Boing Boing

Some unicorns chase; some are chased down. These splendid and totally real unicorn skulls [Amazon] are sourced from troll and ogre fairtrade collectives, are 8.5" long and 10.75" tall, and individually skinned and boiled for an odor- and insect-free presentation.The horn of the unicorn skull is screwed onto the skull for safe shipping and handling.Brace yourself with this fossil skull phantom of a unicorn stallion. Display him at your desks, shelves or what have you and he will be a star at any hosting events! This unicorn skull will be a great conversation starter as well as an excellent ice breaker for you and your guests. Some of them will think unicorn did exist! Don't know what they think they're trying to say with that last line there but it's thirty bucks a head. Read the rest

It's a rude awakening for that rookie vacationer abroad when they try to plug in their gear for the night. Veteran jet-setters know that outlet shapes can vary wildly from country to country, which necessitates that most boring must-have for any world-traveler: A sackful of clunky power adapters. Awkward problem, elegant solution: The Twist Plus World Charging Station.Essentially a skeleton key of international plugs, the Twist Plus rotates easily to change between one of four configurations most common to wall outlets in the US, UK, Australia, and Europe. In all, you're covered in more than 150 countries. And most travelers won't' need more than one: Just use one of the four USB ports to charge phones, tablets, laptops - even a MacBook. It's light, portable and comes with built-in fuse protection for that added bit of security.Originally priced at $45, the Twist Plus World Charging Station is now on sale at $31.99 - a 28% discount. Read the rest

A quiz from Mental Floss: Who Wrote It: Edgar Allan Poe or an Emo Band? [via MeFi]"I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore" Read the rest

Nationwide icy weather's coming, reports the Weather Channel, with Winter Storm Harper tumbling over the west coast and up east already covered in bullshit. Read the rest

Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, just started a new job this week. She's an art teacher at a Christian school that makes job candidates sign a pledge not to engage in homosexual activity. Gay kids, you're not welcome either.The Pences are nothing if not consistent. Consistently horrible.Huffington Post's Rebecca Klein reports that the school where Pence now works discriminates against LGBTQ people in its job application, and doesn't want any queer kids around, either. Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia makes it clear right in their online application [PDF] and job application form [PDF] that they don't welcome everyone. Excerpt:In a “parent agreement” posted online, the school says it will refuse admission to students who participate in or condone homosexual activity. The 2018 employment application also makes candidates sign a pledge not to engage in homosexual activity or violate the “unique roles of male and female.” “Moral misconduct which violates the bona fide occupational qualifications for employees includes, but is not limited to, such behaviors as the following: heterosexual activity outside of marriage (e.g., premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex), homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female, sexual harassment, use or viewing of pornographic material or websites,” says the application. The application says that the school believes “marriage unites one man and one woman” and that “a wife is commanded to submit to her husband as the church submits to Christ.” The application asks potential employees to explain their view of the “creation/evolution debate.” The “parent agreement” asks parents to cooperate in its “biblical morality” policy. Read the rest

How much more evidence does America need that Donald Trump isn't working for us, but for Russia?No, seriously. Trump can't stop talking about removing America from NATO.Trump hasn't had an original idea in his whole life. Who told him that'd be a good idea? Who wants the USA out of NATO? Russia.“It would be the wildest success that Vladimir Putin could dream of.” -- Michèle Flournoy, an under secretary of defense under Obama.From the New York Times' Julian E. Barnes and Helene Cooper:Senior administration officials told The New York Times that several times over the course of 2018, Mr. Trump privately said he wanted to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Current and former officials who support the alliance said they feared Mr. Trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continued to lag behind the goals the president had set.In the days around a tumultuous NATO summit meeting last summer, they said, Mr. Trump told his top national security officials that he did not see the point of the military alliance, which he presented as a drain on the United States.At the time, Mr. Trump’s national security team, including Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, scrambled to keep American strategy on track without mention of a withdrawal that would drastically reduce Washington’s influence in Europe and could embolden Russia for decades.Now, the president’s repeatedly stated desire to withdraw from NATO is raising new worries among national security officials amid growing concern about Mr. Read the rest

From the WTF why? files comes this hidden umbrella!Seriously disappoint your friends, who would probably rather have wine! I am wondering what occasion this prank is right for?Playmaker Toys Brella Vineyards Cabernet Wine Bottle Hidden Umbrella, Burgundy via Amazon Read the rest

