He calls it YouTube's most unusual bicycle commute. It's a fair claim, too, what with pedaling daily through cavernous limestone mines repurposed as The Springfield Underground, a secure business park in Missouri.2.5m square feet of warehouses, and who knows how many millions more yet to be developed. The caverns down here are just incredible. THE CAVES.Here's a slideshow history of the facility, from mining to meat storage.Vacancies are rare, according to the Springfield News-Leader. Kraft is the largest tenant. Most use it as warehousing and distribution for products that must stay cool; it is always 58° in the caves.With about a dozen facilities, Missouri is one of the leading states in the underground real estate industry, largely thanks to its mining history and geological makeup — limestone deposits are often covered with a layer of shale, which prevents runoff water from entering old mines. In addition to Springfield Underground, local facilities include The Mountain Complex in Branson and an Americold Logistics facility in Carthage. SubTropolis, a facility in Kansas City which bills itself as "the world's largest underground business complex," has nearly 6 million square feet of space rented.Here's a video taken coming into a different entrance:The bike-commute video could be the intro sequence to a video game where the lights suddenly go off and you have to escape the facility, suddenly overrun by ████████, but not before you've found out what that creepy new tenant was up to and ███████████ the █████. Read the rest

A Bloomsburg University professor was fired for having sex with two of his female students, but a Pennsylvania court has ordered that it reinstate him. Pennlive:The Commonwealth Court ruling upholds a June 2018 arbitrator’s decision that voided the termination of Assistant Professor John Barrett. University officials had appealed that award, which the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties union secured on Barrett’s behalf. The arbitrator ordered Barrett’s reinstatement with full benefits and back pay.In the state court’s opinion, Judge P. Kevin Brobson noted the relationships between Barrett and the women were consensual, that neither woman was taking classes from Barrett at the time, and that the relationships were not barred by the university’s sexual harassment policy.Barrett was also accused of groping one of the women — specifically by waking her up by touching her genitals without consent — but "the judge [found] that the supposed fondling did not amount to sexual harassment because it occurred in the context of a consensual sexual relationship."Pennsylvania seems to have a problem with colleges being unable to rid themselves of predatory faculty and their facilitators. Lock Haven Univeristy was forced in March to reinstate a professor it fired after learning of his past as a convicted child molester. And here's Penn State students rioting after legendary coach Joe Paterno was fired when officials learned he helped cover up decades of child sexual abuse by his assistant, Jerry Sandusky. The college soon returned to "honoring" his memory. Read the rest

The first episode of the 22nd season of the children's animated show Arthur, titled "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone," premiered last week but Alabama Public Television has refused to air it. Why? Because third grade teacher Mr. Ratburn's special someone is a chocolate maker named Patrick and the two are seen walking down the aisle. In 2005, Arthur spin-off show Postcards from Buster showed a lesbian couple which infuriated then-Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.) From CNN:The storyline about Mr. Ratburn's marriage conveys a positive message, (programming director Mike McKenzie) said. But while many parents will find it appropriate, many others will disagree, he said -- "either because their children are too young, or because of their beliefs.""Our broadcast would take away the choice of parents who feel it is inappropriate," McKenzie told CNN in a statement.PBS Kids programs are designed to reflect the diversity of communities across the nation," PBS Kids' Maria Vera Whelan told CNN. "We believe it is important to represent the wide array of adults in the lives of children who look to PBS Kids every day." Read the rest

Cannabidiol (CBD), a cannabis component that doesn't get you high but seems to have countless other benefits, has now been shown to reduce heroin cravings and the anxiety that's triggered when jonesing for the opioid. Researchers at the Addiction Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ran a randomized, controlled, double-blind study with several dozen addicts who have been abstaining from use. From their scientific paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry:Acute CBD administration, in contrast to placebo, significantly reduced both craving and anxiety induced by the presentation of salient drug cues compared with neutral cues. CBD also showed significant protracted effects on these measures 7 days after the final short-term (3-day) CBD exposure. In addition, CBD reduced the drug cue–induced physiological measures of heart rate and salivary cortisol levels. There were no significant effects on cognition, and there were no serious adverse effects.And from Scientific American:The anxiety reduction isn’t specific to opioid-related cues and could generalize to other situations, says neuroscientist Yasmin Hurd, first author on the study and director of the Addiction Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It’s just that this particular anxiety leads someone to take a drug that can cause them death, and anything we can do to decrease that means increasing the precious chance of preventing relapse and saving their lives.”image: "Ball-and-stick model of the cannabidiol molecule." X-ray diffraction data from P. G. Jones, L. Falvello, O. Kennard, G. M. Sheldrick and R. Read the rest

