16 thousand people have watched this ambient yet vaguely sinister YouTube video alerting viewers to the existence of "illuminati pyramid" clocks. I recently found a 1984 Seiko original at a garage sale for $2—my new favorite toy!—and thought I'd share the ancient wisdom.Best of all, it preserves bacon much better than the late-2000s replica. I wish it would stop talking to me in my sleep about the Clintons, though.Photo: Selçuk Oral Read the rest

Jeffrey Martin (previously) writes, "I shot this gigapixel image last year in mid November. It's made of 8000 photos, shot with a fullframe SLR and a 600mm lens. It was shot from thetop of Prague's 'Orloj', the clock tower on Old Town Square, built in 1410.The tower had a scaffolding all over it at the time, going all the way uppast the top of the roof: a perfect platform for a high resolution 360ºphoto, if only I could get up there! I actually didn't even considertrying, as the answer to such questions is usually 'no'. My colleague, arather more enterprising Marketing guy, was able to smooth talk them intosaying 'yes'. Wow!After signing my life away to the construction company who was in charge ofthe construction site, I went up to the "top" of the tower - at least, thetop floor where tourists normally go when the place is not underconstruction. Then, stepping out of the window onto the scaffolding, anddescending another five floors on rickety ladders and boards sitting onpoles, hopefully bolted together with expertise. The whole thing swayedlightly in the wind. A rather terrifying experience, at least the firsttime. All the way to the top, above the spires of the tower, I attached myeight meter monopod to the scaffolding (with about 20 oversize zip ties, noless) and fired up my trusty camera robot, which would allow me to remotelymove and trigger the camera in preprogrammed positions. Read the rest

Jenny Odell is an artist and critic whose Bureau of Suspended Objects report on dropshipping (previously) was a fascinating dive into the weird, scammy world of crapgadgets and farcically poorly made fashion items sold through a network of "influencers" and turnkey ecommerce tool.Now, Odell has stumbled into a much weirder, much scammier, much murkier world, when she started investigating the parents of one of her Stanford students were receiving a steady stream of mysterious packages addressed to "Returns Department, Valley Fountain LLC."Odell's investigation revealed a bizarre network of shitty, overpriced off-brand gadgets sold through thousands of Amazon stores, as well as through a mostly empty "department store" right in the middle of Manhattan, as well as through a network of "book stores" that mostly sold crappy gadgets, whose proprietor kept on changing his name.This network is tied in with the religious cult that turned out to be the mysterious acquirers of Newsweek, whose subsequent shenanigans were revealed by Newsweek's own reporters, leading to police raids. This cult -- centered around Olivet University and an evangelical pastor named David Jang -- is also implicated in the International Business Times, as well as weird spam- and clickbait-mills.After Odell's extensive investigation, it's still not clear what, exactly, the fuck is going on with all these businesses, LLCs, storefronts, online storefronts, stock-art shoops, and other mysterious practices. What is clear is that someone is making a lot of money, somehow -- giant Manahattan department stores don't come cheap! Read the rest

It doesn't matter if you're an Onlie or a grup, these colorful textured plastic balls are fun to hold and squeeze. If moisture enters the small holes in the balls and results in black mold, they can be admired under a bell jar filled with an inert gas, preferably xenon. Read the rest

CCTV footage from a wave of after-hours robberies in Houston has birthed a viral sensation, thanks to the robbers' tactic of commando-crawling on the floor, which has led to them being dubbed the "inchworm bandits."It's possible they're doing this to avoid having their heights, gaits, and faces captured by security cameras, but it's also a fascinating piece of performance art.They’re almost certainly idiots, of course, because if they were any kind of geniuses they wouldn’t be robbing pizza places for a few hundred bucks a pop. And whatever else they are, they’re definitely crooks. But I don’t want to totally rule out the possibility that these guys knew exactly where the cameras were in the place they were robbing, and just decided to do a ninja crawl across the floor because they thought it’d be funny if it made the news.“Inchworm Bandits” Are Either Idiots or Comedy Geniuses [Kevin Underhill/Lowering the Bar] Read the rest

