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by Rob Beschizza on (#40CN7)
Nick Shabazz, a knife reviewer with an amused taste for reviewing particularly bad knives, finds one that "really beats the cake." It's the worst knife he has ever seen, a "fractal of terrible knifemaking" whose terribleness is apparent at every point of inspection. The belt clip is in the wrong place. The screws are all different. It's been chamfered after the texture is applied, removing it from the edges. The bolt is chipped. The knife appears to be assymetrical along its length by design. And you wonder, "how can this get worse?" Then you open the knife.I have a thing for terrible knives, but today, we look at a knife which is not only terrible, but gets more terrible the closer you look at it. I present to you, the Master.I found it on Aliexpress, but I'm not linking to it. Just get something from Spyderco. [Amazon] Read the rest
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Boing Boing
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| Updated | 2026-09-13 04:49 |
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by Cory Doctorow on (#40CN9)
The UN's International Panel on Climate Change is an interdisciplinary expert body comprised of leading scientists who study climate change; they issue periodic reports summarizing the best peer-reviewed science on climate change and making recommendations as to what must be done to avert the most catastrophic outcomes; their latest report is the gravest yet, where even the most optimistic projections of the panel predict disruption and hardship for tens of millions of people, within our lifetimes.That is the most optimistic projection, based on the assumption of an immediate, drastic retooling to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which will hold warming at 1.5' C. A median projection, with temperatures rising to 2' C, involves trillions more in damage and hundreds of millions more people having to migrate, facing extreme weather events and pandemics, and suffering through famines and water shortages.I have had stories about this report in my feed for days and haven't been able to bring myself to write about them, not even to read them in depth. It's hard not to read this and be gripped by despair. But something I heard recently made me feel hope. On the latest Intercepted podcast, NYU history professor Nikhil Pal Singh finishes an address on the history of American empire by saying that Trump -- and the looting, reckless, destructive ideology he embodies -- may not be the beginning of a new, bloodier era of American carnage, but the last blast of the dying regime, the turning point for a better world. Read the rest
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by Rob Beschizza on (#40CNB)
Lothar Lenz videotaped Dionaea muscipula making short work of Vespula germanica. Read the rest
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by Rob Beschizza on (#40CCQ)
Russell M. Nelson, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, issued a stern warning Sunday to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that under no circumstances was the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be known or described as anything but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other names for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are literally a victory of evil over The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.The church’s name “is not negotiable,†he said. “When the savior clearly states what the name of his church should be, and even precedes his declaration with, ‘Thus shall my church be called,' he is serious. And if we allow nicknames to be used and adopt or even sponsor those nicknames ourselves, he is offended.â€Using common nicknames such as “Mormon church,†“LDS Church†or the “Church of the Latter-day Saints,†Nelson said, “ ... is a major victory for Satan.â€You can read all about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at its official website, lds.org, also accessible at mormon.org.Photo: screenshot from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints media. Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#40BPJ)
The EU's wide-ranging plan for indiscriminate internet censorship has progressed from a vote in the European Parliament and now reps from the EU will meet with reps from the 28 countries that make up the EU to hammer out the final text that will be put to the Parliament for what might be the final vote before it becomes law.Normally this next phase -- the "trilogues" -- would be completely secret. But a European Court of Justice recently ruled that the public has a right to know what happens behind the trilogues' closed doors, and Julia Reda, the German Pirate Party MEP who led the fight over censorship in the new Copyright Directive, has promised to publish all the documents from the trilogues. It's a European first.On EFF's Deeplinks, I describe the bare minimum work the trilogues should do make the the Copyright Directive coherent (it will still be terrible, but at least we'll know what it actually means).As MEP Reda publishes the trilogue documents, we'll be able to see whether any of the people behind this proposal have any intention of limiting the damage these terrible proposals will do to the internet.Ultimately, this is unlikely to survive contact with the European Court of Justice: mass surveillance and mass censorship are just not legal under the EU's constitutional framework, but that won't stop the rules from being imposed and wreaking havoc while we wait for the court to act.The trilogues have it in their power to expand on the Directive's hollow feints toward due process and proportionality and produce real, concrete protections that will minimise the damage this terrible law wreaks while we work to have it invalidated by the courts. Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#40BGC)
Tonight marks the world premiere of the first Doctor Who series in which the Doctor is portrayed by a woman. The limited-edition commemorative Barbie available for pre-order starting tomorrow, exclusively through Forbidden Planet. Read the rest
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by Rob Beschizza on (#40B7D)
Lee Martin's clever online Banksy Shredder is hosted as an editable codepen page and does exactly as you would expect. Read the rest
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by Boing Boing's Shop on (#40B7F)
Spreadsheet proficiency isn't just a box to check off on your resume. It's the number one time-saver for any data entry job, human resources manager, inventory specialist or countless other crucial office positions. Don't waste time tinkering with Excel or Google Sheets on your own. Learn both, backward and forwards, with The Excel & Google Sheets Mastery Bundle.Both sections of this comprehensive online course are designed for beginners, but they don't skimp on teaching expert-level tricks of the trade. Access more than 35 hours of lessons and examples, and you'll be guided through the basic functions of the two most popular spreadsheet tools in no time. Before long, you'll be automating tasks, customizing your own formats and writing macros and formulas that will cut your workflow exponentially. In short, you'll spend less time working on spreadsheets and learn how to put them to work for you.Grab The Excel & Google Sheets Mastery Bundle: Lifetime Access for a discounted $19 today. Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#40AVP)
