Boing Boing

Arthur C. Clark's short story "Transit of Earth" appeared in the January 1971 issue of Playboy. It's a moving tale of an astronaut stranded on Mars, on the verge of death, waiting to watch the Earth pass in front of the Sun. Above, Clarke's reading of the story as found on his 1978 spoken word LP that also includes "The Nine Billion Names of God" and "The Star."(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

The US Navy is building a ship that they are naming after a true American hero. Harvey Milk (1930-1978) was an inspiring LGBT activist who in 1978 became the first openly gay elected official in California history. On November 27 1978, Milk, a highly effective member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and mayor George Moscone were assassinated by another city supervisor. But before all that, Milk served in the Navy. That is, until his superiors found out Milk was gay and forced him to resign. From CNN:More than 60 years later, the Navy began construction Friday on the USNS Harvey Milk, a new oiler ship that will resupply fuel to other ships at sea."(This) sends a global message of inclusion more powerful than simply 'We'll tolerate everyone,'" Stuart Milk said at a ceremony in San Diego, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. "(It says) We celebrate everyone."From the San Diego Union-Tribune:Nicole Murray Ramirez, the chairman and executive director of the San Diego International Imperial Court Council, an LGBT organization, was a leader in the push to name a vessel after Milk.“When ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ was lifted, I researched, and one guy picks all these (ship) names — the Secretary of the Navy,” Ramirez said.His organization, which has chapters nationwide, organized a national letter-writing campaign in 2011 to push then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to name a ship for Milk.image: "Harvey Milk in dress Navy Blue uniform for his brother's wedding in 1954" (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

If you fly coach, you know that even a short jaunt can seem like an eternity, especially if it's during the wee hours. Cramped quarters and awkward, upright chairs can make sleep almost impossible no matter how many jackets and mini-pillows you stuff under your neck.If you fly even a couple of times a year, it's well worth investing in a decent travel pillow. And the CORI Travel Pillow is one of the best of the bunch.Why you might ask? It all comes down to design.A travel pillow should be more than just a bit of fluff in a tiny case. The CORI is actually three pillows in one: There's a pair of mini-pillows (one long, one short) made of soft-responsive memory foam. Then there's a plush fabric strap that an accommodate both pillows lengthwise - or in any configuration you need. That means you can stack them to fit your shoulders, neck or back at pretty much any angle.The strap also makes it incredibly portable. You can even wear the thing as a mini-scarf if you like.The CORI Travel Pillow is now more than 20% off the retail price for the holidays. Read the rest

"I forced her out because she's corrupt," said Rudy Giuliani, a private citizen who was once Donald Trump's personal lawyer, about America's former ambassador to Ukraine. In this bananas TV segment with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Rudy then goes on to say of Marie Louise "Masha" Yovanovitch: "She should've been fired if the State Department weren't part of the deep state." Even from Giuliani this is some crazy ass shit.Rudy Giuliani on Yovanovitch: I didn’t need her out of the way, I forced her out because she’s corrupt pic.twitter.com/eLV4onbFkY— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) December 17, 2019Let’s again look at how the SDNY has described the the removal of Yovanovitch. Also, why was a Giuliani associate working to have her removed as alleged in an indictment where the US Gov’t says it was being done “at the request of one or more Ukrainian government officials.” https://t.co/xDzJ4Iaa3Q— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) December 17, 2019 Read the rest

New NYC law to cub vaping takes effect next July, aims to protect teens' health

Well, this is rather bold, isn't it.Today, as Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was returning to Moscow from last week's visit with Donald Trump in the White House, Russian state media aired a segment with this title: “Puppet Master and ‘Agent’—- How to Understand Lavrov’s Meeting With Trump.”Julia Davis at The Daily Beast reports on this rather blunt segment aired today on Russian TV channel Rossiya 1:Vesti Nedeli, a Sunday news show on the same network, pointed out that it was Trump, personally, who asked Lavrov to pose standing near as Trump sat at his desk. It’s almost the literal image of a power behind the throne.More: Yahoo News Read the rest

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has amassed $100 billion in tax-free funds that should have gone to charitable causes, according to a whistleblower who alerted the IRS, reports The Washington Post. The confidential document, received by the IRS on Nov. 21, accuses church leaders of misleading members — and possibly breaching federal tax rules — by stockpiling their surplus donations instead of using them for charitable works. It also accuses church leaders of using the tax-exempt donations to prop up a pair of businesses....https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/mormon-church-has-misled-members-on-100-billion-tax-exempt-investment-fund-whistleblower-alleges/2019/12/16/e3619bd2-2004-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.htmlImage: CC0 Public Domain Read the rest

It's a Christmas miracle! Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein showed up at court last week wearing a comically baggy suit and shuffling unsteadily with a walker. The very next day he was spotted in a New York department store, casually ambling through the aisles without assistance, loving family in tow. Page Six has the photographic evidence. Read the rest

Gabriella Paiella of GQ presents this excellent oral history of what has come to be known as the Folgers Incest Commercial of 2009. Folgers should remake the commercial and hire the actors who played Cersei and Jaime Lannister.When I first saw the ad, I thought: wait, are they fucking? (Then, every time after that: okay, they’re definitely fucking.) As I would come to learn, I was hardly alone. The reaction to the ad was an example of the internet at its most fun—the phenomenon of collectively realizing that the specific thing that you believed you’ve singularly noticed is actually a widely-held opinion. Memes, articles, and parody videos abounded. It even inspired a genre of vividly-rendered fan fiction known as “Folgerscest.” Read the rest

