Boing Boing

In this video posted to instagram, a woman calls the cops on a UPS driver because "I don't understand why you're walking around with a bunch of packages". This woman legit called the cops on a Black UPS driver for working while Black.No seriously😳 She said he “looked suspicious,” & then finally seemed to back off when a white UPS driver told her she’s wrong.She looms up on him, variously keeps her hands in her pockets or waves them around in his face, rolls up her sleeves, grins, tells him where she lives, and says: you're making me nervous. The excuse that police use to justify killing people, cued up by a belligerent bigot who, when she realizes he's not going to react negatively to her provocations, calls the police.Also, now you know why your packages are late.This woman legit called the cops on a Black UPS driver for working while Black.No seriously😳 She said he “looked suspicious,” & then finally seemed to back off when a white UPS driver told her she’s wrong. 🤦🏽‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/7jaPiA5sWu— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) November 27, 2019 Read the rest

Back in September, a rare print edition of Space Adventures #7—originally published by the new-defunct Charlton Comics in 1953—sold for $1,800.The comic book speculator market isn't normally the kind of cash cow that the 90s thought it was going to be. Unless you've got one of those very rare early superhero origin comics—or you happen to sell something random like Avengers #257 at the exact right time for a convenient movie tie-in—you're typically lucky to make even a dollar on an old comic.Space Adventures #7 has nothing to do with superheroes, or non-superhero movie adaptations. But it's still coveted, probably because it contains a pre-Comics Code story called "Transformation" that was illustrated by Dick Giordano, who went on to become the Executive Editor at DC Comics, and written by a curiously uncredited author.What's more interesting about the comic, however, is that it deals unexpectedly with transgender issues.Here's a basic synopsis of the 8-page story from Comic Book Plus:Anticipating nuclear war that would leave Earth barren of life, Lars Kranston convinces his colleagues to go to Mars. His paramour Betty Stone insists that she go as well. The ship crashes on Mars. Everyone but Lars and Betty are killed, but Lars thinks she died too. Betty wakes up suffering total amnesia. Lars decides to use the supplies that survived the wreck. He manages a complete sex change. The tumultuous situation on Earth dies down. The predicted war never occurs. Betty remembers the journey. Read the rest

The excellent first edition of Matthew Braga's new Secret World newsletter looks at exactly who you're calling when you use a satellite phone or Garmin emergency beacon to call for help:It turns out that, anytime someone calls 911 on a satellite phone, or presses the SOS button on a dedicated GPS tracker — anywhere in the world — those messages typically go to one place: The International Emergency Response Coordination Center, or IERCC, about an hour outside of Houston, Texas. The center has coordinated more than 10,000 rescues in 169 countries, and responds to anywhere from 30 to 60 requests each day. Whether you’re a hermit in the Scottish highlands in medical distress, or a kayaker in eastern Tajikistan with altitude sickness (true stories) the IERCC is your point of first contact. Every hour, every day of the year, a rotating team of six watchstanders determine the closest available search and rescue team and coordinate the response. The IERCC headquarters includes what sounds like a real-life vault from Fallout:The entrances were hidden within a pair of massive pagodas, with gunports for the armed guards to shoot at whoever who came near.Read the rest of the newsletter here, including a description of drone warfare involving tractor beams. Read the rest

This vaguely comports to the methods I saw and knew in 1990s London. The proper way was to start with oil and use a grill brick [Amazon], but the reality is you will still need lots of environmentally unsound liquids. The mystery degreaser is Swisher but Ecolab is exactly the same stuff and widely available. Wear gloves. Never eat out. Read the rest

Artist Allison Hoffman, aka Crafty is Cool, is an absolute master of pop culture amigurimi ("a portmanteau of the Japanese words ami, meaning 'crocheted or knitted,' and nuigurumi, meaning 'stuffed doll'"). She can crochet like nobody's business and each of her pieces are a work of art (previously). Now, she's taken to creating the real star of The Mandalorian, the new Star Wars series on Disney+, big-eyed Baby Yoda!But, she's only made one and you can't just buy it outright. If you want it, you'll have to bid on it on eBay. Allison writes, "I’ve gotten so many requests for the finished baby that this is really the only way I could fairly sell him! Thank you all! I have to make another for my husband so that he doesn’t buy this one..." As of this writing, the bidding is already up to $305. If that's too rich for your blood, well, hope you can crochet, because she's made its pattern available ($7) in her Etsy shop.We must protect the asset! Who even is he? Or she? Or what? Who cares? Its adorable. This pattern instructs you how to make a life-size stuffed baby inspired by Baby Yoda/Yiddle with easy to find supplies and simple techniques. Everything is photographed and explained in easy to follow step by step instructions. You should know basic crochet skills, but now is a good time to learn.The Baby is 14" tall and weighs 2 lbs. He's got a little removable robe. Read the rest

This. is. amazing. Purple Count singing Gogol Bordello's "Start Wearing Purple" — the entire song! Someone spent a long time making this mashup video but we don't know who exactly. Their YouTube account is anonymous, simply named Purple Count. Mystery mashup master, I bow to you. Read the rest

