Boing Boing

After the Snowden revelations, US-based Big Tech companies raced to reassure their non-US customers that the NSA wasn't raiding their cloud-based data, moving servers inside their customers' borders and (theoretically) out of reach of the NSA; then came the Cloud Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act), in which the US government claimed the right to seize data held on overseas servers and the companies began consolidating their servers back in the USA.Microsoft recently moved its cloud servers -- the ones hosting data for Office 365 users -- out of Germany to the USA, a mere two years after their decision to site data-centers inside Germany.The privacy commissioner for the state of Hesse has responded by advising schools to discontinue their use of Office 365 and Windows 10 (which transmits a steady stream of usage data to Microsoft). The move came after Microsoft repeatedly failed to answer the commissioner's repeated requests for clarification on its data-handling practices.As Office-Watch points out, all of the US Big Tech companies have a version of this problem -- even if they continue to locate servers in Germany, the specter of the Cloud Act means that all that data might as well be in Fort Meade. “…in connection with the use of Office 365 in the cloud, …. the security and traceability of the data processing processes are not guaranteed. Therefore the data processing is inadmissible” – Translated from original German.It seems Microsoft is staying quiet on the issue “… data is also transmitted when using Office 365. Read the rest

What a cool idea! Here's a music video for a cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" that over 2100 kids contributed to, by coloring with crayons.Colossal: An animated music video for Meg Myers’ cover of a Kate Bush song brings kid’s coloring books to life. Director Jo Roy first filmed Myers on a green screen, performing the crawling, climbing, and flying shown in the music video (see behind-the-scenes below). Then, each of the 3,202 frames was printed off as a black and white coloring book page. Elementary school-aged children from ten schools and an art program in the U.S. and Canada colored the pages however they wanted, with a provided crayon color palette.(Colossal) Read the rest

I spent a long time in Mexico this past winter. My wife and I traveled to Play Del Carmen and stayed there for months while she completed some rigourous scuba instructor training. While she was in the water, which was most days, I stayed ashore to write, drink and nosh. Many a chilled beverage was had on beach front patios (I was there for the WiFi, honest.) I squeezed lemons and limes into my drinks. They were amazingly fresh--like nothing I'd ever had up north. Apparently, I dodged a number of bullets.From The CBC:On a sunny day in June, Amber Prepchuk spent an afternoon by the lake making margaritas for a group of friends. The following morning she ended up with much more than she bargained for — a painful side effect entirely unrelated to tequila."I can handle pain, but I woke the next morning and I was in pain. I was crying my eyes out." she told CBC's Radio Active. "I was covered in little blisters."Amber Prepchuk... learned the hard way the meaning of 'margarita burn,' when she juiced limes in the sun and the next morning woke up with blisters all over her hands. Margarita burn. Never heard the tell of that. So, I looked it up. Oh my stars and garters.Margarita burn, better known as margarita photodermatitis, is a condition which occurs in folks who are exposed to a photo-sensitizing agent (lime juice, for example,) and ultraviolet light (ye olde sunlight.) According to Wikipedia, those dinged by Margarita burn will notice the first symptoms of the ailment within 24 hours of exposure to the photo-sensitizing agent that they came into contact with and ultraviolet light. Read the rest

When it comes to storage, you've typically got a couple of options: Keep those priceless pics and videos on your phone or laptop (then lose them when either breaks down), or cough up hundreds every year for a decent Dropbox account or another cloud service like iCloud.Trust us, you're not the only one asking how cloud storage can so ubiquitous and so expensive at the same time. Turns out it doesn't have to be because Degoo has an affordable middle path.This service packs more backup space than Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive combined, and you can access it easily. Files can be shared via email or link, and the automatic file change detection means modified files will be saved and up to date. Everything you backup on Degoo is protected behind 256-bit AES encryption, and there's a variety of plans available. The important thing they have in common: They're all lifetime access; pay once and never get charged or pestered again. Check out the offers below:Degoo Premium: Lifetime 10TB Backup Plan - $99.99 (97% off the MSRP)Degoo Premium: Lifetime 3TB Backup Plan - $69.99 (95% off, and a price drop off the previous sale price of $73.99)Degoo Premium: Lifetime 2TB Backup Plan - $59.99 (95% off, and a price drop off the previous sale price of $65.99)Degoo Premium: Lifetime 1TB Backup Plan - $49.99 (94% off the MSRP.) Read the rest

After Bloomberg revealed that Amazon secretly sent recordings from Alexa to subcontractors all over the world in order to improve its speech-recognition systems, a whistleblower leaked recordings from Google Home to investigative reporters from VRT, revealing that Google, too, was sending audio clips from its voice assistant technology to pieceworkers through the Crowdsource app.The contractors who review Google voice assistant recordings say that they often screen audio from people who aren't even talking to their Google devices: instead, the devices mishear conversations and mistake sound for their "wake-words."The whistleblower told VRT that he transcribes 1,000 recordings per week in Flemish and Dutch, and that once, he transcribed a recording that appeared to capture a domestic violence incident.Tech policy researcher Michael Veale of London's Alan Turing Institute (who filed a complaint with the Irish data regulator over Apple's Siri) (Apple, like many tech giants, pretends that its business takes place in Ireland, a legacy of Ireland's willingness to assist multinationals with illegal tax-avoidance schemes) says that Google could also face GDPR jeopardy, particularly because it did not disclose its practice, which may be because the public would have found it "creepy."Google says it is seeking redress from its subcontractors for sharing the secret recordings with journalists.It is true that Google does not eavesdrop directly, but VRT NWS discovered that it is listening in. Or rather: that it lets people listen in. We let ordinary Flemish people hear some of their own recordings. ‘This is undeniably my own voice’, says one man, clearly surprised. Read the rest

