This lovely trilogy of videos by Vugar Efendi collects shots from movies that are homages to notable paintings. (more…)

Lions ate at least two rhinoceros poachers trespassing on a game preserve in Kenton-on-Sea, South Africa. Along with the poachers' remains, rangers found a high-powered rifle and axe."They strayed into a pride of lions - it's a big pride so they didn't have too much time," Sibuya reserve owner Nick Fox was quoted as saying. "We're not sure how many there were - there's not much left of them."More in this press release from the Sibuya Game Reserve.(BBC)

President Trump's corrupt EPA chief is out. The resignation letter is nuts, and mentions God's divine providence and other creepy surreal stuff that doesn't belong.(more…)

A startling and quite wonderful ... article? ... at the Washington Post today, wherein Alexandra Petri lenses EPA chief Scott Pruit's corruption through a mockingly science-fictional eye and perfectly distills the surreal horror of his administration.

Three poachers who broke into a game reserve this week were eaten by lions, reports Newsweek.(more…)

In the current acquisition binge around artificial intelligence, tech behemoths with deep pockets lead the way, including Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Intel, Microsoft, Twitter, and Salesforce. The only one with a limited consumer-facing presence is social monitoring firm Meltwater. (more…)

The Overlook Hotel is a deeply creepy and strange "sequel" to The Shining made entirely from clips from myriad horror films. Directed by Antonio Maria Da Silva who is best known for the excellent edit Hell's Club (2015).

Oregon State Representative Janelle Bynum, who is running for reelection, was canvassing in Clackamas County when one of her constituents called the police. Why? According to Bynum's Facebook post, the resident thought she was acting suspiciously "going door to door and spending a lot of time typing on (her) cell phone after each house."

Jeb Corliss held a GoPro Fusion 360 camera on the Goliath rollercoaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Then he stabilized the footage. Enjoy the trip. And it is a trip.

Do you own a Samsung smartphone? Do you take photos with said phone? Congratulations, there’s an excellent chance that your handset is randomly firing off those pictures you’ve snapped to folks on your contact list without your permission. According to The Verge, the images are being pushed out by Samsung’s cleverly named default messaging app, Samsung Messages. If the fact that your phone might be sending out all of the images its got in storage for the world to see isn’t enough of a shit and giggle for you, try this one on for size: Samsung Messages reportedly doesn’t even bother to tell you that the operation has been completed. Unless the person who received the photos lets you know that it happened, you’ll be completely in the dark about the fact that the photos were uploaded. From The Verge:

Like peanut butter and jelly, some things are just meant to be together. DevOps (a shortened compound of development and operations) is tech industry's equivalent of a pb&j sandwich. Through combining development and operations teams into one, companies are able to rapidly churn out products and services and improve them faster than if the teams were isolated. The Pay What You Want DevOps Bundle can teach you the tools and techniques DevOps engineers use to streamline work, and it's available for a price you pick.Here's how the deal works: Simply pay what you want, and you'll instantly unlock one of the collection's seven courses. Beat the average price paid, and you'll get the remaining six at no extra charge.Following along tutorials and project-based instruction, you'll familiarize yourself with Docker, Kubernetes, and several other tools of the DevOps trade. You'll foster core engineering skills, like using Docker to build development environments and creating an automated continuous deployment pipeline to build, test, analyze, and deploy a web-based apps with Jenkins.Choose your price, and you can take the first step towards becoming an in-demand DevOps expert with The Pay What You Want DevOps Bundle.

The Slenderman is a boogeyman born from the Something Awful forums that manifested in the real world in 2014 when two pre-teen girls stabbed their friend 19 times to please The Slenderman. "A Self-Induced Hallucination" is director Dan Schoenbrun's documentary about The Slenderman that he made entirely from archival footage.

In a 318 to 278 vote, the European Parliament today shot down proposals that would have made online publishers liable for users' copyright infringement and made even linking to other websites fraught with legal risk. The bill, widely reviled for its service to legacy media interests and general ignorance of the internet itself, now goes back to committee.

