Hugh writes, "This plaque commemorates its own commemoration." (Photo by Dr Vicky Forster): "This plaque was commemorated on October 10, 2018,commemorate its own commemoration. Plaques like this one are an integral part of the campaign to support more plaques like this one. By reading this plaque, you have made a valuable addition to the number of people who have read this plaque. To this day and up to the end of this sentence,this plaque continues to be read by people like yourself. -Heritage Toronto 2018" (Thanks, Hugh!) Read the rest

Months of student strikes have roiled the UK as pupils across the country have refused to go to class while demanding action on climate change, inspired by Swedish student Greta Thunberg's one-person strike at the Swedish Parliament.This Friday, UK students are planning a coordinated mass walkout, with 100,000 students expected to participate. It's a prelude to a week of even bigger protests planned for London in April by Extinction Rebellion (XR), who have called for official UK governmental recognition of the climate crisis and zero emissions nationwide by 2025, overseen by a citizens' assembly in charge of a transition to a sustainable economy.In a video message former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams (previously) has backed the students, saying "The nature of changes in climate and environment that we are living with threaten not only the wellbeing but also the being of our species on this planet in the long term – and in the middle term they threaten some of the most vulnerable populations on Earth."The group closed London bridges in November, and this time it intends to bring widespread disruption to London until its demands are met.There is growing evidence of the scale of the climate emergency. Last year a UN report said there were only 12 years left to avoid the worst impacts of climate breakdown from floods and heatwaves to food shortages and huge numbers of climate refugees.Williams added: “I believe a wide and deep support from the public is needed to bring this matter fully to the attention of our political leaders. Read the rest

Despite a conservative boycott and their relentless online whining about the woman-led blockbuster, Captain Marvel stormed to an epic box office over the weekend, earning $455m. So, for reference, the online review-bombing from trolls, bots, so-called "toxic fans" and other disgruntled folks didn't mean a damn thing this weekend. Here's what else didn't matter: folks allegedly upset about Brie Larson's request for the press junket to be more diverse than normal, alleged controversies over Brie Larson's performance (judging entirely from the trailers) and whether she should be smiling more (spoiler: she smiles a bunch in the movie and is hopefully laughing this morning), attempts to use Alita: Battle Angel as a battering ram against the latest female-led action fantasy (#YouCanAndShouldSeeThemBoth) or concerns over the comparatively obtuse marketing campaign (okay, that's a mea culpa from me on that score). Read the rest

It's been a while since I returned to the blocky, charming world of Minecraft, but this video from 2010 is going viral and satisfies the urge. The fireplace tutorial begins about a minute in. Read the rest

Today in "I don't know what I expected": former Blackberry engineer and YouTuber Matthais Wandel's ingenious but doom-laden wasp vacuum.Tell you what, Happy Mutants, if you like this and fancy a light, uplifting read, be sure to grab Iain Banks' debut novel The Wasp Factory. Read the rest

In calls to a radio show, Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended a child rapist, justified child rape, and said that women were "extremely primitive." Between 2006 and 2011, Tucker Carlson spent approximately an hour a week calling in to Bubba the Love Sponge, a popular shock jock radio program where he spoke with the hosts about a variety of cultural and political topics in sometimes-vulgar terms. During those conversations, Carlson diminished the actions of Warren Jeffs, then on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list for his involvement in arranging illegal marriages between adults and underage girls, talked about sex and young girls, and defended statutory rape.Carlson, who was hired by Fox News in 2009, also used sexist language to talk about women, including then-co-workers at NBC and public figures. He referred to Martha Stewart’s daughter Alexis Stewart as “cunty,” called journalist Arianna Huffington a “pig,” and labeled Britney Spears and Paris Hilton “the biggest white whores in America.” He also said that women enjoy being told to “be quiet and kind of do what you’re told” and that they are “extremely primitive.” ...Carlson said underage marriage is not “the same thing exactly as pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting that child. ... The rapist in this case has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person so it is a little different.”Excellent reporting from Madeline Peltz and Media Matters from America. Carlson is unrepentant; in a statement, he said his comments on child rape were "naughty" and said anyone who cares should watch his TV show. Read the rest

Big companies want automation on a big scale. Doing that means diving into the tricky world of machine learning and data science. And no matter what platform you'll be implementing it on, you can learn how with the Machine Learning & Data Science Certification Training Bundle.In 48 hours and through eight courses, this bundle teaches the structure and specifics behind large-scale data manipulation. You'll get plenty of background on how to build data visualizations and analysis tools in Python, then use programs like Tensorflow and Keras to put them to work for deep learning. There are also courses dedicated to R and its ability to wrangle data into neural networks through tools like h2o and MXNET. The bundle will get you up to speed on packages like Numpy, Pandas, and Madplotlib in no time, and by the end of the 48 hours of lectures and exercise, you'll be certified in a range of resume-building techniques.Right now, you can pick up the Machine Learning & Data Science Certification Training Bundle for $35. Read the rest

