On Saturday night, Casper the Friendly Ghost attempted to rob a Ramada Inn in Wayne, New Jersey. According to police, the ghost jumped over the reception desk, pried open the cash drawer, and ran off with the dough. Eventually though, police determined that the ghost was not actually Casper, and not even a real specter, but rather a 59-year-old gentleman named Joseph Elder who was a guest staying at the hotel. ""... [Elder] attempted to conceal his identity with a Casper the ghost style bed sheet with holes cut out," the police said.(NBC New York) Read the rest

Directing airplanes to their gates could be a monotonous job, but not for this marshall at the Toronto Airport, who simultaneously motions to the taxiing plane while busting out the moves. Similar to sign spinners who have mastered their craft with elaborate spins and twirls, this marshall is definitely having fun with his job – as well as the giggling passengers who are watching the show. Read the rest

When on a picnic, I've been known to toss an apple core or banana peel into the woods. Turns out, even "organic litter" is a bad idea. From Mother Nature Network:...An apple core can take two months to decompose and a banana peel can take up to two years, by some reports. Although that's a mere blip compared to the estimated decomposition time for plastics — 20 years for a plastic bag, 200 years for a straw or 450 years for a plastic bottle — it's not like these food items will disintegrate quickly.After watching hikers toss a sandwich on a trail, Marjorie "Slim" Woodruff, who hikes and works in the Grand Canyon, set up a small experiment. She put an apple core, a banana peel, orange peels, chewing gum and tissue paper in a cage of chicken wire, wide enough to allow small animals to go in and out. After six months, the orange peels had dried out, the banana peel had turned black, the chewing gum was the same and the tissue had become a blob. Nothing had been eaten or had rotted.She buried the same items in sand and soil and six months later everything was still recognizable.Also, if animals do munch on your edible trash, that can interfere with their own natural foraging while also attracting them to potentially dangerous areas frequented by humans. Read the rest

Last week, private equity investor and adventurer Victor Vescovo became the first person to touch the deepest spot in the Atlantic Ocean, 27,480 feet down to the floor of the Puerto Rico Trench, in his custom $35 million Triton submersible, named the Limiting Factor. From Smithsonian:Vescovo has previously trekked to both the North and South Poles and climbed the highest mountain on each continent, including Mount Everest, a combo known as the “Explorer’s Grand Slam.” But that club is—relatively speaking—a little crowded, with more than 60 people having completed the feat. That’s one reason Vescovo decided to take to the water. The Puerto Rico Trench dive is the first leg of his latest challenge: to reach the lowest spot in each of the world's five oceans. He’s dubbed the feat, inaccessible to anyone without millions of dollars of resources, the “Five Deeps Expedition...."Through one lens, the trip can be seen as a vanity project for a rich explorer. However, as Ann Vanreusel, head of the research group Marine Biology of Ghent University, tells Erik Stokstad at Science, whatever the motive behind the expedition, it has true scientific value. “[T]here is not any funding agency that would be willing to spend so much money to visit all those areas,” she says.Indeed, Five Deeps is poised to produce some of the most accurate maps ever of the ocean’s deepest spots and unseen habitats and creatures, aided by the fact that Alan Jamieson, a marine ecologist at Newcastle University and one of the world’s leading experts on the ocean’s depths, is the science leader of the expedition. Read the rest

There is no better way to teach kids the improtance of saving than by having them stick fake $100 bills into a piggy bank. Read the rest

Wow, never saw that one coming. The print your own guns proponent is a creep.In Texas, '3D gun' guy Cody Wilson has been indicted on multiple counts of sexual assault against a minor.Wilson rose to national attention as a self-styled advocate of 3D-printed guns, with the entities "Ghost Gunner Inc" and "Defense Distributed." He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, plus fines.The charges involve a female "child younger than 17 years of age" whom he is said to have solicited through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com.From reporting by Nathan Matisse at Ars Technica, who has been following the case in Austin, Texas:More than three months have passed since a warrant (PDF) initially went out for Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson's arrest. That document detailed Wilson's alleged sexual assault against a female "child younger than 17 years of age" whom he reportedly solicited through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com. Last Friday, December 28, the State of Texas finally formally indicted (PDF) Wilson. The 3D printed gun advocate now faces multiple charges: four counts of sexual assault of a child, two charges of indecency with a child by contact, and two charges of indecency with a child by exposure.These charges are all second-degree felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.Wilson's two previously scheduled initial court appearances in November and December had each been pushed back, as often happens in cases still waiting on a formal indictment. This recent filing may make it more likely that the newest tentative date (scheduled for early February) will occur, meaning Wilson's team would need to finally appear at the Travis County Courthouse. Read the rest

