Boing Boing

Special counsel Robert Mueller says Paul Manafort told ‘discernible lies,’ including about contacts with his longtime translator and fixer, Konstantin Kilimnik, an employee who is believed to have Russian intelligence ties. “Manafort told multiple discernible lies -- these were not instances of mere memory lapses,” Mueller’s prosecutors wrote.Here is the Mueller filing on Paul Manafort: [PDF LINK].In the document, filed today by the Special Counsel's office in federal court in Washington, Mueller says the former Trump campaign manager lied about:• Konstantin Kilimnik interactions• Kilimnik's participation in count two of superseding information• Wire transfer of funds to firm working for Manafort• Info that relates to another DOJ investigation (???)• Contact Manafort had with Trump admin officialsManafort is accused of lying to federal investigators (never a wise idea) when he told prosecutors he never tried to communicate to anyone in the Trump administration. But actually, the prosecutors say here, Manafort authorized someone to speak to an administration official on his behalf on May 26, 2018.Trump's response, and that of journalists and lawyers who know better below.Totally clears the President. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2018CNN nutshell: 1) Cohen & Trump criminal activity accusation by SDNY.2) More connection between Russia & Trumpworld than was known.3) Continued investigation of WH in 2017 & 2018.4) And Manafort lied about his contacts with the Trump administration. Which means they lied, too.— Karen DaltonBeninato (@kbeninato) December 7, 2018Mueller also says Manafort lied about his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate who the FBI has said was connected to Russian intelligence. Read the rest

This year, I helped University of Chicago science fiction writer and renaissance scholar Ada Palmer and science historian Adrian Johns host a series of interdisciplinary seminars on "Censorship, Information Control, & Revolutions in Information Technology from the Printing Press to the Internet." Thanks to our generous Kickstarter backers, we were able to raise money to pay for high-quality videography and closed captioning to make the videos beautiful and accessible. The first session is now online, with more to follow soon (they'll be on the seminar's channel). Read the rest

Jury finds James Fields found guilty on all 10 charges, including first degree murder of Heather Heyer.Never forget: Trump said they were 'very fine people.'During the 2017 racist rally in Charlottesville, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, and killed two of the anti-racism demonstrators his vehicle slammed into. This is what a court ruled today, in finding Fields guilty on Friday of murdering one of those victims. Her name was Heather Heyer.BREAKING: James Fields found guilty on all 10 counts, including 1st-degree murder, for ramming car into a group of peaceful counter-protesters following Charlottesville white nationalist rally in 2017.— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 7, 2018From the Daily Beast:Fields, 21, an Ohio native, was charged with first-degree murder last year following the hit-and-run attack, which killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured dozens other anti-racism protesters who ran counter to the “Unite the Right” rally. He was found guilty on that top charge.Fields was also found guilty on five counts of aggravated malicious wounding, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of failing to stop at an accident involving a death.All of this on top of the 30-count hate crime indictment brought against him by the Department of Justice.More here.James Fields’s fate is in the jury’s hands now, so let’s have a quick recap of the alt-right conspiracy theories and how this trial has exposed them all as desperate shams.— Emily G (@EmilyGorcenski) December 7, 2018James Fields has been found guilty on all counts, including first degree murder. Read the rest

Federal prosecutors in New York request a "substantial" prison sentence for Michael Cohen, who pled guilty to violating campaign finance laws. Sentencing guidelines suggest that could mean 46 to 63 months.The Southern District of New York's sentencing memo for the President's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen has been filed, and it is 30 pages long. READ IT HERE: [DOCUMENT LINK].Things are not looking bright for Michael Cohen, despite having cooperated with the federal investigation into Trump's activities. 'A substantial term of imprisonment is warranted,' writes the Southern District of New York.The guidelines from Michael Cohen's plea agreement call for a prison term of between 46 and 63 months.The real news right now is not about Cohen’s sentence. It is about the conclusion by federal prosecutors that Donald J. Trump has committed a serious felony.— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) December 7, 2018SDNY really not holding back here when it comes to Michael Cohen's sentence. pic.twitter.com/TWjS0EcwuY— Shawna Thomas (@Shawna) December 7, 2018This is new. Federal prosecutors have said for the first time in a court filing that Cohen committed campaign finance crimes "in coordination with and at the direction of" President Trump. pic.twitter.com/mOYvdMqHS7— Brad Heath (@bradheath) December 7, 2018Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have filed their sentencing memo on Michael Cohen.— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) December 7, 2018MUELLER says he "does not take a position with respect to a particular sentence to be imposed" for Cohen, says he has gone to "significant lengths" to assist the special counsel probe. Read the rest

Though he was also shot by the suspect in last month's attack at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Ca., Sgt. Ron Helu was killed by friendly fire during the shootout."We believe that Sgt. Helus was clearly not the intended target of the CHP officer -- which further illustrates the extreme situation both men faced."According to the county's chief medical examiner, Helus' initial wounds were survivable, but the sixth bullet proved deadly when it struck his heart.Previously. Read the rest

King Size "Pro" Sharpies are my go-to Sharpie.Whenever I need to leave a message for a friend inside of a public restroom or cover up some light colored stitching on a black garment, I reach for a King Size Pro Sharpie! The familiar chisel tip, mated with a honking big cylinder that fits your grip like sidewalk-chalk or window-wax, smells like fresh street art.This set comes with two black, one red and one blue marker. I usually keep a black in my travel bag, and the other in my desk pen tray.There is no marker as trusted in the world of "I need to trust my marker" as a Sharpie.Sharpie Pro King Size Permanent Marker via Amazon Read the rest

