Somewhere in New Zealand, a seven-year-old boy had an idea to celebrate the spirit of the wolf. His mom shared it on Facebook. And over the course of just a few days, thousands of people, many desperate for something happy after a miserable week, joined the call to celebration.This is Wolfenoot.A holiday where we get presents and feast on roasted meat and cake for being kind to dogs? YES, PLEASE.I first heard of Woolfenoot when a friend shared author Jax Goss's Facebook post, and joined the enthusiastic chorus of people planning their Woolfenoot feasts. I reached out to Jax through Twitter to ask how her son created Wolfenoot. There's not a huge amount of background really. I have a very imaginative child who is always coming up with stuff like this. I've been posting the crazy awesome and weird things he says for as long as he's been saying things. ;) This one just exploded.I'm not sure where he got this from, to be honest. When I asked him, he said "from my brain". Hehe. Very helpful that. ;) But I am a writer, editor and publisher. I am also a folklore nerd, so he has grown up in a house with a lot of books and stories and fairytales. I have a masters in children's literature, so there are stacks of books in our house. He reads avidly - well above his age level. I think maybe just growing up among all that story has kinda seeped into his brain. Read the rest

Slab City is a curious community in the Sonoran Desert about 150 miles northeast of San Diego. Formerly a World War II Marine Corps base, it's now home to around 150 off-the-grid squatters and thousands of temporary campers and RV owners who wait out the winter months before continuing their journeys. The name comes from the concrete remnants of the military base. Author and architect Charlie Hailey and photographer Donovan Wylie documented the anarchic living and structural scene in their new book "Slab City: Dispatches from the Last Free Place." The pictures are a compelling and provocative view inside this not-so-temporary autonomous zone that embodies a curious kind of liberty for its diverse inhabitants. From an interview in Smithsonian:What were some of the more interesting dwellings that you saw?Wiley: [The dwellings] were all so autonomous and each had its own individuality, which in itself makes them interesting. The structures were people; they revealed the people and the place and were all very different and fascinating. [Being there] really made me question the idea of what being free is, and what it means in terms of American mythology, the desert, expansion and history.Hailey: The scale of construction ranged from a piece of cardboard on the ground placed within a creosote bush to these large telephone structures to pallet structures that were two stories tall. Each one expressed what that particular person wanted to make them, but then against restraint of what resources were there and what nature would allow. Read the rest

These senior citizens have a message for the young folks in America: "Don't vote."This country belongs to whomever shows up. And do you know who shows up for every election? Old people. But only 46% of people 18-34 years old voted in the last election.So the elderly have a disproportionate influence on our politics and our country. And a lot of them would like to keep it that way.Message heard loud and clear, and I'm not even that young.Are you registered to vote?(Daring Fireball) Read the rest

In 1991, Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (aka Moebius) and a team of animators created this gorgeous short pilot for a film called Starwatcher. According to this Wired feature that Mark wrote in 1994, "Starwatcher was slated to be the first feature-length animated movie to be made with 3-D computer graphics. But the film's producer died in a car accident, and shortly thereafter it was discovered that the French production company bankrolling the film was FF85 million (US$15 million) in debt. (Many suspected the car accident was no accident.)" Read the rest

Raising baby corals is a labor-intensive process that requires gathering the babies at the moment the corals spawn in the wild. Scientists compete with fish that feast on the babies, netting the gametes and planulae, then caring for them in a lab until they can be planted on the ocean floor.Via bioGraphic:Over the past two decades, Chamberland and other scientists throughout the Caribbean—many of them now associated with a research and conservation group called SECORE, which stands for Sexual Coral Reproduction—have stubbornly advanced the art and science of raising coral babies. Through trial and error, these researchers have learned to better predict the quiet, hidden phenomenon of coral spawning, to fertilize coral eggs in the lab, and to foster young corals until they’re ready to grow in the open sea, on a living reef.Newborn corals are, in their way, as high-maintenance and idiosyncratic as their human counterparts, and the process of raising and releasing them, formally known as “assisted recruitment,” is full of frustrations and disappointments. Thanks to some recent successes and to rising interest from conservationists, however, the job is becoming easier and cheaper. As coral scientist Raphael Ritson-Williams explains, corals are like the buildings of a city, supplying apartments and restaurants, so preserving these living structures allows a city of creatures to thrive:• How to Raise Baby Corals (YouTube / bioGraphic) Read the rest