Following up on our earlier story about Roku re-platforming Alex Jones and Infowars, it looks like Roku got so much criticism from users, they've reversed course and will remove the Infowars app.‏After the InfoWars channel became available, we heard from concerned parties and have determined that the channel should be removed from our platform. Deletion from the channel store and platform has begun and will be completed shortly.— Roku (@Roku) January 16, 2019That didn't take long, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.Alex Jones is a Sandy Hook exploitation grifter, and basically makes money by screaming and publishing hateful, racist things, all of which have real-life consequences for other people. He is a bad dude. “A Roku spokesperson tells me that after it heard from 'concerned parties,' the company determined it should remove the InfoWars app,” CNN's Oliver Darcy tweeted this evening.Roku said “Deletion from the channel store and platform has begun and will be completed shortly.”InfoWars had previously been available on Roku, but it recently published an updated app, prompting tweets from users and a rebuke today from some Sandy Hook families suing Alex Jones. Both versions of the InfoWars app are being removed from Roku, spokesperson says.— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 16, 2019 Read the rest

Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (America's largest district) are walking the picket line this week in the pouring rain, demanding an end to the billionaire dark-money backed privatization movement that funnels public education funds to the shareholders of racially segregated, underperforming charter schools.The Democratic Socialists of America have started a GoFundMe to provide taco truck meals to the striking teachers. It was originally intended to raise $1,000 and feed a couple schools' worth of teachers, but it's reached $24,000 as of this writing.I just sent them $100. I am a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, having been inspired to join by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Tacos for Teachers [Strike Support Committee/Gofundme] Read the rest

Chuck Wendig isn't just a fine novelist, he's also got a discerning sense of what distinguishes good apples from bad, and what elevates apples to true greatness.He ate 15 grocery-store apples and produced tasting notes on each (Red Delicious: "Point is, this wasn’t hellish. I still wouldn’t buy one. I’d still throw it at enemies") and while he sleights my favorite ("It’s the jazz hands of apples. Meaning, it’s zippy and fun, and swiftly overdone if you indulge too much.") I was intrigued by his top pick, the Pink Lady, which I haven't tried in some time:Fuck yeah, Pink Ladies.(Also known as Cripps Pink.)This is lately my go-to apple — good balanced apple with an electric tartness that’s tempered by a mouth-slap of sweetness. I will say I had a small batch of these and one of them tasted hellaciously like soap, and I have no idea why. I assume there’s some weird soap bandit going around grocery stores injecting apples with dish detergent or something.In Which I Rank Grocery Store Apples [Chuck Wendig/Terribleminds](via Kottke) Read the rest

Yesterday, we paid tribute to the 42nd anniversary of David Bowie's iconic album Low by featuring The Brothers McLeod animation of comedian Adam Buxton's hysterical radio tribute to Bowie from 2013. We follow it up with another animation done from Buxton's radio show, this time with Chris Salt of Oblong Pictures using LEGO stop-motion to lovingly lampoon our favorite alien rock god.In the video, David pitches his wife, Angie Bowie, on new character ideas after deciding to "kill off Ziggy." After running through a series of candidates: Cobbler Bob ("I could have giant shoes, with massive platforms big enough for the band to fit inside of"), A Mad Deus ("A composer of classical music who comes to believe that he's God"), The Groovy Gardener, Viscount Jizzmark, finally, he shows Angie Aladdin Sane. "Who is Aladdin Sane?," she coos. "Well, he's like Ziggy, but with a different name, and some sort of strange fluid leaking out of his collarbone," David replies. This cute little bit does make you wonder what other characters David may have contemplated but ultimately rejected. Read the rest

LISTEN CLOSELY: "I thought it was a joke," says Clemson athlete upon learning the White House was serving him Wendy's.pic.twitter.com/bRNRhLmDBF— Ʀogue US Mint (@RogueUSMint) January 15, 2019You can clearly hear one attendee state that they thought this was a joke.I believe I hear the declaration "It's absurd" over and over, however that may be a southern accent repeatedly hailing "Thank you, sir!"Folks are clearly grateful Orange Julius provided this fast food bonanza. Read the rest

The California turret spider build tiny towers on the forest floor that extend underground into a burrow. At night, they climb up into the tower and await their dinner -- beetles, moths, and other insects. Video above. From KQED's Deep Look:While remaining hidden inside their turret, they’re able to sense the vibrations created by their prey’s footsteps.That’s when the turret spider strikes, busting out of the hollow tower like an eight legged jack-in-the-box. With lightning speed the spider swings its fangs down like daggers, injecting venom into its prey before dragging it down into the burrow. Read the rest

Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan was not expected to pass, but it was brutally murdered in a far larger margin of defeat than was expected: 432 to 202. This is the largest parliamentary defeat for a sitting government in history. The options for the Brits now include a no-deal Brexit on March 29; desperate negotiations for a new plan; or asking for an extension from the EU while a fresh hell is organized, such as a new referendum or a general election.Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn immediately tabled a no-confidence vote in May's government."Time is almost up," wrote EU chief Jean-Claude Junker on Twitter within minutes of the lawmakers' vote. Read the rest

