It's not uncommon for the White House (under any administration) to make multiple overlapping "proclamations" for any given month. Many of these celebrations date back years—Black History Month and Women's History Month, for example, which both fall in March. But this year, the Trump administration has continued in its proud tradition of surreptitiously erasing non-white-dudes from the narrative in favor of some revisionist history of American Exceptionalism that prides itself on the many glorious accomplishments of violent Christian colonialism.That's why November has now been proclaimed as the inaugural "National American History and Founders Month," with a press release full of the most painfully generic platitudes of 1st graders naive vision of American history. It focuses largely on those classic conservatives go-to's of revering the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, and even quotes from every Republican's favorite Founding Father: Ronald Reagan.Yes, I'm serious.But the anachronistic Reagan quote is hardly the most egregious offense here. No, that would be the fact the White House neglected to proclaim November as National Native American Heritage Month, which it has done every year since 1990. It ignored the original inhabitants of our country—who helped colonists settle here, perhaps against their wills—in lieu of celebrating the men who immortalized them as "merciless savages" in the Declaration of Independence.If you check the White House archives of Presidential Actions right now, you will see that National Native American Heritage Month is there, with a date of October 31, 2019—as if it was proclaimed on the same day as National American History and Founders Month. Read the rest

Disney has always been a problematic company, from its crypto-minstrelsy (and not-so-crypto-minstrelsy) to its perpetual copyright extensions to its censorship activities to its gender stereotyping to its anti-union work and so on, but, as anti-monopoly activist Matt Stoller (previously) writes, under CEO Bob Iger the company has changed into an entirely different kind of corporate menace: a monopolist committed to crushing competition, rather than an entertainment company that -- whatever its other sins -- was ferociously committed to making movies, TV shows, theme parks, art and toys.Stoller points to Iger's acquisition spree -- ABC, ESPN, Marvel, Lucas, Pixar, Fox, Maker Media (and licenses for Muppets, Avatar, etc) -- as the key to understanding the change in the company's nature. Where once Disney was a powerhouse of proprietary, studio-created stories and characters (albeit many of them based on public domain fairy tales), under Iger the main sources of new Disney products and stories has been other companies that it purchased. And of course, none of those purchases would have been permitted under the version of antitrust law that led to the founding and growth Disney -- it wasn't until Ronald Reagan, Robert Bork, and every US president since systematically dismantled antitrust that these kind of acquisitions became possible.This growth strategy warps the competitive landscape in all kinds of ways (not just would would-be animation studio founders, who are now gasping for market oxygen in a monopolized marketplace). Disney is now reportedly insisting on "block booking" from cinema owners -- that's the (once) illegal practice whereby a movie studio only permits cinemas to exhibit its top films if they also agree to take its turkeys -- while simultaneously clawing back all of its (and now, Fox's) old films from exhibition in the nation's 600 struggling independent cinemas. Read the rest

If you have €7,000,000 you want to spend before capitalism collapses, you can scoop up Château du Bouilh, built for Louis XVI on the eve of the French Revolution, never occupied by royalty, and lovingly preserved to this day, with period interiors to match.It's a perfect pied-a-terre for the discerning oligarch to cower in, pissing one's drawers while inequality, corruption and climate change trigger the collapse of the rotten system that elevated one to one's exalted position. It has 30 bedrooms, so you can go from bed to bed, night after night, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. It has seven hectares of wine-caves in which to hide from the truth and reconciliation commission's bailiffs. It has a series of outbuildings ("follies") that will made picturesque backdrops for your war-crimes trial. Everything was right on track for the Neoclassical castle until the Revolution got under way. In fact, there should be another house to bookend the demi-moon gallery, but building came to a screeching halt during the trial of Marie-Antoinette, Linda tells us, when Jean-Frédéric was arrested as a suspect in assisting the monarch. Even before the jury, he insisted on calling Marie Antoinette “Your Majesty.” Sadly, it cost him his powdered little head in 1794. A Sleeping Chateau, Untouched since the Revolution, is For Sale [Francky Knapp/Messy Nessy Chic](via Kottke) Read the rest

7,000 pages of leaked documents from the Six4Three lawsuit against Facebook reveal how the company provides or restricts access to user data as part of its overall strategy to crush potential competitors who rely on its platform, and deliberately manufactures cynical explanations about "protecting users" to justify the actions.Within the trove are extensive internal communications that reveal Facebook giving special user-data access to Amazon based on Amazon's massive advertising spending, then choking off data to a company called Messageme because its products had become too successful and represented a potential competitive threat to Facebook. Facebook execs candidly discussed how they could justify anticompetitive action against Messageme by saying that they were protecting their users' privacy.Six4Three made a disgusting Facebook app that let shitty men search for photos of their female contacts in bikinis, then sued Facebook for kicking them off the platform. When the company's CEO visited the UK, Parliament tried to summon him along with sealed court documents, and when he refused, they sent Parliament's sergeant-at-arms to drag him -- and the documents -- from his hotel to Westminster. Some of the documents were published immediately, even as redacted US versions of the documents were un-redacted thanks to laughable redaction errors made by Six4Three (errors so basic that many speculated that they were deliberate).4,000 pages of of Six4Three/Facebook leaks first came to light last April when Olivia Solon and Cyrus Farivar reported on them for NBC. Now, the team is back with another 7,000 pages. Read the rest

