Flying Tiger Motorcycles offers this curious "Two Stroke Smoke Candle" that is made from two-stroke oil and "high-octane fragrance" to give your home that singular bike bouquet. It's $20 and comes in a metal can.

Last year, Mohammed Abad, 43, whose penis was destroyed when he was hit by a car as a child, received an 8-inch implant involving two tubes that inflate his reconstructed flesh phallus when he pumps it up via a button in his scrotum. The implant was the culmination of years of reconstructive surgery. These kinds of implants are commonly used to treat erectile dysfunction. Abad has now announced that he will soon lose his virginity to a sex worker named Charlotte Rose, 35.“I have waited long enough for this — it’ll be a great start to the new year," Abad said. "My penis is working perfectly now so I just want to do it. I’m really excited. I can’t wait for it to finally happen.”Rose will travel from London to see Abad in Edinburgh."I am so honoured that he chose me to take his virginity," she said. "We plan to have a dinner date so we can get to know each other and then two hours of private time. I’m not charging him.”(The British Journal)More: "Man's 'Bionic Penis' Is Not So Rare After All" (LiveScience)

My dog is a 10-year-old whose history includes time in animal shelters, and in various homes. He has arthritis, a progressive condition that will cause him more pain as he grows older. Direct heat through my electric blanket or heating pad is clearly very comforting for him--if there's a heated throw of some kind around, he'll find it and snuggle up. But the best solution I've found for both of us is this gently heated dog bed, which warms up to your dog's body temperature when they sit down on it.You don't have to worry about it heating up too hot, or about remembering to switch it on or off. When your pup needs it, they get warmth. When they step away, the device shifts to "off." I bought mine a few months ago, and it is the center of his world. The color is attractive, and works with the neutral tones in my modest, minimalist living space. Strongly recommended if you have a smaller, older dog, or a cat who likes extra body warmth.From the manufacturer's specs:

Punk icon Jello Biafra's acting showreel, used as a resume-of-sorts in the TV/movie business, features his moments in Portlandia, Death and Taxes, Tapeheads, The Hipster Games, and others. (via Dangerous Minds)

Many years ago I found a handwritten note on my car windshield that said, "If you ever touch my car again I will break your antenna." I don't think I touched anyone's car, so the person who wrote the note was mistaken. Fortunately I didn't lose my antenna, either. Bristolparking notes is a new Instragram devoted to angry windshield notes, like the one I received in the 1980s. I subscribed.

People in ancient Greece used snakes as projectile weapons during sea battles, explains Gianni Insacco, a zoologist/paleontologist at Italy's Insacco Museo Civico di Storia Naturale.Insacco's research team just reported that one of the weaponized species, the Javelin Sand Boa that was likely introduced to Italy by the Greeks during wartime, has survived in Sicily after not having been spotted for nearly 100 years.(more…)

Do not compare sausages to horse penises in Kyrgyzstan, or you could end up spending five years in prison. One man who learned this the hard way is Michael Mcfeat, a Brit who works at a gold mine in Kyrgyzstan. Mcfeat recently posted to Facebook that a traditional Kyrgyzstanian horse sausage known as chuchuk, which was being served to his co-workers at a holiday party, was actually a "special delicacy, the horse's penis." His co-workers complained to authorities and he was arrested.

Tomorrow, buying a puff pastry in a French boulangerie will be as exciting as buying a chocolate Wonka Bar. Almost. But rather than looking for a golden ticket to win a magical chocolate factory, pastry lovers will have the chance of finding a faux diamond hidden in the almond cream of one of 800 galettes, which they can then exchange at a local boutique for a .20 carat diamond worth 600 euros.On January 6, French bakers Nicolas and Julie Lelut will be holding their treasure hunt at two locations – one in their Paris shop, Delices de Belleville, where a pastry will reward someone with a white diamond. The second hunt will take place at their L’Amandine shop in Custines, where the winning pastry will offer a blue diamond. No word on whether or not they’ll pay the dentist bill in case of a chipped tooth.Thanks Oddity Central!

