While I have a deep respect for non-newtonian fluid's ability to improve protective gear and wear motorcycle armor made of it, the hydraulic press is a nearly unstoppable force. Read the rest

Magnet fishing, or the art of dropping a magnet into deep water with a rope attached to it, is almost as compelling to watch as drain clearing!These intrepid archaeologists seem pretty satisfied they've found Hernán Cortés lost brake shoe. Read the rest

I've tried a few times to make useful yet portable things out of wood and never really succeeded. To cut a long story short, what I never realized was that handsaws sold in home improvement stores are worse than useless, and all I needed to do was get something else.The Gyokucho Ryoba Saw — itself $20 or so at Amazon — changed everything for me. Instead of crude, difficult, frustratingly slow cuts irrespective of grain, it glided through so easily that woodworking became instantly fun and creative instead of a grueling waste of effort. To woodworking naifs like myself, the Japanese design might be alarming at first: you cut on the pull instead of the push, and (at least on this type of saw) there's a second set of teeth instead of a reinforced back. One set's filed to rip with the grain, the other to make crosscuts. I got used to it in moments, and so will you.I'd almost forked out $100 on a fancy backsaw, but I doubt I'll ever need something like that now even if I spend the rest of life sawing random lengths of wood in my garage. The first things I've made: a workbench, two radiator covers and a new desk.Woohoo! I know these are beginners' work, but these items are solid, stable, and exactly what I wanted. Dirt cheap too: perhaps $30 of wood each. (The $200+ cost of custom-fitting covers for big old radiators is what motivated me here).Honestly this thing makes sawing wood so easy it's like playing fucking Minecraft. Read the rest

Thanks to a "the use of new strategies discovered by a brute-forcing bot," this computerized speedrun of Arkanoid (on the NES) comes in at 11 minutes and change. To be absolutely clear: this isn't a computer program playing the game; it's the hard-coded result of a computer program spending a year of CPU time brute-forcing every possible input to see which ones clear the game fastest.Stefan Roger writes:I've always been intrigued by brute forcing as an optimization strategy and tried to find a game where it might be possible without spending multiple lifetimes finishing it. After some research, I decided that NES Arkanoid was a good candidate.At first glance, brute-forcing an 11-minute TAS might seem to be completely impossible, having 2^8^(60 * 60 * 11) possibilities to evaluate. But that assumes we actually want to try every combination of inputs; if we encode the rules of the game into the bot and don't bother looking for things like glitches or ACE exploits, we can actually get this into the realm of possibility. The input surface of the game is actually quite small: you only have to press left, right, and A, and never any of those at the same time. There also aren't all that many ways to bounce the ball around. Read the rest

Two weeeks ago, it was a coffee cup. For the finale, a final insult: water bottles visible on-stage throughout the last episode's ███████ scene. Read the rest

Here's the first 14 of 100 proofs that the Earth is a globe, with the rest still to come author David Morgan-Mar. [via]1. The Blue MarbleThe most straightforward way to check the shape of the Earth is to look at it. There’s one small problem, though. To see the shape of the Earth as a whole, you need to be far enough away from it. For most of human history, this has not been possible. It was only with the advent of the space age that our technology has allowed us to send a human being, or a camera, more than a few kilometres from the surface. Read the rest

Last night, Game of Thrones' last episode played out. Without spoiling details, the fan consensus is that while the writing was as bad as the rest of the show's abrupt and stumbling final season, satisfying notes were struck, the characters generally ended up in the right places, and some arresting imagery was crafted.But, but, there are still so many questions.Expect spoilers in the comments. Read the rest

Heads up: The clock is winding down on a free-entry contest to win not only one of the best smartphones on the market but a handy pair of earbuds. A simple sign-up is all you need to be eligible to win a 256 GB iPhone XS Max, along with AirPods.And while "free" is tough to beat, it's worth noting that there are some other great deals out there for Apple and iPhone accessories. First up, there's the Syncwire UNBREAKcable, a charging cord that's true to its name. Made with an ultra-high molecular weight polyurethane exterior, it's practically bulletproof and is rated to withstand more than 30,000 90-degree bends. Compatible for iPhone, iPad or iPods, the Syncwire UNBREAKcable is $10.99 - more than 40% off its original price of $18.99. For safe and fast charging, wireless is the way to go. This Qi Wireless Fast Charging Pad quick juice to any Qi-enabled phone including the iPhone X, latest Samsung Galaxy models and many more - all without cords. Just place your phone on the pad and get a full charge that will actually maintain your phone's overall battery life. And thanks to internal safeguards, there's no need to worry about overheating on either the pad or your device. Originally priced at $21.99, the Qi Wireless Fast Charging Pad is now available at $14.99.The BentoStack Charge is inspired by the feng shui of the popular Japanese lunchboxes, but this miniature unit is more than just looks. It holds charging cables, earbuds, Apple Watch bands, and plugs in their own dedicated compartments, and the box itself doubles as a Qi wireless charger. Read the rest

