Chris Wallace of Fox News was impressed with Ambassador William Taylor's testimony in today's impeachment hearings:"William Taylor was a very impressive witness and was very damaging to the president. First of all, as you pointed out, he took very copious notes at almost every conversation... I think very nonpolitical. He went out of his way to talk about what he knew, what he was specifically testament to. The only thing he talked about was a strong feeling that it was in the U.S. national security interests to support Ukraine in the fight against Russia. But he certainly wasn't taking any partisan position."Chris Wallace: "I think William Taylor was a very impressive witness and was very damaging to the president." pic.twitter.com/QvCe5FEqL9— Lis Power (@LisPower1) November 13, 2019 Read the rest

Gibby Haynes, frontman for legendary psych band the Butthole Surfers, penned a young adult novel, "Me and Mr. Cigar," to be released in January. And no surprise, it sound fantastically far fucking out. I can't wait to read it. Here's the description:Seventeen-year-old Oscar Lester is never without his dog, Mr. Cigar. The two have made a pretty good life for themselves in North Texas, organizing drug-fueled dance parties with Oscar’s best friend, Lytle Taylor. The only real grownup in Oscar’s life is Carla Marks, protégé of his deceased father and the genius behind the enigmatic IBC Corporation. (Oscar’s mom spends all of her time with her new boyfriend.) Carla doesn’t approve of Oscar’s nefarious activity, though his parties provide an ideal environment to test-run some of IBC’s more freakish technology. As for Oscar’s older sister, Rachel . . . she’s been gone for the past five years, having fled after Mr. Cigar bit off her hand.But Oscar knows that his dog is no menace. Mr. Cigar is a loyal protector: a supernatural creature that can exact revenge, communicate telepathically, and manipulate car doors and windows with ease. So when Rachel—now twenty-two and an artist living in New York—calls out of the blue and claims that she’s being held hostage, Oscar sees an opportunity to make things right between them . . . at least until Carla Marks warns Oscar that Mr. Cigar’s life might be in danger, too.Suddenly Oscar finds himself on the run with his dog and his best friend. Read the rest

It's frustrating to buy an article of clothing from a store, then get home and discover that the ink-filled inventory control tag is still attached. This happened to the Lock Picking Lawyer, but instead of wasting a lot of time returning to the store, he was able to safely remove the tag at home in a fraction of a second by holding a neodymium magnet against it.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Here are audio samples from a neural network based system that can analyze a 5-second recording of someone's voice, then have that same voice say anything you want it to say.Someone made a version of the software that you can download from Github. Read the rest

Casio G-Shock and Transformers are releasing an Optimus Prime action figure that contains a G-Shock wristwatch in its chest. More than meets the eye, the Optimus Prime also transforms into a fancy pedestal for the watch when it's not on your wrist. The ¥30,000 JPY (US$275) set will only be available in Japan. G-SHOCK DW-5600TF19-SET (Hypebeast)＼新製品情報／G-SHOCK × トランスフォーマー 第二弾！闇に堕ちた戦士「マスターネメシスプライム」を具現化しました。バンドには、裏表で色が異なるブラックとブルーグリーンの2色成形バンドを採用。印象的なカラーリングを再現したスペシャルモデルです。https://t.co/mkZA4bgFYp pic.twitter.com/tuZzPO5mJe— CASIO カシオ計算機株式会社 (@CASIOJapan) November 7, 2019 Read the rest

Instead of feeding high school kids who were too poor to pay their lunch bill, a high school in Minnesota humiliated the students in front of the other students by throwing their hot meals in the garbage and giving them cold food instead, reports NBC News. After the school was exposed, they decided an apology was in order. "We deeply regret our actions today and the embarrassment that it caused several of our students," the district wrote in a statement Monday. "We have met with some of the students involved and apologized to them."Richfield Superintendent Steven Unowsky told KARE the actions of cafeteria staff were "inappropriate."“There are multiple failures we had in this situation and our job is to fix it. First and foremost [in] the way we treated our kids. We should never leave kids with the feeling they had from the experience,” Unowsky said.It seems like a decent apology. You can donate to the school district's meal account here. It's kind of difficult to do, so follow the directions closely.Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture - Fruit-bar-pic---Web, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

This is the most cyberpunk thing I've seen for a while: Chilean protesters using lasers to take down a drone. pic.twitter.com/tLSgj7YSB6— NetSec Focus (@netsecfocus) November 13, 2019 As William Gibson wrote, "The street finds its own uses for things."More in this vein:• Hong Kong protesters use lasers to blind security cameras• After student arrested for carrying laser-pointers, Hong Kong protesters stage "stargazing" laser-protest(Thanks, UPSO!) Read the rest