Fortnite Over Forty has become a booming little community of mature video game enthusiasts who are positive, supportive and inclusive. Mostly we play Fortnite.A while back some friends and I were looking to play squads in Fortnite that were not populated by random children screaming terrible slurs at us. I am sure the kids are no more friendly to one another, but playing outside a group of trusted friends seems a sure path to learning the latest colloquial epithets. We gave up on random squads and posted here, on Boing Boing.Now, almost any time I'd like to play Fortnite with some really friendly, completely supportive folks, there is probably a squad or two of players from Fortnite Over Forty online. We have a solid contingent of EU/UK players, NA-East and NA-West going. The Discord is community monitored and other than kicking out SPAMMERS, we've never had a single issue I know of. We take our aggression out on the opposing teams. Many of the parents in the group have gotten comfortable enough that we will sometimes use our children to fill squads or act as ringers. The kids are all super polite and often comically talkative.There seems to be a solid dislike of the banana skin, however, which has me worried.No one checks ID, if you'd like to play duos or squads with positive folks, jump on in! Read the rest

Joe Navarro was a body language expert for the FBI. His job was to catch spies. In this Wired video, he shares some tips. He also busts some myths. For instance, a lot of people think that crossed arms are a blocking behavior. Navarro says, "That's just nonsense." Navarro has written a number of books about body language and interrogation techniques, including What Every Body Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People.Image: YouTube Read the rest

More mobile devices are requiring USB-C charging, and this Aukey car charger has one, along with a normal USB port. It barely sticks out of a car's 9-volt charging port, to the point that some people on Amazon have complained that it's not easy to remove. You can get it at a discounted price by using the code U6AJHIUX. Read the rest

Guatemalan minor is fourth to have died in custody under Trump campaign

In 1986, Chicago's local TV news discovered the city's pioneering house music scene, featuring the likes of Farley "Jackmaster" Funk and Steve "Silk" Hurley. From this groove came the groove of all grooves.Below, two classics of the genre:(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

The Nintendo Switch is a fantastic portable gaming console that is made better with a portable dock.I like to plug an Xbox controller into my Nintendo Switch. There is but a single USB-C port on the device, however, and I can only get in 2-3 matches of Fortnite (if I don't get eliminated immediately) before the battery is dead. To charge the device at the same time you use the USB port for anything else, you must have a dock. Nintendo's supplied dock is shaped like, and as convenient to carry, as a brick. I went looking for a cheap, small, portable dock.One of the great things about the Nintendo dock is the HDMI out port. With this, you can play games on any screen that accepts HDMI. I wanted my tiny dock to support this as well, not just be a USB-C to USB-3 or USB-2 hub. This RREAKA multi-port hub works exactly like Nintendo's dock, and is the size of a king-size Sharpie.I have been using this hub for the last few weeks. Moving between strange TVs and tiny portable monitors. I can charge the Switch while playing games, powering a USB controller and feeding HDMI to a screen. I can also use a power bank with 'Power Delivery' to run the whole thing.I wish the Switch also had support for wired USB headsets, plugging into the 3.5mm jack on top of the unit is annoying.A reminder that Nintendo wants everyone to never use 3rd party anything. Read the rest

From Kevin Parry:Using my stop-motion animation know-how to explore the patterns inside of various fruits and vegetables! This looks super tedious, but I actually had a lot of fun slicing them frame by frame and seeing the results come to life. I've included a bit of behind-the-scenes footage to show how I created the effect. Hope you enjoy! Read the rest

Ross Anderson (previously) is one of the world's top cryptographers; the British academic and practitioner was honored by having his classic, Security Engineering, inducted into The Cybersecurity Canon; however, he was not able to attend the awards gala himself because the US government sat on his visa application for months, and ultimately did not grant it in time.Anderson's not the only one: Israeli cryptography legend Adi Shamir (he's the "S" in "RSA") could not get a visa to visit the USA to participate in the RSA conference (again, he's the "S" in "RSA"). Shamir is a recipient of the Turing Prize -- computer science's answer to the Nobel Prize. During the panel that Shamir missed, co-panelist Shafi Goldwasser said that Shamir was just one of many cryptographers who could not attend because of visa issues.Shamir made a video that was presented at RSA that called for a "rethink" of "the question of how and where we organize our major scientific conferences."It's not just the world's leading security conferences that are having trouble with invited guests and attendees: the World Science Fiction Convention is likely to be held offshore for the foreseeable future, thanks in large part to the inability of global fandom to attend US-based events in the age of "extreme vetting."Why Are Cryptographers Being Denied Entry into the US? [Bruce Schneier/Schneierblog] Read the rest

