Boing Boing

Feel the city breaking, and everybody shaking. Read the rest

Last week's local elections in Hong Kong were supposed to be a pro-forma affair, reaffirming the dominance of pro-Beijing "loyalist" politicians; instead, pro-democracy parties swept every district save one -- the rural Islands district, where seats are automatically handed to "pro-establishment rural chiefs."The election saw record turnouts -- so many first-time young voters cast ballots that incumbents who increased the number of votes they received still lost because new voters cast ballots against them, and in favor of pro-democracy parties. More than a million new voters registered for this election, and it saw a 71% turnout of registered voters (only 47% voted in 2015).Despite the surge of younger voters, the pro-democracy victories are owed to a flood of pro-democracy votes in every kind of poll: "in poor and rich neighbourhoods, in both protest-prone and non-protest-afflicted districts and, in downtown areas as well as the suburbs." The ballots were hand-marked on paper and counted in public.The results come as a shock to Beijing. The Chinese state had been so certain of a victory that it had already prepared news-stories about it. While it's fun to imagine the frustration of the officials who directed the brutal crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong, it's sobering to recall that the Chinese state's most brutal crackdowns have historically followed on from surprises in which senior officials' most cherished initiatives failed.The politicians swept to victory include numerous young protest leaders, including five or more Occupy activists and people closely associated with the Hong Kong protests that started last spring. Read the rest

Watch $1bn or so go up in smoke on his way to 3-5%. ATTN Mike: ads@boingboing.net. Read the rest

President Richard Nixon had the honor of welcoming Earthlings to the moon, but speechwriter William Safire had prepared an alternative for use in the event of a moon-landing disaster. A team at MIT deepfaked the dead president into this alternative timeline.In Event of Moon Disaster will premiere at IDFA DocLab on November 22, 2019 in the form of a physical installation designed to re-create a 1960s era American living room.This project is a production of the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality. I've been trying to make this exact artifact for months, without success! Making people do things they didn't is much harder than the usual generative fare: the voice, physical consistency, the emotions, and the historical details all conspire to subvert the "easy" part of making someone's chops move. A lie is harder than a joke, which is why lies are posed as jokes. The achieved result, though, is magical and disquieting -- look how they make Nixon choke up! And a warning. Read the rest

There are DIY projects, and there are HOLY CRAP HE MADE A VIKING AXE REPLICA. This is one of those.This is what the guy started with.From WoodworkingIsLife, an example of the splendid results you can get with talent, patience, and time -- and the right woodworking tools.It all started by wanting to just clean up this old axe head and put a new handle on it. I found this old rusty rockaway axe head lying in some manzanita bushes in my backyard.Go check out the entire gallery, which shows very detailed step-by-step images -- and a photo of a cat sitting on his wife's head, because of course.Viking Axe I made (OC) Read the rest

I've often wondered what having Jörg Sprave as a neighbor would do for your home's property value. Read the rest

Relax with these enormous rodents as they plop into a hot tub. 長崎バイオパークと伊豆シャボテン公園は共にカピバラの露天風呂が有名ですが、その伊豆シャボテン公園から長崎バイオパークにたらいがプレゼントされました。長崎バイオパークに訪れた際に、ちょうどたらいの湯のイベントがありましたので、撮影してみました。期間限定のイベントかもしれません。見に行かれる際は事前に確認を。打たせ湯の下でお湯が貯まるたらいの中は、湯温が高くてカピバラたちに大人気のようです。Capybaras enjoy hot spa in woody washtub. But it is little too small :-pPREVIOUSLY: Capybaras relaxing in a spring-fed hot tub Read the rest

You never knew you needed it. Now you have it.“Pop-tarts and Fine Whiskeys, a Pairing Guide,” by IMGURian @acetech09. Yes, it includes rums and sake and other liquors.Pop-tart: Cookies & CremeSpirit*: Zacapa XO, Guatemala RumThe creamy, chocolately, and surprisingly tasty richness of this pasty is quite satisfying. Zacapa XO is an equally decadent rum that is aged in an array of wine casks. This slightly tannic fruitiness that is imbued in the spirit compliments perfectly with the pastry.Enjoy the whole gallery.Pop-tarts and Fine Whiskeys, a Pairing Guide Read the rest

