Boing Boing

Novelty plates marked "mom jeans" "favorite jeans," and "skinny jeans" have been yanked off of Macy's store shelves after people criticized the company for being fat-shaming jerks. Ok, maybe Macy's wasn't called that exactly but critics did claim these controversial "portion-control" plates carry a body-shaming message for women. People:Alie Ward, a writer and podcast host, ignited the conversation after she tagged Macy’s in a tweet on Sunday. “How can I get these plates from @Macys banned in all 50 states,” she wrote beside a photo she took of the dishes in a display at the Macy’s flagship store in New York City...Within hours, Macy’s had reached out to Ward on Twitter, letting her know that they would be pulling the product as soon as possible. “Hi, Alie — we appreciate you sharing this with us and agree that we missed the mark on this product,” Macy’s wrote. “It will be removed from all STORY at Macy’s locations.” STORY at Macy’s is a brick-and-mortar retail initiative in which small businesses are given space in-store to sell their products that follow a certain theme. The plates, created by a company called Pourtions, were for sale in STORY at Macy’s. They were never available online on the Macy’s website.Hi, Alie — we appreciate you sharing this with us and agree that we missed the mark on this product. It will be removed from all STORY at Macy's locations.— Macy's (@Macys) July 22, 2019The plates are still available at the Pourtions website. Read the rest

Conversational language is not the same as formal language: chatter over the dinner table does not follow the same rules as a speech from a podium. Informal language follows its own fluid, fast-moving rules, and most of what we know about historic informal language has been gleaned from written fragments, like old letters and diaries -- but now, the internet has produced a wealth of linguistic data on informal language, which is explored in Canadian linguist Gretchen McCulloch's new book, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language.Informal language has always been hard to study. Even after the development of systems for recording speech, large-scale analysis depended on accurate transcription and hand-coding of these recordings. The internet changes all that. Charlie Stross has called the internet "the beginning of history," in which the minutae of everyday people's lives are being recorded for the first time ever. As historian and sf writer Ada Palmer once told me, the internet is producing one of the very first records of what normal people eat and future historians who study our time will not be forced to pore over the food in the backgrounds of oil paintings to get a sense of our culinary moment.One of the disciplines to benefit from this new world of recorded and machine-parseable everyday activity is linguistics. Large-scale analysis of internet communications -- old BBSes and forums, mailing lists and blogs, social media and texts -- is yielding new insights into the patterns and evolution of informal speech, and McCulloch's insightful, lively chronicle of that new discipline and its conclusions make for fun, informative reading. Read the rest

There's a new wine-and-cheese pairing in town. But it's not real cheese, it's one with Cheez-It snack crackers. Yep, for a limited time, Cheez-It and red-blended House Wine are being sold together in the same packaging, a box. PRNewswire:Summer is full of moments to grab a glass of wine and your favorite cheesy snack. Beginning July 25, you can purchase a limited-edition House Wine & Cheez-It box at OriginalHouseWine.com for $25, while supplies last. If you miss the chance to purchase a box, you can still enjoy mixing and matching Cheez-It and House Wine pairings on your own all summer long.(AdWeek) Read the rest

Our friends at eBoy, who have designed a lot of stuff for Boing Boing, MAKE, and Institute for the Future over the decades, have released a new version of their tilt-to-solve game, FixPix. It features their excellent pixel-based art, natch. Free to download!The game features 180 hand crafted puzzles made from eBoys unique pixel art. The graphics are split into layers and you have to tilt the phone to the right angle to “fix” the puzzle. Hidden in the puzzles detailed pixels, you will find a hint to solve the puzzle. For the new "expanded" version of the game we had to massively expand the pixel art puzzles - from the iPhone 3 to the iPhone X aspect ratio (320x480 points to 320x812 points) which means 70% more pixels per puzzles. They look crisper and more vivid than ever on the new phones. We also now organised the puzzles in packs of 10 and there is a new level selection scene in which you drive a bus through a pixel art city from station to station which adds a lot of fun. Additionally we have a new hard mode that unlocks once you have solved all levels. It messes with the tilt behaviour and adds visual effects to the puzzle layers. Read the rest

RJ Jones writes, "My friend gave me a tip! If you need to drown out fascists, bring a speaker & play copyrighted music at their rallies cause it will be easy to report their videos & get them taken down for copyright."This is a reference to Youtube's idiotic Content ID automated takedown system (soon to be mandatory for all online platforms in the EU), which indiscriminately blocks anything that it believes to contain a copyrighted work. It's not clear whether Jones is describing a hypothetical or a reality, but a reliable source in Berlin tells me that this is an established counterprotest tactic there.The thing is, as much as it's a cute way to sabotage Nazis' attempts to spread their messages, there is nothing about this that prevents it from being used against anyone. Are you a cop who's removed his bodycam before wading into a protest with your nightstick? Just play some loud copyrighted music from your cruiser and you'll make all the videos of the beatings you dole out un-postable.The reality is that incidental background music at a political rally is not a copyright infringement, but automated systems can't make sense of fair use claims, which require human judgment.The inability of Content ID to tell fair use from infringement is a feature, not a bug. It's why 7 hours worth of lectures at a scientific symposium were wiped out when the cameras picked up some copyrighted music being played during the lunch break. Read the rest

