With the Right to Repair movement surging around the world, now is the perfect moment to check out the Right to Repair Youtube town halls, which will help you get involved with your local policymakers to ensure that you can fix your stuff! (via Motherboard) Read the rest

Rich "education philanthropists" (Bill Gates, the Waltons, the DeVoses, the Sacklers) have had a lot of business-world ideas for "fixing education" over the years, centered on a system of carrots (bonuses for high-testing schools and schools whose students get admitted to top universitites) and sticks (funding cuts for "underperforming" schools), all backed by high-stakes tests and standardized teaching materials.These have been a catastrophe, making poor schools poorer, spawning massive fraud-rings that gamed standardized tests and sent unprepared kids to top colleges through falsified grades, where they immediately sank beneath coursework and student debt.But even though running schools "like a business" online makes things worse, there are problems with public schools, especially those serving poor and marginalized students, and, it turns out, there are ways of addressing those problems.After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform, a 2018 book by Andrea Gabor, documents these success stories and outlines their commonalities: in Massachusetts' Brockton High, the state's largest, poorest school now outperforms the state average, with a well-funded faculty that teach speaking skills, fine arts, drama, sports, and provide extracurricular activities. In Leander, Texas, strict hierarchy and standardized tests were replaced by "a culture devoted to grassroots-driven quality and experimentation" as well as "long-term thinking" and "meaningful teacher training," inspired by the production systems of Toyota, turning the school into a magnet for the best teachers in the state and reversing its education outcomes.The commonalities in all of Gabor's success stories are "a respect for democratic processes and participatory improvement, a high regard for teachers, clear strategies with buy-in from all stake-holders, and accountability frameworks that include room to innovate. Read the rest

Satire site The Sioux Falls Headliner has a funny alternate-universe story in which an unnamed man was taken into custody after he dressed up as Arnold Schwarzenegger in his role as Mr Freeze in 1997's Batman and Robin, drove to the local Walmart, and stood in the parking lot, hollering cold-weather puns at passersby.In the imaginary story, the man, who continued to make puns in the police car, was released without charge.“He told me he was going to change the ‘STOP’ sign to say ‘FREEZE’. He was dressed up in some clear plastic that looked hand painted baby blue toreally get the whole ice look down. He was also trying to talk like Arnold did in the Batman movie. I thought it was pretty funny,” said one shopper we spoke with.Not everyone thought the man’s puns were funny, though.“The man told me I needed to ‘cool it’ on the make-up I was wearing. I tookserious offense to that! Who says that to a person? I’m really thinking about suing him!” said one woman we spoke with who was actually wearing toomuch make up.Local Man Arrested After Cosplaying Mr. Freeze And Yelling Cold Weather Puns At People [Adam K. White/Sioux Falls Headliner] Read the rest

Meanwhile, in the southern hemisphere,Australia recorded its hottest month ever in January, with average temperatures exceeding 30C (86F) for the first time. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the extreme heat was "unprecedented" during the country's summer period. At least five January days were among the 10 warmest on record, with daily national temperature highs of 40C.Heatstroke and bushfires everywhere. Nightmarish scenes of wild horses dying of thirst by the dozens. It's almost as if something's just not the same as it used to be. Read the rest

Margaret Thatcher is one of history's great monsters, a kind of slow-motion Stalin whose ideological extremism plunged Britain into decades of decline and inequality, and whose sympathy for genocidal tyrants like Pinochet were a key factor in the wholesale slaughter of political dissidents: so, of course, her hometown of Grantham is putting up a statue in her honour (Stalin's hometown also has a statue!).Understandably, the local council is worried that "politically-motivated vandals" will target the statue, so they're seeking to appropriate funds for a ten-foot-tall plinth intended to deter miscreants.The police support the idea, having identified a "motivated far-left movement… who may be committed to public activism" but they add that "the passage of time does seem to have diminished that feeling".I eagerly await the Gofundme to buy the Black Bloc an eleven-foot ladder.Plans to erect the statue in Westminster were rejected by Westminster Council last year with a report saying it could have attracted "potential vandalism and civil disorder".The report to the authority in Lincolnshire said these issues were present in this case.It said: "The divisive nature of Baroness Thatcher due to her political career and policy legacy and the potential for this to result in vandalism has been raised as a concern."A threat assessment has been carried out by Lincolnshire Police who consider there is a possibility any public statue of Baroness Thatcher could be a target for politically motivated vandals.£300,000 Margaret Thatcher statue needs plinth 'to keep out vandals' [ITV](via Naked Capitalism)(Image: Ferran Cornellà, CC-BY-SA) Read the rest

Maura Judkis presents the Washington Post's roundup of 20 different store brands of mac 'n' cheese. Which is best and worst?We bought 12 frozen microwaveable mac and cheeses, and eight dry boxed brands with either powder or liquid squeeze cheese sauces. We prepared them according to the instructions, even though we knew some of them could probably be jazzed up with a little extra butter. In a blind tasting, a small panel of colleagues judged both the frozen and dry boxed versions of each product according to their taste and cheesiness — and those scores did not necessarily go hand-in-hand! Some brands that ranked high on taste were low on cheesiness and vice versa. Market leader Kraft doesn't come out well. Best line, though, goes to the judge's review of Amy's: "it tastes like the color gray." Read the rest

Gentlemen, pick your weap— oh, I guess you'll be using those big horns. From the mad_hippies instagram: Read the rest