Whether you are looking for an upgrade or searching for a gift, Black Friday is always a good time to go shopping for new tech. Finding the best discounts can be a challenge, so we decided to do the hard work for you. Here are 15 of the best gadget deals you will find anywhere, now with an extra 20% off when you use the Black Friday coupon code BFSAVE20.iPM 3-in-1 Apple Watch, iPhone & AirPods Wireless Charging Dock Perfect for Apple fans, this classy charging dock has space for an iPhone, an Apple Watch and AirPods. It has a small enough footprint to live on your nightstand, and the upright design means you can check your phone easily throughout the night.MSRP: $119.99Sale Price: $44.99Price with BFSAVE20 code: $35.993-in-1 Apple Watch, AirPods & iPhone ChargerThis nifty cable can also charge an iPhone, an Apple Watch and AirPods at the same time. The 3.9-foot cable plugs into any USB power source and splits into three, providing two Lightning connectors and a wireless charger. MSRP: $34.99Sale Price: $14.99Price with BFSAVE20 code: $11.9910-Ft. MFi-Certified Braided Lightning Cable PacksThese Apple-approved Lightning cables provide better reach while your iPhone is charging. The braided outer shell is much more durable than Apple’s plastic sheath and much less prone to becoming tangled. In this three-pack, each cable is just $4.MSRP: $89.99Sale Price: $15Price with BFSAVE20 code: $12TREBLAB Z2 Wireless Noise-Cancelling HeadphonesWith neodymium-backed 40mm drivers and T-Quiet noise cancellation, the TREBLAB Z2 headphones provide a great listening experience. Read the rest

Whether we're on a long commute or marathon workout, the right soundtrack makes all the difference. And with all the thought we put into our playlists, the kind of earbuds we play it on is worth at least as much consideration. When it comes to sound, wearability, and durability, there are few models that hit all the marks like these HYPHEN Wireless Earbuds.The design is extremely ergonomic, with a selection of eartip sizes to fit nearly anyone. But the controls are a particular highlight here, with intuitive one-touch commands to answer calls, increase the volume, switch tracks and more.All that tech is well protected behind an IPX5 water-resistant case, so you won't have an issue from sweat or rain. Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity lets the earbuds pick up a signal from up to 15 meters away. Wireless charging? It's got that too and can pick up a full charge in 30 minutes.These HYPHEN Wireless Earbuds are sale-priced at more than 20% off retail, but you can knock an extra 20% off by using the Black Friday discount code BFSAVE20.Don't wait for Black Friday—you can get these top-sellers at deep discounts today! Read the rest

Many of us rely on a single hard drive to store precious files. This strategy is risky, but many alternative backup solutions are pretty expensive. Polar Cloud Backup breaks the mold, providing secure storage at a price that anyone can afford. The service runs on reliable Amazon architecture and gives users total control over their data.Available to download on PC and Mac, Polar Backup allows users to choose which files and folders to upload. All file types are supported, including videos, images, audio, documents, and more. The apps also have a scheduling feature, which ensures that the backup won’t disrupt your Netflix movie.Polar Backup provides enough space for thousands of files, and the storage is both secure and private. The data is protected by military-grade AES-256 encryption, while the servers meet with GDPR regulations.Along with files on your PC or Mac, Polar Backup covers any connected external drives. Even if you delete files locally, they won’t be removed from cloud storage.Ahead of Black Friday, the Polar Backup lifetime 5TB plan is just $69.99. You will struggle to find a cloud storage provider that offers more for this price.Don't wait for Black Friday—you can get these top-sellers at deep discounts today! Read the rest

Three separate, named women have independently accused Trump's EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland of repeated acts of sexual misconduct while he was in a position of physical, financial and professional power over them. Sondland denies the accusations.The three women's stories were jointly reported by Propublica and Portland Monthly, and one of the accusers is Portland Monthly cofounder Nicole Vogel (her story was reported by Propublica). Third parties confirmed that all three women told them about Sondland's attacks on them at the time. The women feared speaking publicly about Sondland's attacks because, they say, he wields enormous political and commercial influence over Portland, Oregon, where the women reside and where Sondland built his hotel empire, whose profits allowed him to donate $1,000,000 to the Trump inauguration.The stories the women tell share common elements. Sondland's lawyers accused Propublica of "witness tampering" in the Trump impeachment inquiry, and implied that the women had fabricated accounts of Sondland's sexual attacks -- groping, exposing himself, attempting to kiss them -- because he had turned down their bids to have him support them financially.According to Vogel, Sondland had presented himself as a potential investor in her magazine, but after she repeatedly rebuffed his sexual advances, he effectively pulled out of the deal. Sondland's lawyers accused Vogel of being an associate of Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer and implied that her accusation had been motivated as part of a supposed vendetta by Blumenauer against Sondland. Vogel denies any connection to Blumenauer.Jana Solis was a safety engineer who was pitching Sondland's hotel chain on behalf of her firm. Read the rest

In late September, the person who make the Nippon Wandering TV YouTube channel walked around Dotonbori, the entertainment district of Osaka Japan and shot a 40 minute 4K video with binaural sound. It's so lively there! Los Angeles is a real dud in comparison.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Andrew Hoyle has a terrific tutorial article on Cnet on how to take macro photos on your smartphone using a macro lens. The article includes tips on how to use Photoshop or other image editing software to improve the images. The lens Andrew recommends is pricey ($265), but he has links to cheaper lenses that would probably be good enough for a slacker dilettante like me.Andrew also recently posted a video tutorial on backyard macro photography using a SLR camera:Image: Copyright Andrew Hoyle, used with permission Read the rest

I love how into it this guy is.[via Laughing Squid] Read the rest

Union organizers don't have arguments with workers, they have "structured organizing conversations" -- conversations in which the organizer asks someone to think about what change they want to see, what the obstacles to that change are, and then asks them to think about whether that change will come about unless they form a union.There's a Thanksgiving political version of this, too. Your relations who are contemplating neoliberal or centrist Democrats -- or even Trump -- for president in 2020 are doubtless upset with how things are going in their lives. Maybe they're one of the 700,000 workers who went unpaid last January thanks to Trump's government shutdowns, or maybe they've seen their medical insurance costs skyrocket even as their coverage shrank, or maybe they despair of ever moving out of their parents' home or finding steady employment at a living wage. Or maybe they're terrified of the looming climate crisis.A structured organizing conversation with that person -- someone you're already on friendly terms with and are genuinely happy to see and vice-versa -- starts by drawing them out on these concerns, gently redirecting them away from glib answers ("I want a million dollars") and snarky responses ("Me too! Let's go rob the Koch brothers!"). Get them to repeat these concerns several times, going over them in detail.Next, ask how their issue relates to the platform of each of the candidates, and whether they're likely to get the things most important to them if they vote each one. Directly connect the facts of the person's life with the candidates' promises. Read the rest

Mariana Mazzucato (previously) came to prominence after the publication of her 2013 book The Entrepreneurial State, which described the way that robust state spending on large-scale R&D was critical to the kinds of commercial technological "breakthroughs" that the private sector liked to take credit for, and argued that the decades-long drawdown in public spending on the theory that governments were bloated and inefficient had stalled economic growth and technological progress because private firms systematically underinvest in research.Mazzucato is a left-wing economist, but she is critical of the left's framing of economic controversies, saying that leftists overemphasize "wealth redistribution" and ignore "wealth creation" -- the latter being something states are absolutely essential to. In Mazzucato's framing, redistribution attacks the problem of inequality too late, after a small number of people have been able to hoard the lion's share of benefits from state investment, and then seeks to claw some of that money back.But if economic critiques are focused on wealth creation, with the state assuming its rightful place at the center of this process, then it becomes natural to insist that (for example) governments receive royalties or other benefits from the use of publicly developed resources.It's a framing that's gained widespread support on both the left and the right, attracting supporters like both Elizabeth Warren and Marco Rubio. It part, the success of Mazzucato's framing is due to her emphasis on language, substituting words like "create" and "invest" to describe state spending, rather than neoliberal terms like "fix" and "spend."I am generally in favor of this framing, but also concerned that it spells the end of any idea of a "commons" arising from government work -- for example, in the USA, products of the federal government are all in the public domain, meaning that anyone can access US Geological Survey map data (as opposed to the UK, where the government-created ordinance survey maps can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to license if you want to build a new service on them). Read the rest

Modern Monetary Theory (AKA MMT) is the latest incarnation of a long-running current in economic thought, once called Chartalism, which has gained prominence in recent years as an alternative to austerity economics, whose dictates have immiserated millions, destabilized world politics, and threaten the extinction of the human race thanks to climate inaction in the guise of "fiscal restraint."MMT's core precept is that governments first spend money into existence and then tax it out of existence (contrast this with the standard account that says that governments must tax citizens to pay for programs, which raises the question, "How did the citizens get the money to pay for their taxes unless the government first spent that money into existence, given that governments are the sole source of currency?").The implications for this are relatively easy to follow, but are profound in terms of where they lead you. MMTers hold that sovereign currency issuers (most countries, but not Eurozone countries like Greece, say) cannot default on their debts so long as those debts are denominated in the currency they issue (unlike Venezuela, say, which owed debts denominated in US dollars). And while government spending can lead to inflation, it's not deficits that cause inflation, it's government spending on things that the private sector is also seeking to buy -- if the government is procuring materials, labor or goods that the private sector is already using, it creates a bidding war that drives up the prices of these things. But if there is stuff that the private sector is not using -- notably, if there are unemployed people who want work that the private sector isn't delivering -- then the state can spend as much as it needs to mobilize that labor in service to public goals, like remediating climate change. Read the rest

Just look at them. (Thanks, Marion!)My son’s teacher has banned me from decorating my son’s bananas as they were causing too much of a ruckus in class & honestly... knowing my art caused a class of 6yos to riot is probably one of the best compliments I’ve ever recieved. I wish I took more photos before the ban. pic.twitter.com/FU1YKIdT0d— Rebecca Mills (@RebeccaMills) November 27, 2019 Read the rest

South Carolina's magistrate judge system is a holdover from aristocratic England, where landowners would appoint someone with "common sense" to hear legal cases, without any legal training or oversight -- which is how it works in South Carolina today, where 800,000+ criminal and civil cases are heard by magistrates who are not required to have a background in law, not required to divulge official sanctions for ethical violations, and not overseen in any meaningful way as they fine, jail and censure people who are often not represented by counsel nor permitted to speak in their own defense.The SC system nominally gives the governor final say in magistrate appointments, but a former governor told Propublica that the senate actually appoints the judges, and any governor who tried to thwart the senate's picks would have their administration sabotaged.The senate appointments are a litany of politically connected cronies, family members, and blundering fools (sometimes all three!). What's more, these magistrates sail through their reappointments when their terms are up, because the reappointment process does not require magistrates to disclose any sanctions they've received from the Office of Disciplinary Counsel (which sanctions magistrates, lawyers and judges) -- though they are required to disclose sanctions from the State Ethics Commission (which does not oversee magistrates and is not permitted to sanction them).If you're a magistrate whose conduct is so egregious that you would likely fail the rubberstamp reappointment process, you can still stay in office by claiming "holdover" status, which is supposed to allow magistrates to serve briefly after their terms expire while paperwork is processed or new delegations are seated. Read the rest

If you haven't switched to wireless charging for your devices yet, it's a pretty good bet that you're not using more than one device. Juicing up your iPhone doesn't require much planning, but once you add an Apple Watch or pair of AirPods into the mix, you've got a logistics problem.If you're in that fix, there are few charging systems as effective as this 3-in-1 Wireless Power Bank - especially if you're on the go.The shape of the thing is an innovation all by itself. You can wrap your Apple Watch around it conveniently, pop your AirPods into the slots on the end, and charge up your iPad or iPhone through the USB port.The best thing, though, is that you can charge them simultaneously. The 5200mAh capacity gives you more than enough juice, and the safety protocols ensure things don't overcharge or overheat.The 3-in-1 Wireless Power Bank is already on sale for 60% off the MSRP, but you can take an extra 20% off by using the Black Friday code BFSAVE20.Don't wait for Black Friday—you can get these top-sellers at deep discounts today! Read the rest

And in accordance with tradition, Uncle Bill will now lead us in "A Thanksgiving Prayer" (1986). Read the rest

We've been writing about Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping for nearly 20 years, tracing his remarkable spectacles of anti-consumerism around the world.New Yorkers can see Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir ("an ecstatic group of 35 activists who sing harmoniously while trespassing inside corporations") in a performance called "Earth Riot" at Joe's Pub that runs Nov 24-Dec 22. The 40 activists-who-sing, The Stop Shopping Choir, return from risking arrest to take the stage for their annual run at Joe's Pub. The "church" comes back each holiday season with songs created from improvisations in climate-killing banks, pipelines, immigration prisons, and churches hiding sanctuary families. "The Church of Stop Shopping takes on the trinity of consumerism, corporate greed and environmental destruction. Reverend Billy's antics remain difficult to categorize—part Brecht, part PT Barnum..." – Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker.Reverend Billy & The Church of Stop Shopping: Earth Riot [Joe's Pub](Thanks, Christian Nightmares!) Read the rest

Hyperbole runs amok in this week’s tabloids, taking implausibility to new levels.

Ask any creative professional, and chances are they'll tell you Adobe's Creative Cloud programs are essential to their livelihood.Still, they're only as good as the person using them. Luckily, there's now a training that covers all the best elements of this software suite, and it's the Complete 2020 Adobe CC Certification Bundle.As you might imagine, the courses lean heavily on the things you can do in graphic design with Adobe, and sure enough, there's a two-course boot camp that gives you a firm foundation in the fundamentals of design before you even get into the nuts and bolts. Later courses open up all the creative possibilities of Lightroom, After Effects and (of course) Photoshop.But there's plenty here for videographers too. Two lessons on Adobe Premiere Pro take you through the process of producing and editing great footage.In all, it's nine courses and more than 60 hours of resources that lead to resume-boosting certificates. The entire package is already 97% off, but you can take an additional 60% off that price by using the Black Friday online code BFSAVE60. Please note Adobe software is not included with the collection.Don't wait for Black Friday—you can get these top-sellers at deep discounts today! Read the rest

Recently, I've found myself playing more games from small, independent game companies and those sold directly from the designers. Here are a few of these offerings currently on my radar, at my painting station, and on my tabletop. If you're looking for game-related gifts for the holidays, consider supporting these talented and hardworking indie creators.Relicblade: Adventure Battle GameMetal King Studios, $30 (basic hardbound rulebook), 2-4 players, Ages: 10+Sean Sutter, the mastermind behind Relicblade, was kind enough to send me some of his Relicblade merch earlier this year. Throughout the year, I watched my tabletop gaming friends enthusiastically flinging themselves down the Relicbalde rabbit hole, but I only recently got around to my own swan-dive into these realms. I love games that are largely the vision of a single designer/artist. Kingdom Death Monster always comes to mind. Like that uncompromising vision of a game as a creative platform for an artist's self-expression (Adam Poots in its case), Relicblade is a gaming universe populated by the imagination of artist and designer Sean Sutter. Sean designs the game, does all of the artwork and book design, digitally sculpts the figures--all of it. He also produces videos that chronicle his design and manufacturing process. Looking at his product line, you'd be hard pressed to distinguish Sean's output from any major game publisher. Our modern world of on-demand publishing, small scale manufacturing, digital design and sculpting, 3D printing, and crowdfunding has created the near-ideal conditions for creators like Sean to be able to compete with much larger commercial concerns. Read the rest

There's no way around it: Learning a new language takes practice. You can stare at new words all day, but until you start speaking - and getting feedback - those words won't actually stick.That feedback is where Rosetta Stone excels, especially in its latest version. And if you're looking to learn, there's already Black Friday pricing on the acclaimed software.It's tough to improve on Rosetta Stone's approach, which has earned it top honors from PC Magazine as Best Language Learning Software for 5 years in a row. But over the years, RS has incorporated speech recognition into its curriculum to great effect.Their TruAccent™ tech analyses your speech almost constantly, giving you feedback every time you speak a new word. It will even compare your speech to that of native speakers, so you can be sure you're conversation-ready.Rosetta Stone subscriptions are on sale today, and by entering the Black Friday code BFSAVE15, you can take an extra 15% off the final price.Don't wait for Black Friday—you can get these top-sellers at deep discounts today! Read the rest

A Reddit user named cleroth developed a "hex-based real-time strategy exploration game" called Marvora, "with elements from Dwarf Fortress and Civilization." Four years ago he posted a preview of procedurally generated biomes, which you can see here.Today, cleroth discovered that an Amazon marketplace seller is using that image to sell Marvora Biomes umbrellas, Marvora Biomes antibacterial toilet seats, and Marvora Biomes bikinis. The Amazon Marketplace seller is no doubt using a bot to scrape image files, so it seems appropriate to use an image created procedurally, too. Read the rest

149 families' home movies are archived on Open Memory Box, a massive archive of 415 hours of footage from the former East German, shot from 1947-1990. The video is indexed and searchable by 2700 search-terms, and makes for fascinating browsing as well. (via Kottke) Read the rest

This holiday we are entertained!The master magician who spends his spare time communicating with the dead, Rob Zabrecky, has decided to host a Thanksgiving Marathon of his amazing seance series 'Other Side with Zabrecky.'A cavalcade of colorful characters join Zabrecky to contact spirits of their choice. Guests include Will Forte, Kate Flannery, Jack Black, Jeff Grossman, Neil Hamburger, Jason Sudeikis, and David Arquette. Also featured are two commercials, a mail bag episode, and lots of music by the band Monitor.I understand Zabrecky hides secret messages in every video. Read the rest

Clive James, the Australian writer, broadcaster, comedian and poet, is dead at 80.James was renowned for his pithy turns of phrase. He once likened Arnold Schwarzenegger to "a brown condom full of walnuts" and said motor racing commentator Murray Walker sounded "like a man whose trousers are on fire". ... "Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, moving at different speeds," was another of his famous quotes.He also had advice for his future obituarists, telling them "shorter is better, and that a single line is best"."Any encounter with James, either in print or in person, left you desperate to go and open a book, watch a film or a TV show, or hunt down a recording," said Don Paterson, poetry editor at James's publisher Picador.James was funny and silly enough to be enjoyed by children, but smart and deep enough to grow into--an Umberto Eco of things normal people see and read. Among other things, he was first to introduce the sadistic marvels of Japanese game shows to British television. He was diagnosed as terminally-ill almost a decade ago, and his dry wit became positively arid as he continued to outpace death in his last years. But also light and, when the occasion called for it, joyous. Read the rest

In a decision released late Tuesday night, a federal judge ruled that up to 29 million Facebook users whose personal info was stolen in a September 2018 data breach are not entitled to sue Facebook as a group for damages -- but the users may be entitled to demand better personal data security at Facebook.The case is Adkins v Facebook Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 18-05982. When this Facebook breach happened in 2018, Boing Boing wrote about it here, and here.In San Francisco on Thursday night, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said neither credit monitoring costs nor the reduced value of stolen personal information was a “cognizable injury” that supported a class action for damages. Reuters' Jonathan Stempel reports:Alsup also said damages for time users spent to mitigate harm required individualized determinations rather than a single classwide assessment. Users were allowed to sue as a group to require Facebook to employ automated security monitoring, improve employee training, and educate people better about hacking threats.Alsup rejected Facebook’s claim that these were unnecessary because it had fixed the bug that caused the breach.“Facebook’s repetitive losses of users’ privacy supplies a long-term need for supervision,” at least at this stage of the litigation, Alsup wrote.Allowing a damages class action could have exposed Facebook to a higher total payout.Facebook must face data breach class action on security, but not damages: judge [reuters.com] Read the rest

For the last year, the Detroit Free Press has been reporting on the strange saga of the University of Farmington, a fake educational institution outside of Detroit. Homeland Security Investigations actually spent taxpayer dollars on an epic sting operation, renting out a building to create the appearance of a legitimate college campus staffed with actual ICE agents in order to apprehend…people who want to go to college.As of November 2019, they've arrested about 250 people on immigration violations. From the latest Detroit Free Press update:Out of the approximately 250 students arrested on administrative charges, "nearly 80% were granted voluntary departure and departed the United States," the Detroit office of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) told the Free Press in a statement Tuesday.Out of the remaining 20%, about half of them have received a final order of removal; some of them were ordered removed by an immigration judge, and others "were given an expedited removal by U.S. Customs and Border Protection," said HSI Detroit.The remaining 10% "have either filed for some sort of relief or are contesting their removals with Executive Office for Immigration Review," said HSI Detroit.To be clear: this is not a new Trumpian phenomenon. It's been going on since January 2016 (although the majority of the arrests have taken place more recently, including 90 since this past March).And if that's not maddening enough, consider that there were several hundred other students at the university who weren't arrested for immigration violations. The total enrollment was around 600 students, and the school was charging about $12,000 per year for tuition and fees. Read the rest

China-based technology company ByteDance is on a charm offensive, reports Reuters, ramping up efforts to distance its popular social app TikTok from the rest of its Chinese operations.The PR moves coincide with a U.S. national security panel inquiry into the risks of a China-based company managing personal data of Americans, reports Reuters.Excerpt:The Chinese technology company is seeking to provide assurances to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that personal data held by TikTok, which is widely popular with U.S. teenagers, is stored securely in the United States and will not be compromised by Chinese authorities, the sources said.CFIUS, which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, is looking into ByteDance’s $1 billion acquisition of social media app Musical.ly in 2017, which laid the foundations for TikTok’s rapid growth, Reuters reported earlier this month.ByteDance’s response represents a key test of corporate China’s ability to operate businesses in the United States that handle personal data, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with China fans suspicion between the world’s two largest economies.Exclusive: China's ByteDance moves to ringfence its TikTok app amid U.S. probe - sources [REUTERS] Read the rest

Carla didn't like the glass citrus juicer we've had for years. She said it hurt her wrist when she twisted a lemon half on the cone. I agreed with her. It's an unnatural way to move your wrist. She also didn't like having to lift out the seeds with a spoon before using the juice. Again, I couldn't argue. I told her I wanted to do some research for a good squeeze handle juicer, but I took too long so she ordered a cast aluminum juicer like this one ( on Amazon).It does a good job of getting almost all the juice out of a lemon, and is pretty easy to squeeze. It keeps the seeds inside the cup, too. My main concern is with the pin in the hinge. When will it break, and what kind of pin replacement will I be able use? It may not be an issue, though, because I didn't see a review where someone said the hinge pin broke. Read the rest

In North Carolina, a lovestruck convenience store clerk and her fiancé now have matching criminal charges. According to police, the man who performed the robbery was carrying “some sort of ornamental sword,” which you can sort of make out in the convenience store surveillance video above, courtesy of local police.Police say the couple plotted and carried out an armed robbery Monday night, and the couple reportedly got engaged at a Walmart a few hours later.Callie Elizabeth Carswell, who was working as a clerk at at Big Daddy’s convenience store when a robbery took place, was charged by police with conspiracy for robbery with a dangerous weapon, false report to police and misuse of a 911 system, reports The News Herald of North Carolina.The woman's Walmart fiancé, Mr. Clarence Moore III, is charged with conspiracy for robbery with a dangerous weapon and robbery with a dangerous weapon.That'd be the “ornamental sword.”This is good stuff, folks.Excerpt:Investigators said the robbery took place after 10 p.m. Monday night when a man with a hat, bandanna and some sort of ornamental sword walked into the store and demanded money from the clerk. He walked out of the store with $2,960, according to a release from MDPS.Carswell allowed officers to search her cellphone, resulting in them finding videos of her and Moore getting engaged at Walmart early Tuesday morning after the robbery, the release said. Receipts seized during the execution of a search warrant showed the engagement rings were purchased at Walmart. Read the rest

How would you like to take on a dangerous and difficult task in front of an audience who hopes you fail? That's what happened to this poor chap in Staroshcherbinovskaya, Russia who was on the roof of a slope-roofed building with a bundle of uncooperative roofing sheets. Read the rest

“The final resting spot of the once glorious glazed donuts.”The police department in Brookhaven, Georgia openly shared their grief in this social media post, honoring a load of tragically fallen donuts. A surprising act of carb kindness followed.The Facebook post screengrabbed above details a scene of “total carnage” on Tuesday morning, when dozens of donuts fell off a Krispy Kreme delivery truck in the Georgia town. Don't scroll any farther here if you are sensitive. Graphic images follow.Oh God, it's hard to even type about this tragedy.All those donuts, crashing into delicious sugary cakey crumbs onto the unforgiving curb, and into a gutter, like so many dunked crullers.Smashed up into bits.Uneaten.But not forgotten.From the Associated Press:Police say their response time to the call was stellar, but they missed the five-second rule. The post asked for thoughts and prayers as the total loss of the doughnuts deeply affected all the department’s officers.Police later added a comment with an update to the so-called tragedy. It says officers in Gainesville sent a batch of sympathy doughnuts to Brookhaven police in their time of mourning.[source] Read the rest

The NSO Group (previously) is an Israeli spyware company that sells tools to autocratic states that are used to spy on democratic opposition movements, journalists, and so on (the company's tools were used by the Saudi government to spy on Jamal Khashoggi in the runup to his kidnap and grisly murder).The NSO Group used malware to attack more than 1,400 Whatsapp users, which lead to Facebook (Whatsapp's parent company) suing The NSO Group for violating anti-hacking laws.Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, NSO Group employees were kicked off of Facebook's platforms, receiving notes informing them that their involvement in attacks on Facebook products violated Facebook's terms of service and thus their accounts were being permanently terminated.Now, the NSO Group is suing Facebook, arguing that that this is a form of collective punishment (it is), and that Facebook violated NSO Group employees' privacy by searching its own databases to identify their users' employers so it could target them for punishment (they did).The NSO Group raises a pretty good point here: we don't want Facebook deciding that everyone who works for a company or organization should lose access to their data, networks and services based on their employer, nor do we want Facebook trawling through its own databases to decide who might fit an employer-based profile.But that said: the NSO Group's entire business-model is based on systematically invading peoples' privacy -- and not to kick them off of Facebook, but rather to help brutal secret police forces target them for arrest, torture, and even murder. Read the rest

