A spirited conversation between Hunter S. Thompson and John Wilcock. From John Wilcock, New York Years, by Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall.Look for a holiday follow-up to this story in December, detailing "How the Freaks Almost Took the Town".(See all Boing Boing installments) Read the rest

It was about four years ago that my friend Jessica brought me to an L.A. drugstore for some "square" ice cream. I was charmed by the oddly-shaped scoops (which I realize are not really square but cylindrical) we were served at that Rite-Aid that afternoon. Last winter, in Palm Springs, she brought me to another in-store ice cream counter for some more. Still charmed. Cut to this week when I found out that Rite-Aid* started selling the contraptions that turns ice cream into tiny top hats... and had already sold out! Chris Nichols of Los Angeles Magazine:A friend posted a picture on Instagram, then I noticed the scoopers started showing up on eBay, where one near Hemet drew 25 bids and sold for $121.50. There were sightings and rumors of them in the wild, but after a mid-week survey of more than a dozen stores left me empty-handed, I figured it might be a Bigfoot story. Maybe some prototypes had escaped into the wild. The store manager even speculated that they might not return. “They’re just testing them out,” she told me. Another store clerk had tipped me off that they might be expecting a new batch at the end of the week so I took a chance, and ended up walking away with one of the gadgets for $19.99.So, after reading this, I looked at overpriced eBay listings, and thought I might find one around here (San Francisco Bay Area). "Maybe they're just sold out in L.A.," I naively thought. Read the rest

Since the whistle was blown on Trump denying aid to Ukraine unless it "investigated" his political opponents in the U.S., his position has been that there was no quid pro quo. Yesterday, his White House chief of staff Mike Mulvaney admitted there was, and added a sneering "get over it" for good measure. This was, apparently, not in the script, and he was soon made to walk back the remarks. But everyone saw them...It was the first time the White House acknowledged a link between the withheld aid and probes that Trump sought. Some Republicans were deeply concerned by Mulvaney's comments."You don't hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative," said GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. "Period."Republican Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida called Mulvaney's acknowledgment about withholding Ukraine aid "troubling," saying it is "not a good thing" to do that in connection "with threatening foreign leaders." Read the rest

The Doral is a Miami resort one would expect to be sparsely occupied in June, an hour's drive from the beaches in the sticky Florida summer. Moreover, it's failing to meet its financial expectations. Fortunately, it's just been picked by U.S. President Donald Trump to host next year's G7 summit of the world's most powerful leaders, guaranteeing a full house. Its owner, U.S. President Donald Trump, must be delighted!Trump leans into corruption, writes Bess Levin:Pressed about the obvious conflicts of interest inherent in hosting a massive government event that attracts worldwide attention at one of Trump’s for-profit clubs, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney initially tried to claim that the administration had looked at other locations and none of them worked because some places have higher altitudes and because June is apparently a notoriously difficult month to plan an event. “There’s plenty of other good places in this country to hold a large event, there’s no question about it,” Mulvaney told reporters, pretending like the White House wasn’t always going to pick the president’s own resort.Doral's income droped 69% in two years. Why do you think he's using his position to put funnel business and attention to Doral?https://t.co/ph7CJQhgbr— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) October 18, 2019 Read the rest

The nine-camera security system included with Tesla cars is the gift that keeps on giving, if not for automobile owners and their insurers. Here's another vandal caught on tape keying an electrical vehicle for reasons known only to him. This gentleman offers the camera a smirk on the way out of the Davies Park and Ride in Edmonton, Alberta.Andrew Batiuk:This occurred October 12th, 2019 to a friend of mine, while his car was parked for an Eskimos football game. It is super upsetting that folks think it is acceptable to damage other people's property, regardless of the reason. Unfortunately, Alberta doesn't require front license plates. If anyone happens to recognize this individual, please contact the Edmonton Police, file # 19149663.Local news loves this sort of thing. Read the rest

I was scrolling through Jalopnik earlier today when HOLY CRAP THERE'S A COP SAVING A DUDE FROM GETTING HIT BY A TRAIN!From the Utah Department of Public Safety:This morning, Trooper Ruben Correa pulled an unconscious driver from his vehicle seconds before it was struck by a train. Trooper Correa had been on a traffic stop close by before he responded to the area on a call of a car on the tracks. As he spoke to the media about this incident this morning, Trooper Correa said, "At that point, I actually wasn’t really thinking, I was just doing my job."Image via PXhere Read the rest

Let me break it to you as gently as possible: If you dot your tapping swiping and scrolling on a Samsung Galaxy S10, your handset's security is currently a joke. According to TechCrunch, an S10 user in the UK has reported that her handset's screen lock can easily be cleared by any old fingerprint you'd care to smoosh against the smartphone's display.From TechCrunch:The flaw was discovered after placing a $3.50 screen protector on the device, confirming earlier reports that adding one could introduce an air gap that interfered with the ultrasonic scanner. The company noted the issue in a statement, telling the press that it was, “aware of the case of S10’s malfunctioning fingerprint recognition and will soon issue a software patch.”...Samsung has warned against the use of screen protectors previously, but the ability to fool the product with a cheap off the shelf mobile accessory clearly presents a major and unexpected security concern for Galaxy users.A four buck piece of plastic can defeat the security on a $1,000 handset. What's not to love?The fix that Samsung's quickly cooking up for this issue is no doubt keeping their software engineers busier than a cat trying to bury a turd in a marble floor. Until that fix drops, Android provides a number of other methods for keeping your digital goods locked away from the world. If'n you don't want your data hanging out for the world to peruse, you'd do well to switch over to using an alpha numeric code or pattern lock to keep your data safe. Read the rest

