"More than 60 percent of those who served in senior positions at the beginning of the administration have exited."(more…)

The coffee chain Starbucks today announced plans to close 150 locations.(more…)

Roll Sebastian Bergne's $3.33 pencil dice across the table to get a randomish value from 1-6. Useful for writing choose-your-own-adventures! (via Geekologie)

American Metalcraft makes restaurant equipment, but you can buy these stainless steel taco holders for home use on Amazon. The have a model that holds 2 tacos, and another that holds 3, which is on sale today for $6.52. We use them at least once a week, and love them. Who on earth wants a taco shell sitting on its side, disgorging its contents on the plate? Not me.

Watching the graceful fall of these cooling towers in Jacksonville, Florida offers a momentary reprieve from the fall of western civilization.

As President Trump continues his campaign to piss off anyone who’s not a Nazi or the leader of an oppressive dictatorship, CNN is reporting that Russia may have dropped some serious coin to modernize a strategically-placed nuclear weapons storage facility. The facility is located in Kaliningrad – a wee bit of Russia all jammed up between Poland and the Baltics.From CNN:

CryptoKitties are "digital collectibles" in the form of cartoon cats that people can buy, sell, and breed using cryptocurrency. In December someone paid US$155,000 for a single cryptokitty. In March investors who should know better, like Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, gave CryptoKitties $12 million. In the months that followed, both the trading activity and the price of Cryptokitties has nearly bottomed out.From ScienceAlert:

When a man in Queens, New York celebrated Father's Day at Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden with his daughter and granddaughter, he asked for mayo and carmamel onions on his burger. But there was an extra ingredient he didn't ask for that appeared on his bill: spit.Curtis Mays said the waitress had been nice, so didn't see it coming when he received his bill that told the chef, in red bold letters, "PLEASE SPIT IN IT TOO."The waitress then tried to weasel out of it, denying to Mays that she was the one who printed the unsavory request. But once the manager got involved, the waitress was immediately fired, and Mays got a refund for his meal.Ironically, the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden has an A rating from the Department of Health.From ABC7: https://youtu.be/6JrdFoYCCQg

Texas has some of the most draconian marijuana laws in the United States. Possession of small amounts can result in 6 months in jail and a $2,000 fine. And of the 60,000 people who get arrested on marijuana charges there, 98 percent are popped for simple possession. Reason says "penalties extend beyond the immediate criminal sanctions, too."

In a tweet this morning, Trump chooses the dehumanizing word "infest" to describe immigrants coming to the US. This is eerily similar to German Nazi propaganda "linking Jews and vermin or disease to Germany.""Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!"

This is the stuff dystopian movies are made of. This video, put out by the ACLU, shows immigration agents asking passengers waiting to board a privately owned Concord Coach if they are a US citizen. Even though, according to the ACLU, there is no law anywhere in the country that bars non-US citizens from riding a bus in the United States, a Concord Coach employee answers "Yep" when an incredulous passenger asks if only US citizens can ride their bus. The passengers in this video know their rights and refuse to answer the question.According to The Root:

How did Twitter addict Jesse Singal become the anti-transgender spokesgoblin of his generation? When a Child Says She's Trans continues his creepy fixation on gender-nonconforming minors. The "ex-trans" movement, similar to the discredited "ex-gay" movement, can always count on axe-grinding coverage that vastly over-represents their numbers and POV. (more…)

FOR THE KIDS IN YOUR LIFE, AND THEIR SUMMER READING: Get Ruben Bolling’s hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures."The EMU Club inhabits exactly the world I always hoped to live in when I was 12, when the answer to questions like 'Where did I put my toy' led inevitably to alien conspiracies and secret underground tunnels. A book for the curious and adventurous!" -Cory Doctorow, author of "For the Win" and "Little Brother""The type of non-stop action and improbably hilarious fun that only a kid could dream up. ... The EMU Club's adventures perfectly capture the intersection of imagination and wonder - the crossroad that's so often found in cardboard boxes, pillow forts and backyards everywhere." -GeekDadGet Book the First, "Alien Invasion in My Backyard," here.Get Book the Second, "Ghostly Thief of Time," here.--JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's INNER HIVE right now.More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

