One can buy, at considerable expense, a set of Imperial keycaps themed on Star Wars' galactic empire. Insert "you don't know the power of the Dark Side" joke here.DSA Galactic Empire commemorates the peak of Emperor Palpatine’s grand machinations with Imperial symbols and Aurebesh letters. Two keycap set variants are available. One features Full Aurebesh lettering and the other offers Aurebesh with English Sublegends.BONUS: Here's a CNC-carved aluminum stormtroooper keycap to go with it. Read the rest

Styropyro plays with fire on his YouTube channel, and the latest video shows him playing with a ridiculously dangerous laser, intended for tattoo removal, that he bought on eBay.I was searching for a Nd:YAG laser cavity for a future project when I came across a bunch of tattoo removal devices on eBay. They claimed to contain a Nd:YAG laser but at a small fraction of the cost of buying the parts separately. Skeptical, I bought one anyway since I had the option to return it if it didn't live up to the seller's claims.Much to my surprise my unit turned out to be INSANELY powerful. Read the rest

There are 40 college football bowl games this season. Sporting News ranked each matchup (picking the Arizona Bowl as the worst), and also took a detailed look at all the freebies players will get for participating.In addition to items like sunglasses, headphones, and $400 gift cards, some of the bowls will be giving away more exotic gifts. Cowboy hats will be given to players in the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl. Players in the Quick Lane Bowl will each receive a life-sized PhotoSlap decal featuring his own likeness. And players in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl will go on a Bass Pro Shops shopping trip.You can read the full list here. Just about every bowl responded, except for the Military Bowl Presented by Northrop Grumman. Read the rest

Converse's line of basketball shoes is the All Star Pro BB. The latest model is the "Nocturnal," available December 15 in North America. They glow in the dark, but will absolutely burn your eyes in sunlight:Converse has put out some wild designs lately. One recent model is called "Flames," but is absolutely cheese pizza: Read the rest

Unshort unshortens short links for you, revealing the true URL. This lets you visit a page without being tracked by the URL shortening service. There are add-ons for all major browsers to automatically unshorten all shortened links; source code is available if you don't even want Unshort knowing where you're headed. Read the rest

Exit polls show a clear win for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party, report Reuters and other media outlets at this hour.Boris Johnson lied in his victory speech.He also boasted of a "historic" election result, saying the Conservative government "has been given a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done."Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party will win a resounding victory in Britain’s election with a parliamentary majority of 86 seats, an exit poll showed https://t.co/O9JZ4vawGc #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/SOPU4CHJYC— Reuters (@Reuters) December 13, 2019Truly extraordinary #UKElection as Labour heartland seats tumble to Tories. A huge victory for Boris Johnson who is vindicated with a #Brexit mandate. A terrible result for Jeremy Corbyn who has, unsurprisingly, led his party to near oblivion. @australian https://t.co/ZC0OjC9AWc— Troy Bramston (@TroyBramston) December 13, 2019Boris Johnson hails huge Tory victory as election result puts him on track for SIXTY-FOUR majority #GE2019 https://t.co/HjNUT7hj0B— Daily Mail U.K. (@DailyMailUK) December 13, 2019Boris Johnson uses first speech after election win to repeat NHS campaign lies https://t.co/2LPrfEADQp— The Independent (@Independent) December 13, 2019"It's turned out to be a historic election that gives us now, in this new government, the chance to respect the democratic will of the British people," says Boris Johnson https://t.co/iqGncV1I7a #UKElection pic.twitter.com/C1qFZUEDZN— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) December 13, 2019Our live results map is getting more colourful. Over half of constituencies have now declared and the Conservatives are projected to gain a majority of 80 https://t.co/wpZq4jVeZE pic.twitter.com/UQBdL42Bao— The Economist Data Team (@ECONdailycharts) December 13, 2019These are the MPs who lost their seats in the 2019 UK general election https://t.co/srY5DTzcgO— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) December 13, 2019K we now have a new leader for strongest correlation, and I think this is narratively significant:The share of workers in low-skilled jobs was a bigger predictor of swing than either Brexit vote or graduates. Read the rest

UK ELECTION RESULTS: Jeremy Corbyn says he will not lead the UK's Labour party in the next general election, as voting results come in and add up to a crushing defeat for Labour at nationwide polls.Yes, it looks like Boris Johnson is on track for a landslide victory, and that Brexit will proceed.***U.K.'s Jeremy Corbyn to Step Down as Labour Party Leader***— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) December 13, 2019Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn: "I will not lead the party in any future general election campaign." pic.twitter.com/C8edpNuO4a— BuzzFeed News UK (@BuzzFeedNewsUK) December 13, 2019Jeremy Corbyn says he will not lead Labour in any future #GeneralElection campaign, after a "very disappointing" night for the party https://t.co/qmXslwpJ6J— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 13, 2019JUST IN: The leader of the Liberal Democrats, which campaigned on a strongly anti-Brexit platform, has lost her seat in UK Parliament https://t.co/qf9UF2NCVb— CNN International (@cnni) December 13, 2019Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party will win a resounding victory in Britain’s election with a parliamentary majority of 86 seats, an exit poll showed https://t.co/O9JZ4vawGc #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/SOPU4CHJYC— Reuters (@Reuters) December 13, 2019 Read the rest

