"Crafted from a 2-foot-long gummy worm, Haribo gummy bears, black licorice string, yellow sprinkles, and rock candy crystals! A scene from the great science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Here we see the giant gummy worm on the desert planet of Arrakis. Ridden by the powerful gummy bear Paul Atreides as he seeks to control the prescious "spice" melange, which gives those who ingest it extended life and some prescient awareness. Muad'Dib!" (more…)

Rain isn't the only reason to stay in and watch a movie.Here is a list of films appropriate to watch based on the weather:Overcast: Das Boothttps://youtu.be/2zajdE5U2e8Typhoon: Das BootEarthquake weather: Das BootInter-stellar event: Night of the Comethttps://youtu.be/pdH8NQbvOKoSanta Ana winds: Das BootNor'easter: Das BootDerecho: Das BootDrought: ChinatownHail: Das BootSleet: Das BootRaining Cats: The Cat from Outer Spacehttps://youtu.be/9SEaSW1jtnQRaining Dogs: Reservoir DogsHeatwave: Das BootCold snap: Das Boot

Photographer Kelly Alvesteffer shared photos on Facebook of the ice below the Mackinac Bridge over the weekend.View the entire gallery here. An interview with the photographer is here.

Simon writes, "With just 3 days to run, this Kickstarter to make 'Beep Beep Yarr!' a fantastic, pirate-themed programming book for kids needs your support to graduate." (more…)

The highly-rated Tribesigns WDJ7009 Smart Digital Meat Thermometer is on sale at Amazon for $7 when you use code OT6WGNN9. It has a lot of bells and whistles, but the large display is the best thing about it.

We are heartbroken to share the sad news that Irene Larsen, the charming, beloved co-founder of the Magic Castle, has passed on. She died at age 79. Irene is revered by generations of magicians and performers for her incredible warmth, generosity, and talent.Images of a young Princess Irene, a stage name from early in her career, are simply radiant. Together with her second husband Bill Larsen, and his brother Milt, “Princess Irene” created the Magic Castle. Founded in 1962, it remains one of the most unique and fantastic private clubs on Earth.Irene and Bill also co-edited Genii, The Conjurer's Magazine.Irene's decades of service to the performing arts community are legend, as was her warm personality. A large community of variety artists constantly gathered around Irene's Los Angeles home, which lies nestled among lush, verdant gardens she designed around the babbling brook that gave the estate its name. Brookledge is now also a private performance venue where, in recent years, her daughter Erika, has produced the Brookledge Follies. The opportunities Irene Larsen created that allowed this great performance art tradition to flourish in Los Angeles were invaluable, and impossible to count.Irene Larsen's commitment to the arts, her warmth, wit, talent, and sparkle, are all irreplaceable.

The University of Wollongong has kindly scanned every gorgeous issue of OZ, a psychedelic magazine from the UK, which ran from 1967 to 1973.OZ was founded by Martin Ritchie Sharp (1942 – 2013).

See sample pages at Wink.Unfamiliar with sci-fi artist Simon Stålenhag, I was sucked into his eerie dystopian history the instant I cracked open Tales from the Loop. His hyper-real digital paintings depict beautiful Swedish country towns where snow falls in the winter and children play in nature. But each of these pastoral scenes are jarring, with intrusive machines, robots, discarded equipment, and power lines upstaging the otherwise serene landscape.The book explains that these paintings were inspired by childhood memories of the author, who grew up in a large area of Sweden that housed an underground experimental physics research facility known as The Loop. Alongside each painting is a short essay from the author’s memory. For instance, the three cooling towers in the photo above were built to release heat from the core of the Loop. The towers, which “started like a deep vibration in the ground that slowly rose to three horn-like blasts,” remind Stålenhag of a miserable day he had with a boy named Ossian, who had lured him to his house to play Crash Test Dummies, but ended up bullying him with the help of his brother until Stålenhag went home in tears.Each painting is accompanied by one of these short yet captivating stories, and their detailed, relatable quality had me going. As I read about Stålenhag and his best friend Olof sneaking off with a boat on a nice summer day to a disturbing machine-littered swimming pond, I kept thinking, “I must go online and research the Loop! How could I have never heard about this creepy place?” Then I quickly got to the robots. Huge dinosaur and prehistoric animal robots. And towering two and four-legged machine robots, crushing everything in their paths. Suddenly, with a "Wait a minute!" moment, I knew I’d been had. The same way I was duped when I saw The Blair Witch Project and thought, at first, that it was a real documentary. But my gullibility doesn’t bother me – what a fun treat it is to be swept into a horrific alternative reality, only to find out it’s masterful fiction.Stalenhag’s Tales from the Loop is striking, creepy, and captivating. It’s both an intriguing coffee table book and an engaging novel of sorts. And for me, it was an exciting ride.Tales from the Loop

Londa Edwards recorded this landslide in Elk City, Idaho, which occurred on February 18, 2016. It's alarming to see how quickly it goes from a few rocks and dirt sliding down the mountain to giant boulders bouncing wildly.

