Boing Boing

Get a glimpse into Stephen Colbert's brilliant brain as he connects Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino's "Favorite Song" to Lord of the Rings' "Song of Eärendil" via Gilbert and Sullivan's distinct rhythm. What a big ol' Tolkien nerd, he is!

When pianist James Rhodes uploaded a recording of his own performance of a Bach composition to Facebook, it was immediately blocked thanks to a match with a recording that Sony had claimed copyright in; Facebook uses an automated filter of the sort that the EU voted to make mandatory for all content types and services yesterday and it can't distinguish any competent rendition of Bach from any other competent rendition. (more…)

Sexual misconduct allegations today surfaced involving Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The FBI confirms receipt of “information” which Sen. Diane Feinstein spoke of earlier today. FBI tells reporters letter has been added to “Judge Kavanaugh's background file, as per the standard process.” The New York Times published a bombshell report today on allegations of sexual misconduct against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. (more…)

Brazilian tattoo studio Menace Tattoo shared this cool design of a week-old tattoo inspired by the work of Veks Van Hillik. Watch as artist Silvia Martins opens the wings of her new tattoo: (more…)

Wow, there's a shot-by-shot live-action remake of Toy Story 3 in the works. Brothers Morgan and Mason McGrew (who are self-proclaimed Disney/Pixar fanatics) are directing the piece which is due out in 2019. They've just released its trailer and it looks amazing!

On this day in 1993, Late Night with Conan O'Brien first aired on NBC. Twenty-five years later, the first episode has been released online in its entirety.It's quite a time capsule. His first guests were John Goodman, Drew Barrymore, and Tony Randall (with Goodman being the first-first guest -- see photo below). Something to look forward to: In January 2019, the complete online archive of the show will be made available. In the meantime, take a look at the audition that landed Conan the Late Night spot.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YM5Ftb2lTc

LED bulbs are now cheaper that incandescent bulbs. These 60W equivalent bulbs aren't dimmable, but are highly rated on Amazon. I just bought a pack of 25 soft white bulbs for $28 (they also come in daylight temperature, but that is too harsh for me).

John Wilcock has been the subject of an ongoing comic book biography here on Boing Boing. Scott Marshall and I have been working on the comic since 2012, or so, and it's been a nice goal to complete the book in John's lifetime. John lived many lives almost simultaneously, and it's been a massive research project effort to connect his experiences into one cohesive timeline. It's with some regret that while the book will likely complete in 2019, John passed away last night at the age of 91. But what a terrific life.As chronicled in the comic, much of today's subculture (and news culture, and drug culture, and positive-minded sex culture, and the syndication nature of the Internet) was largely influenced by John's interest in connecting like minds in the 1950s and 1960s. He cofounded The Village Voice, established the Underground Press Syndicate, and later worked with Andy Warhol to develop Interview.John was also a travel writer for both The New York Times and Frommer's, and published his own underground paper, Other Scenes, which is an unheralded masterpiece of weird optics, amazing design, and challenging subjects. (Part of the goal of the comic book biography is to highlight Other Scenes, which you'll see here on Boing Boing in 2019.)As we celebrate John's accomplished life, here's a few comics from the biography:Editing Norman Mailer

The median annual income for a person right after they are released from prison is $6,500, so it's understandable why 70% of them receive food assistance of about $200 a month. This summer the House passed a bill that will deny food stamps to people who have served their sentences for violent crimes.From Alex Busansky (founder of Impact Justice) and Gary Maynard (former president of the American Correctional Association) in the Washington Post:

Davit Masia, creator of Pixatool (previously), made another app for pixel artists with Manuel Jesus Bolanos Gomez—this time with the focus on movement. Pixel FX generates particle effects such as clouds, smoke, fire and fog.

Here's a good video recap of the new stuff Apple introduced yesterday: new phones, a new watch, and group Facetime.

The creators of the fantastic game Secret Hitler are kickstarting a new 5-minute game for two players, called Inhuman Conditions. Inspired by Blade Runner, it's Voight-Kampff and the Turing Test as entertainment. One player takes on the role of an investigator and the other player is either a human or a robot who tries to convince the interrogator that they are a person. It looks like fun! I am backing it.http://kck.st/2NC5r9m

Andy Hallinan owns a "Muslim-free" gun shop in Florida. He agreed to be interviewed for a new documentary about Trayvon Martin, Rest In Power. The interviewer asked Hallinan why he didn't think the Confederate flag is a racist symbol. What followed is one of the greatest self owns of all time. Watch below:

Jack Poulson was a senior research scientist at Google whose work on machine learning work was used to improve Google's search results; now he's quit the company over its Project Dragonfly, a once-secret plan to launch a censored Chinese search engine; Poulson called the move a "forfeiture of our values." (more…)

I put a new battery in my 2011 11" MacBook Air. I love the laptop more than I minded the frustration. It will probably be easier for you.I come from the time where we carried spare laptop batteries with us, and they were instantly swappable. I'd press a small button on the battery to light up some green LEDs to see how much juice was left in a spare. Those days are gone. We have now entered a dark age where batteries are sealed behind obscure pentalobe screws. After 7 years my treasured 11" Air was unable to hold a charge for longer than 75 minutes or so. I was fucked and going to have to open that case.I love that little 11" laptop. It is the device I carry for creative writing. Small enough to not be a bother, but functional enough computer to do anything I need in a pinch. I did not want to lose this laptop, but the short battery life was killing me. Most of the coffee shops and places I like to work no longer want to offer power outlets to folks drinking one cup of black coffee for 2 hours.I tried cycling the battery to restore some lost capacity. It did not help. I looked at the iPad Pro with a keyboard. I even looked at the Surface Pro. Then I researched batteries and the replacement looked like it should be no problem.Ha. Ha. Ha.I searched the internet's latest iteration of forums, Reddit and Youtube, for info on folks who'd replaced this model battery. I read a lot of Amazon reviews. The size of the replacement battery was supposedly a problem in varying degrees with all models, even Apple sourced batteries. The Temark I chose seemed to have a high probability of going in without a problem.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejwRqM3fpVkI used the included screwdrivers to remove the tiny, cruelly chosen screws. I kept the ones from the backplate separate from the battery screws, even tho they are different colors and sizes. When the backplate came off I saw that my battery had broken around one of the screws, damage from an apparent fall. I'd dented the case a bit too -- but the laptop never showed an issue. There were splintered bits of battery plastic all over. When I removed the battery, I noticed a thin metal bar had come loose in the area of the trackpad. It had been held in place by the battery pressure, I guessed, and needed replacement.I looked at images of trackpads for my model Air and saw that the bar appeared to sit across the bottom of the trackpad, in-between it and the battery. I felt some residual sticky adhesive where it appeared to go, and the bar stuck right back there. I put everything back together, feeling like I was going to have to take all those screws out again, and should have tried powering up before I had screwed them all in.The laptop turned right on.The sign-in screen came up.The battery showed about a 60% charge. I plugged it in and it started to charge right up.I moved the pointer to my name/icon on the sign in screen and clicked.No click.Pointer will frantically move around the screen. No click.Tapping at the very top gets me mouse click. I can login. Laptop is fine. Trackpad is not working. I realize it must be that damn bar, and that the adhesive hadn't held.Power it all down.Open it back up.Re-affix the bar with glue stick.One day later: repeat with electrical tape.Everything works perfectly here, now. No, really. No problems. When I am done working on the blog this am, I'll take my Air to a coffee shop and work on a short story. It now gets 4-5 hrs of power. More than when it was new.For $70 and maybe 2 hours of frustration I have a small-sized laptop I like a lot more than any of the new light-computer solutions out there. It was actually very easy, my old laptop was just beat to hell.Temark New A1495 A1406 Laptop Battery for MacBook Air 11'' A1465 A1370 (Mid 2011 2012 2013 Early 2014 2015 Version), fit MC968 MD223 MD711 020-7376-A 020-7377-A via Amazon

This summer, Charter Communications was ordered to leave New York State, reversing its acquisition of Time Warner Cable and selling off the assets; the move came after the cable company broke its promises to expand broadband access in the state to less-profitable markets and then repeated lied to state authorities about. (more…)

A study conducted by Douglas Elliman Real Estate found that one in five New York retail spaces is sitting vacant; these spaces are boarded up and attract vandalism, drug-dealing, and other unsavory activities. The rate has more than tripled since 2016. (more…)