The Facebook-fueled anti-government protests in Paris, which began three weeks ago, starting off with a protest against high fuel taxes, look like something out of an intense apocalyptic movie. I'd only read about the "yellow jacket" protests and riots – the worst in 50 years – but did not realize the extent of violence that has taken over the Champs Élysées and surrounding neighborhoods. According to the BBC, "Tourist sites in Paris are to close on Saturday amid fears of further street violence."Across France, 89,000 police officers will be on duty and armoured vehicles will be deployed in the capital, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced.Paris police have urged shops and restaurants on the Champs-Elysees to shut and some museums will also be closed.🇬🇧 Due to the demonstrations that will be taking place in #Paris, I will remain closed to the public on Saturday 8 December. ⚠ Tomorrow, a particularly long waiting time is anticipated for visitors planning to buy tickets on-the-spot.▶ Stay informed: https://t.co/7LsKivpsFK pic.twitter.com/sxj86CLep0— La tour Eiffel (@LaTourEiffel) December 6, 2018 Read the rest

For the first time, we can hear the "sounds" of wind on Mars as captured by the scientific instruments on NASA's InSight robotic lander. From NASA:"Capturing this audio was an unplanned treat," said Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California...Two very sensitive sensors on the spacecraft detected these wind vibrations: an air pressure sensor inside the lander and a seismometer sitting on the lander's deck, awaiting deployment by InSight’s robotic arm. The two instruments recorded the wind noise in different ways. The air pressure sensor, part of the Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem (APSS), which will collect meteorological data, recorded these air vibrations directly. The seismometer recorded lander vibrations caused by the wind moving over the spacecraft's solar panels, which are each 7 feet (2.2 meters) in diameter and stick out from the sides of the lander like a giant pair of ears.image: "One of two Mars InSight's 7-foot (2.2 meter) wide solar panels was imaged by the lander's Instrument Deployment Camera, which is fixed to the elbow of its robotic arm." (NASA/JPL-Caltech) Read the rest

I'm heading to San Francisco next week for a launch party on December 11th celebrating the release of The End of Trust, a collaboration between EFF and McSweeney's on internet surveillance and the future of the net; the event is at 7:30PM at Manny’s at 3092 16th Street (RSVP here), and I'll be on a panel with EFF exec director Cindy Cohn, moderated by the amazing Annalee Newitz! Read the rest

Joel Bonasera liked my novel Walkaway so much that he made a 3D-printable bookmark based on Will Stahle's amazing cover art! Read the rest

Back when Livejournal purged its NSFW fanficcers and other text-based purveyors of delightful smut, users flocked to Dreamwidth, a small, indie, smut-tolerant community run as much as a labor of love as it is as a business.Both Dreamwidth and Pillowfort -- an Austin-based company that has some Tumblr-like features -- have seen massive influxes of users fleeing Tumblr in advance of the December 17 deadline for purging the Tumblr of smut.Both Dreamwidth and Pillowfort have far fewer resources than Tumblr, and sometimes experience outages or slowdowns. But there are other practical considerations that endanger these indie "lifeboat services." For example, they are reliant on payment processors like Paypal, content distribution networks like Cloudflare, and top-level domain administrators, all of whom operate in extremely concentrated environments where just a few companies dominate, and all of whom have shown themselves to be liable to cutting off customers in the face of widespread complaint campaigns. The far right has largely suffered as a result of this concentration, as the likes of Milo Yiannopoulos find themselves broke and excluded from any platform where they might find a voice or financial backing. But the right has figured out that this is a double-edged sword: gangs of right-wing creeps are outing sex workers to Paypal and the IRS to get their sources of payments cut off and then get them audited and financially ruined.The fragility of a service like Pillowfort or Dreamwidth makes them especially vulnerable to this kind of attack: when tens or hundreds of thousands of people depend on one or two people to keep their community online and thriving, any disruption to those two peoples' lives can take out the whole community. Read the rest

Elowan is a "plant-robot hybrid" that uses its own bio-electromechanical signaling to drive itself around toward light sources. From an explanation by researcher Harpreet Sareen and his colleagues at the MIT Media Lab: In this experimental setup, electrodes are inserted into the regions of interest (stems and ground, leaf and ground). The weak signals are then amplified and sent to the robot to trigger movements to respective directions.Such symbiotic interplay with the artificial could be extended further with exogenous extensions that provide nutrition, growth frameworks, and new defense mechanisms.Elowan: A plant-robot hybrid Read the rest

Kano is a Raspberry Pi based computer system. It comes with everything you need besides an HDMI monitor. I love the keyboard with the included trackpad. At this sale price, it's probably cheaper than separately buying a Raspberry Pi, a microSD card, a case, a keyboard and pointer, a power supply, and cables. Plus, Kano's Linux OS is packed with fun goodies. Read the rest

Yesterday, recreational marijuana became legal in Michigan. To celebrate, Lansing's weekly paper, City Pulse, handed out free joints in front of the capital. Spreading joy with such a simple gesture is a fun thing to watch. Read the rest

