Boing Boing

Freelance journalist Alessandra Bocchi posted this video of protesters in Hong Kong using some kind of laser to target security forces' cameras: it's part of the #612strike movement's stunning repertoire of improvised anti-police countermeasures, in a near-civil-war where faces have become a battleground.Hong Kong protestors are on another level. Here they’re using lasers to avoid facial recognition cameras. A cyber war against Chinese artificial intelligence. pic.twitter.com/t1hIczr5Go— Alessandra (@alessabocchi) July 31, 2019(Thanks, @feralrobots!) Read the rest

David Hayward's proposal to "solve no-deal Brexit" is pretty delicious: Her Majesty's Government need only insure all UK businesses and individuals against No Deal Brexit losses, and pay for it by issuing special "Great British Brexit Bonds" that No Deal supporters can voluntarily sink their entire pensions into.These will be perpetual, nontransferrable bonds that pay out forever, in a sum that is indexed to post-No-Deal Brexit GDP growth. This means that all the elderly racists happy to have Bojo drive the country off the Dover cliffs need only stake everything they have to back their certainty that it will work out all right, and if they're right, they'll be handsomely rewarded for their prescience.I’m a modest Stylite, but I must tell you I have solved Brexit. [Thread]— The Columnist (@Sime0nStylites) February 4, 2019(Image: Dr Dunno/B3ta) Read the rest

This darling denizen of the deep is a Helicocranchia, aka a piglet squid. Scientists on the Ocean Exploration Trust's E/V Nautilus caught footage of the rarely seen creature at a depth of 4,544 feet near Palmyra Atoll in the Northern Pacific Ocean. The commenters' delightful descriptions really make the clip.(MNN via Kottke) Read the rest

There are, in Esquire's counting, 104 Bond villains as of July 31, 2019. It categorized and ranked them, creating the perfect tour of the franchise's best bits.59. NicknackThe Film: The Man With the Golden GunThe Actor: Herve VillechaizeThe Basics: Dedicated and diminutive manservantIf Herve Villechaize wasn't such a spirited performer, Nick Nack would be near the bottom of this list. The loyal right hand to Francisco Scaramanga, he spends the bulk of The Man With the Golden Gun going above and beyond the call of duty, even attempting to avenge his deceased employer in an extended, unnecessary, and hugely embarrassing epilogue. He may be at the center of one of the worst Bond movies, but Villechaize makes it watchable. Read the rest

Nintendo's smaller, cuter, more portable new console is coming September 20th, and now you can pre-order one. It comes in yellow, teal, gray orwhite with scribbles and it costs $200. Those are Amazon links; daddy gets paid if you order through them.The Verge: “Nintendo says there’s no performance difference between the two models, and you can still use the same accessories with the Lite, including Joy-Con controllers, the Switch Pro Controller, and the Poké Ball Plus. The Switch Lite still supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC, and has built-in gyro controls.” But you cannot connect it to a television, a thing people are just not seeming to understand about it. This is a fair assuption, as the whole point of calling the Switch "Switch" was that it could switch between a living-room and portable console. So calling this one the "Switch Lite" is an example of branding inverting meaning in the halls of high capitalism. They should, of course, have called this new portable-only device the Nintendo Snatch. Read the rest

Earlier this week, I bought tickets to see a concert in September (Gogol Bordello!) and wanted to see the view from our seats. I discovered that the venue, San Francisco's legendary Warfield, has a terrific 360-degree virtual tour of the entire theater, backstage and all. It's a bit of a rabbit hole but totally worth a look. Not only can you see the view of the stage from anywhere in the theater but you can also visit its green room (spacious), "Jerry's Room" (Jerry Garcia's "second home"), and this Autograph Room. The theater calls it a "hidden gem" and it sure is! Zoom in closely to the walls (and ceiling) to try and spot the Sharpie-d art and autographs of famous people you know. I was able to find both Penn and Teller's and Beck's fairly easily.(The seats I nabbed have a fantastic view, by the way.)screenshot via The Warfield Read the rest

Ten Second Songs is one of those amazing YouTube channels that doom you to a morning lost in someone's incredible and decidedly unique talent. In this case, performing songs in the style of other musicians, including excellent vocal impersonations. [via Metafilter] Read the rest

Hank Green and I are doing a double act tonight, July 31, as part of the tour for the paperback of his debut novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. It's a ticketed event (admission includes a copy of Hank's book), and we're presenting at 7PM at Spring Forest Middle School in association with Blue Willow Bookshop. Hope to see you there! Read the rest

