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People who live in the LGBT-identified Sydney neighborhood of Darlinghurst are getting letters through their door signed by "Jesus" that blame queer people for extreme weather (drought, hail); "Jesus" also takes credit for felling the (admittedly horrible) former PM Malcolm Turnbull.Among other things, “Jesus” takes credit for the removal of the “wicked” former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, warns that Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore should “humble [herself]”, and blames the drought on Australia’s decision to vote Yes in last year’s marriage equality postal survey.The message takes issue with homosexuality, same-sex marriage, no-fault divorce, sodomy, pornography, and general fucking — which hardly leaves any fun stuff for us to enjoy if “Jesus” gets his way.“Jesus” Is Posting Homophobic Letters In The Heart Of Sydney’s Gay District [Rob Stott/Junkee] Read the rest

After the city of Bismark, ND voted to spend $25,000 to equip school "resource officers" (a euphemism for "uniformed, armed police officers") with AR-15s, an Iowa gun distributor called Brownells decided to donate the assault weapons to the school district. School resource officers are frequently cited as the linchpin of the school-to-prison pipeline, are notoriously high-handed and violent, and operate with little or no accountability."We certainly think that schools should have increased security, so if that is something we can do to help, then we are happy to do it," Brownells Director of Communications Ryan Repp said.Iowa company donates AR-15s to be placed in Bismarck schools [Chad Mira/Myndnow](via Naked Capitalism)(Image: Bismark High School) Read the rest

When workers at an Ikea in Stoughton, Massachusetts expressed interest in forming a union, the company responded with an illegal anti-union crackdown that culminated in locking workers into a conference room and forcing them to watch anti-union slideshows that workers described as "scaremongering".An international union group filed a complaint against Ikea with the Dutch Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, citing similar incidents in Dublin, Ireland and Lisbon, Portugal.The lock-in meetings were mandatory on pain of termination and lasted for hours every day in the runup to a union vote; an employee who tried to photograph one of the slides was kicked out of the hall. The UFCW alleged in the OECD complaint that the failed vote in Stoughton was the culmination of IKEA's attempt to discourage workers against unionizing with so-called "captive-audience" meetings, or mandatory gatherings that employees could be terminated for skipping.The OECD complaint alleged that IKEA's captive-audience meetings would last for one to two hours every day in the run-up to the vote. During the meetings, the UFCW alleged, management disparaged collective bargaining, indicating that the union would likely fail to help workers "obtain a net gain in wages and benefits," and told employees that they were "personally offended" by the push to unionize."It was a lot of pressure and people were getting scared," Morrison said. He described the meetings as "grinding," and added that management began doing favors for certain employees, like not assigning Saturday shifts.According to the complaint, management also showed employees a PowerPoint comparing the election to selecting a getaway destination. Read the rest

When a disagreement between two roosters escalated to violence, a pit bull intervened by running in between the sparring foul, quickly ending the fight.Good boy does not allow violence on his watch Read the rest

This man, spotted in a convenience store, bears a striking resemblance to former reality show star Donald Trump.Wow, @realDonaldTrump's doppelganger😮 pic.twitter.com/fsuTcNdD58— PolishPatriot🇵🇱👌 (@RealPolPatriot) October 2, 2018If you don't remember Trump -- whose show was canceled years ago -- here's a recent photo of the fallen celebrity tending to potatoes in Spain:In case you’re wondering, Donald Trump’s doppelganger is a Spanish potato farmer. (photo: Paula Vazquez) pic.twitter.com/912hd0AldB— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 25, 2018 Read the rest

Automotive engineer Spencer Rezkalla spent three years building this astounding 19 square foot LEGO model of the just-opened Apple Park. The 1/650th scale model contains roughly 85,000 pieces, including 1647 trees. From Rezkalla's project gallery on Flickr:I've always wanted to build a horizontal skyscraper. These are sometimes also called "groundscrapers". In 2014 I came across some drone footage of an enormous circular excavation being dug into the California earth. When I discovered this was the start of the foundation for a new low-rise Apple "spaceship" campus, I knew I had found an interesting and suitable candidate. Read the rest

Mitchell Langbert, a business professor at Brooklyn College who looks like a cross between Ray Liotta and an angry fermented potato, writes that "If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex." The blog post was reposted in a private group for some 5,000 students and alumni.Some students were outraged. Corrinne Greene said her campus group, Young Progressives of America, wants Langbert fired."To have someone in a position of power espousing sexual assault is not a joke. It's something that needs to be taken seriously," she said.Brooklyn College Provost Anne Lopes called the comments in the post abhorrent and counter to the values of the school community."However, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects even speech that many experience as offensive, such as the faculty member's post," she said. Lopes added that officials will plan a forum to discuss the issue. I've reproduced his original post verbatim below, as failing to provide the full context would otherwise invite accusations of context-shifting or (as the case may be) of failing to understand that it is supposed to be "satire."KavanaughIf someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex. The Democrats have discovered that 15-year- olds play spin-the-bottle, and they have jumped on a series of supposed spin-the-bottle crimes during Kavanaugh's minority, which they characterize as rape, although no one complained or reported any crime for 40 years. Read the rest