[We've been covering the grimy, sleazy stalkerware industry for years, and so it's nice to see that the FTC is finally taking action against the worst of the worst actors -- pity that they're still getting it wrong, as EFF's Gennie Gephart and Eva Galperin explain in this Deeplinks post that I've mirrored below. -Cory] The FTC recently took action against stalkerware developer Retina-X, the company behind apps Flexispy, PhoneSheriff, and Teenspy. The FTC settlement bars Retina-X from distributing its mobile apps until it can adequately secure user information and ensure its apps will only be used for “legitimate purposes.” But here’s the problem: there are simply no legitimate purposes for secret stalking apps.Retina-X, and its own James N. Johns Jr., seem to have come to the FTC’s attention not necessarily for making stalkerware, but for making stalkerware poorly. The company has suffered multiple security breaches over the past several years, including attacks from “vigilante hackers” who deleted petabytes of the company’s data—essentially, data that stalking app users had collected through spying on spouses, children, employees, and other targets. The FTC alleged that the poor security was a deceptive practice, which the FTC has authority to regulate under Section V of the FTC Act.In addition to requiring Retina X to demonstrate tighter security overall, the FTC alleged that the company violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires companies like Retina X to secure information—especially the kind of sensitive information Retina-X’s apps collect, like physical location and online activities—from children under 13. Read the rest

Even Bill Barr knew it was dumb

Twitter has some very serious security explaining to do.The Department of Justice is charging former Twitter employees with espionage on allegations of improperly accessing the accounts of people who were critical of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including specifically Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. One of the suspects has been arrested.The charges were unveiled Wednesday. You can read the U.S. charges here.MBS and the KSA are believed to have murdered Washington Post journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi by cutting off his head and dismembering him alive.“One of those implicated in the scheme, according to court papers, is an associate of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA has concluded likely ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last year.” Greg Bensinger and Ellen Nakashima for the Washington Post report:The charges, unveiled Wednesday in San Francisco, came a day after the arrest of one of the former Twitter employees, Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen who is alleged to have spied on the accounts of three users — including one whose posts discussed the inner workings of the Saudi leadership — on behalf of the government in Riyadh.Abouammo is also charged with falsifying an invoice to obstruct an FBI investigation.The second former Twitter employee — Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen — was accused of accessing the personal information of more than 6,000 Twitter accounts in 2015 on behalf of Saudi Arabia. One of those accounts belonged to a prominent dissident, Omar Abdulaziz, who later became close to Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who advocated for free expression in the Arab world. Read the rest

Being home for the holidays is great, but it's nice to know you've got a vacation waiting just around the corner. Impossible with all those gift expenses? Not so. Right now, you can enter for a chance to win a $1000 gift certificate to the airline of your choice. Entry is free, so you've got nothing to lose.And hey, now that we've got you excited about impending travel plans, here are a few other deals that are the next best thing to free: Deep discounts on some innovative and essential vacation gear, from carry-on bags to support pillows.Twist Memory Foam Travel PillowGot neck or back problems that keep you from sleeping on flights or buses? This pillow can target them no matter where they are. The memory foam cushion bends into whatever shape you need to support your head, spine or shoulders.Sale Price: $19.99MSRP: $24.99ALPAKA Shift PackWhether you're an urban commuter or mountaineer, the ALPAKA aims to be your go-to bag. It's got dedicated compartments for smartphones and laptops, plus quick-access pockets for cash or cards built into the straps. And with a waterproof, rolltop configuration, they'll all be well protected even on the longest hikes.Sale Price: $189.00MSRP:$249.00Dr. Save Vacuum Travel KitThis kit includes an air pump and four bags that will do more than just save you space. Pop in your clothes or other soft goods and the vacuum seal will reduce their volume by as much as 70%, allowing you to even take that bulky comforter on your next trip. Read the rest

Heritage Auctions is selling one of the most recognizable pages in the history of underground comics:The original art for an instantly recognizable image by legendary underground comics artist Robert Crumb is coming to auction for the first time ever in Heritage Auctions’ Comics & Comic Art Auction Nov. 21-24 in Dallas, Texas.Robert Crumb's “Stoned Agin!” Your Hytone Comix Inside Back Cover Original Art (Apex Novelties, 1971) is considered a “Holy Grail” among serious collectors of artwork by the iconic Crumb, and is being offered for the first time ever, in part because of the artist’s love of music.For years, the whereabouts of the artwork (estimate: $250,000+) were unknown and the subject of considerable speculation.“The consignor received the artwork directly from Robert Crumb,” Heritage Auctions Senior Vice President Todd Hignite said. “After moving to Northern California in 1970 and getting to know Crumb through friendships with other underground cartoonists, a trade was arranged with the artist, swapping some rare old blues 78 records for the artwork. The original has remained in our consignor’s personal collection ever since, buried away and securely stored for more than four decades, which has only added to the appeal and demand among collectors. This art is not only the great “lost” Crumb, but an incredibly key image for 1960s and 1970s counter-cultural history. Such powerful images that have been seared into the imaginations of so many very infrequently come up at auction.”The art is in ink on Bristol board, with an image size of approximately 12 by 8 inches on paper measuring 13-7/8 by 10-7/8 inches. Read the rest

Pantry moths are experts at finding their way into any open container of rice, flour, cereal, chips, nuts, etc. Then they breed in the boxes and bags. I hate it when I open a cabinet and a couple of moths fly out. It's even worse when I look at a bag of rice, and it is alive with motion.We've been putting our food into wide-mouth mason jars with these convenient one-piece plastic lids. That has reduced the problem. We also started using pantry moth traps. These traps fold into little A-frame houses. The interior is coated with a sticky material that traps the flies. The traps also come with a postage stamp size pheromone lure to fool the pests into thinking a sexy moth is inside waiting for them. These things work well. After using them for a few weeks the only moths I see now are the dead ones stuck to the inside of the traps. Read the rest