This is not a riddle, but two questions inspired by two very weird stories circulating about financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is in federal custody over charges of trafficking and sexual abuse of young girls.First, from today: Why did Jeffrey Epstein build a temple on his private island?Go see the photos.“A contractor and engineer who spoke with INSIDER highlighted an odd design anomaly: The medieval-era lock on the front door appears designed to keep people inside.”Gulp.Second, also from today: The Intercept reports that right after Epstein reached that ridiculously sweet non-prosecution deal in July 2008 with then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta in Florida, maritime records show that Epstein shipped himself a paper shredder from the U.S. Virgin Islands to his Palm Beach home.But that's not all. In March of this year, not long after federal judge in Florida invalidated that sweet Acosta agreement, the records show that Epstein shipped a tile and carpet extractor from the Virgin Islands to his Manhattan townhouse.Totally normal.Excerpt:On July 7, 2008, federal prosecutors told Epstein’s attorneys via email that they intended to notify the 32 victims about the agreement. Epstein’s lawyers and the prosecutors debated how much of the agreement to reveal, settling on a less than full accounting.A week later, on July 15, Epstein received a shipment at his Palm Beach home from the port in the U.S. Virgin Islands closest to his home there, according to maritime shipping records compiled by ImportGenius and provided to The Intercept. Read the rest

Bernie Sanders wants you to know who hates him: billionaire sociopaths like Andrew Pudzer, Kenneth Lagone ("This is the antichrist!"), Lowell McAdam ("contemptible"), Lloyd Blankfein ("dangerous"); Alan Greenspan; Third Way ("an existential threat"), Bernard Marcus ("the enemy"), and more! (via /r/LateStageCapitalism) Read the rest

When Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta was a federal prosecutor in 2008 he gave sex predator Jeffrey Epstein a joke of a plea deal on sex crime charges. Epstein was given a 13-month prison sentence, but the billionaire spent most of the time in his plush office. He never faced federal charges. Now that Epstein has been arrested on additional charges of sickening sex crimes against children, people are asking Acosta why the hell he let Epstein off the hook the first time around by giving him a secret deal that a federal judge ruled had violated the victims' rights. At a press conference, Acosta answered that question by telling reporters that he did the best he could, that times have changed since 2008, and that the victims weren't cooperative enough. He concluded his statement by lavishing fulsome praise on President Trump.CBS News White House correspondent Paula Reid, a former federal prosecutor, said Acosta's defense is bogus. "They had potentially dozens of witnesses they could have used to push this case forward," she said.Image: YouTube/CBS News Read the rest

Peek inside this corporate report to see how private prison companies make money from migrants in ICE concentration camps.

General John Hyten is the Trump administration nominee for Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His background check already cleared, but today news of a credible allegation of sexual assault against Gen. John Hyten, and a subsequent investigation, reports DefenseOne.“There was insufficient evidence,” a source tells the news organization.Hyten currently leads U.S. Strategic Command, and was recently nominated to become the next Joint Chiefs vice chair. The Air Force opened an investigation into the alleged incident of sexual assault, between late 2017 and early 2018, reports DefenseOne citing “multiple defense and congressional aides familiar with the matter.”Hyten was cleared by “a comprehensive investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations,” Pentagon spokesman Col. DeDe Halfhill wrote in a Wednesday statement to Defense One. “There was insufficient evidence to support any finding of misconduct on the part of Gen. Hyten,” who cooperated with the investigation, Hoffman said.A spokesman for Hyten did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Officials briefed members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which will review Hyten’s nomination, behind closed doors on Wednesday. Hyten’s accuser had contacted committee members directly, according to defense officials and lawmakers.“I think a letter was sent to a variety of offices,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.In early April, the Air Force received allegations that Hyten had perpetrated “abusive sexual contact” and created “an unprofessional relationship,” a senior military official familiar with the investigation said Wednesday. The Air Force Office of Special Investigation talked to more than 50 witnesses in three countries and 13 U.S. Read the rest

Public companies are legally required to disclose their risks to investors, but it's a rare company that incorporates climate change into those mandatory disclosures; under a new presidential campaign platform proposal from Elizabeth Warren (disclosure: I am a donor to both Warren and Sanders's campaigns), the SEC would require public companies to incorporate two kinds of climate risk in their warnings: first, the risks of an out-of-control climate (fires, floods, etc); and second, the risks from the a transition to clean energy (collapsing fossil fuel prices). The idea is to accelerate divestiture from climate-destroying industries like oil and fracking, and to spur investors to favor companies with a plan to mitigate the effects of climate chaos on their operations. Read the rest

Congresswoman and force of nature Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and student activist and force of nature Greta "Extinction Rebellion" Thunberg conducted a videoconference to meet one another and talk tactics for saving the world from dying in its own waste-gases; the wide-ranging conversation touched on the unique power and problems of being a young activist; the problem of holding up Nordic countries as paragons of climate virtue; winning the fight over climate denialism; the true nature of leadership; keeping motivated in the face of desperation and crushing setbacks, and the tipping point we're living through.GT Yeah. I know so many people who feel hopeless, and they ask me, “What should I do?” And I say: “Act. Do something.” Because that is the best medicine against sadness and depression. I remember the first day I was school-striking outside the Swedish parliament, I felt so alone, because everyone went straight past, no one even looked at me. But at the same time I was hopeful.AOC It’s true that people don’t know when those small actions can manifest into something. I’ve seen it even in office. There’s so much cynicism about, how powerful can this be? Just me showing up?I think sometimes we’re so obsessed with measurement. What does me standing outside of parliament with a sign do? It doesn’t lower any carbon emissions immediately. It doesn’t change any laws directly. But what it does is make powerful people feel something, and people underestimate the power of that. It is becoming harder and harder for elected officials to look people in the eye. Read the rest

