When Harshita Arora, 16, posted about her cryptocurrency price tracking app on Reddit, she was falsely accused of plagiarism and then abused online and even threatened with rape by men who couldn't accept that she'd created the app without a man to help her. Arora, who lives in a small town in India, studied computer science in school and was accepted into an MIT summer program where she learned to build apps.From Taylor Lorenz's story in The Daily Beast:

All flights today at London City Airport were cancelled after a bomb was found in the River Thames. The bomb is actually a German 500kg fused device that's been sitting in the Thames since the Germans dropped it during World War II. The unexploded ordnance was discovered during work on a dock near the airport. The Royal Navy is working to remove the bomb. From NPR:

This striking insect was discovered in Peru in 2005. It has gold eyes, a black body, and tiny red wings. It also has a gland behind its head that sprays a stinky substance when threatened. They have become popular as pets.From Great Big Story:

What better way to spend your Saturday than to join in the festivities of crowd surfing down a busy street? These French rugby fans look like they're having a blast as they pass along strangers who dive into their line. Edinburgh resident Mark Pentler posted this video on Twitter:

It's fun to fantasize about dropping out of the mainstream to live a life of nomadic travels and adventure. I oughtta know, having tried it myself when my family sold everything to move to the island of Rarotonga. And we learned quickly that fantasy and reality don't always mesh the way we imagine it will. After only five months my family returned to Los Angeles after many misadventures, some of which included chronic fungus infections, relentless lice, school bullying for our daughter who hadn't had that problem back home, and pneumonia that our infant contracted without up-to-date medical care available.So I applaud those who attempt to break out, even if their adventure lasts for only a few months – or a mere two days, such as the case with a couple who had dreams of living on the high seas.Tanner Broadwell and Nikki Walsh were tired of living a 9-5 lifestyle, and decided to sell everything, buy a sailboat, and travel the world. Having no sailing experience didn't deter them (oops). The couple, in their 20s, spent two years planning their adventure, and Broadwell Ubered on the side to speed things up. Last April they bought a 28-foot sailboat, spent time and more money fixing it up, and finally set sail with their two-year-old pug last week from Anclote Key in Florida.Welp, a two-day adventure is better than none, some might agree.According to Tampa Bay Times:

At The New York Times, Sarah Lyall writes about an eternal problem of literature: " A writer’s tumescent member is a reader’s risible euphemism"

Lions near South Africa's Kruger National Park ate a suspected poacher over the weekend."It seems the victim was poaching in the game park when he was attacked and killed by lions," Limpopo police spokesman Moatshe Ngoepe said. "They ate his body, nearly all of it, and just left his head and some remains."Police found a hunting rifle and ammo near the body.(BBC News)

Nissan, to show off its autonomous parking tech, outfitted an inn in Hakone, Japan with "self-parking slippers," autonomous floor cushions that tidy themselves, and a TV remote control that straightens itself on the coffee table. While obviously a marketing gimmick, self-knolling anything is quite appealing to me. ProPILOT Park Ryokan (Nissan)

Boing Boing pal Eric Paulos, an engineering professor and artist at UC Berkeley, has a history of high-tech provocations, from his early work with machine performance group Survival Research Laboratories to his controversial art installations such as a vending machine for pathogens. Above is the performance/prank Eric recently staged to open his Critical Making class:

Three things leap to mind watching this experimental film: first, it's interesting how some shots are so iconic that they're recognizable even when shown for a fraction of a second. Second, how long did this take to create? (more…)

Years ago, I used to party with some folks from Centerville, Virgina's Cox Farms, a well-known and well-loved family farm, produce market, and host of an amazing annual Fall Festival. I found them a bright, creative, and fun-loving gaggle of humans who were extremely passionate about food production and building community around food. There was always a sense of mirth and mischief about them, too. Back in the 80s, their T-shirts and bumper stickers read: "You can't lick Cox for fresh produce" and (IIRC) featured a cartoon of a picker holding a basket full of phallic-looking vegetables. They've also displayed messages like: "Dad loves Cox, too!" (for Father's Day) and "We're so excited, we wet our plants!"No stranger to the negative reaction of their provocative signage, the Cox farmers have created a new round of controversy with their latest series of signs taking a stand against white supremacy and Islamophobia. The response they posted on Facebook is wonderful. It's astonishing that speaking out against white supremacy would be a controversial position, but hey, not here in The Upside Down. Here is their response to the naysayers in the community:

Created as a stop-gap to save undocumented migrants from getting killed by cars on Interstate 5 near the San Diego area border with Mexico, the signs soon took on a symbolic use beyond the original intent. The last one appears to have been stolen and won't be replaced. The Union-Tribune spoke to Caltrans designer John Hood about the sign, which was a replacement for an all-text sign:

Alexey Rom sequenced (arranged?) the disco classic Rasputin for an 81-key Marenghi Organ that was in existence at the same time as Russia's greatest love machine. Now there was a cat that really was gone; it was a shame how he carried on.The original, for reference:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVD4yit4X8w

Looking remarkably like the Mogwai creatures from the 1984 film Gremlins, Furbies first hit the market in November 1998, becoming an instant success. In just the first three years of production, over 40M of these fake fur-covered robotic toys were sold. Since their early days, the Furby has been re-introduced a few times.That means there are a lot of Furbies collecting dust on this planet.Well, musician and inventor Sam Battle of Look Mum No Computer salvaged over 44 of them and attached them to an organ. Watch the video to hear a cacophony of "Furbish" music (?).I won't lie, as noisy as it is, I totally want a Furby Organ for myself.

If you have something to sell, and a buyer asks to pay using Venmo, you could lose both your money and your item. Jennifer Khordi is one of many who got scammed and wants to help others avoid her fate. (more…)

I'm about to embark on a tour of Australia and New Zealand to support my novel Walkaway, with stops in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Wellington! I really hope you'll come out and say hello! (more…)

Security researcher Scott Helme has spotted a third-party exploit that injects a script that mines cryptocurrency on over 4,200 sites, from the UK NHS to the US Courts' official site to the sites of other esteemed security researchers. (more…)

Cambodian dictator Hun Sen has ruled since 1998, and when an opposition leader used Facebook to challenge his election in 2013, Hun Sen teamed up with a fake news outlet called Fresh News to deploy a Facebook-based strategy to consolidate his control and neutralize democratic opposition. (more…)

If you're discussing turn-based strategy games, Sid Meier's Civilization series will inevitably enter the conversation. This powerhouse of a gaming franchise first hit the scene in 1991 and has sold more than 35 million units worldwide since its creation, fostering a community of players set on building empires that can stand the test of time.Sid Meier's Civilization VI, the series' latest installment, takes what has made this franchise successful and built upon it, reeling in more than 15 E3 Awards, including Best PC Game and Best Strategy Game. If you're looking to see what the hype's about, today's your last day to get it on sale for half off the usual price.https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lh66QuadP4MSid Meier's Civilization VI has you advance your civilization from the Stone Age to the Information Age by waging war, conducting diplomacy, pushing your culture, and going head to head with history's greatest leaders. It brings a host of new features to the table, including an innovative city planning system and improvements to combat and policy. Plus, with multiple victory conditions, you can keep playing Civ VI over and over until you assert your empire's absolute dominance.The game usually retails for $59.99, but today's your last day to get it on sale for $29.99 in the Boing Boing Store, saving half off the normal price.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, has flourished into a hot topic amongst marketers and web developers aiming to promote their brands on the web. And, as more companies take their content online, competition to be on that first page of a Google search is growing.There are ways to improve your standing, such as using popular keywords, but climbing to the top of the search rankings necessitates a two-fold approach: improving your site's searchability while keeping tabs on your competition. SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO platform that lets you do both, and lifetime plans are on sale for $49.99 in the Boing Boing Store.SE Ranking offers all the standard SEO tools, such as keyword position tracking and competitor research, while also including unique features like page changes monitoring and SEO ROI forecasts. With SE Ranking, you can learn which keywords your competitors are using in their ads and examine their budget, traffic, and the number of clicks their ads receive so that you can keep tabs on their performance.Lifetime plans to SE Ranking are on sale for $49.99 in the Boing Boing Store.

This is Felix, a super-weird cat lamp by Belgian design house Studio Job that switches on by pressing its tiny gold testicles. When you do, its eyes will glow. O...kay...Australian blog So Bad So Good reports it will be available in three colors (black, white, and b/w combo) in April and will retail for £205. (~$284.).images via So Bad So Good

The seventies called and Bill Murray answered.When he's not busy being a Hollywood actor, comedian, and writer, he can found crashing parties, opening a restaurant with his brothers, or introducing his new retro-styled golf pants -- bell-bottoms -- at the Pebble Beach celebrity Pro-Am.They're adorably called Bill-Bottoms and they're a collaboration with San Francisco clothing label Betabrand. Each pair features Mr. Murray's signature "Lucy the Caboosie" print of caboose blueprints and peonies (a tribute to his Mom who loves the flowers).

Denim Szram created Gedankenpendel, a speaker-ball that plays a continuous spoken thought, but when it's touched or moved, other thoughts begin to play simultaneously. The effect is quite disconcerting. (more…)

From the ingenious to the bizarre, there's no shortage of gadgets, machines, and homemade gew-gaws created to make cutting and splitting wood easier. (more…)

In an alliterative homage to Breaking Bad, Binging with Babish shows viewers how to make the dipping sticks that Walter never got, as well as some dangerously delicious candy meth. (more…)

Tis sweet to know that stocks will stand,

Being able to chase down your passions and getting paid for it is the dream, right? In this video, archivist Dr. Christopher de Hamel looks to be doing exactly that.With more letters after his name than most of us have in our name, Dr. de Hamel belongs to the Society of Antiquities of London, a member of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He's also a Fellow Librarian of the Parker Library – one of the finest collections of medieval manuscripts in the world. The library holds over 600 priceless titles, including the Latin Saint Augustine Gospels, which is believed to be the oldest bound text still in existence.The honors and the texts de Hamel has access to are impressive, but not as impressive as his enthusiasm. Just look at how excited – manically happy – he is to talk about the subject of medieval manuscripts, in this video. It's the enthusiasm of a man in love with his life's work. It's a wonderful thing to see.It makes me wonder if, in another 30 years, I'll have the same passion for writing as he does for his books. How many of us can claim to be in love with what they do for a living? It feels like such a rare, fine thing.

The memo wars continue. This Friday night news dump brought to you by President Trump.(more…)

Canadian troubadours, The Dead South has been around since 2012, working both sides of the border with their brand of award-winning bluegrass-flavored music. The whistling and banjo line of In Hell I'll be in Good Company has haunted my skull for close to a year now. I'm sick of suffering alone.My pain is now yours.

Some 30 to 40 White House officials and Trump administration political appointees are operating more than a year into the Trump regime without full security clearances. One of them is Jared Kushner. Until recently, another was noted wife-basher Rob Porter.(more…)

A leaked set of disclosures made by Equifax to the US Senate have revealed that the breach of 145.5 million Americans' sensitive financial data was even worse than suspected to date: in addition to data like full legal names, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, and home addresses, it appears that Equifax also breached drivers' license numbers and issue-dates. (more…)

Good news! At least one law enforcement agency is working with members of the community they're sworn to protect. Just one problem. The local folks these police worked with were Nazis. (more…)

ParadiseOS depicts an alternative computing world from the turn of the millenium: a desktop obscenely slathered in compulsory and broken services, ads and applications, an experience designed by dotcom era advertising boyars but hopelessly unrealistic before the wide availability of broadband internet and hardware video decoding. It's part Black Mirror, part vaporwave, part ironically brilliant web development by Stephen Kistner.

This 1971 cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #100 includes portraits of over 25 of Spidey's greatest friends and foes. It was created by John Romita Sr. and Frank Giacoia and is on the auction block. Heritage Auctions believes it could end up selling for as much as $300,000.From Heritage Auctions' release:

My more serious maker pals use soldering stations that cost about $500. I get along with cheapies like this $14 kit>, which is highly rated on Amazon. It comes with a number of different tips, a tweezer, and a supply of solder. This iron, plus Donald Bell's $3 solution for keeping components secure while you work on them, makes for a low-cost soldering set-up.

Reptiles have unusual reproductive equipment. For example, female snakes and lizards have two clitorises. Meanwhile, the male tuatara has no penis. "The male simply mounts the female and places the opening of his cloaca—-the cavity where the intestinal, genital, and urinary tracts meet in reptiles—-over hers," writes Tina Deines in a National Geographic article. From Nat Geo:

[Update 2/9/2018 2:03pm PT: A Fox News spokesperson who requested anonymity contacted Boing Boing to provide an "on the record statement" that the views and values of the Executive Vice President/Executive Editor for Fox News "do not reflect the views or values of FOX News."]John Moody, Fox News' executive vice president, has a problem with the fact that Team USA has introduced a bit of diversity to its roster. The Washington Post reported that the 243 member team of Olympians has two openly gay men, “10 are African American — 4 percent — and another 10 are Asian American. The rest, by and large, are white.”That's way too gay and black for vice president Moody. From his op-ed (which appears to have been taken down from the Fox News site without explanation, but here's the Archive.org snapshot):

I'd say things peaked in 1968 with 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[UPDATE 2/9/2018 12:47pm PT: The professor has been fired.]Ashley Arnold is pursuing an online sociology degree at Southern New Hampshire University. For one of her classes (which cost $1000) she was assigned to write a paper comparing a social norm in the US and another country. Arnold chose Australia. She wrote the paper and turned it in. Her professor (who has a PhD in philosophy) gave her an F. Reason: "Australia is a continent; not a country." Arnold emailed the professor, supplying references attesting to the fact that Australia is indeed a country. The professor sent her a scolding reply:

My guest on the Cool Tools podcast this week is Kevin Rose. Kevin is a serial entrepreneur and product builder, having founded the social news site Digg in 2004. Later Kevin pursued a career in venture investing, investing in companies like Medium, Ripple, and Blue Bottle Coffee while at Google Ventures and is now investing at True Ventures.Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single pageShow notes:Peloton Bike ($1,995)“I had taken a couple stationary bike classes and the ones that you actually have to go in person, but then I had a buddy of mine, that was like you don’t understand, these classes are a lot of fun, they really motivate you, you can do it your house, and for me that just sounded like, okay, I’ll give it a shot, and I went and tried it at a friend’s house, and I got hooked, purchased one, and for a geek it's awesome because you get all the really detailed analytics on the screen there post workout, and then it's all live streaming classes, so like when you're in a class the instructors will call you out by name sometimes, and there's all different types of instructors depending on your music style and likes, so I've just found it to be a great way — if you have an extra half hour — to just jump on for 20 minutes and get a work out in." [Note: True Ventures, the venture capital firm Kevin Rose works for, is an investor in Peloton.]Habitify: Habit Tracker"I've been into habit tracking apps, but they always kind of fall off, but as a data junkie, and kind of a geek, I really like to see and be held to certain habits, so I like to see like completion rate, and progress indicators, and little charts and graphs. This is just a really beautiful and simple habit tracking app. So for me, I set up daily habits that would be say “meditation” and there’ll be habits that I want to happen three times a week, like "cardiovascular exercise", or taking certain vitamins three times a week, things like that, and so this is just my go to app for all things habit tracking."Ledger Cryptocurrency Hardware Wallet ($132)“I've tried both the TREZOR and the Ledger, and I wanted a place to have a physical device that is required to unlock your wallet, so that, that means, you know if I lose my laptop, or wherever I'm storing my cryptocurrency, you have to have this device along with a PIN code to authorize any transactions, any sending of any of your coins or tokens. The reason I went with Ledger though versus TREZOR is just the amount of companion apps and kind of built in coins that they support. I’m looking at their site right now, it looks like they support close to 30 different coins, and that was more than TREZOR.”Easy Fermenter Wide Mouth Lid Kit ($30)“A little hobby of mine is fermenting vegetables, and I’ve done this with a whole variety of different stuff. [I] started with sauerkraut, and I’ve done pickles, and things of that nature, but it’s always kind of a pain, it's difficult in that these things are expelling gases, and you always have to keep everything submerged the right way, and this was a device that I had found probably a year ago called The Easy Fermenter that really makes it easy. You buy these little glass weights that sit inside of any standard mason jar, so it keeps all of your vegetables submerged beneath the brine, and then all you do is just screw on this lid that has an automatic exhaust valve to allow the gases to escape, and it’s as simple as that.”Also mentioned:Oak meditation

JUMPSUIT is a "counter-fashion" created by "Marxist fashion designers" who solicited Ivanka Trump clothing to be shredded and rewoven into black and white fabric that is custom-made into one of 248-sized "ungendered multi-use monogarments," which come in fitted and unfitted (the winter line has long sleeves and the summer line has short sleeves). (more…)

I got a new Passport and Passport card, time for new RFID sleeves.The new REAL ID stuff in the US is a pain. My California drivers license still doesn't emit any RF I know of, but my US Passport, Passport card and a few other forms of government ID I sometimes carry do.This lovely-to-look-at set includes 10 card sized sleeves and 2 passport for $7.29. More than I'll likely need.Credit Card Holder Protector Passport Holder Protector Sleeves 10 RFID Credit Card Sleeves, 2 RFID Passport Sleeves via AmazonImage via Amazon.com

Flexispy is the creepy stalkerware advertised to abusive spouses and exes that Motherboard's Joseph Cox has been relentlessly tracking; when he acquired a leaked trove of the company's files, he started to mine it to see who was buying the potentially illegal app. (more…)

Logan Paul made a video posing near of a suicide victim in Japan's Aokigahara forest. He was widely condemned, seemed chastened, made a soft-focus video about his learning experience, then went back in front of the camera to taser a dead rat and poke a fish. YouTube issued a statement saying Paul's been suspended again from their advertising program, but you get the feeling that, like him, they just aren't learning their lesson.The BBC:

Right now, if prisoners use up their 12 allotted pads for the month, they have to work 27 hours to afford a $4 box of tampons. (more…)

Here's one side-effect of the Internet I hadn't expected: It may be reducing our carbon footprint -- by getting us to stay home more.A group of academics studied data from the American Time Use Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, looking at changes in American's daily routines between 2003 and 2012. They found that they're "spending considerably more time at home" -- about 7.8 more days at home in 2003, compared to 2012.Why are Americans home so much more? Because technology has made it more viable to work from home, so they're traveling into the office less often; it's also easier to entertain yourself at home, so less trips to movie theaters and the like. These trends are particularly pronounced amongst younger Americans: 18- to 24-year olds spent fully 14 days more at home in 2012 than in 2003.So, energy use at home goes up. We're using more computers, more TVs, more air-conditioning there. It's about 480 trillion BTUs more per year at home (using 2012 figures).But! Since we're driving/traveling less often, we used 1,000 trillion less BTUs in transportation. And we used 1,200 trillion less BTUs in stores, offices and other "nonresidential" locations.The upshot: Americans' energy use went down by a net 1,700 trillion BTUs, which is 1.8% of the national overall total usage.A chart that summarizes it ...As the researchers point out, this migration of activity to the house has public-policy implications. If we wanted to make the country evermore efficient in its use of energy, we should probably focus a bit more on energy consumption in the home, since this is where the locus of daily action is shifting:

Christopher Ferguson, an off-duty cop in Algood, Tenn., going 20 miles over the speed limit, will not be inconvenienced after ramming into James and Rena Cryer's SUV with such force James was thrown into the road. Amazingly, the elderly couple survived—and District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway found them at fault.

"Humans Not Invited", a project by the artist damjanski, shows you a CAPTCHA that can be solved by robots using AI vision -- but not by humans, with our useless watery meatsack eyes.As Motherboard reports:

Let's face it: Writing is a skill that doesn't come to everyone naturally, but that's still not an excuse to send out emails riddled with typos and vague prose. Grammarly gives you the means of producing clear and concise correspondence, and it does so without forcing you to lift a finger. One-year plans ordinarily retail for $139.95, but you can sign up for half that price with a deal in the Boing Boing Store that ends this Sunday.Grammarly corrects hundreds of grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes while also catching contextual errors, offering vocabulary changes, and suggesting style improvements across a host of writing platforms, including Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Grammarly also boasts genre-specific writing style checks and even includes a plagiarism-checking filter, handy for ensuring your term papers are clean. What's more, Grammarly even provides you with explanations for all your mistakes and a weekly progress report so that you can grow your writing skills along the way.You can sign up for a 1-year plan to Grammarly Premium for $69.98 in the Boing Boing Store. But remember, the deal ends this Sunday.

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