Set aside your feeble 3D printers, meatbags. The Grind Master demonstrates the supremacy of fully-automated robot milling of stone, wood and other sculptural materials. Here the Buddha's head is sculpted from foam:Previously: Epic glove ad explains benefits of gloves Read the rest

Whether you already have hearing loss or want to save what you have, it's time to look into bone conduction earphones. Well, guess what! These True Wireless Bone Conduction Earphones are on sale and a great introduction to the tech.If you're not familiar with bone conduction, you'll notice something different about these otherwise minimalist gadgets: No earbud. That's because the headphones sit outside of the ear, transmitting sound through the bones of the skull in a way that completely bypasses the eardrum while still delivering crisp stereo sound. Lightweight and unobtrusive, they're also equipped with 4.2 Bluetooth wireless technology and a one-touch home button that lets you answer calls or switch music tracks quickly and easily. They juice up in just two hours and can last up to 10 hours on a single charge, making them your new traveling companion no matter where you need sound.Pick up the True Wireless Bone Conduction Earphones today at a 20% discounted price of $39.99. Read the rest

Britain, like most of western Christendom, celebrates Christmas with ornamented trees. The British mark Remebrance Day for World War I on November 11 by wearing paper poppies. A shopping mall in Salisbury, England, has ingeniously combined the two events by making a giant Christmas tree out of paper poppies. One tweet described the red tree as an oddity, saying: "Christmas and Remembrance Sunday, together at last in one oddly conceived package."Another comment described it as "tasteless", while a further tweet said it was "disrespectful". But the Royal British Legion said it was "grateful to all individuals, as well as any shops, pubs and other commercial enterprises, which choose to show their support for the Armed Forces Community".There's something about the way monumental paganism remains an emergent property of the British condition, even (especially) when it's trying to do blithely inoffensive corporate promotional material. MARKETING CONSULTANT: George, something's come up about the sign by the poppy tree. It's Selfridges. They object to some of the text.GEORGE: What now?CONSULTANT: It's the line that reads "KNEEL BEFORE THE BLOOD TREE! FUCK BEFORE THE BLOOD GOD!" They're wondering if it could say "copulate" or "make love" instead of "fuck". GEORGE: (sighs angrily) There's always something. Read the rest

The U.S. Marine Corps is looking into allegations that one of its pilots drew a giant invisible dick in the sky, angering people who don't like giant invisible dicks.From USA Today:Maj. Josef Patterson, spokesman for 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, told the Marine Corps Times that the aircraft in question belongs to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101. Patterson could not say whether the pilot was an instructor or in training."Obscene or inappropriate actions, flight or not, do not reflect the core values we hold as Marines," Patterson told NBC 7 San Diego. Somebody needs to have a word with the crew of US Navy T-34C 160937 SHUTR91 out of MCAS Miramar 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/WgrgkKzRln— Aircraft Spots (@AircraftSpots) October 23, 2018 Read the rest

You know those super real-looking food samples on display – sampuru – in front of restaurants all over Japan? Now, imagine a mashup between those and your phone case. Here's Rakuten's nice line up of delicious-looking coverings for your phone. There is everything from sushi to pizza toast to curry and tacos, from bacon and eggs to shrimp tempura, and so much more. You can also set your phone into a stand shaped like a small bowl of ramen.If you would rather keep your old case but still want to be in on the food fun, watch this video till the end. Read the rest

To Whom It May Concern:I write today on behalf of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to raise urgent issues related to Articles 11 and 13 of the upcoming Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, currently under discussion in the Trilogues.The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. We work to ensure that rights and freedoms are enhanced and protected as our use of technology grows. We are supported by over 37,000 donating members around the world, including around three thousand within the European Union.We believe that Articles 11 and 13 are ill-considered and should not be EU law, but even stipulating that systems like the ones contemplated by Articles 11 and 13 are desirable, the proposed text of the articles in both the Parliament and Council texts contain significant deficiencies that will subvert their stated purpose while endangering the fundamental human rights of Europeans to free expression, due process, and privacy.It is our hope that the detailed enumeration of these flaws, below, will cause you to reconsider Articles 11 and 13's inclusion in the Directive altogether, but even in the unfortunate event that Articles 11 and 13 appear in the final language that is presented to the Plenary, we hope that you will take steps to mitigate these risks, which will substantially affect the transposition of the Directive in member states, and its resilience to challenges in the European courts . Read the rest

The latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has proven a sumbitch to contain. Since this latest "oh shit" moment in the history of this infectious outbreak started on August 1st, the brave healthcare professionals and epidemiologists throwing their shoulders into the problem have reported 200 total cases of the disease, 117 confirmed Ebola-related deaths and 35 deaths that are probably related to the illness. This latest outbreak, the 10th to have cropped up in Congo since 1976, is proving more difficult, logistically, than past outbreaks have been. The epicenter of the outbreak is in North Kivu Province: chockablock with danger as government forces, local militias and regional warlords get their violence on. This makes getting folks in the region to the care that they need and, just as vital, containing the disease, far more difficult than it already is. From The New York Times:Congolese rebels have killed 15 civilians and abducted a dozen children in an attack in the center of the latest outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, Congo’s military said Sunday. The violence threatened to again force the suspension of efforts to contain the virus.Congo’s health ministry has reported “numerous aggressions” in the new outbreak against health workers, who have described hearing gunshots daily. Many are operating under the armed escort of United Nations peacekeepers or Congolese security forces, and ending work by sundown to lower the risk of attack.The World Health Organization hasn't classified the outbreak as a world health emergency, yet. Read the rest

