2,000 US schools use textbooks from Abeka, BJU Press and Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), including tax-funded charter schools across America; students who learn from these texts are taught that God wanted Protestantism to flourish in North America and that Catholocism is not a true faith; that it was better Africans to be enslaved and come to "know Christ" than to be free but not Christian; that evolution is untrue; that humans and dinosaurs lived together (and that Noah brought baby dinosaurs on the ark); that the Loch Ness monster is real; that "abortion, gay rights and the Endangered Species Act" are part of a "radical social agenda"; that nonwhites are inferior (60% of the tax-funded scholarship students at charter schools come from racialized minorities and are thus taught that they are racially inferior to their white schoolmates). (more…)

It was once the standard that firms that performed well would give all their employees an annual raise, in part to acknowledge workers' contribution to the business's fortunes, in part to ensure that wages kept pace with inflation (otherwise workers would be suffering a real-terms pay-cut every year). (more…)

George Osborne was David Cameron's Chancellor of the Exchequer, the architect of UK austerity; he was fired by Theresa May when she became Prime Minister and he did not run for re-election in the disastrous election of 2017, instead taking a job as editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard. (more…)

Niall Ferguson is a conservative British historian who teaches at both Oxford and Stanford, where he chaired a right-wing lecture series called Cardinal Conversations. (more…)

Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to be a degree-toting engineer to create your own DIY electronics. In fact, with the advent of the Arduino platform, understanding the essentials of programming, robotics, and electronics is more accessible than ever before. The Pay What You Want: 2018 Arduino Enthusiast E-Book Bundle can get you creating on this user-friendly platform, and it's available for a price you get to choose.Here's how the deal works: Simply pay what you want, and you'll instantly unlock one of the collection's ten ebooks. Beat the average price paid, and you'll get the remaining nine at no extra charge.Featuring 10 comprehensive ebooks, this collection will familiarize you with the essentials of creating Arduino devices. You'll follow along project-focused courses and discover how to build a number of different creations including complex robots, electronic wearables, and even computer vision applications.Choose your price, and you can start building your own DIY projects with the Pay What You Want: 2018 Arduino Enthusiast E-Book Bundle.

Andy W writes, "An artist/illustrator friend of mine just put an illustration of hers up on RedBubble — two iconic science-fiction television characters sharing a tender moment on the couch."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5mT6gEYCmEDouglas Lucas writes, "The prestigious Oxford Union, where Malcolm X and Mother Theresa spoke, has censored their own video of their own public February whistleblowing panel, which featured among others the lead programmer of the global data commons project GetGee.xyz, Heather Marsh. The ever so famous debating society isn't uploading the footage to YouTube because another panelist, ...former... CIA operative David Shedd, doesn't want them to. Oxford Union's bursar said it was copyright grounds which is laughable since it's their own video, they have the copyright/wrong/official pieces of paper for it..." (more…)

For several years, I've been honored to volunteer on the advisory board of Simply Secure (previously) a nonprofit consultancy that does open research on usability in cryptographic privacy tools and consults with firms to help make their tools more broadly usable and accessible, especially for vulnerable groups who are often left out of consideration when secure tools are being designed. (more…)

In 1975, Gary Gygax revealed the Tomb of Horrors module at the first Origins convention, presenting it as a campaign that would specifically challenge overpowered characters who would have to rely on their wits to outsmart incredibly lethal, subtle traps, rather than using their almighty THACOs to fell trash-mobs of orcs or other low-level monsters. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdH2Sy-BlNEBack in April, afrofuturist icon Janelle Monáe (previously released Dirty Computer, an "emotion picture" that serves as accompaniment to her album of the same name. (more…)

While leaked memos show that Google execs perceived a real risk of internal backlash from their $9 million Pentagon contract to supply AI for US military drones, they were willing to risk it because they expected the business to quickly grow to $250,000,000. (more…)

Last year, one of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt's aides ordered a dozen $130 fountain pens paid for with taxpayer money, according to new documents that the Sierra Club retrieved through a Freedom of Information Act request. The pens were emblazoned with the EPA seal and Pruitt's signature. From CNN:

It's a well-worn trope: the obsessive, the stalker, the killer or the cop, pinning photos, maps, mugshots and other detritus to a large board and then joining the dots with bits of colored string: The Crazy Walls Tumblr collects and annotates screengrabs from dozens of movies and TV shows (even a comic from Warren Ellis!) where the trope appears. (via Kottke) (more…)

