Most Facebook users have no idea how the company tracks and profiles everything they do to target ads, a new Pew Research study confirms.Pew reports that three-quarters (74%) of Facebook users surveyed in the study did not know that Facebook tracks their interests and various personal traits so they can be more efficiently targeted with ads. Those users only discovered this when the researchers directed them to take a look at the Facebook ad preferences page for their accounts.Most (51%) of Facebook users in the study told Pew they felt uncomfortable about Facebook compiling this personal information.You can read the study in entirety here:“Facebook Algorithms and Personal Data.”From a writeup at TechCrunch:While more than a quarter (27%) said the ad preference listing Facebook had generated did not very or at all accurately represent them.The researchers also found that 88% of polled users had some material generated for them on the ad preferences page. Pew’s findings come from a survey of a nationally representative sample of 963 U.S. Facebook users ages 18 and older which was conducted between September 4 to October 1, 2018, using GfK’s KnowledgePanel.In a senate hearing last year Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg claimed users have “complete control” over both information they actively choose to upload to Facebook and data about them the company collects in order to target ads.But the key question remains how Facebook users can be in complete control when most of them they don’t know what the company is doing. Read the rest

China’s Huawei is the subject of a U.S. criminal investigation in which federal prosecutors say the Chinese tech company stole trade secrets from U.S. business partners including technology behind a robotic device T-Mobile used to test smartphones, called “Tappy.”The Wall Street Journal reports that the investigation stemmed from various civil lawsuits against Huawei, including the one involving T-Mobile's Tappy. In Seattle, a jury agreed that Huawei was liable for misappropriation of the robotic technology T-Mobile developed in its Bellevue, Washington, labs.Here's a video that shows “Tappy” in action. The federal criminal probe into Huawei is at an advanced stage and could lead to an indictment soon, the WSJ reports. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.A Huawei spokesman declined to comment. The company contested the T-Mobile case, but conceded that two employees acted improperly.Here's an alternate link for the article.Also today:A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced bills on Wednesday that would ban the sale of U.S. chips or other components to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, ZTE Corp or other Chinese telecommunications companies that violate U.S. sanctions or export control laws. Read the rest

Federal agents today arrested a man in Georgia who they say was planning an attack with weapons and explosives on the White House, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.The attack was to have taken place tomorrow, Thursday, January 17, and the man met with FBI agents yesterday and today before his arrest.Scott MacFarlane at NBC Washington reports that court documents say the suspect possessed a "hand-drawn diagram of ground floor of the West Wing."“The FBI undercover agent gave suspect weapons and explosives that had been rendered INERT during parking lot transaction today... then they arrested him.”Suspect met with undercover FBI agent in parking lot at a store in Buford, Georgia TODAY!Scott's tweets follow. Suspect met with undercover FBI agent in parking lot at a store in Buford, Georgia TODAY! https://t.co/BYyJKYEakg— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) January 16, 2019MORE: FBI undercover agent gave suspect weapons and explosives that had been rendered INERT during parking lot transaction today... then they arrested him https://t.co/YrtsIF37ar— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) January 16, 2019MORE: Suspected attacker planned to equip backpack with explosives.... approach White House "from the back road, causing a distraction for police, and then proceeding into the White House" https://t.co/BYyJKYEakg— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) January 16, 2019 Read the rest

You've gotta read, by Douglas Burns, this excellent roundup of a dozen or so of the worst things congressman Steve King (R-IA) has said, dating back decades.Notable that these long, long predate the latest “why does racism have such a negative stigma” remarks that got him in trouble, and ultimately led to his removal from various powerful committees in Congress this week. “I'm a western Iowa newspaper owner who has chronicled @SteveKingIA and his troubling remarks for 2 decades,” tweeted Burns. “His latest comments, the ones generating national controversy, wouldn't even make my Top 10 list of most distressing Steve King comments.Wow. Some of these I hadn't seen before. Did you know, or do you remember, that in 2005, King came out as a fan of red-baiting asshole Sen. Joseph McCarthy, calling him a “hero for America?” King still defends the statement. Christ, what an asshole.Excerpt from Burns' roundup of awful Steve King quotes, which is truly a top 10 list for the ages:3. King likens illegal immigrants to animalsIn July of 2006 King went to the House floor to display the model of a wall the Kiron Republican said he personally designed for the U.S. border with Mexico and likened illegal border crossers to the farm animals.“We need to do a few other things on top of that wall, and one of them being to put a little bit of wire on top here to provide a disincentive for people to climb over the top or put a ladder there.” King said in displaying his design. Read the rest

When it comes to the new Copyright Directive, some in the EU would prefer that Europeans just stop paying attention and let the giant corporations decide the future of the Internet.In a new Q&A about the Directive, the European Parliament – or rather, the JURI committee, which, headed by Axel Voss, spearheaded the shepherding of Article 13 and 11 through a skeptical Parliament, sets out a one-sided account of the most far-reaching regulation of online speech in living memory, insisting that "online platforms and news aggregators are reaping all the rewards while artists, news publishers and journalists see their work circulate freely, at best receiving very little remuneration for it."The author of JURI’s press release is right about one thing: artists are increasingly struggling to make a living, but not because the wrong corporations are creaming off the majority of revenue that their work generates. For example, streaming music companies hand billions to music labels, but only pennies reach the artists. Meanwhile, a handful of giant companies make war with one another over which ones will get to keep the spoils of creators' works. In a buyers' market, sellers get a worse deal, and when there are only five major publishers and four record labels and five Internet giants, almost everyone is a seller in a buyers' market.The EU's diagnosis is incomplete, and so its remedy is wrong. Article 13 of the new Copyright Directive requires filters for big online platforms that watch everything that Europeans post to the Internet and block anything that anyone, anywhere has claimed as a copyrighted work. Read the rest

Amy Brooks was born without arms or legs. In a series of wonderful videos, she shows how she goes about everyday activities like folding laundry, cooking, showering, and writing.After being abandoned at the hospital by her birth parents, she was adopted by faith-filled parents, Richard and Janet. Growing up, they taught her the importance of being independent and they’ve been on a lifelong journey in helping her to achieve that independence in every area possible. Along with being able to do most daily tasks on her own, Amy is also an author, artist and motivational speaker. And here's Amy's GoFundMe for a new van: "Arms Around Amy"(via Laughing Squid) Read the rest

Say you work at the government agency with the lowest morale of any Fed job and then Cheeto Hitler decides to treat you like a casino contractor and not pay you, for thirty days, and recommends that you do chores for your landlord to stop from getting evicted -- what do you do? Get musical: playing Sicko Mode or No Sleep Til Brookly or Misery Business or perhaps the theme from Halloween? (via Reddit) Read the rest

Noah Rotem got an intriguing error message from El Al's reservation system ("PNR: https://fly.elal.co.il/LOTS-OF-NUMBERS-HERE*) and by tugging at the loose thread it revealed, he was able to view any "Passenger Name Record" in El Al's system, allowing him to "make changes, claim frequent flyer miles to a personal account, assign seats and meals, and update the customer’s email and phone number, which could then be used to cancel/change flight reservation via customer service."The bug was not with El Al's system, but rather is a vulnerability in the Amadeus online booking service, which is used by nearly half of all carriers in the world -- including more than 140 major international carriers.PNR codes can be recovered in a variety of ways, including trawling social media for boarding-pass photos, but they are also easily guessable using a small, simple program.What's more, Rotem found no anti-guessing/brute-force measures in place that prevents this attack.Amadeus says it has now implemented countermeasures to prevent the attack, but it's not clear how well this will work.“At Amadeus, we give security the highest priority and are constantly monitoring and updating our systems. Our technical teams took immediate action and we can now confirm that the issue is solved. To further strengthen security, we have added a Recovery PTR to prevent a malicious user from accessing travelers’ personal information. We regret any inconvenience this situation might have caused.”Major Security Breach Discovered Affecting Nearly Half of All Airline Travelers Worldwide [Paul Kane/Safety Detective](via Bleeping Computer) Read the rest

[PHOTO: Psy Group's headquarters in Israel, via]Former Donald Trump presidential campaign aide Rick Gates is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, and has provided info on a firm in the Middle East that is reported to have worked with the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 U.S. election.This isn't the first time the Trump campaign's connections to Psy-Group, a 'troll factory' tied to Israeli military intelligence, has come up in the news. The New York Times ran a story in October, and Salon in November.But it's the first time anyone has reported the SCO looking into it.The Daily Beast's Erin Banco leads the story with her reporting, and I'd imagine there is more to come:Gates has answered questions specifically about Psy Group, an Israeli firm that ex-employees say drew up social media manipulation plans to help the Trump campaign, according to sources familiar with the questions. Mueller’s team also asked Gates about interactions with Psy Group’s owner, Joel Zamel, and Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, who worked as an emissary for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the sources said.On Tuesday, Mueller’s team said that Gates was cooperating with “several ongoing investigations” in asking a federal judge to delay his sentencing for financial crimes he pleaded guilty to committing with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. One of the ongoing investigations is into possible Middle Eastern election influence, three people with knowledge of the probe told The Daily Beast. Read the rest

If you're into the dark fringes of true crime media... The forthcoming documentary "Conversations With A Killer," about serial killer Ted Bundy, is based on 100 hours of two journalists' unheard audio interviews conducted on death row before Bundy was executed in 1989. From Rolling Stone:The series also explores how Bundy was able to avert capture as he didn’t adhere to the serial killer stereotype; women flocked to Bundy’s trial despite the serial killer’s gruesome “sex crime slayings of more than 30 women.” “He was charming, good-looking, smart... Are you sure you got the right guy,” one woman says of Bundy in voiceover.“I’m not an animal, I’m not crazy, I don’t have a split personality,” Bundy said in one recording. “I mean I’m just a normal individual.”"Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes" premieres on Netflix on January 24, the anniversary of Bundy's execution. Read the rest

Last week, our lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation sent a reply to Bird, the scooter company, which had sent us an intimidating letter seeking to censor this post on Bird conversion kits, which let you unlock the hundreds of Bird scooters that are auctioned off by cities after Bird fails to claim them from their impound lots.Having been publicly dragged, Bird has issued a traditional corporate nonpology:"Bird celebrates freedom in many ways—freedom from traffic [and] congestion as well as freedom of speech," the company said. "In the quest for curbing illegal activities related to our vehicles, our legal team overstretched and sent a takedown request related to the issue to a member of the media. This was our mistake and we apologize to Cory Doctorow."Here's a rough translation, with notes:1. We are so groovy!2. We accidentally formulated a laughable legal theory and sent it to a journalist. Who among us has never done something like that.3. We're not going to come right out and claim that motherboard swaps are a violation of Section 1201 of the DMCA, but we're sure gonna imply it!tldr: "We're sorry you're angry at us."While this apology is better than a threat, it raises more questions than it answers, like "Would it be OK to threaten someone who wasn't a journalist?" and "Which illegal activity, precisely, are you referring to?" Read the rest

LA teachers have walked out, striking in torrential rains, protesting the billionaire-backed privatization movement that wants to hand public school funding to charter schools.So it would be noteworthy that teachers at three charter schools have walked out in solidarity with their colleagues in the largest public school district in the nation in any event -- but doubly so because it's the first time in California history that charter school teachers have gone out on strike.Although it’s rare, teachers at charter schools may organize and seek representation from a union, just as the teachers at the Accelerated Schools did. This is said to be only the second time nationally that instructors at a charter school organization went on strike.Union representatives for teachers at the Accelerated Schools said more than a year and a half of negotiations with school management failed to yield a contract. At a morning news conference, teachers and their supporters chanted and waved signs outside Accelerated’s campus on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.Founded by two former Los Angeles Unified teachers, the three Accelerated schools serve 1,700 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.Teachers strike at L.A. charter schools too, a first for California [Dakota Smith/LA Times](via Super Punch) Read the rest

Once a month, Delta Air Lines holds a "garage sale" at one of its facilities near their flight museum adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The New York Times' Jackie Snow visited this curious surplus sale. Turns out, many of the shoppers lining up to buy galley carts, oscilloscopes, earbuds, posters, branded silverware, and maybe even a scavenged coach class seat actually are Delta employees. From the NYT:Perry De Vlugt, a Delta flight attendant based in Salt Lake City, has a basement full of Delta memorabilia; his collection was profiled in The Salt Lake Tribune, and he has a website dedicated to his hobby. He doesn’t know how many items he has, but he’s out of room in the 1,000-square-foot space dedicated to his collection...Over the years, the sale has expanded to include decommissioned plane parts, service items and promotional material. Pieces as varied as pre-9/11 steak knives, coasters, an aircraft lavatory, old menus and timetables have been snapped up by collectors. The priciest item sold has been a $500 pressurized door from a DC-9 plane, and the sales contribute between $70,000 and $100,00 to the flight museum each year. When Delta updates its branding, changes technology or over-orders or retires parts, those items are offered up to the sale.“They suffer my wrath if they throw out anything before we get to take a look at it,” said Judy Bean, the sale’s manager and a Delta employee for 48 years."Stocking Up at an Airline’s Garage Sale" (New York Times)Delta Surplus Sale (Delta Museum)(Images: Delta Flight Museum posts on Facebook) Read the rest

For some reason, Amazon won't ship these super-inexpensive Sylvania LED bulbs to California. I was able to get a box of 24 by having it delivered out of the state and picking it up on a road trip. They're excellent bulbs, and the soft-white style is nice and warm, the way I like my illumination. Read the rest

A new paper in Nature describes the US-Army-funded research of U Penn materials scientists to create a new generation of 3D printed "smart objects" whose geometry and materials enable them to interact with their environments without having to use embedded computers, sensors or actuators.The researchers are combining two techniques here: the first is the geometric technique of creating bistable structures that can hold either of two configurations indefinitely and can freely shift from one to the other.The second is the precise use of materials in these bistable structures that expand or contract in the presence of different substances or pressures -- water, oil, light, heat, etc. By combining these techniques, the researchers created "embodied logic": objects that physically alter their shapes based on environmental conditions. These objects can be made at very small scales, giving them lots of applications in microfluidics.Changing the beams' starting length/width ratio, as well as the concentration of the stiff internal fibers, allows the researchers to produce actuators with different levels of sensitivity. And because the researchers' 3D-printing technique allows for the use of different materials in the same print, a structure can have multiple shape-changing responses in different areas, or even arranged in a sequence."For example," Jiang says, "we demonstrated sequential logic by designing a box that, after exposure to a suitable solvent, can autonomously open and then close after a predefined time. We also designed an artificial Venus flytrap that can close only if a mechanical load is applied within a designated time interval, and a box that only opens if both oil and water are present."https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41467-018-08055-3/MediaObjects/41467_2018_8055_MOESM16_ESM.mp4https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41467-018-08055-3/MediaObjects/41467_2018_8055_MOESM11_ESM.mp4Bifurcation-based embodied logic and autonomous actuation [Yijie Jiang, Lucia M. Read the rest

Swiss freeskier and filmmaker Nico Vuignier of Centriphone fame, delivers "Heatseeker," an exhilarating night skiing adventure illuminated by fiery shots from a flare gun. Edited by Nicolas Vuignier & Jules Guarneri; Shot by Jules Guarneri; Riders: Jeremie Heitz, Nicolas Vuignier, Samuel Anthamatten, Laurent DeMartin, Florian Bruchez, Mathieu Schaer Read the rest

"Become a mystery shopper. Retailers are desperate to check how their in-store customer service is and will employ you to shop and rate their service." This is just one of many suggestions in a tip sheet distributed to the 8,500 Coast Guard civilian workers who are not getting paid thanks to Trump's little shutdown game.Other part-time tips in the pamphlet:Have a garage sale -- clean out your attic, basement and closets at the same time.Sell unwanted, larger ticket items through the newspaper or online.Offer to watch children, Walk pets or house-sit.Turn your hobby into income.Have untapped teaching skills and expertise? Tutor students, give music or sports lessons.When the Washington Post asked the Coast Guard about the tip sheet, the Coast Guard removed it from its website.From the Washington Post:The situation shows the increasing strain that the service is under as the partial government shutdown continues. About 41,000 active-duty Coast Guardsmen are working without pay. Their next check is due Jan. 15.Overall, about 420,000 government employees are working under the promise they will be paid retroactively, with nearly another 350,000 on furlough at home.Image: Makistock/Shutterstock Read the rest

People have a little pink band in the inside corner of their eye. "This is the plica semilunaris," says Dorsa Amir, an evolutionary anthropologist. "It used to be a third eyelid that would blink horizontally." Amir posted a fascinating Twitter thread of other " evolutionary leftovers that no longer serve a purpose" in the human body.Did you know the human body is full of evolutionary leftovers that no longer serve a purpose? These are called vestigial structures and they’re fascinating. (1/8)— Dorsa Amir (@DorsaAmir) January 15, 2019Image: By Exordium - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link Read the rest

Douglas Bader was beginning a promising career as a British fighter pilot when he lost both legs in a crash. But that didn't stop him -- he learned to use artificial legs and went on to become a top flying ace in World War II. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review Bader's inspiring story and the personal philosophy underlay it.We'll also revisit the year 536 and puzzle over the fate of a suitcase.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Last summer a 3-year-old cow named Betsy (not the one in the photo; that's a stock image I used because our content management system doesn't allow us to post something without an image) somehow escaped from a rodeo in Alaska and went to a 4,000-acre park on the outskirts of Anchorage. She's been spotted many times in the park by hikers and bicyclists, but so far no one has been able to capture her. “I’m just totally exhausted from looking day in and day out,” Frank Koloski, Betsy’s owner, told The Washington Post on Tuesday night. “She’s a go-getter, that’s for sure.”...Koloski has a plan in place: If he can just figure out where Betsy is hiding, he’ll bring several other cows to that location. Betsy will immediately rush toward the other cattle, he predicts, and a number of his rodeo acquaintances have already volunteered to help him rope her. Until he knows exactly where she’s located, though, he’s not eager to let the other cows loose in the dense, dark woods.In the meantime, Betsy appears to be doing just fine. Alaska cattle are tough and accustomed to the area’s harsh winters, Koloski said. Since the park is within city limits, he doesn’t think there’s too much of a risk of her running into a bear or a wolf. There are still plenty of natural sources of water that haven’t frozen over, and he’s left out hay bales and mineral salt blocks nearby. During the summer, Betsy would have found plenty of fresh grass on the slopes of the ski area to feast on, he said. Read the rest

About 800,000 federal workers aren't getting paid because Trump doesn't want to lose the game of chicken he foolishly chose to play. Now he is forcing 50,000 to come back to work, but they won't get paid. From Washington Post:The Trump administration on Tuesday said it has called back tens of thousands of federal workers to fulfill key government tasks, including disbursing tax refunds, overseeing flight safety and inspecting the nation’s food and drug supply, as it seeks to blunt the impact of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The nearly 50,000 furloughed federal employees are being brought back to work without pay — part of a group of about 800,000 federal workers who are not receiving paychecks during the shutdown, which is affecting dozens of federal agencies large and small. A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by unions representing air traffic controllers and other federal workers to force the government to pay them if they are required to work.Image: By Photo taken by Hullie, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH the shocking question is asked: Is it possible Trump isn't fully loyal to Mother Russia?

During a 60 Minutes interview Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez casually mentioned that she thought that America's super-rich should pay a marginal tax-rate of 70% on annual earnings over $10,000,000 (which is a better deal than they got under Reagan); since then, the proposal has roiled the political classes and billionaire-backed news outlets, who coincidentally oppose taxing billionaires. Though the establishments of the Democratic and Republican parties have scrambled to brand this proposal "unworkable" and "radical," there's another group of people who really like the sound of it: voters, including Republican voters.A newly released Hill-HarrisX poll found that 59% of registered US voters support the proposal, and that breaks down to 62% of women, 55% of men, 57% of southerners, 56% of rural voters, 60% of independents, 71% of Democrats, and even 45% of Republicans.The establishment has attributed AOC's incredible reach and influence to many factors -- her physical attractiveness, her ignorance, or some kind of witchy, indefinable charisma.As compelling as all those dismissive reasons may be for the people who mouth them while rocking back and forth with their eyes screwed shut, there's another possible explanation that this poll bears out: "She’s preaching popular, common sense, underexpressed messages. But honestly, would a new member of Congress be so dominating the national conversation, if other Democrats were either less clueless or less beholden to their donors?" My favorite part of this debate are the bootlickers who insist that it's impossible to tax rich people because they'll just hire procurers and enablers to hide their money in the Irish Sea, the English Channel, the Caribbean, Luxembourg, Wyoming, and Delaware. Read the rest

Director Fabio Friedli animated 3,000 images to tell the story of humanity "from a seed to war, from meat to love, from indifference to apocalypse."“It is such an excessive amount of things, shown in such a short time, you are never able to perceive everything,” Friedli told Vimeo. “I like to believe it’s one’s subconscious that chooses what you see, hear and feel, depending on what is occupying your head and heart at the moment. No one has the same first ‘In A Nutshell’ experience.” Read the rest

Here's another explainer video from Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. This time, they're looking at organic food. First, they define organic food as not being GMOs and not treated with artificial fertilizers or pesticides. Then, they answer the question as to whether organic food is healthier. They do have more antioxidants, but it's not clear how much and how good antioxidants are for us. As to the nutritional value of organic vs. traditional food, the evidence is mixed -- they seem to be about the same. Kurzgesagt's conclusion: "from the science available so far it doesn't look like organic food has significant health benefits." Also, organic pesticides are no less dangerous than synthetics, though organic produce usually has less pesticide residue than traditional produce. But the amount of pesticide left on traditional produce after you wash it is probably harmless. Finally, buying organic food isn't necessarily better for the environment (but eating locally is). Read the rest

Last October, Bloomberg published what seemed to be the tech story of the year: a claim that Supermicro, the leading supplier of servers to clients from the Pentagon and Congress to Amazon, Apple and NASA, had been targeted by Chinese spies who'd inserted devastating, virtually undetectable hardware backdoors into their motherboards by subverting a small subcontractor in China.But the story didn't quite add up. After it was published, the tech giants implicated in it released detailed, unequivocal denials, themselves almost without precedent -- Big Tech's PR strategy during this kind of scandal is usually limited to terse denials that do not delve into detail. Instead, companies named in the story went into lavish detail explaining why it wasn't true, and couldn't be true.These denials also don't add up: Bloomberg says it sourced its story from multiple (anonymous) sources who had direct knowledge of the incidents and who had been employed in the named organizations while they were unfolding. Bloomberg stood by its reporting, and implied that the idea that all these sources from different organizations would collude to pull off a hoax like this.Faced with the seemingly impossible task of sorting truth from hoax in the presence of contradictory statements from Big Tech and Bloomberg, technical experts began trying to evaluate whether the hacks attributed to the Chinese spy agencies were even possible: at first, these analyses were cautiously skeptical, but then they grew more unequivocal.Last month, Trammell Hudson -- who has developed well-regarded proof-of-concept firmware attacks -- gave a detailed talk giving his take on the story at the Chaos Communications Congress in Leipzig. Read the rest

On March 19, Tor Books will release my next book, Radicalized, whose four novellas are the angry, hopeful stories I wrote as part of my attempt to make sense of life in our current moment.As with my novel Walkaway and the reissues of my adult backlist, Radicalized will have a cover by the amazing Will Stahle, who is, for my money, the best cover designer working in the business at the moment.Today, Tor has published Stahle's cover for Radicalized, and holy fucking shit, is it ever great.There's a whole lot of stuff happening with this book: I'll be going out on tour with it (naturally) and there will be a UK edition from Head of Zeus; the individual novellas from it will be separately published in Germany by Heyne, First Look/Topic are adapting Unauthorized Bread (one of the stories) for TV, and Macmillan Audio is releasing each of the novellas as a standalone audiobook (I spent yesterday at the studio with Wil Wheaton as he crushed a reading of the title story). Read the rest

Some unicorns chase; some are chased down. These splendid and totally real unicorn skulls [Amazon] are sourced from troll and ogre fairtrade collectives, are 8.5" long and 10.75" tall, and individually skinned and boiled for an odor- and insect-free presentation.The horn of the unicorn skull is screwed onto the skull for safe shipping and handling.Brace yourself with this fossil skull phantom of a unicorn stallion. Display him at your desks, shelves or what have you and he will be a star at any hosting events! This unicorn skull will be a great conversation starter as well as an excellent ice breaker for you and your guests. Some of them will think unicorn did exist! Don't know what they think they're trying to say with that last line there but it's thirty bucks a head. Read the rest

It's a rude awakening for that rookie vacationer abroad when they try to plug in their gear for the night. Veteran jet-setters know that outlet shapes can vary wildly from country to country, which necessitates that most boring must-have for any world-traveler: A sackful of clunky power adapters. Awkward problem, elegant solution: The Twist Plus World Charging Station.Essentially a skeleton key of international plugs, the Twist Plus rotates easily to change between one of four configurations most common to wall outlets in the US, UK, Australia, and Europe. In all, you're covered in more than 150 countries. And most travelers won't' need more than one: Just use one of the four USB ports to charge phones, tablets, laptops - even a MacBook. It's light, portable and comes with built-in fuse protection for that added bit of security.Originally priced at $45, the Twist Plus World Charging Station is now on sale at $31.99 - a 28% discount. Read the rest

A quiz from Mental Floss: Who Wrote It: Edgar Allan Poe or an Emo Band? [via MeFi]"I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore" Read the rest

Nationwide icy weather's coming, reports the Weather Channel, with Winter Storm Harper tumbling over the west coast and up east already covered in bullshit. Read the rest

Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, just started a new job this week. She's an art teacher at a Christian school that makes job candidates sign a pledge not to engage in homosexual activity. Gay kids, you're not welcome either.The Pences are nothing if not consistent. Consistently horrible.Huffington Post's Rebecca Klein reports that the school where Pence now works discriminates against LGBTQ people in its job application, and doesn't want any queer kids around, either. Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia makes it clear right in their online application [PDF] and job application form [PDF] that they don't welcome everyone. Excerpt:In a “parent agreement” posted online, the school says it will refuse admission to students who participate in or condone homosexual activity. The 2018 employment application also makes candidates sign a pledge not to engage in homosexual activity or violate the “unique roles of male and female.” “Moral misconduct which violates the bona fide occupational qualifications for employees includes, but is not limited to, such behaviors as the following: heterosexual activity outside of marriage (e.g., premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex), homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female, sexual harassment, use or viewing of pornographic material or websites,” says the application. The application says that the school believes “marriage unites one man and one woman” and that “a wife is commanded to submit to her husband as the church submits to Christ.” The application asks potential employees to explain their view of the “creation/evolution debate.” The “parent agreement” asks parents to cooperate in its “biblical morality” policy. Read the rest

How much more evidence does America need that Donald Trump isn't working for us, but for Russia?No, seriously. Trump can't stop talking about removing America from NATO.Trump hasn't had an original idea in his whole life. Who told him that'd be a good idea? Who wants the USA out of NATO? Russia.“It would be the wildest success that Vladimir Putin could dream of.” -- Michèle Flournoy, an under secretary of defense under Obama.From the New York Times' Julian E. Barnes and Helene Cooper:Senior administration officials told The New York Times that several times over the course of 2018, Mr. Trump privately said he wanted to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Current and former officials who support the alliance said they feared Mr. Trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continued to lag behind the goals the president had set.In the days around a tumultuous NATO summit meeting last summer, they said, Mr. Trump told his top national security officials that he did not see the point of the military alliance, which he presented as a drain on the United States.At the time, Mr. Trump’s national security team, including Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, scrambled to keep American strategy on track without mention of a withdrawal that would drastically reduce Washington’s influence in Europe and could embolden Russia for decades.Now, the president’s repeatedly stated desire to withdraw from NATO is raising new worries among national security officials amid growing concern about Mr. Read the rest

From the WTF why? files comes this hidden umbrella!Seriously disappoint your friends, who would probably rather have wine! I am wondering what occasion this prank is right for?Playmaker Toys Brella Vineyards Cabernet Wine Bottle Hidden Umbrella, Burgundy via Amazon Read the rest

Following up on our earlier story about Roku re-platforming Alex Jones and Infowars, it looks like Roku got so much criticism from users, they've reversed course and will remove the Infowars app.‏After the InfoWars channel became available, we heard from concerned parties and have determined that the channel should be removed from our platform. Deletion from the channel store and platform has begun and will be completed shortly.— Roku (@Roku) January 16, 2019That didn't take long, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.Alex Jones is a Sandy Hook exploitation grifter, and basically makes money by screaming and publishing hateful, racist things, all of which have real-life consequences for other people. He is a bad dude. “A Roku spokesperson tells me that after it heard from 'concerned parties,' the company determined it should remove the InfoWars app,” CNN's Oliver Darcy tweeted this evening.Roku said “Deletion from the channel store and platform has begun and will be completed shortly.”InfoWars had previously been available on Roku, but it recently published an updated app, prompting tweets from users and a rebuke today from some Sandy Hook families suing Alex Jones. Both versions of the InfoWars app are being removed from Roku, spokesperson says.— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 16, 2019 Read the rest

Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (America's largest district) are walking the picket line this week in the pouring rain, demanding an end to the billionaire dark-money backed privatization movement that funnels public education funds to the shareholders of racially segregated, underperforming charter schools.The Democratic Socialists of America have started a GoFundMe to provide taco truck meals to the striking teachers. It was originally intended to raise $1,000 and feed a couple schools' worth of teachers, but it's reached $24,000 as of this writing.I just sent them $100. I am a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, having been inspired to join by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Tacos for Teachers [Strike Support Committee/Gofundme] Read the rest

Chuck Wendig isn't just a fine novelist, he's also got a discerning sense of what distinguishes good apples from bad, and what elevates apples to true greatness.He ate 15 grocery-store apples and produced tasting notes on each (Red Delicious: "Point is, this wasn’t hellish. I still wouldn’t buy one. I’d still throw it at enemies") and while he sleights my favorite ("It’s the jazz hands of apples. Meaning, it’s zippy and fun, and swiftly overdone if you indulge too much.") I was intrigued by his top pick, the Pink Lady, which I haven't tried in some time:Fuck yeah, Pink Ladies.(Also known as Cripps Pink.)This is lately my go-to apple — good balanced apple with an electric tartness that’s tempered by a mouth-slap of sweetness. I will say I had a small batch of these and one of them tasted hellaciously like soap, and I have no idea why. I assume there’s some weird soap bandit going around grocery stores injecting apples with dish detergent or something.In Which I Rank Grocery Store Apples [Chuck Wendig/Terribleminds](via Kottke) Read the rest

Yesterday, we paid tribute to the 42nd anniversary of David Bowie's iconic album Low by featuring The Brothers McLeod animation of comedian Adam Buxton's hysterical radio tribute to Bowie from 2013. We follow it up with another animation done from Buxton's radio show, this time with Chris Salt of Oblong Pictures using LEGO stop-motion to lovingly lampoon our favorite alien rock god.In the video, David pitches his wife, Angie Bowie, on new character ideas after deciding to "kill off Ziggy." After running through a series of candidates: Cobbler Bob ("I could have giant shoes, with massive platforms big enough for the band to fit inside of"), A Mad Deus ("A composer of classical music who comes to believe that he's God"), The Groovy Gardener, Viscount Jizzmark, finally, he shows Angie Aladdin Sane. "Who is Aladdin Sane?," she coos. "Well, he's like Ziggy, but with a different name, and some sort of strange fluid leaking out of his collarbone," David replies. This cute little bit does make you wonder what other characters David may have contemplated but ultimately rejected. Read the rest

LISTEN CLOSELY: "I thought it was a joke," says Clemson athlete upon learning the White House was serving him Wendy's.pic.twitter.com/bRNRhLmDBF— Ʀogue US Mint (@RogueUSMint) January 15, 2019You can clearly hear one attendee state that they thought this was a joke.I believe I hear the declaration "It's absurd" over and over, however that may be a southern accent repeatedly hailing "Thank you, sir!"Folks are clearly grateful Orange Julius provided this fast food bonanza. Read the rest

The California turret spider build tiny towers on the forest floor that extend underground into a burrow. At night, they climb up into the tower and await their dinner -- beetles, moths, and other insects. Video above. From KQED's Deep Look:While remaining hidden inside their turret, they’re able to sense the vibrations created by their prey’s footsteps.That’s when the turret spider strikes, busting out of the hollow tower like an eight legged jack-in-the-box. With lightning speed the spider swings its fangs down like daggers, injecting venom into its prey before dragging it down into the burrow. Read the rest

Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan was not expected to pass, but it was brutally murdered in a far larger margin of defeat than was expected: 432 to 202. This is the largest parliamentary defeat for a sitting government in history. The options for the Brits now include a no-deal Brexit on March 29; desperate negotiations for a new plan; or asking for an extension from the EU while a fresh hell is organized, such as a new referendum or a general election.Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn immediately tabled a no-confidence vote in May's government."Time is almost up," wrote EU chief Jean-Claude Junker on Twitter within minutes of the lawmakers' vote. Read the rest

A woman in China reportedly suffering from a rare medical condition supposedly can't hear male voices. Most hearing loss occurs at higher frequencies when the delicate hair-like stereocilia of the inner ear are damaged, but this woman has the much less common reverse-slope hearing loss (RSHL) that affects the ability to hear lower frequencies. From LiveScience:At the hospital, Chen was treated by Dr. Lin Xiaoqing — a woman — who noted that while Chen was able to hear Xiaoqing's voice, she couldn't hear the voice of a nearby male patient "at all," according to Newsweek. Xiaoqing diagnosed Chen with reverse-slope hearing loss, a rare type of low-frequency hearing loss that likely impaired her ability to hear deep male voices....Loss of hearing of lower-pitched sounds (which is what Chen experienced) is... less common because the bass-processing portion of the cochlea — a snail-shaped structure deep in the inner ear — is very well protected, said Jackie Clark, a clinical professor with the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, who also wasn't involved with Chen's case..."Most studies have shown that if you catch it within 48 hours, you have the best chance for recovery," (Clark) said. illustration: Morten Bisgaard - From the book "Tidens naturlære" 1903 by Poul la Cour Read the rest

Nominee for Attorney General William Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning that he "can conceive of situations where, as a last resort," journalists could be prosecuted for “putting out stuff that is hurting the country.” This was in response to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who, using the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi as an example, asked Barr whether he thought the Justice Department should prosecute journalists "for doing their jobs." Yep, this is where we are folks.Via PBS Read the rest

This year I missed the party, but as usual stellar photographer Star Foreman captured an amazing gallery of images!Every year Los Angeles' fantastic circus family, The Flying Morgans, throw the most incredible New Years Eve party! It is chock full of Happy Mutants!From their castle atop the Hollywood Hills several hundred revelers enjoy stellar 270 degree views of the city...Netflix Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events actor Matty Cardarople and his wife, are shown the circus themed decor by castmate and hostess Bonnie Morgan.The crowd gathers at midnight.Gary and Susie, the King and Queen of Laurel Canyon.Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events castmates Bonnie Morgan and Usman Alley.Sisters Bonnie and Mollie Morgan show off sponsor ROK Drinks Bogart Gin.The Morgan's party is the best place to ring in the new year. If you are in Los Angeles and need a photographer, for events or headshots, I highly recommend Star Foreman. Read the rest

With only days to go before the planned conclusion of the new EU Directive on Copyright in the Single Digital Market, Europe's largest and most powerful rightsholder groups -- from the Premier League to the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Association of Commercial Television in Europe -- have published an open letter calling for a halt to negotiations, repeating their message from late last year: namely, that the Directive will give the whip hand to Big Tech.Article 13 -- which still mandates copyright filters for big platforms, despite months of obfuscation -- is the brainchild of the music recording industry, who invented the idea of the "value gap" as a synonym for "when we negotiate with YouTube for music licenses, we don't get as much as we'd like." Seen in this light, the unworkability of Article 13 is a feature, not a bug. Putting Google on the hook to give in on license negotiations or be forced to do the impossible is a powerful negotiating stick for the recording industry to hit Google with. The problem is that this tool will not only be wielded by record executives against Google: it will allow any of the Internet's two billion users to claim copyright over anything (including the record industry's most popular works) and improperly collect license fees, or simply block the material from public view. That's not the only problem, though. In the course of negotiating Article 13, European lawmakers made concessions that make the proposal (barely) coherent and affordable by Google (though not, importantly, by Google's small European competitors, who stand to be squashed flat by the dancing elephants of Big Tech and Big Content). Read the rest

Hundreds of angry Christians protested at a museum in Haifa, Israel, demanding that the museum remove an exhibit that featured a "McJesus" sculpture. The sculpture – Ronald McDonald crucified on a cross – is part of a larger exhibit commenting on society's worship of capitalism, but after photos of the crucified clown were shared on social media, a group of Christians became irate. They rioted by throwing a firebomb at the museum and stones at police officers, injuring three of them. Police then used tear gas and stun grenades against the crowd.According to NBC:Church representatives brought their grievances to the district court Monday, demanding it order the removal of the exhibit's most offensive items, including Barbie doll renditions of a bloodied Jesus and the Virgin Mary.Museum director Nissim Tal said that he was shocked at the sudden uproar, especially because the exhibit — intended to criticize what many view as society's cult-like worship of capitalism — had been on display for months. It has also been shown in other countries without incident.The museum has refused to remove the artwork, saying that doing so would infringe on freedom of expression. But following the protests it hung a curtain over the entrance to the exhibit and posted a sign saying the art was not intended to offend."This is the maximum that we can do," Tal said. "If we take the art down, the next day we'll have politicians demanding we take other things down and we'll end up only with colorful pictures of flowers in the museum." Read the rest

In a heavy-duty new scientific paper published this week, University of Oxford researchers argue that the association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use is tiny. Really tiny. From Scientific American:(The paper by experimental psychologist Andrew Przybylski and grad student Amy Orben) reveals the pitfalls of the statistical methods scientists have employed and offers a more rigorous alternative. And, importantly, it uses data on more than 350,000 adolescents to show persuasively that, at a population level, technology use has a nearly negligible effect on adolescent psychological well-being, measured in a range of questions addressing depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, pro-social behavior, peer-relationship problems and the like. Technology use tilts the needle less than half a percent away from feeling emotionally sound. For context, eating potatoes is associated with nearly the same degree of effect and wearing glasses has a more negative impact on adolescent mental health...“We’re trying to move from this mind-set of cherry-picking one result to a more holistic picture of the data set,” Przybylski says. “A key part of that is being able to put these extremely miniscule effects of screens on young people in real-world context.”Not surprisingly though, your mileage may vary. Not surprisingly, it all depends on the kid and what they're actually doing on the screen. In a previous paper, Przybylski and colleague Netta Weinstein demonstrated a “Goldilocks” effect showing moderate use of technology—about one to two hours per day on weekdays and slightly more on weekends—was “not intrinsically harmful,” but higher levels of indulgence could be. Read the rest

The Cool Tools website focuses on handy, useful, proven tools. But a lot of great stuff that Mark and I come across are not really tools. We created the Recomendo email list for this purpose. Every Sunday we mail out 6 very brief recommendations of cool stuff: places we love, people to follow, great things to eat, good movies, fantastic podcasts, cool tips, short cuts, favorite items, and many other suggestions. This newsletter, Recomendo, is free and has over 21,000 subscribers. Sign up here.Last year we took the best of our first two years’ recommendations and put them into about 100-page book. The book (available on Amazon here) is made to be browsed. You can flip through it in any order and most folks will find something of interest on every spread. It is an easy read.For the benefit of international fans, and for those who don’t want paper books, we have created a digital version. It’s a downloadable searchable PDF, in full color (the paper book is only B&W), weighs nothing, and is available instantly for only $1.99. We priced it so that anyone could afford it.If you do get one, let us know how you like this format. (We don’t have plans for a Kindle version yet, but maybe in the future.) Read the rest

Don't rinse food particles from dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. If you do, the detergent won't have anything to cling to and your dishes won't get as clean.From Mental Floss:One of the arguments against pre-rinsing is that certain detergents are designed to cling to food particles, as the Cascade detergent brand informed The Wall Street Journal in 2015. Without a surface to stick to, your dishes won’t get as squeaky clean.Consumer Reports offers another explanation. According to the product-testing magazine, newer dishwashers—those purchased within the last five years or so—won’t wash your dishes for very long if the sensors in the machine don’t detect much dirt in the water. “When that happens, the dishwasher gives them just a light wash, and items come out less than sparkling,” Consumer Reports's Ed Perratore wrote in 2016. “To avoid that lackluster result, don’t rinse; just scrape off bits of loose food.”There’s also a major environmental factor to consider. One mind-blogging statistic from Consumer Reports states that the average person wastes 6000 gallons of water a year by pre-rinsing. Most dishwasher machines use just 3 to 5 gallons of water per load, while the average person uses about 27 gallons when washing dishes by hand, according to The National Resource Defense Council.Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock Read the rest

Joe Ford is a self-described "64-year-old navy veteran of the Vietnam era and houseless in the tundra." He wrote for The Guardian about what its like to live in Alaska without a permanent house. It sounds tough, but he loves it. I recently watched a good movie with my family called Leave No Trace, and the dad in the movie reminds me a bit of Mr. Ford.All in all, though, I prefer a campfire-roasted porcupine that I killed and butchered (recently, one who had smacked my dog with his tail, embedding 15 quills in the mutt’s snout), slathered with highbush cranberry ketchup, foraged chickweed salad with mushrooms on the side, a hot cup of stinging nettle tea to wash it down and a handful of wild blueberries for dessert.Bugs, sticks, sand and assorted forest floor debris sometimes makes it into my vittles but, as the family I encountered in my travels through Canada some years back said when I pointed out that their kid was eating dirt: “It’s clean dirt.” And the bugs are protein! Anyway, I get to devour the feast creekside watching fish sex. No, it’s not the latest Netflix series, it’s actual salmon spawning in the water 10ft from my tent.My living room floor gets a fresh gold carpet when fall colors take over and the tree branches go bare. Daylight starts fading fast closing in on the autumnal equinox and stays in decline till winter solstice, bottoming out at around five and a half hours here. Read the rest