Boing Boing

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

dj BC (previously) writes, "You might be familiar with my Beastles mashup project from some years ago. The album "Ill Submarine" is dropping on TAPE on Cassette Store Day, October 13th 2018! I guess tapes are unpopular enough that no one anticipates copyright lawsuits. Speaking of copyright fear, the vinyl editions of this project, and of Wu Orleans, are not being pressed any more. So if you see one, get it." Read the rest

Inventor Ivan Cash of Oakland, California was inspired by the 1988 cult classic They Live to create screen-blocking glasses. In the movie, a drifter (played by Roddy Piper) discovers a box of sunglasses. He puts on a pair and soon learns they reveal hidden messages behind advertising and that many people in charge are actually aliens. Now, Cash's IRL Glasses don't reveal hidden messages but do mask most TV and some computer screens. When you look through the lenses, the screens just go black. Plus, they double as sunglasses that look like the ones from the movie.IRL Glasses are in beta. This means they are compatible with most TVs (LCD/LED) and some computers (LCD/LED). IRL glasses do not yet block smartphones or digital billboards (OLED). If you'd like to CONSUME a pair for yourself, he's got a Kickstarter going for them until the end of the month. The price now is $49 and will be $79 after the campaign is over. (swissmiss) Read the rest

Judge Brett Kavanaugh has been under a lot of pressure this last week to defend his good name, and you can betcha that he – like many powerful men before him – have faced accusations of bad behavior with the help of Denietol, which "permanently erases the memory of what you did." Watch this hilarious ad from Jimmy Kimmel Live that shows how well this new medication has helped not only Kavanaugh, but other influential gentlemen such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. As Kimmel says, bad behavior "is something that men have been struggling with for many years, and now, at long last, there is hope." Read the rest

A "Devil's Triangle" is a widely used term for an act of sexual congress between two men and a woman; but during his hearing, Brett Kavanaugh nonsensically insisted that this was some sort of drinking game.Over at Urban Dictionary, the crowdsourced lexicographers are desperately attempting to integrate the would-be Supreme Court justice's definition into the entry for Devil's Triangle:From Ted_Cruz_is_the_Zodiac_Killer: A made up game of quarters with three cups arranged in a triangle. The rules are unknown because the inventor of the game, Brett Kavanaugh, could not explain them under oath."Hey Renate? Want to play devils triangle with Mark and I?" Brett asked.From Fancy Rants: A pretend drinking game made up on 9/27/18 by "Honorable" Brett Kavanaugh when faced with credible allegations of sexual assault put forward by no less than four (so far) women. Devils triangle is a threesome with two men and one woman, not a drinking game like Quarters, as Kavanope would like everyone to believe. Devils triangle can also be defined as a lie told under perjury when a belligerent white male feels cornered when confronted with his own disgusting behavior, most likely with the blessing of a patriarchal and mysogynistic system."Devils triangle is a game like Quarters, except its nothing like Quarters and its actually code for a sexual threesome. Please believe me I have told myself these lies so many times I am beginning to believe them. Help I'm a scared white male!" --Brett Kavanaugh, Supreme Court Hearings"Can you believe the Devils Triangle that that guy just offered under oath?! Read the rest

Feizhai kuaile ("fat otaku happiness") is a semi-ironic term used by young Chinese people on social media to celebrate slacking off with sedentary activities and high-calorie snacks, which are given ironic nicknames (pizza is "fat happy pancake" and Coke is "fat happy water")."Fat happy" living is a rejection of society's high expectations of academic and professional success attained through constant work, and the embrace of "pure and instant happiness" (not to be confused with "decadence and self-abandonment," which is apparently antithetical to "fat happy" living).It's not clear how "fat happy" fits in with the resurgence in labor-oriented Communism among young Chinese people.To be clear, “fat happy water” is not water at all, but rather another name for Coca-Cola. More than any other product, the carbonated concoction can be credited for giving birth to the feizhai subculture sweeping across Chinese social media. For less than 3 yuan ($0.44), many young people consider a can of Coke a sweet substitute for slightly larger bottle of water costing slightly less.“Since drinking water makes me fat too, why don’t I just drink Coke?” wrote one user on microblogging platform Weibo, apparently in need of a physiology lesson. “Fat happy water” has become such a common term that it has even spawned its own merchandise — including water bottles, umbrellas, and hoodies — on e-commerce site Taobao.Corpulence Is Bliss: The Chinese Embracing ‘Fat Happy’ Culture [Liang Chenyu/Sixth Tone](via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

Who is this man? Dorset Police hope he can help them with their enquiries.A woman confronted a suspected thief and took his photo as he was sitting in her stolen car. She spotted two men parked in her silver Ford Fiesta just two streets from where it was stolen in Lowther Road, Bournemouth, following a house burglary the night before. Read the rest