I'd kill to see Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, or any of the Borderlands games come to the Nintendo Switch. They're some of my favorite titles to turn to at the end of a long, stupid day when my brain is in desperate need of a bit of numbing. Sadly, so far as I know, there hasn't been a reliable peep on the possibility of a port for any of them. Happily, Engadget plopped out some news today about a game that could be the next best thing to the titles on my wish list.From Engadget:Obsidian had already revealed its Fallout-esque sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds will debut on PC, Xbox One and PS4 October 25th. Sometime after that, it'll land on Switch too. Nintendo's console is less powerful than Sony and Microsoft's ones, and won't pack as much punch as a typical PC, so it remains to be seen how well The Outer Worlds will run on the hybrid.For this version, Obsidian is teaming up with Virtuos, which has helped bring the likes of Dark Souls Remastered and Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age to Switch. There's no firm release date as yet for The Outer Worlds' arrival on Switch, but the UK eShop pegs the release date for sometime this year.Obsidian was responsible for Fallout: New Vegas. From what I've seen in the trailer for The Outer Worlds, much of the humor of that old chestnut has made it alive into their space game. Read the rest

My name is Herobine. I am twenty-six years old. I live in a data entity resembling an ultramodernist residence at x: 68;y: 73; z: 636 in the seed -98734659879863346. I believe in taking care of myself, in a balanced diet of fish, bread and cake, and a rigorous exercise routine of jumping up voxel hills. In the morning, if my face is a little pixelated, I'll put on a diamond helmet while farming my generators. I can get 100 levels a day now. After I remove the diamond helmet, I eat four apples. In the cave below my house, I clear out any mobs, then collect and throw all the rotten meat into the small lava pond beside it.Then I apply a potion of regeneration which I leave on for ten minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use antidote potions with little or no alcohol because alcohol dries your textures out and makes you look older. Then elixir, then eye drops, followed by a final moisturizing tonic potion...There is an idea of a Herobrine, some kind of abstraction lost in the thousands of hours you have abandoned to this game, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can see me fleetingly from a distance and feel fear gripping you and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.PREVIOUSLYAlready regretting assigning J.G. Read the rest

I loved Robert Eggers' The Witch. It was a moody, masterfully shot masterpiece of slow-simmering tension, mistrust and the gentle hand that moves desperate people to make terrible decisions. I bought it and ripped it to watch on all the screens I own, as soon as it was released to video. Today I learned that Eggers' second film, The Lighthouse, first broke cover at the Cannes International Film Festival, a few months back.The trailer for the movie dropped earlier today and holy crap, am I ever invested.I've watched it a few time today and I'm sucked in further with every viewing. Read the rest

You know who WASN'T an optics disaster?

Looking for a career in design? Then you're going to need InDesign, not to mention Photoshop, Illustrator and the other versatile pieces of software in Adobe's Creative Cloud. These training bundles are a great place to jump in and learn how to use them like a pro - so you can earn like one, too.The Adobe Photoshop CC Training BundleThis expert's guide to Photoshop is geared to fine-tune any artist's understanding of one of Adobe's flagship tools. You'll get tips on how to create composite images, customize filters and take any photo from the shoot to a fully edited masterpiece - all from recognized Adobe masters working in the field. Not only will you learn to do a ton of new things you didn't even think were possible in Photoshop, but you'll also learn the shortcuts that will let you do them faster. Pick up the full Adobe Photoshop CC Training Bundle for $19.The Complete Adobe CC Training BundleWhether you're just starting out in design or need an overall refresher, this bundle is your walk through all the components of the Adobe Creative Cloud. Each of these seven courses is a beginner-to-advanced boot camp in a different platform: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, After Effects, Premiere Pro and Animation. When you're done, you'll be able to not only use each of them independently but see how they can enhance each other. Grab the Complete Adobe CC Training Bundle for $29.The Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud Training BundleLightroom makes photo editing easy for anyone, but this master class will dive deep into its professional possibilities. Read the rest

In 1955, Disneyland opened. In early 1956, Sherman W. Carter, Jr. took his family to the park and shot this home movie. The video was just uploaded to YouTube on July 1 by a family friend. Disney Parks Blog:The first part takes place in Frontierland, one of areas of Disneyland that has changed the most over the years. And yet there are many familiar sights as well. The park looks almost unrecognizable with so many of the trees and foliage still essentially saplings. Today it’s a veritable forest in the middle of Anaheim.Be sure to pause the video at 0:21 where you can see three Jungle Cruise boats docked in Fowler’s Harbor, currently home to the Harbour Galley restaurant. I knew the water systems for the Rivers of America and Jungle Cruise were connected, but were you ever able to sail from one to the other in the past? We later see The Jungle Cruise with no water in the moat, so this likely just temporary storage.Some other fun highlights to keep an eye out for; watch at 1:05 for a glimpse of the old gun fight skit atop the Golden Horseshoe Saloon. Then right after that, the Jungle Cruise with no water in the moat. Just a few wonderful shots of Tomorrowland right at the end too. Read the rest

via GfycatOn Saturday night, junior featherweight boxer Tremaine Williams won two regional title belts by beating Yenifel Vicente. Check out this astonishing clip from the eighth round when Williams masterfully ducked and dodged punch after punch. And don't miss the slow-motion replay below..@TevinFarmer22's head movement in slow-mo makes it THAT much better. Insane. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/lA78Jw9XIx— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) July 28, 2019 Read the rest

