Interface designer Hector Simpson designed this set of colorful wallpapers for Macs and iOS devices. He calls it Wavey. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/06/wavey-free-wallpapers-for-ma.html

After years of hearing a steady drumbeat about the necessity of surfing the web under the protection of a VPN, even the most technophobic among us are starting to come around. But even knowing the dangers one can face from cybercrooks phishing for information from unsuspecting victims online, those last holdouts still have some fears. 

Chief among those fears is just the tech know-how needed to get a VPN to work. Thankfully, some highly-regarded VPN options like Goose VPN get high marks for their simplicity with even the most reluctant of new users.

Goose VPN is among the easiest setups in the VPN kingdom. After opening your account, just download their app to your device, and the VPN automatically configures itself.

With that, all your online activity will now be protected through Goose VPN’s ultra-secure 256-bit encrypted connection. Via their own owned and managed server network in over 25 countries, you can log in from anywhere, safeguarding your IP address and all other identifying information from any government watchdog or online criminal search for a new target. The protection even covers you and all your actions when logging on to high-risk public WiFi networks.

And since Goose VPN enforces a no-logging policy, none of your web activities is ever monitored or logged by Goose, ensuring where you go and what you do online always remains safely anonymous.

Goose VPN also allows you to circumvent international geoblocking restrictions, granting you access to popular platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and the BBC from anywhere in the world. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/this-affordable-vpn-offers-a-s.html

California AG office reviewing DoJ filing, “[We] look forward to defending California’s state net neutrality protections.”

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/net-neutrality-california.html

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today announced a five-part “Clean Network” effort from the Trump administration which Pompeo says is to limit potential national security risks from China.

Pompeo’s comments are just about one week after Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One the government will soon act ban the Chinese-owned video app TikTok from the United States.

From CNBC:

The Trump administration wants to remove “untrusted” Chinese tech apps like TikTok and WeChat from U.S. app stores, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday, detailing a new five-pronged “Clean Network” effort aimed at curbing potential national security risks.

“With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok and WeChat and others, are significant threats to personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for Chinese Communist Party content censorship,” Pompeo said during a press briefing.

The nation’s top diplomat also added that the State Department would work with the Commerce Department as well as the Defense Department to limit the ability of Chinese cloud service providers to collect, store, and process data in the United States.

Read more: Trump administration wants to see ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat removed from U.S. app stores, Pompeo says

China will not accept 'theft' of TikTok by Trump and the U.S, reports state-run China Daily

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/untrusted-chinese-apps-l.html

The U.S. State Department says Russia is exploiting a well-established online operation that includes proxy websites to amplify coronavirus disinformation and conspiracy theories.

“The websites the State Department identified Wednesday have promoted unsupported conspiracy theories that allege COVID-19 was created in a lab as a bioweapon, billionaire Bill Gates is plotting to use the pandemic as an excuse to microchip people, and that plans for a coronavirus vaccine are simply a ploy for pharmaceutical companies to make money,” reports the Associated Press, which adds -- “There is no evidence behind those claims.”

Excerpt:

The department detailed a Russian-backed misinformation cycle that spreads false information online through state officials and state-funded media reports, by infiltrating U.S. social media conversation, and leveraging a deceptive internet framework of websites. The Kremlin’s efforts have most recently focused on conspiracy theories around the pandemic, the report found.

“Russia is playing a significant role in creating and spreading misinformation and propaganda around many topics,” said Lea Gabrielle, head of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center.

The department named more than a half-dozen websites that, serving as “proxies” for Russia, have peddled a series of conspiracy theories about the pandemic that have been widely spreading and hotly debated across social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The online news outlets appear independent from the Russian government, but in reality serve as a “connective tissue” between the Kremlin and state-funded media that often promote the same misinformation from their own channels, Gabrielle said.

“That’s what makes them effective,” Gabrielle said.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/state-department-says-russia-i.html

• Search warrant executed by FBI at Calabasas home of YouTube star Jake Paul on Wednesday • Judge has sealed the search-warrant affidavit • No info on nature of FBI investigation, or individual served

The Southern California home of YouTube star Jake Paul was raided today in a large FBI operation that included a SWAT team. Many details in the case remain sealed.