One Million Moms is an anti-LGBTQ division of the American Family Association, listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to its website One Million Moms is "fed up with the filth many segments of our society, especially the entertainment media, are throwing at our children." What does One Million Moms consider filth? Certainly not our pussy-grabbing, thrice-married, cheating-on-his-wife-with-a-porn-star president. They love him to pieces. Here's what they consider filth: a television commercial showing two women celebrating their wedding by kissing. One Million Moms threatened to boycott the Hallmark Channel for airing the commercial, and the poltroons at the network actually pulled the commercial. It didn't take them long to realize the utter stupidity of capitulating to the Sisters of Gilead. In short order Hallmark decided that they liked running the kissing ladies commercials after all and started re-airing them. Now everyone thinks the people over at Hallmark are idiots.Titles Featuring Lesbians Joyfully Existing And Also It’s Christmas Can We Just Let People Love Who They Love🎥 Let It Snow📺 Merry Happy Whatever pic.twitter.com/LTwnHogkoJ— Netflix US (@netflix) December 15, 2019Hallmark will be working with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands. The Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials. pic.twitter.com/p17nJpnjEB— Hallmark (@Hallmark) December 16, 2019Because when people get married, they kiss. I knew that at 3.— The Rise of Bruce Wright (@heybrucewright) December 16, 2019While the ad should never have been pulled in the first place, #Hallmark has done the right thing by apologizing, reinstating the ad, and vowing to do better by working with ⁦@glaad⁩ to become more inclusive of the #LGBTQ community. Read the rest

In my latest podcast (MP3), I continue my serial reading of my novella Party Discipline, which I wrote while on a 35-city, 45-day tour for my novel Walkaway in 2017; Party Discipline is a story set in the world of Walkaway, about two high-school seniors who conspire to throw a "Communist Party" at a sheet metal factory whose owners are shutting down and stealing their workers' final paychecks. These parties are both literally parties -- music, dancing, intoxicants -- and "Communist" in that the partygoers take over the means of production and start them up, giving away the products they create to the attendees. Walkaway opens with a Communist Party and I wanted to dig into what might go into pulling one of those off.Here's part 1 of the reading and here's part 2.We told them they could go home if they didn’t want to risk coming to the Communist party, but we told them that after we told them that they were the only kids in the whole school we trusted enough to invite to it, and made sure they all knew that if they backed out, there’d be no hard feelings—and no chance to change their mind later tonight when they were at a corny party with a bunch of kids instead of making glorious revolution.Every one of them said they’d come.I’d found an all-ages show in Encino that night, two miles from Steelbridge, Antoine’s old job. We got piled into Ubers heading for the club, chatting about inconsequentialities for the in-car cameras and mics, and every one of us paid cover for the club, making sure to use traceable payment systems that would alibi us as having gone in for the night. Read the rest

Mark Robler made a new version of his glitter/stink bomb to give package thieves a joyous surprise. This one's full of interesting bells and whistles, like an audio recording that makes it seem like the police are coming to get them. Read the rest

To millions of end-users, the cloud means convenience. But one major security breach and that convenience isn't worth a thing. That makes cybersecurity professionals one of the most crucial positions in any IT team. Don't believe us? Just look at what the incomes are for those positions with major firms.Needless to say, there's a lot of training involved to qualify for those positions. But the Essential Cloud Security Certification Bundle can get you started with a series of courses that are easy to digest.The information in the package will allow you to build security systems on a range of platforms from the ground up, able to deal with threats both internal and external. By the end of it, you'll be fully ready for the exams that will qualify you in three major cybersecurity certifications: CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional) and AWS Sysop Administrator.In all, the bundle contains over 60 hours of lectures and exercises. Access to the material is only $49 today. Read the rest

McChristian says, "Rather than send/give out Holiday Cards this year, I decided to make punch and assemble Holiday 'kits.' The sleigh and reindeer were models found on Thingiverse, and I designed/printed the evergreen tree and the label." Read the rest

Abbey Winters, the wife of Chattooga County, Georgia's sole county commissioner, was arrested Friday and charged with battery after pouring a drink on a reporter. The reporter had apparently asked her husband, Jason Winters, a difficult question about a trip to France. The drink was named as "soda", but the brand and flavor were not disclosed.The wife of Chattooga County's sole commissioner poured a soda on a reporter's head this morning. The Summerville PD is charging Abbey Winters with simple battery and disorderly conduct. The reporter is Casie Bryant of All On Georgia. Photos courtesy of the Summerville News pic.twitter.com/V3pz6UbWY8— Patrick Filbin (@PatrickFilbin) December 13, 2019Below is embedded video of the public-meeting mayhem, posted by AllOnGeorgia. The victim, AllOnGeorgia reporter Casie Bryant, is out of shot, as is Abbey Winters, but you get the NSFW dialog and the hapless excuses about how she had it coming."I'm sick of it.""She brought it on herself.""She brought it on herself.""Nobody brings that on themself.""By saying he went to France?""Oh, yes, bitch"MUGSHOT RELEASED: NewChannel 9 was provided the mugshot of Abbey Winters. Winters is a Chattooga County Commissioners wife accused of spilling a drink on a reporters head during a budget meeting.MORE HERE: https://t.co/mr1VG1sHsQ pic.twitter.com/0EVQsavmbF— WTVC NewsChannel 9 (@newschannelnine) December 14, 2019 Read the rest

