Boing Boing

Shay Bradley from Ireland died October 8, but at his funeral he came back to life. "Hello? Hello?" he said as his coffin was being lowered. "Let me out, it's fucking dark in here!" He goes on, knocking from within the coffin, and then serenading his friends and family. Apparently, Bradley had always loved pranks, and pulled this last one on the day of his funeral.According to Mashable:Bradley's daughter, Andrea Bradley, posted the video to Facebook...Kiernan said that Bradley was concerned about scaring the younger ones, so his grandchildren and his wife were in on the joke. "Everyone else was shocked when [they] first heard it," said Kiernan."Everyone else thought it was real and you could hear 'is that Shay is that Shay' but gradually as things went on people [realized] he had prerecorded and everyone (apart from the priest and woman beside him) were in hysterics," Kiernan told Mashable. "It was beautiful to hear his voice and it just made me happy as that was him, so funny and always making others laugh, he’s such a bright character, he would be loving this right now"How Bradley died and the details in planning the prank weren't disclosed. Read the rest

MSCHF told CBS that it customized a pair of Nike Air Max 97 sneakers by attaching a crucifix as a shoelace charm, and adding to the soles "holy water from the River Jordan, which was blessed by a priest in Brooklyn." The resulting "Jesus Shoes" are available for purchase at shoe speculating site StockX for $4000: Read the rest

Not long ago, United demanded a black passenger remove her official Marvel "Black Panther" hat because it made someone uncomfortable. This weekend, United refused to even challenge a white passenger wearing a "Rope. Tree. Journalist" shirt, no matter who it made uncomfortable. Jessica Sidman on Twitter:My brother is on a @united flight from LA to Boston and saw this guy boarding with a shirt that reads “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required.”He told the flight attendant and she asked what he wanted her to do.He told her he didn’t want one passenger threatening to kill other passengers.He told her @United should do the right thing. She went to talk to the captain.Then security pulled my brother off the plane. He talked to a security official.The security guy said they couldn’t do anything just because it was offensive.My brother said it wasn’t offensive, it was THREATENING.They offered to put my brother on another flight. They didnt say anything to the guy with the shirt.Then, in a statement to Forbes, Sidman’s brother said he chose to bring the matter to United’s attention because, “I did not think one passenger should be allowed to threaten other passengers (be it on a shirt, on a sign or verbally) and that United should do the right thing.“I didn’t want this to be about United appeasing me, a single customer,” he wrote.” I wanted the airline I flew not to sanction the threatening of murder of any group.”One arguable defense is that the shirt is rhetorical hyperbole, airlines shouldn't apply security theater to attire, and that neither man should be removed from their flights. Read the rest

A little over a year ago, Bloomberg stunned the world with a report that claimed that Chinese intelligence services had figured out how to put undetectable, rice-grain-sized hardware implants into servers headed for the biggest US cloud and enterprise IT firms, and that when some of the victims discovered this fact, they quietly ripped out whole data-centers and replaced all their servers. The story was all the more infamous because it prompted rare, detailed denials from the companies involved, like Apple, who have historically dealt with bad news and leaks with parsimonious, closed-lipped denials. Then came the hardware experts and security experts who delved deep into the implausibility of Bloomberg's story, though some highly reputable experts did admit that supply chain attacks were a grossly underrated risk with potentially catastrophic outcomes.A year later, we still don't know what happened: how did all those nameless senior officials and ex-officials from big IT/tech companies end up telling Bloomberg the same story, especially if that story turns out to be false? The idea that a bunch of rival tech execs would cook up a conspiracy to defraud Bloomberg is, if anything, even weirder and more implausible than the idea that Chinese spooks were poisoning Supermicro's servers and raiding data from Big Tech's supposedly impregnable data-vaults.That kind of Kremlinology is hard to investigate: all the facts are held by secretive giants (and maybe Chinese spies). Barring leaks, we're just left proffering unfalsifiable theories about which conspiracy took place.On the other hand, the plausibility of a hardware implant is much easier to investigate. Read the rest

A black woman was shot dead by a white police officer early Saturday in her own home. The officer, responding to a call from a neighbor concerned about an open door, opened fire only four seconds after seeing Atatiana Jefferson, 28 through a window. He approached the house, spotted her in the dwelling she shared with an 8-year-old nephew, shrieked instructions at her, then shot and killed her. The clip shows police searching the perimeter of the residential property, before noticing a figure at the window. After demanding the person put their hands up, an officer then fired a shot through the glass.The Fort Worth Police Department said in a statement that the officer, who is a white man, had "perceived a threat" when he drew his weapon.He has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, officials added.The undeniable fact that this is a problem of training will mask another undeniable fact: that this is another blatantly lawless execution of an innocent person in their own home by cops. Fort Worth police are already circulating crudely-edited screengrabs that appear to show there was a gun in the house--an unwielded gun posed as a rationale for killing an unarmed woman on the spot after the officer's bizarre and bungled attempt to stealthily enter her house exploded into hysterically-screamed instructions and gunfire.To call the cops on a dark-skinned person (or anyone else they can claim to be scared by as an prelude to eager and murderous escalation, such as mentally ill people) is a death sentence. Read the rest