Adventures in New America is a full-cast serial drama from Night Vale Presents (previously), a piece of acerbic and engrossing afrofuturism in the form of a buddy comedy; Episode One (MP3) just dropped. The New York Times called it "sympatico with Boots Riley’s 'Sorry to Bother You' in its critique of entwined capitalist and racist structures, and the way it makes the horrific funny recalls the new era of social thriller being ushered in by the sketch show creator-turned auteur Jordan Peele." Read the rest
by Cory Doctorow on (#40AVQ)
In 2013, members of the Greek Nazi movement "Golden Dawn" murdered the antifascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas on the streets of Athens, a murder that was covered up by members of the Greek police, known to be riddled with Golden Dawn infiltrators, and abetted by Members of Parliament from Golden Dawn.As the case works its way through the Greek courts, the University of London's "Forensic Architecture" group has been called in to make sense of a welter of evidence about the crime and the cover-up, deploying their system of using "architectural techniques and technologies to investigate cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world."The result is a 37 minute video that Talos on Metafilter a masterpiece of analytic exposition and impressively recreates the events surrounding the murder based on available data sources -- it is. The Fyssas trial has the potential to bring down Golden Dawn, to bring its true nature as an organized crime group into the open, to eliminate it from the Greek Parliament and to trigger a purge of Nazi elements from the Greek police. It is nothing short of seismic.But even if you don't care about any of that, this video is remarkable, a stitching-together of disparate and flawed evidence sources in a way that uses the strengths of one to overlap and fix the weaknesses of the other, creating a coherent and devastating story that is as well-told as any crime drama. It is truly virtuoso work.Much of the original audio and video material was without an accurate timestamp, and it became apparent that attempts by the Greek police investigators to address this problem were insufficient. Read the rest
by Boing Boing's Shop on (#40AQ1)
Drop by just about any health store and you'll hear raves about charcoal's curious and newfound properties as a sponge for the body's toxins. Turns out its beauty benefits are just as miraculous. The NUOVAWHITE Charcoal Teeth Whitening System uses charcoal as the active ingredient for a treatment that will visibly make your pearlies pearlier after just one go.NUOVAWHITE works with Blue LED Light technology and specially treated whitening charcoal to brighten your smile. And it doesn't just improve the looks: The treatments actually bolster and restore your existing tooth enamel in the process. It's the safest treatment around - FDA compliant, cruelty-free and even completely kosher.If all this sounds good enough to double up, then grab the NUOVAWHITE Charcoal Teeth Whitening System: 2-Pack for $27.99 Read the rest
by Cory Doctorow on (#40A4F)
Spinkter sez, "Hamilton, Texas's Marion Stanford's homemade political sign was meant to support the #MeToo movement and spur people to vote. But the accompanying visual spurred criticism -- and a visit from law enforcement."The cop called it "pornography" and said she could take it down voluntarily, permit the cops to confiscate it, or get arrested.The sign was painted in commemoration of the Republican Senate's affirmation of a serial rapist to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.“It is pornography, and you can’t display it,†Stanford recalled the police officer saying. She was given a few choices, she said: Take the sign down, refuse and get arrested, or let police confiscate it. She said she chose the last option.City officials denied threatening arrest.“It’s a political sign, and a citizen here placed a yard sign that featured a political animal taking an inappropriate position with a young child,†Pete Kampfer, Hamilton’s city manager, told the Dallas Morning News. “A police member visited the owner’s home, and the owner asked the officer to take the sign.â€A Texas yard sign depicted a GOP elephant with its trunk up a girl’s skirt. Police seized it. [Kristine Phillips/Washington Post] Read the rest
by Cory Doctorow on (#409H9)
I've just closed a new book deal: Tor Books will publish "Radicalized," which tells four stories of hope, conflict, technology and justice in the modern world and near future in March 2019; along with the book deal is a major audiobook deal with Macmillan Audio and a screen deal with Topic Studios (a sister company to The Intercept) for one of the tales, "Unauthorized Bread."I'll have lots more to say about this in the upcoming months! I just finished the last of the stories, "Masque of the Red Death" and I spent the week at the recording studio helping oversee a brilliant actor's recording of the audio for "Unauthorized Bread." Things are happening!Cory Doctorow closed a six-figure agreement with Tor’s Patrick Nielsen Hayden for four new novellas. Russell Galen at Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency, who represented Doctorow, said the novellas will be published as a single print volume by Tor under “the overall title of Radicalized†and individually, in audio, by Macmillan Audio. Slated for a March 2019 release, the novellas will, Galen said, “provide a unique take on some of the most urgent and painful issues of our time.†The first novella in the collection, “Unauthorized Bread,†has been optioned for film by Topic Studios.Tor Nabs Quad by Doctorow [Publishers Weekly] Read the rest
by Cory Doctorow on (#409HA)
