The EU Commission's High-Level Expert Group on AI (AI HLEG) has tabled its Policy and investment recommendations for trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, recommending a ban on the use of machine learning technologies to generate Chinese-style Citizen Scores and limits on the use of the technology in monitoring and analyzing mass surveillance data.However, much of the report simply recommends "further study," while other recommendations, like limits on the use of emotional tracking and assessment technologies, are maddeningly vague. Members of the panel like philosopher Thomas Metzinger and Access Now policy analyst Fanny Hidvegi publicly condemned the report that emerged from their work, calling it "dumbed down" with "red lines" over bans on AI applications being reduced to mere "critical concerns" in the final document.Last March, the EU narrowly approved a proposal to subject all public online communications to algorithmic surveillance and automated censorship in the name of preventing copyright infringement. Fanny Hidvegi, a member of the expert group that authored the report and a policy analyst at nonprofit Access Now, said the document was overly vague, lacking “clarity on safeguards, red lines, and enforcement mechanisms.” Others involved have criticized the EU’s process for being steered by corporate interests. Philosopher Thomas Metzinger, another member of the AI expert group, has pointed out how initial “red lines” on how AI shouldn’t be used have been dumbed down to mere “critical concerns.” EU should ban AI-powered citizen scoring and mass surveillance, say experts [James Vincent/The Verge](via /.) Read the rest

Queens is the most populous district in the USA, with a population (2.359m) larger than many states; the District Attorney of Queens wields incredible power, and now that power has shifted dramatically.Like many of New York City's elected offices, the real race for DA is decided by the local Democratic Party machine, as the electorate is overwhelmingly Democrate-voting. In the case of the DA's office, the retirement (and subsequent death) of 30-year DA Dick Brown created an opportunity for one of Brown's proteges to step in and continue Brown's legacy of incarceration for minor offenses. A predictable crop of usual suspects presented themselves and one, Queens borough president Melinda Katz, got the establishment endorsement, including the blessing of Joe Crowley, the finance-friendly "Democrat" who lost a primary race to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last year.Enter Tiffany Cabán: a 31 year old, Democratic Socialist, queer, Latinx public defender in New York City who stepped up to run against Katz and the other establishment candidates. Billed as a long-shot, Cabán won the endorsements of AOC, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and ran a grassroots campaign that saw her raising money from three times as many local supporters as any of the other candidates (the other candidates still outraised Cabán, by bringing in big checks from wealthy out-of-district donors).Cabán's campaign was also popular outside of Queens. I -- along with many other leftists and members of the Democratic Socialists -- donated small sums to her.When Joe Crowley lost his primary race to AOC, the Democratic establishment claimed that it had been taken by surprise -- and denied that the upset represented any deeper structural shift in the American mood or the Democratic Party's base. Read the rest

Insulin prices have skyrocketed to the point where many people with diabetes live in insulin poverty, with one in four rationing their insulin and an even larger proportion trading off other life necessities (food, rent, clothing) to afford their insulin supply.The rise in insulin prices has nothing to do with recouping R&D costs (the majority of which are funded by government agencies, in any event): the cost of Humalog has risen 1000% in a decade, without any reformulations or refinements.Why are the prices so high? Because there's no competition to speak of. Re-patenting and legal saber-rattling have kept most new entrants out of the market, while lax antitrust enforcement has allowed existing companies to merge, eliminating potential competitors.Elizabeth Warren has made federal manufacture of generic drugs a campaign plank, with an emphasis on producing generic insulin.Insulin prices have been rising for years, with lethal consequences. The effects of being unable to afford lifesaving medicine are weird, too: from forming insulin caravans to Canada to making DIY small-batch insulin of your own. Trump's insulin czar, meanwhile, is the Eli Lily president who oversaw a tripling in the price of insulin.For Alec, that price was already steep: Even with his promotion, he was making $35,000 a year with no benefits. He and Smith-Holt had combed through Minnesota’s Obamacare marketplace for months in search of a decent plan, but the affordable ones all had sky-high deductibles. That meant that he’d be paying full price for his insulin for months before his junk insurance kicked in, on top of hundreds of dollars in monthly premiums—sucking up some 80 percent of his take-home pay once he paid the rent. Read the rest

A good way to understand how something works is to watch how it fails.Forgotten Weapons:Over many years of filming with my high speed camera, I have a decent little library of malfunctions in a wide variety of guns. These don't normally make it into videos, and I figured it would be neat to present a bunch of them together. Enjoy! Read the rest

Oh my heart. The Muppets of Sesame Street had their own Tiny Desk concert!NPR's Bob Boilen:The news has stopped! Count von Count and the NPR kids count us down: 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1!And there they are at the Tiny Desk: Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Rosita, Abby Cadabby and Cookie Monster, all singing about a sunny day and how everything is A-OK. The Sesame Street crew — including Elmo, Grover and other surprise guests — visited NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C., to celebrate Sesame Street's 50 years of teaching the world its A-B-Cs, its 1-2-3s, how to be kind and how to be proud, all while spreading love and joy.Sesame Street has won more major awards than any other group to play the Tiny Desk, including 11 Grammys and 192 Emmys. There was a lot of love as the cast of Sesame Street got to meet NPR hosts and newscasters, who in turn got to geek out meeting their favorite Muppets and the creators behind the felt and fur. These folks include Matt Vogel, Sesame Street's puppet captain and performer, and music director Bill Sherman.I even got to sing with Grover. And I'll also say, on a personal note, that this may well have been the hardest-working, most dedicated group of performers I've ever worked with. I'm so proud of these Muppets and so happy to celebrate all that they've meant to the world for these 50 years. Read the rest