Rock Paper Shotgun lists the fifty best role-playing games you can play on PC right now. I recommend approaching it with an attitude of "curious about fun-packed easily-missed classics", lest you end in the zillion-post comment thread, arguing. Read the rest

A huge trove of ancient MS-DOS games are now available at the Internet Archive, with in-browser DOSbox emulation and metadata. Jason Scott: "this will be our biggest update yet, ranging from tiny recent independent productions to long-forgotten big-name releases from decades ago."The hot areas for me are the immediate post-Amiga era (Alone in the Dark, Crusaders of the Dark Savant, Discworld, Princess Maker 2, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream) and all the weird homebrew ... and, of course, Microsoft Adventure. Read the rest

Adobe Flash, the clunky and unsearchable interactive plugin tech, was always bad. Its presence on a website guaranteed a user interface disaster, an unblockable ad, or general bloated shonkiness. But it was also liberating, making animation and programming accessible in a way unseen since the days of 8-bit computers with BASIC built-in. Flash Is Responsible for the Internet's Most Creative Era, writes Ernie Smith.The web has actually gotten less creative over time, not more. This interpretation of events is a key underpinning of Web Design: The Evolution of the Digital World 1990-Today (Taschen, $50), a new visual-heavy book from author Rob Ford and editor Julius Wiedemann that does something that hasn’t been done on the broader internet in quite a long time: It praises the use of Flash as a creative tool, rather than a bloated malware vessel, and laments the ways that visual convention, technical shifts, and walled gardens have started to rein in much of this unvarnished creativity.This is a realm where small agencies supporting big brands, creative experimenters with nothing to lose, and teenage hobbyists could stand out simply by being willing to try something risky. It was a canvas with a built-in distribution model. What wasn’t to like ... besides a whole host of malware?Actionscript 2 was the heart of this, a marvel of approachability to amateurs, beginners and people who were just not gonna put up with a bigger headache. After years of trying to learn to program, AS2 got me going. Read the rest

The New York Times reported today that a video mashup depicting Trump slaughtering a church packed with his "fake news" enemies, from Barack Obama to the BBC, was shown last week to supporters at one of his Miami resorts. This 1000-view video is surely it. It's found by fixing the perspective on the oblique screengrab shown by the Times and then reverse image searching it. The Times didn't include the video in its reportage, as far as I could tell, but it did mention that it was significantly derived from something posted on YouTube.The video, which includes the logo for Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, comprises a series of internet memes. The most violent clip shows Mr. Trump’s head superimposed on the body of a man opening fire inside the “Church of Fake News” on parishioners who have the faces of his critics or the logos of media organizations superimposed on their bodies. ... The disclosure that the video was played shows how Mr. Trump’s anti-media language has influenced his supporters and bled into their own propaganda. Mr. Trump has made attacks on the news media a mainstay of his presidency, and he tweeted a similar — but far less violent video — in 2017. In recent weeks as he has confronted impeachment proceedings, he has ramped up his attacks on the news media, repeatedly calling it the “enemy of the people.”It's evidently a scene from Kingsman: The Secret Service with Trump's head (among others) crudely superimposed on characters from the film. Read the rest

If the Webbys have any legitimacy, than a content of the year award should go to Willie McNabb for his famous tweet. It generated endless brilliant mockery online. But Reply All interviewed Willie and learned two things: (1) he's a terrific sport; and (2) he had a point.The first part of episode #149 features an interview with Willie, in which he acknowledges how goofily he phrased his tweet and thus invited mockery. He then describes the genuinely frightening time feral hogs swarmed his children as they were playing outside. The second part of the episode explores the widespread and seemingly hopeless nature of the feral hog problem.You can listen here. Read the rest

There are a lot of different language apps out there because nobody learns anything the same exact way - especially not something as complex as a new language. For some people, the best way is to dive in and start talking, but that's easier said than done if you're not around those natives you aspire to speak with.HelloTalk VIP offers a simple but innovative solution: Just bring speakers from two different languages into a chat app and let them learn from each other.It's a simple and elegant solution, which is why it's been getting rave reviews so far. (4.4 stars on the Google Play Store, and that's from more than 102,000 users and counting.) But HelloTalk does more than just connect you. The app has built-in translation, pronunciation and transliteration guides to make sure you're both getting the most out of your session. Join group chats, post Moments for entire communities to see, and communicate in your choice of ways: text, voice, video calls and more.With 15 million members to chat with versed in over 150 languages, it's the most versatile learning system out there. Get yourself a lifetime subscription to the service for just $29 today. Read the rest

In California, we're looking at power outages in the North and South as the only way to avoid massive wildfires. Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, there's a new power plant "embodying the notion of hedonistic sustainability."Known both as Amager Bakke and Copenhill, the site is a waste to energy plant designed to convert enough tons of waste to provide clean energy for 150,000 homes. The giant chimney was intended to blow giant smoke rings, but that plan was abandoned.The interior looks ready to star in a Bond movie:And the exterior features enough facilities to host the X-Games, including a ski slope, freestyle park, climbing wall, and running trail.The project is the work of Bjarke Ingels Group. Ingels promoted the project, and several other clever designs, way back in this 2011 Ted Talk: Read the rest