I so enjoyed the poodle in a box that Xeni posted that I decided to add some more dog gifs, and also a cat, for a full minute of House of Pain's Jump Around. Read the rest

At Mysterious Universe, Paul Seaburn writes:In what can be considered an unusual convergence of conspiracy theories, a man who runs a Bigfoot videos YouTube channel was chasing chemtrails when he claimed to have recorded a UFO chasing them as well. If you’re playing Conspiracy Scrabble, ‘Chemtrail’, ‘Bigfoot’ and ‘UFO’ is a triple-word score. According to his commentary during the video, Marc Abell –the CEO of Colorado Bigfoot, a provider of Bigfoot videos – was recording a plane making a contrail over a snow-covered terrain in Vail, Colorado, and believed the color and shape changes in the contrail were signs that the plane was actually spraying something rather than just trailing the usual water vapor and jet exhaust. That's when Abell spotted the UFO. Read the rest

On Monday I posted a story about how Krispy Kreme told a 21-year-old college student that he couldn't buy its donuts at full retail price from a store in Iowa and resell them 250 miles away in Minnesota, where there are no Krispy Kreme stores.Well, it looks like the corporate bigwigs at Krispy Kreme have changed their mind. Not only are they giving Jayson Gonzalez the OK to resell its donuts at a handsome profit, they are going to help him with his business and college education.From CNN:The company tells CNN that it was concerned that the doughnuts were not meeting its quality standards due to the long drive from Iowa to Minnesota.However, after an outpouring of support, the company is now working on a deal with Gonzalez to allow him to become an independent operator."Today, we reached out to Jayson to express our appreciation for his love of Krispy Kreme and admiration for his entrepreneurial spirit," a spokeswoman for Krispy Kreme tells CNN. "We are going to help him achieve his goals, which include being debt-free when he graduates in 2021, in part by selling Krispy Kreme Doughnuts."We wish Jayson great success and we're thrilled to help him achieve it by donating 500 dozen doughnuts when he re-starts his business."Photo by Kelli McClintock on Unsplash Read the rest

The Gateway Foundation is a private company that claims they could build the first orbital space hotel by 2025. According to their site, the Von Braun Rotating Space Station is designed "to accommodate both national space agencies conducting low gravity research and space tourists who want to experience life on a large space station with the comfort of low gravity and the feel of a nice hotel" large enough for 450 visitors. From Space.com:Gateway Foundation officials acknowledge that the station might not be entirely finished by 2025, but the group aims to develop the station's main structure and basic functions by then. "We expect the operation to begin in 2025, the full station will be built out and completed by 2027. … Once the station's fully operational, our hope, our goal and our objective is to have the station available for the average person," (lead architect Timothy) Alatorre said. "So, a family or an individual could save up reasonably … and be able to have enough money to visit space and have that experience. … It would be something that would be within reach...Alatorre said that the Gateway Foundation feels that such a project is now possible because the growing success of commercial aerospace companies like SpaceX has made launch options more affordable. He added that the company admits that it's possible its timeline is pushing it somewhat. "We completely understand that delays are almost inevitable with aerospace, but based on our internal projections and the fact that we're already dealing with existing technology, we're not inventing anything new. Read the rest

I have been very happy Liquid Wrench Lock and Hinge Lube.The back lid on my Volkswagen Vanagon started sticking a few years ago. A responsible person who does things right would likely take the panels off, clean everything up and lubricate it with whatever factory stuff was used. I have just taken to spraying some of this dry lube in the locks and other mechanisms once every year or so.Doors and locks that were sticking or squeaky around the house have also been cured with one or two squirts of this 'ceflon' lubricant.The spray straw is billed as some kind of special design. It is a very useful straw for directing lube where you want it, like on every other can of spray lube I've seen since the 80s or 90s?Got sticky locks or squeaky hinges? This stuff is good.Liquid Wrench LHL04/6 Lock and Hinge Lube - 4.5 oz. via Amazon Read the rest

Frank Avruch, the first man to play Bozo the Clown, died yesterday in Boston at the age of 89, reports Syracuse.com. He played the role of happy red-haired merrymaker from 1959 to 1970, and starred in the nationally-syndicated television show in the 1960s.Check out Avruch's wild Bozo hair and outfit in the video above. Pennywise would grovel before this Bozo's feet! Read the rest

Rixeyville, Virginia's Little Fork Volunteer Technical Large Animal Rescue Team saved a horse who fell or jumped into a family's swimming pool overnight. When the team arrived, the fire department had already begun draining the pool and a firefighter had jumped in to keep the animal calm. After a vet sedated the horse, the Rescue Team used a sling attached to a tractor and lifted the horse out of the pool. From Fredericksburg.com:The area had experienced high winds and a line of storms the night prior, Halloween night, and “Annie” a Haflinger had escaped from her field and went exploring, according to a Facebook post from Little Fork Volunteer Technical Large Animal Rescue Team.The horse was probably thirsty and saw some water and “just like that” found herself in the swimming pool, the post stated. Shortly after the rescue, Annie had recovered and was happily eating breakfast. Read the rest

Using Jaws of Life to rob an ATM is just so fussy. Around 3:30am this morning, a thief blew up a cash machine outside a Premier convenience store in Nottinghamshire, England. According to one witness, after the huge explosion "there was cash everywhere."The BBC News quotes another witness who said the perp "'stuffed around half of the cash into his hoodie' and quickly drove off when he noticed people were watching." Read the rest

