"I don't know much about the NBA protests. I know their ratings have been very bad." — Trump Impeached President Donald Trump says the @NBA has become like a political organization, and the corrupt wannabe-dictator says he doesn't think that's good for the country. "People are tired of the NBA," he says at a news [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/trump-says-nba-has-become-li.html

Testing in a doctor’s or school nurse’s office can return results in about 15 minutes

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/trump-to-announce-deal-for-150.html

Junglefowl (aka wild chickens) are wisely fearful of humans. Researchers from Link"oping University were able to catch some junglefowl and selectively breed the ones who showed the least fear of humans. After 10 generations, "the offspring acquired smaller brains and found it easier to become accustomed to frightening but non-hazardous events." "We believe that the ability [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/wild-chickens-bred-to-be-unafr.html

I'm typically pretty skeptical of insurance as an industry, though I begrudgingly understand that it does have its purpose. But I found this Wired article on pandemic insurance to be utterly fascinating. Focusing on the work of Nathan Wolfe, who began his career as a virologist before shifting to ways of using data to offset [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/the-complex-insurance-math-tha.html

Tired: a plague of locusts Wired: a legion of cybernetically-enhanced locusts trained by the US military to sniff bombs That's the new goal, according to Stars & Stripes magazine: Navy-funded researchers have discovered that a locust's sensitive "horns" can distinguish between the scents of TNT and other explosives — a development that one day could [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/the-pentagon-is-training-an-ar.html

Under the headline, "Six ways to keep sex-mad spiders out of your home as their mating season begins," UK tabloid Daily Star warns: Spider mating season is back, which means sex-crazed critters are preparing to invade British homes looking for a partner. The creepy crawlies can have a colossal leg span of 10cm – and they're looking to [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/uk-tabloid-warns-of-home-invas.html

Does this mean there's a Butthole Edit of The Batman as well?

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/the-batman-trailer-re-dubbed.html

  Stare into the black circle in this video to get a lesson in chromatic adaptation from scientist Andrew Steele. This is definitely my favourite optical illusion—it's mind-bendingly effective but infuriatingly ephemeral, vanishing as soon as you try to look straight at it—and a fantastic illustration of how our eyes and brain together conspire so [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/optical-illusion-seeing-color.html

The Wonder Woman 1984 trailer gives us tantalizing glimpses at some of the villains, including Kristen Wiig as Cheetah and Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord, a "desperate, self-obsessed, fraudulent entrepreneur who runs a business selling the American Dream," according to Associate Producer Anna Obropta. Looks familiar! Images: YouTube / DC Comics

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/wonder-woman-1984-trailer.html

While it appears that Billie Eilish and brother Finneas are performing at NPR's music offices for a Tiny Desk concert, they are, in fact, not. They recorded this at home in front of a convincing cardboard re-creation of Bob Boilen's desk. Love it! NPR: Of course, due to safety concerns, even the NPR Music staff [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/billie-eilish-and-finneas-perf.html

I'm a big fan of Irish podcaster/rapper/author/overall avant garde performance artist Blindboy Boatclub. After having to cancel some live podcasting events, included some promotional events for his new short story collection, Blindboy has turned to Twitch to experiment with what he calls "an act of participatory art" — he improvises musicals on multiple instruments while [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/the-moon-made-me-sht-my-pan.html

From The Indianapolis Star: Eight elementary school teachers who were shot with airsoft guns "execution style" during an active shooter training drill last year are suing the sheriff's department that conducted the training. The controversial training drill, conducted at Meadowlawn Elementary School in Northern Indiana last year, became national news after teachers reported being left bruised, bloodied and traumatized. [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/teachers-are-suing-police-depa.html

I had expected to be tagging this one with "mistakes" but everyone still has their feet at the end of the video, so it's all good.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/27/what-happens-when-you-whip-a-l.html

Hurricane Laura is expected to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday near the Texas-Louisiana border. Winds are already in excess of 150 miles an hour, making it close to a category 5 storm. The National Hurricane Center says "large and destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage" to a roughly 150-mile stretch of the Gulf [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/26/hurricane-laura-at-150mph-wind.html

Terrorist Brenton Tarrant will spend life behind bars, no parole

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/26/life-in-prison-for-new-zealand.html

While we don't have the stats in front of us, you know the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has seen a whole lot of earbuds and earbud manufacturers make their way through the show over the years. Dozens? For sure. Hundreds? Likely. Yet after all those buds, the CES Innovation Awards still saw [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/26/pick-up-these-award-winning-ea.html

The black ink in Sakura Pigma pens is very rich. I love sketching with them. This set of six has nibs ranging from 0.20mm in diameter up to 0.50mm. They're cheap, too!

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/26/this-sakura-pigma-pen-set-is-g.html

Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Mark Ramos reconfigured of Google's "ReCaptcha" software to "train the population on what is deemed 'unacceptable uses of force" by police who are paid to protect the public.'" "To Protect and Server" utilizes the ReCaptcha system but re-appropriates a randomized selection of 30 perceived images of "Police Brutality" in an attempt to train the population on [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/26/recaptcha-reconfigured-to-trai.html

We regularly alert you all to deals on professional skills training or new tech talents you can add to either bolster your resume or help you fill your time. But this time, we're gonna suggest a different route entirely. This time, we want you to put the laptop or game controller down — and go [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/26/learn-how-to-not-kill-your-hou.html

Breaking news: Scott Adams has uncovered the truth about Joe Biden as a disciple of Satan! From Right Wing Watch: "Build back better—BBB. If you were going to imagine '666' and you wanted to show it to people and disguise it at the same time, can you think of any letter that the numeral six [&]

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/26/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-un.html