Boing Boing

This is quite a sight! At Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington, a bunch of folks in inflatable T-Rex costumes struggled to make their way down the horse-racing track this past weekend. Triguard Pest Control puts on this annual race, which serves as a terrific promotion of the racetrack. This video was placed on Facebook late Friday night and has already garnered over 195K shares.Here's a video of the dinos racing back in 2017: Read the rest

This bird is smarter than I am. The Independent:In a video posted on social media, titled ‘Fuck the police”, the sulphur-crested cockatoo is seen patiently ripping out sections of metal spikes and dropping them on the pavement outside the Town Centre Arcade on Katoomba Street. The camera later pans down to reveal the bird has torn out dozens of the sections across the entire length of the wall.The footage, which was posted on Monday by Isaac Sherring-Tito, has been shared more than 34,000 times on Facebook. Read the rest

In 1930 Harold Lasseter claimed he'd discovered an enormous deposit of gold in the remote interior of Australia, and a small group of men set off into the punishing desert in search of a fortune estimated at 66 million pounds. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of Lasseter's reef, one of the most enduring legends of the Australian outback.We'll also reconsider the mortality rates of presidents and puzzle over an unlocked door.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Ex-Secret Service officer Liam Booth was the head of security for Mark Zuckerberg's "family office" and charitable foundation; two former employees accused Booth of homophobia, transphobia, "pervasive discriminatory conduct," and "horrific levels of sexual harassment and battery," saying that he had made racist remarks about Zuckerberg's wife, Priscilla Chan; that he had told a staffer that he "didn't trust Black people" and that he believed that "white lives matter more than Black lives" and had personally sabotaged Chan's attempt to hire more diverse staff; that he'd complained about the number of Black people working for the family charity; and that he'd "angrily advocat[ed] against diversity in the workplace and the movement Black Lives Matters, which he called 'reverse racism.'"The accusers hired attorney Lisa Bloom to represent them; Bloom previously represented survivors of Bill O'Reilly's workplace sexual abuse.Zuckerberg's family office launched an internal investigation and concluded that Booth was not guilty. Booth resigned despite this conclusion. His accusers say that the unwillingness of Zuckerberg to hire an independent, external investigator is evidence that he isn't interested in uncovering the truth -- rather, he just wants the scandal quickly and quietly done away with.The accusers do not allege that Zuckerberg knew about Booth's conduct. In response, The Bloom Firm continued to call for an independent investigation into the allegations. "We continue to urge the family to retain a truly neutral, independent investigator experienced in harassment and discrimination claims to make factual findings and recommendations on these urgent and important claims," Lisa Bloom, the head of the firm, said in an emailed statement. Read the rest

In 2012, the Wall Street Journal first reported on a mysterious cellphone surveillance tool being used by law-enforcement; years later, we learned that the origin of this report was an obsessive jailhouse lawyer who didn't believe that the cops had caught him the way they said they had.It turned out that law enforcement across America had been secretly buying and using a location-tracking cellphone surveillance tool from the Harris Corporation, which called the device a "Stingray." The Stingray -- shrouded in secrecy -- was the first know "cell site simulator": a fake cellphone tower that tricked nearby phones into connecting to it briefly in order to capture their unique identifiers.As the years went by, we learned more about this form of surveillance, including disclosures about the existence of more powerful CSSes with wider features -- including Drtboxes, which are affixed to the underside of planes or drones and used to capture citywide location/identity data from millions of phones.CSSes remain shrouded in mystery. None of the police agencies that use them will describe their capabilities -- they seem to have been bound by nondisclosure agreements -- and the companies jealously guard the details of how they work. Thanks to leaks and diligent work by independent researchers, we have a fragmentary record of what these devices do, which defects in mobile phone standards they exploit, and what avenues we might pursue in order to avoid being caught by them (at least 40 CSSes of unknown origin were discovered to be in operation in DC in 2018; many presume that they are being operated by hostile foreign powers). Read the rest

Insane Clown Posse fandom has some pretty jazzy membership benefits.Consequence of Sound:It turns out that Juggalos face makeup cannot be accurately read by many facial recognition technologies. Most common programs identify areas of contrast — like those around the eyes, nose, and chin — and then compare those points to images within a database. The black bands frequently used in Juggalo makeup obscure the mouth and cover the chin, totally redefining a person’s key features. Read the rest