A man in Maine realized one of his female ducks was heartbroken after a bobcat “snatched her two fellow ducks from owner Chris Morris’ yard on Dry Moon Lane about two weeks ago.”So Mr. Morris, who is a special ed teacher, created this little lovelorn duck wanted ad and posted it in the local co-op.“Duck seeking duck,” the ad read. “Lonesome runner duck seeks companion. Partner recently deceased. Serious replies only.”“We wanted to post about this to try to find a duck, and that just seemed like the best fit,” Morris told the Bangor Daily News, which reports that the ad led to something new:Sadie Greene knew exactly what Morris was looking for when she saw the bulletin board posting.The 32-year-old Dedham resident, a guest attendant at Woodlawn Museum of Ellsworth, also co-owns what she calls “an uncertified organic farm,” the 30-acre Mountain Foot Farm in Dedham. She raises ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens, cows, pigs and sheep as livestock, Greene said.“We have a slew of male ducks, so [Morris] will be able to take his pick,” Greene said. “Ducks are one of the few species that mate for life, so when they lose their partners, they tend to mourn, but they can replace their partners pretty quickly, so it will be interesting to see what happens.”AP reports:Greene and Morris are arranging a meeting for the ducks on Sunday. Yellow Duck’s favorite food is slugs, and they might be on the menu for the big date, Morris said. Read the rest

Abbott Labs makes a continuous glucose monitor -- used by people with diabetes to monitor their blood-sugar levels -- called (ironically, as you'll see below) the Freestyle Libre.Diabettech is a hub for helping people with diabetes manage their health, including by building "artificial pancreases," through which a glucose monitor is connected to an insulin pump, with software in between that measures out small insulin doses that respond in real time (or even predictively) to changes in blood sugar. These can be significantly better than manual interventions for managing blood-sugar for people with diabetes, and can avert life-endangering, life-shortening, and/or quality-of-life reducing blood-sugar spikes and troughs.The admin of Diabettech posted technical instructions and code for extracting your blood-sugar data from the Librelink so that you could use a different "listener" app with your data, or even connect it to an insulin pump to create an artificial pancreas loop. In particular, it allowed the free/open Xdrip diabetes-management tool to access Freestyle Libre data.In response, Abbott Labs used US copyright law to have the project deleted from Github, censoring Diabettech's code and instructions. In its takedown notice, Abbot's lawfirm Kirkland & Ellis LLP (a huge corporate firm) advances several alarming arguments about projects like this.First, they say that creating a tool that interoperates with the Freestyle Libre's data is a copyright infringement, because the new code is a derivative work of Abbott's existing product. But code that can operate on another program's data is not a derivative work of the first program -- just because Apple's Pages can read Word docs, it doesn't mean that Pages is a derivative of MS Office. Read the rest

According to a new exhibition titled "Your Stonehenge -- 150 years of personal photos," this image of was taken at the Wiltshire, England's magical megalithic structure in 1875 and depicts the family of Isabel, Maud and Robert Routh. Personally, I wouldn't be so sure those aren't Zippies on their way to a rave in 1994."People have been visiting Stonehenge for centuries, for all sorts of reasons, and taking photos of themselves and their loved ones in front of the stones since the very earliest days of photography," Susan Greaney, a historian at English Heritage, the organization that manages Stonehenge, told CNN. Read the rest

The Nikon Museum in Tokyo issued this handsome wristwatch commemorating the 60th anniversary of the revolutionary Nikon F camera. Apparently the company only made 100 of the watches for sale in their museum gift shop for around US$180. From PetaPixel:The understated silver watch face is complimented by a black leather band and features an “actual-size shutter-speed dial as featured in the Nikon F” as its centerpiece. The back of the watch has the Nikon F logo emblazoned into the stainless steel. Read the rest

There are a lot of high-tech drones and RC planes flooding the market lately, and the innovations are coming so fast on each new iteration, most of them forget one crucial thing: Flying these is supposed to be fun.Here's an alternative that keeps that ethic firmly in mind: The Moskito Smartphone-Controlled Plane.This thing glides effortlessly and has an effective range of nearly 200 feet from any Bluetooth controller. The EPP foam construction makes it super-light and impressively durable, able to bounce back from any number of head-on collisions. A set of programmable LED lights makes it easy to fly at night, and there are tutorials included that let you improve your pilot skills.But what really makes it cool is the smartphone control interface. Thanks to the included app, you can maneuver it by intuitively tilting the phone, or attach a special joystick by suction cup and get a little more hands-on.The Moskito is currently almost 15% off the MSRP, but you can take off an extra 15% by using the holiday discount code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

Anytime I fry something that requires more than a few drops of oil, I cover the pan with a splatter screen. It keeps drops of hot oil from shooting out of the pan while at the same time allowing steam to escape. It also works as a colander. The one I use is excellent and it costs Read the rest

In 1920, the great Nikola Tesla patented this ingenious valve that allows fluid or gas to flow in one direction but not the other. And it does it based entirely on its geometry without any moving parts. Here is the US patent, number 1,329,559. Read the rest