Watching this 1987 video of two Radio Shacks (one with Madonna music in the background) makes it clear that 30 years can be a long, long time ago. Prancing Skiltaire (the person who uploaded this video) said, "This was shot in Garden Grove, CA and Buena Park Mall, CA. The person who recorded was an employee working with a regional manager who was inspecting under performing Radio Shacks they were going to renovate." I was fascinated for all 15 minutes of this spellbinding video.Be sure to check out Prancing Skiltaire's other amazing videos, like the Equicon Costume Presentation (1988):And the first Furry Convention! (1989): Read the rest

What do you do if you want to complain about your job but your employer is the poster-child for surveillance capitalism? Buy a burner phone.As Facebook's internal tensions "boil over," Buzzfeed reports that the employees feel "under siege" after 600 days of bad news, and have resorted to using burner phones to talk to each other -- and the press.People are “hoping for a Sundar or Dara moment,” one former senior Facebook employee told BuzzFeed News, referring to past leadership changes at Google and Uber in which founding employees stepped aside from top jobs. A second senior employee echoed the view, suggesting that some inside the ranks are looking for a shakeup to come from the outside. The chatter has made its way outside of the company’s Menlo Park headquarters. “Senior people there know the only way out of this is by hiring a Dara,” a senior executive at a rival company told BuzzFeed News referring to Dara Khosrowshahi, the Uber CEO brought in to replace cofounder Travis Kalanick last year.Another former senior employee noted a growing sense of paranoia among current employees. “Now, people now have burner phones to talk shit about the company — not even to reporters, just to other employees,” they told BuzzFeed News.Mark Zuckerberg's Biggest Problem: Internal Tensions At Facebook Are Boiling Over [Ryan Mac and Charlie Warzel/Buzzfeed](via /.) Read the rest

In 2017, Pricewaterhousecooper published Using science fiction to explore business innovation, a guide for corporations that wanted to work with sf writers to think about the future of their businesses; it was part of a wave of corporate interest in the insights of sf writers, which also coincides with a parallel trend in academia (see, for example, ASU's Center for Science and the Imagination and UCSD's Clark Center for Human Imagination, both of which I have some involvement with). Some science fiction writers are now experiencing a small boom in consulting contracts, which often take the form of writing short stories (here's one I wrote for Intel) or participating in workshops. I've done a small amount of this work myself, and I've been getting more offers over the transom, including one this week, which I passed to my agent to negotiate; he told me that his other clients are also getting these gigs.I can't see any downside to this, to be honest. I recently spoke to a bunch of senior Audi people about the link between DRM and Dieselgate, and how a lack of competition in the corporate sector has led to market concentration, weak regulation, and a festering corruption problem. I don't know if the top management will take what I had to say to heart, but the people in the audience definitely connected, as I learned in speaking to them one to one afterwards.I don't think that science fiction is a very good way of predicting the future (I also don't think that the future can be predicted), but I do think that science fiction is a great way to influence the future. Read the rest

Sam and Simone realized they could build a house for the same amount they would have spent on a year's rent in Australia. So they did, in one of their parents' backyard. It looks great.From Living Big in a Tiny House:In this video, we discuss how they were able to construct their tiny house for such an affordable price and tips for building tiny houses for less. Especially in a country like Australia, where the material cost of building can be very high! As students of wildlife and environmental sciences, the couple now have plans to regenerate the property where the tiny house is parked. They are also using the tiny house as a base to launch a new online business. I hope you enjoy this full video tour of this stunning tiny home. Read the rest

I first learned about Liberator sex-furniture from the amazing sex-positive webcomic Oh Joy Sex Toy: the company makes foam wedges, half-spheres, pillows and even loungers that help couples (or more!) comfortably sustain sexual positions that might otherwise be difficult or impossible, whether due to a lack of athleticism or some kind of disability. What I didn't know was that Liberators are made by Luvu, the largest sex-furniture manufacturer in the USA, based in suburban Atlanta. Luvu is a fast-growing, profitable business that employs its workers full time and pays them three times what it would have to pay in China. Luvu works primarily with immigrants and recent graduates from addiction-recovery programs. They have an extensive in-house training program that gets new workers up to speed on CAD software and sewing technology.The company is committed to reducing manufacturing waste, and has launched a successful side-business that recycles offcuts of foam into bean bags and pool floats, and that business has grown so fast that it has absorbed all the waste from Luvu's own products, so the company now uses the waste of other furniture manufacturers as well.The company sources its materials locally, and enjoys a home-town advantage with US customers: shipping bulky items from China is less practical than shipping phones or other compact items. What's more, they have a discerning customer base who recognize the quality of Luvu's products and are willing to pay a premium for that quality.Not every company can operate like Luvu brands does. Read the rest

A British teenager, 19-year-old George Duke-Cohan, has been sent to jail for three years for emailing thousands of bomb hoaxes to schools. He had also called San Francisco Airport pretending to be the father of a girl on a United Airlines flight who contacted him to say her plane was being hijacked.According to NBC:George Duke-Cohan, 19, touched off panic in March 2018 when he emailed thousands of schools, warning about an explosive. The National Crime Agency says more than 400 schools were evacuated.He later caused a scare by telephoning San Francisco Airport and claiming his daughter had contacted him while on a United Airlines flight from Heathrow to say her plane had been hijacked.Here are more details, including audio of his convincing call to the San Francisco Airport, as well as bodycam footage of his arrest, by BBC. Read the rest