Latina author Jennine Capó Crucet recently spoke to students at Georgia Southern University about her novel Make Your Home Among Strangers, about an Hispanic girl who feels out of place at a predominantly white college. According to the student newspaper The George-anne, the conversation was quickly derailed by angry college students who think it's racist to point out when things are racist:"I noticed that you made a lot of generalizations about the majority of white people being privileged," one respondent said into the microphone. "What makes you believe that it’s okay to come to a college campus, like this, when we are supposed to be promoting diversity on this campus, which is what we’re taught. I don’t understand what the purpose of this was."For the record, Georgia Southern University has about a 6 percent Hispanic population.After the event, several students called the author out even more explicitly on Twitter (although those tweets have been deleted, The George-Anne still has the screenshots). Then they gathered together outside of a dormitory and did what awful mobs throughout history have always done: they burned books.so after our FYE book’s author came to my school to talk about it... these people decide to burn her book because “it’s bad and that race is bad to talk about”. white people need to realize that they are the problem and that their privilege is toxic. author is a woman of color. pic.twitter.com/HiX4lGT7Ci— elaina⭐️ (@elainaaan) October 10, 2019College kids do dumb stuff sometimes. Read the rest

Naama Issachar is a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. She was taking a connecting flight in Moscow when a drug-sniffing dog discovered she was carrying less than one-third of an ounce of pot (9 grams). That was enough to earn her 7.5 years in a Russian prison.In Russia, possessing under 6 grams of pot is punishable by 15 days in prison. Possessing over 6 grams with intent to sell has a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison. So why is Issachar getting 7.5 years? It sounds like she is being used as a human bargaining chip.From Reason:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "requested a commuting of the sentence and an easing of the terms of Naama's detention," according to a statement from his office. "To our regret, the Russian prosecution has not yet accepted to these requests." The office added that Issachar's sentence "is disproportionate and does not fit the nature of the offense being attributed" to her.The Times of Israel reports that "a senior Israeli official told Hebrew media that Russia offered several times in recent months to free Issachar if Israel agrees to release Aleksey Burkov, a Russian IT specialist who was arrested in Israel in 2016 at the request of Interpol." Burkov "is wanted on embezzlement charges in the United States for a massive credit card scheme that saw him allegedly steal millions of dollars from American consumers."Image: Naama Issachar (Instagram) Read the rest

AT&T business customers, including those who've been promised a locked-in rate inclusive of all taxes and fees, are finding "property tax" surcharges on their bills of up to 7%. These charges represent an attempt by AT&T to pass on the property taxes it pays on its own offices and other facilities to its customers.Moreover, these "property tax" charges are subject to sudden, ballooning changes -- one customer reported at 335% increase in the "property tax" charge over the space of a single billing cycle.Most companies would consider property taxes one of the costs of doing business, and they'd simply factor the taxes into their advertised prices instead of deceiving customers by listing one price in an order and then charging a higher one. At the risk of giving AT&T's billing department more ideas, why stop at property taxes? Why not charge customers separate fees for AT&T's water and electricity bills, too?"I pay my own property tax, don't want to pay theirs!" one customer wrote in an AT&T support forum in July 2017. "Can a doctor add a property tax to their bill for services, or a bank? Why not just raise the rates if it is part of their business?"AT&T raises prices 7% by making its customers pay AT&T’s property taxes [Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica](via /.) Read the rest

Google and the other big tech companies are some of the most lavish funders of climate denial "think tanks" and lobbying groups, something they've been at continuously for more than six years, without interruption.Google doesn't fund these lobbyists because they're climate deniers, nor because they're indifferent to climate change and its human costs.Google funds these lobbyists and astroturf operations because they also lobby for lax tax enforcement, lax labor laws, lax privacy laws, and so on. The fact that these groups also lobby for the right of corporations to render our planet uninhabitable (as well as against the rights of LGBTQ people, against reproductive freedom for women, etc) is merely an acceptable cost of greasing the skids to allow Big Tech to seek profits at the expense of their workers, suppliers, customers and society. The latest round of revelations about Google's contribution to climate deniers comes from Google's list of "politically-engaged trade associations, independent third-party organizations and other tax-exempt groups that receive the most substantial contributions from Google’sU.S. Government Affairs and Public Policy team."It includes the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who claimed responsibility for getting Trump to pull out of the Paris Accord (CEI is also pro-monopoly, anti-Net Neutrality, pro-binding arbitration, anti-Obamacare, anti-Consumer Financial Protection Board, and fronts for the monopolists who dominate oil, tobacco, and alcohol).Other recipients of "substantial contributions" from Google include the State Policy Network, who front for The Heartland Institute, a radical climate-science denial thinktank with major Koch funding. SPN's actively solicits signatures for a "climate pledge" that holds that "our natural environment is getting better...there is no climate crisis."Google "substantially contributes" to the American Conservative Union (led by a Koch operative who takes credit for the climate gridlock in DC), the American Enterprise Institute (another prominent, lavish climate denial spender) and the Americans for Tax Reform whose radical anti-taxation agenda also includes condemnation of climate action as "corporate welfare." Google funds the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center, and Heritage Action, all of whom have led on climate denial. Read the rest

