The government of Donald Trump says it has recovered about 70% of those $1200 federal pandemic relief checks that were mistakenly sent to dead people. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Monday the Treasury Department told GAO that roughly 70% of the $1.6 billion in economic stimulus checks mailed to dead people has now been [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/trump-regime-claws-back-70-of.html

U.S. regulatory approval for UAV delivery tests brings Amazon Prime Air closer to goal of delivery times under 30 minutes Amazon.com said Monday its drone-based delivery service has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that allows the company to start testing commercial deliveries with its UAV fleet. Amazon Prime Air is the [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/amazon-gets-faa-approval-for-d.html

It's just been revealed in a (must-read) Los Angeles Times article that Devo cofounder Mark Mothersbaugh spent his summer battling COVID-19. He was not only isolated from his family for three months but the virus caused him to have delusions while hospitalized. Los Angeles Times: Mothersbaugh's delusions lasted more than two weeks during his time [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/mark-mothersbaugh-nearly-died.html

Porn actor Ron Jeremy was charged with rape and sexual assault earlier this year. Today he was charged with 17 more counts along similar lines, including one alleged victim who was only 15 years old. The number of charges and their severity could send Jeremy, 67, to jail for the rest of his life. The [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/more-charges-for-ron-jeremy-i.html

You may not be a fan of paper straws. And honestly, we don't blame you. They're almost universally ill-equipped to handle their one job. But as sub-par as most paper straws are, most of us would agree they're better than the usual alternative. Single-use plastic straws are part of a plastic scourge that has landfills [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/straws-are-an-eco-disaster.html

Police come out, hand woman an inflatable sausage, then arrest her. pic.twitter.com/zTa8ht8rED  Soundtrack to the End (@_WhatRiot) August 31, 2020 In this footage, police approach a protestor in the street. One offers her a large inflatable sausage. When she accepts it, she is arrested.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/never-talk-to-or-accept-an-inf.html

I really like my Wera slotted screwdriver. I get plenty of torque with the grippy, well-shaped handle, and the hard tip shows no signs of wear. The little one I bought is very cheap, too!

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/wera-screwdrivers-are-excellen.html

Monopoly is just such a beautifully designed game. The orange and yellow cards with the iconic temporarily embarrassed millionaire. The cast metal player tokens, the green houses and red hotels. The attractively colored currency. What a shame the game is not very much fun to play. Has anyone created a set of rules that makes [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/if-forced-to-play-monopoly-us.html

If you use Blender, "give your textures and models a knitted yarn look" with the new "Wooly" shader that makes anything fluffy. A shader changes the surface appearance of an object or scene; procedural refers to a programming technique that creates a convincing illusion of natural or random origin. Here's video of it in action:

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/wooly-shader-makes-anything-co.html

I watch a lot of explaining videos, and Technology Connections makes some of the best. The host is knowledgeable, explains things clearly, and is funny, to boot. And this episode he talks about retroreflectors, which are reflective surfaces that send light back to its source with very little scattering. This is very useful for road [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/how-road-sign-reflectors-work.html

Paramecia are tiny near-animals that feed on algae, yeast, and bacteria. Journey to the Microcosmos put its new microscope to good use making a short film about one of paramecia's foes, a bacteria called Holospora, which infect paramecia and make their way to its nuclei.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/gorgeous-video-of-paramecia-in.html

After Trump's final speech at the Republican National Convention, Leonard Cohen's classic song "Hallelujah" was heard twice, albeit a cover recording by Tori Keller and live opera performance by Christopher Macchio. Leonard Cohen's estate did not, um, praise the use of the classic song. Now, they are "exploring their legal options." Meanwhile, Cohen's publisher, SONY/ATV, [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/leonard-cohens-estate-not-pr.html

In the latest issue of my newsletter, The Magnet, (subscribe here), I wrote about a book I bought in 1984  Forrest Mims' Getting Started in Electronics, which he hand-lettered. It remains one of my favorite books. The instructional content is excellent, but the main reason I like it is because of its stupendous design. [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/getting-started-in-electronics.html

Earth has changed quite a bit in the past 750 million years or so. Due to plate tectonics—the shifting of the Earth's surface—the location of your city is likely far from where it is today. Computer scientist Ian Webster created this stunning interactive "Ancient Earth Globe" that pinpoints your city where it was located at [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/amazing-interactive-globe-show.html

I wasn't sure I'd enjoy an animated short featuring Bearded Sky Man controlling a flat Earth inhabited simultaneously by humans and dinosaurs. But Tales From The Multiverse was funnier than I expected.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/cartoon-bearded-sky-man-as-a.html

From grocery stores populated by anthropomorphic insects to an extraterrestrial encounter, each of lito_leafart's gorgeous paper cut style leaves invites us into a standalone narrative. The artist's bio shares that the creation of these cute and meticulous scenes is the result of channeling their ADHD into something positive.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/intricate-paper-cut-style-art.html

The acoustics at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England's magical megalithic structure, were phenomenal, according to new archaeological research. According to research from the University of Salford's Acoustic Research Centre, the placement of the stones in the circle not only naturally amplified voices and music played there, but the sound would not have projected out far outside the [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/the-amazing-acoustics-of-stone.html

The New York Times's Kevin Roose says that Facebook has become "a completely parallel universe, in which Trump's response to Covid-19 has been fast and effective; in which these riots in Portland and other cities are the biggest news story in the world." He dived in to the data and was shocked by what he [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/facebook-is-a-parallel-unive.html

2020 still has a few months, so the mashup of Karens and an impending zombie apocalypse does not feel out of the question. The metal music is a ::chef's kiss:: touch, too. The Karen mask is shaping up to be a top costume for Halloween this year, which is of course extra-ironic, because many Karens [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/karens-redubbed-with-zombie-so.html

The Auckland Zoo posted adorable footage of Jamila and Zambezi's first calf having fun doing laps around her mum. The baby rhino was just born a few weeks ago and clearly has a lot of pent up energy. Look how cute she was just a couple of weeks ago! Image: YouTube / Auckland Zoo

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/31/rhino-calf-zoomies-are-a-thing.html