surveillance The idea behind Cambridge Analytica's Facebook data-harvesting app came from a Palantir employee, with support from Eric Schmidt's daughter Cory Doctorow

design Stuck on VHS is a visual history of video store stickers Mark Frauenfelder

Gadgets No gas, no liquid, all heat: these plasma lighters are like having a lightsaber in your pocket Boing Boing's Shop

Business Why I won't buy an Ipad: ten years later Cory Doctorow

Weird Couple got engaged at Walmart hours after armed robbery stunt with 'ornamental sword', say police Xeni Jardin

tabloids Prince Harry’s paternity nightmare and the Royal Family changed forever, in this week’s dubious tabloids Peter Sheridan

Comic Books The Book of Weirdo – a history of the greatest magazine ever published Mark Frauenfelder

happy mutants Every NSFWpocalypse sends users to small, indie platforms, who are threatened by the same factors that make no-platforming practical Cory Doctorow

happy mutants Spider Robinson's joke Cory Doctorow

drugs Smoke some shoes? The DEA's list of slang terms for cannabis David Pescovitz

alt-right Richard Spencer's running out of places to spew his bigoted blather Seamus Bellamy

Food Enjoy a tarantula burger in Durham, North Carolina David Pescovitz

Art and Design Artist David Henry Nobody Jr. on how impersonating a wealthy Trump fan "kind of drove me insane" Sarina Sinclair and Adam Gelbart

fake news Prince Harry’s love child, Trump’s revenge, and Teri Hatcher homeless, in this week’s highly dubious tabloids Peter Sheridan

bitcoin Cryptocurrency: From Basic Definitions to Expert Issues in One Interview Rob Reid

News 5 women accuse Louis C.K. of sexually abusive behavior in NYT report Xeni Jardin

Japanese culture Being a fake loved one is big business for this Japanese man Rusty Blazenhoff

novels What happens when everything is available anywhere? Tal M Klein

Neat Stuff Why I like my Martian Fink ring Mark Frauenfelder

happy mutants Steven Boyett on Fata Morgana, his new WWII/alt-history mashup novel Cory Doctorow