Tony from the Starshipsofa podcast writes, "This week I talk (MP3) to freelance science journalist Mark Zastrow about his visit to a controversial Korean lab, led by Woosuk Hwang who is cloning puppy dogs." (more…)

Scarfolk is a fictional English horror-town stuck in a perpetual loop, from 1970-1980, from which beautifully weathered artifacts escape onto our modern Web. (more…)

Javier Arcos lives in Madrid, where he scouts junk to turn into some of the sweetest, snazziest junkbots I've ever seen (and I've seen a few). (more…)

Daniel Holland made the striking observation that if you faceswap The X-Files' Scully and Mulder, you get a synthpop duo. (more…)

The intensifying legal battle between Apple and the Government of the United States of America is blowing my mind. The legal briefs coming out of Cupertino are awesome reading for those of us who care about silly stuff like freedom and liberty and iPhones. Here are some of the excerpts everyone was talking about on Twitter today.(more…)

Thrashed by Donald Trump in today's Florida GOP primary election, Marco Rubio is quitting the race to be the party's pick to run for President. The NYT reports that his youth did him in.

I'm working on a campaign with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to document and change the way DRM stuff -- ebooks, music, videos, games, and devices -- are marketed and sold, and I need your help! (more…)

California Governor Jerry Brown signaled today that the people of California would not take a Trump Presidency lightly.(more…)

The Daily Dot got a copy of the six-page, unenforceable, flaming pile of shit that Donald Trump's campaign revealed to prospective volunteers on Saturday. Even by trumpian standards, it's a conscience-shocker. (more…)

Iconic action hero Indiana Jones will be returning to the silver screen, portrayed once again by Harrison Ford and directed by Stephen Spielberg. The movie is set to release in 2019.Raiders of the Lost Ark is perhaps one of my favorite films, ranking up there with Das Boot. The rest of the franchise, with the Last Crusade as a near bright spot, has been junk.

US Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) introduced a House resolution to recognize magic as a "rare and valuable art form and national treasure." Yesterday, the bill (H.Res.642) was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Here is the Resolution of H.Res.642:

David Proctor writes, "I'm a Master's candidate at Minot State University doing research for a thesis on the Maker Community. Specifically I am trying to understand what motivates people to make and how the community defines itself. To that end I have created a short 7 question questionnaire that I need your help with. The questionnaire is here. (more…)

Laurie Penny's latest, sacrelicious short story on Tor.com, "Your Orisons May Be Recorded," is a hilarious thought experiment about the working conditions for the angels who answer customer service prayers from dissatisfied humans. (more…)

In response to the FBI's attack on Apple's use of encryption-based security methods, some of the biggest names in technology are reported to be planning an expanded use of encryption for user data that passes through, or is stored on, their products and services.(more…)

Go back to school. Think about those days of lounging on the quad, reading a book while laying on your stomach in the sunshine, then grabbing coffee between study sessions and waltzing to class in a beautiful old building. Those were the days. Now, minus the sunny quad, you can revisit the college glory years by taking these Premium Tech courses for 89% off. Taught by Silicon Valley thought leaders, they’ll get you up to speed on the most important tech topics of our time so that you can monetize those big brain cells already.With 90 ebooks and over 200 hours of lectures, you’ll be mastering plenty of material to kickstart your tech career. Whether you’re a total tech newbie or already a programming pro, these courses will immerse you in new coding frameworks like Foundation, Zend, Backbone and languages like HTML, CSS, Java, Ruby and more. They’ll also walk you through the fundamentals of project management, WordPress, Git, content strategy and other practical, hands-on business skills to augment your tech savvy.New screencasts are released every week so you’ll never run out of material with this lifetime subscription. These new workplace skillsets and coding languages will make you super eligible for a new job or big raise at your current gig. For 89% off, all of this coursework is yours for life, and you can learn at your own pace, on your own time. Check out the link below for more details.Take 89% Off a Lifetime Subscription to SitePoint Premium in the Boing Boing Store.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.In 1982 John Belushi died from an overdose in a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont when he was 33 years old. At his memorial service, his friend and collaborator, Dan Akroyd, said Belushi was “a brilliant performer, writer, tactician, business strategist...a good man – and a bad boy.” Released today, this graphic novel biography called Belushi: On a Mission from God, written and illustrated by two Italian truefans of Belushi, presents us with the story of a man whose level of self-destructive behavior moved in lockstep with his rapid rise to international superstardom. Author Schiavone doesn’t bother explaining why Belushi abused drugs when he had everything else going for him – because the why is not especially interesting. “Real greatness gives license for real indulgence,” explained Ackroyd at the memorial service, “whether it's as a reward, as therapy or as sanctuary.” This is true for many great entertainers, and Schiavone wisely chose not to devote space exploring this aspect of Belushi’s life, choosing instead to focus on what made the comedian unique – his brand of humor that was fresh and absurd, yet comforting and deeply resonant at the same time. Manera’s fine-lined pen and ink illustrations capture the essence of Belushi and his manic short life.