The 2019 Nebula Awards were announced and presented last night in Los Angeles: the prize for best novel went to Mary Robinette Kowal (previously for The Calculating Stars.The award-winners from last night were:Best Novella: Aliette de Bodard, The Tea Master and the Detective (Subterranean) Best Novelette: Brooke Bolander, The Only Harmless Great Thing, (Tor.com)Best Short Story: Phenderson Djèlí Clark, The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, (Fireside 2/18)The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book: Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone (Henry Holt; Macmillan)35th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master: William GibsonGame Writing: Charlie Brooker, Bandersnatch (Black Mirror)The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman)Kate Wilhelm Solstice Awards: Neil Clarke and Nisi ShawlCongratulations to all the winners for prizes richly deserved, and to all the nominees for presenting such a competitive and marvellous field of works! Read the rest

Bernie Sanders has released A Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education, a detailed and bold suite of public education reforms reminiscent of the kinds of policy planks being laid down regularly by rival candidate Elizabeth Warren (I'm a donor to both Sanders' and Warren's campaigns).The plan -- a pun on the Marshall Plan for rebuilding Europe after WWII -- is also a tribute to Thurgood Marshall, the attorney who successfully argued for school desegregation in the landmark Brown v Board of Ed Supreme Court case. Given the name, it's no surprise that the centerpiece of the plan is a group of measures designed to increase racial integration in US schools, including funding for bussing, "community-driven" desegregation strategies, Title I grants, ESL instruction, improved outcomes for tribal schools, etc, as well as non-financial measures like appointing judges to issue desegregation orders, ending the disciplinary strategies that create the school-to-prison pipeline, etc.Closely related is a commitment to curb public funding for Charter Schools, whose origins are in a backlash to Brown v Board of Ed, as a means of securing continued funding for racially segregated schools, by providing vouchers to parents to use to pay for tuition at private schools that practiced the discrimination that was banned in public schools by Brown.Beyond tackling racial discrimination, Sanders' plan adds teeth and resources to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); increase teacher pay and autonomy, with more money for classroom supplies and more flexibility to adapt or ignore standardized curriculum; and increase access to school lunches, after-school care and summer care. Read the rest

US District Judge Robert N Scola recused himself from a class action suit against Unitedhealthcare that alleges that Unitedhealthcare denied them promising proton beam cancer treatments by falsely claiming that they were "experimental."In his recusal, Scola revealed that he was a prostate cancer survivor who was cornered into accepting surgical prostate removal because his own insurer refused the proton beam treatments his doctors recommended; he also discussed a friend whom Unitedhealthcare denied coverage to, presenting him with the prospect of a $150,000 bill (the friend successfully sued Unitedhealthcare).The judge closed by calling Unitedhealthcare's refusal to cover proton beam therapy "immoral" and "barbaric."The untenability of America's private, for-profit health-care system grows more manifest by the day, as more and more people are radicalized by the prospect of their own deaths and the deaths of those they love best in the world, at the hands of a bureaucratic death-panel run by an insurer whose execs and investors rake in millions by literally killing their customers. My latest book has a story in it about men in this situation who seek comfort on message-boards and end up egging themselves into murdering health care execs, lobbyists and their friendly lawmakers. I don't know that such a thing would ever happen, but reading the judge's remarks certainly suggests that we're closer than we suspected to it.The federal judge made his comments in response to a class-action lawsuit brought by Richard Cole, a cancer survivor and prominent Miami attorney. Cole was 70 when he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in April 2018. Read the rest

Wil Wheaton's 2017 standalone novelette Dead Trees Give No Shelter is a beautiful, spooky horror story in the vein of Stranger Things, following Jay Turner as he returns to the small Ohio town where his baby brother was murdered, 20 years before, to witness the execution of his killer.But Jay's homecoming starts to recover long-buried fragments of what really happened to his brother all those years ago. What follows has shades of classic Stephen King like IT and (of course) The Body, but also a bit of Stranger Things. I listened to the DRM-free audiobook, which Wheaton himself reads (he is one of my favorite audiobook readers and my first port of call any time I'm casting any of my own audiobooks). It literally made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.Dead Trees Give No Shelter [Wil Wheaton/ebook]Dead Trees Give No Shelter [Wil Wheaton/audiobook] Read the rest

Kudos to those of us who have chosen a less wasteful third option to "paper or plastic" at the supermarket or club stores. Tote bags are reusable, but they can be a pain to tote around.Here's an upgrade to that planet-saving measure. The Club Cart Lotus Trolley Bag is that rare tote you'll want to use again, making it easier to load and unload groceries while also keeping them cold.The main innovation here is a rack that spreads out across your shopping cart, allowing you to unfold and keep them open by way of a velcro handle. That way, you can easily load them up and unpack them again when you get home - not to mention how neatly they store away. They're well made inside and out, with mildew and mold resistant material and dedicated holders for eggs and wine on the interior. One bag in the initial three-pack even features thermal insulation for freezer items.A three-pack of the Club Cart Lotus Trolley Bag is currently $29.99, 25% off the original MSRP. Read the rest