I've never been able to get into Doctor Who, but I loves me some David Tennant. His performances in Broadchurch (Not that crappy American Gracepoint remake nonsense, mind you), Jessica Jones and, most recently, Good Omens, have been absolutely amazing. There's something about him that draws the eye and makes you believe in what he's selling on-screen. He doesn't oversell his characters and its rare to see him steal authority from those working a scene with him. His craft's earned him a huge amount of celebrity in recent years--a fact that he hasn't always been comfortable with.In this candid interview, Tennant talks about his having to come to terms with being 'public property,' and how celebrity can change one's life for both better and worse.Image via Wikipedia Read the rest

Here's something that might make you feel old: The first episode of Seinfeld ran July 5, 1989. Thirty years ago! To celebrate this 30th-anniversary milestone, designer Brent Waller has recreated Jerry's now-iconic Manhattan apartment in LEGO, along with minifigs of Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, George, and Newman. The set is only a concept right now -- not that there's anything wrong with that!. But, if it gets enough votes in the LEGO Ideas contest, it will become an actual product you can buy in stores. Vote now.(The Awesomer) Read the rest

San Fransisco-based Juul and other e-cigarette companies were given a swift kick in the stones today by the Golden Gate City as San Francisco became the first city in the United States to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes within its borders. From The New York Times:“We’ve worked for decades to decrease tobacco usage and try to end nicotine addiction,” said Shamann Walton, a member of the board of supervisors and a co-author of the bill, which will go into effect 30 days after it is signed by the mayor. “Now you have this device loaded with nicotine and chemicals that’s drawing people to addiction. We need to keep it out of the hands of young people.”Passage of the bill was praised by anti-tobacco advocates and the American Heart Association, among other health organizations.But the bill also has many critics, including researchers who say they worry that a blanket ban on e-cigarettes could harm the wider goals of anti-tobacco efforts by eliminating what experts consider a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes.While it might explode in your face, e-cigarettes present a significantly lower toxin level per puff than sucking on a conventional coffin nail does. The New York Times points out this fact, relating that the ban can be seen as knee-jerk appeasement to voters who are worried their kids could get hooked on nicotine... even though cigarettes will still be available in the city at every corner store. If you're looking to stock up before the ban take effect, you'll have six months to do it as the city of San Fransisco is giving businesses within its borders half a year to get rid of their current stock. Read the rest

The NRA announced that it is firing its longtime advertising firm and spokesperson Dana Loesch. It's the latest episode in the grifter civil war that's engulfed the gun lobby group.The N.R.A. on Tuesday also severed all business with its estranged advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen, which operates NRATV, the N.R.A.’s live broadcasting media arm, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.While NRATV may continue to air past content, its live broadcasting will end and its on-air personalities — Ackerman employees including Dana Loesch — will no longer be the public faces of the N.R.A. It remained unclear whether the N.R.A. might try to hire some of those employees, but there was no indication it was negotiating to do so.Earlier reports claimed that Ackerman McQueen had effectively overtaken the NRA, with media provocateurs such as Loesch more prominent than its official leadership despite not even being employed by the organization. Ackerman transformed the lobby group into a highly-optimized grift on gun nuts, who eventually decided they'd had enough of the bullshit. The Times cites one episode in particular as a wake-up call to NRA leaders about where they'd been led: NRATV and Loesch's portrayal of Thomas the Tank Engine in Klan hoods: Read the rest

When it comes to large computer systems, not one of them is fully secure. Even with constant updates to the platforms that keep vital networks humming, there's always a back door. And companies are willing to pay handsomely to effective bouncers that can keep an eye on them.Call them ethical hackers or white hat hackers, they're the cybersecurity experts that are constantly on the lookout for vulnerabilities to sensitive networks - the better to patch them up and keep them safe. There's not likely to be a drop in demand for these extremely specialized techs anytime soon. And if you've thought about joining their ranks, there's actually a course dedicated to bringing any coder up to speed: The Ultimate Ethical Hacking A to Z Certification Bundle.You'll find tutorials in cyber-security for any system out there, but nothing that drills down quite so far as this master class, while also giving you an overview of hacking with principles that can be applied to any platform. The opening lessons in the bundle give a birds-eye view of security by showing you what the most common targets of any hacker are, and the routes they use to attack them. You'll be able to set up a practice lab at your own computer - a contained environment where you can practice the techniques you learn without fear of harming your own system or anyone else's.As your skills progress, you'll learn specific techniques for detecting weak spots in Python, including the ability to write scripts that comb internal systems and raise red flags for you. Read the rest

Give him the dang treat already, come on.Gravity is confusing.Here's the full video.Treat?[via IMGUR] Read the rest

Mueller agreed to testify after being subpoenaed to do so.