The David Rumsey Map Collection shares an amazing collection of photographs and the history of this 42 by 38 foot WPA built wooden map of San Francisco. Visit their site for high quality images.I will be lost in these images for hours.Full collection here.For the first time since 1942, the entire immense 42 by 38 foot WPA built San Francisco Model can be seen assembled virtually. Digitally knitting together all 158 separate pieces with over 6,000 blocks gives the viewer a sense of the extraordinary accomplishment the model represents. Recently recovered after decades of dusty storage, the model has been cleaned and photographed by a dedicated team of individuals as part of the SFMOMA and San Francisco Public Library project called Public Knowledge: Take Part. The model pieces were expertly photographed by Beth LaBerge. David Rumsey created the large Composite image below of the 158 pieces, as well as the image and metadata database of all the images, which he hosts. Rumsey also georeferenced the large Composite image and placed it in Google Earth.Some details of the model's history: it is a 42 by 38 foot wooden replica of the city of San Francisco as it was in 1940 in 158 pieces at a scale of 1 inch to 100 feet. The pieces contain about 6,000 removable city blocks. The model was built by The Works Progress Administration in the late 1930's, under the New Deal. It was first displayed in sections in the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay in 1939. Read the rest

Rostislav Blaha created gridzzly, a simple single-page website where you pick the type of grid you want (lines, square, triangle, hex, dotted), set the size of the grid units and the weight of the line, then hit print. Voila! Custom gridded paper. Here's what I got:Good enough for government work. Read the rest

For decades, the WELL has rung in the new year with a weeks-long public discussion led by Jon Lebkowsky and Bruce Sterling (2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2007, 2005, etc).This year's contributors include Tiffany Lee Brown and James "New Aesthetic" Bridle (previously).As you might expect from such an august panel, they're off to quite a start. Sterling has continued his tradition of declaring different countries to epitomize the year: this year, it's Ukraine, in "the EU-Russia shatterbelt where the elderly village grannies, the last ones too poor to flee, are harvesting their turnips while getting randomly pounded by mortar fire" ... it's "typical of our times. It's the patient zero for the actual trouble. The prospects for real peace there are very slim. The prospects of that kind of offshored Violence Lite appearing elsewhere, those are high."Bridle, meanwhile, thinks the boasts of an upcoming "dark enlightenment" (or any other kind of enlightenment) are overblown, briefing instead for an upcoming entanglement: "weird, niche communities - antisocial media, distributed and federated services, truly decentralised ones as well as real urban anarchists - and they feel like different places totalk about power and agency, and formulate strategy." I do have one self-set task for the SoTW this year. What isthe forthcoming shape of the 2020sMoore's Law is dead, there'sno Singularity, the fix is in tech oligarchs of (take a breath) Google Apple Facebook Amazon Microsoft Baidu Alibaba Tencent NetflixSamsung. Read the rest

I'm an avid reader of Fred Wilson's email newsletter, A VC. Wilson is a VC who invested in Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Zynga, and Kickstarter. In one of his recent issues Wilson predicted a very likely scenario -- Trump making a deal to resign in exchange for a friends and family pardon, and Pence will be president:I believe that we will have a different President of the United States by the end of 2019. The catalyst for this change will be a devastating report issued by Robert Mueller that outlines a history of illegal activities by our President going back decades, including in his campaign for President.The House will react to Mueller’s report by voting to impeach the President. Which will set up a trial in the Senate. That trial will go so badly for the President that he will, like Nixon before him, negotiate a resignation that will lead to him and those close to him being pardoned for all actions, and Mike Pence will become the President of the United States sometime in 2019.I believe this drama will play out through most of 2019. I expect the Mueller report to be issued sometime in the late winter/early spring and I expect an impeachment vote by the House before the summer, leading to a trial in the Senate in the second half of the year.The drama in Washington will have serious impacts to the economy in the United States starting with our capital markets.Image: Gage Skidmore Read the rest

Mookkie is a pet bowl with built-in AI and a fisheye lens that keeps a close watch on your pets' dietary habits, and will generate detailed reports on how much food they are eating. It will close up if pet is eating too much or if a wild animal tries to eat the food.Via VentureBeat:Mookkie connects to a local network over Wi-Fi, and communicates with a smartphone companion app to notify you (or send a short video) when doggo’s about to munch. And like so many other “smart” products on the market these days, the AI-driven pet bowl works with voice assistants like the Google Assistant and Alexa. A series of simple commands is all you need to control the feed bowl’s latch, get the skinny on served meals, and order food when it’s running low.CEO Silvio Revelli says that Volta is targeting a $189 price point, and expects the AI-powered pet bowl to go on sale by the end of 2019 on the official Mookkie website. The plan is to let owners customize the colors and engrave their pet’s name. Read the rest

