When Trump FCC Chairman Ajit Pai cheated his way to a repeal of Net Neutrality, he justified allowing ISPs to decide to slow down the services you want to use by saying that doing so would encourage investment in network buildout, saving America from its sad status as one of the most expensive, slowest places to use the internet in the rich world.But after a full year of neutracide, Comcast has made a liar out of Ajit Pai, reducing infrastructure spending by 3% in 2018, according to the company's latest earnings report.Charter and Verizon are also expected to announce lowered capital expenditures for 2018.Comcast's network spending should have risen in 2018 if predictions from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and Comcast had been correct. Pai's net neutrality repeal took effect in June 2018. But the vote to repeal net neutrality rules was in December 2017, and Pai claimed in February 2018 that the repeal was already causing increased broadband investment.Broadband industry lobby group USTelecom also claimed that network investment grew in 2017 because of the anticipated net neutrality repeal and other deregulatory moves. In December 2017, Comcast said the net neutrality repeal would allow for "more competition in the marketplace and increased investment and innovation."Yet Comcast cable capital expenditures dropped year over year in each of the first three quarters of 2018. The expenditures did rise year over year in the fourth quarter, from $2.15 billion to $2.32 billion, but it wasn't enough to offset the full-year decline. Read the rest

Glass screen protectors have saved me $100s of dollars in repairs. I use them on our cellphones, tablets and now on the Nintendo Switch my daughter and I share.Simple to apply, these glass screen protectors ward off scratches, scuffs, and sometimes even direct hits. I never mind replacing one, as they are super cheap and the event also presents as an opportunity to clean the device needing service.This morning our Switch was smacked into the corner of the Hammond organ my kid uses as her charging station. The value of the screen protector was proven. It shattered, the screen did not. amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch 2017 (2-Pack) via Amazon Read the rest

Robert Ray Shafer who played Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration on the US version of The Office apparently posted the below to his Facebook page confirming a documentary in production about the beloved show. Of course this will be a documentary about a mockumentary. According to this Facebook post, the documentary "That's What She Said (And They Said Too)" is expected to be premiere on the show's 15th anniversary in 2020. (via r/DunderMifflin) Read the rest

We have tacos about once a week, and every time I pull out these stainless steel taco holders, I'm glad I bought them. They make it easy to load your taco with cheese, tomatoes, avocado, and salsa, and they keep your tacos from tipping over and disgorging their contents before you've had a change to ingest them. Read the rest

These Rainbow Unicorn Foil Balloons are 32 inches long, ship uninflated as pairs, and we are promised that the "pretty design is on both sides". Finally. Read the rest

Continuing the quest to design robots that could travel through our bodies to deliver drugs and cure disease, researchers at EPFL and ETH Zurich demonstrated tiny shape-shifting microrobots that swim through blood vessels. Made from hydrogel nanocomposites, the microbots can fold into various shapes for easy travel through tight spaces and flowing with dense, viscous, or fast-moving liquids. The microbots are peppered with magnetic nanoparticles so that they can be "steered" with an external magnetic field. From EPFL:“Our robots have a special composition and structure that allow them to adapt to the characteristics of the fluid they are moving through. For instance, if they encounter a change in viscosity or osmotic concentration, they modify their shape to maintain their speed and maneuverability without losing control of the direction of motion,” says (EPFL researcher Selman) Sakar.These deformations can be “programmed” in advance so as to maximize performance without the use of cumbersome sensors or actuators. The robots can be either controlled using an electromagnetic field or left to navigate on their own through cavities by utilizing fluid flow. Either way, they will automatically morph into the most efficient shape."Smart microrobots that can adapt to their surroundings" (EPFL) Read the rest

These baby aliens, er, emus are hatching at the same time – a "simultaneous breakout," as the person behind the camera calls it. I only wish she would have kept the camera rolling until these babies made their full appearance.Here are what the emus look like after three days. Same batch, but different emus that hatched two days later: Read the rest

Susaki is a city in Japan. They have a cute otter named Shinjokun with nearly 500k Twitter followers, and who serves as an honorary tourism ambassador. But then someone created a Twitter account for Chiitan, a mascot based on the otter, and started posting short videos of the otter misbehaving -- tipping over a car, burgling a house, recklessly swinging a weed whacker in the air. Chiitan now has over twice as many followers as Shinjokun, and some people think Chiitan is a sanctioned mascot. They complained to Susaki officials, who, for some reason, decided the way to quell the controversy was to fire Shinjokun. That seems to have been a mistake. From the New York Times:After receiving more than 100 calls from around Japan about Chiitan’s behavior, the city declined last week to renew the real otter’s honorary tourism ambassador contract. But posts about Chiitan being “fired” (the mascot and the real otter have the same name) have since gone viral on social media, incorrectly implying that the city had officially sanctioned the rogue mascot’s cheeky antics....[Takashi Moritoki, a Susaki city official] said Susaki officials had initially turned a “blind eye” to Chiitan because they hoped the rogue mascot would help improve the city’s image. But the city is now consulting a lawyer, he said, because it worries that Charando, the design company — which still owns a copyright for Chiitan — is earning money from its viral antics that might otherwise have gone to city coffers. Read the rest

When Motherboard broke the story of a thriving underground in bounty-hunters and other unsavory sorts buying realtime location data from America's cellular carriers, many were outraged that the carriers had not lived up to their year-old promises to fix that massive hole in our location data.But it wasn't every carrier: AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers were vulnerable to these attacks, but Verizon customers weren't: that's because every time someone queries your location data through Verizon, the company warns you with a text-message (this is discussed in the latest Motherboard Cyber podcast).It turns out that one of the data-brokers that bounty-hunters use to source our locations from, Zumigo, lobbied the FCC back in 2017 to head off any requirements for consent for location-tracking. “As breaches become more prevalent and as consumers rely more on mobile phones, there is a tipping point where financial and personal protections begin to equal, or outweigh, privacy concerns,” one of the slides reads.Another slide titled “solutions” suggests that the FCC loosen current consent requirements that are included in cell phone providers’ terms of service, allowing carriers to use vaguer, “more flexible” language.“Remove the consent requirement of stating that information is being released by the ‘carrier.’ Instead, allow more flexible language, such as:—‘You authorize the bank and its service providers to use your mobile account for verifying your identity and protecting you from fraud,’” the slide reads. “Make the release of carrier data opt-out, rather than opt-in, when it is being used to prevent fraud and identity theft.”Data Broker That Sold Phone Locations Used by Bounty Hunters Lobbied FCC to Scrap User Consent [Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler/Motherboard] Read the rest

The BBC posted an amusing graphic that lets you flip between the original photo of Mr. Trump and the photoshopped version. But I've made a gif here that says it all. Here are the two source images. First, the shopped one on Facebook, then the White House feed original. Read the rest

An investigation by the health ministry in Guangdong, China determined that scientist He Jiankui broke national laws when he used the CRISPR gene-editing technique to engineer human embryos with resistance to HIV and then implanted the embryos into women who then birthed the babies. Based on the probe, the Southern University of Science and Technology has fired He from his position as a researcher and teacher there. According to an article in the Chinese state media outlet Xinhua, police may also explore charges against He and his colleagues. From Nature:The Xinhua article confirms many details of the case for the first time: starting in June 2016, it says, He put together a team that, from March 2017, recruited eight couples consisting of an HIV-positive father and an HIV-negative mother. He’s team edited the genes of embryos from at least two couples. (The Xinhua article does not specify what type of gene editing was done, although He claims that the embryos were edited to remove a gene that enables HIV to enter cells.) In addition to the woman who already gave birth, one other woman involved in the experiment is currently pregnant with a gene-edited embryo. Five other couples are not pregnant, the article reports, and one couple dropped out of the experiment.The article says that He’s gene-editing activities were “clearly prohibited by the state”, but it doesn’t mention which specific laws or regulations the researcher broke. Read the rest

This month, for the first time in a generation, America's public domain grew, as the 20-year freeze created by the 1998 changes to copyright law finally thawed.The remarkable Parker Higgins (previously) is celebrating with a new zine called 1923 (this being the year whose works just entered the public domain); every month, Higgins proposes to create a "a hand-made zine (think photocopied and stapled!), highlighting a work, an artist, a genre, or a medium" of "unusual and forgotten gems" from 1923, which will be made available to just 100 subscribers (sold out!); the PDF version is yours for $1/month.On January 1, 2019, the public domain resumed its march forward after a 20-year hiatus. Our cultural commons now includes a handful of very famous works. One of the most iconic images of the silent film era. The first book of poetry by e e cummings. A legendary novelty song that topped the charts for weeks. These well-known works got lots of well-deserved attention this month as they rose into the public domain, their copyright restrictions falling away after so many years.But for every creation that has had the popular and commercial appeal to sustain it through nearly a century of copyright restrictions, there are hundreds (or thousands!) of interesting and unusual pieces that risk being forgotten.If we don't engage with the public domain, we can't truly feel its value. And if we don't feel its value, we will lose it—to industry groups that benefit from lopsided policy, or to companies that would privatize our shared culture, or simply to history and irrelevance. Read the rest

While 57,000 TSA employees are expected to work without pay during the government shutdown, Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), a government worker himself, thinks it's just dandy to travel first class. While sitting in his plush seat on a flight from Chicago to Washinton, D.C., a fellow traveler confronted him.“Congressman, do you think it’s appropriate to fly first class while 57 TSA agents aren’t being paid?”"Davis is as silent as a church mouse.“Taking that as a yes...Taxpayers paid for this flight? Fair enough,” the passenger says. A GOP congressman flew first class today on a taxpayer-funded flight* on day 32 of the shutdown. A fellow passenger wasn't thrilled.*(The office bought him a coach ticket but he got upgraded for free because of how frequently he flies--on taxpayer dime)https://t.co/4UFdhVoUHP pic.twitter.com/Qmfi8dQpFE— Akbar Shahid Ahmed (@AkbarSAhmed) January 22, 2019Apparently, Davis bought a coach ticket and upgraded to first class using frequent flier points. But the optics are ugly, to say the least. Via Huffington Post, who first obtained the video from the unidentified passenger. Read the rest

During Monday's super wolf blood moon lunar eclipse, some observers noticed a tiny flash on the surface. Turns out that was a football-sized meteorite smashing into the western surface of the moon. This was the first time a meteorite impact was spotted during a total lunar eclipse. Now, scientists will study images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to hopefully find the new crater, perhaps as large as 33 feet across. From National Geographic: An eagle-eyed viewer on Reddit spotted the potential impact during the eclipse and reached out to the r/space community to see if others could weigh in. The news spread quickly on social media, as people from across the path of totality posted their images and video of this tiny flicker of light...“The Earth and the moon are in such close proximity that observing the impacts on the moon can help us learn a lot more about the frequency of impacts on Earth,” explains (University of Toronto planetary scientist Sara) Mazrouei, who recently authored a study detailing an ancient spike in large meteor bombardment on the moon, and thus on our planet....Seeing the aftermath of smaller impacts on airless worlds like the moon can help scientists learn about the effects of larger strikes on all kinds of worlds—including our own, Madiedo says.“By knowing what happens with smaller impacts, you could know what could happen with larger impacts without really studying a large impact on Earth.” Read the rest

After six school days on the picket line, more then 30,000 LA public school teachers voted to accept an offer from the nation's second-largest school district that amounted to a near-total capitulation by management in favor of the teachers' broad demands: smaller classes; more aides, librarians and counselors; better school maintenance; support for a statewide moratorium on new charter schools; and releasing the cost-of-living-allowances that the state had paid to the LA Unified School District, but which the district had not passed on to the workers for several years, giving every teacher a real-terms pay-cut every year.The teachers were joined on the picket line by supporters ranging from parents' and students' groups (the students had their own demands: an end to in-school stop-and-frisk, limits on police officers and military recruiters in schools, and an emphasis on their education over their incarceration), and firefighters. All in all, a strike by 30,000 teachers saw 60,000 people on the picket line, including teachers from LA's largest charter school.This week's Intercepted podcast features a long and informative conversation with teacher-organizers who have been on the lines; also noteworthy is Jacobin's interview with UTLA chief negotiator Arlene Inouye.Teachers in other "blue" cities and states, from Denver to Oakland, are looking to the LA teachers' example, defying the Democratic establishment and its longstanding affinity for school privatization through charter schools (see also, Cory Brooker's tone-deaf appearance this week in support of Louisiana's notoriously racist charter schools which were supercharged by the shock-doctrine looting that took place after Katrina). Read the rest

Get your head checked with the latest from the Floppotron, an electronic music instrument comprising floppy drives and other ingeniously abused computing peripherals. [Previously at BB] Read the rest

In 1978 two families hatched a daring plan to escape East Germany: They would build a hot-air balloon and sail it by night across the border. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow their struggles to evade the authorities and realize their dream of a new life in the West.We'll also shuffle some vehicles and puzzle over a perplexing worker.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Tariff Man takes money from Americans and courageously pretends that equals Mexico paying for the wall!

For the newbie, Python can seem like the most intimidating programming language. After all, it can be used to create everything from simple apps to vast networks of web crawlers. But there are fundamental principles that underlie all the uses of this versatile platform, and you can absorb them all with the Python Master Class Bundle - an online course that's currently available on a pay-what-you-wish basis.The full nine-course package contains everything you need to know to code on one of the world's most popular platforms. After an introduction to Python from a bird's-eye view, you'll get classes that drill down on its applications in web development and gaming. You'll receive invaluable training in Python's potential in the field of web scraping and machine learning, and get resume-building experience in data analytics by pairing it with apps like Madplotlib or the Pandas libraries.The entire bundle is typically $1066, but right now, you can essentially name your own price for the Python Master Class Bundle. Get the details below and get coding. Read the rest

