I love this. A guy working at an office of the Utah state Division of Motor Vehicles wore a sloth costume to work today. I salute you, sir, and also, I happen to love sloths. Meanwhile...at...the...Utah...D...M...V... Read the rest

The United States Senate Intelligence Committee is “pursuing a wide-ranging investigation” into ex-White House adviser Steve Bannon’s activities during the 2016 election, Reuters reports, and looking into what possible co-conspirators George Papadopoulos and Carter Page had to do with those activities. They're looking to determine “What Bannon might know about any contacts” that 2 Trump campaign advisers, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, had with the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The probe is also looking into Bannon’s “role” at the dirty political data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica, which Trump's campaign under Bannon hired to “target messages to potentially sympathetic voters.” Before he joined the Trump campaign, Bannon was vice president of Cambridge Analytica. The company has officially been dismantled after a UK probe into its role in Brexit. Reuters reports that Senate Intel is also trying to interview other witnesses about what “Cambridge Analytica and affiliated companies” did in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Bannon is to be interviewed by the committee in late November, Reuters reports. Papadopoulos, a consultant, initially advised the presidential campaign of Republican hopeful Ben Carson before joining the Trump campaign. Page is also a consultant, who had business contacts in Russia.On Sept. 7, Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days in prison. He had pleaded guilty last year to lying to FBI agents about the timing and significance of his contacts with Russians, including a professor who told him the Russians had “dirt” on Trump’s Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.No charges have been filed against Page. Read the rest

Carl Reiner is disgusted with what's happening in the United States these days. In this heartfelt PSA, the accomplished nonagenarian shares his thoughts on what Americans can do to change what's happening. In short, vote!What is on my mind will be coming out of my mouth as you watch this: pic.twitter.com/fZkyGg8rlU— carl reiner (@carlreiner) October 30, 2018 Read the rest

It's not funny.Medicare For All is the idea of you and everyone you love being protected from going bankrupt if you get really sick. That is a thing that happens to Americans. It ruins lives and families. Sometimes it kills people, even when the disease does not. It is obscene for the Administrator of Medicare to mock human lives, and to mock Medicare. This is just all so nauseating. Happy Halloween. Please vote on November 6.[source] Read the rest

President Donald Trump said today he may issue an order to deploy more troops, possibly up to 15,000, to the U.S. southern border with Mexico. The midterm elections are next week, and Trump is playing to racist voters who are inspired to vote Republican by his white supremacist fearmongering over a so-called “migrant caravan” of a few thousand poor and underfed people from Central America who are a thousand miles away from our border, and probably won't make it here by Election Day, November 6.Trump said: "As far as the caravan is concerned, our military is out, we have about 5,000—we'll go up to anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 military personnel, on top of Border Patrol, ICE, and everybody else at the border. Nobody's coming in.""Immigration is a very, very big, and very dangerous—a really dangerous topic," says President Trump.In today's exchange with reporters, the President was asked if he considered himself a fearmonger. Trump: "No, I'm not fearmonger at all. Immigration is a very important subject."He also said:QUESTION: Have you received a subpoena at all from Robert Mueller?TRUMP: No.Breaking: Trump, talking to reporters before leaving WH for Florida, says troop deployment to border may go up to 10,000 to 15,000 on top of border patrol officers.— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 31, 2018President Trump re: ending birthright citizenship says that if President Obama “could do DACA, we can do this by executive order.”DACA wasn't set up by executive order; it was White House guidance to DHS. Read the rest

Full-on white supremacy and fascism, folks. Nothing to hide anymore.'Jobs Not Mobs, Vote Republican Now,' says the sitting president, in an ad with a raised fist. #JOBSNOTMOBS! VOTE REPUBLICAN NOW!! pic.twitter.com/wso9ZHIvyF— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2018The campaign ad Trump just tweeted apparently (like the CNN bodyslam video he tweeted last year) samples the WWE fight where they let him beat up Vince McMahon. pic.twitter.com/GaYqBb8sLN— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 31, 2018Here's the backstory. Read the rest

