Black Protestor caught 2 White Protestors tagging Starbucks. pic.twitter.com/06LuT4ryb8— gregarious (@gryking) May 31, 2020Given the white women's attitude toward a black woman asking them to stop tagging "BLM" and "Down with white supremacy" on a Starbucks exterior, it's hard not to think these two are anything but boogaloo accelerationists carrying out a false flag mission. Read the rest
In a conference call with US state governors, Trump said people arrested for protesting should be sent to prison for 10 years, and that governors were "weak" for not "dominating" protests.From The Washington Post:Trump also called on them to take back the streets and use force to confront protesters and said if they did not, they would look like “fools,” alarming several governors on the call as they communicated privately, according to the officials.“If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time,” Trump said, according to a person on the call. A second person on the call said Trump praised Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and thanked Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper for his assistance.JUST IN: President Trump unloads on the nation's governors on a call, calls on them to step up enforcement: "You have to dominate, if you don’t dominate you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you, you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate."— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) June 1, 2020One person listening in on the call describes the president's words and tone as "unhinged."— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) June 1, 2020(Image: Gage Skidmore, CC-BY-SA 2.0) Read the rest
This Reuters Investigates piece looks at how the US Supreme Court uses a "little-known legal doctrine called qualified immunity" to protect cops who use excessive force to maim and kill people.The Supreme Court’s role is evident in how the federal appeals courts, which take their cue from the high court, treat qualified immunity. In an unprecedented analysis of appellate court records, Reuters found that since 2005, the courts have shown an increasing tendency to grant immunity in excessive force cases – rulings that the district courts below them must follow. The trend has accelerated in recent years. It is even more pronounced in cases like Leija’s – when civilians were unarmed in their encounters with police, and when courts concluded that the facts could convince a jury that police actually did use excessive force.Reuters found among the cases it analyzed more than three dozen in which qualified immunity protected officers whose actions had been deemed unlawful. Outside of Dallas, Texas, five officers fired 17 shots at a bicyclist who was 100 yards away, killing him, in a case of mistaken identity. In Heber City, Utah, an officer threw to the ground an unarmed man he had pulled over for a cracked windshield, leaving the man with brain damage. In Prince George's County, Maryland, an officer shot a man in a mental health crisis who was stabbing himself and trying to slit his own throat.Image: Reuters Read the rest
"Get your fucking knee off his neck!" people repeatedly shout as a cop dares to restrain a man by shoving his knee into the guy's neck. The cop's partner looks around, realizes what's happening (or realizes that they're on camera), and pushes the cop's knee away. Cops arrived and started arresting looters. #seattleprotest pic.twitter.com/ThyZoUCuQ8— Matt M. McKnight (@mattmillsphoto) May 31, 2020 Read the rest
Archaeologists from the Israel Museum and colleagues found residue of cannabis containing THC on an altar in the ancient Israelite temple of Tel Arad. Apparently, the discovery in this 2,700-year-old temple south of Tel Aviv, Israel, is the first proof that ancient Jews used weed in rituals. From the BBC News:Researchers concluded that cannabis may have been burned in order to induce a high among worshippers.[...]Frankincense was found on one altar, which was unsurprising because of its prominence in holy texts, the study's authors told Israeli newspaper Haaretz.[...]However, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN) - all compounds found in cannabis - were found on the second altar."Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad" (Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University) Read the rest
Here's a new attack ad against Trump called "Flag of Treason" created by The Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump republican group that includes Kellyanne Conway's husband George Conway. The ad starts off saying, “The men who followed this flag 150 years ago knew what it meant -- treason against their country. The death of the United States." But the flag keeps showing up at Trump events, the ad continues, and according to Trump, the people waving it are "very fine people...What does it say that they’re all in for Trump? What does it say that he won't condemn the flag of hate, division, and losers?..." The ad concludes by saying we have a choice: "America or Trump."According to CNN, "The TV spot, backed by a $500,000 ad buy, will air in the key battleground states of Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan as well as in Washington, DC." Read the rest
Multinational mining operation Rio Tinto destroyed an Aboriginal cave north of Perth, Australia last week. Indigenous people lived in the cave as far back as 46,000 years ago. From Reuters/New York Times:Explosives destroyed two ancient rock shelters, where artefacts discovered included 4,000-year-old plaited human hair with genetic links to the present day traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people.The mining giant, which had been granted state government approval in 2013 to damage or destroy the site under a legal framework that is currently under review, apologised on Sunday."We pay our respects to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, and we are sorry for the distress we have caused," Iron Ore chief executive Chris Salisbury said in a statement.[...]"As a matter of urgency, we are reviewing the plans of all other sites in the Juukan Gorge area," Salisbury said.image: Puutu Kunti Kurrama And Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation Read the rest
