Bewarethewumpus

Boing BoingBoing BoingAn amazing tale of interspecies friendshipRaccoon tries to wash cotton candy, but it dissolves instantlyWhich U.S. president would win in a massive knife fight?20 minute Uber ride cost $1,114.71 on New Year's EveThis man is drawing one butt each dayThe Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocolypse: a cookbook and culinary survival guideTwitter reinstates Politiwoops, account that tracked politicians' gaffesMy Maker Dad book is $1.99 on KindleYoung girl plays incredible organ arrangement of Star Wars ThemeThey don't have to tell you where meat comes from anymoreWhat is the most interesting scientific news? Very, VERY smart people respond.Watch Mark Hamill host the TV premiere of Star Wars (1984)Natalie Cole: beautiful 1975 performance of "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)"Armed domestic terrorists take over federal building, but it's OK, they're whitePaypal rolls out the welcome mat for hackersHong Kong's dissident publishing workers are disappearing, possibly kidnapped to mainlandBreaking the DRM on the 1982 Apple ][+ port of Burger TimeLast chance to get the world's smallest camera drone and a 2GB micro SD card for 30% offSpam-fighting mail-ruleHelp identify the science fiction legends in these thrift-scored pix of the 1956 WorldconCharlie Brooker's 2015 Wipe: the only roundup you need to watchFree Stanford course on surveillance law UPDATEDIndia's telcoms regulator says it will ignore Facebook's astroturf armyAnne Frank's diary is in the public domain; editors aren't co-authors

http://boingboing.netBrain candy for Happy Mutantsen-USMon, 04 Jan 2016 09:55:28 PSThttp://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.4hourly1http://boingboing.nethttp://boingboing.net/icons/bb144.jpgThis is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site.http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/EC88mUGSsJM/an-amazing-tale-of-interspecie.htmlPodcastPostfutility closetFutility ClosetMon, 04 Jan 2016 09:52:32 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441925

The lyrebirds of Australia were highly mysterious and rarely seen until one fell in love with an elderly widow in 1930. In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll trace the development of their surprising friendship and how it led to an explosion of knowledge about this extraordinary species.

We'll also learn how Seattle literally remade itself in the early 20th century and puzzle over why a prolific actress was never paid for her work.

Show notes

Please support us on Patreon!

(more…)]]> <p><img width="600" height="470" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/wilkinson.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="wilkinson" /></p> <p><iframe style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4054146/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/000000/" height="100" width="500" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe></p><p>The lyrebirds of Australia were highly mysterious and rarely seen until one fell in love with an elderly widow in 1930. In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll trace the development of their surprising friendship and how it led to an explosion of knowledge about this extraordinary species.</p><p>We'll also learn how Seattle literally remade itself in the early 20th century and puzzle over why a prolific actress was never paid for her work.</p><p><a href="http://www.futilitycloset.com/2016/01/04/podcast-episode-88-mrs-wilkinson-and-the-lyrebird/">Show notes</a></p><p><a href="http://www.patreon.com/futilitycloset">Please support us on Patreon!</a></p> <a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/an-amazing-tale-of-interspecie.html#more-441925" class="more-link">(more&hellip;)</a>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/an-amazing-tale-of-interspecie.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/an-amazing-tale-of-interspecie.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/LwA5UxMbXRc/raccoon-tries-to-wash-cotton-c.htmlVideocandyDelightful CreaturesraccoonsMark FrauenfelderMon, 04 Jan 2016 09:18:32 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441972

This raccoon found a chunk of cotton candy. When the animal dipped the cotton candy into a puddle to wet it, the chunk dissolved, and the raccoon was like, wtf?

Why do raccoons dip their food into water? It's not to clean it, and it is not to soften it. How Stuff Work says raccoons wet their food as a way to give them "a more vivid tactile experience and precise information about what they're about to eat."]]> <img src="http://i1.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/dissolve.jpg?w=600" class="attachment-medium wp-post-image" alt="dissolve" /> <p> <p>This raccoon found a chunk of cotton candy. When the animal dipped the cotton candy into a puddle to wet it, the chunk dissolved, and the raccoon was like, wtf? <p>Why do raccoons dip their food into water? It's not to clean it, and it is not to soften it. How Stuff Work says raccoons wet their food as a way to give them "<a href="http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/raccoons-wash-food1.htm">a more vivid tactile experience and precise information about what they're about to eat</a>."http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/raccoon-tries-to-wash-cotton-c.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/raccoon-tries-to-wash-cotton-c.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/NftLvSUqWXI/which-u-s-president-would-win.htmlPostStabbingsRob BeschizzaMon, 04 Jan 2016 08:58:03 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441969

This is from way back in 2012, but Geoff Micks determined which U.S. president would win in a massive knife fight and it is essential reading.

The scenario had a few rules—the combatants are in the best health of their presidencies, they're in the Colosseum, each are issued with a standard Gerber Combat Knife, FDR is permitted a motorized wheelchair—but they are otherwise left to their stabby devices.

Each president's chances are individually discussed. [via JWZ]]]> <p><img width="998" height="623" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/obama-knife.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="obama-knife" /></p> <p>This is from way back in 2012, but Geoff Micks determined <a href="https://faceintheblue.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/in-a-mass-knife-fight-to-the-death-between-every-american-president-who-would-win-and-why/">which U.S. president would win in a massive knife fight</a> and it is essential reading. <p>The scenario had a few rules—the combatants are in the best health of their presidencies, they're in the Colosseum, each are issued with a standard Gerber Combat Knife, FDR is permitted a motorized wheelchair—but they are otherwise left to their stabby devices. <p>Each president's chances are individually discussed. [via <a href="https://www.jwz.org/blog/2016/01/in-a-mass-knife-fight-to-the-death-between-every-american-president-who-would-win-and-why/">JWZ</a>]http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/which-u-s-president-would-win.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/which-u-s-president-would-win.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/CMLFV5MBHfA/20-minute-uber-ride-cost-111.htmlPostfree marketprice gouginguberMark FrauenfelderMon, 04 Jan 2016 08:51:15 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441967

After Matt Lindsay celebrated New Year's Eve in Southwood Community Centre near Edmonton, he hailed an Uber to take him and his friends home. The driver who picked up Matt warned him that the "surge rate" was 8.9 times the regular fare. Lindsay accepted the surge and took the ride, which lasted 20 minutes. From CBC:

Lindsay said he was using his previous trips with Uber as a base understanding of what the trip would cost.

"Generally Uber is very affordable. I can get from northside to downtown for under $20."

He has taken a couple of rides at a surge rate of two times the regular amount, which he said tallied $77.

"With the amount of people in the vehicle and a similar distance, I figured it would be a similar fare."

Lindsay said people are vulnerable after they've been drinking and surge rates can be confusing.

Lindsay said Uber had offered to reduce his fare by half.

Image: Prathan Chorruangsak / Shutterstock.com]]> <p><img width="600" height="400" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/uber.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="uber" /></p><p>After Matt Lindsay celebrated New Year's Eve in Southwood Community Centre near Edmonton, he hailed an Uber to take him and his friends home. The driver who picked up Matt warned him that the "surge rate" was 8.9 times the regular fare. Lindsay accepted the surge and took the ride, which lasted 20 minutes. From <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/uber-cab-ride-on-new-year-s-eve-pinches-customer-for-1-114-71-1.3387808">CBC</a>: <blockquote> <p>Lindsay said he was using his previous trips with Uber as a base understanding of what the trip would cost. <p>"Generally Uber is very affordable. I can get from northside to downtown for under $20." <p>He has taken a couple of rides at a surge rate of two times the regular amount, which he said tallied $77. <p>"With the amount of people in the vehicle and a similar distance, I figured it would be a similar fare." <p>Lindsay said people are vulnerable after they've been drinking and surge rates can be confusing.</blockquote> <p>Lindsay said Uber had offered to reduce his fare by half. <p>Image: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-2535049p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Prathan Chorruangsak</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/editorial?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Shutterstock.com</a>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/20-minute-uber-ride-cost-111.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/20-minute-uber-ride-cost-111.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/oZ6f0QVY7jY/this-man-is-drawing-one-butt-e.htmlPostbuttsRob BeschizzaMon, 04 Jan 2016 08:32:22 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441956

Charles Vestal has pledged to draw one butt a day throughout 2016. He's doing very well so far. The butts are archived at butts.lol.

https://twitter.com/charlesv/status/682792402952663045 ]]> <p><img width="1280" height="1280" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/tumblr_o0cvc32nyc1v2g4yuo1_1280.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="tumblr_o0cvc32nyc1v2g4yuo1_1280" /></p><p><a href="http://www.charlesvestal.com/">Charles Vestal</a> has pledged to draw one butt a day throughout 2016. He's doing <a href="https://twitter.com/butts_dot_lol">very well so far</a>. The butts are archived at <a href="http://butts.lol/">butts.lol</a>. <p> https://twitter.com/charlesv/status/682792402952663045http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/this-man-is-drawing-one-butt-e.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/this-man-is-drawing-one-butt-e.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/jOQWpqRgWwc/the-art-of-eating-through-the-2.htmlPostapocalypse cookbookcookbookszombiesWinkMon, 04 Jan 2016 08:31:35 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441942

See more sample pages from this book at Wink.