When it comes to the relatively new world of 3D printing, the possibilities are limitless - so much so that it's hard to know where to begin. So here's a good start: The CAD & 3D Printing eBook Bundle By Make:. Since 2005, Make: Magazine has been the primary resource for that particularly techie group of artists and artisans known as Makers. This new eBook bundle distills the best tips from Makers worldwide into a library that will get you inspired from the moment you get that printer or CAD machine out of the box.Beginners guides will take you through your first fabrications, and you'll quickly move on tackle "best of" projects from the Make: archives and learn your way around time-saving modeling tools like Fusion 360.Whether your aim is art, commerce or both, the ideas in this library will take you there. Pick up The CAD & 3D Printing eBook Bundle By Make: on sale now for $19.99. Read the rest

Funko has introduced a new two-pack of Pop! figures, except that one doesn't exist. In a brilliant and hilarious move, Funko is selling a Pop! of Jan Brady (holding a rotary phone, no less) next to an empty space representing her imaginary beau, George Glass. The limited edition pair will be available at Funko's booth at New York Comic-Con, which happens October 4-7, 2018. It will also be available at Books A Million."But I do have a boyfriend..." Read the rest

Idiots in Cars is my new favorite subreddit. It's more focused on a specific form of amusing (from the comfort of home) motoring nightmare than the usual grab-bag of dashcam tedium and rekt road horror. But it's not so focused that you lose interest after the first few videos.Here's a good one:Here, the driver of a truck selects the wrong motorist to cut off and brake check:Instant karmaI have saved the best until last:This dickhead refused to just let his truck get towed. from r/IdiotsInCars Read the rest

The legendary Willie Nelson supported Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke Saturday night by playing at his rally. In a song, Nelson urged rally-goers to "Vote'em Out.""If you don't like who's in there, vote 'em outThat's what Election Day's all about,The biggest gun we got is called the ballot boxIt sure is! Texas readers, are you registered to vote?Previously: After the debate, Beto O'Rourke air drummed to The Who at a Whataburger drive-thru Read the rest

Beach WeekFrom Boing Boing, the free encyclopediaBeach Week is a 2018 black comedy film written, produced, edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Stephen Root, Josh Brolin and J. K. Simmons with William Zabka as Jeff Flake. It was released in the United States on September 28, 2018, and in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2018.Beach WeekTheatrical release posterWritten and Directed byJoel CoenEthan CoenStarringGeorge ClooneyFrances McDormandTilda SwintonBrad PittRelease dateSeptember 30, 2018 (2018-09-12) (United States)Budget$420,000 Box office$50,375,838 LegerdemainRob BeschizzaBoing BoingPlotRepublican leader Mitch McConnell (Gary Oldman) has a difficult relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump (Stephen Root), whose incompetence and sheer vulgarity has made the party deeply unpopular. Looming midterm elections are expected to favor Democrats in a landslide, but the retirement of a Supreme Court justice presents a last opportunity for the GOP to remake America's political landscape for decades to come. The party leadership is concerned that their ideal nominee, Amy Barrett (Tilda Swinton), is too conservative to pass muster with a closely-divided Senate. So top GOP aide George (George Clooney) concocts a plan to nominate a stalking horse candidate, Brett Kavanaugh (Brad Pitt) who party chiefs know to have a dark and disqualifying past. Read the rest

The deeply missed Robin Williams will have some of his best work commemorated in a massive 22-disc box set called Robin Williams: Comic Genius. Produced by Time-Life, the set includes all five of Williams' HBO specials, his best talk and late-night show appearances, 11 episodes of Mork & Mindy, the 2018 HBO Documentary Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind and so much more. Seriously, there is a TON of material in this set. Complete details and ordering information are available on Time-Life's website. Here's the preview: Read the rest

The conservative Washington Times has issued a retraction and apology in today's edition to Aaron Rich, the brother of murdered Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Aaron Rich sued the paper after it published an editorial this past March that suggested he had downloaded emails from DNC servers and turned them over to Wikileaks in exchange for money. The retraction and apology are part of a settlement, according to Rich's lawyer Michael Gottlieb.From The Washington Times: The Washington Times published an op-ed column titled, “More cover-up questions: The curious murder of Seth Rich poses questions that just won’t stay under the official rug,” by Adm. James Lyons (Ret.) (the “Column”), on March 1 online and on March 2 in its paper editions. The Column included statements about Aaron Rich, the brother of former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, that we now believe to be false.One such statement was that: “Interestingly, it is well known in the intelligence circles that Seth Rich and his brother, Aaron Rich, downloaded the DNC emails and was paid by Wikileaks for that information.” The Washington Times now does not have any basis to believe any part of that statement to be true, and The Washington Times retracts it in its entirety.The Column also stated: “Also, why hasn’t Aaron Rich been interviewed [by law enforcement], and where is he?” The Washington Times understands that law enforcement officials have interviewed Mr. Rich and that he has cooperated with their investigation. The Washington Times did not intend to imply that Mr. Read the rest

