Ars Technica reports that a judge ordered Comcast to pay a $9.1 million fine and refund 50,000 customers it tricked into subscribing to a worthless "protection plan."Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued Comcast in August 2016, accusing the nation's largest cable company of tricking customers into buying a "near-worthless 'protection plan' without disclosing its significant limitations."Buying the $5-per-month plan ostensibly prevented customers from having to pay each time a Comcast technician visited their home to fix problems covered by the plan. But in reality, the plan did not cover the vast majority of wiring problems, the AG's lawsuit said. Moreover, Washington state attorneys said that Comcast led customers to believe that they needed to buy a Service Protection Plan (SPP) to get services that were actually covered for free by the company's "Customer Guarantee."Image: Ken Wolter/Shutterstock Read the rest

Today, Apple is one of the largest, most profitable companies on Earth, but in the early 2000s, the company was fighting for its life. Microsoft's Windows operating system was ascendant, and Microsoft leveraged its dominance to ensure that every Windows user relied on its Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc). Apple users—a small minority of computer users—who wanted to exchange documents with the much larger world of Windows users were dependent on Microsoft's Office for the Macintosh operating system (which worked inconsistently with Windows Office documents, with unexpected behaviors like corrupting documents so they were no longer readable, or partially/incorrectly displaying parts of exchanged documents). Alternatively, Apple users could ask Windows users to export their Office documents to an "interoperable" file format like Rich Text Format (for text), or Comma-Separated Values (for spreadsheets). These, too, were inconsistent and error-prone, interpreted in different ways by different programs on both Mac and Windows systems.Apple could have begged Microsoft to improve its Macintosh offerings, or they could have begged the company to standardize its flagship products at a standards body like OASIS or ISO. But Microsoft had little motive to do such a thing: its Office products were a tremendous competitive advantage, and despite the fact that Apple was too small to be a real threat, Microsoft had a well-deserved reputation for going to enormous lengths to snuff out potential competitors, including both Macintosh computers and computers running the GNU/Linux operating system.Apple did not rely on Microsoft's goodwill and generosity: instead, it relied on reverse-engineering. Read the rest

Responding to Professor Sir Angus Deaton’s report into the causes of inequality, economics writer Chris Dillow provides an excellent list of eight ways in which unequal societies sacrifice overall economic growth and national prosperity to preserve the fortunes of their elites.Topping the list is the diversion of investment resources from innovative products and services into socially useless and inefficient "guard labor" (everything from surveillance to high walls to alarm systems to actual armed guards). Beyond that, inequality produces an erosion of the trust that is a precondition for growth; unequal access to education and opportunity which means that poor peoples' contributions to national wealth are never realized.One interesting idea is that high managerial salaries entrench "the forces of conservatism" as top officials at monopoly businesses balk at taking risks that might hurt their profits, even if they result in better companies offering services that are more productive and profitable in the long run.7. The high-powered incentives that generate inequality within companies can backfire. As Benabou and Tirole have shown (pdf), they encourage bosses to hit measured targets and neglect less measurable things that are nevertheless important for a firm’s success such as a healthy corporate culture. Or they might crowd out intrinsic motivations such as professional ethics. Big bank bonuses, for example, encouraged mis-selling and rigging markets rather than productive activities.8. High management pay can entrench what Joel Mokyr calls the “forces of conservatism” which are antagonistic to technical progress. Reaping the full benefits of new technologies often requires organizational change. Read the rest

Amazon's Ring doorbells are surveillance devices that conduct round-the-clock video surveillance of your neighborhood, automatically flagging "suspicious" faces and bombarding you and your neighbors with alerts using an app called "Neighbors"; it's a marriage of Amazon's Internet of Things platform with its "Rekognition" facial recognition tool, which it has marketed aggressively to cities, law enforcement, ICE, businesses and everyday customers as a security measure that can help ID bad guys, despite the absence of a database identifying which faces belong to good people and which faces belong to bad people.Part of the home surveillance project is a fear-based marketing campaign -- a whole news vertical -- designed to convince Americans that their neighborhoods are so dangerous that they owe it to themselves and their neighbors to conduct surveillance of the streets in front of their homes.The latest salvo in the war is a paid "promoted post" Facebook campaign featuring Ring surveillance footage of suspected petty criminals (a woman trying a car door handle and walking away), urging viewers to get in touch with local cops in order to help solve a crime that may in fact not be a crime. A post on the the Mountain View Police Department's websites details the incident and also shares an image from the Ring camera. "Footage obtained from a neighbor’s home captured a woman who is believed to be the suspect in the theft," the post says. The woman is suspected of stealing someone's purse and wallet from inside a car, and making a series of purchases around town with those stolen credit cards. Read the rest

