A new analysis of whales suggests that each one is worth about $2 million in carbon sequestration -- and the global population is thus worth about $1 trillion.How do whales sequester carbon? By eating stuff, getting big, then drifting to the bottom of the ocean after they die. This makes them carbon sinks on a scale even bigger than most trees, as the authors point out:The carbon capture potential of whales is truly startling. Whales accumulate carbon in their bodies during their long lives. When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean; each great whale sequesters 33 tons of CO2 on average, taking that carbon out of the atmosphere for centuries. A tree, meanwhile, absorbs only up to 48 pounds of CO2 a year.On top of that, the metabolic activity of whales -- their breathing, peeing and pooping -- stimulates huge growths of phyloplankton, which itself sequesters tons of carbon. As National Geographic notes, in a post about this new study ...When phytoplankton die, much of their carbon gets recycled at the ocean’s surface. But some dead phytoplankton inevitably sink, sending more captured carbon to the bottom of the sea. Another study from 2010 found that the 12,000 sperm whales in the Southern Ocean draw 200,000 tons of carbon out of the atmosphere each year by stimulating phytoplankton growth and death through their iron-rich defecations.When the study authors priced out the cost of carbon capture, that's how they arrived at the value of $2 million per whale. Read the rest

Silver maples are evil, obviously, but I was enchanted by one root's complete embrace of a brick in my back yard. Liberating the brick meant liberating the root first, and I feel such a mildly interesting chunk of cellulose and lignin deserves more than fire. But what, exactly? It is too large to serve as the handguard of an ecologically-conscious sabre. Read the rest

Described by their finder as "Yoopalite" rocks, a cache of fluorescent sodalite-laced stones was found on a Michigan beach. The apparently bland, well-weathered pebbles light up under 365nm; agate-hunter Erik Rintamaki discovered them in 2017 while experimenting with ways to reveal the rare stones.I actually sold a few to at Michigan Tech University, and they sent them out for testing and they contacted me through emails and told me I probably had something new that had never been found in Michigan before, and I ended up being published in the Mineral News in 2018 for that discovery," Rintamaki said. Read the rest

Nothing worth saying about this man can safely be said—at least on Twitter. Read the rest

Good news everyone! All of those products made using microplastics that you invested in will hang around even after you get rid of them: that's good value. Currently, they can be found fouling up the guts of any number of sensitive species, littering the deepest depths of the ocean, making it possible to enjoy your microplastics almost anywhere you roam. Now, scientists from McGill University in Montreal have discovered an amazing new vector for getting the particular plastics you paid for into your body, where they belong: tea.From CNN:Plastic tea bags are shedding billions of shards of microplastics into their water, according to a new study.[Scientists] found that a single bag releases around 11.6 billion microplastic particles, and 3.1 billion even smaller nanoplastic particles, into the cup -- thousands of times higher than the amount of plastic previously found in other food and drink.The health effects of drinking these particles are unknown, according to the researchers, who called for further study into the area.I mean, we're already, on average, devouring five grams of plastic every week, so what's the big deal? A little more won't hurt ya.Image via Wikipedia Read the rest

Cats are possessed so it makes sense that Target has made a scratcher that looks like a haunted house! You can get this two-story cardboard Haunted Mansion from Target's Halloween Hyde & EEK! Boutique ($16.99). It’s a spooky chateau for your favorite cat (black or otherwise) – just in time for Halloween! Frightful and delightful, the Deluxe Haunted Mansion from Boots & Barkley™ is where your pet will be wanting to spend all her time. It’s two stories of entertainment, with a spacious cove on the bottom complete with scratch pad built into the floor. The perfect perch to keep an eye on the room is up above. Even better, the entire set assembles in just a few easy steps. The only thing not included are spirits to haunt the place, but your cats will have a scary amount of fun nonetheless.The cats of the internet seem to take to it just fine: View this post on Instagram @target Spooky house! Occupied by Cinnamon and Nova😻 #catsofinstagram #cats_of_instagram #target #targethalloween #spookyseasonA post shared by Molly (@goodgollymollyy) on Sep 17, 2019 at 12:26pm PDT View this post on Instagram It’s the first day of fall 🍁time to show off my new haunted crib 🎃👻 🧛🏻‍♀️ (complete with Halloween @sphynxswag of course) . . #BeverlyHills #sphynx #calicosphynx #sphynxcat #hairlesscat #sphynxswag #halloween #halloweenswag #hauntedmansion #newcrib #firstdayoffall #catmansion #catcrib #targethalloween #cat #catsofinstagram #sphynxofinstagram #sphynxlove #sphynxismyworld #beverlyhillssphynxA post shared by The One and Only Ruby (@beverlyhillssphynx) on Sep 23, 2019 at 7:36am PDT View this post on Instagram Welcome to Sinatra’s Halloween crib 🎃 Got this cute scratchy house from Target! Read the rest

