Boing Boing

He chonkin'.Crumpet The Corgi sneaks up on a white strawberry, and it's pretty delightful.Crumpet The Corgi sneaking up on a white strawberryDefinitely follow crumpetandbutter on IMGUR.[via]Keep calm and keep smilingGoodnight Read the rest

[Amazon's surveillance doorbell company Ring sells "security" -- the sense that surveilling your porch or your driveway or your home can make you safe. But when the company experienced a grotesque and completely predictable breach that saw hackers breaking into Ring cameras and spying on and tormenting their owners, Amazon blamed their customers for recycling passwords. In this outstanding Deeplinks post, my EFF colleagues, Cooper Quintin and Bill Budington explain just how odious this victim-blaming really is. -Cory]Just a week after hackers broke into a Ring camera in a childs’ bedroom taunting the child and sparking serious concerns about the company’s security practices, Buzzfeed News is reporting that over 3,600 Ring owners’ email addresses, passwords, camera locations, and camera names were dumped online. This Includes cameras recording private spaces inside homes.This stunning new leak could potentially provide criminals and stalkers with access to view live video feeds from inside and around thousands of Ring customers’ homes, see archived videos, and get the precise location of all Ring devices attached to the compromised account by studying the orientation of the footage and location information attached to each camera.Ring has claimed that this attack was the result of credential stuffing, a technique where attackers gather usernames and passwords compromised in another data breach and try them on other websites. Ring claims that the incident is “in no way related to a breach or compromise of Ring’s security.” Ring is attempting to place the blame squarely at the feet of their customers for reusing passwords, using weak passwords, and not turning on two-factor authentication. Read the rest

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald J. Trump last night. The 45th President of the United States became the third ever to be impeached last night, on abuse of power, and obstruction of justice. What's next? The impeachment process goes to the Senate, where the President goes on trial.After last night's historic late-night impeachment vote along party lines, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won't hand proceedings over to the Senate until Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-Moscow) defines the rules of a Senate impeachment trial.The holidays are upon us, however.No Senate votes until January 6, 2020. No House votes until January 7. Lawmakers are all heading home for the holidays. Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate is in limbo.And with it, America's fate.[via]WHITE HOUSE PHOTO. “First Lady Melania Trump looks at the ornaments on the Christmas tree in the Blue Room of the White House Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019, during a review of the Christmas decorations. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks, PUBLIC DOMAIN)” Read the rest

Columbia Journalism School's Tow Center has published the results of a longrunning investigation into a network of shadowy "local news" sites whose bulk content is composed of algorithmically generated stories about subjects like local rates of gas tax, or which bridges are most structurally sound.Suspended in this slurry of robot-content are kernels of hard-line, far-right talking points about eliminating public education, or the illegitimacy of the impeachment proceedings in Congress.The sites are not obviously linked with one another, but the Tow researchers were able to link them through a variety of techniques: IP addresses, shared analytics IDs, and other tells.The owners or operators of these sites are linked with firms that were previously sanctioned by the FEC for violating the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. The parent organizations include LGIS, Franklin Archer, Metro Business Network, or Dan Proft’s PAC Liberty Principles. All told, there are at least 450 of these sites, with names like East Michigan News, Hickory Sun, and Grand Canyon Times.Writing for Tow, Priyanjana Bengani suggests that these sites are filling an "information vacuum" created by local newspaper closures, and that they're exploiting "the low cost of automating news stories" -- using funeral home announcements and local agency press releases as fodder for algorithmic remixers. This type of writing is sometimes called "pink slime" journalism (previously) a reference to the mysterious formed gelatinous meat-goop used in highly processed food products.The line between Locality Labs and Newsinator is blurry: Proft, in his own words, works with reporters at Locality Labs and “suggests stories and discusses what reporters should cover.” Read the rest

We live in an older house, and the plumbing gets clogged a lot. Whenever a sink, shower, or toilet backs up, I try to to unclog it myself before calling a plumber. Sometimes it's as easy as using a Drain Weasel and getting hair out of a drain. If that doesn't work, I'll try a water bladder. As a last resort, I'll use one of these hand-crank plumber snakes:The snake is a wrist-killer and a huge hassle. To insert the snake, you have to loosen a screw, pull out a few inches of snake, tighten the screw, turn the handle a bunch of times, then repeat the process. It takes forever.If none of these work, I call a plumber. He brings a giant snake that unclogs anything and gives me a well-deserved bill between $100 - $300 (depending on the time of day, or day of the week).After getting one of the higher bills for plumber's service on a Sunday evening, I looked around online for a motorized snake. This Ryobi P4001 18-Volt ONE+ Cordless 25 foot Drain Auger had good reviews and it fit my budget. I also needed to buy a battery and charger. When it arrived, I put the battery in the charger, almost looking forward to the next clog so I could try it out.A short while after, it happened. Carla noticed that one of the clean outs in the backyard had lost its cap and sludge was seeping out. Judging from the size of the puddle, it looked like it had been happening for a long time. Read the rest

