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1987's Robocop was perfect, its sequels bad, and 2014's remake forgettable. Earlier this year, the original's co-writer, Ed Neumeier, let out that he'd been working on a new sequel, and now it's official. Neill Blomkamp is directing, with Neumeier and co-writer Michael Miner producing. Justin Rhodes is rewriting a script Neumeier and Miner originally crafted in the 1980s for Robocop II that was ultimately rejected; Frank Miller got the job instead.

Liane Hornsey, Uber's HR chief, quit Tuesday after an investigation into racial discrimination found she "systematically dismissed internal complaints" about racism there.

We all lead unique lives and, as a result, experience stress in different ways. So, when it comes to dealing with anxiety, wouldn't it make more sense to choose a tailored solution over a cookie-cutter one? That's the mindset driving Mindbliss and its unique, AI-curated meditations. Lifetime subscriptions are available today for $49.99.Designed to grow alongside you, Mindbliss uses highly intelligent AI algorithms to curate meditation experiences to fit your needs, whether you're trying to sleep better, handle stress, or simply start each day with a positive outlook. The app provides users with both single-sit and serial sessions to not only promote self-care but also work toward creating a more consistent wellness lifestyle.You can come back to center with guided meditations, breathing exercises, and 3D nature soundscapes, and follow your growth with Mindbliss' tracking tools. And, with the ability to save your favorite sessions, you can take your meditation experiences with you offline.Lifetime subscriptions to Mindbliss are available for $49.99.

Sacha Baron Cohen, the man behind Ali G and Borat, is back with a new show which premieres this weekend. In the promo for the satirical half-hour series, called Who is America?, the British comedian can be heard asking, "Dick Cheney, is it possible to sign my waterboard kit?" The former Vice President answers, "Sure!" and is then shown autographing an empty plastic water jug. It then cuts to him, "That's the first time I've ever signed a waterboard." Troll level: expert.From the official description: "In the works over the past year, the seven-episode series explores the diverse individuals, from the infamous to the unknown across the political and cultural spectrum, who populate our unique nation."Showtime Networks president and CEO David Nevins said in a statement, "Sacha is a comedic genius who shocks you with his audacity, bravery and inventiveness. He is the premier provocateur of our time, but not for the sake of ‘gotcha’ moments. Behind the elaborate setup is a genuine quest for the truth about people, places and politics. Nobody knows how to cause a stir like Sacha Baron Cohen, and it’s going to be fascinating to watch what happens when Who Is America? is released on the world.”The show begins airing Sunday, July 15 at 10 PM ET/PT on Showtime.https://youtu.be/-gx70yWboTshttps://twitter.com/SachaBaronCohen/status/1014553587903442944

When a deaf Czech girl had her genes tested, researchers were surprised to find two sets of her father's genome spliced, leaving almost none of her mother's genome. Only about 25 girls and zero boys have ever been found with this trait. (more…)

https://twitter.com/InsiderFood/status/1015226359575007232I'm pretty sure L.A.'s Compartés Chocolatier didn't stop to think if they should when they made their latest creation, the avocado toast chocolate bar ($9.95 each). In the video, you'll see to make this limited-edition bar that they literally throw avocado and toast into white chocolate.

https://youtu.be/zqAoBD62gvoBrowsh is a modern text-only browser which "renders anything that a modern browser can; HTML5, CSS3, JS, video and even WebGL."

PayPal sent a legal threat to a woman who died of cancer, telling her that her death breached its rules and warning her of court action to come.

A rare 1980 clip of Stanley Kubrick talking on the phone about the ending of 2001 has surfaced by way of a Reddit thread. A piece on the Esquire website explains:

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 UK's Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales has published some recent aerial shots of cropmarks, ancient ruins now covered by farm fields. Unusually dry weather conditions have created a golden opportunity to see these sites from the air. (more…)

Trump went off script in Montana last week, conceding "I don't have a guitar, or an organ." Trump did note that he has a mouth "and hopefully the brain attached to the mouth." Stephen Colbert analyzes the rambling Trump rant so weird that Snopes had to confirm it.Democratic Underground was kind enough to share a handy pic of the moment.• Trump's Brain Instrument Is On The Fritz Again (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert)

Amidst all the hubbub surrounding a trapped soccer team, Supreme Court nominations and idiot-Canadian music stars getting engaged to models, there’s not been much talk about what’s going on in Japan right now—and that’s a shame because it’s some very serious shit.Torrential rains battered the Pacific island nation last week, causing landslides and flash floods which, at last count, had killed at least 127 people and have forced the evacuation of millions. Many of the displaced have been able to return to their homes, but things are still really fucked up. According to Reuters, just about all of homes that lost power as a result of the storms have been reconnected to the grid. But the people in storm-affected areas are still pretty fucked. Temperatures in city of Kurashiki, for example, which was hit particularly hard, are set to reach 91°F, with high humidity. They might have air-conditioning, in some cases, but very likely don’t have easy access to potable water. Some areas are able to have bottled water, medical supplies and food trucked in, but a lot of the roads in areas strike by mudslides are just gone. The Japanese government has budgeted billions of bucks for cleaning up after disasters like this one, but it takes time to bring infrastructure back from the brink. What’s more, the worst may still be yet to come.From Reuters:

It started out as an aardvark but then puppeteer Barnaby Dixon's latest creation morphed into something much trippier. The new hand creature has porcupine-like spikes that glow under a blacklight and can roll into a ball like an armadillo. Watch as Dixon maneuvers the imaginary beast to make it walk, scratch itself, do a handstand and more.(Tastefully Offensive)

Please don't shoot the messenger on this one. But to show how mad advertising has become, I present to you this super-weird commercial for Gain laundry detergent where a boy sniffs a jockstrap. Here's the premise: Two boys (the "Martinez brothers") attempt to prank their napping "dad" by placing a jockstrap (that they just pulled out of a gym bag with a stick) on his face. What the young pranksters don't know is that the jockstrap has been washed with Gain, which has effectively eliminated the man-crotch aroma. So, instead of being woken up in disgust by the smell of his own junk, the dad just smiles and keeps on sleeping. Confused, the older boy then takes the jockstrap back and gives it a deep huff. The announcer says, "That, boys, is the sweet smell of defeat."I'm laughing so hard. Who greenlighted this?! And what parent would be ok with their child taking an acting role that involves sniffing a jockstrap to sell laundry detergent?The internet has questions too:https://twitter.com/CarrieHKP57/status/1015335408505253888https://twitter.com/JasonJEngler/status/1015073001518354439https://twitter.com/rachelcullen201/status/1014168463563206656https://twitter.com/ruralsouthgay/status/1014287858637602817(WOW)

Toilet aficionados and sewer connoisseurs never settle for boring bathroom fixtures. For a cool $16,500, you too could impress your guests with a venus fly trap urinal, just like Oto Cadsky. (more…)

A gaggle of scientists from New York University were on scene in Greenland when a four-mile wide chunk of iceberg broke off from the glacier that it was attached to. If you're looking for why your beach front property will soon be underwater, global warming and this giant chunk of ice are two of the reasons.

In 1726 London was rocked by a bizarre sensation: A local peasant woman began giving birth to rabbits, astounding the city and baffling the medical community. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review the strange case of Mary Toft, which has been called "history's most fascinating medical mystery."We'll also ponder some pachyderms and puzzle over some medical misinformation.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

RateMyProfessors.com is like Yelp for college students, but until recently it also had an uncool "Hot or Not" setting where students could rate the attractiveness of professors, with those who were sufficiently hot "earning" a chili pepper next to their ratings. (more…)

The golden age of 20th-century fashion, filmed in old-school HD. A new transfer would doubtless be even better.

When I'm away from home, I hate carrying my laptop. There's not enough room to use it in coach seating on an airplane and it weighs more than I care to haul around during a press junket. Typically, I pack my 9.7" iPad Pro, instead. It's great for editing photos with, but as a text generation and editing machine, has its flaws as well: Any keyboard case I use with it proves too damn small for me to reliably type on and that it won't work with a mouse or trackpad really slows my workflow down. I've been looking for something that can stradle both worlds--the portability of a lightweight tablet with the ease of use that a mouse can bring to the party--for some time now. My main work machine is a Mac, but I use Windows 10 on a regular basis, as well. As such, I've got my fingers crossed that Microsoft's Surface Go will be the low-cost, juuuuuust good enough work machine that I've been looking for. From The Verge:

"I swore to myself that if I ever got to walk around the room as manager, people would laugh when they saw me coming, and would applaud as I walked away."

Watch below as a stumbling man falls on the train tracks at Sydney's Berala station. Fortunately, a passer-by acted quickly. Very quickly. From 9News:

Lifehacker’s Virginia K. Smith on the trend of narrating others’ quasi-public interactions for viral attention: “stop posting pictures of strangers.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=JtMte4yguZwIf these WWII era pilot rations are still edible, military snacks from the last century must have been at least as dangerous as going to war.

From wedding proposals to college graduations, there's nothing wrong with reaching for the camera to capture a special occasion, but sometimes a photo isn't quite enough to immortalize life's greatest moments. Whether you walked down the aisle or into your first home, Strellas Personalized Star Maps commemorate your biggest milestones on a stellar scale. You can get your own 18x24 star map today for $38.Strellas Personalized Star Maps depict the exact positioning of the night sky during the time and place of your special moment. Strellas uses NASA Astronomical Data Center's star catalog to accurately recreate the sky view from a time and place you choose. You can personalize your maps with custom quotes and select special color styles before receiving the product as a printed poster or a printable digital file.Strellas Personalized Star Maps are available in the Boing Boing store for $38 for 18x24 sizes and $45 for 24x36 sizes.

For part of the year, my wife has a gig that brings us into northern Alberta. To save money and make the most out of being here, we live off the grid in our RV for weeks at a time, relying on our rig's power system, propane and water tanks to keep us going. I connect to the internet through my T-Mobile phone plan. It’s quiet, I have a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains and, when I want to go for a hike in the woods, all I need to do is grab my bear spray and step outside. There’s just one thing I’d change about being out here.The frigging mosquitoes. They’re plentiful enough that I can’t step foot out of the RV without for more than a minute in the late afternoon without being chewed on, instantly. They’re small enough that, even when I haven’t opened the door in 24 hours, they still manage to find a way inside. Today’s been a bad mosquito day: we had some pretty heavy rain last week, which resulted in a lot of big puddles being created around where we camp. Mosquitoes breed in standing water. There’s thousands of the little bastards outside right now. Despite having stuffed paper towel into the space between all of my screens and windows to buttress the weather stripping that’s already there, I’ve killed 12 of the buggers since I sat down to work, just over an hour ago. On days like this, I break out my Thermacell and set it up inside.A Thermacell is a device (they pack the technology into a wearable, a bunch of lanterns and a table topper, too) that runs on butane cartridge. The butane provides the juice to power a small burner inside the device, which, as burners do, burns and generates a little bit of heat. This heat is used to scorch a disposable pad impregnated with Allethrin, a synthetic version of a naturally occurring repellent found in chrysanthemum flowers. Mosquitoes hate this stuff. It smells like nothing to me. Within a few minutes of turning my Thermacell on, the mosquitoes that were using me as a buffet inside of the RV, vanish. I can leave the windows open. I can get work done with out slapping a bug out of the air every 30 seconds. It’s bliss. That said, it can be sort of useless outside, sometimes. On a breezy day, the scent of Allethrin it generates gets blown away, leaving you to contend with a horde of bloodsucking freeloaders. But, with the way that I use it, I don’t really need to worry about that, unless it’s hot enough to warrant turning on a fan. The only thing I can say against my Thermacell is that the cost of consumables for it is pretty steep. A box of scent pads and the butane to run it for 48 hours costs around 30 bucks, in Canada. But, given that I only use the device maybe once or twice a week for a few hours at a time, for a six-month period, I look at it as part of the cost of doing business whilst living a nomadic life.

The BBC reports that the last of the boys trapped deep in a flooded Thai cave is out, along with their coach.

According to American Medical Association, the use of heroin as an injected drug, has decreased over the past few years. For those concerned about the harm that sharing needles can do to spread communicable diseases and increase the harm done to at-risk individuals, that's great news. Unfortunately, the use of shooting horse has given way to something that can be just as dangerous to drug users in an entirely different way.In the most recent issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association (paywall, of course,) researchers noted that, increasingly, heroin users are turning to heating the drug so that the resulting vapor can be inhaled. That's called chasing the dragon, ya'll and, just like actual dragons, the practice is very bad news. By inhaling heroin, you might be dodging infected injection sites, collapsed veins or disease, but you're opening the door to serious brain damage. From Gizmodo:

At 111 years old (the video is a few years old,) Richard Overton is the oldest living World War II veteran. He still drinks whiskey, smoke stogies and has lived in the same house, which he bought after coming home from war, since 1945. In this short film, Overton talks about his long life and along the way, extols a few important life lessons. My take away: for a long life, eat a shit-ton of soup and butter pecan ice cream.

HoustonTracker2 is free software that turns your still-overpriced Texas Instruments graphing calculator into a synth. Demo above. Now, you will not only be the nerdiest kid in algebra class, but the coolest as well.

JWZ -- proprietor of San Francisco's DNA Lounge -- writes, "This is one of my favorite events that we do all year: it's time for the Fifth Annual Cocktail Robotics Grand Challenge! Come see maniacal Rube Goldberg contraptions pour delicious cocktails for you! Mad Science Guaranteed. You probably won't get wet, probably."

If you’re going to pose as a billionaire Saudi prince (Sultan Bin Khalid Al-Saud, to be exact) who is interested in investing hundreds of millions of dollars in one of Miami Beach’s most legendary hotels, here's a pro-tip: first, bone up on important Muslim traditions.(more…)

YouTube just unveiled a plan to combat phony conspiracy videos intended to manipulate or defraud viewers.(more…)

In Michigan, a woman was arrested on charges that she bit off part of a man's ear, while she was fighting with him at a Chinese restaurant over food she'd ordered. The victim does not speak English as a first language, and had a hard time communicating. The woman who attacked him immediately lost custody of her child as a consequence.(more…)

More horrifying news from Donald Trump's racist 'zero tolerance' war on brown asylum seekers.(more…)

Matt Davies, a foley artist and sound designer for Studio Unknown, is a master of the slurping, squishy, groaning, gross sounds of horror movies. Zombies are his specialty.

In 2001, the Scottish Natural Heritage drew up a plan of action if the Loch Ness Monster were ever to be found. The code-of-practice is in the news again due to a a recent big effort to collect skin and scale samples from Loch Ness and compare those DNA sequences against known animals. From the BBC News:

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” - Roald Dahl(via DIGG)

This striking and immaculate cross-stitched Macintosh control panel is by Glenda Adams: "This took nearly 6 months, working on and off- so many little pixels to stitch."https://twitter.com/glenda_atom/status/1016085162269036545

British Columbia is a rich Canadian province. As with most places where money flows freely, not everyone is allowed a taste of privilege. British Columbia has one of the highest rates of child-poverty in the whole nation. This lack of wealth to buy the basics of life that most of us take for granted has been giving B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development the excuse it needs to remove kids from their parents. The premise for doing so, sounds logical: If you can’t pay to properly feed, clothe and house your child, you’re neglecting your child. The government will step in to do what you can’t and, in the process, take your child away from you. But once you start picking apart the apparatus that serves to ‘protect’ the kids separated from impoverished families, it’s easy to see that provincial government’s methodology is based in cruel madness, masquerading as concern. Last year, it came to light that a teen removed from his family lived in 17 different foster placements under the watch of 23 different social workers and caregivers over an 11 year period. His final placement: being kept in a hotel room: a practice that was employed on a regular basis, due to the number of children in B.C.’s child protection system and the difficulty in finding suitable foster families. Unsupervised and suffering from a number of mental health issues, he jumped from his hotel window, to his death. In a feature published this week by The Globe & Mail, it was revealed, that this teen, Alex Gervais, was being “sporadically” checked in on by a caregiver paid $8,000 a month. $8,000 for someone to occasionally see if someone's still breathing.This is money that could have been spent assisting Gervais’ family out financial destitution. It could have provided $8,000 worth of therapy to ensure that the Gervais was was in grievous need of. It's money that could have been given to the community that Gervais lived in to help support families, like Gervais', in need.As usual in Canada, those hardest hit by the removals imposed in the name of child welfare, due to poverty, come from our Indigenous communities.From the Globe & Mail:

The Federalist Papers comprises of 85 articles written in the 1780s by founding fathers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. They wrote under a collective pseudonym, Publius, so keep their involvement secret. But who wrote what? There is much dispute. Let's try K-Means Clustering.

Designer Andrew Greenbaum of Venice Beach, California has created a two-piece pink coffin-shaped pool float which people are dying for him to make available for sale.He writes:

With the ability to recognize images, curate playlists, and even hold a decent conversation, we wouldn't blame you if you thought AI innovations like Siri were powered by magic. Of course, the reality is that, rather than shamrocks and pixie dust, these breakthroughs are made possible thanks to advancements in machine learning technology and a handful of programming tools. With the Pay What You Want: Total Python Machine Learning Bundle, you can lift the curtain behind today's AI marvels and work toward creating your own, all for a price you choose.Here's how the deal works: Simply pay what you want, and you'll instantly unlock one of the collection's eight courses. Beat the average price paid, and you'll get the remaining seven.Starting with a simple introduction to Python, you'll get your feet wet with programming and app development. Then, you'll dive into the nuts and bolts behind today's most popular AI applications, like neural networks, unsupervised deep learning, and more.Choose your price, and you can start your foray into the future of AI with the Pay What You Want: Total Python Machine Learning Bundle.

Since moving in, Ted had done nothing to help with the housework. The household tasks assigned to him on the whiteboard in the kitchen have always gone undone. Despite demands that he pick up after himself, Ted leaves food scraps everywhere and never pays the rent on time. On Friday, after finding the leftovers she'd left in the fridge eaten, Sally decided to put an to Ted's bullshit. The quiet of her and Dave's wee flat had been disrupted for long enough.

Undoubtedly inspired by the Archie McPhee's hilarious squirrel feeders, Drew Eldrige of Tennessee has hung out a food-filled Donald Trump mask on their deck for squirrels to find. Not only did squirrels find it, but so did a chipmunk!Thanks, Carollyne!

It's not the store's ATM targeted here by thieves, but the point-of-sale machine right in front of the clerk's eyes. It takes no more time to install a tiny card skimmer than it does to swipe a card, so only a moment's distraction is needed to get the job done.

Mimi Pond is an absolute gem. The matriarch of a family of cool artists, she really knows how to weave a funny tale through her cartoons and graphic novels. Her work has been featured here on Boing Boing, as well as in National Lampoon, Village Voice, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other well-known publications. Mimi has written for Pee-wee's Playhouse, Designing Women, and The Simpsons.Now, for a new LA Times piece, she's inked a 37-panel cartoon that shares the backstory of the late famous-for-being-famous Zsa Zsa Gabor. It gives a biting, yet humorous, glimpse into the shenanigans she observed at the post-auction garage sale of the Hungarian-born celeb's stuff, which was hosted by her eccentric (and controversial) widower Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt at their Bel Air mansion.I can't show Mimi's entire cartoon here for obvious reasons but it's definitely worth the extra click. I can say this, truth is stranger than fiction.images via Mimi Pond, used with permission

New York City animator and illustrator Wahyu Ichwandardi (aka @pinot) is currently animating Childish Gambino's "This is America" music video in MacPaint (software from 1984) and MacroMind VideoWorks (1985) on a Macintosh SE. On Thursday, he was 375 frames in. He's been sharing his progress on Twitter since June 9:https://twitter.com/pinot/status/1005491222448926720https://twitter.com/pinot/status/1008527316367106049https://twitter.com/pinot/status/1005926397011951617https://twitter.com/pinot/status/10099711558040084498

Ask any IT expert worth their salt, and they'll tell you that certifications speak the loudest when you're climbing the career ladder. However, not all certifications are created equal, and where you decide to get your certification from can have a dramatic impact on your hiring prospects. Cisco is a worldwide leader of networking solutions and plays a vital role in keeping many of today's companies online, making their certifications especially relevant to potential employers. The Ultimate Cisco Certification Super Bundle can prep you to ace a number of their certification exams, and it's on sale today for $49.Across nine courses, this collection will familiarize you with the concepts and techniques essential for passing CompTIA's most popular certification exams and help you work toward netting several coveted certifications, including CICD and CCNA Security. From interconnecting Cisco devices to maintaining network security, this collection will help you foster a host of core IT skills and help you ace the certification exams with flying colors.The Ultimate Cisco Certification Super Bundle is available in the Boing Boing store today for $49.