Finnish company Valkee sells the HumanCharger, a pair of $150 earbuds with integrated LEDs to shine light into your ears. Their claim:This revolutionary device is for your well-being and channels bright light directly to the light-sensitive regions of the brain, right where it is needed the most.HumanCharger® can be used to increase energy levels, improve mood, increase mental alertness, reduce the effects of jet lag and keep winter blues at bay.A site called Valkee's Earlight Swindle International argues otherwise.(via Weird Universe) Read the rest

NASA announced today that the International Space Station is now open to private astronauts for commercial business and, yes, tourism. It ain't budget travel, that's for sure. Kenneth Chang writes in the New York Times:NASA is not selling space vacations directly, but allowing commercial companies to arrange such trips. The agency plans to charge the companies about $35,000 a night for use of the station’s facilities, including air and water.The tourist companies would charge much more to cover the rocket flights to and from space, and to make a profit.Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nev., has already reserved four launches. The company will use SpaceX, the rocket company run by Elon Musk, to take private astronauts. Each flight would have four seats.Axiom Space of Houston is also arranging flights and hopes to fly tourists next year.From NASA:Pricing released Friday is specific to commercial and marketing activities enabled by the new directive, reflects a representative cost to NASA, and is designed to encourage the emergence of new markets. As NASA learns how these new markets respond, the agency will reassess the pricing and amount of available resources approximately every six months and make adjustments as necessary.To qualify, commercial and marketing activities must either:• require the unique microgravity environment to enable manufacturing, production or development of a commercial application;• have a connection to NASA’s mission; or• support the development of a sustainable low-Earth orbit economy.NASA’s directive enabling commercial and marketing activities aboard the space station addresses manufacturing, production, transportation, and marketing of commercial resources and goods, including products intended for commercial sale on Earth. Read the rest

This excellent 1982 TV commercial for Mattel's Intellivision game console features a "computerized" futuristic newscast that predates both Max Headroom's cyber-pisstake on the media and A-Ha's rotoscoped classic "Take On Me!" Read the rest

Rot in jail for cruelty to animals, Florida man.QCountry 103.7:A 25-year-old Florida man is jailed in upstate New York after police say he crashed a stolen car and was found naked in a chicken coop after a seven-hour manhunt.Kirkwood is 57 miles southeast of Ithaca.State police say John Mehne of Sarasota faces numerous charges, including criminal possession of stolen property for crashing an Audi A5 reported stolen in Florida and cruelty to animals for killing a dog and some chickens.Police say Mehne crashed the Audi on Interstate 81 about three miles north of the Pennsylvania line Tuesday morning, rode a passing pickup truck for a mile and ran into woods. Police say he stopped at several homes, killing a dog at one and attacking chickens at two others.He was arraigned Wednesday and jailed without bail. Police say he has requested a lawyer. Read the rest

"What is a swastika?" asked the fool who built a giant swastika in his El Sobrante, CA yard.The gentleman claims to not be an enthusiast of German National Socialism, nor does it sound like he can spell it. While his neighbors believe he is harmless, they also doubt his sincerity.The swastika as an age-old symbol of Tibetan something argument seems to be a tool racists return to the privacy of their own home and giggle about. Read the rest

Our friend Attaboy’s got a fun(gi) art happening in the works called “Game of Shrooms.” You can play, no matter where you are, and, no, it’s not a drug-related activity. You can make mushroom art, find mushroom art, or both! Artists from all over the world have already signed up.Here are the details on how you can plant and play:“#shroomdrop is June 15th! It is open to ALL artists everywhere...1. Make painting or sculpture or other art. If you are doing little paintings, I find it is best to add little popsicle sticks to bottom of them in the back so that the art doesn’t get dirty if placed near the ground.2. Post preview teasers if you like.3. Put your IG tag on the back and #shroomdrop #gameofshrooms if you can.4. Plant or place art. Don’t hurt nature or property. If it rains, you Can hide inside friendly Indy stores as well...5. After you plant, take a few photo clues to post. I suggest a close up, then a wide shot, with a landmark of some kind visible (old church, sign post, etc) location tag helps if you are in a suburban area. Don’t hurt nature or property.6. Oh and be sure to hide it/them on June 15th!” View this post on Instagram Only 13 days until the Game Of Shrooms. There’s still time for you to participate. see @attayumfactory for more info. Game of Shrooms happens June 15th! And the list of locations keeps growing! Read the rest