Latif Nasser is Director of Research for WNYC's Radiolab. He wrote a piece for Transom about how he comes up with story ideas for the show. He has an interesting "bag of tricks" to find stories and have lots on hand so that he doesn't panic under a deadline. The tricks include setting up dozens of Google Alerts on the names of interesting people, "juicy phrases" (such as “the human equivalent of”), and topics he finds fascinating (such as the "alford plea"). He signs up for lots of newsletters -- "The more obscure the field the better." (He recommends creating a separate email account for newsletters). He searches for oral histories on ArchiveGrid. He also talks to strangers -- on planes, in lines, "even wrong numbers." The piece includes many other tricks I didn't include here. Highly recommended!Image: Transom.org Read the rest

New York Times columnist and all-around unclassifiably interesting person Rob Walker has a book coming out in May called The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday. Rob also has an excellent newsletter also called The Art of Noticing Newsletter, and in the latest edition he writes about The Urban Weed Awards:Celebrate the Tallest Weed. I’m a big fan of artist Michael Pederson, who does all sorts of super-clever street/public interventions in Australia, under the name Miguel Marquez Outside. I really dig the latest project he’s posted: The Urban Weed Awards.As you can see: Here is an award plaque/ribbon for the “tallest weed” in some particular local.There’s a bit in The Art of Noticing about “annotating the world,” and this is a really charming variation on that idea. Pick something that’s generally regarded as residing somewhere between “not exciting” and “a nuisance.” The weed is a perfect example, but maybe cracked sidewalks or potholes or power lines or whatever you can come up with. Now look for superlatives: The deepest pothole; the most picturesque sidewalk crack, the most rococo power line arrangement.Come up with variations for suburban drives, office environments, or anywhere else. Dream up the criteria that makes it fun to identify the most notable examples of ordinary things. Find the tallest weed.Image: Miguel Marquez Outside Read the rest

Brazil's new president Jair Bolsonaro rode to power on a platform of racist and gendered discrimination, genocide for indigenous people, homophobia, torture apology, and the abolition of human rights; he owes his victory to political spamming and conspiracy theories spread on Facebook at Whatsapp.When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time. On Bolsonaro's first day in office he unveiled a suite of legal attacks against racial, gender and gender-identity minorities that threaten to roll back the country to the days of the brutal military junta he once served.In case you have any doubt about whether Bolsonaro really owes his election to Facebook and Whatsapp, allow his hardcore supporters to remove that doubt: at his inauguration, Brazil's bootlickers and useful idiots gathered to chant "Facebook!" and "Whatsapp!".Um canto inédito em qualquer #PossePresidencial no Brasil: "WhatsApp, WhatsApp! Facebook, Facebook!" pic.twitter.com/m0C2fOdEze— JOTA (@JotaInfo) January 1, 2019Bruce Sterling: "It's gray, it's becalmed. It's not a fatal gloom, but it is a kind of learned-helplessness, a malaise and bewilderment. It's very much the attitude of people who sign onto Facebook 'cause they can't yet figure out any other way to live. They do that, because they must conform to the apparent need, despite their vague oxlike awareness that they're being spied on, tricked, and defrauded." Read the rest

In 2015, Mozilla announced that it would turn Thunderbird -- one of the last freestanding, cross-platform email clients -- into a freestanding, independent project, and in 2017, Thunderbird became a community-overseen project with institutional backing from Moz.It was an odd move at the time: the Snowden revelations and the news that Yahoo had provided the NSA with free access to user emails, along with the sputtering out of promising alternatives like Mailpile meant that there was huge, unmet demand for the stable, high-powered email clients that disappeared when Gmail and other webmails started to kill off the Eudoras of the world.Since then, the Thunderbird team has made real, if incremental progress in stabilizing the old Thunderbird code. I'm a hardcore, daily Thunderbird user, someone who lives in email (if you're thinking of sending me an IM of any kind in the hopes that I'll respond to it, think again: send me an email instead -- realtime communications are productivity killers for me), and I've been very glad of this progress (I just donated another $100 to the project).Now, Thunderbird has laid out its 2019 roadmap, and they're promising more of the same, and better, which is exactly what I was hoping for: more changes to increase the responsiveness of the UI (which has made real progress but has a lot of room for improvement), a UI/UX overhaul, and guidelines to make it easier for lots of people to contribute -- Thunderbird's eight full-time, paid contributors will grow to 14 in 2019, with volunteers and other free/open source contributions coming from the wider world. Read the rest

