https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=280&v=ouCgdnz1RKYMy friend Yasuo Amano, who lives in the town of Shizuoka about an hour outside Tokyo, runs a Japanese blog called Hey Presto. It is mostly concerned with the unique magic tricks produced a Japanese toy company named Tenyo, about which I’ve just written an enormous set of books that will be released in early November.The Tenyo Company has been in business since 1931, and sells its magic tricks to regular folks at its “Magic Corners” in department stores across Japan. Even though the tricks they devise are easy to do, they also appeal to magicians because of their creativity.And then there is Tokyo Disneyland, which is turned into a most mysterious and magical place at Halloween. Amano’s latest blog video combines a recent visit to Tokyo Disneyland’s seasonal Halloween event with a performance of some of Tenyo’s newest tricks.I know … Halloween is still weeks away, but for purposes of commerce Halloween now commences in early September at Disney parks around the world, and even at your local supermarket and drugstore where the candy and greeting cards now appear before summer has officially ended.In the latest and most annoying development, yesterday at Rite-Aid I saw Christmas cookies already out in the Halloween aisle. Don’t make me punch you in the face, Santa.

Another Kevin writes, "Last September, the NYPD pulled Kamilah Brock, a black woman, over on suspicion of DUI marijuana. They found nothing but seized her BMW anyway. When she claimed it, they decided she was delusional, no black woman could be a banker and own a BMW, so they threw her in the psych ward for eight days. She's now out over $13k for the hospital bill. All for DWB. #blacklivesmatter" (more…)

https://youtu.be/UwRX7p5MIfgWatch Jim Berger's hilarious edit of televangelist Jim Bakker recalling his recent End Times dream. (more…)

Just days after yet another mass shooting in America, Tennessee's Lieutenant Governor says Christians who are ‘serious about their faith’ should consider buying guns. The unbelievably idiotic decree to God-fearing citizens by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey (R) was delivered via Facebook, where indeed, so many idiotic decrees are delivered.(more…)

Urine is golden so it must have some link to gold, thought medieval alchemists seeking to devise methods to transmute base metal into gold.Not quite, but they did discover that pee is rich with the miraculous bearer of light, aka phosphorus. (American Chemical Society)

These photos were taken at a crossing in South Devon. The junction is locally known as "Dead Man's Cross" and is reportedly the former site of a gallows. Creeeeeeeepy!A fellow named George Johnston noticed the curious shadow and posted his photo of it on social media where it garnered plenty of attention."Some people thought it was fake but a couple of others have gone down there themselves to check and posted similar pictures," Johnston told the Plymouth Herald. "Why would I spend my time Photoshopping a shadow? I have a life."(via ShakeIt Records)

This/next week, I'm speaking in events in Park City, Utah (Future in Review); Boston (The Freedom to Innovate Summit, the Berman Center and Suffolk University); Toronto (Seneca College); Markham (In Conversation and Storytellers); and the University of Waterloo! Come say hi! (Image: Terri Oda, CC-BY)

The Dallas Six is a group of prisoners who were beaten, shocked and gassed by prison guards who had previously beaten them in retaliation for complaints about abuse in solitary confinement. (more…)

David Bowie composed a dark, haunting, and excellent new track, "Blackstar," for the title sequence of The Last Panthers, a European crime drama launching in November. I can't wait to hear the whole song!Directed by Johan Renck, The Last Panthers stars Samantha Morton, Tahar Rahim, Goran Bogdan, and John Hurt. It premieres on Canal+ and Sky Atlantic on November 12.

Mostly it's your record locator and frequent flier number, but with that, an attacker can access the ticket record, see your future flights, your email address, and the details of the emergency contacts you'd added to the reservation. (more…)

Back in 2009, SF author Peter Watts had dinner with a retired investment banker from TD who described the bank's "vulnerability index" -- a numeric score that expresses how desperate you are for your paycheck and thus the extent to which you can be reliably expected to forego your dignity and principles to keep your check intact. (more…)

Shaken is a UK startup that sells subscriptions to "the best cocktails you've ever made." Every month, they send you a handsome box with several bottles of rare and delicious booze, small-batch bitters, and a cocktail recipe explaining the history, chemistry and practice of some classic or novel cocktail. (more…)