P.S. Billy Joel is Jobriath for heterosexuals. Read the rest

Bad Hombre is an award-winning satirical game created by 16-year-old Jackie George. Two days after it won the Shortly Award and was recognized in her school newsletter, Bad Hombre was removed from both Apple's App Store and Google Play (George notes that her town of Naples, FL is very conservative with a lot of Trump supporters and is suspicious that one of her neighbors reported the app).George appealed the removal and Google quickly reinstated the app, but Apple refused to do so. Instead, she and her father -- and eventually Phillip Shoemaker, former head of the App Store for Apple -- got embroiled in a long, kafkaesque process with Apple's support reps who seem to have mistaken an app that makes fun of Donald Trump's use of racist epithets for an endorsement of racism. Despite the fact that the satire is obvious to anyone who pays even cursory attention, none of them have been able to get any kind of reconsideration from Apple.It seems Apple has a blanket ban on depicting things like swastikas and Klan hoods, even to criticize or mock them. Eventually, George's dad was able to get a full accounting from Apple's rep on what would have to change to make the app acceptable, and it's genuinely farcical.Jackie (and Phillip) — I left another message this morning around 11am EST. Around noon EST, a member of the App Review Team called me back. His name was Adam; he was the same guy that left a message on my cell phone Monday night. Read the rest

Pangea was founded by Al Goldstein, a Deutsche Bank investment banker who quit to found a massive, intercontinental payday lending outfit; he tapped the investors that he enriched with his payday lending business to stake him $180 million and bought up thousands of low-rent buildings in Chicago's poorest neighborhoods (which are also Chicago's blackest neighborhoods).Pangea took over buildings (some of them derelict and abandoned or squatted) and renovated them, and rented them out, becoming the city's largest landlord and collecting many public accolades for their work in helping Chicago's affordable housing crisis.But on the way, Pangea also reinvented how tenants get evicted in Chicago, taking eviction from a rarity in the city to a commonplace occurrence, inventing a playbook for rapid evictions that other landlords are now following, creating an epidemic of evictions in a city where eviction was once unheard-of.A very long, in-depth report in the Chicago Reader investigates the conditions in Pangea rental units, and finds many tenants who have complaints about substandard maintenance, including problems with mold, asbestos, toilets, power, etc, as well as a bewildering array of fees levied against them (along with surprise rent-hikes). Tenants struggle to get justice, not least because Pangea owns its buildings through thousands of shell companies that trade the titles around between them, making it hard to name the right owner in court filings.The business has grown by 13,323% since its founding, with annual revenues of $113m.Pangea's eviction playbook involves dragging tenants in arrears into court -- Chicago's eviction courts are incredibly stilted and one-sided and don't even keep transcripts of hearings to be used in appeals -- and then getting them to sign paperwork saying they'll pay high fees and penalties as well as paying back-rent, paperwork that also makes tenants surrender their right to legal remedies for the hazardous conditions in their homes. Read the rest

Looking for a career in IT, gaming or software development? In the ever-changing world of the internet, versatility is your biggest asset. In other words, mastering Java might not cut it in an interview if you don't know C#.However, there's a bundle that covers the essentials in most any language. The Legendary Learn to Code Bundle is a roundup of 13 online courses, each one focused on a different coding platform and its primary uses - and those uses cover nearly every aspect of the internet, from app development to data analytics.Best of all, it's currently priced on a "name your price" basis. Anything you pay will get you at least some of the pack, and beating the average price will let you take home the entire thing. Check out what you can learn in the complete bundle:Google Go, a great all-around programming language for newbies.Angular 7, the latest version of a Typescript-based tool for app development.Git, one of the primary control systems for software engineers.Java, a tried and true language that can be used for creating Android apps and much more.Ruby, another user-friendly platform that's great for web development.C#, with a focus on how this object-oriented language can be used to create the framework for games.SQL, the foundation for most big databases at major companies.JQuery, a popular Javascript library that can build website forms and ordering mechanisms.Python, a versatile language that uses the BeautifulSoup library to gather data.React, another Javascript library that you can use to create and deploy user interfaces. Read the rest

After a blizzard of state-level Republican attacks on the right of women to choose whether to carry a fetus to term, Elizabeth Warren has added another plank to her campaign platform: Congressional Action to Protect Choice, a four-point plan to rescue reproductive rights from religious extremists and misogynists.Warren's plan would enshrine the rights established in the Supreme Court's Roe vs Wade ruling in federal law, prohibit states from taking measures to undermine these rights, require all medical insurers to include reproductive health in their plans, and take a suite of actions under the banner of "ensuring equal access and reproductive justice," from limiting harassment by abortion-clinic picketers to undoing the gag laws and other rules enacted by the Trump administration.I am a donor to Elizabeth Warren's 2020 presidential election campaign. And these issues are bigger than Roe. The women of color who have championed the reproductive justice movement teach us that we must go beyond choice to ensure meaningful access for every woman in America — not just the privileged and wealthy few. We must go beyond abortion, to ensure access to contraception, STI prevention and care, comprehensive sex education, care for pregnant moms, safe home and work environments, adequate wages, and so much more. We must build a future that protects the right of all women to have children, the right of all women to not have children, and the right to bring children up in a safe and healthy environment.Congressional Action to Protect Choice [Elizabeth Warren/Medium](Image: Tim Pierce, CC-BY; TitiNicola, CC-BY-SA) Read the rest