In 1982 the 8 bit world was rocked by the Commodore 64, or C64 home computer. For $60 you can relive the glory.Once the most popular home computer around, Commodore's C64 was an amazing follow-up to the Pet and the VIC-20. The games were fun, and there were a lot of them. I was an Apple ][ user for most of this time period, and I think Commodore users had more fun. The Amiga really kicked ass.Included are many games I'd love to go back and play again: Temple of Apshai, Impossible Mission, California Games, Boulder Dash. The list goes on, they've included 64 titles:64 built in games: Alleykat, Anarchy, The Arc of Yesod, Avenger, Battle Valley, Boulder Dash, Break Dance, California Games, Chip's Challenge, Coil Cop, Confuzion, Cosmic Causeway, Cyberdyne Warrior, Cybernoid, Cybernoid II, Deflektor, Destroyer, Everyone's a Wally, Firelord, Gateway to Apshai, Gribbly's Day Out, Heartland, Herobotix, Highway Encounter, Hunter's Moon, Hysteria, Impossible Mission, Impossible Mission II, IO, Jumpman, Jumpman 2, Mega-Apocalypse, Mission A.D., Monty on the Run, Netherworld, Nobby the Aardvark, Nodes of Yesod, Paradroid, Pitstop II, Ranarama, Robin of the Wood, Silicon Warrior, Skate Crazy, Skool Daze, Snare, Speedball, Speedball 2, Spindizzy, Street Sports Baseball, Street Sports Basketball, Street Sports Soccer, Summer Games II, Super Cycle, Sword of Fargoal, Temple of Apshai Trilogy, Thing on a Spring, Tower Toppler, Trailblazer, Uridium, West Bank, Who Dares Wins II, Winter Games, World Games, ZynapsHard to go too wrong for $60, but be forewarned the keyboard is decorative and typing has to be done via controller. Read the rest

A family of Armenian refugees have been sheltering in Bethel Church in The Hague for 27 days, avoiding a deportation order because officials are not legally permitted to interrupt a service -- and the church has been holding a nonstop, continuous service for the whole 27 days. The Tamrazyan family sought refuge in the Netherlands after the father's political activism led to death threats against him and his family. They were granted asylum, but this was struck down when the Dutch government appealed the asylum decision as part of a trend to attack immigration as a sop to far-right xenophobic elements in Dutch politics.The request to take in the Tamrazyans put the leadership of the church in an uncomfortable position because, as Hettema explains, no church should have to choose between respect for human dignity and respect for government. But in the end, he told his church community that he decided to welcome the family in order to stay true to “the openness and hospitality of the church.” Hettema says that the church doesn’t plan on ending the religious service any time soon, but he is hopeful the Minister of Migration, Mark Harbers, will use his “discretionary” powers to grant residency to the Tamrazyans, as he has done in the past for certain cases.A Dutch church has been conducting religious services for 27 days to protect a refugee family [Annabelle Timsit/Quartz](via Kottke) Read the rest

This marble run is at a playground called Monkey Town in the Netherlands. The creator says it has "4 tipping containers which can release up to 10,000 marbles in one go! If the biggest 2 containers (with 1000 and 10,000 marbles) are tipping at the same time, it creates a flood of 11,000 marbles!"Image: YouTube Read the rest

Once again, Comcast is repeating its annual tradition of hiking "broadcast TV" and "regional sports network" hidden fees at a rate far above inflation, typically raising them from $14.50 to $18.25/month, rise of about 25%. The majority of Comcast customers will see the increase on Jan 1, with remaining customers getting hit on a rolling basis as the year progresses. These fees are deceptively not listed in advertised Comcast rates and Comcast reserves the right to hike these prices even for accounts under contract.Comcast is also set to ratchet up prices on its $1.2 billion/year cable modem scam, in which customers pay many multiples of the purchase price to rent substandard, insecure modems as part of their cable package (Comcast also killed a FCC rule that would have forced them to allow us to buy our cable boxes rather than spending $200/year to rent an electricity-hungry, underpowered, insecure set-top box). The cable industry is the most hated in America and Comcast is the most hated company in America, and, incredibly, the rate at which people hate Comcast is increasing (people actually love their municipal, publicly owned ISPs, which Comcast is trying to eliminate).Comcast has abandoned rural customers to a life where access to networks -- and hence customers, suppliers, education, healthcare, and employment -- is third-rate and overpriced.Comcast's mom-and-pop competitors have called for antitrust enforcement against the company (weirdly, they are backed by Donald Trump in this call), without much action (so far). Comcast faced a class-action lawsuit over the TV and sports fees, but the company settled out of court in May. Read the rest

Prince's music videos are a lot more obscure than his catalog of 40 albums; he was ambivalent about the form and many of the videos he created were only released on VHS or interactive CD or as pop-up streams on his site; but recently Prince's estate released his whole video catalog in high-rez, prompting Prince superfan Anil Dash to write an appreciation that embeds the entire Prince video catalog.Now, the truth is, most of Prince's videos just aren't that great. Especially when considered in comparison to the sheer mind-boggling breadth of Prince's genius, or the groundbreaking video innovation of his pop contemporaries like Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and Madonna, the fact that Prince has fewer truly extraordinary music videos is a stark contrast. But as with all things Prince, when he was doing his best, there was absolutely nobody better.Here, then, is a look at all of Prince's music videos, in chronological order. Most of these writeups began as an ongoing Twitter thread that I've been updating as the estate released new videos (Questlove said it was worthy of his NYU class!) but here I've updated and expanded all the information on each video.Every Single Video Prince Ever Made [Anil Dash] Read the rest

