Boing Boing

"Well, pisser fans, it's been a while. But we've got one for ya." Read the rest

Changing the headline after public outcry, The New York Times once again backflips as they excuse hate.hey @nytimes this is some racist bs. IT'S BLACKFACE. BLACKFACE. jesus christ, this is why we have these problems in the first place! call RACISM RACISM. pic.twitter.com/KboYvqKbpf— Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 6, 2019 Read the rest

After publicly displaying her '7 Rings' tattoo, and its botched repair job, singer Ariana Grande has been told she may not perform the song whose title she adorned her body with at the Grammy's.What is the kanji for "Bad Luck BBQ?"HuffPo:Grande apparently intended to perform her new single “7 Rings” at the 61st annual ceremony, which has advertised her appearance far and wide in the weeks leading up to the show, but she felt “insulted” when producers refused to let her play the song, unnamed sources told the outlet. Hits magazine was the first to break the news of Grande’s clash with Grammys producers over song selection.After all parties later agreed to include the track off Grande’s upcoming album “thank u, next” as part of a medley, talks broke down once again when producers stipulated that the second song in her performance be up to their choosing. Read the rest

Author Carol Emshwiller has died at the age of 97, after a long and distinguished career in science fiction, fantasy and other genres.Emshwiller has been publishing since 1955, and while she is best known for her fantasy and science fiction, my favorite work of hers is the superb and moving western Ledoyt, published in 1995. Carol Emshmiller was married to the illustrator and experimental filmmaker Ed "Emsh" Emshwiller, with whom she had three children.I never met Carol Emshwiller, but her work stayed with me for decades, and I'm glad she lived such a long and productive life.Though best known as a story writer, Emshwiller also wrote strange, powerful novels, including Carmen Dog (1988), set in a world where women transform into dogs (and vice versa); alien invasion tale The Mount (2002), a Philip K. Dick Award winner; YA Mister Boots (2005) about a man who transforms into a horse (or vice versa); and aliens-stranded-on-Earth novel The Secret City (2007). She also wrote a pair of Westerns, Ledoyt (1995) and sequel Leaping Man Hill (1999). She received a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2005, and was a World Fantasy guest of honor in 2007. Agnes Carolyn Fries was born April 12, 1921 in Ann Arbor MI. She attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, earning BAs in Music and Design, and attended the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1949-50 as a Fulbright Fellow. In 1949 she married artist and experimental filmmaker Ed Emshwiller; he predeceased her in 1990. Read the rest

Colbert's honest translations of Orange Julius' endless stream of misdirection and outright lies are easier to watch than the original speech. Read the rest

A San Juan county assault case has been thrown out after it was revealed that Sheriff Ron Krebs had used the courtroom's cameras to zoom in on the notes of the defense attorney and a juror.The San Juan Sheriff's office is a hot mess of corruption and misconduct, and even the San Juan prosecutor's office has condemned the county's sheriffs, with prosecutor Randall Gaylord saying "I too am frustrated at what has happened here, frustrated that it has happened to cases I personally was involved in, and concerned about the community we represent." The prosecutor says that he was not given any intelligence by the Sheriff after he misused the court's cameras.Sheriff Krebs says that the focus on the defense and juror's notes was "isolated and unintentional" and explain it by saying that Krebs "inadvertently manipulated the camera in the District Courtroom in such a way that it zoomed in on one or more locations in the courtroom."If that is true, then a review of recordings from earlier hearings would not find similar incidents. It's not clear whether these recordings have been retained, nor what process would have to be set in train to trigger such a review.Screenshots from the video provided by Power that show close-ups of a trial exhibit, a steno book belonging to the No. 3 juror in the case, and a legal pad belonging to Kenimond were introduced as evidence at the hearing and played into Eaton’s decision to dismiss the charges with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled. Read the rest

PACER (previoulsy) is the controversial US system for publishing court records; although the records themselves are in the public domain (US government documents are not copyrightable), you have to pay $0.10/page to read them, which is supposed to pay for the cost of serving them.PACER makes some $150m/year, to support a service that's basically just a big cloud drive full of (unindexed, unsearchable) PDFs, and which only costs $3m/year to operate. Services like RECAP, which copy PACER pages its users pay to read into a free repository, have drawn the ire of federal prosecutors and the FBI, and may have led to the malicious prosecution of Aaron Swartz, which ultimately ended in his death.While previous legislative attempts to make the law free for every American to read have died in Congress, a new push shows promise: the US government is being sued to make PACER free for all, and one of the amicus briefs filed in support of the case comes from Joe Lieberman, who wrote the E-Government Act that established PACER in the first place.Lieberman is joined by a roster of judges from across the political spectrum, as well as free-speech nonprofits and many others. If they prevail, a great historic wrong will have been righted: equal access to the law -- without regard to your ability to pay to read it -- is necessary for equal treatment under the law. In addition to Lieberman, the list of amici includes dozens of journalistic entities and former judges Richard Posner and Shira Scheindlin -- the latter most famous for dismantling the NYPD's unconstitutional stop-and-frisk program. Read the rest

Nine Inch Nail's Head Like A Hole no longer feels all that.Static-X's Push It also has lost a lot of its edge. The video cracks me up. On the other hand... Punk still has it. The Sex Pistols God Save the Queen still hangs in there for me. Read the rest

Spend any time at all around creative-minded techies, and you'll likely hear about Arduino. Whether you're making a simple motion sensor or a fully internet-controlled robot, Arduino is the platform of choice. If you're just diving in, we can't think of a better entry point than the Arduino Uno Ultimate Starter Kit & Course Bundle.First, and most importantly, the kit gives you an Arduino-compatible Vilros Uno board, along with the manual you need to connect it to whatever mad science you're bound to dream up. You'll get a master class in the possibilities of this open-source platform, too. "Crazy About Arduino" is a triple-tiered workshop that will take you from the broad-strokes concept for your project to the skills needed to set up servers and connect your device to the internet. To supplement that, "Arduino Zero to Hero" shines the spotlight on the components that connect to the platform: Breadboards, resistors, LEDs and more.You'll get lifetime access to all these resources and info, but that's no reason not to start soon: Right now, the Arduino Uno Ultimate Starter Kit & Course Bundle is on sale at $51.99. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Super-Fun-Pak Comix features: Prayers Answered; Percival Dunwoody, Idiot Time Traveler from 1909; etc. etc.

This spring, HBO will air a new documentary about Adnan Syed, the subject of the first season of the Serial podcast. The four-part series is directed by Amy Berg ("Deliver Us from Evil"). From the Baltimore Sun:Syed, the subject of the wildly popular “Serial” podcast, was convicted in 2000 of killing his former girlfriend and Woodlawn High School classmate. But “Serial” raised questions about why his attorney, M. Cristina Gutierrez, did not call a potential alibi witness. The attorney died in 2004.Syed’s conviction was vacated in June 2016 by a Baltimore circuit judge, and the Court of Special Appeals upheld the decision, prompting the state to bring its case for reinstating the conviction before Maryland’s highest court in November.The HBO trailer prominently features Syed’s family friend, Rabia Chaudry, who brought the case to “Serial” host and former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig. The documentary, directed by Academy Award nominee Amy Berg, promises “a piece of evidence that nobody even realized existed for all these years.”It’s unclear when the Court of Appeals, Maryland’s highest court, will make a decision. Chaudry said in November that Syed’s family expects a ruling by August. Read the rest

My colleague Elliot Harmon writes: " EFF is looking for a new addition to our activism team. This job is a big one: you’ll be joining EFF’s efforts to end warrantless spying by the NSA and other federal government agencies, as well as to fight for restrictions on the use of surveillance technologies by local law enforcement agencies. And it’s the perfect time for you to start: Section 215—the law that the NSA relied on for decades to collect Americans’ phone call records—is set to expire at the end of 2019. Between now and then, we expect a major legislative fight over its reauthorization. We need someone activating the public to demand that lawmakers respect their right to private communications." Read the rest

The runner wrestled with a juvenile lion estimated to weigh 80 pounds before suffocating it to death in a park west of Fort Collins.

There it goes, making little cans of adorable fizzy beverages!'This morning was the first canning run at our little craft brewery,' says IMGURian fleadh, who made this wonderful video.You can watch the entire clip below.This morning was the first canning run at our little craft brewery...[source] Read the rest

“They want me to be homeless and die!,” Loomer cries on Instagram as she asks fans to send her $40,000.

“The time has come to accept that in its current mode of operation, Facebook’s flaws outweigh its considerable benefits”. — Roger McNamee in ZUCKED.

Yesterday I recommended the Anker PowerCore 10,000 mAh portable charger, which was on sale but isn't anymore. If you want a great deal on a 10,000 mAh portable charger, consider this Aukey charger. Anker generally has a better reputation for quality, but I've used Aukey gear for years with no problem. When you use code 47OU8KKJ at checkout, you can get this for a fraction of the price of the Anker model. Read the rest

Great Big Story shows how an expert dorodango maker makes beautiful shiny balls of mud. It requires starting with a mixture of a clay-based mud, straw, and water. "When you begin to polish them," she says, "and they begin to shine, they are living creatures coming to life." There is even an annual dorodango tournament in Japan.When Carla was editor of Craft magazine, she ran an article with a dorodango how-to.Image: Great Big Story/YouTube Read the rest

Gifts for lovers

Anand Giridharadas (previously) is the Aspen Fellow/McKinsey consultant turned anticapitalist gadfly whose brilliant book Winners Take All exposes the "philanthrophy" of the ultra-rich as a form of reputation-laundering with the side benefit of allowing some of history's greatest monsters to look at themselves in the mirror.Enter Harvard University, whose graduates constitute some of the world's richest, most sociopathic, most generous donors to any university -- the Harvard endowment was selected for study by Thomas Piketty in his Capital in the Twenty-First Century because it is the only privately held, oligarch-scale fortune whose books are open for study.Now, the Humanist Hub and the Humanist Community at Harvard, along with the Harvard College Community of Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics (HCHAA) and the American Humanist Association have given Giridharadas their Rushdie Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award for Humanism in Culture, which is presented at a big "social enterprise" conference put on every year by the Harvard School of Government and its business school, where Giridharadas will present the keynote for "1000 top leaders, practitioners and students."Congrats to Giridharadas, of course, but more important, bravo to the Harvard Humanists! We are particularly proud to announce, therefore, that Giridharadas will accept our 2019 award as part of delivering the opening keynote for this year’s 20th annual Social Enterprise Conference, a joint production of students at the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, set to bring together approximately 1000 top leaders, practitioners and students on March 2-3, 2019 to engage in dialogue, debate, and expression around Social Enterprise. Read the rest

A massive cavity so large you could fit New York City inside of it has opened up under Thwaites glacier in Antarctica. Scientists say if it collapses, as it's likely to do within the next 50 to 100 years, it could cause a catastrophic rise in sea levels capable of flood coastal cities around the world.The researchers behind the discovery describe what it means in a paper published Jan. 30 in the journal Science Advances. They expected to find that much ice had been lost, but were shocked by the size of the growing void.timeline is 50-100 years based on projections—which is not a long time!!!! https://t.co/LzokvhPjLE— Dave Gershgorn (@davegershgorn) February 5, 2019From Denise Chow at NBC News:Scientists have discovered an enormous void under an Antarctic glacier, sparking concern that the ice sheet is melting faster than anyone had realized — and spotlighting the dire threat posed by rising seas to coastal cities around the world, including New York City and Miami.The cavity under Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is about six miles long and 1,000 feet deep — representing the loss of 14 billion tons of ice.It was discovered after an analysis of data collected by Italian and German satellites, as well as NASA’s Operation IceBridge, a program in which aircraft equipped with ice-penetrating radar fly over polar regions to study the terrain.Read the rest of the piece here.GIF below: Sinking areas at Thwaites Glacier are shown here in red and rising areas in blue. Read the rest

Congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has won the endorsement of former KKK leader David Duke. Wait, what?A "Tulsi Gabbard for President" banner features the banner tagline, "Finally a candidate who will actually put America First rather than Israel First!" Duke also endorsed Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election.Though Gabbard does have some reactionary credentials (she's a notorious homophobe, among other things), Duke's probably trolling as she's otherwise a moderate who hasn't taken aim at Israel or its policies.UPDATE: Duke's done this before, and she's replied before:U didn't know I'm Polynesian/Cauc? Dad couldn't use "whites only" water fountain. No thanks. Ur white nationalism is pure evil— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) November 27, 2016 Read the rest

In 2006, artist David Hensel, a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, submitted a sculpture to the UK's Royal Academy. It was a laughing head made from resin, and he called it "One Day Closer To Paradise." Hensel was pleased to learn the sculpture had been accepted for the Royal Academy's summer exhibition. But when he went to a special preview, he saw only the pedestal for his sculpture along with a small piece of wood that was meant to keep the head affixed to it. BBC News reported: "The Academy said the judging panel assumed the two pieces were separate and decided the support was better." The head had been rejected and was being stored in the basement. Read the rest

Back in 1947, decades before cat memes became a way of life, experimental documentary filmmakers Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid gave us a lovely glimpse of the "Private Life of a Cat." From Archive.org:RECORDS FEMALE CAT & HER 5 KITTENS AS MOTHER CAT APPROACHES LABOR, KITTENS ARE BORN & OBTAIN MILK & MOTHER CAT THEN CARES FOR THEM IN LEARNING & GROWING PROCESS, IN WHICH TOM CAT OCCASIONALLY PARTICIPATES.(via r/ObscureMedia)Previously: Maya Deren's Sights and sounds of Haitian vodou Read the rest

One of my favorite puzzle books as a kid was Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers, by Martin Gardner. It had fun "real life" type problems (how can you drive an 11-foot-9 truck under a bridge with 11-foot-8 clearance?) and it introduced me to palindromes ("Straw? No, too stupid a fad. I put soot on warts.") Here's another "real life" puzzle: a person brings four pieces of a broken bracelet to a jeweler and asks him to repair it. The jeweler says he charges $1 for each link he cuts apart and welds together again. "Since I have to cut and weld four links, the job will cost you four dollars." But the customer correctly tells the jeweler he can make the bracelet by cutting and welding only three links. How? Read the rest

Kyiv-based sculptor Polina Verbytska (AKA WeirdSculpture) is a prolific and grotesque maker whose jewelry and knickknacks are superb and grody, all the teeth especially: rings, necklaces, earplugs, etc, and then the rest of it, like these severed fingertip hairpins.(via Creepbay) Read the rest

Remember that school-room lesson on invisible forces where the teacher sprinkles iron filings over a sheet of paper that is placed over a magnet? Here's a complete upgrade. Watch these magnetic field patterns in 3D, created when magnetite sand is thrown on magnets – some of them bouncing on a small trampoline – and shot in slow motion. Beautifully captivating. Via Gizmodo Read the rest

In September 1772 the English scientist Joseph Priestly had a difficult decision to make. Should he accept Lord Shelburne's offer to become his personal librarian, which paid well and would certainly be rewarding, or should he remain in Leeds, where he was comfortably settled and had plenty of interesting work to pursue? Priestly turned to his American friend Benjamin Frankin, who offered the following weighted pro/con algorithm for arriving at a decision when faced with uncertainty:Dear Sir,In the Affair of so much Importance to you, wherein you ask my Advice, I cannot for want of sufficient Premises, advise you what to determine, but if you please I will tell you how. When these difficult Cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because while we have them under Consideration all the Reasons pro and con are not present to the Mind at the same time; but sometimes one Set present themselves, and at other times another, the first being out of Sight. Hence the various Purposes or Inclinations that alternately prevail, and the Uncertainty that perplexes us. To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con. Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or against the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out: If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con, I strike out the three. Read the rest

Smart toilets that analyze urine and poop in the bowl have been demonstrated for years, but now Rochester Institute of Technology engineers have integrated multiple kinds of biosensors into the toilet's seat. The WiFi-enable systems tracks EEG, blood oxygen levels, and the heart's pumping force. From IEEE Spectrum:If the monitoring system works as expected, the device could help catch early signs of heart decline and decrease the number of hospitalizations for heart patients.To test their seat, the team gathered blood pressure and blood oxygenation measurements from 18 volunteers in a laboratory who were instructed to sit on the seat but not urinate, defecate, or talk. Urination and defecation can shift readings since they put minor stress on the body, says Conn. While the system currently operates with algorithms that analyze signal quality, in the future Conn also plans to incorporate algorithms to identify and reject those inevitable bathroom moments from the data set.But even if a person is fidgety on the toilet and the system fails to record a clean signal, there is always the next time. “If you’re not going to pick it up in the morning, you might pick it up at night. People are going to continuously use this seat,” says (researcher Nicholas) Conn. Read the rest

Following on Willie Nelson's "Willie's Reserve" cannabis brand, the music icon and weed enthusiast has launched the new Willie’s Remedy line of CBD-infused health and wellness products, starting with coffee. From Rolling Stone:According to a release, Nelson’s coffee is a medium-dark whole-bean blend with “flavor notes of cherry and cocoa.” Each 8 oz. cup contains 7 mg. of hemp-derived CDB.Nelson’s wife Annie is overseeing the Willie’s Remedy brand and has plans to release other products in the coming year, including topicals and confections. “The Willie’s Remedy line is a purposeful departure from Willie’s Reserve,” said Annie Nelson. “It’s not about getting high, but it’s still all about Willie and the benefits we believe cannabis has to offer.” Read the rest

If you believe in the sanctity of property rights, you believe that the law should entitle you to compensation if someone damages your property; the energy sector has knowingly, willfully destroyed some of the most valuable property on earth, in large coastal cities, and if libertarians and right-wingers were sincere in their belief in private property (as opposed to mere oligarchic consolidation of wealth and power), they would be baying for the liquidation of every energy company's fortunes to compensate the owners of all that property. After all, only 25 companies are responsible for more than half of the planet's emissions. Read the rest

Yes, as seen below, somehow Ross with Nicolas Cage's face makes him look even more like Ross. But now comes the discovery of this lost Friends episode above, "The One Where They Are ALL Nicolas Cage."(TheAngryStag via r/funny)Here's the original weirdness:Ross from Friends with Nicolas Cages face on him just makes him look more like Ross from r/pics Read the rest

Wendell Primus is one of Nancy Pelosi's top health aides. Leaked slides from a closed-door meeting with Blue Cross execs reveal that he has been quietly advising the health insurance industry that there is no danger of Democrats pursuing a "Medicare for All" strategy, and offered them what amounted to a quid pro quo that would keep them safe from nationalized healthcare if they would break with the pharma industry to help lower drug prices.Shortly after this meeting, Nancy Pelosi was made the Speaker of the House, with the power to advance or kill Medicare for All, a policy that the majority of Americans support.Primus denies that there was a deal on offer, claiming instead that the presentation was a "broad look at the health care environment and some of House Democrats’ legislative priorities over the next two years."Primus's leaked slides suggest an expansion of Obamacare -- which obliges Americans to pay private insurers for care, and allows private insurers to bill the US government at arbitrarily high rates to cover people too poor to pay -- as an alternative the national healthcare, a right enjoyed by the residents of every other developed nation in the world.The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which operates under Pelosi, in 2017 presented House Democrats with survey data, claiming that it showed that single-payer was a political loser, and that Democrats should focus their messaging on lowering drug prices and protecting the ACA.Yet a significant number of Democrats who flipped Republican districts blue in 2018 were publicly supportive of Medicare for All, suggesting that it isn’t necessarily the albatross Pelosi and the DCCC believe it to be. Read the rest

Starting in the early 1990s with a Democratic Congress (and continued by other congresses, Republican and Democrat, since), the rate of tax on "passive, unearned income" has been in decline, but someone has to pay to keep Uncle Sam's lights on, so the tax on workers' wages have diverged, until today, when the tax bite out of a worker's wage is double the tax taken on wealthy investor with the same amount in "passive income." The easy explanation for this is that workers don't change their behavior when you raise payroll taxes (you still show up for work because you still you have to pay your mortgage), while investors are prone to changing their behavior depending on the tax code. The more complete explanation is that, since the Reagan years, the share of national wealth owned by the richest Americans has gone up and up, and so has their political power, and so the political will to tax the wealth of the 10%, the 1% and the 0.1% has been steadily leached out of US politics.Taxing workers more than investors is fair, conservatives also argue, because investors and workers are really the same people at different stages of their lives. When you’re young, you save and pay high tax rates on your wages. When you’re old, you get to enjoy the lightly taxed proceeds of that invested income.The wrench in these arguments is the massive jump in inherited American wealth—driven by rising income inequality and loose tax laws. In practice, the person who successfully accumulates assets is often not the person who spends them. Read the rest

Yahoo News' Adriana Belmonte reports on the fastest-growing jobs in America.Construction and extraction jobs are in high demand in the U.S., along with installation, maintenance, and repair services. Production jobs are also quickly developing, as are mathematical and technology-focused occupations. Read the rest

The Takeout methodically calculated the amount of time fresh McDonalds fries last before they become "inedible." The answer is 18 minutes, but in science, the journey is the destination. [via MeFi] Read the rest

Happy Safer Internet Day! Not so much a holiday as a day to look over our shoulder and remember that more than ever, the anonymity and freedom the internet once took for granted is under attack. Whether you're worried about hackers, malware, or just the steadily increasing access big companies have to your online persona, the time has never been better to hop on a virtual private network. And just for the occasion, you might want to take a look at Disconnect VPN.Don't take our word for it - the service already has kudos from the likes of Tom's Guide and the New York Times for its rock-solid encryption. You can ignore international restrictions thanks to Disconnect's global network of servers, and do it up to 44% faster. It's easy to use, but there's plenty of security at work while you surf, including an embedded malware and tracking blocker that you can use on up to three devices.A three-year premium subscription to Disconnect VPN is already sale priced at $29, but you can take an additional 15% off that price for Safer Internet Day by using the online code DATAPRIVACY15. Read the rest

In 1955, aliens from the planet Clarion contacted a Chicago housewife to warn her that the end of the world was imminent. Psychologist Leon Festinger saw this as a unique opportunity to test a new theory about human cognition. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow him inside a UFO religion as it approaches the apocalypse.We'll also try to determine when exactly LBJ became president and puzzle over some wet streets.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

“This was premeditated murder. People inside are genuinely scared."

Amazon is offering an unusually low price on the Anker's PowerCore II 10000 Ultra Slim Power Bank. I have a number of different Anker chargers and they have performed well for years. This one is 1000 mAh, which is enough to recharge most smartphones about 3 times. Read the rest

They're just gonna drill everything they can while Trump's in power, aren't they.Donald Trump tweeted on Monday, “David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived, and we look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed!” David Bernhardt, a former oil industry lobbyist, will be the next head of the U.S. Department of the Interior, assuming Trump has his way.I am pleased to announce that David Bernhardt, Acting Secretary of the Interior, will be nominated as Secretary of the Interior. David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived, and we look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2019From the NYT:While Mr. Zinke had been the public face of some of the largest rollbacks of public-land protections in the nation’s history, Mr. Bernhardt was the one quietly pulling the levers to carry them out, opening millions of acres of public land and water to oil, gas and coal companies. He is described by allies and opponents alike as having played a crucial role in advancing what Mr. Trump has described as an “energy dominance” agenda for the country.“Bernhardt has really been running the show, directing the policy shop in a very strong way,” said Mark Squillace, an expert on environmental law at the University of Colorado Law School.Echoing a frequent critique of Mr. Bernhardt, Mr. Squillace emphasized that the former energy lobbyist and lawyer, if confirmed by the Senate, would have broad authority to shape rules that affect his former clients. Read the rest

The attorney for detained performing artist 21 Savage blasts ICE in a statement the day after his client was arrested: "This is a civil law violation, and the continued detention of Mr. Abraham-Joseph serves no other purpose than to unnecessarily punish him and try to intimidate him into giving up his right to fight to remain in the US."21 Savage is also known as Sha Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph. He was arrested Sunday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after ICE was informed (wonder by who?) the artist is from the UK, and has been staying in the country with an expired visa.He is now in “removal proceedings before the federal immigration courts,” ICE told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Official statement from @21Savage's immigration attorney @ckuck. Please RT to get the actual facts out about She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph's case. #Free21Savage https://t.co/5kpQDvFNJs— Alida Garcia (@leedsgarcia) February 4, 2019Ella Torres at NY Daily News writes,The lawyer for 21 Savage blasted ICE following the arrest of the rapper, calling his detainment a “civil law violation” solely meant to “unnecessarily punish him and try to intimidate him.”“ICE has not charged Mr. Abraham-Joseph with any crime. As a minor, his family overstayed their work visas, and he, like almost two million other children, was left without legal status through no fault of his own,” Charles H. Kuck said Monday in a statement.Kuck also noted that 21 Savage, whose real name is She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, “never hid his immigration status from the US government.”The Atlanta-based rapper allegedly has a pending U-Visa application, eligible for people who have been the victim of a crime. Read the rest

I've written about the 11foot8 bridge (aka the Can-Opener) quite a few times here on Boing Boing. Located in Durham, North Carolina, it's a 79-year-old railroad bridge that has a lower clearance than the height of many common commercial trucks. It's scraped the top off of 139 trucks since 2008, the year that Jürgen Henn installed a video camera to record the crashes.Jürgen posted the first crash of 2019 on his YouTube channel:During the first 40 seconds, you can see that the traffic light switches to red and the overheight warning sign lights up (triggered by the overheight truck). Then the sign starts flashing and the traffic signal switches to green. The truck driver had about 50 seconds to notice the warning sign next to the traffic signal and to decide whether or not to heed the warning. As many before, this driver decided to go for it. As he is backing out of the bridge, he backs into a car behind him.Image: yovo68/YouTube screengrab Read the rest

"After Gerry’s death, Quadriga’s inventory of cryptocurrency has become unavailable and some of it may be lost," said his widow.

On the 15th anniversary of Facebook's launch, Mark Zuckerberg says his company will spend more on safety and security in 2019 than the total amount of revenue his company had on hand at the date of its IPO. In a Facebook post today, Zuckerberg takes a swipe at America's technology journalists, and complains about news coverage in 2018 that was critical of Facebook.Here's Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook post.And below, journalists and observers calling him on his utter bullshit.fascinating pic.twitter.com/Kuh9GQgaos— Natalie Martinez (@natijomartinez) February 4, 2019This is madness.Mark Zuckerberg, his company credibly accused of compromising multiple democratic elections and abetting ethnic violence, dismisses criticism as people emphasizing the negative.Again, he needs to resign.https://t.co/lIvOw2c70s pic.twitter.com/rPUAVFOSU3— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 4, 2019Zuckerberg's TL;DR argument—"Facebook destroyed traditional news, so traditional news is now targeting Facebook"—evidences such a simple worldview.Reporters scrutinize FB because its our job to question power. And when you have 2.7 billion users, you have the power!— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) February 4, 2019This paragraph of Zuckerberg’s 15-year anniversary post is getting a lot of attention as seeming dismissive of legitimate criticism of Facebook raised by traditional institutions — problems $fb has since copped to & wouldn’t have without outside pressure. https://t.co/4XVCTcyG8c pic.twitter.com/nCcQ8JPU9X— Deepa Seetharaman (@dseetharaman) February 4, 2019Zuckerberg also continues a talking point that we've seen in speeches from Sheryl Sandberg that "some people" resisting change will "overly emphasize the negative."This is... wild. Dismissing valid criticisms (i.e. Read the rest

I've been reading a 1978 book called The Art of Problem Solving, by Russell L. Ackoff. (Used copies sell for $7 including shipping on Amazon). At the beginning of the book, Ackoff tells about the time his school-age daughter came home with a familiar puzzle. On a piece of paper, there are nine dots arranged in three rows of three, like this:The challenge is to put a pen on the paper and, without lifting the pen, draw four straight lines that go through all nine dots. You probably remember this puzzle, because it's been around for a long time. Ackoff remembered it, too, but he'd forgotten the solution. But he came up with another way to solve it. He folded the paper so two rows of dots touched each other and used a felt pen to draw through both rows with one stroke. Then he unfolded the paper and drew two more lines to cover the rest of the dots.When Ackoff's daughter went to school the next day, she started to show the teacher the solution her father came up with. As soon as she began folding the paper, the teacher stopped her and said she was not allowed to fold the paper, even though the instructions didn't say she couldn't."This is how creativity is suppressed, although usually not so overtly," writes Ackoff. "The teacher made it clear to her class that the objective of the assignment was not to find a solution to the problem, but to find the solution she knew and could pretend to have discovered on her own. Read the rest

Louis CK is in disgrace in so many ways, and while comedians have often found humor in shocking and sorrowful current events, the combination of CK's lack of credibility and the extraordinary tastelessness of his jokes about the activism of the survivors of the Parkland high school shooting are a bridge too far.In December, CK tried out some Parkland-related material in a set that leaked onstage: "You’re not interesting because you went to a high school where kids got shot. Why does that mean I have to listen to you? Why does that make you interesting? You didn’t get shot, you pushed some fat kid in the way, and now I gotta listen to you talking?" Then, after a storm of public disapprobation, CK followed up in January with this joke: "If you ever need people to forget that you jerked off, what you do is you make a joke about kids that got shot."Manuel Oliver is the father of one of the students who was murdered at Stoneman Douglas High School. His son, Joaquin, was 17 when he died.In a promotion for Change the Ref, a nonprofit founding in Joaquin's memory to advocate for gun control, Manuel Oliver performs a set styled to look like the opening of CK's TV show "Louis," that responds with frankness and unflinching irony to CK's jokes. Hey, everybody, how’s it going tonight? Recently, I heard this great line from a comedian. He said, “If you want people to forget that you were jerking off, just make a joke about kids getting shot.” And I thought, “Jokes about kids getting shot? Read the rest

The federal appeals court in the DC circuit has overturned the FCC's decision to make it effectively impossible for people on tribal lands to make use of the federal "Lifeline} program that provides cheap broadband access to poor communities.The order to freeze Native Americans out of Lifeline was typical of the style of Donald Trump's FCC and its chairman, the ex-Verizon executive Ajit Pai, whose arrogant overreach and administrative incompetence means that, time and again, he does not dot the eyes and cross the tees that must be seen to in order to create binding policy. Instead, Pai has treated his ideology -- "corporate handouts and no regulation" -- as a kind of trump card, which he can lay down to effect whatever changes he wants in the administrative branch.But that's not how US law works. The administrative agencies are "expert agencies" and they have to show that they are soliciting expert, factual input to their rulemaking, and that the rules they arrive at reflect those facts. This process is far from perfect, and many's the administrative agency chair who's figured out how to stack the deck in their favor, but Pai doesn't stack the deck, he simply throws it away.This incompetence is his downfall. Because the FCC could not justify its decision on the basis of even flimsy or one-sided evidence, the court struck it down. Last week, the DC circuit heard an appeal of a case against the FCC that could reinstate Net Neutrality, and while the particulars differ, the shape of the case is the same: Ajit Pai didn't do the hard work, and tried to regulate like a monarch instead of a public servant, and so his order must not stand. Read the rest

Many of us have anecdotes by which we recall shedding bigoted beliefs or otherwise evolving beyond the shortcomings of youthful unreason. Liam Neeson's is, to put it mildly, in-character."I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person. I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I'd be approached by somebody - I'm ashamed to say that - and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some 'black bastard' would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him."*Liam, sat in darkness, picks up the phone*LIAM: Who is this.GRAVELLY VOICE: "I know who you are. I know what you want. If you are looking for a way out I can tell you you're going to need a lot of money, and what I do have is a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a dream for people like you. If you keep your fucking mouth shut from now on that'll be the end of it. I will find you, I will look out for you and I will represent you as your crisis public relations consultant." Read the rest