My friend John Law is a legend of San Francisco's underground with an incredible resume of culture jamming brilliance. In the 1970s, he was an integral part of the Suicide Club, a Dadaist group of urban explorers and adventurers that eventually led to Law's co-founding of the Cacophony Society, Burning Man, and the Billboard Liberation Front. Over 40 years, he's also co-founded or contributed to Communiversity, Dark Passage/Ars Subterranea, Seafoam Palace LLC, SF Cyclecide Bike Rodeo, Survival Research Laboratories, SantaCon/flash mobs, Madagascar Institute, SEEMEN, Laughing Squid, and The Bronx Pipe Smoking Society. And he's still keeping the SF Bay Area's high weirdness torch burning even amidst the city's massive (and mostly unfortunate) transformation. Starting tonight, celebrate John's contributions to the counterculture with SIGNMAN: John Law, a three-month long retrospective of Law's life of art (and art of living). The exhibition at Oakland's Pro Arts Gallery will include "rare documentation of events, pranks and explorations, neon art, and multi-media installations." Complementing the exhibit through the summer will be public programs that include lectures, film screenings, book signings, and, I would bet, some unexpected surprises. SIGNMAN: John Law (Pro Arts Gallery)(above photo: John Behrens) Read the rest

If it's good enough for Dick Clark, it's good enough for me. [via Reddit] Read the rest

Just a few years after his death, there are now postage stamps showcasing the colorful art of Ellsworth Kelly. The U.S. Postal Service released these Forever stamps at the end of May, and they feature ten of his pieces: “Yellow White” (1961), “Colors for a Large Wall” (1951), “Blue Red Rocker” (1963), “Spectrum I” (1953), South Ferry, (1956), “Blue Green” (1962), “Orange Red Relief for Delphine Seyrig” (1990), “Meschers”, (1951), “Red Blue” (1964), and “Gaza” (1956). $11 for a sheet of 20 stamps.(RED) Read the rest

It's been 24 years since Black Isle got to work on Baldur's Gate, the classic computer RPG that melded AD&D rules with realtime-ish gameplay to make something immersive to play and gorgeous to look at. Though often counted among the top PC games of all time, the series ground to a halt after a superior sequel, with a third title announced but lost to time, the press of other projects, and corporate bankruptcy. Come 2019:Developed by the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2, Baldur's Gate III is the official next adventure in the venerable Baldur's Gate series. The teaser trailer shows a return of a malevolent presence to Baldur's Gate, intent on devouring it from the inside out, corrupting everything that remains in the Forgotten Realms. The fate of the Forgotten Realms lies in your hands. Gather your party: http://baldursgate3.gameNo details of the game, just a teaser setting the scene.It's funny that my first thought on seeing this was to wonder if it will import my BG2 party! If this is all game-grandpa talk to you, the originals have already been remastered for modern machines and are still pretty good, so long as you can teach yourself to ignore the deranged hidden spreadsheet of 2nd-edition AD&D throwing all its meaningless numbers at you. Read the rest

What better joke about American policing could be made than demanding "let me see your hands" of a deer? Read the rest

Turn a thrift-snore into a thrift-score by transforming a dollhouse into a haunted one! The "post-pop culture purveyors" at Soap Plant/Wacko in LA noticed the one pictured while poking around in the Thrift Stores Oddities Facebook group. They write: "If you should find a saccharine sweet, plastic doll house at the Goodwill, don't dismiss it. Repaint it as a gothic mansion suitable for dolls or Halloween decor." Yes, please do!(RED)images via Soap Plant/Wacko with thanks to Michelle Koby Read the rest

Does your dog need a bit of pampering? We've got just the things with this roundup of six top treats and accessories. If Fido had thumbs and credit, you know he'd do the same for you.FOMO Bones CBD Dog TreatsCBD is all the rage for stress relief among bipeds, but its benefits can be just as beneficial to dogs. There's no THC in these treats, just full-spectrum CBD along with chamomile, passion flower and other natural ingredients tailored to take your pet to their mellow place. Pick up a bag of FOMO Bones CBD Dog Treats for $32.99, a full 17% off the list price.Petmaker Foldable Pet StairsFor older dogs, any elevation change can be a challenge. Help them up into their favorite bed or couch with these carpeted stairs that collapse for easy storage. The Petmaker Foldable Pet Stairs are on sale now for $45, a 74% discount from the MSRP.Cargo Liner Dog Seat CoverThis non-slip liner fits most SUVs, and it ensures a win-win for your next road trip with man's best friend. More comfort for them, no dog hairs in the back seat for you. Pick up a Cargo Liner Dog Seat Cover for $29 now, more than 40% off the list price of $49.99.Sunset CBD Pet Shampoo & ConditionerCBD oil can have anti-inflammatory properties as well as calming ones, which makes it a natural fit for this soothing shampoo. Green tea, lavender, and rosemary keep their coat silky while the THC-free core ingredients soothe their skin. Read the rest

Finally. It's been almost 3 years.

Shut it down. End horse racing. It's animal abuse.

