Boing Boing

Presenting: Boris Johnson Gets Out of London and Talks to People Who Are Not Rich Remainers: The Essential Collection.Christ, what an asshole.Boris Johnson Gets Out of London and Talks to People Who Are Not Rich Remainers: The Essential Collection pic.twitter.com/hiWmevog9T— TheIainDuncanSmiths (@TheIDSmiths) November 14, 2019 Read the rest

Oh, I am seriously here for this DIY-maker-recycling project that's all about giving street kitties safe homes. Wow this is cool.Making feral cat shelters from an old cooler.Says IMGURian @petsncharge, “Cat Tested and Approved Shelters.”We designed and built these durable cat shelters-Donating to the many Rescues that need them for the Homeless Cats they care for...TomTom Tests each new DesignSo cool. Watch the whole video.Cat Tested and Approved SheltersThis is the QA tester! Read the rest

In Paris on Saturday, police fired water cannons and tear gas on protesters who gathered to mark one year since the anti-government “yellow vest” demonstrations of 2018.The gilet jaune protests got their name from the neon yellow high-visibility vests demonstrators wore, and reached a peack around November 2018 over spikes in fuel prices and the cost of living in France under President Emmanuel Macron and his economic reforms.The protests have lost strength in recent months, going from tens of thousands of participants to just a few thousand, reports Reuters, but today was a mess in Paris, with various tourist sites temporarily closed for safety.From Reuters: Demonstrators, many clad in black and hiding their faces, vandalized an HSBC bank branch at the Place d’Italie. They set trash bins on fire and hurled cobblestones and bottles at riot police while building barricades. Several cars were set ablaze. Police responded with tear gas and a water cannon.Paris police prefect Didier Lallement canceled permission for a scheduled demonstration in view of the violence. “Our response will be very firm. All those who are hiding their face, all those who are throwing stones are going to be called in for questioning,” he told a news conference. “People who came to Place d’Italie to destroy...and were stupid enough to stay, will be called in for questioning,” he added. Some 105 people had been taken in for questioning, he said.Earlier, clashes broke out between demonstrators and police near the Porte de Champerret, close to the Arc de Triomphe, as protesters were preparing to march across town toward Gare d’Austerlitz. Read the rest

Activists from the group Extinction Rebellion, which protests climate change, blocked the private jet terminal at Geneva airport on Saturday. The group says they want to draw attention to private jets as an absurd form of transport for the rich that causes massive harm to the environment.Geneva is a major private jet hub. The world's 0.001% head to Switzerland to enjoy skiing in the Alps, plus privacy-minded banking, auction houses, hospitals and United Nations offices.From Reuters:Dozens of activists sat in front of the small terminal building, linking arms in peaceful protest. Police cordoned off the area.“We have blocked the private-jet terminal to defend the principle of climate and social justice,” Extinction Rebellion’s Geneva chapter said on Facebook. “This means of transport is completely absurd.”Extinction Rebellion was founded in Britain last year, inspiring waves of disruptive actions around the world to call for rapid cuts in carbon emissions and the repair of collapsing ecosystems.Climate activists block Geneva airport's private-jet terminal [reuters.com, PHOTO SOURCE: maxpixel.net.] Read the rest

Microsoft is hiring former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder to provide legal window dressing for their AnyVision technology, which the company says complies with the ethical principles stipulated during the facial recognition company's Series A. Olivia Solon at NBC News reports that AnyVision's technology has powered a secret military surveillance project that has been monitoring Palestinians in the West Bank.Eric Holder will lend his name and credibility to this obvious abuse of human rights.From Olivia Solon's reporting for NBC News:Microsoft's venture capital arm, M12, invested in AnyVision as part of a $74 million Series A funding round in June. Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft stipulated that AnyVision should comply with its six ethical principles to guide its facial recognition work: fairness, transparency, accountability, nondiscrimination, notice and consent, and lawful surveillance.The last principle states, "We will advocate for safeguards for people’s democratic freedoms in law enforcement surveillance scenarios and will not deploy facial recognition technology in scenarios that we believe will put these freedoms at risk."AnyVision, headquartered in Israel, sells an "advanced tactical surveillance" software system, Better Tomorrow. It lets customers identify individuals and objects in any live camera feed, such as a security camera or smartphone, and then track targets as they move between different feeds.Axios rounds it up like this:AnyVision's "advanced tactical surveillance" software powered a project that covertly monitored Palestinians in the West Bank, for which the company won an Israeli defense prize in 2018, per NBC. Read the rest

