https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/post-office-evacuated-and-work.html

One of, if not THE, cutest cars of all time is the Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite. This one looks ready for some paint.

Bring A Trailer:

This 1960 Austin-Healey Sprite is finished in white over a red interior and is powered by a 948cc inline-four paired with a four-speed manual gearbox. The car is said to have been sold new in the United States, taken overseas by a US serviceman, and eventually returned stateside. It then changed hands and subsequently sat dormant for more than 30 years. In early 2020 the car reportedly was serviced with rebuilds of the carburetors, distributor, generator, shocks, radiator, brakes, and more. This Bugeye is now offered in Oklahoma by the selling dealer with a clean Minnesota title.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/this-austin-healy-bugeye-sprit.html

Stephen Colbert interviewed former National Security advisor John Bolton on The Late Show last night to talk about Bolton's new book, The Room Where It Happened.

Colbert asked Bolton why he even considered working for Trump, and Bolton said "Because I couldn't believe it was that bad."

Colbert snapped back, "But you're an international negotiator! How could you be naive? You've dealt with the worst people in the world."

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/colbert-interviews-bolton.html

The first Blockbuster Video location was opened in 1985, in Dallas, Texas, by Sandy and David Cook. David pulled together the scratch for the startup by selling off the assets of one of the subsidiaries of an oil services business that he owned. Once the Cooks saw the insane amount of cash their first store was bringing in, they said buh-bye to the oil industry entirely in order to focus on Please be Kind, Rewind stickers, full-time. Game rentals became a thing for them, in 1987 (after taking Nintendo to court to secure the privilege of being able to rent out their hardware and games). by 2004, there were 9,094 Blockbuster locations, worldwide. Thanks to cable networks offering video-on-demand and streaming and rental services like Netflix and the Apple iTunes Store drinking their milkshake, the number of Blockbuster locations began to decrease. By 2014, the last 300 corporate stores, owned by Blockbuster, had shut down. A few franchisees held out—for a while.

Today, there's only one Blockbuster Video left on the whole damn planet, located in Bend, Oregon. While this video only details Blockbuster's locations within the continental United States, its a hell of a thing to see just how many there were until streaming video took them (almost) all down.

Image via Wikipedia Commons Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/watch-the-rise-and-fall-of-blo.html

Blockbuster opened its first store in 1986 and spread like wildfire across the country for the next 20 years. It peaked in 2004, then Netflix and streaming media came along and it was all over for the video rental chain.

Here are six reasons why Blockbuster failed:

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/the-rise-and-fall-of-blockbust.html

Belgian police arrested a gentleman flying in from Jamaica for allegedly smuggling 127 grams of cocaine inside an artificial penis. That's quite a cock-up. The incident occurred in February and prosecutors have just asked for a three year sentence. The fellow's attorney argued that his client "has kidney failure and needs to exercise as well as follow a proper diet" so he is not fit for jail time. From the New Zealand Herald:

The arrested man told investigators that he was visiting his mother in Jamaica when an acquaintance offered him cocaine.

He said he took the drug for personal use only, planning to take it when he returned home.

(Image: 3D png Judges Gavel, Chris Potter, CC-BY) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/gentleman-arrested-for-smuggli.html

Goldman Sachs has released its own eponymous font, Goldman Sans, a contemporary sans-serif that garnishes merciless formality with a charming typographic "wink" here and there [h/t Matt Round]. It is free of charge, but perhaps the least Free font on Earth, as its unique license forbids criticism of Goldman Sachs with it. The license is also booby-trapped: it can be changed and revoked unilaterally by Goldman Sachs, turning anything that ever uses it into a legal time bomb.

(C)(2)(d) The User may not use the Licensed Font Software to disparage or suggest any affiliation with or endorsement by Goldman Sachs.

(E)(2) Further, Goldman Sachs may terminate this License, without notice to the User, for any reason or no reason at all and at any time, completely at Goldman Sachs’s sole discretion.

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/goldman-sachs-releases-its-own.html

NASA has funded a new research collaborative research effort between Harvard, the Smithsonian Institutions, and the University of Rochester to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This is the first NASA grant for SETI in three decades and the first ever to search for signs of ET that aren't radio transmissions. Instead, the scientists will look for technosignatures in the atmosphere that reveal the use of advanced technology on other planets. From Harvard:

"Technosignatures relate to signatures of advanced alien technologies similar to, or perhaps more sophisticated than, what we possess," said Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard. "Such signatures might include industrial pollution of atmospheres, city lights, photovoltaic cells (solar panels), megastructures, or swarms of satellites." [...]

"We pollute Earth’s atmosphere with our industrial activity," said Loeb. “If another civilization had been doing it for much longer than we have, then their planet's atmosphere might show detectable signs of artificially produced molecules that nature is very unlikely to produce spontaneously, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)." The presence of CFCs—or refrigerant—therefore, could indicate the presence of industrial activity. [...]

"My hope is that, using this grant, we will quantify new ways to probe signs of alien technological civilizations that are similar to or much more advanced than our own," said Loeb. "The fundamental question we are trying to address is: are we alone? But I would add to that: even if we are alone right now, were we alone in the past?"

image: "3D rendering of a Dyson sphere utilizing large, orbiting panels," Kevin Gill (CC BY 2.0 Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/nasa-delivers-first-grant-in-3.html

Boing Boing proudly welcomes Blue Ribbon Hemp as a sponsor.

The new buzz word in all things health related is certainly CBD, less known as cannabidiol, one of the compounds found in a cannabis plant. Consuming CBD has become more and more mainstream, and the methods of consumption are changing with the times. Many people are interested in the much talked about health benefits CBD are thought to have, but they haven’t found the best way to take it without getting a hemp aftertaste. Well, remember those handy Listerine strips that always saved your breath but didn’t do much more? Now you can get the same minty freshness, and with the added benefits of CBD from Blue Ribbon Hemp.

  Blue Ribbon Hemp is a new CBD company specializing in products for seniors. Founded by Richard Cowan, a long-time CBD and cannabis advocate, and Dr. Igor Bussel, M.D., M.S., M.H.A is a clinician-scientist and ophthalmic surgeon. The two have crafted a range of high quality CBD products from oral strips to capsules and lotions.

One of the fastest and easiest ways to consume hemp-based products with an immediate effect is through oral consumption. An oral strip, made of an incredibly thin layer of “paper,” is water soluble. Because of this, the amazing plant benefits packed into the small strip instantly get absorbed sublingually to your bloodstream. Instead of eating something and waiting for it to pass the digestive system, oral strips instantly dissolve upon contact with water or saliva. With the active ingredients being absorbed so quickly the beneficial effects can be felt almost right away. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/a-new-way-to-consume-cbd-i.html

McSweeny's compiled a list of 759 reasons why Trump's cult followers love him so much.

A few samples:

 October 11, 2016 – Tasha Dixon, a former Miss Universe contestant, accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. Dixon asserted that Trump walked into their changing room in 2001 while contestants were changing. On the Howard Stern Show in 2005, Trump said about the pageant, “I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else. And you know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore, I’m inspecting it. You know they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.

 August 1, 2017 – The Trump campaign chose a noted white nationalist, William Johnson, to serve among California’s delegates for the next presidential election. Johnson leads the American Freedom Party, which operates with the stated mission of upholding “the customs and the heritage of European American People.” Johnson said after his appointment to the delegation, “I can be a white nationalist and be a strong supporter of Donald Trump and be a good example to everybody.”

August 17, 2017 – Donald Trump lamented the removal of Confederate monuments, stating that such actions were “so foolish” and “sad.” He called these statues “beautiful” and spoke to the “history and culture of our great country being ripped apart.”

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/a-catalog-of-trumps-top-crue.html

On Monday, the UceLi Quartet performed at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu. The opera house was filled to capacity... with 3,000 plants. They played Giacomo Puccini's "Crisantemi." From National Public Radio:

"After a strange, painful period, the creator, the Liceu's artistic director and the curator Blanca de la Torre offer us a different perspective for our return to activity, a perspective that brings us closer to something as essential as our relationship with nature," according to a release on the Liceu's website.

The plants came from local nurseries and will be donated along with a certificate from the artist to 2,292 health care professionals, specifically at the Hospital Cl'inic of Barcelona.

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/string-quartet-performs-for-a.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/biden-dominating-trump-in.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/so-youre-wondering-what-a-7.html

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the US Representative for New York's fourteenth district, faced a well-funded "centrist" challenger in this year's Democratic primary. Though Michelle Caruso-Cabrera couldn't match Ocasio-Cortez's fundraising, she was backed by Wall Street players and some of New York's richest, who thought she had a genuine chance of overcoming the left-leaning congresswoman. On the day, though, AOC trounced Caruso-Cabrera at the polls, leading 73%-19% with all precincts reporting in. It was called within minutes.

Wall Street CEOs, from Goldman Sachs to Blackstone, poured in millions to defeat our grassroots campaign tonight.

But their money couldn’t buy a movement.

Thank you #NY14, and every person who pitched in for tonight’s victory.

Here’s to speaking truth to power. pic.twitter.com/g9aRV3Cu1B

 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 24, 2020

Elsewhere, establishment Democrats are struggling to fend off challenges from the left: Rep. Elliot Engel has likely lost to Jamaal Bowman, with the count close enough to come down to mail-in ballots yet to be tallied.

So New York didn’t only choose Jamaal Bowman over Eliot Engel tonight.

It also elected Ritchie Torres, who will go on to be the first openly gay Afro-Latinx man in Congress.

AND Mondaire Jones, the first openly gay Black man in Congress.

History is being made.

 Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) June 24, 2020

But Amy McGrath has likely fended off Charles Booker's insurgent run in Kentucky's race to challenge Mitch McConnell in November. A clear result will be days in coming.

Republican voters are bucking the party line, too, with two Trump-hated candidates prevailing in the GOP primaries in Kentucky and North Carolina. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/aoc-trounces-wall-street-backe.html

Tourist Steve Challice, from Southampton in England, thought he was merely taking a photo of a "big fish" in Loch Ness while on holiday in Scotland.

That's not how Loch Ness works, buddy. As reported by The Daily Record, he posted his shot online only to prove, to the satisfaction of many, that Nessie is alive and well.

He estimated that it was 30 feet away and about 8 feet long.

He stated that it was only during lockdown that he has had time to look through the photos he had taken from his two week trip, stating that he had "hundreds" to go through as he's a keen photographer.

After sharing the image of what appears to be a large creature emerging from the water online and people commenting that it might be the monster, Steven himself stated that he believes it to be something more mundane like a big fish or a seal, he said: "Personally I know there has been some interest and some people are saying it's the monster but I don't believe that."

UPDATE: Faaaake! The original image was found by internet sleuth Jeriah Houghton: an enormous catfish with the same pattern of spots.

Angler breaks record after landing a 129-kg giant catfish that is as large as a shark!

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/large-fish-photographed-in-loc.html

RSS Box generates the "missing" feeds for Twitter accounts, YouTube channels, Instagram users, and various other sites that fail to offer RSS.

This website lets you subscribe to RSS feeds for websites that do not support RSS themselves, by using the respective website's API and then translating that data to RSS feeds.

If you get a page saying "Application error", simply try again. This website resolves shortlink URLs to give the reader a better experience, and embeds linked content directly into the RSS feed. You will get this error if this takes longer than the web server allows.

Some websites, like YouTube, support RSS feeds but they are quite hard to find, so this website will provide the URL.

You can get that pin from Diesel Sweeties. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/rss-box-creates-the-feeds-miss.html

Even with the laugh track added to Goodfellas, Joe Pesci is still as scary as hell. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/23/goodfellas-recut-as-a-90s-si.html

Porn star Ron Jeremy was charged today with rape and sexual assault, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office announced today. According to the charges, Jeremy, 67, raped three women and assaulted another in incidents dating back to 2014.

Prosecutors allege Jeremy forcibly raped a 25-year-old woman at a home in West Hollywood in May 2014. Jeremy allegedly sexually assaulted two women, ages 33 and 46, on separate occasions at a West Hollywood bar in 2017. He is also accused of forcibly raping a 30-year-old woman at the same bar in July 2019. The D.A.’s office noted it investigated another incident involving Jeremy from 2016 but declined the case due to insufficient evidence.

Jeremy was named in a 2017 Rolling Stone article about similar allegations dating back much further, ending his reputation as a "goofy, almost family-friendly totem of an industry." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/23/ron-jeremy-charged-with-rape.html

I'm almost finished reading Maria Konnikova's new book, The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win.  It's an enthralling and funny first-hand account of her transition from a person who didn't know how many cards were in a deck into a professional, tournament-winning poker player.

Maria is one of my favorite nonfiction authors.I've interviewed her about her other two books, The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It...Every Time and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, both of which I recommend highly.

The Atlantic has an excerpt from The Biggest Bluff:

I enter a $60 daily tournament at Bally’s. It’s small, only two tables’ worth of players, but I feel a certain pride in watching the numbers dwindle to a single table, then eight, seven, six, until finally, I find myself in the final four. And it’s hard for me to contain my excitement when I flop a set (three of a kind) of nines, an excellent hand if ever there were. There’s a bet before me, and I joyously shove all my chips into the middle. This is it. All my learning is paying off. I will finally have my first tournament cash. I get called by a player who is hoping the dealer completes his flush, and to my horror, the flush hits. I’m out, and devastated.

I almost leave it all right then and there. This game is so damn unfair. But there’s the knowledge, somewhere deep down, that it’s to confront that very seeming unfairness that I turned to poker in the first place; I resolve to play on.

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/23/how-maria-konnikova-used-her-p.html

The UK's Royal Mail is issuing a series of 13 stamps honoring the band Queen. This issue follows prior rock stamps celebrating The Beatles and Pink Floyd. From Spin:

“It’s hard to put into words what I feel when looking at these beautiful stamps,” Queen guitarist Brian May said in a release. “Since we four precocious boys started out on our quest 50 years ago, our lives have been devoted to making our impossible dream come true. Sometimes it’s strange to wake up and realize the position in which we are now held – we have become a national institution! And nothing brings this home more than this incredible tribute from Royal Mail. It’s particularly poignant to look at this collection of images now – now that we are all in a world dominated by a coronavirus, in which none of this could have happened. I just know that I [have] an overwhelming desire to own one of these sets! Somehow it will be a way of persuading myself that it really DID all happen!”

The album-cover stamps include Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night at the Opera, News of the World, The Game, Greatest Hits, The Works, and Innuendo. The live shots include Freddie Mercury from London’s Wembley Stadium in 1986; drummer Roger Taylor from London’s Hyde Park, 1976; bassist John Deacon at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in 1975; and May in Budapest in 1986. And the iconic centerpiece of the set comes from the group’s first-ever studio photoshoot at a Primrose Hill studio, which shot by Johnny Dewe Mathews.

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/23/uk-royal-mail-issues-stamps-ho.html