There's a popular saying in the Gaeilgeoir, or Irish Speaker, community: "Is fearr linn Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla cliste," which basically means "Broken Irish is better than clever English."I'm American, but I heard this refrain many times when I had the privilege of curating an Irish language Twitter account one week. I was nervous, as I've been learning the language as a casual hobby over the last few years. But the native speakers were remarkably encouraging—they were just happy to use the language at all, and to share its musicality with others. (I think the language is having a bit of a renaissance right now, as people in their 20s-40s feel a longing for a cultural connection that their Boomer parents neglected in their eagerness to assimilate).This is all to say that: I can assure you that these Irish translations of common animal names are absolutely real. And while they're not broken Irish, they're still far more clever than anything our bastard mutt English tongue could ever come up with: View this post on Instagram Posted @withrepost • Thank you @gaeilge_vibes Is aoibhinn liom Gaeilge 💚🤣 #gaeilge #irish #vocabulary #languages #lol #irishblog #tgif #ireland #éireA post shared by Emha na Réaltaí (@emasolasnarealtaiimochroi) on Nov 11, 2019 at 7:29am PSTThis isn't like in English, where we giggle about "titmice" and "cocks" because of the unintended double entendre. "Cíoch" is actually breast. "Bod" is in fact a penis. These are pretty literal translations; no hidden suggestive meanings about it. Read the rest

Why you stop. No stop skritchy.

Ring is Amazon's surveillance doorbell division, and a big part of their sales strategy involves terrifying people about the possibility of crime, partnering with police to assist in terrorizing Ring owners, and to provide police with warrantless, permanent, shareable access to surveillance doorbell footage (something the company has repeatedly lied about). Hundred of police departments have now partnered with Ring and they act as buzz-marketing teams for the company in exchange for freebies and access.From the earliest days, it's been rumored that Ring's strategy included facial recognition (Amazon has a giant facial recognition division called "Rekognition"). Amazon denied this even as they advertised for and hired a head of facial recognition research for Ring.Now, a leak reported by The Intercept reveals that Amazon once had a secret plan to use Ring cameras and facial recognition to automatically compile a "watch list" of neighborhood undesirables whose presence trigger alerts to Ring owners. The blacklists would be distributed through Amazon/Ring's "Neighbors" app, which is currently a dumpster fire of racist white people sharing alarmed messages about brown people their surveillance doorbells recorded in their neighborhoods.It's not entirely clear how the "watch lists" would be compiled, but the leaked documents describe using AI to identify "suspicious activity," which is not something that machine learning systems can actually do, but which many vendors claim they can.According to the Ring documents reviewed by The Intercept, which have not been previously reported, the company planned a string of potentially invasive new surveillance features for its product line, of which the facial recognition-based watch-list system is one part. Read the rest

Design website Core77 has an article about different ways to use a wooden pencil to the very end. First, though, take a look at this parsimonious person's pencil, which represents the cheapest and arguably easiest way to extend the life of a pencil: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Elizabeth Ingram (@lonestarclassroom) on Sep 5, 2019 at 4:55pm PDTIf you can't deal with a pencil this small, the article has other suggestions: pencil extenders (I can vouch for them), gluing a sub onto a new pencil, and using a remarkable Japanese pencil-joining tool call the Tsunago: Read the rest

WIPO is a fantastically captured, corrupt UN specialized agency that serves giant corporate rightsholders by drafting and enforcing global treaties; its outgoing head, Frances Gurry, presided over a long tenure that was terrible even by WIPO's standards. During his 12 years in office, Gurry was caught funnelling cash to North Korea and Iran, stealing his employees' DNA to catch a whistleblower who revealed his corruption; using criminal threats to suppress reports of his corruption, and so on. Gurry was also a copyright extremist even by WIPO standards, who said the web would have been better if it had been patented so that each user had to pay to access it; he said he wanted to abolish fair use, and he appointed a Vivendi copyright lobbyist to run copyright for WIPO.WIPO is an objectively terrible agency. For example, WIPO administers the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Procedure, an international tribunal that allows trademark holders to seize domains that infringe their trademarks. Obviously, this has enormous potential for abuse, but WIPO measures the success of UDRP cases by counting how many domains are taken away under it -- WIPO's criteria mean that the system will be working perfectly when every case ends in a domain seizure, regardless of the merits of the complaint.Now, Gurry is stepping down and leaving a leadership void, and the world's powers are jockeying to see who will get to fill it. Which has given China's delegation an opportunity to nominate its own candidate, which has, in turn, raised hackles among other countries' delegations who (for good reason) think of China as a place where western companies' trade secrets, patents, copyrights, and trademarks are routinely misappropriated to the benefit of Chinese companies and with the approval and assistance of the Chinese state. Read the rest