People like to think they're objective. I get it; it's a good thing to strive to be. As a white dude, I know firsthand that it's easy to assume that you're coming from the "default" perspective, and thus, are more capable of being rationally objective than other, non-white dudes.But that's wrong. Because if you're brainwashed into seeing your popular mainstream status quo assumptions as "default," then you're actually not objectively considering every possible factor. And this tweet might be the best, most succinct example to explain this:Disclosing that a reporter has had family in prison, shows among other things how deeply "objectivity" is intertwined w/ race & class. Which reinforces lack of diversity in journalismIf not having parent in prison means you're objective & disclosure-free, guess who benefits... https://t.co/fX99ypgUNB— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) November 4, 2019In other words: we assume that someone can't be objective about prison reform if their own parent has been incarcerated. But what about the other way around? How can you be objective about prison reform if you don't have a parent that's been incarcerated? How can you rationally examine all of the evidence to form a conclusion, if you don't actually have firsthand knowledge of the social, financial, and emotional toll of incarceration? What biases might you be missing that you never even thought to consider because you assumed that your "default" position was automatically normal or correct?In both situations, your objectivity will be tainted by your emotional response; the difference is that, as a society, we've arbitrarily decided that certain emotions are either proper or negligible when it comes to attaining our idealist objectivity. Read the rest

Russell Crowe is an apt metaphor for this week’s tabloids.

It's no secret that Jason Weisberger and I have little love for the Freewrite. While it allows for distraction-free writing, it's design, build quality and software limitations make it a pain in the ass to use. Having found that the device just isn't for me, the last several years have seen me hunting for a highly portable distraction-free writing device that I can use when I'm not plugging away at my day job. The ability to constantly check in on Twitter, look at what's new on Flickr and look up random, interesting but in the end, useless facts sucks the marrow out of my creativity and robs me of the small amount of personal writing time I have at my disposal. Happily, I finally found the tool I've been longing for: the KingJim Pomera DM30.I imported mine from Japan (although you can sometimes find it on Amazon) after doing scads of research on the thing. It weighs less than a laptop and most tablets and when not in use can be folded up to around the size of a paperback novel.When you're ready to write, simply flip up its E-Ink display (which also turns boots the DM30 up in under two seconds,) unfold its near full-sized keyboard and you're good to go. The DM30 boasts a Japanese keyboard layout which, at first, is a little vexing. Keys that North American Qwerty keyboard users have come to expect are not always where you'd assume them to be. To type an apostrophe, for example, its necessary to hit Shift and the number seven. Read the rest

If any of y'all want to do this for me with Japanese stationary supplies and airline tickets, I'm fine with it. Read the rest

In this age of ever-shrinking gadgets, it bears reminding that sometimes bigger is actually better. And if you care about audio quality, we can't think of a better example of this principle than these TREBLAB Z2 Bluetooth 5.0 Noise-Cancelling Headphones.We know tiny Bluetooth earbuds are all the rage right now. But their battery life simply can't compete with the TREBLAB Z2's, which boasts an impressive 35 hours of playtime. And that's without a single recharge.As for the sound, the 40mm neodymium speakers are outfitted with Sound2.0â„¢ technology that keeps the bass kinetic and the treble crisp. The T-Quietâ„¢ active noise canceling ensures that you stay locked into that inspirational playlist for as long as your workout lasts. The fit is snug enough that you can take them securely on bike rides, trail runs or wherever else you need to rough it.Best of all, you won't have to wait until Black Friday to get them on the cheap. They're already on sale for 69% off, but you can take an extra 15% off that by using the online code BFSAVE15 and reap the final price of $67.14. Read the rest

Economist, author, podcaster and radio presenter Tim Harford (previously) has a fantastic new podcast: Cautionary Tales, which Tim describes as "Eight stories of mishaps, fiascos and disasters - served with a twist of nerdy social science."I've just listened to the second episode, The Rogue Dressed As a Captain (MP3), which uses the story of the amazing con artist Wilhelm Voigt as a jumping off point for understanding the nuance of Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem," the Milgram obedience experiment, and the way that frauds and cons work. The episodes feature full-cast dramatizations bookended by Harford's explanatory interludes -- they're really well done!Cautionary Tales [Tim Harford](Thanks, Tim!) Read the rest

In this Instagram age, pictures aren't just worth a thousand words; they can be worth a pretty penny, too, which makes graphic designers a highly sought-after profession.But being a graphic artist takes more than just the ability to draw a picture, and certainly more than the ability to navigate through Photoshop. The School of Graphic Design Mastery Bundle is one of the few online courses that gives you comprehensive training on all the aspects of design - not just a walkthrough for a piece of image editing software.In this seven-course boot camp, you'll get a firm foundation in the basic principles with Basic and Intermediate design classes. These teach you how to use essential programs like Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, while also giving you hands-on knowledge of color theory and composition.Once you've got a handle on the core concepts, you'll get a broader view of what it takes to create big brands: Creating standards across all media, developing a color palette and the like. There are also dedicated courses in logo design using Adobe Illustrator and expert-level photo manipulation with Photoshop.The entire package gives you 40 hours of lectures and exercises, and you can get lifetime access to it for a full 97% off the cost of the individual classes. Read the rest

