of the deal.VPNGhostRegular Price: $88 for a lifetime subscriptionTHE DEAL: $25 (71% Off)Top Feature: Great priceWith VPNGhost, you’re three simple steps away from completely anonymous online activity. VPNGhost users get blazing fast 1 Gbps uplink connections, support for OpenVPN protocols, safety in public hotspot -- and an even lower, super-low all-inclusive subscription price of just $25. That’s a number that’s hard to beat with being flat-out free.GetflixRegular Price: $855 for a lifetime subscriptionTHE DEAL: $59 (93% Off)Top Feature: Streaming capabilities...no matter where you areNothing is a bigger bandwidth hog than streaming video...so the service that practically trumpets video on demand in its very name better be up to the task. Fortunately, Getflix fits the bill, offering over 50 VPN nodes, simple Smart DNS technology and international geo-locking capabilities that’ll open up the program vaults of more than 100 streaming channels around the world. At $59, Getflix is a solid choice for any VPN shopper with a serious love for online video viewing.

Like many other corporations, Airbnb and Uber use offshore shell companies to avoid taxes. The companies aren't profitable yet, but they have set themselves up to avoid taxes once they become profitable.

"All Prior Art is a project attempting to algorithmically create and publicly publish all possible new prior art, thereby making the published concepts not patent-able."So far, the project has generated 1,660,000 inventions.

If you send a smiling emoji to your friend, it might appear as a grimace on their device.Hannah Miller, a third-year Ph.D. student in the GroupLens research lab at the University of Minnesota, and her colleagues are publishing a study that found that the "problem can cause people to misinterpret the emotion and the meaning of emoji-based communication, in some cases quite significantly."

https://youtu.be/3IQ2I-P8UcwValerie Taylor has visited a spotted moray eel for years, and the pair have become "great friends."[via]

Chock-A-Block was a computer-themed educational TV show for young children that was shown on the BBC in 1981. What I still love about it is that it's an early example of retrocomputing nostalgia, depicting a room-sized magnetic-tape mainframe to youngsters who owned their own ZX81s.Chock-A-Block was surreal and a bit druggy, like a lot of British kids' TV. It uttered strangely satisfying noises when its strangely satisfying buttons are pressed and strangely satisfying media are inserted. This show is to blame for my love of computers, but also for my love of the strange relationship we have with old technology, and also my love of being high. (more…)

A digital mapping company called MaxMind offers an "IP geolocation" service that provides computer users' geographical locations. When MaxMind doesn't know a user's location, it spits out a default address that is at the approximate geographical center of the continental US. It is the front yard of a farmhouse near Wichita, Kansas. For the last fourteen years, MaxMind's database has listed 600 million IP addresses at this farmhouse. As a result, the people who live there receive a non-stop barrage of harassment.

Day to day, most of us don’t give much thought to our vision. We see, and life goes on.But for some it doesn’t work that way, and you can’t explain that to an infant who suffers from one of the various diseases that might make the world blurry and distorted. He only senses what he sees, which may be mush.So it was a special day indeed for Leopold Reppond, age four months, and suffering from oculocutaneous albinism, when his doctors placed a very specially made pair of glasses on him.He seems puzzled, smiles ever so fleetingly, then looks down at his right hand. He pauses, studies it, and sees his fingers clearly for the first time.Then Leopold’s mother starts cooing and vocalizing in the way that only mothers can, with her face close to his. It takes a few moments, but then he lifts his head and focuses on her face and smiles broadly as if he has been born anew.https://youtu.be/nqkKqnGQuD8His father David posted a video of the event on Facebook on April 3, and it was then picked up by HuffPost.I remember sitting in my high chair, before I could speak (must have been age 1 or just past), and playing with the blue and pink beads on a metal rod that ran across the wood, sliding them back and forth. The image is so clear in my mind, and thanks to his doctors, now Leopold will have a chance to capture similar memories.Watch the video again: when he finally realizes he can clearly see the smile on his mother’s face, in that moment his smile elevates all of humanity and lifts the world.[via][via]

Radiooooo lets you pick a decade and a country, and will dispense popular music created then and there. (Note the "weird" option, disabled by default.) Thanks to this, I rediscovered Blue Boy's Remember Me (UK, 1990s, fast, weird), which remixes Marlena Shaw's Woman of the Ghetto into something very different.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKKNPLowteYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMOGy3MXQSA

Behold the John Whitney Music Box, a realization in music of the motion graphic concepts of John Whitney. The animation and audio are by Jim Bumgardner, who first developed the web app 10 years ago.