The snack food you wear all over yourself if you try to eat it is now a clothing line. Forever 21 now sells Flamin' Hot Cheetos branded fashion.Here's the link to the whole collection online.The rights to CHEETOS, FLAMIN’ HOT and Chester Cheetah belong to Frito-Lay.I mean, the partnership makes sense as a natural expression of life during Trumptime.The collection features styles for all genders: t-shirts, sweatshirts, dresses, and more. You can purchase from the collection now online, and at Forever 21 stores around the USA. It's affordable. Most items retail between $5 and $30. [More pix at Popsugar]PHOTOS courtesy Forever 21 and Frito-Lay of North America Inc. Read the rest

A legend of American music has departed. His name was Malcolm John Rebennack, or Mac Rebennack, but we knew him as Dr. John. He was 77 years old, and is said to have succumbed to a heart attack.pic.twitter.com/9ph7kisvHx— Dr. John (@akadrjohn) June 6, 2019On Thursday afternoon, Dr. John's publicist released a statement from the musician's family late on Thursday, saying the cause of his death was a heart attack. The statement did not say where he died, but the Lake Pontchartrain area had been his home of late. “Mr. Rebennack belonged to the pantheon of New Orleans keyboard wizards that includes Professor Longhair, James Booker, Huey (Piano) Smith and Fats Domino,” writes the New York Times' Gavin Edwards.“What distinguished him from his peers was the showmanship of his public persona.”Excerpt from the New York Times obituary:Onstage as Dr. John, he adorned himself with snakeskin, beads and brightly colored feathers, and his shows blended Mardi Gras bonhomie with voodoo mystery.He recorded more than 30 albums, including jazz projects (“Bluesiana Triangle,” 1990, with the drummer Art Blakey and the saxophonist David Newman), solo piano records (“Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack,” 1981) and his version of Afropop (“Locked Down,” 2012). His 1989 album of standards, “In a Sentimental Mood,” earned him the first of six Grammy Awards, for his duet with Rickie Lee Jones on “Makin’ Whoopee!”His only Top 40 single, “Right Place Wrong Time,” reached No. 9 on the Billboard chart in 1973. In 2011, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Read the rest

Military research and Chinese firms had access to the data Microsoft scraped under Creative Commons licenses.

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How wrong can one story be?

Mostly for use during extended camping trips in my Volkswagen camper, I'm running a docked Nintendo Switch and 13.3" 1080p IPS monitor all off of power banks.Spare me the horseshit about how awful it is I or my kid might play video games inside our camper van while camping. We like to play video games and we're spending a lot of time in our Westy this summer. I wanted my kid and her cousins to be able to play Mario Kart. I like to play Fortnite. This system is getting us hours and hours of playtime.Nintendo is sensitive to the order in which these devices are plugged together. Failure to follow the correct order frequently results in starting over. I plug a stock Nintendo power supply into this 20,000 mAh AC Outlet bearing power bank. The power bank is rated to 100W and has some internal fans to cool down if it gets too hot. Thus far the Nintendo doesn't force it to cool very often. The Nintendo USB-C power supply evidently will draw a max of 39W and this battery should be more than capable of providing hours and hours of power. Playtesting has shown it to run down about 10% in an hour.I plug the Nintendo power supply into a Nintendo Switch dock. I then plug an HDMI Cable into the dock. The other end of the cable connects to my 13.3" 1080p IPS display. I use an HDMI to HDMI-mini cable that came included with the monitor. Read the rest

Bones Brigade legend Steve Caballero has a very cool home. Read the rest

"Le Clitoris" is filmmaker Lori Malépart-Traversy wonderful animated short all about the clitoris. The gouache-on-paper, 2D digital animation was Malépart-Traversy 2016 graduating student project at the the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. "Le Clitoris" was selected for more than 140 film festivals and won more than a dozen awards. From the "Le Clitoris" film site:Women are lucky, they get to the only body in the human body dedicated for pleasure: the clitoris! In this humorous and informative animated documentary, find out its unrecognized anatomy and its unknown herstory.The purpose of this short documentary is to demystify female sexuality by discovering the anatomy and functioning of this organ, its history and its "discovery" by male doctors, its role in the female orgasm and its function as a tool of empowerment for women.Original music by Eliazer Kramer. Read the rest

Yesterday, Youtube announced that it would shut down, demonetize and otherwise punish channels that promoted violent extremism, "supremacy" and other forms of hateful expression; predictably enough, this crackdown has caught some of the world's leading human rights campaigners, who publish Youtube channels full of examples of human rights abuses in order to document them and prompt the public and governments to take action.One prominent dolphin caught in Youtube's tuna net is Ford Fischer, editor in chief of News2share, whose work is widely used by governments, prosecutors, documentarians, and mainstream news stories. Fischer's videos are some of the best-documented instances of Holocaust denial, incitements to violence, and other extremist acts by far-right figures. Youtube's letters to Fischer say that his videos were "carefully reviewed" by a "team of policy specialists" and found to be in violation of Youtube's policies. All his videos have been demonetized and some have been taken down, including a video that showed antifa protesters arguing with a Holocaust denier. The other video was a speech given by the American Nazi Michael "Enoch" Peinovich, which has been used documentaries from PBS and the New York Times.Youtube isn't the only outlet that has taken down Fischer's videos: Facebook has also removed his footage in its sweep of "extremist" content.Fischer links his woes to Youtube's bungling of the removal of the racist homophobe Stephen Crowder, which he says has prompted the company to play a game of both-sidesism, setting up a "false equivalence" of racists and people who oppose racists and document their racism. Read the rest

This hearing was wild.First the FBI witness tried to say I was wrong. I tried to be generous + give benefit of doubt, but then we checked. I wasn’t.Violence by Muslims is routinely treated as “terrorism,” White Supremacist violence isn’t.Neo-Nazis are getting off the hook. https://t.co/RCjp4687by— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 5, 2019 Representative Ocasio-Cortez continues to hold folks accountable, asking the questions we all wish our politicians would. Read the rest

Yesterday's spectacular series of raids on Australian journalists by the Australian Federal Police are a turning point in how democracies view the role of the press and leaks: the raid targeted News Corp's Annika Smethurst over her reporting on a secret plan to grant the Australian Signals Directorate -- a spy agency -- the power to surveil Australians; 2GB radio's Ben Fordham over his reporting on human rights abuses of refugees; and ABC Sydney's offices over their 2017 Afghan files reports, which documented war-crimes and other misconduct by Australian military personnel.All of these reports are months or even years old, and yet the Australian police carried out their raids now, prompting many to ask what has changed to inspire these unprecedented attacks on journalism? The most notable and obvious change is legal: Australia's 2018 passage of sweeping new surveillance laws and new secrecy offenses paved the way for the action, which puts at risk such key journalistic virtues as source confidentiality and the courage of the press to challenge and reveal official misconduct.The Australian authorities insist that the raids were not coordinated and that it's all a coincidence. As Caitlin Johnson points out, that's a hell of a coincidence, and if it's true, it's even scarier than the idea that the raids were coordinated -- instead, it means that Australia's cops and prosecutors have gotten the message that it's open season on public interest journalism and are acting accordingly, with lots more to come.Australia is a politically unstable state whose governments routinely fail -- the country has gone through five prime ministers since 2013. Read the rest

.@ewarren has read the Mueller report. Have you??? pic.twitter.com/rIHB5UVvgU— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) June 6, 2019 Maybe if a few more of our leaders READ THE REPORT. Read the rest

John Doran, founder of the excellent music news site The Quietus, and producer Alannah Chance have created a fascinating audio documentary series for BBC Radio 4 titled "New Weird Britain." Over four episodes, Doran explores the UK's cultural interzones where hidden scenes of experimental musicians and transmedia artists are keeping the avant-garde alive. From The Quietus:(Each episode focuses) on the urban fringes of major cities and post-industrial towns, as well as the rural and coastal underground, to find the people responsible for making innovative 'weird' music outside of the mainstream music industry.New Weird Britain will feature interviews with musicians such as Gazelle Twin, Richard Dawson, Guttersnipe, Sophie Cooper, Hawthonn, AJA, Rhodri and Angharad Davies, Natalie Sharp, Kelly Jayne Jones and many others. There will also be guest appearances from Cosey Fanni Tutti and Jennifer Lucy Allan during the series.The first episode, Urban Hinterlands, is now available online. Read the rest

South Indian indie publishing house Blaft Publications has tweeted a magnificent thread of hand-painted transportation signs from Kolkata and all around South Bengal, from taxi-door logos to bus-signs to danger signs to "for hire" signs. They're a riot of gorgeous typography and design, creative and individual and intensely evocative of the places they came from. As sf author Mimi Mondal wrote: This entire thread is making me homesick! That 'Garia station' bus goes by my stop. 😭."Hand-painted Kolkata taxi door logos pic.twitter.com/TJN1z0Oxld— Blaft Publications (@blaftness) June 5, 2019Kolkata buses pic.twitter.com/P5RVGS1o6s— Blaft Publications (@blaftness) June 5, 2019DANGER! pic.twitter.com/STCGhaNIXA— Blaft Publications (@blaftness) June 5, 2019For Hire - All Bengal pic.twitter.com/dKzAZwYzpA— Blaft Publications (@blaftness) June 6, 2019 Read the rest

The Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT) is a nonprofit that kicked off its mysterious existence by filing a string of lawsuits against restaurant chains and coffee roasters for not posting California Proposition 65 notices (the notices are mandatory warnings about the presence of "chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer and reproductive toxicity") despite the disputed science behind their demands.The California legislature has formally ended some of CERT's crusade by passing a law that says that Prop 65 warnings never have to be given for coffee. On the eve of this defeat, Ars Technica's Beth Mole (previously) did some deep investigative digging to figure out who was behind CERT.CERT always had a public face in its attorney, Raphael Metzger of Metzger Law Group -- it's his address that's listed on their tax documents. But by digging through documents going back to CERT's formation in 2001, Mole uncovered some of its other principals, officers and associates, including the (now deceased) lawyer/actor C Sterling Wolfe, UC Riverside philosophy prof Carl Cranor, Cal State Long Beach history prof Nancy Quam-Wickham, Nancy Perley, Brad Lunn, and, perhaps most notably, UC Berkeley cancer epidemiologist Martyn Smith.Smith's connection to the group -- whatever it may be -- is the most obviously significant because Smith is also a repeat expert witness in the group's suits, and Mole couldn't find any filings or transcripts in which Smith's potential conflict of interest was revealed (Smith's own filings show that CERT funds much of his research -- apparently the only activity that CERT undertakes apart from filing lawsuits). Read the rest

In a crackdown named "Operation Meltdown", New York City authorities have seized 46 ice cream trucks with unpaid fines.To get away with not paying fines, the release said, the operators created dozens of "shell" companies and systematically re-registered trucks at the Department of Motor Vehicles under the names of different corporations. By the time the city's finance department would try to collect on a debt, there would be no trace of the offending company, according to the news release.Previously in Ice Cream Wars:· Ice cream truck drivers at war· Mr Yummy battles Mr Whippy in Blackburn Ice Cream War· The Glasgow Ice Cream Wars [links to the Wikipedia article] Read the rest

Australia "may well be the world's most secretive democracy," writes Damien Cave in The New York Times. It's cracking down on journalism that embarrasses the government, using arrests, raids and expansive warrants to chill reporting to an alarming extent. The journalist whose home was raided Tuesday, Annika Smethurst of The Sunday Telegraph of Sydney, had the authorities rifling through her belongings for more than seven hours. At the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday, the police downloaded more than 9,000 documents based on a warrant giving them authority to examine phones and notebooks of many journalists that had nothing to do with the articles in question.“No turf, no terrain is off the books,” said Joseph Fernandez, a media law expert at Curtin University in Perth. “The law is very very wide reaching, and it is very disturbing.”He added that it was hard to imagine how any of these articles could have been construed as a threat to national security rather than simply an embarrassment for officials and politicians. Read the rest

Quick Fix is an art installation—a vending machine—that sells likes and followers for your social media accounts.The products in the machine are easy to change. It can sell likes and followers for the following platforms: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. The coin acceptor can be setup so it accepts any currency in the world. Every order is saved in a database and its saved with the location of the exhibition, date, city, country. Quick Fix is commissioned by Pixelache in Helsinki and was produced in Dries [Depoorter's] studio in Ghent, Belgium. Quick Fix premiered at Pixelache festival on 19 May in Helsinki. Read the rest

You can't get close to God on commercial.Prosperity gospel preacher and measles aficionado Kenneth Copeland is closing in on his first billion dollars made.“If I flew commercial, I’d have to stop 65 percent of what I’m doing, that’s the main reason,” he said.Copeland said he was a “very wealthy man” and acknowledged using the private jets to travel to his vacation homes. Guerrero asked how he would respond to those who say preachers shouldn’t live so luxuriously.“They’re wrong,” he replied “It’s a misunderstanding of the Bible that … if you go into the old covenant, do you think the Jewish people believe you should be broke?”Guerrero follows up: “Are you saying that Jewish people appreciate money more?”“They believe in wealth,” Copeland said. A wealthy televangelist explains his fleet of private jets: ‘It’s a biblical thing’ [WaPo] Read the rest

Just because you're roughing it outdoors doesn't mean you need to make things any rougher. The next time you're out camping, feel free to assert your status as a tool-using biped - and boy, do we have the best tools. Here are eight pieces of essential gear for survival or camping use.Slide-N-Glo 3-in-1 LanternThe adjustable handle and sliding cover can quickly turn this light from a lantern to a flashlight or a powerful spotlight in a jiffy. That's great in any emergency, but the additional "flickering flame" setting makes this particularly good for campouts. Pick up the Slide-N-Glo 3-in-1 Lantern for $17.95, more than 25% off the original price.Stalwart Portable Hammock With Frame Stand & Carrying BagNo trees? No problem. This portable hammock weighs in at just over 20 pounds and comes with its own sturdy aluminum frame for easy assembly. Right now, the Stalwart Portable Hammock With Frame Stand & Carrying Bag is available for $65, a full 40% off the MSRP.1TAC Paracord Survival BraceletAll on its own, a good length of paracord can be a lifesaver in the wild - just ask any Navy Seal. This bracelet not only gives you a 9' length of the stuff but incorporates a compass, whistle, thermometer, and multi-tool too. The 1TAC Paracord Survival Bracelet is on sale now for $16.99, 14% off the original price of $19.95.Full Face Snorkel and Diving MaskThis portable snorkel's full face design makes it easy to breathe through your nose or mouth while enjoying a 180 degree field of vision. Read the rest

