Boing Boing

According to its infernal creator, HATETRIS "is bad Tetris. It's hateful Tetris. It's Tetris according to the evil AI from 'I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.'"Background, hints, and links to others' prior work here.(via Kottke) Read the rest

It's easy enough to pick this Caterpillar padlock with a lockpicking rake, but if that seems too difficult, just buy another Caterpillar padlock of the same model. They all use the same key. Read the rest

'Super Dave Osborne' and 'Marty Funkhouser' have left us. Curb Your Enthusiasm fans will best remember actor Bob Einstein from his impact on Larry David's long-running HBO comedy series.Einstein was 76.From DEADLINE:Bob Einstein, a two-time Emmy winner who has recurred on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm since its launch and created the wacky Super Dave Osborne character, died today in Indian Wells, CA. He was 76 and recently had been diagnosed with cancer.Bob Einstein's career in weirdo comedy did not begin with 'Curb.'In this clip, none other than country music star Glen Campbell, wearing his Wichita Lineman album cover outfit, interviews Barry The Mechanic (played by Bob Einstein) in a "rip-off mechanic" skit.Watch and learn.Boing Boing BBS member Professer59 points us to Jerry Seinfeld's series 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee,' on which Bob Einstein guested. This 2017 episode with Seinfeld and Einstein together is wonderful. In it, Bob talks about his career and about the death of his father, comedian and broadcaster Harry Einstein.Einstein was the first comedian to appear twice on 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.'Below, some memorable moments from 'Curb,' and interviews Bob Einstein did about his work on this show and others.[PHOTO: 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' Courtesy HBO] Read the rest

Core77 published its annual collection of "the best mind-melting manufacturing videos," including furniture made from chocolate, a chicken-wire wrapper, a thermoformed case, a cookie-cutter former, and more. My favorite is this blobby ceramic bowl stamper: View this post on Instagram Had no idea this is how you mass manufacture printed ceramics 😂 (via @world_of_engineering) #processpornA post shared by Core77 (@core77) on Aug 24, 2018 at 5:04am PDT Read the rest

Is that a threat?During today's back-from-the-holidays meetings, Donald Trump said the United States “Government could be shut down for a long time...as long as it takes.”Hang on now.As long as it takes for what?Trump says government could be shut down for a “long time”— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) January 2, 2019#GovernmentShutdown could last "a long time," @POTUS tells reporters.— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) January 2, 2019#BREAKING Trump warns government shutdown could last "a long time" pic.twitter.com/2EDle5NqMB— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 2, 2019BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump just said "Government could be shut down for a long time...as long as it takes." The Dow was up around 60 pts when he said it, now up 32. 3pET he will be starting a meeting w/ Congressional leaders, we're LIVE at the WH— Liz Claman (@LizClaman) January 2, 2019Trump at cabinet mtg on partial gov't shutdown: It could be a long time..it could end quickly— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 2, 2019 Read the rest

This rat has two green LED lights implanted near its bladder to help the animal regain control of its urination. According to Washington University researcher Robert Gereau, the technology -- which involves a metal ring around the bladder to sense its fullness and a wirelessly rechargeable battery -- could eventually help humans with incontinence. Here's how it works, from New Scientist:When the device was implanted in rats with bladder dysfunction, the metal ring measured changes in bladder size. When it detected that a rat was urinating more than two times an hour, the LED lights switched on.These rats had previously received gene therapy, enabling their nerve cells involved in bladder-brain signaling to make a light-sensitive protein. When the LEDs were switched on, their light activated this protein, which in turn blocked urination signals from the bladder from reaching the brain. Read the rest

YouTuber Toni Patanen "Pupsi" likes to make musical instruments – ocarinas in particular – with vegetables. Here he cuts up some sweet potatoes and a squash, and then (at 1:39) plays a mystical version of Toto's Africa. Via Mashable Read the rest

“Sanctions are Coming - November 4.” For today's Cabinet meeting at the White House, there was a weird Trump Game of Thrones political meme poster, wall sized, displaying Trump's face and those words, placed right on the middle of the table as some kind of weird creepy internet fascist prop.Previously, Trump tweeted this meme in the context of Iran. Buzzfeed reported about it at the time.“How do you say trademark misuse in Dothraki?,” HBO previously tweeted in response, exactly two months ago. Wonder how they'll respond to this incident, given that it is likely to go viral, and arguably cause confusion about the show. My guess?LAWYERS ARE COMING😎Trump has the "sanctions are coming" poster of himself in this Cabinet meeting. This pic from @kevincorke: pic.twitter.com/ir62Nryd5W— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) January 2, 2019pic.twitter.com/nk2vKvHuaL— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2018Wall poster of Trump with the words “Sanctions are Coming - November 4” in the middle of the table for today’s Cabinet meeting. pic.twitter.com/wJ9XpcQxKA— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) January 2, 2019I heard that there was a Game of Thrones parody poster on the desk during Trump's meeting, so I assumed it was about the wall that occupies like 1/3 of the plot of that book/show, and... no, it's about sanctions!— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 2, 2019never forget ---> The Sanctions That Trump’s “Game Of Thrones” Tweet Warned About Have Arrived https://t.co/VbQ2wx06qK via @emilyctamkin— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) January 2, 2019Pres has his "Sanctions are Coming" poster on the Cabinet Room conference table. Read the rest

