https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNSCL4YOd5EZip Zaps wired up a bunch of servos to a voice-recognition system and taught them how to type on a mechanical typewriter, like a dozen robot fingers, and now she has a robotic dictation machine straight out of Brazil. Brilliant. (via Evil Mad Scientist Labs)

In 2013, a hacktivist group calling itself Konstant kOS raided one of the government’s most secure computer networks. Their target was a list of more than a million American citizens monitored as potential terrorist threats. The list was classified because it was feared that making it public could result in widespread violence.Konstant kOS, on other hand, believed information needed to be free. They thought citizens should know about potential terrorists amongst them. Also, they thought stealing and publishing the list would be fun.Marcus Sakey's Written in Fire is available from Amazon.So they did. As a result, thousands of innocents were assaulted or even murdered.This didn’t happen, of course; it’s a small detail in my novel Written in Fire, the final book in the Brilliance Trilogy. The premise of the series is that since 1980, 1% of people have been born with extraordinary gifts, essentially a form of savantism that lets them see patterns the rest of us can’t. Some spot rhythms in the stock market and amass vast fortunes; others read body language so minutely they can intuit your thoughts and fears. The stolen data was a nearly complete list of these “brilliants.”While Konstant kOS is my invention, they’re obviously based on hacker collectives like Anonymous, which fascinate me. Shadowy organizations of rogue anarchists waging private wars resulting in everything from surreal silliness to rough justice to reprehensible and mistargeted damage? Tell me more.At this point, I should say that while I’m tech-savvy, by the standards of this fine publication, I’m at best a journeyman. I haven’t the vaguest notion how to use Tor, or conduct a denial of service attack. I don’t even have an anti-RFID wallet. (Note to self: Get one.)The bulk of coverage on groups like Anonymous falls into two camps. The first is the Chicken Little crowd, which cherry-picks worst-case hypotheticals – What if they take down the power grid?! – and presents them as fear porn. The far more interesting side focuses on trying to parse them, to explore of origins and culture and mechanics and meaning.What’s odd to me, though, is that you rarely see a piece openly weighing the potential positive nature of groups like Anonymous.For example, it could be argued that politically minded hackers may represent a modern version of the protection the second amendment was intended to offer. In 1791, the right to bear arms to defend against an over-reaching government wasn’t theoretical. Today, it’s hard to imagine physical weapons serving the same purpose. But it’s easy to see how hacktivists might — especially if you broaden the opponents to include hate groups and rapacious multinationals.Plus, much of the time they’re targeting assholes. Hacktivists have shut down child porn sites and released personal information on the people who run them. They digitally raided the Westboro Baptist Church, an organization that enjoys picketing funerals with signs declaring “God Hates Fags.” They’ve tangled with both Scientology and the Koch brothers, and it’s hard not to delight in bloody noses on those faces.If it sounds like I’m rooting for Anonymous, it’s because part of me is. They not only tend to punish shitheads, they do it with a sense of warped humor. It amuses me that their own description of their methods is “ultra-coordinated motherfuckery.” They’re rogues, an archetype no storyteller can resist. But on a more civilized level, I posit that there is real benefit derived from them, too. Their actions point out weaknesses in our systems, invaluable when you consider that in any future conflict digital superiority will be as important as air superiority is today.Of course, it’s not that simple. Revealing personal data on people who trade in underage sexual exploitation is fine with me. But what if some of the names are included just to settle a grudge? Or if the situation isn’t as clear-cut as child abuse? When Ashley Madison user data was released by The Impact Team, the stated reasons were disgust with infidelity and extortionary business practices. But even if that is the purest truth—and it probably isn’t—the consequences were far messier, including several suicides.Making things more complicated, it’s impossible to say what Anonymous is about, because there is no single Anonymous. It’s not a company, or a government; it’s a bunch of individuals of widely varied intentions that come together to work on the ops that amuse them. The purpose, philosophy, and capabilities shift moment to moment. For every “moralfag” out to right wrongs, there are others who just think it’s hilarious to d0x people.That lack of structure is both a strength and a weakness. It makes them difficult to target and impossible to eradicate. But it also means that there is a limit to how effective they can be. As the Occupy Movement demonstrated, it’s tough to change anything when you’re talking about everything. Especially if your rhetoric involves cat pictures and your public appearances are in Guy Fawkes masks.At the end of the day, I’m glad that collectives like Anonymous exist. This is probably a personal failing. While I know that I shouldn’t root for the Barefoot Bandit, the Washington teenager who stole airplanes he didn’t know how to land, or be delighted by the tale of the Antwerp Diamond Heist, in which half a billion dollars in jewels were stolen without one injury, the stories are too good to not to enjoy.Plus, maybe it’s naïveté, but I’d like to believe that if the circumstances are dire enough, hacktivists will throttle back on pointless pranks and make a difference. The journalist Quinn Norton, whose work on Anonymous is informed, nuanced, and gorgeously written, compares the group to the mythological archetype of the Trickster.In mythology, the Trickster is the character with secret knowledge, the one who disdains rules and swears allegiance only to their own amusement. They’re about chaos for chaos’s sake—right up to the moment the best trick is to save the world.Marcus Sakey's thrillers have been nominated for more than fifteen awards, named New York Time's Editor's Picks, and selected among Esquire's Top 5 Books of The Year. His novel GOOD PEOPLE was made into a movie starring James Franco and Kate Hudson, and BRILLIANCE is currently in development with Legendary Pictures (Inception, The Dark Knight.) Marcus was also the host of the acclaimed television show "Hidden City" on Travel Channel, for which he was routinely pepper-sprayed and attacked by dogs.