Tony Schwartz is acknowledged as "co-writer" on the cover of Trump's bestselling business book "The Art of the Deal," which is publishing code for, "The famous person with his name in big letters didn't do anything, this other schmuck actually wrote the book." (more…)

The anti-choice movement likes to claim that abortion is a big business, that the doctors who risk their lives to help women are in it for the money. (more…)

Police responding to reports of a unicorn on the loose chased down the mythological beast to find a suitably-augmented pony that had escaped from a children's birthday party.

The town council of Williams Lake, British Columbia has unanimously passed a motion to implant GPS trackers in "high risk offenders." Implantable GPS trackers don't exist. (more…)

The secretly negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership will cost New Zealand a fortune -- the extension of its copyright from 50 to 70 years alone will suck NZD55,000,000/year out of its economy -- but it's supposed to get the benefit of increased trade with the major powers in the treaty, especially Japan and the USA. (more…)

Epic surf is up in Hawaii this week. The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau big-surf competition, a contest spoken of on the islands with reverence, is in full swing at Waimea Bay on the island of Oahu.Conditions need to be just right for the Eddie Aikau competition to be called. Consistent wave faces of at least 30 feet in Waimea Bay throughout the day.In over 30 years, those requirements have only been met 9 times, including today. The event was last held in 2009.The competition honors a native Hawaiian surf hero, Eddie Aikau, whose heartbreaking biopic you should watch.(more…)

Univision and Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos interviewed former Mexican President Vicente Fox this week. Fox says he is troubled by the GOP presidential frontrunner's success in the recent Nevada caucus. The ex-Presidente also had a few zingers to let loose about that rhetorical device Trump loves to flog, The Great Wall Mexico is Going To Pay For To Keep Mexican Rapists Out Of Make-America-Great-Again-istan.(more…)

Protesters gathered in Seoul this week, the night before South Korean President Park Geun-hye's third anniversary in office, to condemn his administration's growing crackdown on free speech. But these protesters were life-size hologram "ghosts," and they marched over a transparent screen facing an old palace gate in the city's historic Gwanghwamun Square.(more…)

In a mass mailing to employees, CEO Bob Iger asked Disney people to make a regular contribution to Disney PAC to help the company lobby for expanded copyright laws, and the Trans Pacific Partnership. (more…)

This video, of Anastasia Synn performing at Scot Nery's Boobie Trap, a fantastic Los Angeles area variety arts review, gives me the willies!Anastasia's gleeful routine literally had me squirming in my seat doing that peeking-while-fake-covering-my-eyes thing at last year's Beyond Brookledge, a weekend-long magic and variety arts celebration Mark and I have both shared many times. There is something absolutely unique and beautifully twisted in the way Synn draws an audience in. She's clearly having a ball, while poking a skewer through her arm!I asked Ana what she likes most about performing at Beyond Brookledge, and she told me...

This month, Examiner.com has been profiling "noted atheists who experienced dramatic shifts in their views, eventually becoming Christians." This week, it has a story about Douglas Ell, a former atheist who has undergraduate degrees in math and chemistry, and an MA in theoretical mathematics from the University of Maryland.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.From Acromantula to Yeti, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them is a delightful romp through a Hogwarts textbook. JK Rowling fashioned this little edition as if it had just found its way to your Muggle library from Harry Potter’s book satchel. The forward, penned by none other than Albus Dumbledore, indicates this textbook has been reproduced with the owner’s and the author’s permission to benefit charity. Toted as a longtime favorite of Hogwart’s students, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them is the accompanying text to “Care of Magical Creatures.” This course was infamously taught at one point by Hagrid, whose affection for beasts of all sort, both dangerous and difficult, is well known.Hermione would be horrified to discover the book is riffled with amusing graffiti, scribbled in the margins and crowded into the captions. References to dungbombs, Chudley Cannons and Moaning Myrtle are scrawled in a careless hand alongside Ministry of Magic classification keys and instructions on how to care for a Puffskein. It’s as if the reader has been invited into a private joke between Ron and Harry, privy to their cheeky, good-natured ribbing and adolescent pranks. While the textbook itself has entries on each animal beautifully introduced with storybook style lettering and simple pencil sketches, it’s the defacing of this text that immerses us in the world of Hogwarts and makes this book a priceless edition for your own restricted section. – Kaz WeidaFantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them

The Internet Archive's amazing Pulp Magazine Archive includes all 176 issues of If, a classic science fiction magazine that ran from 1952 to 1974. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=266gn07TUYwThe Howard Buffet Foundation owns 7,500 manuscripts and 2,500 photos of civil rights hero Rosa Parks. They've loaned them to the Library of Congress, who've digitized them and posted them online. (more…)