Earth Island News's interview with climate scientist and activist Susanne Moser is excellent, especially on how "hope literacy" (understanding different the flavors of hope) and "functional denial" ("being fully aware and conscious and not denying the gravity of what we’re creating" while still getting the work done) can allow you to retain your mental equilibrium in these difficult and often terrifying times.What's interesting is that I've come to understand uncertainty as a necessary condition for hope. If you're perfectly certain that “It’s going to be fine” or “It’s going to be hell,” you don’t need hope, because you know exactly what’s going to happen.And what people like Trump and other radical right-wingers in particular promise is a kind of certainty: “America is going to be great again, it’s going to be purely white, and we’re going to have great economy and we’re the best.” That’s all a form of certainty.Whereas, “The future is going to look very different, and I can't tell you how, but we’re going to have to go through that together and figure it out and create it — that’s uncertainty, that requires work. It’s very unpopular.Despairing about the Climate Crisis? Read This. [Laurie Mazur/Earth Island News](Image: Susanne Moser)(Thanks, Dad!) Read the rest

A sheriff's deputy in Pima, AZ was video-recorded wrestling with and screaming at a 15 year old Black teenager with no arms or legs; the cop, who was not named, was called to a group home where the teen lived, because the teen had been upset and yelling and shouting, and had knocked over a trash can.Immanuel, the child whom the policeman abused, has been in state custody since he was abandoned by his parents, and lives in the group home. A 16 year old teen who also lived in the group home, made a covert video-recording of the police violence from another room. He was also arrested by the sheriff's deputy.The video shows the officer repeatedly tackling and pinning the shirtless Immanuel, who is visibly upset and in pain. The officer screams abuse at the child, and at other children present during his assault on Immanuel.The video ends with the cop arresting the child who made the video recording (another child takes his phone and continues shooting); without warning, the cop takes the handcuffed child and smashes his head into a wall.Both children were jailed for "disorderly conduct." The officer was not wearing a bodycam. When the video surfaced, it reduced a room full of hardened public defenders to tears. After the video was aired, charges against the children were dropped.As Immanuel's public defender noted, the children in the group home have already been traumatized and have been taken from their families to protect them from further trauma. Read the rest

I interviewed the delightful John Hodgman about some of his favorite tools, and I learned many good tips from him (especially how to reverse sear a steak). As you probably know, John is a writer, performer, former PC, once the resident expert on the Daily Show, and now the author of two books of non-fake facts and true stories from his life, Vacationland and Medallion Status. You can find him at Twitter @hodgman and on Instagram @johnhodgman.Here are the links to the tools he talks about.Image: Courtesy John Hodgman Read the rest

Mitch Wagner writes, "Talented and prolific science fiction writer and editor Mike Resnick, who has written extensively over the course of a long career about colonialism and its legacies, with a particular focus and love for Africa, has had a near-death experience and started a GoFundMe to pay off his medical expenses. I'm a huge fan of Resnick, particularly his novel Santiago and African stories, and I'm saddened to learn about this." Resnick's crowdfunder is nearly at its goal -- $27k out of $30k as of this writing -- but this is an important reminder of the urgency of Medicare for All. America is a country where even very successful artists who don't start out rich can have all they've worked for stripped away in an instant by a freak medical occurrence. Resnick is just one of many beloved artists in this situation, and crowdfunding is not a sustainable solution.I chipped into Mike's fund, but I'm also continuing to give money to the two Medicare for All candidates for the Democratic party in the 2020 presidential election: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.Mike unfortunately spent most of the first half of 2019 in the hospital. At the start of the year he fell twice for some (then) unknown reason, the second time being unable to get up. Carol, his wife, had to call 911 and it was determined that he had pneumonia and acute idiopathic pericarditis. In three days he had 30 pounds of fluid drained from around his heart and lungs. Read the rest

A screw with a stripped head can be difficult to remove. There are a number of ways to remove screws with stripped heads. Lifehacker has a nice article on this subject.My favorite method of removing a stuck/stripped screw is with a pair of screw removal pliers. They bite into the exposed sides of the screw head and you can twist the screw loose, then finish the job with a screwdriver. It's also a nice brute-force workaround for tamper-proof screw heads. This is the kind of tool you want to have in your toolbox now, instead of having to run out and buy one when it's needed.If the screw is really stuck, you risk breaking the head off the screw. If that happens, all is not lost. You can try to drill a small hole into the center of the screw shaft and pull out the screw with a screw extractor. Read the rest

Pack rats, aka woodrats, build their nests, called middens, from plant debris, rocks, animal parts, paper, and almost any other bits of detritus nearby. Frequently, they urinate on their middens. The urine crystalizes and encases the nest material, preserving it for as long as 50,000 years by some estimates. For paleobotanists, middens are a great source of information about how flora has changed over time. Zoologists study the animal remains and poop. And climatologists analyze the material for insight into past climates, even the most recent ice age that ended more than 11,000 years ago. In Smithsonian, Sadie Witkowski digs into the topic, including a story about what historians learned excavating rats' nests in the walls of the 1808 Charleston, South Carolina home of slave trader Nathaniel Russel:Among the mass of organic matter, they found sewing pins, buttons, marbles, part of a uniform waistcoat, and even fragments of printed paper that could be dated to November 1833. The paper was darkened and curled but still legible once it was gently opened.“It was protected from rain and moisture, and even though it’s sooty, it didn’t burn,” (University of Delaware art conservator Susan) Buck says. “So we just have all these fragile materials that normally wouldn’t survive.” Among the material, the team recovered scraps of an early writing primer, suggesting some of the enslaved workers living in the kitchen house has been learning to read and write.To move beyond the written record, historians and conservators have looked for new clues in unlikely places. Read the rest