Artist Janelle Hessig (who was a guest many times on Boing Boing's retired Gweek podcast) has launched a comic book publishing company in Oakland called Gimme Action. Tomorrow Gimme Action is releasing a new comic anthology by Liz Suburbia (who wrote and illustrated the excellent Sacred Heart in 2015). Suburbia's anthology is called Thee Collected Cyanide Milkshake, which includes all seven issues of Liz's mini-comic Cyanide Milkshake.As Janelle describes it, "the book takes you on a journey from hilarious single panel gags (a la Mad Magazine) to deeply personal autobio strips about subjects like anxiety and street harassment to horny sci-fi (favorite new genre?). If it sounds jam-packed, that's because it is. But it never feels fractured or inconsistent as it takes readers through a variety of experiences. Cyanide Milkshake is personally very precious to me and I feel honored that Liz has trusted me with her genius work. I truly believe this book will make the world 176 pages less shitty. It feels worthwhile to note that this book was created by a woman, published by a woman, printed by a women-owned press, and debuts at a women-run comic convention (Short Run in Seattle)."Thee Collected Cyanide Milkshake ships November 1st, 2018. Ordering info is on the Gimme Action site.Enjoy these sample pages: Read the rest

I'm pretty used to driving on the left side of the road, having driven in Rarotonga, New Zealand, and Australia for several months. But I would be nervous to drive in Japan, because the roads are narrow and I am nervous I wouldn't be able to read the signs. But this video makes me think I should rent a car the next time I go there.This video tells you about international driving permits, speed limits, rest stops, car rental, tolls, and other tips.Video: YouTube Read the rest

Two of the MIT researchers behind the provocative Deep Angel project, an algorithm that digitally erases objects from photos, have now delivered a strange and beautiful system to "conjure phantasms into being."According to the project developers Matt Groh and Ziv Epstein, the phantasmagoric AI Spirits manifested by their code are meant to "commemorate those missing via algorithmic omission."From DIGG:"In AI and robotics, we talk a lot about "the uncanny valley,” where stuff is human-like enough to make it seem plausible, but small deviations from our expectation of humans lead to a very creepy result," Epstein writes in an email to me. "AI Spirits in particular explores this uncanny valley by actually leaning into and appreciating the erroneous, distorted and bizarre output of these deep neural nets..."Where Deep Angel is tasked with removing people from images, Groh and Epstein fed all of that image data into AI Spirits so it could learn how to insert rough, but believable, approximations of people. Spirits, you might say."This model maps scenes with missing people to scenes with people. So, it is not exactly detecting humans and altering them to glitched out spirits. Instead, it's a process of disappearing humans and then reimagining humans from what it knows about people in images," writes Groh in an email. Read the rest

There are three Egyptian hieroglyphs depicting penises, each with Unicode characters: 𓂸𓂹 𓂺 Amazingly, no-one seems to know about them despite their being among the most succinct and obviously useful glyphs in the standard. The RealRevK reports:They are rather innocuously named U+130B8: EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D052, U+130B9: EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D052A, and U+130BA: EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D053.I cannot actually work out what the middle one is meant to be doing, to be honest. Looks painful.Someone will no doubt explain to me that in fact that is not what the hieroglyph is and that I just have a dirty mind, but if that were true, why are they apparently censored in some fonts?Many unicode characters fail to attract use simply because they aren't present in any common fonts. The penis unicode characters render for me on MacOS Mojave Firefox and Safari, but disappear in Chrome. Are you seeing it on your system? Are they missing or conspicuosly "censored"? Tell us in the comments!UPDATE: WordPress's "Tags" panel automatically bowdlerizes a single penis by turning it into the 👍 emoji, but left dual penises unmolested. Read the rest

The LockPickingLaweyer modified a cheap battery-powered pumpkin-carving saw into a rather effective electric lock pick! Read the rest

The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 was a disaster for the Dutch East Indies, but its astonishing consequences were felt around the world, blocking the sun and bringing cold, famine, and disease to millions of people from China to the United States. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review the volcano's devastating effects and surprising legacy.We'll also appreciate an inverted aircraft and puzzle over a resourceful barber.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Cast as Geralt in the forthcoming adaptation of The Witcher, Henry Cavill seems to be undergoing an unsettling realization in his first costume test as the monster-hunting master swordsman. Here's a still frame:I can only imagine Julian Sands checking his phone and nodding sagely and saying "Yep, I made this mistake too. This exaaact mistake." Read the rest

Russians, obviously. Quality UK newspaper The Sun reports:A SCIENTIST accused of attempted murder in Antarctica stabbed his colleague because “he was fed up with the man telling him the endings of books,” it has been claimed.Scientific engineer Sergey Savitsky, 55, became enraged and stabbed welder Oleg Beloguzov, 52, with a kitchen knife.The victim is recuperating in Chile. The stabber is being held in St. Petersburg. Adds The Sun's Will Stewart: "Reports say the altercation was fueled by alcohol."[Thanks, Heather!] Read the rest