The privacy-focused web browser Brave has finally launched a 1.0 version, bringing it officially out of beta.The beta version of Brave, which promises “faster, more private and secure” than other browsers, had 8 million monthly users, say the developers. Now, a full stable Brave 1.0 release is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS users. Brave also has a plan to pay users and publishers for ads, reports Aliya Chaudhry at The Verge.Excerpt:Brave promises to prioritize security by blocking third-party ads, trackers, and autoplay videos automatically. So you don’t need to go into your settings to ensure greater privacy, though you can adjust those settings if you want to.Several browsers have taken steps to block trackers and ads, but in many cases, they’re limited or need to be enabled. Firefox started blocking some trackers by default earlier this year. Safari goes a step further by blocking almost all third-party trackers from sites you don’t visit frequently while allowing trackers from sites you check regularly but limiting their duration to 24 hours.Microsoft Edge is still testing a feature that also only blocks some trackers by default, which should arrive on January 15th. Google announced in May that it plans to launch tools that would let users see cookies stored by the Chrome browser and select which trackers to block, but we haven’t heard anything else about those tools, including when they’ll be available. Brave 1.0 launches, bringing the privacy-first browser out of beta Read the rest

A number of popular health-related websites in the UK are reported to be actively sharing sensitive user data with dozens of third parties, including Google and Facebook, but also various adtech firms and data brokers.Not good. An important new investigation from the Financial Times reveals symptoms, drug names, and terms like 'abortion' are shared with hundreds of third parties.The scariest ones in this list aren't just Google, Amazon, Facebook, Oracle, Scorecard, or OpenX, but the ones you've never heard of, who receive even less scrutiny over data privacy and security practices.Excerpt:Using open-source tools to analyse 100 health websites, which include WebMD, Healthline, Babycentre and Bupa, an FT investigation found that 79 per cent of the sites dropped “cookies” — little bits of code that, when embedded in your browser, allow third-party companies to track individuals around the internet. This was done without the consent that is a legal requirement in the UK.Google’s advertising arm DoubleClick was by far the most common destination for data, showing up on 78 per cent of the sites tested, followed by Amazon, which was present in 48 per cent of cases, Facebook, Microsoft and adtech firm AppNexus.“These findings are quite remarkable, and very concerning,” said Wolfie Christl, a technologist and researcher who has been investigating the adtech industry. “From my perspective, this kind of data is clearly sensitive, has special protections under the [General Data Protection Regulation] and transmitting this data most likely violates the law.”How top health websites are sharing sensitive data with advertisers [ft.com]An FT investigation has shown that people’s most sensitive health data, including their medical symptoms, diagnoses and period and fertility information, are being traded with dozens of companies around the world, including Google, Amazon and Facebook https://t.co/QlqHq0qCtj pic.twitter.com/dypdo2AZHG— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) November 13, 2019Ugh. Read the rest

New Yorkers paid nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in 2018 to settle lawsuits filed against the New York Police Department. And that's the good news! It's down from the $335m paid out in 2017. The Daily News reports on the staggering price tag attached to New York City's notoriously violent and uncontrollable cops. The NYPD sees it a normal operating cost to be managed.Police spokeswoman Sgt. Jessica McRorie said the reduction in claims shows the department’s ability to fight frivolous cases and provide top-of-the-line training to its officers.“These gains represent another example of how the NYPD is building greater trust and respect with the community to collaboratively solve problems, drive down crime, and enhance public safety,” McRorie said.Critics say the numbers in the report are not indicative of a reformed police department. Read the rest

#ImpeachmentHearings have begun. Let loose the bowels of trumpian treason.The House Intelligence Committee held its first open hearing of the impeachment inquiry against President Trump today, Wednesday, November 13, 2019. Democrat and Republican lawmakers in congress heard testimony from William Taylor, Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, and from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent. VIDEO: CSPAN. Read the rest

After years of poorly-received MacBook Pro models, Apple's new sixteen-inch model has a lot riding on it. The 2019 MacBook Pro (available today at Apple.com) will have a larger screen, latest-generation innards and, yes, an entirely new keyboard design. Prices start at $2399.Early reviews are appearing.The 16” MacBook Pro comes configured with either a 2.6GHz 6-core i7 or a 2.3GHz 8-core i9 from Intel. These are the same processors as the 15” MacBook Pro came with. No advancements here is largely a function of Intel’s chip readiness. The i7 model of the 16” MacBook Po will run $2,399 for the base model — the same as the old 15” — and it comes with a 512GB SSD drive and 16GB of RAM. It's only 2% larger for the extra inch of display. Keyboard's better, but ... maybe wait a few months.Apple is calling it the Magic Keyboard in homage to the iMac’s Magic Keyboard (but not identically designed). The new keyboard is a scissor mechanism, not butterfly. It has 1mm of key travel (more, a lot more) and an Apple-designed rubber dome under the key that delivers resistance and springback that facilitates a satisfying key action. The new keycaps lock into the keycap at the top of travel to make them more stable when at rest, correcting the MacBook Air-era wobble. And yes, the keycaps can be removed individually to gain access to the mechanism underneath. And yes, there is an inverted-T arrangement for the arrow keys. Read the rest