The Democrats' newly unveiled "Internet Bill of Rights" enumerates ten rights that the party says it will enshrine in law, ranging from Net Neutrality to data portability to timely notification of breaches to opt-in for data collection, the right to see the data held on you by surveillance capitalists, rights to privacy and to be free from surveillance-driven discrimination, pro-competitive measures and so forth.The Bill was drafted by Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna, who has real bona fides as a progressive Democrat, unafraid to call out the party establishment.But as Kara Swisher points out in the New York Times, the devil is in the details: as statements of principle, the Internet Bill of Rights is an admirable document. Its implementation in law, however, will require enormous care to prevent both loopholes and overreach (see, for example, how a well-intentioned California anti-bot bill posed real free expression risks until it was called out and cleaned up by the Electronic Frontier Foundation).Below, I have reproduced the Bill in full.Set of Principles for an Internet Bill of RightsThe internet age and digital revolution have changed Americans’ way of life. As our lives and the U.S. economy are more tied to the internet, it is essential to provide Americans with basic protections online.You should have the right:(1) to have access to and knowledge of all collection and uses of personal data by companies;(2) to opt-in consent to the collection of personal data by any party and to the sharing of personal data with a third party;(3) where context appropriate and with a fair process, to obtain, correct or delete personal data controlled by any company and to have those requests honored by third parties;(4) to have personal data secured and to be notified in a timely manner when a security breach or unauthorized access of personal data is discovered;(5) to move all personal data from one network to the next;(6) to access and use the internet without internet service providers blocking, throttling, engaging in paid prioritization or otherwise unfairly favoring content, applications, services or devices;(7) to internet service without the collection of data that is unnecessary for providing the requested service absent opt-in consent;(8) to have access to multiple viable, affordable internet platforms, services and providers with clear and transparent pricing;(9) not to be unfairly discriminated against or exploited based on your personal data; and(10) to have an entity that collects your personal data have reasonable business practices and accountability to protect your privacy. Read the rest
by Cory Doctorow on (#409ET)
The Library of Congress has published its latest digital strategy, laying out a bold plan to "exponentially grow" its collections through digital acquisitions; "maximize the use of content" by providing machine-readable rights data and using interoperable formats and better search; to support data-driven research with giant bulk-downloadable corpuses of materials and metadata; to improve its website; to syndicate Library assets to other websites; to crowdsource the acquisition of new materials; to experiment with new tools and techniques; and to preserve digital assets with the same assiduousness that the Library has shown with its physical collection for centuries.The LoC has a curiously outsized role in the digital era: because it contains the Copyright Office -- and because the Copyright Office is patient zero in the epidemic of terrible internet law that reaches into every corner of our lives -- the Library has become a political football, with Congress vying to put it under Congressional oversight (and in reach of heavily lobbied Committee chairs) and/or to tear out the Copyright Office.The new Librarian of Congress is the most freedom-friendly, internet-friendly, access-friendly leader in the Library's history, replacing unfit leaders who were brought down in grotesque corruption scandals. But her leadership has fallen short: the Copyright Office is still a creature of Big Content, and it has direct oversight over your ability to modify, repair, sell, and use all of your digital property.So this digital strategy is a very bright light, but it shines in a dark and menacing cave. Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#409C0)
Banksy's iconic "Girl With Red Balloon" street art went under the hammer at Sotheby's in a custom frame of the artist's own design; moments after it sold for £953,829, a booby-trap kicked in, drawing the canvas into a series of shredder blades built into the frame, rendering it down to a pile of forlorn strips of shredded cloth.The art speculation market has run white-hot for a decade and more, as inequality floods of dark money has sought highly liquid, tax-invisible assets. As a result, the world's most important art treasures sit in climate controlled containers in "freeports," changing hands without ever moving, seen by no one.“It appears we just got Banksy-ed,†said Alex Branczik, the auction house’s head of contemporary art, Europe, immediately after the sale. “He is arguably the greatest British street artist, and tonight we saw a little piece of Banksy genius,†he said, adding that he was “not in on the ruseâ€, although it is not clear whether other members of staff were. Some commented on the unusually thick frame, which could have easily concealed a shredding mechanism.After a man dressed in black sporting sunglasses and a hat was seen scuffling with security guards near the entrance to Sotheby’s shortly after the incident, speculation mounted that the elusive artist had himself pressed the button that destroyed the work. According to the provenance, Girl with a Balloon was acquired directly from the artist in 2006.Sotheby’s 'Banksy-ed' as painting 'self-destructs' live at auction [Anny Shaw/The Art Newspaper] Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#409C2)
Los Angeles county has some 104,000 homeless people, thanks to a real-estate bubble that has priced housing out of reach of working people, while programs to reduce homelessness have been incoherent and unwilling to take the only proven step for reducing homelessness.The circumstances that lead to housing bubbles and homelessness are described as a set of individual choices and thus individual responsibility: if you save and are willing to settle, you can get a roof; if you have too many kids or if you're not willing to move somewhere cheaper, you sleep rough.But housing isn't just an asset class, it's a human necessity and a human right. Housing crises in LA and other major cities are unsolvable for so long as housing stock is viewed as an investment vehicle first and a critical part of the city last.Homelessness afflicts everyone in a city, not just the people sleeping on the streets or in parks. That's because the human race has a shared microbial destiny: the diseases of homelessness are not contained within homeless populations. Rich people may have better medicine and better food, they may be protected by armed cops, but you can't shoot germs.So the epidemic of typhus fever -- spread from flea feces into humans through contact with broken skin or mucous membranes -- that has struck Los Angeles is a reminder that housing is our shared responsibility and homelessness is an (unevenly) shared tragedy that afflicts everyone. I've had typhus. I lost 40 pounds in six weeks, running fevers so high I hallucinated, while my joints ached and my ears rang so loud I couldn't hear. Read the rest
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by Boing Boing's Shop on (#40964)