If your boss is willing to let you work from home and you don't mind shoveling snow in the winter, Vermont wants you and will pay you $10K over two years to defray moving costs. The state boasts great outdoor recreation, a high standard of living and a rapidly aging, shrinking tax-base. (Thanks, Fipi Lele) (Image: Chinissai, CC-BY-SA)

In this Better Explained video, how the right analogies can make math joyful. "Numbers are like rocks." But what happens when the number is 0 or -1? The analogy breaks down. "OK, numbers are like points on a line," with zero at the center. But where on the line does the square root of -1 go? "OK, let's add another line at 90 degrees to the other number line, where imaginary numbers go."

I don't play piano but I just can't get enough of this series of music lessons from my pal Mikael Jorgensen of Wilco and Quindar. The clips are smart. Funny. Earnest. And weird. Just like Mikael.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVM63NjVEFchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlPpuTe1et4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtYVmgR1nb8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv_S8duBQuU

Oregon state economists Mark McMullen and Josh Lehner say that employers have told them that they can't fill vacancies because every qualified candidate fails their drug test, which is sometimes mandated by the companies' insurers. (more…)

One May day in 1968, The Beatles gathered in Esher, London at George Harrison psychedelic bungalow Kinfauns to make music. They jammed through numerous songs written during or after their time hanging with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India. Those demos are the skeleton of what would become the White Album. Some of those acoustic renditions have since been officially released or made their way to YouTube. Over at Rolling Stone, Jordan Runtagh takes us through the "Esher Tapes." Here are two of the tracks with Runtagh's commentary:https://youtu.be/mVZCEFQXUNs

Rustem Kazazi is a 67-year-old retired Albanian policeman who became a US citizen in 2010; last October, he boarded a flight from his hometown in Cleveland to Newark, planning to continue on to Albania. (more…)

I was looking for a pair of Duluth Trading Company fire hose pants. They are awesome. They are made of the same heavy canvas a fire hose outer insulation is. They are soft, but massively over stitched and have a popular with the nuggets 'crotch gusset.'None of these things should have led to Zmart Men's Sexy Collared Bow Tie Bodysuit/Thong/Butler Teddy Costume Underwear showing up in my recommendations.The Duluth Trading Company has a number of styles of pant. I wear the regular firehose pant over my Bohn spandex armor when motorcycling around my home county or into the awful dodge'em game that is San Francisco. I ordered a pair of the Ultimate, because more is better when covering motorcycle armor.The Zmart option looks like it offers minimal abrasion resistance, and will not cover the leg armor to my satisfaction.Zmart Men's Sexy Collared Bow Tie Bodysuit Thong Butler Teddy Costume Underwear via Amazon

In July 2015, cartoonish thug lawyer Michael Cohen threatened Daily Beast journalist, Tim Mak, for working on a story about Donald Trump allegedly raping one of his wives.From NPR:

Late last year, a pair of economists released an interesting paper that used mobile location data to estimate the likelihood that political polarization had shortened family Thanksgiving dinners in 2016. (more…)

Uganda's social media tax may be an unenforceable mess, but that doesn't make it harmless (it opens the door to selective enforcement and invites programs of censorship and mass surveillance in the name of fighting "tax evasion") but that's only half of dictator Yoweri Museveni's plan to control the internet. (more…)

Vanuatu and UNICEF have issued a request for tender inviting drone companies to bid on a contract to deliver vaccines along the nation's chain of tiny, remote islands -- 83 volcanic islands strung along a 1600km atoll. (more…)

Spanish politics have been a mess for a decade, since the financial crisis triggered brutal austerity that gutted Spanish services and quality of life to ensure that bondholders did not suffer an interruption in debt service; then came the Catalan independence vote, the violent suppression of same, then Madrid seized control over the autonomous region of Catalonia. (more…)