A woman in China reportedly suffering from a rare medical condition supposedly can't hear male voices. Most hearing loss occurs at higher frequencies when the delicate hair-like stereocilia of the inner ear are damaged, but this woman has the much less common reverse-slope hearing loss (RSHL) that affects the ability to hear lower frequencies. From LiveScience:At the hospital, Chen was treated by Dr. Lin Xiaoqing — a woman — who noted that while Chen was able to hear Xiaoqing's voice, she couldn't hear the voice of a nearby male patient "at all," according to Newsweek. Xiaoqing diagnosed Chen with reverse-slope hearing loss, a rare type of low-frequency hearing loss that likely impaired her ability to hear deep male voices....Loss of hearing of lower-pitched sounds (which is what Chen experienced) is... less common because the bass-processing portion of the cochlea — a snail-shaped structure deep in the inner ear — is very well protected, said Jackie Clark, a clinical professor with the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, who also wasn't involved with Chen's case..."Most studies have shown that if you catch it within 48 hours, you have the best chance for recovery," (Clark) said. illustration: Morten Bisgaard - From the book "Tidens naturlære" 1903 by Poul la Cour Read the rest

Nominee for Attorney General William Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning that he "can conceive of situations where, as a last resort," journalists could be prosecuted for “putting out stuff that is hurting the country.” This was in response to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who, using the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi as an example, asked Barr whether he thought the Justice Department should prosecute journalists "for doing their jobs." Yep, this is where we are folks.Via PBS Read the rest

This year I missed the party, but as usual stellar photographer Star Foreman captured an amazing gallery of images!Every year Los Angeles' fantastic circus family, The Flying Morgans, throw the most incredible New Years Eve party! It is chock full of Happy Mutants!From their castle atop the Hollywood Hills several hundred revelers enjoy stellar 270 degree views of the city...Netflix Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events actor Matty Cardarople and his wife, are shown the circus themed decor by castmate and hostess Bonnie Morgan.The crowd gathers at midnight.Gary and Susie, the King and Queen of Laurel Canyon.Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events castmates Bonnie Morgan and Usman Alley.Sisters Bonnie and Mollie Morgan show off sponsor ROK Drinks Bogart Gin.The Morgan's party is the best place to ring in the new year. If you are in Los Angeles and need a photographer, for events or headshots, I highly recommend Star Foreman. Read the rest

With only days to go before the planned conclusion of the new EU Directive on Copyright in the Single Digital Market, Europe's largest and most powerful rightsholder groups -- from the Premier League to the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Association of Commercial Television in Europe -- have published an open letter calling for a halt to negotiations, repeating their message from late last year: namely, that the Directive will give the whip hand to Big Tech.Article 13 -- which still mandates copyright filters for big platforms, despite months of obfuscation -- is the brainchild of the music recording industry, who invented the idea of the "value gap" as a synonym for "when we negotiate with YouTube for music licenses, we don't get as much as we'd like." Seen in this light, the unworkability of Article 13 is a feature, not a bug. Putting Google on the hook to give in on license negotiations or be forced to do the impossible is a powerful negotiating stick for the recording industry to hit Google with. The problem is that this tool will not only be wielded by record executives against Google: it will allow any of the Internet's two billion users to claim copyright over anything (including the record industry's most popular works) and improperly collect license fees, or simply block the material from public view. That's not the only problem, though. In the course of negotiating Article 13, European lawmakers made concessions that make the proposal (barely) coherent and affordable by Google (though not, importantly, by Google's small European competitors, who stand to be squashed flat by the dancing elephants of Big Tech and Big Content). Read the rest

Hundreds of angry Christians protested at a museum in Haifa, Israel, demanding that the museum remove an exhibit that featured a "McJesus" sculpture. The sculpture – Ronald McDonald crucified on a cross – is part of a larger exhibit commenting on society's worship of capitalism, but after photos of the crucified clown were shared on social media, a group of Christians became irate. They rioted by throwing a firebomb at the museum and stones at police officers, injuring three of them. Police then used tear gas and stun grenades against the crowd.According to NBC:Church representatives brought their grievances to the district court Monday, demanding it order the removal of the exhibit's most offensive items, including Barbie doll renditions of a bloodied Jesus and the Virgin Mary.Museum director Nissim Tal said that he was shocked at the sudden uproar, especially because the exhibit — intended to criticize what many view as society's cult-like worship of capitalism — had been on display for months. It has also been shown in other countries without incident.The museum has refused to remove the artwork, saying that doing so would infringe on freedom of expression. But following the protests it hung a curtain over the entrance to the exhibit and posted a sign saying the art was not intended to offend."This is the maximum that we can do," Tal said. "If we take the art down, the next day we'll have politicians demanding we take other things down and we'll end up only with colorful pictures of flowers in the museum." Read the rest