This seems like some impressive trolley problem decision-making.Image: YouTube Read the rest

People are not ready to deal with this serious issue.It's like we don't even have the language to understand yet.Seriously, though, I am trying to track down where this image first appeared and who the baby is, and who the parent is, and who the photographer is. Babby iz meme.First appearance I've found on the internet was 2017, where it made Reddit and IMGUR. I just want to know what it all means, and whether Soros and his global elites put the kid up to it, or if his libtard father is pushing this sick ideology on that babby. Read the rest

Love Hultén took a Korg Minilogue 4-Voice Polyphonic Analog Synth and modded it with a wooden case inspired by the Commodore SX-64 (1984). Read the rest

The China Law Blog (previously) reports on the kinds of questions that western businesses operating in China are raising; China's serious economic downturn and rising authoritarianism have turned the site's normally businesslike posts into a glimpse of a kind of cyberpunk stranger-than-fiction dystopia (for example).A new post on the site describes the consequences of a sharp downturn in the Chinese economy: a new mood among many Chinese businesspeople that they are at the end of the long Chinese boom and that there's no reason not to burn their bridges with non-Chinese firms, because they're not going to be doing business with them for much longer no matter what.The site's author, Dan Harris, compares the mood in China today with the situation in Russia in the 1990s, when outside businesses would get repeatedly ripped off by their Russian partners, and would go away mystified that these partners would take the short term payouts of burning a foreign partner, at the expense of the much larger upside they could realize from an ongoing arrangement. For these Russian entrepreneur/bandits, Harris says, "They do not believe they will be able to operate freely five years or even one year from now. So though you see them as having irrationally sacrificed massive long term gains for much smaller short term rewards, they see themselves as having quite rationally grabbed what they could while it was still there."Western firms hiring Chinese manufacturers find themselves taking delivery of junk that is totally unlike the samples they received before placing their main orders; discovering that their trademarks have been registered in China by their manufacturers (which means they can't change suppliers, since the crooked manufacturer now owns the exclusive right to produce their products); finding that their manufacturers have disappeared (or that they never existed in the first place); and claims by Sinosure, the Chinese state-owned insurer that is supposed to protect Chinese manufacturers who've been stiffed by foreign partners, have exploded, as the insurer's foreign offices file legal claims against Western businesses that are having disputes with manufacturers. Read the rest

Nandi Bushell channels drummer David Grohl as she drums to Nirvana's "In Bloom." From Ipswich, England, she "has been posting drum covers to her YouTube channel for over two years. She's covered the likes of Beyoncé, Metallica, Joan Jett," according to Mashable. Is she really just nine years old? Here she is jamming with Lenny Kravitz earlier this year:Today I had the most beautiful experience playing with a young drummer I saw on Instagram named @Nandi_Bushell. You are inspiring and I look forward to seeing you shine in the future. Love and respect. pic.twitter.com/wR1b9rTaGJ— Lenny Kravitz (@LennyKravitz) June 12, 2019 Read the rest

Roger Stone was found guilty of lying to a Congressional House committee about his involvement with Wikileaks and for witness tampering. The jury deliberated for eight hours before convicting him of all seven counts. The 67-year-old felon could serve up to 50 years in prison.NPR:In the indictment, Stone was accused of lying to the House Intelligence Committee about his efforts to discover what WikiLeaks planned to do with thousands of hacked Democratic emails it had in its possession. The House committee was conducting its own investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. WikiLeaks ultimately did release the emails during the campaign, which became a major talking point of the election that Donald Trump went on to win.Washington Post:In arguments and testimony over the past two weeks, prosecutors revealed a series of phone calls at critical times in 2016 between Stone, Trump and some of the highest-ranking officials on the Trump campaign — Stephen K. Bannon, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.Gates and Bannon took the witness stand, describing how the campaign viewed Stone as a sort-of conduit to WikiLeaks who claimed — even before the Russian hacking was known — to have insider information. Gates testified to overhearing a phone call in which Trump seemed to discuss WikiLeaks with Stone, calling into question the president’s assertion to Mueller’s office that he did not recall discussing the organization with his longtime friend.New York Times:Mr. Stone, 67, joins a notable list of former Trump aides convicted of lying to federal authorities. Read the rest

