Unlike most of the GOP, former first lady Laura Bush is not afraid of Trump. His policy of taking children from their parents and putting them in detention centers, she writes, is "eerily reminiscent" of internment camps. "Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children." (Wayback Machine link)The term "baby-snatching" isn't hers, though. That's from today's opionion piece in the New York Times.

Hey, remember last month when that group of United States Air Force personnel lost a box of grenades? It apparently fell off the back of a vehicle on a public road while the Airmen responsible for the grenades were being transported between one site and another. These are the guys that are responsible for protecting the nation's nuclear weapons sites. Everything's fine! Did I mention that shortly after, it was discovered that a M240 machine gun was discovered to be missing from the same unit's inventory! That's fine too! What makes it fine is that the Air Force relieved the officer responsible for overseeing the unit responsible for all of the missing military swag, Colonel Jason Beers, of his duties. They also outright fired Chief Master Sgt. Nikki Drago--she was the superintendent in charge of the unit at the time that the weapons went missing. When there's a mess, those responsible either have to clean it up, or suffer for it.Now for the kicker. After Col. Beers was shitcanned, he failed his way right into a cushy new position.From Task & Purpose:

On June 20, the EU's legislative committee will vote on the new Copyright directive, and decide whether it will including the controversial "Article 13" (automated censorship of anything an algorithm identifies as a copyright violation) and "Article 11" (no linking to news stories without paid permission from the site). (more…)

You'll recall that self-published romance author Faleena Hopkins undertook the sociopathic step of registering a trademark on the word "Cocky" in the titles of romance novels and then had her rivals' works removed from Amazon, threatening to sue any writer who used the common word in a title in the future. (more…)

On June 20, an EU committee will vote on mandatory copyright filters -- the idea that everything that gets posted to an EU service should be checked for copyright violations by a machine learning system that will decide what gets published and what gets censored. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV9Rh4ynBf4Behold, my two most favorite pieces of Father's Day media. I'm thousands of miles from my own family today, but I'm celebrating Father's Day in my own way. (more…)

The human eye is a powerful thing, but it's not so great at seeing in the dark or around tight spaces, which is partially why most of us struggle with unplugging drains, cleaning under the fridge, and other hard-to-reach jobs. This 1080p HD Waterproof WiFi Wireless Endoscopic Camera, however, gives you the flexibility necessary to get to where your work is, and it's available in the Boing Boing store for $39.99.Similar to the cameras doctors use to peek inside patients, this device gives you a generous three meters of cable to snake into tight spaces to stream footage straight to your smartphone via WiFi. Its IP68 waterproof rating makes it ideal for working in damp areas like drains, while the eight powerful LEDs let you easily see in dark spaces.You can start diagnosing problems at the source with this 1080p HD Waterproof WiFi Wireless Endoscopic Camera, available in the Boing Boing store for $39.99.

The Washington Post rounds up 15 privacy defaults that no one in their right mind would want to leave as-is, and provides direct links to change 'em (hilariously and predictably, Verizon/Oath/Yahoo's privacy settings dashboard times out when you try to load it) -- once you're done with that, go back and follow his links to unfuck the privacy defaults for Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and #DeleteFacebook. (via Reddit)

We're into the fifth week of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival, a national uprising over the state of the richest nation in the world, where 140,000,000 people live at or below the poverty line (America is history's first rich poor country). (more…)

America's health care is totally screwed up, Part Ten Gazillion: in many cases, the medicines your doctor prescribes are cheaper than the co-pay your health insurance charges, which means that if you just buy the meds instead of charging them to insurance, you save money. (more…)

Like father, like son. Happy Father's Day.

The National Institutes of Health maintain a 3D Print Exchange, a kind of miniature Thingiverse for open-licensed, 3D printable objects for teaching and practicing public health. (more…)

Macs are undeniably some of the most versatile computers on the market, but they can do so much more than what their stock apps allow. For those looking to get the most out of their Mac hardware, the Pay What You Want 2018 Super Mac Bundle features 10 of the industry's top apps, including photo editors and writing tools, and they're available for a price you get to pick.Here's how the deal works, simply pay what you want, and you'll instantly unlock one of the collection's 10 apps. Beat the average price paid, and you'll get the remaining nine at no extra charge. Read on below for a few app highlights.1. WhiteSmoke Premium:Writing doesn't come to us all naturally, which is why many of us struggle when it comes to drafting emails, creating blog posts, and the like. WhiteSmoke uses patented artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze your content for English grammar, style, spelling, and punctuation, making you a better writer with every keystroke.2. Disk Drill PRO 3:All it takes is one system crash to wipe all of that precious data on your computer. Disk Drill PRO makes it easy to recover documents, music, photos, videos, or even whole partitions that have gone missing from your computer—and with just the single push of a button.3. Aurora HDR 2018 ExpressAll to often, the only thing standing between a good photo and great one are a few tweaks made in the editing stage. Aurora HDR is the world’s leading HDR photo editor and gives you the tools to turn your ordinary photos into stunning HDR photos with minimal fuss.Simply choose your price and you can net these apps and eight others today with the Pay What You Want 2018 Super Mac Bundle.

In 1967, the Lunar Orbiter missions sent back exciting -- but grainy and low-rez -- photos of the moon's surface. (more…)

In 1976, Walt Disney World was riding high: the oil crisis was over, tourists were flocking back to Florida, and the successful bicentennial celebration at the Florida Disney resort had been national news. (more…)

LockPickingLawyer, a recreational lock picker, was sent a fingerprint padlock for review. He emailed the manufacture to let them know that he'd discovered a security vulnerability: "Upon examining the lock, I found that if you remove the three screws, the lock falls apart. The shackle can be opened and relocked without the owner's fingerprint or knowledge."The manufacturer replied: "the lock is invincible to the people who do not have a screwdriver."Thank goodness a set of torx drivers costs $4, or this might be a concern for anyone using this lock.

Since 1991, The Jerry Springer Show offered America an unevenly-distributed taste of its own future. But we're settled comfortably in, now, and the present has no need for its harbingers. So long, Jerry.

The game is up for folks who enjoy pointing out that Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes (and company president Sunny Balwani) inexplicably escaped serious consequences for the company's billion-dollar blood test hoax. They were charged with fraud today by the Feds.

Sean Rowe travels under the radar of many a music aficionado. This is a damn shame.Playing songs from an early age, Rowe cut his musical teeth playing bass in a local band before he was even 12 years old. A year before hitting his teenage years, he was gifted an acoustic guitar by his father – perhaps as a ploy to get a stack of amps out of his house. New axe in hand, Rowe started playing solo gigs, punctuated by appearances with a percussionist. He wrote his first song at the age of 18 and well, here we are.If you're digging it, Old Black Dodge appears on Rowe's 2009 album Magic.When he's not out hammering on his guitar, Rowe spends his time teaching wilderness survival and wild foraging skills. If you want to learn more about his music, book a private house concert or learn how to survive off of the land, hitting up his website is the best bet you have for fulfilling those needs.

The last time we saw Zach Galifianakis uncomfortably interview people on his series Between Two Ferns was in 2016 (his last guest was Hillary Clinton). This time he's got Jerry Seinfeld (with a cameo by Wayne Knight aka Newman) and rapper Cardi B. Awkward hilarity ensues.

Eric Abramovitz is a gifted musician, who can currently be found fulfilling the role of associate principal/E flat clarinetist at the Toronto Symphony: a position that thousands of musicians around the world would kill for. Back in 2014, he applied for another position that these same musicians would think kill-worthy, too: a placement with the Colburn Conservatory as a student. The conservatory is insanely hard to get into – only two students are accepted a year. When Abramovitz received an email from the Conservatory that denied him a spot with them, along with the scholarship he had applied for, he was gutted like a fish: music was his life and being able to study under renowned clarinet instructor Yehuda Gilad was a dream that was so close to coming true. To have it snatched away? Ouch.But here’s the thing: Abramovitz was accepted into the program, scholarship and all. His girlfriend at the time, fellow musician Jennifer Lee, didn’t want him to leave her to further his education. So, she did what any young sociopath in love would do: she accessed his email account and deleted the acceptance message from the Colburn Conservatory. Next, she opened up a fake Gmail account in Yehuda Gilad’s name and used it to write to Abramovitz, saying, more or less, "tough shit, keep playing music, but you won't being doing it at the Colburn School." Pretending to be Gilad, Lee offered her sweet baboo the chance to attend one of Gilead’s other classes at the University of Southern California, knowing full well that he would not be able to afford the tuition required to do so.But that didn’t stop Abramovitz from studying under Yehuda Gilad.A few months later, he auditioned for a program that would give him access to the teacher of his dreams. By that time, he’d broken up with Lee, and was ready to go where ever his career as a musician would take him. Abramovitz was accepted into the program. Upon finally meeting Gilad, he asked him why he had been rejected by the Colburn Conservatory.From The National Post:

With snowpack disappearing and desertification expanding globally, the Global Warming Riders are making the best of a bad situation and shredding some challenging dunes. (more…)

Brian writes, "I play in band in Dublin, Ireland. In January 2017 we released an album called 'Long Gone' and on it we had a song called 'Papaya' which I wrote after watching The Internet's Own Boy. It is a tribute to Aaron Swartz. The title came when I was singing 'The panic is spreading like fire' I really spat out the 'like fire' and the rest of the guys in the band thought I was saying 'papaya'. The 'Simple, really, simple reallys...' came from RSS." (more…)

Jeff Sessions says that the Bible commands him to cruelly separate thousands of children from their parents, but Colbert -- a devout Catholic -- begs to differ. (Thanks, Rutherford B Hayes!)

Some World Cup fans who picked up AquaStar's commemorative water jugs found out the hard way that leaving them in the sun is not a good idea, as they make fire-starting magnifiers. (more…)

A team of computer scientists, psychologists and neuroscientists used eye-tracking and fMRI to measure how users perceived security warnings, such as warnings about app permissions and browser warnings about insecure pages and plugin installations. (more…)

Lindybeige takes viewers on a wistful tour of a Helsinki model shop while remembering the now-closed shop of his youth. (more…)

Salesforce has reinvented the way companies manage customer information, close deals, and ultimately drive revenue, so it should come as no surprise that it's one of the more valuable skills you can list on your resume today. In fact, according to research from Burning Glass, this platform is now the 7th most in-demand software skill, beating out tech staples, like Python and C++.That said, getting savvy with this tool doesn't mean slogging through a pricey bootcamp. The Essential Salesforce Certification Training Bundle can train you to get certified with three courses, and it's available in the Boing Boing Store for $39.This collection is designed to take you from beginner to expert as you master the Salesforce concepts critical to becoming a certified expert. You'll foster core skills in customizing apps, managing users, and data, and preparing reports and workflows, all the while developing the knowledge necessary to pass the Salesforce Certified Administrator, Salesforce Advanced Administrator, Salesforce App Builder certification exams.You can take the first step toward stronger job prospects today with the Essential Salesforce Certification Training Bundle, available now in the Boing Boing Store for $39.

From KÄ«lauea, where the eruption continues, now with "lava flowing unabated with standing waves."You can see them to the left of the photo here, taken by a USGS drone over the flow, and in this video:https://twitter.com/USGSVolcanoes/status/1007340636867973120

Johan Schlüter is (was!) a Danish lawyer whose firm contracted with the Antipiratgruppen (an entertainment industry group now called RettighedsAlliancen, whose members include the MPAA) to run legal campaigns against file-sharing services and their users. (more…)

David Kaye (previously) is the UN's Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression; he just released a detailed report on the catastrophic free speech implications of Article 13, the EU's proposed copyright rule that would make sites filter everything their users post to check for copyright violations. (more…)

Enjoy this history of the Mac startup sound, which Apple got rid of in the 2016 MacBooks after three decades of bongggggg.Here's a video featuring just the startup sounds, complete with crash chimes.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n23dp8caq9A

From Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" to Alice Cooper's "School's Out," Weird Al and his band covered a different song for the encore each night for Yankovic's recent "Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour." Now he's put together a video of all of those cover songs, 77 songs for 77 cities. It's nearly half an hour long and there's no footage, just the music, but it's totally worth a look/listen (if for no other reason to appreciate the effort).

Quantum physics gets real weird real fast, and one idea gaining more currency of late is the concept of quantum retrocausality, where a decision made in our experience of the present may influence what we experience as the past.These aren't a bunch of Time Cube type cranks, either. From a helpful overview by Lisa Zyga:

One of my eBay alerts finally pinged! A Boing Boing reader will surely become the lucky owner of these splendid IBM lab coveralls, dated to the late 1980s or thereabouts, which have a buy-it-now price of $170 and ship out of California.