Children of the 80's will remember the disturbing puppets from satirical puppet show Spitting Image and the video for Genesis' Land of Confusion. Co-creator Roger Law has confirmed that a pilot has been filmed, with hopes of a new series focusing on major celebrities like Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg. Jeff Westbrook, a writer on The Simpsons and Futurama, is serving as show-runner, and caricaturist Adrian Teal is working on the puppets. You can get a glimpse of the Trump puppet in action in this clip:On #FrontRowLate tonight, @wmarybeard speaks exclusively to Roger Law, as he films a pilot in the UK for the new Spitting Image series coming to American TV. pic.twitter.com/JFuX5dHCEU— BBC Arts (@bbcarts) September 27, 2019(Images via Avalon and The Guardian.) Read the rest

In this week's Cool Tools Podcast episode, Kevin Kelly and I talked to Boing Boing co-founder Carla Sinclair. Carla is an author, freelance writer and editor. She's written 5 books, including Girl Genius, which will be released in November.Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single pageRaw transcript excerpts:BYU Online Japanese courseI take a course through Brigham Young University. It's their online independent study. They teach tons of foreign languages. I've been studying Japanese. I'm on my second year. They're really supposed to be semester classes, but luckily they give you a year, and I take it every day of that year. And then I also pay for a three-month extension, so it takes me about 15 months. But you can take either university or high-school-level classes, and if you are in high school, you can get credit for them and the same with the university classes. I don't do it for the credit. The reason I chose BYU is because our daughter, Jane, who's 16, wanted to study Japanese for her high school credits, and her school doesn't offer it. So we did a lot of research, and BYU is one of the only universities we could find online classes that offers credited high school classes. After I took the first semester, we went to Japan, and I was able to converse. I could order in restaurants, and I could go to a shop and ask how much something is, although I tend to forget almost everything as soon as I start speaking to someone. Read the rest

Shorra's 2012 piece Death of a Cyborg remixed William-Adolphe Bouguereau's 1888 painting The First Mourning/Premier Deuil, giving it a 21st century zest that I found so moving that I bought a print immediately. (via Quinnception) Read the rest

Filmmaker Brett Gaylor (previously) writes, "Stealing Ur Feelings is an augmented reality experience that reveals how apps like Snapchat can utilize facial emotion recognition technology to secretly collect data about your emotions to make decisions about your life and promote inequalities." Read the rest

I'm coming to Maine to keynote the Maine Library Association conference in Newry tomorrow (Sept 30); later that day, I'm appearing with James Patrick Kelly at the Portland, Maine Main Library, from 6:30PM-8PM (it's free and open to the public) This is the first time I've been to Maine, and I can't wait! Read the rest

Science fiction writer, essayist, and Macarthur "genius" Jonathan Lethem (previously) has excellent bona fides to write about Edward Snowden: not only has he helped make a short film about the Snowden leaks, he's also spent years on the right side of the fights over surveillance and free expression (and it doesn't hurt that he's an outstanding essayist).In a long, beautifully written and insightful piece in the New York Review of Books, Lethem reviews Edward Snowden's memoir, Permanent Record. As with my review, Lethem focuses on the ways that Snowden's early life and his experiences with official corruption and a culture of impunity transformed him from an apolitical, hyper-patriotic, gung-ho military kid to this century's most consequential whistleblower. Lethem's expansive piece delves into the personal blind-spots revealed by Snowden's tale (his valorizing of the early, anonymous years of the internet is contrasted with Jia Tollentino's experience of gender-based harassment) and also the blind spots that Snowden revealed in the world around him by coming forward -- particularly Malcolm Gladwell's hilariously obtuse attempt to use Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg as a standard that Snowden doesn't live up to.Lethem is one of my favorite writers, and Snowden is one of the most interesting subjects in the mix today: Lethem's essay is a perfect Sunday read.In Robert Sheckley’s 1978 short story “Is That What People Do?,” a man named Eddie Quintero buys himself a pair of binoculars from an army and navy surplus outlet, “because with them he hoped to see some things that he otherwise would never see. Read the rest

RELAY is a free browser game by Yahia Zakaria, Sameh Khater, and Yassin Zakaria. You control a robot trapped in a series of two-dimensional levels filled with electronic gates, hatches, moving platforms and mirrored surfaces. The bot skittles about and jumps short distances, but you won't get far. Escape is only possible by aiming a laserbeam, which triggers mechanical elements or transfers control to other 'bots in unreachable places—so long as you have a line-of-sight. The game thereby poses an increasingly elaborate series of logical challenges as you switch between robots, hook up the circuits that power each level's portals and pitfalls, and hammer the self-destruct button when traps are sprung and completion becomes impossible.Relay's slightly sadistic gameplay is well-suited to its antiseptic corporate vibe, a setting skilfully established but offering no narrative to speak of. The visuals pose glitchy, filtered pixel art at retina-display resolution, an exemplary touch being when doors and platforms become stuck at odd angles around the player's bot. Both brains and physical precision are required to progress far, and at least one of the twenty levels calls for twitchy clickwork that'll frustrate casuals. Getting the knack of leaving your beam on a particular spot while moving is a key skill: master it before you need it, as puzzles requiring this trick aren't exactly obvious.RELAY [itch.io] Read the rest

