On Facebook, my friend Joseph Pred asked his pals to recommend their favorite "obscure" podcasts, "Feel free to share even if it’s on a niche topic or something weird. I like weird." He got some great responses, so I asked everyone if it was cool to share with you all.Here's some of what they offered up:Joseph himself recommends:Damn Interesting "...Besides having fascinating stories has fantastic sound design."Todd E. recommends several:Blank Check with Griffin & David "A podcast about auteur directors who are given a blank check for their movies. Sometimes great art is made and sometimes the check 'bounces.' They tend to do a director's entire filmography, one episode per movie."WEDWay Radio "A great historical Disneyland podcast. The format has recently changed but the back catalogue of episodes are fantastic."American Hysteria "A fantastic new podcast about public panics."The Sweep Spot "another Disney-themed podcast done by two former custodial cast members. They have a slightly unpolished 'aw shucks' vibe that I like and talk in-depth about the behind-the-scenes cast member culture."CTP (who is a magician) recommends:"Obscure? Two friends of mine do one called Shezam" and the co-hosts "get way better at it as they go."Co-hosts and professional magicians, Carisa Hendrix and Kayla Drescher attempted to finally answer the question… “What is it like to be a woman in magic?” But since the answer is too long, and too important, they made a podcast! Shezam is not only a podcast, but a full resource for the magic community to empower women to empower themselves. Read the rest

Just look at it. (Thanks, Jack Buffington!) Read the rest

Just over a decade ago, kids might learn robotics - if they got introduced to it at all - by painstakingly programming a robot arm to pick up a cup.These, however, are great times to be alive. Get a load of the DJI RoboMaster S1 STEM Education Robot, a kit that's sure to kick off a whole new generation of makers.It's inspired by DJI's annual RobotMasters competition, so you know this is no simple RC toy. And while it is fairly simple to build in the basic configuration, the 46 customizable components give kids plenty of room to tweak and learn.The OS supports Scratch and Python languages, which can be used to program any number of custom moves into this tiny tank. It can be controlled on a smartphone by way of the RobotMaster app, and the omnidirectional wheels are capable of some fancy floorwork.Put it into the arena with another S1, and you open up a whole new world of robot combat via the infrared beams, bead launcher, and hit detectors. You can even communicate remotely with the onboard FPV cameras and intercom feature.Right now, you can take an early Black Friday discount of 15% off the DJI RoboMaster S1 by using the online code BFSAVE15, bringing the price down to $466.65.Don't wait for Black Friday—you can get these top-sellers at deep discounts today! Read the rest

No one knows who owns the Google Cloud drive that exposed 1.2 billion user records, seemingly merged from data-brokers like People Data Labs and Oxydata, who may have simply sold the data to a customer that performed the merge operation and then stuck the resulting files on an unprotected server, which was discovered in October by researcher Vinny Troia using Binaryedge and Shodan.The data merges home and cell numbers, social media profiles, work histories and email addresses; as Troia says, "This is the first time I've seen all these social media profiles collected and merged with user profile information into a single database on this scale. From the perspective of an attacker, if the goal is to impersonate people or hijack their accounts, you have names, phone numbers, and associated account URLs. That's a lot of information in one place to get you started."The brokers don't think they were breached. PDL founder Sean Thorne hypothesized that some of the data his company nonconsensually gathered on 1.5 billion people was sold to a normal customer who mishandled it and that is "their responsibility."Oxydata exec Martynas Simanauskas said that while his company sells its nonconsensual dossiers on terms that require its customers to manage the data conservatively, "there is no way for us to enforce all of our clients to follow the best data protection practices and guidelines."They're totally right about one thing: once you gather and sell this data, you can't control it -- it's pluripotent, omnitoxic, and immortal. Read the rest

Until very recently, having bought something from Apple's online store, you could leave a comment describing how you felt about it. Here are some examples:I paid a metric ass-ton of money for this aluminum laptop. I will not be able to buy groceries for a month, becasue of the financial hit I took. However, the laptop is extremely well-made and will last me many years.What the fuck do you mean I'm holding it the wrong way?My iPad still does iPad stuff, but I'm happy I bought this new ipad, all the same.Does the keyboard still suck?These are all worthy notes that could help an intrepid online shopper to make an informed buying decision. Apparently, Apple doesn't care for this sort of thing anymore.From AppleInsider:On November 17, Apple removed the "Ratings & Reviews" section from all product pages on the Apple website. It is currently unclear what has prompted this decision, nor when Apple will bring back the option to read the opinions of other customers at the time of purchase. The reviews were pulled over the weekend, though it's not clear as to why this has happened. Apple had been known for leaving up even especially negative reviews, which demonstrated both transparency and integrity to their customers.Transparency and integrity, who's got time for that sort of thing?As I do most of my shopping in-store when I need a new Apple widget or the repair of an old one, I'm curious to find out whether the company's practice of sending a post-purchase 'how did we do' email will still be something that they do, given the new direction that they're taking. Read the rest

New Age spirituality has never been my thing. If you're into it, hey, that's cool; it's just not for me. I don't really stay up nights worrying about it, and I certainly haven't given much thought to healing crystals. I've never considered what they do, or where they come from.But someone has thought about this (besides the people profiting off of it). In May 2018, the New Republic published an article tracing the sources of these supposedly-powerful stones. And perhaps unsurprisingly, it's shadier than one might expect:I tried to track down the sources of crystals sold on popular websites. I found that some were mined in countries with notoriously lax labor and environmental regulations, and some came from large-scale U.S. mines that have contaminated ecosystems and drinking water. The impacts of extracting crystals are admittedly low compared to those of industrial gold, copper, granite, or rare earth mining, but crystals have gone from a new-age fad to a multi-billion dollar industry. And given that crystals can be used to “make a promise to mama earth,” it would seem important to know how they were extracted from mama earth.While healing crystals are still a ways away from Blood Diamond levels of volatility, it turns out that many of them do come from ethically questionable mines, often in places like Myanmar or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Even more fascinating is what author Emily Atkin finds about supply lines, distributor relationships, and regulatory standards (or a lack thereof) for those little gems of spirituality. Read the rest

