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There's finally a good use for autotuning; use it to enhance your pet's vocals.Animator Joaquin Baldwin (previously on BB) did just that. He autotuned his cat Elton using an app called Voloco. It's really funny!Elton's not the only pet who got autotuned. In fact, it seems it may have started with a howling dog named paco:i auto tuned by dog howling pic.twitter.com/RQwIqKqjvC— 🌻 (@_avall) February 14, 2019(Nerdcore) Read the rest

Well, here's something you don't see every day, tiki mugs of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. Choose the form of the Destructor, and hopefully this jolly giant marshmallow man pops in your head, and hand. Holding approx. 36oz of your favorite ectoplasmic beverage, this tiki-ized manifestation of something that could never ever possibly destroy us is ready for you to trap in your collection.Currently available from Mondo in limited-to-650 Bone Variant ($55, shown in second to left) and Standard Edition ($50, shown in blue and red). The Crossing the Streams Variant ("orange-wiped" glaze) was created for Designer Con and appears to not be for sale. The Brown Glaze one will be heading to select Alamo Drafthouse theater locations soon.(Geekologie) Read the rest

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will challenge Donald Trump for president in 2020. Thanks to popular (rather than merely "populist") policies, and a strong primary run in 2016 against a Democratic party apparatus that did everything it could to stop him, he becomes an instant front-runner."We began the political revolution in the 2016 campaign, and now it's time to move that revolution forward," the independent senator told Vermont Public Radio in an interview airing Tuesday morning. ... Sanders pointed to the Democratic Party's leftward shift as a reason for a second run. "It turns out that many of the ideas that I talked about – that health care is a right, not a privilege, and that we've got to move toward a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system: very, very popular. The idea that we have got to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour," he told Vermont Public Radio. "When I talked about making public colleges and universities tuition-free and lowering student debt, that was another issue that people said was too radical. Well, that's also happening around the country."If he has a policy problem, it's that most of the other Democrats are already running with his ones. Read the rest

Italian composer and arranger Giovanni Dettori based his "Lady Gaga Fugue" on her 2009 hit "Bad Romance." In this video, his friend Vincenzo Culotta plays his neo-Baroque piece on the piano. Dettori writes, "To give a "modern feeling" I used a special treatment of fourths, fifths, suspensions and rythm [sic]."Ok, full disclosure: this video was posted on YouTube way back in April 2011 and was a big hit back then apparently. It was the first time I had seen it though. I enjoyed it and figured many of you would too. Sheet music is available. Incidentally, just this year, the original video for "Bad Romance" surpassed 1 billion views.(Nag on the Lake) Read the rest

The mystery of the glorious fireball emitted by microwaved grapes (featured in my novel Little Brother) has been resolved, thanks to a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which Trent University researchers Hamza Khattak and Aaron Slepkov explain how they destroyed a dozen microwaves before figuring out that the grapes were just the right size and had enough humidity to set up standing waves that amplify the microwaves -- and anything roughly grape-sized will do the same.The paper is offline at both PNAS and Sci-Hub, which is weird, but there's good coverage of it at Ars and Wired."Previous explanations leaned on the idea that the grape was acting as an antenna and that an electrical current was being generated across the 'skin bridge' holding the two halves to a grape together," said co-author Pablo Bianucci of Concordia University in Montreal, who did the computer simulations for the study. It's that current, conventional wisdom goes, that generates the plasma.These new experiments show that's not quite right. The skin bridge isn't necessary for the effect to occur.Rather, "Our interpretation is that the plasma is generated by an electromagnetic 'hot spot' that is a purely (microwave) bulk effect," said Bianucci. "The grapes have the right refractive index and size to 'trap' microwaves, and putting two of them close together leads to the generation of this hot spot between them." Read the rest