Get ghosted by Santa this year? Here's a tip: Once Christmas is over, it's ok to do a little materialistic self-care. To that end, here's one last sleigh ride through Boing Boing's best deals of 2018. We've got everything from pipes to tech to learning bundles, all at an extra discount for the new year. Just enter the code NEWYEAR2019 for an additional 19% off the final price for all this gear, sitewide.uTalk Language Education: Lifetime Subscription"Learn a new language" isn't as popular a new year's resolution as it should be. If only people knew it was this easy: uTalk boasts feedback from native-speaking voice artists and an interface that game-ifies the learning process with challenges and a progress tracker. A lifetime subscription to uTalk is on sale for $29.99 and lets you choose any six from over 130 languages on the app.UltraBright 500-Lumen Tactical Military Flashlight: 2-PackA true lifesaving piece of tech, these sturdy but lightweight torches illuminate out to 800 meters. With an adjustable zoom and three modes including an "SOS" flash setting, they're perfect for roadside emergencies or long outdoor treks. With storage case included, the UltraBright 500-Lumen Tactical Military Flashlight: 2-Pack comes in at $19.99 - an 80% discount.Ultimate Cisco Certification Super BundleConsidering a new career for the new year? This online bundle paves the way to certification in Cisco's networking systems, providing a firm foundation as part of any IT team. You'll learn to do much more than troubleshoot the big stacks - you'll be able to set up, maintain and handle security for the infrastructure that major companies depend on. Read the rest

This 8 year old is a lot more patient and creative than most adults I know. What a cool little kid-made short film.“My 8 year old daughter made a Stop-motion Lego movie hoping to post it on Legolife, but they don't post videos yet,” said IMGURian @dadwithtowel, who posted it on IMGUR with her enthusiastic permission instead. The entire short is below.My 8 year old daughter played with her lego Read the rest

Adam Savage keeps mining deeper and deeper strata of nerdly obsessions, with recent Tested projects including collaborating with other prop makers to create a spot-on ACES NASA astronaut suit for cosplay, building a 3D-printed hand cannon from Mortal Engines, and another pilgrimage to Middle Earth, aka Weta Workshop in New Zealand. And then there's this model-making masterpiece Adam has just revealed, a 1/2-scale build of the prop blimp used in Ridley Scott's 1982 flim, Blade Runner. Built by model maker Kayte Sabicer and Adam Savage (but mainly Kayte), the project took months to complete and an ungodly amount of fiddly labor. The results could not be more impressive. Read the rest

Welcome back to The Bureau. It’s the tenth installment, with two remaining installments until your day is complete. You've found your way to a bar, and it's a comfortable view of the train. You may have just died.

If you make your own espresso and want to pull shots that are always the same strength, this set of 2 shot glasses with markings for ounces, milliliters, teaspoons, and tablespoons might be what you're looking for. You can also use them to dose medication or mix cocktails. Read the rest

It isn't a dog movie! 1974's Benji is still a tear jerker.The theme song, "I Feel Love" was nominated for an Academy Award.The whole movie is on YouTube here. Read the rest

Over at EDGE.org, the must-read hub of intellectual inquiry and head-spinning science, Boing Boing pal and legendary book agent John Brockman is launching a new series of essays "from important third culture thinkers to address the empirically-driven and science related hot-button cultural issues of our time." First up is author George Dyson's "Childhood's End," a provocative riff on how the digital revolution has stripped much of our individual agency and that "to those seeking true intelligence, autonomy, and control among machines, the domain of analog computing, not digital computing, is the place to look." From EDGE:The spectacular success of digital computers in modeling real-world phenomena, encoded as algorithms with the results used as output to control something in the real world, has outshadowed very different ways that digital computers, and networks of digital computers, can be used. Algorithms and digital simulations have become so embedded in our culture and world view that we find it almost impossible to recognize that other forms of computation, without algorithms or digital models, effectively control much of the world.We assume that a search engine company builds a model of human knowledge and allows us to query that model, or that some other company (or maybe it’s the same company) builds a model of road traffic and allows us to access that model, or that yet another company builds a model of the social graph and allows us to join that model — for a price we are not quite told. Read the rest