So much for the Swiss Army Knife. Modern life is filled with little emergencies we never thought we'd have 20 years ago. Let technology come to the rescue once again with these innovative, on-the-go widgets. Even collectively, they take up so little space in your pocket you'll forget they're there - except when you need them.UltraBright 500-Lumen Tactical Military Flashlight: 2-PackWhether you're broken down on the road or deep into a forest trail, these workhorse flashlights put that keychain penlight to shame. These lightweight aluminum torches have three power-saving modes to ensure a long life for the single AA battery, but they ramp up to a one-mile range if you really need to shine. The adjustable zoom makes them equally ideal for exploring caves or the crannies of an overheating engine.Buy now: UltraBright 500-Lumen Tactical Military Flashlight: 2-Pack for $11.99. Nix Mini Color SensorIf you've ever tried to match swatches to an existing paint job, you know the humbling limitations of the human eye. Here's where Nix comes in. Scan any surface, save it to a phone or tablet and the software will match it to one of 31,000 shades from any leading paint brand or to the exact RGB, HEX, CMYK or LAB color. See why CNET called this the #1 Paint Color Matching Tool.Buy now: Nix Mini Color Sensor at a 30% discount of $69. Twisty Glass MiniSay hello to your new best friend. The even more petite companion to the popular Twisty Glass Blunt is here, with a valuable upgrade in the 50% smaller cherry. Read the rest
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by Xeni Jardin on (#408DZ)
Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine gave a lengthy speech in the Senate today, announcing she'll vote in support of Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The judge is an accused serial sexual assaulter who repeatedly lied to lawmakers under oath during his confirmation hearings. It looks like Collins will cast the deciding "yes" vote to place Trump's dirty candidate on the nation's highest court. “As she delivered her lengthy speech on the Senate floor, a crowd-funding site created to fund a Democratic challenge to Collins in 2020 crashed,†Rolling Stone reports.“This entire process was up to Collins,†says Amy Halsted, co-director of Maine People’s Alliance, which launched the campaign. “And today she did the wrong thing.â€The Crowdpac campaign, which the progressive grassroots organization started with the express purpose of swaying Collins’ vote on the Kavanaugh nomination, had raised more than $2 million before Collins’ speech.Halsted was listening to Collins on the radio while picking her children up from school. She hadn’t heard, when contacted by Rolling Stone, that the site had crashed under the weight of requests, but she says, “it doesn’t surprise me that the website is crashing because people are mad.â€â€œThis vote is a complete betrayal of Maine voters, of the women who have called her offices, and written letters and organized phone banks and attended rallies and told their very deeply painful stories to her and her staff. I think it’s the end of whatever legacy she has worked so hard to achieve as a moderate,†Halsted ssays. Read the rest
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by Xeni Jardin on (#408E1)
Donald Trump's first 'Presidential Alert,' an unblockable wireless alert warning to cellphones in the United States, was deployed Wednesday at 11:18 a.m. PT/2:18 p.m. ET. No emergency, just testing. A group of New Yorkers are suing the President and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stop the new practice, which many fear Trump will abuse.From CNET:Three New York residents last week filed a lawsuit in the Southern District Court of New York against President Donald Trump and William Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The residents want to halt FEMA's new Presidential Alert messaging system, which enables Trump to deploy alerts of national emergencies."Plaintiffs are American citizens who do not wish to receive text messages, or messages of any kind, on any topic or subject, from defendant Trump," the lawsuit (posted below) reads. "[Trump's] rise to power was facilitated by weaponized disinformation that he broadcast into the public information sphere via Twitter in addition to traditional mass media."The White House, FEMA, and plaintiffs didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.(..) The plaintiffs' main complaint is that Presidential Alerts are compulsory -- there's no way to opt-out of receiving them. They argue that under civil rights law, government cannot use cellular devices to compel listening, "trespass into and hijack" devices without a warrant or individual consent.The plaintiffs are also concerned Trump might use the alerts to spread disinformation because IPAWS doesn't regulate the content of the messages. That means Trump may be free to define "act of terrorism" and "threat to public safety," and may broadcast "arbitrary, biased, irrational" messages to "hundreds of millions of people," the plaintiffs say in the lawsuit. Read the rest
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#4085V)
Last year Carla and I took a day long Japanese cooking class in Tokyo. We learned how to make Japanese omelettes (tamagoyaki) and a basic soup stock (dashi). I can't wait to go back and take another class. I love the book Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking by Masaharu Morimoto, which has recipes for all the classic Japanese dishes. It's available in the Kindle edition (with lots of color photos) right now for $3. I bought it because it is nice to use cookbooks on an iPad and be able to do word searches for things. Read the rest
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#40822)
Nepal banned all adult sites at the end of September, and traffic to these sites took a big dip. See the attached graph provided by porn site xHamster. But the traffic soon rose to previous levels. Lesson learned: when faced with online censorship, people learn how to use VPNs. This knowledge will come in handy for things other than pornography. Read the rest
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by Xeni Jardin on (#40826)
This baby caracal was hungry. She looked at her caretaker, and vocalized at them for their attention so they could feed her.Turn your sound up! Read the rest
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by Xeni Jardin on (#407Y7)