Ajit Pai called it "illegal." EFF called it "the strongest Net Neutrality measure in the country." The telecoms companies got their employees to demand that California Governor Jerry Brown veto it. Jerry Brown just signed it. Read the rest

Right up there with your Twitter feed and Mr. Coffee machine, our email inboxes are among the first things we check in the morning. And, no matter how diligent we are about managing them, there's always a mountain of clutter waiting for us when we start our day. We could all use some organizational help, and Mailstrom Pro might be the solution. Lifetime subscriptions are on sale for $59.99 today.Mailstrom is the email management app that identifies and organizes bundles of related mail, allowing you to easily sort, manage, and delete massive swathes of emails at a time. You can unblock unwanted senders and unsubscribe from old lists with a single click, and Mailstrom's lifetime subscription extends to up to 20 of your email accounts giving you plenty of coverage.A lifetime subscription to Mailstrom Pro normally retails for $999.75, but you can sign up today for $59.99. Read the rest

Stella McCartney profiles David Lynch in this moody piece on the joys of cinema and transcendental meditation. Via Nowness:Having both reflected and refracted the modern world—from the provincial eeriness of Blue Velvet to the urban grime of Mulholland Drive—Lynch's work has consistently probed the magical and often dreamlike qualities of film. The LA-based director puts it simply: "Cinema is its own language." For Lynch, watching film—waiting for the curtains to rise, before descending into another world—shares many qualities with the inward reflection of meditation. This is especially relevant at a time when the subject matter of many films dips anxiously into modern darkness. But, as Lynch points out, "the filmmaker doesn’t have to be suffering to show suffering."Throughout the film, an eclectic cast of cameos and creative talents make appearances (including McCartney herself) in order to highlight the benefits of transcendental meditation in addressing trauma and the epidemic of toxic stress. The collaboration was created in support of the works of the David Lynch Foundation, whose aim is to prevent these issues from further spreading.• David Lynch in "Curtain's Up", from Stella McCartney (YouTube / Nowness) Read the rest

Say what you will about the Trump era: it has ushered in a SNL renaissance. Between Baldwin's eerily good Trump and McKinnon's Sessions, Melissa McCarthy's Spicer and Bill Murray's Bannon, SNL is proving Garry Trudeau's point that satire isn't supposed to change minds, it's supposed to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.Kavanaugh embodies "comfortable" which is why his decidedly uncomfortable performance before the Senate was so singular; Matt Damon's SNL cold open skewers Kavanaugh through-and-through. Read the rest

These aren't the stories I'd expect to hear from Hillary Clinton... they're a bit more revealing than she's ever shared before. Read the rest

That sure was an expensive 420 joke. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has agreed to pay $20 million and step down from his role as chairman of the board of the company he founded for three years, in a deal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The worst humiliation Elon Musk will have to face won't be the $20 million fine or the loss of his role as chairman. Elon Musk now has to have a boss.Hope they hire a good tweet editor for him, too.Musk didn't admit or deny that he misled investors under the civil fraud charge. Tesla was not charged with fraud.From Matthew Goldstein at the New York Times:The S.E.C. announced the deal two days after it sued Mr. Musk in federal court for fraud and misleading investors over his post on Twitter last month that he had “funding secured” for a buyout of the electric-car company at $420 a share.It is not clear why Mr. Musk changed his mind and agreed to settle but shares of Tesla have been hit hard since the S.E.C. filed the lawsuit. On Friday, the stock dropped about 13 percent.The deal will allow him to remain as chief executive officer.The terms are slightly tougher than those that two people briefed on the talks said Mr. Musk had rejected on Thursday, which called for a two-year bar on serving as chairman and a $10 million fine.Tesla, which is also settling, will pay a $20 million penalty. Read the rest

