Someone dropped donated a live mortar shell to Goodwill in Placerville, Califonia. While the shell, thought to be leftover from World War II, would likely have fetched more than the usual bric-à-brac on offer, the organization is clear that they don't accept donations of live ammunition. From CBS Sacramento:Goodwill says people often drop off items in boxes that haven’t been looked through, and sometimes the donations are from a deceased war veteran...“As we sort through those things we often find war memorabilia, grenades, it’s rare that we find a live grenade or any live ammunition, but when we do we have protocols in place to make sure that we dispose of it safely,” said Richard Abrusci, President and CEO of Goodwill Sacramento.In the case of this potentially explosive mortar, the bomb squad came in to take it away and disposed of it at Travis Air Force Base. Read the rest

It's so close to perfect, especially given the rich, detailed, warts-and-all photography. But the funny thing about the so-called Uncanny Valley is the deeper you get, the more's left to climb. Read the rest

An Oklahoma cop handed a driver an $80 ticket for having defective equipment on her truck. She said she wouldn't sign it, "because I don't wanna pay $80." The cop told her to get out of her truck. "You're under arrest," he said. She drove away. He followed her and found her in her truck in a parking lot. He pointed a Taser at her and yelled at her to get out of the truck. She refused so he pulled her out. A struggle ensued and he shot her with the taser, but it had little effect. Eventually, he handcuffed her. When she complained about being Tased the cop said he did it because she kicked him. She denied it, but then admitted, "Yes, I tried to kick you because I'm a country girl."It gives me no joy to post this, but I think it offers an interesting look at an interaction between two people who assume they have authority over each other.$80 to felony in 3...2...1... from r/WellthatsucksImage: Reddit Read the rest

This elephant residing in Kruger National Park in South Africa is evidently tired of tourists rumbling around, bothering it. "Jeezis Chroyst" Read the rest

The Atlantic unearthed an old tape of Ronald Reagan yukking it up with Richard Nixon about African "monkeys" at the United Nations.The day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China, then–California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States. “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said. “Yeah,” Nixon interjected. Reagan forged ahead with his complaint: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Nixon gave a huge laugh.P.S. Mickey Mouse is a minstrel caricature. Read the rest

Propublica Illinois has identified "dozens of suburban Chicago families" who surrendered custody of their children during the kids' junior and senior years of high-school, turning them over to aunts, grandparents, friends, and cousins, so that the kids claim to be independent and qualify for needs-based scholarships, crowding out the poor kids the scholarship was designed for.The scheme (called a "scam" by Urbana-Champaign director of undergraduate admissions Andy Borst) allows affluent kids to qualify for the Pell Grant and the state Monetary Award Program (MAP grant), up to $11,000/year. The total amount available through these grants is capped and they are awarded on a first come, first serve basis. 82,000 eligible Illinois students were excluded from the program last year because the money ran out.Propublica identified two key enablers of the "scam": The Rogers Law Group in Deerfield and the Kabbe Law Group in Naperville (Rick Rogers of the Rogers Law Group hired a third firm to handle his own family's case). The parents involved declined to comment, as did the Rogers Law Group. The Kabbe Law Group said that her firm's services allows kids to get aid where the families are in "a financial position where their income is too high to qualify for financial aid but they still will struggle to pay for college."Propublica also identifies Lora Georgieva, owner of Lincolnshire Destination College consulting firm, as a key enabler, noting she has ties to several of the families and to Rogers. Destination College advertises a "College Financial Plan, Using Income and Asset Shifting Strategies to Increase Your Financial and Merit Aid and Lower Out of Pocket Tuition Expenses." When reached for comment, Georgieva had an attorney contact Propublica to express her concern that her services would be "depicted in a false light."The guardianship process the families are exploiting is intended as a way of getting children out of dangerous situations where they face physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Read the rest

Here's what happens when a tank T-bones a car at speed. SPOILER: it is what you likely expect to happen. Read the rest

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police aren't known for their sense of humor—especially in instances where investigating a senseless murder. When it's a double homicide, you can taste the gravitas right through your television or laptop display. Last week, a British Columbia RCMP press officer of telling the world that two young travelers—Chynna Noelle Deese, 24, and Lucas Robertson Fowler, 23—were found to have been shot to death, near Highway 97: It's a strip of road that runs from B.C.'s border with Washington all the way up to the Yukon. The RCMP's detectives are on the case. Deese and Fowler's people were notified. Everything was being handled as professionally as possible.Until Facebook stepped in with that stupid kitty cat video filter of theirs.From The Daily Beast:Canadian police held a somber press conference this weekend to deliver details on a double homicide, but viewers tuning in on Facebook Live were left baffled: The police officer speaking about the slaying was shown with cat ears and whiskers. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia later explained that an “automatic setting” on Facebook Live had accidentally been switched on when they were announcing news about the killing of an American woman and her Australian boyfriend. After re-recording the entire press conference minus the “cat filter,” Sgt. Janelle Shoihet apologized for the “technical difficulties” viewers experienced the first time around.So, that's awkward and awful.On the off chance that anyone reading this has any information linked to the case, you'd be doing society a good turn by contacting the Dease Lake RCMP detachment at 250-771-4111Image via Wikipedia Commons Read the rest

