Boing Boing

Francesca O'Brien, the Conservative candidate for the Gower constituency in the forthcoming UK elections, said that people appearing on the TV show "Benefits Steet" needed "putting down".In the posts following the broadcast of the first episode of Benefits Street five years ago, Ms O'Brien said: "Benefit Street..anyone else watching this?? Wow, these people are unreal!!!"Responding to another user's comment, she said: "My blood is boiling, these people need putting down."In a statement released on Sunday, Ms O'Brien said: "These comments were made off the cuff, a number of years ago."However, I accept that my use of language was unacceptable and I would like to apologise for any upset I have caused."Benefits Street was a Channel 4 documentary about people on welfare, broadcast in 2014, criticized at the time for "vilifying and misrepresenting benefits claimaints" in tabloid fashion. O'Brien neglected to delete her social media history before launching her bid for office. Read the rest

Richard Spencer sought to cast his brand of clean-cut ethnic nationalism as a respectable conservative alternative to nazism, coining the term "alt-right" to refer to it and successfully attracting mainstream media interest. In this audio recording, posted Sunday by provocateur Milo Yiannopoulous and claimed to be of Spencer, a man is heard ranting about Jews and black people in a more traditionally far-right mode. The recording is NSFW and contains terms of racial abuse.“My ancestors fucking enslaved those little pieces of fucking shit,” Spencer is heard shouting on the recording. “They don’t do this to fucking me. We’re going to fucking ritualistically humiliate them.”“Little fucking kikes,” Spencer is heard screaming in a terrifying minute-long rant. “They get ruled by people like me. Little fucking octaroons.”.Yiannopoulous claims the recording was made in the immediate aftermath of counterprotestor Heather Heyer's murder at the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally.Mother Jones was the first to indulge Spencer's media plan ("Meet the dapper white nationalist who wins even if Trump loses") but even those appalled by the cosy coverage were unable to avoid the term "alt-right" for long. Spencer's fame and media sympathy peaked after he was punched on video in 2017 by a protestor, an event that led to much sanctimonious punditry at the dangerous incivility of "punching Nazis". Heyer's killing by another white nationalist sobered up the poseurs and Spencer's media star quickly fell. Now no-one can be in any doubt about how low it always should have been. Read the rest

When you consider the prospect of learning a new language, chances are your mind flashes back to those old high school classes where you repeated useless phrases like "Where is the library?" or "what color is the car?"Thankfully, language learning has come a long way since then. Whether you're at home or on the go, you can get conversant in a new language with Mondly, the app that combines cutting-edge tech with an innovative curriculum to get you speaking a new language faster.Mondly makes good use of the latest things your phone can do. Its speech recognition is first-rate, allowing the app to tweak your pronunciation as you go. The aim is to not only teach you the phrase, but have you sound like you say it every day.Another great add-on is MondlyAR, which is a really fun way to learn on the go. It can pick up on everyday objects around you and prompt you to identify them in your new language of choice.But the real standout here is the actual curriculum. Mondly breaks each language down into bite-sized lessons, each one building on the last. You get a sense of accomplishment at each step, and it actually gets you excited about moving on to the next set of words and phrases.Right now, you can get a variety of plans on sale. A lifetime subscription to Mondly with access to all languages is 95% off the retail price. Read the rest

Brass dodecahedrons keep turning up in the European soil. They're of Roman antiquity, but no-one knows for sure what they were for. Thankfully, "mundane ornamentation or maybe a childrens' toy" is not what anyone wants to hear. Mental Floss:Historians have found no written documentation of the dodecahedrons in any historical sources. That void has encouraged dozens of competing, and sometimes colorful, theories about their purpose, from military banner ornaments to candleholders to props used in magic spells. ... Amelia Sparavigna, a physicist at Italy’s Politecnico di Torino, thinks the dodecahedrons were used by the Roman military as a type of rangefinder. In research published on the online repository arXiv in 2012, Sparavigna argued that they could have been used to calculate the distance to an object of known size (such as a military banner or an artillery weapon) by looking through pairs of the dodecahedrons' differently sized holes, until the object and the edges of the two circles in the dodecahedron aligned. Theoretically, only one set of holes for a given distance would line up, according to Sparavigna.Or, perhaps, an astronomic measuring instrument for determining the optimal sowing date for winter grain. [romandodecahedron.com]My favorite explanation: a glove-knitting gadget.Photo: Lokilech (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

As evidence mounts that President Trump tied Ukraine aid to that country announcing a sham investigation into Trump's political rivals, some Republicans are backing off their claim there was no "quid pro quo". Instead, there was a quid pro quo, but there's nothing wrong with quid pro quos. Trump, of course, agrees with them.Perhaps so.The context is particularly damning testimony from a highly-placed national security official and GOP aides caught trying to out the original whistleblower's name. A good example of the goalposts being loudly hauled comes courtesy of Ben Shapiro, the cool kids' philosopher:The next version of the question is "whether it was a criminal quid pro quo" or simply "whether it is an impeachable quid pro quo" to which the only answer is "no." Read the rest

