Twitter has apologized for failing to delete a violent threat sent to political analyst Rochelle Ritchie by Cesar Sayoc Jr. The tweet in question was finally removed, along with the rest of Sayoc's suspected Twitter activity, after he was charged with multiple felonies related to mailbombs send to high-profile Trump critics.An update. We made a mistake when Rochelle Ritchie first alerted us to the threat made against her. The Tweet clearly violated our rules and should have been removed. We are deeply sorry for that error.— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 27, 2018Original item follows.Rochelle Ritchie, a "moderate Democrat" strategist and talking head, was threatened on Twitter by the account linked to suspected mailbomber Cesar Sayoc Jr. She complained about it to Twitter, and Twitter told her to go pound sand.Hey @Twitter remember when I reported the guy who was making threats towards me after my appearance on @FoxNews and you guys sent back a bs response about how you didn’t find it that serious. Well guess what it’s the guy who has been sending #bombs to high profile politicians!!!!I don't know anything about Ritchie's politics you can't read from her personal profiles, but anyone left of Mussolini who goes on Fox News nowadays is sticking their neck out in a way we don't generally appreciate.Rochelle Ritchie complained about suspected mailbomber's threat . Update: Statement from Twitter. This post originally had the headline "Rochelle Ritchie complained about suspected mailbomber's threat . Twitter said they didn't violate Twitter's rules" Read the rest

It's official: Megyn Kelly is off NBC's morning Today show. "Megyn Kelly Today is not returning," an NBC spokesperson said. "Next week, the 9 a.m. hour will be hosted by other TODAY co-anchors.” This comes after her embarrassing confusion earlier in the week as to why blackface is offensive.Kelly's ignorance has also left her without a talent agent. Just prior to her comments, she had left CAA to join UTA. And then it all fell apart. From Daily Beast: But as the backlash continued Wednesday night, UTA said that it was not representing the NBC host. Kelly’s departure from the agency came on the same day that reports said NBC was ending her daily daytime talk show following her assertion that white people should be able to dress in blackface on Halloween.Megyn Kelly wonders what the big deal is about blackface pic.twitter.com/07yvYDuAYe— Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) October 23, 2018Via NBC Read the rest

Gumball machines are pretty impressive, especially when you consider that there is no embedded microprocessor inside running the show. In this video, animator Jared Owen does a wonderful job showing how the various mechanisms in a gum machine work to reliably trade you gumball for a coin.Image: YouTube screenshot Read the rest

The Big Lebowski turned 20 years old this year and it is still as much of a joy to watch as it was back in 1998. Recently, NBC's Harry Smith sat down with Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi for a long chat about what it was like to make the film and its enduring cult legacy. Read the rest

Thom Yorke plays "Unmade" on the grand piano for BBC Radio 6 Music. The double-LP Suspiria soundtrack was released today and it's a stunner. Oh yeah, the movie is out today too. Read the rest

Yesterday's Copyright Office ruling on when you are allowed to break DRM went further than any such ruling in the DMCA's 20-year history, and that's swell, but when you drill into the ruling, it's still a flaming pile of garbage.Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act bans breaking DRM, even for lawful purposes: repairing your car, say, or installing third-party apps on a phone, or using third-party ink in your printer.Back when the DMCA was passed in 1998, everyone warned Congress that this was an invitation to abusive behavior, but Congress decided the best way to address this would be to tell the Copyright Office to hold hearings every three years in which the public could ask for temporary, limited exceptions to this rule (very limited exceptions: the Copyright Office can grant you the right to bypass DRM to do something legit, but can't give anyone the right to make a tool to exercise that right: you're expected to hand-whittle your own Iphone or car jailbreaking gadget, with no help from anyone else).The Copyright Office likes to make these exceptions ridiculously narrow, with so many terms and conditions that you have to hire a lawyer just to figure out if they apply to you.This year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation applied for a slate of exceptions designed to get the lawyers out of the picture, making them wide and clear enough that Americans could read the rules, figure them out, and apply them.And while the Copyright Office granted some really great exceptions for repair, preservation, security research, and more -- but larded these exceptions with so much copyrightese that the average person is going to struggle to figure out what they really permit. Read the rest

Here's a PBS video about people in their 30s who have figured out how to save the money they earned in their 20s so they never have to work again.PBS: Adeney saves so much because he's also a do-it-yourselfer. Take his house.Pete Adeney: The one that we live in now, I built almost entirely from scratch.PBS: So you put in your own plumbing?Pete Adeney: Yes.PBS: You did your own flooring?Pete Adeney: Yes, that's part of a house.PBS: You did your own electricity?Pete Adeney: I would do my own heart surgery if it was safe. Read the rest

My friend, SF Bay Area post-pop singer-songwriter Matt Jaffe, has released the first smoking single and video from his forthcoming album The Spirit Catches You. To my ear, Matt's unique sound lies at the intersection of power pop, outlaw country, and post-punk. He really digs Elvis Costello, John Doe, Townes Van Zandt, and Talking Heads and you can hear it in his playing and singing. (Indeed, Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads discovered Matt at an open mic night and produced his first record.) Dig it. And support the album release via Matt's Indiegogo campaign.(Video directed by Sarah Steinhart) Read the rest

Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right Oscar Wilde minus the talent, committed a series of gaffes last year that cost him his career. After Twitter got rid of him, his dwindling audience migrated to Instagram to read his stilted bon mots. It's telling that Yiannopoulos' precipitous drop has rendered him so inconsequential that Instagram initially didn't bother to take action when Yiannopoulos expressed dismay that the pipe bombs sent to prominent Trump critics didn't blow up, and that the Daily Beast hadn't been targeted by the terrorist (suspected to be Cesar Sayoc Jr. of Florida). “Just catching up with news of all these pipe bombs,” Yiannopoulos posted. “Disgusting and sad (that they didn’t go off, and the daily beast didn’t get one).”In response to complaints, the Facebook-owned photo sharing service said the post did "not violate our Community Guidelines” and that the post would stay on Instagram.But when the Daily Beast posted an article that read “Instagram Refuses to Pull Down Milo Post Praising Mail Bombs,” a spokesperson for Instagram rode in on a high horse and solemnly declared, "This content violates our policies and has been removed from Instagram and Facebook. We prohibit celebration or praise of crimes committed, and we will remove content praising a bombing attempt as soon as we’re aware." Read the rest

While it sounds like its hard drive may soon give up the ghost and it can't run for more than an hour without being plugged into power, I still use my iPod Classic around the house on a daily basis. I love it and even though I've moved on to using a Fiio M7 as my daily musical driver, I'll definitely spend the time and money to keep it running.This video from Pitchfork deftly explains what made the original iPod and its clickwheel descendants such great products, and why using a smartphone to listen to tunes, despite the convenience they afford, doesn't hold a candle to the listening experience a dedicated music player can provide. Read the rest

Over at YR (formerly Youth Radio), Desmond Meagley wrote and illustrated a moving, sad, and ultimately hopeful personal story about being committed to the psych ward at age 14. From "5150'd: My Journey Through a Psych Ward":After I had a meltdown in the middle of my sixth grade class, my school gave my family an ultimatum: if I was going to be enrolled there, I also had to be in therapy. Just like that, my struggle to be heard was confined to dimly lit sessions with the school counselor and an outside therapist. I tried to be honest with them, but I was a little too young to grasp what was at the root of my mental health issues. I was also scared of what might happen if I was *too* honest.I was getting used to pushing my mental health aside, believing that I would eventually grow out of my depression and anxiety… even though they were getting worse.That’s the thing about chronic mental illness: you don’t grow out of it. It grows with you, getting smarter, more mature, more convincing. Constantly having to outsmart the worst parts of your own brain is a nightmare."5150'd: My Journey Through a Psych Ward" (YR)illustration: Desmond Meagley Read the rest

David McCallum writes, "I made an interface to play a 3D printer like it's a musical instrument."This is a significant improvement on the laser cutter that plays the Super Mario theme: it can play more than one song!The Harp is a prototype physical interface to control a 3D printer to create (noise) music. Printers sing their own songs when printing objects, and the Harp conducts these sounds to sing new songs.Six "strings" are stroked to trigger gestures from the printer, and the strength of the stroke affects the expression of the gesture by controlling its pitch. The gestures come from the code to print the strings, so the machine is in effect performing parts of its own construction.Why did I make this? Consider two points:First, our brains ignore many of the sounds around us, but hidden in those sounds is music, or the potential for music.Second, we are often told what the tools of digital fabrication are and what they're good for, usually by an evangelist or a company trying to sell us something. This perspective is a narrow representation of what these tools are; they are so much more (and less). Consider the energy consumption. Consider all that extra plastic in the world! Consider the music… Read the rest

After the 2016 elections, Scout.ai and a group of technology activists created Machine Learning President, designed for "scenario planning to game out how tech might impact future elections, as a way to think through the potential challenges and pitfalls that might eat away at democracy."The game -- which sounds really fun! -- enjoyed a brief splash of notoriety last June when rumors emerged that Trump backer and Cambridge-Analytica-affiliated heiress Rebekah Mercer and a group of her plutocratic friends had played Machine-Learning President, allegedly as a victory lap (victory larp?) to celebrate the ascendancy of their chosen authoritarian bigot to the presidency.Now Chicagoans can play a regular match of Machine Learning President in the runup to the 2018 midterms, hosted by Max Temkin of Cards Against Humanity and Peter Sagal of NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Polygon's Charlie Hall sat in on a session and it sounds amazing.To begin the evening, a group of 40 players showed up at Temkin’s brightly colored coworking space. The participants were a rogues’ gallery of local and state political figures and activists, tabletop game designers, actors, and comedians. Everyone was randomly divided into teams of two to four players. Groups were a presidential candidate or a political faction.The goal for the candidates was to get elected, while the goal for each faction was to get their political talking points onto the winning ticket.Candidate teams included Nikki Haley and Mike Pence on the right, and Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren on the left. Read the rest

Jimmy Kimmel and his team played a new prank on kids this year. He set up a free Halloween photo stand.He explains:“We asked some parents who were walking by our theater if they wanted their kids to take a Halloween picture -- the same way you take a picture with Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny -- but we told them this picture would be with Michael Myers. And believe it or not, lots of parents sent their children right in.”I'm with that last girl. Nope. Read the rest

