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Project Dragonfly is a secret Google plan to create an Android-based search tool (early versions were called "Maotai" and "Longfei") for use in China (where Google is currently blocked), in collaboration with the Chinese government, where search results related to human rights, democracy, protest, religion and other "sensitive" topics will be censored. (more…)

Fortnite Battle Royale's new Fly Explosives Limited Time Mode is a BLAST!The absolute best way to finish out challenges relating to explosives kills, and a fantastic way to laugh until your sides ache, is the new Fly Explosives LTM. The game mode features explosive weapons and insane maneuverability. You'll be 'sploding fools left and right.The much debated jetpack is back. I am a huge fan, but people who can build like mad hate how it levels the playing field. People who can build and fly become near unstoppable!Once far over-powered, the guided missile changed the entire meta the last time it was out of the vault. People would build small boxes, hide and fire missiles out a window. Hunting players down from relative safety made the game kinda boring and lame. This revision of the guided missile seems to be under-powered and seems to relegate the weapon to teamwork related kills. It is slower, turns wider, and does far less damage to buildings and people.I was able to complete a "Get Three Explosive Weapons Kills" challenge in my first game. I was able to rack up a "Kill 10 opponents" challenge in two more. Normally I'd have worked all night to get 10 kills and maybe 1 would have been with explosives. Game play certainly changes when you don't have to worry about being sniped or lasered from across the map. My squad mates and I were whooping it up dying of laughter just as often as grenades.

FOR THE KIDS IN YOUR LIFE, AND THEIR SUMMER READING: Get Ruben Bolling’s hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures."The EMU Club inhabits exactly the world I always hoped to live in when I was 12, when the answer to questions like 'Where did I put my toy' led inevitably to alien conspiracies and secret underground tunnels. A book for the curious and adventurous!" -Cory Doctorow, author of "For the Win" and "Little Brother""The type of non-stop action and improbably hilarious fun that only a kid could dream up. ... The EMU Club's adventures perfectly capture the intersection of imagination and wonder - the crossroad that's so often found in cardboard boxes, pillow forts and backyards everywhere." -GeekDadGet Book the First, "Alien Invasion in My Backyard," here.Get Book the Second, "Ghostly Thief of Time," here.—RESIST!! The temptation to not join Tom the Dancing Bug's INNER HIVE!More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

The film industry is notoriously competitive, so you're going to need every edge you can get if you're hoping to see success in Hollywood. Thankfully, you won't have to go at it alone. You can align yourself with four industry professionals and get a comprehensive look at directing, casting, cinematography, and more with the Film Director Essentials Bundle, on sale for $19 in the Boing Boing Store.Following along a veteran cinematographer, actor-turned-casting-director, and other industry professionals, you'll come to grips with several elements of film production as you make your way through four comprehensive courses. You'll follow along a real production situation, learn how to host auditions, and familiarize yourself with industry lingo, tools, and techniques as you progress through the training.Make yourself stand out from the rest of the competition with insight from bona fide Hollywood experts. You can pick up the Film Director Essentials Bundle in the Boing Boing Store for $19 today.

California's housing bubble has pushed prices so high (the median Californian home sells for double the national average) that, in some cities, 48% of first-time buyers could only afford to purchase their homes because their parents gave them the downpayment. (more…)

Unlike neighboring LA, the city of Long Beach has no restrictions on evicting tenants from old buildings by doubling or tripling the rent and then booting them out. (more…)

Steam's anything-goes policy toward what it will host hasn't helped: the game platform suffered a 17% drop in active users so far this year, according to data posted by SteamDB.The fading of fad hit PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds appears to be responsible for about half of the decline. Whether its its rise and "fall" hides continued steady growth elsewhere should become quickly apparent, as that game's player base reached equilibrium over the summer.https://twitter.com/Steam_Spy/status/1024291642436734982The anything-goes policy was seen as a capitulation to (or even an investment in) a rising tide of low-quality and often racist, sexist and plagiarized software, or at least an attempt to avoid the angry culture wars surrounding such material. The emergence of malware posing as games is the sort of obvious result of hands-off moderation they were nonetheless unable to see coming.