Roger Stone, advisor to Donald Trump and longtime political "ratfucker", was convicted today on all counts, including obstruction of justice, lying to congress, and witness tampering. Axios:The big picture: Prosecutors alleged in closing arguments that Stone lied to congressional investigators because he "knew that if this information came out it would look really bad for his longtime associate Donald Trump," the New York Times reports.CNN notes that the most significant revelation from Stone's trial was "the extent to which Stone was in touch with Trump directly and other campaign officials, and how they eagerly anticipated WikiLeaks' releases of hacked Democratic emails in 2016."Those communications also allegedly involved a July 2016 phone conversation between Stone and Trump in which the two discussed future WikiLeaks email dumps, former deputy campaign manager Rick gates testified.Stone, 76, joins other Trump aides and officials Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen and George Papadopoulos among those convicted of crimes related to his presidential campaign and presidency. Read the rest

While former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch's testified this morning during the public impeachment hearing, Trump bashed her in a couple of tweets. And when Yovanovitch was later asked by Rep. Adam Schiff how these tweets might affect other "witnesses' willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing," she said "well, it's very intimidating." She then said, "I can't speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is to be intimidating."In one tweet, Trump says, "Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors."Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2019 And in the other: "....They call it “serving at the pleasure of the President.” The U.S. now has a very strong and powerful foreign policy, much different than proceeding administrations. It is called, quite simply, America First! With all of that, however, I have done FAR more for Ukraine than O."....They call it “serving at the pleasure of the President.” The U.S. now has a very strong and powerful foreign policy, much different than proceeding administrations. Read the rest

Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy is a marvellous interdisciplinary research center, and it is advertising for "visitors" for one-year stints: postdocs, policy fellows and visiting IT professors.The positions are onsite at Princeton; as Laura Cummings-Abdo writes on Freedom to Tinker: "For all visitors, we are happy to hear from anyone working at the intersection of digital technology and public life, including experts in computer science, sociology, economics, law, political science, public policy, information studies, communication, and other related disciplines."Hiring [CITP/Princeton] Read the rest

I've spent a lot of time in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It's a beautiful place, filled with friendly people and an insanely low cost of living... if you're from somewhere further north in North America. In my experience, Mexicans are a hard-working people. They want to earn their way. That's not easy to do in a nation where many citizens, when they can find work are forced to work for pauper's wages. In some cases, the only compensation for doing your job in Mexico comes in the form of tips from those willing to help you get by. The folks that bag groceries and other consumer goods in big box stores like Walmart? Nothing but tips, baby. With any luck, at least in Cancun, this could soon change.From Riviera Maya News:With the support of la Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos (CROC) workers at Walmart stores including Sam’s Club, Bodega Aurrerá, Superama and Walmart demanded a salary for their work.The workers, who are grocery baggers at the various Walmart outlets, are not paid anything beyond tips. El Comité Ejecutivo Nacional of CROC says that the Walmart chain has refused talks to solve the lack-of-pay issues with its workers.El Comité Ejecutivo Nacional says the American chain store violates their labor rights. The workers protested outside a 24-hour Cancun Walmart where they demanded a salary and legal benefits for the packers since their tips have drastically decreased due to the ban on plastic bags.Hard work for a fair wage? Read the rest

Eli Pariser is the author of The Filter Bubble, a book which lent its name to a recent Congressional bill about social media transparency. He’s also one of the co-founders of Upworthy (and, full disclosure, my former boss).In other words, Pariser has spent most of his professional life obsessing over how to harness the power of the internet for good, particularly when it comes to positive community building. In a new TED Talk (below), he takes an almost anthropological approach to solving the many, many issues faced by major social media companies right now. It’s a useful and insightful perspective, particularly for a time when Facebook is cowering under the pressure of conservative conspiracy theorists, while Twitter took the approach and ended up empowering oil companies by throttling climate activists.I think there’s something to be said about building online communities in the same way we build urban ones. As much as people might long for the peace and quiet of a nice home in the suburbs, it also changes your relationship to the people around you. Look at cars, for example—they’re a necessity in most places, and undeniably convenient, but they also isolate us in our commuter bubbles. By contrast, public transportation forces you to interact with other kinds of people who you might otherwise not cross paths with. That can help create empathic bonds (even if that bond is built upon complaints about public transportation). This is not to say that one is necessarily better than the other; in his speech, Pariser also cites the community meetings he attended growing up in a small town in Maine as one model for building mutual respect, even when people are being obnoxious. Read the rest

Political books by random MAGA people are a hot genre, but Donald Trump Jr's "Triggered" lands in a saturated market. Morevoer, Trump fans generally prefer the attention dance of Fox News and social media to hours spent curled up with a bad book. So how did it get to number 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list? Vast bulk purchases, leading the Times to list it with a "dagger" symbol insinuating fraudulent or suspicious activity. “It has the big dagger [symbol] next to it, which means a large portion of the sales came from bulk orders.”The source added: “It’s known in the industry as the ‘deadly dagger.’ A rare penalty that is only called for flagrant fouls,” such as when an author or someone close buys large quantities.It’s at Times editors’ discretion when to plunge the dagger. Fine print below the best-seller list explains, “Sales are defined as completed transactions by vendors and individual end-users during the period on or after the official publication date of a title. Institutional, special interest, group or bulk purchases, if and when they are included, are at the discretion of The New York Times Best-Seller List Desk editors based on standards for inclusion that encompass proprietary vetting and audit protocols, corroborative reporting and other statistical determinations. When included, such bulk purchases appear with a dagger (†).”Scientology perfected this trick in the 1980s. It's extremely costly, reports the LA Times, but the benefit is clear: L. Ron Hubbard atop the bestseller lists for decades. Read the rest