A delightfully funny and punny read, The Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocalypse: A Cookbook & Culinary Survival Guide isn’t merely humor, it actually provides sound advice for the survivalist. The book begins with “entry level preparedness” and runs through the gamut of various apocalyptic survival scenarios, providing illustrated information, advice and recommendations for further reading in every section.

This book is one part apocalypse prepper, one part outdoor survival guide and one part apocalypse cookbook. No reason not to eat well, even in a zombie apocalypse, right? Humor is found in the flowing narrative that is sprinkled with puns, amusingly titled recipes as well as bloodstains and spatters that decorate the introduction of major sections of the book. The pages are a textured grey-green to simulate age and mold.

Humor aside, sandwiched between recipes with titles such as Going Ginko Nuts, Dead Easy Peas and Who’s Got Your Back Tuna Mac, are instructions on diverse projects including making SIPS (Self-Watering Planters) out of soda bottles or storage bins, and practical advice on various how-tos such as drying, curing, smoking, and brining. – Carolyn Koh

The Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocolypse: A Cookbook and Culinary Survival Guide
by Lauren Wilson and Kristian Bauthus
Smart Pop
2014, 320 pages, 6 x 8.2 x 1 inches (paperback)
$15 Buy a copy on Amazon

]]> <p><img width="1200" height="1200" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/tumblr_nzf9heHdrR1t3i99fo1_1280.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="tumblr_nzf9heHdrR1t3i99fo1_1280" /></p><p><a href="http://winkbooks.net/post/135704735523/the-art-of-eating-through-the-zombie-apocolypse-a">See more sample pages from this book at Wink.</a> <p>A delightfully funny and punny read, <em>The Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocalypse: A Cookbook &amp; Culinary Survival Guide</em> isn’t merely humor, it actually provides sound advice for the survivalist. The book begins with “entry level preparedness” and runs through the gamut of various apocalyptic survival scenarios, providing illustrated information, advice and recommendations for further reading in every section. </p><p>This book is one part apocalypse prepper, one part outdoor survival guide and one part apocalypse cookbook. No reason not to eat well, even in a zombie apocalypse, right? Humor is found in the flowing narrative that is sprinkled with puns, amusingly titled recipes as well as bloodstains and spatters that decorate the introduction of major sections of the book. The pages are a textured grey-green to simulate age and mold. </p><p>Humor aside, sandwiched between recipes with titles such as Going Ginko Nuts, Dead Easy Peas and Who’s Got Your Back Tuna Mac, are instructions on diverse projects including making SIPS (Self-Watering Planters) out of soda bottles or storage bins, and practical advice on various how-tos such as drying, curing, smoking, and brining. <em>– Carolyn Koh</em></p> <p><em>The Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocolypse: A Cookbook and Culinary Survival Guide</em> <br>by Lauren Wilson and Kristian Bauthus <br>Smart Pop <br>2014, 320 pages, 6 x 8.2 x 1 inches (paperback) <br>$15 <a class="amazon-button" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1940363365/thebooklab-20">Buy a copy on Amazon</a></p> <p><img src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/tumblr_nzf9heHdrR1t3i99fo7_12803.jpg"> <p><img src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/tumblr_nzf9heHdrR1t3i99fo3_12803.jpg">http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/the-art-of-eating-through-the-2.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/the-art-of-eating-through-the-2.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/KtqWScYUUio/twitter-reinstates-politiwoops.htmlPostbad tweetsRob BeschizzaMon, 04 Jan 2016 08:24:16 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441941

Twitter has reinstated Politiwoops' access to the site.

Politiwoops, which tracked tweets published and subsequently deleted by politicians, aimed to help keep government honest. But Twitter said that it was an invasion of politicans' privacy and cut its access to the Twitter API last year.

Such access enabled more reliable tracking of often fast-deleted but revealing statements uttered off-hand by politicans and their staff.

“Politwoops is an important tool for holding our public officials, including candidates and elected or appointed public officials, accountable for the statements they make, and we’re glad that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with Twitter to bring it back online both in the US and internationally.” said Jenn Topper, communications director for The Sunlight Foundation, in a press release issued by Twitter.

The restoration was expected after a shake-up at Twitter last fall, in which co-founder Jack Dorsey took the helm from longtime CEO Dick Costolo.

Previously.]]> <p><img width="800" height="534" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ROA-twitter.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="ROA-twitter" /></p><p>Twitter <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/2015/holding-public-officials-accountable-with-twitter-and-politwoops">has reinstated Politiwoops' access to the site</a>. <p><a href="http://twitter.com/politiwoops">Politiwoops</a>, which tracked tweets published and subsequently deleted by politicians, aimed to help keep government honest. But Twitter said that it was an invasion of politicans' privacy and cut its access to the Twitter API last year. <p>Such access enabled more reliable tracking of often fast-deleted but revealing statements uttered off-hand by politicans and their staff. <p>“Politwoops is an important tool for holding our public officials, including candidates and elected or appointed public officials, accountable for the statements they make, and we’re glad that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with Twitter to bring it back online both in the US and internationally.” said Jenn Topper, communications director for The Sunlight Foundation, in a press release issued by Twitter. <p>The restoration was expected after a shake-up at Twitter last fall, in which co-founder Jack Dorsey took the helm from longtime CEO Dick Costolo. <p><a href="http://boingboing.net/2013/12/21/politwoops-which-us-politicia.html">Previously</a>.http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/twitter-reinstates-politiwoops.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/twitter-reinstates-politiwoops.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Zb3Sy-BB0Js/my-maker-dad-book-is-on-sale-o.htmlPostactivitiesmakersMark FrauenfelderMon, 04 Jan 2016 08:14:33 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441550

My book, Maker Dad: Lunch Box Guitars, Antigravity Jars, and 22 Other Incredibly Cool Father-Daughter DIY Projects is on sale for $1.99 as part of Amazon's January Kindle Holiday Store Deal. I'm not sure how long the deal lasts.

As the editor in chief of MAKE magazine, Mark Frauenfelder has spent years combing through DIY books, but he’s never been able to find one with geeky projects he can share with his two daughters. Maker Dad is the first DIY book to use cutting-edge (and affordable) technology in appealing projects for fathers and daughters to do together. These crafts and gadgets are both rewarding to make and delightful to play with. What’s more, Maker Dad teaches girls lifelong skills—like computer programming, musicality, and how to use basic hand tools—as well as how to be creative problem solvers. The book’s twenty-four unique projects include:

• Drawbot, a lively contraption that draws abstract patterns all by itself
• Ice Cream Sandwich Necklace
• Friendstrument, an electronic musical instrument girls can play with friends
• Longboard skateboard
• Antigravity Jar
• Silkscreened T-Shirt
• Retro Arcade Video Game
• Host a Podcast
• Lunchbox Guitar
• Kite Video Camera

Innovative and groundbreaking, Maker Dad will inspire fathers to geek out with their daughters and help girls cultivate an early affinity for math, science, and technology.

]]> <p><img width="444" height="500" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/51bizVWsJSL1.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="51bizVWsJSL1" /></p><p>My book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00FL3YLHE/boingboing">Maker Dad: Lunch Box Guitars, Antigravity Jars, and 22 Other Incredibly Cool Father-Daughter DIY Projects</a> is on sale for $1.99 as part of Amazon's January Kindle Holiday Store Deal. I'm not sure how long the deal lasts. <blockquote><p>As the editor in chief of MAKE magazine, Mark Frauenfelder has spent years combing through DIY books, but he’s never been able to find one with geeky projects he can share with his two daughters. <em>Maker Dad</em> is the first DIY book to use cutting-edge (and affordable) technology in appealing projects for fathers and daughters to do together. These crafts and gadgets are both rewarding to make and delightful to play with. What’s more, <em>Maker Dad</em> teaches girls lifelong skills—like computer programming, musicality, and how to use basic hand tools—as well as how to be creative problem solvers. The book’s twenty-four unique projects include: <ul> <li>Drawbot, a lively contraption that draws abstract patterns all by itself</li> <li>Ice Cream Sandwich Necklace</li> <li>Friendstrument, an electronic musical instrument girls can play with friends</li> <li>Longboard skateboard</li> <li>Antigravity Jar</li> <li>Silkscreened T-Shirt</li> <li>Retro Arcade Video Game</li> <li>Host a Podcast</li> <li>Lunchbox Guitar</li> <li>Kite Video Camera</li> </ul> <p>Innovative and groundbreaking, <em>Maker Dad</em> will inspire fathers to geek out with their daughters and help girls cultivate an early affinity for math, science, and technology.</blockquote>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/my-maker-dad-book-is-on-sale-o.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/my-maker-dad-book-is-on-sale-o.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/jW205urcXkI/young-girl-plays-incredible-or.htmlPostVideoback to the futuremusicstar warsDavid PescovitzMon, 04 Jan 2016 08:00:31 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441878

If you're wondering, that's a Yamaha Electone electronic organ. Above, the Star Wars Theme. Below, from a few years back, Back To The Future. Many more performances: 826aska

https://youtu.be/NRBqsJNxMfk]]> <img src="http://i2.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/o2Q4Kk.gif?w=600" class="attachment-medium wp-post-image" alt="" /> <p> <P> If you're wondering, that's a <a href="http://asia.yamaha.com/en/products/musical-instruments/keyboards/electone/">Yamaha Electone</a> electronic organ. Above, the Star Wars Theme. Below, from a few years back, Back To The Future. Many more performances: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBvWfh5pkiCdApbtS0eaMIg">826aska</a> <P> https://youtu.be/NRBqsJNxMfkhttp://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/young-girl-plays-incredible-or.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/young-girl-plays-incredible-or.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/dD5aixjBPPU/they-dont-have-to-tell-you-w.htmlPostVideomystery meatRob BeschizzaMon, 04 Jan 2016 07:42:22 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441930

Responding to overwhelming consumer demand to be kept in the dark about where meat comes from, the government has relaxed the relevant labeling requirements.