The Alpaca graphic design cooperative created this terrific "illustrated and interactive Dante's Inferno, an alternative learning tool for the Divine Comedy first Cantica, made for aiding visual memory." From the project page:The work is based on the anthology "Testi e scenari" - Volume 1 (Panebianco, Pisoni, Reggiani, Malpensa), published by Zanichelli in 2009, and it has been developed by Alpaca together with the Molotro design studio...The translation to the English language is based on the one provided by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The whole text is available on Wikisource and it's in the public domain.We chose the Longfellow translation not only because it's open source, but also for its closeness to the language of Dante. The syntax, the rhythm, the lexicon used by Longfellow may feel odd for native english speakers, but they render the original language with great accuracy."Infernal Topography" (Alpaca via MetaFilter) Read the rest

In 1987, Max Headroom appeared on Sesame Street where he recited the alphabet. Catch the wave.And if you're not hip to Max's cyberpunk stylings, the 1985 UK TV movie is where it all started: Read the rest

This Norwegian sailer is one cool dude. While sailing in the Pacific Ocean, he spots what he at first thinks is trash. He wants to clean it up, and then realizes that it's actually sea turtles – four in all – trapped inside of tangled plastic fishing nets. Not only does he calmly untangle and set these creatures free, but some of his commentary is priceless. Read the rest

A neural network became a expert at detecting art forgeries by learning how famous artists drew their line strokes. Researchers at Rutgers University and the Atelier for Restoration and Research of Paintings in the Netherlands used a sample set of 300 line drawings from well-known artists such as Picasso and Matisse. From those drawings, the AI examined 80,000 lines strokes and learned what characteristics in the strokes were unique to the different artists. From Technology Review:The researchers also trained a machine-learning algorithm to look for specific features, like the shape of the line in a stroke. This gave them two different techniques to detect forgeries, and the combined method proved powerful. Looking at the output of the machine-learning algorithm also provided some insight into the RNN, which acts as a “black box”—a system whose outputs are difficult for researchers to explain. Since the machine-learning algorithm was trained on specific features, the difference between it and the RNN probably points to the characteristics the neural network was looking at to detect forgeries. In this case, it was using the changing strength along a stroke—that is, how hard an artist was pushing, based on the weight of the line—to identify the artist. With both algorithms working in tandem, the researchers were able to correctly identify artists around 80 percent of the time.The researchers also commissioned artists to create drawings in the same style as the pieces in the data set to test the system’s ability to spot fakes. The system was able to identify the forgeries in every instance, simply by looking at a single stroke. Read the rest

During a storm in Kununurra, Australia that dumped nearly three inches of rain, a farmer braved the weather to check on the dam near his home. That's when he spotted this 11-foot python "moving across the grass at full speed" with 10 cane toads riding on his back.68mm just fell in the last hour at Kununurra. Flushed all the cane toads out of my brothers dam. Some of them took the easy way out - hitching a ride on the back of a 3.5m python. pic.twitter.com/P6mPc2cVS5— Andrew Mock (@MrMeMock) December 30, 2018But, according to amphibian expert Jodi Rowley, these poisonous toads weren't just hitching a ride to get to dryer grounds – they were actually trying to mate with the snake.This is one of the most amazing videos I've seen!! Lots of *very* horny Cane #Toads (Rhinella marina) trying to mate with a large Olive #Python (Liasis olivaceus), with Giant Burrowing Frogs (Cyclorana australis) & Red Tree #Frogs (Litoria rubella) calling in the background! https://t.co/uy4yACCb8q— Jodi Rowley (@jodirowley) December 31, 2018Via The Guardian Read the rest

It's been 48 hours since the American public domain expanded for the first time in 20 years, allowing Americans free access to works from 1923, including Cecil B Demille's 1923 epic "The Ten Commandments" (here's 1,000 or so more). Despite its epic scale, the Moses story takes up only about the first third of the film. After that, the story changes to a modern setting involving living by the lessons of the commandments. Two brothers make opposite decisions, one, John, to follow his mother’s teaching of the Ten Commandments and become a poor carpenter, and the other, Danny, to break every one of them and rise to the top. The film shows his unchecked immorality to be momentarily gainful, but ultimately disastrous. Read the rest

Dawn ver.β is a Tokyo cafe in Akasaka where all the table service is performed by 120 cm tall OriHime-D robots that are piloted by people who are paralyzed and work from home; it was inspired by a fictional cafe in the 2008 anime Time of Eve.▼ This video shows how an ALS patient, unable to speak, can use his eyes to type messages that can then be spoken by the OriHime-D robot.▼ And here another paralyzed man using a OriHime-D serves a coffee.Cafe opens in Tokyo staffed by robots controlled by paralyzed people [Master Blaster/Sora News 24](via Four Short Links) Read the rest

Inter UI is a family of freeware fonts with ""a tall x-height to aid in readability of mixed-case and lower-case text" designed for small screen text. (via Four Short Links) Read the rest

Available in small, medium and large, the Unicorn Costume for Dogs [Amazon] offers a comfortable, adjustable-fit design that's secured under the dog's chin, neck and chest with three rows of velcro straps.Welcome to amazing world of pink unicorns! The mane and horn headdress will turn your pet into the cutest fairy horse ever. You’ll be proud of your dog when attending dress up parties, festivals or just walking along the street. And now imagine your kid getting this funny wig for his / her birthday. Every child will be happy to dress up the family pet as a unicorn. The dog with the horn will make the children’s party unforgettable. Don't miss a chance to take adorable pics!Not all dogs like wearing costumes.#Notalldogs.Question: Is the small, small enough for a ferret?Answer: It depends on the size of your ferret Read the rest

Chris Patty made a wooden mini-jukebox where you pick songs by swiping magnetic cards. It's like a prop from an old BBC sci-fi show about how great it would be to listen to music would be in 2019.The Verge's Jacob Kastrenakes:Patty created the jukebox as a Christmas gift for his father, after his family decided to only swap handmade presents this year. He later posted a short video of the creation to Twitter, where he’s received enough positive responses that he’s working on an open source version of the software and instructions so that fans can make their own. ...“I think [the response] speaks to a shared displeasure with the current state of our music services,” Patty tells The Verge in an email. The limitless libraries inside Apple Music and Spotify cheapen the experience, he says. “There’s something about the limiting factors of physical media that force you to choose ... the music that is most meaningful. And that kind of curation, I think, is something we all deeply miss.” Read the rest

In 1983, The Toronto Star invited Isaac Asimov to predict what the world of 2019 would look like. He was astute in his understanding of likely technical developments, but wrong about other things. Which things make for interest....Asimov was more or less correct in many of his predictions on the future of computerization, even if some of his forecasts were a bit broad and obvious ... but assumes that kids wouldn't spend all that time using technology to, say, play Fortnite.Asimov's article was obviously a tossed-off guest editorial, but it's interesting how blind it was technology's deeper social implications. For example, he presents machine labor as a straightforward liberation for workers who no longer have to work repetitive jobs. And he had no grasp on how technological changes would dissolve social norms, such as, say, the veils of influence and favor that hide sexual misconduct within literary subcultures. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Super-Fun-Pak Comix features Doug, Classix Comix, Not a Pipe, Public Domain Fart Funnies, and just a bit MORE!

A Krispy Kreme donut truck caught fire this weekend and its cargo was destroyed. Responding police in Lexington, Kentucky, took to social media to mourn their loss."Hang tight, we are sending backup forthwith ... We hope you like sprinkles," The New York City Police Department tweeted.The doughnut company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, itself offered condolences via Twitter and let the officers know that they were sending them something to help get them through the ordeal. Read the rest

I live in a small, grandfathered, community inside of the Golden Gate National Recreation area. The government shutdown is making parks scary for tourists and residents alike.It is vacation time! People want to get out and enjoy nature! The weather is beautiful, the skies are super clear in the San Francisco Bay area, and the roads are completely jammed up with people unclear as to what is open and what is not. Encountering a mile long SNAFU of confused drivers will eat hours of your time.Parking lots located at the end of narrow 2-way but 1-car wide 'roads' are locked with no warning. Giant SUVs illegally park in sensitive habitats, just off the roadway, or just choke narrow streets into unpassable nightmares. Confusion abounds. Cooperation disappears. Absolute proof American libertarianism is a farce. I will spare you to stories of where people are leaving trash or the number of folks we've seen eliminating on the roadside. Those redwoods are majestic, must be interesting to crap on one.NBC has more:Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors despite the staff furloughs, said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association."We're afraid that we're going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts," Garder said. "We're concerned there'll be impacts to visitors' safety.""It's really a nightmare scenario," Garder said.Spokespeople with the Interior Department did not immediately return emails seeking comment on Monday. Read the rest

And if shaking your head really fast is, er, problematic, you can also just look at an angle or move away from the screen until the image appears.Here's an Instructable on how to make your own head-shaking illusions.(via r/interestingasfuck) Read the rest

NASA's New Horizons space probe passed by Ultima Thule, a tiny icy world four billion miles from the sun. It's the farthest target that humans have ever reached and will give scientists insight into the earliest days of our solar system. From NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory:"New Horizons performed as planned today, conducting the farthest exploration of any world in history — 4 billion miles from the Sun," said Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "The data we have look fantastic and we're already learning about Ultima from up close. From here out the data will just get better and better!"Images taken during the spacecraft's approach — which brought New Horizons to within just 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) of Ultima at 12:33 a.m. EST — revealed that the Kuiper Belt object may have a shape similar to a bowling pin, spinning end over end, with dimensions of approximately 20 by 10 miles (32 by 16 kilometers). Another possibility is Ultima could be two objects orbiting each other. Flyby data have already solved one of Ultima's mysteries, showing that the Kuiper Belt object is spinning like a propeller with the axis pointing approximately toward New Horizons. This explains why, in earlier images taken before Ultima was resolved, its brightness didn't appear to vary as it rotated. The team has still not determined the rotation period.As the science data began its initial return to Earth, mission team members and leadership reveled in the excitement of the first exploration of this distant region of space. Read the rest