One of the things that really stood out for me in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is how he captured the sounds of the late 1960s. Everything from AM car radio speakers, to the way people talked, to KHJ Boss Radio disc jockey airchecks, to TV interstitials, to the rumble of gas-guzzling car engines, added to the perfect visuals of 1969 Los Angeles. In this podcast, Tarantino talks about how he got the sounds for the movie. One of his main sources of information was fan recordings of KHJ radio from the late 1960s. Here is a great "rapid-fire salute to 93/KHJ Boss Radio in Los Angeles utilizing jingles and other production elements." And ere's Alison Martino's article for Los Angeles Magazine, "KHJ, L.A.’s Coolest AM Radio Station, Is Basically a Background Actor in 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'” Read the rest

These silicone gloves are good for handling meat and vegetables on a barbecue but they excel at letting me tear apart a hot roasted chicken without burning my fingers, which is the main reason I use mine. Use code JSSLT8IG for a discount at checkout. Read the rest

A woman suspected of urinating on the potatoes at a Pittsburgh-area Walmart has turned herself in, reports CBS News. The woman was charged with criminal mischief, open lewdness, disorderly conduct and public drunkness.Adds CBS, helpfully: "The bin of potatoes was at ground level."West Mifflin police earlier issued a photo of the suspect, but did not include footage of the crime itself.The LPO was informed by an employee that on the day before he noticed urine on the floor near the potatoes in the produce area. The LPO then pulled video that depicted a female at approximately 22:10 hours on July 24, 2019 urinating in the potato bins. The LPO then reported the incident to the West Mifflin Police.Walmart released a statement:“The safety of our customers is a top priority for us. This type of obscene conduct is outrageous and we immediately disposed of the affected products and sanitized the area to ensure its cleanliness and safety for our customers. We’re working with the West Mifflin Police Department to find the responsible party and have them prosecuted.”It's a brave Yinzer who dares sample the West Mifflin tater salad! Read the rest

Over at CNN, fantastically creative and influential Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is CNN Style's latest "guest editor." Along with commissioning a series of articles "exploring the theme of identity," he wrote his own insightful and inspiring essay about his life as an artist. From CNN:As a child, looking at paintings was absolutely boring. One standout memory was when, around the age of 8, I had to wait in line for three hours with my family, just to see the Spanish artist Francisco Goya's painting at a museum in Tokyo. The work depicted Titan Cronus (or Saturn) eating his own children. The image was haunting and kept me up for many nights after. I think this profound experience, or trauma, formed the basis for my act of painting to this day. It taught me that if my work doesn't move people and induce a "wow!" then it's all for nothing.Once I started grade school however, reading manga and watching TV anime became more important to me. No longer forced by my parents to go look at paintings, I became obsessed with "Ultraman," robot anime and sport-themed manga about boxing and baseball. I believe these experiences have a lot to do with how I now make films and animations, alongside paintings and sculptures....In seventh grade, I fell into a hole in the ground and broke my skull and some bones in my right hand. I couldn't go to school for a month and subsequently failed to catch up academically. Read the rest

Boing Boing recently shared Rob Zabrecky's fantastic memoir Strange Cures.Jack Black really enjoyed Kurt Cobain's live performances. Zabrecky can contact the undead. What could be more fun?Other Side with Zabrecky is a series of seances conducted by magician, comedian, punk bassist, and author Rob Zabrecky. Everything that is so wonderful in his live performances translates beautifully to the little YouTube box.Incredible singer and hilarious comedian Kate Flannery also joins Zabrecky, reaching out to Ethel Merman! Frequent Boing Boing readers may be distracted by the banana.Check out Mark's review of Rob Zabrecky's memoir. Read the rest