In 1955, a white woman named Carolyn Bryant Donham falsely accused a black child named Emmett Till of making sexual advances towards her; a group of Mississippi men then kidnapped, tortured and lynched Till, an act that they never faced criminal consequences for.Till became a civil rights icon, thanks in part to a stomach-churning photo of his mutilated body that ran in The Chicago Defender and Jet. Today, Till is honored with a memorial in Sumner, Mississippi.Last July, a group of white, racist frat boys from Ole Miss photographed themselves in front of the Till Memorial sign while toting high-powered rifles and posted the picture to social media.The Till sign is routinely vandalized and has been repeatedly riddled with bullet holes. Earlier this year, it was replaced with a new "bulletproof" version that is under video surveillance.On Saturday, a group of people bearing banners for the white supremacist group League of the South were recorded making a video at the sign, with one of the racists narrating, "We are all here are the Emmett Till monument that represents the civil rights movement for blacks. What we want to know is where are all of the white people."A speaker near the sign played an automatically triggered recording warning the white supremacists that they were being recorded. They ran away.The Emmett Till Memorial was recently rededicated and made bulletproof after multiple acts of vandalism -- including getting riddled with 20 bullet holes.The original sign went up in 2007. Read the rest

Steve Morrow saw an "urgent sale" ad on the New Zealand auction site Trade Me from a free-range chicken farmer who was shutting down and selling off his 1,000 chickens; Morrow thought he was bidding on one chicken, but ended up buying all 1,000 of them for NZD1.50.He has since given away 700 of his accidental flock via social media ads. Morrow says the ad was confusing, but the seller, Matthew Blomfield, insists that it was all clear: "It's pretty bloody hard to get that wrong."The two are collaborating with Animal Sanctuary to screen potential bird adopters. Morrow is planning on keeping 20 birds for himself. Morrow said he wasn't going to let the 1000 birds down and let them be killed."I wasn't going to let that happen. I was going to save 1000 lives, even if I had to drive up to Auckland and feed them myself while looking for homes for them." $1.50 for 1000 hens: Hamilton man desperate to rehome birds after accidentally winning auction [Torika Tokalau/Stuff](via Metafilter) Read the rest

Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonald's since 2015, was fired this weekend over his relationship with a company employee. McDonald’s has dumped its chief executive Steve Easterbrook after he engaged in a relationship with a colleague, the company announced on Sunday. Mr Easterbrook, who was credited with doubling the company’s share price since becoming chief executive in March 2015, “violated company policy and demonstrated poor judgment involving a recent consensual relationship with an employee,” the company said. ... Mr Easterbrook, who is British and divorced, wrote in an email to McDonald’s staff: “I engaged in a recent consensual relationship with an employee, which violated McDonald’s policy. This was a mistake. Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on. Beyond this, I hope you can respect my desire to maintain my privacy.”The identity of the person Easterbrook had an inappropriate relationship has not and should not be disclosed, but here's Exhibit A: Read the rest

What will they think of next? Read on. In every aspect of life, technology is improving on the little things. Here are 10 things that will actually make your life easier - and more fun.OPKIX Dual Wearable Camera + Egg Storage BundleHere's a body cam for the masses. Infinitely portable, it can clip onto just about anywhere and operate with a single click. And with 70 minutes of onboard footage time, you're ready when those once-in-a-lifetime moments come along.Sale Price: $495GoFish Cam Wireless Underwater Fishing CameraSpeaking of cameras, here's a waterproof one that attaches to your fishing line and takes you right into the action during your next catch. Equipped with a night vision LED and viewable through a mobile app, it offers even the most seasoned angler a point of view they've never seen before.MSRP: $239.99Sale Price: $229.99 with promo code GoFish10 SteakStones® Pizza StoneThis stone heats up quickly in 10 minutes to give your pizza the perfect crust. Even when you're not indulging in pizza, it can double as a great serving tray or cheese board.MSRP: $150Sale Price: $127.50Grid WalletThis minimalist wallet is made from two aluminum plates, perfectly sized for up to 12 cards plus a bit of cash. It takes away the bulk from your pocket but adds an extra dose of RFID protection in the bargain.MSRP: $65Sale Price: $25PLX Devices Kiwi 3 Bluetooth OBD2 OBDII Diagnostic Scan ToolThis diagnostic tool plugs into your car's onboard diagnostic port, giving you access to the same info professional mechanics use to troubleshoot. Read the rest

Unless you're Grizzly Adams, there are actually three constant hassles in life: Death, taxes and trash. Dealing with it is a constant grind, and if you're anything like us, it's rarely as easy as taking a bag out the door. Liquid seeps into the bin, odors persist and bags rip.Like we said: A hassle. But, technology has finally caught up to this particular problem in the form of Townew: The World's First Self-Sealing & Changing Trash Can.The bin and the "bags" that come with it are unique in a number of ways. First off, the sealed bin automatically opens when it senses movement within 14", then automatically re-closes.So far, so convenient. But the kicker comes when the bag is full. A mechanism at the top then closes and seals the thermoplastic bag, locking in the smells and ensuring you never have to touch the contents. Take out the bag, and the Townew dispenses a new bag from the same lid mechanism.The bag rings are good for 25 refills, and the entire unit operates on a 2,000 mAh battery that's good for an entire month.You can get the Townew plus 4 refill rings for $105, more than 10% off the MSRP. Read the rest

"Improving Automobile Safety by Removing Blind Spots" is 14 year old Alaina Gassler's prizewinning science-fair project, which uses cameras mounted to the exterior of the car and feeding their video to internal projectors, which projection-map them onto the a-pillars that otherwise obscure the driver's view.The Pennsylvania teen's project won the top $25,000 prize in the Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) science competition.I am a giant fan of projection mapping, which makes for eerily cool and wonderful effects, and Gassler's project -- which used 3D printed components to precisely map the projections -- are no exception.Through her project, Alaina Gassler is seeking to make driving safer by reducing blind spots. She designed a system that uses a webcam to display anything that might block the driver’s line of sight. Alaina was inspired to create her device after seeing her mother struggle with blind spots in their family automobile. 14-Year-Old Genius Solves Blind Spots [Andrew Liszewski/Gizmodo] Read the rest