A typical security camera can give you peace of mind. But that might be offset by the nagging feeling that it's watching you, too.The best kind of security system is one that protects both your home and your privacy, and the blurams Dome Pro 1080p Security Camera is one rare model that's set up to do both.The HD lens on the blurams is equipped with a 360º field of vision, and it can be set to record any preset area with an Auto-Cruise mode. All footage is uploaded to the cloud, and you can choose to get alerts on any unauthorized motion or human detection - even in the dimmest conditions, thanks to the night vision functionality. You can even record your own alert video.But all the while, you get to decide what areas get recorded and who sets off alerts. The blurams' voice and facial recognition technology can distinguish between pets or authorized family members to avoid false alarms. Want to keep some privacy? The camera can even be set to cover up and shut down when it detects you. You can even set up your own house-wide security system and view up to four cameras on the accompanying app.Right now, the blurams Dome Pro 1080p Security Camera with Facial Recognition + Night Vision is 16% off the regular MSRP, but you can take an extra 15% off that final price by using the online code BFSAVE15, for a final price of $42.49. Read the rest

Three Indiana judges got in a fight. Two were injured, all were suspended. NPR's Laurel Wamsley reports "an incident brimming with colorful details."The altercation apparently started sometime after 3 a.m., when one of the judges, Sabrina Bell, raised a middle finger at two men yelling from a passing SUV, and ended after one of those men shot two of the judges.In between, the three judges took a number of actions that "discredited the entire Indiana judiciary," according to an opinion posted by the Indiana Supreme Court this week, suspending the judges.The court found that the three — Andrew Adams, Bradley Jacobs and Sabrina Bell — had "engaged in judicial misconduct by appearing in public in an intoxicated state and behaving in an injudicious manner and by becoming involved in a verbal altercation." Adams and Jacobs engaged in further judicial misconduct "by becoming involved in a physical altercation for which Judge Adams was criminally charged and convicted."The judges will be in the sin bin for two months. The shooter's been charged with felony aggravated battery.UPDATE: I read the ruling and it's fantastic, the reason we're here is because Judge Bell just stood there blabbing to the cops instead of shutting the fuck up. Read the rest

If #UntitledGooseGame was released on PS1made with #GodotEngine #gamedev pic.twitter.com/xDFai1Tcgt— Miziziziz (@miziziziz) November 13, 2019Untitled Goose Game is the hit title where you play an obstreperous bird menacing a bucolic village. Game developer Miziziziz wondered what it would look like as an even lower-poly game on the originaly Playstation.It gives me Silent Hill vibes now, which is just perfect. Read the rest

I've lost weight with keto—the only thing that's worked for me—but face two ongoing problems. First, I get bored of eating fat and leaves. Second, keto clones of normal snacks tend to be weird, mealy or downright unpleasant to taste. Quevos [Amazon link] are the first keto chips I can just sit and eat and eat and eat until I realize I've gone though three packets. My toddler steals them, too, so it's not just the carb-starved incentives of a keto dieter making me like them.They're made from egg whites, and come in two flavors: Sour Cream and Onion and Quevos Rancheros. There's 120 or 140 calories a bag and 2 or 3 net carbs (full nutritional info is at the website). There are other non-keto flavors (salt and pepper, sweet barbecue and cheddar) with 10 or 11 carbs a bag.They work, I think, because they're honest to what they are, which is baked egg chips, and aren't trying too hard to taste like potato chips. They flavors are unusual as well, suggesting a lot of experimentation. What is "Rancheros" flavor, exactly? The taste of tests.They're not perfect. The mouthfeel is dry and dusty, and you're getting a full load of sodium. The Quevos are small, probably because they're brittle and would arrive in fragments were they any larger. The latter point is a reviewer in search of a quibble, perhaps, so I'd like to stress that these are the first keto snacks I've tried that didn't taste like "keto snacks" and a must-try for people managing carbs. Read the rest

This footage of mysterious, distant howling is going viral, with Internet Experts In Everything assuring all that it's definitely not wolves, bears or the other usual suspects.Stargell Blackstar: "me, my wife and grandson went grouse hunting about 45km from Sioux Lookout Ontario, Canada when we heard these screams, it lasted for around 5 minutes but we only got 3:05 minutes of video and we have 2:15 minutes of it here. happened on October 3, 2019 at 6:50pm CST."Clearly a Yautja. Read the rest