After more than a decade of wrangling, Congress repealed a labeling law last month that required retailers to include the animal's country of origin on packages of red meat. It's a major victory for the meat industry, which had fought the law in Congress and the courts since the early 2000s.

… The bill was "a holiday gift to the meatpacking industry from Congress," complained the advocacy group Food and Water Watch. Meatpackers who buy Mexican cattle were some of the law's most aggressive opponents.

If they don't want you to know where the meat came from, maybe you don't want to know where the meat came from.

They almost banned labeling of genetically-modified food, too:

Still, there was some good news for food labeling advocates in the spending bill. Despite an aggressive push by the food industry, lawmakers decided not to add language that would have blocked mandatory labeling of genetically modified ingredients. Also, a provision by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would require labeling of genetically modified salmon recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The embedded music presentation above is titled Some sort of machine pooping out big blobs of meat. ]]> <img src="http://i0.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/meat-pixel-art.jpg?w=600" class="attachment-medium wp-post-image" alt="meat pixel art" /> <p> <p>Responding to overwhelming consumer demand to be kept in the dark about where meat comes from, the government has <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_MEAT_LABELING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-04-03-59-19">relaxed the relevant labeling requirements.</a> <blockquote><p>After more than a decade of wrangling, Congress repealed a labeling law last month that required retailers to include the animal's country of origin on packages of red meat. It's a major victory for the meat industry, which had fought the law in Congress and the courts since the early 2000s. <p>… The bill was "a holiday gift to the meatpacking industry from Congress," complained the advocacy group Food and Water Watch. Meatpackers who buy Mexican cattle were some of the law's most aggressive opponents. </blockquote> <p>If they don't want you to know where the meat came from, maybe you don't <em>want</em> to know where the meat came from. <p>They almost banned labeling of genetically-modified food, too: <blockquote>Still, there was some good news for food labeling advocates in the spending bill. Despite an aggressive push by the food industry, lawmakers decided not to add language that would have blocked mandatory labeling of genetically modified ingredients. Also, a provision by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would require labeling of genetically modified salmon recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.</blockquote> <p>The embedded music presentation above is titled <em>Some sort of machine pooping out big blobs of meat</em>.http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/they-dont-have-to-tell-you-w.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/they-dont-have-to-tell-you-w.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/tNuk9SP7-fw/what-is-the-most-interesting-s.htmlPostedgemediaNewsScienceTechnologyDavid PescovitzMon, 04 Jan 2016 07:00:01 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441874

It is time once again for the Edge Annual Question, a mind-bending and boundary-busting online convening of scientists, technologists, and other big thinkers all responding to a single question at the intersection of science and culture. From physicists to artists, cognitive psychologists to journalists, evolutionary biologists to maverick anthropologists, these are people who Edge founder, famed literary agent, and BB pal John Brockman describes as the "third culture (consisting) of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are."

This year, John asked: What do you consider the most interesting (scientific) news? What makes it important?" Nearly two hundred really smart people responded, including Steven Pinker, Nina Jablonski, Freeman Dyson, Stewart Brand, Marti Hearst, Philip Tetlock, Kevin Kelly, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Douglas Rushkoff, Lisa Randall, Alan Alda, Jared Diamond, Pamela McCorduck, and on and on.

"Science is the only news," writes Stewart Brand in the introduction. "When you scan through a newspaper or magazine, all the human interest stuff is the same old he-said-she-said, the politics and economics the same sorry cyclic dramas, the fashions a pathetic illusion of newness, and even the technology is predictable if you know the science. Human nature doesn't change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly.' We now live in a world in which the rate of change is the biggest change." Science has thus become a big story, if not the big story: news that will stay news."

2016 : WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC] NEWS? WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT?]]> <p><img width="450" height="253" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/TyP5EK9.gif" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" /></p><P> <P>It is time once again for the <a href="http://edge.org/contributors/what-do-you-consider-the-most-interesting-recent-scientific-news-what-makes-it">Edge Annual Question</a>, a mind-bending and boundary-busting online convening of scientists, technologists, and other big thinkers all responding to a single question at the intersection of science and culture. From physicists to artists, cognitive psychologists to journalists, evolutionary biologists to maverick anthropologists, these are people who Edge founder, famed literary agent, and BB pal John Brockman describes as the "third culture (consisting) of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are." <P>This year, John asked: What do you consider the most interesting (scientific) news? What makes it important?" Nearly two hundred really smart people responded, including Steven Pinker, Nina Jablonski, Freeman Dyson, Stewart Brand, Marti Hearst, Philip Tetlock, Kevin Kelly, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Douglas Rushkoff, Lisa Randall, Alan Alda, Jared Diamond, Pamela McCorduck, and on and on. <P> "Science is the only news," writes Stewart Brand <a href="http://edge.org/contributors/what-do-you-consider-the-most-interesting-recent-scientific-news-what-makes-it">in the introduction</a>. "When you scan through a newspaper or magazine, all the human interest stuff is the same old he-said-she-said, the politics and economics the same sorry cyclic dramas, the fashions a pathetic illusion of newness, and even the technology is predictable if you know the science. Human nature doesn't change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly.' We now live in a world in which the rate of change is the biggest change." Science has thus become a big story, if not the big story: news that will stay news." <P> <a href="http://edge.org/contributors/what-do-you-consider-the-most-interesting-recent-scientific-news-what-makes-it">2016 : WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC] NEWS? WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT?</a>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/what-is-the-most-interesting-s.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/what-is-the-most-interesting-s.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/NuCW6lept3Y/watch-mark-hamill-host-the-tv.htmlVideostar warstelevisionDavid PescovitzMon, 04 Jan 2016 06:30:17 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441870

In 1984, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope made its television debut on CBS. Mark Hamill himself hosted the introduction to the film, sporting a sharp tuxedo. Classy. Most classy. (Thanks, UPSO!)

]]> <img src="http://i0.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/R6oGLq.gif?w=600" class="attachment-medium wp-post-image" alt="" /> <p> <P> In 1984, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope made its television debut on CBS. Mark Hamill himself hosted the introduction to the film, sporting a sharp tuxedo. Classy. Most classy. <em>(Thanks, <a href="http://in.ternet.pro/fessional">UPSO</a>!)</em> <P> <img src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/R6oGLq.gif" alt="" width="480" height="270" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-441872" />http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/watch-mark-hamill-host-the-tv.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/watch-mark-hamill-host-the-tv.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/MmcuyNYFtqM/natalie-cole-beautiful-1975-p.htmlVideomusicDavid PescovitzMon, 04 Jan 2016 01:30:44 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441882

The late, great Natalie Cole, who passed away last week, bares her beautiful soul on The Midnight Special in 1975.

]]> <img src="http://i0.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BBL07W.gif?w=600" class="attachment-medium wp-post-image" alt="" /> <p> <P> The late, great Natalie Cole, who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/02/arts/music/natalie-cole-grammy-award-winning-singer-dies-at-65.html?_r=0">passed away</a> last week, bares her beautiful soul on The Midnight Special in 1975. <P> <img src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BBL07W.gif" alt="" width="360" height="270" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-441884" />http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/natalie-cole-beautiful-1975-p.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/04/natalie-cole-beautiful-1975-p.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ej7S_6BFNrw/armed-domestic-terrorists-take.htmlPost#blacklivesmattergwotoregonraceyallqaedaCory DoctorowSun, 03 Jan 2016 07:21:35 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441854

A group of white separatist domestic terrorists have occupied the Malheur National Widlife Refuge Building in Burns, Oregon, fronted by the racist terrorist leader Cliven Bundy, who organized supporters to point sniper rifles at federal officers without any consequence in Nevada last year. (more…)

]]> <p><img width="1280" height="853" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/1280px-MalheurNWRHeadquarters.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="1280px-MalheurNWRHeadquarters" /></p><p> A group of white separatist <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2331">domestic terrorists</a> have occupied the Malheur National Widlife Refuge Building in Burns, Oregon, fronted by the racist terrorist leader <a href="http://boingboing.net/2014/04/24/defiant-rancher-in-nevada-belo.html">Cliven Bundy</a>, who organized supporters to point sniper rifles at federal officers without any consequence in Nevada last year. <a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/armed-domestic-terrorists-take.html#more-441854" class="more-link">(more&hellip;)</a></p>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/armed-domestic-terrorists-take.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/armed-domestic-terrorists-take.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/b6rCdj8uaoM/paypal-rolls-out-the-welcome-m.htmlPostBusinesscargo cult securitycrimeinfosecpaypalCory DoctorowSun, 03 Jan 2016 07:00:00 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441851