Despite an uprising of Amazon employees over the use of the company's AI facial recognition program ("Rekognition") in law enforcement, the company is actively courting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the hopes that it will use the wildly inaccurate technology.Thanks to work by McKinsney, ICE and Amazon's sales team met over the summer to discuss how Amazon's facial recognition could help the agency, which has cemented its reputation for performative xenophobic cruelty with a program of stealing babies from immigrant parents, dooming thousands of babies and children to never see their parents again.ICE could use facial recognition as part of its illegal surveillance of medical facilities and houses of worship.Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently described his pro-immigration views ("I’d let them in if it was me, I like ‘em, I want all of them in"). In an email to ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office dated June 15, 2018, an Amazon “sales principal” described the meeting and spelled out follow-up “action items.” One was setting up a tech briefing for ICE officials about tools including the tagging and analysis capabilities of Amazon’s real-time facial matching system, dubbed “Rekognition.”“Thanks again for your interest in AWS [Amazon Web Service] to support ICE and the HSI mission,” the Amazon salesperson wrote.The email lists “actions items from our conversation,” starting with an “Innovation Workshop focused on a big HSI problem,” but does not describe the problem. Regarding that problem, the Amazon employee wrote, “I would be happy to arrange for a 1 day workshop. Read the rest

Today on ABC's The View, Senator Jeff Flake admits that he doesn't know if Brett Kavanaugh, accused by three women of sexual assault, was telling the truth or not during his hearing before being confirmed to the Supreme Court. It was Flake who had requested a delay in the confirmation process to make room for a week-long FBI-investigation into the sexual assault accusations against Kavanaugh. At about 5:20 in the video, he's asked if he believed Ford, and he answers, "She was very compelling. He was very persuasive. I don't know. I don't know. I wish I had the certitude that some of my colleagues expressed. But I said on the floor before that hearing, we’re likely to hear the hearing with as much doubt as certainty. And that’s how I felt afterwards.”Later, at 6:15, he's asked again, "So you didn't believe her?" And he answers, "I don't know. I don't know if I believed him, either."Via Daily Beast Read the rest

I love the ink in the Uni-Ball Signo Gel Pen. It's stark, smooth, and pure. If you've not tried one yet, you're in for a treat. Amazon has them on sale right now - a 3-pack for $3.72. Read the rest

Why did early humans form their tools into teardrop shapes? Why do so many human-made things have proportions that match the Golden Ratio? Why is symmetry appealing? Why is human made abstract art preferred over procedurally generated art? This new video by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell explains that humans like the way certain things look because they are tied in some way to our survival.This explains why I like visiting r/cozyplaces. Read the rest

A man couldn't resist the urge to climb Len Lye's "Water Whirler" sculpture in Wellington, New Zealand earlier this month. To his surprise, the $1 million artwork snapped. In a final act of resistentialism, the sculpture fell on the man while he was in the water, and he was sent to the hospital.From The New Zealand Herald:Roger Horrocks, a trustee of The Len Lye Foundation and author of Len Lye's biography, said it was not the first time the iconic sculpture had been damaged.The foundation had no uptake when it previously recommended Wellington City Council block access to the sculpture. He hoped it would now reconsider."A sculpture like that has to be proofed against idiots - total idiots who want to destroy it."Image: YouTube screenshot Read the rest

If you're shopping for a camping lantern, you're looking for reliability, period. So it's nice to find something like the Revogi Convertible LED Lantern that jumps over that low bar and actually offers some versatility.Made of simple materials, the Revogi is high-tech in a refreshingly minimalist, eight-ounce package. Yes, it'll light up the campsite and then some with 25 LED bulbs delivering up to 2.5 watts, and it can do it for up to six hours on a charge at the highest of its three brightness settings. But it's also collapsible, which allows not only for added portability but functionality. Fold it out and it's a lantern, collapse it and it's a powerful spotlight. Thanks to the sleek design, it can even serve as an indoor lamp.In short, it can go just about anywhere. The Revogi Convertible LED Lantern is $32.99 now - 17% off the original MSRP. Read the rest

I learned about a phone service called Twilio from reading this Lifehacker article. The article is mainly about how to set up a phone number that makes calls "disappear into the ether, never reaching me, never bouncing back, but disappearing like a stone tossed into the fog." I'm not sure why just making up a random number wouldn't be the easiest thing to do if that's your goal, but Twilio sounds useful if you need a way to receive voicemail from certain people without having to hear your regular phone ring. One cool thing about Twilio is the way you can create a computer-voice announcement just by writing the words you want it to say:But here’s the fun part. When you click on your phone number’s settings on the Twilio dashboard, you can tell the service what it should do when somebody calls or texts the number. By default, it reads a little message (saying that you haven’t set up the number, or something). So I copied that message, and altered it so it sounded like a full voicemail box. Here’s my script:You have reached. 5 5 5. 5 5 5. 1 2 1 2. Please leave a message after the tone. This mailbox is full. Image: By takayuki/Shutterstock Read the rest