Recursive Kittens Are Recursive

Oh, imagine the internet content glory we almost had. Lev Parnas and his associate David Correia were planning to produce a series of ‘Fraud Guarantee’ TV infomercials starring Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.We almost had to put up with even MORE of Rudy on cable news, report Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng at The Daily Beast:The company was called Fraud Guarantee, and it was run by Lev Parnas and David Correia, who were both arrested last month and charged with criminal violations of campaign-finance law—charges to which both have pleaded not guilty. Parnas and Correia had used Fraud Guarantee to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to Giuliani, with whom they worked closely as he sought to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine and advance their own business interests in the country.According to two sources with knowledge of the matter, Parnas and Correia had plans to expand Giuliani’s role with the company. As of early this year, they were looking to make him into Fraud Guarantee’s spokesman and public face.Both sources described a key part of the plan: a television infomercial featuring Giuliani extolling the virtues of Fraud Guarantee and its services. Parnas and Correia wanted the ad campaign to start airing on U.S. cable-news channels shortly after Giuliani was finished representing Trump in matters pertaining to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation. The probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election concluded earlier this year. Giuliani knew of the plan, reports The Daily Beast, and “had multiple discussions with the two men about possibly signing on as their national pitchman,” but sources say “it’s not clear whether any footage of those planned Fraud Guarantee infomercials was ever shot, or if any deal was ultimately officially inked.”Also completely not clear what the point was on any of this, since they had no known customers. Read the rest

Theodore Gray, the co-creator of Mathematica, has written a number of beautifully photographed books that I love: The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything, and Reactions: An Illustrated Exploration of Elements, Molecules, and Change in the Universe. I give all of them my highest recommendation. Gray has a new book out called How Things Work: The Inner Life of Everyday Machines and it's another masterpiece. The publisher gave me permission to run a few sample pages from the chapter on "Clear Things," products that are transparent (often because they were made for prisoners and the prisons don't want prisoners hiding things inside opaque cases.From the intro:When I was young I saw for the first time a picture of a telephone with a transparent case. You could look inside and see all the electronic components that made it work! My first thought was “wow, that is so cool,” followed by “I want one.” But then I got worried.A clear telephone seemed obviously superior to every other possible telephone, so why weren’t all telephones made with clear cases? Who could possibly want a phone that hid all the good stuff inside a pointlessly opaque case? I knew it couldn’t cost more to use clear plastic rather than colored plastic. Did the people who made telephones just not realize that they could use clear plastic? Could people smart enough to make a whole telephone really be that dumb? Read the rest

A company in South Korea will give you a funeral for free, but you have to be alive while it happens.Hyowon Healing Center opened in 2012 and promises visitors improved lives through simulated deaths.Over 25,000 people have participated in mass “living funeral” services, the business claims.From Reuters:“Once you become conscious of death, and experience it, you undertake a new approach to life,” said 75-year-old Cho Jae-hee, who participated in a recent living funeral as part of a “dying well” program offered by her senior welfare center.Dozens took part in the event, from teenagers to retirees, donning shrouds, taking funeral portraits, penning their last testaments, and lying in a closed coffin for around 10 minutes.University student Choi Jin-kyu said his time in the coffin helped him realize that too often, he viewed others as competitors.“When I was in the coffin, I wondered what use that is,” said the 28-year-old, adding that he plans to start his own business after graduation rather than attempting to enter a highly-competitive job market. Dying for a better life: South Koreans fake their funerals for life lessons [reuters.com]There have been previous rounds of coverage of the “death healing” operation, including this biomedical review and New York Times piece from years back -- and there are lots of interesting videos to watch. [photo: Michell Trommler via pixabay] Read the rest

Charles Burns is one of my all-time favorite cartoonists. I had no idea that since 2000 he has been self-publishing a zine that he sends to a small circle of friends, called Free Shit. I'm deeply hurt not to be included on his mailing list, but I can find a morsel of solace in this anthology of drawings from the pages of Free Shit. The book is called Free Shit, and is published by Fantagraphics, who kindly gave me permission to run a selection of the drawings that appear in the book. Read the rest

Police in Los Angeles said on Tuesday they have recovered some $800,000 worth of stolen prints by the Scottish abstract expressionist and esotericist Benjamin Creme.The LAPD was led to this mysterious stolen art discovery by a phone call, and they ended up finding nearly 1,300 prints in a San Fernando valley home. That caller, not identified, told LAPD the art work was found in a relative’s possessions after she died, and later the family realized the prints were listed in a database of stolen artwork.“The family took the stuff and had it stored in their house for several years when they finally started going through it and discovered the art was stolen,” Detective Steven Franssen told the Associated Press. “They immediately packed it up and took it to the police station.”From the AP:The prints, each signed and numbered, include “Flame-Coloured Deva,” “Shakti II” and other colorful works by Creme, who in later years became better known for his belief in UFOs and predictions of a second coming of Christ and other messiahs. He died in London in 2016 at age 93.Franssen said police returned the prints earlier this week to their incredulous owner, lithographer Michael Flaum, who made them. “He was extremely shocked when we called,” the detective said, chuckling. “He didn’t even believe it was the police department at first.”Flaum said he discovered the theft one day in 2012 when he went to a locker where he had 2,300 prints stored. He would sell some from time to time to raise money for the artist, who in his later years was spending more time with metaphysical pursuits. Read the rest

When my friend and Cool Tools partner Kevin Kelly showed me these photos he recently took in Myanmar, I told him that it seems like he has a time machine. And he said, " I do call it a time machine." Read the rest