The Chinese government has announced a new universal reputation score, tied to every person in the country's nation ID number and based on such factors as political compliance, hobbies, shopping, and whether you play videogames. (more…)

You remember the Sega Genesis game Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, right? That was an unusual one. Against the backdrop of Michael's greatest tunes pumped out by the Genesis' good old chunky soundchip, you rescued topless children from car trunks and defeated gangsters, zombies and mean Doberman dogs by using "star magic" to force them to dance. I remember feeling like the 16-bit graphics were really plausible.Michael E Michael is a two-player fighting game between two identical Michael sprites that, if they aren't recycled Moonwalker assets, sure look like it. You have 30 seconds to collect star power and unleash your special moves by dancing at the rival Michael. It's super weird. Did you know he could transform into a spaceship?It is, of course, from the Duplicade jam, which we've really been enjoying here at Offworld—brief two-player games that look like they've been peeled out of an illegal knock-off bargain bin.

Augustus Sol Invictus, a Tallahassee, Florida candidate for US Senate, once walked from Florida to the Mojave Desert as part of a ritual that culminated in him sacrificing a goat and drinking its blood."I did sacrifice a goat," he said. "I know that's probably a quibble in the mind of most Americans. I sacrificed an animal to the god of the wilderness ... Yes, I drank the goat's blood."Invictus, 32, is running as a Libertarian but the chairman of the Libertarian Party of Florida, Adrian Wyllie, is critical of Invictus for many reasons."He is the absolute exact opposite of a Libertarian," Wyllie says. "He's a self-proclaimed fascist. He's promoting a second civil war."For his part, Invictus, who changed his birth name to the Latin phrase meaning "majestic unconquered sun," says he isn't trying to ignite a war and that it's already started anyway."The only question is when are the citizens going to start fighting back?" he said. "I don't think I'm the only person who sees a cataclysm coming, but I think I'm the only person saying it, and I think that scares people."(Orlando Sentinel)

An official New Zealand government bulletin on yesterday's conclusion of the still-secret Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations accidentally confirmed something we all believed was in there all along: an extension of copyright terms to match the USA's bizarre, evidence-free, century-plus terms. (more…)

Police responding to a 911 call turned up at an the Austintown, Ohio home to find the 22-year-old man who called for emergency help "laying on the floor, in the fetal position... surrounded by a plethora of Doritos, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, and Chips Ahoy cookies."According to the police report, the fellow said he “smoked too much weed” and was “too high and could not feel his hands.""Too High" Man Surrounded By Snacks" (Smoking Gun)

You might best know Spry Fox for games like Triple Town or, more recently, Alphabear, designs so timeless and solid that they firmly wedge themselves into your regular mobile play rotation.The studio's Road Not Taken is lots riskier and stranger, though, and in a good way. A ruthless winter has descended upon a quaint, fantastical town (the cute and creative art of Meowza in fine form), and the surrounding forests are full of lost children who need to be reunited with their parents.The forests are also full of wolves, fire spirits, beehives and many kinds of trees, and you'll need to learn how to slide them around so you can solve puzzles, reach the lost kids, and discover other mysteries, like how to make fire (put two dry logs beside each other) or honey (line up three beehives).https://youtu.be/SyLcTQ9bObMIt's part adventure, part structural puzzle, with a number of interesting additional components to manage and enjoy: Between forest puzzles you can try to befriend the local villagers or play with your cat at home—even the house you quickly earn is full of mysteries. Road Not Taken is tough to describe (possibly why it's so much less-known relative to Spry Fox's more radio-friendly games), but definitely worth a try. You're very quickly pulled into its atmosphere, which manages to be lonesome and forbidding just as much as it is cozy and sweet, a perfect companion for dark winter nights in.This week (the week of October 5, which I think is the game's release anniversary?) Road Not Taken is a stunning 80% off on Steam, so if you'd like to try this unusual but deeply-rewarding work, now would be a good time.