When California's legislature opened hearings on a proposed ban on fur sales, they met with stiff opposition: Andrew Aguero, who described himself as a Native American student said that it was "people from a privileged culture are telling people of my culture that our culture is inhumane" (the bill exempted traditional indigenous uses of fur from the ban); they also heard from Andrew DiGiovanna, another student who said he opposed the bill on environmental grounds; Edwin Lombard said it was “an affront to the African-American community" who used furs to "show we could overcome barriers" like redlining.At least some of these protesters were paid: Matt Gray (who complained that the regulation of fur and the legalization of cannabis were a "baffling" double-standard) got $7,000 from the Fur Information Council of America; while Aguero had published a Facebook post before the hearing reading, "Anyone in LA down to make an easy $100 this Tuesday in Sacramento and fight tyranny?"An undercover researcher from a group that supported the bill took Aguero up on his offer and was referred to Republican consulting firm Mobilize the Message, who gave him a contract offering a system of payouts and bonuses for presenting himself to lawmakers as a concerned citizen and repeating their talking points. Mobilize the Message was founded by Cliff Maloney, who is also president of Young Americans for Liberty, which contracts to many GOP PACs and groups, including the Stop AOC PAC, dedicated to neutralizing Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.It wasn't just California that heard from a suspiciously on-message cohort of pro-fur activists who claimed than bans on fur were racist: in New York, Harlem's Rev. Read the rest

In Numerical investigation of the convection heat transfer driven by airflows in underground tunnels (Sci-Hub mirror), a group of engineers from L'Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology propose that low-cost heat-exchangers placed in subway tunnels could be used to heat and cool homes essentially for free (the system would last 50-100 years, and the pumps would need replacing every 25 years).The system would pump water or another heat-exchange medium through pipes in the subway tunnels, scavenging the underground cool in the summer and the trapped exhaust heat in the winter, then transfer the heat or cold to nearby residences, businesses and offices for efficient heating and cooling.The research stems from the incredibly appropriately named co-author Margaux Peltier's Master's thesis; Peltier calculates that installing heat exchangers in just half of one of Lausanne's subway lines could provide heating and cooling for 800 apartments.As Treehugger's Lloyd Alter points out, the work illustrates how important well-planned, high-density cities are mitigating climate change: high density systems allow for waste from one process to flow into another process as its input; to say nothing of the carbon benefits of building cities where the primary mode of transport is efficient subway trains rather than private automobiles.Numerical investigation of the convection heat transfer driven by airflows in underground tunnels (Sci-Hub mirror) [Margaux Peltier, Alessandro F. Rotta Loria, Loïc Lepage, Etienne Garin and Lyesse Laloui/Applied Thermal Engineering]Engineering heat out of metro tunnels [L'Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)]Energy from subway tunnels could heat and cool thousands of homes [Lloyd Alter/Treehugger](via Naked Capitalism)(Image: MS / EPFL 2019) Read the rest

Diligent Robotics's Moxi is a robot created by Andrea Thomaz (a former robotics professor at UT Austin and Georgia Tech's Socially Intelligent Machines Lab) and Vivian Chu (one of Thomaz's former grad students); they funded by a National Science Foundation grant to create a robotic nursing aide that is designed to do routine, non-human-interaction chores for nurses with a minimum of effort from nurses.For example, when a patient is discharged, a Moxi can fetch and deliver an "admission bucket" (a standard package of supplies for a new patient) automatically; some nurses in a limited trial say they never saw Moxi undertake this chore, but rather simply found that every recently vacated room had an admission bucket waiting at the appropriate time.The design is meant to relieve nurses of mechanical, robotic tasks (errands) and free them up to concentrate on care and humans. After four one-month beta trials, the company says Moxi robots do that very well, but they were surprised by the affection that both nurses and patients expressed for the robots, which was so intense that the technicians began to schedule an hour-long "social lap," in which the robot wanders around and makes heart-emoji eyes at patients. The physical design of Moxi reflects Thomaz's "Socially Intelligent Machines" research; they are designed to be cute and nonthreatening, and to give social cues that humans intuitively grasp, like looking in the direction they're moving.After declaring success in its beta program, Diligent plans to roll the robots out in three or four hospitals in 2019. Read the rest

Ten years ago, Chase was forced to withdraw the binding arbitration clauses in its credit card agreements as part of a settlement in a class-action suit (the company was accused of conspiring with other banks to force all credit-card customers to accept binding arbitration) (one of the things binding arbitration does is deprive you of your right to join class-action suits!). Last May, the company stealthily reintroduced the clauses, and gave customers until August 7 to notify the company in writing if they do not agree to binding arbitration. You have ONE MONTH LEFT to opt out.Binding arbitration is a system of private law in which you surrender the rights that Congress gave you and resolve your disputes with massive, powerful companies by pleading your case in front of a contractor they hire (these contractors usually find in favor of the companies who are paying their bills, not the customers they've wronged.To get a sense of why you should always opt out of binding arbitration, even though the companies make it very hard to do so (you have to print and sign a letter opting out and then mail it to them), consider yesterday's news about T-Mobile, who were caught selling realtime access to its customers' location to brokers who sold the information on to bounty hunters, debt collectors and even stalkers. T-Mobile says that its customers can't form a class action suit against it, because they didn't opt out of binding arbitration when they had the chance. Read the rest