Sheck Wes, the "Mo Bamba" guy, didn't like a new music video and stiffed the production company, so they posted a funny remix. "Got a gun, but it's just a paint ball gun" approaches Weird Al-level good. Read the rest

On Friday morning, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey announced he's running for President. The former mayor of Newark was elected to the Senate in 2013 in a special election to replace the late Senator Frank Lautenberg. In his video announcement, Booker said, "I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind; where parents can put food on the table; where there are good paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood; where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins; where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame."Booker is the fourth Democrat to officially declare their candidacy. Elizabeth Warren has said she'll make an announcement on February 9th; widely expected to be her official entry into the 2020 race. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) Read the rest

A dog-shaped egg, or an egg-shaped dog? Unimportant details. The smile's what matters. The groomer's name is Andrea. The floof's name is Pom Pom. They're both in Singapore. View this post on Instagram *edited* For everyone who found joy in this video, thank you so much for sharing and passing on pompom's happy awwra. I've spoke with the owner and turns out her daughter has created an Instagram account for Pom and their other dog Pixel (a maltese). Do give them a follow and show them some love. . PLEASE DO NOT REPOST THIS VIDEO. Thank you. . Instagram: @Pom_and_Pixel . . So much Zen in such a tiny body. PomPom the Pomeranian Groomed by: Me 😁 Instagram of groomer: groomer_andrea . #dogs #dogstagram #dogsofinstagram #doggram #instadogs #insta_dogs #friends #petgrooming #pet #petsagram #petgram #grooming #groomer #work #friendsatwork #instalove #instadorable #sgig #igsg #shiroro #petgasm #Homegrooming #homegroomer #onlypomeranians #pomeranian #pomeranians#pomgram #pomeraniansofinstagram #pomstagram #bootcutjeansA post shared by ❤️💛The Colourful Groomer 💙💚 (@groomer_andrea) on Jan 29, 2019 at 12:31am PST When you find out you're a good egg. Read the rest

Warning, CHONKPEDO APPROACHING. Floof level 1,000.Chonker warning[via] Read the rest

Morale is so bad at Palantir, they're slashing their stock price. In addition to cheaper stock options, the data-mining company is also handing out more internal bonuses, after a succession of shareholder writedowns and political controversies tied to company co-founder and Gawker sue-er Peter Thiel.Lizette Chapman at Bloomberg reports that in 2015, Palantir’s private stock value plateaued, and by now, it has dropped to less than half the $20 billion valuation bestowed by Peter Thiel and other investors.Excerpt:So, in recent months, the data-analysis company took the unusual step of slashing the price of employee stock options to about $6 a share, which would value the business at about $11 billion, said people with knowledge of the matter. The revised stock plan in some cases allows employees to buy Palantir shares at a discount of more than $1 off their original option price. Last week, it also told workers they would be eligible for more generous bonuses this year paid in two increments, said one of the people, all of whom asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to discuss the moves.The compensation changes were designed to boost morale, several people said. The response comes after years of private stock transactions with diminishing returns, shareholders writing down their holdings and a drumbeat of political controversies tied to Thiel. It could create a small fortune for staff, if a plan to take Palantir public this year is successful. Until then, recent employees are stuck holding rights to buy shares that still cost more than most investors are willing to pay today. Read the rest

Wagner James Au sez, "AI algorithms, as AOC recently pointed out, often have a racial bias inherited by their creators, to the point where some can't even 'see' people of color. Afrofuturist Nettrice Gaskins teaches Deep Dream's AI to be aware of great black faces on a deep level."“I used Deep Dream Generator's algorithm, which is inspired by the human brain," she tells me. "The generator uses the stylistic elements of one image to draw the content of another. The first picture defines the portrait I want to create and the second picture I upload gives the program a style to simulate. The process may include more than one pass in the generator, using different style images, until I get the image I want." This portrait of Sade, for instance, "[Is] a composite of multiple Deep Dream images."Afrofuturist Artist Creates Stunning Portraits of Black Artists With Deep Dream AI Algorithms [Wagner James Au/New World Notes] Read the rest

Don Jr.'s blocked phone calls right before that “Russian adoptions” meeting with Manafort and the sketchy Russians were not calls to his father Donald Trump, multiple reports today reveal. These phone calls were deemed suspicious by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who considered them concerning enough to investigate.AXIOS, following up on reporting by the Washington Post, ABC News, and CNN:The Senate Intelligence Committee has obtained phone records showing that President Trump was not one of the blocked numbers his son Donald Trump Jr. called before and after the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, CNN first reported and ABC News later confirmed.The big picture: Trump Jr. made phone calls to two blocked numbers the same day he spoke with Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, who helped set up a meeting three days later with a Kremlin-linked lawyer claiming to have dirt on Hillary Clinton. He made another phone call to a private number several hours after the meeting. There has long been speculation that the calls were to his father, and that then-candidate Trump had advanced knowledge of the meeting — an allegation he has denied.Three sources familiar with the calls tell ABC News that the blocked numbers belong to NASCAR CEO Brian France and real estate developer Howard Lorber, longtime Trump family friends who supported the president during the 2016 campaign. Lorber has extensive business dealings in Russia and brought Trump to Moscow in 1996 to explore real estate options, according to the Washington Post. Read the rest

