Until last spring, everyone wanted to see the new European Copyright Directive pass; then German MEP Axel Voss took over as rapporteur and revived the most extreme, controversial versions of two proposals that had been sidelined long before as the Directive had progressed towards completion.After all, this is the first refresh on EU copyright since 2001, and so the Directive is mostly a laundry list of overdue, uncontroversial technical tweaks with many stakeholders; the last thing anyone wanted was a spoiler in the midst.Anyone, that is, except for German newspaper families (who loved Article 11, who could charge Big Tech for the privilege of sending readers to their sites) and the largest record labels (who had long dreamed of Article 13, which would force the platforms to implement filters to check everything users posted, and block anything that resembled a known copyrighted work, or anything someone claimed was a known copyrighted work).These were the clauses that Voss reinserted, and in so doing, triggered a firestorm of opposition to the Directive from all sides: more than four million Europeans publicly opposed it, along with leading copyright and technical experts—and also the notional beneficiaries of the rules, from journalists to the largest movie studios, TV channels and sports leagues in Europe.Voss has found himself increasingly isolated in his defense of the Directive, just him and the record labels against the rest of the world.And now it's just Voss.The record labels have joined the movie studios in denouncing the working version of Article 13, and calling for the impossible: a rollback of the tiny, largely ornamental changes made in order to give the Directive a hope of passing (they were complaining about Monday's version of the Directive, but the version that leaked yesterday doesn't fix any of their problems). Read the rest

Yoni Appelbaum's longread in The Atlantic on the case for impeaching Trump draws on heterodox interpretations of the Clinton and Johnson impeachments, as well as the Nixon impeachment, to argue that despite (or even because of) the Senate's near-certain inaction on impeachment, there are real benefits to impeaching Trump, which is looking very likely if accusations of suborning perjury before Congress are true.Appelbaum argues that history's verdict on the Clinton and Johnson impeachments -- that they were divisive, partisan exercises that did more harm than good -- is misguided. Rather than viewing impeachment as a denergous constitution-undermining exercise that weakens the institution of the presidency, Appelbaum says that the framers wouldn't have put impeachment into the Constitution if it wasn't part of the normal functioning of a Constitutional democracy, a check on an otherwise imperial presidency (and incidentally, he argues that the presidency has grown increasingly imperial and is overdue for a good trimming).In addition to making a case that impeachment is itself a reasonable action under some circumstances, Appelbaum makes the fairly easy case that we are living through those circumstances right now, reciting a greatest hits of Trump's many qualifying sins.Then he gets to the interesting part: we know that the Senate isn't going to do anything about a successful impeachment of Trump by the Democrats in Congress, so what's the point? According to Appelbaum, history teaches us that impeaching a president has five major benefits even if they are not removed from office: it changes the way that the press covers the issue, switching from letting the president set a fearmongering agenda to piecing together a coherent narrative of the president's unfitness; it sidelines the president's agenda and forces them to focus on the impeachment; it moves away from the piecemeal Congressional committee investigations of individual scandals and puts the focus on the big picture of how they all fit together; it channels public and governmental anger with the government into a peaceful and lawful system of redressing grievances, forestalling potential political violence; and it permanently damages the impeached president's political prospects, putting them under a cloud for the rest of their political lives. Read the rest

Unvaccinated children exposed to the measles are catching and spreading the highly contagious disease in Washington's Clark County, JUST LIKE YOU WOULD EXPECT.The Oregonian:A measles outbreak in southwestern Washington state has grown to 16 confirmed cases, and most of the children affected are unimmunized against the disease, officials said Thursday.A Clark County Public Health release says officials have been tracking the outbreak since Jan. 1. Of the 16 confirmed cases, 13 of the cases are children under the age of 11, officials say.Only two of the children have an unverified immunization status; the other 14 are unimmunized, officials say.Clark County has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state, with more than 22 percent of public school students having not completed their vaccinations, The Oregonian reports, citing state records.Contagious patients have visited schools and medical facilities, as well as the Portland International Airport and retailers including the Northeast Portland Costco and Ikea stores.Officials say the disease is highly contagious and can cause fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and rash."Measles can be dangerous, especially for babies and young children. In rare cases, it can be deadly," a Washington State Department of Health fact sheet says. Read the rest

Perdue has recalled 60,000 pounds of chicken nuggets due to the presence of "wood" in them. The 22 ounce packages of frozen “PERDUE SimplySmart ORGANICS BREADED CHICKEN BREAST NUGGETS GLUTEN FREE” with “Best By: Date 10/25/19” and UPC Bar Code “72745-80656” represented on the label were produced October 25, 2018. Here's a guide to finding delicious wood nuggets. Read the rest

We got one of these gadgets from The Lakeside Collection and it broke on the first use. It turns out the screw neck is made of the cheapest plastic known to man and is doomed to failure upon contact with anything harder than snow, such as ice, wipers, mirrors, roofracks, antennas, and so on. Worse, for the few minutes it was working, it was conspicuously less effective than a brush. So I'm going to just get a decent, big-ass brush. I'm going to give the Hopkins Snowbroom [Amazon] a try because it's slightly more expensive than everything else, looks sturdy, has great reviews, and because I don't want to be the type of person who ends up buying three different snow-removing gadgets. Read the rest

Want a career in web design? It's true that these days, most anyone can throw up a page or two. But for true workhorse web design, you'll sometimes need to match the platform to the project. Enter the Complete Front-End Developer Bundle, an educational grand tour around the best tools for the web.For beginners, the package includes a bare-bones introduction to those old reliables, HTML, CSS, and Javascript. With the fundamentals in place, anyone will be able to pick up valuable creative tips in lessons about Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CC, both of which are essential for providing visual distinction to any site. For designers brushing up on the latest, the bundle includes in-depth tutorials on newer tools like Bootstrap 4 and React, and even an overview of app design through Sketch 3.All in all, it's over 65 hours of training and resources, geared to turn the most casual coder into a working web designer. The Complete Front-End Developer Bundle is now $41 for lifetime access. Read the rest