The cybersecurity landscape is changing, and now one of the most effective ways to counter hacking threats is to employ another hacker against them. Commonly referred to as ethical hackers, these professionals use a cybercriminal's tools against them, checking networks for vulnerabilities and patching them up before they can be exploited. The Certified Ethical Hacker Bootcamp Bundle can help you join their ranks and make a living by neutralizing hacking threats for $39.Complete with 19 courses and more than 70 hours of training, this collection is ideal for beginners looking to get started in the ethical hacking trade. You'll learn from industry experts in an interactive, lab-filled environment and foster skills in incident management, penetration testing, and more while exploring common threats, such as viruses, social engineering, and DDoS attacks. Once you complete the course, you'll be ready to sit for the EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker v9 exam, setting you up to enter the field with one of the industry's top certifications.You can catalyze your ethical hacking education today with the Certified Ethical Hacker Bootcamp Bundle, available in the Boing Boing Store for $39.

While an actual Claw Machine Fish Tank would be cruel and unethical (and some say just keeping fish in captivity isn't cool), the concept itself is fun to think about. Kudos to Dave's Geeky Ideas for dreaming up this one up.

I came across the strangest Aloha shirt on Instagram the other day, one called the "Hawaiian Shuffle" ($55). It depicts Chunk of The Goonies, amongst the shirt's tropical foliage, doing his "Truffle Shuffle."Two things:1. I'm 99.9% sure this is an unlicensed Goonies product, which means child-actor-turned-entertainment-lawyer Jeff Cohen (aka Chunk) won't see a dime from its sales (maybe I'm wrong!);2. A 2015 UPROXX article describes how the film's director Richard Donner felt about that scene and what he did to help Cohen later in life:

From the Dept. of Making-Knives-Out-of-Oddball-Things, aka kiwami japan, comes the "sharpest Cardboard kitchen knife in the world," one made from an ordinary Amazon box. It chops, it dices, it slices!kiwami japan previously on BB

Louis Vuitton's Windows CE gadget was a misstep. Pocket PCs were unpopular gadgets of questionable utility even in their day: obsolete in a heartbeat and now draped with the comical stink of Microsoft at its nadir. It hardly speaks to the timeless quality a luxury brand wants to conjure, even as a promotional stocking stuffer.As an artifact, though, what an oddity! I'd get it for sheer ironic magnitude – with a WiFi CF Card [Amazon] you should be able to get it online – but it's listed for $680, OBO and a Jornada 728 would be a better choice.Perhaps Louis Vuitton should make a branded case for the Gemini PDA, a far classier (and more functional) expression of the ultra-mobile PC concept.

A 2 lb. cotton candy-colored lobster was discovered last November by a Canadian fisherman and it's just making the rounds on social media now. The Portland Press Herald reports:

In case you thought that kidnapping babies would awaken the moral consciences of Trump supporters, be told: Trump's approval rating hit its all-time peak on Monday, with 45% of Americans saying he is doing a good job. The administration is said to be planning even harsher measures before the midterms, including indefinite incarceration of kidnapped children. (via Naked Capitalism)

Ed Piskor's offering an annotated page-by-page look at the first part of X-Men: Grand Design, his epic retelling of how Marvel comics' pantheon of heroes came to be. Catch up here. — Eds.Director’s commentary…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoncXfYBAVI"Well, we have an orchestra here. What’s missing is a conductor." That's the voice of a Border Patrol official, mocking a sobbing group of 10 terrified Central American children who've been separated from their parents at a US border-crossing. (more…)