A post called "The Right Way to Reduce Your China Product Costs" on China Law Blog (previously) sounds like pretty anodyne stuff, but it turns out to be a catalog of several technothrillers' worth of ultra-weird, real-world skullduggery and chicanery from the world of late-stage capitalism and trade war.Background: Trump's tariffs have kneecapped Chinese manufacturing, and Chinese manufacturers are responding by slashing prices to their western customers. This has given rise to a wave of requests for discounts from those western companies, and Chinese manufacturers, already bleeding, are taking desperate steps to stay in business as customers leave or demand unrealistic discounts as a condition of staying.The first one is plain old kidnapping (China Law Blog has written extensively about how kidnapping and ransom are a normal part of Chinese debt collection). Chinese manufacturers, working with local officials, have begun to kidnap representatives from western businesses, citing (possibly imaginary) debts or tax liabilities and holding those reps to ransom as a bargaining chip for keeping foreign business and/or extracting an exit payment from those that they lose.Then there's product cloning: it's not merely that your Chinese manufacturer might steal your product dies and go into business cloning your product and selling it to your wholesalers (though that's happening!). It's also that your Chinese manufacturer might have taken out patents and trademarks on your business and its products. These don't just stop you from sourcing an alternative supplier after you part ways -- some western companies have found that their products are being seized at the Chinese border as counterfeits after anonymous businesses (presumed to be their former manufacturing partners) made patent and trademark claims with customs officials. Read the rest

Marble Machine X is an ongoing project by Martin Molin of the band Wintergatan to create an amusingly-complex mobile marble-powered instrument.His videos documenting the project receive hundreds of thousands of views, and plenty of enthusiastic and helpful feedback. In this video from September 2018, he shows off an earlier stage of the build, and emphasizes various safety measures he added in response to helpful Youtube comments:The videos in the series find a great balance between being edited to remove the boring parts, while also being quite informative about the fine details of the build:You can support the project via Patreon, or by purchasing merchandise here.(Via Andrew Fraystive.) Read the rest

Something went wrong with my archival encode of the Utah State-LSU game, and all the audio is pitch-shifted down 100%. Which resulted in this. pic.twitter.com/AmispkZO9q— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 10, 2019Sports reporter Timothy Burke writes that "Something went wrong with my archival encode of the Utah State-LSU game, and all the audio is pitch-shifted down 100%. Which resulted in this." Read the rest

As much as some of us fear the loss of our jobs to robots, there's one job we're pretty sure they are welcome to: vacuuming. There's nothing quite like kicking back and watching a robot vacuum do one of the most time-consuming tasks on the household chore list.And there are few 'bots that do it quite like the Roborock S6 Robot Vacuum & Mop.The power on this thing is a big highlight, combining 1500 rpm of suction with soft bristles that spin at 1350 rpm. It's a combo that makes short work of nearly any mess, and there's even a mopping function that gives hardwood floors an extra shine.With a 32-bit quad processor, the Roborock S6 has brains as well as brawn. Its 14-sensor array helps it build a complete 360-degree view of your room, then plan the quickest route to get every inch. Want it to avoid the dog dish? It's a simple matter to draw virtual barriers in the accompanying app - no magnetic strips required.The Roborock S6 Robot Vacuum & Mop with Adaptive Routing is now available for 7% off the regular retail price, but you can take an additional 15% off by using the online code BFSAVE15. Read the rest

Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí was no stranger to pop culture, even appearing on a TV game show. So, it's not a complete surprise to find out he created an entire 78-card tarot deck. Originally conceived as a prop for the for the 1973 James Bond film, Live and Let Die, his tarot cards didn't end up in the movie but were issued later as a set.Hyperallergic:Albert R. Broccoli, a producer for the 18th James Bond spy thriller, approached Dalí with an offer to create the tarot deck for a scene in the film. The cards were needed as props for the character of Solitaire, played by Seymour, a psychic who works for a menacing drug lord. As Bond films typically go, the psychic changes sides to become the spy’s collaborator and love interest.Dalí accepted the offer and started working on the cards, possibly encouraged by his mystically inclined wife Gala, but it was rumored that the contract fell through when the artist demanded an astronomical fee that was too high even for the film’s $7 million budget.But, even though the deal fell through, Dalí did complete the deck. He worked on its art for 10 years before it was issued to the public in 1984. Now, for the first time since then, Taschen is making the deck, and its instructional booklet, available. Dalí. Tarot has a a release date of November 15 but is now available for pre-order ($54). (Colossal) Read the rest

At Field Mag, Andrew Szeto explains the fundamentals of building a basic A-Frame cabin. He writes that you can get it done for about $8,000, not including land.The most major lesson learned is I should have gone bigger. Don't get me wrong, the cabin is awesome, but heck, an extra 5-10 feet in both directions would have been a game changer and made it a little more habitable. But to see a thing you built come to life is the greatest gift you can give yourself in my opinion. A strong theme is not to go cheap on materials: don't use thin plywood for the interior, don't use polycarbonate roofing, don't build without properly levelling the land under it. Read the rest