As pranksters target skeezy t-shirt sellers that mine Twitter for replies containing "I want that on a t-shirt" and then put the original Tweet on a t-shirt and shame online t-shirt sellers for underpolicing copyright, let's not lose sight of what happens when they overpolice copyright.For many years, Techdirt has sold a handsome "Copying is Not Theft" tee through Teespring -- but last week, Teespring emailed Techdirt to tell them that the shirt had been removed from its store for "copyright infringement."When Techdirt emailed to ask for an explanation, they got an autoreply from "Team Teespring": "We apologize if you disagree with our decision and for any inconvenience this matter has caused. Please understand that we are not in a position to debate our policies or discuss this issue further; however, your feedback has been noted and we truly appreciate your time today."On Techdirt, Leigh Beadon wonders if this was Teespring overreacting to the "I want that on a t-shirt" scandal, embarking on "a not-too-discerning copyright sweep of existing products." If you want a "Copying is Not Theft" shirt, badge, tote or phone case, you'll have to but it at Threadless (for now?). I told them I wasn't seeking a debate, and just wanted to know what policy we violated, and... You've been advised three times that the content has violated our acceptable use policy. You have been provided with the links to this policy for further information. This policy and choice to remove the content are not up for discussion. Read the rest

Uri Rafaeli (83) a retired engineer, underpaid his property tax bill by making a mistake calculating the interest. He paid $8.41 less than he owed. As a result Michigan's Oakland County seized the property, sold it for $24,500, and kept the overage from the auction ($24,215), reports Forbes. Rafaeli has tried to get the house, or at least the overage back, but he keeps losing in court. The house is currently valued at $129,245 on Zillow.From Forbes:He didn’t argue that he didn’t owe tax, penalties, interest and fees. But he did object to the County taking the excess. The County argued that Rafaeli had no rights to the equity because the General Property Tax Act does not expressly protect it. And that’s the reason that Rafaeli keeps losing: The courts have sympathy for his plight but have found that the law does not prevent the County from keeping it.He’s not alone. Tens of thousands of properties in Detroit have been subject to the same kind of treatment. Many of those who owe taxes understand that they have a debt, but they don’t necessarily understand how to navigate the process or what the failure to pay on time can mean. As with Rafaeli, even something as simple as miscalculating the interest due, can have serious consequences.Image: Zillow Read the rest

Rewound is a free iPhone app that simulates the iPod Classic click wheel interface. How did its creator Louis Anslow manage to get it approved for the App Store? From 9to5Mac:The app used some tricks to get through the App Store review process, which generally prohibits the use of images from Apple products or interfaces. It works just like any other third-party player created for Apple Music and you probably won’t find it in the store as an “iPod Classic simulator”.That’s because the app comes with normal control buttons by default. The secret is in a function that allows users to add any type of image as a player skin. When you add the iPod Classic theme, which is not included in the app, it hides the buttons so it can be controlled by the virtual Click Wheel.Download Rewound from the App Store and then grab the skin from 9to5Mac or elsewhere. Read the rest

In Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Walmart was hosting a "shop with a cop" event where police officers take young people from low-income backgrounds on shopping sprees to buy gifts for their families. According to PA State Police Troop B, that was probably not the best day for Sunny Ray Firestone, 32, to "try and walk out of the store with a shopping cart full of merchandise that you did not pay for."From KDKA:According to a complaint Firestone told police her sick mother needed new clothesFirestone has a history of retail theft.Thank you to Mike Kelly Toyota, Fayette County Community Action Agency and Uniontown WalMart for hosting the shop with a cop program. Law Enforcement from the Pa State Police, Masontown Borough and The Fayette County Sheriff’s Department met some happy kids. pic.twitter.com/waa4fK985q— TroopB (@PSPTroopBPIO) December 11, 2019 Read the rest

On Twitter, David Wahl (Archie McPhee's Director of Awesome) shared his latest discovery: the Drawstring Piglet Electric Luminous Concert Walking Doll Crystal Pig. This incredible creature is my new ShorDurPerSav.Electric music pig has everything you want in a pig.· Running· Having traction rope· Good music· can emit light pic.twitter.com/RLDrICVHRv— David Wahl (@zoomar) December 12, 2019Gets along well with emoji baby. Has grown wings. What is happening? pic.twitter.com/tepQMEGLD9— David Wahl (@zoomar) December 12, 2019Love shapeCrystal ears, shining well pic.twitter.com/4Utv0oWQoI— David Wahl (@zoomar) December 12, 2019Don't F with "Walking Singing Musical Light Pig Electric Toy with Leash Interactive Plastic with Electronic Components Toy for Boys Girls Kids Random Color" or it will kill you. pic.twitter.com/j9SiS81LZv— David Wahl (@zoomar) December 12, 2019I am a running pig.Babies grow up to be playmates pic.twitter.com/ylKM1nmkDm— David Wahl (@zoomar) December 12, 2019Interesting tieFunny and fun pic.twitter.com/w0OtpoeAHw— David Wahl (@zoomar) December 12, 2019 Read the rest