You don't know how good it feels to watch the main creator of Photoshop struggle with the magic wand tool just like I always do.

See more photos at Wink Fun.Odin’s Ravens is a gorgeous, quick, and easy-to-play card game for two players. The story behind the race at the heart of the game is simple: The Norse god Odin has two ravens, Huginn and Muninn. Every morning, he sends them out to circle the world and report back on what they see. The ravens have turned the daily ritual into a competition, as they race around Midgard to see who can return to Odin first. To win, neither of them are beyond calling on Loki, the trickster god, to thwart the journey of the other.I absolutely love the production on this new edition of Odin’s Ravens, from the sturdy, very tome-like clamshell box, to the vivid and handsomely designed cards, to the two wooden ravens that serve as the playing pieces. Since the game itself is rather simple, it was smart of Osprey to up the aesthetic impact of the game. These two elements, ease-of-play and pleasing components, coupled with the mythological gloss of the backstory all combine to create a very satisfying gaming experience.Odin’s Ravens is played out on a racing track of land cards. Each card depicts two different land types (mountains, forests, plains, desert, frozen northlands). Each raven starts on one of the two land tracks depicted on the two-part cards and races through all of the domains to arrive back at the beginning. Players have a deck of cards depicting the five different domains and must show a matching card from their hand that depicts the next land type they want to move onto. If the active player does not have a matching card, s/he can play two cards of the same land type instead and still move forward. If the player totally gets stuck, she can spend a Loki card (if she has one) from her hand. Each Loki card shows two available options for monkeying with the land track to make it work for you or make it harder for that clearly inferior other raven to make it back to Odin. The first raven who flies over all of the land and returns to Odin’s arm first is clearly the superior raven.Osprey Publishing has recently been venturing into the realm of board, card, and role-playing games with some very cool and somewhat offbeat offerings. This edition of Odin’s Revenge is a refinement of a game that’s been around since 2002. Besides redoing all of the art and upping the ante on the production values, they’ve also streamlined the rules to make the game faster, less cumbersome, and I suspect, to widen its appeal. This is the perfect kind of game to play with the family, for a quickie, or to play something fun with people who don’t normally game.Odin's Raven

Paper Magazine's "Girl Crush" series pairs notable women for fascinating conversations, which they transcribe and publish. The series is spectacular, and this interview, between author/feminist/activist bell hooks and actor/feminist/activist Emma Watson, is the best yet. (more…)

Maybe help packing? I wonder if he ever moved. He's was talking about it a lot.

No less than 375 new slogans have been approved for use by authorities in North Korea, the backward hermit kingdom often-lampooned for its use of old-timey Communist-style wooden-language. (more…)

Burning questions that you're desperate for answers to, and their answers, courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (more…)

Jesse Walker says: "In 1970, Hunter Thompson ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, on a Freak Power ticket, promising to sod the streets, put dishonest drug dealers in stocks, and change Aspen's name to "Fat City." His campaign caught the attention of the British TV show This Week, which sent a crew to make a documentary about it."