In a heavy-duty new scientific paper published this week, University of Oxford researchers argue that the association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use is tiny. Really tiny. From Scientific American:(The paper by experimental psychologist Andrew Przybylski and grad student Amy Orben) reveals the pitfalls of the statistical methods scientists have employed and offers a more rigorous alternative. And, importantly, it uses data on more than 350,000 adolescents to show persuasively that, at a population level, technology use has a nearly negligible effect on adolescent psychological well-being, measured in a range of questions addressing depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, pro-social behavior, peer-relationship problems and the like. Technology use tilts the needle less than half a percent away from feeling emotionally sound. For context, eating potatoes is associated with nearly the same degree of effect and wearing glasses has a more negative impact on adolescent mental health...“We’re trying to move from this mind-set of cherry-picking one result to a more holistic picture of the data set,” Przybylski says. “A key part of that is being able to put these extremely miniscule effects of screens on young people in real-world context.”Not surprisingly though, your mileage may vary. Not surprisingly, it all depends on the kid and what they're actually doing on the screen. In a previous paper, Przybylski and colleague Netta Weinstein demonstrated a “Goldilocks” effect showing moderate use of technology—about one to two hours per day on weekdays and slightly more on weekends—was “not intrinsically harmful,” but higher levels of indulgence could be. Read the rest

The Cool Tools website focuses on handy, useful, proven tools. But a lot of great stuff that Mark and I come across are not really tools. We created the Recomendo email list for this purpose. Every Sunday we mail out 6 very brief recommendations of cool stuff: places we love, people to follow, great things to eat, good movies, fantastic podcasts, cool tips, short cuts, favorite items, and many other suggestions. This newsletter, Recomendo, is free and has over 21,000 subscribers. Sign up here.Last year we took the best of our first two years’ recommendations and put them into about 100-page book. The book (available on Amazon here) is made to be browsed. You can flip through it in any order and most folks will find something of interest on every spread. It is an easy read.For the benefit of international fans, and for those who don’t want paper books, we have created a digital version. It’s a downloadable searchable PDF, in full color (the paper book is only B&W), weighs nothing, and is available instantly for only $1.99. We priced it so that anyone could afford it.If you do get one, let us know how you like this format. (We don’t have plans for a Kindle version yet, but maybe in the future.) Read the rest

Don't rinse food particles from dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. If you do, the detergent won't have anything to cling to and your dishes won't get as clean.From Mental Floss:One of the arguments against pre-rinsing is that certain detergents are designed to cling to food particles, as the Cascade detergent brand informed The Wall Street Journal in 2015. Without a surface to stick to, your dishes won’t get as squeaky clean.Consumer Reports offers another explanation. According to the product-testing magazine, newer dishwashers—those purchased within the last five years or so—won’t wash your dishes for very long if the sensors in the machine don’t detect much dirt in the water. “When that happens, the dishwasher gives them just a light wash, and items come out less than sparkling,” Consumer Reports's Ed Perratore wrote in 2016. “To avoid that lackluster result, don’t rinse; just scrape off bits of loose food.”There’s also a major environmental factor to consider. One mind-blogging statistic from Consumer Reports states that the average person wastes 6000 gallons of water a year by pre-rinsing. Most dishwasher machines use just 3 to 5 gallons of water per load, while the average person uses about 27 gallons when washing dishes by hand, according to The National Resource Defense Council.Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock Read the rest

Joe Ford is a self-described "64-year-old navy veteran of the Vietnam era and houseless in the tundra." He wrote for The Guardian about what its like to live in Alaska without a permanent house. It sounds tough, but he loves it. I recently watched a good movie with my family called Leave No Trace, and the dad in the movie reminds me a bit of Mr. Ford.All in all, though, I prefer a campfire-roasted porcupine that I killed and butchered (recently, one who had smacked my dog with his tail, embedding 15 quills in the mutt’s snout), slathered with highbush cranberry ketchup, foraged chickweed salad with mushrooms on the side, a hot cup of stinging nettle tea to wash it down and a handful of wild blueberries for dessert.Bugs, sticks, sand and assorted forest floor debris sometimes makes it into my vittles but, as the family I encountered in my travels through Canada some years back said when I pointed out that their kid was eating dirt: “It’s clean dirt.” And the bugs are protein! Anyway, I get to devour the feast creekside watching fish sex. No, it’s not the latest Netflix series, it’s actual salmon spawning in the water 10ft from my tent.My living room floor gets a fresh gold carpet when fall colors take over and the tree branches go bare. Daylight starts fading fast closing in on the autumnal equinox and stays in decline till winter solstice, bottoming out at around five and a half hours here. Read the rest

Keiichi Matsuda created 2016's Hyper-Reality, an amazing, dystopian video about the future of augmented reality; now Matsuda is back with Merger, that plays darkly into the idea that corporations are a form of Slow AI that view humans as inconvenient gut-flora, a truth shot through our collective fears. Merger is a new film about the future of work, from cult director/designer Keiichi Matsuda (HYPER-REALITY). Set against the backdrop of AI-run corporations, a woman finds herself caught between virtual and physical reality, human and machine. As she fights for her economic survival, she finds herself immersed in the cult of productivity, in search of the ultimate interface. This short film documents her last 4 minutes on earth.(Thanks, Paul Di Filippo!) Read the rest

A cotton seed has germinated on the moon. The sprout is inside a canister on China's Chang’e 4 lander that touched down on the far side of the moon earlier this month. From The Guardian:Plants have been grown previously on the International Space Station, but this is the first time a seed has sprouted on the moon. The ability to grow plants in space is seen as crucial for long-term space missions and establishing human outposts elsewhere in the solar system, such as Mars.Harvesting food in space, ideally using locally extracted water, would mean astronauts could survive for far longer without returning to Earth for supplies...Scientists from Chongqing University, who designed the “mini lunar biosphere” experiment, sent an 18cm bucket-like container holding air, water and soil.Inside are cotton, arabidopsis – a small, flowering plant of the mustard family – and potato seeds, as well as fruit-fly eggs and yeast.Images sent back by the probe show a cotton plant has grown well, but so far none of the other plants had sprouted, the university said.Imaging the marketing opportunity for a cannabis company to sell space weed!Previously:• China launching lunar spacecraft to test growing plants on the dark side of the Moon• First images from China's probe that just landed on the dark side of the moon Read the rest

The glasses Applebee's uses to serve large beers and small beers look very different. But in this video you'll see they are almost equally capacious.When asked on Twitter about the revealing video, Applebee's replied thusly:This guy has gotta leave some room at the top for some foam!— Applebee's (@Applebees) January 14, 2019 Read the rest

Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars rantathon channel have been turfed out of virtually every major platform due to his love of violent rhetoric, racial hatred and general bigotry. Welcome to Roku, Alex!Roku may have given itself a brand safety issue. The streaming service has added Infowars, the live show hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as a channel. Jones was in the news on Jan. 11 for losing a legal battle to Sandy Hook shooting victims’ families, forcing his company to turn over documents.On Jan. 14, Roku users tweeted their concerns at the company. One tweet from @DanielMadison78 asked, “Hey @Roku, what’s with you adding Infowars to your platform?” In a now-deleted tweet, Roku’s support account replied with a link to the channel.Roku is built-in to many television sets nowadays—for people who don't like racist conspiracy theories, it has just become a nearly perfect wedding of convenience and very unexpected consequences. As indicated in the below screengrab, they absolutely do not give a shit. It's off to Apple TV or Amazon Fire [Amazon link] for me. Does anyone know which is the service least likely to a) sell my every move and b) Milkshake Duck itself six months from now? Read the rest

Namibian-German artist Max Siedentopf created "Toto Forever," an installation that plays the song "Africa" on repeat in the middle of southern Africa's Namib Desert. From the BBC News:Mr Siedentopf tells the BBC it is set to play forever, with solar batteries "to keep Toto going for all eternity...""[I] wanted to pay the song the ultimate homage and physically exhibit 'Africa' in Africa," explains the 27-year-old artist."Some [Namibians] love it and some say it's probably the worst sound installation ever. I think that's a great compliment."(via Fark) Read the rest

My most recent essay film, Visual Disturbances, premiered in the open access journal [in]Transition yesterday. This open access journal features peer reviewed academic video essays and showcases a wide variety of film and media analysis. Visual Disturbances uses some cutting-edge eye tracking visualizations to explore how film audiences both perceive and mis-perceive movies. A few readers may remember my 2007 Disney mashup, A Fair(y) Use Tale. That film, in its own small way, helped open up the video essay genre by sampling commercial films for educational purposes.Visual Disturbances is a very different kind of film but relies on the precedent set by A Fair(y) Use Tale and the diligent work of scholars, attorneys, archivists, and activists to bring Fair Use into the 21st century. For Visual Disturbances, I should give a very special shout out to attorney and UC Irvine Professor Jack Lerner. His students at UC Irvine’s Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic reviewed the film and wrote a valuable opinion letter regarding its Fair Use status. That letter ultimately helped procure an Errors and Omission insurance policy that helps protect the film from frivolous copyright shake downs.Visual Disturbances uses 187 unlicensed clips (down from the 385 clips used in A Fair(y) Use Tale!) from commercial films to explore how audiences watch a movie. Cinema suffers from a basic problem telling a story: the medium captures too much visual information from reality. Thus, early on, Hollywood filmmakers developed a series of tactics for subtly focusing audience attention on key narrative details. Read the rest