Want to get really hands-on with STEM education? 3D printers may be out of reach for some, but the 3Doodler is a handheld version of the same technology that's tailor-made for curious kids.(Who are we kidding? We kind of want one for ourselves.)Even the basic 3Doodler set unlocks a world of possibilities. The pen itself has a single-click, start-and-stop operation once you choose between speeds. The dual-drive system and temperature control ensure jam-free flow, allowing you to make a range of crafts or tools almost instantly.The 3Doodler Mega 3D set ups the ante with an 8-pack of non-toxic eco-plastic printing material and an activity guide with some great stencils to jump-start the imagination. When you're really ready to open the workshop, there's a Create+ Master Creator set that includes a six-piece nozzle kit, 3D canvas, 144-page project guide and a complete set of shaping tools - everything your mad scientist needs to make everything from a chess set to a tiny robot army. Read the rest

Mindy Clegg has posted a wonderful essay covering the "social and political conflicts over fandom", and how even though such discussions are appearing in the modern communities surrounding recent films such as Captain Marvel and The Joker (previously), the reality is that such political and social issues have surrounded both the discussion of, and indeed the very core beliefs of some of our most well-known Sci-Fi franchises for decades:Roddenberry consciously created a multiracial crew on the Starship Enterprise. The show sought to promote the concept of racial tolerance among its viewers by showing a peaceful and egalitarian multiracial crew of humans. Many saw it as doing just that. Actor Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Nyota Uhuru, the accomplished and talented communications officer, was told by Dr. Martin Luther King at an NAACP meeting that her depiction of Uhuru was making a difference in the lives of young black women. This was a time when black women rarely had prominent roles on TV, much less in such powerful positions. When she told him that she was planning on leaving the show due to ingrained racism and sexism on the set, he told her that she couldn’t do that, given the positive role model she was for young black women. She even inspired the first black woman to go into space, Mae Jemison. Jemison would later go full circle, and appeared on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. George Takai, who portrayed Lt. Hikaru Sulu, eventually also parlayed his acting work into activism. Read the rest

Space Nerds in Space is a free/open source team game where players take on the roles of Navigation, Weapons, Engineering, Communications, Damage Control and work their controls to safely land a spaceship on a variety of planets, each with their own challenge -- and once your team is practiced, you can use a multi-team server to compete against other teams, NPCs, and even engage in multi-team, player-to-player combat.The game is inspired by the Artemis simulator, which, in turn, is part of a lineage dominated by Spaceteam, a co-op spaceship game that has spawned a whole ecosystem of fun and ambitious variants (up to and including the Millennium Falcon ride at Disneyland's Star Wars-themed Galaxy's Edge).It's clearly an ambitious and well-thought-through game, and the free/open nature of the code has created a constellation of add-ons, scripts and improvements that let you go very deep.S P A C E   N E R D S   I N   S P A C E [Steve Cameron/Github] Read the rest

Ruairi Robinson's short sf/horror film Corporate Monster is a contemporary take on the classic (and still trenchant) 1988 John Carpenter movie "They Live": in Robinson's take, a recently fired corporate drone gets an experimental drug that lets him see the truth of his corporate overlords and their enforcer class. It's beautifully shot and acted, though the whole story arc comes off as a little slight, not sure whether it's serious or silly (a line that They Live walked beautifully). Worth 16 minutes of your time, to be sure. (via JWZ) Read the rest

Void Golf is a free browser game by Cactusmancer. You fire rocks into black holes on a 2D starfield—think Asteroids meets Desert Golf— contending with (and exploiting) the gravitational attraction of celestial bodies in the way. It's simple, habitforming fun, imparted a relaxing vibe by its muted pixel art, spacey music and careful attention to detail. There's even a custom font by Eeve Somepx. The billiard-ball physics are the point, and it offers an abundance of the merciless satisfaction that such games offer. Pocketing a tough one after a dozen hapless attempts is incredibly rewarding. That said, it's always too hard to precisely power shots and sometimes too easy to avoid the "puzzle" of each level. It doesn't save your progress, either, so familiarity comes quickly.Void Golf [itch.io] Read the rest

Bran Castle in Romania (commonly referred to as Dracula's castle) is leaving a lot of money on the table by not making its gift shop available online. Check out this bat-filled snowglobe:Best-ever snow globe, bought in Castle Dracula (Bran Castle) in Transylvania. pic.twitter.com/c5dvout8Y6— Christopher Fowler (@Peculiar) September 27, 2019(Via Ewa.) Read the rest

