LA has the nation's worst homelessness problem, a (literal) epidemic so terrible it distorts the national statistics.Unsurprisingly, LA is also home to a speculator-driven real-estate bubble (badly exacerbated by Airbnb), which has placed affordable housing outside of the reach of many Californians, and put a third of the county into housing precarity, with more than half their income going to basic shelter. In 2018, a rent-control ballot initiative triggered the most expensive anti- campaign in the history of American ballot measures, supplemented with dirty tricks campaigns from landlords, who are increasingly dominated by giant hedge funds who have created a new foreclosure playbook that is putting record numbers of people on the street (or in their cars).Writing in the LA Times, Steve Lopez launches a blistering attack on the city and county's failure to address this problem, blaming a combination of tardiness, slowness, NIMBYism, and grift. For example, the city has almost completely failed to advance its plans to turn about 100 unused city properties into housing -- years later, only a few of them are in the planning phase and no development work has started on any of them.The last election did see the passage of Measure HHH, which allocated millions for homelessness programs, but that money has either gone unspent or misspent (new apartments built with HHH money have cost as much as $500K). In the meantime, new numbers released by the county this week put the total homeless population in LA County at 60,000, with homelessness up 7% in homelessness among seniors, and 24% in young people (nearly a quarter of students at one Pacoima elementary school are homeless). Read the rest

Patronscan is the leading provider of ID-scanning/verification services to bars and restaurants, and one of its selling points is that it allows its customers to create shared blacklists of undesirable customers who can then be denied services at every other establishment that uses its services.Susie Cagle (previously) delves into Patronscan's practices and the risks the company presents to privacy and fairness. For example, Patronscan's database contains the names, addresses and other details of people who patronize LGBTQ bars, or fundraisers for political causes. What's more, Patronscan allows law enforcement to access its records without warrants. More disturbing is the creation of shared blacklists of undesirable customers: bar staff can block anyone for any reason, and while Patronscan's product allows staff to list a reason ("Assault," "disturbance," "drug possession," "drug trafficking," "fake ID," "fighting," "gang violence," "public intoxication," "sexual assault," "theft") there is no need to provide evidence for these claims, and your due process or right of appeal are based on the company's terms of service, not your constitutional rights. Once you're added to Patronscan's blacklist, you are barred from any participating establishment.But even if there was some system of private justice you could appeal to, it might not matter: bar staff can also add people to the blacklist and give the reason as "other" or "private" -- 60% of the people blacklisted in Sacramento were blocked for "private" reasons.This opens up the door to widespread, illegal discrimination by racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic bar staff, whose blacklistings will ripple out to many other establishments (Patronscan has captured scans from 200,000,000 people in sixty countries). Read the rest

Due to a mistranslation of the Dutch source material, the publish-now-edit-later nature of modern newsmedia, and perhaps a smidgen of hand-rubbing over the practice of euthanasia, everyone is falsely reporting today that a Dutch teenager was put to death with the consent of the state.Naomi O'Leary, on Twitter:A 17-year-old rape victim was NOT euthanised in the Netherlands. @euronews @Independent @DailyMailUK @dailybeast are all wrong It took me about 10 mins to check with the reporter who wrote the original Dutch story. Noa Pothoven asked for euthanasia and was refused. Infuriatingly, it's too late: this misinformation has already spread all over the world from Australia to the United States to India. Her name, #noapothoven is even trending in Italy. I spoke to Paul Bolwerk, a reporter who has been covering the story for @DeGelderlander since 2018. Noa Pothoven had been severely ill with anorexia and other conditions for some time. Without telling her parents, she sought and was refused euthanasia ... A decision to move to palliative care and not to force feed at the request of the patient is not euthanasia. Dutch media did not report Noa Pothoven's death as a case of euthanasia. This idea only appeared in English language pickups of Dutch reporting.The "edit fuckscramble" is afoot right now at various outlets. This is when manifestly false stories are panic-edited one word or sentence at a time and republished, each version doomed to further revision until something defensible finally results—at least if you forget what the story was supposed to be about in the first place. Read the rest

The UK Ministry of Defense has confirmed the authenticity of a leaked copy of its 2017 leaflet, "Extreme Right Wing (XRW) Indicators & Warnings," provided to senior defense staff to help them identify and root out far-right extremists in the ranks.The leaflet identifies 20 traits that are said to be indicative of far-right extremist ideology, from "describing themselves as 'Patriots'" to "looking at opponents as 'traitors'" to "becoming increasingly angry at perceived injustices or threats to so-called 'National Identity'" to "having extreme XRW group stickers or badges on clothing and personal items."It was produced after four soldiers in the West Midlands were arrested under the Terrorism Act, accused of being neo-Nazis and plotting acts of terrorist violence. Since its publication, other serving members of the British military have been tried and convicted for plotting far-right terror and recruiting others to join far-right terror groups.After the leak, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense clarified that people who satisfy a few of the traits on the list may not be of concern, but the more boxes they tick, the more likely it is that they are implicated in far-right extremism.Now, the leaked Army document, which was originally designed to “educate Chains of Command on the indicators and warnings of personnel who may harbour extremist views”, cues anyone worried about the behaviour of soldiers to report their concerns to the Army Warning, Advisory and Reporting Point. Patriotism possible sign of right-wing extremism in the army, document reveals [Laura FitzPatrick/The Telegraph](via Salon) Read the rest

