Chunky Soup is hearty and inexpensive, but rather bland. In this video, an older fellow demonstrates a few throw-it-in improvements that turn a can into a feast.

I intend to try his chili recipe later today. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/aLqxGhRj4jo/how-to-enhance-chunky-soup.html

Jukin Media, one of several media companies that acquires rights to viral video clips, has managed unlicensed use of such clips by monetizing them through YouTube's contentID system. But Jukin has now reportedly threatened to use copyright strikes to shut down a channel while privately demanding money from its operator. It's extortion, says the target, hit with a $6000 "bill" over brief snippets of media.

They email us with a bill and they charge us fifteen hundred dollars per clip that was in our videos. And so today we got hit with a huge bill of six thousand dollars. I think it's because in the past we've we've paid them this amount of money, so they just they're like hey this guy's willing to pay this money, let's keep you know charging him for it, he'll just pay us. So we've paid about two thousand dollars in total and now we have another six thousand dollars to pay and if you don't pay then basically they'll start striking your channel.

To publish on YouTube, you agree to let YouTube define and enforce a private regime far more expansive than copyright law provides, with no effective provisions for fair use beyond a lengthy process likely to end with your channel shut down. YouTube claims not to arbitrate copyright, but no-one is fooled: it immediately enforces claims on the basis of a promiscuous algorithmic matching system designed from the ground up to serve claimants, while burdening targets with legal process and its own opaque policy-enforcement bureacracy. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/mXAQcLlkyG4/new-claim-of-youtube-copyright.html

The night before David Bowie died, I was listening to the newly released tracks from Blackstar on YouTube, in honor of his birthday the day before. I saw the Hammersmith Odeon performance for “Moonage Daydream” on the right rail and decided to open it full-screen on my large monitor and crank it to 11.

I watch “Moonage Daydream” every few years and it never ceases to enchant me all over again. But that Sunday night, the performance hit me so hard, it actually startled me. I found myself shedding tears of joy. I was exclaiming things into the soundwaves as they crashed over me. I had no idea where any of this was coming from, but I was filled with such profound feelings of love and appreciation for what this extraordinary artist, this unique human being, had inspired in me and countless others. I felt as though I could fully feel the weight of him, his art, his cultural and historical import, and exactly how he had impressed himself upon my nervous system. It almost felt like a life flashing before my eyes moment.

I decided to try and share this moment of epiphany with others. I sent a message to two friends who are also Bowie fanatics: "Is there a more perfect concert video than this? Every fucking frame of this thing blows my mind. Do yourself a favor, open it full-screen, crank it all the way up...and GO!"

After “Moonage Daydream,” I watched “My Death,” another favorite from the Hammersmith show. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Jg0QIIj2XOM/whatever-lies-behind-the-doo.html

A $10 million donation is allowing The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles to make art accessible to everyone. Beginning Saturday, they will offer free general admission going forward, only charging for special exhibitions. The massive financial gift is from Carolyn Clark Powers, MOCA's Board President.

Klaus Biesenbach, MOCA's director since 2018, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times in May (when the program was initially announced), "We are not aiming at having more visitors or larger attendance, but we’re aiming at being more accessible, at having open doors. As a civic institution, we should be like a library, where you can just walk in."

KCRW talked to Lindsay Preston Zappas of Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles magazine who says it will cost MOCA $2 million yearly to operate under the free program and that they will need to secure funding in the future to keep the program going.

MOCA has two locations in Los Angeles, the one on Grand Avenue and the Geffen Contemporary in the Little Tokyo Historic District, and both will have public celebrations this Saturday, January 11, from 12 to 4.

photo by Elon Schoenholz/The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/EUuhhc6ileE/los-angeles-art-museum-is-now.html

The Unicork [Amazon] is a corkscrew in the shape of a unicorn, its body the handle and its horn the screw. Customer reviews are superlative.

"I was impressed by the general heft of the unicorn, and it pulled my cork as I might expect," writes Max Kucinich. "I especially appreciated the prancing posture of the animal, as it allowed me to take a strong grip when pulling."

"I was shocked at how heavy it wasm" writes Michael. "...It also works well on beer bottles"

"The iPhone of bottle openers," adds Sam. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/GqdCC8Nz2YY/unicork-a-unicorn-cockscrew.html

I've previously posted about the "University of Farmington," the fake college pyramid scheme sting operation that ICE set up in order to seduce and capture devious immigrants of various statuses who had the gall to, uhh … want to go to college.