Need graphics? Before you resign yourself to a Photoshop subscription, listen up: There are other apps out there. You owe it to yourself to check out Youzign 2.0 - especially with the reviews it's getting on tech sites like Capterra.With the app, you'll instantly get access to a library of more than 1.7 million images, all fully customizable vectors that you can stretch and scale as needed. And best of all for web marketers, there's no complex interface to navigate. You'll be able to choose instantly from templates that optimize your image for Facebook profiles, Twitter covers, ad banners of any kind - you name it.The features run just as deep as any imaging software out there, with tons of filters that you can tweak and instant previews that make it easy to see the end result. It's a product that will be instantly familiar and intuitive to professional designers and first-time users alike.Right now, you can pick up a lifetime subscription to the Youzign Design App for $39 today. Read the rest

Theremin virtuoso Konstanin Kovalsky (1890-1976) performs with Vyacheslav Mescherin's Orchestra of Electronic Instruments, USSR, 1960. From Discogs:The Ensemble of Electro-Musical Instruments directed by Vyacheslav Mescherin was founded within the music department of the State Radio of the Soviet Union in 1957. For more than thirty years, from the Fifties up to the Eighties the music of Ensemble Mescherina could be heard on radio and TV, in radio plays and cartoon movies almost every day. The ensemble managed to compose more then 700 pieces of music until 1990. Some of Mescherins compositions are public domain by now and can be hummed by everyone in Russia. One example is the track 'On the chicken farm', which was used in the very popular cartoon series 'Rabbit and Wolf'. In 1959 the Soviet government asked Mescherin for an electronic sound recording of 'The Internationale', to be sent to outer space on board of the first sputnik. Mescherin also designed and built many electronic instruments himself. Balalaikas, accordions and guitars, which he amplified, now sounded as if played on another planet. Mescherin and his ensemble were more or less the only experimental musicians in the field of electronic music in the USSR up to the Sixties. (via r/VintageObscura) Read the rest

Trump's FCC Chairman Ajit Pai rammed through an illegal Net Neutrality repeal by claiming that the Obama-era Net Neutrality rules slowed down investment in broadband, depriving Americans of fast internet.After he killed Net Neutrality, Pai went on to claim that the ISPs had finally started investing in infrastructure build-out and maintenance.He lied. About everything.Under Obama's Net Neutrality rules, the ISPs did not make meaningful investments in upgrading their infrastructure. After Net Neutrality rules were abolished, they continued to underinvest, with no difference between the two states. In both cases, America's ISPs steadily raised prices while undermaintaining their networks, turning American broadband a global joke of high prices and bad service.A peer reviewed study from George Washington University examined earnings reports and SEC filings of 8,577 unique companies from Q1 2009 through Q3 2018, and found that systematic underinvestment has been endemic to the US telcoms sector for more than a decade, unchanged by Net Neutrality or its repeal. Many phone companies, for example, have refused to upgrade or even repair their aging DSL lines because they’re now focused on more profitable ventures like wireless advertising. Given huge swaths of America only have the choice of one ISP to choose from, there’s often little organic pressure for ISPs to put soaring profits back into the network or customer service.Despite clear evidence disproving the “net neutrality killed broadband investment” theory, both Pai and the telecom industry have repeatedly made the claim the cornerstone of public relations efforts for years, apparently hoping that repetition would forge reality. Read the rest

On Jan 1, 2020, Californians who rent will gain new protections under the law, thanks to AB 1482, which comes on the heels of the defeat of Prop 10, which was shattered by a lavishly funded dirty tricks campaign by the state's dominant private-equity landlords, who have snapped up much of the state's rental stock, driving up rents, evicting tenants, and slashing maintenance budgets.With just months to go before rent controls kick in, tenants' rights groups are justifiably worried that landlords will sneak in massive rent-hikes before the law goes into effect.In Burbank, where I live, the Burbank Tenants’ Rights Committee is calling on local tenants to ask the city council to enact a local moratorium on rent hikes to head that kind of gouging off at the pass. They're looking for supporters to attend a city meeting at 6PM on October 1 at Burbank City Hall council room (275 E Olive Ave, Burbank 91502).Join us to ask City Council for an interim ordinance until June 2020 to protect Burbank renters from evictions & increases. New California law AB 1482 does not take effect until January 1st, so Burbank renters are vulnerable until then.Bring your family, friends, and neighbors – the more that show up, the better chance we have to get on the council's agenda and help our tenants at risk.Please arrive by 6:30pm and fill out a yellow comment card. Check the box "Non-agenda item" and fill in "tenant protections" as the subject matter. Read the rest