Kevin Kelly and I were the hosts and the guests on the latest episode of the Cool Tools podcast. We shared some of the tools we've been using and liking lately.Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single pageShow notes:Kevin's pick: DJI Spark Mini Drone ($399)I've been a very, very slow adopter of some of the newest photography technology in the form of drones. I have not owned a drone, and I've been kind of slow to get one, in part because there's a learning curve and part because my photography generally doesn't kind of lend that style. But I have a particular need for somewhere that I'm going to where I wanted to get high up, I wanted to have some elevated views, and I decided to get a drone. So, as usual, I kind of started low. I wanted basically an entry-level, lowest cost, easiest to learn mode, and so I got a DJI, which is the Chinese manufacturer of most drones. I got their Spark version, which I would say is the size of kind of like a cordless phone. The blades fold up, but the arms actually don't fold up. It's a little bit bigger than the palm, but it's not that much bigger. It will shoot very high res still images, which is what I'm using it for. And the other thing about it is that it doesn't have a controller. Read the rest

The White House Counsel's "crazy, ranty" legal nastygram to House Leader Nancy Pelosi over impeachment was, Noah Shachtman writes, crafted by Trump himself.Asawin Suebsaeng and Sam Stein, at the Daily Beast:Trump had also privately consulted on the letter with Rudy Giuliani, his notably pugnacious personal lawyer who is at the center of the Ukraine and Biden-related scandal engulfing the administration. Trump talked to Giuliani about how he and the White House should proceed in fighting back and challenging the legitimacy of the impeachment probe, one of the sources noted. Reached for comment on Thursday evening, the former New York mayor and Trump confidant repeatedly declined to confirm or deny this. Read the rest

Jorge Luis Escandón Hernández was elected mayor of Las Margaritas, Chiapas after he promised to repair city's rural roads, in a chaotic campaign that included accusations of a "brawl" with his opponent's supporters.Local police have arrested 11 locals, identified by the BBC as farmers angry that he had not made good on his roadworks promises, for kidnapping Escandón from his office, tying him to the back of a pickup truck, and publicly dragging him through the streets of the Santa Rita district. Escandón did not sustain serious injuries, but has indicated his intention to seek criminal charges for abduction and attempted murder.The public spectacle was ended when "dozens" of police officers managed to stop the truck and arrest the accused, after "scuffles" that resulted in multiple injuries.The dragging marks the escalation of hostilities by farmers angry about the failed road maintenance promise -- four months ago, Escandón's office was vandalized over the issue.Mayors and local politicians in Mexico are often targeted by drug gangs when they refuse to cooperate with their criminal schemes but it is less common for them to be attacked over their campaign promises. Mexico mayor tied to car and dragged along by angry locals [BBC](via Naked Capitalism)UNA SU ARRASTRADA. Alcalde de #LasMargaritas, Jorge Luis Escandón Hernández, es sujetado a una camioneta que lo arrastra en pleno parque central, luego de haber sido secuestrado de la propia alcaldía #Chiapas #VideoViral pic.twitter.com/ptdP7g2w92— Tinta Fresca Chiapas (@tinta_fresca) October 8, 2019 Read the rest

You can stop adding famous people's laughter to Joaquin Phoenix's Joker, 'cause we've got a winner: Pee-wee Herman. Sound up.That new #Joker movie sounds really funny! pic.twitter.com/5lMldCxw6J— Pee-wee Herman (@peeweeherman) October 11, 2019(Pee-wee Herman)screenshot and video by Rub my clips Read the rest

The House Judiciary Committee actually held a hearing about gun violence in late September. But you probably didn't hear about it—either because the rest of US politics are so overwhelmingly terrible right now, or because it lacked the dramatic oomph of mass shootings or the inevitable gun ban proposals that always seem to follow.Mass shootings only comprise about one percent of all gun deaths; we just hear about them more, because they're so damn horrific (though whether they're more frequent now is up for debate). Far more lives lost to suicides and gang-related violence every year. Overall, firearm injuries are the second leading cause of death for people under the age of 18. In other words, gun violence isn't a problem—it's (at least) 5 different problems, with different solutions.What makes this House Judiciary Committee hearing even more remarkable is that for once they actually spoke with people from communities that are directly affected by these problems. Community-based solutions like this have the potential to save even more lives if you include the right people in the conversations (which unfortunately doesn't happen very often). They also have greater potential to gain bipartisan support. No one's talking about taking guns away, and no one's talking about empowering a disciplinarian police state using fear to keep the local systems in line. They just need funding and support for resources like social work. And that might actually make a difference.(Thumbnail image via Flickr) Read the rest

In a brilliant move, the Washington Post convinced several Washington Capital players to draw self portraits, most-used emoji,favorite memory, first thing bought after signing their rookie contract,And whatever this is:Check out the rest of the gallery here. Read the rest