For years it was one of the most lighty-amusing running jokes in memedom: The Onion's ongoing series of stories about then-VP Joe Biden, portraying him as Diamond Joe, everyone's favorite lewd but obviously harmless shirtless uncle. The editor behind the series regrets it and feels responsible for helping one of the most conspicuously moronic Democrat candidates seem electable despite repeated runs at high office that ended in disgrace and failure.The handsome guy who’s got it good but doesn’t take himself too seriously is a profoundly American aesthetic, and Biden seemed to embody it. The Onion even produced a Biden book, The President of Vice, in 2013. He may not have been in on the joke, but he certainly knew about it and embraced it, calling it “hilarious” in a 2011 interview and jumping in to a Reddit AMA with the faux Biden to express his preference for Corvettes.I can’t speak for my colleagues, but at the time, I didn’t take him seriously enough to think we were doing anything wrong. I thought of him as little more than a political necessity: the older, more conservative white guy who softened Barack Obama’s image in regions where the prospect of a black president was too radical. A deeper dive on Biden never felt necessary.He's likely to be the candidate, unfortunately, guiding just less than half the electorate toward an inexorable sinking feeling as November 2020 approaches. The Onion's book about fake Joe, President of Vice, is now free of charge on Kindle. Read the rest

Margrethe Vestager (previously) is the EU Commissioner responsible for handing out billions in fines to Big Tech to punish them for monopolistic practices.Vestager and I both appeared on the bill at Republica in Berlin this month, and at the time, I pressed her from the audience on whether she thought that the ultimate answer to monopolistic abuses was to break up monopolies. She was incredibly skeptical that such a thing was desirable (describing state intervention in the deployment of "private property" as an extreme measure) or even possible (because the Big Tech firms would tie up any divestment orders in the courts for years).Vestager just repeated these sentiments at the Vivatech conference in Paris today, saying "For us it would be a remedy of the very last resort. It would keep us busy in court for even a decade."Vestager's remarks are out of step with a growing chorus of calls from all sides to break up the company, and while it's obvious that she's better qualified than almost anyone to assess the realistic chances of a breakup order, the actual breakup isn't the only useful outcome of such a proceeding. As Tim Wu has explained, the mere spectre of a breakup exerts a powerful discipline on firms, who curb their worst impulses in order to avoid attracting their own trustbusting torment.Worryingly, Vestager calls for Facebook to grant access to its data -- a potential privacy apocalypse -- rather than encouraging adversarial interoperability by giving new entrants the right to make products that plug into incumbents' services to help users liberate their data and stay in touch with their friends on the old service -- a practice that was once universal but has now all but disappeared thanks to a constellation of laws that prohibit it (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Section 1201 of the DMCA, federal trade secrets, etc). Read the rest

In 2017, an engineer and entrepreneur sued Techdirt for criticising his claim to have invented email. Though a district court soon dismissed the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds, appeals and wrangling over lawyers' fees continued. The case finally settled this month, Techdirt reports: article stays up, no money changes hands.It's a win for Techdirt and journalism, as all he got was a link to a response he could have added himself by signing up for a free commenting account. But that was the point: it was a SLAPP, a legal action the plaintiff knew he could not win, whose real purpose was to be so expensive and troublesome for the defendant to fight that they shut up or paid up. Mike Masnick writes that it doesn't feel like victory:You may wonder how it could possibly take 18 months to negotiate a settlement about adding links to old articles -- and, indeed, I wonder that myself. The entire process has been quite a pain for us. I cannot and would not describe this result as a victory, because this has been nearly two and a half years of wasted time, effort, resources, attention and money just to defend our right to report on a public figure and explain to the world that we do not believe his claims to have invented email are correct, based on reams of evidence.During those 18 months, we stopped all the fundraising we had done around the lawsuit, as, for nearly all of that time, it did appear that a settlement was close, and we did not wish to mislead anyone into believing that we were raising money on the premise that our continued existence was in grave danger only to settle the case immediately after doing so. Read the rest

Nit pickers rejoice: Revisit the infamous coffee cup from this season, rubber swords, and other goofs and gaffs in Westeros. Read the rest

Economist international editor Edward Lucas devotes 4,000+ words in the new issue of Foreign Policy to the changing landscape of state espionage in the 21st century; it's not particularly well-organized (if there's a reason for the order in which his thoughts are laid out, I couldn't find it), but despite that, it's well worth a read, even if there's lots I don't agree with here.Lucas's main question is whether autocracies are going to win the surveillance race, especially in the face of increased civil society pressure for limits on mass surveillance in democracies. He's obviously conflicted on the issue -- he says "Western democracies need the intelligence services to defend open societies against Putinism—but not at the price of self-Putinization" -- but he's also clearly convinced that spies for democratic states are fighting with one hand tied behind their back relative to their autocratic counterparts.That said, he's also critical of spy agencies' unwillingness to use careful forensic work on public sources in order to understand the world, basically accusing them of wanting to take shortcuts through wiretapping and dragnet surveillance because studying public sources is hard. But as he recounts, when one of his Economist colleagues was sued for libel by a Russian oligarch that he'd accused of attaining his position and wealth because of his relationship to Putin, the Economist was "able to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a detailed, forensic investigation of a segment of the energy market that we believed our target was manipulating" -- but that while "a spy chief from another Western country told me that finding a few hundred thousand dollars in cash to bribe a North Korean would be no problem" there was no hope of getting the same sum to spend on "statisticians and lawyers."In the meantime, Lucas points at the worrying trend of spies leaving government service to work for commercial military/surveillance contractors who are used to circumvent democratic limits on surveillance, while simultaneously becoming very rich and politically powerful, and thus able to lobby for the expansion of these kinds of programs. Read the rest