This week's Christchurch Call event in Paris brought together politicians, tech execs and civil society to discuss means of "countering violent extremism" online; it was convened by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the wake of the deadly white supremacist terror killings in Christchurch last March.My Electronic Frontier Foundation colleague Jillian C York was there as part of the civil society delegation, and her report on the event highlights some of the genuinely positive outcomes from the event (a commitment to "strengthening the resilience and inclusiveness of our societies" and a mandate for tech companies to be transparent in their content moderation); as well as some of the not-so-good conclusions (a lack of distinction drawn between services like Facebook and infrastructure like DNS when it comes to conscripting companies to reduce violent extremism).Most disturbing, though, was a commitment to requiring algorithmic filters of human expression, something hinted at in the terrible, hastily enacted Australian bill passed in response to the terrorist attack. The use of filters to curb bad speech has gained widespread acceptance in policy circles in the past 12 months, despite the near-total consensus among technologists and computer scientists that this will not work and will have ugly consequences for both human speech and competition. * The Call asks companies to take “transparent, specific measures” to prevent the upload of terrorist and violent extremist content and prevent its dissemination “in a manner consistent with human rights and fundamental freedoms.” But as numerous civil society organizations pointed out in the May 14 meeting, upload filters are inherently inconsistent with fundamental freedoms. Read the rest

UPDATE: I missed that this video is 7 years old! On the internet, everything new is old again. Julian Bakery low-carb "bread" should not be judged on the basis of this clip.A company called Julian Bakery makes a low-carb "bread", but they improved the formula. This fan of the original is not a fan of eating the new version, but reports that individual slices turn out to be strikingly useful as utility sponges.What's the best low-carb "bread"? Read the rest

'If you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump.'

Spectre and Meltdown are a pair of chip-level security bugs that exploit something called "speculative execution," through which chips boost performance by making shrewd guesses about which computer operations are performed together.Spectre and Meltdown represented a new class of never-seen-before attacks, and as news of their existence percolated through security circles, it sparked a scavenger hunt for more errors of their sort, with many more coming to light.Intel calls these "Microarchitectural Data Sampling" (MDS) attacks, and now a team of industry and academic researchers (some of whom worked on the original Spectre/Meltdown papers) have gone public with a new set of MDS bugs that Intel was given advance notice of (some of these bugs were discovered more than a year ago). All but the most recent Intel chips are vulnerable to these attacks (you can check your system here).The researchers have dubbed the new defects CPU Fail, and they have disclosed three CPU Fail attacks: Zombieload, RIDL, and Fallout, which they class as "less serious than Meltdown but worse than Spectre."The specifics vary for each defect, but the most significant fact about them is that they can force CPUs to reveal data that's private to another process running on the same system. That means that an attacker can run code on a cloud computer that gives them access to other virtual machines running on the same hardware -- or they can run Javascript in your browser window and steel secrets from your password manager. Read the rest

Three years ago, Hong Kong erupted as a youth-led anti-corruption movement called the Umbrella Revolution took to the streets; now, a chapter of the Extinction Rebellion movement has launched in HK.Extinction Rebellion was inspired by the one-woman strike of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who quit school to picket the Swedish Parliament over climate inaction; the movement has gone global, with mass civil disobedience and more than a thousand arrests in the UK alone (Extinction Rebellion has also put forth a slate of candidates for the upcoming EU elections; I have cast my vote by proxy for the slate, and donated to their campaign). The HK chapter only numbers 40 people so far, a mix of foreigners working in HK, HK locals, and HK nationals who have returned from abroad. On May 4, the group inaugurated the HK chapter with a die-in outside Tsuen Wan's Citywalk mall. They are demanding that HK produce zero emissions by 2025.The chapter went on to lead a mass school-strike and is planning tactical sit-ins at the airport and cruise terminal.Delalande admitted his group’s demands may not be achievable, but made no apologies for that.“Extinction Rebellion is not about what is possible, but what is necessary,” he said. “These urgent actions are absolutely necessary.”Hong Kong’s new Extinction Rebellion chapter looks to turn up the heat on the government over climate change [Victor Ting/South China Morning Post] (via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

"The Training Commission" is Ingrid Burrington and Brendan C Byrne's serialized science fiction tale, taking the form of an email newsletter that lets you eavesdrop on the correspondence between the story's principal characters: it's set after a civil war ("the Shitstorm"), sparked by misbehaving and easily abused machine-learning systems, and which was resolved after a protracted and catastrophic digital blackout.I read the initial volleys this morning, and they're pretty fantastic -- excellent writing, wonderful worldbuilding, complicated and likable characters that I was rooting for within just a few sentences, and the dramatic tension starts high and keeps rising, with no dull moments.KZ from Mozilla adds: "Ingrid and Brendan have created a whole fictional universe, and are supported by a $25,000 Creative Media Award from Mozilla. The project features a weekly newsletter, and also clues, context, and Easter eggs scattered across the web."Burrington unpacks some of the inspiration for the story: "Today's conversations about ‘AI accountability’ are, in many instances, proxies for larger and harder conversations about the contradictions of pursuing equity and justice in racist, capitalist societies such as the United States. Do we want less biased risk assessment technologies for managing mass incarceration, or do we want a society without prisons? How does the glut of recommended white supremacist content on YouTube reflect not only a colossal oversight by a tech company, but also the deeply racist foundations that still define American politics today?"That's exactly right: the reason we're so anxious about autonomous human-created life-forms taking over our world is that this describes our existing relationship to corporations, which is why Charlie Stross calls them "Slow AIs."After the end of a second ultraviolent American civil war, after we've placed the state under the guidance of automated systems—well, there's inevitably going to be a Smithsonian exhibit. Read the rest

During the deepest human sea dive ever, 35,853 feet/10,928 meters down to the bottom of the western Pacific's Mariana Trench in a one-person submarine, underwater adventurer Victor Vescovo found what may be newly discovered species of marine life along with candy wrappers and a plastic bag. This is the third plastic bag that divers have found in the Mariana Trench, considered the deepest natural trench on Earth. From National Geographic:A study released in October 2018 documented what is still the deepest known piece of plastic—a flimsy shopping bag—found at a depth of 36,000 feet inside the Mariana Trench....Single-use plastics are virtually everywhere, and they may take hundreds of years or more to break down once in the wild. The Mariana Trench has higher levels of overall pollution in certain regions than some of the most polluted rivers in China, according to a study in February 2017. The study's authors theorized that the chemical pollutants in the trench may have come in part from the breakdown of plastic in the water column. Read the rest

Susie Lu is a senior data visualization engineer at Netflix. She wanted to make a better grocery store receipt so she bought a thermal printer and went to work designing an infographic style receipt that is legible on the printer's crappy resolution. Her design makes it easy to see what categories of food you spent the most and least on and the relative price of individual products.Early prototypes of reviziting the receipt, one piece of a larger question I want explore: how can viz be integrated into everyday experiences? pic.twitter.com/hswtVFp0oc— Susie Lu (@DataToViz) May 4, 2019[via Fast Company]Image: Twitter Read the rest

This pencil pouch has over 35 times the legal limit of lead, 29 times the legal limit of cadmium.

I'm headed to Maker Faire in San Mateo, California (Friday, May 17 – Sunday, May 19) again this year, and one of the things I'm excited to check out is Matt Sengbusch's tiny arcade games that use the original boards and CRTs.From Small Change Arcade: "Each game is meticulously scaled to match the original. Custom built in the Haight, San Francisco. All games run on original licensed circuit boards, no emulators or multi-game bootleg boards. No LCDs are used either. Each game has a custom built or difficult to source CRT monitor that accept proper 15khz RGB video signal." Read the rest

I'm one of the guests of honor at this weekend's Comicpalooza festival in Houston, Texas: in addition to my keynote and signing, you can catch me at panels on copyright, robots and AI, cyberpunk, copyright (again!). Read the rest

An adversarial preturbation is a small, human-imperceptible change to a piece of data that flummoxes an otherwise well-behaved machine learning classifier: for example, there's a really accurate ML model that guesses which full-sized image corresponds to a small thumbnail, but if you change just one pixel in the thumbnail, the classifier stops working almost entirely.In a new paper by a group of MIT computer scientists, the authors posit a general theory for why these adversarial examples exist, and how to create or prevent vulnerabilities to them in machine learning classifiers. The authors propose that adversarial examples are the result of machine classifiers picking up on "non-robust" elements of their training data and incorporating it into their model (if you were training a model to tell men from women and all the women were photographed on a light background, the classifier might assign a high probability for "woman" on any image with a light background).Since these spurious correlates are present in every training dataset, using different algorithms to create models from the same data will often produce a vulnerability to the same adversarial examples. The authors propose a method (whose math I have to admit I could not follow) for determining which files in a dataset have robust characteristics and which ones have "non-robust" (spurious) characteristics. Then they show that they can split up a dataset into a set that can be used to train classifiers that are much harder to fool, and classifiers that are much more vulnerable to adversarial example attacks. Read the rest

The Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska is only about 50 miles. It would be very expensive to build a bridge across the Bering Strait, even thought there are a couple of islands in the middle (the Doimedes), which would take the price of construction down to about $105 billion (5 times the price of the English Channel tunnel). If such a bridge were built, you could drive from Los Angeles to Paris (or even Miami to Capetown). But this video gives all the reasons why this bridge will probably never be built. Read the rest

The Anker 26800 Powercore+ PD is the USB battery I have chosen for a summer of heavy travel in a camper van. It is one heck of a USB battery pack.I wanted to be sure I could spend 4-5 days without needing to find an AC power outlet. I am going to be camping with my two dogs and 12-year-old child all summer! Cameras, phones, tablets, laptops and the Nintendo Switch are all going to need charging up. I have a great solar system for feeding my refrigerator, which in turn feeds us, but the other electronics have to fend for themselves.I have several smaller batteries that are great for motorcycle trips and can keep my phone and camera charged up, but they lack the oomph for charging things like a Nintendo Switch. I wanted a battery that would be able to charge the Switch while I played on it, as my daughter will likely drain the battery before her bedtime. I wanted the same sort of punch for my tablet as well, knowing that she'll likely kill the battery on that watching TV as we drive during the day.Vanagons are slow and you have to keep the kid (and me) entertained.Anyways, the Anker PowerCore+ PD comes with USB 2.0 and USB-C ports, all of which charge at just about their max. The USB 2.0 ports charge at a super 5V/3A, and the USB-C with "Power Delivery" can charge at a full 30W. This will charge a Nintendo Switch as just about the same speed as the Nintendo supplied wall wart plugged into an outlet. Read the rest

At the Madeira Municipal Building in Ohio, a high school student's artwork depicting a pig in a police uniform was taken down by the organizers of an annual student art show. In the artwork, the pig is standing in front of collaged newspaper headlines about police using deadly force. Guess what? People complained.The unnamed student created the artwork as a response to the following assignment:“Take current event articles published in newspapers or magazines on a similar topic and then summarize those articles into a visual representation of the feelings and emotions within the articles selected.”The Madeira Police Department would not confirm or deny whether they asked for the painting to be removed. From WCPO:“The members of the Madeira Police Department fully respect and support the student’s right to free speech and recognize that this young artist is very talented,” (a police) statement reads. “However, officers are troubled by the perceived message of the student’s art project.”So was Lt. Dan Hils, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police and a frequent defender of Cincinnati officers whose use of force becomes the subject of public discussion. On Monday night, Hils said he was saddened by the piece but would not have asked for it to be removed.“For me, the word I think of is just a little disappointed — disappointed that there is youth that believe that of police officers,” he said, adding: “It’s a beautiful thing our country has — the ability for people to express how they feel and this young person was expressing how they feel. Read the rest

Apple bought between 20 and 25 companies in the past six months, according to CEO Tim Cook, who also said that this was business as usual for the company.Growing by acquiring nascent competitors was the kind of tactic that antitrust regulators strictly limited...until the Reagan years, when a fringe economist (and Nixon-abetting failed Supreme Court nominee) named Robert Bork began a very well-funded campaign to push a fanciful (and fabricated) version of the legislative history of US antitrust laws like the Sherman Act, insisting that these laws were not meant to prevent monopolies. Instead, Bork argued that the purpose of antitrust was to prevent "consumer harm" in the form of higher prices. The result has been 40 years of mergers and acquisitions that have led to monopolies in every sector, from internet companies to pro wrestling.Apple, of course, launched the first successful home computer -- the Apple ][+ -- while Reagan was on the campaign trail, and the tech industry grew up just as antitrust enforcement was shrinking, making it patient zero in the epidemic of monopolization.Apple's strategy of buying up nascent potential competitors before they can grow too big to threaten it is by no means unique to the company -- every tech giant is on an acquisition spree, though often the companies they acquire are subsequently run into the ground, because of "diseconomies of scale." But since the value of acquisitions isn't merely to grow (it's also to prevent other companies from growing to challenge yours), there's still a silver lining for the acquirer. Read the rest

A new version of Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections has just been made public in response to a BuzzFeed News lawsuit.PDF Links, 5/6/2019 edition:VOLUME 1 | VOLUME 2 This new version of the Mueller report was released by the Department of Justice on Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and a followup lawsuit filed by BuzzFeed News and separately by the Electronic Privacy and Information Center (EPIC.org). The new version helps to explain “why significant portions of the 448-page document were redacted before it was released to the public earlier this month,” write BuzzFeed News reporters Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier.Excerpt:The copy of Mueller’s report that Attorney General William Barr released earlier this month contained redactions that were labeled according to one of four categories: harm to ongoing matter, meaning investigations that are still ongoing; grand jury material, which is secret under federal rules and exempt from disclosure; classified information; and personal privacy.Before the report was released, BuzzFeed News filed its public records request, as well as the related lawsuit, to compel the Department of Justice to explain any redactions in accordance with FOIA's nine exemptions. Each of those exemptions spell out the type of information the government can withhold and the harm that would result if it was disclosed.Earlier this month, during a hearing in the case, US District Judge Reggie Walton said Barr had “created an environment that has caused a significant part of the American public to be concerned about whether there will be full transparency."Walton, who made those comments before the report was publicly released, told the government attorney he may want to review an unredacted copy of the report to better understand the reasons for the redactions. Read the rest

After talking to people who have home urinals, Brian VanHooker of Mel Magazine says he is "now convinced that a urinal is the greatest possible fixture you could ever add to your home."I found Curt Slater by searching #homeurinal on Twitter (a friend of Curt’s had marveled at his home urinal so much that he just had to tweet about it). When I reach out, he was happy to share that he’d been inspired by a urinal in a friend’s basement, so when it came time to redo his own basement, he knew he needed a urinal for himself.“My philosophy with my basement was that I always wanted a cabin on the lake, but I knew I’d never be able to afford it, so I built my cabin in my basement,” says Curt. “When we were designing it, my wife and I each had our list of things we wanted, like she wanted the river rock by the fireplace and a double sectional couch; I said I wanted a urinal, so I got that and she got something that she wanted. Honestly, it’s the best move I ever made.Image: Instagram Read the rest

ICD-10 is a standard that defines 70,000+ codes for standardizing the reporting of injuries and diseases, and it is terrifyingly comprehensive: if V95.4 ("Unspecified spacecraft accident injuring occupant") isn't enough, how about V97.33XA ("Sucked into jet engine, initial encounter") and for bisto, V97.33XD ("Sucked into jet engine, subsequent encounter").John D Cook has more: Y92.146 ("injuries in a prison swimming pool") and Y92.253 ("injuries sustained at the opera").I understand that the circumstance of a diagnosis is not recorded strictly for medical reasons. But while 70,000 is an unwieldy large set of codes, it’s kinda small when it has to account for both malady and circumstance. Surely there are 70,000 circumstances alone that are more common than being in a spacecraft, for instance.Rare and strange ICD-10 codes [John D Cook](via Four Short Links Read the rest

China is undergoing the largest real-estate bubble in history, and things keep getting weirder and weirder, with the specter of a burst bubble looming overall.The Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reports that 25,000,000 rural homes are sitting vacant, accounting for 10.7% of the country's rural housing stock. Local governments have exacerbated the problem by banning the private sales of rural houses and subsidizing the purchase of urban homes.The lofty figure is based on a study published Sunday by the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which sampled 140 rural villages in the country to estimate that, nationwide, 10.7% of homes are vacant in such areas. The occupancy issue, according to the study, stems in part from the long-term absence of migrant laborers, who leave their hometowns to pursue employment elsewhere.25 Million Homes Vacant in Rural China Due to Migrant Workforce [Sixth Tone](via Naked Capitalism)(Image: Graeme Maclean, CC-BY) Read the rest

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was sentenced Wednesday to 50 weeks in jail for skipping bail. Assange took refuge in London's Ecuadorean embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over two alleged sexual assaults, but was finally handed to the police earlier this month.Sentencing him, Judge Deborah Taylor told Assange it was difficult to envisage a more serious example of the offence."By hiding in the embassy you deliberately put yourself out of reach, while remaining in the UK," she said.She said this had "undoubtedly" affected the progress of the Swedish proceedings.His continued residence at the embassy and bringing him to justice had cost taxpayers £16m, she added.Assange apologized thus:I apologise unreservedly to those who consider that I have disrespected them by the way I have pursued my case.This is not what I wanted or intended.I found myself struggling with terrifying circumstances for which neither I nor those from whom I sought advice could work out any remedy.I did what I thought at the time was the best and perhaps the only thing that could be done - which I hoped might lead to a legal resolution being reached between Ecuador and Sweden that would protect me from the worst of my fears.I regret the course that this took; the difficulties were instead compounded and impacted upon very many others.Whilst the difficulties I now face may have become even greater, nevertheless it is right for me to say this now. Read the rest

Looks like they're gonna need a stronger download connection for this cat.[via] Read the rest

Director Harmony Korine’s newest feature, The Beach Bum, seems the likely follow-up to his 2013 candy-coated crime caper Spring Breakers. Substitute your Vanessa Hudgens for Zac Efron and your James Franco for Matthew McConaughey and the casting decisions to break away from type seem borderline formulaic. Tonally, the films are similar, with wandering, boozy shots and dialogue seemingly lifted right from your acid casualty neighbor and color cues taken from him as well.Where Beach Bum diverges, however, is in substance. While leisure and pleasure seem the ultimate goal of both McConaughey’s Moondog and the girls of Breakers, the method of getting there differs wildly. Crime sprees and social climbing are the girls' preferred method. Laying back and taking the world in one toke at a time is Moondog’s. While heavy smoking and sleeping around might seem like a philosophically void path to enlightenment, it’s really the only way there in an America who’s ethos is to constantly tell you to want more, buy more, be more.Every Hollywood movie builds up this idea, from foundational kids' animation to aspirational teen drama to middle-aged career comedy and beyond. And what better way to respond to that constant pressure than to do and be nothing at all? Sure, Moondog has written fairly successful poetry and given the odd public speech, but the practice he preaches is the one he lives, a sort of contagious cosmic hedonism. Partying with him will leave you a happier, more content person, even if you happen to lose a foot, a husband or a few million dollars in the process. Read the rest