MIT Comparative Media Studies researcher/instructor Chris Peterson is an adrent supporter of the Math Prize for Girls, and as part of his work with the organization, he's learned about the way that STEM fields were once considered inherently feminine, while the higher-status humanities were dominated by men -- it's the subject of some outstanding feminist scholarship by Professor Maria Charles.Peterson tweeted a quote from Maria Charles's work on the subject in a discussion of the upcoming Math Prize for Girls, and then found that his Twitter account had been suspended, without any explanation (he was given a chance to appeal the suspension, but has been told he might have to wait for days to find out what Twitter thought he did wrong).Peterson thinks he tripped over Twitter's new ban on "dehumanizing speech," which is meant to improve the quality of Twitter discourse by prohibiting Tweets that attack whole groups of people (formerly, Twitter banned attacking individuals on the basis of things like race or gender or sexual preferences, but not generalized racism, sexism, homophobia, etc).Peterson's explanation seems plausible: although his tweet was a condemnation of sexism, it did discuss gender norms through a critical lens, and an overbusy Twitter moderator might well have mistaken its meaning. One of the great ironies of moderation -- etiher human or algorithmic -- is that criticism of bad speech often contains examples of bad speech that can trip up moderators (for example, a complaint about being the subject of a racial slur might repeat the slur). Read the rest

The UK Conservative Party's annual conference is about to kick off in Birmingham, and the Tories have distributed an app ahead of time to all attendees: senior ministers, government officials, members of the press, party members, and others.The app has a fatal design-flaw: anyone could login as any attendee, provided that you knew that person's email address. As Guardian columnist and Jacobin writer Dawn Foster explained in a tweet, you could effect this login "just with their email address, no emailed security links, and post comments as them."Once logged in, you could see the user's private mobile phone number, change that person's profile, and, as noted, post comments under their name (the app has been updated to close the vulnerability).Twitter users are speculating about which UK data-protection laws this violates and what sort of penalties the party may face as a result of the breach. More trenchantly, this undermines the Conservatives' signature technological promises, including its insistence that a post-Brexit Irish border can be solved with technology, and the plans to make EU citizens register their presence in the UK with an app.FFS, the Tory conference app allows you to login as other people and view their contact details just with their email address, no emailed security links, and post comments as them.— Dawn Foster (@DawnHFoster) September 29, 2018 Read the rest

Kavanaugh didn't just DARVO his way through yesterday's hearing: his bluster, tears, rage, and blame-shifting also allowed him to dodge a remarkable number of questions raised by the senators.Ford, by contrast, answered virtually every question put to her.Vox went through the transcript and painstakingly logged whether each question raised was addressed. They confirmed the impression that Kavanaugh was dodging the questions and Ford wasn't, and produced an excellent interactive graphic that allows us to visualize the both witnesses' forthrightness and drill down on each question and statement. Read the rest

This NSFW film examines a fictional incel named Sam, starting with his agonizingly tense interaction with a young woman and reaching a disturbing culmination.Via the Vimeo blog:The term “incel” is short for “involuntarily celibate.” It was originally coined in the early ‘90s by a website created for people to share their experiences of sexual inactivity. Since then, “incel” has evolved into an internet subculture of men who unwillingly remain sexually inactive and often employ hateful ideas of misogyny and racism to justify their plight. Merizalde first became interested in the subject after the 2014 mass shooting in Isla Vista, California in which 22-year-old Elliot Rodger targeted a nearby college sorority, killing six people and injuring fourteen others before committing suicide. Rodger was posthumously heralded a hero among incel communities for these actions and according to Merizalde, the event was uniquely disturbing due to the ability to track “the trail of vlogs that [Rodger] left online leading up to the attack. His descent into violent, misogynistic beliefs with a plan for “retribution” was chronicled over time, which eventually culminated in a manifesto video.” Those interested in an in-depth and entertaining explainer about incels should check out the Contrapoints video on the topic:• INCEL (Vimeo / John Merizalde) Read the rest

Yesterday, at least 90,000,000 Facebook users were forced to log back into the service without any explanation; later, the company revealed that at least 50,000,000 of them had been hacked, but wouldn't say how.In a detailed anatomy of the hack based on an explanation provided by Facebook vice president of product management Guy Rosen, Motherboard's Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai and Jason Koebler provide insight into the mechanics of the breach. The vulnerability was in Facebook's somewhat esoteric "View as" feature. This feature allows Facebook users to assure themselves that the privacy settings they've chosen for their posts are working as intended. If you make a post that you want your parents to be able to see, but not your boss, "View as" will let you preview the post as if you were your boss, and then as if you were your parents, and confirm that you've got the confusing welter of Facebook privacy options right.The attackers were able to exploit a bug in this feature to capture "access tokens" when they used "View as." By viewing a post as your boss, they could trick the system into generating an "access token" that they could use to actually login to Facebook as your boss. These access tokens are used to spare users the inconvenience of being prompted to log in to Facebook every time an app or window tries to connect them to their Facebook data.Logging out of Facebook cancels outstanding access tokens, which is why Facebook logged 90,000,000 users out yesterday. Read the rest