During a talk at SXSW yesterday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got an audience question about automation and jobs and answered by saying, "We should not be haunted by the specter of being automated out of work. We should be excited by that. But the reason we’re not excited by it is because we live in a society where if you don’t have a job, you are left to die. And that is, at its core, our problem."This is the underlying premise of what's semi-seriously called "fully automated luxury communism" -- the idea that automation could usher in an era of universal comfort and plenty, but only if its dividends are shared among workers and owners of capital. There's no justice or glory in the fact that all of us use toilets and only some of us have to clean them, after all -- but if we figured out how to automate toilet cleaning, there would be even less justice and glory in discarding the people who've been cleaning toilets all along.“We should be excited about automation, because what it could potentially mean is more time educating ourselves, more time creating art, more time investing in and investigating the sciences, more time focused on invention, more time going to space, more time enjoying the world that we live in,” she said. “Because not all creativity needs to be bonded by wage.”Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says ‘we should be excited about automation’ [Adi Robertson/The Verge](Image: @AOC) Read the rest

Big systems need tight security - and the experts who can implement it. Cisco Networking Systems are the go-to providers for network infrastructure, but maintaining it takes a lot of up-to-date knowledge. If you want that knowledge right from the source, there's an online course that can get you certified painlessly: The Foundational Cisco CCNA Security Bundle.In three comprehensive courses totaling 53 hours, you'll get the foundation that will not only allow you to install Cisco networking systems but maintain them in the face of today's cyber-threats. You'll learn the ins and outs of IPv4 and IPv6 networks, from the basics like LAN and router configuration to spanning tree and dynamic routing protocols. You'll then move on to the final lesson, which teaches how to deploy firewalls and other basic security measures - and how to route things in case of a breach. By the end, you'll be ready to ace the related exams and become a Cisco Certified Network Associate.Lifetime access to the Foundational Cisco CCNA Security Bundle is now $29. Read the rest

Genetic research "could engineer dinosaurs back into existence" within a decade, according to the paleontologist who helped inspire Michael Chrichton's novel Jurassic Park.Famed paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner, who’s been a consultant on all four films and is the real-life inspiration for Jurassic Park‘s dinosaur expert Dr. Alan Grant, believes we’re (optimistically) just five years away from genetically engineering a dinosaur.When he first started advising Steven Spielbergthis link opens in a new tab, Horner and his colleagues believed the most viable way to bring a dino back to life was through tapping into ancient strands of genetic code. (The animated DNA cartoonthis link opens in a new tab from the first film does a good job of explaining where scientist’s heads were at 20 years ago.) Read the rest

Palmer Luckey (previously) the alt-right financier who was made a billionaire by Mark Zuckerberg's decision to acquire his VR startup Oculus, is now running a Peter-Thiel-backed surveillance startup called Anduril Industries, which has won a contract to contribute to Project Maven, the Pentagon's controversial AI-for-drones system (Google's involvement in Project Maven sparked an employee uprising that ended with the relevant executives leaving the company and the contract being allowed to lapse).Luckey's company won the contract after he made lavish contributions to the campaigns of Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans.In an opinion column for the Washington Post, Luckey and Stephens sharply criticized Google for abandoning the U.S. government by rejecting Project Maven. “We understand that tech workers want to build things used to help, not harm,” the pair wrote. “We feel the same way. But ostracizing the U.S. military could have the opposite effect of what these protesters intend: If tech companies want to promote peace, they should stand with, not against, the United States’ defense community.”What was left out of the column, however, was that, as the piece went to print, Anduril was beginning its own work on Project Maven.In interviews and public appearances, Luckey slammed engineers for protesting government work, arguing that those claiming conscious opposition to military work are among a “vocal minority” that empowers American adversaries abroad. Moreover, he said that the Defense Department has failed to connect with top tech talent because many engineers are “stuck in Silicon Valley at companies that don’t want to work on national security.”In Anduril, Luckey is presenting a company that is unapologetic about its work capturing immigrants or killing people on the battlefield. Read the rest

The Pentagon is seeking bids to improve its Advanced Targeting and Lethality Automated System (ATLAS) so that it can "acquire, identify, and engage targets at least 3X faster than the current manual process."When this public tender sparked concern that the Pentagon's autonomous tanks were gaining automated targeting and firing capabilities -- that is, that they would be autonomous killbots -- the Pentagon updated the tender to reassure critics that "development and use of autonomous and semi-autonomous functions in weapon systems, including manned and unmanned platforms, remain subject to the guidelines in the Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 3000.09" and that "All uses of machine learning and artificial intelligence in this program will be evaluated to ensure that they are consistent with DoD legal and ethical standards."Why does any of this matter? The Department of Defense Directive 3000.09, requires that humans be able to “exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force,” meaning that the U.S. won’t toss a fully autonomous robot into a battlefield and allow it to decide independently whether to kill someone. This safeguard is sometimes called being “in the loop,” meaning that a human is making the final decision about whether to kill someone.U.S. Army Assures Public That Robot Tank System Adheres to AI Murder Policy [Matt Novak/Gizmodo](via JWZ) Read the rest