An archaeologist analyzing a pile of prehistoric human poop found the remains of an entire viper, including a fang. Researcher Elanor Sonderman was studying the indigenous people who, 1500 years ago, used a cave in Texas's Lower Pecos canyonlands as a shelter and bathroom. One way archaeologists learn about a long-gone civilization's diet and health is to dig into their coprolites (preserved feces). According to Sonderman, the snake wasn't cooked, descaled, deboned, or apparently defanged before it was eaten. WTF? One theory is that the eater was tripping on peyote. From National Geographic:Though Sonderman’s research team proposes that the snake was eaten for “a distinctly ceremonial or ritualistic purpose,” there’s no way to tell for sure. “I wouldn't want anyone to say ‘We have a snake worshipping culture where people consume snakes ritualistically,’” says Sonderman. “That’s not what we’re trying to say. It’s only one example.”What the fang does suggest, she says, is that it wasn’t unheard of for people to eat venomous snakes—but, given its uniqueness, it could have been consumed on a special occasion. Or not. Maybe it was just a dare—or a very dangerous dietary preference."1,500 years ago, someone ate a venomous snake whole. Why?" (National Geographic) Read the rest

In MAD #7, illustrator Drew Friedman has a fantastic portrait of the great science fiction illustrator, Frank "Kelly" Freas, along with a short essay about seeing a copy of the paperback Son of MAD (with a Freas cover) as a kid. Beginning in the late 1950s, the renowned illustrator Frank “Kelly" Freas was hired by MAD to be their cover artist. His vivid cover for the 1959 paperback Son of MAD is the first MAD image I remember seeing, and it remains, to this day, my favorite cover. The abject fear in the poor gorilla's face, the terrified-yet-nuanced pose of his body, the curled toes -- all as he’s encountering the infant Alfred E. Neuman as seen from behind. Pure visual perfection!The cover is memorable to me for another reason. In the Beatles' first film A Hard Day's Night, the character Shake is briefly seen reading Son of MAD in the opening train scene. Two towering icons forever converged in that moment, the Beatles and MAD! When I first watched that scene, I was so thrilled my head (almost) exploded.The moment I discovered that cover at age 5, my life changed. From then on, I was a Son of MAD. Not only did it lead me to becoming an obsessive MAD fan, but it spurred my mission to someday join the “Usual Gang of Idiots," something I later (amazingly) achieved.Here’s my take on that life-altering piece.Drew's story and illustration page was art directed by Suzy Hutchinson, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of MAD. Read the rest

Joe Biden, a colossal asshole, wants to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2020 and in the most on-brand move ever, he's launched his campaign with a fundraiser hosted by the chief lobbyist for Comcast, the most hated company in America. (Image: Ildar Sagdejev, CC-BY-SA) Read the rest

Arend Smith -- AKA Ravendark Creations -- is an Etsy seller who sculpts beautiful monsters in a variety of materials, ranging from the Snailien (3.75" x 4.25" x 7", resin, $150) to the Miskatonic Bookworm (6.5" x 6" x 11"; resin, chicken quills, epoxy, many finishes available, $275) which is also available as a Chrysalis (9.75" x 4.5" x 4.75", custom finishes available, $150); to massive custom piece like this massive apoxie/bronze/iron octopus (6" - 10'!) -- or a wonderfully/horribly squishy Silicone Cthulhu Octopus Lovecraft Pet (5" x 2", $50, many finishes available).Snailien:Miskatonic Bookworm:Miskatonic Bookworm Chrysalis:Custom octopus:Silicone Cthulhu Octopus Lovecraft Pet:(via Creepbay) Read the rest

Kaitlyn Reed created a Twitter thread of videos of (mostly Chinese) workers performing manual tasks with incredible acrobaticism, dexterity and flair; the videos were ganked from Tiktok, the massively popular China-based video platform that is mostly know in the west as a place where tweens make and share elaborately choreographic lipsync videos augmented with a suite of skillfully applied video effects.As one reply points out, much of this work is brutal piecework performed by badly exploited laborers; nevertheless, the videos are testament to the human capacity to find joy and mastery even under conditions of drudgery.I've embedded the whole thread below, but here are my favorites:Dancing noodle-tosser:pic.twitter.com/fe6lNLCiT2— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 18, 2019Robot apocalypse?pic.twitter.com/MwuH0uLWhZ— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 18, 2019Fritter virtuoso:pic.twitter.com/udRwM6D6pg— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 20, 2019Bollard-leverer:pic.twitter.com/DKnK7Dibst— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 22, 2019One of my favorite things about @tiktok_us is when people share videos of their jobs. So here’s a thread of some of the most unique jobs & talented people I’ve discovered on #tiktok pic.twitter.com/IhCkC0v6ED— Kaitlyn Reed (@kkaitlynreedd) April 18, 2019(via Kottke) Read the rest