I wear a Helite inflatable vest, which is similar but not integrated into a beautiful jacket. Read the rest

A hiker got into trouble out in the Arizona scrub and needed a lift out. They ended up being treated for "dizziness and nausea" first.Cliff Castle Chopper footage shows a helicopter rescue of injured hiker from Piestewa Peak in Phoenix.NBC News reported that the spinning was caused by the rotors' downdraft. Read the rest

A police officer in Decatur identified himself as "Fuck You is my name" when asked by the innocent, handcuffed black man he was getting angry with.Dizzy Dez writes about the cops turning up outside his home:[Another officer] immediately started to place me in handcuffs and attempted to search me. I asked her was I being detained, she says no but proceeds to put me in handcuffs as I ask then why am I being cuffed?! Stating I don’t consent to any searches nor seizures that are unlawful, I wasn’t searched. So while this is going on two other officers pull up, She places Artist/photographer/ graphic designer( Sa'Von Hobbs )in cuffs and proceeds to search him. He proves he has a permit for the weapon he was holding and we confirm I wasn’t being held hostage. The female officer then asks for my info. And I refuse because I was being detained unlawfully and there was no need for my ID. She then says she knows I have a wallet in my pocket and I say yes I do but I don’t consent to being searched. She then says she’s going to search me anyways and starts to pull me up off the curb by my arm and reaches in my pocket and opens my wallet getting my information and calling it in. At the end of the day nobody can tell me what’s wrong with this officer, it’s like he was mad that he couldn’t violate my rights! Read the rest

In 1830 Joseph Palmer created an odd controversy in Fitchburg, Massachusetts: He wore a beard when beards were out of fashion. For this social sin he was shunned, attacked, and ultimately jailed. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of a bizarre battle against irrational prejudice.We'll also see whether a computer can understand knitting and puzzle over an unrewarded long jump.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH the Mueller Decoder can decipher Robert Mueller's cryptic statements, revealing his actual conclusions about Trump!

In case it wasn't evident from the link that brought you here, digital ads are everywhere. And someone's got to write them. In print or on the web, writing lives by the same first commandment whether it's ad copy, fiction or essay: Don't lose the audience.Still here? Whew.Meta digressions aside, copywriting generally has some easy-to-follow rules. And outside of a university degree, the easiest way to learn them is through a comprehensive online course like the Complete Digital Copywriting Master Class Bundle.This is a complete course package that focuses on writing for the web, and writing to sell. There's an equal focus on the art and science that goes into copywriting, with each lesson covering a different facet:Copywriting Masterclass: Writing That Sells - An entry-level course that will teach you how to identify and connect with your audience.The Complete Digital Marketing Management Course - A bird's eye view of the business of marketing in general, with valuable tips on SEO and analytics.Facebook Marketing: How to Write the Perfect Post - Taking apart the engine that drives traffic in social media's most powerful social media outlet.Copywriting: How To Be A Crazy Good Copywriter - Understanding the unique elements of good copy through easily memorized visuals.Keys to a Great Copywriting Career - How to adjust your voice and content to meet any audience.How To Start Your Own Freelance Copywriting Business - Need a portfolio? Here's how to build one, and how to get it seen. Read the rest

Nothing to be proud of today

In Online Tracking and Publishers’ Revenues: An Empirical Analysis, a trio of researchers from U Minnesota, UC Irvine and CMU report out their findings from a wide-ranging (millions of data-points) study of the additional revenues generated by behaviorally targeted ads (of the sort sold by Facebook and Google) versus traditional, content-based advertising (that is, advertising a piano to you because I spied on you when you searched for pianos yesterday, versus showing you an ad about pianos next to an article about pianos).They found that despite the 40% "ad-tech" premium charged by behavioral ad companies, the ads only added about 4% the media companies that published them, meaning that behavioral advertising is a losing proposition. What's more, serving behaviorally targeted ads involves a great deal of expense in the form of compliance and liability, numbers that will only go up as more privacy laws are enacted.This reveals that the boastful claims that Big Tech makes about its flagship products are not very true. This has always struck me as likely -- when everything else they say about their behavior, ethics and priorities turns out to be a lie, why would we expect their sales literature to be uniquely truthful?The study's method was quite simple: the researchers compared the amounts that publishers received when a logged-in user with a tracking cookie visited their pages to the revenues that an anonymous, logged-out user generated, based on the content of the page and non-tracking indicators like location and operating system. Read the rest

The administration of President Donald Trump is today reported to be considering a plan to detain separated migrant children at Fort Benning, a military base in the state of Georgia. NBC News was first to report the new concentration camp plans, and cited a Department of Defense source.“Two sources familiar with a recent meeting on the proposal said the children would be housed away from the rest of the population but still on base,” write Courtney Kube and Julia Ainsley of NBC News:The Department of Health and Human Services, the agency responsible for sheltering immigrant children who cross the border without their parents, is currently operating near capacity, resulting in a backlog of children staying in overcrowded border stations.No decision has been made yet, but Defense Department spokesman Major Chris Mitchell said that HHS would soon be touring Fort Benning with defense officials."Health and Human Services will conduct a site assessment of DOD property for potential future use by HHS as temporary emergency influx shelter for unaccompanied alien children (UAC) at Fort Benning, Georgia," Mitchell said."DOD officials will join the HHS staff as they tour the property available for potential future use. HHS will make the determination if the site will be used for UAC operations. This effort will have no impact on DOD's ability to conduct its primary missions nor on military readiness," he said.PHOTO: FORT BENNING, GEORGIA. Fort Benning Flyover/Silver wings Jump, September 03, 2015. Photos by: Patrick A. Albright/MCoE Photographer, VIA fortbenningphotos.com Read the rest

Watch this new trailer for that upcoming Martin Scorsese Netflix feature on Bob Dylan. ROLLING THUNDER REVUE: A BOB DYLAN STORY BY MARTIN SCORSESE streams starting June 12, and features appearances by Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Sam Shepard, and Sharon Stone.More:ROLLING THUNDER REVUE: A BOB DYLAN STORY BY MARTIN SCORSESE captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975, and the joyous music that Bob Dylan performed that fall. Master filmmaker Martin Scorsese creates a one-of-a-kind movie experience: part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream. Featuring Joan Baez, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Sam Shepard, Allen Ginsberg, and Bob Dylan giving his first on-camera interview in over a decade. The film goes beyond mere reclamation of Dylan’s extraordinary music—it’s a roadmap into the wild country of artistic self-reinvention.WATCH Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story By Martin Scorsese on Netflix. Read the rest

A Texas high school teacher may lose her job after tweeting to President Donald Trump that her school had been "taken over" by "illegal students from Mexico." Georgia Clark worked as an English teacher for Carter-Riverside High School, and wrote tweets to Trump saying that he was elected "on the promise that a wall would be built to protect our borders."“Texas will not protect whistle blowers. The Mexicans refuse to honor our flag,” she wrote, suggesting that she feared the likely consequences of her racist tweets.“Do you have someone who has looked at the crime statistics across our great nation and documented the number of time an illegal immigrant has committed an act of robbery or murder on American citizens?” she tweeted at Trump.The tweets, and her account, are no longer accessible. Clark said she didn't know they were publicly viewable, which of course does not make the situation better. The Latinx student population in the Fort Worth Independent School District where she worked is roughly 63%, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says roughly 88% of the students at the school where Clark was teaching are Latinx.Clark was initially placed on administrative leave, and the school board is now considering firing her, according to local news.Superintendent Kent Scribner released a statement today welcoming all students in the district no matter what their immigration status, reports NBC Dallas Ft. Worth Texas:Clark has been investigated after a series of complaints about inappropriate behavior and comments, according to district records obtained by NBC 5. Read the rest

The approvals show "President Trump's eagerness to give the Saudis anything they want," said Sen.Tim Kaine (D-VA)

Friedman led CDC for 8 years under Obama, was charged with sex abuse, forcible touching, and harassment.

Policy shift follows NYT report on YouTube recommendation algorithm pushing kids' videos to pedophiles

Device Orchestra's first attempt at a classic video game theme. Other highlights from the channel include Spice Girls on 5 toothbrushes, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on a Ladyshave and The Imperial March on a toaster. Read the rest

Austria has incredibly broad libel laws -- so broad that they prohibit disgruntled voters from calling politicians "oafs" or "fascists." Predictably, this gave rise to a legal dispute between an Austrian politician and Facebook, when the former ordered the latter to remove a comment containing these two insults, and the whole mess ended up before the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU -- a person whose decisions are not binding, but are incredibly legally influential.The Advocate General not only ruled that Facebook can be ordered to block insults to politicians globally (that is, insults to Austrian politicians will not be visible anywhere in the world), but also ruled that Facebook can be ordered to monitor a specific users' communications to ensure that they don't repeat or restate the remarks using synonymous terms, and that Facebook can also be ordered to monitor every user's account to block them from repeating the insults verbatim.This isn't just a bonkers decision, it's emblematic of a bonkers process, as Daphne Keller writes on Twitter: "That’s doubly problematic when – as in every intermediary liability case – the court hears only from (1) the person harmed by online expression and (2) the platform but NOT (3) the users whose rights to seek and impart information are at stake. That's an imbalanced set of inputs. On the massively important question of how filters work, the AG is left to triangulate between what plaintiff says, what Facebook says, and what some government briefs say. Read the rest

