Generally, the DNC is a fucking pro-establishment dumpster fire (which may explain why it's foundering), but things are (finally) looking up.The DNC has announced a new rule for participating in the primary debates for the 2020 presidential nomination: candidates must raise the majority of their money from "grassroots" donors who make small-money donation.They have yet to define what this will mean, and there's a lot of potential ways this could go wrong, but as Bernie Sanders' 2016 digital fundraising manager writes in a detailed analysis in The Intercept, some of the most obvious problems (billionaires gladly losing money in fundraising appeals, spending $2 in advertising to raise $1 in small-money donation) don't seem to work. There's also a lot of potential Super PAC shenanigans that would need to be headed off. Based on the 2016 and 2018 cycles, here are the candidates that could qualify: Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and John Lewis; and Senators Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley.Not only is this a hopeful sign that the Dems are going to reduce their reliance on the big-money donor class, it's also pretty exciting to learn that "being popular amongst lots of ordinary voters" is going to be a criteria for nomination.It may seem like this is a meaningless distinction; money is money, and money (for better or worse) helps win elections. But focusing on this aspect of 2020 Democrats’ finances is important, because they’re going against the only president of the modern era to ever win the White House by relying mostly on small-dollar donations. Read the rest

ORG -- the UK Open Rights Group (disclosure: I am a co-founder and volunteers on its advisory board) is hiring a Data and Democracy Project Officer: "responsible for delivering our work on preserving democratic integrity in the digital age. This role has two main areas of focus: 1) electronic voting and 2) the use of data in political campaigns. The Data and Democracy Project Officer will work closely with ORG’s Scotland Director, the Policy Director and the Executive Director." Read the rest

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria, calling it “the right decision.” Nice to know the boss approves!Putin made the remarks at his yearly press conference, his 14th annual Q&A, which Russian and foreign media attended in Moscow. From the New York Times:Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he was ordering the withdrawal because the United States military had achieved its goal of defeating the Islamic State militant group in Syria. But the move caught many by surprise, including some of his military and diplomatic advisers.It has also drawn criticism, even among Republicans, for abandoning Kurdish allies in the fight against the Islamic State and for aiding the geopolitical ambitions of Iran and Russia in the Middle East. Speaking at his annual news conference, which typically runs for several hours, Mr. Putin said he broadly agreed that the Islamic State had been defeated in Syria.“Donald’s right, and I agree with him,” Mr. Putin said.“Donald” announced the decision to withdraw from Syria on Wednesday via a video posted to his Twitter feed.After historic victories against ISIS, it’s time to bring our great young people home! pic.twitter.com/xoNjFzQFTp— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina seemed surprised by the tweeted announcement, but lined right up to cheer Russian foreign policy goals achieved so deftly by the United States.Letter from @SenatorShaheen @marcorubio @SenTomCotton @SenAngusKing @SenJoniErnst and me to President Trump on withdrawal from Syria. Read the rest

This Banksy artwork was painted late last night a on a steelworker's garage in Port Talbot, South Wales, UK. From CNN:The art, which appears to pay homage to the town's industrial past, depicts a child playing in what looks like snow. But viewed from another angle this appears to be embers and smoke from a skip fire....Properties and cars were covered with black dust from the town's steelworks in July, which has been suggested as a potential inspiration for the work...A Neath Port Talbot council spokesperson told CNN in a statement that they are sending officers to liaise with the property owner in order to assist in protecting the artwork but noted that the graffiti is on private property. View this post on Instagram . . . . Season’s greetings . . . A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Dec 19, 2018 at 6:53am PST Read the rest

Apple's Carpool Karaoke... isn't great. But despite scathing critical reviews of the show, Apple keeps trying to make it happen. In fact, they're so horny for the show to succeed that they've been forcing advertisements for it out to iOS users. According to The Verge, many iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users have been receiving unwanted Carpool Karaoke push notifications from Apple, via the iOS TV app for the past few weeks.From The Verge:We’re not sure how many iPhone users received the notifications, but it looks like Apple has tried plugging its show at least twice in recent weeks: once on December 7th for an episode where Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin grill each other using a lie detector test, and once on December 14 for an episode featuring joint singalongs with comedian Jason Sudeikis and the Muppets.Developed in house by Apple, the TV app doesn't ask for user permission to send along push notifications the first time that it's launched, like third-party developed iOS apps do. The shit and giggle part of this is that Apple App Store policy makes it very clear to developers that unsolicited notifications pushing advertising, features or promotions are not OK. If you know your way around iOS, turning off notifications spewed out by any app is as easy as flipping on a light -- but not all of Apple's users are software-savvy. So, without help, they could be stuck putting up with the company's unwanted solicitations.It's a case of "do as we say and not as we do," I suppose. Read the rest