Propublica's meticulously researched and reported story about McKinsey's roles in designing ICE's detention centers, advising ICE to skimp on supervision, food and medical care, is as unimpeachable as all of Propublica's work.Nevertheless, McKinsey released an 800-word statement falsely claiming that Propublica had "mislead readers" with an article that "ignores many of the factual points that we presented." The rebuttal contains many verifiable falsehoods (for example, it repeatedly accuses Propublica of publishing things it did not publish), and several misleading claims.McKinsey is paying to make this article the top Google result for "McKinsey ICE," ensuring that its misleading and false spin is above the factual reporting on its conduct. Propublica has published a detailed, point-by-point rebuttal to McKinsey's spin.Claim:“We did not recommend a reduction in the quality of food or healthcare for detainees.”Response:ProPublica did not report that McKinsey recommended a reduction in the quality of food and medical care. The article reported that McKinsey recommended reducing the amount of money spent on food and medical care. (As noted, the text of the story used the phrase “proposed cuts in spending on food for migrants, as well as on medical care.”)McKinsey did not dispute that prior to publication and does not dispute it now. Neither did Cox, the ICE spokesman.McKinsey Called Our Story About Its ICE Contract False. It’s Not. [Ian McDougall/Propublica] Read the rest

Boing Boing proudly welcomes EST as a sponsor.The Torch L1 by EST Gear is the world’s most versatile flashlight. It features a unique L-shaped design so you can use it hands free as a headlamp or stand-it up with it’s ultra-handy, flat, magnetic bottom. Stick it, clip it, carry it or wear it. This super-bright, waterproof, rechargeable flashlight is capable enough for every adventure and small enough for everyday use.Learn more! Read the rest

The final spot on Boston's city council race for at-large councillors went to Julia Mejia, who edged out her opponent Alejandra St. Guillen by a single vote (22,491 to 22,492). Both were in the running to be the first Latina elected to council.The re-count took three days, and is described as "brutal" by WGBH's Isaiah Thompson.Through the grueling three-day recount, Mejia and St. Guillen were cordial, complimenting each other's campaigns.After St. Guillen conceded the race, it was her campaign Mejia first singled out for praise when she celebrated the victory, at last, in front of City Hall.“I want to thank Alejandra St. Guillen for the hard race that she and her campaign team led,” Mejia told reporters.In an election that will be remembered for a long time, both the winner and loser will have fought a clean fight. Five Takeaways From What Might Have Been The Closest Election In Boston History [Isaiah Thompson/WGBH](Thanks, Kathy Padilla!)(Image: About Labels) Read the rest

Bunnie Huang (previously) is a legendary hardware hacker, and one of his claims to fame are his annual trips to Shenzhen -- China's electronics manufacturing hub -- with groups of MIT students to show them how electronic production actually works in the field, both so they can design projects with that reality in mind, and so that they can get an appreciation of what's happening behind the scenes when they order parts, tool up a line, or otherwise interact with the factories -- tiny and massive -- of the Pearl River Delta.Huang's "Essential Guide to Shenzhen" grew out of that project: it's a soup-to-nuts, practical electronics hacker's guide to navigating Shenzhen, with point-to-translate guides to components, tools and tooling, bargaining, and transport. It's got chapters on spotting counterfeits, tipping, dress codes, local sights, haggling, and "technical Chinese" language notes. There's also a section on travel, visas, border-crossings and Chinese customs.The book is all-but-out-of-print (Huang notes that "the last few physical copies of the book available for purchase are at MJ Maker’s stall on the 2nd floor of the SEG Plaza in Huaqiangbei. His stall number is 2A08; I think he has maybe 10 copies left as of this post. If you do stop by MJ’s booth, say hi for me"), and as the maps are out of date, he doesn't want to bother reprinting it.Instead, he's put the whole book online as a free download (it's Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike), "so that others can swap out the map pages with something more up-to-date and have a swing at making their own derivative works."As my friend Gavin Zhao once quipped, Chinese is a wonderful language for poetry, but difficult for precise technical communications. Read the rest

In his latest BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller (previously) relates the key moments in the history of private equity, from its roots in the notorious "leveraged buyouts" of the 1980s, and explains exactly how the PE con works: successful, productive business are acquired through debt financing, drained of their cash and assets, and then killed, leaving workers unemployed and with their pension funds looted, and with the business's creditors out in the cold.Private equity's story begins with William Simon, "a mean, nasty, tough bond trader who took no BS from anyone" whose idea of child-rearing was the douse his children with buckets of ice-water to rouse them from bed on weekend mornings. Simon was given senior Treasury appointments under Nixon/Ford, then became America's energy czar during the oil crisis. He was pro-austerity and blocked the bailout of NYC in 1975. Once out of government service, Simon set about to create a Republican "counter-intelligentsia" to swing the party to the right. He ran the influential far-right think-tank the Olin Foundation, and dispersed money to fund law and economics scholars who were devoted to discrediting the New Deal and the idea of any limits on corporate power, all cloaked in "scientific" rhetoric.The darlings of this movement -- Henry Manne, Milton Friedman, Michael Jenson -- promoted the idea of "shareholder capitalism" and the notion that managers have a single duty: to put as much money in the pockets of investors, even at the expense of the business's sustainability or the well-being of its workers. Read the rest

The RV might be winterized and staying put until the spring thaw, but we're not. Now that I have the all clear from my cardiologist, my wife and are are planning a 20-day trip to Morocco. It'll be the first time that either of us has set foot on the African continent: With its French colonial influence and their King's tourist-friendly policies, it seems like a great place to dip our toes in the continent's waters.Plus, it's cities, country side deserts and mountains are absolutely stunning. With out tickets purchased, we're now in the throes of planning our itinerary (which we always tend to keep a bit loosey-goosey.) I'm brushing up on my mediocre French. My partner is taking Darija lessons. I'm taking a HEAT course to polish up my already existing skill set, given that Morocco's neighbors have been a little rambunctious of late. Perhaps most important out of all of our preparations, is the fact that my travel playlist is slowly coming together. I find that having the right music while moving into and out of an adventure helps to set the mood for the whole thing.Tinariwen is a band that's been around for decades. Maybe you've heard of them. They only showed up as a ping on my radar within the last year. originally hails from Mali,From Wikipedia:Tinariwen is a group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed in 1979 in Tamanrasset, Algeria, but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s. Read the rest