Generative Adversarial Networks use a pair of machine-learning models to create things that seem very realistic: one of the models, the "generator," uses its training data to make new things; and the other, the "discerner," checks the generator's output to see if it conforms to the model.Rutgers comp sci prof Ahmed Elgammal runs an Art and AI Lab where they use "Creative Adversarial Networks" to produce new artworks: CANs use a "discerner" that seeks out "novelty," not fidelity to the statistical predictions of the model. The underlying theory is that art evolves "through small alterations to a known style that produce a new one," which, as Ian Bogost (previously) points out, is "a convenient take, given that any machine-learning technique has to base its work on a specific training set."Elgammal recent exhibited a show called Faceless Portraits Transcending Time at Chelsea's HG Contemporary gallery; and his choice of portraiture as a means of showcasing the capabilities of CANs has proven to be controversial: as art historian John Sharp says, "You can’t really pick a form of painting that’s more charged with cultural meaning than portraiture." Portraits use extensive, coded symbology to say something about their subjects, and CANs do not, by themselves, understand or correctly use these symbols in the works they create.Despite the controversy, a large number of Elgammal's prints have sold (admittedly at rock-bottom-for-Chelsea prices of $6k-$18k).“You can’t really pick a form of painting that’s more charged with cultural meaning than portraiture,” John Sharp, an art historian trained in 15th-century Italian painting and the director of the M.F.A. Read the rest

Computer slowing down? There are a ton of reasons why that might be, especially if your unit has a few years on it. Junk files and programs can accumulate over time, some even left over from otherwise uninstalled software. This virtual debris can slow your PC down dramatically, but there's a surprisingly quick fix. Lauded by Softpedia and others, CleanMyPC is a complete systems tune-up and overhaul.The older your computer is, in fact, the better it works. CleanMyPC combs every inch of your PC, looking for junk files, Windows Registry clutter and unnecessary auto-run programs that can slow down your startup. With a quick OK, it removes them all, along with your search history and cache - even old unwanted background files left behind by uninstalled software. All this results in a leaner, faster version of your PC. (And a safer one too, considering CleanMyPC disposes of these files completely, making them inaccessible to hackers.)Right now, you can pick up CleanMyPC for $19.99, nearly half off the list price. Read the rest

Many countries around the world have a policy of reciprocal border treatment -- I once traveled to Uganda and the visa payment demanded at the border varied on your citizenship, based on what your country charged Ugandans to travel there; likewise, after the US started fingerprinting visitors, Brazil starting fingerprinting Americans (and only Americans!) at the border. The EU, though, is a slightly different matter. Its 28 member-states, with 500,000,000 residents, are bound together in a (sometimes frayed and imperfect) solidarity pact. The USA has decided that citizens of Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Romania and Cyprus -- some of the EU's poorest states (mostly ex-Eastern Bloc states) -- need visas, and as of 2021 all US visitors to the core group of 26 "Schengen" EU states will need to apply for a visa before they are allowed to enter.To apply for the ETIAS, US citizens will need a valid passport, an email account and a credit or debit card, the EU said. Minors, the website said, will still only need their normal passports to travel after the visas go into effect.The Union said that the ETIAS visa is valid for three years and allows Americans to enter the Schengen Area as many times as necessary.On the ETIAS website, the European Union said it "has recently decided to improve their security level to avoid any further problems with illegal migration and terrorism."United States citizens will need a visa to visit Europe starting in 2021 [Lauren M. Johnson and Madeline Holcombe/CNN](Image: Frogsprog, CC-BY-SA)(Thanks, Kathy Padilla! Read the rest

Watch me fail as a Jedi.Considered one of the greatest videogames of all-time, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic won game of the year in 2003.Are you bored too? Spark a J, grab a drink, and join me in Twitch Chat. We can pick a super silly Star Wars name, pop off in every conversation, and fall to the dark side!Seriously, KOTOR has some great Star Wars storytelling. There is an awful lot in this video game that turned up in later Star Wars media. Darth Revan is probably the most awesome Sith.Xbox has "enhanced" versions of a number of classic games, and I'm going to be playing through a few of them over the next few weeks. Testing has shown that KOTOR looks pretty great via Twitch. Halo CE Anniversary Enhanced is a must play.Jason's Twitch channel will be active from 8pm til who knows when.Update: Signed off at 11:56pm. Got as far as needing to rescue the Wookie. I will absolutely pick this up again. The game is still wonderful. It hurts to sit in a chair for that long. Read the rest

A grand jury indicted Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for falsely reporting that he was assaulted by two men who, he claimed, targeted the Empire actor because he is black and gay. The two men later told police that Smollett paid them to stage the attack as a publicity stunt that Smollett hoped would land him a raise. Smollett will be arraigned on Tuesday. From the Chicago Sun Times:The indictment, which was made public on Friday, cites Smollett with disorderly conduct for each crime he said he had suffered, with separate counts related to statements he made the night of Jan. 29 to a police officer, and then for repeating the same account to a detective the same night. The charges all are Class 4 felonies, the lowest category of felony offense under Illinois law...In a statement, Smollett’s attorney Mark Geragos said while the indictment is “not unexpected…What is unexpected however, is the prosecutorial overkill in charging 16 separate counts.”“This redundant and vindictive indictment is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make headlines in order to distract from the internal investigation launched to investigate the outrageous leaking of false information by the Chicago Police Department and the shameless and illegal invasion of Jussie’s privacy in tampering with his medical records. Jussie adamantly maintains his innocence even if law enforcement has robbed him of that presumption.” Read the rest