With the launch of the Disney+ streaming service, all eyes were on The Mandalorian, the new sci-fi western set in the aftermath of Return of the Jedi. But the original Star Wars movies are also availabe in 4K, and someone noticed that they've yet again tinkered with the scene where Han Solo shoots Greedo to avoid being abducted by him. Director George Lucas famously edited the scene in the 1990s to depict Greedo shooting first, making Han's killing him an act of self-defense and sanding a rough edge off a classic cinema hero. The latest cut, which Disney reports was made by Lucas himself, has the two rogues firing simultaneously. Oh my god. This is not a joke. pic.twitter.com/RMkh7Blg7D— Star Wars Visual Comparisons (@StarWarsVisComp) November 12, 2019In the newly edited scene, Greedo says something to Han before shooting (Maclunkey!), although no subtitle appears at the bottom of the screen. Han proceeds to shoot once. This is followed by “a new explosion [that] covers a transition from them shooting to Greedo hitting the table, removing the Greedo dummy altogether.”The account also discovered while scrubbing through the footage that it appears “the timing has been adjusted farther and they now shoot on the same frame.” It’s possible that these changes were made to improve the pacing of the scene since it’s different from what was originally used.The Han-Greedo scene is the Oak Island Money Pit of movie scenes: it's been excavated and flooded so much that it's become more of an idea than anything else, its truths forever beyond our grasp. Read the rest

BigBread's No Destination is a "game" in the classic spirit of Desert Bus, and you don't even have to make the occasional steering adjustment. Just sit and enjoy the journey, looking out of a train coach at the procedurally-generated hills and woods of wherever it is you are. It's just the first entry I've checked out from from the 2019 ProcJam -- "Make something that makes something" -- and there are dozens more experiments, artworks and according-to-Hoyle games to enjoy.An endless train ride, a sitting simulator.Just a relaxing timeLeft mouse button to sit in a seatRight mouse button to hide the cursorwasd to move aroundspacebar to get upescape to quit / close the game Read the rest

I'm in a private Slack with some other media/journalist people, and someone brought up the idea of pay transparency. After all: if you don't know what your colleagues are being paid, it's hard to negotiate for a fair rate. We're all conditioned to believe that our financials should be private, but as far as salaries are concerned, that secrecy only ever tends to work in favor of your employer.So this particular someone made a Google Form and a corresponding spreadsheet where journalists and other media professionals could anonymously add their salary information. And in barely 24 hours, it's spread to CJR and Bloomberg and even inspired Mike Cernovich to go off on some completely unsubstantiated rant to set off his army of loyal trolls because apparently all journalists are scum and also trustfund babies even though there isn't any proof of that (and I can personally assure you that my personal information is on that list and that my public school teacher mom and print salesman dad are not rolling in the dough).As of this writing, more than 200 people have responded. On one hand, it is admittedly difficult to verify the claims contained within the data. On the other hand, there's still lots of eye-opening information to glean. Unsurprisingly, there are pay disparities across race and gender; but the same thing happens across geographic location, and work experience. Perhaps the most shocking revelation so far is just the absurd range of income of people working in news media. Read the rest

Last November, Jered "Threatin" Eames hired some musicians, booked venues on the strength of inauthentic social media profiles, then played to empty halls and angry proprietors who soon outed the hustle. His viral fame was short lived, but now he's back—for real, this time, at least for certain values of reality—playing to paying customers. Vice sent a critic to a UK gig: "It was as weird as you could imagine," writes Hannah Mylrea. Jered is clearly an accomplished guitarist (his vocals, less so) and his band for the evening are slick, but due to the complete lack of crowd interaction and Jered’s wannabe rockstar swagger, it makes for an uncomfortable watch, even without all the ridiculous pre-cursors. Clearly too uncomfortable for some, as the crowd noticeably thins out throughout.After 45-minutes Jered finishes the show by smashing up the stage – ripping down his banners and decapitating the mannequins – and then giving a mock bow before walking off stage. That’s the last the crowd and I see of him.Ladies and gentlemen, Threatin.Here’s some close ups of the doll pic.twitter.com/YdUVR4eESb— Hannah Mylrea (@HannahMylrea) November 1, 2019 Read the rest

In Tiny Islands, by David King, you're dealt cards that let you "draw" particular landscape features on a grid, with occasional breaks to draw coastlines around the forests, mountains, villages and churches you place. Once you've gotten through the deck, your archipelago is scored based according to rules of proximity and placement. It's simple, frustrating and very addictive, with games over in a few minutes and a better high-score always at hand. I've managed to get in the 60s (check out the hashtag for more)—what about you? Read the rest

Aestetix writes, "Our 13th conference is taking place next summer in a brand new location as you've probably heard. We expect it to be bigger and better than ever with lots more activities and space - all without leaving New York City! Since this is #13, we figured we'd make an initial batch of tickets available on November 13th at precisely 13:13 Eastern Time (that's 1:13 pm for those who don't do 24 hour clocks)."It's been a rocky time for 2600 Magazine and its venerable Hackers on Planet Earth con -- so unbelievably awesome to see HOPE back in 2020! Initial Ticket Sales Wednesday! [HOPE/2600] Read the rest