When lawmakers and cops propose banning working cryptography (as they often do in the USA), or ban it outright (as they just did in Australia), they are long on talk about "responsible encryption" and the ability of sufficiently motivated technologists to "figure it out" and very short on how that might work -- but after many years, thanks to the UK's spy agency MI5, we have a detailed plan of what this system would look like, and it's called "ghost users." MI5's idea is for secure messaging platforms to create a backdoor in their systems that allows law enforcement to be an invisible part of every encrypted chat.Eminent cryptographer Matthew Green (previously) has written an excellent explainer describing exactly how this plan would work -- and also, the risks it would expose users to, and finally, why it will not actually work.Even though it's a debunking of a daffy, unworkable idea, it's a really important read: though the idea is daffy and unworkable, it stands a good chance of being made into law.The real problem with the GCHQ proposal is that it targets a weakness in messaging/calling systems that is well known to providers, and moreover, a weakness that providers have been working to close — perhaps because they’re worried that someone just like GCHQ (or much worse) might try to exploit it. GCHQ making this proposal virtually guarantees that those providers will move much, much faster.And they have quite a few options at their disposal. Read the rest

Despite taking pages of handwritten notes each day, my handwriting is hot garbage. After deciding that I wanted to improve the look of my penmanship, I set out to find a few ways to do it that wouldn't eat up a lot of my day. This video, featuring Nan Jay Barchowsky, is one of my favorites. Her suggestion to practice the up down motion we use to create most of the letters in our alphabet might seem kind of goofy at first, but it totally works. After a few days of practice, my writing is showing signs of improvement. Read the rest

Since protests over changes to Nicaragua's social security system began last April, over 300 people have been killed and, at a minimum, 500 people have been incarcerated for their part in calling out Presidential Daniel Ortega's corrupt self-serving bullshit. There's a lot to be angry about in the Central American nation. Non governmental organizations have been doing what they can to bring the wrongs committed by the Nicaraguan government to light. In a bid to shut NGO cake holes, Ortega and his cronies have begun to strip the outfits of their legal status.From the Associated Press:Nicaraguan police have raided the offices of five nongovernmental organizations and an independent media outlet, alleging that they participated in seeking the government’s overthrow.The raids were the latest strong-arm actions taken by the government of President Daniel Ortega. Since popular street protests destabilized his government in April, Ortega has reconsolidated power and methodically pursued perceived enemies.Police on Thursday forced open doors and carried off documents and computers from the Nicaragua Center for Human Rights, Segovias Leadership Institute, River Foundation, the Center for Communication Research and the Foundation for Municipal Promotion and Development.The Nicaraguan government and police have had much to say about the raids or the closures of the NGOs--when you're rolling with a dictatorship, you're not accountable to anyone...until the people rise up en masse to topple your government, I guess. Oh, and that 'independent media outlet?' It was called Confidencial: a joint that produces a website and two news programs. Read the rest

This video imagines a social credit system in the UK similar to one under development in China, in which your purchases, interactions with law enforcement and organizations, level of financial responsibility, and other factors are combined to generate a social credit score, which can be used to provide or restrict access to public and private services. Read the rest

When Trump's FCC Chairman Ajit Pai killed Net Neutrality (by illegally ignoring legitimate comments in support of it in favor of millions of anti-Net Neutrality comments sent by identity-stealing bots), he promised that it would spur growth in the telcoms sector -- and of course, he should know, because he used to be a Verizon exec. Verizon agreed: they objected to Obama-era Neutrality orders by saying the measures would "severely curtail job growth."Then Trump handed out trillions in tax-breaks for the super rich and giant corporations, insisting that this would spur job growth and investment.Alas, reality has a well-known left-wing bias. Verizon has responded to this government largesse by killing 10,000 jobs, 7% of its workforce, to "optimize growth opportunities" and "better serve customers with more agility, speed and flexibility."The cuts are allegedly "voluntary," but employees report that their managers are finding pretenses to write them up and then forcing them to accept the "voluntary" severance. Verizon's take home from Trump is large: the company saved $4 billion in 2018 alone, and will reap a further $17 billion off its deferred taxes.When contacted, Verizon denied there was any disconnect between the company’s promises and its actual delivery.“Through the first 3 quarters of 2018, the company has reduced debt by $4.2 billion, and made discretionary contributions of $1.7 billion to employee benefit programs,” Verizon told Motherboard. “We've also returned $7.3 billion to shareowners in dividends, and continued to invest heavily in our networks.”But former FCC lawyer Gig Sohn says the cycle of giving telecom giants tens of billions in subsidies, tax breaks and regulatory favors—then getting notably less or nothing at all in return—is a game we’ve been playing in the United States for the better part of a generation. Read the rest

In October, a delightful prank by the artist Banksy involved a painting of his shredding itself shortly after a Sotheby's bidder committed to spending £1.04m to buy it. Banksy shot his own video of the stunt and posted it to Youtube. The video was widely reused by news networks in their coverage of the prank, including by the French giant Canal+.Canal+ didn't just make a fair use of Banksy's video, though: they also fraudulently claimed copyright over his footage with Youtube's ContentID filter, resulting in his video being censored.Youtube eventually restored the video: Banksy is famous, and the video is famous, so Youtube presumably bumped this dispute to the front of the queue. But Canal+ will face no penalties for committing copyfraud: it will still enjoy the privilege of being able to use Youtube's ContentID system to arbitrarily censor works based on evidence-free claims of copyright.If you think this is unfair, strap in: tomorrow, we'll learn whether the European Union will proceed with the new Copyright Directive, and with it, Article 13, which will require all platforms to create ContentID-style copyright filters that anyone can add anything to, with impunity, to censor anything on the internet merely by making unsubstantiated copyright claims.Apparently, the French media giant Canal+ used the material as well. However, they went a step further and have claimed it as their own, asking YouTube to remove the original, which it did.“Video unavailable This video contains content from Canal Plus, who has blocked it on copyright grounds,” a message now reads instead. Read the rest