As Google has enacted a series of high-handed, opaque changes to how Youtube monetizes, upranks and censors videos, Youtubers have found themselves battered by the changes: they built Youtube into a global multi-billion-dollar success story, but they don't get a say in how it's managed. Now, a group of Youtubers have teamed up with Germany's powerful IG Metall trade union to fight back, using Europe's broad privacy laws and Germany's broad labor laws to force the company to come to the negotiating table and give them a say in how the service is run. You can read more about it on the Fairtube campaign site.Our proposals:* Publish all categories and decision criteria that affect monetization and views of videos* Give clear explanations for individual decisions — for example, if a video is demonetized, which parts of the video violated which criteria in the Advertiser-Friendly Content Guidelines?* Give YouTubers a human contact person who is qualified and authorized to explain decisions that have negative consequences for YouTubers (and fix them if they are mistaken)* Let YouTubers contest decisions that have negative consequences* Create an independent mediation board for resolving disputes (here the Ombuds Office of the Crowdsourcing Code of Conduct can offer relevant lessons)* Formal participation of YouTubers in important decisions, for example through a YouTuber Advisory Board (Thanks, Urs!) Read the rest

I endorsed Shahid Buttar's primary challenge to Nancy Pelosi in 2018, and I'm proud to do so again for the 2020 primary, especially as Pelosi has allowed herself to be played by Trump on American concentration camps and mass ethnic-cleansing raids.Pelosi's deep connections to the American ruling class has means her fundraising is unparalleled, but she lacks the broad support that real progressives like AOC have found in their districts. She may have won 17 races, but she's also happy to sabotage health care reform and the Green New Deal, and, not coincidentally, these acts of sabotage translate into billions for her backers.By contrast, Buttar -- a human rights cyberlawyer turned EFF community organizer -- has a slate of AOC-aligned, progressive policies that will change the lives of everyday Americans for the better, and might just help maintain the habitability of the only known planet in the universe capable of sustaining human life. Buttar's been profiled in Jacobin just as the #ShahidVsPelosi hashtag has started trending. With primaries looming, I'm glad to see him back in the race, challenging the do-nothing, billionaire-friendly Pelosi from the left.Winning a primary in San Francisco won’t be an easy fight. Pelosi has near-unmatched fundraising capabilities and has served seventeen terms in the House. Buttar himself unsuccessfully ran against her last year, finishing sixty points behind. But as her capitulation in the Senate draws ire even from within her own party, conditions seem ripe for change. The hashtag #ShahidVsPelosi has exploded in popularity in the past few weeks, with prominent figures on the Left like Linda Sarsour and Medea Benjamin endorsing the campaign. Read the rest

The classic TV series cannot be topped, but is very old, whereas the movie is quite new, but can surely be topped. So let's hope that the new Hulu reboot of Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy offers the best of both worlds.For those few who might be unfamiliar with this classic of geekdom, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy tells the tale of Earth’s destruction so that aliens can build a space highway. It centers on a Brit named Arthur Dent and his best friend Ford Prefect, who is writing the travel guide of the title.The series was first conceived as a radio show on the BBC back in 1978. Since then, Adams turned the idea into a set of novels that became many fans’ first exposure to his comedic stylings. This Hulu project isn’t the first time Hitchhiker’s Guide has received a visual treatment. The original novel was released as a feature film starring Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Sam Rockwell, and Stephen Fry in 2005. It was also made into a TV series in the UK in the 1980s, and recently the original radio cast reunited for a new radio dramatization.I feel about Hitchhiker's Guide the way I feel about another Douglas Adams masterwork, The Meaning of Liff. I love it, but it's a statue in the pantheon, so maybe I'm just nostalgic about the idea of it and what it represents. It's coupled to a long-ago moment of the British comic imagination: tantalizingly close to modern frequencies but, in truth, another universe. Read the rest

Sarah Davis suggests a smorgasbord of novels for the summer, all fantasy, all by women.You’ll find a range of sub-genres represented, from portal fantasy to epic fantasy and everything in between. Featuring middle grade, YA, and adult novels, these unmissable fantasy books by women authors reflect the diversity of the genre—and its endlessly magical opportunities.First pick is All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, which I've been looking forward to since Cory's stellar review here at BB. Then I'm checking out Tomi Adayemi's Children of Blood and Bone, recommended to me by none other than ██████████. Read the rest

Mont Saint Michel is a 257-acre tidal island on the French coast, hosting a monastery (later used as a prison) and a medieval town. Wanaii films posted this beautiful drone footage of it.The structural composition of the town exemplifies the feudal society that constructed it: on top, God, the abbey and monastery; below, the greathalls; then stores and housing; and at the bottom, outside the walls, houses for fishermen and farmers. St. Michaels' Mount is its historical counterpart, a 50-acre tidal island on the English coast that was gifted to the French monastery in medieval times, but eventually lost by it. Less heavily fortified and built-up, it offers its own mystique but, sadly, no restaurants. It served as Castle Dracula in the 1979 movie. Here's a drone exploration of it posted by Joshua Paul Gardner. Read the rest