[Omoyele Sowore is a Nigerian journalist and owner of the independent media outlet Saraha Reporters; shortly after the election of President Buhari, Sowore was arrested under the country's anti-cyberstalking laws for "causing insult, enmity, hatred and ill-will on the person of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria." He's still in jail, where he has been tortured. His case has attracted condemnation from US senators and solidarity from PEN. My EFF colleague Cindy Cohn, who met Sowore through her work on the Bowoto case, prosecuting Chevron for a mass murder in service to oil exploration, wrote a post, crossposted below, about how overbroad, sloppy harassment and stalking bills can be weaponized. -Cory]EFF has long been concerned that—unless carefully drafted and limited—cyberstalking laws can be misused to criminalize political speech. In fact, earlier this year we celebrated a federal court decision in Washington State in the United States that tossed out an overbroad cyberstalking law. In the case, the law had been used to silence a protester who used strong language and persistence in criticizing a public official. EFF filed anamicus brief in that case where we cautioned that such laws could be easily misused and the court agreed with us. Now the problem has occurred in a high-profile political case in Nigeria. Just this week the Nigerian government formally filed “cyberstalking” charges against Omoyele Sowore, a longtime political activist and publisher of the respected Sahara Reporters online news agency. Sowore had organized political protests in Nigeria under the hashtag #RevolutionNow and conducted media interviews in support of his protest. Read the rest

The Chinese Supreme People’s Court has just released a report on a "mobile court" pilot program that's been running since March to manage procedures in civil legal disputes through the Wechat social media platform, through which litigants are prompted by an AI chatbot "judge" (with a judicial avatar) to state their cases; the evidence is entered into the blockchain. The cases are actually adjudicated by a human judge, with the automated system used to manage all the procedures to gather evidence and testimony prior to the judgment. A separate "cybercourt" program has been running in Hangzhou since 2017 to settle online trade disputes, copyright claims, and product liability claims.The Chinese Supreme Court touts the system as a means of streamlining justice by automating routine processes, which allows judges to focus on adjudicating cases, ensuring that litigants get their disputes resolved in timely fashion.The AFP article on the measure is incredibly confusing, calling the chatbot an AI and blending descriptions of several programs; I had to read it three times before I realized that this was primarily a document collection assistant to make it easier for judges to review evidence, and not an "AI" that was rendering judgments. Also, they accept at face value the seemingly entirely superfluous inclusion of blockchain technology, which appears to exist solely for purposes of buzzword-compliance.The digitization push is partly to help courts keep up with a growing caseload created by mobile payments and e-commerce in China, which has the world’s largest number of mobile internet users at around 850 million. Read the rest

Over at Cool Tools (I site I co-run) Sean Michael Ragan made a video about 9 volt snap lights. These are small cubes containing and array of bright LEDs that snap onto a 9 volt battery, giving you a compact flashlight. Read the rest

Social Science One is an academic consortium that was created to conduct "independent scientific research into potentially consequential phenomena such as online disinformation, polarization, and echo chambers" after the Big Tech platforms made changes to their policies that made this kind of research effectively impossible without cooperation from the platforms themselves. Facebook was the most enthusiastic partner of the consortium, but 18 months later, it has failed to live up to its promises to provide access and now the leaders of the consortium have published an open letter shaming Facebook for its failures, saying that the entire project is now in jeopardy as its funders have begun to withdraw due to a lack of progress.The open letter also calls on the other big platforms to open their data, or, when that's not possible, to "offer formal, written analyses of any legal barriers they claim prevent them from providing access for academic research, including with regards to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation." We recognize the responsibility of researchers to ethically receive and analyze any data. All appropriate steps should be taken to preserve platform users’ privacy and other digital rights. With this in mind, we call for support from both the platforms and public officials to create so-called research safe harbors, i.e., spaces within which scholars would directly access and analyze sensitive personally identifiable data. Modeled on certain research using public administration, health and medical data, such safe harbors would place clear and robust limits on the type and amount of data researchers could access, as well as the means of analysis researchers could undertake. Read the rest

We love DJ Rijo's annual Merry Mixmas albums, and for the 18th consecutive year, the legendary mashup DJ has released an album-length mashup of Christmas rarities (MP3), just in time for your holiday parties!Dram – LitmasJD McPherson – Every Single ChristmasMargo Guyen – I Don’t Intend to Spend Christmas Without YouJosh Rouse – Sleigh Brother BillSufjan Stevens – Put the Lights on the TreeBailen – Christmas is All AroundHoodoo Gurus – TojoThe Magnetic Fields – Everything is One Big Christmas TreeSia – Santa’s Coming for UsNew Order – Rocking CarolThe Regrettes – Marshmallow WorldJames Brown – Santa Claus go Straight to the GhettoJustine Skye – Eyes for YouSatan’s Pilgrims – Feliz NavidadLivingmore – Show me Light and LoveJagged Jaw – Pink Xmas TreeBeach Boys – Little Saint Nick (Alternate Version)Tralala – Holiday HeartsCocteau Twins – Winter WonderlandRedtenbacher’s Funkestra – Deck the HallsThe Duke Spirit – Melt by the MorningThe Grip Weeds – God Rest Ye Merry GentlemenThe Silhouettes – Under the MistletoeThe Oh Hellos – Every Bell on Earth Will RingChristmas Mixes [DJ Riko](Thanks, DJ Riko!) Read the rest