Reddit user BeardoGREG shared this unusual selfie of his family. I was mightily confused until one commenter explained it: "You were shot out of a cannon. The cannon is behind you and you are flying straight into the camera with that determined look on your face."(r/confusing_perspective) Read the rest

In the 1970s, the great R&B singer and actor Lou Rawls urged everyone to take their high blood pressure medication. With soul. "Do it for them." A public service announcement from the Ad Council. Read the rest

Researchers from the University of Zurich's Robotics and Perception Group designed an event camera system for drones. In the video above, the fun starts at 1:25. As explained by IEEE Spectrum, "These are sensors that are not good at interpreting a scene visually like a regular camera, but they’re extremely sensitive to motion, responding to changes in a scene on a per-pixel basis in microseconds. A regular camera that detects motion by comparing one frame with another takes milliseconds to do the same thing, which might not seem like much, but for a fast-moving drone it could easily be the difference between crashing into something and avoiding it successfully."HEADS UP! Read the rest

For just $15, you can have your own GP-5 Original Soviet Civilian Protective Gas Mask. The seller reassures us that the standard issue asbestos filter has been replaced by activated charcoal. Shipping is free. From the product description:It is one of the most popular and truly reliable civilian gas masks produced in the Soviet Union from 1970 to 1989. The GP-5 was made famous for its apparent use in Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster. It can operate in all weather and withstand temperatures from −40 degrees (Celsius and Fahrenheit) to 114 °C (237 °F). The GP-5 also comes with sealed glass eye pieces. They were originally made to protect the wearer from radioactive fallout during the Cold War and were distributed to most fallout shelters. They have recently been tested to see if they have NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) protective capabilities. It was concluded that the mask will last in an NBC situation for 24 hours. GP-5 Original Soviet Civilian Protective Gas Mask (Amazon via Daily Grail) Read the rest

I rarely look forward to movies that do not have Star Wars in the title. John Wick, however, is the story of a man's love for his puppy, and a classic American muscle car. I am totally on board. Read the rest

Two years ago, a Taiwan court ruled that its laws forbidding same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. Now legislators there voted to make it the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. The law goes into effect May 24.Although the island has a large gay community and its annual gay pride parade is the biggest in Asia, the issue of marriage equality has bitterly divided Taiwanese society. In a controversial referendum in November last year, 67% voted to reject same-sex marriage. In recent months conservative groups have campaigned against same-sex marriage reform, pushing for a law that would see gay marriages redefined as something closer to same-sex unions. Good morning #Taiwan. Today, we have a chance to make history & show the world that progressive values can take root in an East Asian society. Today, we can show the world that #LoveWins. pic.twitter.com/PCPZCTi87M— 蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) May 17, 2019BREAKING: Legislators just passed article 4, which means #Taiwan just legalized same-sex marriage and will be implemented on May 24th#First in #Asia#LGBT #LoveWins pic.twitter.com/FDjWNBAxru— Equal Love Taiwan (@equallovetw) May 17, 2019 Read the rest

A Charleston man was charged with fraud this week [justice.gov] after investigators unraveled an elaborate scheme to take control of IP addresses. More than 750,000 were snagged, reports the BBC, then sold on.The US Department of Justice claims that Mr Golestan "fraudulently" won control of the net addresses by using many different shell companies. It alleges that he created websites for fake companies and invented the names of the people who purportedly ran them as part of his scheme. Mr [Amir] Golestan was charged with 20 counts of wire fraud in a US court this week. He has yet to respond to a BBC request for comment. The net addresses were handed over to Mr Golestan by the American Registry of Internet Numbers (Arin) - one of several regional administrators that dole out the few remaining addresses. It is claimed they were then resold allowing him to cash in.Golestan appears to have attracted attention because he sued ARIN (!) after it failed to transfer control of one block of addresses. Thereafter someone with a three digit IQ finally looks at the paperwork and the FBI gets called in. Read the rest

The Lake Dunlap spillway suffered a catastrophic failure earlier this week, and it was all caught on camera: an old dam gate keeling over and allowing water to surge into the waterway beyond. But it's not even that big of a problem, apparently. They announced some voluntary water restrictions while they work on it. There isn't much more to the story. That's it. Well, what did you expect? Eight minutes of breathless narrative? Menacing music and scrapy metal sound effects crafting an aura of suspense? Soundbite interviews with dam workers? Three commercial breaks each followed by a recap of the story so far? It's just an old spill gate failing. Jesus. They're fixing it already. Read the rest

After suffering hydraulic problems, an F-16 fighter jet crashed into a California warehouse Thursday. The pilot ejected safely and no-one on the ground was seriously harmed; a nearby driver captured the collision on video and a warehouse worker filmed the wreckage."That's a military airplane, in our building!" says a man on the warehouse video (embedded below, NSFW language), uploaded by Ejler Bettenhausen and credited to Jeff Schoffstall.#BREAKING image from inside a warehouse near March Air Reserve Base where a fighter jet crashed this afternoon Courtesy: Jeff Schoffstall pic.twitter.com/OJa0WBRMnM— Rob McMillan (@abc7robmcmillan) May 16, 2019 Read the rest