Isaac Johnson, 14, of Bloomington, Minnesota, has the world's largest mouth gape. Johnson's 3.67 inch pie hole was recently confirmed to be .21 inches large larger than the gape of the previous record holder, a German fellow named Bernd Schmidt.According to Guinness World Records, Johnson "can fit objects like a baseball and the bottom of a 20 oz soda bottle into his gape." Read the rest

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to let Boise ban people from sleeping rough.The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Boise would be violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments by enforcing criminal penalties under its anti-camping ordinance when its three homeless shelters are full.“The state may not criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless -- namely sitting, lying, or sleeping on the streets,” the 9th Circuit said.State abuse of the homeless is one of the nastier trends in 21st century governance—the end is usually accomplished by more subtle means (pictured) than criminalization. Read the rest

Here's The New York Times's verdict on the 2010s: "The Decade Tech Lost Its Way." The individual stories--Deepfakes, self-driving cars, social media, fake news -- aren't laden with opinion, and many simply chart the development and success of particular gadgets, platforms and policies. But it all adds up, in a way that seems implicitly subtracted from everything else.News breaks of a video circulating on the internet that shows the “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot having sex with her stepbrother. The video is not real; someone had used artificial intelligence to superimpose Ms. Gadot’s face on the body of a pornographic actress.Phillip Isola, one of the A.I. researchers who pioneered the techniques used to create deepfakes: In 2011, 2012, deep learning started taking off. The big event was, deep nets could recognize animals in photos. It took a few years until people started to make systems that could do the opposite: not take an image and recognize that it was a cat, but take the label “cat” and synthesize an image that looks like a cat — the inverse problem. You could make photos of really low-resolution faces.Very rapidly after that, people were able to use these things for face-swapping and deepfakes and all of that.The technology advanced so quickly right around those years. It went from “O.K., this is a really interesting academic problem, but you can’t possibly use this to make fake news. It’s just going to produce a little blurry object” to “Oh, you can actually make photo-realistic faces.” Read the rest

Joshua Topolsky's new techology news site, Input, just launched. The aim, in a crowded pack? To focus on the things that are neither speculative nor mass-market but which will shape lives in the immediate future.We see technology as not just an intrinsic part of your life and ours, but a shaper of that life in a way that can be seen but is often missed. We see technology not just as a thing to be covered but a core part of the way we need to tell the story. This isn’t just about phone reviews or detailing the next Twitter meltdown (we’ll do some of that too). It’s about finding the ways technology and a life lived inside technology changes us, connects us, and moves us — and then telling you why you should care with as much honesty as possible. And hopefully, telling you in ways that make you question, think, and act.Articles include Twitter's plans to label candidates in 2020, Facebook's disinclination to cooperate with California's new privacy laws, and Nike's effort to create sneakers for people with disabilities. But there are reviews, too: the new 16-inch MacBook, the new Moto smartwatch, Boosted Beams. Read the rest

The Catholic church has plenty of weird relics stored in ornate boxes around the world. Tourists flock to these churches to get a glimpse of the vessels that allegedly contain the original Crown of Thorns, or some of Christ's dried blood that turns to liquid every now and then.And then there's Jesus's foreskin—the last (allegedly) surviving piece of flesh from God-made-flesh, chopped from the tip of his penis on New Year's Day, according to the official Roman calendar.The fact that Jesus's foreskin still allegedly exists in the world somewhere is pretty weird, but its existence alone is not the weirdest part. No, the weirdest part is that Jesus's foreskin has been missing for more than 30 years—and that in true Dan Brown style, it may have been stolen by covert agents of the Catholic church.According to "records," Charlemagne received the foreskin from an angel, and gifted it to Pope Leo II on Jesus' 800th birthday. It moved around a bit before being stolen during the Sack of Rome, then eventually turned up in a small village north of Rome called Calcata, where it remained until 1983, when it was stolen under mysterious circumstances. Calcata had become a sort of pilgrimage destination thanks to that little slice of petrified baby foreskin.The Catholic Church started to downplay the foreskin in the early 20th century, even threatening to excommunicate those who mentioned it. Meanwhile, Calcata went through some changes on its own. The whole town was condemned in the 1930s, deemed unsafe by the local government due to the crumbling volcanic cliffs nearby. Read the rest

In 1990, Brian Eno and John Cale made a wonderful experimental pop/art rock record called Wrong Way Up, released by Warner Bros. Records. At the time, the label would send out 7" records to alt.rock/college radio stations to promote their new releases. The promo series, called Soil Samples, featured different artists on each side of the record performing songs that weren't included on their new albums. Above is Brian Eno's contribution to Soil Samples #3, a sublime cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," originally written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. Read the rest

Synth pioneer Gershon Kingsley is dead at 97.Kingsley was most famous for his 1969 song “Popcorn,” which was one of the first electronic singles to hit the airwaves. The song became a hit for the group Hot Butter in 1972, and Crazy Frog revived it again in 2005. (Aphex Twin and Muse have covered it, too). Kingsley also co-wrote “Baroque Hoedown,” which was used as the theme song to Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade, with fellow synth pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey. His song “Rebirth” has been sampled in multiple hip-hop songs, including Freddie Gibbs’ and Madlib’s “Soul Right.”Kingsley joins musical partner Jean-Jacques Perrey, who died in 2016. Read the rest

There's a scene in the fourth episode of The Mandalorian where the unnamed child (aka Baby Yoda) is literally pushing Mando's buttons, well, the buttons on his ship anyway. Since it aired, the internet has been doing its thing — imagining Baby Yoda is playing with the ship's radio. The meme started a couple of weeks ago, so there a TON of them out there. I picked out a few of my favs:And, OF COURSE...(Geekologie) Read the rest

I haven't had the chance to play any of the Witcher games (although Witcher 3 for Nintendo Switch is on my list of titles to buy, just as soon as I finish Divinity: Original Sin 2.) However, I loved the books back in the day and have high hopes for the Netflix series. The final trailer for The Witcher dropped earlier this week and it's looking good. That said, I've been disapointed by streaming service series in the past. Fingers crossed. Read the rest

In last week's Superman #18, the eponymous hero held a press conference to reveal his identity to the public. Comic book continuity is ever-shifting, of course, and the connection between Superman and Clark Kent has been known or exposed by other people before, just as the genie will someday be placed back in the bottle once again. In this particular context, Superman was inspired to come clean after learning about the lies and deceptions of his birth father, Jor-El (who also used to be dead, but now is not, because comics). This revelation also comes on the heels of an epic crossover that shattered the acronym-happy intelligence community of the DC Universe with some other truths and justices.This curiously came on the heels of the Inspector General's report on the origins of the FBI investigation into the connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. The results of this investigation were as much of a political Rorschach test as anything is these days. But one thing it did reinforce was the FBI's overconfidence in its own self-righteous status quo enforcement, for better and for worse.While there was (unsurprisingly, IMHO) no political bias found in the FBI's motives, the IG report did note a handful of oversights and omissions that had been along the way—a detail that the President's stalwart defenders have eagerly jumped on. For anyone who's ever paid attention to anything the FBI has ever done, however, this all came across as the same standard over-zealous stuff the organization's also done—again, for better, and for worse. Read the rest

A porch pirate in St. Paul, Minnesota had the gall to leave a smug "thank you" note after stealing a package off Hilary Smith's doorstep. “I do appreciate a nicely-crafted ‘thank you’ note, but this is ridiculous," Smith told WCCO. I was angry and confused and quite flabbergasted someone would actually leave a ‘thank you’ note when they steal a package."The package was a Christmas gift for her boss. In the hopes that the thief returns, Smith says she's placed a fake package on her stoop for the creep to swipe. Inside the box is "a gift from her dog." Read the rest

Tabasco isn't quite hot enough for my jaded tongue but I do like the consistent taste and the product's ubiquity. Also, the tiny bottles they sometimes include with hotel room service orders are fantastic. In the video above, "Cult Following" visits the salt dome of Avery Island where the family-owned McIlhenny Company has made Tabasco sauce for 150 years. If you're in the area, you can tour the factory too! While there, please grab me one of those sharp Tabasco hoodies the guy in the video is wearing. XXL please. Read the rest

Starbucks has apologized after two Riverside County sheriff's deputies reported that baristas ignored them when they waited to place an order. This comes just a couple weeks after an Oklahoma Starbucks employee was fired for printing the word "PIG" on a police officer's hot chocolate order label (above). And back in July, a Starbucks barista in Tempe, Arizona requested that six cops leave the store because their presence made a customer "not feel safe." From CNN:(Of the Riverside County incident,) Starbucks spokesman Reggie Borges told CNN the deputies were ignored for nearly five minutes -- and there's no excuse for that."We are deeply sorry and reached out to apologize directly to them. We take full responsibility for any intentional or unintentional disrespect shown to law enforcement on whom we depend every day to keep our stores and communities safe," Borges said.The deputies were "laughed at" and "completely ignored," (Riverside County Sheriff Chad) Bianco said in a video. "They tried to get served, they asked if anyone was going to help them," he said.Eventually, they left, Bianco said. Read the rest

This holiday season, give the delivery man a break. Who needs the extra cost and uncertainty of shipping anyway? Here are 10-holiday gifts that cut out the middleman and go straight to the nicest ones on your Christmas list.Winc Wine DeliveryOkay, we might be cheating a little with this first one, but a Winc wine delivery technically doesn't require shipping if you're gifting someone the subscription! This delivery service curates a pack of four bottles from a series of questions, delivering them straight to your doorstep - or whoever's doorstep you designate.MSRP: $52Sale Price: $26Foundr Digital Magazine: Lifetime SubscriptionKnow a go-getter looking to self-start their own empire? Give them a leg up with insider secrets and philosophies from the likes of Richard Branson, Tony Robbins and many more in this magazine dedicated to the entrepreneur's lifestyle.MSRP: $219.90Sale Price: $39Dollar Flight Club Premium: 1-Yr SubscriptionThe best deals on flights are rarely on the market for long. This service gives you alerts on when those deals show up based on your dream destinations and travel times, saving you dough that you can use on your journey.MSRP:$69Sale Price: $19.9912min Micro Book Library: Lifetime Premium SubscriptionGive the gift of knowledge, even for those who are constantly on the go. This service condenses top books into bite-sized text and narrative summaries, allowing you to get the gist on your lunch break.MSRP: $346.50Sale Price: $29Sid Meier's Civilization V: CompleteThis hit strategy series has been itching the megalomania itch for armchair world leaders since 1991. Read the rest