The United Kingdom's general election is underway today, with voters headed to the polls across the nation. After years of single-issue deadlock and minority government, Conservative Party leader and lame-duck Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to win enough seats to form an effective government and "get Brexit done." Despite his obvious shortcomings -- he's a liar, a racist buffoon and notoriously incompetent -- pollsters think he's got it in the can.The Conservatives have recovered the populist vote that drifted to the flash-in-the-pan Brexit Party, while the opposition Labour Party has been slower to recover from its summer slump. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's indifference to claims of antisemitism (fair and otherwise) and his "neutrality" over Brexit itself make him cheap meat for Britain's psychopathic tabloids. And the Liberal Democrats have withered once again, as they always do when its right-leaning prefects are in charge and the party's crunchier base turns off.The Greens, which seemed poised to break out after a strong showing in the European elections, evaporated in the polls as the election heated up. So too has the Brexit Party, which all but stood down to enable a Conservative majority and, with it, a quick and hard Brexit.For Remainers (and anyone else who dislikes the idea of five full years of Boris) the last hope might be the Scottish National Party, whose domination of Scotland might deny him a parliamentary majority.Even less likely, but fractionally less unlikely than normal and the most perfectly outrageous possible result: "Sinn Fein takes their seats at Westminster to give make Jeremy Corbyn PM." Read the rest

A family in DeSoto County, Mississippi, bought a Ring security camera so they could keep an eye on their three young girls in their bedroom. Four days later, they learned that a hacker had broken into the camera and subjected their children to continuous bedroom surveillance, taunting the children through the camera's built-in speaker.Ring blamed the break-in on the failure of the family to turn on two-factor authentication, using a weak password, and failing to change passwords (these are all good ideas, except for frequently changing passwords, which just leads to weaker password quality -- but they're also things that almost no one does).Motherboard identified several crime-forums where hackers were trading automated tools to break into Ring cameras, using credential-stuffing attacks (previously), which involve trying a succession of leaked username/password combos until you find one that has been recycled on the service you're trying to break into. These tools sell for as little as $6.Other Ring camera owners have faced similar privacy invasions, including a family in Florida that was subjected to a string of racial abuse through their cameras' speakers.Using good passwords and 2FA is good advice, but better advice is to never put networked cameras or microphones in your home, ever. Ever.In a video obtained by WMC5 courtesy of the family, you can see what the hacker would have seen: A viewpoint that looms over the entire room from where the camera is installed in a far corner, looking down on their beds and dressers while they play. Read the rest

2019 was the "I Told You So" year for privacy advocates and voice assistants: the year in which every company that wanted you to trust them to put an always-on mic in the most intimate places in your home was revealed to have allowed thousands of low-waged contractors to listen in on millions of clips, many of them accidentally recorded: first it was Amazon (and again!), then Google, then Apple, then Microsoft.What's more, these arms-length contractors who were getting your stolen audio were working under terrible conditions, in sweatshops where they were worked long hours, listening to potentially traumatizing audio, subjected to wage theft. And when the tech giants cut them off, they got shafted again. And despite the companies' protests that they're the only ones stealing your data, voice assistants have proven to be no more secure than any of Big Tech's other products (cue "Dumpster Fires R Us").In a long, end-of-year wrapup of the state-of-the-leaky-smart-speaker, Bloomberg pieces together a coherent narrative from all of these fragmentary accounts, trying to assess how we got here. The story goes like this: true believers in voice computing (often inspired by science fiction, such as Jeff Bezos, whose enthusiasm for Alexa is attributed to his ardent Star Trek fandom) start to build voice assistants in full knowledge that these will not only be perceived as creepy, they will be creepy. They mislead the contractors who transcribe samples of commands into thinking that they're listening to fully informed beta-testers, but it's totally obvious that these are real customers who have no idea they're being listened in on. Read the rest

With the holiday season upon us, folks will soon be flying to see folks. Some people are able to breeze through airport security lines with nothing more than a removal of their shoes. Others? Not so much: they're seemingly chosen at 'random' for 'additional screening' every time they step foot in an airport. I'm one of those people. I know what it is about me that gives the TSA, CATSA and other Five Eyes nations aviation security professionals the no feeling when I travel internationally. While it slows my partner and I down when we're trying to get on with getting to our gate, I appreciate the effort that the security personnel at the airports I fly out of put into making sure that everyone has a safe flight.I can only imagine that not everyone chosen for additional screening on a regular basis feels the same. If you're looking for an explanation for why you might be getting that extra pat-down and bag search Lifehacker's got your back.From Lifehacker:What then might influence whether you’re chosen for enhanced screening? Well, we’ll preface this by stating the obvious: The TSA isn’t forthcoming about its selection process. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s website, the details that make up its algorithm cannot be made public for “security reasons.” (What we do know is that TSA uses Secure Flight, a pre-screening process that involves identifying “low and high-risk passengers before they arrive at the airport by matching their names against trusted traveler lists and watch lists.”) In other words, if you share your name with someone on the “No Fly” list, you will likely be stopped. Read the rest

Polar bears have been at the shit end of the global warming stick for some time now. Food has grown scarce for the massive beasts, causing them to move inland in search of sustenance, eat carcasses they never would have touched in the past and, apparently, look to flying camera drones as a potential source of nutrition. Read the rest