Japanese artist/musician doooo created this fantastically creepy coin purse so he can really put his money where his mouth is. Previous works include the flesh phone case and a finger hanko (stamp), below. 人肉小銭入れ作りました pic.twitter.com/k6SIDETWD5— doooo (@44doooo) June 1, 2019今週3/9(土)の夜はBIMと金沢のMANIERにお邪魔します。人肉各種も持って行きますので、もし宜しければLANGS 12周年を祝うついでに触りにいらして下さい。 pic.twitter.com/igMNugHnO7— doooo (@44doooo) March 7, 2019 Read the rest

On Memorial Day weekend, this 8.5-million-pound boulder rolled off a cliff and destroyed part of a highway between Cortez and Telluride, Colorado. Blowing it up to clear the way would cost the state $200,000 so instead Governor Jared Polis turned the bug into a feature. The "house-sized" boulder is now named Memorial Rock and is a designated tourist attraction. From UPI:"We expect that for generations to come, people will have the opportunity to observe this geological masterpiece that we're calling Memorial Rock," Polis said at a news conference earlier this week...The highway will be widened with additional shoulder and a new guardrail will be installed near the rock, Lisa Schwantes, the transportation department's southwest Colorado spokeswoman, told UPI.Fixing the two-lane highway will cost about $1.3 million, Polis said, but most of that money will come from emergency funds from the Federal Highway Administration.image: Colorado Department of Transportation Read the rest

Oakland, California is now the second city in the United States, following Denver last month, to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms. Oakland City Council unanimously passed the resolution on Tuesday. From NPR:Oakland's resolution is broader than Denver's. Denver's initiative decriminalized the use and possession of mushrooms containing the compound psilocybin, whereas Oakland's refers to "entheogenic plants" in general, which includes the mushrooms and other plants and fungi containing psychoactive substances.The resolution says city money will not be used "to assist in the enforcement of laws imposing criminal penalties for the use and possession of Entheogenic Plants by adults." It says that investigating people for growing, buying, distributing or possessing the substances "shall be amongst the lowest law enforcement priority for the City of Oakland...."(The substances') possible therapeutic effects were highlighted in an agenda report filed to City Council by the resolution's sponsor, Council member Noel Gallo."For millennia, cultures have respected entheogenic plants and fungi for providing healing, knowledge, creativity, and spiritual connection," the report states, saying that these plants may be beneficial for conditions such as substance abuse, anxiety and PTSD. "This initiative aims to empower the Oakland community by restoring their relationship to nature."These substances are currently not legal under federal and state law."Oakland City Council Effectively Decriminalizes Psychedelic Mushrooms" (NPR) Read the rest

More Americans view made-up news as a 'very big problem' for the country, over terrorism, illegal immigration, racism, and sexism.

They demonetized Stephen Crowder for "egregious actions."Then they said he can re-monetize if he stops selling those SOCIALISM IS FOR FAGS t-shirts.Canada-based hate personality Steven Crowder won't be able to earn more of Google's money from his YouTube channel after a “continued review” found a “pattern of egregious actions” contrary to YouTube Partner Program policies, YouTube said to one of Crowder's bullying victims today. And then, within an hour or so, they walked it all back.“Update on our continued review,” tweeted TeamYouTube on Wednesday. “We have suspended this channel’s monetization. We came to this decision because a pattern of egregious actions has harmed the broader community and is against our YouTube Partner Program policies.”YouTube's communications team linked to the company's 2018 guidelines about abuse.Then, a little while later on Wednesday afternoon, YouTube stated that its new position is if Steven Crowder wants to earn money from anti-gay bullying targeted at an individual person, Crowder needs only to stop selling t-shirts that say Socialism Is For Fags.“To clarify, in order to reinstate monetization on this channel, he will need to remove the link to his T-shirts.”They can't stop digging that hole, can they.Here's the complete thread about Crowder's history online harassment and abuse by Carlos Maza [@gaywonk], and the response by YouTube that they're suspending monetization of Crowder's channel.So, I have pretty thick skin when it comes to online harassment, but something has been really bothering me.— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) May 31, 2019Since I started working at Vox, Steven Crowder has been making video after video "debunking" Strikethrough. Read the rest

CNC Kitchen's 18-minute video on nozzle wear in 3D printing involves sending abrasive filaments (the abrasiveness comes from pigments and additives like carbon fiber, etc) through a variety of nozzles (mostly cheap ones from China), then measuring the results with a micrometer and by taking castings of their interiors -- but the best part is when the nozzles are clamped to the business end of a CNC mill and milled down into cross-sections. Man, I love cross-sections. (via Four Short Links) Read the rest