Sylvain Neuvel's series The Themis Files is a gripping tale where humanity repeatedly guesses wrong, the aliens are tied up in their own soap opera, and giant stompy robots are the least of anyone's problems.This is one heck of a story. Sleeping Giants, the first novel in this series, starts with the world in geopolitical balance and not much exciting going on. The US government discovers part of an ancient alien artifact made of some super metal. A secret project to locate and reassemble the thing is launched.The alien artifact turns out to be a giant mech, like Ultraman but weird. The mech inexplicably needs two drivers who are not connected in any special fashion or for any real reason. This is a seriously shitty design flaw, like needing two people to operate the steering and brakes of a car. Regardless, the humans go to monstrous lengths to make it work. They also accidentally kill a bunch of innocent people and some of themselves, sort of.Curiosity really gets the cat in this one. Over the course of these three books messing around with the mech causes problems interpersonally, locally, internationally and finally intergalactically.Don't fuck with alien tech. Waking Gods and Only Human are the second and third novels in the series. I burned through all three over the holidays.The Themis Files by Sylvain Neuvel via Amazon Read the rest

The first season of American Gods was great. Ian McShane! Ricky Whittle! Gillian Anderson! Orlando Jones as Mr. Nancy? Perfection.And then, after the season wrapped up, shit went down. Show runners left. So did Gillian Anderson. Chaos ensued. The production finally managed to get their act together and BOOM, the trailer for Season 2 was released, promising us more dark whimsy than we deserve.Believe and you will be rewarded, a gift from the Gods. Take a sneak peek at the opening of the first episode of #AmericanGods Season 2. #Believe #Youarewelcome pic.twitter.com/ajc9v67ax7— American Gods Amazon (@GodsOnAmazon) December 30, 2018This new scene released by Amazon, however... isn't great. Maybe it's the fact that we're seeing it out of context. It's a wee bit of story in the middle of a much greater epic. But it feels a little bit off: there's no tension here. The level of creepy that Crispin Glover usually delivers isn't there. It's a quick clip, but damn, does it drag. If Amazon and Starz were looking to whip up excitement in the show's fan base, this seems like a really strange clip to release into the wild.I'm hoping I'm wrong. I hope that, knowing all the behind-the-scenes drama, I'm reading into trouble that isn't there. But man, I'm kinda worried about the quality of Season 2 now. Read the rest

Patrick Ball and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) (previously) use careful, rigorous statistical models to fill in the large blank spots left behind by acts of genocide, bringing their analysis to war crimes tribunals, truth and reconciliation proceedings, and other reckonings with gross human rights abuses.Katia Savchuk's Pacific Standard profile of HRDAG delves into both the work and its effects, showing how a small group of smart mathematicians can do what governments won't do and the press generally can't do (at least, not well): count the dead and tell their stories, in the face of concerted efforts to wipe away both the dead and the facts of their killings.One of the most moving stories from HRDAG's work is their 2018 project to uncover hidden mass graves using machine learning, giving local activists the ammunition they needed to demand investigations from their governments.At least 37,000 people have vanished in Mexico since 2007, according to a Mexican government database, after officials there declared a "war on drugs." Officials have discovered the remains of some 2,000 people in more than 1,000 clandestine graves. But where are the missing bodies, the unmapped graves?"It's hard to remember that the blank spots in the map are because you just don't have any data," Ball says. "Why don't we have any reports from those places? The answer is the people who do the reporting risk getting killed."Last year, Ball decided to fill in the blanks. With colleagues from Data Cívica, a non-profit, and the Human Rights Program at Ibero-American University, both in Mexico City, he developed a machine-learning model to predict the location of hidden graves. Read the rest

From the Library Journal's Infodocket: "A Curated Collection of Recently Published or Updated Data-Rich Reports Available on the Web", from climate cost breakdowns to Nielsen's top nonalcoholic beverages (sparkling water is very much on-trend) and much, much more. (Thanks, Gary!) (Image: Meg Stewart, CC-BY) Read the rest

Ronald Reagan may be sainted by the right, but 2018 was the year conservatives broke with his slavish, simpleminded adherence to the Chicago School antitrust theory that says that governments should only regulate monopolies when they give rise to higher consumer prices -- it's also the year the right realized that extreme market concentration in the tech sector could lead to a future in which conspiracy theorists, Nazis, "white identity enthusiasts," and crank misogynists might find themselves with nowhere to talk and be heard by others.Now, to be fair to the right, it wasn't that long ago that Democrats were also cheerleading for Chicago-style antitrust (they were also singing Ronald Reagan's praises) (ffs); but the party's left has put the focus on competitive markets again, and not a minute too soon.Today, American politicians on both sides of the aisle say they want trustbusting to go back into the US government's arsenal. Matt Stoller has a bunch of practical advice for how they can proceed: direct the DOJ to enforce the Sherman Act; pass laws blocking anticompetitive mergers; use select committees to investigate and expose rigged markets from Amazon's predatory private labels to collusion in the meatpacking industry to seed company and airline and rail monopolies, as well as wage-rigging and the explosive growth of noncompetes in every sector. And of course, Congress could start breaking up the giants, from Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Google to the airlines, phone companies and ISPs.To begin, Congress could make mergers much harder to complete. Read the rest

This is the first day in 20 years for new works entering the American public domain, and to celebrate, Itch.io is hosting a 1923 public domain game jam, with prizes for best analog game, digital game, adaptation of a 9123 work, remix from multiple sources, deep cut, and visuals; judged by a group of archive, game and copyright nerds (including me!) -- here's a list of 1,000+ works that enter the public domain today to get you started! Read the rest

I hate to yuck you out before the holidays …… and I really love Japan …… but this is just gross.It’s a Japanese delicacy called “Katsu ika odori-don.”The squid is deceased when the dish is served. A little soy sauce and he appears to return to life; in other words, a zombie.Yuki, one of my friends in Japan, assures me that "dancing sashimi" such as this is delicious, and one of the reasons food is eaten this way is to ensure its freshness. Varieties including shrimp and octopus, in addition to squid. But if I saw this in a restaurant, I would run screaming out the door.And here it is with lobster.And this is the one that will give you nightmares! Read the rest

Happy nuke year, everyone! Man, the Trump administration's recklessness really makes people feel like they can just say whatever they want with no consequences. Apparently, Donald Trump's penchant for reckless tweets is contagious, and has spread to United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), which is part of the Department of Defense. “#TimesSquare tradition rings in the #NewYear by dropping the big ball...if ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger,” tweeted US Strategic Command. Yes, StratCom.Hashtag “#Deterrence #Assurance #CombatReadyForce #PeaceIsOurProfession.” Watch the funny video. It's hilarious.#TimesSquare tradition rings in the #NewYear by dropping the big ball...if ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger.Watch to the end! @AFGlobalStrike @Whiteman_AFB #Deterrence #Assurance #CombatReadyForce #PeaceIsOurProfession... pic.twitter.com/Aw6vzzTONg— US Strategic Command (@US_Stratcom) December 31, 2018The military men who have the power to launch nuclear weapons at the command of a Potemkin President's tweeted impulse are making jokes about dropping nukes for New Year's, just because they can.I'm sure Putin thinks it's all hilarious.PHOTO, TOP: Slim Pickens rides the bomb in Stanley Kubrick's classic film, Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Read the rest

Here's who is getting rich off Trump's immigrant detention camps.A new Daily Beast investigation reveals new details about just how lucrative the business of detaining immigrant asylum-seekers in the United States has become. “In 2018 alone, for-profit immigration detention was a nearly $1 billion industry underwritten by taxpayers and beset by problems that include suicide, minimal oversight, and what immigration advocates say uncomfortably resembles slave labor,” write the Beast's Spencer Ackerman and Adam Rawnsley.Excerpt from '$800 Million in Taxpayer Money Went to Private Prisons Where Migrants Work for Pennies' --Being in the U.S. illegally is a misdemeanor offense, and immigration detention is technically a civil matter, not a criminal process. But the reality looks much different. The Daily Beast reported last month that as of Oct. 20, ICE was detaining an average of 44,631 people every day, an all-time high. Now ICE has told The Daily Beast that its latest detention numbers are even higher: 44,892 people as of Dec. 8. Its budget request for the current fiscal year anticipates detaining 52,000 people daily.Expanding the number of immigrants rounded up into jails isn’t just policy; it’s big business. Yesica’s employer and jailer, the private prisons giant GEO Group, expects its earnings to grow to $2.3 billion this year. Like other private prison companies, it made large donations to President Trump’s campaign and inaugural. Pinning down the size and scope of the immigration prison industry is obscured by government secrecy. But the Daily Beast combed through ICE budget submissions and other public records to compile as comprehensive a list as possible of what for-profit prisons charge taxpayers to lock up a growing population, and how many people those facilities detain on average. Read the rest

People like this guy waving his gun at a driverless Waymo van in Arizona are attacking self-driving vehicles with rocks, knives, and *their own cars*, sending a message to tech companies like Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet (Google's parent company). That message is, please go experiment with artificial intelligence in somebody else’s neighborhood.In the video above, a pissed off guy in Chandler, Arizona waves his gun at a passing Waymo van. He got in trouble for it, but man, I can empathize. By the way, the image was captured by surveillance cameras on the Waymo van, provided to the police, and sort of proving the dude's point.There have been accidents in the area involving the autonomous vans. The New York Times reports on the tire-slashing of a driverless vehicle that once happily roamed the streets of Chandler, which isn't far from Phoenix. There have been 21 violent attacks on driverless cars there in the last few years.Waymo started testing self-driving vehicles in Chandler in 2016. Waymo did not ask the human residents if they were cool with it. They're not cool with it.Excerpt from the NYT report: In ways large and small, the city has had an early look at public misgivings over the rise of artificial intelligence, with city officials hearing complaints about everything from safety to possible job losses.Some people have pelted Waymo vans with rocks, according to police reports. Others have repeatedly tried to run the vehicles off the road. Read the rest

A man with knife made a bomb threat at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam today, and was 'overpowered' and arrested by Dutch police. Departures and Arrivals in the airport's hall 3 were evacuated, but have since reopened. Here's what happened. Man threatens with a bomb in Departure hall 3 at Schiphol. Currently Departure hall 3 is being evacuated. More information will follow as soon as possible. https://t.co/DDQJuZa9Zn— Schiphol (@Schiphol) December 31, 2018Amsterdam Schiphol Airport hall 3 was evacuated earlier, when the bomb threat occurred. It has since reopened.@Schiphol any updates on Departures 3 being closed off..? pic.twitter.com/uJn81I6AbV— Shola (@piousonn) December 31, 2018Departures and Arrivals 3 were evacuated due to a bomb threat. The police (@Marechaussee) arrested the suspect. Departures and Arrivals 3 are now being opened again for operation.— Schiphol (@Schiphol) December 31, 2018From International Flight Network news:Departure area 3 at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport was evacuated on Monday evening following a bomb threat.The airport confirmed that a “man threatens with a bomb in departure hall 3” and that the area was closed off.A short time later, it was confirmed that the man, who was reportedly armed with a knife, was arrested by the Royal Military Police.Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is the third busiest airport in Europe and serves as the main hub for Dutch flag-carrier KLM.More tweets from the time of the incident, below. @Marechaussee is the official Twitter account of the Dutch police force.Man dreigt met bom in vertrekpassage 3 op Schiphol. Read the rest

This baby set a hospital weight record at birth. Of course it happened in Texas. Mother and child are reported by CNN to be healthy.CNN reports on the ginormous human baby born in Arlington, Texas, weighing in at nearly 15 pounds. Read the rest

Billy Joe White, the owner of Red Rose Tattoo in Zanesville, Ohio is taking a stand against hate. Red Rose Tattoos has an open door policy to anyone who chose to adorn their flesh with swastikas, white power symbols and other racist bullshit: visit the shop and you'll receive a beautiful piece of body art to cover up your hateful ink, for no charge. It's a small, important gesture that can change the lives of formerly hateful folks in a powerful way. Read the rest

A broadcast of the 2009 crime drama The Shinjuku Incident cost an Iranian TV chief his job last week, reports the BBC. He forgot to censor a sex scene featuring star Jackie Chan.Iranian media said the "immoral" scene was aired by Kish TV in "total violation of Irib's regulations".Physical contact between men and women is not permitted on screen in Iran.Censors are also said to be required to remove men and women exchanging "tender words or jokes", unveiled women, close-ups of women's faces and exposed necklines, as well as negative portrayals of police and bearded men.I only have more questions after reading this. Read the rest

San Diego and Tijuana are practically a single city, separated by a border, which Donald Trump wants to close, claiming that "The most important way to stop gangs, drugs, human trafficking and massive crime is at our Southern Border."White supremacist Tucker Carlson, who grew up near the San Diego/Tijuana border-crossing at San Ysidro, blames immigration for making America "poorer and dirtier and more divided."San Diego is America's safest large city.And it's not an exception: other safer-than-average US cities include the border towns of El Paso, San Antonio, and Phoenix.Reality has such a left-wing bias.San Diego is poised to end 2018 with 1.9 murders per 100,000 residents, compared to 23.1 per 100,000 in Indianapolis and 51.7 per 100,000 in Baltimore. That means a resident of Indianapolis is 12 times more likely to be murdered, a resident of Baltimore 27 times.If the border crisis is real, wouldn’t the crime rate in San Diego reflect that? If illegal immigration is the existential threat that President Trump and conservative Republicans say it is, wouldn’t there be evidence in San Diego? Wouldn’t MS-13 gang members and drug traffickers be shooting people in downtown San Diego? Slashing hard working citizens in San Ysidro? Terrorizing the streets of La Jolla?Opinion: If There’s a Crisis on The Border, Why Is San Diego So Safe? [Chris Jennewein/Times of San Diego](via Mitch Wagner)(Image: CBP) Read the rest

Lots of folks celebrate Christmas by stashing their presents under the same reusable plastic and aluminum wire Christmas tree every winter: it's a thoughtful, cost-efficient way to cut down on the amount of post holiday garbage that winds up in wood chippers or the local dump every year. However, a lot of people still like to kick it old school with a cut-from-its-roots-and-left-to-slowly-die-in-a-pot-of-water conifer. They smell and look amazing...for a while. Once the presents have been unwrapped and the tree begins to brown, out the door it goes. Upwards of 30 million Americans wind up tossing out these Yuletide corpses every year. Happily, it looks like a scientist has sorted out a the means for making better use of these discarded trees once folks are finished getting their holly-jolly on with them.The process involves breaking down a chemical called lignocellulose in needles of dead pine trees into a useful substance that could be used to make paint or artificial sweeteners and other wicked useful products.From Futurism:Lignocellulose is ugly. No, really. Its chemical structure makes it difficult to use for biomass energy, and it serves little industrial purpose. Sheffield PhD student Cynthia Kartey’s work has focused on examining ways to make use of this material, and now she may be on to something.Using heat and glycerol, Kartey was able to break down the pine needles into two components, one of which was made mostly of materials like glucose, acetic acid and phenol. All three have uses in other industries — glucose is used to make food sweeteners, phenol is used in products like mouthwash, and acetic acid for making adhesives, vinegar, and even paint. Read the rest

The End of Trust is the first-ever nonfiction issue of McSweeney's, co-edited by McSweeney's editors and the staff of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; on December 11, we held a sold-out launch event in San Francisco with EFF executive director Cindy Cohn, science fiction writer and EFF alumna Annalee Newitz, and me.Lisa Rein recorded the event for Mondo 2000, producing a partial transcript, an audio recording (MP3) and a video.Cindy Cohn: “The first reason is that there’s a fundamental constitutional question at the centerpiece regarding how we are going to interact with our technology, that can make all the other questions easier. The second reason is that all of the direct actions that you might want to take in order to exercise your self-governance and have your voice heard, requires some kind of legal protection, right? And when we talk about “direct action,” the reason that you can do direct action and not end up with a very long jail sentence is because, in the United States, compared to other places around the world, is because the Constitution says you can. All the hackers who EFF represents, who tell us all the things about the security problems and the surveillance – if we don’t get the law right, they’re not going to be able to do that. So, I often say that about EFF that we’re kind of the plumbers of freedom. We’re trying to get the obstacles out of the way, so that all the other things you can do to exercise your rights in the digital world can really flow freely. Read the rest

In 2009, Microsoft produced a video imagining the world of 2019. They did well with the software aspects of touchscreen interfaces and machine vision, but overshot the runway on bezel-less devices and the general ubiquity of touchscreens themselves. There's a touchscreen coffee mug! All the depicted applications (such as flexible high-FPS color e-ink) are shown without a batteries or other power sources. This is a mandatory omission in all such future fantasies.The clip is a general reminder of how predictable developments in basic consumer technology were over this time period. Microsoft was on solid ground exaggerating what were already, in 2009, obvious and entrenched trends, and then imagining what the rich would be doing with touchscreens on everything. Consider that a 2009 iMac is virtually identical, from the front, to a 2018 model. The evolution is in the details: thinness, high-DPI panels, faster hardware, software refinement, and so on. Still no touchscreen Macs, mind you...Yet everything has changed with how we use this technology, and Microsoft didn't imagine any of that. Check out the Harry Potter newspaper: they went for blandly positive business headlines. This safe bet (also constrained by having to avoid controvertial predictions) turns out to be the most ironically inaccurate prognostication of them all. But it's not as if they're going to show all their wealthy business travelers weeping before their crypto investments, glumly cycling through the same algorithm-selected tweets again and again, or explaining on YouTube that racial slurs are just gamer talk. Microsoft wasn't thinking of the "beige basement" crowd, after all. Read the rest

Every year, Jennifer Jenkins and Jamie Boyle from the Duke Center for the Public Domain compile a "Public Domain Day" list (previously) that highlights the works that are not entering the public domain in America, thanks to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which hit the pause button on Americans' ability to freely use their artistic treasures for two decades -- a list that also included the notable works entering the public domain in more sensible countries of the Anglophere, like Canada and the UK, where copyright "only" lasted for 50 years after the author's death.But this year, it's different.This is the year that America unpauses its public domain; it's also the year that Canadian PM Justin Trudeau capitulated to Donald Trump and retroactively extended copyright on works in Canada for an extra 20 years, ripping works out of Canada's public domain, making new works based on them into illegal art (more proof that good hair and good pecs don't qualify you to be a good leader -- see also: V. Putin -- not even when paired with high-flying, cheap rhetoric).Even as Canada's public domain has radically contracted, America's has, for the first, time, opened.So this year's American Public Domain Day List is, for the first time in 20 years, not a work melancholy alternate history, but rather a celebration of works that Americans are newly given access to without restriction or payment, for free re-use and adaptation, in the spirit of such classics as Snow White, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, All You Need is Love, and more (More than 1,000 in all, summarized in this handy spreadsheet -- thanks Gary!). Read the rest

Just when you thought that the Chinese government's extensive surveillance of the country's citizens couldn't get any creepier or more intrusive, Xi Jingping slyly raises an eyebrow and asks the west to hold his Tsingtao: From The Epoch Times:In China’s latest quest to build an all-seeing surveillance state, schools have become part of the state’s monitoring apparatus.Students at more than 10 schools in Guizhou Province, one of China’s poorest provinces, and the neighboring Guangxi region are now required to wear “intelligent uniforms,” which are embedded with electronic chips that track their movements.The uniforms allow school officials, teachers, and parents to keep track of the exact times that students leave or enter the school, Lin Zongwu, principal of the No. 11 School of Renhuai in Guizhou Province, told the state-run newspaper Global Times on Dec. 20.If students skip school without permission, an alarm will be triggered.If students try to game the system by swapping uniforms, an alarm also will sound, as facial-recognition equipment stationed at the school entrance can match a student’s face with the chip embedded in the uniform.Each of the "intelligent uniforms" contain two tracking chips which, according to the company that makes them, can withstand temperatures of up to 150 degrees Celsius and at least 500 runs through a washing machine -- so much for accidentally destroying the hardware. In addition to keeping track of the whereabouts of the kids that wear them for every moment of their school day, the uniforms' chip set can also tell when a child is nodding off during the school day and be used to make cashless purchases of school lunches and other educational necessities. Read the rest

Detective Deirdre Mengedoht was killed when a truck crashed into her police cruiser on Christmas Eve. Some local news outlets experienced difficulties covering the story. Read the rest

DeVotchKa's latest album, This Night Falls Forever, has been on near constant rotation in our home since I picked it up a few weeks ago. As usual, the band's music is heartrendingly beautiful. Straight Shot is the first track on the album and the one that, for me at least, has been the band's biggest ear worm this time around. Read the rest

Apparently, this story popped up back in 2015, but it's so cool that it's still worth reading about now: the city of Portland, Oregon has water pipes buried underneath of it that not only carry clean drinking water to the locals, but also generate hydroelectric power at the same time!From Fast Company:In Portland, one of the city's main pipelines now uses Lucid's pipes to make power that's sent into the grid. Though the system can't generate enough energy for an entire city, the pipes can power individual buildings like a school or library, or help offset a city's total energy bill. Unlike wind or solar power, the system can generate electricity at any time of day, regardless of weather, since the pipes always have water flowing through them.The pipes can't generate power in every location; they only work in places where water is naturally flowing downward with gravity (if water is being pumped, the system would waste energy). But they have another feature that can be used anywhere: The pipes have sensors that can monitor water, something that utilities couldn't do in the past.Providing power to partially operate water treatment and pump facilities during the day and then juice up streetlights at night: what's not to love about that? Read the rest

2018 has been a dangerous year for those who bring us the news: according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 129 journalists were killed this year. For the first time in history, the United States has been listed as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists to ply their trade. The President of the United States has been calling the media industry an "enemy of the people" for the past two years. Many of his acolytes have bought into his bullshit: news rooms have come under assault by gunmen. Bomb threats against TV stations have been made on a number of occasions. Nicaragua's government has hamstrung the nation's independent press. Jamal Khashoggi of The Washington Post was strangled and sawed to pieces by Saudi operatives. President Trump pretty much shrugged his shoulders and got on with his life. The hate and distrust showered on those working to cast light on the dark secrets that our governments would rather not be known are a budding fascist's wet dream. And now, many of the nation's newspapers of record have suffered a cyberattack.From The Los Angeles Times:A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across the country on Saturday including the Los Angeles Times, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and several other major newspapers that operate on a shared production platform. Read the rest

Scratch creator Mitchel Resnick -- head of the MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindgergarten Group -- writes, "Until now, Scratch has been developed by my research group at the MIT Media Lab. In the coming year, the Scratch Team will be moving out of MIT into a separate nonprofit organization (the Scratch Foundation). We’re looking to hire a new Executive Director to help build this organization and develop strategies to sustain Scratch as a free, creative platform."At this important stage in its growth, the Scratch Foundation is looking to hire a creative and entrepreneurial Executive Director to lead the organization into the future. Reporting to the Scratch Foundation’s Board of Directors, the Executive Director will work collaboratively with others on the Scratch team to build the Scratch Foundation into a well-run, sustainable organization capable of realizing its ambitious vision, mission, and goals. The Executive Director will also work closely with the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, which will continue to pursue educational research and innovation related to Scratch.The Executive Director will be a proven organizational leader with experience building and managing through a period of growth. This individual will be responsible for execution of the overall strategy and ensuring that all staff, operations, and systems are working in support of the overall mission. The ideal candidate will inspire continued growth in fundraising, stakeholder engagement, and brand awareness. With a deep belief in the power of creativity and a genuine commitment to the values of Scratch, the Executive Director will also support, sustain, and grow a creative, caring, collaborative work environment that attracts and retains a motivated, diverse, mission-driven staff. Read the rest

President Barack Obama released his annual list of favorite books, movies, and songs on his Facebook page yesterday. Remember when we had an intellectually and culturally curious president who did things like reading books? It seems so long ago...From Facebook: As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books, movies, and music that I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors, artists, and storytellers – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list - I hope you enjoy reading, watching, and listening.Here’s a reminder of the books that I read this year that appeared on earlier lists:Becoming by Michelle Obama (obviously my favorite!)An American Marriage by Tayari JonesAmericanah by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieThe Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith PayneEducated by Tara WestoverFactfulness by Hans RoslingFutureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex WagnerA Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’oA House for Mr Biswas by V.S. NaipaulHow Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel ZiblattIn the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch LandrieuLong Walk to Freedom by Nelson MandelaThe New Geography of Jobs by Enrico MorettiThe Return by Hisham MatarThings Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeWarlight by Michael OndaatjeWhy Liberalism Failed by Patrick DeneenThe World As It Is by Ben RhodesHere are my other favorite books of 2018:American Prison by Shane BauerArthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond ArsenaultAsymmetry by Lisa HallidayFeel Free by Zadie SmithFlorida by Lauren GroffFrederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Read the rest