In 2018, Steve Bannon teamed up with a group called Catholicvote to acquire mobile phone location-tracking data to identify people in Iowa who'd visited a Catholic church and target them with political ads.Bannon revealed that he'd purchased the idea in a deleted scene from The Brink, a documentary about Bannon's life and political tactics. The scene was viewed by Thinkprogress, who have reported out the story.Bannon boasted to the documentary's director that "If your phone’s ever been in a Catholic church, it’s amazing, they got this data. Literally, they can tell who’s been in a Catholic church and how frequently. And they got it triaged."A spokesperson for Catholicvote called Kathleen Storen said that the data the organization used "does not allow you to collect personal information" and then said, essentially, that everyone else does it too.Regardless, as Karl Bode points out, this kind of data collection is generally illegal even though the carriers have aggressively sold the data off and Trump's FCC has refused to stop them.The campaign that Bannon and Catholicvote ran was largely a failure. As Thinkprogress says, "Democrat Abby Finkenauer beat out Republican incumbent Rod Blum by 51% to 45.9%, while Republican Kim Reynolds held on to the governor’s mansion."“This is terribly disturbing. This is like a total infringement on everybody,” said Sister Gwen Hennessey, a Franciscan sister and longtime social justice activist in Dubuque.“I have not used it to target religious groups specifically, and I will say that, for me, morally that seems like a step too far,” said one executive at an advertising firm that regularly uses geofencing, who asked not to be named. Read the rest

Women wearing seatbelts are 73% more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a car crash than men in seatbelts, and while it's not entirely certain why this is, it's a pretty good bet that sampling bias in crash-testing is to blame.Specifically, until very recently all crash-test dummies were male-bodies; when woman-shaped dummies were added, they were shorter and smaller than most women, so that the researchers could capture a wider range of datapoints, from small people to big people.Female bodies and male bodies have typical differences in fat distribution and skeletal structures, so crashes that don't injure male dummies might still present problems for female dummies -- and crashes that involve women who are shaped different from the petite dummies now in use might also cause injuries that are not visible with the dummies that are a proxy for them.All this is uncertain, but not because it's impossible to increase certainty -- rather, there's been next to no research on the subject, and that research will take a long time, even if we start studying it now. The statistical picture built up with male-bodied dummies has been decades in the making, and simply diversifying the shape of dummies in tests starting from today will not provide that longitudinal picture that we need to make real improvements.Mueller says retooling crash-test dummies can’t happen overnight—it takes 20 to 30 years of bio-mechanical research and testing to build and fine-tune each model. Many of the dummies manufacturers are using now were built using data from the 1970s and 1980s, which skewed heavily male. Read the rest

When Tod Kurt of ThingM recommended these reversible Micro USB cables, I bought a 3-pack on Amazon for . They really do work. Both the USB male plug and the micro plug can be inserted without regard to the orientation, like a USB C plug. There is no "right side up." Why aren't all USB cables made this way? Read the rest

No, this isn't a concept design for a Space: 1999 reboot but rather an illustration of the new moon rover in development by Toyota and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Toyota has just signed a three year agreement with JAXA and created a Lunar Exploration Mobility Works department that they will staff up with 30 people in the next few months. Unlike NASA's 1970s Apollo moon buggies, this vehicle will be pressurized so astronauts won't need to wear oxygen-supplying spacesuits when tooling around the lunar surface. It'll be powered by "fuel cell electric vehicle technologies." From Space.com:If all goes according to plan, Toyota and JAXA will build a full-scale prototype in the 2022 time frame, design the flight model and build and test an engineering model about two years later, and build and test the flight model around 2027.Launch would follow in 2029."The rover will be used for missions to explore the moon's polar regions, with the aim both of investigating the possibility of using the moon's resources ― such as frozen water ― and of acquiring technologies that enable exploration of the surfaces of massive heavenly bodies," Toyota representatives wrote in the statement. Read the rest

Seymour Hersh (82) has been an investigative reporter for over 50 years. In this Salon interview conducted by Chauncey Devega, Hersh says Trump has trolled journalism by getting them addicted to his "kitty-litter box of tweets."America is a kakistocracy and a pathocracy. Donald Trump's regime is just the crystallization of that fact. You have decades of experience as a reporter and journalist. How should one write about something that is so utterly outrageous and yet still find a way to make the public care, in a time when so many Americans are numb to it all?Do you really want me to try and make you feel better? Because I want you to make me feel better. This is where we are. It is incredibly messy. One mistake that was made by the media — and which is constantly being made — is living off Donald Trump's tweets. I call it the kitty-litter box full of Trump's tweets.The way it works is Donald Trump sends out a tweet. The cable news immediately repeats Trump's tweet, instead of doing what I would have done if I were king of the world and editor. I would look and see the changes inside the bureaucracy and the system. What is Trump doing? He is replacing good people everywhere with these extreme conservatives — they are not all necessarily fascists. These Trump government types do not want to give food to the poor. They don't think that immigrants should be treated well. Read the rest

This incredible offshore fortress and defense gun tower at Pembroke Dock, South West Wales, UK is for sale. It was built in 1851 and "designed to be operated by one officer and 33 men." Offers above £70,000 will be entertained. From the real estate listing:The North East Dockyard Tower was originally built to accommodate officers and men with storage for powder and provisions. The roof had guns mounted on traversing platforms and 12-pound brass howitzers in order to defend the Royal Dockyard of Pembroke Dock. The building is three stories in height and as you would expect solid in construction, however, it requires maintenance. Being offshore, the tower offers sweeping views of the Cleddau River, Pembroke Dock, Neyland and Llanstadwell.(via Neatorama) Read the rest