Just for kicks, Paul Rule, 66, participated in a study launched by the Cambridge Natural History Society that enlisted citizen scientists and nature-lovers to help deepen knowledge of the flora and fauna in Cambridge, England. Rule recorded nearly 600 different animal species in his "ordinary" city garden, including an elephant moth like the one seen above, an ivy bee, and the locally endangered hedgehog. From BBC News:The retired BT engineer has always been interested in wildlife, particularly "anything with six or eight legs", and was able to record 412 insects, including 272 species of moths."When it came to the insects, I used the internet and local experts - and I have a shelf full of wildlife reference books," he said.[...]Mammal visitors include a fox, hedgehogs and bats, while all the common garden bird species such as blackbirds, wrens, robins and goldfinches have been counted.Cambridge nature-lover records 573 species in 'ordinary' garden https://t.co/qaPHyrUWSn— BBC News England (@BBCEngland) May 31, 2020Top image: Jean Pierre Hamon (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest
From an interview with Gil-Scott Heron:"The first change that takes place is in your mind. You have to change your mind before you change the way you live and the way you move...It will just be something you see and you’ll think, "Oh I’m on the wrong page.""The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (1971): Read the rest
Business planners are clinging to the dream of the open-plan office despite the coronavirus pandemic. I hope that this proposal for a post-Covid shared desk setup is not the final solution. [via @twlldun]Yonsei University professor Kim Suk-kyung suggests this new office layout for the post-COVID-19 era to reduce the risk of disease transmission. ... “We need to consider if offices will need large spaces in the future. For example, the US is focusing on using smaller space efficiently. Changes to the layout of work stations can prevent the need to move to larger space to social distance,” said Kim.Kim suggested rotating work stations and raising cubicle walls between desks so that workers do not face each other. Read the rest
Officers with Hamilton County Sheriff's Office replaced the U.S. flag with their own "thin blue line" flag Sunday, hoisting the desecrated version over the Justice Center in Cincinnati.ABC News reports that sheriff Jim Neil said the U.S. flag was stolen be protestors. Neil does not convincingly explain why he replaced the U.S. flag with a different one.“Should have been replaced with American flag immediately,” fellow Democrat Chris Seelbach tweeted back. “Not replaced with a politically charged blue lives matter flag when thousands are protesting in our streets because #BlackLivesMatter. Sheriff Neil has only made things worse. Again.”In the police flag, the colors of the union flag are replaced with black and white but for a "thin blue line" symbolizing the police. The line divides the country in two, replacing one of the bars that traditionally represent the original 13 colonies.The desecrated flag is a regular subject of criticism and parody, especially its plain implication that the U.S. is (or should become) a police state. Read the rest
Entrepreneurs looking for new avenues to reach customers may not have considered one of the fastest-growing content mediums today: podcasting. And we don’t mean just dropping an advertisement for your product or service in the middle of a popular show.Right now, there are about 850,000 active podcasts reaching 165 million Americans. Those listeners are predominantly educated, affluent and technologically savvy. So could you craft an entertaining, engaging podcast around your business to attract attention and bring some of those smart, upscale listeners into your camp?Business is one of the most popular podcast genres for listeners — and the training in the Podcast Like a Boss course offers motivated students all the direction needed to get a podcast off the ground. However, this course asks the even more important question: how can this podcast help drive your business forward?Unlike other instruction training, this 7-module course doesn’t center exclusively on well-worn tips for would-be podcasters. This training is about creating and launching a podcast idea that bolsters business success, regardless of your industry. This training is led by a quartet of experienced business podcast pros, who collectively created podcasts that amassed over 7.5 million downloads while generating nearly $1 million in revenue. Kathleen Shannon, Emily Thompson, Paul Jarvis and Jason Zook break down the entire process, from clarifying a podcast’s purpose, defining the point of view, identifying the prime audience and shaping what a listener can expect before they ever even hit the subscribe button.Through these lectures, workbooks, PDF checklists and more, you’ll learn how to create compelling content around your business; how to handle the tech and logistics of podcast recording and distribution; how to get attention to your podcast through iTunes and other platforms; how to monetize your show through sponsors and more; and how to grow and nurture around the program. Read the rest
In this video, two NYPD cops are seen detaining a black man during ongoing protests against police brutality. The casual racism and hostility to a peaceful bystander is appalling in any case, but these cops have made a worse error: the man they've handcuffed identifies himself as an FBI agent. They free the man at once.Here's a longer cut of the video.Whether or not the man is really an FBI agent, it's a great illustration of law enforcers being predatory bullies whose behavior changes completely around perceived power and privilege. Read the rest
Both rookie filmmakers and analog die-hards alike will find something to love in Danny Plotnick’s new coffee table book ‘Super 8: An Illustrated History.’ Newcomers will whisper a quiet "thank you" before tucking in their iPhones tonight after they're introduced to the laborious process that their filmmaking ancestors went through, from buying expensive film stock to processing by hand. Experience the dizzying highs and treacherous lows as the author recounts his own decades-long love affair with Super 8 filmmaking (see: Skate Witches). The glorious photos of vintage cameras and projectors that adorn this book will have even the most casual gearhead drooling and interviews with underground filmmakers who cut their teeth on Super 8 including Richard Linklater, Bruce LaBruce, and GB Jones will offer insights into the passion that drove no-budget artists in the pre-digital age. Read the rest