In southern Italy today, a brazen highway robbery in which thieves used bulldozers to pry open an armored van on the road. Police say the thieves blocked the money-mobile off with two big vehicles on both sides, then ripped the doors off with the machine's giant digging jaws, then made off with at least 2 million euros, or $2.3 million in US dollars, in cash.Ammonta a più di due milioni il bottino di una #rapina a un #portavalori a #Bari ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/d42YaAUBc5— Sky tg24 (@SkyTG24) January 2, 2019From Reuters:The blue security van had left the city of Bari and was carrying pensions to be distributed in post offices in nearby Matera when it was blocked on the road by two lorries.Two diggers then tore open the vehicle, using their mechanical arms like can openers to gain access to the cash.The lorries were then set ablaze as the hooded thieves escaped with their loot in a waiting car. The three guards in the van were unharmed.Images and video below.Very well-planned armored car to heist. Armored cars can be a tough nut to crack -- unless you have a big enough hammer.https://t.co/lL3Hi6eb4L— Scott Stewart (@stick631) January 2, 2019Bari, assaltato con le ruspe: portavalori aperto come una scatoletta di tonno https://t.co/iYxDo8OKz6— Gazzetta di Modena (@gazzettamodena) January 2, 2019#Bari, spettacolare rapina ad un furgone portavalori sulla statale 96 barese. La banda ha bloccato la strada con 2 camion dati alle fiamme e poi ha sventrato il mezzo con una ruspa. Read the rest

A gentleman stylishly dressed from head to toe in identity-concealing attire found a bicycle parked at a police station. The bicycle did not belong to him, and it was locked, but the man wished to take the bike for himself so he went to work on the lock with a bolt cutter. A few seconds later, a police officer emerged from the station and arrested the chagrined lad. Read the rest

Reminiscent of Trump's infamous remark that undocumented Mexicans coming into the United States were rapists and criminals, conservative writer Star Parker told hosts on Fox and Friends that people needing government assistance are watching porn. “These guys are not working, they’re watching. They’re watching porn, they’re watching TV, they’re watching women, they’re watching everything.”And it's because these people are "watchers," as she refers to them, that she agrees with Trump's plan on stricter "SNAP" rules, which would make it more difficult for struggling Americans to receive food stamps.Fox host Ainsley Earhardt understands completely. “It’s not to hurt them. It’s to actually make them self-sufficient, so they can contribute to society and actually help themselves,” she says, as if talking about a child or dog that needs training. “As we make benefits available to those who truly need them, we must also encourage participants to take proactive steps toward self-sufficiency. Moving people to work is common-sense policy, particularly at a time when the unemployment rate is at a generational low.” Read the rest

According to its infernal creator, HATETRIS "is bad Tetris. It's hateful Tetris. It's Tetris according to the evil AI from 'I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.'"Background, hints, and links to others' prior work here.(via Kottke) Read the rest

It's easy enough to pick this Caterpillar padlock with a lockpicking rake, but if that seems too difficult, just buy another Caterpillar padlock of the same model. They all use the same key. Read the rest

'Super Dave Osborne' and 'Marty Funkhouser' have left us. Curb Your Enthusiasm fans will best remember actor Bob Einstein from his impact on Larry David's long-running HBO comedy series.Einstein was 76.From DEADLINE:Bob Einstein, a two-time Emmy winner who has recurred on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm since its launch and created the wacky Super Dave Osborne character, died today in Indian Wells, CA. He was 76 and recently had been diagnosed with cancer.Bob Einstein's career in weirdo comedy did not begin with 'Curb.'In this clip, none other than country music star Glen Campbell, wearing his Wichita Lineman album cover outfit, interviews Barry The Mechanic (played by Bob Einstein) in a "rip-off mechanic" skit.Watch and learn.Boing Boing BBS member Professer59 points us to Jerry Seinfeld's series 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee,' on which Bob Einstein guested. This 2017 episode with Seinfeld and Einstein together is wonderful. In it, Bob talks about his career and about the death of his father, comedian and broadcaster Harry Einstein.Einstein was the first comedian to appear twice on 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.'Below, some memorable moments from 'Curb,' and interviews Bob Einstein did about his work on this show and others.[PHOTO: 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' Courtesy HBO] Read the rest

Core77 published its annual collection of "the best mind-melting manufacturing videos," including furniture made from chocolate, a chicken-wire wrapper, a thermoformed case, a cookie-cutter former, and more. My favorite is this blobby ceramic bowl stamper: View this post on Instagram Had no idea this is how you mass manufacture printed ceramics 😂 (via @world_of_engineering) #processpornA post shared by Core77 (@core77) on Aug 24, 2018 at 5:04am PDT Read the rest

Is that a threat?During today's back-from-the-holidays meetings, Donald Trump said the United States “Government could be shut down for a long time...as long as it takes.”Hang on now.As long as it takes for what?Trump says government could be shut down for a “long time”— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) January 2, 2019#GovernmentShutdown could last "a long time," @POTUS tells reporters.— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) January 2, 2019#BREAKING Trump warns government shutdown could last "a long time" pic.twitter.com/2EDle5NqMB— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 2, 2019BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump just said "Government could be shut down for a long time...as long as it takes." The Dow was up around 60 pts when he said it, now up 32. 3pET he will be starting a meeting w/ Congressional leaders, we're LIVE at the WH— Liz Claman (@LizClaman) January 2, 2019Trump at cabinet mtg on partial gov't shutdown: It could be a long time..it could end quickly— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 2, 2019 Read the rest