If you've ever worked with two monitors, you know how much time they save. When you're dealing with big jobs that involve lots of data, there's nothing like being able to see all your charts and spreadsheets at a single glance. Once you're used to it, there's no reason you'd ever go back other than the obvious one: There's just not enough space for two laptops in the average coffeeshop or coworking space.The Mobile Pixels DUEX Pro Portable Dual Monitor is a solution to that dilemma, and it's one so simple we're surprised it isn't more widespread.The DUEX Pro is a 12.5 inch, 1080p monitor that attaches easily to the back of any laptop. Its dual-sided sliding mount makes it easy to pop out and use whenever you need it, and the versatility doesn't stop there. Once it's pulled out, it can swivel up to 270 degrees to accommodate any workspace.It can even be folded around 180 degrees to display on the back of the laptop—perfect for on-the-fly presentations or team projects.Right now, the Mobile Pixels DUEX Pro Portable Dual Monitor is 15% off the retail price, but you can take an additional 15% off by using the online code BFSAVE15, lowering the price to $179.35.Don't wait for Black Friday—you can get these top-sellers at deep discounts today! Read the rest

The music of Spirit of The West has been a part of my life since my early teens. The band's lead singer and oft-time song writer, John Mann, was a joyful beast on stage. I saw SOTW live on a number of occasions over the years. They were great, every time. John's energetic rapport with the audience made sure of that. But my favorite time seeing John perform was when he was touring his solo album, Mister Mann. The show was intimate, quiet and lovely. It's a happy memory for me.John Mann passed away today at the age of 57 due to complications from early onset Alzheimer disease.From Spirit of the West's homepage:With deep sadness we announce that John Fraser Mann (OBC) has passed away peacefully in Vancouver, the inevitable result of Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease with which he was diagnosed several years ago.Surrounded by friends and loving family until the end, all were reminded of John’s rich legacy. He was a potent force in music, acting — onstage, in movies and on television, and was world renowned as a songwriter. As well, he was a foresightful activist and charitable figure for several worthwhile organizations. His work will resound long after his untimely passing.His career spanned nearly 40 years and included multiple film roles, numerous star turns in theatre, and fame as lead singer and spell-binding front-person of Canadian musical group ‘Spirit of the West’.John was a man of uncommon courage, was a loyal and beloved friend, a gentleman of great social conscience, and a soul brimming with creativity and enthusiasm. Read the rest

I knew about stoned yoga but I'm just learning about drunk yoga. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that there are exercise classes where you can also get your drink on (specifically, wine):The classes are intended for beginners, [founder Eli] Walker said, and encompass a 45-minute vinyasa-style session based on gentle moves set to a 1990s hip-hop playlist. Expect some mild drinking games as well. (Nonalcoholic beverages are also available.) There is time before and after to socialize.These Drunk Yoga classes are currently only available in Los Angeles and New York City. But don't let that stop you. Pour yourself a glass and get to it. Nobody's the boss of you.image via Drunk Yoga/Facebook Read the rest

Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation launched About Face, a new national campaign to end governmental use of facial recognition technology for surveillance at all levels -- city, state and federal.As the project says, the real problem with facial surveillance isn't that facial recognition is worse at recognizing Black faces than it is at recognizing white faces. Even if this was fixed, it would still put people at risk from state surveillance, overpolicing, and other traditional civil liberties concerns.There's a sign up form that will connect you with other people in your area working to stop facial surveillance, an organizers' toolkit with literature, media guides, and model legislation; and a list of bans, bills and moratoria already in place across America.Law enforcement use of face recognition technology poses a profound threat to personal privacy, political and religious expression, and the fundamental freedom to go about our lives without having our movements and associations covertly monitored and analyzed.This technology can be used for identifying or verifying the identity of an individual using photos or videos, and law enforcement and other government agencies can use it to conduct dragnet surveillance of entire neighborhoods. Face surveillance technology is also prone to error, implicating people for crimes they haven’t committed.About Face [EFF] Read the rest

Tokyo Disneyland is a curious beast: it's owned by a Japanese company (the "Oriental Land Company") but the company is contractually obligated to use Disney as its sole supplier of rides and designs; historically, TDL has expanded by ordering the very best, most popular rides and shows from other Disney parks, and then paying to have them built to the very highest possible specification -- it's a kind of global best-of Disney park, gold plated and buffed to a high finish.In light of that, it's not entirely surprising that the park's latest musical souvenir, a vinyl LP called Official Album of Tokyo Disneyland that comes with a lavishly illustrated booklet.Over on Passport to Dreams Old and New (previously), Foxxfur burnishes her credentials as the most thoughtful and engaging writer about Disney parks and their designs and history with an in-depth review of the Official Album, contrasting it favorably with the 1980 Official Soundtrack of Disneyland/Walt Disney World and The Official Album of EPCOT Center, which were "just lousy products - thin-sounding, with cheap packaging." The extra space allows the Disney sound engineers to do some interesting things. Background and incidental music is featured, something that would never happen on Western releases until the 21st century. The version of Mickey Mouse Revue finishes with a cut-down version of the attraction's theater entrance music, ending with funky guitar riffs which nearly scream 1971. Elsewhere, attraction underscore is presented for Peter Pan's Flight and It's A Small World. Read the rest