This just now got on my radar, even though it was released way back in 2010. Whatever! You can't put a date on fun. Fred Schneider (of The B-52's, of course!) & the Superions made a kind-of-sexy, but also perfectly kitschy and weird, super low-budget music video for their song "Fruitcake." Yes, it's a song about fruitcake. I won't say another word, just watch it. New holiday favorite born.screenshot via Fruitcake Read the rest

Christian Dior shot a spectacular ad (below), starring Charlize Theron, to market the new J'adore Absolu fragrance. Embedded above is Rowan Atkinson, of Blackadder and Mr Bean fame, deepfaked into it. It's wonderful but I'm sad crookedpixel didn't replace Theron's breathless "J'adore!" at the end with Mr. Bean's deep, weird honking voice.BONUS BEAN: Here he is as Poppy: Read the rest

This article by Holly Gramazio suggests several ideas for games you can play alone or with friends while in public. My favorite of the lot was posted by a Redditor, and seems like a great way to feel more positive about the world:When I’m out in public or driving or something, I like to pick a person within my sight and imagine how they’re somebody’s FAVOURITE person, and if that somebody could be where I am in that moment, they’d be overjoyed to see them. I imagine how that person might joke around, or I think about the nice things they might do for their friends or family, and I wonder if there’s someone across the country that wishes more than anything that they could be as near to that stranger as I am now.Check out more ideas here and here.(Article via RPS, The Card Players by Lucas van Leyden via Wikipedia.)(My partner and I have a new, stupid game that makes us smile--when we're watching sports together, we add an "N" to players' last names.) Read the rest

Earlier this year, Vox looked at the popularity of female influencers showing off firearms on Instagram. Facebook/Instagram forbids advertisements promoting the sale or use firearms. So, marketers pay influencers to dodge the rule:There are dozens of women (it is mostly women who are gun influencers) making partial or complete livings off Instagram grids full of guns and perfect smiles. Some of them are hunters, some of them are veterans, some participate in professional shooting sports, some also swing-dance, some play soccer. Some look really good in a pair of camouflage overalls or a red, white, and blue onesie or wearing almost nothing, and all of them have come up with their own rules about how best to monetize these physical realities.They’ve done something that the companies in the firearm industry cannot do on their own: make the gun lifestyle as attractive and aspirational as all the others on Instagram.One such group is the Alpha Gun Angels. View this post on Instagram Such a Badass! 🤩 - happy thanksgiving everyone! With love, AGA family 💞 . . Beautiful @sapir_elgrabli w/ @iwi_intl 📸 @omershapira_ 👑 #alphagunangels #sapirelgrabli #iwi #tavor #meprolight #bullpup #bullpuprifle #rifles #gungirlsA post shared by Alpha Gun Angels - A.G.A Ltd. (@alpha.gun.angels_aga) on Nov 29, 2019 at 8:22am PSTWriting for Jewish Currents, Sophia Goodfriend looks at the business:The Alpha Gun Angels, who bill themselves as Israel’s premier gun-modeling and social media–marketing agency, are a team of nine active and veteran IDF combat soldiers turned Instagram celebrities. Read the rest

Got a real music junkie on your list this year? It's a good bet that they already have a solid pair of earbuds, but probably nothing quite like these Seeds Earphones.Here's the thing: Wireless earbuds are all the rage right now, and there are a lot of good reasons for that. But for true audiophiles, nothing quite beats the sound of a well-made pair of wired earbuds.This pair packs a lot of tech into each bud. There are dual voice coils and chambers, graphene diaphragms and 3.5 mm high-res IEMS, all combining to deliver beautifully reproduced sound from the tip-top of the range to the lowest bass.That's all funneled through durable quad-core OFC balanced cables that are less prone to tangle, and wrapped up in an ergonomic package that stays secure in your ear without you ever noticing pressure from the smooth silicone ear tips.These Seeds Earphones are already on sale for 10% off the store price, but you can take an additional 15% off that final total by using the holiday discount code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

The mayhem (or success) of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and Abbie Hoffman's arrest for writing a forbidden word on his forehead.From John Wilcock, New York Years, by Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall.(See all Boing Boing installments) Read the rest

According to the nerd media website, Bleeding Cool, Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's crazed, over-the-top, post-modern sci-fi satire, the Illuminatus! trilogy is slated to become a TV series. No details are given about where it might land, but given Hivemind's association with Amazon Prime and Netflix, one of these outlets is a likely bet.Illuminatus! as the show will be called, will be executive produced by Dinesh Shamdasani and Hunter Gorinson for Hivemind, and Iris McPherson and Kirstin Winkler for Kallisti. Taylor will serve as executive producer and showrunner.“The series’ staggering influence has only continued to grow with each passing year not just because it explores and indulges the most compelling depths of America’s conspiratorial imagination, but because it also gives us the tools and knowledge to understand it. If there was ever a series primed for 21st century television, it’s Illuminatus!” said fellow former Valiant Comics employee, Hunter Gorinson, Hivemind’s VP of Brand & Content Strategy.Illuminatus! joins Hivemind’s roster including Amazon’s science-fiction series, The Expanse, Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher and the Sony movie Bloodshot, based on the Valiant comic.Read a bit more.[Image: My Illuminatus! trilogy from when I was 18 years old.]***Full press release below:LOS ANGELES, CA– December 11, 2019 – Hivemind today announced that it has partnered with writer/director Brian Taylor (HAPPY!, CRANK) and European production company Kallisti for a new television series based on THE ILLUMINATUS! TRILOGY – the hugely influential science-fiction franchise created by authors Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea that first introduced the concept of "the Illuminati" into the popular consciousness, while simultaneously fueling, deconstructing, and skewering America's modern-day obsession with conspiracy theories. Read the rest