Trying to see the world through someone else's eyes is a great way to build empathy and understanding between people. Turns out, this approach -- when taken literally -- also works with robots. Researchers from the University of Bourgogne, University of Trento, and their colleagues used a head-mounted display to put people "inside" a robot and then studied their "likeability and closeness towards the robot.""We have demonstrated that by 'beaming' a participant into a robot we can change his or her attitude towards the robot," says University of Trento psychologist Francesco Pavani. "By 'beaming', we mean that we gave the participants the illusion that they were looking through the robot's eyes, moving its head as if it were their head, look in the mirror and see themselves as a robot.""Unlike exercises in which the participants couldn't t move the robot's head or do that in a coordinated manner with other body movements, in our study the experience of walking in the shoes of a robot led the participants to adopt a friendlier attitude, to perceive them as socially closer."From the abstract of their scientific paper published in Scientific Reports:When participant’ and robot’s head movements were correlated, participants felt that they were incorporated into the robot with a sense of agency. Critically, the robot they embodied was judged more likeable and socially closer. Remarkably, we found that the beaming experience with correlated head movements and corresponding sensation of embodiment and social proximity, was independent of robots’ humanoid’s appearance. Read the rest

The Right to Repair movement has introduced dozens of state-level laws that would force companies to support independent repairs by making manuals, parts and diagnostic codes available, and by ending the illegal practice of voiding warranties for customers who use independent repair services, but these bills keep getting killed by overwhelming shows of lobbying force from members of the highly concentrated manufacturing sector, particularly Apple, whose CEO, Tim Cook, warned investors in January that the number one threat to Iphone sales is that customers are choosing to repair, rather than replace, their mobile devices.Last week, the FTC held a workshop on how a national Right to Repair regime could function, under the banner of Nixing the Fix; though most of the material presented at the workshop will be familiar to anyone who's followed the debate at the state level, the fact that the hearing happened at all is a hopeful sign, the first step on a long journey to a nationwide Right to Repair rule.Wiens of iFixit and US PIRG’s Proctor spoke in favor of fewer restrictions imposed by manufacturers when it comes to product repairs, as well as increased education for consumers and repair shops. Manufacturers have access to specific instructions and specialized tools, the argument goes, making it difficult or nearly impossible for consumers and repair shops to fix the products they own.Jennifer Larson, the CEO of the Minnesota-based IT hardware reseller Vibrant Technologies, said at the workshop that she’s “lost millions in revenue—I can’t even quantify over twenty years how much I’ve lost,” due to repair barriers that prove to be too costly and time-consuming for the clients she sells servers to. Read the rest

This is • real• not normal• not okay.Donald Trump: “Then I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”FACT CHECK: False.The president was speaking on Tuesday to the Turning Point USA event audience.Article 2 of the United States Constitution does not, in fact, grant the president any such power.Video from Vox media journalist Aaron Rupar.TRUMP: "Then I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president."(Article 2 does not in fact empower the president to do whatever they want.) pic.twitter.com/qIFP1AbHw6— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2019 Read the rest

Accountability time.

Friends, you're going to wish you were still making the scene with a magazine after reading this sentence: Google's web trackers are all up in your fap time and there's pretty much nothing (except maybe using a more secure browser like Firefox, read up on cyber security tips from the EFF, refusing to sign into a Google account and never going online without the protection of a VPN) that anyone can do about it.From The Verge:Visitors to porn sites have a “fundamentally misleading sense of privacy,” warn the authors of a new study that examines how tracking software made by tech companies like Google and Facebook is deployed on adult websites.The authors of the study analyzed 22,484 porn sites and found that 93 percent of them leak data to third parties, including when accessed via a browser’s “incognito” mode. This data presents a “unique and elevated risk,” warn the authors, as 45 percent of porn site URLs indicate the nature of the content, potentially revealing someone’s sexual preferences.According to the study, trackers baked up by Google and its creepy always-watching-you subsidiaries were found on over 74% of the porn sites that researchers checked out... for purely scientific reasons, of course. And the fun doesn't stop there! Facebook's trackers appeared on 10% of the websites and, for the discerning surveillance aficionado, 24% of the sites the researchers checked in on were being stalked by Oracle. According to The Verge, "...the type of data collected by trackers varies... Read the rest

Prosecutors accuse Epstein of coercing under-18 girls into sexual abuse, and paying victims to recruit others

“Beer hops earrings I made, I'm pretty proud of these,” says IMGURian Shancar1. Seriously cool! Turns out Shaun runs The Shores Woodshop, out of Saint Clair Shores, Michigan. They make lots of cool things including... these earrings! Buy these very beer hops earrings on Etsy for the homebrew nerd or craft beer otaku in your life.Also I love these Michigan shaped creations from The Shores Woodshop, offered in post earrings that are “first cut from an 1/8 piece of maple, 'inlaid' with a metallic epoxy resin, and finished with a gloss lacquer. They are about 1\2" tall and use a stainless push back post.”Very cool. Read the rest