Earlier this month, management of the .org top-level domain underwent a radical shift: first, ICANN dropped price-caps on .org domains, and then the Internet Societ (ISOC) flogged the registry off to Ethos Capital, a private equity fund, and a consortium of three families of Republican billionaires: the Perots, the Romneys, and the Johnsons. This doesn't just mean that nonprofits -- for whom the .org top-level domain was created -- will pay higher prices to maintain their domains, and it doesn't just mean that private equity funds -- rather than a transparent, nonprofit NGO -- will be able to censor what gets posted to .org domains, by kicking out any domain that it doesn't like (remember when everyone was cheering because Nazi websites were being stripped of their domain names by registrars? This cuts both ways: if registrars have the power and duty to respond to speech they object to by taking away organizations' domains, then that duty and power also applies to billionaires and private equity-appointed administrators).A massive coalition of nonprofits and civil society organizations has signed an open letter to ISOC president Andrew Sullivan. Everyone from the Girl Scouts and the YMCA to EFF and Creative Commons (and many others) have signed it, and so can you.The 2019 .ORG Registry Agreement represents a significant departure from .ORG’s 34-year history. It gives the registry the power to make several policy decisions that would be detrimental to the .ORG community:* The power to raise .ORG registration fees without the approval of ICANN or the .ORG community. Read the rest

In this video, basically an ad for the upcoming Sony 360 Reality Audio, brilliant record producer and criminally underappreciated bassist, Tony Visconti, listens to the original 1969 mono demo, the '69 studio mix, and his 2019 remastering of David Bowie's breakout track, "Space Oddity." At the end, he listens to the remixed Sony 360 Reality Audio version and talks about how it especially serves the idea behind the song (traveling through space) and that David would've loved this new audio technology.Tony talks about how incredibly modern and ahead of its time "Space Oddity" was, and how in his 2019 remastering, he remixed it to be fuller, wider, and so that you could hear elements you may not have heard in the original recording. Bringing the kick drum up in the mix, for instance, you realize what a funky track it was, Tony comments. The most interesting moment in the video is when he talks about David, many years later, explaining to him what the song was really about:David said it was actually a song about isolation and he used the astronaut in space as the metaphor...The song was written in that spirit, being isolated in this little capsule, but seeing the Universe from your window. This is what I'm trying to get across in the mix. You are going to be traveling through this mix. Things will go by you, around you, behind you, in front, come towards you.Here is the result of Tony's efforts, the 2019 remastering of "Space Oddity" (not the 360 RA mix). Read the rest

Amazon's tax bill in 2017 was $0. Trump was very vocal in his disgust at this situation and pledged he would make them pay their fair share. It's been a year, and Amazon's profits are way up ($11.2 billion!) but their tax bill remains precisely $0.00. Thank the #taxscam."Amazon pays all the taxes we are required to pay in the U.S. and every country where we operate, including paying $2.6 billion in corporate tax and reporting $3.4 billion in tax expense over the last three years," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.Amazon will pay $0 in taxes on $11,200,000,000 in profit for 2018 [Kristin Myers/Yahoo Finance](via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

Eric Rasmusen is a tenured business school professor at Indiana University Bloomington; for many years, he's posted a stream of "racist, sexist, and homophobic views" to his personal social media, including the idea that women do not belong in the workplace (he often refers to women by slurs like "slut" when discussing this and other subjects); that gay men should not be allowed in academia because of their insatiable sexual appetites and propensity for abusing students; that Black students are academically inferior to white students and do not belong at elite academic institutions.Indiana U is a state college and bound by the First Amendment's prohibition on discrimination on the basis of speech and Rasmusen has confined his odious speech acts to his personal social media, apparently refraining from voicing these views on campus while acting in a professional capacity. As a result, it's the view of the university provost that he cannot be fired, despite her characterization of Rasmusen's views as "vile and stupid" and "stunningly ignorant." Provost Lauren Robel has also said that her own respect for the First Amendment is such that she would not fire Rasmusen for his personal views, even if she could.However, Robel and the university acknowledge that Rasmusen's views call into question his impartiality and also expose students to a reasonable belief that they could not be fairly graded or assessed by Rasmusen. Accordingly the university has undertaken a pari of extraordinary measures to protect students without trampling the First Amendment.1. All classes that Rasmusen teaches will also be offered by another instructor so that any student can chose to take the class without coming into contact with Rasmusen. Read the rest

When you're planning a vacation, think about things from the airline's point of view. Jet fuel is expensive. Airplane maintenance is expensive. Ergo, empty seats equal a lot of lost revenue.There are a few travel sites out there that can turn someone else's canceled flight into your gain, but you'd be hard-pressed to find one that does it better than Matt's Flights.If you're flexible on your travel plans, a subscription to Matt's Flights can really pay off. Just enter your location and your ideal destination, and let the algorithms go to work. As soon as they find discounted rates, either through airline mishaps or last-minute deals, they'll pass them on to you.Once your deal is locked in, subscribers get personal support to flesh out the whole trip. You can expect to get three or more deals sent your way every week, so when the time is right, you can get your ideal vacation for a fraction of the price.Take your pick of subscription plans to Matt's Flights, all of which are on deep discount. Grab a one-year plan for $25, three years for $79, or a lifetime for $199. And you can take an extra 15% off the final price of any plan by entering the early Black Friday code BFSAVE15 at checkout, lowering the final prices to $21.25, $67.15, and $169.15 respectively.Don't wait for Black Friday—you can get these top-sellers at deep discounts today! Read the rest

California has such a huge undersupply of housing -- and oversupply of housing speculators -- that affluent homebuyers have effectively rendered the state's major cities unaffordable for all but the very wealthy, even pushing into neighborhoods that were historically undesirable due to poverty, poor housing stock and crime.As a result, everyday working people are being pushed out of cities, and they're clustering in suburbs and exurbs around the cities' peripheries, creating both a traffic crisis (California's roads are already massively overcongested) and a housing crisis for those communities, with rents going up and up as new tenants arrive, having been pushed out of the cities.Many working California families are now on a "financial knife edge," one minor blip away from homelessness -- a tiny rent increase or a medical emergency or an unexpected car repair can spell eviction.The state has enacted sweeping rent controls that go into effect Jan 1, but these will not adequately address the state's housing crisis: California needs a lot of high-density housing clustered around high-speed transit lines. There is pending legislation that would allow the state to force cities to permit this kind of construction, but it's being heavily lobbied against.Home sale prices have risen sharply, and middle-class buyers are snapping up homes in neighborhoods they avoided in the past.This has pushed many longtime residents — particularly renters — out of black and Latino neighborhoods, even as those who were able to purchase homes decades ago have seen their property values rise. Read the rest

Do Not Pay, the "robot lawyer" that can help you do everything from beat a traffic ticket to getting access to services for poor and homeless people, has rolled out a new service: "Do Not Sign," a tool to analyze terms of service agreements.While its true that these services are virtually always terrible, they're not all the same. Do Not Sign will flag things like obscure clauses that let you opt out of data collection and binding arbitration.Do Not Sign also flags the everyday terrors of these "agreements," such as the right to change them later without notice, the right to stop providing a service without notice, and the fact that you assume all risk when using a service.Do Not Sign uses machine learning to flag "warnings" and "loopholes" in these "agreements."“I got into this gym membership with this US company called Planet Fitness, and I didn’t realize when I was signing up that it’s basically impossible to cancel,” Browder told The Verge in an interview. “I think it just goes to show that even someone like me wouldn’t read the fine print. I don’t think regular people know what they’re agreeing to.” In the case of Planet Fitness, Browder says he eventually found a clause buried in its terms of service that allowed him to cancel the contract if he moved out of the area. In the end, he canceled his membership by telling the gym he’d moved to the UK.This is what Do Not Sign means by “loopholes.” I found one such example when I fed the system Apple’s terms of service: it informed me that I can request my personal data from the company and ask Apple to delete it. Read the rest

Every year around this time, our friends at Sparrow Lockpicks (previously) come out with a incredibly clever, giftable addition to your locksport arsenal; I always buy a few of these for Christmas gifts (often for younger people on my list) and they're universally well received.This year, Sparrow's seasonal offering is the Challenge Vault, a safecracking practice box that is both a gorgeous artifact in its own right and a superb mechanical puzzle that can be made progressively harder by adding wheels that you access by opening the safe, which arrives set to the easiest setting.The box is also useful as a safe! That is, to the extent that any safe is useful -- and as with all locksport items, this doesn't just confer a better, deeper understanding of the mechanical principles behind locks (nor merely an improvement in fine motor skills and spatial reasoning): it also armors your intuition about whether the security measures you take in your own life are worthwhile, and thus whether the companies that make them are honest about the efficacy of their products.I played with a Challenge Vault prototype at the Atlseccon conference in Halifax last spring, and my thoughts have returned to it often since. It's a fiendishly clever little gadget, well-made and well thought-through, and I know I'll be buying some for the future lockpickers in my life this year. This is more than a puzzle box … this is safe cracking.Get ready to learn a new skill with this challenge. Read the rest

Today, a federal judge sentenced former CIA officer Jerry Lee to 19 years in prison. He was convicted of gathering United States defense information and other sensitive information, and handing it over to agents for the government of China. BREAKING: A federal judge has sentenced former CIA agent Jerry Lee to 19 years in prison for gathering defense information and sensitive information and handing it over to China. @PeteWilliamsNBC reports.— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) November 22, 2019Ex-CIA officer Jerry Lee about to be sentenced. Government says it's "all but certain" he gave classified info to Chinese for $800K; he maintains he never did https://t.co/4lSLY04w8N— Rachel Weiner (@rachelweinerwp) November 22, 2019And from the backstory by Washington Post reporter Rachel Weiner:Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 55, was trying to return to the CIA even as he was gathering information requested by Chinese spies and being paid more than $840,000 from unexplained sources. According to prosecutors, he eventually admitted getting at least 21 tasks from Chinese operatives, including requests to provide CIA names, methods and locations.What he told the Chinese in response is still unclear. Lee insists that he never handed over the secrets he collected for his Chinese handlers, and prosecutors were unable to prove otherwise. But they say in a sentencing memorandum it is “all but certain” that some classified information was disclosed, although “we can never be sure of exactly how much.” Read the rest

On my last trip to Tokyo, I brought along the Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Day Pack ( on Amazon). It weighs 2.4 oz (my iPhone 6 Plus weighs 6.2 ounces) and zips up into a bundle smaller than my fist. But it holds 20 liters of stuff, and I used it every day to carry water, snacks, sweaters, an iPhone charger, a portable wifi, groceries, and things Carla and I bought while walking around. The material feels indestructible. Read the rest

T-Mobile today admitted that a recent "criminal hack" accessed personal data of some prepaid wireless customers' accounts.From USA Today's Mike Snider:The wireless provider's cybersecurity team discovered the breach recently and "shut down malicious, unauthorized access" to some prepaid accounts, T-Mobile said in a security notice posted on company's website.T-Mobile says it notified law enforcement about the breach, which led to some exposure of personal information, including names and billing addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, and wireless plan information. Now, they're telling customers this:Dear Customer,We want to let you know about an incident that we recently identified and quickly corrected that impacted some of your personal information.Our Cybersecurity team discovered and shut down malicious, unauthorized access to some information related to your T-Mobile prepaid wireless account. We promptly reported this to authorities. None of your financial data (including credit card information) or social security numbers was involved, and no passwords were compromised.The data accessed was information associated with your prepaid service account, including name and billing address (if you provided one when you established your account), phone number, account number, rate plan and features, such as whether you added an international calling feature. Rate plan and features of your voice calling service are “customer proprietary network information” (“CPNI”) under FCC rules, which require we provide you notice of this incident.We take the security of your information very seriously and have a number of safeguards in place to protect your personal information from unauthorized access. Read the rest

My 16-year-old introduced me to r/boomershumor, a subreddit dedicated the the kinds of cartoons boomers enjoy sending as attachments in emails (usually address to dozens of people because they don't know about the bcc: field). The jokes are usually about fear of technology, getting drunk on wine, decrepitude, creepy sex humor, “I hate my wife” jokes, and tiresome misogyny/homophobia/transphobia (the last two categories were identified by DonatellaNobody). Read the rest

“Intelligence officials believe that one of the people the Kremlin relied on to spread disinformation about Ukrainian interference was Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who had ties to Mr. Manafort.”