After the Apollo 11 moon landing nearly 50 years ago, the White House gifted tiny samples of moon rocks to all the 50 states and 135 countries. They were encased in acrylic and mounted on a wooden plaque. In 2002, Joseph Gutheinz, then a NASA investigator, realized that nearly all of them had vanished. Thanks to his persistence since then, there are only two missing lunar souvenirs of the 50 distributed in the US. From the AP:

A road-rage video went viral on Chinese social media last month, showing a motorist from the northeastern province of Dongbei berating an e-bike rider from Beijing, deriding him for being a native-born Beijinger (the cyclist spoke in Beijing dialect) and lording it over him that migrants from outlying provinces are prosperous enough to drive cars while Beijingers are riding e-bikes ("F*ck you Beijingers! ...While us outsiders (外地人) are driving cars, you poor-ass Beijingers are still riding miserable e-bikes." (more…)

One of the most incredibly funny writers/directors around Mitch Rouse offers up a different take on Elvis.Without all the distracting music and vocal accompaniment, and a few minor audio adds, The King becomes something else entirely. Perhaps something more honest, certainly more hilarious.Experience the pure and unfiltered King of Rock and Roll! The longer this video goes on, the harder I laugh.

In 2012, North Carolina's Coastal Resources Commission studied the question of sea-level rise and the likelihood that coastal areas would be inundated by severe weather, concluding that the seas were likely to rise by 39" over the century; the Republican legislature, backed by property developers building in low-lying coastal regions, passed a bill prohibiting any such research and decreeing that the seas would rise at the same rate that they had through history, without regard to any science about accelerating rates fueled by climate change. (more…)

Art school Émile Cohl in Lyon, France formally apologized after students noticed that a group photo on the school's United States promotional web site had been manipulated to make several of the people appear to have dark skin. The manipulated photo is at the very top of this post. Below it is another image, without the alterations, from the same series of snapshots. From The Guardian:

Chiako Yamamoto is the first and only female sensei of Japan's revered bonsai masters. She shows trees of various sizes and ages, including those she inherited from relatives generations ago. (more…)

It must be Opposite Week in the tabloids.“JonBenet Ransom Note Reveals Killer!” screams the National Enquirer cover. No, it doesn’t.“Rachel Ray: I Quit” proclaims another Enquirer headline. No, she hasn't.“Queen Bans Meghan From Dad’s Funeral,” “Starsky & Hutch Deathbed Reunion,” “Mickey Mouse Sex Clubs!” No, no, and no.“Queen Survives Assassin Attack!” yells the Globe cover. Never happened.“Tom Cruise: Most Hated Man in Hollywood,” runs a two-page character assassination in the Globe.Not as long as his films continue earning hundreds of millions, and as long as Harvey Weinstein is around.These stories fly in the face of facts with the bravado normally only associated with White House press briefings. JonBenet Ramsey’s ransom note left by her alleged killer reveals a “hidden code and secret message”? Scientifically dubious analysis of the ink flow and pen pressure in the note no more indicate who the killer was than they disclose a coded message. And one wonders why the Enquirer believes this a “breakthrough” when it has spent the past year telling readers that “now-deceased psycho drifter Glenn Meyer” was the infant pageant queen’s killer.Has TV chef Rachel Ray quit? You be the judge: her show is still on the air.Did Queen Elizabeth II ban grand-daughter-in-law Meghan Markle from her father Thomas’s funeral? That seems a tad premature, since the 74-year-old is still alive and kicking. He’s "morbidly obese,” slams the Enquirer, ignoring Thomas Markle’s 40-pound weight loss since his heart surgery in May. Why let the facts get in the way of a good story?What about the “deathbed reunion” of TV’s Starsky & Hutch stars Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul? The duo are reportedly both confirmed to attend a convention in the UK next month – that’s a public meeting, not beside a hospital bed in Intensive Care. Maybe the Enquirer doesn’t quite grasp what a “deathbed” actually is?“Mickey Mouse Sex Clubs?” The Enquirer allegedly found adult swingers clubs in Orlando – shock, horror – which in the rag's view means they are “near” Disney World, and therefore are “Mickey Mouse Sex Clubs!” Perfect logic for Opposite Week.And did Her Royal Highness survive an attack by “Islamic terrorists”? It’s yet another “world exclusive” by Globe Royal correspondents that was missed by the entire British Royal press pack, and the seasoned press corps covering Scotland Yard. How did this attack on The Queen slip under the radar? “The threat has been hushed up,” reports the Globe. How convenient.Most intriguing is the Tom Cruise hatchet job. It’s true that Cruise has alienated some in Hollywood with his devotion to Scientology, his sudden divorce from Nicole Kidman and messy divorce from Katie Holmes, but it’s hard to argue that “Hollywood Hates Tom Cruise” when his films still earn fortunes and every studio would love to be in business with him.Britain's Royals dominate both Us and People magazine covers, with vacuous stories that reveal next to nothing new. “Growing Up Royal” is Us mag’s tale of Prince William and Duchess Kate’s children’s “family barbecues . . . tennis and ballet classes . . studying French & nights of homework.” Truly insightful.People informs readers of the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle’s “Grace Under Pressure,” telling how she “is coping with family drama . . . and the challenges of the spotlight.” Just like every story about her for the past two years.Fortunately we have the crack investigative team at Us mag to inform us that Lily James wore it best, Jerry O’Connell promises: “I am not Jason Bateman” (though we only have his word on this), that Busy Philipps carries a quartz crystal, Advil and keys in her Clare V cross-body bag, and that the stars are just like us: they ride scooters, feed parking meters, and read books.And “They Multitask!” exclaims Us mag, which seems particularly impressed by actress Meg Ryan performing this astonishing feat. What complex tasks is she juggling simultaneously? "Meg Ryan walked and talked on a day of running errands,” raves the awe-struck publication. Walked AND talked?! Truly impressive I’d have to say, especially since it’s Opposite Week in the tabloids.Onwards and downwards . . .

Over the summer, a spectacular golden bridge opened to the public near Da Nang. In addition to a great view from Vietnam's Ba Na Hills, the Cầu Vàng bridge appears to be supported by a colossal hand. (more…)

In this clip from Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story, Florida gun store owner and George Zimmerman pal Andy Hallinan explains that the Civil War was not about slavery. He is then asked what it was about. [via Lachlan]

The Beach Boys vs the Fat Boys in an epic grudge match.

Maxim Zhestkov (previously) created a mesmerizing exercise involving light refracting within computer-generated crystals. (more…)

Myanmar's head of government, Aung San Suu Kyi, has backed the jailing of reporters who exposed details of the massacre of Rohingya men by her government's armed forces.

After being hammered by hurricane Maria, the residents of the rural Puerto Rican mountain town of Mariana got tired of waiting for the bumbling, privatized, cash-starved power authority to reconnect them to the grid, so the anarchist organizer Christine Nieves founded Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo, one of a dozen-odd cooperatives across the island to create their own solar grid; by the time the The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority finally put in appearance, Mariana had had power for two whole months. (more…)

The Republican president speaks for the Republican Party.

CVS isn't just in the business of operating retail pharmacies: equally important is its prescription administration services, where it buys drugs from independent pharmacies, marks them up, and sells them to government-run programs like Medicare and prisons, using "spread pricing" to determine the markup that it applies to generic drugs. (more…)

Edge isn't doing so well: Chrome still rules the web roost, and Firefox is resurgent. But Microsoft can do something about that.

One of the most repugnant features of international trade agreements, from TPP to TTIP to CETA, is the "Investor State Dispute Settlement" (ISDS) clause, which gives corporations the power to sue governments to repeal health, safety, and environmental laws if they interfere with the company's profits. (more…)

Who isn’t fascinated by the idea of perpetual motion? Though I know it’s impossible, I’m always on the lookout for things that seem to come close.Like most tops, Limbo is spun from your fingertips – but the hidden USB recharge-able gyroscope is what keeps it going. LIMBO just took the Guinness World Record title for Longest-Running Mechanical Spinning Top with a non-stop spinning time of 27 hours, 9 minutes and 24 seconds! Here is a lovely product shot with its protected secret exposed.When I was a kid, one of my favorite games to play was a frantic board game called Battling Tops where you and your friends each spun a top into a playing field and the last one standing was the winner.This was a ridiculously entertaining game but it gave me a completely different feeling than my LIMBO toy. Instead of a frenzied micro-war playing out in front of me, the goal of LIMBO is to simply stand upright and appear as still as possible.For those who don’t actually know that it’s powered though, LIMBO defies logic. It seems to have the gift of perpetual motion — much like the liquid-filled, drinking glass birdies from my childhood.If you have children and haven’t seen these in action, spend the 5 bucks on one right now. It’s basically a science experiment in a fancy blue top-hat!The bird tips back and forth depending on whether his beak is moist or not. As water evaporates, the temperature in the bird's head lowers and creates a pressure change inside the body, which causes liquid to rise into its head, which makes him dip again. The beak becomes remoistened and the cycle impossibly repeats for hours. If I didn’t have one myself, the drinking glass birdie would seem as impossible as the mofos below who toot around town in their impossi-cars powered by well-placed magnets. But it is not! The drinking glass birdie is science in a fancy blue top hat! Which of course brings me back to LIMBO — the greatest top in the world!If you like things that travel at speeds up to 10,000 RPM while looking like they’re standing still for a long freaking time — then LIMBO is your jam.Either way, please enjoy this Battling Spaceships board game commercial from 1977. It's the same basic idea as Battling Tops only this one comes with an especially annoying curly haired kid.https://youtu.be/DPX92dvGm-g

A Portland, Oregon-based romance novelist has been charged with a crime she once wrote about. (more…)

At today's Apple Event in Cupertino, the company unveiled a Series 4 of its watch, and repositioned it as more of a health device. The Apple Watch Series 4 now packs an electrocardiogram, fall detection, and an impressive updated display. Photos and official launch day details, below. (more…)

At the big Apple Event today in Cupertino, a new iPhone was revealed. Here are official photos we received from Apple, for a closer look. (more…)

That's some mighty fine headline writing from the New York Post for their rehash of Paul McCartney's GQ interview in which he reminisced about masturbating with John Lennon.

Around 73,000 years ago, humans used a chunk of pigment to draw a pattern on a rock in a South African cave. The recently discovered fragment of the rock is now considered to be the oldest known drawing in history. From Science News:

After a poll revealed at 54% of her eligible viewers were not registered voters, with weeks to go before the crucial 2018 midterm elections, Samantha Bee set out to do something to get out the vote. (more…)

Back in July, MGM Resorts -- owner of the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas -- sued more than 1,000 survivors of the mass-shooting that took place in October, 2017, trying to secure a judgment that would prevent any of the survivors from suing the company. (more…)

Reader exchange from the Los Angeles Times:

Apple's big launch event took place in Cupertino today, and here are the big products to track: iPhone Xs, Xr, Xs, Max, and the Apple Watch Series 4. Pre-order begins this Friday. (more…)

It's hard not to think of this mite as a person, and the pen-wielder as a god who throws down obstacles to challenge the person to overcome them.

This is what you end up with when your goal is to make something as cheap as possible: a bag of artificially colored and flavored corn syrup that has a trace of honey in it so you can call it "Honey Sauce" instead of "Sweet Goo That Looks Like Piss."[via]

The lewdly leering Billy-Billy ($340) is a green flowerpot that tells you when it needs water and reminds you to take medication to mask your resentment against the well-meaning younger relative who thought you needed a nightmarish artificial companion.Best line: "Who cares? Billy-Billy cares."

We've been covering the rise and rise of Chinese science fiction here since the early part of the decade, as Chinese authors have been successfully exported to the English-speaking world (a rare feat, as there are enough books written in English to satisfy demand, leading to a real poverty of literature translated into English), which broke through in 2016, when authors like Hao Jingfang took home Hugo awards, along with the incredible Cixin Liu. (more…)

After architect Andrew McClure received a lesson from his cousin on how to use Minecraft, he went to work making a slick looking house in the sandbox game in just two hours.[via Core77]

Use code C37HNQ64 and get this autoranging multimeter from Tacklife for $7. It includes a 9V battery. I have a bunch of different Tacklife products (including a multimeter) and they do a great job.