Yesterday, I published a brief analysis of Elizabeth Warren's plan to close the loopholes that allows private equity to defraud investors, creditors and workers to make billions while destroying the real economy.Today, I'm going to suggest that you read Yves Smith's analysis of the proposal on Naked Capitalism. Private equity is one of the most politically and economically consequential forces in the USA and the world today, behind much of our inequality, looting, and policy dysfunctions.Private equity is a bezzle, protected by deliberately dull layers of obfuscation and complexity that allows its practicioners to claim that the reason they seem to be out-and-out crooks is that none of us are smart enough to figure out what they're doing.Warren isn't buying it. Her proposal builds on the scholarly investigations of Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt (here's some of Appelbaum's commentary on the proposal) to fashion a series of killing blows aimed at the industry's soft, vulnerable spots, from a two-year ban on dividends after PE acquisitions to giving worker pay and pensions bankruptcy priority, to treating gift cards as consumer deposits for bankruptcy purses.As Smith says, there's no chance that the current Congress and Senate would pass this, but that's not the point. The point -- as with Sanders' 2016 Medicare for All proposal -- is to shift the political center, normalizing ideas that sound impossible as part of our daily political discourse. If it's one thing the whole progressive wing of the Democrats have gotten good at in the past four years, it's changing the width of the Overton Window, from Warren to Sanders to AOC. Read the rest

I'm a few years late to the Expanse party, but I am totally into it. I just finished devouring season two on Saturday evening and will likely dig into the third season later this week. Late or not, it looks like my catching up on this pretty damn delightful bit of sci-fi is timely because LOOK: the trailer for season four just popped!Being as I'm not an Amazon Prime member, it could be some time before I get to watch it, but it's good to know that the saga of the Rocinante is gonna keep on keeping on. You can catch season four, starting on December 14th. Read the rest

Adrian Storey decided to use a 5" portable TV--a monochrome cathode ray tube the size and weight of a bag of sugar--as a computer monitor. The first problem: it uses a 3.5mm jack as its sole RF input. There were further problems.1980s 5″ BW TV connected to a PC as 3rd monitor – Display port to HDMI cable into HDMI to composite video adapter, composite video adapter into old VCR, old VCR RF out into coaxial to 3.5mm mono jack adaptor. Mono jack to TV!!Achievement unlocked :)Ultimately the whole exercise was a little pointlessFun, though! Read the rest

After all the hoopla surrounding the new and creepy Cats movie trailer, this delightful 1986 PSA from the American Lung Association may provide some relief.(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

Scientists have used laser light to activate neurons in a mouse's brain so the rodents "sees" non-existent lines. The technique, called optogenetics, switches on and off neurons that have been previously genetically engineered to be light-sensitive. According to Science News, "the results, described online July 18 in Science, represent the first time scientists have created a specific visual perception with laboratory trickery." In this case, the mice had been trained to drink water from a spout upon seeing the lines. From Science News:When optogenetics first debuted about 15 years ago, everyone was hoping to achieve this level of precise control over perception, and the behaviors that follow, says Karl Deisseroth, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist who pioneered the technique. “It’s exciting to get to this point,” says Deisseroth, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Stanford University....Similar approaches could let scientists create other sorts of perceptions, such as smells, touches and tastes, Deisseroth says.Previously: "Scientists remote control a mouse with a wireless LED brain implant" Read the rest

By Facebook's own admission, more than 10 billion of the 12 billion Facebook accounts ever created have been fake; Facebook's growth has stalled out in high-income countries like the USA (where the company is actually losing users), and the majority of growth the company posted in 2018 came from "India, Indonesia, and the Philippines," which also happen to be places where Facebook says it has "meaningfully higher" rates of fake account creation, exacerbated by "episodic spikes" of fake accounts.Facebook claims to have 2.3 billion users, but it also has made a series of contradictory and confusing disclosures about that number that make it hard to credit: they told the SEC that 5% of their accounts were fake and 11% were duplicates (up from 1% and 6% in mid 2017), but no one knows what that number means because in 2018 the company stopped releasing quarterly numbers and switched to annual reporting. And in any event, Facebook won't reveal its methodology for determining fake and dupe accounts, saying that they use a "limited sample of accounts" and then apply "significant judgment" when interpreting their findings.But separately, Facebook says it saw 2.2 billion fake accounts created in Q2 2019 (that it knows about). That's the same number of active users the company claims to have. It's a big number.We're left having to take Facebook's word for the size of its user-base. The number of active Facebook users has a direct relationship to the rates that FB can charge to its advertisers, so it has a powerful motivation to, uh, optimistically interpret its data, and the fact that no one else is allowed to check its work makes the whole thing pretty dubious. Read the rest

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it cross it.Watch as first-time riders, Tyler and Ariel, get bucked off by an uncooperative horse. (Digg) Read the rest

Meet Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II, the mayor of Idyllwild. He won the election with two thirds of the vote and will serve in perpetuity. Max has an instagram page. [via] Read the rest

Two weeks ago, Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism published one of the most consequential investigative stories in the island's history: a trove of leaked private Telegram chats between Governor Ricardo Rossello and his most senior advisors and officials, in which the group use crude, homophobic and misogynist labels to mock and degrade opposition figures, Puerto Rican celebrities, and the people of Puerto Rico as they struggled with the aftermath of hurricanes Maria and Irma, left to swelter and die by a local and national government that had abandoned them.Since then, Puerto Rico has been roiled by mass demonstrations, initially calling for Rossello's resignation, but now for deep, structural reforms to an island whose long history has been one of colonial occupation, oppression, and looting.The protests have been led by feminists and queer activists, supported by the likes of Ricky Martin, a beloved, gay Puerto Rican pop star who was targeted for homophobic slurs in the leaks. As they've gained strength, the protests have drawn out more and more people from all walks of life -- with the vanguard still made up by political radicals who will not accept cosmetic compromises.The Puerto Rican government has responded with riot squads and violent suppression, in a spectacular miscalculation that has only brought out more people. To make things worse, the police appear to have manufactured a casus belli by setting off fireworks behind their lines, a fraud so transparent that it has robbed them of any credibility they had left. Read the rest