Back in 2017, EFF, ACLU and ACLU of Massachusetts sued the US government on behalf of 11 travelers whose devices had been subjected to warrantless, suspicionless searches by Customs and Border Protection at the US border.Now, a federal court in Boston has found in favor of the travelers, affirming that CBP cannot conduct searches of border-crossers' devices without particularized suspicion of illegal contraband.The judgment has the potential to stem the rising floodtide of warrantless border searches of devices -- up 400% in just three years.International travelers returning to the United States have reported numerous cases of abusive searches in recent months. While searching through the phone of Zainab Merchant, a plaintiff in the Alasaad case, a border agent knowingly rifled through privileged attorney-client communications. An immigration officer at Boston Logan Airport reportedly searched an incoming Harvard freshman’s cell phone and laptop, reprimanded the student for friends’ social media postings expressing views critical of the U.S. government, and denied the student entry into the country following the search.Federal Court Rules Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional [EFF] Read the rest

The European Medicines Agency approved a vaccine for the deadly Ebola Virus Disease. The vaccine has already been administered to hundreds of thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, saving countless lives during an ongoing epidemic there. From Nature:The decision by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to allow US pharmaceutical company Merck to market its vaccine means that the product can now be stockpiled and, potentially, distributed more widely, in particular in Africa. In 2015, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — a global health partnership that funds vaccine supplies in low-income countries — told Ebola-vaccine manufacturers that it would commit to purchasing vaccines once they had been approved by a “stringent health authority” such as the EMA...“This is a vaccine with huge potential,” said Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi in Geneva, Switzerland, in a press release after the EMA decision. “It has already been used to protect more than 250,000 people in the DRC and could well make major Ebola outbreaks a thing of the past.” Image: "Ebola virus virion" by CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith (Public Domain) Read the rest

I really like these 'ergonomic' JoyCon replacements.The tiny JoyCons are a pain to hold. These replacements make holding the Switch while you play a lot easier for my carpal tunnel suffering hands.Everything works like the stock JoyCon, except there is something substantial to hold on to.Wireless Controller for Switch, BestOff Neon Red Neon Blue Controllers Compatible for Nintendo Switch Console via Amazon Read the rest

In Mumbai, India, the Western Railway deployed a police officer dressed as Yamarāja, a Hindu god of death, to educate commuters about railway safety and enforce the laws. From Zee News:Railway Ministry's handle warned the people in Hindi, "Do not cross the track in an unauthorised manner, it can be fatal.""If you cross the track in an unauthorized way, then Yamraj will be standing in front of you," Railway Ministry added.In 2018, as many as seven people on an average lost their lives on a daily basis due to carelessness in crossing railway tracks illegitimately. At least 1,476 people had lost their lives while crossing the railway tracks while over 650 people died after falling off the trains. Read the rest

This is one of the more WTF videos I've seen in a while. It starts with a jack-in-the-box getting tossed off a school(?) bus in New York(?) and ends with one of the greatest reveals since Nicolas Roeg's 1973 psychological thriller, Don't Look Now. It may very well be staged because it's just too good.OMG I don't even know what to do with this! pic.twitter.com/Yl7MDwHNs8— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 12, 2019Image: Twitter[Updated 11/12/19 4:03pm PT] Indeed, it's a skit by Daniel Jean: Read the rest

The Argentine sub San Juan vanished in 2017 and its wreckage was found only months later, but from the search mission's outset rescuers suspected what had happened. The sound of an implosion—"a singular, anomalous, violent, non-nuclear event"—was picked up hours after the vessel's last transmission. If you are horrified by the idea of a huge metal can being suddenly crushed by water pressure, this computer simulation of the San Juan's demise may well rationalize and deepen your conviction never to set foot on a sub. Read the rest

Trump spoke at the Economic Club of New York today and surprised attendees with the good news that his daughter Ivanka has created "created 14 million jobs" in the United States. That's almost 10% of the US workforce. Thanks, Ivanka!From The Intelligencer:At a speech to the Economic Club of New York today, President Trump declared that his daughter, Ivanka, has personally created 14 million new jobs. The president announced this figure — so astonishingly ludicrous it would embarrass a Stalin-era pronouncement — and then repeated it twice more as the crowd applauded politely.The entire U.S. economy has created fewer than 6 million new jobs since Trump took office. So Trump is crediting his daughter with having personally created more than 200 percent of all new jobs in the United States. This is like supply-side economics but for authoritarian nepotism.Image: Mark Frauenfelder. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) Read the rest

This is perhaps not the best week for sycophants. Nikki Haley picked the wrong month to release a book. She's getting roasted by *everyone*. I wonder if she thought this was going to be a softball interview. Because it was *not*. #tuesdaymorning #todayshowpic.twitter.com/s596nOU5CQ— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) November 12, 2019 Read the rest

The Google Translation of this Instagram post: "And you wake up in the morning to discover that Firulais entertains himself by biting your $250,000.00 Porsche in this house." View this post on Instagram Y te levantas en la mañana a descubrir que Firulais se entretiene mordiendo tu Porsche de $250,000.00 en esta casa hoy se come perro caliente 🌭 #malinois #facebook #chrispuls Que harían ustedes con Firulais luego de semejante muestra de afecto?A post shared by DON OMAR (@donomar) on Nov 7, 2019 at 3:31am PST [via Core77] Read the rest