The MAGA Party didn't go as planned for President Trump, who fled to the White House bunker after protestors, not presidential partisans, turned up in numbers outside the executive mansion.Secret Service agents rushed President Donald Trump to a White House bunker on Friday night as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the executive mansion, some of them throwing rocks and tugging at police barricades.Trump spent nearly an hour in the bunker, which was designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks, according to a Republican close to the White House who was not authorized to publicly discuss private matters and spoke on condition of anonymity. The account was confirmed by an administration official who also spoke on condition of anonymity.They turned the lights out, too, as seen in photos posted to Twitter by protestors and media.The protests against police brutality were sparked by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a white Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, and Floyd—who had been accused by a shopkeeper of passing a fake $20 bill—was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The scale and severity of the protests took authorities by surprise, and police have responded in force.No picture better sums up the pure bullshit of the Drain-The-Swamp, MAGA, Ultra-Macho, Tough-Guy Trump Presidency. When the going gets tough? Turn off the lights and hide. pic.twitter.com/RKMbG7OIhq— Christian Christensen (@ChrChristensen) June 1, 2020 Read the rest
Over a weekend of protests against police brutality, America's police (with exceptions) responded with as much brutality as they could muster, targeting protestors, media and bystanders alike with rubber bullets, tear gas and random prepemptive violence. The New York Times:Videos showed police officers in recent nights using batons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters, bystanders and journalists, often without warning or seemingly unprovoked. The footage, which has been shared widely online, highlighted the very complaints over police behavior that have drawn protests in at least 75 cities across the United States.In Salt Lake City, officers in riot gear shoved a man with a cane to the ground.In Brooklyn, two police S.U.V.s plowed into a crowd of protesters.In Atlanta, police officers enforcing a curfew stopped two college students in a car, fired Tasers on them and dragged them out of the vehicle.And in Minneapolis, where there have been six consecutive nights of protests and clashes, a video appeared to show officers yelling at people on their porches to get inside and then firing paint canisters at them. “Light them up,” one officer said.The photo below shows a cop removing the face-mask of an obviously peaceful protestor so that he can mace him in the face. The cop has concealed his badge number to prevent easy identification. DOING THE SAME THING EVERYONE ELSE WAS DOING. PEACEFUL WITH HIS HANDS UP but racist cop pulls off his mask and MACE’s HIM pic.twitter.com/3lfHCMnsLB— mina ✮ BLM (@thankvnextbitch) May 31, 2020"I wish the officers hadn’t done that." Read the rest
CBS News reports that Kellie Chauvin, wife of the police officer who killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly 9 consecutive minutes, has filed for divorce.Sekula Law Offices, the law firm representing Mrs. Chauvin, posted this on Facebook:This evening, I spoke with Kellie Chauvin and her family. She is devastated by Mr. Floyd’s death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with his loved ones and with everyone who is grieving this tragedy. She has filed for dissolution of her marriage to Derek Chauvin.While Ms. Chauvin has no children from her current marriage, she respectfully requests that her children, her elder parents, and her extended family be given safety and privacy during this difficult time.According to International Business News, Mrs. Chauvin was born in Thailand in 1974, and spent the first several years of her life in a refugee camp before her family moved to Wisconsin. She entered in an arranged marriage in 1991, and had 2 children before leaving that first husband after a decade for alleged abuse. In 2018, she became the first woman of Hmong descent to be crowned Mrs. Minnesota. She met the man who killed George Floyd when he came in on a work shift while she was working at Hennepin County Medical Center — by which he already had an established record of violent conduct that went unpenalized — and married him in 2010.The Chauvins also own property in Orange County, Florida — where the officer who killed George Floyd cast his voting ballots in 2016 and 2018, despite presumably being a Minnesota permanent resident in order to serve as a police officer (although only 8 percent of Minneapolis police actually live in Minneapolis). Read the rest
Twitter rants and various online ugliness aside, social media has actually grown up a bit over the past 15 years. In general, users are warier of their interactions on platforms like Facebook or Instagram — and marketers have taken note.In fact, if you felt retailers you saw on social media were only looking to jam products down your throat, that’s not marketing in 2020. Of marketers surveyed in a recent study, the clear no. 1 goal for brands in the social media realm — a commanding 69 percent — was to build brand awareness. In case you’re curious, driving sales was a lowly fifth place on the list.So how do products build that awareness and engage with the audience they seek? The training in The 2020 Social Media Marketing Bootcamp Certification Bundle lays out the plan for any company looking to make the most of a social media presence, drive brand success and make you an in-demand social media manager.Since no two social media platforms are truly alike, this seven-course, 34-plus hour collection aims to help marketers create strategies customized to work on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more.The fundamentals are explained in the Digital Marketing Foundations 101 course, a nuts-and-bolts walkthrough that hammers home the most critical decision for any social media manager: crafting a clear digital strategy. This course digs into email marketing, building a website, SEO, digital advertising, measurement, analytics, and all the latest trends in the digital marketing game.While that course lays out the basics, Social Media Foundations 101 and Social Media Strategy advance your learning into practical steps for bringing that digital marketing plan to life. Read the rest
Virus quarantines and shuttered restaurants sent millions of Americans back to their homes, only to rediscover the joys of firing up an oven and cooking something special for themselves. Whether by desire, necessity, or both, many of us have certainly been spending more time in the kitchen these last few months. And we haven’t just been hungry for the food itself. Americans have also been hungry for new ways to make it. Case in point, the Allrecipes Alexa skill saw recipe requests surge by 67 percent during March and April, while new users skyrocketed by 80 percent.Pizza is an eternal crowd-pleaser, but plenty of chefs get intimidated at the thought of making crust and sauce from scratch. Thankfully, professional chef Tim Cunningham is on the case — and his 1-hour crash course Pizza Making: Bake the Best Sourdough Pizza at Home! seeks to prove that anyone with basic kitchen skills is more than capable of baking up a delicious pie.The Australian-born Cunningham is a veteran of rustic Italian and Mediterranean cuisine -- and over this step-by-step instruction, students learn the fundamentals for making a world-class pizza that doesn’t require expensive equipment or ingredients. Over these seven lectures, Cunningham starts by explaining how to make your own sourdough starter from yeast and bacteria so your handmade crust will always be absolutely stellar. From there, he walks students through the creation of a Napoli sauce for pizza bases. Then armed with your crust and sauce, you’re already more than halfway to a homemade pizza that will put anything you have delivered from Grubhub to shame. Read the rest