It's not bad enough that Paypal is prone to shutting down your account and seizing your dough if you have a particularly successful fundraiser -- they also have virtually no capacity to prevent hackers from changing the email address, password and phone numbers associated with your account, even if you're using their two-factor authentication fob. (more…)

]]> <p><img width="595" height="420" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/online_payment-2.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="online_payment (2)" /></p><p> It's not bad enough that Paypal is prone to shutting down your account and seizing your dough if you have a particularly successful fundraiser -- they also have virtually no capacity to prevent hackers from changing the email address, password and phone numbers associated with your account, even if you're using their two-factor authentication fob. <a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/paypal-rolls-out-the-welcome-m.html#more-441851" class="more-link">(more&hellip;)</a></p>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/paypal-rolls-out-the-welcome-m.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/paypal-rolls-out-the-welcome-m.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/A1v2fifqNZ8/hong-kongs-dissident-publish.htmlPostbookschinadangerous wordshong konghuman rightspublishingCory DoctorowSun, 03 Jan 2016 06:21:43 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441848

Five employees of the publisher Mighty Current and its retail arm, Causeway Bay Bookstore, have disappeared from Hong Kong, and pro-democracy leaders say that they were kidnapped to the mainland by PRC security forces in retaliation for publishing books critical of the Chinese government. (more…)

]]> <p><img width="666" height="405" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/056c026d-1c66-4d42-9fae-a8e96df290c5-1020x915.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="056c026d-1c66-4d42-9fae-a8e96df290c5-1020x915" /></p><p> Five employees of the publisher Mighty Current and its retail arm, Causeway Bay Bookstore, have disappeared from Hong Kong, and pro-democracy leaders say that they were kidnapped to the mainland by PRC security forces in retaliation for publishing books critical of the Chinese government. <a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/hong-kongs-dissident-publish.html#more-441848" class="more-link">(more&hellip;)</a></p>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/hong-kongs-dissident-publish.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/hong-kongs-dissident-publish.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/CUSDNUdcL3w/breaking-the-drm-on-the-1982-a.htmlPost1201apolloapplearchive.orgCopyfightdrmGamesOld schoolpaleocomputingwar on general purpose computingCory DoctorowSun, 03 Jan 2016 05:22:48 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441838

4AM is a prolific computer historian whose practice involves cracking the copy protection on neglected Apple ][+ floppy disks, producing not just games, but voluminous logs that reveal the secret history of the cat-and-mouse between crackers and publishers. (more…)

]]> <p><img width="1097" height="786" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/056c026d-1c66-4d42-9fae-a8e96df290c5-1020x914.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="056c026d-1c66-4d42-9fae-a8e96df290c5-1020x914" /></p><p> <a href="https://twitter.com/a2_4am?lang=en">4AM</a> is a prolific computer historian whose practice involves cracking the copy protection on neglected Apple ][+ floppy disks, producing not just games, but voluminous logs that reveal the secret history of the cat-and-mouse between crackers and publishers. <a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/breaking-the-drm-on-the-1982-a.html#more-441838" class="more-link">(more&hellip;)</a></p>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/breaking-the-drm-on-the-1982-a.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/breaking-the-drm-on-the-1982-a.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/OqhEdr4FISo/last-chance-to-get-the-world.htmlPostshopBoing Boing's StoreSun, 03 Jan 2016 01:00:56 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441503

This tiny flyer is the smallest drone of its kind to carry its own camera for taking epic shots in the smallest places. Four fast blades make this new quadcopter omni-directional, which in layman’s terms means it can dip, dash, zip, spin, and flip anywhere you tell it to via remote control. Plus its decked out with LED lights so you can embark on night flights and document it all the while. Tote it anywhere you go and let it rip.

• Includes a 2GB camera memory card
• Captures crystal-clear video & photography (rare for a drone of this size!)
• Includes LED lights for night flying
• Provides 3 speed flight modes
• Delivers superior flying stability
• Takes less than 30 minutes to fully charge up
• Moves up, down, left or right
• Includes side flight, hover, flip & hand launch capabilities

This deal is expiring soon so don't miss out on the world's smallest camera drone in the Boing Boing store.

To purchase in orange, click here!

]]> <p><img width="630" height="473" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/a2d7aa81fef9a49f1c325017e62c960b05655484_main_hero_image1.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" /></p><p><a href="https://store.boingboing.net/sales/cheerson-cx-10c-nano-drone-with-camera-2gb-microsd-card?utm_source=boingboing.net&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=cheerson-cx-10c-nano-drone-with-camera-2gb-microsd-card">This tiny flyer is the smallest drone</a> of its kind to carry its own camera for taking epic shots in the smallest places. Four fast blades make this new quadcopter omni-directional, which in layman’s terms means it can dip, dash, zip, spin, and flip anywhere you tell it to via remote control. Plus its decked out with <span class="caps">LED</span> lights so you can embark on night flights and document it all the while. Tote it anywhere you go and let it rip.</p><ul><li>Includes a 2GB camera memory card</li><li>Captures crystal-clear video &amp; photography (rare for a drone of this size!)</li><li>Includes <span class="caps">LED</span> lights for night flying</li><li>Provides 3 speed flight modes</li><li>Delivers superior flying stability </li><li>Takes less than 30 minutes to fully charge up</li><li>Moves up, down, left or right </li><li>Includes side flight, hover, flip &amp; hand launch capabilities</li></ul><p>This deal is expiring soon so don't miss out on the <a href="https://store.boingboing.net/sales/cheerson-cx-10c-nano-drone-with-camera-2gb-microsd-card?utm_source=boingboing.net&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=cheerson-cx-10c-nano-drone-with-camera-2gb-microsd-card">world's smallest camera drone</a> in the Boing Boing store.</p><p><i>To purchase in orange, click <a href="https://store.boingboing.net/sales/cheerson-cx-10c-nano-drone-with-camera-orange-2gb-microsd-card?quantity=1&amp;skipPrompt=true">here</a>!</i></p>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/last-chance-to-get-the-world.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/03/last-chance-to-get-the-world.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/fO9Rs7WrYWc/spam-fighting-mail-rule.htmlPostspamto unsubscribe just dieCory DoctorowSat, 02 Jan 2016 16:12:32 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441834

If body contains "unsubscribe" and From: is not any of my addressbooks, then move message to folder "Spam." You're welcome.]]> <p><img width="1063" height="1043" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Spam-Can.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="Spam-Can" /></p><p> If body contains "unsubscribe" and From: is not any of my addressbooks, then move message to folder "Spam." You're welcome.http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/spam-fighting-mail-rule.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/spam-fighting-mail-rule.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/vCEgV_Og0OE/help-identify-the-science-fict.htmlPostfan are slanfanacnycOld schoolphotosscience fictionCory DoctorowSat, 02 Jan 2016 15:23:49 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441823

Cate writes, "I came across a collection of snapshots at a thrift store and recognized the historic nature of the photos, which documented the 14th World Science Fiction Convention. I purchased the photos from a thrift store in Santa Barbara, California on December 31, 2015. I am looking for help to identify attendees featured in the photos." (more…)

]]> <p><img width="1024" height="745" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/23836518990_5a555a5ac8_b.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="23836518990_5a555a5ac8_b" /></p><p> Cate writes, "I came across a collection of snapshots at a thrift store and recognized the historic nature of the photos, which documented the 14th World Science Fiction Convention. I purchased the photos from a thrift store in Santa Barbara, California on December 31, 2015. I am looking for help to identify attendees featured in the photos." <a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/help-identify-the-science-fict.html#more-441823" class="more-link">(more&hellip;)</a></p>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/help-identify-the-science-fict.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/help-identify-the-science-fict.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/DCMf-AkJA8o/charlie-brookers-2015-wipe.htmlVideolaugh the pain awaymedia theoryvideosyoutubeCory DoctorowSat, 02 Jan 2016 06:18:25 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441817

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJHTZLTLPho

As always, Charlie "Screen Wipe/Nathan Barley/Black Mirror" Brooker manages to sum up every single terrible thing about the year that was with gut-busting hilarity. (more…)

]]> <img src="http://i2.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/animation-1.gif?w=600" class="attachment-medium wp-post-image" alt="animation (1)" /> <p> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJHTZLTLPho <p> As always, Charlie "<a href="http://boingboing.net/2007/12/04/charlie-brookers-scr.html">Screen Wipe</a>/<a href="http://boingboing.net/2015/02/11/nathan-barley-old-comedy-turn.html">Nathan Barley</a>/<a href="http://boingboing.net/2013/02/14/black-mirror-is-back-and-it.html">Black Mirror</a>" Brooker manages to sum up every single terrible thing about the year that was with gut-busting hilarity. <a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/charlie-brookers-2015-wipe.html#more-441817" class="more-link">(more&hellip;)</a></p>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/charlie-brookers-2015-wipe.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/charlie-brookers-2015-wipe.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/I5bX7PhBuyM/free-stanford-course-on-survei.htmlPostb-sidebsideeducationlawmoocnofrontdoornsaspookssurveillanceCory DoctorowSat, 02 Jan 2016 06:12:19 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441813

Aw, crap, this was last year

Stanford is offering a free online course by computer scientist/law professor Jonathan Mayer that surveys the baroque, interleaved world of US surveillance law through the Coursera MOOC platform.