When news broke yesterday that Facebook had suffered a breach affecting at least 50,000,000 users, Facebook users (understandably) began to widely share links to articles about the breach.The articles were so widely and quickly shared that they triggered Facebook's spam filters, which blocked the most popular stories about the breach, including an AP story and a Guardian story.There's no reason to think that Facebook intentionally suppressed embarrassing news about its own business. Rather, this is a cautionary tale about the consequences of content filtering on big platforms.Facebook's spam filter is concerned primarily with stopping spam, not with allowing through storm-of-the-century breaking news headlines that everyone wants to share. On a daily basis, Facebook gets millions of spams and (statistically) zero stories so salient that every Facebook user shares them at once. Any kind of sanity-check on a spam filter that allowed through things that appeared to be breaking news would represent a crack in Facebook's spam defenses that would let through much more spam than legitimate everywhere-at-once stories, because those stories almost never occur, while spam happens every second of every minute of every hour of every day.And yet, storm-of-the-century stories are incredibly important (by definition) and losing our ability to discuss them -- or having that ability compromised by having to wait hours for Facebook to discover, diagnose and repair the problem -- is a very high price to pay.It's a problem with the same underlying mechanics as the incident in which a man was sent an image of his mother's grave decorated with dancing cartoon characters and party balloons on the anniversary of her funeral. Read the rest

Marty Balin, co-founder in 1965 of the pioneering psychedelic band Jefferson Airplane, has died at age 76. Balin wrote or co-wrote nearly half of the tunes on the band's seminal 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow that was the de facto soundtrack for San Francisco's Summer of Love. From Rolling Stone:Born Martyn Jerel Buchwald, Balin was a struggling folk guitarist on the San Francisco scene when he formed a band with Paul Kantner after meeting the 12-string guitarist at a hootenanny. They met up with guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady, drummer Skip Spence and singer Signe Toly Anderson and cut their 1966 debut LP Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. They developed a strong following around the budding San Francisco rock scene, but became nationwide superstars in 1967 when Anderson left the group and was replaced by Grace Slick. Read the rest

🐶: I want your treat.🐶: MY treat.Meet Molsom and Maple, two golden retrievers who have an Instagram account.Molson was born in January, 2018. Maple was born June 2018. Their IG bio lists them as “Professional wrestlers🏆.” View this post on Instagram Brodder I know I have a bully stick of my own butttt I really want yours😩😬 . . . . . .#goldies_world #molsongolden #maplethegolden #molsonandmaple #cutestdogever #goldenretriever #goldens_ofinstagram #cutestgoldenretriever #goldenretrievers #dogsofinstagram #molsoncanadian #molsonthegolden #goldroxgoldens #dogstagram #goldenstagram #dogiesofinstagram #goldensretrieversofinstagram #cutepuppies #puppylove #puppiesofinstagram #gloriousgoldens #woofwoof #goldenretriever_daily #retrieveroftheday #golden_feature #puppiesofig #goldensgleeA post shared by Molson & Maple (@molsonandmaple) on Jul 26, 2018 at 12:31pm PDT Video: Christa Hinn, Maple and Molsom's Momager, who you should follow on Instagram. Read the rest

Women-hating MRAs and Incels, Holocaust Deniers, 9/11 Truthers, and snuff video fetishists on Reddit got harder to find today. An update of Reddit's “quarantine” policy was announced on Thursday, and by Friday new content disclaimers appeared a number of the sketchier “subreddits,” including four with over 100,000 subscribers each.“This is another step in how we’re thinking about enforcement on Reddit and how we can best incentivize positive behavior,” landoflobsters writes on the Reddit thread announcing the news.The quarantine affected an extremist Left group, R/FullCommunism, and grossout subreddits where you can find video, images, and audio of human beings dying. Here's an excerpt from the official post where Reddit announced the updated policy and a new implementation that wiped out access to a bunch of hate content:While Reddit has had a quarantine function for almost three years now, we have learned in the process. Today, we are updating our quarantining policy to reflect those learnings, including adding an appeals process where none existed before.On a platform as open and diverse as Reddit, there will sometimes be communities that, while not prohibited by the Content Policy, average redditors may nevertheless find highly offensive or upsetting. In other cases, communities may be dedicated to promoting hoaxes (yes we used that word) that warrant additional scrutiny, as there are some things that are either verifiable or falsifiable and not seriously up for debate (eg, the Holocaust did happen and the number of people who died is well documented). In these circumstances, Reddit administrators may apply a quarantine. Read the rest