Last week's publication of the final draft of the new EU Copyright Directive baffled and infuriated almost everyone, including the massive entertainment companies that lobbied for it in the first place; the artists' groups who endorsed it only to have their interests stripped out of the final document; and the millions and millions of Europeans who had publicly called on lawmakers to fix grave deficiencies in the earlier drafts, only to find these deficiencies made even worse.Thankfully, Europeans aren't taking this lying down. With the final vote expected to come during the March 25-28 session, mere weeks before European elections, European activists are pouring the pressure onto their Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), letting them know that their vote on this dreadful mess will be on everyone's mind during the election campaigns.The epicenter of the uprising is Germany, which is only fitting, given that German MEP Axel Voss is almost singlehandedly responsible for poisoning the Directive with rules that will lead to mass surveillance and mass censorship, not to mention undermining much of Europe's tech sector.The German Consumer Association were swift to condemn the Directive, stating: "The reform of copyright law in this form does not benefit anyone, let alone consumers. MEPs are now obliged to do so. Since the outcome of the trilogue falls short of the EU Parliament's positions at key points, they should refuse to give their consent."A viral video of Axel Voss being confronted by activists has been picked up by politicians campaigning against Voss's Christian Democratic Party in the upcoming elections, spreading to Germany's top TV personalities, like Jan Böhmermann. Read the rest

The rise in a belief that the Earth is flat is bizarre and somewhat frightening, a repudiation of one of the most basic elements of scientific consensus. Texas Tech University psych researcher Asheley R. Landrum attended a 2017 flat earth convention and interviewed 30 attendees to trace the origins of their belief in a flat earth, finding that Youtube videos were key to their journey into conspiracy theories; her findings were bolstered by a survey of more than 500 participants.Landrum presented her research at an AAAS meeting a year ago, and it paints a compelling picture of the role Youtube plays in spreading conspiracy theories.I think that a good model for understanding the spread of these theories needs to also take account of the breakdown of epistemological consensus about how we know things are true.This breakdown has at least two contributing factors: the first is a decades-long, deliberate campaign to undermine the consensus about how we know things are true, from the denial of the link between cancer and smoking to climate denial. The denial playbook starts with undermining the idea that science produces reliable outcomes, or that a scientific consensus can be trusted.But denialism is greatly augmented by a legitimate perception of corruption in both expert circles and regulators. The anti-vax movement, for example, relies on two true facts to suggest an untrue conclusion: * the pharma industry is corrupt and willing to endanger people for profit; and * regulators are captured by pharma and willing to let them get away with it; therefore* vaccines can't be trusted. Read the rest

Goodloe Sutton is publisher of the Democrat-Reporter, a newspaper published in the small town of Linden, Alabama, and he is very upset about "Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats [who] are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama," so much so that he published an editorial calling on "the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again" to address the issue.In his editorial, Sutton claimed, falsely, that freed slaves sometimes donned Klan robes to "frighten some evil doer." The Montgomery Advertiser contacted Sutton to ask him about his editorial. Sutton elaborated that "cleaning up DC" was meant to suggest lynchings, saying "We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them." He defended himself against a charge of advocating for lynching Americans by denying that the politicians he opposed were Americans, saying "These are socialist-communists we're talking about. Do you know what socialism and communism is?"Sutton went on to deny that the Klan was violent, and suggested that they were a community group comparable to the NAACP, saying "Well, they didn't kill but a few people. The Klan wasn't violent until they needed to be."Sutton inherited the newspaper from his father. In the newspaper editorial, Sutton wrote: Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama. They do not understand how to eliminate expenses when money is needed in other areas. This socialist-communist ideology sounds good to the ignorant, the uneducated, and the simple-minded people. Alabama newspaper editor calls for Klan return to 'clean out D.C.' [Melissa Brown/Montgomery Advertiser](Thanks, Fipi Lele! Read the rest

Michael Coteau, a member of the Ontario provincial parliament from the opposition Liberal party has announced for provincial Right to Repair legislation, which he will introduce in a private member's bill -- he says the legislation was prompted when he was charged nearly $400 to fix his daughter's Samsung phone screen and he recalled a CBC special on US efforts to pass Right to Repair laws at the state level; Coteau says he's looking for co-sponsors from the NDP and the ruling Conservative Party (whose caucus is a disgraceful shambles). Read the rest

