Boing Boing

[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

Gollancz, a venerable British science fiction publisher (now a division of Hachette) has announced its BAME SFF Award, with a top prize of £4,000 for science fiction written by over-18 BAME ("Black, Asian, minority ethnic) writers.The top prize includes a critique by Gollancz commissioning editor Rachel Winterbottom. Second prize is £2,000 and a critique, while five runners up will receive £800 each. Entrants need to submit 5,000-10,000 words of prose (either a complete short story or the opening of a novel) in the science fiction, fantasy or horror genres.The prize is co-sponsored by writer Ben Aaronovitch, Nanowrimo and the Good Literary Agency. We are incredibly excited to launch The Gollancz and Rivers of London BAME SFF Award, in partnership with non-profit writing organisation National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO) and with support from The Good Literary Agency.GOLLANCZ, the UK’s oldest science fiction and fantasy imprint, and Ben Aaronovitch, author of the Sunday Times bestselling RIVERS OF LONDON series, are launching a new writing prize to champion underrepresented BAME voices in the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror.Stark statistics show that less than 1% of science fiction and fantasy books published in 2018 were from British BAME writers. We believe that the industry should be doing much more to seek out and foster talent from underrepresented voices and hope this award will be a step in the right direction. Here we are giving British BAME writers the opportunity to submit a short sample of writing within the genres of science fiction, fantasy or horror with the opportunity of being selected as one of seven finalists who will receive monetary and/or mentoring prizes from us in order to support your future writing career. Read the rest

First-grade schoolchildren in Pittsburgh were given a worksheet to fill out that contained an unusual scenario.The worksheet says:“Tom will run. He will run from the cop. Tom will run with Rob. They will not stop. Look at the cop. The cop has a big mop. What will he do with the mop? Tom falls on a log. Rob falls in the pond. ‘Get them!’ yells the cop to his dog. The dog gets Tom and Rob. Rob’s socks is wet from the pond.”[Pittsburgh Public Schools Public Information Officer Ebony Pugh] said the school is reaching out to parents to begin the “discussion” and address concerns the worksheet has raised.What will Tom say to the cops when they catch him?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Read the rest

Sorry, no cosplay

Man, 2019 is weird.In a feature today, Buzzfeed breaks down how a false Russian conspiracy theory spread from 4chan to President Donald Trump's idiot mouth, specifically during that now-infamous call Donald had with the president of Ukraine.The phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky later became part of a national security whistleblower complaint that, over the course of the last week, has led to what appears to be the start of impeachment hearings.Here's how the weird Qanon meme traveled: “From the depths of 4chan, to the president’s mouth, and then back to the depths of 4chan,” reports Ryan Broderick at BuzzFeed News -- In the memorandum, Trump says to Zelensky, “I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say CrowdStrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it.”One large 4chan thread was titled “HAPPENING: CROWDSTRIKE SERVER RELEASE IMMINENT,” another, “What is CrowdStrike, and why does their server seem to be important?” and another, “ULTIMATE HAPPENING: Trump mentions CROWDSTRIKE in Transcript release, Tied to DNC server & Seth Rich.”CrowdStrike's role in a sprawling conspiracy carried out by the DNC started as wild conjecture on anonymous message boards in the lead up to the 2016 election. The flames were fanned by Russian news outlets like Russia Today and Sputnik News, who both published multiple pieces about it. It was then laundered into mainstream Republican discourse by figures like Roger Stone, Trump's former campaign adviser. Read the rest