Seeing a slight resurgence online this week, perhaps due to issues related to the government shutdown, is the viral term "Yikes!" I humbly propose that this shopworn exclamation be replaced for the duration of 2019 with"Blimey!" This perfectly British alternative honors the derailed madness of Brexit and even comes with an optional intensifier — Cor Blimey! — though Americans would be advised to use it sparingly. Read the rest

Cash Cars in Kansas City will take very little cash for very crappy vehicles. They are sold AS-IS, and yet Desmound Logan here must still explain to customers that when you pay $3,000 for a Tahoe, you can take it on an extended test drive but you are not getting a warrantee. "When you come to us, we are your last motherfuckin resort," says Logan.In the following video, Logan presents a Cash Cars KC "You figure out what's wrong with it" special.NSFW language throughout, y'all. Read the rest

It's a very expensive wee gadget, the Teenage Engineering OP-1 [Amazon link; a used one from eBay is much cheaper]! Yuri Wong is an expert with its sampling and sequencing tools, and this video he uploaded is a fascinating illustration of how powerful and approachable they are.Download the mp3: https://gum.co/imadude [Logic Project download link below] I'm a fan of Tropic Thunder, especially Robert Downey's character of Kirk Lazarus and his brilliant line, "I'm a dude, playing a dude, disguised as another dude." Thought I'd play around with my Teenage Engineering OP-1 and see what comes out. I'm making the Logic Project for the full track downloadable. Here it is: https://gum.co/IurBZ Have a play around with the project, and if you feel like uploading anything from it, just credit my YouTube channel, thanks. Read the rest

At last night's "I Am The Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell" concert in Los Angeles, Miley Cyrus belted out Temple of the Dog's "Say Hello 2 Heaven" backed up by Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam and Josh Freese and Brendan O'Brien. By all accounts, Cyrus's surprisingly fierce performance was a highlight of an incredible and emotional evening.(via Billboard) View this post on Instagram Say Hello to Heaven... had a heavenly experience with you tonight, Chris. We felt you and heard you.... your words and spirit filled the room.... there was an overwhelming feeling of so much love... we miss you deeply ... tonight was an honor.... #chriscornelltribute A post shared by Miley Cyrus (@mileycyrus) on Jan 17, 2019 at 1:38am PST Read the rest

On Monday, we reported that for the first time, a plant seed had germinated on the moon, an early experiment to test whether food could someday be grown on the moon to feed residents of a lunar base. The cotton sprout was inside a canister on China's Chang’e 4 lander that touched down on the far side of the moon earlier this month. Now, word that the first lunar plant has died. The little seedling froze to death during the lunar night. From GBTimes:Liu Hanlong, head of the experiment at Chongqing University, said at a Chongqing government press conference on Tuesday that the temperature inside the 1-litre-capacity canister had reached -52 degrees Celsius and the experiment had ended.According to Liu, the experiment did not carry a battery and could not continue environmental control during the lunar nighttime. The lack of battery was possibly due to mass constraints for the mission and the lander's own power demands..."Although it is a biological payload for popularising science, it laid a foundation and technological support for our next step, that is, to build a lunar base for living," (Chongqing University professor and designer of the experiment) Xie (Genxin) said.Previously:• China launching lunar spacecraft to test growing plants on the dark side of the Moon• First images from China's probe that just landed on the dark side of the moon Read the rest

Lorna Doom, badass bassist of influential Los Angeles punk band the Germs, died yesterday. Formed in 1976, the Germs -- Doom, Darby Crash, Pat Smear, and Don Bolles in the classic line-up -- were at the center of the early Hollywood punk scene that spawned Black Flag, X, Fear, the Go-Go's, and so many seminal acts. From the Los Angeles Times:Born Teresa Ryan, Doom became an icon of the U.S. punk explosion despite having to learn her instrument after already joining the band. Along with her high school friend Belinda Carlisle, who would become lead singer of the Go-Go’s, the bassist was part of the posse of Hollywood punks who sparked a West Coast music movement.Doom’s death at age 61 was confirmed by her longtime friend and former Germs bandmate Don Bolles. A cause of death was not immediately available...Germs' primal first album, “G.I.,” set the tone for the U.S. hardcore punk movement. The debut release by the fledgling indie label Slash, which was founded by the punk fanzine of the same name, the 1978 album felt zapped onto turntables from a way messier, more uncontrolled galaxy...Slash Records also released the soundtrack to the Penelope Spheeris documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization,” which documented the Germs and other bands in performance. When the film became an unlikely indie hit, Doom’s work served as inspiration to countless female punks itching to break through the genre’s male-dominated glass ceiling.yesterday i lost a part of me, my best friend in high school and partner in crime in the early punk scene, #LornaDoom or Teresa passed away.... Read the rest

Trump received 10 personal updates from Michael Cohen and encouraged a planned meeting with Vladimir Putin. “Make it happen,” Trump said of the Putin meeting.