As part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' "Edward Hopper and the American Hotel" exhibition, the curators have created a brilliant installation and visitor experience that's seemingly made for Instagram. They built a physical version of Hopper's above painting "Western Hotel" (1957) and offered overnight stays inside the artwork. The overnight packages sold out very quickly. The New York Times' Margot Boyer-Dry was one of the first guests:Every detail here was inspired by Edward Hopper’s 1957 painting “Western Motel,” which has been brought to vibrant, three-dimensional life. The only thing missing is the mysterious woman whose burgundy dress matches the bedspread. But that’s where the museum guest comes in.I was the second person to stay in the museum’s Hopper hotel room, essentially becoming its subject for a night. (Before it sold out through February, the room cost anywhere from $150 a night to $500 for a package, including dinner, mini golf and a tour with the curator.) My time there was short — a standard stay runs from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. — and awkward. I had traveled all day to reach Richmond, and these pristinely basic quarters were the main event. Ultimately, it reminded me of every other hotel room I’ve ever stayed in...Ellen Chapman, a Richmond resident who stayed the night before I did, was more focused on the novelty of an art overnight. “I’ve always had that childhood fantasy of spending the night in a museum,” she said. “The remarkable part for me was waking up, drinking my coffee and looking at this amazing exhibit right next to me.”Every detail of Edward Hopper’s “Western Motel” has been brought to life at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where you can spend the night https://t.co/z9K4oefHIS— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 22, 2019 Read the rest

In Oregon, a woman was being attacked by her boyfriend. The woman's daughter called 911 but didn't want the man to know, so she told the operator she wanted a pizza. Here's a transcript of the call:911 Operator: Oregon 911Caller: I would like to order a pizza at [address redacted].911 Operator: You called 911 to order a pizza?Caller: Uh, yeah. Apartment [redacted].911 Operator: This is the wrong number to call for a pizza...Caller: No, no, no. You're not understanding.911 Operator: I'm getting you now....911 Operator: Is the other guy still there?Caller: Yep, I need a large pizza.911 Operator: All right. How about medical, do you need medical?Caller: No. With pepperoni.Photo by Alan Hardman on Unsplash Read the rest

Oooh. Ahhh.The finale is fantastic but they could have intensified the build-up with just a few well-timed acrobats.Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) of Phoenix, Maryland, USA (acting as Implosion Subcontractor to Main Demolition Contractor, Clauss Construction Company of Lakeside, California) performs the successful explosives felling of the 188’ tall, 286,440 square foot, 16-story, reinforced concrete CMU hotel structure in Las Vegas, Nevada at 2:30 AM on Tuesday, November 13, 2007. Per the request of the Property Owner/Developer, Fireworks by Grucci of Bellport, New York, choreographed a 7-minute long, combination aerial/on-building pyrotechnic display in concert with the implosion to commemorate the event. Read the rest

A man from Worcester, Massachusetts was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday with allegedly smuggling salamanders and turtles into the United States. Court documents say that Nathan Boss, 27, was sending and receiving packages containing live reptiles for about two years, ”none of which were declared as live animals and some of which were species barred from being imported to the U.S.”From Boston.com:Wildlife inspectors received a package in November 2017 when U.S. Customs noticed what appeared to be reptiles in X-ray scans of the box, according to court documents. The package was inbound from Hong Kong and addressed to Robert Boss. It was declared as “porcelain pallet” on customs documents.Officials opened the package and found approximately 24 newts — only two of which were alive — packed in moss and plastic containers with breathing holes.A few days later, USPS intercepted a package going from Worcester to Hong Kong that was identified as “hand carved figurines.” The package actually contained three plastic tubs, one housing three live eastern box turtles, each of which had been stuffed in a sock.Another tub contained 11 orange lizards determined to be eastern newts. The third tub contained 13 more lizards. Boss was arrested in October, charged by indictment with two counts of smuggling wildlife into the United States, two counts of smuggling wildlife out of the United States, and making a false statement to a federal agent.Worcester man charged for allegedly smuggling salamanders and turtles into U.S. [boston.com] Read the rest

While unveiling his new Cybertruck, Elon Musk asked one of his colleagues to demonstrate the toughness of its "Armor Glass" windows by throwing a metal ball at them. The windows shattered as if they were made from candy.Image: YouTube/BBC screengrab Read the rest

If you're opposing counsel to Lane Jefferies, a lawyer with Anastopoulo Law Firm in Charleston, South Carolina and you want to talk with Jefferies about the case, well then, buckle up, chucklefuck, because you are in for a hell of a ride.As Jefferies' email footer informs those he corresponds with, if you want to call him about a case, you can try ringing his office between 4 and 4:30PM, during which time he will devote five minutes to discussing the case with you.Should your five minute performance pass muster with Jefferies, the signature file goes on to say, he will "instruct my staff to schedule a longer meeting with you if you satisfy the criteria set forth in #2 below."Criteria #2, the sigfile continues, is this: "Begin by providing my office with a specific agenda of items you would like to discuss... Be sure to identify the tangible outcomes to be achieved as to each item, and persuasively describe how these outcomes, if achieved, would promote the greatest recovery for my client in the least amount of time and for the least expense."But there's more! "On the other hand, if you do not persuade my staff that scheduling a meeting is consistent with my promise to my clients not to try to do 1000 things at once that won’t contribute much, if anything, to the results we are trying to achieve, then no meeting will be scheduled (though you remain free to call any afternoon as described in #1 above)... Read the rest

