The tiny Aukey CC-S1 4.8A Dual USB Car Charger doesn't protrude from your car's 9-volt adapter port. It's regularly $12, but if you use code JZMYBJHC on Amazon you can get it for $6.

https://youtu.be/zAyPk12Ylk8

https://youtu.be/UqcXstB7UJ0Pilot Tim Morgan describes what to do when you find yourself in the captain's chair of a Boeing 737 and need to land the plane safely.[via]

The Russian Central Bank has withdrawn licenses from at least three banks who are alleged to have hired hackers to break into their own systems and empty out depositors' account, secretly giving the money back to the bank less a commission. (more…)

After literally decades of trying to make it to one of 2600 Magazine's legendary HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) events, held every two years in NYC, I will be coming to town this year for it -- and giving one of the keynotes. (more…)

https://youtu.be/PnvAu3C0Gb4I wasn't expecting much from jazz bagpipe, but this is great."Rufus Harley, the first jazz musician to adopt the bagpipe as his primary instrument, appears on "I've Got a Secret" (October 17th, 1966) with host Steve Allen and panelists Betsy Palmer, Bill Cullen, Bess Myerson, and Henry Morgan."[via]

Fight For The Future is organizing rallies at Apple store locations nationwide to protest a court order pressuring the tech company to build a “backdoor” that would give the FBI the power to hack the iPhone. Today, it's the San Bernardino killers they're asking about, because who could argue with that? But tomorrow, maybe it'll be your phone.“iPhone users will gather outside stores with a simple message for the government: 'Don’t Break Our Phones.'”(more…)

Here's a good tip for Mac users. When you get a PDF contract needs your signature, you don't need to print it, sign it, scan it, and email it. You can just add your signature in Preview and email it.[via]

“That feeling when you hit a million followers, make more money than your mom, push a diet pill scheme, lose your blog, and turn 16.” Not something most of us can relate to, but most of us aren't Tumblr Superstar Teens.(more…)

Issue #72 of Josie and the Pussycats, published in October of 1973 ran a story in which bikini-wearing Josie becomes possessed by Satan, and has to be exorcised by her bikini-wearing bandmates.Dangerous Minds has the complete story on its site, along with a synopsis:

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…)

Twitter today announced that it's adding GIF search to the composer for tweets and direct messages.(more…)

The president's NSA advisory board grew teeth in the wake of the Snowden revelations, and they have done good service in identifying the civil liberties issues raised by the NSA's program of secret mass surveillance. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5vnpOp0U_gThe most entertaining chess match you'll watch all year: Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, with the black pieces, takes on a trash-talking, fast-fingered hustler. [via]

The only people who turned up to the much-hyped Anti-Beyonce rally in New York? Fans, one of whom waved a placard asking "Where yall at?"

One recent poll's dead heat was confirmed by another this morning, placing Bernie Sanders only one point behind Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the Nevada caucus.CNN's poll puts Sanders at 47% and Clinton at 48%; last week's Washington Free Beacon had them both at 45%The Observer reports that Hillary was way ahead until very recently and that it looks more likely Sanders will score an upset.

He spent $125m of other people's money. It was time to pay the debt.RE: Jeb Bush tweets picture of engraved gun with the title "America"

Please clap.

https://youtu.be/eScwDM8DDW8Alex Steffen writes, "Our culture is full of dire predictions, disaster scenarios and post-apocalyptic tales. It’s astonishing, though, how few stories we tell about futures where humanity succeeds.That’s a problem. I believe it’s literally true that we can’t build what we can’t imagine. The fact that we haven’t compellingly imagined a thriving, dynamic, sustainable world is a major reason we don’t already live in one." (more…)

A 14-year-old basketball player was impaled by an uneven floorboard while sliding across the court.The girl was stuck four inches deep, but the wood missed major organs and she was not seriously injured, reports ABC News.