See sample pages from this book at Wink.Justin Green is the author of the classic Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, an underground comix autobiography about growing up Catholic and OCD. Sadly, creating brilliant underground comix doesn't provide the most stable of incomes, so in the mid-1970s – with a family to support – Green went into business as a commercial sign painter.Sign painting, or "commercial brush lettering," evolved over hundreds of years and is probably the earliest form of advertising. But by the 1980s – when Green was seriously devoting himself to the business – it was being eclipsed by computer type and cheap printed vinyl signs. Master sign-painters were aging out and few young craftspeople were taking up the brush, so Green started his monthly comic strip "Sign Game" (collected here) to record some of this hard-won knowledge before it disappeared.The early strips tell how Green found his footing; including the one-thousand hours required to brush a perfect "O." In later strips he requested techniques and stories from veteran brushmen. They offered priceless knowledge like how to mix your paint so it stays put under the hot sun or how much arm-twisting to apply when a client lets an invoice sit for too long. Some of these sign painters became recurring characters in "Sign Game," and a few died during its run leaving these strips – and a few fading signs – as their final memorial.Like a great sign, Green's strips are dense with information, lettered in classic historical styles, yet easy to follow. The book will have great appeal for graphic design geeks and for those nostalgic for vintage advertising and handicraft. It also provides many evergreen tips for supporting yourself as a commercial artist.– William Smith of Hang Fire BooksJustin Green's Sign Game

Pop Colorture hand-colorized 1,300 frames of The Munsters title sequence, turning the grimly fiendish and funny family into the full color characters that were originally black-and-white only due to budgetary reasons. From Pop Colorture:

"The occupation of Malheur by armed, out-of-state militia groups puts one of America’s most important wildlife refuges at risk. It violates the most basic principles of the Public Trust Doctrine and holds hostage public lands and public resources to serve the very narrow political agenda of the occupiers. The occupiers have used the flimsiest of pretexts to justify their actions – the conviction of two local ranchers in a case involving arson and poaching on public lands. Notably, neither the local community or the individuals convicted have requested or endorsed the occupation or the assistance of militia groups." - excerpt from a statement by Bob Sallinger, Conservation Director at Portland AudubonImage: "Six of the frowzy-headed Fishers in a pose", from Finley's American Birds, 1908. Wikipedia.

Read Maria Konnikova's gripping article about con artist Sammy Azzopardi, whose new identities and wheezes seem impervious to detection until a technical fact or failing becomes impossible to ignore. Azzopardi's gift, Konnikova writes, is a perfect combination of narrative insight and total lack of scruples. She knows exactly what will trigger empathy, and exactly how to exploit sympathy.

This website lets you design an 18th century wig, then powder and decorate it.

People between the ages of 15-30 are more likely to die from external causes than any other reason. The 60s, 70s, and 80s are cancer years. If you've made it that far, your failing heart is most likely to kill you. Nathan Yau created this stacked area graph that "shows how cause of death varies across sex and race, based on mortality data from 2005 through 2014. Select a group to see the changes. Select causes to see them individually."

What did you think about on New Year’s day? I sat in my home in Washington, DC, and dreamed the dream of a middle-aged Jew.Not of wealth.Not of fame.Not of my wife and daughter or other assorted family members and friends.Not of travel to a foreign land.And not even of my grandmother’s chicken soup. As a person she was a monster, but boy she made good chicken soup.NO! I was dreaming of a pastrami sandwich.I was craving a pastrami sandwich.Every store was closed here, of course, being New Year’s Day, but it wouldn’t matter—there’s no pastrami worth a damn in this town.At that moment my body needed to be magically transported to New York City or Los Angeles, the only two places I’ve ever had a really a fabulous pastrami sandwich. (Maybe there’s one in Chicago, who knows?)In New York, I go to the 2nd Ave. Deli; in LA, I go to Art’s on Ventura Blvd. The 2nd Ave Deli has a long history, and plenty of tragedy (the original owner was robbed and shot to death bringing the day’s cash to the bank in 1996). Then the landlord got greedy and forced them out. His nephews reopened the restaurant on 33rd Street just west of Third Ave. They did a good job: tiled floor, pressed tin ceiling, “A” rating from the Health Department. And the aroma is what I want to smell in heaven when I die. Your tush hasn’t been in the chair for five seconds before Health Salad and sour pickles are on the table.Art’s is in Los Angeles (“where every sandwich is a work of Art” — Art being the late owner) has food of equal quality. Smells right, too. (I know that some folks prefer Jerry’s, but you can’t convince a Jew about his sandwich.)You should know that brisket, corned beef, and pastrami are all the exact same cut of beef, merely prepared differently. People who eat corned beef usually do so on rye bread with mustard. Some folks like a “Reuben,” which is the same thing but with Swiss cheese and sauerkraut on it. They should live and be well, but I wouldn’t let that thing near my mouth.Here’s what I was craving: a sandwich of beautiful moist warm pastrami, smothered in coleslaw and dripping with Russian dressing, between two pieces of fresh rye bread. And don’t order lean pastrami, just don’t bother. Eat something else.Silly, isn’t it? If you offered me $1,000 or a pastrami sandwich from Art’s or the 2nd Ave Deli, I would take the sandwich. You’d have to add sour pickles and potato salad.Art’s Deli is located at 12224 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, California. Click here for the website (warning: the website is lousy but the food is good). And if you don’t believe me, read Trip Advisor.The 2nd Ave Deli is located on 33rd Street between Third and Lex in Manhattan. Click here for the website. Click here to read the menu: You might want to put on a bib first. Ditto for Trip Advisor!The 2nd Ave Deli’s website tantalizingly offers “Ordering Online (Coming Soon).” How’s that gonna work? I know! The first worthwhile use of a drone could deliver me a pastrami sandwich in about two hours. Can it be? I’d order the night before and the drone flies from New York City and lands the next day at noon and heaven hits my doorstep. Yeah, I know … I’m dreaming. Oy, but what a dream!

https://youtu.be/WwxajbfzqbgTrackmania is a highly-customizable car-racing game renowned for the insane videos players generate, showing off feats that would be impossible or absurdly dangerous in real life. Feats such as showing 20,000 cars racing simultaneously around the track.Graham Smith explains at RPS:

Whether you're typically right or left-brained, this bundle will teach you to use both sides in the name of photography. Learn the science of taking professional-quality photos, and tap into the creativity behind each shot. From manual photography itself to editing with PhotoShop and Lightroom, this bundle is your road to expertise. Plus with bonus stock photos included, you'll get inspired by what's selling on the market today.Pay what you want for the 11 courses in this bundle today in the Boing Boing store.1Assets From The Baking Man$300 Value2Photography From Viktor Hanacek$300 Value3Assets From Pawel Kadysz$300 Value4Learn to "Create More Than a Snapshot" Photography Class$299 Value5Photography Masterclass: Your Complete Guide to Photography$297 Value6How to Be a Professional Outdoor & Nature Photographer$277 Value7Photos From Tom Eversley$250 Value8The Art of Black & White Photography$149 Value9Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Lightroom 6$99 Value10Night Photography Unlocked - No More Dark or Blurry Photos!$49 Value11The Ultimate Guide to Using Off-Camera Flash$45 Value

This week, the New Press publishes The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz , a collection of the writings of our late, lamented friend. The collection is introduced by Lawrence Lessig, and I wrote the introduction to Aaron's media writings, which you'll find below. (more…)

Veteran technology journalist Dan Gillmor's been using GNU/Linux since 2012, switching away from all the "control freak" services, tools and software that he'd grown used to over decades of computing. (more…)

Undertale is a new 8bit RPG that's much different from the rest. In most games, you have to kill bosses and monsters to survive. In this game, it’s up to you whether you want to kill anyone, and depending on your choices, you can make friends that you would have lost, engage in secret fights, and much more. You have so many choices in the game that you can replay it over and over to achieve all the endings. But be careful, because even if you reset the game, some characters might have a vague memory of you.The fighting style of Undertale is also unique. When an enemy attacks you, instead of automatically losing your health, you can dodge their attack by moving your “soul” across the screen to avoid being hit. Because of this, you don’t have to lose any damage throughout the battle.Undertale starts by your character falling down a giant hole at the top of a mountain and waking up in a world full of monsters. They were all banished to live apart from society for the rest of their lives by humans who sealed them underground with a magic spell. The monsters have figured out that the only way to undo the spell is to have the power of seven souls, but since monsters’ souls disappear after they die, they’ve spent years killing the humans who fall into the underground to gain their souls. Because of this, most of them want to kill you so they can leave, but it’s up to you if you want to hurt them back, or show them that you both can find peace.I highly recommend going to Steam and buying Undertale. I’m 12 and it’s my favorite game, while I also know adults who love it as much as I do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHTsQdVZyg4James Gurney is the creator of the Dinotopia book series and is one of the best book illustrators alive today. His work is in the league of N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle.James has a new instructional painting video called Fantasy in the Wild: Painting Concept Art on Location for sale as a direct download and on DVD. In the excerpt above, James shows how he made a small model of an excavator robot out of craft foam to assist him in painting an urban attack scene. James' teaching style is so friendly and warm. I have met him a couple of times, and this video captures his personality perfectly.

Crooked Timber's fascinating seminar on Thomas Piketty ran all through December, presenting arguments from economists, social scientists and political theorists from around the world on Piketty's seminal Capital in the 21st Century. (more…)

Open offices (without walls and doors) are "damaging to the workers’ attention spans, productivity, creative thinking, and satisfaction," writes Maria Konnikova in her article for The New Yorker. Like me, Maria went to a school with an open design. "Distracting at best and frustrating at worst," she writes, "wide-open classrooms went, for the most part, the way of other ill-considered architectural fads of the time, like concrete domes. The biggest problem with an open design, she writes, is noise. I agree with that. Wired magazine had an open plan and the constant noise and interruptions made it impossible to do actual work there. I did all my editing at home or in the office on Sundays when no one else was there.Image: Shutterstock

Michael Geist has rung in the new year with the first in a series of posts that set out, in eye-watering detail, the bowel-loosening terror of the effects that the secretly negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership would have on Canada if the country ratifies it. (more…)

The domestic terrorists who seized the Malheur National Widlife Refuge Building in Burns, Oregon and vowed to stay there "for as long as it takes" have put out a plea to their supporters asking them to send "supplies or snacks" to help the nosh through the long, anticipated siege. (more…)

In April, Geoff "BLDGBLOG" Manaugh will publish A Burglar's Guide to the City, a new book about London's rich history of heists and the network of tunnels, catacombs, sewers, and caves that London such a paradise for would-be superthieves. (more…)

T-Mobile claims that its Binge On service (video that doesn't count against subscribers' data-caps) is a bit of pre-processing magic that makes the videos you watch load with less jitter and buffering, but that's not what's going on under the hood. (more…)

I have not yet watched this 2-hour BBC television play, called Year of the Sex Olympics, but it sounds good. It's a science fiction story that predicts a world in which the masses are pacified by pornographic, humiliating, and violent reality TV shows.From Wikipedia:

Freddie Mercury's magnificent isolated vocal tracks from Queen's "We Are The Champions." (Playback.fm)

It would take two days to go through 10,000 sparklers if you were to burn them all one right after another. In this video you'll see what happens when you light them all at once.A man and his nephew packed the sparklers together in a bucket and drove to the middle of nowhere. (It seems nuts to transport something so explosive back of a car, but this is Russia, after all.) With a couple of fire extinguishers on hand, they lit the fuse and got away. The resulting jet of sparkly fire was spectacular. It was a good thing they had the fire extinguishers on hand because the dry grass surrounding the bucket immediately caught fire.As the narrator says, "All that is shown in this video is very dangerous, it is forbidden to repeat, but you can enjoy it." [via]

The lyrebirds of Australia were highly mysterious and rarely seen until one fell in love with an elderly widow in 1930. In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll trace the development of their surprising friendship and how it led to an explosion of knowledge about this extraordinary species.We'll also learn how Seattle literally remade itself in the early 20th century and puzzle over why a prolific actress was never paid for her work.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! (more…)

This raccoon found a chunk of cotton candy. When the animal dipped the cotton candy into a puddle to wet it, the chunk dissolved, and the raccoon was like, wtf?Why do raccoons dip their food into water? It's not to clean it, and it is not to soften it. How Stuff Work says raccoons wet their food as a way to give them "a more vivid tactile experience and precise information about what they're about to eat."

After Matt Lindsay celebrated New Year's Eve in Southwood Community Centre near Edmonton, he hailed an Uber to take him and his friends home. The driver who picked up Matt warned him that the "surge rate" was 8.9 times the regular fare. Lindsay accepted the surge and took the ride, which lasted 20 minutes. From CBC:

Charles Vestal has pledged to draw one butt a day throughout 2016. He's doing very well so far. The butts are archived at butts.lol.https://twitter.com/charlesv/status/682792402952663045