Scammers are so petty.In a bizarre statement today, Donald Trump “grounds” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from flying on government aircraft for a planned but not publicly disclosed to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan and conduct America's foreign business abroad.Disclosing this is a violation of national security, and stupid. Some 800,000 federal workers are without pay, and with each passing day, the shutdown -- we're on day 27-- threatens America's economy and the safety of every American. On this same day, Melania Trump flew on government aircraft to Florida, to their privately owned Mar a Lago resort. She's there alone with their child.The cost of this Air Force flight to taxpayers was over $35,0000, reports Quartz. Why'd Melania do that today? No reason, huh.EXEC1F - #MelaniaForceOne climbing out from Joint Base Andrews🇺🇸 US Air ForceC-32A 98-0001 https://t.co/BlmOXELhxJ pic.twitter.com/kgGWuEiiGV— CivMilAir ✈ (@CivMilAir) January 17, 2019.@SpeakerPelosi cannot use military plane to war zone and NATO that speakers are entitled to (for security since 9/11 because she is in line of succession) but Melania Trump flew tonight to Maralago on same type of military 757 from JBA. Alone.— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) January 18, 2019ABC News reported at 642pm Eastern that the first lady had arrived in Florida, and headed to the president's Mar a Lago club with their son Barron Trump:The first lady’s office did not respond to ABC's request for further comment.Nothing more need be said.Just reported on @MSNBC: Melania Trump flew to Florida today on a government plane, a law enforcement source confirms to NBC News, just after Trump prevented Nancy Pelosi from using a government plane to visit troops in Afghanistan. Read the rest

Once-iconic American retailer Sears (owned by Sears Holdings Corporation) will not die a bankruptcy liquidation death after all. Chairman Eddie Lampert today won a bankruptcy auction to purchase the company's assets, after presenting an upped offer of $5.2 billion, Sears said Thursday.Creditors oppose the deal.Reuters:Sears picked Lampert’s hedge fund ESL Investments Inc as the winner at a bankruptcy court-supervised auction after his latest bid topped an earlier $5 billion proposal following weeks of talks.The deal would keep open more than 400 stores, preserve up to 45,000 jobs and ESL would acquire substantially all of the company, including its “Go Forward Stores” on a going-concern basis, Sears said.“We are pleased to have reached a deal that would provide a path for Sears to emerge from the chapter 11 process,” the restructuring committee of Sears’ board of directors said in a statement.The sale still has to be approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge, and that's not happening during the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, now on its 27th day. A hearing to consider the deal is set for February 1. If approved, the transaction is expected to close on or about Feb. 8, Sears says.Previously on Boing Boing: • Sears chairman Eddie Lampert submits new $5 billion bid to save doomed retailer• RIP Sears.• Sears expected to liquidate as last-minute buyout failsPHOTO: The storefront of a Sears, Roebuck and Co. store is seen in El Paso, Texas, circa 1940. Photographer unknown. Read the rest

Starting Sunday evening, Jan. 20, 2019, North and South America will have a chance at seeing 2019's only total lunar eclipse, from start to finish. Our Earth, Moon and Sun line up on Sunday night for the only total lunar eclipse of of the year. Catch it if you can.And especially because it's a “supermoon.” That's when the moon is closer to Earth, and therefore looks larger and more bright than it normally does. Weather in much of the United States during the eclipse is expected to make for challenging viewing conditions, but you never know. “This one is particularly good,” Rice University astrophysicist Patrick Hartigan tells the AP in this story. “It not only is a supermoon and it’s a total eclipse, but the total eclipse also lasts pretty long. It’s about an hour.”Excerpt:The whole eclipse starts Sunday night or early Monday, depending on location , and will take about three hours.It begins with the partial phase around 10:34 p.m. EST Sunday. That’s when Earth’s shadow will begin to nip at the moon. Totality — when Earth’s shadow completely blankets the moon — will last 62 minutes, beginning at 11:41 p.m. EST Sunday.If the skies are clear, the entire eclipse will be visible in North and South America, as well as Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and the French and Spanish coasts. The rest of Europe, as well as Africa, will have partial viewing before the moon sets.During totality, the moon will look red because of sunlight scattering off Earth’s atmosphere. Read the rest

Two GOP congressmen met with noted white supremacist Chuck Johnson about “genetic testing and DNA,” then deny knowing he's a white supremacist. Holocaust denier and white supremacy troll Chuck Johnson, famous for lawsuit-worthy rumors he shit on the floor in public, met with Republican congressmen Andy Harris and Phil Roe on Wednesday in Capitol hill to discuss “DNA" and "genetics." Johnson is a eugenics proponent.In the photo above tweeted by Matt Fuller at HuffPost, Reps. Phil Roe of Tennessee, center, and Andy Harris of Maryland, right, walk with Chuck Johnson in the nation's capital. Reps. Roe and Harris are both medical doctors.Chuck once wrote that Muslims are “genetically different in their propensity for violence or rape," and writes that black people have a gene that makes them violent.He won't share details on his new "DNA" and "genetics" operation, including its name.Why are Republican members of congress meeting with this man, not even a week after publicly denouncing white supremacist remarks by congressman Steve King (R-IA)?Ben Collins of NBC News writes, “Chuck Johnson wouldn't comment on a FB post he shared that said African-Americans 'possessed a violence gene' or that 'Muslims are genetically different in their propensity for rape.'””Asking me to defend my views on Facebook is a little absurd,” he told NBC. Excerpt from Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny's report:Chuck Johnson met with Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland and Phil Roe of Tennessee on Thursday. After a Huffington Post reporter tweeted a photo of Johnson with the two congressmen, and the photo attracted media attention because of Johnson's far-right views, Roe released a statement saying he and Harris had met with Johnson because he was representing a company advocating for "increasing the number of sequenced genomes for research."Spokespersons for Harris and Roe both confirmed to NBC News that they had met with Johnson Thursday, and a spokesperson for Roe said they had discussed "DNA" and "genetics." Johnson and Harris would not identify the company when asked. Read the rest

Four words in a tiny font at the top of a page in Mueller's recent court filing reveal that Manafort kept at it with Kilimnik even *after* Manafort was charged with multiple felonies. It pays to read the fine print. Excerpt from Rosalind S. Helderman at the Washington Post:In a tiny font at the top of the 82nd page of a lengthy document filed in court this week by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is a key clue to his ongoing interest in Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman.The four words of unredacted text suggest that in February 2018 — four months after Manafort was first charged with crimes related to his work as a political consultant in Ukraine — he still appears to have been working on a peace initiative for Ukraine, a topic of intense interest to Russia.And it suggests he was doing so in concert with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian employee of his consulting firm who is alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence.The revelation, potentially inadvertent, comes as Manafort and Mueller’s legal team have been battling in court over whether Manafort lied to prosecutors after he pleaded guilty in September to conspiring against the United States with his Ukraine work and agreed to cooperate with the probe.Here's that “In a tiny font at the top of the 82nd page” section:On Tuesday, Robert Mueller’s team filed a 32-page declaration supporting their claim that Manafort lied to the court. This declaration included many additional pages of exhibits. Read the rest

The planned delegation included Pompeo and Mnuchin.White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says the Trump administration has canceled a planned trip to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum. The announcement was made today, Thursday, the 27th day of Trump's partial government shutdown..@PressSec: “Out of consideration for the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay and to ensure his team can assist as needed, President Trump has canceled his Delegation’s trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.”— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) January 17, 2019"Out of consideration for the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay and to ensure his team can assist as needed, President Trump has canceled his Delegation's trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland," Sanders said in a statement.Trump had already canceled his participation in Davos. The delegation would have been led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and deputy chief of staff for policy coordination Chris Liddell.Earlier in the day, Trump's spokesmonster issued this statement, as an apparent petulant swipe at the Speaker of the House telling him to State of the Union somewhere else while he holds 800,000 Americans and their families hostage.President @realDonaldTrump’s letter to @SpeakerPelosi concerning her upcoming travel pic.twitter.com/TtBCvwp080— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 17, 2019At the World Economic Forum in Davos, @SecPompeo was scheduled to participate in a panel discussion with @jensstoltenberg and others: "The Future of the Transatlantic Alliance."— David Gura (@davidgura) January 18, 2019Trump has now canceled this trip as well. Read the rest

Mexico's largest airline is trolling Americans and it's the best. h/t @Aeromexico pic.twitter.com/hPvqGnDZeF— Kevin Sieff (@ksieff) January 17, 2019I love visiting Mexico. Baja is amazing. The locals are incredibly friendly and helpful. Read the rest

Anti-Vaxxers magically deny science, cite debunked papers, and threaten all of our well being. Only the smartest people are anti-vaxxers, like President Trump.WHO:Vaccine hesitancy – the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines – threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease – it currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year, and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved. Measles, for example, has seen a 30% increase in cases globally. The reasons for this rise are complex, and not all of these cases are due to vaccine hesitancy. However, some countries that were close to eliminating the disease have seen a resurgence. The reasons why people choose not to vaccinate are complex; a vaccines advisory group to WHO identified complacency, inconvenience in accessing vaccines, and lack of confidence are key reasons underlying hesitancy. Health workers, especially those in communities, remain the most trusted advisor and influencer of vaccination decisions, and they must be supported to provide trusted, credible information on vaccines. In 2019, WHO will ramp up work to eliminate cervical cancer worldwide by increasing coverage of the HPV vaccine, among other interventions. 2019 may also be the year when transmission of wild poliovirus is stopped in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Last year, less than 30 cases were reported in both countries. WHO and partners are committed to supporting these countries to vaccinate every last child to eradicate this crippling disease for good. Read the rest

"The truth of this shutdown is that it is not actually about a wall, it is not about the border, and it is certainly not about the well-being of everyday Americans. The truth is, this shutdown is about the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms. It is not normal to hold 800,000 workers’ paychecks hostage. It is not normal to shut down the government when we don’t get what we want. It is not normal for public servants to run away and hide from the public that they serve. And it is certainly not normal to starve the people we serve for a proposal that is wildly unpopular among the American people." (via DC Tribune) Read the rest

Sho nuff!(via 10NEWS WTSP/facebook) Read the rest

I bought my Swingline Red Stapler on September 10, 2008 and it still makes me happy every time I look at it. Amazon has it on sale today for great price. Read the rest

As the about page says, "This website provides a beginner’s checklist for staying safe on the internet." It shows you how to use a password manager, create a strong device passcode, use two-factor authentication, set up a mobile carrier PIN, encrypt your devices, freeze Your credit, use 1.1.1.1 for DNS resolution, use a virtual private network, use a privacy-first web browser, use a privacy-first search engine, use a privacy-first email provider, review location, camera, and other sensitive device permissions, review and remove metadata attached to photos you share, review your social media privacy settings, use encrypted messaging apps when sharing sensitive information, and educate yourself about phishing attacks (because none of the above matters if you fall prey to phishing).Image: KenoKickit/Shutterstock Read the rest

Do not ever mess with a guy's dog. Read the rest

Peng Shepherd's The Book of M delivers the confusion and frustration of massive world change by playing on the strings of your heart.Magical realism certainly collides with prepper fantasy novel in The Book of M. People are losing their shadows and with them, their memories. As the world falls apart, folks with their shadows run in fear, while the shadowless run mad. Struggling to remember the world reconstructs it in the image of their flawed memory. The Book of M is the story of Maxine, having freshly lost her shadow, attempting to keep the memory of her husband Ory as-it-really-was, rather than change him into something he was not.Shepherd does an amazing job writing her main characters. Very unique in a dystopian novel is how these characters, governments, and pop-up societies behave a lot more as I imagine real people would in these situations.I bet most of those heroic prepper dudes all die of food poisoning anyway.Science and magic are pretty interchangeable in The Book of M, but I never felt pushed into "you just have to believe X" to make the story work. I was addicted and had a hard time putting the novel down.I was able to find The Book of M at my local library, via the Libby app.The Book of M: A Novel by Peng Shepherd via Amazon Read the rest

Henry Wu posts beautiful travel photos on Instagram. He and his friend, another Instagrammer named Zory were scammed out of $7500 by a person pretending to be Wendi Murdoch, ex-wife of Rubert Murdoch. "Wendi" (me@wendimurdoch.com) hired Henry and Zory to fly to Indonesia, and once they arrived, they were bilked multiple times by accomplices who demanded various photography fees. As things got increasingly weird and "Wendi's" assistants started becoming hostile, Henry and Zory slowly came to the realization that they'd been duped. Read the rest

Cartoonist Charis JB's webcomic reveals the deep ties between the "pick-up artist" movement and the alt-right. Read the rest

The next installment in the SFinSF reading series features Kim Stanley Robinson, Howard Hendrix, and Cecelia Holland; it's this Sunday, Jan 20, doors at 6, event at 6:30, $10 (no one turned away for lack of funds), at the The American Bookbinders Museum (355 Clementina). Read the rest

Trump's base is not happy with their leader. His approval rating is down 18 percentage points among suburban men, down 13 points among white evangelicals, down 10 points among Republicans, and down 7 points among the usually intractable cohort of white men without a college degree. From NPR:"For the first time, we saw a fairly consistent pattern of having his base showing evidence of a cracking," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll. "Don't know if that's temporary — tied to the government shutdown — or a broader problem the president is having."Photo of Trump's head used in photocollage by Gage Skidmore: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0). Sink by Shutterstock/Christian Delbert Read the rest

What professional comic Mike Huckabee lacks in creativity, comedic timing, and material, he more than makes up for in grossly mistaken self-assurance. Watch him force weak laughter and applause out of his audience of white seniors by repeating a joke in a vaguely threatening tone.Mike Huckabee thinking these "jokes" are worth laughing at is affirmative action for white conservatives in its purest form. He's like the painfully unfunny square comic in a scathing Lenny Bruce routine, with an undertone of fascism. Get the hook already. pic.twitter.com/znq6GfdzgB— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) January 16, 2019 Read the rest

America's major cellular carriers publish maps showing that virtually the entire state is well-covered, with solid signals and 5MB/s internet speeds, but Vermonters know that this is totally untrue.Knowing it and proving it are two different things: so Department of Public Service telecommunications infrastructure specialist Corey Chase, packed six cell-phones loaded with custom code developed by a Bulgarian programmer into a state-owned Prius and drove more than 6,000 miles around the state, "ground-truthing what every Vermonter with a cell phone knows: there are many, many places in the state where you simply can’t get a signal, not to mention the 5 megabits per second data download speeds the carriers were claiming."Now, armed with data, the state is hoping to get the FCC to spring some of its budget for subsidizing infrastructure improvements. However, the FCC is part of Trump's shutdown, and also run by a colossal asshole who used to be a Verizon exec, so it may be that all of Chase's good work will have to wait for regime change before Vermonters get relief. Only 656 days until the 2020 elections, folks!Vermont Public Radio has a handy-dandy interactive map of the real coverage Vermonters can expect from the carriers.The FCC uses those maps to determine what areas of the country qualify for grants to boost service to underserved areas. And by the cell companies' claims, most of Vermont gets a decent signal from at least one of the six providers.“The FCC has recognized this issue, and they’ve now opened an investigation into those maps that were submitted,” said Purvis. Read the rest

From 1961-1963 Richard Feynman -- one of the preeminent physicsts of his day -- taught an undergraduate class in physics at Cal Tech, a gig that was nominally well below his paygrade, and gave such a virtuoso performance that "They Feynman Lectures" have gone down in the annals of physics history as some of the best introductory material on physics in existence.Mariana Mazzucato is one of the leading market-sceptic economists of our age, whose instant-classic 2013 book The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths upended the debate over the supposedly efficient and innovative private sector, showing how the signal innovations attributed to private business were simply recombinations of publicly funded basic research.Mazzucato is now a professor at University College London, with her own centre, the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), and, like Feynman, she's teaching an introductory course that is well below her paygrade, and she is brilliantThe course is called Rethinking Capitalism, and the IIPP has just posted a video of the introductory lecture, which is nothing short of a tour-de-force (the accompanying textbook also looks promising).I'm really looking forward to watching the rest of these as the semester goes on.(via Four Short Links) Read the rest

While it's true that the Pew Center found that most US Facebook users don't understand how they're being tracked and targeted, the more important fact is that the number of Americans who do understand this, hate it and are deleting their Facebook accounts because of it is growing fast.It's all about the direction of travel: we've gone from a place where virtually no Facebook users knew or cared about this to a mass movement that is growing like crazy. We're past the moment of peak indifference, and the number of people who resent and fear Facebook and want to see it destroyed only goes up from here, as new partisans self-radicalize after they, or people they love, are destroyed by Facebook's business-model.Remember, back in September, Pew also found that "44 percent of those ages 18 to 29 say they’ve deleted the app from their phone in the last year" and "26 percent of survey respondents say they deleted the app, while 42 percent have 'taken a break' for several weeks or more, and 54 percent have adjusted their privacy settings."As Casey Newton writes on The Verge: "the group of people who are both informed about how Facebook works and uncomfortable with it, while smaller than you might expect, is more than large enough to make a difference in Facebook’s future. Those 55.6 million Americans already represent a healthy constituency — one that, judging from declining Facebook usage, already appears to be voting."Don’t underestimate Americans’ knowledge of Facebook’s business model [Casey Newton/The Verge](Image: Robert Couse-Baker, CC-BY) Read the rest

Everyday carry? From Atlas Obscura:This CIA-issued tool kit was issued to CIA officers during the height of the Cold War. It was a way for spies to get themselves out of sticky situations: to pick a lock, carve a tunnel, etc. Watch the video above to learn more about the tool kit from historian and curator of the International Spy Museum, Dr. Vince Houghton. (Thanks for the laff, tuhu!) Read the rest

Pacific Gas and Electric has gone from Wall Street darling to bankruptcy, thanks to the $30 billion in liability from the fires that were started in California by its power-lines.But while any long-haul, high-voltage line carries some risk, especially in a tinder-dry, drought-ravaged, climate wracked region of California, the fires were not inevitable. Back in 2007, San Diego Gas & Electric was held liable for the Witch Fires and was forced to adopt measures to prevent fires. They worked. And PG&E had not adopted any of them.The difference? PG&E is a behemoth, whose lobbying might was a match for any regulator who attempted to bring it to heel: its ability to pay dividends to the investors who flocked to it was at odds with the need to spend big on fire-safety. But letting PG&E get away with (literal) murder was bad for everyone: the Californians who lost their lives, homes and property, and the investors who are now stuck with shares in a bankrupt company.History shows us how to cope with these problems. In the heyday of the railroad barons, trains would start fires wherever they went, thanks to the sparks flying out of their chimneys and off of their brakes. But as trustbusting became the norm and the railroads lost the ability to bully their regulators, they came to heel and made the necessary investments to make their engines safe.The policy levers that are available to us when companies get to choose whether they are willing to be regulated and how are weak and unsuitable. Read the rest

Federal employees missed their first paycheck last week; from here on in, every milestone dramatically exacerbates the pain of the shutdown: a halt to aviation as TSA screeners quit en masse, civil cases stall in federal courts, 38 million hungry Americans denied food stamps and 10% of food sales in the US vanishing; deals expiring with the landlords of 40,000 low income households; then 2.2 million more households are imperiled; landlords renting to federal agencies will go without rent but won't be able to evict federal tenants, triggering mortgage and debt defaults; prison guards go from today's skeleton crew to near-total absenteeism; city buses stop running as Federal Transport Agency payments dry up; drugs fall out of the FDA pipeline, denying medication to ill and dying people; and of course, every IPO is stalled (and maybe DOA) for so long as the shutdown continues.All this to keep a racist promise to build a useless wall.Officials from Washington to Wall Street are pondering nightmare scenarios if the partial U.S. government shutdown that is already the longest on record extends into spring -- or beyond.“Shutdowns don’t get bad linearly; they get bad exponentially,” said Sam Berger, a senior adviser at the Center for American Progress, who worked at the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama.In a Month You’ll Wish the Shutdown Were Only as Bad as Today [Christopher Flavelle, Jennifer A Dlouhy, and Ryan Beene/Bloomberg](via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

L’Union européenne est sur le point de donner encore plus de pouvoir à une poignée d’entreprises géantes états-uniennes en technologie, en échange contre des accords temporaires de partage des bénéfices avec une poignée d’entreprises géantes européennes de divertissements. Cela entraînerait en contrepartie une censure de masse et affaiblirait encore plus la position de négociation des artistes professionnels européens.Plus de quatre mois sont passés depuis que les négociateurs parlementaires de l’Union européenne et les représentants des gouvernements nationaux d’Europe ont disparu derrière des portes closes pour préparer au vote la nouvelle Directive sur le droit d’auteur dans le marché unique numérique. Malgré tout ce temps et toute cette solitude béate, ils n’y sont pas arrivés.La directive présente les mêmes problèmes depuis le début :Article 11 : une proposition pour faire payer les plateformes qui publient des liens vers les sites de nouvelles en créant un droit de licence, auquel elles ne pourront pas renoncer, pour tout lien provenant de services à but lucratif (dès que ces liens comprennent plus d’un mot ou deux provenant de l’article d’information ou de son titre). L’article 11 ne définit pas ce que sont des « sites de nouvelles », des « plateformes commerciales » ni des « liens », ce qui invite 28 pays européens à créer 28 régimes de licences mutuellement exclusifs et contradictoires. De plus, le fait qu’il est impossible de renoncer au « droit sur les liens » signifie que les sites de nouvelles libres d’accès, d’intérêt public, sans but lucratif et « Creative Commons » ne peuvent pas se soustraire au système.Article 13 : une proposition pour mettre fin à l’apparition, même pour un instant, d’œuvres protégées par le droit d’auteur et sans licence sur les grandes plateformes de contenu généré par les utilisateurs. Read the rest

À nos amis au Luxembourg : ce mois-ci, l’UE espère concrétiser la Directive sur le droit d’auteur dans le marché unique numérique, sans donner aucun signe qu’ils amélioreront ou supprimeront les articles 11 et 13. Cela représente une erreur dangereuse, car ces articles pourraient écraser les jeunes pousses européennes en technologie, ce qui concentrerait le pouvoir entre les mains des grandes entreprises états-uniennes en technologie, tout en exposant un demi-milliard d’Européens à une censure algorithmique de masse pour laquelle ces grandes entreprises n’auront pas de comptes à rendre.Nous avions espéré que l’UE et les négociateurs des gouvernements nationaux supprimeraient l’article 13, le règlement « machines à censure » qui exige que les plateformes en ligne soumettent les vidéos, les textes, les contenus audio et les images de leurs utilisateurs à des filtres boîte noire à apprentissage automatique qui décideraient unilatéralement si ces contenus violeraient la protection assurée par le droit d’auteur, et s’ils devraient par conséquent être censurés ou autorisés à être publiés.Au lieu de cela, le texte actuel fait des efforts considérables pour occulter son mandat en faveur de filtres propulsés par l’intelligence artificielle (IA). La nouvelle formulation dit que les filtres « devraient être » évités et que les entreprises peuvent se soustraire à leur responsabilité si elles s’appuient sur les « meilleures pratiques » pour combattre les infractions. Mais le règlement dit aussi que la limitation de responsabilité ne s’applique pas en cas de « préjudice économique », c’est-à-dire qu’un utilisateur a en sa possession quelque contenu commercial que se soit, et il exige aussi une approche d’« avis et de non-publication », ce qui signifie qu’une fois qu’une plateforme a été avisée qu’un fichier donné enfreint le droit d’auteur, elle doit empêcher que ce contenu ne soit jamais republié par n’importe lequel de ses utilisateurs. Par conséquent, l’article 13 ne peut être respecté qu’avec des filtres, des filtres (site en anglais) comme ceux que Tumblr a utilisés dans une tentative désastreuse de blocage des contenus destinés aux adultes. Read the rest

Watched and filmed by the other drivers he has delayed, a man in East London slowly, laboriously, loudly removes and steals the catalytic converter from another vehicle. If you have plans to be in Britain any time after March or thereabouts, maybe just cancel them. Read the rest

Europeiska unionen är nära att ge ännu mer makt till ett fåtal stora amerikanska IT-företag, i utbyte mot tillfälliga vinstdelningsarrangemang med en handfull europeiska underhållningsföretag — med masscensur och en ännu svagare förhandlingsposition för verksamma europeiska artister som följd.Det har gått mer än fyra månader sedan EU-parlamentets förhandlare och företrädare för Europas nationella regeringar försvann bakom stängda dörrar för att göra det nya direktivet om upphovsrätt på den digitala inre marknaden redo för omröstning. Trots all denna tid i ensamhet har de inte lyckats. Direktivet har samma problem som det haft från början:Artikel 11: Ett förslag om att plattformar ska betala för länkar till nyhetswebbplatser, genom att skapa en rätt som ej går att avstå från att licensiera länkar från vinstdrivande tjänster (i de fall där dessa länkar inkluderar mer än ett ord eller två från artikeln eller dess rubrik). Artikel 11 misslyckas med att definiera "nyhetswebbplatser", "kommersiella plattformar" och "länkar", vilket är en inbjudan för 28 europeiska länder att skapa 28 ömsesidigt uteslutande och oförenliga licensregelverk. Dessutom betyder faktumet att "länkningsrätten" inte kan avsägas att nyhetswebbplatser som är open-access, allmännyttiga, ej vinstdrivande eller Creative Commons-licensierade inte kan välja bort systemet.Artikel 13: Ett förslag om att få slut på visning av olicensierade upphovsrättsskyddade verk på stora plattformar med användargenererat innehåll, även då de visas bara för ett ögonblick. Inledningsvis inkluderade detta ett uttryckligt mandat att utveckla "filter" som skulle undersöka varje inlägg på sociala medier i hela världen och se om det matchade poster i en öppen, crowdsourcad databas av förmodligen upphovsrättsskyddat material. Read the rest

An unsere Freunde und Freundinnen in Deutschland. In diesem Monat möchte die EU die Richtlinie über das Urheberrecht im digitalen Binnenmarkt abschließen. Es besteht wenig Hoffnung, dass die Artikel 11 und 13, die die Macht haben, kleine europäische Tech-Startups zu vernichten, verbessert oder gestrichen werden. Eher wird sich die Macht in den Händen Amerikanischer Hightech-Unternehmen konzentrieren, während eine halbe Milliarde EuropäerInnen einer unzurechenbaren algorithmischen Zensur ausgesetzt sein werden. Wir hatten gehofft, dass die Verhandlungsführenden der EU und der nationalen Regierungen Artikel 13, die "Zensurmaschinen" -Richtlinie, streichen würden, die Online-Plattformen zwingt Videos, Texte, Audiodateien und Bilder ihrer Nutzenden an eine einen Black-Box-Machine-Learning-Filter zu übergeben, der alleine entscheidet, ob diese Urheberrecht verletzen und damit, ob sie zensiert werden oder veröffentlicht werden dürfen.Stattdessen ist der derzeitige Text sehr umfangreich, um das Mandat für KI-Filter zu verschleiern. Neu heißt es, dass Filter vermieden werden „sollten“ und dass Unternehmen sich der Haftung entziehen können, wenn sie die „optimalsten Vorgehensweisen/Best Practices“ zur Bekämpfung von Verstößen nutzen. Die Richtlinie besagt aber auch, dass Haftungsbeschränkungen nicht gelten, wenn „wirtschaftlicher Schaden" entstanden ist – d.h., wenn Nutzende irgendeine Art kommerzieller Inhalte haben -- und dass dies auch „notice & staydown“ („eine zur Kenntnisnahme & ein Stoppen“) erfordert. Ergo sobald eine Plattform benachrichtigt wurde, dass eine bestimmte Datei gegen das Urheberrecht verstößt, müssen alle Nutzenden daran gehindert werden, diesen Inhalt erneut zu posten.Daher kann Artikel 13 nur mit der Hilfe von Filtern entsprochen werden -- Filter wie solche, die von Tumblr in einem verheerenden Ausmaß genutzt werden, um pornographisches Material zu blockieren. Read the rest

The EU plan to mandate censoring filters for online speech to catch copyright infringement could be finalised as early as next week, and our best hope for halting it is to get the national governments of key EU member states to reject the proposal at that "trilogue" committee meeting.In particular, it's important for netizens from Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Poland to contact their governments and urge them to block Articles 11 and 13 of the new Copyright Directive.These proposals are meant to improve the lot of creators, but at best they will move a few euros off the balance sheets of US Big Tech and onto the balance sheets of multinational entertainment corporations, with no guarantee that a penny will go to artists or journalists. Meanwhile, the compliance costs will snuff out all EU competitors of US Big Tech, eliminating any alternate venues for creators and cementing the internet dominance of American companies and their power to squeeze their supply chains even harder, causing more long-term pain for creators.Meanwhile, the deployment of mandatory filters that hunt for a category as nebulous as "copyright infringement" will make all online expression liable to arbitrary censorship driven by blunt and unaccountable algorithms -- and this will be true for the whole world, not just the EU.This is a key juncture in the history of the internet, a moment in which the willful ignorance of lawmakers and the depraved indifference of entertainment executives could enshrine permanent, oligarchic control over the system used by billions of people for education, family life, employment, romance, political engagement and civic participation. Read the rest

Interviewed by CNN's Chris Cuomo, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani all but admits what everyone assumes: that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government in the 2016 presidential election. Rudolph Giuliani: "I never stated there was no collusion between the campaign or people in the campaign."CNN: "Yes you have." Rudolph Giuliani: "I have not. I said there is not a single bit of evidence that the POTUS committed the only crime you could commit here, conspiring with the Russians to hack the DNC."Trump has, of course, relentlessly denied any collusion whatsoever. The weird thing about the goalposts being moved is that it really does mean there's no goal. The thing you thought was a real problem for Trump—being forced to admit what he has always denied about his campaign's links to the Russian government—will turn out to be just another news cycle. Read the rest

Editor's Note: Richard Metzger is a connoisseur of cannabis, and recently started growing his own. He's test-driving high-end rig good for small-scale grows from Cloudponics. This is not a sponsored post, Boing Boing is not getting anything from Cloudponics. Metzger's just really *that* enthusiastic about weed, and so far he likes the Cloudponics setup. Here's part two in Richard's ongoing series. — XeniIn the first installment of This TARDIS Grows Weed with Artificial Intelligence, I explained how incredibly overwhelming it was for me to contemplate setting up a decent small grow situation as a rank novice. There were not only wildly varying philosophical approaches one might employ growing the dankest of nugs, but also a dizzying number of products, potions, pitfalls and problems. The proper cohort of gear needs to be amassed and assembled and it looked like there would inevitably be mistakes made along the way, some of them expensive, or at least time consuming. Growing pot seems easy if everything goes smoothly, but if one tiny thing goes wrong, then all can be lost. What are you going to do about spider mites? Mold? Nutrient burn? What is nutrient burn anyway?As I stated before and I will reiterate now, I have no experience growing anything. I am not handy with tools. I only knew enough to know that I know nothing of any substance on the topic of growing pot. The more research I did on the subject, the less I felt I knew. Read the rest

As we have written about before, the game crafting (or dungeon crafting) scene has exploded over the past few years. There are dozens of websites and YouTube channels devoted to every aspect of making and crafting for the tabletop and RPG gaming hobbies, from building custom gaming tables, to crafting terrain and miniature dungeons, to making DM screens, dice towers, modeling, converting, and painting miniatures, and much more. One of my maker pals, James Floyd Kelly (a tech book author and long-time Make: contributor), jumped onto the game crafting bandwagon last year when he launched his Game Terrain Engineering YouTube channel. Jim's channel grew very quickly and he has now become one of the rising stars in that community. And with good reason. Jim is ambitious and clever. And relentless. By the end of the year, he had decided to go into producing game crafting media as a full-time job. He relaunched his YT channel as The Tabletop Engineer and announced that he was launching a new monthly magazine devoted to the gaming hobby, especially focusing on game crafting. Called Bexim's Bazaar, the magazine will be monthly. It will mainly exist as a PDF publication, but on-demand print copies will also be available. The PDF version is yours after you become a Patreon sponsor of The Tabletop Engineer for US$2/month. Print copies of the issues (around 90 pages) are available on Blurb for $18. In this recent video from Jeremy of Black Magic Craft, he discusses the import of this new hobby zine and does a page-by-page flick-through of a print copy of Issue #1. Read the rest

Behold the Brostika! Like the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo, Slack's new brand has a negative-space surprise in store. The bars point the "lucky" left way, at least, rather than, well, to the right.Here it is with the negative space filled in:Below are Slack's "Logo explorations for the octothorpe." Octothorpe is a fancy word for the pound/hash symbol, which they have somehow managed to turn into a contact sheet of procedurally-generated swastikas. UPDATE: T. Carter Baxter nails it better than I:I know people at Slack, and I know they're smart, capable and caring people. But once you hear "swastika made of dicks" it's kind of over for the new logo.— T Carter Baxter (@tbaxter) January 16, 2019 Read the rest

Adam Savage is back with an all-new show, and he’ll be tweeting live during tonight’s MythBusters Jr. on ⁦The Science Channel⁩. The episode is named "Battery Blast," so we're expecting there will be explodey explosions, and they're mentioning “straight as an arrow” so, pointy weapons.Here's the pitch:Six of the nation’s most talented kids join Adam Savage for MythBusters Jr. Together they will tackle myths ranging from driving, explosions, chemistry, physics, popular culture and more.Watch the show, and follow Adam, live at 9pm ET/6pm PT, and if you can't? Catch the program later. I've seen it, and it's unbelievably good. The kids are talented and smart as heck, Adam is in his finest form ever, and I have never known anyone to work as hard at putting on a fun and science-centered production as these guys. Don't miss it. WATCH: MythBusters Jr., Science Channel (9 pm ET/6 pm PT).TONIGHT I’m Tweeting LIVE during the #MythBustersJr premiere of Battery Blast on @ScienceChannel! Join me here at 9 pm ET/6 pm PT! pic.twitter.com/6svOad0mcU— Adam Savage (@donttrythis) January 16, 2019Here’s some fun #bts and #wip shots from the Straight as an Arrow build this week for @mythbusters Jr 🏹A huge thanks to @wanderingmattia , Greg and Tory for helping bring these ideas from page 📝 to stage! #mythbustersjr pic.twitter.com/iSbeXq29SS— Tamara Robertson (@tlynnr85) January 16, 2019Shooting bows... designing automated firing mechanisms... building epic battle axes with @wanderingmattia ... To say that I L❤️VED this myth would be the understatement of the century!! Read the rest