Looking for a career in music behind the boards, either as a music producer or DJ? It's a good bet that you're going to be working with Ableton Live. Each new iteration of this powerful workstation gives the user more tools to create, and it's just as well suited for the task of meticulous track production as it is in front of a screaming crowd. With enough imagination, the possibilities are nearly endless - and you'll learn them all with the new Ableton Music Production Mastery Bundle.Even if you're unfamiliar with any production software, these 7 courses should have you creating tunes straight out of the box. The first courses walk you through the interface and what hardware you'll need, then move quickly to the specifics of recording and producing in your own home studio. You'll get familiar with Ableton's many effect racks, learn tricks of the DJ trade from James Patrick, and even create your own fully functioning instruments with MaxForLive.Aside from the software itself, it's all you need for your home studio, and it's on sale: The Ableton Music Production Mastery Bundle is currently priced at $29. Read the rest

Here's a White House photo of Donald Trump with 1000 hamburgers—or "hamberders", as he put it this morning— in the State Dining Room of the White House. God bless America! Read the rest

A popular mobile game available on the Play store is an "ad fraud platform", say researchers at a media intelligence company. Word Link was approved by Google and had since been downloaded 50m times, becoming a “major source of fraudulent traffic”.Tess Bennett and Andrew Birmingham:“The Google Play Store, although dealing with far greater volumes of app submissions and users than the Apple App Store, is clearly not doing enough to combat this with adequately strict approval and diligent review processes,” the report states.“Our hope is that this detailed review of Word Link and Worzzle will result in the removal and re-assessment of these apps by Google, and spur a wider review of Google’s policies that dictate what apps are allowed onto their store for their users’ consumption.”Google appears to be getting fed here at both ends. A strong incentive not to deal with the problem. Read the rest

I was surprised to learn today that I've never posted the video of a duck being gently vacuumed. Read the rest

Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal with the European Union finally comes before parliament for a vote today. The deal is expected to fall short, leaving Britain with several more difficult choices, but the margin of May's defeat will be a strong influence on which way it goes. No-one really knows what will happen, but there's some agreement on the margin-of-defeat issue.╔══════════════════╦══════════════════════════╗║ Margin of Defeat ║ Possible Outcomes ║╠══════════════════╬══════════════════════════╣║ May wins ║ Frankenbrexit ║╠══════════════════╬══════════════════════════╣║ 50 votes or less ║ EU offers concessions ║║ ║ Quick 2nd vote ║╠══════════════════╬══════════════════════════╣║ 50-100 votes ║ More negotiations ║║ ║ Late 2nd vote ║╠══════════════════╬══════════════════════════╣║ 100+ votes ║ No deal Brexit ║║ ║ Soft Brexit ║║ ║ General election ║║ ║ 2nd Referendum ║║ ║ Vote of No Confidence ║║ ║ Backbench rebellion ║║ ║ Currency collapse ║║ ║ Zombie horrorcaust ║║ ║ Global Thermonuclear War ║╚══════════════════╩══════════════════════════╝ Read the rest

Clemson's national championship football team went to the White House on Monday where President Donald Trump hosted them for winning the title. Trump had a bunch of burgers ready for them: Wendy's, McDonald's and Burger King.“Here’s a video I shot of President Trump showing off his 300 hamburgers.” Hunter Walker, White House Correspondent, Yahoo News.It's quite something.Here’s a video I shot of President Trump showing off his 300 hamburgers. pic.twitter.com/P06S6I5w07— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 14, 2019I should note that, at one point tonight, President Trump said he bought 300 hamburgers. Later, he claimed he bought 1,000 hamburgers.— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 15, 2019Trump introduced Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at the Clemson football event by saying, “He’d never be able to make the team that I can tell you.”— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 14, 2019Trump says he got Wendys, McDonalds, and Burger King. He described it as “everything I like that you like.”— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 14, 2019Trump just came out and declared: “I want to be the agent of that tall, handsome quarterback.”— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 14, 2019I just filed this Pool Report after the president presented a giant spread from @Wendys @McDonalds @BurgerKing and @dominos pic.twitter.com/Byv8fDvicO— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 14, 2019 Read the rest

On The View's Monday episode, Women's March co-founder Tamika Mallory refused to condemn anti-semitic comments made by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Controversy about the March's leadership has been swirling for months, including a deep dive by Tablet Magazine on alleged anti-semitic comments made during the early meetings that led to 2017's historic march. Mallory has appeared alongside Farrakhan at Nation of Islam events and has referred to him as the GOAT (greatest of all time). Another March co-founder, Linda Sarsour, has faced similar criticism.View co-host Meghan McCain asked Mallory, who appeared alongside March co-founder Bob Bland, to condemn Farrakhan's comments, including "I’m not anti-Semite, I’m anti-termite.” The blowback from the controversy has led several local chapters to cancel their planned marches, citing difficulties in raising funds, along with concerns over what was "coming out of national." A new group, March On, is planning separate events.(Photo: Mark Dixon/Wikimedia Commons) Read the rest