A Chicago jury has found white police officer Jason Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm in the shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald."It’s the first time in half a century that a Chicago police officer has been convicted of murder for an on-duty death," AP reports.#VanDykeTrial Guilty of 2nd degree murder. #LaquanMcDonald pic.twitter.com/X64UriSbdr— kathychaney (@kathychaney) October 5, 2018The verdict was delivered just after 3:00pm Eastern time on Friday. Tweets from journalists, below, as the verdict was read from the Chicago courtroom.Police outside of Leighton Criminal courthouse at 26 and Cal after verdict is announced that Jason Van Dyke is guilty of second degree murder and aggravated battery in the fatal shooting Laquan McDonald. @cbschicago #vandyketrial pic.twitter.com/SpQoFQhCj6— Wendy Widom (@wendywidom) October 5, 2018Judge Vincent Gaughan revokes Jason Van Dyke's bail after conviction on second-degree murder and aggravated battery in the death of Laquan McDonald. Next court date is set for Oct. 31. https://t.co/3yl8qhb8L9 #VanDykeTrial— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) October 5, 2018No bond. #VanDyke headed to jail. #VanDykeTrial— Linze Rice (@LinzeRice) October 5, 2018#BREAKING: VERDICT IS INNOT GUILTY:-Official misconduct GUILTY: -1 count of 2nd degree murder-16 counts agg battery w/firearm#JasonVanDyke #VanDyke #VanDykeMurderTrial #JVD #laquanmcdonald #vandyketrial @cbschicago— LAUREN VICTORY (@LaurenVictory) October 5, 2018#VanDykeTrial Guilty of 2nd degree murder. #LaquanMcDonald pic.twitter.com/Ng8Gq626Wm— kathychaney (@kathychaney) October 5, 2018Jury finds Jason Van Dyke guilty of aggravated battery for all 16 shots fired, which killed Laquan McDonald #VanDykeTrial— Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) October 5, 2018#BREAKING #VanDykeTrial Jury finds Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke GUILTY of second degree murder, and aggravated battery with firearm for all 16 shots. Read the rest
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#407T8)
Friction is what stops coins from spinning. In this video, The Action Lab demonstrates a number of spinning things nd spinning surfaces to explain how friction affects how long they spin, and the best surfaces for keeping them spinning as long as possible. Read the rest
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by Carla Sinclair on (#407TA)
A man in Michigan had used a "rock" as a doorstop for 30 years to hold his heavy barn door open. He knew it was a meteorite – the farmer who sold him his house in the 1980s had told him that he and his father had seen it hit ground in the 1930s and dug it out of its crater when it was still warm. But the man didn't think much of it, until a fireball hit Michigan last January. He then got to thinking, and brought the rock to Central Michigan University's geologist Mona Sirbescu to have it analyzed.It turned out to indeed be a meteorite, and a valuable one at that, worth over $100,000. The Smithsonian as well as a museum in Maine are thinking about purchasing it. Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#407TC)
Tony Sanfilippo says, "'The Revised Boy Scout Manual," a lost Burroughs manuscript concerning how to overthrow a corrupt government has just been published in its entirety for the first time. With an afterword and reminiscence by V. Vale, publisher and founder of RE/Search publications. Vale's afterword is available in its entirety."For a start you scramble the news all together and spit it out every which way on ham radio and street recorders. You construct fake news broadcasts on video camera. . . .And you scramble your fabricated news in with actual news broadcasts.You have an advantage which your opposing player does not have. He must conceal his manipulations. You are under no such necessity. In fact you can advertise the fact that you are writing news in advance and trying to make it happen by techniques which anybody can use.And that makes you NEWS. And a TV personality as well, if you play it right. You want the widest possible circulation for your cutup video tapes. Cutup techniques could swamp the mass media with total illusion.The simplest experiment consists in playing back a scrambled message to subject. Message could contain simple commands. Does the scrambled message have any command value comparable to post-hypnotic suggestion? Is the actual content of the message received?Let us say the message is fear. For this we take all the past fear shots of the subject we can collect or evoke. We cut these in with fear words and pictures, with threats, etc. Read the rest
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#407TE)
"I was home alone working on my firewood for the winter," says this guy. "While carrying wood through my basement into my furnace room I saw my old treadmill and it gave me the idea to use it to put the wood through the window." Read the rest
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by David Pescovitz on (#407TG)
Van Cleef & Arpels' Midnight Planétarium timepiece features a mechanical orrery integrated in the watch face. It is only US$214,000. From the company:The movement of each planet is true to its genuine length of orbit: it will take Saturn over 29 years to make a complete circuit of the dial, Jupiter will take almost 12 years, Mars 687 days, Earth 365 days, Venus 224 days and Mercury 88 days...44 mm pink gold case; pink gold bezel; aventurine dial, pink gold sun and shooting star, serpentine Mercury, chloromelanite Venus, turquoise Earth, red jasper Mars, blue agate Jupiter, sugilite Saturn. Pink gold crown with sapphire case back. Matte black alligator strap with pink gold folding clasp. Self-winding mechanical movement (Stern Manufacture), equipped with a Christiaan Van der Klaauw module developed exclusively for Van Cleef & Arpels, 48 hour power reserve. Numbered editionMidnight Planétarium Watch (via @pickover) Read the rest
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by Jason Weisberger on (#407PK)
A High School student purportedly offered pot brownies to football players in trade for homecoming queen votes. The student both failed in her bid for office and faces criminal charges.I'd have eaten the brownies and stayed home.Via WaPo:Police told TV station WWMT that the 17-year-old at Hartford High School wanted the crown so badly that she showed up to school with a clever, but illegal, bit of homemade homecoming swag: a dozen pot brownies.In the weeks prior, the girl had been nominated as a finalist for homecoming queen. Police say she hoped the brownies would sway her classmates to cast the votes she would need to win the title.The cheerleader gave goody bags to football players, a standard practice before games, according to Hartford police, but hers also allegedly came with the brownies and their dose of THC.The ambitious teen’s maneuvering was uncovered around Sept. 26, when police say someone used an app to anonymously notify state authorities, who then relayed the tip to Hartford police.School officials were able to retrieve two brownies in their entirety and the partial remains of a third brownie, Hartford Superintendent Andrew Hubbard told The Washington Post.Hubbard said at least eight students face possible expulsion for their roles or reactions to the scheme.“I’ve read about things across this country. It has not happened with anything that I know of in this area,†Hartford police officer Michael Prince told Fox 17. “I’ve been an officer a long time, and whenever you think you’ve heard it all, something just about daily comes up, like, ‘Wow,’ †Prince said. Read the rest
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by Carla Sinclair on (#407NB)