NASA is streaming the first all-woman spacewalk from 8 a.m. eastern time. Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are fixing a failed power controller on the International Space Station. LIVE NOW: Tune in to watch the first #AllWomanSpacewalk in human history! 👩🏻‍🚀 Starting at approximately 7:50am ET, @Astro_Christina & @Astro_Jessica venture into the vacuum of space to replace a failed power controller. Watch: https://t.co/2SIb9YXlRh— NASA (@NASA) October 18, 2019 Read the rest

As much as vaping has taken over the market during the last decade, there's still a lot of questions about the technology, as well as health concerns that we're just now finding out about. One thing you can say about smoking: You know exactly what you're getting, especially when it comes to pipes that you can fill with your choice of herb.Not to say that makers aren't trying to improve on the process. If you haven't picked up a pipe in a while, there's a good reason to trade up from that old glass unit you've been using since college: The Genius Pipe.The slim design evokes what you might see in a pocket vaporizer, but that's where the similarity ends. Pop open the EVOLUTION slider on the top and you'll find a bowl ready to load. (The sliding cover also allows you to pre-load and carry your Genius around for a quick toke on the go.)Inside, the simple but meticulously-built architecture of the smoke chamber allows for a surprisingly clean pull. That's because of a series of raised aluminum dimples that the smoke travels across on its way to complete a perfect hit. They effectively spread more air and lengthen the journey from the bowl to your mouth, cooling as it goes. It's an effect reminiscent of a water bong, only without the diluting effect on taste.The wide, slim profile of the Genius Pipe helps with the cooling airflow, but it also gives it a striking look. Read the rest

The Vatican launched an official "eRosary": It pairs with an app, and is activated when the user makes the sign of the cross:When activated, the user has the possibility to choose either to pray the standard rosary, a contemplative Rosary and different kinds of thematic rosaries that will be updated every year. Once the prayer begins, the smart rosary shows the user’s progress throughout the different mysteries and keeps track of each rosary completed.When I hear electronic cross, I think of Dan Simmons's Hyperion series, and am not enthused to hear the eRosary "records and provides your health data, so you are encouraged to have a better lifestyle."Available for preorder in Italy for around $110. Read the rest

Wired has published another long excerpt from Sandworm, reporter Andy Greenberg's (previously) forthcoming book on the advanced Russian hacking team who took the US-Israeli Stuxnet program to the next level, attacking Ukrainian power infrastructure, literally blowing up key components of the country's power grid by attacking the embedded code in their microcontrollers.Earlier installments focused on the escaped Notpetya worm, which jumped from its Ukrainian targets and shut down major parts of the world's logistics, doing $10b in damage, and the attacks on Ukraine.The latest installment drills down into the devastating cyberattack on the South Korean Olympic games in 2018, which shut down whole swathes of Korean tech infrastructure and compromised the ability to carry out the games.But the real fun started after the attacks, when the forensic specialists went to work on the malware that had been used to carry them out. These remnants were weird, tangled and obviously intentionally deceptive, designed to make a specialist believe that they had been carried out by North Korean operatives who had failed in a bid to pin the blame on others. But after intense, global effort by a variety of experts who'd been on the trail of "Sandworm" -- the Russian attackers behind the Ukraine attacks -- a consensus emerged that put the blame on the Kremlin, humiliated and furious at being excluded from the games for cheating.Over the next two days, Matonis searched for patterns in that obfuscation that might serve as a clue. Read the rest

We can't all go through life with just a pair of sneakers and flip-flops. Sometimes, you have to invest in a pair of high-quality dress shoes. However, you've probably discovered that high-end footwear almost always comes with eye-popping price tags. You've got to compromise on second-hand or just suck it up and take out a second mortgage to get a pair of shoes that will help you look and feel your best. That doesn't feel fair.Ace Marks didn't think so, either, so they're redefining the high-end shoe game. Their founders have spent a lifetime in the luxury footwear business, and they've structured their business to remove the middlemen and use modern technology to create world-class, handcrafted footwear the doesn't cost an arm and a leg. They bypass retail and brand markups by selling online and employ fourth-generation artisan shoemakers, renowned for their work with Italy's top luxury brands, to keep the traditions of shoemaking alive.Ace Marks shoes use hand-selected full-grain calfskin leather and all come with memory foam cushions to keep you comfortable on your feet all day. Each shoe is crafted using a Blake Flex construction, making them flexible, light, and ready to impress.Feel ready to get a new pair of shoes? Ace Marks is so confident you'll love their shoes, they'll buy your old shoes back for $50 and put it towards your next pair of Ace Marks. The old ones, they'll donate to men in need. Read the rest