The next installment in the SF in SF reading series is a reading by Peter "Last Unicorn" Beagle and Carter Scholz, hosted by Terry Bisson, on April 17: it's $10 at the door, at the American Bookbinders Museum.

At a pizza shop in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Melissa Tonkin spotted some dogs left in a car. But they did not need her assistance; one had already figured out what the horn was and was only to happy to alert passers-by. [via]

Adding "cyber-" to any initiative is a sure-fire budget- and approval-winner, at least in the military industrial complex. If you're struggling to figure out what to use on your opening slide, here's a handy crib-sheet. (more…)

They're a mere $110 from Opposuits, which is a positive bargain, espeically when you contemplate just how much daily use you can get out of it. (via Crazy Abalone)

The Panama Papers — a massive cache of 11.5 million records leaked from the law firm Mossack Fonseca — reveal that several heads of state have been sheltering their personal wealth in offshore accounts to evade taxes. This is not surprising, as dictators are known for draining public coffers and hoarding the ill-gotten funds in secret accounts. What’s more disturbing is learning that well-known global businesses and civic leaders have been doing the same thing for decades, and getting away with it.Mossack Fonseca specializes in setting up untraceable shell companies. There’s nothing overtly illegal about them, but they’re often used by political and financial elites to hide assets, dodge taxes, and launder money. Creating shell companies is a big business, and Mossack Fonseca is just one of many firms that do it. FACT (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency) Coalition says shell companies house up to $21 trillion globally. (By way of comparison, the US gross domestic product for 2015 was $18 trillion.)Too Big to Jail

The modern university offers no stable employment for scholars, and ballooning, secure, long-term employment for a gigantic, top-heavy cohort of administrators who know little about scholarship and scholarly endeavors. (more…)

Vote for your favorite "Creation" and "Creator." (Disclosure: I'm a volunteer on this year's jury) (via IO9)

The Atlantic had the excellent idea of commissioning Sarah Jeong, one of the most astute technology commentators on the Internet (previously), to write a series of articles about the social implications of technological change: first up is an excellent, thoughtful, thorough story on the ways that the "cashless society" is being designed to force all transactions through a small number of bottlenecks that states can use to control behavior and censor unpopular political views. (more…)

The Boston Globe's front page today is a piece of design fiction that offers a glimpse of the first days of a Trump presidency, with headlines like "DEPORTATIONS TO BEGIN: President Trump calls for tripling of ICE force; riots continue"; "Curfews extended in multiple cities"; "Markets sink as trade war looms"; "US soldiers refuse orders to kill ISIS families"; and many sly digs, including the news that "NASA engineers halted the launch of an unmanned probe amid fears that its new gold leaf trim would interfere with radio communications." (more…)

The Hollywood Reporter arranged for a sit-down between Bernie Sanders and Spike Lee (who recently spoke for Sanders at a rally in the South Bronx) and the two talked (MP3) about the lay of the electoral land. (more…)

Admit it -- you’ve probably been sleeping on that same ratty, old, broken-down, ready-for-the-dump mattress that you’ve been crashing on for years. It probably should have been replaced during a previous presidential administration, but buying a new mattress is expensive and usually a big hassle.So wouldn’t it be easier if your friends at Boing Boing just went ahead and gave you a brand-new Casper mattress and a set of Parachute Home sheets -- absolutely free? That dream bed makeover is your prize if you’re the one lucky winner in our Casper Mattress and Parachute Sheets Giveaway.With the win, you get to pick your favorite top-of-the-line, award-winning Casper high-density memory foam mattress in any size as well as a deluxe set of sheets to go with it, courtesy of the fine people at Parachute.It’s a prize worth over $1,200...and considering a good night’s sleep is basically priceless, this prize may end up being the greatest thing that ever happened to you. Well...maybe not THAT great, but it could be close.Enter to win in the Boing Boing Store now!