Boing Boing

The International Garden municipal park in Cairo, Egypt is under scrutiny after Mahmoud Sarhan, 18, visited the zoo and noticed that the "zebras" looked very much like donkeys painted with stripes. His photos of the bizarre beasts went viral yet Garden Project director Mohammed Sultan insists that the "The zebra is real and not painted."From CNN:

My 12-year-old-son had a long weekend of fun with the original Nintendo Labo Variety Kit for the Switch. The cardboard contraptions truly embody some marvelous engineering and creativity. Admittedly, the novelty wore off fairly quickly but that doesn't mean we won't be buying the new Toy-Con 03 Vehicle Kit when it comes out in September. You can pre-order it from Amazon for $70.

Two New Orleans police officers were charged with battery this week after beating up a man they decided was a "fake American," reports CBS News. The officers were white and the victim hispanic; they told him they "didn't like his camouflage clothing."

Al Shabab (previously) is an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group whose use of child soldiers, brutal murder, and attacks targeted at civilians have allowed them to carve out a jihadi-controlled territory in Somalia. (more…)

From San Jose to Austin to Portland to Seattle (to name just a few), house prices are slumping, inventories are ballooning, and not-a-Nobel-Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller -- famed for spotting bubbles before they burst -- says "This could be the very beginning of a turning point." (more…)

Colbert revels in the ridiculous logic behind a conservative columnists response to attending an Ocasio-Cortez speech.

Darth Vader only appeared on screen for 34 minutes yet is the most visually iconic character of the original trilogy. Nerdwriter's Evan Puschak explains why.

Bicyclists who also own motorcycles and motorscooters have come up with some clever ways to mount their human-powered two-wheeler on their motor-powered vehicles. (more…)

Research into the shittiness of voice assistants zeroed in on a problem that many people were all-too-aware of: the inability of these devices to recognize "accented" speech ("accented" in quotes because there is no one formally correct English, and the most widely spoken English variants, such as Indian English, fall into this "accented" category). (more…)

After learning that Amazon was pushing the use of Rekognition, its facial recognition tool, for use in policing (a global phenomenon that is gaining momentum despite the material unsuitability of these tools in policing contexts), the ACLU of Northern California had a brainwave: they asked Rekognition to evaluate the faces of the 115th Congress of the United States. (more…)

Extracting earth's natural resources created some of the world's greatest fortunes. Many believe that trend will continue in space, as mining three types of asteroids leads to enormous material yields. (more…)

When last we met the Four Thieves Vinegar collective -- a group of anarchist scientists who combine free/open chemistry with open source hardware in response to shkrelic gouging by pharma companies -- they were announcing the epipencil, a $30 DIY alternative to the Epipen, Mylan's poster-child for price-gouging and profiteering on human misery. (more…)

Ask any IT expert worth their salt, and they'll tell you certifications are key for climbing up the IT ladder. However, few are as compelling as one from Cisco. A worldwide leader in networking solutions, Cisco is a key player in many a company's IT infrastructures; so proving you're competent with their tools and equipment can dramatically improve your hiring potential. To this end, the Ultimate Cisco Certification Super Bundle can help you get your foot in the door with instruction designed to help you ace a number of requisite Cisco certification exams. It's on sale today for $49, plus you can save an additional 50% with the coupon code DIGITALWEEK50.Jam-packed with nine courses on wireless networking, security, and more, this collection offers a multi-faceted look at IT and the various specializations you can break into with the appropriate certifications. You'll start by learning the skills for entry-level network support positions. Then, you'll advance to more nuanced and specialized topics, such as developing security infrastructures, implementing scaleable Cisco routers, and more.The Ultimate Cisco Certification Super Bundle was on sale for $59, but it's available at a new price drop this week only. You can get it today for $49, and enter coupon code DIGITALWEEK50 to save an additional 50%.

Ben Avlis makes surprising and sometimes slightly disturbing folded cartoons that reveal something surprising when unfolded. (more…)

Artificial intelligence has nearly unimaginable potential to shape the world, but it poses a number of significant ethical questions that need to be carefully examined at every step to reduce bias. Several experts give a rundown of the main concerns. (more…)

Shape of Life is a classic series produced by Sea Studios Foundation. Here, they show how sponges feed by placing harmless dye around the outside of a sponge. (more…)

This remarkable footage of wingsuit pilots hurtling through a cloud cave may leave you wondering how they got the shot. It's with a technique called overcapture, where 360 video is manipulated in postproduction to allow for panning and other effects. (more…)

Siberian roundworms frozen for millennia were thawed and are happily going about their business again, reports The Siberian Times.

Need to relax for a couple of minutes? Don those headphones and head over to Sand Tagious for some very satisfying slicing and smooshing of kinetic sand. (more…)

Snow Crash blew my mind when I read it in 1992. It wasn't just Stephenson's fantastic depiction of a global shared virtual reality universe (the Metaverse) that enthralled me, it was his detailed, often-funny world-building -- the United States government shrunken to a useless, paralyzed knot of red tape, Mafia-owned pizza delivery service, America broken up into corporate franchises, paranoid suburban enclaves (burbclaves), skateboard couriers with electromagnetic harpoons to latch onto cars for free rides, hyperinflated trillion-dollar bills being replaced with quadrillion dollar bills (billion dollar bills are cheaper than buying toilet paper)... The novel is a combination of sharp cultural commentary and old fashioned scifi adventure that's as fresh now (I re-read it a few years ago) as it was when it came out over 25 years ago. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and pick up the Kindle edition for $2.Background image: Dario Rigon/Shutterstock

In this difficult economy, it's worth doing everything you can to keep from having to visit a doctor or dentist. This gorilla gets it: Instead of booking an appointment, which would cost its troop a boatload of money, it goes on ahead and extracts its own tooth, like a furry boss.

A number of Bank of America customers have reported that their safe deposit boxes have gone missing. Bank of America doesn't have an answer for them.From CBS Sacramento:

Billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is busy making sure student debt destroys the future of millions of young people. The last thing she needs to worry about is ordering her servants to retrieve one of her family's 10 yachts that some bad person set adrift.

The listing description for this "beautiful top floor 3-level loft condominium located on the border of Western SOMA and Mission District" neglects to mention the best thing about it: the giant fucking beam running through the kitchen.

The Chinese slang term jingfen means "spiritually Finnish." It was coined thanks to the popularity of an online comic called Finnish Nightmares. Liang Chenyu speculates why so many Chinese millennials identify with the comic. (more…)

YouTube pulled four Alex Jones' Infowars videos because they contained hate speech and other content that violated its policies. Infowars was also temporarily prevented from live streaming its content on YouTube. The violation constitutes a "strike." If Infowars gets two more strikes during its 90-day probationary period, YouTube could kick Jones off it platform. It's unlikely that this will happen, though. Jones has almost 2.4 million followers and is therefore an advertising cash cow for YouTube's parent company, Google.From Yahoo

When I’m in Calgary, there’s a coffee shop that I like to work at, located in the Chinook Centre Mall. It’s part of a local chain that knows how to make a great iced latte. I’m not in often, but they know me. They know my face.Apparently, they’re not the only ones. According to the CBC, the management company that tends to Chinook Center Mall, Cadillac Fairview, has been using facial recognition software to track the sex and age of visitors on the down low.From The CBC:

As Kevin Poulsen tweeted, “Tired: Russia's 2016 interference in the presidential election. Wired: Russia's 2018 interference in the midterms.” (more…)

The Signals Network is a nonprofit that supports independent investigative journalism; they're financially supporting a consortium of five international media groups Die Zeit (Germany), Mediapart (France), The Daily Telegraph (UK), The Intercept (US) and WikiTtribune (Global) as they investigate misuse of "big data." (more…)

The U.S. indictment for accused Russian secret foreign agent Maria Butina refers to one of her American contacts as “U.S. Person 2.” Like others having serious legal troubles this week, they shared a love for the NRA. (more…)

Prepare to go to battle... with your whiskers!Stubble doesn't stand a chance against this super-sharp handcrafted warrior axe straight razor by Ukranian company Magic Ethnics. It sells for $125 and comes with a rustic wooden box:(Dude I Want That)

The fine folks who created the world's blackest black now have a sprayable version that adheres to most stable surfaces. To demonstrate, they sprayed two bronze masks, one on the inside and one on the outside, producing an interesting optical illusion. (more…)

This Bear Butt camping hammock saved my Fourth of July.(more…)

Thwarting Darwinism, or, more likely, a pair of earbuds, a cop from the Perth Amboy Police Department in New Jersey, hauled ass to save a man from being smooshed by a train--and it was all caught on the officer's body camera. Why anyone, unless they were in some emotional distress, would decide that walking down a set of train tracks oblivious to an oncoming locomotive was a good idea is beyond me. Fortunate for the fella in the video, the police officer that came to his rescue was in good enough physical shape that he was able to sprint with the 20 pounds of gear that most cops wear, without slowing him down.

All televisions on Air Farce One may only be tuned to FOX News! ONLY FOX NEWS!!!!Via The Week:

Farhad Manjoo (previously) writes in the New York Times about his cautious optimism that the big platforms are finally taking some steps to prevent harassment, but he also worries that this is setting the stage for a new era in tech, one in which the rules guarantee that Big Tech never has to worry about being challenged by upstarts. (more…)

Last month, while I was in Boston on assignment, my EIC took me out for lunch. Impossible Foods’ Impossible Burger was on the menu at the joint we went to. I had my doubts, as I ordered the thing, but it seemed like a rare opportunity to try the hard-to-find lab-grown burger that I shouldn’t pass up. It was absolutely delicious. Thanks to the FDA’s declaration that all of the ingredients in the Impossible patty are safe to consume, for most everyone, we might start seeing the plant-based meat in the wild a whole lot more often. It’s not that there was anything poisonous or specifically dangerous in an Impossible Burger patty. Rather, to make their ‘meat,’ Impossible Foods used a part of the soybean plant that no one’s every really thought to eat before: the root. From Engadget:

College football rivalries are taken seriously in the South. But, you'd think when fans of two rival teams wed, they'd come to a truce. This is not what happened with newlyweds Bekka and Johnny.The bride, Bekka, roots for LSU but the groom, Johnny, is an Alabama fan. At their wedding, Bekka gifted Johnny with a special "A" for Alabama cake, except that when he cut it Johnny realized he had been trolled by his new wife. Crazy sportsballers! The full story is here.(Neatorama)

Analysts predicted that Facebook would average 1.48B daily users, but their latest quarterly figures showed only 1.47B dailies; their projected earnings were $1.33B, but they only turned in $1.32B, and they were expected to earn $5.97/user but only earned $5.95/user -- and so their shares dropped 24% (they're slightly up from that, but still down 20%). (more…)

Two New Jersey radio hosts were suspended by their station today after directing racist remarks at the state's attorney general, Gurbir Grewa.Dennis Malloy and Judi Franco of WKXW-FM called Grewa "turban man" for the length of a segment about the nation's first Sikh to hold the position, because Malloy "couldn't remember" his name."I'm just going to say the guy with the turban,” Malloy said. "Listen, and if that offends you then don't wear the turban and maybe I'll remember your name."

Redditor cobalt_brightside posted this giant, novelty on/off switch lamp that has a hilarious, tiny, functional on/off switch to control the lamp.

HOPE -- Hackers on Planet Earth -- is 2600 Magazine's venerable, much-loved hacker conference in NYC, a bastion of progressive politics whose 2018 installment was slated to be the most progressive yet, with discussions scheduled on countering alt-right trolling, consent, sexual harrassment, and the rights of sex-workers. (more…)

Ain't nothing keeping these two from playing together, not even a fence.ABC News:

Contrary to what you might think, learning how to code isn't the only way to boost your salary. While demand for hard tech skills, like coding and data science, is through the roof, there are far easier—and less expensive—ways to enhance your pay. Learning Excel can give you the pay bump you're looking for, and you won't have to sit through a pricey bootcamp to certify your skills (more on that later).Learning Excel and other basic programs can qualify you a myriad of positions opening in today's digital workforce. According to a report from Burning Glass, more than 8 out of 10 positions require core digital skills like using Microsoft Excel; and they average payouts of more than $20/hour. What's more, taking the time to learn these digital skills can put you on the pathway to higher-paying middle and high-skill jobs.https://www.youtube.com/embed/mU8gWSbWT-cHow to start learning ExcelSimply going through some tutorials and putting "proficient in Microsoft Excel" on your resume isn't going to necessarily qualify you for these positions, however. In addition, to understanding Excel's functions and applications, having the right certifications makes you a much more appealing candidate. To this end, eLearnExcel: The Microsoft Excel Master Certification Bundle is your greatest asset.Ideal for those looking to get past Microsoft Excel's infamous learning curve, this 9-course collection features more than 28 hours of actionable content that will take you from the essentials to more nuanced concepts. You'll start with the fundamentals, like navigating the Excel interface and formatting cells. Then, you'll tackle more advanced applications, like visualizing your data with charts and tables and even automating your spreadsheets with powerful macros.You'll also earn a number of CPD certifications upon completing the collection, giving you powerful bargaining chips that you can add to your resume and get an edge over the competition.The eLearnExcel: The Microsoft Excel Master Certification Bundle was on sale for $39, but it's available at a new price drop this week. You can pick up the collection this week and start learning Excel for only $29.

Ross Edgley is swimming all the way around Britain, which is being followed both above and below the ocean's surface. A large minke whale visited him the other day. (more…)

Big Toast is an anthropomorphic slice of toast who like to slather himself with butter and pines for his ex-girlfriend, a fried egg. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur-K0sCHcSkAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez (previously) stunned the Democratic establishment when she comprehensively kicked the ass of finance-friendly, seemingly untouchable Democrat-in-name-only incumbent Joe Crowley in a New York City primary race that she won on a Democratic Socialist platform of abolishing ICE, Medicare for all, a jobs guarantee, a housing guarantee, gun control, relief for Puerto Rico, and gun control. (more…)

Based on their 2018 Global Slavery Index, the Walk Free Foundation estimates there are about 403,000 humans living in the United States under conditions that meet the definition of slavery. (more…)

Lala Abaddon takes her lovely photos and cuts them into long strips, then weaves them with another set of strips to create striking geometric patterns. (more…)