Qanon is an unbelievably stupid conspiracy theory whose underlying bullshittery is mathematically provable, and whose primary proponents are pallsy with the President, and whose adherents include mass-murderers whose crimes are linked to their belief in the Qanon conspiracy.Early on, person(s) behind Qanon made a bunch of very specific predictions that failed to come true, causing many to leave the cult. But Qanon learned from their mistake and has started to make much hazier, astrology-style pronouncements that leave sufficient leeway to allow virtually any event to be interpreted as proof of the prophetic insights of Qanon.An exception was a set of very detailed predictions for December 5, 2018, or #D5, which -- unsurprisingly -- also failed to come true. With the latest disappointment, many members of the Qanon cult are waking up to the fact that they got hoodwinked. Anthropologist Jennifer Raft, who writes about conspiracies, has addressed a set of remarks to these departing members, helping to ground them in what has happened to them while they were in the thrall of the cult.The short version: you got scammed, people gained both money and attention by scamming you, smart people are actually easy to scam because they form really good rationalizations and overestimate their own intelligence, and chances are, you helped scam other people.Not everyone will get out. Look at the Q Anon movement today. It’s still full of people—although less than there were at the beginning of the week—claiming that whatever hit the headlines proved his prophecies to be true, and demanding that everyone Trust the Plan and WWG1WGA, forever and ever, amen. Read the rest

Robbo writes, "Gerald Casale, founder of DEVO, has written an open letter in response to the band being inducted into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame."Casale was an SDS activist who was present at the Kent State massacre and who was friends with the students who were murdered by the National Guard there. He describes how his hope for an society that evolved toward a better world soured with the conviction that the world was devolving, thanks to the "encroaching fusion of technological advances with the centralized, authoritarian power of the state."Casale describes a 40-year career on the sidelines of America where "the capacity for critical thought and reasoning were eroding fast" thanks to right-wing dumbing-down, and the commodification of rebellion, right up to the 2016 election, with "our vile, venal Mobster-in-Chief (who makes Idiocracy’s Macho Camacho look fit for office) and his corrupt minions rob the nation’s coffers in a shamelessly cruel, Grab-'Em-By-The-Pussy Kleptocracy."He proposes that Devo was inducted into the Hall of Fame "because Western society seems locked in a death wish" -- they're "the house band on the Titanic."This is amazing stuff, especially played against Capital in the 21st Century, which describes the same phenomena in terms of capital flows: during the years when Casale was cultivating his belief in human progress, power and wealth were broadly distributed. The capital destruction of the World Wars had weakened the grip of the rich on policy outcomes, letting everyone else get a turn, with the result being a massive surge of innovation, prosperity and social programs to ensure inclusion. Read the rest

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who called Trump a "moron" while he was in office, from which he was later fired, has expressed some more choice thoughts on the president. Speaking to Bob Shieffer last night, which was aired on CBS, Tillerson said, "What was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented Exxon Mobil corporation, to go work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn't like to read, doesn't read briefing reports, doesn't like to get into the details of a lot of things..." He also said that Trump "acts on his instincts," which "in some respects looks like impulsiveness." WATCH: Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is speaking publicly about what led to his firing in March by President Trump.CBS News political contributor @bobschieffer interviewed Tillerson in Houston last night, at a dinner to benefit MD Anderson Cancer Center. pic.twitter.com/47qDqcsrMs— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) December 7, 2018Not seen in the clip above but mentioned in The Washington Post is that Tillerson then talked about "how Trump as president regularly attempted to do things that violated the law."“So often, the president would say, ‘Here’s what I want to do, and here’s how I want to do it,’ " Tillerson said, according to the Houston Chronicle, “and I would have to say to him, ‘Mr. President, I understand what you want to do, but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law.’ ”Tillerson also wasn't keen on Trump's use – and the American's love of – Twitter. Read the rest

Since the InSight robotic lander touched down on Mars last week, engineers have been putting its scientific instruments through their paces. This included extending the lander's 6 foot (2 meter) robotic arm that will be used to deploy instruments and take images of the Martian surface."Today we can see the first glimpses of our workspace," said mission principal investigator Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.People, these images are from the surface of Mars! MARS! NASA's Mars InSight Flexes Its Arm (NASA) Read the rest

Hey, remember those cops who ate a cannabis-infused chocolate bar that was supposed have been taken as evidence during a raid? Do you recall that they snarfed down their stolen snack while on duty and then proceeded to trip balls? Maybe the fact that they freaked out and called for police assistance--the sort of thing that the police normally do when they're in a life threatening situation--might ring a bell? OK, how about this: when their fellow officers responded, one slipped on the ice and was pretty badly injured as he tried to get to his distressed comrades. No? This link will jog your memory. Good to go? OK, buckle in: there's an update on their story.This past November, Constable Vittorio Dominelli pleaded guilty to attempting to obstruct justice and wants everyone to know that he's very, very sorry.From The CBC:Justice Mary Misener says Dominelli is a "complete idiot" for tampering with evidence.Crown attorney Philip Perlmutter, who read out an agreed statement of facts in court, says Dominelli took three hazelnut chocolate bars infused with cannabis oil from the raid.Perlmutter says Dominelli and another officer later ate one chocolate bar and became intoxicated in about 20 minutes, and eventually radioed for help.Const. Jamie Young and Dominelli allegedly assisted in the execution of a search warrant at Community Cannabis Clinic, a marijuana dispensary in the city's west end, in the early evening of Jan. 27.As a result of their poor judgement and inopportune snacking, Dominelli and Young both wound up facing multiple misconduct charges under the Police Services Act. Read the rest

As we know, the absurdly long CVS receipts are due to the rise of data mining and target marketing. A fellow from Lakewood, Ohio recently Tweeted his ingenious upcycling of one of those ridiculous receipts. From News 5 Cleveland:Andrew said he got the idea quite on accident – he bought a few items (less than 10, he said) from the Rocky River CVS, then laid the receipt out on his bedroom floor to take a picture of it to send to his friends.He came back later and actually thought the receipt was one of the blinds that had fallen on the floor. “…they’re cheap blinds so they fall off pretty often,” he said in a chat with News 5.“…and when I realized it was actually the receipt, I thought it would be funny to see if it fit in the window, and it happened to fit perfectly,” he said. Read the rest

Neti pot brain-amoeba deaths are like shark week: an incredibly rare event that commands outsize attention due to reactionary schadenfreude and the sheer horror of the victim's demise. Fox News:When a 69-year old Seattle woman had a seizure earlier this year, doctors at Swedish Medical Center thought she may have had a brain tumor. However during surgery, they discovered it was something much more unusual. ... Dr. Cobb says she most likely became infected by the amoeba after treating a common sinus problem with tap water.“We believe that she was using a device to irrigate her sinuses that some people use called a neti pot. It’s extremely important to use sterile saline or sterile water. I think she was using water that had been through a water filter and had been doing that for about a year previously,” Dr. Cobb said.The FDA isn't quite so stern, saying you can use tapwater to irrigate your sinuses if you boil it for at least 3 minutes and, of course, let it cool first. The CDC says you can use filtered tapwater, but only if you're using filters that are explicitly designed to remove germs. Most fridge and store-bought filters do not remove germs. My local water department handed out this fancy Zerowater model to householders during a local water quality scare here and I can recommend it, though it's slow to filter and the replacement filters are pricey. It also removes dissolved minerals, unlike most store brands, resulting in all the pros and cons of drinking soft water. Read the rest

A patient suffering from heart failure reportedly coughed up a huge blood clot that somehow retained the shape of the lung passages it had blocked. The Atlantic's Haley Weiss reports that "Doctors Aren’t Sure How This Even Came Out of a Patient"In Wieselthaler’s case, blood eventually broke out of his patient’s pulmonary network into the lower right lung, heading directly for the bronchial tree. After days of coughing up much smaller clots, Wieselthaler’s patient bore down on a longer, deeper cough and, relieved, spit out a large, oddly shaped clot, folded in on itself. Once Wieselthaler and his team carefully unfurled the bundle and laid it out, they found that the architecture of the airways had been retained so perfectly that they were able to identify it as the right bronchial tree based solely on the number of branches and their alignment.He died a few days later. I looked it up. Sorry. Read the rest

A couple of years ago, I was asked if I'd like to review the reMarkable tablet. If you're unfamiliar with it, the reMarkable is an E Ink slate and pen solution that provides a digital note taking and sketching solution that feels eerily close to writing on paper. I was excited to take it for a spin: despite the fact that I type for a living, my note taking and a good chunk of my writing is decidedly old school. So far, I've had no luck in finding any hardware solution that serves me better than a piece of paper and a fountain pen can. Unfortunately, at its release, the reMarkable wasn't all that remarkable. While the latency of the tablet's E Ink display and pen were close to non-existent, the rest of its software felt under baked. The UI was far from intuitive. It functioned as an e-reader, but only barely. While you could export what you'd written to a smartphone or computer, there was no way to edit the text once it was there. It felt like a slog to use. I asked a colleague in Canada if he'd like to give it a try. I mailed it out to him and, a few weeks later, it came back to me, marked not "deliverable." I didn't have time to ship it out again as I was preparing to spend several months on the road. I threw it into the back of my workspace's storage cupboard. It lurked there until today. Read the rest

Smokers on the go can breathe a little easier. With an innovative, easy-loading spiral design, the Twisty Glass Blunt offered a smoother, more consistent draw than conventional pipes. Now the Twisty Glass Mini delivers the benefits of its heavy-duty sister pipe in a more discreet package.For those that haven't already made the Twisty Glass Blunt their new smoking buddy, the Mini loads just as effortlessly. Just pack up to .5 grams of the tobacco of your choice into the tube, twist the screw and light up. The smoke travels through five chambers into a cherry that's a particular highlight of this model. (It's 50% smaller and therefore a cleaner hit.) It all adds up to a smoking experience as smooth as it is compact, and it cleans just as easily - just twist the screw out. Want an even more comfortable hit? The mini is compatible with your favorite water pipe.Right now, the Twisty Glass Mini is $39.99, more than 20% off the MSRP of $50.99. Read the rest

Ok, if you're old enough, you'll remember those cute vintage Chalkware ceramics they used to make to hang in the bathroom. There were a bunch of designs like anthropomorphic seashorses and fish, and mermaids. Well, California artist Erin Tinney Halverson of Hell in a Handbag is bringing them back. Her mermaids are especially cool because she custom paints tattoos on them. They're $79 each which may seem steep, but for the right person it would make an amazing gift. Thanks, Erik! Read the rest

Our very own Gareth Branwyn has made Artistic Licenses. He writes: "They sport ‘self-issuing technology.’ By breaking the wax seal, you are committing to act genuinely, think uniquely, express creatively, and to invoke your muses often.”Love it!If you’d like one (or more), email Gareth directly: garethb2@gmail.com. They are $5 each or five for $20 (postage paid).(MAKE) Read the rest