A 33-year-old woman in Ukraine hasn't cut her hair in 28 years, and says she doesn't think she ever will. Alena Kravchenko, from Ukraine, says her hair is part of her identity – which, at least in the looks department, she compares to Rapunzel – and she doesn't have any plans on cutting it. But her long mane does have it drawbacks. Over 6 feet long, it's a chore to wash, which she does only once every three weeks. She also occasionally trips on it. And then there's her kids, who love to play in it, causing her to keep it up in a bun most of the time. According to Oddity Central: By the time she had reached her teens, Alena Kravchenko’s hair had already reached halfway down her back, and by her early 20s, it reached her waist, then her knees, and in her early 30s, it started touching the floor. That’s when she began tripping on it, and as her two children got older, it became even more problematic as they loved to play with it, so Alena started tying it up in a bun, only letting it down on weekends and for special occasions. Check out Kravchenko's Instagram photos. Pretty impressive hair indeed! View this post on Instagram Good morning World! #instagram#длинныеволосы#longhair#rapunzel#длиннаякоса#красивыедевушки#topgirls#odessagram#одесса#длиннаякоса#рапунцель#аленакрасадлиннаякоса#длинныеволосыукраина#длинныеволосыодесса#волосыодесса#superlonghair#sexiesthair#hairdiva#reallylonghair#instahair#longhairdontcare#hairstyle#hairfashion#famouspeople#starlife#verylonghair#hairstyles#рапунцельукраина#rapunzelukraine#longhairbeauty#hairinspirationA post shared by Alena Kravchenko (@alenuwka__) on Nov 8, 2018 at 12:27am PST View this post on Instagram Good morning World! #instagram#длинныеволосы#longhair#rapunzel#длиннаякоса#красивыедевушки#topgirls#odessagram#одесса#длиннаякоса#рапунцель#аленакрасадлиннаякоса#длинныеволосыукраина#длинныеволосыодесса#волосыодесса#superlonghair#sexiesthair#hairdiva#reallylonghair#instahair#longhairdontcare#hairstyle#hairfashion#famouspeople#starlife#verylonghair#hairstyles#рапунцельукраина#rapunzelukraine#longhairbeauty#halloweenA post shared by Alena Kravchenko (@alenuwka__) on Nov 4, 2018 at 12:49am PDT View this post on Instagram Если тебе скажут, что мечты не сбываются - не верь. Read the rest

In 1986, Puma gave new meaning to the word sneakernet with the introduction of its RS-Computer running shoe that integrated a digital pedometer in the heel that could interface with your Apple IIe or Commodore 64 computer. See vintage video below. Now the RS-Computer is back with contemporary technology. I just wouldn't recommend wearing them through airport security. From Hypebeast:Updating the 33-year-old trainer for today, PUMA’s updated version no longer requires a 16-pin cord. It can be charged via USB and can now connect wirelessly to your mobile phone via Bluetooth. Other updated features include a miniature 3-axis accelerometer, an extended memory that records 30 days worth of running data, LED indicators, and a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. Read the rest

Never know what to get the person who has "everything"? It's pretty unlikely they'll have anything crafted by death row inmates, and that's where San Quentin State Prison's Handicraft Shop (aka the Hobby Shop) comes in. This unusual Marin County, California store is located right outside the penitentiary's gate and offers a wide assortment of prisoner-made artwork and crafts. That is, if you can get in.No, you don't have to go through security or be related to an inmate or anything like that to shop there. It just always seems to be closed, despite the posted hours. I first heard about the shop in the late 1990s and tried several times, unsuccessfully, to get in. Then, on one late December day some 11 years ago, I caught the attention of the then-new director of the prison's art program as he was closing up shop. He said couldn't let me in that day but promised if I emailed him, he'd get me in soon. Game on. On Christmas Eve day in 2007, myself and two friends got access. At the time, I didn't have the money to buy the bigger art (some of which was painted on the back of blue-and-white-striped mattress ticking). Instead, I bought a couple of inexpensive "Jailhouse Rocks," one for myself and one to use as a Yankee Swap gift I was attending that night. From what I gather, inmates can buy kits inexpensively that they can assemble and then sell for a small profit. The kits for the "Jailhouse Rocks" need actual stones from the prison's yard to complete which I found oddly charming. Read the rest

Having 50% of the universe's population turned into ash by a lunatic seems to have brought everyone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe down. That said, after the emotional thrashing that Marvel fans took from watching Avengers: Infinity War, anything will likely feel light and airy. Read the rest

A moose accidentally rang a doorbell with his behind while bumbling around the outside of an Anchorage, Alaska home.On Thursday, Kyle Stultz and his partner Allie Johnstone heard the doorbell ring at 1:30 AM. They thought it was a prankster until they saw the security cam footage. That's when they learned it was a moose whose backside had hilariously set off the bell. The video is everything. KTVA reports:After checking on their dogs and looking out the door to find nothing, Stultz assumed some neighborhood kids were playing a prank."We were thinking kids coming through playing ding dong ditch or maybe a neighbor coming through. We had no idea," Stultz said.So they checked their security system and were surprised to see a moose caboose."We had this nice moose behind waiting for us right here," Stultz said. "And he decided to back up right into it and that’s how he got our doorbell."(Jezebel) Read the rest