Roxanne Lehmann defines herself as a “👗Dressmaker🧶Knitter🧵Quilter🌼Crafter🤓Cosplayer” on Instagram, where she posts images of her incredible sewing projects and whimsical DIY dresses.She made a “Starbucks dress.”It is awesome.“I was trying to think of a unique costume idea for weeks,” she writes. “When I glanced at my coffee one day, I immediately envisioned what i wanted to sew.”“I love those moments of creative inspiration.”I made a Starbucks dress!She's also a contributor to IMGUR. Check out her work on sewing.patternreview.com. View this post on Instagram Starbucks Coffee Cup Dress I was searching for inspiration for a unique costume idea that would be true to my style. This dress was so much fun to make! The bodice was lined, and I layered the dress over a purchased dress extender slip. I prefer to use slips rather than lining my skirts because it saves me time, money, materials, and the frustration of dealing with slippery fabrics! I digitized the logo for machine embroidery, and due to my limited hoop size it had to be split into four sections so I could rehoop the bodice after each quadrant. My Janome SkylineS9, the AcuSetter app and my iPad made this process so simple. I'm not sponsored but I love my sewing/embroidery machine! 💖 S1651: Flared skirt in white crepe suiting M6955: Bodice with waistline dart in white crepe suiting S1415: Princess seam strapless bodice in brown stretch corduroy #cosplay #costume #coffee #starbucks #starbuckscostume #dresses #sewing #creativesewing #mccallspatterns #simplicity #janome #sewingmachine #embroideryA post shared by ❤🧵Roxanne Lehmann👗❤ (@roxisasewingmachine) on Mar 16, 2019 at 9:35pm PDT Read the rest

Newly unearthed scandals are placing a harsh spotlight on the United States Government agency behind Voice of America, Radio Martí, TV Martí, and other broadcast entities purportedly in the business of amplifying American values abroad.One top executive billed $37,000 in made-up travel expenses. A reporter and a cameraman are accused of faking a mortar attack on the US propaganda channel that beams news to Cuba. The U.S. government agency tasked with broadcasting American values to the world behaves like it has no values at all.“The United States Agency for Global Media, the government’s foreign broadcast service, already struggling to clean house after a series of scandals last year at flagship operations like Voice of America and TV Martí, is now being rocked by two new cases that have raised further questions about its journalistic and financial management,” writes Elizabeth Williamson at the New York Times:In one, Tomás Regalado Jr., a reporter for TV Martí, which broadcasts into Cuba, and a cameraman for the network, Rodolfo Hernandez, were suspended amid allegations that they faked a mortar attack on Mr. Regalado during a broadcast from Managua, Nicaragua, last year.That incident surfaced only days after Haroon Ullah, the former chief strategy officer at the global media agency, which operates Martí and foreign-language networks around the world, pleaded guilty on June 27 in federal court in Alexandria, Va., to stealing government property.A former deputy to the agency’s chief executive, John Lansing, Mr. Ullah admitted to fleecing the government of $37,000 between February and October last year by claiming reimbursements for expensive hotels he did not book, double-billing the government for official travel and forging a doctor’s note to allow him to fly business class. Read the rest

Even the fireworks were corrupt at Donald Trump's July 4th rain-dampened, taxpayer-funded, narcissistic dick-wag fascism fiesta.Bruce Zoldan is the CEO of an Ohio fireworks company, and is reported to have donated $750,000 dollars worth of fireworks to President Trump’s 2019 Fourth of July military parade.Zoldan also successfully lobbied the president to not implement tariffs on all the pyrotechnics they import from China, where fireworks were invented and are still mostly created to this day.From ABC News:President Donald Trump's Fourth of July celebration will feature $750,000 of donated fireworks from an Ohio retailer who has lobbied the White House against expanded tariffs on Chinese imports.And last week, the same day the donation was announced, the company -- Phantom Fireworks of Youngstown, Ohio -- got what it wanted: Trump decided to hold off on his threatened $300 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, which include fireworks."This is another example of how private companies attempt use their money to influence the government by stroking the president's ego," says Jordan Libowitz from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics is FOIA-ing for more financial information on the matter:Following reports that Phantom Fireworks CEO Bruce Zoldan both donated $750,000 dollars worth of fireworks to President Trump’s Fourth of July celebration and successfully lobbied the president to not implement tariffs that could negatively impact his business, CREW requested documents from the Interior Department to establish how the donation came about and details about Interior’s use of its gift acceptance authority. Read the rest