This rat has two green LED lights implanted near its bladder to help the animal regain control of its urination. According to Washington University researcher Robert Gereau, the technology -- which involves a metal ring around the bladder to sense its fullness and a wirelessly rechargeable battery -- could eventually help humans with incontinence. Here's how it works, from New Scientist:When the device was implanted in rats with bladder dysfunction, the metal ring measured changes in bladder size. When it detected that a rat was urinating more than two times an hour, the LED lights switched on.These rats had previously received gene therapy, enabling their nerve cells involved in bladder-brain signaling to make a light-sensitive protein. When the LEDs were switched on, their light activated this protein, which in turn blocked urination signals from the bladder from reaching the brain. Read the rest

YouTuber Toni Patanen "Pupsi" likes to make musical instruments – ocarinas in particular – with vegetables. Here he cuts up some sweet potatoes and a squash, and then (at 1:39) plays a mystical version of Toto's Africa. Via Mashable Read the rest

“Sanctions are Coming - November 4.” For today's Cabinet meeting at the White House, there was a weird Trump Game of Thrones political meme poster, wall sized, displaying Trump's face and those words, placed right on the middle of the table as some kind of weird creepy internet fascist prop.Previously, Trump tweeted this meme in the context of Iran. Buzzfeed reported about it at the time.“How do you say trademark misuse in Dothraki?,” HBO previously tweeted in response, exactly two months ago. Wonder how they'll respond to this incident, given that it is likely to go viral, and arguably cause confusion about the show. My guess?LAWYERS ARE COMING😎Trump has the "sanctions are coming" poster of himself in this Cabinet meeting. This pic from @kevincorke: pic.twitter.com/ir62Nryd5W— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) January 2, 2019pic.twitter.com/nk2vKvHuaL— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2018Wall poster of Trump with the words “Sanctions are Coming - November 4” in the middle of the table for today’s Cabinet meeting. pic.twitter.com/wJ9XpcQxKA— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) January 2, 2019I heard that there was a Game of Thrones parody poster on the desk during Trump's meeting, so I assumed it was about the wall that occupies like 1/3 of the plot of that book/show, and... no, it's about sanctions!— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 2, 2019never forget ---> The Sanctions That Trump’s “Game Of Thrones” Tweet Warned About Have Arrived https://t.co/VbQ2wx06qK via @emilyctamkin— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) January 2, 2019Pres has his "Sanctions are Coming" poster on the Cabinet Room conference table. Read the rest

The Alpaca graphic design cooperative created this terrific "illustrated and interactive Dante's Inferno, an alternative learning tool for the Divine Comedy first Cantica, made for aiding visual memory." From the project page:The work is based on the anthology "Testi e scenari" - Volume 1 (Panebianco, Pisoni, Reggiani, Malpensa), published by Zanichelli in 2009, and it has been developed by Alpaca together with the Molotro design studio...The translation to the English language is based on the one provided by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The whole text is available on Wikisource and it's in the public domain.We chose the Longfellow translation not only because it's open source, but also for its closeness to the language of Dante. The syntax, the rhythm, the lexicon used by Longfellow may feel odd for native english speakers, but they render the original language with great accuracy."Infernal Topography" (Alpaca via MetaFilter) Read the rest

In 1987, Max Headroom appeared on Sesame Street where he recited the alphabet. Catch the wave.And if you're not hip to Max's cyberpunk stylings, the 1985 UK TV movie is where it all started: Read the rest

This Norwegian sailer is one cool dude. While sailing in the Pacific Ocean, he spots what he at first thinks is trash. He wants to clean it up, and then realizes that it's actually sea turtles – four in all – trapped inside of tangled plastic fishing nets. Not only does he calmly untangle and set these creatures free, but some of his commentary is priceless. Read the rest

A neural network became a expert at detecting art forgeries by learning how famous artists drew their line strokes. Researchers at Rutgers University and the Atelier for Restoration and Research of Paintings in the Netherlands used a sample set of 300 line drawings from well-known artists such as Picasso and Matisse. From those drawings, the AI examined 80,000 lines strokes and learned what characteristics in the strokes were unique to the different artists. From Technology Review:The researchers also trained a machine-learning algorithm to look for specific features, like the shape of the line in a stroke. This gave them two different techniques to detect forgeries, and the combined method proved powerful. Looking at the output of the machine-learning algorithm also provided some insight into the RNN, which acts as a “black box”—a system whose outputs are difficult for researchers to explain. Since the machine-learning algorithm was trained on specific features, the difference between it and the RNN probably points to the characteristics the neural network was looking at to detect forgeries. In this case, it was using the changing strength along a stroke—that is, how hard an artist was pushing, based on the weight of the line—to identify the artist. With both algorithms working in tandem, the researchers were able to correctly identify artists around 80 percent of the time.The researchers also commissioned artists to create drawings in the same style as the pieces in the data set to test the system’s ability to spot fakes. The system was able to identify the forgeries in every instance, simply by looking at a single stroke. Read the rest