Microsoft and Unilever's Lynx brand have partnered on a line of Xbox personal hygiene products including deodorant, body spray, and shower gel. Whatever gets them to use it, I say. Unfortunately for now, the products will only be available in Australia and New Zealand. From Gamespot:The official description is simply delightful:"Lynx Xbox is a fresh scent of pulsing green citrus, featuring top notes of kaffir lime and winter lemon, aromatic herbal middle notes of mint and sage, and woody bottom notes of patchouli and clearwood. Containing a range of natural essential oils, the Xbox Lynx range comes with a sleek new look and features a body spray, deodorant, and shower gel."Xbox ANZ boss Tania Chee said in a statement that users can spray or wash themselves with Xbox Lynx to "power up" before heading out the door in the morning. Read the rest

At a Judas Priest show last week in Rosemont, Illinois, singer Rob Halford became annoyed with an audience member's reported use of the flash on his phone. So he went metal on it. And no, he isn't sorry. The facts are we love our fans and you can film us all you like and watch our show on your phone rather than in the flesh - however if you physically interfere with the Metal God's performance you now know what will happen........Photo credit: Ralph Notaro pic.twitter.com/V8BGcb3eOK— Judas Priest (@judaspriest) May 31, 2019 Read the rest

Quest Diagnostics is one of America's biggest medical testing companies; they have warned securities regulators that they lost 12,000,000 customer records (credit card numbers, bank account information, medical information, Social Security Numbers, and other personal information) due to a breach at ACMA, a collection agency they used.The breach occurred some time between August 1, 2018, and March 30, 2019. Lab test data was not in the breach.Lucky for those 12,000,000 Quest customers, the company announced that "Quest Diagnostics takes this matter very seriously and is committed to the privacy and security of patients’ personal, medical and financial information."So that's settled then.Quest Diagnostics Says Up to 12 Million Patients May Have Had Financial, Medical, Personal Information Breached [NBC](via /.)(Image: Bill Ward, CC-BY) Read the rest

Rob recently wrote about the Clockwork GameShell (an open source, Arduino-friendly, Linux-based handheld game console that runs all sorts of new and old video games). I got one this weekend and put it together. It took about an hour to assemble. Everything was modular and snap-together. No screws. It's very well designed. As I was putting it together I gained a lot of respect for the designer . The only tools I needcd were some flush cut clippers (to remove the plastic parts from the sprues) and some nitrile gloves (to prevent smearing the display and the clear plastic parts).Here's the box:And the contents:Controller buttons and tightening pins on sprues:Flush cutters came in handy for neatly removing plastic parts from the sprues:Here are the sub-components inside their clear modular cases:Fully assembled:And a quick tour of the menu:I'll write more about it after I use it for a while. Read the rest

In 2015, California enacted groundbreaking privacy legislation and in 2018, the state took up the matter again with even tougher rules that have been fought tooth-and-nail by Big Tech companies, many of whom are headquartered in the state.Not to be outdone, New York State Senator Kevin Thomas introduced The New York Privacy Act in May, which binds over all tech companies to serve as "data fiduciaries," with a legal requirement to use your data in ways that benefit you -- and not ways that benefit themselves at your expense (lawyers, doctors and other professionals have similar fiduciary duties); specifically, companies must not use your data in ways that would be "unexpected and highly offensive to a reasonable consumer." Facebook hates this and reportedly told Thomas that it would force them to leave New York State (Facebook denies they told him this).Thomas believes he can get his bill through the state senate this summer, and is seeking a co-sponsor in the state assembly.But the New York bill, as it’s currently written, departs from the California model in significant ways. While the California law leaves enforcement to the state’s attorney general, the New York Privacy Act would give New Yorkers the right to sue companies directly over privacy violations, possibly setting up a barrage of individual lawsuits. Industry groups vehemently opposed a similar provision—also known as a private right of action—in California, and they succeeded in driving it out of the bill when it was finally signed into law last year. Read the rest

Joe Biden is really bad at running for president. How bad? Well, in 1988, he repeatedly claimed to have marched for civil rights, and bidensplained that the fight for civil rights was not a "12 point program" -- rather, its goal was to "change attitudes."There's a lot wrong with this, starting with the absolutely ahistorical claim that the civil rights movement did not have a crisply articulated program. It did.But more importantly: Biden never marched for civil rights. By his own account, the closest he came was working as a lifeguard at a swimming pool in a black neighborhood (he later opposed integration and defended racial segregation).More worrying: Biden's earliest versions of this story were told from the point of view of Martin Luther King, Jr, whom Biden incorrectly asserted had no "12 point program." Later, Biden substituted himself for King. Repeatedly. Despite his staffers reminding him (repeatedly) that this story was an invention, and wrong in every way.Joe Biden is really bad at running for president.However, there is a Democratic frontrunner who did march for civil rights (and get arrested while doing so). What's more, he's the most popular politician in America among both Democrats and Republicans. “When I marched in the civil rights movement, I did not march with a 12-point program,” Mr. Biden thundered, testing his presidential message in February 1987 before a New Hampshire audience. “I marched with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes. And we changed attitudes.”More than once, advisers had gently reminded Mr. Read the rest

Yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom denied Manson family member Leslie Van Houten's request for parole. This is the third time in three years that the California parole board has recommended Van Houten for parole. Former Governor Jerry Brown said no to the previous requests in 2016 and 2018. Van Houten is serving a sentence of life in prison for participating in the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in 1969 at Manson's direction. From CNN:California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a parole release review that despite Van Houten's productive time in prison -- she earned a bachelor's and master's degrees and completed "extensive" self-help programming -- the negative factors of her involvement in the murders outweighed the positive factors."Ms. Van Houten and the Manson family committed some of the most notorious and brutal killings in California history," Newsom said. "When considered as a whole, I find the evidence shows that she currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison at this time."Newson said he understood Van Houten was 19 at the time of the crime and that a psychologist who evaluated her said it was likely "her involvement in the life offense was significantly impacted by characteristics of youth, including impulsivity, the inability to adequately foresee the long-term consequences of her behavior and the inability to manage her emotions that resulted from trauma."Newson said that "without a deeper understanding of what led her to submit to Mr. Manson and participate in these horrific murders, I cannot be sure that Ms. Read the rest

I'm 100% down for the trend toward trustbusting, and I'm very glad to see it applied to Big Tech, because, like Tom Eastman, I'm old enough to remember when the Internet wasn't a group of five websites, each consisting of screenshots of text from the other four. I'd like to have that Internet again.What's more, I think many of the Big Tech trustbusters are there because they understand the companies, the economic context, the promise and the peril of industrial concentration: people like Tim Wu, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.I think that the right wing case for busting up Big Tech is much less principled and much more parochial, driven by a desire to force the platforms to let their Nazis stay, and give far-right harassers extra leeway, while pwning the libs.But that all said, Karl Bode raises an excellent point when he asks why there isn't the same kind of energy to break up the telcos, whose routinely deplorable behavior make them the most loathed industry in America, and whose monopolism has cost America its competitiveness.Bode points out that Big Telco is the enemy of Big Tech, and has -- since the days of the Bell System -- sought to monopolize 100% of the profits from the use of its wires (the latest version of this being the Net Neutrality fight). Bode sees Big Cable's hands working behind the scenes to manipulate and mainstream the debate over monopoly and Big Tech, using conservatives' distress at seeing the "free market" turn into a monopolized communications world that is increasingly hostile to them to get them to overcome their 40-year commitment to permitting monopolies (which are a godsend to the investor class, which is also the political donor class). Read the rest

A baby deer meets a toddler and decides to be her BFF.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Historian Jared Diamond (author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Upheaval) explains how the US could become a dictatorship in 10 years. He says the main reason is the breakdown of political compromise in recent years.Image: Big Think/YouTube Read the rest

One in 500 people are born with polydactyly, extra fingers or toes. Researchers at University of Freiburg in Germany, Imperial College London and Université de Lausanne / EPFL in Switzerland studied two people with well-formed usable sixth fingers between the thumb and first fingers on both hands to understand how their brains deal with the "extra workload" of controlling those digits. According to Imperial College bioengineer Etienne Burdet, high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed that "the polydactyl individual's brains were well adapted to controlling extra workload, and even had dedicated areas for the extra fingers. It's amazing that the brain has the capacity to do this seemingly without borrowing resources from elsewhere." From Imperial College London:Polydactyl participants also performed better at many tasks than their non-polydactyl counterparts. For instance, they were able to perform some tasks, like tying shoelaces, with only one hand, where two are usually needed... (See video above.)The international team of authors say the findings might serve as blueprint for the developing artificial limbs and digits to expand our natural movement abilities. For example, giving a surgeon control over an extra robotic arm could enable them to operate without an assistant...However, (lead author Carsten Mehring of Freiburg University) warned that people with robotic extra limbs may not achieve as good control as observed in the two polydactyl subjects. Any robotic digits or limbs wouldn’t have dedicated bone structure, muscles, tendons or nerves.In addition, subjects would need to learn to use extra fingers or limbs, much like how an amputee learns how to use a prosthetic arm. Read the rest

In 1868 Commodore Richard Powell and the crew of the British ship HMS Topaze took a 9,000 pound statue, called Hoa Hakananai'a, from Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and give it to Queen Victoria. She in turn gave it to the British Museum, where it has resided ever since. Now the inhabitants of Easter Island would like the statue returned.From CNN:In November 2018, the governor of Easter Island Tarita Alarcón Rapu traveled to the British Museum and made an appeal for the statue to be sent back to Rapa Nui as part of a loan agreement. It is one of the most revered of the island's moai, which are believed to contain the spirits of ancestors."We all came here, but we are just the body -- England people have our soul," she told reporters at the time. "And it is the right time to maybe send us back (the statue) for a while, so our sons can see it as I can see it. You have kept him for 150 years, just give us some months, and we can have it (on Easter Island)."A spokeswoman for the British Museum told CNN: "The Museum is delighted to have sent representatives to visit Rapa Nui and to return the courtesy extended by the visit of the group from Rapa Nui in November 2018. We hope we will be able to continue the cordial and productive discussions begun last November and to further develop and build relationships with people on the island."Image: akhenatenator/Flickr, Public Domain Read the rest

XOD (pronounced "zode") is a visual programming language for Arduino and other microcontrollers. It looks a bit like Scratch (the visual programming language for kids) but XOD is especially made for microcontrollers and electronic components. There are XOD desktop IDEs for Mac, Windows, and Linux. In this Make Use Of video, you can see how to use XOD to control a servo with a proximity sensor. They are using this Elegoo Arduino kit ( on Amazon), which has the servo, LCD display, and proximity sensor, Read the rest

The lawsuit seeks 'fairer profit, for developers’ digital products.'