NASA, the Japan Meteorological Agency and other climate research groups report that February was the planet's warmest seasonally adjusted month on record. Last month was also the world's most unusually warm month since 1880, when instrument records began.Gavin Schmidt at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who isn't one for getting too excited over things, had only one word for this significant and concerning data milestone: "Wow."Mashable's listicle is right. The numbers are shocking. The February 2016 climate records are notable for the unusual heat more than any other recorded month in our history.Here's a good related piece about the challenge of connecting the climate change dots to specific extreme weather events, like a major hurricane or drought.

Today Phil Lesh celebrates his 76th birthday! Happy birthday!

ILM has shares 45 concept illustrations from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. What secrets will they share? THE FORCE AWAKENS PORTFOLIO via ILM

Famed author JK Rowling has been in the news of late. Her recently released History of Magic in North America stumbles over a number of insensitive cultural hot points, not least of which is her characterization of Native Americans.Simon Moya-Smith, culture editor at Indian Country Today, explains why the conversation is important, but he couldn't care less about JK Rowling's fiction, because it is fiction. Moya-Smith reminds us that our public school textbooks spread deeper lies.From ICTMN:

Disney has announced a series of three monthly subscription loot crates from the Haunted Mansion, released by the "Ghost Relations Department." (more…)

Gris Grimly, author/illustrator of some wicked nursery rhymes, created this fantastic print for our friends at Collector's Shangri-La.You can meet Mr. Grimly, and I suspect Collector's Shangri-La's curator, Kevin Segall, at WonderCon Los Angeles, Friday March 25 1-2pm.

Stanford engineers demonstrated how six tiny microTug robots -- with gripping, adhesive feet inspired by geckos -- can work together to pull a 4,000 pound car on polished concrete, albeit very very slowly.The researchers from Stanford's Biomimetics & Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory published their work on the microTug bots in the current issue of the journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

In the late 2020s, NASA plans to send a probe to Jupiter's moon Europa to determine if there's oceanic life beneath its crust. Before then, Draper Laboratory hopes that its novel sensor system of CubeSats, satellites smaller than a shoebox, and postage-stamp size sensors, called ChipSats, could be the basis of a complementary $10 million mission to inform the big 2020 effort, expected to cost $2 billion. Draper's idea is that CubeSats could be delivered to Europa's orbit to identify areas on the moon with the thinnest ice. As data comes in about what's below, the CubeSats would then dump hundreds of the tiny ChipSats onto the moon's surface. Those ChipSats would then identify the best location for the later NASA probe to penetrate the surface. (Insert requisite "2010: Odyssey Two" reference here.) From Draper Laboratory, developers of the system:

Silicon Valley is all its "we can save the world" mindset when it comes to education, income inequality, and green tech. But where is the Bay Area's tech industry when it comes to gun violence? Over at Backchannel, Scott Rosenberg writes about the technology and sociopolitical challenges in the efforts to build a "smart" gun. From Backchannel:

Conservative organ The National Review published a scathing attack on poor white communities [paywall], part of its general disgust at Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's support base. If you ever wanted to understand the enraged contempt in which conservatives hold the poor — especially now many of them are voting for Trump instead of them — here's a fabulous primer!(more…)

James Gleick, the science writer who established himself with classics like Chaos: Making a New Science but whose later books, like the important and brilliant The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood were even better, has announced his next book: Time Travel, due on Sept 27. (more…)

David "Utopia of Rules" Graeber (previously) is in magnificent full throat in a long essay in the Baffler about the long-overdue threat to UK's greatest export: security for the world's ultra-wealthy arising from the complete defeat of the working class. (more…)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says his nation will soon conduct a nuclear warhead test by launching ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads as a test, the official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.(more…)

https://youtu.be/qDjts_FgKfwThe Orange County Weekly reports that the O.C. District Attorney's office (OCDA) has filed charges against three of the police officers who were seen in a widely-shared surveillance video munching what viewers presumed to be marijuana-infused edibles. The munchies mysteriously hit the officers right in the middle of a May 26, 2015 raid on Sky High Holistic, a medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana, CA.(more…)

The chief health and safety officer of the NFL today acknowledged a connection between football-related head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), in what is the first time any senior football league official has said anything about the link between football and the devastating brain disease that affects so many who play the game.(more…)

Last month, an anonymous work-colleague at Alberta's Party City sent's Degas Sikorski a homophobic "Valentine" that he posted last week. (more…)

For the past year or so, I've been paying for and using a VPN service called VPN Unlimited. I use it on my Macbook Air and my iPhone. I've never experienced any downtime with it, and it seems to be fast. The company claims not to keep logs of websites their customers visit.Our partners at Stack Commerce are offering a lifetime subscription to the VPN Unlimited through the Boing Boing shop for $39. Should you get it? I don't know. Quite a few readers have been critical of the service. Here's one BBS thread, and here's another.I would love to hear recommendations for other VPN services, and will switch over if I learn about a better service as long as the price seems reasonable.

I want the playlist for this weird video.(more…)

Cruise Loch Ness has just commissioned construction of a £1.4 million custom catamaran that can take more than 200 passengers on a quest for Nessie. According to the company, purchase of the new vessel was driven by a big, er, swell in Chinese tourists at Loch Ness. From The Scotsman:

Portland's incomparable Ready Frenzy is offering six postcards from Sean Tejaratchi's acerbically brilliant Liartown, USA (previously). One dollar each (cheap!). (more…)

https://youtu.be/qhriETwPf10A European-Russian spacecraft headed out from our humble little planet to space today, in search for life on Mars.(more…)

Vladimir Putin says Russian troops will begin withdrawing from Syria starting Tuesday, the day which marks 5 years since the start of Syria's bloody civil war. Putin's pledge is a move to help advance U.N.-brokered peace talks that resumed today.(more…)

North Korea has responded to the resignation of high-profile staff at Breitbart and the site's spiteful (and quickly-deleted) response.

From Vox:

On Thursday (3/17), the pioneering artists from San Francisco's contemporary dance company ODC will launch their 2016 season with a stunning array of world premiere pieces at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts! See video teasers above and below. Tickets available here. I've seen many ODC performances over the years and the commonality between them is that they are all sublime. This Thursday is the first ever performance of ODC founder/artist director Brenda Way's "Walk Back the Cat," featuring an original score commissioned and performed by Paul Dresher, with visuals by RJ Muna and Ian Winters."'Walk Back the Cat,' a metaphor for retracing the complex backstory of an event, explores the skeleton of the creative process," Way says. "How does context affect meaning in dance? Developing from pure movement ideas into a dramatic scenario, the work is conceived as a kind of choreographic puzzle, which ultimately comes together in a scenario inspired by Thomas Hart Benton’s muscular and vital murals of American City Life in the 1930s."The other pieces in the 2016 season include:* KT Nelson’s new work, "Going Solo," for the exceptional Private Freeman* Reprise of Nelson’s explosive 2015 hit, "Dead Reckoning"* Kimi Okada’s "humorous I look vacantly at the Pacific…though regret"* An unprecedented co-commission from NY choreographer Kate Weare who brings her fiery movement to the ODC dancers with the world premiere of "Giant"ODC/Dance Downtown (March 17-27)"Dead Reckoning":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41cZe1mjtc0"I look vacantly at the Pacific... though regret":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_39e9EyrBs&

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bnxgN3_8fUKellogg cereals are investigating a video posted online that purports to show an assembly-line worker pissing on an assembly line. The good news, Kellogg reports, is that it happened way back in 2014, so there's little danger of it still being on the shelves.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.I love the tidbits of history, the unique visual style, the subtle humor, and the breadth of coverage in Timeline: A Visual History of Our World. On each 10x29-inch page spread are whimsical curved text blocks filled with simply written – yet intriguing – historical facts. And each spread addresses one era of time. The book, which targets children 7 to 12-years old, starts with The Beginning of Life and includes a miniature image-based timeline of stromatolites, trilobites, ammonites and more. The author offers spreads dedicated to the major geological periods, as well as more brief and recent timespans. Our current decade is the last timeline covered, concluding with “As time goes by. . .” along with a person spreading black paint across the page.The illustrations are fabulous. Goes uses a minimalist color palette that differs for each of his timelines. The Dinosaurs are on a wheat-toned page with black silhouettes accented by red and gold. The Ming Dynasty appears on a dusty rose background with dark pink and white accents, again using black as the major illustrative color. Goes' technique of black with two accent colors artfully draws the eye to visual vignettes on the page, while the curving text leads you to the next image. Wonderful. Engaging. Amusing.This book makes for great conversational fodder. Did you know that, according to the page spread on 18th Century in Europe, “Mont Blanc was called Mon Maudit, or ‘cursed mountain,’ until the Enlightenment, when people stopped believing in curses”? The 1960s spread covers the social protest movements of the decade, referring to incidents from around the globe. One of the most interesting spreads to me was Explorers from All Periods, mostly because I love learning about specific people. China had an ambassador, Zhang Qian, in the 2nd Century BC – who knew that there were ambassadors that long ago? I am not a history buff, yet I continually enjoy perusing Timeline: A Visual History of Our World. – Lora Poser-Brown

Amos Dudley, a broke undergrad, casted a mold of his teeth using "cheap alginate powder, Permastone, and a 3d printed impression tray," then 3D printed and vacuformed a series of alingment trays for a fraction of what it would have cost to get name-brand invisaligns. (more…)

We've posted about the world's best animal before:

Identical twins Bridgette and Paula Powers think of themselves as a single person.Frank Robson profiled them for the Sydney Morning Herald:

Michael Geist sez, "For the past two and a half months, I have been writing a daily series on the trouble with the Trans Pacific Partnership. The 50 part series wrapped up today with the case against ratifying the TPP. While the focus is on Canadian issues, the series hits on problems that all 12 countries face: unbalanced intellectual property rules, privacy risks, dangers to the Internet and technology, cultural and health regulation, and investor-state settlement rules that could cost countries billions of dollars." (more…)

Bassist Iggy Jackson-Cohen is a genius. HuffPo made the source supercut.

John Oliver continues to deliver the best comedy tech analysis in the business, with an epic rant/explainer that delves into Apple vs FBI and the new crypto wars with scathing wit and deep, technical truth that's made miraculously accessible to a general audience. (more…)