With Evernote's business on the rocks, a lot of people are waking up to the fact that commercial, proprietary cloud systems work great (easy, well-supported) but fail badly (lock-in, sudden bankruptcy, loss of years' worth of important data).If you're just learning that lesson, try Standard Notes, a free, open, encrypted, cross-platform cloud-based note-taking app that is designed to be private, auditable, and eternal.The encrypted part means you can store data in the cloud and not worry about it being read by the people who run the servers you're using; the open code means that you (or someone you trust) can audit the encryption to make sure that it's performing as advertised; the free (as in freedom) part means you can always pull your data and anyone can set up rival cloud services for synchronizing between devices; and that means that the data is eternal: yours and yours alone, forever and ever.Standard Notes is available for Mac/Win/Lin, Android and Ios, and runs in a web browser as well.The project funds itself by offering a premium tier of services (encrypted attachments stored in your Dropbox/Gdrive, access to extensions/themes, 100 years' worth of version history for all docs, automated backup to a cloud drive and/or email, and two-factor auth for more encryption). They charge a mere $2.48/month for all that. We believe in building software that lasts. To us, it is sad to consider that in the Information Age, the chances are that all information will probably not be there tomorrow. Read the rest

Krispy Kreme opened a 24-hour drive-thru in Dublin, and the Irish city couldn't contain itself. Long lines of endless cars waited to order their donuts, sometimes honking in excitement at each other in the middle of the night. After just one week, the donut shop had to shut down their drive-thru at 11:30 PM. Take a look at (or, rather, listen to) the festive honkers that surely kept the city awake at all hours of the night.i come home to ireland for the first time in months and the whole country is at a standstill over a krispy kreme— The Chronic Project (@TheNapKween) October 3, 2018So Ireland gets a Krispy Kreme and the country loses its shit, resulting in the 24-hour drive-thru having to be closed? Sounds about right.— Gianni (@giancarlomag) October 3, 2018The entire Krispy Kreme situation really highlights why Ireland can’t have nice things— Claire 💬 (@Claire_Crowley_) October 3, 2018One of my favorite things about Ireland right now is how horny Dubs are for Krispy Kreme https://t.co/ZEzvbU20QI— Michael (@roadworst) October 3, 2018Via Mashable Read the rest

Yesterday, the Internet Archive published the 1983 edition of Cupola, the yearbook of Georgetown Prep, the elite academy and hive of rape-culture where would-be Supreme Court Justice drank his way through four years of tutelage.Despite the judge's absurd perjury about his life during those years, we actually have a pretty good look into the routine debauchery and assaults committed by Kavanaugh and his social circle, thanks to the contents of Wasted, the memoir written by Mark Judge, a classmate of Kavanaugh who has been identified as a co-assailant in the attempted rape of Dr Christine Blasey Ford. Unfortunately, it's practically impossible to get a copy.The Internet Archive has placed a scanned copy of Wasted online so that the American public can better inform itself about the character of the man whom Senate Republicans are prepared to hand a lifetime Supreme Court appointment to.By the way, here is the yearbook entry for Merrick Garland, whom Senate Republicans refused to consider for a seat on the court during the last months of the Obama presidency.(Thanks, Mark!) Read the rest

I’m no stranger to eating bones. As a child I was like a cat hearing the lid being peeled off a can and flying into the kitchen to see what’s for dinner. Every time my mother opened some canned salmon, there I’d be, standing by her side waiting for her to drop some of those soft, greasy, salty fish bones into my hands. But I haven’t done that in years.Fast forward to the other day, when I came across a bag of similar-looking bones in my local supermarket here in Japan. A quick look and I noticed they weren’t salmon bones, nor were they soft or greasy. They were eel bones. Dry roasted eel bones, in fact. The package tells me they are chock full of calcium, vitamins A, B2, D, and E. Who needs potato chips when for 200 yen you can get 26 grams of eel bones to nosh on? Not only that, but Kyomaru makes several different flavors, too: spicy, salt, soy sauce, wasabi, and sweet sesame seed flavored. Photos by: Thersa Matsuura Read the rest