Peter from the National Coalition Against Censorship sez, "A Florida parent thought 'This One Summer' was too graphic for an elementary school library. The district agreed, and then went further; they're restricting access to the graphic novel in the high school libraries as well. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal has a searchable database of Hillary Clinton's emails from the time when she was secretary of state. I haven't poked around too much, but the thing that stands out is her schedule. It looks brutal. I'd be jonesing for some alone time by 10am.

One of the most indelible images in art is Vincent van Gogh’s portrait of his bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles, France. I’m sure you’ve seen it dozens of times. You can learn more about it in an article on the website of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.He painted three versions, the second of which in 1889, less than a year before he committed suicide at age 37. It hangs in The Art Institute of Chicago (worth a trip to the city, by the way, all on its own). Amazingly, the Art Institute has recreated the bedroom in full size and is taking reservations for it on airbnb for only 10 bucks a night!

Today we travel to a future without lies. What would it be like if we all wore accurate lie detectors around all the time?Flash Forward:RSS|iTunes|Twitter| Facebook|Web|PatreonIn this episode we talk about when children learn to lie, the different social functions of lying, and what might happen if we couldn’t ever fib. How would negotiations be different? How would we make small talk? Could we create art or music? All that and more in this week’s future. (Illustration by Matt Lubchansky)

A cyberattack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center's computer system has locked up access vital patient data, and the hackers responsible are demanding payment of over 9000 bitcoins ($3.6 million) to unlock the data.From IBT:

Dutch design house Nightshop sourced soft urethane nonskid foam, which starts off as a liquid that you squirt out of a syringe, and they proceeded to weave a series of handmade rugs out of it. (more…)

Ordnance Survey, Britain's official mapping agency, has made available for download a massive map of Mars in its classic style.

This short excerpt from a documentary on AI pulls together clips from a variety of 1960s interviews with some of AI's most storied pioneers, including Claude Shannon, Jerome Wiesner and Oliver Selfridge. (more…)

The Financial Times ran a column critical of Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman. The company's marketing chief, Henry Gomez, threatened to cut the advertising it ran in the newspaper. Lucy Kellaway's response is perfect.

When Meshach Babcock was a teen, his friend gave him a denim vest ("It was his grandpa's old biker vest") and it became part of his life. He festooned it with patches of the bands he lost, and was distraught when it was stolen during a high school battle of the bands event. He never saw it again – until last week, when a friend forwarded an Instagram photo of it hanging in a Macy's display window. Babcock, now 23, recognized it immediately and he wants it back.

The queen-sized poly-cotton cover is $150 and comes with a pair of pillowcases that look like packets of sauce and Parmesan. (more…)

Craig Mod reports on six months in the field with the $4,000 Leica Q, a compact, fixed-lens camera for professionals and for amateurs who are very serious indeed. He loves it with an intensity that would seem unreasonable were it not for a) the fact that the photos illustrating his essay are spectacular, and b) he discusses how using it changed his mind on photography basics.Compare with the just-published review of Sony's latest RX1R-II at DPReview. It's serious competition for the Leica Q in the rarefied market for fixed-lens compacts that cost more than a MacBook Pro. Though it's $700 cheaper, and in many respects technically superior, the design (from UX to battery life) sounds so frustrating and ill-considered that it's hard to imagine preferring it over the Leica if you're spending that much dough on a fixed-lens camera to begin with.There's a great section in Craig Mod's review to remind you this is all for stills folk: "Video: I think the Leica Q does video."Leica Q [Amazon.com referral link]

Researchers have taken a second look at the NSA SKYNET leaks, as well as the GCHQ data-mining problem book first published on Boing Boing, and concluded that the spy agencies have made elementary errors in their machine-learning techniques, which are used to identify candidates for remote assassination by drone. (more…)

A hospital is a computer we put sick people into, so when ransomware creeps infected the hospital's IT systems and encrypted all their data, they asked for a whopping $3.6m to turn the data loose again. (more…)

Lara writes, "The Alpha SF/F/H Workshop For Young Writers is running a scholarship drive February 16-23. Make a tax-deductible donation to change a teen writer's life!" (more…)