Ben and Jackee Belnap had saved up $1,060 in cash over the course of a year so that they could pay a loan back to Ben's parents, who had bought them University of Utah football season tickets. But then the envelope of cash disappeared. They tore the house apart, and finally found it – in tiny pieces inside the paper shredder.The couple knew right away who dunnit – their two-year-old toddler had just been "helping" Jackee shred unwanted paper, and wanting to be a good boy, thought he'd continue shredding paper on his own.His mom's first reaction was to cry, but then she and her husband laughed.“As devastated and as sick as we were, this was one of those moments where you just have to laugh,†she told News4Utah.But surprisingly (to me), there's a way they could possibly get it back without spending a couple of decades trying to tape the pieces back together.According to The Washington Post:The Bureau of Engraving and Printing offers a solution in the event that a toddler destroys hundreds of dollars by accident. In fact, the bureau has an entire “Mutilated Currency Division,†which is devoted to “redeeming†burned, waterlogged, chemically altered, rodent-chewed or deteriorated money — a free service to the public. It handles approximately 30,000 claims per year, redeeming more than $30 million in mutilated cash, according to its website.The currency “must be forwarded to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for examination by trained experts before any redemption is made,†the website says. Read the rest
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by Jason Weisberger on (#407ND)
Like other members of the Trump family, Melania is also not good at petting elephants.Via Newsweek:First lady Melania Trump got friendly with some baby elephants in Kenya on Friday—and one of the youngsters responded by giving her a shove.The episode occurred when the first lady stepped forward toward a baby elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage. An elephant behind it appeared to nudge and cause the elephant closest to Trump to run toward her and push her backward.Two people who appeared to be Secret Service agents quickly put their hands on Trump for support. The first lady did not appear to have been injured, smiled and stood back. Read the rest
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by David Pescovitz on (#407NF)
Cyberpunk is Marianne Tranche's 1990 documentary about the early cyberpunk scene. It features interviews with the likes of William Gibson, Scott Fisher, and bOING bOING patron saint Timothy Leary. While the brilliant Brenda Laurel appears, the film unfortunately missed many of the other badass female cyberpunks of the day like St. Jude Milhon (Mondo 2000), Lisa Palac (Future Sex), Stacy Horn (Echo), and of course bOING bOING co-founder Carla Sinclair! As Dr. Tim said back then, "Turn on, tune in, boot up!" Read the rest
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#407NH)
YouGov surveyed Britons to learn how positively or negatively they responded to 24 different words used to indicate levels of goodness or badness. "Fantastic," "superb," "brilliant," and "incredible" topped the list of positive terms, while "terrible," "awful," and "abysmal" were the most negative. "Awesome" does not appear on the list, which makes me think UK people don't use it in the same way US people do.[via Bruce Sterling] Read the rest
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by David Pescovitz on (#407NK)
OK fine, maybe it's a napkin. Still, somebody could have told the man. But they didn't. They didn't. Video evidence below.(Washington Post) Read the rest
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#407NN)
It almost seems alive.An Extremely Realistic 3D Painting of a Cat Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#407NQ)
Last year, the FCC was only able to ram through a repeal of Net Neutrality by refusing to reject the millions of comments sent by bots that used the stolen identities of regular internet users, dead people, and even sitting US Members of Congress.It turns out the FCC isn't the only agency being flooded by bots during requests for comment -- and it's also not the only agency that doesn't seem to give a shit about being astroturfed by bots using stolen identities to influence government policy in favor of corporate agencies.Back in 2014, the FCC was attacked by bots that tried to get it to take a position favorable to massive corporate sports leagues on the subject of "blackouts" during major-league games.The Labor Board has been flooded by bots who wanted it to end the practice of imposing conflict-of-interest rules on retirement investment advisors (the Board weakened the requirements, allowing advisors to steer their clients towards investments decisions that they will personally benefit from). In 2015, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was botted, flooded with stolen-identity comments supporting the merger between Onewest and CIT banks. All this implies that someone -- some consultancy, PR company or other "service provider" -- has developed a product that they're shopping in corporate board-rooms, offering to destroy US government agencies' public comment systems with stolen identities who support the clients' most profitable initiative. There are way too many people involved in a scam like this for it to remain a secret. Read the rest
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by David Pescovitz on (#407HD)
A kindergarten and first grade football time in Morrow, Ohio is holding a gun raffle to raise travel money for tournaments. They've already sold 500 tickets. The winners, 21 years or older, will receive either a handgun or HM Guardian F5 Elite. Apparently, gun raffles to support kids sports and schools isn't uncommon. From WLWT:Gina Pennycuff is a mother and a substitute teacher. She happened to be working when she got a Facebook message about the gun raffle."It was disturbing to me because gun raffles for a youth organization just doesn't mix," she said.She shared the flyer on Facebook and the comment section took off, some in favor and some opposed..."I can't imagine being a parent of a kindergartener and them worrying and doing lockdown drills, but them also knowing they're raffling off guns," she said."Youth football team gun raffle sparks debate" (Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!) Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#407HF)
Just in time for Halloween, this cosplay-adjacent dress inspired by the Haunted Mansion's Tightrope Girl (AKA "Ballerina and Alligator, AKA Parasol Girl, AKA Ally Gal, Sally Slater, Daisy De La Cruz, Lillian O'Malley), sold with matching cape and ribbon. It's part of the fabulous renaissance in Haunted Mansion merch, including this Haunted Mansion Ballroom dress. (via Welcome Foolish Mortals) Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#407HH)
A (somewhat dubious) survey of 850 business executives for firms of 500 or more employees "with involvement in the decision making process regarding customer experience in their organization" and 4,500 consumers "who have contacted a brand during the last six months with an enquiry or issue to be resolved" found a vast gap between how satisfied the executives believed their customers were and how the customers felt about their interactions.The study should be taken as guideline more than gospel: it was commissioned by a company that provides chatbot technology (and whose report predicts that the customer satisfaction gap could be bridged with chatbots -- something I am personally dubious about) and the sampling methodology is murky and thinly described. That said, the gap is vast. 80 percent of execs believe their customers are satisfied with the service they get; while 83% of the customers surveyed gave their satisfaction as "average" or "poor."Both business and consumer respondents agree that telephone and email are among the most common channels used to conduct business. However, they also tend to produce the slowest time to resolution.The average time to resolution was 11 hours -- almost three times higher than the wait time cited as being acceptable. Telephone interactions tend to be resolved in 7 hours, and email is 18 hours.Only one in three (32 percent) of consumers believe they get the best results when interacting with a brand when an AI-powered chatbot is involved in some capacity. Average time to resolve problems is three times higher than customers want [Eileen Brown/Zdnet](via /. Read the rest
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by Rob Beschizza on (#40786)
Telltale Games wasn't just a hit developer, producing the hugely popular The Walking Dead game series. It reinvented the adventure game, producing quality interactive narratives while escaping the genre's retro conventions. Despite its apparent success, the company suddenly imploded last month, laying off most of its staff. Megan Farokhmanesh reports on the tragic end of Telltale Games.The woes of Telltale Games have deep roots. Earlier this year, The Verge published a report detailing years of nonstop crunch culture, toxic management, and frustration from developers who believed the company’s refusal to diversify gameplay had led to creative stagnation. ...These sources, who were granted anonymity in order to speak freely and without fear of retribution, paint a consistent picture of a company desperately struggling to keep its head above water. Despite what they see as the best of intentions on behalf of those running Telltale, hundreds still tumbled into unemployment with no safety net from their company.The "cinematic adventure games for top franchises" business was more marginal than it looked at the scale Telltale grew to, dedicated workers were constantly exploited by crunch-development cycles, management was blindly optimistic, and potential new partners figured out all of the above and put away their checkbooks. Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#40788)
Yesterday, Bloomberg published a blockbuster story accusing the Chinese military of sneaking spy-chips "the size of a grain of rice" onto the motherboards of servers sold by Supermicro and/or Elemental for use in data-centers operated by the biggest US corporations (Apple and Amazon, among others), as well as US warships and military data-centers, and the servers used by Congress and the Senate.Several of the involved parties issues detailed, emphatic denials, producing aa kind of he-said/she-said situation where it's hard to know who to believe (it doesn't help that Bloomberg's article relied exclusively on anonymous sources, albeit multiple sources for each claim).If you -- like me -- are struggling to make sense of the situation, here is some further reading. First is a pair of twitter threads by Joe Fitz, owner of Securinghardware.com: the first is largely nontechnical and talks about some of the logistical challenges involved; the second is more technical and gets into some very chewy details.At one point in time I had a conversation about how I would put a hardware implant into a system. I'm delighted to see @qrs had a very similar assessment: https://t.co/RJS6b92XUu— Joe Fitz (@securelyfitz) October 4, 2018There’s recent news about some really interesting hardware implants. I wanted to take a bit to share more technical thoughts and details that can’t be reduced to a mainstream article on the topic.threaded: https://t.co/7VdmaDaQNr— Joe Fitz (@securelyfitz) October 4, 2018Next is an excellent roundup from The Grugq (previously) who takes a skeptical look at Bloomberg's claims, points to the best parts of the worldwide debate, and tries to subject the story to some a priori analysis of what we know is possible and what we believe to be impossible. Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#40740)
In 2008, the Bush and Obama administrations both argued that they had a duty to transfer more than $700,000,000,000 of American taxpayers' money to the largest banks in the country, because these banks were "too big to fail" and allowing them to collapse would do much more harm than a mere $0.7 trillion subsidy.But of course, that wasn't their only option. As Matt Taibbi argued persuasively in his brilliant history of the crisis and its aftermath, The Divide, a bank that is on the verge of collapse, come begging to the US government for hundreds of billions to stay afloat, is a bank that is intrinsically regulable.If the bank needs government aid to survive, it will accept any terms that the government offers. It is over a barrel. And a perfectly obvious, legitimate demand that governments can make of banks that are "too big to fail" and that need hundreds of billions to keep them from tanking the real economy is that they get smaller. As in, "Here are the billions you need, and you'll get them just as soon as you make a binding promise to divest yourself of all those competitors you gobbled up, breaking up the giant bank that poses a systemic risk to the nation into a bunch of smaller banks whose mismanagement will not destroy the country."Bernie Sanders has spent his whole political career warning that relaxation of financial rules would make banks too big to fail: in 1994, Sanders was the only No vote on the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act, which fired the starter pistol on financial mergers and acquisitions. Read the rest
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by Boing Boing's Shop on (#40737)
Big or small, all companies need a web presence. And we're talking more than a landing page and a couple of links to social media. Format is the go-to tool that gives business leaders full control of their digital storefront, and if you want proof, you're in luck: A 1-year subscription to Format Pro is 65% off at $49.99.You'll dive in quickly with a drag-and-drop interface and a full library of flexible layouts that are fully compatible for web or mobile. Once you're up, Format Pro makes things easy to maintain with the ability to sell products directly through the site, a proofing tool, and a free Format Galleries app for managing images. Unlimited bandwidth, Google Analytics support, Adobe Lightroom integration - this platform has all the tools you need to launch and keep rising.Get Format Pro's 1-Year Subscription now for $49.99 and give your work the virtual showcase it deserves. Read the rest