Sheboyagan's Patrick D. Beeman has been sentenced to 150 days in the Huber program -- which allows him to work days and return to his cell at night -- as well as $5,500 in restitution payments and 100 hours of community service for a string of vandalism incidents in which he clogged public toilets with plastic water bottles. The toilets Beeman clogged had been supplied by a company where he was temping. Beeman, whom the court also banned from possessing or consuming alcohol or controlled substances, apologized for his behavior at his sentencing and vowed that he would "make things right and pray forgiveness every day." Beeman told police that "he gets urges to do odd things, like look for bottles in the garbage to plug toilets." (via Lowering the Bar) Read the rest

“He’s a lot of fun to be with,” Trump said of Epstein in 2002. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Facebook and Twitter are very much not invited to Trump's upcoming White House social media summit, CNN's Oliver Darcy reports.A spokesperson for the White House declined to comment.The people, who spoke to CNN Business on the condition of anonymity, suggested it was not surprising. They said they believe the summit would amount to a right-wing grievance session and was not aimed at seriously discussing some of the issues facing large technology companies.(...)The White House announced the summit in June, describing it as an event to bring together "digital leaders for a robust conversation on the opportunities and challenges of today's online environment."The White House has not yet publicly disclosed who it has invited.But the Washington Post reported last week that the White House has asked to the event a number of right-wing luminaries who have been extremely critical of social media companies. Some of these individuals have claimed, often without real evidence, that companies like Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) harbor bias against conservatives and censor their speech. The companies have denied those claims.Republican lawmakers and conservative media personalities have for years lobbed claims of anti-conservative media bias at Silicon Valley companies.But President Trump has poured fuel on the fire, attacking large technology companies on a regular basis and suggesting they need to be regulated by the government.Facebook and Twitter have not been invited to White House social media summit, sources say [CNN] Read the rest

Instagram launched a new feature today, Restrict, intended to help vulnerable users avoid abuse. Facebook's Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri says the company will also be focusing on new uses for AI to crack down on bullying. Social media platforms are under pressure by governments to show they can police themselves in matters that impact elections. In the spirit of showing they are responsible and don't need a heavy regulatory hand, Instagram has declared war on bullying, and there's quite a press launch to kick it off this week. “We are in a pivotal moment,” says Mosseri. “We want to lead the industry in this fight.”From Katy Steinmetz at TIME:Creating artificial intelligence designed to combat bullying means teaching machines to master an evolving problem with complex nuances. Instagram must also be wary of free speech issues as engineers create tools that are optimized to find things that they should, without suppressing things that they shouldn’t. “I do worry that if we’re not careful, we might overstep,” Mosseri says. But he says nothing, including growth, trumps the need to keep the platform civil. “We will make decisions that mean people use Instagram less,” he tells TIME, “if it keeps people more safe.”Facebook stands to profit from every hour people spend on Instagram. If those who associate additional safety measures with constriction go elsewhere, potential revenue leaves with them. When asked if it’s in the company’s financial interest to take on bullying, Mosseri’s response is that if Instagram fails to curb it, he will not only be failing users on a moral level but also failing the business. Read the rest

Continuing to climb in the polls, and our hearts, Elizabeth Warren delivers some impressive fundraising numbers.NPR:The momentum translated to fundraising. Warren took in $19.1 million in April, May and June — more than three times what her campaign raised during the first quarter of 2019, according to her campaign Monday.The fundraising total is about $1 million more than Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders raised, and about $7 million more than California Sen. Kamala Harris' second-quarter total.Bernie Sanders attends the Fourth of July parade in Pella, Iowa. In polls and fundraising, Sanders is starting to be surpassed by fellow progressive Elizabeth Warren.Warren's second-quarter fundraising trails only former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, both of whom devoted considerable time to attending high-dollar fundraisers across the country. Warren, by contrast, has made the unusual move of forgoing fundraising events. Read the rest

“I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off.” —Candidate Donald Trump, 2016

Police in Southington, Connecticut arrested Joshua Moore who is accused of robbing numerous ATMs of $200,000-$300,000 in cash. How would Moore have accessed the machines? He got the right tool for the job.According to the investigators, "the suspect utilized a battery powered hydraulic spreader similar to what is used by firefighters during vehicle extrications (Jaws of Life) to gain access into the ATM machine."And where would Moore have gotten such a thing? eBay, 'natch.(Fox61) Read the rest