According to an explosive report in Bloomberg, US spies and large corporate IT departments have had an open secret for years: the servers supplied by US hardware giant Supermicro for Elemental, Inc were sometimes infected with tiny hardware backdoors by Chinese spies during their manufacture; these superminiature chips were wired into the systems' baseboard management system and were able to accept covert software patches that would allow Chinese spies to utterly compromise both the servers and the networks they were connected to.Elemental had a formal partnership with In-Q-Tel, the CIA's investment arm, which gave it an air of trustworthiness that allowed it to sell billions of dollars' worth of hardware to US entities. The list of compromised entities is terrifying: Apple, Amazon, the Pentagon, DoD drone operations, Navy battleships, NASA, Congress and the Senate, even Bloomberg itself. All of these entities officially deny that they were ever compromised by the attack and claim that they have no knowledge of these hardware backdoors -- but Bloomberg's Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley cite multiple anonymous insiders and former insiders who say that the attack came to light in 2015 when Apple first discovered unusual traffic on its network and that in the years since, there have been mass teardowns of data-centers and divestments from Supermicro and Elemental.The exception is Amazon, who actually acquired Elemental after they were made aware of the hack.According to anonymous US spies interviewed by the Bloomberg writers, US intelligence operatives were able to identify the two Supermicro subcontractors in China where the motherboards were doctored, and learned that the managers in these factories with bribed, and then threatened, by the People's Liberation Army. Read the rest

A man who returned a lost cellphone was charged with theft by cops. The rationale: because he took it home first rather than instantly handing it in, he had stolen it. They got him because he returned it, in person, a day later, providing his name, just like criminals do.Two weeks ago, Conkling went to the Subway near 135th Street and Metcalf Avenue to get a sandwich during his lunch break. As he got out of the car, he told 41 Action News he found a cracked iPhone lying on the ground. "It was beat up and destroyed," he said. "I didn’t think it would work. I thought I would take a look at it when I got off work to see who it belonged to." ...There is no law requiring a person to return a found item within a certain amount of time. However, Overland Park police told 41 Action News Conkling should have brought it into the Subway immediately after finding the phone. The case was dropped, but only after the local TV station made a fuss.The problem with turning in lost property is that it's not only talking to the cops, you're bringing them evidence against you. Just find out who it belongs to and get it back to them anonymously. Or maybe just throw their $1000 anxiety box in a trashcan and not have to deal with any of this nonsense at all. Read the rest

As Halloween approacheth, perhaps it's time to tour the world's most troubling and terrifying toilets, courtesy of Phil from Toilets With Threatening Auras.pic.twitter.com/zRhvqkDI3R— Toilets With Threatening Auras (@scarytoilet) September 30, 2018pic.twitter.com/bNclufjfUL— Toilets With Threatening Auras (@scarytoilet) September 27, 2018@scarytoilet the emo toilet pic.twitter.com/oF7Y5aSSAi— pez betta 💖 (@arantzalimon) September 24, 2018Phil is also on Instagram:• Toilets With Threatening AurasImage: chachastephane Read the rest

The Breeders have been out and about this year supporting their first studio album in ten years, and they just released a video for the single Spacewoman.Here's a live performance of All Nerve, the album's title track:Check out the rest of the tracks here:• The Breeders - Spacewoman (YouTube / 4AD) Read the rest

Many exoplanets are observed or inferred around distant stars, but astronomers report finding the first exomoon, a smaller body orbiting an exoplanet. It is, mind you, an enormous moon.We present new observations of a candidate exomoon associated with Kepler-1625b using the Hubble Space Telescope to validate or refute the moon’s presence. We find evidence in favor of the moon hypothesis, based on timing deviations and a flux decrement from the star consistent with a large transiting exomoon. Self-consistent photodynamical modeling suggests that the planet is likely several Jupiter masses, while the exomoon has a mass and radius similar to Neptune. Since our inference is dominated by a single but highly precise Hubble epoch, we advocate for future monitoring of the system to check model predictions and confirm repetition of the moon-like signal.The BBC warns that the authors remain tentative about the exomoon's status. This isn't the first exomoon to be reported, only to be exposed as a boring old exoplanet upon closer inspection."We've tried our best to rule out other possibilities such as spacecraft anomalies, other planets in the system or stellar activity, but we're unable to find any other single hypothesis which can explain all of the data we have," said Dr Kipping, from Columbia University in New York.Sadly, it's unlikely that the exomoon would have an exomoonmoon.Illo: Beschizza / NASA shots of Jupiter and Neptune Read the rest

A couple of years ago, PBS NewsHour interviewed Flossie Lewis, a delightful and sharp 91-year-old teacher/writer who, in her words, still thinks she's 15 (Don't we all?). In the video, she spoke frankly about growing old. Over 7 million people saw her video, including many of her former students. All of them, including Lemony Snicket writer Daniel Handler, had words of praise for her.Flossie is now 94 and documentarian Steve Goldbloom decided to visit with her again. This time, he took her to her old classroom in San Francisco and asked a few of her former students to come along. Watch. World Teachers' Day is Friday. This one goes out to Flossie! Now, can someone PLEASE get this woman a ride on Ocean Ave.? Read the rest

Justin Rohrlich warns that those mobile trailer-mounted signs displaying your MPH are also recording number plates and taking photos of the driver and passengers. The cameras are being retrofitted to existing models.According to recently released US federal contracting data, the Drug Enforcement Administration will be expanding the footprint of its nationwide surveillance network with the purchase of “multiple” trailer-mounted speed displays “to be retrofitted as mobile LPR [License Plate Reader] platforms.” The DEA is buying them from RU2 Systems Inc., a private Mesa, Arizona company. How much it’s spending on the signs has been redacted.Two other, apparently related contracts, show that the DEA has hired a small machine shop in California, and another in Virginia, to conceal the readers within the signsBe under no illusions about the extent of what the cameras are recording.Some LPR cameras can capture “contextual photos,” which include shots of the driver and passengers. Companies like Palantir Technologies, which was co-founded by controversial venture capitalist Peter Thiel in 2003, are incorporating facial recognition technology into license plate reader software; officers can access Vigilant’s “Intelligence-Led Policing Package” on their mobile phones.Photo: Paul Velgos / Shutterstock. Read the rest

The Metamorphosis Machine generates tessellating art in the style of M.C. Escher. It's a companion to an online documentary about his life and work built around an interactive, high-resolution image of Metamorphosis II, the print that established his fame.Here's mine, metamorphosing a five-pointed star into the Cool S. Read the rest

Watch an ordinary winged corkscrew take the rollercoaster ride of its life in this video by writer and comedian Sam Fletcher. Read the rest

Poolboy nails one of the three most pernicious forms of marketing trends: the ironic self-deprecating brand run by some douchey social media manager:brand makes self aware joke pic.twitter.com/41KyLMyBeT— poolboy (@oypoolboy) September 29, 2018The other two manipulative trends separating the gullible from their cash on Twitter are influencer marketing and cynical "we care"/issue marketing, for those keeping a list of who we line up first in front of the slicey bois.• brand makes self aware joke Read the rest

Kingsley is a famous internet weiner dog from Australia. Sometimes he gets to chase kangaroos. Sometimes he's just not sure about them.You can see lots more of him on Instagram. View this post on Instagram Only in Australia will you see a sausage chasing a roo 🙈🤭 #kingkingsley #onlyinaustraliaA post shared by 👑The King Of Dachshunds 👑 (@kingkingsley__) on Sep 16, 2018 at 12:06am PDT View this post on Instagram Okay... guys.. this is my backyard.. I’ve told you this before 😳🤦🏼‍♂️ #kingkingsley #australia #onlyinaustraliaA post shared by 👑The King Of Dachshunds 👑 (@kingkingsley__) on Aug 21, 2018 at 3:57am PDT Read the rest

Three years ago the DEA sent one of their top-ranking officials, Richard Dobrich, to South America to put an end to agents having sex parties with prostitutes hired by Colombian drug cartels. Unsurprisingly, Dobrich is now under investigation for directing "Colombian drivers working for the U.S. Embassy in Bogota 'to procure sex workers,' according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Associated Press and one current and one former law enforcement official." Dobrich sounds like a real piece of work:From AP:Dobrich’s tenure as the top executive in Colombia began in 2015, when he was brought in to restore order after a blistering Inspector General’s report found several DEA agents had participated in “sex parties” with prostitutes hired by Colombian cartels. That scandal prompted the suspension of several agents and the retirement of Michele Leonhart, the DEA’s administrator at the time.Prior to Bogota, Dobrich oversaw the DEA’s military-style FAST teams that battled drug traffickers in Afghanistan and Latin America, and were criticized for a series of fatal shootings in Honduras in 2012, including one in the town of Ahuas that left four civilians dead.The DEA disbanded the Foreign-Deployed Advisory and Support Team last year following a joint State and Justice Department inspectors general probe that found the DEA — and Dobrich — misrepresented significant aspects of the shooting to Congress and government investigators.I'll let you known when the DEA's next top-ranking official tasked with stopping DEA sex parties with prostitutes paid by drug cartels gets investigated for initiating DEA sex parties with prostitutes. Read the rest

News reports and personal accounts from people who knew him show that Brett Kavanaugh lied again and again at his Senate confirmation hearing. How can this sputtering, raging, serial liar possibly be considered for the role of a Supreme Court justice? In last Thursday's confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh lied repeatedly about Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony that she was sexually assaulted by him at age 15. Kavanaugh repeatedly lied that her account had been “refuted” by witnesses. He also lied about his behavior in high school and college. And he lied many times about policies he worked on during the presidency of George W. Bush. “Kavanaugh is such a brazen liar that many of his false claims have been entirely refuted by reporting,” Media Matters for America says in this comprehensive list of his lies under oath before the United States Senate.Here are some of Kavanaugh’s lies:Kavanaugh repeatedly claimed Ford’s accusation has been “refuted” by others who she said attended the party -- even though the other attendees have said no such thing. Kavanaugh seized on the word “refuted” when responding to Ford’s report, claiming in five instances that the three people who Ford says were at the party when Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her had “refuted” her account. That’s an obvious misrepresentation of what those people have said. They have actually all said that they don’t recall the party in question -- a major difference from saying something didn’t happen. And Ford’s friend Leland Keyser has said that although she doesn’t remember the party in question, she believes Ford is telling the truth. Read the rest