She was living her best life.A Texas Walmart has banned a woman from their store for doing something we've all done at one time or another - riding around the parking lot in a mobility scooter while drinking wine from a Pringles can. Employees at the Wichita Falls Walmart said the woman had been riding around the parking lot for several hours, starting around 6:30 AM. Police responded to the call, locating the woman at a nearby restaurant and informing her that she had been banned from the store. The good news is there are two other Walmarts in Wichita Falls for this American hero to ride around. Important question: Which flavor Pringles pairs best with which wine? Salt & Vinegar with Sauvignon? (Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr CC BY 2.0) Read the rest

Noted racist congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) may finally face consequences for being an open white supremacist and anti-Semite. Who knew there would ever be a line this guy could cross? He's gotten away with it forever.House Republican leaders are reportedly trying to remove Steve King from the Judiciary Committee and his other panel assignments on Monday night, after his latest pro-white supremacy remarks.King is an ally of Donald Trump on the racist border wall, an idea which King has touted for longer than Trump. King has been saying awful things about immigrants and anyone who isn't white forever. As recently as last November, “top Iowa Republicans like Senator Charles E. Grassley endorsed Mr. King for re-election even after a House Republican denounced him as a white supremacist,” the NYT reports.In an interview with The Times published last Thursday, King said this: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”Guess that was kind of offensive.Trip Gabriel and Jonathan Martin at the NYT:House Republican leaders will try to remove Representative Steve King of Iowa from the powerful Judiciary Committee and his other panel assignments on Monday night as the party officials scrambled to appear tough on racism and contain damage from comments Mr. King made to The New York Times questioning why white supremacy is considered offensive.Mr. King’s own party leadership moved against him throughout the day, with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, suggesting Mr. King find “another line of work” and Senator Mitt Romney saying he should quit. Read the rest

Another World: Survival is a low-res adaptation of Eric Chahi's classic 16-bit game. Though it's broken down to the essentials to "fit" on the Pico-8 fantasy console, it so perfectly implements the original's combat mechanics and aesthetic that I can't stop playing. Read the rest

Every year, visitors to Rome's famed Trevi Fountain toss in more than $1.7 million in coins. Historically, the Catholic charity Caritas has taken that money to help poor people. Now though, Rome mayor Virginia Raggi wants the cash for repairs to the city's infrastructure. From the BBC News:We did not foresee this outcome," Caritas director Father Benoni Ambarus told Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference. "I still hope it will not be final."The newspaper ran a scathing article on the move in its Saturday edition, headlined "Money taken from the poorest".City councillors have approved the change and it is due to take place in April.Above, the classic Trevi Fountain scene from Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960), featuring Anita Ekberg. Read the rest

The IRS is shut down, along with much of the rest of the federal government, but unattended servers running on autopilot are sensing that no progress has been made on taxpayers' attempts to clarify disputed and overdue bills, and so they are initiating asset seizure proceedings. Even if this turn of events is sufficient to terrorize you into paying a disputed bill, there's no one at the IRS to accept your payment -- and of course, if you maintain that the bill isn't correct, there's no one to discuss it with.The almost Kafka-esque situation, in which the IRS methodically moves forward with cash seizures and taxpayers struggle to find anyone available to stop them, is one of the more unique consequences of the government shutdown, which on Saturday became the largest in American history. The shutdown has hurt small businesses more directly through the halting of Small Business Administration loans. But potentially being whacked in tax disputes, seemingly without recourse, adds a twinge of unfairness into the mix.Shuttered IRS Is Sending Automated Warnings of Asset Seizures, With Nobody to Call to Stop Them [David Dayen/The Intercept] Read the rest

The Solton Ketron Programmer 24 is a 1985 sample-based synthesizer described as "The Italo Disco machine". They used to be on eBay, but good luck finding one nowawadays for much less than $2,000.Hungry Like The Wolf is Duran Duran's breakthrough hit, which reached #3 in the US in 1982. The above video is a remix of Hungry Like The Wolf performed on a Solton Ketron Programmer 24. Jump to 3:20 if you don't want to watch it being programmed.Following is some more Programmer 24 action and a link to its dry, ripped samples. Musicians in the audience will purchase this sample pack and further reimagine the 1980s as if Giorgio Moroder was personally responsible for all of it. Read the rest

