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In a year-in-review post, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday he is “proud of the progress we've made.” Yes, he really is that deluded.I wonder what would have to happen for Zuckerberg to _not_ be proud of Facebook's record on privacy and trust? https://t.co/ebCQIbE1hL— Anil Dash 🥭 (@anildash) December 28, 2018Zuckerberg said some of Facebook's problems with misinformation and protecting users’ personal data will take years to solve. “We've fundamentally altered our DNA to focus more on preventing harm in all our services, and we've systematically shifted a large portion of our company to work on preventing harm,” he wrote.Zuck claims Facebook now has 30,000 workers focused on safety, or roughly one Facebook safety employee per every 75,600 monthly active users.“Mark Zuckerberg used the word 'progress' six times in his year-end self-assessment,” notes Ryan Mac. “That's one way of looking at Facebook's 2018.”From Ryan's Buzzfeed post:Though much of what Zuckerberg wrote on Friday is not new — it is mostly rehashed from previous talking points — the Facebook chief’s note underscored the notion that Facebook will never be perfect. Zuckerberg acknowledges that election interference and harmful speech “can never be fully solved”“That doesn't mean we'll catch every bad actor or piece of bad content, or that people won't find more examples of past mistakes before we improved our systems,” he notes.As if to prove his point, one of the final scandals the company faced in 2018? An admission on Wednesday from one of its early investors, Reid Hoffman, who said he financed a misinformation campaign in the during the 2017 special election for an Alabama Senate seat. Read the rest

Nearly 800,000 people are hurting financially because of the government shutdown, according to NBC: 420,000 federal employees must continue to work without a paycheck until the shutdown ends, and another 380,000 are simply furloughed, or sent home without pay (and will, hopefully, be reimbursed after the Trumpian mess over the ridiculous wall is sorted out). So how does the government advise these out-of-paycheck employees? The solution is simple: "Consult with your personal attorney." (Yeah, right.) "Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with personal legal advice. If you need legal advice to assist you in any response to creditors, landlords or the like, consult with your personal attorney..." says the Office of Personnel Management, which acts as the federal government's human resources agency.Or better yet, do some work for your landlord, such as painting or carpentry, in exchange for rent. (Even though not everyone has a landlord, and not everyone is able to perform manual labor.) Just ask your landlord like this:"I will keep in touch with you to keep you informed about my income status and I would like to discuss with you the possibility of trading my services to perform maintenance (e.g. painting, carpentry work) in exchange for partial rent payments."In a tweet posted yesterday, the OPM offered advice and template letters that out-of-paycheck employees could use when asking their landlords for some (temporarily) free rent and understanding.Feds, here are sample letters you may use as a guide when working with your creditors during this furlough. Read the rest

The Trump administration is advising people who work for the federal government, who are not getting paid due to Trump's stupid government shutdown tantrum, to literally *barter with their landlords* and offer to paint or do labor in exchange for partial rent. Yes, really.Feds, here are sample letters you may use as a guide when working with your creditors during this furlough. If you need legal advice please consult with your personal attorney. https://t.co/t6h6OzALsS— OPM (@USOPM) December 27, 2018OPM is the federal agency that oversees federal workers. Their advice for the 800,000 furloughed workers who are on day 7 with no pay: Try bartering for your rent. The link in the tweet above provides sample letters in *.doc form (super insecure!) that furloughed workers are advised to mail to their landlords, if they can't make their rent payments. One of these sample letter templates suggests barting handyman services in exchange for rent money. "I would like to discuss with you the possibility of trading my services to perform maintenance (e.g. painting, carpentry work) in exchange for partial rent payments," the letter states.No word on whether trading sex or other illicit services is off the table, because honestly, we all gotta sleep somewhere right? The letter also asks landlords if they would consider reducing rent because of the government shutdown. OPM also tells furloughed workers to "consult with your personal attorney" if they need legal advice when dealing with creditors. More at CBS News.[IMAGE: Two men with children, being evicted, stand with their possessions on the sidewalk, circa 1910, on the Lower East Side of New York City. Read the rest

Over at Cool Tools, Kevin Kelly reviews over 40 YouTube video channels by makers, experimenters, and explainers. It's a great list. I'm subscribing to all the ones I haven't already subscribed to.I have descending into the YouTube click hole. Forget TV, movies, Netflix; I spend most of my discretionary media time watching YouTube tutorials. I go to them whenever I need to learn anything, and in particular when I need to make or repair anything. Nothing appears missing in the YouTubeverse. The most obscure esoteric subject, item, skill, technique, problem will have five videos dedicated to it. At least one will be good. Against this very uneven quality of the average random YouTube episode, I have discover a good shelfful of dependable high-quality YouTube channels dispensing amazing information on a regular basis. Below are the YouTube channels I currently subscribe and return to often. They are informational, rather than entertaining, and they are biased to makers and do-ers. I have divided them into four groups: Experimenters, Makers, Explainers, and Nichers -- esoteric interests that probably won’t appeal to many. Don’t take the categories too seriously; there is much overlap. I emphasize that these are the channels I personally subscribe to, and so reflect my interests, and do not include such obvious other maker-type channels like food, cooking, travel, makeup simply because those are not my interests. But I for sure have missed some great channels. So in the comments please tell me what channels you subscribe to. To be most useful, state what they are about, and why you think they should be included. Read the rest