Heavy metal and Dungeons & Dragons have an interconnected history that goes beyond just being targeted during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Over at Kerrang, John Reppion draws the links from Black Sabbath until today. From Kerrang:The November 1987 edition of UK RPG magazine White Dwarf was advertised as a ‘Thrash Rock Special’. “Your eyes and minds have been devastated by White Dwarf for the past ten years, now it’s time for your ears to get it!” an ad in the back of the previous issue warned. The magazine came with a free flexidisc whose single track, Blood For The Blood God, was specially written and recorded by British thrashers Sabbat for WD. Printed on the disc are the words “Based on Games Workshop’s Warhammer fantasy roleplay game”, making Blood For The Blood God the first ever official RPG tie-in metal record.Two years later, death-grind band Bolt Thrower released their second album, Realm Of Chaos: Slaves To Darkness, on Earache Records. The album’s cover art came courtesy of Nottingham-based RPG maker and retailer Games Workshop. Many of the song titles and lyrics related directly to the store’s own sci-fi fantasy RPG, Warhammer 40,000 – of which members of Bolt Thrower were dedicated players. Copies of the album were even sold in Games Workshop, alongside the usual miniatures and rulebooks....Perhaps the most overtly RPG-inspired band of the moment are Gygax. Named in honour of D&D’s creator, the Californian four-piece play Thin Lizzy-esque hard rock with themes lifted directly from the players’ handbook. Read the rest

In West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, police are searching for a woman who evacuated the contents of her bladder on potatoes for sale in the produce section of the local Walmart. WPXI ran a video with photos of the suspect along with a statement from Walmart:"This type of obscene conduct is outrageous and we immediately disposed of the affected products and sanitized the area to ensure its cleanliness and safety for our customers. We’re working with the West Mifflin Police Department to find the responsible party and have them prosecuted.”Image of potato used to obscure suspect's face: Public Domain Pictures/CC0 Public DomainUpdate: she turned herself in. Read the rest

The greatest of all time. I cry every time I watch Inigo Montoya destroy Count Rugen. I can bring my self to cry by thinking about it.Errol Flynn fighting Basil Rathbone in Captain Blood is just wonderful.Something about two-handed butchering people with a broadsword always plays! The Governator is most remembered for his role in Twins with Danny De Vito, but this little known film, was wonderful fun.Is just a masterpiece....and of course Doctor Jones shows us how it's done. Every call back they've made to this scene in later movies was a dud. Read the rest

Trump is a "malevolent George Costanza," a person who's gotten every job "simply by being [his] obnoxious self, with no filter." That's Philippe Reines' assessment. He should know. As Hillary Clinton's debate sparring partner, he watched every one of the 15 Republican primary debates and forums Trump was in, three times. As a result, he says, "I might know his debating style—if you want to call it that—better than anyone on the planet (aside from Hillary Clinton, of course)."In this Politico article, he presents the qualities that make Trump "such a tough opponent in a debate, despite the fact that he is possibly the worst debater in presidential history," and some suggestions about how the Democratic nominee could deal with Trump's non-stop torrent of lies during a debate:[O]ur nominee should know that Trump will lie throughout their debate, but can’t count on the moderator to call them all out and can’t expect the audience to know on their own. So our nominee needs to be able to say, “You’re lying.” Easier said than done. Especially if Trump lies every time he opens his mouth.One possible tactic is to simply, and calmly, count out loud. First time he lies, the nominee should say, “That was the first of many lies to come because that’s what he does best.” After that, when Trump lies again, the nominee should interject with a simple “Lie number two,” or, “That was a few, so we’re up to six.” The moderator might scold the candidate for interrupting, but he or she should respond, “If you were calling out his lies, I wouldn’t have to. Read the rest

Two artists installed seesaws that cross the border wall between the United States and Mexico, enabling children from both countries to play together. The brilliant creative intervention was created by Ronald Rael, an architecture professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Virginia San Fratello, a design professor at San Jose State University. From CNN:In 2009, the two designed a concept for a binational seesaw at the border for a book, "Borderwall as Architecture," which uses "humor and inventiveness to address the futility of building barriers," UC-Berkeley said.Ten years later, their conceptual drawings became reality. Rael and his crew transported the seesaws to Sunland Park, New Mexico, separated by a steel fence from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico...In an Instagram post, Rael said the event was "filled with joy, excitement, and togetherness at the borderwall.""The wall became a literal fulcrum for U.S -Mexico relations and children and adults were connected in meaningful ways on both sides with the recognition that the actions that take place on one side have a direct consequence on the other side," he wrote.More: "Borderwall as Architecture Becomes Reality" (UC Press) View this post on Instagram One of the most incredible experiences of my and @vasfsf’s career bringing to life the conceptual drawings of the Teetertotter Wall from 2009 in an event filled with joy, excitement, and togetherness at the borderwall. The wall became a literal fulcrum for U.S. - Mexico relations and children and adults were connected in meaningful ways on both sides with the recognition that the actions that take place on one side have a direct consequence on the other side. Read the rest