We already know most Republicans in the Senate are Trump ride-or-die toadies who would eat their own children if it made Orange Hitler smile. Well, today, on the day an anonymous whistleblower's complaint threatens to topple the presidency, is just like any other day on the GOP side of the Senate.Denial, deflection, and lies.A bunch of GOP senators told CNN today that they haven’t read the whistleblower complaint, which is a pretty insane breach of responsibility, given the matter at hand is one of national security and sovereignty. Other lawmakers told CNN reporters the whistleblower's complaint doesn't change things and raises "more questions than answers," which, what?, is a bunch of horseshit and who are these cowards anyway.CNN: • Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford and North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven each said they were in appropriations mark-ups and hadn’t yet read the full complaint.• Indiana Sen. Mike Braun said he hadn’t read it either, adding that he didn’t know about the allegations to “lock down” information at the White House. Braun went on to say that he didn’t feel the complaint would change Republican’s views of impeachment, and said the Democrats had made a mistake starting an impeachment inquiry before knowing more about the complaint.• Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander said he has not read the complaint. “I’m waiting for the intelligence committee to finish its work." • Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said he said he’s been “running around” all day and hasn't read it and would not comment. Read the rest

Another data security disaster for 'food delivery on demand' startup DoorDash, and it's not their first. The company confirms a data breach, and says sensitive information belonging to 4.9 million individual customers, delivery workers, and merchants -- all stolen by hackers.In a blog post, DoorDash said the breach happened May 4, which is nearly 5 months ago. It didn't explain the gap. DoorDash said any users who signed up after April 5, 2018 were unaffected by the breach.From TechCrunch:DoorDash spokesperson Mattie Magdovitz blamed the breach on “a third-party service provider,” but the third-party was not named. “We immediately launched an investigation and outside security experts were engaged to assess what occurred,” she said.Users who joined the platform before April 5, 2018 had their name, email and delivery addresses, order history, phone numbers and hashed and salted passwords stolen.The company also said consumers had the last four digits of their payment cards taken, though full numbers and card verification values (CVV) were not taken. Both delivery workers and merchants had the last four digits of their bank account numbers stolen. Around 100,000 delivery workers also had their driver’s license information stolen in the breach.The news comes almost exactly a year after DoorDash customers complained that their accounts had been hacked. The company at the time denied a data breach and claimed attackers were running credential stuffing attacks, in which hackers take lists of stolen usernames and passwords and try them on other sites that use the same passwords. Read the rest

An notorious patent troll filed a lawsuit against GNOME over a photo management app it offers with its Linux desktop environment. Florida man Leigh M. Rothschild was only recently awarded a patent relating to wifi image transfers, but he has a long history taking companies like Apple and Samsung to court. His LLC was named in 2015 as the single largest nonpracticing entity by defendant count; a NPE is a company or person who holds patents but makes no products, instead pursuing companies that do for settlements. One website counts 30 lawsuits filed since June involving Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC, with more than 100 ongoing.GNOME is possibly one of many targeted with the new patent. Ars Technica published an article about Rothschild in 2017; the EFF reported a case that went particularly badly for him, having already awarded his company its coveted Stupid Patent Of The Month award in 2015. Read the rest

Certain airlines offer very low prices on flights, and then charge for things most airlines include in the ticket price, like carry-on luggage. On Frontier or Spirit, a carry-on bag is $35-$60, each way. I avoid the fee by using luggage that is small enough to be considered a “personal item” (It has to be under 14" high, 18" wide, 8" deep). A lot of backpacks will meet the size requirements. I have a Swissgear rolling bag, similar to this one. It holds enough summer clothes for a 4-night trip, plus a gadget case, a toiletries bag, and my 13-inch laptop with charger. Read the rest

A short, exploitative 1983 news clip about punk squatters in the London Borough of Islington, complete with an uninformed, patronizing narrator: "What they lack in grey matter between the ears, they make up for in color on top."(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

When a woman on a United Airlines flight was finished using the loo, she realized she was trapped. The door wouldn't open, even with the help of flight crew members. So the plane, flying from Washington DC to San Francisco, made an emergency landing in Denver.According to NBC:The passenger was safely freed from the bathroom once the aircraft landed. It's not clear how long the customer was trapped.Well folks it’s never a dull moment on @united , we have to make an “emergency landing” in Denver because a passenger got stuck in the bathroom. You can’t make this up...also the Wi-Fi is crappy and there is no way for me to charge my phone, happy travels. #unitedairlines pic.twitter.com/FHieakiO7Z— TK (@taylorkkimber) September 26, 2019A video posted on Twitter shows several people trying to open the jammed door. A spokesperson for the airport said the Denver Fire Department responded to the scene to assist in getting the passenger out.There's never a dull moment when flying the friendly skies.Firefighters attempt to free passenger stuck in plane lavatoryh/t @taylorkkimber pic.twitter.com/c6HDnSPjNC— GuruLeaks (@Guruleaks1) September 26, 2019 Image: GuruLeaks/Twitter Read the rest