Hawaiian monk seals are endangered and closely monitored by NOAA scientists who are alarmed that the seals keep getting eels stuck really deep in their nostrils.The scientists have removed "three or four" eels from juvenile monk seals' nostrils over the past two years, mostly in the last few months. The seals are fine. The eels died. The scientists don't know how the eels got stuck up the seals' nostrils. Perhaps they swam up there after getting cornered in a coral reef, or possibly the seals ate them and barfed them up and got them stuck in their noses. They worry that the seals will not be able to keep water out of their lungs when diving -- leading to pneumonia -- or they will end up with rotting eels stuck in their heads.Still, Littnan said it doesn’t seem possible that a “long, fat eel” would end up going through a seal’s nose rather than out of its mouth. The “most plausible” theory, he said, is that monk seal teenagers aren’t all that different from their human counterparts. Monk seals “seem naturally attracted to getting into troublesome situations,” Littnan said.“It almost does feel like one of those teenage trends that happen,” he said. “One juvenile seal did this very stupid thing and now the others are trying to mimic it.”Though no seals have died or been seriously affected by the eels, having a dead animal up their noses for any extended amount of time poses potentially adverse health impacts, said Simeone, director of Ke Kai Ola, a monk seal hospital in Hawaii run by the Marine Mammal Center. Read the rest

High school science teacher Bruce Yeany says, "Here are a few more example of balancing toys that are made with simple materials. Making these types of toys have been especially popular with students. Toys can be a great lead in to the study of center of mass, center of gravity, levers, torque. Also makes a good STEM challenge for students to come up with their own balancing toys and investigate factors that influence its behavior." Here's Bruce's first video about making balancing toys: Read the rest

"Katamari" is the Japanese word for "clod" or "lump," and people familiar with the Katamari Damacy video game franchise know that the object is to created a giant clod of stuff by rolling it around like a snowball, picking up increasingly larger objects over time.Reroll is a new Katamari Damacy game for the Nintendo Switch and it looks like fun. I'm going to get it and I'll let you know what I think.Image: Nintendo Read the rest

Anthony Bourdain left us earlier this year, but the joy he found in the world's many cultures and traditions will always be around for us to savor.In this quick holiday story, written by Bourdain, North America is given a brief, dark, humorous peek into the mythos surrounding Krampus, a goat-demon who comes during the Christmas holidays to punish children who misbehaved over the last year. A good pal of Santa Claus, Krampus, and the dread he has instilled in rotten kids for generations, most likely pre-dates Christianity. From Wikipedia:There seems to be little doubt as to his true identity for, in no other form is the full regalia of the Horned God of the Witches so well preserved. The birch – apart from its phallic significance – may have a connection with the initiation rites of certain witch-covens; rites which entailed binding and scourging as a form of mock-death. The chains could have been introduced in a Christian attempt to 'bind the Devil' but again they could be a remnant of pagan initiation rites. Merry Krampusnacht! Read the rest

Happy Holidays on the Island! Looks like a mad army of insane snowpeople are on the loose!...and the ominous "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Read the rest

Is there life out there? That's one of the mind-boggling questions that the SETI Institute explores through its scientific research, all the while inspiring our own curiosity and sense of wonder about our place in the universe. SETI stands for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the official mission of the organization, founded in 1984, "is to explore, understand and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe and the evolution of intelligence." Support their efforts with these far out new t-shirts from the SETI Institute's Chop Shop Store. Above, the iconic SETI Logo tee. Below, a graphic expression of SETI pioneer Frank Drake's "Drake Equation" used to estimate the number of technological civilizations that could have developed in our galaxy. And lastly, a design honoring the scientists whose pioneering work underpins the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, and Jill Tarter. SETI Institute t-shirts (Chop Shop Store) Read the rest

"And not everyone is happy."the controversial trend is back in the spotlight—and not in a good way. Penis facials are receiving a lot of backlash following a November 21st Instagram post by actress Kate Beckinsale, who captioned her photo, “After a long flight I do like to lie down and be covered in a mask of liquified cloned foreskins – frankly who doesn’t?”Among the outlets elaborating on this story are People and The Guardian. The penis facial is $650, but there's a two-year waiting list. It is, essentially, minor outpatient surgery akin to a botoxing or chemical peel:I’ll hate myself for this, but can you explain the foreskin facial? Of course! Epidermal growth factor (EGF) serum is derived from the progenitor cells of the human fibroblast taken from the foreskins of newborn babies.And what does it do? Glad you asked. It helps to generate collagen and elastin, which can help to boost the radiance of your face. Fun sidenote: it also smells exactly like sperm!Well, sign me up. Wait, there’s more. For the serum to take hold, a beauty therapist must first microneedle you.I don’t know what that is. Oh, it’s fun. It’s where a pen containing dozens of tiny needles repeatedly stabs you in the face hundreds of thousands of times. It’s excruciatingly painfulHyperreality refers to our inability to separate reality from simulation. This is a feature of postmodern life often associated with VR but baked deeply into our psychological relationship to media in general. Read the rest