"On the subject of #CrimeInfested," tweets @zeddary. "A thread."Thread by @Zeddary: "On the subject of . A thread. Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, owned and lived in a condo on 43rd floor of Trump […]" #CrimeInfestedImage: Diego Grandi/Shutterstock Read the rest

Tam Lindsay (tambothejambo on twitter) witnessed a spectacular mistake by a bus driver in West Lothian that tore the roof off his double-decker ride. Out a walk in Fauldhouse and heard a huge collision. Local bus tried to go under railway bridge and took top tier of busOut a walk in Fauldhouse and heard a huge collision Local bus tried to go under railway bridge and took top tier of bus pic.twitter.com/Ajc8guJuql— Tam Lindsay (@tambothejambo) July 30, 2019The error was egregious enough for the driver to be charged, reports the BBC. No-one was injured and the Lothian Country bus driver was the only occupant of the vehicle at the time. A spokesman for the operator said: "We can confirm one of our vehicles was involved in an incident earlier today in the Fauldhouse area and we are fully assisting Police Scotland with their inquiries."Adds the BBC:A report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.Just you wait until the procurator fiscal hears of this! Read the rest

Ben Herzog's Cryptographic Attacks: A Guide for the Perplexed from Check Point Research is one of the clearest, most useful guides to how cryptography fails that I've ever read.While popular media likes to depict crypto as falling prey to brute-force attacks -- which offer narratively convenient countdown timers as the digital tumblers roll into place -- the actual attacks on crypto are way more interesting (and plausible) than making a lot of guesses very fast.Herzog lays out how these attacks work, from frequency analysis to precomputation attacks to interpolation attacks to downgrade attacks to oracle attacks, and then gives specific examples of high-profile, real world defects in cryptosystems, including CRIME, POODLE and DROWN.Understanding how crypto goes wrong -- the complex interplay of history, human error, foolishness, and unanticipated interactions -- is key to understanding computer security. This is an invaluable guide, and Herzog promises as sequel: "In the next blog post of this series, we’ll talk about advanced attacks — such as meet-in-the-middle, differential cryptanalysis, and the birthday attack. We’ll take a short foray into the land of side-channel attacks, and then we’ll finally delve into the exquisite realm of attacks on public-key cryptography."You might wonder who in their right mind would design a real-world system analogous to a “secure, unless you come in sideways” system, or a “secure, unless you insist otherwise” system, as described above. But much like the fictional bank would rather take the risk and retain its crypto-averse customers, systems in general often bow to requirements that are indifferent, or even overtly hostile, to security needs. Read the rest

Last week, Motherboard reported on a public record request that revealed that Amazon had struck confidential deals with local police forces to get them to promote the company's Internet of Things "Ring" doorbells, and the accompanying "Neighbors" app that produces a kind of private surveillance mesh overlooking nearby public spaces -- under the terms of the deal, cops would be able to see a map noting locations of Ring surveillance cams and request footage from their owners.Now, a further records request shows that one officer who was trained by Amazon for the program was told that 200 law enforcement agencies had struck similar deals.The officer who sent the email told Motherboard that the email was a transcribed version of handwritten notes that he took during a team webinar with a Ring representative on April 9. Additional emails obtained by Motherboard indicate that this webinar trained officers on how to use the "Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal." This portal allows local police to see a map with the approximate locations of all Ring cameras in a neighborhood, and request footage directly from camera owners. Owners need to consent, but police do not need a warrant to ask for footage.The email obtained by Motherboard was sent from the Waynesboro, Virginia Chief of Police to himself in an email with the subject line “Neighbors by RING notes.” The email ends with the name and phone number of a Ring Neighborhood’s Training Manager, responsible for communicating with police and training them on the use of Ring products. Read the rest

At least two people are dead after a gunman opened fire at the Southaven Walmart in Mississippi on Tuesday, with a police officer and the shooter also reportedly injured. CBS News:WHBQ-TV reports one person was found dead in the store and another found dead in the parking lot. The suspect was taken to a Memphis hospital. His condition wasn't reported. Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto tells WATN-TV the officer was hit in his bulletproof vest and not seriously injured.Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto tells WATN-TV the officer was hit in his bulletproof vest and not seriously injured. Walmart employees joined a prayer circle outside. The company didn't immediately respond to phone calls and information requests. Read the rest

