It is possible, thanks to the magic of modding, to play Minecraft as any of the creatures in its world. Can you beat the game while playing as a fish? You can beat Minecraft as a fish. I'm gonna change into a fish right now. Also just real quick guys, I know a lot of&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/19/playing-minecraft-as-a-fish.html

A bodyguard protecting Dominic Raab, Britain's foreign secretary, left his gun on a plane after landing at Heathrow airport this week, reports The Sun. It's the second such event of late, after the bodyguard of former Prime Minister David Cameron left his gun in an airplane toilet during a flight. The loaded, semi-automatic Glock 19&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/19/uk-politicians-bodyguards-keep-leaving-their-guns-on-planes.html

This footage (relaxing, but unnecessarily sped up) shows Takumi drawing what the title describes as the "hardest" kanji—Japanese logographic character—in the world. I don't know what it means (and there is some suggestion among commenters that it is a literary contrivance, like Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizit"atenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft or floccinaucinihilipilification) but it sure is pretty.

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/19/man-draws-hardest-kanji.html

It's a toss-up over which harmful airborne pathogen is most disruptive for every American living on the west coast these days.  As horrible as coronavirus has been, experts would probably say the recent wildfires have been what's truly been borderline apocalyptic from an air quality standpoint. In fact, global air quality trackers with IQAir said&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/19/air-purifiers-are-selling-out-on-amazon-but-we-found-10-great-options-that-are-all-on-sale.html

The website Autowise recently asked fans on Twitter to name their top American dream car. And as it turns out, the U.S. has more ecologically minded car owners than you might think. In fact, drivers in 20 states said the dream car they salivated over the most&was a Tesla.  As that survey shows, the luxury&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/enter-for-your-chance-to-win-a-tesla-model-3.html

With most of the world more conscious than ever about their carbon footprint and the sustainability of the actions they take, it begs an important question — can air travel ever be green? Unfortunately, giant planes provide a giant amount of carbon emissions. In fact, one flight from New York City to Amsterdam produces emissions&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/brandless-is-making-luggage-to-survive-the-road-and-save-the-planet.html

Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is dead at 87, reports the court. Ginsburg was appointed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton and in recent years served as the most senior member of the court's liberal wing consistently delivering progressive votes on the most divisive social issues of the day, including abortion rights, same-sex marriage,&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dead-at-87.html

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died of "complications of metastatic pancreas cancer," the Supreme Court announced Friday. She was 87. Ginsberg's dying message: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed." "Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature," Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-dies-at-87.html

Inspired by that shitshow that is 2020, Oakland-based singer/songwriter Rachel Lark (whose bio reads "confrontational comedy punk for weird people and weird times") has just dropped an existential crisis of a music video on us for her single, "The World's Really F*cked But This Show Will Be Pretty Good." Prepare to both smile and weep.&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/the-worlds-really-fcked-but-this-show-will-be-pretty-good.html

Polish author Stanislaw Lem's 1964 sci-fi thriller, The Invincible, is being made into a videogame by Polish game company, Starward Industries. Sayeth PC Gamer: The Invincible is a 1964 hard sci-fi novel by Polish author Stanislaw Lem about the crew of a powerful deep-space vessel that lands on the planet Regis 3 and learns some&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/stanislaw-lems-the-invincible-being-made-into-a-videogame.html

Another great backyard "Live at Home" moment from BBC Radio 2. It's disco funk-rockers Chic, joined by UK singer-songwriter, Rebecca Ferguson, doing Chic's iconic 1979 disco hit, "Good Times." Kind of heartbreaking to hear such a joyous booty-shaker at this particular point in time, but it's at least fun to dance to and dream of&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/nile-rodgers-chic-with-rebecca-ferguson-performing-good-times.html

"Pron" was always a lie. The common misspelling of the term at hand is "porm," says PornHub, a site that would know. The infographic is a couple of years old, but I doubt literacy has improved in the meantime. "On a side note… the newly minted term "covfefe" has already been searched over 9,000 times&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/porm-and-other-misspelled-searches-at-pornhub.html