Cutting through the vertical bollards in Trump's "virtually impenetrable" wall takes mere minutes, using a $100 reciprocating saw and "extreme metal cutting" blades that sell for $10-15; once cut, the length of the bollards provides leverage to wall-cutters so they can be easily bent to allow a person to pass through them, and afterwards, the bollards can be replaced and cemented with easy-to-cut putty that border patrol officers often mistake for official repair welds (these welds are only slightly harder to cut through than the putty).The gaps between the bollards also lend themselves to being defeated by cheap ladders made from rebar; once people have gone over the wall, the ladder can be passed between the bollards for use on inner, secondary walls.In response, the Customs and Border Protection service have developed sophisticated countermeasures: they kick the bollards to see if they'll bend.In defense of the wall design -- budgeted for more than $21b and likely to come in significantly at significantly higher total prices -- CBP says that the cut bollards only allow one person at a time through, while older barriers allowed several people through at once. However, it's more accurate to say that an individual cut bollard only admits one person, but people smugglers can cut through very large numbers of these bollards in very short time for very small sums of money.The wall was paid for in part by diverting money from budgets allocated for schools for the children of active-duty American soldiers. Read the rest

You don't need to be a TV chef to take advantage of the same accessories they use - and if you're still cooking with hand-me-down kitchenware from your parents, it might be time to trade up. Here are 15 kitchen accessories that will make dinnertime prep shorter and the results tastier.Gemelli Twin OvenThis is no mere toaster oven. The Gemelli puts a full convection oven on your countertop, perfectly sized for family meals. There's a rotisserie function for main courses, and a dedicated drawer underneath that makes homemade pizza a snap.MSRP: $379.99Sale Price: $279.99Chefman 1.7L Color-Changing Electric KettleStop listening for the kettle. With the Chefman, you can see your water reach its boiling point as the container changes from black to red. It comes with its own heating base which shuts off automatically when the pot is empty.MSRP: $49.99Sale Price: $37StirMATE® Smart Pot StirrerNot everyone has the endurance to stir a potful of food for hours on end. That's why the StirMATE® Smart Pot Stirrer exists. Just clamp this well-designed stirrer onto the side and go work on other prep - or just relax. A long arm stirs the pot, while a horizontal short arm gently scours the bottom to prevent food from sticking and scorching.MSRP: $59.99Sale Price: $49.99Martha Stewart 8-Qt 7-in-1 Digital Stainless Steel Pressure CookerFrom the lifestyle guru herself comes this essential cooker. It's got a large capacity and 14 presets that can handle any dish easily, from stews to yogurt. Read the rest

Award winning journalist Kurt Eichenwald gave a lot of Twitter readers anxiety and insomnia when he posted a 17-part Twitter thread yesterday afternoon about why it wouldn't be difficult for Trump to use executive power to effectively make himself dictator for life.1. For those who don’t understand the fragility of American democracy in the hands of an unscrupulous autocrat - a scenario never imagined possible by the Founders under our Constituion - the cancellation of elections is quite simple and arguably legal. Which is why...— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019 2...I fear for 2020. It all comes down to presidential emergency powers. They are poorly defined in the Constitution and under law. They are enormous and Trump clearly has been told that - remember how trump keeps saying he can do *anything* under the Constitution. Back when....— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019 3...there was Japanese internment, Justice Robert Jackson wrote of this power in his dissent that it “lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.” We have already seen Trump do this without...— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019 4...consequence to override congress to pay for his wall. Nothing can stop him because he said “emergency” and there is nothing to stop him. So, it’s October 25, 2020. Polls show that trump is going to lose in a landslide. He announces a national emergency - we have evidence... Read the rest

Mexican drug smugglers are using cordless reciprocating saws to cut holes in Trump's new border wall. The holes are large enough for people and drug packages to go through, reports The Washington Post.The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool known as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier’s steel-and-concrete bollards in a matter of minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques.Image: By U.S. Customs and Border Protection - Construction Continues on the Replacement Border Wall near the Tecate Port of Entry, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

A voracious appetite for reading is a good indicator of success and fulfillment. And why not? The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the more you can do.By that equation, the Speed Reading Mastery Bundle is out to supercharge the productivity and knowledge in your life.It's a series of online courses, all focused on the science of reading. They benefit from methodical research that breaks down how your brain takes in information, then teaches you how to streamline that process. You'll get the same techniques used by university professors and Guinness World Record holders, allowing you to double your speed in no time.And like any good speed reading resource, you can expect to improve your comprehension as well as your reading speed. There's even a course dedicated to the neuroscience of memory that will allow you to boost your retention of all this newfound knowledge.Right now, you can get all six courses in the Speed Reading Mastery Bundle for $21 - a full 98% off the cost of the individual lessons. Read the rest