Getting a set of cookware that will outlast you is one of those signs you've truly grown up. It used to be easy to find durable materials that also cook well, but these days it can be hard to tell what's quality and what brands are coasting by on a recognizable name.Well, there's at least one brand that's building their name the right way: After gaining attention from home chefs with their precision kitchen knives, Ausker has branched out into cookware - and so far, the results look just as solid.Their pots and pans come with a series of tiny innovations, but the main draw is in the material. All Ausker cookware is made from a core of die-cast aluminum. Thanks to that alloy, heat spreads quickly and evenly over the surface, giving you a consistent cooking experience every time on electric, gas or induction stoves. Over that, there are a full five layers of the Swiss compound Granitec. Not only is Granitec corrosion-resistant, environmentally friendly and free of PFOAs, but it's also a reliable nonstick surface. It also has durability in spades, able to withstand abrasion by Scotch-Brite pads, steel balls and ballpoint pens in a battery of tests.Here are a few highlights from their line:Ausker Grill PanThis perfect breakfast pan is a dream to use, and even easier to store, thanks to the removable bakelite handle. Need to pour sauces or bleed off excess grease? The twin spouts on either side are a welcome touch. Read the rest

Tardar Sauce, a cat known to many as Grumpy Cat due to her distinctive facial expression and 2012 viral video success, died Tuesday due to complications of an infection. The BBC:Her image quickly spread as a meme. According to owner Tabitha Bundesen, her facial expression was caused by feline dwarfism and an underbite. Grumpy Cat travelled the world making television appearances and in 2014 even starred in her own Christmas film. Some days are grumpier than others... pic.twitter.com/ws209VWl97— Grumpy Cat (@RealGrumpyCat) May 17, 2019 Read the rest

How messed up is America? This messed up. Schoolteachers are being encouraged to use an app to alert police and school employees about an active shooting incident in real time, as the mass shooting happens. “Schools are turning to technology to protect kids during mass shootings,” reports Stefanie Dazio at the Associated Press.“Technology that speeds up law enforcement’s response and quickly alerts teachers and students to danger is a growing tool amid rising concerns over the inability to prevent shootings like the one last week at a suburban Denver high school,” she writes. The 18-year-old student who rushed one of the gunmen died in that May 2019 Colorado shooting.There are concerns that school districts and other authorities are too quick to adopt technology as a PR-friendly solution at the same time mental health programs and violence-prevention efforts are defunded.Here's how the Share911 app referenced above works, from the AP report:The students are trained to gather in a corner with the classroom’s lights out and blinds drawn in a lockdown, social studies teacher Laura Stark said. Staffers check in via the Share911 app to share information, including if any kids are missing or injured.Share911 launched three weeks after the Sandy Hook shooting. The app provides real-time data to school employees and law enforcement, such as the type of threat and its location, based on floor plans of the building.“You can’t decide if you’re going to run, hide or fight in the absence of information,” said Endress, the CEO. Read the rest

Donald Trump reportedly wants his 'Border Wall' painted black and with spiky spikes.Before Donald Trump became president, he is reported to have spent much of his time reviewing color swatches for hotel carpeting and the like, according to one of the writers who worked closely with him in decades gone by. Swatches of velour for lobby seating was more in his comfort zone, the writer says.I hear echoes of this character oddity in today's report on Trump's seeming obsession with the goth brutalist aesthetics of his “Border Wall” by Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post:The bollards or “slats,” as he prefers to call them, should be painted “flat black,” a dark hue that would absorb heat in the summer, making the metal too hot for climbers to scale, Trump has recently told White House aides, Homeland Security officials and military engineers.And the tips of the bollards should be pointed, not round, the president insists, describing in graphic terms the potential injuries that border-crossers might receive. Trump has said the wall’s current blueprints include too many gates — placed at periodic intervals to allow vehicles and people through — and he wants the openings to be smaller.At a moment when the White House is diverting billions of dollars in military funds to fast-track construction, the president is micromanaging the project down to the smallest design details. But Trump’s frequently shifting instructions and suggestions have left engineers and aides confused, according to current and former administration officials. Read the rest