The EU Commission has been forced to retract a Medium post in which it patronised and dismissed opponents of the controversial Article 13 proposal that will force platforms to surveil and censor users' postings with copyright filters, calling them a "mob."The Commission characterised the opposition as being stooges for Google, hoodwinked by the company to carry water for it, despite the fact that Google has quietly supported the idea of filters as an acceptable alternative to other forms of regulation (Facebook, too, has supported the proposal).The Copyright Directive -- which contains the offending Article 13 -- is coming up for a vote this spring, just before EU elections; the Commission has, it seems, chosen a side in that vote and is attempting to sideline and marginalise EU voters who might put pressure on their elected representatives. The Commission's piece has been removed (read an archived copy here), and replaced with a message that blames readers for not understanding it correctly.This patronising dismissal marks a new phase in the effort to force the Directive through the Parliament; it supercedes an earlier tactic of characterising opponents of the Directive as "bots" (one German politician tweeted his suspicion that Google had unleashed bots on him, citing the fact that the voters who'd contacted him were using Gmail accounts!).The tactic is backfiring. This weekend, thousands marched against the Directive in Cologne, carrying signs that mocked the "mob" and "bot" characterisations. More events are planned for March across the EU, ahead of the final vote. Read the rest

This is what happiness and best-friends-forever friendship looks like.[source]...? Read the rest

The smash hit Chinese government propaganda app Xuexi Qiangguo, which translates to 'Study to make China strong', was developed by the technology firm Alibaba, reports Reuters today.Just last week, the propaganda app knocked Wechat and Tik Tok’s Chinese version Douyin off the "most popular app" pedestal in Apple’s China app store. Two people at Alibaba disclosed their company's role in the Xuexi Qiangguo app to Reuters during a time when the relationships between Chinese technology firms and the Chinese government are being newly questioned.Here's a screengrab of the associated Chinese Government website, which features glowing, nationalistic prose throughout:And here's an excerpt from the Reuters report:It was developed by a largely unknown special projects team at Alibaba known as the “Y Projects Business Unit”, which takes on development projects outside the company, said the people.New York-listed Alibaba declined to comment on whether the business unit had developed the app.The app’s development by Alibaba, whose Chairman Jack Ma is a member of the Communist Party, is the latest example of a Chinese tech company collaborating with the government.The country’s propaganda department has released the app ahead of next month’s National People’s Congress in Beijing, China’s top annual parliamentary gathering.IMAGE: Xuexi Qiangguo is seen on a mobile phone in this illustration picture taken February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/Illustration Read the rest

The judge imposed a limited gag order on Roger Stone last week.

Do you think your life is tough? Be grateful you aren't this guy, reported in The Guardian:Pandora Mather-Lees, an Oxford-educated art historian and conservator, started giving lessons after a billionaire asked for help to restore a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting damaged not by sea spray, but by breakfast cereal. “His kids had thrown their cornflakes at it over breakfast on his yacht because they thought it was scary,” Mather-Lees said. “And the crew had made the damage worse by wiping them off the painting.”She declined to name the owner or identify the artwork, but a Basquiat painting depicting a crazed, skull-shaped face sold at auction for a US record $110.5m (£84.5m) in 2017.Image: Sasa Kadrijevic/Shutterstock Read the rest

[UPDATE 2/18/2019, 3:37pm PT: Here's a statement from a Google spokesperson: “While we continue to investigate the matter, we have not found any evidence that Google Images was ranking the Pakistani flag in response to this particular search. Many news outlets wrote about an old screenshot from a meme website that is inconsistent with our UI and dates back to 2017, and we have not seen any independent verification that these results ever appeared as depicted. Since these news stories published, images from those articles are now ranking for this query, as the pages contain words relevant to the search.”][UPDATE 2/18/2019 I've learned that tt's likely the screenshot images are fakes, and are based on a 2017 meme. I'll post an update as I get more information.]Unknown persons gamed Google's algorithm so that search results for "best toilet paper" returned photos of the Pakistan flag.From BBC:The results are believed to be the work of protesters acting in response to an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that left at least 40 soldiers dead....Now a Google search returns news stories about the link but anyone searching images for the "best toilet paper in the world" gets a page dominated by the green and white flag. Many of the images are from news stories about the connection. Others are screenshots of the critical social media posts that linked the flag to toilet paper. Read the rest