When you see an opportunity, you gotta seize it. Like Chris Cultrera did when he took two U-turns to sync this inflatable air dancer's moves to AWOLNATION's "Sail," or is that sale!?(Btw, you can get air dancers pretty cheap these days.)(digg) Read the rest

Frites, truffles and canals are awesome. Also doner kebab.I was meeting two US based criminal defense attorneys in Dublin for a couple days of slacking off. My objectives were to see Kilmainham Gaol, walk on a seawall, and enjoy a full Irish breakfast with a pot of Barry's. My traveling companions agreed to meet me in Dublin if I'd continue on with them to Amsterdam. I like waffles, I was in.The two defenders of justice had been discussing "truffles" on occasion, but it wasn't until the night before we flew to Amsterdam that it registered: these were psychedelic mushrooms, not chocolate covered truffles. For some reason I kept thinking there were gonna be amazeballs confection-stuff in ye olde Amsterdam. Life in a free marijuana state had largely blanked the long standing "Vegas or New Orleans, but the party is four hundred years old" reputation that lives alongside the canals. I had forgotten all the varieties of fun the Dutch capitol provides. All of them.We discussed the prospect of spending significant time out of our heads. I gave my emotional and physical states a good once over. My experience with psychedelic mushrooms was fairly extensive in the late 90s and early 2000s, and always inside the confines of the United States. I have kept up enough to know quality and variety have not changed from the awful tasting, dried up and barf-tastic 'shrooms Generation X is familiar with.I was tired, I didn't want to spend a lot of time puking, but I also love psychedelics and 'shrooms were always my favorite trip. Read the rest

The U.S. Justice Department told reporters today that a man in South Florida is in custody in connection with mailing of pipe bombs to political opponents of Donald Trump.Senior law enforcement sources have identified the suspect in the investigation as Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, of Aventura, Florida.“The arrest was made at an auto parts store in Plantation, Florida... about 10:30 a.m. Friday morning, and a 'loud explosion' was heard at the time of the arrest.”This van looks like what Steve Bannon would turn into if he was a Transformer pic.twitter.com/09jB3pJi56— EL GLIKO (@ElGliko) October 26, 2018The suspect was arrested in Plantation, Florida. He has a criminal record, and ties to New York.Here is an aerial shot of a van about to be towed in connection with the mail bombing case.News outlets at 8:20AM Pacific time on Friday are airing footage of a white van outside Auto Zone in Plantation, Florida, which appears to have a bunch of right-wing Trump bumper stickers all over it. Law enforcement described it as “right wing paraphernalia.”The suspect's political affiliations are not yet confirmed, but this sure appears to be what it appears to be. One can get a pretty good idea from his targets.And his van stickers.The van that appears to be connected to the suspected bomber is covered in pro-Trump stickers, including the presidential seal, and what MSNBC says investigators referred to as other "right-wing paraphernalia." pic.twitter.com/gjIleeu3yb— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) October 26, 2018The vehicle has now been covered with a blue tarp prior to being towed. Read the rest

The film above documents "Treatment Box," a one-day installation in New York City's Greenwich Village over the summer where passers-by could watch 26-year-old Rebekkah suffer through the horrors of painkiller and heroin withdrawal. Anti-addiction organization The Truth orchestrated the recording and public showing of Rebekkah's five-day experience that was edited into a single long-form video. After the detox, Rebekkah entered a treatment facility for treatment at no cost to her. From Ad Age:The scenes of her shaky limbs, nausea, vomiting and insomnia played out on a three-dimensional installation at Astor Place in New York City in June. Passersby stopped to watch a life-size Rebekkah in her room, often huddled in bed, wracked with pain. Interspersed are short interviews where she explains that she was prescribed opioids when she was 14, after injuring her ankle during cheerleading practice. Addiction quickly followed, and two months later, she tried heroin. “I feel like I’m coming back from the dead,” she says on Day 3 of detox...Before beginning the campaign, the organizations met with a medical ethicist to determine whether the project should move forward, and the treatment protocols were reviewed by Phoenix House, a national addiction treatment program. Read the rest

Sinead O'Connor, the troubled Irish singer of such fantastic songs as "Nothing Compares 2 U" (penned by Prince), "Mandinka," and "The Emperor's New Clothes," announced that she has converted to Islam and changed her name to Shuhada' Davitt. Her Twitter icon shows the Nike logo with the words "Wear a Hijab / Just Do It.""This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim," she Tweeted. "This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian's journey. All scripture study leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant."Earlier this year, she had changed her name to Magda Davitt to be “free of the patriarchal slave names. Free of the parental curses.”Here is my 1st attempt at singing the Azan. I got some pronouncition wrong because emotions took me from my page... but there’ll be hundreds of others onstage to come ... https://t.co/vDFyheqOOc— Shuhada’ Davitt (@MagdaDavitt77) October 19, 2018My best friend, Elaine just gave me my 1st Hijab and she got chills all over her body when I put it on. Not gonna post a photo because is intensely personal. And I’m an ugly old hag. But I’m a very, very, very happy old hag.— Shuhada’ Davitt (@MagdaDavitt77) October 20, 2018 Read the rest