It's not common that a game series survives as long as Sid Meier's Civilization has. But, with a premise focused on creating an empire that stands the test of time, it seems appropriate that one of strategy gaming's most venerable series continues to stay relevant more than 20 years after its birth. Winner of 15 E3 Awards, including Best PC Game and Best Strategy Game, Sid Meier's Civilization VI is the series' latest installment, and it still finds ways to bring players back to the strategy gaming genre it helped build over two decades ago.Right now, you can try Sid Meier's Civilization VI and its new Rise and Fall expansion pack on sale today with the Sid Meier's Civilization VI Bundle for Mac. It's available to Boing Boing readers for $56.99.You Against the WorldFor the uninitiated, Sid Meier's Civilization challenges players to take on history's greatest leaders and build their own supreme empire from the ground up. Aspiring rulers need to balance military, cultural, and scientific development to stay competitive while delicately navigating the world of diplomacy to ensure they can reach their goals unhindered.From military conquest to scientific discovery, there are several different ways to achieve victory in Sid Meier's Civilization, but none of them come easily. Players need to rely on their wits, cunning, and tactical know-how to stay one step ahead of rival leaders while pushing their civilizations to the top.What's NewWhile the core gameplay has remained mostly the same among recent iterations, the series' newest edition changes a few things up with two parallel tech trees and an innovative city system. Additionally, personal history will actually influence decisions of competing leaders, allowing for nuanced strategic agendas that enrich the gameplay experience.Now, this all might sound a bit daunting for new players, but worry not. Sid Meier's Civilization VI has been designed from the ground up to be a game for all payers, whether they're avid strategy gurus or newcomers looking to test their wits. If you consider yourself part of the latter camp, you can rest easy knowing the latest game includes new tutorial systems that introduce new players to the underlying concepts, making it much easier to get started.Rise and FallAs with many of the Sid Meier's Civilization games, the core titles receive new features after launch in the form of expansion packs. Rise and Fall, the newest expansion in Sid Meier's Civilization VI, creates new threats from within via the new loyalty dynamic. While your choices have always carried weight in previous civilization games, they're even more potent as your decisions can affect the loyalty—and allegiances–of your and your opponent's citizens, causing cities to break free and even switch sides to other empires.What's more, your decisions in Rise and Fall also play a greater role in how often Golden Ages occur. Make the right choices, and you can fast-track your civilization's rise to the top. However, if you're not careful, you can easily send your empire spiraling down a Dark Age, complete with its own harrowing challenges.How to Get itIf you're interested in discovering why the latest installment of the venerable Sid Meier's Civilization Sid Meier's Civilization was rated 9.4/10 by IGN and 93/100 by PC Gamer, you can do so and experience its new expansion pack with the Sid Meier's Civilization VI Bundle for Mac, on sale for $56.99. Alternatively, if you already have Sid Meier's Civilization VI, you can still save on the new Rise and Fall expansion, available today for $26.99.

It took nearly a thousand drones carefully programmed and deployed to create the imagery used for the new TIME magazine cover. (more…)

Myisha Haynes and Jaz Malone released the second in their fun and interesting series on how cartoonists can draw black people while avoiding imagery fraught with negative connotations. (more…)

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Want to know the stories behind finger hands, Handerpants (underpants for hands), and some of the other great novelty products from Seattle-based novelty giant Archie McPhee? I'm going to guess that you do. Let me point you to their new podcast Less Talk, More Monkey on iTunes and Google Play. It's hosted by my buddies-in-pop-culture Shana Danger, David Wahl, and Scott Heff.

A goose founds its way into Comerica Park, interrupting the Angels game and picking a fight with the scoreboard. It lost, but is reportedly in good health and was later released.

Kenny Hickman stopped to get a tank of gas from a station on Military Road in Slidell, Louisiana and discovered it was covered in A SWARM OF MAYFLIES! So, instead of pumping gas, he shot this video which his wife Sandy Callegan Hickman posted on Facebook. It will undoubtedly make your skin crawl.FYI: This site tells you ways to "survive" a mayfly swarm.(Digg)

Just when you were thinking of voting for antisemitic racist neoreactionary libertarian Hitler fan Nathan Larson, I'm afraid something's emerged about him that might make you think twice.