In the San Francisco elections last night, it looks like there was a big loss for Juul. According to the early vote count from the SF Chronicle and others, San Francisco voters have overwhelmingly defeated Proposition C in Tuesday's election. This means a citywide ban on the sale of electronic cigarette products will go into effect next year, if the numerous legal challenges don't get in the way. Juul is reported to have spent close to $19 million dollars to pass Proposition C, which would have killed the plan to ban e-cig sales in San Francisco. Juul lost big last night, along with Prop C. BUT: Tobacco cigarettes, which are proven to cause cancer, are still available for sale.a big loss for Juul, which poured nearly $19 million into this race. https://t.co/mzRllZBa4t— Stephanie M. Lee (@stephaniemlee) November 6, 2019JUUL put itself on the ballot with Proposition C and San Francisco voters overwhelmingly rejected it, forcing JUUL to drop its own campaign. This should embolden other cities and states to take action to protect children's health. https://t.co/AB8WD0Fmgf— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) November 6, 2019San Francisco also votes down Proposition C around vaping products, which was once backed by Juul, with 80.2% right now overwhelmingly saying "no", according to @sfchronicle https://t.co/cGTRcayhzs— Ken Yeung (@thekenyeung) November 6, 2019Early election results for Proposition C, which would overturn San Francisco’s ban on e-cigarettes and vaping products, show 78% voting no on the measure. Live results: https://t.co/uA0WcaRySK pic.twitter.com/MZVfm14gzg— KRON4 News (@kron4news) November 6, 2019[PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-4.0] Read the rest

A while back we ran some pages from Drew Friedman's new book All the Presidents, which has a portrait of every U.S. President, drawn by Drew. If you happen to be anywhere near Ohio State University, do yourself a favor and see Drew's "Drawn to Presidents” exhibit at the Billy Ireland Library & Museum.The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum presents Drawn to Presidents: Portraits and Satiric Drawings by Drew Friedman November 2, 2019 through February 9, 2020.Pennsylvania-based illustrator Drew Friedman has employed his intensely realistic, warts-and-all style of caricature to satirize celebrity and authority for four decades. In his latest book from Fantagraphics Books, All the Presidents, Friedman points his pen at the exclusive club of the United States presidents.This exhibit features the original artwork created for All the Presidents, as well as presidential-themed original art created for, among others, SPY, MAD, TIME, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The New Republic, The New York Observer, and TOPPS “Wacky Packs.”Building on a centuries-old tradition of cartoonists satirizing those in power, Friedman’s influences include Edward Sorel, Robert Grossman, Mort Drucker, David Levine, and more. Read the rest

On Friday, November 1, 2019, the FBI arrested a self-proclaimed white supremacist named Richard Holzer, who was allegedly planning to bomb Temple Emanuel in Pueblo, Colorado—the second-oldest synagogue in the state.Southern Colorado Man Charged With Federal Hate Crime For Plotting To Blow Up SynagoguePress release: https://t.co/8bFPqO1bctPictured: U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn, FBI SAC Dean Phillips & Pueblo Police Chief Troy Davenport addressing members of the media pic.twitter.com/nyJOy1he9z— Colorado U.S. Attorney (@DCOnews) November 4, 2019This is, largely, a good thing. After sleeping on the white supremacist infiltration of police departments all across the country, it's nice to see the FBI is actually taking action against this hugely dangerous epidemic. And there's absolutely no question that Richard Holzer was a white supremacist with violent intentions. As the Justice Department explained in a press release:Holzer, who self-identifies as a skinhead and a white supremacist, told undercover FBI agents that he wanted to do something that would tell Jewish people in the community that they are not welcome in Pueblo, and they should leave or they will die. The affidavit states that during a meeting with the undercover agents, Holzer repeatedly expressed his hatred of Jewish people and his support for RAHOWA, shorthand for a racial holy war.Holzer also told the undercover FBI agents that he had already hired a "witch doctor" to "hex and poison" the water at the Temple, paying a Mexican cook to add arsenic into the pipes. It's unclear if this actually happened, or if it actually accomplished anything—but clearly, this guy was trouble. Read the rest

No-one ever seems to live in a dream house won in a raffle, so CBS News began to wonder if there was ever really a dream house at all. It turns out that the San Francisco 'Dream House' raffle has "never awarded its top prize" of a dream house.The fine print: there was a winner in two of the ten years tracked, but the fees associated with accepting the $10m prizes are so ominous (eating at least half the value of the prize from the outset, with taxes to come) that the winners will always plump for alternative cash prizes instead. Read the rest

Brendan is a 34-year-old investor building an empire of rentals and seemingly random retail operations. He decided to buy a run-down old-timey laundromat. It's clean and there's a lot of machines in it, but some of them are broken, so he didn't do any marketing beyond an "UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT" sign in the window. How much does such an operation make, in 2019?I appreciate everyone that's becoming interested in my laundromat content.Above is the week 15 update, after buying some new washers; below is the first week, when it was like walking into the 1960s.The tldr: he went from $1366 in the first two weeks (when it was rather obvious coins were walking out the door) to $1050 in the fifteenth week. Take a guess at costs and there you go. But wait, isn't the point of a laundromat to "break even" every year? Read the rest

I spend more time than I probably should wondering when the luxury condo trend will finally come for the dead. Real estate is expensive, and there's lots of valuable land in urban areas that could be used for yet-another fancy steel-and-glass skyscraper used to hide foreign money—if it wasn't for the cemeteries that currently take up all that space. I even have a half-finished short story in a notebook somewhere riffing on the classic Stephen King scenario of towns built on Native American burial grounds, except it's just luxury condos built up on the corpses of, well, everyone.But I was thinking too far ahead. Because I didn't stop to think about what happens to those graveyards now, as flooding and earthquakes and more extreme weather disturb the soil under which our loved ones have been laid to their eternal rests. As a recent article in Scientific American gruesomely details, coffins are already body-surfing through the streets of Louisiana during storms:The caskets and their surface vaults are sealed airtight, so pressure builds inside them when a hurricane or flash flood covers them in water. Moisture weakens the vault seal, and eventually the water begins to bubble with dead air—the tell-tale sign a casket is ready to pop out of its grave, Hunter said.“You hear the bubbles, you see the bubbles, and you know that seal is weakening because of that immense amount of pressure. And then the lid comes off,” he said.The visual of bubbling coffins popping out of the ground is scary enough. Read the rest