I spent a lot of time away from home over the past few weeks, visiting With friends in Edmonton in between business trips to New York City and Boston. As a freshly-minted Nintendo Switch owner, I wanted to take my console with me to spruce up my downtime while I was on the road. As I can be kind of hard on my gear, one of the first things I do, especially if it’s a piece of kit that I plan on traveling with, is invest in a good case to protect it. As I’d had success with their bags and cases in the past, I opted to take Waterfield Designs’ Cityslicker case for Nintendo Switch for a spin. For the most part, it was a good decision.Heavily padded and well-stitched to within an inch of its life, the Cityslicker Case looks and feels great. When I ordered the case, there were a few different color options to choose from. I opted for Grizzly Leather: a light brown that gets better looking the more you beat it up. Aside from its leather lid, most of the case is made from ballistic nylon. It feels good the touch and should (although I wouldn’t recommend trying it) offer your Switch a bit of protection from liquids, too. Most importantly, the CItyslicker comes with enough padding that I don’t think much would happen to my Switch were it dropped from, say, the height of a dining room table while it was in the case. In addition to their being room for a Nintendo Switch and a pair of Joy Cons, I was also able to jam a USB C cable into the case so that I can charge my console on the fly, a cloth for wiping the console’s display, a slim portable battery bank for recharging my Switch or smartphone on the go (I’ll be damned if you'll ever catch me using an airplane’s power system to charge anything) and a leather card that can hold ten Switch game cards in it. The latter’s likely overkill, as the case itself has slots in it to hold up to five game cards or microSD cards. Right now, I only own two games published to physical media. But I hate paying taxes and shipping on small items like a game card holder after the fact, so here we at.The case’s lid is secured by a pair of magnetic snaps. Given what a terrible idea pushing on buttons with your delicate Switch console inside of the case would be, I think this was an outstanding design decision. I’m also fond of the wee loop of fabric, located on the bottom of the case. By slipping a finger through the loop and grabbing my Switch with my free hand, it’s really easy to remove the console from inside of the snug-fitting case.The only thing that makes this case a little less than great is its price: it’ll set you back $79. That’s a lotta cheddar to be laying out after investing in a Nintendo Switch. But I look at it this way: It could end up costing me a whole lot more if I were to buy a less expensive, less capable protective case for my console. Drop a Switch once in a shitty, under padded case and that’s all she wrote. I suspect that the Cityslicker will serve me well, for as long as I own my console.

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…)

Ray Corrigan (previously), a campaigning computer scientist at the UK's Open University, has an excellent explainer on the EU's disastrous copyright directive on the progressive academic group blog Crooked Timber (previously). (more…)

Tomorrow, July 5, the European Parliament will vote on whether to conduct a debate and review of the new copyright directive that was approved by the legislative committee last month. (more…)

Context, contemplation, careful study: things all but lost in the modern rush to shovel information into our eyeballs. Here's The Indy on slow reading, the antithesis of speed reading.

Not all heroes wear capes, people. Take this bear, for instance. Mark Hough of Altadena, California first spotted the bear climbing over his fence. He then witnessed the critter slipping into his (unheated) hot tub for a cool soak. Wait, it gets better. Then the bear knocked over and lapped up the margarita Hough had left by the edge of the tub. Later, the bear was found napping in a nearby tree.NBC San Diego:

Robot vacuums have been around for a while, but the technology has been somewhat hit-or-miss. All too often, these machines get stuck, miss spots, or simply don't work the way you need them to. The ECOVACS DEEBOT Slim2 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner, however, is designed with a myriad of smart features to make it more autonomous an even clean your living space when you're not around. It's available in the Boing Boing store for $140 and you can save an additional 15% off with code JULY4TH.Engineered with stair safety, obstacle detection technology, and auto-recharge functionality, the ECOVACS DEEBOT Slim2 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner is more than capable of navigating your living space and tidying up your hardwood floors. It features selective cleaning modes for various messes and is capable of tangle-free suction and dry mopping. What's more, using the app, you can start the DEEBOT remotely and program it for daily or weekly cleanings, making for a smarter tidying experience.The ECOVACS DEEBOT Slim2 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner is available for $140 in the Boing Boing store.

In the first part of this video, the guys at the sports/comedy YouTube Channel Dude Perfect launch a ping pong ball through a Rube Goldberg-like contraption that fills a room. Once it's made its way through, then they show off their mad trick shots using ping pong balls. The video's vibe is bro-ish but the tricks are impressive!This is their fourth in a series of (gone-incredibly-viral) "ping pong trick shot" videos. Here are the other three:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeG1ftTmLAg145M viewshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtsfUAHkyWQ150M viewshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nRZhGP5apQ50M views

Chaka Khan is back with a new funky single called "Like Sugar."NPR calls it a "sweet summer groove":

A mysterious metal object washed up on a beach in Corolla on the Outer Banks in North Carolina and nobody seems to know its origin. Is it part of a Russian nuclear sub? An ocean buoy? Advanced alien technology? Or something far stranger? From the Charlotte Observer:

This Saturday (6/30) in San Francisco, Brooklyn-based artist/designer Scott Albrecht opens "A Forgiving Sunset," a large solo exhibition of new woodworks, works-on-paper, and steel sculptures. Scott continues to amplify his blend of artistic vision and exquisite craftsmanship in captivating works that are based in simple typographical forms but manifested from his puzzle-like assembly of numerous individual pieces of paper, wood, or, now, steel.“The work for this show pulls from a range of experiences and inspirations over the last two years," Albrecht says. "A recurring point of reference in the work was the social climate and the growing gaps I was seeing among relationships — both on a cultural level as well as a personal level — and my own desire to return to something more connected. When I began this collection I developed a somewhat daily habit of listening to the poem, Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. Although it was originally written in 1927, it is, among many things, a fairly timeless call for empathy, compassion and understanding, which seems just as relevant and needed today as I’m sure it did when it was written.”A Forgiving Sunset hangs at the First Amendment Gallery until July 28. The opening reception is Saturday, June 30, from 7-10pm.

CARNE y ARENA is a timely virtual reality project from Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound that allows people to feel the terror of being apprehended by border patrol. (more…)

Sometimes a toad or frog just wants a light snack. (more…)

Ever drive over a manhole that was not flush with the pavement? This is how they fix them.Via Mr. Manhole:

Here is a clip from a 1975 episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood where Mister Rogers interviews Margaret Hamilton, the actress who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.Looking at this video, it's hard not to pine for a time when you could talk so sweetly and innocently about witches on a children's program and not risk fundie villagers showing up at the neighborhood's gates with pitch forks and threats of a boycott.https://youtu.be/W23FRsHnegE

Choosing to live as far from cities as I can, as often as I can, I spend a lot of time on the cusp of sanity trying to do my online job, keep up with the news, and keep in touch with the people I care about over a cellular connection that stays attached to my carrier’s network by a thread. On rainy days, or the frequent times when the gods have had enough of my bullshit, I can’t connect at all, forcing me to put my life on hold. It’s a part of choosing to live in the country! As mad as I’ve gotten at my lousy connection speeds in the past, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to connect to YouTube badly enough that I was willing to dig 15 miles of trenches to make it happen — but that’s exactly what the residents of a small village in Wales did.Michaelston-y-Fedw, located between Cardiff and Newport in the United Kingdom, has a population of around 300 people. They were all putting up with shitty internet, with speeds as slow as 4Mbps. It was possible to pay for high-speed broadband service in Michaelston-y-Fedw — someone is always willing to take your money — but the infrastructure to pipe the bandwidth into the village didn’t exist. Sick of their internet connectivity being caught in the late 1990s, some of the villagers got to drinking, which led to talking and, after a bit more drinking, resulted in a plan: They’d sort the mess out themselves. From The Guardian:

Let’s give credit where it’s due: The National Enquirer “world exclusive” has scooped everyone with its latest cover story: “ISIS Kill Plot Foiled! Sniper Caught Stalking Prince George!”They even have the astonishing photograph of the sniper leaning out of a window overlooking Prince William walking his princely son to school, as the story reveals: “This chilling image shows the heart-stopping moment that little Prince George cheated death!” The man in the window “appears to be holding a rifle and looking down at the two royals,” the Enquirer breathlessly reports on its cover, captioning its photo: “Under the gun!”The true measure of the Enquirer scoop is revealed, however, in video footage that was filmed of Prince George’s first day at school, when the “gunman” can clearly be seen in the window holding not a gun, but either a camera or a smartphone, quite clearly photographing the arrival like any other paparazzi. Footage shows the “sniper” holding the camera up for several seconds, before bringing it down to rest on the windowsill, perhaps for a steadier image if shooting video. Not a gun in sight, and - surprise, surprise! - no arrests. So how was this camera-toting “gunman” part of an “ISIS kill plot?” Like wild horses over the hills, the Enquirer editorial imaginations run amok.We’re treated to a double-helping of fact-free exclusives as this week’s tabloids give us not one, but two weeks’ worth of reality-challenged stories. The tabloids must be taking their annual vacation, because this week’s newsstands are heaving with two completely separate issues of the National Enquirer, Globe, Us, Star, Life & Style and Closer magazines, dated July 9 and July 12 respectively, with their typical disregard for the Gregorian calendar’s actual passage.There are twice as many stories, which means double the flagrant inaccuracies, while paradoxically offering less than half the usual impoverished level of truthiness.The second Enquirer cover brings us their latest despatch from the front lines of the Brad Pitt-Angelia Jolie divorce: “Brad wins custody as . . . 79-lb Angie Collapses!” Yet buried deep within its story, the Enquirer admits that Jolie never collapsed at all, but simply “turned white as a ghost and became dizzy” while recently touring “war-ravaged Iraq” in June. Could it be jet lag, sleep deprivation, hypoglycemia, exhaustion or flu that caused Jolie to briefly turn pale? Of course not. “Kidney failure bombshell” screams the Enquirer cover, according to an unnamed insider. Right.“JFK Jr. Autopsy Cover-Up - It was Murder!” yells the cover of this week’s Globe, promising “proof bomb destroyed plane!” Evidently the plane’s wreckage covered “an unusually broad debris field . . . consistent with the detonation of an explosion,” declares an unidentified “expert” (expert in what . . . plane crashes? . . . mid-air explosions? . . . undersea debris fields?) It’s a nice conceit, but not borne out by the facts: when JFK Jr.’s plane was found three days after the crash in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999, recovery divers found the wreckage at a depth of around 120 feet, strewn over a debris field of 120 feet - entirely consistent with a high-speed impact with water. No cover-up autopsy. No “proof” of an explosion.Fake news fills the Enquirer, which yet again trots out its beloved tag line “First To Know” above an “Enquirer Exclusive” interview with actress Drew Barrymore’s first husband, Jeremy Thomas. But this isn’t the first interview with Thomas since their brief marriage ended in 1994, and I should know, because I had the first exclusive interview with the Hollywood bar owner weeks after their separation - 24 years ago. And he doesn’t say anything new now that he didn’t say in 1994. Nice to see the Enquirer catching up with all the latest news.The Globe is equally au courant in a week when even ancient news is spread thin to cover two vacuous editions, bringing us a staggering nine pages of “Drunk & Disorderly Stars!” It’s a page-filling excuse for raking over the old coals of celebrities behaving badly. Heather Locklear, Brittany Spears - they’re talking about you.Ryan Gosling has suffered “Brain Damage Horror!” panics next week's Enquirer, though the story inside merely says that he may have suffered a concussion on the set of his latest movie. Yes, concussions can lead to medical problems, including brain injury, but that hardly merits the Enquirer stating categorically in this week’s Enquirer that Gosling “. . . suffered brain damage filming his next flick . . . "The Enquirer must be digging out dust-covered stories from the bottom of its drawers, because it brings us the “Enquirer Exclusive” from FBI files claiming that “Steve Jobs Tried to Blow Up Apple HQ!” Is it really an exclusive if every other media outlet reported the same FBI files six years ago? I doubt it. What’s more, Jobs never tried to blow up Apple’s HQ. Yes, he allegedly phoned in a fake bomb threat to clear the Apple building at the time the board of directors was meeting to discuss firing him, which may be criminally stupid, but it’s not the same as actually planting a bomb. Old news, told incorrectly.The National Examiner joins in the fun with the “world exclusive” report that Princess “Diana’s Killer Found!” Evidently international arms dealers, angered by Diana’s campaign against land mines, put out the hit on her. Alright, I’ll play along - who was her killer?Explains the Globe: “. . . a mercenary and crack sniper known by codename Arrow.” Right. Arms dealers hired a marksman to get Diana’s driver drunk, persuade a gang of paparazzi to chase her at high speed, and tampered with the car’s brakes? They probably did so for the same reason that I always hire a crack sniper to work as my car mechanic: sharpshooters always know their way around a carburetor. Makes perfect sense. And now Arrow has been “Found!” presumably we can put him behind bars? I won’t hold my breath.People magazine sticks to the facts, but dispenses with anything of interest in its cover story on Chip & Joanna Gaines’ “Baby Joy!” Apparently the stars of TV’s Fixer Upper have just had their fifth child. Honestly, I couldn’t give a darn about their first four fixer-upper kids, and I don’t feel any different about No.5 either. At least we can be grateful there is only one People magazine this week. No such luck with Us, which brings us two equally lightweight issues. Comparing Meghan Markle to Princess Diana, this week’s Us cover tells of “Meghan’s Triumph - The New People’s Princess,” while next week’s Us cover offers Reese Witherspoon saying of daughter Ava: “She’s My Best Friend!” Yes, apparently that’s going to be huge news next week. I can’t wait.Fortunately we have Us magazine’s crack investigative team bringing us double the usual air-headed nonsense, telling us that Olivia Culpo and Brooke Burke both wore it best, that Mira Sorvino “would eat spaghetti marinara and chocolate cake” for her last meal on earth, that Eddie Cibrian secretly wants “to be a cowboy,” that Nate Burkus and Jeremiah Brent carry monogrammed diapers in their three-month-old son’s camouflage diaper bag, that Jackie Cruz “can’t live without” her Gucci belt bag, and that the stars are just like us: they shop for home goods, hug their pets, go makeup-free, eat ice cream, relax in the shade, shop at the Family Dollar store (seriously, Shaquille O’Neal, did you really need to save a few cents?), test makeup, and grocery shop. Whew!Onwards and downwards . . .