Tax Reform 2.0 was rammed through the House at the literal exact same moment that everyone in America was watching Brett Kavanaugh caper and gibber for the US Senate.It's a tax gift of $3.1 trillion over ten years, with the major beneficiaries being those with more than $3.9 million in annual income.The cuts will still have to pass the Senate.In House debate on the bill, Democrats continued to denounce the existing tax law and new proposal, and repeatedly pounded on their impact on the mounting $21 trillion deficit. The Republicans will seek to fill the hole by cutting deeply into Medicare and Social Security, Democratic lawmakers warned."This is all borrowed money that will go to corporations and high-income earners," said Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee. The new legislation "is another reckless tax cut for the wealthy that leaves behind average, hardworking families."House passes GOP bill to make new tax cuts permanent [AP](Image: Jeff Stein/Washington Post] Read the rest

My guest in this edition of the After On podcast is British Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees. And just to state the obvious? Astronomer Royal is such a cool title. And it’s just one of a long list of positions and honors that Sir Martin has earned over his five decade career in astrophysics. That said, most of today’s conversation is not about the stars. It’s mostly about how we could possibly survive this century in the face of multiple "existential risks." Along with Bill Joy (who wrote a highly influential Wired cover story on the topic), Sir Martin helped kickstart this urgent conversation back in 2003, with the release of his amazing book Our Final Century? (which had the more breathless title Our Final Hour in the US). You can hear our full conversation by clicking below:Despite the interview's main thrust, I couldn't help to ask Sir Martin about two really cool deep space topics. Toward the start of the interview, we discuss the most violent events that have occurred in the universe since the big bang itself - roughly one of which detonates with ZERO warning somewhere in the observable universe, daily. It’s crazy, and fascinating stuff.Then toward the end of the interview, we discuss a truly eerie phenomenon called fast radio bursts (FRBs). These are intensely strong radio wave sources with utterly mysterious origins. And while this will sound breathless, it's not out of the question that advanced extraterrestrials could be causing them. Now - astronomers have discovered across many mysterious celestial phenomena in the past, which now have well-understood natural explanations. Read the rest

Amazon is eliminating monthly bonuses and stock awards for warehouse workers and other hourly employees, apparently to help pay for raises. The internet retail giant pledged earlier this week to raise pay to at least $15 an hour.Bloomberg spoke to sources familiar with Amazon's pay policies who say that before this week's much-publicized minimum pay increase, workers used to be eligible for monthly bonuses that might add up to hundreds of dollars each month, and they could receive potentially valuable stock awards.Sure would be interesting if the workers of Amazon.com decided to unionize. From Bloomberg: The company informed those employees Wednesday that it’s eliminating both of those compensation categories to help pay for the raises, the people said.Amazon received plaudits when it announced Monday that the company would raise its minimum pay. The pay increase warded off criticism from politicians and activists, and put the company in a good position to recruit temporary workers for the important holiday shopping season.Even after the elimination of bonuses and stock awards, hourly operations and customer-service workers will see their total compensation increase, the company said in a statement.“In addition, because it’s no longer incentive-based, the compensation will be more immediate and predictable,” Amazon said.Workers whose pay was already above $15 per hour will get hourly raises of $1, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing the company’s compensation practices. Some long-time workers expressed frustration that their raises are small compared with newly hired workers who will see hourly pay bumps of as much as 40 percent. Read the rest

The wonderful people of the Internet Archive have posted a scan of the 1983 edition of Cupola, the yearbook of Georgetown Prep, alma mater of a rageaholic blackout drunk widely favored by Republican Senators for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States Senate.Before today, only some of the yearbook pages — like Kavanaugh’s and that of his close friend Mark Judge — were published by a small number of news organizations, including The Intercept and the New York Times. “By providing access to the 1983 Georgetown Prep yearbook, the Internet Archive is serving its mission as a library, helping people more fully understand the context of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court,” said Mark Graham, the director of the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, which provided a statement to The Intercept to explain the decision to publish the yearbook (which is unredacted, but not a complete copy — some pages relating to faculty and lower classes are missing).Kavanaugh has sought to downplay the yearbook’s relevance to his nomination, denouncing the public’s interest in it as “absurd.” But journalists and politicians have suggested the yearbook paints a more frank picture of Kavanaugh’s high school years than his testimony, or even his calendars, do.Cupola 1983 [Georgetown Prep/Internet Archive]The Internet Archive Publishes Brett Kavanaugh’s 1983 Yearbook, a Key Document in Nomination Battle [Peter Maass and Alice Speri/The Intercept] Read the rest

Somehow, my orange handled scissors disappeared from my desk and no one in the family is fessing up to taking them. I gave up looking for them. I just bought this 4-pack of 9-inch titanium blade scissors on Amazon for $8. The deal runs out soon, so if you want some, get them now. Read the rest