Now that the world is starting to re-emerge from its self-imposed COVID-19 quarantine, we’re all going to have to start making some adjustments to both short-term and long-term changes. And the questions… Should customers be hounded out of a store if they aren’t wearing a face mask? Are crocheted face masks safe or not? And will face masks be required everywhere, even the Happiest Place on Earth?It’s still too early to know the answers to many of these face mask-related questions, but there’s one we already know the answer to. Who wants to wear a boring plain white N95 mask anyway?Answer: No one. Therefore, you can start assembling your too-cool-for-the-room face wear wardrobe now with a two-pack of these two-ply statement face masks. Each one is made from a premium, washable poly span stretchy fabric that covers your nose and mouth comfortably while containing and blocking any airborne pathogens.And thankfully, they’ve created these short, direct commentaries for the wide variety of personality types out there. For the concernedIn two words, an entire conversation path is established. In an instant, you express your clean-as-a-whistle health status, all while inquiring about everyone else’s state.For the huggerThis period of social distancing is hard on those who thrive in other people’s personal space. For them, this simple four-letter declaration says everything their empty arms cannot these days.For the non-committalLook, make your statement out in the world, but there’s no reason to tip your hand, right? Hello is about as tacitly friendly, yet socially ambiguous a greeting as possible. Read the rest
Maybe you had a piano teacher as a kid that drove you off the instrument forever. Or maybe you always wished for some serious training, but never found the time.Whether you have dreams of tossing off a Beethoven or Chopin piece at the drop of a hat or you have visions of being the next Ray Charles, The Ultimate Piano Bundle: From Beginner to Advanced course bundle was created to turn an interested, invested novice into a functioning, then studied master of the keys in record time.This collection includes 10 courses with a massive 140-plus hours of training dedicated to helping you not only learn to play the piano but understand the instrument, read music, compose and generally become a real, honest-to-goodness musician.Nobody was to get buried in scholastics before they ever touch the keys, so this training kicks off with the Ultimate Piano Course: Go from a Beginner/Average to an Advanced Pianist. Starting from the beginning, the class can make you a proficient player through over 30 hours of training. The course explains the hows and whys of music theory, walks students through the entire keypad, including chord progressions, and generally immerses first-timers in a world of music.The next step is the Intermediate/Advanced Piano Course: Enhance Your Musical/Piano Skills as your basic skills are tested with an expanded variety of lessons to push your abilities even further. But since playing is only a piece of the piano experience, the collection includes courses in learning to tackle the music pages themselves. Read the rest
When you see that curved arrow on the side of a cardboard box, you instantly know that box came from Amazon. The unfurled rainbow feathers of a peacock immediately scream NBC. And a partially eaten piece of fruit in the profile is a world-recognized symbol of tech titan Apple.Icons are powerful symbols, condensing volumes of connection and meaning into a compact, simple image that conveys all that history and significance. For a web designer, those tiny icons are important navigation and information signifiers that form a critical unwritten shorthand with site visitors. Rather than trying to create those icons yourself, designers can get a serious leg-up in their creation by having all those icons created for you. With an Iconscout subscription, all that aid is available in a simple download.Curators of their own design research marketplace, Iconscout is home to more than 2 million high-quality, royalty-free icons, each lovingly created by one of more than 300 top designers for use in virtually any type of web project you could envision.With that many available options (and literally thousands more added to the Iconscout library every single day), your project can find just the graphic look to mesh with your creation, whether your icons should represent tech, education, entertainment, and sports or relationships, business, science or food and drink, to name just a few. Each is available in a broad range of sizes and styles contoured to find the look and feel of any design project.If you’d like to modify an icon to include something different, such as your brand’s colors, for example, no problem. Read the rest
As Japanese musician Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) performs live in Taipei in 2013, one concertgoer demonstrates that enjoying noise music does not preclude you from practicing good dental hygiene. Full clip below. Read the rest
Call it retro. Call it a throwback. Even call it kitsch. But the 80s are still a singular time in pop culture history. From Ghostbusters and Back to the Future to your neighborhood arcade and the Atari 2600, artifacts of that seminal decade still resonate, evoking audible excitement and sighs of pleasant yesteryear remembrance.But out of that neon-saturated, spandex-infused, go-go-decade, there may be no more symbolically fitting encapsulation of the entire era than the device that revolutionized music back in the day: the Sony Walkman and the dawn of personal audio players.Even if you weren’t around to see that revolution firsthand in 1980, getting your hands on the Replitronics Hotline 16000 Power Bank will convince everybody that you were — even though it serves a very 2020 function.It’s designed to look exactly like an early 80s vintage personal cassette player, right down to the old-school buttons and that plastic cover window that lets you watch your tape spin round and round. But beyond being a cool conversation piece, the Replitronics Hotline 16000 is a modern-day beast, offering enough juice to power up to three devices back to full strength all at once. With a mighty 16,000 mAh battery inside, this unit can feed power via USB 3.0, USB-C, and even wireless Qi charging all at the same time. Just plug in your iPhone and the Hotline will get you from dead to fully powered in just over an hour or in just under three if you’re charging wirelessly. Read the rest