You would almost think that billionaire serial sex-abuser of children and former pal of Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, has some kind of secret leverage that keeps him from being brought to justice for his sickening crimes. From the Miami Herald:Suspected sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was handed another break by the Department of Justice on Monday when federal prosecutors rejected his victims’ efforts to throw out his plea deal and prosecute him for abusing dozens of underage girls.In the 35-page motion, filed in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia, federal prosecutors said that there is no legal basis to invalidate Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement — and they warned the federal judge in the case against doing the same.U.S. Attorney Byung “B.J.” Pak said that because Congress did not outline specific penalties in the Crime Victims’ Rights Act when it was created by Congress, Epstein’s victims have no right to demand anything from the government — not even an apology. A federal judge ruled earlier this year that the plea deal violated that legislation.In the video below, you can see a rogue's galleries of awful people who helped Epstein in his quest to sexually abuse girls and to protect him from paying for his crimes:.mcclatchy-embed{position:relative;padding:40px 0 56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%}.mcclatchy-embed iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%} Read the rest

A hacker calling themself Light Leafon who claims to be a 14-year-old is responsible for a new IoT worm called Silex that targets any Unix-like system by attempting a login with default credentials; upon gaining access, the malware enumerates all mounted disks and writes to them from /dev/random until they are filled, then it deletes the devices' firewall rules and removes its network config and triggers a restart -- this effectively bricks the device, rendering it useless until someone performs the complex dance needed to download and reinstall the device's firmware.The worm has taken down at least 2,000 devices since it appeared earlier today, and is indiscriminate enough that it could take down GNU/Linux servers that were badly configured. At least some of the worm's instances have been served from novinvps.com, which is based in Iran. Ankit Anubhav from NewSky Security told Zdnet that he made contact with the worm's author, "Light Leafon," who claimed to be 14 years old. Anubhav had already contacted Leafon earlier, when Leafon released a precursor to Silex called HITO that attacked IoT devices last month. Anubhav calls Leafon "one of the most prominent and talented IoT threat actors at the moment."Last year, an IoT worm called Brickerbot swept the internet, and its author claims that it disabled 10,000,000 IoT devices in the process.The teenager said he plans to develop the malware further and add even more destructive functions."It will be reworked to have the original BrickerBot functionality," Light told Anubhav and ZDNet. Read the rest

I've often said that science fiction doesn't tell you much about the future, but it sure tells you a lot about the present: the fact that we're still citing Frankenstein and the Terminator tells you that we're worried about being carried away by our technology, the fact that we're still citing The Matrix tells you that we fear that the world is being secretly run by a conspiracy (and not without cause).The rise of global trumpism has been accompanied by a resurgence in John Carpenter's 1988 science fiction movie about conspiracies, consumerism and revealed truths "They Live," and just in time to cash in on the zeitgeist, Neca has announced a $70 They Live action-figure set that ships on Halloween 2019, complete with OBEY TV set accessory -- to say nothing of "wristwatches that transport them to the alien command center, as well as television, magazine, newspaper and necklace accessories." NECA They Live: Aliens 8 Inch Retro Action Figure 2 Pack [NECA](via Gameraboy) Read the rest

This excellent Victorinox paring knife is on sale at Amazon for . It has a 3.25-inch blade and no serrations, so you can sharpen it to split atoms if you wish. Read the rest

On December 28, 2018 Nkuka Lulendo fled Angola with his wife and four young children. They sought refugee status in Korea, but have been stuck in terminal 1 of Incheon Airport ever since. In the video Lulendo tells the sad story of how he ended up in Korea. He was working as a taxi driver in Angola and he accidentally hit a police car. He's an ethnic minority, and he says the police imprisoned and tortured him for 10 days, and raped his wife, too. A police officer who sympathized with him helped him escape, and so Lulendo gathered his family and left Angola as soon as they could. Now they live at the airport, sleeping on a large square couch. Lulendo says people have given them clothes and food.The interviewer asked one of Lulendo's 9-year-old kids: "Do you want to go back to Angola or stay here in Korea?"He said, "I’d like to go back if we weren’t in danger of dying."Asian Boss, which produced the video, wrote: "Initially, we thought about helping the Lulendo family through crowdfunding. However, what they wanted more than money was raising awareness about their situation so they can have their asylum-application process expedited by the Korean government. If you want to help, just keep sharing this video until this story gets picked by mainstream media. The Korean government won't address this issue until there is enough media coverage on a global scale, so let's do our part." <em>Image: YouTube</em> Read the rest

If you have access to a 3D printer, you can make a belt. No assembly required!<em>Image: YouTube</em> Read the rest

Yesterday, the New York Times published my "op-ed from the future," an essay entitled "I Shouldn’t Have to Publish This in The New York Times," which tried to imagine what would happen to public discourse if the Big Tech platforms were forced to use algorithms to police their users' speech in order to fight extremism, trolling, copyright infringement, harassment, and so on.In just a couple hours -- 12PM Pacific, 3PM Eastern -- I'll be doing a Periscope livestream for the Times to discuss the piece and answer questions. I hope you can make it! It'll be pinned to the top of my Twitter profile. Read the rest

It's been a crackerjack year, hasn't it? Kids are being held in concentration camps, whole species are disappearing from the face of the earth, our weather is absolutely borked and drinkable water is fast disappearing in many locales around the world. Everything is terrible!Except for when it isn't.From The Globe & Mail:An anonymous benefactor who secretly placed a $100 bill and an unabashed message of positivity in a Nova Scotia park has delighted and intrigued the town’s residents.The bill was taped to a New Glasgow, N.S., gazebo in a Ziploc bag with a note encouraging the finder to spend the money on something that brings them happiness and to remember the good in the world.It was found by town employee Doug Miller while setting up for a funding announcement over the weekend.As detailed in a photo on the Globe & Mail's website, the note reads: To whoever finds this $100 bill -- it is yours! I hope it will bring you joy and that you will use it for your enjoyment. Always know that there is good in the world and joy to be found. I hope you know, or will learn, that you are priceless and worth more than any paper or plastic. I hope you will always choose to be happy. A hundred bucks is a lot of cash, to most people. To others, it's a fart in a mist. No matter how you're situated for cash, I'm sure you'll agree that it's nice to occasionally run across a news story where nothing is on fire, spreading like the plague or about to die at the hands of the military industrial complex. Read the rest

You know what's more badass and relaxing at the same time than going on a week-long canoe trip? Going on a week-long canoe trip in a vessel you built your own damn self. What I dig the most about this video is that shows the build process, mistakes and all, from start to finish. I don't know about you, but I always feel a whole lot better knowing that mistakes can be made by an expert and the project can still come out looking like a champ. Read the rest

I'm a volunteer on the board of The Metabrainz Foundation, the nonprofit that maintains the Metabrainz service that produces accurate metadata on music that helps listeners locate the music they love and musicians and services accurately allocate revenues from online services. Metabrainz's material is strictly Creative Commons, including the art its users include in their updates to the database.Last summer, Metabrainz was served with a lawsuit by Larry Philpot, a "photographer" (as one court put it, "a professional photographer, in his view") who has a history of making his photos available under Creative Commons licenses, then suing Creative Commons users who reproduce them, arguing that they violated the license terms, based on extremely idiosyncratic interpretations of those terms. Metabrainz knew that it was in the right, but a copyright fight could be very expensive. Luckily, Ed Cavazos of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP took our case pro bono and won the day!Metabrainz has engaged with both Wikimedia Commons and Creative Commons about the problem of legal predators using their services to bait their prey, and we're hoping they take action to reduce this threat to the projects' integrity. We're also suspending the use of Wikimedia Commons images in the project until we're sure that this risk has been addressed.In the meantime, we're delighted by the victory and we hope that this will inspire others to stand up to copyright trolling -- and that it will serve as a warning to future predators thinking of targeting us. Read the rest

In The Next Generation of Deep Learning Hardware: Analog Computing *Sci-Hub mirror), a trio of IBM researchers discuss how new materials could allow them to build analog computers that vastly improved the energy/computing efficiency in training machine-learning networks.Training models is incredibly energy-intensive, with a single model imposing the same carbon footprint as the manufacture and lifetime use of five automobiles.The idea is to perform matrix multiplications by layering "physical array with the same number of rows and columns as the abstract mathematical object" atop each other such that "the intersection of each row and column there will be an element with conductance G that represents the strength of connection between that row and column (i.e.,the weight)."Though these would be less efficient for general-purpose computing tasks, they would act as powerful hardware accelerators for one of the most compute-intensive parts of the machine learning process.Electrochemical devices are a newcomer in the field of contenders for an analog array element for deep learning.The device idea, however, has been around for a long time and is related to the basic principle of a battery [52]. Compared to the previously discussed switches, which only required two terminals, this switch required three terminals. The device structure, shown in Fig. 11, is as tack of an insulator that forms the channel between two contacts source and drain, an electrolyte, and a top electrode (reference electrode). Proper bias between the reference electrode and the channel contacts will drive a chemical reaction at the host/electrolyte interface in which positive ions in the electrolyte react with the host, effectively doping the host material. Read the rest

The security firm Cybereason says that it has identified a likely state-sponsored attack on ten global mobile phone networks that they have attributed to "the Chinese-affiliated threat actor APT10," which has been "underway for years." According to Cybereason, the attackers had the run of the carriers' network and used it to exfiltrate mountains of data ("hundreds of gigabytes") on at least 20 individuals, including who they called, where they went, and which devices they used. The attacks are believed to have started before 2017.Cybereason declined to name the affected networks or the attackers' targets but confirmed that they were not based in North America.Carriers retain call records for many purposes, including billing and billing disputes. Some carriers in lax regulatory environments collect and retain extra data to use in marketing or to sell to marketing brokers, while others operate in high regulatory environments where law enforcement demands that they collect and retain extra data for use in domestic surveillance.Any data that is collected is liable to leak. Any data that is retained is certain to leak.Last year, we identified a threat actor that has been operating in telecommunications provider environments for at least two years. We performed a post-incident review of the attacks and were able to identify changes in the attack patterns along with new activity every quarter.The threat actor mainly sought to obtain CDR data (call logs, cell tower locations, etc.) belonging to specific individuals from various countries. This type of targeted cyber espionage is usually the work of nation state threat actors. Read the rest