On Tuesday, advocates for human rights for China's Uighur minority said they have documented 500 camps and prisons in China run by the government to detain people identified as belonging to that targeted ethnic group. The activists say that when you add up the number of detention facilities they've identified, it means China must be holding a total number of Uighur people that far exceeds the commonly cited figure of one million people.From AFP via Yahoo News:The East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, a Washington-based group that seeks independence for the mostly Muslim region known to China as Xinjiang, said it assessed images from Google Earth and found 182 suspected "concentration camps" which it listed by coordinates.The group, which said it matched its findings with on-the-ground information, said it also spotted 209 suspected prisons and 74 suspected labor camps which it would share later."In large part these have not been previously identified, so we could be talking about far greater numbers" of people detained, said Kyle Olbert, the director of operations for the movement."If anything, we are concerned that there may be more facilities that we have not been able to identify," he told a news conference in suburban Washington.Anders Corr, an analyst who formerly worked in US intelligence and who advised the group, said that around 40 percent of the sites had not been previously reported.China uses torture and sexual abuse to “forcibly integrate Uighurs into the Han majority, including pressuring Muslims to give up tenets of their faith such as praying and abstaining from pork and alcohol,” the report continues. Read the rest

One for the ages. Almost looks like one of those garage sale black velvet paintings with the dogs playing poker.THIS is an absolutely incredible new photo of former Donald Trump's personal lawyer and current investigation target Rudy Giuliani, along with his distinguished Russian gentlemen friends Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and a third 'unnamed associate.'Wow. Here's the full image.Read the ProPublica report, which is even more insane than the photo (and true): Giuliani Was Close to a Podcast Deal With the News Outlet That Spread His Ukraine ConspiraciesTo begin with, I'm not ruling out that the handbag is actually a European Men's Accessory— Tom Gara (@tomgara) November 12, 2019 Read the rest

We're number one. In the racist, eugenicist, genocidal theft of infants, toddlers, and tender-age children from undocumented and mostly indigenous migrants who are fleeing violence in Guatemala and other Central American failed states.An Associated Press investigation found that America held a record number of kids in 2019. An estimated 69,550 migrant children were held in U.S. government custody over the past year, which is enough infants, toddlers, kids and teens to overflow the typical NFL stadium. From the AP report:This month, new government data shows the little girl is one of an unprecedented 69,550 migrant children held in U.S. government custody over the past year, enough infants, toddlers, kids and teens to overflow the typical NFL stadium. That’s more children detained away from their parents than any other country, according to United Nations researchers. And it’s happening even though the U.S. government has acknowledged that being held in detention can be traumatic for children, putting them at risk of long-term physical and emotional damage.Some of these migrant children who were in government custody this year have already been deported. Some have reunited with family in the U.S., where they’re trying to go to school and piece their lives back together. About 4,000 are still in government custody, some in large, impersonal shelters. And more arrive every week.The video in this post is the trailer for KIDS CAUGHT IN THE CRACKDOWN, a new documentary series coming from this AP investigative reporting team and PBS FRONTLINE:This story is part of an ongoing joint investigation between The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE on the treatment of migrant children, which includes the film “Kids Caught in the Crackdown” premiering on PBS and online Nov. Read the rest

Rising tides and rain in Venice are flooding the city, and hotels are giving guests knee-high rubber boots so they can slosh their way from one tourist attraction to another.From Yahoo News:The high water, known locally as “acqua alta”, was amusing for tourists and a nuisance for residents going about their business, but levels were far lower than the 1.94 meters (6ft 4in) in the devastating November 1966 flood.But even lower levels of the salty high water over the years take their toll on the city, eroding foundations of homes, businesses and city buildings.Bad weather is continuing to dog Italy, with no real let-up forecast for several days.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Facebook says, oops, it's 'likely' a bug.

A new proprietary online payment system for WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook launches today, exactly two weeks after all the payment companies dropped out of Libra.The evil bastards at Facebook, to whom we're now supposed to refer as FACEBOOK, today unveiled Facebook Pay, which is not all caps, and which will work on Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to let users shop, donate to causes, and pay friends.Here's the official announcement at newsroom.fb.com.“The service will be separate from Facebook’s new Calibra wallet and the Libra network, and it’s 'built on existing financial infrastructure and partnerships,'” reports Tom Warren [@tomwarren] at The Verge:Facebook is planning to start rolling out Facebook Pay on Messenger and Facebook in the US this week. It will initially be available for fundraisers, person-to-person payments, event tickets, in-game purchases, and some purchases from pages and businesses that operate on Facebook’s Marketplace. “Over time, we plan to bring Facebook Pay to more people and places, including for use across Instagram and WhatsApp,” explains Deborah Liu, Facebook’s vice president of marketplace and commerce.Facebook Pay will be available in the settings section of the Facebook or Messenger apps, and it will support most debit and credit cards and PayPal. Facebook is using Stripe, PayPal, and others to process these payments.Facebook isn’t revealing exactly when this payment system will be available across all of its apps, nor when it will launch internationally. Facebook Pay comes just weeks after a large number of payment companies dropped out of Facebook’s Libra project. Read the rest

The Southern Poverty Law Center's HATEWATCH shares a number of leaked emails written by Trump Administration lackey Stephen Miller. Unsurprisingly, Miller expresses many racist ideas.Sadly, many have become administration policy.SPLC:In the run-up to the 2016 election, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller promoted white nationalist literature, pushed racist immigration stories and obsessed over the loss of Confederate symbols after Dylann Roof’s murderous rampage, according to leaked emails reviewed by Hatewatch.The emails, which Miller sent to the conservative website Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016, showcase the extremist, anti-immigrant ideology that undergirds the policies he has helped create as an architect of Donald Trump’s presidency. These policies include reportedly setting arrest quotas for undocumented immigrants, an executive order effectively banning immigration from five Muslim-majority countries and a policy of family separation at refugee resettlement facilities that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General said is causing “intense trauma” in children.Stephen Miller’s Affinity for White Nationalism Revealed in Leaked Emails via SPLC Read the rest

This is a silver-backed chevrotain, aka "mouse-deer," from Vietnam. Until this and other camera trap photographs were taken in the last two years, no scientific evidence of the rabbit-sized animal had been collected in three decades. From Nature:The animal was first described in 1910 from four specimens, but since then only one verifiable record exists, from the early 1990s. The Red List of Threatened Species maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the silver-backed chevrotain (Tragulus versicolor) as ‘data deficient’.Indigenous people living in the Nha Trang forest suggested where the scientists should place their camera traps to get the animals on film.“To these local people our camera-trap evidence that the silver-backed chevrotain survives in Vietnam is not new,” says (Global Wildlife Conservation scientist Andrew) Tilker. “But to the wider scientific community, we are comfortable saying that our findings constitute a rediscovery.” Read the rest

During the early 20th century, Kutol Products was the world's biggest manufacturer of wallpaper cleaning products. But once coal heating in homes was replaced with oil, gas, and electricity, dirty wallpaper became less of a problem and Kutol was in trouble. So in 1956, they pivoted. From Smithsonian:Joseph McVicker was trying to turn around the struggling company when his sister-in-law read an article about how wallpaper cleaner could be used for modeling projects. Sister-in-law Kay Zufall, a nursery school teacher, tested the nontoxic material with children, who loved molding it into all kinds of shapes. She told McVicker of her discovery and even suggested a new name: Play-Doh...Originally available in white only in 1956, Play-Doh soon expanded to include basic colors red, blue and yellow. It is now sold in a panoply of hues, including Rose Red, Purple Paradise, Garden Green and Blue Lagoon. The Putty line includes metallic and glittery tints. The recipe has gone through minor modifications over time. At one point, the amount of salt was reduced so the product would not dry out so quickly. But, for the most part, the mixture has remained the same. Read the rest

Indlovu Gin is a new spirit infused with elephant dung. Gives new meaning to the term "shit-faced." It sells for about $32 per bottle. Creators Les and Paula Ansley of Mossel Bay, South Africa, came up with the concept on safari after learning that elephants have a varied diet of plants, fruits, and vegetables but less than half of it is actually digested. “As a consequence, in the elephant dung, you get the most amazing variety of these botanicals,” Les Ansley told the Associated Press. “(I recall my wife saying) Why don’t we let the elephants do the hard work of collecting all these botanicals and we will make gin from it?"From the AP:After about five sizeable bags of dung are collected for a batch of 3,000 to 4,000 bottles of the gin, the droppings are dried and crumbled, then washed to remove dirt and sand. Eventually only the remains of the fruits, flowers, leaves and bark eaten by the elephants are left behind.Those botanicals are then sterilized and dried again and placed in an airing cupboard. Think of it like a “spice cupboard,” Ansley said. Eventually, the remains are infused in the gin.(via Fark) Read the rest

The New York Times reports that girls as young as 12 have been stripped searched at music festival by Australian police eager to make drug arrests. Australia's zero-tolerance drug policy is “the only form of legislation that allows an adult to tell a young child to take off all their clothes,” Samantha Lee, the head of the Police Accountability Practice at the Redfern Legal Center, told the TimesFrom the article:“It’s highly likely the vast majority of strip searches are being conducted unlawfully,” said Vicki Sentas, a senior law lecturer at the University of New South Wales who has researched strip-searching statistics.In an inquiry conducted last month by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, a 16-year-old girl who attended a festival said she was asked to squat and cough in front of a police officer. She had no drugs.“I could not stop crying. I was completely humiliated,” she said, according to her complaint. An officer who worked at the festival admitted that some of the searches he conducted may have been unlawful.Mark Speakman, the state’s attorney general, said that strip searches in general were an “important investigative tool” but that the police needed to “get the balance right.”Image: Pixnio Read the rest