This year, the people of Wisconsin pronounced their verdict on the GOP legislators who seized control over the state through gerrymandering and voter suppression: overwhelmingly, they voted to replace those legislators and the governor with progressive Democrats (it worked in the case of the governor; the legislature will remain Republican for now, thanks to extreme Republican gerrymandering that renders the votes of many in the state useless).The lame-duck Republicans sitting in the state-house awaiting the new Democratic governor weren't done: like their counterparts in Michigan, they had a giant Fuck You up their sleeves for the voters: a slate of reforms that would neuter the power of the incoming governor and his attorney general, along with a toxic stew of other measures, like a prohibition on handgun bans in the capital. Despite subzero temperatures, thousands of protesters thronged the capital to protest the coup. Despite the manifest popular will on their doorstep, the Wisconsin GOP staged an all-night session and passed nearly the whole state (the sole significant change was the elimination of a proposal to let the state legislature hire its own lawyers to bypass the Attorney General). Governor Scott Walker -- who handed billions in corporate welfare to a Chinese company that has reneged on its promise of creating good, in-state jobs -- has said he will sign the bill.The next stop will be a courthouse: the incoming governor Tony Evers has vowed to fight the legislation there. The bill would weaken the governor's ability to put in place rules that enact laws and shield the state jobs agency from his control until September. Read the rest

Lucas Brar plays Gershwin's "Summertime" on a guitar, starting with a simple bass line, them adding increasing complexity as he continues.Image: YouTube Read the rest

The Michael Flynn Memo is out. It's redacted af.According to the sentencing memorandum filed by the Special Counsel tonight, Donald Trump's former national security adviser sat for 19 interviews with the special counsel's office and other attorneys at the Justice Department. Nineteen. Interviews.The memo references several investigations, one of which is completely redacted. The investigations for which Flynn was interviewed appear to include at least one *criminal* probe, which is separate from Mueller's Trump-Russia investigation. What's up with that?Robert Mueller is recommending no prison time for Flynn, given his cooperation in the ongoing investigation(s).The memo hit the internet around 8:36 PM Eastern Time, on December 4, 2018.What does this all mean? It means people higher up than Flynn are in deep trouble.Here's the main memo from the special counsel's office: https://t.co/ihaDJBEd7l / Here's the redacted supplemental memo: https://t.co/BscRgJkO3w— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) December 5, 20183. This chunk of redactions begins with "the defendant also provided useful information concerning...." pic.twitter.com/uC4QubcU9B— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) December 5, 20184. A significant statement from the Special Counsel on Flynn's participation. pic.twitter.com/3QGAxinzjY— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) December 5, 2018So the Flynn memo is like a teaser trailer?— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) December 5, 2018Michael Flynn has sat for 19 interviews with Special Counsel and DOJ. The memo appears to list at least 3 ongoing investigations being pursued.One “criminal investigation” is completely redacted in the document, another is also completely redacted.— Allie Malloy (@AlliemalCNN) December 5, 2018Michael Flynn has been singing ... Read the rest

There are dozens of free "peoplefinder" sites that buy up commercial databases and combine them with other sources to make your home address searchable. You can find instances where this has happened to you by googling your name and home address, and then you can google the removal forms for each of the services and get yourself delisted. But your name will keep getting re-added: if you set a Google Alert for a search on your name and address, you'll get a message ever time you get caught in these databases and you can remove your name again. This won't work on the for-pay background check sites that Google doesn't index, but it will keep your name and address clear of low-level scumbags who stick with free sites for their doxing activities. Read the rest

LA's John of Beans makes shells with teeth! Choose from the Smooth Shell With Lowers and the Snail with Molars (both $90) or a Mussel and Barnacle with Molars ($35) (via Creepbay) Read the rest

Would you know how to spot a fake painting?In this Wired video, forensic scientist Thiago Piwowarczyk and art historian Jeffrey Taylor of New York Art Forensics go through their five-step art authentication process to determine if they have a legit Jackson Pollock or not. Spoiler alert: it's not, though watching their discovery methods is fascinating.(Nag on the Lake) Read the rest

BB pal Lissa Soep of YR Media (formerly Youth Radio) writes:Our Interactive team delved into Spotify's algorithm to discover how songs on the platform are scored for their "danceability." We were intrigued by this use of Artificial Intelligence to quantify something as personal and cultural as what makes us want to move our bodies. So we built a tool that invites users to rate a curated playlist for each song’s “danceability” and compare that rating against the one Spotify produced algorithmically. Our writer Deborah Raji uses the project to raise fascinating questions about what it means for AI to be making its way into so many corners of our lives. "Can You Teach AI to Dance?" (YR Media)(Image: detail of illustration by Symone Woodruff-Hardy) Read the rest