Santa Monica, California-based mobility startup Bird this week unveiled its new Bird Cruiser, an electric bike with a 52-volt battery and LCD screen that seats two riders.The new shared-vehicle design is for “sitting rather than standing and looks not unlike a miniature motorbike, features a padded seat that can accommodate up to two riders and an optional pedal-assist or peg,” writes Kyle Wiggers at VentureBeat.“It will roll out this summer in unnamed test markets via Bird’s first-party service and its platform partners.”Excerpt:The Cruiser, which Bird says was exclusively designed for ridesharing, has hydraulic disc brakes that “reliably” and quickly bring the vehicle to a stop. It’s also powered by a 52-volt battery and boasts a built-in LCD display that shows route progress and other key trip details.Even the motor is a custom job, apparently. Bird says it was specially engineered to ensure that rides aren’t “disrupted” by hills or inclines. “Cruiser is an inclusive electric-powered option that is approachable, easy-to-ride, and comfortable on rough roads,” added VanderZanden.The Cruiser’s unveiling comes months after the company announced a monthly rental program to complement its existing on-demand service. For $25, Bird customers in San Francisco and Barcelona get unlimited rides on a personal scooter, with additional cities to follow.Bird’s Cruiser is a two-seater electric bike with a 52-volt battery and LCD screen [venturebeat, image: Bird] Read the rest

"What I saw before the darkness" shows a human face created by a generative adversarial network, next to the neural memory map representing it. Neurons are removed, and as they go the face loses detail, becomes vague, and finally decays to something that may speak ill of the machine and the mankind that made it.Memories disappear unwitnessed.Images gradually fade awayUntil one day there is nothing leftBut a vague feeling of loss…Here's the project page: AI Told Me. Vice's Samantha Cole:"The inspiration behind the project is rooted in contemplation of human perception," the creator said. "Everything we see is the brain’s interpretation of the surrounding world. A person has no access to the outside reality except for this constructed image." She compared this to how Claude Monet's paintings shifted to blurred, muddled greens and yellows as he aged: Our eyes and brains and the networks that connect them undergo changes and deterioration that we might barely notice as it’s happening. Read the rest

The Sunny SF-B1002 exercise bike that I have based my DIY Peloton around is now $50 less than I paid for it!The 49lb flywheel matched with a really affordable price brought me to the Sunny Bike. This bike is very smooth to ride and easy to use. I have ridden it mercilessly for over 2 years and not had any problems. The bike shows almost no signs of wear and has taken very little maintenance.Set up was super easy, but the parts are heavy and you may need help if the bike has to go up some stairs.All the gear you need to set up and join Peloton's classes is cataloged in this post.I love this bike and the classes from Peloton. Using this set-up over the last two years I've hit my target weight and am in better shape than almost any other point in my life.Sunny Health & Fitness SF-B1002 49lb Flywheel Belt Drive Indoor Cycle Bike via Amazon Read the rest

Bill Hader's impersonation of Dateline's Keith Morrison has all but replaced the real Keith Morrison in my personal appreciation of Keith Morrison-ness: a folksy, overeager narrative of tragedy made perversely explicit. So it's a delight to see them in the same room.Here's the classic parody:I'd very much like to see the Hader-Morrison deepfake. Read the rest

NEW: As we asked "where are the children?" at least 37 were eating and sleeping overnight in vans parked outside an adult detention center, some two nights, because ICE wasn't ready to reunite them. More: https://t.co/WZWXaGDsRz @allinwithchris @JuliaEAinsley @chrislhayes #inners pic.twitter.com/G0OialpujU— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 4, 2019 Where are the children? Stuffed into vans and left to suffer.Our nation is still failing at reuniting the migrant children we illegally, forcibly, and immorally separated from their parents.NBC:Under the blistering Texas sun last July, 37 migrant children boarded vans for what was supposed to be a 30-minute ride. At the end of the road from Harlingen to Los Fresnos lay the promise of hugs, kisses and long overdue reunification with their parents, from whom they were taken when the Trump administration began systematically separating migrant families who crossed the border illegally.But when the children, all between 5 and 12 years old, arrived at Immigration and Customs Enforcement's adults-only Port Isabel Detention Center, rather than seeing their parents, they saw a parking lot full of vans just like theirs, with children from other facilities who, just like them, were waiting to be processed and reunified with their parents.It was 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 15, 2018.Not until 39 hours later — after two nights in a van — did the last child step out of a van to be reunited. Most spent at least 23 hours in the vehicles. Read the rest