From an episode of The Max Headroom show that first aired in 1986, Max Headroom interviews, um, "Rootbeer Hauer."Previously: "Rutger Hauer, Blade Runner's Roy Batty, RIP" Read the rest

I have a hard time remembering my younger years, but I want to believe that I had days like the one that Stefan Murphy (AKA The Mighty Stef and, from time to time, Count Vaseline) describes in Dry Cider. If you dig this song as much as I do, help a fella out by giving it a buy over at Bandcamp. Read the rest

If you know Oakland, you know about the big, free-form sculpture that lives on the shores of Lake Merritt in Oakland. You probably also know that it's been behind a chain-link fence in disrepair for several years. But for a long time, it was not just a piece of art to appreciate but a usable play structure for children to climb in and on. Now, a local group of its fans have ensured the now-iconic "Monster" will live on.In 1968, for their "Dance to the Music" album, Sly & the Family Stone posed on the "Monster."The "Mid-Century Monster," as it's now called, was created in 1952. Oakland Parks Superintendent William Penn Mott, Jr., who had founded Children's Fairyland just two years earlier, asked local art professor Bob Winston to create the 40-foot, chartreuse sculpture. The "Monster" in the 1950s, photo via Martha Ellen WrightMany years later, however, the "Monster" fell into such disrepair that the city fenced it off and forgot about it. In 2015, an effort was launched by Lake Merritt's Mid-Century Monster Fan Club, led by Kyle Milligan and Susan Casentini, to bring it back to its former glory.This is what the sculpture looked like just four years ago — blanched, broken, and behind a fence. image via Lake Merritt's Mid-Century Monster Fan ClubEarlier this year, the restoration was complete, and on Sunday, July 28, from 11 to 3 the club will be hosting a free party to celebrate at the site. The public is invited. Read the rest

Dan Hon (previously at BB) noticed that Star Trek's meetings and conferences always involve military officers, usually occur with ample time for preparation, yet invariably has them just talking to one another. If there are any graphics involved, they are simple, concise and expressive. This is of course nothing whatsoever like any military on earth or off it. So Hon decided to photoshop what such meetings would actually entail: PowerPoint, and lots of it.Sorry not sorry. Bajoran Stability / Maquis Dynamics - GOVERNANCEHeres "Overall Weekly Dominion Attack Trends for Stardate 51145.3 - 51247.5"Overall Weekly Dominion Attack Trends Stardate 51145.3 - 51247.5 pic.twitter.com/uL7jZWCyUS— dan hon is back (@hondanhon) July 19, 2019As reviewed by Lt. Cmdrs. Worf, Data, and LaForge, and Capt. Picard:L-R: Worf, Data, Geordi and Picard review the latest overall weekly Dominion attack trends. pic.twitter.com/wACdfEC1vP— dan hon is back (@hondanhon) July 19, 2019Dave Rutledge, however, plays for the other team: pic.twitter.com/bVhaYnBCwY— Dave Rutledge 😑 (@_) July 19, 2019Vader and Tarkin perform a final review of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Process in Hyperdrive Station A-226 onboard the Death Star prior to its first use. pic.twitter.com/IEE92idOiN— dan hon is back (@hondanhon) July 19, 2019 Read the rest

If you're a Taika Waititi fan, like I am, it's been one hell of a year. The What We Do in the Shadows TV series was absolutely brilliant. Last week, it was announced that he'd be directing the fourth Thor movie and, earlier today, the first trailer for Jojo Rabbit dropped. He's a writing and directing machine! If you've ever wondered what Waititi's creative process is like, then you'll want to dig into the insight offered up in this interview with the good folks at BAFTA.My biggest takeaway: Keep writing no matter what. Force yourself to write and don't be afraid of blank pages. It's a grind, but no matter what you're scribbling about, you'll get there in the end.Image via Flickr, courtesy of Activités culturelles UdeM Read the rest

In recent years, American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba have been targeted with mysterious "sonic rays" (edit: actually there is no evidence that they were intentionally subjects to sonic rays). The attacks have caused the brains of the diplomats to shrink, according to a paper just published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.From The Telegraph:Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania noticed the whole white matter volume - areas of the central nervous system that affects learning - of the diplomats was roughly five percent smaller than usual.Meanwhile the functional connectivity in the auditory network was down approximately 15 percent.Dr Douglas Smith, who took part in the analysis, likened the neurological effects on some of the patients as an “electricity brown-out”.“These types of changes are completely unknown to us,” he told The Daily Telegraph.“We haven’t seen anything like it before and it’s very curious. What it is, we’re not sure, but there does appear to be something there.”Dr Smith disclosed that while some of the patients have recovered, others still struggling with their symptoms.Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay Read the rest