Hey designers: We know you get used to the photo editing system you've toiled away at for years. But what if we told you that great images don't need to involve a ton of steps - and they certainly don't need to be expensive.Exhibit A: Fotor Online Pro, a photo editing tool that's been racking up a four-and-a-half star rating on the Mac App Store for good reason.Fotor offers all the functionality of leading photo editors in a super-intuitive package. Boring but essential tasks like cropping and resizing get done much quicker. The multiple templates and retouching tools are easily accessible and completely customizable. And portraits get a lot simpler to touch up with an interface that's set up almost like a makeup tutorial.The program's HDR technology gives it access to a range of colors and shading that will punch up even the blandest image. Then there's the ability to show your vacation snaps in a whole new way with the built in collage maker.Check it out for yourself: Right now, a lifetime subscription to Fotor Online Pro is 87% off the list price. Read the rest

George Carlin, of the so-called "silent generation" that preceded the boomers:"I'm getting tired of hearing about...whiny, narcissistic, self-indulgent people with a simple philosophy: "GIMME IT, IT'S MINE!" "GIMME THAT, IT'S MINE!" These people were given everything. Everything was handed to them. And they took it all: sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and they stayed loaded for 20 years and had a free ride. But now they're staring down the barrel of middle-age burnout, and they don't like it. So they've turned self-righteous. They want to make things harder on younger people. They tell 'em, abstain from sex, say no to drugs; as for the rock and roll, they sold that for television commercials a long time ago...so they could buy pasta machines and stairmasters and soybean futures"In Carlin tradition it ends with fuck everybody. But the bit about how political slogans transformed into advertising slogans having the exact opposite meanings is really something.Disclaimers: "Generations" is cultural astrology for pundits, Facebook must be destroyed, the purpose of polls is influence not observation, don't eat yellow snow. Read the rest

T-Mobile has a trademark on RAL 4010, a shade of magenta. Trademarks on colors (see also: UPS, John Deere) are a dangerous trend, robbing us of the spectrum one shade at a time, but T-Mobile's views on its trademark made this bad situation much worse.That's because T-Mobile says that its trademark on RAL 4010 gives it the right to force any company, in any line of business, to take down ads that use colors similar to magenta, including pink.The most recent victim of T-Mobile's trademark bullying is the NYC-based insurance startup Lemonade, whose predominantly magenta marketing campaign was shut down when a German court upheld T-Mobile's claim against the company.A spokesman for Deutsche Telekom confirmed that it “asked the insurance company Lemonade to stop using the color magenta in the German market,” while adding that the “T” in “Deutsche Telekom” is registered to the brand. “Deutsche Telekom respects everyone’s trademark rights but expects others to do the same,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement to Ad Age.T-Mobile says it owns exclusive rights to the color magenta [George P Slefo/Adage](via /.) Read the rest

Freedom House, a US-government-funded nonprofit think-tank whose mission is to spread democracy, issues an annual "internet freedom" report; this year, for the ninth consecutive year, the report says that internet freedom has declined, and it's all thanks to social media.The report surveys 65 countries (covering 87% of the world's internet users), and in 38 of them Freedom House says that social media has been used by political leaders who "employed individuals to surreptitiously shape online opinions" that mixed "authentic users'" views with "fraudulent or automated accounts."The report describes how social media has been mined by intelligence services who engaged in "the collection and analysis of vast amounts of data on entire populations," creating a "sharp global increase in the abuse of civil liberties and shrinking online space for civic activism."The report notes that while 33 countries' internet freedom has declined since last year, 16 countries have undergone net improvements. The worst declines came from "Sudan and Kazakhstan followed by Brazil, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe." The worst country for internet freedom is China. The biggest improvement came from Ethiopia. Iceland is "the world’s best protector of internet freedom."Freedom House warns that "Emerging technologies such as advanced biometrics, artificial intelligence, and fifth-generation mobile networks will provide new opportunities for human development, but they will also undoubtedly present a new array of human rights challenges."Internet freedom declined in the United States. While the online environment remains vibrant, diverse, and free from state censorship, this report’s coverage period saw the third straight year of decline. Read the rest

Vinay Gupta (previously) is a polymath engineer/inventor, whose Buckminster Fuller-inspired "hexayurts" can be found all over Burning Man (and my novel Walkaway).In his Penny Stamps lecture at the University of Michigan ranges widely over the nature of displacement and refugee crises, how climate deepens and accelerates these crises (and makes them permanent), and how the traditional idea of a refugee camp -- never a particularly successful one -- is totally unsuited to the challenges of the climate/refugee crisis.He goes on to propose a model for a flat-pack city future, where engineered buildings and infrastructure, designed to be shipped and assembled with ease, can replace "temporary" camps (some of which have now been in existence so long that two or three generations of people have lived and died in them) with real, permanent, sustainable, high-density cities.I don't share all of Gupta's vision here -- I'm skeptical of his claim that we need capital (as opposed to material) to lift people out of poverty, and of the underlying economics of this notion -- but he's a riveting speaker and he's got fascinating ideas that always excite me.(Thanks, Vinay!) Read the rest

In 2017, Juli Briskman flipped off Trump's motorcade as she cycled past it near her northern Virginia home, and her employer, Akima LCC, fired her.Briskman had been working as Akima's social media director, and she was fired for violating the company's social media policy. This wasn't merely ridiculous because "riding a bicycle" is not "social media" activity -- but also because Briskman had -- in her capacity as social media director -- reported an Akima exec for calling a subordinate a "fucking Libtard asshole" in a public Facebook discussion of Black Lives Matter, with no meaningful consequences for the exec.The manifest injustice of her dismissal -- losing your job for flipping off the most divisive President in more than a century -- prompted an outpouring of support and more than $142,000 in donations to a Gofundme campaign.Now, Briskman has parlayed that public support into something more meaningful: a successful campaign to be elected as supervisor for the Algonkian District in Loudoun County, Virginia.Briskman ran on a platform of school funding, rules for local property development, local government transparency, and a reversal of the Republican incumbent's $14m tax cut, which deprived local government of the cash it needed to provide services.The county reliably votes for Democrats at the state and federal level, but Republicans maintain control of the board, 6 to 3, and Republicans have represented the county in Congress for nearly 40 years.Democrats hope voter hostility toward Trump, combined with a recent population boom and demographic changes, will help them oust Rep. Read the rest

There's a lot of great information out there on the bookshelves, and we're not just talking conversation fodder for the next cocktail party. If you want to succeed at business and life, there's a good chance you can find the blueprint in a book.Trouble is, life isn't exactly slowing down to let you turn those pages. Reading for pleasure is one thing. But when you're reading to get information, an app like SumizeIt can be invaluable.youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrZ3a2lFsOkDownload SumizeIt on your phone or tablet and you've got instant access to a great library of content from thought leaders like Richard Branson, Phil Knight and Daniel Coyle on a range of topics — sales, entrepreneurship, marketing, autobiography and more.But what's really great for busy professionals is that SumizeIt "shrinks" those titles for you, summarizing them into snippets that distill the key insights and takeaways. They're perfect for absorbing in five minutes or less, which is ideal for even the shortest chunks of downtime in commutes, smoke breaks or waiting rooms.SumizeIt membership gets you access to the full library, with at least one new summary each week. Best of all, it's now on deep discount for 80% off the list price. Read the rest

The Board of County Commissioners in Citrus County, Florida opposed the renewal of the regional public library's digital subscription to the New York Times. Why? "Fake news," said the board's second vice chairman Scott Carnahan. "“I agree with President Trump. I will not be voting for this. I don’t want The New York Times in this county.” From Reuters:Carnahan was joined by Commissioners Ronald Kitchen, who balked at the annual cost of about $2,700, and Jimmie Smith, who wondered, “why the heck would we spend money on something like that?”Reading the room, First Vice Chairman Brian Coleman withdrew the motion he made to approve the funding request...The (Citrus County) Chronicle, noting that the decision would affect some 70,000 library card holders, reported that its readers “reacted strongly” to the commissioners’ decision, with “most but not all” critical of it.The county already pays about $3,000 a year to supply its four regional libraries with the print edition of The Times, Library Services Director Eric Head told the newspaper.Graphic above borrowed from this fantastic t-shirt. Read the rest

Over the summer, every weekend was a 3-day weekend for Microsoft Japan employees. The company tested a 4-day workweek without reducing salaries. According to Microsoft, the result was a productivity increase of 40%. It seems that the biggest contributor to that boost is that they cut way back on meetings which, as a rule, waste a lot of time. From National Public Radio:Because of the shorter workweek, the company also put its meetings on a diet. The standard duration for a meeting was slashed from 60 minutes to 30 — an approach that was adopted for nearly half of all meetings. In a related cut, standard attendance at those sessions was capped at five employees.Citing the need for a shift in time management, the Microsoft division also urged people to use collaborative chat channels rather than "wasteful" emails and meetings...Four-day workweeks made headlines around the world in the spring of 2018, when Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand trust management company, announced a 20% gain in employee productivity and a 45% increase in employee work-life balance after a trial of paying people their regular salary for working four days. Last October, the company made the policy permanent. Read the rest

In Watford, England, construction workers doing demolition at a former pub and inn found a weird bottle inside the chimney. Containing human teeth, fish hooks, glass shards, and liquid, the container was apparently a 19th century "witch bottle" meant to protect against evil spells. Above, examples of such bottles. From Smithsonian:The newly discovered bottle is one of more than 100 recovered from old buildings, churchyards and riverbanks across Great Britain to date. Most specimens trace their origins to the 1600s, when continental Europe was in the grips of a major witch panic. Common contents found in witch bottles include pins, nails, thorns, urine, fingernail clippings and hair.According to BBC News, the Watford property—now a private residence but formerly known as the Star and Garter inn—is best known as the birthplace of Angeline Tubbs, a woman later nicknamed the Witch of Saratoga...The home’s current owner does not plan on displaying the bottle. Instead, the anonymous individual says they “will probably hide it away again for someone to find in another 100 years or so.”So, how exactly did witch bottles work? Per JSTOR Daily’s Allison C. Meier, practitioners filled the vessels with an assortment of items, but most commonly urine and bent pins. The urine was believed to lure witches traveling through a supernatural “otherworld” into the bottle, where they would then be trapped on the pins’ sharp points. Would-be witchcraft victims often embedded the protective bottles under hearths or near chimneys; as anthropologist Christopher C. Read the rest

Mike Christian built a rooftop animated Eye of Sauron:He was inspired by the Animated Snake Eyes Bonnet for Raspberry Pi project, and posted several progress videos:He spoke a bit more about the project here. Read the rest