Robot legal theorist Ryan Calo writes, "I thought you might enjoy my new paper, canvassing decades of American case law involving robots. Courts have had to decide, for instance, whether a robot represents something 'animate,' whether the robot band at Chuckie Cheese 'performs,' and whether a salvage crew 'possesses' a ship wreck by visiting it with a robot sub." (more…)

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died among high-ranking members of the International Order of St. Hubertus, an Austrian hunting society that began in the 1600s. The members jetted in on private planes to meet at Cibolo Creek Ranch in Texas, owned by multimillionaire businessman John B. Poindexter.From Washington Post:

https://youtu.be/Qu-jDrGQJLUI don't like watching fail videos where people get injured. But this video focuses mainly on people accidentally breaking things, from water pitchers to giant signs on the freeway.

This 61-year-old woman, who has never taken psychedelics before, decided to take 1 gram of psilocybe cubensis (a very small dose). In this video, shot by her son, we get to watch her go through the different stages of what seems to be a fairly strong trip, which lasts about four hours. She said she would not do it again with someone filming and interviewing her, but she said the experience helped her "reconnect with her real self" and that she might take it again with friends in the woods.

Best ASMR ever. She can read the full text of boring Wikipedia entries to me any time.(more…)

Get this man to Gilroy, STAT! (The Food Surgeon)

Meet maker Gary Hug who built his own home observatory, including a DIY reflector telescope, and discovered more than 300 asteroids.

Two business-school researchers have published a literature survey in the Harvard Business Review that makes the case against using performance-pay to motivate senior managers. (more…)

Matthew Garrett "bought some awful light bulbs so you don't have to." And you really, really shouldn't buy the iRainbow light bulb set: the controller box runs all sorts of insecure services, including an open WiFi hotspot that lets anyone into your home network. (more…)

This could happen to anyone, anytime: it’s a beautiful day and you’re driving along your normal route to work. Radio’s on, window’s down, you’re just thinking about the hours ahead as you cruise, turn and wait at the red light like you do every day. Then all of the sudden - boom! Someone bumps you. Or you bump them. All you know is that this sucks. The last thing you want to do after an accident, big or small, is argue over what exactly happened. With the DashCam Hi-Res Car Video Recorder and Camera that’s now 71% off, you’ll know for sure.Scrapes and dents and even major accidents do happen, and with this camera you’ll have the footage to prove exactly what went down. No more guessing or worst of all, fighting with the insurance company. This camera captures HD video footage on a loop and even records when the car is off, in case someone slams you in a parking lot when you’re not around. It deletes the old footage to keep its storage space open for the most recent two hours of action.The 8GB microSD card here records it all as both a video and camera device. It’s easy to attach right on your dashboard and if, God forbid, you get into a fender bender, you can easily access the tape and determine exactly who’s at fault and how. For 71% off right now, this is a smart, high-tech investment in your peace of mind on the road. Never wonder again how you got that scratch. Check out the link below for more details.Take 71% Off the DashCam Hi-Res Car Video Recorder & Camera in the Boing Boing Store.

A beached boat in Inverness has been the subject of many, many, many a photographer's afternoon. If the sky and reflections off the water near the Point Reyes were right, you could expect to find quite a few folks trying to get the shot. Seems someone tried a little too hard.Apparently a photographer working to capture the boat in a shower of sparks set it on fire.PetaPixel has the story.

Directed by David Terry Fine and based on the essay "Seeing at the Speed of Sound" by Rachel Kolb, who narrates this short film.

With this year a leap year, February 29 is coming up next week. To celebrate, Alex "Weird Universe" Boese posted "5 Weird Facts About Leap Years" over at About.com:

2012: "Mass surveillance is fine -- if it wasn't, you'd see major corporations trying to court new business by building in crypto tools that kept out the surveillance agencies. The fact that they're not doing this tells you that surveillance opponents are an out-of-touch, paranoid minority." (more…)

Under The Weather is a single-person pop-up shelter to sit inside that my big brother Rick came up with a while back. (He was sick of getting soaked at his kids' soccer games and was inspired by a portable toilet he saw by the field.) Under The Weather is designed for spectator sports, fishing, and other outdoor events where it's raining, windy, or cold, but you are either obligated to watch or having so much fun you don't want to leave. Rick used his personal savings to have a bunch of the tents made and they mostly just sat in a warehouse until last year when videos and photos of the thing somehow went viral. Now this curious contraption is selling like crazy. I'm proud of him!In the last few months, Rick received a bunch of requests for a version of Under The Weather that a wheelchair or stroller could roll right into. (The standard Under The Weather tent has a lip on the bottom of the door that makes this difficult.) So Rick designed a new model, the Accessipod, in which the entire back of the tent opens up for easy access. Check out the videos below!You can buy all the tent models directly from him here: Under the Weatherhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcpBADGFKYMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPdjACYL3R8

