In 2013, Ana Biocini called the Oakland police because she'd heard a noise and thought there might be an intruder in the house. When the police arrived, they handcuffed her brother, Hernan Jaramillo, "without any lawful reason or justification," dragged him 20 feet down the sidewalk, threw him facedown into the ground, and three officers knelt on him while he begged for breath. The 51 year old man died at the scene.(more…)

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The Bureau of Land Management has posted a job listing for a Burning Man project manager, salary $69,497 to $90,344, responsible for risk-management plans, environmental impact statements, environmental assessments, and special recreation permits for the event, which is held every year on the Black Rock Desert, a BLM territory near Reno, Nevada. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UPUhn9hpTUFilmmaker Alessandro Bavari's 2010 short "METACHAOS" is a gorgeous and surreal film about "the most tragic aspects of the human nature and of its motion, such as war, madness, social change and hate." (more…)

Boston Police Sergeant Edwin Guzman's lawyer says that it's not really a big deal that he sent a photo of his penis to the sixteen-year-old daughter of a friend, because "You can’t tell me someone her age has never seen a picture of a penis on the Internet." (more…)

Oregon law enforcement ended its longstanding policy of allowing the domestic terrorists who seized the Malheur national wildlife refuge to come and go as they please, pulling over a convoy of the extremists as they traveled to a community meeting. (more…)

Vigilant Solutions is "one of the country’s largest brokers of vehicle surveillance technology" and they've got a great deal for Texas police forces: install our license-readers and we'll alert you every time someone with an overdue fine drives through your town. You pull them over and offer them a trip to jail or immediate payment, using our credit-card machines, for which we charge a 25% "fee" which goes straight into our pockets. (more…)

Jo Walton (previously) is one of science fiction's great talents, a writer who blends beautiful insight about human beings and their frailties and failings without ever losing sight of their nobility and aspirations. (more…)

Mergers and acquisitions mania: not just for banks, oil companies, publishing, movie studios, airlines, cable, phone companies, retail chains and family restaurants anymore. For years, the booze industry has been quiety homogenizing, as hedge-fund-fueled megafauna gobbles up smaller firms and even huge rivals, leaving behind a landscape where your "Mexican" tequila, "Irish" whiskey, "Scotch," "Puerto Rican" rum, and other bar standbys are all owned by a "British" company that claims it makes all its profits in The Netherlands. (more…)

Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perception Index, an international ranking of where the government graft grows. (more…)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is a Twitter addict and often uses the medium to issue comments, responses and campaign pronouncements. But he also lets others do the talking, simply by retweeting them. 62 percent of those he retweets are white supremacists.

[I'm a huge fan of Bill Barol's podcast, HOME: Stories From L.A. It's the first podcast Bill has produced, and he knocked it right out of the park. HOME is one of the best narrative podcasts I've ever listened to. If you haven't listened to the six episodes from the first season yet, you are in for a treat. I'm very excited that for its second season, HOME has found a home in the Boing Boing podcast network. Thanks for sharing your work with Boing Boing's audience, Bill! – Mark]HOME: Stories From L.A. asks the questions: What do we mean when we talk about home? And what does it mean to be at home on the edge of the American continent? In Season 1 we looked at the midcentury house on a hill where a forgotten genius from Hollywood's Golden Age lived out his last years; the empty spot on a Hawthorne street where Brian Wilson first dreamed of the harmonies that would make The Beach Boys great; the chicken magnate who's trying to keep a desert town on the old Route 66 from vanishing; the wandering that led an ex-Buddhist monk to the tech sector of Venice Beach; what it means, and what it meant, to grow up in the San Fernando Valley; and the fight to keep a venerable old Hollywood apartment building weird.This week, to kick off Season 2:When an elderly parent dies after a long life of lovingly acquiring things, she leaves behind more than memories for her kids. She leaves something much more tangible: The things. So many, many things. Is it things that make a home?HOME: Stories From L.A. is proud to join the Boing Boing Podcast Network. If you like what you hear, please subscribe.

Tom Abrahams' Home introduces us to a prepper nightmare. His vision of life in a post-plague America is worse than I'd imagined.Former military expert and super prepper Battle has spent the last few years doing nothing but readying his 50 acres, wife and son for the impending doom of society. He has years of supplies, all the guns and ammo you could want, a special mineral rights deal with someone to supply never ending power to his fortress, he thought of every contingency! Sadly, his wife lets a plague ridden neighbor in for some tea.Battle has to cope with this odd failure, while pretty much kicking the shit out of everything that gets even remotely intrudes on his home. While completely out of his control, Battle is fueled by this failure and sets out to save a stranger's son from an unknown fate. A lot of bullets fly, people get killed.The action, motivations and organization of post-plague, Cartel run America felt right to me. Bad guys are not so cut and dry bad, unless they are at the very top, and the evolution of post-collapse society painted a scarily realistic picture. I'm looking forward to seeing where Abrahams takes this story next, and if the fallible prepper, Mr. Battle grows.Home: A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Adventure (The Traveler Book 1) via Amazon

The bones in the heel of my hand start aching after a few minutes if I don't have support under them. Ive tried several different pads, and the 3M Gel Wrist Rest is my favorite. It has just the right amount of squish to it. It's on sale at Amazon for just $11.

