science fiction "Southland Tales" is the perfect hot mess of a movie for the 4th of July in the hellscape of 2020 Thom Dunn

politics Amazon, Google, Apple and others seeking government favors pay for Trump's $200,000,000 ballroom Ellsworth Toohey

art Drew Friedman's latest book: Shtick Figures: The Cool, the Comical, the Crazy Mark Frauenfelder

world news Ice cream truck washed out to sea (video) Mark Frauenfelder

politics No-one wants to be a small-town cop anymore Rob Beschizza

movies A look back at 1998's Wild Things, "increasingly appreciated as a slice of wanton sleaze" Mark Frauenfelder

ESP Is Precognition Real? Mitch Horowitz

News Trump pardons Steve Bannon, Elliot Broidy, Lil Wayne, others — 73 pardons, 70 commutations Xeni Jardin

books Number-crunching the overwhelming whiteness of the book publishing industry Thom Dunn

Man sells wife's clothes to populate miniature Christmas village Rob Beschizza

Killers hunt Prince Andrew, Brad Pitt's secret daughter, and George Clooney's plastic surgery shocker, in this week's dubious tabloids Peter Sheridan

coronavirus Here are the 5 kinds of pandemic villains who are making things worse for the rest of us Mark Frauenfelder

politics 'Resign!' 2 GOP senators should lose jobs for coronavirus stock jump, say critics Xeni Jardin

happy mutants Bipartisan legislation would force Big Tech to allow interoperability with small competitors Cory Doctorow

usausausa Reverse mortgages: subprime's "stealth aftershock" that is costing elderly African-Americans their family homes Cory Doctorow

music Listen to BBC Radio 4's "New Weird Britain" audio program David Pescovitz

Adam Savage Kevin Kelly, Adam Savage, Norm Chan discuss continuous learning, knowledge sharing, and how tools open up possibilities Gareth Branwyn

Melania Trump publicly orders husband to fire administration official Rob Beschizza

movies Carrie Fisher to appear in Star Wars Ep. IX, with Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams Rob Beschizza