I really do not know how to feel about Fuller House, but Kimmy Gibbler rules.I never intentionally 'watched' Full House, but I have been under the influence while it played on my television. This has happened enough times for me to know exactly what is going on, even at a mere glimpse of a new Fuller House episode.Appears to me like the Fuller House team is having an absolute blast. Read the rest

On January 15th, Google will disappear all Youtube annotations, which have lots of structural problems (spammy, don't work well on mobile or big screens), but which have been a font of creative inspiration that spawned whole genres of interactive Youtube projects, from games to interactive films to branching narrative adventures to musical experiments, to collaborative art projects to deep context and annotation. XOXO co-founder Andy "Waxy" Baio has produced a roundup of some of the greatest examples of creative and inspirational Youtube annotations, along with some preliminary steps you can take to export annotations before they disappear down the memory hole.From the moment that YouTube announced Annotations in June 2008, they were already proposing its use for the creation of games and interactive stories. The blog post links to this simple Shell Game video from May 14, 2008 as an example, quite likely the first YouTube game ever made.Annotations were particularly well-suited for choice-based Choose Your Own Adventures, stringing together a collection of videos that let viewers decide the story.The first I remember was Tube Adventures, a simple Spanish choose-your-own-adventure video. Terminator Interactive Game, a simple FPS by a 12-year-old boy, showing just how accessible these games were to create.Stupid Mario Brothers took a live-action, and occasionally NSFW, approach to the Mario franchise, while Choose A Different Ending took a more gritty approach.YouTube creators Chad, Matt & Rob pushed the genre further with a series of five interactive adventures: The Time Machine. Read the rest

Did you know that Rusty Blazenhoff, who writes for us here at Boing Boing, has a wonderful newsletter called Rusty's Electric Dreams? You can subscribe to it here. The current issue of the newsletter (which is guest edited by Doctor Popular) has a link to a hand-soldering guide from NASA. The photos are excellent. Here's the (large) PDF. Read the rest

Last year the New York Times ran Nazi sympathizer sympathizer article titled, A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland ("He is the Nazi sympathizer next door, polite and low-key..."). To make well-deserved fun of the Times, IntrepidFox produced a pitch perfect Times video parody, "A Voice of Hate on America's Internet," that sympathizes with Internet trolls. Read the rest

"Why can't you respect science as much as Maury Povich does?" It seems like a reasonable question, but these are unreasonable times. An unreasonable man has been put in charge. He refuses to listen to scientists or anyone else for that matter. Our planet is trying to kill us for what we've done with it. He carries on, regardless. It's an amazing, terrible thing to watch. Trevor Noah's got it nailed down. It might be funny, but man, it's hard to laugh. Read the rest

Here's how to open a Master Lock: 1) Buy an iPad. 2) Remove the iPad's stiff plastic protective wrapper. 3) Throw away the iPad. 4) Follow Bosnian Bill's instructions for making a lockpicking rake from the plastic wrapper. Image: Bosnian Bill/YouTube Read the rest

Boy, oh boy, if this Helios console could talk, it would have some serious stories to tell. Not only did Led Zeppelin use it to record their now-classic hit "Stairway to Heaven," but many other musical artists have recorded on it too. Now, it will be sold to the highest bidder (it's expected to fetch six-figures) at Bonhams upcoming December 11 auction in London. This mixing desk is particularly unique because it's actually a hybrid of two recording consoles that were combined in 1996 by Elvis Costello and Squeeze's Chris Difford.Bonhams: They used part of the Island Records Basing Street Studio 2 Helios Console (1970-1974) and part of Alvin Lee's Helios console from Space Studios (1973-1979).The two consoles were combined in 1996 after Difford and Costello acquired both from storage in order to set up their own studio HeliosCentric Studios 'which would be for everyone to use - a chapel of music in a quiet spot.' They sought advice from the original creator of Helios, Dick Swettenham, and carefully amalgamated the pair to create what is arguably one of Swettenham's first, last, and largest project.The newly combined console was installed on a peaceful farm in Rye that became a haven for musical artists and has been in constant use ever since. Artists who have used the console in both their original and amalgamated guises include: Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Stephen Stills, Jimi Hendrix, Mott The Hoople, Cat Stevens, Free, KT Tunstall, Athlete, Paolo Nutini, Sia, Olly Murrs, Dido, Pet Shop Boys, Scouting For Girls, David Bowie, Paul Weller, Mud, Gary Barlow, Supergrass and Keane. Read the rest