A black security guard at Madison West High School in Madison, Wisconsin, asked a student—also black—to stop calling him the n-word. The school fired the security guard, citing its zero-tolerance policy on racial slurs.Marlon Anderson's Facebook post in which he describes his termination from the Madison School District after working there for 11 years generated hundreds of comments supporting the former school worker. Many derided the district's zero-tolerance policy toward use of the slur by staff in any context. ... "Regardless of context or circumstance, racial slurs are not acceptable in our schools," West High School Principal Karen Boran said in an email to families Wednesday.In a statement, Madison School Board President Gloria Reyes said the district has "taken a tough stance on racial slurs" in an attempt to improve the school climate for students and staff.The school became notorious for all the racist slurs, the zero-tolerance policy was introduced to get rid of the racist slurs, but it has been used to get rid of a black member of staff complaining about the racist slurs. Read the rest

Kewpie Mayonnaise, made in Japan, has extra egg yolk and MSG in it, making it far superior to any other commercially-made mayonnaise. My family loves the Kewpie. To make it easier to squeeze out of the bottle, I 3D printed a thing you can attach to the cap so you can invert the bottle and let the mayo settle near the spout. Now we don't have to shake the bottle to get the mayo out.If you want to print one of your own, here's the STL file. If you don't have a printer but love Kewpie and need one of these, email me (mark@boingboing.net) and I'll print one out and send it to you for the price of the postage. Read the rest

The RAW cone loader loads weed into a cone very fast.I had been using the paper shovel that comes inside a 20-pack of RAW '98 Special' sized cones. It works but the amounts of weed that go in and spillage are not optimal. It was suggested I try the plastic loader.The plastic loader fills the cone up fast and I spill less.This is great for sitting down and stuffing weed into 2 or 3 cones at a time. If you are going for larger production batches there is a stand-up tube filler that I have yet to graduate to.RAW King Size and 98 Special Size Cone Loader with Clear ES Scoop Card via Amazon Read the rest

In 2017, a group of Dutch design students created some fictional anonymity "products" that they displayed under the name "Group Anonymous" at Milan Design Week.One of these design fiction pieces was Group Anonymous member Jing-cai Liu's "wearable face projector" -- a hat with a built-in LCD projector that skinned your face with an ever-shifting series of projection-mapped faces.At the time, the group expressed its hope that their "designs should provoke debates about the emerging future."But the wearable face projector has gone viral in the wake of Hong Kong's unconstitutional "mask ban" that prohibits protesters from using masks or makeup to confound the facial recognition cameras being used by Hong Kong to exact terrible physical retribution upon people who take part in public calls for respect for their human rights.In response, Jing-cai Liu has published a statement disavowing any "political intentions...not then, not now" (all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding) and demanding that their work not be associated with the Hong Kong protests: "The copyright of the product/concepts stays in the hands of those designers. They kindly ask to put their works in the right context and always refer back to their websites or named above sources when their concepts are shared. Don’t use their works in any political statement."It's a genuinely weird statement from the "Group Anonymous" who set out to "provoke debate" with an exhibition called "Dystopian Future." I mean, be careful what you wish for, my dudes. I can empathize with not wanting to be dragged into someone else's fight, but this is literally what design fiction is for. Read the rest

America has some of the worst, most expensive broadband in the developed world, thanks to massive market concentration, grotesque regulatory capture, and systematic underinvestment in crumbling telcoms infrastructure.Predictably, every time one of the rent-seeking ISP profiteers (or their regulatory water-carriers) is called out on this, they dangle something shiny that they insist will solve all these problems. These days, that's 5G, a technology for delivering wireless broadband to devices close to its antennas that does nothing at all to solve the slow speeds in the lines connecting those towers to one another.Writing for EFF Deeplinks, Bennett Cyphers and Ernesto Falcon lay out the case for fiber (top speed, 100tbs) and for not believing the 5g (top speed, 10gbs) hype.America can still have a fiber future, but only if we stop pretending that 5G will solve America's worst-of-breed internet connectivity.Gigabit and faster wireless networks have to rely on high frequency spectrum in order to have sufficient bandwidth to deliver those speeds. But the faster the speed, and the higher the frequency,the more environmental factors such as the weather or physical obstructions interfere with the transmission. Gigabit 5G uses “millimeter wave” frequencies, which can’t travel through doors or walls. In essence, the real world environment adds so much friction to wireless transmissions at high-speeds that any contention that it can replace wireline internet fiber or cable—which contend with few of those barriers due to insulated wires— is suspect.Meanwhile, fiber systems have at least a 10,000 (yes ten...thousand) fold advantage over cable systems in terms of raw bandwidth. Read the rest