Back in 2010, I did book-tour appearance in Seattle with a great indie band called "Pillow Army," whose music I'm still listening to today; in 2013, Pillow Army's frontman Tim Franklin had started recording angry, atheist Christmas carols and now he's got a whole band devoted to the genre: The X-Misses, whose music is a mix of funny, angry, noisy, and singable new Christmas music that makes for a great complement to other nontraditional seasonal music like DJ Riko's Merry Mixmas mashups. You can buy the album Christmas Reminiscences as a download, or get the whole vinyl album along with a download card that's hole-punched so you can hang it as a Christmas tree ornament. (Thanks, Tim!) Read the rest

SRSLY Wrong is a "research-based comedy podcast" run by a pair of Canadian fellas with a background in radical politics, occupy, and the Pirate Party; in a three part series, hosts Aaron Moritz and Shawn Vulliez; in a series of three long podcast episodes (1, 2, 3), the pair elucidate and elaborate a utopian vision for the future that they dub "Library Socialism."It's not clear that the hosts themselves know exactly what they mean by "Library Socialism" and much of the episodes -- which take the form of didactic riffs interspersed with comedy sketches depicting life in a library socialist future -- is taken up with thinking through its meaning and implications.I just finished listening to about six hours' worth of this, and I'm very excited, though I don't know that I can crisply articulate a definition of Library Socialism, I can give you a sense of what they're getting at:* First, libraries have some nexus with socialist principles; they are public institutions, devoted to efficient allocation of resources, through which you can get the benefits of owning vast quantities of books and other materials without the downsides of having to organize, store, or maintain them. They are available to all comers at no cost, and they are provided as public services.* Second, librarianship is imbued with several ethos that are adjacent to socialist principles, such as "to each book its reader and to each reader their book" -- that is, there's a book that suited to each reader, and a reader that's suited to each book, and librarianship is in part the art of consummating the encounters between books and readers. Read the rest

Post 10 is a vlogger who devotes his channel to "videos of unclogging culverts and drains, trains, experiments, machines, animals, trailcams, howto, aquariums, reviews, things I love and much more." I just spent an hour watching this fellow unclog storm drains during ferocious rain storms and marveling as he created gigantic whirlpools that despatched lake-sized puddles in parking lots and roads, leaving behind navigable surfaces. It's not just soothing TV, it's also inspirational to watch this guy play Anarchist Department of Public Works and freelance his town's hydrology problems. If you enjoy Mr 10's videos, you can celebrate them with a DRAIN IT! tee. (via Metafilter) Read the rest

Want to get an early jump on your holiday shopping and avoid the Black Friday in-store madness? We've got you covered. We tracked down 15 gifts priced under $100, running the gamut from housewares to high-tech audio. And the best part? You can take an extra 15% off the final price on any of them by using the Black Friday discount code BFSAVE15.TripWipes Anti-Bacterial WipesGermophobes don't need to be shut-ins. This one-month supply of wipes come in easy-to-carry packs so that you can stay clean wherever your adventures take you.MSRP: $17.00Sale Price: $17.00Price with BFSAVE15 code: $14.45WRAPS Talk Wearable Headphones with MicWired earbuds deliver great sound, but the wires themselves can be a hassle. WRAPS turns those wires into a fashionable asset: They're made from a tangle-free braided material that you can wrap into a wristband when not in use.MSRP: $24.99Sale Price: $16.99Price with BFSAVE15 code: $14.44GO-TOUGH Power Bank with LED FlashlightWant to stay connected? This power bank packs a 5,000 mAh capacity that's good for over 600 charges. Want to go off the grid? It's also a waterproof LED flashlight equipped with a signal blinking function.MSRP: $49.99Sale Price: $39.99Price with BFSAVE15 code: $33.99AtomXS 3+ Hour Emergency Keychain ChargerNever lose power again with this ultra-portable charger. It's small enough to fit on any keychain, yet its 1,300 mAh battery can juice up your phone with over 3 hours worth of operating time.MSRP: $49.99Sale Price: $39.99Price with BFSAVE15 code: $33.99Portable 12V Handheld Auto Vacuum CleanerKnow someone who spends more time inside their car than out of it? Read the rest