From the Associated Press:

The FBI executed the search warrant starting at 6 a.m. at the Calabasas, California, mansion in connection with an ongoing investigation, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a statement.

A judge has sealed the search-warrant affidavit and Eimiller said she could not reveal the nature of the investigation or the person it was served on.

Paul’s attorney Richard Schonfeld confirmed the home was his. “We understand that a search warrant was executed at Jake’s Calabasas home this morning while Jake was out-of-state,” Schonfeld said in an email. “We are still gathering information and will cooperate with the investigation.”

Video from local television news helicopters showed agents gathering several rifles from the sprawling property with a boxing ring and hot tub in the backyard that appears in many of Paul’s recent YouTube videos.

An FBI spokesperson confirmed that a search conducted at Jake Paul’s Calabasas residence was part of an investigation into “allegations of criminal acts” during an incident at an Arizona mall in May. https://t.co/fkEeet01y4

 Twitter Moments UK & Ireland (@UKMoments) August 6, 2020

Jake Paul has been in headlines of late for throwing a huge party at his home during the pandemic without any safety measures in place https://t.co/Gumy8rPlI9

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/fbi-swat-team-raids-youtube-st.html

Is 'breakfast' macaroni & cheese a thing? What? Kraft says it's a product coming in 2021, unless this is a grotesque food hoax I've somehow fallen for.

“Yes please,” or “Just, no”?

[ABC News] Excerpt:

After hearing that parents would serve their brand of mac & cheese to their children for breakfast, Kraft got in on the act.

Kraft is giving away limited-edition Kraft Mac & Cheese Breakfast boxes through Friday. The boxes have special packaging that has "breakfast" written over where it would usually have "dinner." To win a box, you can use the hashtags #KMCforBreakfast and #Sweepstakes on Twitter to be entered to win. You can also enter to win online.

The boxes will be available sometime in 2021.

More here [abc13.com] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/breakfast-macaroni-and-che.html

Facebook also took down a Trump post for the first time, citing COVID-19 misinformation ban

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/twitter-to-require-trump-to-re.html

When it is playtime for Electra, it is playtime for everyone.

Electra hasn't quite figured out how to get on the bed, but she sure knows how to get my attention.

View this post on Instagram

Sure I was vaccinated today, but my energy levels are fine! #puppy #bark #dog #dogsofinstagram #cute

A post shared by Electra (@electra___cute) on Aug 3, 2020 at 8:00pm PDT

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/my-puppy-wanted-me-to-get-out.html

Raised by Wolves is the new TV show from Ridley Scott, coming to HBO Max on September 3. It looks completely deranged and I can't wait.

Raised by Wolves centers around "two androids — Father and Mother — tasked with raising human children on a mysterious new planet. As the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task."

The trailer looks and feels so much like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant that I can't shake the feeling that he's rebooting those stories, as it were — the same peculiar aesthetic and emotional setting, the same themes — free of all the Alien/Blade Runner universe baggage. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/trailer-for-ridley-scotts-ra.html

An explosion yesterday in Beirut killed more than 135 people and hospitalized thousands. Reportedly caused by 3000 tons of ammonium nitrate neglected for years in a warehouse, the blast left a creater so large that it filled with seawater. Satellite imagery released by Planet Labs, Inc. shows the extent of the devastation.

Massive grain silos that sit in the middle of the peninsula are still standing. A large, water-filled crater has replaced the ground where two port buildings stood.

Every building to the immediate south of the port appears to have sustained significant damage. Some barely have their framework still standing and others have been reduced to rubble.

The aftermath gallery at CNN is shocking: the city is in ruins. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/satellite-image-reveals-crater.html

You may not realize it, but some of the biggest films in movie history have been edited using the same tools some of you use to cut your video of vacationing at Disney World.

Giant movies from Oscar favorites The Social Network and Gone Girl to blockbusters like Avatar, Deadpool, and last year’s Terminator: Dark Fate have all been put together using Adobe Premiere, a video editing mainstay and one of the crown jewels of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of apps.