Sometimes with a cellphone video you'll see cops behave bizarrely, abruptly shouting things like "stop resisting!" or "gun!" when it's obvious the suspect is not resisting and is either unarmed or not reaching for a weapon. The point of it is to establish, on less revealing recording devices such as bodycams and dashcams, that the officer has a reasonable fear for their lives. That fear is held to justify anything bad that might then happen to the suspect, even if it turns out to be mistaken. And so the weird yelling about guns and impossible movements becomes a ritual to that end. Which is to say, if a cop starts shouting "gun!" during an interaction with you, that cop intends to kill you.And if the cop is poking his gun at you sideways like a cartoon gangster? You better get lucky fast. Read the rest

Microsoft's stated values are "diversity, inclusion, and growth mindset," but the six of the top ten politicians funded by MSPAC -- which derives funding from voluntary contributions from 4,000 of Microsoft's 140,000 employees -- are far-right Republican extremists, including Mitch McConnell, who reliably vote for homophobic, climate-denying and racist policies.In response, a movement among Microsoft employees is calling for a boycott of MSPAC contributions, despite a promise by the MSPAC managers that they will create "advisory councils" to help inform its purchase decisions.Some anonymous Microsoft employees who spoke to Dave Gershgorn at Onezero expressed bafflement that the PAC could give money to Biblical literalists, witch-burners, Handmaid's Tale LARPers and other stalwarts of the Republican apparatus, but it's actually pretty easy to understand: oligarchs are at a disadvantage in democracies, because, by definition, the one percent cannot win an election by force of numbers.Oligarchs do their best to solve this problem through gerrymandering and voter suppression, but the core of their strategy is getting turkey to vote for Christmas. By promising to enact policies of racist, homophobic and misogynist cruelty while handing trillions to the super-rich, oligarchs can turn out bigots and sociopaths (along with temporarily embarrassed millionaires) on election day.The oligarch project is supposed to draw votes from the religious maniac/white supremacist base, but only field candidates from the finance wing of the party, who will dog-whistle their bigotry, rather than shouting it from the hills (shouting gets you kicked out of the nice restaurants). Read the rest

After yesterday's news about young Americans' acceptance of queer folk falling sharply, I wanted to take aim at the passivity of mainstream LGBTQ advocacy in the age of Trump. At groups who compromise with uncompromising enemies. At activists who have nothing to say when yarns are spun about the personal costs of queerness. At corporate donors' vision of heteronormatively gay-married surburban debt sponges and police-infested Pride marches. The price is right, at least for fundraisers, but the costs are becoming clear.At The Outline, Katelyn Burns explores one specific consequence of trying to wait it out: mainstream media constantly writes about LGBTQ stuff with the presumed conservative reaction in mind, giving little corresponding consideration to their queer subjects' experience. The lack of dedicated LGBTQ media is a disaster, she writes.What’s most frightening to me as a trans reporter is that these unprecedented attacks on trans and LGBTQ rights is coming in the middle of the complete devastation in LGBTQ media. Into, an LGBTQ-focused news site owned by Grindr, shut down in January following its report detailing anti-marriage equality comments made by its own owner late last year. The LGBTQ desks at BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post have been decimated. Even ThinkProgress’ Zack Ford, one of the most reliable reporters on the queer news beat and who has a long track record of breaking anti-trans news, was reassigned by his employer to cover Trump in general (though ThinkProgress is maintaining its LGBT coverage with nonbinary writer Casey Quinlan). Read the rest

In 1947 actress Gay Gibson disappeared from her cabin on an ocean liner off the coast of West Africa. The deck steward, James Camb, admitted to pushing her body out a porthole, but insisted she had died of natural causes and not in a sexual assault. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review the curious case of the porthole murder, which is still raising doubts today.We'll also explore another fraudulent utopia and puzzle over a pedestrian's victory.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH we honor the true victims of the phrase "concentration camp."

A few years ago the announcement that Steam would begin supporting Linux was a big deal: it meant that anyone who preferred to rock an open-source operating system over Mac OS or Windows 10 would have instant buy-it-and-play-it access to a large catalog of game titles that would have otherwise taken a whole lot of tweaking to get up and running or wouldn't have worked for them at all. For some, at least, the party may be coming to an end. From Engadget:If you're a Linux gamer who prefers Ubuntu, you might want to look for another distribution in the near future. Valve is dropping official support for Ubuntu in Steam as of the operating system's upcoming 19.10 release, which will cut 32-bit x86 components. The Steam crew aims to "minimize breakage" for existing Ubuntu users, according to Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais, but it'll shift its attention to another distribution in the future.So, in short: no 32-bit support means no Steam support. Given that the many of the games available on Steam can only be had by buying a license, this news sucks in so many ways. That said, as noted by Engadget, at some point in the future, it could be possible to switch to a different distribution that'll allow you to undertake some, glitch-free fragging. However, for the time being, Canonical and Valve haven't made any announcements of which distribution will best serve gamers, moving forward. When that announcement will come down the pike is anyone's guess. Read the rest

So you've visited the Kennedy Space Center every year. You've watched "The Right Stuff" for the 95th time. There must be something to do while you're waiting to join Space Force for the next manned mission to Mars or the moon.Here's a combo that should raise a salute from any fan of space or the American space program: The NASA AR Notebook & NASA Space Mug Bundle.The notebook is a handy enough gift on its own, hardbound and emblazoned with the ever-popular NASA "worm" logo. But the mug is a real testament to the technology that drove us to the stars: Simply install a companion Augmented Reality app on your smartphone and point it at the bottom of the cup. Instantly, that mug becomes a space capsule, a tunnel you can peer through for an interactive astronaut's eye view of the planet Earth.Right now, you can pick up the NASA AR Notebook & NASA Space Mug Bundle for $54.99, an 8% discount off the original price of $59.98. Read the rest

Back in 1984, a lonely, weird kid calling himself Grandmaster Ratte' formed a hacker group in Lubbock, Texas. called the Cult of the Dead Cow, a name inspired by a nearby slaughterhouse. In the decades to come, cDc would become one of the dominant forces on the BBS scene and then the internet -- endlessly inventive, funny and prankish, savvy and clever, and sometimes reckless and foolish -- like punk-rock on a floppy disk.Joe Menn (previously) is a veteran tech reporter whom I've known since the Napster wars, and he has always had a knack for digging into the human backstories behind his stories -- without falling into the trap of ignoring the big picture in favor of cheap and sentimental biography. His new book, Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World, is his best reporting so far -- a beautifully researched, engrossingly told story about how cDc and its members and offshoot groups invented much of what has become normal in the modern practice of tech and security, from coordinated disclosure policies, to hacker cons that welcome in the press and even feds, to hacker spaces, to proof-of-concept-based security disclosures, to less savory practices, like promulgating fake news and allowing toxic cultural pockets to fester where misogyny, abuse and racism all fester.I read the book with great interest, not least because I was present or nearby when many of the events described in the book took place, and many of the principal characters are old, present or former friends of mine, including a few very dear friends indeed. Read the rest

We went to the LA Zoo yesterday and had a picnic lunch near the kids' playground. It was in the grass under a shady tree. We brought along this 80" x 60" picnic blanket ( on Amazon). It folds up into a small package and comes with a handle for easy carrying. The underside is made of a tough material to resist scratching, and the top is softer and easy to wipe down. It has a thin layer of foam to provide a bit of a cushion. We've used it a bunch of times and it holds up well. Read the rest

The latest tally on House members who favor beginning impeachment inquiry hearings against President Donald J. Trump is now at 77.NBC News reports that 77 members of the U.S. House of Representatives are now ready to vote in favor of an impeachment inquiry. From NBC News, here are the 77 members of the House of Representatives who favor starting an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. 76 Democrats and one Republican.Democrats:Alma Adams, N.C.Nanette Barragán, Calif.Don Beyer, Va.Earl Blumenauer, Ore.Suzanne Bonamici, Ore.Brendan Boyle, Penn.G.K. Butterfield, N.C.Tony Cardenas, Calif.Sean Casten, Ill.Joaquin Castro, TexasDavid Cicilline, R.I. (Member of the House Judiciary Committee)Yvette Clarke, N.Y.William Lacy Clay, Mo.Steve Cohen, Tenn. (Member of the House Judiciary Committee)Danny K. Davis, Ill.Madeleine Dean, Penn. (Member of the House Judiciary Committee)Diana DeGette, Colo.Val Demings, Fla. (Member of the House Judiciary Committee)Mark DeSaulnier, Calif.Lloyd Doggett, TexasVeronica Escobar, Texas (Member of the House Judiciary Committee)Adriano Espaillat, N.Y.Dwight Evans, Penn.Marcia Fudge, OhioJesús García, Ill.Al Green, TexasRaul Grijalva, Ariz. (Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee)Brian Higgins, N.Y.Jim Himes, Conn.Jared Huffman, Calif.Pramila Jayapal, Wash. (Member of the House Judiciary Committee)Robin Kelly, Ill.Dan Kildee, Mich. (chief deputy whip of House Democratic caucus)Brenda Lawrence, Mich.Barbara Lee, Calif.Andy Levin, Mich.Ted Lieu, Calif. (Member of the House Judiciary Committee)Alan Lowenthal, Calif.Tom Malinowski, N.J.Carolyn Maloney, N.Y. Read the rest

Cruelly detaining kids in Border Patrol camps will cost taxpayers more than it would to put the families up together in high-end hotels.