A 7-year-old boy from Hannover, Germany inserted his tongue into a juice bottle in an attempt to retrieve the last drops of juice, creating a partial vacuum in the bottle. As a result, the lad's tongue became entrapped. In most cases, doctors will drill a hole through the bottle or insert a tube between the tongue and the bottle to equalize the pressure, but this time the technique didn't work. So the doctor pumped air through the tube into the bottle, and the kid's tongue popped right out.From Eurekalert:Air was then injected into the bottle, and after 60 ml of air, the swollen and discoloured tongue squeezed out of the bottle neck - slowly at first and then swiftly. To help reduce the swelling, prednisolone and ibuprofen were given and the boy was admitted to a paediatric surgical ward for a 24-hr observation period. On discharge, the swelling had largely dissipated but for about three days the front part of the tongue remained very discoloured. At follow-up 14 days after the entrapment, the boy had fully recovered.Image: SWNS Read the rest

When Blizzard Entertainment ejected the Hearthstone champion player Blitzchung in retaliation for voicing a pro-Hong Kong message during a tournament, it kicked off a furious round of protests against the company, resulting in canceled events and more player action in support of the protesters.Today marked the opening of Blizzcon, the company's annual show/expo, and the Anaheim convention center was picketed by players who are furious with Blizzard's capitulation to Beijing.When J Allen Brack took the stage at the opening ceremonies, he led with a very precisely worded apology for the company's conduct, saying, "We moved too quickly in our decision-making and then to make matters worse, we were too slow to talk to all of you...We didn’t live up to the higher standards we set for ourselves. Second, we failed in our purpose. For that, I am sorry, and I accept accountability." He finished by promising that the company "will do better going forward.. with [actions that] matter more than any of these words."Brack did not mention China or Hong Kong.Before Brack took the stage and throughout his statement, Twitch users were filling up the live stream chat window with “FREE HK” and other similar sentiments. Brack was careful not to even mention the words “Hong Kong,” but he did go on to pledge that Blizzard “will do better going forward” and that its actions “will matter more than any of these words.” Blizzard says ‘we failed in our purpose’ after Hearthstone Hong Kong controversy [Nick Statt/The Verge] Read the rest

Greg Olijnyk works as a 2D graphic designer, but his hobby is creating unbelievably wonderful 3D science fictional cardboard sculptures that sport motors and lights that animate them (some use photovoltaic cells for power, too).He told Colossal's Laura Staugaitis: "every piece has the limitations and advantages of the cardboard material in mind, how it bends, how strong it will be, etc.I can't tell if he sells these, but I covet them with the intensity of a thousand suns Read the rest

For years, I've followed Andy Greenberg's excellent reporting on "Sandworm," a set of infrastructure-targeted cyberattacks against Ukraine widely presumed to be of Russian origin, some of which escaped their targeted zone and damaged systems around the world.Greenberg has turned that work into a book-length cyber-whodunit, Sandworm, that comes out today. I reviewed it for the LA Times, where I described it as: "a tour through a realm that is both invisible and critical to the daily lives of every person alive in the 21st century."One of the weirdest conversations I ever had was about this matter. It was a decade ago, and I was on a holiday in the Caribbean and the only other guests at the hotel were a family of “State Department” people. Dad had been with USAID when the Soviet tanks rolled in Hungary, his sons worked for undisclosed agencies within State. Hereditary spooks.One day, one of these second-gen spooks and I were by the pool and we got to talking about cyberwar, which he was very bullish on. I spent about an hour trying to explain to him that cyberwar and cyberweapon were imperfect analogies, so imperfect as to be terribly misleading. It was clear that he thought a cyberweapon was like a digital bomb: a tool that somehow projected force over an adversary’s digital infrastructure.But a cyberweapon isn’t that at all. A cyberweapon, is, at root, a secret. Specifically, it’s a secret about a defect in a piece of software, preferably software that is in wide usage. Read the rest

Aw, and they only took one piece each despite being terrifying dinosaurs.Home surveillance cameras get a lot of criticism around here, but no matter what horrible civil liberties implications there be, you can't tell me this isn't quality content.“Our Nest subscription was worth every penny,” says @macbryce.Our Nest subscription was worth every pennyAbout the guy whose Nest caught the footage:Full-time professor and part-time indie game developer. Currently working on Brukel (brukelgame.com), a game about my grandmother's WW2 stories while growing up on a farm in Belgium. Read the rest

In Limestone County, Alabama, Christopher James Shock, 32, was arrested for counterfeiting after a garbage collector spotted bags filled with bills in Shock's trash cans and called police. A clue that the money was funny is that one of the $50 notes was printed on a the back of a receipt from Alabama Pardons and Paroles. From WHNT:Investigators estimate between 10 and 30 thousand dollars in Shock's counterfeit bills are already in circulation.If you have been passed a fake bill, Limestone County Sheriff's Office encourages you to turn it in to police. Read the rest

Wait for it.This is good candy karma.Not sure who the person was who recorded it on their li'l home security camera, but the video has gone viral and it's sweet.A kid trick-or-treating on Halloween goes up to a house in his costume with mom and sibling, encounters an empty candy bowl, and generously decides to put some of his candy haul in the neighbor's bowl for the next trick-or-treater.Refilling the candy bowlPaying it forward.How cool. Read the rest

Rice Krispies Meats is more like it.Food coloring and creativity makes them look like hamburger meat patties, raw and wrapped up in the meat section at a grocery store.Truly gross. I don't think I could eat one.But wow, serious dedication and cleverness here on the part of Michel Devon.Go check out the how-to gallery.Spooky Raw Meat Krispies[IMGUR] Read the rest

“You can wake her up at 5AM, she won't complain.”

