Under a leaked draft plan from Trump's Department of Labor, 16- and 17-year-olds would be permitted to work for extended periods in "Hazardous Occupations" as apprentices; at present, these apprentices are only allowed to train on machines like chainsaws and meat-slicers for short periods under close supervision. (more…)

Freshwater mussels? Goats? Wombats? If you've ever wondered whether a particular animal farts or not, hie thee to the #DoesItFart database.It's not some weird, fake meme thing, by the way; this database is maintained by actual scientists who have, like, real scientific degrees and do science stuff all day long.What happened was that a couple of them realized that, when discussing rare animals with the public, "does it fart?" was one of the most common questions. So they started inputting their info into a Google spreadsheet, available to the curious masses.A quick glance at the spreadsheet suggests that the answer is nearly always "yes". Only a small minority of animals seem to be non-flatulent. Blue mussels, amonite, common whelks, moonsnail -- you guys are the very model of restraint. Oh, and in the "Description/notes" field, the scientists seem to be enjoying themselves quite a lot.The Washington Post wrote a fun story about the database last year, noting that flatulence is actually a terrific entrypoint into the complex stew of animal biology:

Not only is Ron Howard the narrator (and an executive producer) on the Arrested Development, he's also the director of the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story. So, it was only natural that the two entities got combined somehow, especially since they both have end of the month release dates**.Enter Star Wars: A New Hope, a clever parody that melds the music, narration, and editing style of the popular sitcom with the story of Star Wars.It begins, "Now the story of a family that wants to rule the galaxy and the one son who had no choice but to save it." (The original narration began, "Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.)**Season 5 of Arrested Development begins on May 29 on Netflix. Solo: A Star Wars Story opens in theaters on May 25.(Blame it on the Voices)

Behold The Philosophy of Beards, a short 1854 book on the allure, upkeep, and clear moral superiority of the beard.The Public Domain Review found this gem scanned at the invaluable Internet Archive, and have a terrific writeup describing why this weird tome is oddly telling of its Victorian times:

Eva Krbdk of New York's Bang Bang Tattoo specializes in circular tattoos on a wide range of thought-provoking and whimsical themes. (more…)

The UK's Data Protection Bill is far-reaching and long overdue, extending vital privacy protection to Britons -- unless they're immigrants. (more…)

Ireland has a goat problem.A growing gang of wild goats is having its way with the towns of Ennis and Clare's gardens, parking lots and roads. Greenery is being devoured. Cars are being forced to slow or stop, with all too much frequency, for fear that drivers could end up having to pick goat meat out of their vehicle's grills with a pointy stick. According to Clare's Mayor, Tom McNamara, “the disturbance that these goats are causing in the locality is totally unacceptable." The Mayor continued by pleading that the goats “are getting up on top of cars and going around businesses at night time." The goats, which have been tagging local homes and historical landmarks as they expand their territory, have drawn the attention of the local law enforcement's gang task force.OK, that last sentence was bullshit, but it'd be awesome if it were true.In all seriousness, having a whack of uncontrollable wild animals traipsing around the town is a public safety concern. Sooner or later someone's going to get hurt in a goat attack (no seriously: goats can be ASSHOLES), or wind up hitting one – or five – with their car. Right now, there's talk of erecting signs warning motorists of goat hazards in town and on nearby highways (goats be roaming), and some pretty stern mumbling about what can be done to control the exploding goat population. According to RTĒ, no one's in favor of a cull, no matter how delicious goat might be. On the other hand, castration of the feral herd's male goats is on the table. There are also calls for help from animal shelters, farmers and landowners to help provide a permanent home to the goats. Honestly, I don't know if any of that's going to help.Once a goat has tasted the sweet nectar of freedom, there's no way it'll stand to be confined to a single patch of land. Fences are for squares, man.At the time that this story was written, Black Phillip could not be reached for comment.Image: fir0002 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Today I learned the Splendid Toadfish, a creature found only in the Caribbean Sea, produces a sound like a phone on vibrate.National Geographic writes:

Back in 2013, Kendra Jackson was in a pretty nasty car accident. The vehicle she was in was hit, hard, from behind. The force of the impact propelled Jackson's head into the dash in front of her. She recovered from her injuries and got on with her life. A few weeks after the crash, however, she came down with a serious case of the sniffles. She'd sneeze, cough and blow her nose throughout the day. In bed, the fluid running down the back of her nose from her sinuses would make her cough and keep her up at night. It had all the hallmarks of a bad cold. But bad colds don't typically last for years at a time. She saw doctors for the problem. They told her that all the stuff running out of her head was likely due to allergies.Nope.Seeking out a second opinion, Jackson discovered that what she thought to be snot was actually due to a cerebrospinal fluid leak (CSF): her head was leaking brain fluid.From Newsweek:

Warning: Just watching this video could trigger an allergic reaction.Eric Henderson of Millville, New Jersey wondered what would happen if he tapped a pollen-laden tree with his backhoe. He soon discovered it would unleash a Hell storm of pollen.According to Pollen.com, the pollen count is high in that area (no kidding!):

Use code FORMOM32 to get this 2-port USB wall charger for $6 (regularly $8). It's not much bigger (1.4" x 1.2" x 1.2") than the standard issue Apple iPhone charger, and the prongs fold back, making it good for travel bags. I use one when I'm traveling to charge my Phone, Kindle, Apple Watch, and battery pack.

Recently, Carla posted about tumbleweeds invading Victorville, California leading to numerous 911 calls. Why do tumbleweeds tumble though? To make more tumbleweeds of course. From KQED's Deep Look:

An organization for sexual enthusiasts called Menage Life is planning to break the record for the world's biggest orgy. The current record was established in 2006 in Tokyo when 500 people congregated to copulate. The Las Vegas orgy will take place at the Embassy Suites on June 2, and Menage Life is aiming for at least 1,000 participants.From Las Vegas Weekly:

This weekend is the opening of "The Future Starts Here," a new exhibition at London's Victoria & Albert Museum of art and design. Celebrating "100 projects shaping the world of tomorrow," the exhibit features several objects that began as Kickstarter projects, including the "Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition" the Grammy-winning 3xLP vinyl box set that I co-produced with my friends Timothy Daly and Lawrence Azerrad. Our project was the first vinyl release of the iconic phonograph record launched into space by NASA in 1977 as a message for extraterrestrials, perhaps billions of years from now.The Voyager Golden Record is an artifact for the future. As Tim Ferris, who produced the original Voyager Record, wrote in our liner notes, the Voyagers are on a journey not just through space but also through time. The Voyager Record is a time capsule but it is also timeless. It sparks the imagination. It provokes us to think about the future and our civilization's place in it. It exudes a sense of hope for a better tomorrow. And it lies at the intersection of science, art, and design to spark the imagination.When Lawrence first began designing our "Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition," he said: "The original Voyager Golden Record is the ultimate album package. I want to design the ultimate album package of the ultimate album package."We're deeply honored to be included in the exhibit! I'm also thrilled that my Institute for the Future colleague Sam Woolley's provocative "Political Bots" exhibit is also part of The Future Starts Here, which runs at the V&A Museum until November 4.The Voyager Golden Record 3xLP Vinyl Box Set and 2xCD-Book edition is now available from Ozma Records.

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention tweeted this image with the question: "Can you spot all 5 ticks in this photo?" Of course ticks generally don't hang out in pastries. The point was just to show how difficult it can be to spot ticks. But apparently the thought (and image) of a tick-infested muffin grossed out many Twitter users. The CDC apologized with, of course, a pun about ticking people off.Anyway, here is the CDC's guide to "Avoiding Ticks."

In 2017 Hillview Police Department detective John W. Nissen was assigned to drive a rape victim to her home. But prosecutors say he drove her to a hotel instead, and raped her.(more…)

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As scary as the epidemics of malware for Internet of Things devices have been, they had one saving grace: because they only lived in RAM (where they were hard to detect!), they could be flushed just by rebooting the infected gadget. (more…)

Comcast may be the most hated company in America, but Ticketmaster has sure given it a run for its money, through a combination of monopolism, rent-seeking, shady dealing with scalpers and total indifference to its customers and the entertainers it nominally serves, but as bad as it is, there's still plenty of innovative ways for it to get worse. (more…)

Comcast is a perennial winner of national polls for the most hated company in America, and the bigger it gets, the worse it gets: back in 2011, the Obama administration let the company swallow NBC Universal, teeing it up to powerfully benefit from the destruction of Net Neutrality under Trump; now Trump is poised to let the company buy Fox and Sky, making the company bigger and more powerful. (more…)

Robotic vacuums have been around for a while but developers are still finding new ways to improve upon their pint-sized designs. Case in point, the ECOVACS DEEBOT Slim2 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner is built to get into those tight spaces around your house and clean with zero supervision for up to 110 minutes at a time. Right now, it's available in the Boing Boing Store for $140.Designed for hardwood floors, this pint-sized workhorse is engineered to sweep, vacuum, and mop its way across your living space, picking up hair, dirt, and debris while you're away. You can start the DEEBOT away from home any time or schedule routine cleanings via the app. Plus, you can rest easy knowing it's engineered with self-sufficient features, like stair safety, obstacle detection, and auto-recharge.The ECOVACS DEEBOT Slim2 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner retails for $199.99, but it's available in the Boing Boing Store for $140.

Dr Dre's trademark dispute against Pennsylvania gynaecologist Draion M Burch is at its end, reports the BBC. Burch will be allowed to keep his "Dr Drai" trademark registration over the music star's objection.

FOLLOW @RubenBolling on the Twitters and a Face Book.PLEASE DO sign up for Tom the Dancing Bug's INNER HIVE, for exclusive early access to comics, extra comics, insider info, and much more.PURCHASE Ruben Bolling’s new hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures. (”Filled with wild twists and funny dialogue” -Publishers Weekly) Book One here. Book Two here.More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

The Church of Latter Day Saints insists that its decision to end over a century of close association with the Boy Scouts has nothing to do with the organization's decision to admit girls, gay kids and trans kids -- the Mormon leaders say that its launching of a competing scouting organization based on the "spiritual, social, physical and intellectual goals outlined by the church" is merely a coincidence. (more…)

Roman Polanski, the filmmaker who drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl, plead guilty to statutory rape, then fled hours before his sentencing to live the high life abroad for decades, objects to the #MeToo movement. The AP:

Over the past 20 years, the world has become a lot more cognizant of the risks of unbalanced copyright, as what was once a way to help creators gain leverage over publishers, studios and labels became a rubric for mass surveillance, unaccountable censorship and monopolism. (more…)

Move over Flowbee, inventor Joseph Herscher of Joseph's Machines has figured out a fresh new way to cut one's hair at home using a swinging chandelier and a large kitchen knife. He calls it the "Terrifying Automatic Hair Cutter."

The famously mistranslated phrase featured in Monty Python's Flying Circus; here it is in many languages. [via]

Gravity isn't always your friend, even when you're on the Moon.Watch as a series of Apollo mission astronauts fall down on the job in this compilation video by YouTuber Martian Archaeology. The footage is originally from NASA's archive.(Neatorama, Tastefully Offensive)

A couple months back, I was delighted to learn that the good, good people at Oh Joy Sex Toy were launching a sex-ed book aimed at explaining the basics, ins, outs, whats and wherefores of sex "for those looking to learn about sex and wince at our bad dad jokes." (more…)

In the wake of the Nova Scotia police fully exonerating the 19 year old who accidentally discovered an open directory full of compromising personal information belonging to Nova Scotians, you'd think that Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil would apologise for having called the act "stealing." (more…)

The way this man casually hops on to a moving freighter in Hailuoto, Finland as it tears through ice and sub-zero waters should make anyone who sees this video feel a whole lot better about their morning commute.

Many Arduino books assume you know at least a bit about electronics. Learn Electronics With Arduino by artist Jody Culkin and Eric Hagan is written for people who want to learn about electronics but are complete electronics newbies.The 384 page book covers basic electronics equations, components, and circuits, as well as how to use and program an Arduino microcontroller. It has many step-by-step instructions for projects and the authors do an especially good job of explaining each line of programming code used in the examples. You'll also learn how to use a solderless breadboard and a multimeter. It's full-color with lots of photos and clear illustrations.

In an age of decadence, narcissism and shit behavior from well-to-dos that's excused with mutterings of affluenza, it's always nice to be surprised by someone anonymously throwing a large sum of money at a worthy cause.Before talking about the inherent good that some affluent individual pulled out of thin air earlier this week, we need to talk about The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising. For the uninitiated, it was a brief, ugly piece of American history. The short version of events: The Dakota people were pissed: the United States government had been screwing them out of land, coming up late with agreed-upon shipments of essential supplies and submitting them to unfair trade practices, contrary to what had been signed off on in treaties between the Dakota/Sioux nations and the United States of America. Tempers flared, as they do over issues of trust and sustenance. A group of Dakota killed a party of Minnesota settlers. War between the U.S. Government and the tribes broke out.38 Dakota men were captured and convicted of war crimes. They were hung in response to the killing of the settlers: it was the largest single day mass execution in American history. By April of 1863, having lost to superior government forces, the remaining Dakota people were forced out of Minnesota as the United States Congress abolished the tribe's rights to their reservations. Hundreds of people on both sides of the war died as a consequence of the conflict.Fast forward to the present day: a peace pipe with a history that traces back to the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 was included in an auction being held in Boston. Skinner, the company hosting the auction, listed the peace pipe as with an estimated value of between $15,000 to $20,000. The pipe, according to a note on its auction information page, was presented to a U.S. Army officer by a Sioux Chief named White Dog while he was being held prisoner. White Dog was killed in 1862 as one of the 38 people chosen for execution in Mankato. The peace pipe ended up in the hands of a private collector in Boston. As it's an important part of their history, when the Lower Sioux Indian Community heard that the pipe was coming to auction, they tried, unsuccessfully, to put a stop to the sale of the pipe.This past weekend, the auction went ahead, as planned. The peace pipe offered by White Dog to his captor sold for $39,975: close to twice of what it was estimated to be worth.From MPR:

When Georgia's legislature passed SB 315, a horribly misguided cybersecurity bill that criminalized routine security research, thus allowing bad guys to get much worse, everyone pinned their hopes on Governor Nathan Deal vetoing it. (more…)

Tomato plants can detect the telltale sign of nearby snails -- slime -- and release an enzyme that deters those and other pests before they even touch the leaves, according to new research. The defense mechanism also keeps caterpillars from munching on the plants. From Scientific American:

A few years back, I had a cough that was so bad that I ended up dislocating a rib from hacking away. My doctor prescribed me a cough syrup laced, heavily, with codeine. The stuff worked, easing my pain and letting me sleep. There were only two side effects from it: I felt too groovy to work for hours at a time and found it pretty hard to poop.According to The BBC, a lot of people see the side effects of codeine laced cough syrup as a feature, rather than a problem. Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac) was recently forced to shutter three of the country's largest pharmaceutical companies after it was discovered that the cough syrup they were producing was being sold on the black market, in massive quantities, to a growing number of codeine addicts in the African nation.The forced closure of the companies comes as the result of a BBC investigation into the use of cough syrup containing codeine by many Nigerian youths as an easy conduit to a quick high. The crappiest part of it all is that the drug companies knew that this was the case. In an under cover interview with an executive from the Emzor pharmaceutical company, an executive was caught bragging about how he could sell one million bottles of the elixir in a week on the black market.Codeine's a dandy painkiller, when used as prescribed by a physician. But it comes with a number of serious issues that crop up when used for long periods of time. I mentioned earlier that it can cause constipation--that's small potatoes when you compare it to the drug's ability to cause organ failure and schizophrenia in some chronic users.Nigeria's not the only African country currently battling a cough syrup abuse epidemic. As the sauce is inexpensive and so easy to use, there's a pretty low barrier to getting started with codeine for people of all ages. According to The BBC, there's been reports of addiction in Kenya, Ghana, Niger, and Chad. Outside of Africa, it's a problem too: India banned a number of brands of codeine-laced cough syrup in 2016 as people were getting hooked on it. And don't even get me started on the face of codeine addiction in North America.The Nigerian government states that the pharmaceutical companies it dinged were shut down because of their refusal to provide inspectors with requested documentation. Depending on whether or not they cooperate with inspectors in the future, the drug manufacturers could be up and running again, soon.Image: Stickpen - Own work, Public Domain, Link

Gav and Dan, aka the Slow Mo Guys, are revisiting a favorite video of theirs, one from 2013 where they put paint on booming speakers and capture it in glorious 2,500 frames-per-second slow motion. This time, however, they've got a camera that can capture the action at 12,500 frames-per-second and one that can grab a 100 megapixel photo of it.When they're done playing with paint, Dan pours a bowl of cereal and milk into the speaker. He then turns on the music while simultaneously thrusting his open-mouthed face into it. It's all captured in super slow motion, of course.