(more…)]]> <p><img width="1452" height="884" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/056c026d-1c66-4d42-9fae-a8e96df290c5-1020x913.jpg" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="056c026d-1c66-4d42-9fae-a8e96df290c5-1020x913" /></p><p> <b>Aw, crap, this was last year</b> <s> <p> Stanford is offering a free online course by computer scientist/law professor Jonathan Mayer that surveys the baroque, interleaved world of US surveillance law through the Coursera MOOC platform.</p></s> <a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/free-stanford-course-on-survei.html#more-441813" class="more-link">(more&hellip;)</a></p>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/free-stanford-course-on-survei.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/free-stanford-course-on-survei.htmlhttp://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/7S12KzayCbM/indias-telcoms-regulator-say.htmlPostastroturfconsultations aren't opinion pollscorruptionfacebookindianet neutralitypetardpoor internet for poor peopletelcomsCory DoctorowSat, 02 Jan 2016 06:03:36 PSThttp://boingboing.net/?p=441809

Facebook's misleading, high budget astroturf campaign sent over 14 lakh (1.4m) comments to TRAI, the Indian telcoms regulator, almost none of which responded to the questions raised in the regulator's Net Neutrality consultation paper. (more…)

]]> <p><img width="640" height="360" src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2582211-2582210-lazlo-1.png" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="2582211-2582210-lazlo (1)" /></p><p> Facebook's misleading, <a href="http://boingboing.net/2015/12/27/facebooks-fuddy-full-page-a.html">high budget</a> <a href="http://boingboing.net/2015/12/30/indian-net-neutrality-vs-faceb.html">astroturf campaign</a> sent over 14 lakh (1.4m) comments to TRAI, the Indian telcoms regulator, almost none of which responded to the questions raised in the regulator's Net Neutrality consultation paper. <a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/indias-telcoms-regulator-say.html#more-441809" class="more-link">(more&hellip;)</a></p>http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/indias-telcoms-regulator-say.html/feed0http://boingboing.net/2016/01/02/indias-telcoms-regulator-say.htmlhttp://feed

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

Using tilesets and the characters from Earthbound, CineFix made a short clip about John Hughes’ classic from the 80s.

So everything looks like Earthbound and the Mother series but it’s no longer about kids travelling around the world. It’s about the harsh reality of high school and the weirdest-looking Ferrari of all time.

Gotta love the pixelated Jeffrey Jones character as the principal though!

To contact the author of this post, write to: gergovas@kotaku.com

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

The Trump Show is on tonight! Here’s a little sneak preview.

SPX is this weekend! Every year, SPX is one of my favorite shows. If you’re in the DC area I highly recommend it. Will I see you there?

Want more SFAM? Classic SFAM strips will be running over at GoComics every weekday, along with your favorite syndicated comics! Sign up for an account today and follow all your favorite comics all on one page.

 

The post Opening Salvo appeared first on Scenes From A Multiverse.

Five years. That’s how long the Nevada State Athletic Commission decided UFC fighter/enigma Nick Diaz won’t be allowed to fight. That’s more than most steroid users. All over goddamn marijuana.

If you have friends (or enemies) who are super into MMA, they probably haven’t shut up about Nick Diaz in the past 24 hours. That is, in part, because he got popped for weed by way of a pre-fight drug test (while pot does not, by any stretch of imagination, enhance a fighter’s in-cage performance, it is still against the rules) and, yesterday, was slapped with an unprecedented five year competition ban.

But people are especially upset because of who Nick Diaz is. These days, he might not be quite as big of a name as Ronda Rousey or Conor McGregor, but he’s one of the most unique (and downright bizarre) individuals in the history of the sport. People want to see him in the cage or on the mic, not polishing a ball-and-chain on the sidelines.

Nick... who?

OK, let’s back up a bit. Despite his relatively young age of 32, Nick Diaz has been fighting in MMA’s major leagues for more than a decade.

He made his UFC debut in 2003, but he didn’t make his mark as a truly elite fighter until he fought for (now defunct) Japanese mega-organization Pride back in 2007. In that fight, he managed to beat the man widely considered the best lightweight in the world, Takanori “The Fireball Kid” Gomi. Diaz didn’t just defeat Gomi; he smacked the spirit out of him. Gomi was known for his ferociously powerful striking. Diaz outboxed Gomi with pure volume—unrelenting barrages of precision punches—and left him stumbling and sucking air at the end of the first round.

Then, in the second, Diaz added insult to injury by catching Gomi in a submission that practically nobody ever uses in MMA: the gogoplata. It’s a choke that involves the shin bone and is considered, by most, to be pretty impractical compared to more meat ‘n’ potatoes stuff like the arm bar, triangle choke, or the rear-naked choke. Diaz pulled it off, and he made it look easy:

Previously, Diaz’s skillsets had never quite clicked. His jiu-jitsu was excellent, his striking was decent, and his cardio was godly (he often competes in triathlons for the hell of it), but he’d suffered major setbacks against truly high-level competition. Against Gomi, Diaz looked like he’d finally found his rhythm, and what a unique, thrilling rhythm it was. Killer boxing and a willingness to eat one monster punch to flurry back with hundreds of stinging jabs? That is the good kind of crazy. That’s the kind of crazy that turns fights into fucking gold.

Shortly after the Gomi fight, Diaz got popped for marijuana, and his victory was overturned to a no-contest. This would become a running theme throughout his career.

But Diaz’s in-cage accomplishments (and his proclivity for, er, undoing them) are only half the story.

Wolf tickets

Nick Diaz is truly one of a kind. And by that, I mean he’s a weird fucking dude. Hailing from Stockton, California, he’s cultivated a sort of give-no-fucks “thug” persona. He mean mugs everybody. He trash talks his opponents while he’s fighting them, whether he’s winning or losing. He #420smokesweedeveryday, heedless of the rules. He’s been part of multiple non-sanctioned brawls at major MMA events. He seems to despise The Establishment in all its forms, even when it’s his employer. Once upon a time, the UFC took a title shot away from Diaz because he no-showed on so many mandatory press and promotional events.

If you ask Nick or his younger brother, Nate, they’ll tell you that’s just who they are; that’s who they had to be growing up in bad parts of Stockton, in order to avoid (or, worst case scenario, deal with) trouble. They fell into martial arts naturally, when they were young. When life gives you street fights on a near-daily basis, you make fight-ade. Or something. And apparently you become kind of a dick.

Despite a general air of douchiness, there’s something distinctly likable about Diaz. Whether you believe he’s in the right for, frankly, acting kind of childish all the time, it’s hard to doubt his sincerity. He’s a no-bullshit dude. When coaxed out of his nigh-impenetrable shell, he speaks his mind, and he doesn’t give a goddamn who hears. He’s said stuff that would’ve probably gotten other fighters fired. And while he sometimes comes off as a total crazy person (or a rampant, do-nothing complainer when people beat him with wrestling), he has a habit of ending his drug-addled ramblings at something vaguely resembling profound truth... if you squint at it.

Most infamously, there was the “wolf ticket” incident back in 2013. As part of the build-up for a welterweight title fight between then-champ (and transcendentally popular goody two-shoes) Georges St. Pierre and Diaz, the UFC released a bunch of marketing materials that painted Diaz as a truly unforgivable villain. Countless clips featured St. Pierre talking about how he was gonna dig deep, bring out his “darker side” to punish Diaz for being a malcontent with no redeeming qualities, for pushing St. Pierre to the brink with his antics and trash talk. There were no grays here; St. Pierre was good, Diaz was evil.

During a press conference that he actually attended, Diaz called them on it. And a million other issues he had with MMA and the UFC.

“They like to make me look like the bad guy. Georges likes to say I remind of a bully that picked on him growing up. How many times have you had a gun to your head, Georges? How many of your best friends have been shot through the chest with a 45 or how many of your best friends have been stomped, put to sleep in a coma? How many people put gum in your hair growing up going back that far?”

“I hate everyone pulling the bully card. Everyone hates bullies. If it wasn’t for what I went through, who knows if I would have made it in life. Who knows if I’d be here today. I don’t go and point the finger and decide that people are the bully who tortured me as a child. I don’t want to see anybody hurt. I don’t believe anyone out here working towards greatness deserves to be beat down, smashed in. The fans out like violence. People like violence. It’s the funniest thing but I like to think I’m not a violent person. I’m a martial artist.”

Then came the notorious “wolf tickets” line, wherein Diaz insinuated that the UFC and St. Pierre were feeding audiences bullshit and not intending to even back it up with a decent fight.