If you snore, you know it can be infuriating for your partner. But did you know it can also be unhealthy for you? Yep, those sawing logs that you can't even hear can be a warning buzzer, increasing your risk for stroke.There are cures for snoring that involve everything from nose strips to full-on oxygen masks, but sometimes the simplest solution is best. Smart Nora caught the attention of tastemakers like Oprah and Good Morning America for exactly that reason.It's a small device that stops snoring without ever waking you up - or even touching your face. It consists of an egg-shaped, sound-detecting monitor and an inflatable pad that you place underneath whatever pillow you normally use.When the Smart Nora detects the first sounds of a snoring fit, it adjusts the size of the pad, gently raising or lowering your head. Just that small amount of movement can stimulate your throat muscles enough to open those narrowed air passageways. It's subtle enough that you won't even notice it, but your partner will - in the best way.Right now, you can get 15% off the retail price of the Smart Nora by using the coupon code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

Well, it's nothing if not on brand for New Jersey politics.Five politicians in New Jersey have been charged in a bribery case with taking thousands of dollars in cash that was delivered in envelopes, paper bags and a coffee cup.The revelations are the result of a state public-corruption investigation from Attorney General’s office.Here is the announcement of the charges from the New Jersey Attorney General’s office:AG Grewal Announces Criminal Charges Against Five Public Officials and Political Candidates in Major Corruption Investigation - Jersey City School Board President Sudhan Thomas and former Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell among those charged with taking bribes in investigation by Office of Public Integrity and Accountability And here are the names of the accused, who appear in the image in this post, a screenshot from the State of New Jersey's press release today about the criminal charges.The following five defendants were charged separately in criminal complaints with second-degree bribery in official and political matters:Sudhan Thomas – Jersey City School Board PresidentJason O’Donnell – Former State Assemblyman and Former Bayonne Mayoral CandidateJohn Cesaro – Former Morris County FreeholderJohn Windish – Former Mount Arlington Council MemberMary Dougherty – Former Morris County Freeholder CandidateThe defendants who held public office at the time of the alleged conduct – Thomas, Cesaro and Windish – also are charged with second-degree acceptance or receipt of unlawful benefit by a public servant for official behavior.The quoted dialogue is pretty rich. Can't make this stuff up. Read the rest

Andrew Taylor lives in Canterbury on New Zealand's South Island; when he grew frustrated with the local park's lack of good throwing sticks with which to amuse his dog, he created a "stick library" -- a engraved box with a dozen throwing sticks pruned from his home trees, smoothed down and readied for throwing.The box's engraving reads: "Stick Library - please return."About 50 local dogs and their humans make use of the library, and have been diligent about returning the sticks to their crate. ‘While trimming the trees, my dad found himself with a lot of dead branches, and knowing from experience how hard it can be to find a good stick, and that the new dog park was opening soon, he had the idea that he would save them and put them in some kind of box. ‘When the park opened on November 30, mum and dad took Bella and sure enough there were no good sticks. ‘Dad is the type of guy that is always thinking of things to make, so the next day he found a suitable crate and made the sign for the top. ‘He decided to call it the stick library because it implied that you return the stick once you’re finished with it.’Dad creates ‘stick library’ for dogs [Ellen Scott/Metro](Image: Ralf Roletschek, CC BY) Read the rest

Fudan University, one of China's elite centers of higher learning, has had its charter altered to remove "freedom of thought" from its values. In its place, the charter now promotes "arming the minds of teachers and students with Xi Jinping's new era of socialist ideology with Chinese characteristics." In response, students have launched a protest in the form of performances of the school song, which touts "academic independence and freedom of thought."The change comes along with a requirement to promote "core socialist values" and to ensure the campus is "harmonious" (a Chinese bureaucratic euphemism for purging anti-government sentiment).Similar charter changes have taken place in other Chinese universities including Nanjing University and Shaanxi Normal University.The Xi regime's emphasis on Marxist orthodoxy in China's universities has produced some unexpected outcomes: in 2018, Marxist students joined wildcat workers' strikes in solidarity with factory workers against the bourgeois ownership class. Even after student leaders were kidnapped by security forces the students continued their protests, leading to the forced closure of Peking University's Marxist Society.Fudan's charter change was announced by the Ministry of Education on its website late Tuesday and criticism quickly trended on social media before China's ever-vigilant online censors acted to delete posts and block discussion.Chinese students defiant as university charter cuts 'freedom of thought' [AFP](via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