Rogan Brown creates intricate paper sculptures inspired by microorganisms:When looking at, for example, microbes and trying to imagine the vast colony of bacteria that lives in and on our bodies the range of factual visual representation available is relatively limited so I have to use my imagination to scale everything up and create an “artist's representation” of what it might look like. Scientific accuracy is not the goal, artistic and poetic truth are. View this post on Instagram If you're in Amsterdam over the next few days why not drop by the Kunstrai Art Fair and check out my sculpture "ControlX2-17" (courtesy of #galerienummer40) #paperart #papersculpture #scienceart #kunstrai2017A post shared by Rogan Brown (@rogan_brown_) on Jun 1, 2017 at 1:49am PDTHis sculptures are typically all white:White maximizes light and shadow and evokes marble, dead coral and fossils. I think of my work as creating fossils, time fossils, imaginary fossils. I see myself as an archaeologist of the interface between nature and the imagination—nature IS imagination, according to William Blake. The fossil allusion also contains a warning about what we are in the process of doing to nature. In addition, white carries associations of purity and innocence, which is a counterpoint to the explicit sexuality. But above all, the calming effect of white allows me to be as frenetic and excessive as I like in terms of form without overwhelming the viewer. I have tried using color (or rather tonalities of the same color). View this post on Instagram “Cytokinesis Glial Variation” (hand and laser cut layered paper, 119x117cms/47x46”) This work depicts the mitosis of a glial cell. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Putin's Gang gets in big trouble, but Vlad shows them the power of IMAGINATION solves all problems!

Seed's latest eraser is the Clear Radar, and the result of five years of work.【今、読まれています】消しゴムは透明の時代　老舗が５年かけ開発　文字が見えて消せる「クリアレーダー」https://t.co/uU3jhnBV6c#神戸新聞 #兵庫県 #消しゴム #クリアレーダー pic.twitter.com/tcI287Evt2— 神戸新聞 (@kobeshinbun) November 25, 2019(Via Mulboyne.) Read the rest

Why do diets work for some people and not others? Why do some have to work harder in the gym than others? The simple answer is: Everybody's different.And while that may be obvious, it's not as though you can't do anything about it. With the Vitagene DNA Ancestry Premium Test Kit, you can not only find out about your past but use that health information to shape your future.It starts with a simple cheek swab, which is sent into Vitagene's labs. What you get back is a report that maps out your unique genetic profile and how it relates to your physiology.You'll also get a complete diet plan that incorporates that info, letting you what nutrients you need and foods to avoid if any. Vitagene will also suggest supplements to help you along and layout a full exercise plan with the type and frequency of workouts that will get you the best results.The premium plan also comes with a risk assessment for an array of skin conditions like eczema, photoaging and more.The full premium kit and a health plan voucher are now available for more than 40% off retail, but you can take an extra 20% off that final price by using the Black Friday code BFSAVE20.Don't wait for Black Friday—you can get these top-sellers at deep discounts today! Read the rest

Perfect topic, perfect name:ASSET magazine is a professional quality, full-color publication which compliments, promotes, and presents the Miniature Donkey in a favorable light and gives them credibility as an alternative livestock.The National Miniature Donkey Association is a nonprofit organization founded in 1989. The Association's goals are to protect and promote the Miniature Donkey breed, and to provide an educational forum for owners and breeders on donkey care and management.Super excited to have received my first magazine from https://t.co/qHtzp37c0YThe “in-house, members-only publication of the National Miniature Donkey Association (NMDA).” pic.twitter.com/pS7Yc3mQl9— Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) November 22, 2019The National Miniature Donkey Association also maintains a guide to breeding miniature donkeys, where I learned that "The Miniature Donkey is a compact, well-proportioned animal with a sweet, sociable disposition." Read the rest

Dormant Twitter accounts not confirmed before an 11 December deadline will be closed, reports the BBC. Twitter's updating its user agreement, and if you can't agree to it, you're gone.A spokeswoman also said it would improve credibility by removing dormant accounts from people's follower counts, something which may give a user an undue sense of importance. The first batch of deleted accounts will involve those registered outside of the US.The firm bases inactivity on whether or not a person has logged in at least once in the past six months. Twitter said the effort is not, as had been suggested by some users on the network, an attempt to free up usernames. Read the rest

I know a guy who works at Boston Dynamics. He spends all day fussing over how to get a robot leg to bend the right way. It's kind of boring, but he likes tinkering with things. And hey, it's a job. When he sees people freaking out about whatever new robot they've unleashed unto the world, he just laughs, because he knows how much time he's spent futzing with those stupid joints.For the most part, he's got a point; we like to freak out about our Terminator future, but mostly it's pretty lame, like that dumb-looking Knightscope mall security guard. The surveillance components are creepy; but the thing itself is hardly threatening.Except now, Boston Dynamic's trusty robot dog Spot is now actually being used by law enforcement to…well, that part's not clear. From WBUR:The state’s bomb squad had Spot on loan from the Waltham-based Boston Dynamics for three months starting in August until November, according to records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and reviewed by WBUR.The documents do not reveal a lot of details on the robot dog’s exact use, but a state police spokesman said Spot, like the department’s other robots, was used as a “mobile remote observation device” to provide troopers with images of suspicious devices or potentially hazardous locations, like where an armed suspect might be hiding.On one hand, this makes sense; cops have been using robots to take point in potentially dangerous scenarios for years. On the other hand, it's still kind of creepy, and not just because I personally skeptical of Staties in my home Commonwealth. Read the rest