Ten years of austerity in the UK have produced a definitive answer to the question: does austerity drive economic growth? (Spoiler: No)The past decade has seen the UK dead last in advanced economies for wage growth -- the weakest decade for employee pay since the 19th Century! -- while executive pay has grown and grown, with the average CEO:worker pay ratio topping 1:150 (it was 1:20 in the 1980s).A new report commissioned by the UK Labour Party (the largest Labour Party in Europe!) from Sheffield University Emeritus Professor of Accounting Prem Sikka proposes a slate of reforms to curb executive pay and the toxic behavior it drives, such as abusing workers and cutting back on customer service, service delivery, and quality.The proposals include: making executive compensation public and publishing stats on gender- and race-based gaps in executive pay; ending stock-based compensation (which has been shown to incentivise financial engineering and short-term thinking) in favour of all-cash executive compensation; giving customers (and other stakeholders, including employees) a vote on executive compensation packages; and making executive compensation subject to annual, binding shareholder votes.The measures would only apply to companies with more than 250 workers -- about 7,000 UK firms, who collectively employ more than 10 million workers in the UK.Labour has not promised to adopt all of Prof Sikka's recommendations.The report suggests employees and other stakeholders should have a say in setting boardroom pay in order to “exert pressure for better distribution of income and improved quality of service for consumers”. Read the rest

Classic anime hit Cowboy Bebop is to become a live-action show at Netflix, reports The Hollywood Reporter.The live-action take tells a jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Fay Valentine and Radical Ed, a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system's most dangerous criminals. The Netflix series arrives as a live-action feature take starring Keanu Reeves has been toiling in development at Fox for nearly a decade.Produced by one of UK broadcaster ITV's studios. No cast yet. Read the rest

Say hello to Knickers, a 6'4" 3000-pound steer too big for the slaughterhouse to slaughter. Knickers will get to live out its natural life.The AP reports:The black-and-white Holstein Friesian won social media fame and many proclamations of “Holy Cow!” after photos surfaced of the 194-centimeter (6-foot-4-inch) steer standing head and shoulders above a herd of brown cattle in Western Australia state. ... Instead of becoming steaks and burgers, 7-year-old Knickers will get to live out his life in Pearson’s fields in Lake Preston, southwest of Perth. Read the rest

America's first national sports spectacle took place in 1823, when the North and South sent their best horses for a single dramatic race that came to symbolize the regional tensions of a changing nation. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Great Match Race, which laid the foundations of modern American thoroughbred racing.We'll also ponder a parasite's contribution to culture and puzzle over a misinformed criminal.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

The overwhelming clatter and presence of restaurant noise is thanks to the fashionable minimalism of modern decor. Kate Wagner (of McMansion Hell fame) writes that if you want a peaceful meal out, go somewhere with carpet and soft fittings.Restaurants are so loud because architects don’t design them to be quiet. Much of this shift in design boils down to changing conceptions of what makes a space seem upscale or luxurious, as well as evolving trends in food service. Right now, high-end surfaces connote luxury, such as the slate and wood of restaurants including The Osprey in Brooklyn or Atomix in Manhattan. ... The result is a loud space that renders speech unintelligible. Now that it’s so commonplace, the din of a loud restaurant is unavoidable. That’s bad for your health—and worse for the staff who works there. But it also degrades the thing that eating out is meant to culture: a shared social experience that rejuvenates, rather than harms, its participants. Read the rest

I thought I had seen it all but now there's this... the Digging Dog Butt Tissue Holder ($28). "Get laughs as you pull tissues from this diligently digging dog's behind."Oh, I will."Great way for a teacher, therapist, or salesperson to get smiles."Obviously.Surprise, it's just a square box of tissues under there! Read the rest

Ever wonder why, in this age of smartwatches and VR, we're still cluttering our desk with PC towers? If you need a home computer for the tasks, screen size and storage that a smartphone can't handle, the Ockel Sirius B Windows 10 32GB Pocket PC is here to save space, time and money.Simply put, it's a true PC for the portable age. Powered by an Intel processor, the Ockel Sirius B packs 4 GB of RAM, high-speed built-in WiFi and Bluetooth capability. Just plug in a monitor and input device and you're ready to go. And with a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, Micro SD card slot and AUX in/out, you've got plenty of options. And thanks to the fanless design, it's silent operation makes it perfect for holiday travel. Bring some movies and games and you've got entertainment wherever you can find a screen.Originally $349, the Ockel Sirius B Windows 10 32GB Pocket PC is now more than 25% off at $249. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Republicans are doomsday asteroid skeptics.