In a federal court filing making the rounds on Thursday, the office of special counsel Robert Mueller says the evidence seized from Roger Stone's residences is "voluminous and complex," and includes computer storage devices that contain “terabytes” of data representing decades of communication records from Stone's numerous mobile devices and online accounts. His bank records, his text messages, and I'd imagine his passwords or encryption keys. This is only the beginning of what the feds will unlock, and what we will learn about Stone's activities. It's likely that much of Stone's online or other telecommunications breadcrumb trail has already been snarfed up via providers. But note this: if our initial read of reports is correct, and the haul from this week's raid of Stone's residences has yielded “terabytes” of mostly emails and texts? That's a lot of emails and texts.From NBC News:Robert Mueller's prosecutors, in a new court filing, described the evidence as "voluminous and complex" in asking a judge to delay his trial to give them more time to sift through the seized devices.The court papers said investigators grabbed hard drives containing several terabytes of information, including "FBI case reports, search warrant applications and results (e.g., Apple iCloud accounts and email accounts), bank and financial records, and the contents of numerous physical devices (e.g., cellular phones, computers, and hard drives)."The FBI is doing what it calls a "filter review" of the devices, setting aside any evidence that cannot be admissible in court because it is considered privileged. Read the rest

When Trump FCC Chairman (and former telcoms executive) Ajit Pai murdered Net Neutrality, he told us the slaughter was necessary, otherwise the ISPs wouldn't invest in their networks.A year later, Charter has joined Comcast in announcing major cuts to its capital expenditures budget, slashing spending from $8.9 billion under Net Neutrality to $7 billion under Net Discrimination, which allows the company to extort funds from online services on pain of having their data slowed down when Charter customers request it.But Charter isn't done! They're also raising prices an average of $91/year/customer.Charter calls this hike "promotional rate step-ups and modest rate adjustments," which is grifterspeak for "higher prices."I am an extremely unhappy Charter customer in a monopoly Charter territory. The speed, reliability and price of my Charter service is uniformly terrible. If I had a choice, I'd take it. Charter's plan to lower capital spending in 2019 conflicts with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's claim that repealing net neutrality rules would cause ISPs to raise broadband capital spending. As net neutrality advocates have frequently said (and as ISPs have admitted to investors), broadband capital spending wasn't affected by the Obama-era net neutrality rules that were repealed by Pai.Capital spending rises and falls based on business needs and technology upgrade cycles, such as the DOCSIS 3.1 rollout mentioned by Charter. Despite Pai's statements that net neutrality rules lowered investment, Charter raised its capital investment in 2017 while the rules were in place.As we reported last week, Comcast's cable division spent $7.95 billion on capital expenditures during calendar year 2017, but that fell to $7.72 billion in the 12 months ending on December 31, 2018. Read the rest

Ever since I started using these nylon mesh zipper bags, my travel experience has improved. I have one bag for paper stuff and pens, one for medicine and first aid, one for tools and gear, one for cords and portable power, and one for snacks. When I get home I leave the bags in my suitcase, making packing much easier the next time I take a trip. The bags are see-through and very durable. I just bought another set of these bags to hold components for Raspberry Pi projects. I think I have a total of 36 of these bags now. Read the rest

Howard Schultz, the Starbucks billionaire and aspiring independent presidential candidate, tweeted a link to a column describing Democrat candidates Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris as "fauxcahontas" and "shrill" respectively. Then he deleted the tweet.“Thank you @Rogerlsimon for a thoughtful analysis of what’s possible. #ReimagineUS,” Schultz tweeted, along with a link to an article on PJ Media by Roger L. Simon titled “Howard Schultz Could Actually Win the Presidency."“Current frontrunner Kamala Harris is far from reassuring,” Simon writes in the column. “She’s a shrill (see the Kavanaugh hearings) quasi-socialist promising pie in the sky — Medicare-for-all, debt-free college, guaranteed pre-K, minimum basic income, confiscatory taxes — and she’s just getting started. Bernie [Sanders] and others will soon be following suit. Fauxcahontas already has, competing in a game of socialist one-upmanship.”I've been thinking a bit lately about how Schultz embodies the appeal of a centrist pro-business candidate to a media obsessed with narratives of partisan extremism and which habitually poses itself at an equidistant point between opposed sides, and how this affinity contrasts with the visceral revulsion almost everyone has for his candidacy and the limitless wealth that could sustain it to the bitter end.Thing is, though, Schultz is a moron. Read the rest

Anti-abortion extremists are among the most violent domestic terrorists in America, having murdered and attempted to murder dozens of people using firearms, firebombs and traditional explosives.Pro-abortion extremists don't exist, apart from a single, self-described individual, Theodore Shulman, who threatened to kill (but did not actually harm) two anti-abortion activists, and went to prison for it.Despite these irrefutable facts, the FBI circulated a warning to local law enforcement, briefing them on the domestic terror threat posed by pro-abortion extremists.The warnings were obtained by the transparency activists at Property of the People (previously) through Freedom of Information Act requests, and reported out by Anna Merlan for Jezebel.The warnings are similar to other FBI domestic terror and violence warnings -- for example, on Black Identity Extremists and Juggalos -- in that they bear no relationship to reality, and target marginalized groups generally on the left, while ignoring or minimizing real, heavily armed, violent groups on the right who stand in opposition to the FBI's chosen targets.It's a good reminder that the FBI is composed largely of right-wing, authoritarian ideologues and has a long history of serving the interests of ruling elites and white supremacists, activities that they continue to this day, and which they have never apologized for or reckoned with.“I think a couple things are notable here,” Shapiro tells Jezebel, referring to the abortion one-sheet. “The FBI is treating the essentially fictitious category of terrorist pro-choice extremism as something that exists, and is apparently such a grave threat that even local law enforcement needs to be alerted to its supposed menace.”Shapiro also points out that the idea of violent pro-choice activists is a far-right talking point, promoted by groups like Human Life International and ultra-conservative outlets like The Federalist. Read the rest