Rachel Bitecofer, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University's Judy Ford Wason Center for Public Policy has developed a US election prediction model that performed very well in the 2018 midterms; she has since refined it based on the results of the election and she says can predict elections a long way off, regardless of who the nominee is.Based on that model, she believes that Trump will lose the presidency in 2020, "barring a shock to the system"; which she attributes to a likely shift in midwestern voting, because "the complacent electorate of 2016, who were convinced Trump would never be president, has been replaced with the terrified electorate of 2020, who are convinced he’s the Terminator and can’t be stopped."Bitecofer says that a Democratic nominee who is "a woman, a person of color or a Latino, or a female who is also a person of color" will drive a Democratic turnout surge in "really important places" but she thinks that even if someone as pale, male and stale as Joe Biden gets the nomination, they can still win if they pick the right running mate.She also thinks that the Dems won't win Florida, because "Florida is really, really old," filled with conservative-leaning, Trump-forgiving "Greatest Generation" voters who "are also the nation’s most reliable voters." Add to them Florida's bumper-crop of "white, non-college educated voters, especially older ones," and the difficulty of mobilizing "young and/or Latino voters" for the Democratic party, and Florida is a write-off (see also: Texas, Georgia). Read the rest

The Old Weather project is a crowdsourced effort to gather data on historic climate patterns by transcribing entries from old, logbooks, some typed and some handwritten. The project is jointly run by NOAA and the Smithsonian. (via Kottke) Read the rest

New research reveals that sleep patterns of zebrafish are similar to the slow-wave and REM sleep of humans and other mammals, birds, and lizards. Furthermore, the study suggests that these sleep signatures emerged in the brain of our common ancestor more than 450 million years ago. According to the scientists, a better understanding of how sleep evolved could shine light on the biological processes behind it and perhaps lead to new treatments for sleep disorders. From National Geographic:Based on our understanding of the evolutionary relationships between fish and mammals, the team suggests that REM-like sleep states evolved more than 450 million years ago, making this type of sleep a deeply held biological phenomenon.“We share a backbone, but we share much more than that,” says study coauthor Philippe Mourrain, a neuroscientist at Stanford University. “It makes it easier to understand sleep and what it does in ourselves..."Lead author Louis C. Leung, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, built the microscope responsible for the complex imaging done for the study. Most body activity is choreographed by an intricate network of nerve cells, or neurons. When neurons are active, they release calcium, so researchers genetically engineered the zebrafish to include a protein that would flash fluorescent green when it detected calcium, indicating an area of the body is active...The advance could be particularly valuable for health professionals seeking to design new drugs to combat the growing epidemic of sleep deprivation in many countries. Better sleep-enhancing drugs could provide some relief for people who struggle to drift off. Read the rest

Jennifer Araoz says a recruiter brought her to Jeffrey Epstein when she was 14. She says she started giving him weekly massages, during which he masturbated and paid her $300 per session. When she turned 15 he forcefull raped her, she says in this Today Show interview.Watch @savannahguthrie’s full exclusive interview with Jeffrey Epstein accuser Jennifer Araoz, who’s sharing her story of alleged rape for the first time. pic.twitter.com/CjZdVpLz7i— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 10, 2019Image: Today Show Read the rest

Noam Gottesman, a businessman worth $2.7 billion, added a curb cut to a public sidewalk in Manhattan's West Village and posted “No Parking” and “Active Driveway” warnings, even though there is no driveway. Anyone who parks there gets confronted by Gottesman's hired hands who warn the parker that their car will be ticketed and towed. For some Gottesman seems to think he deserves to use public space as his own private parking spot. New York's Department of Buildings says Gottesman does not have permission to have a curb cut, but Gottesman's lawyer says Gottesman has the right to the curb cut.From The Daily News:Any attempt to park there immediately brings out hired hands from the building to warn people off.When a News reporter pulled into the empty space Monday morning, a man emerged within seconds.“You will be towed,” he said, pointing to the yellow words on the black door behind him, which was open enough to reveal a set of stairs leading up to a balcony landing.Asked if the residence was a garage, he replied, “Yes, it is .... We tow people immediately. I’m sorry. Immediately."Neighbor Eyal Levin found that out the hard way in late May, when he parked in the spot in an act of defiance and then found his silver Toyota Camry towed. It took hours for Levin to track down his car in a lot in Queens ― and he had to pay $201 to get it back, according to documents reviewed by The News. Read the rest

Analysis of more than 1 million comments from the site finds dramatic shift toward racist hate content

A woman at a Kansas City, MO Department of Motor Vehicles office said “the president’s security was in danger,” and pulled out a gun and started shooting because she felt the line was moving too slowly, according to news reports citing witnesses and local police.The Kansas City Star spoke to one of the shooting witnesses/survivors, Patricia Zick, who said the accused shooter walked into the DMV, saw a long line of people, and became belligerent, cursing.“Something was wrong, I don’t know what it is — drugs, mental or whatever — but she just insisted on getting taken care of immediately,” Zick told a reporter. “The president’s security was in danger, she said.”From kansascity.com:Zick was uncertain what the woman needed, but the woman insisted that the workers call their boss, who was not there.One worker said she was going to call police and the woman responded that she had better not.“It will take longer,” the woman said.The exchange between workers and the woman went on for about 10 minutes and others inside the licensing office were becoming irritated because they were losing their time.The woman then said she’d take care of it and walked out, Zick said.Zick followed the woman to get her license plate number. As the woman was walking away, she started digging in her purse. She then pulled out a gun and shot into the air.There's video at the Kansas City Star article.[via @vikkie, Stock Photo at top: Shutterstock] Read the rest