Gweek is back - at least for now! For those of you who are new to Gweek, it's a podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about media, science, science fiction, video games, comic books, board games, TV shows, music, movies, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.My is co-host Dean Putney, the first engineer at Glowforge and Boing Boing’s software developer. In this episode Dean and I talk about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2viza8aHlToMartin Gottesfeld and his family were rescued at sea, near Cuba, by a Disney cruise ship, then Gottesfeld was arrested by FBI agents dispatched from a Bahamian field office. (more…)

The evidence against tipping is voluminous and damning: it plunges workers into sub-subsistence wages, subjects woman servers to sexual harassment, encourages servers to deliver poor service to people of color (and old, young, and foreign people), incentivizes workers to take actions that harm the business (free drinks for big tippers!), and covers up a system of widespread criminal wage-fraud that lands disproportionately on the backs of workers who are already poor and marginalized. (more…)

Boing Boing is proudly sponsored by HP’s newest Color LaserJet Pro, the MFP M477!Boing Boing is a truly distributed company. Each member of the team maintains a separate office, or lair, from which they work. Our Publisher, Jason, shares his home office with his two dogs, a cat, a lot of books, guitars, and a bunch of toys. In typical Happy Mutant style, Jason combines functional efficiency with his own offbeat aesthetic to create a space from which to publish Boing Boing.Here are a few things that help make his office great:Jason likes to have a lot of desk space, but physically can’t sit down for extended periods. He needed a very large standup desk. They don’t make them. As an aficionado of classic mid-century furnishings, he thought a mechanical Hamilton drafting table would do the trick. It did! By depressing a pedal with his foot, Jason adjusts the height of his work surface from sitting to standing and between. Swinging a lever lets him adjust the angle of the desktop from horizontal to vertical, transforming the surface into a whiteboard as needed.Space is another huge consideration for Jason. His office is packed with musical instruments, props for various magic tricks, and a lot of books. The devices he needs to conduct business, like a printer, must be very carefully chosen. Through this course of this program, HP sent Jason an amazing new Color LaserJet, the MFP M477, to replace a seriously outdated C series inkjet.HP’s MFP M477 offered many great features that his 15 year old printer didn’t have. Real wireless printing, matched with flawless scanning and email functionality, really made a difference in his workflow. With the old clunker printer, he had to relocate his laptop across the room to plug into the printer every time he wanted to print. HP’s MFP M477 is made to support a small workforce, so having it in a single user home office is a dream.Paper books are something Jason can’t seem to live without, no matter how hard he tries to only buy new fiction on his Kindle. Bookshelf space has been in overflow mode for years, and no amount of discipline seems to help. Jason is currently trying to limit new paper book purchases to cookbooks and card magic books only, but his resolve often fails.Home offices are intensely personal, and at Boing Boing we are each very particular about what we put in ours.In the coming weeks, we’ll be running a full review, by Jason, of his experiences with the HP Color LaserJet MFP M477!

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag received leaked internal Volkswagen memos and emails that suggest that then-CEO Martin Winterkorn and his executive team were informed in 2014 of the lethal Dieselgate scam the company had perpetrated, and decided to stall and obfuscate to avoid penalties for emitting titanic amounts of the toxic NOX. (more…)

Last December, the town council in Camarillo, a small town in southern California, a man called Prince Jordan Tyson stood up and delivered a three minute speech as a "concerned citizen" about a planned construction project before the council. (more…)

Throughout latinamerica, many countries ban abortion under any circumstance, an historic artifact of the states' close relationship with the Catholic Church. This ban on abortion has always put women's lives at risk, but with the threat of Zika virus, the dire situation has turned urgent, and widespread. (more…)

Rancher Cliven Bundy and his sons are to be charged over the headline-grabbing 2014 standoff in Nevada where militiamen pointed guns at cops and forced them into a humiliating public retreat.They were already charged in connection to the recent Oregon Wildlife Refuge takeover marshaled by the son, Ammon Bundy, which ended after a monthlong siege and the death of one of the occupiers.

Legendary game series Civilization is 25 years old this year, and Dean Takahashi reports on its long journey from revolutionary god game to a cultural touchstone in its own right.

Queinteresante's chemistry-themed crayon labels come in sets of 24 for $3, or $8 for 64, or go big with 120 for $15! (more…)

A drunk monkey turned "belligerent" at a bar in Brazil, reports Arede, grabbing a knife, pursuing patrons and climbing onto the roof.After the tiny primate—said to live at the bar—downed a glass of rum and armed itself, firefighters had to be called to subdue it. The monkey was later released to the wild, according to the report, but was spotted menacing homeowners on the outskirts of town. After recapture, local authorities now plan to move the monkey to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources for evaluation.

Why does United States President Barack Obama have a soft spot for homosexuals? Because he was a gay hooker in the '80s, reports Mary Lou Bruner, a Republican candidate for the Texas State Board of Education.