At Reddit, mtietje posted this remarkable photo of their lockdown project: an iPad stand made using an old Macintosh SE/30. The display size is perfect for the 9.7" iPad, and now that iPadOS can use mice they work much better as "normal" computers. Se/30 shells turn up on eBay now and again. One's there now with bidding at $15. Shipping tends to really bloat the price of even a broken model with the bits still inside. I doubt you could reasonably shave down the SE/30 display housing to fit an iPad Pro, unfortunately: you'd lose all the beveling. Now, the iMac G4 (below) came with a 15" screen that a 12.7" iPad Pro might hack into without looking too small. Maybe you could even just remove the display entirely and magnet the iPad on the arm? Read the rest
In the footage below, broadcast live by an NBC affiliate and posted to Twitter by Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a news crew moves into the street near a line of riot police. Protestors are not nearby in significant numbers and the police are not engaging them. A cop steps forward from the line and opens fire on the news crew with what appear to be pepper rounds.Police firing pepper bullets at our local NBC affiliate news crew live on TV. pic.twitter.com/aGBzl4WAA4— Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons (@GuthrieGF) May 30, 2020Video of the encounter shows Kaitlin Rust, a reporter for CBS affiliate WAVE 3 News, narrating as she walks around the area of the protest before suddenly screaming: "I'm getting shot!" Rust appears shocked but continues reporting, explaining what's happening as the camera focuses in on an officer pointing a gun with pepper bullets at the cameraman. ... The incident took place as police were reportedly trying to clear the area of large groups of protesters. It is unclear why the police chose to open fire on the reporters.When policing is this violent and contemptuous of constitutional rights, it seems pointless to single out specific aspects of the problem. The shooter's immediate goal for opening fire on the news crew is stop the filming. He didn't get what he wanted, but he won't face any consequences, either. Read the rest
The Supreme Court ruled friday that lockdown rules during the Covid-19 pandemic do not place an unconstitutional burden on free speech. The court's four liberals were joined by chief justice John Roberts to form a 5-4 majority over the other conservative justices; the case concerned a church's right to fill the pews after California governor Gavin Newsome imposed a 25%-or-100-person occupancy limit.Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court's liberals in rejecting a San Diego church's request for relief from Gov. Gavin Newsom's most recent directive limiting churches to 25% of their normal maximum capacity, with an absolute maximum of 100 people at any service.In a three-page opinion issued just before the stroke of midnight Washington time, Roberts said it would be unwise for the court to intervene on an emergency basis as state officials try to grapple with the ebb and flow of a pandemic caused by a highly infectious and sometimes deadly virus. Read the rest
Jarkan deepfaked Leonard Nimoy into the 2009 Star Trek movie, replacing Zachary Quinto in the scene where he meets an older version of himself from a parallel universe. This is surely going to be entering the regular toolkit of cinema soon enough, resurrecting the dead for new films. It's already more natural and convincing than CG--compare to digital Moff Tarkin, for example, which just looked like a videogame cutscene to me. But it also fails more completely; it's still Quinto at odd angles. Read the rest
With millions out of work, the global economy in a sharp recession, and legitimate fears for the future abound, you might think this is absolutely the worst time to strike out on your own and be your own boss as a work-for-hire freelancer.But according to numbers compiled by financial services company Payoneer, the current state of the freelance market might not be as dire as you think. While some freelancers have reported a downturn in demand, almost 40 percent said they’ve seen no change or even an increase in business over the past three months. A resounding 75 percent said their rates were still unchanged by the pandemic; and the average 2020 freelance hourly rate remained higher than it was just two years ago.If you can get past the fear, the opportunity is still there for those looking to make it on their own. And the training in the Kickstart Your Freelance Career Course Bundle can help you chart your path toward independence and prosperity working remotely as a skilled freelancer.Over these eight courses, students earn a thorough understanding of what it takes to carve out a profitable living working for yourself as well as step-by-step guides and tips on launching a fulfilling freelance career.The Freelance Kickstart: Start a Successful Business You Love and Sales and Marketing for Freelancers courses cut right to the heart of the matter by laying out how to achieve the twin pillars of a successful freelance lifestyle: handling assignments and clients like a true business, and forging the right mindset to succeed in that often competitive space. Read the rest
Protests over the police killing of George Floyd continue in Minneapolis tonight, in defiance of a curfew imposed by the mayor. Protesters have now overtaken the westbound interstate 35 freeway in Minneapolis.Protest disrupts traffic on I-35W at University in Minneapolis https://t.co/5GeqUKKadr— FOX 9 (@FOX9) May 29, 2020Protesters are shutting down interstate 35 in Minneapolis #Minneapolis #GeorgeFloydProtests pic.twitter.com/v7evgaVmfj— Zach Boyden-Holmes (@Boydenphoto) May 29, 2020BREAKING: A group of protesters in downtown Minneapolis have now started marching north down southbound 35W lane. | WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/VeTHVZ0EuO pic.twitter.com/7GzZfYo8RX— WCCO - CBS Minnesota (@WCCO) May 29, 2020Protest is blocking all of I35W in Minneapolis, crossing the Mississippi. pic.twitter.com/YTiepwYWrB— robertklemko (@RobertKlemko) May 29, 2020 Read the rest