During a storm in Kununurra, Australia that dumped nearly three inches of rain, a farmer braved the weather to check on the dam near his home. That's when he spotted this 11-foot python "moving across the grass at full speed" with 10 cane toads riding on his back.68mm just fell in the last hour at Kununurra. Flushed all the cane toads out of my brothers dam. Some of them took the easy way out - hitching a ride on the back of a 3.5m python. pic.twitter.com/P6mPc2cVS5— Andrew Mock (@MrMeMock) December 30, 2018But, according to amphibian expert Jodi Rowley, these poisonous toads weren't just hitching a ride to get to dryer grounds – they were actually trying to mate with the snake.This is one of the most amazing videos I've seen!! Lots of *very* horny Cane #Toads (Rhinella marina) trying to mate with a large Olive #Python (Liasis olivaceus), with Giant Burrowing Frogs (Cyclorana australis) & Red Tree #Frogs (Litoria rubella) calling in the background! https://t.co/uy4yACCb8q— Jodi Rowley (@jodirowley) December 31, 2018Via The Guardian Read the rest

It's been 48 hours since the American public domain expanded for the first time in 20 years, allowing Americans free access to works from 1923, including Cecil B Demille's 1923 epic "The Ten Commandments" (here's 1,000 or so more). Despite its epic scale, the Moses story takes up only about the first third of the film. After that, the story changes to a modern setting involving living by the lessons of the commandments. Two brothers make opposite decisions, one, John, to follow his mother’s teaching of the Ten Commandments and become a poor carpenter, and the other, Danny, to break every one of them and rise to the top. The film shows his unchecked immorality to be momentarily gainful, but ultimately disastrous. Read the rest

Dawn ver.β is a Tokyo cafe in Akasaka where all the table service is performed by 120 cm tall OriHime-D robots that are piloted by people who are paralyzed and work from home; it was inspired by a fictional cafe in the 2008 anime Time of Eve.▼ This video shows how an ALS patient, unable to speak, can use his eyes to type messages that can then be spoken by the OriHime-D robot.▼ And here another paralyzed man using a OriHime-D serves a coffee.Cafe opens in Tokyo staffed by robots controlled by paralyzed people [Master Blaster/Sora News 24](via Four Short Links) Read the rest

Inter UI is a family of freeware fonts with ""a tall x-height to aid in readability of mixed-case and lower-case text" designed for small screen text. (via Four Short Links) Read the rest

Available in small, medium and large, the Unicorn Costume for Dogs [Amazon] offers a comfortable, adjustable-fit design that's secured under the dog's chin, neck and chest with three rows of velcro straps.Welcome to amazing world of pink unicorns! The mane and horn headdress will turn your pet into the cutest fairy horse ever. You’ll be proud of your dog when attending dress up parties, festivals or just walking along the street. And now imagine your kid getting this funny wig for his / her birthday. Every child will be happy to dress up the family pet as a unicorn. The dog with the horn will make the children’s party unforgettable. Don't miss a chance to take adorable pics!Not all dogs like wearing costumes.#Notalldogs.Question: Is the small, small enough for a ferret?Answer: It depends on the size of your ferret Read the rest

Chris Patty made a wooden mini-jukebox where you pick songs by swiping magnetic cards. It's like a prop from an old BBC sci-fi show about how great it would be to listen to music would be in 2019.The Verge's Jacob Kastrenakes:Patty created the jukebox as a Christmas gift for his father, after his family decided to only swap handmade presents this year. He later posted a short video of the creation to Twitter, where he’s received enough positive responses that he’s working on an open source version of the software and instructions so that fans can make their own. ...“I think [the response] speaks to a shared displeasure with the current state of our music services,” Patty tells The Verge in an email. The limitless libraries inside Apple Music and Spotify cheapen the experience, he says. “There’s something about the limiting factors of physical media that force you to choose ... the music that is most meaningful. And that kind of curation, I think, is something we all deeply miss.” Read the rest

In 1983, The Toronto Star invited Isaac Asimov to predict what the world of 2019 would look like. He was astute in his understanding of likely technical developments, but wrong about other things. Which things make for interest....Asimov was more or less correct in many of his predictions on the future of computerization, even if some of his forecasts were a bit broad and obvious ... but assumes that kids wouldn't spend all that time using technology to, say, play Fortnite.Asimov's article was obviously a tossed-off guest editorial, but it's interesting how blind it was technology's deeper social implications. For example, he presents machine labor as a straightforward liberation for workers who no longer have to work repetitive jobs. And he had no grasp on how technological changes would dissolve social norms, such as, say, the veils of influence and favor that hide sexual misconduct within literary subcultures. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Super-Fun-Pak Comix features Doug, Classix Comix, Not a Pipe, Public Domain Fart Funnies, and just a bit MORE!