Do you want to paint your house the color of cyberspace? Sherwin Williams has you covered (also available: "Web gray, African grey, software, network gray, grey screen." (via Bruce Sterling) Read the rest

Tinder has been added to the Russian "Register of Information Dissemination Organizations," a regulatory designation that requires companies to turn over user data on request, without a warrant, to Russian law-enforcement and state agencies (America has a similar regime with a few check-and-balance figleafs). Needless to say, Tinder's data is potentially extremely sensitive, and this subject cannot have escaped the notice of the Russian officials who placed it on the list (after all, kompromat is a Russian word). This puts Tinder at a crossroads: either they can comply, or they can pull out of Russia and face being blocked at the national firewall. A year ago, Telegram opted for the latter and faced terrible reprisals, including being punished by Apple, who were anxious to keep the App Store and Iphone viable in Russia.If you're worried about totalitarian spies raiding your sexual data, I advise staying away from Grindr as an alternative, as they have a pretty terrible Chinese problem.Prior to today, the ORI database contained 175 companies, from both Russia and foreign countries. Tinder's addition to the ORI database was announced earlier today in a press release published by Roskomnadzor, the Russian government's telecommunications watchdog, and the agency in charge of maintaining ORI.According to Roskomsvoboda, a Russian non-governmental organization for the protection of digital rights of Internet users, Tinder is the fourth dating service added to ORI, after Mamba, Wamba, and Badoo's dating portal.Russia says Tinder must share user data, private messages [Catalin Cimpanu/Zdnet](via /. Read the rest

Last week, Geraldine DeRuiter tweeted a short, sharp alternate character arc for The Joker: "The Joker should have been a woman. And she finally went insane because too many random dudes told her to smile, so now she perpetually smiles while terrorizing Gotham."The tweet went viral, and immediately, DeRuiter's mentioned filled up with entitled manbabies who were angry that a woman had reminded them that women get a lot of public harassment, effectively giving her the same origin story that her notional Joker had, should she decide to launch a life of crime.The thing is, DeRuiter's Joker origin story is much better than the traditional Joker tale: "The original origin story for the Joker usually involves him having one bad day. A whole lifetime of systemic misogyny is a much better reason for snapping."DeReuiter's longer rumination on her Joker experience -- including the circumstances of her original tweet, which arose after an epically terrible day was interrupted by some random asshole who shouted across a hotel lobby at her ("Awwww, that’s way too serious a face!") -- lacks the compactness of her original post, but makes up for it with some real insight into the Batman canon, its relationship to gender, and directions for better superheroes in the future.“UGH JUST WRITE NEW STORIES, WHY DO WE NEED TO REWRITE THE OLD ONES?” This argument is interesting to me, because it’s not a zero-sum game. New stories are important. New art is important. Celebrating the work of artists whose work has not been given the amount of credit or attention it deserves is a wonderful thing. Read the rest

I hope Funko Lion Force Voltron is the only Voltron Funko makes!I seriously can not remember the name of a single member of the Voltron Vehicle Force. That show was trash.Funko Pop 6" Animation: Voltron-Voltron Collectible Figure via Amazon Read the rest

Every year, activist investors try to get Mark Zuckerberg to resign for the good of the company, citing his incompetent handling of the company's endless string of privacy scandals and his inability to steer the business towards a scandal-free, sustainable future: in 2018, 51% of the company's "ordinary investors" (shareholders apart from Zuck, his board and his employees) voted to fire Zuckerberg; this year, the bloc calling for his resignation represented $3B in Facebook investments.As part of its mandatory financial disclosures, Facebook has disclosed the result of this year's vote: 68% of ordinary investors want Zuck fired. The outcome of the vote was always foreordained: thanks to techniques pioneered by Rupert Murdoch and the Google founders, Zuckerberg's minority financial stake in the company still translates into voting control over its decisions. The majority of ordinary shareholders also voted to get rid of this situation and replace it with a traditional one-share/one-vote system. Facebook's share price fell dramatically last year following the Cambridge Analytica disaster, while weaker than expected growth compounded the downturn. The stock has not fully recovered after hitting a high of $217.50 on July 25 last year. Shares plunged 7.5% to $164.15 on Monday following news of a potential antitrust investigation.Furthermore, 83.2% of outside shareholders also backed a proposal to scrap Facebook's dual-class share structure. Currently, Class A shareholders have one vote per share, while Class B shareholders get 10 votes per share. Management and directors control Class B shares. Facebook shareholder revolt gets bloody: Powerless investors vote overwhelmingly to oust Mark Zuckerberg as chairman [Jake Kanter/Business Insider] Read the rest