“You [St. Pierre] told the fans that I deserve to get beat down, that I chased you around. I got the fight, right? I’m working towards something, everybody knows that. Sorry I had to [say you were scared] to get the fight. They’re selling you [fans and media] all wolf tickets people, you’re eating them right up. Georges here is selling wolf tickets. Dana White here is selling wolf tickets. The UFC is selling wolf tickets. You guys are eating them right up.”

Rambling verging on incoherent, but spiced with a bit of truth. Diaz isn’t as bad of a dude as he’s sometimes portrayed, and the UFC did kinda sell people “wolf tickets.” St. Pierre did not, in fact, go all dark side on Diaz. He largely played it safe, wrestled a bunch, and gave fans a fight that wasn’t super exciting. But that’s the fight game for you. For better or worse, Diaz has never meshed well with the “game” part of it.

Nick Diaz vs the world

Back in the present, Nick Diaz is in a rough spot. Unless his legal team bats a thousand while appealing the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s decision in court, he’s on the bench until 2020. By then, he will officially be Old by MMA standards. In the meantime, he’ll no longer be able to make money as a pro fighter, the only career he’s ever really known (aside from running a gym, which will hopefully keep him afloat, at least). His career is, in all likelihood, over. True to form, Diaz pulled no punches with his statement on the matter. He explained why he dropped out of school to fight, recounting the tale of his troubled youth and, eventually, a girlfriend who killed herself:

“She was gonna go to college. She was an avid student and and was doing everything I couldn’t while living in a trailer park where everyone was doing dope. Meanwhile, I focused my whole high school years worried about what her and her friends would think if I lost a fight to her ex-boyfriend and football friends. I could never make attendance, hung out with the wrong people to hold my ground as a fighter and someone who I would fight for was important to me.”

“There was no way I was gonna go to school. I had no money, no car. I would have driven there and stopped her. After that, I was grown up. It was all over. I wasn’t a kid anymore. I won my first fight in the first round with a choke and all I could think about was her, just like when I was in school.”

“I would run seven miles and back to her grave just to promise her I would make it as a fighter like she knew and had told me she knew and was proud of me.”

“So this sport and this commission have done everything to stop me from being in the position that I belong. That’s the only reason why I haven’t stayed in that position and come off as the fighter and person that I know I am and can be.”

Admittedly, Diaz is not entirely innocent here. He’s been suspended for marijuana twice before. According to the official rules for a third infraction, he was looking at a three year suspension, at the very least. And more generally, Diaz is a guy who has a habit of getting himself in trouble and, at least some of the time, blaming other people for it. His record is far from spotless.

But the NSAC, a professional body, made it personal. Keeping with past trends, they reacted with anger and incredulity when Diaz’s team tried to fight Diaz’s impending punishment—ask legitimate questions of testing methods that suggested Diaz had more than the legal limit of marijuana metabolites in his system on fight night—instead of rolling over and apologizing. At first, one member of the NSAC suggested that Diaz should receive a lifetime ban from competing. Other members reined in that egregiously over-the-top suggestion, but it set the tone for the remainder of the proceedings.

It should be noted that middleweight legend Anderson Silva, Diaz’s opponent in the fight in which he most recently got popped for marijuana, also tested positive for drugs—namely, steroids. He got suspended for one year, retroactive to the time of the fight. He’ll be able to hop back in the octagon again in January. In short, the guy who did performance-enhancing drugs—potentially put his opponent in real danger—got a slap on the wrist compared to the guy who, at worst, impaired himself slightly. That sends a baaaaad message to fighters. It’s also pretty unfair, not to mention largely arbitrary. Diaz dug his own grave by doing marijuana close to fight time (again), but he didn’t dig it that deep.

If Diaz is indeed out of the fight game for the next five years (possibly forever, if he decides he’s gotten too old to be competitive), that’s a damn shame. Nick Diaz is uniquely entertaining—sometimes a laugh, other times an almost literal riot. I’ve said it in the past, and I’ll say it again: fight sports live and die on their characters, and the UFC needs more of them. Whether you love him or you hate him, you can’t deny that Diaz is a character. He’s truly one of a kind, and he will be missed.

Image credit: Getty.

To contact the author of this post, write to nathan.grayson@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @vahn16.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

Nature has never been more frightening than the moment the world learned that crocodiles could propel themselves straight upwards out of the water, essentially walking on water on their own tails. Watch out, humans.

A federal district court judge in New York has fully lifted an 11-year-old gag order that the FBI imposed on Nicholas Merrill, the founder of a small Internet service provider, to prevent him from speaking about a national security letter served on him in 2004.

It marked the first time such a gag order has been fully lifted since the USA Patriot Act in 2001 expanded the FBI’s authority to unilaterally demand that certain businesses turn over records simply by writing a letter saying the information is needed for national security purposes.

Like other NSL recipients, Merrill was also instructed that he could not mention the order to anyone.

Merrill said the court ruling allowing him to discuss the details of the sealed request in full will allow him to ignite a debate among Americans about the unchecked surveillance powers of the U.S. government.

“For more than a decade, the FBI has fought tooth and nail in order to prevent me from speaking freely about the NSL I received,” Merrill said in a press release published by the Calyx Institute, where he serves as director.

U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero’s decision “vindicates the public’s right to know how the FBI uses warrantless surveillance to peer into our digital lives,” Merrill said. “I hope today’s victory will finally allow Americans to engage in an informed debate about the proper scope of the government’s warrantless surveillance powers.”

Merrill and the American Civil Liberties Union launched what turned out to be a long legal battle against the FBI in 2004 in the case Doe v. Ashcroft. Merrill finally won the right to reveal his own identity in 2010.

The FBI withdrew its national security letter request after Merrill continually refused to comply, but Merrill decided to keep fighting the gag order. Law students and attorneys of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School represented him in his 2015 case against the Justice Department and the FBI seeking to overturn the gag order.

In his ruling, the judge found no “good reason” to continue to silence Merrill about his experience with the FBI. If Merrill were only allowed to disclose details about the request “in a world in which no threat of terrorism exists,” or in the case that the FBI disclosed the records itself — two extremely unlikely possibilities — it would effectively prevent “accountability of the government to the people,” the judge wrote.

Merrill is not free to talk quite yet, however — he will remain under gag order for 90 days, giving the government time to appeal.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation estimates that over 300,000 national security letters have been issued since 2001. The Justice Department concluded in 2008 that the FBI had abused its power, often gathering information on large numbers of U.S. citizens, infringing on their First Amendment rights, and leaving hardly any paper trail, until changes were adopted in 2006.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced earlier this year that the FBI would start presumptively terminating national security letter nondisclosure orders either three years after the opening of a fully predicated investigation or at the investigation’s close, whichever came earlier. But that change was not retroactive.

The post Federal Court Lifts National Security Letter Gag Order; First Time in 14 Years appeared first on The Intercept.

Destiny’s main story isn’t the only thing getting a new chapter with the Taken King expansion. Another less well-known (but far better) Destiny tale has been given a conclusion, and it kicks ass.

To catch newcomers up: I’m talking about the legend of two weapons: Thorn and The Last Word. It’s a cool story that concerns the three men who used those guns, warriors named Jaren Ward, Dredgen Yor, and Shin Malphur. The story is buried in Destiny’s Grimoire cards and doesn’t actually appear in the game itself, but it’s a nice reward for anyone who goes paging through the game’s buried Grimoire.

I recounted the whole tale a few weeks ago, but here’s the short version: Shin Malphur was a young man living in a settlement called Palemon when a badass Guardian named Jaren Ward showed up. Ward was a force of light, an awesome dude who wore a gun called The Last Word on his hip. He eventually had a showdown with Palemon’s corrupt leader and killed him, then adopted Shin and rescued some of Palemon’s residents when some calamity burned the settlement to the ground.

While leading Shin and his friends to the safety of the Last City, their party was set upon by a man named Dredgen Yor, a powerful fallen Guardian who wielded the evil weapon Thorn. (Both The Last Word and Thorn are actual guns you can get in the game.) Yor killed Jaren Ward, but with the aid of Ward’s little robot Ghost, young Shin Malphur survived.

The rest of the story was left hazy. We knew that somewhere down the line, a fully grown Shin Malphur had a showdown with Dredgen Yor somewhere called Dwindler’s Ridge, with Malphur seeking vengeance for his slain mentor. During that showdown, Malphur echoed his former master’s challenge: “Yours, not mine,” presumably before blowing the villain away.

The actual events of that showdown have been a mystery… until now. In two new Taken King Grimoire cards collected over at Planet Destiny, the full tale has been revealed. And it rules.

First of all, there’s “Thorn 4,” a card detailing a conversation between Jaren Ward’s Ghost and Dredgen Yor immediately after Yor killed the Ghost’s master.

For reference, [u.1] is Ward’s Ghost, and [u.2] is Dredgen Yor.

Chapter Five: The Shadow And The Light

TYPE: Transcript.