On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear Apple Inc. v. Pepper, in which the plaintiffs argue that Apple has established a monopoly over apps for Ios (this part is actually incontrovertible, as Apple has used both technology and law to prevent rival app stores from operating), and that Iphone and Ipad owners have a right to ask the government to break up this monopoly (that's the controversial part). (more…)

https://youtu.be/BLfI2_xOmK8Fingerprint locks are catastrophically awful, part LXVII: the software security on the crowdfunded Tapplock "is basically nonexistent" -- the lock broadcasts its own unlock code over Bluetooth, and if you send it back to the lock, it pops open. (more…)

Harper's has published The Death of a Once Great City, Kevin Baker's beautifully written, 15,000 word, non-comprehensive list of all the ways that raising the rents in New York City (something that was enabled by the related phenomena of the increasing wealth of the global rich and the influence of property developers on New York City's planning) has squeezed all the juice out of the city, evicting its people and its businesses in favor of "land banked" condos and co-op units that serve as "an investment, a pied-à-terre, a bolt-hole, a strongbox" -- and whose only viable retail is chain pharmacies and ATMs. (more…)

If school shootings, the former leader of the free world's alienation of long-time allies in favor of getting cozy with dictators, or the systematic destruction of the environment and the norms of human decency aren't enough to keep you awake at night, this ought to do it: America may have a tiger problem. In many states, no one has a clue of how many tigers are being kept as pets or in private animal sanctuaries.From the BBC:

Back in January, Microsoft announced that they were "proud" to support ICE. Honestly, what company wouldn't be? A U.S. federal contract, no matter how large your coffers and corporate reach might be, is a good get, due both to the amount of American lucre you'll pocket and the visuals that come from being trusted by one of the most powerful countries in the world to meet their cloud computing needs.But hey: it isn't January anymore and Microsoft in June, 2018 is looking a little bit like IBM back in the 1930s.Under the Trump Administration's direction, ICE and other Homeland Security entities have been busy breaking up families, emotionally scarring thousands of innocent kids, and driving their anguished caretakers into cages, or worse, to suicide. That Microsoft's Azure cloud computing services are helping such villainy along, in any capacity, might be good in the short-term, for the company's bottom line, but the optics are shit. More than this, the company's association with ICE is raising the hackles of some of their their most important assets: not their shareholders or board, but their employees.According to Gizmodo, a number of Microsoft employees, who prefer to remain anonymous in the interest of protecting their careers, have stepped forward to report that the computer technology company's relationship with ICE has led to growing dissent among the company's workforce. When Giz questioned Microsoft's PR team on the matter, the response was a bit wishy-washy:From Gizmodo:

Mike Oldfield performs Tubular Bells live on the BBC in 1973. The first release on Richard Branson's new Virgin Records, Tubular Bells became a huge success after film director William Friedkin cast off the Lalo Schifrin score for his new film The Exorcist and went with "Tubular Bells (Part One)" instead. At the time, Oldfield said he didn't want to see the film because it was too scary.

Pioneering engineer Bill Atkinson was the lead designer/developer of the Apple Lisa graphical user interface, creator of MacPaint and QuickDraw, and part of the original team that developed the Apple Macintosh. In 1985, Atkinson dropped acid and came up with HyperCard, the groundbreaking multimedia authoring program that was really a precursor to the first Web browser. Atkinson recently told Leo Laporte the story of this incredible LSD-fueled eureka moment. From Mondo 2000:

A 5-year-old boy knocked over a sculpture at the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas. A few days later, Overland Park's insurance company hit the boy's parents with a $132,000 bill. From ABC News:

Watch Leo Moracchioli and Rob Scallon perform a genre-bending cover of French heavy metal band Gojira's "The Heaviest Matter in the Universe," banjo, straw hats, and all.(digg)

"WHAT YOU THINKING EUROPE? WANT BORING STUPID INTERNET? WANT MUSIC INDUSTRY INTERNET? WANT COPYRIGHT INTERNET? HULK SMASH CENSORSHIP. HULK SMASH SURVEILLANCE. HULK SMASH ARTICLE 13. #HULK #SMASH #ARTICLE13 #SAVEYOURINTERNET" - @PUBDOMAINHULK (more…)