In a story that will surely captivate Fox News pundits for at least the next week, the student newspaper at Northwestern released a statement about their own reporting, following a visit to campus by Jeff Sessions.It's…not great.“We recognize that we contributed to the harm students experienced at the Sessions event, and we wanted to apologize for and address the mistakes that we made that night — along with how we plan to move forward.”https://t.co/RAjHSA349f— The Daily Northwestern (@thedailynu) November 12, 2019Essentially, the newspaper is apologizing for the way it covered the protest resulting from Sessions' presence. According to their statement, some students were upset that they were photographed, or contacted via the school directory, or texted for comments on the protest, mostly out of fear of retaliation by either the school administration, or the media at large, or really wrathful authority figures of any kind.This, of course, comes on the heels of the recent debacle at Harvard, where reporters at the Harvard Crimson reached out to ICE for a comment after another protest, which is also a…fairly standard journalistic practice. While the concerns of these individual students might be valid, the entire field of news reporting should not be expected to compromise itself and over-cautiously cater to needs of every possible individual. This doesn't mean that journalists—student, or professional—should not try to approach situations with empathy and sensitivity, particularly when dealing with subjects who might be placed at risk by their reporting. In the case of the Daily Northwestern, the paper's backpedaling response may be a prime example of over-correcting for such sensitivities. Read the rest

Do you love Christmas? Do you love dogs? How about dongs? Well then I have just the shirt for you!Uhhhhh pretty sure that's not a dog? https://t.co/r6S2Kjp2R3 pic.twitter.com/nb6UP9vjsP— Turkey Doom (@thomdunn) November 8, 2019I mean I guess I can see how that's supposed to be a dog with the — wait, nope, that's definitely a dick.It's also available in a holly pattern, if you're so interested. Read the rest

The Los Angeles Times has a harrowing new story about Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Japanese forces invaded the small Pacific nation and its residents during World War I, and the United States did the same during World War II under that classic guise of "liberation." But the US was hardly acting altruistically, at the time nor since then. The islands' location made it a prime strategic military base in the Pacific. It was also isolated enough to make it a convenient nuclear testing site—if you disregarded the 72,000 people who lived there, of course.Between 1946 and 1962, US military experiments produced 108 megatons of nuclear yield in the Marshall Islands— about 80% of the country's total radioactive waste output from nuclear testing. That's the equivalent 1.6 atomic bombs dropped every day for 12 years. And after the US decided to gradually cede control of the land back to the Marshallese people, we just kind of … left it all behind. We were kind enough to pour a bunch of concrete on top of the 22 million gallons of nuclear waste left behind on one specific island, creating the Runit Dome.But that dome is still there. And the concrete is starting to crack. And sea levels are rising rapidly, particularly in the Pacific, further accelerating that erosion process. Now the Dome—affectionately and appropriately called "The Tomb" by the locals—is threatening to leach all of that nuclear waste into the land and the ocean.I realize that an island-sized nuclear waste dump called "The Tomb" in the middle of the Pacific Ocean sounds like some straight-up Godzilla sci-fi shit. Read the rest

In 1822, Irish thief Alexander Pearce joined seven convicts fleeing a penal colony in western Tasmania. As they struggled eastward through some of the most inhospitable terrain on Earth, starvation pressed the party into a series of grim sacrifices. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow the prisoners on their nightmarish bid for freedom.We'll also unearth another giant and puzzle over an eagle's itinerary.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

The official Youtube video of Tom Holland's performance of Umbrella on Lip Sync Battle has over 28 million views:Alice Zhang has created several studies:You know how Degas did studies of ballerinas? Well I do studies of Tom Holland performing Rihanna’s Umbrella ayyyyy 😂 pic.twitter.com/t2uvLqnIoo— Alice X. Zhang (@alicexz) November 6, 2019Her webstore is currently featuring Blade Runner prints, but has no Tom Holland prints, yet. Read the rest

At the end of September, California enacted a new law that will allow college athletes to make money from endorsement deals starting in 2023:the law creates an unrestricted market for others who want to use the athlete's name, image or likeness. Money could come in the form of major brands like Nike or McDonald's using the athletes in commercials. It could also come from small businesses like car dealerships putting an athlete on a local billboard or memorabilia shops paying an athlete to show up for an autograph session for fans. Athletes could also make money themselves by monetizing social media feeds, selling T-shirts online or advertising to give lessons in their sport to younger kids. The new law allows athletes to hire an agent to help manage the process.Among the voices speaking out was Ohio State University's athletic director who cautioned the move would lead to California schools being excluded from the NCAA:if Newsom signs the bill, schools in California are "going to have a model where they can almost pay for play – not quite – but I think they’re going to be challenged to maintain their membership in the association because, as an association, we have the authority as a group to make our own rules and regulations, and they will be outside those rules and regulations. So, I’m not quite sure how they will stay in the association."As reported by USA Today, the athletic director specifically expressed concern California schools would have an unfair advantage:And how those schools will compete against those schools in California who have an unfair advantage because they’ll be able to offer student-athletes benefits that the other schools will not be able to offer. Read the rest