Is it me or is there something off about these t-shirts?Haha, just kidding. That's the point of the slightlywrong tees, that they aren't quite right. For example, in their brilliant misquoted t-shirt world, Spock's motto "Live long and prosper" becomes "Live long and proper."Their tagline? "T-shirts with slightly wrong quotes on them to annoy the pedants in your life."And their pro-tip: "Insist the quote is 100% accurate."Shut up and take my money.(i09)

Tom Hardy continues his tradition of playing comic book characters whose main power is mumbling in the latest trailer for Venom. It's a fun-filled 3:14 that extols the virtues of teamwork, appreciating one another's differences and making the best of a bad situation. I'm betting the movie'll be just like the Odd Couple, but with more eviscerations.

Nowadays, chances are you associate Cherry with the clickety switches on fancy keyboards. But it's been a global company for decades: if it's boring business-to-business hardware and it clicks, it might well be a Cherry.

Attaching a helicopter blade to a boat-pulled dinghy sounds like a great idea on paper, but can it fly? Behold the Giro Boat. (more…)

These backpacks, handmade by Los Angeles' thingsbuilt, are just the thing if you love the style of vintage cars but don't want to be in the shop all the time. Owner Steve Roche used real vehicle emblems and upholstery on each and every one (in the past, he's had ones that incorporated the car's ashtray on the front pocket). Prices range from $60 to $85.Thanks, Jenny!

Librarian Thomas Guignard (a.k.a. timtom) has a wonderful collection of Creative Commons photographs of libraries he's taken over the years. (more…)

Photographer Brandon Burton's This Must Be the Place series examines abandoned buildings, often framed within a sweeping rural vista. (more…)

John Oliver handily obliterates Facebook's desperate propaganda campaign to rehabilitate itself.

A one-pound bolt dropped from 20 feet will easily impale a watermelon. From 30 feet it obliterates the watermelon. Lesson learned: protect your watermelon when you take it to work.

Ralph Teetor, a mechanical engineer who was blind since childhood, invented cruise control because his lawyer's driving nauseated him. Great Big Story has a short video about him and his other inventions.

In 2015, Alok Menghrajani wrote a simple game, including a floppy disk bootloader to run it, that fit in a tweet. Now that the tweet length is double what it was then, he's made a version that can be burned to CD.perl -E 'say"A"x46422,"BDRDAwMQFFTCBUT1JJVE8gU1BFQ0lGSUNBVElPTg","A"x54,"Ew","A"x2634,"/0NEMDAxAQ","A"x2721,"BAAAAYQ","A"x30,"SVVVqogAAAAAAAEAF","A"x2676,"LMBaACgB76gfbgTAM0Qv8D4uYAI86qqgcc+AXP45GA8SHIRPFB3DTeYSEhyBSwCa8CwicMB3rSG/sHNFbRFJjAke9rrwQ","A"x2638'|base64 -D>cd.isoThe code is compacted into Base64, but you get the idea: a ludicrously yet ingeniously simplified game wrapped in a perl script that dumps it into an iso file to burn to CD. The game is ~64 bytes long.See also: the tweet-length demoscene.

I had to have this Fortnite tee-shirt. They keep finding ways to get me paying for this free game.Fortnite 99 Problems T-Shirt via Amazon

Polygon has an amazing piece on why gaming culture and young white male gamers are so toxic. They interviewed a number of folks doing actual academic research and professional journalism on the topic, and the answers are sadly exactly what you expect. Scared racist white guys have had a lot of time to fester in their little bubble, and are very resistant to any change that means they aren't always Ãœbermenschen.Excerpt via Polygon, but read the whole thing:

A quick registration at Donate Life can turn hunks of your soulless cadaver into the greatest gift you'll ever give.In 2006 a heart donor gave my Uncle, Lee Krinsky, 12 more years of life. I can not tell you how much those 12 years meant to Lee, his wife Karen, our entire family, and a large community of people who loved him.My Uncle Lee was the kind of Uncle who was always full of shit. As a kid it was great fun to listen to him tell stories. As an adult it was great fun to smoke a joint with him, and listen to him tell wild stories. One of the best was the story of his transplanted heart. Nothing about being a transplant recipient is easy, but Lee was always grateful, and knew he was living on gifted time. He had worn his old heart out.You can line up to give that gift to someone else. Be it restoring vision, kidneys, liver or a beating heart -- any parts you aren't using any more are spare. As my Uncle Lee would say "Be a mensch" and sign up.Lee Krinsky, July 3, 1950 – July 24, 2018

In Harajuku Pop Princess Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's lavish, wonderfully-costumed and choreographed pop video there's no danger whatsoever of a "left tree" situation resulting.Previously.