• One Trump fundraising event in Dallas next month has a price tag of $580,600 per couple.Impeached president Donald Trump is scheduled to headline in-person fundraisers as early as June, which would be his first since the coronavirus outbreak stopped campaign events in March.Alex Isenstadt at Politico was first to break the news late on Friday.NEWS: Trump is resuming in-person fundraising events — the most concrete move yet by the president to restart typical election-year activities halted by the coronavirus. https://t.co/y7tAryCZA9— Alex Isenstadt (@politicoalex) May 29, 2020“Trump plans to headline a gathering at a private home in Dallas on June 11, and an outdoor event at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on June 13,” reports Michelle Ye Hee Lee at the Washington Post:Both events will be geared toward wealthy donors, charging $580,600 per couple for the Dallas event and $250,000 per person for the New Jersey event. The money will go to Trump Victory, a committee that raises money for the Trump campaign, the Republican Party and 22 state parties.Party officials said they plan to take safety measures to ensure the health of the president and attendees. About 25 people are expected to attend each event, which is a smaller gathering than many other Trump Victory fundraisers. The events were first reported Friday by Politico.The White House Medical Unit and U.S. Secret Service will evaluate all attendees to decide whether they can attend the event, according to a party official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss security measures. Read the rest
Buzzfeed News reporters obtained the explanation offered by United States Department of Homeland Security's CBP to congressional staffers who asked why it decided to fly a Predator Drone over Minneapolis during the protests over the killing of George Floyd.The drone flown over Minneapolis today is reported to be an unarmed version of the unmanned Predator aircraft.Excerpt:Minneapolis could also be subject to surveillance at the federal level as the protests unfold. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) flew a Predator drone over the city on Friday, according to Jason Paladino, an investigative reporter at the Project on Government Oversight.In a statement given to congressional staffers on Friday that was obtained by BuzzFeed News, CBP officials said the agency's Air and Marine Operations was "preparing to provide live video to aid in situational awareness at the request of our federal law enforcement partners in Minneapolis." The agency said drones are often deployed around the country to "augment law enforcement and humanitarian relief efforts.""After arriving into the Minneapolis airspace, the requesting agency determined that the aircraft was no longer needed for operational awareness and departed back to Grand Forks," the statement read.Scary times. Read more:Here Are The Minneapolis Police's Tools To Identify Protesters[ Caroline Haskins, Ryan Mac, Hamed Aleaziz, May 29, 2020, at 6:02 p.m. ET, IMAGE: US Air Force, public domain ]More from observers and reporters on Twitter, below.correction: the Customs and Border Protection Predator B drone that flew over Minneapolis today actually appears to have been outside of the 100 air mile zone where CBP craft are allowed to operate. Read the rest
Donald Trump on Friday afternoon claimed to be completely ignorant of the racist history of the phrase 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts,' which he tweeted, and the White House retweeted, and which was also posted on the Presidential Facebook account.The phrase was made famous by a Miami police chief in 1967.JUST IN: President Trump addresses tweet (and WH retweet) that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”....claims he didn’t know the racially charged history. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/hrByVLXgsS— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) May 29, 2020Trump on Friday told reporters he believed the phrase means "when there's looting, people get shot and they die." He says that's very accurate and "we don't want that to happen."Trump denied knowing the origins of the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” saying he has heard the phrase “for a long time.”When a reporter noted it was said by Miami police chief in 1967, Trump said he “has also heard from many other places.”@JasonHoffman93— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 29, 2020"That's the way that was meant, and that's the way I think it was supposed to be meant, but I don't know where it came from."President Trump says he didn't know where the term "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."It originates from a Miami police chief whose aggressive policies in black neighborhoods led to violence in the late 1960s.https://t.co/QoVGt6ce5Y— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 29, 2020"I've heard that phrase for a long time. Read the rest
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has had it with Donald Trump's bullshit threats of violence against Americans."Being black in America should not be a death sentence," she said at a press conference today, regarding the police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd.“I will encode what I really want to say to Donald Trump,” Lightfoot said. “It's two words: It begins with F and it ends with U." For those looking for the clip of @chicagosmayor Lori Lightfoot telling President @realDonaldTrump "f--- you," here ya go. pic.twitter.com/bbGCxXZ09U— Kelly Bauer (@BauerJournalism) May 29, 2020The mayor was addressing Trump's "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" social media posts.Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot censors herself but says "fuck you" to President @realDonaldTrump over his comments implying people will be shot in Minneapolis. https://t.co/hjDlIjc0Kz— Kelly Bauer (@BauerJournalism) May 29, 2020Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has two words for Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/kBNlsJi84s— BallerAlert (@balleralert) May 29, 2020"I pray for the day we can eradicate two plagues in our face; COVID19 and racism," the Mayor continued. Here's what Facebook employees are saying about Zuckerberg's decision not to take action against Trump's threatening postsCop who killed George Floyd arrestedTwitter hides Trump tweet calling for "THUGS" to be shot Read the rest
• You'll never guess how much the computer originally cost.“Scratch build, no 3D printing allowed here!”Amazing work by IMGURian 6502b, a painstakingly accurate scale model of an IBM 1401 computer, in teeny-tiny size. This is an IBM 1401 scaled model I am working on, part of a diorama. It is a scratch build made of polystyrene mostly. I make everything by hand, no 3D printing involved.The IBM 1401 is a computer from 1959, considered to be the first successful mass produced computer. I have been working on this miniature diorama since December last year, to celebrate its 60th anniversary. Here is a close-up of the mini CPU unit SMS transistor card. The IBM 1401, build in 1959, didn't have a dedicated processor like in modern computers, it was made up of thousands of single transistors build on what they called SMS card that were all wire wrapped by hand. The whole unit was what consist of the processor.About the original upon which this miniature is based, from Wikipedia:The IBM 1401 is a variable-wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing unit record equipment for processing data stored on punched cards and at providing peripheral services for larger computers.Here's the full gallery!I am making a miniature IBM 1401 scale model. Scratch build, no 3D printing allowed here! OC Read the rest