On September 12th, GM's director of global digital transformation Saejin Park gave a presentation to the Association of National Advertisers in which he described how the company had secretly gathered data on the radio-listening habits of 90,000 GM owners in LA and Chicago for three months in 2017, tracking what stations they listened to and for how long, and where they were at the time; this data was covertly exfiltrated from the cars by means of their built-in wifi.The company says it never sold this data, but the presentation to the advertising execs was clearly designed to elicit bids for it. Toyota has promised not to gather and sell telematics data, but GM seems poised to create a market in data gathered by your car, which can listen to you, follow you, take pictures of you and your surroundings, and even gather data on which passengers are in the car at different times by tracking Bluetooth beacons from mobile devices.Saejin Park, GM's director of global digital transformation, the report said, explained that by matching audio feeds from AM, FM, and digitally driven XM radio,GM plans to study the alignment between radio cues and consumer behavior."We sampled (the behavior) every minute just because we could," Park explained.The report said GM considered station selection, volume and ZIP codes of vehicle owners. Here's what GM learned, according to Park:The owner of a Cadillac Escalade large SUV might be more inclined to listen to a radio station that is different from someone driving a GMC Yukon, even though that also is a large SUV. Read the rest

A new generation of commercial trackers from companies like Adjust, AppsFlyer, MoEngage, Localytics, and CleverTap allow app makers like Bloomberg, T-Mobile US, Spotify Technology, and Yelp to covertly track when you've uninstalled apps: the trackers send periodic "silent notifications" to the apps you've installed, and if the apps are still installed, they ping the trackers' servers. If they don't hear back from you, they assume you've uninstalled the apps.The trackers are billed as a means for app vendors to understand whether sending an update triggers its users to delete the app. This use of trackers violates both Google and Apple's terms of service.At its best, uninstall tracking can be used to fix bugs or otherwise refine apps without having to bother users with surveys or more intrusive tools. But the ability to abuse the system beyond its original intent exemplifies the bind that accompanies the modern internet, says Gillula. To participate, users must typically agree to share their data freely, probably forever, not knowing exactly how it may be used down the road. “As an app developer, I would expect to be able to know how many people have uninstalled an app,” he says. “I would not say that, as an app developer, you have a right to know exactly who installed and uninstalled your app.”Now Apps Can Track You Even After You Uninstall Them [Gerrit De Vynck/Bloomberg](via /.) Read the rest

Richard Stallman's new GNU Kind Communications Guidelines are a brief set of guidelines for being "kind" in your interactions in free software communities, with the explicit goals of ensuring participation from "anyone who wishes to advance the development of the GNU system, regardless of gender, race, religion, cultural background, and any other demographic characteristics, as well as personal political views."It's similar to other codes of conduct that have started to become the norm in tech circles, but with some free software-specific clauses ("be kind when pointing out to other contributors that they should stop using certain nonfree software. For their own sake, they ought to free themselves, but we welcome their contributions to our software packages even if they don't do that. So these reminders should be gentle and not too frequent—don't nag"). The guidelines do say that suggesting "that others use nonfree software" is "not allowed," and set out the two non-negotiable political principles necessary for GNU contributors: "(1) that users should have control of their own computing (for instance, through free software) and (2) supporting basic human rights in computing. We don't require you as a contributor to agree with these two points, but you do need to accept that our decisions will be based on them."Please respond to what people actually said, not to exaggerations of their views. Your criticism will not be constructive if it is aimed at a target other than their real views.If in a discussion someone brings up a tangent to the topic at hand, please keep the discussion on track by focusing on the current topic rather than the tangent. Read the rest

In 1969, Capitol Records released this incredible double LP set (and double 8-track tape) from Vincent Price titled "Witchcraft-Magic: An Adventure in Demonology." Hear the whole thing above. The nearly two hours of spoken word includes sections on the history and culture of "witchcraft" and helpful guides such as "How To Invoke Spirits, Demons, Unseen Forces" and "How To Make A Pact With The Devil." I certainly wouldn't vouch for the factual accuracy or research rigor of the material, but hearing horror icon Price's silky narration about such topics as necromancy and the "Witches Sabbat" is a joy. Read the rest

Fold N Fly is a visual database of paper airplane designs, sortable by aerodynamic properties (distance, airtime, etc), and difficulty of folding. Some pretty exotic designs, too! (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) Read the rest

WhatsApp, the messaging application business owned by Facebook, said on Friday it is “taking immediate legal action” against companies responsible for a flood of political spam ahead of Brazil's presidential elections. Campaign propaganda has flooded social media in Brazil ahead of an Oct. 28 run-off vote in the presidential election.Brazil's Folha (in Portuguese) is the best primary news source on this story. WhatsApp's legal action today immediately follows a Folha report a couple of days ago that various companies (funding sources) linked to the extreme-right-wing frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro paid social media firms to send hundreds of millions of messages to Brazilian voters' phones that attacked Bolsonaro’s rival, former São Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad.Here's a machine translation of Folha's late-Friday update:One day after Folha published a report showing that companies are funding political message campaign as mass-messages (Spam) on WhatsApp, the company sent out legal notices to Quickmobile, Yacows, Croc services and SMS Market agencies to stop their activities. And in related reporting at Quartz by Luiz Romero, a bombshell report in Brazil linked fake political disinfo on WhatsApp to Brazil’s presidential frontrunner. In other words, just like Trump in the USA in 2016.An exposé by Brazil’s largest newspaper could dramatically change the South American country’s already volatile presidential election.Folha reported that firms linked to far-right frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro have hired social media companies to send hundreds of millions of messages to voters attacking Bolsonaro’s rival, former São Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, and his Workers’ Party. Read the rest

Three brothers flying from Bangkok to Dubai on Emirates were robbed of $2,600 during their flight. They had left their seats to help their father, also a passenger, who had become ill on the flight. When they returned to their seats, they noticed that someone had cleaned out their wallets.According to The Nation:After they informed the flight crew of the incident, a stewardess brought them to the first class kitchen. There, she took pictures of the remaining cash they had since these had the same serial numbers as those stolen.After landing, police searched the airplane, and the men’s baggage and wallets were taken for inspection. They were instructed not to touch their belongings. Eventually, police were able to match a fingerprint from a bill in a wallet with that of the steward’s.Turns out, the 37-year-old flight attendant had stolen the money, bought a $272 bottle of duty-free perfume during the flight, and then, when he realized the jig was up, tried flushing the money down a toilet before the plane landed. Needless to say, he was arrested. Getting robbed on a plane isn't uncommon. Make sure to keep an eye (or your ass, if you're sleeping) on anything valuable while you fly. Image: Max Pixel Read the rest

SOPA has come to Australia: under Communications minister Senator Mitch Fifield's Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2018, rightsholders will be able to tell search engines which results they are allowed to show users, and will expand the country's censorship system ("copyright blocking orders") by allowing rightsholders to have any website censored by claiming it is a "mirror" of an already-blocked site, without having to show evidence for their claims.Two major media companies -- Foxtel and Village Roadshow -- are behind the measure. They are already the major users of Australia's copyright censorship system.Currently, if a copyright owner wants to block a new mirror or proxy site, under the current rules it is subject to judicial oversight. One of the early points of conflict between rights holders and telcos was over the issue of a “rolling injunction” to deal with new avenues of access to sites. The court rejected a push to allow rights holders to have ISPs block additional domains, URLs or IP addresses simply by issuing a notice to a telco already subject to an injunction.Fifield’s statement hints that the government will allow copyright owners to avoid returning to court if they want to block new proxies and mirrors. Entertainment companies have indicated they are keen to find ways to minimise the court costs associated with anti-piracy injunctions.New anti-piracy laws to target search engines [Rohan Pearce/Computerworld] Read the rest

The Sesame Workshop is reporting that long-time Sesame Street puppeteer Caroll Spinney has announced his retirement, noting that he's performed on the program since its 1969 premiere. Spinney has played the roles of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for nearly 50 years!After five decades as the heart and soul of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, it’s impossible to entirely separate the man from the characters he so vibrantly brought to life. Big Bird visited China with Bob Hope in 1979. He’s danced with the Rockettes, and with prima ballerina Cynthia Gregory. He’s been feted with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, celebrated with his likeness on a U.S. postage stamp, and named a “Living Legend” in 2000 by the Library of Congress. Performing Big Bird has taken Caroll to China, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom. He has performed on hundreds of episodes of television, starred as his big yellow avatar in the feature film Follow That Bird, and conducted symphony orchestras throughout the United States, Australia, and Canada. Spinney even met his wife of 45 years, Debra, on the Sesame Street set in 1973.Not to worry, Big Bird and Oscar are not going anywhere. They will be played going forward by puppeteers Matt Vogel and Eric Jacobson, with Spinney's blessing.Also, if you haven't seen the 2014 documentary about Spinney titled I Am Big Bird, I urge you to do so. It's a truly beautiful portrait of a deeply creative man who chose to live his most authentic life. Read the rest

To enable "further research of information operations on Twitter", the company today published a dataset of tweets posted by known Russian and Iranian troll farms.In line with our strong principles of transparency and with the goal of improving understanding of foreign influence and information campaigns, we are releasing the full, comprehensive archives of the Tweets and media that are connected with these two previously disclosed and potentially state-backed operations on our service. We are making this data available with the goal of encouraging open research and investigation of these behaviors from researchers and academics around the world.These large datasets comprise 3,841 accounts affiliated with the IRA, originating in Russia, and 770 other accounts, potentially originating in Iran. They include more than 10 million Tweets and more than 2 million images, GIFs, videos, and Periscope broadcasts, including the earliest on-Twitter activity from accounts connected with these campaigns, dating back to 2009.Downloads! The Russian set is 1.24GB of tweets, with nearly 300GB of media. The Iranian one is 168MB, with 65GB of media. Read the rest

Iowa Republican Steve King is graduating from retweeting white supremacists and earsplitting dogwhistles to openly endorsing the matter of their movement. Faith Goldy, an excellent candidate for Toronto mayor, pro Rule of Law, pro Make Canada Safe Again, pro balanced budget, &...BEST of all, Pro Western Civilization and a fighter for our values. @FaithGoldy will not be silenced. Here's some quotes from Faith Goldy, the Toronto mayoral candidate he endorsed yesterday.Goldy believes the white race is in the later stages of ‘ethnocide,’ in which non-white cabals are purposefully and systematically snuffing out those of the Caucasian persuasion. ... “Canada’s southern border is in a state of absolute crisis,” Goldy breathlessly intoned in a dispatch entitled “Canada’s illegal invasion”– just as the number of migrants from the U.S. began decreasing, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.Goldy has also appeared on a podcast hosted by one of the most notorious white supremacists in the U.S.; she recited (on camera, while giggling) the white supremacist ‘14 words’ trope about securing a future for the white race; she believes the 2016 shooting in a Quebec City mosque was a Muslim conspiracy; and she favourably quoted the work of a Romanian fascist who called for the elimination of the Jewish race.Daniel Dale: "This is arguably the most explicit King has been in his support for white nationalism, though he’s been unsubtle for a while. He continues to be treated by Ryan, Trump and the rest of the party as a member in good standing." Read the rest

The Trump administration is very proud of the US's historically low unemployment figures (lowest in 50 years), but statistics are deceiving, especially labor statistics.The most obvious fact about the low unemployment numbers is that employment statistics exclude "discouraged workers" who have given up looking for work; the number of discouraged workers is higher than it's been since the 1980s. The jobs that remain are often not good ones. Wages are stagnant, despite low unemployment (which usually drives wage increases), because trade unions have been weakened and "free trade" deals means that US employers can seek cheaper labor in other countries.This has driven a large slice of the US workforce back to university in the hopes of getting a better job (even as US tuitions have hit a record highs, and the wage prospects for workers with advanced degrees is declining), exempting them from the workforce participation statistics and artificially inflating the employment numbers.Finally, America puts people in prison like crazy: the millions of Americans rotting in prison are also not counted in the labor statistics. This is Trumpian full employment: millions of people chasing precarious, work with starvation wages; millions more in prison, and the rest incurring lifelong student debts from "universities," including outright scams like Trump University.Of course, Trump can't really take credit for this: as Obama has been at pains to point out, the rise of precarious work and the exit of discourage people from the workforce took part largely on the watch of the Democratic establishment, whose shift from protecting workers to protecting bankers has been a multi-decade, accelerating process. Read the rest

View this post on Instagram Dublinia and realism.A post shared by Jason Weisberger (@jlw) on Oct 17, 2018 at 5:31am PDT Today I experienced full immersion while enjoying Dublin's terrific history exhibit 'Dublinia.'If you are in Dublin, this exhibit is wonderful. I saw bits of it a few years ago, and was eager to return and spend some real time there. The curators and cosplaying docents were absolutely fantastic. I learned a ton about the evolution of Dublin over the last 1200 years or so, and immediately took a walk about town to see a number of the landmarks and artifacts they discussed.Pooping in medieval times seems like hard work. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH despite slashed social services and environmental and climate catastrophe, Lucky Ducky, the poor little duck who's rich in luck, STILL comes out on top!

When security researchers report on the ghastly defects in voting machines, the officials who bought these machines say dismiss their concerns by saying that the tamper-evident seals they put around the machines prevent bad guys from gaining access to their internals.But University of Michigan grad student Matt Bernhard has demonstrated that he can bypass the tamper-evident seals in seconds, using a shim made from a slice of a soda can. The bypass is undetectable and doesn't damage the seal, which can be resecured after an attacker gains access to the system.Fred Woodhams from the Michigan Secretary of State's office dismissed Bernhard's warning: "the seal that is shown in the video was not affixed to anything, and the video does not represent a real-world scenario of how seals are used and affixed." "The seal that is shown in the video was not affixed to anything, and the video does not represent a real-world scenario of how seals are used and affixed," spokesman Fred Woodhams said in an email to Motherboard. "The video also provides no context about the sum total of security measures for tabulators and sealed ballot containers, which are stored in locked area within a clerk’s office, among other security measures that help prevent election tampering. I would note that the sealed ballot containers store ballots that already have been counted."Bernhard, however, said that although voting machines may be locked when they are stored in the county clerk's building, they are left unattended for days at polling places—high school gyms, churches, and community centers—prior to elections. Read the rest

This is what the kids are up to these days, at least the kids in the dance program at Walden Grove High School in Sahuarita, Arizona.You may remember last year when they performed a dance version of The Wizard of Oz for their homecoming pep rally. This year, they've performed a dance based on Harry Potter. Good stuff!(Geekologie) Read the rest

On Friday night, a nude man jumped into a large tank at Ripley's Aquarium in Toronto for a brief swim with sand tiger sharks, sawfish, green sea turtles, green moray eels, and other fish. "The guy seemed totally relaxed... and like laughing," said one onlooker. Pretty ballsy. From CBC Toronto:Security at the popular tourist attraction asked the man to leave shortly before 10:30 p.m. ET but he refused, said Jenifferjit Sidhu, a spokesperson for Toronto Police Service.Instead, he swam to the edge of the enclosure and emerged from the tank before doing a backward flip into the water, she told CBC Toronto on Monday...But before officers arrived, the man got out of the water, put on his clothes and left the aquarium. No marine animals were harmed during the stunt, Sidhu said. Read the rest

President Donald Trump talked to reporters today about his phone conversation with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz, during which the two despots discussed the disappearance and apparent killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.The man is nothing if not consistent.First, Trump pointed out the fact that King Abdulaziz told him Khashoggi was a Saudi citizen, as in, not a U.S. citizen, so the man's death doesn't matter that much.Remaining loyal to his family's business interests with Saudi financiers, President Donald Trump also said “rogue killers” may have murdered Jamal Khashoggi, definitely probably not the government of Saudi Arabia, nope, because the Saudi king personally told him so. “His denial to me could not have been stronger,” said the President of his conversation with King Salman bin Abdulaziz.Funny, that's the exact same thing he said about his chat with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the 2015 U.S. election “meddling.” Putin denied it, and what he says must be true.“We are going to leave nothing uncovered,” Trump today said of his conversation with the Saudi King.It's almost as if there is a pattern.How did these rogue killers get into the highly secure Saudi embassy in Istanbul? Can't wait for the Trump investigation to reveal all.Trump today on Khashoggi’s disappearance — “It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?” It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.pic.twitter.com/iz9M586pDa— J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) October 15, 2018Trump says 'rogue killers' may be behind Khashoggi disappearance https://t.co/kdS8BTNvnl— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) October 15, 2018If Saudi Arabia is held accountable, it will be by a bipartisan group of senators https://t.co/xyUcppx2hg— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) October 15, 2018Trump's 400 pound mystery hacker has gotten off his bed and is now a lethal assassin. Read the rest

I recently discovered Christopher Barnatt's YouTube channel, ExplainingComputers, and I highly recommend it. Barnatt is the author of 13 books about computers and has taught for 25 years at the University of Nottingham. He explains digital technology very clearly, and many of his videos contain tests and demonstrations. In his latest video, he presents the evolution of computer motherboards since 1990, starting with the Intel 386 that ran at 20Mhz (no fan or heat sink needed!). It's amazing to see how things have changed in a few decades. Read the rest

US Senator David Purdue (R-GA/@sendavidperdue), a grown-ass human being elected to high office in the most powerful nation in the land, was asked a question about Brian Kemp, who is both a (monumentally unhinged) candidate for governor of Georgia and Georgia's Secretary of State, in charge of overseeing the election in which he is standing.In that latter capacity, Kemp has purged 10% of the state's voter rolls comprising 53,000 people, 70% of whom are Black.One of Purdue's constituents asked him a question about his endorsement of Kemp in light of this blatant, illegal voter suppression, whereupon the senator stole his constituent's phone and walked away with it. Read the rest

The University of Michigan's library recently acquired a copy of American Cheese, 20 Slices, by Ben Denzer, a book made from shelf-stable, plastic-wrapped slices of American cheese.The book had an edition-size of ten; the library's copy is number nine. It's the only copy in a library collection. The book is about cheese, but it has no words: the material in its construction is also its subject matter.Denzer's other books include "200 one-dollar bills arranged in serial number order, and a tiny volume of Chinese restaurant fortunes."The book was acquired by Jamie Lausch Vander Broek, the Art & Design Librarian at UMich, who spent $200 on the title, and who will keep it in "a special plastic container" and sent it out for examination by classes.Some people—especially librarians, particularly book catalogers at other institutions—were mad when I bought the cheese book. This surprised me. I thought that people would laugh, or crinkle up their faces in bewilderment. Their anger reminded me of reactions to color field paintings; people seemed divided between “I could do that,” and “that’s an insult to books!”All of this gave me a deep sense of satisfaction. If my job is to engender interest and even passion for the library and its collections, a book made of cheese was really getting people excited. Suddenly they had opinions! Even among my coworkers there were arguments about things we take for granted in other books. Is someone the author of the cheese book? What is its subject? Read the rest

Abigail Disney is Walt Disney's grand-niece; she is an activist and documentarian and being the grand-daughter of Roy Disney, she is rich as hell.Despite her personal stake in Trump's tax cuts, she made this amazing call to action to vote the Republicans out and end the raging movement of money to the super-rich from everyone else in America. It's a fantastic video.This Disney heiress is taking a stand against the GOP tax bill — even though she’s going to benefit from it pic.twitter.com/E5bmcI83mU— NowThis (@nowthisnews) December 20, 2017 Read the rest

Meet David Bradley, chief engineer of the IBM PC, who created Ctrl+Alt+Del. "I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous," Bradley once said. Read the rest