For years, libraries across America have paid to subscribe to lynda.com for online learning content; four years ago, lynda.com became a division of Linkedin, and this year, the company has informed libraries that they're migrating all lynda.com users to Linkedin Learning, which would be fine, except Linkedin only allows you to access Linkedin Learning if you create and connect a Linkedin profile to the system.If libraries accept this change, it will mean that any patron who uses this publicly funded service will also have to have a publicly searchable Linkedin profile. Linkedin's explanation of why this is OK is purest tech-bro PR bullshit, condescending and dismissive.Libraries are fighting back: California State Libraries is recommending that libraries boycott the service, and the American Library Association has publicly condemned the move.If you work in a library and want to give feedback to Linkedin about this, the right person to email is Farhan Syed, Vice President of Client Solutions, whose email address is fsyed@linkedin.com.ALA has long affirmed that the protection of library users’ privacy and confidentiality rights are necessary for intellectual freedom and are fundamental to the ethical practice of librarianship. ALA’s Library Bill of Rights and its interpretations maintain that all library users have the right to access library resources without disclosing their personally identifiable information (PII) to third parties, and to be free from unreasonable intrusion into, or surveillance of, their lawful library use.“The requirement for users of LinkedIn Learning to disclose personally identifiable information is completely contrary to ALA policies addressing library users’ privacy, and it may violate some states’ library confidentiality laws,” said ALA President Wanda Kay Brown. Read the rest

Finally, an invention worth its weight in gold. The CrunchCup is a to-go cup for your cereal and milk. It's comprised of two cups; one for the cereal and the other for the milk. Each cup has it's own hole so that the cereal and milk don't meet until they hit your mouth.Pre-order it now for $25. (It reminds me a little of those "magic" milk bottles for dolls.)Watch and learn:(Geekologie) Read the rest

We can expect three new “iPhone 11” models this fall from Apple, according to the official unofficial rumor mill. Each of these is said to be designed with an A13 chip, a Lightning port, and a new 'Taptic Engine' that will replace iPhone's current 3D Touch.The 'iPhone 11' will include three (3!) cameras on the back contained within a square.“Our sources share that it looks very similar to the many mockups that have been circling around,” writes 9to5Mac's 9to5Mac's Guilherme Rambo. That new extra space will, as Bloomberg first reported, be filled with a wide-angle image capable camera.Excerpt from 9to5Mac:Similar to last year’s introduction of the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, Apple will release three new ‘iPhone 11’ models this fall. The new iPhones will feature the Apple A13 chip, internally known by its platform codename Cebu, model T8030.According to people who’ve seen the devices, all three iPhone 11 models will still feature a Lightning port, contrary to some speculation that they would be moving to USB-C after the change on iPad Pro last year.The ‘iPhone 11’ models are known as D42 (iPhone12,3) which will replace the iPhone XS; D43 (iPhone12,5) which will replace the iPhone XS Max; and N104 (iPhone12,1) which will replace the iPhone XR. D42 and D43 will have a 3x OLED Retina display, while N104 will still feature the 2x Liquid Retina display just like the current generation. All three iPhones will feature the same screen resolution as their predecessors. Read the rest

UK educator and photographer Brendan Barry converted a shipping container into a large format film camera. Inside is a self-contained darkroom to develop the photos along with a gallery to display them. He describes it as “the world’s biggest, slowest, and most impractical Polaroid camera.” Above is Exploredinary's documentary about the Container Camera. And you can read more about the project at PetaPixel. Read the rest

Inspiring Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan responded to President Racism's latest round of disgusting comments by telling the NAACP she's "...not going nowhere, not until I impeach this President..."CNN:On Sunday, Trump tweeted; "I don't believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country," accused them of "destroying the Democratic Party," and said they should "apologize to America" and Israel. Not long after Tlaib's remarks concluded on Monday, the President tweeted: "The "Squad" is a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart."In her remarks in Detroit, Tlaib did not directly address the President's latest tweets, but later in her speech she said, "We need bold action, folks. I know what's happening out there ... it's beyond just the four of us.""The squad is all of you. I can tell you, you are all the squad, trust me. If you support equity, you support justice, you are one of us," she said.Tlaib has long pushed for impeachment, and made headlines hours after her swearing in to Congress when she told the audience at a progressive event, "we're gonna go in there and we're going to impeach the motherf****r," a reference to the President."The Squad" gives me hope. Read the rest

Phoenix's Biological Resource Center advertised that it would collect your relatives' remains and dispose of their body parts for medical purposes, cremating the unused portions and returning them; it was founded by the aptly named Stephen Gore, whose highest level of educational attainment was a high school diploma and who learned the processes by which he dismembered and preserved the bodies in his care "from books or the internet."Arizona does not regulate body donations. The state legislature passed a law that imposes some regulation on the industry in 2017, following revelations about Gore's operation, but has not yet implemented or enforced it.Gore's business was raided by the FBI in 2014, and the agent who performed the search discovered "unsettling scenes" including "a cooler filled with male genitalia;" a "large torso with the head removed and replaced with a smaller head sewn together in a 'Frankenstein' manner;" buckets of heads, arms and legs; unidentified body parts in piles, and "large male torsos with limbs and genitalia removed."Gore faced a variety of charges; in 2015 he pleaded guilty to supplying his customers with "contaminated body parts" and "using body parts in ways the donors had not permitted."Gore is currently defending himself in a civil case brought by 33 families who entrusted him with their loved ones' remains. They say that Gore deceived them about the details of how the remains would be handled, tricking some of them into thinking that they were making organ donations or providing cadavers for medical research. Read the rest