Shin Shinrashinge created a meticulous setup of his two-dimensional drawings, then guided his phone through his 3D creation to create this one-take story of a boy daydreaming about fighting monsters. (more…)

Wakazono took a 100kg block of solid aluminum, then ran it through a specialized milling machine for seven months. The result is a remarkable 15kg vase with two different overlapping patterns. The pattern seems to shift with just the slightest change in perspective. (more…)

I use my phone to take photos of business cards, signs, parking spots, and so on, but I don't like to tap out notes on it unless I have to. I make too many errors. I've been carrying around a small notebook when I travel, and the one I like the best is this 3" x 5" Rite in the Rain, a pocket sized notebook with nearly waterproof pages. Each wire-O bound book has 50 double side sheets (with a grid pattern print). I use a pencil to take notes with it. Ordinary ballpoints won't work when the pages are wet, but all-weather pens do. The cover is made from durable plastic. They come in a variety of colors and sizes. The small ones cost less than $4 each.

At the urging of Uganda's corrupt dictator Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan parliament has enacted legislation imposing a daily tax on anyone using social media platforms; Museveni said the measure would curb "gossip," while Matia Kasaija claimed it would fund security and electrification efforts. (more…)

Yesterday, the California Senate passed S.B. 822, voting 23-12 on party lines; the bill restores strong Net Neutrality protections to the state by banning ISPs from providing services to government entities if they engage in throttling, paid prioritization, zero-rating or other discriminatory practices. (more…)

Often when people think of Hollywood and Los Angeles, they perceive it to be glitzy and glamorous. The bubble is thick, but what is L.A. life really like?In KCRW's new podcast Welcome to L.A., host David Weinberg bursts that bubble to examine what's really going on in (native-or-not) Angeleno culture.He writes:

Sure, you worry about your bees, what with colony collapse disorder, but they're hard to count! (more…)

JWZ: "Which probably translates to, 'Take your ad-targetting snake-oil and repurpose it to execute brown people with drones'. You know, kind of like how Wehrner von Braun aimed for the stars, but mostly hit London." (more…)

Protestors in San Franciscos Mission District don't like instant-rent electric scooters, and they also don't like tech workers who have moved into the neighborhood. So they decided to toss the scooters in front of the buses used to transport tech workers to their offices in Silicon Valley this morning. SF Gate has a photo gallery.

When the Danish copyright troll Njord Law started operating in Sweden, it went to court saying that it was planning on enforcing copyright, not engaging in "speculative invoicing" -- a kind of legal blackmail that involves sending out thousands of legal threats on the off chance that some people will pay you to go away. (more…)

"[Pornography is] available on the shelf when you walk in the grocery store. Yeah, you have to reach up to get it, but there’s pornography there. All of this is available without parental guidance. I think that is a big part of the root cause." -Congresswoman Diane Black [R-TN] (more…)

Available free on Archive.org, the 1985 Electronic Engineers Master Vol 2 contains page after page of excellent technology company logos, many of which have been lost to the obsolescence of hardware and business plans. Marcin Wichary the designer/typographer/writer behind the Segmented Type Playground and the Pac-Man Google Doodle, turned the logos into a beautifully haunting slideshow.(via Kottke)

The South Bend Cubs, a minor league baseball team in South Bend, Indiana, will be wearing special jerseys that look like Mister Rogers' iconic red cardigan for a special event in August.

This one's for the ladies. According to Stat, Allegra is recalling 170,000 packs of their Taytulla birth control pills because the first four pills in each of the packs are placebos, instead of medicine that'll keep babies, severe cramping, and all the other things that the pills are typically prescribed for, at bay.The sketchy packs are all from a single lot of pills that were doled out as samples to physicians. So if your doctor provided you with some free Taytulla birth control pills, you'll want to check their lot number.From Allegra:

Every three years, the US Copyright Office lets the public beg for limited exemptions to Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans bypassing DRM, even in your own property, even for strictly legal reasons. (more…)

I admit that I dig Toto's "Africa" (1982). No irony. I've always loved it. And once again, the song is all over our news feeds thanks to Weezer's fan-inspired cover of it. (My favorite cover though is this one by Low.) But what the hell is the song actually about? Based on comments from Toto, it seems the meaning has evolved as sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti. From Wikipedia:

The Center for Medicare Advocacy, Justice in Aging, and the Medicare Rights Center have issued a joint statement condemning the 2018 edition of Medicare & You, the annual guide published by the federal government; the groups say that the Trump administration is lying to seniors in order to trick them into switching to privatized, HMO-run Medicare Advantage programs, away from the superior, publicly maintained Meidcare system. (more…)