The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has declared a curfew for the city following protests over impunity in the killing of George Floyd.An 8 p.m. curfew imposed by the mayor late Friday will extend through the weekend.Mayor Frey has issued Emergency Regulation No. 2020-2-1 which imposes a curfew throughout the City of Minneapolis beginning at 8 p.m. tonight (Fri., May 29) and extends through the weekend.See the posted regulation for details at: https://t.co/iebgleKnyx pic.twitter.com/7l61oURPtc— Minneapolis Clerk (@mplsclerk) May 29, 2020Minneapolis mayor announces a curfew beginning 8 p.m. tonight until 6 a.m. tomorrow and another 8 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Sunday. People are banned from public streets + public places in Minneapolis with some exceptions (police, fire, National Guard, the homeless) pic.twitter.com/yuTD0QmCqm— Mark Berman (@markberman) May 29, 2020PREVIOUSLY ON BOING BOING:• Cop who killed George Floyd arrested• Minneapolis ablaze after prosecutor suggests no crime was committed by cops who killed George Floyd• The cop who killed George Floyd has a long record of police brutality Read the rest
Impeached President Donald Trump announced on a Friday afternoon in the middle of a pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 that he is terminating the relationship between the United States and the World Health Organization.President Trump: We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization.— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 29, 2020The President announces he’s terminating the relationship with the WHO pic.twitter.com/FDLwv9VVE9— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) May 29, 2020In responding to Trump's reckless attacks on public health, the American Medical Association did not mince words.The American Medical Association is not mincing words about Trump quitting the World Health Organization. pic.twitter.com/Vqq1sllVRQ— Jeffrey Young (@JeffYoung) May 29, 2020Nor did medical professionals on Twitter, like Jeremy Konyndyk of the Center for Global Development and Georgetown University.The bottom line is that none of this is about WHO's performance. It's purely about deflecting accountability for 100k dead Americans, and counting, on Trump's watch. I dove into the merits along with @TomBollyky here: https://t.co/4dNEgob7iU— Jeremy TEST/TRACE/ISOLATE Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) May 29, 2020 Read the rest
For years, dirty countertops, appliances, or bathroom fixtures were just kind of gross. But unkempt corners of your kitchen and bathroom aren’t just a sign of laziness anymore. Now, they’re a potential breeding ground for infectious disease. You can’t just limp through cleaning these days. You’ve gotta get rigorous about it, which means it’s no longer acceptable to bring a knife to a gunfight. The Drill Brush Cleaning Supply Kit not only ups the ante on your household cleaning regimen, but it handles the task by repurposing one of your toolkit favorites, your trusty power drill.This set included four different brush heads, each designed with unique shapes and bristle stiffnesses to attach to your cordless drill for specific cleaning jobs. Snap on the 5-inch medium stiffness brush for getting stubborn dirt off your kitchen countertops or bathroom flat surfaces. Or switch out to the 5-inch soft brush to apply a lighter touch for items like carpet, upholstery, glass, leather, wheels, and more.However, if you need to go big, this kit comes prepared. The 4-inch stiff brush really digs in, attacking dirt and other built-up filth on areas like tile walls and floors or even linoleum. Finally, the 4-inch scrub pad stands ready to step in when you need to clean stainless steel, porcelain, or composites like fiberglass or carbon fiber. The brushes are all even color-coded to help avoid the threat of any cross-contamination.You’ll also get a backer attachment to connect your scrub pads as well as a 4-ounce bottle of Drill-Tergent, a non-toxic clean solution that obliterates 99 percent of germs on all of your household surfaces. Read the rest
RIP Starship SN4 ?https://t.co/klPMtZHxjW pic.twitter.com/hrrElBXmSC— Chris B - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) May 29, 2020SpaceX's Starship SN4 prototype launch vehicle just exploded in a huge fireball during a static fire test in Boca Chica, Texas. While the Starship spacecraft is still early in development, the explosion doesn't feel great leading up to the SpaceX-NASA historic launch now scheduled for tomorrow. Scrubbed on Wednesday due to weather, it'll be the first time humans will launch to space from the United States since 2011 and the first time a private company will take humans offworld. Read the rest
The Hood Internet cut up bits of 50+ music videos from 1988 and mashed them into a four minute video. It would make the perfect soundtrack to a montage of 80s movie montages.(via Laughing Squid) Read the rest
Miramar, Florida police arrested Matthew Crandall, 21, for allegedly breaking into Miramar High School and smashing up the place. He wore only a hat and headphones as he destroyed computers and TVs and apparently caused major flooding. The total wreckage is estimated at $100,000. Crandall was identified from surveillance footage. According to the Associated Press, "it’s not known whether he has ties to the school."(Thanks to our Florida bureau chief, Charles Pescovitz!) Read the rest
Derek Chauvin, the cop who killed George Floyd, was arrested today and taken into custody. The arrest follows three days of growing unrest in Minneapolis, where Floyd, suspected of passing a fake $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes, was filmed gasping for his life while Chauvin kneeled on his neck.Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said state investigators arrested Derek Chauvin, who was one of four officers fired this week, but he did not provide details. The state attorney who would oversee any prosecution on state charges, whose home was also the site of protests, was scheduled to provide an update later Friday.News of the arrest came moments after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged the “abject failure” of the response to this week’s protests and called for swift justice for officers involved. Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered George Floyd, was arrested.This is not enough. We have much further to go — including swift, independent prosecution conducted by the Attorney General's office.The fight to dismantle a violent, oppressive system has just begun. https://t.co/46o1tx0Cqo— ACLU (@ACLU) May 29, 2020 Read the rest