Across America, semi-homeless "nomads" drive from big-box store to big-box store, hunting for items on clearance that Amazon customers are paying a premium for; when they find them, they snap them up and add them to the bins at Fulfillment by Amazon warehouses, whence they are shipped on to consumers.The arbitrage is made possible by a combination of factors: the slow death of big-box retail, which is especially keen in out-of-the-way post-industrial casualties of the Great Recession means that there are stores at the end of every secondary road desperately trying to flog off the merchandise the locals don't want and/or can't afford. Then there's the retail cycle itself, which sees beloved products discontinued despite a faithful following, because that following simply isn't large enough to sustain the product (which is why the deadstock for the orphaned Bounce Dryer Bars sell in two-packs for $300; see also: Walmart pajama bottoms before they switched to a stiffer, less comfy cotton; and a discontinued brand of dental floss whose adherents pay $100 for a six pack that once retailed for $0.99; and discontinued flavors of cat-food that are the only thing that a beloved, aging pet will tolerate).The nomads -- lovingly and beautifully profiled in a piece by Josh Dzieza for The Verge -- are like carrion beetles, stripping the carcasses of the dwindling brick-and-mortar retail industry, except that unlike carrion beetles, they don't consume the few useful morsels still left on the bones; instead, they ship them to Amazon, the pathogen that triggered the die-off, making it more deadly, and hastening the process. Read the rest

In the latest episode of Scam Nation, magician Nate Staniforth went to Anamosa State Penitentiary in Iowa to perform magic for the inmates.Image: YouTube Read the rest

“The kidney has a very special place in the heart,” President Donald J. Trump said today, just before he signed an executive order on kidney health care.Here is the full quote:“The kidney, very special, the kidney has a very special place in the heart. It’s an incredible thing. There’s a spirit like you see rarely.”Yes, this really happened.More from Twitter by reporters who were president at the signing, below.PHOTO courtesy of Bloomberg News White House correspondent Jennifer Jacobs.TRUMP: The kidney, very special, the kidney has a very special place in the heart. It’s an incredible thing. … There’s a spirit like you see rarely.— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) July 10, 2019Trump today will announce an overhaul of the U.S. approach to care for people with kidney disease, an effort intended to move more patients out of costly dialysis centers and increase transplants.https://t.co/RxTiUYOYsB— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 10, 2019“The kidney has a very special place in the heart,” Trump says just before signing an executive order on kidney health care. pic.twitter.com/72uaiw6oS3— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 10, 2019Happening now at Ronald Reagan Building, @POTUS is delivering remarks on advancing #kidney health and will sign a related executive order. pic.twitter.com/aEyrQ7l2oc— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) July 10, 2019President Trump is directing government to revamp the nation's care for kidney disease; aims to allow more people whose kidneys fail to have a chance at early transplants and home dialysis. https://t.co/zNiFJICJJ5— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 10, 2019"America first, American patients first," says @POTUS wrapping up his speech. Read the rest

Not much detail, as the paper that makes the claim is only available at present to American Economic Association members; but in Did Austerity Cause Brexit? University of Warwick economist Thiemo Fetzer asserts that he found a "significant association between the exposure of an individual or area to the UK government’s austerity-induced welfare reforms begun in 2010, and the following: the subsequent rise in support for the UK Independence Party, an important correlate of Leave support in the 2016 UK referendum on European Union membership; broader individual-level measures of political dissatisfaction; and direct measures of support for Leave. Leveraging data from all UK electoral contests since 2000, along with detailed, individual-level panel data, the findings suggest that the EU referendum could have resulted in a Remain victory had it not been for austerity." (Image: Peter Damian, CC-BY-SA) (via Marginal Revolution) Read the rest

Police say a Canadian man survived after he was swept over the largest of all the waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls.Authorities tweeted about a man “in crisis” near Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three waterfalls at Niagara Falls park, which straddles the U.S.-Canada border. @NiagParksPolice 0400 responded to male in crisis brink of Horseshoe Falls. On arrival male was observed to climb over retaining wall and swept over falls. Male was found sitting on rocks after search of lower river w/non life threatening injuries. Trans. to hosp. further care— Niagara Parks Police (@NiagParksPolice) July 9, 2019The park draws tens of millions of visitors each year.Officers arrived at the Canadian side around 4 AM and feared they were already too late to save the man. But he survived.The man's name has not been released. He is safe. Many people attempt suicide there each year. No details on the circumstances that led to this incident have been released.“He’s a very lucky guy. Not many people do it and survive,” Ontario resident Andy Essor told the Buffalo News. “He definitely has God in his top pocket.”More from the Washington Post's roundup from various news sources on the unlikely happy ending to this story:Park police said they saw the man climb over the retaining wall, a sturdy barrier made of rough-hewn stone blocks interspersed with decorative metal railings, and enter the raging waters of the Niagara River. Within moments, he was swept over the enormous waterfall, vanishing into the impenetrable cloud of mist rising from the gorge. Read the rest

Next month in Chicago, the Pope Leo XIII Institute will hold its annual exorcism conference for clergy. While not directly associated with or funded by the Catholic Church, the Institute was "established for the total education & training of priests in the holy ministry of exorcism and deliverance." According to the conference site, you'll learn the following:- If the devil can read your mind or knows the future.-How to distinguish between divinely inspired visions and those inspired by the devil.-Common pitfalls for beginners in the spiritual life - as well as those of the most advanced.-How the devil adapts his strategy according to where you are in the spiritual life: purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages.-How to grow in prayer.-What are the most effective weapons in combatting the devil - as well as those the devil uses against you to halt your progress.From Mysterious Universe:The independent, non-profit was founded to serve and educate Catholic bishops, priests, exorcists, deacons, and laity and offered its first conference in 2005 in response to Pope John Paul’s recommendation that every diocese appoint an exorcist.This year’s exorcist conference will focus on the teachings of Father Cliff Ermatinger and his book The Devil’s Role in the Spiritual Life. Past conference themes have included the exploration of the Virgin Mary’s role in defeating Satan and the in-depth examination of the motives of rebellious angels. The keynote speaker of the 2016 conference was Father Gary Thomas, the real-life priest on whose experiences the 2009 book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist was based, as well as the 2011 film The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins. Read the rest

Bangkok's Death Awareness Cafe takes its design cures from a mortuary, complete with funeral wreaths and caskets. Patrons sip cappuccinos, read death-related "inspirational" quotes on the walls, and then climb into the coffins to consider their ultimate fate. Sounds, er, fun? From Rumble:Despite the macabre appearance, owner Professor Veeranut Rojanaprapa says there’s a deeper meaning behind the eatery - improving society by encouraging people to reflect on their life.He said: ‘’We’re concerned about a big problem in Thailand. The problem of corruption, the young mothers and criminal gangs.‘’After a study, we found out that the root of the problems are greed and anger. When people are greedy, then they are corrupt. When they are greedy, they have prohibited sex. When people are angry they do harmful actions.’’Buddhist followers believe that if people are aware of death they will be less greedy and do more good in the world.(UPI via Weird Universe) Read the rest

One of the arguments against hate-speech laws is that once the state starts dividing expression into "allowed" and "prohibited," the "prohibited" category tends to grow, in three ways: first, because company lawyers and other veto-wielders err on the side of caution by excising anything that might be in the "prohibited" bucket; second, because courts respond to these shifts in the discourse by finding more and more edge-cases to be in violation of the law; and finally, because lawmakers are tempted to shovel any speech they or their campaign donors don't like into the "prohibited" bucket.These effects are even more pronounced when it comes to online speech regulation: the boiler-rooms full of traumatized moderators working for the Big Tech platforms are already juggling a massive list of internal policies about what can and can't be said; add to that a set of high-stakes legal consequences for getting it wrong and they begin to err on the side of caution so aggressively that they block messages from people who were the targets of hate speech. Smaller forums who can't afford moderation teams are even worse off, using fewer resources to make these calls and unable to afford the legal penalties if they get it wrong.To watch this in action, have a look at France's proposed "hate speech" laws, which require platforms to remove any "hateful content" within 24 hours; as this rule has progressed through the French legislature, politicians have perceived an opportunity to add all kinds of dubious ideas and sentiments to the nebulous "hateful content" category, introducing a flood of amendments to the bill. Read the rest

Frog and Toad are friends.But Toad had a run-in with the law."Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truthAnd nothin' but the truth?""I got somethin' to say," said Toad."FUCK THE POLICE."Frog and Toad aren't going to take it anymore.---Loads of Etsy sellers have this as a t-shirt design, for both adults and kids. Why...? BuzzFeed has the story:A mom from Benton, Illinois, hilariously discovered the shirt she ordered for her 3-year-old daughter from a Chinese retailer came with an additional design element that wasn't originally advertised on its site.Kelsey Dawn Williamson, 23, told BuzzFeed News she's profoundly confused and has not stopped laughing since she received the T-shirt order from AliExpress, an online, Etsy-like retailer based in Hangzhou, China, that hosts small businesses.On May 10, Williamson placed an order for this shirt, which features an iconic image of classic children's book characters Frog and Toad, for her daughter Salem...On Tuesday, however, she opened the package to find the Chinese retailer had taken liberty with 3-year-old Salem's new shirt by adding a slogan to it.Image via KeyshaDesignThanks, Mishpen! Read the rest

Nintendo finally unveiled the long-rumored Nintendo Switch Lite. Besides the compact size, the biggest difference is a classic D-pad control. Due out in September, it will retail for $200. From The Verge:Nintendo says the Lite features “slightly” improved battery life — the company wouldn’t get any more specific than that — due to a more power-efficient chip layout, as well as the lack of additional batteries in the built-in controllers. The Switch Lite also does away with the device’s controversial kickstand...The Lite comes in multiple colors at launch — yellow, grey, and turquoise — as well as a special light grey Pokémon Sword and Shield edition, and they all have a pleasant matte texture that feels great to hold....The new device has a 5.5-inch touch display, compared to 6.2-inch for its predecessor. If you take a single Joy-Con off of an original Switch, you’ll have a good idea of the size of the new version. Read the rest

Darius Brown, an awesome kid from Newark, New Jersey, makes bow ties for shelter animals to help them get adopted (because they're more cute). The cause is righteous, and so is the creativity he puts into designing and making the bow ties.His organization is called Beaux and Paws.There's a GoFundMe. You know what to do.From People.com:Darius Brown’s passion for animals is matched only by his love of bow ties, and the Newark, New Jersey, 12-year-old decided to combine the two into something useful.Brown’s organization, Beaux and Paws, dresses shelter pets up in fancy bow ties, made by the preteen himself, so the animals can look good while seeking adoption.“It helps the dog look noticeable, very attractive,” he told the Today Show. “It helps them find a forever, loving home … I love everything about dogs and cats.”Brown was diagnosed with comprehension delay, speech delay and fine motor skills delay when he was only two years old, and over time, his family encouraged his creativity as he developed his love for animals and fashion, according to Today.More: Boy Creates Bow Ties for Shelter Animals to Help Them Get Adopted View this post on Instagram Meet some of my new Furry Friends wearing their 4th of July Bow tie handmade by me! They look PAW-some!!!! Swipe left👈🏽 . 1st pic - Walter 2nd pic Top L-R: Callan & Quinn Middle L-R: Rico & Geist Bottom L-R: Bogart & Rowdy 3rd pic - Jude . Read the rest