"The Devil Next Door," A&E's six-part documentary series on the alleged abuses at the Word of Faith Fellowship Church in North Carolina was scheduled to premiere Tuesday night at 10:00 PM EST. But at the last minute, the network yanked the series from its schedule. A spokesperson from A&E said producers were working on additional reporting but did not set a future broadcast date. On Twitter, a lawyer for the church accused A&E of paying some of the participants in series. A&E has run into this problem before. In 2016, their documentary series "Escaping the KKK" was canceled before it aired after it was discovered producers had paid some of the participants. The Word of Faith Fellowship Church was the subject of an investigation by the Associated Press, who called the church a cult. It was founded in 1979 by Jane Whaley, a former math teacher who considers herself to be a prophet. Allegations of physical and emotional abuse have been made by dozens of former members. (via Washington Post)(Photo: WLOS) Read the rest

Seattle-based guerilla artist April Soetarman writes she was "working through some sad feelings" when she made and hung her first sign, "I anonymously put it up in on a chain link fence in a public park in Seattle, ran away, and didn’t think about it." The signs she installs are fashioned to look like ordinary public signs but express feelings rather than actual warnings. She furthers, "Turns out people took photos, it ended up taking off online, and all of a sudden I was seeing reblogs and remixes and posts on strangers’ social media. Nobody knew it was me saying these things, which was very freeing, and very encouraging."Two years and many, many signs later, she is making some of her signs, including her most popular one ("ATTENTION: YOU ARE WONDERFUL AND DESERVE EVERY HAPPINESS"), available for purchase through Kickstarter. Prices start at $34. (swissmiss) Read the rest

Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith has defeated Democrat Mike Espy in the Mississippi Senate race. This brings the Senate count to 53 (R) — 47 (D).Mississippi, Goddam. The state just elected an openly white supremacist supporter of Donald Trump who unapologetically cracked a lynching joke about her Black and Democratic opponent. From the Washington Post's backgrounder on why the race was so important:No candidate received 50 percent of the vote in Mississippi’s Nov. 6 special Senate election, sending the top two vote-getters to a Nov. 27 runoff. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R), a former state official, was appointed to this Senate seat after Thad Cochran (R) resigned in the spring. She faces Democrat Mike Espy, who was an agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton. Republicans have already captured 52 Senate seats in the next Congress. Despite a series of campaign setbacks – she’s faced criticism for a Nov. 11 joke about attending a public hanging – Hyde-Smith is favored to make it 53. She only received 42 percent of the vote on Nov. 6 but was challenged on the right by another Republican, state Sen. Chris McDaniel. The two combined for 58 percent of the vote, compared with 41 percent for Espy. Mississippi hasn't elected a Democratic senator since the 1980s. Sen. Roger Wicker (R) easily won reelection on Nov. 6 in the state’s other Senate race.FILE PHOTOS, REUTERS: U.S. Senate candidate Mike Espy and U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) are seen in combination file photos, in Jackson, Mississippi.Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith prevails in Mississippi Senate race, despite ‘public hanging’ comment https://t.co/B4dcrBDdf3— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) November 28, 2018BREAKING: GOP US Sen. Read the rest

Climate change is why California is burning, and thousands of its citizens displaced, injured, or killed by the wildfires that spread with never-before-seen intensity. Says who?The just-released U.S. National Climate Assessment, which Donald Trump's own administration released, but which the president seems to believe is a work of fiction.The 2018 National Climate Assessment clearly links the rise of catastrophic wildfires with anthropogenic climate change. Just this month, 85 people died in the Northern California Camp Fire, which is finally 100% contained.That “firestorm” began on November 8, and raged with unprecedented speed, destroying nearly 14,000 homes and burning nearly 154,000 acres (62,000 hectares). That's a burn area roughly five times the size of the city of San Francisco.“There's questions about what's going to come back where that fire burned through,” John Abatzoglou, an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Idaho, told the New York Times. “Is it not going to regenerate as a forest? Are we going to see more grassland and shrublands?”We may be witnessing the permanent deforestation of large swaths of indigenous forest in the Great West.From an interactive feature by @PopovichN and @KendraWrites at @nytimes:A warmer world makes for a more combustible country. That’s the conclusion in the most comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change on the United States, released by the Trump administration just weeks after the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history.The report says the continued release of greenhouse gases from cars, factories and other sources will make fires more frequent, including very large fires that burn more than 12,400 acres. Read the rest

According to documents obtained by the Canadian Press, the Canadian government has been warning against investing in technology served up by state-owned companies as it's highly likely that the hardware could be used as a conduit for corporate espionage.From The Globe & Mail:The RCMP organized two workshops last March — one in Calgary, the other in Toronto — to raise awareness about threats to critical systems, including espionage and foreign interference, cyberattacks, terrorism and sabotage, newly disclosed documents show.Canadian Security Intelligence Service materials prepared for the workshops advise that “non-likeminded countries,” state-owned enterprises and affiliated companies are engaged in a global pursuit of technology and know-how driven by economic and military ambitions.The papers surrounding the RCMP and CSIS' warnings were heavily redacted: there's no mention of any specific countries that want to take a peek at what Canuck corporations have to offer. However, we've still got a good idea about some of what they were talking about. According to The Canadian Press, the document had a chunk of text in it pulled from a US government report that China and other competing countries have been swiping "hundreds of billions of dollars" worth of intellectual property every year. Additionally, back in 2016, CSIS warned Canadians that maybe allowing Huawei Technologies to have any part in the building of Canada's 5G telecommunications network might be a really bad idea. According to a number of intelligence sources, Huawei's ties to the Chinese government run deep.It's fun to be reminded that billion dollar concerns like tech and oil companies have just as much to worry about with phishing, sloppy security practices and other digital hazards as everyone else. Read the rest