Toronto 2033 is a shared-world science fiction anthology edited by the incomparable and multi-talented Jim Munroe (previously), where authors like Zainab Amadahy, Madeline Ashby, Al Donato, Kristyn Dunnion, Elyse Friedman, Paul Hong, Elan Mastai, Mari Ramsawakh, Karl Schroeder and Peter Watts were challenged to imagine a future for the city.The book's sponsored by Spacing magazine, and it launches on December 6th at Toronto's punk science fiction bar, See-Scape.In the meantime, you can read Elyse Friedman's story, We Have Everything They Have Nothing (they'll be releasing another story from the book every month for ten months).The motto of Toronto, known to few, is “Diversity Our Strength”.These days, that’s a contentious statement. In the twenty years since themotto was chosen, diversity has become a highly-charged buzzword, withconservatives claiming that diversity actually makes us weak.Science, however, teaches us differently. Science shows us the danger ofmonocultures. Sure, a certain strain of coffee might be the easiest togrow, with the highest yield and the most popular flavour. But it mighthave a particular vulnerability to a disease another strain is moreresistant to. Putting all our eggs in one basket, to coin a phrase, is aterrible idea... because no one knows the future.Until now.Here collected for you are ten peeks into the future of Toronto, from tenwriters chosen for their talent and because they reflect Toronto’s mix ofcultures, backgrounds, and perspectives.Earlier this year, we all met for a design session. Read the rest

The President extends a lump of coal to our troops along the border, in a gesture of Trumpian holiday slime. A Merry Christmas to all, and to the immigrant children locked in ICE dog cages, enjoy your gruel.At least 5,000 migrants, most of whom are part of a caravan that walked north from Central America through Mexico in recent weeks, are now waiting in Tijuana just across from San Diego to ask for asylum in the United States.My source Jeff Valenzuela who was on the scene during the mayhem at the border with the caravan sent me this photo from when tear gas canisters went off @KPBSnews pic.twitter.com/gBjYbem7S9— Jean Guerrero (@jeanguerre) November 26, 2018This is how you ask for asylum, under U.S. immigration laws. A small number of border-rushers, including children, were tear gassed over the Thanksgiving holiday by Trump troops who were presumably just following orders, boss.Missy Ryan, Josh Dawsey, and Nick Miroff at the Washington Post:The Trump administration is expected to extend the military mission along the U.S. border with Mexico, a White House official said Wednesday, likely keeping troops away from their normal posts through the holidays.The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been announced, said the assignment was expected to last at least 45 days beyond its scheduled end date of Dec. 15.That decision would affect almost 6,000 active duty military personnel now stationed in southern areas of Texas, Arizona and California, lengthening a mission critics have described as an unnecessary ploy to galvanize anti-immigrant sentiment. Read the rest

This guy from Florida decided to try hang gliding for the first time while vacationing in Switzerland, and ended up clinging on to the instructor and the glider for dear life. Turns out the professionals forgot to strap him in. Here's his harrowing two-minute 14-second trip. Read the rest

Between Trump's massive tax-breaks for the super-rich and rules like California's disastrous Prop 13 have cities perennially cash-starved and have led to the erosion of the same public services that make cities attractive to businesses (for example, the subway, public education, roads, grid and other public services that made NYC so attractive to tax-dodging Amazon for its second headquarters).After coasting on New Deal fumes for 40 years since Reagan began the American oligarchic regression, cities are reaching a breaking-point, and parents of kids in public schools have become accustomed to a near-constant stream of fundraising emails and flyers brought home from school. Not only can this funding never bridge the shortfalls from austerity, but it converts public schools into a kind of semi-private school where hidden user-fees -- in the form of "donations" -- aren't really optional.Some teachers' unions have made corporate taxation a part of the debate over school cuts: the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers talks about the decline in taxation of Minnesota's largest corporations ("Thirty years ago, Bancorp, EcoLab, Travelers Insurance, 3M and Target were taxed at 13.6 percent. That rate has been cut to 9.8 percent. Wells Fargo paid $15 million less in 2014 than they paid in 1990, when the tax rate was 12 percent. In 2014, 10 corporations paid $31 million less than they did in earlier periods") and explicitly connects those tax giveaways to the budgetary shortfalls that harm the city's kids.It's not enough that corporations give back some of that money in the form of charitable donations: those donations always come with strings attached, shaping curriculum and activities to the priorities of corporate benefactors, and the funding can be withdrawn any time our public schools do work that cuts against the corporate agenda. Read the rest

Michael Lewis is a national treasure, whose gift for explaining how finance grifters think and operate has spawned a whole genre, which he dominates with books like Liar's Poker (an insider view of the S&L crisis); The Big Short (a character-driven, crystal-clear explainer on the financial engineering that led to the 2008 crisis), and Flash Boys (the shitty math and bafflegab behind high-speed trading); and now, The Fifth Risk: an astounding and terrifying book about the experts who fill the ranks in the US government and the Trump-administration grifters who are destroying the work they do to keep us from dying of tornadoes, nuclear accident, food poisoning and a million other dangers, large and small.The Fifth Risk is a very short book, consisting mostly of interviews with current (and usually anonymous) US government officials, as well as former high-ranking officials who left when the Trump administration took over. These are largely extremely technical people, manifestly and palpably motivated by a sense of duty and a commitment to excellence, who have been charged with an insanely hard job: figuring out how to contain all the complex risks of 21st century technical society, including things like a 100-year, 100-billion-dollar nuclear cleanup that involves mitigating vast, badly secured underground stores of waste from the WWII nuclear bomb production effort, which is slowly seeping towards the Columbia River.Each profile takes on a similar form: the expert's journey to government service is explained (for example, how a deep-sea scientist became one of the first US woman astronauts and then helmed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; then, the incredibly technical, incredibly high stakes that person lives with (dealing with all the nation's weather data and figuring out how we can not all die from fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc), and then, the kicker: how Trump's shitty administration of grifters and right-wing thinktankies showed up underprepared, disinterested, and actively hostile to the person and the work they did (in this case, how the guy who runs Accuweather and has been lobbying for years to force the government to stop letting us get weather predictions for free ended up in charge of US governmental weather strategy). Read the rest