With Siri and Alexa, the computer science of natural language processing (NLP) is finally ready for prime time. In IEEE Spectrum, Oscar Schwartz wrote a fascinating essay linking NLP, "linguistic interactions between humans and machines," with 13th century Jewish mysticism. I've always enjoyed smart writing that pulls threads between technology and occult practices, and Schwartz's short piece is a fine example of that. From IEEE Spectrum:In the late 1200s, a Jewish mystic by the name of Abraham Abulafia sat down at a table in his small house in Barcelona, picked up a quill, dipped it in ink, and began combining the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in strange and seemingly random ways. Aleph with Bet, Bet with Gimmel, Gimmel with Aleph and Bet, and so on.Abulafia called this practice “the science of the combination of letters.” He wasn’t actually combining letters at random; instead he was carefully following a secret set of rules that he had devised while studying an ancient Kabbalistic text called the Sefer Yetsirah. This book describes how God created “all that is formed and all that is spoken” by combining Hebrew letters according to sacred formulas. In one section, God exhausts all possible two-letter combinations of the 22 Hebrew letters.By studying the Sefer Yetsirah, Abulafia gained the insight that linguistic symbols can be manipulated with formal rules in order to create new, interesting, insightful sentences. To this end, he spent months generating thousands of combinations of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and eventually emerged with a series of books that he claimed were endowed with prophetic wisdom. Read the rest

Want to send an obliquely grim message with prosciutto?Here's a fun idea of how to bring some surprise flair to your next office pot-luck.“Office Potluck is today. I signed up to bring the meat and cheese platter,” says IMGURian @Eatthedead.“Prosciutto, mozzarella, fresh bread, pepperoni, salami, melon...all the good stuff.”“Weird thing is...nobody's touched it. Huh. Just means more for me!”Made a charcuterie board for the office potluck today Read the rest

In 2017, a month after Trump named Rudy Giuliani to be his cybersecurity officer, Giuliani locked himself out of his iPhone. So he waited in line at a San Francisco Apple store to get the Genius Bar to unlock his phone. Last night when NBC broke the news of this, Giuliani idiotically compared what he did to the FBI asking Apple to unlock the phone of the San Bernardino mass shooter (which they refused to do). Also, given the sensitive information likely on Giuliani's phone, it's rather surprising that he'd hand it over to a random employee at a retail store. Or maybe it isn't surprising at all. Wonder if Giuliani tried "PASSWORD"? From NBC News:Giuliani’s handling of the situation calls into question his understanding of basic security measures and raises the prospect that, as someone in the president's inner circle, his electronic devices are especially vulnerable to hackers, two former FBI cyber experts told NBC News.“There’s no way he should be going to a commercial location to ask for that assistance,” said E.J. Hilbert, a former FBI agent for cybercrime and terrorism.Michael Anaya, a former FBI supervisory special agent who led a cyber squad for four years, reacted with astonishment when told about Giuliani’s Apple store visit.“That’s crazy,” he said.Hey @NBCNews, last I checked the FBI, last year, had to ask Apple to unlock an iPhone too! We’re all human, just maybe not tonight...🎃— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) October 31, 2019 Read the rest

Sue-Lin Wong is the Financial Times's South China reporter; this week, she attended the China Public Security expo, the country's largest surveillance tech show, held biannually in Shenzhen.In a ghastly and fascinating Twitter thread, Wong provides a tour of a few of the most noteworthy elements of the expo (though she notes that "The expo was utterly overwhelming, I must have only seen a fraction of it").A major trend from the show is "emotion recognition" -- a junk-science infused buzzword that is heavily marketed by "AI" companies both inside and outside China.My other big takeaway from Wong's writeup is that surveillance tech has found niches in every domain of human life: from street-level surveillance to education to the electric grid to health to criminal justice.I was also fascinated by Wong's photos of tiny surveillance cameras, including some hidden in the bridges of glasses.I visited China’s largest surveillance tech expo with @QianerLiu this week held once every two years in Shenzhen - “the world security capital.” A thread & our story about China’s latest new surveillance craze: emotion recognition https://t.co/6hWTQlZONg 1/ pic.twitter.com/jrsqKfOysg— Sue-Lin Wong 黄淑琳 (@suelinwong) November 1, 2019 Read the rest

The Japan Cuts Hollywood film festival takes places this weekend at the Chinese Theatres in Hollywood. Carla and I will be there. Japan House Los Angeles is curating three movies on Saturday:37 SECONDS | Director HIKARI is an award-winning writer, producer and director.TEN YEARS JAPAN | The executive producer is Hirokazu Kore-eda. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with three female Japanese directors.NO LONGER HUMAN | The US Premiere of director Mika Ninagawa. Read the rest

Yesterday, Waterfront Toronto unanimously approved the continuation of Sidewalk Labs's plans for "Quayside," a privatised, surveillance-oriented "smart city" that has been mired in controversy since its earliest days, including secret bullying campaigns, mass resignations of privacy advisors, lies that drastically understated the scope of the project, civil liberties lawsuits, and denunciations by the indigenous elders who were consulted on the project.The vote came one day after the Globe and Mail reported on a leaked document that showed that the company had initially planned to build an autonomous corporate-owned city, with private taxation, private roads, charter schools, corporate cops and judges, and punishments for people who choose privacy.Sidewalk Labs is a division of Alphabet, Google's parent company.The approval came after Sidewalk Labs made some concessions, agreeing to scale back Quayside to the initial 4.8 hectare sight, not the 77-hectare site the company secretly secured permission to build on and then lied about. It also promised to follow Canadian data-protection laws, including storing data from the project in Canadian data-centres.Toronto Mayor John Tory released a statement welcoming news of the vote result."We all know that we must develop our waterfront in the right way — that's why we are moving through this process so carefully," Tory said."I believe this process has led to an exciting proposal for Quayside that has the potential to create new jobs and economic development opportunities, a carbon-neutral neighbourhood, and more affordable housing units. It is a real opportunity for Toronto."Waterfront Toronto board votes to keep Sidewalk Labs' Quayside project alive [CBC] Read the rest