Do Not Track was a standardized way for browsers to tell services that their owners did not consent to having their activities and usage logged; however, it was subverted by Big Tech and big media companies and turned into a useless tick-box that had virtually no impact on your privacy.Now, Senator Ron Wyden [D-OR] (previously) is circulating a characteristically right-on piece of draft online privacy legislation called the Mind Your Own Business Act that would give Do Not Track settings the force of law.Additionally, the MYOBA allows the FTC to set service-specific privacy and security rules for each Big Tech company and to punish failures to adhere to those rules, with fines of up to 4% of annual global revenues for first offenses. States' attorneys general would also have enforcement powers under the act.FTC Chairman Joe Simons has pleaded with Congress to empower the Commission with new authorities to fine companies for first-time privacy violations. Wyden’s bill would do just that, and also make it a crime for senior executives of tech companies to knowingly lie to the agency in regards to privacy.“Consumers must be able to control their own private information, companies must provide vastly more transparency about how they use and share our data,” Wyden said. “Corporate executives need to be held personally responsible when they lie about protecting our personal information.”State attorneys general would be able to enforce the regulations in the Mind Your Own Business Act, too, putting more “cops on the privacy beat” other than just the FTC, according to a press release for the measure. Read the rest

"Space travel is hard and unforgiving," writes NASA, "but we have never been more ready to meet the unknown."Or as William S. Burroughs said, "This is the space age and we are here to go." Read the rest

The latest fuck-you from Oath -- the Verizon division created to manage the zombie assets of AOL and Yahoo, bought at a ridiculous premium and then written down by more than 99% -- is the impending drawdown of Yahoo Groups, with mass deletions of all stored "Files, Polls, Links, Photos, Folders, Calendar, Database, Attachments, Conversations, Email Updates, Message Digest, Message History" as of Dec 14.Yahoo Groups will limp along as private, invite-only groups with limited functionality (though this is a pretty obvious prelude to a total shutdown). Users may be able to download some of the data they entrusted to Yahoo via the company's privacy dashboard.It's another gift from noted historical monster Robert Bork and Ronald Reagan, who dismantled the antitrust protections that prohibited overcapitalized basket-case companies like Yahoo from buying and then trashing promising startups. Yahoo has made the decision to no longer allow users to upload content to the Yahoo Groups site. Beginning October 28, you won't be able to upload any more content to the site, and as of December 14 all previously posted content on the site will be permanently removed. You'll have until that date to save anything you've uploaded.Understand what's changing in Yahoo Groups [Yahoo Help](via /.) Read the rest

When police arrested Matthew Bushman, 36, of Mansfield, Illinois on Friday, he reportedly tried to provide a fake name. Thing is, his real name is tattooed right across his neck. Police shouldn't be surprised though. After all, they were investigating Bushman for possible involvement in a forgery.(WAND17) Read the rest

According to the U.S. Department of Education, The Commission on Presidential Scholars is "a group of eminent private citizens appointed by the President to select and honor the Presidential Scholars... The Scholars demonstrate exceptional accomplishments in academics, the arts, career and technical education and an outstanding commitment to public service."Is it any surprise that Trump's idea of an eminent private citizen is a gentleman by the name of George Mentz? He is a lawyer from Colorado Springs who has written a number of Illuminati self-help books, such as The Illuminati Secret Laws of Money, The Illuminati Handbook, 50 Laws of Power of the Illuminati, and 100 Secrets and Habits of the Illuminati for Life Success.From The Week:Several of those books are co-authored with someone named "Magus Incognito," and generally share how mindfulness can lead to prosperity. Mentz cautioned The Denver Post about getting "too excited" about his word choice, essentially saying the term "Illuminati" is used as a marketing tactic.From The Denver Post:“If you conceive of your desire, you can then imagine that your goal will take place with belief, and then you will be able (to) retrieve the opportunity from the world’s storehouse of riches,” he wrote in a 2013 book, “Abundance Bible & the Secret Powers of Manifesting Wealth Health and Peace of Mind.”“When a person stops struggling and initiates ALCHEMY OR MAGIC, SOMETHING HAPPENS,” Mentz wrote in another 2013 book, “Success Magic — The Prosperity Secret to Win with Magical Spiritual Power: How to Grow Rich, Influence People, Protect Your Mindset and Love Yourself Like a Warrior Using Timeless Abundance Secrets.” An e-book version is available for $2.99 on Amazon. Read the rest

Cambodia's long-serving dictator Hun Sen nearly lost power in 2013 when an opposition party mobilized over Facebook (Hun Sen recovered by mastering Facebook and using it to crush the opposition, whose leaders are now exiled.The scare prompted Hun Sen's inner circle -- relatives, cronies -- to prepare to flee the country should the political winds shift for good. They bought "golden passports" from Cyprus, a country that turned to selling EU passports through "investor visas" out of desperation after the 2008 crisis and the ensuing austerity.Now, distaff relations and "business associates" of Hun Sen have turned themselves into the Cambodian edition of the Rich Kids of Instagram, creating social media streams of them driving flash Mercedes while clutching fistfulls of high-denomination banknotes and so forth.Some of these "business associates" have very unsavory personal and commercial histories, like Pheapimex founders Choeung Sopheap and Lau Ming Kan, whose firms have been accused of mass-scale, years-long illegal logging and evicting thousands of Phnom Penh families, using law enforcement to beat and jail those who protested.Reuters documents the process by which Hun Sen's circle of wealthy Cambodian criminals and extended family became Cypriots-by-courtesy, relying on leaked official Cypriot government documents that also expose Pricewaterhousecooper's role in greasing the path for them.Meanwhile, Hun Sen continues to present himself to Cambodians as a man of the people, insisting that it is the disloyal opposition who secretly secured second passports, and declaring his intention "to eat grass with the Cambodian people."For some members of Cambodia’s elite, Cypriot passports are trappings of luxurious lifestyles that could undermine Prime Minister Hun Sen’s self-styled image as the humble leader of a party representing ordinary Cambodians. Read the rest

The Beatles: The Singles Collection is an upcoming box set of 23 vinyl 7-inch discs, including all 22 singles issued in the UK between 1962 and 1970. You can pre-order on Amazon for These singles, plus an exclusive new double A-side single for the mid-1990s-issued tracks "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love," are newly cut for vinyl from their original mono and stereo master tapes by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios for a new limited edition boxed set. The Beatles: The Singles Collection presents 46 tracks on 23 180-gram seven-inch vinyl singles in faithfully reproduced international picture sleeves, accompanied by a 40-page booklet with photos, ephemera, and detailed essays by Beatles historian Kevin Howlett. The collectible set will be released worldwide on November 22 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe. Read the rest

Even the covers to this collection of AI-written science fiction novels were created by AI. The reviews are also written by AI. Titles include Bitches of the Points, Auro-Minds and the Hungers, The Table in 10, and Breath Chanter. Of course it's an art project and the writing is a mess, but an excerpt from any of the books could be slipped in the pages of a Gor novel without anyone being the wiser.[via Bruce Sterling] Read the rest

Berkeley has joined the swelling ranks of cities (pioneered by nearby Oakland) that have passed ordinances banning the government's use of facial recognition technology, after a unanimous city council vote.California has passed a statewide, three-year moratorium on the use of facial recognition in conjunction with police bodycams.Massachusetts in considering a similar measure, and residents of the state can write to their lawmakers in support of it.The direction of travel has spooked facial recognition vendors. Amazon -- who have pitched their facial recognition products to ICE -- is now drafting model legislation in hopes of heading off measures that could undercut its profits.Over the last several years, EFF has continually voiced concerns over the First and Fourth Amendment implications of government use of face surveillance. These concerns are exacerbated by research conducted by MIT’s Media Lab regarding the technology’s high error rates for women and people of color. However, even if manufacturers are successful in addressing the technology’s substantially higher error rates for already marginalized communities, government use of face recognition technology will still threaten safety and privacy, chill free speech, and amplify historical and ongoing discrimination in our criminal justice system.Berkeley’s ban on face recognition is an important step toward curtailing the government’s use of biometric surveillance. Congratulations to the community that stood up in opposition to this invasive and flawed technology and to the city council members who listened.Victory! Berkeley City Council Unanimously Votes to Ban Face Recognition [Matthew Guariglia/EFF Deeplinks] Read the rest

Uno's Greta Grotesk is a free font based on Greta Thunberg's hand-lettered signs. (Image: Anders Hellberg, CC BY-SA)(via Kottke) Read the rest

Virtually every rich country on Earth provides pre-completed tax-returns that you can either ignore (and pay an accountant or do your own taxes), or just sign and return: after all, the government already knows what you're earning and how much tax you paid, so they can do all the heavy lifting for your annual return.But when Congress tried to create a similar program in the USA, it faced a blizzard of lobbying from the tax-prep industry, led by Intuit, a tax-prep monopolist that grew to scale by buying or merging with its competitors -- growth tactics that are illegal under US antitrust law, but have been permitted since Ronald Reagan gutted antitrust enforcement 40 years ago.Under its weird, cultlike billionaire CEO Brad Smith (whose employees don t-shirts bearing his favorite aphorisms, like "Repetition doesn’t ruin the prayer") Intuit led a coalition that created "Free File," which would, in theory, allow 60% of Americans to file their taxes for free, using no-cost options offered by the tax-prep industry. But then the industry used "dark patterns" and out-and-out fraud to ensure that no one actually used the service, even as they stepped up their lobbying efforts, zeroing out the IRS's budget for advertising Free File.In a long, well-reported piece on Propublica, Justin Elliott and Paul Kiel lean on leaked Intuit documents to show exactly how crooked and corrupt the Intuit lobbying effort was, and how effective it was at ensuring that Americans -- especially poor Americans -- continued to funnel millions into his company's coffers for use of its flagship Turbotax product, now with the help of former IRS employees who once ran Free File for the US government and now work to ensure that Americans continue to pay to use Turbo Tax. Read the rest

Having to listen to Trump's gibberish is one thing – you kind of learn to tune it out. But having to translate his nonsense into another language takes a skillset of great finesse. Take a look at this translator's bewildered expressions yesterday as she tried to put his mad drivel into coherent sentences during a talk between Trump and Italian President Sergio Mattarella.This woman’s reaction to Trump’s sand comment is all of us pic.twitter.com/XGpHKiHW2X— ElElegante101 (@skolanach) October 16, 2019 The look of the White House Italian translator as Trump says President Mozzarella for the Italian President and says U.S. and Italy have been allies since Ancient Rome. pic.twitter.com/4c4kTl1wl3— Teymour (@Teymour_Ashkan) October 17, 2019 Italian translator listening Trump avoiding to answer questions about Rudy Giuliani pic.twitter.com/72cmtYANLx— Koro (@nonsmknlifeboat) October 16, 2019 Via Mashable Read the rest

In 2013, Propublica published an incredible story revealing how pharma giants laundered bribes to doctors in exchange for commitments to prescribe their expensive, proprietary and often dangerous products. Six years later, the practice is worse than ever: "More than 2,500 physicians have received at least half a million dollars apiece from drugmakers and medical device companies in the past five years alone, a new ProPublica analysis of payment data shows. And that doesn’t include money for research or royalties from inventions. More than 700 of those doctors received at least $1 million."Pharma's annual doctor-bribing spend is $2.1-$2.2b, distributed among about 600,000 docs out of the USA's 1.1m doctors every year. A spokesvillain for PHRMA, the pharmaceutical industry's lobbying arm, says that this proves that it's all OK, because if it was bad, PHRMA's members would have done less of it over time.Of the top 20 drugs with the most annual spending on doctors from 2014 to 2018, six made the list in each of the years: Invokana to treat type 2 diabetes, the blood thinners Xarelto and Eliquis, the antipsychotic Latuda, the immunosuppressive drug Humira and the multiple sclerosis drug Aubagio. Another three drugs were on the list for four years: Victoza to treat type 2 diabetes, psoriasis treatment Otezla and the cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha. (Research funding and royalties are not included.)Xarelto topped the list in spending for four years, totaling more than $123 million in payments from 2014 to 2018. In March, its makers, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer AG, agreed to pay $775 million to settle about 25,000 lawsuits claiming that the companies had failed to warn patients that Xarelto could cause fatal bleeding. Read the rest

Caltech theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime, explains the concept of a "dimensions" at five different levels of complexity. Dr. Carroll sure has a big brane. Read the rest

In 1936, the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was declared to be extinct. Yet in the last three years, there have been eight reported sightings according to Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. I hope it's true. From CNN:While stories abound that some continue to live in the remote wilds of Tasmania, an island state off Australia's south coast, there has been no hard evidence to support this -- only claims of sightings, like the ones newly released.One report last February said that two people, visiting Tasmania from Australia, were driving when an animal with a stiff tail and striped back walked onto the road.The animal "turned and looked at the vehicle a couple of times" and "was in clear view for 12-15 seconds," the report read. Both people in the car "are 100% certain that the animal they saw was a thylacine."Another report filed the same month described a striped "cat-like creature" moving through the mist in the distance.image: Thylacines in a Washington DC zoo, c.1906 (public domain) Read the rest

Apparently a 6-year-old got ahold of someone's prescription medication and decided to experiment with her friends.Arizona's ABC15 reports:According to Phoenix Fire Department, four elementary school students took "what appears to be heart medication pills" on the school bus Thursday morning.Phoenix police say a 6-year-old girl took the prescription pills from an adult family member and gave them to four other 6- and 7-year-olds while they were on the way to school.A staff member at the school became aware of what happened, brought the kids to the nurse's office, and called 911. Read the rest

The appendix has evolved in different animal species at least 29 times, according to this SciShow video, which means it probably serves a function. Scientists who studied appendixes in animals have come to the conclusion that it is a part of the immune system. In humans, the appendix is full of immune cells, including T cells, B cells, and natural killer cells, and good gut bacteria. Read the rest

On Oct 7, workers and volunteers at New York City's beloved Pacifica Radio affiliate WBAI received a sudden notice informing they that they were all fired and the station was to be sold off without notice or a board vote, as is required by Pacifica's by-laws; the next day, a court issued an injunction requiring Pacifica to reinstate local programming until a hearing on Oct 21.Pacifica got the injunction partially voided, and ignored the rest of it. Staffers who re-entered the station say "they found their computers disconnected and papers haphazardly scattered.Now, the judge has reinstated the full injunction, and Pacifica is continuing to ignore it.Immediately prior to the shutdown, Pacifica's head office censured WBAI producer Mimi Rosenberg for saying the words "Stop Trump" on air, sending her a formal written warning characterizing the remarks as "unacceptable performance" and suggesting that they might put the station out-of-compliance with FCC regulations.Rosenberg, who some have speculated influenced the shutdown with an anti-Trump segment, went on to condemn John Vernile, the interim executive director of Pacifica, who, she alleged, was brought on board by the foundation to steal and sell the station.“[Vernile] fired the entire staff — the paid, unionized staff, in complete disdain for the union contract — and the unpaid staff — the voices of the very community and issues that Lou Schweitzer championed,” she said. She accused the executive of turning WBAI into “a repeater station that receives canned information.”'We need WBAI': Station's supporters vow to keep fighting for local programming [Meaghan McGoldrick/Brooklyn Eagle]Judge Rules WBAI Can Return To Air, But Owners Refuse To Comply [ Jake Offenhartz/Gothamist](Thanks, Stephen Pankowicz! Read the rest

Caitlin Kirby, a doctoral student at Michigan State University, defended her dissertation while wearing a skirt made of rejection letters she had received during her studies:Successfully defended my PhD dissertation today! In the spirit of acknowledging & normalizing failure in the process, I defended in a skirt made of rejection letters from the course of my PhD. #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter #PhDone THANK YOU to everyone involved in my journey pic.twitter.com/FQbXYQ1Oov— Caitlin K. Kirby (@kirbycai) October 7, 2019She told Lansing State Journal that she made the skirt as a way of normalizing rejection and taking pride in overcoming it:It took 17 rejection letters to make the skirt, rejections from scholarships, academic journals and conferences. To make the skirt, she printed them out and folded each one into a fan, connecting them in rows until they resembled a skirt. Kirby still had many left over.“The whole process of revisiting those old letters and making that skirt sort of reminded me that you have to apply to a lot of things to succeed,” she said. “A natural part of the process is to get rejected along the way.”You can get a closer look here. Read the rest

A group that calls themselves The Republicans for the Rule of Law has a new TV ad campaign asking "Congress to stand up for the rule of law" and calls Trump's recent actions regarding Ukraine "unAmerican." They ask viewers to "call your Congressman and tell them to speak out against President Trump and his abusive power."Here is the ad in a tweet by @BillKristol:Mike Pence is right. Donald Trump is wrong. pic.twitter.com/JeYnRWikoG— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) October 17, 2019 According to HuffPost:The ads will air in the home states of a dozen Senate Republicans, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), as well as in the districts of 15 House Republicans, such as Rep. Bill Flores (Texas) and Rep. Mark Amodei (Nev.).Republicans for the Rule of Law spokesman Chris Truax said Trump’s decision to seek dirt on his rivals from Ukraine and China was “fundamentally unAmerican.”“Congressional Republicans must speak out against President Trump’s abuse of power,” Truax said in a statement. “They need to do it publicly. They need to do it clearly. And they need to do it now.” Read the rest

Ryoichi Toya of Suzu, Japan harvests 3.5 tons of salt per year from the ocean. He starts by pouring buckets of seawater onto a bed of raked sand. After the sand has dried, it's collected in a large wooden box, to which additional seawater is added, to create a very salty liquid. This is boiled over a wood fire for six hours to remove the water. "Salt produced with the Agehama style is made from seawater and is mainly used for food," he says. "It's mild in taste and the texture is smooth. It's the perfect seasoning for a rice ball." Read the rest

Billionaire Elon Musk told lawyers representing the British cave diver who is suing him for defamation that he's financially illiquid. Musk's personal net worth of $23.6 billion makes him the 38th richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, but he says his wealth is tied up in his equity stake in Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and shares in Tesla, and that he has no intention of selling his shares.via Bloomberg Photo: NORAD and USNORTHCOM Public Affairs Read the rest

A 64-year-old man went to the doctor complaining of pain in his tongue and mouth. Upon examination, doctors found the patient's tongue to be missing taste buds. He was diagnosed with pernicious anemia, which is caused by an inability to absorb vitamin B-12, needed to make red blood cells.The condition was reversed after weekly injections of B-12.[via New England Journal of Medicine]Image: National University of Singapore Read the rest

On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon delivered his resignation speech to the American public. Moments before this historical event, he was calmly joking around with the TV crew as if this was just any other presser. And then...."...I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort."(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

A great American has passed away. US Representative for Maryland's 7th congressional district, Elijah Eugene Cummings has passed away at age 68.Elijah Cummings has been an inspiration for as long as I can remember. We have lost one of the last true statesmen in this broken US political system.Baltimore Sun:The U.S. congressman from Maryland, who died early Thursday morning at 68, was a long-time warrior for justice, truly a great man. He spoke truth to power even as a member of the power class. And the Democrat was not above pleading, with rival Republicans or constituents, for what he knew was right.He chose politics and public life because he wanted a better country, a better city. Immersed in the complex problems of both, he kept his eyes on the prize all through his career. As a member of Congress, with oversight of government operations at a range of levels, Cummings was in the role of examiner, and what he examined was usually bad — from incompetence by bureaucrats to price gouging by corporations to the abuses of power of the executive branch. And so his words were often aspirational, uttered while mired in mud, yet pointing us toward a mountaintop. Read the rest

The Lestina family of Bagley, Iowa were greeted with a wonderful Halloween surprise on the morning of October 3, when they awoke to find 5 inches of animal blood, fat, and bones flooding through the basement.Two weeks later, it's still blooding.The Lestinas have lived next door to a meat locker for the last decade. But the building was transferred to new ownership this past April 2019, and, well, something clearly went wrong., because the drainage from the kill room backed up and clogged the shared pipelines, which spilled over into the Lestinas' house.(It took two weeks for the meat locker to reach and offer to help pay for the mess, too, although they were cooperating with local health and sanitation services before that.)From the Des Moines Register:Two weeks later, the blood is still seeping into the basement and the Iowa Department of Public Health told the family it's not safe to live in the home.They are staying with relatives in Panora until the mess can be cleaned up."I've had a company come out for cleaning and sanitizing, but they can't start that process until it stops coming up the drain," Lestina said. "I've been talking to different excavation people. It hasn't been a promising deal. I need dry weather."According to KTIV, the family was hoping to put their house on the market soon, too. But that plan might hit some snags. Read the rest

The blob has no mouth, but I must scream.To be fair, it doesn't a stomach, or eyes, or feet, or anything resembling a brain, either (at least as far as modern science would define it). It's not technically a fungus, or an animal, or a planet. It is, quite simply, an incomprehensibly bizarre yellow slime mold that's also alive, and at least somewhat-sentient. Even its official scientific classification, physarum polycephalum, literally translates to "many-headed slime."And now it's held captive and displayed at the Zoo de Paris, starting October 19.Did I mention that this blob has some kind of intelligence, or at least the ability to remember things, and absorb knowledge from other slime mold blobs that it consumes? And that it's capable of moving independently, squishing along at a limbless rate of about 1.6 inches per hour? It also has 720 different sex organs, and will heal in two minutes if you cut it in half.It also, apparently, loves the taste of oatmeal, as well as Acacia trees, oak bark, and chestnut bark. So um, at least it's probably not going to eat us when it ultimately escapes and seeks its revenge for being caged and mocked by us lowly humans? Maybe. If we're lucky.From EuroNews:"The 'blob' is a living being that is [one] of nature's mysteries. We don't really know what it is," director of the Paris Museum of Natural History, Bruno David, said, adding that it lives and grows in damp forest undergrowth away from the light. Read the rest

Camden Paillot is on fire in McSweeney's: "Indeed, one may 'like' Sanders’ populist, pro-working-class ideology that has enticed  —  let me be clear  —  millions of struggling Americans, but being dragged too far left means losing the vote of cartoonish top-hat-wearing-villains, phrenology-practicing conservative centrists, and Democrat-leaning billionaires residing on secret sex-predator-islands, whose only apparent mission is to make the biosphere collapse faster." (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) (I am a donor to both Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's campaigns) Read the rest

Guillermo del Toro was recently a guest on Visitations, the podcast hosted by Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah. During the two-part interview, del Toro briefly discussed his movies, but mostly focused on his upbringing, which reads like a Series of Unfortunate Events. Among the anecdotes:-He used to be skinny but put on weight to defend himself from bullies, including one who threatened to throw him over a railing.-His father was paranoid of being robbed, and would wake del Toro and his young brother in the middle of the night, telling them to watch for invaders.-After his uncle died and del Toro inherited his room, the uncle haunted him.But most disturbing of all was the abuse inflicted by his “grandmother.” Del Toro’s mother was frequently absent, and thus his maternal great aunt served as his primary caretaker. She was “very Catholic” and would tell del Toro that upon his death he literally would burn in hell for hundreds of years, if not longer. She believed mortifying the flesh was important as atonement. Accordingly, del Toro explained, “she used to put upside [down] bottle caps on my shoes for my feet to bleed. And I was a child, a little child. And she would say this would amortize your time in purgatory. So you get a sense of spiritual danger at all times.”During the interview, Del Toro also reflected on his brother's advice about needing to accept their father despite his flaws: “He’s not the flu. He's not going to get better.”You can listen to the entire interview, and many more in the series here. Read the rest

Who doesn't love a free meal?From Nautilus Live:During the final dive of this year’s Nautilus expedition season, our team discovered a whale fall while exploring Davidson Seamount off central California’s coast with researchers from Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The skeletal remains of the whale lying on its back are estimated to be 4-5 meters long. The team is working to identify the species, but it is confirmed to be a baleen whale as indicated by baleen remaining along the whale’s jawbones. While evidence of whale falls have been observed to remain on the seafloor for several years, this appears to be a relatively recent fall with baleen, blubber, and some internal organs remaining. The site also exhibits an interesting mid-stage of ecological succession, as both large scavengers like eel pouts are still stripping the skeleton of blubber, and bone-eating Osedax worms are starting to consume lipids (fats) from the bones.There's no getting past how rare a sight this must be—just listen to the excitement in the voices of the scientists who came across this whale fall for the first time. Read the rest

President Donald Trump thinks this photo, of House Leader Nancy Pelosi berating him over his abandonment of America's Kurdish allies, will make her look bad. The BBC quotes Republican "leaders" as saying Pelosi—apparently one of two women at the table and five in the room—was behaving in an "unbecoming" manner. Pelosi set the photograph as her social media backdrop.A Democratic source told the Associated Press news agency that the meeting began with Mr Trump bragging about a "nasty" letter he had sent to Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan. ... Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Ms Pelosi described it as "most unsatisfactory"."Two-to-one, the Republicans voted to oppose what he was doing in Syria. He just couldn't handle it so he just kind of engaged in a meltdown," she said.Mr Schumer said the president had been "insulting, particularly to the speaker".After Pelosi said he had a "meltdown" during the meeting, Trump used the same term to describe Pelosi: one of the President's distinctive rhetorical habits. Read the rest