This video uses footage of real life police interrogations to reveal the psychological tricks that cops use to get people to incriminate themselves. Best advice in the video: "Talking to cops is always a bad move." That said, cops will use every trick in the book to get you to talk, and this video shows how good they are at extracting confessions.[via Dooby Brain] Read the rest

I just received my first Orange Alert! That being one of the unblockable, effectively unavoidable text messages from President Trump that we are assured has no potential for future political misuse. P.S. That's an iPhone 4S—I dropped my iPhone SE and it died—and I am happy to report that it does indeed upgrade itself to a version of iOS that renders it too slow and broken for any purpose other than basic calling and messaging. P.S.S. I assumed the number there was from a scam caller (almost all of my incoming calls from unknown numbers are scams) but it turns out that number is--get this--an anonymous online stalking/phone pranking service operating under various names like ComedyCalls.com and CallSpin.com. The callers are unlikely to know it's me, as it's not my main number. Still, it's strangely refreshing to assume one level of casual, everyday evil only to find that it is of a kind more despicable than I imagined was legal or even practical to implement. Read the rest

After discovering a snake sunning itself, presumably on its turf, this squirrel went all NIMBY on its legless interloper. Behold: a death of 1,000 nibbles.Admittedly, the camera work here is kinda lousy, but the fight is absolutely fascinating. I knew that squirrels could be vicious, but the careful, prolonged attack the rodent dishes out on what you'd have assumed would be the more dangerous of the two species involved in this scuffle is really something else. Read the rest

I jumped, too! GIF here. Read the rest

Here'a a study from 2013 that recently resurfaced on Twitter. If you suffer from angst and are willing to ruin your liver, Tylenol can ease the "anxiety brought on by pondering the meaning of life." One group of participants was instructed to write two paragraphs about what would happen to their body after they die and how they would feel about it. The others were asked to write about dental pain, which would be unpleasant, but likely wouldn’t invoke any existential anxieties. All of the students then had to read a hypothetical arrest report about a prostitute and set the amount for bail on a scale of $0 to $900.In this type of setup, researchers typically expect people to set higher bonds after faced with existential thoughts, suddenly feeling a need to assert their values. As anticipated, those who took the sugar pill and were forced to think about their own death tended to set bail over $500.The placebo group who only wrote about dental pain, on the other hand, set the prostitute’s bond at $300 – the same amount that people who took Tylenol and then thought about their earthly body’s putrid decay settled upon. The researchers think the Tylenol’s acetaminophen may have numbed their existential pain and made them more lenient towards the imprisoned prostitute, LiveScience writes.I wonder if aspirin and ibuprofen have the same effect. (Also, no matter how angsty I felt, I would set the prostitute's bail at $0 and shake my fist angrily at the criminal justice system for arresting him or her in the first place.)Now feels like a good time to remind everyone that Tylenol has actually, seriously, for realsies, been clinically proven to reduce feelings of existential angst and overwhelmed paralysis at the futility of existence https://t.co/EaXsXYJc3D— your friend Helen (@hels) October 1, 2018Image: Shutterstock/Chip Chip Read the rest

The announcement from Read the rest

Ontario's "A Plan for Fair Workplaces and Better Jobs" (AKA Bill 148) legislates leave for domestic abuse survivors, provides for 10 days of paid emergency leave, three weeks paid vacation after five years' employment, and a ban on employers requiring their employees to wear high heels.The Retail Council of Canada and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce have joined forces to lobby Ontario premier Doug Ford (previously), a laughable trumplefuck elected on promises to lower the cost of beer to $1 and to eliminate mentions of homosexuality from the provincial sex-ed curriculum (his dead brother, Rob, disgraced the province when, as Mayor of Toronto, he embarked on a series of drug-fueled, racist, misogynist escapades).Ontario businesses are riding high, enjoying record profits and luxuriating in the recent news that Ford had killed the province's $15 minimum wage.The previous rules only allowed workers to take five paid days. As part of Bill 148, employees or their children facing or experiencing violence can take an additional five days of paid leave on top of the previous five, and up to 15 weeks of unpaid leave.The Retail Council of Canada is calling on Ford to cancel these changes and roll-back Bill 148. In a CBC article, they said the protections “were ill-considered, harmful to business”....The Ontario Chamber of Commerce complained the government “jammed a bunch of things into a bill that are causing significant problems”.Ontario Business Lobby Calls Additional Domestic Abuse Leave, Other Rules “Harmful to Business”, Begs Ford to Repeal It [North 49](via Reddit) Read the rest

Motherboard's Sofia Barrett-Ibarria talks to sex-worker advocates about the early history of sex-work and the net; after economically sustaining the alt-weekly industry and its excellent local journalism, sex workers found themselves increasingly unwelcome in their ad sections and moved online, pioneering the internet as we know it today.Early classified sites, early web design and hosting, early e-commerce -- they all owe their success to sex-workers and their pioneering move to the internet. Note that this isn't because sex work makes you more (or less) likely to be interested in tech -- rather, the more expensive it is for you to use mainstream communications systems, the more incentive you have to expend the money and time to master new ones. That's why early adopters of technologies are a grab-bag of people who are frozen out of normal communications channels: kids, people with weird politics, sex workers, marginalized people, conspiracy theorists, terrorists and anyone else whose ideas are not welcome in the easy-to-use, cheap-to-use mainstream of technologies.Sex-work was key to the early adoption, growth and progress of the internet, but the internet has a short memory. Companies pushed out sex-workers as they matured and gained respectability, and then came SESTA/FOSTA, a US law that essentially banished sex-workers from the online world, forcing them back onto the street, where, scant months later, they are facing skyrocketing rates of violence, sexual violence and murder, and being captured by the pimps they were able to evade when they worked through digital systems. Read the rest

The Altoids tin is something of a gold standard for teeny-weeny casemodders, artists, campers and other ingenious maker-types. Then there's Shank, who is documenting their project to shrink down all the components in a Wii Portable to fit (and work) in an Altoids tin. As Shank notes, "his portable is not logical, comfortable, or practical. But it must be done... for the memes." The whole face is packed tightly, so there is literally no room for error. I have measured all of the components with calipers and fit them into a vector of their exact placements. The components' outlines will be removed, and left with only the vectors of the holes. This will then be cut on a vinyl cutter to make a decal template. The decal will then be stuck to the tin to have a way to perfectly line up the holes. All the holes other than the screen are round, and can then be drilled using a drill press. The tin itself is malleable, so a 3d printed or wooden block will be inserted below to prevent the tin from bending while being drilled. The square hole will be done with either nibblers or a file. Kill Mii [Shank/Bitbuilt](via Meifi) Read the rest

Whether you're looking at art for a career, a passion or (ideally) both, the only way to learn is by doing. And thanks to online learning, there's an easy way to make sure you're doing it right. The Fundamentals of Drawing Bundle brings a studio full of established painters, portrait artists, and illustrators to your desktop, armed with all the techniques you'll need to jump-start your art career.The opening tutorials in the 7-course pack lay out the fundamentals for any beginner - pencil grip, light lines and texture. Then you'll progress through classes that focus on shading, portraiture (both human and animal), and figure drawing. You'll even learn the specific secrets that top comic book artists use to create world-renowned heroes that leap off the page.That's more than 35 hours of content, lessons, and lectures for $39 - much less than the cost of the individual courses. Sharpen that pencil and grab The Fundamentals of Drawing Bundle today. Read the rest

Many bands have gone the branded booze route, but not Korn. They've gone ahead and launched their own branded coffee (sorry, Koffee).Lambgoat:Korn has announced today's launch of their new coffee brand, Korn Koffee. Created in partnership with J. Gursey Coffee Roasters, Korn Koffee is available now.Made entirely with Certified Fair Trade whole beans, Korn Koffee is a distinctive blend of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Guatemalan Huehuetenago, and Organic Peru beans mixed with J. Gursey Coffee's popular Vintage Black Diamond blend. Korn personally curated the creation of Korn Koffee, a process that saw the band members tasting multiple variations before ultimately selecting the perfect roast and blend.Indeed, each bag of Korn Koffee will feature a special message from Korn: "After almost 25 years of touring, making records and playing in front of all of our amazing fans (you), one thing has remained a constant in our daily routine: coffee. The ritual, the brew, the aroma and most importantly, that very first cup every morning that sets the tone, is something we look forward to every day. Because of our passion, we've gotten together with a roaster and handcrafted our very own blend of Koffee. We hope you enjoy, share, and join us in savoring many cups of Koffee for years to come."A bag of their dark roast is available for pre-order at the online Korn store for $14.99.Thanks, Andy! Read the rest

69-year-old Earle Stevens Jr. drove his car "over and over" into another motorist's vehicle at a McDonald's drive-through lane in Vero Beach, Florida. Police pulled him over, noted the smell of alcohol, and asked him about that open bottle of bourbon in the passenger seat, wrapped in brown paper. When I asked him where he was drinking he stated, "Stop signs." He further explained that he was not drinking while the car was moving and only when he stopped for stop signs and traffic signals. I asked him again how much had had to drink today and he stated, "Four drinks." This was more than his original statement of three drinks.Well, he'd been pulled over and the vehicle was stationary. Of course he'd had another! He blew .15 and was charged with misdemeanor DUI, according to reports. [The Smoking Gun and The Miami Herald] Read the rest

In 1897, shortly after Zona Shue was found dead in her West Virginia home, her mother went to the county prosecutor with a bizarre story. She said that her daughter had been murdered -- and that her ghost had revealed the killer's identity. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Greenbriar Ghost, one of the strangest courtroom dramas of the 19th century.We'll also consider whether cats are controlling us and puzzle over a delightful oblivion.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

Hasbro has announced its latest Play-Doh set. It's called "Poop Troop."It's kind of like a Mr. Potato Head except that instead of a plastic potato body, you stick the arms, eyes, and other anthropomorphizing pieces into a squishy, emoji-like poop swirl of Play-Doh. Who's in your poop troop?! from giggle-worthy poop monsters to creations like the famous emojis, kids can create a rainbow of their own hilarious Play-Doh characters. You might make a face at the idea, but making silly faces for your characters is literally what it's all about! to start the fun, use the poo mold, tools, and Play-Doh colors to create your character's body. Grab the eyes, arms, mouths, and other accessories and plug them in different places to make all kinds of silly faces. Mix them up for a giggling good time again and again, and don't forget to clean up after yourself!Some people aren't happy:The set is available for $14.99. To note: Four of the 12 jars of Play-Doh are brown. Previously: There's a toilet plunger that looks like the poop emoji Read the rest

Trump will text every American tomorrow, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency conducts its first presidential-level Wireless Emergency Alerts test. There is apparently no way to prevent the orangeware from infecting your phone, unless you root the operating system and disable emergency alerts.From SF Gate:FEMA said in a press release recently that it will begin testing its WEA system at 2:18 p.m. ET to assess its "operational readiness" and make improvements if need be. The WEA test will be broadcast over the course of about 30 minutes and sound the same as an Amber Alert. Users can't opt out of the WEA test, according to the agency.Cellphone users who have their phones turned on, are within range of a cell tower and whose wireless providers are included in the WEA system will receive the text message.Unanswered question: If I turn of my iPhone on Wednesday will Trump’s message be waiting for me, like Rupert Pupkin at a payphone? Read the rest

Umair Haque (previously) is on fire: If the Point of Capitalism is to Escape Capitalism, Then What’s the Point of Capitalism? "You can see it in stark, comic terms. What are Bezos and Musk doing? Trying to flee to Mars. What’s Gates doing? Recommending you books to read, and trying to save the world with charity. LOL — how ironic. These are different forms of freedom from capitalism. Maybe on Mars, we can build a better world. Maybe through ideas and philanthropy, we can solve the problems that corporations can’t. All the capitalists I see are trying to win freedom from capitalism, in one way or another. Aren’t they?" (via Kottke) Read the rest

Now seems like a fine time to read this Scientific American article titled The Art of Lying by Theodor Schaarschmidt. According to a study conducted by UC Santa Barbara psychologist Bella M. DePaulo and referenced in the article, people make up around two stories every day. Apparently, children "initially have difficulty formulating believable lies, but proficiency improves with age. Young adults between 18 and 29 do it best. After about the age of 45, we begin to lose this ability." From Scientific American:Current thinking about the psychological processes involved in deception holds that people typically tell the truth more easily than they tell a lie and that lying requires far more cognitive resources. First, we must become aware of the truth; then we have to invent a plausible scenario that is consistent and does not contradict the observable facts. At the same time, we must suppress the truth so that we do not spill the beans—that is, we must engage in response inhibition. What is more, we must be able to assess accurately the reactions of the listener so that, if necessary, we can deftly produce adaptations to our original story line. And there is the ethical dimension, whereby we have to make a conscious decision to transgress a social norm. All this deciding and self-control implies that lying is managed by the prefrontal cortex—the region at the front of the brain responsible for executive control, which includes such processes as planning and regulating emotions and behavior."The Art of Lying" (Scientific American)image: screenshot of Pinocchio film trailer, public domain Read the rest

Sara from MIT Sloan Management Review writes, "MIT SMR is unlockedfor all visitors on October 2 and 3. For almost 60 years, MIT SloanManagement Review has been dedicated to providing evidence-basedinsights to your most pressing and complex business issues. Tocelebrate our history and our readers, we’re unlocking our site for 48hours. Every article, report, video, and webinar is free to access.Don’t know where to start? We’ve put together a list of article recommendations for you." Read the rest

It's almost time again for Boing Boing's favorite annual music event, the Treasure Island Music Festival (TIMF), taking place October 13 and 14 on the San Francisco Bay! This year, the festival takes over the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland, California! As always, the stellar lineup is wonderfully eclectic, featuring Tame Impala, A$AP Rocky, Lord Huron, Santigold, Sharon Van Etten, and a dozen other artists. Orchestrated by our pals at Noise Pop and Another Planet Entertainment, the festival will offer plenty of artisanal food and drink to fuel you along with DIY activities, art installations, and indie vendors. Dig it.Buy tickets: Treasure Island Music Festival Read the rest

After Glen Matlock left the Sex Pistols in 1977 (to be replaced by Sid Vicious), he formed a band with Midge Ure called Rich Kids. They only made one album, Ghosts of Princes in Towers, and it bombed on the charts, but it's a power pop masterpiece. (I bought the LP when it came out and I still have it.) Here they are on the British TV show Revolver in 1978 playing two of their songs. (I spotted a very happy Billy Idol in the crowd at the 52-second mark.) Read the rest