Dion McGregor (1922-1994) was a songwriter who penned a hit for Barbra Streisand but he has cult (and now scientific) fame as a prolific sleep-talker, or rather sleep-storyteller. While asleep, McGregor would narrate his strange, creepy, and sometimes risque dreams in great detail. Have a listen below! In 1964, Decca Records released an album of recordings of McGregor's sleep-talking, The Dream World of Dion Mcgregor - He Talks in His Sleep, with cover art by Edward Gorey. A book of transcripts, also illustrated by Gorey, was also published that year with the same title, The Dream World of Dion McGregor. Numerous CDs have followed and the entire body of work has become a great source of data for sleep researchers at Harvard Medical School. They're published a new paper about McGregor in the journal Imagination Cognition and Personality. From the British Psychological Society:

Yesterday, drivers on the M60 motorway in Great Manchester, England called police when they spotted a man carrying a small child on the highway. Turns out, the fellow was actually carrying a garden gnome.According to BBC News the fellow was "arrested on suspicion of a public order offence." The gnome, seen above, is now under police care.

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…)

https://youtu.be/qePpmu_bF7QCompetitive eater Kate Ovens devoured a monster burger from Jam Jar in Newcastle in under 9 minutes, 21 seconds. The burger weighed nearly two pounds and contained beef, pulled pork, and bacon. She topped it off with a large milkshake.[via]

Suppose you wanted to design a home away from home. What would you put in? What would you leave out? What kind of seating would you have? (Soft? Hard? Low? High?) What kind of tables — big working slabs or intimate little two-tops?A good “third place” may seem casually homey, but its design is the end result of a million tiny decisions. This week on HOME: Stories From L.A., it’s a conversation with Kambiz Hemati, who oversaw store design at Starbucks for two years and now owns Love Coffee Bar in Santa Monica, where he gets to think hard — and think small — about what makes a place feel like home.Thanks for listening. And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave us a rating and/or review on the iTunes Store.Check out all the great podcasts that Boing Boing has to offer!

See sample pages from this book at Wink.After the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, Ted Danforth, the owner of a print shop in lower Manhattan, wondered why. Why did these attacks happen? Who is Osama bin Laden and why did he hate America? What was the history leading up to this tragedy and what about the future of the world as we know it? Through extensive research, Danforth discovered the answers were not so simple. One answer led to many more questions and Danforth soon discovered that the trail of hate, revenge, partnerships, mistrust, conquests and cultural differences went back thousands of years.To try to make some sense of this long history of conflict, Danforth created The Eastern Question, a soft cover coffee table sized book containing text and over 108 hand-drawn watercolor maps and illustrations. The information is dense but Danforth uses metaphors and easy-to-follow stories that help explain the "Geopolitical Dynamics” of Eastern and Western history starting from AD 565.The Eastern Question will no doubt appeal to the historian, but with drawings and maps reminiscent of cartoons from The New Yorker, non-historians can pick up some great information too. – Carole RosnerThe Eastern Question

There are incredible moments in life that you just wish you could live again over and over. Epic parties, friend reunions, gorgeous views, amazing meals, proposals, weddings, family time, high fives, leaps, action shots, you name it. And somehow, the pics you snap of those times are never quite as bright. Well don’t blame the memory, blame the camera. The Lytro cameras are next-level powerful and able to transport you with a single image back to that epic snapshot in time.The Lytro Gen 1 comes in four different colors, offers 8GB of storage, and you’ll use it all once you see how bananas its images are. It captures the entire light field instead of just the position of light rays like most other cameras. That means it takes living pictures that you can later refocus, change the perspective on, and even view in 3D. Each scene records up to 11 million light rays and despite all that power it’s super lightweight and compact so you can take it on the road to snap beautiful shots anywhere around the world. Get it for 49% off in the Boing Boing Store right now.[embed]https://youtu.be/Bt9ZiAfV8oQ[/embed]Bonus Deal: Pro Digital Photography & Photoshop BundleBut even the best camera on earth can’t make you a pro photographer. For that you’ll need the digital photography and photoshop class bundle here for 96% off which will teach you to master quintessential pic techniques like exposure and landscaping. After you snap, you’ll take a step by step lesson through photoshop to rocket your images from basic to baller.Change how you see the world, and how your friends see your pictures of the world. These cameras and this set of classes will build up your life in a whole new image. Get it for 96% off in the Boing Boing Store now.

Robert Carlson, the archbishop of St Louis, MO, has circulated a two-page letter to his flock in which he raises the question, "Can I still buy Girl Scout cookies?" (more…)