Molly Osberg and Dhruv Mehrotra at Splinter have done some great work tracing at least 150 Wikipedia edits back to IP addresses at the NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. Like the @CongressEdits Twitter account, which tracked edits from IP addresses on Capitol Hill, it's difficult to say for certain whether these were intentionally duplicitous acts under order from above, or just some bored administrative office worker with a comprehensive knowledge of crystal skulls and stinkbugs.Given the NRA's long history with the savvy PR firm Ackerman McQueen, however, it's hard to chalk up the selectively-edited articles on Holocaust Denialism, George Zimmerman, or the history of "stand your ground" laws as mere coincidence.In 2013, a few days after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges after shooting the unarmed Trayvon Martin, and as “stand your ground” laws made national news, a Wikipedia user named SkippG created the first Wikipedia page for Brown v. United States, the 1921 case that set a precedent for Americans with no “duty to retreat” to legally kill someone in “self-defense.” SkippG also attempted some revisions to Marion Hammer’s page, insisting so thoroughly on their edits despite the protests of other editors that their account was later frozen. Coincidentally, a man named Skipp Galythly has been an assistant general counsel at the NRA for 20 years.It's too bad Splinter will be shutting down soon, the latest casualty of the various clueless finance bros who scooped up the former Gawker Media sites after the company's evisceration by Peter Thiel. Read the rest

There's movie merch and then there are artifacts - one-of-a-kind items for the true fans only. These 11 items definitely fall into the latter category. We've unearthed movie art, props and other fan touchstones from the major nerd franchises of the last 50 years. Gaze upon these Star Wars and Marvel collectibles and don't worry. You're not turning into the Hulk - that's just envy turning you green.Mark IV Iron Man Helmet Hand-Signed by Jon. Favreau, Mickey Rourke & Robert Downey, Jr.Fans of the Armored Avenger should love this one. It's a helmet for the Mark IV armor first worn by Iron Man in the 2010 blockbuster Iron Man 2. Cool heads-up display not included, but it is signed by three major stars from the film: Jon Favreau, Mickey Rourke and Tony Stark himself - Robert Downey Jr. The PSA/DNA verified helmet is now more than 40% off the original asking price.Signed & Framed Thor PhotoBring a little thunder to your den or office with a photo of Thor signed by actor Chris Hemsworth and certified by James Spence Authentication. It's triple-matted for extra protection and surrounded by an elegant wood frame with metallic trim. Get it now for a full 37% off the retail price.Return of the Jedi Certified Cast Hand-Signed Original Vintage PosterCommemorate the last of the original trilogy with this pristine "Return of the Jedi" movie poster numbered and signed by Darth Vader portrayers David Prowse and James Earl Jones, plus Jeremy "Boba Fett" Bulloch. Read the rest

This morning I posted that Facebook and Twitter have taken the position that they will accept political ads that contain lies because they don't feel it's in their best interest to fact check claims made in the ads.Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren put Facebook to the test by running an ad on Facebook falsely claiming that Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have publicly announced their endorsement of Trump for president. Facebook said it will let the ad run. “If Senator Warren wants to say things she knows to be untrue, we believe Facebook should not be in the position of censoring that speech,” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told CNN."Either Facebook doesn't touch the ad and the ad is therefore noteworthy, or they touch the ad and it's noteworthy," Dave Karpf, an associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, told CNN. "It's a smart tactical move."From CNN:Warren has become one of Facebook's key antagonists after first calling for it and other Silicon Valley giants — such as Amazon, Google and Apple — to be broken up. But her rift with Facebook deepened after leaked audio published by The Verge revealed Zuckerberg fretting about the potential consequences of a Warren presidency."If she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge," Zuckerberg is heard saying at a companywide meeting. "And does that still suck for us? Read the rest

How can a single, ill-conceived law wreak havoc in so many ways? It prevents you from making remix videos. It blocks computer security research. It keeps those with print disabilities from reading ebooks. It makes it illegal to repair people's cars. It makes it harder to compete with tech companies by designing interoperable products. It's even been used in an attempt to block third-party ink cartridges for printers. It's hard to believe, but these are just some of the consequences of Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which gives legal teeth to "access controls" (like DRM). Courts have mostly interpreted the law as abandoning the traditional limitations on copyright's scope, such as fair use, in favor of a strict regime that penalizes any bypassing of access controls (such as DRM) on a copyrighted work regardless of your noninfringing purpose, regardless of the fact that you own that copy of the work. Since software can be copyrighted, companies have increasingly argued that you cannot even look at the code that controls a device you own, which would mean that you're not allowed to understand the technology on which you rely — let alone learn how to tinker with it or spot vulnerabilities or undisclosed features that violate your privacy, for instance. Given how terrible Section 1201 is, we sued the government on behalf of security researcher Matt Green and innovator Andrew "bunnie" Huang — and his company, Alphamax. Our clients want to engage in important speech and they want to empower others to do the same — even when access controls get in the way. Read the rest