When Carlos Castaneda spoke of “a separate reality,” he could easily have been thinking of this week’s through-the-looking-glass tabloids.How else to explain the ‘Globe’ cover story: “Malia Obama Caught Up in Harvard Bribe Scandal!” No, she isn’t. Malia allegedly took tennis lessons from the Harvard tennis coach accused of accepting bribes for recruiting non-athletes to the university. But Malia didn’t win a tennis scholarship to Harvard, or any athletic scholarship, so there’s no scandal, just unjustified innuendo.The ‘National Enquirer’ is no better with its cover story about a coup within the British Royal Family, proclaiming: “William Seizes Throne From Charles! Declares Own Father Unfit to Rule.”Three minor details: Charles doesn’t have the throne to begin with; The monarch doesn’t “rule” Britain any longer; and the Queen is doubtless aware of the Act of Settlement of 1701 governing the royal succession, which will make Charles the King on her demise whether she or Prince William like it or not. Even if Charles wanted to abdicate on succeeding to the crown it would require an Act of Parliament to make it legal.The ‘Globe’ sticks it to the Royals with its story: “Mean Meghan to Kate: Keep Your Baby Advice!” Duchess Meghan allegedly exploded angrily when Kate phoned to offer parenting advice. Because the ‘Globe’ monitors all private Royal phone calls, so this must be true.“Man-Eater Angie Strikes Again!” reports the ‘Globe’ about Angelina Jolie, referring to her sexual appetites rather than any possible cannibalism. Jolie is set to “gobble up her hunky new co-star Nicholas Hoult,” claims the rag, though it’s hard to tell if that is an oral sex reference or if she just want to jump his bones - or maybe she has turned cannibal? Read the rest

Competition scholar Tim Wu (previously) is one of the most cogent, accessible voices in the antitrust debate; his recent book on the subject is a must-read; this week, he debated George Mason University scholar Tyler Cowen, proprietor of Marginal Revolution and one of the leading voices for the expansion of unfettered, unregulated capitalism -- he's the face of the notorious Mercatus Center, where rich donors choose the faculty and out pop arguments against universal health care and Net Neutrality. I follow Cowen's work pretty closely because I really disagree with him and also find that he puts forward persuasive arguments, and delving into the deficiencies in those arguments is a good way to figure out what's missing from my own arguments (a friend once emailed me that Cowan "specializes in the 'hey, maybe there's some merit in this overlooked idea, I don't know, I'm just asking' presentation of appalling ideas"). Cowen's latest book is Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero and it fits in that vein, arguing that businesses might not be big enough. I've often wondered how Cowen would fare in a debate where someone who was really knowledgeable could rebut him in realtime, and now I know. Wu runs circles around Cowen. It makes for an entertaining hour -- but also an informative one. The rebuttals are really on-point here, and make Cowan's arguments seem very flimsy by comparison. (via Marginal Revolution) Read the rest

I love Hugo and Nebula-Award winner Jo Walton's science fiction and fantasy novels (previously) and that's why it was such a treat to inaugurate my new gig as an LA Times book reviewer with a review of her latest novel, Lent, a fictionalized retelling of the live of Savonarola, who reformed the Florentine church in the 1490s, opposing a corrupt Pope, who martyred him (except in Walton's book, and unbeknownst to Savonarola himself, Savonarola is a demon who is sent back to Hell when he is martyred, then returned to 1492 Florence to start over again).The story is motivated by a mystical shift in Savonarola's destiny that allows him to remember, from one incarnation to the next, who he truly is. He lives many different versions of his life, seeking a way to harrow Hell, restore grace, redeem himself and save Florence.The Groundhog Day-meets-Dante premise is incredibly weird and incredibly satisfying, a bizarrely effective way of making the characters come to life as we see how they would have reacted to the same circumstance with slight variations, building up a series of incredibly detailed and nuanced portraits. And because this is a Walton novel, there are no easy answers, and ambiguity rules overall -- and because Walton has become so close with the Renaissance scholar and science fiction novelist (and librettist, singer, and all-round genius) Ada Palmer, her Renaissance Florence has the ring of the true metal, incredibly well-drawn in ever way.Whatever her subject, Walton's fiercest weapon is her delicious ambiguity. Read the rest

Last month, Israeli non-profit SpaceIL's Beresheet probe made it to the lunar surface but sadly it wasn't a soft landing. Beresheet was the first private attempt at a lunar landing and they got pretty damn close. A couple weeks after the crash, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter orbited over the area and NASA has released images that show the impact site. From NASA:LROC took this image from 56 miles (90 kilometers) above the surface. The cameras captured a dark smudge, about 10 meters wide, that indicates the point of impact. The dark tone suggests a surface roughened by the hard landing, which is less reflective than a clean, smooth surface.From so far away, LROC could not detect whether Beresheet formed a surface crater upon impact. It’s possible the crater is just too small to show up in photos. Another possibility is that Beresheet formed a small indent instead of a crater, given its low angle of approach (around 8.4 degrees relative to the surface), light mass (compared to a dense meteoroid of the same size), and low velocity (again, relative to a meteoroid of the same size; Beresheet’s speed was still faster than most speeding bullets).The light halo around the smudge could have formed from gas associated with the impact or from fine soil particles blown outward during Beresheet’s descent, which smoothed out the soil around the landing site, making it highly reflective...Most importantly, we knew the coordinates of the landing site within a few miles thanks to radio tracking of Beresheet, and we have 11 “before” images of the area, spanning a decade, and three “after” images. Read the rest