The U.S.research arm of China-based Huawei is earnestly building as separate of an identity as it can, reports Reuters. Futurewei, which is based in the United States, has distanced its operations from its corporate parent in China since the U.S government put Huawei on a trade blacklist in May. “Both companies have conducted a wide range of research partnerships and grant programs with U.S. universities,” reports Reuters:Futurewei has banned Huawei employees from its offices, moved Futurewei employees to a new IT system and forbidden them from using the Huawei name or logo in communications, a Futurewei employee told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Huawei will continue to own Futurewei, the employee said.Milton Frazier, Futurewei’s general counsel, declined to comment on the separation or the strategy behind it, referring questions to Huawei spokesman Chase Skinner. Skinner did not answer questions about the effort.The division of operations, which has not been previously reported, comes as many U.S. universities have halted research partnerships with Huawei in reaction to U.S. government allegations that the company poses a national security threat. Many universities are also rethinking their partnerships with other Chinese firms.Huawei is among the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturers. The Commerce Department in May placed the firm on its “entity list” of organizations that pose security risks. The Justice Department earlier filed charges against the firm alleging theft of trade secrets and other crimes.Futurewei is Huawei’s U.S.-based research and development arm. The firm employs hundreds of people at offices in Silicon Valley and the greater Seattle, Chicago and Dallas areas, according to its workers’ LinkedIn pages. Read the rest

Most kids moved to another Border Patrol station, a “temporary site with roll-out mattresses, showers, medical facilities and air conditioning.”

Sometimes, even a malicious idiot like Bill O'Reilly says something pure and true and correct.Not that he realizes it, mind you.At 11:55 AM - 24 Jun 2019, @BillOReilly tweeted:Slavery reparations is a far-left favorite because it does a number of things.It reinforces the radical belief that the United States was founded by racist white men who installed a system whereby white guys would run everything and blacks, women and others would be exploited.And then,It also suggests that personal responsibility does not count when the legacy of slavery dropped a curtain of oppression on the black race and there is no recovering from that. The radical left says our society remains unjust to this day, forget personal responsibility.Here's a screengrab for posterity. Read the rest

This ten-minute video of Japanese toy car, robot, and spacecraft TV commercials bears repeated viewing. The special effects (including stop-motion animation) are fantastic. My favorite is this one for Voltes V toys. Here are photos of the toys from that commercial. As you might guess, these toys sell for a fortune on eBay. Read the rest

Arthur the cat looks so regal as he swims determinedly and hangs out confidently in the swimming pool.What a life!Arthur’s Otter Impression[Arthur’s Otter Impression, imgur.com] Read the rest

Last month, Propublica published a blockbuster investigative report on companies that claimed they could help you get your ransomware-locked data back, but who were secretly just paying off the criminals -- one company got so good at it that ransomware criminals started to refer their victims to them.Now, just to prove the point, a security researcher used sting operations on a British "ransomware solutions" company and found that they, too, simply pay the ransom, while charging a markup -- doubly victimizing its customers in the process.Fabian Wosar from the antivirus company Emsisoft says that Scotland-based Red Mosquito Data Recovery told him that they were "running tests" on his locked files, but were in actuality negotiating with criminals to pay them off, and that the payoff attempt began "minutes" after he contracted with Red Mosquito, who had promised that they would unlock the files without paying the ransom (Wosar was impersonating both the victim and the crooks). Red Mosquito bills itself as the "professional alternative" to paying ransom.Propublica tried to get a comment from Red Mosquito (which promised "honest, free advice") and did not hear back; the company hung up on Propublica's reporter when contacted by phone.Meanwhile, “Joe Mess” pressed Lairg for confirmation that Red Mosquito wouldn’t pay the ransom: “So you think you may be able to help without me having to pay the ransom?”“We are still investigating and will get back to you as soon as possible,” Lairg responded.Less than an hour later, Wosar, posing as the hacker, began negotiating with “tony7877@protonmail.com,” the correspondence shows. Read the rest

A GLAAD study claims that the number of young Americans comfortable with LGBTQ people has fallen from 53% to 45%, the second consecutive annual drop.Variety:Scenarios for the survey included learning a family member is LGBT, learning my doctor is LGBT, having LGBT members at my place of worship, seeing an LGBT co-worker’s wedding picture, having my child placed in a class with an LGBT teacher, seeing a same-sex couple holding hands and learning my child has a lesson on LGBT history in school.The Index comes amidst a number of anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination incidents. Just last year, reported hate crimes rose 17 percent, making it the third consecutive year that such crimes increased.Here's an executive summary of the poll, but it doesn't offer much to chew on in terms of how shaded or teleological the methodology is with respect to GLAAD's activist aims.Nonetheless, the conclusion:While young people are identifying as LGBTQ in higher rates than ever before, there has also been an uptick in non-LGBTQ young people pushing back against acceptance. The younger generation has traditionally been thought of as a beacon of progressive values. We have taken that idea for granted and this year’s results show that the sharp and quick rise in divisive rhetoric in politics and culture is having a negative influence on younger AmericanTrumpism involves endless mendacity and manipulation. But these new conservatives have definite enemies and aims. They offer an inspiring message of division and disgust for the youth of today. Read the rest

Graffiti Diplomacy is a Brooklyn-based graffiti art studio and educational outfit with a terrific Web site containing free lessons, handouts, and craft activities for beginning (and advanced) artists. Their "Urban Blight" diorama how-to, complete with popsicle stick picket fences, looks like a lot of fun to build and tag. Graffiti Crafting # 1 - Learn How To Make A Popsicle Stick Graffiti Picket Fence Read the rest

Karl Bode is a respected and talented tech journalist, but he labors under a tremendous burden: for nearly a decade he has struggled with "post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome" -- colloquially known as "chronic Lyme disease" -- enduring the twin struggles of a largely untreatable debilitating illness and skeptical dismissals from much of the medical establishment.Bode contracted Lyme disease from a tick bite while clearing brush in his Hudson Valley home. After antibiotics, his symptoms disappeared, but a month later, he had a raft of "bizarre new symptoms," from "severe arthritis in my hips and hands" to "recurring and debilitating headaches, chills, cold sweats, frequent bouts of disorientation, vertigo, and even depersonalization, a terrifying sensation of feeling as though you are somehow outside of your physical body."More anitbiotics brought temporarily relief, but then the symptoms recurred, joined by "insomnia and an extreme sensitivity to caffeine, sugar, and dairy." A decade later, he still has frequent recurrences.No one is really sure what's going on with PTLDS. The majority of people who contract Lyme disease get better, but an "unspecified number" continue to experience long-term symptoms, sometimes lasting indefinitely. Lyme sufferers seek out "Lime literate" doctors, who are prepared to make diagnoses based on symptoms, rather than bloodwork, but this has its own problems, with misdiagnosis (Lyme disease has so many symptoms that it is sometimes called the "great imitator") and high expenses (Lyme literate doctors command a high premium for their services).A decade later, Bode is living in the Pacific northwest, having relocated to minimize the risk of reinfection. Read the rest

"Pure metallic mercury is far less dangerous than most people think," says Cody, before pouring some in his mouth. "I'm not gonna swallow it," he says. "I might swallow some. It's not really that big of a deal. It's gonna come out as shiny as it went in." Read the rest

Eccentric eyewear maker Scott Urban first kickstarted his "Reflectacles" frames in 2016; the frames used emedded retroreflectors to make them throw back tons of light, making them highly visible (and great for things like night cycling); subsequent iterations beefed up the IR reflectivity, which blinded many CCTV surveillance cameras (they use IR to paint low-light scenes, and their sensors can be overwhelmed if enough of that IR bounces back at them). Read the rest

In this highly satisfying video, Jim Browning received a fake invoice for a $3800 laptop. He ended up getting a lot of personal information about the scammer and was able to scare the hell of him.[via Digg] Read the rest

Magic: The Gathering is Turing complete. In a new scientific paper, researchers "present a methodology for embedding an arbitrary Turing machine into a game of Magic such that the first player is guaranteed to win the game if and only if the Turing machine halts." From Ars Technica:Furthermore, (software engineer Alex Churchill) and his co-authors -- Stella Biderman of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Austin Herrick of the University of Pennsylvania -- have concluded that Magic might be as computationally complex as it's possible for any tabletop game to be. In other words, "This is the first result showing that there exists a real-world game [of Magic] for which determining the winning strategy is non-computable," the authors write...A universal Turing machine is one capable of running any algorithm, while "Turing completeness" is a term "used to indicate that a system has a particular degree of complexity," said Churchill. "Any Turing-complete system is theoretically able to emulate any other." Being able to determine whether a given problem can be solved in principle is a key task in computer science. If Magic is Turing complete, then there should exist within the game a scenario where it's impossible to determine a winning strategy—equivalent to the famous "halting problem" in computer science.One way to demonstrate that a system is Turing complete is to create a Turing machine within it, and that's just what Churchill et al. have done with their work"It’s possible to build a Turing machine within Magic: The Gathering" (Ars Technica) Read the rest

They ruled unanimously on one element and 6-3 on another, with liberals and conservatives on either side.The justices ruled in favor of a company called "FUCT" whose trademark was earlier found to have violated the provision.The court found that the statute can't stand because it "disfavors certain ideas."Justices Elena Kagan, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch ruled in the majority.Chief Justice John Roberts, alongside Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, partially dissented.All so the first "FUCT" can sue all the other FUCTS! This ruling follows a similar one a couple of years ago, allowing an Asian band named "The Slants" to register their trademark after the USPTO told them to get fuct. Read the rest

18 of the richest people in America have sent a letter to all the candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, demanding that their election platform include a annual wealth tax on the largest American fortunes, something advocated by economist Thomas Piketty in his blockbuster book Capital in the 21st Century and subsequently integrated into Elizabeth Warren's campaign platform (with Piketty's endorsement).The letter's signatories include a few super-rich people who amassed their own fortunes (like George Soros and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes), but many of the remaining signatories are heirs to vast wealth that they did nothing to earn, including Disney heiress Abigail Disney (who has been admirably public on the subject already) and Molly Munger (daughter of Bershire Hathaway chairman and Warren Buffet mentor Charlie Munger). One signatory chose to remain anonymous.Polls show that a moderate tax on the wealthiest Americans enjoys the support of a majority of Americans — Republicans, Independents, and Democrats.[i] We hope that candidates for President will also recognize the force of the idea and join with most Americans in supporting it. Some ideas are too important for America to be part of only a few candidates’ platforms.The concept of a wealth tax isn’t new: Millions of middle-income Americans already pay a wealth tax each year in the form of property taxes on their primary form of wealth — their home. The kind of moderate tax on the richest 1/10 of 1% that we support just asks us to pay a small wealth tax on the primary source of our wealth as well. Read the rest