These days, everyone’s a bro-grammer. To really step it up and make your resume pop from the coding crowd, you need a whole new skill set. And that’s where Ruby comes in. Ruby on Rails allows developers to create interactive web applications faster than ever. All those sites out there that look really slick but are actually super easy to use? That’s Ruby. And you can master this language now for 97% off the 2016 Ruby on Rails Rockstar Bundle.Never even heard of Ruby on Rails before? Don’t worry, the bundle’s got you covered to take you from total baby steps onward. Or, if you’re actually a total boss already and know the code decently, it’ll sharpen those skills to even higher levels. There are over fifty seven hours of coursework here, from applications for web development, BBD using RSpec and Capybara, and tons of hands-on projects to get you learning in the trenches. You’ll build applications, custom file uploaders and downloaders, search engines, and learn HTML and CSS customizations plus tons and tons of more crucial maneuvers.From commercial to personal projects, you’ll learn how to deploy Ruby techniques effectively and professionally. Your portfolio of web apps will totally blow up with fantastic, complex work to show off to your current or potential future employers for a big raise or whole new gig. Take 97% off this course bundle that will rocket you to Ruby stardom. Check out the link below for more details on these classes.Save 97% on the 2016 Ruby on Rails Rockstar Bundle in the Boing Boing Store.

Dude. 500 episodes of The Simpsons, all in one spherical, 360º video space. I'm trippin' so hard.(more…)

They're not comin' for your guns, America. They're comin' for your phones.(more…)

“Apple is doing the right thing in challenging the federal court ruling requiring that it comply,” reads a New York Times editorial today on the battle of the backdoors brewing between the government and the iPhone's maker.(more…)

Be Expert with Map and Compass has been in print for more than fifty years and remains one of the standard guides on land navigation and orienteering. In easy-to-follow sections, the book lays out how to dependably navigate by compass, read and interpret a topographical map, set way points and bearings for extended hikes, give map instructions in a standardized format so others can follow your route, and much more. Each section is accompanied by practice exercises that are well-suited for use by a family or a group of varyingly experienced navigators. The latter third of the book is devoted to explaining the sport of orienteering, which seems like a fun combination of a cross-country run and a treasure hunt.I was tragically born without a sense of direction, so much of this book was a revelation to me. Also – in a surprising synchronicity – the practice topographical map included in the back was from an area I had hiked just a few days before finding this title at a library sale!I read the 1994 edition for this review, but the book was revised in 2009 with GPS information and updated web resources. If you just want the skills promised by the title, the early editions can be had for a few dollars (and you can save the rest to buy a compass).– William Smith of Hangfire BooksBe Expert with Map & Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook

Handing out toy turtles is as bad as wearing a "kick me" sign on your back.[via]

A New Jersey mail carrier was trapped inside his truck when aggressive wild turkeys surrounded it. His postmaster called 911.From abc7ny.com:

The Minnesotastan says: "One of my prized possessions is a walking stick that was hand-carved for me by an elderly man in Kentucky when I used to live and work there. The one above was carved by a craftsman in Oregon from a single stick of wood. Here is his video documenting the process."Mike Stinnet made this copperhead walking cane. He has an Etsy store with other wondrous carvings and paintings.

It's the pop-up book zombie fans have been clamoring for as they shambled through the countryside, acting as proxies for mass free-floating anxiety about the other. (more…)

David Milch, the famed creator of NYPD Blue and Deadwood, earned upwards of $100 million during his career. But his fondness for horse racing wiped him out, according to this fascinating piece by Stephen Galloway with Scott Johnson in The Hollywood Reporter. "Now, according to a lawsuit, the racetrack regular has lost his homes, owes the IRS $17 million and is on a $40-a-week allowance."

3D Creations' 3D Printed D20 Dice Box are giant D20s that you store your D20s (and other polyhedra) in. (more…)

https://youtu.be/f6MAOyIfOmA18-year-old Malachi Love-Robinson does not have a medical license, but that did not stop him from opening the New Birth New Life Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The teenager had been treating patients since October until he was arrested Tuesday in a sting operation after performing a physical examination on an undercover agent.Love-Robinson described his practice on Healthgrades.com:

The first time I used Gogo's expensive inflight Wi-Fi, it was horrible. Web pages wouldn't load, email wouldn't send or receive. I decided to give them another chance a couple of months later and it was equally horrible. Gogo controls 80% of the in-flight Wi-Fi market, and they have a lot of nerve charging people for something that doesn't work. They owe me $25.It turns out I'm not the only one who thinks Gogo is awful. American Airlines is suing Gogo, claiming the Wi-Fi provider has violated the terms of their contract, which requires Gogo's Wi-Fi service to be as good or better than Wi-Fi service on American Airlines' competitors.Gogo issued the following statement:

Lawrence H. Summers a former U.S. treasury secretary believes the 500 euro note and $100 bill are such strong enablers of crime and corruption they should be eliminated. His argument for doing so is rock solid: "The fact that ... in certain circles the 500 euro note is known as the 'Bin Laden' confirms the arguments against it," he writes in the Washington Post. Summers makes no mention of going after actual money launderers like HSBC, which admittedly laundered a billion dollars for Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and Colombia's Norte del Valle without any of the banking execs spending a day in prison.Boing Boing reader Nemomen says:

Read Elspeth Reeve's fabulous article about Pizza, one of the most popular Tumblogs, the "secret lives" of Tumblr Teens, and mistakes made.It has everything. The wonderful creativity of the users; its incomprehensible architecture; the emergent support mechanisms; the toxic call-out culture; and everything ultimately, inevitably being ruined after Yahoo buys it.

It's a few years old, but if you missed McDonalds explaining not only how to make a Big Mac but disclosing the specifics of its "secret" Big Mac sauce, you'll enjoy Mickey D Executive Chef's Dan Coudreaut's video.Big Macs are delicious. Evil, but delicious.

The iPhone battle between the FBI and Apple isn't about getting help unlocking a terrorist's phone. It's about our government forcing Apple to invent a customized-on-demand version of its iOS operating system, effectively stripped of all security and privacy features. Command performance coding. As security researcher Dan Guido describes it in his widely cited technical explainer blog post, what they're asking for is an 'FBiOS.'(more…)

Team Negative 1, an all-volunteer Star Wars nerd squad, have spent thousands to source, digitize and restore an original 1977 theatrical print of Star Wars (known in contemporary canon as "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope"). (more…)

Last week, hackers bricked Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, encrypting all the data on its devices and demanding 9,000 Bitcoin (~$3.6m) to give the hospital's IT staff the keys needed to reboot it. (more…)

China's millionaires, having looted their country, are anxious to get their money out of reach of the Politburo, to guard against confiscation should the political tides turn. Only one problem: the government will only let Chinese nationals move $50K/year out of the country. (more…)

You’re a coffee connoisseur. None of that watered down swill or repulsive sludge, thanks very much. You respect the process, from the grind to the filter to the pour. Each step is precious and your palate is advanced enough to pick up on all that hard work and resulting flavor. But let’s be honest: Dunkin’ Donuts is a lot easier. It’s not always easy to get the finest brew when you’re away from home. Until now. The Cafflano Coffeemaker is 16% off now and will keep you grinding on the go.While at first the Cafflano looks like a plain old mug, that’s really just a disguise. Inside there’s a hand-crank grinder, drip kettle, stainless steel filter dripper, and a tumbler. It’s all super lightweight so you can bring this one-cup-wonder with you anywhere you travel, even camping or on the boat. The spout is diamond shaped so it won’t drip or spill all over the place, and it cleans up super easily, all of which makes your roadside coffee-making experience a lot easier. You’re good to go from the grinder that keeps your roast fresh, all the way to the little cup you sip from. Gang’s all here.You’re even saving the planet every time you brew with this thing because you won’t have any filters or pods to chuck out. Just one perfect, single serving of hot, caffeinated deliciousness. This miracle worker is 16% off and ready to hit the road. Check out the link below for more details.Save 16% on the Cafflano Coffeemaker & Cup in the Boing Boing Store.

Listen mister, can't you see? I got to get back to my baby once more...

Over 9,000 Chinese villagers must leave their homes to make way for aliens “or for the possible echoes of them,” reports Ed Wong in the New York Times.(more…)

Who cut the cheese? FDA inspectors investigating that very question raided a popular parmesan cheese supplier, and discovered they had indeed been cutting the cheese liberally with wood pulp.(more…)

Rachel "Datapunk" Kalmar is a brilliant data scientist with a background in neuroscience, connected devices, sensors, and wearables. (more…)