Russkie, er... Rudolph Giuliani canceled a paid appearance at a Kremlin-back event scheduled for next week in Armenia, reports the Washington Post:Giuliani said Friday evening that he was no longer planning to attend the meeting. “I didn’t know Putin was going,” he said in a brief interview, adding in a text: “Discretion is the better part of valor.”Giuliani’s decision to take part in the conference astounded national security experts. His appearance would have come days after the release of a whistleblower complaint accusing Trump and Giuliani of pressuring Ukrainian officials for damaging information about Democrats."I didn’t know Putin was going." Shut up, moron. Shut up. Shut up.Image: By Marc Nozell from Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA - Surprised Rudy Giuliani, CC BY 2.0, Link Read the rest

David Schneider built his own radio telescope out of roof flashing, an empty paint thinner can, a free software-defined radio app, USB receiver, and a length of coaxial cable. The whole project cost him less than $150 and he's already used it to detect galactic hydrogen and monitor the motion of our Milky Way galaxy's spiral arms. (With a radio telescope, you look for and measure radio-frequency radiation emitted by astronomical objects.) From IEEE Spectrum:Point at Cygnus and you’ll receive a strong signal from the local arm of the Milky Way very near the expected 1420.4-MHz frequency. Point it toward Cassiopeia, at a higher galactic longitude, and you’ll see the hydrogen-line signal shift to 1420.5 MHz—a subtle Doppler shift indicating that the material giving off these radio waves is speeding toward us in a relative sense. With some hunting, you may be able to discern two or more distinct signals at different frequencies coming from different spiral arms of the Milky Way.Don’t expect to hear E.T., but being able to map the Milky Way in this fashion feels strangely empowering. It’ll be $150 well spent. Read the rest

This squirrel is surprised to encounter a hard, solid, almost completely invisible force field. It looks like he's typing an angry tweet.Via IMGUR. And there's a remix.Curse you invisible force field! Read the rest

Snoopy has been a NASA mascot for more than 50 years going back to the Apollo missions. Now, Snoopy is headed to the International Space Station for a new cartoon series, Snoopy In Space, launching November 1 on Apple TV+.NASA image below: "Headed for the launch pad, Apollo 10 Commander Tom Stafford pats the nose of a stuffed Snoopy held by Jamye Flowers (Coplin), astronaut Gordon Cooper’s secretary." Read the rest

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been subpoenaed by 3 House committees for Ukraine documents, and information involving the Donald Trump presidential impeachment investigation.Sec. Pompeo is told to produce documents related to Ukraine by Oct. 4.Here is a copy of the subpoena.This is a developing story.The Washington Post has some good rolling coverage here.BREAKING: @SecPompeo subpoenaed for Ukraine documents as @HouseForeign, @HouseIntel & @OversightDems committees accelerate #ImpeachmentInquiry."Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry" pic.twitter.com/kwFW1yIVR4— House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) September 27, 2019 Read the rest

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) this week released new rules that limit when police can access family tree DNA databases to identify crime suspects. This new genealogy policy is the first ever at the federal level to address how online genetic databases sold as services to the public can be used in law enforcement.Here's an excerpt from the DoJ advisory published on Tuesday, which focuses on the use of DNA to solve violent crimes:As genetic genealogy websites become more popular and individuals continue to voluntarily submit their DNA or enter their genetic profiles onto publically available genetic genealogy sites, the more biological information there is to compare with DNA samples from crime scenes.In essence, a DNA sample taken from the scene of a violent crime that does not match any samples available in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) will not generate a lead for law enforcement. FGG provides an alternative option. However, FGG requires a type of DNA testing that Department laboratories currently do not perform, so the sample must be outsourced to a vender laboratory. After the vender laboratory completes a more comprehensive analysis on the sample, the resulting genetic profile is entered into one or more publicly-available genetic genealogy services and compared by automation against the genetic profiles of individuals who have voluntarily submitted their own samples. The computer’s algorithm then evaluates potential familial relationships between the sample donor and the website’s users. If an association is detected, it generates a lead. Read the rest

Someone just sent this to me and asked me to find the leopard. I was convinced it was a joke... until I found the leopard. Can you spot it? pic.twitter.com/hm8ASroFAo— Bella Lack 🌱 (@BellaLack) September 27, 2019 I could not see the leopard even zoomed in. It is there though. If you can't find it either, click here. Read the rest

You can buy 15 of these itty-bitty keychain flashlights for . I keep one in every one of my family member's suitcases as well as on keychains and in my toolbox. I've had my set for years and they seem to be as bright as when I got them. Read the rest