The election of authoritarian racist garbage person Donald Trump to the presidency was attended by many controversies, but none so salient as his inclusion in Walt Disney World's Hall of Presidents, wherein each newly elected president is represented as an animatronic figure whose dialog that president gets to record, using their own human voices.The Trumpbot's inclusion was controversial enough that Disney reportedly considered changing the show to deny Trump his speaking role (this was later kiboshed), and while the Trumpbot may not be a repurposed Hillarybot, he has certainly attracted his share of hecklers.Now, the memeslinging video-trickster @PaulLeeTicks has put their video-effects skills to work, putting the Trumpbot in the Nazi uniform that Cheeto Hitler implies with every public utterance.BREAKING: Antifa thugs break into the Disney World's Hall of Presidents attraction in Florida, and vandalize the Donald Trump animatronic. pic.twitter.com/XgEwRPQnx5— Paul Lee Ticks (@PaulLeeTicks) July 22, 2019 Read the rest

It's one thing to send a bogus legal threat in an effort to suppress criticism, because usually the only consequence of that is public humiliation and a little Streisand Effect heat; but if you really want to score an own-goal, the best way to do so is to send a fake court order to Google ordering removal of someone else's embarrassing post from its search index, forging a judge's signature to give it that really authentic look-and-feel.It's amazing how many people get this brilliant idea. Back in 2017, it was Michael Arnstein, CEO of the Natural Sapphire Company, who was sentenced to nine months in prison for it.Now, CBS has found more than 60 more of these forged court orders in the public database of takedowns that have been served to Google. Some of them reference clients of a "reputation management" company called Web Savvy, LLC, whose CEO, John Rooney, told an undercover CBS crew that other companies go to "risky...grey areas" that he won't enter.But Rooney couldn't explain why one of his clients was referenced in a forged court order sent to Google demanding removal of an embarrassing court order.Many of the fake court orders that CBS turned up were putatitively issued by a judge in Hamilton County, Ohio. The court clerk, local law-enforcement, and the FBI are investigating these.While some of the fakes that CBS found were seeming attempts to launder the reputations of businesses, two were censorship attempts that targeted factual information identifying their subjects as sex offenders who had targeted children. Read the rest

A man so vexed District Court Judge Marilyn Castle in Lafayette that she ordered his mouth taped shut. The Advocate reports that Michael C. Duhon, already found guilty of theft, repeatedly interrupted his sentencing hearing. Katie Gagliano reports how Castle lost control of her courtroom:According to court minutes, Duhon objected when the judge asked him to stop submitting motions on his own behalf in the case instead of through his attorney. He objected again when evidence was submitted. He attempted to offer arguments against the inclusion of the evidence and was told to speak through his attorney. After requesting at least twice for Duhon to remain quiet, Castle ordered the bailiff to tape Duhon’s mouth shut during witness testimony. The tape was removed after an objection from Duhon’s public defense attorney, Aaron Adams. He requested the judge remove his client from the courtroom instead of putting duct tape on his client's mouth.She also held public defender Michael Gregory —not representing Duhon, but in the gallery—with contempt of court for video-recording the incident, and ordered that the video be destroyed. Gregory apparently obviated the command by submitting the video as evidence in his own contempt hearing; Castle placed it under seal.Lafayette Judge Marilyn Castle ordered public defender Michael Gregory to pay a $100 fine and said he cannot bring his cellphone, nor use someone else's, to the Lafayette Parish courthouse for six months. ...Gregory said he felt there was “a compelling necessity to record the proceeding,” but Castle said the focus was on the inappropriate filming itself, not what the recording captured. Read the rest

A trucker replaced a broken tail light with a red sports drink, reports the Denver Channel. His ingenuity earned him police attention in Longmont, Colo., but they let him go without a ticket. While we appreciate the ingenuity of this tail light, this is not a permanent solution,” Longmont Fire, Police and OEM wrote in a Facebook post. “Working tail lights prevent accidents.”Photo: Longmont PD Read the rest

You may now cool or heat a small part of your body on the go, if you are in Japan and have ¥13000 to blow. The Reon Pocket is a roughly the size of a smartphone, hangs around your neck, and claims to cool that spot up to 13C or warm it 8.3C. As you can see from the photo, a special shirt will come with it so that it can be perfectly seated. Read the rest

Vxworks is a lightweight, thin OS designed for embedded systems; a new report from Armis identifies critical vulnerabilities (called "Urgent 11") in multiple versions of the OS that they estimate affects 200m systems (Vxworks' make, Wind River, disputes this figure).The defect is network-addressable, meaning that it can be remotely exploited, and can be triggered with the sort of communications that are unlikely to be blocked by firewalls. Because of the fire-and-forget nature of embedded systems -- coupled with the low-level tasks they perform, which can't be interrupted without disrupting many higher-level processes -- many of these devices will be subject to "forever day" vulnerabilities, in which they are likely to never be patched.Wind River says that many of the affected versions of Vxworks have been end-of-lifed, and that its current OS version is not affected. The more immediate challenge for organizations that use affected or potentially affected equipment will be to assess the risk they face. Armis researchers are presenting Urgent 11 as posing a serious and imminent threat, potentially at the scale of the Windows vulnerabilities that allowed the 2016 WannaCry worm to sow worldwide disruptions. Armis researchers are also warning that the difficulty of patching the flaws means this risk may be with us for the foreseeable future.But the threat may very well be much smaller than that assessment. What’s more (assuming the threat is as bad as Armis says it is), it may be possible to mitigate the risk through means other than patching, such as access control lists, which restrict the devices that can connect to a vulnerable device. Read the rest