Toni Cornell, daughter of the late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, released this duet yesterday of she and her dad singing one of his favorite Prince tunes. From Chris Cornell's YouTube account:

https://youtu.be/HqllNjR7vl8Now that I've killed Calamity Gannon in Zelda: Breath of the Wild (it took 4 months of playing everyday and I loved it), I'm ready to try something else on the Nintendo Switch. Any suggestions? I'm thinking of Minecraft for the Nintendo Switch. It's been available as a downloadable game for a while, but I prefer cartridges. It's going to be released on Thursday and prime members can get it for $24. It's currently the top-selling Switch title.

A mass of sea creatures rained down on the Chinese city of Qingda during a storm last week. From Mysterious Universe:

[Update 6/18/2018 10:52am PT - Drudge replace this photo for another without explanation]Look at these Central American kids brandishing handguns on the front page of Drudge Report. Thank goodness Trump and Sessions are caging these menaces to America!The only thing is, the photo was taken in 2012, the guns are toys, and the photo was taken in Syria. These are inconsequential trivialities for Drudge's lie-loving readers, though.On his Flickr site, photographer Christiaan Triebert says:

When a large corporation in the United States has committed massive fraud, the CEO usually retires with a large bonus and the corporation receives a modest cost-of-business fine. But Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, was actually arrested and detained this morning in his role in the emissions test cheating scandal that has plagued Volkswagen, Audi's parent company.From CNBC:

I have friends in the US seriously looking into moving to Germany. One reason - crimes rates are going down fast.From Politico:

The children that Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump are locking up in enclosures are not actually cages, said a host on Fox and Friends Fox & Friends. They simply "built walls out of chain-link fences."

George Lakoff, a cognitive scientist and linguist that studies propaganda, says the way the media reports on Trump's lies actually helps Trump. “Trump needs the media, and the media help him by repeating what he says,” he told The Washington Post. He says stories can actually be constructed in a way to make Trump's lies work against him, not for him:

Article 11 is the EU's bizarre proposal for transferring money from Google and Facebook to newspapers: it creates a special copyright over links to news stories and bans services from linking to the news unless they pay for a license to link. (more…)

An invasive plant species with an appropriately unappealing name, giant hogweed, has been found growing in Virginia. If its clear sap gets on your skin, exposure to sunlight can cause 3rd degree burns, even years after contact. If the sap gets in your eyes, you could go blind.From USA Today:

Jason Davies created a voronoi diagram of the world's airports projected onto an interactive 3D globe. Easter Island's airport claims the largest partition.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador the front-running candidate for president of Mexico on a largely progressive ticket (tuition breaks, increased aid to seniors, drug war amnesty, though it's a mixed bag, reflecting the weird coalition of left-wing and right-wing parties he's fronting); and he is the target of a bizarre, mass-scale disinformation campaign being carried out by blanket robo-calling. (more…)

Boston Dynamics finally took a step too far with its new model, "Jalen Rose."(Note: video contains NSFW language. Note: Rose is in fact neither a robot nor a coach) [via Reddit]

Here's Smooth Criminal, arranged and performed by Patrick Mathis. Something about this suggests to me that there is a machine that turns midi into those rolls; I couldn't find it, but Virtual Roll is a physical gadget that pretends to be a paper roll in player pianos, kind of like the fake cassette tapes that let you hook MP3 players up to a car stereo.

BeauHD, a Slashdot moderator, has Crohn's Disease, and he lives in an age of modern miracles, which means that he can have his small intestine surveyed by swallowing a tiny pill-sized camera, rather than having a scope threaded up his rectum or down his throat, or having his gut sliced open. (more…)

Jenny Robins interviews Alex Norris...

Remember Doom? Remember Magic Eye puzzles that required you to unfocus your eyes and see forever in a field of stereographic static? Now you can do both at once with OMDO, a free download at Itch.