(Stop reading now to avoid spoilers)Devon Ivie interviewed Great British Baking Show 2019 winner David Atherton and finalist Steph Blackwell for Vulture. Among other things, David described some of the terrific moments edited out of the show: Were you bummed that certain moments of your “fun” side weren’t included?Kind of. My absolute favorite moment didn’t make the cut. When I made my cinnamon rolls during Bread Week, I baked a whole new set of cinnamon rolls for the crew and the other bakers because I had the time. They all came around my desk, had a roll, and we chatted for a bit. I could have spent more time doing my bake, but that’s me. I’m not competitive. I loved the buzz of the tent and being with everyone. I bake for people! I guess it wasn’t part of the story Baking Show wanted to show.It’s funny because I remember seeing a handful of scenes of you hanging out in the background with your completed bakes, while the other bakers are freaking out and racing against the clock. I don’t recall that happening much in the past before. Did you always finish so early?Pretty much every time. [Laughs.] I always thought I could be doing more things, but I didn’t want to overthink it. People always said my bench was the cleanest, and that’s because I had nothing else to do. Obviously the edit made it seem like everyone was down to the wire, and lots of people were, but I finished early on almost every single bake. Read the rest

The moment when the collective decision is made; you're about to see one of those, but for people. Read the rest

Congratulations to Disney on the exciting new merchandising opportunity of bounty pucks:I swear these are three different scenes:And if bounty pucks don't prove popular, there's the less sophisticated tracking fob: Read the rest

A coke stash hidden in the woods by suspected drug dealers was destroyed by boars, report police in Tuscany. The drug stash was hidden in a forest area in the Valdichiana valley. The law enforcement probe, which spanned between September 2018 and March 2019, discovered one of the gang members was allegedly distributing drugs via a nightclub in Arezzo.The suspects traded approximately two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of cocaine every month, which netted the gang the equivalent of between $90 and $120 per gram, Il Tirreno reported. An unknown number of boars allegedly dug up and destroyed the gang's packages, dispersing their contents in the woods.It was not immediately known what happened to the curious animals.Screenshot: Barry Young Read the rest

Not everything is legal in New Jersey: Uber has to pay the state of New Jersey $650m in unemployment and disability tax for the employee drivers that it pretended were contractors. Uber is appealing. It will lose. Uber drivers in Jersey are now entitled to unemployment insurance. (via /.) (Image: Quotecatalog, Ervins Strauhmanis, CC BY, modified) Read the rest

Mysterious Galaxy is a wonderful, longstanding science fiction bookstore, host to readings for the Clarion Workshop, designated bookseller for Comic-Con signings, and much more.And while the 27-year-old bookstore is profitable, with 5-10% year-on-year sales growth and mounting profits, it is still operating on thin enough margins that it is vulnerable to shocks, and now the store has lost its lease, a shock that has endangered the store's future.In an email to customers and stakeholders, owner Terry Gilman has offered the store for sale on a "turnkey" basis, seeking offers before November 20th. The store has 60 days to vacate its location and unless a new owner and location have been found by then, Southern California will lose one of its most storied, best independent bookstores, and science fiction and fantasy will lose one of its greatest, longest-standing genre bookstores.The staff of Mysterious Galaxy just received notice that they are losing their lease for their Balboa Avenue storefront, and will need to move in 60 days. It is with heavy hearts that we share that unless a new buyer and new location are found immediately, Mysterious Galaxy will be forced to close its doors. For nearly 27 years, Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore has been a vibrant part of the book community in San Diego, and a safe and welcoming place for those with a passion for books. The past several years have seen 5-10% growth in sales and increasing profits. The store's participation in regional and industry conventions, and its stellar in-store events, have earned it a special place in the hearts of authors and readers alike, and created a well-respected brand in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Mystery praised throughout the publishing and bookselling industry. Read the rest

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party have pledged universal, free broadband and a nationwide fibre buildout by 2030 if elected; they plan to renationalise parts of BT and tax Big Tech to pay for the fibre rollout.BT under private ownership has been a catastrophe, especially the privatised, spun-out installation business Openreach, whose bureaucratic incompetence, arrogance, hostility and sheer, pig-headed idiocy make them seem like something out of a poorest-quality farce comedy. Labour proposes to re-nationalise this embarrassment of a company and make it pull its fucking socks up for literally the first time since it was privatised.Boris Johnson's Conservatives have pledged a £5b fibre rollout; Labour has priced the rollout at a much more realistic £30b (BT estimates the cost at £40b, but they also estimated my broadband speed at 20mbps and rarely delivered 5).I am a member of the Labour Party and a proud donor to Jeremy Corbyn's campaign. The plan includes nationalising parts of BT - namely its digital network arm Openreach - to create a UK-wide network owned by the government."We're putting the money in and therefore we should own the benefit as well," said the shadow chancellor.He said the roll-out would begin with communities that have the worst broadband access, followed by towns and smaller centres, and then by areas that are currently well served.A Labour government would compensate shareholders by issuing government bonds. He said Labour had taken legal advice, including ensuring pension funds with investments in BT are not left out of pocket. Read the rest