National Park is a free typeface from The Design Outside Studio based on the "National Park Service signs that are carved using a router bit." Studio founder and University of Kansas design professor Jeremy Shellhorn was visiting Rocky Mountain National Park when inspiration hit. He writes:I had a sketchbook with me and took some rubbings of the letterforms and asked my friend Miles Barger, the Visual Information Specialist for Rocky, if he had the typeface. He asked the sign shop. No one has it? Turns out it isn’t a typeface at all but a system of paths, points and curves that a router follows.The router’s "bit" follows the path and gives the letters its stroke weight or thickness only when engraving a sign. It doesn't really exist as a typeface unless a sign is made.So my design colleague, Andrea Herstowski, students Chloe Hubler and Jenny O'Grady, NPS Ranger Miles Barger and myself decided to make this router typeface a thing. Our National Parks belong to the people, so this typeface should too.National Park Typeface (via Kottke) Read the rest

This Yootech wireless charging station works just fine and eliminates the need to keep multiple cables on my desktop.Offering 7.5W for Apple phones and 10W for Android, this charging puck works to charge any of my Qi-charging enabled devices. This lets me put my phone or tablet on the same charger, and lets me simply lay them down and not have to plug them in.Less cables, less trouble.This puck does not charge an Apple watch.Yootech Wireless Charger Qi-Certified 7.5W Wireless Charging via Amazon Read the rest

Three cops in New Jersey were filmed repeatedly punching a teen in the face. They demand he rolls over onto his stomach while clearly pinning him on his back, as they beat him for "resisting".Early Sunday morning, police attempted to restrain Cyprian Luke, 19, outside a convenience store. Video recorded by someone with Luke at the time shows the police pinning him down and punching him, with one officer putting his hand around Luke's throat.The officers are seen on camera demanding Luke, who was on his back, roll onto his stomach, while one officer had his knee on Luke's stomach.One of the cops involved, Sgt. Michael Pier, has a reputation for similar violence, with the city paying off an earlier victim after a 2015 incident.Punishing prisoners for following orders, or for being unable to due to their restraints, is undeniably malicious. But consider too how bad at their jobs the officers must be to get themselves into the situation here, punching a teenager over and over in the face until he is blooded and semi-conscious. Surely even the authoritarians would prefer their agents of order be less chaotically incompetent?The trend toward bare-knuckle violence is a reminder that you can't fix cops with cameras or use-of-weapons policies. They'll just find the least accountable method to do what they want, and then do it all the same. Read the rest

Apple announced the long-awaited modular Mac Pro yesterday. It's expensive, starting at $5000, but the faithful wanted some truly pro equipment and they got it. Even the 6k monitor to go with it is hard to fault at $4000, as there's nothing else out there to compete but for a plasticy 8k Dell that's only a little cheaper. But $1000 for the stand? Even that was a little much for the audience at WWDC, whose collective gasp gave the presenter something to trip over.Still, compare it to the roasting Steve Jobs got when he announced that Internet Explorer would be the default Mac browser: Read the rest

More and more devices are cutting the cord, and that's good news for your countertop or nightstand. As smartphones and watches adopt wireless charging capability, there's less need for those bulky, constantly fraying cables.All of this is to say that if you don't already need a hub like the AirBase 3-in-1 Fast Charging Dock, it's only a matter of time.The unit comes with a 9V wall adapter, and as far as your personal devices are concerned, that might be the only thing that you'll need to plug in for a while. The AirBase accommodates wireless-enabled smartphones, smart watches or earbuds in a compact package that looks great on any desk. Best of all, it can charge up all three at once in a jiffy thanks to a sensor that delivers just the right amount of output: 2W for watches, 3W for earbuds and up to 10W for smartphones.The AirBase 3-in-1 Fast Charging Dock is now available for $49.99, a full 66% off the original list price of $149.99. Read the rest

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is helping fund a new plane design called the Flying-V in which the passenger cabin, cargo hold, and fuel tanks are built into the wings. The researchers at the Technical University of Berlin and the Netherlands' Delft University of Technology who are developing the aircraft expect a scale model to take off in September. Even still, KLM says it'll be another 20 to 30 years before it could enter commercial service. From CNN:It's claimed the plane will use 20% less fuel than the Airbus A350-900 while carrying a similar number of passengers -- the Flying-V will seat 314, while the Airbus A350 seats between 300 and 350. The design also mirrors the A350's 65-meter (213 feet) wingspan, enabling it to use existing airport infrastructure...TU Delft project leader Roelof Vos said such innovation was needed as a stepping stone to greater efficiency while technology was still being developed to create large-scale electric airplanes."Aviation is contributing about 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, and the industry is still growing, so we really need to look at more sustainable airplanes," he told CNN..."The new configuration that we propose realizes some synergy between the fuselage and the wing. The fuselage actively contributes to the lift of the airplane, and creates less aerodynamic drag." Read the rest