What pork from pigs who had a cannabis-infused diet tastes like wasn't a burning question that I needed answered. But damned if I'm not all ears for the answer. Read the rest

Al Jourgensen may prefer to forget that he once cultivated an English accent and created this underground club hit, but on this day, we happily remember Ministry's "(Everyday Is) Halloween" from 1984. Above, a fan video cut up from horror films. Read the rest

William Sitwell, editor of UK grocery chain Waitrose's in-house magazine, has resigned after calling for the killing of vegans. He was responding sarcastically to a pitch from freelance writer Selene Nelson, and Nelson collapsed his context.Nelson, who writes about food and travel, had suggested ideas on "healthy, eco-friendly meals" as "popularity of the movement is likely to continue to skyrocket".Sitwell had emailed back 10 minutes later, saying: "Thanks for this. How about a series on killing vegans, one by one. Ways to trap them? How to interrogate them properly? Expose their hypocrisy? Force-feed them meat?" He also suggested making them eat steak and drink red wine, with Nelson responding: "I'm certainly interested in exploring why just the mention of veganism seems to make some people so hostile". Waitrose is a very British institution: superficially upscale but with plenty of cheap stuff lurking in the aisles to help middle-class snobs keep up appearances. It's no wonder an editor of its food magazine would let slip some jocular contempt for specialized cuisine or minority tastes – or that he'd have no idea that he is in fact the easy meat. Read the rest

Just kidding, these are officially-licensed USPS U.S. Mail Carrier costumes for kids and they're adorable at that. At $24.95, I might just buy one for that swell shoulder bag.Thanks, EPS! Read the rest

Not all virtual private networks are created equal. For masking your IP address and location, just about any service will do. But in an increasingly insecure internet, a no-logs policy is the mark of commitment that makes sure your data is protected not only from hackers and trackers but from the VPN itself. And for that, you need Private Internet Access VPN.Private Internet Access has been named editor's choice for VPN by Tom's Guide and PC Mag, and with good reason. Their MACE feature blocks trackers and ads, while your data is made doubly secure with Blowfish CBC algorithm encryption and SOCKS5 proxy servers. With PIA, you'll be able to access global content from anywhere - at increased speeds - from one of more than 3,160 servers in 33 countries. And did we mention their no-logging policy? That means no one - not even the VPN - will be able to track your log-ins.Give it a spin with a subscription to Private Internet Access VPN starting at $55.55 for 2 years - a 66% discount off MSRP. Read the rest

Blackface halloween costumes represent a perfectly-formed bubble of bad ideas. Everyone knows they're widely condemned as racist and everyone knows you can get in trouble for doing it. But a frozen peach-flavored witches' brew of indifference, ignorance and inchoate spite leads a certain sort of person into doing it all the same. Then they go viral and are made examples of in exactly the way that they knew they risked.KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A nurse lost her job with a Kansas City, Missouri hospital Tuesday after a Facebook photo of her in blackface went viral. A photo of Shelbi Elliott-Heenan reportedly shows her dressed in blackface as Beyonce, standing next to a man in blackface as Jay-Z. Saint Luke's Health System, where Elliott-Heenan worked, released a statement about the matter."While it is against Saint Luke’s policy to comment on specific personnel matters, we can confirm that this individual is no longer a Saint Luke’s employee," the statement said.This is a common failure state of examined privilege: they know who what, but don't know who whom. Read the rest

At $111,000,000, the California dialysis industry's campaign spending against Prop 8 (which caps the price of outpatient dialysis) is now the most expensive in US history.Obviously, the dialysis industry is really in trouble, if all it can scrape up is $111 mil. “These clinics are routinely understaffed, leaving patients at risk,” claimed Yes on 8 spokesperson Sean Wherley. The Yes on 8 campaign believes that the measure would not only rein in dialysis costs (which can run as high as $88,000 a year), but would also force the industry to improve staffing and hygiene at the facilities. “All of a sudden their profits are on the line and they cough up $111 million,” added Wherley, referring to Fresenius and DaVita.The No on 8 campaign denied that it is attempting to buy an election. Spokesperson Kathy Fairbanks noted that California is an expensive state to campaign in. The sum thrown in by the dialysis industry “goes to show how disastrous Prop 8 would be for patients and clinic viability in California,” Fairbanks said. “Providers are taking Prop 8 very seriously because it would shutter clinics and jeopardize their patients’ lives.”The Dialysis Industry Is Spending $111 Million to Argue That Regulating It Would Put It Out of Business [David Dayen/The Intercept] Read the rest