A 54-year-old priest at St. Margaret of Cortona Roman Catholic Church in Little Ferry, New Jersey was arrested for endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated assault by pointing a firearm. Father Kevin Carter threatened to shoot the youngster for liking the wrong football team, say witnesses.From NBC 4 New York:

Did you see the news that the world is going to end tomorrow? Watch this video and you'll be convinced."Monsoon II" by Mike Olbinski

Tim Harford, the Financial Times's Undercover Economist, writes about the Happy Birthday to You court case, which finally settled the question of whether the familiar birthday song was still in copyright (it isn't) and uses that as a springboard to ask the question: how long should copyright last? (more…)

The leader of the Christian organization eBible Fellowship warns that October 7 "will be the day that God has spoken of: in which, the world will pass away. It’ll be gone forever. Annihilated."There’s a strong likelihood that this will happen. Which means there’s an unlikely possibility that it will not," says eBible Fellowship founder Chris McCann.From The Guardian:

Popular among artists, Microsoft's Surface tablets have carved an unexpectedly well-respected niche on the top shelf. And now they're being joined by a laptop edition, with a proper keyboard to impress everyone else, too.With a 13.5" 267 dpi display, Intel Skylake CPU and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce graphics chip, Microsoft's first own-brand laptop is claimed to be two times a powerful as the 13" Macbook Pro. It's also said to have a 12-hour battery life, while staying light and slim: 1.6 lbs; 7.7 mm thick.The display is detachable for tablet use, too. Check out the hinge:The Surface Book will be $1499 and up, with availability from Oct. 26.

Here's bd594's catchy cover version of the Doors' 1966 hit, “Break On Through (To the Other Side)” performed using old computer equipment. The first half of the video is an instrumental version. The second half has a version with vocals provided by a speech synthesizer.[via]

Warren Ellis ruminates on the the way that the old idea that the Internet was birthing an "attention economy" has been transformed by Facebook, which has literally monetized attention, charging you money to reach the people who've asked to hear from you. (more…)

With its plain, understated looks and classy black and white UI, the Punkt MP 01 looks like everything a smartphone addict might want to kick the habit: a gadget focused on communication without the distractions of a pocket supercomputer. (more…)

The Nameless Coaltion, a global alliance of women's groups, LGBTQ groups, human rights and digital rights groups has asked Facebook to abandon its "Real Names" policy, which puts Facebook users in danger of reprisals including state violence, stalkers, and on-the-job harassment. (more…)

"They have blocked your website," reports an anonymous reader. "You are considered a harmful website by the Ministry of Education."Can anyone confirm this exciting news?*Adding "considered harmful by more Ministries of Education than any other independently-owned blog" to the taglines*

I've been staring at F R A C T A L I S M for a fair few minutes. (more…)

Blamo's $220 "adventurewear for the urban jungle" come in the forms of tiger, monkey, bear, bunny, panda and more. The mildly adventurous can avail themselves of $145 cardigans and balaclavas instead of the $210 all-in-ones. (more…)

https://youtu.be/c_orOT3Prwg?t=4m51sThis guy was showing off his cigarette lighters and matches when he accidentally started a small fire. While he was putting it out, he started an even bigger fire, which wasn't so easy to put out.

Jean-Paul Gaultier's "JPG" jacket is covered in scenes from a four-color, vintage horror comic. I can't tell if the comic is "real" (that is, if it was once a comic-book) or a simulacrum. (more…)

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

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's new Law Enforcement Technology Primer for Civilian Oversight Bodies is a short, easy-to-understand guide for non-technical people that explains the new surveillance technology that local law-enforcement agencies are increasingly relying upon, often in secret, and without any civilian oversight. (more…)

Historically, US companies have been able to get around the (relatively stringent) European data-protection rules thanks to a "Safe Harbor" agreement between the US and the EU -- but Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist, has successfully argued that the NSA's mass surveillance programs violate European law and invalidates the Safe Harbor. (more…)