Google killed the YouTube video annotations editor last year, and in an "update" to the announcement now says it will be deleting existing annotations in 2019.Update: We will stop showing existing annotations to viewers starting January 15, 2019. All existing annotations will be removed. ... ...As adoption of end screens and cards has grown, the use of annotations has decreased by over 70%. For this reason, we discontinued annotations editor in May 2017.This means you can no longer add new or edit existing annotations, only delete them.Annotations were replaced by "cards", which among other things are integrated into the contemporary advertising and tracking infrastructure built around YouTube, and can coexist better with the underlying video on mobile platforms (especially iOS, which is under another company's control).Though few loved annotations and they were often grossly hostile to viewers, it's also true that they were put to all sorts of legitimate and necessary purposes. None of which interest Google, so they disappear at its convenience. Read the rest

After sticking a perfect landing on the Martian surface this afternoon, NASA's InSight robot lander has successfully deployed its solar panels. Tomorrow, InSight will fire up its scientific instruments and get to work collecting data about the planet's interior. From NASA/JPL-Caltech:NASA's InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals, which were received on Earth at about 5:30 p.m. PST (8:30 p.m. EST). Solar array deployment ensures the spacecraft can recharge its batteries each day. Odyssey also relayed a pair of images showing InSight's landing site."The InSight team can rest a little easier tonight now that we know the spacecraft solar arrays are deployed and recharging the batteries," said Tom Hoffman, InSight's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which leads the mission. "It's been a long day for the team. But tomorrow begins an exciting new chapter for InSight: surface operations and the beginning of the instrument deployment phase..."In the coming days, the mission team will unstow InSight's robotic arm and use the attached camera to snap photos of the ground so that engineers can decide where to place the spacecraft's scientific instruments. It will take two to three months before those instruments are fully deployed and sending back data.In the meantime, InSight will use its weather sensors and magnetometer to take readings from its landing site at Elysium Planitia — its new home on Mars. Read the rest

When my friend David Hyman is passionate about something -- whether it's digital music, online games, or audio gear -- he immerses himself in the subject entirely, completely, obsessively. Once he's deep in it, he tries to find problems that if solved would improve the experience for the user. As a result, David has turned his personal, obsessive interests into a string of successful businesses! For the last year, David's been all about electric scooters. ALL about them. And now he's launched Unagi, a beautifully-designed electric scooter that David says is, well, the best in the world. I haven't ridden one yet but the folks at Gizmodo, The Verge, and Elektrek were pretty damn impressed. I helped David with some writing for his project and I hope he sends me the scooter I was promised soon.Unagi is now accepting discounted pre-orders via Kickstarter with shipping in February. Unagi: The Ultimate Electric Scooter (Kickstarter) Read the rest

If you live outside province you likely haven’t heard much about our new government, but here in British Columbia changes are happening fast, and you should know about them. From 2001 until May of last year, British Columbia was ruled by a right-wing coalition calling itself the British Columbia Liberal Party, which is not the same as the federal Liberal Party. Under their watch, taxes were cut, services were cut, and controls removed. The result has been increased wealth for the wealthy and increased poverty for the poor. Despite spectacular riches, British Columbia can now boast the highest rates of poverty, homelessness, and opioid addiction in Canada. So, in May of last year, we finally kicked the scoundrels out, and elected (by a hairsbreadth) a New Democratic government, headed by John Horgan, who are now addressing the host of huge problems and challenges that they have inherited, to the delight of those on the left and dismay to the right. Horgan is a working-class guy who, as opposition leader, did a remarkable job healing his party’s self-inflicted wounds, while holding the government’s feet to the fire. You can read a bit about him here.In office, the Horgan government has wasted no time in making changes. Here are a few:* B.C., despite an abundance of wealth, currently has one of the highest rates of poverty in Canada. To quote the government, “Too many people are struggling to make ends meet, earn a living wage, or find and keep affordable housing. Read the rest

Funny Video of the day for sure! from r/funnyCould this be the cutest board breaking video of all time?Strike first, strike hard! Read the rest

Christmas is coming early, Mac users. If you've been waiting to "deck the halls" of your computer with the software that will stretch its potential, pick up the Award-Winning Black Friday Mac Bundle Ft. Acorn 6.Like the name says, it's a full arsenal of the most top-rated apps for Mac, packaged together for a fraction of the price for the individual software. For the security-minded, there's the password-management app mSecure Pro and the essential Netshade VPN. Spotless and Gemini 2 will organize your files and keep them that way, and Crossover 18 will even let you run Windows software cleanly and easily on your Mac. And there's a ton for designers: Clip Studio Paint Debut, Next Flipbook Maker Pro and of course, the intuitive and versatile photo editor Acorn 6.We're talking ten apps in all in the Award-Winning Black Friday Mac Bundle Ft. Acorn 6, holiday priced at $25. And right now, you can knock an additional $5 off with the coupon code BFMAC5. Read the rest