A few months ago I got a sneak listen to the pilot episode of Sam Greenspan's podcast of speculative journalism called Bellwether. Sam was a producer at 99% Invisible and he knows how to tell a great story. The thing I love about Bellwether is how Sam did real reporting (about the driverless car fatality that took place last year) and presents it as a piece of history from the future. I got chills when I heard it. The soundtrack is great, too!Here's the pilot episode. It's a must-listen:The good news is that Sam is Kickstarting the series, so there will be more episodes coming. I can't wait to find out what happens in the metastory.If you support the Kickstarter at a level of $20 or above, you get a cassette of music from Bellwether, produced by Beaunoise. Read the rest

In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my essay SAMBA versus SMB: Adversarial Interoperability is Judo for Network Effects, published last week on EFF's Deeplinks; it's a furhter exploration of the idea of "adversarial interoperability" and the role it has played in fighting monopolies and preserving competition, and how we could use it to restore competition today.In tech, "network effects" can be a powerful force to maintain market dominance: if everyone is using Facebook, then your Facebook replacement doesn't just have to be better than Facebook, it has to be so much better than Facebook that it's worth using, even though all the people you want to talk to are still on Facebook. That's a tall order.Adversarial interoperability is judo for network effects, using incumbents' dominance against them. To see how that works, let's look at a historical example of adversarial interoperability role in helping to unseat a monopolist's dominance.The first skirmishes of the PC wars were fought with incompatible file formats and even data-storage formats: Apple users couldn't open files made by Microsoft users, and vice-versa. Even when file formats were (more or less) harmonized, there was still the problems of storage media: the SCSI drive you plugged into your Mac needed a special add-on and flaky driver software to work on your Windows machine; the ZIP cartridge you formatted for your PC wouldn't play nice with Macs.MP3 Read the rest

After Alex Acosta helped Jeffrey Epstein get off the hook in Florida for “soliciting prostitution from a minor,” Epstein is reported to have received a number of odd visits while in detention -- from young women and from powerful men. One of the men was “James E. Staley, a top JPMorgan Chase executive and one of the highest-ranking figures on Wall Street,” reports the New York Times.Why was a JPMorgan Chase exec visiting Jeffrey Epstein?Apparently, to ensure that a pipeline of high-value clients kept flowing from the convicted sex predator and accused serial child sexual abuser to JPMorgan Chase.Kate Kelly, Matthew Goldstein, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and James B. Stewart reporting for the New York Times:Mr. Staley had good reason to maintain his relationship with Mr. Epstein, who received him at his Palm Beach office, where he had been permitted to serve some of his 13-month sentence in 2008 and 2009. Over the years, Mr. Epstein had funneled dozens of wealthy clients to Mr. Staley and his bank.Mr. Epstein, who was charged this month with sex trafficking of teenage girls, liked to portray himself as a financial wizard, someone whose business and investing acumen made him indispensable to corporate executives and other leaders. But there is little evidence to support that notion. The financial services that Mr. Epstein dispensed appear to have been mostly pedestrian, and his list of clients small.Mr. Epstein nonetheless managed to affix himself to a handful of prominent Wall Street veterans, including Mr. Read the rest

It really is amazing how stupid some people are.Yes, that dude on the e-scooter is nonchalantly crossing five, count 'em, 5 lanes of traffic on I-35 in Dallas. Josh Weatherl's car dashcam shot this incredible footage of a complete idiot zooming through freeway traffic on a LimeBike e-scooter."Bro! What are you doing?!" says Weatherl as he drives. "Oh my gosh, that is the most wild thing I have ever seen," laughs the motorist as he watches the scooter guy. "How did he get on here?!"The footage was recorded shortly before 9AM local time, and shows the scooter guy wearing a backpack and exiting south of the Dallas North Tollway exit.From the Dallas News:Dallas' dockless vehicle ordinance does not prohibit scooters from being operated on the interstate, but the city's website says they can be used on streets where the speed limit is 35 mph or lower. (The scooters are banned from sidewalks in downtown Dallas, Deep Ellum and the Cedars, as well as the Katy Trail.)A measure sponsored by state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, that would've banned scooters from the Texas' highways, among other regulations, failed to get a vote on the House floor in the recent legislative session. Read the rest

• The change is expected to be a massive expansion of the government's power to seize, detain, and abruptly deport.• Previously, “expedited removal” was limited to undocumented immigrants caught within 100 miles of the U.S. border who had been in the U.S. for less than two weeks. The Trump administration's extrajudicial 'Expedited Removal' of undocumented immigrants will be radically expanded to apply everywhere within the United States, not just within 100 miles of the Mexico border, after the new rule is published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.On Tuesday, the Trump administration is expected to radically expand its power to rapidly deport undocumented immigrants who entered the United States within the past two years, using the 'Expedited Removal' fast-track deportation process which removes the involvement of any immigration judges.From the Washington Post's ICE beat reporter Maria Sacchetti:Officials are calling the new strategy, which will take effect immediately, a “necessary response” to the influx of Central Americans and others at the southern border. It will allow immigration authorities to quickly remove immigrants from anywhere they encounter them across the United States, and they expect the approach will help alleviate the nation’s immigration-court backlog and free up space in Immigration and Customs Enforcement jails.The stated targets of the change are people who sneaked into the United States and do not have an asylum case or immigration-court date pending. Previously, the administration’s policy for “expedited removal” had been limited to migrants caught within 100 miles of the U.S. Read the rest