“Sam Nunberg and Michael Cohen recalled David Pecker meeting with Trump in 2015 in Trump Tower, where they talked about what the Enquirer/Epstein may have had on Prince Andrew and President Clinton,” writes Emily Jane Fox.In the months before he ran for president, she reports, Trump was in conversation with National Enquirer tabloid owner David Pecker about Jeffrey Epstein, a Trump acquaintance for many years -- and how a growing scandal over Epstein's sexual abuse could affect Bill and Hillary Clinton. “Trump said that Pecker had told him that the pictures of Clinton that Epstein had from his island were worse,” recalls a former Trump Organization employee.From Emily Jane Fox's piece for Vanity Fair, out one day after Epstein told a federal court he was not guilty on sex trafficking charges:Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, who would later go to prison in part for his role in these hush money schemes, was in the room when Pecker sat down. Pecker, he later told me, used to send him articles and issues before they were published so that he and Trump could read them. After the meeting Trump called in Sam Nunberg, then a Trump Organization employee, who saw Pecker leaving Trump’s office. “Michael was sitting in there when I came in, and the issue of the National Enquirer with the pictures of Prince Andrew was on his desk,” Nunberg recalled. “He said not to tell anyone, but that Pecker had just been there and had brought the issue with him. Read the rest

In 2016, EFF suedthe US Government on behalf of Andrew "bunnie" Huangand Matthew Green, both of whom wanted to engage in normal technologicalactivities (auditing digital security, editing videos, etc)that put at risk from Section 1201 of the Digital MillenniumCopyright Act.EFF's lawsuit argues that Green and Huang's activities areconstitutionally protected, and that DMCA 1201 -- which imposes ablanket ban on bypassing Digital Rights Management (DRM), without adequate safeguards for speech -- was unconstitutional.The case has been sitting in limbo for over two years, waiting for thejudge to rule on whether our clients’ claims could proceed, and, atlong last, the judgehas ruled and the case will go forward!As my EFF colleague Kit Walsh writes,the ruling is a "mixed bag":The ruling is a mixed bag. While the "as-applied" First Amendment claimswill go forward, the court did not agree that rulemaking by theLibrarian of Congress is subject to judicial review under theAdministrative Procedure Act, even when the Librarian is performing anexecutive branch function rather than a congressional one. The courtalso did not agree that the Librarian's rulemaking is subject to theFirst Amendment scrutiny that applies when a government official ismaking determinations about what speech to permit. Finally, the courtsaw no need to adjudicate the claims that Section 1201 is overly broad,because it concluded that determining the constitutionality of thestatute as applied to the plaintiffs will turn on the same issues aswith other potential targets of the law. Read the rest

How bad are things at Donald Trump's garbage Doral golf resort? On Saturday the resort is scheduled to host a golf tournament run by a Miami-based strip club. “The club is auctioning off dancers as 'girl caddies',” writes the Washington Post's David Fahrenthold. “But it says there will be no nudity at the president’s club.” Just at the afterparty.From the Washington Post:The “Shadow All Star Tournament” is organized by the Shadow Cabaret, a strip club in Hialeah, Fla. Emanuele Mancuso, Shadow Cabaret’s marketing director, said in a telephone interview that this was the first time the club had held a tournament at Trump Doral.The Trump name and family crest are displayed prominently in the strip club’s advertising materials, which offer golfers the “caddy girl of your choice.”Mancuso said the strip club did not intend to send a political statement by choosing Trump’s resort. Rather, he said, the choice was for luxury. These golfers are VIPs, Mancuso said. “They deserve a VIP environment.”Mancuso said there would be no nudity at the resort. On the course, he said, the caddies would wear pink miniskirts and what he called “a sexy white polo.” Afterward, however, the golfers and the dancers would return to another venue — the cabaret itself — for what he described as a “very tasteful” burlesque show, which could involve nudity.“They’re going to be clothed the whole time” at the golf course, Mancuso said. “At the venue is different.”Trump still owns Doral, but says he has delegated day-to-day control to his idiot sons Don Jr. Read the rest

A bear was spotted outside the Omni Mount Washington Resort in New Hampshire this week by hotel worker Sam Geesaman, who snapped a couple of breathtaking shots around 5 a.m. on June 29.From New Hampshire's WMUR News:Geesaman said he was working the overnight shift at the hotel and wanted to catch a glimpse of the sunrise off the back veranda of the hotel when he spotted the young black bear coming up the stairs to investigate a nearby trash can.Geesaman said he notified fellow staff members and stood guard to prevent any guests from stumbling upon the bear.“While following behind it attempting to usher it to the nearest exit, the bear decided to hop up on the rail and enjoy the sunrise as I had intended to do myself,” Geesaman told WMUR.[photos: Sam Geesaman] Read the rest

I am an extremely dedicated swimmer, thanks to a chronic pain condition that is just barely held in check by an hour in the pool every day. I go through a couple pairs of goggles every year: generally the thing that goes first is the elastic or the ratchet for the headband, but sometimes a pair of goggles will get so fog-prone that I just can't swim with them anymore.There's nothing like a fresh pair of swim goggles. The manufacturers coat them with some kind of gel that prevents them from fogging better than any product I'd ever tried (and I'd tried a lot of them). What's more, whatever this gel is made of doesn't sting if it mixes with water that seeps in and then gets in your eyes (a bunch of anti-fog products I've tried appear to be dilute dishsoap that stings like crazy).After literally years of trying different products (Cat-Crap, Liquid Spit, etc), I finally found an anti-fog concoction that actually works: Gear Aid Sea Gold Anti-fog Gel Coating, which appears to be the same stuff that manufacturers coat their goggles and masks with at the factory. Just put a tiny bead of it on each lens, rub in with your fingertip, rinse a couple times, and you're good to go. No fog forms, not any, and even after a month of using this stuff, there's no visible buildup on the inside of my goggles.The stuff is sold for SCUBA divers and I'm definitely putting a tube of it in my dive-bag the next time we go on a diving holiday. Read the rest

Trump says Google wants to rig the 2020 election.