DESCRIPTION: Conversation.
PARTIES: Two [2]. One [1] Ghost-type, designate [REDACTED] [u.1], One [1] Guardian-type, Class [REDACTED] [u.2] ASSOCIATIONS: Breaklands; Durga; Dwindler’s Ridge; Last Word; Malphur, Shin; North Channel; Palamon; Thorn; Velor; Ward, Jaren; WoS; Yor, Dredgen;
//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//
//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS…/

[u.1:0.1] Such Darkness.
[u.2:0.1] Impressed?
[u.1:0.2] Far from it.
[u.2:0.2] To each their own.
[u.1:0.3] His Light is faded.
[u.2:0.3] His Light is gone.
[u.1:0.4] You are an infection.
[u.2:0.4] I am that which will cleanse.
[u.1:0.5] You are a monster.
[u.2:0.5] Heh. An old friend once saw me as the same. He was right, and, had we met earlier, so too would you be.
[u.1:0.6] You’d dare defend yourself – all you’ve done – as anything but monstrous?
[u.2:0.6] No more than a hurricane.
[u.1:0.7] Then you’re a force of nature?
[u.2:0.7] I am all that is right. You may not see it – for lack of looking, or blind ignorance – but I am all that is good.
[u.1:0.8] You’ve just murdered a good man.
[u.2:0.8] He shot first.
[u.1:0.9] Yet you stand.
[u.2:0.9] Guess he missed.
[u.1:1.0] He never misses.
[u.2:1.0] First time for everything.
[silence] [u.2:1.1] His cannon? Nice piece of hardware.
[u.2:1.2] Well-worn, but clean. Smooth hammer.
[u.1:1.1] It was his prize.
[u.2:1.3] Guess he put too much faith in the wrong steel.
[u.1:1.2] Is that where you’re faith lies, in steel?
[u.2:1.4] Not for some time. My steel is only an extension. My faith is in the shadow.
[u.1:1.3] Then my Light is an affront to all you are. I am your truest enemy.
[u.2:1.5] One of many.
[u.1:1.4] Would you end me?
[u.2:1.6] Not you. Not now.
[u.1:1.5] The shadow knows mercy.
[u.2:1.7] The shadow knows no such thing.
[u.1:1.6] Then what?
[u.2:1.8] The other.
[u.1:1.7] What other?
[u.2:1.9] The dead man’s charge.
[u.1:1.8] The boy?
[u.1:1.9] You’d end him as well?
[u.2:2.0] If it comes to that… We’ll see.
[u.1:2.0] I won’t let you have the child.
[u.2:2.1] Been long enough now, think maybe he’s a man.
[u.1:2.1] You cannot have him.
[u.2:2.2] Not yet.
[u.1:2.2] I won’t let you.
[u.2:2.3] That you could stop me is an amusing thought.
[silence] [u.2:2.4] Here.
[silence] [u.2:2.5] Take it.
[u.1:2.3] Why?
[u.2:2.6] Give the apprentice his master’s “sword.” It is a gift.
[u.1:2.4] You cannot have him.
[u.2:2.7] You fear for his Light?
[u.1:2.5] He…
[u.2:2.8] …is special.
[u.1:2.6] Yes.
[u.2:2.9] I am aware.
[u.1:2.7] You’re trying to tempt him. You’re feeding his anger.
[u.2:3.0] The gun is a memento, nothing more.
[u.1:2.8] You claim to be a vessel, a hollow shell where once a man stood, but that is just a lie. The man is still in you.
[u.2:3.1] There is no man here, I am now, and for the rest of time, only Dredgen Yor.
[u.1:2.9] “The Eternal Abyss?”
[u.2:3.2] So, not all the forgotten languages are dead.
[u.1:3.0] Hide behind whatever titles you wish, it is all still a façade. No force of nature would play such games.
[u.2:3.3] Games?
[u.1:3.1] The cannon. You wish to tempt the boy. Too spur him on and fuel his rage. There is intent there. The actions of a man, monstrous, mad or otherwise… you are nothing more.
[u.2:3.4] And what value does your conclusion bring, flawed as it may be?
[u.1:3.2] That a hurricane can only be weathered, not stopped. Not redirected. A force of nature is uncaring and without intent, but a man…
[u.2:3.5] Yes?
[u.1:3.3] A man is none of those things.
[silence] [u.1:3.4] A man can be killed.
[silence] [u.2:3.6] And there it is…
[u.1:3.5] There what is…?

[u.2:3.7] A sliver of hope.

We know that Jaren Ward’s ghost did indeed go back to young Shin and deliver the weapon, The Last Word.

What then? Well, a second new Grimoire card called “The Last Word 4” reveals that Dredgen Yor was actually responsible for Palemon’s destruction, confirms beyond all doubt that it was Thorn’s wielder who killed Jaren Ward, and recounts the story of the climactic showdown at Dwindler’s Ridge in extremely awesome detail.

Chapter Six: The Showdown At Dwindler’s Ridge

Then.

Palamon was ash.

I was only a boy – my face caked in soot, snot and sorrow.

I’d assumed Jaren, my friend, our Guardian, the savior of Palamon, would always protect us – could always save us…

But I was a fool.

Jaren, and the others, only a handful, but still our best hunters, our hardest hearts, had left three suns prior. Tracking Fallen, after the bandits had caused a stir.

The stranger – the other – arrived the following day.

He rarely spoke. Took a room. Took our hospitality.

I was intrigued by him, as I was Jaren when he’d first arrived.

But the stranger was cold. Distant. Damaged, I thought.

But I wasn’t afraid. Not yet.

Only a child, I knew the monsters of our world to walk like men, but they were not. They were something alien. Four-armed and savage.

The stranger was polite, but solemn.

I took him for a sad, broken man, and he was. Though, at the time, I didn’t understand how that could make one dangerous.

As with Jaren, father made an effort to keep me away from the stranger.

It wouldn’t matter.

As the silhouette approached, fear held tight.

The dark figure towered over me. Looking into me – through me.

He smiled. My knees weak. All lost.

Then, he turned and walked away.

Leaving ruin and a heartbroken, terrified boy in his wake without a second glance.

I’ve been chasing that stranger’s shadow ever since.

Now.

We stood silent, the sun high.

Seconds passed, feeling more like hours.

He looked different.

He seemed, now, to be weightless – effortless in an existence that would crush a man burdened by conscience.

My gaze remained locked as I felt a heat rising inside of me.

The other spoke…

“Been awhile.”

I gave no reply.

“The gunslinger’s sword… his cannon. That was a gift.”

My silence held as my thumb caressed the perfectly worn hammer at my hip.

“An offering from me… to you.”

The heat grew. Centered in my chest.

I felt like a coward the day Jaren Ward died and for many cycles after.

But here, I felt only the fire of my Light.

The other probed…

“Nothing to say?”

He let the words hang.

“I’ve been waiting for you. For this day.”

His attempt at conversation felt mundane when judged against all that had come before.

“Many times I thought you’d faltered. Given up…”

All I’d lost, all who’d suffered, flashed rapid through my mind, intercut with a dark silhouette walking toward a frightened, weak, coward of a boy.

The fire burned in me.

The other continued…

“But here you are. This is truly an end…”

As his tongue slipped between syllables my gun hand moved as if of its own will.

Reflex and purpose merged with anger, clarity and an overwhelming need for just that… an end.

In step with my motion, the fire within burst into focus – through my shoulder, down my arm – as my finger closed on the trigger of my third father’s cannon.

Two shots. Two bullets engulfed in an angry glow.

The other fell.

I walked to his corpse. He never raised his cursed Thorn – the jagged gun with the festering sickness.

I looked down at the dead man who had caused so much death.

My shooter still embraced by the dancing flames of my Light.

A sadness came over me.

I thought back to my earliest days. Of Palamon. Of Jaren.

Leveling my cannon at the dead man’s helm, I paid one final tribute to my mentor, my savior, my father and my friend…

“Yours… Not mine.”

…as I closed my grip, allowing Jaren’s cannon, now my own, to have the last, loud word.

.......

............

....Fuck. Yes.

Now we know how the story ended, and what really happened at Dwindler’s Ridge. Can’t say I’m not satisfied.

---

To contact the author of this post, write to kirk@kotaku.com.

Big thanks to Kevin Pennyfeather for the heads up.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

The implacable march of technology has, in many ways, made parents’ lives easier. But in other areas, it’s added a whole new layer of complication. Like the fact that video-enabled baby monitors, designed to let parents have peace of mind while their kids are sleeping in another room, almost universally have completely crap security that any random stranger on the internet can tap into.

Fusion spoke with a security researcher who tested out nine of the most popular, widely-available brands of video baby monitor, and what he found isn’t pretty.

The monitor brands researcher Mark Stanislav tested included popular models from Philips, Summer Infant, TRENDnet, iBaby, Lens Laboratory, and Gynoii. He gave eight of the nine an “F” for security. Just one passed, barely, with a D-.

In this sense, baby monitors are just like every other poorly-secured, wifi-enabled camera. If your device ships with a default password that you don’t change, basically anyone anywhere can have access to it.

But what makes the baby monitor situation even worse, the research found, is that in many cases, the scary settings are ones that parents don’t have access to. Stanislav told Fusion that of the nine brands his company tested, “Every camera had one hidden account that a consumer can’t change because it’s hard coded or not easily accessible. Whether intended for admin or support, it gives an outsider backdoor access to the camera.”