Carla and I are going to see the Rolling Stones in concert and I wanted to get a pair of binoculars. I found these highly rated ones on Amazon and I used a promo code and the price was ridiculously cheap. I tried to get two, but the promo code only works once. Here it is: 59R9OFAO Read the rest

Texas district judge Jack Robison told a jury that his god told him to tell a jury to acquit a sex trafficking defendant. The jury was not persuaded and found Gloria Romero Perez guilty. The Texas Judicial Commission issued a warning to Judge Robinson but took no further action against him. From CNN: Robison testified before the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct last month, and the commission released its warning on February 20. The court documents show that Robison furnished letters from medical professionals to the judicial conduct panel, which concluded that Robison was not currently suffering from a mental illness.The doctors determined Robison's actions were driven by delirium, a "temporary, episodic medical condition," according to the court papers. The doctors argued Robison's "fitness for duty" was not impaired.Image: CNN Read the rest

For the first time in our nation's history, the United States government is detaining over 50,000 people it claims to be undocumented immigrants in jails, prisons, and makeshift detention camps across America.SCOOP: ICE is now holding 50,000 people in immigration detention. Notice that’s 4000+ more than the shutdown bill funded (and that ICE was already holding thousands more than the shutdown bill figure when the deal was struck). https://t.co/YMvLM6vgIf— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) March 8, 2019From reporting by Spencer Ackerman at The Daily Beast:According to a figure provided to Capitol Hill and made available to The Daily Beast, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has set a new all-time record – the latest in its string of broken records of immigrants detained – is 50,049 people as of Wednesday, Mar. 6. The figure includes both single adults and whole families behind bars.It’s an increase of approximately 2,000 people in the month-plus since Jan. 30, when ICE, it previously told The Daily Beast, was detaining 48,088 people. And it’s just another 2,000 people shy of the 52,000-person daily detentions ICE is asking Congress to fund in its next budget.Asked what accounts for the increase, ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett said in a statement: “ICE makes custody determinations on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with U.S. law and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy, considering the merits and factors of each case while adhering to current agency priorities, guidelines and legal mandates. Ensuring there are sufficient beds available to meet the current demand for detention space is crucial to the success of ICE’s overall mission.”It isn’t clear where ICE would have found the money for the increase. Read the rest

DeepDream is AI software developed by Google to identify things it finds in images. Most people know it for the way it turns photos and videos into hallucinatory kaleidoscopic nightmares, in which faces of creatures inexplicably appear in clothing, rocks, clouds, or anything with a pattern or texture. Alexander Reben made good use of DeepDream in an episode of Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting. My favorite part is where Bob is petting some little animal in his hand. It changes into a different kind of monstrosity with every frame.Images: YouTube Read the rest

This trailer for 12 soon-to-be-released new episodes of Star Wars long-canceled Clone Wars punched me in the gut and then gave me hope. I can not wait to see these missing chapters. Read the rest

These kitties are coming off of anesthesia, and their tongues are hanging out kind of adorably.“Quick pet their soft bellies while they can’t defend themselves.”Cats recovering from anesthesia Read the rest

📸 Li Yang, aka Cindy Yang, 45, with Donald Trump at the Super Bowl, rooting for the Patriots. Just 2 weeks later, authorities charged team owner Robert Kraft with soliciting prostitution at a spa in Jupiter, Florida that was founded by Yang. The Miami Herald headline reads, “Trump cheered Patriots to Super Bowl victory with founder of spa where Kraft was busted,” but the alterate headline suggested by @joshrogin gets straight to the point: “Alleged human trafficker gave thousands to Trump campaign and hung out with Don Jr. at Mar-a-Lago.”The famed strip mall massage spa founded by Li Yang, also known as Cindy Yang, was located only about half an hour away from Mar-a-Lago. Does Trump know her? Or is that just his taking-photos-with-fans face? Who knows.From the report by Sarah Blaskey, Nicholas Nehamas, and Caitlin Ostroff, which is absolutely bonkers:Seated at a round table littered with party favors and the paper-cutout footballs that have become tradition at his annual Super Bowl Watch Party, President Donald Trump cheered the New England Patriots and his longtime friend, team owner Robert Kraft, to victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Feb. 3.Sometime during the party at Trump’s West Palm Beach country club, the president turned in his chair to look over his right shoulder, smiling for a photo with two women at a table behind him.The woman who snapped the blurry Super Bowl selfie with the president was Li Yang, 45, a self-made entrepreneur from China who started a chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. Read the rest

Gltr is an MIT-IBM Watson Lab/Harvard NLP joint project that analyzes texts and predicts whether that text was generated by a machine-learning model.Automatically produced texts use language models derived from statistical analysis of vast corpuses of human-generated text to produce machine-generated texts that can be very hard for a human to distinguish from text produced by another human. These models could help malicious actors in many ways, including generating convincing spam, reviews, and comments -- so it's really important to develop tools that can help us distinguish between human-generated and machine-generated texts.Gltr uses Open AI's GPT-2 117M language model, which is also widely used by text-generating models. Gltr looks for texts that fit the GPT-2 model too well, on the basis that texts produced by humans nearly always have "surprising" word combinations that are considered highly unlikely by GPT-2's lights. In other words, if a text seems too human, it's probably machine generated.It's not hard to think of ways to defeat this tactic: GPT-2 could be modified to inject some random word-choices that roughed up the otherwise overly smooth statistical model; but Gltr relies on human beings to review the scores it gives to text, producing confidence scores that pop up when you hover your mouse over a word in a candidate text. This makes it harder to trick Gltr with random words, but it also means that Gltr is hard to scale up to analyzing large volumes of information, like all the tweets under a popular hashtag. Read the rest

Hump is a festival showcasing homemade pornographic shorts (5 minutes or less), created by beloved sex- and relationship-advice columnist Dan Savage (the guy who made Rick Santorum's name synonymous with the residue of lube, semen and fecal matter produced by anal sex; and who created the "It Gets Better and Impeach the Motherfucker Already campaigns). Hump is in its 14th year, and has only gone from strength to strength, celebrating sex-positivity for all bodies, gender expressions and identities. I saw it last week in Los Angeles and it was fantastic, and as Savage points out, the best part was the audience reactions, which are warm and appreciative and enthusiastic.However, Hump is largely dependent on targeted Facebook ads for ticket sales, and thanks to Facebook's overreaction to the admittedly terrible SESTA/FOSTA law passed by the US Congress in 2018, it will not accept ads for the festival any longer, despite the fact that the ads themselves are G-rated and are only targeted at adults.Facebook is terrible, SESTA/FOSTA is terrible, but Hump is literally amazeballs (and amaze-everything-else). It might be coming to your town! You should go see it! Tell your friends!The HUMP! Film Festival has been bringing audiences a new kind of porn since 2005. The festival features short dirty movies—each less than five minutes—all created by people who aren’t porn stars but want to be one for a weekend. The filmmakers and stars show us what they think is hot and sexy, creative and kinky, their ultimate turn-ons and their craziest fantasies. Read the rest

A new report from Edison Research finds Facebook's American user-base contracted for the second consecutive year in 2018, shrinking by 15,000,000, and that the biggest declines have come from the coveted 12-34 year old group.However -- cue sad trombone -- is that large numbers of these people have shifted to using Instagram, which Facebook owns. Facebook recently announced that it would be merging the back-ends of Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger, facilitating unified tracking and targeting across all three services.Facebook did grow among adults over 55.Facebook has consistently touted growth, despite these figures; Edison Research president Larry Rosin speculates that Facebook is using some combination of measuring global users (rather than US users) and a very loose definition of "active user" to artificially inflate its figures.Adams: But if we look at Facebook's earnings report, they are still reporting an increasing number of active users. What's behind the difference between what the company is saying and what your survey found?Rosin: When they're producing those numbers, they're typically talking about their global platform. This is a survey just of the USA. Furthermore, we're asking about usage. We're saying, "Do you currently use Facebook?" Facebook is probably measuring it on, “Do you ever open the app, or do you ever use it on any level?”U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says [Kimberly Adams/Marketplace](via /.) Read the rest

Reading remains solidly popular in America, with the latest figures from Pew showing that print book readership remains at same levels as they were in 2012: about 74% of Americans have read at least one book in the past year: 67% of readers have read at least one print book. Ebook growth remains stalled, but audiobook consumption is rising to compensate, with almost one in five Americans having listened to an audiobook in the past year. Audiobooks enjoyed strong growth in 18-29-year-olds (23%, up from 16% in 2016), as have rural adults (17%, up from 10%), and college grads (16%, up from 9%).Ebook-only readership is very rare: only 7% of Americans identify as ebook-only readers (it's 10% for Americans 18-29 years old). Ebook-only readership does not vary with educational attainment, either. The growth of audiobooks is pretty fantastic news, with one fly in the ointment. The market is almost entirely controlled by Audible, a division of Amazon, who have a mandatory DRM policy that publishers cannot opt out of. That means that nearly all of the audiobooks sold in America are locked in a format that Amazon controls, and that means that Amazon has the power to change the rules on those books whenever it wants, de-listing hardware players, or revoking access or features. And since DRM is protected by EU and US law that can subject security researchers to criminal and civil liability for revealing defects in products, every devices that can play an Audible title is a potential reservoir of long-lived digital pathogens that both criminals and good guys can discover, but only criminals can do something about. Read the rest

Yesterday, I wrote about how MEP Julia Reda resolved the mystery of how the European Parliament came to produce a batshit smear-campaign video promoting the new Copyright Directive and smearing the opposition to the Directive (including signatories to the largest petition in human history): it turned out that the video had been produced by AFP, a giant media company that stands to make millions if the Directive passes.Now this is bad enough, but reading Mike Masnick's Techdirt coverage of this issue reminded me of something else about AFP, those campaigners for the strongest possible copyright regime: back in 2010, AFP used a photographer's pictures of the Haiti quake without permission or compensation, and when the photographer complained, AFP sued the photographer, arguing that all photos posted to Twitter are presumptively lawful to re-use and seeking a judgment affirming this view. (AFP lost and had to pay the photog $1.2 million). The point being that AFP has a highly selective form of copyright fundamentalism: when it comes to copyright rules that would pad its bottom line by millions, no cost is too high. But when it is playing fast-and-loose with others' copyright, it will threaten and attempt to bankrupt the aggrieved party. AFP, of course, is a giant publisher that stands to potentially benefit from Article 11 in particular. And, apparently, AFP has been one of the more aggressive lobbying organizations in Brussels pushing for Article 11. Hell, all the way back in 2005, AFP actually sued Google for linking to its stories (spoiler alert: it did not win). Read the rest

A man was angry that a photo of him was used to illustrate the claim that hipsters all look alike. But when he threatened to sue the magazine, he learned that the photo was of a different person.The story in the MIT Technology Review detailed a study about the so-called hipster effect — "the counterintuitive phenomenon in which people who oppose mainstream culture all end up looking the same."The inclusion of version of a Getty Images photo of a bearded, flannel-wearing man, tinted with a blue and orange hue, prompted one reader to write to the magazine: "Your lack of basic journalistic ethics in both the manner in which you 'reported' this uncredited nonsense, and the slanderous, unnecessary use of my picture without permission demands a response, and I am, of course, pursuing legal action."But it wasn't actually him.A few days ago we ran a piece in @techreview about some research purporting to explain the "hipster effect"—the fact that nonconformists often end up nonconforming in the same way. We used a stock Getty photo of a hipster-ish-looking man. https://t.co/8LB6qLSmgS— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019 Read the rest

“Managing a brand is not so different from caring for someone who becomes handicapped.” Nick A. Caporella, who is CEO of the company that makes La Croix, said this, in 2019.National Beverage Corporation is the maker of millennial-popular fizzy water La Croix. During the company's earnings call on Thursday, 82-year-old CEO Nick A. Caporella made a series of bizarre remarks to excuse the company's poor earnings, invoking “acts of God,” blaming “injustice,” and comparing brand management to caring for a disabled person.Yes, truly. “Managing a brand is not so different from caring for someone who becomes handicapped,” Caporella said on the earnings call, to investors. “Brands do not see or hear, so they are at the mercy of their owners or care providers who must preserve the dignity and special character that the brand exemplifies.”Last year, Mr. Caporella was accused of “inappropriate touching” by two male pilots who flew private jets for him. From MarketWatch:The company that makes the LaCroix brand of sparkling water headlined a Thursday earnings release, “‘We Just Love Our LaCroix’ Consumers Chant,” and it only got weirder from there. Besides a boilerplate first sentence stating what results National Beverage was announcing and the numbers, the entire release was a long, rather unhinged quote from Caporella.“We are truly sorry for these results stated above,” the three-paragraph quote began. “Negligence nor mismanagement nor woeful acts of God were not the reasons — much of this was the result of injustice!”Caporella’s rant did not specify exactly what injustice caused National Beverage to sell fewer cans of flavored sparkling water than was expected. Read the rest

Cops raided the hospital room of a Missouri man with stage four pancreatic cancer because a concerned citizen suspected he was using marijuana. The patient said he prefers THC capsules to opioids for pain relief. "I should have the right to choose my end of life medications," said the man in his YouTube description. Read the rest

Chris Hayes put it best: “Luckily for Bill Shine there are lots of organizations desperate for someone whose core competency is covering up sexual harassment.”

Court rules Adnan Syed not entitled to a new trial, in case that formed basis for “Serial” podcast— and new HBO docu-series premiering Sunday March 10 on HBO.

Illustrator Boden Him makes fantastic money art, transforming US presidents into pop culture icons. See more here: Illegal Tender.(via r/interestingasfuck) Read the rest

Twice nominated for Golden Globe awards but remembered mostly for his role in 1980s action show Airwolf, Jan-Michael Vincent is dead at 74.He died Feb 10 at a North Carolina hospital, reports the BBC. He is survived by his third wife, Patricia Ann Christ. TMZ adds that he suffered cardiac arrest.His CBS hit, "Airwolf," made him into a huge star. At the time, he was reportedly the highest-paid actor at $200k per episode. Jan-Michael played helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the show, but the series lasted only a couple seasons largely in part to the star's cocaine abuse. His acting career would ultimately suffer from it. Read the rest

Recent tornado killed 23 in tiny town on Alabama-Georgia border, including 4 children, and 7 people from one family.

"The thing I learned in Silicon Valley is that there’s a pot of money bigger than I ever imagined. That’s when I realized I don’t need to feel some sort of way about asking for $70,000 at work when Elizabeth Holmes is making hundreds of millions to kill people with her fake blood machine. Know what I mean?" -- Aminatou Sow, co-host of the Call Your Girlfriend podcast and former Google employee, in her interview in The Cut. Read the rest

Famed German schlager-psych duo Cindy und Bert belt out a cover of Black Sabbath's Paranoid but with alternate lyrics about, um, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles." It's the B-side from a very rare 1971 7" featuring their cover of Neil Diamond's "Holly Holy." (via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

The producers of The Simpsons are pulling the 1991 "Stark Raving Dad" episode featuring Michael Jackson, uncredited, from rerun rotation and streaming services. This follows news that a number of radio stations will no longer play Jackson's music in the wake of the sexual molestation allegations described in the new documentary Leaving Neverland. From Variety:“It feels clearly the only choice to make,” executive producer James L. Brooks told the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news on Thursday. He told the paper that fellow executive producers Matt Groening and Al Jean agreed with the decision. “The guys I work with — where we spend our lives arguing over jokes — were of one mind on this,” Brooks said.In the episode, Jackson voiced the character Leon Kompowsky, who meets Homer Simpson in a mental institution. Simpson brings home the character, a large white man who claims to be Michael Jackson. Ultimately, Leon helps Bart Simpson celebrate his sister’s birthday by singing one of the show’s most memorable tunes, “Happy Birthday Lisa.” Jackson didn’t actually sing on the episode; Kipp Lennon mimicked Jackson’s voice on all of the episode’s songs...“I’m against book burning of any kind. But this is our book, and we’re allowed to take out a chapter,” he told the Journal. Read the rest

Private jet companies generate a flurry of impenetrable invoices for their customers, with separate bills for crew, catering, fuel, airport fees, etc, and these represent a bonanza for scammy invoice-padding (like billing $5,300 to deliver 240 nonexistent sushi boxes to an empty plane). What's more, the gougers victims are so rich the often don't even notice the overbillings: a third of private jet owners are worth $500,000,000 and up.No one is willing to say that this is all outright fraud -- the logistics of aviation are complex enough that it's just barely plausible that these represent bookkeeping errors -- but it sure looks like it.Some fraud attempts are almost comical. One jet owner found himself charged 4,000 pounds ($5,300) for 240 sushi boxes apparently served on board his jet while it was empty, according to My Sky, a company whose software helps scrutinize and manage private-jet costs. Another was charged 6,000 euros ($6,800) for plastic cups after the provider mistakenly added two zeros to the invoice. Still another customer’s refueling bill ended up exceeding the capacity of the plane’s fuel tanks by more than two tons.The Super-Rich Are Being Scammed on Their Private Jets [ Alexander Sazonov, Tom Metcalf, and Suzanne Woolley/Bloomberg](via Naked Capitalism)(Image: Shine 2010, CC-BY) Read the rest

Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg are well known to readers of Boing Boing, as we had the honor of publishing Ed's epic comic history Hip Hop Family Tree and Jim's brilliant Street Angel. Now they've launched a YouTube channel, Cartoonist Kayfabe, which you should subscribe to right away. Ed writes:Jim Rugg and I created this channel as an avenue for us to add a little meaty and sincere comics talk out there on Youtube and it really seems to be catching on as each episode goes live. Lots of show-and-tell is peppered throughout the episodes too.We've been doing a series of episodes using the 1990's speculator rag, Wizard Magazine, as a way to discuss the era that inspired us to become cartoonists in the first place. ...More interviews are on the horizon as we get our skype recordings to work perfectly:I enjoyed this deep-dive on Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo:Cartoonist Kayfabe [YouTube] Read the rest

Last week, Chelsea Manning announced that she would fight a subpoena to appear before a Grand Jury and testify about her whistleblowing activities, citing her concern that "testimony before grand juries is secret, grand juries can create fear by suggesting that some members of a political community may be secretly cooperating with the government. In this way, grand juries can seed suspicion and fear in activist communities." This morning, a federal judge held her in contempt of court and has jailed her until she apologizes and complies, or until "the end of the life of the grand jury."Manning was tortured by the US military for her whistleblowing activities and was facing decades in prison when Obama commuted her sentence; her previous incarceration resulted in at least one suicide attempt. Hang in there, Chelsea. Here's how to contribute to Manning's legal defense fund. I am a donor. Chelsea Manning jailed after refusing to testify about WikiLeaks [Shannon Liao/The Verge]tomorrow i’m facing a sealed contempt hearing for refusing to testify at a secret grand jury over my 2010 disclosuresstatement: pic.twitter.com/M1uhssUzXh— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) March 7, 2019 Read the rest

For several years, I've been covering the bizarre phenomenon of "adversarial examples (AKA "adversarial preturbations"), these being often tiny changes to data than can cause machine-learning classifiers to totally misfire: imperceptible squeaks that make speech-to-text systems hallucinate phantom voices; or tiny shifts to a 3D image of a helicopter that makes image-classifiers hallucinate a rifle A friend of mine who is a very senior cryptographer of longstanding esteem in the field recently changed roles to managing information security for one of the leading machine learning companies: he told me that he thought that it may be that all machine-learning models have lurking adversarial examples and it might be impossible to eliminate these, meaning that any use of machine learning where the owners of the system are trying to do something that someone else wants to prevent might never be secure enough for use in the field -- that is, we may never be able to make a self-driving car that can't be fooled into mistaking a STOP sign for a go-faster sign.What's more there are tons of use-cases that seem non-adversarial at first blush, but which have potential adversarial implications further down the line: think of how the machine-learning classifier that reliably diagnoses skin cancer might be fooled by an unethical doctor who wants to generate more billings; or nerfed down by an insurer that wants to avoid paying claims.My MIT Media Lab colleague Joi Ito (previously) has teamed up with Harvard's Jonathan Zittrain (previously to teach a course on Applied Ethical and Governance Challenges in AI, and in reading the syllabus, I came across Motivating the Rules of the Game for Adversarial Example Research, a 2018 paper by a team of Princeton and Google researchers, which attempts to formulae a kind of unified framework for talking about and evaluating adversarial examples. Read the rest

Police in Boulder, Colorado, drew their guns on a black man who was picking up trash on his own lawn. The first responder suggests that the man's trash grabber is a weapon; more cops soon arrive to escalate the confrontation, with eight eventually surrounding him in his own yard. The victim's housemate, Vanardo Merchant, took video and made sure the officers knew they were being filmed.“You’re on my property with a gun in your hand, threatening to shoot me, because I’m picking up trash,” the man says. “I don’t have a weapon! This is a bucket, this is a clamp.”“I’m not sitting down and you can’t make me,” the man says as additional officers arrive. “This is my property, this is my house — I live here.”Check out officer cool dude here, relaxing with his shades and very eager to tase a man.Another circled him while holding a shotgun the way Prince Charles holds a newspaper. Read the rest

This photo, courtesy of the British Tarantula Society, shows the recently-discovered burrow-dwelling spider [Birupes simoroxigorum] in its full glory.It's been described as the most beautiful spider (more via Metafilter) but not without controversy. Read the rest

You may, about thirty seconds in, wonder what's up with terribletan's performance of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16. Stick with it. Read the rest

At least he knows how it's all going to end: fleeing pursuers who have located the secret tunnel in his corporate lair.Zuckerberg doesn't typically work in a cordoned-off office like a traditional corporate executive. Instead, his regular desk is on the floor of Facebook's open-plan office, just like everyone — but executive-protection officers sit near his desk while he works, in case of security threats. Facebook's offices are built above an employee parking lot, but it's impossible to park directly beneath Zuckerberg's desk because of concerns about the risk of car bombs. ... There's also a persistent rumor among Facebook employees that he has a secret "panic chute" his team can evacuate him down to get him out of the office in a hurry. The truth of this matter remains murky: One source said they had been briefed about the existence of a top-secret exit route through the floor of the conference room into the parking garage, but others said they had no knowledge of it. Facebook declined to comment on this. Read the rest

Puzzle fanatics, take note. If you're bored with 3D gimmick constructions or complex panorama puzzles, take a gander at this new, minimalist offering that might change your game. A simple concept executed with fiendish complexity, Clemens Habicht's Colour Puzzles reduce the challenge of puzzle construction to its most abstract.Do not adjust your monitor - this puzzle is exactly what it looks like. 1000 pieces, each one an individual CMYK color. The completed puzzle measures out to 19.7" x 27.6", and the challenge is not in figuring out what the big picture looks like but in determining how each color relates to the others. If it sounds difficult, it is - but in practice, it's also extremely meditative. Even therapeutic.You can get your choice of Clemens Habicht's 1000 Colours (pictured) or variations on the theme with 1000 Halftone Colours or 1000 Vibrating Colours. Right now, each one is 28% off the list price at $35.99. Read the rest

“I originally only made NES/SNES cartridges out of wood. Someone kept on bugging me to make him a Soul Reaver cartridge, so I eventually made him one. This was made out walnut, cherry and poplar using a laser engraver.”Amazing creative work by IMGURian Pigminted. They've got a store via Instagram! Love this stuff.View it all below, or at IMGUR.Not a new Soul Reaver game but.....More work below. View this post on Instagram Random fact: Mega Man is based on the manga Astro boy. #gamingposts #gaming #gaming🎮 #gaminglife #gamingmemes #snes#snesclassic #nes #nintendo #nintendoswitch #nintendolife #retrogames #retrogamer #etsy #raspberrypi #fortnite #retrogaming #woodworking #cartridge #capcom #megamanx #megaman #artist #artistsoninstagramA post shared by Pigminted (@pigminted) on Mar 3, 2019 at 7:09am PST View this post on Instagram Random fact: Metroid is a pormanteau of "metro" and "android." #gamingposts #gaming #gaming🎮 #gaminglife #gamingmemes #snes#snesclassic #nes #nintendo #nintendoswitch #nintendolife #retrogames #retrogamer #etsy #raspberrypi #fortnite #retrogaming #metroid #woodworking #cartridge #samus #supermetroid #metroidprime #artist #artistsoninstagramA post shared by Pigminted (@pigminted) on Mar 2, 2019 at 7:29am PST View this post on Instagram This was a custom order I got a while ago. I don't know who he is but, Happy birthday Matthew! #pokemonx #pokemonmemes #oras #pokemoncards#pokemonsunandmoon #pokemony#pokemontcg #fairytail #cute #charizard#pokemongo #pokemonxy #pokemon#pokemoncommunity #pokemontrainer #woodworking #pkmn #gamer#pokemonoras #artist #artistsoninstagramA post shared by Pigminted (@pigminted) on Feb 24, 2019 at 8:23am PST Read the rest