Stella (Instagram) is "Queen of the Sploot" and this week's number #1 source of videos ganked by people on Twitter and Facebook. Read the rest

This kid took his MacBook Air into the Apple store to find out why the screen wouldn't work. The Genius Bar told him it needed to have its graphics chip, logic board and screen replaced at a cost of $1200. But being smart, he knew the MacBook Air didn't have a discrete graphics chip, so he took it to a professional repairman, Louis Rossmann. It turns out the laptop had two worn pins on a $35 sensor cable."You now understand more than a Genius," Rossmann tells him. "If they replaced your logic board and your screen, they would never have replaced this cable, and it would still have not worked."Apple's laptops get a lot of criticism of late, but those are mostly matters of taste. These reports of crazy prices for repairs are anothing thing entirely. It sounds like a maliciously-compliant way of refusing to repair something in order to generate a new purchase. But we're attached to our possessions, so I don't doubt that plenty of folks end up paying outrageous prices for minor and unnecessary repairs. Get yourself a TS-100 [Amazon] and get to work! Read the rest

$100 or so a pop. Here's a nice up-to-date Diebold machine. And here's a stack of the voter access cards that go with them. Brian Varner reports on how much can be learned from such items.The hard drives had not been wiped. The information I found on the drives, including candidates, precincts, and the number of votes cast on the machine, were not encrypted. Worse, the “Property Of” government labels were still attached, meaning someone had sold government property filled with voter information and location data online, at a low cost, with no consequences. It would be the equivalent of buying a surplus police car with the logos still on it.Even current models are shot through with comically obvious vulnerabilities--exposed USB ports, insecure smart card readers, operating systems that haven't been updated in 5 years--that aren't present in, say, ATMs made by the same companies. Sadly, the circles in the venn diagram marked "people with the power to fix this" and "people who want to fix this" do not overlap. Read the rest

The Salisbury Journal's Rebecca Hudson reports that a 45-year-old man was arrested today after "smashing the case of the Magna Carter with a hammer and trying to destroy it."A spokesman for Salisbury Cathedral said: "We can confirm that at the end of the afternoon yesterday, a man attempted to break into the case which houses Magna Carta in the Cathedral’s Chapter House. He was arrested by police shortly afterwards and taken into custody. We are very relieved that no one was hurt during the incident and that the Magna Carta itself is undamaged."Magna Carta 1215 is the best surviving copy of one of Britain's most influential legal documents, and is on permanent display at Salisbury Cathedral. It is regarded by historians as the foundation of constitutional liberty in the English-speaking world. Raging at limits on a monarch's absolute authority over other agents of the feudal state? Now that's dark enlightenment. The Forest Charter was the good one anyway, as far as the rest of us are concerned.Photo: Wiltshire Police. Read the rest

Something interesting from the world of science: Liverwort contains a psychoactive substance ("perrottetinene" or "PET") that has similar molecular structures to THC. Researchers think might be superior to THC for dampening pain signals and reducing inflammation. It just doesn't produce the same kind of high. ScienceDaily:Until now, it was thought that cannabis was the only plant that produces THC. However, as early as 1994, Japanese phytochemist Yoshinori Asakawa had discovered a substance in the liverwort plant Radula perrottetii which was related to THC and had named this natural substance "perrottetinene." In this natural product, the individual atoms are linked together in a manner similar to that of THC, however they differ in their three-dimensional structure and further exhibit an additional benzyl group.A few year ago, Jürg Gertsch from the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bern discovered that liverworts were being advertised as so-called "legal highs" on the internet. At the time, nothing was known about the pharmacological effects of this substance. Together with chemists from Erick Carreira's team from the Department of Chemistry at the ETH Zürich, Gertsch's research team in Bern biochemically and pharmacologically compared THC and perrottetinene.Using animal models, they were able to demonstrate that perrottetinene reaches the brain very easily and that, once there, it specifically activates cannabinoid receptors. It even demonstrates a stronger anti-inflammatory effect in the brain than THC, something which makes perrottetinene particularly interesting when you consider its potential medical application "It's astonishing that only two species of plants, separated by 300 million years of evolution, produce psychoactive cannabinoids," says Gertsch. Read the rest

This blurry portrait of a man may not look like much but it just sold at auction for $432,500, nearly 45 times its high estimate. What makes it so special? The Portrait of Edmond Belamy is the work of Artificial Intelligence and it's the first of its kind to sell at a major auction house. Christie's:This portrait, however, is not the product of a human mind. It was created by an artificial intelligence, an algorithm defined by that algebraic formula with its many parentheses. And when it went under the hammer in the Prints & Multiples sale at Christie’s on 23-25 October, Portrait of Edmond Belamy sold for an incredible $432,500, signalling the arrival of AI art on the world auction stage.The painting, if that is the right term, is one of a group of portraits of the fictional Belamy family created by Obvious, a Paris-based collective consisting of Hugo Caselles-Dupré, Pierre Fautrel and Gauthier Vernier. They are engaged in exploring the interface between art and artificial intelligence, and their method goes by the acronym GAN, which stands for ‘generative adversarial network’.‘The algorithm is composed of two parts,’ says Caselles-Dupré. ‘On one side is the Generator, on the other the Discriminator. We fed the system with a data set of 15,000 portraits painted between the 14th century to the 20th. The Generator makes a new image based on the set, then the Discriminator tries to spot the difference between a human-made image and one created by the Generator. Read the rest

U.S. President Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order to close the U.S.-Mexico border, as the depleted and ragtag #MigrantCaravan of poor people seeking asylum ambles north from Central America. This sure reads like a crude ploy for GOP votes from racist white people who fear immigrants.From the New York Times report: President Trump is considering taking executive action to bar migrants, including asylum seekers, from entering the country at the southern border, according to people familiar with the plan. The effort would be the starkest indication yet of Mr. Trump’s election-season push to play to his anti-immigrant base as his party fights to keep control of Congress.The proposed executive action amounts to a sweeping use of presidential power to fortify the border and impose the kind of aggressive immigration restrictions and enforcement measures that Mr. Trump has made his signature pursuit.They're still finalizing the details today, the Times goes on to report. Those details include how to respond to the legal challenges such an order would inevitably face in federal courts.Details of Mr. Trump’s plan were provided by White House insiders who “insisted on anonymity to discuss an action that is still under development.” The president, who is prone to changing his mind, could still decide not to take action, they stressed.Anything could happen. Isn't this potentially against international law? https://t.co/d6nEOsdHic— Patrick deHahn (@patrickdehahn) October 26, 2018The caravan of migrants is thousands of miles away by foot and would be running up against the border anyway, but the president is going to sign an executive order tomorrow to block them from entering https://t.co/JvPqqgHq0T— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) October 26, 2018Or: President acts unilaterally jumping over congress and international law to regain media narrative near election of manufactured fears and gut asylum for women & children fleeing violence at the same damn time. Read the rest

The FBI is treating the serial bomber who sent explosives to critics of Donald Trump as domestic terrorism. There are a lot of bomb-making HOWTOs on the internet, and instructions for how to make improvised explosive devices have long been available online. Now, a federal agent says the perpetrator behind the 10 “suspicious packages” used bomb-making instructions that are “widely available” online.The FBI is now searching a Florida mail center in the hunt for the person who sent these package bombs, in what appears to be a mass political assassination attempt targeting prominent figures associated with America's opposition political party.The image above, from Reuters, shows inspectors at one of the U.S. Postal Service mail facilities today.A federal law enforcement source told Reuters today that the explosive devices sent to critics and political opponents of Donald Trump “were thought to have been fashioned from bomb-making designs widely available on the internet.”Excerpt:Investigators believe the packages, which were intercepted before reaching their intended recipients, went through the U.S. Postal Service at some point, that source said. None detonated and no one has been hurt.Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, in an interview with Fox News Channel, confirmed that at least some of the packages were mailed in Florida.“Some of the packages went through the mail. They originated, some of them, from Florida,” she said. “I am confident that this person or people will be brought to justice.” Read the rest

MEPs in European Parliament want Facebook to submit to a full audit by European Union bodies to determine whether the U.S. based social media company adequately protects users’ personal data. The demand made in the form of an EU resolution adopted Thursday, October 25, 2018, follows the company's recent breach scandal, in which data belonging to 87 million Facebook users around the world were improperly obtained and misused.The Parliament resolution also recommends Facebook make additional changes to combat election interference — asserting the company has not just breached the trust of European users “but indeed EU law”.Excerpt from the announcement of the resolution, 'Facebook-Cambridge Analytica: MEPs demand action to protect citizens’ privacy':• Electoral laws need to be updated to reflect the new digital reality• Member states should investigate alleged misuse of online political spaces by foreign forces• As follow-up action to the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, MEPs call for a full audit on Facebook and new measures against election meddling.In a resolution adopted on Thursday, MEPs urge Facebook to allow EU bodies to carry out a full audit to assess data protection and security of users’ personal data, following the scandal in which the data of 87 million Facebook users was improperly obtained, and misused.MEPs say that Facebook did not only breach the trust of EU citizens, “but indeed EU law”. They recommend that Facebook make changes to its platform to comply with EU data protection law.Measures against election manipulationMEPs note that the data obtained by Cambridge Analytica may have been used for political purposes, by both sides in the UK referendum on membership of the EU and to target voters during the 2016 American presidential election. Read the rest

Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum today that orders the Commerce Department to develop a long-term comprehensive national spectrum plan to get ready for next-generation 5G wireless networks.White House officials say the administration does not support the idea of nationalizing the 5G network. A leaked document in January suggested Trump's administration was considering the.From Reuters:Trump is also creating a White House Spectrum Strategy Task Force and wants federal agencies to report on government spectrum needs and review how spectrum can be shared with private sector users.The memorandum requires a series of reports over the next nine months and looking at ways and existing efforts on increasing spectrum and sharing existing spectrum. A long-term strategy is due by July.The goal is to ensure there is enough spectrum to handle the growing amount of internet and wireless traffic and that future faster 5G networks have adequate spectrum.The White House also said Trump is withdrawing presidential memorandums on spectrum signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010 and 2013.AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc, Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc are working to acquire spectrum and beginning to develop and test 5G networks, which are expected to be at least 100 times faster than current 4G networks and cut latency, or delays, to less than one-thousandth of a second from one-hundredth of a second in 4G, the Federal Communications Commission has said.Wireless industry trade group CTIA praised the administration for “recognizing the importance of establishing a national spectrum strategy. Read the rest

A new molecular study shows that a compound called perrotetinene in certain species of liverworts is actually a psychoactive cannabanoid. From Science News:A group of Japanese scientists in 1994 discovered perrotetinene in liverworts, but the new study is the strongest evidence yet that the compound is a psychoactive cannabinoid. Previously, cannabis was the only plant known to produce such cannabinoids....After mapping perrotetinene’s molecular structure, the researchers created a synthetic version and tested it on mice. The team tracked the animals’ pain response, body temperature and movement — measures of the compound’s psychoactivity. The results suggested that perrotetinene may be slightly less psychoactive than THC, says study coauthor Jürg Gertsch, a biochemist at the University of Bern in Switzerland. The liverwort compound may also have fewer negative side effects such as memory loss and loss of coordination, he says."Uncovering the psychoactivity of a cannabinoid from liverworts associated with a legal high" (Science Advances)illustration: "Hepaticae" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904 Read the rest

Authorities from the FBI, NYPD, and New York Mayor Bill De Blasio gave an update to reporters today in New York about the series of explosive devices sent to former presidents and public figures, and the news network CNN.Here's a loose summary of what we know, after their briefing on Thursday afternoon, 3-4pm Eastern time.At least 10 devices were sent to prominent Democrat targets, and people who were critical of Donald Trump. The devices are on their way to a federal laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for forensic analysis.The presumed pipe bombs were sent to former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama, former President and First Lady Bill and Hillary Clinton, philanthropist George Soros, actor Robert DeNiro, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), former vice president Joe Biden, former attorney general Eric Holder, and hundreds of journalists at CNN's New York offices. Some targets got more than one bomb. "We are treating them as suspected explosive devices," said James P. O'Neill, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department. White powder found in the packages has been determined NOT to be a biological agent, such as Anthrax, as feared. Authorities would not comment on whether the packages were identical. We know that some were delivered by U.S. Postal mail service, and others by courier."We will identify and arrest the person or people responsible for these acts," said O'Neill.NYPD's O'Neill responded to a reporter's question about people (right-wing Trump supporters like Fox News host Lou Dobbs) calling the packages “a hoax” or “false flag.”“This is something that should be taken seriously, we are treating them as live devices,” said O'Neill. Read the rest

Nikolas Bentel made a tool from scratch. He literally scratched the stool into shape with his fingernails. He also used his teeth to chew parts of it.[via Root Simple] Read the rest

With no other buffalo hanging around to give this poor bastard a hand, it didn't take long for a pride of lions to take him down. That said, it took a whole pride of lions to take this buffalo down, so extra points for effort. Read the rest

For a country the size of Canada, we've got a pretty small military budget. In order to secure our borders and work with our NATO pals overseas and in operations on our home turf, The Canadian Forces is often forced to do a lot with very little. Our Army, Navy and Air Force are tightly integrated, making it possible for us to make the most of our military infrastructure, supplies and training. Right now, Canada's military personnel are playing a game of hurry-up-and-wait while long-promised new equipment, upgrades to existing hardware, and better care for current members come into play. Unfortunately, as the Canadian government struggles to keep up with the basics of defining its borders, an internal Department of National Defence report obtained by the Canadian Press warns that the nation's armed forces could be ripe for getting dinged on a largely undefended frontier: space.From The CBC:Satellites vital to Canadian military operations are vulnerable to cyberattack or even a direct missile strike — just one example of why the country's defence policy must extend fully into the burgeoning space frontier, an internal Defence Department note warns.The Canadian military already heavily depends on space-based assets for basic tasks such as navigation, positioning, intelligence-gathering, surveillance and communications. Canada is also working on the next generation of satellites to assist with search-and-rescue and round-the-clock surveillance of maritime approaches to the country, including the Arctic.Unfortunately, as the hardware and software required to compromise satellite systems has become way less expensive over the past decade, the number of state and non-state actors with access to the gear needed to smoke our space hardware has grown. Read the rest

This is as thrilling as when I learned to draw a dog face in third grade! (via r/intereatingasfuck) Read the rest

Kokichi Sugihara of Japan is the winner of the 2018 Best Illusion of the Year Contest with his mind-bending entry, "Triply Ambiguous Object."[via FutilityCloset] Read the rest

University of Cape Town researchers created the world's first "bio-bricks" made from sand, bacteria, and human urine collected from special toilets in the engineering school's bathrooms. From The Guardian:Bio-bricks are created through a natural process called microbial carbonate precipitation, said (project supervisor and water quality engineering lecturer Dyllon) Randall, similar to the way seashells are formed. Loose sand, which has been colonised with bacteria that produces urease, is mixed with the urine. Urease breaks down the urea in the urine, producing calcium carbonate, which cements the sand into shape.While regular bricks are kiln-fired at temperatures of 1,400C and produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, the bio-bricks do not require heat.“If a client wanted a brick stronger than a 40% limestone brick, you would allow the bacteria to make the solid stronger by ‘growing’ it for longer,” said Randall...Randall described urine as liquid gold. By volume, urine accounts for less than 1% of domestic waste water, but it contains 80% of the nitrogen, 56% of the phosphorus and 63% of the potassium found in waste water.(via NextDraft) Read the rest

New scanning methods have helped determine an already well examined fossil is actually a separate species of Archaeopteryx, the evolutionary bridge between bird and reptile. Named Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi, only further research will show if it is truly a stand alone species and not just plain old Archaeopteryx lithographica or Archaeopteryx siemensii.Via Gizmodo:This particular fossil was discovered in 2009 (it’s referred to as number eight), but a new scanning technique was used for the analysis, so it’s classic case of an old fossil being view through new eyes. That the authors of the new study would declare the specimen a distinct species shouldn’t come as a surprise. Virtually every new fossil of Archaeopteryx has, at first, been declared a new species before eventually being slotted back into one of the two known species, either Archaeopteryx lithographica or Archaeopteryx siemensii, after further scrutiny. The same could happen to Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi, but only time will tell.Archaeopteryx is one of the most intriguing dinosaurs in the paleontological record. Discovered back in the 1860s, this Jurassic-era dinosaur was celebrated as being a conspicuous demonstration of evolution in action. Not quite lizard and not quite bird, it seemed to show, almost literally, lizards evolving into birds. Archaeopteryx was thus branded a “transitionary” species—a so-called missing link between extinct dinosaurs and modern birds.I once spent a fantastic day trying to find the "London specimen" in the British Museum. The woman I was with wanted to see the Archaeopteryx, and regardless how hard it seemed for us to find we were gonna! Read the rest

Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act bans bypassing "access controls" for copyrighted works -- that is, breaking DRM. This was stupid when the DMCA passed in 1998, and it only got stupider since: back in 1998, DMCA 1201 was used to punish people who made region-free DVD players or homebrew Sega Dreamcast games. Today, every gadget has thousands of lines of copyrighted code, putting any "access control" on the gadget within reach of the DMCA, which has led manufacturers to claim that the DMCA gives them the right to decide who can make software for your stuff, how you can use your stuff, and who can fix your stuff. DMCA 1201 has been used to intimidate and even jail security researchers who found defects in products with DRM, which means that the people who want to warn you about problems with the gadgets you trust can't come forward without permission from the companies that stand to lose money if the news gets out.Every three years, the Copyright Office hears petitions for "use exemptions" to the DMCA: these exemptions let you break DRM to engage in some kind of legit activity, like jailbreaking a phone or conducting security research. This year, many groups petitioned the Copyright Office for a wide variety of exemptions and the Copyright Office just published its detailed conclusions setting out which exemptions were granted, which ones were denied, and which ones were partially granted.It's an extremely encouraging document! The Copyright Office granted the majority of exemptions, including key exemptions around the right to repair and legal protection for security research. Read the rest

In this video from Cariacica, Brazil, bus drivers sit on stationary bikes as a bus whizzes past. Why? To give the drivers a visceral sense of what it feels like when a 30,000 metal behemoth flies by less than two meters from your exposed body. The goal is to educate the drivers on why they should respect the mandatory 1.5 meter gap. (Bicycling via Weird Universe) Read the rest

When I was growing up, any spider in my home was to be killed on sight. I never had a problem with the incredibly helpful little critters, but my mother did. Her arachnophobia was so strong that even seeing a spider web would trouble her. A spider hanging out in her vicinity would result in screams of panic and a murderous broom-aided killing spree. After leaving home, it took me years to get to the point where I didn't feel the need to kill a spider if I saw one in my home. That said, never in all of my spider-smooshing years did I even come close to burning the house down.From KETV Omaha:A house caught on fire after a man tried to kill spiders and get rid of webs, according to a fire department.Fresno firefighters said the man was house sitting for his parents and used a blowtorch against black widows, KFSN-TV reported.Fire department spokesman Capt. Robert Castillo said the man used the open flame outdoors, starting at a brick veneer section of the approximately 4,000-square-foot home. He eventually noticed smoke coming from the attic.Fire trucks inundated a street by the home Tuesday night. About 27 firefighters responded.It caused an estimated $10,000 in damage.Image via Flickr, courtesy of The U.S. Army Read the rest

With the midterm elections creeping up, everyone in the media's been busier than a cat trying to bury a turd in a marble floor watching for signs of Russian interference. Given the amount of chaos that Russia's cyber operatives have been responsible for over the past few years, this is totally understandable. However, it might be a good idea for the media to keep an eye on China's online comings and goings, as well. According to a report released by the French government, Chinese cyber operatives have been hard at work attempting to compromise or enlist thousands of well-placed professionals and intellectuals online to leverage in the real world.From IntelNews: The report describes Chinese efforts to approach senior French scientists, business executives, academics and others, as “widespread and elaborate”, and warns that it poses an “unprecedented threat against the national interests” of the French state. It goes on to state that nearly 4,000 carefully selected French citizens have been approached by Chinese intelligence operatives via the LinkedIn social media platform. Of those nearly half, or 1,700, have leading posts in French industry, while the remaining 2,300 work in the public sector. In their totality, those targeted are involved nearly every area of industry and government administration, including those of nuclear energy, telecommunications, computing and transportation, said the report. Uh Oh.In many cases, the Chinese operatives used fake identities, pretending to be headhunters for overseas corporations and think tanks on LinkedIn. As part of the ruse, the ops would invite their targets on all-expenses-paid trips to China for job interviews or research symposiums – whatever turned their target's crank. Read the rest

Since its publication in August, Anand Giridharadas's Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World has been tearing through the world, changing the way we think about inequality, philanthropy and elites; Giridharadas is an Aspen Institute Fellow who's long traveled in elite circles, but who concluded that the philanthropy of the super-rich isn't just an inadequate substitute for a fairer world -- it's actually part of the system that perpetuates the gross unfairness of mass inequality.I've just started reading Giridharadas's book, and I'm enjoying it immensely. But even if you don't get around to reading it, I strongly recommend watching his one-hour talk and discussion at Google, where he opens by saying that Google's founding principles are exactly the kind of thing he's criticizing in his book and that's why he's going to keep the lecture part as brief as possible and focus on discussion with the attendees.(via Four Short Links) Read the rest

This self-inflating lumbar back pillow got me through over 24 hours of international travel in coach.I spent a lot of time in coach over the last week or so. My back can't really take a lot of these shenanigans, but I came prepared. I knew exactly where in my kit the McKenzie AirBack was stowed, so I could grab it as I hit my seat. Helping preserve my lumbar lordosis while I sit in terrible airplane seats is a must.Depending on your own back you can put a little, or a lot of air into the pillow. I do not inflate it very much, a little goes a long way. Remember, as cabin pressure decreases, your pillow will inflate more! Becareful not to over inflate!Similarly, I find it easier for stowage to deflate the pillow at the beginning of descent, the lower pressure makes it easier to get the pillow packed tiny at sea-level.Using this while flying leaves me with less pain radiating into my legs. I purchased a self-inflating when my last OG Airback was lost.The Original McKenzie® Self-Inflating AirBack Lumbar Support by OPTP (710) - Back Support Pillow for Travel via Amazon Read the rest

Some people can't stand the slightest scratch on their car, insisting on getting it repaired asap.Image: Daily Motion Read the rest

This is by far the scariest animated clown prop for Halloween that I've seen. The sign by it's feet says it's $199.00, but it's nearly impossible to read which store it is in, and the YouTube description doesn't clue us in. But I think this monster clown at Spirit is the same one, at the same price. Let the nightmares begin. Read the rest

In 2014 Google investigated a claim that Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, coerced a Google colleague to perform oral sex on him. Google found the claim to be credible. Instead of unceremoniously booting Rubin out of the company, it eased him out with lavish praise and $90 million. This New York Times investigative report reveals a sleazy underside of the company.“I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next,” Larry Page, Google’s chief executive then, said in a public statement. “With Android he created something truly remarkable — with a billion-plus happy users.”...Mr. Rubin was one of three executives that Google protected over the past decade after they were accused of sexual misconduct. In two instances, it ousted senior executives, but softened the blow by paying them millions of dollars as they departed, even though it had no legal obligation to do so. In a third, the executive remained in a highly compensated post at the company. Each time Google stayed silent about the accusations against the men.The New York Times obtained corporate and court documents and spoke to more than three dozen current and former Google executives and employees about the episodes, including some people directly involved in handling them. Most asked to remain anonymous because they were bound by confidentiality agreements or feared retribution for speaking out. Read the rest

A new study unsurprisingly shows Americans overwhelmingly know they are sharply divided.Via TPM:The newly released survey found that more than 8 in 10 Americans think the country is greatly divided about important values. Just 20 percent of Americans say they think the country will become less divided over the next few years, and 39 percent think things will get worse. A strong majority of Americans, 77 percent, say they are dissatisfied with the state of politics in the country.The poll was conducted Oct. 11-14 in the final sprint to the midterm elections, in which President Donald Trump has been rallying his supporters to turn out to vote in November. Overall, 59 percent of Americans disapprove of how Trump, a Republican, is handling his job as president, while 40 percent of Americans approve.A clear majority also think the President is a failure, while few hold out hope that we'll settle our differences. Read the rest

I'm delighted to report that Boing Boing pal Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü) has a new rock and roll platter on its way February 8! Above is the title track from the punk pioneer's new album, Sunshine Rock. If this catchy psychedelic number is any indication, expect the album to be a burning light of gritty punk optimism in these dark times. “To go from [2011 autobiography] See a Little Light to the last three albums, two of which were informed by loss of each parent, respectively, at some point I had to put a Post-It note on my work station and say, ‘Try to think about good things,'" Bob says. "Otherwise I could really go down a long, dark hole. I’m trying to keep things brighter these days as a way to stay alive.”Bob Mould plays the history Fillmore in San Francisco on March 2 as part of the Noise Pop Festival 2019. More tour dates here.Below, Bob Mould on Boing Boing Video, an interview and performance from 2014 produced by the talented team at Remedy Editorial:photo: Alicia J Rose Read the rest