It's got a long way to overturn the PS2's and Nintendo DS's ~150m hauls, but Sony's PS4 reached the 100m sold mark this summer and has a good shot at ending up the third best-selling game console (currently the Game Boy, 120m sold) of all time.The PlayStation 4 reached this milestone after just 5 years and 7 months, and less than 3 years after passing 50 million sales. Sony’s PS4 sales have been consistently strong throughout this generation, with 19 million sold in 2017 and 17.8 million last year. Sony also revealed that digital download share has passed the 50 percent mark, meaning more people are now purchasing digital games than physical disc copies. Sony’s next-generation PlayStation, most likely the PS5, now looks set to launch in fall 2020.Next year is the year 8K TVs become "affordable", hence the big marketing push for a new generation of consoles based around 20XX-series NVidia GPUs. Read the rest

Multinationals are excellent players of the global financial tax system, using "profit shifting" (through which operating profits are remitted to phony sister companies in tax havens as "licensing fees" or "management fees") to make it look like wildly profitable companies are losing money, making them eligible for tax relief and rebates -- thus it is that companies can rake in billions and then receive millions more in corporate welfare.To see this in action, look no further than Rockstar North, the Scottish branch of Rockstar Games, makers of Grand Theft Auto (owned by Take-Two Entertainment). Between 2013-2019, Rockstar North claimed so little revenue that it owed £0.00 in taxes, and actually managed to claim £42m in tax relief from the British taxpayers.Take-Two's market cap is £13.1b; over the period in which Rockstar North was pleading poverty (and making an estimated operating profit of £4b), the company dispersed £3.4b in executive bonuses. One of Take-Two's most profitable products is GTA, produced by Rockstar North.Rockstar North claimed 19% of all available video game tax credits in the UK. The tax credit scheme was created to reward companies whose games make "a significant contribution to British culture" through "British settings, characters and development, and promoting cultural diversity." GTA is set in a fictional California town.Taxwatch UK's Gaming the System report on Rockstar North's tax evasion notes that the whole scheme is perfectly legal -- in other words, the system is working exactly as it was designed to do.Although the statutory accounts of Rockstar North, the maker of Grand Theft Auto V, state that the company is hardly making any profit, the game is widely reported to be the most profitable media product in history. Read the rest

In 1855 a band of London thieves set their sights on a new target: the South Eastern Railway, which carried gold bullion to the English coast. The payoff could be enormous, but the heist would require meticulous planning. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the first great train robbery, one of the most audacious crimes of the 19th century.We'll also jump into the record books and puzzle over a changing citizen.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

TIL: There are folks not familiar with Lynyrd Skynyrd's concert-closing song "Free Bird." It seems nearly unimaginable for someone who grew up hearing the Southern rock band's signature 14-minute-long power ballad. (I mean, doesn't everyone know that you jokingly request bands to play it by yelling "Free Bird!"?) Enter YouTuber No Life Shaq. He claims he's heard the band's name before but has never heard the song. Watch this video of him listening to (and amusingly analyzing) it for the first time. I think he likes it, especially that guitar solo!(Soap Plant WACKO) Read the rest

Dehydration. Sun stroke. Quickly standing up from a vinyl chair whilst wearing shorts. There's lots of danger to be found on a scorching hot summer day. According to a team of Doctors from the University of Nevada, we can add another warm weather peril to the list: hot asphalt.From Gizmodo:The researchers, who published their study this April in the Journal of Burn Care and Research, took a look at cases from their own university’s burn center unit. Over a five-year span, they found 173 reported pavement-related burn cases. By cross-referencing the day’s recorded weather with the date of these cases, the authors also found that the vast majority (88 percent) happened when it was at least 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside. And once it was over 105 degrees, the risk of pavement burn got exponentially higher.While these cases might represent only a small portion of burn injuries that warrant medical attention, the authors say they’re an ever-present worry in areas where the climate is constantly hot and sunny, like the Las Vegas desert.If you're skeptical, ywhy not conduct a little field research of your own? On an insanely hot day, take off your shoes on your front lawn. Now, walk from the grass onto the sidewalk and on into the street. Stand there for five minutes. Feel that burn? Congratulations, you're now a scientist. The University of Nevada will no doubt be eager to hear all about your findings/blistered skin. As the study is quick to point out, pavement can grow hot enough to cause a second-degree burn to skin that comes into contact with it, in seconds. Read the rest