In fact, used in tandem with sister apps like After Effects, Spark, and Audition, filmmakers are finding they can achieve virtually any visual technique they can imagine with the same software used by millions every day.

The Complete Adobe Hollywood Filmmaker Bundle is the perfect introduction for those with an interest in shooting and editing their own professional-grade feature or just for those trying to make their kid’s Little League game footage as epic as Field of Dreams.

The collection includes five courses, each exploring one of five different Adobe CC apps that can help elevate your video production work.

The training starts with a deep dive into the core of Adobe video editing, Introduction to Adobe Premiere Pro 2020. Even first-timers will get a thorough understanding of everything Premiere can do as students are guided through the process of starting a project, importing and organizing footage, basic editing, color correction, compositing, graphic creation, and more with expert level precision.

With Adobe After Effects 2020, learners get a crash course in how to add those how-did-they-do-that special effects and animations that make any video look like it had a million-dollar budget. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/this-40-training-is-a-step-by.html

Townscaper is a charming and beautiful toy by Oskar Stalberg (previously at BB), available now for Windows and MacOS. It approaches the city-builing genre, but subtracts all the things that make such games distressing and frustrating, leaving you to create the waterside town of your dreams without worrying about resources, enemies, natural disasters or other limitations.

Yet I don't want to trivialize it as less than a game, because it has such a wealth of creative possibility and polish, all aided by the author's marvelous sense of design and the world's inexorable and elegant detailing of the player's every crude click. It has the same lego-set pleasure of Minecraft's creative mode, but everything you do is perfected automatically with a popso long as you're content building Scandinavian Mont-Saint-Michels that would be utterly indefensible in Bad North.

@OskSta #Townscaper This is my little town. pic.twitter.com/QedxFRPVTG

 Creekky (@CreekkyT) July 1, 2020

On the sea is implied a gently-warped grid. Clicking once raises blocks of land from the water, which first form paved quaysides but might turn into bridges, courtyards or gardens depending on context. Click again on the same spot, and a house appears. Make the house taller by clicking up, or wider by clicking in adjacent places. Obliterate work with a right-click, and struts and pillars appear to support what remains above. You can pick different colors, whirl the scene around, zoom up close, and that's more or less it.

@OskSta you are a blessing - thank you for this wonderful gift.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/townscaper-is-a-wonderful-and.html

Kevin Reome has been an improv instructor at The Second City Training Center in Chicago since 2005. Reome’s written, directed, produced, performed in many scripted and improvised shows (The Eulogist, Rahm Zombie, Jam Sandwich, Lightfoot Loose) and teaches improv workshops around the country and in corporate settings.

In 1994 I took improv classes at Improv Olympic and was eventually put on a performance team by the owner Charna Halpern. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were also on that team, along with about 10 other dudes at the start. Generically we were named “Team A” and tasked to come up with an actual team name.

There were five of us at The Naming. Tina and Poehler were neither of the five. They were invited. Everyone was invited, but only 5 could make it. The plan was to meet over drinks and name our improv team. We met at the Old Town Ale House across from The Second City Chicago. The Ale House—the obvious choice to meet for such an occasion. This dank bar was, and is, the perfect extension of improv. It is warm booze and late nights and Tamale Guy and edgy wall art and improv students and improv professionals and a great after-show watering hole. It’s where improv gets discussed but also provides a distraction from it. One time a friend saw Robert Plant there. “Did you snap a picture of him?” I asked. “No. That’s why he went to the Ale House.” Plant and my friend shared the code of the Ale House. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/the-naming-of-inside-vladimi.html

Boing Boing shares these words from our sponsor Real Tested CBD.

Keto is the nutritional diet taking the health world by storm. Only way to make keto better? Add a little canna! Read on for a simple breakdown on making your own cannaflour to use in our Keto Pumpkin Loaf! Furthermore, more individuals are turning to CBD edibles, like Tribe CBD Gummies, for their dose of daily CBD. If you would rather make your own cannaflour, feel free to follow the recipe below!