In 1959, MAD Magazine released a delightful 45 RPM single from Alfred E. Neuman And His Furshlugginer Five titled "What—Me Worry?" The B-side is the fine instrumental "Potrzebie." Read the rest

Trump's merch team sure does know their audience. To mock Liberals, they're offering a 10-pack of these red "reusable" and "recyclable" plastic straws for $15 on his website.Liberal paper straws don’t work. STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP and buy your pack of recyclable straws today.Stephen Colbert said it best:You can now buy Trump 2020-branded straws for $15 a pack, which is a great way to let people know you suck. pic.twitter.com/s1J20c4Oqe— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) July 20, 2019(Steve Garfield) Read the rest

Amazon has a sale on the 32-oz Takeya Vacuum-Insulated Stainless-Steel Water Bottle. It's . It's got a one-hand-operated drinking spout, and you can unscrew the lid to rinse and dry the inside of the bottle. Cold water stays cold for many hours, in my experience. Read the rest

Before there was Big Tech, there was "adversarial interoperability": when someone decides to compete with a dominant company by creating a product or service that "interoperates" (works with) its offerings.In tech, "network effects" can be a powerful force to maintain market dominance: if everyone is using Facebook, then your Facebook replacement doesn't just have to be better than Facebook, it has to be so much better than Facebook that it's worth using, even though all the people you want to talk to are still on Facebook. That's a tall order.Adversarial interoperability is judo for network effects, using incumbents' dominance against them. To see how that works, let's look at a historical example of adversarial interoperability role in helping to unseat a monopolist's dominance.The first skirmishes of the PC wars were fought with incompatible file formats and even data-storage formats: Apple users couldn't open files made by Microsoft users, and vice-versa. Even when file formats were (more or less) harmonized, there was still the problems of storage media: the SCSI drive you plugged into your Mac needed a special add-on and flaky driver software to work on your Windows machine; the ZIP cartridge you formatted for your PC wouldn't play nice with Macs.But as office networking spread, the battle moved to a new front: networking compatibility. AppleTalk, Apple's proprietary protocol for connecting up Macs and networked devices like printers, pretty much Just Worked, providing you were using a Mac. If you were using a Windows PC, you had to install special, buggy, unreliable software. Read the rest

Japan and much of the world is in shock after an arsonist entered a Kyoto animation studio, doused the interior with gasoline and set it on fire, killing at least 33 people and injuring dozens of other people who were in the building.Kyoto Animation Company (KyoAni), where the attack took place, creates anime and manga, much of it about teenage school life. They are known for paying their animation staff a regular salary, unlike other anime houses that pay a stress-inducing per-frame rate. It's suspected that famed director Yasuhiro Takemoto is among the dead.Just found out that Yasuhiro Takemoto who directed Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu, The Second Raid, Amagi Brilliant Park, Hyouka, and Ms. Kobayashi's Dragon Maid was among the deceased at KyoAni. I cannot begin to imagine what his family is going through. RIP 😭 pic.twitter.com/JoTd4RtjKs— AnimetalViking (@russellgainsfo1) July 18, 2019The alleged attacker, who survived, is a 41-year-old man. Witnesses say he was yelling about his work being copied or stolen by KyoAni. He did not work for the company.“I’m speechless,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a tweet. “I pray for the souls of those who have passed away. I would like to express my condolences to all of the injured and wish them a speedy recovery.”(Tweet translated from Japanese to English)Image: Kyoto Animation Company Read the rest

Evan Greer from Fight for the Future writes, "Facial recognition might be the most invasive and dangerous form of surveillance tech ever invented. While it's been in the headlines lately, most of us still don't know whether it's happening in our area. My organization Fight for the Future has compiled an interactive map that shows everywhere in the US (that we know of) facial recognition being used -- but also where there are local efforts to ban it, like has already happened in San Francisco, Oakland, and Somerville, MA. We've also got a tool kit for local residents who want to get an ordinance or state legislation passed in their area." Read the rest