Most of the coverage on this story originates comes from Niraj Warikoo at the Detroit Free Press:

7 stories I've written this year about the fake university in metro Detroit created by ICE:1) https://t.co/pIBpaSXRl62)https://t.co/ROlJgJ62kM3)https://t.co/PNp6R5jtO34)https://t.co/Gep5RzKQbq5)https://t.co/8LbNU82lYg6) https://t.co/my3KWjAKy97) https://t.co/18SYfNAg9z

 Niraj Warikoo (@nwarikoo) November 29, 2019

The latest update shares some transcripts from undercover recordings, obtained by the Free Press, that shed light on the alleged entrapment techniques that ICE employed to trick immigrants into attending their fake university, and then engaging in the recruitment scams that were allegedly "required" in order for the students to maintain their statuses with said university:

In February 2018, a foreign student from India called a university in metro Detroit to ask when classes would start.

"University of Farmington, office of admissions," answered a woman who posed as a university official. The woman was actually an undercover agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"Is there any chance to get me ... to know about my class schedule?" the student asked the university official, according to court records.

"Can we do what?" the undercover agent posing as a university official replied. "We're completely full. We don't have any normal classes to put you in.

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/t4ErFroGS1Q/new-undercover-recruitments-re.html

Wirecutter devised a brilliant testing regime for storage bins: load them full of crap, then chuck them down the stairs.

To find the best, we tossed 32 bins and totes down a flight of stairs, left them in the rain, and stuffed them full of books and blankets. We found seven for indoor and outdoor use that’ll keep your stuff clean, dry, and easy to access. All of our recommended containers will stow your things safely and are easy to carry (or roll around)

They liked The Container Store's clear weathertite totes [containerstore.com] for basic household use and the Rubbermade Brute [Amazon] for heavy-duty storage. And I can personally vouch for the budget heavy-duty pick, Home Depot's HDX totes, because my garage is full of them. They crack easily when dropped (a fact Wirecutter confirms in its tests) but are so cheap. Wirecutter offers many other recos for different scenarios: camping, regular access, corpse storage, fabric zipper boxes, etc.

The Best Storage Containers [thewirecutter.com] Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/a896Ok7booU/storage-bins-tested-by-hurling.html

For years, Keith Ammann has maintained his blog, The Monsters Know What They're Doing, in which he carefully laid out the logical tactics that the monsters of Dungeons and Dragons would use in combat, based on their alignment, stats, and habitats, creating sophisticated advice for Dungeon Masters hoping to move their combat encounters from rote stab-stab-kill affairs into distinctive, memorable strategy-and-tactics affairs that created not just variety and challenges for players, but also depth and verisimilitude. Now, Ammann's work has been collected in the first of two planned volumes: The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters is one of the most interesting, thoughtful, smart RPG sourcebooks I've ever read.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/BQoh-_sOICM/monstrosities-and-celestials.html

Ian Charnas, the inventor of those amazing windshield wipers that "dance" to your car's music, is up to yes good again (the opposite of "no good"). He's made a real-life Mario Kart video game using electric go-karts and augmented reality (!).

Ian explains:

In this augmented reality racing game demo, players zoom around a track in real-life go-karts and pick up virtual power-ups to boost their kart’s speed or slow down the competition.

The virtual power-ups are generated by a Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality headset on each player. The speed boosts (and reductions) are provided by some electronics I created that extend an existing go-kart system with this functionality.

[If you want to know more about it works, he explains it further on Hackaday.]

Ian is hoping that there's a demand for this real-life Mario Kart. He's got all the pieces, including a provisional patent, he just needs the right partner to get it off the ground in a bigger way.

Thanks, Mark! Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/q2sVd9zArHM/inventor-brings-mario-kart-to.html

My buddy Dave Ganjamie and I have been collaborating on comics for a few years now. Not all of our brainstorm-and-sketch sessions end somewhere exciting, but we did have one fun idea that came to fruition. It was the fall of 2013, and Dave half-jokingly challenged me to write him a — his words, and I quote directly from our GChat — "cyber-craftian Eldritch-punk time travel" story.

I assumed this was meant to be deliberately absurd. But I'm never one to back down from a challenge. So we pitched the idea to Grayhaven Comics for one of their sci-fi anthology collections — and much to our surprise, they gave us the greenlight. With only 3 pages to work with, we were fairly strapped with space to express our ridiculous concept. But we did the best we could, and ultimately came up with something pretty cool.

Some day we'll get around to finishing our Evil Academy concept, or dramatize that time at New York Comic-Con when we found ourselves in an Abbot-&-Costello, Who's-On-First routine at a party with Kieron Gillen and Karen Gillan. In the meantime, Dave is probably still pissed that I made him draw all those suckers on the bottom of the tentacles (even though it was technically his idea in the first place). So enjoy the fruits of our labor: "iCthulhu!"

"iCthulhu" — art by Dave Ganjamie, words by Thom Dunn. Originally published by Grayhaven Comics. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/3wx1Qrv6R5M/enjoy-icthulhu-a-free-lov.html

From John Wilcock, New York Years, by Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall.

(See all Boing Boing installments)

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/nTM6aIxbYPE/john-wilcock-the-end-of-andy.html

There's art software for beginners, and there's art software that packs in all the bells and whistles. Usually, the two are mutually exclusive, but Clip Studio Paint DEBUT is one of the rare exceptions: A platform for budding artists that don't put a ceiling on their options once they've outgrown the fundamentals.

Even if you've never tried digital art before, Clip Studio's new bundle makes it remarkably cheap to hop in. The Creativity Bundle Ft. Clip Studio DEBUT not only gives you the core software but oodles of compatible models and assets - and a webinar with one of the best artists in the biz to get you inspired.

The software at the heart of this package already has a ton built-in. The interface is easy to learn, and features like line stabilization and intuitive color fill options take the drudgery out of getting the image you want. You can also import 3D models and backgrounds, or even .psd files if you'd like to draw on paper and tweak your images later.

In other words, it's a full toybox already. The Creativity Bundle adds in:

Clip Studio Paint Speech Bubbles Pack - Over 200 professionally-designed speech bubbles that you can customize for use in your own comics or manga epic. Clip Studio Paint 3D Poses Pack - An expansion of DEBUT's already vast library of poses, giving you a framework for almost any pose from any perspective. Clip Studio Paint Storyboard Assets Pack - Hundreds of .psd files that are ideal for use in storyboards or idea sketches, from food items to household items and decorations.

All this is more than enough to not only get you started but creating for years. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ik1X8BasPr0/save-over-85-on-this-design-b.html

My daughter and I finally made it to Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge. It was wonderful. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/S1bkrZ22wjM/i-really-enjoy-dj-r3xs-pla.html

Always pull both ends at the same time.

I absolutely hate it when my Amazon Basics retractable Lightning-to-USB cable disappears from my travel bag. These gadgets are small enough and neat enough they can just get jammed into a dark corner of your bag and will be there when you need a charging cable.

I would have enjoyed using mine today, but I was recently traveling with my daughter and find I must order another.

Watch what and how you pull.

AmazonBasics Apple Certified Retractable Lightning to USB Cable - 2 Feet (0.6 Meters) - White Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/KpfJGX55lYc/retractable-apple-certified-li.html

Every year, veteran sex-advice columnist mounts (ahem) HUMP, an amateur, pornographic short film festival, which tours around Canada and the USA for a dazzling evening of smut, humor, tenderness, weirdness and delight. HUMP is now in its 15th year, and none of the videos from the festival have ever leaked online, which is a testament to the kinds of audiences it draws.

We went last year for the first time and had a hell of an amazing date-night! I just bought tickets to this year's show.

Last year, Facebook banned HUMP ads, which severely curtailed the festival's reach. The company blamed this on the terrible SESTA/FOSTA law.

Tell your friends about HUMP! It's the sex-positive, queer-friendly, weird and amazing debauch we need to start the decade right!

Check out this year's short features:

WILDFIRE Inhibitions are burned to dust while this hedonistic group lusts around the fire.

WHAT YOU WISH FOR A hypnotizing peek into the intimate boudoir of two lovers in the throes of a skilled and sensuous rope scene.

THE PIZZA TOPPING Horny Pizza orders Hungry Boy. In an alternate reality where the pizzas order delivery, we find out what their favorite pies are and how they like them topped.

PHOTURIS In the midst of darkness, this couple finds illumination by embracing their neon fantasies.

RUBBER WORLD A lonely traveler takes us to a rubber convention, where we see the wildest and most creative toys that will make you want to slap and tickle.

COCK TALES Gimps, piss, and boots, oh my!

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/FsecJC7a3wo/roll-play.html

After Antiplagiat, a private plagiarism detection company, accused Russia's scientific and scholarly journals of being rife with plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplication and other misconduct, the Russian Academy of Sciences chartered a committee to investigate the problem: their report confirmed the accusations, finding more instances of plagiarism/self-plagiarism, as well as instances in which the same paper was published in different journals under different authors' names.

The committee called for 2528 papers to be retracted from 541 journals. Only some of the journals have fully cooperated; many have refused to retract some of the papers, and eight have refused to take any action.

Russia has a distinct scientific/scholarly norm of preferentially publishing in domestic journals (other countries' academics are more likely to publish in international journals), and the scandal has rocked Russia's research community.

Eight journals explicitly refused to address the problems; the report urges that five of them be removed from the Russian Science Citation Index, a database run by eLibrary. (Because publication in indexed journals is often a prerequisite for promotions and funding in Russia, delisted journals are thought to be less attractive to authors.) Victor Glukhov, eLibrary’s deputy director, says the group’s own expert council will look into the matter, but is likely to agree. Zayakin emphasizes that the exercise is a work in progress; he hopes the threat of being delisted will persuade journals that haven’t yet responded—or have refused to pull papers on flimsy grounds—to take the commission’s findings seriously.

The same RAS commission caused a stir in September 2019, when it recommended not voting for 56 candidates—out of a total of more than 1800—during the academy’s membership elections, because of their alleged involvement in plagiarism and other types of misbehavior.

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/W7oYczJeD9Y/antiplagiat.html

Ring's response to a group of US senators who questioned the company about its privacy practices reveals that the Amazon subsidiary has had to fire multiple employees who were caught spying on customers' surveillance doorbell cameras and other Ring surveillance footage.

Recent Ring privacy scandals saw the company forced to admit that it gave Ukrainian subcontractors access to Ring footage; that it had secretly partners with hundreds of US police forces and that it was deceiving its customers and the public about when and whether police could access stored footage from customers' devices; that hackers were exploiting weak security practices to spy on customers and their children and livecast audio of themselves taunting Ring owners through the speakers in their surveillance cameras (Ring blamed its customers for the security breaches).

Ring has since promised to massively expand its private surveillance dragnet and partner more aggressively with law-enforcement to give them pervasive access to their customers' security camera footage.

The letter to the senators was meant to be confidential, but Motherboard obtained and published it.

It admits that in four instances, Ring caught its own employees abusing their access to its customers' in-home cameras. Ring says it fired the employees. The company declined to give any more detail to Motherboard, sending them a statement that read, "We do not comment on personnel matters."

Presumably, the company would not be any more forthcoming to the customers' whose cameras were abused by its employees.

"We are aware of incidents discussed below where employees violated our policies," the letter from Ring, dated January 6, reads.

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/04fdwCOhLOY/no-comment.html

Kathryn Hughes's $19.95 CVS Receipt Scarf sends up the company's infamously absurd receipts -- at 58" long, the handmade/hand-cut scarves are only slightly shorter than the real thing! (via Kottke) Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/zT6zYOD87Hk/coupon-clippers.html

In Tampa, Florida, a man pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to that trafficked live water monitor lizards from the Philippines to the United States.

The smugglers stuffed the creatures into socks, which were then stuffed inside electronics to be transported from the Philippines to the United States.

Here's more from the Department of Justice announcement:

Akram, 44, pleaded guilty in Tampa before U.S. District Judge William F. Jung to one count of wildlife trafficking in violation of the Lacey Act.

According to plea documents, Akram admitted to illegally importing more than 20 live water monitor lizards from the Philippines between January and December 2016, in violation of United States law and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Treaty. To avoid detection by U.S. customs authorities, the lizards were placed in socks, which were sealed closed with tape, and then concealed inside electronic equipment and shipped under a false label. The equipment was then shipped via commercial carriers to Akram’s associate, who resided in Massachusetts.

As part of his plea, Akram admitted that he knew the monitor lizards he received had been taken in violation of Philippine law, and that the import violated U.S. law. Akram also admitted that upon receiving the monitor lizards, he sold some of them to customers, including customers in Colorado, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

“Akram violated Philippine law and U.S. law by illegally trafficking live water monitor lizards,” said Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/IRbp-huNWNI/florida-man-convicted-of-smugg.html

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/qWjf_E5427I/area-man-ran-an-illegal-gas-st.html