With just days to go before it would have to close its doors forever, San Diego's beloved science fiction bookstore Mysterious Galaxy has found a new location and new owners: Jenni Marchisotto and Matthew Berger have bought the store and will run it at its new home, 3555 Rosecrans St. Suite #107 San Diego, CA 92110.Everyone's keeping their jobs, too. It's a Christmas miracle. I'm looking forward to having lots more events with them in the years to come!From Jenni: The first books I ever loved, the ones I read over and over again until the bindings practically disintegrated, were The Song of the Lioness and The Immortals quartets by Tamora Pierce. I spent much of my childhood dreaming about having purple eyes and debating whether Alanna should have ended up Jonathan or George with my cousin Courtney. As an adult I still get carried away by reading. For my degree I focused on disability in 20th century Anglophone literature. I could talk about James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Shani Mootoo for hours. I’m also a sucker for romance and fantasy. Some of my favorites include Helen Hoang, Sarah J. Maas, J. R. Ward, Richelle Mead, and Jasmine Guillory. I'm currently reading Arora Blazing by Jessie Mihalik & Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab by Shani Mootoo.From Matt: I have spent far too much time trying to figure out how to make a lightsaber work. Like, how do you get light to take a shape? Growing up, my days were filled with thoughts about the worlds authors built in my favorite series: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Feist’s Magician series, Eragon, and countless others. Read the rest

For some folks, writing notes by hand is just plain easier, but having to re-type them later can be a huge bore, not to mention time-sink.The guys from Rocketbook successfully merged the best parts of analog and digital note-taking with their Everlast notebook awhile back. And now, that tech just got a lot more portable with their Rocketbook Everlast Mini.If you haven't used an Everlast notebook before, here's the gist. The book is composed of specially-treated synthetic paper that you can write on with a special Pilot FriXion pen (included). It writes smoothly and without smudging but is completely erasable with a bit of water and a wipe. The Mini, true to its name, is pocket-sized, and the pen fits snugly in a holder flap.Want to save that work? Just scan your page with the accompanying app. You can set up a variety of destination folders in all the major cloud locations like Dropbox or Google Drive, or just drop it into an email folder - all with the touch of a single icon.A 2-pack of Rocketbook Everlast Minis is already on sale for 25% off the MSRP, but you can take an extra 15% off the final price by using the coupon code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

There are fast-paced card games, and some of them even require enough dexterity for a mini-workout (like Skip-Bo or Snap). But there's nothing quite like the Mokuru® Card Game, which uses an already addictive fidget toy as the centerpiece for a cutthroat game of tabletop challenges.The game is named for the toy that gets used in its challenges, a weighted cylinder that you try to roll end-over-end across a table, then catch upright with your palm. As a solo fidget device, it's engrossing yet meditative, and hard enough to do simple tricks with on your own.The card game adds other players into the with mix, throwing down the gauntlet of increasingly difficult tricks, some of which you have to do with added challenges (like being blinded). Pull it off, and you earn "belts" that move you ever closer to the winner's circle. But don't get cocky - the belts can be stolen by sneaky players with the right card and the right timing.The card game (including 3 Mokurus) is on sale already for 25% off the MSRP, but you can take an extra 15% off the final price by using the holiday discount code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

People who ask themselves why they need a dashcam usually have one thing in common: They've never been a serious collision. Even in fender benders, these gadgets can save you an immense amount of time and hassle, stopping headaches before they even start.If you're looking for a reliable starter cam, the myGEKOgear Orbit 110 Full HD Dashcam hits all the marks for a surprisingly low price point.The video quality is likely higher than you'll need in most cases - but better to be safe than sorry. It shoots 1080p HD video day or night, thanks to the CMOS sensor. Another crucial factor: A 120-degree wide-angle lens that allows you to capture more than just the lane in front of you.Once you mount it, you're good to go. A G-sensor will automatically detect undue braking or collisions, and the video is stored on an 8GB MicroSD card (but you can also expand your storage up to 32 GB if you like).The Orbit 110 is currently on sale for half off the retail price, but you can take an extra 15% off that by using the holiday discount code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

The increasingly popular social media application TikTok has a concerning relationship with the Chinese state. That link became ever the more concerning today, when reports began circulating of a brand new partnership between the company that owns TikTok, ByteDance, and the government of China.ByteDance owns the video-sharing app TikTok, and has established a joint venture with a Chinese state media group, official registration documents show. “The joint venture will focus on partnership in the digital rights of short videos,” a ByteDance spokeswoman told Reuters in response to inquiries about the deal:ByteDance, which is one of China’s fastest-growing startups, has formed a series of partnerships with state media organizations in order to feed its leading news aggregator platform, Jinri Toutiao.Under the latest deal, Beijing Liangzi Yuedong Technology Co Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ByteDance, will own 49% of the new company, Pengpai Audiovisual Technology (Jinan) Co Ltd, with Shanghai Dongfang Newspaper Co Ltd holding the remaining 51% majority stake, the documents from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System showed.Shandong-based Pengpai Audiovisual was established on Dec. 10 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan, according to the documents. Pengpai is the Chinese name of ThePaper.cn, an online newspaper published by Shanghai Dongfang. ByteDance unit establishes venture with Chinese state media firm [reuters.com] Read the rest

In Utah, liquor authorities who have long been aligned with the Mormon patriarchs who more or less run everything in the state have poured thousands of gallons of drinkable beer down the drain -- no, literally-- after a change in state law allowed higher-alcohol beer. Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control destroyed roughly $18,000 worth of beer in a single day on Friday, AP reports:Authorities say they were legally required to dump the beer from state-owned liquor stores because a new law allowed those beers to be sold in private stores instead.Utah had long prohibited grocery and convenience stores from selling beer stronger than 4% alcohol by volume. Everything else was sold at state liquor stores.The law effective Oct. 31 increased that limit to 5%. Because the state-owned stores can’t stock anything available on the open market, officials discounted beers between 4% and 5% before Halloween, then threw away everything that was left.The 275 cases of bottles and cans were recycled, they say.Read More: Utah tosses thousands of gallons of beer after law change [apnews.com] Read the rest

In Georgia, a man was arrested after he called the sheriff's office to confess -- three separate times.The Thomasville Times-Enterprise reports that Lt. Tim Watkins of the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office says the suspect called at 5 a.m. on Friday to confess he'd stolen a car, and was now about 12 miles away in the small town of Boston, Georgia.“He wanted to confess and turn himself in,” said an officer. “He called three times.”"He called a third time and reported that he had broken into the Citgo and was drinking a beer," the officer told a reporter.[via AP] Read the rest

Nancy Astor was the first woman to sit in Parliament; this is true. She took her seat as a member of the Conservative Party on November 28, 1919. And so, to celebrate the centennial, the party put up a brand new statue of her outside of her former home at Plymouth Hoe. According to the BBC, the statue was made by artist Hayley Gibbs and cost £125,000, which was raised through crowdfunding.It's somewhat of a relief that they paid for it themselves. Because Astor wasn't actually the first woman elected to Parliament. No, that honor went to that incomparable badass Constance Markievicz, the Irish revolutionary, suffragette, and staunch advocate for workers' rights. In keeping with Sinn Féin's abstentionist policy, however, Markievicz refused to actually take her seat in the British House of Commons, or participate in any parliamentary processes.But okay, fine. Nancy Astor was the first woman to literally take her seat in Parliament. Whereas Markievicz famously advised women to, "Leave your jewels in the bank and buy a revolver," Astor once said, "I am the kind of woman I would run from." Case in point: while Astor claimed to despise the Nazi party for oppressing women, she also allegedly told Joseph Kennedy that she saw Hitler as a welcome solution to the “world problems” that were the Jews. According to the History News Network:Astor wrote Kennedy that Hitler would have to do more than just "give a rough time" to "the killers of Christ" before she'd be in favor of launching "Armageddon to save them. Read the rest

Now you can add some Kojima flavor to selfies or news coverage of the impeachment hearings. Erop has created two different Instagram filters. TOMORROW IS IN YOUR HANDS #DeathStranding #TomorrowIsInYourHands@Kojima_Hideo@HIDEO_KOJIMA_ENThank you @egorinogore for making this filter! It's so f*cking cool! Also, I love Higgs, you did an incredible job bringing him to life @TroyBakerVA pic.twitter.com/chA6wHx0hl— Vero Veo ☀️ (@Ronie_6) December 5, 2019you can try the filter at the link: https://t.co/eIVhm5aQuA— Егор 📞💕 (@egorinogore) December 5, 2019And speaking of Death Stranding, check out this limited edition custom PS4 controller and stand:WeAreRobots:The controller is themed after Sam’s Bridges delivery uniform featuring custom buttons, metal D-Pad, metal thumb sticks and custom touchpad styled to look like a container. The stand is styled after the BB pod with a detailed baby cast in clear yellow resin. The iconic Odradek Scanner attaches to the back of the stand to hang over the top of the controller when displayed together.BB and Odradek Scanner come packaged in a custom, high quality hard case container.Preorder closes at the end of December or once the initial 20 places have been reserved. Controllers will ship as soon as production has been completed which is expected to be March 2020 or earlier.(Via Attract Mode.) Read the rest

Consulting giant McKinsey is embroiled is a string of scandals, from the revelation thatit designed ICE's gulags to the news that it charged New York $27.5m for a fraudulent (and worse-than-useless) violence reduction program for Rikers Island, to the news that it charges US governments $3m/year for advice from fresh-out-of-college, inexperienced 23-year-olds.Reading about these scandals, you may be asking yourself how it's possible that McKinsey can be so extraordinarily terrible, and for an answer, you need look no further than the company's own internal discussions of its role in society. Propublica obtained McKinsey's 2010 internal history, in which employees are told that the firm is comparable to "the Marine Corps, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Jesuits" in that it is "analytically rigorous, deeply principled seekers of knowledge and truth" married with a sense of shared values that exceeds what "even the Catholic Church can promise."McKinsey has, since then, disclosed a number of new potential conflicts in old bankruptcy cases and paid $32.5 million to creditors and the United States trustee to settle claims over insufficient disclosures. The trustee has said that “McKinsey failed to satisfy its obligations under bankruptcy law and demonstrated a lack of candor.” The firm denies wrongdoing and says it settled “in order to move forward and focus on serving its clients.”Subsequently, McKinsey has moved, in effect, to rewrite the rules. It drafted a protocol ostensibly meant to clarify what advisers like itself need to disclose. Critics pointed out that McKinsey’s protocol allows such firms to avoid disclosing relationships they deem indirect or “de minimis.”There remains more to come. Read the rest

Ohio lawmakers introduced legislation that would see women and doctors charged with murder if they did not re-implant fetuses from ectopic pregnancies in women's uteruses, a procedure that does not exist and is impossible.Now we're getting some insight into how legislators came to introduce this bizarre bill: according to State Rep John Becker [R-Gilead/@beckergop)], the relevant passages were written by Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio lobbyist Barry Sheets, who advised Becker that he could ignore scientists who pointed out that the only evidence that the procedure could be performed were two "case reports," one published in 1917, the other in 1980.Becker now says that if anyone is at fault, it's the medical journals, for failing to retract these two isolated reports. He told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "But these are documented. They should get the medical journals corrected if this is wrong."To the geneticist's concerns that Becker was promoting a rarely used procedure without knowing the possible side effects, Sheets responded, to a forwarded email, “That's a good one.”“The ‘side-effects’ are that the embryo was carried to full-term and a baby was given birth to, according to the 'case reports,'” Sheets wrote. “What are the 'side-effects' on the current treatment for ectopic pregnancies on the embryo? Oh, that's right — death.”Lawmaker Says He Didn't Research Ectopic Pregnancy Procedure Before Adding To Bill [AP]Emails: Lobbyist Helped Draft Bill Suggesting Docs Could Reimplant Ectopic Pregnancies [Cincinnati Enquirer](Image: Ohio House of Reps; Hulu; modified) Read the rest

Taylor Swift has been embroiled in a terrible dispute with Scooter Braun, who acquired Swift's former label for $300m, delivering him control over Swift's first six albums. Swift says that Braun had bullied and tormented her for years, and that the owner of her original label, Scott Borchetta, had sold the label to him in order to punish Swift.Since then, Braun has used his ownership of Swift catalog to bar her from performing her own hits on tour (he eventually relented after bad publicity) and to engage in general petty fuckery with no obvious business case, seemingly motivated entirely by his desire to make Swift miserable by weaponizing her own creative output.But Braun didn't just happen to have $300m lying around to use for his vendetta. He raised that money from private equity investors, who have fast become the most unpopular rich people in a crowded field of loathesome sociopaths.On Thursday, Swift accepted the "Woman of the Decade" award at Billboard's Women in Music conference, and in her speech she called out both the investment firm and the individuals who funded it as having culpability in her torment: "the Soros family, 23 Capital and the Carlyle Group." Swift went on to criticize private equity as a whole, calling it a "potentially harmful force [to] the music industry [that is] buying up our music as if it is real estate, as if it is an app or a shoe-line."According to the New York Post, one of the named investors "was stunned that the normally staid world of private equity was even mentioned at a rock ‘n’ roll event."Private equity stunned to be dragged into battle between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun [Richard Morgan/New York Post](Thanks, Kathy Padilla! Read the rest

Every year, the AI Now Institute (previously) publishes a deep, thoughtful, important overview of where AI research is and the ethical gaps in AI's use, and makes a list of a dozen urgent recommendations for the industry, the research community, and regulators and governments.This year's report is especially important, as algorithmic discrimination, junk science, bad labor practices, and inappropriate deployments have gained salience and urgency.The Institute's top recommendations are:* Stop deploying "emotion detection" systems ("governments should specifically prohibit use of affect recognition in high-stakes decision-making processes"). These are junk science ("built on markedly shaky foundations") but they're being used for everything from medical care to insurance to student performance evaluation.* Stop using facial recognition in "sensitive social and political contexts" ("including surveillance, policing, education, and employment — where facial recognition poses risks and consequences that cannot be remedied retroactively").* Fix the industry's diversity problem "to address systemic racism, misogyny, and lack of diversity."* Expand bias research beyond technical fixes: "center 'non-technical' disciplines whose work traditionally examines such issues, including science and technology studies, critical race studies, disability studies,and other disciplines keenly attuned to social context" (see: "second-wave algorithmic accountability")* Mandatory disclosure of AI industry's climate impact: "Disclosure should include notifications that allow developers and researchers to understand the specific climate cost of their use of AI infrastructure."* Give workers the right to "contest exploitative and invasive AI" with the help of trade unions: "Workers deserve the right to contest such determinations [by "AI-enabled labor-management systems"], and to collectively agree on workplace standards that are safe, fair, and predictable."* Give tech workers the right to know what they're working on and to "contest unethical or harmful uses of their work": "Companies should ensure that workers are able to track where their work is being applied, by whom, and to what end."* Expand biometric privacy rules for governments and private actors: A call to universalize Illinois's world-beating Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Read the rest

Once you've cut steak or poultry with some actual quality knives, it's really tough to go back to those budget blades you bought at the department store a couple of decades ago.Consider that a fair warning about this 5-Piece Professional Damascus Chef's Kitchen Set. The holiday discount makes it easy to buy for a friend. But if you do, you might be eating dinner at their place a lot more often.The striking look on the metal is a beautiful side effect of the ancient methods that Black Forge Knives uses to produce them. The end result is Damascus steel, extremely hard and capable of being honed to a precise edge.The set includes a butcher's knife, filet knife, and other standard sizes to suit any kitchen needs, plus a leather pouch for easy carrying. Like a trusty cast-iron pan, there's a bit of oiling and care required to keep them at their best - but when they're at their best, there's nothing quite like them.The entire set is already more than 60% off retail, but you can take an extra 15% off the final price by using the coupon code MERRYSAVE15. Read the rest

Concerned about your eyesight? You probably should be. And we're not just talking about seniors here. Young or old, we're all at risk of coming down with vision issuesMost of us might get a vision test only once every couple of years or so when we get a new pair of glasses - if that. And there's not many who can afford regular preventative trips to an optometrist.Luckily, there's an effective middle ground. The vision experts at EyeQue have a range of home test kits that can help you keep track of your vision.The basic Personal Vision Tracker makes the whole procedure simple, not to mention inexpensive. You can use it multiple times over years for less than the cost of a single visit to most eye doctors. It's a device that attaches and pairs with your smartphone and allows you to get accurate readings on your vision within minutes. You can even use the results to order eyeglasses online from eyeque.com.Need a little more in-depth info? The EyeQue VisionCheck is a similar unit that you can even use with your eyeglasses on if you'd like to confirm that your current prescription is up to snuff. This unit also lets you track your vision ratings by doing tests once a month and comparing your stats.There's even the EyeQue Insight, a more full-featured version of the test that's tailor-made for kids but packed with useful info for all ages. The dual-lens device again attaches to your smartphone, and the tests are sweetened up for the younger set by way of an animated mascot and virtual prizes. Read the rest