Michael Galinsky's 2011 photo-book "Malls Across America" went out of print quickly and now sells for upwards of $1000/copy; Galinsky is now kickstarting a sequel, The Decline of Mall Civilization, featuring 112 pages of images of American malls from 1989.The book is a $44 hardcover, with delivery planned before Christmas 2019. It's $70 for two, and there are signed art prints of some of the interior art available at higher pledge levels. The project already has a design, a printer and a shipper, which bodes well for getting what you paid for. Our first stop was Columbus Ohio. We stayed with my aunt but we didn't find a mall. We then hightailed it to Detroit where we hit the jackpot with the Woodfield Mall. It's a beauty and there are probably a dozen in the book from that one. Next stop was Chicago- then South Dakota, and on and on. All in all, we hit about 15 malls. We got some great images but it wasn't really their time. By 1989, the "Pictures Generation" - with its focus on more constructed and deconstructed images - had pushed street photography out of the galleries. They were doubling down on big ideas and conceptual work. I went on to take a couple other photo classes, but turned my attention to making music and making films. I shot a lot of images, but my main outlets for them were fanzines and album covers. I moved on to making films. In 2010, I re-discovered these slides and the rest is history. Read the rest

In most countries, you don't have to pay an accountant to prepare your tax return: the government already knows how much you made, so every year they just send you a pre-filled in form to check over and sign.In the USA, the highly concentrated tax-prep industry used its lobbying muscle to suppress the creation of a similar system, promising instead to offer free tax prep to millions of Americans through the IRS Free File system.Then they lobbied to zero out the IRS's budget to advertise the existence of this program so no one knew about it. Then they deployed every dark UX pattern known to the internet to deceive people who were entitled to use Free File into using a paid tax-prep service instead.But the hits keep on coming! Last year, Trump and the Republican legislature passed the #TaxScam, which gave away trillions to the richest people in America and did away with the need to itemize deductions for for mortgage interest and charitable donations if you're making more than $75k/year.This presented a problem for Big Tax Prep. Services like Turbotax charged extra to complete the itemized deduction forms, pushing its most affluent customers out of the Free File and into its premium products. Now that these forms were no longer required for wealthy people, how could Turbotax and its ilk find customers for its premium product?Simple: they moved the forms that students, poor people, elderly people and disabled people need to complete as part of their tax returns out of their Free File offerings. Read the rest

U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday said they will not charge an N.Y.P.D. officer in the death of Eric Garner, whose final words, "I can't breathe," inspired national protests against the unpunished police killings of Black people in America.So, nothing has changed.They cited lack of evidence. The Justice Department will tell the family of Mr. Garner, who was selling untaxed cigarettes at the time he died in a chokehold by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo.The officer appears quite plaingly to have strangled him to death using a banned chokehold maneuver, which cut off Garner's ability to breathe.It's been five years. The only punishment Pantaleo received is being demoted to desk duty.The person who captured video of the NYPD killing Eric Garner, Ramsey Orta, may face over 50 years in prison for filming a murder. The man who did the killing walks free among us. The federal investigation into Eric Garner's death ends after five years with no charges for Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who strangled him to death https://t.co/d6vzUzCnxU— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 16, 2019A woman who identified herself as Eric Garner’s daughter reacted emotionally upon leaving a meeting with @EDNYnews officials. She said the family was told there would be no charges. Some @NationalAction officials said her name is Emerald Garner, but she wouldn’t confirm. pic.twitter.com/v9nObVUsgl— Nicole Fuller (@nicolefuller) July 16, 2019Daniel Pantaleo killed Eric Garner with a prohibited chokehold. In the five years since, all he's been punished with is desk duty. Read the rest

Tailor Saleh Alnahdi is courting the conservative Saudi gentleman who still worried about being gunned down in the street with a line of bulletproof thobes and abaya, lined with Aramid ("a little more expensive than kevlar") and complying with the US National Institute of Justice Body Armor Compliance Certificate requirements. As @evacide quipped: "This is not what I was expecting from the dystopian cyberpunk present, but here we are." Read the rest

Posted today on /r/AskReddit/: "What book fucked you up mentally?"Answers include:Animal Farm -- "The whole thing spooked the shit out of my 13-year-old mind."Night -- "A candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of [Elie Weisle's] survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps."American Psycho -- "Absolutely nothing like the film."House of Stairs -- "One by one, five sixteen-year-old orphans are brought to a strange building. It is not a prison, not a hospital; it has no walls, no ceiling, no floor. Nothing but endless flights of stairs leading nowhere--except back to a strange red machine."Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak -- "Professor: 'I choose a book every semester to scar the students' Mission: accomplished"A Child Called It -- "for a 7th grade book report. It's a very graphic memoir about child abuse. After turning it in, I got sent to the guidance counselor."The Bell Jar -- "I never knew what depression sounded like before. 'To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.'"Flowers for Algernon -- "Read it in one sitting and was broken for like 48 hours after reading it.Johnny Got His Gun -- "is horrifying"My pick is Level 7 - a 1959 novel. I read it in the 4th grade. It's about the last people on earth living in a deep underground military bunker after a nuclear holocaust. Read the rest

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," Mattel has announced a "David Bowie" Barbie doll. On Amazon, it's priced at $50. From the New York Times:It’s a notably androgynous look for a doll that epitomized the stereotypes of feminine appearance in its earlier iterations. In more recent years, however, male celebrity depictions have not just been reserved for Ken. Over the past decade, Barbie has dressed like Andy Warhol, Elvis and Frank Sinatra. Read the rest