The best part of Dave Goetzinger's (AKA Handgun Safe Research) total ownership of the Amarey HFGS-089 gun safe is that he shows a relatively difficult exploit to open it before showing the insanely easy one: "Bolting the safe down to prevent attack with a paperclip is pointless." [via]Amarey's handgun safe is going to get somebody killed. That's my prediction. Somebody, possibly a child, is going to take a hit with a hollow point, and aside from local newspaper coverage--a few dismal inches in a column of city news--no one will know about it.He writes that this is the only device he's examined "vulnerable enough that a child could open it" and that the manufacturer is no longer in the business. A common target of his investigations are cheap, Chinese-made biometric models imported by local companies who stamp red-blooded American branding on them. Here's another terrible gun safe, the GunVault SVB 500, which can be opened with a gum wrapper.He recommends the AMSEC Heavy-Duty Pistol Safe, the Stealth Handgun Safe, and this auto model from Fort Knox [Amazon]. They're much uglier and heavier than the cheap models, but this is where I'm keeping my Beanie Babies. Read the rest

Based on a new study of the safety and abuse potential of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic drug in magic mushrooms, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers recommend that "psilocybin should be re-categorized from a schedule I drug—one with no known medical potential—to a schedule IV drug such as prescription sleep aids, but with tighter control." From Johns Hopkins:"We want to initiate the conversation now as to how to classify psilocybin to facilitate its path to the clinic and minimize logistical hurdles in the future," says Matthew W. Johnson, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "We expect these final clearance trials to take place in the next five years or so."Following the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, any drug with the potential for abuse is categorized based on criteria that take into account whether the drug has accepted medical use, and its safety and the potential for abuse. Schedule IV drugs are those that have a low potential for abuse or dependence.Although preliminary research studies suggest that psilocybin may be effective for smoking cessation and for disorders such as cancer-specific depression and anxiety, it must clear phase III clinical trials before the Food and Drug Administration can be petitioned to reclassify it.Highlights from their scientific paper published in the journal Neuropharmacology:• Psilocybin mushrooms have been used for millennia for spiritual and medical purposes.• Animal and human studies indicate low abuse and no physical dependence potential. Read the rest

While older players do frequently get confused, we've been having a lot of fun on the Fortnite Over Forty discord. Read the rest

People were enjoying drinks while watching horse races on a screen at a betting bar north of Paris when a real-life race horse charged into the bar. It galloped and bucked its way alongside the bar counter, where patrons ran for their lives. According to the Independent:The horse's trainer, Jean-Marie Beguigne, said the horse had dumped her rider at the Chantilly race course stables, less than a mile away, and made a run for it.Mr Beguigne said the horse had a tendency of trying to escape but said it was “exceptional” that it had made it as far as the bar. The horse broke a table and a couple of chairs, but nobody was injured, and the feisty horse seemed just fine after its romp in the bar. Read the rest

Bill Cosby has justly been whisked away to prison for the next three to ten years. Cosby--let's just go ahead and assume his prison name will be Puddin'--is being shipped off to the Phoenix State Correctional Institution (SCI Phoenix) to serve his time. It's not a nice place: according to The Root, the clink where Puddin' will be spending his twilight years is rife with racism. Racial slurs, religious discrimination and other demeaning personal attacks are purportedly inflicted upon the prison's population by the facility's staff on a routine basis. Mind you, the staff aren't one hell of a lot safer. It's a high caliber shitshow. From The Inquirer:In letters and phone calls to family and reporters, and in official grievances, they've reported a raft of complaints about the conditions in the new prison and, especially, about loss, vandalism, or destruction of their personal property during the move. Several described racial slurs and graphic imagery drawn on photographs of their loved ones — acts the inmates describe as "hate crimes."One man, Malik Gilmore, provided copies of photographs he said were defaced by the DOC's specially trained Corrections Emergency Response Team, which managed the move: one with a swastika inked on his brother's forehead, another with a penis drawn over his son's mouth. Another, Eugene Myrick, found "squeeze cheese" poured into a box containing the legal documents for his case, which is active in Philadelphia courts. And Carmen Calvanese said that during the move, he had inconsistent access to the insulin needed to regulate his Type 1 diabetes, and that he ended up in a hospital intensive-care unit as a result. Read the rest

Cats have a tendency to fit themselves into places that they have a hard time getting out of: behind refrigerators, the highest branches of a tree or, in this case, underneath a shed. Fortunately, for this kitteh, a bunny was on standby to help extricate it from its self-imposed prison. Read the rest

As today's businesses grow, so too do their IT needs. That's why demand (and pay) is high for experts who can keep these businesses online. Now, demand alone won't get your foot in the door, as employers expect you to bring some certifications to the table that validate your skills. There are plenty of certifications out there, but choosing ITIL could take you further in your career. The Ultimate ITIL Certification Training Bundle can help you get certified, and it's on sale for $49.ITIL is a set of detailed practices for IT service management that focuses on merging IT services with the needs of business. By introducing ITIL practices into a workplace, you can better help a business create cost-effective practices, manage risk, and ultimately build a more stable yet scalable operation. This collection features 14 courses on the IT service lifecycle, operational support, and other ITIL concepts. In addition to getting valuable ITIL knowledge, each course will reward you with PDUs that you can then use to qualify to take the necessary certification exams.The Ultimate ITIL Certification Training Bundle usually retails for $3,499, but you can get it through the Boing Boing shop for $49. Read the rest