The World's Most Beautiful Libraries is a lovely collection of some of the most awe-inspiring libraries ever built.Via the publisher:In this new photographic journey, Massimo Listri travels to some of the oldest and finest libraries to reveal their architectural, historical, and imaginative wonder. Through great wooden doors, up spiraling staircases, and along exquisite, shelf-lined corridors, he leads us through outstanding private, public, educational, and monastic libraries, dating as far back as 766. Between them, these medieval, classical, baroque, rococo, and 19th-century institutions hold some of the most precious records of human thought and deed, inscribed and printed in manuscripts, volumes, papyrus scrolls, and incunabula. In each, Listri’s poised images capture the library’s unique atmosphere, as much as their most prized holdings and design details.Check out his Instagram for just a few of the examples:The coffee table book isn't cheap, so maybe suggest it as an acquisition for your local library!• The World's Most Beautiful Libraries (via Taschen) Read the rest

Donald Trump, meet the U.S. Constitution's 'emoluments clause.' A federal judge ruled today that 200 congressional Democrats do have standing to sue Donald Trump for violating the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments while he holds the office of President, according to the Washington Post.Here’s a key passage in the ruling: Judge says @realDonaldTrump has a duty to ask Congress’s permission, and he didn’t. So Dems can sue. pic.twitter.com/jdDiDdGjc1— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 28, 2018From the Washington Post:The lawsuit is based on the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars presidents from taking payments from foreign states. Trump’s business, which he still owns, has hosted foreign embassy events and visiting foreign officials at its downtown D.C. hotel.The decision opens up yet another legal front for the president, who is now facing an array of inquiries into his business, his campaign and his charity.Trump is already facing a separate emoluments suit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, D.C. and Maryland that is moving forward. In addition, he is contending with the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference, a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General that alleged “persistently illegal conduct” at his charitable foundation and a defamation lawsuit brought by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos.In his ruling, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan wrote that the members of Congress “appropriate seek relief in federal court” because they have no way to address their concern about Trump’s alleged violation of the emoluments clause with legislation. Read the rest

Nothing like a relaxing bike ride where the slightest mistake will send you careening down jagged rocks and into a lake far below. The only thing less relaxing would be focusing on filming the whole thing while riding.Fun fact: the reason Phoksundo Lake in Nepal is such a vibrant color is because of the low levels of nutrients and organic matter in the water. The same biker has summited some spectacular mountains, too:• Phoksundo Lake (YouTube / Michele Ferro) Read the rest

We don't have a good place to hang dishtowels in our kitchen. This cupboard door hanger was just what we needed and the price is right at just $3.69. Read the rest

The Pixel Room Generator lets you create charming little pixel-art rooms with all sorts of furniture, such as the one above designed by Itch.io user mogibear.Here's mine: Read the rest

This cow bellows with pleasure while playing fetch with a human. Read the rest

Platforms like Instagram reward users who post specific kinds of content, in some cases leading to travel largely for the photo op. Insta Repeat examines how stylistic themes have emerged in the genre of of Instagram travel photos by aggregating shots that are similar in theme, location, and type of person.What's always interesting to me is that behind many of these photos is an "Instagram boyfriend," the generic term for any spouse, friend, or intimate companion who documents the life of an Instagram influencer.• Insta Repeat (Instagram) Read the rest

This is very satisfying.pic.twitter.com/lZDRtMTD2Z— C H I L I (@heyitschili) September 28, 2018 Read the rest

Our guest on the Cool Tools podcast this week is Anita Sarkeesian. Anita is a media critic and the host of Feminist Frequency Radio. She has a new book called History vs Women, which she wrote with Ebony Adams.Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Read the rest

You know the drill: someone proposes something utterly commonsense, that has been done all over the world (say, universal healthcare) and the next thing you know, someone's shown up to shout "Who will pay for it?!" Or, more toxically, a discussion of immigration or refugees or asylum seekers ends up being derailed by the state's inability to pay for basic services for the people in the country today -- how can we afford immigrants? Or, worst of all, someone tells you that they voted for a shambling pile of human garbage because he's promised to "fix the debt" and to do less would be immoral, burdening the generations to come (see also: the fucking Democrats buying into this). Governments aren't households, and governments borrowing money in a currency that they themselves issue isn't the same thing as you getting a bank loan. For more than a century, there has been a group of economists who've pointed this out: called "chartalists," then "neo-chartalists" and now, "modern monetary theorists" and they know exactly how to fund universal healthcare.Modern Monetary Theory is the key to the economic prescriptions of Bernie Sanders and it underpins the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America. It's an idea that is having something of a moment!This week's Planet Money podcast does an excellent job of describing MMT in terms that are literally designed to be understood by an eight-year-old (so I was able to follow along, too!).Once you've given that a listen, try The Nation's potted history of MMT and the groundswell of support for it. Read the rest