The attorney general for Washington, DC has issued subpoenas for the National Rifle Association and its charitable foundation. The gun rights organization is in the sights of nonprofit regulators, and under fire separately for connections to convicted Russian military intelligence agent Maria Butina -- not to mention the NRA's own internal power struggles, interpersonal petty drama, and financial ruin.D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine issues subpoenas to the NRA and its charitable foundation, the latest example of him using nonprofit laws to take on high-profile targets (see: Catholic Church, Trump's inaugural committee) https://t.co/DbG6pOD8V9— Fenit Nirappil (@FenitN) July 12, 2019DC Attorney General issues subpoenas to @NRA and its foundation "as part of an investigation into whether these entities violated the District’s Nonprofit Act,” says @AGKarlRacine in a statement.— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) July 12, 2019The Washington Post was first to report the subpoena news on Friday:The office of Attorney General Karl A. Racine is seeking financial documents from the NRA and its foundation. The NRA Foundation is chartered in the District and the NRA is registered as a nonprofit and does business there.“The Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia has issued subpoenas to the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) and the NRA Foundation, Inc., as part of an investigation into whether these entities violated the District’s Nonprofit Act,” Racine said in a statement.He continued: “We are seeking documents from these two nonprofits detailing, among other things, their financial records, payments to vendors, and payments to officers and directors.”The NRA did not immediately return a request for comment. Read the rest

Well, it's not the Iron Maiden or the Brazen Bull, but the treadmill of today's fitness centers does have a "tortuous history" as Dan Kopell writes at Wirecutter:Inventor William Cubitt subscribed to the “no pain, no gain” philosophy. His “Tread-Wheel,” which was described in the 1822 edition of Rules for the Government of Gaols, Houses of Correction, and Penitentiaries (published by the British Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders), was presented as a way for prisoners to put in an honest day’s labor. Prisoners used treadmills in groups, with up to two dozen convicts working a single machine, usually grinding grain or pumping water, sometimes for as long as eight hours at a stretch. They’d do so “by means of steps … the gang of prisoners ascend[ing] at one end … their combined weight acting upon every successive stepping board, precisely as a stream upon the float-boards of a water wheel.”...This was considered to be more humane, at least compared with earlier methods of punishment, which centered on hanging or exile to British colonies. Hard labor on a treadmill for a fixed term, the theory went, could rehabilitate an offender, who could then return to society and family. Never mind that the prisoner was often left shattered by the experience. Oscar Wilde spent two years on the treadmill as punishment for “gross indecency with certain male persons.” In a poem about his incarceration, he wrote: “We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns, /And sweated on the mill: /But in the heart of every man /Terror was lying still.” "The Torturous History of the Treadmill" (Wirecutter) Read the rest

From Zheleznogorsk's flag depicting a bear splitting an atom (the city started as a plutonium mining-town) (yours for $60!) to Domnovskoye's stark eagle claw to Syaskelevskoe's drunken bull to Khoroshyovo-Mnyovniki's crudely drawn MS-Paint-style proud beaver, the flags of Russia's states, cities, towns and districts are pretty fabulous; Weird Russia has a giant trawl through them. (Thanks, Ilya!) Read the rest

An encyclopedic application will teach the Juche idea to a new generation of North Koreans, reports the BBC, which cites the state's official media organ thus: "People must try harder to learn the teachings of the founder Kim."...this focus on doctrine seems to be part of a wider effort by the government to counter foreign influences that increasingly penetrate the isolated country through the proliferation of technology. The digitisation has seen a steady trickle of foreign news and entertainment entering North Korea on portable devices like USB memory sticks - something that presents a challenge for the authorities. North Korea's approach has been to embrace technology while making sure that it serves its purpose - to portray the state-sanctioned version of reality to the people. Previously: Comrade Commodore Unicorn Read the rest

Apple has temporarily disabled the 'Walkie Talkie' iOS app for Apple Watch after a vulnerability was revealed that could allow a third party to eavesdrop on your iPhone. The app lets two users who accept invites from each other to send and receive audio chats by way of a ‘push to talk’ interface not unlike 'PTT' buttons on '90s-era cellphones.Here's Apple's statement on the vulnerability and their decision to disable the app:We were just made aware of a vulnerability related to the Walkie-Talkie app on the Apple Watch and have disabled the function as we quickly fix the issue. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and will restore the functionality as soon as possible. Although we are not aware of any use of the vulnerability against a customer and specific conditions and sequences of events are required to exploit it, we take the security and privacy of our customers extremely seriously. We concluded that disabling the app was the right course of action as this bug could allow someone to listen through another customer’s iPhone without consent. We apologize again for this issue and the inconvenience.“Apple was alerted to the bug via its report a vulnerability portal directly and says that there is no current evidence that it was exploited in the wild,” Matthew Panzarino at TechCrunch reports:The company is temporarily disabling the feature entirely until a fix can be made and rolled out to devices. The Walkie Talkie App will remain installed on devices, but will not function until it has been updated with the fix. Read the rest

The LEGO Steamboat Willie is absolutely darling.Based on the legendary animation that introduced us to Mickey Mouse, the Steamboat Willie can be yours!It also comes with black and white Mickey and Minnie minifigs. A Minnie-fig??!LEGO Ideas 21317 Disney Steamboat Willie Building Kit , New 2019 (751 Piece) via Amazon Read the rest

In the 36 years since Cindy Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" was an MTV staple, I had never listened to Robert Hazard's original version from 1979 that was only recorded as a demo. It's a totally different head. Totally.(via /ObscureMedia) Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Super-Fun-Pak Comix features Kafkaesque Nightmare, Good Cop / Better Cop / Best Cop, and more!