Often remembered but rarely seen: The Star Wars Holiday Special is a variety show most remarkable for how unenthusiastic, or inebriated, the cast was. It is currently viewable on YouTube.Recently referenced in The Mandalorian, Life Day is faux Wookie Christmas; apparently uncelebrated for 41 years. I have a friend who is still grousing that the Hulk was held up for this genre mash-up nonpareil.Pretty sure shitty Life Day presents is how we got Kylo Ren. I hope Lumpy is the surprise reveal in Rise of the Skywalker. Lumpy is cool. Read the rest

Oops. Awkward.An Italian council was flooded immediately after rejecting new measures to address the climate crisis that threatens to sink the city, and wreak havoc throughout the world.The regional council of Veneto is situated on Venice's Grand Canal. On Tuesday night, the office flooded for the first time in its history, right after rejecting measures to fight climate change.Here is a post on Facebook with images.Venice has been hit this week by the worst flooding in over 50 years.Reporting by Gianluca Mezzofiore, CNN: And the council chamber in Ferro Fini Palace started to take in water around 10 p.m. local time, as councilors were debating the 2020 regional budget, Democratic Party councilor Andrea Zanoni said in a long Facebook post. "Ironically, the chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia parties rejected our amendments to tackle climate change," Zanoni, who is deputy chairman of the environment committee, said in the post, which also has photographs of the room under water.Among the rejected amendments were measures to fund renewable sources, to replace diesel buses with "more efficient and less polluting ones," to scrap polluting stoves and reduce the impact of plastics, he said.Italian council is flooded immediately after rejecting measures on climate change [cnn.com]Previously: Venice is flooded right now and it looks miserable Read the rest

Spoiler: The idea is you want to get to day two, alive.“How you going to beat up a man gifting you handmade seasonal accessories?”Excellent advice on all the things you should definitely not do on your first day in prison.This character is priceless, as is his advice, may you never need it.From We The Internet TV, starring Grizz Chapman.More: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram[VIDEO LINK] Read the rest

Donald Trump has long made a sport of mocking Amazon founder and Washington Post newspaper owner Jeff Bezos, and Jeff Bezos is well aware of this. Microsoft just won a $10 billion so-called “war cloud” contract with Donald Trump's administration for Pentagon cloud-based computing. Amazon wanted that $10 billion Pentagon contract.Amazon, the company founded by Jeff Bezos, plans to dispute the contract process, claiming “unmistakable bias.”Amazon filed a formal protest in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which deals with financial claims against the federal government, reports the Associated Press on Thursday:Amazon’s competitive bid for the “war cloud” project drew criticism from President Donald Trump and its business rivals. The project, formally called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, pitted leading tech titans Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and IBM against one anotherIn a statement, Amazon said that “numerous aspects” of the bidding process involved “clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias.” It did not elaborate.Amazon added that “it’s important that these matters be examined and rectified.”Microsoft has not yet commented on the matter.Amazon to protest $10B Pentagon contract won by Microsoft [apnews.com] Read the rest

Sous vide cooking: It sounds fancy, but it's actually one of the easiest and most reliable ways to cook. It's the reason why many restaurants are able to put out delicious dishes with a consistent flavor.All you need is the right equipment, and that hasn't always been available to those outside the resto crowd. Now that the secret is out on sous vide, gadgets like the Curtis Stone Sous Vide Cooker & Beverage Chiller are letting home chefs prepare their meals in a whole new way.Sous vide is French for "under vacuum," and that's the secret to the consistency. To use this device, all you do is put your beef, poultry or seafood into an airtight bag, then drop it into a pot of water. Clamp the cooker onto the side, select your temperature on the LED display, and wait. It's that easy to get your entrees cooked evenly and all the way through, the same way every time.With a simple switch, you can even turn this one into a beverage chiller for impromptu party coolers. Best of all, the Curtis Stone Sous Vide Cooker & Beverage Chiller is available now for 20% off the retail price. Read the rest

Smack that ham.PHOTOS: Pablo Rochat. Follow Art Director @pablo.rochat on Instagram. View this post on Instagram Lunch🍴A post shared by Pablo Rochat (@pablo.rochat) on Nov 14, 2019 at 7:43am PST Read the rest

PayPal on Thursday says it has halted payment support for models with PornHub, the online adult site, after Paypal says it found that Pornhub made certain payments without PayPal's permission.“Following a review, we have discovered that PornHub has made certain business payments through PayPal without seeking our permission. We have taken action to stop these transactions from occurring,” PayPal said in an email statement.PayPal hasn't explained why, beyond that.From Reuters:PornHub, owned by Luxembourg-headquartered company MindGeek, said it was “devastated by PayPal’s decision to stop payouts to over a hundred thousand performers who rely on them for their livelihoods”. MindGeek did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. RELATED READING on our blog:Banned from Youtube, Chinese propagandists are using Pornhub to publish anti-Hong Kong videos [Cory Doctorow, Thu Nov 14, 2019] Read the rest

“It would be the right (thing). But it’s not up to us to decide,” Putin said.