Several years ago, Jordan Guthmann, a VP at Edelman PR, interviewed for a job at Amazon. While he was on the company campus chatting with folks, someone asked to take his photo and he kindly obliged. Guthmann didn't get the gig, but apparently he at least looked like the right person for the job: Until a few days ago his photo appeared on Amazon's Talent Acquisition website. After Guthmann tweeted about it, Amazon quickly swapped out the photo. As Petapixel commented, hopefully the person in the current photo actually got the job!Years ago I went to Amazon for a job interview that I did NOT get but they were taking photos and the kind person taking photos asked me if she could snap my picture and I was like sure why not anywho that's why I'm on their jobs website today... https://t.co/ehhRvnYaC6— Jordan Guthmann (@JGuthmann) July 24, 2019 Read the rest

Aestetix sez, "2600 Magazine has hosted the biennial Hackers On Planet Earth conference since 1994. However, for 2020 the host hotel, the Hotel Pennsylvania, has tripled the fee charged to the conference. Rather than raising ticket prices and making the event inaccessible to all but the rich, HOPE is reaching out to the community to help solve the crisis."HOPE is the most politically engaged, progressive hacker con, a true gem. I really hope they survive -- the world will be much poorer without them.We've been sued, we've been threatened, and we've faced extinction on a number of occasions. And one thing we've learned is that times like these are when this community truly shines. We don't intend to be defeated by this and we have no intention of giving up on the prospects of HOPE in 2020. But we can't do it by magic.And so we call on you to put forth ideas, suggestions, and opinions. How important is HOPE to you? Do you know of a better place where we can host it? How can we come up with ways to make the event even better? Does HOPE have to be in a hotel? Does HOPE need to be in Manhattan? Etc.There are many things to think of and to brainstorm about. And there is no better group to turn to at a time like this for inspiration and new ideas. Time and again, it's right when we're supposed to be at our lowest that we come back stronger than ever, precisely because of our community's creativity, intelligence, and refusal to give up. Read the rest

Werewolf is one of my favorite games. My daughter and I played it almost every night on the JoCo Cruise last year. It's normally $25, but Amazon has it on sale today for just: Read the rest

This morning I woke up and my Great Pyrenees of six years Nemo was no longer with me.We were sleeping in our Volkswagen bus. Apparently, I had missed Nemo ingesting something poisonous on our last walk of the night, last night. Before bed, he threw up and acted less than happy, but then Nemo hopped into our Westy and was not really any more or less comfortable than any other night. He drank a lot of water and went to sleep. When he'd move around I knew because that lower bunk is small. It was a night like any other night.I woke up a bit surprised, however, that Nemo'd let Pretzel and I sleep in till 7:30 am. I went over the list of stuff I needed to do today for work in my head, and then I looked back and thought "Is Nemo breathing?"Nemo was a very special dog. I loved him very much. He spent 6 years living on a beach and then a few months driving around living on lots of beaches in a VW van. He never wanted for a thing, was always surrounded by love and had no idea that a Great Pyr is supposed to live a lot longer than 6.Nemo was rescued by fantastic folks who supported us and loved Nemo his entire life, even after they closed up shop. Randy has been there to answer questions or to help me with Nemo's training at every turn. Living with such a large dog that is bred to be a guardian would not have been possible without that guidance. Read the rest

If you are an adult human being living in the United States, Equifax is making a lot of money from your personal data (Equifax's annual revenue is $3.1 billion. Its CEO Mark Begor gets over $20 million a year in compensation). As you know, Equifax violated the trust of 147 million people in a massive data breach in 2017, opening them up to identity theft and other abuses. You've also heard that Equifax has agreed to pay everyone affected by the breach $125. That is not close to sufficient, but it's something. However, if you filed a claim for your $125, you will might be surprised that your actual check will be a fraction of that.From Equifax's FAQ:If there are more than $31 million claims for Alternative Reimbursement Compensation, all payments for Alternative Reimbursement Compensation will be lowered and distributed on a proportional basis.That means you will get $125 only if fewer than 250,000 people file a claim. It's likely many more people will file a claim. Suppose 10% of those affected (14.7 million) file a claim. They'd each get a check for $2.11.[via Lifehacker]Image: Shutterstock/ESB Professional (Modified) Read the rest

There are times in life when you're presented with something that you never knew you wanted but, once its in your head, you're certain you can no longer live without it.That this isn't a real film has gnawed out a sizeable chunk of my soul. Read the rest