See sample pages at Wink.Nick Drnaso’s Beverly, released today, is a brilliant set of six intertwined stories that show the underside of suburban life. Each story starts off with a smile, while pretty pastel colors and manicured lawns are plentiful. The art is crisp, geometric, simple and orderly. But scratch just a bit underneath the astroturf and horrific, heart-breaking details emerge. Broken-down parents cut their family vacation short after walking in on their sexually-repressed son in the middle of a cringe-inducing act. A teen girl who disappears from the diner she works at isn’t as innocent as her xenophobic town first thinks. A lonely housewife has stars in her eyes when she takes part in a sitcom focus group, only to find out she’s been duped.With a structure like Richard Linklater’s Slacker and the temperament of Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World, each story of bored, angst-filled teens and desperate adults features at least one character from one of the other stories, and yet each is its own separate tale. I was completely taken in, thinking at times that I was right there sharing the same stifled air as these folks, and now they exist in my mind as memories, rather than pieces of a graphic narrative.Beverly

YouTuber Primitive Technology says, "I made a cord drill and then upgraded it to a pump drill. A cord drill is basically a spindle with a fly wheel attached so it looks like a spinning top. the middle of a piece of cord is then put into a notch at the top of the spindle. The ends of the cord are then wrapped around the spindle and then pulled quickly outwards causing the drill to spin. The momentum of the fly wheel causes the cord to wrap back around the spindle in the other direction. When it stops the cords are pulled outwards again and the drill spins in the other direction.[via]

The trend of making schools "safe places" to protect students from feeling uncomfortable is a bad idea, says Teller, the silent member of the magic comedy duo Penn and Teller, and a former schoolteacher. Here's a snip from an essay in The Atlantic:

Omaha motorcycle mechanic Justin Anderson, an Iraq war veteran, converted his electric wheelchair into a snowplow that he uses to clear his neighborhood sidewalk and the school across the street from his house."I want to help inspire other veterans with mobility issues," Anderson told KMTV. "There are still things you can do that you thought you might not be able to do after your injury."

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The Chickening, directed by Nick DenBoer and Davy Force:

John Edgar Park picked up some great stuff at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago, and took photos. He gave me one of the pencils!

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Y Combinator founder and essayist Paul Graham's essay on the inevitability -- and desirability -- of income inequality sparked many scathing rebuttals, some of them quite brilliant, but the best so far comes from Tim O'Reilly, one of technology's towering figures. (more…)

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Forced to endure a 10-hour movie crafted solely to bore them to tears, British censors have awarded Paint Drying a "U" certificate, meaning that it is suited for all audiences.In its official listing, the BBFC concludes that Charlie Lyne's movie, which consists entirely of a freshly-painted wall drying, is a documentary with an unknown cast featuring no material likely to offend or harm: "PAINT DRYING is a film showing paint drying on a wall. All known versions of this work passed uncut."The movie is a protest against the UK's bizarrely resurgent censors. Though widely ignored by viewers in the age of YouTube and free internet porn, the BBFC classification process is mandatory for filmmakers who want traditional theatrical and broadcast distribution.Previously. Previously.

Jamie Love is one of the founders of Knowledge Ecology International (formerly the Consumer Project on Technology), a super-effective activist NGO that helped to establish low-cost, global access to HIV/AIDS drugs. (more…)

Drew Magary's The Postmortal, a dystopian novel about what happens to the world when someone discovers the cure for aging and almost everyone takes it, was one of my favorite books of 2011 and I still think about it. Here's my review, and here's my podcast interview with Magary.Magary has a new novel coming out called The Hike. The publisher gave us an exclusive on the cover reveal, and it's a beaut. The illustration is by Will Sweeney, and design and art direction is by Paul BuckleyThe Hike is coming out in August.I asked Drew to share a few words about the book and here's what he said:

Burt Helm and Max Chafkin studied award-winning articles and found that the following qualities prevail among them:1. Write no less than 6500 words.

John Brownlee explores the appeal of that most peculiar and elegant logogram, the ampersand, with which designers cherish "a romance that dates back to Pompeii."

It's odd to call Charlie Jane Anders, editor of IO9 and celebratedshort-story writer and editor a "debut novelist," but Allthe Birds in the Sky is her first science fiction novel foradults, and it embodies all that's best about debut novels -- alifetime's worth of creativity, frustrations and inspirations crammedinto a single set of covers, bursting with wild promise.Patricia is a witch. One day while hiding out in the woods from herdysfunctional family -- psychotic sister, dead-eyed overachieverparents -- she discovers that she can speak to animals, and findsherself in the presence of the Parliament of Birds, who ask her ariddle. She blacks out and awakens in her family house and facingpunishment. (more…)

Falcon Heene, the "Balloon Boy," is now in a metal band, and he's written a song about his adventure.Previously on Boing Boing.

Crofton Black is a British counterterrorism investigator who has spent years tracking down the detritus of extraordinary rendition -- a polite euphemism for the government practice of snatching people, flying them to a distant country, and torturing them. (more…)

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrFv9_OhoHM&w=560&h=315]READ: Fred Herko: the life and dramatic death of an avant-garde hero (The Guardian)PERFORMA ARTS: The Herko Dialogues: Adrienne Edwards, Performa Curator, and Jen Rosenblit in Conversationhttp://www.freddieherko.com/

https://youtu.be/CzrymETf9hYThe apartments at 310, 320, and 330 Esplanade in Pacifica, California are literally hanging over the edge of a cliff. Rain, storms, and rising ocean levels are steadily eroding the sandy bluffs on which the apartments are built. After the El Nino storms of 2009 and 2010, tons of rock were piled on the beach and the cliffs were covered with fiber-reinforced concrete, but the erosion-prevention measures have failed in the recent storms.Duncan Sinfield posted drone video of the cliff collapsing under the apartments on Esplanade.Coverage: SF Gate | SF Chronicle

Featuring reviews of more that 160 cookbooks written by African Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries, Toni Tipton-Martin's The Jemima Code is a much-overdue look at at how African Americans really cooked over the last 200 years, as well as how caricatures of African Americans were used to sell white homemakers everything from "Pickaninny Cookies" to pancake mix. Over at Collectors Weekly, Lisa Hix interviewed Tipton-Martin to learn more about this heretofore malnourished chapter in America's culinary history.

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"In 1988, high school senior Ted Cruz reflected on his life's ambitions while attending Second Baptist School in Houston, TX. Now, he is a Republican Senator running for the office of the President of the United States of America."He's on his way to getting everything he asked for![via]

If you have ever shared an opinion on the internet, you have probably been in an internet argument, and if you have been in enough internet arguments you have likely been called out for committing a logical fallacy, and if you’ve been called out on enough logical fallacies in enough internet arguments you may have spent some time learning how logical fallacies work, and if you have been in enough internet arguments after having learned how logical fallacies work then you have likely committed the fallacy fallacy.This episode of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast is the first in a full season of episodes exploring logical fallacies. In the first show of this series you will hear three experts in logic and debate explain how formal arguments are constructed, what logical fallacies are, and how to spot, avoid, and defend against the one logical fallacy that, after learning such things, is most likely to turn you into an internet blowhard.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.This episode is brought to you by Casper Mattresses. Get $50 toward any mattress purchase by going to casper.com/sosmart and using the code: sosmart. Casper delivers a mattress straight to you, and you can try for 100 days. If you are not happy – they’ll pick it back up!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.

"Making A Murderer is a riveting Netflix documentary. Here's the gist of it -- in 2 minutes and 23 seconds! Plus you can dance to it!"

See sample pages from this book at Wink.If you’re like me when it comes to speaking Japanese – extremely clunky with with a limited conversational vocabulary but can read the two syllabaries (katakana and hiragana), this book is a fantastic supplement to further study. Besides the high fun factor of studying with manga (which teaches you to speak like a Japanese person rather than a formal text-book-taught foreigner), it’s the first book I’ve read that clearly explains the grammar (such as when and where to use particles like wa, ga and o), the complicated number systems, conjugating verbs, telling time, etc. I’m also learning some basic kanji as well as silly things you find in manga like exclamations and swear words. Each chapter gives you exercises to do on separate paper with answers in the back of the book. This lesson book is packed with great info on how the Japanese language works, and it’s presented in an interesting way that makes me look forward to picking up the book. I'm really loving it.However, I have to say that the title of this book is a bit misleading. Yes, we are studying Japanese using manga, but Learning the Basics is a bit of a stretch. The book does touch on the basics but it moves quickly, and if you’re brand new to Japanese, I would hold off on reading this book until you actually have learned the basics.Japanese in Mangaland: Learning the Basics

What is the difference between USA and USB?One connects to all of your devices and accesses the data, the other is a hardware standard.(via r/funny)

Vashi Nedomansky sped up five movies that had shorter-than-average scene lengths and sped them up 1200%; alone among them, Mad Max: Fury Road was still comprehensible. The rest just dissolve into jump-cuts. (more…)

Card manipulator Alix Becle:

https://youtu.be/fPF4fBGNK0UHere's a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu running into a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air. It's a striking example of how safe modern cars are compared to those from decades past. [via Kottke.]

The Torist is a newly launched literary journal, edited by University of Utah Communications associate professor Robert W Gehl, collecting fiction, poetry and non-fiction. It is only available as a file on a Tor hidden service -- a "darkweb" site, protected by the same technology as was used by the likes of Silk Road. (more…)

Amazing. Here's the sketch from SNL.

Reddit user anneewannee shoveled a backyard snow labyrinth for dogs to play in! I hope they don't run into Jack Torrance.(r/pics)

Seems the little guy tried to cross the road...Via the Comisión de Tránsito del Ecuador Facebook page.