In 2002, a mysterious man is arrested for illegally occupying a hotel room: he says his name is Ed Stone, and that he was kidnapped by aliens from the same hotel room in 1931 and has just been returned to Earth, not having aged a day; the aliens have told him that Earth will be destroyed in 12 years and that before then, the entire human race has to put itself in a giant box (presumably for transport to somewhere else, though Ed is a little shaky on the details), and to help Ed with this task, the aliens have given him a ring that makes anyone who touches it fill with overwhelming good feelings for him and a desire to help him.So begins science fiction grand master Damon Knight's great, underappreciated 1992 novel Why Do Birds, which I re-read in a single sitting yesterday after discovering a mint first-edition hardcover at the dangerously fantastic Iliad Books near my home in Burbank.Knight was one of the field's great pioneers: the founder of the Science Fiction Writers of America, husband to the incredible sf author Kate Wilhelm, co-founder of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop, mentor to hundreds of writers (including me!), and author of innumerable short stories, novels and teleplays, including the classic Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man" (spoiler: it's a cookbook!).He was an absurdist of the first order, a gifted author whose economy and humor rival the likes of Kurt Vonnegut. Why Do Birds was his penultimate novel, and I haven't rad it in more than 20 years, but I have never forgotten key details (there's a great scene straight out of The Space Merchants where marketing executives for The Cube Project discuss how they will float rumors that poor people will not be allowed in The Cube, in order to spark a mass movement demanding entry into the giant box -- and then there's the scene where they figure out the rate at which humanity will be reproducing itself as it is marshalled into great loading docks for suspended animation and insertion into The Cube). Read the rest

While mass-shootings are the most visible and spectacular consequence of America's love affair with guns, the person most likely to shoot you is you (either accidentally or deliberately), with a loved one or a friend (again, either accidentally or deliberately) close behind.Suicide is an impulsive act. Half of suicide survivors report planning their deaths for less than ten minutes. States like Connecticut that have passed background check laws for handguns have seen precipitous drops in firearm suicides, and states with more lax gun laws experience higher gun mortality of all types. States that have repealed background checks for handguns saw increases in firearm suicides.The most gun-suicidal populations are older white men and veterans. Guns are only used in a small minority of suicide attempts, but half of all successful suicides are firearm suicides.On Wednesday, the National Rifle Association tweeted its long-standing position that "gun control laws are not the answer. If we want to prevent more horrific acts of violence our leaders need to stop demonizing the men and women of the @NRA and find solutions that will save lives."Gun deaths in US reach highest level in nearly 40 years, CDC data reveal [Jacqueline Howard/CNN](via Naked Capitalism)(Image: Will Houp/CNN) Read the rest

This pet recovery collar stops my dog from licking where I do not want, and has caused zero damage or calamity to my home.My Great Pyrenees has some pretty massive surgery scheduled. Insanely, he got a skin infection about two weeks before his Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy is scheduled, on the 23rd of December. Pet stores were closed and for 2 days I did all I could to keep him from licking at his skin, while I waited for my vet to open and for a real cone to be available.From duct taping towels around his neck to fashioning cones from cardboard to sleeping on a hardwood floor next to him, I was desperate to see his skin condition clear up and for this dog's surgery to be on track. He has two knees that need bionic replacement, and we gotta get started. The poor guy is just miserable.My vet put him on two types of antibiotics, but my brother brought me this ZenCone Soft Cone. Thank god for the cone! The dog can not lick or chew at himself, the cone doesn't get in the way a stiff plastic one does, and I can leave the dog alone for 15-20 minutes without worry. He has tried to remove it, but due to its soft nature, he can not really find purchase to pull it over his head.He can pull a duct-taped towel roll off in about 2 seconds flat.My buddy can still open doors with the cone on. Read the rest

Filmmakers turned a writing prompt from Reddit user WaFromWa into a stellar short film whose premise includes Santa as a deadly, covert super-assassin. Superb! (via JWZ) Read the rest

