Phrenology (the fake science of predicting personality from the shape of your cranial bones) is like Freddy Kruger, an unkillable demon who rises from the grave every time some desperate… Read the rest of the article: Machine learning hucksters invent an AI racist uncle that predicts your personality from your facial bone structure

Five and a half years ago, Edward Snowden put his life on the line, gave up his country, and went into exile, just to reveal that he had been part… Read the rest of the article: Assessing Snowden's legacy, five years on

Julian Oliver ("Critical Engineer, artist, immigrant and educator. Shoots arrows, eats plants") has found a novel and by all appearances very satisfying way to safely erase the data from old… Read the rest of the article: Best data erasure method ever: longbow

The XOXO festival (previously) is one of the best events I've ever attended; and this year's was the biggest, most inclusive one yet, but one of the things that makes… Read the rest of the article: Videos from this year's XOXO Festival

From Thinkgeek, the $150 Fallout 76 Pip-Boy 2000 Construction Kit, a full-sized, wearable replica of the Pip-Boy 2000 Mark VI, in a vegan leather case, with a "completely in-world instruction… Read the rest of the article: 150-piece Fallout 76 Pip-Boy 2000 construction kit

Andrew Salomone writes, "I work as a preparator for The George Eastman Museum at the Kodak founder's historic estate in Rochester, NY. It's the world's oldest photography museum and has… Read the rest of the article: Make: a gingerbread house zoetrope

UK Digital Minister Margot James has vowed to crack down on "exploitative algorithms" used by airlines that deliberately split up families' seat assignments if they did not pay for pre-assigned… Read the rest of the article: UK minister says airlines used "exploitative algorithms" to split up families unless they paid extra

The Sackler Family (previously) are a family of self-styled philanthropist billionaires who have been largely successful in their campaign to whitewash their family name by giving away a few percentage… Read the rest of the article: The billionaire family who profited off the opioid epidemic are finally facing legal reprisals

Seth Kaufman sends his video for "Godot the Musical," saying: "It is, I venture, the funkiest promotional book video ever made. The script appears in my new book Metaphysical Graffiti:… Read the rest of the article: Godot, the musical

Patrick Costello (previously) writes, "My mom shares her recipe for cranberry orange bread with help from my dad. They have been married for fifty years and they are still crazy… Read the rest of the article: Cranberry orange-bread, 50 years later

I love the clothes from Volante Design ("Superhuman Streetwear"); their latest is the "Starfleet 2364" line of men's and women's jackets inspired by Star Trek: The Next Generation uniforms.

Film theorist Laura Mulvey coined the term "male gaze" to describe the "masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer":… Read the rest of the article: Copyright and the "male gaze": a feminist critique of copyright law

The Intercept has published slides from Partnership for America's Health Care Future — a lobbying group representing the for-profit health-care sector — detailing the organization's plan to kill Medicare for… Read the rest of the article: Leaks reveal the health care industry's playbook for smearing and spinning Medicare for All out of existence by 2020

The End of Trust (previously) is a special issue of McSweeney's, produced in collaboration with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on the themes of technology, privacy and surveillance: it's in stores… Read the rest of the article: "The End of Trust" – EFF/McSweeney's collaboration on privacy and surveillance – is in stores and free to download now!

Fantasy and science fiction author and political activist Steven Brust (previously) was this year's Guest of Honor at Philcon, an excellent Philadelphia-area science fiction (I have also had the privilege… Read the rest of the article: On the role of truth and philosophy in fantastic fiction

$5 from the $17 purchase price of each hand-painted Trumpturd squishy is directed to the charity of your choice, from among the ACLU, Greenpeace, Planned Parenthood, or the Institute for… Read the rest of the article: The Trumpturd: a squishy that benefits ACLU, Greenpeace, Planned Parenthood, or the Institute for Free Speech

Trump's "Operation Faithful Patriot" was a $200,000,000 exercise in which 6,000 US troops were deployed within the USA, to the US/Mexico border, nominally to repel the migrant caravan of desperate,… Read the rest of the article: Trump spent $200,000,000 on the election stunt of sending 6,000 troops to the border, then withdrew them before the caravan arrived

Writing in Wired, frequent Boing Boing contributor Clive Thompson praises the rise of rural broadband co-operatives that are springing up to provide internet access to their far-flung, widespread communities, comparing… Read the rest of the article: Electrification 2.0: Rural broadband co-ops are filling the void left by indifferent monopolists

There's the "Laser-Induced Plasma Effect" (one laser dislodges atmospheric electrons and spins up plasma; a second blows up the ionizing gas "to release an ear-splitting burst of sound energy"); there's… Read the rest of the article: Dystopia watch: a roundup of the DOD's new less-lethal weapons

In the Washington Post, Eli Saslow profiles Christopher Blair, a 46-year-old "liberal" hoaxter whose Facebook group, "America's Last Line of Defense," is full of far-right hoaxes that he creates and… Read the rest of the article: Portrait of a fake news troll and the racist retiree who believes everything he writes