The intrepid travelers of Atlas Obscura suggest nine traditional hot drinks from across the world that may seem weird to our narrow, boring palates but are quite popular in their regions. From Atlas Obscura:Kaffeost: In northern Scandinavia, cups of coffee get enhanced with cheese.The dried cheese, called juustoleipä (sometimes leipäjuusto or just juusto), absorbs the steaming brew, softening without melting, like a rich, moist cheese sponge...Juustoleipä translates to “cheese bread,” which not only refers to its dry and sturdy texture, but also its culinary use as a sort of bread-like vehicle for jam, syrup, and, of course, coffee. To make the cheese, milk—once reindeer milk, now often goat or cow milk—gets curdled, baked, and dried into thin rounds. This process not only allows for the cheese to be preserved for up to a year, but invites special preparations when it is ready to be consumed, one of which is kaffeost.Hriatô: Slovakian winters call for a honey-and-bacon hot brandy cocktail. ...Traditionally served around Christmas, hriatô is relatively straightforward to make. Home cooks begin by frying up bacon in a healthy dollop of lard. Once it’s crisp, they drizzle in honey, allowing the sweet and salty blend to mingle. Finally, they add a stream of potent fruit brandy to the mix.Hriatô can indeed look a bit unappetizing on first glance. As the cloudy, orangish liquid begins to cool, the fat separates, initially forming glistening droplets on the drink’s surface, then a layer of settled fat. But when enjoyed fresh, the fried bacon bobs in the boozy brew, balancing the honeyed liquid with a savory umami pork flavor. Read the rest

A German drummer named Sina has a popular YouTube channel about drumming. In this video she demonstrates why Ringo Starr was a great drummer.Interestingly, because Sina couldn't use The Beatles original recordings for copyright reasons (YouTube's Content ID algorithm doesn't care about fair use) she used recordings from a Beatles' tribute band her father was in, "The Silver Beatles." (Fun fact: The Beatles were once called "The Silver Beatles.") Image: sina-drums/YouTube Read the rest

An obnoxious gentleman at a Miami Heat game Wednesday who was shouting at people around him didn't take kindly to a couple of police officers coming around to see what the commotion was about. According to NBC, they tried to talk to the 23-year-old man, who was "behaving in an aggressive manner," and noticed "a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage in his breath." They then pulled the man up to escort him away from the crowd when things got a bit physical. Jump to 1:48 to see how the man and the cops suddenly get tangled up with each other and tumble down many rows of seats. Read the rest

Mallwave is a microgenre of bedroom electronic music and smooth jazz meant to evoke nostalgia for the vibrant mall scenes of the 1980s and 1990s that many of the music's composers are too young to have experienced or at least remember. Think of Mallwave as a hauntological soundtrack for an Orange Julius-fueled consumer culture where Suncoast, Merry-Go-Round, and Spencer Gifts anchored suburban reality. (Or, in the case of some of the moodier tracks, the kind of muzak that might play in your mind as you wander an abandoned mall in a Ballardian trance.)From Hussein Kesvanio's feature in MEL:“The nostalgia is so real you can cry and wish you went back in time,” reads one comment underneath the video “Neon Wave Mall (Vapor Mix).” “I feel a certain sense of… familiarity watching this footage. Almost like I myself have set foot in these places,” adds a viewer of “Corp Palm Mall.” Under the same video, another person opines: “Why wasn’t I born in this time? This video makes me realize how much things were not as advanced as we have now but it was better. I could be wrong, but sometimes I feel like living around the ‘90s sounds fun. Lifestyle is different, mindset is different and not as much laziness.”According to writer Joe Koenig, this kind of feeling — a “nostalgia for a past you’ve never known” — is called anemoia. In his ongoing project, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, Koenig describes it as “the desire to wade into the blurred-edge sepia haze that hangs in the air between people who leer stoically into this dusty and dangerous future.”Download tracks at https://t.co/UpQbE5ofFa #vaporwave #synthwave #mallwave #deadmalls #retrowave pic.twitter.com/tPOTqwwBkP— Mistaken for Robots (@mistakenrobots) October 13, 2018 Read the rest

In 1994, Ikea ran this television commercial in major East Coast US markets. (Interestingly, the commercial's art director was Patrick O'Neill who went on to be Chief Creative Officer at everyone's favorite Silicon Valley start-up disaster Theranos!)From a 1994 article in the Los Angeles Times:A few East Coast Ikea stores have been targeted by angry protesters who have jammed phone lines since last week. One store in Hicksville, N.Y., was briefly evacuated last week after a bomb scare. No bomb was found.At issue is the homosexual relationship between the two men in the Ikea ad, who talk about how buying the dining room table together shows their commitment to each other. If it becomes clear to other major marketers that Ikea's business is not harmed--and perhaps even helped--by the ad, it could profoundly affect the way major advertisers speak to gays and lesbians. Read the rest

Ariana Grande got a kanji tattoo on her palm she thought meant "seven rings," but actually means "small charcoal grill." In an effort to correct the tattoo, she added the kanji character for "finger." Now the tattoo reads "BBQ finger." Ariana Grande "fixed" her tattoo...Psych now it means bbq finger😭💀 pic.twitter.com/JfajJ09w95— Kaii (@kaii03) January 31, 2019 Read the rest

Wattie Buchan no doubt envious of how easy it was for this woman to style her hair in subzero weather.leaving the house with wet hair in the midwest Read the rest

Black Panther, on the heels of its SAG win and seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture, will play for free at 250 movie theaters for a week starting tomorrow (February 1). As part of the Black Panther celebrations, Walt Disney Company is also granting $1.5 million to the United Negro College Fund.“In times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers," T'Challa said. "We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.”Claim free tickets to see Black Panther (WeTicketIt) Read the rest

The EU's plan to censor the internet with algorithms that block anything that might be a copyright infringement has only days to go before it will be too late for a vote before the upcoming elections, and so far, progress has been stalled thanks to France's unwillingness to accept tiny, meaningless concessions that Germany feels they must win to retain political credibility.Now, at the very last minute, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in talks with French President Emmanuel Macron to try to rescue the Copyright Directive.But even if they strike a deal, the likelihood that this will get through Parliament is dwindling by the hour. Earlier this week, Europe's research libraries called for the deletion of the extremist clauses from the Directive, and now the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA, representing virtually every library in the world) has called for the deletion of Articles 11 and 13 as a condition of any future work on the Directive. It's impossible to overstate the opposition to the Directive: the world's top technical and legal experts; the movie studios and sports leagues hate it; so do investigative and independent journalists, and the petition opposing it is the largest in European history, with more than 4.5 million signatures.With insurgent parties gaining ground across Europe, the upcoming EU elections are a kind of poll on the legitimacy of the EU itself: does the EU serve its people, or deep-pocketed corporate lobbyists? If Merkel and Macron sell out the broad, deep coalition of opponents to this Directive, they risk the future of the EU itself. Read the rest

In late 2017, the Norwegian Consumer Council published its audit of kids' smart-watches, reporting that the leading brands allowed strangers to follow your kids around and listen in on their conversations; a year later, Pen Test Partners followed up to see if anything had changed (it hadn't).Now, a year and a half later, Pen Test Partners have done another security audit of kids' smart watches and you'll never guess what they found! Kids' smart-watches are still a dumpster-fire: anyone can access the entire database of kids' data, including "real time child location, name, parents details etc," and since most leading brands use the same back-end from Gator, virtually every kid's smart-watch is vulnerable.Gator patched the vulnerability Pen Test Partners discovered, but I will bet you an organ of your choosing that there are far more waiting to be discovered.The Gator web backend was passing the user level as a parameter. Changing that value to another number gave super admin access throughout the platform. The system failed to validate that the user had the appropriate permission to take admin control!This means that an attacker could get full access to all account information and all watch information. They could view any user of the system and any device on the system, including its location. They could manipulate everything and even change users’ emails/passwords to lock them out of their watch.In fairness, upon our reporting of the vulnerability to them, Gator got it fixed in 48 hours.GPS watch issues… AGAIN [Pen Test Partners]18 months on, kids' smart watches are STILL a privacy & security dumpster-fire, and a gift to stalkers everywhereIn late 2107, the Norwegian Consumer Council published its audit of kids' smart-watches, reporting that the leading brands allowed strangers to follow your kids around and listen in on their conversations; a year later, Pen Test Partners followed up to see if anything had changed (it hadn't). Read the rest

Logitech stuff is sharply marked down at Amazon today, so I'm going to give you my recommendations and a couple of nopes too. The links here are all affiliate ones, so I'll get a cut.1. The G-series mice are great. I have the basic model, the G603, and it makes me mad I ever bothered fooling around with other supposedly-premium brands. The "lightspeed" dongle wireless works so well I never have to think about it, but they have Bluetooth too if you don't want to sacrifice a USB port. You do, though, because Bluetooth is trash.2. However, avoid the K-series and all the basic combo keyboards, with one exception (below). These are the bread-and-butter of the lineup and look OK, but the reality is that they're only marginally better than cheapo generic models. The squidgy, stiff rubbery keys of most of Logitech keyboards are neither one thing (the low-travel laptop fingertip numbers we're at least used to nowadays) or the other (the deep-travel mechanical or rubberdome switches of yore). Instead, go for:3. The Romer-G series or the Romer-K840. These may be controversial picks, because Romer is Logitech's attempt to muscle in on the effectively open-standard world of mechanical keyboards with a proprietary switch hardly distinguishable from the ubiquitous Cherry Brown. But they're good gadgets at good prices today, so here they are. (Logitech does makes a Cherry-switch keyboard, the Orion, but it's just OK and doesn't have a rainbow inside it) 4. The C922x streaming webcam is about the best on the market and is half off. Read the rest

Johannes Grenzfurthner writes, "My film 'Glossary of Broken Dreams' (which is getting more and more relevant, given all the political turmoil currently around) (previously) is finally available on Vimeo on Demand (buying and renting).Puppets! Pixels! Anime! Live action! Stock footage!Lumpennerd Johannes Grenzfurthner gives an ideotaining cinematic revue about important political concepts. Everyone is talking about freedom! Privacy! Identity! Resistance! The Market! The Left! But, yikes, Johannes can't tolerate ignorant and topically abusive comments on the "Internet" anymore! Supported by writer Ishan Raval, in this film, Johannes explains, re-evaluates, and sometimes sacrifices political golden calves of discourse.Not to be used with false consciousness or silicone-based lubricant.Featuring: Amber Benson, Max Grodénchik, Jeff Ricketts, Jason Scott, Stefanie Sargnagel, Gerald Votava, Robert Stachel, Stuart Freeman, Katharina Stemberger, Conny Lee, Jolyne Schlien Schürmann, Hannes Duscher, Roland Gratzer, Alexander E. Fennon, Michael J. Epstein, Michael Smulik, Kudra Owens, Martin Auer, David Dempsey, Anna Behne... and many others. Glossary of Broken Dreams [Johannes Grenzfurthner/Vimeo] Read the rest

For all the web's power, getting Javascript to time multitracked sample playback with the bare-metal precision of an Amiga-era tracking app is no mean feat. But Steffest's Bassoon Tracker pulls it off with style, and can even load your old MOD files. It looks the part, too, with chunky sci-fi fonts and linear gradients galore.Plays and edits Amiga Mod files and FastTracker XM files. If you have ever heard of Protracker or Fasttracker, then you know the drill, if not, then you are probably too young :-)It needs a modern browser that supports WebAudio. It's tested to work on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Chrome on Android, mobile Safari and the Samsung Android Browser. It works best in Chrome.Sadly it doesn't load Impulse Tracker modules, so you are today spared having to listen to my teenage masterpieces. The code's on Github. Read the rest

Public works employees called to the scene of a sinkhole just north of Miami, Florida quickly found an electrical cord in the ditch. Turns out the, sinkhole was actually an unfinished 150-foot-long tunnel to a bank across the street. From the New York Times:F.B.I. investigators found that the tunnel had a diameter of about 3 feet and opened up into a wooded area, Special Agent Michael D. Leverock said in an interview on Wednesday evening. It was so narrow that a person would have to lie on his or her stomach to navigate it, Agent Leverock said.No one got into the bank, and no money was stolen, Agent Leverock said...“Everybody here is just shaking their heads,” he said. “They could’ve been going for the A.T.M., they could’ve been going for the vault.” But after the would-be bank thief reached the ultimate destination, Agent Leverock speculated, then what?Inside or near the tunnel, investigators found a wagon that had likely been used to haul dirt, as well as a power generator and a winch, which can be used to haul heavy loads, according to an F.B.I. news release. Read the rest

Crappy little table saws are marketed as cheap gifts and impulse buys by hardware stores, right there alongside drills and shop vacs. But they are uniquely dangerous and I got rid of mine after an alarming experience made me sit and think about the forces in play—and how close our heads and hands are to them. This video illustrates the problem well and debunks, in passing, some of the myths about the dangers. A SawStop won't stop kickbacks. For almost any task short of ripping lumber, other tools will do the job just as well. [via] Read the rest

Rumor has it that Apple is testing a triple camera system for iPhones in 2019, plus other improvements including 'dark mode.' Less expensive iPads and an updated iPhone XR are also said to be in development.Here’s Apple’s Plans for 2019, 2020 iPhones and iPads — Triple camera for extra pixels, 3-D back camera for AR, new Face ID, iOS 13 Dark Mode, codenames, Live Photos revamp, new cheap iPad and iPad Mini, and many more details: https://t.co/vZ14mO7Uyq— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 30, 2019Bloomberg was first with the goods today, wrapping up where all the 2019 product rumors are headed. Excerpt: A third camera on the back of the 2019 iPhone will help the device capture a larger field of view and enable a wider range of zoom. It will also capture more pixels so Apple software could, for example, automatically repair a video or photo to fit in a subject that may have been accidentally cut off from the initial shot, according to the people familiar with the plans. The company is also planning an enhanced version of its Live Photos feature, which pins video from before and after each shot to the photo. The new version will double the length of the video from three seconds to six seconds.The laser-powered 3-D camera could debut first on an upgrade to the iPad Pro currently planned for as early as spring 2020, according to one of the people. Apple isn’t expected to release a major iPad Pro update this year like it did in 2018. Read the rest

[UPDATE 1/30/2019: The headline and first paragraph of the Lexington Herald Leader say that lawyers for Governor Matt Bevin want Kim Davis to pay the state's legal bills, but a quote from one of the lawyers later in the story makes it clear they want the office of the country clerk where Davis used to work to pay the bill, not Davis personally.]When Kim Davis was the county clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, she refused a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Her illegal shenanigans ended up costing the state a lot of money in legal bills, and now lawyers for Governor Matt Bevin say she has to pay it back to the tune of nearly a quarter million dollars. From the Lexington Herald Leader:“Her local policy stood in direct conflict with her statutory obligation to issue marriage licenses to qualified Kentucky couples. The local policy also undermined the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s interest in upholding the rule of law,” Bevin attorney Palmer G. Vance II wrote in one brief.“Davis had an independent and sworn duty to uphold the law as an elected county officer,” Vance wrote. “If fees are awarded, they must be the responsibility of the Rowan County clerk’s office, which should be deterred from engaging in conduct that violates civil rights — and leads to costly litigation.”Don't feel sorry for Davis, a MAGAfundme campaign will undoubtedly come to her rescue.Image: Mugshot of former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis from the Rowan County Sheriff's office Read the rest

Donald Trump's “prosperity gospel” spiritual advisor Paula White, a pastor who is reported to reside in an 8,000 square foot house and travel on a $2.6 million private jet, is commanding her congregation to cough up their January salaries to her or else God is seriously going to punish them so hard.Classic cult grift. No wonder Trump, the cult grifter, likes her.Not linking to her Pentecostal payout, but she accepts PayPal.Excerpt from Newsweek: Paula White, who heads up the president’s evangelical advisory committee, suggested making a donation to her ministries to honor the religious principle of “first fruit,” which she said is the idea that all firsts belong to God, including the first harvest and, apparently, the first month of your salary."Right now I want you to click on that button, and I want you to honor God with his first fruits offering,” she said in a video shared to her website, in which she encourages her followers to donate to her ministries to get blessings from God.“If God doesn’t divinely step in and intervene, I don’t know what you’re going to face—he does,” she said.(...) In her newest video, the pastor encourages people to send her money, stating, “Each January, I put God first and honor him with the first of our substance by sowing a first fruits offering of one month's pay. That is a big sacrifice, but it is a seed for the harvest I am believing for in the coming year. Read the rest

For the second time in 6 months, the FBI is accusing a Chinese national engineer who worked for Apple of stealing Apple trade secrets related to self-driving cars, to help a China-based competitor.Michael Bott, NBC Bay Area:Apple began investigating Jizhong Chen when another employee reported seeing the engineer taking photographs in a sensitive work space, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed this week.Chen, according to the complaint, allowed Apple Global Security employees to search his personal computer, where they found thousands of files containing Apple’s intellectual property, including manuals, schematics, and diagrams. Security personnel also found on the computer about a hundred photographs taken inside an Apple building.Apple learned Chen recently applied for a job at a China-based autonomous vehicle company that is a direct competitor of Apple’s project, according to the complaint. A photo found on Chen’s computer, which Apple provided to the FBI, showed an assembly drawing of an Apple-designed wiring harness for an autonomous vehicle.Chen was arrested just one day before he was scheduled to fly to China, according to the complaint.Last July, former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang was arrested by federal agents for allegedly stealing proprietary information related to the company’s autonomous vehicle project. Zhang was accused of trying to bring Apple’s trade secrets to China-based XMotors.Read/Watch the full report: 'Another Apple Engineer Accused of Stealing Autonomous Vehicle Trade Secrets' Read the rest

The next tranche of Beehive Books' Illuminated Editions are being crowdfunded now: three gorgeous, slipcased, deluxe illustrated hardcovers, including a new edition of Crime & Punishment, illustrated by Dave McKean, well-known for his work on Sandman (he also did the original cover for my novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town); the books are $100 each, and are superb. The other two titles are The Blazing World, illustrated by Margaret Cavendish; and Peter Pan, illustrated by Brecht Evans. Read the rest

Google announced last fall it's killing off Google+ because of the social network's laughably “low usage” and “challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations,” plus revelations of serious security vulnerabilities. In a blog post and related support page that went live today, Google explained how the shutdown will unfold, and the important part for most 'consumer' users is this: they're gonna delete all your posts, photos, videos, and comments, starting on April 2. From today's official Google blog post:In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019 due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations. We want to thank you for being part of Google+ and provide next steps, including how to download your photos and other content.On April 2nd, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages you created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted. You can download and save your content, just make sure to do so before April. Note that photos and videos backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted.The process of deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts, Google+ Pages, and Album Archive will take a few months, and content may remain through this time. For example, users may still see parts of their Google+ account via activity log and some consumer Google+ content may remain visible to G Suite users until consumer Google+ is deleted. Read the rest

The power of fuckbonnet, shitsquib, fuckstumbling, douchenozzle, Fuckface von Clownstick, shitwhistle, cockbucket, can be captured through a simple formula: the "pyrrhic foot" of a "familiar profanity compounded with a non-profane word of two unaccented syllables."The formula is especially good for coming up with nongendered swears that are not slurs, which is useful if you're trying to insult an individual, rather than give offense to a whole demographic category, gender, or nationality.The best of these mean nothing, but sound wonderful, evocative and fun to say. They are deployed by "swear nerds," a coinage of New York Times Magazine story editor Willy Staley, meaning people who like their profanity fresh, imaginative, and exciting.“Fuckbonnet” is a swear-pyrrhic compound. The double-n in the middle and stop consonant at the end make it fun to say, but — and this is crucial — the insult itself does not say anything. What is a fuckbonnet, exactly? Is it something you wear when you get…? Is it a hat that has fallen out of fashion and is now only good for…? There’s no discernible meaning behind the word; it only expresses contempt and the author’s vain originality. I submit that this aspect of the new swears is a feature, not a bug. The reason this formula has become so popular in our time is that it conveys the author’s outrage without running the risk of actually insulting anybody.The rise of the swear nerds [Dan Brooks/The Outline](via Kottke) Read the rest

Reality packed its bags, cancelled the mail, put its dog in a kennel and boarded a plane to take a long flight as far away as possible from this week’s tabloids.Former FBI chief "Hoover Ordered Kennedys & MLK Murdered!” screams the National Enquirer front page, promising “Explosive PROOF That Will Change History.” Don’t rewrite the history books yet. Their “proof” is a memo from FBI archives in which J. Edgar Hoover wrote of his dislike for civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Hardly a smoking gun, and about as new as the Gutenberg Bible. Why doesn’t the Enquirer answer the really hard question: Did Hoover kill JFK, RFK and MLK because he hated acronyms?“Prince Philip, 97, DIED & Came Back to Life!” in his recent car crash, proclaims the Globe cover. The Queen’s consort allegedly died before the accident, and the impact restarted his heart. The Globe presumably knows this because the tabloid has the Prince wired to an EKG at all times, transmitting real-time info to its reporting team, trained cardiologists every one of them. That would explain why Prince Philip was taken to the hospital and released the same day, because that’s standard medical procedure for someone who just died and was brought back to life."Robert Wagner blocks bid to exhume Natalie!” reports the Enquirer. It’s hardly shocking that Hollywood veteran Wagner might not want wife Natalie Wood's remains disturbed, but he doesn’t have a say in the matter – Wood’s exhumation could be ordered by the Los Angeles County Coroner, the LAPD or the Sheriff’s Department regardless of what Wagner thinks. Read the rest

Former NSA spies have been working for the government of the United Arab Emirates as hacker mercenaries, helping the UAE attack journalists, dissidents, and human rights activists. This is a great read, and a shocking story from Reuters.With the help of former U.S. intelligence operatives, United Arab Emirates hacked into the iPhones of activists, diplomats, and foreign adversaries. Targeted in the attacks: the former deputy prime minister of Turkey, a Qatari emir, and a Nobel Laureate of Yemen.Joel Schectman and Christopher Bing of Reuters report that the UAE's use of the spying tool 'Karma' in 2016 “shows how potent cyber-weapons are proliferating beyond the world’s superpowers and into the hands of smaller nations”:The cyber tool allowed the small Gulf country to monitor hundreds of targets beginning in 2016, from the Emir of Qatar and a senior Turkish official to a Nobel Peace laureate human-rights activist in Yemen, according to five former operatives and program documents reviewed by Reuters. The sources interviewed by Reuters were not Emirati citizens.Karma was used by an offensive cyber operations unit in Abu Dhabi comprised of Emirati security officials and former American intelligence operatives working as contractors for the UAE’s intelligence services. The existence of Karma and of the hacking unit, code named Project Raven, haven’t been previously reported. Raven’s activities are detailed in a separate story published by Reuters today.The ex-Raven operatives described Karma as a tool that could remotely grant access to iPhones simply by uploading phone numbers or email accounts into an automated targeting system. Read the rest

A tourist in Australia picked up a beautiful tiny octopus and originally posted it on TikTok with "What a pretty octopus" written in Mandarin. But what the tourist didn't seem to know is that he was holding a blue-ringed octopus, which "carries enough venom to kill 26 full grown adults in a span of minutes," according to Gizmodo.Via Gizmodo:The venom of the blue-ringed octopus, which contains the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin, causes paralysis and the sting is so small that most people have no idea that they’ve been poisoned until it’s too late.To make things even more horrifying, there’s no anti-venom available for the blue-ringed octopus. The only known treatment is to massage the victim’s heart until the venom works its way throughout a person’s body in a matter of hours.And from Traveller:Marine ecology expert Michael Keough from the University of Melbourne said picking up an octopus exposes the hand to the beak, a few millimetres-long horny barb located on the bottom of the octopus between its tentacles."It can only bite if it's on top of something," he said.Designed to pierce the exoskeletons of crabs, the octopus's beak releases a neurotoxin from its glands that causes paralysis, causing its prey to stop breathing and die "within an hour". Read the rest

In early December Tod Kurt of ThingM recommended these reversible Micro USB cables. I bought a 3-pack on Amazon. They really work and have held up for the nearly two months I've had them. Both the USB male plug and the micro plug can be inserted without regard to the orientation, like a USB C plug. There is no "right side up." They were out of stock on Amazon for a while, but they're available again. Read the rest

We've written about various color-wheel and pallette-generating widgets over the years, but colorsupplyyy is the best I've seen. It's extremely straightforward, doesn't get bogged down in "science" or extraneous options, and continuously updates a set of icons and other graphical examples with your tinkerings. Perfect. Read the rest

A wanna-be bank robber without a solid plan got as far as the teller, but cold feet got the best of her.The woman, wearing a black fleece jacket, black knit hat, and black glasses headed straight for the teller. But once she was face to face with the banker, she hesitated. "Give me a minute," she said.She then went to a counter and scribbled something on a piece of paper, before tearing it up and throwing it away. She then promptly left the bank. Good move.Because of her strange behavior, the bankers, in Fall River, Massachusetts, pieced together her note, which read, "Give me the money."Via Miami HeraldImage: Surveillance image released on Facebook by the Fall River Police Department Read the rest

Here's a gallery of notes found on the windshields of problem parkers. It's interesting to note that some of the notes are printed on a computer, as if the person who left the note has a stack of them in their car, and is eager to find reasons to issue them. Read the rest

Kottke spotted Olivia de Recat's curiously affecting illustrations of how relationships change over time and I can't help but signal boost. Hopefully she'll be taking orders for prints again soon: "In the meantime, you can take a look at some of her other cartoons (mostly for the New Yorker), peruse her shop, or follow her stuff on Insta." Read the rest