In 2013, San Bernardino Sheriff’s Deputy Luis Ortiz took the decision to arrest a group of seventh grade girls -- 12 and 13 year olds -- because they wouldn't speak when he demanded to know who among them had been the aggressors and who had been the victims in a series of bullying incidents; Ortiz's rationale for these arrests was that the girls were "unresponsive and disrespectful" and that by arresting them, he could "prove a point," that he wasn't "playing around" and this would "make [them] mature a lot faster," by teaching them that the law was indifferent to "who [was] at fault, who did what" because "it [was] the same, same ticket, same pair of handcuffs."The parents of the children who had been the victims of the bullying sued.They won.The county of San Bernardino appealed.They lost. (9th Circuit Court of Appeals: "Deputy Ortiz faced a room of seven seated, mostly quiet middle school girls, and only generalized allegations of fighting and conflict amongst them. Even accounting for what Deputy Ortiz perceived to be nonresponsiveness to his questioning, the full-scale arrests of all seven students, without further inquiry, was both excessively intrusive in light of the girls’ young ages and not reasonably related to the school’s expressed need.")Rather than ask the Supreme Court to hear the case, the county has now settled with the children, and will pay $390,000 in compensation to them. As Tim Cushing notes: "The county's decision to fight the district court's ruling doesn't reflect well on it or its legal representation. Read the rest

Classic games, computers and gaming consoles are a source of joy for those who came of age when the titles and hardware were cutting edge commodities. Few things can transport you back to your youth faster than playing with what made you happy back in the day. For some people, playing with the games of yore includes tinkering to make something new and wonderful. From Kotaku:Modder Kaze Emanuar has taken the 2D level design of that older game and crammed it into the engine of Super Mario 64. Judging from the video that announced the mod, this allows the player to do all the leaping, hopping, and air flipping that a modern Mario can do while still enjoying the “classic” feel of the levels. Read the rest

Macaulay Culkin's middle name is currently "Carson." But, starting in 2019, it will be "Macaulay Culkin," as in Macaulay 'Macaulay Culkin' Culkin.The Home Alone actor has been polling his fans on what his new middle name should be. The other choices were "Shark Week," "Kieran" (his younger brother's name), "TheMcRibisBack," and "Publicity Stunt." Ultimately his fans went with the meta choice of his own first and last name.On Christmas day he made the big announcement. Merry Christmas to me, from all of you! My new middle name has been chosen. You voted and the winner is clear. In 2019 my new legal name will be:Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin. It has a nice ring to it (if you like my name).#MerryChristmas— Macaulay Culkin (@IncredibleCulk) December 25, 2018Keep it quirky, Culkin!Recently: 38-year-old Macaulay Culkin is Home Alone again in this fun adRelated: Did you know that the black-and-white gangster film ("Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!') in Home Alone was created for specifically for the movie? It's not a vintage flick at all!My entire childhood, I thought the old timey movie that Kevin watches in Home Alone (Angels With Filthy Souls) was actually an old movie.— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) December 25, 2018(COS) Read the rest

It hasn't been a good year for Apple. The company's had to confirm that they've been throttling speeds of older iPhones to maintain battery efficiency. They were caught throttling their latest MacBook Pros to well below their advertised base processor speeds in order to deal with the thermal demands of the chipset inside of them. iOS 11 was buggy as all get out. Worst of all, the keyboards that are baked into almost all of the laptop computers sold by Apple over the past few years are so delicate that dust or a crumb getting beneath a key cap could be cause for costly repair. The problem was such that a class action lawsuit over it was launched and Apple, caught up in a PR nightmare, was forced to start offering free repairs for their faulty input devices to all comers. The release of the company's latest crop of iPad Pro tablets, unfortunately, seems to have fallen into line with this new quality control status quo.A few days ago, The Verge contacted Apple over the online rumors, later reinforced with hands-on demonstrations, that the new iPad Pro was so thin that it proved hilariously easy to bend. Some owners of the tablet also complained that the tablet came to them ever-so-slightly warped, right out of the box. The Verge's Chris Welch was among the victims of the industrial design tomfoolery. He reported that he could personally vouch for the issue: ...my 11-inch iPad Pro showed a bit of a curve after two weeks. Read the rest

Remember earlier this week when Trump asked a child over the phone, "Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at seven it's marginal, right?"? Who could forget?!Well, the parents of seven-year-old Collman Lloyd of Lexington, South Carolina (a girl -- it had been reported the child was a boy) filmed her talking with the President:And, the AP reports that Collman had never heard the word "marginal" before.Collman had called the NORAD Tracks Santa program Monday night to check on Santa’s journey delivering toys. In an interview with the Post and Courier of Charleston, she said the scientist who answered the NORAD phone asked her if she would like to speak to the president.Six minutes later, Trump was on the line. “Are you still a believer in Santa?” Trump asked. When she responded, “Yes, sir,” the president added, “Because at 7, that’s marginal, right?”Collman didn’t know what “marginal” meant and simply answered, “Yes, sir.” Trump closed by saying, “Well, you just enjoy yourself.”(VICE) Read the rest

This is quite the feat. Twitter user @pilotviruet's mom crocheted her a playable Monopoly game blanket. Color me impressed!hello, please look at this giant blanket my mom crocheted for me!!! pic.twitter.com/TTRQwJAmnZ— pilot! (@pilotviruet) December 27, 2018 Read the rest

Since it turned out the glitter bomb bait box was a hoax, I've finally accepted that nothing online is real. But this sure does look like a video of a porch pirate getting his ass ran down and beaten, complete with comical running back and forth, all set to the Benny Hill theme tune. Read the rest

These "Delete my Browser History" medic alert bracelets are making the rounds again and some say they can be a hassle for first responders and other emergency medical professionals. This redditor, who works in the medical field, made this plea back in 2015:...I work in healthcare and emergency medicine. Some people are going to call me a stick in the mud or say I have no sense of humor. I assure you that I do however there is a time and a place. Here’s what I want to say to (scream at) people:Wearing a joke or novelty medic alert bracelet in your everyday life is NOT funny, it is stupid and causes grief to the people who are trying to save you. ...I can't tell you the number of people we've had wearing ones saying things like ‘Delete my browser history’, ‘Format my hard drive’, ‘I’m probably just shitfaced’ or ‘Blood type: Coors Light/Jack Daniels/alcohol of your choice’. Stop. Just stop. When first responders are checking you and they see one everything stops. They don’t know if you’re allergic to a certain medication, or can’t have needles in one arm, or whatever else. It’s precious time they could be using to save your life. It’s even worse when you come to the ER under your own power and insist on making the staff look at it while they are treating you. Today a group of guys were brought into the ER unconscious after their car rolled over (they’re okay) All 5 of them had medic alert bracelets. Read the rest

"One of my all-time favorites, it's a peaty, smokey, delicious experience if you appreciate peat, and it's totally disgusting if you don't like peat," says foodquig, as his wife leaves him. [via r/videos] Read the rest

Here we go again. This Sesame Street sound bite is being called the new Yanny/Laurel.In the clip, Grover says, "Yes, yes, that sounds like an excellent idea." But people are hearing, "Yes, yes, that’s a fucking excellent idea."Obviously, Grover isn't swearing. After all, Sesame Street is a kids' show. But, listen to the video and you might just hear his F-bomb for yourself. The audio anomaly was discovered by redditor u/schrodert:(GOOD) Read the rest

A man who until recently worked as Santa Claus at a Georgia Walmart has been arrested after the bodies of his two children were found buried in his backyard, say authorities.Elwyn Crocker's two children were never reported missing.The remains of the siblings, both of whom were 14 when last seen, were discovered Thursday in the rural town of Guyton by the Effingham Sheriff’s Office.From ABC News:Elwyn Crocker Sr., 50, was arrested after sheriff's deputies went to his house in Guyton, Georgia, a suburb of Savannah, to conduct a welfare check on his 14-year-old daughter, Mary Crocker, authorities said.Effingham County Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie said that after questioning Crocker, he allegedly directed deputies to an area of his backyard, where they uncovered the bodies of Mary and her brother, Elwyn Crocker.Until recently, Mr. Crocker -- who turned 50 in jail this Christmas -- was employed as a Santa Claus at a Walmart in Rincon, Georgia, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:The father, who turns 50 on Christmas and until recently played Santa at a nearby Walmart in Rincon, has been charged with child cruelty and concealing a death. The same charges have also been filed against his wife, Candice Crocker, 33, her mother, Kim Wright, 50, and Wright’s boyfriend, Roy Anthony Prater, 55. All lived in the home and could face additional charges, authorities have said. They remain in the county jail without bond.PHOTO: Elwyn Crocker Sr. (Effingham County Sheriff’s Office) Read the rest

Hundreds of Nicaraguans who took to the streets over the last eight months to protest President Daniel Ortega's corrupt government have been forced into hiding and, in some cases, to flee the country for their own safety. It's the end result of the Nicaraguan government's crackdown against protesters who voiced their outrage over Ortega's plans to gut the nation's social security system.From The New York Times: ...many people in this desperately poor Central American nation now live in a bleak new reality. They have exchanged their routine lives as lawyers, engineering majors, radio broadcasters and merchants for one of ever-changing safe houses, encrypted messaging apps and pseudonyms.They are hiding from an increasingly authoritarian state that is methodically tracking down those who participated in the large-scale and often violent protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.“They are hunting us like deer,” said Roberto Carlos Membreño Briceño, 31, a former legal clerk for a Nicaraguan Supreme Court justice, who gave up his law license and fled this year after his bosses saw a photo of him at a protest. He now lives in hiding on a ranch in Costa Rica with 50 strangers, including a ballet dancer who goes by code name “The Eagle.”Instead of listening to the concerned voices of his constituents, Ortega, paranoid, autocratic shitbird that he is, declared that the uprising had nothing to do with anything he was doing. Rather, the protesters were in the street, acting on behalf of "well-financed political parties" who wanted to toss him and his cronies out on their ass as part of a coup. Read the rest

As is the case every year Maximum Fun's Jesse Thorn has posted a special episode (MP3) of the Bullseye podcast, anthologizing excerpts from the best comedy albums of the year. Here's this year's contributors (Here's 2017 and here's 2016):Gina Yashere - Ticking Boxes Laura House - Mouth PunchAdam Cayton-Holland - Adam Cayton-Holland Performs His Signature Bits Sara Hennessey - They Know Too MuchLouie Anderson - Big Underwear Kimberly Clark - Live at Max Fun Con 2018Emily Heller - Pasta Nore Davis - Too Woke Jo Firestone - The Hits Dino Archie - Live at Max Fun Con 2018Jen Kirkman - Just Keep Livin'? Nato Green - The Whiteness Album Read the rest

Millitext is a "font" whose glyphs are just one pixel wide. But it's really a clever exploitation of how subpixels -- the individual red, green and blue lights of an LCD display -- are triggered by pixels of certain colors. For example, a magenta pixel triggers the red and blue subpixels, leaving the green one dark between them. The result is as embedded above. Below is how the bitmap image would look like scaled up, on the wrong sort of screen—or simply as seen from a normal distance where the subpixels, as intended, appear to merge together. Read the rest

For anyone who hasn't read Ready Player One or Dark Matter, you can get them as Kindle edition books today at greatly reduced prices, along with many other titles. Read the rest

Jermaine Massey took a seat in a quiet section of the Doubletree hotel lobby he was staying at in Portland to take a call from his mother. But he says he was soon interrupted by a security guard – Earl – who asked if Massey was staying in the hotel. Massey showed him his key card but couldn't remember the room number off hand. This prompted Earl to call the police. Earl is white and Massey is black. Apparently, Massey was kicked out of the hotel for "trespassing," even though he had paid for a hotel room and already had his belongings in the room. In fact, it wasn't until after the police were called that the manager of the hotel came over to Massey and asked what happened."Tonight I was racially profiled and discriminated against for taking a phone call in the lobby of my hotel room at the @doubletreepdx @doubletree. The security guard “Earl” decided that he would call the police on me, the exact reason is still unclear to me..." Massey says in one of his Instagram posts. And later from his new room at the Sheraton by the airport: "It just goes to show you that racism is still alive and well man. This was a real incident where I could’ve gone to jail if I responded in a different way." View this post on Instagram Tonight I was racially profiled and discriminated against for taking a phone call in the lobby of my hotel room at the @doubletreepdx @doubletree. Read the rest

The dead leaf butterfly looks exactly like a decomposing brown leaf.Some of the best mimicry I've ever seen https://t.co/bMGhei6zj1 (from https://t.co/X5ZDxl2QZK) pic.twitter.com/DAto7SWR7H— Mike Inouye (@minouye271) December 26, 2018 Read the rest

An hour-and-a-half episode of Black Mirror, called "Bandersnatch," debuts on Netflix tomorrow. From the description: "In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a sprawling fantasy novel into a video game and soon faces a mind-mangling challenge." Read the rest

Pyramid schemes are appealing if you don't understand how they work. This video explains how they work, why they are unsustainable, and the psychological tricks used to recruit victims. Read the rest

Until the early 2000s more people lived in villages and small towns than in cities. Population in large cities continues to rise, while the opposite is true in rural areas. This is especially true in Japan, where people are fleeing from their rural homes to live in Tokyo and Osaka. Today 92% of Japanese live in large cities. In this video, Greg Lam, the host of Life Where I'm From, went to Japan's smallest island, Shikoku, to learn what living outside a megalopolis is like. Read the rest

The Action Lab Man presented a video of cracking glass using a camera capable of filming 10 million frames per second. Glass cracks propagate faster than a bullet, so even at 10 millions frames a second the cracks move quickly.Image: The Action Lab Read the rest

A long-chewed-on mystery about Michael Cohen's activities in the Trump-Russia conspiracy may now be resolved, thanks to data leaked by Cohen's cellphone. Operational security will get you every time, dumb criminals.McClatchy reports that a mobile phone traced to Donald Trump’s former “fixer” and alleged lawyer Michael Cohen briefly sent some pings that ricocheted off cellular network towers around Prague, in late summer 2016, when Trump's presidential campaign was going bonkers. Cohen's cellphone left an electronic record to support claims he met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter tell McClatchy. This is a big deal.According to the dossier, Michael Cohen met with Russian agents in Prague to discuss election help. No one could verify this claim. Now, cell phone signals put Cohen in Prague around the time the alleged meeting took place. Plot = thicker https://t.co/4qokyupTbM— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) December 27, 2018From the story:During the same period of late August or early September, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians, one of whom remarked that Cohen was in Prague, two people familiar with the incident said.The phone and surveillance data, which have not previously been disclosed, lend new credence to a key part of a former British spy’s dossier of Kremlin intelligence describing purported coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia’s election meddling operation.The dossier, which Trump has dismissed as “a pile of garbage,” said Cohen and one or more Kremlin officials huddled in or around the Czech capital to plot ways to limit discovery of the close “liaison” between the Trump campaign and Russia. Read the rest

Eve (AKA Talismana Designs) carves these $32 bird skull rings out of slaughterhouse surplus cow-bones, custom carved to your size. (via Creepbay) Read the rest

Juul just handed out $2 billion in dividends, making 1,500 employees into overnight millionaires; the cash came from Altria-Marlboro's 35%, $12.8 billion buyout of the company -- and everything about the story stinks.As David Dayen from The Intercept explains, the vaping industry has gutted the smoking industry -- and the smoking industry's attempts to catch up with their own offerings have failed miserably. In a world of competitive markets, this would be pretty normal: a disruptive innovation breaks up an oligarchic, concentrated market, replacing it with a diverse, competitive market.But Juul owns nearly 75% of the e-smoking industry. Marlboro's buyout of the company -- which would have been prohibited in an era of robust anti-trust -- means that the out-innovated incumbents don't wither and die, they just buy up the upstart competitor (and that upstart competitor completely dominates its niche).Then there's Juul's product and marketing: while the company pitches itself as an alternative to smoking, it's fortunes are mostly gained through getting children hooked on nicotine, a carcinogenic, highly addictive substance that the company flavors with "mango, fruit, cucumber, and creme."As the Wall Street Journal notes, Marlboro's Juul buyout is a good deal for both companies: Marlboro gets to profit from a new generation of children who are hooked for life on a carcinogenic product, and Juul gets to leverage Marlboro's deep experience with lobbying governments to look the other way while it peddles addiction to children.Limited retail sales in storefronts could hold back Juul’s growth, however. Read the rest

This girl, trapped in a church, finds a way to escape the Sinners Prayer by doing the Macarena. Read the rest

After a successful phishing attack that captured over 50 accounts, hackers stole 500,000 records from the San Diego Unified School District, for staff, current students, and past students going all the way back to 2008; including SSNs, home addresses and phone numbers, disciplinary files, health information, emergency contact details, health benefits and payroll info, pay information, financial data for direct deposits.School district employees reported the wave of phishing emails, but the district opted to deliberately allow the hackers to continue operating in an effort to catch them; the district says it has identified the hacker. Details are sketchy, but boy this looks bad. It's hard to understand why all but a few employees would be able to access historical student records (for example, staffers who deal with providing transcripts for college applications, or who respond to court orders). It's also not clear how the district decided to allow a criminal to access their systems for 11 months, while stealing 500,000 records -- even if they have identified the criminal, have they caught them? And even if they caught them, do they know that the stolen records weren't sold or given away prior to the capture?In my experience, schools are incredibly cavalier about requesting student and visitor data, doing things like scanning driver's licenses and sending them to third party background checking services without being able to provide any information on what will happen to that data. "It was necessary for our investigation to not immediately tip off those responsible that we were aware of their activities," the district said in its letter. Read the rest

Lots of folks continue to build fabulous creations out of LEGO well into adulthood. Others tire of it, as they do many of their other childhood belongings, at an early age. Both are fine. What's not OK is being a kid who, because of their parent's financial situation, doesn't know the joy of having a box full of LEGO to call their own. Given the years of imagination-stretching enjoyment the wee plastic blocks can bring into a life, that's a damn shame.Here's what you can do to put a dent in this unfortunate state of affairs. Lifehacker had a recent post on what to do with old LEGO, if you're not able to pass it down to a younger member of your family or hand it off to friends for their kids to mess around with. They mention that you can sell the blocks online but, better than this, there's organizations out there that specialize in putting LEGO bricks in needy hands:Sites like Brick Recycler, The Giving Brick and Brick Dreams have launched in recent years in order to address the unique supply and demand problem presented by LEGOs. Each has its own requirements for donations, but in general they accept donations of LEGO bricks of all kinds: mixed up, all together, dirty or clean. Brick Recycler says it has “repurposed” more than 3 million LEGO pieces.The groups clean and sort bricks and then donate them to children’s support groups, hospitals, daycare facilities and more. Some sell cleaned sets that were donated in order to pay for operations. Read the rest

Techcrunch's Greg Kumparak started agitating for phones to have standard 3.5mm jacks in the 2000s, rejoicing when the original Iphone shipped with one; now, two years after Apple took away the phone jack (and after most of the major phone manufacturers followed suit), he's still lamenting the loss: my original Pixel finally died (I can no longer find charging cases to make up for its limping battery) and I've ordered a Pixel Three and the stupid dongle that lets you charge your phone while plugging in standard headphones -- it hasn't arrived yet and I already hate it. As a heavy traveler who is very reliant on a phone for translation, itinerary management, mobile hotspot, etc, the last thing I needed was another dongle to manage, another device-class to charge, another charger to carry, and another hard-to-source component to lose or break while I'm between cities. (Image: Bribass) Read the rest

Why install doors at the bottom of each coal cart when you can simply tip the entire train upside-down? Read the rest

For close to two thousand years, holy men from across the wide spectrum of the Christianity have rocked a completely or entirely shaved head--a hairstyle called a tonsure. A tonsure marked those that wore it as adherents to various monastic and priestly orders and, in some cases, were a symbol of controversy in the early Catholic church as opposing factions within it fought for legitimacy. This brief video from Vox outlines the history of the haircut, what it means and why it survived in a rapidly changing world for as long as it did. Even if you're not a religious sort, it's a fascinating bit of history. Read the rest

J Salmerón, a Netherlands-based concert photographer, took a fantastic shot of Arch Enemy singer Alissa White-Gluz at a festival gig in Nijmegen. He posted it to his Instagram, to White-Gluz and fans' general delight. A company named Thunderball Clothing, operated by Marta Gabriel, reposted Salmerón's photo to their own Instagram account. Thunderball created the leather vest White-Gluz wore in the post, and used the photo, without the photographer's permission, to market its services. Salmerón sent a request: give €100 euros to a charity, the normal licensing fee, and he wouldn't ding Thunderball with a €500 unauthorized use invoice.So Gabriel told the band that Salmerón threatened her. And the band itself told him that, as far as they were concorned, they could also use his photos however they please.Salmerón, who as luck would have it is also a lawyer, explains that this is a dangerous misunderstanding of copyright law:This made no sense since, although there are some restrictions (for example, I can’t use a photo of Alissa to promote a product, unless she expressly authorizes me to do so) I am the only one who gets to decide how and where my work is used. To put it in legal terms: I own the copyright over my photos.The message also sought to perpetuate the ridiculous system that some bands expect to have with photographers: They let them come into the pit, expect to have the absolute and perpetual right to use the photos in whatever way they want, and pay photographers in “exposure,” by using their work before a massive audience. Read the rest

Thailand's got a reputation with being less than cool with illegal drugs being brought into their country or used within their national borders. Which drugs are legal and which are disallowed changes up from time to time, however. Until the 1930s, medicinal cannabis use was hunky dory with the Thai government. Then it wasn't. Fast forward to 2019 and the wheel of acceptability will have spun around once more: on Christmas Day, the nation decided that, provided it was used for medicinal purposes, dope was dope once again. Given the stringent drug laws typically enforced in Thailand's Southeast Asian neighborhood (sentences of death over a trafficking charge aren't uncommon,) it's a surprising shift in policy.From The New York Times:By a vote of 166 to 0, the military-appointed National Legislative Assembly approved legislation this week that would allow the use of cannabis under medical supervision. Thirteen members abstained.The measure is expected to take effect next year.“This is a New Year’s gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people,” the lawmaker who headed the drafting committee, Somchai Sawangkarn, said during a televised session on Tuesday.Before anyone goes making travel plans, you should know that saying that it's cleared only for prescribed medicinal use isn't just a suggestion. The penalty for recreational use of cannabis in Thailand is still very serious business: those found in possession of 10 kilograms of herb or less can expect to do up to five years in prison. Read the rest

Dale a tu cuerpo alegría. Read the rest

Here are six new lateral thinking puzzles to test your wits and stump your friends -- play along with us as we try to untangle some perplexing situations using yes-or-no questions.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Pink paper towels, a lampshade covered in hair-dye sample swatches, and a fake glass of white wine from Japan are just a few of the eclectic things you'll find in Amy Sedaris' rabbit-nibbled one-bedroom Greenwich Village apartment. New York Magazine's Design Editor Wendy Goodman got a tour of Sedaris' delightful home despite not bringing a gift. Read the rest

Welcome back to The Bureau. It's the ninth installment and it looks like that sandwich you found in your pocket contains a bossy talking slice of Brain. And man, it's feeding you some gab!

Bruce Sterling's two-hour talk/Q&A at The Interval, a club for members of the Long Now foundation, may seem like a daunting load for a holiday week, but honestly, it's worth every minute.Sterling delves into the true meaning of "futurism," as a performative, social act, embedded in a time and place and operating on one of several layers -- the pace-layers defined by Stewart Brand, which are: "Fashion/art, Commerce, Infrastructure, Governance, Culture and Nature. Sterling's performance style -- droll, dry, with some Groucho Marx mixed in with a kind of tragic poetry -- is perfectly suited to this material. Sterling is actually at his best when talking about why he does the things he does -- even better than he is when he's actually doing it. It's in these meta-talks that you get some insight into the gaps and out-of-focus areas where Sterling is really digging in, trying to find some new territory -- as opposed to when he's performing, and describing the territory he's already thoroughly mapped.In theory, this is going to appear on the Interval's podcast and I think that might be the best way to experience it -- it's great audio for thinking about while digesting your Christmas meals and tidying up the wrapping paper.(via Beyond the Beyond) Read the rest

Reddit user marc_urzz posted this photo of the fantastic sink in his step-uncle's bathroom. A little web searching then led me to the tenor horn urinals below. It would also be fun to use a trumpet as a shower head! What instrument would make a good toilet? Read the rest

Today I learned that using cannabis can lower a fella's sperm count: those looking to partake in parenthood should take note. But that's not the only thing that cannabis can do to your swimmers. According to scientists from Duke University, using marijuana can cause genetic changes to sperm cells--something that could have far-reaching consequences for any baby a dude might father.From The Verge:For a study published today in the journal Epigenetics, scientists at Duke University compared the sperm of two groups of rats: those who had been given tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, and those who had not. Then they compared the sperm of 24 human men who smoked marijuana weekly versus a control group who used marijuana no more than 10 times in their life and not at all in the past half-year. In both cases — rats and humans — marijuana changed how genes work in sperm cells.In both rats and humans, the cannabis affected many different genes involved in two different pathways. (Think of pathways as another set of instructions, this time for regulating various bodily functions.) One is important for organs to reach full size, and one plays a role in cancer and suppressing tumors. Before anyone loses their shit, this doesn't mean that any kid you conceive while THC is coursing through your body will be more likely to get cancer. A lot more research needs to be conducted before any firm conclusions can be drawn. As The Verge points out, there were no laboratory controls on how much THC was consumed by the test subjects. Read the rest

Fizz Buzz is the word-game in which players in a circle count from 1 up, substituting multiples of three with "fizz" and multiples of five with "buzz" ("1, 2, Fizz, 4, Buzz, Fizz, 7, 8, Fizz, Buzz, 11, Fizz, 13, 14, Fizz Buzz, 16, 17, Fizz, 19, Buzz, Fizz, 22, 23, Fizz, Buzz, 26, Fizz, 28, 29, Fizz Buzz, 31, 32, Fizz, 34, Buzz, Fizz, ...").Evil Fizz Buzz is Jason Gorman's exercise that uses Fizz Buzz to teach continuous integration and test-driven development, played with five or more software developers.The players divide into five groups, each tasked with a different component of writing a program to output correct Fizz Buzz sequences:1. Generate a list of integers from 1-1002. Numbers that are divisible by 3, replace with "Fizz"3. Numbers that are divisible by 5, replace with "Buzz"4. Numbers that are divisibele by 3 & 5, replace with "FizzBuzz"5. Output this list as a single comma-delimited stringTeams can whiteboard and discuss together, but teams can only contribute code related to their task, checking it into a source control repository. That's when it gets interesting:Once you have a working (green) build on a skeleton solution (i.e., one that compiles and runs at least one dummy test), the build must not go red. This is an exercise on delivering as a team WITHOUT BREAKING THE BUILD. OK? If the build goes red again, the exercise is over. The team has 1 hour to deliver a working solution they can demonstrate to the "customer"Lots of people asking about Evil FizzBuzz. Read the rest

When bots finally accounted for half the traffic on the internet, Media Experts speculated that algorithms would start identifying bots as a better advertising target than humans. Max Read points out that fear of "Inversion" is now quaint. Now everything is so fake online that no-one trusts numbers at all.In the future, when I look back from the high-tech gamer jail in which President PewDiePie will have imprisoned me, I will remember 2018 as the year the internet passed the Inversion, not in some strict numerical sense, since bots already outnumber humans online more years than not, but in the perceptual sense. Everything that once seemed definitively and unquestionably real now seems slightly fake; everything that once seemed slightly fake now has the power and presence of the real. The “fakeness” of the post-Inversion internet is less a calculable falsehood and more a particular quality of experience — the uncanny sense that what you encounter online is not “real” but is also undeniably not “fake,” and indeed may be both at once, or in succession, as you turn it over in your head. Read the rest

Retired Cambridge professor Peter Smith has distilled his experience in teaching philosophers and mathematicians about formal logic into a free, frequently updated (last updated: 2017) study guide to logic, constructed to be easily accessible, with quick-start guides for different kinds of learners, written on the assumption of very little education in either maths or philosophy.It is perhaps worth pausing to ask whether you, as a budding philosopher,reallydowant or need to pursue your logical studies much further if you havealready worked through a book like mine or Paul Teller’s or Nick Smith’s. Farbe it from me to put people off doing more logic: perish the thought! But formany philosophical purposes, you might well survive by just reading this:Eric Steinhart,More Precisely: The Math You Need to Do Philosophy*(Broadview 2009) The author writes: ‘The topics presented . . . include:basic set theory; relations and functions; machines; probability; formal semantics; utilitarianism; and infinity. The chapters on sets, relations, andfunctions provide you with all you need to know to apply set theory in anybranch of philosophy. The chapter of machines includes finite state machines, networks of machines, the game of life, and Turing machines. Thechapter on formal semantics includes both extensional semantics, Kripkean possible worlds semantics, and Lewisian counterpart theory. The chapter onprobability covers basic probability, conditional probability, Bayes theorem,and various applications of Bayes theorem in philosophy. The chapter onutilitarianism covers act utilitarianism, applications involving utility andprobability (expected utility), and applications involving possible worldsand utility. Read the rest