None of the mass shootings in America have been committed by shooters using 3-D Guns, but that's not stopping Donald Trump and a bunch of NRA-backed lawmakers from freaking out about the threat DIY weapons pose, before doing anything about how readily available regular old guns are to regular old bad guys. (more…)

"Aloha Poke [Co.] would prefer to settle this matter amicably and without court intervention," reads a letter from Olson and Cepuritis Ltd, lawyers representing Chicago's Aloha Poke Company, addressed to the owner of Honolulu's "Aloha Poke Shop." (more…)

Francisco Huizar III had an affair with the woman Keith King was married to. King's marriage subsequently fell apart, so he sued for all sorts of alleged impropriety. Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson awarded him $8.8 million. (more…)

$1000 is a lot of money; too much for a new laptop if all you want to do is play games on the go. At Laptop Mag, Rami Tabari wrote a guide on how to hunt for a good one.

Lucy the truffle-sniffing dog is helping Professor Ulf Büntgen and other researchers learn more about the ecology of truffles, which despite their great value remain enigmatic to scientists. (more…)

Five years after Oregon designated Saccharomyces cerevisia (AKA brewer's yeast) as its official state microbe, the New Jersey senate has unanimously passed S1729, which names Streptomyces griseus (which produces a powerful antibiotic and was discovered at Rutgers) to high state honor -- now the microbe bill goes to the state assembly and thence to the governor. (Image: Docwarhol, CC-BY-SA)

Facebook is said to be revealing today that it has identified “coordinated political influence campaigns using fake accounts to influence the midterm elections on issues like “Unite the Right” and #AbolishICE,” reports the New York Times. The company has been working with FBI to investigate who's behind the campaigns, which apparently came to light a few weeks ago and have since been shut down by Facebook admins. (more…)

The FDA has sent warning letters to seven companies selling quack "energy based" vaginal rejuvenation "therapies," in which repurposed laser and radio-frequency-based tools that are used to remove warts and precancerous growths are used to scorch peoples' vaginas, a process that is claimed to have benefits for sexual dysfunction, urinary problems, dryness, "laxity," itching and a host of ills. Some of these companies specifically target breast-cancer survivors. (more…)

Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg is, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the world's largest model train set. It's so large—including airports, cityscapes and even seas—that to even call it a train set seems a good example of the German sense of humor. It covers 1,500 square meters, has 260,000 figurines in it , 9,250 cars, 1,040 trains, 42 planes, 385,000 LEDs, and cost 21 million Euros to construct.

Auckland-based artist Hazel Zakariya eschews the sepia palate of latte art and embraces the vibrant possibilities of smoothie art. (more…)

Hardware reviews are a big part of how I put bread on the table. In order to do my job properly, I’ve got to be something of a platform agnostic. While I do most of my writing using Apple devices, I also have to consider other platforms in my coverage: software that works well on a laptop running Windows 10 may be a dog’s breakfast on a MacBook once it’s been ported.A bluetooth speaker that sound great when paired with my iPhone 7 Plus, for example, might sound like hot garbage when linked to another audio source. So I invest in other hardware that may not be used as part of my day-to-day life, but which I still need to think about when doing my job.About six months ago, I came to the conclusion that maybe hauling the hardware out when it came time to test something and then throwing it back in a box when I’m done with it wasn’t enough: to really understand whether, say a pair of headphones that comes with an app to control their EQ or noise cancellation, without seeing how it fits into my day-to-day life using a given platform. So, I upped the amount of time that I spend working in Windows 10, I now read books on both Kobo and Amazon e-readers and, in a real shift in how I live my lift, I’ve spent more than half a year using Android-powered smartphones as my daily drivers. In the time since I last used an Android device as my go-to, things have improved so much, I was taken aback.Before going any further, you should know that my previous full-time experience with Android always saw me with something whimsical in my hand. My first Android device was Dell Streak. Compared to the iPhone 3G that I was using at the time, its 7” display was HUGE. I loved it for watching movies and for creating content on the go. But it was heavy, had crap battery life and, back in 2010, Android, as an OS and the platform’s anemic selection of top shelf apps led me to sell my Streak after a few months of use. My next Android phone was a Sony Xperia Play. I loved the idea of having a legitimate gaming experience on the go. That I could run emulators on my smartphone and play games using honest to god hardware controls was the dream. But the phone turned out to be something of a lame duck: the promise of compatible Playstation games from Sony never really came to fruition, beyond a small handful of titles. Worse, the handset itself was flimsy and prone to crashing. And again, to me, Android just wasn’t able to compete with the thoughtful UI, feature set or glut of outstanding applications one gets with an iPhone.Fast forward to 2018.I was surprised to find that Android is faster than it’s ever been. It’s UI, while it took me a while to get used to (thanks muscle memory) is polished and easy to navigate, even for new users. The backend of the OS spoils users for choice. I love that I can connect a 1TB SanDisk Rugged Extreme SSD to my phone and watch movies while I travel, no streaming required. Being able to tweak my handset’s home screen to look any way I please? Awesome. Having more than a handful of handsets from a single manufacture to pick from? Love it. In the past year, I’ve farted about with Android smartphones made by LG, Samsung, Blackberry and Motorola. My favorite company that I’ve run across, so far, has been OnePlus. I now own a OnePlus 5T and a OnePlus 6. They’re well built, fast as hell and, it’s possible to find decent cases and other accessories for them. My OnePlus 6, which I’m using today, is protected by an Otterbox case. Even a few years ago, finding a brand name case for an Android phone was damn near impossible. Most importantly, for a solid smartphone, OnePlus gear is cheap. For around half the price, the OnePlus Six is just as capable a piece of hardware as a current generation iPhone, in just about every area accept for two: apps and its camera. To be blunt, Android still can’t keep up with iOS where Apps are concerned. But the difference between the Google Play Store of a few years ago and what’s on offer there now is tremendous. I was able to find most of what I need to be able to get through a day away from my laptop. I’m missing a couple of critical apps that I use on a routine basis—Omnifocus and Scrivener. But if I REALLY need to use Scrivener, I can bring my iPhone or iPad with me. And as for Omnifocus, I found a solid, less than legit workaround app in the Play Store that lets me keep on top of my various projects and todo list items. The OnePlus 6’s camera? It’s… OK. But for a phone that came out this year, it’s having a rough time matching my nearly two year old iPhone 7 Plus in the areas of clarity and color. Using the built-in camera software that comes with Adobe Lightroom Mobile helps as it captures more image information than the OnePlus’ camera app does. But, it still only passes merely ‘ok’ images. But I think that, given the price of the OnePlus 6, I think that less than stellar but still very nice image quality, is a reasonable trade off. I’ve been using Apple gear for over 20 years at this point. The notion of completely switching over to Android isn’t enticing to me. I have far too much of my money invested in iOS software, accessories (don’t get me started on how much I love Moment’s lens system) and lightning cables to leave it all behind now. What’s more, despite how much I’ve enjoyed being in the trenches with an Android device over these past months, I still prefer iOS. Were I to be asked by a friend what phone they should get, I think I’d hesitate before giving an answer. Automatically, in response to such a query, I’d say, ‘an iPhone,’ without pause. But Android has come so far and is such a solid choice for an OS, that I’d have no problem, depending on the usage case, considering the recommendation of a Google Pixel, Samsung or OnePlus handset. It’s shocking good stuff and, with a little luck, it’ll keep getting better.Image via Flicker, courtesy of Eduardo Woo

Bill McGovern worked as a second assistant camera on a lot of shows, which is why he seems pretty unfazed to have handled the clapper and slating duties on some iconic Star Trek episodes. (more…)

After the Brexit vote, a lot of people pointed out that the areas that voted most heavily in favour of separating from the EU were also the areas that relied most heavily on EU subsidies, and wondered why British voters would decide to slit their own throats. (more…)

Trump finance secretary/supervillain Steve Mnuchin says he wants to unilaterally allow Americans to factor in inflation when calculating capital gains; the move would cost the US government $100 billion and 97% of that would go to the top 10% of US earners (66% would go to the 0.1% of US earners). (more…)

Mercatus (previously) is part of the Koch Brothers' network of thinktanks which allow the billionaires and their cadre of oligarchs to make it appear that their ideas are mainstream by all singing the praises of the wealthy in chorus. (more…)

Susan Crawford (previously) identifies one of the great and deadly paradoxes of late-stage capitalism, where predatory oligarchs prowl for state assets that can be sold off to them on the cheap, and target vulnerable regulators that can be dismantled so that industry can run amok: the best-functioning, most vital, best-run state systems are invisible, because they do their jobs so well we never hear about them. (more…)

Don't let its appearance fool you. The SKEYE Mini Camera Drone is one of the most nimble drones out there. Engineered with adjustable gyro sensitivity and a 6-axis flight control system, this palm-sized drone is a dream for both novice and veteran pilots to fly, and it's available in the Boing Boing Store for $29.Despite its small stature, the SKEYE Nano 2 still has room for a built-in HD camera, which you can use to record footage in real-time. The drone can be operated via controller, making it friendly to pilots of all calibers. It can take off, land, and hover easily with built-in auto-functions, and the SKEYE Mini Nano Drone is even capable of nighttime flight thanks to its built-in LED lights.Whether you're looking to pick up a new hobby or just a new way to take more creative selfies, the SKEYE Nano 2 Camera Drone is a solid choice. It's on sale today for $59, 40% off its usual price.

When things start getting crazy globally, rich people start looking for backup plans. Bloomberg looks at the uptick in people with enough wealth to secure a second passport, or even multiple passports. (more…)

'The Try Guys' started as a jokey part of a clickbaity but harmless YouTube genre, but they've been slowly edging into much deeper topics involving masculine insecurities around their appearance, most notably Should The Try Guys Get Plastic Surgery? (more…)

Boing Boing fave Simone Giertz (of "Shitty Robots" fame) had brain surgery earlier this year, so it's great to see her back with an update. (more…)

Web Typography Resources is a list of apps, tools, plugins and other stuff that will help you make words look nice on the world-wide web. Highlights include Bram Stein's typography inspector, Monotype's new SkyFonts webfont management service, and Matej Latin's book Better Web Typography for a Better Web. [Amazon]Previously: Practical Typography [Matthew Butterick]

We often unconsciously mirror the behavior of people we interact with. This can include mirroring posture, gestures, and voice patterns. A recent paper in Current Biology reports that we can mirror a smile based on speech alone, and even do so without actually detecting the smile.The researchers applied a signal processing technique for altering recorded speech under a neutral mouth position to what it would have sounded like had the speaker been smiling. They played 60 such recordings (some manipulated, some not) to 35 subjects, and asked them to judge whether the speaker was smiling. The researchers also measured the responses of two subject muscle groups while listening, the zygomatic (smiling) muscles and the corrugator (frowning) muscles.When the subjects correctly reported neutral expression or smiling in the speech, both of their muscle groups accurately mirrored the speech while listening (e.g., for smiling speakers, zygomatic tensing and corrugator relaxing). Interestingly, even when the subjects were wrong, their zygomatic muscles still mirrored correctly. This was not true for the corrugators, which instead reflected the subjects' report.Our mirroring capabilities go well beyond what we see, or even perceive.

Amazon reviews are bought and paid for, and the company has a significant, algorithm-led effort to weed out sellers and scammers who abuse the system. But Amazon itself also rigs the UI to make it hard to leave negative reviews — at least when it comes to the "Amazon's Choice" picks Stephen Eggers didn't like.

Road diets (previously) have been proven to reduce fatalities and unsafe speed incidents. Here's how it works. (more…)

Children should conduct all interviews from this point forward because they get into it. They aren't afraid to ask the real questions.Case in point: The HiHo Kids all got 20 minutes to grill Macklemore on anything they wanted. It starts with a bang when a young girl asks, "Is it hard to be a rapper with your kind of skin tone?" Unfazed, the rap star answers with a smirk, "What are you trying to say?"Macklemore keeps it pretty real with the kids, except for maybe a couple times, like when he said that weird thing about the "sexiest animal hunters."Surprisingly, some of the kids didn't recognize Macklemore. But this one did and he's a big fan (as you'll see if you watch to the end):

Given that I started a keto diet last weekend, I couldn;t have stumbled across this video at a worse time (farewell, carbs. I knew thee well.) But just because I can only stare at this video longingly doesn't mean that you can't partake.

All dogs should come with their own GoPro camera. Every. Single. One.

Q: What is up in the air? A: Alex Trebek retiring from his sweet Jeopardy! host gig in 2020. On the latest episode of Fox News' OBJECTified, the Canadian-born game show host shared that he gave it a 50-50 chance that he'll renew his contract when it comes up in two yearsand that he already has a replacement in mind: sportscaster Alex Faust.While we wait a couple more years for his decision, let's go back to that time when the nerdcore community rapped this song after Trebek insulted a contestant who said she was into the genre, shall we?https://youtu.be/3WQk7YGpFZ4(The Source)