[Editor's note: Whenever governments review their copyright, one of two things happens: either they only listen to industry reps and then come to the "conclusion" that more copyright is always better; or they listen to stakeholders and experts and conclude that a little goes a long way. Normally, when the latter happens, the government that commissioned the report buries it out of terror of powerful Big Content lobbyists. This time, miraculously, an eminently sensible Canadian report has seen the light of day. I was delighted to invite the legendary Canadian copyright scholar Michael Geist to present a short analysis of some of the important conclusions. -Cory] The Canadian government launched an extensive review of its copyright law last year that led to months of study and attracted hundreds of witnesses and briefs. While some groups hoped the review would lead to new website blocking measures and restrictions on fair dealing (Canada's version of fair use), the Industry committee report released this week actually recommends expanding fair dealing, rejects site blocking without a court order, and rejects proposals to exclude education from fair dealing where a licence is otherwise available. The study covers a wide range of copyright issues, but its conclusions on fair dealing, digital locks, site blocking, and term extension are particularly noteworthy. Fair Dealing Based solely on the number and length of the footnotes, it is readily apparent that fair dealing, particularly educational fair dealing was a dominant issue at committee. The committee concluded that much of the change over the past five years is due to Canadian publishers struggling to adjust to market disruptions that are unrelated to the 2012 copyright reforms. Read the rest

Authorities investigating Flint water crisis seize mobile devices from former Gov. Rick Snyder and 65 other officials.

The writer who co-reported a weird New York Times piece about former Vice President Joe Biden and the government of Ukraine has, surprise!, just been appointed spokesperson to Ukraine’s new president.Wait, what?Just one month after that New York Times piece in which Iuliia Mendel questioned Democratic presidential candidate Biden’s efforts to oust a Ukrainian prosecutor, she gets a job with the country’s new president.Here's the New York Times' statement:NYT statement on Iuliia Mendel, one of the co-authors of last month’s big Biden/Ukraine story, becoming a spox for the president of Ukrainehttps://t.co/iABza9MeBW pic.twitter.com/dbIvrXoJnr— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) June 3, 2019From Max Tani's piece in the Daily Beast about this foul-smelling affair:[Iuliia Mendel]'s May 1 Times piece detailed how in 2016, then-Vice President Biden successfully pushed Ukraine to oust Viktor Shokin, the country’s top prosecutor who’d been criticized by the U.S. as an impediment to corruption reform. The story suggested the possibility that Biden was motivated to push for Shokin’s removal because the prosecutor investigated the head of Burisma Holdings, a Ukranian energy company where the veep’s son Hunter Biden was a board member.The story noted that no evidence was found to corroborate the suggestion that Biden intervened to help his son. But Mendel and her colleagues noted how the alleged conflict-of-interest was being pushed by Rudy Giuliani, a top ally of and personal lawyer to President Trump who once claimed on TV that Biden “bribed” Ukrainian officials.As a result, Mendel’s piece was widely criticized by Biden allies and other news outlets. Read the rest

Image: Santeri Viinamäki [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia CommonsArs Technica outlines the case for a policy that might sound counter-intuitive at first: not forcing password rotation.Microsoft is the latest enterprise to get on board with this idea, calling the concept of monthly/bimonthly/quarterly password changes "ancient and obsolete".To this day, password management remains the least-loved aspect of my job as a SysAdmin. In a world of password managers two-factor authentication, and complex "suggested passwords" by browsers, asking users to change passwords frequently is the one task that virtually guarantees a support request. Why? The password is used on multiple devices, or the forced change came at a time where the user had to write it down, or other inconvenience that, in practice, seems only to complicate the security process, rather than actually improve it in any meaningful way.The same researchers have warned that mandating password changes every 30, 60, or 90 days—or any other period—can be harmful for a host of reasons. Chief among them, the requirements encourage end users to choose weaker passwords than they otherwise would. A password that had been “P@$$w0rd1” becomes “P@$$w0rd2” and so on. At the same time, the mandatory changes provide little security benefit, since passwords should be changed immediately in the event of a real breach rather than after a set amount of time prescribed by a policy.Besides, as Cory has mentioned, two-factor authentication and security keys are quickly showing us how much of a "game-changer" these tools can really be, offering real defence against both past and present security attacks. Read the rest

In 2016, Pamela Taylor lost her job as director of the Clay County (WV) Development Corporation when she posted a Facebook update that read, "It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a Ape in heels."Last week, Ms Taylor was sentenced to 10 months in prison and two months under house arrest, and ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and $18,149.04 in restitution after she admitted to fraudulently filing for FEMA compensation, falsely claiming that her home had been damaged in the 2016 Clay County floods that killed 23 people, and billing the federal government for compensation for nonexistent expenses incurred in renting accommodation that she never had to rent. It's your timely reminder that racists rarely have just one thing wrong with them.“Defrauding federal programs is always an egregious act," said Mark Tasky, special agent in charge, U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, in a statement. "Disaster relief fraud is even more serious because of the limited nature of the funds intended to assist Americans in their time of greatest need."Woman who called Michelle Obama an 'ape' sentenced to jail for defrauding FEMA of $18K [Janelle Griffith/NBC](via Reddit) Read the rest