Alan Lowe was Executive Director of the Lincoln Presidential Library, and as he struggled to help the debt-saddled institution survive, he hit on the idea of renting out Lincoln's original, handwritten text of the Gettysburg Address to noted colossal asshole Glenn Beck.Lowe was fired for doing so. The Inspector General got word of the scheme when a whistleblower sent in a tip that Lowe was "pimping out" the library's treasures (including the Declaration) to Glenn Beck's "conservative museum," Mercury One. Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker fired Lowe for violating the rules of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as well as state law, which Lowe violated by allowing Beck to pay for his travel (and that of his COO) to Texas.By Beck's own admission, he did not exhibit the Declaration at his museum. In 2014, I helped rescue the only known surviving copy of the original Disneyland prospectus from Beck's hoarding; Beck bought it at auction but did not plan to allow others to see it, and I obtained a very high resolution scan of the document and deposited the 4GB file with the Internet Archive, and also provided a copy to archivists at the Walt Disney Company.Beck recorded his handling of the items — fully aware of the rarity of having them in his possession.“This collection was not in public view,” Beck was recorded saying.And the museum has noted the address needs special attention such as room temperature and more, saying in a video:“It is very susceptible to light. Read the rest

There's a scene in my novel Homeland (the sequel to Little Brother) in which the first 1,000 digits of Pi are featured; when it came time to produce the audiobook edition, poor Wil Wheaton -- the narrator -- ended up reading out Pi for four solid minutes, with some entirely understandable difficulties. Nick Land set the reading to music, creating quite a delightful little tune!(Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA, modified) Read the rest

Try not to die of cuteness from watching these four fluffy puppos strutting to "Stayin' Alive" on an airport autowalk. I don't know the full story here but this is quality content that needs to be shared far and wide. Read the rest

68% of the 1600 residents of of Baldwin, Florida -- where the median income is $44k/year -- voted for Trump in 2016, and in the years since, they've lost their only grocery store, which has been a particular hardship for the large number of seniors who live there, many of whom are no longer able to drive.So the town did the logical thing: it opened a city-run grocery store that operates on a break-even basis, with the clerks, stockers, butcher and other staff all drawing a paycheck from city hall. This is unquestionably a socialist enterprise, but the town's residents don't see it that way. As Mayor Sean Lynch, a retired Navy vet, told The Washington Post: "We take the water out of the ground, and we pump it to your house and charge you. So what’s the difference with a grocery store?"Not a thing, Mayor Lynch, not a single, solitary thing. Indeed, America's most important institutions -- power, water, roads, libraries, schools, even the Navy -- are socialist in nature.White Americans vote against welfare benefits and publicly provided healthcare because the Republican Party and Reagan's "welfare queen" campaign convinced them that "welfare" is "undeserving Black people, Native Americans and immigrants" being helped out by the state. Of course, the majority of public spending in America goes to white people, so racism is used to harm racists themselves -- as well as the racialized people at the margins who are also punished by cuts.The good news is that things like Baldwin Groceries are an opportunity to de-brainwash reactionaries and racists, showing them that the "socialism" they're been terorrized with all their lives is actually the stuff they love best about America: the letter-carrier they see every day, the VA that takes care of them, the library and the high school and the roads. Read the rest