[I received the sad and shocking news this morning that Alvin Buenaventura died in his home in Oakland, California last week. Alvin was a publisher and promoter of cartoonists I love, including Dan Clowes and Charles Burns. He was always very helpful when I had questions about how to get in touch with a particular cartoonist, and in recent weeks he was helping me find a printer for a magazine project I'm working on. I can't believe he's gone – I was selfishly counting on Alvin to publish many more years' worth of great books and comics. Cartoonist Daniel Clowes was very close with Alvin, and considered him to be a member of his family. Here's what he wrote about Alvin. -- Mark]Alvin Buenaventura was the most important person in my life outside my immediate family. He was, to me, among many other things, an art representative, a production assistant, an archivist, a monographer, a tireless advocate and champion, a media representative, a technical advisor, a troubleshooter; but far beyond than that, he was my dear and beloved friend, a daily, constant, essential presence in my life.I said this to anybody who asked about the mysterious Alvin: he was inexplicable, the most singular human being I've ever met. There's nobody else in the world even remotely like him. He can't ever be replaced in any way. He was born into a nondescript suburban So. Cal. army-brat childhood that could have in no way indicated his future, magically gifted with what can only be described as a perfect eye. It was as apparent in the stuff he found at flea markets and hung on his bathroom wall as in the entirety of his publishing empire, a remarkable series of choices in which there was not a single artistic misstep among the many logistic, personal and financial ones. All of it had a certain something that often only he could see at first, but once he saw it, you saw it too. Just two weeks ago, he and I sat talking on the phone, staring at the listings in an online Illustration Art auction. We decided to go through and pick our favorite pieces. I went for some obvious stuff, big names like Charles Addams and Heinrich Kley, but Alvin's number one pick was a weird moody painting of a guy in a cave by an unknown mid-level '50s illustrator. I had completely blipped over it, but he was 100% right -- it was the best thing in that auction. That painting is now in the mail, headed toward his empty house.Alvin was a complicated man. He was as kind-hearted and generous a person as I've ever met, but he also held deep, complex, immutable grudges. He had what seemed to be a debilitating shyness, barely speaking above an inaudible mumble (I used to pretend I'd heard what he said -- with very mixed results -- so I didn't have to keep saying WHAT? like an old man all the time) but he was weirdly comfortable around famous artists, difficult lunatics, celebrities, assholes. He felt a parental protectiveness toward his artists to the extent that this soft-spoken, non-aggressive Buddhist once bought a plane ticket to LA to beat up a plagiarist on my behalf before I talked him out of it. He suffered terribly from depression and had gone through some bad spells in the 15 years I've known him, but had always managed to get himself back on track. This time was different -- he had been in increasing and agonizing pain from an autoimmune disorder and was feeling especially hopeless. All of his close friends and loved ones -- and there were many -- would have given anything to make him feel better, and we all will wonder what more we could have done, while recognizing that we could never really understand his anguish.He was as loyal a friend and advocate as I'll ever have. He was the first person to read my books, often by many months, and his generous, idiosyncratic, ramblingly unpunctuated comments are the ones I'll most treasure. I hope to extend a similar loyalty to him in his passing, to uphold his memory and to be forever inspired by his beautiful and tragic human spirit.PS: I had intended to post this to my own website, but I just learned that Alvin carried all my social media passwords to his grave.[via]Image: Alvin Buenaventura holding a copy of Kramers Ergot (2008). Photo by Mark Frauenfelder

When the text of the secretly negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership was released, we were warned that it hadn't been "legally scrubbed" and checked for translation errors, but the new text that's been posted to the New Zealand government's website contains tiny revisions that sneakily increase the criminal penalties countries must impose on people who commit copyright infringement. (more…)

There are so many incredible things to see in this world. Puppies running across a field. A sunset over the ocean. Your friends and family members singing behind a birthday cake. If only you could capture it all, just like you remember it. Well of course you can, except now you won’t have any annoying cut-offs or blurred faces or missed moments. This videography bootcamp is 97% off and will train you up to Spielberg level in no time. This isn’t your grandfather’s gigantic video camera sitting on the old shoulder anymore, this is filmmaking of the future.The thirty three hours of content here will walk you through every step of the filmmaking process. There are courses on which cameras are best and how to operate them, then a run-through on cinematography so you’ll capture it all flawlessly. The GoPro and drone classes will teach you how to handle action and outdoor shots and there are even green screen lessons for big special effects. Editing courses here will have you cutting up that footage for maximum storytelling impact.Once you’ve created your masterpiece, there’s even a course here on how to market your independent film. No matter what level you’re starting from, the eight classes will get you from shooting on your smartphone to operating high level equipment in the field and from your computer. The course pack is 97% off right now and once you know these ropes, you’ll never miss a memory again.Take 97% Off the Videography Course Bundle in the Boing Boing Store.