Last year they danced to The Ramones. This year the Addams Family is grooving to Joy Division.Related: How Wednesday Addams got her name Read the rest

I'm not sure what's funnier about these Halloween dog treats: the fact that they exist or that they're clled "Bits O' Brains"!My friend Lisa just spotted these at a local Bay Area Target and I was amused, to say the least. I mean, the dog on the package has his own brains exposed. Are we feeding dogs the (all natural, soft and chewy) brains of other dogs? I kid, of course. (I went to the Blue Dog Bakery website for an ingredients list and could not find the product at all.)I mean, I knew Thanksgiving dog food was a thing but Halloween dog food is new and hilarious to me. I was going to make a joke about how they'll probably make Easter dog food next but they beat me to the punch. Thanks, Lisa! Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Gramps teaches us all an important lesson about voting!

London is the epicentre of the British affordable housing crisis, and while there are over 500 high-rises under construction in the capital, consuming nearly every available lot, virtually every one of these towers is designed to serve the high-end luxury market (despite plummeting prices in this category), whose anonymous offshore buyers often never occupy or rent out the flats they buy, merely holding them to flip them later.Nearly half of London's offshore-owned highest-end housing stock is vacant, and the more valuable a property is, the less likely it is that anyone lives there. This figure rises to more than one-third of buyers, or 36 per cent, if we look at the “prime” market areas of central London over the same period. Here, vacancy was measured by looking at homes with little or no “transactional data”, relating to finance, retail or other forms of administration, such as tax records and bills.On this measure, we find that half of residences in new builds in general are empty, as are 19 per cent of dwellings across London’s inner boroughs. The likelihood that a home is empty rises alongside its market value: 39 per cent of homes worth £1m to £5m are underused, and 64 per cent of homes worth more than £5m. Of the homes owned by foreign investors, 42 per cent are empty. The more expensive a property in London, the more likely it is to be empty [Rowland Atkinson/Citymetric](via Reddit Read the rest

Greyhound announced that it was pulling its buses out of western Canada earlier this year. For anyone that owns a car? No big deal. For those living in remote western communities without access to a vehicle of their own or other means of transportation to shuttle them to more populous locales, it's a disaster. On October 31st, decades of being able to rely on a Greyhound ride to take an inexpensive trip into the city to access government services, make a visit to the hospital or see far-flung friends or family will come to an end.From the CBC:When Lillian Sylvestre heard Greyhound Canada was ending its western bus service, she made arrangements to visit her children in Red Deer on the route she's taken for the last four decades.Sylvestre lives in Sprague, Man., minutes from the Minnesota and Ontario borders. It lost its bus service to Winnipeg several years ago."It was sad when all the small communities lost the bus route," she said. "It is very hard because I used to hop on the bus in Sprague ten o'clock in the morning, go do my business — doctor, whatever in the city here, six o'clock — eight o'clock I'm home. Now I can't do that. I got to rely on my kids, in-laws, friends."The closure will effect almost all routes west of Sudbury, Ontario. As part of Greyhound's spinning down their western services, 415 people will lose their jobs. In total, 400 communities will lose access to Greyhound's services. Read the rest

Blizzard games have staying power. They're incredibly well crafted and designed to run on a wide spectrum of Windows PCs and Macs, both low powered and high. New content? They're all over it. I can't think of a single one of their titles that hasn't received multiple updates, oft-times for free, in the past decade. I played Diablo III on my Mac. When it came out for PS3, I played it there, too. It's a game that I return to time and time again, not because it is particularly challenging, but because of the grind: there's always something new to find--a new piece of gear that'll give the character that you're playing a slightly different way to play. So, when I tell you that Diablo III Eternal Collection for Nintendo Switch is pretty much the same deal as Diablo III played on any platform, you'll understand that what I actually mean is that it's great.I've always preferred playing Diablo III with a game controller over a mouse and keyboard. I like that a wee flick of the right thumbstick will send my hero rolling out of the way of danger. This was one of the first things I tested when I loaded up the copy of the game that Blizzard sent to me last week. The thumb-flick works with the Switch. The rest of the game's controls are similar to what I remember from my PS3 as well. You can't remap your controller's buttons, but your powers and attacks are laid out well enough in the game that it's not a hassle to use them, arbitrary or not. Read the rest

Far-right Twitter troll Jacob Wohl (age 20) looks like he could be in a heap o' trouble. The banned-for-life ex-futures trader recently announced that he was in possession of an investigator's report alleging that Mueller raped a woman in 2010. Wohl gave the report to a right-wing website, The Gateway Pundit, which published the report. But there are more holes in his story than Swiss cheese. And now the FBI is investigating this as a possible fraud.EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS: Special Counsel and Former FBI Director Robert Mueller Accused of Rape By 'Very Credible Witness ' https://t.co/n4brvtkWsn— Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) October 30, 2018Wohl denies having any connection to the investigation firm, Surefire Intelligence, but DNS records show that Wohl himself registered the domain:Surely you jest pic.twitter.com/hhYihwjt62— a plot gone awry (@flowerednews) October 30, 2018Jacob, you are in WAY over your head with this one. Why the lies then? pic.twitter.com/3NGdbyQLo1— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) October 30, 2018Also, look at the photo of Surefire Intelligence's managing partner, "Matthew Cohen." It's Wohl, as can be seen by comparing the photo with a photo of Wohl:😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 pic.twitter.com/PhLAUFX5if— Marfan Mike (@Marfan_Mike) October 30, 2018And the phone number for Surefire Intelligence? Why, it's young Master Wohl's mommy:From NBC:Wohl declined to comment on his involvement with Surefire Intelligence. However, his email is listed in the domain records for Surefire Intelligence's website and calls to a number listed on the Surefire Intelligence website went to a voicemail message which provided another phone number, listed in public records as belonging to Wohl's mother. Read the rest

About 10 years ago I was in New York City, walking to Martha Stewart's office to interview her for Wired. With about 10 minutes before my appointment, I noticed my fingernails looked too long for polite company. It suddenly became very important that I trim my nails immediately. I spotted a bodega and found the tiny toiletries section. They had a pair of no-name clippers for $7 or $8. I bought them, quickly tore open the packaging, and went to work on my nails. Unfortunately, something was wrong with the clippers. They were either dull or misaligned. They just made dents in my nails, so I used them to create tear-lines to rip my nails off. I used the built-in file to smooth them out as much as possible. The results were passable -- just barely. I don't think Martha noticed.Anyway, these SZQHT 15mm Wide Jaw clippers are the opposite of the NYC bodega clippers. They even make clean cuts on my extra thick toenails. At $14.75, they're twice the price of the bodega clippers, but still a bargain. Read the rest

The Think a Dot was a small non-electronic toy with an 8 pixel 2-bit display. To change the color of the pixels, you dropped marbles into three holes at the top. As you can see, the pixels change color based on the current color of the pixels and which hole the marble is dropped in.Someone has made a 3D model of the toy and uploaded it to Thingiverse, so you can 3D print your own!Image: Decode Systems Read the rest

Sonic Youth is selling a couple hundred pieces of music gear and a slew of rare vinyl records including test pressings of their own LPs and other fine platters. The Official Sonic Youth Reverb Shop opens for business today. From Reverb.com:One of the guitars included in The Official Sonic Youth Reverb Shop is a '70s Fender Telecaster Deluxe used by Ranaldo, Jim O'Rourke, and Mark Ibold from 1987 to 2009, and Ranaldo's Travis Bean TB1000A Artist. The Travis Bean was stolen in 1999, but Ranaldo got it back in 2002 and continued to play it until 2011.After that same theft, Kim Gordon used a replacement blue Fender Precision Bass until 2004. This P-Bass, as well as a copper sparkle Ibanez Talman, was used by Thurston Moore and Gordon from 1999 to 2010, throughout Gordon's solo SYR5 gigs.Befitting a band that helped popularize offsets—a candy apple red Fender Jazzmaster used by Moore for more than a decade and a sunburst Jazzmaster used Ranaldo will also be available in Sonic Youth's Shop. In addition, there are more than 100 vintage and used effects pedals used by all members of the band, including Ranaldo's Klon Centaur Silver Overdrive. Read the rest

Venice, Italy was hit with a storm that put three-quarters of the city under water. Although flooding is common in Venice, they haven't experienced flooding to this degree since 2008, according to CBS. The water level rose to five feet before receding. These videos show the magnitude of the flood.Worst flood in 22 years. 70% covered in water #venice #flood #Water #nocomments pic.twitter.com/yeDSWrqPRA— Dimitriy K (@dixkom) October 29, 2018#Venice #Murano today....♡ #MyVenice #MyCity #AcquaAlta #HighTide pic.twitter.com/UikyWY0sUB— IamA (Andy) (@marzofmine) October 29, 2018 Read the rest

If you shrink the earth to 1/190 millionth of its current size, it becomes the size of a tennis ball. With this scale as a starting point, a visual effects artist made a very cool video that shows the relative sizes of other planets and stars. [via Evil Mad Scientist] Read the rest

In the United States, it's illegal to buy and sell moon rocks retrieved from the lunar surface during the Apollo missions. However, the law doesn't apply to the tiny moon pebbles seen above that a Soviet robotic probe drilled out of the lunar surface and sent back to Earth in 1970. In 1993, Sotheby's auctioned these "Soil Particles From Luna-16" off for $400,000. Now, they're going on the block again and expected to go for twice that amount or even more. According to Sotheby's, "the sale will mark just the second time that an actual piece of another world has ever been offered for public sale." From Collect Space:The lunar samples were originally presented by the Soviet government to Nina Ivanovna Koroleva, the widow of Sergei Korolev, the "Chief Designer" of the Russian space program. Under Korolev's direction, the Soviet Union successfully put the world's first satellite into Earth orbit and launched the first human into space. His unexpected death in 1966 came before he could see the outcome of the space race to the moon.Four years after Korolev died, the Soviets launched Luna 16, the first of three robotic lunar sample return missions. Touching down after the U.S. Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 astronauts had come and gone from the moon, Luna 16 deployed an extendable arm to drill and extract a core sample 14 inches (35 centimeters) deep. The 3.5 ounces (101 grams) of soil and rocks that it collected were then deposited into a capsule for their return to Earth. Read the rest

"Weird Al" Yankovic announced this morning that he'll be touring in 2019 with a full symphony orchestra, well, several full symphony orchestras. He explains*:Two weeks from today – Monday, Nov. 12 – we’ll be announcing the dates for my 2019 tour, which we’re calling Strings Attached.We’re going directly from my most scaled-down, low-key show ever (this year’s Ridiculously Ill-Advised Vanity Tour) to my most full-blown, over-the-top extravaganza ever. Not only are we bringing back the costumes and the props and the big video screen, but also… every single night we’ll be performing with a FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. For real. No, we’re not cramming an orchestra on our bus – it’ll be a different orchestra in every city. Sometimes it will be a “branded” local orchestra (like, say, the Colorado Symphony), and other times we’ll basically just be putting together our own orchestra with local musicians. And yes, we’re back to PLAYING THE HITS… but we’ll also throw in a few deeps cuts too (including a couple songs that we’ve never played before – not even on the Ill-Advised Vanity Tour!) Of course it’ll be the same amazing band as always – Jim, Steve, Ruben and Bermuda – plus, for the first time ever we’ll be touring with female background singers (Lisa Popeil, Monique Donnelly and Scottie Haskell – incredible vocalists who have appeared on many of my studio recordings). I think it’s really going to be a special show, and I can’t wait to get started! Read the rest

As part of its ongoing commitment to evaluate information security and privacy when reviewing IoT devices (previously), Consumer Reports has published a scathing review of D-Link's home security camera.D-Link's DCS-2630L was one of half a dozen cameras evaluated in a process that included consideration of privacy policies, network monitoring, vulnerability analysis -- 50 indicators in total.Five of the cameras used encrypted transport to send their video to cloud servers; the D-Link stored the video locally and allowed you to stream it, but did not always encrypt these streams, and allowed access to the streams without a unique password. None of the cameras tested had decent privacy policies that spelled out all the ways your footage would be used; this is particularly disturbing, given that they are meant to run in your home.Testers at CR haven’t learned of any security breaches as a result of the D-Link problem. But most consumers may never realize they’re vulnerable, says Robert Richter, who leads security and privacy testing in CR’s labs. “It’s like a half-open door to hackers that should be closed,” he says.In response to a Consumer Reports query, D-Link said that security would be tightened through updates this fall. Consumer Reports will evaluate those updates once they are available. The main security risk is triggered only if the owner decides to view the video through a web browser—you can use the camera more securely by sticking to D-Link's mobile app.D-Link Camera Poses Data Security Risk, Consumer Reports Finds [Jerry Beilinson/Consumer Reports](Thanks, Geoff! Read the rest

In 2016, when Rachel Ralphs was 16 she got her head stuck in a pumpkin during a family pumpkin carving session. A few days ago she wrote about the experience for The Guardian.The pumpkin was heavy. “I’m going to set it down, now,” I said, and with Jason helping to support its weight, I bent back over the table to give it somewhere to rest. It was only when I tried to remove my head that I realised getting out was going to be less straightforward than getting in. The knot of my ponytail caught against the rim when I tried to pull out, as did the underside of my jaw. When I pulled my chin into my neck, my nose got in the way instead. I felt a jab of panic as I braced against the table and moved my head around trying to find the right angle, but it was no use. “I can’t get it out!” I roared, my voice sounding unnaturally loud in the enclosed space. Image: YouTube Read the rest

Chris Fitzgerald writes, "Faced with the complexity and horror of mass shootings, and the helplessness I feel to make any sort of positive change, I tried to channel that energy into an art project that explored non traditional organic materials in the construction of projectiles."I don’t imagine that this series will alter anyone’s perception about gun control. I think that often, political art tends to get saddled with too much responsibility in that way. It’s rare that any one thing changes any of us. We are made of the pieces of experiences that we choose to remember or can’t make ourselves forget. Most of us, myself included, are looking for evidence that backs up our own opinions. Maybe I was creating my own evidence. Projectile: Muscle, Fat and Bone [Chris Fitzgerald] Read the rest

The smoking Hot 8 Brass Band from New Orleans brings the funk to Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Previous killer covers include The Specials' "Ghost Town" and Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," below. Read the rest

Witches – hundreds of them – were seen paddleboarding down the Willamette River in Oregon on Saturday, surprising a lot of spectators who happened to be by the river that day. According to The Oregonian, they were part of a new annual event called the Standup Paddleboard Witch Paddle, which donated clothing to two different charities. Check out the cool photos:2 hour PDX river loop run between Sellwood and Broadway bridges today. 100s of paddle boarding witches in full view of the trail... pic.twitter.com/e8ZBXuX432— Sam Bugarsky (@SamBugarsky) October 28, 2018PHOTOS | A coven of paddle-carrying witches glides across the Willamette River Saturday as part of a new Portland Halloween tradition:https://t.co/6EMTu9VJuD pic.twitter.com/bYAzIavKhO— KATU News (@KATUNews) October 29, 2018horror movie male supporting character: DONT WORRY witches cant fly across bodies of water, it’s like how demons cant cross salt circles or vampires needing to be invited in*witches begin paddleboarding*supporting character: ooooOOHHH SHIIIIIIIIITTTT*bone crunching noises* pic.twitter.com/j1UmgIC69F— WITCHY MITTENS ☆みっつ☆ (@TTRlovesMittens) October 29, 2018Witches. Lots o' witches. Paddling witches. #KeepPortlandWeird pic.twitter.com/GUqd9lmUHe— Betty Staniak (@bettywriter) October 27, 2018Via Mashable Read the rest

This morning, Duke Energy mailroom employees in Charlotte, North Carolina called police after noticing an unusual small package with a handwritten address on it at their facility. Police cleared the area, shut down roads, and deployed a K-9 unit. According to CBS17, "police and the bomb squad investigated the package, which contained a cassette tape by the band Journey." Read the rest

A single smut-addicted official at the US Geological Survey led to an IT crisis there, according to an official report, with more than 9000 computers ending up infected. The recommendations? Filter the web, and plug those damned USB ports. Read the rest

Having a great time, wish I was there!This video produced the NRK TV-program "Nordlandsbanen Minutt for Minutt", which shows ride on the train cabin driver's view through beautiful Norwegian landscape. (via Kottke) Read the rest

The Holy Stone HS100 is a drone on Amazon that has two interesting qualities. First, it's one of those undesigned generic gadgets resold by numerous brands with SEO-stuffed and bizarre product names (e.g. "Holy Stone GPS FPV RC Drone HS100 Camera Live Video GPS Return Home Quadcopter Adjustable Wide-Angle 720P HD WiFi Camera- Follow Me, Altitude Hold, Intelligent Battery Long Control Range")Second, it has thousands of glowing reviews. Thousands. Are they real? Are the Holy Stones any good? DroneDJ checks it out.The Holy Stone HS100 and HS100G are both rebranded versions of the SJRC S70W. The only places to buy the Holy Stone versions of these drones is on Amazon and on Holy Stone’s website. SJRC (also SJ R/C) is the brand of the original manufacturer. According to my source, the manufacturer is a Chinese factory called Apex.You might think that I am going to totally trash the HS100 as a terrible drone. I’m not going to do that. I have tested 100s of drones, many of which are pretty bad. For the most part, the HS100 (SJRC S70W) does what it is supposed to do. That’s more than can be said for many of the cheap toys you can find on Amazon and elsewhere online.Surprise! It's ok. But the reviews, it must be said, are definitely fake. Read the rest

Mass consumer spending season is nearly upon us. The perfect time to load your hard-earned cash into this wallet by Etsy shop DangerRan. No extra charge for the interior Dick Butt.Shut up and take my money ($60 of it)!(nopuedocreer) Read the rest

The New York Times reports that apps intended for children are "crammed" with ads, many of them disturbing, inappropriate and effectively impossible to dismiss. Dancing treasure chests would give young players points for watching video ads, potentially endlessly. The vast majority of ads were not marked at all. Characters in children’s games gently pressured the kids to make purchases, a practice known as host-selling, banned in children’s TV programs in 1974 by the Federal Trade Commission. At other times an onscreen character would cry if the child did not buy something.“The first word that comes to mind is furious,” said Dr. Radesky, an assistant professor of developmental behavioral pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School. “I’m a researcher. I want to stay objective. We started this study really just trying to look at distraction. My frustrated response is about all the surprising, potentially deceptive stuff we found.”95 percent of the tested apps marketed for kids under 5 had these ads in them. It's not a trend, or even the norm: it's the nature of the business of childrens' apps. It's been this way for years: here's a 2015 story from The Guardian about explicit sex ads in childrens' apps.A company promoting sexual liaisons using pictures of a naked woman has been reprimanded for running ads in a children’s smartphone game. The Advertising Standards Authority received complaints from parents after they discovered their children had seen the explicit ads, which included the line “wanna fuck?”, within the My Talking Tom app. Read the rest

Predpol (previoulsy) is a "predictive policing" company that sells police forces predictive analytics tools that take in police data about crimes and arrests and spits out guesses about where the police should go to find future crimes.Predpol has drawn sharp criticism for algorithmic discrimination, in which data from racist policing practices are laundered through an algorithm that gives them the veneer of empirical impartiality: feeding faulty data to a predictive algorithm produces faulty analysis. "Garbage in, garbage out" is an iron law of computing that has not been repealed by machine learning techniques.Even as Predpol and its competitors, like Palantir (previously) have expanded their operations, concerned citizens have successfully pushed for local laws requiring cities to engage in public consultation before procuring services that feed private corporations policing and surveillance data in order to direct policing operations. However, in most markets, Predpol and its competitors operate in obscurity. The cop who stopped you this week (or who didn't come to your neighborhood at all) might have been acting on orders from an AI oracle provided by Predpol to your local police, whose tax-funded revenues are a close-kept secret. An anonymous security researcher recently contacted me with what may be a list of Predpol's customers. This researcher had seen that Predpol assigns easy-to-guess subdomains to each Predpol customer, in the form of CITYNAME.predpol.com, for example, baltimore.predpol.com.This researcher wrote a script that combined the name of every US city and town with ".predpol.com" and checked to see whether this domain existed. Read the rest

Now that everyone has a powerful camera with an array of filters and enhancements just a click away, anyone can be a photographer, right? Wrong. Practice alone won't make perfect. Whether you're hoping to transition into a professional career or just do those smartphone pics justice, the Hollywood Art Institute Photography Course & Certification can take you there.Refreshingly free of jargon, the Hollywood Art Institute distills field-tested techniques from Level 3-certified Pro Tutors into 56 hours of knowledge that you can access at your own pace. Many of the principles will apply equally well to point-and-shoot or DSLR cameras, and you'll be able to use what you learn to take better pictures your very first day. The 22-module course is packed with eBooks, video tutorials, flashcards, quizzes and a full slate of practical info you can access anytime - plus a free 5-year subscription to the HAI's Pro Article Database.A pro certification awaits on completion, and it's on sale now for $19. Get snapping with the Hollywood Art Institute Photography Course & Certification today. Read the rest

Trump intends to sign an executive order ending "birthright citizenship"—the right of people born in the United States to citizenship irrespective of their parents' status, as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.MSNBC:Trump, in an interview with Axios, part of which aired Tuesday morning, said birthright citizenship “has to end” and that it would, “with an executive order.”"We're the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits," Trump said. "It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it has to end.""It's in the process. It'll happen with an executive order,” he said, adding that he's consulted with the White House counsel on the matter.Making it up as he goes along, as usual. I can't speak to the trumpkin theory that the Fourteenth Amendment has its fingers crossed behind its back. But it's kinda annoying to watch him claim that the U.S. is the only country to have birthright citizenship and the Axios interviewers simply don't know and can't contradict him. Read the rest

A cat stole the show at the recent Esmod International Fashion Show in Istanbul, Turkey by preening itself, playfully attacking models, and actually walking the catwalk. Fashion designer Göksen Hakkı Ali told The Dodo, "Everybody was in shock." I'm dying, this is too good! Brb, gonna go watch it a hundred more times. Read the rest