While NIST doesn't speculate as to why, it did find that the performance of 189 facial recognition algorithms from 89 different vendors varied by "race, sex and age" -- that is, the systems performed significantly worse when asked to recognize people who weren't young, white and male.Note that fixing this isn't necessarily a good thing. Chinese companies struggled to train accurate facial recognition for people of African ancestry, so they had an African state with a lot of policing and telecoms ties to large Chinese firms furnish them with the national driver's license photographic database, and now Chinese surveillance works really well on people of African descent. Success?1. For one-to-one matching, the team saw higher rates of false positives for Asian and African American faces relative to images of Caucasians. The differentials often ranged from a factor of 10 to 100 times, depending on the individual algorithm. False positives might present a security concern to the system owner, as they may allow access to impostors. 2. Among U.S.-developed algorithms, there were similar high rates of false positives in one-to-one matching for Asians, African Americans and native groups (which include Native American, American Indian, Alaskan Indian and Pacific Islanders). The American Indian demographic had the highest rates of false positives.3. However, a notable exception was for some algorithms developed in Asian countries. There was no such dramatic difference in false positives in one-to-one matching between Asian and Caucasian faces for algorithms developed in Asia. While Grother reiterated that the NIST study does not explore the relationship between cause and effect, one possible connection, and area for research, is the relationship between an algorithm’s performance and the data used to train it. Read the rest

The German taxi association scored a major victory by convincing the court to ban Uber in the country. Well, I guess people can still take an Uber if they are willing to €250,000 per ride.From Engadget:In addition to the license violation, the court found several issues with Uber's dispatching process, including the fact that drivers could accept a job within its app without their official employer first receiving it. Additionally, under German law hired cars are obligated to return to their firm's main office after dropping a passenger off.take"From a passenger's point of view, Uber provides the service itself and is therefore an entrepreneur," the court said, going on to add that Uber must comply with the country's passenger transport laws.The German taxi association that brought the legal challenge against Uber said it plans to seek immediate provisional enforcement of the ban. Uber could pay fines as high as €250,000 per ride if it doesn't comply with the court's decision. The company can appeal the ruling, however.Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash Read the rest

If the forklift driver did something like this everyday, he could become a popular YouTuber.Image: YouTube Read the rest

A new thing flat earth idiots are doing is posting a photo of a rock with the caption, "How can the moon reflect light if it is a rock?" Unfortunately, the rock in the photo is reflecting light. Read the rest

Betsy DeVos is the religious fanatic whose access to two unearned fortunes -- one from the Amway Ponzi scheme, founded by her husband's father; the other from her own father's machining business -- has allowed her to project her ideas about eliminating secular public education in favor of Christian indoctrination schools over millions of peoples' lives, especially the lives of poor people.When Donald Trump made her his Education Secretary, he supercharged DeVos's project to create a theocratic education system that would help her turn her brand of hateful, bigoted Christianity into something like an official state religion in America.But DeVos is monumentally unpopular, and not just because her brother, Erik "Blackwater" Prince is a notorious war-criminal and beltway bandit. After all, this is the billionaire who brought unprecedented secrecy to her office, while slashing school funding, proposed buying teachers guns with federal funds, tried to defund the Special Olympics, and promoted charter schools that put profits before pupils.DeVos's personal and political work have always crossed over: her personal foundation spent lavishly to distribute anti-teacher talking points during the 2018 teachers' strikes; and her commitment to "education reform" has been an unmitigated disaster. And, of course, she was caught using her personal email for government business (which would allow her to avoid public records requests) and faced no consequences, though she may yet go to jail for her role in forcing students to pay loans taken out for tuition at a fraudulent, predatory "university" whose playbook is basically Trump University 2.0. Read the rest

Bernie Sanders commissioned the Government Accountability Office to study the consequences of the high degree of indebtedness borne by Millennials; the GAO's report concludes that Millennials dreams are being "crushed" by debts -- primarily student loans -- which have limited their abilities to seek good employment, good housing, and to save for retirement.Millennials -- a generation that's more racially diverse, more educated and more childless than any generation in American history -- are substantially financially worse off than their parents, with both lower earnings and lower savings than boomers or gen Xers had at the same age. They are less likely to own homes than earlier generations did at the same age.There are many factors contributing to the lower earnings and savings than other generations, but the single most dispositive one is student debt, with typical millennial-headed households carrying a debt-to-income ratio exceeding 100%. The GAO report also takes into account the additional factors that influence economic mobility, such as parental income. Between one-third and two-thirds of economic status is passed down from one generation to the next, according to the report, so parental income has a significant impact on wealth and earnings. Geographically, people living in counties in the southeastern United States have lower rates of economic mobility than those living in the rural Midwest. To get more specific, growing up in an affluent neighborhood can positively impact a child’s future earnings to nearly the same extent that a bachelor’s degree does. When it comes to race, Black men have lower adult income than white men who grew up in the same neighborhood as they did in 99% of census tracts, even when accounting for parental income. Read the rest

Denver's 710 KNUS radio host Chuck Bonniwell is out of a job after he announced that he wished for a "nice school shooting" to provide respite from "never-ending impeachment of Donald Trump," reports USA Today.Unsurprisingly, Bonniwell issued a classic fauxpology:On the show's Twitter page, Bonniwell issued a statement before deleting it Wednesday night. “I made an inappropriate comment meant as a joke," he said. "I’m sorry it was not received that way.”Image: 710 KNUS Read the rest

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office refused to comment on the news that surveillance camera video outside Jeffrey Epstein’s cell suddenly went missing.From Radar Online:News of the missing surveillance footage was exposed after Epstein’s cellmate at the time of his suicide attempt, Nick Tartaglione, formally requested that video be preserved as evidence.Tartaglione, a former cop who was awaiting trial for four counts of murder, was accused of attacking Epstein on July 23, but he denied the claims, saying he actually tried to stop the late financier from taking his own life.“We want to be sure that all the evidence is preserved to show that Nick behaved appropriately and even admirably that evening,” Barket said in court. “We asked for all the video and photographic evidence to be preserved, specifically this surveillance video. Now it’s gone.”Image: By State of Florida - https://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/CallImage?imgID=1665905, retrieved July 12 2019. archive.org, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

Many may only know her voice from hearing The Pogues' Fairytale of New York, but beyond that timeless tune, Kirsty MacColl's career as a singer and songwriter was as full and respected as you're bound to hear of. She was lost to us, at the age of 41, close to two decades ago, this week.While on holiday in Mexico with her partner and children, MacColl was killed, and by some accounts murdered while on a diving excursion, off the coast of Cozumel. According to the Irish Post, a boat entered the warded-off area where MacColl was surfacing from a scuba dive, at high speed, striking her light out of this world. She'd still be with us if she hadn't, as a final act, pushed her 15-year old son out of the path of the speeding boat. The vessel belonged to a Mexican multimillionaire. When's there's money had, a coverup may be bought: It's rumored that the boat's owner was the one driving it when MacColl was killed. However, one of his employees was paid to take the fall for him.Fortunately, her music lives on. In this documentary, the BBC explores MacColl's career with insights from Shane MacGowan, Billy Bragg, Johnny Marr, Bono, French & Saunders and Steve Lillywhite. Read the rest

The New York Times' logo looks like it might be set in a classic blackletter typeface, but it is in fact hand-made. Enter Chomsky, a typeface designed by Fredrick Brennan (yes, the Fredrick Brennan) and derived from the NYT's distinctive old-timey nameplate.This font is not an exact copy of the New York Times masthead. Rather, it aims to be suitable for running text as well, so I used a larger stem size. The difference between some of the characters are shown below; the N.Y.T. logo is above, and Chomsky below... :I was quite surprised, that to my knowledge, I am the first to have undertaken this project. Many other famous brands, for example that of CNN, Sega, and Coca Cola have fonts in homage to them; indeed, most of these fonts were made in the pre-Unicode era and are branded in terms of metadata with the name of the defunct, but once prominent, Macromedia Fontographer; the CNN copy cat font is itself going on twenty years old.Perhaps it was the difficulty of creating the extra letters in a blackletter face that scared away would be font authors. Perhaps it was lack of knowledge about the law in this area. Either way, I do believe that I am the first. Read the rest

Richard Kadrey is a New York Times bestselling author and a friend of this website. His dark, horror-tinged urban fantasy books have been a fixture in bookstores and libraries since 2009. 11 books (and counting) into his Sandman Slim series, his novels have been optioned to become a film directed by John Wick’s Chad Stahelski. To say that he’s a success as a writer would be an understatement.Now, he’s looking to help you build the skills to hone your literary talent as well.Starting in March, Richard will be teaching a four-week online course on writing dark urban fantasy. Speaking to him from his digs in San Fransisco on Wednesday, he told me, “...during the class, I want to help students get a strong beginning to a story or novel. More importantly, I want give them the skills they need to keep creating new work.”In order to do that, he’s laid out a clear road map to help get the asses of potential authors into gear.From Richard’s Litreactor page:Week One: What is Dark Urban Fantasy?What is dark or noir urban fantasy and how does it differ from horror? Who lives there and why? And why do we want to bring the strange and the dark into the world?Week Two: Dark Urban Fantasy CharactersWho lives in these strange, invented worlds? How do you construct characters that walk the line between good and evil? Even in the most extreme world and stories, there must be some core of truth to it. Read the rest

We've all heard that Boy Scout motto, "be prepared." These days most everybody is, thanks to the most useful emergency device of all time: The smartphone.Except, of course, when they run out of power. Which is why if you really want to be prepared, get a power bank like the HyperCharger PRO V.2 All-in-One Charger.This Best of Innovation award winner at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show packs plenty of juice - 8,000mAh, to be exact. But it's really the connectivity that makes it unique.The PRO V.2 can output through Apple Lightning, micro USB or USB-C connectors, which means its suitable for iPhones, Androids, tablets of various types and generations - basically any device you come across. It can even charge up to three devices at the same time and do it quickly with 25W HyperCharging capability. You'll be able to come to the rescue of anyone who needs a quick jolt at the local coffee shop, not to mention backup for yourself.The charger is now half off the original retail price, but you can take an extra 15% off by using the holiday discount code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

Someone is going to get a bollocking at the U.S. State Department, because they added Wakanda—the fictional high-tech African kingdom from the marvel Black Panther movie—to an official list of trade partners.The fictional country was removed soon from the list after US media first queried it, prompting jokes that the countries had started a trade war.Wakanda first appeared in the Fantastic Four comic in 1966, and made a reappearance when Black Panther was adapted into an Oscar-winning film last year.The unusual listing was spotted by Francis Tseng, a New York-based software engineer who was looking up agricultural tariffs for a fellowship he was applying for.More furtive associations with Anglo-American imperialism from Wakanda's corrupt, complicit ruling elite! Killmonger was right. Read the rest

You can view the photos on Instagram or Facebook:UPS drivers deliver packages all day long. During each day, drivers encounter many dogs, most friendly and some not so nice. When time permits, drivers snap a photo and send it in to UPS Dogs.Plenty of UPS superfan dogs: View this post on Instagram My boyfriend and our girl, Nori, out delivering packages in Dayton, OH.A post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Dec 18, 2019 at 3:29am PST View this post on Instagram Rutt Ro! 🤣 Molly Cle Elum, Washington.A post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Oct 24, 2019 at 6:34pm PDT View this post on Instagram We met a fantastic UPS driver downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan today! Denny (dog) helped himself inside the truck and wanted to sniff all the packages for Christmas goodies. :-)A post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Dec 18, 2019 at 2:53am PST View this post on Instagram Our dogs Luna & Bergen adore their UPS delivery man Sean, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada! Here they are giving Sean his Christmas card.A post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Dec 15, 2019 at 2:04pm PSTBut it's not just dogs. Goats, turkeys, and more make an appearance: View this post on Instagram This “dog” jumped in my truck before it even stopped. I had a hard time convincing him he couldn’t go with me 😊 Mill Creek, WV. #upsA post shared by UPS Dogs (@upsdogs) on Jul 15, 2019 at 5:06pm PDT View this post on Instagram When you pull up to your stop and their newest "Dogs" jump in to investigate your truck.💕 Read the rest

Last-minute stocking stuffer! After many requests I have finally made the Choam-azon logo available on tees, mugs and housewares, with absolutely no-one's permission. Celebrate the crushing monopoly on interstellar trade enjoyed by Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles with this handsome design evoking its distant origins on Old Earth. Shipped directly by Guild Heighliner to your sietch!For those not in the know, it's a parody of the Amazon logo referring to CHOAM, the overwhelming retail cartel from the Dune universe. But of course, abominations that you are, you already knew that.CHOAM-azon logo tees and mugs [inktale] Read the rest

Traditionally, people in Japan used personal seals called hanko for signing important documents. But increasingly banks and government bodies have permitted use of digital signatures instead. Some are dedicated to preserving hanko culture, leading to stories like this:The official website of new Japanese information technology minister Naokazu Takemoto has been unviewable for the past few months, raising concerns among social media users over his ability to handle the portfolio, it was learned Friday....In a news conference a day earlier, Takemoto said online administrative procedures and the country’s practice of using hanko (personal seals) should coexist.The Diet in May enacted legislation that simplified procedures related to events such as changes of address, death certificates and property inheritance through online administrative procedures, rather than forcing citizens to go to government offices, fill out forms and stamp paperwork using hanko.Takemoto, who heads a group of lawmakers working to protect the nation’s hanko culture, said: “The two should not be regarded as conflicting things. We have to think about how to let them flourish together.”Now, Denso and Hitachi have announced a robot that can stamp documents:The robot “COBOTTA”, which automatically signs contracts and electronic documents, contributes to the automation of office operations in response to customer needs for operational efficiency, labor savings, and productivity improvements.話題の「ハンコ押印ロボット」の実機です。ロボットアーム2本とカメラ、スキャナからなるシステムで、1枚1枚時間をかけて丁寧に押印します。書類を電子化してソフトウェアによる自動化(RPA)サービスとも連携できます。 https://t.co/kzVncJ05bd pic.twitter.com/x8xPCFs1pF— 石井 徹 (@ishiit_aroka) December 18, 2019I can't tell whether this hanko-bot is intended as a joke, but there are also robots for making dumplings: Read the rest

The phrase “You couldn’t make this shit up” clearly hasn’t reached the corridors of power at the tabloids, where they can, and do.

For all the good that many organized religions try to do in the world (albeit, often with ulterior motives,) there's no end to the amount of greasy shit that individual preachers and congregations get up too. Every creed has its assholes. Many are worse than others. If the allegations against SPAC Nation—a UK-based Christian organization, praised for working with young men and women in London to reduce the amount of knife violence that the city has been plagued by of late—are true, they'll have positioned themselves pretty high up there in the scummy religious ranks.From The Telegram:A scandal-hit church is being investigated by the charity watchdog over claims that pastors pressured young congregants into selling their blood for money to donate to the church.The Charity Commission today announced that it had opened an inquiry into SPAC Nation, based in London, to probe financial and safeguarding concerns.The commission, which describes the church as a charity set up to "advance Christianity" and that works particularly with young people, has ordered it to bank all cash while the investigation takes place.The announcement comes after HuffPost UK reported allegations that some members of the church had been taking teenagers to donate blood for medical trials in a practice known as "bleeding for seed".The publication reported that that some members go to donate blood and are paid up to £100 by medical trial companies. This money is then handed by the young people over to the church’s pastors.I mean, is it on the same level as torturing and robbing native children of their cultural heritage in a residential school, marginalizing the rights of women or sexually abusing defenseless congregants? Read the rest

If Sesame Street characters doing impressions of each other doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.The cast of 'Sesame Street' test out their best impressions of Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Rosita and The Count.'Sesame Street' is celebrating its 50th anniversary of helping kids everywhere grow up smarter, stronger and kinder. The 50th season is currently running on HBO and will premiere on PBS in the summer of 2020.Previously, and definitely worth a watch: "Start Wearing Purple" as sung by Sesame Street's CountThanks, Mark! Read the rest

In 1984, Norwegian pop band a-ha struggled to get the first version of their now-iconic song "Take on Me" to chart. And record sales of the single were dismal at just 300 copies. The video itself? Eh. Now I Know reports that it was the band's new music video that made a revised version of the song soar:A-ha’s version of Take On Me was the #1 single in the U.S. and nine other countries in 1985, and their pencil-art video linked above won six MTV Video Music Awards and was nominated for two others, including Video of the Year. But that all almost never happened. The song that topped the charts was a re-release of an earlier version that the band released in 1984, and that version failed to make it into the top 100 singles on the U.S. Billboard chart. The pencil-art video is widely credited with giving the song the necessary boost... Read the rest

Although you won't find any official toys of "the Child" from Disney's The Mandalorian in stores yet, you can decorate your tree with this authorized papercraft version of Baby Yoda in his floating bassinet. All you need is scissors, glue, and a healthy amount of some patience to get all the fiddly bits stuck together. Read the rest

A holiday letter to John Wilcock from Hunter S. Thompson (written exactly fifty years ago this week!) - Describing Thompson's intentions to run for sheriff of Aspen and Joe Edwards' nearly successful run for Mayor.Read John's previous encounter with Hunter here.From John Wilcock, New York Years, by Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall.(See all Boing Boing installments) Read the rest

The Premier League’s official fantasy football league has over seven million entrants. And as of a few days, World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen was number one in the league. As of this writing, he's down to third place.Apparently, Norwegians tend to do well in the league:Carlsen, like many Norwegians, is obsessed with both the Premier League and its fantasy league spin-off. In 2017, eight players from Norway were in the top 50 FPL players in the world.Along with a "phenomenal memory for Premier League details," Here's his strategy:This qoute may have been included in the @guardian story, but since a lot of people are asking about my #FPL strategy, mine is the not so groundbreaking one of part stats and part gut feeling. Part @Opta-mist and part optimist. Patent pending— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) December 9, 2019 Read the rest

Want to get people really into the music at your next house party? Well, a killer playlist is clearly key. But we have to say, this amazingly striking sculpture/speaker combo is a pretty good plan B.This polygonal curiosity is the AD'OM Prime: Kalium Humanoid Speaker. He looks like he just stepped off a prog album cover, which is fitting because he's also a first-rate Bluetooth speaker. Oh, and he puts on an impressive light show to boot.The ABS plastic sculpture is hypnotic enough to look at on his own, but he's also outfitted with strategically-placed RGB LED lights that can set the mood or pulse to the music in a range of 16 million colors. It's all controllable through the Sound Heroes app, which you can also use to sync up your favorite music player via WiFi.You can also use its 4.0 Bluetooth connectivity, which is good for players up to 33 feet away. The sound is impressively clean even at high levels, and the rechargeable battery is good for over 6 hours of playtime.The AD'OM Prime: Kalium Humanoid Speaker is already on sale for 33% off retail, but you can take an additional 15% off the final price by using the holiday coupon code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

On a party-line vote, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Trump on two counts this evening. Trump is only the third U.S. head of state to be impeached, and now proceeds to the U.S. Senate for trial. There is no illusion about what will happen there, as leaders of his party have already signaled they will not convict him irrespective of the evidence presented. Read the rest

HOUSE VOTES FOR IMPEACHMENT IN HISTORIC VOTE

“Sir? This is an Arby's card.”

Bluetooth audio is all about convenience. It's so convenient, in fact, that it's somewhat disappointing when you return from a run with those wireless earbuds to home audio or TVs that aren't equipped with the technology.There's an easy fix: The beamit Wireless Bluetooth Audio Transmitter & Receiver.The unit connects easily to most any device in your home by way of digital outputs or old-school 3.5 mm AUX outlets. From there, it switches easily between receiving transmission mode.The possibilities are endless. Hook it up to your TV and you can listen to the audio on wireless headphones while your partner studies quietly. Conversely, you can listen to streaming music services from your phone on a stereo system connected to the beamit. You can even transmit sound to two headphones simultaneously. And thanks to low latency audio coding, you'll have the optimal sound no matter what your listening device of choice is.The beamit Wireless Bluetooth Audio Transmitter & Receivers already on sale for 20% off retail, but you can knock off an extra 15% by using the holiday coupon code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