What is cannaflour and how is it made? Not like butter or cooking oil infusions, cannaflour encompasses cooking with and consuming ground-up cannabis. Cannaflour is easy to prepare and is a core staple of cooking with cannabis. To properly prepare your cannaflour, be sure you are using cannabis that has been decarboxylated cannabis (aka, heated) ground very finely. The preparation and storage of cannaflour is very important, to ensure freshness and taste. To decarboxylate your cannabis, preheat oven to 200-250 degrees. On a large baking sheet, spread your cannabis and place in oven between 40-60 minutes, rotating the sheet or flipping the cannabis throughout to ensure even heating. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Next grind your cannabis as finely as possible, using a blender or food processor.

Related: If you’re looking for a high-strength CBD tincture, check out Blue Ribbon Hemp’s 5,000 mg CBD tincture!

Next, combine 1/2 cup finely ground cannabis with 1 cup flour of your choice for a cannaflour mixture. Or keep your ground and dried cannabis in a separate air-tight container and add to flour or recipes directly. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/cannaflour-keto-pumpkin-loaf.html

This 2.5x LED magnifier can be used as a handheld tool or on the desktop. It also has smaller, more powerful magnifying glass built-in. Perfect for peering at electronic components. I use it to inspect the spoons I whittle. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/cool-hands-free-illuminated-ma-2.html

The tourist who broke three toes off of a 200-year-old plaster cast model of Antonio Canova's statue of Paolina Bonaparte at the Gipsoteca Museum in Possagno, Italy has been caught, reports CNN. In the video, a man with a green shirt is observed sitting on the sculpture while posing for a photograph. When he stands he notices the broken toes and appears to fiddle with them for a minute before looking around the room.

From CNN:

Coronavirus measures mean that all museum visitors must leave their personal information for eventual contact tracing in the event that an outbreak is tied to a museum visit. This is how the man was identified.

When police contacted a woman who signed in on behalf of herself and her husband, she burst into tears and admitted her husband was the toe breaker, according to a press release from Treviso Carabinieri.

The husband, who was also upset, then confessed and repented for the "stupid move," according to the release.A court in Treviso is currently deciding whether to press charges.

Image: CNN Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/the-statue-toe-breaker-was-cau.html

About 135 died and 5,000 people were wounded in the explosion in Beirut yesterday. The Guardian is maintaining a frequently updated page of the event and the aftermath. This video shows the devastation of the horrific blast.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/video-shows-the-devastation-of.html

Spitting Image was a satirical puppet show running in the UK from 1985 to 1996, about to be revived for a new era of stupid, selfish, buffoonish politicians and celebrities. The creators recently showed off the forthcoming series's Trump and Zuckerberg, and now they're giving us a sneak peek at Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his creepy aide Dominic Cummings.

Mr Johnson, depicted with unkempt blonde hair and a badly knotted tie, is the latest prime minister to be depicted in rubbery form by the programme.

Mr Cummings, known for a more informal dress sense, is depicted wearing a blue hoodie and black gilet, with a large silver collar. Image copyright Mark Harrison/BritBox/Avalon

Spitting Image was weird and nastily funny, the punches going mostly up. It had the remarkable effect of making politics accessible and engaging, even to children, and addressing the content of politics in its mockery of politicanstwo virtues that political satire rarely achieves. But it was also smug and trivializing, retaining its deepest contempt for the earnest belief in anything. It portrayed the working classes as deserving idiots and minorities with stereotypes, even as it swung hard at their oppressors.

Still, it had a cold insight into where things were going -- thirty years ago it had P.W. Botha, the right-wing leader of a fading racist administration in South Africa, cunningly recast the party line as "anti-anti-apartheid". Many of its most absurd jokes are now political realities. It did more to reveal the problem with Jimmy Savile than anyone in UK media except Johnny Rotten. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/more-puppets-revealed-from-the.html

Jared Kushner is similar to Trump in many ways. They both inherited vast amounts of wealth from unsavory slumlord fathers and blew their ill-gotten fortunes on bad business decisions. This new video, from the Lincoln Project, highlights a few of Kushner's latest screw-ups, which have resulted in 160,000 Covid deaths, massive job loss, eviction, and hunger in the United States. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/pampered-princeling-kushne.html