Geoff Marcy, a famous and respected American astronomer, has announced his intention to step down as a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News.Marcy also works with NASA on the search for extraterrestrial life, via the NASA Kepler Mission.Buzzfeed first broke today's news of Marcy's plans to step aside. It is the first real fallout he's facing from sexual harassment claims that the reported victims say were ignored for years.Why would those claims be ignored by UC Berkeley? Because Marcy is kind of a big deal in the field of astronomy, and his name meant money for the struggling California academic institution. (more…)

"Jimmy was having a rather beautiful day until he bumped into Jack and things got weird." Directed by Adrien Dezalay, Emmanuel Delabaere, and Simon Philippe. (Vimeo)

Toronto's nonprofit Hand Eye Society's annual WordPlay festival is one of my favorite curations of a given year's niftiest narrative and text games. In recent years this space has become one of the most interesting for small indie games full stop, so if you are an Offworlder who can look at this list without having played a single one, what are you even doing? 'Fultoning' okapis in Metal Gear Solid V, I bet. Tch.Lots of Offworld's favorites made it into the curation—I bring up Merritt Kopas' Vin Diesel game a lot in my talks (most recently in my JSB Symposium lecture on the inherent value of games) as an example of games as caregiving. We've also loved Final Girls, Hornets (maybe my favorite Twine all year?) and The Writer Will Do Something, the best-ever answer to the question "why is the writing on commercial video games often bad"?Most of these games 'contain' text, but few of them are 'text games', if you're one of those people who has a hard time with 'text games' (and also, if you look at this year's Interactive Fiction Competition, as we'll be doing later this week, the very utility of 'text game' as a descriptor has begun to crumble).There are some cool-looking games in the WordPlay curation that we haven't tried, too! And I'm bummed the jury missed Wheels of Aurelia, but it's just a testament to how vast and exciting and full of creative potential and participation this space has become.

A few readers have expressed doubt about the orgasm-inducing mushroom I mentioned yesterday. It was in reference to an article titled, "Spontaneous Female Orgasms Triggered by the Smell of a Newly Found Tropical Dictyophora Desv. Species," which appeared in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms (Vol 3. p. 162, 2001)Here's a link to the PDF of the article. The article, written by John C. Holliday and Noah Soule of Next Laboratories and Aloha Medicinals in Hawaii says:

A 16-pound pine cone fell on Sean Mace's head in San Francisco, and crushed his skull.He is suing the U.S. government, the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park for $5 million.(Image: Rodmunch99/Wikimedia. Bunya cone from Cumberland State Forest, Sydney, NSW, Australia on 28th January 2012)

No sweat, guys. It happens to the best of us.

Even Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the long-dead impressionist painter, cannot escape the internet's disdain for pretty things that are also smarmy. (more…)

Tony from Starshipsofa writes, "This week on StarShipSofa, I interview (MP3) Serah Eley about her remarkable transgender journey from Steve Eley creator of Escape Pod to Serah. We delve into some of the very real issues that Serah has come across, why she gave up Escape Pod and why now she has stepped away altogether from the SF field."

A beautiful piece of writing by Schabse presents the history of Web authentication as a series of conversational gambits and ripostes between someone who wants to let users prove their identity online, and someone who wants to impersonate those users. It's a great way to present a subject that's both esoteric and vital, and I've never seen it before. (more…)

Good photo-collages are pretty easy to make, just contrasting things in ways that are quirky and eye-catching. But great photo-collages are hard, and when they work: woah. (more…)

Ever tried writing a novel in Microsoft Word? Trust us, you don’t want to. That’s why writing professionals around the world use Scrivener 2, the word processor and project management tool that stays with you from your first, unformed idea all the way through to the final draft. As you’re writing, outline your ideas, take notes, and view research all at once. Scrivener takes all the tools you have scattered around your desk and makes them available in one application."Scrivener is one of the finds of the last ten years.” -- Jason Snell, Editorial Director ofMacworld

Tanner Stokes of Herp Derp fame has done it again. He invented what we have all longed for, since the internet began: an effective way to shut people up.https://youtu.be/Lz3GuYEpTqE“Plasma ball destroys the web.”Yes, friends, Tanner's latest creation is the answer to unfriendly YouTube comments, harassing or abusive Facebook posts, douchey viral ads, you name it. Whatever on the internet is wrong. (more…)

Carol writes, "The first Cheapass Game ever was Kill Doctor Lucky, back in late 1996. After multiple editions, and being licensed out for a number of years, it has come back home to Cheapass Games, and we're sprucing it up, just in time for its 19.5th Anniversary. It's now available for pre-order through Kickstarter, with some nice extras, until Friday, November 13th. 'Someone is going to kill Doctor Lucky... it might as well be you!'" (more…)

The Joint Photographic Expert Group, which oversees the JPEG format, met in Brussels today to discuss adding DRM to its format, so that there would be images that would be able to force your computer to stop you from uploading pictures to Pintrest or social media. (more…)

Jennifer Connell says that in 2011, her nephew -- then 8, now 12 -- jumped off his bike and ran to her, giving her a huge hug and shouting "I love you, Auntie Jen," and that the hug resulted in her breaking her wrist. (more…)

UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology employ a colony of flesh-eating beetles to clean the meat off the bones of animals whose bones they want to preserve for posterity. (KQED's Deep Look)

This little flashlight is great for packing in a travel bag. It has three brightness modes and is small enough to clip to the bill of a cap, making it a head-mounted flashlight. It's regularly $17 on Amazon, but if you use promo code PPRPKGGJ you can get it for $10.

What our brains learn, they can also unlearn—including what makes us anxious. That's the idea behind Neurotic Neurons, an interactive work by Nicky Case that explores the neuroscience of anxiety, and particularly the theory of Hebbian learning, wherein "neurons that fire together, wire together" and create associations in the mind. (more…)

See more photos at Wink Fun.Roll for the Galaxy is a dice game where you and up to 4 other players can expand across the galaxy, conquering worlds and utilizing your citizenry. The individual dice represent the citizens in your empire, and each color has a different chance of coming up with a different action that you can use. They range from exploring for money or new worlds, to helping to colonize those worlds, research technology, or produce and sell goods for more money to hire more citizens.The action selection system relies on a shield that everyone hides their initial picks behind, after which they’re revealed and only certain phases will take place that round. All other dice allocated to phases that won’t be occurring go back into your cup for the next round. The tile selection system is superb as well, drawing them from a black bag, because they’re double sided with planets and technologies.You start out with an initial double wide tile that decides your faction, and a home world tile, between which there are 81 possible combinations. From that point out, the path you take to victory is varied. The end of the game is triggered by someone getting 12 tiles on the board or all of the victory point chips being exhausted. After that, the player with the most victory points from chips, values of worlds and technologies and bonuses from certain cards wins.The number of dice in this game is staggering, and rolling the mounting number of them from your cup is intensely satisfying. The actual components are excellent and pretty sturdy. In my copy, I had some issues removing some of the tiles from the punch board, and ended up marring some of the paper on them. I was able to contact Rio Grande Games, though, and free of charge they shipped punched tiles to replace the marred ones. Top notch customer support rounds out the good experience I’ve had from owning and playing this game nicely. – James OrrConquer worlds as you Roll for the GalaxyRoll for the Galaxy

A fellow was recording rattlesnakes when one struck the device, knocking it into a pit teeming with the serpents. More footage below:https://youtu.be/avtZJKydB-E

Dave Black snapped this astounding photo of the infamous cryptid known as the Jersey Devil in Galloway Township, New Jersey. Photo evidence is always welcome, as residents of Southern New Jersey and the region have been reporting sightings of this bizarre creature since 1909. Apparently it looks like a kangaroo with a goat's head, bat wings, cloven hooves, and the forked tail of, you guessed it, a devil. Below, a drawing of the infernal beast from a 1909 edition of the Philadelphia Bulletin."I was just driving past the golf course in Galloway on Route 9 and had to shake my head a few times when I thought I saw a llama," Black recounted in an email to NJ.com. "If that wasn't enough, then it spread out leathery wings and flew off over the golf course."

HBO's Westworld sounds like it will be quite a show. The drama, which premieres in 2016, is executive produced by J.J. Abrams and is described as a "dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin."The casting call for the series states that extras "may be required to perform genital-to-genital touching, simulate oral sex with hand-to-genital touching, contort to form a table-like shape while being fully nude, pose on all fours while others who are fully nude ride on your back, [and] ride on someone's back while you are both fully nude."After SAG-AFTRA officials started looking into it, HBO passed the buck: "The document that the background actors were given was created by an outside extras casting vendor."[via]

The popular television series “Law & Order: SVU” will present its semifictionalized spin on the Duggar family of “19 Kids and Counting” and pedophilia impunity fame.(more…)

MuckRock spotlights some of the complaints -- some utterly bizarre, others downright stupid -- filed with the FCC by viewers upset with MythBusters. My favorites are the one about the subliminal penis spotted in an explosion and a "near hate crime" against the Catholic Church:

https://youtu.be/Ga00s9_aQX4Aiden Sinclair claims he was a con man who spent five years in prison after turning himself in to U.S. Marshals. Today, he is a magician and performer who shares stories of his life as a grifter. He's assumed many identities in the past, impersonating a Navy Seal, a veteran of the French Foreign Legion, a DEA agent, and a cruise ship bartender. Jess Zimmerman of Atlas Obscura has a long profile about Aiden Sinclair, and explores the idea that Sinclair's latest persona as a “grifter magician” could merely be his latest false identity.Whatever the case may be, he is a good magician!https://youtu.be/Ofm2ug78Z4g

Using a whisk makes for better beaten eggs, hot chocolate, and the list goes on. I avoided using my wire whisks because the cleaning was always a bit more trouble than I cared for. Having been introduced to the kitchen wonder that is silicone, I am now happily whisking away.For $13 lucky dollars this simple set of 4 whisks, 2 larger and 2 smaller, can not be beat. They simple rinse off under hot water. If I've used them on something more sticky, they don't take much effort to clean. They also successfully come clean in the dishwasher's utensil tray, my wire whisks do not.Silicone Coated Wire Whisk with Stainless Steel Handles, Set of 4, Colorful via Amazon

Get me in a fight I like dirty tricks.

Tom Kucy dug into the incredible motherlode of NASA's Project Apollo Archive of photos released last week to create this beautiful short film "Ground Control." (more…)

How did you fare?[via]

Recently, a merry gang of happy mutants gathered for the ninth and final time to revel in Bob Self's incredible Baby Tattooville event.Over the past nine years, artists, entertainers, creative minds and enthusiasts have been gathering together at Baby Tattooville to create art, and to celebrate one another while spending 72 hours in a reality where everyone is a kindred spirit. I have never been fortunate enough to be able to attend, and now I may never have a chance: Bob decided this installment will be their last. Boing Boing has been following these events since 2007, and I should have paid attention sooner.This year Baby Tattooville featured Anthony Ausgang, Sas Christian, Olivia De Berardinis, Ron English, Camille Rose Garcia, Bosko Hrnjak, Marion Peck, KRK Ryden, Mark Ryden, and Isabel Samaras. I am certain you'll recognize a lot of familiar faces in these photos. Some of my favorite performers were there, too! Musician Marquis Howell II, and the fabulous contortionist Bonnie Morgan were among them.As you can see from these brilliant photographs by Mark Berry, Baby Tattooville No. 9 was amazing.Congratulations to Bob and his entire team! What an amazing run! Bob is still planning events and you can participate in the magic.In fact, if magic is what you want I suggest you join us at Beyond Brookledge. I've already bought my ticket! This time I don't want to miss out.

A study from the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms reports that Dictyophora, a mushroom that grows on lava flows, induces spontaneous orgasms in about 1/3 of the woman who sniff it.From Wikipedia:

Read the rest of the Hip Hop Family Tree comics! (more…)

They've only got four ingredients and unlike many elaborate, fondant-based Hallowe'en treats, they taste good. (more…)

Playboy will no longer publish nude images of women. None of Playboy's efforts to adjust to the way that the net changed the availability of porn were successful, though it fared better than Penthouse, which tried to out-hardcore the Internet and failed. (more…)

Obama's 2008 run at the presidency was remarkable and game-changing, drawing huge crowds, raising huge sums in small money donations, and mobilizing a massive army of volunteer campaigners. There'd never been a campaign like it, and none had matched it since -- until Bernie Sanders. (more…)

Ben Kraft teaches a unit on gerrymandering -- rigging electoral districts to ensure that one party always wins -- to high school kids in his open MIT Educational Studies Program course. As he describes the problem and his teaching methodology, I learned that district-boundaries have a lot more subtlety and complexity than I'd imagined at first, and that there are some really chewy math and computer science problems lurking in there. (more…)

Three years and £12 million later, London's Metropolitan police has ended its 24/7 surveillance of the Ecuadorian embassy, through which officers kept vigil for the day that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange would leave the building. (more…)

James Mitchell and John "Bruce" Jessen are psychologists who took in almost $85 million in CIA contracts to design and oversee torture programs used on Guantanamo Bay detainees. The contracts ran from from 2001 to 2010. The ACLU is representing Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and Gul Rahman, three of the prisoners who were tortured at Gitmo. Rahman was murdered by his torturers and the ACLU is representing his estate. (more…)

An absolute favorite.

I'm sad to share the news that Dennis Eichhorn, creator of the autobiographical comic book series, Real Stuff, died on October 8, 2015. Dennis wrote for the bOING bOING zine, and we've run many excerpts from Real Stuff, which were originally published by Fantagraphics in the early 1990s. (more…)

This week, our partnership with Critical Distance brings us further discussion on one of the most interesting works of game criticism ever to be playable, the untold story of the Net Yaroze homebrew community, and more. (more…)

The moment I tried to start the demo for the upcoming horror game Calendula, it broke. "FATAL ERROR," read the pop-up message when I tried to start a new game. "Current video configuration not supported." (more…)

See sample pages from this book at Wink.

Wednesday, October 21, in San Francisco, the Internet Archive will honor the Grateful Dead at what archive.org calls their biggest celebration of the year.It seems the awesome approach to business taken by the Dead for so many years has caught their eye.Tickets are free, you just need to sign up. Here are the event details:

Help kickstart Arpeggio. This 'new instrument' has friends in Chicago and Los Angeles going nuts. The Arpeggio reminds me of the fun I used to have with my Casio VL-1.

A crowd watches as a Great White Shark eats a seal off the coast of San Francisco Bay's Alcatraz Island.Clearly, one young gentleman was seriously impressed!Also, please note the videographer's creative choice in using a more artistic, less directly utilitarian camera aspect, to limit the impact of death.To help seals and sea lions, please donate to The Marine Mammal Center.

In 2003, the TSA fined Mary Hostein of Michigan for trying to take a a jar of apple butter through airport security.When an agent told Hostein that the spread was a liquid, and therefore subject to the TSA's 3-ounce limit, she went to another line to see if the TSA agent stationed there was just as stupid as the first. He was, and Hostein was issued a $2,000 fine. She doesn't think she should pay it. The TSA says they are going to sue her.

The DC SuperHero Girls line is aimed at 6-year-olds and the look great. Mattel designer Christine Kim says the action figures are were designed by women for girls, not by men for boys. (more…)

In 1965 Yves Saint Laurent introduced the cocoon bridal dress. Said to be inspired by Russian nesting dolls, it makes me think of a different kind of red wedding.