See more sample pages from this book at Wink.A delightfully funny and punny read, The Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocalypse: A Cookbook & Culinary Survival Guide isn’t merely humor, it actually provides sound advice for the survivalist. The book begins with “entry level preparedness” and runs through the gamut of various apocalyptic survival scenarios, providing illustrated information, advice and recommendations for further reading in every section.This book is one part apocalypse prepper, one part outdoor survival guide and one part apocalypse cookbook. No reason not to eat well, even in a zombie apocalypse, right? Humor is found in the flowing narrative that is sprinkled with puns, amusingly titled recipes as well as bloodstains and spatters that decorate the introduction of major sections of the book. The pages are a textured grey-green to simulate age and mold.Humor aside, sandwiched between recipes with titles such as Going Ginko Nuts, Dead Easy Peas and Who’s Got Your Back Tuna Mac, are instructions on diverse projects including making SIPS (Self-Watering Planters) out of soda bottles or storage bins, and practical advice on various how-tos such as drying, curing, smoking, and brining. – Carolyn KohThe Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocolypse: A Cookbook and Culinary Survival Guide

Twitter has reinstated Politiwoops' access to the site.Politiwoops, which tracked tweets published and subsequently deleted by politicians, aimed to help keep government honest. But Twitter said that it was an invasion of politicans' privacy and cut its access to the Twitter API last year.Such access enabled more reliable tracking of often fast-deleted but revealing statements uttered off-hand by politicans and their staff.“Politwoops is an important tool for holding our public officials, including candidates and elected or appointed public officials, accountable for the statements they make, and we’re glad that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with Twitter to bring it back online both in the US and internationally.” said Jenn Topper, communications director for The Sunlight Foundation, in a press release issued by Twitter.The restoration was expected after a shake-up at Twitter last fall, in which co-founder Jack Dorsey took the helm from longtime CEO Dick Costolo.Previously.

My book, Maker Dad: Lunch Box Guitars, Antigravity Jars, and 22 Other Incredibly Cool Father-Daughter DIY Projects is on sale for $1.99 as part of Amazon's January Kindle Holiday Store Deal. I'm not sure how long the deal lasts.

If you're wondering, that's a Yamaha Electone electronic organ. Above, the Star Wars Theme. Below, from a few years back, Back To The Future. Many more performances: 826askahttps://youtu.be/NRBqsJNxMfk

Responding to overwhelming consumer demand to be kept in the dark about where meat comes from, the government has relaxed the relevant labeling requirements.

It's not bad enough that Paypal is prone to shutting down your account and seizing your dough if you have a particularly successful fundraiser -- they also have virtually no capacity to prevent hackers from changing the email address, password and phone numbers associated with your account, even if you're using their two-factor authentication fob. (more…)

Five employees of the publisher Mighty Current and its retail arm, Causeway Bay Bookstore, have disappeared from Hong Kong, and pro-democracy leaders say that they were kidnapped to the mainland by PRC security forces in retaliation for publishing books critical of the Chinese government. (more…)

This tiny flyer is the smallest drone of its kind to carry its own camera for taking epic shots in the smallest places. Four fast blades make this new quadcopter omni-directional, which in layman’s terms means it can dip, dash, zip, spin, and flip anywhere you tell it to via remote control. Plus its decked out with LED lights so you can embark on night flights and document it all the while. Tote it anywhere you go and let it rip.

If body contains "unsubscribe" and From: is not any of my addressbooks, then move message to folder "Spam." You're welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJHTZLTLPhoAs always, Charlie "Screen Wipe/Nathan Barley/Black Mirror" Brooker manages to sum up every single terrible thing about the year that was with gut-busting hilarity. (more…)

Aw, crap, this was last yearStanford is offering a free online course by computer scientist/law professor Jonathan Mayer that surveys the baroque, interleaved world of US surveillance law through the Coursera MOOC platform. (more…)

Anne Frank's father, Otto, edited Frank's diary before publishing it. He also endowed two foundations -- one Swiss, one Dutch -- to administer her legacy. (more…)

Wayne Rogers, the actor who portrayed M*A*S*H's legendary "Trapper" John McIntyre, has passed away at the age of 82. Rogers was an incredibly talented individual. In addition to his numerous television and film credits, Rogers became a very successful business person, board member, real estate investor, and continued to produce theater.(h/t Daneel)

Zikzak sends us, "a beautiful, six-minute vid calling for networked global resistance in the face of the many catastrophes overwhelming the world. By the Woodbine collective, a DIY media project in NYC."

In the USA, laws passed in 1976 and 1998 ensure that virtually nothing ever enters the public domain, but it's a different story in the rest of the world -- for now, at least. (more…)