AlphaZero lost only 6 games to Stockfish in a 1000-game series, winning 155 games and drawing the rest. The crushing win sharpens the challenge of neural networks to traditional chess engines.What can computer chess fans conclude after reading these results? AlphaZero has solidfied its status as one of the elite chess players in the world. But the results are even more intriguing if you're following the ability of artificial intelligence to master general gameplay. According to the journal article, the updated AlphaZero algorithm is identical in three challenging games: chess, shogi, and go. This version of AlphaZero was able to beat the top computer players of all three games after just a few hours of self-training, starting from just the basic rules of the games.Another neural net-powered chess AI independently learned one of AlphaZero's distinctive strategies--advancing lone pawns to vulnerable but irritating positions in the endgame--suggesting that it might be "a critical winning strategy" for human players to emulate. Read the rest

And played in Kyoto. Read the rest

Hey, I started something new. When I'm not blogging for Boing Boing or publishing my inbox zine, I'm busy crafting ways to take over the world. I mean, I'm busy trying to think of fun side hustles for myself. The first "hustle" out of the gate is Chicken Dinner Prize Co, a site I whipped together that sells award ribbons for grownups. Yes, I know there are other sites that make similar items but they all seemed to be geared to millennials. I thought it would be fun to make award ribbons for grownups like me, i.e. the more "middle-aged but still full of childlike mirth" variety. Since it's December, I decided to start with holiday-themed ribbons. I missed out on Hanukkah because it was so early again this year. But I was able to get out some Christmas ones. In the photo, you'll see the "Naughty," and "Nice," as well as "Log Off." I thought it would be amusing to hang one or the other (both?) on someone's stocking and have them discover it. I also thought they could be used as fancy gift tags or even bookmarks. I also made a ribbon with a saying my 14-year-old daughter SJ thought of: "Drunk on Eggnog." We both thought was funny. The final one speaks to that line between naughty and nice, "Nice-ish." I'll be making more (non-holiday) ribbons in near future. I have TONS of ideas ("I survived my mid-life crisis!" with clipart of a dumpster fire, for instance). Read the rest

“Added some epic wings to accompany my previous Perler Bead Armor set,” says Cosplay Amy. Holy cow this is beautiful and extremely committed. It's so gorgeous.Amy continues:Wings are made from 160 individually ironed “feathers” which are ironed flat and sewn onto a large piece of EVA Foam. I used PVC pipe to support the wings due to the fact that each side weighed 7+ lbs.More photos and videos on Instagram: @Cosplamy. If you like her work, donate to her cosplay fund! These fabulous outfits don't grow on trees, unfortunately. View this post on Instagram A side view of the wings with them closed to a 45 angle. I think I’m gonna try these wings on with my Perler Armor tomorrow 🤔 #perlerbeads #perler #pixel #pixelart #wing #cosplayA post shared by Amy Cosplay (@cosplamy) on Dec 1, 2018 at 5:33pm PST View this post on Instagram Hey insta it’s been a while. I’m back at it with the perler beads again 😂 Wings are made from 160 individually ironed and sewn feathers and they weigh over 14 pounds! The shirt was designed with holes in the seams so that the harness holding the wings is not visible from the front. This look was inspired by @katyperry what do you think? #perlerbeads #perler #fusebeads #pixel #pixelart #perlerart #katyperry #cosplay #wingsA post shared by Amy Cosplay (@cosplamy) on Nov 26, 2018 at 3:04pm PST [via] Read the rest

CNN's Brian Stelter is reporting that a bomb threat has led to the evacuation of CNN's NYC offices. The threat came during Don Lemon's show and the network is currently airing recorded programming. In what is sure to be a complete and total coincidence, the threat came around the same time as this tweet from President Trump.UPDATE: All-clear has been given by the NYPD and employees are returning to their offices. The bomb threat was called into CNN at 9:47 PM and mentioned there were five devices in the building. .⁦@CNN⁩ is back on the air live with ⁦@donlemon⁩ and ⁦@brianstelter⁩ pic.twitter.com/wWfB3TYlVq— Brian Steinberg (@bristei) December 7, 2018The phoned threat to CNN was made at 9:47p ET, according to Turner Security— Ram Ramgopal (@RamCNN) December 7, 2018Before Trump's tweet. https://t.co/cGqkYL5ZUl— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) December 7, 2018Jeff Zucker addressed tonight’s bomb threat in a note to employees: pic.twitter.com/KbBvqmxO6D— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) December 7, 2018#BREAKING UPDATE: NYPD gives all clear after CNN office in Columbus Circle was evacuated after bomb threat was called in moments after Trump's 'fake news' tweet https://t.co/LtgWtqZ5tH pic.twitter.com/1UTxxRZx78— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) December 7, 2018(Photo: David Shankbone/Wikimedia CC BY 2.5) Read the rest

Remember when Malcolm Turnbull, the goddamned idiot who was briefly Prime Minister of Australia, was told that the laws of mathematics mean that there was no way to make a cryptography system that was weak enough that the cops could use to spy on bad guys, but strong enough that the bad guys couldn't use it to spy on cops, and he said: "Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia."He added: "I’m not a cryptographer, but what we are seeking to do is to secure their assistance. They have to face up to their responsibility. They can’t just wash their hands of it and say it’s got nothing to do with them."Malcolm Turnbull lost his job, though not for saying this goddamned idiotic thing. This goddamned idiotic thing has continued to fester in Australian politics, until today, when the pustule ruptured and Parliament sat down and voted to make the laws of Australia prevail over the laws of mathematics.Good luck with that.Under the new rule, cops can get court orders that will require tech companies to backdoor their encryption, serve malware, or do whatever else it takes to decrypt subjects' messages, even if those messages are so well encrypted that it would take more computational cycles than can be wrung out of all the matter in the universe to brute-force the key. Read the rest

Maybe it's because I'm not doing any of the work myself, or perhaps how serene all of the craftsmen involved in the project seem to be, but this 25-minute video of a traditional Finnish log house being built, from soup to nuts, is one of the most relaxing bits of video that I've watched in weeks. Read the rest

I'm a lifelong fan of Fleetwood Mac's California cocaine trilogy of Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Tusk. In the new 150th episode of Hrishikesh Hirway's excellent Song Exploder podcast, Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham (who the band recently booted out after 44 years) deconstructs the emotional mindset-- it's about his tumultuous relationship with Stevie Nicks -- and brilliant musicianship behind the 1977 classic "You Can Go Your Own Way" from Rumors. Listen below.Also announced in this episode, the wonderful Thao Nguyen of Thao & The Get Down Stay Down will take over as Song Exploder's host in 2019! Congrats Thao! Read the rest

The British press treat their Royal Family like a soap opera, complete with catfighting sisters-in-law, feuding brothers separating their lives, and an impatient heir to the throne, so it’s hard to fault the American tabloids for running with the soap opera theme – and doing it better.“William Seizes Throne – from murderer Charles!” screams the Globe cover. No, the Queen hasn’t died, and Prince William hasn’t launched a Palace coup to kill his father (Charles is branded a “murderer” by the tabloids for allegedly masterminding the death of Princess Diana.) William reportedly presented the Queen with "a damning new dossier of evidence” proving that Charles had ordered Diana killed. Considering all the trouble Diana was causing for the Royal Family after her split from Charles, you’d imagine the Queen might have welcomed such initiative on the part of her son. But no. The Globe claims that Her Majesty, believing the first piece of paper set in front of her, “ordered Charles cut out of succession to the throne.”There’s only one teeny tiny problem with this soap opera script: The Queen doesn’t get to choose her successor. This isn’t Saudi Arabia, and Prince William isn’t MBS. The Queen is obliged to adhere to The 1701 Act of Settlement, which requires by law that the monarch’s successor must be their immediate heir – and a Protestant, to boot. As long as he’s alive, that successor will be Charles. Sorry to let the facts get in the way of a good fantasy, but full marks to the Globe for imagination. Read the rest

National Geographic’s Almanac 2019 is a fun, illustrative guide to the natural world and breakthrough sciences and, with 400 pages of stunning, evocative images, celebrates some of the most amazing places, events, and facts about Earth’s history. Opening to a random page you may be surprised with the lifecycle of tardigrades, the logistics of eating insects, or the history of Timbuktu; for someone who enjoys picking up facts about niche subjects, this book satisfies any wandering impulses or curiosities they may have. The almanac doesn’t go into exhaustive detail about any one topic but covers an incredible range of scientific concepts, processes, and findings. The text is paired with amazing photographs and fun infographics, providing visual learners or less scientifically savvy readers with easy ways of understanding intricate ideas and data. It is effortless and enjoyable to learn from this book, especially since you can thumb through to any page, find an interesting topic or image, and dive right in. Anybody interested in facts and photographs of the natural world and sciences will love this book, simply because it covers a little bit of everything. A larger coffee table book, Space Atlas, Second Edition: Mapping the Universe and Beyond refines the scope of topics to space and astronomy. Full of charts, maps, and stunning photographs, the Space Atlas is a deeply informative and beautiful book. It is well-bound and lays flat so no small details are lost in the binding, which is important when looking at a two-page spread of a planet or trying to read the names of peaks, valleys, and craters on a moon. Read the rest

I'm very sad to hear that Pete Shelley, leader of The Buzzcocks, died of a heart attack today. He was 63.From The Guardian:The band formed part of the UK’s punk scene and have been closely associated with it ever since. Speaking later about his views on music, Shelley told the Guardian: “I’m not interested in being able to play. A musician is like another brand of entertainer.“There are plenty of musicians that I enjoy watching that are entertainers. But I wouldn’t want to be that, because the thing with an entertainer is that there is always that dishonesty, which is what punk tried to get rid of. It was like, you’re not pretending to be something you are not. You are just what you are. Punk is an art of action. It’s about deciding to do something and then going out and doing it.”Fellow artists paid tribute to Shelley after the news of his death was confirmed on Thursday. The author Neil Gaiman tweeted: “Part of my youth dies with him. RIP Pete Shelley.”It's with great sadness that we confirm the death of Pete Shelley, one of the UK's most influential and prolific songwriters and co-founder of the seminal original punk band Buzzcocks.— Buzzcocks (@Buzzcocks) December 6, 2018Pete Shelley wrote perfect three minute pop songs. The soundtrack to being a teenager. You’ll be missed Pete but you’ll be remembered for a long long time for your brilliant music https://t.co/bt03fGbcgd— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) December 6, 2018I am totally shocked and saddened to just hear of the untimely death of Pete Shelley. Read the rest

As his title indicates, Harvard astronomy department chairman Avi Loeb is an extremely credentialed astronomer. So when he asserted that an object currently passing through our solar system might just be the product of an alien intelligence - eyebrows went up. He made this argument in a scientific paper published on the 12th of this month, in the Astrophysical Journal, which is one of the top research publications in all of astronomy.I got wind of this paper before its official release date, and reached out to Avi. And we ended up having the longest and most in-depth interview he’s given on this fascinating topic thus far. You can hear our full conversation by clicking below:Avi’s generous availability delighted me, Because like anything connected to aliens, this story has Inevitably led to an avalanche of sound bites and clickbait.It’s also triggered a fair amount of controversy amongst professional astronomers. The negative reactions have ranged from skepticism, to something verging on … moral outrage. But adversarial debate is one of the key mechanisms by which science advances. There have been periods stretching for decades when the field of astronomy was divided over some of the most basic aspects of the cosmos. Is the universe expanding? Was there, or was there not a Big Bang? Are black holes a thing – or just a theoretical toy? Great minds lined up on opposite sides of these questions for large proportions of their careers.Luckily we won't have to spend quite so long on the edge of our seats, because the debate Avi has triggered has a sell-by date. Read the rest

The BACU Association -- the folks behind the incredible brutalist Socialist Modernism Tumblr -- have announced a limited run, 800-copy book collecting photos and details on 242 Socialist Modernist "objects" in Romania and the Republic of Moldova.The book is in Romanian and English, and costs €64.30 with worldwide shipping (slightly cheaper in the EU). I've ordered a copy!As a result of B.A.C.U. Association’s efforts to publish the Socialist Modernist research, we are happy toannounce that the first Architectural Guide of many others to follow, and our second publication, entitled”Socialist Modernist Architecture – Romania and the Republic of Moldova” will be available starting December1st, in 800 copies. The 242 architecture objects included in this volume have been organized by function,into eight sections. At the beginning of each section, a map shows the location of each of the buildingsdescribed. The authors’ viewpoints and assessments make this volume a surprising incursion into the historyof architecture.Architectural guide – Socialist Modernist Architecture – Romania and the Republic of Moldova [BACU] Read the rest

Liartown, USA is Sean Tejaratchi's (previously) incredible, longrunning visual surreal satire site, and it is the latest casualty of parent company Verizon's decision to purge the site of all NSFW content effective Dec 17.Tejaratchi writes, "I expect many posts will no longer be visible, and I’ve already noticed nonsexual material is being flagged. I wouldn’t bet on much being left up." He's going to leave his archive intact, but has few hopes it, and will not be adding to it (he's exploring the possibility of setting it up somewhere else).But it's not all bad news: Tejaratchi has also announced a new 544 page book celebrating his incredible found-art collage zine Crap Hound (previously), to be published by Feral House before next fall: it's a collection of unhappy people in bad situations. I didn’t want to make an anthology, so this book will basically be an enormous, horizontal tenth issue devoted to images notable for their lack of positivity. There will be men, women, children, and even pets in states of confusion, pain, fear, stress, anger, embarrassment, sorrow, depression, and frustration. There’ll be headaches, upset stomachs, storms, earthquakes, fires, floods, vehicular collisions, weight issues, drugs, suicide, murder, execution & punishment, atomic bombs, unemployment, riots, injuries, falls, fistfights, tantrums, and the silent, nocturnal shame of bedwetting. I’m including accessories (syringes, knives, pills, crutches, splints, etc.), and imminent unhappiness (e.g. roller skates on stairs and overloaded electrical sockets). From the tearful sting of a scraped knee to the ominous shadow of impending planetary doom, you can expect a rich tapestry of trouble. Read the rest

Nicole says: "Today's all-new episode of Vox Media's 'Consider It,' kicks off with Stephen Miller's uncle, David Glosser, who says that if his dead grandfather were to hear about his nephew's immigration policies 'he'd be spinning in his grave.'" Read the rest

Boing Boing pal Laura Hudson is helming a new project at The Verge called "Better Worlds," an anthology of ten science fiction stories written by diverse authors; half of them have been adapted as animations and the other half have been turned into audiobooks; all are explicitly optimistic, inspired by anthologies like Hieroglyph (which featured my award-winning novella The Man Who Sold the Moon).Hudson has a great working definition of the kind of optimism she's after: "The stories of Better Worlds are not intended to be conflict-free utopias or Pollyanna-ish paeans about how tech will solve everything; many are set in societies where people face challenges, sometimes life-threatening ones. But all of them imagine worlds where technology has made life better and not worse, and characters find a throughline of hope."The series launches January 14th.Better Worlds is partly inspired by Stephenson’s fiction anthology Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future as well as Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, a 2015 “visionary fiction” anthology that is written by a diverse array of social activists and edited by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown. Their premise was simple: whenever we imagine a more equitable, sustainable, or humane world, we are producing speculative fiction, and this creates a “vital space” that is essential to forward progress.Announcing Better Worlds: a science fiction project about hope [The Verge](via Four Short Links) Read the rest

Don't let this kitten's cute and fluffy appearance fool you. Every time the wildlife official from the Center for Biological Diversity tries to cut the cage open to set the young bobcat free, he lunges, tries to bite the rescuer's hand off, and makes demonic sounds reminiscent of the possessed Regan from The Exorcist.The wild kitten, named Murderbritches by the Center, had been killing chickens before being relocated back into the wild. Read the rest