Kavanaugh got you pissed off about the future of Roe v. Wade? Support this awesome event, and this awesome nonprofit.—The Editors. In 2012, A is For was launched as a response to the ever-escalating legislative attacks on access to safe reproductive healthcare. I'm proud to be one of the co-founders and its vice president.One of our most successful events is our annual Broadway Acts for Women show at 54 Below in New York City. Each year, and in the only event of its kind, Broadway performers who support access to reproductive health care show up to sing something they’ve never rehearsed, while the audience bids for a fantastic prize AND the chance to choose the song. It's a madcap night of music and mayhem featuring some of Broadway's biggest stars. This year's show takes place this Sunday, September 30th and our lineup is absolutely amazing. Hosted by A is For's president Martha Plimpton and Saturday Night Live's Cecily Strong, our performers include Sara Bareilles, Deborah Cox, Brandon Victor Dixon, Ariana DeBose, Judy Kuhn, Lesli Margherita, Bonnie Milligan, Jeremy Kushnier, Rashida Olayiwola, and Jessica Vosk. Our auction host for this year is comedian Amanda Duarte, and this year's beneficiaries are National Advocates for Pregnant Women, Access Reproductive Care, and the National Network of Abortion Funds.Abortion rights in this country are in serious jeopardy. We've seen what Republicans are willing to sacrifice in order to overturn Roe v. Wade. And life without Roe would be a nightmare for women. Read the rest

Los Angeles International Airport announced its policy regarding pot - you can carry it and fly with it. If the TSA finds your stash, they might turn you over to the local fuzz, but since marijuana is legal in California, they won't bust you.LAX Marijuana PolicyWhile federal law prohibits the possession of marijuana (inclusive of federal airspace,) California’s passage of proposition 64, effective January 1, 2018, allows for individuals 21 years of age or older to possess up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana for personal consumption. In accordance with Proposition 64, the Los Angeles Airport Police Department will allow passengers to travel through LAX with up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana. However, passengers should be aware that marijuana laws vary state by state and they are encouraged to check the laws of the states in which they plan to travel.Image: PO11/Shutterstock Read the rest

Last week, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency landed two tiny rovers on the asteroid Ryugu where they'll "hop" across the rock as part of a mission to collect samples that the Hayabusa2 mothership will return to Earth. Here are new images from the asteroid that's 289 million kilometers (180 million miles) away from Earth. Far fucking out. Read the rest

For about $50, you can hire a woman for a few hours to pretend to be your girlfriend in China. Kei, one of the hosts of Asian Boss, tried out the app-based service. He and his "girlfriend" went to a park and tried some exercise equipment, then he sat down and interviewed her about what it is like to be a pretend girlfriend. She told him that she had been working as a pretend girlfriend for two or three years and she is doing it to pay down debt. She says there are 7 or 8 similar apps and she is registered on each one of them.Image: YouTube screenshot Read the rest

The American Bar Association, implied by apoplectic US Senator Lindsay Graham as offering their "gold standard" rating to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, has asked the US Senate to investigate said nominee. Seems the ABA also had problems with Kavanaugh in the past, which the Senate also ignored.Via NPR:The American Bar Association says the Senate should not hold a confirmation vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court until the FBI has investigated sexual assault allegations against him that were made by Christine Blasey Ford and other women.Citing the ABA's "respect for the rule of law and due process," ABA President Robert Carlson wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, "The basic principles that underscore the Senate's constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI."Carlson sent the letter after the committee heard testimony from both Kavanaugh and Ford — a hearing that gripped the nation on Thursday. The ABA had previously given a rating of "well qualified" to Kavanaugh when he was nominated in July."Each appointment to our nation's highest court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote," Carlson told the committee, which was expected to vote on the nomination Friday. Read the rest