“What is this sorcery?”Some cute video of a kitty playing in the fresh snow from IMGURian @Herkidar.You need this. Enjoy.Silly cat play with snow[via IMGUR] Read the rest

I love Corgis so much. This Japan-based bakery's corgi butt bread is something that I can really get behind.Next time you're in Sapporo, stop by @utiwapanya bakery for some corgi butt, or another one of their cute breads.他にも、こんな子達も作っております♪( *´ω`* )/ 是非とも飼いに来て下さいね♪人懐っこい子ばかりですよ～♪ pic.twitter.com/elqsPoLamT— うちは、ぱんや。 (@utiwapanya) June 2, 2019image courtesy @utiwapanya Read the rest

In Chicago, a salt truck slid on the icy street right into Lake Michigan.The incident happened early Wednesday morning. Nobody got hurt. Two workers for the Chicago Park District workers managed to get out of the truck with no injuries when the salt truck they were steering along an icy lakefront bike path slipped into Lake Michigan.From AP:The pickup truck hit a slick spot and slipped backward into the water on Chicago’s near North Side around 7:20 a.m., said Dep. District Chief Jason Lach of the Chicago Fire Department Marine Dive Operations. It slid halfway into the water before getting caught on a breakwall.The two occupants were able to escape the sinking vehicle and crawl to safety, and both are in good condition.Screengrab: @abc7chicago“They were out there salting the area and the truck slid in,” Park District spokeswoman Michelle Lemons told the Chicago Tribune.Light to moderate snow will continue to move across the area through 10-11 a.m. There will be light accumulation including on roads, so allow extra morning commute time. Remember, snow covered roads, even if just lightly covered, are often slick! #ILwx #INwx pic.twitter.com/cZRKCf6Sfl— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) December 11, 2019[screengrab: ABC 7 Chicago] Read the rest

When it comes to the qualities of a good project manager, you hear a lot of talk about "soft skills" like leadership ability and confidence. And where does confidence come from? It comes from people who are dead certain they know the right steps to take.In other words, you've got to master the hard skills before the soft skills are even a consideration. And if you're gunning for a career in project management, the Official PMP 6 Certification Training Course is your quickest route to mastery over the all-important PMP Certification Exam (a major stepping stone for aspiring project managers).The exam itself draws on essential project management procedures in the Project Management Body of Knowledge guide. This course distills all the knowledge in that guide into a curriculum that will stick. It incorporates games, questionnaires and a host of interactive activities - a full 40 hours of it. By the end, you'll know what it takes to guide any team from that first budget outline to the launch party. (And needless to say, you'll know how to ace that PMP Certification.)The entire course is now on sale for 85% off the MSRP. Read the rest

Vigilant trainspotters will notice Thomas the Tank Engine sitting in with these real world trains. Delightful editing by Pavel Jirásek using source material from the video below (and elsewhere):(via The Kid Should See This and Kottke) Read the rest

Olivia Newton-John recently auctioned off hundreds of personal items from her career to benefit the Cancer Wellness & Research Centre she built in Australia. The big ticket item was her leather jacket from Grease that sold for almost $250,000. Turns out the buyer, a Grease superfan, is a wealthy physician and entrepreneur who returned the jacket to Newton-John. From CNN:"This jacket belongs to you and the collective soul of those who love you, those for whom you are the soundtrack of their lives. It should not sit in a billionaire's closet for country club bragging rights," the anonymous buyer said in Los Angeles this weekend, in a video posted on Facebook by Julien's Auctions. "For this reason I humbly and respectfully return it to its rightful owner, which is you."The buyer wanted to remain anonymous, so his face is blurred in the video..."You're the best, you're the best! I'm so grateful," Newton-John said, while hugging the jacket and then the buyer. "This is the most beautiful present, but mainly it's your heart that I'm grateful for."She seemed thrilled when the buyer asked if she would put it on display in her cancer center."Yes, it was was always my dream to do that, so yes!" Newton-John said.Here's Julien's Auctions video of the moment posted to their Facebook page. Read the rest

Aliexpress has lots of these little gadgets that rock a phone back-and-forth to fool the pedometer into thinking you are walking on a treadmill. They cost about $2. Why? "Some insurance companies in China allow people who consistently reach a certain daily step count to get discounted health insurance premiums," writes Matthew Brennan.Chinese phone cradle for boosting your phone's daily step count. Some insurance companies in China allow people who consistently reach a certain daily step count to get discounted health insurance premiums. pic.twitter.com/pJFBSYqdlb— Matthew Brennan (@mbrennanchina) May 14, 2019[via 52 Things I Learned in 2019] Read the rest