Keeping the narcissism on brand, Melania is 100% Trump.Via CNN:First lady Melania Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday that she is the most bullied person in the world, which has led her to create her anti-bullying "Be Best" initiative, before softening her comments slightly to say she is one of the most bullied."I could say I'm the most bullied person on the world," Trump told ABC News in an interview during her first major solo trip to Africa last week when asked what personally made her want to tackle the issue of cyberbullying."You're really the most bullied person in the world?" ABC News' Tom Llamas asked during the exchange."One of them, if you really see what people saying about me," Trump said."Be Best" apparently means "Be nice to Melania." Read the rest

Most jar openers work by giving you more grip or more leverage to unscrew the lid. But the reason lids are hard to twist off is because the jars are vacuum packed. This handy gadget allows you to lift the lid enough to break the vacuum, and then it is very easy to unscrew the lid. Once you use one of these, you will want to open jars this way from now on. I use a Jar Pop on every new jar, even before trying to open it without one, because I don’t want to screw my wrist up. Read the rest

The holding company behind struggling department store chain Sears is about to file for bankruptcy, reports The Daily Beast. The company has closed hundreds of stores in recent years and Sears CEO Edward Lampert has fought to keep it afloat by stripping out assets. Lampert has reportedly been pushing for a restructuring plan that would keep the company out of bankruptcy court, but its dismal financial status has so far hindered those efforts.'Fought to keep it afloat' isn't really what asset-stripping is about. They've just run out of things to sell and now the ship needs scuttling so they can sell the fixtures and floorboards too. And void a few hundred thousand pension plans. Then the name gets sold, too, which might obscure the death of a 130-year-old American institution when it gets put on every Big Lots or Dollar General or maybe even the Willis Group, or whoever else buys the corpse.Photo: Richard Eriksson Read the rest

Brett Kavanaugh is a name that leaves a bad taste in many mouths, but the name is now being put to good use with BrettKavanaugh.com (or .org/.net). Because the new Supreme Court Justice, accused of sexual assault by three women, didn't think to buy BrettKavanaugh.com, it's now a site for sexual assault survivors. WE BELIEVE SURVIVORS it says as its opener. And then: The start of Brett Kavanaugh’s tenure on the Supreme Court may look like a victory for one interest group or another. But, more importantly, it is putting a national focus on the issue of sexual assault – and how we as a country can and should do more to prevent it and to support those who have experienced it.This past month, thousands of survivors came forward to tell their stories. We applaud your bravery. We believe you.The site links to outside resources, including End Rape on Campus, National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. According to Mashable, "The domains were purchased by an organization called Fix The Court, which pushes for accountability and transparency in the Supreme Court." Image: by CSPAN - https://www.c-span.org/video/?181538-1/judicial-nominations, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

If the thrill of high-flying drone footage has worn off, get closer to the ground—and to the subject. My favorite part is where the dronecam is hovering perfectly still in the passenger seat of the vehicle, as if being held by a person sitting there. Amazing! [via] Read the rest

When Google's engineering staff staged an uprising over the company's "Project Maven" to supply AI tools for the Pentagon's secretive drone-based killing program, many observed that the project was just a prelude to bidding on JEDI, the Pentagon's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, a $10B project to supply cloud services to the entire US military.The googlers who held their employer to account over supporting war-drones were just as upset at the possibility of working for a company that supplied the IT infrastructure to an imperial military with a history of torture, war-crimes, and propping up dictators around the world. Yesterday, a Google spokesperson announced that the company would not bid on JEDI, because the project would not "align with our AI Principles."These are the same principles cited by ex-googlers like Jack Poulson, a former senior AI scientist who quit over the company's secret plan to build a censoring, surveilling search-engine in cooperation with the Chinese government.Tech workers are the single hardest business-need to fill, in such demand that they can choose their employers and walk out of businesses that don't meet their ethical demands (Facebookers, I'm looking at you). That's why the burgeoning ethical consciousness among techies is so exciting: if companies can't find workers to build unethical tech projects, then some unethical tech projects will not get built.“We are not bidding on the JEDI contract because first, we couldn’t be assured that it would align with our AI Principles," a Google spokesman said in a statement. Read the rest

Laura Kampf made a bunch of "metro tiles" from a stack of plywood cutoffs she came across. The result is beautiful. Read the rest

In the arcade game Deal or No Deal, based on the TV game show of the same name, you have to try to keep your eyes on fast-moving cartoon suitcases as they are shuffled on the display. These guys used their phones to videotape the shuffling in slow motion so they could keep track of the prize winning suitcase.At the start of the game, 16 briefcases are shown open with their contents visible (points between one and 800). The cases are then closed and rapidly shuffled. Normally, it is impossible to follow the case with the highest number of points, but these teenagers film the shuffling on their phones and then quickly review the footage in slow motion so that they can determine the position of the winning case.Armed with this information they then proceed to select the correct case and make the optimum deal at the end.The filmer writes: "The teenagers play a number of games, and then got their tickets counted which ran into the thousands. Finally, they trade their vouchers for a major prize." Read the rest

Jeff Bezos's commercial spaceflight company Blue Origin is developing a lunar lander to deliver Amazon packages to the moon. Well, the first part is true and I'm sure the last part eventually will be too. The lander, currently in the concept development phase, is called Blue Moon. From Blue Origin:Blue has joined leading space companies and agencies to support the creation of The Moon Race, a non-profit working to launch a competition for teams looking for a ride to the lunar surface. The goal is consistent with our aim to land large payloads on the Moon that can access and utilize the resources found there. We’re supporting this initiative, along with ESA, Airbus, and other entities seeking to foster the next generation of lunar exploration – with Blue Moon and New Glenn (the company's commercial launch vehicle).From Space.com:According to the Moon Race website, teams will be able to sign up in 2019, with prototypes due in 2020 and technology development – including a test in a lunar-like environment – targeted for some time in 2021. That would set the stage for a moon mission in for 2024. Teams will have the chance to apply for parallel technology streams in manufacturing, energy, resources and biology, contest organizers explained."We're excited to be a part of an international collaboration to build a sustained presence on the moon. #BlueMoon and #NewGlenn will help us get back to the moon, and this time to stay," Blue Origin said in a statement on Twitter. Read the rest

The Mormon Church (AKA The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or LDS) is joining lawmakers and the governor of the state of Utah to support a deal to legalize medical marijuana, even if a legalization initiative that's on this November's ballot ends up failing. This is the first time to my knowledge the Mormon Church has made a statement supporting medical marijuana if prescribed by a doctor and dispensed by a pharmacy. I'm a Utah resident and a cancer survivor, and I'm writing this from my home in Utah. I found real medical benefit from cannabis during my treatment for breast cancer. The deal described in today's news (I haven't seen the text yet) is great progress for all Utahns, especially for those with cancer and other serious illnesses. The LDS previously shunned any and all cannabis use. This deal isn't enough, IMO, because marijuana smoking would still be illegal. Whole flower combustion has its benefits, and it is a valid method of ingesting cannabis for medical purposes.The ballot proposal only allows edibles, topical lotions, or vaping (electronic cigarettes or ecigs or vapes). No smoking.But this is huge progress. It's a start. From the Associated Press:The compromise comes as people prepare to vote in November on an insurgent medical marijuana ballot initiative that held its ground despite opposition from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.Gov. Gary Herbert said he’ll call lawmakers into a special session after the midterm election to pass the compromise into law regardless of how the initiative fares. Read the rest

It really is UNBELIEVABLE. Someone get grandpa an Ensure, he's gonna need sustenance to make it through this shocker. Are you sitting down? Okay. Please read on, but only if you are feeling strong enough.Yes, it's true, Blonde Hitlerella. An iPhone “can be turned into a bodycam to record police,” as can literally any camera pretty much, including the ones in literally every cellphone that has a camera. I know how shocking it was to me in, I think it was 2002, when I first got my hands on a cellphone with a camera. It's nuts! I know! Phones with cameras.You can record a flower. Or a puppy. Or a baseball game. OR a cop!UNBELIEVABLE. New iPhone can be turned into a bodycam to record police. pic.twitter.com/eVudO99a3P— Fox & Friends First (@FoxFriendsFirst) October 4, 2018 Read the rest

Google sister-company Jigsaw (previously) has released an Android app called Intra that encrypts DNS queries, which allows Android users to bypass one of the most common forms of internet censorship.At the technical level, the Intra app works by implementing "DNS over HTTPS" (DoH), a fledgling technology that will soon reach the status of internet standard with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the organization in charge of approving such technologies.DNS over HTTPS works by sending DNS requests and receiving DNS responses via HTTPS-encrypted connections.By encrypting all DNS traffic coming and going from a device, DoH keeps third-party observers from knowing what websites a user is trying to access. But DoH is not enough to safeguard the user's entire web traffic since the actual connection to remote services also needs to take place via HTTPS as well.Alphabet's Intra app encrypts DNS queries to help users bypass online censorship [Catalin Cimpanu/Zdnet] Read the rest

Well here's a story you don't run across every day: an FBI agent was recently shot by a booby-trapped wheelchair while searching the former residence of 67-year old Gregory Lee Rodvelt. Rodvelt was forced to forfeit his home in Williams, Oregon, after his 90-year old mother filed a civil suit against him for elder abuse a few years back. This past September, a real estate lawyer enlisted to sell the Rodvelt's house called local law enforcement to tell them that he'd found a sign posted on the property that warned it was "protected with improvised devices."From The Oregonian:They slipped by the minivan outfitted with the spring-loaded jaws of animal snares and avoided a circular hot tub turned on its side and designed to roll over trespassers who triggered a tripwire — something reminiscent of "a scene from the movie 'Indiana Jones.'"But the FBI special agent and three state police bomb technicians never made it past the empty wheelchair inside the manufactured home they entered on the southern Oregon property, court records say. The agent was rushed to a hospital in Grants Pass, about 15 miles away. An X-ray found a .410-gauge shotgun pellet in the agent's left leg below the knee.Ow. Rodvelt, who's been up shit creek with the law on several occasions in the past, had been serving time in the clink on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, failure to mark explosives and resisting arrest. However, someone had the genius idea to release him for a two-week period so that he could return to his former home and prepare it for sale. Read the rest