A Krispy Kreme donut truck caught fire this weekend and its cargo was destroyed. Responding police in Lexington, Kentucky, took to social media to mourn their loss."Hang tight, we are sending backup forthwith ... We hope you like sprinkles," The New York City Police Department tweeted.The doughnut company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, itself offered condolences via Twitter and let the officers know that they were sending them something to help get them through the ordeal. Read the rest

I live in a small, grandfathered, community inside of the Golden Gate National Recreation area. The government shutdown is making parks scary for tourists and residents alike.It is vacation time! People want to get out and enjoy nature! The weather is beautiful, the skies are super clear in the San Francisco Bay area, and the roads are completely jammed up with people unclear as to what is open and what is not. Encountering a mile long SNAFU of confused drivers will eat hours of your time.Parking lots located at the end of narrow 2-way but 1-car wide 'roads' are locked with no warning. Giant SUVs illegally park in sensitive habitats, just off the roadway, or just choke narrow streets into unpassable nightmares. Confusion abounds. Cooperation disappears. Absolute proof American libertarianism is a farce. I will spare you to stories of where people are leaving trash or the number of folks we've seen eliminating on the roadside. Those redwoods are majestic, must be interesting to crap on one.NBC has more:Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors despite the staff furloughs, said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association."We're afraid that we're going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts," Garder said. "We're concerned there'll be impacts to visitors' safety.""It's really a nightmare scenario," Garder said.Spokespeople with the Interior Department did not immediately return emails seeking comment on Monday. Read the rest

And if shaking your head really fast is, er, problematic, you can also just look at an angle or move away from the screen until the image appears.Here's an Instructable on how to make your own head-shaking illusions.(via r/interestingasfuck) Read the rest

NASA's New Horizons space probe passed by Ultima Thule, a tiny icy world four billion miles from the sun. It's the farthest target that humans have ever reached and will give scientists insight into the earliest days of our solar system. From NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory:"New Horizons performed as planned today, conducting the farthest exploration of any world in history — 4 billion miles from the Sun," said Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "The data we have look fantastic and we're already learning about Ultima from up close. From here out the data will just get better and better!"Images taken during the spacecraft's approach — which brought New Horizons to within just 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) of Ultima at 12:33 a.m. EST — revealed that the Kuiper Belt object may have a shape similar to a bowling pin, spinning end over end, with dimensions of approximately 20 by 10 miles (32 by 16 kilometers). Another possibility is Ultima could be two objects orbiting each other. Flyby data have already solved one of Ultima's mysteries, showing that the Kuiper Belt object is spinning like a propeller with the axis pointing approximately toward New Horizons. This explains why, in earlier images taken before Ultima was resolved, its brightness didn't appear to vary as it rotated. The team has still not determined the rotation period.As the science data began its initial return to Earth, mission team members and leadership reveled in the excitement of the first exploration of this distant region of space. Read the rest

Sylvain Neuvel's series The Themis Files is a gripping tale where humanity repeatedly guesses wrong, the aliens are tied up in their own soap opera, and giant stompy robots are the least of anyone's problems.This is one heck of a story. Sleeping Giants, the first novel in this series, starts with the world in geopolitical balance and not much exciting going on. The US government discovers part of an ancient alien artifact made of some super metal. A secret project to locate and reassemble the thing is launched.The alien artifact turns out to be a giant mech, like Ultraman but weird. The mech inexplicably needs two drivers who are not connected in any special fashion or for any real reason. This is a seriously shitty design flaw, like needing two people to operate the steering and brakes of a car. Regardless, the humans go to monstrous lengths to make it work. They also accidentally kill a bunch of innocent people and some of themselves, sort of.Curiosity really gets the cat in this one. Over the course of these three books messing around with the mech causes problems interpersonally, locally, internationally and finally intergalactically.Don't fuck with alien tech. Waking Gods and Only Human are the second and third novels in the series. I burned through all three over the holidays.The Themis Files by Sylvain Neuvel via Amazon Read the rest