Baby Ryan doing manly things. Yes, please.“Our son was born premature 9 weeks early weighing just under 3 lbs,” says IMGURian bonebowl. “I like to joke that he wasn't premature, he's just advanced.” “So I took some pictures of him doing some manly grown-up things.”You've gotta see the whole photo series. Read the rest

A really bad new law in Australia gives police the right to force companies like Apple to 'backdoor', or create encryption circumvention alternatives, in all their products. The issue has been controversial in the U.S. for a long time, and spiked in 2016 after the mass shooting in San Bernardino. It's unclear how the new Australian law will impact things outside of Australia, but it's possible that your phone security will soon be impacted by laws like this, wherever you are and whatever device or carrier you use.Nellie Bowles at the New York Times:The law, the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018, applies only to tech products used or sold in Australia. But its impact could be global: If Apple were to build a so-called back door for iPhones sold in Australia, the authorities in other countries, including the United States, could force the company to use that same tool to assist their investigations.The Australian law went into effect last month. It is one of the most assertive efforts by lawmakers to rein in tech companies, which have argued for decades that unbreakable encryption is an imperative part of protecting the private communications of their customers.Read the rest. Read the rest

'Bobs Burgers' fans and stitching crafters, get ready to flip out. “I made the entire Belcher family into embroidery hoops,” says IMGURian loveandasandwich, aka Chelsea Bloxsom.“All done on 8 inch embroidery hoops. Cotton fabric backing, felt details. I glued the excess fabric onto the back so they make great personalized wall art.”Here they are, and they're magnificent.“Yes I take custom orders and yes I sell my little guys!” Here is her Instagram. She's also behind Warewolf press on Etsy. View this post on Instagram I finally made the whole family! 🍔 Just finished a Bob Belcher hoop last night, with the most Bob quote I could think of. He’s currently available in my shop! Swipe through to see the other Belcher hoops I made in the past. I can remake any of those as well, simply use the ‘Custom Embroidery Hoop’ listing. Shop link in bio. . #crafts #bobsburgers #bobbelcher #lindabelcher #louisebelcher #tinabelcher #genebelcher #crafting #sewing #applique #crafter #sewing #embroidery #embroideryhoop #embroidering #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #fanartA post shared by Chelsea Bloxsom (@loveandasandwich) on Jan 10, 2019 at 2:05pm PST Read the rest

"A single suicide by an Uber investigator who posts that they could not 'take' the job demands any longer will be fodder for the national if not international news media," the memo said.

“A new Twitter is coming,” tweeted Twitter today.“Some of you got an opt-in to try it now. Check out the emoji button, quick keyboard shortcuts, upgraded trends, advanced search, and more. Let us know your thoughts!”It's simpler. No more three-column view. Two columns now. “It's thankfully about more than cosmetics, even if it doesn't have everything users might like,” writes Jon Fingas at Engadget.Snip:To begin with, some basic tasks are faster. Keyboard shortcuts help you navigate around without as much mouse clicking, and a dedicated emoji button can add some smilies or hand claps to your latest tweet. You'll also find an upgraded trend section for times when you want to track the planet's pulse, and search promises to be more sophisticated.This doesn't appear to include some of the big updates Twitter mentioned recently, such as status updates. And no, there's no edit button. Still, it's notable that Twitter is giving its web client an overhaul after focusing so much of its attention on mobile users.Just when you'll see it is another story. At the moment, it's limited to a portion of the audience through an opt-in button. You'll know if you have access, then. It could be a while before the makeover is broadly available.A new https://t.co/fHiPXozBdO is coming.Some of you got an opt-in to try it now. Check out the emoji button, quick keyboard shortcuts, upgraded trends, advanced search, and more. Let us know your thoughts! pic.twitter.com/G8gWvdHnzB— Twitter (@Twitter) January 22, 2019 Read the rest

The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday issued an “emergency” security alert urging federal civilian agencies to secure login credentials for their respective internet domain records. The alert follows up on a recent report of DNS attacks said to have originated in Iran.In today's statement, DHS says managers need to audit DNS records for unauthorized edits, update their passwords, and turn on multi-factor authentication for all accounts through which DNS records could be altered. Agencies have two weeks to implement the directives.Cyberscoop today reported that DHS is aware of at least six civilian agency domains that have been impacted by DNS hijacks. Read it in full at cyber.dhs.gov: Emergency Directive 19-01 [January 22, 2019], 'Mitigate DNS Infrastructure Tampering.' There's also a PDF link.Excerpt from the 'background' section of the document:In coordination with government and industry partners, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is tracking a series of incidents1 involving Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure tampering. CISA is aware of multiple executive branch agency domains that were impacted by the tampering campaign and has notified the agencies that maintain them.Using the following techniques, attackers have redirected and intercepted web and mail traffic, and could do so for other networked services.The attacker begins by compromising user credentials, or obtaining them through alternate means, of an account that can make changes to DNS records.Next, the attacker alters DNS records, like Address (A), Mail Exchanger (MX), or Name Server (NS) records, replacing the legitimate address of a service with an address the attacker controls. Read the rest

Senator Mark Warner [D-VA] has introduced the Stop STUPIDITY (Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage In The Coming Years) Act, which would "keep the government running in the case of a lapse in funding by automatically renewing government funding at the same levels as the previous year," while continuing to leave the the legislative branch and the Executive Office of the President unfunded, which "will force Congress and the White House to come to the negotiating table without putting at risk the economy or hurting the American public." Read the rest

Two drones flying near Newark Liberty International Airport led to a full stop on all flights. The airport, also known as EWR, serves the greater New York City area. Federal Aviation Administration officials said all flights bound to Newark were halted on Tuesday evening, after two UAVs were spotted flying nearby. Patrick McGeehan at the NYT:The drones were sighted about 3,500 feet over Teterboro Airport In New Jersey, a small airport about 17 miles north of Newark Liberty that handles private planes, the agency said. After the sighting, takeoffs from Newark were halted and inbound planes were held in the air.By 5:45 p.m., planes had resumed landing at Newark, but planes headed for the airport from other cities were blocked from taking off, the agency said. Newark is one of the three main airports serving New York City and the surrounding region.Brett Sosnik, a passenger on a flight headed for Newark, said his plane was forced to circle out over southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania during the halt in arrivals. He said the pilot said they were circling “due to drone activity.” Read the rest

Cherry Healey met with a scientist who taught her how to make a superior cup of tea. tl;dr: Don't use a styrofoam mug (it absorbs flavor), do use a red mug (it tricks your brain into making the tea taste better), and steep it for five minutes (again, it is more flavorful).[via Dooby Brain] Read the rest

I appreciate all the work Guy Jones puts into restoring old movies. He replaces the herky-jerky motion with a more natural looking motion and adds sound that matches the action. Here's a short film of High Street in Marseille, France as it looked on April 11, 1896. There's an advertisement on a horse-driven tram for "Chocolat Russe Du Bebe" but when I google it, the only results are for a "Polar Bear Milk Hat" and "Pregnant Dwarf Hamster Behavior." Read the rest

Recall the days of being a well-adjusted middle-schooler, free of pimples, bullies, authoritarian teachers, and self-doubt, by playing this dirt-cheap Oregon Trail handheld game. Learn about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on The Oregon Trail - one of the most successful computer games of all time! Choose your profession and your traveling companions, then set out on the trek from Independence, Missouri to Oregon's WIllamette Valley circa 1848. Fill your covered wagon with supplies and prepare to cross rivers and mountain ranges along the way - hunting for food and trading for supplies as you go. Monitor your traveling pace, supplies and the health of your party closely to make sure everyone arrives safely and to avoid the dreaded message "You have died of dysentery."Oregon Trail handheld game via Amazon Read the rest

All we have to go on here is the YouTube description: "Unpaid contractor destroys travelodge" and some blow-by-blow comments from an excited witness. Read the rest

Fortnite Battle Royale is constantly adding new items, weapons, vehicles and locations. The latest? The Sneaky Snowman.The winter-themed map has a lot of Snowmen hanging around it. Now you can disguise yourself as one and sneak up on folks. Snowmen can't build or use weapons, but they can throw snowballs and act as a free 100 shield. When you switch to another item, the Snowman disguise will fall.Players who love disguising themselves as an in-game bush (aka Bushwookies) will likely have a ball! Read the rest

Zandrea Askew (28), a Marine Corps veteran, was detained by an Illinois sheriff's department on charges of driving under the influence and resisting arrest. She is now suing the department for forcibly stripping her naked, violently pulling her hair, and leaving her naked on the floor for 12 hours. (The charges against her were dismissed.)From ABC News:The lawsuit claims several officers then slammed Askew to the ground and physically restrained her, causing bodily harm. They "forcibly and maliciously stripped" all of her clothes and undergarments from her body and "violently pulled" her hair, causing further pain and injury, according to the complaint."There was no legitimate or necessary law enforcement, safety or penological objective to forcibly stripping [Askew] of her clothing. The only objective of the officers was to punish, harass, humiliate, degrade, and inflict physical and psychological pain," the lawsuit states. "The officers’ conduct in stripping [Askew] of her clothing was intentionally demeaning, dehumanizing, undignified, humiliating, terrifying, embarrassing and degrading."The department had previously settled lawsuits filed by women who say they were forcibly strip-searched. Read the rest

Lady Gaga interrupted her performance during her Enigma show in Las Vegas this weekend to chew out Mike Pence. While singing "Million Reasons," she stops mid-song to say, "If the fucking president of the United States could please put our government back in business. There are people who live paycheck to paycheck and need their money." She then moves on to Pence.“And to Mike Pence, who thinks it's acceptable that his wife work at a school that bans LGBTQ, you are wrong. You say we should not discriminate against Christianity. You are the worst representation of what it means to be a Christian. I am a Christian woman, and what I do know about Christianity is that we bear no prejudice, and everybody is welcome. So you can take all that disgrace, Mr. Pence, and you can look yourself in the mirror, and you'll find it right there." Via NBC Read the rest

I write a weekly newsletter with Kevin Kelly and Claudia Dawson called Recomendo (subscribe here). Here's the latest issue:Searchable RecomendoWe made a searchable, inexpensive version of our Recomendo book. This PDF (in glorious full-color!) is only $1.99, and available internationally. Download, browse, and search through 550 great recommendations. — KKNewsletter AppI’ve been using the Stoop app to discover and read new newsletters. It’s great to have them all in one place where I can let them pile up and read when I have the time. I’m really enjoying the Clearer Thinking newsletter, which offers tools for better decision-making. You can also find Recomendo on there! — CDIf You High (and even if you aren't)The ifyouhigh Instagram account has 3.4 million followers, but I recently stumbled on it and am hooked. It’s an endless scroll of strange and beautiful short videos of natural phenomena, machinery in motion, slo-mo, time-lapse, art, and other “Whoa dude!” moments that you don’t need to be high to appreciate. — MFTypeset in the FutureI’m spending hours studying this coffee-table book celebrating the typography and design used in science fiction movies. What do we see on screens “in the future”? More broadly, this dense picture book, Typeset in the Future, is a roundabout way to examine where the interface design of technology is headed. — KKThe Alien ExerciseIn Jen Sincero’s book, You Are a Badass, she describes the Alien Exercise for rebooting yourself and getting some clarity. Read the rest

A 35-year-old boy had a temper tantrum over the weekend when he thought his wife had damaged some of his action figures. After she left the house, he rebelled by taking a log-splitting axe and smashing the hell out of his television, computer, and other household items before going outdoors. When he spotted the car he "chopped off both side mirrors and then struck the windshield so hard the ax got stuck," according to NBC15.At least he had the good sense to call 911 and tattle on himself. The fellow, who admitted he had been drinking too much, was arrested and taken to jail.Image: Marco Verch/Flickr Read the rest

I heard former CIA 'clandestine serviceman' Jon Sipher on Renato Mariotti's fantastic podcast On Topic.Sipher describes how Trump and Putin's colliding interests are far more threatening to the future of democracy than answering the question "was there collusion?" The entire story was published by The Atlantic here.Two Donald Trump supporters were recently photographed at a rally wearing shirts emblazoned with the phrase i’d rather be russian than a democrat. To some supporters of President Trump, praising Russia and denigrating Democrats is simply a means of expressing tribal loyalties, or of goading liberals. However, as heated political rhetoric becomes part of the media landscape, such fringe views are becoming more mainstream, displaying an increasing convergence of interests between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the views of Trump supporters.While many Americans are concerned that the Trump campaign may have colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election, Trump’s outright convergence of interests with Putin’s Russia may well prove far more damaging for U.S. interests in the long run. Convergence can be defined as distinct groups doing the same things for different reasons, or as a unity of interests evolving from separate starting points. Both Putin and Trump seek to inject chaos into the U.S. political system. They support an assault on U.S. foreign-policy elites, encourage fringe and radical groups, and envision a United States untethered from traditional allies. They also share a willingness to utilize informal and semi-legal means to achieve their goals. The common interest shown by Russia and the alt-right in exploiting fears surrounding the routine Jade Helm military exercise in Texas in 2015? Read the rest

Ben Beck has relaunched his 30+ year-old AnarchySF site, with new contributions from Eden Kupermintz and Yanai Sened; it's billed as "an open-source repository of anarchist or anarchy-adjacent science fiction" and the relaunch incorporates "modern content management frameworks to allow a community to form around the archive and help maintain it." My cursory examination confirms that the site is an excellent resource already, but still really use work, especially on non-English sources. Read the rest

On April 29, 1961, Dr. Leonid Rogozov was in Antarctica in a blizzard when his stomach began to hurt. Badly. The only physician on the Soviet Antarctic Expedition, Rogozov realized his appendix needed to come out before it burst and killed him. Rogozov's only choice was to take the matter into his hands. He roped in a meteorologist and a driver to assist. From MDLinx:Dr. Rogozov assumed a semi-reclined position designed to allow him to perform the operation with minimal use of a mirror...“It was frequently necessary to raise my head in order to see better, and sometimes I had to work entirely by feel,” Dr. Rogozov wrote. “General weakness became severe after 30 to 40 minutes, and vertigo developed, so that short pauses for rest were necessary.”Toward the end of the operation, Dr. Rogozov nearly lost consciousness and he feared he would not survive....After resection of the severely diseased vermiform appendix (including a 2 × 2 cm perforation at the base), antibiotics were introduced into the peritoneal cavity, and he closed the wound... Understandably, he described his postoperative condition as “moderately poor,” although signs of peritonitis resolved during the next 4 days. At 5 days post-surgery, his fever diminished, and the sutures were removed by day 7. After 2 weeks, he was back to work.(via Historic) Read the rest

Like Facebook, Livejournal was built in a bright student's dormroom; but unlike Facebook, LJ wasn't built "for nonconsensually rating the fuckability of stolen photos of undergrads," but rather as a community-minded platform for self-expression and connection-forging.Today, LJ is Russian-owned and Russian-hosted, and while it remains hugely influential in Russia, it is also viewed with great sorrow by its non-Russian exiles, who left, or were forced to leave, by a series of minor and major catastrophes that are a kind of microcosm of the ways that online communities can both excel and fail.Steven T Wright's potted history of LJ on Ars Technica is a fascinating read on the subject, tracing LJ's history from a nonprofit, volunteer-run project that used borrowed space in a small ISP (literally a closet) to host itself, to a small, struggling business that tried to balance a commitment to its users with the need to keep the lights on, to a division of Six to Start, where the new managers struggled to rebalance that commitment, sometimes getting it wrong and sometimes being needlessly tormented by both trolls and users who refused all change, to the site's sad situation today.The most interesting part of Wright's history is that difficult balancing act between the commercial needs of the service and the ethos of prioritizing users' comfort. Sometimes, this made the service too timid, and other times it was far too bold. It's important to remember that in this day of giant services that are almost totally unresponsive to users' needs (from Facebook to Tumblr), there's also nothing about "listening to users" that automatically guarantees that you'll produce something they like (or that you can financially sustain). Read the rest

A Scoot Airlines plane flying from the Gold Coast in Australia to Singapore had to cut the flight short, landing in Sydney, when a gentleman became "unruly." About 20 minutes after the plane took off, the man went into attack mode, screaming and finally punching another passenger before people were able to restrain him.A few minutes of the scene was captured on video and posted to Facebook by passenger Rico David Garilli, who starts his post with, "EDIT: watch until the end. He strips and goes for a run before being tackled down." Garilli explains that the man had been "drinking heavy" before the plane took off.After being dumped in Sydney, passengers scrambled to find other flights, some having to wait for more than seven hours before boarding another plane. Via USA Today Read the rest

Made in 1985 to share the hardships of growing up a werewolf, Rollin Augusts "Rod" Daniel's Teen Wolf serves as a most excellent time capsule.From the graffiti in Michael J. Fox's locker to Michael J. Fox himself, this movie screams the '80s far more than Stranger Things ever can. Read the rest

Denver is a huge airport, and I hate connecting there, but the Illuminati probably have a cooler hideout.How could there be a Harley dealer inside the Illuminati HQ? Read the rest

Matt Taibbi (previously) is in characteristically fine form here: the average Congressjerk is mythologized as a "brilliant 4-D chess player" but "would lose at checkers to a zoo gorilla": they are only in office because "someone with money sent them there, often to vote yes on a key appropriation bill or two. On the other 364 days of the year, their job is to shut their yaps and approximate gravitas anytime they’re in range of C-SPAN cameras."Meanwhile AOC "won in spite of the party and big donors, not because of them" and while "that doesn’t make anything she says inherently more or less correct" it does give her a different job from the average Congress-sponge: her backers sent her there to make noise, not to keep her mouth shut.This is why the "thinkfluencers," and other establishment figures are so bent on giving her unsought advice to shut up and decide whether "to be an effective legislator or just continue being a Twitter star." The shut-up-and-play-nice camp likes to draw comparisons between AOC and Trump, on the grounds that their grassroots followings let them escape the gravity of their party's machines and the power-brokers that stoke them, but the real comparison is that both were elected by people who were rejecting DC establishment politics (which has refused to bring forward insanely popular policies). That means that, as with Trump, every time a despicable establishment figure denounces AOC, it increases her influence and power (possibly the nicest thing you could say about Trump is that he is hated by the looter Mitt Romney and the war criminal George Bush, and every time either one of those weasels talks Trump down, I'm tempted to reconsider my strict I-wouldn't-piss-on-him-if-he-was-on-fire policy). Read the rest

Teen Vogue continues its excellent tradition of radical reporting with Lucy Diavolo's explainer on the definitions and relative merits and demerits of "resistance," "rebellion" and "revolution."Diavolo cites George Ciccariello-Maher (visiting scholar at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics) and Keeanga-Yamhatta Taylor (African-American Studies professor at Princeton University).Resistance: "Something that we do or can do every day, that we can do in a multiplicity of ways...not babbling about Russian interference on MSNBC every single day of the f*cking week." (George Ciccariello-Maher)Rebellion: "A more explosive, momentary instance, in which resistance takes a more concrete, combative form in the streets, in popular protests — crucially, I think historically, in riots, whether it's Ferguson and Baltimore or the many riots that have put into motion political transformation historically...The moments that really crystallize something that needs to be changed, and transform consciences of millions of people in a relatively quick period of time," (George Ciccariello-Maher)Revolution: "A wholly different plane [from resistance and rebellion]: When you're talking about revolution, you're talking about the complete and utter transformation of society and the way that it functions. And we haven't witnessed that... I do think it is possible, and we don't have a choice. We don't have forever to try to figure this out" (Keeanga-Yamhatta Taylor)Resistance, Rebellion, Revolution: What They Are and How They Intersect [Lucy Diavolo/Teen Vogue](via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today allowed the enforcement of President Trump's ban on transgender people from the military. The Trump administration was earlier blocked from implementing the policy by lower courts; today's ruling lifts those injunctions while the legal battle continues.The split was partisan: John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh pemitted the restrictions to go into effect, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in the minority.Under the ban, transgender people are permitted to serve only if they do not seek to transition and do not suffer from gender dysphoria. Some post-transition trans people may continue to serve, a distinction that the conservative justices highlighted in asserting the prohibition was not a "blanket ban." Read the rest

There are an estimated 140,000 miles of footpaths in England and Wales, public rights of way that cut across all manner of private land, and due to various quirks of history they have never been fully mapped.It's been 19 years since an Act in Parliament set a deadline of Jan 1, 2026 to map every footpath, and after that, footpaths that are not mapped can be reabsorbed into the private lands they cross, ending ancient rights of way.The Ramblers, a hiking society with radical roots that fomented the creation of the nation's national parks, are leading the charge to complete the maps, through the Don't Lose Your Way campaign.While many of the footpaths they're struggling to save have simply been forgotten, others have been deliberately obscured, often by farmers who want to keep strangers from crossing their fields, and resort to trickery like misleading signs and barbed wire to obfuscate the footpaths.I've spent many happy hours rambling, mostly in Norfolk, where all the paths we took were well-marked, well-loved and well-maintained. The footpaths are a visible remnant of the ancient compact between private landowners and the common people, embodied in such documents as the Charter of the Forest, a much more important and radical document than the Magna Carta.Until last year, when Fraser applied for the path to be recorded, the owner of a nearby house had a gate across it, which was now gone. When you attempt to open an old path, you have to inform landowners who might be affected. Read the rest

Bruce Sterling cataloged all the onscreen booze in Casablanca, producing a surprisingly long list (Sterling: "ranted, they’ve all got plenty to drink about, but gee whiz.") A French 75 sounds a little sweet for my taste, but I might just have to try one the next time we've opened a bottle of bubbly without managing to finish it.Wine – English couple in the opening scene are drinking wine at the outside cafe when robbed by a sly pickpocket.Cocktail – A desperado is waiting, waiting, waiting and drinks while lamenting that he will never get out of Casablanca.Cocktail – Man tries to negotiate a passage out of Casablanca.Wine – Man buys passage on a fishing vesselWine – Women trying to get more money for her jewelsCocktail – Englishmen are served by Sascha in Rick’s bar, and toasting cheerio.Wine – Women gambling at Rick’s while drinkingChampagne glass (already empty) – In front of Rick as he is toying with a chess problemWine – Ugarte drinks while bargaining with Rick.Brandy (Boss’s Private Stock) – Sacha serves the good stuff to the spurned Yvonne, because Yvonne is Rick’s private stockBrandy – Captain Louis Renault drinks at Ricks. He’s a steady customer, since the bar also has loose women.Brandy – the Italian Fascist Captain Tonelli drinks while harassed by Lieutenant Casselle in Rick’s.Brandy – Rick gives some free brandy to Renault in Rick’s office.Veuve Cliquot 1926 – The top French champagne that Renault recommends to Strasser as the Nazi crassly gobbles caviar. Read the rest