Facebook offered a revealing explanation to lawmakers for why it continues to track users’ locations even after those users turn Facebook's location tracking services off.Responding to a letter from Sen. Josh Hawley, (R-MO), and Sen. Chris Coons, (D-DE), Facebook said it needs that extra location data to target ads, and for various security functions.The two senators asked Facebook last month to “respect” users’ decisions to keep their locations private. Coons and Hawley now say that Facebook needs to give users more control over their data.I say, delete Facebook.Here is Lauren Feiner, reporting for CNBC:In a letter dated December 12 that was released Tuesday, Facebook explained how it is able to estimate users’ locations used to target ads even when they’ve chosen to reject location tracking through their smartphone’s operating system.Facebook said that even when location tracking is turned off, it can deduce users’ general locations from context clues like locations they tag in photos as well as their devices’ IP addresses. While this data is not as precise as Facebook would collect with location tracking enabled, the company said it uses the information for several purposes, including alerting users when their accounts have been accessed in an unusual place and clamping down on the spread of false information.Facebook acknowledged it also targets ads based on the limited location information it receives when users turn off or limit tracking. Facebook doesn’t allow users to turn off location-based ads, although it does allow users to block Facebook from collecting their precise location, the company wrote. Read the rest

After LifeLabs was hit by a a cyber attack in November, the Canada-based medical lab paid a ransom to recover stolen data belonging to more than 15 million of its customers. That stolen data included usernames, password, and some 80,000 or more test results. "We did this [paying off the hackers] in collaboration with experts familiar with cyber-attacks and negotiations with cyber criminals," the company today said in a press release."I want to emphasize that at this time, our cyber security firms have advised that the risk to our customers in connection with this cyber-attack is low and that they have not seen any public disclosure of customer data as part of their investigations, including monitoring of the dark web and other online locations," said Charles Brown, LifeLabs President and CEO.Catalin Cimpanu has more in a report for ZDNet.There's more information for impacted users of LifeLabs in a security notice on the LifeLabs website.LifeLabs pays hackers to recover data of 15 million customers [www.zdnet.com]We recently identified a cyber-attack that involved unauthorized access to our computer systems. We are sorry that this incident happened. The data has been retrieved, and a law enforcement investigation is underway. For more info, visit https://t.co/gUYdHeR0Kh.— LifeLabs (@LifeLabs) December 17, 201940% of Canada was breached in October - I totally missed this one amid all of those other data breaches that happen every day.Compromised information may include:- Name- Address- Username/password- DoB- Health card number- Lab test results https://t.co/dk9P67MHIX Read the rest

Any California resident with current identification may obtain a Los Angeles Public Library card in moments.After reading this fantastic list of benefits associated with an LA Library card I immediately pre-registered online. A few minutes later I walked into my local branch and the Librarian was very easily able to finish the process and hand me a card.LAist:Here are a few extra-awesome highlights:Free or discounted admission to L.A. cultural institutions like The Broad, the Autry Museum of the American West, Kidspace Children's Museum and more. Most put a limit on how many free passes you can get per month or per year. In most cases, you must make a reservation and print out a pass to show when you arrive. Find a full list of participating places at the library's Discover & Go site.The New York Times and The Washington Post: Free access to both newspapers' digital sites. The access only lasts 24 hours, but you can log back on immediately. If the logging in and out doesn't bother you, this is a serious money-saver.Octavia Lab, a new space at the Central Library in DTLA that is full of all kinds of technology and gadgets to help users create. The lab is 3,000 square feet, and includes a 3D printing machine, virtual reality gear, a laser cutter, Final Cut Pro, Logic and much more.Language learning apps, including the popular Mango. By entering your library card number and PIN, you can log in and start learning at no charge. Read the rest

You've seriously gotta unmute this.Donkeys must think the sound of these humans playing the violin sounds like other donkeys, because the donkeys in these videos appear to be really enjoying it.Here's another video of the same situation with a totally different donkey, and completely different humans playing a different violin.Cracks me up so hard every time. Read the rest

Salt, bae.There is only one proper way to salt the roads when the weather gets icy and it snows.Source: @mickyo25 Read the rest

On this week's Intercepted podcast (MP3) (previously), host Jeremy Scahill (previously) takes a long, deep look at the history of McKinsey and Company, whose consultants are the architects of ICE's gulags, a failed, high-cost initiative to curb violence at Rikers Island that used falsified data to secure ongoing funding -- a company whose internal documents compare management consultants to "the Marine Corps, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Jesuits" and whose government contracts bill out freshly hired, inexperienced junior consultants at $3m/year.McKinsey has played a role in many of capitalism's greatest hits, from the Enron collapse to the Saudi purge of dissidents that culminated in the murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Scahill speaks to a variety of guests about how McKinsey grew to a global, multibillion-dollar enabler of despots, crooks, and murderers, including the health insurance whistleblower Wendell Potter (previously), whose must-read Twitter thread on Mayor Pete's "Medicare for Some" proposal is brutal and brilliant.Scahill also talks with Propublica's Ian MacDougall (previously, the lawyer/journalist whose coverage of McKinsey has put the firm on its back foot. As a bonus, the opening audio montage for this week's episode is stellar, even by Intercepted's high standards: it mashes up Trump with Dr Seuss, to startlingly good effect.Capitalism’s Consigliere: McKinsey’s Work for Insurance Companies, ICE, Drug Manufacturers, and Despots [Intercepted/The Intercept]' Read the rest

Last year, artist Jason Stieva completed work on "Leviathan – Ark of the Apocalypse," a spectacular, 7-foot-long, 8-foot-high sculpture of a ghostly pirate ship. Steiva is an assemblage sculptor and tattoo artist from Whitby, ON who spent 15 months on the ship, which is populated by a variety of readymade Warcraft miniatures and other findings.He called it his "most daunting project" and it ended up with a tattoo customer (Stieva tattooed a ship on his chest) who is also an "avid collector."Stieva's other work is equally spectacular.Members of the That's Insane subreddit compared the ship to the CGI "ghost ship" from the opening credits of Black Sails and there are certainly some similarities, but Stieva's work is, if anything, far more impressive, both as an accomplishment and as a work of art.“Overall it was the most daunting project I’ve ever worked on and will probably ever create,” he shares. “There is a lot of extremely tedious detail from front to back, top to bottom. Just severing the army heads alone and sanding the back of each to be certain they would sit flush once applied with tweezers took weeks. Sourcing all the characters took quite a while. Redesigning, taking apart, rebuilding, and making the ark structurally sound long before any sculpting began took quite a while.”Artist Spends 15 Months Constructing Ghostly Pirate Ship With Ordinary Found Materials [Jessica Stewart/My Modern Met](via /r/ThatsInsane)(Images: @shallowgravestudios/Jason Stieva) Read the rest

New Year's Day will be a good day to be in Illinois if you like marijuana and you are an adult 21 and over with valid photo identification.“On Jan. 1, 2020, as early as 6 a.m. Central Standard Time, the doors open on a new era for cannabis, as the Prairie State initiates commercial sales to all adults over 21 and older with valid ID,” David Downs at Leafly writes.Hope someone is carrying Jim Belushi's Blues Brothers Joints on January 1! Smoke 'em if you got 'em.Excerpt: The United States’ 11th legalization state is also the first to regulate retail sales through a legislative process. That makes this rollout among America’s most fully baked, since it relies on the existing medical cannabis system to serve adult-use customers swiftly and reliably. (...) Thirty stores have state licenses to start adult-use sales on Jan. 1, 2020, and 27 are ready to go with local approval on opening day. Here they are in a Leafly list:Where to buy: Illinois dispensaries open New Year’s Day"#Illinois #cannabis dispensaries open New Year’s Day for adult-use sales"https://t.co/mxs6JSZY3dFor fun Jan. 1: @revbrew #LegalHero 🍻 + hot cookies 🍪🍪. pic.twitter.com/GbgLKeL9j9— David Downs (@davidrdowns) December 18, 2019 Read the rest

With a couple of family members going on a long plane flight soon, I bought a couple of these wireless active-noise canceling headphones on sale for a really low price using code LBAKMMEL. Read the rest

In this experiment, aluminum foil is spread out on the floor of a hallway. The only way for this cat to walk down the hallway is by walking on top of the foil, something cats are known to dislike. What will happen???Image: YouTube[via Neatorama] Read the rest

New Jersey's Democrat governor today signed legislation to clear the state criminal records of low-level marijuana offenders, and he approved restoring the voting rights of more than 80,000 convicts.Phil Murphy's signature today amounts to another big step toward legalization, and a positive move to increase the number of 2020 voters -- notable, because right now, other GOP-controlled U.S. states are passing laws to restrict how many people have the right to vote.The marijuana law signed Wednesday allows low-level convicts to petition for expungement so long as they have stayed free of criminal offenses for at least 10 years. The records of future minor offenders will be sealed upon the case’s disposition.Another law signed Wednesday, to take effect in 90 days, will allow voting by more than 80,000 New Jerseyans who are on probation or parole. At least 16 states have similar laws, according to a news release from the governor’s office.“Our administration is deeply committed to transforming our criminal justice system, and today we are taking a historic step to give residents impacted by that system a second chance,” Murphy, 62, said in a statement. He called the marijuana legislation “one of the most progressive expungement laws in the nation.” More at Bloomberg: N.J. Lets Some Pot Convictions Go in Step Toward Legalization Read the rest

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth and concluding episode of the Star Wars saga, opens this week. Critics are mauling it, by and large, leaving it with the worst average rating of the series: 54, according to review tracking-site Metacritic. Even Solo got a better reception.Good news at Rotten Tomatoes, though. Star Wars: Phantom Menace beats it to the not-so-coveted worst spot. In the spirit of avoiding spoilers, I'll just leave you with the BBC's conclusion: "The main feeling it instils in the viewer is a renewed respect for the imagination of Lucas" Read the rest

Stephen Colbert is my favorite Trump impressionist. He captures Trump's ever-present pouty whine perfectly Here he is giving a dramatic reading of Trump's six-page temper tantrum about his impeachment. Read the rest