In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my May Locus column: Steering with the Windshield Wipers. It makes the argument that much of the dysfunction of tech regulation -- from botched anti-sex-trafficking laws to the EU's plan to impose mass surveillance and censorship to root out copyright infringement -- are the result of trying to jury-rig tools to fix the problems of monopolies, without using anti-monopoly laws, because they have been systematically gutted for 40 years.A lack of competition rewards bullies, and bullies have insatiable appetites. If your kid is starving because they keep getting beaten up for their lunch money, you can’t solve the problem by giving them more lunch money – the bullies will take that money too. Likewise: in the wildly unequal Borkean inferno we all inhabit, giving artists more copyright will just enrich the companies that control the markets we sell our works into – the media companies, who will demand that we sign over those rights as a condition of their patronage. Of course, these companies will be subsequently menaced and expropriated by the internet distribution companies. And while the media companies are reluctant to share their bounties with us artists, they reliably expect us to share their pain – a bad quarter often means canceled projects, late payments, and lower advances.And yet, when a lack of competition creates inequities, we do not, by and large, reach for pro-competitive answers. We are the fallen descendants of a lost civilization, destroyed by Robert Bork in the 1970s, and we have forgotten that once we had a mighty tool for correcting our problems in the form of pro-competitive, antitrust enforcement: the power to block mergers, to break up conglomerates, to regulate anticompetitive conduct in the marketplace. Read the rest

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (Alphabet) will testify next week before a House congressional committee at a hearing on the power held by online platforms, and whether government should be regulating it.The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee said on Tuesday that witnesses at the July 16 hearing would include Adam Cohen, Google's director of economic policy, Amazon general counsel for regulation Nate Sutton, Facebook’s Matt Perault, and Kyle Andeer, who is Apple's head of global policy development and Apple vice president for corporate law.Reuters reports:Apple and Google did not respond to a request for comment. Amazon spokeswoman Jodi Seth said they will testify but did not share details. Facebook had no immediate comment.This comes as the House Judiciary Committee is probing competition in digital markets as part of an investigation announced last month, with both Republicans and Democrats expressing concern about the power exercised by several of the world’s most valuable companies.The executive branch has antitrust probes underway with the Justice Department looking at Google and Apple while the FTC probes Facebook and Amazon.Read the rest: Big tech executives headed to Capitol Hill for antitrust hearing next week Read the rest

The Seth Rich conspiracy traces back to an SVR operation, reports Yahoo News today. Huge if true, and possibly the Russian military's biggest coup yet, not counting the one that landed Trump in the White House.“Russia’s foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, first circulated a phony “bulletin” — disguised to read as a real intelligence report —about the alleged murder of the former DNC staffer on July 13, 2016, according to the U.S. federal prosecutor who was in charge of the Rich case. That was just three days after Rich, 27, was killed in what police believed was a botched robbery while walking home to his group house in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C., about 30 blocks north of the Capitol.,” writes Michael Isikoff for Yahoo News:The purported details in the SVR account seemed improbable on their face: that Rich, a data director in the DNC’s voter protection division, was on his way to alert the FBI to corrupt dealings by Clinton when he was slain in the early hours of a Sunday morning by the former secretary of state’s hit squad.Yet in a graphic example of how fake news infects the internet, those precise details popped up the same day on an obscure website, whatdoesitmean.com, that is a frequent vehicle for Russian propaganda. The website’s article, which attributed its claims to “Russian intelligence,” was the first known instance of Rich’s murder being publicly linked to a political conspiracy.(...) The Russian effort to exploit Rich’s tragic death didn’t stop with the fake SVR bulletin. Read the rest

I've been using these illuminated magnifiers for years, mainly to read the tiny printing on capacitors and integrated circuits. They require 3 AAA batteries, which are not included. Shipping is free on Amazon. Read the rest

Hold my ring.“Yes. wait. yes. wait. no. yes. no. wait. yes. wait. NOW!”From kaomaru42.[via IMGUR] Read the rest

Netflix Hangouts lets you watch Netflix at the office without your boss knowing by playing it in a quadrant of a fake video conference call. Read the rest

The Mini Cooper SE battery electric vehicle will go on sale in 2020, according to Ars Technica. The manufacturer specified range of 148-167 miles will more likely be 150 miles between charges, and it has a 181 hp motor.From Ars Technica:Throughout Mini's 60-year history, the brand has always been about small front-wheel-drive cars, and that continues here. In this case, the front wheels are going to be driven by a 181hp (135kW), 199lb-ft (270Nm) electric motor, powered by a 32.6kWh lithium-ion battery pack. To avoid compromising the Mini's diminutive form factor, the battery pack is T-shaped, and apparently there's no reduction in cargo volume as a result.Image: Mini Read the rest

Pillman is Oscar "Nanochess" Toledo's reimplementation of Pacman ("a game about a yellow man eating pills") in 512 bytes -- small enough to fit in a boot sector -- written in 8088 assembler. (via Four Short Links) Read the rest

Three basement levels of the Louvre are given over to the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France (C2RMF), which provides research and restoration services to France's 1,200+ art museums and galleries.C2RMF operates a 27m long particle accelerator called AGLAE that can bring particles up to 20% of the speed of light; the instrument is used to solve mysteries by determining which elements are present in artworks -- for example, determining whether a piece of antique Venetian glass sculpture really came from Venice.Science journalist Annie Minhoff, who co-hosts the Undiscovered podcast, got to tour the AGLAE facility as part of a science-journalist's junket put on by the Association des Journalistes scientifiques. Her Twitter thread on the trip is a charming delight, including the note that "every single person I heard from on this tour, from the AGLAE engineer to the director of this whole shebang, was a woman" and a photo of the "weird sculpture the AGLAE engineers made out of spare accelerator parts."Did you know there is a legit ✨particle accelerator✨in the basement of the Louvre museum!? I heard about this a few years ago, and have been dying to see it ever since. Well mes amis, yesterday I DID!Join me! On y va! 1/ pic.twitter.com/2iwqMx8uhn— Annie Minoff (@annieminoff) July 6, 2019(Image: Annie Minoff) Read the rest