In other words, even a tech-savvy, security-minded consumer can’t fix this problem on their own.

Unlike some other recent hacking research, the baby monitor situation isn’t just academic or theoretical. It’s a known problem out in the wild, with proven harms. There have been many incidents in the past several years of parents reporting hearing intruders on their baby monitor lines, including one disturbing incident just this week when a hacker tapped into one family’s baby monitor and played “Every Breath You Take” while making, as the family told local media, “sexual noises.”

Watch out, new parents — internet-connected baby monitors are trivial to hack [Fusion]

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

It's the second Monday of previews, and that means it's time for us to look deeply into the gorgeous basic land art that we have in store this time around.

However, this being Zendikar, and Zendikar meaning full-art lands, I know you're all anticipating this installment a little bit more eagerly than most. And rightfully so, as the lands are—well, I'll let some of the art speak for itself.

Island | Art by Tianhua X

It takes a lot to displace the bowl Island as my favorite piece of land art, but this masterful vista might do just that. And speaking of the bowl Island. . .

Island | Art by Vincent Proce

That isn't a tease or a callback—that is actual art you can find in Battle for Zendikar packs. One of the cool things the art team did this time around was keep five of the pieces of art from the original Zendikar full-art lands and reuse them among the new pieces, one for each basic land type. Here are those five.

 

But what about the new-art lands? Well, those look a little something like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know about you, but I'm excited for another generation of full-art lands, and these certainly live up to the originals. You'll be able to get these, as well as fourteen other cards that, ya know, do things, when Battle for Zendikar releases on October 2.

In his excellent article on the unique guilt-by-association standard being imposed on newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, my colleague Jon Schwarz references a passage from a 2013 Washington Post article that I want to highlight because of how illuminating it is. That Post article describes the Obama administration’s growing alliance with human-rights-abusing regimes in Africa, which allow the U.S. to expand its drone operations there, and contains this unusually blunt admission from a “senior U.S. official” (emphasis added):

Human-rights groups have also accused the U.S. government of holding its tongue about political repression in Ethiopia, another key security partner in East Africa.

“The countries that cooperate with us get at least a free pass,” acknowledged a senior U.S. official who specializes in Africa but spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. “Whereas other countries that don’t cooperate, we ream them as best we can.”

The Post article went on to note that the Bush administration “took the same approach,” and that while “many U.S. diplomats and human-rights groups had hoped Obama would shift his emphasis in Africa from security to democracy … that has not happened.” In fact, “‘There’s pretty much been no change at all,’ the official said. ‘In the end, it was an almost seamless transition from Bush to Obama.'”

The post Two Short Paragraphs That Summarize the U.S. Approach to Human Rights Advocacy appeared first on The Intercept.

The first of three episodes of Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma [official site], telling the story of a robot samurai with the face of a bear from your nightmares, is coming to Windows on September 22nd.

A spin-off of Takashi Okazaki’s original manga, Revenge of Kuma follows the antics of the cybernetic bear dude Kuma, who at one point was a human guy and best friend to the titular Afro Samurai. Kuma – who, confusingly, is also known as Jinno – is now after poor Afro to avenge the death of his adopted little sister. Look, it makes sense if you played the first game.

… [visit site to read more]

Hovertext: I don't get helicopter parenting. Gliding drones can stay up WAY LONGER without refueling.

New comic!
Today's News:

Names have power, as proven here by Redditor cl0sure’s chosen moniker transforming a mild observation into an aggressive defense in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.

Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Today in ‘things we wish Microsoft would ask really, really nicely about before they just went ahead and did it without telling us’, it’s Windows 7 & 8 quietly downloading Windows 10 for you, regardless of whether or not you intend to install it.
… [visit site to read more]

To mark today, September 11, 2015, I’ve put together a short quiz.

1. What is this?

A. The World Trade Center in flames on September 11, 2001.
B. A grotesque act of mass murder.
C. The start of a lifetime of suffering for everyone who loved someone who died at the World Trade Center.
D. AN OPPORTUNITY, AN ENORMOUS OPPORTUNITY!

The correct answer, obviously, is D.

“Through my tears I see opportunity.”
— George W. Bush, September 20, 2001

“If the collapse of the Soviet Union and 9/11 bookend a major shift in international politics, then this is a period not just of grave danger, but of enormous opportunity. Before the clay is dry again, America and our friends and our allies must move decisively to take advantage of these new opportunities.”
— Condoleezza Rice, April 29, 2002

2.  What is this?

A. The al Qaeda bombing of a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, on November 28, 2002.
B. The place where terrorists murdered 13 people, including Israeli brothers Noy and Dvir Anter, ages 12 and 13.
C. The location where, CNN reported, “screaming children covered in blood searched desperately for their parents amid the wreckage.”
D. A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY!

Again, of course, the answer is D.

“Israeli officials view last week’s terrorist attacks … as reinforcing their argument that Israel and the West are battling a single enemy. Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meeting with ministry staff in the aftermath of the Kenya attacks, said that the incidents had presented Israel with a ‘golden opportunity’ to strengthen its strategic ties with the United States and other Western countries.”
— The Forward, December 6, 2002

3. What is this?

A. Five-year-old Iraqi Samar Hassan, covered in her parents’ blood shortly after they were killed by U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint in 2005.
B. The reason why Hassan now says: “I always dream about my father and mother.”
C. Something every American should be atoning for until the day we die.
D. A GOLDEN AND UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY!

The correct answer is D. Duh.

“Targeting America in Iraq in terms of economy and losses in life is a golden and unique opportunity. Do not waste it only to regret it later.”
— Osama bin Laden, December, 2004

Probably my point here is clear. But I will go ahead and spell it out.

For normal people, terrorism and wars are purely and only tragedies.

For our would-be “leaders,” however — in every country — the situation is different. Of course, they pretend to feel the same as normal people. They give teary-eyed speeches about sorrow and suffering.

And yet, behind their tears, there seems to be something else. When they think no one is looking, you glimpse another expression flitting across their face. You think it couldn’t be. But — yes, incredibly enough, they’re smiling. Because before the bodies are cold, before the mothers and fathers have stopped shrieking, our leaders are thinking:

This is really a fantastic opportunity.

And for them, it is. It’s an opportunity for them to do whatever they wanted to do before, but couldn’t get away with. It’s an opportunity for them to smear anyone who criticizes them as disloyal. It’s an opportunity for them to become much more powerful than they ever could be in peacetime, to implement whatever their favorite shock doctrine is. Leaders love war. That’s why there’s so much of it.

It’s understandably hard for most people to come to terms with this. It’s terrifying to believe your leaders may secretly be, uh, not so sad if you die. But all you have to do is listen to them, and they’ll tell you.

Can we change this? Maybe. But the first step in changing reality is facing it, no matter how ugly and frightening it is.

Caption: Second World Trade Tower photo retouched for dust and scratches. 

The post An “Enormous Opportunity”: A Short, Awful 9/11 Quiz appeared first on The Intercept.

Glen Keane, known for animating characters in the Disney films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Tarzan, equips a virtual reality device to draw in three-dimensional space.

The press has become more aggressive about reporting on national security in the post-Snowden world, ranking House Intelligence Committee member Adam Schiff said Thursday.

Speaking to a convention of government contractors, the California Democrat attributed the change partly to “less confidence or trust” in the government, and partly to a “rush to publish.”

“One of the dynamics that has really changed post-Snowden is the conversations that traditionally have taken place between the media and the intelligence community — when the media has a story, and they go to the IC and say we’re going to run with this story, and there’s a discussion of, OK, what impact would that have, and the newspaper’s willingness to effectively self censor, not publish out of the public interest — I think that dynamic has changed,” Schiff said during a roundtable discussion at the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

Top-secret documents turned over to journalists by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the vast scope of the U.S. surveillance apparatus.

“The celebrity, for lack of a better word, that’s been attributed to Snowden encourages other people to make disclosures, and this is a great challenge,” Schiff said.

The conference, which was only opened to the press and the public two years ago, is co-hosted by AFCEA, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, and INSA, the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, both of which function to connect government and industry on issues of defense, intelligence, and national security.

Moderator David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, said his own and other traditional media outlets like the Washington Post still have “a good dynamic back and forth” with the intelligence community. “The difference is many more media players now,” he said. “Wikileaks isn’t going to have that phone call, a blogger isn’t going to have that phone call — and probably wouldn’t get that phone call returned. The game is being played at a far more complex level.”

Schiff said that the intelligence community now functions under the assumption that everything will ultimately be disclosed. “The allegations regarding Angela Merkel’s cell phone — and I can only say allegations — were a real tipping point in terms of compelling policymakers and members of the intelligence community to think long and hard about the risks of disclosure,” Schiff said on a panel with the committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

The ever-present risk of disclosure “puts real constraints” on what the intelligence community does, he said, “some which may be useful, others which may ultimately be harmful in terms of national security.”

The post Intelligence Overseer Says Press Is More Aggressive Post Snowden appeared first on The Intercept.

Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.