Are you an AT&T customer on an unlimited data plan? Have you had the feeling that sometimes your phone carrier was deliberately slowing you down? The FCC says you aren't wrong, and that AT&T must pay $60 million in settlement for slowing cellphone data on unlimited plans.The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said on Tuesday it will require AT&T to pay a $60 million settlement to resolve the government's charges that the phone carrier cheated millions of American customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans but reducing their data speeds if they used more than a certain undisclosed amount. “Scammers come in all sizes,” FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra said in a statement. From Reuters:As part of the settlement of the 2014 complaint, AT&T is also prohibited from making any representation about the speed or amount of its mobile data without also disclosing any material restrictions on the data.AT&T issued a brief statement acknowledging that it had reached a settlement with the FTC.“Even though it has been years since we applied this network management tool in the way described by the FTC, we believe this is in the best interests of consumers,” AT&T said in an emailed statement.The company had fought the FTC in court, saying it had no jurisdiction to bring the case, but lost in 2018.The FTC alleged that AT&T would begin to slow “unlimited” customers’ data after they used as little as two gigabytes of data in a month. Netflix says that watching its shows uses about 1 gigabyte per hour of standard definition video. Read the rest

Because we live on a divergent Hellworld timeline where everything is too comically absurd to be real except for the fact that it is, the BBC published an article about the need for asthmatics like me to step up our roles in fighting climate change. This is just the very beginning of it:Many people with asthma could cut their carbon footprint and help save the environment by switching to "greener" medications, UK researchers say.Making the swap would have as big an "eco" impact as turning vegetarian or becoming an avid recycler, they say.As a lifelong asthmatic, I find it difficult to articulate the inherent bullshittery of this concept without smashing my laptop in a fit of hyperventilation. But that would require me to use my rescue inhaler to save my own life (and then I'd also be without a computer, which would make things even more difficult). But I'm going to try my best.The initial premise here is based on the fact that some aerosol sprays contribute significantly to climate change. This apparently includes metered-dose inhalers—like the rescue one I use when my lungs stop working—which rely on hydrofluoroalkane in order to release that little misting burst of asthma medicine. In the UK, this is estimated to account for about 4 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions produced by the National Health Service and the related medical industry.On the surface, there's nothing inherently wrong with pointing this out—indeed, the medical industry should find greener ways to do things! Read the rest

Roger Stone had to leave jury selection early today because he had 'food poisoning.'Earlier, an observer was taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher after appearing to have had a seizure.From the Daily Beast:Stone abruptly got up and fled the courtroom after the first potential juror took the witness stand. Moments later, a spectator in the back of the courtroom reportedly moaned loudly and collapsed—causing the proceedings to stop as the entire courtroom was cleared. The man was later seen walking out of the courtroom with medical personnel, and a crew had to clean up the areas where the man apparently fell ill. Shortly after proceedings started back up, Stone was seen resting his head in his hand, and Judge Amy Berman Jackson called a lunch break. He was then observed entering the courthouse’s heath unit while jury selections continued in his absence. In January, he pleaded not guilty to charges that stemmed from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference during the 2016 election. Here's video of Roger Stone leaving court early today. A bit shaky as I dashed out behind him https://t.co/oTWPOuVXRZ pic.twitter.com/cbMwHBrjUC— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) November 5, 2019Roger Stone leaves jury selection for his trial due to food poisoning; earlier, an observer was taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher after appearing to have a seizure. https://t.co/sQ33YIhNKS— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 5, 2019Jury selection in the Roger Stone trial off to a bizarre start.Stone left the proceedings after he said he got food poisoning. Read the rest

This is a great clip. If you're into jugglers doing funny things or 500-volt stun guns, you're in for a treat.Jon and Owen of the wonderful performance group 'The Passing Zone' joined Penn & Teller on their TV show "Penn & Teller: Fool Us!" recently to perform a dangerous magic and juggling trick involving electricity. Watch the magic, and check out Teller almost getting shocked!Jon Wee and Owen Morse are friends of mine, and as crazy as they are in this video, they are in person. They're delightful humans with insanely curious intelligent minds and a wonderful knack for pulling off the impossible.If you ever have a chance to see The Passing Zone perform live on stage in person (they also do trade shows and corporate events) go do it.Their 'America's Got Talent' clip with Howie Mandel is also a thing of greatness, and legendary. Read the rest

In Indianapolis, a confused deer crashed through a glass window into a suburban school, sending teachers and students into security lockdown mode.Hinkle Creek Elementary School Principal Jack Lawrence told a reporter the deer smashed through a window Monday afternoon and entered the Noblesville school’s main hallway.Students and staff at Hinkle Creek Elementary School in Noblesville are all okay. The windows were shattered. No word on the deer.From indystar.com:Principal Jack Lawrence told parents in an email that a deer jumped through a window, shattering it, in the school's main hallway at 1 p.m. Monday. The school immediately called for a lockdown to make sure students and staff remained inside their classrooms.The deer eventually pushed its way out of the building's main entrance and ran through a parking lot into nearby woods, Lawrence said in the email.No students or staff were hurt, and normal school operations resumed after a few minutes, he said.[indystar.com via Associated Press, image: Indiana Department of Fish and Wildlife, in.gov/dnr/fishwild/ ] Read the rest

This is the easiest way to weigh your luggage at home, before you get to the airport and find out your bag is too heavy and have to pay a hefty overweight fee. To use it, you place the strap around a handle on your luggage and lift. The weight is displayed on an illuminated readout (you can switch it between lbs and kgs). I've had one since 2015 and it's much better than trying to weigh your luggage on a bathroom scale. Amazon sells them for Read the rest

Man used electric shopping cart to get from one bar to another