Can one learn to look? According to street photography pioneer Henri Cartier-Bresson, the answer is, um, sex. (via PetaPixel) Read the rest

I can't believe this has to be said (again), but cyberpunk was meant as a warning, not a business plan.It turns out that you need very few identifiers to make a guess about who a person standing in front of a billboard is, especially when you can suck data out of their phones. Throw in data about how long you stand in front of a billboard and you've got metrics that advertisers can use to tune their campaigns. A year ago, researchers at Exodus Privacy identified dozens of trackers on smartphone apps that had collected massive amounts of information to better target advertising. Yale Privacy Lab replicated many of Exodus Privacy’s findings. Among the app researchers identified as having Cuebiq’s code signature was iHeartRadio, which is owned by Clear Channel.The iHeartRadio app isn’t the only one to include Cuebiq’s code, though it’s one of the most popular, with over 50 million downloads from Google Play alone. Because iHeartRadio contains code from Cuebiq’s software development kit (SDK), Cuebiq may be able to harvest user analytics, behavior, location, and other identifying information, which it could then resell to a partner.“The dirty work of crunching and providing the analytics is done by other companies they partner with, like Ubimo and Cuebiq. However, the iHeartRadio app, developed by another part of the same corporation, contains some of the same mobile app trackers these data launderers rely upon as a data source,” said O’Brien.IRL Ads Are Taking Scary Inspiration From Social Media [Yael Grauer/The New New](Image: St Martin's) Read the rest

The Instant Pot Ultra 6 Quart electric pressure cooker usually sells for about $150, and right now Amazon has it for a bit more than half that price. I use my Instant Pot a few times a week or more, and you can find tons of cookbooks with recipes designed for this versatile cooker. One thing a make a lot is chicken curry. I cut up two packs of chicken thighs (10 thighs), add them to a quart of chicken stock, a bag of baby carrots, a can of coconut cream, a tablespoon of salt, a lot of crushed garlic, a tablespoon of curry powder, and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. The meal takes 30 minutes to make. Read the rest

Last June, 18-year-old Daniel Fabian of Pasco County, Florida was playing Grand Theft Auto Online, when he informed the other players in his team chat that he was going to take a break to "smash" (have sex with) a 15-year-old girl.An unnamed player in that chat says he later heard a woman's voice say the word "no," and cries of "distress" through Fabian's mic, and called the police.This week, Fabian was arrested for "lewd and lascivious behavior" with an underage victim (there is another 2018 case against Fabian for the same charge, it's not clear if both cases relate to the same incident). Fox's report alleges that the console in question was a PlayStation 4, but it does not go into detail about whether Fabian's console included a PlayStation Eye camera—which can optionally function as a full-room listening device for in-game chat. Popular game-streaming sites like YouTube and Twitch do not immediately appear to have captured archives of the Grand Theft Auto Online session in question, in spite of PS4 consoles including a one-button way to capture and archive online-game audio and video.A hot PlayStation mic captures sounds of apparent rape, leads to arrest [Sam Machkovech/Ars Technica] Read the rest

A large boulder on Mt. Spantik in Pakistan tried to kill a man, but missed by an inch or two (that's 2.54cm or 5.08cm for our non-US readers).Image: YouTube Read the rest

[via BIOTV] Read the rest

Boing Boing pal and maker superhero Mitch Altman, creator of the amazing TV-B-Gone, spent several years designing a simple-yet-powerful DIY music synthesizer that he could use to teach creative electronics and also digital signal processing to kids and adults. The result is the ArduTouch Music Synthesizer! And it's only $30! Demo videos below. Mitch wrote about the method behind his maker madness in IEEE Spectrum. From his essay:As a kid with a lust for music, I was rocked by the Moog synthesizer sounds of 1968’s Switched-On Bach. I needed to learn how to make those sounds! Thus began a lifetime of learning and synthesizer making while I made my way in the tech industry, where I ultimately created the TV-B-Gone, a gadget that lets you turn off almost any model of remote-controlled television. Since the popular success of the TV-B-Gone, I’ve created many fun, open-source, hackable hardware kits for the maker workshops I give around the world. In these workshops, newbies learn to solder, tinkering their way into electronics and microcontrollers. Remembering my own youth, I wanted to provide them with a kit that was simple to assemble [PDF] and use but still a fully fledged music synthesizer.The result was the US $30 ArduTouch. This project incorporates, on a single board, a touch keyboard, an ATMega328P (the same processor used in the Arduino Uno), and an audio amp with a speaker. It also has a software library that can serve as an entry point into the world of digital signal processing. Read the rest

If you knew what all the initial conditions were before you flipped a coin, you could predict with 100% accuracy whether it would land heads or tails. In this video the Action Lab Man conducts a number of interesting demonstrations to show the difference between chaos and randomness. In short, random events are unpredictable, and chaotic events seem random because we can't calculate them. Read the rest

Back in 2005, I posted about Jäh Division, a Brooklyn dub consortium that covers Joy Division songs. They produced a very limited edition 12" titled "Dub Will Tear Us Apart" that they mostly sold at their live shows. Now, Jäh Division returns with a new LP that combines that original record along with five unreleased tracks. "Dub Will Tear Us Apart​.​.​.​Again" comes out January 25 in digital and vinyl formats. Listen to a selection of the tracks:Dub Will Tear Us Apart...Again by Jäh DivisionFrom their Bandcamp page:A supergroup born of Brooklyn’s early 21st century DIY scene, Jäh Division’s sole 2004 12-inch Dub Will Tear Us Apart earned them an instant infamy for their psychedelic dub interpretations of Joy Division classics. Featuring members of Home and Oneida and recorded in the literal shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge, Jäh Division grew from a joke between roommates Brad Truax and Barry London into a rolling improv collective that included members of Animal Collective and Oneida, among others. Expanded with 5 extra songs--3 from the original session, 2 from a scrapped album--Dub Will Tear Us Apart… Again is the sound of Manchester beamed into Brooklyn by way of the Black Ark, all linked by some intercosmic hook-up in the depths of Barry London's Space Echo tape loop. Recorded by the core Jäh Division quartet, the original release--part of Social Registry’s 12-inch series-- featured London on vintage keyboards, Truax on bass, Home’s Chris Millstein on drums, and Oneida’s Kid Millions on Barry’s collection of synth percussion, including trash-salvaged electronic drum pads, run through dubby delays and effects and a Farfisa reverb tank. Read the rest

In 1977, just a few months after Voyager 1 and 2 began their grand tour of the solar system, Carl Sagan gave the esteemed Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. You can watch them below via YouTube or at the Read the rest

In 1990, Pee-wee Herman recorded this delightful TV commercial for Japanese company Wako Securities. As we know, the following year, Pee-wee (aka Paul Reubens) was arrested for indecent exposure in an adult theater. From an Associated Press article at the time:″I know this may sound rude coming from a sponsor of his commercials, but he is not that famous in Japan, and the news doesn’t create as much of a fuss as in the United States,″ said Wako Securities Co. spokesman Yoshihei Nishimura.He said, however, that ″renewing the contract with him is unthinkable, given common sense″(via /r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

Ganbreeder uses a machine learning technique called Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to generate images that seem like photos, at least a first glance.GANs use a pair of networks, one of which produces data and the other classifies it; the "generator"'s goal is to get the "discriminator" to identify its data as belonging to a certain class (like a stop-sign, or a fingerprint), while the "discriminator"'s job is to successfully discriminate between real data and the synthetic data created by the generator.Ganbreeder uses a GAN to create creatures that appear to be objects of various types; you choose your favorite and the GAN produces a bunch of "children" for you to choose from, chasing down a rabbit-hole of weird, machine-learning found imagery. Fun!Ganbreeder(via Four Short Links) Read the rest

Stephen Hillenburg, who created the Nickelodeon megahit cartoon TV series “SpongeBob SquarePants,” died on Monday. He was 57.The cause of death was Amyotrophic Lateral Scleroris, or ALS, which Hillenburg said in March of 2017 he'd been diagnosed with.“We are incredibly saddened by the news that Steve Hillenburg has passed away following a battle with ALS,” Nickelodeon said in a statement. “He was a beloved friend and long-time creative partner to everyone at Nickelodeon, and our hearts go out to his entire family. Steve imbued ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ with a unique sense of humor and innocence that has brought joy to generations of kids and families everywhere. His utterly original characters and the world of Bikini Bottom will long stand as a reminder of the value of optimism, friendship and the limitless power of imagination.”From Variety:Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Planning and Interpretation, with an emphasis on marine resources. He then became a marine biology teacher at the Orange County Marine Institute (now the Ocean Institute) in Dana Point, California. This interest, combined with his artistic talent and love of the sea and its creatures, led him to write and illustrate stories as teaching tools with characters that would later become the denizens of SpongeBob’s home, Bikini Bottom.He began his animation career in 1987, pursuing a degree in Experimental Animation at the California Institute of Arts in Valencia and earning his Master of Fine Arts in 1992. Read the rest

Kids eat the darndest things. Dead flies, half-sucked candy found on the ground, erasers... and one of the most popular items, besides coins, are small toy parts. But once swallowed, do these toys always find their way out? And if so, how long does the journey take? These burning questions inspired a team of pediatrics workers to conduct a study, which was just published in The Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. They got six adventurous volunteers to dine on Lego heads, and then poke around after each potty run until they spotted the bright plastic pieces in their poop. Fun times.The researchers constructed the study with a sense of humor, using a Stool and Hardness Score (SHAT) and Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score. According to Forbes:Before they swallowed the Lego heads, each participant had to keep a 3‐day stool diary, which could be quite disconcerting if confused with a regular diary. The researchers developed a Stool Hardness and Transit (SHAT) score to measure the frequency and looseness of their stool. A higher SHAT score meant that the participant had more frequent and looser bowel movements, which could affect how fast the Lego head was you-know-what out of the person. Each patient has a pre-SHAT score, calculated for the 3-day period before the Lego head meal, and a SHAT score for the time between the ingestion and the pooping out of the Lego head. Thus, each participant was given 2 SHATs.After the Lego head was swallowed, the next step was to keep track of the subsequent bowel movements and keep looking for the Lego head. Read the rest

For framing innocent black men, a police chief in Florida will go to prison for three years. Impunity is the norm in America for cases like this, so the conviction is a big deal.Raimundo Atesiano, the former police chief of Biscayne Park, Florida, stands convicted of directing his officers to frame innocent men in a series of unsolved burglaries. He now admits he was trying to please white community leaders, and manipulate property crimes statistics in the town of 3,000 residents.From the Miami Herald:“When I took the job, I was not prepared,” Atesiano told a federal judge on Tuesday. “I made some very, very bad decisions.”His apologies did not sway U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore, who on Tuesday sentenced the 53-year-old former cop to three years in prison. He allowed Atesiano to remain free for two weeks before surrendering so he can care for his mother, who is dying of leukemia.In September, Atesiano pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge of depriving the three suspects of their civil rights because he and the officers charged them without a legal basis. Atesiano’s conspiracy conviction carried up to 10 years in prison.What about the three men who were falsely arrested in the criminal cops' conspiracy? Not much detail there, but hopefully they'll receive some form of restitution..mcclatchy-embed{position:relative;padding:40px 0 56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%}.mcclatchy-embed iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%} Read the rest

A crowdfunding campaign to cover security costs for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford raised $647,610 in two months, which far surpassed the initial goal of $150,000. The woman who stood up to Trump Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh says she will donate all the extra money to organizations that support survivors of trauma. But do go on about how she’s a gold-digging liar who fabricated the whole Kavanaugh thing for a payoff.In a statement posted on the fundraising site last week, Christine Blasey Ford says she's shutting down the GoFundMe that was launched in her name, and will donate the remaining money to trauma survivors.“With immense gratitude, I am closing this account to further contributions,” Ford wrote on the “Help Christine Blasey Ford” site that appeared last September. “All funds unused after completion of security expenditures will be donated to organizations that support trauma survivors. I am currently researching organizations where the funds can best be used. We will use this space to let you know when that process is complete.”I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty,” she wrote. “Having done so, I am in awe of the many women and men who have written me to share similar life experiences, and now have bravely shared their experience with friends and family, many for the first time. I send you my heartfelt love and support. I wish I could thank each and every one of you individually. Thank you.”She said that the funds raised onlin “allowed us to take reasonable steps to protect ourselves against frightening threats,” including paying for security services for herself and her family, and a home security system. Read the rest

The Supreme Court hearing on Pepper v Apple has not gone well for Apple; the Supremes are considering whether App Store customers are entitled to sue Apple over its monopoly control over the Ios App Store.The plaintiffs say that Apple's 30% commission and control over pricing (exerted through search ranking and other mechanisms) raise prices on apps, and that they should be entitled to sue Apple for the additional expense its customers bear due to this monopolistic control. The framing is important: since the Reagan era, US antitrust has been dominated by the "public harm" standard, which says that the only monopolies that matter are the ones that result in price increases for consumers -- all other forms of market domination are within bounds in this theory.Apple argues that whether or not the public is being harmed by elevated app pricing, the App Store customers don't have standing to sue. They cite a case called Illinois Brick, which concerned a brickworks cartel that conspired to raise prices on bricks that were sold to masons, who then passed the price-hikes on to consumers. In that case, the customers didn't have standing to sue the brick cartel, because they were buying their bricks through an intermediary.But App Store customers don't buy their apps from third parties (quite the contrary: Apple famously takes steps to prevent people from buying apps anywhere but its App Store), they buy them from Apple.It's always hard to say how the Supremes will rule, but based on the argument, it seems like Apple is likely to lose. Read the rest