Trump's initial appointee to run the EPA was Scott Pruitt, who resigned in disgrace in 2018 amid a massive corruption scandal in which he was found to have spent lavishly and assigned improper personal duties to government employees.The EPA's Office of the Inspector General has published the results of a long investigation into Pruitt's spending, finding that he bilked the taxpayer out of more than $120,000 by breaking government rules on flying business class, staying in fancy hotels, and flying expensive itineraries that included personal stops in Pruitt's hometown of Tulsa.Pruitt was succeeded by coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler in early 2019.The OIG identified 40 trips and $985,037 in costs associated with the former Administrator’s travel for the 10-month period from March 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017. This covered 34 completed and six canceled trips and included costs incurred not only by the former Administrator but by his Protective Service Detail (PSD) and other staff. Of the 40 trips,16 includedtravel to, or had stops in, Tulsa, Oklahoma—the location of the former Administrator’s personal residence.We estimated excessive costs of $123,942 regarding the former Administrator’s and accompanying PSD agents’ use of first/business-class travel because the exception that allowed for the travel accommodation was granted withoutsufficient justification and, initially, without appropriate approval authority.Although the EPA’s travel policy is sufficiently designed to prevent fraud, waste and abuse and is consistent with the Federal Travel Regulation, we found that the policy did not initially outline who had the authority to approve theAdministrator’s travel authorizations and vouchers. Read the rest

“Officials have gathered up more than 4,000 residents over the past two years for deradicalization and textile-making courses.” An important and difficult read in the Wall Street Journal today about the Chinese government's indoctrination camps for the Muslim Uighur minority, and how those concentration camps provide essentially slave labor for factories that supply big Western brands like H&M, Adidas, Gap -- even Kraft Heinz, the ketchup makers.Excerpt from the WSJ report by Eva Dou and Chao Deng:Western companies, including brand name apparel makers and food companies, have become entangled in China’s campaign to forcibly assimilate its Muslim population.Adidas AG, Hennes & Mauritz AB, Kraft Heinz Co., Coca-Cola Co. and Gap Inc. are among those at the end of the long, often opaque supply chains that travel through China’s northwest region of Xinjiang. Residents there are routinely forced into training programs that feed workers to area factories, according to locals, official notices and state media.Political indoctrination is a significant component of the programs, which are aimed at ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, according to official notices. Along with vocational skills, the curriculum covers Mandarin Chinese, the importance of the Communist Party and national unity, Chinese law and how to counter extremism—such as not dressing too conservatively or praying too frequently. The programs can include militarylike drills.For workers and factory bosses, resistance to such programs could result in detention as suspected extremist sympathizers.Western Companies Get Tangled in China’s Muslim Clampdown [wsj.com, paywalled]Here is an alternate paywall-free link at MarketWatch. Read the rest

Hangnails bother me so much that when I get one, I can't think of anything else until I get rid of it. I will even bite it off if I am without clippers (this doesn't work well and usually results in blood being drawn). The Tweezerman hangnail clipper was designed to cleanly cut off a hangnail. The angled blades make it easy to see what you're doing. It gets right to the nub of the hangnail, preventing it from spontaneously regenerating. I keep one in my desk drawer and another in my travel kit. Read the rest

Dog Break.Got some sweet wholesome loving dog content for your internet experience. Momma golden retriever.Poppa golden retriever.Big floofy pile of adorable beribboned baby golden retriever pups.Oh yeah.A happy family Read the rest

Pussy Galore: “My name is Pussy Galore.”Bond: “I must be dreaming.” Read the rest

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says that after the Mueller Report was published, the FBI came to him to explain its conclusion that at least two Florida county's voting machines were hacked by Russians during the 2016 election, but that they swore him to secrecy so he can't reveal which counties and which machines were hacked. Years of case law suggests that confidentiality agreements signed by Florida government officials aren’t enforceable because of the state’s broad public records law, said Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, an open-government group that counts the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald as members.Legally speaking, “the promise of confidentiality is an empty promise in Florida,” she said. If DeSantis was shown any records related to this investigation, they would be considered public unless there is a specific state or federal exemption, Petersen added.Ron DeSantis ‘not allowed’ to disclose which two Florida counties were hacked by Russians [Emily L. Mahoney/Tampa Bay Times]FBI Tells The Governor Of Florida About Election Hacking, But Says He Can't Tell Anyone Else [Tim Cushing/Techdirt] Read the rest

#Batwoman is coming Sundays this Fall to The CW.

You've heard of those dog-walking apps like Wag, where you can summon someone to go walk your dog? Now there's a thing like that but for humans in Los Angeles, California.Meet Chuck McCarthy, the People Walker. They're on Facebook, if you'd like to take a walk and don't wanna be lonely. “The affable art school graduate with a bushy beard and merry eyes mostly used to work on a laptop in a Hollywood coffee shop, trying to make ends meet by creating web GIFs and landing the occasional acting job, writes Nita Lelyveld in the Los Angeles Times [paywall-free link here]:“Scared to walk alone at night? Don’t like walking alone at all? Don’t want people to see you walking alone and assume you have no friends? Don’t like listening to music or podcasts but can’t walk alone in silence forced to face thoughts of the unknown future or your own insignificance in the ever expanding universe?” So went McCarthy’s first tongue-in-cheek sales pitch as the People Walker.He started walking around in a hand-drawn T-shirt that declared his new profession, peppering neighborhood utility poles with funny promos — some cut out of cardboard or old jeans.What could be more L.A. than a People Walker?The media began calling almost before the first walk was booked. Then a steady stream of college students, retirees, waitresses and actors asked if they could earn a little cash on the side by becoming people walkers too.Now McCarthy has a business, which gets a cut of walkers’ fees. Read the rest