The last few seasons of Game of Thrones weren't great... for Game of Thrones. I mean seriously, if we were talking about any other series on any other network it'd have looked pretty damn good, underwhelming writing and all. While most folks already have solid, enraged opinions on how the series ended its long run, Honest Trailers goes through the trouble of detailing a few gripes that you may have missed.Image via YouTube Read the rest

If you listen to vinyl, it's a good bet that the sound is only part of the experience. There's something about the tactile sensation of putting the needle on the record, the ritual of hearing that static before the first note kicks in.If you're that kind of devotee, there's a record player that's on your wavelength. Just the act of watching the MAG-LEV ML1 Levitating Turntable operate makes the whole experience a little more magical.Without any motor or gears, the ML1 spins records in mid-air with a series of magnets and coils, using the same technology that keeps the world's fastest Maglev trains humming along. Speeds can be set to 33 1/3 or 45 RPM, and there's no sacrifice in sound quality for all this presentation. You get crisp audio from the first drop of the Ortofon OM 10 mm cartridge, all delivered on a floating, gently illuminated platform.You can pick up the MAG-LEV ML1 in a series of styles, all of which are available here for 10% off the retail price:MAG-LEV ML1 Levitating Turntable (Black/Silver) - $3239MAG-LEV ML1 Levitating Turntable (Black/Gold) - $3239MAG-LEV ML1 Levitating Turntable (Wood) - $3779MAG-LEV ML1 Levitating Turntable (White) - $3509 Read the rest

Acting legend Rip Torn always sounded like someone I'd want to hang out with.The Hollywood Reporter:Torn was an "actor's actor," but he had a reputation as a trouble-maker.Legend has it that he was all set for Jack Nicholson's career-making role in Easy Rider (1969) before things went awry. Dennis Hopper, the film's director, said years later on The Tonight Show that Torn had pulled a knife on him in a diner, costing him the job. Torn said it was Hopper that pulled the knife on him and sued for libel, winning $475,000 in damages.In an improvised fight seen in Maidstone (1970), Torn attacked actor-director Norman Mailer with a tack hammer; Mailer then bit into Torn's ear during the ensuing scrum. The Criterion Collection described the movie as being "shot over the course of five drug-fueled days in East Hampton, New York."An Army veteran, Torn was also an outspoken activist.After Torn met with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in an attempt to start an integrated national theater in 1963, he was targeted by the FBI and found trouble finding work in major motion pictures. "I began to see things in gossip columns, stories about me," he once said.In 1970, on the day after Torn spoke out against the Vietnam War on The Dick Cavett Show, a bullet was fired through the window of his Manhattan home. Read the rest

From an excerpt from last year's The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, the rules of "Freddish" -- as Mr Rogers' crewmembers jokingly referred to the rigorous rules that Rogers used to revise his scripts to make them appropriate and useful for the preschoolers in his audience.Rogers' nine rules are a masterclass in figuring out how to clarify a thought, then refine that clarity to remove extraneous elements, then consider the result and use empathy for your audience to be a better communicator and a better person.It's how Rogers went from "It is dangerous to play in the street" to "Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is important to try to listen to them, and listening is an important part of growing." From a proscriptive, negative statement to a positive statement that admits that there will be uncertainty in the world, that reinforces loving relationships, without making value judgments, and connecting the idea to a toddler-friendly message about personal growth.Per the pamphlet, there were nine steps for translating into Freddish:“State the idea you wish to express as clearly as possible, and in terms preschoolers can understand.” Example: It is dangerous to play in the street. ​​​​​​“Rephrase in a positive manner,” as in It is good to play where it is safe.“Rephrase the idea, bearing in mind that preschoolers cannot yet make subtle distinctions and need to be redirected to authorities they trust.” As in, “Ask your parents where it is safe to play.”“Rephrase your idea to eliminate all elements that could be considered prescriptive, directive, or instructive.” In the example, that’d mean getting rid of “ask”: Your parents will tell you where it is safe to play. Read the rest

There are rock skippers and then there's this guy and all his zen-like moves. This is overall world stone-skimming champion Keisuke Hashimoto, an office worker from Saitama, Japan, who has been called the "LeBron James" of the sport. Here's another video of him, this one from 2017. It shows his first attempt as a failure:(Reddit) Read the rest