Facebook says an attack on its network left the personal information of some 50 million users—perhaps you?—exposed to hackers. Who were the hackers, and what did they want? Facebook doesn't know, or won't say.“We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you,” Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement regarding Cambridge Analytica earlier this year. Well. You heard the man.Mike Isaac and Sheera Frankel in the New York Times:The company discovered the breach earlier this week, finding that attackers had exploited a feature in Facebook’s code that allowed them to take over user accounts. Facebook fixed the vulnerability and notified law enforcement officials.More than 90 million of Facebook’s users were forced to log out of their accounts Friday morning, a common safety measure for compromised accounts.Facebook said it did not know the origin or identity of the attackers, nor had it fully assessed the scope of the attack. The company is in the beginning stages of its investigation.The discovery of the hack comes at one of the most difficult times in Facebook’s history. The company has dealt with fallout over its role in a widespread Russian disinformation campaign around the 2016 presidential election.(...) Even before Friday’s disclosure, Facebook was facing multiple Federal investigations into the company’s broader data sharing and privacy practices. The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into Facebook’s statements on Cambridge Analytica.READ THE REST.Facebook faces likely government regulation over monopoly and influence concerns, and it faces consequences for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, from EU, UK, and US legal forces. Read the rest

There is a dream, and they all spread the word that they can save this world.(Thanks, Jeff Ahern!) Read the rest

Between your work, emails, family, and friends, you've got a lot of responsibilities on your plate and hardly any time to tend to them all. Thankfully, you don't have to go at them alone. From task managers to smart calendars, we've found 8 of the best productivity tools to help you stay on top of your to-dos, and they're all on sale for a limited time.1. Pagico 8MSRP: $50Sale Price: $19 (62% off)Pagico is a one-stop app that helps turn all of your tasks, notes, and projects into beautiful interactive flowcharts, making it easy to see what's on your plate and schedule accordingly. You can focus on current to-dos with the today view, search hundreds of projects using the powerful tag browser, and much more in Pagico's streamlined interface.2. BusyCal 3MSRP: $49.99Sale Price: $19.99 (60% off)When your default calendar app won't cut it, BusyCal is there to keep you on track. This smart calendar is loaded with time-saving features, like smart filters and custom views, and integrates with all the leading cloud services, including iCloud, Google, Exchange, and more.3. Timelinr Personal Plan: Lifetime SubscriptionMSRP: $1,710Sale Price: $49.99 (97% off)With the ability to create high-level roadmaps and track tasks for any project, Timelinr lets you organize your ideas and turn them into calculated plans fast. Timelinr's SimulCollabâ„¢ feature makes it easy to keep your team in the loop with any changes you make along the way, and you can enjoy unlimited timelines and sharing as well. Read the rest

Every year, security researchers gather at Defcon's Voting Village to probe voting machines and report on the longstanding, systematic security problems with them, in order to give secure voting advocates the ammunition they need to convince Congress and local officials to take action into improve America's voting security.Whether it's showing that "secure" firmware can be dumped with a $15 electronic component or that voting systems can be hacked in minutes, the Voting Village researchers do yeoman duty, compiling comprehensive reports on the dismal state of America's voting machines, nearly 20 years after Bush v Gore put the country on notice about the defective systems behind our elections.This year's report is the most alarming yet: it singles out the ES&S M650 tabulating machine, manufactured by Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Nebraska, which still has outstanding defects that were reported to the manufacturer a decade ago. The M650's manifest unsuitability is so terrible that it would be funny if it wasn't so serious: this is a machine that uses an operating system developed for the Blackberry phone (!) and then uses Zip cartridges (!!) to move data around.The M650 is one of the most widespread pieces of equipment in American election systems, used to count in-person and absentee ballots by optically scanning ballot papers whose bubble-in forms have been filled in by voters. The system -- connected to the internet by default -- is used for county-wide tabulations in 23 states. As the report states: "Hacking just one of these machines could enable an attacker to flip the Electoral College and determine the outcome of a presidential election."The researchers identified defects in other systems, too: one could be compromised in two minutes, less time than it takes the average voter to cast a ballot on it. Read the rest

In this video, posted to Facebook by young mom Darla Jeny, an elderly woman calls police from the parking lot of a California PetSmart. It soon becomes apparent that she had spotted a baby in a parked car, but hadn't spotted mom in there with her until after she'd worked herself up into a righteous anger about what was in fact a sleeping, air-conditioned child.So we stop at PetSmart and I stay in the car with Elsie while she's sleeping in her car seat. Ac is blasting and she taps on the window to get me to roll it down. I try to ignore her but she wouldn't leave me alone. I roll down the window and she says the baby is in the sun. She threatens to call the cops if I don't move my car. I know my husband will be out any minute since we're only there for a few minutes. I then told her to mind her own business and that's when I started recording.When the hispanic mom's white husband turns up, she becomes more respectful, but the smile drops when is her claim that Darla threatened to beat her up (a claim not supported by the recording) is challenged."You deserve that child to be injured, and you probably do injure it," she says."Oh yeah, that's what we do.""Yeah you do. Look at you."[via Photography Is Not A Crime] Read the rest