Every country once ran on its own time. This wasn't much of a problem until the era of global telecommunications began. That's when Denmark decided to use the line that's 15 degrees east of Greenwich, England as the spot to set Central European Time (one hour difference from Greenwich Mean Time). Clocks in Europe were all set so that when the sun was at its zenith 15 degrees east of Greenwich, it was noon. But because the Earth wobbles and its rotation is slowing down, "noon drifts by a fraction of a second each day," says Tom Scott. The world now uses Coordinated Universal Time, based on "a network of atomic clocks around the world" so that electronic assets trading can take place around world, where tiny fractions of a second can make a big difference.But Denmark has never changed its law from 1894, which dictates that it must follow Mean Solar Time, to match the rest of the world, which uses Coordinated Universal Time. That means the error is now 0.07 seconds, and by the end of 2019, the error will be 0.25 seconds. Fortunately, everyone ignores the outdated law.Images: Tom Scott/YouTube Read the rest

What do Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google all have in common? Somewhere in their framework, they all use MySQL, that most versatile (and free!) of database management systems. And they're not alone. If your company or the one you'd like to work for wrangles data (and who doesn't?), they're going to need someone with a working knowledge of how to do that effectively. That's where the Complete MySQL Bootcamp comes in.As taught by motivational coach Joe Parys, this course is perfect for beginners but a valuable resource for anyone who works with MySQL. You'll start with the basic syntax and other foundational concepts, then move quickly to the practical applications of this open-source tool. Before the end of the eight-hour run-through, you'll be building tables and schemes, then move on to design actual PHP web apps and the core structure of a social media website. The more you learn, the more you'll be able to do with MySQL.The Complete MySQL Bootcamp is currently on sale for $10.99. Read the rest

It's the last day of the Apollo 11's Command Module tour's stay at Pittsburgh's Heinz History Center, and I enjoyed taking a look at the capsule that splashed down 50 years ago, returning NASA's moon-walkers to planet Earth. What really caught my eye, though, was this coloring book in the NASA gift shop set up for the tour. What the hell, NASA? Read the rest

Not like this parrot, though. Previously in Parrots. Read the rest

Costco is giving new meaning to "cutting the cheese" by offering five-tiered artisan wedding "cakes" made of 24 pounds of fancy fromage. Each one is estimated to serve between 105-150 lactose-tolerant guests.These literal cheese cakes are packed by Massachusetts-based cheesemongers Sid Wainer & Son and are made of five different gourmet wheels: Red Leicester, Danish Blue, Murcia al Vino (a "drunken goat cheese"), Tuscan Sheep’s Cheese, and Brillat Savarin Triple Cream Brie. Couples who say "I do" to these non-traditional low-carb cakes will need to kick down $440 (which is roughly the same cost of its sugar-laden equivalent).Floral adornments and crackers are sold separately. And, some assembly is required:via Simplemost Read the rest

You'd be surprised how often we cover NASCAR: "Well, that ruined everything." Read the rest

Look closer at this charming Hawaiian shirt, sold as the Apocaloha!—exclamation point included. If zombies ripping apart Magnum, P.I. and other haoles in an apocalyptic scene appeals to you, this is the shirt for you. Read the rest

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, being juvenile can pay off. Two brothers have proven this. They've been humorously scribbling on baseball cards since they were kids and now it's landed them a book deal. As children of the 80s, Beau and Bryan Abbott spent their allowance on their baseball card only to discover the collection wasn't worth the cardstock it was printed on. Instead of dumping the long boxes full of cards, the then-elementary-aged boys started "enhancing" them with Sharpies in "endlessly shameless and shameful attempts at making one another laugh." This continued until high school when they stopped for a while. Mashable (link mine):Then, while Beau was at the San Francisco Art Institute, Bryan sent Beau a care package with a bunch of newly vandalized baseball cards. Beau showed his fellow students and professors and the cards became a big hit.Their popular Tumblr has been around since 2012, their Instagram is gaining some traction, and now their first book is coming out in early March. Baseball Card Vandals: Over 200 Decent Jokes on Worthless Cards! can be pre-ordered now for $12.76. You can also purchase individual cards directly from the Abbott brothers ($35 and up).(RED) Read the rest

Japanese historian Nick Kapur unearthed "Osanaetoki Bankokubanashi" (童絵解万国噺), a wonderfully bizarre illustrated Japanese history of the USA from 1861, filled with fanciful depictions of allegedly great moments in US history, like "George Washington defending his wife 'Carol' from a British official named 'Asura' (same characters as the Buddhist deity)."They just get weirder and better from there: "Washington's 'second-in-command' John Adams battling an enormous snake"; "George Washington straight-up punching a tiger"; a snake eating John Adams's mother and seeking help to avenge himself upon the snake from "a magical mountain fairy"; and so on.If you like this kind of stuff, you should check out Franz Kafka's first novel, Amerika, which was published posthumously and against Kafka's wishes. Kafka knew nothing about the USA, so he just kinda made stuff up (think of "English as She is Spoke"), like millionaires being carried through the streets of New York on sedan chairs (I learned about this from EL Doctorow's -- no relation -- essay collection The Creationists).This 1861 book was by author Kanagaki Robun (仮名垣魯文) and artist Utagawa Yoshitora (歌川芳虎).The title is "Osanaetoki Bankokubanashi" (童絵解万国噺) and it was based on 2 other second-hand sources, "Kaikoku Zushi" (海国図志) and "Amerika Ittōshi" (亜墨利加一統志). A thread of images from a Japanese illustrated history of America from 1861. [Nick Kapur](Thanks, Fipi Lele!)A thread of images from a Japanese illustrated history of America from 1861.Here is George Washington (with bow and arrow) pictured alongside the Goddess of America. Read the rest

It's not just Amazon and Apple that expect massive taxpayer subsidies in exchange for locating physical plant in your town: when Google builds a new data-center, it does so on condition of multimillion-dollar "incentives" from local governments -- but Google also demands extraordinary secrecy from local officials regarding these deals, secrecy so complete that city attorneys have instructed town councillors to refuse to answer questions about it during public meetings.Data-centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, and so companies are always on the hunt for low costs for these necessities. Sometimes, those savings come from geography -- siting a data-center by a river or lake, or in a cooler climate -- but they can also come from sweetheart deals from local power and water companies.The Partnership for Working Families has been fighting for transparency on these deals since Google's first wave of data-center buildouts in San Jose in 2006. They recently filed public records requests in eight cities where Google has built or is building data-center and seven cities with Google offices.The records reveal a pattern of extreme secrecy: Google uses special-purpose, anonymous LLCs to do its deals, sometimes using multiple LLCs for different parts of the deal (for example, one LLC might acquire the land, and another might develop it). Google binds the cities it deals with to vows of silence, through extensive nondisclosure agreements. The agreements prohibit cities from revealing Google's power and water usage, payroll data, and investment level. Google argues that these are trade secrets that might reveal sensitive competitive data, but this is also the information that voters need in order to assess whether they are getting value for money when they hand over millions to one of the world's largest, most profitable companies. Read the rest

One of my first jobs, back in the late 80s, stuck me in a room with an IBM /36, a gigantic floppy drive, and a printer the size of a Volkswagen Scirocco. I think I woke up today still hearing this... Read the rest

That was fast! pic.twitter.com/wZ1Bpf8VBh— Charles Finch (@CharlesFinch) February 16, 2019Someone took the awesome last words of Mars Opportunity and got a tattoo of Mars Curiosity. Twitter was not kind.Keep it clean and out of the sun! Read the rest

Etsy hasn't said how many sellers are affected, but there are hundreds of complaints in their seller forums.

High-def cameras are available to anyone and for much less than they were just a decade ago. Even the phones in our pockets can be used to shoot and edit short films. It's never been easier to be a filmmaker, providing you have the technique. Enter the Film & Cinematography Mastery Bundle, an online boot camp that will take your movie idea from first shot to final cut.In three separate courses, you'll get insights into every step of the moviemaking process from conception to distribution. An overview tutorial lets you know what missteps to avoid when writing your screenplay, and how to raise funds for the shoot once it's done. Then, you'll dive into the shot-by-shot details with an exhaustive course on cinematography, teaching you how to pick your shots and what equipment you'll need to capture them. Whether it's audio recording, lighting or editing, you'll have a working knowledge of almost every aspect of the process.Lifetime access to the Film & Cinematography Mastery Bundle is on sale now for $29. Read the rest

Amazon doubled its profits in 2018, to $11.2 billion; the company will receive a $129 million tax rebate for the year.Though Trump denounced Amazon's tax return, Amazon actually has Trump's tax deal, which handed massive breaks to America's richest people and corporations, to thank.In contrast to Amazon's $129 million tax rebate, millions of Americans will not get their customary tax rebate this year, and many Americans will owe additional tax.According to The Week, Amazon ended up paying an 11.4% federal income tax rate between 2011 and 2016, which is a contrast to the -1% rate this year.Amazon has a history of avoiding various sales taxes and made headlines last summer after successfully convincing Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan to repeal a tax that would have helped the city’s homeless population.Amazon Will Pay a Whopping $0 in Federal Taxes on $11.2 Billion Profits [Laura Stampler/Fortune] Read the rest

When you're learning to play a musical instrument, you have to play the same songs and scales over and over again. YouTube's algorithm doesn't seem to know this, and so it demonetized a piano tutorial channel for "Repetitious content."We just found out that our channel was demonetised for "Repetitious content" and we believe that this is an error, possibly decided by an algorithm, and now the biggest part of our livelihood has been taken away. Please help us by discussing this (tweeting and posting) if possible. We need to be heard by YouTube. It's a risk for the piano and synthesia community as we all have similar-looking videos.I hope they get this sorted out soon! Read the rest

Alfonso Ribeiro sure can move, but the Copyright office doesn't see anything registerable about it. This ruling further imperils Ribeiro's claim that Epic Games 'Fortnite' has stolen from him.The Verge:The US Copyright Office refused to register The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Alfonso Ribeiro’s “Carlton dance” routine, likely weakening lawsuits against two game studios that copied the dance. In new legal filings, Take-Two Interactive produced letters and emails from the Copyright Office, showing serious concern over whether the dance qualified for copyright protection and, if it could, whether Ribeiro even owned the rights.Ribeiro sued Take-Two for copying the Carlton dance, which he created while playing Fresh Prince character Carlton Banks, for a celebratory dance gesture in NBA 2K. He’s also filed a lawsuit against Epic Games, which used a version of the Carlton dance in Fortnite. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Take-Two filed a defense earlier this week, asking a judge to dismiss the case. It argues that Banks’ dance is too basic to be protected by copyright, which only covers more complex “choreography.”A letter from the Copyright Office backs up that argument — at least, for one of three dance variations that Ribeiro submitted. The letter calls his submission “a simple routine made up of three dance steps” and refuses registration. “The fact that a dance or movement may contain more than a trivial amount of original authorship is irrelevant,” it reads. In other words, even if Ribeiro’s dance was unique and distinctive, it’s not protected by copyright. Read the rest

Ja Rule, who claims he hasn't watched either of the Fyre festival documentaries, is ready to rise like a phoenix from the, er, flames:"(Fyre is) the most iconiq festival that never was," he says. "So I have plans to create the iconic music festival." Read the rest

“I swear the secret ingredient is crack!”The good boi in this wonderful clip is named Juggernaut, and his owner says: So my boy the Juggernaut is a rescue. I’ll make you a deal if you make a donation to your local shelter(please be honest) , I will give him a treat in your honor. For the First 100 people and I will post a pic of him getting the treat. 10 treats max per day. Let’s see how close we can get to the 100 mark. Send me a private message so I can keep track. I will post the pics at the end of the day together.Good deal, you guys. [link]I swear the secret ingredient is crack! Read the rest

Comfy Jr is selling a set of five Paperback Paradise postcards, including:Incel From Another PlanetHere They Come: The Bats That Kicked My AssWhose Cat is This?Secret Sex SkeletonEat Celestial Shit Read the rest

“The natural world is a beautiful place, so inviting, bit slippery but god i love gushing waterfalls.” “It took thousands of years for these rock formations to form, thousands, we should appreciate them more.”The natural world is a beautiful place, so inviting, bit slippery but god i love gushing waterfalls[source] Read the rest

Need a song for the third act of your indy film? Here you go:Image: Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock Read the rest

A bill to repeal Wyoming's death penalty law has failed in the state senate, thanks, in part, to the vote of Sen. Lynn Hutchings [R-Cheyenne, contact details], who said, "The greatest man who ever lived died via the death penalty for you and me. I’m grateful to him for our future hope because of this. Governments were instituted to execute justice. If it wasn’t for Jesus dying via the death penalty, we would all have no hope." Read the rest

A leading form of statistical malpractice in scientific studies is to retroactively comb through the data for "interesting" patterns; while such patterns may provide useful leads for future investigations, simply cherry-picking data that looks significant out of a study that has otherwise failed to prove out the researcher's initial hypothesis can generate false -- but plausible-seeming -- conclusions. To combat this practice, many journals have signed up to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT), a set of principles requiring researchers to publicly register, in advance, what data they will collect, and how they will analyze it, and to prominently note when they change methodologies after the fact, so that readers can treat any conclusions from these changes with additional care. CONSORT-compliant journals also promise to accept, review, and expeditiously publish correction letters when the papers they publish are found to have breached CONSORT standards.Evidence-based medicine ninja Ben Goldacre (previously) and colleagues reviewed every single paper published in five leading CONSORT-signed-up journals (New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association, British Medical Journal, and Annals of Internal Medicine) for six weeks, and, when they detected statistical practices that violated CONSORT principles, they informed the journals in writing and recorded and published their replies, and tabulated the findings, producing a league table of the journals that do the most to live up to their commitments to good statistical practice. They also analyzed the reasons that journals (and researchers) gave for not publishing corrections, and point out the wide gaps in the journal editors' and researchers' understanding of good statistical practice. Read the rest

The non-profit research organization, Open AI, developed a system called GPT-2, which "generates synthetic text samples in response to the model being primed with an arbitrary input. The model is chameleon-like — it adapts to the style and content of the conditioning text. This allows the user to generate realistic and coherent continuations about a topic of their choosing, as seen by the following select samples."GPT-2 is so good at writing fake news that the developer said, "Due to our concerns about malicious applications of the technology, we are not releasing the trained model."Here's an example of the output:SYSTEM PROMPT (HUMAN-WRITTEN)Recycling is good for the world.NO! YOU COULD NOT BE MORE WRONG!!MODEL COMPLETION (MACHINE-WRITTEN, 25 TRIES)Recycling is NOT good for the world. It is bad for the environment, it is bad for our health, and it is bad for our economy. I’m not kidding. Recycling is not good for the environment. It is destructive to the earth and it is a major contributor to global warming. Recycling is not good for our health. It contributes to obesity and diseases like heart disease and cancer. Recycling is bad for our economy. It increases the cost of a product, and in turn, the price of everything that is made with that product. Recycling is not good for our nation. We pay a tremendous price for the privilege of having the world’s most advanced and efficient recycling system. Recycling is a huge, colossal waste of time, energy, money, and resources. Read the rest

NYC punk band The New York Rats is launching their new album on Sunday: it's a heavy vinyl LP with amazing sleeve art by Andrea Sicco; the album itself is Ramones-y, Husker-Du-ish uptempo punk that I've had on heavy rotation all week: it's 7:30PM on at Our Wicked Lady, 153 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn. Read the rest

Following several weeks of recovery from cancer treatment, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has physically attended a closed-door meeting of the Supreme Court. CNN:Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the Supreme Court Friday to participate in the regular closed-door conference meeting among the nine justices, the court announce.This marks the 85-year-old Ginsburg's first time back at the court since she announced her cancer surgery.Ginsburg underwent surgery in December to remove two cancerous nodules from her left lung. There was no evidence of any remaining disease, nor is there evidence of disease elsewhere in the body, the court said in a statement.The nodules were found incidental to scans there were performed in November after she fell in her office and was hospitalized with three fractured ribs.For the first time in her career, Ginsburg missed two weeks of oral arguments. The justices will take the bench again on Tuesday. While Ginsburg is expected to sit for oral arguments, the court spokeswoman would not confirm her presence.Last week, Ginsburg appeared at an event in Washington to attend a performance of "Notorious RBG in Song." The Washington outing was to support her daughter-in-law, soprano Patrice Michaels, who released an album of songs chronicling Ginsburg's life.Ginsburg has had two previous bouts with cancer. She underwent surgery for colorectal cancer in 1999 and early stage pancreatic cancer in 2009. Read the rest

Alex Jiminez grew up poor in Puerto Rico, and is obsessed with yachts; by being one of the first people on Instagram to take a lot of pictures at yacht shows, he has become a sought-after "yacht influencer" who gets flown around the world to take photos of yachts that are going up for sale or whose owners are looking for renters.Jiminez says that despite the glamor he's surrounded by, he barely ekes out a living (he supplements his income by creating "subsidiary" Instagram accounts that build up followers among yacht-fanciers, and then selling these accounts to yacht dealers. He also gets paid to wear large, expensive watches for photos (he doesn't get to keep the watches).“Well, I want to own a yacht,” Jimenez said. “I used to just want to be on yachts, because I thought the parties were cool and the technology was awesome, but now that I’ve spent a good portion of my life partying on them, I actually want to own a yacht. Owning a yacht, really owning it in full and being able to pay for its upkeep, means that you’ve somehow freed yourself from work and want. If you own the yacht that way, you’re a free man. The hustle and grind are things of the past.”I asked him if he had plans to leave the yacht while we were in the French Riviera.“No, I’m going to hang back here, because I’m scheduled to be on another one of these yachts tomorrow,” he said. Read the rest

During Trump's address this morning where he declared a National Emergency in order to get funding for the wall that Mexico didn't pay for, he also mentioned how excited he was about the idea of a death penalty for people who traffic drugs. He talked about a meeting he had with China's President Xi Jinping, in which Xi attributed China's low drug crimes to the punishment of death. "That's frankly one of the things I'm most excited about in our trade deal," Trump said, referring to the death penalty given to drug dealers."If we want to get smart...you can end the drug problem, a lot faster than people think." Read the rest

Lucian's SPUDwriter (Single Purpose User Device) was designed to help him focus on creative writing after a long day of staring at a screen in his engineering job: it uses an e-ink screen and a keyboard, and only outputs via SD card or thermal printer. As a person who does all of their engineering work on or adjacent to a computer, the idea of coming home and spending even MORE time on the computer for creative writing isn’t super appealing. So I made an e-paper typewriter – no browser, no games, just you and your word count. It has a character LCD at the bottom for the current line you’re typing, to make up for how slow E-paper updates, and when you’re finished you can save your file to an SD card or print it all out with the internal thermal receipt printer for redline editing. I call it the SPUDwrite (Single Purpose User Device), hopefully the first of a couple of SPUDs. It’s built on MBED and the STM32F401 Cortex M4. The SPUDwrite (Single Purpose User Device) for creating writing made with E-paper, MBED, and STM32F401 Cortex M4 [Adafruit](Thanks, PT!) Read the rest

The Boston Globe: " After teasing it for months, President Trump is officially declaring the US-Mexico border a ‘‘national emergency,’’ which will allow him to circumvent Congress’s constitutional powers to control spending and divert federal funds toward his much ballyhooed border wall."Congressman Ted Lieu:Why didn't @realDonaldTrump declare a national emergency 35 days ago, or last year? Because he knows he will lose in court. There is no national emergency:-Border crossings at around a 20-year low-Violent crime is down-Property crime is down-Immigrants commit less crime https://t.co/z664hA1ukJ— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 14, 2019 Read the rest

If you're a disgruntled ex-Facebooker or someone who "made threatening statements" against the company, there's a chance its internal security force is tracking your location and activities, using Facebook's apps and other tracking tools.Given the scale of Facebook and the number of people the company has infuriated, this watchlist could be very big indeed -- as CNBC points out, if the company tracks 0.1% of its users this way, it's keeping tabs on 270,000 people.At least one of the company's blacklists, the weekly updated BOLO ("Be On the Lookout") list, has "hundreds" of names on it. You can be added to BOLO for writing an update like "Fuck you, Mark," "Fuck Facebook" or "I'm gonna go kick your ass."Facebook called the measures "industry-standard," and insisted that "any suggestion our onsite physical security team has overstepped is absolutely false."The user checked in with security to register as a guest. His name popped up right away, alerting security. He was on the list. His issue had to do with messages he had sent to Zuckerberg, according to a person familiar with the circumstances.Soon, more security guards showed up in the entrance area where the guest had tried to register. No one grabbed the individual, but security guards stood at his sides and at each of the doors leading in and out of that entrance area.Eventually, the employee showed up mad and demanded that his friend be removed from the BOLO list. After the employee met with Facebook's global security intelligence and investigations team, the friend was removed from the list — a rare occurrence. Read the rest

In 1908 a 22-year-old Italian baker's assistant arrived in London to take part in the Olympic marathon. He had no coach, he spoke no English, and he was not expected to challenge the elite runners at the top of the field. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow Dorando Pietri on the most celebrated race in Olympic history.We'll also ponder the Great Mull Air Mystery and puzzle over a welcome murder.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest