After Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields was beaten up by one of Donald Trump's aides while covering a Florida campaign event, the company's senior management sided with Trump, ordering staff to cease communicating about their colleague's treatment. (more…)

Pirate Party MP Birgitta Jonsdottir has long sat in the Icelandic parliament, later joined by two more MPs, being part of the reform movement that has repudiated the Icelandic establishment, which helped drive the planet to the brink of ruin through corrupt banking practices. (more…)

The 2016 Car Hacker's Handbook expands on the hugely successful 2014 edition, in which the Open Garages movement boiled down all they'd learned running makerspaces for people interested in understanding, improving, penetration testing and security-hardening modern cars, which are computers encrusted in tons of metal that you strap your body into.No Starch Press has taken on the task of turning The Car Hacker's Handbook into a beautifully produced, professional book, in a new edition that builds on the original, vastly expanding the material while simultaneously improving the organization and updating it to encompass the otherwise-bewildering array of new developments in car automation and hacking.Author Craig Smith founded Open Garages and now has years of experience with community development of tools and practices for investigating how manufacturers are adding computers to cars, the mistakes they're making, and the opportunities they're creating.The Handbook is an excellent mix of general background on how to do threat-modelling, penetration testing, reverse engineering, etc, and highly specific code examples, model numbers, recipes and advice on how to put a car up on a bench, figure out how it works, figure out how to make it do cool things the manufacturer never intended, and figure out how to understand the risks you face from people doing the same thing without your best interests at heart.A lot of the advice is theoretical, but there are a bunch of highly practical projects, from improving and customizing your in-car satnav and entertainment system to tuning your engine performance. Smith includes sourcecode and model-numbers for hardware you can use to practice your car-hacking skills without bricking your car.The end of the book asks readers to contemplate the ways that attackers could abuse systems -- for example, cars can be fingerprinted by data from their (often always-on) tire-pressure sensors and persistently identified. Who needs Stingrays? (more…)

Fast-talking, doodling math genius Vi Hart (previously) really hates Pi Day, and every year, she celebrates her loathing with a fresh video pooping on your 3/14 parade. (more…)

Mark Marino writes, "Kick your Norton Anthology to the curb, and check out the latest collection of digitally born literature. Published by the Electronic Literature Organization, the collection contains 114 works from 26 countries in 12 languages. The Electronic Literature Collection, vol. 3 offers a glimpse at just how wide the world of digital literature has become, including a diverse array of works, from Twitter bots to poem generators to Twine tales to poetic apps. (more…)

Two things are inevitable: death and taxes. Unless, of course, you are a transhuman, immortal artificial life form that uses humans as gut-flora (that is, a major corporation). Then they're both optional.hit thanks mostly to a tax break connected with General Motors Europe.27 giant profitable companies paid no taxes [Matt Krantz/USA Today](via Barry Ritholtz)

Chase Alan Sherman experienced a psychiatric episode after taking the drug spice, that prompted his family to call the police and an ambulance. When sheriff's deputies from Coweta County, GA arrived, they subdued him by kneeling on his chest and, according to the family, handcuffed him, and then two deputies repeated tasered him until he went into "medical distress" and died. (more…)

Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab and former CEO of Creative Commons, founder of the first ISP in Japan, has penned an outstanding editorial describing the ways in which narrow corporate interests and legislative capture produce bad tech policies that threaten the net. (more…)

Obama's SXSW appearance included the president's stupidest-ever remarks on cryptography: he characterized cryptographers' insistence that there is no way to make working cryptography that stops working when the government needs it to as "phone fetishizing," as opposed to, you know, reality. (more…)

Donald Trump rallies are notoriously violent, as his supporters, security staff and even Secret Service detail beat up protesters and members of the press who get too close to violent incidents (Drumpf himself explicitly encourages his supporters to beat up protesters). (more…)

Matthew Garrett checked into a London hotel and discovered that the proprietors had decided that "light switches are unfashionable and replaced them with a series of Android tablets." (more…)

Kathe Koja is one of literature's most versatile writers -- once the doyenne of "splatterpunk"; then the author a run of brilliant, touching YA novels; then the author of a darkly erotic war-trilogy -- and now she's doing something new and amazing. (more…)

Evan from Fight for the Future writes, "President Obama has said he's running the 'most transparent administration in history.' But new documents reveal that his administration secretly lobbied to kill transparency reform legislation that had broad bipartisan support and would have made it easier for journalists and citizens to file FOIA requests that help keep the government open and accountable." (more…)

A court upheld the sealing away of Lee's will from public view, so it's impossible to say for sure what prompted the move, but this much is clear: schools that assign "To Kill a Mockingbird" -- one of the most commonly assigned books in US classrooms -- will have to pay a lot more for their books, and that money will not, and cannot, benefit the author. (more…)

Newport Beach based Staminus Communications offered DDoS protection and other security services to its clients; early this morning, their systems went down and a dump of their internal files were dumped to the Internet. (more…)

Los Angeles County's Animal Care and Control department is investigating "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan after he allowed a dog to attack and bite a pet pig on his show, Cesar 911.

Of course, brake-checking is a terrible idea because it could lead to a disastrous accident, and the brake-checker could indeed be liable.

Enjoy the psychotronic grandeur of the first DEVO short film, "In The Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-Evolution," from 1976. Directed by Chuck Statler, the video took the first prize at the 1977 Ann Arbor Film Festival. Two key bits of background, via Wikipedia:

Attention crackers - his Micronet password is 1234.(more…)

David W Niven began collecting jazz records in 1925, when he was 10 years old. He continued to collect until 1991, amassing a nearly unparalleled collection of 78s and LPs, whose highlights he eventually transferred to cassette, boiling down 10,000 hours of music to 1,000 hours of tape with his spoken commentary, each cassette meticulously annotated with handwritten liner-notes. (more…)

Core77 looks at different ways to keep computer cables from falling off our desk and making you go on your hands and knees to retrieve them and disturbing the dust back there so you have a sneezing fit.

It takes its own sweet time. Bonus points for looking like a face near the end.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Big Kids

Japanese researchers discovered a bacterium that eats polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the stuff used to make plenty of single-use plastic products that sit in landfills. The bacterium, named Ideonella sakaiensis, uses enzymes to break down the plastic into carbon and energy sources for the microbe. From Chemical & Engineering News:

Today I received the following email regarding my daughter's science fair project...

They say the entire world is made up of ones and zeros. Well, when you’re running a business it sure looks a lot messier than that. It looks like meals cooked, widgets built, products out for delivery, pages clicked, reviews written, social shares and about a million other flavors of things. But really, all that does indeed boil down to data and if you know how to analyze it, you can rocket any business into hyper drive. Now for 97% off you can take down the Ultimate Data & Analytics Bundle to learn everything you need to know about data analysis.There are over 130 courses here. Yup, you read that right and you can access it any time you want, from anywhere on earth with plenty of support from these teaching experts. You’ll dive into SAS, both Dataset and Format, Oracle, programming and functions. Plus you’ll tackle pinnacle data too including Hadoop, Cloud, Tableau and others.There are certificates of completion for nearly all these levels, so you can add those gold stars right onto your shiny new resume.Stream all of these classes right on your desktop or mobile device and learn at your own pace. Revisit any lesson you want and you’ll get a certification when you complete everything. For 97% off right now, you can be the data master at your current job or take your talents elsewhere for a nice, big raise. Once you tackle all this info, you’ll be seeing more ones, zeroes and dollar signs everywhere. Check out the link below for more details.Save 97% on the Ultimate Data & Analytics Bundle in the Boing Boing Store.

If your company hasn't "upgraded" your computer to Windows 10 -- a tendril of surveillance capitalism masquerading as a "free OS" -- you may start receiving messages from Microsoft telling you that your IT department is holding you back: "Your system administrator has blocked upgrades on this PC. Check with your system administrator about upgrading this PC to Windows 10." (more…)

Ed from the UK Open Rights Group writes, "Right now, the Government is ramming a new snooping law through Parliament. The Investigatory Powers Bill would force companies such as Sky, BT, Google and Facebook to keep detailed records of what we do online for a year -- even if we are not suspected of committing any crime whatsoever." (more…)

Paul Bulteel's forthcoming art book, Cycle & Recycle, collects the Belgian photographer's series of images from Europe's massive, advanced recycling program, which captures 43% of the region's waste (the EU is shooting for 65% of municipal waste by 2030). (more…)

Carrying on the ancient, honorable tradition of armoring your cat, Print That Thing designed a suit of 3D printable cat armor and uploaded it to Thinigverse for anyone to download and print. (more…)

When your identity becomes intertwined with your definitions, you can easily fall victim to something called The No True Scotsman Fallacy.It often appears during a dilemma: What do you do when a member of a group to which you belong acts in a way that you feel is in opposition to your values? Do you denounce the group, or do you redefine the boundaries of membership?In this episode, you will learn from three experts in logic and argumentation how to identify, defend against, and avoid deploying this strange thinking quirk that leads to schisms and stasis in groups both big and small.This episode of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast is the third in a full season of episodes exploring logical fallacies. The first episode is here.Download – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – SoundcloudThis episode is brought to you by Trunk Club. Like Netflix for clothes, a professional stylist helps you define your new look, and then your new clothes arrive at your doorstep in a special trunk. Keep what you want, return the rest. Get started today and Trunk Club will style you for FREE. Plus FREE SHIPPING both ways! Click here for this special offer.This episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus. Get unlimited access to a huge library of The Great Courses lecture series on many fascinating subjects. Start FOR FREE with The Fundamentals of Photography filmed in partnership with The National Geographic and taught by professional photographer Joel Sartore. Click here for a FREE TRIAL.Support the show directly by becoming a patron! Get episodes one-day-early and ad-free. Head over to the YANSS Patreon Page for more details.Barbara Drescher is a cognitive psychologist and skeptical activist who lectured at California State University and currently serves as educational programs consultant for the James Randi Educational Foundation. Her website is ICBSEverywhere.com.Jesse Richardson is the founder of YourLogicalFallacyIs.com, a fantastic website where you can learn about fallacies and critical thinking and easily share what you discover. He is an award-winning creative lead on a number of other projects including School Of Thought.Mike Rugnetta is the writer and host of PBS Idea Channel produced by PBS Digital Studios. On Idea Channel he applies philosophical and critical concepts to pop-culture ideas and other more-familiar topics in an effort to better explain to a general, internet-savvy audience the strange and abstract propositions he explores in wonderful detail.In every episode, after I read a bit of self delusion news, I taste a cookie baked from a recipe sent in by a listener/reader. That listener/reader wins a signed copy of my new book, You Are Now Less Dumb, and I post the recipe on the YANSS Pinterest page. This episode’s winner is Ashley Crutcher who sent in a recipe for poop cookies. Send your own recipes to david {at} youarenotsosmart.com.Links and SourcesDownload – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – SoundcloudPrevious EpisodesBoing Boing PodcastsCookie RecipesICBSEverywhereYour Logical Fallacy IsPBS Idea Channel

The Pittsburgh Craigslist has a hot deal: a gaming PC with "Slight Damage" that in no way impacts performance.

So-called "dog whisperer" Cesar Millan thought he had a great idea to fix a dog who had killed two pet pigs. He'd let it off the leash near a new pig, then inflict whatever pseudoscientific, domineering bullshit he does to dogs to make dogs temporarily obedient. Unfortunately, the dog immediately ran over to the pig and bit part of it its ear off before anyone could stop it.Far from being chastened, the producers apparently used the footage to market his show, reports The Dodo:

Bay leaves, writes Kelly Conaboy, are bullshit.What does a bay leaf taste like? Nothing. What does a bay leaf smell like? Nothing. What does a bay leaf look like? A leaf. How does a bay leaf behave? It behaves as a leaf would, if you took a leaf from the tree outside of your apartment building and put it into your soup. People say, “Boil a bay leaf in some water and then taste the water if you want to know what a bay leaf tastes like.”No.

I like how cartoony Spidey looks but he's got nothing on his late-1970s predecessor seen below.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyYrxQx7RBc

Record Store Day is coming up April 16, 2016 and I'm very excited to acquire the stunning soundtrack to the film Requiem For A Dream (2000) featuring the music of Clint Mansell with our friends the Kronos Quartet! The double 180-gram vinyl includes two never-before-released bonus tracks, a digital download card, and is limited to 5,000 copies. Above, the stunning track "Lux Aeterna."If you have the opportunity to see Kronos live, don't miss out. Their performances are always sublime. They perform tomorrow (March 11) in San Francisco, March 18-19 in Cincinnati as part of the New Music Now Festival hosted by Bryce Dessner (The National), and then April 1 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall in a musical celebration of (gasp!) David Bowie! Oh, how I wish I could be there.

Designer Ivan Owens showed his daughter how to use Tinkercad to design a ring, print it in PLA plastic on a 3D printer, make a mold, and use the lost wax casting process to make a pewter butterfly ring.

Eddy Cue, Apple's head of services, has warned that if the FBI wins its case and can force Apple to produce custom software to help break into locked phones, there's nothing in principle that would stop it from seeking similar orders for custom firmware to remotely spy on users through their phones' cameras and microphones. (more…)

I haven't seen High-Rise yet, but I'm looking forward to it. In this article from Creative Review, Mark Sinclair interviews graphic artists Michael Eaton and Felicity Hickson, who designed the stunning props for the movie.

This beautiful poster from Pop Chart Lab "traces the trajectories of every orbiter, lander, rover, flyby, and impactor to ever slip the surly bonds of Earth’s orbit and successfully complete its mission"

Syrian refugees who found their way to Canada have been placed in a hotel hosting a furry convention. Wonderfully surreal scenes of displaced kids dancing with fursuiters were captured on video and posted to YouTube. The New York Daily News described an "aww-inspiring" encounter. (more…)

These 12 musical "experiments" let you make and tweak pleasant sounds.

"VR is the next big thing, says Andy Pandy, "and I'm going to make millions with my virtual reality cat petting simulator."

Abu Hamed is a former Free Syrian Army fighter who defected to ISIS, where he served in their internal security forces; after a split with the organization, he stole a thumb-drive containing the induction questionnaires and personnel files of over 22,000 jihadi fighters who travelled from 51 countries to fight with ISIS. He has turned the files over to Sky News correspondent Stuart Ramsay. (more…)

Cothority is a new software project that uses "multi-party cryptographic signatures" to make it infinitely harder for governments to order companies to ship secret, targeted backdoors to their products as innocuous-looking software updates. (more…)

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Follow @RubenBolling on Twitter and Facebook.Please join Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the INNER HIVE, for early access to comics, and more.And/or buy Ruben Bolling’s new book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures. Book One here. Book Two here.More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

Hey there, rockstar. Go ahead and let your star shine. You deserve to be heard, and not just by your cat when you play alone in your living room. If jamming out is your jam, you’re going to need a bigger beat. Instead of just sitting on your porch, strumming away, you could be a straight-up recording artist right in your own home with this easy technology upgrade. The Jamstik Wireless Smart Guitar is currently 40% off and takes your guitar playing from solo show to high tech album sesh.It’s small, lightweight and super easy to set up, connecting in a flash to your tablet with one simple wire. Rather than trying to finagle tons of antiquated recording equipment, simply plug this guitar into your device and unlock tons of new tricks. The software connects you with all the hot music apps to record and edit your sound, plus a bevy of teaching platforms if you want to up your skill level with customized music tutoring. The infrared light technology on the strummer lets you see your hands in action so you can correct any errors, plus it’s got full MIDI controller functionality that lets you swap sounds and change octaves.Does the music inspiration sometimes strike you late at night after everyone has gone to bed? No problem. Just plug this smart guitar into your iPad and listen with headphones on for a party of one. This powerful instrument is 40% off and comes compatible with all the top music apps, plus it’s so portable you can take your tunes with you anywhere you go. Check out the link below for more details.Take 40% Off the Jamstik Wireless Smart Guitar in the Boing Boing Store.[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCFv6k-CdWE[/embed]