The Labour Party's 2020 Election Manifesto is out, and it promises a comprehensive reworking of the British state to benefit the vast majority of Britons, not the tiny minority who have waxed ever-richer through decades of neoliberalism and ten years of cruel Tory austerity.The manifesto's pledges include:* Scapping the Department of Work and Pensions and replacing it with a Department for Social Security, charged with a mission to "support people, not punish and police them." The new Department would scrap the "Work Capability and PIP Assessments, which repeatedly and falsely find ill or disabled people fit to work" as well as the practice of witholding benefits to sanction poor people who fail to comply with bureaucratic requirements. Labour will end the bedroom tax, lift the benefit cap and end the two-child limit.* Support for parents of children with disabilities will be improved: disability benefits will be made level with the child tax credit, and the Carer's Allowance will be the same as the Jobseeker's Allowance* Labour will ban zero-hours contracts and institute a minimum wage of £10/h. Firms will not be able to class their workers as independent contractors to evade these requirements, though the genuinely self-employed will still be able to enter into contractor relationships with their customers.* Workers whose shifts are canceled at the last minute will be entitled to compensation; they will also be guaranteed breaks during their shifts. * Labour will ban union-busting, scrap anti-union laws, and ensure that all workers have the right to join a union and participate in collective bargaining. Read the rest

Once upon a time, people had so much free time that they needed a place to go that wasn't work or home. A third place. Sony was one of the companies competing for that space, and created an entire campaign around the concept. They hired David Lynch to direct a commercial for the Playstation 2 because "He's been living in The Third Place for quite a few years."The commercial is predictably surreal, makes no detectable reference to video games, and could easily be reused for other products with equal success:Lynch received some pushback on choosing black and white, but artistic version prevailed over the color version:There is also a short documentary on the making of the commercial that feels suitably Lynchian--moments of levity amidst a murky, ominous set:You can see more commercials in the campaign here. Read the rest

Things break, and even in this disposable world, there's a need to fix them. Up until recently, that's been the crusty bottle of glue in your junk drawer, which is just as liable to coat your fingers as the thing you actually want to repair.Looks like there's finally a Star Trek-level solution on the market: The BONDIC® Pocket 3D Liquid Plastic Welding Kit.The term "welding kit" isn't just puffery, either. The BONDIC® tube puts out not glue but a liquid plastic that stays fluid for as long as you need it to. As soon as you've made a seal, just hit it with the UV light that accompanies the applicator. Instantly, the light breaks down the liquid solution and within seconds, you've got a seal of firm plastic that holds as well or better than household glue that's been drying overnight. You can even file or shave it down to fit whatever shape you need.The BONDIC® Pocket 3D Liquid Plastic Welding Kit is already 40% off the MSRP, but you can take an extra 15% off that final price by using the early Black Friday code BFSAVE15, lowering the final cost to only $12.74. Read the rest

Amnesty International has had just about all that it cares to take of Google and Facebook's profiting off of our personal information. In a recent report, the international human rights charity stated that they were deeply concerned that the two companies mass surveillance ventures were making large scale human rights violations an easy go for anyone with access to the information and ill-intent.From TechCrunch:“[D]espite the real value of the services they provide, Google and Facebook’s platforms come at a systemic cost,” Amnesty warns. “The companies’ surveillance-based business model forces people to make a Faustian bargain, whereby they are only able to enjoy their human rights online by submitting to a system predicated on human rights abuse. Firstly, an assault on the right to privacy on an unprecedented scale, and then a series of knock-on effects that pose a serious risk to a range of other rights, from freedom of expression and opinion, to freedom of thought and the right to non-discrimination.”If this argument sounds vaguely familiar to you, then you've been paying attention to this nonsense. As TechCrunch points out, the points that Amnesty International makes have been brought before by the United Nations, Zeynep Tufekci and Shoshana Zuboff—an organization and pair of noted scholars anyone would do well to listen to.This feels like a topic better left to Cory Doctorow to explain than a chump like me, but let's have a go at it anyway.By agreeing to Facebook or Google's terms of service, you're agreeing to allowing them to use and abuse your private information. Read the rest

The Tesla truck is here. Its stainless steel hide can withstand sledgehammer blows, but its windows are not quite so impervious to enemy action. It's not clear how long it takes to go from 0-88 MPH, but I'm certain we'll find out. Jalopnik:Tesla chose to unveil this here and now because Musk loves Blade Runner. And to date, he’s made some wild claims about what it can do: out-truck a Ford F-150, outperform a Porsche 911, be “literally bulletproof” and ideally start under $50,000. It’s also “the official truck of Mars.”The man’s a lot of things, but modest isn’t one of them. ...a 14,000-pound tow claim, a 3,500-pound payload claim, three ranges (200 miles, 300 miles and 500 miles), adaptive air suspension and a base price of $39,900 for the rear-wheel drive single-motor version. The max range version, with all-wheel drive and three electric motors, is said to be $69,900.Production is said to be coming in late 2021, and the tri-motor version is happening in 2022, Musk said.This is absolutely a survivalist fantasy vehicle. Magical. Read the rest

Created by Twitter user Betty Cam, this is a really clear and simple way to wrap your around the nearly-unfathomable wealth of a hundred billionaire. Because somehow there are still people who think a person could actually need, deserve, or morally earn that kind of money.Image from DuckTales Read the rest