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

How does TMZ get the videos and photos that celebrities want to hide? Because like any good intelligence operation, their spies aren't above paying for intelligence. TMZ pays its sources good money for tips on the dirty-doings of the rich and famous, and operates in Hollywood with the reach and stealth of an effective surveillance outfit.(more…)

I could watch this all day.(more…)

“Hi wyclef. As a young songwriter myself, I have a question for you. What's a good fake charity I could start up to rob people of money who really need it? Thanks so much.”(more…)

It started with an email from a source at Interpol. The subject line of the email said: "Brace yourself." Attached to the email was a video that showed four men at sea, swimming frantically and trying to escape, as each of them was shot and killed by someone with a semi-automatic weapon. At the end of the video witnesses celebrate and pose for selfies. With limited results, I investigated this brutal crime culminating in this story. (Beware: the footage includes graphic violence.) This story was part of a larger series called The Outlaw Ocean, which explores lawlessness on the high seas.Still, no government has agreed to investigate this crime. This speaks to some of the problems the series sought to highlight. But the inaction also bothered me. So, I recently compiled a Document Reader which consists of new information about the killing. The Document Reader is meant as a comprehensive archive of accumulated knowledge from the investigation (an opening of my notebook, if you will). My thought was that perhaps in this hyper-connected and perpetually online world, by making these materials public, it would empower others -- be they governments, NGOs or, quite possibly just smart, interested readers -- to push this investigation forward. The Document Reader is a bit of a slog. But have at it, if you're interested. And please don't hesitate to email me with input: urbina@nytimes.com.Ian Urbina is an investigative reporter for The New York Times based in the Washington Bureau. His investigations most often focus on worker safety and the environment.

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace after being outed as “Client 9” in a now legendary sex worker scandal, is said to have choked a woman at The Plaza hotel in New York City. The New York Post broke the story, citing local law enforcement sources. After his fall from grace, Spitzer got a job as a CNN anchor. Here's their report on the former news presenter's new role as an accused physical abuser of women.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHFOwlMCdtoJohn Oliver hosts his first show of the new season -- and his first-ever election-season episode -- and as you might expect, it's amazing. (more…)

$20 is the lowest price I've seen for a 128GB flash drive. The PNY Attaché has 4.4 out of 5 stars on Amazon with over 3,000 reviews.Here's the obligatory image of a 5MB hard drive being loaded on a plane in 1956:You need 25,600 of these hard drives to get 128 of storage.

https://youtu.be/dDeR8ZLE4uUTechRax, the guy who runs a wildly popular YouTube channel destroying brand new Apple gadgets in creative ways, has a new video that shows him boiling an iPhone 6s in melted blue crayons. He was surprised when it caught on fire.Last June, TechRax crushed a $10,000 Apple Watch between two giant neodymium magnets:https://youtu.be/uiTlQuJbzWw

https://youtu.be/IjeKw0B8PG8

See sample pages from this book at Wink.If you are a serious (and I mean serious) fan of the frog, you are in for a real treat. The Book of Frogs is a meticulous field guide to 600 diverse species of frogs, including wonderfully striking, life-size photographs for each and every entry. From poisonous frogs to tiny toenail-sized frogs, whistlers, “explosive breeders,” endangered frogs, and recently discovered frogs, author and one of the world’s leading frog experts Tim Halliday covers an exhaustive gamut of frog species from around the planet. Although a wonderful source for anyone trying to decipher and learn about frogs they find in nature, it’s a hefty, weighty tome of a book and would probably do better on a coffee table than inside a backpack.The Book of Frogs: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from Around the World

I'm flying across the ocean and I'm soaring, Back home to the place I was born

Australian billionaire Cliver Palmer’s says his $432 million replica of the Titanic will set sail in 2018.From Sick Chirpse:

John Markoff reports on an important area of research: how to make a talking computer sound friendly and approachable to humans? The trick, as exemplified by IBM's Jeopardy-winning Watson and Apple's Siri: you want it to sound slightly robotic, thereby avoiding uncanniness.