[Stanford's Daphne Keller is a preeminent cyberlawyer and one of the world's leading experts on "intermediary liability" -- that is, when an online service should be held responsible for the actions of this user. She brings us a delightful tale of Facebook's inability to moderate content at scale, which is as much of a tale of the impossibility (and foolishness) of trying to support 2.3 billion users (who will generate 2,300 one-in-a-million edge-cases every day) as it is about a specific failure. We're delighted to get the chance to run this after a larger, more prestigious, longer running publication spiked it because it had a penis in it. Be warned: there is a willie after the jump. -Cory] Those of us who study the rules that Internet platforms apply to online speech have increasingly rich data about platforms’ removal decisions. Sources like transparency reports provide a statistical big picture, aggregating individual takedown decisions. What we mostly do not have is good information about the individual decisions. For the most part, we don’t know what specific statements, videos, or pictures are coming down. That makes it impossible to say how well platforms are applying the law or their own rules, or whether platforms’ overall decisions show bias against particular messages or particular groups. Instead, the public discussion is driven by anecdotes. The anecdotes almost invariably come from a very self-selecting group -- people who are upset or have a political agenda. This dearth of public information probably explains why my own husband decided to turn me in to Facebook for breaking their rules. Read the rest

NASA astronaut Christina Koch, currently on board the International Space Station, took this stunning image of her pal Jessica Meir launching into space toward the ISS."What it looks like from @Space_Station when your best friend achieves her lifelong dream to go to space," Koch tweeted. From Space.com:NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and United Arab Emirates spaceflight participant Hazzaa Ali Almansoori blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today (Sept. 25) at 9:57 a.m. EDT (1457 GMT or 6:57 p.m. local time). They were bound to join a crew of six currently living and working on board the International Space Station, including Meir's astronaut training classmate, Christina Koch.3-2-1… LIFTOFF! 🚀 At 9:57am ET, @Astro_Jessica 🇺🇸, cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka 🇷🇺 & spaceflight participant Hazzaa Ali Almansoori 🇦🇪 launched on a journey to their new home aboard the @Space_Station. Tune in: https://t.co/x0oE4sFcsu pic.twitter.com/ETKVudGbNe— NASA (@NASA) September 25, 2019 What it looks like from @Space_Station when your best friend achieves her lifelong dream to go to space. Caught the second stage in progress! We can’t wait to welcome you onboard, crew of Soyuz 61! pic.twitter.com/Ws7tInY58P— Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) September 25, 2019 Read the rest

Robert Garrison, best known for his role in The Karate Kid as Tommy of the Cobra Kai, has died. He was 59. Garrison's sister told TMZ that "his passing wasn't sudden -- he had been in the hospital for over a month dealing with kidney and liver issues. Above is Garrison's most memorable moment from The Karate Kid. He returned to the role of Tommy this year for an episode of Cobra Kai in which he died and, yes, was zipped up in a body bag. Read the rest

A giant exoplanet orbits a tiny star, upending scientists' understanding of planetary formation. The newly-discovered world and its pathetic little sun were announced in the latest issue of Science."It's exciting because we've wondered for long a time whether giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn can form around such small stars," said Prof Peter Wheatley, from the University of Warwick, UK, who was not involved with the latest study."I think the general impression had been that these planets just didn't exist, but we couldn't be sure because small stars are very faint, which makes them difficult to study, even though they are much more common than stars like the Sun," he told BBC News. These things are all relative; the M-type red dwarf is still has 270 times the mass of the planet, which has about half the mass of Jupiter.Image: University of Bern Read the rest

A new poll shows a marked increase in support of impeaching Donald Trump. A poll conducted between September 24-26 shows that 43% of all voters think Congress should begin impeachment proceedings to remove Trump from office, up from 36% in a poll taken September 20-22. Among Republicans, support for impeachment moved from 5% to 10%. The margin of error is +/-2%.Image: Morning Consult Read the rest

Saskia Maarleveld is an audiobook narrator and voiceover actress. If you listen to audiobooks, her voice will sound familiar. Here, she reads the whistleblower complaint released by the House Intelligence Committee. Listening to it, as opposed to just reading it, makes it even more damning to Trump and his sycophants.Photo by Capturing the human heart. on Unsplash Read the rest

Fashion Institute of Technology photographer Jessica Wynne's "Don Not Erase" project documents the beautiful chalkboards of mathematicians, which will be collected in a book from Princeton University Press in 2020 (Christmas 2020 will be a lot simpler for me as a result).In a NYT profile of her series by Dennis Overbye, Wynne has lots of interesting things to say about the process of photographing mathematicians' working notes (her discussion reminded me of an article I wrote about the "Nutty Professor" reboot, where the director hired a chemist to write plausible equations on the chalkboard). I habitually write "do not erase" on blank chalkboards and whiteboards. It's a terrible habit, but I can't seem to break it.“I am attracted to the timeless beauty and physicality of the mathematicians’ chalkboard, and to their higher aspiration to uncover the truth and solve a problem,” Ms. Wynne said in an email. “Their imagination guides them and they see images first, not words. They see pictures before meaning.” She added: “I am also fascinated by the process of working on the chalkboard. Despite technological advances, and the creation of computers, this is how the masters choose to work.”Where Theory Meets Chalk, Dust Flies [Dennis Overbye/New York Times](via Kottke) Read the rest

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

Between its line of Ring-brand surveillance doorbells and its "Rekognition" facial recognition product (both of which are used in law-enforcement and immigration-enforcement contexts), Amazon is at the center of the controversy over facial recognition technology.As cities and states get involved in banning or limiting the use of facial recognition tools, Amazon is desperate to preempt these local initiatives and see the passage of a federal facial recognition law or regulation (tech companies are also lobbying for federal privacy rules, for much the same reason), and they've drafted model rules that would allow them to continue the majority of their existing and planned practices.The calculus behind this move is interesting. Amazon could certainly get a less restrictive deal in some cities and states than it can get at the federal level (see how easily Amazon was able to coerce cities into offering it special treatment and cash incentives when it was considering a location for its second headquarters). But then it would have to contend with a complex patchwork of rules with very high stakes for getting it wrong (think, for example, of the complexity of selling facial recognition tools to Amtrak or Greyhound, then having to somehow tweak those tools when a train crosses a state line). Amazon is clearly willing to sacrifice some advantages if it can reduce complexity.“Our public policy team is actually working on facial recognition regulations; it makes a lot of sense to regulate that,” Bezos said in response to a reporter’s question. Read the rest

One important detail from this week's admission from Doordash that they'd suffered (and remained silent about) a breach of 4.9 million records: Doordash, by its nature, includes the home addresses of people who otherwise avoid disclosing where they live.People at risk from doxing, swatting, stalking, and other forms of privacy invasion take great pains to keep their home addresses secret, such as renting private mailboxes and having all correspondence and deliveries sent to those addresses. Some people even register anonymous Nevada or Delaware LLCs and buy their houses through those companies, just to keep their names out of title registries.However, there are some services that need to associate your name with your home address. It's hard to send your kid to a public school without allowing the school district to store your home address associated with your name (and school districts regularly suffer breaches). Credit bureaux are likewise impossible to keep your home address away from (o hai, Equifax).Then there's Doordash. No one gets dinner delivered to a Mailboxes, Etc and picks it up from there. Doordash's breach blows up the physsec and opsec for a nation of at-risk people. Doordash isn't just a run-of-the-mill breach: it's a catastrophe for some of the most vulnerable people in America. Here's a pro-tip: you can set up a Google Alert for your name and home address, which will notify you any time a data-broker puts that information up for sale on the public markets (of course, if Google Alerts is ever breached, you're screwed). Read the rest

For three years now, cryptographer Matt Blaze (previously) and his colleagues have hosted a Voting Village at Defcon, the annual hacker con in Vegas, in which all comers are welcomed to try to compromise a variety of voting machines that are in actual use in American elections. Every year, the results are terrifying and horrible, as the grifty tech vendors' products are revealed to be totally unfit for purpose. This year is no exception: the latest Voting Village report, reveals disturbingly easy to exploit flaws in the ES&S AutoMARK (in use in 28 states) and the Premier/Diebold AccuVote-OS (used in 26 states). Paired with recent Brennan Center research about the slow, patchwork, cash-starved programs to upgrade insecure voting machines around the country, the Voting Village report makes for alarming, if unsurprising, reading. Additionally, voting machine security is only one item on a much larger punch list for better defending US elections. More districts need to implement network and cloud defenses to protect infrastructure like voter rolls and email, and more states need to conduct risk-limiting audits to verify elections results."While the discovery and replication of voting system security vulnerabilities are critical tasks for which the Voting Village plays an important role, that is not, in our view, its main contribution," the Village organizers write. "The clear conclusion of the Voting Village in 2019 is that independent security experts and hackers are stepping into the breach—providing expertise, answers, and solutions to election administrators, policymakers, and ordinary citizens where few others can."DEF CON 27 Voting Machine Hacking Village [Matt Blaze et al/Defcon]Some Voting Machines Still Have Decade-Old Vulnerabilities [Lily Hay Newman/Wired] Read the rest

Not a good way to steal a magic flute from a lost child, however. Read the rest

At the private school where Karen Pence, wife of the US Vice President, three sixth grade boys reportedly subdued a young black girl and cut her hair.WUSA9:Three sixth-grade boys are accused of pinning down a fellow classmate -- a 12-year-old girl -- on the playground and cutting her locks because they are "nappy" and "ugly."Amari Allen said she has never been more traumatized in her life until Monday when she said a group of white male classmates attacked her on the playground at Immanuel Christian School, a private K-12 school, in Fairfax, Virginia.Amari tells WUSA9 that one boy covered her mouth and the second boy put her hands behind her back, while the third boy pulled out scissors and cut her medium-length locks while calling her names.Allen's family pays nearly $12,000 a year for Amari to attend the private school where Vice President Mike Pence's wife, Karen Pence, teaches there twice a week. Read the rest

Old cars. Old Wiring. This Innova "Battery and Charging System Monitor" saved my butt again.Almost every time I start my 1987 Vanagon I plug in this voltmeter, and watch the voltage drop as I start the car. It goes right into the cigarette lighter plug. I watch to make sure the battery doesn't drop below a healthy level while starting. 10.5 is about as low as it should read.Earlier this week, returning to my bus with a bag full of groceries, I put in the meter and turned the key. The meter ready 12.7v. That is healthy. Turning the key didn't drop the voltage at all, and there was no sound coming from my starter. The fuel pump, tho, I could hear.I tightened up all the contacts on the starter, checked a few things up at the dashboard (there is a ridiculous "do not start" switch in the automatic transmission's shift-lever box) and magically the current would drop to 12.4 and the starter made a little click. Clearly there was juice in the battery, but it wasn't getting to the starter.Corrosion and old wires were the culprit. Some clipping and solder later, now the car starts up great.I keep this fine tool in each of my cars. I keep a real multitester under the seat of my motorcycle.Salt air is a real pain in the ass.INNOVA 3721 Battery and Charging System Monitor Read the rest

There will be no charges for Terrance Mercadal and Jared Robinet, the two Sacramento police officers who shot and killed an unarmed man in his own back yard.The Sacramento Police Department also cleared the officers of any wrongdoing and is returning them to active duty. "After a careful and thorough review into the facts surrounding the shooting, federal investigators and prosecutors determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a violation of the federal statute," the US Attorney's Office said in a statement. "Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed."In the video above, The New York Times meticulously breaks down every moment of the fatal shooting. Clark was observed jumping over a neighbor's fence into his own yard, then killed there after this implied trespass by the two officers, who guessed he was a vandal they were looking for and didn't stop shooting until the body stopped moving.Mercadal and Robinet failed to identify themselves as police and muted their bodycams after they killed Clark.At 9:26 on a Sunday evening, Stephon Clark encountered two police officers. Twenty-three seconds later, they shot and killed him. We analyzed the extensive body camera and helicopter footage frame-by-frame and reviewed the autopsy report to explain what happened."Gun!' is what cops yell into their bodycams so they'll get away with it. But look on the bright side: without the bodycams, they'd be saving their breaths. Read the rest

This security footage depicts the armed robbery of a bar in St. Louis. One of the patrons, named as Tony Tovar, simply ignores the robber while the others duck and hide, even when prodded with a rifle. Here's an interview with him. Read the rest

It was very briefly a feelgood story. Carson King held up a silly sign with his Venmo account asking for beer money, and when money started pouring in, immediately decided to dedicate the funds to the children's hospital in Iowa City. ESPN and other outlets publicized the story, Venmo and Busch agreed to match funds, and soon $1 million had been raised. But the internet's symbol is a duck devouring its own milkshake-covered tail, so the story soon turned to poison.The Des Moines Register decided to profile King, and in the process of researching the story, a reporter dug through King's Twitter feed until finding racist jokes posted in 2012 when King was 16. After the reporter mentioned the tweets to King, King expressed disgust and shame at his own actions, and then publicly expressed those sentiments.The Des Moines Register has been nothing but kind in all of their coverage, and I appreciate the reporter pointing out the post to me. I want everyone to understand that this was my decision to publicly address the posts and apologize. I believe that is the right thing to do.— Carson King (@CarsonKing2) September 25, 2019Despite King's comments, internet sleuths pursued the reporter, investigating their social feed until finding racist and homophobic tweets posted between 2010 and 2013. The Des Moines Register responded to that news by firing the reporter.In related news, TweetDelete is a service that can delete your tweets in bulk or on a schedule.(Image via Wikipedia.) Read the rest

A few hours of music, an easy way to take calls over the commute. We don't ask for a lot out of our headphones - but looking at the specs on the Aunu Audio M50 True Wireless Headphones, maybe we should. Not only will these things outlast a cross-country trip, but they'll also make it easier for you to communicate no matter what country that happens to be.The M50s have all the basics you'd need from a tough pair of workout headphones: IPX7 water resistance, Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, a tight ergonomic fit. But the battery life is the first thing that really raises eyebrows about this one. A single charge gets you 6 hours of playtime, but you can extend that to a jaw-dropping 150 hours with the wireless charging case. That means if you listen to music less than 6 hours each day, you could potentially go an entire month without plugging it in.That alone would make this a perfect vacation audio set, but the M50 also comes with an app capable of translating more than 30 languages on the fly. That's pretty invaluable no matter where you choose to take it.Pick up the Aunu Audio M50 True Wireless Headphones + Companion Translator App for more than 55% off the list price today. Read the rest