Love Hultén is a designer who builds gorgeous devices that merge faintly-retro stylings with digital guts (previously, previously, previously, and previously).Now he's created the Bivalvia Synthesis, which is adorable and -- as this video shows -- capable of some lovely sounds ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjchKEblQQUAs he describes it:

Cyberpunk fiction pioneer and old-school bOING bOING pal Rudy Rucker has just finished "Return to the Hollow Earth," the sequel to his fantastic 1990 novel The Hollow Earth, a wonderful and rollicking adventure story filled with weird science, curious creatures, and Edgar Allan Poe. Rudy is publishing the new novel himself along with a revised third edition of the original book and the book-length Notes for Return to the Hollow Earth. Get in on the freaky scene by supporting Return To The Hollow Earth on Kickstarter!

Starbucks, LA Fitness, Chevron Gas and Food Mart... Nordstrom Rack is one of the latest in a rash of corporations to publicly get called out for racially profiling black customers.Three young black men were shopping for prom clothes at Nordstrom Rack in Brentwood, Missouri, when an employee called the police, accusing the men of shoplifting. When the cops approached them, the men showed the cops receipts for what they had bought, and the cops let them go. Now the president of Nordstrom Rack, President Geevy Thomas, has asked to meet with the boys and the company has made a public apology. Deja vu.According to KMOV.com:

“I am announcing that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” President Donald Trump announced to a room of reporters at the White House today.(more…)

Weed shouldn't be legalized in Illinois, says Howard Buffett, Sheriff Macon County, because what will become of all the dogs trained to ferret out the deadly drug? "The biggest thing for law enforcement is, you're going to have to replace all of your dogs,” say Macon, who just so happens to run a "private foundation that paid $2.2 million in 2016 to support K-9 units in 33 counties across Illinois," according to The Pantagraph.Chad Larner, who is training director of the K-9 Training Academy in Macon County, says retraining dogs would amount to “extreme abuse.” Larner says if the crazed dope smokers get their way and make pot legal in Illinois, pot sniffing dogs will have to be euthanized.From The Pantagraph:

It's not hard to teach a dog to do tricks, and sometimes even a cat. But spiders? Well, it's not easy, but scientists at the University of Manchester managed to train a spider to jump on command from one platform to another.They wanted to study the mechanics of a jumping spider to help engineers develop micro-robots, but filming a random jumping spider in action would be a grueling task. So they set out to train one. It took a lot of patience. The first few spiders they tried to work with had no interest and simply walked away from the platforms. Some of the other spiders froze up, dumbfounded at what the scientists were trying to make them do.Finally they came across Kim, a female Regal Jumping Spider, who was willing to learn, and after a few weeks she was a trained jumper, "allowing scientists to record, monitor and analyse a spider’s movement in high-resolution 3D for the very first time," according to The Telegraph.

Tim of Grand Illusions shows off this nifty normal curve distribution demonstration machine called the Galton Board. It has 3,000 tiny metal beads that fall through a grid of pegs, landing into one of 28 columns at the bottom. Each time a bead hits a peg, it moves to the left or the right. It's rare for a bead to fall to the left every time it hits a peg on the way down. It's equally rare for it to fall right every time it hits a peg on the way down. That's why most of the beads end up in the columns in the center.

A girl who was too young to legally drive decided she wanted ice cream, so she took her sister's car and headed for a Dairy Queen in Detroit, MI.(more…)

Ever since the news of the Equifax breach broke last September, we've been waiting for the company to publish an authoritative tally of what, exactly, got breached. (more…)

Last month, Argentinian security researcher Ezequiel Fernandez published CVE-2018-9995, a vulnerability he discovered in dozens of brands of DVR that are all based on the same white-label devices, TBK's DVR4104 and DVR4216.(more…)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- who identifies himself as a Christian -- addressed an Arizona law enforcement conference about an imaginary "massive influx of illegal aliens across our Southwest Border" (something that not even Trump believes in), and told border guards that they should disincentivize such crossings by separating undocumented children from their parents in border detention. (more…)