Sponsored PostAdventure Time: The Enchiridion & Marcy's Super Secret Scrapbook!!! is like having two books in one . . . because it is two books in one! Don't believe it? Just peek under the dust jacket! When you've finished reading The Enchiridion, flip the book over and dig in to Marcy's Super Secret Scrapbook!!! Or vice versa! It's your call where to start. We'd suggest you read The Enchiridion first, but why listen to us?All-new, gorgeous, hilarious, and grotesque illustrations? Ancient wizard lore, spells, curses, and jokes? Scribbles from and souvenirs of a cute demon girl growing up? Goofball commentary by Finn, Jake, Marceline, and the Ice King? Check, check, check, check please!From the same creative team behind the New York Times bestselling Adventure Time Encyclopaedia, this in-world compendium of all things Oooian is filled tome true to the imagination, innovation, and heart of Adventure Time.Martin and Olivia Olson are an actual father and daughter who play an evil father and daughter on Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time. Olivia is an actress, singer-songwriter, and recording artist who plays Marceline the Vampire Queen. As a songwriter, she wrote and sang songs for Disney’s Phineas and Ferb. Olivia also sang “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in the classic film Love Actually. She wrote most of Marcy’s Super Secret Scrapbook!!! Martin is a comedy writer, songwriter, and poet who plays Hunson Abadeer, Lord of Evil, on Adventure Time. As a television writer, he has received four Emmy nominations. Martin is known for writing Phineas and Ferb, the New York Times bestselling Adventure Time Encyclopaedia (Abrams, 2013), and his satirical book Encyclopaedia of Hell (Feral House, 2011). They live in Los Angeles.It's the perfect gift for any fan of the series. Buy a copy on Amazon.Check out some sample pages from Adventure Time: The Enchiridion & Marcy's Super Secret Scrapbook!!! below:https://youtu.be/pAGScwbPjNE (more…)

Quentin Tarantino's Foot Fetish. A supercut by Pablo Fernandez Eyre.

Intelexit is an activist group whose mission is to get spies to quit their jobs; they've recently installed billboards around spy complexes in the US and UK. (more…)

Protesters angry over proposed layoffs stormed an Air France executive meeting and cornered Director Pierre Plissonnier and Resources Director Xavier Broseta, tearing off the men's jackets and ripping their shirts off, forcing them to scale a fence to get free. (more…)

No, you're not tripping. And these aren't CG. You're looking at Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish captured by Florida-based photographer Aaron Ansavor who finds them on a local beach."It's an opportunity to explore a new world," he told National Geographic.More images at his site Ansarov.com. (via Jux)

The Saudi royals -- you know, the charming people who exported intolerant, extremist Wahabiism and whose scions get to rape their US-based servants with impunity -- have hired the biggest, most ruthless PR firms in America to run their PR machine. (more…)

Ionel Talpazan, who saw a UFO as a child above his village in Romania, painted spacecraft until he died two weeks ago at 60 years old. As a young man, after escaping Romania by swimming across the Danube, he made his way to New York City in the 1980s where he sometimes lived in a cardboard box on the street. Talpazan sold his UFO paintings and sculptures on the sidewalk until an art dealer helped bring his work into galleries and museums."My art shows spiritual technology, something beautiful and beyond human imagination, that comes from another galaxy," Talpazan once said. "So, in relative way, this is like the God."More at NPR and the New York Times.

Adam Conover latest "Adam Ruins Everything" is five depressingly hilarious minutes on aviation security, security theater, privacy, and ritual humiliation, with a guest-appearance by Bruce Schneier. If you didn't laugh, you'd have to cry, although you can always do both, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGY6DqB1HX8John Oliver's segment on mass-shootings and mental health makes all the right points: making the issue about mental health instead of guns stigmatizes mentally ill people (who are more likely to be shot than shoot someone), but since we're on the subject, the American mental health system is a disgrace.

I thought it would be impossible for an eBook to inspire me to get me working on a watch. (more…)

Maciej Cegłowski's posted another of his barn-burning speeches about the Internet's problems, their origins and their solutions (previously), a talk from the Fremtidens Internet conference in Copenhagen called "What Happens Next Will Amaze You." (more…)

Audrey Elaine Elrod was divorced, depressed and broke when a romance-scammer targeted her on Facebook, posing as a widowed Scottish oil-rig worker who admired her photo and sympathized with her plight. (more…)

Quick, make something creatively fulfilling before time runs out! (more…)

The crooks that Edward Snowden outed (and their complicit overseers in government) like to talk about how Snowden violated an oath when he gave journalists documents that established that security services in at least five countries were breaking their own laws in order to pursue unimaginably aggressive mass surveillance. (more…)