College engineering student Sam Zeloof, known for converting his parents' garage into a semiconductor fab while in high school, transformed a vintage Polaroid camera into a digital camera with a thermal printer scavenged from a receipt machine. Press the button and the camera spits out a photo print from what was formerly the film cartridge&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/vintage-polaroid-camera-modded-with-a-thermal-printer-and-raspberry-pi.html

NASA released this astonishingly beautiful image of Jupiter captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on August 25. From NASA: Hubble's near-infrared imaging, combined with ultraviolet views, provides a unique panchromatic look that offers insights into the altitude and distribution of the planet's haze and particles. This complements Hubble's visible-light pictures that show the ever-changing cloud&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/nasas-beautiful-new-pastel-image-of-jupiter.html

The town of Asbestos in Quebec, Canada has long been dreaming of a new identity. Its current name was appropriate as the town was home to what was once the world's largest asbestos mine. But ever since asbestos was deemed a deadly carcinogen, the name has bummed out many of its citizens. Four new town&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/town-of-asbestos-having-difficulty-landing-on-a-new-name.html

Musician Alexey Rom arranged this wonderful version of ABBA's classic "Dancing Queen" for a 1914 mechanical fairground organ built by Belgian makers Hooghuys. You may recall Rom as the arranger behind the below rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody" performed on this same instrument:

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/enjoy-abbas-dancing-queen-played-on-a-gorgeous-100-year-old-mechanical-fairground-organ.html

Paleontologists found this bundle of "giant sperm" in the reproductive tract of an ostracod that's been preserved for 100 million years in amber from Myanmar. From the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit"at M"unchen: In fact, this is the oldest fossil in which sperm cells have been conclusively identified. Moreover, the specimen represents a previously unknown species of crustacean, which&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/scientists-find-100-million-year-old-sperm-preserved-in-amber.html

The itty-bitty Dodocool Bluetooth speaker is surprisingly loud and distortion-free. I pair it to my phone and use it to listen to music and podcasts when I'm outside or working on projects. It's cheap, too!

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/excellent-tiny-bluetooth-speaker.html

The Canadian government granted Uline billionaire COVID-critic Liz Uihlein an exemption to its mandatory 14-day quarantine for people entering the country. She and two companions flew into Canada on a private jet and held large meetings without masks, according to CBC News. From The Guardian: Uihlein and her husband have been called the "powerful conservative&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/want-to-avoid-canadas-mandatory-14-day-quarantine-be-a-billionaire.html

Emma Pope nails it.

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/this-is-every-trader-joes-employee.html

Max Ravitz (aka Patricia) uses a Moog Subharmonicon, a Mother-32, and a DFAM to make beautiful music in his garden. From Moog: In this new semi-modular exploration, Asheville-based electronic music producer and Moog Product Specialist Max Ravitz (aka Patricia) brings Subharmonicon together with Mother-32 and DFAM for an intricate performance among the flora of his&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/max-ravitz-aka-patricia-creates-synth-music-in-his-garden.html

Trump's "herd mentality" (sic) plan is to "infect 7 out of 10 Americans with Covid. The Trump plan will kill at least 3 million people/"

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/trumps-herd-mentality-plan-will-kill-millions.html

"What should be a cosy, pleasant corner of the internet has become a monster," writes Sarah Manavis in New Statesmen. "Goodreads sucks, and is just shy of unbearable." Goodreads today looks and works much as it did when it was launched. The design is like a teenager's 2005 Myspace page: cluttered, random and unintuitive. Books fail&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/why-goodreads-is-bad-for-books.html

Coffee YouTuber James Hoffman takes a look at five espresso machines costing under lb500 (US$650). His top overall choice is the most expensive one, the Rancilio Silvia. I've had one for about 15 years and really like it, though I added a PID temperature control unit, which cost a couple of hundred dollars, making the&

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https://boingboing.net/2020/09/18/whats-the-best-espresso-machine-under-650.html