The past two years have seen a tremendous shift in the public perception of capitalism and socialism, the character of philanthropy as reputation-laundry rather than generosity, and the nature of wealth as an indicator of sociopathy, not virtue or cleverness.The "Overton Window" -- the slate of policies that politicians are willing to discuss and propose in public -- has shifted quickly and profoundly to the left, with the likes of Bernie Sanders anchoring a new outer bound as to what can be said in polite society, reinforced by other Democratic Socialists like AOC -- opening the political space for the likes of Elizabeth Warren to sounds like a relative moderate when she insists that capitalism is good, but needs extensive reform.How did Overton Window come to shift? Writing in Time, Anand Giridharadas (previously) persuasively argues that capitalism discredited itself, starting with the 2008 crisis. More recently, it was Trump insisting that he was capitalism's flagbearer and explicitly linking capitalism to corruption, ignorance, belligerence, greed, cruelty, xenophobia, racism, sexism and homophobia; Jeff Bezos pulling out of his plan to build a second HQ in NYC because "in a city where a significant number of people struggle to keep up with rising costs and stagnant pay, many weren’t excited by the idea of the state and city giving his company a few billion dollars in tax breaks that wouldn’t be available to a regular Joe starting a business."Then there was the college bribery scandal in which the inventor of "impact investing" (using capitalism to make the world a better place) stands accused of bribing college officials to get his mediocre loin-fruit into an elite university at the expense of the kind of person whom "impact investing" was supposed to benefit. Read the rest

Alex Gwynne has paper toys available via Patreon and has also made several paper toys available for free download. Currently available toys include characters from Death Stranding, Ape Out, and Attack on Titan:Check out the dozens of free toys, become a patron, or commission your own paper toy here. Read the rest

Don't wait for Black Friday — you can get amazing holiday deals right now without leaving your couch! Avoid the holiday madness and save yourself the headache (and a few dollars too) by checking out these awesome finds instead:DudeRobe: Luxury Men's Hooded BathrobeThis Kickstarter-approved robe is made for maximum comfort, with a few extra tweaks to suit the guys. They include extra-deep pockets for phones, remotes or other essentials, plus a belt that's ingeniously attached to the lining.MSRP: $95.00Sale Price: $76.00Price with BFSAVE15 code: $64.60B10 Wired Glass Touch KeyboardThis tempered glass keyboard may turn heads, but its beauty serves a very real purpose. Not only is the profile slim, but the surface makes it safe from spills and crumbs.MSRP: $299.00Sale Price: $239.00Price with BFSAVE15 code: $203.15Retro Phonograph Bluetooth Speaker & RadioThe look of this speaker is straight out of the ragtime era, but the Bluetooth connectivity lets it play your choice of tunes from a device up to 50 feet away. It's even equipped with a radio function if you want to go full retro.MSRP: $69.00Sale Price: $51.75Price with BFSAVE15 code: $43.99Spark HeadphonesKeep the beat going all night with these distinctive headphones. The sound is enhanced by noise-canceling tech and wires that can be set to glow consistently or in a pulse to the rhythm of the beat.MSRP: $99.00Sale Price: $49.50Price with BFSAVE15 code: $42.08Genius PipeThe magic of this super-compact pipe is all in the design. Read the rest

Does your favorite movie feature two women discussing something other than a man? Bechdelgrams are a beautiful and useful way to illustrate the conversations in a movie:A Bechdelgram is a graph where the vertices are named characters and the edges are conversations between them. Here is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) pic.twitter.com/78ghO1lvpz— qntm (@qntm) March 16, 2019Time for another Bechdelgram, this one's Blade Runner (1982). Specifically the Final Cut although I don't think it makes a difference pic.twitter.com/HUmERkWBlp— qntm (@qntm) November 21, 2019Another Bechdelgram, this is for The Hunt For Red October (1990). Couple of notes on this one follow... pic.twitter.com/7hJ5Y03P9T— qntm (@qntm) March 17, 2019The Bechdelgrams are by Qntm, who has written a terrific series of short stories about a team of agents fighting a variety of memory-killing monsters. Start with this story. Read the rest

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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