Electronic Grenade's "'Computer' Mouse" project fits a fully functional computer into a fully functional, 3D printed mouse; the computer is a Raspberry Pi Zero W, with a teeeny leeetle flip out keyboard and a tiny little itsy bitsy flip-out screen. (via Motherboard) Read the rest

Once I started using self-adjusting wire strippers I never went back to the other kind of wire strippers. These a pleasure to use. One squeeze of the handle the insulation is perfectly stripped from a wire of any gage. Use code MZ8XXXSZ for $5 discount. Read the rest

Old Digital Cameras is a collection of, well, old digital cameras. Models go back to 1996; pictured here is Leica's 2006 digital M3, which was obsolete within months and is now worth about a tenth of the film original.Feel free to contact me if you wish :- To part with your old model and give it a second life in my collection and this web site,- Add or modify any information, or add your own comment about a model,- Upload a user manual or a driver. Read the rest

Although many national parks are still open during the longest government shutdown in US history, there is no one around to clean the increasingly filthy bathrooms. Except, perhaps, for one man, Dan Little, who found the bathroom at Mt. Hood National Forest Sno-Park in Oregon to be so disgusting, he cleaned it himself. He then sent a $28 bill to Trump. That's the spirit!Of course, with Trump's disgraceful reputation of not paying his employees for their work, it's highly doubtful Mr. Little will get a pat on the back from the president, let alone a paycheck. This is just one of the many reasons I love my husband, Dan. He visited Mt. Hood National Forest Sno-Park, and like many national parks across the country, found it a mess due to the partial government shutdown. He cleaned the bathrooms—and sent the bill to President Trump. pic.twitter.com/GvGSZAkoSQ— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) January 11, 2019Via MashableImage: S.Schön/Pexels Read the rest

The European Parliament is meeting this week, and the committee that will decide the future of the controversial new Copyright Directive will meet next, and depending on what they do, it might be the end of the road for the internet as we know it.The new Copyright Directive contains two deal-breaking clauses: the first, Article 11, gives news sites the power to charge (or refused to offer) a license fee for anyone who wants to link to their stories and include more than a single word from the story to accompany the link. Open access news sites can't opt out of this regime, putting the whole idea of public-interest, open-access news in jeopardy.The second clause, Article 13, requires platforms to check all their users' posts against a crowdsourced database that is meant to list all the copyrighted works that may not be distributed online. Anyone can put anything in the database without penalty for falsely claiming copyright, and the filters will overblock millions of users' posts either by falsely identifying them as a match, or because software can't tell fair use from copyright infringement.Worst of all, both of these measures will cost hundreds of millions of euros to comply with, and that will put every European alternative to American Big Tech out of business (some versions propose exempting companies with less than 10m euros/year in revenue, but that only means that earning your 10,000,001st euro will trigger hundreds of millions of euros in compliance costs).The next step in this process is called the "trilogue," when the representatives of European member-states negotiate with the EU. Read the rest

I don't usually pay much attention to gymnastics, but this routine by 21-year-old UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi is mind blowing. Via Uproxx:Katelyn Ohashi is about to become a household name. The 21-year-old UCLA gymnast wowed spectators with an absolutely flawless routine at the Anaheim Arena over the weekend, which subsequently went viral when the UCLA Gymnastics ‏Twitter account tweeted video after her performance. Gymnastics ‏Twitter account tweeted video after her performance. “A 10 isn’t enough for this floor routine by Katelyn Ohashi,” the tweet correctly expressed. A 🔟 isn't enough for this floor routine by @katelyn_ohashi. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/pqUzl7AlUA— UCLA Gymnastics (@uclagymnastics) January 13, 2019 Read the rest

If you played poker with Steve Albini -- esteemed guitarist for Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac, recording engineer for Nirvana, Pixies, and PJ Harvey -- he would take all your money. I was surprised to learn that last year Albini won gold in the World Series of Poker. Above, a short documentary about Albini's poker prowess.(Poker Central via Uncrate) Read the rest

Looks like Hulu is going to beat Netflix to market with their Fyre Festival documentary.Two documentaries on a festival that didn't happen. I was not one-documentary interested, but Mark is making popcorn.Hollywood Reporter:Fyre Fraud, a documentary chronicling the lead-up and aftermath of 2017’s disastrous Fyre Festival, is airing on Hulu.Hulu dropped the documentary, produced and distributed by The Cinemart, Hulu, Billboard and Mic, Monday morning, with no advance notice. Netflix’s competing documentary, Fyre, comes out Jan. 18.The 96-minute Hulu doc features an exclusive, extensive post-festival interview with 25-year-old entrepreneur and Fyre Festival mastermind Billy McFarland, who is serving a six-year prison term after pleading guilty to wire fraud charges. By turns repentant and defensive, he seldom takes direct responsibility for allegedly defrauding investors out of more than $26 million, nor does he admit wrongdoing. Read the rest