Above, a video posted by a passenger on a Philippine Airlines flight that headed out of LAX and then headed right back in again. KTLA reports: Passengers and people on the ground videotaped repeated blasts of flame coming from the right engine of the Boeing 777 minutes after takeoff.“I could see, like, flashes of light. I thought it was ... just from the sunlight and then I just started hearing, like ‘boom, boom, boom,’” passenger Walter Baumann told KABC-TV. “And then I look out of the window and these balls of fire are just shooting out of the engine.”Andrew Ames was a passenger in a car speeding down a freeway near the airport when he got a video of the plane.“The back was spewing fire bolts,” he said. “It looked like when you see a backfire from a motorcycle. Then I thought, ‘I don’t think a plane is supposed to do that.’” Read the rest

In a move that is so bombastic yet embarrassing that it sounds like something straight out This is Spinal Tap—ya know what, let's just let ABC Australia fill us in:[KISS] cancelled its other [Australian] concerts after lead singer Paul Stanley pulled out due to illness.But a line-up featuring bass guitarist Gene Simmons, lead guitarist Tommy Thayer, and drummer Eric Singer took to the seas as part of an Airbnb promotion designed to promote tourism locations around the world.The concert was billed as KISS playing to great white sharks — although no sharks actually turned up.That's it. That's what actually happened. In Australia, of all places. There were reportedly eight people who paid actual currency to watch this stunt on the boat, along with some media people and stray boaters, for a total estimated crowd of maybe 50 people. Watching 3/4 of KISS perform with a terrible sound system. Okay.The event was hosted by Adventure Bay Charters, a company that apparently promises "shark cage diving" adventures in the waters around Australia. Hence, the concert was supposed to demonstrate the company's ability to attract sharks for the experience using sound waves instead of blood…except that the whole thing failed in that regard."KISS cancel Australian tour but show must go on for great white sharks" [Jodie Hamilton, Emma Pedler and Paul Turton / ABC]Image via Wikimedia Commons Read the rest

It's been more than twelve years since the release of Half Life 2: Episode 2, and fans of the Half Life series have long been left out in the cold waiting for the story to conclude. Enter Half Life: Alyx, described as a "full" VR game featuring one of Dr. Freeman's sidekicks. You'll need a powerful PC (recommended is an Nvidia 1070 GPU and mandatory is a VR headset) and about 20 hours to spare. It's scheduled for release in March 2020. Read the rest

The project starts with finding the exact right jacket:The jacket I picked is the adidas Originals Superstar Track Jacket. I wanted this one because it features the iconic trefoil logo and calls back to the 80’s b-boy b-girl era. What we’re really looking for is how the stripes are attached. The white stripes are sewn on top of the black base jacket using two parallel rows of stitches 8mm apart. This creates a fabric tube that we can insert our LEDs into.Click through for instructions on creating your own robust glowing jacket.I just posted about how-to build your own awesome glowing @adidasoriginals jacket https://t.co/nWLLqn0ItY pic.twitter.com/cG44cqHLuj— Dr. Rogopnik (@eliot) November 16, 2019The group looked great at the Neotropolis Bar in Los Angeles:(Via John Wiseman.) Read the rest

Obviously, there's a glitch in the political matrix. Read the rest

The meme machinery has been working overtime riffing on the Obstructor-in-Chief's latest cartoonish attempt to save himself, his hastily Sharpie'd "I want nothing" memo. First it was the above Ramones-like track. Then came the Morrissey version, courtesy of the awesomely Twitter-handled RuPaul Giamatti:.@pattonoswalt made a tweet that showed Trump’s handwritten notes and the caption was simply “Morrissey voice:”. Needless to say, I got inspired and put WAY to much effort into this. pic.twitter.com/heOiOhl90P— RuPaul Giamatti (@BenJamminAsh) November 21, 2019And another Morrissey version:Inspired by @pattonoswalt , here's Trump's notes as if Morrissey wrote them into song, performed by me pic.twitter.com/Emka5wVwzM— Appa the Flying 🅱ison (@victoryrhoad) November 20, 2019And just for the record, mister presidink, it's spelled "Zelensky." It's kind of a good idea to spell the names of other world leaders correctly in your stunt memos.Update: Awesome emo version. [H/t John Ülaszek]Emo Trump recites poem on White House lawn pic.twitter.com/rAD3xRjX4L— Nick Lutsko (@NickLutsko) November 20, 2019 Read the rest

Caroline McCarthy is a journalist and ex-googler who now works as an ad-tech exec for a startup that Fox bought and they transfered to Disney when the two companies merged; in this great, impassioned Tedx talk, she lays out the case for being a "tech policy activist" and explains how the field of tech policy, though neglected by politicians and pollsters, is vital to many aspects of our daily lives, and how it fails to decompose neatly on left-right lines and nevertheless demands our close attention lest it be formulated in ways that disappoint or even harm us. It's a great talk, akin in some ways to Schneier's plea for "public interest technologists." Read the rest

Outdoor advertising companies are tapping location data brokers like Placeiq (which aggregates location data leaked by the spying dumpster-fire that is your phone's app ecosystem) and covertly siting Bluetooth and wifi sniffers in public space to gather data on the people who pass near to billboards: "gender, age, race, income, interests, and purchasing habits."This data is used to modify digital billboards, both in realtime (changing the ads based on who is currently present), and in aggregate (changing which ads run when, based on the typical profile of people near a location at a given time).The outdoor ad brokers also sell your data to online ad brokers, who chase you around the internet with the ads you've walked past that morning, and they buy your purchase data to see whether you've bought the things that were advertised to you.The good news is that opting out is easy! Just stop ever leaving your house, never use the internet, and stop buying things.Five Tier’s Frank O’Brien says that, just like every other industry, the out-of-home advertising business should be regulated. But for now, if you’re not comfortable with how out-of-home advertising uses your information, you don’t have much recourse. “I don't think there’s anything you can do about it,” he says.In the meantime, out-of-home advertising is charging ahead. Last summer, Adomni ran a campaign for the Ultimate Fighting Championship based on the daily travel patterns of consumers singled out as potential fans. Over the past year in Buffalo, N.Y., Lamar targeted consumers exposed to out-of-home advertising for Tim Hortons restaurants with additional ads on their mobile devices. Read the rest