Canada's Conservative Party is terrible, and it has terrible policies, and it will be terrible for Canada if they are elected. I already voted against them with my mail-in ballot. That said, the CBC is 100% wrong to sue the Tories for copyright infringement over the inclusion of short debate clips in Conservative campaign websites and tweets.As Michael Geist, a leading Canadian copyright expert notes, this kind of short clip usage is canonical fair dealing, and the same exemption that the Tories are relying on here is profoundly important to all newsgathering, including the reporting that the CBC itself produces.And, a Geist notes, the use of copyright to suppress political speech in an election season is incredibly troubling and antidemocratic. Shame on the CBC.The CBC obviously has rights as the copyright owner in its broadcast, but those rights are constrained by limitations and exceptions under the law that allow for use of its work without the need for further permission. The CBC itself (like all broadcasters) regularly relies upon those exceptions to use the work of others without permission. There are strong fair dealing arguments in favour reasonable usage. Moreover, the claim over short clips over debate footage is enormously troubling, considering both the importance of broad dissemination of the debate and the fact that the debate involves little specific contribution for any individual broadcaster. CBC has an unfortunate history of overzealous use of copyright to stifle freedom of expression and that approach appears to have reared its head yet again as the 2019 campaign hits the home stretch. Read the rest

Senator Warren gave this very clear answer at CNN's LBGTQ town hall.She 👏🏽 does 👏🏽 not 👏🏽 miss 👏🏽 a 👏🏽 beat 👏🏽#EqualityTownHall pic.twitter.com/7iYeMGlSuM— Leila Mohaideen (@leiitontheline) October 11, 2019 It is wonderful that candidates can now clearly answer questions about the right to marry and the legal protections it offers without the waffling of yesteryear. Read the rest

Pompeo refuses to say if he met with Giuliani on February Warsaw trip

This wonderful crafty person made their very own Game of Thrones 'Risk' game board out of a used wooden table they picked up for twenty bucks.IMGURian apachethehelicopter is an incredibly talented DIY-er.Excerpt:My girlfriend and I went out and bought a table at a yard sale for $20 and turned it into a custom Risk board! Throughout college my friends and I would get big groups of people together to play Risk on our nights off, and we really enjoyed the Game of Thrones version since it was a 7 person game and you know... Game of Thrones was still good at the time. Since then, I’ve had my eye out for a good sized table that I could turn into a map for a custom board. So one weekend browsing craigslist I found a good candidate, and this is how we transformed it over the following weeks:Note: this is a first-time project, I don’t do much wood-working at all. I just raided my dad’s garage for tools and watched videos on different methods. So if you have any suggestions—I’d actually appreciate it!Go check out the entire post, embedded below.“We did this all in about a month, it was a great challenge and I’m so proud of how it turned out. Let me know what you think!”Turned a $20 table into a custom Game of Thrones Risk board Read the rest

Spice-seller was second only to Trump in spending on impeachment ads

...but Giuliani says he is.

Gum Soft-Picks do a better job than toothpicks or floss for cleaning food and plaque from between my teeth. The rubbery green brush pushes out all the gunk without hurting. A pack of 100 will set you back on Amazon. Read the rest

After 23 years at Fox News, its chief news anchor Shep Smith is off to pastures new. "Recently I asked the company to allow me to leave Fox News and begin a new chapter," Smith said. "After requesting that I stay, they graciously obliged. The opportunities afforded this guy from small town Mississippi have been many. It’s been an honor and a privilege to report the news each day to our loyal audience in context and with perspective, without fear or favor. I’ve worked with the most talented, dedicated and focused professionals I know and I’m proud to have anchored their work each day — I will deeply miss them.”His contract was reportedly renewed only last year. Rumor is that he was told to stop being critical of all the pro-Trump rhetoric on the channel and abruptly quit rather than eat it. His instant departure comes hours after Secretary of State William Barr met privately with Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News, presumably to discuss wavering support for President Donald Trump among the channel's on-air personalities. Read the rest

Trump has been buying ads with false content that run on Facebook and Twitter, and the two social media platforms both say they will continue to accept paid ads that contain lies.From Technology Review:Last month, Facebook communications chief Nick Clegg said Facebook will not fact-check politicians’ ads, a stance the company has reiterated. In a letter to Biden’s campaign, Facebook’s head of global elections policy, Katie Harbath, said that “if a claim is made directly by a politician on their Page, in an ad or on their website, it is considered direct speech and ineligible for our third-party fact checking program.”The letter goes on to say: “These policies apply to organic and paid content from politicians—including the ad by President Trump you reference in your letter.”In other words, even if the content is false, the fact that it is being said by a politician, or a campaign on the politician’s behalf, means it is considered newsworthy, making it exempt from certain standards. (Facebook says that things like viral hoaxes that are shared by a politician would be demoted, displayed alongside fact-checking information, and banned from ads.) This disparity in the policy is confusing, to say the least.Meanwhile, Twitter told The Verge that the ad is “not in violation of our policies,” without clarifying further.Image: Mark Zuckerberg by Anthony Quintano, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) / Jack Dorsey by JD Lasica, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). Read the rest

Vox made a clear and succinct video about the damning phone call Trump had with Ukraine's President Zelenskyy in July. Vox also made a video that describes the impeachment process: Read the rest