Bill Shine was forced to resign as co-president of Fox News over his personal mishandling of the rampant culture of sexual abuse, in which he abetted the company's culture of harassment, fondling, and coerced sex by its executives and on-air personalities.Surprisingly, Shine's complicity in sexual misconduct did not disqualify him from serving in a senior role in the Trump White House; he replaced Hope Hicks as the White House's Communications Director, where he has distinguished himself by failing to make the mandatory financial disclosures required of anyone serving in that role, and by illegally barring Jim Acosta from White House press conferences in retaliation for Acosta's refusal to let Trump off the hook when he failed to answer a simple question (Shine has now instituted a one-question/no-followups rule for the White House press corps).On Thanksgiving Friday, Shine belatedly filed his financial disclosure forms, which reveal that Fox News will pay Trump's new communications advisor a total of $7,000,000 while he is serving in the White House, as part of the $15,400,000 bonus that Shine was paid to reward him for his role in Fox's sex-scandal.Shine was also involved in settlements with women who accused former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment. O’Reilly was ousted from the conservative network last year after the hush payments surfaced and advertisers bailed on his show.Since Shine’s hiring, which was praised by O’Reilly and Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he has been involved in banning reporters from the White House and instituting new “rules” for the media that only allow one question to be asked. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH two soldiers in Donald Trump's Army bravely defend the political goals of Donald Trump

Sticks and stones may break my bones but supercuts never hurt me. (NSFW) Read the rest

Today, Massachusetts' retail marijuana shops opened for business, and Northampton, Mass mayor David Narkewicz was first in line. Massachusetts is the first state east of the Mississippi to approve recreational marijuana. From CBS News:When asked whether the purchase is simply ceremonial or it will be consumed, Narkewicz said, "I am actually going to probably preserve it and display it…because it is historically significant.""There has been marijuana use going on in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for a long, long time. What's changing is it's now being regulated. It's now being tested. It's now being strictly monitored. That's really the major change that's happening," Narkewizc said. Read the rest

"I meant to do that."(digg) Read the rest

Brilliant Game Studios follows up on their 2016 video that showed off a crowd-renderer by pitting 11,000 penguins against 4,000 Santas with a new video demoing "our new GPU accelerated dismemberment and procedural wounding system. Limbs can be cut off on a massive scale. Wound from getting hit appear as deep gouges which warp their mesh." I'm really glad that we're using GPUs to do sensible things again, rather than computing virtual Beanie Babies. (via JWZ) Read the rest

When the anime movie Ghost in the Shell was released in 1995, the world wide web was still little more than a novelty, Microsoft was just beginning to find its GUI-feet, and artificial intelligence research was in the doldrums.Against this background, Ghost was remarkably prescient for its time. Twenty-three years later, it’s even more relevant as we come to grips with advances in human augmentation, AI, and what it means to be human in a technologically advanced future.Ghost in the Shell is one of twelve science fiction movies that feature in a new book that grapples with the complex intersection between emerging technologies and social responsibility. In Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies (from Mango Publishing), I set out to explore the emerging landscape around transformative trends in technology innovation, and the social challenges and opportunities they present.The movies in the book were initially selected to help tell a story of technological convergence and socially responsible innovation. But to my surprise, they ended up opening up much deeper insights into the nature of our relationship with technology.Identity-hackingGhost in the Shell opens with cyborg special-operative Major Kusanagi helping track down a talented hacker—aka the “Puppet Master”—who’s re-writing people’s “ghost”, or what makes them uniquely “them”, using implanted brain-machine interfaces.Kusanagi inhabits a world where human augmentation is commonplace, and is almost entirely machine. This technological augmentation provides her and others with super-human abilities. But it also makes them vulnerable—especially to hackers who can effectively re-code their memories. Read the rest

George writes, "AntiPolygraph.org has released the 5th edition of its free ebook, The Lie Behind the Lie Detector, which provides a thorough debunking of the pseudoscience of polygraphy and explains how to pass or beat a polygraph test." Read the rest

In photography as in film, all the real artistry is in post-production - increasingly so, with the new possibilities cropping up in digital imaging. If you're ready to get serious about your photography, may we suggest HDR Projects 2018 Pro. As working photographers can tell you, this imaging software can help you re-imagine even the most mundane snaps.That's HDR as in High Dynamic Range. In short, it'll allow you to add a range of luminosity to your pics that is higher than what the brain can perceive, resulting in photos that are beyond photo-realistic. HDR Projects 2018 Pro comes out of the box with a professional toolbox packed with 155 presets and filters, all of which can be fine-tuned to create a unique look in 4k resolution. The system will give recommendations and let you view HRD montages to let you choose at a glance the right enhancement. It's compatible with Photoshop and Lightroom, and will batch-process files from every possible photo source.Pick up HDR Projects 2018 Pro on sale now for $29 and start checking out your photos in a whole new light. Read the rest