New US Census Bureau data shows that while the median household income for the United States (and 14 states within the USA) increased a bit from 2017 to 2018, "income inequality was significantly higher during the same period for the nation and nine states.... Maryland ($83,242) was among the states with the highest median household income and West Virginia ($44,097) was among the lowest." More data and an interactive version of the map: "2018 Median Household Income in the United States" (Census.gov) Read the rest

This is such a beautiful GIF.Charles L. "Sonny" Liston ( c. 1930 – c. December 30, 1970) was an American heavyweight pro boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970.Here's a super interesting archival interview with Liston about how he got his start in boxing -- at 13 years old.Some really interesting observations about when you know you've got it.[photo: Florida Memory, 'Championship fight between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston: Miami Beach, Florida' Local call number: RC11106 Date: February 25, 1964, No known copyright restrictions] Read the rest

How do you turn a cheap, tough, fibrous, lean piece of beef into a well-marbled, tender Wagyu steak? The short answer is, you don't, but that didn't stop this chef from trying. He started by injecting fat into a $1 cut, then seasoning it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. He then grilled it, side-by-side with a Wagyu steak, over charcoal. When he and his partner taste tested it, they agreed the Wagyu was much more tender than the cheap steak, but the cheap steak was better than expected.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Canadian Green Party leader Elizabeth May showed of her wizardly skills by transforming a dangerous paper cup into an environmentally-friendly cup with a metal straw. The photos above provide incontestable proof of the miraculous transformation.From Slate:Canada’s Green Party—which holds just two seats but is polling at around 10 percent nationally—admitted to Photoshopping a compostable disposable cup out of a photo of party leader Elizabeth May ahead of next month’s election, replacing it with a reusable version and metal straw.For her part, Elizabeth May is shocked, completely shocked:I was completely shocked to find that the party had photoshopped an image of me from last year’s Sidney Street Market. My personal daily practice is to avoid single use plastic items 100% of the time. I never drink from plastic water bottles. I always carry my own reusable coffee cup. I carry my own bamboo utensils. I walk the talk every day. I hope that despite this misstep by well-meaning party staff (who hoped to brand the image with our logo), people can believe that in the original photo there is nothing I would have hidden. Read the rest

We've posted on Boing Boing about Tim Biskup's pop surrealist artwork for decades and he's still busier than ever. Most recently, he's opened a new gallery and studio space in Los Angeles called Face Guts, created album art for Lee "Scratch" Perry, and is finally publishing his first monograph, titled Tree of Life. In the new issue of Juxtapoz, Patricia Arquette talks with Tim about his life and work. From Juxtapoz:You were a punk rocker, right? Do you think that gave you better tools for survival?Yes. Being able to say, "Fuck it, I don't care," is a very healthy thing. I've often said that the most valuable art supply that you have is right here.That's your middle finger.Yes. There's so much of punk rock that is based on loose energy. It's not necessarily about doing everything right. It's about capturing the energy of that moment. There's so much punk rock music that is perfect and there's so much of it that just sounds like trash. I think punk rock taught me how easy it is to make shitty music and how easy it is to make great music. The element that makes the difference is a willingness to work hard on the things that you need to work on and to ignore the things that don't matter. That lesson has followed me through everything in my life. There are a lot of times where I'm like, "Oh, shoot. I'm not doing this part right," but it doesn't matter. Read the rest

Today is the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album and to celebrate, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and their collaborators have released a new video for "Here Comes The Sun." From a statement:The "Here Comes The Sun" music video welcomes the viewer into Abbey Road Studios' Studio Two, where The Beatles famously recorded most of Abbey Road, to experience a unique and moving sunrise above the band's instruments and gear. Working closely with Apple Corps Ltd., the video is directed by Trunk Animation's director team Alasdair + Jock (Alasdair Brotherston and Jock Mooney) and produced by Trunk's Maria Manton. The video's sun centerpiece was filmed as it was meticulously crafted on-set in Abbey Road's Studio Two. The video features photos from the Apple Corps archive, and photos and footage shot by Linda McCartney supplied by Paul McCartney. Read the rest

Dog breeder Wally Conron says he regrets his invention of the Labradoodle, which is ½ poodle and ½ Labrador Retriever.From Futurism:Conron told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that creating the labradoodle may be his greatest regret, citing strange behavior, health concerns and unscrupulous breeders imitating his work with little regard for the dogs’ welfare. “I find that the biggest majority are either crazy or have a hereditary problem,” he told the ABC. “I do see some damn nice labradoodles but they’re few and far between.”Photo by Bruce Williamson on Unsplash Read the rest

"Let's train little kids to thrust scissors towards their nose."<p><em>[<a href="http://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/scented_scissors_for_kids#When:11:22:00Z">via Weird Universe</a>]</em> Read the rest

In a recent issue of my Recomendo newsletter, I wrote about how I clean the earwax out of my AirPods:It's really hard to clean earwax from the speaker meshes in Apple AirPods and EarPods. I've assembled a kit of 3 tools to make the job easier. 1) OXO Good Grips Deep Clean Brush Set -- use the smaller of the two brushes and the silicone wiper to loosen up and wipe out as much wax as you can; 2) Poster Putty -- press this into the opening and it will pull out a surprising amount of residual gunk. Resist the temptation to press the putty too hard, or you'll push the earwax through the mesh; 3) Handheld Illuminated Magnifier -- this will help you make sure you've thoroughly cleaned the mesh openings. My AirPods now look great, not grungy.Melissa Kirsch, the editor-in-chief of Lifehacker, read my tip and came up with what sounds like an even better way to clean AirPods:Save a couple bucks on the brushes and use an old toothbrush to loosen the wax, then go to town with the poster putty. There is little more satisfying than lifting loosened earwax from a mesh screen with a gummy -- but not so gummy it gets caught in the screen! -- wad of putty that you then throw away. (Suffice it to say this is a project best done in private, kind of like zit popping.)Instead of the magnifying light, which is nifty but not essential if you've got decent eyesight, I-d recommend taking a cotton swab and dampening it ever-so-slightly with 70% rubbing alcohol and running it gently over the plastic parts of the buds and the top crevices of the case to remove whatever's built up there. Read the rest

Wework is definitely a piece of work, a money-hemorrhaging bezzle whose recently ousted founder siphoned a reported $700m out of the company while self-dealing and presiding over a series of bizarre missteps (from serving tequila shots and hosting a dance party with Darryl from Run DMC at the same meeting where he announced mass layoffs to banning his employees from expensing meals containing meat while getting caught eating meat himself).But in addition to its grifty sociopathic founder, Wework follows a common pattern of tech businesses: backed by titanic amounts of money that allows it to sell at predatory, money-losing prices in order to force out all possible competitors and establish a monopoly.Wework's real story isn't the terrible dude at the front of the parade: it's the giant VC and private equity funds who shower him with literal billions. These businesses' explicit plan is to bankrupt or scare off anyone who wants to run a real business, one where entrepreneurs compete by lowering prices through applying a process to inputs to make something more valuable than the sum of its parts -- instead, these businesses (Matt Stoller calls them "counterfeit capitalism") compete solely on access to capital, which they use to create products that are worth less than the sum of their parts. Stoller compares the outcome of this to "Gresham's law," which describes how, when counterfeit money is in circulation, "bad money drive out good." That is, if you get a counterfeit coin, you try to spend it as soon as you can because if it is detected while you have it, you lose. Read the rest

What do babies know about grass that we don't?Dunno why I’m laughing 😂 this the cutest thing I’ve seen on the internet. pic.twitter.com/jixWBbEb53— MISTAHMASALATI ™️ (@MisterMasalati) September 19, 2019[via Neatorama] Read the rest

BMW doesn't make a self-driving car, but that didn't stop it from making a video with people having sex in one. The car manufacturer tweeted about the video, then inexplicably pulled out. The YouTube channel Eurobiker managed to grab a copy before it vanished.From CNet:The quick video shows a scene of a couple kissing and getting more intimate before taking things on the road. Suddenly, we're transported to a scene of the Vision iNext concept, presumably carrying the couple inside. The ad doesn't ever explicitly show the two inside the vehicle, but as a police vehicle motors by, the red and blue lights appear to light the steamy scene. Just like that, the video is over.Image: YouTube Read the rest

California Rep. Devin Nunes said a bizarre thing this morning at a questioning of Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire: “Of course, Democrats on this very committee negotiated with people they thought were Ukrainians in order to obtain nude pictures of Trump.”Apparently, the confused gentleman was referring to an old Russian prank. According to Vice, two Russian comedians pranked House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff last year "claiming to possess naked photos of the president." Via Vice: "At the time, Schiff directed the pranksters –– who posed as members of the Ukrainian Parliament –– to send their photos to the FBI." Somehow Nunes didn't get the memo.Here's Devin Nunes accusing Democrats of trying to obtain nude pictures of Trump pic.twitter.com/pRF7UHijpq— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 26, 2019 Image: Aaron Rupar/Twitter Read the rest

I wouldn't want to be this close. [NASA]Rhis new visualization of a black hole illustrates how its gravity distorts our view, warping its surroundings as if seen in a carnival mirror. The visualization simulates the appearance of a black hole where infalling matter has collected into a thin, hot structure called an accretion disk. The black hole’s extreme gravity skews light emitted by different regions of the disk, producing the misshapen appearance.Bright knots constantly form and dissipate in the disk as magnetic fields wind and twist through the churning gas. Nearest the black hole, the gas orbits at close to the speed of light, while the outer portions spin a bit more slowly. This difference stretches and shears the bright knots, producing light and dark lanes in the disk.Looks like the math-artists got it right on Interstellar. Read the rest

The folks at JSTOR Daily have unearthed the proceedings of a 1953 colloquium that pondered a great question: Did early humanity first cultivate grain not for the purpose of making bread -- but brewing beer? Or, as official title of the event asked, "Did Man Once Live By Beer Alone?"If the latter is true, then we owe the very concept of agriculture to the delights of getting sozzled.As the proponents of that theory noted, beer-like drinks are arguably easier to create than bread. The former requires less technology:The proponents of the beer-before-bread idea noted that the earliest grains might have actually been more suitable for brewing than for baking. For example, some wild wheat and barley varieties had husks or chaff stuck to the grains. Without additional processing, such husk-enclosed grains were useless for making bread—but fit for brewing. Brewing fermented drinks may also have been easier than baking. Making bread is a fairly complex operation that necessitates milling grains and making dough, which in the case of leavened bread requires yeast. It also requires fire and ovens, or heated stones at the least.On the other hand, as some attendees pointed out, brewing needs only a simple receptacle in which grain can ferment, a chemical reaction that can be easily started in three different ways. Sprouting grain produces its own fermentation enzyme—diastase. There are also various types of yeast naturally present in the environment. Lastly, human saliva also contains fermentation enzymes, which could have started a brewing process in a partially chewed up grain. Read the rest

The Great British Baking Show host Noel Fielding always wears wild shirts, but outdid himself on the "Dairy Week" episode of season 10. At least as transmitted on video, the wavy lines seem to shift like a lenticular print. You can get a brief glimpse in this clip from the beginning of the episode (along with a Nine Inch Nails baking pun), and watch the full episode on Netflix:Please comment below if you're able to track the shirt down online. Read the rest

The passage of the EU's Copyright Directive last March marked the most controversial rulemaking process in EU history, with lawmakers squeaking a narrow victory that relied on confused MEPs pushing the wrong button.The main focus of the opposition was Article 13 (now Article 17), which will force tech companies to filter every video, audio clip, still image and word posted in the EU with a black box copyright filter that only the largest, US-based tech companies can afford.But also important is Article 11, an idea so terrible that it would have been a source of massive controversy if it were not overshadowed by the world-beatingly stupid copyright filter rule. Under Article 13, linking to news articles with "snippets" (as few as two words from the article, including words from the headlines embedded in the article's URL) requires permission and a paid license from the news entity. The rule doesn't define who a news entity is, nor who needs to get permission prior to making these links, giving each EU member state broad latitude to create a patchwork of rules that, again, only the largest, US-based companies can afford to navigate.But those companies aren't there yet: first, they're going to play hardball. France -- so desperate to get the Directive passed that they secretly dropped their opposition to a Russian Gasprom pipeline in order to get Germany on-side -- is the first country to implement the Directive, and has opted for a very restrictive "link tax" rule that gives news sites a veto over who may criticise their works and the right to charge for the privilege. Read the rest

The House Intelligence Committee posted the Ukraine whistleblower's letter [Direct PDF link], detailing a complaint that President Trump was soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election. Following below is a quick and uncorrected OCR of the letter, which was posted in typical government fashion as nine JPG images in a PDF file. The Honorable Richard Burr Chairman Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate The Honorable Adam Schiff Chairman August 12, 2019 Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence United States House of Representatives Dear Chairman Burr and Chairman Schiff: I am reporting an "urgent concern" in accordance with the procedures outlined in 50 U.S.C. §3033(k)(5)(A). This letter is UNCLASSIFIED when separated from the attachment. In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President's main domestic political rivals. The President's personal lawyer, Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort. Attorney General Barr appears to be involved as well. • Over the past four months, more than half a dozen U.S. officials have informed me of various facts related to this effort. The information provided herein was relayed to me in the course of official interagency business. It is routine for U.S. officials with responsibility for a particular regional or functional portfolio to share such information with one another in order to inform policymaking and analysis. Read the rest

Even if you're insured and even if you assiduously verify that the emergency rooms you visit when undergoing a medical crisis are "in network" for your insurer, you can still end up with thousands of dollars in "surprise bills" from ER docs and anesthetists who don't work for the hospital -- instead, they work for private "physician staffing firms" who can and do charge whatever they want for your care.This started as a simple outsourcing exercise in which "physician groups" were contracted to provide services to hospitals, but then, giant hedge funds and private equity groups started buying up these groups and jacking up prices by 86%-91% in just a few years (prices are still rising). The private equity looters focused on emergency care because, apart from prisons, it is the ultimate captive market: once the ambulance drops you off mid-cardiac-arrest at an in-network hospital, are you really going to ask to be taken somewhere else once you learn that the doc who triages you works for Blackstone or KKR and plans on billing you thousands of dollars over and above the tens of thousands of dollars your insurer will have to pay?These shenanigans might just be the last gasp of price-gouging, murderous American privatized health-care, with optics so bad that they make the case for Medicare for All without any pushing from the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party.What's a poor billionaire to do in the face of such public unwillingness to enter medical bankruptcy in order to enhance the fortunes of the global looter class? Read the rest

Here's a great mashup of Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams are Made of This and The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army, performed by Pomplamoose and Sarah Dugas. Jump 25s in for the actual song. Read the rest

This video is a protip for animators, a comedy reel and a horror short. You learn how to make a walking 3D character the easy way, then generate a startlingly realistic crowd scene with a few clicks and assets. Blink twice and the uncanniness, the repetitions and simplicities, become clear. But for just a moment, that's an inauguration crowd. Consider the idea of shallow fakes: things that only need to fool you for a moment.(All hail the new trend of short, no-nonsense instructional videos.) Read the rest