A white Arizona sheriff's deputy is under investigation and has been placed on administrative leave for pulling over a black driver because he had an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror. The deputy, named Eli Max, made the driver get out of the car and began interrogating him for a half an hour about drugs and weapons. Deputy Max asked the driver where he was going. Deputy Max also accused the driver more than once of being "nervous" and asked to search the car since nervousness was a sign of "deception." He also gave the driver a sobriety test. Fortunately, the driver recorded the encounter.When the news department of ABC15, an Arizona TV station, asked La Paz County Sheriff's Office for a comment, the sheriff's office replied:"Yes, we obviously are looking into the complaint; we are taking this matter very seriously. Deputy Max has already been placed on administrative leave and our detectives are in the process of investigating the complaint. If we determine that the Deputy was at fault, we will look into the training methods to determine if this was a training issue or possibly an officer making up his own methods. When the investigation is complete, I plan on providing a press release that will detail our findings."Image: La Paz County Detention Facebook page Read the rest

The origin story of the most evil villain in my early media experience.I loved watching Felix, but I was certain Master Cylinder was going to get me.I also tried to jump into a filing cabinet, ala Hong Kong Phooey. That left a more visible scar. Read the rest

Tewksbury, Massachusetts is about 15 miles south of Salem, New Hampshire and 25 miles west of Salem, Massachusetts. It's also 25 miles north of Watertown, Massachusetts, where Eliza Dushku was born and raised, and 25 miles northwest of South Boston, where famed vampire slayer Faith Lehane (Dushku's character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) was born and raised.Given that proximity, it's the logical place for a Hellmouth to open.😳⛲ pic.twitter.com/wz5stkdO09— Tewksbury Police (@TewksburyPD) October 9, 2019Authorities have officially blamed the problem on a "water main break." But anyone who's seen the third season of Buffy knows this is just a convenient excuse orchestrated by the ascendant demons who work at town hall. While there have not been any reported vampire sightings as of this time, Tewksbury is right next to Wilmington, where Massachusetts' sneakily-privatized and FOIA-immune NEMLEC SWAT Units are headquartered, which is kind of the same thing. Read the rest

Twitter has a setting that (nominally) allows you to turn off its default of showing you "top" tweets (as selected by its engagement-maximizing, conflict-seeking algorithm), but periodically, Twitter just ignores that setting and starts nonconsensually eyeball-fucking you with inflammatory headlines.Kent Brewster has created a free/open plugin for Chrome and Firefox that undoes this reversion and shows you the Twitter you've expressly asked for. Read the rest

I'm old enough to have watched Schoolhouse Rock educational cartoons when they premiered on television. This new video, with a song by Jonathan Coulton is a guide to the impeachment process. It's a loving tribute to Schoolhouse Rock.Image: YouTube Read the rest

And you can bid on the invention's intellectual property rights next week.Inventor/Artist (Inventist?) Ian Charnas has devised a way for windshield wipers to be in sync with the beat of the music you're listening to. Now, you can't just go out and buy his Dancing Wipers at the store. No, no. But you can bid to gain their IP rights on eBay next Wednesday. His thoroughly entertaining 15-minute-long pitch video explains it all. You get quite a bit of insight into the creation process which is valuable and fun!Know someone who has to have this? Is that someone you?Mark your calendars for that eBay auction:October 16, 2019Noon ESTBidding starts at $1.The Buy it Now price is $25,000.Thanks, Mark! Read the rest

At The Washington Post, Antonia Noori Farzan reports on an alleged zoophile who demanded farmers let him at the horses while conducting a terrifying stalking campaign against those who refused. For well over a year, two mysteries consumed a peaceful New Jersey community.The 31-year-old was arrested Oct. 3, according to the New Jersey Herald. Prosecutors said at a Wednesday detention hearing that since August 2018, he had been sending letters and emails detailing his request to farms, stables and horse boarding facilities throughout Sussex County, located in the northernmost point of the state. Unsurprisingly, many of the recipients were not thrilled to learn than an adult man was interested in having a sexual relationship with their livestockThe man used the nickname "TackyChaps". Read the rest

Lucy Sparrow is a felt artist, or as she likes to call herself, a "Feltist." You might remember that in 2017, she packed a NYC bodega full of her faux products in felt and that last year in Los Angeles, she opened the Sparrow Mart Supermarket at the Standard Hotel. Well, she's back! Her latest all-felt venture is a pop-up delicatessen in Rockefeller Center. The British artist created over 30,000 soft sculptures for this Delicatessen on 6th. This sixth installation in her felt shop series is a New York City upscale deli, with every single one of the items, from cheese to fish, chocolate to fruit handmade out of felt. All items in the fine food shop is available for purchase. This installation is part of the ‘Art in Focus’ public art program at Rockefeller Center presented in partnership with the non-profit Art Production Fund. Open 11am - 8pm, 7 days a week, October 1 - 20, 2019. photos by Heather Cromartie, via the Art Production Fund(artnet News) Read the rest

Greg from the Free Software Foundation writes, "Celebrate Saturday's International Day Against DRM with this shareable "dead tree" book dust jacket!"Available in English, German and Spanish.We have developed a dust jacket you can slip over any "dead tree" book that you are reading to warn others about the looming threat of DRM. Whether in school, in a coffee shop, or on the subway, it is an easy conversation starter about the insidious nature of DRM. We encourage all readers to use them, whether on the latest hardcover bestseller or the textbook you use in class (while you still have one).IDAD 2019 - Shareable Dust Jacket Design [Free Software Foundation/Defective by Design] Read the rest