It's just black electrical tape, but it's made by 3M and a roll costs just on Amazon. It's temporarily out of stock but you can still buy it at this price and you'll get it when Amazon gets more. Read the rest

Jon Baird a reporter on KNX 1070 radio, reports that FBI raided the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power this morning, brandishing sealed warrants. Details are sketchy but all I want to know is does this mean I can skip paying my bill this month?Federal agents are reportedly serving search warrants today at #LADWP and at #LosAngelesCityHall, as part of what has been reported as an “ongoing investigation”. The #FBI went in minutes ago. @KNX1070 pic.twitter.com/FlBbDrqtTo— Jon Baird (@KNXBaird) July 22, 2019Here at #LADWP, search warrants were being served today as part of an ongoing investigation. One of 3 people walking in the door put on an #FBI jacket as he entered. @KNX1070 pic.twitter.com/PeR3GQgG61— Jon Baird (@KNXBaird) July 22, 2019From Wikipedia:The LADWP has been criticized for allowing excessive overtime. In 2018, 306 of its workers took home more than $100,000 in overtime pay, while the agency paid $250 million for overtime, a new high for the agency. The most egregious example of this is a security worker who was paid $314,000 in overtime, on a listed base pay of $25,000, along with three peers who were paid more than $200,000 overtime each. (The nationwide median wage for security officers was $28,500 in 2018.) One policy which enables these large overtime payouts is a provision in the union contracts which requires a normal shift worked after more than one hour of overtime to be paid at double time, as well as that overtime is not based on working more than 40 hours in a week, but on working time beyond a "normal" shift. Read the rest

Illegitimate popular-vote-losing United States President Donald Trump, folks. “If I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth, it would be over literally in 10 days," Donald Trump said today. “I just don't want to kill 10 million people.”He is lying, again, of course. Donald Trump would totally kill 10 million people if he could figure out how to do it so that it would only benefit him."If I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth, it would be over literally in 10 days," Trump said. “I just don't want to kill 10 million people." pic.twitter.com/2h0JTa4ZCY— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 22, 2019 Read the rest

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller will arrive on Capitol Hill 'fully prepared' to testify, his spokesperson tells a CNN reporter today.CNN's Jessica Schneider reports that “Mueller has been prepping with a small group from the Special Counsel’s office at Wilmer Hale offices,” and that Mueller's spokesperson told CNN, “If you look at him and his career, he is someone who comes to the table fully prepared and he’s going to be ready Wednesday.”MORE: Mueller will have a prepared opening statement that has not been seen by DOJ, according to the spox. His testimony will be in line with his public statement May 29. “If you listen to that statement, he made it clear you can basically expect him to stick to the report.”MORE: Mueller will also submit a statement for the record to the committee beyond his opening, but that will simply be a redacted copy of his report and nothing else, his spox says. Mueller’s frame of mind? “He was subpoenaed obviously and he’s made clear that’s why he will be there.” Read the rest

GerontionBY T. S. ELIOTThou hast nor youth nor age But as it were an after dinner sleep Dreaming of both.Here I am, an old man in a dry month,Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.I was neither at the hot gatesNor fought in the warm rainNor knee deep in the salt marsh, heaving a cutlass,Bitten by flies, fought.My house is a decayed house,And the Jew squats on the window sill, the owner,Spawned in some estaminet of Antwerp,Blistered in Brussels, patched and peeled in London.The goat coughs at night in the field overhead;Rocks, moss, stonecrop, iron, merds.The woman keeps the kitchen, makes tea,Sneezes at evening, poking the peevish gutter. I an old man,A dull head among windy spaces. Signs are taken for wonders. ‘We would see a sign!’The word within a word, unable to speak a word,Swaddled with darkness. In the juvescence of the yearCame Christ the tiger In depraved May, dogwood and chestnut, flowering judas,To be eaten, to be divided, to be drunkAmong whispers; by Mr. SilveroWith caressing hands, at LimogesWho walked all night in the next room; By Hakagawa, bowing among the Titians;By Madame de Tornquist, in the dark roomShifting the candles; Fräulein von KulpWho turned in the hall, one hand on the door. Vacant shuttlesWeave the wind. I have no ghosts,An old man in a draughty houseUnder a windy knob. Read the rest

If you have a vehicle that isn't fancy enough to have air conditioning vents in the backseat area, you might want to consider this totally tubular invention. It's called the Noggle and it was designed to keep kids cool in the heat (and warm in the cold). It costs roughly $50 for an 8-foot-long one.(Geekologie) Read the rest

On October 18, 1953, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt signed in as the "mystery challenger" on the popular game show What's My Line? By allowing the show's host to answer her initial questions, she managed to stump the blindfolded panelists for a while. But, after a few rounds, the 69-year-old Ms. Roosevelt started answering the questions herself and that's when one of the panelists got wise to her identity.(Nag on the Lake) Read the rest

New Orleans music and cultural legend Art Neville, who co-founded the Meters and Neville Brothers, has died. He was 81 years old. “Poppa Funk,” as he was known, shaped the sound of New Orleans for half a century, reports nola.com's Keith Spera. “In the latest blow for a New Orleans music community that had already lost Dr. John and Dave Bartholomew this summer, Neville died Monday after years of declining health.”The keyboardist and singer was the voice of the Carnival anthem for the ages, 'Mardi Gras Mambo.'”Excerpt from NOLA.com's obituary:"It was peaceful," said Kent Sorrell, Neville's longtime manager. "He passed away at home with his adoring wife Lorraine by his side. He toured the world how many times, but he always came home to Valence Street."Arthur Lanon Neville was born on December 17, 1937, the same day as New Orleans piano legend James Booker. As a boy, he lived in the Calliope housing development and Uptown on Valence Street. He was drawn to the Orioles, the Drifters and other doo-wop groups, as well as the piano-driven music of Professor Longhair and Fats Domino.He attended St. Augustine and Booker T. Washington high schools before earning his GED from Walter S. Cohen, where he’d hang out in the music room with fellow members of the Hawketts, the group he joined in 1953.He was barely 17 when, in 1954, he sang lead on the Hawketts’ remake of a country song called “Mardi Gras Mambo.” Local deejay Jack the Cat convinced the Hawketts to record "Mardi Gras Mambo" at his radio station. Read the rest

On Thursday, August 8th, in Silverlake, California you have the opportunity to see some amazing performers. The line-up includes Jim Turner, Dana Gould, and legendary guitarist Laurence Juber, all while supporting Swing Left Los Feliz.Evidently Gould will be portraying everyone's favorite conversant simian, Dr. Zaius.Hi, folks! It’s me, Jim Turner (yes, that Jim Turner)…I am working with a group putting on a benefit to raise funds to contribute to Dan McCreadys’ special election campaign to fill the seat representing North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District in the U.S. House. The special election, which will be held on September 10, 2019, follows allegations the Republican candidate committed election fraud in the initial election. It’s essential McCready is successful in his congressional bid and Swing Left Los Feliz (our group) aims to provide recourses to help make that happen - so the Democrats can hold the House while working towards flipping the Senate.And equally important: this particular election will be a referendum on trump and is really the first big election of 2020. It’s very important we win it.The benefit we’re throwing is Thursday, August 8 at The Satellite (used to be Spaceland in Silverlake) at 8:00. And it’s actually one of those benefits that's worth the price. You don’t even have to like Dan McCready. You’ll be that happy you come. Mainly because the inimitable, Dana Gould, will be emceeing the night in a very rare appearance as Dr. Zaius from Planet of the Apes!Also appearing will be:Moses StormLaurence JuberFrom Mueller She Wrote (Jordan Coburn, Jaleesa Johnson, and A.G.)2 Headed Dog (Dave “Gruber” Allen, Mark Fite, Jim Turner - featuring Biscuits & Gravy)Jonah SmithJ Elvis WeinsteinDeejay, Senor AmorThe Andy Paley Orchestra WHERE:Satellite: 1717 Silver Lake Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026WHEN:Thursday, August 8, 2019, 8:00pmWe’ve got several ticket prices. Read the rest

With Boeing teetering toward the brink after two decades of mismanagement and two spectacularly deadly crashes, times are looking good for European rival Airbus; talk has even turned to the dangers of it assuming an effective monopoly on new sales for years.Well, check out the menu!the theoretical design is a hybrid-electric, turbo-propeller aircraft for regional air transportation. Inspired by efficient mechanics of a bird, it has wing and tail structures that mimic those of a bird of prey, while featuring individually controlled feathers that provide active flight control. ... While not intended to represent an actual aircraft, Airbus’ “Bird of Prey” is based on realistic ideas Read the rest

The #612strike protests that have rocked Hong Kong for more than a month continue to gather steam, as Hong Kongers march to demand that China make good on its promise to respect the island's right to self-governance.Sunday's massive demonstrations were followed by mob-beatings doled out by largely masked men in white outfits whom many believe to be members of Triad crime gangs. Hundreds of men armed with sticks and iron pipes stormed a subway station and set upon protesters who were leaving a demonstration. The mob attacked anyone not in white, catching some random subway passengers and bystanders in with the protesters that were their targets.Though the police did not arrive until after the mob had left, pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho was present, cheering on the mob as they beat the protesters and giving them a "thumbs-up" gesture, calling members of the mob "heroes" and shaking their handsThe police have made no arrests and victims of the mob say that no one has followed up on their police reports.The government issued a statement condemning both anti-extradition protesters on Hong Kong island and the Yuen Long mobs for causing the violent scenes. The police in charge said that the violence was a conflict between two political groups.At least 45 people were hospitalized and one was left in critical condition as a result of the mob attack. Among the injured is pro-democracy lawmaker Lam Cheuk Ting, 2 journalists from Stand News and a pregnant woman.Armed mobs attack anti-extradition protesters in a suburban Hong Kong subway station [Oiwan Lam/Global Voices]Ahead of today’s march, Hong Kong protesters have put together this video reading out their manifesto. Read the rest

This rugged watch band acts as a case to protect my Apple Watch as I fall all over myself.Hiking, fishing, falling down -- these are a few of my regular things. I am not particularly clumsy but I tend to space out spatially and will occasionally walk into a tree, or stumble over a rock. It gets worse when I have a 125lb dog pulling my right arm in the opposite direction of the 20lb dog on my left. Smashing the face of your Apple Watch is more expensive, thus far, than smashing my own face.This band takes a licking and the watch keeps on 'ticking.'I am hopelessly addicted to my watch, so a band that protects the device from me is pretty nice.This band fits the 42mm Series 3 watch I wear. SUPCASE also has bands for the other sizes and models.SUPCASE [Unicorn Beetle Pro] Case for Apple Watch 3, Rugged Protective Case with Strap Bands for Apple Watch Series 3 2017 Edition [42mm, Compatible with Apple Watch 42mm 2015 2016 ] (Black) via Amazon Read the rest