The badly written dystopian fiction that is our global pandemic continues.Sky News:A gang of monkeys attacked a laboratory assistant and escaped with a batch of coronavirus blood test samples, it has been reported.The bizarre incident saw the troop of primates launch their assault near Meerut Medical College in Delhi, India.According to local media, the animals then snatched COVID-19 blood test samples that had been taken from three patients and fled. Read the rest
I have long been a fan of pan-searing steaks and finishing their roast in the oven. Previously, I'd either thaw the steaks in the fridge overnight or I would sous vide them instead of using the oven, and sear them at the end.This technique: thawing the surface of the steak enough to hold seasoning and then starting the pan sear is wonderful. I have found that sous vide from frozen to be ok but not my favorite. Read the rest
A $350 USB device claiming to block 5G radio signals is just a cheap unbranded thumbdrive, report security researchers. The makers of the “5GBioShield” claim their USB stick can block electrical waves through a “proprietary holographic nano-layer catalyst” technology. It purportedly does this by “balancing” all the existing radiations around you to create a protective bubble 8 meters in diameter, even when the USB drive is unplugged.The website for the product goes on to make dubious references to “quantum oscillation,” “life force frequencies,” and “cardiac coherence” in an attempt to convince consumers the science behind the 5GBioShield is legit. But you’ll be pretty disappointed if you actually buy the product, according to Pen Test Partners.The device (sold as the 5GBioShield) is aimed at people who believe conspiracy theories about 5G radio waves—a market whose credulity and susceptibility to unproven or pseudoscientific products is already guaranteed.That it's something you can buy on Amazon for a fraction of the price[Amazon link] just shows how little work went into the wheeze. The website selling the thumbdrives is based in the UK. Local regulators and fraud police are on the case: "We consider it to be a scam," Stephen Knight, operations director for London Trading Standards, told the BBC. Read the rest
It's easy to become inured to Trump's ceaseless depravity, which is why I'm glad I read Joe Scarborough's Op-Ed in The Washington Post about Trump's sociopathic obsession about a false story that is causing great pain to a dead woman's family.One is a politician so obsessed with a morning cable news show that he has sought retribution by repeatedly defaming a dead woman’s memory.The other is a soft-spoken Air Force engineer who has worked on projects for 32 years with the singular goal of protecting and defending the United States. The 6-foot-3 Florida resident is still mourning the death of a wife he lost 19 years ago. He holds on to cherished memories of Lori Klausutis as a lifelong Republican, a devoted Catholic who sang in her church choir and an avid runner so perpetually cheerful that people called her “Little Miss Mary Sunshine.” After Lori’s death, T.J. Klausutis returned alone to the home the couple had just bought in Niceville, Fla., and faced an almost immediate barrage of Internet conspiracy theories about the “murder” of his wife.The pace of those hateful lies ebbed and flowed with the years, until they swelled recently into a slimy tsunami of bilge spewing from President Trump’s 80-million-strong Twitter feed. I have never been able to grasp Trump’s bizarre fixation with “Morning Joe,” but that sad obsession has driven him to weaponize Lori’s memory in an attempt to settle some perceived grievance against me. Or perhaps to deflect from the 100,000 Americans lost to a disease he once dismissed as “one person coming in from China.” Read the rest
Hunting around for an outlet or a power battery when you’re trying to charge your phone or tablet is always an annoyance. But when you’re out in the world hiking or camping or traveling, finding an outlet might be more than a minor inconvenience...it might be downright impossible.Running low on battery power isn’t an option anybody looks forward to these days, especially if you’re out and about and may need that phone in the event of any emergency. Thankfully, the RAVPower 24W 3-Port Solar Charger takes advantage of the fact that the world’s most powerful battery is almost always right there overhead: the Sun.Actually, the RAVPower is really more than a traditional charger. Unlike bulky brick-style chargers, the RAVPower is its own solar panel, half the weight of other chargers. Just unfold it from its tiny, compact carrier and aim it at the Sun as its high-efficiency solar cells start juicing up.Converting nearly a quarter of available solar power into free energy, the RAVPower is a fast, effective, lightweight charger for use in almost any condition. In fact, you can even throw the RAVPower over the back of your pack, plug in your phone, and watch your device power up while you keep moving.It charges up to two USB-powered devices simultaneously and can take a smartphone’s battery from zero to fully charged in the space of about 3 to 4 hours. The RAVPower uses iSmart technology to automatically adjust to your connected devices, serving up the optimal charging current evenly to everything you have plugged in in the shortest possible charging time. Read the rest
a group of young black entrepreneurs have owned a office building in uptown minneapolis for over a year& got racially profiled at the private gym today??♀️smh pic.twitter.com/iKmAuW5Tli— nisa (@anisalrh) May 27, 2020Tom Austin, AKA "Venture Kapitalist Karen," had his office lease terminated after a video showed him calling the building manager to complain about a group of black men in the office gym.From The Hill:The incident comes just days after a video of a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd until he died of asphyxiation went viral. The death of Floyd, an African American man, led to massive protests in the city and calls for an investigation into the officers' behavior.Stuart Ackerberg, CEO of Ackerberg Group, which owns the MoZaic East building, said he was still heartbroken from seeing the video of Floyd when he decided to terminate the lease.“My heart hurts,” he told the Tribune. “This is not how we do business. ... I’m alarmed by what I saw.” Read the rest