Happy DNA Day! April 25 is a day to recognize deoxyribonucleic acid - better known as the molecule that holds the code to our entire genetic makeup. What better way to celebrate than with a complete ancestry test that's about more than just satisfying idle curiosity about your family tree? The lab techs at Vitagene use DNA to tell you about your lineage, but they also use that data to tailor a complete wellness plan that's specific to your body.When you get a Vitagene DNA kit, take a simple cheek swab and return it in one of their included vials. After a thorough analysis, you'll get back the most detailed ancestry report you could hope for - not to mention the most practical. With the Vitagene DNA Ancestry Test Kit & Personalized Health Plan, you'll understand your ancestry visually with a map that breaks down ethnic and regional percentages. You'll also get a complete health plan that tells you what food choices are the best for your body, and any gluten sensitivity you're likely to have. Vitagene will tell you the type and frequency of workouts that are best for you and suggest supplements to enhance your regimen.For a small upgrade, the Vitagene Premium Health DNA Kit gives you all that info plus your genetic risk for certain skin conditions, and updates to your profile as new genetic research affects it.Both kits are on sale, with the Vitagene DNA Ancestry Test Kit 20% off at $79 and the Vitagene Premium Health DNA Kit priced 28% off at $99. Read the rest

Amazon is having a sale on tabletop games today, and the one I recommend is the highly rated Pandemic, a cooperative game for 2-4 players.Game description:Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out. Players must work together playing to their characters' strengths and planning their strategy of eradication before the diseases overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. For example, the Operation Specialist can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5. But the diseases are out breaking fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while also towards cures. A truly cooperative game where you all win or you all lose. Read the rest

Practical Engineering is a video series that clearly and entertainingly explains how public infrastructure works - dams, water towers, bridges, reservoirs, and so on. Above: how water towers work.[via Doobybrain] Read the rest

There are an estimated 129 million tiny bits of debris floating in orbit that, due to their high velocity, can cause catastrophic damage to space vehicles and satellites. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers are developing a compact orbiting device to semi-autonomously seek out the debris and catch it in a net. Designed as a system of CubeSats, each just 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm, the trash collector, called OSCaR (Obsolete Spacecraft Capture and Removal), will collect the tiny pieces of junk until it's full and then deorbit itself to burn up in the atmosphere. From RPI:One of (the three) CubeSat units (in each complete system) will house the “brains” of OSCaR including GPS, data storage, and communication, as well as the power and thermal management systems. Another will hold propellant and the system’s propulsion module to drive OSCaR forward. The third unit will contain four gun barrels, nets, and tethers to physically capture debris, one piece at a time. This capture module will also have optical, thermal, and RADAR imaging sensors to help OSCaR locate debris in the vastness of its surrounding space...“There’s an informal agreement that’s been in place for a few years that people who put space objects up there should be practicing good citizenship,” (Rensselaer engineering professor Kurt) Anderson said. “We envision a day where we could send up an entire flock, or squadron, of OSCaRs to work jointly going after large collections of debris.” Read the rest

Neuhaus.world is a music video for Rotterdam artist Jo Goes Hunting in which the hyperdelic landscape in the video is generated by photos contributed by visitors to the site. "The video is made by Moniker in conjunction with Neuhaus, a temporary academy for more-than-human knowledge at Het Nieuwe Instituut."Neuhaus.world (via Waxy) Read the rest

The Boom Bow is currently my favorite weapon in Fortnite Battle Royale. Firing shotgun shell laden arrows, this gold weapon hits hard and is hard to track. Read the rest

Are you ready for 'Avengers: Endgame' to hit movie theaters this weekend?TheFlippist created this amazing flipbook devoted to the superhero film's imminent release.It's “Ant Man doing his expanding thang in Thanos.” Says TheFlippist, “I’m no Avengers scholar so just assuming Thanos has purple insides.”And below, here's the official trailer for Marvel Studios' AVENGERS: ENDGAME.In theaters April 26. Read the rest

Andrew Paul Joyce: "I made a composite image of all the white men running for president polling at 1% or below. Please be nice to him. He is my son."cf. Pedigree collapse. Read the rest

Cesar Sayoc, the man who pleaded guilty to mailing explosives to Trump critics and the press, says in a new letter that he "was on the front lines of war between right & left."