Last month, I posted about "witch bottles" -- containers of curious items like human teeth, fish hooks, glass shards, and undetermined liquid -- sometimes found in chimneys or inside walls of old buildings where they were placed to ward off evil spells, spirits, and curses. Turns out that there's a new book -- "Magical House Protection: the Archaeology of Counter-Witchcraft" by Brian Hoggard -- all about the strange history of witch bottles and other kinds of occult home protection! From John Rimmer's post about the text over at Magonia Review of Books:We are all familiar with the practice of hanging up horse-shoes as a ‘good-luck’ token, although there is some disagreement as to whether the points of the shoe should be pointing up or down. My grandmother insisted that if the points were turned down, “the luck would all run out”.Lots of people hang up a horseshoe, but maybe we would be less inclined to bury a dead cat under our threshold, or place a bottle full of urine and nail clippings up our chimney, or nail horses skulls underneath the floorboards? These are just some of the objects which have been used for centuries to offer some sort of ‘magical protection’ to houses and other properties.In the past magic and witchcraft was not a topic for discussion between believers and sceptics, it was just an ordinary part of everyday life, and taking precautions to divert its power was seen as no more remarkable than taking an umbrella with you on a wet day to protect you from the rain. Read the rest

In Prescott Valley, Arizona, David Keller was annoyed by the number of people he believes are falsely registering their pets as service animals so they can take them anywhere they want. So he visited a site called USAServiceDogRegistration.com and registered a hive of bees as his service animals. Of course, as service dog trainer Jaymie Cardin told AZFamily, these sites "don't mean anything. You can go pay for a registry on one of those web sites, and basically, you're just paying for a piece of paper and to put a name on a list."From ADA.gov: There are individuals and organizations that sell service animal certification or registration documents online. These documents do not convey any rights under the ADA and the Department of Justice does not recognize them as proof...Also, Federal Law states that only dogs and miniature horses can be officially recognized as service animals.In any case, Keller called his prank a success due to the, er, buzz it generated. "(These sites) are making people believe all animals are service animals when they're not," Keller said. "And there's a clear difference."image: "Western honey bee" by Andreas Trepte (CC BY-SA 2.5) Read the rest

Money laundering meets bacon?The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office in Shelby, N.C. say they seized approximately $3 million in cash, wrapped in plastic, which is displayed in this photo near the barrels of raw pork shoulder in which it was discovered. North Carolina deputies recovered the barrels Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019, from a tractor trailer they pulled over. “It’s one of the largest U.S. currency seizures in Cleveland County history,” Sheriff Alan Norman told The Shelby Star. Authorities say they believe the money was headed to drug cartels in Mexico, proceeds from drug sales in North Carolina.The Department of Justice has been called to assist in the investigation, AP reports.Approximately $3 million in cash was recovered from the barrels Saturday, the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Tuesday. The driver of the tractor trailer was accused of failing to maintain his lane and impeding the flow of traffic on Interstate 85.(IMAGES: Cleveland County Sheriff's Office) Read the rest

I have but one question. Are they hiring? Sounds like a great place to work.In Baltimore, a commercial real estate developer is distributing a total of $10 million in holiday bonuses to a total of 198 employees.On Monday, WTOP TV news in Baltimore reported that St. John Properties was announcing the bonuses at the firm's holiday party.From AP:Edward St. John, the founder and chairman of the company, said the amount of money that each employee gets is based on tenure. The average bonus was $50,000, but some employees will get upward of $250,000.The company has employees throughout Maryland and northern Virginia. The bonuses celebrate the company’s achievement of developing 20 million square feet of office space, retail and warehouses. That real estate is spread out over eight states.Edward St. John said that he is “thankful for every one of our employees for their hard work and dedication. I couldn’t think of a better way to show it.”PHOTO: Edward St. John, the founder and chairman of St. John Properties, IMAGE COURTESY St. John Properties Read the rest

It's not surprising that Trump used his own charity like a personal piggy bank. Nor is it surprising that his base loves him all the more for stealing the money. What is surprising is that there was still almost $2 million left in the charity's account. I guess he'll be heading to Moscow again soon, MAGA hat in hand.From The Intelligencer:A judge ordered the payment last month after Trump admitted to abusing the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which he used over the years to buy a portrait of himself and a Broncos helmet autographed by Tim Tebow, among other noncharitable items.The foundation, which has been shut down, also distributed the $1.8 million left in its coffers to the eight charities, giving them each a total of $476,140.41. The charities are Army Emergency Relief, the Children’s Aid Society, Citymeals on Wheels, Give an Hour, Martha’s Table, the United Negro College Fund, United Way of the National Capital Area, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.The NY attorney general's office also said that Don Jr, Eric, and Ivanka, who were officials with the foundation, took “compulsory training to ensure this type of illegal activity never takes place again.” Thank goodness this type of illegal activity will never take place again!Photo of Trump by Gage Skidmore - Flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link. Modified. Read the rest

The Merriam-Webster dictionary's word of the year is... "They." According to Merriam-Webster, online dictionary look-ups for the word "they" increased by 313% this year. Others top look-ups include "quid pro quo," "impeach," and "egregious. Makes sense. And it's great that more people are learning that the word "they" is sometimes "used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary," according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition. From Merriam-Webster:English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years.More recently, though, they has also been used to refer to one person whose gender identity is nonbinary, a sense that is increasingly common in published, edited text, as well as social media and in daily personal interactions between English speakers. Read the rest

When you're eating "Italian" food from Trader Joe's, wishing it was a nosh from Commerciante Giuseppe's... Read the rest