Shown at top of fold: Cover to OTHER SCENES, Volume 1, Number 6, September 1968 — Additional items on the history of OTHER SCENES will be included in the comments section over the week.From John Wilcock, New York Years, by Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall.(See all Boing Boing installments) Read the rest

Greta Thunberg's Joan of Arc-grade tongue-lashing to the world's leaders at the UN makes for some incredible mashup possibilities: it's not merely that her excellent delivery lent itself to death metal, but also her use of the phrase "right here, right now," was tailor-made for insertion into Fatboy Slim's track of the same name -- hence Fatboy Slim himself playing Twitter user David Scott's remix at a gig in Gateshead.Greta Thunberg's furious UN speech remixed by Fatboy Slim pic.twitter.com/XFpnm66ds2— The Independent (@Independent) October 9, 2019(via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

Splinter was the news site at G/O Media (the successor to Gawker Media), housing left-leaning current affairs commentary and anchoring the groups' more advertiser-friendly tech, game and sports "verticals". The new owners have already demonstrated some unexpectedly poor judgment, and now they're shuttering Splinter and ordering other editors there not to write about it.In an email to staffers obtained by HuffPost, Paul Maidment, the media group’s editorial director, instructed editors not to publish posts about Splinter’s demise. “I see no compelling reason for any of our sites to be writing about the decision to cease publishing Splinter,” Maidment wrote. “There is already external coverage, LeadPR will handle our external communications, and this is a time to be respectful of colleagues who have just received difficult news and for whom we will be trying to find new positions.”He went on to issue a warning: “Any reference to Splinter in anything we publish needs my prior approval, as per our editorial policy. Please make sure all your staff are aware of that. You will be accountable if anything not approved by me gets published.”This is how you run a McDonalds franchise. The managerial talk here sounds alien to most journalists and like nails on a chalkboard to Gawker writers, whose "unsparing self-coverage" is merciless and traditional. The new CEO, Jim Spanfeller, formerly was at Forbes and Playboy, prestigious media brands that have faded in recent years: Forbes began publishing anything pumped into its database by unpaid bloggers and Playboy has fewer readers than we do. Read the rest

No matter what kind of office you work at, there's probably an Excel expert in it. And no wonder: Businesses are still discovering uses for one of Microsoft's flagship software suites beyond just bare-bones spreadsheets. Make October the month you become invaluable at work by taking one of these boot camps in Excel and its associated platforms. Why October? Because right now you can take 40% off the final price of any of these bundles by using the online code 40Learn40.The Complete Microsoft Excel & VBA BundleIf you're using Excel for a lot of minute tasks, this is the bundle for you - no matter what your level of experience. There are dedicated courses that cover the basics for 2013, 2016 and 2019 versions of Excel, and several others teach you how to use Visual Basic for Applications, an invaluable automation tool that will ramp up your productivity exponentially. Pick up all nine courses for 93% off the MSRP now, and take an additional 40% by using the online code 40Learn40.The Excel & Google Sheets Mastery Bundle: Lifetime AccessNot sure what spreadsheet program is the best for you? This two-course package is a perfect intro to both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, covering all the vital formulas and table shortcuts with a certification at the end to show your mastery. Get lifetime access to both for a full 97% off retail, and take an additional 40% by using the online code 40Learn40.The Complete Excel Bundle: MBA & Startup ToolboxBusiness professionals will get the most out of Microsoft Excel with this targeted master class that moves quickly from introductory exercises to advanced functions and data management tools that will help you detect and respond to changes in your market. Read the rest

Corinthian Colleges, Inc. was yet another for-profit university that screwed over hundreds of thousands of people with pyramid schemes that promised a higher education at the end of some labyrinthine maze. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2015, and the U.S. government ruled that any students with outstanding debts should have those debts cancelled.That was before Betsy DeVos became the U.S. Secretary of Education.DeVos, the wife of pyramid scheme pioneer Dick DeVos and brother of famed mercenary Blackwater founder Erik Prince, was unsurprisingly unforgiving of the students who were conned by Corinthian. She stonewalled more than 100,000 loan forgiveness applications and continued pursuing debt payments from screwed-over students who couldn't pay them back. In 2018, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim finally told her to knock it off (legally).Spoiler alert: she didn't listen.So they landed back in court earlier this week on Monday, October 7, 2019. Judge Kim was (understandably) quite irate at having her court order violated sixteen thousand times by Devos's department. While the issue is still not completely resolved, the judge did threaten the possibility of tossing someone behind bars. From Bloomberg: "I’m not sure if this is contempt or sanctions," U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim told lawyers for the Education Department at a hearing Monday in San Francisco. "I'm not sending anyone to jail yet but it’s good to know I have that ability."[…]"At best it is gross negligence, at worst it’s an intentional flouting of my order."I'm not holding my breath for DeVos to actually spend any time in jail or prison, of course. Read the rest