Drivers on a highway in Buckinghamshire, UK spotted this very strange orange bird on the side of the road and called the nearby Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital. Further investigation by veterinarians revealed that the bird's feathers were not naturally orange but rather stained with curry. From CNN:Vinny, named by veterinary workers in honor of the Vindaloo curry he was covered in, had a "pungent smell" but was otherwise healthy, the hospital said.All he needed was a bath. Rescuers were finally able to clean the curry off of the herring gull after he put up a bit of a fight and covered the veterinary team in curry water.Now that he's been thoroughly scrubbed and returned to his natural white coloring, Vinny will soon be ready to fly free... Read the rest

I hope your toenails aren't 15 millimeters thick, but if they are, these clippers will accommodate them. They have tons of leverage and reviewers on Amazon love them. The price is good, too: Read the rest

The international art market is a looter's go-to gambit for grifting their money out of their national borders and getting it into a no-man's land out of reach of every tax authority in the world, but it is also stubbornly illiquid, because selling your Picasso takes a ridiculously long time.That's why private banks -- the kinds that offer discreet, no-questions-asked service to super-wealthy individuals whose money comes from undisclosed sources -- have built up a giant debt-bubble backed by art.In 2017, Deloitte put the US art-backed debt issuance total at $17-20b, up 13% from 2016, and estimates are that the sector has enjoyed year-on-year double-digit growth, with Bank of America Private Bank leading the industry in this fine art financialization.The US leads the sector, but the EU is catching up, thanks to banks in the UK and Germany.Athena, America’s largest boutique lender, requires art worth about $2m to secure its minimum loan of $1m. At Bank of America and other private banks, the minimum loan is closer to $5m. Both accept only works by well-known artists as collateral, since they are the only ones with reliable longevity. Thus art-secured loans are less risky than many believe, says Arturo Cifuentes of Columbia Business School.“We can lend millions of dollars in three or four weeks,” says Cynthia Sachs, chief investment officer at Athena. But boutiques’ greater speed and flexibility come at a price: interest rates that outstrip those at private banks by several percentage points. That may hobble their growth. Read the rest

Created by animation studio Humouring the Fates, this wonderful 19A0s anime re-imagination of Stranger Things. Read the rest

It being 2019, you may now buy a portable cassette player with Bluetooth functionality. Meet Its OK, a ~$65 gadget currently firing up Kickstarter.Chaim Gartenberg:the It’s OK does the usual tape things, like playing cassettes or letting you record to tapes, it also bills itself as the world’s first Bluetooth 5.0 portable cassette player (a claim of such niche specificity that it seems to be true). It allows you to listen to your favorite jams with wireless headphones or even link it to a Bluetooth speaker, should you wish. Read the rest

The Q makes fun projects out of wood, and his latest is a treadmill for his hamsters. They like it! Read the rest

Stranger Things' Winona Ryder and David Harbour have fun answering Google autocomplete queries about them. Read the rest

I'm a fan of Love Hultén's electronic projects, which usually involve midcentury style industrial design and retro video games. In this video, he shows off his latest creation, the Evoboxx:Evoboxx is a synthesizer based on the cellular automaton Game of Life, created by mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. The game is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no further input. One interacts with the Game of Life by creating an initial configuration and observing how it evolves, or, for advanced players, by creating patterns with particular properties.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Puddles may be the soundtrack to my soul.Evidently, this song was written for Puddles by Andrew Quinn, they may be working on more music together. I hope so! Read the rest

Kurumi (28) is the top money earner at a hostess bar in Tokyo's Roppongi district. She says she earns about $46,000 a month sitting with men who buy expensive drinks. She spends 40% of her salary buying gifts for her regular customers.<em>Image: YouTube</em> Read the rest

G2A is a website where people can list and sell the codes that activate software, effectively functioning as an online pawn shop for video games. It was accused lately of allowing itself to act as a clearing house for stolen codes. Many reviewers, streamers and other influencer types are given them, such is the competition among developers to market their titles, but most codes remain unused -- and therefore valuable.Devs hate reselling platforms so much, PC Gamer reports, that they "tell people to pirate their games instead of using G2A." Things came to a head when indie game developer Mike Rose started a petition to convince G2A to delist specific games upon publishers' request: "G2A: Stop selling indie titles on your platform."G2A responded to denounce the campaign and Rose himself. It claimed ethical values of honesty and transparency, offered generous remuneration in cases of proven fraud, and insisted that stolen codes were both rare and quickly acted upon when reported. It also asserted its prerogative to drive down the price of games as far as possible:We believe that games can be cheaper. It’s the rule of thumb: the more sellers sell a particular product, the more competitive the prices become. People come to G2A because they know they can expect deals better than anywhere else.Today, journalist and translator Thomas Faust exposed G2A as having asked him to publish an editoral under his own byline under the condition that he disclose neither the true author or its implied offer of payment. Read the rest

Finger ratchets are handy tools for low-torque nut and bolt work. In this Cool Tools video, Sean Ragan examines a number of offerings, and takes them apart to see what they're made of. Read the rest

Woz says toss your Facebooks and beware your phone.I have been a fan of Steve Wozniak ever since meeting him at an Apple Users Group meeting in my very early teens.A friend had (still likely HAS) a signed by Woz Apple ][gs and everyone in our social circle was jealous. Read the rest

Say goodbye to sweaty, kosher nights with this $40 Crab Summer Quilt made out of machine washable polyester fiber that is nevertheless billed as "moisture absorbing" and "breathable" -- and prohibited in Leviticus 11-9-12. (via Crazy Abalone) Read the rest

Eurogamer's Will Judd flirts with heresy: "Are mechanical keyboards really good for gaming?" When it comes to PC gaming peripherals, stats and specs drive purchases. Gaming monitors became popular because they offered lower latency or higher refresh rates, while gaming mice boasted higher sensitivities and improved tracking accuracy. Yet this quantitative trend doesn't seem to apply to one peripheral in particular: mechanical keyboards. No single stat separates mechs from their non-mechanical counterparts, yet mechanical keyboards are routinely recommended over alternatives that cost a fraction of the price. Why is this the case? Are there genuine gaming advantages?Thankfully, it's just a cunningly-titled top list of models Judd recommends; I have, therefore, titled my linkpost to his listpost with an even more shamelessly clickbaity title.I do have an opinion, though, that might justify it: it doesn't really matter what mechanical keyboard you get so long as you don't get a cheap one. What's most important is learning which sort of switch suits you best -- linear, tactile, clicky -- and thenceforth completely ignoring the online cult of mechanical keyboards, because you got one to play games, not waste enormous sums of money on custom keycaps and bizarre, barely-functional niche layouts, like I do.In fact, if you don't even want to think about all that stuff, and simply want to discover a mechanical keyboard that is good for playing games without further ado, allow me to commit fully to the most base and foul heresy and recommend that you just buy whatever Logitech is making right now [Amazon]. Read the rest

For more than a century, the Panama Canal has helped move shit by ship around the world. It's acted as a pinch point in international diplomacy, made vast sums of money off of the vessels that pass through it and, is so important to some shipping routes that many cargo vessels are designed specifically to fit within the canal's locks. This video breaks down the canal's importance and history into easily digestible facts that may bore folks at a party, but absolutely fascinated me.Image via YouTube Read the rest

The Costa Deliziosa is a 92,700 tonne cruise ship, and holidaymakers along Venice's Giardini della Bienna got an up-close look at all 294 meters of its length on a foggy, sodden weekend. Too close.Newsweek reports:The huge vessel was being pulled along the canal by other tug boats in order to straighten itself out, narrowly avoiding hitting the dock's edge and other smaller boats near it.During the clip, the Costa Deliziosa's emergency siren can be heard blasting as it desperately swerves to avoid a collision.Authorities have now launched an investigation into the incident.Pino Musolino, president of the Port Authority System for the northern Adriatic Sea, said in a statement: "We reserve the right to start a timely check to see if the ship has received the necessary permits. We also intend to evaluate the adoption of any further measures to ensure that ship traffic takes place in complete safety for the city."A Costa Deliziosa spokesperson blamed "violent gusts". One of those cruise ships, then. Read the rest

I got a fun reminder last night that there a lot of greasy people out there doing a whole lot of greasy shit unto others. Last night, I was taken on a walk down memory lane: I received an email with an old password I used to use in the subject line. Here's what was inside. I've removed the password from the mix, for obvious reasons:_________ is yoũr passphrasęs. Lets get right to the point. No person has paid me to check about you. You do nŏt know me and you're mŏst likely wondęrİng why you're getting this e-mail?İ installed a softwāre on thę adũlt vidęo clips (porno) web-site and gũess what, yoũ visited this site to have fun (yŏu know what i mean). While yŏu were vİęwing vidęŏ clİps, yŏur internet browsęr startęd working as a RDP that has a kęy logger which prŏvided me with āccessİbİlity to your screen ās well as cām. Jũst aftęr thāt, my software gāthered all yoũr cŏntacts from your Messenger, socİal networks, as well ās e-maİlaccount. after thāt i created ā video. 1st part shows the video yoũ were vİewing (you've got a nice tastę lmao), ānd nęxt part displays the ręcordİng ŏf your web cām, yea its yoũ.Yŏũ actually hāvę two diffęręnt possİbilities. Shall we explŏre these types ŏf choices in āspęcts:First optİon is tŏ neglect this messāgę. in thİs case, i ām going to sęnd your vęry own video to each one of yoũr contacts and also yoũ can easİly İmāgine ręgarding the humiliātİŏn you will definitely get. Read the rest

This miniature recreation of a cruel device designed to trap animals is just adorable!BrainfooTV:Despite its looks this miniature pocket bear trap is not dangerous. The teeth are unsharpened and the spring is kept to a sensible limit. This build took me a while to get right. It took 4 or 5 revisions to this keychain trap toy to be fun, safe, and easy to build. It has roughly the same power as a clothes peg used for hanging out washing. Having said that use common sense should be used to keep them away from very small children or pets. Read the rest

Something uplifting to start the week with! BONUS: The Simpsons intro as a dimly-remembered VHS nightmare: Read the rest

In this photograph, shared by entomologist Charles Ray, is the fate of an alarmingly high number of Alabama gutters, overhangs, soffits and corbels: "super nests" housing as many as 15000 wasps.“We wanted to warn the public not to disturb them themselves, but get a professional,” Mr. Ray said. “We had three people who were seriously injured in 2006.”Warmer winters contribute to these nests, Mr. Ray said. Most yellow jackets don’t survive the cold months because they freeze to death or have trouble finding food. They need a fair amount of sugar and carbohydrates, he said. ...“They’re worrying me, because a child wouldn’t have a chance out there,” said Mr. [James]Barron, whose smokehouse nest was still awaiting removal. “I have many grandkids. A child couldn’t run fast enough, and I’m worried about that.” Read the rest

A new week is upon us and, sadly, the earth did not pitch out of orbit into the sun before we all had to go back to work. A little bit of Slade can almost make that feel OK.Image via YouTube Read the rest

Now that everybody's got an HD camera in their pocket, every image is perfect - and yet somehow, they seem more disposable than ever. Back in the pre-smartphone days, a lot of the joy of photography came from its unpredictability. Finding that perfect shot was like hitting a little jackpot ... and even the imperfect photos had a lot more character.It takes more than some throwback filters to recapture those thrills, but the Holga Retro Digital Camera actually does the trick.This super-compact camera not only looks like it came out of the '70s, but it also takes pictures like it too - minus the film. The Holga snaps 8 MP pics in a 4:3 or 1:1 ratio in a stripped down way that anyone can instantly take to. Just look through the viewfinder, point, and shoot. When you're done, it saves those budding masterpieces to an SD card for easy retrieval. Just like the old days, but better.You can pick up the Holga Retro Digital Camera in a variety of looks, all of which are more than 20% off at $69.Holga Retro Digital Camera (Black)Holga Retro Digital Camera (Black/Silver)Holga Retro Digital Camera (Mixed) Read the rest

Running for your gate, carry-on in hand to make your flight on-time is the worst. Sliding to your flight's gate? That's the best.This four floor-high slide located in Singapore's Changi Airport is designed to get you to your departure gate with the smallest number of steps possible. The only catch is that you have to spend S$10 at one of the airport's many restaurants or businesses. Seems like a reasonable price to me.Image via Changi Airport Read the rest

FDA (totally not in thrall to Big Dairy): we're going to ban calling almond milk "milk"; Missouri State legislature (totally not in thrall to Big Ag): hold my beer.Also prohibited: "veggie hot dog"; "tofu dog." The fact that beef-based hot dogs are not made from dogs is not a problem, apparently.The law would also prohibit the use of "burger" or "dog" in relation to vat-grown, cell-based food, which is made of meat. The statute reserves these appelations for foodstuffs derived from "slaughtered livestock."The bill, which passed in January and goes into effect now, was celebrated by thoroughly disinterested party Mike McCormick, president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation: "This bill will protect our cattle farmers from having to compete with products not harvested from an animal."The bill has been challenged by the Good Food Institute and the American Civil Liberties Union along with other parties, who argue that it places restrictions on speech that are unconstitutional thanks to the First Amendment. The parties had been in settlement talks, but these have broken down, so litigation is now resuming.In 1980, the Court supplied the rules for First Amendment protections on commercial speech that are still applied today. Those rules are called the “Central Hudson” test, because they were laid out in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Company v. Public Service Commission of New York.Here are the rules: First, commercial speech “must concern lawful activity and not be misleading.” Supporters of Mississippi’s law might argue that the term “plant-based burger” is misleading, while opponents argue that consumers know perfectly well what a veggie burger is. Read the rest

Want to be a real chef? Or maybe just look like one? Either way, you need a real set of knives. Here are ten sets of precision cutlery that don't just look sharp - they cut that way too. Best of all, you can take an extra 15% off the final price on any of these sets by using the online code FIREWORK15.Precision 2pcs Starter Chef Knife SetThese non-stick, stainless steel blades sport a sleek modern design and are super portable - perfect for any chef in training. pick up the Precision 2pcs Starter Chef Knife Set in black for $29.90, a full 40% off the list price.Damasukasu 3-Piece Japanese Chef Knife SetThe nitrogen cooling process used to create these stain and rust-resistant knives also creates a hypnotic ripple pattern on the blades. Originally priced at $599.99 and sale priced at $49.99, you can now get the Damasukasu 3-Piece Japanese Chef Knife Set for $46.99.9-Piece Cutlery Set by EpicuriousThis comprehensive set includes a chef knife, two Santoku knives, a paring knife and more - all in bolstered stainless steel. Pick up the 9-Piece Cutlery Set by Epicurious in grey for $52.99, a full 47% off the MSRP.Super-Sharp Kitchen Knives: 3-Piece SetChefs love zirconium ceramic, and there's a reason why. The material these knives are forged from is harder than stainless steel and holds an edge longer than traditional blades. A 3-piece set of these Super-Sharp Kitchen Knives is now $58, down 78% from the original price. Read the rest

Days after an appeals court panel ordered the unsealing of thousands of pages of documents from one of the civil suits arising from billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's secret sweetheart plea bargain that allowed him to escape any serious penalties for years of alleged trafficking and raping of young teens, he has been arrested by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force and now faces charges related to dozens of sex offenses against young girls.The billionaire traded evidence in an undisclosed crime (thought to be the financial frauds of Bear-Sterns, where he had worked, and who later lost a reported $57 million of his fortune during their collapse) for a light sentence in a minimum-security prison, which he was able to leave most days on a work-release program. The deal was kept secret from Epstein's victims, which is itself illegal. The prosecutor who brokered the deal, Alexander Acosta, is now Trump's labor secretary.Epstein faces up to 45 years in prison. As The Daily Beast reports, "The case is being handled by the Public Corruption Unit of the Southern District of New York, with assistance from the district's human-trafficking officials and the FBI." Details of the case are expected to be unsealed on Monday.Epstein is connected to many powerful people, some of whom, like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, got rides on the private jet Epstein is accused of using as part of an international sex-trafficking conspiracy. One of Epstein's lawyers is Harvard law prof Alan Dershowitz, who is accused of sexually assaulting a woman who says she was trafficked by Epstein when she was a teenager. Read the rest

A leaked cable from the British ambassador to the US, sent home to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has the ambassador calling Trump "insecure," "incompetent" and "inept." In the ambassador's defense, it's completely true. Trump has not yet commented on the news. Read the rest

News continues to worsen for marine mammals on the west coast. In addition to terrible domoic acid poisoning for seals and sea lions, whales are passing away at a record rate.HuffPo:Thirty-one dead gray whales have been spotted along the entire West Coast since January — the most for this time of year since 2000. Dozens more have shown visible signs of malnourishment, and sightings of mother-calf pairs are down significantly.Frances Gulland, a research associate at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, estimates that gray whale deaths could hit 60 or 70 by the end of the season.“If this continues at this pace through May, we would be alarmed,” she told the Los Angeles Times.Marine scientist Steven Swartz said 23% of the whales without calves his team has observed in Baja’s San Ignacio Lagoon this year were skinny. That’s more than three times higher than usual. Read the rest

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (previously) was dealt a stinging rebuke in March, when voters in Istanbul overthrew his AK Party, which had run the city for 25 years; Erdogan had previously said "whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey."Erdogan's 15+ years in Turkish high office has been a steady march to authoritarianism, including violent attacks on peaceful protest movements; mass arrests and purges of civil society groups, university faculties, the military and police, the seizure of sweeping dictatorial powers, mass-scale financial misconduct -- even building himself a $1b palace at public expense.So it was not really surprising that Erdogan's response to his electoral loss was to nullify the election, citing imaginary irregularities, and ordering a re-run. Erdogan began his national political career when he was elected as mayor of Istanbul in 1994.The election ran again at the end of June -- and Erdogan lost again, by a landslide. The March election was carried by a margin of 13,000 votes, while AKP and Erdogan lost the re-run by more than 75,000 votes. It's Istanbul's biggest mayoral election victory in 35 years.The new mayor of Istanbul is Ekrem Imamoglu of the Republican People's Party (CHP), whose campaign slogan was "justice, equality, love" and who ran on a promise to end AKP's lavish croynism and waste (the city's annual procurements budget is $4b). During the election, AKP smeared Imamoglu with a variety of ad-hominems: "terrorist, coup-supporter, fraud, Greek, even equating him with the Egyptian autocrat President Sisi,"Istanbul has 15m residents, almost a fifth of the population of Turkey, and accounts for about a third of Turkey's GDP. Read the rest

Sydney Ember is a news reporter who covers Bernie Sanders for the New York Times; her coverage is consistently negative (part of the Times's overall pattern of negative reporting on Sanders, including "stealth edits" to make its coverage less positive, to the dismay of the paper's public editor).Ember's negative reporting on Sanders might be the result of her deep connections to the finance world: she came to the Times after a career as an analyst at the coal-boosting hedge fund Blackrock and she's married to Mike Bechek, son of the former CEO of Bain Capital, where he also worked.FAIR's Katie Halper has dug deep into Ember's network of go-to sources for quotes on why no one should vote for Sanders, showing that they are drawn from the ranks of the finance and corporate lobbyist world. Ember quotes the likes of:* Jim Kessler, identified by Ember as "executive vice president for Policy at Third Way, a center-left think tank" (Third Way is a pro-austerity thinktank whose board is overwhelmingly made up of CEOs, bankers and corporate lawyers; it advocates for cuts to Social Security and Medicare and opposes higher taxes for billionaires); * Otto J. Reich, a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, who was quoted in a piece condemning Sanders for his opposition to Reagan's secret arming of death-squads that brought down Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega with a campaign of rape, torture and murder;* Jarrod Loadholt, whom Ember calls "a Democratic strategist who has worked on education policy in South Carolina" -- Loadholt is a consumer finance lobbyist who has worked to roll back Dodd/Frank, supporting a bill that would make it easier for banks to practice racial discrimination. Read the rest

I no longer think this famously accurate characterization of 1990s LA holds up. Neighborhoods that once had endless street parking now force you to circle.Plus, no one wants the duck unless it comes from a gourmet food truck. Read the rest

Sergio Moro was once the darling of the international press, lauded for his role as the judge in Brazil's Operation Carwash anti-corruption prosecutions, which saw public accusations against the country's most powerful people, from billionaire oligarchs to Dilma Rousseff, the successor to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (who had been term-limited out of office after a long career as the country's most popular leader); and her successor, the far-right Michael Temer; and Lula himself, who has been locked away in a special prison, denied access to the press, a situation that paved the way for the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a fascist who has publicly regretted the decision of the military dictatorship he once served in to merely torture dissidents, rather than murdering them. After Bolsonaro's election, Moro was appointed to serve as a kind of super-justice-minister, with broad powers that would help Bolsonaro implement his program of death squads, razing the Amazon, and prosecuting his political enemies. The inclusion of Moro in the Bolsonaro government conferred a veneer of respectability to the thuggish, kleptocratic state Bolsonaro was creating, because of Moro's impeccable credentials as a corruption fighter.Then came last month's incredible expose by The Intercept, in which elements of a vast trove of leaked documents revealed that when Moro was the Car Wash judge, he secretly colluded with the prosecutors to ensure that they could lock up Lula and deliver the election to Bolsonaro. Moro's response was to deny any wrongdoing -- but not by denying the authenticity of the leaks. Read the rest

Ben writes, "First featured on Boing Boing in 2010, the fan-supported TV series JourneyQuest has continued for nine years(!) and is now Kickstarting a fourth season. It's an open world with a copyleft license, proving that encouraging sharing, remixing, allowing commercial derivatives, and not treating fans like criminals can still lead to success."They're looking for $430K and they're up to $232K at the time of this writing. Rewards include your name in the credits, a patch, a DVD/Blu-Ray, naming rights to a new word in Elvish, a set of pewter miniatures, the right to put three questions to the show's oracle, a medallion, a photobook, a set visit, an associate producer credit, a co-producer credit, executive producer credit, an oil painting, and more!JourneyQuest 4 [Zombie Orpheus/Kickstarter](Thanks, Ben!) Read the rest