Researchers from the University of Chicago and Sony are developing a wearable electrical muscle stimulation system that boosts your physical reaction time without making it feel like you've lost control of your body. The latter is particularly important when considering the development of exoskeletons and other systems that bring us physically closer to machines for augmenting human capabilities. The system essentially zaps your muscles into contracting at precisely the right time while making it seem as if you're still controlling the movement. From IEEE Spectrum:The typical reaction time for a human is about 250 milliseconds—meaning it takes you about a quarter of a second after you see something to physically react to it. But the researchers explain that "our conscious awareness of intention takes a moment to arise, around 200 ms." In other words, it takes you about 200 milliseconds for your brain to turn sensory input into a decision to do something like move a muscle, and then another 50 or so milliseconds for that muscle to actually start moving. The researchers suggest that this 50-ish millisecond gap between intention and action is a window that they can exploit to make humans react more quickly while still feeling like the action they take is under their control.The video below shows a series of experiments that demonstrate how reflexes can be usefully accelerated without decreasing the sense of control, or agency, that the user experiences. It turns out that an EMS-driven improvement in reflexes of up to 80 milliseconds is possible while still maintaining the user's sense of agency, which is the difference between success and failure in these particular experiments. Read the rest

This is post is part of a series of reviews of Federal, State, and County provided campsites along California's amazing coastline.I've visited the Oceano Campgrounds at Pismo State Beach several times this summer. Conveniently located right off the 101 highway along the central coast of California, Pismo is a great place to take a break.There are other State-run campsites at Pismo, Oceano is not 'Oceano Dunes,' nor is it 'the Pismo North Campground.' Oceano sits on a lovely, bird-filled lagoon about 2 short blocks from the State beach. The sites are very typical of Cal State camping, picnic tables and fire rings. I've stayed in both sites with RV hookups and tent camping sites. I felt situated a little closer to other campers than I'd have liked for a several-day visit, but as a convenient overnight place to stop, cook and shower? Oceano kicks ass.The hosts and rangers are also very nice people here and are super helpful. There is a Mexican restaurant right outside the very modern and nice Visitor Center, however I have not tried it. The hamburger shack about 1 block towards the beach, Adam's Burgers, is fantastic. Enjoyed by both my daughter and I. There is also a small market, and a coffee shack that'll sell you t-shirts and stickers as well.There were a lot of RVs set up for lengthier stays. Most folks had dune buggy type cars, but nothing as cool as Wonderbuggy. Oceano Dunes is one of the last places folks can hoon around in the sand. Read the rest

Ten years ago, we showed you a method for baking cookies on your car dashboard on hot days while you're at work, filling your car with delicious baking smells and a tray of warm cookies for the commute home.Now, as the climate emergency deepens, car cookies are making a comeback, with the Nebraska Weather Service livetweeting its attempt to bake biscuits on a car dashboard amid an unprecedented midwestern heat-wave. The pan reached 185' F, and after 8 hours, the "slightly doughy" cookies had reached an internal temperature of 144.5' F. If you are wondering if it's going to be hot today, we are attempting to bake biscuits using only the sun and a car in our parking lot. We will keep you posted with the progress. Stay cool! #newx #iawx pic.twitter.com/cXZgdRIgcK— NWS Omaha (@NWSOmaha) July 18, 2019 (via The New York Post) Read the rest

Oregon governor Kate Brown signed a bill that excuses public school students for taking "mental health days" just as they are excused for other illnesses. The bill was spearheaded by youth activists. From the Associated Press:(Eighteen-year-old Hailey) Hardcastle, who plans to attend the University of Oregon in the fall, said she and fellow youth leaders drafted the measure to respond to a mental health crisis in schools and to “encourage kids to admit when they’re struggling.”Debbie Plotnik, vice president of the nonprofit advocacy group Mental Health America, said implementing the idea in schools was important step in challenging the way society approaches mental health issues.“We need to say it’s just as OK to take care for mental health reasons as it is to care for a broken bone or a physical illness,” she said.(Image: "Conceptual illustration of mental health" by Quince Media, (CC BY-SA 4.0)) Read the rest

There is a booming market for app-based English-language tutors, many in the USA, who serve Chinese families where the parents are eager to have their children acquire English proficiency; these tutors are often also moonlighting teachers, or former teachers, who have been trained to spot and report signs of abuse. Many of these teachers say that they have witnessed both indirect signs of abuse, as well as directly witnessing horrific acts of on-camera violence in which abusive parents brutally beat their children.What's more, the tutors say that when they report this violence to the companies they contract to, like Vipkid, the companies do not take action beyond shuffling which teacher is working with that kid. Using private Facebook groups, tutors have compared notes and banded together to put pressure on the companies to take action.Corporal punishment is widespread in China, but recent legal reforms have banned most kinds of violent punishments for children. However, if the companies report parental abuse to Chinese authorities, it could undermine their ability to attract and retain clients -- narking out the parents who are paying the bills is bad for business.Edsurge's Emily Tate contacted many of the leading companies providing these services and while all said reassuring things about the company's plans to deal with abuse, they were notably short on details and often refused to answer followup questions.Adam Steinberg, a spokesman at VIPKid’s US office in San Francisco, said in a written statement that “the safety and security of teachers, students, and parents is a top priority for VIPKid and we take these matters very seriously.” Although he couldn't say precisely how many reports of abuse the company receives each day, he wrote that “we have a process to address these very rare instances directly with the parties involved to ensure their welfare.” That process, Steinberg said, includes ending classes before the full 25 minutes, deleting the video, and following up with both teachers and parents about the issue. Read the rest