I've been semi-seriously joking about "AK-3DPs" (3D printed assault rifles) for years, and while the attempts to limit the spread of 3D printed guns have been sloppy and poorly formulated (as have the Trump admin's attempt to roll them back) the state of the art is still progressing.That said, Ivan the Troll 12's design for a 3D printed AK receiver is not making me lose any sleep, given how many times it has basically shattered cracked up while he was firing it.Note: Mr The Troll 12 took umbrage at my use of the word "shattered" above, saying "it's failure mode is gradual (fatigue related) and not sudden (improper design)." I have made an edit, above. We regret the error.This is front receiver v5 mated to rear receiver v10. The rounds counts are as follows:Front receiver v5: 568 (and counting)Rear receiver v10: 120 (and counting)Previous rear receivers failed:Rear receiver v9: 200 (failure imminent)Rear receiver v8: 120 (failure)Rear receiver v7: 128 (failure)Rear receiver v10 features a fiberglass patch heat welded to the rear of the receiver (just smushed into it with a soldering iron but heat welding sounds cool), as well as a 45 degree print angle (other receivers were upright). I'm hoping these updates will get the rear receiver over 250 rounds. The v11 rear receiver will remove the top rear trunnion pin hole (that's where the cracks were starting for the rear receivers that failed), and reinforce the printed rear trunnion support to take up the slack. Read the rest

Princeton computer scientist Arvind Narayanan (previously) has posted slides and notes from a recent MIT talk on "How to recognize AI snake oil" in which he divides AI applications into three (nonexhaustive) categories and rates how difficult they are, and thus whether you should believe vendors who claim that their machine learning models can perform as advertised.Narayanan's categories are: * Perception, such as facial recognition and song identification, where there is a definitive correct answer, which is making "genuine, rapid progress."* Automating judgment, such as spam detection, copyright violation, essay grading, where humans routinely make judgments that can be used to train a model, which is "far from perfect, but improving," albeit with limits, because "reasonable people can disagree about the correct decision."* Predicting social outcomes, such as predictive policing, predicting terrorist risk, predicting which kids are at risk, which is "fundamentally dubious" because regression analysis and other statistical tools do not work better than "manual scoring using just a few features" -- and this doesn't work very well (and that's before you get into areas like training data bias, etc).Moreover, the use of AI to predict social outcomes doesn't just produce bad predictions, it also drives demand for more surveillance to feed the machine-learning models, and uses up energy that could be deployed on better-performing techniques for mitigating these harms.This is a great, compact presentation, but I feel the need to weigh in critically on Narayanan's claim that ML can be used for judging "copyright violation": this is a common misconception among computer scientists who lack a nuanced understanding of copyright law and its limitations and exceptions. Read the rest

Dynaflash is a projector that maps a moving, deforming surface at 1000 frames per second, meaning that it can cast a stable image on it no matter how wild its gyrations. One caveat: it requires the target surface to have an invisible infrared grid on it.Our method can obtain the deformation robustly at 1,000 fps by using an originally proposed marker "Deformable Dot Cluster Marker", even when the target causes large deformation and occlusions. Using these base technologies including DynaFlash and Deformable Dot Cluster Marker, we realize a new dynamic projection mapping onto deforming non-rigid surface. In this demonstration, by drawing the marker on the target with IR ink, we allow the marker to be invisible to human and enable robust sensing independently of the projected images. In our technology, both the projection and sensing are operated at a speed of 1,000 fps. Therefore, it is possible to keep the projection consistent with the deformation and extend the real world as if the projected image is printed or existed as an original (digital) texture on the target. Read the rest

Only you can make the Imp Bottle lie on its side. When spectators try, they will discover that the bottle stubbornly refuses to stay down. This trick has driven many people insane throughout the years. The secret is a tiny imp inside the bottle that is loyal to you alone. It requires no feeding or care.The Imp Bottle is on Amazon with free Prime shipping. Performance video below. Read the rest

Facebook today confirmed what has long been rumored: Donald Trump hosted a dinner which was not disclosed to the public in October 2019 with Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel, at the White House.The secret White House dinner with Trump, Thiel, and Zuckerberg happened around the time when Zuck testified before Congress about the Libra cryptocurrency project, which failed.From Dylan Byers and Ben Collins reporting for NBC News:“As is normal for a CEO of a major U.S. company, Mark accepted an invitation to have dinner with the President and First Lady at the White House,” a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed statement.A source familiar with the dinner told NBC News that Thiel was also present. It is unclear why the meeting was not made public or what Trump, Zuckerberg and Thiel discussed.The White House declined to comment.The dinner was the second meeting between Zuckerberg and Trump in a month. Zuckerberg also met with the president in the Oval Office during a September visit to the capital.Zuckerberg, Trump, Melania, and Thiel had a secret dinner at the White House last month. Facebook has been preaching political transparency. Yet it didn't disclose this. https://t.co/zVqYC0O4np— Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) November 21, 2019I genuinely don't understand why @Facebook would issue such a smarmy response here. The "As is normal" phrasing does them no favors. If it's so utterly normal and banal, why not announce it? Why is it going viral, if it is so normal? Made it worse. Read the rest

Business Ryokan Asahi is a hotel in Fukuoka, Japan. They will let you stay in a room for 130 yen ($1.20) if you agree to be livestreamed on its YouTube channel.From Oddity Central:It’s not as bad as it sounds, though. While the camera covers the entire tiny room, leaving occupants no place to hide, it doesn’t come with a microphone. The lack of audio coverage is designed to avoid copyright infringement complaints for music that could be heard from the in-room TV, but guarantees that no one will hear you talking to yourself or others, snoring, or making other embarrassing sounds.Photo: Business Ryokan AsahiImage: YouTube Read the rest