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by Rob Beschizza on (#406ZS)
If you seee a brand on Amazon and you've never heard of it, there's a chance that it's just Amazon. The company operates a growing number of labels with names like "Arabella", "Lark & Ro" amd "NuPro" to market its own products—and they'll soon be augmented by a more brands "exclusive to Amazon, but not owned by it", absorbed into its Private Brand program. Quartz reports:Amazon’s push into private labels could threaten the third-party sellers who do business on its website, and are important to the company’s own bottom line. Amazon generated $9.7 billion in revenue from commissions and services it provided to third-party sellers (e.g., fulfillment and shipping fees) in the latest quarter, ended July 26. Earlier this week, eBay sent Amazon a cease-and-desist accusing it of a shady, multiyear campaign to lure eBay sellers over to the Amazon marketplace.It's posed here as a solution to problems caused by Amazon's current third-party seller platform, which it won't adequately police but also understands is rotting customers' trust in the site. Savvy shoppers already know not to buy certain types of product from Amazon because of couterfeits. As CNBC reports, though, Amazon is unable to avoid the temptation of promoting its own products in competitors' first-party listings too.Another problem: what Amazon is doing here closely resembles the marketing habits of Chinese exporters who have flooded Amazon with legitimate but low-quality gear. If you search for headphones there, for example, you get some name brands, but most of the first page of results is for brands like "Mpow", "Alihen", "Redess", "Arrela." Which of these are real? Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#4066J)
The MacArthur Foundation has announced its 2018 Fellows (AKA the "MacArthur Genius Prize winners"), a list of 25 remarkable people from all disciplines, including the incomparable Kelly Link (previously), who joins other science fiction writers who won the prize, including Octavia Butler and Jonathan Lethem. Congrats, Kelly! Read the rest
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by Seamus Bellamy on (#40669)
LOooOooook! This baby rhino learned how to jump and skip from it's lamb buddy. I needed this today. I think this video would be a great way to illustrate why multiculturalism is so awesome: when we're exposed to thoughts, food and cultures other than our own, our horizons are broadened. Our lives are enriched. It gives us new, joyful ways to frolic. Read the rest
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by Seamus Bellamy on (#4063B)
I've been playing Civilization, in one form or another, since the mid-1990s. I love the depth of the game and the multitude of ways that it can be played. I take comfort in the knowledge that no matter what I do, or how good our in-game relationship might be, sooner or later Gandhi will try to slit my throat. When Civ VI popped a few years ago, I bought it as soon as I was able to scrape enough money together. I play it on my Mac. I play it on Windows. That wasn't enough. Soon, I found myself playing it on my iPad Pro as well. Civilization is everywhere in my life. It's like an old friend that you allowed to crash on your couch for a few days who now refuses to leave. Today, that old friend went ahead and helped itself to more of my life: Civilization VI has been ported to work on my iPhone.This is a productivity nightmare. On the other hand, much joy will be brought to the time that I spend in the bathroom. I downloaded the game to my iPhone 7 Plus this morning and took it for a quick spin. It's great! At least on an iPhone with a display the size of mine. It'll run on handsets as old as an iPhone 7. But I wouldn't want to attempt to play it on something that small. On the 7 Plus, the display, thanks to a number of tweaks that have been made to the game's UI is still completely usable, provided you don't have fingers the size of Snickers bars. Read the rest
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by Seamus Bellamy on (#4063D)
I own a DJI Spark. It's not the most expense drone out there, but it's a good one. I love its ability to take video and photos from angles that I could never manage from the ground. I do not, however, love the fact that law enforcement officials in the United States will soon be able to shoot it down.According to TechCrunch, the Senate passed the FAA Reauthorization Act earlier this week. It's a bill that does a lot of good stuff like allowing for the continued funding of the FAA and ensuring that passengers on commercial flights aren't treated any more like cattle than we already are. However, there's also some bits in pieces in the bill that provide law enforcement officials with permission to screw with privately-owned drones.From TechCrunch:...critics say the new authority that gives the government the right to “disrupt,†“exercise control,†or “seize or otherwise confiscate†drones that’s deemed a “credible threat†is dangerous and doesn’t include enough safeguards.Federal authorities would not need to first obtain a warrant, which rights groups say that authority could be easily abused, making it possible for Homeland Security and the Justice Department and its various law enforcement and immigration agencies to shoot down anyone’s drone for any justifiable reason.Should federal and municipal authorities be able to take out drones that threaten human life or national security by flying into airspace that's reserved for air travel or zipping through the sky over a nuclear power plant? Read the rest
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by Cory Doctorow on (#4063F)
Last year, Apple outraged independent technicians when they updated the Iphone design to prevent third party repair, adding a "feature" that allowed handsets to detect when their screens had been swapped (even when they'd been swapped for an original, Apple-manufactured screen) and refuse to function until they got an official Apple unlock code.Now, this system has come to the MacBook Pros and Imac Pros, thanks to the "T2 security chip" which will render systems nonfunctional after replacing the keyboard, screen, case, or other components, until the a proprietary Apple "configuration tool" is used to unlock the system.Apple does not tell its customers that the computers it sells are designed to punish them for opting to get their property repaired by independent technicians; the details of the T2 came from a leaked service manual. “There’s two possible explanations: This is a continued campaign of obsolescence and they want to control the ecosystem and bring all repair into the network they control,†Kyle Wiens, the CEO of iFixit, told me on the phone. “Another is security, but I don’t see a security model that doesn’t trust the owner of the device making much sense.â€Apple's New Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros [Jason Koebler/Motherboard] Read the rest
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