Photographer and designer Helen Sham of Taiwan has constructed a Hasselblad 503CX film camera with LEGO blocks. As if that wasn't impressive enough, it's functional. No, it doesn't take actual photos but watch this video to see what pieces move just like the real thing.https://youtu.be/E_eBYMsGL0kShe writes:

I'm always surprised when these oddball mashups work, but sometimes they just do, like with this Wham! and Slayer one by YouTube mashup guy Bill McClintock called "Careless Whisper in the Abyss."(reddit)

I have never seen anything like this before: A motorcycle-riding cowboy in Idaho has figured out a way to bring his horse along with him... in a sidecar!https://www.instagram.com/p/BjxuopYAXVn/?taken-by=the_van_man__https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj2obM7AB27/?taken-by=the_van_man__The man who shot the video and captured the photos above, Casey Perkins aka the_van_man__, has his own unusual "Rodeo Rig," an "airy" Plymouth minivan:https://www.instagram.com/p/BhfpdLlFqUE/?taken-by=the_van_man__https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhxui-lF3ec/?taken-by=the_van_man__

Defense contractors are making millions off the Trump administration's racist campaign to separate immigrant kids from their parents, and detain the kids separately --indefinitely-- in ad-hoc camps.We already know Trump and his allies in government are amoral. We need to hold accountable these private sector enablers, too.(more…)

LET THE LITTLE CHILDREN COME TO ME

Monopoly season is open, and Net Neutrality just died. The Justice Department will not try to stop AT&T from purchasing Time Warner, and the companies are now free to close their deal. The government may yet appeal a ruling on its antitrust lawsuit against the ultra-giga-mega-merger.(more…)

🔥😲 Christopher Wray, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, spoke publicly about the findings of the just-concluded investigation into--among other things--James Comey's 11th-hour actions around the Clinton email investigation, and their effect on the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections.(more…)

I'm in the home stretch on CRYPTO WARS, the third Little Brother novel; and making good progress on RADICALIZED, a short story about suicide bombers and US health care; you can follow my progress and sponsor my work on the Clarion Write-a-Thon, which raises funds to subsidize the tuition at the Clarion Writing Workshop, which I graduated from in 1992 and donate to every year.

Rulof Maker used a salvaged motorcycle piston and cylinder, mounted in an Ikea lamp, to create a homebrew espresso machine, using a lever to pressurize water at temperature through a puck of coffee grounds.

Parmit Singh Brar is a telemarketeer who bilked elderly Americans out of millions by running a "calling about your Windows" tech support scam. He'll have to pay $136,000 in fines to the FTC--and may never offer tech support again. Behold the merciless justice of the federal authorities.

My favorite witch, Pamela Grossman (who runs the art/occult blog, Phantasmaphile, the podcast, The Witch Wave, and is the author of What is a Witch) recently sat down with Jason Louv of Ultraculture to talk all things witchy.On the podcast they discuss (among other things):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx3QlyeG_mII've seen people in the US count money in nearly all these ways but perhaps certain methods are dominant in different countries. In any case, the Belarusian finger flip is new to me and rather impressive. Try doing that with your stinkin' bitcoins!"70 People Reveal How To Count Money in Their Country" (Condé Nast Traveler)

Look, we’re not all maple syrup lollipops and free healthcare up here. According to the CBC, a naturalized Canadian citizen was held against his will, without charge, for 10 months while immigration officials attempted to verify his identity.47-year old Nigerian-born Olajide Ogunye moved to Canada with his family in the 1990s and, in 1996, he became a Canadian Citizen. But that didn’t matter to the Canadian Border Services Agency. During a sweep of his neighborhood (which, I have to admit, I had no idea that the CBSA did), Ogunye was told to produce evidence of his citizenship. So he did: His Ontario Health card and Canadian Citizenship card.But here’s the thing: despite his producing two pieces of government identification – the gold standard for get-out-of-my-face-I’m-a-citizen, the CBSA refused to believe that Ogunye was who he claimed to be. So, without charge, they took him into custody so that he could be properly identified.From the CBC:

As Earth's human population expands, it's harder for other mammals to avoid people during the daytime. As a result, some mammals are becoming increasingly nocturnal. Nobody knows how that shift will affect individual species and even entire ecosystems. In a new paper in the journal Science, University of California, Berkeley wildlife ecologist Kaitlyn Gaynor and her colleagues examined data on how 62 species across the world spend their days and night. From Scientific American: