There are several proposals at the state and federal level to force the Big Tech platforms to disclose how much our data is worth to them -- with the hopes that this will curb their abuses of our privacy and even offer an income-stream that could benefit low-income users.But as my EFF colleague Hayley Tsukayama writes, "Our information should not be thought of as our property this way, to be bought and sold like a widget. Privacy is a fundamental human right. It has no price tag. No person should be coerced or encouraged to barter it away. And it is definitely not a good deal for people to receive a handful of dollars in exchange for allowing companies’ invasive data collection to remain unchecked."That's because the sums that Big Tech sells your data for are often very small relative to the costs those data-sales exact from you, from realtime location data being sold for less than $0.01/user to "lists of 1,000 people with different conditions such as anorexia, depression and erectile dysfunction for $79 per list. Such embarrassing information in the wrong hands could cost someone their job or their reputation."What's more, Big Tech can use seemingly innocuous data as a proxy for more potentially sensitive information, like where you went to high school, but "mortgage lenders, using proxy variables such as their high school, charge African American and Latinx homebuyers higher interest rates as compared with whites in similar financial situation" -- you might give that information away to Big Tech, but the total costs are huge: "the way companies use this information overcharges minority homeowners up to $500 million per year."Back in 2008, I wrote that "property" is the wrong way to think about information. Read the rest

CNN reports that the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, personally received deliveries, potentially including hacked materials related to the 2016 U.S. elections, during a series of odd meetings at Ecuador's Embassy in London. Marshall Cohen, Kay Guerrero and Arturo Torres, for CNN say their report is “based on documents obtained exclusively by CNN.”“The documents build on the possibility, raised by special counsel Robert Mueller in his report on Russian meddling, that couriers brought hacked files to Assange at the embassy.”Although Assange was physically confined to the Ecuadorian embassy while he attempted to obtain secure passage to Ecuador, Assange still managed to have meetings with Russians, “world-class hackers,” and other shady characters at “critical moments, frequently for hours at a time,” according to the embassy visitor logs. “He also acquired powerful new computing and network hardware to facilitate data transfers just weeks before WikiLeaks received hacked materials from Russian operatives,” reports CNN.Excerpt from the CNN report:These stunning details come from hundreds of surveillance reports compiled for the Ecuadorian government by UC Global, a private Spanish security company, and obtained by CNN. They chronicle Assange's movements and provide an unprecedented window into his life at the embassy. They also add a new dimension to the Mueller report, which cataloged how WikiLeaks helped the Russians undermine the US election.An Ecuadorian intelligence official told CNN that the surveillance reports are authentic. The security logs noted that Assange personally managed some of the releases "directly from the embassy" where he lived for nearly seven years. Read the rest

Never forget: Trump said the Charlottesville racists were 'very fine people.'

Director Kevin Smith wrote Clerks III more than a decade ago but it was never made, the director has said, because Jeff Anderson, who plays Randal, wasn't game. Today, Smith announced that he and some unnamed "friends" will do a reading of the script at the First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands, NJ. It's a benefit for the playhouse which is where Smith held open auditions for the first Clerks film 25 years ago. There were only 80 seats available (at $100/each) and, yes, it sold out instantly. This August - in the great state of New Jersey! Come hear what might have been, when we read the unmade CLERKS III script! There are only 80 seats at a pricey $100 apiece, but all the money goes to The First Avenue Playhouse (it’s a Benefit for them)! Tix: https://t.co/yJMbZzs8c0 pic.twitter.com/fFeslWDMRf— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) July 15, 2019 Read the rest

UK TV host and wildlife biologist Lizzie Daly and her crew were diving off the southwestern coast of England as part of their Wild Ocean Week initiative when they met this magnificent and massive barrel jellyfish. Typically, barrel jellyfish aren't bigger than meter long but this one was closer to 1.5 meters. From The Guardian:Daly and an underwater camera operator, Dan Abbott... stayed with the abnormally large, translucent bell-mushroom-shaped animal for about an hour before it swam away.The pair said they were not surprised by the animal’s behaviour. “It has got a very mild sting and poses no threat to humans – some people don’t even feel it,” Daly said. “Many people would be immediately worried, but it is not dangerous. Its a majestic creature.” View this post on Instagram SO THIS JUST HAPPENED😱💙 Diving with a giant barrel jellyfish! I could not think of a better way to celebrate the end of #WildOceanWeek. The full video of the dive is LIVE right now! I'll put the link in my stories if anybody wants to spend just two minutes watching this breathtaking moment coming face to face with a barrel jellyfish THE SAME SIZE AS ME while diving off of the coast of Falmouth 💙 What an unforgettable experience, I know barrel jellyfish get really big in size but I have never seen anything like it before! For anybody who is in Cornwall do come on down to Maenporth tomorrow at 12pm for a beach clean. There should be a good crowd of us rounded up now so it will be fun - and it will be followed by a small talk about the trip! Read the rest

Some 9,500 members were in the racist 'I'm 10-15' CBP Facebook group

Workers say they're underpaid and overworked, strikes planned for July 15th & 16th

Profiles in courage here, folks. Mitt Romney is a shitstain on the great state of Utah.Today, the Utah Republican Senator was asked about Trump's Sunday tweets that called for four congresswomen to go back to their countries of origin. “I certainly feel a number of these new members of Congress have views that are not consistent with my experience and not consistent with building a strong America.”Apparently we'll hear the rest of his response at 5pm, which is also ridiculous, local news folks..@MittRomney on Trump calling for 4 congresswoman to go back to their countries of origin? “I certainly feel a number of these new members of Congress have views that are not consistent with my experience and not consistent with building a strong America.” More @NBC10Boston 5pm pic.twitter.com/3tZ4DtCuvW— Alison King NBC10 Boston (@AlisonNBCBoston) July 15, 20192/2 @MittRomney. “At the same time, I recognize that the Pres has a unique and noble calling to unite all Americans regardless of our creeds or race or place of our national origin and I think in that case, the Pres fell far short.” Were comments racist? Answer @NBC10Boston 5pm. pic.twitter.com/6fqxnSvNp6— Alison King NBC10 Boston (@AlisonNBCBoston) July 15, 2019Photo, TOP: Gage Skidmore. Former Governor Mitt Romney speaking with supporters at a campaign rally for U.S. Senator John McCain at Dobson High School in Mesa, Arizona. 2015 Read the rest

None of this is a surprise. And none of it is normal or okay.Today, United States popular-vote-losing and illegitimate president Donald J. Trump was asked if he is concerned that he is speaking and tweeting in the language of white supremacy, and that many people view his messages as explicitly racist. Trump replied, “It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me.”Manu Raju of CNN:Trump, asked if he has concerns that he's using the language of white supremacists and many view his tweets as racist, says: "It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me." pic.twitter.com/C0ranRv6vg— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 15, 2019 Read the rest

The inaugural Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship were an unqualified success, with competitors from the US, Russia, Japan and beyond converging on Joensuu, Finland to thrash and knit: competitors such as Woolfumes, Bunny Bandit and 9" Needles thrashed to heavy metal music while knitting, for an audience of about 200. The winners were the five-person Japanese team Giga Body Metal. Scottish competitor Heather McLaren (a Ph.D candidate in engineering) told the AP, "When I saw there was a combination of heavy metal and knitting, I thought 'that’s my niche.'" Read the rest

SHA 256 is an algorithm that takes a digital input of any length and returns a string of 256 bits (typically converted to 64 hexadecimal digits). It's a one-way algorithm, which means there's no known way to practically retrieve the input from the output. As far as anyone knows, there has never been an instance of two different inputs having the same output, which means the hash of an input is a reliable unique digital fingerprint.In this 6-minute video, Matthew Weathers explains why SHA 256 is "useful for digital signatures, cryptography, authentication, and is a central part of the Bitcoin protocol." Read the rest

At 41 seconds, you can hear someone call this fellow a "dumbass."Image: YouTube Read the rest

Some 850 people in research labs across America will lose their jobs.

Why is the American news media so very afraid to just call Trump's racist tweets racist?We had another chance to see cowardice in action on Sunday.On Sunday morning, popular-vote-losing illegitimate president Donald Trump tweeted some awful racist tweets that you can read about everywhere, all the time, because he does white supremacist bigoted stuff constantly and will only continue to escalate it as his day of cosmic comeuppance approaches. Trump's totally a racist. The tweets were explicitly racist. Everyone knows this.So why did the big respected major media news outlets everyone turns to for breaking news all decide NOT TO CALL IT RACIST in their reporting, and instead rely on embedded tweets, commenters, pundits, and op-ed contributors to use the r-word? “Xenophobic,” “provocative,” and “inflammatory” aren't synonyms for “racist.” “Racially charged” isn't a better phrase to use in this case than “racist.” Just say racist. CBS morning show: "Critics" say Trump's attacks "are racist." NBC: "Some have branded his comments as racist." But ABC's @GMA and CNN's @NewDay called it what it is: "The president's racist attack."— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 15, 2019“I know that reporters in at least two newsrooms argued with their higher-ups about this language issue on Sunday,” writes Brian Stelter at CNN.“But in both cases they lost.”Stelter's own network, CNN, identified Trump's tweets as racist throughout Sunday. Certain MSNBC programs also did.Brian writes:On Fox News, so far as I can tell, the word was only used by guests or attributed to critics. Read the rest

Propublica's 2020 Presidential Candidate Summaries breaks down the 2020 candidates' fundraising, Trump's massive war-chest and Bernie's pack-leading raise and his continued success with small-money donations. Read the rest

Electrek.co test rode the Hardly-Dangerous 'Livewire' electric bike. The LiveWire has 105hp and looks like a Buell! It is also orange, but not as awesome an orange as BMW Daytona Orange. Read the rest

At Queensland, Australia’s Mount Isa, kayaker Martin Muller spotted a python devouring a whole crocodile. The nonprofit GG Wildlife Rescue posted Muller's evidence of the impressive feast to its Facebook page. From LiveScience:The olive python... is native to Australia and is found only there. This species can grow to up to 13 feet (4 m) long. Clashes with Australia's "freshies" (the local nickname for freshwater crocodiles) are common. Pythons are able to perform amazing feats of swallowing thanks to their elastic jaws. The snakes' lower jawbones are divided into two parts, connected by an elastic ligament, which allows the bones to spread apart. When a python has a prey animal subdued, the snake first "walks" over it, a process called the pterygoid walk. Then, the snake uses its jaw to hang onto the prey while compressing its muscles and slithering around the subdued animal until the meal is engulfed. Read the rest

The breakneck pace of mods, changes, and additions to Fortnite did not slow over the last few weeks! There are now drum shotguns, storms-in-a-bottle, and the wildly fun airstrike!Call in a rain of rockets and watch people run in a panic! Read the rest

This Mad Mats rug keeps sticks, dirt, burrs and other garbage out of my dog's fur and out of my camper!6'x9' and awfully stylish, I've had this rug since 2013 and it looks as good as new. Excellent for throwing down just outside the door of my VW Vanagon, under our pop-up shade, or right next to the picnic table where I am cooking and working.When you spend a lot of time with your dogs in the outdoors, anything that helps keep them a little cleaner, and make life seem a little more luxuriant, is welcome. Like getting nice furniture in your prison cell!There are other styles, pick the one you love!Mad Mats Oriental Turkish Indoor/Outdoor Floor Mat, 6 by 9-Feet, Rust via Amazon Read the rest

Title sequence for "Hopper, P.I." by Eddie Spuhghetti. Read the rest

Signal processing engineer Stéphane Pigeon created this captivating Gregorian chant generator. It enables you to simply "conduct," mix, and process the sacred a capella songs heard in the monasteries of the Roman Catholic Church since the 9th century. Gregorian Voices: Early Roman Catholic Church Song Generator Read the rest

The Bank of England has unveiled its new £50 notes, which had been earmarked to honour a distinguished British scientist, and which will feature Alan Turing, the WWII hero who discovered many of the foundational insights to both modern computing and cryptography, and whose work with the codebreakers of Bletchley Park are widely believed to have shortened WWII by many years and saved millions of lives.Turing was gay, and when the police discovered this fact, he was sentenced to a regime of cruel pseudoscientific torture in the form of forced hormone injections; while undergoing this torture, he committed suicide by eating a poisoned apple.Turing was pardoned for his "crime" of sodomy in 2013, but the official pardon only inflamed public sentiment over the injustice of 50,000 other gay British men bearing criminal records for "sodomy." In 2016, all sodomy convictions for dead Britons were automatically pardoned; living gay men could apply to have their records expunged (a proposal to make this an automatic process died after David Cameron's Conservative government sabotaged a private member's bill).The new notes will circulate as of 2021. The shortlist for suitable scientist to celebrate with the note was drawn from a public process that attracted 227,299 nominations for a total of 989 honorees. Bank governor Mark Carney made the final determination.Ironically, the move comes as the British government is seeking to prohibit the most consequential elements of Turing's work from being used by the public: they have repeatedly proposed bans on both working general purpose computers and working cryptography, and have repeatedly mooted orders that would ban manufacturers from creating computers capable of encrypting data in ways that British government spies and police services can't break. Read the rest

I want XCOM 2 on the Nintendo Switch. I'm waiting for it. Hoping. It has yet to come, be announced or even rumored by its developers. So, of late, I've found myself looking for other ways to get my turn-based combat fix. I completed Wasteland 2 some time ago. Japanese games seldom hold my attention and, even Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has lost its charm. A couple of days ago, despite its mediocre reviews, I downloaded Phantom Doctrine, for $20. It's so close to being pretty much what I'm looking for. Sadly, it's held back by a number of issues.In the game, you're in charge of a cell of cold-war era spies who bop around the world collecting intelligence, killing members of a shadowy opposing faction and trying not to get captured or liquidated in the process. What are they collecting intel on? It's hard to say. Unlike XCOM, which has a solid story that leads you from one plot point to the next, in Phantom Doctrine, it's hard to keep track of what why you're doing what you're doing. The game's story is paper thin and even when it becomes a little more clear, still isn't all that compelling. Mission briefings inform you that you're supposed to collect an informant or, in some cases, kill someone who recognized one of your agents. You base is always under threat of being exposed. Your spies are always run the risk of having their covers blown. It's run-of-the-mill stuff.As with XCOM 2, your team members gain experience from every encounter they survive. Read the rest

You might recognize Wilko Johnson's as Ser Ilyn Payne from Game of Thrones, but that role's small potatoes compared to his musical legacy. As the lead guitarist and song writer for the British pub rock band Dr. Feelgood, Johnson's choppy, percussive style of playing is considered to be one of the earliest influences of the early UK punk scene. When you listen to Joe Strummer hacking away with his axe in The 101ers, you're hearing Wilko.In this brief video filmed back in 2012, Wilko demonstrates the ins and outs of the fierce, economic playing style that helped give rise to The Sex Pistols and The Clash. I've been a fan of the man for decades and, last week, was fortunate enough to spend a good chunk of time chatting with him. Look for my interview with Wilko to pop up on the site at some point in the near future.Image courtesy of Abigail Elizabeth Photography Read the rest

Axciom buys records from Florida's DMV (which include non-driver IDs) at $0.01/each.They're just one of many, many data-brokers who buy data from the state's DMV. So many, in fact, that the state turned over $77m in data-sales in 2017.These get sold for bill collection and insurance purposes, and are not supposed to be used for marketing, but these are data brokers and so they sell the data on, and then the data gets sold again, and again.We know that at least some of that data gets abused, turned into fodder for repeated robocalls and direct-mail solicitations, because of Sonia Arvin's experience with her developmentally disabled sister, who moved to Florida from Idaho to live with her. Sonia took her sister to get a non-driver ID so she could apply for Medicaid, and shortly thereafter, was inundated with direct mail, robocalls, and salespeople ringing their doorbells. Sonia's sister can't read or write and is not registered in any other databases, apart from Florida's DMV.A lawyer who represents data-brokers told WFTS that buying public data is the cheapest way to acquire it.Miami attorney Al Saikali, who advises his clients how to legally and ethically use public data for commercial purposes, said his clients are increasingly using public records laws to obtain information for a cheap price."We're only going to see this continue over time. Companies are going to continue to seek more data about you," Saikali said. "Companies are essentially paying for information, for leads, for lead generation."Saikali said consumers can limit the number of marketers contacting them by setting up a secondary email account to give government agencies — which are only checked periodically for renewal notices and other important information — and only giving a telephone number to government agencies when it's necessary. Read the rest

It's too hot for yard sales, but hey: The internet is here for you. Here are the top ten deals on some of the Boing Boing Store's best gear, just in time for summer. It's everything from grills to security cameras to MacBook Pros, and they might be as low as they're ever going to get.Apple MacBook Pro 13.3" with Retina Display 128GB SSD Silver (Refurbished)With an Intel HD Graphics 4000 card, Ivy Bridge 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 128 GB of flash memory, this is the upgrade you've been looking for in gaming, work, streaming or all of the above. This Apple MacBook Pro 13.3" with Retina Display 128GB SSD Silver (Refurbished) is now $599, down 25% from the list price.SANNCE Home Security IP Wireless Camera With Night VisionSet up this cam and you've got 24-hour surveillance on any home. It not only has night vision and motion detection but can pan 355 degrees and its remote viewing is protected with P2P/WPS encryption. Pick up the SANNCE Home Security IP Wireless Camera With Night Vision for $44.99, a full 43% off the retail price of $79.99.Audio PuzzleBuilt to spec or customized, this 6W Bluetooth speaker is equally fun for experienced tinkerers or kids with an interest in STEM. Either way, no tools required. Grab the Audio Puzzle for $30, more than 80% off the MSRP.Power Smokeless Indoor Electric 1500W GrillMore than just a grill, this versatile cooker can be used to fry eggs, toast bread or more with a removable griddle plate. Read the rest

Ever dream of taking a dip in one of those gorgeous pools at Hearst Castle? YES, ME TOO. Well, get out your credit card, because it's going to cost you.Architectural Digest:...it will require you to join The Foundation at Hearst Castle with a minimum donation, which helps fund the castle’s art conservation and education programs (and the minimum amount for a members-only swim event is $950). But can you really put a price on the opportunity to swim at this storied San Simeon landmark within the California State Parks system, built for newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst between 1919 and 1947? Open for only five pool nights this summer and fall (July 6, August 4, August 24, September 21, and October 20), it’s a rare chance to float and frolic where famed stars like Howard Hughes, Joan Crawford, and Charlie Chaplin have. Admission is capped at 40 people, so lucky attendees aren’t elbowing one another for the privilege of swimming in one of America’s most iconic design attractions.Reserve your spot now. Read the rest

A reader writes, "This link discusses the ongoing revealing-leak of a Telegram chatgroup were the Rosello's administration, advisors and collaborators collude and mock the accumulation of corpses at Puerto Rico's morgue (which includes cases of tragic deaths and cases in wait of investigation), women, LGBT community, journalists, fellow politicians, and international politicians. They call Melissa Mark-Viverito a prostitute and mock other US and international leaders. Christian Sobrino was the governor's representative, who communicated with the fiscal oversight and management board, he mocks the corpses located at Puerto Ricos's morgue, fellow Puertorican nationals, and insults their memory. He refers to political enemies as 'crows', and corpses as their 'carrion'. This should be recognized as an offense to humanity. The problem of corpses accumulation in wait of investigation started after Hurricane Maria, as the government was unable to handle the death toll."Rosselló's CFO and Secretary of State just resigned. Read the rest

It's estimated that Bob Ross painted thousands of paintings on his TV show "The Joy of Painting" — but where did they all go? The New York Times went to find out. They discovered that the thousands of paintings Ross produced are housed at Bob Ross, Inc. in Herndon, Virginia. Joan Kowalski serves the president of the business and says they have no plans to sell any of them. We learn, in the Times' 10-minute must-watch video, that it was her mother, Annette, who accidentally discovered Ross while taking the unknown paint instructor's class in Clearwater, Florida. She says she was so "mesmerized" by Bob that she "couldn't paint."While the paintings are not for sale, the company has donated pieces of Bob's legacy to the Smithsonian Museum of American History's permanent collection, according to The New York Times:Bob Ross made three versions of each painting that appeared on “The Joy of Painting.” The first was made before the show, to be used as a reference. He painted the second during the 26-minute taping, sometimes with last-minute improvisations. The third was made afterward, for instructional books.The donation to the Smithsonian includes the book version of “Blue Ridge Falls,” from Season 30 (1994)... As well as all three versions of the painting “On a Clear Day,” from Season 14 (1988)... Other items include a converted stepladder that was used as an easel used during the first season of the show, and two handwritten notebooks that were used to plan the production of Seasons 2 and 3... Read the rest

Young @Pugloca has his finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist -- the self-described anime and Halflife fan came to Vidcon in this stunning cosplay: an influencer apology video, replete with many, many ads. He was spotted by The Atlantic's Taylor Lorenz. Everything about this is [[chef kiss gesture]]: the number of views, the number of likes, the number of thumbs-downs, and especially the patter that goes with it.Update: It's a printable kit! (Thanks to Johnson in the comments for the link!)(via Super Punch)This kid came dressed as an influencer apology video at #Vidcon2019 @pugloca pic.twitter.com/X8e79czn5A— Taylor Lorenz @ VidCon (@TaylorLorenz) July 12, 2019 Read the rest

After a leak revealed that the British Ambassador to the USA had called Trump "inept, insecure and incompetent" (leading to the ambassador's resignation and a round of Twitter insults between Trump and senior Tory officials), London's Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu publicly warned journalists not to publish government leaks, threatening to imprison them if they do: "The publication of leaked communications, knowing the damage they have caused or are likely to cause may also be a criminal matter. I would advise all owners, editors and publishers of social and mainstream media not to publish leaked government documents that may already be in their possession, or which may be offered to them, and to turn them over to the police or give them back to their rightful owner, Her Majesty's Government."The comments drew sharp criticism from the British press. The Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman called it a "sinister, absurd, anti-democratic statement" and tweeted, "Do you have any comprehension of a free society? This isn't Russia." The US managing editor of the Financial Times, Peter Spiegel, called the remarks "rather chilling from a major police force in a western democracy."The Tory leaders jockeying to be Prime Minister staked out opposing positions. Boris Johnson demanded that the leaker be "hunted down and prosecuted" (while not calling for any journalists to be targeted by police) while his rival Jeremy Hunt said he defended publishing leaks "in the public interest...to the hilt."Labour leader and PM-in-waiting Jeremy Corbyn defended the right of journalists to publish leaks, calling it "vital" and applauding the law's "considerable protections" for a free press. Read the rest

When it comes to getting stats and ideas across quickly, there's still nothing like a good slide presentation. But the critical word here is "good" - not 20 slides all thrown together with the same stock PowerPoint template. Whether it's a crucial pitch for a new business or a quarterly report, Slideshop can be a lifesaver.This software can supercharge any presentation for PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides with both quantity and quality. A subscription gets you access to more than 15,000 slide templates, all fully customizable. Strapped for time? It's a breeze to get started with intuitively-arranged categories for business, planning, charts and more in a variety of searchable styles. And even if you're a newbie to slideshow apps, Slideshow makes it easy to modify any slide with simple editing tools. There are unlimited downloads, so you'll never be without options again.Find out why companies like Samsung, Nike, and AT&T use this in their own presentations. Pick up a lifetime subscription to Slideshow for $39.99. Read the rest

In 2011, the US Federal Trade Commission put Facebook under consent decree after the company "deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly [allowed] it to be shared and made public." The way the FTC generally works is that if it catches a company doing something terrible, it issues one of these "consent decrees" which amount to, "don't do it again, or we'll take the company away."But Facebook did it again. Hard. And rather than shutting Facebook down, the FTC fined them $5B, which may sound like a lot, it's only about 30% of the revenue from a single quarter and less than a quarter of the company's annual profits. It's basically a license fee for criminality, a tax on lawbreaking that allows the company to retain the vast majority of its profits from criminal activities.And the street knows it. After the FTC announced the fine, Facebook's share price went up.And as Peter Kafka notes, regulatory compliance costs aren’t exactly a deterrent either: Facebook will pay the fine, eat the cost of a few more lawyers and PR people to ensure compliance with this new order, and carry on with the business of, uh, issuing a new worldwide currency while exposing underpaid contractors to horrifying videos of people being murdered for $15 an hour.Facebook’s $5 billion FTC fine is an embarrassing joke [Nilay Patel/The Verge](Image: Jason McELweenie, CC-BY, modified), Read the rest

Just look at it. (Thanks, Geoff Cole) Read the rest

Pyramid schemes are illegal, but "multi-level marketing" schemes are not; the difference is supposedly that pyramid schemes don't really sell anything -- they just sell the right to recruit people who will recruit people who will recruit people, each paying up the pyramid to their "uplines" -- while MLMs supposedly actually sell stuff.Except they don't. MLMs are sales cults that encourage their victims to victimize others, commodifying their friendships and turning every interaction into a "sales opportunity." The primary targets of these cults are moms, Mormons and the military.MLMs don't get prosecuted despite being massive frauds, thanks to the actions of Amway founder Jay Van Andels, who ran the US Chamber of Commerce, and leaned on Gerry Ford to shut down the DoJ's aggressive prosecution of MLMs. Amway ginned up a meaningless, cosmetic "code of conduct" that supposedly differentiated MLMs from pyramid schemes, and since them, MLMs have used the "code of conduct" as a get out of jail free card. Van Andel's co-founder was Rich DeVos, father-in-law of billionaire religious fanatic Betsy DeVos.A long, beautifully reported story on MLMs by Casey Bond in the Huffington Post describes the unwinnable nature of MLMs and the pitfalls that exist for people who get sucked into them, who not only lose fortunes and alienate their friends -- they also end up owing the IRS vast sums for intangible "benefits" the MLMs toss their way to keep them active.If this interests you, I strongly recommend The Dream, an amazing podcast series on MLMs, which really leans into the gendered nature of the scam -- a group of powerful, charismatic men who convince women to prey on one another. Read the rest

Darius Kazemi runs Friend Camp, a small social network for about 50 people; it costs him about $30/month to run, and consumes about 2h/week to administer: in his guide to running your own social network, Kazemi explains how to run a network of your own, with no ads, no surveillance, and no feature changes without the consent of the community.Friend Camp is a modified version of Mastodon; there are lots of these (Dolphin Town is a Mastodon fork where the only character you can use in posting your messages is the letter "e"). Kazemi runs down a soup-to-nuts guide for the aspiring online community founder: the tech details, how to adjudicate disputes, an emergency plan to keep the community running if the administrator is hit by a bus...The main reason to run a small social network site is that you can create an online environment tailored to the needs of your community in a way that a big corporation like Facebook or Twitter never could. Yes, you can always start a Facebook Group for your community and moderate that how you like, but only within certain bounds set by Facebook. If you (or your community) run the whole site, then you are ultimately the boss of what goes on. It is harder work than letting Facebook or Twitter or Slack or Basecamp or whoever else take care of everything, but I believe it's worth it.Let's go back to Friend Camp. While there are a hundred thousand people we can talk to from Friend Camp, there are only about 50 people with an active Friend Camp login. Read the rest

An excellent parenting hack! From the YouTube description:The father recorded the sweet moment both his daughters calm down after throwing hysterical tantrums after they refuse to take "their turn to cry" during their holiday in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on April 25.The trick works every time for the dad of a one, three and six-year-old saying: "I figured it out with one of my daughters a long time ago. Works every single time."Image: YouTube Read the rest

Peter Glanting's illustrated guide to San Francisco's most unusual statues is an annotated delight, even if, despite its length, JWZ wrote, "They skipped a few of my favorites." Read the rest

As city after city has remitted hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay off ransomware criminals who hijacked their crucial systems, the US Conference of Mayors had unanimously adopted a resolution to never pay these ransoms again, on the basis that these payments "encourage continued attacks on other government systems, as perpetrators financially benefit,"I'll be interested to see whether this holds up. When Baltimore decided not to pay the ransom, the city was knocked offline for months and lost millions and millions. Are cities really going to opt to pay millions to avoid paying thousands? After all, the companies that claim they can get your data back without paying the ransom are fraudsters who secretly pay the ransom and charge you a markup.The resolution does not include any censure for the NSA, whose leaked cyberweapon is behind the ransomware epidemic. The NSA decided to keep a flaw it discovered in Windows a secret so that it could exploit the defect to attack its enemies; in not reporting the bug to Microsoft, the NSA was betting that no one else would ever discover it and that it wouldn't leak (the name for this doctrine is NOBUS: "No One But Us" will ever wield this weapon).They were wrong.Opposing Payment To Ransomeware (sic) Attack Perpetrators1WHEREAS, targeted ransomware attacks on local US government entities are on the rise; and2WHEREAS, at least 170 county, city, or state government systems have experienced a ransomware attack since 2013; and3WHEREAS, 22 of those attacks have occurred in 2019 alone, including the cities of Baltimore and Albany and the counties of Fisher, Texas and Genesee, Michigan; and4WHEREAS, ransomware attacks can cost localities millions of dollars and lead to months of work to repair disrupted technology systems and files; and5WHEREAS, paying ransomware attackers encourages continued attacks on other government systems, as perpetrators financially benefit; and6WHEREAS, the United States Conference of Mayors has a vested interest in de-incentivizing these attacks to prevent further harm,7NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors stands united against paying ransoms in the event of an IT security breach. Read the rest

Wired's Rose Eveleth asks Can Sci-Fi Writers Prepare Us for an Uncertain Future? Eveleth looks at the rise of science fiction writers being asked to consult with companies about their future plans (I've done some of this), a phenomenon supercharged by a Price Waterhouse Cooper report on the practice. Eveleth delves into the difference between futurism (which purports to have predictive power) and science fiction, whose predictive power is vastly overstated -- but suggests that sf might inspire people to strive for a better future, or make them lose hope that such a thing is possible. Read the rest

Trump's trade war has reduced the world's net worth by $2 trillion ($1.5 trillion of which came off the balance sheets of the 1%), with losses most deeply felt in China and Europe; North and South Americans took smaller losses, while the Middle East actually made gains: the richest Saudis have grown 7% richer during the trade war, while the richest Kuwaitis are 8% richer.All in all, the global 1% saw a 6% decline in their wealth.The stats come from Capgemini's 2019 World Wealth Report.“Geopolitical unrest and trade wars forced countries to adopt a loose monetary policy to encourage economic growth. Another blow to the global economy was the decline in world trade, which shrank from 5% at the start of 2018 to almost zero toward the end of the year. Trade wars may drag the global economy down further, coupled with higher rates and market volatility,” the report said.Given that, it’s perhaps no surprise that China’s super wealthy lost $500 billion, equivalent to the whole of Europe’s collective losses. North and South America meanwhile only experienced relatively small declines in comparison — due perhaps to the US’ upper hand in trade negotiations. The Middle East was the only region where the rich actually got richer last year. The world's super wealthy just collectively lost $US2 trillion – and Trump's trade war is to blame [Jack Derwin/Business Insider](via Naked Capitalism)(Image: Capgemini) Read the rest

Life360 is an app that lets you track a mobile phone user in fine-grained, realtime detail, with options to set alert for things like "is this person exceeding the speed limit?" It's widely used by parents to track their teens, and this seems to be the summer where it comes into its own, with millions of families around the world relying on it to act as a kind of remote leash for their kids.In response, teens have begun to fill the meme-heavy, kid-centric social app Tiktok (previously) with short videos deploring Life360, offering tips for evading it, and complaining about how their parents use it.Life360 is an excellent example of how the most important thing about a tool isn't what it does, but who it does it for and who it does it to. My family uses a similar tool (built into Android) sometimes when we're at Disneyland: it means that if you want to split up and then rendezvous later, you don't have to call your kid to find out where they are (which might be inside a ride, where they can't answer the phone), and instead, you can just head over and meet them. Similarly, when my daughter first started walking home from school, we made an arrangement that she'd text us when she left and turn on the location-tracker until she got home, which reassured both her and us.But expanding that into a system of fine-grained, continuous surveillance that comes complete with alerts that warn you to call your kids and give them hell if they go outside of a certain perimeter or are inside a moving vehicle that exceeds the posted limit by 1mph turns a convenience into a totalitarian nightmare. Read the rest

Alan Wendt writes, "Detroit commissioners arrested the police commissioner Willie Burton during a public meeting because he wouldn't stop talking about the secret meetings where the commission decided to install facial recognition systems."The commissioners are likely to formally approve the city's controversial facial recognition scheme next week. Burton was trying to call out the Board of Police Commissioners for holding illegal committee meetings that neither he nor the public were allowed to attend. During one of those closed-door sessions, commissioners quietly hashed out a policy for the city’s pervasive and controversial facial recognition system.But board chairwoman Lisa Carter didn’t want to hear it.As three police officers dragged Burton to the ground, officers held back protesters, some of whom were wearing masks to show their opposition to facial-recognition technology. Detroit cops arrest police commissioner, protester at raucous public meeting [Steve Neavling/Detroit Metro Times](Image: Akezone) Read the rest

Challenge Coins have their origins in the military; they're a little like a mission patch, commemorating some element of service or event, and they serve as a kind of badge of honor or respect -- you can show a challenge coin you've been given to people who were associated with its issuance as a way of demonstrating that you're on the same side.Challenge coins are often wry: for example, the Secret Service issued a coin to commemorate their unpaid labor with during the 2019 shutdown. Some CBP employees stationed on the US/Mexican border have been circulating a new challenge coin that mocks the changing role of the patrol: on one side, it says, "Keep the caravans coming" while on the other side, it reads "Feeding, processing, hospital, transport."The coins were promoted in I'm 10-15, the secret Facebook group for CBP employees that was/is a cesspit of rape jokes, racism, violence, and threats against members of Congress.Theresa Cardinal Brown, who worked at CBP under the Bush and Obama administrations, said that the coin was evidence (like the 10-15 Facebook group) of “reflexive dehumanization” by Border Patrol agents, and that the “tolerance for shenanigans” by supervisors and leadership had gone too far. “You have to say, ‘This is affecting the integrity and authority of us all.’”The coin appears to have been designed, ordered and distributed months into the surge of Central American families at the border. Coins were being distributed to agents by late April, before the current wave of public attention and outrage over conditions for migrants in Border Patrol custody... Read the rest

I loved Red Dwarf as a kid, sensed I should "stop immediately" upon seeing the previews for season 7 (or maybe 8?), and had relegated the whole thing to the palace of nostalgia by the end of the last century. But this ad is so charming it makes me think I should check out the recent series. Should I? I will blame you if this is a mistake. Read the rest

Last week, Propublica revealed the existence of "I'm 10-15", a secret Facebook group for current and former Customs and Border Protection employees -- a group with 9,500 members, while CBP's total workforce numbers 58,000 -- where it was commons for members to share violent, racist, sexist, misogynist, rape-y memes, including some that threatened and disparaged members of Congress.At the time, CBP officials acted surprised to learn of the group's existence and vowed to investigate any misconduct there.The Intercept has been mining the group's archive to learn about the identities and activities of its members, and today, they revealed that CBP Chief Carla Provost was an active member of I'm 10-15 for some years, and posted more than once to it. While Provost's posts are innocuous, her presence on the group suggests that the CBP's official claims to be surprised at the group's existence and character were not entirely truthful.Provost is not the only high-ranking CBP official who was also a member of I'm 10-15, and some CBP officials' social media activities were less benign that Provost's. For example, Border Patrol Calexico supervisor Tom Hendricks, a 20+ year veteran of the service, posted a meme depicting "a smirking Trump forcing Ocasio-Cortez’s face into his crotch by the back of her neck."Evidence of Provost’s participation in the secret Border Patrol group comes as Ocasio-Cortez, along with Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas;, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., head into a hearing with the Committee on Oversight and Reform and the inspectors general of DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services on Friday to discuss their recent visit to detention centers along the border. Read the rest

The Switch Lite doesn't connect to a TV set, but it's otherwise a slim, pocketable version of Nintendo's popular portable game console.The Switch Lite — the newly unveiled spinoff of the full-sized Switch console — doesn’t actually “switch.” Instead of the detachable controllers and TV dock that allows the standard Switch to shape-shift between a TV console, portable gamepad, and a mobile multiplayer machine, the Switch Lite has a much narrower focus on just one of those experiences — but that’s not a bad thing. Instead, it shows that the Switch’s audience and appeal extend to a different market than what the full-sized version currently serves. It's a funny twist of brand-reality that the Switch Lite doesn't actually "switch". I feel that Nintendo has missed a fabulous opportunity to name its new hands-only console the Snatch.Nintendo Switch Lite [Amazon] Read the rest

Last month, Paul Hansmeier was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $1.5m in restitution for the copyright trolling his firm, Prenda Law, engaged in: the firm used a mix of entrapment, blackmail, identity theft, intimidation and fraud to extort millions from its victims by threatening to drag them into court for alleged infringement of copyright in eye-watering pornography, thus forever associating their victims' name with lurid pornography in the public record.This week, Hansmeier's accomplice, John Steele, was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Steele cooperated with authorities, while Hansmeier fought the system for longer before entering a plea. Like Hansmeier, Steele has to pay $1.5m in restitution. Both men have also been disbarred.Hansmeier is appealing both the conviction and the sentence.“Unlike co-defendant Hansmeier, Mr. Steele accepted responsibility for his actions and immediately began zealously and passionately cooperating with the Government,” the prosecution said previously.“Even before the Government shared the evidence with the defense, Mr. Steele was in their office speaking to numerous law enforcement agentsand prosecutors about everything he did. He never lied and never minimized his actions.”According to the US Department of Justice, Steele deserved a significant prison term. However, his cooperation and genuine remorse should be taken into account.Cooperative ‘Copyright Troll’ Lawyer Sentenced to Five Years in Prison [Ernesto/Torrentfreak] Read the rest

The "Mosquito" is a high-pitched tone generator designed only to be audible to children and teens, and not to adults, in whose ears the nerve cells that detect these high tones have died off.In Philadelphia, 30 city parks and rec facilities have deployed these anti-personnel weapons under the rubric of deterring "loitering" and "vandalism" (20 other US cities have also deployed these weapons, according to Vancouver-based manufacturer Moving Sound Technologies).The use of these weapons has sparked a public debate, with Philadelphia City Council member Helen Gym decrying the use of "sonic weapons" in an city that is "trying to address gun violence and safe spaces for young people." Gym decries "ideas that are funded by taxpayer dollars to turn young people away from the very places that were created for them."Part of the debate was sparked by older people whose high-range hearing is still intact; one 27-year-old woman says that she'd had a constant headache since a nearby park installed the weapons.Mosquitoes have been controversial since their launch in the mid-2000s, with clever teens turning the tones into ringtones that were inaudible to their teachers and other authority figures. They were very popular in the UK, spurring petitions for their removal from public libraries. They came to the USA in 2008.The weapons have been condemned by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, who said that they violated the rights of children. When the weapons were installed in DC's Gallery Place Metro in 2010, the National Youth Rights Association had them removed. Read the rest

The great science purge, they'll call it one day.Donald Trump is closing science offices throughout the federal government. ‘As of June, around 85 percent of all scientific posts in the federal government, including an official scientific advisor to the President, were left unfilled,’ write the editors of I F***ing Love Science blog in an op-ed this week.Despite the veritable purge of scientists and science communication that has characterized the Trump administration, the White House still has an Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Unfortunately, its science division is now completely lacking any staff whatsoever.As reported by CBS News, the three remaining employees, all of which were holdovers from the Obama administration, have left. One staffer, the assistant director for biomedical and forensic sciences, tweeted, “Science division out. Mic drop” as she left.Over the last couple of years, there were up to 100 employees working at the OSTP, which saw a high level of investment from the former President. It is unclear when or even if the roles will be filled again, and by whom.First established in 1976 by Congress, it is designed to provide the President and others with “advice on the scientific, engineering, and technological aspects of the economy, national security, homeland security, health, foreign relations, the environment, and the technological recovery and use of resources, among other topics.”We don’t know about you, but that sounds like a vital role to us. The roles should be filled quickly with qualified scientists, but it’s probably best not to hold your breath on this one. Read the rest