After 11 days, Chicago's teacher's strike is at an end, with the city agreeing to the majority of the union's demands, including: higher pay, limits on class sizes, a nurse and social worker in each school, 120 new "equity positions" (librarians, counselors and restorative justice coordinators), bilingual/special ed educators, and five make-up days for teachers and students to compensate for part of the missed instructional calendar.The teachers did not win all their demands: most notably, the city did not address the 17,000 homeless students in the system, nor did it give elementary teachers their requested daily 30-minute morning prep period.The agreement has won tentative support from the rank-and-file, and a formal vote of all 25,000 members is expected to ratify the deal.In addition to guaranteeing all CTU members a 16% raise over the life of the five-year contract, the offer invests $35 million in reducing class sizes – up $10 million from the city's previous offer.On staffing, the city's offer guarantees that every school will have a nurse and social worker by 2023. The offer includes 120 new "equity positions" for highest-need schools – such as counselors, restorative justice coordinators and librarians – and additional staffing in bilingual and special education.Chicago teachers' strike ends after 11 days. CPS will have 5 make-up days of school [Grace Hauck and Erin Richards/USA Today](via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

Our favorite truck-eating bridge is being lifted by 8-inches, which will effectively put it on a starvation diet, because many more trucks will be able to pass under it without getting their tops ripped off. In this video, we see how a crew is raising the bridge.From the 11foot8 bridge YouTube channel:On October 29, 2019, a crew hired by Norfolk Southern and the NC Railroad Company raised the 11foo8 bridge on Gregson St. in Durham, NC by 8 inches (20 cm) to increase the clearance over Gregson St to 12 foot 4 inches. The purpose of this $500,000 project was to improve traffic safety at this railroad trestle. We have documented 150 crashes of overheight vehicles at the old 11foot8 bridge since April 2008. This is the end of the old 11foot8 canopener ... welcome to the 11foot8 +8 bridge. Let's see what happens :)In the screenshot above, you can see that the bridge has already been raised by 8 inches. There's still much work to be done, including inclining the tracks on either side of the raised bridge.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Vice's Allie Conti got scammed by an Airbnb host who promised her a really nice place, then made up a story about its toilets being clogged and shifted her to a derelict, filthy wreck of a house. When she tried to get her money back, she discovered that Airbnb had no effective systems for following up on the kind of scam she'd encountered, so she began digging.She discovered that her scammer had multiple identities on the service (Airbnb has long struggled with scammers, including commercial real-estate companies, pretending to be just plain folks renting out a place they weren't using at the moment, but still gives these scammers "verified identity" badges on the service), and that they had been scamming people in multiple cities across the USA, and retaliating against victims who pressed their complaints by posting false reports of their victims' having thrown wild parties, leaving the properties in a dirty and damaged state.Through some pretty excellent sleuthing, Conti was able to identify her scammer with a pretty high degree of confidence, and she discovered that he knew all kind of tricks for laying low when his victims endangered his cushy con -- for example, he sometimes listed all his properties at $10,000/night, so they wouldn't show up on anyone's searches.Despite her extensive investigative work, no one at Airbnb would comment on the record about the scam, and five of the six identities she connected to her scammer are still live on the site.Even some of the positive reviews of Becky and Andrew’s Chicago rentals seemed odd, especially those left by other pairs of hosts. Read the rest

America is one of the only wealthy countries where you have to pay someone to prepare your tax return; in most other countries, the national tax office prepares a return for you and if it looks right to you, you just sign it and return it (you can always prepare your own return, too, or pay someone else to do it). This has created billions of dollars in annual revenue for the tax-prep industry, which is hyper-concentrated and dominated by a couple of giant firms, notably Intuit (Turbotax) and H&R Block. These companies have engaged in years of aggressive lobbying to prevent free tax filing in the USA, agreeing to a "bargain" in the form of "Free File," through which free tax prep is provided by the big companies, but in a way that is so deceptive, riddled with dark patterns, and obfuscated that almost no one uses it (they also lobbied successfully to ban the IRS from advertising Free File's existence).As part of its outstanding reporting on Free File, the IRS and the tax-prep industry, Propublica put in public records requests for emails between the IRS and the tax-prep industry's government relations people and lobbyists, only to have the IRS refuse to release them -- until Propublica successfully sued them and forced them to hand over the documents.It's easy to see why the IRS didn't want these emails released. They show a consistent pattern of tax industry shills "bargaining" to offer less and less to the American public, putting more and more limits on the usefulness of Free File, while the IRS -- charged with regulating and overseeing these companies -- rolls over and rubber-stamps each of these proposals, never making a counteroffer on behalf of the American people. Read the rest

The announcement of a UK General Election on Dec 12 -- the third in less than five years! -- was attended by predictable rises in the numbers of people registering to vote, but as official statistics show, the end of October saw a massive spike in voter registration among under 45s, led by under-25s and 25-34 year olds. It's a commonplace that Labour can't possibly win this election, but that's what they said in 2017, and that election was a bloodbath for the Tories and saw Labour come within a hairsbreadth of forming the government, despite dirty tricks, panicmongering, and a smear campaign that was backed by the Labour establishment itself.The reality is that Labour is the only party with policies that are supported by the vast majority of Britons, and while that support comes from all demographics, Labour's embrace of the Green New Deal makes it the only party on the British political stage that is aligned with the largest mass movement in recent memory, Climate Extinction, which skews younger.All election polling is primarily a guessing game about who just won't bother to vote, and models assume very low turnout among young voters. The massive influx of young voters means that the election is truly anyone's to win.I am a member of the British Labour Party and a donor to Jeremy Corbyn's election campaign.(via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

I ain't afraid of no fuckin' like an animal.If this wasn't on your Halloween playlist, then what were you even doing?Image via Pat Loika/Flickr Read the rest

I noticed that it was that time of the century and made a mashup up the film's legendary intro, complete with Vangelis's soundtrack, with real contemporary footage of LA. The main difference is, of course, what's on fire. LA, November 2019: smoking hot, yes, flying cars, no. Read the rest

Quiet.js converts data to an audio signal--optionally beyond the range of human hearing--and plays it in the browser. If you can't imagine what this might be useful for, note that it can also receive such data. If you're still stumped, you might be a saint surely some tunes are obviously the devil's.This is a javascript binding for libquiet, a library for sending and receiving data via sound card. It can function either via speaker or cable (e.g., 3.5mm). Quiet comes included with a few transmissions profiles which can be selected for the intended use. For speaker transmission, there is a profile which transmits around the 19kHz range, which is essentially imperceptible to the human ear. Read the rest

When one man's screen cracked, our pal Doctor Popular saw an opportunity:After a cat knocked knocked over his tv, Timothy Ryan Mulroney took a photo of the cracked screen and shared it on the Glitch Artists Collective on Facebook.I thought it would make a great iPhone wallpaper… so I made it into one. You can download it here.Fun!Broken LCD screen mobile wallpaper Read the rest

The holidays are right around the corner, so here are some gems from Hammacher Schlemmer's current offerings.The Handcrafted Hippopotamine Sofa is listed at $95,000 and "requires over 400 hours to make due to the intricate design and the artist’s painstaking attention to detail."The Mini Monster Truck is listed at $125,000, promises a top speed of 25 MPH, and includes a "nitrous oxide system for immediate acceleration that enables easy jumps over obstacles."The Exotic Virtual Adventure Run is $8,000 features a concave monitor loaded with "the otherworldly landscapes" of California’s Joshua Tree National Park, the Pacific coastline, a rustic lakefront village, and Area 51.The Canine's Passive Solar Condominium is $37,000 and designed to evoke "the passive homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright."But perhaps the strangest item is the Marble Machine Orchestra, listed at $95,000:This is the mechanical musical apparatus made in Sweden that generates mellifluous melodies with a multitude of marbles. Constructed from birch plywood and steel, it is comprised of gears, pulleys, tracks, lifting fingers, and funnels that work in concert to generate the precisely timed release of marbles which strike instruments. The entire operation begins by turning the handcrank to set the 18" flywheel into motion, which stores rotational energy and provides the musician a way to keep even time. Working similarly to a music box, the machine's marbles strike the keys of the built-in vibraphone, the four strings of an electric bass guitar, a kick drum, snare drum, hi hat, one-stringed modulin, and a sizzle cymbal—the operator pushes/pulls a series of levers to activate/deactivate a particular instrument. Read the rest

There's nothing like snuggling up under a good blanket, especially when that blanket can snuggle you back. As the popularity of the Gravity Blanket testifies, there's more to a good bedcover than just soft material. These blankets incorporate subtle weights to create a swaddling effect that can ease you to sleep, and they're all on deep discount.Gravity Travel Blanket: Gravity On-the-GoThere are tiny glass beads woven into the fabric of this innovative covering, making it dangerously easy to fall asleep under. And while its 66" x 42" dimensions make it more than big enough to bunk up under, the included travel bag makes it super portable.MSRP: $185Sale Price: $125The Calm Embrace Weighted BlanketStrategically-sized pockets on the Calm Embrace keep its glass nanobeads evenly distributed, which makes for a subtle, comforting fit. And the breathable cotton/polyester duvet cover gives it an extra dose of coziness.MSRP: $249Sale Price: $139Bibb Home 10 Lb Weighted Blanket & Mink CoverThis versatile blanket features a mink cover that you can remove during hot summer nights and add back on for the winter chill. The well-distributed layer of non-toxic weighted beads makes this one suitable for sleepers between 100 and 140 pounds.MSRP: $139Sale Price: $95BlanQuilâ„¢ Chill Cooling Weighted Blanket with Removable CoverA lot went into the design of this one, from the baffling and weight distribution that delivers Deep Touch Stimulation therapy to the shift-resistant ties for the duvet cover. What's more, the special cotton-polyester blend disperses body heat to keep your temperature even throughout the night. Read the rest

AlphaStar is reportedly the first artificial intelligence to play the computer game StarCraft II at a "Grandmaster" level under standard competitive conditions.1. AlphaStar now has the same kind of constraints that humans play under – including viewing the world through a camera, and stronger limits on the frequency of its actions* (in collaboration with StarCraft professional Dario “TLO” Wünsch). 2. AlphaStar can now play in one-on-one matches as and against Protoss, Terran, and Zerg – the three races present in StarCraft II. Each of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg agents is a single neural network.3. The League training is fully automated, and starts only with agents trained by supervised learning, rather than from previously trained agents from past experiments.4. AlphaStar played on the official game server, Battle.net, using the same maps and conditions as human players. All game replays are available here.It's all thanks to multi-agent reinforcement learning. *nods authoritatively* Read the rest

Do you have Mario Kart Wii and an interest in modifying it? Niment has created skins for playing Waluigi, Wario, and Luigi on foot. It looks so absurdly fun that Nintendo should consider making these skins a regular part of the game:Via Kotaku. Read the rest

If you’re in the mood for an intelligent, unconventional thriller of sorts, get out on the town and treat yourself to Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite. Come for the promise of nail biting class tension, struggle and all-out war, but stay for the interpersonal relationships, architectural allegories and shocking scares that emerge over the course of Bong Joon Ho’s latest film. The film is essentially about class relationships, yes, but unlike some recent (American) films that try to tackle the subject, the dynamic between the rich and poor isn’t cut-and-dried black and white. Parasite doesn’t just look at the poor as hopelessly depressed and the rich as cruel and greedy. The well-to-do in this film are moderately benevolent, living their own lives and oblivious to the destitute conditions of their hired help. Though we might cheer on the impoverished Kim family, they seem borderline sociopathic at times (most likely exacerbated by economic circumstances outside their control). We see the Kims pitted against a worse-off family and tensions escalate. That the Kims don’t register that they have common interests with the other family isn’t a flaw on their part. And that the Parks don’t understand their role in maintaining the cycle of poverty isn’t a damnable offense either. Parasite doesn’t proclaim individuals to be the root cause of inequality. Instead, Bong focuses on the individual members of the families as a metaphor for the larger, systemic problems that heighten economic disparity and keep the working class pitted against itself in a continual cycle of poverty. Read the rest

One of most most memorable Cool Tools podcast episodes was with rare book expert Rebecca Romney. She recently started a new rare book firm in Washington D.C. called Type Punch Matrix and she sent me a catalog (PDF here). A first edition of Food of the Gods (1904) by H.G. Wells, inscribed by him to his mother-in-law (who lived with him during the composition of War of the Worlds and his other major scientific romances)A first edition of Journeys to the Planet Mars (1904) by Sara Weiss, a Spiritualist who used remote viewing to visit Mars. The book includes original illustrations of Martian flora, and a Martian glossary!There's also a first American edition of Frankenstein next to an 1818 review of the true first edition (spoiler: it was not positive). The idea of the project was to pair books together in ways that created a dialogue.See more page samples from Journeys to the Planet Mars or Our Mission to Ento here. Read the rest

There are times when you don't have access to coffee or tea, but you still need a caffeine buzz. Or many you just don't like the taste of coffee or tea. That's what Verb Energy bars are for.Each 90-calorie bar contains core ingredients like almond butter and agave. They come in flavors like Coconut Chai, Maple Blueberry, Simply Cocoa, and Salted Peanut Butter. They are all gluten-free and vegan. Best of all, they contain green tea caffeine, which has L-theanine in it. Some studies have shown that L-theanine reduces anxiety.Want to try some? Good timing. Verb Energy is offering a trial pack of four bars for free - all you pay for is the $3.95 in shipping. Read the rest

This episode of Nate DiMeo's excellent Memory Palace podcast is about one-hit wonder Bobby "Boris" Pickett, who wrote and performed the Halloween favorite, "Monster Mash" in 1962."If you want to really dig in," says Nate, "you should read, Monster Mash: Half Dead in Hollywood, his autobiography. If you have $1,500 you can buy a copy on Amazon. Read the rest

In Episode 3, John and Eva go down the rabbit hole and question what is reality itself and whether or not we are in fact, as Nick Bostrom first theorized and Elon Musk and many others believe, in a large scale simulation. Possibly one made by aliens. Or indeed our future descendants. We are such stuff as dreams are made on - who is to say we aren’t? Featuring Joshua Tan, Ph.D. in Computer Science, Oxford, And Professor Stefan Sorgner, Professor of Philosophy at John Cabot University, Rome. (Listen to Episode 1 here, and Episode 2 here.)The Life Cycle is a production of Klang Games, creator of Seed, the planet colonization MMO -- watch the new trailer here. Subscribe to The Life Cycle on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Follow The Life Cycle on Twitter and Instagram. Read the rest

This is scary, but has nothing to do with Halloween, despite the date.The New York Times reports this evening that noted televangelist and “prosperity gospel” pastor Paula White has officially joined the Trump administration.Ms. White is a televangelist based in Florida who has served for some time as a “personal pastor” to Trump. They've been acquainted since 2002. She joins the administration in an official capacity starting today.Grifters love grifters.From the Times:Ms. White will work in the Office of Public Liaison, the official said, which is the division of the White House overseeing outreach to groups and coalitions organizing key parts of the president’s base. Her role will be to advise the administration’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative, which Mr. Trump established last year by executive order and which aims to give religious groups more of a voice in government programs devoted to issues like defending religious liberty and fighting poverty.As Mr. Trump campaigns for a second term, he cannot afford to lose support from the religious conservatives who voted for him in 2016 in significant numbers. Without their backing, his path to re-election would be significantly narrower.He has taken repeated steps to ensure they turn out for him again — by issuing executive orders, making cabinet appointments and nominating federal judges that pass muster with the religious right. On a range of issues from abortion rights to tax exemptions for churches, Mr. Trump has tried to grant Christian conservatives their policy wish lists whenever legally and politically feasible. Read the rest